The Two Towers: Trick-Taking Game

The game builds on the mechanics of the first installment: each player chooses a character with a unique objective and tries to achieve it without openly communicating. New are the two trump cards—the White Tower and the Black Tower—which cancel each other out if played in the same trick. Treebeard plays his cards a trick delayed; the Orc chapters require Merry and Pippin to achieve equal trick counts; at Helm's Deep, extra Orc cards are added to the deck round after round. The game comprises eighteen chapters and is fully standalone, although playing it after the first installment is recommended.

The Two Towers: Trick-Taking Game systematically builds on the strong foundation of the first part and, according to several reviewers, even surpasses it in terms of variety and challenge. Bornmueller's ingenuity in linking trick-taking mechanics to story moments—Treebeard playing a turn late, the secret Black Tower, the increasing orc pressure at Helm's Deep—is truly impressive. Those who weren't won over by the first part won't change their minds here, but fans of the original and of Tolkien consider this a worthy and more extensive successor.