The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth – Allies
The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth – Allies Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview
In this expansion, gain and use Power tokens to secure help from your allies.
Allies changes a few rules in the base game, but the victory conditions remain the same.
Contents
- 7 Fellowship Ally cards
- 7 Sauron Ally cards
- 8 Power tokens
- 2 player aids
Setup
- Sort the Ally cards according to their back.
- Shuffle the 7 Ally cards for your faction and draw 3, randomly, without showing them to your opponent.
- Set aside the remaining Ally cards. They will not be used this game.
- Take your player aid and 1 Power token. Leave the other Power tokens nearby. You will need them when preparing each chapter.
Gameplay Overview
Preparing a chapter
At the start of each chapter, place 2 Power tokens according to the setup diagrams shown on page 6.
Setup diagrams (page 6). The diagrams are images; they are described here. Legend: a faceup card is a tan card, a facedown card is a dark card. Each diagram is a pyramid-like layout of cards, and a Power token sits on each of the two marked facedown cards.
- Diagram 1 (5 rows, top to bottom: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 cards): the 2 Power tokens are placed on the 2 facedown cards at the left and right ends of the second row from the top.
- Diagram 2 (5 rows, top to bottom: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 cards): the 2 Power tokens are placed on the 2 facedown cards at the left-centre and right-centre positions of the second row from the top.
- Diagram 3 (a diamond-shaped layout, 2 cards at the top and 2 at the bottom): the 2 Power tokens are placed on the 2 facedown cards at the left and right of the middle rows.
Game Turn
Gain a Power token
In the central play area, each time you must reveal a card with a Power token on it, first place the token in front of you, then flip over the card.
Call upon an Ally
Any time during your turn, even after revealing new cards in the central play area, you may call upon an Ally and activate one of their effects.
Ally cards have two effects: an enter effect (on the left) and an exit effect (on the right). You must apply an Ally's enter effect before you are able to apply their exit effect.
The "Call upon an Ally" action is done in addition to your normal turn, but you may only do it once per turn.
Enter effect
Discard 1 of your Power tokens, then reveal one of your Ally cards and place it in front of you. Then apply its enter effect.
Exit effect
Discard 2 of your Power tokens and apply the exit effect of an Ally already in front of you. Then set the card aside. It cannot be used again during this game.
Note: All effects are described on the player aids.
Ally Effects
The ally effects are printed on the player aids, not in the English rules. The text below is transcribed from a Russian-language community rendering of the player aids, translated into English by the transcriber. The effect rows are listed in the order they appear on the aid, top to bottom. That aid does not make the enter or exit pairing legible, so the rows are not labelled enter or exit here.
Allies of Sauron
Witch-king (Король-чародей)
- Move the Nazgûl 1 step on the Ring track OR place 1 unit in any region.
- Move the Nazgûl 1 step on the Ring track AND place 1 unit in any region.
Shelob (Шелоб)
- Place the used Power token on top of any stack of Alliance tokens. Until the end of the game, your opponent may not take these tokens or look at them.
- Discard 1 Alliance token from your opponent's play area.
Chieftain of the Uruk-hai (Вождь Урук-Хая)
- Place the used Power token on an open region tile. Your opponent cannot capture this tile.
- Choose an open region tile and play it without paying its cost.
Balrog (Балрог)
- Place the used Power token on the connection between two regions on the central board. Your opponent can no longer use this connection when moving their units.
- Do the same action, and remove, if possible, 1 unit of your opponent from each of the two regions connected to this Power token.
Warg (Варг)
- Randomly choose one of your opponent's unrevealed Ally cards. Your opponent must immediately reveal it and place it in front of them, without discarding a Power token and without applying its reveal effect (the effect is lost).
- Choose an Ally card lying in front of your opponent. Apply its discard effect in your favour, without setting it aside (your opponent may still apply the discard effect of this Ally).
Cave Troll (Пещерный тролль)
- Discard 1 grey card from your opponent's play area.
- Take 1 grey card from your opponent's play area and place it in your play area.
Grima (Грима)
- Choose 1 available card in the central play area. Instead of making their turn, your opponent must take this card and play it, OR discard it to take from the reserve as many coins as indicated in the current chapter.
- Choose 1 available card in the central play area. Instead of making their turn, your opponent must take this card and discard it to take from the reserve as many coins as indicated in the current chapter.
Note: your opponent may still call upon an Ally if they wish. The effect of this Alliance token may be applied.
Allies of the Fellowship
Tom Bombadil (Том Бомбадил)
- Place the used Power token on the Nazgûl token. Your opponent must first spend 1 coin to remove this token before they can move further.
- Place 2 used Power tokens on the Nazgûl token. Your opponent must first spend 1 coin for each Power token to remove them before they can move further.
Goldberry (Голдберри)
- Take 3 coins from the supply.
- Take 5 coins from the reserve, and your opponent loses 2 coins if possible.
Elrond (Элронд)
- Choose a race among Dwarves, Men, Elves and Hobbits. Take the top Alliance token of that race and place it in front of you. You may now use its effect.
- Choose a race among Wizards and Ents. Take the top Alliance token of that race and place it in front of you. You may now use its effect.
Arwen (Арвен)
- Shuffle all cards without looking at them. Take one at random, reveal it and play it without paying its cost.
- Look at all the cards in the discard pile, choose one and play it without paying its cost.
Note: you can still see the backs of the cards, which means you can choose the chapter.
Boromir (Боромир)
- Remove 1 unit of your opponent from any region.
- Remove all units of your opponent from any region.
Lobelia Sackville-Baggins (Лобелия Саквилл-Бэггинс)
- Place 1 unit in any region and perform 1 movement on the central board.
- Place 2 units in any 1 region, or 1 unit in each of any 2 regions.
- Also perform 2 movements on the central board.
Faramir (Фарамир)
- Discard 1 available card from the central play area.
- Discard 1 available card from the central play area. Reveal all cards that are now available, then discard 1 additional available card from the central play area.
Note: do not gain coins by discarding cards with Faramir's effects, but in this way you can gain one or two Power tokens.