I got a chance to play this one last Saturday and I was quite 
impressed.  I'll offer you some of the juicy stuff and possibly whet 
your appetite.

First- this game has a whole GOB of miniatures.  These plastic 
injection molded polyurethane minis are excellent--(does it show I 
once worked in a plastic factory-- we made frisbees among other 
things)  easily as well designed as anything that Eagle games has 
thus far published. 

The BOARD is beautiful, but some "regions" or areas can be 
deceptive.  The designers have designed a board that makes getting 
from area to area a well-thought out task. The curves of the borders 
frequently will fool a player and the colors blended in a bit for me 
in a few places-- but the map is gorgeous.

Finally, the gameplay is EXTREMELY well balanced. The fellowship/free 
peoples player can win by getting the fellowship up to the Mt to drop 
the ring in while Sauron's forces of fun and evil can win by killing 
off the fellowship (by corrupting them).  the fellowship moves in a 
hidden manner, but is revealed from time to time and then may take 
damage or a party member can be killed.  The free peoples player 
needs to break the fellowship up and spread them out in order to gain 
various advantages as the game progresses, which adds further to the 
game's marvelous balance.


Actions are determined by special action dice.  This means you may 
not know what you can do until the dice are rolled. An action is 
permitted for each die you rolled, based on the icon showed on the 
special dice.  So if you have four action dice, on your turn you can 
take 4 actions.  

An example of a Character action is to move a leader or play an event 
card that requires the use of a character icon.  (An army with a 
leader may move in this manner)  You can also bring certain 
characters into play (The Witch King, Sarumon, etc.) with a character 
result.  

A muster action allows recruitment- or to play an event that requires 
a muster die result.. The events are usually better than the actual 
muster effort itself.

An army action result allows a player to either attack with one army 
or move two armies.

An event icon allows the play of any event card OR the player can 
draw an event card.

for Sauron- an eye result means more chance of finding the fellowship

The event cards are excellent because the top of the card shows an 
event which requires a corresponding icon while the bottom have 
combat actions that can be applied without any such requirement, 
though the often have their own requirements.  (i.e. having Nazgul in 
the battle or some other thing)...


Either side may win a military victory, but Sauron has the most 
forces and his units regenerate.  Free peoples miniatures that are 
killed are removed from the game while Sauron's forces of mischief 
and evil return.  (Did you guess which side I like to play yet?)

I have rarely seen a game that offered such balance.  Fantasy Flight 
has had some glaring blunders when it comes to playtesting (Warcraft 
the Boardgame is a prime example, along with Game of Thrones CCG 
problems which caused cards being banned, etc) but seems to have 
worked at least initial kinks out of this one.

I give it two thumbs up and an elven cheer.

David "the preacher" Wilson
making the world safe for churchgoers and gamers at the same time.


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