As you might know that War of the Ring is getting an expansion later this year. In this article I will give you a general overview of it.

First of all you should be aware that Battles of the Third Age, as the expansion is called, is really an expansion to the War of the Ring game and a new game in one. As I write this the playtesting of the expansion to the main game has closed some time ago and the testing of the new "operational" game is coming close to its completion.

Let us begin by taking a look at the expansion to the main game:

One of the strengths of War of the Ring is the many painstakingly difficult decisions the players have to make during the course of the game: should I use this card as an event or as a combat effect, should I use this Action die to do this or that? What the designers have done in the expansion is to give the players even more of these difficult decisions to make, but in a new way.

If you have been following the updates on the expansion at www.warofthering.it, www.boardgamegeek.com, www.warofthering.webb.se and at the Fantasy Flight website you are aware of the new Factions brought into the game. The way these work is that they are not "no brainers" to use in every game but options that might prove extremely beneficial in certain circumstances depending on how the game develops and might be a waste of precious Action dice in another. By giving the players more choices but not more resources (Action dice) the experience of playing the War of the Ring will be even more satisfying since there can now be even more ways to reach the goal of saving/enslaving Middle Earth.

Along with the Factions we will also get some new characters: Galadriel, Keeper of Nenya; The Balrog, Evil of the Ancient World and new version of both the Witch-King and Smeagol/Gollum. Just as with the Factions these new characters aren't always going to see action in every game since you can only spare so many resources (Action dice). One of the characters is actually beyond the control of the players as to when and if the character enters play.

In addition to the Factions and new characters there are also two new combat units to use in the game. These are offensive (for the Shadow) and defensive (for the Free Peoples) Siege Engines. These can be built in the defending Strongholds and in the besieging armies and will enhance the siege battles.

Finally there are new event cards, both completely new and new version of some of the old cards that needs to be replaced as you use the new Factions in the game.

Now, with all these new options available to the players, will the game-play alter much you might ask? I am happy to say that I don't think so. The general game play still follows the same flow as before but with added tension at some points, especially in the siege battles, and with even more (enjoyable!) frustration for the player who has so much to do and so few Action dice to do it with.

After this initial look at the expansion to the main game let us get closer to what this new "operational" game is all about:

Many have commented that the Shadow player and the Free Peoples player are playing two different kinds of games in War of the Ring and I tend to agree with that. War of the Ring is more of a wargame if you play the Shadow, and more of an adventure game if you play as the Free Peoples.

With the new "operational" game both players will be playing a wargame, but they are still trying to achieve different goals during the course of the game. As the Shadow player you will try to tear down the defences of the Free Peoples in order to reach your victory conditions. As the Free Peoples player your goal is to (at least at the start) halt the coming of the Shadow in order to allow some great intervention to win you the game. In the Battle for Rohan this is the Ent's assault on Orthanc and in the Battle for Gondor it is the undoing of the One Ring.

So what is in the box to allow us to play these Battles of the Third Age you ask? In addition to the game boards for Rohan and Gondor and the cards needed to play those battles you will find more miniatures of course. There will be Hillmen of Dunland, Half Orcs, Southron cavalry and more.

Written by Kristofer Bengtsson

Stay tuned for future articles where Kristoffer will reveal even more!