This is a mandatory game for someone to clame they like board games. That seems neat. I have played the regular Risk with a group of friends to great extent. We even wrote rules to play it simultaneously (declaring attacks in secret all at ones at the start of each round). I hope to play this LotR version some time. I have played this a couple of times on one game night. I enjoyed it a lot. Great and fun game for a group of 6 to 7 people. My game shelf consists of Setlers of Catan, junior and the expansion Knights and Cities. Dominion 2nd edition and expansions Prosperoty, Hinterlands and Intrige. Scrabble, 30 seconds, Party and Co junior, Carcassonne Big Box and junior, Agricola family edition and a lot of different card and dice games. I might be headsing to addiction Grrr, Imrahil
I'm one of the few people I know who doesn't like Settlers. One, it's too random for my taste and, two, I don't like the fact that I can have the largest army, but can't go back my neighbor's city. My favorite board game is Twilight Imperium 3. (I don't have 4, yet.) But, again, you need at least 4, if not 6, people to play properly. My family has really enjoyed Zombiecide: Black Plague, Firefly, Pandemic, and Fortune and Glory over the last few years, as well.
There is a computer game version, same time Risk that adds some dimensions and sounds similar to what you house-ruled. It'd be a pain in the butt to do without a computer. LOTR Risk has many built in mechanics to disincentive people to turtle up. The game is settled at the end by points. When the ring is destroyed, you get points for whatever territory you are holding when the game ends, and you get points from mission cards you completed as the game proceeds. Players know approximately how long the game is going to last but never exactly meaning players are incentivized to be more aggressive the closer the ring gets to Mount Doom. In my groups, we play Risk, most people settle in one continent hording troops, and just do the bare minimum conquest to get a Risk card. First off in LOTR Risk, the yield of cards doesn't keep getting bigger. At the beginning of the game, three elves is worth 4, three horses is 6, three eagles is 8, and a one of each is 10. At the end of the game these values have not changed. You also have mission cards. To get a mission card, you have to conquer a territory with a story symbol using a hero. Heroes add +1 to one of your dice rolls when attacking or defending. Earning mission cards and using mission cards, is not conducive to turtling up, you have to go out and earn them. The majority of the mission cards read like "bring a hero to X territory." If you are Good faction and bring a hero to a Good mission territory, you get lots of bonus troops and a small number of points. Reverse for evil. If you are a Good faction and bring a hero to a Evil mission territory, you get a small number of bonus troops and a large number of points. Reverse for Evil. I still remember the game fondly even though I haven't played it in a while. The games still typically range over 2-3 hours. But that's better than a 5-6 hour game of Risk. I like Twilight Imperium, but it is REALLY long to play and it's hard to find 4+ willing to spend a whole day to play (counting the mandatory food break).