The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth Review: The One Ring for Two

[@bushibayushi]

It's way better than base 7 Wonders: Duel. The tension in this one is OUTSTANDING.

[@chrisarney8265]

I didn't know that 7W:D needed improvement, but this pulls it off. It's fantastic. 10/10.

[@jartree]

The earliest win I have seen so far was right at the beginning of the third era. I had the dwarven powers that made landmarks have no gold cost and let me take another turn after buying a landmark, which is a crazy powerful combo. I bought all the landmarks right at the beginning of the third age and won on the board before even taking a third age card.

[@Noel_Maymes]

Played it twice at Essen. It’s the only game I really wanted to go back in the waiting line for. I might get hate for this, but 7W: Duel is a game that kind of left me indifferent. I like LOTR but not enough to make me jump on every LOTR game ( don’t care for war of the ring, or any other LOTR game). But here? I feel like the theme and the original game complement each other PERFECTLY. The game is snappy, the tension is great. Every single card your opponent takes matters to you. I know that in Duel, there were many moments where I didn’t really care what my opponent grabbed unless it was the card I wanted to pick. In LOTR: Duel every victory condition is a real threat at any moment. Amazing and very well paced game. My favourite game of Essen with Station to Station.

[@tomlikeabomb6706]

How does it compare to duel + pantheon?

[@Mark-jagger]

Fantastic game. It’s absolutely stellar. I love 7 Wonders Duel but this improves on it. Nail biting tension. Usually come down to the wire. My 21 year old son will actually play with me, and usually win, and that’s saying a lot. Highly highly recommended.

[@otokbarleyfoot]

Good review - the green tokens sound pretty similar to the original, but the other win conditions have changes, sounds cool

[@TheBrokenMeeple]

Its a solid game, but 7WD didnt need any improvment. That game with Pantheon was top tier, even base game is just a silky smooth experience. This game is perfectly good ,but its the same game with a couple tweaks and a pasted theme and honestly i prefer straight up points to the area control system. The science tiles also seem a bit more swingy in power level , some effects can be pretty impactful. Pick and choose your art style basically really.

[@KkKk-xh8em]

This just reminded me how I miss LOTR : The confrontation.

[@peltspencer32]

Legit fixes the economy and the tug of war combat from 7 wonders duel. Almost perfect sequel game

[@dansioui9819]

This game is incredible. The wife and I both love it!

[@GleasonE]

Lol both of our plays - one of us won in the 2nd chapter. We have not even set up the third chapter… but we might not have the skills you gents have!

[@johnbrown6230]

Played it this morning and loved it!

[@GamesOffTheShelf]

Is this available at retail already?

[@DiegoDeschain]

It's about to come out here in Brazil, but I don't know if it's a world launch, or if it's already out in the States or other places.

[@branboom3342]

Yes

[@mikintosh6111]

Quest for the ring track is so good.

[@GleasonE]

My husband and I like games, have a decent collection, but never been to a convention, have toddlers and not enough bandwidth to play much, and are on a budget. But when this was announced and preorders available, my husband was like “you preordered it right?” Legit excitement from both of us when it arrived. We opened it and looked at everything, the rules… and decided that I’d better run to the FLGS to sleeve it before first play. My husband put on the LoTR soundtrack and we had so much fun Friday night, both exhausted from the week. We have 7WD, not sure how much it will ever get played again, take a great game, give it a fun epic theme in a quick weeknight game? 10/10. Go ahead and flex, game designers and artist and company. Put your names all over the box. Yall game us some epic fun in 30 min. Make it 60 min because one play won’t ever be enough.

[@jameskirk4692]

Thanks for the video

[@TheRASDEL83]

I really want to like this one... I love LOTR, Cathala and Dutrait, but it just feels a little underwhelming. I cannot pinpoint what it is, maybe the hype played against me :( I feel it is an expasion away to be an amazing game. I kind of would like for the map to be area majority instead. I get that would require more meeples, but the map is so important and the tie breaker that I believe it needs to have more presence.

[@MrTravolta7]

If this game was worse than 7 Wonders Duel it would be very awkward. Is like: Standing on the shoulders of giants…. and still be worse 😅

[@ethanarlt250]

I love this game!

[@Rubberglass]

“ I’ll never play 7 Wonders Duel again.” 😮

[@1235q]

I'm not sure if the game having more tension than 7 Wonders Duel is a good thing, doesn't it make the game more stressful?

[@Noel_Maymes]

That depends. A game that lasts anywhere between 15-30min is fine if tension is high for that entire duration. If the game would take 1h, I could see this getting exhausting. The tension imo is really great, you care about any progress your opponent makes, whether it’s the race, progressing board presence or even getting more alliances going. Same goes for your own moves. You don’t have a turn where you grab a card and think “man what a bad/useless turn”. Everything you grab feels like you’re making progress. It’s great! But that is my opinion. I’m sure you’ll get a chance to play someone’s copy and try it once before making a decision.