Dale Yu's Take on Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Card Game

Designer: Bryan Bornmueller
Publisher: Office Dog
Players: 1-4
Age: 10+
Time: 20 minutes per hand
Played with review copy provided by publisher

The story keeps going in the special land of Middle-earth. The game is The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game. It’s a team card game full of story. Players act as good guys and bad guys from Tolkien’s big tale, The Two Towers. This game stands alone. It picks up from last year’s The Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game. It covers chapters 19 through 36. You can play chapters in any order. You don’t need the first game. But it’s best to go in order.

In every chapter, each player picks a different hero. Each hero has a job to do to win the chapter and move the story. As you go on, new heroes, things, and hard parts come in. The One Ring is the only top card. At first, you can’t start with a ring unless someone plays one when they can’t match the suit.

To get ready for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Trick-Taking Game, find the first chapter card. It’s Chapter 19, The Departure of Boromir. This picks right up from the first game, which had 18 chapters.

Put the chapter card on the table. Then slide a random card from the deck under it. If it’s a White Tower or Black Tower card, shuffle again and try once more. The deck has four main suits: numbers 1 to 8 in Hills, Mountains, Forests, and Shadows. There are also 3 Orc cards, one White Tower, and one Black Tower. Put the four hero cards out. For Chapter 19, put a star token on Aragorn and Boromir. These two must be in the group. Each hero card shows the goal for that hero and any special start rules.

Deal cards to players. The one who gets the White Tower card takes the White Tower token. They also get the Aragorn hero card first, at least in Chapter 19. Then, going around clockwise from Aragorn, each player picks an open hero. The starred ones must get picked. After everyone has a hero, do any start steps from the hero cards.

Players can only talk about what everyone sees. No talking about or showing hand cards. It’s okay to remind folks of hero goals or other open info, like on face-up cards.

Each round is a trick-taking game. Aragorn starts the first trick in Chapter 19. Then clockwise, each plays one card. Match the suit if you can. If not, play anything. The highest card in the lead suit wins the trick. They take all cards, stack them face down by them. Winner starts next trick.

The Tower cards are special. Play them only if you can’t match suit. A Tower wins the trick unless both Towers are there. Then they cancel, and highest lead suit wins. You can lead with a Tower, but it has no suit. Next suited card sets the suit. When a Tower plays, give the player the token to track it.

Orc cards are different too. Play them only off suit. Orcs never win tricks. You can’t lead with an Orc. If you must, the chapter is lost.

Before play, all know each hero’s goal. The team wins if all goals done. Mark done goals with a star token on the hero. Stop early if all goals sure or one can’t be done.

For the full story, play Chapter 19 till win. Then go to 20 and on. New heroes, rules, events come up. The joy is finding them yourself. Re-live Two Towers with known heroes and happenings.

My thoughts on the game

This Two Towers game builds great on the first. It makes the book story come alive. It stays true to the books. The designer fits story parts in well. I like Treebeard best. See how slow he moves!

Each chapter is a fresh test. I love the talks to plan ahead. Then deal with card luck and what happens.

Most chapters give one hero auto. Then pick clockwise. No hand talk makes it hard. Pick best goal for your cards. Watch hero start rules. Swap cards or hide some to skip suits.

Lots of smart hero tricks and surprises. No spoilers. Find them in chapters. Rules are clear now. Better than first book’s spots. Few questions in play.

Play in sits. First time, we did 8-9 chapters. 2-3 fails. About 11-12 hands in two hours. Fun night with friends working as team.

If you liked first, get this. It’s next part. New? Start first. Why jump to 19 when 1 waits?

Team trick games are rare. This adds good to my cards.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Chris Wray (Love It): I’ve played over 500 trick-takers. This and first are tops. Great make, smart hero system, theme works well. Two Towers has best task. Slightly more fun than first. Start from 1 best. But if one box, pick this. Both worth it. Trick games used plain decks for ages. Designer ones grew later. Now boom, but cheap. This is big hit. First blockbuster. Team spent years, big budget, for IP and wide fun. Like Tolkien built world. They tuned all. Astounding. Get it.

Talia: Agree with Chris. Amazing game. Check designer diary on how it builds smart on first.