The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-earth

This is an amazing game! I’ve spent a lot of time playing it, and it never gets boring. There are several different ways to win, and sometimes you can pull off an entire chain of combinations to secure victory. It feels fantastic when it all comes together. This game has given me so many warm and fun memories. Highly recommended!

I play this with my 6 year old, perfect level of depth + fun. Pros: - cost benefit: when to block me vs. pursue their own goal - love the 3 different victory conditions. - the chapters and phased card release keeps it nicely balanced and tight race to the last chapter. Sometimes comes down to the last few cards - nice theme - they love the combo of deck building plus area control of the board. - can finish a game in ~20mins, super convenient. Cons: - slight fatigue has set in after playing it daily for a few weeks, but that's also expected given how many times we've played this.

Just WoW! A little game, but with so much depth, strategy and beautiful art, that it's incredible such ideas still appear in the world where almost all great games are already created. Every duel is different and really exciting, the strategy shifts thanks to help of various factions and landmarks. This is a great position to have at home, as it doesn't take much space, it's easy to learn and simple to set up.

To me, this game feels like a layered game of rock-paper-scissors. Each category needs a certain number of fight wins to claim the battle, but because those numbers are visible, your opponent can start reading your strategy and adapt to counter it. It's amazing how the momentum can swing back and forth multiple times in a single 20-minute game. I've never played the original 7 Wonders, but the Lord of the Rings theme indeed works wonders here.

This is so much better than 7 wonders the duel (didn't play expansions). Why? There's not points counting. The targets are super simple - conquer/defend Middle Earth, catch Frodo and Sam or throw The One Ring into Mt. Doom. You do create strongholds and attack each other with armies to gain control but again, you just don't get points for that, unless no other party reaches their goal, only then you look who dominates Middle Earth. It's very simple, very quick and instead of counting points, you're actually dueling the other person and are in direct confrontation. Wish it had more expansions.