Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship Board Game Review

Fate of the Fellowship recounts the conflict of the Fellowship trying to destruct the One Ring successful the fires of Mount Doom, with 1 to 5 players taking up the cloaks of assorted members of the Fellowship and their allies. Turns are spent maneuvering affable forces and characters astir Middle-earth, completing missions, halting the forces of Sauron, and inching Frodo and Sam person to Mount Doom.

Before the crippled begins, players take 2 characters to power from the awesome roster of 10 imaginable heroes, including the likes of the King himself, Argorn, the remainder of the Fellowship, and elves Eowyn oregon Arwen. Each quality comes with their ain subordinate paper detailing their peculiar abilities and starting location, wherever you spot the screen-printed woody meeples.

Some characters assistance much with movement, specified arsenic Gandalf being capable to determination treble the spaces erstwhile traveling alone. Others, similar Eowyn, are amended suited to being hurled into combat, letting her permanently region Nazghul from the crippled board. Being capable to play to each of the disposable heroes’ strengths is simply a large origin successful determining if you negociate to chuck that annoying portion of metallic into the volcano oregon not.

The players’ extremity is to implicit 3 randomly assigned objectives earlier yet getting Frodo to Mt. Doom to destruct the ringing – a beauteous straightforward goal. In bid to debar defeat, everyone has to enactment unneurotic to support Frodo hidden, and to halt the acheronian forces from overtaking excessively galore harmless havens astir Middle-earth, similar Rivendell.

You suffer erstwhile the Hope way hits zero. A fig of situations origin your anticipation to lower, including havens falling to shadow, Frodo being spotted, oregon erstwhile you request to gully a subordinate paper but determination aren’t immoderate left. There are ways to summation Hope, but those opportunities are acold fewer, including capturing a shadiness stronghold and immoderate nonsubjective rewards. This tug-of-war is ever contiguous and sometimes requires you to marque hard decisions, specified arsenic drafting the oculus distant from the portion Frodo is successful astatine the outgo of risking affable service units successful an brushwood skewed successful favour of the shadow.

When it comes to taking actions, Fate adds immoderate further elements and requirements that tin bounds what you tin bash connected your turn. You tin instrumentality 4 actions with a character. These see preparatory actions similar Travel (moving your character), Muster (adding affable service units), Fellowship (giving oregon taking a paper from different player), and Prepare (exchanging 1 of your cards for its associated assets – much connected this successful a moment). You tin besides Attack (engage enemies with affable service units), oregon Capture (take over/retake a stronghold of an enemy).

Since each subordinate controls 2 characters, successful a beauteous originative move, everyone is capable to instrumentality a azygous enactment arsenic their different character, too, successful summation to their superior quality for that turn, who tin instrumentality up to four. There are immoderate restrictions present, specified arsenic not being capable to divided up your turns (i.e. instrumentality 2 actions with your main character, your azygous enactment with your secondary, and decorativeness with the remaining 2 actions with your primary) but I bash bask however this lets you person your manus successful 2 places anyplace connected the committee astatine once. And you take which of your characters is the superior each turn, truthful you are ne'er locked successful either.

While successful the archetypal Pandemic game, you person to crook successful a acceptable of akin colored cards to cure a virus, this conception of utilizing resources to behaviour an enactment has been expanded successful Fate, with galore of your actions requiring, astatine slightest successful part, 1 of 4 antithetic resources to do. Player cards diagnostic 1 of these icons and tin beryllium played arsenic that resource’s cost, specified arsenic Friendship being spent to Muster caller forces oregon Valor for Attack.

Debatably, the astir important of these resources are the Stealth and Resistance ones that person a much nonstop manus successful whether oregon not you volition neglect oregon win successful the game. Spending Stealth cards allows Frodo’s subordinate to determination him without causing a hunt by Sauron and removing the hazard of losing hope. The Resistance assets not lone lets you re-roll dice, but you MUST walk 5 of these adjacent to effort to propulsion the ringing into Mt. Doom to win.

My feelings connected these added enactment requirements are split. While I admit the added strategy and thematic constituent they bring to Fate of the Fellowship, it besides shifts the crippled much into the realm of randomness. When you person what you request oregon tin get it connected your turn, pulling disconnected large plays feels awesome. However, if you don’t, it tin pb to immoderate beauteous lackluster turns, particularly erstwhile I oregon my friends person small we tin bash to interaction our likelihood of winning. Moments similar these conscionable didn’t consciousness good, since careless of however overmuch oregon however small you negociate to bash connected your turn, you inactive request to gully from the Darkness deck, which could marque things worse for the bully guys instead. Thankfully, though, I would accidental that these sorts of turns lone travel astir each truthful often, and I felt acold much productive astir of the time, and that my decisions made a difference.

My plays of Fate of the Fellowship were afloat of tense moments, melodramatic victories, and risky plays that sometimes paid disconnected successful spades and different times brought astir cataclysmic failure. When the countdown begins closing retired 2025, I person small uncertainty that Fate of the Fellowship volition person delivered 1 of the champion gaming moments of my year.

As a hail-mary, last-ditch effort astatine victory, we flew Frodo consecutive to Mt. Doom connected the backs of the elephantine eagles utilizing a peculiar lawsuit paper 1 of america had drawn. Doing truthful not lone caused each Nazgul to unreserved backmost on with the Eye of Sauron straight connected him, but we besides needed to rotation 14 dice and transverse our fingers our anticipation way could withstand it. The archetypal rotation of 7 dice enactment america dangerously adjacent to losing each hope, and each that stood betwixt the Fellowship and 7 much dice.

Unfortunately, the results of those 7 dice resulted successful an result that dropped our anticipation to zero. Or astatine slightest it would have, had Tom Bombadil (or astatine slightest his lawsuit card) not travel successful to prevention the day. After slamming it down, I was capable to re-roll 3 of the hunt dice, with a marque caller effect keeping our anticipation alive. The Fellowship and escaped peoples of Middle-earth had done it! The hype we felt astatine that infinitesimal was real.

17 years abstracted the archetypal Pandemic and Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship, and this latest adaptation of Matt Leacock’s strategy proves that its bones are inactive solid. Fate of the Fellowship expands and grows what has already proven to work, delivering a challenging yet rewarding cooperative experience.

It isn’t a rubric that I privation to urge for radical looking to get into committee games, acknowledgment to the added mechanisms and heavier reliance connected accidental compared to Pandemic. Plus there's the occasional crook wherever you are near conscionable waiting and hoping to get what you need. Still, it's a crippled I would rapidly bring to the array with players who bask Pandemic already and are much receptive to heavier committee games. The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship is hands-down 1 of the champion Lord of the Rings and Pandemic games connected the marketplace close now, and proves that Gandalf meant to virtually alert to Mt. Doom erstwhile helium said “Fly, you fools!”.

Originally posted:

Sep 10, 2025 6:05 pm