War of the Ring- 2p Teaching, Play-through, & Roundtable by Heavy Cardboard

[@organiccardboard]

I got so sucked into this.. for like 5 hours!! Haha! This was definitely one of my favorite playthroughs of anything by anyone. I felt all of the tension in that last 30-45min and it was epic. I would love to see the rematch!

[@Heavycardboard]

Glad you enjoyed it so much!👍🏼

[@mathmethman]

At 1:01:25 you explain that the Elite units can now 'teleport'. That's not how I understood it. It's only the Nazgul who have 'infinite movement'. There's nothing which says all 'Leaders' on the shadow side get that benefit. Thematically the blue and red minis represent armies and the grey minis represent individuals (such as Faramir or Theoden if you want to give them names). The "Servants of the White Hand" ability just means that you can treat each Isengard Elite army as if it had a strong influential individual present as leader - a kind of invisible grey mini. I don't think it allows you to teleport armies. (And I've not watched beyond this point yet to see whether you actually do that.)

[@lelandcheng7390]

At 4:12:28 Kyle did an illegal move with Gandalf moving into Minas Tirith using his character die to move him in (which he used to assist in combat and also hoped to use to discard Denethor's Folly card eventually). According to the rules on Page 24, under "Moving Companions" it explicitly states that Companions "...can never leave or enter a region containing a friendly Stronghold besieged by an enemy Army (except as a result of certain Event card effects).." Since Minas Tirith is under siege, no Companions can enter that region. Thus Denethor's Folly is a pretty tough card to discard. Of note, this restriction does not apply to the Fellowship, which can be a source of confusion. On Page 38 of the rules, it states in red type "NOTE: The Fellowship may enter or leave a besieged stronghold freely." So if Gandalf had still been in the Fellowship box, Kyle could have moved him into Minas Tirith with a "Progress the Fellowship" action and then did a Separate the Fellowship action leaving Gandalf in Minas Tirith as a regular Companion who could then help get rid of "Denethor's Folly." This game is awesome, but has a lot of little fiddly rules like these that are easily missed.

[@insomnious_dev]

This is the one game in my collection that I want to play regularly. I am a fortunate one since I have someone to play it with and every game we push in different ways. The replay value of this game is one of the best. Playing either side has their fair share of difficulties and challenges, I think the asymmetry is tangible in every round not only for the clear distinct objectives and mechanics but for the fact that every unit matters, every card, every region. As the shadow player the army movement is a very solid obstacle that needs to be overcome, the management of elite unit for additional battle round in sieges. As the free people's player any unit in the free people army can and will (most likely) make the difference. The single dwarf mustered in Erebor helped in unexpected ways. The last human in the fall of Gondor that forced the shadow to one more dice and ergo, the delay and breathing room for the fellowship to advance. The luck of drawing the Phial of Galadriel with the -2. This games screams thematic in every round. This was the game that introduced me to this channel and for that I thank Edward and everyone else who made this possible. Looking forward to a rematch.

[@zakaryperrin7126]

This was fantastic! Thank you for doing a full playthrough and explaining everything! Had a blast watching this and I’m ready to play this now!

[@thelyghter7927]

I think this was my favourite stream of all time here on Heavy Cardboard. Looking for the rematch!! :-P

[@stefanyordanov2885]

2:50:00 - when eliminating a member of the fellowship at random, the random choice includes the leader(in this case Strider) as well.

[@prome666]

At 2:50:06 When you take a casuality, you can choose from the guide or guide+companions. So the guide can be elimanated regardless. (p42)

[@Pryde551]

Fun playthrough. A rules clarification. At the start of the battle around 2:13:30, Kyle should not actually move his army from the Woodland Realm into the Old Forest Road. Armies attack adjacent regions and do not move until combat resolution. The attacker "may move units" if the defender loses or retreats, but they do not have to. So after attacking the Shadow forces, Kyle could have opted not to move into the Old Forest Road, when the Shadow forces retreated to Dale. He could have stayed in the Woodland Realm, and the Shadow player would have had to attack into siege instead of just walking into the Woodland Realm. An easy rule to overlook.

[@alessiobilotta4737]

I just played it with my younger brother. We love it, but this video is perfect because now we know what we did wrong during our gameplay. So please keep making more War of the Ring content.

[@AndySabola11]

Wish there was an official digital version of this.

[@jackstewart1534]

playing on tabletop simulator is very good

[@opocean6]

I second this. It's been scripted to automatically do much of the tedious things you'd need to do for you

[@DerRentner818]

very happy about this playthrough❤ my one and only 10/10 game.

[@kirillkrechetnikov1757]

After playing WotR competitively it's very refreshing to see how folks are playing the game with no meta knowledge. It's kind of more fun in a way :) Anyways, happy to see my favourite board game of all time on the best heavy boardgame channel there is!

[@joshdavis3743]

I always thought the designers intended to have more of a grand mustering, and slowing game. My guess is this wasn't play tested very much. Think about the changes that have been made over the editions because the SP has such an advantage when played correctly. I believe the WK used to be able to be mustered before any FP nation was at war, and SP were like it doesn't matter that we activate the free people's nations witch king asap.

[@grandad1982]

@@joshdavis3743 As far as I understand the stats for high level play are nearly 50-50 with a slight bias towards the SP. That's 2ndED of course but doesn't sound that unbalanced to me.

[@joshdavis3743]

@@grandad1982 That was my point, 1st edition was tilted towards SP, and they had to rework it.

[@grandad1982]

@@joshdavis3743 fair

[@lukenolin1105]

Agreed. Great game either way, but I think it’s definitely more fun (and probably closer to the designers intent) when you either don’t know or just choose to ignore the meta.

[@simonn8048]

Tense game with a close ending. By the way, Gandalf could not move into Minas Tirith because it was under siege. So all the leadership negating going on was not valid - Kyle discarded one of the two(I believe) cards which allows moving companions into strongholds under siege. Also you don't need to advance into a region after attacking so Kyle did not have to allow Edward to sneak into Woodland Realm in that manner - I couldn't quite tell if you were aware of that rule.

[@housecaldwell]

This was great and very tense! I'm bringing this to the table next month for my wife and I but man, I am a little concerned about about how long it will take us to get through our first game. Still, I think it will be an epic start to the new year.

[@jonathangmeyer]

It’s an awesome game. You two are going to love it! Learning game will take some time, and you’ll make a few mistakes, but I’ll be surprised if you don’t want to play again the very next day. That’s what happened to my partner and I. Enjoy!

[@snakestaffmagic4499]

That intro was well improvised and said

[@grandad1982]

1.22.25 Nazgul can only be recruited into Sauron Strongholds, see page 26 of the rules.

[@Lannuss]

This is awesome, despite the length I know I am going to watch it again. Rematch would be great.

[@stowcreek1999]

I am soooo glad you did this! Thank you!

[@RC-mm5jb]

Great to watch and this is really helping me understand the rules

[@dalerancourt5693]

After watching you guys playing this, I cant wait for the new WOTR kickstarter version coming from Awaken realms. lol

[@Grimlock1979]

There were a few minor differences between the 1st and 2nd edition: - The board from the 1st edition had a better looking map but the 2nd edition is a better game board. - The 1st edition cards were a lot smaller. - The Nazgul figures were very tall and fell over all the time. - There was a totally different mechanism for dealing with regions that were too small to hold the entire army. They had a bunch of tokens you could use in place of the miniatures. You had to keep those miniatures separate from the casualties and reinforcements. The 2nd edition is much simpler. It just uses the army boxes on the left side of the board.

[@sunder77]

I know this is waaaay late, but for anyone who watches this after I do. When the fellowship was "revealed" in Minis Morgul, Edward should have drawn another hunt tile. The rules for being revealed in a Shadow stronghold do apply even when the ring bearers reach Mordor. (Which they did fix later, just clarifying the rule) kzbin.info_S4OUs0jQSQ?si=3faONiOTwmWklk3C&t=15498

[@TheGlaciologist]

45:06: "what are the odds of not rolling effectively a a number right with seven dice I would say Slim" Really it's 28 %. The bad luck is having the free people getting 3 character dice in the same turn.

[@lukekennedy1001]

Y'all would benefit from brighter light, keep that game board sharp and in focus

[@franceski1682]

where was rohan when minas tirith fell? great thematic game, especially when you take the ending into account.

[@ignacioarellano1834]

2 hours watching, this is useful :)

[@Vegeta-lm6zq]

Super game! A lot of fun. Maybe next game Star Wars Rebellion? I can’t wait 👍🏻

[@corssobv]

I liked this!

[@GamingWithGeo]

I've only ever played this solo, but it still ranks in my top 5 of all time in my collection.

[@generalx90]

How do you play solo?

[@GGdeTOURS37]

We sold this game back! Much too complicated for us. We couldn't understand many rules even after many hours of study and many hours of videos! HELL!

[@Lowecore]

Kyle you must be a super fan. I thought you might have a heart attack several times during the game 😅

[@nin_4_me58]

It really is a great game for Tolkien fans

[@mikesied]

When you sacrifice a random companion, the guide is still at risk

[@fortheorlingas1456]

What is the tea brand you are drinking?

[@Heavycardboard]

Honestly can’t remember for this stream specifically. But my two faves are Smith Teas out of Portland, Oregon (Rose City Genmaicha) & Mem Tea in Cambridge, Massachusetts (which this very likely may have been since Kyle provided it).

[@Lamartine111]

Very silly move by the Free Peoples player to attack out of Woodland Realm and leave it empty. However that combat went the Shadow could still have attacked the empty Woodland Realm from Dale. And you really shouldn't be initiating field battles on equal terms as the FP.

[@ZeIsAnEnemy]

The dude in glasses is talking too much. Ohh such bad dice, ooh I can't read symbols on cards, ohh this, ohh that. Just shut up and do your best :)

[@Heavycardboard]

The dude on the keyboard posts too much….;)