Reply: War of the Ring (first edition):: Reviews:: Re: Tao of Gaming Review

by Johngee

Bankler wrote:

<...snip/snip...>

In a side note, rarely has such a beautiful game had such atrocious graphic design. The blame does not fall on John Howe's typically gorgeous work, but on Fantasy Flight. This isn't Clippers-bad, but certainly close. The pieces of the various armies are impossible to tell apart without close inspection, and are not distinguished by different color. Rohan has pikes and horsemen with pikes. Gondor has pikes and horsemen with pikes (but with crossbars!). The people of the north have bows, but their horsemen have pikes. So that's ok. At least the dwarves and elves are somewhat distinguishable. The miniatures for the fellowship (and a few minions) are a nice touch, but I got them confused a few times too. The pieces for various nations war status have symbols, which don't tell me anything. I like the Lord of the Rings movies, but I don't want to have to speak elvish to play. Many of the cards are keyed to various places on the map, which I have to look up. The gameplay bunches most of the units on a strip down the center of the map that becomes crowded and unruly. Pretty and useless.

Update (June 2005)

I bought the game in January and I've now played it about 7 times (and solitaired it a few more). I don't think it's a great game, but it's good and it's fun. A nice experience game.

Zordren wrote:

Nice review...

I agree with just about everything you said. I think they could have done better with distinguishing the figures (different weapons, colors ((I don't have the time nor the inclination to paint them)), etc) and the counters are a bit confusing.

However, I think that the 'speaking Elvish' aspect of the game is what I really like. I'm a big fan of the books (including 'Unfinished Tales' and the other supplemental works) and think it's great how much of the story they put into it.

I've only played a few times, but I think the depth of the game, and the many options and possibilities that exist, will keep me eagerly awaiting my next opportunity to play (which are precious few...)

I've owned this game (the 1st edition) for years and only go tto play it for a SECOND time last night.

It would have been a SOOOO much nicer game if the game pieces of the various armies had been made with different colored plastic, even shades of blue and red, aarrrgh! And those nation tokens could have been simply a colored disk to the nation's boundary (& figurine) color instead of the intricate fantasy logos that are just a blur at that small scale. And speaking Elvish or even Elvis is out of the question since I'm having enough trouble with my native tongue.