For Beginning Players:
Easy-to-Understand Sample Gameplay
Welcome to Middle-earth!
If you are new to the world of trading card games, you probably have a
lot of questions. This type of game is very different from the typical board
game you might have played. Rulebooks can be daunting at times and sometimes
you just want someone to show you how it's done. I frequently receive email
from players who just need that little push to get things clicking for them.
I hope this document will give you that push.
The following is a small sample game of The Lord of the Rings™
Trading Card Game. It shows you the first two turns of a standard game.
There are several cards mentioned throughout this example. For purposes
of brevity, the game text of each card is not included, only what is relevant
to the example. If you'd like to see the cards, you can access them through
the Decipher Inc. website at:
http://www.decipher.com/lordoftherings/cardlists/
You may also view a gameplay video on the Decipher website. It is not
a video of this example, but rather, it covers the ending few turns of a
game. That video is available here:
http://www.decipher.com/lordoftherings/audio/
Lastly, I have written several Help Clinic articles covering all of the
turn phases in The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game. They are
filled with examples and situations to help you understand the interactions
between cards and how specific rule mechanics are played out. You may read
those articles here:
http://www.decipher.com/lordoftherings/strategy/
When you finish this article, I would suggest reading through the latest
rulebook for The Lord of the Rings TCG. You may download a copy of
the latest rulebook here:
http://www.decipher.com/lordoftherings/rules/
If you have any questions about any of these resources, or The Lord
of the Rings TCG in general, please feel free to email me anytime at
Elrond@decipher.com.
SAMPLE GAME OF THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRADING CARD GAME
 Jack
and Sara sit down to play The Lord of the Rings TCG. Jack has brought
a 60-card draw deck (which is the minimum size) and it consists of 30 Free
Peoples cards and 30 Shadow cards. He also has "Frodo,
Reluctant Adventurer," "The One Ring, The Ruling Ring" and his adventure
deck, with 9 cards numbered 1 – 9. Sara has opted for a slightly larger
deck (perfectly legal), which has 72 cards, 36 of which are Free Peoples
and 36 of which are Shadow cards. She also has "Frodo Son of Drogo," "The
One Ring, Isildur's Bane" as her choice for her Ring, and her nine-site
adventure deck.
 Each
secretly takes a number of black tokens in his or her hands and bids for
the right to choose who goes first. When revealed, Jack has bid 2 tokens,
Sara has bid 4. Sara has won and decides to go first. She places the site
1 from her adventure deck on the table to one side, and then lays out her
starting fellowship. Finally, she places her 4 black tokens on "Frodo, Son
of Drogo" as burdens. Jack does the same with his 2 tokens, even though
he lost the bid. Both players draw a hand of 8 cards. Both players have
4 points to spend on their starting fellowship that they may use to play
companions prior to the start of the game. Sara has chosen to use all 4
points on "Aragorn, Heir to the White City." Jack has gone for an Elven
deck, and spent two of those points on "Legolas,
Son of Thranduil," and "Arwen, Elven Rider." These are free points to
spend so no tokens are added to the twilight pool.
Since Sara went first, she got to choose the site that both she and Jack
will start the game with. She has chosen "Green Dragon Inn" as her site
1, which she placed on the table with her starting fellowship. Both she
and Jack place a marker representing their respective fellowships on this
card.
Sara : Turn 1 – Start of Turn actions
There are several cards and actions that take place at the start of the
turn. This is when those cards or actions would be played. "Gandalf, The
Grey Pilgrim" is a good example of one of these. The twilight pool is emptied
from the previous turn (if there are any tokens in the twilight pool).
Sara has no cards out that are identified as "start of turn" actions,
so this part of the turn is over quickly.
Sara : Turn 1 – Fellowship Phase
Sara has drawn 2 Free Peoples cards and 6 Shadow cards in her opening
hand. Since she is the current Free Peoples player, she'll ignore the Shadow
cards for now, as she may not play them. Sara adds 2 tokens into the twilight
pool and plays "Sam, Son of Hamfast" from her hand and places that card
next to "Aragorn." She then declares the 'Fellowship:' special ability action
on "Sam" and exerts Sam once to remove 1 burden from "Frodo" (To "exert"
means to place 1 red wound token on Sam, thus lowering his vitality to 3.)
"Sam" now has 1 wound and "Frodo" now has 3 burdens instead of 4. Since
special abilities can be used multiple times per turn, Sara decides to do
this again, exerting "Sam" again and removing another burden from "Frodo."
Sara cannot play the other Free Peoples card in her hand, as it is a skirmish
event. Therefore, she announces that she will move her fellowship to site
2. Since site 2 is NOT on the table, and she's moving into it, that site
will come from Jack's adventure deck.
 Sara
next declares the text on "Aragorn" and removes 2 tokens from the twilight
pool. Jack plays his site 2 from his adventure deck, "Breeland
Forest," and places it next in line from site 1 in a straight line.
As Sara is moving, she adds 1 token into the twilight pool for the Shadow
number on "Breeland Forest" (upper right-hand corner in the black circle)
and then 1 token for each member in her fellowship, which is now 3. Sara
moves her marker on the adventure path to site 2.
Thus, there will be 1 + 3 + 0 (already in twilight pool) = 4. Now that
she has moved, her fellowship phase is done.
Sara : Turn 1 – Shadow Phase
It is now the Shadow phase and it's Jack's turn to play cards from his
hand. Since Sara is the Free Peoples player, he is the Shadow player. His
opening hand was an even split of 4 Free Peoples cards and 4 Shadow cards.
He can only play Shadow cards when it is not his turn, so he ignores the
Free Peoples cards for now. Jack has 4 tokens in the twilight pool to work
with. Jack has a "Morgul Skulker" in his hand and he chooses to play that.
In the lower left-hand corner of this card is the site number 6. That is
the site that this Shadow minion is native to. If this card is played to
a site with a lower site number, Jack must remove an additional 2 tokens
from the twilight pool as a roaming cost. (The reasoning is that this close
to the Shire, you don't normally see Sauron Orcs walking around.) Thus,
Jack has just enough. Jack removes 4 tokens from the twilight pool, and
places the "Morgul Skulker" in the middle of the table between the two players.
Jack also plays a "Blade Tip" to his support area. This is an area of
the table between himself and his fellowship. This is where cards such as
allies, conditions, and some artifacts and possessions are played. Since
this has a twilight cost of 0, he can play this. Since it's a condition,
it stays in play until any player cancels it. Some conditions have special
abilities that can be used multiple times and some are discarded to have
a single effect. It's often a good idea to play cards out of your hand when
you can so you can draw more cards up later when you reconcile your hand.
Jack has no more Shadow actions, so the Shadow phase is over.
Sara : Turn 1 – Maneuver Phase
The Free Peoples player always gets the first chance to perform an action
in every phase except the Shadow phase. Sara has no maneuver actions as
indicated by cards that have the timing keyword "Maneuver:" on them. Jack
also has no such cards so both players "pass" consecutively on performing
actions in this phase.
Sara : Turn 1 – Archery Phase
Sara has no companions with the keyword "archer" and no cards with the
special ability action "Archery:" in them. Therefore, she passes. Jack has
no minion archers in play either and no archery actions to declare. When
it's time to compare archery totals, they would both be 0. Thus, this phase
ends with consecutive passing. (Note that Jack has a companion with the
keyword "archer." You'll see how this works when Jack is the Free Peoples
player.)
Sara : Turn 1 – Assignment Phase
It's now time to defend the Ring-bearer! There is a "Morgul Skulker" in
the "Breeland Forest" and he's itching for a fight. Sara can now decide
which of her three companions will step up and skirmish (our word for "fight")
this minion. Neither side has any cards with the timing keyword "Assignment:"
so there are no assignment actions. Sara now proceeds to "assign defenders."
Sara announces that she will assign "Aragorn" to the "Morgul Skulker." She
pushes "Aragorn" up in front of the minion. She may not then assign any
more companions to this minion. The Free Peoples cards do not "gang up"
on a single minion. Since all minions have been assigned a companion, this
phase ends.
Sara : Turn 1 – Skirmish Phase
It's now time to skirmish. The skirmish phase consists of multiple skirmishes
between assigned Free People and Shadow characters. Since there is only
one assignment in this game so far, there will only be one skirmish.
Sara gets the first chance to play a card from her hand or perform an
action with the timing keyword "Skirmish:" on it. She looks at the cards
on the table. "Aragorn" has a strength of 8 to the "Morgul Skulker's" 7.
Aragorn will win this skirmish as it stands right now. She chooses not to
play the Free Peoples card in her hand and passes on performing an action.
 Jack
plays "Enduring
Evil" from his hand, which costs 0 twilight. This card lowers the strength
of a character skirmishing a [Sauron] Orc by 1 for each burden Jack can
"spot" (see active and in play) on the Ring-bearer. Since there are two
burdens on Sara's "Frodo," "Aragorn's" strength is now 8-1 = 7. "Aragorn"
is now losing this skirmish since his strength is lower than or tied to
the minion strength. In this case, he's tied and thus losing.
Sara doesn't want him wounded yet, and decides to play her skirmish event
"Swordsman of the Northern Kingdom." This makes a ranger ("Aragorn" has
the keyword 'ranger') strength +4 when skirmishing a roaming minion (which
the "Morgul Skulker" is since he's at site 2). "Aragorn" now has a strength
of 11 to the "Morgul Skulker's" 7.
It is now Jack's turn to play an action, but he has nothing to play. He
passes. Sara, winning the skirmish at this point then passes, and the skirmish
resolves. Having lost the skirmish, the "Morgul Skulker" must take 1 wound.
The loser from a skirmish always takes 1 wound. There are other situations
(such as damage +1) that can increase that, but we'll deal with that later.
Jack places 1 red wound token on the "Morgul Skulker." Sara slides "Aragorn"
back into her fellowship.
The skirmish phase is now over.
Sara : Turn 1 – Regroup Phase
It's now the regroup phase. Sara has no actions or cards with the keyword
"Regroup:" on them so she passes. Jack has no regroup actions either, so
he passes. At this point, since both players passed, no more regroup actions
may be played.
Jack, as the Shadow player, may now reconcile his hand. This means he
may discard 1 card from his hand and then draw until he has 8 cards in his
hand. (If for some reason Jack had more than 8 cards, he would discard down
until he had 8, while drawing no cards.) Since Jack has played 3 cards,
he chooses not to discard any and draws 3 cards so he now has a full hand.
Sara now has a choice. The default "move limit" is 2 sites per turn in
a two-player game so she may move her fellowship to site 3 (which would
play from Jack's Adventure deck) if she wishes. Alternatively, she could
stop her turn here and she would get to reconcile her hand.
Should she decide to move on to site 3, here's what would happen:
- She does NOT get to reconcile. Thus, she would go into site 3 with 6
cards in hand, none of which were Free Peoples cards.
- The "Morgul Skulker" who survived skirmishing at site 2 (but has 1 wound)
would pursue the fellowship to site 3 and would have to be skirmished
again.
- When she moves, she would put tokens into the twilight pool for the
Shadow number of the next site, plus 1 for each companion. Since she's
not allowed to look at the next site until she decides if she's moving
on not, she wouldn't know how much this might be.
- The next phase after moving would be the Shadow phase, NOT the fellowship
phase. The fellowship phase is skipped over on subsequent moves in a turn
past the first one.
Moving additional times per turn can be very risky. Thus, Sara must consider
it carefully. Since Jack just reconciled and now has a fresh hand, and there's
already a minion on the table, she opts to stop right there. Sara reconciles
her hand by discarding 1 of her 6 cards, and drawing up 3 more. Since the
fellowship has stopped moving during the regroup phase, all minions on the
table are discarded, including the "Morgul Skulker."
Sara's turn is now over, and Jack is now the Free Peoples player. Sara's
Free Peoples cards are now considered "inactive" and they may not be spotted,
cancelled, or affected in any way. Jack's Shadow cards that he played ("Blade
Tip") are similarly inactive when he is the Free Peoples player.
Jack : Turn 1 – Start of turn
Jack has no cards out that are identified as "start of turn" actions,
so this part of the turn is over quickly.
Jack : Turn 1 – Fellowship Phase
When Jack reconciled, he drew 3 more Shadow cards, so he has 4 Free Peoples
cards in his hand right now. He plays "Elven Bow" on "Arwen" and puts 1
token into the twilight pool. He then plays "Gandalf, The Grey Pilgrim"
and puts 4 more tokens into the twilight pool. Jack then exerts "Frodo"
once to play "Sam, Faithful Companion" from his draw deck, using the text
on site 1 "Green Dragon Inn." He goes through his deck, finds "Sam" puts
him in play, putting 2 tokens into the twilight pool to pay for him, and
then shuffles his deck. As a courtesy, he offers his deck to Sara to cut.
Jack finally plays a "Hobbit Sword" on "Frodo" for free, as the text on
"Frodo" reduces the cost of possessions played on him by 1.
Jack now has a large fellowship! Five companions is a strong force. However,
there are a lot of tokens in the twilight pool and he hasn't even moved
yet. When Jack is finished with his fellowship actions, he announces he's
moving to site 2. Since site 2 is already in play, he moves to that site,
putting his counter next to Sara's. Jack places another 5 tokens into the
twilight pool for his companions and 1 for the Shadow number of "Breeland
Forest." There are now a total of 13 tokens in the twilight pool! Sara is
very happy!
Jack : Turn 1 – Shadow Phase
 Sara's
Shadow culture is mostly Uruk-hai. They are about average cost so she can
work a little with the twilight pool that Jack has given her. She plays
an "Uruk
Fighter," by removing 3 tokens from the twilight pool for his Shadow
cost and 2 more for roaming for a total of 5. She then removes another 5
to pay the Shadow cost and roaming for an "Uruk Warrior." That leaves her
with 3 left. She plays "Saruman's Ambition" to her support area for 0 twilight.
Unfortunately, she cannot play any more minions with the three left. This
will have to do for now. Sara announces that her Shadow phase is over, with
3 tokens left in the twilight pool.
Jack : Turn 1 – Maneuver Phase
Jack has no maneuver actions, but Sara does. Sara wants to play "Parry,"
an Isengard culture card that as a maneuver action, cancels the strength
bonus from a weapon. She checks the requirements, which are to spot an Uruk-hai.
She can do that. Then, she removes 1 token from the twilight pool to pay
for the cost (Saruman's Ambition lowers the cost of [Isengard] culture events
by 1) and finally plays the card. She points to the +2 strength bonus on
the "Hobbit Sword" and announces she canceling that until the regroup phase.
The "Hobbit Sword" stays in play, but the bonus is ignored.
With no other maneuver actions, the phase ends.
Jack : Turn 1 – Archery Phase
Neither side has any archery actions, as denoted by the "Archery:" special
ability text. (Such an ability allows a character like "Legolas, Greenleaf"
to specifically wound a minion of his choice, but not add to the general
archery total.) However, Jack has two companions with the keyword "archer"
in their text. Therefore, Jack's archery total is 2. One from "Arwen" with
the "Elven Bow" and the other from "Legolas." But wait, Jack points out
that the "Breeland Forest" has the keyword "Forest" in it's text, so "Legolas'"
text kicks in, adding an additional +1 to the archery total, making it a
3! So now when totals are compared, Sara must take 3 archery wounds and
apply them to her minions and Jack applies none.
Sara looks at the minions on the table. The "Uruk Fighter" has a vitality
of 2. The "Uruk-Warrior" has a vitality of 2 as well. Since she has to place
three wounds, one of them has to die. Since the "Warrior" has one more point
of strength, she chooses to place 2 wounds on the "Uruk Fighter," killing
him, and then 1 wound on the "Uruk Warrior." The "Uruk Fighter" is removed
from the table and placed in the discard pile.
Jack : Turn 1 – Assignment Phase
It's now time for assignment actions. Since neither player has an assignment
action, Jack proceeds to assign defenders. Since he only has one Uruk-hai
to defend against, he only has to pick one companion. He chooses "Gandalf"
and assigns him to the "Uruk Warrior." When there are no minions left to
assign to, the phase ends.
Note: Assignment is not mandatory. Should Jack have chosen not to assign
anyone to the "Uruk Warrior" then Sara may then assign that minion to any
companion she wishes, including the Ring-bearer. There are times when this
is strategically sound. Other times, it's a trap, so beware!
Jack : Turn 1 – Skirmish Phase
 It's
time to skirmish! Jack, as the Free Peoples player, gets to decide which
individual skirmishes happen in what order. Since there's only one skirmish,
it's a moot point. "Gandalf" is strength 7 while the "Uruk Warrior" is strength
9. Jack gets first action and plays "Servant
of the Secret Fire" from his hand. He pays 1 token into the twilight
pool. This card reduces the "Uruk Warrior's" strength by 3. "Gandalf" is
now winning 7 to 6. Sara discards the "Saruman's Ambition" as a skirmish
action from her support area to add 2 to the "Uruk Warrior's" strength.
"Gandalf" is now losing by 1. Jack has no more cards he can play so he passes.
Sara has another [Isengard] card in her hand ("Bred for Battle"), but since
she's already winning, all she has to do is pass for this skirmish to resolve.
(Note however that she could not play "Bred for Battle" since its cost requires
her to exert an Uruk-hai. The only Uruk-hai Sara has on the table is already
exhausted, with a 1 vitality, and the rules prohibit a player from exerting
an exhausted character.) She opts to pass, and wins the skirmish. The "Uruk
Warrior" is "damage +1." Thus, he does 2 wounds to "Gandalf." Jack plays
"Intimidate" from his hand a response to taking the first wound. He pays
2 into the twilight pool and prevents the first wound. However, wounds are
placed one at a time, so the second wound is still placed. "Gandalf" comes
out of the skirmish with one wound and the "Uruk Warrior" has one from the
previous archery phase.
The "Uruk Warrior" is not fierce, so there is no fierce assignment and
fierce skirmish phase. The skirmish phase is now over.
Jack : Turn 1 – Regroup Phase
Jack has a regroup action and plays "Pursuit From Behind" out of his hand
for a 0 twilight cost. This card causes him to exert "Arwen" who is a ranger,
to wound every minion. The "Uruk Warrior" thus takes another wound and is
killed and discarded. Sara has no regroup actions so this part of the regroup
phase is over.
Sara now reconciles her hand and draws up to 8. Jack studies the table.
He has 1 wound on "Gandalf" and 1 wound on "Arwen" and 2 tokens in the twilight
pool. He decides it's probably safe to move on and announces that he will.
There is no site 3 on the table, so Sara plays the site 3 "Rivendell Valley"
from her adventure deck (since Jack is moving and the site has not yet been
placed) and places it in line next to the site 2 already on the table. Jack
adds tokens to the twilight pool, 1 for each of his companions which is
5, and 0 for "Rivendell Valley" since it's Shadow number is 0. Since Jack
is now using the second of his two moves for this turn, the next phase is
Sara's Shadow phase. Note, Jack does NOT reconcile his hand, the twilight
pool is NOT emptied, and he does NOT get another fellowship phase. The remaining
phases of Jack's turn will follow as such:
Jack : Turn 1 – Shadow Phase (Sara is Shadow Player)
Jack : Turn 1 – Maneuver Phase
Jack : Turn 1 – Archery Phase
Jack : Turn 1 – Assignment Phase
Jack : Turn 1 – Skirmish Phase
Jack : Turn 1 – Regroup Phase
When Jack reaches the regroup phase, he no longer has any move limit left.
Thus, after regroup actions are played, Sara reconciles her hand. Jack announces
he is not moving, reconciles his hand by discarding 1 card (if he wishes)
and drawing up from his draw deck so he has 8 cards.
It is now Sara's second turn. She becomes the Free Peoples player and
Jack becomes a Shadow player.
Sara : Turn 2 – Start of Turn Phase
Sara : Turn 2 – Fellowship Phase
Sara : Turn 2 – Shadow Phase (Jack is Shadow Player)
Sara : Turn 2 – Maneuver Phase
Sara : Turn 2 – Archery Phase
Sara : Turn 2 – Assignment Phase
Sara : Turn 2 – Skirmish Phase
Sara : Turn 2 – Regroup Phase
...etc.
There you go! There are other aspects to The Lord of the Rings
Trading Card Game that we did not get into in this article for sake of brevity.
Once you get started though, you'll learn the additional rules very quickly,
and soon be having your own adventures in Middle-earth!
Elrond of Decipher
Elrond@decipher.com
Additional assistance provided by
Decipher Product Champions
Jim Colson, Enrique Huerta, and Jason Robinette
September 6, 2002
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