Ares Games Add The Battle Of Five Armies To War Of The Ring Line
June 23, 2014 by brennon
With the final part of The Hobbit trilogy coming out later this year the folks at Ares Games have wet our whistles with a look at their The Battle of Five Armies two player game which tells the tale of this mighty battle on the slopes of the Lonely Mountain. See what you think...
Much like with the original War of the Ring game you'll be taking up either the side of good or evil and hopefully winning the day while a progress tracker looks to chart the coming of your allies to the tabletop. It's like a wargame and a board game in one!
"The Shadow player commands the armies of Bolg, son of Azog, the King of the Goblins of Mount Gundabad, while the Free Peoples player is in control of Men, Dwarves and Elves, led by Gandalf to fend off the goblin army.
Based on the acclaimed mechanics first used in the War of the Ring boardgame, The Battle of Five Armies merges action dice and event cards, to make each game a unique experience. The system has been further enhanced by the addition of the “Fate Track” mechanic, handling the arrival of the allies and the triggering of special events. All the key characters in the battle – Bilbo, Gandalf, Thorin, Dain, the Elven King, Bard, Beorn, Bolg – are featured with powerful special abilities and unique sculptures."
You're going to be getting 125 plastic figures in the game and I don't doubt some people are going to paint these up utterly brilliantly and have amazing sets to use. Of course this is a two player game but there's no reason you can't have two teams of two playing against each other. That's what we did in the original War of the Ring game!
I can't wait for this and would love to pick it up!
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Looking forward to this one. War of The Ring is one of the best Area Control (Risk Style) games ever made.
Glad it bases on the book license and features John Howes art. No Orlando bloom for you baby.
My only issue with these guys is they don’t seem to be able to produce enough copies of their game. I have gone to buy the War of the Ring about three times now and every time I do it is unavailable at any reasonable price, it just goes out of stock and I assume they do their print runs too small or something. I hope to one day purchase the game … the Battle of Five Armies I’m sure will be the same issue … 🙁
That’s quick they only decided the name of the last hobbit film to be battle of the five armies a few weeks ago.
This game is in the making for quite some time now. I ve known about it for almost 2 years and gladly it has nothing to do with PJs crappy movies but the title.
The Battle of the Five Armies is what Tolkien called the battle
So it was a bit of an easy choice for both game and film being the big set piece in the book.
I was amazed that wasn’t the title from the very start- I’d just kind of always assumed it was, given what’s left to cover from the book (assuming- and hoping- they stick closely to the book).
Should be very good war of the ring is a fantastic game. Will have to add to my wish list.