Caltrops - Overboard! - Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth

Forum Overview :: Overboard!

by Mischief Maker 02/07/2025, 6:05pm PST

Really controversial game! It's heavily based off Seven Wonders: Duel, which I never played. The consensus between reviewers is that it's either dumbed down, or that it removes time-consuming bloat from the rules and replaces abstract math-y things (victory points) with concrete things (armies on a map).

It's not a deckbuilder per se, but it's very similar as the players are taking turns buying cards from an interlocking pile (ala. the solitaire game Pyramid) to create an open-face tableau on the table that you use to advance toward one of three victory conditions.

1. You can win by collecting sufficient blue ring cards to move Sam and Frodo down the racetrack to Mount Doom, or if you're Sauron, to move your Ringwraith far enough to catch them. It's realized with the totally gimmicky yet super endearing and fun clear plastic overlay that you lay over a wide landscape starting at the shire and ending in Mordor.

2. You can win the allegience of the 6 major races of middle earth by buying one of the hero cards for all 6 races. Even if you aren't going to the full alliance victory it's worth your time to grab a few because they can unlock powerful abilities that are borderline game-breaking, like advancing down the ring track every time you recruit an army, or the sneaksy hobbitses giving you the secret 7th race, eagles, to count toward the six you need to win.

3. You can win by having armies and/or towers present on all 7 regions of the game map. Moving or placing armies onto an enemy occupied square cancels out one of each army. Towers can only be destroyed by rare special events (like angry Ents).

In case none of the victory conditions are met, the side with military presence in the majority of the 7 regions on the map wins.

This is probably the most complex game in my collection, but the rules gel so well with the LOTR setting you can totally teach a beginner and have them giving you a run for your money in a game or two. The card art is hand-drawn (based on the books) and absolutely gorgeous. But with all that's going on, games are a half-hour to an hour max.

I think if you're first getting into board gaming and you've already used Ticket to Ride to get your hooks into someone, LOTR: Duel is a great sampler-platter of a little of several genres: racing, drafting, map control, and making moves to prevent your opponent from getting that perfect card they need to make your life miserable.

My only complaints are tiny. Both players constantly need the reference sheet to explain what the race tokens and landmarks do, but they only included one copy. Also it's strange that the major fortress landmark for the region of Arnor (something represented in other regions by the likes of Minas Tirith, Helm's Deep, or Isengard) is the village of Bree, with its crappy wooden wall, and not Rivendell or the Shire.

Easy recommend.