The Battle of Five Armies is a standalone game based on the rules for War of the Ring, which is from the same designers, but with the rules modified to function on a tactical level as they describe a smaller battle rather than the entire war. Ares Games plans to expand the Battles game system in the future, releasing expansions depicting other battles from the Third Age of Middle-earth narrated in The Lord of the Rings, such as the Siege of Gondor and the assault of Saruman against Rohan.

According to the designers, their goal with The Battle of Five Armies was to create a game that was both faithful to the source material of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and also fun and engaging to play. They wanted to create a game that captured the epic scale of the battle scene from the book, while also allowing players to make strategic decisions and experience the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. Mechanics:

The Battle of Five Armies is coming back in a Revised Edition

To accomplish these goals, players will be using the familiar action dice system introduced in The War of the Ring. Each turn, players will be mustering troops, moving around leaders, fighting battles and playing story cards. Be prepared to put for a heroic effort, for leading your troops to victory is no simple task. Game Components: Over a hundred plastic miniatures come with the game, all are well sculpted and a lot of fun to use. Battle of the Five Armies is a game that simulates the Battle of Five Armies. [1] Publication history [ edit ] The Shadow Player places a number of Leadership Tokens or Great Bats equal to the amount of dice they have. Leadership tokens let players move armies faster or re-roll dice during combat. At the heart of the game is the action dice system, these dice will determine what you can do on your turn.

Movement: Each unit has a set movement range, which is represented by a number on the unit’s base. Units can move up to their full movement range or any lesser distance. Units cannot move through enemy units or strongholds. Larry Pound reviewed The Battle of the Five Armies in The Space Gamer No. 3. [1] Pound commented that "All in all, the game [is] fair, but the total impression is not enhanced by the colors used for the unit counters or the way the terrain features are drawn." [1]

The game also includes a set of event cards, which can be played during the game to provide additional actions, bonuses to combat rolls, or other effects. These event cards add an element of unpredictability to the game, as players must be prepared to adapt to changing circumstances. Design Process:

The game is played over a series of turns, with each turn consisting of two phases: the action phase and the event phase. Action Phase: 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: The Free People’s player decides how many of their four generals they will be activating during their turn. They can choose as many as 3 of them or as few as none. Each general has a special power that their activation allows the free player to use. For each general they activate, they also get a leadership token to place with an army. However, there are consequences for activating generals… Combat: Combat is resolved by rolling custom dice, with each unit type having a different set of symbols on the dice. 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.Those are fairly brief explanations of what the dice do. In addition to those results, cards can be played on any die result where the symbol matches the symbol on the card. Overall there are a lot of ways to use your dice on a turn. 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. Once the round ends, a new rounds starts with Phase 1. The game continues in this fashion until one player completes their objective. Movement: Each unit has a set movement range, which is represented by a number on the unit’s base. Units can move up to their full movement range or any lesser distance. Players must carefully position their units to gain tactical advantages. The epic boardgame inspired by the most famous battle from The Hobbit, The Battle of Five Armies will become available again by September 2021 with a revised edition, including an exclusive variant scenario for the War of the Ring Second Edition board game, The Fate of Erebor, in its first printing.

Once the game board is set up (the game has a static setup) and players have chosen their side, you are ready to begin. The game is played over a series of rounds, each of which is divided into 6 Phases. Free People: Fate Marker reaches step 15, Bolg is killed or Beorn enters play and the Shadow Player has less than 6 Victory Points.

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The Shadow player commands the armies of Bolg, son of Azog, the King of the Goblins of Mount Gundabad, while the Free Peoples player is in control of Men, Dwarves and Elves, led by Gandalf to fend off the goblin army. The Battle of Five Armies was designed by Roberto Di Meglio, Marco Maggi, and Francesco Nepitello, who are well-known in the board game industry for their work on other popular games such as War of the Ring and Age of Conan. The game was published by Ares Games in 2014. Design Goals: