Most of my gaming is two-player and limited to about 45 minutes. Thus I was excited when I heard about Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation: Deluxe Edition. I like the Lord of the Rings, and it seemed like a great game to fill the 45 minute gap.
Guess what-it is.
Components and Price
Lord of the Rings is very easily available online for under $20. The components are great, and unbelievable for a game this cheap. It's done by Fantasy Flight, and has all the plasticky goodness you know and love.
The game contains a board, 18 character stands, 18 draft tokens, and 26 cards.
I'm not usually a fan of quad-fold boards, but this one is great. It is almost perfectly smooth across the top, and lies down flat as could be. The artwork, representing Middle Earth, is also very well done.
The 18 characters (9 on each side) are the heart of the game, and FFG has not skimped here. Each character has a stand and a double-sided piece of cardboard that fits in the stand. The stands are plastic, and have gorgeous embossed artwork on the back: a tree for the Fellowship, a
for Sauron.
On one side of the pieces is the classic character, on the reverse is the variant. Both sides have a combat strength (a number from -1 to 9) and a special ability (usually good, occasionally bad.) I'll talk more about these later.
Finally, there are the cards. These are incredible, giant and glossy.
The artwork on these is great as well.
Gameplay
LOTR is designed by Reiner Knizia, so you would expect smooth and elegant gameplay. LOTR does this well, while keeping a high fantasy feel that is enough for any Tolkien fan. The Victory conditions represent this very well. The Fellowship can only win by moving Frodo (who bears the Ring) into Mordor. Sauron can win either by killing Frodo (thus preventing the Fellowship from winning) or moving three of his characters into the region representing the Shire.
Initially, players start in a Stratego-like position. Sauron's nine characters are placed around Mordor, while the Fellowship secretly puts theirs near the Shire.
The Sauron player begins by moving on character forward to an adjacent region. Then the Fellowship player does the same. As characters move closer, combat will break out when opposing characters move into the same region. Then both are revealed. Sometimes, the combat ends right then. For example, the Fellowship character Gimli instantly defeats the Orcs, while when Boromir is involved in combat, both he and his opponent are instantly killed. Other characters can retreat: Frodo can retreat sideways when attacked.
If both characters remain in the region, the have numbers and add to a character's combat strength and some text cards, with special abilities. Each chooses a card, then reveals them simultaneously. Then the cards are resolved, and the character with the highest combat strength wins. After combat the cards are discarded. Because each player starts will all of the cards in their hand, each player knows exactly which cards remain in each other's hands, but combat is still very unpredictable and tense.
The best way to understand combat is by an example. Suppose the following two characters engage:
Gandalf (Fellowship): 5 combat, Sauron player must play his card first.
Saruman (Sauron): 4 combat, may decide that no cards are played.
Each player has these cards:
Fellowship: 5, Retreat (retreat backwards)
Sauron: 4, Eye of Sauron (negate effect of opponent's text card)
The Sauron player decides not to use Saruman's special ability, because then he will be sure to lose, 5-4. Therefore, because of Gandalf's special ability, he must choose his card first. If he chooses the 4, he knows he will lose, because the Fellowship still has its 5. If he chooses the Eye of Sauron, he will also lose. Therefore, his choice comes down to which card he would rather have later. He knows that if he plays the 4, then the Fellowship will almost certainly play the 5, and later on the Eye will negate Retreat. Therefore, he plays the 4, the Fellowship plays the 5, and Saruman is killed and removed from the game.
As the game continues, players will get further to the opponent's side of the board, more characters will be killed, and players will run out of combat cards.
Variant Characters, the Draft Game, and Special Cards
The Deluxe version also comes with variant characters on the reverse side of the character cards. There are two variations using these characters. One is the straight variant game, where each side uses only these characters. The other is the draft game. In this, players secretly choose for each character if they will use the classic or variant version. Then the game is played as normal. I haven't played either of these versions, but the draft game seems particularly interesting.
The final variant involves the Special Cards. Each side gets four of these at the start of the game, and they allow the players to do things outside the game rules. For example, the Sauron player has one that allows him to take one character from anywhere on the board and return it to Mordor, while the Fellowship has a card that allows him to place Gandalf in the Fangorn region if it is unoccupied and Gandalf has been defeated. These cards are one use only and add a lot of strategy to the game. I don't think I'll ever play without them, except when teaching new players.
Complaints
I like almost everything about LOTR. The theme, components, and smooth and exciting gameplay come together very well. I have one minor concern, the endgame. In the late stages, once each side is down to two or fewer characters, both will be down to two or fewer combat cards, and most characters have been revealed. Thus endgame play becomes almost entirely deterministic. It is very complex in these situations, as special cards and special abilities make figuring out all the possibilities mind-bending. The game becomes a brain-burner here, and as my dad is prone to AP, can bog down.
Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation: Deluxe Edition is a fantastic game. If you like LOTR, and want a fast, tense two-player game, then absolutely check this out.
Overall Rating:
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