“Then something <PERSON> woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the waterfalls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick.”
The Battle Of Five Armies is a game that invites adventure and bristling hope as your warriors clash against the mountain-side, spill their blood in the valley, and have their say in the fate of the free peoples that has been thrown into peril. This game has been a homecoming of sorts for me as I've never quite managed to experience War of the Ring, so I approached The Battle Of Five Armies with pent-up expectations and bated breath. As <PERSON> scorched my dark minions leaving charred black flesh on the countryside or hideous vampire-bats dug and clawed into my furrowed Dwarven eye-sockets - the game damn well delivered with fanfare and blasting horns.
When pouring over the beautiful board, leafing through the large pile of cards, or fondling the excellent miniatures like the one ring you will quickly realize that Ares games has gone all out. This is a huge production that is primarily focused on reverence and respect for the source material. It takes <PERSON> work and brings it into the cardboard realm with class and panache. The way the different units function, the unexpected drama, and the enormously satisfying mechanisms behind the numerous heroes make for a game of emotional excitement and lasting investment.
The core strategic system of rolling several dice which dictate the options you may perform on your turn is executed with the level of refinement you'd expect after seeing this mechanic first utilized in War of the Ring. Some turns the dice will taunt you as all you are able to do is muster troops or draw cards and you will have to roll with the punches. The dice pools are large enough that typically you're afforded a pretty strong range of options, but the game still stresses this over-arching mechanical narrative of make the best with what you have. You must optimize tactical choices while keeping those strategic considerations in mind and this provides for a meaty and satisfying experience.
The Shadow Army is up against the clock as they must gather their forces of darkness and advance upon the conglomeration of foreign allies in order to overwhelm before the extraordinarily effective heroes enter play. Each turn the Fate Track stands to advance 1 or more spaces due to a tile draw and at different prescribed points on the track the Free Peoples gain access to a new hero. The way the Fate tile draw works is one of the more interesting mechanisms as it takes advantage of a push your luck element that often births moments of vocal celebration or pain. The Shadow player draws a random Fate tile and then may discard it to redraw if he wishes. 937
The catch is that you can only re-draw if the Free Peoples player decides to activate more than 1 of their generals. Specific special characters act as generals on the Free Peoples side and they are granted additional abilities if they receive an activation token. So both sides kind of play this risk/reward game of choosing to take more at the risk of it biting them in their haunches. It makes for a small moment of excitement integrated into the strategy that is one of the many bright spots in this design.
The tempo of the game is formulated due to the back and forth of each side executing a single one of their action dice they rolled at the beginning of the round. Both sides will wish to muster more troops, move troops they already have on the board, and fight wherever their numbers allow victory. The vast asymmetry of the design appears in these actions in addition to the units available, as the Free Peoples' dice boast a wild symbol but the Shadows player's dice possess a Lidless Eye. This symbol is used to great effect to spur the Goblins climb over the surrounding mountains as they look to descend upon the valley and wreak havoc in a massive strategic flanking maneuver. Small touches like this show the design team's focus is in the right place.
While the strategic framework is solid and a huge selling point, the battle system is really the touchstone element as the game at its heart is a series of small conflicts as you attempt to shift momentum and deliver carnage. The conflict is spurred via small pools of dice with card-play being an integral facet of modifying the results and tweaking the outcome. Each type of unit in the game (Wargs, Great Orcs, Men, Elves, etc.) has their own Unit Card which grants a special effect. Both sides choose one card for each round of battle and then you roll a specific number of black colored standard six-siders depending on the number of units from your card you have participating in the battle. If you score at least one hit on the black dice you trigger the bonus effect which can be devastating. The unit effects typically are strong and evocative from a setting perspective - Wargs tend to chase down opponents with low morale while Dwarves are stout and resilient. 237