In 1977, SPI published "War of the Ring", a board wargame based upon JRR Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings". The game included a strategic adventure and wargame, and two related games, "Sauron" and "Gondor".
Being both an avid wargamer and a complete Tolkien fan, I purchased "War of the Ring". I still have this game, and indeed it resides it my boxes of 'the best of the best' along with (needless to say) PRESTAGS.
For fans of PRESTAGS, published two years earlier in 1975, there was a wonderful treat with "War of the Ring" (WOTR). The treat was: many of the awesome PRESTAGS counter pictures were used in the counters for WOTR. I have studied both of these epic games and I have identified ten (10) units where the same counter picture was used.
Number 1. The PRESTAGS axemen and (surprise, surprise) the WOTR Dwarves.
Number 2. The PRESTAGS archers and (again, no surprise) the WOTR Elves.
Number 3. The PRESTAGS heavy cavalry and the WOTR heavy cavalry of Rohan and Gondor.
Number 4. The PRESTAGS swordsmen and the WOTR swordsmen of Gondor.
Number 5. The PRESTAGS Improved bowmen and the WOTR Mordor Orcs bowmen.
Number 6. The PRESTAGS militia spearmen and the WOTR spearmen of Elves and Gondor.
Number 7. The PRESTAGS oriental horse archers and the WOTR Rohan horse archers.
Number 8. The PRESTAGS barbarian infantry and the WOTR Orcs (entirely appropriate).
Number 9. The PRESTAGS elephants and the WOTR Haradrim Mumakil elephants. The hobbits called these oliphaunts.
Number 10. The PRESTAGS ballista and the WOTR catapults.
There are of course many unit counters that are unique to each of PRESTAGS and WOTR, with ten examples in the following collage. However, for me there will always be a special bond between these two games, both from the great SPI at the high water mark of their game publications in the mid to late 1970s. Back when I was in high school. And mad about wargames. And mad about Tolkien. And still am.
The marvels of modern technology. ie the internet. ie boadgamegeek.com which has images of maps and unpunched counters for nearly all games. It makes it easier to snip and paste when constructing images for posts.
Posted by: Paul | Tuesday, 27 August 2013 at 08:38 AM
Excellent analysis. But why are the counters unpunched?
Posted by: PythonMagus | Tuesday, 27 August 2013 at 08:24 AM