“War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of NĂşmenor; and I would have her loved for her memory, her ancientry, her beauty, and her present wisdom.”
— Faramir, The Two Towers
There is a fundamental tension between how Tolkien writes about war and how most tabletop wargames approach it. For Tolkien, war is a necessary evil—tragic, heroic, and ultimately about what we defend rather than what we destroy. For gamers, war is often about efficiency, optimization, and tactical puzzles. This essay explores how we might bridge this gap through thoughtful game design.
Tolkien’s Philosophy of War
War as Necessary Evil
Tolkien’s view of war is complex and nuanced, recognizing that sometimes violence is the only answer to greater evil while acknowledging that war always brings suffering and loss. He sees courage and sacrifice as noble when they serve a defensive purpose, where war is about protecting what we love rather than conquering.
The Cost of Victory
Tolkien emphasizes that even victory comes at a price, where wins often cost more than they gain in pyrrhic victories. Heroes pay dearly for their choices through personal loss, while war can corrupt even the good through moral corruption. Even victory is bittersweet, embodying the theme of the long defeat.
What We Defend
The true purpose of war is protection of home and hearth like the Shire, Minas Tirith, and Rivendell, as well as innocent lives of those who cannot defend themselves. War serves values and ideals such as freedom, justice, and beauty, while protecting the future generations and the world we leave behind.
The Wargaming Problem
Optimization Culture
Most wargames encourage optimization through efficiency where maximum effect is achieved for minimum cost, tactical puzzles that treat war as an intellectual challenge, victory conditions with clear and measurable goals, and resource management focused on points, actions, and time.
Bloodless Abstraction
Wargames often abstract away the human cost by treating casualties as numbers where losses become statistics, eliminating emotional impact where death has no narrative weight, focusing on mechanics over story, and emphasizing competitive spirit where winning matters more than meaning.
The Player Attitude Problem
Even the best mechanics can’t overcome player attitudes where gamification makes war a game to be won, min-maxing prioritizes optimization over narrative, competitive focus emphasizes victory over story, and emotional distance prevents players from investing in characters.
Mechanical Approaches to Tolkienian War
Morale as Central
Make breaking more common than destruction through courage tests where units must find their resolve, rout mechanics where armies break before annihilation, leadership dependency where commanders inspire or fail, and narrative consequences where breaking has story impact.
Corruption and Shadow
Track the spiritual cost of war through shadow points representing accumulating darkness, corruption mechanics where war changes characters, moral choices where decisions have spiritual consequences, and redemption paths providing ways to recover from corruption.
Oaths and Loyalty
Make why you fight matter mechanically through oath systems with binding commitments that have mechanical effects, loyalty mechanics where relationships affect performance, honor points that track moral standing, and betrayal consequences where breaking oaths has costs.
Casualty Consequences
Make death meaningful beyond points through named characters where individual deaths matter, legacy systems where fallen heroes affect future games, grief mechanics where loss affects remaining characters, and memorial systems that honor the fallen.
System Examples
Warmaster Revolution
What Works: Warmaster Revolution succeeds with command failures that create realistic battlefield chaos, morale systems where units break before destruction, leadership dependency where commanders matter, and narrative moments where failures create drama.
What’s Missing: The system lacks spiritual stakes with no corruption or shadow mechanics, casualty weight where death remains abstract, moral choices with no ethical decision-making, and emotional investment where players don’t connect with units.
Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
What Works: MESBG succeeds with might and will where spiritual resources matter, heroic actions where individual choices affect outcomes, character focus where named heroes have weight, and narrative scenarios that are story-driven missions.
What’s Missing: The system lacks corruption tracking with no shadow mechanics, casualty consequences where death has limited impact, moral complexity as choices are often clear-cut, and emotional weight where loss doesn’t affect future games.
The One Ring 2e
What Works: The One Ring 2e excels with hope and shadow where spiritual stakes are central, corruption mechanics where moral choices have consequences, journey rules where travel is meaningful and dangerous, and fellowship phase where downtime has narrative weight.
What’s Missing: The system lacks war focus as it’s more about adventure than battle, mass combat capabilities as it doesn’t handle large battles well, tactical depth with relatively simple combat, and scale issues making it hard to represent epic conflicts.
The Design Challenge
Can You Gamify War Respectfully?
This is the central question:
- Mechanical Stakes: Can rules create emotional investment?
- Narrative Integration: How do mechanics serve story?
- Player Buy-in: What makes players care about their characters?
- Tone Management: How do you maintain Tolkien’s themes?
The Tension
There’s an inherent tension between:
- Gamification: Making war fun and engaging
- Respect: Honoring the tragedy and cost of war
- Optimization: Players want to win efficiently
- Narrative: Stories require investment and loss
Potential Solutions
Some approaches to resolving this tension:
- Narrative Framing: Use story to contextualize mechanics
- Consequence Systems: Make choices have lasting impact
- Emotional Investment: Help players connect with characters
- Tone Management: Design for Tolkien’s themes
Practical Implementation
For Game Designers
- Design for Story: Mechanics should serve narrative
- Consequence Systems: Choices must have lasting impact
- Emotional Hooks: Help players invest in characters
- Tone Consistency: Maintain Tolkien’s themes throughout
For GMs
- Narrative Framing: Use story to contextualize battles
- Consequence Tracking: Make losses affect future games
- Character Investment: Help players care about their forces
- Tone Management: Maintain appropriate atmosphere
For Players
- Embrace Loss: Accept that casualties are part of the story
- Invest in Characters: Care about your forces beyond stats
- Narrative Focus: Prioritize story over optimization
- Moral Choices: Make decisions based on character, not efficiency
The Long Defeat of War
Tolkien’s view of war embodies the theme of the long defeat:
- Necessary but Tragic: War is sometimes required but always costly
- Heroic but Pyrrhic: Victory comes at great price
- Defensive but Corrupting: Protecting what we love can change us
- Hopeful but Bittersweet: Even victory is tinged with loss
This creates a tension between:
- The desire to win: Players want to succeed
- The cost of victory: Success comes with loss
- The necessity of war: Sometimes violence is required
- The hope of peace: War should serve a greater purpose
Conclusion
The challenge of creating Tolkienian wargames is not just mechanical—it’s philosophical. We must find ways to make war feel meaningful, tragic, and ultimately about what we defend rather than what we destroy.
The best systems for Middle-earth gaming are those that: The key principles are to emphasize narrative over optimization where story matters more than efficiency, make casualties meaningful where death has weight beyond points, track spiritual consequences where war changes characters, and require moral choices where decisions have ethical weight.
In the end, the weight of war in Middle-earth is not about winning or losing—it’s about what we’re willing to sacrifice for what we love. And that, perhaps, is the most important lesson Tolkien teaches us about war.
This essay is part of an ongoing exploration of how to capture Tolkien’s themes in tabletop gaming. For more on this topic, see the other essays in this series.