Gameplay
Building
The game board is placed in the middle of the table. Each player chooses an army and takes all the characters to be. Play two player, so one player takes a good army and the other an evil army. In addition, a neutral army is set up, that does not move and does not attack on its own. With three players there are two evil armies and good. With four players, of course, two good and two bad armies. The armies will fight amongst each other. In the basic game, including the evil armies or good armies fight among themselves.
The regional maps are now sorted (no icon) to areas of Good (with silver shield icon), areas of evil (black Schildsysmbol) and neutral areas. Depending on the number of players now get the players of good and evil armies their regional aid maps, which they are finding each one battalion. Then everyone gets additionally 60 battalions with two players, three players with 52 and 45 with four players, which are now distributed in turn to not occupied territories. Is in every field a battalion, the remaining characters are used to strengthen their own areas. There are no unit maximum. Are all the armies spread, the region cards are shuffled and placed face down, including the Joker ready. The commander of the players still be used at the end. These figures have the shape of a shield and put the player in the fight or defense benefits. They are also the only way to arrive at more adventure cards, but more on that later.
Now each player is dealt four hole cards. For this purpose first the cards with the star of the adventure cards are discarded. The remaining deck is shuffled and each player is dealt four cards. Then the entire batch is again mixed together and put aside as concealed draw pile. The figure of the Companions is set to the Shire. Then the battle can begin.
The Schedule
There are a few rules of movement on the board. So one must not attack areas that are separated by a mountain range. A river separates two areas from each other when there is no bridge leading over it.
In some fields a golden fortress is displayed. The player who controlled an area must take a battalion in addition and put the fortress in its reinforcement phase. When attacking a fortress of defense must, including to its highest dice roll a point. The centers of power are the areas with black symbols on it. If such an area by an army occupied with military leaders, or pulling a commander at the end of the train in such a field, so he gets an adventure map.
The yellow dashed line is de way of the Companions. After each player changes the companions draw an area on. Is in a field a cube displayed, so the withdrawing player must first roll. He rolls a 4 to 6, pull the companions normally. If he rolls less, remain the companions for a round in this field.
1. The reinforcement phase
The player gets the train now again armies which he can use. In this he includes the areas together, on which he has are its own army and divide the result by 3. In addition is set to each area with its own fortress, a battalion. For each complete region (color on the board) which has completely occupied the player, he gets armies as in the table on the board specified. Now the player can still regional aid maps, which he has earned by conquering territories exchange for armies. For this he must either area maps with three matching symbols (Archer, eagle or rider) have, or three different symbols. If a player has more than 5 regional maps, he must redeem three of them. All received armies now must place in front of his attack on the board the player.
2. Attack phase
The player at the train may now attack other areas. In this case, there is no limitation. We must attack in a variety of areas, as long as you still have enough armies. Here, a battalion must always remain in its own territory. One must not have a back field blank. There are three different figures. The simple battalions are those who can carry out an attack. The rider count for 3 battalions and small eagle or trolls count for 5 battalions and serve only to exchange, so you are not countless, small characters in a field. But to attack you need to swap again in the larger small battalions. At the bottom of the game board is the battlefield. There, the attacker may place up to three figures and the defenders up to two figures. In addition, the commander can be used when it is in the attacking or defending army. The attacker should then be added include a point to its highest attack roll and the defender to its highest defense roll.
Once everyone has placed his characters, each bear the dice and it is rolled simultaneously. Now each the highest result is compared. Is the highest throw of the attacker more than the highest union of the defender, the defender loses one figure. The other way round, the attacker loses a figure. Then the next highest throw is compared, etc. With a tie, the defender always wins. If the attacker has more other figures in his field, so he can continue to attack with new figures. Or he has defeated all the enemy armies on the compromised area, then it must all pull up to a figure of the conquered territory. Then he can choose a new destination if he wants to. For the first conquered territory in the round, the player gets a field map. Should he conquer yet more areas in this round, he is rewarded with any more cards.
3. Strengths of the position
After the player has completed all his attacks, he must move the armies from one area to another. It does not have to be a directly adjacent area, but it must be connected by our own areas. At this stage, you could also consider a commander in a place of power in order to obtain an Adventure card.
4. Adventure Cards
If a commander receive an Adventure Card, on the "Instant Play" is, he or she must do at this stage immediately. But he must take a new card from the deck then until it pulls no more card "instant play". The hand limit is four in this case.
5. Insert commander
If you have lost an army with a military leader in the fight, it must also be taken from the board. Only when one has lost both of his commander, may be put at this stage again one of them on the pitch.
6. The path of the Companions
At the end of the round the vehicle marker is an area moved on now.
Full time
The game ends when the companions left the area "Mount Doom" on a roll 4-6. Then the players count their points together on the played cards and count the number of their occupied territories and regions to do so. The player with the most points wins the game.
The game also ends when a player has beaten all other armies.
Conclusion
The criticism of the previous speaker, I can not personally now do not understand, since I know only this version with the new instructions and the correct cards. I know neither the previous version with enlargement the version with the wrong maps or instructions with the 1000 errors. In this version is actually been "almost" everything adjusted.
The game itself also makes a lot of fun, as I am a Lord of the Rings fan and am not averse to a round risk. Some cards are slightly higher, but if a card such disturbing, then you can indeed after the first round sort.
I also find the way of the companions very well, then the game has at least one end in sight. The classic risk can indeed times but take several hours.
And if all else fails, you can play a normal round risk to the game, too.
DETAILED PRESENTATION VIDEO
There are on this title on my YouTube channel "Mike's Gaming Net" a detailed explanation of the game as a video.
