Greetings!
I bought my best friend the LOTR Risk Game, and we played a game of it on Christmas Eve. The game rocks! In that game, we had three people playing. The game see-sawed back and forth for a number of turns, with several shifts in momentum. My wife played the forces of Good, while I played black--"The forces of Sauron"--and my friend played red, "The forces of Saruman." He was in the west, in Eriador, I was in the south in Rhovanion, and in the east, in Rhun. My wife was crushed in the middle, and almost wiped out! Later in the game, I swept through to the west, clearing out many territories, and I had powerful forces gathered in the gates of Moria, Rivendell, and at Isengard, in preparation for wiping my wife out, and permanently putting the smackdown on the usurper, Saruman. I had the armies, and the gathered momentum. Everyone knew I was preparing to sweep all of Middle Earth before the Burning Eye!
My wife had a few territories in the south, including Helm's Deep, and one lone territory in Eastern Angmar, far to the north, on the fringe of my growing empire. She cashed in, and gained a huge army of ten battalions, and stationed them in Eastern Angmar, and attacked me marching south, right down the weak undefended center of my empire, neatly side-stepping all of my powerful garrisons standing watch on the borders in the north, west, and south. Her armies ripped through Mirkwood, and Rhovanion. I was determined to make her pay for this, when, as the turn sequence went, my friend--playing red, to the west, also cashed in, and hammered my forces facing him. When my turn finally came around, I didn't happen to have a cash in, and the armies I did recruit and attacked with got very poor dice rolls, and my armies got hammered trying to take my lost territories back that my wife had taken. By the time my forces managed to restore things, the next turn my wife had another cash in, gained more armies, accomplished a mission, picked up some more, and she began expanding! Then, my friend collected more armies from Eriador and now Arnor, (because he threw my forces out of Rivendell), and I was unable to rip into Arnor because I was trying to take back my own territories--he then proceeded to invade my territories further, and when my turn came around again, it was clearly a sign between the growing resurgence of my wife, the growing dominion of Saruman, that my empire had reached its zenith, and was nothing but a memory...
The Fellowship escaped off the south edge of the board a few turns later, with Saruman--my friend--having the largest and most powerful empire. It was a great game!
The next morning, Christmas morning, I discovered that my wife had given me a LOTR Risk Game! Yea! Whoo-Hoo!
I played against my wife in two games. The first game, she coordinated her two Good armies from the west, from Eriador and Arnor, against my forces of darkness, black and red. Red got a series of really lousy dice rolls, no good cash ins, and was crushed! Eventually, the tide turned against my valiant forces, and the elves and men marched against the forces of Shadow and exterminated us from the map, thus saving Middle Earth from my own dark plans! Ah well!
The next game we played, she played the two forces of Good, again, and I played the forces of Evil, again, which was cool. This time, I started thinking about some different kinds of strategies, feeling the game out, and learning the nuances of the cards, the terrain, and the special missions.
My red armies secured Rhun and Mirkwood, and formed a powerful shield through Rivendell and the Gates of Moria, while black secured Rhovanion, and built up armies. This game definitely played differently!
My wife attacked me through Rhovanion, wasting into me all the way to the Hills of Rhun with a huge army of Yellow, while her Green armies secured Eriador and swept through much of Arnor. I had plans though! Black cashed in for a huge army, accomplished some missions, used the terrain to my advantage, and attacked my wife's invading yellow armies. I got great dice rolls, and my black army slaughtered a 13-Battalion yellow army, and swept through the south, clearing her from all of Rhovanion, and the black armies marched into the Gap of Rohan, and stormed Helm's Deep. Then, several turns of see-sawing back and forth found my black armies in growing strength in the south, and my red armies in the north grew and grew, until a huge invasion of the south was launched! Red armies poured into Dunland and Miridwaith, accomplished missions, and launched an amphibious attack against her Green forces at Mithlond, storming the Grey Havens deep behind her lines in Eriador. Great dice rolls, missions and good tactics brought even more stability throughout the front, as red and black were both strong and healthy. Her armies tried a turn or two more of fighting, and her amies were slaughtered in a series of savage defensive struggles, where her elves died in droves! Then, red had a cash in for ten armies, with plenty of strength on the board, and yellow was cleaned out of the south entirely. She surrendered!
Black had all of Rhovanion, most of Rohan, and Foredwaith and Eastern Angmar in the north, with perhaps 20 battalions active, beyond garrisons. Red had all of Rhun, Mirkwood, half of Arnor--including Rivendell--parts of Rohan, including the Gates of Moria, Dunland, and Miridwaith, and the western coast of Eriador, including the Grey Havens and Harlindon. Red had probably 30-40 active battalions, aside from garrison units. In this game, all of Middle Earth bowed to the Burning Eye!
This is a great game, and I highly recommend it! My observations are still forming as to specific tactics, but the terrain is a huge factor. The power cards, and such provide special leverages and unforseen events, ranging from treachery to losing half of all armies in several territories, to others. These special event cards can swiftly change the momentum. I discovered that, of course, a combination of cash-ins, good dice rolls, positive event cards, as well as good army placement and tactics, all combining, really make the game. If any of those are out of sequence, at the wrong time, then of course any good tactics that you had, no matter how great your strategy, will be for naught. The game is very fluid, with every turn being important, and you can't quite be sure of anything until the end. Certainly, specific turning points can be identified, but there are numerous opportunities for rallying one's forces from the jaws of defeat and coming back to win, and, frustratingly, there can be moments in the game where everything seems to be going your way, and then, swiftly, due to the above factors slipping away out of your hands, you can see your empire swept before the onslaught of enemy armies!
I suppose unlike standard Risk, where you know, you have the natural choke points of the continents, and well, you can secure them in such a way with armies as to make your realm virtually impregnable--but in this game, with the special variables mentioned, that isn't as probable, or as easily maintained, despite your best efforts to the contrary. This new version of Risk allows, as I have played, for games of apparently hour and a half to three or four hour games of intense back and forth dynamic warfare for the continent of Middle Earth. It is very fun, and it isn't likely to drag on for as someone said, eight hours until someone falls asleep or is finally put out of their misery and crushed. The pieces are interesting, the board is colorful and cool-looking, and the dynamics between the event cards, cash-ins, terrain, and so on really make for a fun, unpredictable game.
Let the armies march!
Semper Fidelis and Merry Christmas!
SHARK
