The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Trick Taking Game

• Designer: Bryan Bornmueller
• Publisher: Office Dog
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 10+
• Time: 20 minutes per hand
• Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4t83bHT
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

The journey continues in the magical world of Middle-earth in The Two Towers: Trick-Taking Game, a narrative-driven co-operative card game that lets players take on the roles of heroes and villains in Tolkien’s legendary work, The Two Towers. This standalone game follows 2025’s The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game with chapters 19-36 of gameplay. The chapters can be played in any order and playing the earlier game isn’t required, but ideally you play them in sequence.

In each chapter, each player takes a different character role and each character has a condition that must be met in order to pass the chapter and advance in the story. As you advance through the chapters, new characters, items, and challenges are introduced to the game. The One Ring is the game’s only trump card, but initially rings can’t be led until someone plays one off-suit.

To set up TLOTR:TTTTTG, start by finding the first chapter card – in this game, it is Chapter 19 “The Departure of Boromir”.  If this seems weird, it’s because this game is a direct continuation of TLOTG:TFOTRTTG which had 18 chapters.

Place the Chapter card on the table, then place a random deck card under it (reshuffle and re-do if it is the White Tower card or the Black Tower card).  The deck cards have four basic suits (1-8 in Hills, Mountains, Forests and Shadows) as well as 3 Orc cards, a White Tower and a Black Tower.   The four character cards are placed on the table, as the Chapter 19 card states, place a star token on Aragorn and Boromir – as these two characters MUST be included in the party for this Chapter.  Each Character card includes both the Goal Condition for that character as well as any special setup rules. 

Players are dealt a hand of cards, and the player who is dealt the White Tower card takes the White Tower Token and automatically takes the Aragorn character card (at least in the first Chapter).  Going clockwise from Aragorn, each player then takes an unchosen character.  Note that the starred characters must be chosen by someone at the table.  Once all the players have chosen a character, resolve any Setup actions as stated on the character cards.  

Players can only discuss information that is visible to all players – they cannot discuss or show the cards in their hands.  It is fair to remind players of things such as character goals or any other information known to all players – such as anything printed on face up cards.

In each round, players will play a trick taking game. Aragorn always leads the first trick (well, at least in Chapter 19).  Then, going clockwise around the table, each player can play a single card to the trick, and they must follow suit if possible. If they do not have the lead suit, they can play any card they like.  When all players have played, the player who played the highest card of the lead suit wins the trick. They collect all the cards, put them in a group, and place them facedown in their area.  The winner of the trick leads the next trick.

The Tower cards are special exceptions. They can only be played to a trick if the player cannot follow the lead suit.  If a Tower card is in a trick, it will automatically win – except in the case of a trick with BOTH Tower cards, in which case they cancel each other out and the highest card of the led suit wins.  A Tower card can be played as the lead card of a trick, but it has no suit, so the next suited card played becomes the lead suit.  As the Tower cards are played/revealed, give that player the matching token so that all players remember where the card is (or came from).

The Orc cards are also an exception – they can only be played when the player cannot follow the lead suit. Orc cards can never win a trick.  And unlike the Tower cards, you can’t start a trick with an Orc card – or, better stated, if you are forced to lead a trick with an Orc card, the chapter is automatically lost.

Before starting, make sure that all players understand the goal of each character. The team “wins” the Chapter if they can accomplish the goals of all the Characters in the hand.  Whenever a Character has met their goal, it may be helpful to put a star token on top of the Character so everyone can see this fact.  The hand can be stopped early if it can be determined that all the goals can be met (early victory) or that it is impossible to complete at least one goal (early defeat).

If you are playing the entire campaign, play Chapter 19 until you win it. When you do win it, move onto Chapter 20, and so on.  As you move through the game, you will encounter new Characters, you will learn new rules, events, etc.  Like I said, part of the fun of this game is the discovery of the different elements of the game, so I’ll leave the rest for you to discover on your own.  Your group can re-live the story of the Two Towers as you encounter familiar characters and events.  

My thoughts on the game

TLOTR:TTTTTG is a fascinating follow up to TLOTR:TFOTRTTG – and it continues to bring the story of the books to life.  For the most part, the game holds true to the books, and it really is fascinating how the designer is able to bring the different parts of the storyline into the game. My favorite might be Treebeard – just wait until you see how slowly he talks!

Each individual chapter gives the group a new challenge to overcome, and one of the things I like best about the game is the strategy discussion that we get to have with each new chapter as we try to plan ahead – and then have to deal with the luck of the deal and everything else that happens over the course of a hand.

In most of the chapters, one of the characters is automatically assigned, and then players choose their role in clockwise order from that starting player.  This is one of the biggest/best challenges of the game in my eyes, as the players can no longer discuss what they have in their hands – players have to evaluate the different goals and then try to choose the best one for their hand.  It definitely helps to pay attention to the different setup rules for the characters as you can definitely use the setup to your advantage – possibly exchanging cards with other players or tucking cards under your character card to help generate a temporary void, etc.

There are a lot of super clever ideas and surprises with the characters in the game – but for spoiler reasons – I’ll leave that to the reader to discover as they play their way through the Chapters of this book box.   The rules have been pretty solid (I found that the rules from the first book were a little loose in places), and we really haven’t had any significant questions come up as we have played through the game.

This is definitely the sort of game that wants to be played in blocks.  In our first session, we got through 8 or 9 chapters, with 2 or 3 total failures along the way, so I’m thinking we played about 11 or 12 hands over the course of two hours.  It’s a really enjoyable way to spend the evening with friends and work together to get through the game.

If you liked TLOTG:TFOTRTTG, you’ll surely like TLOTR:TTTTTG as it’s a direct continuation.  If you’re not sure – I’d honestly recommend that you start with the first.  Not that you can’t just start here – but really, why would you want to start from Chapter 19 when there is a box that starts with Chapter 1?!

Cooperative trick taking games are still not overly common, and TLOTR:TTTTTG is a great addition to my card game library.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Chris Wray (Love It): I’ve lost track of how many trick-takers I’ve played over the years — the number has to exceed 500 at this point — so it is no small praise for me to say that this game and its predecessor are my favorites. The production quality is top notch, the character-based system is a stroke of genius, and this is the rare trick-taker where the theme shines.

The Two Towers has my favorite mission of both games (though I won’t spoil anything by revealing which), and overall, I find the gameplay in the second game to be slightly more fun than that in the first set. I agree with Dale’s comment that players probably don’t want to start from Chapter 19 when there is a box that starts with Chapter 1. But if you’re an advanced trick-taker and only have time for one box, I’d go with this one. That said, both are very much worth your time!

But I want to take a moment and put this game in a broader historical context. Trick-taking games were played with with standard card decks for the vast majority of their centuries-long. Designer trick-taking games only began to get regular releases in the 1990s. The pace quickened in recent years, and there has been a massive explosion in designer trick-taking games. But most of them are low-budget affairs.

The Two Towers feels — at least to me — like a big moment in the history of trick-taking games, because it is the first blockbuster trick-taking game. This is the first game where the designer, publisher, developer, etc. clearly invested years — and invested a significant production budget, plus a marketing effort — in making a game that would not only live up to a much-beloved IP, but would also have wide appeal across the gaming industry. Just as Tolkien spent years building his worlds and their languages, Bornmueller and his team have spent time refining every aspect of the characters, missions, and thematic tie-ins of this game. 

This game is astounding. I enthusiastically recommend it.  

Talia: Just here to agree with Chris!  What a truly phenomenal game.  Also here to recommend the designer diary to better understand how this game builds on the design of Fellowship in clever and impressive ways.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it! Erik Arneson, Steph H, Chris Wray, Alison B, Talia. 
• I like it. Dale Y
• Neutral.
• Not for me…

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4t83bHT