Collection Showcase Challenge: Board Games

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Challenge Season - Collection Showcase: board games

I have a number of friends who are enthusiastic players of board games. Unfortunately, we are all time poor these days, but over the years I have accumulated a number of Middle-earth related board games. Many I have played, although some are still awaiting the opportunity to get together with my fellow gamers to to try them out.

Please permit me to share my Middle-earth game collection with you!

The Middle-earth Role Playing (MERP) game was an ambitious attempt to create a D&D styled role playing game, and the first Middle-earth related game that I ever purchased. It provided an intricately detailed expansion of Tolkien’s world, and I also bought the Moria expansion book. Unfortunately, it never really took off (either commercially or with my friends. But the source books do make for interesting rewarding.

Risk is a classic multiplayer world domination game which has many franchise and genre adaptations. With Tolkien’s attention to detail with regards to the map of Middle-earth, the delineation of good and evil factions and multiple races within each faction, Lord of the Rings is ideally suited to an adaptation to the Risk board game. The original LotR Risk game did not have the complete map, but I did manage to track down the expansion which completed the game map, and also included a smaller stand alone campaign. The incorporation of the One Ring also adds a Lord of the Rings feel and shortens the gameplay. The detail of the miniatures is impressive too.

War of the Ring is a 2 player game of epic proportions, where one plays the forces of the free people, while the other the forces of Sauron. You have to set side a few hours for this (if you know the game well … longer if you’re unfamiliar). Stacked with miniatures and quality game pieces, it’s true to the storyline of Tolkien’s work.

After buying the original LotR Risk and it’s expansion, I acquired the Trilogy edition which is the complete map in one game.

Simply called Lord of the Rings, this would be one of my favourite of the Middle-earth games. It’s cooperative with all players playing against the board with events influenced by cards and dice roles. Players work strategically together to try to defeat Sauron and destroy the One Ring. Unlike many similar games the continued until the final player dies. And even if you don’t complete the game you still accrue points which are recorded on a scoresheet. I also have the Friends and Foes expansion. The plot of the game enjoyably adheres to the plot of the books. I also substituted the colored Hobbit figures with painted figures from another game which resembled the Hobbits from the films.

One of a plethora of themed Monopoly games, the Lord of the Rings version includes spectacularly detailed game pieces of the fellowship, and uniquely incorporates the One Ring which gives the bearer special benefits … at a potential cost!

Lord of the Rings Card Scramble is a 2-4 player game. You draw or play cards to collects or match sets which either advance your token on the board or hinder others with the aim of reaching the end. Themed well for LotR and family friendly, it can involve considerable strategy, although it has a few levels of difficulty depending on the experience of the players.

Exit is a LotR themed escape room styled game. The biggest drawback of this game is it is designed to be single use. You have to cut up game pieces. I suspect of you don’t win, that’s it. And you can’t it on. So I’d suggest color copying any pieces that are designed to be destroyed and use those rather than destroying the originals.

The two Trivial Pursuit games are typical of any genre specific Trivial Pursuit games. Varying degrees of difficulty with regard to the questions and lovely game pieces. The DVD version obviously incorporates film footage to augment the experience. I’ve found house rules to be helpful, especially if playing with people of varying knowledge of Tolkien’s works.

These two games are 1-4 player cooperative games, meaning that all players are working together against the game itself to achieve the ultimate goal of winning. Quite fun and includes the major characters from the Hobbit films. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that they made a Battle of the five armies edition of the game which fails to give me closure to it (despite the games being stand alone).

The Hobbit game is a competitive 2-5 player game with the objective being to collect the treasure tokens. Gameplay incorporates elements of strategic card-playing and bidding with the unpredictability element of dice-rolling.

Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation is a 2 player game where one controls the forces of the Free people, while the other player controls the forces of Sauron and gameplay utilises elements of strategy and bluffing to win. Typically game time is half an hour with great replay ability.

Trumps is a quick and easy card game. Players have a set of character cards with a number of stats and, drawing a card, you call out what you believe to be your characters strongest stat. If yours is higher than your opponents, you take their card. House rules are often needed to finish this more quickly, and an intimate knowledge of the characters is an advantage. Every card has a significant strength and a significant weakness to ensure that every card is capable of winning. I’m still to add the Fellowship of the Rings Trumps game to my collection