The Mines of Moria boxed set contains everything you need to start playing The Lord of The Rings, from the basic rules models to paint and instructions on how to finish the scenery. All you need to do now is build your own board. In an effort to avoid letting anything go to waste, Adam Troke explains how to make a gaming board from the empty box.

dam: This project all came about when I was writing the rules for the Mines of Moria Getting Started booklet. I wanted to keep the gaming area suitably small so that it could be played on any sized surface. Many gamers end up playing on a kitchen or coffee table due to a lack of space (or that oft-dreamt-of gaming room), so the games had to fit an area appropriate to these surfaces. It was when I started play-testing that I realized that the scenario playing area was pretty close to the size of the box that the game comes in if you laid the box lid halves next to each other. All I’d need to do was add some detail to the box and I would have myself a playing area where I could easily re-create the scenarios from the Getting Started booklet. So, armed with polystyrene, paintbrushes, and enough sand to make a small desert, I set about building my new board.