With Smaug defeated, the dwarves reclaim their treasure, but a battle ensues when another group of dwarves, elves, and men arrive to claim a share of the wealth. The battle of five armies takes place, with the dwarves, men, and elves defeating the goblins and Wargs. Recruitment: Each army has a set number of units, but players can use action tokens to recruit new units during the game. Each army has a different set of units with unique abilities and strengths. Event Phase:

To achieve these design goals, the designers chose to use a combination of mechanics that would allow for both tactical maneuvering and epic battles. They chose to use a combination of area control, card management, and custom dice rolling to simulate the different aspects of the battle. Units: This is where the meat of the game happens. Players roll all of their action dice and then take turns using them. The dice can have 6 possible results: The Shadow Player places a number of Leadership Tokens or Great Bats equal to the amount of dice they have. Leadership tokens let players move armies faster or re-roll dice during combat. At the heart of the game is the action dice system, these dice will determine what you can do on your turn.

The Battle of Five Armies (English Rules)

The game also includes a set of event cards, which can be played during the game to provide additional actions, bonuses to combat rolls, or other effects. These event cards add an element of unpredictability to the game, as players must be prepared to adapt to changing circumstances. Design Process: Battle of the Five Armies is a game that simulates the Battle of Five Armies. [1] Publication history [ edit ] The game ends when one player captures their opponent’s stronghold or eliminates all their units. If neither player has achieved victory by the end of the game, the player with the most units on the board wins. The Shadow player commands the armies of Bolg, son of Azog, the King of the Goblins of Mount Gundabad, while the Free Peoples player is in control of Men, Dwarves and Elves, led by Gandalf to fend off the goblin army. The Battle of Five Armies was designed by Roberto Di Meglio, Marco Maggi, and Francesco Nepitello, who are well-known in the board game industry for their work on other popular games such as War of the Ring and Age of Conan. The game was published by Ares Games in 2014. Design Goals:

Movement: Each unit has a set movement range, which is represented by a number on the unit’s base. Units can move up to their full movement range or any lesser distance. Units cannot move through enemy units or strongholds. The Battle of Five Armies is a strategic board game designed for two players that simulates the epic battle scene from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit.” In this game, players take on the roles of either the armies of dwarves and men or the armies of goblins and Wargs. The objective of the game is to either capture the opponent’s stronghold or eliminate all their units. The game typically takes around an hour to play. Components:

The Battle of Five Armies is coming back in a Revised Edition

The Battle of Five Armies is a well-designed strategic board game that captures the excitement and tension of the battle scene from “The Hobbit.” The game’s mechanics are relatively easy to learn but allow for a lot of strategic depth and replayability. The custom dice and event cards add an element of unpredictability to the gameplay, which keeps the game fresh and exciting. A little more about the Mechanics in the board game The Free People’s player decides how many of their four generals they will be activating during their turn. They can choose as many as 3 of them or as few as none. Each general has a special power that their activation allows the free player to use. For each general they activate, they also get a leadership token to place with an army. However, there are consequences for activating generals… According to Shannon Appelcline, in 1975 TSR "started distributing other publishers' games — a pretty common tactic at the time, as the hobbyist industry was pretty fractured. They advertised their first distributed items in The Strategic Review #3 (Autumn 1975): a set of three fantasy board games. To be precise, they were three fantasy board games based on the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien: Fact and Fantasy's The Battle of Helm's Deep (1974), Fact and Fantasy's The Siege of Minas Tirith (1975), and LORE's Battle of the Five Armies (1975)." [2] :22 Reception [ edit ]