I finally succumbed to the hype and picked up Fate of the Fellowship from Z-Man games. As a youth I loved Lord of the Rings but as this game uses the Pandemic system I was a bit leery of it at first (I have Pandemic Rome and found it to be a not really my cup of tea). However, the board drew me in and as the game was on special at our FLG's Boxing Day sale, I decided to get it.
I do have War of the Ring, but it is such an investment in time that I have never properly played it. I didn't want that to happen with this game, so set it up immediately rather than put it on the shelf for another day.
Here are the notes on my initial run-through:
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| Look at that board! Beautiful. |
Turn one: Legolas uses his special power to generate a stealth token. He moves to Lorien.
Sam and Frodo sit tight at the Shire in Eriador. With two black riders and the eye of Sauron in the region it is dangerous to move.
The Shadow troops move; there is a battle at Palargir, but the forces from Umbar are defeated. There are orcs at the Fords of Isen. The Nazgul search for the ring, and one hope is lost.
Turn two: Gandalf moves into Dunland to claim a friendship token, then travels to the Shire.
Frodo and the Sam move with Merry and Pippen and Gandalf to Bree, using a stealth token to avoid a search by the black riders.
The danger intensifies - the company loses two more hope, and the enemy musters in Southern Mirkwood.
Nurn is reinforced and two more of the Nazgul move into Eriador. Wheels of Saruman is drawn, and the company loses two cards from its hand.
Turn three: Eowyn moves to Helm's Deep to meet the threat from the Fords of Isen, calling up three companies of Rohirrim to her aid.
The Shadow musters troops in all its strongholds, and orcs threaten the elves in the Woodland Realm.
Turn four: Merry and Pippen decide it is time to move - to the Weather Downs. Sam, Frodo and Gandalf accompany them. Three search dice come up to endanger the fellowship; one is ignored by playing a friendship token, but the two others reduce the hope track further. One Nazgul is recalled to Mordor. Frodo is now down to one hope. Another friendship token is used to remove two further Nazgul to Mordor, leaving one in Eriador.
An event card is played, placing ents in Fangorn. The forces of the Shadow attack the Woodland Realm, but it holds. Orcs attack Minas Tirith; it beats off the enemy but suffers grevious losses.
Legolas collects stealth and resistance tokens then leads the ents to attack Isenguard. He defeats the orcs there but is unable to convert Orthanc to a friendly haven because he does not have the necessary tokens.
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| Eowyn at Helm's Deep; Legolas and the ents at Isenguard. Orcs at the Fords of Isen. |
Frodo, Sam, Pippen, Merry and Gandalf move into Rivendall using a stealth token to avoid a search by the black riders.
The Shadow cards are drawn - orcs attack the weakened defences of Minas Tirith, and it falls. All hope is lost, and the game is over.
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| Minas Tirith has fallen. |
This brief summary represents about three hours of actual playing time, including set up, rules referencing, etc.
First impressions are what a lovely board, and what an interesting set of game mechanisms. It seemem very hard to get much done: you need tokens (resources) to perform certain actions, and I just did not have enough of them. Checking boardgamegeek I realised that I had been playing the resources slightly wrong: you can also use cards as resources, not just the tokens.
Time to set it up again!
The game has oodles of scenarios and customisable features, while also being scaleable from one to five players. It nails the Lord of the Rings atmosphere as well. It could turn out to be one of the buys of the year for me.
