Still with me? Good. While not the most complex war game out there by a long shot, The Battle of Five Armies is still quite the involved game. But with that comes the epic feeling that you’d expect with a large clash of armies at the door step of the Lonely Mountain. The Battle of Five Armies was quite the event in The Hobbit and the trio of game designers did an absolutely amazing job of capturing the feel of the battle. But we’ll get to the theme in a minute. Each of the games 9 different heroes have their own special abilities and powers.

The designers wanted to include as many of the iconic units from the battle scene as possible, so they created a diverse set of units for each army. Each unit has unique strengths and weaknesses that make them useful in different situations. The designers also made sure to include the different leaders and heroes from the book, such as Thorin Oakenshield and Bolg, who provide special abilities and bonuses to their respective armies. Gameplay: Shadow Player: Control 10 Victory Points worth of Settlements For the most part, combat works well. The damage counters can get a little unwieldy, but expect combat to be fierce and frequent. Game Experience:Final Score: 5 Stars – The Battle of Five Armies is an incredibly well designed game that I am really enjoying. This one has a permanent place in my game library.

TheBattle of Five Armiesis a two-players game that allows you to re-create the epic conclusion of The Hobbit, the world-renowned masterpiece by J.R.R. Tolkien. According to Shannon Appelcline, in 1975 TSR "started distributing other publishers' games — a pretty common tactic at the time, as the hobbyist industry was pretty fractured. They advertised their first distributed items in The Strategic Review #3 (Autumn 1975): a set of three fantasy board games. To be precise, they were three fantasy board games based on the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien: Fact and Fantasy's The Battle of Helm's Deep (1974), Fact and Fantasy's The Siege of Minas Tirith (1975), and LORE's Battle of the Five Armies (1975)." [2] :22 Reception [ edit ] The designers started by reading the source material and studying the battle scene in detail. They wanted to make sure that the game accurately represented the different factions, units, and heroes from the book;

The game ends when one player captures their opponent’s stronghold or eliminates all their units. If neither player has achieved victory by the end of the game, the player with the most units on the board wins.