The Lord of the Rings:
The Two Towers

War roils between two distant fortresses in Game Workshop's newly expanded strategy game

	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
	Games Workshop
	For two or more players
	MSRP: $40.00, blister packs and expansions sold separately

Review by Kenneth Newquist

he Two Towers strategy game recreates the epic battles of The Lord of the Rings, updating its earlier Fellowship of the Ring edition with new rules for siege weapons, cavalry and fortifications.

Like its predecessor, The Two Towers is a strategy game in which the forces of good and evil, represented by plastic 28mm miniatures, clash on a battlefield the size of a dining-room table. The abilities of each figure are defined by a short list of statistics reflecting their ability to hit a target, the strength of their armor, how strongly they wield their weapons, how much damage they can take and how much courage they have.

Combat is resolved in two ways, depending on whether a unit is shooting a ranged weapon, like a bow, or fighting hand to hand with swords or spears. When shooting a bow, the player rolls a six-sided die and compares the result to the figure's attack value, which ranges between 1 and 6. If it's equal to or higher than the attack value, the figure scores a hit. If it hits, the player then refers to a Wounds chart, comparing the strength of the bow to the toughness of the opponent's armor. If that number—again a value on a scale of 1 to 6—matches the number the player rolled, a wound is scored. In hand-to-hand combat, the process plays out somewhat differently. First figures move into base-to-base contact, and then each of their players rolls a six-sided die. Whoever scores higher wins the fight, and has a chance to score a wound using a process similar to that for ranged weapons.

As in the earlier game, heroes and villains like Gandalf the White, Eomer, Treebeard, Saruman and Grima Wormtongue greatly affect the flow of the game. Each has three statistics that normal mortals do not: Might, which allows them to bump up the results of the die rolls, Fate, which lets them avoid taking wounds, and Will, which both powers and resists magical abilities.

The new siege rules allow players to battle in and around fortifications. The rules are similar to the basic rules, but provide for attacking castle doors with battering rams, scaling walls with ladders, detonating explosive charges against walls and fighting up and down stairs. Reflecting the movie's battles with the Riders of Rohan and warg-mounted orcs, the game introduces expanded mounted combat rules. For the most part, cavalry operate like other figures, but with two important differences. First, when a cavalry unit charges an enemy, the number of attacks it can make is doubled. Second, if it wins a fight, all of its enemies are knocked to the ground by the sheer force of the charge.

The game ships with 32 plastic figures (12 Riders of Rohan and 20 Uruk-Hai), a 160-page rule book, a ruined building and dice. Additional figures are sold separately in blister packs and expansions.

Streamlined play makes for a worthy sequel

The biggest drawback to Games Workshop's earlier offering, The Fellowship of the Ring, was that the rules weren't always self-evident. They required repeated reading, and even then there were squabbles over exactly what a rule meant. That's not the case with The Two Towers, which offers a tweaked rule set that makes sense the first time through.

The two major expansions to the rule set—cavalry and siege battles—complement the game nicely. Cavalry are properly devastating on the battlefield, providing players with a fast, mobile force that's nonetheless balanced against other forces in the game. The siege rules do an adequate job of recreating battles on castle ramparts, but those expecting to be able to fight with thousands of units will be disappointed. While the game has advanced beyond the skirmish level of its earlier edition, it's definitely not up to army-level combat yet.

As with the earlier edition, the miniatures—regardless of whether they're plastic or metal—are beautifully sculpted. Role-players who have no intention of actually playing the game would still do well to check out the miniatures—they'd fit well into any fantasy campaign. The minis are unpainted, which could represent a drawback for some players, but those who want to paint will find plenty of advice in the latter half of the book. The book also offers some tips on scenery and castle construction, but it's not nearly as detailed as what's offered for painting. The Games Workshop Web site does provide some additional advice for scenery builders, but I'd still like to see more in the book itself.

The Lord of the Rings game does a good job of retaining the feel of its namesake books and movie and provides a good introduction to fantasy wargaming. The rules are simple enough for newbies, but engaging enough for experienced strategists. As a result, it represents a good compromise game for wargamers looking to introduce their role-playing game friends to the genre.

My Fellowship of the Ring rule book is one of the most heavily borrowed tomes in my gaming library—the guys in my group love the painting sections, and I expect that my new Two Towers book will soon be disappearing as well. — Kenneth

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