This is a series of posts where I play 100 boardgames.
Game: The Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
Designer: Reiner Knizia
Year: 2005
Country: Germany
Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Designed by the amazingly prolific Reiner Knizia, The Confrontation belongs to the large family of games based on The Lord of the Rings. It’s a relatively simple game, fast to learn and fast to play, but nevertheless manages to evoke significant story beats from Tolkien’s novels.
The Confrontation is an asymmetric two player game in which Frodo tries to sneak into Mount Doom under the eye of Sauron. One player plays Frodo and his allies and the other all the creatures under Sauron’s command. Like in the classic game Stratego, pieces are positioned on the board so that your opponent can’t see which specific pieces you have. The back of each game piece is identical, meaning that you can see your own unique units and characters but must guess as to the specific identity of the pieces of your opponent. You can mode a piece forward and your opponent must guess: Maybe that’s Frodo, or maybe it’s a decoy and the real Frodo is somewhere else?
When two opposing pieces share a space, there’s a fight which is resolved using cards. Each card deck is public and cards are discarded after being used, so you have a pretty good idea of the selection available to your opponent. For example, if you know they only have the 1 and 3 cards left, you can choose your own card knowing they won’t be able to use a card higher than 3.
As a child, Stratego was one of my favorite games. It was fun to try to guess at the strategy of my opponent and think through all the ensuing mind games. The Confrontation is fun for much the same reason. Each of the units are unique, with specific powers. Many have specific counters, but using them requires a bit of luck since you have to target blind until the first few fights.