Middle-Earth the Wizards Casual Companion

Utulien aure! At last I have a scanner, books, software, will and a little time to spare. This is my first release so it's surely not perfect, here are some flaws: -fonts differ from the original ones -there is no circumflexes in some names -some pictures are slightly rotated There is still active community playing this game, you can find other players and national communities through www.councilofelrond.org Watch out for upcoming releases - the next one will be Middle-Earth: The Liddless Eye Companion (june 2007). Search ED2K/Kad and/or stay in touch with the community. thief!thief!thief! may 2007 __________________________________________ Note: I find digital copies more practical, especially when quick refference is needed. Having this file, while you don't own original book is little unfair and probably breaks a law in your country. ___________________________________________

CREDITS Designer: Karina Swanberg Contributing Authors: Steve Arensberg, Tim Frankovich, Mike Hess, Cy Holladay, Craig "Ichabod" O'Brien, Jorrit Tyberghein Cover Art: Rob Alexander Project Specific Contributions:

ICE Staff-

Series Editor. Michael Reynolds;

Sales Manager: Deane Begiebing;

Middle-earth Content Editor. Jessica Ney-Grim;

Managing Editor: Coleman Charlton;

Project Editor: Bob Mohney;

President: Pete Fenlon;

Pagemaking: Ben Dooley;

CEO: Bruce Neidlinger;

Graphic Art: Nick Morawitz;

Editing, Development, and Production Staff: John Curtis, Donald G. Dennis, Wendy Frazer, Jason Hawkins, Bob Mohney, Nick Morawitz, Jessica Ney-Grimm, Michael Reynolds, Sherry Robinson;

Art Direction: Jessica Ney-Grimm; Cover Trade-dress: Jessica Ney-Grimm; Cover Graphics: Wendy Frazer; Content Contributions: Bob Mohney, Michael Reynolds; Proofreading: Bob Mohney, Craig O'Brien, Michael Reynolds; Production Assistants: Ben Dooley, John McMullen.

Print Buying and Rights Director: Kurt Fischer; Sales, Customer Service, and Operations Staff: Becky Blanton, Arthur Brill, Steve Hardy, Olivia Johnston, Dave Platnick, Karina Swanberg, Monica Wilson; Shipping and Receiving: Chad McCully, Dave Morris, Daniel Williams.

Middle-earth: The Wizards Casual Companion is a publication produced by IRON CROWN ENTERPRISES, INC. (ICE), Charlottesville, Virginia USA, the exclusive holder of the worldwide adventure games license based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Copyright © 1997 TOLKIEN ENTERPRISES, a division of THE SAUL ZAENTZ COMPANY, Berkeley, CA. Middle-earth: The Wizards, Middle-earth: The Dragons, Middle-earth:Dark Minions, Middle-earth: The Wizards Casual Companion, Middle-earth, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Return of the King, and all characters and places therein, and the Burning Eye are trademark properties of TOLKIEN ENTERPRISES. The characters "Alatar" and "Pallando" appear in Unfinished Tales. They appear here with specific permission of the Estate of J. R. R. Tolkien. The copyright to Unfinished Tales is held by HarperCollins Publishers, in succession to George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd. and on behalf of Christopher Reuel Tolkien and Frank Richard Williamson, the Executors of the Estate of J.R.R. Tolkien. The Middle-earth Collectible Card Game is made for ICE in Belgium by Carta Mundi. The character symbols (

), region symbols (

), and site symbols ()

are trademark properties of IRON

CROWN ENTERPRISES. All rights reserved. The Fellowship of the Ring — Copyright © 1955, 1965 by J.R.R. Tolkien. Copyright © renewed 1982 by Christopher R. Tolkien, Michael H.R. Tolkien, John F.R. Tolkien and Priscilla M.A.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit — Copyright © 1937, 1938, 1966 by J.R.R. Tolkien. The Two Towers — Copyright © 1954, 1965 by J.R.R. Tolkien. Copyright © renewed 1982 by Christopher R. Tolkien, Michael H.R. Tolkien, John F.R. Tolkien and Priscilla M.A.R. Tolkien. The Return of the King — Copyright © 1955, 1965 by J.R.R. Tolkien. Copyright © renewed 1983 by Christopher R. Tolkien, Michael H.R. Tolkien, John F.R. Tolkien and Priscilla M.A.R. Tolkien. Unfinished Tales — Copyright © 1980 by George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd.

First U.S. Edition 1997

Stock #3341

ISBN 1-55806-315-3

CONTENTS Introduction...............................................3 I. The Starter Game vs. The Standard Game....................................4 Bringing Characters into Play.......................4 Influencing an Opponent's Cards..................4 Marshalling Points........................................5 Movement.....................................................5 II. Avoiding Common Mistakes.....................6 Automatic-attacks ........................................6 Characters ....................................................6 Dead Characters............................................6 Discarding and Drawing Cards .....................7 Events ..........................................................7 General Influence & Mind Stat Totals ...........7 Hazards ........................................................8 Site Cards......................................................8 Site Paths and Creature Play..........................9 Storing and Transferring Items .....................9 III. Strategy Hints.........................................10 Corruption Cards.........................................10 Fellowship...................................................10 Hazard Creatures ........................................10 No Playable Cards in Hand? ......................10 Rules Question? Tell a Story! .....................10 IV. Your Location Deck.................................11 Use a Map ..................................................11 Resources Around Specific Regions............11 Less Useful Sites.........................................11 V. Beginning Decks........................................12 Common & Fixed Cards Only Deck............12 Four Constructed Decks .............................13 Friends and Allies.................................14 To Each His Own.................................15 The Artifacts of Gondor.......................16 And a Dwarf Shall Lead Them.............17 Basic Deck Template ..................................18 VI. Beginning Scenarios................................19 Companions of the Heart.............................19 "This Cannot Be Borne!"............................21 VII. Advanced Deck......................................22 "Behold Isuldur's Bane!" ...........................22 VIII. Advanced Solitaire Scenarios..............23 Burglar Wants a Good Job...........................23 The Mark of Trolls' Stony Boots.................28

IX. Advanced Scenario..................................32 To the Ends of Middle-earth........................32 X. Theme Decks............................................38 Joyous Fog/Drake........................................39 Magic Rings/Undead..................................40 XI. Appendix................................................ Playing Against Tournament Decks...........41 The Basics of Tournament Decks.................41 Clarifications and Errata..............................42

Welcome to the wonderful world of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth! With a Middle-earth: The Wizards Casual Companion™ and a Middle-earth: The Wizards™ starter deck, you will travel the world of Middle-earth with your favorite characters, battling Sauron and his evil minions every step of the way. The Casual Companion stresses game play through storytelling. Creating a deck strategy becomes very easy when all you need to do is choose where you wish to travel within Middle-earth, the people you wish to travel with, and what you plan to do while you're traveling. With the Casual Companion is it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game! It's important to note that the Casual Companion is not the Middle-earth: The Wizards rulesbook. You must familiarize yourself with the rules included in the Middleearth: The Wizards starter deck before using the Casual Companion. The Casual Companion is designed to create more fun than marshalling points and to help the beginning player feel confident in his game play by offering simple, yet fun, deck strategies, scenarios, and solitaire games. The Casual Companion does this by utilizing the main card set, Middle-earth: The Wizards™ (METW), and its two expansion sets, Middle-earth: The Dragons™ (METD) and Middle-earth: Dark Minions™ (MEDM). Because this book is intended as an instructional tool for beginning players and to minimize the initial cost of purchasing cards, most of the deck and strategy suggestions come from the main set, METW, utilizing fixed, common, and uncommon cards. When you first start to play METW, don't be surprised if one game takes a little while. The time span will, of course, improve as you get to know the game better and you get more experienced. It will become easier to recall what each card's effect is during the course of play, and your efficiency in selecting the right card combinations will improve. An average single-deck game between two experienced players normally takes 30 minutes to an hour to play to completion.

Arm yourself with Orcrist and the Great Shield of Rohan with The Mithril-coat as your armor! Gather a company of Elves, Hobbits, and Dwarves to your side! Enter The Lonely Mountain to battle Smaug for his Dwarven treasure, The Arkenstone ! Muster the factions of Middle-earth including the Ents of Fangorn, Rangers of the North, and the Iron Hill Dwarves for your fight against Sauron and all he stands for! Search the vast expanse of Middle-earth for The One Ring and destroy it in the Cracks of Doom ! All this and more is possible with the Middle-earth Collectible Card Game™ (MECCG™)!

There are various differences between the starter game and the standard game of MECCG. Both styles of play are covered in the Casual Companion so it's important to note the differences: the starter game has been streamlined to shorten the learning curve; while the standard game adds all the details a serious gamer requires. This section is not a strategy guide, it's an outline on the differences between the games.

BRINGING CHARACTERS INTO PLAY STARTER GAME All characters, except Hobbits, can be brought into play at any Haven or their home site. Hobbits, unless they are in the starting company, can only be brought into play at their home site.

STANDARD GAME The above is true, unless your Wizard is in play. Once your Wizard is in play, characters can only be brought into play using general influence at the same site where your Wizard is located. A character can be brought into play using direct influence at his home site or any haven, even if your Wizard is in play at a different site.

INFLUENCING AN OPPONENT'S CARDS STARTER GAME Influencing characters, allies, factions, and items away from an opponent is not allowed.

STANDARD GAME Influencing characters, allies, factions, and items away from an opponent is allowed and can become critical throughout game play.

Example: John is trying to destroy The One Ring. It is important to his deck strategy that he have Gollum on his side. However, John's opponent, Beth, has already put Gollum into play. Following the influencing guidelines, John's company travels to the site where Gollum is in play and tries to convince Gollum to join his cause instead of Beth's. If John is successful in his influencing attempt, then Gollum joins John's company, and John is much closer to destroying The One Ring and winning the game.

MARSHALLING POINTS STARTER GAME Count them as you see them. There are no modifications to marshalling points for unique cards, and no marshalling points are doubled after the Free Council is called.

STANDARD GAME At the Free Council, a player may reveal any unique card in his hand that matches a unique card his opponent has in play. Each such revealed card reduces the opponent's final marshalling point total by one. If your opponent has zero or negative marshalling points for any one type of marshalling point, your points for that type of marshalling points is doubled. This rule does not apply to kill points or miscellaneous marshalling points. No more than half (round up) of your final marshalling points can come from any one type of marshalling point. If one type of your marshalling point is over half your total, reduce the points for that type until they are only half or less of your total.

MOVEMENT STARTER GAME In the starter game, "starter movement" must be used. Starter movement can be used three ways: moving from a Haven to a Haven (assuming the Havens list one another); or, moving from a Haven to a non-Haven site that lists the Haven as its "Nearest Haven;" or, moving from a non-Haven site, to a to its "Nearest Haven." The advantages to starter movement are: the site path is listed on the cards that are in play (no maps or region cards are needed), and wounded characters heal quicker because they are at Havens more often. Also, under starter movement, if your opponent wishes to key a hazard to a specific region, rather than a region symbol, he may only play hazards keyed to the specific regions listed on the site cards themselves.

STANDARD GAME In the standard game, you have the option of using "region movement" in addition to starter movement. With region movement, a player does not have to move to a Haven every other turn he moves. The disadvantage is that a map or region cards must be used to keep track of the site path used. When using region movement, it's important to remember that a company can only travel a total of four regions (unless special cards in play modify this number). The four regions include the starting and ending regions. Under region movement, if your opponent wishes to key a hazard to a specific region, he may play hazards keyed to any of the regions the company moved through.

AUTOMATIC-ATTACKS If a site has an automatic-attack, it must be faced in order to play anything during the site phase at that site. Once an automatic-attack has been faced and there is at least one untapped, unwounded char-acter available, then an item, ally, or faction may be played at that site. An automatic-attack does not need to be defeated in order to play an item at a site. As long as there is at least one character left that is not tapped or wounded after facing the attack, that character may play an item, ally, or faction at the site. Once successfully at a site, a company of charac-ters does not have to enter the site and face the auto-maticattack but may choose to camp outside the site for any number of turns. It is important to note that although a company may stay at a site for more than one turn, during each turn that company is at a site it will still have a movement/hazard phase. Note that no cards are drawn because there is no movement. Hazards played can only be keyed to the company's current site and not to the site path on the card. Example: John's company of three characters has just arrived at the site, Cam Dum, from Rivendell to play the greater item, Orcrist. Due to the suc-cessful hazard strategy of his opponent, Beth, one of his characters is wounded and two of his char-acters are tapped. John knows that he must have untapped (unwounded) characters to play any item or gather factions and allies during the site phase. John chooses to camp his company outside Cam Dum and does not face the automatic-attack within the site (Orcs/4 strikes/and 7 prowess). He, therefore, moves on to the end of turn phase. During John's next turn, two of his characters untap, one stays wounded, and the company con-tinues through the phases of a normal player turn. After successfully making it through the move-ment/hazard phase with his two unwounded char-acters staying untapped, John chooses to enter the site to attempt to play Orcrist. It is at this time that

the automatic-attack must be faced—before play-ing an item. John plays well and successfully defeats the automatic-attack. He taps one untapped character and plays Orcrist under that character. This action taps the site. John then taps the second untapped character and plays under him the minor item, Shield of Iron-Bound Ash. The site phase now ends and the players move on to the end-of-turn phase.

CHARACTERS The maximum company size is seven. Keeping in mind that Hobbits count as half rounded up for company size, you can play the nine characters of the Fellowship of the Ring in one company: Gandalf, Aragorn II, Boromir, Legolas, Gimli, Frodo, Sam Gamgee, Merry, and Pippin. Of course, you will need some direct influence enhancers as well. The MEDM card, An Unexpected Party, pre-sents an exception to this company size rule. Non-Hobbit characters can be brought into play at any Haven or their home site. If not starting characters, hobbits can only be brought into play at their home site Bag End; not at Havens. This is stated on each hobbit's cards. The card, A Chance Meeting, presents the exception to this rule and would allow a player to bring a Hobbit into play at a site other than its home site. Wizards can only be brought into play at their home site or Rivendell. You cannot have a Wizard as a starting character.

DEAD CHARACTERS If all of the characters in your party are killed or corrupted away, don't despair—the game is not yet lost! You will continue to draw cards during your opponent's movement/hazard phase. Eventually you will draw a character that can be played at a Haven or the character's home site.

The second discard/draw period is during the end-of-turn phase. At this time, each player may choose to discard one card and then bring his handsize back to eight (or more if allowed by another card in play). You must choose whether or not to discard a card before any cards are drawn. It is illegal to bring your hand back to eight cards, and to then choose to discard a card and draw another.

EVENTS Resource short and permanent-events can be played at any time during your turn (unless stated otherwise in their text). Resource long-events may only be played during the resource long event phase of your turn. Hazard events, whether they be short, long or permanent, may be played at any time during your opponent's movement/hazard phase. Remember, you will only play resource cards during your own turn; and you will only play hazard cards during your opponent's turn. Short-events are immediately implemented and then discarded. However, some will have an effect on play until the end of the turn. Be sure to read each card carefully. Long-events stay in play for two turns. Hazard long-events are in play for your opponent's turn and then your turn. Resource long-events are in play for your turn, and then your opponent's turn. Keep this in mind when playing long-eventsthey affect both you and your opponent. Permanent-events, whether they are resource or hazard, stay in play until they are canceled by another card or situation. Permanent-events affect both players.

DISCARDING AND DRAWING CARDS There are at least two times throughout the course of a player's turn that cards are discarded and/or drawn: The first discard/draw period is at the end of each company's movement/hazard phase. At these times, each player must discard or draw until he is holding eight cards. Example: John has six cards in his hand so he draws two more. Beth has ten cards in her hand so she must discard two cards.

Keep in mind that some cards allows a player to keep more than 8 cards in his hand. In this case, a player discards or draws until he is holding the number of cards he is allowed to keep. Sometimes, the number of cards a player can keep is called his hand size. If you have multiple companies in play, each company gets a separate movement/hazard phase. In other words, you would reveal where one company is going, draw cards (if that company is moving), deal with any hazards played against that company, and then draw up or discard down to hand size for each company in turn.

GENERAL INFLUENCE AND MIND STAT TOTALS Each player is allowed a total of 20 points of general influence to control characters throughout the course of game play (unless modified by specific cards in play). You may not bring additional characters into play using general influence if, by the end of your organization phase, the total mind of your characters in play under general influence would exceed 20. You may temporarily exceed 20 mind during your organization phase if you can move characters under direct influence at that time to fix this If, during the course of play, the total mind of your characters under general influence exceeds 20, or if your general influence is reduced below the total mind of your characters under general influence, this situation need not be reconciled until your next organization phase. At that time, character(s) must be discarded or controlled with direct influence to bring the total mind to equal to or less than your general influence.

During John's turn, he realizes the only site he has left in his location deck where a greater item can be played is Moria. To enter the site Moria and play the greater item, John's company must first face both the regular automatic-attack and the second automatic-attack of the Balrog. John's characters defeat both automatic-attacks, but because John originally played the Balrog, he will not get the 5 marshalling points for defeating the creature. The Balrog of Moria is placed in Beth's out-of-play pile.

SITE CARDS There are two types of site cards in MECCG: Haven, and non-Haven sites. The four Havens of Middle-earth are the safest places to be. When at a Haven, a company of characters can do any or all of the following: heal, store items or information, transfer items between characters, or split a company into two or more companies. When playing the standard game, items can be transferred and companies can split at non-haven sites as well. When an MECCG game begins, all companies start at the Haven Rivendell. Non-Haven sites are where the bulk of items, information, allies, and factions are gathered. The further a site is into enemy territory, the stronger the automatic-attacks. You may have only one site card of any nonHaven site in your location deck; plan your deck strategy out accordingly. Once a site is used and tapped, it is placed in your discard pile and may not be used again until your deck is played through.

HAZARDS The number of hazards playable on a company is equal to the company's size. A company's size is equal to the number of characters in the company, with Hobbits counting as half a character each, rounded up. Allies do not count toward company size. Example: A company contains a Dwarf, an Elf and two Hobbits. The number of hazards playable on this company is three. It is beneficial, but not necessary, to have an even number of Hobbits in a company. Hazard cards can only be played on your opponent during the movement/hazard phase. You may not play hazards on yourself to gain marshalling points. If you defeat a permanent event with an attack that you put into play, you do not gain those marshalling points. Example: John plays the permanent event that has an attack, Balrog of Moria, during his opponent's movement/hazard phase. Beth chooses a character to face the Balrog's strike and the character is wounded. Because Beth's character did not defeat the Balrog, it stays in play.

Example: John just drew the last card from his play deck. To continue play, John shuffles his discard pile and return all site cards to his location deck. The shuffled discard pile is now his play deck. In order to keep a tapped site in play, you can leave a company at the site, since the site does not go to your discard pile until all of your companies have left it. In the standard game, you can also split your company at a site, and leave a character at a tapped site to stop the site from being discarded. The character becomes a company of one and the normal movement/hazard sequence applies. You may have any number of Haven cards in your location deck. Example: Beth has a company containing five characters at the Haven Rivendell. To gain marshalling points quickly, she chooses to split the company of five into two companies moving to separate sites: one company has two characters, and the other company has three characters. To show that there are now two companies at the Haven Rivendell, one Rivendell site card is used for each company.

Havens do tap for certain special cards. Havens, however, do not untap. Once a company leaves a tapped Haven—the tapped Haven goes back to the location deck and can be used again. A tapped Haven is never discarded. When using starter rules and you are moving from a Haven to a non-Haven, double check the "Nearest Haven" text on the non-Haven site card. You may have to move to another Haven before you travel to your chosen site. Example: Your company is at the Haven Rivendell and wishes to move to the non-Haven site, Bandit Lair. Since Lorien is the "Nearest Haven" to Bandit Lair, the company must first move to the Haven Lorien. Reaching Bandit Lair from Rivendell will take two turns, one turn to reach Lorien from Rivendell, one turn to reach Bandit Lair from Lorien. Be sure that for each resource in your play deck that requires a site to be played, you have an appropriate site card in your location deck. Example: If you wish to play a greater item, you must have a site card in your location deck where a greater item is playable. If you wish to bring the ally Quickbeam into play, you must have the site Wellinghall in your location deck. Bringing a character in at a site, whether it is the character's home site or a Haven, does not tap the site. When the character leaves the site, the site card goes back to the location deck (if it is still untapped).

SITE PATHS AND CREATURE PLAY When using starter movement, the site path is on the left-hand margin of all non-Haven cards, and in the text portion of Haven cards. "Keying" a creature to a site path or site, when using site movement, means that you match up one symbol on the hazard creature to a symbol on the site card. Many times there is more than one symbol on a hazard creature. You do not have to match all symbols on the creature card to the symbols on the site card; only one symbol has to match. The exception to this rule is when a symbol on the creature card is shown more than once. This means that creature must be keyed to a site path that has at least the same number of particular symbol. Example: Giant is a hazard creature with two wilderness symbols on the card. This means that a company must pass through at least two wilderness to run into a Giant. The two wildernesses do not have to be consecutive on the site card. You could think of it as the Giant being a deep-woods creature or that if you walked through two wilderness you 'd have a better chance of running into one.

It's important to say what site type or site path you are keying a creature to. There are many cards in MECCG that can cancel attacks or strikes keyed to specific region and site types. Be careful when you state what you are keying the creature to, lest you give your opponent the opportunity to cancel the attack. When a company leaves a site during the movement/hazard phase, hazards cannot be keyed to the site the company is traveling from.

STORING AND TRANSFERRING ITEMS A successful corruption check must be made before a character transfers or stores an item during the organization phase. If a character fails the corruption check when storing or transferring an item, both the character and all items that character controls are discarded. Once an item is stored, it cannot be removed from storage (unless a card allows it).

CORRUPTION CARDS When playing both creatures and corruption cards during your opponent's movement/hazard phase, play the creatures first. This is in case you are successful in killing a character, you would not want to loose the benefit of the corruption card you had just placed on that character.

FELLOWSHIP When bringing a Fellowship card into play, be sure you have already brought any needed character into play first. If you play a Fellowship, and then bring in a character, Fellowship will be discarded.

HAZARD CREATURES When playing creatures against your opponent during the movement/hazard phase, play the creatures with the highest prowess first. This usually causes your opponent to choose the toughest characters to defend against the attack and hopefully cause them to tap in the process. When possible, watch for possible card combinations to strengthen weaker cards. Example: Orc-lieutenant is a 7/- creature. If other Orcs are played prior to Ore-lieutenant, the Ore-lieutenant's stats change to 11/-. Undead creatures and corruption cards work well together. Many of the Undead cards force corruption checks throughout the course of play. Add that possibility to corruption cards like Lure of Nature and you have a potent combination.

NO PLAYABLE CARDS IN-HAND? If you do not have any playable cards in your hand during your movement/hazard phase, move your company to a site where many different types of cards are playable. During the movement/hazard phase, cards will be drawn and hopefully a usable card will come into your hand that can be played at the site you are moving to. Remember, a site does not tap if it is not used. If you are not successful in drawing a playable card, you can return to the nearest Haven during your next turn and the site card will be returned to the location deck.

RULES QUESTION? TELL A STORY! If you and your opponent cannot find a rule that specifically settles a dispute, or are having trouble understanding a rule, talk the situation out in story form. If the situation sounds plausible when told like a story, odds are it's legal. If the situation sounds really wrong or silly when told in story format, odds are it's not legal. Remember, the emphasis in casual play is on having fun.

Along with selecting the right cards to play, it is also imperative to select the right sites to play them at. Selecting the right site and planning your movement can be one of the most time consuming tasks of the game. Here are some useful tips for increasing your site selection speed.

USE A MAP Unless you are planning to remember the whole geography of Middle-earth, one of the most important tools to help you select your sites and plan your movement is a map such as the MECCG Play Map™ available from ICE. With a map you can plan your movement and site path at the same time. Please note, some regions are separated by a river, like the Anduin, or by mountain ranges, like the Misty Mountains, and are not considered to be adjacent during game play. There are cards like Anduin River and Misty Mountains that make these regions adjacent under certain circumstances.

RESOURCES AROUND SPECIFIC REGIONS A good resource deck is often designed around a specific area. For example, you can base an item deck around the northeast corner of Middle-earth, dragon country! Dragons love to hoard their treasure. Major and greater items like Glamdring and Orcrist can often be found in their hoards. You could create a warrior only, faction gathering deck based in the southeast corner of Middle-earth. That is where the stronger, fiercer factions like The Easterlings, Southrons, and the Variags of Khand live. Or create a TreeHugger deck based around the Haven Lorien and the Ents of Fangorn !

LESS USEFUL SITES It's very important that you always include every site you have in your location deck. Even if you don't plan to use a particular site, put it in the location deck. You never know when you may be forced to use a site your weren't originally planning to due to your opponent's hazard strategy or a simple error

on your part regarding deck design. It is very annoying to discover that you didn't bring that much needed site to a game. At the same time, some sites are less useful than others in particular decks. For example, several sites are only intended to play one faction bring in a character or two, and nothing else, like Beorn's House/Beornings/Beorn and Thranduil's Halls/ Wood-elves/Thranduil. If you don't have the respective factions or characters in your resource deck, put the sites at the very back of your location deck. This way, you don't have to search through them to find sites you are more likely to need. Sites that you consider too dangerous to play with your current party can also be moved to the back of the location deck. Barad-dur and Shelob's Lair are very dangerous and there are often better and eas-ier sites to go to. Mount Doom, for example, is only needed if you plan to play and destroy The One Ring. If you are not playing a ring strategy (gathering magic rings for marshalling points), you will not need all the sites where gold rings are playable. If you don't have any information cards such as Dreams of Lore, you won't need information-only sites. These potentially unusable sites can also go to the back of your location deck. What you are left with after less useful sites are placed to the back of your location deck is a lean, mean location deck totally suited to your resource deck strategy. This will increase your confidence as a player by allowing you to pull sites quickly and easily during your organization phase, leaving plenty of time to put into play your successful resource strategy. In short, how you sort your sites depends on what you have in your resource deck. If, for example, you have a resource deck based mostly on gold ring items, you are going to want to have easy access to the ring sites in your location deck, and other item sites might be put at the back of your deck. It helps if you select in advance what the most likely use of each site is going to be.

The decks and scenarios in this section are very simple and easy to master for the beginning player. Basic strategy and the use of common and uncommon cards, versus the use of rare cards, were the main factors in the construction of these decks. Advanced players might even pick up an idea or two!

COMMON & FIXED CARDS ONLY DECK This deck is an exercise in minimum values; all the cards used in this deck are common or fixed cards originating from four METW starter decks. It is important for beginning players to understand that even if you don't have a lot of cards to work with, you still have the potential to create a powerful deck. The resource side of the deck is based completely around the Haven Lorien, with the bulk of the marshalling points coming from five factions. There are also two Swords of Gondolin and two Dreams of Lore. Several minor items have been added to take advantage of the rule that states, "When a resource that taps the site is successfully played at a site, a second character can tap to play a minor item." When organizing your starting company, you may want to play Kill as a follower of Thranduil. This will free up 3 points of general influence while you play. This unused general influence can then be used throughout the course of play as a modifier for certain dice rolls. Keep in mind that Thranduil's direct influence can also be used to help bring factions into play. During the organization phase when you know you are going to recruit a faction that turn, take Kill out of Thranduil's, direct influence and put him back into the general influence pool. Thranduil will get a +3 modification to the dice roll for the attempt at influencing the faction. During the organization phase of your next turn, Kill can go back under Thranduil's direct influence.

Don't forget about Radagast's 10 points of direct influence! This can be a great asset to help bring factions into play. Another possibility would be to play Thranduil as a follower of Radagast to free up 8 points of general influence. The Wizard, Radagast, was chosen for his ability to generate cards while traveling through wilderness. You may not always want to take advantage of this ability, but if you aren't drawing the right combination of cards, it can be very helpful. The sites chosen, besides the faction sites, are all Ruins & Lairs. This takes advantage of the three Secret Passages included in the deck. With Secret Passages and evasive cards like Concealment and Dark Quarrels, traveling from site to site should be a snap!

Only 20 marshalling points are required to call the Free Council in a one-deck game. As it currently stands, this deck has the potential to generate 29 marshalling points, not counting the additional characters. You also want to keep in mind that marshalling points can be generated from creature kills as well. The hazard side of the deck is almost completely creature based. High prowess creatures were chosen due to lack of prowess modifiers for them in the original four starter decks. The few other event cards are there to annoy your opponents and to slow them in their chosen course.

This deck is a good, strong example of how the Middle-earth Collectible Card Game can be played without using rare or uncommon cards. As your card collection grows, tweak your decks with some of the more powerful rares. You'll bring yourself, and your opponent, to a whole new level of challenge for the game! Please keep in mind, though, that rare cards do not mean better cards. Rare cards simply provide a deck with more options. Anyone would be hard pressed to find a rare card more powerful than the common card Muster.

COMMON AND FIXED ONLY DECKS Resources

Hazards

Characters

Main Sites

Concealment (x3)

Abductor

Starting Characters

Amon Hen

with Minor Items Adrazar with Shield of Iron-bound Ash Faramir with Healing Herbs Kili Thranduil

Barrow-downs Edoras Henneth Annun Lorien (x3) Minas Tirith Rivendell (x3) The Lonely Mountain The Wind Throne Thranduil's Halls Weathertop Wellinghall

Dark Quarrels (x3) Ambusher (x2) Dodge Call of Home (x3) Dreams of Lore (x3) Cave-drake (x3) Elven Cloak Despair of the Heart Ents of Fangorn Giant Spiders (x3) Fair Travels in Wilderness Giant(x3) Fellowship (x3) Huorn Ford (x3) Lost in the Wilderness Healing Herbs (x2) Lure of Nature (x2) Miruvor Lure of the Senses Muster Muster Disperses Rangers of Ithilien River Riders of Rohan Twilight (x3) Secret Passage (x3) Wargs (x2) Sword of Gondolin (x2) Wolves (x2) Tower Guard of Minas Tirith Wood-elves

FOUR CONSTRUCTED DECKS With the Middle-earth Collectible Card Game, it's not important to own all of the cards to be able to play a good game. What is important is learning to work with the cards you have. This section is devoted to deck design using a limited number of cards. The cards used in this example for each deck were: 1Middle-earth: The Wizards™ Starter 2Middle-earth: The Wizards™ Boosters 1 Middle-earth: The Dragons™ Booster 1 Middle-earth: Dark Minions™ Booster

Wizard Radagast (x2) Additional Characters Bard Bowman Boromir II Elrohir Erkenbrand Gildor Inglorion

The decks were constructed using the following guidelines: No Under-deeps hazards or resources were used. A functional Under-deeps strategy requires more cards specific to it, and a well-tuned resource strategy capable of handling the added danger to characters the Under-deeps present. No Agents were selected for hazards. Agents are an advanced hazard strategy which utilize a number of card combinations. They are best used with the Standard Rules. Creatures are the most prevalent hazards in these decks. Mastery of creature hazards is the first step to designing potent hazard strategies which combine creatures, creature enhancers, environments, and corruption.

Feel free to substitute favorite cards from your collection in these decks, to make them more fun to play, and to refine and strengthen their strategies.

FRIENDS AND ALLIES Your starting company is Merry and Pippin with Thranduil, a tough Elf Lord, as their protector. Since the Hobbits only count as half a character, your company size is two. Only two hazards may be played on the company during the movement/hazard phase, and they may benefit from Stealth. Much of your marshalling point strategy is based on two factions and two items. Thranduil can handle the Wood-elves faction (he has a +6 bonus), and either of the Hobbits can use Tempering Friendship to recruit the Ents of Fangorn automatically. Your first big item is the Scroll of Isildur (it's only marshalling points to you, but if it thwarts your opponent's The One Ring strategy, so much the better).

The Dwarven Ring of Thrar's Tribe is another 4 MPs (6 if you can get it on a Dwarf just before the Council). Wizard's Test is best, but Test of Lore or Gandalf's special ability will work in a pinch. Don't count on many marshalling points from creatures; you want to avoid most of them. Your hazards are keyed mostly to wilderness. Look for opportunities to play your triple wilderness Were-worm and Winged Cold-drake on an unsuspecting company. Dwar of Waw has three functions in this deck: you can play him as a creature if your opponent travels dangerous routes; you can use his permanent-event ability and give +1 prowess to your Wolves, Wargs, and Crebain; or you can discard him (if in play as a permanentevent) to boost your Orc, Troll, and Men attacks with Scimitars of Steel.

FRIENDS AND ALLIES Resources

Hazards

Characters

Main Sites

Bridge

Abductor

Starting Characters

Bag End

Dark Numbers Dreams of Lore Dwarven Ring of Thrar's Tribe Elven Cloak Ents of Fangorn Fellowship Flatter a Foe Gates of Morning Great-road Habergeon of Silver Hauberk of Bright Mail Here Is a Snake Lucky Strike Precious Gold Ring Quiet Lands Rebuild the Town Red Book of Westmarch Reforging Risky Blow Scroll of Isildur Shield of Iron-bound Ash Stealth Sting Tempering Friendship Test of Lore Thorough Search Trickery Wizard's Test Wood-elves

Arouse Denizens Awaken the Earth's Fire Bairanax Ahunt Call of Home Corpse-candle Crebain Despair of the Hear Doors of Night Doubled Vigilance Dwar of Waw Ghosts Giant Hobgoblins Land-drake Lure of Expedience Lure of Nature Orc-guard Orc-raiders Ore-watch River(x2) Scimitars of Steel Slayer Thunder's Companion Wargs (x2) Were-worm Winged Cold-drake Wolves

with Minor Items Pippin with Elven Cloak Merry Thranduil with Dagger of Westernesse

Bandit Lair Barrow-downs Gladden Fields Lorien Rivendell (x3) Tharbad The Lonely Mountain The Wind Throne Thranduil's Halls Weathertop Wellinghall

Wizards Pallando Gandalf Additional Characters Oin Gloin Erkenbrand Ghan-buri-Ghan Robin Smallburrow Boromir II Gildor Inglorion

To EACH HIS OWN Each of your starting characters has a particular function in this deck: Bilbo is your ringbearer (for the Dwarven Ring of Thelor's Tribe); Aragorn II and Boromir II each have a faction to recruit; and Hama is your expendable warrior. Bilbo is also your sage (for Ringlore and Dreams of Lore). Bilbo and Aragorn II have negative marshalling points if eliminated, so protect them at all costs. The Dwarven Ring and the two factions are your major source of marshalling points, along with either Orcrist or Narsil. You have only one site where greater items are playable, The Lonely Mountain, so you can only play one or the other. Orcrist gets the nod in marshalling points and prowess. Save your Escape for the Dragon automatic-attack here, or send Hama to fight it.

Pallando is your preferred Wizard, as he lets you hold an extra card. This helps most with the Gold Ring/Ringlore/Dwarven Ring combination. Try not to head to Minas Tirith to recruit the Men of Anorien until you have the Sapling of the White Tree. You can recruit the faction one turn and store the Sapling the next organization phase. For hazards, Long Winter, Fell Winter, and Daelomin Ahunt will slow your opponent, but be careful when you play these lest you thwart your own resource strategy. Wake of War will boost your Wolves, Carrion Birds, and Giant Spiders. Play Two or Three Tribes Present when you have a hand full of Orcs and Trolls. Use Choking Shadows with Doors of Night to make more sites/regions to which you can key your Ore-watch and Half-trolls of Far Harad. Indur Dawndeath (as a permanent-event), Greed, Call of Home, and the two Lures of Nature will help eliminate your opponent's key characters and items.

TO BACH HIS OWN Resources

Hazards

Characters

Main Sites

Barrow-blade

Arouse Denizens

Starting Characters with

Amon Hen

Beautiful Gold Ring Block Concealment Dark Quarrels Dodge Dreams of Lore (x2) Dwarven Ring of Thelor's Tribe Escape Fair Gold Ring Ford Gates of Morning Habergeon of Silver Healing Herbs Hundreds of Butterflies Many Turns and Doublings Men of Anorien Mistress Lobelia Narsil Orcrist Potion of Prowess Precious Gold Ring Rangers of the North Ringlore Sapling of the White Tree Secret News Sun Tempering Friendship Test of Form

Brigands Call of Home Carrion Birds Cave-drake

Minor Items Aragorn II with Dagger of Westernesse Bilbo Boromir II with Dagger of Westernesse Hama

Bandit Lair Bree Ettenmoors Gondmaeglom Isengard Lorien Minas Tirith Rivendell (x2) The Lonely Mountain The Wind Throne Weathertop

Choking Shadows Daelomin Ahunt Doors of Night Doubled Vigilance Fell Winter Ghouls Giant Giant Spiders Greed Half-trolls of Far Harad Long Winter Lure of Nature (x2) Orc-raiders (x2) Orc-warriors (x2) Ore-watch Pukel-men Ren the Unclean "Tom" (Tuma) Twilight Two or Three Tribes Present Wake of War Wolves

Wizards Pallando Saruman Additional Characters Annalena Elladan Haldir Kili Legolas

THE ARTIFACTS OF GONDOR Your starting company is three tough warriors, with Robin Smallburrow to be your Star-glass user and big item bearer. Your marshalling point strategy centers around the Red Arrow/Riders of Rohan combination, and the Palantir of Osgiliath. Your marshalling points for characters plus these three resources gets you to 16 points (once the Palantir is stored). Two Swords of Gondolin and the Barrowblade permanent-event on your Dagger of Westernesse should round out your company's strength and your marshalling point total. Note that the Palantir requires at least 4 characters in the company that bears it because it is so large. You have a lot of extra characters in your deck to make sure casualties don't take you below this total. Your starting company is strong. With a weapon or two, your Wizard revealed, maybe one or two more characters, and one or both of the Fellowships

in play, your company should be able to handle most creature hazards. Defeating creatures will add to your marshalling points as well. Alatar can use The Hunt to pick off a choice hazard for even more marshalling points. Be careful of corruption with all the items; Fellowships will help with those eventual checks. Your hazard mix is mostly creatures, many of which are keyed to wilderness or double wilderness. You also have cards for taking away your opponent's hard-earned marshalling points, like Muster Disperses for factions, Call of Home for a heavy-hitting character, Tookish Blood for Hobbits, and a smattering of corruption cards to remove characters and items. Abductor is also useful for removing a pesky, low-prowess character. Be sure to soften up your opponent's company first. Lastly, Smaug and Agburanar Ahunt are included, in case your opponent is daring, or foolish enough, to risk The Lonely Mountain and its surrounding area.

THE ARTIFACTS OF GONDOR Resources

Hazards

Characters

Barrow-blade

Abductor

Starting Characters

Amon Hen

Beautiful Gold Ring Block Concealment Dark Numbers Dark Quarrels (x2) Dreams of Lore Escape Fair Gold Ring Far-sight Fellowship (x2) Gates of Morning Healing Herbs Lucky Strike Magic Ring of Stealth Palantir of Osgiliath Potion of Prowess Red Arrow Riders of Rohan Risky Blow Secret News Sting Sword of Gondolin (x2) Test of Form The Hunt Tower Guard of Minas Tirith When You Know More

Agburanar Ahunt "Bert" (Burat) Brigands (x2) Call of Home Cave-drake Despair of the Heart Doors of Night Doubled Vigilance Dragon-sickness Giant Spiders Giant(x2) Greed Hobgoblins Land-drake Lost in the Wilderness Lure of Expedience Lure of Nature Muster Disperses Orc-lieutenant Orc-raiders Ore-warriors Smaug Thunder's Companion Tookish Blood Wargs Weariness of the Heart Wolves

with Minor Items Celeborn Elrohir with Dagger of Westernesse Imrahil Robin Smallburrow with Star-glass

Bag End Bandit Lair Edoras Ettenmoors Lorien Lossadan Cairn Minas Tirith Moria Mount Gram Rhosgobel Rivendell (x2) Sarn Goriwing The Wind Throne

Wizards Alatar Radagast Additional Characters Adrazar Bifur Galdor Halbarad Merry Pippin Theoden

Main Sites

AND A DWARF SHALL LEAD THEM For this deck, Beorn and Gimli are your front line, with Merry and Annalena to provide stealth. Your big marshalling point gains will come from the Palantir of Amon Sul and the Iron Hill Dwarves, with the rest rounded out with 1 or 2 point items, factions, or events. You should get a few points from creature kills as well. Lossadan Cairn is a great site to play the Palantir; it's one turn out of Rivendell, and the automatic-attack is not too tough if you use Beorn and Gimli. Your Gold Ring items are just marshalling points; you have no special rings to play. Store them at a Haven to avoid carrying the corruption. Hall of Fire is great for healing

and untapping characters; park one of the low mind characters, like Orophin, there to keep the Haven from being discarded. You can free up three general influence by making Annalena Gimli's follower. This hazard mix relies on Wake of War to boost your Wolves, Wargs, and Lesser Spiders; and Tribal Banner to increase the chances of your Orcs eliminating characters. Use Morgul Night with Doors of Night to play Ore-guard, Ore-watch, and Ghosts more frequently. Winged Fire-drake then could be played in double wilderness. Exhalation of Decay will pull those Ghosts, or Wisp of Pale Sheen, back to your hand for an encore.

AND A DWARF SHALL LEAD THEM Resources

Hazards

Characters

Main Sites

A Friend or Three

Arouse Denizens

Starting Characters with

Beorn's House

Beautiful Gold Ring Beornings Burglary Cram Dark Quarrels Dreams of Lore Elf-path Fair Gold Ring Fair Travels in Border-lands Fair Travels in Shadow-lands Ford Gates of Morning Great-road Halfling Strength Hall of Fire Hauberk of Bright Mail Healing of Nimrodel Iron Hill Dwarves Lucky Strike Palantir of Amon Sul Precious Gold Ring Reforging Risky Blow Sapling of the White Tree Shield of Iron-bound Ash Stealth Sting Sword of Gondolin Thorough Search

Brigands Call of Home Doors of Night Exhalation of Decay Ghosts Huorn (x2) Lesser Spiders Light-drake Lure of Nature (x2) Lure of the Senses Many Sorrows Befall Morgul Night Orc-guard Orc-raiders Ore-warriors Ore-watch River Slayer Thunder's Companion Tribal Banner Wake of War Wargs Weariness of the Heart "William" (Wuluag) Winged Fire-drake Wisp of Pale Sheen Wolves

Minor Items Annalena Beorn Gimli with Dagger of Westernesse Merry with Elven Cloak

Gladden Fields Goblin-gate Iron Hill Dwarf-hold Isengard Lorien (x2) Lossadan Cairn Moria Mount Gundabad Rivendell (x2) Ruined Signal Tower The Wind Throne Weathertop

Wizards Alatar Saruman Additional Characters Bard Bowman Beregond Orophin

BASIC DECK TEMPLATE This is a good basic deck design that is easily modified with cards on-hand. As you get more comfortable with playing and purchase more cards, start to tweak the deck and see what you can come up with! At this point I would like to mention proxy cards. A proxy card is usually a common card that has been written on to denote a rare or uncommon card not owned by a player. The use of proxy cards for casual play is allowed by ICE as long as the player uses the card for casual play and not for tournaments. Any rare cards used in the following decks and scenarios have been shown so that proxy cards can be made if necessary. Please be discreet in the use of proxy cards and use them as they are intended, to have fun! The sites listed are the most important sites for this deck. Your site deck should include one of every non-Haven card that you possess and two or three cards of each Haven. You never know when your resource strategy might change due to an opponents hazard strategy!

RESOURCE STRATEGY The resource strategy for this deck is based on marshalling points from major or greater items. It's important to get to The Lonely Mountain or another site where greater items are playable as quickly as possible. Use Thorough Search and a scout to bring in two items in one turn.

HAZARD STRATEGY The hazard strategy for this deck is to get a Doors of Night and an Eyes of the Shadow out and in play. Then save up your hazards until you have a Clouds, Minions Stir, Two or Three Tribes Present and a bunch of Orcs in your hand. This hand of cards will decimate most opponents! The Sacrifice of Form is there in case your opponent tries to play Smaug or one of his buddies on you!

BASIC DECK TEMPLATE Resources

Hazards

Characters

Main Sites

Block (x3)

Clouds (x2) and Eyes

Starting Characters with

Goblin Gate

Concealment (x3) Fellowship (x3) Gollum Iron Hill Dwarves Old Friendship (x3) Risky Blow (x3) Quickbeam Sacrifice of Form Smoke Rings (x3) The Old Thrush (x3) Thorough Search Any 4 major or greater items

of the Shadow or Eyes of the Shadow (x2) and Clouds Doors of Night (x3) Hobgoblins (x3) Minions Stir (x3) Orc-lieutenant (x3) Orc-patrol Ore-raiders (x3) Orc-warband (x3) Ore-warriors (x3) Twilight (x3) Two or Three Tribes Present (x2)

Minor Items 1 high prowess character 2 scouts, both with a Dagger of Westernesse on them

Iron Hill Dwarf-hold Lorien Rivendell The Lonely Mountain Wellinghall 2 or 3 sites where greater items are playable home sites for any of the characters that need them

Additional Characters high prowess characters (x2) or (x3) scouts (x2) or (x3) Wizards Pallando (x2)

The following two scenarios were designed as solitaires, but can also be played as a complete deck against an opponent as well. When playing the scenarios as solitaires, please refer to the solitaire rules in the Middle-earth: The Wizards Rulesbook for specific instructions. Please note that most of the scenarios in the Casual Companion utilize special rules for unique play; don't confuse these unique rules with general game play!

COMPANIONS OF THE HEART " 'You move me, Gimli,' said Legolas. 'I have never heard you speak like this before. Almost you make me regret that I have not seen these caves. Come! Let us make this bargain—if we both return safe out of the perils that await us, we will journey for a while together. You shall visit Fangorn with me, and then I will come with you to see Helm's Deep.'" —LotRIII

GOAL The War of the Ring is over. Gimli & Legolas must fulfill their bargain to each other and then rally their people to help Aragorn II rebuild Minas Tirith. But there are many inhabitants of Middle-earth who still oppose the new King, and it is often after a great victory that one becomes weary and vulnerable to despair and other trials...

MOVEMENT Select the following sites in this order: Minas Tirith, any site in Rohan, Glittering Caves, Wellinghall, Lorien, any site in Anduin Vales, Thranduil's Halls, The Lonely Mountain, and Henneth Annun. Gimli and Legolas must begin at Minas Tirith and travel to each of these sites in the course of the game. They must visit the Glittering Caves and Wellinghall before attempting to influence a faction. They may only move one region at a time (e.g., from Minas Tirith to the site in Rohan, then to Glittering Caves, etc.), except from The Lonely Mountain to Henneth Annun. After Henneth Annun, return to Minas Tirith for the last turn.

COMPANIONS OF THE HEART Resources

Hazards*

Characters

should include:

should include:

Starting Characters and Items

A Chance Meeting (x2) Dreams of Lore

Abductor Ambusher

Gimli with Book of Mazarbul Legolas with Elven Cloak

Fellowship (x2) Gates of Morning (x2) Iron Hill Dwarves (See Special Rule #4 below)

Assassin Brigands Call of the Sea Despair of the Heart

Additional Characters Beregond Gloin

Mirror of Galadriel Old Friendship (x2)

Greed Lure of Expedience

Haldir

Quickbeam Wood-elves 12 other resource cards No Musters, at least one major item

Lure of Nature (x2) New Moon (x2) Slayer The Balance of Things The Burden of Time Twilight (x2) Wake of War Wargs (x2)

Starting Location Minas Tirith

5 other hazard cards

*Note; Do not include: Nazgul, Orcs, Undead, Muster Disperses, or Doors of Night

SPECIAL RULES No Wizard is involved in this scenario. Do not include any wizards or spells in the resource decks. The other characters in the deck are people that Gimli and Legolas may meet along the way. They only travel with the pair for a short time. Each character may only travel with the two starting characters for a maximum of two turns. They are removed from play on the second organization phase after their arrival. Legolas or Gimli may tap in support of each other, giving +1 to an influence attempt or to an attempt to remove a corruption card. For purposes of this scenario, The Lonely Mountain is considered to be a Border-hold (without an automaticattack). The Iron Hill Dwarves are considered to be the Dwarves of The Lonely Mountain and will be influenced there. Gimli may store the Book of Mazarbul there. Mirror of Galadriel will not be used in the standard way. Instead, you may play it at Lorien to search through your play deck for one of the factions. Place this faction in your hand and re-shuffle your play deck.

VICTORY CONDITIONS You win a total victory if you muster both factions, store the Book of Mazarbul at The Lonely Mountain and return to Minas Tirith with 22 marshalling points or more. The Dwarves now know the truth about Moria; Minas Tirith will attain a new glory unheard of in previous years; and the two companions will have sealed their friendship forevermore. "After the fall of Sauron, Gimli brought south a part of the Dwarf-folk of Erebor, and he became Lord of the Glittering Caves. He and his people did great works in Gondor and Rohan. For Minas Tirith they forged gates of mithril and steel to replace those broken by the Witchking. Legolas, his friend, also brought south Elves out of Greenwood, and they dwelt in Ithilien, and it became once again the fairest country in all the westlands." —LotR

"THIS CANNOT BE BORNE!" "Such was the tale that Nar brought back to Thrain; and when he had wept and torn his beard he fell silent. Seven days he sat and said no word. Then he stood up and said: 'This cannot be borne!' That was the beginning of the War of the Dwarves and the Orcs, which was long and deadly..." —LotR

GOAL Find Durin 's Axe and a Dwarven Ring, then raise Dwarven factions against Azog, The Great Goblin. Dain II must rally the Dwarves against the Orcs of Moria. Unfortunately, the other Dwarves are reluctant to join the war and can only be convinced by someone who has both Durin's Axe and one of the Seven Dwarven Rings.

STEP 1 Find Durin's Axe and a Dwarven ring. Dain II or a substitute must carry at least one of these.

STEP 2 Recruit the Iron Hill Dwarves and the Blue Mountain Dwarves.

SPECIAL RULES No Wizard is involved in this scenario. Do not include any wizards or spells in the resource decks. The Orcs are determined to stop the Dwarven muster. As such, their patrols are ranging far and wide and growing in numbers. To reflect this, use a die or counter to keep track of the number of turns you take. After the sixth turn, treat all Orc attacks as if Minions Stir was in play (+1 prowess and strikes to each Orc or Troll attack). Treat the Iron Hill Dwarf-hold and the Blue Mountain Dwarf-hold as Havens for the purposes of healing, playing cards (hazards, storing items, etc.), and introducing characters. When Weariness of the Heart is drawn, it must be played immediately as a corruption check against Dain II (or your substitute). Once both factions have been mustered, return to Dimrill Dale. During the site phase, take Ore-guard and The Great Goblin from the side. Your company must first defeat the Ore-guard and then Dain II must defeat The Great Goblin. Ignore the body checks against The Great Goblin; if Dain II defeats the attacks, he is considered defeated.

STEP 3 Return to Dimrill Dale for battle (see special rule below).

THIS CANNOT BE BORNE Resources*

Hazards*

Characters

Should include:

Should include:

Starting Characters

Blue Mountain Dwarves Dunn's Axe Fair Gold Ring Iron Hill Dwarves Precious Gold Ring (x3) Test of Form (x2) Test of Lore Any Dwarven Ring 19 other resource cards

Doors of Night (x2) Minions Stir (x2) Orc-guard Orc-lieutenant Ore-raiders (x3) Orc-warband (x2) Ore-warriors (x3) Ore-watch Wake of War (x2) Wargs (x2) Weariness of the Heart Wolves 9 other hazard cards *:No Nazgul, corruption cards, or Muster Disperses To the Side Ore-guard The Great Goblin

with Minor Items Dain II (or Thorin II or Thrain II) Fili Kili

Starting Location Blue Mountain Dwarf-hold

*:Muster should not be included

Additional Characters Bombur Gimli OR Gloin Nori Oin Ori

This deck creates an alternate universe in which the bearer of The One Ring is no less than the Elf Lord, Elrond. It was chosen for the Casual Companion to show that only your imagination can limit you when playing MECCG. This deck is included in the advanced section due to the choice of cards and the strategies required to complete the chosen goal.

"BEHOLD ISILDUR'S BANE!" "The face of Elrond was ageless, neither old nor young, though in it was written the memory of many things both glad and sorrowful. His hair was dark as the shadows of twilight, and upon it was set a circlet of silver; his eyes were as grey as a clear evening, and in them was a light like the stars. Venerable he seemed as a king crowned with many winters, and yet hale as a tried warrior in the fullness of his strength. He was the Lord of Rivendell and mighty among both Elves and Men." —LotR

"But if you'll pardon my speaking out, I think my master was right. I wish you 'd take his Ring. You 'd put things to right. You 'd stop them digging up the gaffer and turning him adrift. You'd make some folk pay for their dirty work." —LotR The strategy of this deck is to get Three Golden Hairs, Emerald of the Mariner, and Phial of Galadriel on Elrond so he can safely bear The One Ring to Mount Doom with Gollum to destroy it. All the other cards of this deck are there to make Elrond's quest to Mount Doom easier or safer. The hazard strategy is designed to annoy and stop your opponent in a variety of small ways. Although this deck is not for beginners, it's well worth striving for. One tip for beginners from this deck's author, "The more unpredictable you are, the more you win."

BEHOLD ISILDUR'S BANE Resources

Hazards

Characters

Main Sites

A Friend or Three (x3)

Cave-drake (x3)

Starting Characters

Bag End

Concealment (x3) Cracks of Doom Emerald of the Mariner Free to Choose (x3) Gollum Gollum's Fate Old Friendship (x3) Phial of Galadriel Precious Gold Ring (x3) Risky Blow (x3) Scroll of Isildur The One Ring Three Golden Hairs Torque of Hues Wizard's Test (x3)

Doors of Night (x3) Giant Spiders (x3) Lure of Nature (x3) Lure of the Senses (x3) Lures of Expedience (x3) Rain-drake (x3) Weariness of the Heart (x3) Were-worm (x3) (or other powerful wilderness creature) Withered Lands (x3)

with Minor Items Elrond with Star-glass Galadriel with Dagger of Westernesse

Goblin-gate Lorien Moria Mount Doom Rivendell The Under-grottos (for testing The One Ring) 2 sites where greater items are playable 3 sites where Precious Gold Rings are playable (preferably not dragon homes) 1 site where major items are playable

Additional Characters Beorn Thranduil Wizards Pallando (x2)

The scenarios in this section were made to be played as solitaires. There are quite a few rules to master, but I think you will find them challenging as opposed to intimidating! If you are a Tolkien fan, you will recognize familiar storylines from The Hobbit™ and the Lord of the Rings™ trilogy. Remember that solitaires aren't designed to be winnable every time. These scenarios will bring you many hours of entertainment and be a challenge and a joy every step of the way!

BURGLAR WANTS A GOOD JOB "And I assure you there is a mark on this door—the usual one in the trade, or used to be. Burglar wants a good job, plenty of Excitement and reasonable Reward, that's how it is usually read. You can say Expert Treasure-hunter instead of Burglar if you like." —Hob "Now it is the burglar's turn," they said, mean ing Bilbo. "You must go on and find out all about that light, and what it is for, and if all is perfectly safe and canny." —Hob "If they had still doubted that he was really a first-class burglar, in spite of Gandalf's words, they doubted no longer." —Hob Bilbo Baggins' door was not the first, or the last, to bear that "queer sign," whether from the inhabitant's own desire, or the scheme of some wizard. Yet before most employers would accept such a one in their Company, or at least before they would pay him his "reasonable Reward," they would require the burglar to perform several tasks to prove his abilities. So, before you, Burglar (you can say Expert Treasure-hunter, or Scout perhaps, instead of Burglar if you like), your potential employers have set the following tasks as a test of your skills, to prove your worthiness to accompany them on their great adventure. If you succeed, then, you will undoubtedly receive "a good job, plenty of Excitement, and reasonable Reward."

The Burglar's test, consisting of four tasks: 2) Steal an item from the hoard of a Dragon and present it to them as proof; 3)Steal an item from an Orcish stronghold and present it to them as proof; 3. Obtain (by spying) information on one of the peoples your employers may encounter on their upcoming mission, and return to them with this information; and 4. Rescue one of their comrades in arms, and return him to them. In addition, our Burglar must also regale these employers with tales of his stealthy exploits against the dangerous creatures of the land.

4) A site deck, which must include at least: the Burglar's home site (starting location) Rivendell Lorien one Ruins & Lairs site with a Dragon automaticattack • one Shadow-hold or Dark-hold site with an Orc automatic-attack • any site where the faction(s) chosen for the resource deck are playable It is recommended that the site deck include at least two, preferably three, different sites that relate to the Burglar's tasks. Note that resource and hazard decks are kept separate in the scenario.

THE TURN SEQUENCE The Burglar begins play at his home site, with one non-unique minor item. The player draws a resource hand of five cards. Untap Phase: As in Standard Rules Organization Phase: As in Standard Rules, except: any character other than the Burglar (a Hand, see Other Characters below under Special Rules) who has been in play for two turns leaves play at the end of this phase.

Burglar Wants a Good Job is a solitaire scenario which highlights the skills of those stealthy companions, the scouts. You will need the following: 4)Starting Company 1 scout character (the Burglar) with 1 non-unique minor item 5)A Resource Deck of no more than 30 cards, which must include: •At least 1 faction, at least 2 major or greater items, at least 1 Rescue Prisoners. •Select other resources to include, with the following limitations: You may include no more than 1 of any unique card, and no more than 3 of any non-unique card in the deck. You may include up to 3 other characters, one of which may be a wizard. 3) A Hazard deck of 30 cards, which must include: 20 creatures: 5 keyable to Free-domain or Border-land; 10 keyable to Wilderness or Double Wilderness; 5 keyable to Shadow-land or Dark-domain; and 10 non-creature hazards.

Long-event Phase: As in Standard Rules (but see below for Special Rules) Movement/Hazard Phase: As in Standard Rules, except the following sections replace those in the Standard Rules: If the company is not moving, no resource cards may be drawn. One card is drawn from the hazard deck and placed in the hazard hand as indicated above. If the company is moving to a non-haven site, you must draw a number of cards from the hazard deck as indicated by the site the company is moving to, and place them in the hazard hand. The hazard hand consists of cards drawn from the hazard deck, which are placed face down in a row at the top of the playing surface, in the order they were drawn. Hazards are played on the company from this hand, one at a time, in the order they were drawn. There is no limit to the size of the hazard hand. No cards are in the hazard hand at the start of the game. You may draw up to the number of resource cards indicated by that site card (you must draw at least one card). If the company is moving to a haven site, you must draw a number of cards from the hazard deck as indicated by the site the company is moving from, and place them in the hazard hand as indicated above.

You may draw up to the number of resource cards indicated by that site card. You must draw at least one card. Hazard cards are played on the company in the following manner: Starting with the first card drawn, turn over cards one at a time until a playable hazard is revealed. This hazard is immediately played on the company and resolved. Repeat this procedure until the hazard limit is reached, or until no playable hazards remain in the hazard hand. If the hazard limit is reached before all the cards in the hazard hand are revealed, those unrevealed cards remain face down until revealed in a subsequent turn in the manner described above. The hazard limit is equal to the size of the company or two, whichever is larger (Hobbits count half, round up). The hazard limit is determined for each company at the beginning of the movement/hazard phase (e.g., it remains fixed). Play each hazard in a manner which is best for the hazard; i.e., if the creature is keyable to Wilderness or Shadow-land and your Burglar has an untapped Elven Cloak, key the creature to Shadow-land. If the hazard has more than one effect, choose whichever effect would be most detrimental to the Burglar that turn. You must discard any cards in excess of five in your resource hand. If you have fewer than five cards in your resource hand, you must draw cards until your resource hand has five cards. You do not discard or draw cards for the hazard hand at this time. Site Phase: As in Standard Rules End of Turn Phase: You may discard one card from your resource hand. Then you must draw or discard cards until your resource hand has five cards.

SCENARIO OBJECTIVES FROM YOUR POTENTIAL EMPLOYERS: Task #1: Steal an item from the hoard of a Dragon and present it to them as proof: At a Ruins & Lairs site with a Dragon automatic-attack, successfully play (using Burglary, see below for Special Rules) a major or greater item, and store it at a Haven. Task #2: Steal an item from an Orcish stronghold and present it to them as proof: At a Shadow-hold or Dark-hold site with an Orc automatic-attack, successfully play (using Burglary) a major or greater item, and store it at a Haven. Task #3: Obtain (by spying) information on one of the peoples your employers may encounter on their upcoming mission, and return to them with this information:

Recruit a faction and "store" it at a Haven. See Special Rules below. Task #4: Rescue one of their comrades in arms, and return him to them: Successfully play Rescue Prisoners, and store it at a Haven. In addition, our Burglar must also regale these employers with tales of his stealthy exploits against the dangerous creatures of the land: The Burglar must earn at least 18 marshalling points from the items/factions/events indicated above, and from creatures he avoids by stealth (see Special Rules: Marshalling Points).

VICTORY CONDITIONS: When the resource deck is exhausted once, the Employers' Council is called at the end of that turn to discuss the fate of the Burglar: •If the Burglar has completed two of the tasks successfully and accumulated at least 10 marshalling points, he is hired to accompany the employers on a Deed of Minor Import. •If the Burglar has completed three of the tasks successfully and accumulated at least 14 marshalling points, he is hired to accompany the employers on a Matter of Some Urgency.

•If the Burglar has completed three of the tasks successfully and accumulated at least 18 marshalling points, he is hired to accompany the employers on a Grand and Perilous Adventure.. •You lose the game if the Burglar is eliminated by death or corruption.

SPECIAL RULES: Burglary: The Burglar may make a burglary attempt at any site in lieu of facing its automaticattacks. In this scenario, the Burglar is not required to play the card Burglary, only to use the ability represented on the card. He may use this ability each turn at the site phase, if he desires. The rules for such an attempt are as follows (and are identical to those printed on the Burglary card): Tap a character to make a burglary attempt at a site in lieu of facing its automatic-attacks. Tap the site and make a roll (or draw a #) modified by +2 if the character is a scout and by +3 if he is a Hobbit. If the result is greater than 10, an item normally playable at the site may be played with the character. If the attempt fails, the character must face all automatic-attacks alone. The Burglar must successfully perform a burglary on a site to receive marshalling points for the item which is played. An successfully played resources after an automatic-attack is faced or canceled does not satisfy the requirements for the burglary task, and no marshalling points are earned for that item. Factions: In this scenario, a faction may be stored in the same manner as an item or information event. The play of a faction in this scenario represents information about the people, rather than the people themselves. Long-events: All long-events remain in play for two turns. Marshalling Points: The Burglar receives no marshalling points for hazard creatures defeated. Instead, he receives marshalling points for creature hazards he avoids by stealth; i.e., hazards that are canceled by the use of the following items or events: Elven Cloak, Magic Ring of Stealth, Concealment, Trickery, Halfling Stealth, Many Turns and Doublings (if the Burglar is also a Ranger), or The One Ring.

Exception: if another character is in the Burglar's company, only cards which cancel an attack yield marshalling points. If the other character(s) must face a strike from the attack, the Burglar receives no marshalling points, regardless of the outcome of the strike. Cards like Stealth, Hiding, and Secret Passage may not be used to earn marshalling points in this way, since no attacks occur which can be canceled. The Burglar only receives marshalling points for items/factions/events which directly relate to his tasks; i.e. he receives marshalling points for the two burgled items, one faction (his spy information), and one Rescue Prisoners. He only receives marshalling points for those resources when they have been stored at a haven during his organization phase. Any other marshalling points the Burglar earns must come from avoiding creature hazards, as explained above.

Other Characters: Other characters, the Burglar's Hands, are played as resource long-events, with the following exception: they may be played any time during the organization phase, and leave at the end of the organization phase two turns later. Any items which the Hand bore are automatically returned to the Burglar when the other character leaves play in this fashion. If the Hand is discarded or eliminated prior to the end of the two turns, the following occurs: if discarded or eliminated by corruption, all items/events with the Hand are discarded. If killed, one item of the player's choice is automatically transferred to the Burglar. Up to three Hands may be in play at one time. Hands may not perform burglaries, nor may they bear the Rescue Prisoners. They may assist the Burglar's spying (i.e. a player may use Thranduil to recruit the Wood-elves faction; the Burglar still receives the marshalling points). This represents the Burglar using his associate as a cover to more easily obtain the information he needs.

OPTION FOR A LONGER GAME: When your resource deck is exhausted once: reshuffle your resource discard pile into a new resource deck, shuffle any discarded hazards back into the hazard deck, and return all discarded sites to your site deck. Continue play as above with the following changes: At each movement/hazard phase, draw one hazard card in addition to the number indicated on the site card. There is no hazard limit. Any hazard in the hazard hand which is playable on the moving company must be played, in the order it was revealed. The Employers' Council begins at the end of the turn in which your play deck is exhausted a second time. Victory conditions are as listed above, except the marshalling point requirements for the three levels of victory are increased to 14, 18, and 22, respectively. You lose if your Burglar is eliminated by death or corruption.

SAMPLE DECK Resources

Hazards

Sites

Beautiful Gold Ring (x2)

Ambusher

Bag End

Beornings Concealment (x3) Dodge Fast Asleep (x2) Halfling Stealth (x3) Halfling Strength (x3) Magic Ring of Stealth Orcrist Rescue Prisoners (x2) Secret Passage Sword of Gondolin (x2) Test of Lore (x2) Torque of Hues Trickery Wood-elves

Awaken Denizens Awaken Minions Brigands (x2) Cave-drake (x2) Crebain Doors of Night (x2) Fell Winter Ghouls Giant Giant Spiders Half-trolls of Far Harad Lost in the Wilderness Lure of the Senses (x2) Olog-hai (Trolls) Orc-lieutenant Orc-patrol (x2) Ore-raiders Ore-warriors (x2) Slayer Wargs Weariness of the Heart (x2) Wolves

Bandit Lair Beorn's House Dancing Spire Lorien Moria Mount Gundabad Ost-in-Edhil Rivendell Sarn Goriwing The Lonely Mountain Thranduil's Hall Character with minor item Robin Smallburrow with Elven Cloak Additional Characters Beorn Gandalf Thranduil

2) The Mark of Trolls' Stony Boots is a solitaire scenario in Troll country—Rhudaur and the wild lands just west of the Misty Mountains. You will need the following to play this scenario: Two non-unique minor items A site deck which must include: Barrow-downs Cameth Brin or Dunnish Clan-hold Dimrill Dale Ettenmoors Goblin-gate Moria Mount Gram Ost-in-Edhil Rivendell Tharbad Weathertop If one of the above sites is unavailable, you may substitute with any of the following: Ruined Signal Tower, The White Towers. All sites but Rivendell are considered Troll Hideouts.

THE MARK OF TROLLS' STONY BOOTS "... I met two of Elrond's people. They were hurrying along for fear of trolls. It was they who told me that three of them had come down from the mountains and settled in the woods not far from the road; they had frightened everyone away from the district, and they waylaid strangers." —Hob

A group of three Trolls have come down from the mountains for mischief, and are waylaying travelers on the road. Elrond, Master of Rivendell, has sent out a patrol with the following charge: Find the three trolls and defeat them, rescuing any captives and recovering any items; Warn the local peoples of the danger, and convince them to start their own patrols to secure Rhudaur against further Troll incursions. 1) Characters: No more than three characters, with a total of no more than 12 mind, and with a Home Site of Bree or Rivendell. At least one must be an Elf.

3) A play deck of 30 cards, which must include: "William" "Bert" "Tom" Doors of Night (x3) Minions Stir (x2) Wake of War (x2) 20 creatures (at least 6 must be of the Wolf, Spider, or Animal type) 10 keyed to single Wilderness 5 keyed to double or triple Wilderness 5 keyed to Shadow-hold or Shadow-land 10 Resource Events or Minor items of your choice. You may not include Muster. No more that 1 of each unique card, and no more than 3 of each non-unique card may be included in this deck. 4) A resource sideboard, which must include: one character of your choice, with a mind of 6 or less one weapon of your choice one faction: either Hillmen or Dunlendings 5) Resource hand You start with no cards in your resource hand. 6) Card Layout Lay out all 11 sites on the playing surface in any order you choose. You may wish to group sites by region or by the order you intend to search them. Shuffle the play deck, and deal four cards to each of the 10 Troll hideouts. Place the four cards face down beneath each site card. Begin your company at Rivendell.

Hazard creatures (except "Bert," "Tom," "William"): The company faces all creatures playable on the site path or at the destination site. Creatures are played in a manner that is most disadvantageous to the company. If a creature is defeated, it is eliminated from the game. If the creature is not defeated or is not playable , it is put in the discard pile. "Bert," "Tom," or "William:" Place them at the site (to be resolved at the site phase). Resource cards: Place them at the site (to be received during the site phase). Any minor item revealed at a site where minor items are not playable is immediately removed from the game. If the company is moving to Rivendell: Shuffle the discard pile. Deal cards one at a time, up to the company's hazard limit. If the card is a hazard creature playable on the site path, the company faces the creature. Otherwise, the card still counts against the hazard limit, but is returned to the discard pile unplayed.

THE TURN SEQUENCE 6)Untap Phase: characters may untap if tapped. Wounded characters may heal only at Rivendell. 7)Organization Phase: You may transfer items between characters. Choose the site to which the company will travel this turn. 8)Long-event Phase: Play any resource longevents. Resource long-events last for two turns in this scenario. 9)Movement/Hazard Phase: If the company is moving to one of the ten Troll hideouts: Remove cards from beneath the destination site card. Turn over all cards, and play them in the following order: Hazard events: any hazard events enter play first. For this scenario, Minions Stir, Wake of War, and Lost in the Wilderness are considered permanentevents. Once in play, they remain in play for the rest of the game, unless removed by a resource (such as Marvels Told). Duplicates of events already in play are discarded.

F. If no trolls were defeated at the site, any untapped character in the company may tap to receive a resource found at the site. If playable, a minor item is played with the character (see Resource cards in the Movement/Hazard Phase section above). A permanent-event or short-event may be played immediately, or placed in a resource hand to be played on a later turn. There is no limit to the size of the resource hand. Long-events are placed in the resource hand until they are played during a long-event phase. 6. End of Turn Phase: Any resources not received by the company are eliminated from the game. Any of "Bert," "Tom," or "William" not defeated this turn remain at the site to be defeated next turn (the company must face any automaticattacks again next turn).

VICTORY CONDITIONS Elrond's adventurers successfully complete their mission when they defeat "Bert," "Tom," and "William," rescue the waylaid character, recover the lost weapon, and warn the local people of the danger of marauding Trolls (recruit either the Hillmen or the Dunlendings). The company fails if all characters in the company are killed.

5. Site phase: A.Choose whether or not the company will enter the site. If the site is not entered, go below to 6, End-of-Turn Phase. B. The company faces any automatic-attacks. C. The company enters the site. D.If "Bert," "Tom," or "William" are at the site, they are faced immediately. If more than one is at the site, they are faced in the following order: "William" first, then "Bert," then "Tom." If defeated, place their card with the company (as proof that they were defeated). E. If "Bert," "Tom," or "William" was defeated at the site, any untapped character in the company may tap to receive one of the following cards from the sideboard: • The first troll defeated in the game allows the character to be rescued (played with the company). He enters play tapped. • The second troll defeated allows the weapon to be played with the company, on the character who taps to receive it. This item may be played even if the site does not normally allow play of an item of that type. • The third troll defeated allows the faction to be recruited at their site. (If the site where the third troll is defeated is not the faction's site, the company must travel to the faction's site to recruit them.)

SPECIAL RULES: Assigning Strikes: Assign normal strikes in the following order, against untapped characters first, then tapped characters, then wounded characters. Assign prowess modifications (from extra strikes) in the same order. Assign "Attacker chooses" strikes in the reverse order: against wounded characters first, then tapped characters, then untapped characters. Corruption: No corruption checks are required during this scenario, even when transferring items between characters. Marshalling Points: Marshalling points are not counted for this scenario.

Movement: The company may use either starter or region movement, although the company may not move to any site for which they have no site card. They may not move to a Troll hideout more than once during the game. They may move to Rivendell as many times as the player wishes. The company must move to a new site each turn, unless an undefeated "Bert," "Tom," or "William" remains at the site which the company could not defeat on the turn they arrived at the site. In this case, the company may remain at the site for a maximum of one turn for each undefeated "Bert," "Tom," or "William" at the site. They must face the site's automatic-attack each turn, before facing "Bert," "Tom," or "William."

MARK OF TROLLS' STONY BOOTS Resources

Hazards

Characters

Main Sites

Block (x2)

"Bert" (Burat)

Starting Characters with

Barrow-downs

Dark Quarrels (x2) Healing Herbs Marvels Told Risky Blow (x2) Tempering Friendship (x2)

Doors of Night (x3) Minions Stir (x2) Wake of War (x2) Cave-drake Dire Wolves Giant Giant Spiders (x2) Half-trolls of Far Harad Hobgoblins Olog-hai (Trolls) Orc-guard Orc-lieutenant Orc-raiders Orc-warband Ore-warriors Ore-watch "Tom" (Tuma) Wargs (x2) "William" (Wuluag) Wolves (x2)

Minor Items Gildor Inglorion with Dagger of Westernesse Glorfindel II with Elven Cloak

Cameth Brin Dimrill Dale Ettenmoors Goblin-gate Moria Mount Gram Ost-in-Edhil Rivendell Tharbad Weathertop Sideboard Beretar Hillmen Orcrist

TO THE ENDS OF MIDDLE-EARTH

This scenario is designed to be played by two players, but can be played with up to five if you have the time! Don't be surprised by the wider range of cards used; this scenario is for advanced players with fairly extensive card collections. If you're just starting out with a few Starter decks and boosters and don't have the cards required, that's OK! Use the idea behind the design of this scenario and create your own campaign against Sauron. The possibilities and fun are almost endless! You can make proxy cards to flesh out the needs of this scenario as written.

Times are evil, but there is one hope. Through immense danger and against unbelievable odds, a party of four Hobbits, with the help of Strider the ranger, have managed to find their way to Rivendell with a prize which the Dark Lord is bending all of his will toward finding. It is by coincidence that all of the Free Peoples have sent representatives to Imladris in the hope of benefiting from the wisdom of Elrond, master of Rivendell, and a chief among the Elves. There the Council of Elrond is held and for the first time, Isildur's Bane, The One Ring, is revealed to all present. Gandalf insists that even though The One Ring could mean doom for all who wander free upon Middle-earth, it could also be their only hope of salvation. Many councils are taken and many things decided, yet not enough is known. It appears as though the Nine Nazgul that pursue the Ring and its bearer have been unhorsed and unmasked by the flooding of the river, but none know for sure. What other dangers await them in the surrounding lands, whether they be spies or agents of Sauron, nobody knows. Scouts are chosen to be sent out to the four corners of Middle-earth to seek out the enemy and divine his strengths and weaknesses. They must venture out under the eyes of the enemy and attempt to penetrate even his most dreaded of strongholds. The histories do not record the names of all of these scouts. Many are sent in anonymity simply for the purpose of recruiting scouts of greater stature from the towns and dales of Middle-earth. Many will never return.

SPECIAL RULES All normal decks size limits apply, except that the five characters who would normally start will go into the play deck along with any other characters a player chooses. You may have up to seventeen total characters in your play deck. No wizards in this game. After decks and characters are chosen, each player will select at random one of the five available missions. Each mission having a primary goal, and several secondary goals as well. During your organization phase, you may play as many characters as you have in your hand, but they may only be played at their home sites as listed on the character's card. You may not exceed a total of forty mind of characters in play under your general influence. Company size is limited to one character and any other character(s) he can directly influence. This means if a character has more than two characters as followers and is killed, those that were under the controlling character must split during the next organization phase. The exception would be if one of the characters could use direct influence on the other(s). There is a limit of one hazard creature per character in a party. All normal phases of the turn proceed as stated in the standard rules, with the following exceptions: You may not use starter movement. If, at the beginning of any turn, a player does not have a character in the game, he may draw cards until one of the following occurs: he draws a character, he draws a fifth card, or he chooses to stop drawing. If a character is drawn, it must be played immediately. No other character may be played that turn. •During the site phase, a character need not be untapped (but may not be wounded) to play an item playable at the site. Any card effect or item that requires a character to tap may be used, even during combat, without tapping the character (even if the character is injured). Though any item used in this way must tap, even if it is not normally required. This rule does not apply to the rules of combat themselves, which are applied as usual, including for the purpose of choosing defending characters. For example, combat modifications to prowess due to a character being tapped or choosing not to tap to face a strike still apply. The usual rules apply to playing a minor item at a tapped site or an item normally playable at an Under-deeps site. This means you can play two items on one uninjured character, and more if some other condition makes more items playable.

All corruption points (CP) caused by items, actions, or hazards are halved, rounded up. For example, 1 normal CP is one in this game. 2 Normal CP are still one, and 3 normal CP are two, etc. This rule does not apply to corruption check modifiers. Marshalling points are meaningless, but factions can still be used. In this game, a faction must be influenced in the same manner as in normal MECCG, but when influenced must stay with the character as an ally-faction. These factions are not armies, but rather small bands of scouts. They are not unique, though each player may only have one of each faction per deck. A faction contains a number of characters equal to the number of MPs that faction is worth, and has a prowess equal to the number stated on the card needed to influence it.

All characters in a company must be assigned strikes before any faction is assigned a strike. A faction may face a number of strikes equal to the number of MPs the faction is worth. Any additional strikes must be assigned to characters (not the faction) as modifiers. However, if a faction outnumbers the strikes the company is facing, the company may apply each extra strike as a +1 modifier to the prowess of itself or any character facing a strike from the attack. All strikes against a faction are taken care of with one roll; either they win, lose, or draw. If a faction is killed, it goes to the discard pile, and is not eliminated. Since factions are treated as allies in calculating company size.

THE OBJECT The object of the game is to visit each site listed on the mission sheet and carry the information found there back to Rivendell. Sites listed on your mission sheet are called "objective sites." To gain the information at an objective site, the character must enter the site as normal, either through facing the attacks normally, or through burglary. Once inside the site, the player may tap the site and put it under any of the characters that entered the site. It is now that site's information. A minor item may then be played with any character in the company and the turn ends.

The character must then return the site to Rivendell and store it there. Site information may be stored during the site phase. At that time, the character may be sent back out to another site, stay at Rivendell and wait to join other characters or be sent to the discard pile. If a character who has a site information card under him is killed, he may not pass the information to any other character.

MISSION #1 — FLIES

AND

SPIDERS

Even though Sauron has left his stronghold in Southern Mirkwood, it is rumored that one of his lieutenants, if not one of the Nine, is fortifying the stronghold in preparation for war. You must penetrate the shadows of Mirkwood and return with the information you gain there. The surrounding lands must also be spied out. Mirkwood has long suffered under the weight of the Dark Lord in his guise as the Necromancer. It is believed that the shadow of Dol Guldur stretches even as far as the Withered Heath. The Iron Hill Dwarves may be able to provide you with some valuable assistance and it would also be a good idea to visit Shrel-Kain while you are out. To make matters worse, some link seems to exist between Dol Guldur and a Bandit Lair in the Brown Lands just south of there. Primary Site Dol Guldur / Special: Orcs +1 Strike; Trolls +1 Strike, +1 Prowess Secondary Sites Bandit Lair / Special: Men +6 Prowess Dead Marshes / Special: Undead +2 Strikes Iron Hill Dwarf Hold / Special: Iron Hill Dwarf Hold information may tap to allow bearer to play one extra item playable at a site during the site phase at any Ruins & Lairs. Shrel-Kain / Special: Assassin; 1 Strike, 11 prowess, attacker chooses defending character

MISSION #2 — THE TEETH MORDOR

OF

Even if rumor did not report that Sauron has taken up his abode in his former stronghold at Barad-dur, one need only visit the surrounding lands to feel the power of the Lidless Eye watching over the lands. Some brave soul must find a way to penetrate this impenetrable fortress and bring back word of the enemy's ancient stronghold. Rumor is not enough. Apparently some of Thranduil's people have some information that may be helpful in allowing you to get into Barad-dur, but Thranduil has asked that you also scout out Sarn Goriwing near his eastern border. Since you will be in that area, it would be helpful to find out what is happening in the Desolation of Smaug. Primary Site Barad-dur Secondary Sites Easterling Camp / Special: Assassin; 1 strike at 11 Prowess, attacker chooses defending character. Sarn Goriwing / Special: Orcs +1 Strike, +2 Prowess The Lonely Mountain Thranduil's Halls / Special: Thranduil's Halls information may be tapped to cause one long-event resource to become permanent. This effect is canceled and the long event is discarded when the card is stored.

MISSION #4 —SHELOB'S LAIR The name of Cirith Ungol inspires fear in all parts of the Middle-earth. Nannies whisper horror stories to their charges with fireside tales of the evil that abides there. But the dangers are more than mere fireside tales. Someone must get into Cirith Ungol and bring back a report of what terrors reside there, and how well guarded is the pass through Imlad Morgul. The most dangerous part of this mission may be the need to pass into Shelob's Lair itself to see if you can divine the nature of the relationship between that evil creature and the Dark Lord. Obviously, our allies in Dol Amroth will be willing to help, but help would be invaluable from the Southrons as well. And now that the treachery of Isengard is known to all, it would be a very good idea to see if you can gain some insight into the nature of that relationship as well. Primary Site Cirith Ungol / Special: Extra Attack; Trolls: 3 Strikes at 9 Prowess Secondary Sites Dol Amroth / Special: Dol Amroth information may be tapped to cancel one attack against bearer's company. Isengard / Special: Wolves +5 Prowess Shelob's Lair / Special: Orcs +2 Strikes

MISSION #3 — THE WITCH-KING'S REALM Scouts on the Northern border recount grave danger from the region of Angmar. It has been noted with deep concern that forces are amassing at Carn Dum and that Angmar is once again on the rise; Carn Dum must somehow be infiltrated. It is rumored that the Blue Mountain Dwarves, being close neighbors, may have some information concerning this mustering of forces. Some force of arms may also be coming out of the Goblin-gate, which has been suspect ever since the Battle of Five Armies. You may be able to recruit some help from a faction at Lond Galen to the south. Also, though it is out of your way, we need someone to scout out the region of Withered Heath. It will have to be you because we have no one else to spare. Primary Site Carn Dum / Special: Extra attack; Wolves 3 Strikes at 9 Prowess Secondary Sites Blue Mountain Dwarf Hold / Special: Blue Mountain information may be tapped to search play deck or discard pile for one major or hoard item. Caves of Ulund / Special: Dragon +1 prowess Goblin-gate / Special: Orcs +1 Strike, +1 Prowess Lond Galen / Special: Assassin; 1 strike at 11 Prowess, attacker chooses defending character.

Southron Oasis / Special: Assassin; 1 strike at 11 Prowess, attacker chooses defending character.

MISSION #5 — MORGUL VALE Once a proud sister city to Minas Tirith, Minas Anor, the Tower of the Moon, long ago fell into the hands of the enemy, and was renamed Minas Morgul. It is believed that this is a stronghold of the Black Riders. More traffic has been seen going in and out of there even than Barad-dur itself. It is possible that the best way into the evil city might be to come in from the southeast, through Nurn. This is not only to help draw attention away from our other scouts operating west of there, but also because you may be able to get some help from the Variags of Khand. Though they are wild men, they are proud, and they have never loved Sauron, though they have often bent to his will. It may be best if you take the route through Minas Tirith. That city may also be able to spare some reliable help. To avoid duplicating others efforts, it may be wise to take a different pass through the mountains. It is thought that we need some information about Moria anyway, and though it is a name of great dread, you should probably take that route on your way. You may also take the southern route through the Stone-circle. Whichever way you choose, the other should probably be your route back, to keep the enemy's spies off of your trail.

Primary Site Minas Morgul / Special: Extra Attack; Wargs: 2 Attacks at 10 Prowess Secondary Sites Minas Tirith / Special: Minas Tirith information gives +2 Prowess to bearer. Moria / Special: Orcs +1 Prowess Stone-circle / Special: Pukel-man + 5 Prowess Variag Camp / Special: Assassin; 1 Strike at 11 Prowess, attacker chooses defending character.

JOYOUS FOG The Joyous Fog deck (as Craig "Ichabod" O'Brien dubs it) is all about Wilderness. In Tolkien's Middleearth, the wilderness was full of dangerous creatures, and forgotten treasures. Radagast the Brown, however, was a master at exploring and understanding the dangers of Middle-earth's wild places. The deck uses Echo of All Joy to lock down Fog, and Balance Between Powers protects the investment. Radagast draws cards like a house on fire while triple Wilderness drakes come out of the "woodwork" all over your opponent. Instead of rel-

The following two decks are designed around specific themes found in Middle-earth. One of the great joys of MECCG is being able to put together decks that draw heavily from the themes of Tolkien, and which are still fun to play! There are a fair number of rare cards in these decks, and unfortunately we were not able to print all of them for proxy card purposes. There are, however, plenty of substitutions for the cards you might not have, so study these decks and enjoy!

egating Gates of Morning to its normal boring roll as an anti-Doors of Night card, this deck actively uses the benefits of Gates of Morning, and even depends on it. Therefore, the main defense for Gates of Morning, namely Balance Between Powers, deserves some special attention. The Fog/Echo of All Joy combination's main vulnerability is from Doors of Night and Twilight. Once you have this combination in play, you can drop Balance and,

wham! Doors of Night and Twilight cannot be played. Your 15 environment cards have the sole purpose of getting this combination into play, so you have no problem using your excess environments to fuel Balance during your organization phases. Radagast's card drawing ability will help insure you have a good supply of excess environment cards coming into your hand.

JOYOUS FOG/DRAKES Resources

Hazards

Characters

Balance Between Powers (x3)

Assassin (x3)

At Start

Blue Mountain Dwarves Concealment (x3) Crown of Flowers (x3) Eagle-mounts (x2) Echo of All Joy (x3) Fair Travels in Wilderness (x2) Fifteen Birds in Five Firtrees (x3) Fog (x3) Ford (x2) Gates of Morning (x3) Glamdring Goldberry Gollum Hauberk of Bright Mail (x2) Herb-lore (x2) Lindion the Oronin Orcrist Rangers of the North The Cock Crows (x3) Thorough Search Torque of Hues Wormsbane Woses of Old Pukel-land

Aware of Their Ways (x2) Baduila Cave Worm (x3) Cave-drake (x3) Daelomin at Home Dragon's Curse (x2) Foes Shall Fall (x2) Foolish Words (x2) From the Pits of Angband (x3) Lost in the Wilderness (x2) Lure of Nature (x3) Many Sorrows Befall Mouth of Sauron Rain-drake (x3) Revealed to All Watchers Twilight (x3) Uvatha the Horseman Were-worm (x3) Winged Cold-drake (x3) Wound of Long Burden (x2)

Beretar Kili with Elven Cloak Sam Gamgee with Elven Cloak Thorin II Other Characters Annalena Beregond Gloin Oin Thrain II Wizard Radagast (x2)

MAGIC RINGS/UNDEAD Ever wonder about those rings at the other end of the spectrum—the rejects, so to speak, of Sauron and Elven craftsmiths forging the Rings of Power? The rings that did not pass mustard with Sauron could be sweet little trinkets for the Free Peoples if a brave soul or two would go find them. Gandalf said he would even be willing to test any gold ring brought to Lorien (even though technically this is his vacation). This deck accepts the challenge. You, as Gandalf, need not move much out of Lorien. What you would like to see are your characters in two companies or so fanning out of Lorien to all the Gold Ring sites, bringing back their Gold Ring treasures so that you can test them. You know the enhancements

Magic Rings (and even some Lesser Rings) provide is pretty significant out in the field. The extra direct influence is very important, because you plan to bring many characters in with your team—more characters and more character marshalling points than most Wizards would. On the hazard end of it all, your opponent will have one of the most vile challenges he has ever faced—Undead (with a couple rats thrown in)! Choking Shadows can be a little more effective than meets the eye, and always think in terms of recycling Twilights with An Unexpected Outpost if it seems your opponent has a real problem with your Doors of Night.

MAGIC RINGS/UNDEAD Resources

Hazards

Characters

A Chance Meeting

An Unexpected Outpost (x3)

At Start

Beautiful Gold Ring (x3) Block (x3) Easterlings Fair Gold Ring (x3) Great-road Gollum Hundreds of Butterflies (x3) Leaf Brooch (x2) Lesser Ring (x2) Magic Ring of Courage (x3) Magic Ring of Words (x2) Marvels Told (x3) Men of Dorwinion New Friendship (x3) Orcrist Pledge of Conduct Quickbeam Risky Blow (x3) Test of Lore (x3) Twilight (x3) Wormsbane

Barrow-wight (x2) Chill Douser (x3) Choking Shadows (x3) Doors of Night (x3) Exhalation of Decay (x3) Ghosts (x2) Ghouls (x3) The Moon Is Dead (x3) Morgul Night (x2) Morgul-rats (x3) Mouth of Sauron Peril Returned (x2) Plague of Wights (x2) Spells of the Barrow-wight (x2) Stirring Bones (x3) The Will of Sauron (x2) Wisp of Pale Sheen (x3)

Celeborn w/ Cram Cirdan w/ Elf-stone Faramir Ioreth Other Characters Dain II Dori Elladan Elrohir Glorfindel II Halbarad Haldir Legolas Wizards Gandalf (x2)

Even in casual play, you will occasionally come across another player who wants to know if your deck is tournament legal. Under the Council of Lorien tournament guidelines, the deck construction rules have been modified and certain cards have errata that effect the course of play and the viability of certain strategies. As a casual player, you may not be concerned with these issues, but you out to know at least the basics as a matter of courtesy. After all, some strategies that work very well in casual play, will not work well in tournament play. If your opponent is concerned about this issue, you should at least be able to advise him what to expect.

THE BASICS OF TOURNAMENT DECKS Though the Casual Companion will not go into all of the details of creating tournament decks, the basics can be reduced to three guidelines: 1) The minimum raised to 30/30.

number

of

resources/hazards

is

2)Your hazard mix must contain at least 12 creature hazards. Hazards that can be played as either a creature or an event count as half a creature for these purposes. 3)You may put three copies of the same wizard, or two copies of one wizard and one of another, in your deck. If you check over the decks presented here in the Casual Companion, you will find that they are all tournament legal. In fact, you can add another wizard as per the third guideline if you so choose.

(and declare he is facing a strike) before any other strikes are assigned. Alatar (errata)—Change "...:he must tap and make a corruption check immediately following the attack." to "...: he must make a corruption check immediately following the attack, and, if untapped, he must tap." Align Palantir (errata)—Add "May not be duplicated on a given Palantir. Assassin (clarification)—If an attack from Assassin is given more than one strike, each additional strike becomes an excess strike (-1 prowess modification) against the attacked character. An Assassin can never assign strikes to more than one character. Balrog of Moria (clarification)—The "in addition" section of Balrog of Moria is not used if Galadriel is out of play, even if she is eliminated. Bane of the Ithil-stone (clarification)—This card cancels any action that literally causes any player to search through or look at any portion of any play deck or discard pile outside the normal sequence of play. E.g., this card cancels Vilya, which would otherwise allow Elrond's player to choose 5 cards from his discard pile and shuffle them into his play deck. This card does not cancel each player's card drawing option when a company reveals a new site, but it does cancel Lucky Search. This card does not affect an action which allows a player to bring cards from his sideboard into his discard pile or play deck. This card does not affect an action which otherwise only causes a player to reshuffle his play deck. Bill the Pony (errata)—The body of this ally is 10, not 6. Book of Mazarbul (errata)—Replace "... tap the bearer during your organization phase ..." with "... tap Book of Mazarbul during your organization phase ..." Burglary (clarification)—If you fail the roll for the Burglary, you cannot then play an item.

CLARIFICATIONS AND ERRATA Certain cards have errata or clarifications that can seriously effect play. Though for casual play you might want to ignore this, if you are interested in moving on to tournament play, you might want to familiarize yourself the ones we present here. It is also very useful to settle disputes. The errata presented here covers the changes between the Limited and Unlimited printings of Middle-earth: The Wizards, and some of the most important subsequent rulings. The complete list is available on ICE's web site at: www.ironcrown.com.

MIDDLE-EARTH: THE WIZARDS The following list details card errata and clarifications of cards. This list is official. If a card lists an errata, it means text on the card is wrong or incomplete. If a card lists a clarification, it means text on the card could be ambiguous. Akhorahil (errata)—Change "...gives -1 penalty to one..." to "...gives +1 penalty to one..." Alatar (clarification)—Alatar can use his "teleport" ability if he is wounded, tapped, or untapped. Alatar always faces a strike when he teleports, regardless of his wounded or tapped status. Alatar must teleport

Burglary (clarification)—The character who fails the burglary roll must face the automatic-attack as though he were a one-character company. This means he can receive no combat support other than what he himself can provide. This is a reversal of an earlier ruling. Others characters in his company cannot tap in support, etc. Burglary (clarification)—Revealing an on-guard creature or attacking with an agent can be declared when a character plays burglary. The creature or agent would attack the entire company after Burglary is resolved. Of course, the site must have an auto-attack to reveal an on-guard creature. Call of Home (clarification)—Besides the one item automatically transferrable, all other non-follower cards target character controls are discarded. Call of the Sea (clarification)—Besides the one item automatically transferrable, all other non-follower cards target Elf controls are discarded. Corpse-candle (clarification)—If this attack is cancelled, the company does not have to make corruption checks. Corsairs of Umbar (errata)—May also be played at any site in Elven Shores, Eriadoran Coast, Andrast Coast, Bay of Belfalas, and Mouths of the Anduin.

Cracks of Doom (errata)—Remove "Otherwise, discard The One Ring and its bearer." Dodge (errata)—Replace "... his body check is modified by -1." with "... his body check receives a +1 penalty." Doors of Night (clarification)—This card only cancels resource environment effects already in play when this card is played. It does not cancel resource environment cards and effects played after this card is resolved. This card cannot be played after strikes from an attack have been assigned, if this card would cause the number of strikes from the attack to change.

Foul Fumes (clarification)—For the additional effect if Doors of Night is in play, the site path to consider is the one given on the site card. Gates of Morning (clarification)—This card only cancels hazard environment effects already in play when this card is played. It does not cancel hazard environment cards and effects played after this card is resolved. This card cannot be played after strikes from an attack have been assigned, if this card would cause the number of strikes from the attack to change. Giant (errata)—Add "Giant."

Dragon's Desolation (clarification)—The second option of this card lasts until the end of the turn or until a dragon is played with it. The second option must target a Ruins and Lairs site with the site path requirement. The site path to consider is the one given on the Ruins and Lairs site card. This card can be used to attack a company that does not move and is at a Ruins and Lairs site with the proper site path requirement.

Goldberry (clarification)—This ally can tap to cancel an effect declared earlier in the same chain of effects that would cause her company to return to its site of origin.

Dragon's Desolation (clarification)—Playing Dragon's Desolation to make a Dragon playable at a Ruins & Lairs does not necessarily require you to play a Dragon later in the turn.

Gollum (clarification)—The text on Gollum is an ability that you can choose to use, not an effect that happens automatically.

Dwarven Rings [in general] (clarification)—Values in parenthesis and brackets apply to Dwarf bearer. Dwarven Rings [in general] (clarification)—Give +2 (+7) to direct influence. Dwarven Ring of Thelor's Tribe (errata)—The prowess/body modifications should read: "+2(4)/+l". Dwarven Ring of Thrar's Tribe (errata)—The prowess/body modifications should read: "+2(4)/+l". Elven Cloak (clarification)—Can cancel a strike keyed to double (or multiple) Wilderness. Ent-draughts (errata)—Remove "as a minor item" and replace with "and only if an ally or faction has been succesfully played at Wellinghall" Escape (clarification)—An unwounded character must be used to satisfy the condition. Escape (clarification)—Cannot be played on a wounded character. The Evenstar (clarification)—The additional effect of this card if Gates of Morning is in play, that a Wilderness or Border-land change, is optional. Such a region or site type need not exist for this card to be declared. Eye of Sauron (clarification)—If Doors of Night is in play, the total prowess modification is +3 to each automatic-attack, not +3 in addition to the +1 listed at the start of this card. Fell Beast (clarification)—This card can be played and resolved before any Nazgul is played with it. A Nazgul must be played as the first declared action in the chain of effects following the resolution of Fell Beast. If a Nazgul is not played immediately following the resolution of this card, this card is returned to its player's hand. This card cannot be played for no effect just to discard it. This card can be played on an existing Nazgul attack, but the extra playability this card provides would not apply.

Goldberry (clarifications)—No player may assign strikes to Goldberry. She may tap to give a character +1 in combat. Goldberry cannot prevent a company from returning to its site of origin that failed its roll to move to an adjacent Under-deeps site.

The Great Goblin (errata)—"Unique. Orc. One strike. ?5

Halfling Strength (clarification)—If used to heal a Hobbit when healing effects affect all characters in a company, it will heal all other wounded characters in the company. Horses (errata)—Add "Playable only at the end of the organization phase." Khamul the Easterling (clarification)—The cards are discarded from opponent's hand. Leaflock (clarification)—This ally can tap to cancel an attack. He can tap to cancel an ongoing hazard effect that targets his company or any entity associated with his company (item, character, site, etc.). He can tap to cancel a dice-rolling action declared earlier in the same chain of effects but not yet resolved (e.g., Call of Home). He cannot tap to cancel a non-dice-rolling effect declared earlier in the same chain of effects. For example, Leaflock could not stop "Tom" from forcing a wounded player to discard his items if Leaflock passed on the opportunity to cancel "Tom's" attack. However, once a chain of effects containing a hazard is resolved, he may tap to cancel an effect that is ongoing. For example, Leaflock could stop the effect of River, but he could not keep Adunaphel, activated as short-event, from tapping a character. Long Winter (clarification)—For the additional effect if Doors of Night is in play, the site path to consider is the one given on the site card. Lucky Search (clarification)—Playable at a tapped or untapped site. Does not exhaust play deck if its final card is revealed. Lucky Search (errata)—Replace "Discard all revealed cards except the item." with "Reshuffle all revealed cards except the item back into play deck." Great-road (errata)—Change "Opponent draws twice..." to "Opponent may draw up to twice..." Great Ship (clarification)—A character can tap to cancel an attack. He can tap to cancel an ongoing hazard effect that targets his company or any entity associated with his company (item, character, site, etc.). He can tap to cancel a dice-rolling action declared earlier in the same chain of effects but not yet resolved (e.g., Call of Home). He cannot tap to cancel a non-dicerolling effect declared earlier in the same chain of effects. For example, a character could not stop a Fell Turtle from sending his company back to its site of origin after a successful strike if no one chose to cancel the Fell Turtle's attack. However, once a chain of effects containing a hazard is resolved, he may tap to cancel an effect that is ongoing. For example, a character could stop the effect of River, though he could not keep Adunaphel, activated as short-event, from tapping a character. Great Ship (errata)—Add "Tap a character in target company during the organization phase to play Great Ship on that company." Replace "...contains a coastal sea region..." with "...contains a coastal sea region and no consecutive non-coastal sea regions..." Gwaihir (errata)—"...you may discard Gwaihir during the Organization phase to allow his company..." Halfling Strength (clarification)—This card can be played to heal all charcters at the site if played to heal a Hobbit during the organization phase at a site where healing cards affect all characters at a site.

Lucky Search (errata)—Add at the end of the first paragraph "Discard item if the scout is wounded by this attack." Lure of Expedience (clarification)—A ring played in response to a test would also cause a corruption check. Lure of Expedience (clarification)—Will trigger when a gold ring item is tested and a special item is successfully played. Will trigger when an item is transferred. Lure of Nature (clarification)—The corruption checks from these cards depends on the number of wildernesses in target character's site path at the end of his movement/hazard phase. These corruption checks may be targetted at any point during his company's movement/hazard phase. Lure of Nature (errata)—Replace "at the end of each movement/hazard phase" with "after all other hazards have been played." Lure of Nature (clarification)—The corruption checks caused by Lure of Nature happen at the end of the afflicted character's movement/hazard phase. Of course, the character's player can play resources to modify the corruption checks. The hazard player is allowed to play hazards in response, if the hazard player has enough hazard limit remaining. Hazards so played must directly affect the corruption checks caused by Lure of Nature. He can play no other hazards, no creature, no new corruption cards, etc. The spirit of Lure of Nature is that the corruption checks happen after everything else the company will face.

Mirror of Galadriel (clarification)—This card is playable if any of your characters is at Lorien. Morannon (errata)—"This card is used as Dark-hold ( ) site card in the region of Udun that is moved to......" Morgul-horse (clarification)—The first option of this card must be declared in response to tapping a Nazgul permenant-event in the same chain of effects. Morgul-horse (clarifications)—To bring a Nazgul permanent-event back into your hand Morgul-horse must be declared after tapping the Nazgul is declared and before it resolves. Regarding only the alternative effect, this card can be played and resolved before any Nazgul is played with it. A Nazgul must be played as the first declared action in the chain of effects following the resolution of the alternative effect of Morgulhorse. If a Nazgul is not played immediately following the resolution of this card, this card is returned to its player's hand. This card cannot be played for no effect just to discard it. Mount Doom (clarification)—Hazard creatures keyable to Mount Doom can be played regardless of any resources prohibiting their play. Creatures that can be played at Mount Doom by description can always be played at Mount Doom regardless of resources in play (like Stealth, Hiding, etc.). If the site type of Mount Doom changes, creatures may be keyed to the new site type, but not to the old site type. Morgul-knife (clarification)—A wounded character receives the corruption from this card immediately following the Nazgul's attack. Morgul Night (clarification)—Doors of Night is only required when this card is brought into play. This card and its effects would be unaffected if Doors of Night were later discarded. Muster (clarification)—"Warrior only. An influence check against a faction by a warrior is modified by adding the warrior's prowess to a maximum modifier of +5."

Palantir of Osgiliath (clarification)—If bearer's company size goes below four during the movement/hazard phase when the company is moving to a new site, discard this card.

Muster (errata)— Replace entire text with "Warrior only. An influence check against a faction by a warrior is modified by adding the warrior's prowess to a maximum modifier of +5."

The Pale Sword (clarification)—A wounded character receives the corruption from this card immediately following the Nazgul's attack.

Muster Disperses (clarification)—Muster Disperses cannot be revealed as on-guard card. Neeker-breekers [promo card] (clarification)—A Wizard does not face a strike from this hazard creature. Neeker-breekers (errata)— "Does not effect Wizards." Old Forest (errata)— "healing cards" with "healing effects." The Old Thrush (errata)—Add "Cannot be duplicated on a given attack." The Old Thrush (clarification)—Can only be used on agents whose listed prowess is 13 or greater, not whose prowess plus dice roll is 13 or greater. Presently, there are no agents with this listed prowess. The One Ring (clarification)—"Starting prowess" refers to the prowess printed on the character card. Palantir of Amon Sul (clarification)—If bearer's company size goes below two during the movement/hazard phase when the company is moving to a new site, discard this card.

Praise to Elbereth (clarification)—When this card is played, you must declare which characters are targetting which Nazgul events. A cancelled Nazgul event— as a permanent-event or activated—is discarded and has no effect. The Precious (clarification)—The player playing this card chooses the character to make the corruption check. Quiet Lands (errata)—Replace "... is reduced to half its original number (rounded up)." with "... is reduced by half (rounded up)." Reforging (clarification)—You may only bring back minor and major weapons, minor and major armor, or minor and major shields with Reforging. You can use it on hoard items. Ren the Unclean (clarification)—All characters of all players must make a corruption check when this card becomes a short-event. For those characters whose turn it is not, no resource cards may be played to modify the corruption check, though untapped characters may tap to give +1 to another character's check in the same company.

Ren the Unclean (clarification)—If you tap Ren, then you cannot play resources to aid your character's corruption checks. Your characters may tap in support. Rescue Prisoners (errata)—Has errata: This cards gives 2 marshalling points, not 3. Add "You receive the marshalling points for this card only when it is stored." Rhosgobel (errata)—Replace "healing cards" with "healing effects." Ringlore (errata)—Add "Playable only during site phase. Tap the sage and the site." River (errata)—Remove "Discard at the end of the turn." Rode the Raven (errata)—Remove "—no modifications to the influence check are required." Replace with "— treat this influence check as though it were made by a Diplomat." Rode the Raven (clarification)—Using this ally to make an influence attempt does not tap a site, and may be done if his company is at a tapped site. Sacrifice of Form (errata)—Replace "-3 to any body checks" with "+3 to any body checks." Sacrifice of Form (clarification)—After Sacrifice of Form is played, you may not play a different Wizard and your opponent may not play the Wizard you sacrificed. Secret Entrance (clarification)—If it is shown that at the time this card was played, i.e. at the end of its company's Organization phase, the company had a face down site card that was in a dark-domain, the effects of this card are cancelled though the sage remains tapped. A long-event, e.g., Morgul Night, in play at the end of the Organization phase would have to be considered when determining this. Siege (errata)—This card is playable on a border-hold. Change the border-land symbol in the first line to a border-hold symbol. Shadowfax (clarification)—Cannot use his special ability if another ally is in the company. Silent Watcher (errata)—Gives 1 marshalling point, not 0. Slayer (errata)—Gives 2 marshalling points, not 0. Slayer (clarifications)—The target of Slayer can tap to cancel an attack. If an attack from Slayer is given more than one strike, each additional strike becomes an excess strike (-1 prowess modification) against the attacked character. A Slayer can never assign strikes to more than one character. Thorin II (clarification)—This character receives a total +4 direct influence against Blue Mountain Dwarves. Thorin II (clarification)—Gets a total of +4 direct influence against the Blue Mountain Dwarves. Thorough Search (errata)—Replace "...to play any item normally found at its current site." with "...to play a minor, major, or gold ring item normally found at its current site."

Tom Bombadil (clarification)—This ally can tap to cancel an attack. He can tap to cancel an ongoing hazard effect that targets his company or any entity associated with his company (item, character, site, etc.). He can tap to cancel a dice-rolling action declared earlier in the same chain of effects but not yet resolved (e.g., Call of Home). He cannot tap to cancel a non-dicerolling effect declared earlier in the same chain of effects. For example, Tom Bombadil could not stop "Bert" from forcing a wounded player to discard his items if Tom Bombadil passed on the opportunity to cancel "Bert's" attack. However, once a chain of effects containing a hazard is resolved, he may tap to cancel an effect that is ongoing. For example, Tom Bombadil could stop the effect of River, but he could not keep Adunaphel, activated as short-event, from tapping a character. Tolfalas (errata)—Playable: Items greater*) *Scroll of Isildur only.

(minor,

major,

Traitor (errata)—Remove the last paragraph. True Fana (clarification)—combat modifiers (things that modify prowess only against a strike) do not count when determining the Wizard's prowess. For example, Risky Blow, tapped or wounded status, etc. do not count. Weapons do count. True Fana (clarification)—when this spell is used against an agent, the agent does not receive the two 6sided dice bonus. Twilight (errata)—This card may be played at any time during any player's turn. Twilight (clarification)—This card may target an environment card played earlier in the same chain of effects. This card may be played as a resource during opponent's turn, i.e., it would not count against the hazard limit. Twilight (clarification)—Can target a card that has not yet resolved. Can be played as a resource during your opponent's turn. If played this way it will not count toward the hazard limit. Use Palantir (errata)—Change text to "Sage only. Tap sage to enable him to use one Palantir he bears for the rest of the turn." Vilya (errata)—Replace "If your play deck has at least 5 cards in it, you may take 5 resource cards." with "If Elrond is at Rivendell and your play deck has at least 5 cards in it, you may take 3 resource cards." Add "Cannot be duplicated on a given turn." Wizard's Laughter (errata)—Change "Wizard only." to "Wizard only during opponent's site phase." Weariness of the Heart (clarification)—Only the first paragraph of this card cannot be duplicated. The alternative effect of forcing a character to make a corruption check does not have the cannot be duplicated restriction. Wizard's Ring (errata)—Replace "Ignore any effect that would discard this item." with "Cannot be stored, stolen, or transferred." Wolves (errata)—Change "Animals." to "Wolves."

MIDDLE-EARTH: THE DRAGONS A Short Rest (clarification)—This card only allows the extra card draw for moving companies that actually have a site path. If a company moves with Eaglemounts, for example, it does not have a site path and does not trigger A Short Rest.. Cruel Caradhras (errata)—Replace "Minas Morgul" with "Imlad Morgul." Cruel Caradhras (clarification)—The attack does not apply to a company starting at a site in the affected regions. Dragon's Hunger (errata)—Replace "Otherwise, the attack is cancelled." with "Otherwise, the attack is cancelled and the opponent must reveal his hand." Helm of Her Secrecy (clarification)—In fact, you can play multiple Helms of Her Secrecy in one chain of effects. The player must make sure that he does not take the option of playing Eowyn out of his hand until the first copy played is resolved.

MIDDLE-EARTH: DARK MINIONS Baduila (clarification)— Read "If Baduila is discarded" as "If you choose to discard Baduila." It is something you choose to do. Golodhros (clarification)—He may use his special influence ability only during an opponent's movement/hazard phase, not during the site phase. His tapping to use his special ability does not count against the hazard limit. Great Secrets Buried There (clarification)—The item placed under this card is considered in play for the purposes of uniqueness. Hidden Knife (clarification)—Hidden Knife is effectively an attack. As per the rule about attacks must be the first items declared in a chain of effects, Hidden Knife must be so played. Thus, if your opponent reveals an agent during your site phase and attacks with it, you must wait until after this attack to play Hidden Knife.

Ioreth (errata)—Replace "Healing card" with "Healing effect."

Mallorn (errata)—The first sentence should read: "Playable at Bag End only if Earth of Galadriel's Orchard is stored there."

Ioreth (clarification)—Will not duplicate the untap portion of a healing effect on tapped but unwounded characters.

Noble Hound (errata)—Add the sentence: "If Noble Hound is tapped or wounded, treat it as though it were untapped for the purposes of assigning strikes."

Magical Harp (clarification)—Can be used at the Council of Lorien.

The Under-galleries (clarification)—This card provides miscellaneous marshalling points.

Many Foes He Fought (clarification)—The penalty is -0 /-0 for the first strike, -1/-1 for the second, -2/-2 for the third, and so on.

The Windlord Found Me (clarification)—Can be used to recover a Wizard discarded with Saw Further and Deeper is in play.

Master of Water, Wood & Hill (clarification)—The sage does not have to be in a moving company whose site path is affected. More Sense than You (clarification)—If there is only on character in the company, this will cancel the attack.

Middle-earth: The Wizards™ Unlimited Edition

Middle-earth: The Wizards Player Guide™

Winner of the GAMA 1995 Best Card Game, the evocative artwork of Middle-earth: The Wizards (METW™) has received extraordinary praise, and the game has been lauded for the way in which it draws the players into the world of Middle-earth. METW is a simple, elegant, and intriguing card game for one to five players. Players design their own unique decks and compete in a fierce struggle against the evil of Sauron. Each plays one of the five "Istari," the Wizards sent by the Valar to right the Balance of Things in Middle-earth. Each Wizard influences charac ters, who form companies and fellowships and journey afar to gather "resources"—including allies, factions, artifacts, and lore—all in an ef fort to strengthen the cause against Darkness. Each player will need a 76-card starter deck in order to start playing. The Unlimited Edition con tains the same 484 cards that comprised the original Limited Edition, but with the new, beautiful blue border and some text errata corrections. ST #315 Starter Deck (76 cards and rules) $9.95 ST #3015 Starter Display Box (10 of ST #315) $99.50 ST #316 Booster pack (15 cards) $2.95 ST #3016 Booster Display Box (36 of ST #316)_____________$106.20

This product lets you peek into the minds of several accomplished experts and learn how to systematically master your own special deckbuilding and card play strategies. Ideal for both novices and experts, this guide helps you explore and understand the exciting intricacies of both the game and its rich setting. The METW Player Guide includes: Strategy Guide—an excellent teaching tool packed with handy ideas about deck-building, game mechanics, and tactical and strategic planning. Complete Card Analysis—a detailed description and the black and white image of each card, including its relative impact, overall value, and use with important card combinations. League Overview—guidelines for developing a multi-player league. • Sample Decks—multiple decks created by award-winning players. ST #3334_________________________________________________________$14.00

Middle-earth: The Dragons™ Limited Ed. Expansion This is the first expansion for the award-winning Middle-earth Collect ible Card Game (MECCG"). The dragons were created by the Black En emy and brought to Middle-earth to defeat the Valar and their children, the Free Peoples. Now Middle-earth: The Dragons (METD™) brings these terrifying creatures into your deck to challenge you and beckon you to their hoards. You can riddle Smaug like Bilbo the Hobbit, steal a price less artifact while Scatha lies sleeping, or battle the other drakish mon sters who once served the Black Enemy, Sauron's ancient master. Ex pand your collectible card portfolio with this set of 180 tradable game cards. Each booster pack contains 15 cards, and a six page insert with new rules. This set is illustrated by over 45 renowned fantasy artists. ST #320 Booster Pack (15 cards) $2.95 ST #3020 Expansion Display (36 of ST #320)_______________$106.20

Middle-earth: Dark Minions™ Limited Ed. Expansion This second expansion for the award-winning MECCG features several themes to enhance and expand play of the game. Foremost is the "Agent," who is an individual represented as a hazard permanent-event that moves from site to site (or stays at one site) hindering companies. Grima Wormtongue and Bill Ferny are two of the more recognizable agents. Under-deep sites are also introduced (these are sites like the Under-gates of Moria or the Sulfur-deeps of Dol Goldur that are deep in the earth and only accessible from specific "surface" host sites). Certain ancient Lost Items are only playable in the Under-deep sites. Middle-earth: Dark Minions (MEDM") also includes Quests which can lead a company into the most deadly holds of Sauron. Of course, MEDM is, rife with new hazard creatures. This 180-card set is beautifully illustrated by acclaimed fantasy artists. ST #330 Booster Pack (15 cards) $2.95 ST #3030 Expansion Display (36 of ST #330)_______________$106.20

Middle-earth: The Wizards Companion™ The perfect reference and resource for expanding your experience with ICE's METW! You'll get the rules from the starter deck rules booklet (in larger print!). The complete list of all the Limited Edition cards features cross references for cards that can be directly or indirectly associated for combination plays. You'll find some basic strategy tips, but the unique feature to the METW Companion is the selection of scenarios developed for playing out specific storylines in the Middle-earth setting. An 8-page full-color insert provides maps of NW Middle-earth to help players locate the regions, sites, and factions from the card game in the big picture of Middle-earth. ST #3333_________________________________________________________$10.00

Middle-earth: The Dragons Player Guide™ Middle-earth: Dark Minions Player Guide™ These player guides for the MECCG feature in-depth analysis and reference information for METD and MEDM expansions using the same format as the METW Player Guide. In each book, the first section is a strategy guide which provides insight into deck design and play. The second section has an entry for each METD or MEDM card—featuring a B&W reproduction of the card face, a strategy tip, and color text which places the card in the context of Tolkien's Middle-earth. Finally, the third section provides tournament rules, card errata, and extensive tables which cross-reference cards and provide useful information at a glance. METD Player Guide introduces new resource strategies using key METD cards such as hoard items, King under the Mountain, and Legendary Hoard. New hazard strategies emerge by focusing on automaticattacks, Dragons, and Drakes. MEDM Player Guide further develops your strategic repertoire by expanding upon 3 strategies prevalent in MEDM: agent hazard strategies, Under-deeps resource strategies, and prisoner hazard half-strategies. ST #3337 (Middle-earth: The Dragons Player Guide) $10.00 ST #3339 (Middle-earth: Dark Minions Player Guide) $10.00

Middle-earth Collectible Card Game Maps™(2) Each of the two full-color maps in this product can be used as an attractive game board and reference tool—this can help players master both region movement and Middle-earth geography. Printed on a durable plastic-paper that resists both stains and normal wear and tear, both maps include all of the regions and sites from METW, METD, and MEDM The 17" X 11.5" map is three-hole drilled and folded so that it fits in a stan dard three-ring binder. The 23.5" X 17" map includes complete informa tion on which types of cards (e.g., factions, allies, items, etc.) are play able at each site. The interior of this slip cover can be used as a full-color insert for the cover of a 3-ring binder with clear plastic cover sleeves. ST #3338_________________________________________________________$16.00

Lord of the Rings Poster Map™ This 2' X 3' full-color map is an invaluable companion to anyone inter ested in exploring Tolkien's mythic world—painted by the acclaimed Ger man artist Jo Hartwig and illustrated by Rob Alexander, Eric David Ander son, Douglas Chaffee, J. Wallace Jones, and Margaret Organ-Keane. This map's lavish cartography details all of Middle-earth's principal sites and geographic features, giving you an incomparable sense of the landscape. ST #2024_________________________________________________________$12.00

Burning Eye Dice™ Pair (1 Red, 1 Black) These dice feature the Burning Eye of Sauron! One die is marbelized red with black engraved pips, and the other is marbelized black with red pips. These are high quality, injection-molded, European-style dice, made in the U.K. Please specify if you would prefer a single color pair. ST #337______________________________________________________$1.50/pair