We’re sure someone will disagree, but the best scene in the The Lord of Rings: Fellowship of the Ring is the bit in Balin’s Tomb where they have to fight all the monsters. It’s actually a bit of surprise to us that scene hasn’t already been made into a boardgame, but we are glad to see that Games Workshop have taken up the challenge, in time for the 20th Anniversary of the movie. The good people at GW sent a copy of the new game to Starburst Towers for us to review.
This is a skirmish combat game, the sort of thing that Games Workshop specialise in. Initially we thought it was a variant on their other small scale battle games such as Gorechosen or Combat Arena, but it’s really not. It takes all the ‘ease of play’ features from those games, mixes in the mechanics from their Lord of the Rings range and creates a fast-flowing simulation of that famous scene. It’s a heck of a lot of fun.
The premise of the game is pretty straight forward. You are either The Fellowship of the Ring, or the Moira Goblins, who have a cave troll. The goblins win if they kill enough of the Fellowship, the Fellowship win if enough of them survive. Obviously if Frodo gets killed, the forces of Darkness are much more likely to win.
We get 22 models. 10 of these are the Fellowship, including a very flashy looking Gandalf and a masterful Gimli. The remaining pieces are 11 goblins and a cave troll. They’re well sculpted, easy to put together and little bit spikey. They’re a heck of a lot of fun to paint, of course.
The board, predictably, is Balin’s Tomb. It’s sectioned into squares so it’s easy to figure out how and where you can move to. The board tells you where you can put your Fellowship pieces, and the Goblin player is using cards that tell them what models they can put on the board. (So you can’t just throw in waves of Cave Trolls). The dice are custom, to make it easy to figure out if you’ve hit or miss.
The rules are simple, and all the rules you need are on the cards provided with the game. (There is a rulebook, you’ll only need to use it a few times.). This is a game that’s a good way of introducing new people into this sort of thing, and also lots of fun of experienced gamers. It’s tactically deep enough to be interesting, but also light enough to not take up too much time. And the models are so nice (and iconic) that it’s worth it for those on their own.
An absolutely great choice for fantasy gamers this Christmas.
