The Flame of the West

"Time is short. See! The beacons of Gondor are alight, calling for aid. War is kindled. See, there is the fire on Amon Dîn, and flame on Eilenach; and there they go speeding west."
     –Gandalf, The Return of the King

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of The Flame of the West, the fifth The Lord of the Rings Saga Expansion for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!

Brave the Paths of the Dead, battle the Corsairs at Pelargir, and stand fast against the Witch-King and the armies of Mordor during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields! Drawn directly from the key events of the first half of The Return of the King, The Flame of the West returns our attention to Aragorn, the Grey Company, and the plight of Gondor, even while the fates of Frodo Baggins and the One Ring remain uncertain.

With its 165 new cards, The Flame of the West introduces three new scenarios with a decidedly epic bent. War is kindled, and your actions will determine whether or not Gondor stands. Fortunately, you will not ride alone. The Flame of the West introduces a new version of Aragorn (The Flame of the West, 1) to lead you, as well as two new heroes, two boons, and thirty player cards (three copies each of ten different cards) divided between the four spheres of influence.

Whether you dive into The Flame of the West with only the Core Set, or you play through it as the fifth movement in your The Lord of the Rings campaign, you'll be thrilled and challenged as you race across Gondor to defend the city of Minas Tirith in its moment of greatest peril!

Ride Against the Shadow

With their different scenarios, all the various expansions to The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game introduce new stories and challenges. Many of these scenarios go even further, introducing new rules that lend them subtle—but meaningful—twists that defy expectations and keep your gaming experiences fresh with each new journey into Middle Earth.

The Flame of the West is no exception to this model. In fact, while its three new scenarios recall some of the most memorable action from the first half of The Return of the King, they continue to lend additional vigor to the game and your enjoyment of it. More specifically, while all three share the grandiose and desperate tones befitting their source material, each plays in an entirely different fashion.

The Passing of the Grey Company

In the novels, The Passing of the Grey Company is a chapter marked prominently by the heavy dread that fell over the Grey Company as they approached the shadows of black Dwimorberg, the Haunted Mountain, and the Dark Door that led into the Paths of the Dead.

In The Flame of the West, The Passing of the Grey Company gives us the Paths of the Dead, its darkened network of caverns, and the Undead spirits that inhabited them. Despite the terror these spirits prompted in the members of the Grey Company, they never assailed them. Still, were it not for Aragorn, the Company may have panicked and failed to complete its passage. Accordingly, these spirits come with the Phantom keyword, which assigns any damage they would deal as threat increase, rather than as wounds to your heroes or allies.

Additionally, to more fully represent the terror the Company experienced while traveling through the Paths of the Dead, The Passing of the Grey Company introduces Overcome by Fear (The Flame of the West, 16). Working hand-in-hand with the scenario's Phantom Undead to add urgency and a measure of fear to your passage, this objective attaches to your threat dial during setup and raises your threat an extra point each round until you spend one of Aragorn's resources to remove it.

The Siege of Gondor

While The Siege of Gondor draws its inspiration directly from the novels, it carries players through a series of events that never played out on the foreground of The Return of the King. After Aragorn and the Grey Company traversed the Paths of the Dead, they seized the fleet of ships that had belonged to the Haradrim and Corsairs of Umbar, and they sailed the fleet to Minas Tirith and the Battle of the Pelennor Fields

In The Siege of Gondor, these events are brought to the fore, as you and your friends join Aragorn and the Grey Company to battle the Corsairs and seize their ships. Moreover, time is of the essence, and The Siege of Gondor introduces a unique, double-sided objective, The Corsair Fleet (The Flame of the West, 71), which helps tie your progress through this quest directly into your efforts in the expansion's final quest.

The Battle of the Pelennor Fields

The Battle of the Pelennor Fields goes above and beyond nearly every scenario in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game in its efforts to serve as the capstone for multiple quests and scenarios. In the novels, the Free Peoples only barely won the Battle of the Pelennor Fields because the Men of Gondor stood fast long enough to receive reinforcements from the Rohirrim and then the aid of Aragorn and the Grey Company.

Accordingly, The Battle of the Pelennor Fields is a uniquely sophisticated scenario that related directly to the results of other scenarios in both standard play and Campaign Mode. In The Battle of the Pelennor Fields, your victory in hinges upon the results of your previous quests, and you'll want to ensure that Aragorn arrives as early as possible. However, in Campaign Mode, Aragorn's arrival in The Battle of the Pelennor Fields is timed according to the number of tokens on The Corsair Fleet , and the number of enemies he'll face at the battle's peak is tied to the results of your progress through the scenarios of The Land of Shadow.

Stand with the Men of Gondor

As much of the action in The Flame of the West and the first half of The Return of the King culminates in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, it is only appropriate that the expansion's new heroes and player cards represent the strength of the alliance between the Men of Gondor, the Riders of Rohan, and the Elves and Dúnedain of the Grey Company. Nearly all the new player cards bear either the Gondor, Rohan, or Dúnedain traits, and those that don't are designed to fit in any deck that must survive a brutal combat waged at a feverish pitch.

Moreover, as the player cards, like the scenarios, are inspired by the first half of The Return of the King, you'll find new boons that allow you to swear your fealty to either Gondor or Rohan, and you'll find a new Tactics version of Éowyn (The Flame of the West, 2).

The woman who slew the Witch-king, Éowyn still comes with the same four Willpower as her Core Set version, but she gains an uncanny ability—once per game—to do things it was said that no man could do. She can ready herself and gain a nine-point bonus to her Attack Strength, raising it to ten, which is enough to take down even the mightiest of foes.

The Beacons Are Alight

The beacons of Gondor are alight. War is kindled, and The Flame of the West is bringing all the desperate action of the first half of The Return of the King straight to your table. Look for this Saga Expansion for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game to arrive at retailers in the third quarter of 2016!