War of the Ring update

 So we finished the first War of the Ring game session (previous post).  Like all boardgames, when the box or Boardgamegeek suggest the game takes 2 hours to play, you can always add a few more on top and we finished our session over a couple of evenings.  To be fair the first evening was slow, partly due to setting it up, and then our fumbling through the first few turns.  Subsequent rounds were much faster 

What I've really enjoyed about this game has been the way it plays out as a story.  The blank canvas of strategy was a bit daunting but we both felt that when we  replay it we'd have a better idea of possible options.

So what happened?  Well, I'd been over-cautious moving the Fellowship so they had a lot of ground to make up but were still relatively uncorrupted by Sauron and most of the Fellowship was intact.  I pushed them on towards Mordor (largely following the 'official' route in the books).  Gandalf had reappeared as Gandalf the White and led a relief force from Dol Amroth to save the Rohan army at Helm's Deep where he was joined by Aragorn. Sauron's armies, led by the Witch King, lost badly trying to besiege Helm's Deep and were destroyed when the Rohirrim sortied out from the fortress (again very in keeping with the books).  They went on to capture Orthanc and bump off Saruman.  Unfortunately Sauron's armies were stomping all over Middle Earth... most of Gondor was occupied, Erebor was captured and the Dwarves largely destroyed, the Elves were beseiged and Sauron was close to a military victory.  

Frodo & Sam on the last steps to Mount Doom...

My best hope was to hole up in my remaining fortresses and push on with the Fellowship.  They slipped into Mordor via Minas Morgul... once the Fellowship reaches this endgame, its a lot tougher as the Corruption begins to stack up (they're tramping through the Dark Lord's home turf!) and so all of the Fellowship were sacrificed one by one, to stave off the corruption which was now coming in thick and fast.  With 2 steps to go to reach Mount Doom, Frodo succumbed to temptation and gave up the ring... appropriately it was Gollum's card that tipped the scales!

A great game and  definitely one that offers lots of replayability!