Hey guys, just ordered this game and I am wondering how does the game plays with 4 guys? One with Sauron, One with the fellowship, and the other two on the Free People?
4 Player Game
According to the rules, in a four player game one person plays Orthanc and the Easterlings and Haradrim, the second plays Sauron, a third plays Gondor and the Elves, with the last playing Rohan, the Dwarves, and the North.
It is all right as a four player, although a 2 player is better.
As to your idea, I don't think that having one person playing the fellowship would be a very good idea because the fellowship doesn't really do much. I mean, it is very important to the game, but none of its actions really take much time, so the Fellowship player would be doing nothing while the other 3 are taking their turns.
Joram said:
According to the rules, in a four player game one person plays Orthanc and the Easterlings and Haradrim, the second plays Sauron, a third plays Gondor and the Elves, with the last playing Rohan, the Dwarves, and the North.
It is all right as a four player, although a 2 player is better.
As to your idea, I don't think that having one person playing the fellowship would be a very good idea because the fellowship doesn't really do much. I mean, it is very important to the game, but none of its actions really take much time, so the Fellowship player would be doing nothing while the other 3 are taking their turns.
Hmmm so how does that flows on the gameplay? will be 1vs1vs1vs1 or 2vs2? I'm curious about it till I can actually play it and find it for myself
It would be a 2 vs 2.
Each turn in a 2 player game, after some preliminary stuff, each side rolls a certain number of "action dice". They then alternate turns; on each turn, you choose one of your action dice and use it to do one of the actions it allows.
In a 4 player game, it works the same, except that the 2 players on a team alternate taking turns. So it would go Free-Peoples player #1, Shadow player #1, Free-Peoples player #2, Shadow player #2, and so on.
When the dice are all used, that round ends.
I hope you enjoy the game. As you can see, it makes 3rd out of 13 FFG titles I've played.
I have a slight counterpoint on this...
While the true nature of War of the Ring is certainly a 2-player game, this game works very well with 4 (and 3) players.
In the 4 (or 3) player game, you end up seeing some different strategies due to the fact that the extra players MUST play (i.e. move, recruit, attack with) some of the nations that do not see much action in a 2-player game.
For instance, the units of the North and the units of the Dwarves see very little action in the 2 player game, since the battles appropriately surround the VP-rich areas in Gondor and Rohan, and then in the Elven areas (Lorien). Once another player who is sharing control of the Free Peoples is involved, that player is forced to utilize the under-utilized North and Dwarves, and battles and strategies emerge in those regions.
So, I agree that while the game is "best" with 2, it is still excellent with 4 (or 3) players.
BTW and FWIW, this is my #1 favorite game... it is a "10"... maybe an "11"...
Oh, and for the original poster, all the rules for playing with 3 and 4 players are shown in the rulebook, which is on page 22 at this link:
http://new.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/War%20of%20the%20Ring/warofthering.pdf
Enjoy this GREAT GAME!!
Well, I played a 2 player game where the dwarves of Erabor stormed the Black Gate, and fought their way into Mordor. So they see use even in some 2 players.
However, your point about different strategies is well taken. I consider this an excellent game with any number of playerers.
The game has two threads running through it. On one hand the Fellowship is moving towards Mordor and is difficult to catch and stop (near impossible if they move slowly enough). On the other hand Sauron's military juggernaut is rolling over the free people nations and dominating Middle Earth. The difficulty for the Good player is moving the Fellowship slowly enough that they don't get caught, but fast enough that they destroy the Ring before Sauron conquers the world. The difficulty for the Evil player is devoting enough resources to the Hunt so that the Fellowship has to move slow, but not so many that the war effort flounders.
The reason I mention this is that the Fellowship isn't much of a player, it's more a timer that the Good player can move slowly if the war is going well or push if the war is going badly. The real action is in managing the war.
If you want to break up the good and evil sides to accomodate more players you can do it pretty easily (there are some rules for it as well), but it would be on the level of nations (i.e. I run the Dwarves and Gondor, you run the Elves and Rohan) rather than the war vs. the Fellowship.
Joram said:
Well, I played a 2 player game where the dwarves of Erabor stormed the Black Gate, and fought their way into Mordor. So they see use even in some 2 players.
The Dwarves also become very important if the Shadow player goes for the "DEW line", the clump of 5 VP's adjacent to each other that make up Dale, Erebor, and the Woodland Realm. Good doesn't start with much to hold it and a quick push from the Easterlings and Dol Godur can frequently take the full line (or at leat 3VP worth of it).