The Lord Of The Rings tabletop games – the six best board game companions to The Rings Of Power

metro.co.uk:

GameCentral recommends some of the best Lord Of The Rings tabletop games, from miniatures battles and card games to full RPGs.

It’s an all-out war of the ratings at the moment between Game Of Thrones: House Of The Dragon and The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power. Fantasy fans have never had it so good, especially as that means plenty of tie-in media for both, including tabletop games.

J. R. R. Tolkien’s books, The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings, have inspired many compelling tabletop games over the years, where you can take control of the battle against the forces of Mordor or help a hobbit hunt for the ring – and on a tabletop you don’t need a £500 million budget or a lifelong academic study of The Silmarillion to enjoy yourself.

Those of a certain age will have memories of rolling a hobbit in the Middle-earth Role-Playing Game, when the closest Lord Of The Rings got to penetrating popular culture was the 1978 animated movie. MERP, as its fondly known by fans, lost its licence in 1999, but has recently been revamped by Free League Publishing as The One Ring.

Now the full variety of Lord Of The Rings tabletop games means that whether you’re looking for co-operation or combat there’s a tabletop retelling of this high fantasy epic to suit every player.

Released to coincide with Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship Of The Ring movie, Games Workshop rode the wave of interest in playing Lord Of The Rings miniatures games as the subsequent films were released. After a dip in interest following the release of the last instalment of the Hobbit, Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game has been biding its time, but this miniature heavy, two-player skirmish game is now going from strength to strength, with a