In celebration of 20 years of the film Games Workshop have released a new board game/miniatures game which is based on one of the famous scenes in The Fellowship of The Ring The Battle in Balin's Tomb.
Let’s Take a Look.
The game is a 2 player game where one person plays as The Fellowship while the other plays the Moria Goblin horde.
In the box you get sets of plastic miniatures that feature The Fellowship in blue, In red 12 Moria goblins and a grey Cave troll. All the miniatures are push fit and are put easily into the slotted bases provided. Some may notice these are the same sculpts that are currently available from Games Workshop.
There are also a set of dice. One in blue for The Fellowship, red for the Goblins and grey for the Cave Troll (who also uses two red dice) matching the colours of the plastic so visually very easy to see who uses what.
There are character cards for both sets of miniatures with information on how many dice to use to attack and defend as well as lives and any special abilities.
For the Goblin player there are cards that will be used in the game to determine how many Goblins spawn and where in the tomb as well as if their Cave Troll turns up to fight but be careful not to have any Goblins on his square as they will be squashed.
Also included are counters to tally the number of wounds caused and an 8 page rule book which suggests this will not be rule heavy game and easy to get family and friends playing quickly.
The board its self looks great and a good size to fit on most tables. It has the starting positions for The Fellowships laid out clearly and the starting place for the Goblins by the entrance.
The board is set out in tile form which aids movement in the game. There are also read zones to show blocking line of sight or you can’t walk on that tile as it depicts pillars.
The game sets The Fellowship to survive the Goblin horde for 12 rounds as each player will take it in turns to use all their move/ fighting actions for all their models before their opponent has a chance to react.
The Goblin player uses a set number of cards depending on which round it is to add reinforcement each round.
These can appear from trap doors, the well or at the front entrance.
Each characters card have the movement stats which allows them to move anywhere on the board along as its not through another character or through a red zoned area.
On the board there is elevated areas but there are no rules to say you need to take the steps to go up a level so it’s assumed you can just jump up.
Attacking can be done either by close combat or from firing arrows in to the opponent.
In close combat each model needs to be base to base (unless toy have a spear you can attack 2 spaces away) and the attack uses their allocated dice to roll and look for swords while the appoint needs shields to defend.
For The Fellowship if they get the ring symbol it allows the player to chose a sword or shield and can unlock some special abilities where the goblins have the Eye of Sauron. The Cave Trolls has one club or double clubs as well as using the red dice.
If the model has a bow they can attack as long as they have line of sight and again the attacker is looking for swords to successfully attack or the defender is looking for shields to escape the attack.
To win the game The Fellowship need to not only survive the 12 rounds but must have at least 3 of The Fellowship including Frodo to win, If Frodo dies The Fellowships only hope is to draw by having 3 members left surviving other wise they lose.
There are also extra mission objectives that you could add to your games to add another element but these are optional.
This is one of the areas I see a problem with the rules as if the Goblin player kills Frodo in say turn 2 some may feel there is no incentive to carry on with the game.
Frodo has got a special rule that he can only be attacked when in bases to base contact so you won't be able to shot him with a bow or use your spear 2 spaces away so this may help keeping him alive.
For those looking for solo rules unfortunately there are none included which I think could have been added via an AI system using cards. This could be added as a supplement in a White Dwarf later on Maybe?
Even though the board has nice details and perfect for a board game the one thing when I was looking at the board was I felt it needed a bit of terrain.
Before this review I painted some Mines of Moria terrain and added some 3D printer pliers and Dwarf statues to the areas marked in red and used the Moria terrain in areas that matched the board.
With these additions I really think it makes the board really come alive and gives that claustrophobic feel.
So My Thoughts.
This is a great mix of miniatures game and board game with an IP that is familiar with most people and is easy enough to pick up and play for the family especially during the Christmas period.
The cost of the game is around £45 which is roughly this sort of board game price nowadays but there is great value for miniatures here.
The miniatures cost well over £45 as the plastic Fellowship models are £30 on GW website and the Cave Troll coming in at £18 and a half set of Moria goblins around £12.50 so if you add that plus the dice cardboard etc its pretty good.
This is also a good start if you wanted to start playing The Lord Of The rings Strategy Battle Game too as The Fellowship it self can be taken as army I believe but it does not come with any rules so that would be another expense.
The components are of the quality you would expect form GW and there is room for hobby too not only to paint the mixtures if you want to but an opportunity to make the board more 3D using terrain from the current Mines of Moria scenery set or you can build your own terrain.
This could be a fun additional Christmas project.
I don’t know what the longevity of the game will be as the set up of the game is the same each time with the only random element being where and how many Goblins and when the Cave Troll will appear during the game and of course your opponents game play.
The strategy for the Goblin player could be just to aim directly at Frodo to kill him or just try and tie up The Fellowship for 12 rounds but there is a way that The Fellowship could just huddle up and protect Frodo where no one can get into bases to base contact with him and just defend off attacks for as long as posable.
This though is not how The Fellowship looked like in the films but can they survive that long playing that style with the rules and abilities they have.
As the Goblin player only has 12 Moria Goblins in the box it may not feel its enough to have that constant horde feel and if there are 12 Goblins are on the table then no more can be added when drawing reinforcement cards.
I would suggest if you enjoy the game maybe getting a few more Goblins as these can be picked up easily online on Ebay or the GW web store.
The rules are easy to to understand but there are some issues such as no rules for the raised levels or in what order special actions happen which are on character cards but these things could be agreed on by both parties before or during a game.
There is an opportunity for Games Workshop to add more rules to this game via White Dwarf or a free download which would really give this game more depth and even a chance to add more monsters maybe a Balrog anyone.
Currently the game is out of stock on line at Games Workshop and is getting hard to find online so you may have to pop into you local Games Workshop or FLAGS store to grab a copy if you are lucky.
If you are in the market looking for a family friendly easy to play game that has some nice miniatures and a way to introduce someone to the world of miniature games this maybe worth a look.
No comments:
Post a Comment