War of the Ring (SPI game)

War of the Ring is a strategy board game published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in the United States in 1977 based on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It was the first war game to reflect the War of the Ring entire, from the leaving of the Shire to whatever end that might occur in the game.

This game pits the Dark Power player, who controls the forces of Sauron and Saruman, against a Fellowship player, who controls the forces of all the free peoples of Middle-earth. There is also a three player version wherein the Saruman player and the Sauron player are distinct.

At one level, SPI's War of the Ring is a giant strategic war game that attempted to balance the massive resources of Sauron against his limited ability to micromanage them. To reflect this, the Dark Power Player is given a limited number of 'shadow points' each turn which can be allocated towards moving troops or Nazgûl. The game takes place at two levels, the army level, where an odds-based combat system results in each side taking a certain percentage of losses, and at the character level, where characters can fight monsters, lead armies, and (in the case of Fellowship characters) acquire magic items. Characters with leadership abilities can modify the die rolls of army combats that take place in the same hex they are located in. The Dark Power player has a "search phase" in his turn, where if he is lucky he can spot Fellowship characters to engage them in combat or have army units capture them. Both sides have the ability to play event cards, which are events directly taken from The Lord of the Rings story to modify play.

The Fellowship player wins if he manages to destroy the Ring, while the Dark Power player wins if he can bring the ring to Barad-dûr. Both sides can also win a military victory, which is considerably more difficult to achieve. This SPI game won the Charles S. Roberts Award for All Time Best Fantasy Board Game of 1977.