- Designer: Antonie Bauza & Bruno Cathala
- Artist: Vincent Dutrait
- Publisher: Repos Production
- Players: 2 Players
- Playtime: 30 minutes
- Ages: 10+
Always the fan of Tolkien, I look for titles that will bring me into Middle Earth. In needing a great 2 player game for Arc and I to take on a recent trip to Crystal River, FL, I found myself picking up The Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle-Earth. The game allows each player to either work as Sam and Frodo to destroy the One Ring or as Sauron to recapture the prize!
What’s In the Box?
- 69 Chapter Cards
- 7 Landmark tiles
- 1 Central board
- A Quest of the Ring Track that is in 4 pieces
- 30 Coins
- 18 Alliance tokens (3 per race)
- 30 Units (15 for the Fellowship and 15 for Sauron)
- 14 Fortresses (7 for the Fellowship and 7 for Sauron)
- 1 Player Aid
- 1 Rulebook
Setup
Determine which player is playing as the Fellowship and which as Sauron. Set up the central board between both players. Place 2 Fellowship units on Arnor and 2 Sauron units on Mordor. Set up the Quest of the Ring track and place it below the central board. The Fellowship player starts with 3 coins and the Sauron player starts with 2 coins. The rest of the coins go into a reserve. Organize the alliance tokens, one stack per race. Shuffle the stacks separately and place them in the notches above the central board, face down. Then shuffle all of the landmark tiles and place 3 face up on the table. Create a facedown stack with the rest of the tiles. Finally, sort the chapter cards into 3 decks, according to the symbols on the back of the card. Shuffle each deck separately.
The Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle-Earth game takes place over 3 chapters. Each chapter requires the chapter cards to be set up in a different configuration. See the rulebook for set up patterns.
Objective
A player can win by completing 1 of 3 victory conditions. They may either complete the Quest of the Ring, rally support of 6 different races, or conquer Middle-earth.
Gameplay
The Sauron player goes first and players take turns until the end of the game. On a player’s turn they may either take a chapter card or a landmark tile. To take a chapter card, a player can pick up one card that is not covered by any other card in the formation. The card can either be played or discarded. To play the card, player’s must pay the cost and immediately benefit from its effect. If a player discards the card, they may take coins in the amount equal to the current chapter.
To take a landmark tile, a player chooses one of the face tiles, pays the cost and then plays it in their player area. Immediately put a fortress on the matching region of the central board and immediately benefit from its effect. A player ends their turn without revealing a new tile.
A chapter ends once the final card of the chapter has been taken. Players then set up the next chapter’s configuration and reveal new landmark tiles, if needed. Turn order continues, until the end of chapter 3. The first player to complete one of the win conditions wins the game!
Final Thoughts
Some things really stood out to me in The Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle-Earth. First, all of the pieces had symbols on them to help distinguish them apart for color-blind or low vision players and I really appreciated this level of detail. Some of the games I have played recently overlooked this important design feature. I really enjoyed the Middle-Earth theme, not just because of the Fellowship, but of the whole use of the map. This helped the game hit another level of immersion. The different card effects were also wonderful. You can decide how you are going to fortify your side, whether with physical strength, ruse, courage, knowledge, or leadership. The ability to differentiate between skills really amped up my love of the game.
My one complaint is the actual box the game comes in. I am not sure if it is just me, but I can’t seem to get the pieces to fit correctly in the box to put the cover on right.
Regardless of theme (which we have established is wonderful), The Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle-Earth is an excellent two player game. I really enjoyed that each player has different goals, but pulls from the same resources. This kept the game interesting. You can sort of guess what your opponent is doing, but can’t necessarily guess their next move. Arc won our first play through, and I was sad that Sauron had won! He went for control of the map and I went for support from 6 different races. The game came down to Arc winning just one move ahead of me!
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