OUR REVIEW

Adventures in Middle Earth

DER HOBBIT

An unexpected journey

The transformation of the novel "The Lord of the Rings", into a film, filmed in three parts by Peter Jackson, is definitely one of the cineaste master pieces of the new millennium. When Peter Jackson decided to make a film out of The Hobbit as a prequel public expectations run very high. Peter Jackson then decided to to three parts of the prequel as well.

The first part of this Prequel, titled THE HOBBIT AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, came up to the expectations of most of the general public and also turned into a huge success at the cashier boxes.

The Kosmos game DER HOBBIT EINE UNERWARTETE REISE tries to follow in the footprints of the film, and to anticipate, over long passages this works very, very well.

When we open the box we find in it those components:

20 movement cards (five each in four colors), 8 dwarves (two each in four colors), 1 Bilbo marker, 1 Gandalf marker, 1 Orc marker, 1 ring, 1 die as well as 10 adventure cards "Troll Caves", 16 adventure cards "Misty Mountains", 44 cards "The Shires", 16 cards "Rivendell" and 12 cards "Carrock" and also one game board.

Bilbo is forced to leave his home in the Shires to begin a troublesome and dangerous journey, on which he is helped by the dwarves and Gandalf the Magician.

The board shows the road that Bilbo and the dwarves must pass to successfully master the adventure.

Gandalf travels on his own path which enables him to actively support his fellow travelers.

The adventure cards "Troll Caves" are shuffled and put on the corresponding spot on the board, the same goes for the adventure cards for Misty Mountains, The Shires, Rivendell and Carrock.

The game is played in clockwise direction and the active player has three actions in his turn: 1. Playing a movement card and use it to move one of his dwarves. 2. Playing any number of cards from hand. 3. Drawing two cards.

The aim of the game is: Each player must guide at least one of his dwarves to the finish and Bilbo must also be at the finish before the Orcs get the upper hand.

On their journey players must take care that Bilbo and his dwarves are not taken prisoner, but in many situations this is rather unavoidable.

At the start of the game, each player takes both dwarves of his color, the corresponding five movement cards and is dealt three cards from the "The Shires" stack.

1. Play a movement card:

At the start of the game all players with their dwarves and also Bilbo begin at a joint starting position. But soon the dwarves separate and only now and then dwarves move together as a pair or a dwarf is able to take along Bilbo for a travelling companion.

To determine their movement players are provided with five movement cards, showing values 3, 4, and 5, a symbol for rolling the die and a card marked 1-2-3-4. The values of the cards denote the number of steps that you can move a playing piece; players decide if they want to move the piece forward or backwards. To move backwards is sometimes useful to be able to take along another dwarf or even Bilbo, Another reason for moving backwards might be that you do not feel strong enough to enter an adventure space.

The movement card 1-2-3-4 allows a player to decide if he wants to move the piece 1, 2, 3 or 4 steps.

The movement card dice roll forces a player to roll the die and he must then move the piece by exactly that many steps.

2. Play any number of cards from hand:

When a player has selected and played a movement card and has moved his piece accordingly, he may play any number of cards from hand.

Most cards that are drawn by players show dwarves with a certain combat value which are necessary for the encounters on the adventure spots in the Troll Caves and in the Misty Mountains.

When a player ends the move of his dwarf on an adventure spot, he must turn up the top card from the corresponding adventure stack and execute the instructions on the card.

On spots in the adventure region "Misty Mountains" he is usually forced to fight opponents. Most of those opponents will be trolls.

When a player wins such a fight by playing cards from his hands, which means playing dwarves showing a total of comb at values which exactly equals the strength of the Troll the player can remain on the spot with his dwarf and his eventual companions.

But if a player should lose such an encounter he must move his marker, and also eventual companions, back by the number of steps equal to the combat value of the opponent (Troll).

When Gandalf on his own path is also present in the respective adventure area he supports the player and makes execution of the task easier.

Aside from dwarves to master adventures and encounters the stacks also hold cards that are used to move Bilbo, cards for movement of Gandalf and Pony cards.-

Pony cards are a special feature, their use is very important and should be carefully planned and executed. By playing a pony card you can move one of your own dwarves by a certain number of steps. This would not be special, but with such a Pony move your dwarf can take along other pieces that are on the same spot as his dwarf. In this manner you can take Bilbo along, too.

But there are only allowed maximum two playing pieces on a spot: Should a third piece have to enter a spot on which there are already two pieces, this third piece is advanced in direction of the movement to the next empty spot or one with only one piece in it.

It is also of interest to know that you can move the dwarf of another player onto an adventure spot, using a pony card, and try to master the task that is presented by the card that is drawn.

3. Draw two cards:

In relation to the location of his two dwarf pieces a player draws one card for each of his dwarves. There are two special areas on the path: Three spots for Rivendell and three spots for Carrock. When a dwarf of a player stands on one of the three Rivendell spots he draws one card from the Rivendell stack. In analogy a player draws 1 card from the Carrock stack when his dwarf stands on a Carrock spot. When a dwarf is neither in Rivendell nor on Carrock, a player draws a card from "The Shires" stack for this dwarf.

In the stacks for those regions there are mostly positive cards, which players take in hand. But, unfortunately there are also cards in the stacks that have a reddish background, and those cards are negative events; the most unfortunate of those events is the event "Danger", because whenever such a card is turned up, you must move the Orc piece forward by one step. The Orc spiral shows, besides the starting spot for the Orc piece, spots numbered from 1 to 12. Should the Orc piece reach spot 12 before all players have at least one dwarf at the finish and before Bilbo is at the finish, all players together lose the game instantly.

Even worse, if possible, is the fact that, whenever the Orc piece reaches the spots 4, 7 and 9 on the spiral, the dwarf in first position is taken prisoner and can only be moved again when he was freed by another dwarf, be it one of the players own or a dwarf of another player.

And the worst possible case happens when two pieces stand in first position on the travel path, as they are out of the game for good when taken prisoner. You cannot free those pieces. Bilbo also can be in first position and be taken prisoner. Should Bilbo happen to be taken prisoner together with a dwarf, the game is instantly lost for all players.

To enable players to move one of their dwarves to the finish, they must discard dwarves of combat value 10 or more for each dwarf moving there.

The special card Thorin can be used to free imprisoned playing pieces; in case of fights on adventure spots Thorin does not automatically win the fight, but the player's dwarf may remain in position and need not move back. Thorin can be also used to move your own dwarf into the finish.

"The One Ring" is another special card: Should players happen to manage to let Bilbo and the Ring meet on a spot, Bilbo puts on the Ring and cannot be taken prisoner from now on.

Despite the simple mechanism and basically not really difficult rules the successful completion of the adventure is very difficult and needs quite a lot of clever cooperation of all players. In general one can state that players, who play the game for the first time, usually do not manage to win it at first play.

But even experienced players and those who have played "Der Hobbit Eine Unerwartete Reise" already several times must often cope with suffering a defeat.

The well-working mechanisms of the game put more and more pressure on all players during the game. The Orc piece represents a huge threat. Much too fast the piece arrives at the end of the Orc spiral and thus seals the defeat of all players.

It has turned out to be very important to leave dwarves, who are situated on spots in the Rivendell and Carrock regions, in position there for some time. On those spots the probability to draw a "Danger" card is considerably lower and therefore you should try to draw several cards there, as they usually also offer higher combat values of dwarves, which enables one to win fights easier or to maybe free imprisoned dwarves a bit easier.

The game really offers quite a lot of allure to keep putting it on the table and to try and finish the game with a success. The visual impression and graphic design are excellent and provide a lot of flair and feeling.

In our trial games opinions on the success in reproducing the plot of the film in the course of the games differed widely. Some players stated that they could not see the plot of the film in the flow of the game and that for them the topic seemed to be forced and not to really mirror the film. Other players, and that includes me, did not share this opinion at all, but, on the contrary, we could very well imagine ourselves in the roles of the dwarves and Bilbo and for the game did make the plot appear and reproducible.

In my opinion game designer Andreas Schmidt did manage very well to illustrate the travel adventures of Bilbo and the dwarves, as shown in the film, in this game play.

Cineastes and film lovers will get a whole-hearted recommendation from me to buy the game for themselves. To players with some gaming experience, which are not put off by the cooperative mechanisms and game play I can also recommend the game warmly, it is a really good cooperative game and surely is one of the best in this genre. To families and to casual gamers I would recommend, before buying the game, to estimate if family members and casual players can cope will with lots of defeats meted out by the game, as surely a lot of games will be necessary to have a chance to win it; if they can cope well then I can recommend the game because it is really a lot of fun and presents a real challenge.

The game is also very good for two players. Families with some gaming experience should take a look at the game, and as it might be difficult to play and win for unexperienced players I do not dare to give a positive recommendation for them.

My conclusion: A felicitous game interpretation of a film that surely will become a classic in a very short time. Experienced players and experts should try the game, it is really a rewarding experience.

Maria Schranz

Players: 2-4

Age: 10+

Time: 60+

Designer: Andreas Schmidt

Artist: Pohl & Rick, Bernd Wagenfeld

Price: ca. 25 Euro

Publisher: Kosmos 2012

Web: www.kosmos.de

Genre: cooperative, events

Users: With friends

Version: de

Rules: de en es fr gr nl pl ru

In-game text: yes

Comments:

A nice transposing of a film topic into a game, of a film that will soon become a classic.

Compares to:

As to topics, all games on Der Hobbit, otherwise first game of its kind

Other editions:

Announced: Filosofia, Devir, 999 Games, Galakta, Hobby World

My rating: 6

Maria Schranz:

I think I will put this game on the table again and again as it is a real challenge while being a lot of fun!

Chance (pink): 3

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 3

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 1

Communication (red): 3

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0