War of the Ring: The Card Game
313 questions players ask about War of the Ring: The Card Game. Pick one for the answer. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-11-06.
Setup and ComponentsExpansion
- Are corruption and combat tokens limited in supply?
- What do the path shield and skull tokens do?
- Is starting each player with 6 cards a recognized quick-start setup?
- How many promo cards go into each deck in a two-player game?
- Do the base game promo cards go into the Trilogy decks, and does an uneven card count matter?
- Which promo cards should be used in the short two-player scenarios (Fellowship, Two Towers, Return of the King)?
- Is there a fixed deck size, and does it change with promos or Fire and Swords cards?
- Can teammates talk to each other about the cards they hold?
- Are Skirmish cards used when playing solo against the bot?
The Play Area and Reserve
- Is there a limit to how many cards you can put in your reserve area?
- Can a character or army played to reserve move to a path or battleground in the same round?
- Can I move a character from reserve if I played an item onto it this round?
- Can a character or army in reserve still use its ability on the turn it was played?
- Are cards played into reserve face up or face down?
- What counts as a card being in play?
The Game Round
Location Step and Locations
- Does activating a higher-numbered path shorten the game and change who goes first?
- What happens on path 9 if a card tries to activate a higher path or another path of the same number?
- Can Aragorn's or Gandalf's path ability be used on the last path of the scenario?
- Can more than one battleground be active at once, and can an active battleground be activated again?
- When a card activates a new path while one is already active, what happens to the current path?
- Can players look through the path and battleground decks during the game?
- Can an army granted by a battleground effect be played to a different battleground?
- When a card lets you activate a path, do you choose it or is it random?
- Can a battleground be replaced by another battleground in the same round?
- Which battleground is activated in the Location step?
- When Dol Guldur is activated, is Lorien also activated?
- What happens if a character's ability needs a path of a given number and none is available?
- What happens in the Location step if my own battleground deck is empty?
- Do the Minas Morgul and Morgul Vale texts refer to Nazgul characters or their item cards?
- What counts as a Dunedain or Isengard battleground when a card names one?
- Can an active battleground be reactivated?
- For Helm's Deep, must the army the Rohan player draws be a Rohan army?
- Can Dunedain armies be played to Moria?
- Must a Nazgul played from a Morgul Mines draw come from the cards drawn?
- Is the cycle pile recycle mandatory when resolving the Orthanc battleground?
- Can Black Captain activate a Mordor battleground from the Free Peoples deck?
- If a higher-numbered path is activated mid-round, does the next round continue after it?
- When a card lets me switch to another path of the same number, is the replaced path scored first?
- Can an action that jumps to the next path or a same-number path be used when no valid path exists?
- Who may take a card's path-activation action, and how is the path chosen?
- When Gandalf the Grey or Strider activates a different path, does the player choose it?
- Can a card force the next path when every path of the current number has already been activated?
- Can any army drawn with the Morannon battleground be played, regardless of faction?
- Must a battleground activated by a card have the faction named on that card?
- Is a Shadow battleground the same as a Mordor battleground?
Action Step
- What happens if I have more cards than my carryover limit when everyone else passes?
- Can I pass with more cards than my carryover limit if I have fewer than the opponent?
- Is it legal to hold a large hand, such as 12 cards, early in the game?
- When does the Action step end if players keep passing?
- Can a Free Peoples player pass while holding three cards with a carryover limit of two?
- If I pass with more cards than my carryover limit, must I cycle the extras down to the limit?
- In team play, does the pass comparison look only at the other team's hands?
- Can a card already in hand pay the cycle cost when I play a card with a draw effect, or can I keep a drawn card instead of cycling it?
- Can a player use a 'use an action' ability of a card in play that another player controls?
- Can I use a character's ability right after playing it, or must I wait for my next action?
- Can a card's 'use an action' ability be used more than once in a round?
- Can I forsake instead of cycling a card to pay for playing a card?
- Does 'use your action and do X' give you an extra normal action?
- If I cannot pass and have only items in hand, what must I do?
- If my hand is empty but I have cards in reserve, can I still move them, and must I cycle a card to do so?
- Can a teammate use the action on a card played by another player?
Playing Cards
- Does playing an item onto a character stop it from moving?
- Does an item's faction let its wielder go to battlegrounds of that faction?
- Can a character cycled mid-game appear on a path again later?
- Do Gandalf the Grey and Gandalf the White count as the same card for the one-play-per-round rule?
- Can you play two copies of the same army card in one round?
- Can I play the last card in my hand, and do I cycle again for extra cards a card tells me to play?
- Do 'when played or moved to a path or battleground' effects (like Shelob's) trigger when the card goes to reserve?
- Can I cycle the Dwarven Axe to pay for playing Gimli and then take the axe back into my hand?
- If a cycled Bow of the Galadhrim pays for Legolas, can Legolas take it back?
- Do I still cycle a card to play an event whose text also says to draw, play or cycle cards?
- Can an item be played to reserve without being attached to a character?
- Can I play an item from my hand onto my teammate's character?
- Can a character with no path numbers on its card be played or moved to a path?
- Can a character or item played earlier in the round be played again after returning to hand?
- If I cycle a character from reserve, do the items it wields cycle too?
- Does a 'when played' ability trigger when the card is played to reserve?
- Do I cycle a card when I play an Event?
- Can an item be attached to an army such as an Elf army?
- Can a Shadow player give an item to a Free Peoples character?
- Does a plain 'When played' effect, such as Gimli's or Eomer's, trigger when the card goes to reserve?
- When I play Aragorn or Gandalf the White, where do I look for Strider or Gandalf the Grey?
- Do a card's allowed paths limit playing it to reserve or to a battleground?
- Is an item on a wielder treated as being on the same path or battleground?
Other Actions and Game Procedures
- What does it mean to cycle a card?
- Can eliminated cards ever return to play?
- Does Remove let you eliminate a card from your hand?
- Can you pay a voluntary cost such as eliminating a card if you cannot gain the benefit?
- Does a forsaken card count as eliminated for its own text?
- Can I take the Cycle action with no cards in hand in order to forsake a card?
- Does Winnow eliminate two cards from my hand?
- Can I winnow Bilbo or Frodo, and what happens to them?
- When I must forsake and my draw deck is empty, must I eliminate from hand or reserve?
- When is the cycle pile shuffled back into the draw deck?
- Do I cycle a card to move a card from reserve to a path or battleground?
- Can a character move directly from one location to another?
- Can I play my last card in hand if I cannot cycle or forsake anything?
- Can I look through my own draw deck during the game?
- Is there a difference between drawing and examining cards?
- After a card is removed from my draw deck, do I recycle or just reshuffle?
- If my draw deck and cycle pile are both empty, what happens when I cycle a card?
- Can I forsake an item equipped to a wielder in reserve?
- When a card has me draw, play and cycle the rest, do I cycle an extra card to pay for the card I play?
- What happens if I run out of cards to draw?
- When a card says to cycle a card, which cards may I cycle?
- Can I search my draw deck or reshuffle it?
- When may I draw from the cycle pile?
Combat and Scoring
- Can you win the Two Towers or Return of the King scenario by reaching a 10-point lead early?
- Can the Shadow add corruption tokens to its scoring area before it has won any path?
- What does remove a corruption take away: a black token from the scoring area or a red skull from a path?
- Does corruption added by a card go straight into the Shadow scoring area?
- Can the Shadow gain or lose corruption from a battleground?
- When is the game over, and can it end before nine rounds?
- Is battleground combat still resolved in the round where the last path is decided?
- Can the Free Peoples score several paths of the same number?
- If There Is Another Way replaces the active path, who scores the path that was replaced?
- If a battleground is reactivated, does the side that scored it lose those points?
- Does a card's '+X on [battleground]' add the icon to the card or to the battleground?
- What does the Whip of Many Thongs promo's path-combat shield symbol mean?
- When a hobbit is cycled out of path combat, are its wielded items cycled too?
- What happens in combat when no characters or armies are on a path or battleground?
- In the Combat step, who decides the order in which combats are resolved?
- If a new path is activated mid-round, is the old path scored right away, and can a team score several paths in one round?
- Can an item with defense icons be eliminated to cancel attacks without its wielder?
- Who wins a tie in combat on a path or a battleground?
- When a card adds a skull or '1 corruption' to a path, is it corruption straight away?
- If an army is eliminated but its supported character is not, do the character's leadership icons still count?
- When are cards cycled or eliminated after path or battleground combat?
- Do black or white combat icons on a card mean anything different?
- After combat resolves on a path, do the characters stay there?
- In combat, who chooses which defending card is lost?
- Does a defending card's defense count twice when eliminated to cancel attacks?
- If I reactivate a battleground from my opponent's scoring area, what happens to their points?
- Does a reactivated battleground keep its defense icons?
- When a battleground is reactivated, does its defender change, and who wins ties?
- If the Shadow reactivates one of its own battlegrounds, does it lose any corruption it gained?
- Can I reactivate a battleground from my own scoring area?
- Can a leader be played to a battleground without an army, and is an unsupported defending leader cycled?
- Can defense shields added to a battleground count toward its defense?
- Can an army be played to a battleground when its faction is not an attacker or defender there?
- Does a leader keep its leadership icons after its supporting army is lost?
- Do bonus icons from cards like Great Gate or Balrog need tokens placed?
- Can an army support a character with no leadership icon?
- Are a defending leader and its supporting army lost together?
- Do units stack up on active battlegrounds, and are combats resolved one by one?
- Can two leaders be supported by a single army if they share its faction?
- Does a skull icon mean corruption?
- Do attack or defense tokens on a path count when no characters are on it?
Faction CardsExpansion
- Can a Lidless Eye move to a battleground that has no relevant attack or defense symbols?
- After The Ringwraiths Are Abroad, do I still cycle a card to play the Nazgul it draws?
- If Strider's action activates a path, what happens to Strider?
- Can Gandalf the Grey's path ability be used more than once in the same round?
- Can Prince Imrahil's cycle ability be used to forsake from the top of the draw deck to thin it?
- If I forsake or cycle to search for Knights of Dol Amroth and it is forsaken, do I still get a card?
- If no cards are left to draw, do I still cycle after a 'draw 1, then cycle 1' effect such as Galadriel or Rivendell?
- Can the Palantir of Orthanc be used when the draw deck has only 2 cards and the cycle pile is empty?
- Can I eliminate Lembas when there is no corruption to remove?
- If I play Theoden and draw Eowyn, can I play her and take Merry from the cycle pile?
- Can Strider activate a second path on a later turn, or fight on the new path?
- Can the Mirror of Galadriel be used to decide each forsake one card at a time, for example with Paths of the Dead?
- When Frodo is cycled and refreshes an empty draw deck, does Bilbo return to the draw deck?
- Does Nazgul's Mantle apply in path combat, and can I choose to eliminate the wielder instead?
- Can Ioreth save herself if there is no other character to cycle?
- Does Flocks of Crebain fight on the previous path when it activates a new path?
- Can Grond be used against strongholds other than Minas Tirith?
- Can the Great Gate be used on strongholds other than Minas Tirith?
- Does Theoden keep his battle bonus if Gandalf's separate battle is resolved first?
- When Death! Ride, Ride to Ruin! is played, how many Mordor cards are eliminated and who chooses?
- Does the Black Gate's option to add two skulls make three skulls on the path?
- Does Quickbeam's bonus resolve once when played or change during the round?
- Can Saruman's Treachery be played in defense to activate its second shield?
- Must Theoden or Eomer play a card when their 'up to 1' effect is used?
- What does The Three Hunters allow?
- Can the Nazgul Warrior and Destroyer add tokens to a battleground that is not Mordor?
- Can a character carry more than one Weapon or item?
- If Aragorn is played and removes Strider, is an item such as Anduril eliminated too?
- If Frodo would be eliminated while carrying items, what happens to him and his items?
- Can the Mouth of Sauron be played to reserve while a Shadow battleground is active?
- Does The Hunter's action add corruption to a path?
- Can Smeagol's or Gollum's ability activate a path higher than 9?
- Can I cycle Halbarad just to hold my turn if no Strider or Aragorn can be found?
- Does Gallop to Ruin count as the bearer being eliminated in combat?
- Does Shadowfax move Gandalf and his items when it activates a battleground?
- Where can Fell Beast move a Nazgul?
- Does the Phial of Galadriel stay on its wielder when the wielder uses a shield to survive?
- If Fatty Bolger is forsaken from reserve, can I eliminate him to draw three cards?
- When The Shadow of the East is played by an effect like The Ringwraiths Are Abroad, is the stolen card kept in hand?
- Can the Palantir be activated when my draw deck has no cards left, or examine more cards than the deck holds?
- Must a card taken from the draw deck by Prince Imrahil be shown to the other players?
- Where can a Nazgul put into play by a card effect go?
- Does the army supporting Merry and Pippin come along for free when they move to a battleground?
- Can Gimli or the Dwarven Axe defend on Free Peoples battlegrounds other than Dwarf ones?
- From where must Gothmog remove the Witch-king?
- Can Grishnakh be eliminated to score corruption instead of fighting?
- When Sam is cycled from reserve for his action, does his own shield count?
- Does Quickbeam get a bonus when only one Isengard card is with him?
- Does Balrog of Moria's forsake trigger when it is played to reserve?
- When Bilbo or Frodo is saved from elimination, do the items on that character cycle with him?
- Can Denethor's reserve action be used repeatedly, and how does his forsake interact with an empty deck?
- What is the difference between the Phial of Galadriel and the Mithril Coat?
- Can Gollum and Smeagol be played on the same path?
- Does Tom Bombadil or Barliman Butterbur in reserve stop every Free Peoples player from forsaking?
- Can Army of the Dead support a character other than a Dunedain?
- When does Gorbag and Shagrat's effect for adding skulls take place?
- Does Gandalf in reserve count as in play for Theoden's bonus?
- Can The Lidless Eye be played or moved to path 9 while a Shadow battleground is active?
- Can Aragorn be played to a path, and does Arwen's path bonus apply to him?
- What does the star symbol beneath some swords and shields on a card mean?
- Can I use Aromatic Herbs and Rabbit Stew when my cycle pile has no Hobbits?
- How many defense icons does Black Easterling have on Dol Guldur?
- What happens to the cloak and other items when a Nazgul wearing Nazgul's Mantle is eliminated in combat?
- Does Boromir's forsake trigger twice if he is played to reserve and later moved to a path?
- Does Aragorn's or Gandalf the White's extra draw in reserve apply to the whole team?
Scenarios and Duels
- In a two-player game, do you combine the Free Peoples and Shadow decks or keep them separate?
- Do scenario rules fall back to the Trilogy rules when a scenario does not mention a rule?
- Do the Two-Player Duel and Trilogy scenarios activate paths and battlegrounds differently?
- What does 'scenario max' mean on the flowchart?
- Can Sword and Shield paths be mixed into the base scenarios?
- How do two players play scenarios that use two hands per player?
- Do you have to play two games in the Two Towers and Return of the King scenarios?
- In the two-player Trilogy scenario, does each of the four decks get a Ring token?
- Is corruption still used in the Two-Player Duel?
- In the Duel, does the Each Player doubling apply to the bot, including its draw?
- In the Two-Player Duel, must I eliminate characters with extra defense icons to score a path?
- In the Duel scenarios, where does a path go when the combat is tied or the Shadow wins?
- In the Duel, are all defending cards eliminated when the Free Peoples win a path by one shield?
- In the Duel, how does an effect aimed at each Free Peoples or Shadow player apply?
- How can you play with three players?
- In the Three-Player Duel, how does the starting player token move?
- In the Three-Player Duel, does Gandalf get two turns in a row when the Witch-king passes?
- How do path scoring and the Each Player rule work in The Fellowship of the Ring scenario?
- Why does the Fellowship of the Ring scenario last 4 to 6 rounds, and are battlegrounds 5 and 6 always needed?
- Are there player aids for the Fellowship of the Ring scenario?
- How many cards does each player draw in the Fellowship of the Ring scenario?
- Who is the starting player in The Fellowship of the Ring scenario?
War of the Ring: The Card Game – Against the ShadowExpansion
- Does Against the Shadow add cards or battlegrounds usable in the 2-player or Duel games?
- Does the Shadow bot ever pass in Against the Shadow solo play?
- In the Epic Duel, when is the Victory Check step performed?
- In the Duel, will the bot move cards onto a path where it can only reach a draw?
- In the Epic Duel at standard difficulty, how many fewer cards does the Shadow bot draw?
- Can the Fellowship of the Ring scenario be played solo?
- In solo play, is activating Dale useful for the bot when Erebor is also activated by Allies of Sauron?
- If a bot event says 'if not possible' and the bot cannot usefully activate a battleground, does it play or cycle the event?
- Does Grishnakh move to a path from reserve immediately, or in the bot's Move step?
- Does the bot play an item to a character even if the item is not useful?
- Does the Shadow bot's reduced draw apply only in the draw step, or also in setup?
- Are events played by the Shadow bot eliminated after they resolve?
- What does the Shadow bot do when it has no cards and no useful action left?
- In Duel mode against the bot, does a tied path count as a Shadow win?
- Will the Shadow bot move a card to a path it cannot win just to stop the Free Peoples winning it?
- Can Caradhras the Cruel be played or moved to its path even when its effect would not be useful?
- When the bot can move cards to both a path and a battleground, which comes first?
- When several bot cards in reserve or on a path could act or be chosen, which one goes first?
- Is the rulebook's 'use an action' example with The Messenger correct?
- In path combat, are defending characters eliminated even when they do not cancel an attack icon?
- After The Ringwraiths Are Abroad, what happens to the bot's drawn cards that are not played?
- Does Flocks of Crebain move to a path the Shadow cannot conceivably win?
- Is there a victory check before the last path when playing against the bot?
- If The Messenger is played to a path and would win it, is the drawn Hunter also played there?
- Does Gorbag and Shagrat's forsake effect apply to the card itself when it enters a path?
- Will the bot use a reserve card's action instead of moving it, and are those cards counted when checking if it can conceivably win?
- Does the Shadow bot cycle a card when it plays a card?
- Can the Shadow bot run out of cards entirely?
- When the bot's draw is interrupted by a Nazgul's draw effect, what happens to unplayed cards and the cycle pile?
- What does the bot do with an item when no wielder is available?
- In what order does the Shadow bot choose between using an action, passing, moving and playing from hand?
- Does the bot move a Black Serpent-type card to a battleground for its forsake effect even if the move would not change the winner?
- Do Free Peoples promos like Ioreth and Ghan-buri-Ghan need solo variants?
- If the bot goes first and its drawn battleground is not one it could conceivably win, is it still activated?
- When the bot resolves the Orthanc battleground, does it take Saruman?
- Can the bot ever use Grond or Devilry of Saruman if they cannot be played to Shadow battlegrounds?
- What does Grima Wormtongue's ability do for the bot?
- Will the bot keep adding cards to a path it is already winning?
- Does Black Easterling draw a card for the bot wherever it is played?
- What happens to a bot card that cannot be played to any battleground it could use, such as Day Without Dawn armies?
- What does the Carryover box in the bot flowchart check?
- Can I pass in the first round of the Duel against the bot when it has more cards?
- How many fewer cards does the bot draw in the Fellowship of the Ring scenario?
- Will the bot play a leader to a battleground when no army is there yet?
- In co-op Against the Shadow, are attacking Shadow bot cards eliminated after combat?
- Are the Against the Shadow replacement locations used in the base multiplayer game?
- Why does the Shadow bot cycle the last 2 cards in Trilogy setup?
- Does the Whip of Many Thongs draw a card when it cannot be played?
- When the Shadow bot plays an event from hand, is it checked for usefulness first?
War of the Ring: The Card Game – Fire and SwordsExpansion
- Can Fire and Swords be played in a competitive one-versus-one game without Against the Shadow?
- Can you play three-player co-op against the AI deck?
- Which paths can Disguised as Orcs activate on path 8A or 8B?
- How many cards does each player draw in setup for the two-player War in the North scenario with Trilogy rules?
- Does an active skirmish stop Mouth of Sauron or Lidless Eye from being played or moved to a path?
- On the Black Gate, does the Hobbit player's extra 2 add to the automatic 1 or make 2 in total?
- On the Fire and Swords solo Saruman card, do all three options require Saruman in the eliminated pile?
- Can Eowyn's effect that takes a hobbit into hand be used by the Hobbit player in future scenarios?
- If Rhun leads to playing Mustering of a Long-Planned War, can I forsake other cards from my hand?
- Is the 'Devilry of Orthanc' named in the rulebook the Devilry of Saruman card?
- Does Lotho Sackville stuck in reserve in the Epic Duel force me to recycle my cycle pile?
- Can the Fire and Swords cards be added to the base Trilogy scenario?
- How can I tell Fire and Swords cards from base game cards?
- In a four-player game with Fire and Swords, which deck gets the Northmen, Easterlings and Ruffians?
- What happens when a drawn skirmish has accompanying battlegrounds already scored?
- How is skirmish combat resolved, and is its resolution text triggered?
- If nobody plays cards to a skirmish by the Combat step, what happens to it?
- Who can resolve a skirmish?
- When Disguised as Orcs makes each Shadow player draw 2 and cycle a card, what if they cannot draw?
- Can Fire and Swords be played solo or co-op, and does it need Against the Shadow?
- In the Epic Duel, are 'each Free Peoples player' or 'each Shadow player' effects followed twice?
- Does the four-player Trilogy scenario use Fire and Swords skirmishes?
- How do I set up War in the North solo?
- In the Epic Duel, can Caradhras the Cruel activate any path of the same number?
- Can Mirkwood Skirmishers' action be used the same round it is played into reserve?
- In the Epic Duel, what if I must activate a battleground but my own deck has run out?
- How does the Black Gate on path 6 move on to the next path?