Just sat down for my first game of War of the Ring vs. a friend of mine. I played Free People and he played Shadow.
As expected, there is a LOT to do in this game. It's a little overwhelming at times.
We're about 8 or 9 turns in after a couple of hours play (interupted by lots of rule look ups) and the going has been rough for the FP. Since you have to activate and muster the different nations to war it is really difficult to mount a defense against the initial assaults. It's even harder considering you need to use actions to move the Fellowship (which I'm not doing enough as they're still in Moria).
Some highlights:
- In Rivendell, as the Fellowship set out, Aragorn went out on his own to travel north in an attempt to bring other Rangers into battle. He was successful in activating them, but they've been slow to muster and have yet to declare war. Thankfully, he also carried the Book of Mazarbul (sp) which he delivered to Erebor. The Dwarves were enraged by it and immediately declared war.
-Saruman revealed himself as a traitor, activating Rohan, and immediately began pumping out insane amounts of orcs. Gandal soon revealed himself as the White though and convinced the Ents to attack Orthanc. The carnage left several orcs dead along with their traitorous master, Saruman.
-From almost he beginning of the game, Lorien was under siege from Dol Guldur. The orc horde was soon joined by three Nazgul and the forest home of the Elves fell to Shadow. A few turns later Aragorn, leading a dwarven warhost, smashed the remaining orcs and drove the Ringwraiths away. So now the Dwarves control the Elven settlement...
Both of us are having a blast. This was a great investment!
