There were hobbits in all kinds of sauces and cooking at the Kosmos and Ravensburger boothes, not to speak of the fantasy / ccg hall. None of the new big boxes games settled in Middle-Earth seems to have the depth, interest and originality of Reiner Knizia’s Lord of the Rings, published one year before, and for which the Bree & Isengard expansion was unveiled at the fair. Among the smaller boxes, it’s once more Reiner Knizia who made for the best adaptation of the book with his LotR card game, published by Ravensburger. A clever bidding and placement system of character and places cards recreates some of the flow of the story. Unfortunately, the game is illustrated with bad pictures from the movie. All hobbits have the same irish drunkard faces, and Gandalf looks like a macrobiotic garderner. It’s a pity, since this clever game clearly deserved a true graphich work. [More]

Thanks to Ostadan from the Greenbooks for the note.