The Lord of the Rings

The Two Towers Demonstration Video Script

Starting a Game of The Lord of the Rings™Trading Card Game

Welcome to a short demonstration on how to play The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game. Each player will take one turn in this demonstration to illustrate how to start a game, what the basic mechanics of the game are, and how to resolve some of the main action sequences of the game. After that, we encourage you to continue to play with the starter decks how we have set them up and follow the game to its conclusion.

It would be a good idea to print out, or have on hand, The Two Towers rulebook for any questions that might arise; just stop the video and look up anything you have a question on. We will try to explain as much as possible in this video, but we can't anticipate every question you might have. This demonstration assumes that you have looked through the rulebook at least once and have a passing knowledge of some game terms for The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game.

Before we get into the demonstration, let me also say that these decks that we are using for this demonstration, The Two Towers Théoden and Aragorn starter decks, will soon be available for download on www.decipher.com. However, they will not be available for free download until December 18th, so until that time it would be best if you had the real starter decks with you, arranged in the order that we have specified. This is very important that you arrange the decks in the order listed as you will not be able to follow along if they are not in the proper sequence.

The first thing we need to tell you about is how you win the game; once you know that, the rest will fall into line. There are three ways to win a game of The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game. You can win by either corrupting your opponent's Ring-bearer with burdens, kill your opponent's Ring-bearer and taking the ring for yourself, or you can be the first person to get your Ring-bearer safely to the end of the Adventure Path.

The Adventure Path is a pre-selected set of nine cards that represent the path of your characters in their quest to destroy the One Ring. These cards are made up of sites that are numbered 1 - 9 and each represents a place in Middle-earth. The first person to run through these sites and keep their Ring-bearer alive is the victor.

Both players will need their own decks to play. A deck is built out of equal parts bad-guy cards (Shadow) and good-guy cards (Free Peoples). When it's your turn, you represent the Free Peoples of Middle-earth, which are basically the good guys. When it's your opponent's turn you represent the Shadow, or the bad guys. It's easy to tell the difference between good and bad-guy cards as they have different symbols in the upper left-hand corner of each card, a circle for the good guys and a diamond for the bad guys.

Here is how to start a game:

Each of you will need to determine who will be player one and who will be player two. Player one will be playing the Théoden starter deck and player two will be playing the Aragorn starter deck, both brand new products from The Two Towers expansion. The Théoden starter is based around the Rohan culture and the evil Uruk-hai of Isengard. The Aragorn starter is based around the three hunters, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas, and also features the evil men of Dunland.

When you begin play, you have to start by determining who goes first. Each player secretly selects a number of tokens to bid with. The player with the higher number of tokens gets to determine who goes first. These tokens also represent a number of burdens that your Ring-bearer will start the game with. When your Ring-bearer has 10 burdens he is corrupted and you lose the game. So be careful not to bid too high as cards will also add burdens throughout the game.

Each player selects their opening bid then simultaneously reveals the bids to determine who goes first.

For this demonstration player one will bid 2 and player two will bid 1. Player one will choose to go first.

Now both players reveal their starting Frodo and One Ring and put their bid on Frodo to determine starting burdens. Player one should now have two burdens and player two should have one burden on Frodo.

Next, the player that goes first (player one for this demonstration) gets to choose which site 1 they want to begin the game at. All sites have two numbers on them; the number in the top left corner is the site number. All sites have to be played in order, so for instance site 1 has to be in play before site 2 shows up, etc.

Since player one is playing the Théoden deck, their site 1 is Horse Country. As both players continue to move down the site path, you'll alternate playing the next few sites in numbered order. For this demonstration, you'll only be going as far as site 3, but in a regular game of The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game, players might get as far as site 9 where the game must end.

After site 1 is chosen, both players get to choose what's called your starting fellowship. Your starting fellowship will consist of any number of companions, as long as their total cost isn't greater than 4.

Player one's starting fellowship will be Éowyn and Éomer.

Player two will start with Aragorn.

Now both players draw their opening hand of 8 cards.

Player one will have:

Uruk Regular
Still They Came
Heavy Chain
Brego
Herugrim
Hobbit Sword
Work for the Sword

Player two will have:

Death to the Strawheads
Iron Axe
Dunlending Madman
Legolas, Elven Comrade
Gimli, Unbidden Guest
Hobbit Sword
Ranger's Sword, Blade of Aragorn

Once all the set up of the game has begun, we can start the game.

Player 1's Turn:

Fellowship Phase:
Player 1:

Plays Herugrim on Théoden - add 2 to the twilight pool
Plays Brego on Théoden - add 1 to the twilight pool
Plays Heavy Chain on Éomer - add 1 to the twilight pool
Plays Hobbit Sword on Frodo - add 1 to the twilight pool
Move to site 2 - Player 2 plays Rohirrim Village on the Adventure Path
Add 3 to the twilight pool for the Shadow number of Rohirrim Village
Add 3 to the twilight pool for Player 1's three companions
No more actions
There are now 11 tokens in the twilight pool

Shadow Phase:
Player 2:

Plays Dunlending Robber - remove 5 from the twilight pool
Plays Dunlending Madman - remove 4 from the twilight pool
Plays Iron Axe on Dunlending Madman - remove 1 from the twilight pool
No more actions
There is now 1 token in the twilight pool

Maneuver Phase:
Both players pass on maneuver actions

Archery Phase:
Both players pass on archery actions

Assignment Phase:
Player 1:

Assigns Dunlending Robber to fight Théoden
Assigns Dunlending Madman to fight Éomer

Skirmish Phase:
Player 1 chooses to resolve Théoden's skirmish first

Player 1 plays Work for the Sword from hand to increase Théoden's strength to 10 - adds 1 token to the twilight pool
Player 2 passes
Player 1 passes
Théoden wins the skirmish and the Dunlending Robber takes 4 wounds and is killed.
Player 2 places the Dunlending Robber in the discard pile

Player 1 now chooses to resolve Éomer's skirmish

Player 1 passes his first action
Player 2 passes his first action
Dunlending Madman wins the skirmish and Éomer takes 1 wound
Dunlending Madman is now fierce.

Fierce Assignment Phase:
Player 1 assigns the Dunlending Madman to fight Théoden in the fierce skirmish

Fierce Skirmish Phase:
Player 1 chooses to resolve Théoden's fierce skirmish

Player 1 passes their first action
Player 2 passes their first action
Dunlending Madman wins the skirmish and Théoden takes 1 wound

Regroup Phase:
Both players pass on regroup actions

Player 2 reconciles hand – discards Death to the Strawheads then draws 4 cards:

Swiftly and Softly
Best Company
Pippin, Woolly-footed Rascal
Band of Wild Men

Player 1 announces that they are not going to move again and draws 5 cards:

Ferocity
Broad-bladed Sword
Orthanc Warrior
Broad-bladed Sword
Uruk Stalker

Dunlending Madman and Iron Axe are discarded
Player 1's turn is now done

Player 2's Turn:

Twilight pool is now emptied

Fellowship Phase:
Player 2:

Plays Legolas - adds 2 to the twilight pool
Plays Gimli - adds 2 to the twilight pool
Plays Pippin, Woolly-footed Rascal - adds 1 to the twilight pool
Plays Ranger's Sword, Blade of Aragorn on Aragorn - adds 1 to the twilight pool
Plays Hobbit Sword on Frodo - adds 1 to the twilight pool
Move to site 2 - Rohirrim Village
Add 3 to the twilight pool for the Shadow number of Rohirrim Village
Add 5 to the twilight pool for Player 2's five companions
No more actions
There are now 15 tokens in the twilight pool

Shadow Phase:
Player 1:

Plays Uruk Regular - remove 5 from the twilight pool
Plays Uruk Stalker - remove 5 from the twilight pool
Exert Uruk Regular to play Orthanc Warrior for 1 less twilight
Plays Orthanc Warrior - remove 3 from the twilight pool
Play Broad-bladed Sword on Orthanc Warrior - remove 1 from the twilight pool
Play Broad-bladed Sword on Uruk Regular - remove 1 from the twilight pool
No more actions
There are now 0 tokens in the twilight pool

Maneuver Phase:
Both players pass on maneuver actions

Archery Phase:
Both players pass on archery actions

Player 1 must assign 1 archery wound to a minion for Legolas's archery keyword

Player 1 places 1 wound token on Uruk Stalker

Assignment Phase:
Player 2:

Assigns the Uruk Stalker to skirmish Gimli
Assigns the Uruk Regular to skirmish Frodo
Assigns the Orthanc Warrior to skirmish Aragorn

Skirmish Phase:
Player 2 chooses to resolve Aragorn's skirmish first

Player 2 passes their first action
Player 1 passes their first action
Aragorn wins the skirmish and the Orthanc Warrior receives 1 wound

Player 2 chooses to resolve Gimli's skirmish next

Player 2 exerts Legolas to make the Uruk Stalker strength -2
Player 1 passes their action
Player 2 exerts Legolas to make the Uruk Stalker strength -2
Player 1 plays Ferocity to make the Uruk Stalker strength +2 (player 1 then places Ferocity on the discard pile)
Player 2 plays Best Company to make Gimli strength +2 (player 2 then places Best Company in the discard pile)
Player 1 passes
Player 2 passes
Gimli is strength 8 and the Uruk Stalker is strength 6
Gimli wins the skirmish and the Uruk Stalker takes 2 wounds and is killed
Player 1 places the Uruk Stalker in the discard pile

Player 2 chooses to resolve Frodo's skirmish

Player 2 plays Swiftly and Softly to cancel the skirmish - add 1 to the twilight pool

Regroup Phase:
Both players pass on regroup actions

Player 1 reconciles their hand - draws 6 cards

Rider of Rohan
Uruk-hai Raiding Party
Horse of Rohan
Uruk Rear Guard
Éowyn, Lady of Rohan
Uruk-hai Raiding Party

Player 2 announces that they are going to move again

Player 1 plays their site 3 - Throne Room - on the Adventure Path
Add 1 to the twilight pool for the Shadow number of Throne Room
Add 5 to the twilight pool for Player 2's five companions
There are now 7 tokens in the twilight pool

Shadow Phase 2:

Player 1 plays Uruk-hai Raiding party - remove 6 from the twilight pool
No more actions
There is now 1 token in the twilight pool

Maneuver Phase 2:
Both players pass on maneuver actions

Archery Phase 2:
Both players pass on archery actions
Player 1 must assign 1 archery wound to a minion for Legolas's archery keyword

Player 1 places 1 wound token on Uruk-hai Raiding Party

Assignment Phase 2:
Player 2:

Assigns Uruk-hai Raiding Party to skirmish Gimli
Assigns Uruk Regular to skirmish Pippin
Assigns Orthanc Warrior to skirmish Aragorn

Skirmish Phase 2:
Player 2 chooses to resolve Gimli's skirmish first

Player 2 passes
Player 1 passes
Gimli is strength 6 to the Uruk-hai Raiding Party strength 9
Gimli loses the skirmish and takes 2 wounds

Player 2 chooses to resolve Aragorn's skirmish next

Player 2 passes
Player 1 plays Still They Came – exerts the Uruk-hai Raiding Party and removes 1 token from the twilight pool (Player 1 places Still They Came in the discard pile)
Player 2 passes
Player 1 passes
Aragorn is strength 12 to the Orthanc Warrior's strength of 12
Aragorn loses the skirmish and takes 2 wounds

Player 2 chooses to resolve Pippin's skirmish

Player 2 adds a burden to Frodo to discard Pippin
Player 1 passes
Pippin is discarded
Player 1 passes
Player 2 passes
The Uruk Regular wins the skirmish (since Pippin is not there anymore, Pippin does not suffer wounds and is not overwhelmed and killed)

Regroup Phase:
Both players pass on regroup actions

Player 1 reconciles their hand - draws 2 cards

An Honorable Charge
Orthanc Warrior

Player 2 cannot move again and reconciles their hand – draws 7 cards

Merry, Learned Guide
Aragorn, Wingfoot
Dunlending Madman
Pippin, Woolly-footed Rascal
Dunlending Robber
Severed His Bonds
Dunlending Brigand

All minions are discarded
Player 2's turn is now done
The twilight pool is emptied

It would be player one's turn to play cards and move down the Adventure Path again, but as we said at the beginning of the demonstration, we are only going to run though one turn each. We encourage you to keep playing with your decks as we have set them up for you. Take a second to look through the rulebook again and read the sections on Sanctuaries, and assignment of excess minions in the Assignment rules. The rulebook should answer almost every question you might have.

Remember that there are three ways to win the game, be the first player to get your Ring-bearer to the end of the Adventure Path, kill your opponent's Ring-bearer, or corrupt your opponent's Ring-bearer with burdens.

We hope you enjoyed this little demonstration and we hope that it have given you the tools you will need to start playing The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game.

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