Lord of the Rings Risk is superior to regular Risk. For the forces of darkness, the 1 army piece is an orc, 3 is a Nazgul and 5 is a Cave Troll (forces of darkness have 2 armies - black & red). The other guys have the 1 army piece as an elf, 3 is a Rider of Rohan and 5 is an Eagle. Each side starts automatically in 9 territories each (forces of Darkness in Mines of Moria, Isengard, etc. and the good guys in Rohan, Rivendell, etc.). The ring begins in the shire and moves 1 space after each player takes their turn. If it gets to the last spot, the game ends and you decide the game by a point system. Their are ring cards that allow you to slow it down if you so choose. Their are also power cards like if someone attacks you you can use a reinforcements card to add 4 armies to your force. At all of the main “bases” on the board, the “home” army gets a +1 to defend (Isengard, Helms Deep, etc.). Each army begins with a commander that gives the group that it travels with +1 to attack and +1 to defend. Another point that distiguishes this from normal Risk is that no matter how many territories you gain in a turn, you only get one territory card (and 1 power card if you take over certain territories), so the armies don’t get out of hand. The # of armies for turning in a set does not go up either - the max. # of armies you can get from a set is 10 depending on what type of set you turn in. There are also impassable mountains, rivers that divide some territories and ports that connect some territories. For some reason, my wife, her sister and a lot of other people who would never play standard Risk, A&A or anything like that really enjoy this game (I think it’s just because they like LOTR). It still is a game of runs to a point, but it does not get so out of hand and a bit more strategy is involved (just the fact that you are teamed up with someone else makes a strategy necessary, because you can’t travel through eachother’s territories - many a time where a large force got boxed in due to poor planning!). It’s definitely worth checking out.