So I wanted to review all the games in my collection and when it comes to the more frequently talked about games like this one I find it hard to write a review about the game that really says anything that hasn't been said before. At this point other people have explained the game and gone over what makes it good or bad so I thought that maybe I'd offer a different angle and review the game from the perspective of someone whose main hobby back ground is with miniature wargames (primarily Warhammer, but also Warmachine/Hordes, Malifaux, Infinity and a smattering of other game that didn't stick around). So with that in mind lets get started.
Components
This is probably the least fair comparison. You can't expect a less than 100 local currency board game with 200 models to compare to a over 100 currency dedicated minis game. I will say on close inspection the models are quite detailed (even if those details are quite soft) for what they are but when they're all blobbed up on the board they're fairly indistinguishable. Another issue is painting them. It's easy to find reports from people online about the weird soft plastic they're made from going sticky days or even weeks after painting and there's no discernible rhyme or reason to it. You either get models that react weirdly or you don't. For myself, I painted <PERSON> a few months ago as a test and he's not gone funny yet. I haven't worked up the courage to get properly started on painting the rest of the models but fingers crossed.
As for the rest of the game, it's pretty average. Cards don't feel flimsy or particularly thick either, the boards are serviceable. The action dice are nicely marbled and easily readable, the combat dice are plain white dice which is a bit disappointing. I substituted 5 red dice and 5 blue dice to keep with the colour theming.
Speaking of I was always kind of put off by the printed shades of pale blue and pale red the game uses for each faction. Thats just a personal preference but it just kind of looks washed out to me. 386
The tokens also are all fairly easily readable and even if you don't know Lord Of The Rings that well the faction icons are moulded onto most of the models so its really just a case of matching the model to the icon. Also I went to the effort of buying 3D printed mountains from Etsy because the thick black lines that represent impassible areas on the board tend to get missed easily in the heat of the game.
Rules
The rules for War Of The Ring are dense. That's really the best word I can think of. If you have a history of playing minis games the instructions for WotR might seem laughably scant, clocking in at a "meager" 47ish pages. When you're used to using multiple whole books required to play a game this seems fairly undaunting but there is so much crammed into the 50 pages that it's very easy to miss things. I suppose this just speaks to the number of mechanics going on in the game. It took me about three games and a bit (a lot) of lurking around the BGG Rules forum as well as a few battle reports for me to consider myself even "competent" at the game and even then I'm not totally convinced I'm not missing the odd thing here and there or misunderstanding a few things. I will say that in terms of learning the game, assuming both players have no prior knowledge of the game the rulebook does a decent job of teaching the game, the player aids certainly help (especially the front page that explains the action dice facings). That said I would like to see a revision that is formatted in such a way that it explains important concepts in a box out in the style of Games Workshop games. If I hadn't read threads on BGG I probably would never have considered a combat roll as a totally different roll from a leader reroll and in some cases the modifier of one does not apply to the other. It's just not a concept that would have ever occured to me as it doesn't exist in most minis games and was a bit of a revelation to me when I read about it.
Gameplay
So this review is sounding kind of weirdly average right now I guess. I haven't really gushed over the components or the rules but both those things are kind of secondary to how the game actually plays.
So let's start with the set up. What a doddle. Honestly, compared to most mini war games, this is nothing and almost refreshingly simple and fast. I admit, I keep every faction in the game in separate bags so when the game says "2 <PERSON> regulars and 1 elite" I'm not digging through 100 models to find them so maybe that contributes to how easy I find it. 386