‘Lord of the Rings RISK!’ by Parker Games.
Games night....... 17th April 'Lord of the Rings RISK!'
The Ragnars have taken to the road. Desperate for gaming companions they head South (ish) to Woking, to the House of Elrond - Ian and Linda's, actually. E.T.A. is 8.30 p.m. but as luck would have it the local fire brigade have managed to over-turn one of their tenders on the Tolworth roundabout. Apparently this was achieved in the bright sunlight of early-morning, presumably at a fairly busy time of day. How did they manage that?
Kendall drives carefully around said roundabout in case of demonic influence.
Arriving just before 9.00 p.m. they are greeted by their hosts and Ashley (Kendall's nephew). This is fortunate as both Kendall and Dicken are bearing gifts - late birthday presents. Not only that, but the game to be played tonight was another of Ashley's presents, 'Lord of the Rings RISK!'. This was Kendall's gift for Ashley, bought on the spur of the moment in Toys 'r Us. It was nearly destined to be Dicken's present, but as luck would have it (see below) Kendall's daughter persuaded him that Ashley would like it.
And he does. Ashley is a big 'Lord of the Rings' fan, has already had a bit of a go at the game and is eyeing his chances of staying up for a punt tonight. He draws up a chair, making 5 players for a 4-player game. Linda (Mum) pulls up another chair, making 6.
All eyes and ears focus on Ian, expectant that the rules will be quickly explained. 'It's just like Risk!' says Ian, and then proceeds to get totally bogged down in explaining which cards are which. After 10 minutes, things have not progressed, so Kendall takes over. Some of it is just like 'Risk!' and some of it isn't'.
Ah, 'Risk!' Swirling mist before the eyes, transported back to juvenile days, squatting on the cold floor of Kendall's garage, friends pouring over the giant map. Phil virtually always won. He always played with the blue cubes (despite the fact he'd stepped on so many) and his one and only strategy was to conquer North America - and then the world. The classic game involved Nick Oakley and Mick Pennington. Nick announced that he was going to put all his initial forces in Alaska and then 'sweep across the world'. Mick put substantial forces in North West Territory. After 15 minutes of frenzied dice rolling Nick arrived in Iceland and was then taken out of the game in someone else's turn.
No wonder Kendall bought it and wants to play.
Of course this edition of the game has wrought many changes. Gone is the giant map, replaced by a moderate-sized square board showing Middle Earth (but not including Minas Tirith and Mordor - watch out for the expansion). Playing pieces are quite dramatic being plastic figures of elves, eagles, trolls etc. etc. The combat is essentially the same with the addition of a Leader giving +1 in attack and defense to the highest dice roll. 'Strongholds' on the map also give +1 in defense. Reinforcement cards are also familiar, although the values are fixed depending on the combinations of, what used to be soldiers, cannons and cavalry.
The new stuff includes an Adventure pack having a variety of cards including Missions, Power cards and Events. These are drawn if a player's Leader is moved to Power lands on the map. A nice feature of these is the two values of Mission, depending on whether the land to be conquered is to the East (principally Evil occupied ) or the West (principally Good occupied). Talking of the map, this has to be studied quite carefully to check movement possibilities. Mountains are impassable, rivers need a bridge. There is some chance of movement by boat, but it seems quite limited. The Ring itself appears as the marker for the Fellowship. At the end of each player turn the Fellowship meanders one space across the board, before toppling off the edge just below the Dead Marshes. Thus ends the game.
There is some wrangling at this point as to whether the Fellowship moves after each round of turns or after each player 's turn. On inspection it proves to be the latter. This causes some bemusement as there are not many more than a dozen regions to cover, which (even with the dice driven delays of three regions) would seem to make for a very short game.
Brevity is not the order of the day at present. Simply putting 'battalions' on the map is taxing the co-ordination of tonight's players, each in turn succumbing to indecision, hesitation and simply placing out of turn. Kendall (and Linda) and Dicken (Evil powers) dominate the West, Spiller and Ian (Good folk) are in the East. A quick flick through the rules (again) confirms that no, there isn't a team element to the play (shame) and then its time to strap on the elven swords and start thrashing around.
Ian starts and takes a couple of lands off Kendall and then impales a handsome army on a region guarded by Dicken. He collects his card. Ashley goes to bed.
That's it in a nutshell. Throw dice and do well, throw dice and do badly. Sometimes you're up and sometimes you're down. Ian is nonplussed as he is more intent on recalling the way the combat system works. The phrase 'One each' starts to trip off the tongue again and house rules on dice rolling begin to re-emerge from the oily past.
Kendall already has a region (continent), having been allowed to set-up in the equivalent of Australia without competition. Consequently 'Get Steve' is the order of the day and Dicken duly obliges by poking his forces into said region. Dicken continues to throw well, Kendall appallingly.
Drinks and Pringles are going down well and Ian surprises by producing some spicy popadoms. Linda has resigned herself to not understanding the rules, but rolls dice with gusto if little improvement upon Kendall's efforts. There is a general air of 'bon homie', 'long time no see' and 'who cares who wins'.
After some terrifically powerful card play Ian is winning. He has managed to acquire a second leader and would have had a third if the game allowed. Dicken's resistance in the East has been quashed, Spiller has had some poor luck and Kendall and Dicken continue to slug it out at the back of Mirkwood.
The fellowship has trundled on, despite being held up by a Balrog Event card in the Mines of Moria (that's how extra turns get generated).
Spiller and Linda have just about caught up on things after not seeing each other for 18 months. The net of time is cast further when Linda recalls ' ... it's 9 years since your wedding! Where has the time gone?' Spiller points out that it's only been 7 years. Meanwhile, time is catching up in Middle Earth ....
Dicken plays his ace. 10 extra battalions for a set of three different symbols. The assault on Dol Guldar commences. Kendall's Leader and the Stronghold give a +2, Dicken has his Leader +1. But the luck changes. Kendall can't stop rolling high. Two by two Dickens mighty army is whittled away. Dol Guldar is barely touched. Dicken mops up another corner of Mirkwood to claim his card and then slopes off to lick his wounds. The Fellowship moves on ......
Spiller stretches his forces to breaking point and grabs control of Rhovanion Region. The Fellowship moves on ...
Kendall can't wait. He's got a 10 point bonus too! Dicken has had enough and gets moody about rolling dice. Kendall marches through Mirkwood and into the South, smashing all before him, sweeping across the earth.... The Fellowship moves into the Dead Marshes ......
Ian nobly says that perhaps we should finish as everybody has had the same number of turns (four !!!). Dicken is keen to, Spiller doesn't mind, Kendall insists that if the game is over the points should be counted. He wins easily. Having the last turn is a major bonus, particularly if players haven't calculated for it.
Very mixed views on the game. Spiller admits to having a thing about 'Lord of the Rings', having not read the book, not liked Reiner's game and despite loving the film. Dicken has a thing about 'Risk!' probably some unhappy childhood trauma. Kendall feels that this is a pretty decent re-design of a good game and that if this were a new game, with a less prescriptive theme gamers might be quite enthusiastic?
But, possibly not. Dicken makes it very plain that he sees this as a childhood to late adolescence game, the luck element being far too great to move it out of the 'Rummy' category.
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