The Lord of the Rings: Circle of Conflict: Release Date, Price, How It Plays and Reviews

The Lord of the Rings: Circle of Conflict is a new Lord of the Rings board game from Office Dog, Asmodee’s in-house studio, and it comes out November 13, 2026 for $49.99. Its big idea: you play the Free Peoples and the Shadow at the same time. Your Free Peoples fight the player on one side of you while your Shadow fights the player on the other. Early reviews call it tense and tactical, and more complex than most roll-and-write games.

Updated October 28, 2026 · Details from Office Dog, Asmodee and the box · Reviews from Opinionated Gamers, Space-Biff! and Wargamer · We haven’t played it yet, so this guide sums up the official rules overview and what critics who have played it say

Circle of Conflict at a glance

When does Circle of Conflict come out?

Asmodee’s store and Amazon both list November 13, 2026. When Office Dog showed the game at GAMA Expo in March, the date was November 6, so it has slipped a week. Fans got an early look too: Office Dog offered advance copies at Gen Con (July 30 to August 2) and at SPIEL Essen in October.

Preorders are moving fast. Asmodee’s own store already shows it as sold out, and Amazon has it on preorder, shipped and sold by Amazon.

How do you play Circle of Conflict?

Everyone sits in a circle. Each player has two halves to their game: a Free Peoples side and a Shadow side. Your Free Peoples go up against the Shadow of the player on your left, and your Shadow hunts the Free Peoples of the player on your right. So every player is a hero and a villain at once, which is where the name comes from.

Each round works like this, based on the full rules overview in Opinionated Gamers’ review:

1. Roll the dice. Two white Middle-earth dice are rolled for the whole table, plus any nation dice you’ve unlocked.
2. Move Gollum. A wooden Gollum marker moves along a track. At certain points, players secretly choose Gollum (more Hunt for the Shadow) or Sméagol (more Resolve for the Free Peoples).
3. Split the dice. Everyone uses one die for their Free Peoples and the other for their Shadow. Icons from a die can only be used on the side you gave it to.
4. Mark your board. You use the icons to fill in spaces on your dry-erase board, some in secret and some in the open. Filling a space often unlocks a bonus, so one good die can chain into several marks.
5. Take actions. The Free Peoples secretly move the Fellowship across a map of Middle-earth by spending Resolve. The Shadow spends Hunt to guess where your neighbor’s Fellowship is hiding.
6. Fight battles. Each side builds armies. Marching three times starts a battle, both players secretly add strength, and the defender gets +3.

The hunt is the heart of the game. If your Shadow guesses wrong, your neighbor has to tell you how many spaces away their Fellowship is. Guess right and you can erase Resolve from their board, and once their Resolve is gone, you start marking Corruption instead. Characters like Gandalf and the Witch-king of Angmar add powerful abilities once you recruit them, and nations like Gondor, Rohan and the Elves add new dice once you activate them.

How does Circle of Conflict end?

The game ends when a Fellowship reaches Mount Doom, when someone marks the last Corruption space, or when both battles on a battle board have been fought. Then everyone scores. You earn points for battles won, for army strength, for every map space your Fellowship visited on the Free Peoples side, and for every Corruption space your Shadow marked. So you need both of your sides to do well to win.

What’s in the box?

Asmodee lists these components:

• 8 custom dice
• 4 player boards (dry-erase)
• 4 battle boards
• 4 dry-erase markers
• 4 reference cards
• 1 Ring board
• 1 wooden Gollum marker
• 1 lead player token
• 1 rulebook

Because everything is dry-erase, nothing gets used up, so you can play it again and again.

What do the first Circle of Conflict reviews say?

Critics who’ve played it mostly like it. They love the “play both sides” idea and the hidden Fellowship, but warn that it’s a brainy game with lots of rules.

A second Opinionated Gamers writer rated it “Neutral,” so it won’t click for everyone. If you like puzzly games where you plan big combo turns, it looks like a great fit. If you want a light family game, start somewhere easier.

Is Circle of Conflict good with 2 players?

The box says 2 to 4 players, but the game is built around a circle of neighbors. With 2 players, the player on your left and the player on your right are the same person, so both of your armies face one opponent. Opinionated Gamers enjoyed it most at 3 players. Because nearly everything happens at the same time, adding players shouldn’t make the game much longer.

How does it compare to other Lord of the Rings board games?

Circle of Conflict fills a gap: it lets 3 or 4 people fight over Middle-earth in about an hour, without the all-night commitment of War of the Ring. If you love Middle-earth on the table in other forms too, see our best Lord of the Rings LEGO sets and our most valuable Lord of the Rings Magic cards.

Should you preorder Circle of Conflict?

If you love Lord of the Rings and like strategy games with a bit of deduction, yes. At $49.99 it’s a reasonable price for a 2-to-4-player game that plays in about an hour, and it’s a strong holiday gift for a Tolkien fan who already owns the classics. Asmodee’s own store is sold out, so preorder now if you want it by mid-November. If you want a lighter game night, our best board games for game night has easier picks.

We’ll update this page with our own impressions once we’ve played it.

Circle of Conflict FAQ

When does The Lord of the Rings: Circle of Conflict come out?

November 13, 2026, according to Asmodee’s store and Amazon. It was first announced for November 6.

How much does Circle of Conflict cost?

It lists for $49.99.

How many players is Circle of Conflict?

It’s for 2 to 4 players, ages 14 and up, and a game takes about 60 to 90 minutes.

Who designed Circle of Conflict?

Geoff Engelstein and Stephen Buonocore designed it, and Office Dog, Asmodee’s in-house studio, publishes it.

Read next: Best Board Games for Game Night · Best LOTR LEGO Sets · Most Valuable LOTR MTG Cards · Best Gifts for Nerds

Sources: Office Dog’s announcement (February 2026); Asmodee’s product page; ICv2 (GAMA Expo, March 9, 2026); TheOneRing.com; Opinionated Gamers’ review (Oct 10, 2026); Space-Biff! (Sep 7, 2026); Wargamer’s hands-on preview (August 2026). Images: Office Dog / Asmodee.

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