Wheee....got this in the mail today.  


** expired/removed eBay auction **


Been wanting one of these for a while now.  With most of them going for $100 or more over the past couple of years I didnt ever think I would snag one.  

Any good as a game? Questionable - there are serious play balance issues with the Campagin game rules as written (especially in the three player game including Saruman) and like many SPI games of the era it takes altogether too long. The short game played with just the character chits and cards is not worth playing - the Dark Lord has a very dull time without huge armies to move and it boils down to a single dice roll or two.

Good as a Tolkien related collectable? Yes possibly - the map is lovely for a hex-grid map and the art work on the character cards is good. In some ways it was a design ahead of it's time as CDG (card driven games) are all the rage now and this was an early pointer in that direction.

There are two versions of the box art  - the earlier one is more collectable but then a shrink wrapped copy of the later boxed edition (Bakshi cover) just sold recently for $304.90 on eBay!  

See Boardgamegeek http://69.13.44.3/game/2228 for more good info.

To pick up a complete copy for $69 is a very good deal - many have a character card or two missing as you will see from the number of BGG's advertising for missing parts to complete.

There were two related SPI games - Gondor (an interesting Seige game that I own) and Sauron (the last Battle before the Black Gates) which were sold with The War of the Ring as a boxed set too. A friend has that edition on which I base most of the above comments - it still comes out once every 5 years or so when the mood takes him...

I think you'll find that the later FFG release The War of the Ring http://69.13.44.3/game/9609 is a completely different game - not a rerelease. As far as I am aware the SPI game was never rereleased.

At the BGG entry for the SPI game I originally listed if you scroll down to the Files list you will find a number of homebrew fixes - including a Fog of War variant that originally appeared in Moves #44, an Army Game varient and a copy of the Second Edition rulebook (which your copy already is - but the earlier green-box SPI edition predated).

I cannot vouch for either of the variants - although rubbish articles rarely leaked into Moves .

The Army Game suffered as I recall from lack of playtesting - that is playtesting by players trying to break the game rather than tamely follow/recreate the book! For instance if Sauron simply surrounded Mt Doom with stacks of units deep enough and high enough to cause the ringbearer (whenever he appeared) to have to roll a max repeatedly to pass through - well he would have a dull game and probably couldn't win a military victory with what he had left but probably couldn't lose either. If the ringbearer was stupid enough to push through for a win they would probably lose too - so a standoff developed.  

In the three player game Saruman could not move any forces until activated - and this happened so late if he just sat back that he could not win. But my mate spotted that the rules stated that he just could not move any military units - he could move the leader Saruman counter himself. So the tactic developed of rushing him off on move 1 to The Shire to try to frustrate the Fellowship player into attacking him for early activation. All rather silly really...  

My BGG handle is the same as here - if you want to get Gondor too drop us a line if you cannot source in the US and I would be happy to sell or trade you mine. BGG market place suggests somewhere between $55 and $75 - but should you be interested PM me a reasonable offer.

Aside - Hey I've just noticed it's my first anniversary on these forums. I only came along for some advice on how to unload all my original D&D stuff but I have been doing that at such a glacial place that I've sort of got hooked here. Keeping up to date on auctions and valuations etc I've discovered I've stumbled across a fine bunch of lads! Thanks for all the amusement and education!

That buy was a steal. The white box set usually caps out around $100. The flat box - no expansions is usually more, and the combo set runs around $125. The expansions do come up, but run around $35 to $70, depending on the day.

One of the guys had the game and we played it several times - flatbox with no expansions. It was fun, but took forever.

I had a very nice combo box that I sold a while back in the $150.00 range.

Wish I had it back


At one point I had about 25 - 30 of the SPI boxed war games and such.  I let them all go in a fit of insanity (and lack of cash).  At the time they were very hot and I got great cash for them.

Jeff

War of the Ring Gondor Sauron SPI 1977 | eBay


This is the game w/expansions I was speaking of. I probably was not clear enough.

Absolutely correct. And Gondor and Sauron could be purchased separately too - as nicely boxed items.

So what is this:


** expired/removed eBay auction **


Tabletop Games: Fantasy War Game Rules: Reaper with Attack of the Fungoid Trolls Module

It is not on Afterglow and not on Boardgamegeek. The miniature wargames seems to fall through the cracks. Are there any sites that list them?

This is a pretty sweet deal on early Warhammer box sets:

Warhammer