Board Game The Lord of the Rings - Duel for Middle-earth

The hobbit Frodo, accompanied by his faithful friend Sam, carries a heavy burden — The One Ring. The Brotherhood hopes that he will have the strength to destroy him, but this mission – not the only thing that will determine the fate of Middle-earth. Alliances are made in the throne rooms, and on the battlefields, brave warriors give their lives for the better future of their peoples.

This is a fantasy card game for 2 players that immerses you in the confrontation between the Fellowship of the Ring and the Dark Lord of Mordor.

HOW TO PLAY?

Over the course of 3 chapters, the Fellowship of the Ring and Sauron build new cards and region tiles to spread their influence.

There are 3 ways to win:

1. The player completes the Ring Campaign. The Brotherhood wins when Frodo and Sam reach the volcano where they destroy the One Ring. Sauron wins when the Nazgul overtake these brave hobbits.
2. The player receives the support of 6 peoples of Middle-earth, i.e. collects 6 different symbols on green cards.
3. The player dominates Middle-earth, i.e. is present in all 7 regions with fortresses or warriors.

If none of these conditions have been met by the end of the third chapter, the player who is present in the most regions wins.

So where does this exciting adventure begin?

Sauron goes first, then during the game players take turns taking turns. At the beginning of each section, cards are laid out according to a certain scheme – partly Gorylyts, partly Dolilyts. Also, at the beginning of the chapter, random region tiles are opened, so that there are 3 of them.

On his turn, a player can:

• Take an available (that is, not covered by other cards) card of the section. Play it or sell it for coins. The raffle can be free or cost certain skills or coins. The amount of coins a player receives for selling a card depends on the current chapter.
• Take a region tile after paying its cost. Set up your fortress in the corresponding region and receive the benefits of the region. The more tiles you build, the more expensive they become.

Cards – the heart of Duel for Middle-earth, they reveal different strategies to defeat the enemy.

Grey cards with skills make your heroes ready to overcome various obstacles. Money, in turn, is the most universal resource – in any call situation, a coin can replace the necessary skills. You can get gold not only for selling cards, but also for drawing yellow cards.

Blue cards allow you to progress along the Ring Trek track. Navigating this track differs depending on which side you play for. Frodo and Sam start the game in the middle of this track, and the Nazgûl – in the far left division. The catch is that every time the hobbits advance, the Nazgul move with them! On the contrary, this, of course, does not work. Hobbits need to be very fast, so as not to be overtaken by Sauron`s creepy servants.

Draw of green cards – this is the way of concluding diplomatic alliances. Having received 2 identical symbols, the player takes 2 tokens of this nation and chooses one of them. A set of 3 different tokens allows you to take the top 3 tokens of the respective nations once per game and choose one of them.

Red cards allow you to place soldiers in regions, and purple cards – move them If during these actions soldiers find themselves in a region where enemy soldiers are present – a conflict begins. During a battle, players remove one of their warriors from the region at a time until at most one player remains in the region.

This is an atmospheric replayable game that encourages you to watch out for your opponent`s intentions and disrupt their plans.