The 'One Rulebook' (the Blue hardcover Lord of the Rings SBG rulebook) or Mines of Moria have the most 'modern' rules - though the rules themselves are not vastly different to those found in the old Return of the King book. Some points values have gone up or down, and (for example) the Knights of. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Patch Francais. One by one, the free peoples of Middle–earth fell to the power of the Ring.” – GaladrielTM, Elven Queen. Middle–earth is under attack! Sauron, a being of unfathomable. When the players reach Rivendell. (Location 2). These cards will enter the game when the players reach the Mines of Moria (Location 3). SetUp DiAgrAm.

.actually, it isn't as remarkable as you might think. Blood Bowl, Epic and Battlefleet Gothic all have rule mechanics I admire. But they are all Specialist Games that got swept under the rug. We kinda expect GW to deep-six any interesting rules, rather like Fox cancels good TV shows, so they don't count. Actually, it's (surprisingly) one of their current Big Three. Specifically, Lord of the Rings. The Strategy Battle Game, of course.

Not the mass-battle War of the Ring they pushed on us to sell more miniatures. I'm talking old school LoTR, (not the 'Hobbit' reboot as I consider paying $90+ for a rulebook.well let's just say 'more money than brains' doesn't even come close.). My dwarf warband - normal dwarf warriors and Khazad guard upgrades for Battle Companies 'Clean' Rules I remember reading somewhere one of the LoTR authors was proud of how 'clean' LoTR:SBG had remained through dozens of sourcebooks and expansions and I have to say I agree. In contrast to the convoluted bloat of, say, Warhammer Fantasy this is even more evident. The stat line is descriptive, familiar and simple and 'special rules' are kept to a minimum.

So you won't be losing due to forgetting an obscure rules combo *cough* Warmachine *cough.* Whilst you can min-max in any points-based wargame, LoTR has more a focus on playing the game rather than winning by building the 'uber army' list like, say, 40K. This suits me as I don't think pre-game decisions should be the ultimate factor in winning the game. I want the best general to win, not the best army builder/recruiting officer. Whilst LoTR does have powerful units and heroes, and indeed gameplay revolves around them, there aren't really any 'must have' inclusions that will singlehandedly steamroller the enemy force, and a hero can usually be reliably bought down by equivalent points worth of grunts, due to the limited nature of his heroic 'might.' Your in-game decisions tend to determine if you win or lose, rather than how you deployed your armies at the start.

Rather than being decided in 4-6 turns like most GW games, LoTR games can often go to 20+ turns, giving more time for the battle to ebb and flow. The rule mechanics are simple - you can pick them up in the first few turns of a game - and thereafter you would almost never need to refer to a rulebook. Solid Mechanics Whilst not boasting anything as revolutionary as Infinity's ARO system, the initiative system (side A moves, side B moves, side A shoots, side B shoots) is more adaptive and organic than usual IGOUGO fare. There are far more player reactions and decision points within a turn. In addition, spending Might Points allows you to activate units and act out of sequence, adding a layer of both gameplay and resource management, and making the game more fluid and less predictable. It's a lot harder to cheesily halt a unit 1' out of enemy charge range. There are rules for all sorts of skirmish-game things like climbing, jumping and falling but they all use the same simple, consistent mechanic - roll a d6 and '1' = a bad result, '2-5' = is an expected result and '6' = is a great result.

In addition, different races move at different speeds - which does have an impact on the game. With only a dozen spells, magic is simple and apart from the usual offensive spells ('transfix' an opponent in place, or blast them with missile-like sorcery) most revolve around buffs/debuffs such as raising the courage of allies and causing terror amongst foes, hampering missile fire or the like.

It's powerful, but not overpowering. I like how the winners of a fight 'push back' the loser which means losers who cannot retreat are more likely to die (realistic in that they are hemmed in by a crush of bodies and don't have room to fight) but this also can open gaps in enemy formations. The 1:1 modelling means you can form realistic formations like wedges, hollow squares, double/single lines - pretty much anything you can imagine. My painting style emphasizes speed over elegance.

But I never ever field unpainted miniatures, so I count myself amongst the righteous Resource Management My favourite part of the game is how heroes use of ' Might,' 'Will' and 'Fate'. These stats have a finite supply, adding a layer of resource management and more to the game.