“The Nameless Enemy has arisen again. Smoke rises once more from Orodruin that we call Mount Doom. The power of the Black Land grows and we are hard beset.”
–Boromir, The Fellowship of the Ring
Evil stirs once again in the Black Land, and the Gondorian descendants of ancient Númenor form Middle-earth’s first line of defense. Tested by years of battle, the noble Men of Gondor serve as a shield wall for the West, but can they stand fast against the mounting onslaught from Mordor?
Heirs of Númenor is a new deluxe expansion for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game , transporting your games to the realm of Gondor with 165 new cards (including three copies of each player card). Two new heroes and a host of new allies arrive to join an escalating war against the forces of evil, and three new scenarios lead you from the relative safety of the streets of Pelargir to the heat of an epic battle with an army of Orcs and Southrons.
The Road Goes Ever On
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game offers a unique, narrative play experience for cooperative or solo play. Middle-earth’s heroes undertake fantastic quests that lead them to distant and dangerous locations. Along their journeys, they must battle past enemies and steer away from the Dark Lord’s reach and the treachery he plots against them.
The story that began with the Core Set continues to expand further into the world of Middle-earth with each new release.
The Core Set and Shadows of Mirkwood cycle of Adventure Packs explored the forests of Mirkwood and related the trials of chasing creatures through forests and swamps. The Khazad-dûm expansion and the Dwarrowdelf cycle evoked the ominous dread of a dark and perilous journey through the Misty Mountains and Moria’s abandoned tunnels. Now, Heirs of Númenor depicts the desperate struggles and high adventures of an embattled realm.
The Men of Gondor Ready for War
Many tall men heavily cloaked stood beside him, and behind them in the mist loomed a wall of stone. Partly ruinous it seemed, but already before the night was passed the sound of hurried labour could be heard: beat of hammers, clink of trowels, and the creak of wheels. Torches and flares glowed dully here and there in the fog.
–The Return of the King
Gondor is the most powerful nation in Middle-earth, but as the shadow of Mordor grows and reaches Westward, the Men of Gondor must remain ever vigilant. The Dark Lord’s minions mass just beyond the mountains, and they move throughout the forest roads across the river. Even the streets and marketplaces of Gondor’s greatest cities may house the Dark Lord’s spies. Still, Gondor draws strength from its resources, the greatest of which are its people.
Against the threats outside its walls, Gondor is protected by the soldiers who man its gates and the rangers who patrol its outlands for signs of enemy movement. Heirs of Númenor populates the realm with a range of Gondor allies who serve as shields against your foes, who lay ambushes for wandering Orcs, and who can share their knowledge with your heroes, helping them to distinguish friend from foe. These are a people who have lived long with the threat of Mordor, and if any foe should dare assault them, they intend to make them suffer.
The Black Host of Mordor
New treachery and new enemies await Middle-earth’s heroes as the Dark Lord’s minions mass for battle on an unprecedented scale to besiege the realm of Gondor.
The encounter sets in Heirs of Númenor provide deadly new challenges that will test your heroes to their utmost. The Dark Lord’s reach extends into the cities of Gondor, where treacherous Men serve him as spies and servants. The fate of the West hangs in the balance as it falls to your heroes to deal with their threat before the larger armies of the Black Land arrive to lay siege. Southrons, spies, siegecraft, Orcs, and the Dark Lord’s lieutenants all threaten the ruin of Gondor, but Gondor is all that stands between Mordor and the lands to the West. It must not fall.
Surviving the First Assault
From Orcs and Trolls to Ringwraiths and Dragons, Middle-earth is a rich and expansive world, filled with fantastic and iconic creatures. As you make your stand along the ramparts of a Gondorian fortress, you’ll experience an adventure in Middle-earth far removed from the settings and creatures represented by the Core Set encounter cards. The fields of battle resound with the din of war machines, warhorns, and the terrible bellowing of enemy mûmaks. Orc encampments sprawl across the land, stretching back nearly as far as the eye can see.
Therefore, in addition to expanding your existing game experience, Heirs of Númenor introduces ten all-new encounter sets! These unique sets, when combined into encounter decks (as instructed by the rules), make up Heirs of Númenor ’s three included scenarios.
It’s also important to note that these new encounter sets lay the foundation for the scenarios of the subsequent Against the Shadow cycle of Adventure Packs.
So while the Heirs of Númenor expansion is an exciting addition in its own right, it’s also the first glimpse players will have of a region that will continue to grow and of an epic narrative that will continue to unfold. For as the Men of Gondor stand fast against the Shadow from the East, nothing less is at stake than the very fate of Middle-earth!
Gondor needs the strength of every hero it can get, so gather your arms and set sail for Pelargir to lend your aid to the Heirs of Númenor !