The Lord of the Rings Boardgame

Design: Reiner Knizia
Illustration: John Howe
Hasbro Inc.

2 to 5 players, age 12+

THE QUEST TO DESTROY THE RING
Would be Hobbits have the chance to pit their skill against the dark forces with the arrival of the new Lord of the Rings boardgame from Hasbro, the UK's number one toy and games company. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien has gripped readers for over four decades.

This December sees the arrival of the much anticipated film, however before then all Hobbit fans can immerse themselves in a challenging new Lord of the Rings game and accept the mission to destroy the magic ring.

The beautifully designed game closely recreates Tolkien's epic story following the plot and characters that are found in the book. It has been designed by Reiner Knizia, one of the world's leading game designers with over 100 games to his credit, and illustrated by John Howe, who has depicted much of Tolkien's work including concepts for the forthcoming film.

The object of the game is to work in fellowship with the other players to defeat the evil forces of the Dark Lord, Sauron. The players assume one of the Hobbit characters and progress across the board, undertaking a variety of testing challenges along the way, with the ultimate aim of casting the magic ring into the volcano at the top of Mount Doom.

To avoid elimination from the game, the Hobbit players have to avoid encountering Sauron and there are a number of special cards and tokens with special powers to use to escape from any tricky situations.

Hasbro games group brand manager Sue Jones, comments, "This board game is slightly unusual because players must work together as a team to reach the end of the game and beat Sauron rather than playing against each other as more traditional board games. I think it is a game that will appeal to thousands of Tolkien fans as it closely follows the book as well as being a beautiful edition to a Tolkien collection."

Reiner Knizia, the game's designer, comments, "The Lord of the Rings captured the imagination of many people across the globe. Through the design of the game I believe I have captured the key elements of Tolkien's story and have translated them into a game packed full of adventure and challenges. Tolkien fans will relish the chance to embark on their own mission to enter the world of the Hobbits and destroy the magic ring."

This innovative new Lord of the Rings game is a must for all fans of the J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy and those who want the chance to participate in a challenging, yet strategic, adventure. Suitable for two to five players, aged 12 to adult.

GAMEPLAY OVERVIEW:

Each player takes on the identity of one of the brave Hobbits who must carry the 'One Ring' across Middle Earth and hurl it into the volcanic fires of Mount Doom. However, the One Ring belongs to the evil power Sauron who tries to exert his control over the Hobbits and corrupt them.

The game takes place over 4 travel boards, each one representing a key event in the Lord of the Rings books: the mines of Moria; the battle at Helm's Deep; the struggle at Shelob's Lair; and the final trek through the dark wastelands of Mordor.

The progression of the journey across each board, as well as the corruption levels of the Hobbits and Sauron, is marked on a master board.

The players use Hobbit cards to move across the various tracks on the travel board as they try to collect shields, health tokens, wellbeing tokens and ring tokens, which will aid them and stop them from being corrupted by Sauron.

Each turn, one player acts as Ringbearer and carries the ring enabling them to move over a number of spaces at once. On each player's turn they turn over an event tile - this could be worth a free turn or it might activate an event, forcing the team to make some difficult decisions. These events get worse and worse as play progresses.

Once the players have finished a board the tokens collected must be counted - each player's aim is to have collected a ring token, a well being token and a health token. For each of these they are missing, that player must move one space along the master board towards Sauron, when any player reaches the same square as Sauron, that player goes out of the game. If that player is the Ringbearer for that turn, the game is lost.

The Ringbearer must reach the final space on the 4th travel board, Mordor before they can attempt to destroy the Ring, if they are successful the game is won.

The Legendgames boyz give this an 8/10 overall