As the rules booklet is somewhat vague on some topics I have written the following clarifications and options for play. I have also added my rules for simultaneous move/combat and Diplomacy/Machiavelli adaptions. Note that there are some differences between the rules of the commercial versions ("trilogy edition", "original edition" and "european versions" ). I have noted some below.
A note on terminology: I have used the word province instead of territory. A source province is the province containing the attacking units, while a target province is the province being attacked. A controlled province is a province containing at least one unit. The abbreviation lotrr stands for lotr risk.
*Trivia note: Risk is called Risiko in some countries.
Notice that some of the options make the game less "tolkienesque".
In the original rules you must always leave one unit in any province you gain control of (i.e. enter or leave). This rule can of course be dispensed of. I suggest these changes at setup (see also "Movement, attack and defense"):
Option 1: do not setup neutral units in unoccupied provinces in the 2-player
game.
Option 2: players are not required to setup at least one unit in every
province.
Option 3: ignore the good/evil/neutral division and randomly distribute the
territory cards.
The third option is recommended in the two-player game if you wish a more variable game and also to avoid having the two opposing armies bordering each other in the Mordor-Gondor area.
As an option to letting the players choose any of the additional (unclaimed/unoccupied) territories they want, you could distribute the remaining neutral cards.
Notice that in the 'trilogy edition' game all players also 1 (one) territory and 4 non-event adventure cards. In the previous edition they received 1 territory card in the 3-player game and 2 in the 4-player game, while gaining 3 non-event adventure cards !! (So much for consistency). I recommend that you do not award territory cards at setup.
In standard Risk game the players may win by reaching any of these objectives: eliminate all armies of a colour or conquer some continents/countries (the continents are: africa+asia, asia+s.america, n.america+oceania, n.america+africa, europa+s.america, europa+oceania) or a number of territories (24 with one or more armies or 18 with two or more armies).
The same may of course apply to lotrr. Examples of similar rules follow:
In lotrr the game objective is instead to gain as many points as possible, but there are missions too. You get those with some of the adventure cards (gained when a leader moves to a province with a site of power). The mission adventure cards have a "site of power" (black symbol on map) depicted at the top. There are 22 cards in the expanded game. To claim the mission award (mainly extra units) you must move your leader to the site in question (unless you were lucky enough to already be present in the sought for province). The move is made either with an attack or during strategic movement.
It is unclear whether awarded units may be immediately placed (if possible) on the map or after all combat has ended or only in the reinforcement phase. If you want a more aggressive and fast game allow immediate placement, else efter combat or during reinforcement.
Option1 : dispense of the mission fulfillment requirement and treat the
mission cards as any other adventure card.
Option 2: end game when a player fulfills a province or country conquest
mission (as outlined in 1-3 above).
The standard Risk rule is that you can attack with up to 3 units present in a source province as long as one unit is left there. If you eliminate all defending units in the target province you may then advance with up to all the attacking units (=one unit per used die) and the proceed with another attack.
Option 1: you are not required to keep at least one unit in the source province.
Option 2: you are not required to move at least one unit to the target
province.
Option 3: you can move any number of units into the target province (the
actual lotrr rule).
Leaders may either support an attack or later make a strategic move. If part in an attack/defense the leader confers a bonus to your attack/your defense. Leaders may also be used in missions (see above).
Note that you may only have one leader present in a province.
The rules are anything but clear on this issue. I suggest one of the following interpretations:
Option 1: To avoid the largest player staring to grow exponentially and to create a longer game do not award extra armies based on the number of strongholds ('trilogy edition') and/or owned provinces and/or countries (continents in the standard game). Just use the "trade in cards" bonus.
Note that you must trade in your cards if you have more than 5 cards at the beginning of your turn (actually the standard Risk rules state 5 or 6). And that you receive armies per number of sets traded in (4/6/8/10/12/15/20/+5), not per combination of units (INFx3=4, CAVx3=6, ART(Monster)x3=8, InfCavArt=10). In both cases 2 additional units are awarded if the card depicts a controlled province and you control said depicted province else the bonus units are lost (this last bonus has been removed in thr 'trilogy edition' rules).
Reinforcements are supposed to be placed in any province you already occupy.
Option 2: If you use the options allowing empty provinces, you may also place units in empty provinces depicted on province cards or mentioned on the mission cards .
In standard Risk you may move the units in one (and only one) province to an adjacent province. But in lotrr you may move these units any number of consecutive (in a chain) controlled and passable provinces!
Notice that your leader(s) can move separately from these units. But you cannot move the leader at all if you have claimed a leader-mission earlier in the same turn!
Option: You may strategically move all of your units (this surely quickens the game).
In standard Risk the player eliminating the last units of another player gains the other players territory cards.
Option 1: The eliminated players territory cards may be gained if you
eliminate a player (added to 'trilogy ed.' rules).
Option 2: The eliminated players adventure cards may also be gained.
According to the 'trilogy edition' rules you must also at this point trade in territory card sets until you have less than 5 cards in your hand.
The game can be pretty predicatble when played with alternating turns, so here is an attempt to create rules for simultaneous moves and battles.
The rule requiring a player to leave one unit behind or to enter an area with at least one unit is not used.
With this optional rule all players have to write down which provinces they will move from and to and how many units. Then one of the players will start to make his moves. The other players will notify this players of any conflict that will occur and fight it out. After player one is done player two proceeds to announce his moves and so on.
All units that leave a province must be used to attack (if applicable).
Only units remaining in a province can be attacked.
Attacker and defenders must declare against whom they roll the dice, before any rolls are made.
Battles involving more than two attackers and one defender are resolved like this:
Battles involving only attackers are resolved like this:
Instead of the above battle rules let all attacking units bounce each other symmetrically. That is bounce one unit each of the attackers units until only one attacker has any remaining units. Then proceed to attack as per the standard rules.
This is my dear old 'ring diplomacy' recast for use with the lotrr map and with some advanced optional rules added. You will need the expanded game for this.
I use all territories as provinces, and treat all 'sites of power' and 'strongholds/fortresses' as supply centers. The provinces containing ports can be used to build fleets (option) (practically enough, all of these also contain either a 'stronghold' or a 'site of power'). Rivers and bridges do not have any effect on moves, but mountains are impassable.
1-3 equals the good side and 4-5 (obviously) the bad side.
SC=Supply Center; StC=SC+Stronghold/fortress; NC=not used in the game as an SC
or Stronghold
Game begins in the 3rd age year 3000 when Saruman turns to Sauron. The standard Diplomacy rules apply with the following exceptions:
The winner is the first player to control more than half of the SCs.
The standard Diplomacy rules apply with the following exceptions and additions.
Indicated players can only own 1 of each type (but see cavalry). And, yes, this does mean that Mordor can simultaneously field three elite units!
Indicated players can only own 1 of each type. This units are in addition to the elite units. These cannot be used to gain control of (conquer) an SC by themselves. They can only help other units to do that.
One of the good players is the secret controller (CTRL) of the "ring-bearer" (RB). The RB's moves are secret and hidden for all players. The moves are written on a slip of paper at the beginning of a turn before any other actions. If any other unit (incl. the BRC) enters (even at retreats) a province with the RB, or the RB enters a province containing any other unit (incl. the BRC), the location of the RB is revealed after all moves/attacks have been resolved.
Mordor controls the "black riders/crows" (BRC). These also move about secretely as described above. If the location of the ringbearer is disclosed and the BRC are present in an adjacent province the player of Mordor may immediately move the BRC into the province containing the RB.
Both the RB and BRC are notional units. As such they cannot partecipate in attacks, defense or support, nor do they need to be maintained by a supply center. They are also not affected by terrain features, but are only allowed to move on land.
Electing the secret controller
The Game Master (GM) elects a good player as the secret controller before the games begin. If the initial CTRL is eliminated the (GM) elects a new CTRL. If you do not play with a GM draw a card or similar to select the initial CTRL and then repeat the procedure if the initial CTRL is eliminated.
"Sudden death"
Some of the units can move two provinces per turn. If the unit moves one province only, the move is resolved as any other move. If the unit moves two provinces it does not affect any move or action in the first province, only in the second and last province.
Should the same unit be forced to retreat, it will do so according to normal rules if having done a one-province only move. But if it has attempted to move two provinces it must, if possible, retreat to the first province in the movement path. Should the first province be occupied normal retreat rules apply.
Support is given as per normal rules. I.e. only into an adjacent province.
The player controlling most SCs wins if 'sudden death' occurs, else the first player to control more than half of the SCs.
If tied at 'sudden death' the player controlling most SCs of the opposing alignment wins. I.e. if Mordor controls 12 SCs, whereof 5 are good player SCs, and Gondor also control 12 SCs, but whereof only 4 are evil player SCs, then Mordor is the winner.
My main goals were two: to make a quick adaption ignoring all things Tolkien (read: a map variant) and to make a more tolkienesque adaption by adding some optional rules (the "advanced game"). I also wanted to keep the number of players down and make it possible to play as a two-player game (therefore the distinct evil/good sides).
For the advanced game I wanted to make the game more like the book, while both keeping it easy to play and reasonably militarily balanced. At the same time I wanted to give the players an incentive to cooperate (even force them to cooperate by the 'forced alliances' option) by keeping Sauron strong while not making the outcome obvious (the sudden death ring-bearer rule).
For the advanced game I also wanted to create some tactical challenges by adding some special units with country-specific capabilities (as in any war game, but also Machiavelli).
Lastly I made a review of the Tolkien Diplomacy games found at the Variantbank.org to get a reality check. Not very surprisingly a lot of my stratagems had already been thought of (hidden move, special units). The most interesting games were 'Hardbop downfall' and 'Necromancer'. I have also peeked at SPI's 'War of the rings' war game.
The difficult decision was about what to do of some of the personalities and races of the lotr world. In the end I decided to make Gandalf combined with the great eagles an indestructible special unit against the Nazgul -- thus combining Gandalfs magical powers and the great eagles physical powers. The same went for the Nazgul and Lord of the Nazguls that were combined as an indestructible unit.
Saruman I made a playing power (and I intentionally ignored the Ents but see the optional rules if you insist on using them). I also ignored the Balrog, the races and most 'personalities' and some other features (like the effects of the dead in the Dead Marshes, the Dead City) that are difficult to fit in. Some of the personalities I rolled into a unit or country. But I kept The Dead. I was also undecided about the fortressess, so I added an optional rules for the use of some.
As for the races I ended up creating special units incorporating the "essence" of some races. The elves are partly represented as the Gondorian elite archers. Orcs & trolls are one type of unit. Uruk-hai are controlled by Saruman and Haradrim and the like are essentially rolled into the Mumakil unit. The reason for this is that the evil races and elves play a part on the battlefield in addition to the "humans". As Dwarves only have token representation in the lotr book they have been ignored. The same goes for the Hobbits, excepting the ring-bearer of course.
Eriador. As the above would have ended up in a four-player game I felt the need to add a fifth power. You may if you wish, see this power as representing the rest of the good side. I.e. the dwarves, hobbits and what say you. Do also remember this is supposed to fit on the lotrr map.
Use the Diplomacy instructions above with the following exceptions.
| country/die | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Eriador | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Rohan | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Gondor | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
| Mordor | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 |
| Saruman | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 |