Beitragvon Philipp Klarmann » 13. September 2002, 13:42
Hallo Freunde,
hier der erste Bericht zu Sauron:
The second expansion set for Lord of the Rings adds even more challenge, as instead of just playing against the board, Sauron’s evil will is now under the control of a player.
So what do you get in this new set?
Well you actually get several things:
The Sauron expansion, a set of new event tiles, and a couple of new cards the fellowship can use – all 3 of which can be used with either the original game, or in addition to the Friends and Foes expansion.
Lets start with the extras first - which have the feel of being advanced rules rather than any significant change.
The two new cards have one-off powers that are free to use by anybody. One can be used to either swap the ring holder mid scenario, and the other to push Sauron back a few spaces on the corruption line.
The new event tiles (and bag!) bring in another element of choice and interaction on a players turn. Instead of now just turning over the top tile and having to act on it, the player can now choose to reject the first tile they draw, and draw again, although this second tile must be used. The same rule of acting on tiles until an activity tile is drawn still applies, but this redraw option can be used each time – e.g. draw 1 is a sundial – discard – redraw with ring bearer one to the dark – have to action – draw 2 as still no activity – sundial – discard – redraw a hiding … .etc. This offers a lot more feeling of control, as no longer are you sunk just because you turn over 4 events in a row, at least now you can reject a few of them and redraw … mind you, there are over 20 new tiles to add to the game, and none of them are activity tiles - sometimes you may wish you took the event!!!!
This definitely makes the game tougher, and the rules even suggest you just try this advanced rule on its own with the main game, before trying to incorporate it into either of the expansion sets – but it does bring in an element of choice, in an area that many felt was too much ‘luck driven’ previously.
And so to the actual Sauron expansion.
What you get here is a deck of cards (and character card) for Sauron, a deck of Nazgul cards, a black rider piece for on the main board, a new Gandalf card, a new ability card for each hobbit, and a set of feature tokens and cards.
The Good ….
So what do the powers of good get from this? Well, each hobbit gets a new skill (similar to Friends and Foes) that they can use once.
No new boards are included, but there are now 12 feature tokens. These are used, 4 per scenario for the first 3 scenarios you play, by placing them on the 4th and last space on each of the activity lines on the scenario board, except the main one. No longer will the sprinting along the main activity line seem such an attractive proposition, as you will now miss out several new benefits, ranging from picking up 3 shields, or drawing a couple of cards, to a new feature card. These resources are discarded if not collected in the scenario though, so often may not come into play at all.
Gandalf also has a new skill (as well as the updated foresight) which can be called to slow down or push back the Black Rider – more on him later!
And errm … well that’s it for them I’m afraid.
The Bad ….
So what’s in it for Sauron, and how much can the player control? Well to start with, you have 2 decks of cards, the Sauron deck, and the Nazgul deck. The Sauron cards have several symbols on indicating discarding cards, life tokens, moving towards the dark etc, while the Nazgul cards have a single symbol, plus an event. There are also a few extra event tiles added to the bag, which as you may expect, are not there to help the Fellowship!
The Sauron player has two occasions when he may act:
The first is before each fellowship player’s turn. He may now play a Sauron card, a Nazgul card, or draw a card.
When playing a Sauron card, the hobbit who’s turn it is, must action one of the symbols on Saurons card, e.g. discard one card (add a foe if F&F), discard a life token, or take one step along the corruption line – the one proviso being that a player cannot choose an option that has no effect, e.g. you cannot choose the discard a life token condition if you have no life tokens.
The Nazgul cards are similar (although there are only 9 of these – obviously – and this deck does not get replenished), but as well as an action against the current player, there is also an event which the entire party can combine to defeat, such as ‘discard 5 fighting cards’.
Secondly, Sauron also carries out an action whenever the die symbol appears (except when putting on the ring or the battle of the spells in F&F – these are the only times the die is now rolled). This time his choice is limited to just the Sauron deck, to either play a card, or draw cards to make a hand of 6. If a card is played this time though, the player is subjected to all of the icons on the Sauron card, and not just one like at the start of a turn. Sam’s ability (only take 1 damage), is interpreted that he only has to fulfil one of the actions on the Sauron card though, rather than all of them.
The Ugly ….
The Black Rider!
Not only do the hobbits now have Sauron throwing challenges at them every single turn, as well as Sauron dictating the penalties previously randomly handed out by the die, but they now have to beware of the Black Rider!
The Black Rider begins each scenario on space 15 under Mordor on the corruption Line. Several of the Sauron and Nazgul cards allow movement of this piece along the corruption line. The Black Rider travels along the track towards the hobbits until it reaches the ring-bearer, at which point it turns and travels back in the direction of Mordor. If the Black Rider makes it to the ring bearer, then back to Mordor before the end of the scenario …. it’s all over – the Big Eye!
So how does it play?
Hard!
Having the resource counters on the optional activity lines means you need to spend a bit longer on these lines to pick up the resources necessary to withstand Sauron. Rather than simply being at the mercy of the dice as to what fate befalls your hobbits, you are now at the malicious will of another player who can see exactly what resources you have such as shields, life tokens, or only a few remaining cards – and drain you of them accordingly! The Black Rider also becomes a dangerous hazard as you approach the end of the game – while you are fairly safe on the first scenario when it has to travel potentially 30 spaces to reach you and return to Mordor – once you reach Mordor yourself with your hobbits precariously far down the corruption track, the black rider may only need to travel 10 spaces to defeat you. It certainly adds to the feeling of urgency and impending doom as you get further towards Mordor.
If you particularly like the fact this game is a team game, and you either all win or all fail, then the idea of playing as a team against a single opponent and the associated gloating rights they will claim, may not be for you. If you like games like Scotland Yard though, where you are combined against a single foe, then this Sauron expansion will be a firm favourite, maybe even convincing some people who didn’t buy the original game due to the lack of sentient opposition.
Overall though, given that not only do you get the Sauron expansion, but also the new event tiles and drawing rules, this is another excellent addition to the game, and again, adds a whole new level and playing style.
Apologies, I noticed a little mistake in my details here.
Gandalfs new skill allows you to ignore a Sauron or Nazgul card - the ability to move the Black Rider back is one of the new feature cards from the resource tokens.
Also, an example of the new Fellowship skills is the ability to band together once to call Gandalf with any 5 shields rather than just from one player.
von Tim Welch at Boardgamegeek.com