The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship Board Game Review
The Lord of the Rings is one of my favourite book and movie franchises of all time, and yes, I even like the Hobbit films! Whenever a Lord of the Rings themed game comes out, I’m probably going to buy it, and I’m probably going to love it. We have had a great run of The Lord of the Rings in board game form in the past year, with games like The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Trick Taking Game, The Lord of the Rings: Duel, and now Fate of the Fellowship.
Fate of the Fellowship uses the Pandemic System, so if you are familiar with any of the Pandemic style games, there are some ideas here that will persist from that. That being said, of all the Pandemic System games I’ve played over the years, Fate of the Fellowship feels the most unique and distinct, in the best way possible. In Fate of the Fellowship, players will be working together to complete a number of objectives (depending on level of difficulty) before ultimately tossing the One Ring into the fires of Mount Doom to win the game. These objectives range from fairly easy – have two people in Rivendell and use an action to gain 3 Elven troops – to really difficult. With a nice stack of objectives to choose from, while the core mechanics stay the same, what you’ll be prioritizing game-to-game will be different.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhCfFQVlT7M
As always, we suggest you watch fellow Canadian Rodney Smith explain how to play the game, as we will not cover all that here!
Like Pandemic, Fate of the Fellowship uses a threat track to determine how many Shadow cards you flip each turn, uses a Hope tracker that, if it reaches 0, you lose, and gives players a few cards per turn with regions on them. And like Pandemic, each character is unique and different and can trade cards with others. That is where the similarities stop, and going forward in this review it’s probably best to forget the core tenets of Pandemic and focus on how this game feels so much different.
Fate of the Fellowship is all about board management. No, cities across Middle Earth will not “explode” if a certain number of troops end up there, but they can still become a problem. While there are many ways to lose Hope, not being able to place enemy troops because there are too many on the board is the fastest way to do it. So you need to manage enemy troops, manage your hope, manage your cards that will allow you to perform actions, and manage a large number of other things. This is team management 101, and if that doesn’t appeal to you, this is probably one you should pass on.
That said, the variety of abilities across the game’s numerous characters is what keeps me coming back. Not only are these characters thematic – certain characters like Boromir can muster friendly troops without spending friendship symbols while in Gondor, for example – but they can tie nicely together when paired with others in the Fellowship. The bright and bouncy Merry and Pippen, for example, can spend friendship to increase Hope if sharing a space with Frodo and Sam. For The Lord of the Rings fanatics, there is so much joy in both characters and objectives.
With the Eye of Sauron following Frodo turn after turn, you’ll always want to work out how to draw it away from him. Battling enemy units is a great way, as is taking over enemy strongholds and turning them into allied havens. Theme, theme, theme – this game is oozing with it, and I find that so enjoyable. The last intellectual property pandemic game, Star Wars, felt like Pandemic with Star Wars slapped onto it. The theme was pretty shallow, and while it was still fun, it doesn’t hold a candle to this release.
The heavy reliance on theme might cause your gaming group a challenge, however. If you are not a Lord of the Rings fan, I’m not sure there are a ton of reasons for you to bring this one to the table. The themes woven into characters and objectives is what makes completing them so enjoyable. Without that, I’m not sure this is a better option than regular Pandemic, if you want a Pandemic System game.
I also enjoy how accessible this experience is. It can be punishingly hard and difficult if you want it to be, but also very accessible and a bit easier as well. This is all due to setup and how many Skies Darkened cards you use, how many events you use, etc. Even your character selection can make scenarios easier or harder. Arwen, for example, can pass cards between players in the same location even if the card doesn’t match the region. This is a HUGE near the end game when Frodo needs to have 5 ring symbols, or a few extra stealth symbols to move without attracting the attention of the eye.
From start to finish, I have enjoyed every play of The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship, regardless of whether we won or lost. With so much theme, and a great system that is enjoyable to play, this is an easy recommendation for Lord of the Rings board game fans. One word of warning, though: the board is too damn small for all those flying Nazgul and enemy troops!
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Article By Adam Roffel
