Ringmaster (2000)

RINGMASTER - WAR FOR THE MIDDLE EARTH - free game!

The game recreates the strategic battles between the good and evil armies of the Middle Earth. The battle mechanism is based on the play of special cards. No dice are used. The game is divided in 3 levels: Basic, Advanced and Cooperative.

BASIC LEVEL
In order to carry out a battle, the attacker calculates his Combat Value, equal to the number of his armies involved in the battle. This value can be modified playing one or more special cards divided into Magic Cards, Troop Cards or Ordnance Cards.
After this, the defender calculates his Combat Value, adding the value of his own armies and his cards. The higher score wins the battle and inflicts casualties on the adversary the difference between the two values (as an example, the black army has a Combat Value of 12 and attacks the green army with a Combat Value of 9. The difference, indicates that 3 green armies are destroyed).
In case of the same Combat Value, a Duel with the special symbols printed on the cards is carried out.
The use of the Magic Cards render unforeseeable the game. The winner is the first who gains 10 Victory Points, obtainable by conquering the territories of the opposing players.

ADVANCED LEVEL
In the Advanced Level, the players divide themselves in two factions (Alliance or Darkness Forces), trying to advantage or stop the travel of the Fellowship to Mount Doom, using another set of special cards with the major character of the Lord of the Rings (Nazgul, Allies, Tom Bombadil, Shelob, and so on).
The movement of the Fellowship on the map is guided by the good players, while the Darkness forces will try to hinder it. It is also possible for players to recruit the characters of the Fellowship, Nazguls, heroes or evil creatures using them in the battles (i.e. it is possible to recruit Gandalf in the good armies, fighting versus Shelob!).

COOPERATIVE LEVEL
Allied players conduct battles in cooperation. The armies setup is predetermined.

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Many thanks to ROIG YVES for the english translations (version 10.0), SEAN FORRESTER (version 9.0) and ANTONIO CHAVEZ (version 5.0)!

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HOW TO PLAY
RINGMASTER is a FREE game!

The game is in high-resolution .pdf format and can be downloaded and printed front/back on A4 sheets. To play the game, print the following 4 files. You need also some wooden cubes (or very useful the Lotr Risk pawns) for the armies.

- Map (84x60 cm).
- Rules (14 pages)
- Battle Cards (64 cards)
- Event Cards (64 cards)

enjoy!