Wrath and Ruin

“Eldest, that’s what I am…Tom was here before the river and the trees; Tom remembers the first raindrop and the first acorn…He was here before the Kings and the graves and the Barrow-wights…He knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless and before the Dark Lord came from Outside.”
  -Tom Bombadil, The Fellowship of the Ring

After traveling down the River Running to the city of Dorwinion and the cursed forgotten temples hidden in the Hills of Rhûn, you have managed to put a stop to the dark machinations of a mysterious cult and push back the shadow of evil that once hung over the city. After restoring peace to a troubled land, all that was left for you was to say your farewells to your newfound friends and return home, or so you thought. But the agents of Mordor are not easily defeated. An old enemy has returned with a vengeance and they now seek to destroy the city you worked so hard to save. Now a new cycle begins with a flash of fire and steel.

Fantasy Flight Games is pleased to announce Wrath and Ruin, the first Adventure Pack in the Vengeance of Mordor cycle for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game—now available for pre-order at your local retailer or online through our website with free shipping within the continental United States!

Update: If you pre-order the Wrath and Ruin Adventure Pack through our website, you will also receive a special pre-order bonus featuring three extended art cards. Those who have already placed pre-orders through our website will also receive this bonus with their orders. 

A Battle in the East

After your adventures in A Shadow in the East, Dorwinion seems to be bright and beautiful, free from the taint of evil that the mysterious cult had swept over the land. After a month of peaceful travel, your band of adventurers have made their way back to the capital city to enjoy one last night of the citizens’ hospitality before returning home. You are glad for the rest, but your thoughts cannot help but drift back to the horrors you witnessed in the shadow of Mordor, and wonder whether the evil has truly been rooted out. 

Your fears are confirmed when you awake in the middle of the night to the sounds of clashing steel and cries of fear pouring in from the streets. The enemy has gotten Inside the Walls (Wrath and Ruin, 25). Thane Ulchor, a traitor to Dorwinion, has returned to the city with an army of Easterlings. His agents within the city slew the guards and opened the gate to let them in, and now the battle rages in the streets. It is up to you to defend the helpless citizens, support the city guard, and push back the invading forces before the city falls into the clutches of darkness.

Wrath and Ruin is a battle to liberate the ancient capital of Gondor from the forces of Mordor. To reflect your struggle to drive the enemy from every last corner of the city, you will be instructed at times to take control of locations when they leave play. To take control of a location, the first player removes all progress from the newly explored location and places it in front of their play area rather than discarding it. A location under any player’s control is still in play— their text is still active, and they can be affected by card effects, including the many encounter card effects that may force you to return a location you control to the staging area, such as the Contested Square (Wrath and Ruin, 35). Should you lose control, you remove all progress from the location, and if you are eliminated, every location you control is returned to the staging area as your hero is no longer able to hold the line. Will you be able to force back this evil once and for all, or will all your efforts to protect the lives of the innocent have been for naught? 

A Merry Fellow

Even as you face the many dangers of the encounter deck in Wrath and Ruin, you may find that not every strange meeting in this quest is perilous. This Adventure Pack gives you and your fellowship the rare chance to brush shoulders with the enigmatic Tom Bombadil (Wrath and Ruin, 10). Tom Bombadil is an ancient being, older than the rain and the trees, but he always has a song in his heart. Now a willing Ally, when Tom Bombadil is revealed, your party may choose any player to gain control of him, ready and committed to the quest as he is always is ready to lend a helping hand to passers-by. This can add an incredible amount of versatility to your turn, giving you a bonus character with a respectable strength of three in willpower, attack, and defense. But for his many advantages, you must be ready for Tom Bombadil’s irregular nature.

The helpful but mysterious nature of Bombadil is shown by the seeming contradiction that he is a player card, but he features the new Encounter keyword. Player cards with this keyword cannot be included in any player’s deck as they have encounter card backs. Instead, when setting up a scenario, each player may set up to 3 cards with the Encounter keyword aside, out of play. They do not count towards your deck minimum and they are never played from your hand.  Instead, these player cards are meant to be shuffled into the encounter deck. The One Ring and the forces of Sauron do not hold power over Tom and such things do not concern him, so he has no qualms about entering this dangerous place, but in order to align him to your cause, you must know how to summon him.

In order to shuffle a set-aside player card with the Encounter keyword into the encounter deck, a card effect must instruct you to do so. In the case of Tom, this card is Tom Bombadillo! (Wrath and Ruin, 5). This Song allows a Hobbit hero to call upon the aide of Tom Bombadil by adding the event to the victory display and shuffling a set-aside copy of Tom Bombadil into the encounter deck. However, you can only have one copy of Tom in the encounter deck at a time, and thus you cannot play Tom Bombadillo! if there is already a copy of the card in the victory display. Rather, you must wait until the end of the round where Tom Bombadil is revealed, at which time will be removed from the game along with a copy of the summoning event in the victory display. With the ancient joyful Tom at your side, you will have no cause to fear the darkness, but you must take care—his help remains a rare gift, and once gone, the battle shall be yours and yours alone.

We Shall Not Yield

The evil of Mordor has spread to infect the surrounding lands, and while there are still those who will fight for their land and to hold back the storm, they will need your help if they wish to see peace and safety return to their home. Prepare for battle and force the shadow out from the city you swore to protect! 

Pre-order your copy of Wrath and Ruin (MEC78) at your local retailer today or online through our website here! This Adventure Pack will arrive at retailers in the third quarter of 2019.