How the impossible came to be...

So something miraculous happened a few days ago that not until recently became a reality. Yes, I convinced my girlfriend, Dayna, to play "War of the Ring" with me...and she did. Now maybe for some of you fellow geeks (Jeff and Brian), you don't have to worry about getting your significant other to play deep, heavy, and long gamer's games. Sure Rob, Ben, Jon, and I can convince ours to join in a game of Ticket to Ride or Carcassonne every now and then, but games like WotR are simply out of the question. I bet you can just see their eyes glossing over in your mind at the thought of rules explanation. -But through sheer determination, reverse psychology, and trust I pulled off the amazing and lo, it was good.

I let her take up the reign’s of the Shadow since they have a simpler goal to reach and less stuff to worry about (the fact that they win 70% of the time was just pure coincidence…). I went over the rules in about twenty minutes just focusing on the basics and leaving out the detailed movement of the Fellowship in Mordor, what all the symbols on the hunt tiles mean, and so on until they actually came up. This proved to be a good decision as she quickly absorbed everything I relayed without losing patience or becoming overburdened with all of the exceptions and what ifs.

Clearly this game would be hers from the get go as sixes after sixes came rolling down on the Hunts and companion after companion ate the dust. To add insult to injury, I think I hit every single reveal tile in the bag, making the journey even longer and more painful. After finally reaching Mordor with the entire Fellowship (minus ring-bearers) succumbing to death before I got past Lorien and ten corruption on the track, I decided to look elsewhere for the win.

She had already taken most of the Elven nations and Rohan at the expense of the Roherum escaping into Orthanc. This gave me the crazy idea to take one more stronghold for that elusive Free People’s military victory. I moved Gondor to war and swung a massive force down upon Umbar but it was not to be. She saw it coming and played a card that allowed her to reroute her huge force at Minas Morgul to aid in the relieving of the siege.

While she sat at eight VP, I decided my only chance was a ring victory. I thought my odds were still decent at ten corruption because I had thrown in most of the blue tiles and she hadn’t added a single red. Alas, on the first draw the lidless eye mocked me with an insurmountable burst of temptation, turning the Hobbits to the Shadow and thus cursing the lands to ruin. So there I sat, languishing in the bitter taste of defeat most cruel.


I was really surprised by how well she did and disappointed in my weak Fellowship play. Perhaps I have been overvaluing rushing the Fellowship instead of playing it safe, sticking to the friendly stronghold creep with companions breaking off here and there at will. I wish I could say I pulled some punches, but I was militarily outclassed and fated by the inexplicably devious Hunt rolls.

The best part though was hearing the sweet words “I liked that game; we could play this again sometime.”

…Ah, there is hope for all of us…