Lessons from the board game
Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation (think Stratego with LotR characters):
1) It's a miracle the Fellowship ever won. (Of course, this theme is emphasized in pretty much any LotR board game.) I think that the right kind of player could curb-stomp Mordor with the Fellowship, but that player isn't me.
2) The Fellowship's victory was built on a pile of corpses from suicide bombers. There comes a point in the game where the only thing that half the Fellowship is good for is smacking them down with a "noble sacrifice" card to kill them and their opponent. Merry, I'm looking at you.
3) Saruman is a bastard.
4) No, really, Saruman is a bastard. Every piece has a special power, usually revolving around some sort of instant kill or unusual way of attacking (i.e. Gimli instantly kills orcs, the flying Nazgul can basically go anywhere on the board he wants, etc.). Saruman's power basically boils down to "instantly kill anyone but Gandalf, Boromir, and maybe--MAYBE--Sam."
It's a very, very fun game, but dang, I made a lot of hobbits kill themselves last night.