War of the Ring

Components

The rulebook is written for the standard 2-player game; 3 or 4 players instead split each side between two teammates under the team rules (see Editions and Variants).

Setup

1. 1Place the Ring-bearers (Frodo and Sam) figure on its starting space, Rivendell. Put the Fellowship Progress counter and the Corruption counter both on step '0' of the track, Hidden side up.
2. 2Stack all 7 Companion cards into the Guide box with Gandalf the Grey on top as the starting Guide. Set aside Gandalf the White, Aragorn — Heir to Isildur, and Gollum.
3. 3Place the 3 Elven Ring counters in the Free Peoples' Elven Rings box, Ring side up.
4. 4Set aside the Saruman, Witch-king, and Mouth of Sauron Minion cards and figures. They enter play only once their conditions are met.
5. 5Separate and shuffle each side's Event cards into Character and Strategy decks.
6. 6Fill the Hunt Pool with only the standard tiles; set the special tiles aside.
7. 7Give the Free Peoples player 4 blue Action dice and the Shadow player 7 red Action dice.
8. 8Set up the Political Track — the Elves and all 5 Shadow Nations start Active; the other 4 Free Peoples Nations (Rohan, Gondor, the North, and the Dwarves) start Passive.
9. 9Following the Army Setup diagram in the rulebook appendix, place each Nation's starting troops (Regular and Elite units, Leaders) in its starting settlements. Leftover figures become reinforcements beside the board.

The Game Turn — 6 Phases

1. 1In Phase 1, both players recover all Action dice used last turn (plus any gained or minus any lost), then each draws 1 Event card from each of their decks.
2. 2In Phase 2, the Free Peoples player may declare the Fellowship's position; declaring it in a Free Peoples settlement activates that Nation and may heal the Ring-bearers. The Guide may also be changed here.
3. 3In Phase 3, the Shadow player places a number of dice into the Hunt Box up to the number of Companions remaining in the Fellowship — at least 1 if the Fellowship moved last turn.
4. 4In Phase 4, every die not already in the Hunt Box is rolled. Any Shadow die showing an Eye is moved to the Hunt Box immediately.
5. 5In Phase 5, starting with the Free Peoples, players alternate picking one die and taking the matching action. A player with fewer dice left may pass, letting the opponent act again.
6. 6In Phase 6, check whether either Military Victory condition has been met. If not, a new turn begins at Phase 1.

The 6 Action Die Results and the Elven Rings

Action dice are separate from Combat dice. The result rolled decides what kind of action you may take that turn, and players alternate picking one die at a time to act.

The Fellowship, the Hunt, and Corruption

The Free Peoples player advances the Fellowship Progress counter one step with a Character die. Its true location stays secret until the Free Peoples player declares it, or a successful Hunt reveals it.

1. 1Every time the Fellowship moves, the Shadow player makes a Hunt roll. The number of dice rolled (the Hunt Level) equals the Shadow dice in the Hunt Box, up to 5.
2. 2If the Fellowship moves a second time in the same turn, the Free Peoples die used for that move also goes into the Hunt Box, adding +1 to every later Hunt roll this turn.
3. 3A single 6 makes the Hunt successful. If Shadow Armies, Nazgûl, or a Stronghold share the Fellowship's region, the Shadow player may re-roll one failed die for each such condition.
4. 4On success, draw a tile from the Hunt Pool. A numbered tile deals that much Hunt damage; an Eye tile deals damage equal to the number of successes rolled; a Reveal icon reveals the Fellowship.
5. 5The Free Peoples player first reduces the damage with cards or the Guide's ability, then may absorb the rest by losing one Companion (canceling damage up to that Companion's Level), and any remainder becomes Corruption on the Ring-bearers.

Battles and Sieges

1. 1An Army or Character die lets you attack an enemy Army in an adjacent region. A Nation that is not yet At War cannot attack first.
2. 2Roll Combat dice equal to the Army's Combat Strength (its unit count, up to 5); a 5 or 6 is a hit. Leadership (the sum of Leader and Character Leadership ratings, up to 5) lets you re-roll that many failed dice once.
3. 3After both the Combat roll and the Leader re-roll, remove casualties. Each hit removes 1 Regular unit or downgrades 1 Elite unit to a Regular of the same Nation; every 2 hits may instead remove 1 Elite unit outright.
4. 4At the end of each round, the attacker may cease the attack; if the attack continues, the defender may choose to retreat. Otherwise another round is fought.

The Political Track and Nation Activation

Every Nation starts Passive on the Political Track and advances automatically when its Army is attacked, one of its settlements is captured, or the Fellowship is declared in one of its settlements — or a Muster die is used for a diplomatic action. Reaching the last step makes that Nation 'At War.'

4 Ways to Win

Capturing an enemy City is worth 1 Victory Point, a Stronghold 2. Both Ring-based conditions end the game the instant they occur, without waiting for the Phase 6 check. If more than one condition is met on the same turn, the lower-numbered condition takes precedence.

Strategy Tips

• The Free Peoples rarely out-fight the Shadow militarily. Holding Strongholds to buy time while pushing the Fellowship toward Mordor is the intended path to victory.
• Moving the Fellowship more than once in a turn stacks a +1 Hunt bonus for each extra move. Unless you are in a hurry, one step per turn is often the safer pace.
• The more dice the Shadow commits to the Hunt Box, the stronger the Hunt gets — but fewer dice remain for military actions. Balancing the Hunt against the war is a choice made every turn.
• Leaving a Free Peoples Nation un-activated means it can neither recruit nor ever reach At War. Declaring the Fellowship in that Nation's own settlement lets you choose the activation timing deliberately.
• Elven Rings are a scarce resource. Saving them for a decisive turn — a crucial muster, or just before a critical battle — is usually worth more than spending them early.

Editions and Variants

Rules People Get Wrong

History and Editions

According to English Wikipedia, the game has drawn over 10,000 ratings on BoardGameGeek and sits among the highest-rated heavy war games on the site. The BGG page itself blocks automated access, so this guide could not re-verify it directly; the player count, age, and difficulty figures shown elsewhere on this page are carried over from the existing catalog entry.