Received the game in the mail yesterday, these are my first impressions.

Not game related at all, but when I see the picture of Aragorn on the cover I think of this scene



and wish that GW/Forgeworld would release these poses. Aragorn with a bow in hand is only found in the old Three Hunters set.

Back to the game:

I'm impressed with the quality of the components, The board is hard cardboard, the figures hard plastic (with only minor bending on a couple of weapons), rules could have been printed in a smaller format but not a major problem, they provided a bag for the wound counters which was nice, over all, very well made.

The Board is very well marked and gives a nice feel to the game. While it shows that there are various levels, they aren't mentioned or a factor in the game. The main pieces in the scenery set that you can buy separately from GW fits well on the board without affecting game play. (will try and get picture later). One piece of information that is in the rule booklet that could have been on the board is the number of goblin cards to be drawn each turn, but that could easily be added by the user if desired.

Wound counters - easily punched out and with bag provided not a problem keeping together when stored.

Character cards -nice quality card stock, one for every member of the Fellowship and the different poses of the goblins and cave troll showing a picture of the figure and its capabilities.

Goblin cards - 20 cards which make up the Goblin deck, showing where and how many goblins (or the cave troll) arrive.

Die - one for the cave troll, two for the goblins and three for the Fellowship. The Fellowhip dice have a higher probability of inflicting a wound.

The plastic figures - as mentioned, hard plastic, easily fitted into the grooved bases provided and put together. cave troll comes with option of either a spear or hammer but choice of weapon has no factor in game play.

The rules - still going over these, will probably get a better feel once i do a play through. Goblin player moves first each turn, followed by the Fellowship once all the goblin figures have moved/attacked. Each figure can attack then move or move and then attack. Dice are used for attack/defend results.

Some minor issues I have:

According to the goblin card with a bow it can attack any figure he can see no matter the distance while the Legolas card specifically gives this ability to him. Feels like that goblin should have a distance factor.

I understand for simplicity sake they ignore the different levels depicted on the game board but for line of sight it should be a factor. Easily home ruled if desired.

Number of goblins provided in game. You can only place the number of goblins provided on the game card that you have available. The game starts off with 9 of the 12 provided on the board and depending on game play and which cards are drawn you could receive 4 each on turns 2 and 3. Highly unlikely I know but for a 20 year old design it seems like GW could have provided 2 sets of the goblins but I understand the cost.

Back of rule booklet has a list of challenges that seem to me just video game accomplishments that have no factor on game play/victory.

The game is recommended for 12+, which I feel is rather high for the simplicity of the game.

Feel like if GW had done what they did with the older Mines of Moria game box, while this set would have costed more, it would do just as well as the Pelennor set for bringing in new players.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

Nice review. I liked the "new board game" aspect of it. If it was just a set of minis for the SBG, I wouldn't have bought it, because I already have the minis. As it was, I was curious about the board game rules.

I was also a little put off by the lack of distance limiting for goblin archers. Maybe it is meant to represent their home field advantage and large numbers. This is their home and they know all the best cubbyholes to shoot from.

I also wondered about the number of goblins provided, but I have plenty of goblins aready, so it's not really an issue for me. And if you don't have goblins, you could throw some orcs in there as proxies. Surely everybody has plenty of orcs lol.

Thanks Geke - I don't have to worry about extra goblins



I think there should be a limit on the goblin archer range, to allow Gandalf to push them out of range. I'm going with the belief that the light coming in on Balin's Tomb is affecting the Goblin's eyesight, which is accustomed to the gloom of Moria. Trying to decide if the range should be 4 or 5. Also thinking the platforms around the edge should be taken into account to allow for changes to the line of sight considerations.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Gimli can't attack to the front unless Aragorn, Boromir or Legolas moves out of his line of sight.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

Lol, that's a ridiculous amount of goblins. Nice looking Moria board as well.

I'm glad you mentioned the Moria terrain, because I bought a pack of it to go along with the game. GW's scenery is really well done. I have some Moria terrain from another company in the house somewhere, I can't remember what all it had with it. But I remember it had very tall pillars.

Have played a few games of this, I think that GW really missed the mark by not having this more available. Don't know if it was because of shipping, manufacturing or what other issues but this game could have easily been available in bookstores, etc like the original LOTR sets were. Hopefully they will bring it back at some point like they did with Cursed City.

Have been seeing threads on Reddit and posts on Instagram on people either asking what happened to it on the website, doing home made rules and even some people making foam boards to play it. There is definitely a need/want for it.

I used a label maker to print out number of cards per turn and put them on the board. I also made some open trapdoors.



Looking at the goblin cards and the initial 9 goblins, there is a possibility of 51 goblins being used in the game. You obviously don't need this much space to play the game but I laid it all out. Added some pillars that I had made for my Moria board.



The Fellowship



Goblins at the door



Still don't understand how to use Gandalf's special ability, hopefully GW will do a faq/errata for the game.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

I agree, I think this game has appeal on its own as a standalone game. And of course it could be a gateway to the larger game. I don't see why this shouldn't be on shelves all over the country (world), although I guess it is a little on the expensive side for casual gamers.

Check out this build on Instagram that she did to play the game
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZA0jsRIgkm ... =copy_link

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."