Ares GamesAREWOTR012 Hunt for The Ring, Multicoloured

TL;DR: Hunt for the Ring is a fantastic hidden-movement game, loaded with Lord of the Rings goodness, which may take a slight investment to fully enjoy.What is it like to play Hunt for the Ring?Hunt for the Ring is a “hidden movement” game, meaning one player controls Frodo, trying to move from one side of a map to the other, but his movements are in secret. The Frodo player keeps track of his movement via paper and pencil on a “journey log” behind a screen. The other team (which can be 1-4 other players) are the Nazgul attempting to find Frodo and ultimately corrupt him. As the Ringbearer, Frodo has access to some powerful allies and even the aid of his fellow company (like Samwise, Merry, Pippin, and Strider) to give him special abilities and keep the Nazgul at bay. Likewise, the Ringwraiths have some action dice with which to help find and destroy Frodo, and some powerful Sorcery cards to give them some nasty tricks.The game is divided into two similar (and yet distinct) halves: one where Frodo tries to move from Hobbiton to Bree, and the second in which he moves from Bree to Rivendell. These two halves can either be played back-to-back in one sitting, or you can “save” your progress after the first half and come back to it another day and finish the second half. Furthermore, what happened during the first half will have an effect on the second half- boosting Frodo’s chances to get to Rivendell, giving the Nazgul extra abilities, along with keeping the cards and allies that were acquired in the first half.Additionally, Part 2 throws some twists in the gameplay. Instead of the player controlling Frodo, the game puts him on rails- Frodo now takes a predetermined path, and Gandalf the Grey joins the fray. The player, now controlling Gandalf, attempts to mislead or block the Nazgul and protect Frodo on his journey. The Nazgul players, however, can now call on the dreaded Witch King to deal some hefty corruption. If Frodo arrives in Rivendell before he reaches the end of his corruption track, he wins, but if he gains too much corruption, the Nazgul players win.The Awesome Parts:From a components standpoint, this game is top notch. The cards, tokens, miniatures, dice, board, etc are all beautifully done with artwork very much in line with the Lord of the Rings style. Everything is functionally sound, and bonus points are awarded for the neat “journey log”- it not only holds your paper in place, and you need only flip it over for it to be ready for the second part, but the shield that hides it cleverly contains a map so your opponents can’t read what you may be looking at on the board.The actual gameplay itself is fairly simple, but there are some great decisions to be made. For the most part, each turn is move, and possibly do an action. However, for the Ringbearer, the tension between trying to stay hidden from the Nazgul and also make good time to reach your destination ensures that those decisions on where to move are not always going to be easy. And when do you play your allies? Do I use this powerful ability now, which will likely make things more difficult for me later? On the part of the Nazgul, the whole team splits up a pool of “action dice”, which let the nazgul do some cool things; however, they are shared, so the team will need to work together to figure out how best to use the dice.More great decisions come out of the overarching strategies the players may decide to use. For Frodo, do you sprint across the map, hopefully avoiding too much corruption along the way? Do you make detours to protect your information tokens, which will slow you down, but also prevent the Ringwraiths from unlocking their more powerful abilities? As Gandalf, how best can you aid Frodo? By giving the Nazgul’s some false information on their searches? By jumping onto the map, pushing the Nazguls around and blocking for a turn? By recovering tokens which will increase the amount of corruption Frodo can take? Do the Nazguls focus on searching high and low as much as possible? Or rather hang out in dark locations more to get lots of sorcery cards? How do they use the information that they’ve gathered to deduce Frodo’s location?Those who are here for the Lord of the Rings theme itself will not be disappointed. The game is bursting with flavor- from the way that the tension builds as the Nazguls get nearer to Frodo’s location, possibly tempting him to take drastic measures and acquire corruption (like he is using the One Ring), to the specific characters with abilities that really make sense to their role in the story. Fans of the books themselves will also delight in the fact that certain characters actually make an appearance in some form (i.e. Tom Bombadil, Glorfindel, Fatty Bolger, etc). The combination of all these thematic influences with the tense gameplay decisions really serves to create an atmosphere of feeling like you are in an epic alternate re-creation of the beginning of the Lord of the Rings story.The *Almost* Awesome Parts (Or *Still* Awesome, Depending): For being such an excellent game, there are a few factors to consider which, for some people, might detract from the overall experience. First is the length of the game. Hunt for the Ring takes roughly three (3) hours to complete, being about 1.5 hours per half. The game fortunately includes the ability to “pause” in between halves, so you don’t have to play both halves in a single session, but that is still a long time to digest a game for some. Additionally, it’s a very thinky game, so certain people might extend that time out longer, especially if there’s multiple Nazgul players and every turn they are debating the most optimal uses of their actions and how best to move each player. The second factor that might not sit well with some is the way the game puts a bit of a twist on the “classic” hidden-movement mechanic. In other similar games, the hidden player has a lot more freedom to move around the board in many different ways, and the “hunters” really have to work to deduce where he/she is and will be. However, in Hunt for the Ring, the Nazgul always know that Frodo starts on the left of the board and is trying to get to the right- this may make take a little bit of the fun out of the game for some people. Furthermore, in Part 2, the way that the player doesn’t even have control over Frodo can seem odd to some- sure the way Gandalf can mess with the Nazgul is intriguing, but people may find it off-putting, feeling like they’re just on some sort of side-quest. Personally, I actually enjoy these different elements in the hidden-movement genre- it not only shakes things up a bit, but it really contributes to the theme of the game as well. The last potential downfall to the game are the rules. While I alluded to “simple” gameplay above, there is certainly no shortage of rule to remember. For instance, what is the difference between a hunt, a search, and a perception (all of which essentially find information about Frodo’s whereabouts)? And how does that change during the night phase? And what about part 2- how does Gandalf play into those? And the way Frodo moves with the dots in between locations can be tough to wrap your mind around at first. The players will definitely benefit if at least someone really tackles the rulebook beforehand, instead of jumping in and trying to figure it out as you go. Also, the rulebook itself is long, but thorough with plenty of examples, which I appreciate; however perhaps there would be simpler ways to state some of the concepts they are trying to communicate.Conclusion To me, Hunt for the Ring is a wonderful hidden-movement game, especially for fans of the Lord of the Rings. I think it’s only real downfall is how long it takes, but to me it is worth it. Yes, learning the rules are a bit of an investment, but also worth it. And the slightly different take on the genre is a breath of fresh air to me. With awesome components and artwork, I hope to get this game played as often as possible (when time allows).

Hunt for the Ring is a hidden movement game where one player plays Frodo, and the other players, one to four, play Ringwraiths. It is a two part game where in part one Frodo is trying to reach Bree, and part two has him trying to reach Rivendell. Those familiar will hidden movement will find some differences in this game than others.The Frodo player will be obtaining cards that will help him reach Bree by playing events or allies that will block the Ringwraiths. The player will either be choosing a location number, or placing a dot on his hidden screen that represents him entering the woods. This is a departure from other hidden movements as being in the woods means the players last location is where the Ringwraiths can find you, and since the player is in the woods they can choose to return to their previous location or go on to other locations. Also, when a player is found by the Ringwraiths the game is not over instantly as Frodo will only suffer corruption from using the ring to escape. If Frodo, the player, suffers too much corruption they will lose the game.The Ringwraiths themselves have a standard move and search action they can use to find Frodo. Their special abilities come from six dice that are rolled that give them a chance to do things like hunt, draw/play sorcery cards, and do a perception check for general whereabouts of Frodo. Their sorcery cards can have devastating consequences on Frodo, but obtaining cards are hard for them.Each round is a day which is divided into three segments; which are two day times, and one night time. At night is when the game changes as the Frodo player is at a disadvantage. If they choose to move they will give more power to the Ringwraiths who will be able to hunt for free without spending a die. Hunting is what allows them to give corruption to the player. Also, the movement of the Ringwraiths increase as their movement in the woods goes to two spaces instead of one. This is important as in the day time they can only move one space, and three if they stay on the main roads.The second part of the game changes as Frodo is led by Strider out of Bree to Rivendell so the player than becomes Gandalf. Frodo must still be protected, but the set path is determined by a card pulled from two decks. One is shorter as it gives the player less corruption health, and the other is longer but more spaces for corruption. The Frodo player will decided this while keeping in mind that any previous corruption remains on his character. As Gandalf the player is simply throwing off the information given to the Ringwraiths as they do not know who is Gandalf, and who is Frodo. The Gandalf player can also commit to attacks, up to three only, that will disperse Ringwraiths and block the location to them. The Ringwraiths also have help in their ability to call upon the Lord of the Nazgul who brings an additional gold dice to the dice pool. The Witch King is able hunt for free without needing to spend a die or wait for Frodo to move at night. If he finds Frodo he will do more corruption, but will go away and have to be resummoned.The game length of the Hunt for the Ring may be the only deterent for some individuals, but it is mostly the setup for the second part that I feel makes it seem longer. The game can have the same time length as other hidden movement games, but if it is an issue their is a save feature for playing the game later.The rule book is nice and clear. It is divided up into parts one and two with each area divided again to what the Frodo palyer does and what the Ringwraiths do. If any thoughts of a rule can be quickly found with either going back to the section or looking at the index at the back of the book.The enjoy found in this game was great as it felt like the book, or movie, when Frodo was hunted. There are a lot of great call backs to the book as some of the character and events Frodo can play not only help in the game, but makes sense as to what had happened in the book. If someone is a fan of Lord of the Rings they will greatly enjoy the thematic connection hunt of the ring has to its source material. For a non-fan, there is still a lot of nice mechanics that breath new life into the world of hidden movement games.The last piece of tidbit to add is that there is two extra pieces to be used if someone would like to connect Hunt for the Ring to their War of the Ring game. It is two tokens that the Free Peoples player, or Sauron's army can get if either sides wins that gives a extra edge to them.

Another terrific game from Ares games just saturated in Lord of the Ring theme. Love all of their games but this and War of the Ring are two of my favorites.

It's a great card and it's exciting to embark on an adventure.However, it takes time to translate the rules and check them.I am very much looking forward to the Japanese version being released.

Fun game and easy to learn!

I like it very much

Good game Rulebook is tough one to get through.