A new game has come out with a theme that I love. Lord of the Rings Duel: Middle-Earth is the full title, but I’ll be calling it Lord of the Rings Duel from now on. This game is very new, a few weeks old really from Repos Production. And it’s a new version of 7 Wonders Duel, kind of. The basics of the game are the same but there is more going on and a few other tweaks.

How To Play Lord of the Rings Duel

The game is a two player back and forth drafting game. One person takes on the forces of Sauron and the other the Fellowship. But that’s mainly in name only. The game generally revolves around resource collection and then using those resources to procure other cards or fortresses.

As you play there are three end game triggers that you need to watch out for. If the Nazgul catch the Fellowship, they get the ring and win. If the Fellowship makes it to Mount Doom, they get the ring and win. Or if someone, either side, rallies all six different factions they win. And if either side has a presence in all the locations on the board they win.

That’s the basics of the game, I’m going to get into some of the differences between Lord of the Rings Duel and 7 Wonders Duel next.

What’s Different Between 7 Wonders Duel and Lord of the Rings Duel?

There are a few differences worth noting between the games. While the core loop of drafting cards remains the same between the two. It does vary in a number of different ways. Including a central board.

The Central Board

Let’s start with that central board. This is an area control battle between the players. It kind of takes the place of the combat track. But it’s also it’s own separate thing. There are a number, I believe 7, of locations on the map. If a player either gets troops or towers in all the locations they can win the game. But you battle with your troops, moving them around the board and trading them with your opponent one for one.

And the red combat cards are how you get more troops onto the board. And the purple cards that offer scoring in 7 Wonders Duel, now a lot of them are manipulating where you have troops on the board to help you push for that end game.

Factions

The game also has factions. These are going to be familiar to science cards. You collect them and when you get enough you can win the game. But that’s something that is blockable because you can see if a player is going after that. And there are six factions and two cards of each which might not all be in there.

But there is an additional benefit to factions. If you get two of the same faction you pull two tokens from that faction deck. You select one and that is going to be the one that you use. For some of them it’s a benefit for the whole game. For others Ents and Wizards which are only in the third chapter, you get a one time effect.

Fortresses

Another change to the game is the fortresses. These are basically replacements for the wonders in 7 Wonders and 7 Wonders Duel. So it’s kind of the same thing, a high cost for something but then it gives you a bonus.

The difference in Lord of the Rings Duel is that these are a shared pool. Three are available in chapter one and at the end of each chapter they are replenished. So you fight directly over who gets which one. And that can matter a fair amount. It’s a good way to push to gain that sixth faction with the powers of some of them. Or other win conditions as well.

What Doesn’t Work?

I think for me there is one element that I feel like doesn’t work super well. And I am sure it was done for a good reason. But that’s that I want more in the box. Just one little bit more variety. A bit more variety in the cards maybe? Or it might just be that I miss the final scoring of 7 Wonders Duel. Here there are the three different ways to win or it’s majority on that map. If you figure out that you can’t hit one of the other win objectives, you need to spend on that map in the third chapter.

Now scoring would be a large change to the game. And I get why they didn’t want to add it in. But I’d love to see a little bit of scoring in the game to end it otherwise. Or at least have you look at two or three different things. Like the majority on the map, majority in the factions and furthest to the ring goal. That’d be great for me, I think. And most of the time you should end up with a winner. And it gives players multiple things to push for in that final chapter.

What Works?

Much like 7 Wonders Duel, the card drafting works so well. It’s a great push and pull between the players. And I think the Lord of the Rings Duel even makes it better. Because you have the shared pool of fortresses you are now sometimes skipping a round drafting. It feels like a bit more control than I remember with 7 Wonders Duel, though I’m sure it’s minor at best. But I often sat there in the game counting cards and pushing to get exactly what I needed to buy a fortress to guarantee I got a card I wanted.

I also like the shared nature of the fortresses. Often time you want to fight over them and you look to see what your opponent might need. There was one time where I needed either Wizards faction card or the feather (Eagles) from the Hobbit tokens to win the game. My opponent smartly took the one that let me pull a card from the discard for the age, which did have a wizard. But then accidentally gave me the way to feather token. So you need to pay attention to a lot with the fortresses.

The game is also still really fast. Even with the added element of the area control board to watch, you get through a game in maybe 30 minutes. With learning the game and playing three times in an evening, we started at 7:30 and were done by 9:15 or so. And that’s nice for a two player game to get in a few plays in a single evening. If it was going to take much longer than that, it’d feel like more work than intended.

Who Is This For?

I think the Lord of the Rings Duel is for people who maybe aren’t drawn to the 7 Wonders Duel theme but are interested in the game itself. Lord of the Rings is obviously going to be a more popular them. And I think that as a game too, it’s easy enough to play that it’s that great play it with the Lord of the Rings fan in your life. Give it to them for a holiday or birthday, teach them to play and let them go forth from there.

But if you already really love 7 Wonders Duel and the theme doesn’t do it for you. I don’t know that you need this game. I think that they do enough different that I plan on keeping both. But that is a me thing and I’m not sure that everyone would agree with that sentiment.

Final Thoughts on Lord of the Rings Duel

I really enjoy this game. I do have that one negative. And I expect that an expansion might tweak that end game slightly. Though who knows if there is going to be an expansion to this game. If it does well I’m sure that they’ll make another one. But I also can tell that the game was very carefully curated to create a box that has everything you need for a consistently close and fun game.

I think that the tightness of the game and the closely curated card set also is one of the reasons that I do want an expansion. I think that you’ll get to know the cards very well very quickly. And depending what you see in the first chapter that might start to really focus players in on certain strategies in the future chapters. But there are ways without adding cards you can add more variability. Different and more fortresses or different and more faction tokens easily add in more variety.

My Grade: A
Gamers Grade: B+
Casual Grade: B+

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