A review of "The Siege of &Gondor"
By Anthony S Burdge

As a long time fan of JRR Tolkien as game/hobby enthusiast I have played many games that were based in the world of Middle-earth that never had the spirit of Tolkien fully invested in it. Many games either rewrote or glossed over the vast, rich tapestry of his works. For years companies have churned out game after game, saturating the market with basic, generic and flat presentations of the leading fantasy story of all-time, The Lord of the Rings.

Until now.

Since Games Workshop launched its The Lord of the Rings. line, strategy battle gamers have participated in enormous scenario campaigns, built high-quality models of their favorite characters while walking the realms of Middle-earth and have not been let down. Each of the three rulebooks, one for each film release has been, as all their products are, high quality writing and craftsmanship. Those releases were just the beginning in the synthesis of gaming and a passion for the literature of JRR Tolkien. The first three had scenarios for both the film and books versions of the fantasy classic and are the spark for a gamer’s journey to further investigate the tales. With the release of the 1st expansion, Shadow and Flame, the creators began to step away from the The Lord of the Rings. films not only proving that the game was not just film based but that the creative team has a deep love and knowledge of Tolkien’s original work.

The latest expansion to be released in March 2004, The Siege of Gondor, blends seamlessly the depth of Tolkien’s written word and strategy battle gaming. The writer of The Siege of Gondor, Matthew Ward, has indeed done his homework in the timeline and sequence of events that the expansion presents. His love and understanding of Tolkien’s work shines through as an example that literature, especially Tolkien, and gaming can merge. Of course naysayers and nitpickers can find grey areas, which can be found in anything if onelooks closely enough, but they are too small to note here. For those new to the Games Workshop LOTR line of games may at first think that they are just a movie recreation, oh how wrong they will be.

In the opinion of this author the LOTR films diminished the impact of Tolkien’s heroes (shameless subtle plug for a forthcoming Tolkien publication by Jessica Burke (Co-chair of NY Tolkien Society) and myself) The game designers reinvigorate the glory of Tolkien’s heroes by utilizing touching moments in the TTT EE of Boromir before he left for Rivendell. Some aspects of the films like the one above do leak into the game, ever minutely, but its written original is the source of inspiration. Unlike the films we get to meet characters like Beregond and his story leading up to his friendship with a certain hobbit named Pippin and their service to the White City.

If you are a regular reader of White Dwarf magazine like myself you have been following along with me the LOTR section in every issue. The latest issue #290 (available now!) has an article written by Matthew Ward concerningthe Designers Notes to the Siege of Gondor. As a Tolkien purist (sometimes a staunch purist) at times I can’t help but to look at the writing of these articles and supplements with a close eye. Keeping in mind my praise above of the game thus far, I am equally impressed when the designers refer back to Tolkien’s tales, in this case Mat Ward states: “As before, it was a very careful path I trod through Tolkien’s works (of course, we didn’t want to rewrite Tolkien). Although I know the books well, there were all kinds of little details tucked away in the corners of the appendices that I hadn’t fully considered before. After immersing myself in the chronology of the period we were looking to cover, it became clear that, to represent Gondor’s plight, the book would have to cover much more than the siege of Minas Tirith.” (White Dwarf#290, pg 119)
When a designer refers refer’s to sections in the book, and speak of their journey in to them before the game mechanics to support their work and it comes to fruition in their product (as it has in the case of The Siege of Gondor) then the realization of their success is inevitable.

For the staunch gamer who probably at this point is drooling to delve into the pages of the expansion there is plenty in its 64 pages.