Trick-taking games aren’t usually where you expect to find sweeping fantasy narratives, desperate last stands, or the weight of Middle-Earth resting on your shoulders. And yet, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Trick-Taking Game somehow manages to cram all of that into a small box of cards – and does so surprisingly well.
By Bryan Bornmueller who created the first game in this series, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick Taking Game, the long awaited sequel is now with us from Office Dog Games (part of the Asmodee family).
If you are familiar with trick-taking games, the fundamentals will feel immediately comfortable. For those new to the term, as I was when I first picked up The Fellowship of the Rings back in 2024 (I lived a sheltered life), cards are played in suits, players must follow suit where possible, and the highest played card wins the trick. They put those cards into a pile in front of them. The twist here is that winning tricks isn’t always what you want to do. In fact, sometimes it’s exactly what you need to avoid.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Trick Taking Game is a standalone game and does not need the original to play. The biggest trepidation I had when buying this, was simply: how different can it be from the first game to make me open my wallet for it? The trick taking mechanic is still there, and whereas the original game had the One Ring suit of cards to act as trump cards, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Trick Taking Game now has, you might have guessed; two towers to shift the gameplay.
When you deal out the cards to the players, whomever has the White Tower card, will be the particular character of that chapter and be presented with the White Tower standee. In the first scenario, this is Aragorn. When you play the white tower card, you win the trick automatically. The Black Tower card does the same, but if both are played in the same trick, they cancel each other out. Like Fellowship, when used well, these cards can win you the game, but used poorly they can derail the round. Communication is limited, so much of the game becomes about reading the table, anticipating your fellow players’ intentions, and carefully choosing when to push your luck and when to step aside.
The chapter-based structure is what really elevates this game for me. I am not much of a fantasy fan. I simply don’t click with magic in the same way I can with advanced magic-like technology. But many of the people in my life are big fans of Lord of the Rings. We had played the original a great deal, and so I had to pick up this new edition. The first chapter of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Trick Taking Game is chapter 19 and it follows the books, rather than the films, so it starts with the death of Boromir (sorry if that’s a spoiler, but it’s a pretty old book, and films by this point).
In the first chapter you are presented with Aragorn, Boromir, Aragorn and Gimli to choose from, with Aragorn and Boromir being the mandatory characters to choose. Aragorn must win the most tricks, along with the character that has the Black Tower. Boromir must win two or more tricks before the Black Tower card is played, but then win no more, and so on. These character objectives, and you must complete each one, give amazing tactical depth to a simple card mechanic.
It also handles different player counts well. Solo play is fully supported, and the two-player mode cleverly uses an additional “dummy” hand to maintain the puzzle-like nature of the challenges. The “dummy” hand plays the cards on the table in a pyramid structure. Think 7 Wonders Duel, with some cards visible, but others hidden until the cards over them have been picked up. This is also nice, as whilst you cannot tell your playing partner your cards, being able to see a great many of the possible cards in front of you helps you work out which choices you need to make in the round. This solo and two player modes never feels like a compromised experience, which is something cooperative card games don’t always manage.
That said, this is still very much a trick-taking game at heart. If that style of play doesn’t appeal to you, no amount of Tolkien theming is likely to change your mind. There’s also an element of luck involved — the draw of the cards can sometimes make a chapter feel significantly harder or easier than intended. When things fall apart late in a round, it can be frustrating, especially when you were only one trick away from success. Or when you can blow through one round successfully in three minutes, only to start the next round and fail five times back-to-back.
Despite that, the game does an excellent job of making failure feel like part of the journey rather than a hard stop. Restarting a chapter is quick, and there’s a strong “just one more go” pull that makes it easy to keep playing. We have lost a round, moved to another game, and then returned to his very quickly again before the end of the night as we have all been dying to try and complete another chapter.
The artwork of the cards is a standout thing of beauty. And the box art is equally beautiful. The art, by Elaine Ryan and Samuel R. Shimota, conjures the feeling of stained-glass windows. It brings a comforting sense of familiarity, like you are looking at pictures from Arthurian legends, or stained glass in cathedrals, put there to tell tales when many people may not have been able to read. No more fitting tribute to one of the greatest tales in modern civilization.
Overall, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Trick-Taking Game is a smart, accessible, and surprisingly thematic card game. It respects its source material without drowning in it, and it uses familiar mechanics in clever ways to create meaningful cooperative challenges. Whether you’re a long-time fan of trick-taking games or a Tolkien enthusiast looking for something light but engaging, this is a journey through Middle-earth well worth taking, and if you already have the first game on your shelf, I recommend picking this up and seeing if you can help get the One Ring another step closer to the fires of Mount Doom.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Trick-Taking Game is available now from Amazon.
