God I love this game so much, these videos are great too. My brother and I play this game about every other week, I'm usually the free peoples (though I think we both know the game well enough now that we're going to do a coin flip from now on). Here's what I usually try to do as the FP, listed in priority. 1. Get Aragorn crowned. This gives you an extra die, which is mandatory, and my brother loves the "Send all the troops at Gondor at the very start" strat. And you can't ever get Aragorn if you lose all of Gondor. If you get lucky with die rolls (or burn all of your elven rings) you can do this in one turn with 3 swords and a will of the west. 2. Move the fellowship recklessly at the start and kill gandalf the grey and DONT FORGET HIS LEADER ABILITY. It's by far the best way to get cards early on. 3. Get as many troops to the fortifications at Osgiliath and the Fords of Isen as you can. When you get attacked, fight one round and retreat. Play attrition style. 4. Do not even touch the dwarves or northmen unless you draw their card that lets you get them straight to at war. 5. Understand exactly how the hunt works. If you draw an eye, and there are 5 dice in the box, you get 5 corruption. I've lost a few games off of this. 6. The only military victories I've ever got were after I took Orthanc. If the shadow leaves it open, Kill sauruman with the Ents, and if you take it, change your whole strategy to focus on a military victory. 7. React. For every shadow strat, there is a way to counter it and a counter to the counter and so on. This game has so much depth Shadow strats: 1. Crush Gondor. You have two armies of 10 from the start that are well within range to go after Gondor. If you can deny the Aragorn die and take 5 victory points, you are literally half way to winning. Just full-on blitzkreig for this, there is very little the FP can do to stop you early on. 2. Stall out the witch king. When you bring him in, the FP player activates all nations. one of your biggest advantages is that the FP has to waste tons of dice to activate nations. 3. Don't empty Orthanc and leave it undefended for the tree people to come in and destroy it (just like the movies). Always leave behind a few guys to protect Saruman. 4. Take Lorien, Get a good army in Dol Godur, and march on Lorien, the Elves are stuck there and it is a crucial half-way point for the fellowship to heal up. 5. Once you start attacking a nation, don't let up. The FP can only start making more armies after either lots of dice, or an attack from you. Don't help them get to at war and then let up and let them reinforce their strongholds. Choke them out. Jesus christ I wrote a lot here... should probly get back to work or whatever. Love your videos, and love this game!
Great tips! Remember that number 5 (hunt mechanics) works like that only in Mordor. Outside of Mordor, an eye nets damage equal to the number of success (modified 6) die rolls!
Hello 👋 I was thinking about getting this game for a while. I was doing some research and it seems like a fun game to play. I was wondering if there was any tips on how to approach this game, as I can see you are a real expert. I would much appreciate any help/advice that would help me decide if this game is right for me. Thanks a lot.
@@lucasmendez9884 sure, I guess first step would be find a friend that will play fairly regularly with you, next is RTFM (read the effing manual) literally, just sit down and read it. My brother and I messed up like the first 5 games we played because we just missed some rules here and there. honestly, it was still pretty fun even when we messed up. Switch sides with your friend often at first. It will feel like you don't understand very well, but it will help to make sure the other guy isn't getting anything wrong. The manual is... lacking imo. There's a better pdf for free on boardgamegeek. I always have it up on my phone while I play. Great game, honestly one of my favorites if not my favorite game of all time :)
Pressure the shadow player with the potential for a military victory. Gathering units in pelargir and showing the shadow player the effect of the card "Through a day and night" just once will teach them to not leave umbar unprotected.
If you want to go the military route as the FP look to unguarded strongholds. The Scouts combat card is really useful for this. Since it essentially allows you to use your opponents action dice for your own movement. What Scouts does is it allows you to retreat immediately so no combat happens, example would be if an SP army attacks Osgiliath from North Ithilien you can then use it to retreat to South Ithilien. Then on your turn if you have the appropriate dice you can take Minas Morgul if its undefended. Even if you aren't going the full military route this strategy allows you to take 2VPs early on and will cause your opponent to squirm as they have to use at least 2+ dice to take back their lost stronghold. Now if you want some general tips for the FP. You should figure out what 10 points your opponent is going for and fortify them. The most common places that your opponent will go for are the Gondor territories (5VP), Helms Deep (2VP), and Dale-Erebor-Woodland Realm or DEW for short (5VP). They may even attack Lorien (2VP). Always keep in mind they need 10 to win. Also when moving the fellowship move once per turn and more if possible and let Gandalf die, let him die as soon as possible so you can get Gandalf the White as soon as SP musters Saruman. If possible break Strider off of the fellowship to muster Aragorn early on too. Those 2 extra dice are so precious and necessary to making your victory so much smoother.
Gandalf dieing asap is kinda counter intuitive. With his guide ability you can stack up on cards until you get the ents or dunharrow. Then kill him and resurrect him when a WoW dice is rolled.
@@godnkls If I needed to decide between both expansions, I would choose LoME over WoME gameplay-wise, even though WoME of course has nice miniatures. WoME can potentially end up making the military route more tedious for either side. But still, I like to play with both expansions.
It’s interesting because I actually only won the game as FP through military every time I played this game. I have never done a ring victory and I usually win the game as either shadow or FP. Moria is pretty easy to take if SP moves too much military off the board. Then another 2 can come from either the 2 cities or the southern stronghold umbar. I actually have a hard time with the ring once the fellowship gets to Mordor because of the crazy amount of corruption that can be taken.
My experience has definitely been the opposite of yours, but hey, different strokes for different folks. In my opinion, the first time you play a game, you're really just learning the systems. I'll obviously try to win, but especially with a game this big, I think understanding the game so you can make better decisions next time is more important.
@@RTFM i think most people would agree with you. It may just also be that the SP left their regions too undefended in my games. It definitely is harder for FP because their event cards don't typically line up with seiging. There is just a balance of not being afraid to exploit a SP weakness but also playing to your strengths. Thats part of the dept of the game and adapting to your opponents strategies. Thanks for the video though! Great overall tips!
I think Moria is easy to take if you play with the Elves. But Isengard can be taken more easily because of the cards March of the Ents. Maybe that is why in the expansions, these two regions get a lot of help with the wild man for Isengard and the Balrog. Still, I think these two places are the best option to get a military victory.
If the shadow ever leaves a spot open, I go for it just to mess them up. They usually let me have one, but sometimes they go to take it back out of spite. A great delaying tactic.
Wow I really thought your channel was 300k - 1mil subs. You’re definitely going to be up there when board gaming gets as popular as it should be. I love the passion and the clarity you bring to the table. Keep it up man
Haha, that would be nice. The biggest board game channel out there has barely cracked 300k. But yeah, the more people start playing board games, the better we all do. Thanks for the support!
Great video! I love this game and have had it for a long time but hadn't played in almost 2 years because I didn't have anyone to commit a day to do it with... but yesterday played with a friend who really loved it and wants to play again soon
Persist! I'm super slow and AP-prone myself, but on all three games I've played so far I've managed to play in under 5 hours (one of them actually was only 3), so perfectly doable in an afternoon. I'm sure you can improve my record (again, AP-champion here speaking).
Be sure to try and follow the books and movies as closely as possible. If I remember correctly, the Free Peoples destroyed the ring following that strategy :)
Hey @@RTFM ! Thanks for doing these videos :) I played War of the Ring with my SO last night as the Shadow. I tried to implement your strategies from your evil strategy video while she took your advice from this one. It was a very enjoyable, close, and meta game haha. I got 8 points and was sieging Erebor when she destroyed the ring though :p
@@RTFM Not that close. My son and I play every weekend and in last weekend's game it came down to a single hunt tile draw. Frodo and Sam were at the top of the Mordor Track and on a corruption of 9 and it was the last dice of the round. There were 10 hunt tiles left in the bag; 6 would give the FP a win and 4 would give the Shadow victory.
I’ve watched your rules video for this a few times and now I’m wondering if I missed something… So, you can only fit 5 units inside a stronghold while it’s being sieged?
I only played 2 times so far and both times againts frist time players. I won both times with a military victory as the free peoples. They mustard big armies than left their strongholds for me to just walk in. Of course I had to pose threat in several areas to pull their attention away from those strongholds. Bit worked twice so far
I just built up and charged the dwarfs to mount doom then teleported my Gondor army with a card to Mina’s Tirith and slaughtered the strongholds at mount doom
Yes. I was going to wait until the Kings expansion came out, but since there's no word on when that is, I'll be getting it out some time in the next few months.
I've been hearing a lot about WotR Discord servers where people play online. Might be a good place to give it a try if you're interested. It is certainly a commitment though.
I don't know why you say it's so hard to play as the FP. Winning a military victory as SP is hard to do quickly enough that the game isn't already decided at Mt Doom. At least, for an inexperienced player like me. Sure, winning as SP by corruption is doable. But, I have yet to play SP and actually win militarily. I have infinite armies, but the ring is always corrupted or dunked before I have a chance to capture enough places.
To each their own, though my main point is that it's more difficult for the FP to win through military than via the ring, which you seem to agree with.
@@RTFM yea. I think I have played 8 games and had no military victories. All rings. But, I am getting closer. Also, the games are played solo, which prevents some aspects of play.
the concept of giving away Gandalf as soon as possible is hilarious, instead of a heroic sacrifice it looks as if the guy is just eagerly looking forward to just throw himself in front of an arrow that... wasn't gonna hit Frodo at all.
God I love this game so much, these videos are great too. My brother and I play this game about every other week, I'm usually the free peoples (though I think we both know the game well enough now that we're going to do a coin flip from now on). Here's what I usually try to do as the FP, listed in priority.
1. Get Aragorn crowned. This gives you an extra die, which is mandatory, and my brother loves the "Send all the troops at Gondor at the very start" strat. And you can't ever get Aragorn if you lose all of Gondor. If you get lucky with die rolls (or burn all of your elven rings) you can do this in one turn with 3 swords and a will of the west.
2. Move the fellowship recklessly at the start and kill gandalf the grey and DONT FORGET HIS LEADER ABILITY. It's by far the best way to get cards early on.
3. Get as many troops to the fortifications at Osgiliath and the Fords of Isen as you can. When you get attacked, fight one round and retreat. Play attrition style.
4. Do not even touch the dwarves or northmen unless you draw their card that lets you get them straight to at war.
5. Understand exactly how the hunt works. If you draw an eye, and there are 5 dice in the box, you get 5 corruption. I've lost a few games off of this.
6. The only military victories I've ever got were after I took Orthanc. If the shadow leaves it open, Kill sauruman with the Ents, and if you take it, change your whole strategy to focus on a military victory.
7. React. For every shadow strat, there is a way to counter it and a counter to the counter and so on. This game has so much depth
Shadow strats:
1. Crush Gondor. You have two armies of 10 from the start that are well within range to go after Gondor. If you can deny the Aragorn die and take 5 victory points, you are literally half way to winning. Just full-on blitzkreig for this, there is very little the FP can do to stop you early on.
2. Stall out the witch king. When you bring him in, the FP player activates all nations. one of your biggest advantages is that the FP has to waste tons of dice to activate nations.
3. Don't empty Orthanc and leave it undefended for the tree people to come in and destroy it (just like the movies). Always leave behind a few guys to protect Saruman.
4. Take Lorien, Get a good army in Dol Godur, and march on Lorien, the Elves are stuck there and it is a crucial half-way point for the fellowship to heal up.
5. Once you start attacking a nation, don't let up. The FP can only start making more armies after either lots of dice, or an attack from you. Don't help them get to at war and then let up and let them reinforce their strongholds. Choke them out.
Jesus christ I wrote a lot here... should probly get back to work or whatever. Love your videos, and love this game!
Some great insights here, thanks!
Great tips! But you can actually only use one elven ring per turn, so you can't be sure to get aragon to minas tirith in one turn :)
Great tips! Remember that number 5 (hunt mechanics) works like that only in Mordor. Outside of Mordor, an eye nets damage equal to the number of success (modified 6) die rolls!
Hello 👋
I was thinking about getting this game for a while. I was doing some research and it seems like a fun game to play. I was wondering if there was any tips on how to approach this game, as I can see you are a real expert. I would much appreciate any help/advice that would help me decide if this game is right for me.
Thanks a lot.
@@lucasmendez9884 sure, I guess first step would be find a friend that will play fairly regularly with you, next is RTFM (read the effing manual) literally, just sit down and read it. My brother and I messed up like the first 5 games we played because we just missed some rules here and there. honestly, it was still pretty fun even when we messed up. Switch sides with your friend often at first. It will feel like you don't understand very well, but it will help to make sure the other guy isn't getting anything wrong. The manual is... lacking imo. There's a better pdf for free on boardgamegeek. I always have it up on my phone while I play. Great game, honestly one of my favorites if not my favorite game of all time :)
6. Let the Shadow player activate your nations for you.
A good way to do so is to move units to the border of the nation and retreating if possible.
Pressure the shadow player with the potential for a military victory. Gathering units in pelargir and showing the shadow player the effect of the card "Through a day and night" just once will teach them to not leave umbar unprotected.
If you want to go the military route as the FP look to unguarded strongholds. The Scouts combat card is really useful for this. Since it essentially allows you to use your opponents action dice for your own movement. What Scouts does is it allows you to retreat immediately so no combat happens, example would be if an SP army attacks Osgiliath from North Ithilien you can then use it to retreat to South Ithilien. Then on your turn if you have the appropriate dice you can take Minas Morgul if its undefended. Even if you aren't going the full military route this strategy allows you to take 2VPs early on and will cause your opponent to squirm as they have to use at least 2+ dice to take back their lost stronghold.
Now if you want some general tips for the FP. You should figure out what 10 points your opponent is going for and fortify them. The most common places that your opponent will go for are the Gondor territories (5VP), Helms Deep (2VP), and Dale-Erebor-Woodland Realm or DEW for short (5VP). They may even attack Lorien (2VP). Always keep in mind they need 10 to win.
Also when moving the fellowship move once per turn and more if possible and let Gandalf die, let him die as soon as possible so you can get Gandalf the White as soon as SP musters Saruman. If possible break Strider off of the fellowship to muster Aragorn early on too. Those 2 extra dice are so precious and necessary to making your victory so much smoother.
Thanks for the tips!
Gandalf dieing asap is kinda counter intuitive. With his guide ability you can stack up on cards until you get the ents or dunharrow. Then kill him and resurrect him when a WoW dice is rolled.
@S R. Not played LoME yet, is it worth it?
@@godnkls Lords of Middle earth is good. Would recommend!
@@godnkls If I needed to decide between both expansions, I would choose LoME over WoME gameplay-wise, even though WoME of course has nice miniatures. WoME can potentially end up making the military route more tedious for either side. But still, I like to play with both expansions.
It’s interesting because I actually only won the game as FP through military every time I played this game. I have never done a ring victory and I usually win the game as either shadow or FP. Moria is pretty easy to take if SP moves too much military off the board. Then another 2 can come from either the 2 cities or the southern stronghold umbar. I actually have a hard time with the ring once the fellowship gets to Mordor because of the crazy amount of corruption that can be taken.
My experience has definitely been the opposite of yours, but hey, different strokes for different folks. In my opinion, the first time you play a game, you're really just learning the systems. I'll obviously try to win, but especially with a game this big, I think understanding the game so you can make better decisions next time is more important.
@@RTFM i think most people would agree with you. It may just also be that the SP left their regions too undefended in my games. It definitely is harder for FP because their event cards don't typically line up with seiging. There is just a balance of not being afraid to exploit a SP weakness but also playing to your strengths. Thats part of the dept of the game and adapting to your opponents strategies. Thanks for the video though! Great overall tips!
I think Moria is easy to take if you play with the Elves. But Isengard can be taken more easily because of the cards March of the Ents. Maybe that is why in the expansions, these two regions get a lot of help with the wild man for Isengard and the Balrog. Still, I think these two places are the best option to get a military victory.
Always have mithril and sting and/or wizards staff on the board. Works wonders on the Mordor track!
If the shadow ever leaves a spot open, I go for it just to mess them up. They usually let me have one, but sometimes they go to take it back out of spite. A great delaying tactic.
Wow I really thought your channel was 300k - 1mil subs. You’re definitely going to be up there when board gaming gets as popular as it should be. I love the passion and the clarity you bring to the table. Keep it up man
Haha, that would be nice. The biggest board game channel out there has barely cracked 300k. But yeah, the more people start playing board games, the better we all do. Thanks for the support!
My first full game I played , I waited for like turn 15+ and then quickly rushed into Mordor from morranan , to dolgol dúr and minas morgul.
Great video! I love this game and have had it for a long time but hadn't played in almost 2 years because I didn't have anyone to commit a day to do it with... but yesterday played with a friend who really loved it and wants to play again soon
Thanks! It's a great game, but I agree it can be a difficult sell at times. I need to get it back to the table myself, now that I think about it.
Persist! I'm super slow and AP-prone myself, but on all three games I've played so far I've managed to play in under 5 hours (one of them actually was only 3), so perfectly doable in an afternoon. I'm sure you can improve my record (again, AP-champion here speaking).
Be sure to try and follow the books and movies as closely as possible. If I remember correctly, the Free Peoples destroyed the ring following that strategy :)
lol, I mean...you're not wrong.
Hey @@RTFM ! Thanks for doing these videos :) I played War of the Ring with my SO last night as the Shadow. I tried to implement your strategies from your evil strategy video while she took your advice from this one. It was a very enjoyable, close, and meta game haha. I got 8 points and was sieging Erebor when she destroyed the ring though :p
@@alannash2778 Ooh, close game! Glad you liked it!
@@RTFM Not that close. My son and I play every weekend and in last weekend's game it came down to a single hunt tile draw. Frodo and Sam were at the top of the Mordor Track and on a corruption of 9 and it was the last dice of the round. There were 10 hunt tiles left in the bag; 6 would give the FP a win and 4 would give the Shadow victory.
Awesome game and awesome videos, I'm recommending them left and right! Thanks a bunch!
Thank you so much!
I’ve watched your rules video for this a few times and now I’m wondering if I missed something… So, you can only fit 5 units inside a stronghold while it’s being sieged?
That is correct, though leaders and characters don't count towards that limit.
I only played 2 times so far and both times againts frist time players. I won both times with a military victory as the free peoples. They mustard big armies than left their strongholds for me to just walk in. Of course I had to pose threat in several areas to pull their attention away from those strongholds. Bit worked twice so far
Why is this channel so low in subs. Your content is amazing and thoughtful.
I just built up and charged the dwarfs to mount doom then teleported my Gondor army with a card to Mina’s Tirith and slaughtered the strongholds at mount doom
And will you still be doing a teach of the expansions for War of the Ring at some point?
Yes. I was going to wait until the Kings expansion came out, but since there's no word on when that is, I'll be getting it out some time in the next few months.
are you gonna make a how to play video for the root underworld expansion?
Possibly in the future, but for now I don't usually revisit games I've taught in the past. That's a Patreon goal, but we aren't quite there yet.
This game looks so cool. Plus I love LotR. But I don’t think I’ll ever have the chance play this.
I've been hearing a lot about WotR Discord servers where people play online. Might be a good place to give it a try if you're interested. It is certainly a commitment though.
I have so far won only military victories as free people because new shadow players tend to leave strongholds open.
I don't know why you say it's so hard to play as the FP. Winning a military victory as SP is hard to do quickly enough that the game isn't already decided at Mt Doom. At least, for an inexperienced player like me. Sure, winning as SP by corruption is doable. But, I have yet to play SP and actually win militarily. I have infinite armies, but the ring is always corrupted or dunked before I have a chance to capture enough places.
To each their own, though my main point is that it's more difficult for the FP to win through military than via the ring, which you seem to agree with.
@@RTFM yea. I think I have played 8 games and had no military victories. All rings. But, I am getting closer. Also, the games are played solo, which prevents some aspects of play.
@@halloweenengineer6283 Yeah, the SP has some really devilish traps that are best used as a surprise.
#3: kill your friends
God I love this game.
These are top five tactics for one strategy, not five different strategies.
Do u use expansions?
I have the expansions, but I haven't tried them yet. Hoping to get to them soon.
Can't you inflict damage as a defender during a stronghold siege?
Yes. Each battle round acts as normal for the defender. In the example I was just focusing on the differences for the attacking player.
the concept of giving away Gandalf as soon as possible is hilarious, instead of a heroic sacrifice it looks as if the guy is just eagerly looking forward to just throw himself in front of an arrow that... wasn't gonna hit Frodo at all.
Haha yeah, it's a little goofy. Especially when you've got Gandalf and you pull the 3 chip, you're like "yessssssssss, go away!"
you know good games
Thanks!
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