Fantasy Flight Games

"Three Is Company"

Published 9 November 2018 | The Lord of the Rings LCG

"Three Is Company"

A Designer Challenge for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

From Frodo's first tentative steps out of the Shire to the ascent up the fiery slopes of Mount Doom, the Saga Expansions for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game let you experience this epic quest in its entirety. Along the way, you'll meet up with some of the story's most iconic heroes as you recreate some of the most memorable events in the history of Middle-earth.

Today, Matt Newman wants to take you back to the very beginning of the saga for a wholly unique designer challenge, one that invites you to follow in Frodo's footsteps more closely than ever before.

Matt Newman on "Three Is Company"

Greetings!

For today’s designer journal, I am issuing another designer challenge. This time, the challenge is for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, and it takes a somewhat different spin.

Here’s the deal: each of these designer challenges will test your skills in a different way. A challenge might involve an alternate way of building a deck or playing the game, or perhaps it will involve playing through a cooperative scenario with an extreme level of difficulty, or with special restrictions and limitations that force you to reconsider your approach.

For The Lord of the Rings, I thought to myself: how can we combine the difficulty of a designer challenge with the theme and narrative of The Lord of the Rings? So, without further ado, here is the first in a series of challenges for players who enjoy the story behind Tolkien’s world…

The Challenge

"The Shire, he may be seeking for it now, if he has not already found out where it lies. Indeed, Frodo, I fear that he may even think that the long-unnoticed name of Baggins has become important.”
–Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring

This designer challenge won't test your deckbuilding prowess, but your ability to make the most of what has been handed to you. Your task is to play the very first scenario of The Lord of the Rings Saga Expansions—A Shadow of the Past—and make it out of the Shire with The One Ring in tow, but you are limited to only the tools and skills that Frodo and his companions had available to them in The Fellowship of the Ring. This is represented by a specific deck (presented below), the contents of which are inspired by the following chapters from The Fellowship of the Ring: The Shadow of the Past, Three is Company, and A Short Cut to Mushrooms. The goal is to present the players with the most thematic and accurate version of this scenario one could possibly play, and the challenge is in attempting to win this scenario with such an… interesting deck. Okay, it’s not a very strong deck. But that’s part of the fun!

In order to play this challenge, players will need one copy of each of the following The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game products: one Core Set, The Black Riders, The Land of Shadow, The Mountain of Fire, Conflict at the Carrock, A Journey to Rhosgobel, The Hills of Emyn Muil, The Dead Marshes, The Redhorn Gate, The Watcher in the Water, The Long Dark, Shadow and Flame, Encounter at Amon Dîn, The Three Trials, Trouble in Tharbad, The Wastes of Eriador, The Thing in the Depths, The Drowned Ruins, The Black Serpent, and The Crossings of Poros. (Any of the cards in the decklist below may be swapped out for other cards, based on your collection. Players should try to stay as thematic as possible when swapping cards into their deck.)

The rules for this challenge are as follows:

You must play the A Shadow of the Past scenario in Campaign Mode.
You must play as a solo player, using the deck provided below.
At the start of the game, set aside Merry and Fatty Bolger. Merry and Fatty have gone ahead of the rest of the company to prepare a house for them at Crickhollow, so they are not part of your hero lineup at the start of the game. When calculating your starting threat, do not count the threat values of Merry or Fatty (your starting threat should be fourteen).
When you reveal A Shortcut to Mushrooms (Stage 2A), the heroes encounter a mysterious rider, who turns out to be Merry. Put Merry into play, raise your threat by six, and draw three cards.
When you reveal Escape to Buckland (stage 3A), put Fatty into play, raise your threat by seven, and draw three cards. Okay, Fatty doesn’t really show up at this part in the story, but let’s give him something to do, shall we? (Yes, this can give you five heroes!)
While playing this designer challenge, Frodo’s Fellowship resources provide a resource match for all spheres.
The advice of Gildor Inglorian was extremely helpful for Frodo and his companions. For the duration of this designer challenge, Gildor's Counsel (The Hills of Emyn Muil, 80) can reduce the number of encounter cards drawn to a minimum of zero, instead of one.

The “Three Is Company” Deck (75)

Heroes (5)

Frodo Baggins (The Black Riders, 1)
Merry (The Black Riders, 3)
Fatty Bolger (The Black Riders, 5)
Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders, 2)
Pippin (The Black Riders, 4)

Allies (14)

1x Robin Smallburrow (The Drowned Ruins, 89)
3x Curious Brandybuck (The Wastes of Eriador, 6)
2x Wandering Took (Core Set, 43)
1x Farmer Maggot (The Black Riders, 8)
1x Halfast Gamgee (The Crossings of Poros, 136)
2x Keen-eyed Took (The Hills of Emyn Muil, 73)
1x Rosie Cotton (The Mountain of Fire, 5)
3x Rivendell Scout (The Three Trials 26)

Events (41)

3x Gildor's Counsel (The Hills of Emyn Muil, 80)
2x In the Shadows (The Land of Shadow, 12)
1x Noiseless Movement (The Three Trials, 33)
2x Old Toby (The Black Serpent, 89)
1x Peace, and Thought (Shadow and Flame, 135)
3x Secret Paths (Core Set, 66)
2x Short Cut (The Watcher in the Water, 60)
3x Take No Notice (The Black Riders, 11)
3x A Test of Will (Core Set, 50)
3x A Light in the Dark (Core Set, 52)
3x Elevenses (The Thing in the Depths 36)
1x A Elbereth! Gilthoniel! (Shadow and Flame, 132)
1x Out of Sight (The Long Dark, 81)
3x Smoke Rings (The Black Riders, 10)
3x Halfling Determination (The Black Riders, 9)
2x Second Breakfast (Conflict at the Carrock, 27)
2x Hobbit-sense (Encounter at Amon Dîn, 65)
3x Frodo's Intuition (The Black Riders, 12)

Attachments (20)

3x Fast Hitch (The Dead Marshes, 103)
3x Ancient Mathom (A Journey to Rhosgobel, 56)
3x Hobbit Pipe (The Black Riders, 15)
3x Hobbit Pony (The Wastes of Eriador, 7)
3x Hobbit Cloak (The Black Riders, 13)
3x Good Meal (The Redhorn Gate, 10)
2x Resourceful (The Watcher in the Water, 62)

Of course, even with this deck, I’ve taken a few thematic liberties. For example, Frodo and company never encountered any other hobbits on their journey aside from Farmer Maggot, and were certainly not accompanied by Rosie Cotton or any Sherriffs or Tooks. Additionally, as I noted earlier, Fatty doesn’t necessarily play a large role in these particular chapters of the story. But I felt it was appropriate to include these cards, since it’s the only time during the Saga that their presence will be relevant to the scenario. Additionally, while Frodo did encounter some elves on their way to the Grey Havens, none of them followed all the way to Buckleberry Ferry. (Nor indeed did they even stay long enough to say goodbye in the morning. How rude!)

This deck contains a whopping 75 cards across all four spheres, which is why I’ve included the above rule allowing Frodo’s Fellowship resources to be spent to match any sphere. This adjustment should help you play any of the cards you draw. Between Hobbit Pipe, Old Toby, Ancient Mathom, and Frodo's Intuition, you should still be drawing through a large portion of your deck, despite its size.

Frodo and company did not fight at all during these opening chapters, and this deck represents that weakness. Without the Daggers of Westernesse (The Black Riders, 14), which the hobbits did not obtain until their journey through the Barrow-downs, your ability to fight will be extremely limited. You should instead focus on stealth and questing, using Noiseless Movement and Take No Notice to avoid engaging enemies, and In the Shadows, Out of Sight, and Hobbit-sense to avoid taking damage when all else fails. You don’t have a lot of allies, so you’ll have to use every trick up your sleeve to explore locations and make it through to Buckleberry Ferry. I’m not going to lie, it won’t be easy… but that’s why it’s called a “designer challenge” and not a “designer romp through the woods,” right?

Let us know how your quest fares! Did you make it to Crickhollow, or did you succumb to the Morgul-blade of a Black Rider? What strategies did you employ? And if you enjoyed this style of designer challenge, let us know! Perhaps we will continue the Saga in the future.

As always, good luck, and happy travels in Middle-earth!

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The Lord of the Rings and the characters, events, items and places therein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Middle-earth Enterprises, LLC and are used under license by Fantasy Flight Games.

Dark Lands Made Darker

Published 27 April 2017 | The Lord of the Rings LCG

Dark Lands Made Darker

The Land of Shadow Nightmare Decks Are Now Available for The Lord of the Rings

"He saw suddenly, issuing from a black hole of shadow under the cliff, the most loathly shape that he had ever beheld, horrible beyond the horror of an evil dream. Most like a spider she was, but huger than the great hunting beasts, and more terrible than they because of the evil purpose in her remorseless eyes."
–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

The Land of Shadow Nightmare Decks are now available for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!

Like other Nightmare Decks for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, the three different Nightmare Decks consolidated in this expansion allow you to revisit some of your favorite scenarios as they are given new life in the shadows of the game's challenging Nightmare Mode. With deadlier enemies, darker locations, and more terrifying surprises, each of these Nightmare Decks introduces new, alternate encounter cards and instructions for using them to reshape the encounter deck from one of the scenarios from The Land of Shadow.

The result? A nightmarish journey through The Land of Shadow that should haunt you with its evils, no matter whether you play its scenarios as standalone adventures or brave the journey to Mount Doom as part of an entire Saga campaign played in Nightmare Mode.

You may have already grappled with Gollum, taming the twisted creature in order to bring out its Sméagol side. You may have already traversed the Dead Marshes, wary of the bog that shifted beneath your feet and the dead faces watching you from beneath the brackish water. You may have taken part in an ambush of the Haradrim. And you may have already found your way through the network of tunnels ruled by Shelob, one of the oldest and most terrifying evils of Middle-earth…

But you haven't yet done these things in Nightmare Mode. You haven't yet seen all the evils that Sauron holds at his disposal.

The Passage of the Marshes

Throughout The Passage of the Marshes, the first scenario from The Land of Shadow, Frodo and the heroes accompanying him are pulled in two different directions by the challenges they face.

On the one hand, they need to find their way through the Dead Marshes, and this is not an easy task. The passages are treacherous, and what may look, at first, to be a safe path may turn out, instead, to lead into an unpassable mire. Or it may lead to a pool of Undead like the Rotting Thing (The Passage of the Marshes Nightmare Deck, 6), which wait tirelessly for living bodies to join them in their eternal anguish.

On the other hand, the heroes need to subdue the treacherous Gollum (The Land of Shadow, 75) and win the trust of its alternate personality, Sméagol (The Land of Shadow, 76). This can be a tricky matter because Gollum can be a clever combatant, and even his Sméagol side is prone toward treachery—ever lustful of the Ring and resentful of the Ring-bearer's companions.

Accordingly, The Passage of the Marshes Nightmare Deck highlights these twinned challenges by reinforcing the scenario's unique "Mire" mechanics with punishing new locations like the Festering Mire (The Passage of the Marshes Nightmare Deck, 2) and forcing you to keep an eye turned perpetually toward Sméagol, lest the strange and misshapen creature should suddenly shift personalities and give into Gollum's Rage (The Passage of the Marshes Nightmare Deck, 8).

In the end, The Passage of the Marshes Nightmare Deck hews very closely to the shape of the original scenario, but in a way that makes you feel you've taken another step or two toward the greater evils of Mordor.

Journey to the Cross-roads

Journey to the Cross-roads is the second scenario from The Land of Shadow, and it offers the heroes a chance to join Faramir and the Rangers of Ithilien for an ambush against the ranks of Haradrim marching north to join the armies of Mordor.

More than this, Journey to the Cross-roads marks a significant turning point in your Saga campaign. While the Saga expansions have always given weight to the choices you make in your adventures with their boons and burdens, this scenario has an effect that's a bit more direct and dramatic. The success or failure of your ambush plays directly into the difficulty of your later adventures, and all the enemies that manage to find their way to The Black Gate (The Land of Shadow, 27) will later join the forces arrayed against you in The Battle of the Pelennor Fields scenario from The Flame of the West.

As a result, you want to cut down each and every single Haradrim enemy as you come upon them, but you'll find that the Journey to the Cross-roads Nightmare Deck has given them new strength to complete their march. They're better organized. Their Southron Rearguard (Journey to the Cross-roads Nightmare Deck, 3) can easily keep a group of heroes occupied, making it difficult for you to engage the other Haradrim and disrupt their march to The Black Gate.

You'll find the Haradrim better able to respond to the ambush. Enemies like the Southron Warrior (Journey to the Cross-roads Nightmare Deck, 2) may not ambush you, but they'll make you suffer all the same whenever you find yourself engaged with them.

And, finally, you'll find that these Haradrim are more inclined to make strategic use of their environment, rushing into the Dense Fern-brake (Journey to the Cross-roads Nightmare Deck, 5) in order to elude the numerous player card effects that might trap or otherwise delay them. You won't be able to Feint (Core Set, 34) the Haradrim in a Dense Fern-brake, nor will you be able to rely upon Gandalf (Core Set, 73) to intervene and destroy them. You'll simply have to fight them the old-fashioned way.

In the end, it's that fact—and the fact that it means you'll have to devise new tactics in the heat of battle—that are the most nightmarish parts of this Journey to the Cross-roads Nightmare Deck.

Shelob's Lair

At the end of The Land of Shadow, Shelob's Lair features one of the greatest and deadliest boss fights in all of The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game.

Betrayed by Gollum, the heroes find themselves trapped in a network of cavernous tunnels, hunted by the ancient and Indestructible Spider known as Shelob (The Land of Shadow, 40). Immune to any attachments and traps with which the players might use to delay her, Shelob begins the scenario out of play. There, she waits for Gollum to bring the heroes to her, and when he does—at Stage 2 —she drops into the staging area and begins her hunt.

At first, this is just an attack here and there… Probing attacks made from the darkness, once per round against the first player… And if you're not prepared to face the spider's attack each round, you can simply cancel it by placing a resource on her. After all, her engagement cost is fifty, meaning you ought to be able to control when you want to quest and when you want to stand and fight.

However, each resource you place on Shelob can be spent, later, to cancel all the damage you would deal from one of your attacks. This is the cost of your early evasion; you must somehow survive the scenario through multiple rounds, questing and managing your threat, while you fend off Shelob's attacks and slowly cut through all the resources you placed upon her before you can finally pierce her armored hide.

Naturally, the new encounter cards from the Shelob's Lair Nightmare Deck play into this central interchange. You'll find more effects, like that from Growing Stench (Shelob's Lair Nightmare Deck, 8), that place resources on Shelob, and should you choose to fend off her attacks, rather than place resources upon her, you'll find those attacks made deadlier by cards like Torech Ungol (Shelob's Lair Nightmare Deck, 3) and Impenetrable Dark (Shelob's Lair Nightmare Deck, 7).

And even the darkness and shadows through which you travel are given new and deadlier form. As with Impenetrable Dark, many of the Nightmare Deck's new cards feature brutal shadow effects that exhaust your characters, possibly leaving you without defenders to shield your heroes from Shelob's attacks!

Frodo Needs You

The Mountains of Ash rise before you. On the other side lies Mordor—and the fires of Mount Doom. The comforts of the Shire may seem a distant memory, but if you've taken Frodo this far along his journey, there's no turning back. The fate of all Middle-earth hinges upon the success of his mission.

Can you help Frodo survive his journeys even as the evils of Mordor rise more strongly against you? Will you play through your The Lord of the Rings Saga campaign in the deadly dark of Nightmare Mode? The Mountain of Fire has recently been announced, and the end of your journey is nearly within sight. But the road to get there is long and hard, and the shadows only continue to lengthen...

The Land of Shadow Nightmare Decks (uMEN 43) are now available. Order yours today!

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Into the Spider's Lair

Published 19 November 2015 | The Lord of the Rings LCG

Into the Spider's Lair

The Land of Shadow Saga Expansion Is Now Available for The Lord of the Rings

Gollum, it seemed, had crawled off along the ledge into the darkness beyond, when the gates of Minas Morgul opened, leaving the hobbits where they lay. He now came creeping back, his teeth chattering and his fingers snapping. "Foolish! Silly!" he hissed. "Make haste! They musn't think danger has passed. It hasn't. Make haste!"
–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

The Land of Shadow Saga Expansion for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is now available at retailers throughout the United States!

Rivendell, Moria, and Lórien lay behind you. Bag End is a distant memory or an idyllic dream of happier times. Ahead of you now lie the Mountains of Shadow, Ephel Dúath, and beyond those lie Mordor and the fires of Mount Doom, the only fires in all of Middle-earth that can destroy the One Ring and defeat the Dark Lord. To some extent, then, the end of your journey is almost within sight, yet these last legs are bound to be the most difficult.

The fourth The Lord of the Rings Saga Expansion, The Land of Shadow allows you to relive selected events from the second half of The Two Towers. You'll journey alongside Frodo Baggins and endure the company of the strange creature known as Gollum. Over the course of your adventures, you must navigate haunted marshes, aid the Rangers of Ithilien in a military skirmish, and confront the ancient spider known as Shelob within her darkened and odious caverns.

From Stagnant Mires to Shelob's Lair

As they trace Frodo's journey through the second half of The Two Towers, the three new scenarios from The Land of Shadow Saga Expansion carry you from the Dead Marshes to the forests of Ithilien and, finally, to the darkened tunnels of Shelob's lair.

In our earlier previews, we explored the role that Gollum (The Land of Shadow, 75) and Sméagol (The Land of Shadow, 76) play throughout these adventures, we looked at the new heroes and player cards with which you might find the strength to defeat them, and we took a look at the burdens and boons that come in the expansion and that will ensure the choices you make in these adventures will continue to resonate until the fateful end of your journey.

Today, however, as the expansion is now available, we take a closer look at its adventures, exploring their themes, their challenges, and the new mechanics they introduce.

The Passage of the Marshes

The Saga Expansion's first scenario is a relatively straight-forward push through the Dead Marshes. Nonetheless, it feels fresh and disinctive thanks to the introduction of the Sméagol / Gollum objective and the new mechanics that accompany the scenario's Mire X keyword, which appears on all of its locations.

Designed to represent the shifting, sinking nature of the Dead Marshes, the Mire keyword actually discards locations from play whenever they have a number of resource tokens on them equal to their Mire X values. However, as much as you might think it's good to have those locations and their threat strengths removed from the staging area, you'll want to think twice about letting them simply slip away. All of them feature nasty Forced effects that trigger whenever they're discarded via the Mire keyword, but that you can bypass by exploring them normally.

For example, when Stagnant Pools (The Land of Shadow, 22) is discarded by its Mire keyword, each player must raise his or her threat by five. Thankfully, all the scenario's copies of Stagnant Pools feature a Mire value of five, so you'll have more than one chance to travel to the location and clear it before it sinks into the Mire. Still, you won't want to wait a long time to travel to the Stagnant Pools. For each resource token on the card, it gains an extra point of threat strength, so that if you ignore it, it can get up to a total of seven threat strength before it leaves the staging area.

Meanwhile, a number of other locations are more difficult to explore. Soft Mires (The Land of Shadow, 23) have a Mire value of just one, meaning that unless you can travel to the Mires or place three progress on them the turn they appear, they're going to leave play at the end of the refresh phase, triggering the Forced reveal of a new encounter card. A one-for-one encounter card replacement may seem like a fair trade, but the unusual timing of the reveal might cause some interesting problems should you stumble into a treachery card like We Hates Them! (The Land of Shadow, 55) or A Fell Light (The Land of Shadow, 26).

Journey to the Cross-roads

Once you, Frodo, and Sméagol make your way through the Dead Marshes, you join with the Rangers of Ithilien and participate in their ambush against the Haradrim marching through the forests to the Black Gates.

There is only one quest stage in this scenario. During setup, it instructs you to set aside all nine enemies from the Men of Harad encounter set, placing them beneath The Cross-roads (The Land of Shadow, 30), which begins in play in the staging area. Then, at the beginning of each quest phase, you must reveal the top card from The Cross-roads and add it to the staging area before you then reveal cards from the encounter deck as usual.

This is important for two reasons. First, it means that you are guaranteed to reveal at least one enemy for each of your first nine rounds. More important, though, is the fact that this steady progression of enemies forces you into engagements. You can't simply allow the enemies to enter the staging area and then stay there because at the end of the planning phase, all Harad enemies in the staging area are placed under The Black Gate (The Land of Shadow, 27). And if there are ever three more enemies under The Black Gate than the number of players in the game, you lose.

Accordingly, Journey to the Cross-roads forces you to act swiftly and strike true. If you don't want to lose, you must engage enemies. And if you're going to engage enemies like the Oliphaunt (The Land of Shadow, 56), you're going to want a plan for eliminating them before they trample all over your fellowship.

In the end, as Journey to the Cross-roads recounts Frodo's journey through Ithilien, it places a much greater emphasis on the battle with the Haradrim than you might find in the novels. This is partially to add to the diversity within the expansion's scenarios, but also to lend greater weight to the decisions you make and the actions you take in Campaign Mode.

Ominously, the scenario's Campaign card reads, "Resolution: […] Record the name and quantity of each enemy underneath The Black Gate in the notes section of the campaign log." As players, we know that the Rangers' ambush of the Haradrim reduced the number of forces that Sauron assembled at the Black Gate to confront Aragorn, Gandalf, Faramir, and Imrahil in The Return of the King, and the Campaign card suggests that any of the Haradrim you fail to defeat in Journey to the Cross-roads are likely to make another appearance in a later scenario.

Shelob's Lair

Should you survive your journey through the Dead Marshes and your encounter with the armies of Harad, the third and final scenario from The Land of Shadow provides you the opportunity to encounter one of Middle-earth's oldest and deadliest adversaries – Shelob (The Land of Shadow, 40).

The last child of Ungoliant, Shelob appears in Shelob's Lair as an Indestructible enemy with four threat strength, four attack strength, four defense strength, and eight hit points. She gains one threat strength for each resource on her, and she gains resources with her Forced effect:

"Forced: At the beginning of the quest phase, either place 1 resource on Shelob, or she makes an immediate attack against the first player."

Of course, the scenario includes plenty of other effects that add resources to Shelob. Locations like Cleft of Cirith Ungol (The Land of Shadow, 45) and Den of Night (The Land of Shadow, 49) require you to add a resource to Shelob in order to travel to them, and the treachery card Lurking Malice (The Land of Shadow, 61) forces you to decide between adding a resource to Shelob or defending yourself against her attack.

All of this is important because once Gollum reveals his treachery, Shelob is the last obstacle you must overcome before you can continue into the realm of Mordor. And all of those resource tokens you added to Shelob? They can be spent to negate any amount of damage you might deal her.

The third and final quest stage forces you to defeat Shelob in order to win, but it also guarantees that Shelob won't be slain in a single attack:

"While Shelob has at least 1 resource on her, she gains: 'Forced: When Shelob is dealt any amount of damage, cancel that damage and discard 1 resource from Shelob instead.'"

Even as the quest stage guarantees that Shelob will stick around long enough to truly threaten your heroes, Cleft of Cirith Ungol – which you must explore in order to remove Shelob's invulnerability – adds two to her attack strength. And if that's not enough, the scenario is full of effects that discard random cards from your hand or encourage you to discard random cards from your hand in order to avoid greater threats. In effect, the deeper you go into Shelob's Lair, the more that you and your gear are likely to get caught up in her webs.

Make Haste!

The time has come to march once more toward the shadowed lands of Mordor, but the road is rough and full of evils. Don't partake in any foolish delays. Make haste. The Land of Shadow is now available at retailers throughout the United States. Pick up your copy today!

Availability in other regions may vary.

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A Heavy Burden

Published 28 July 2015 | The Lord of the Rings LCG

A Heavy Burden

A Look at the Burdens and Boons in The Land of Shadow

"Frodo seemed to be weary, weary to the point of exhaustion. He said nothing, indeed he hardly spoke at all; and he did not complain, but he walked like one who carries a load, the weight of which is ever increasing."
–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

The Land of Shadow Saga Expansion for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game allows players to accompany the remarkable Hobbit Frodo Baggins (The Land of Shadow, 1) for three new scenarios pulled directly from the second half of The Two Towers. In previous previews, we've explored the profound impact that the expansion's double-sided Gollum card has upon these scenarios, and we've looked at how the expansion gives new life to the Rangers of Ithilien with its two new heroes and a handful of other player cards.

Still, Saga Expansions add much more to your play experiences than their scenarios and player cards; in Campaign Mode, they offer you the chance to relive the Fellowship's epic journey, and all the decisions you make along your way will carry with you, either as weights that drag you down, or as inspirations that may give you strength.

In The Lord of the Rings Saga Expansions, these consequences are tracked in your quest log, and they are given physical form in the shape of boons and burdens, cards entirely unique to Campaign Mode. And just as the decisions that Frodo made in the first half of The Fellowship of the Ring helped to shape his journey, even to the fires of Mount Doom, so will the boons and burdens that you earn steer the course of your campaign. Today, then, developer Caleb Grace looks at more of these boons and burdens, exploring how the decisions that you make within the shadows of the Ephel Dúath can either refresh you or wear you down as you prepare for the final legs of your journey.

Developer Caleb Grace on the Boons and Burdens of The Land of Shadow

The three adventures in The Land of Shadow Saga Expansion bring Frodo and the One Ring closer to Mordor and further from help and friends. To help accent the feelings of danger and isolation that the Ring-bearer felt as he drew nearer to the Black Land, The Land of Shadow includes twice as many different burdens as boons.

These start by adding new focus to the unique tension that controlling the Ring-bearer creates in The Land of Shadow. After turning aside from Frodo’s journey to follow Aragorn in The Treason of Saruman, it was exciting to focus on the Ring-bearer again and to see how both he and his circumstances have changed.

A Heavy Burden

Here, in the second half of The Two Towers, one of the biggest themes is the weight that Frodo feels as the Ring seems to drag him down with each step toward Mordor. That’s why one of the two burdens in the box is called A Heavy Burden (The Land of Shadow, 52). This objective burden is attached to the Ring-bearer at the beginning of the expansion's third scenario, Shelob’s Lair, and it forces the first player to make a difficult choice each round:

“Forced: At the beginning of the planning phase, either raise each player’s threat by 1, or exhaust the Ring-bearer.”

Up to this point, in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, Frodo has been a valuable fourth hero who could be relied on to quest, defend, or attack each round. But as the Ring-bearer drew closer to the end of his quest, he had to rely more and more on his companions to help him along, and that is what this burden represents. Either your companions will have to share in your threat gain, or the Ring-bearer will have to exhaust and hope that the other characters can make enough progress without his help.

The Searching Eye

The other burden in the box presents an equal danger for all players. The Searching Eye (The Land of Shadow, 15) is a treachery burden with a player card back. At the beginning of The Passage of the Marshes, the expansion's first scenario, each player shuffles one copy into his or her deck. Then, just like the burden Poisoned Counsels (The Treason of Saruman, 21) from The Treason of Saruman, this burden has an effect that triggers when you draw it into your hand:

“Forced: After you draw this card, either exhaust each hero you control, or reveal the top card of the encounter deck.”

This burden is meant to capture the memorable moment from The Two Towers in which Frodo, Sam, and Gollum shrink in terror as the clouds overheard break for a moment, and they see a Nazgûl soaring overhead, mounted atop a fell, winged beast. The art on the card really helps sell the moment, and the ability recreates the tension that Frodo feels as he realizes there's really no safe place for him to hide. So long as The Searching Eye is in your deck, you feel that suspense building each time you draw a card.

Brace of Coneys

Not everything in The Land of Shadow is bleak. Frodo found help in the most unlikely places, and from the most unlikely of companions. One of my favorite moments from The Two Towers is when Sméagol brings Sam and Frodo two rabbits that he has killed. It’s an incredibly generous gift for the two half-starved Hobbits, especially considering Sméagol could have eaten the rabbits himself without ever telling them. That act of generosity inspired the single boon card for this box: Brace of Coneys (The Land of Shadow, 14).

“Planning Action: Add Brace of Coneys to the victory display to (choose 2): heal up to 2 damage from a hero, add 2 resources to a hero’s pool, choose a player to draw 2 cards, or reduce a player’s threat by 2.”

This effect is structured in such a way that the players can show generosity toward each other in the same way that Sméagol showed generosity toward the Hobbits. Only the player who controls the Ring-bearer can play Brace of Coneys, but he can choose to resolve whichever two effects are most likely to help the whole group continue further along their journey to Mount Doom.

The Weight of the Ring

In The Land of Shadow, you'll find a Frodo Baggins changed by his journey, and you'll find a One Ring that plays a different role than it did in the scenarios of The Black Riders. In fact, as Frodo never actually wore the Ring in The Two Towers, The Land of Shadow presents a Frodo who has truly come to understand the dangers it presents, even as he is exhausted by the effort it takes to resist its temptations. Still, simply as the bearer of the Ring, Frodo gains power, and in The Land of Shadow, Frodo Baggins can spend one Fellowship resource and exhaust The One Ring (The Land of Shadow, 63) to gain two Willpower and two Attack Strength until the end of the round.

However, even though you won't find the Ring the same source of temptation as it was in The Black Riders, it is still a tremendous burden, and Frodo is still very much in peril as its bearer. Accordingly, any power that he draws from it is always accompanied by risk. There's always a chance that exhausting the One Ring may draw the attention of a Morgul Wraith (The Land of Shadow, 53), especially since these enemies are always listening for the Call of the Ring (The Land of Shadow, 54).

With its enemies, treachery cards, burdens, and boons, The Land of Shadow ensures that your adventures in Campaign Mode continue to build upon your previous struggles and continue to set you up for the final legs of your epic journey to Mount Doom. As you march further into the shadows of the Mountains of Ash, you'll find your adventures change their tone to match that of the final half of The Two Towers, and you'll find the decisions you need to make are as difficult and as critical as they have ever been!

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Trapped in The Land of Shadow

Published 23 July 2015 | The Lord of the Rings LCG

Trapped in The Land of Shadow

A Look at the New Heroes and Player Cards from The Land of Shadow

"Four tall Men stood there. Two had spears in their hands with broad bright heads. Two had great bows, almost of their own height, and great quivers of long green-feathered arrows. All had swords at their sides, and were clad in green and brown of varied hues, as if better to walk unseen in the glades of Ithilien."
–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

The Lord of the Rings Saga Expansions for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game are designed to carry you through the pages of Tolkien's fantasy epic as faithfully as possible. Among other things, this means that their scenarios allow you to stand alongside the novels' central characters while you fend off such iconic and memorable threats as the Nazgûl, Durin's Bane, and the armies of Isengard. It also means that each Saga Expansion's heroes and player cards are shaped to reflect the forces acting against Mordor within the section of the novels that inspired its scenarios.

In our first preview of The Land of Shadow Saga Expansion, developer Caleb Grace offered a closer look at how it gives life to Gollum. The Land of Shadow presents three new scenarios pulled directly from the second half of The Two Towers, and Gollum (or Sméagol) is arguably the most influential character throughout the second half of that novel. Accordingly, the developers created a double-sided Gollum card that can act as either enemy or objective-ally and whose ubiquitous presence will frame your adventures in the barren and wild lands just outside of Mordor.

Still, while Gollum may carry more drama with him than any other character in The Land of Shadow, you'll likely be happier to travel with the expansion's new heroes. Both of the heroes who offer their blades to your service and to that of Frodo Baggins (The Land of Shadow, 1) are, as it turns out, Gondorian Rangers. While they're every bit as clever and sneaky as Gollum, neither is likely to creep away from your Fellowship in the night, mutter to himself about how much he hates you, or try to squeeze the life out of you by wrapping his long, thing fingers about your neck.

The Rangers of Ithilien

"They were Rangers of Ithilien; for they were descended from folk who lived in Ithilien at one time, before it was overrun. From such men the Lord Denethor chose his forayers, who crossed the Anduin secretly (how or where, they would not say) to harry the Orcs and other enemies that roamed between the Ephel Dúath and the River."
–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

Several of the Rangers of Ithilien that Frodo and Sam encountered in The Two Towers arrive in The Land of Shadow, led by their Captain, Faramir (The Land of Shadow, 2).

In The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, these Rangers are every bit as skilled and stealthy as in the novel. It is their job to make swift and silent strikes against the foes that travel the eastern shores of the Anduin, so they excel at engaging their foes and trapping them in snares. Of course, they also benefit greatly from the leadership of Faramir, who allows you to ready one of your allies when you engage an enemy. Although this ability is limited to once per phase, it still grants you the freedom to commit to the quest in great numbers, secure in the knowledge that if you should have to engage an enemy, you'll be able to ready an ally to defend against its attack.

Alternatively, Faramir's ability may allow you to ready an ally to make use of it in other ways than as a defender. You can ready Gléowine (Core Set, 62) in order to exhaust him for additional card draw. You could ready and exhaust a Warden of Healing (The Long Dark, 83) to heal your characters. Or you could ready and exhaust a Zigil Miner (Khazad-dûm, 9) to delve for resources, setting yourself up to pay for future allies, events, and attachments.

Finally, as you might expect, Faramir's ability works well with the cards from The Land of Shadow. Of the four Rangers the expansion delivers, two are allies, and like the Hobbits whom they met in the wilds of Ithilien, these Men of Gondor possess abilities that interact with the engagement costs of the enemies they face.

When he enters play, Mablung (The Land of Shadow, 5) can increase the engagement cost of one enemy by five until the end of the round. Then, he allows you to engage that enemy or return it to the staging area. If you engage it, you could trigger the abilities of such heroes as Faramir, Pippin (The Black Riders, 4), or Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders, 2). Alternatively, if you increase the enemy's engagement cost and send it back to the staging area, you might be able to quest past it for a round, without having to worry about it attacking you.

Meanwhile, Anborn (The Land of Shadow, 4) makes his second appearance in the game, this time as a Leadership ally who can exhaust as a Response to increase an enemy's engagement cost by five when it is added to the staging area. As a kicker, he can strike it with an arrow for a point of damage, softening it up for the eventual kill. Then, if you engage that enemy later in the round, Faramir could ready Anborn, who could join in the attack and make a significant contribution with his three Attack Strength.

Indeed, backed by Faramir's skills as Captain of Gondor and his ability to ready an ally, Anborn may prove to be an extremely valuable companion along your road to Mordor, especially when your Fellowship travels In the Shadows (The Land of Shadow, 12) and keeps its threat low so that you can Ambush (The Land of Shadow, 9) your foes, rather than find yourselves caught by surprise.

Like most Trap cards in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, Ambush plays into the staging area and then attaches to first eligible enemy to enter the staging area. Then, once attached, it allows you to take advantage of its powerful Combat Action:

"Combat Action: The engaged player discards Ambush to declare an attack against the attached enemy."

It's worth noting that one of Ambush's greatest benefits is nearly invisible and only becomes clear when you look more closely at the game's timing structure. Enemies engage you during the Engagement Phase. Then they attack you during the Combat Phase. However, if you have a card such as Ambush that grants you a Combat Action, you can take that action prior to the enemy's attack. If you destroy an enemy with that attack, then you no longer need to keep characters ready to defend against that enemy. This is the logic that makes Quick Strike (Core Set, 35) such a powerful event. Ambush functions similarly, but it's even more powerful because it allows you to declare more than one character to participate in the attack. Accordingly, Ambush is priced at two resources rather than the one that Quick Strike costs, but you can alter the terms of that comparison by playing with the new Lore hero, Damrod (The Land of Shadow, 3).

Damrod lowers the cost of the first Trap card that you play each round by one, to a minimum of zero, meaning that he allows you to play your Ambush for the same cost of one resource that you would pay for a Quick Strike. However, Damrod's not done there; he also helps you set up your next Trap whenever the first is sprung:

"Response: After a Trap card you control is attached to an enemy, draw 1 card."

All of the game's Trap cards introduce novel means to gain control over a scenario's enemies. Even so, you'll still need to gather the strength of arms to slay the foes you snare, and you'll still need to steel your will for the quests that lie ahead of you. Accordingly, Damrod's Response ability plays extremely well with a Trap-focused deck as he ensures that the time you spend setting your Traps doesn't hinder your ability to draw into and muster your deck's allies, Weapons, and other cards. Each Trap becomes, essentially, a free draw as well as an extremely cost-efficient means of foiling your enemies.

Together, Damrod and Faramir provide the backbone of a solid Ranger deck – one that could very well lead you through the forests of Ithilien, up through the Ephel Dúath, and into the land of Mordor. Of course, they also partner very well with the Hobbits from The Black Riders, Pippin and Sam Gamgee, who grant you even more advantages for adjusting enemies' engagement costs and engaging them. In many ways, it's a truly appropriate partnership. After all, Faramir demonstrated tremendous wisdom when he captured, questioned, and released Frodo to his task. Had he gone with Sam and Frodo, would Faramir have been able to resist the One Ring's lure? The novels may not give us the chance to explore that question, but it's one you will soon be able to explore with The Land of Shadow!

The Burden of Isildur's Bane

If you haven't already pre-ordered your copy of The Land of Shadow, head to your local retailer today!

This fourth The Lord of the Rings Saga Expansion for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is on its way, along with all the options it presents you. Will you task Faramir, Damrod, and the Rangers of Ithilien to accompany Frodo Baggins along the final legs of his journey? Would such a company call the Eye of Sauron upon your efforts, or would it help ease the Hobbit's burden? You'll soon have the chance to find out.

In the meantime, keep your eyes open for more previews, including a look at the expansion's new boon and burdens!

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We Hates Them!

Published 16 July 2015 | The Lord of the Rings LCG

We Hates Them!

A Preview of The Land of Shadow by Developer Caleb Grace

"Before Gollum could get up, he was on top of him. But he found Gollum more than he bargained for, even taken like that, suddenly, off his guard after a fall. Before Sam could get a hold, long legs and arms were wound round him pinning his arms, and a clinging grip, soft but horribly strong, was squeezing him like slowly tightening cords; clammy fingers were feeling for his throat."
–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

Separated from Gandalf, Aragorn, and his broken Fellowship, Frodo Baggins trudges slowly across the barren stone and slopes of the Emyn Muil. Soon, you will have your chance to join him, to navigate the treacherous lands that lie within the shadows of Mordor, to fight at his side, and to show mercy against pitiable wretches when such mercy is best given.

The Land of Shadow Saga Expansion for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is now on its way to retailers, and you'll soon be able to play through its three scenarios and confront the dangers of Mordor and the surrounding territories with its new Ranger heroes and player cards. Moreover, you'll encounter that strange and twisted creature known as Gollum…

In The Land of Shadow, though, you won't just encounter Gollum once. You'll encounter him multiple times. You'll even have your chances to tame him. In fact, you will need to tame him if you hope to find some smart and secret path into the heart of Mordor. Gollum and his alter-ego, Sméagol, played a major part in the second half of The Two Towers and a major part in the fates of Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee, and the One Ring. Accordingly, as this upcoming Saga Expansion allows you to share Frodo's adventures as faithfully as possible, you'll find that Gollum and Sméagol are absolutely central to its adventures, even if that means you can never sleep peacefully as you set camp along your way…

Today, developer Caleb Grace offers some insight into the role that Gollum and Sméagol play throughout the scenarios of The Land of Shadow.

Developer Caleb Grace on the Role of Gollum / Sméagol

There are few characters in literature as unique and memorable as Gollum. His personality is split between psychotic killer and pitiable creature, and both aspects play crucial roles in The Lord of the Rings. Thus, while we were designing the scenarios for The Land of Shadow Saga Expansion, we felt it was of paramount importance to find a way to translate Gollum's dual nature into the game, and the idea we came up with was a double-sided enemy / objective-ally card.

The double-sided card for Gollum and Sméagol is meant to represent the two split sides of this extremely troubled character that J.R.R. Tolkien created. The enemy side, Gollum (The Land of Shadow, 75), pursues Frodo in an effort to regain his “Precious” while the objective-ally side, Sméagol (The Land of Shadow, 76), follows Frodo to aid him in his quest to destroy it.

While Gollum will by no means be the strongest or deadliest foe that Frodo and the heroes encounter on their quest, his overriding lust for The One Ring (The Land of Shadow, 63) makes him dangerous nonetheless. First of all, he has the text: “Gollum engages the first player.” That means whenever the first player token is passed, and control of Frodo goes to the next player, Gollum follows the Ring-bearer and engages that player. Next, while Gollum may have only two Attack Strength, he gains real tenacity from the first of his two Forced effects:

“Forced: After Gollum engages the first player during the refresh phase, he makes an immediate attack.”

And while Gollum's still not the hardest-hitting enemy, this ability means tht in a multiplayer game, Gollum makes two attacks each round. The threat adds up.

On the flip side, Sméagol showed almost no aggression toward Frodo and Sam, but his resourcefulness and knowledge of Middle-earth proved invaluable. As a result, the Sméagol ally is essential to exploring certain locations, such as Haunted Mere (The Land of Shadow, 21) in The Passage of the Marshes and Sméagol's Secret Way (The Land of Shadow, 44) in Shelob’s Lair. Just as Frodo relied on Sméagol to lead him to Mordor, so will you need Sméagol to travel to these locations.

But to take control of Sméagol, you must first tame him. As you set up the first scenario in The Land of Shadow, The Passage of the Marshes, you are instructed to put the Gollum enemy into play engaged with the first player. In order to flip him to Sméagol, you and your teammates must do enough damage to defeat him. But defeating Gollum isn’t as easy as committing a total of seven Attack Strength to the effort in a single go. Stage 1B of the scenario reads:

“Forced: After a player declares any number of attackers against Gollum, discard the top card of the encounter deck. Gollum gets +X Defense Strength for this attack, where X is the discarded card’s Threat Strength.”

We added this effect at this stage because we felt that part of what made Gollum so interesting was how slippery and tenacious he could be. Tolkien made it pretty clear that if Frodo hadn’t been there with Sting, Gollum would’ve been able to overpower and kill Sam, even though the creature was unarmed and half-starved when Sam jumped him.

Another part of what makes Gollum / Sméagol such an interesting character is his unpredictability. Sam was never quite certain if Gollum was going to bring him food, or throttle him in his sleep. To help preserve that tension in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, we included two copies of the treachery We Hates Them! (The Land of Shadow, 55) in Gollum’s encounter set. When We Hates Them! is revealed from the encounter deck, the effect it introduces depends on which side of the Gollum card is in play. If the Gollum enemy is in play when the treachery is revealed, he makes an immediate attack. If the Sméagol objective-ally is in play, he switches to his Gollum personality. And if that happens, you will have to defeat Gollum again in order to regain control of Sméagol.

Meanwhile, though the One Ring's power wasn't explored the same way in The Two Towers as it was in The Fellowship of the Ring, it allowed Frodo to establish a real connection with Gollum, and even exert control over the creature. Accordingly, We Hates Them! also has text that reflects this power:

“The first player may spend 1 fellowship resource and exhaust The One Ring to cancel this effect.”

When we added this bit of text during the development process, everyone enjoyed how it allowed We Hates Them! and the scenarios from The Land of Shadow to continue playing with the duality and unpredictability of Gollum, but without forcing players into tiresome situations where they had to defeat Gollum over and over. And because it made sense thematically, it was a win-win all around.

Of course, exhausting the One Ring can bring hazards of its own, as players will discover when The Land of Shadow arrives at retailers…

The Taming of Sméagol

Will you be able to tame Sméagol when The Land of Shadow arrives at retailers? Will you trust him to guide you faithfully through the Mountains of Ash? Or will you lie awake at night, expecting betrayal? Will Gollum's personality overtake Sméagol's at the worst of times to sow chaos when you can't afford it? The two-sided Gollum / Sméagol card from The Land of Shadow is just one of the ways that you'll find its scenarios recreate the thrills and tension of the second half of The Two Towers.

The Land of Shadow is coming soon. Head to your local retailer to pre-order your copy. Then keep checking back for more previews of its scenarios, as well as its heroes and player cards!

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The Land of Shadow

Published 30 April 2015 | The Lord of the Rings LCG

The Land of Shadow

Journey with Frodo to Mordor in This The Lord of the Rings Saga Expansion

"Nice hobbits! We will come with them. Find them safe paths in the dark, yes we will. And where are they going in these cold hard lands, we wonders, yes we wonders?"
–Gollum, The Two Towers

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of The Land of Shadow, the fourth The Lord of the Rings Saga Expansion for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!

Join Frodo Baggins (The Land of Shadow, 1) on his desperate journey, and relive some of the greatest adventures from the second half of The Two Towers. Brave the treacherous, trackless expanses of the Dead Marshes and the dead things that lie within their stagnant mires. Travel into the forests of Ithilien, and lend your strength to an ambush sprung against the forces of Mordor. Find your way through dark and foul-smelling tunnels that lead through Shelob's lair. Then confront the ancient spider at the very edge of Mordor.

The three new scenarios in The Land of Shadow take their inspiration directly from the novel, and they bring you as close to the Morgul Vale as you can come without feeling its rock beneath your feet or hearing the coarse, guttural speech of the Orcs that dwell in Cirith Ungol. All the while, you'll need to beware of the Dark Lord's Nazgûl and find some way to deal with that strange, twisted creature known as Gollum (The Land of Shadow, 75).

There's more to The Land of Shadow, though, than its three scenarios. You'll also find three new heroes, including a new version of Frodo, and you'll find three copies each of ten different player cards, which go a long way toward further developing the ways that the Rangers of Ithilien and their Traps are presented within The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. Finally, The Land of Shadow presents you the opportunity to continue your The Lord of the Rings campaign, carrying forward with the epic task you and Frodo first undertook in The Black Riders. In Campaign Mode, the expansion's scenarios are even darker and deadlier than in standard play, and the new boons and burdens that it introduces go a long way toward bringing you more fully to the shadowy edges of Mordor.

The Taming of Sméagol

"You're full of wickedness and mischief, Gollum. You will have to come with us, that's all, while we keep an eye on you. But you must help us, if you can."
–Frodo Baggins, The Two Towers

As in the second half of The Two Towers, the wicked creature known as Gollum features prominently in The Land of Shadow, appearing first as an enemy in The Passage of the Marshes. Nonetheless, Gollum isn't like other enemies. His fate is bound together with yours, and even though his pursuit of Frodo and the Ring is unrelenting, you can't afford to kill him. Instead, you must show him some mercy when you defeat him. Then, he flips over and becomes the objective ally, Sméagol (The Land of Shadow, 76).

Despite his wickedness, Sméagol can be an extremely helpful part of your fellowship. With his guidance, you can navigate the Haunted Meres (The Land of Shadow, 21) and Stagnant Pools (The Land of Shadow, 22) of the Dead Marshes.

However, there's always the chance that Sméagol's "Gollum" persona will rise to the fore, and the creature will turn against you once again. Not only does Sméagol flip back to Gollum anytime you fail to quest successfully, but there's always a chance that his hatred will get the better of him. We Hates Them! (The Land of Shadow, 55) can provoke Gollum to evil at any time. This ensures, among other things, that your journey toward Mordor is layered with multiple forms of tension. You have the threat from multiple encounter cards building up in the staging area. You have the enemies you must overcome along your way, and you have the constant threat of Gollum's treachery, even while you need Sméagol and his aid.

One Ring to Bind Them

For a moment it appeared to Sam that his master had grown and Gollum had shrunk: a tall stern shadow, a mighty lord who hid his brightness in grey cloud, and at his feet a little whining dog. Yet the two were in some way akin and not alien: they could reach one another's minds.
–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

Gollum's not the only character from The Land of Shadow who has been changed by the One Ring. Frodo Baggins also appears changed by his role as Ring-bearer. No longer is he the same Hobbit that slipped the Ring onto his finger to hide from the Ringwraiths he encountered in The Black Riders.

In The Land of Shadow, Frodo appears as the wisened Hobbit who has accustomed himself to the Ring's burden and learned how to resist its temptations. Still, the Ring forms a connection with its bearer and changes him, even when he does not wear it. Accordingly, the expansion's new version of Frodo Baggins comes with an ability that represents his growth:

"Action: Spend 1 Fellowship-sphere resource and exhaust The One Ring to give Frodo Baggins +2 Willpower and +2 Attack Strength until the end of the round."

This is a Frodo who no longer thinks to don the Ring to hide from the Ringwraiths that hunt him. Instead, he's more resolute than ever, more fully driven to complete his journey and destroy the Ring in the fires of Mount Doom.

And yet he's able to use the Ring in his own way. With the Fellowship-sphere event, Speak Your Promise! (The Land of Shadow, 13), Frodo can ready himself and reach the mind of an enemy with which he's engaged. Of course, if you have the resources, you can use the event in the same phase that you use Frodo's ability, and you can reduce the Attack and Defense Strengths of any enemy with a Threat Strength less than four. You can even raise Frodo's Willpower with other cards like Sting (The Road Darkens, 11) and further increase the impact of this event.

However, you have to remember that Frodo isn't the Ring's true master, and there's always a danger in using it. Your journey takes you into the very shadows of Mordor, and here you'll find that there are Morgul Wraiths (The Land of Shadow, 53), and they are always attentive to the Call of the Ring (The Land of Shadow, 54).

Continue on Your Journey

"It's heavy on me, Sam lad, very heavy. I wonder how far I can carry it?"
–Frodo Baggins, The Two Towers

Whether you play through its scenarios on their own or add them to your ongoing The Lord of the Rings campaign, The Land of Shadow is your chance to join Frodo Baggins for a series of fantastic adventures pulled straight from the pages of The Two Towers. You'll encounter terrible enemies, explore dark and dangerous locations, be struck by treachery, and meet the Rangers of Ithilien.

You can look for The Land of Shadow to arrive in the third quarter of 2015. Until then, keep your eyes open for more news about The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, including previews of The Land of Shadow, its scenarios, its Rangers, and its boons and burdens!

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