How to Play The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game – Angmar Awakened Hero Expansion

Game Objective

The hero expansion The Wastes of Angmar for The Lord of the Rings: Card Game focuses on the mysterious Dúnedain and the proud and noble elves of Middle-earth. This expansion contains Player Cards that can be used to build or improve Player Decks for any scenario or campaign of The Lord of the Rings: Card Game. The main objective is to use these cards to overcome the challenges of scenarios and campaigns, with the addition of new mechanics such as Side Quests, which represent parallel adventures that heroes can undertake.

Setup

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Game Flow

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Actions and How to Play

Keyword "Encounter"

• Cards with the keyword "Encounter" cannot be included in Player Decks.
• When preparing a scenario, each player may set aside up to 3 copies of each card that contains the keyword "Encounter", leaving them out of play. These cards do not count towards the minimum 50 card limit of the Player Deck.
• Cards with the keyword "Encounter" cannot be played from a player's hand. Instead, a card's effect may cause it to be shuffled into the Encounter Deck, from which it may later be revealed or dealt as a Shadow Card.
• The "When Revealed" effects of cards with the keyword "Encounter" cannot be canceled.
• If a card with the keyword "Encounter" is dealt as a Shadow Card to an enemy, it is considered an Encounter Card: place it in the Encounter Card discard pile after resolving the attack of the enemy in question.
• If a card with the keyword "Encounter" would leave play, it must be removed from the game instead.

"Valour" Activation

• Valour is an activation element that appears on some Player Cards in this expansion.
• Action and Response abilities with Valour activation, presented as "Valour Action" or "Valour Response", can only be activated by a player whose Threat is equal to or above 40.
• If a card has two effects, one with Valour activation and one without, the player can only choose one of these effects to activate when playing the card. Furthermore, they can only choose the effect with Valour activation if their Threat is equal to or above 40.

Side Quests

• Side Quests are a new type of Quest Card.
• There are two types: Player Side Quests and Encounter Side Quests.
• Side Quests are not part of the Quest Deck. The top card of the Quest Deck is called the Main Quest.

Player Side Quests

• They have a Player Card back and can be included in Player Decks.
• It is both a Player Card and a Quest Card.
• It can be played from a player's hand during the Planning Phase if they pay the respective cost.
• When a Player Side Quest is played or enters play, it must be placed in the staging area.

Side Quests in Play

• When any Side Quest is in the staging area, it acts as a Quest Card.
• Exception: when a Side Quest is completed, players do not advance to the next stage of the Quest Deck. Instead, the Side Quest is added to the Victory Display.
• At the beginning of each Quest Phase, if there are one or more Side Quests in the staging area, the first player may choose one of them to be the current quest until the end of the phase instead of using the Quest Card from the Quest Deck that is currently active.
• When a Side Quest is the current quest, any progress made by players is placed on that Side Quest, and any card effects that target the current quest are directed at the Side Quest in question.
• Progress Tokens must still be placed on the Active Location before they can be placed on a Side Quest.
• Any Progress Tokens gained that exceed the total Quest Points of the current quest are discarded; do not place Progress Tokens on any other Quest Card in play.

Anatomy of Player Side Quests

1. Card Title: The name of the Side Quest.
2. Sphere of Influence Icon: Indicates which sphere the Side Quest belongs to. If it has no icon, it is a neutral card.
3. Cost: The number of resources the player must spend from the appropriate Resource Pool(s) to play the Side Quest.
4. Card Text: Special abilities and flavor text unique to the Side Quest while it is in play.
5. Quest Points: The number of Progress Tokens that must be placed on the Side Quest to complete it.
6. Victory Points: Each Side Quest has a Victory Point value. When a Side Quest is completed, add it to the Victory Display.

End of Game and Scoring

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Tips for Winning

Dúnedain Deck

• Try to leave a weaker enemy engaged with you, as your heroes become stronger in this situation.
• Use Amarthiúl as your main defender and the Honour Guards to survive most attacks.
• Equip Aragorn with both Swords of Númenor so he can destroy most enemies with a single attack.
• Play the Steward of Gondor on Amarthiúl to gain the Tactics Sphere.
• Use Sneak Attack with Gandalf to draw 3 cards, as this deck doesn't provide much card draw.

Elven Deck

• Accumulate several cards through drawing and returning them from your discard pile to your hand, allowing you to discard them for powerful effects.
• Elven-light is crucial: play it from your discard pile to gain two cards in hand, which can be used to activate the discard abilities of Arwen Undómiel, Éowyn, the Protector of Lórien, and the Elven Smith.
• The Silver Harp is an important resource for returning discarded cards to your hand.
• For defense, add the Protector of Lórien and Unexpected Courage cards to Arwen Undómiel to make her your primary defender.
• Use expendable allies like the Elven Smith to defend against large attacks.