War of the Ring: Second Edition
458 questions players ask about War of the Ring: Second Edition, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-23.
458 questions players ask about War of the Ring: Second Edition, answered in plain words and graded by where the answer comes from. See also the full rulebook.
Updated 2026-10-23.
The rulebook's "Overview" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
By the symbol: Strongholds are the large square castle symbols worth 2 Victory Points, Cities are worth 1, Towns are worth none, and the grey rectangular Fortification symbols are not Settlements at all.
In the Guide of the Fellowship box together with the Companion cards, at the bottom of the stack beneath the seven Companions.
No — its rulebook matches the latest Second Edition printing. Later printings only made a few very minor corrections after the first Ares printing, and the designers consider the game stable.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
A Stronghold the enemy has not captured. The newer printings use it in place of the older wording "controlled by the Free Peoples player (even if under siege)", so a Stronghold that is besieged but still held counts as unconquered.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — they come from First Edition expansions bundled into the Collector's Edition. The Second and Anniversary Editions use only the base cards; the Second Edition expansions are sold separately.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — you can play First Edition components with the Second Edition rules, though some card texts differ and the setup changed slightly.
Yes — Character cards and their abilities are public information. Only the Event cards in hand are hidden.
The rulebook's "Armies, Movement, and Battles" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
The number actually showing on the die, before any bonuses or penalties are applied. That's why an unmodified 1 always misses and an unmodified 6 always hits.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Nothing is missing — the two sculpts are easy to mix up. One Rohan Elite starts in Edoras and one North Elite in the North Downs; check which figure is which.
Pull out the expansion Event cards (numbered with LM or WM), the expansion Companions and Minions and any other expansion pieces, then set up as normal. Put The Balrog of Moria card back in the Shadow Character deck, since Lords of Middle-earth removes it.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — every die in the Hunt Box, the Shadow's Eyes and the Free Peoples dice used to move the Fellowship, is recovered with the rest of the pool at the start of the turn. They are still Action dice, just used ones; the Shadow then decides afresh how many to allocate to the Hunt.
The rulebook's "The Game Turn" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
The Free Peoples, always — no matter how many dice either side rolled. Players then alternate one die at a time. If the Shadow has fewer dice, the Free Peoples cannot pass on that first action, because passing needs fewer unused dice than the opponent.
Yes, if they have fewer Action dice than the Shadow at that moment. Acting first only means the Free Peoples get the first choice, and passing is legal for either player whenever they hold fewer unused dice than the opponent — as many times in a row as that stays true.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Only when the opponent passes (allowed because they hold fewer dice) or has no dice left. Otherwise the players strictly alternate, one die each, starting with the Free Peoples.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — the Phase 1 draw of one card from each deck is required. If that takes you over the six-card hand limit, you draw both and then discard down to six. Optional draws are only those whose text says "may", such as a Character's ability.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
No — there is no draw at setup. Each player starts the game with only the two cards drawn in Phase 1 of the first turn.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Once per full game turn — from recovering dice to the victory check. So each player can use only one Elven Ring in the whole Action Resolution phase. Effects worded per battle or per combat round, by contrast, can trigger again in each new battle.
The rulebook's "The Action Dice" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Yes — once the Free Peoples use a Ring it is flipped and handed to the Shadow, who may use it once before it leaves the game. The Shadow can change a die to any result, including an Eye (which goes straight to the Hunt Box), and may use it the same turn it arrives if the Shadow hasn't used a Ring yet that turn.
The rulebook's "The Action Dice" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
No — each player may use at most one Elven Ring per game turn, counting the whole turn from recovering dice to the victory check.
The rulebook's "The Action Dice" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Neither — the Ring just changes the face of one unused die before you take your normal action, and you may then act with any die, not necessarily the changed one. A Shadow player who turns a die into an Eye sends it to the Hunt Box and still takes an action that turn.
Only if passing was already allowed when the Shadow's turn began. If the Shadow started the action with as many dice as the Free Peoples or more, its turn has begun and it must still take an action after using the Ring; it can't use the Ring to shed a die and lose the initiative. If it could pass anyway, the Ring doesn't stop it.
“if you have as many dice as (or more dice than) your opponent at the start of your turn, you must take your action after using the Ring”
— cybernex, designer
No — the Shadow may use a Ring only on its own action, just before taking it. It can then turn an unused die into an Eye that goes to the Hunt Box, but never while a Hunt roll or tile draw is being resolved.
“you CAN add a die to the Hunt Pool by turning it into a die - but not while the Hunt is in progress”
— cybernex, designer
The rulebook's "The Action Dice" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Any face except Will of the West for the Free Peoples — it doesn't have to match another die you rolled. So a Ring can't be used to bring in Aragorn or Gandalf the White, though it can turn an existing Will of the West into something else.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
At the moment you use it, as part of that action — not in advance. You can't pre-convert Will of the West dice to shield them from a card like The Day Without Dawn, nor change one and then act with a different die. Once used, it counts in every way as the face you chose. Only an Elven Ring changes a die ahead of the action.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — an Army die can move up to two Armies or attack with one, whether or not they include Leaders, Nazgûl or Characters, and those figures go along. What an Army die can't do is move Leaders, Nazgûl or Characters on their own.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — for this purpose Nazgûl count as Leaders, so a Character die can move or attack with one Army containing a Nazgûl, Minion, Companion or Free Peoples Leader. The figure doesn't need a Leadership value; a Character with no Leadership still lets the Army act, it just adds no re-rolls.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — an Army result either moves up to two different Armies one region each, or attacks with one Army. A Character result moves or attacks with a single Army that has a Leader or Character. You can't mix the options on one die.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — Leaders, Nazgûl and Characters on their own are not an Army, which needs at least one Regular or Elite unit. Characters and Nazgûl move alone with a Character die; Free Peoples Leaders can never move without army units.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling we could confirm.
Yes — nothing limits how often one Army or Character can be activated in a turn, as long as you spend a separate Action die each time.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
Yes, if it contains a Leader or Character. A sortie is just an attack, so any die that lets that Army attack works; the reference chart simply omits it for space.
Two in total — one Elite in one Settlement, or two Regulars, two Leaders, or a Regular and a Leader placed in two different Settlements (one figure each). Recruiting is optional up to that amount, so you may place just one.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes, in the two-player game — as long as each Nation is At War and each unit goes into a free Settlement of its own Nation. In 3–4 player games a single die musters for only one player's Nations.
No — upgrading isn't one of the Muster options for either side. Only specific Event cards and Character abilities replace Regulars with Elites.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — you pick one face when you use it, Army or Muster. If you pick Muster it counts as a full Muster result, so it can power abilities such as The Voice of Saruman.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
Recruiting means only putting new Army units and Leaders on the map. Muster is the wider family of actions on a Muster die: recruiting, bringing Characters into play and advancing a Nation on the Political Track.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
It's added at the start of the next turn, when dice are recovered, not immediately. Likewise, if that Character is eliminated, a die already rolled stays usable for the rest of the current turn and is removed from the pool at the next recovery.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
No, only one — the die Gandalf the White added when he arrived. Gandalf the Grey never brought a die of his own.
The rulebook's "The Action Dice" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Only by bringing Aragorn and Gandalf the White into play, one die each, for a maximum of six. Each needs a Will of the West result once its card's conditions are met.
The rulebook's "The Action Dice" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
No rule caps it — the number simply follows from what's in play. In the base game that means at most 10 for the Shadow (7 plus one each for Saruman, the Witch-king and the Mouth of Sauron) and 6 for the Free Peoples; expansions can add more.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — passing (only legal with fewer dice than your opponent) keeps your die, but you can always use a die and take no effect. It's rarely useful, but it lets you avoid an unwanted forced action, such as a draw you don't want.
Yes — using a die for an ability such as Legolas's, or to discard a card like The Palantir of Orthanc or Denethor's Folly, is your whole action, and play passes to your opponent.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
Openly — the rules say explicitly when something is hidden (such as cards discarded face down) and say no such thing about the Action roll.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — that picture is a corrupted palantír, the Shadow's Event face. Only the actual Eye face goes to the Hunt Box.
Several experienced players agree, quoting the rulebook's page 22; there is no official ruling.
Only the rules it expressly changes — every other rule still applies. A card that lets an Army move or attack doesn't let it cross impassable borders, ignore political restrictions or leave a besieged Stronghold unless the card says so.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes, as long as its bold play condition is met — you apply the effects as far as possible and skip what can't be done. For example, The Red Arrow with Rohan already At War still recruits its unit, and a card mustering in two places still musters in the one that's available.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
You must do everything the card tells you to do if you can; only wording like "may" or "up to" is optional, and "up to" or "any or all" includes zero. So you can't play There and Back Again just for the political advance while skipping a possible separation, but after a card's "move up to two regions" you may leave the units where they are. Where a card offers a choice between options, you pick one.
No — one die is enough: either an Event result, or a Character, Army or Muster result matching the icon in the card's top corner. The crown-like icon on some Free Peoples cards is simply the Muster icon.
The official FAQ (2014) confirms that all draws finish before discarding; the rest is standard rules.
Six Event cards. If you ever go over six you discard down immediately, and you may choose any cards, including ones you just drew; draw everything an effect gives you first, then discard. Character cards and cards played on the table don't count toward the limit.
No — a depleted deck is never rebuilt from the discards. You simply can't draw from that deck any more, and you don't draw from the other deck instead of it.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — discards (such as for the hand limit or Worn with Sorrow and Toil) go face down without being shown. Cards actually played for their event or combat effect are revealed when played, so you can remember those. What is public is the number of cards in each hand, deck and discard pile, and whether each card in hand is a Character or Strategy card.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — a table card stays only while the condition needed to play it still holds. Denethor's Folly goes once the siege of Minas Tirith ends or the city falls, and a card that needs a Character in play goes when that Character is eliminated.
At the end of each action. A figure can briefly break the condition mid-move (Aragorn passing through regions while The Last Battle is in play) as long as it holds when the action ends. An explicit italic discard condition on the card, such as the Fellowship being revealed, still applies immediately.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — you pay the die when you put the card on the table. After that it triggers, or you discard it for its effect, whenever its condition is met at no further cost, e.g. Flocks of Crebain adding to a Hunt roll.
Yes — using a die to discard a card like The Power of Tom Bombadil, A Power Too Great or Denethor's Folly is your whole action, taken on your own turn. Discarding two such cards takes two actions.
No, unless the card says so — The Balrog of Moria is the base-game example. To use its combat effect, the Shadow takes it back into hand before Combat cards are chosen so the choice stays secret, and returns it to the table if it isn't used.
Yes — recruiting by Event card ignores political status unless the card says otherwise (Cirdan's Ships, for instance, requires the Elves to be At War). The units still can't move out of their Nation or attack until it is At War.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — unlike a Muster die, a recruiting Event card can place units in your own Stronghold while the enemy besieges it, unless the card requires a free region (Éomer, Son of Éomund does, so it can't recruit into a besieged Helm's Deep).
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — not into a Settlement the enemy controls, even if it is empty. The one card that does is Dead Men of Dunharrow, which says it retakes control. The exception is a captured Stronghold your own Army is besieging, since that region is free for you. Event cards also can't recruit into regions holding enemy Army units.
Yes — event recruiting only needs the region to be free for you, and a region you are besieging is free for the besieger. So the Free Peoples can add Galadhrim to an Army besieging a Shadow-held Lórien, though this differs from mustering with a die. The designer confirmed the rules team's ruling as official.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — no card overrides the rule that Free Peoples casualties are gone, so recruiting cards such as Riders of Théoden draw only on units still in reinforcements. Free Peoples units removed by their own cards (like the Regular The Grey Company removes) also go to casualties, not back to reinforcements.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Free Peoples Leaders are eliminated, since they can't stay without Army units, but Companions, Minions and Nazgûl survive unless the card says they die. The Ents cards and Dead Men of Dunharrow are the exceptions that explicitly eliminate Characters with the Army.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — apart from recruiting, cards don't lift political restrictions unless they say so. The Black Captain Commands, The Ringwraiths Are Abroad and Help Unlooked For still can't attack with, or move across a border, an Army of a Nation not At War.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — a card that grants movement only moves; moves must go into regions free for army movement. An Army moved by a card still follows normal movement rules, so it captures empty enemy Settlements it enters.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Only if it says so. Paths of the Woses and Dead Men of Dunharrow are the cards that explicitly allow it; Through a Day and a Night, Corsairs of Umbar, We Prove the Swifter and Gwaihir the Windlord do not, even though some of them let figures end in a besieged Stronghold.
No — you may move just part of the Army and leave the rest behind.
At the Ring-bearers figure on the map, its last known position, regardless of the Progress counter. That's the region cards such as Nazgûl Search, The Nazgûl Strike! and Orc Patrol check.
The official FAQ (2014) clarifies that a Settlement keeps its side regardless of control.
Yes — a Settlement keeps its Nation whoever controls it. So Orc Patrol and similar cards still can't be played with the Fellowship in a captured Rivendell, and a captured Rivendell is not a Sauron Stronghold for Pits of Mordor.
No — the Progress counter stays at 0 in Mordor, so cards such as Cruel Weather that need step 1 or higher can't be played there. Cards that only need the Fellowship revealed, or outside a Free Peoples Settlement, can still be played in Mordor.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — while in the Fellowship a Companion affects the game only through his Guide ability and the Hunt. Strider must be separated (and in the right place) to enable Dead Men of Dunharrow or The Grey Company, and Boromir must be separated in Gondor for House of the Stewards.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
The Witch-king does unless a card says otherwise — he counts for Dreadful Spells, for example, but is expressly excluded from The Eagles are Coming!. The Mouth of Sauron is never a Nazgûl, so he can't be moved or count as one for cards like The Ringwraiths Are Abroad.
You keep it in hand, where its Combat-card half may still be useful, until you choose to discard it for the hand limit. Only cards on the table are removed when their condition fails — for example, Wizard's Staff can stay in hand after Gandalf the Grey leaves the Fellowship.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
No — the card protects only Rivendell, Lórien and the Grey Havens, the three Elven Strongholds whose lords held the Elven Rings. The Woodland Realm is not named and can be attacked as normal.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — A Power Too Great only stops Shadow Armies moving into or attacking those regions, and Dreadful Spells is neither. If it wipes out the defenders of a Stronghold the Shadow is already besieging, the Shadow takes the Stronghold.
It may stay and keep up the siege, but it can't attack the Stronghold or be reinforced by moving Army units in, and once it leaves it can't come back while the card is in play. Mustering, upgrading and moving Nazgûl or Minions there follow the normal rules.
No — a retreat is a move, and those cards bar Shadow Armies from moving into the protected regions. A Shadow Army already inside when the card is played may stay, but if it moves it must move out of the protected area.
It spends an Action die (that's its action) and discards one Character Event card plus one Strategy card of the Army type (flag icon), not a Muster one. Discards are face down, so the Shadow shows the corner of the cards to prove their type. If the Shadow has no Character cards left, it can't remove the card.
The official FAQ (2014) clarifies this card directly.
Yes — it is the one card that recruits into a Shadow-controlled region. The Gondor units are placed in the target region (Erech, Lamedon or Pelargir) and take control of it if necessary; later printings add "taking control if necessary" to the card. The recruiting happens whether or not a Shadow Army was there, the units come from reinforcements, and they're ordinary Gondor units, not the Army of the Dead.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — only a defender in a field battle can retreat, so that's the only time Scouts does anything. Later printings print that condition on the card; the rules team calls it a clarification that closed a bluffing loophole, not a change of intent.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — if the Shadow controls or is besieging Minas Tirith, the Army goes instead to an adjacent region that is free for army movement (an empty Shadow-controlled region such as Lossarnach counts). A Shadow Army besieged inside means the Shadow controls it, so the card can't reinforce a siege from either side, and if the Shadow occupies every adjacent region the redirected move can't happen.
Yes — it is one of the few cards that explicitly allows it, so a besieged Rohan Army in Helm's Deep, Companions included, can be moved out with it.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — the Second Edition cards need Gandalf the White in play and a Companion in Fangorn, and Gandalf the White is a Companion, so he satisfies both alone. When he stands in Fangorn or anywhere in Rohan, you may follow up at once with another Character Event card without spending a die; being in Orthanc doesn't count for that.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Only if no Shadow Army units survive the Ent attack — then Saruman is eliminated with no extra hit needed, even if he was alone there. If any Shadow units are left, he stays. The attack doesn't capture Orthanc, and if Saruman isn't in play yet the card can't eliminate him.
Yes — the card's own target number is fixed and isn't changed by siege rules, so it still hits on 4 or more.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
It targets the Nazgûl in one Shadow Army (the one that made it playable), not every Nazgûl on the map. The Witch-king is not counted as a Nazgûl for it — he adds no die, isn't moved and can't be eliminated by it. Surviving Nazgûl must move to a Sauron Stronghold other than the one they are in.
It moves one Companion or group as if their Level were 4: either Companions it separates from the Fellowship, or an already-separated one or group, which must move together. It can't move the Ring-bearers or take Companions out of a besieged Stronghold, though it may end their move in one.
No — choose one: separate Companions (who end together in the same region) or move one already-separated Companion or group. It can end their move in a besieged Stronghold but can't take them out of one. If it separates Gandalf the Grey, he is no longer Guide when the card would be drawn, so there's no extra draw.
Strider or Aragorn must be on the map with the Army, not in the Fellowship. The Regular it removes goes to the casualties and the Elite replaces it at once, so the Army is never left with only Leaders. You can still play it with no Elites left; you just draw the cards.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
It can target an already-active Nation — the activation just has no effect and the political advance still happens. It can't activate Rohan while Wormtongue is in play, because Wormtongue lists the only ways Rohan can be activated.
No — either Companion in Dale, Erebor or the Woodland Realm meets the condition, and then all the Nations the card lists are activated and advanced, whichever Settlement was used.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No to both — it can't move Rohan to At War unless Rohan is already active, and it can't recruit in a Shadow-controlled Edoras even if it's empty. It can be played with Rohan already At War (you just recruit), and even if Gondor has lost all its Settlements.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
In a coastal region containing a Free Peoples Army, which means a region on the western sea; rivers, even the Anduin, don't count, so Osgiliath is not coastal while Lamedon and Evendim are. The Elves must be At War to play it, and it can recruit into a besieged Dol Amroth.
Not with only Gollum — he isn't a Companion, so there's nobody to separate. On the Mordor Track it can be played if a Companion is present, but Companions separated in Mordor are removed from the game. It only affects Companions it separates itself.
Any Companion meets the condition, not only one who could normally activate that Nation. They move only Companions, never the Armies with them, and you're not forced to move any. Book of Mazarbul's own activation doesn't discard Threats and Promises, since it isn't a Companion's ability.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling we could confirm.
Yes, if that region is free — no Shadow Army and no Shadow control marker. Like all recruiting cards it can't bring back casualties.
Yes — being Hidden isn't a requirement; the card is discarded by the act of revealing or declaring the Fellowship after it is on the table. Since the moving die goes into the Hunt Box only at the end of the action, a reveal during the move discards the card first. Stepping onto the Mordor Track discards it only if the Fellowship has to be declared in Morannon or Minas Morgul to do so.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
It reduces the Shadow's combat dice after they are capped at 5, so it removes dice actually rolled, but it doesn't touch extra attacks granted by Combat cards. A Nation not At War can't attack with it. If the besiegers retreat, the attacker chooses whether to advance, as after any won battle.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
Yes — nothing prevents it, as long as Gandalf the Grey is still in the Fellowship.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — these cards have no play condition, so you can play them even if no unit can be placed, and still draw the card. "Then" only means the draw comes after any recruiting.
Yes — it has no play condition, so it can be played even if part of its effect has no target.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No to both — if its first part can't be met it can't be used to recruit, and the region it recruits in must be a free region inside the North, without Shadow units or a Shadow control marker.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
Yes — card effects are mandatory where possible, so you recruit both if you can.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Only the three tiles drawn for the card. A Companion besieged in a Stronghold is still in that region, so he counts. A Sméagol tile drawn before Sméagol entered play goes back to the pool with no effect.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
Yes — the card works for a Free Peoples Army besieging the Shadow in that Stronghold.
It still starts a battle: the Corsairs join the Shadow Army besieging Dol Amroth and a normal siege attack is fought with all the Shadow units there. The card's "can't cease the attack" clause only matters in a field battle, since a siege round is fought and then the attacker merely chooses whether to extend it.
“If the FP was already under Siege, the Corsairs join the besieging Army and a Siege attack is conducted normally with all the troops in the Region.”
— cybernex, designer
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
It's a direct move from Umbar, ignoring the regions in between, into the target region, followed by an attack. The Shadow picks which units move before the battle, the stacking limit of 10 applies after the move, and the defender of a Stronghold may still retreat into a siege at once, which ends the action. In a field battle the Shadow may not cease the attack or leave a rearguard.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No to both — the card doesn't override the rule that an Army can't leave a besieged Stronghold, and the battle happens in the region the Umbar Army moved into, so without that move there is no battle.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
After the whole action is over — the card's text and every battle it triggers, including extending a Grond siege. The Event die only counts as used when it's set aside at the end of the action. The draw is mandatory, and playing The Palantír of Orthanc itself with an Event die doesn't trigger it.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
No — only the player controlling Saruman can use it, so cards played by the Sauron player don't trigger it. In a two-player game it works for any card the Shadow plays with an Event die.
Several experienced players agree, including a rules-team member; there is no official ruling we could confirm.
Yes — the card draws a tile whether the Fellowship passes through Moria while being declared or revealed. If it was declared in a Free Peoples City or Stronghold, the declaration (and its healing) resolves first and any Reveal icon on the tile is ignored; otherwise a Reveal icon turns the declaration into a reveal, so the Moria Stronghold tile is also drawn, after the Balrog's.
It triggers when the Fellowship is revealed in Moria even if it didn't move — you can't dodge it by standing still. It isn't retroactive, though: the card must already be on the table when the Fellowship passes through.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Any battle where the defending Army is within two regions of Moria, whichever side attacks or defends — including a besieged Lórien. Distance can't be counted across the impassable mountain borders, so Rivendell is out of reach.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Before Combat cards are chosen, take the card into hand so your choice stays secret; it doesn't break the hand limit while there, but any replacement draw (such as the Witch-king's) that takes you over six means discarding down. If it kills every defender, the battle ends and no combat roll follows. It can't be played outside its conditions just to trigger a draw.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
The Shadow moves the Ring-bearers figure to a truly adjacent region (not across impassable borders), in the open. It isn't a Fellowship move, so there is no Hunt, the Progress counter isn't reset, and no tile is drawn for Moria or The Balrog of Moria unless the Fellowship is later revealed. It needs the Progress counter at 1 or more, so it can't be played while revealed or on the Mordor Track.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
While it is in play Rohan can be activated only by a Companion (including a Companion ability, which discards the card) or the Fellowship — not by Event cards, the Witch-king's arrival, or Shadow Armies entering Rohan or attacking Rohan units away from Edoras and Helm's Deep. Attacks can still advance Rohan, but only up to the step before At War. Moving into an empty Edoras is not an attack and doesn't discard it; if Rohan is already active, it's discarded as soon as it's played.
It only stops the Free Peoples from spending Muster results to advance a passive Nation. Activation and advances from Shadow attacks, cards and other effects still happen. It's discarded when one of its italic conditions occurs — for instance a Companion using a Muster die to advance a Nation — not merely because an At War Nation is attacked.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — the legal destinations are fixed at the start of the action (regions already holding another Shadow Army that isn't besieged), so move order doesn't matter and stacking is checked after all moves. This 2020 decision replaced an older answer that required leaving a unit behind. Regions the moving Armies pass through must be free of Free Peoples Armies, and a region where a Shadow Army is besieging a Stronghold is a valid destination.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Pick one free region adjacent to North or South Dunland (Moria qualifies; Fangorn and Lórien don't), recruit there as far as you can, then up to four Isengard units in total from the two Dunland regions may jump straight to it, even two regions away. Only units move, not Nazgûl or Minions; nothing crosses impassable borders; and if nothing could be recruited there, nothing moves.
Southron & Easterling regions on the eastern map edge: East Rhûn, South Rhûn, Khand and Far Harad. North Rhûn and Near Harad don't touch the eastern edge, so they don't qualify.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
The Fellowship's region is wherever the Ring-bearers figure stands. Nazgûl Search needs the Progress counter at 1 or more; after moving Nazgûl, one Nazgûl in that region is enough to reveal it, and the Free Peoples then move the figure as for any reveal. Nazgûl still can't move into an unconquered Free Peoples Stronghold that isn't besieged, so a Fellowship there is safe — but a besieged Stronghold doesn't protect it. The Nazgûl Strike!'s Hunt roll gets +1 per Free Peoples die already in the Hunt Box.
The Shadow picks one qualifying Shadow Army and only the Nazgûl in that Army count, the Witch-king included. A besieged Free Peoples Army shares a region with its besiegers, so it is a valid target. It isn't an attack, so Companions with a destroyed Army survive.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Every battle whose defending Army is in the Minas Tirith region — siege battles, sorties, and field battles against the besiegers from outside — so the Free Peoples can't use Combat cards in any of them. It eliminates only Leaders (not Companions such as Aragorn or Boromir), chosen by the Free Peoples, and is discarded when the siege ends or the city falls.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes, at least three rounds unless one side is wiped out first, and no Elites need to be downgraded for those rounds. After the third round the siege can be extended in the usual way by downgrading an Elite. The whole battle is one action, so the Free Peoples can't act in between, and siege attacks still hit only on 6.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
It can be played on the Mordor Track. Any drawn tile showing an Eye, including the Ring Is Mine and the Shadow special Eye tile, is discarded with no effect; otherwise you apply the tile you drew as for a successful Hunt, without drawing again. It can't be played while the Fellowship figure is in a region with a Free Peoples Settlement, even one the Shadow captured.
Any Companion casualty triggers it, including choosing to eliminate the Guide; the casualty (and choosing a new Guide and his ability) is resolved first. The random card it takes, from hand or a Character card on the table, is discarded face down unseen. It can't discard the Special tiles from Elven Rope or Elven Cloaks, and it's discarded as soon as the Fellowship is declared, before any Balrog of Moria tile.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
They must lose a random Companion if damage remains — no Corruption instead. But they may first reduce the damage with table cards such as Axe and Bow or Horn of Gondor, or Guide abilities, as the very first step before the Companion is picked; if that brings it to 0, nobody dies. A 0 or Eye tile causes no casualty.
No — it must be taken entirely as Corruption, with no reduction of any kind; later printings say so outright. Other successful-Hunt effects, such as revealing the Fellowship, still apply.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Separated Companions stay in the Fellowship's region and can't move as part of the card. The drawn tile only decides the separation; it isn't returned to the pool or taken as Corruption, and Horn of Gondor can't reduce it. With Gollum as Guide no tile is drawn and one Corruption is added instead; in Mordor the separated Companions are eliminated.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
He can move as one of the Nazgûl and then attack with the Army he joined; he must be part of the attacking Army but needn't advance after winning. It doesn't let an Army of a Nation not At War attack or cross borders.
Roll in every Elven Stronghold region with Elven units that isn't under siege by either side, one Stronghold at a time, with the Free Peoples taking casualties before the next roll. The hits must come from Elven units, and Leaders aren't units, so they add no dice.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Regions with enemy Army units are skipped, but "Shadow Army" means any Shadow Army, so Olog-hai or a Sauron unit may join an Isengard or Southron Army. All other recruiting rules still apply, and cards that name specific Strongholds can't use ones the Free Peoples have captured unless you are besieged there.
Two units in any mix of Regulars and Elites, all in one place — either Mount Gram (the region just west of Mount Gundabad) or Moria; you can't split them.
The Shadow chooses which qualifying Nation is pushed back. The Free Peoples then eliminate a Leader from the board, not from reinforcements, or may remove an Army unit instead.
No — only Army units count, so Southron & Easterling units with a Nazgûl don't qualify. Nazgûl and Minions survive when the card removes the units around them.
No — it isn't a Hunt, so abilities that need a Hunt can't be used and the loss isn't a Hunt casualty.
Yes, unless a Free Peoples Army is in Gorgoroth itself — it has no Settlement, so it can't be captured.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes to both — the Fellowship isn't in a Free Peoples Settlement region in either case.
Several experienced players agree, including a rules-team member; there is no official ruling we could confirm.
Each Combat card's initiative number sets when its effect resolves in the combat round, lowest first, so a lower number can cancel a card before it acts. When both cards share a number, the defender's resolves first. A card with two effects at different moments carries two numbers — Mûmakil's +1 to the Combat roll is at 3 and its extra hit at 5 — and cards numbered 7 act after casualties are removed.
Only when the Free Peoples are defending. The rules team's 2020 decision rewrote Mûmakil to count effects from any Free Peoples Combat card and let initiative numbers work normally: both resolve at 5, and the defender's card goes first on a tie. This reversed a 2018 answer that No Quarter's hit never counted. Mûmakil also needs a Southron & Easterling Elite in the battle.
No — Daring Defiance needs every Companion in the battle to forfeit his Leadership, and Leadership Gandalf has already given up for The White Rider can't be forfeited again. The designer briefly ruled otherwise by e-mail in 2017, then confirmed this stricter reading of the card.
“ALL companions must still have leadership to forfeit - so Daring Defiance cannot be used if Gandalf forfeited his leadership”
— cybernex, designer
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
Daring Defiance — its initiative 0 resolves before Words of Power's 1, so it cancels Words of Power.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2013.
No — Confusion scores a hit against the Shadow Army for each unmodified 1 in the Shadow's Combat roll, and those 1s can't be re-rolled; the Leader re-roll is a separate roll, so 1s there don't count. Combat modifiers don't matter, since only the natural face counts. Hits Confusion causes are Free Peoples hits, so they don't help Mûmakil.
Yes — Andúril acts "before rolling the dice for your Leader re-roll", and Foul Stench cancels the Free Peoples Leader re-roll, so there is nothing for Andúril to act on.
“Anduril IS made void by Foul Stench.”
— cybernex, designer
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Cards that need Nazgûl Leadership, such as Fear of Their Masters, can't use it, because there is none to spend for the whole battle. Cards that need only a Nazgûl's presence, like Black Breath and Words of Power, still work, and cards that need just Leadership work if another source (Saruman, the Mouth of Sauron, Isengard Elites with Saruman) is present.
Yes — Words of Power only needs a Nazgûl present, and it cancels Companion abilities for that combat round, so the Nazgûl get their Leadership back for that round.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling we could confirm.
Yes — forfeit that Nazgûl's 1 Leadership and add 1 to your remaining Leader re-roll dice. It is only useful if other Leadership remains, such as Saruman, Isengard Elites with Saruman in play, or the Witch-king's 2.
No — cancelling a card cancels all of it, cost included, so the Leadership stays.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
It counts only hits from the Shadow's Leader re-roll. The Army takes all hits normally, and in addition exactly one figure is eliminated — a Leader, or a Companion whose Level is no higher than the number of hits the Leader re-roll scored. Heroic Death can reduce hits first and Black Breath still takes a figure, and if the Nazgûl or Hobbit dies mid-round, the card still resolves.
No to both — the Leader re-roll hit is spent killing the Minion (unlike Black Breath, which kills in addition to the hits), and the Leader re-roll can only use dice that missed in the Combat roll.
The Free Peoples choose which Minion dies, and the elimination comes on top of the hits scored.
Before either side rolls, the Shadow takes up to two hits on its own units; each gives +1 to every die of the Combat roll, and the removed units don't count toward Combat Strength. The bonus doesn't apply to the Leader re-roll.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes, they hit on 5+ whatever the terrain. It's a separate attack, one die per Shadow Elite, so it gets no Leader re-roll, and cards that change the Combat roll, such as Advantageous Position, don't touch it.
It hits on 4+ even against a besieged Stronghold, since the card overrides the siege target. You may remove all your attacking units for it, but with no unit of yours left you can't take the region.
It can be played defending — it only needs a Free Peoples Elite in the battle. Against a besieged Stronghold it still hits only on 6, since it doesn't change the siege target number.
When an Isengard unit is in the battle and the defending Army is inside a Stronghold under siege — whether the Shadow is attacking or is the besieged side. It can't be played in a sortie or if the defender stays in the region instead of retreating into the siege.
No — it counts and cancels only hits from the Combat roll and Leader re-roll.
Only with a card such as Heroic Death, which eliminates a Leader or Companion in the battle to absorb hits — a Companion absorbs hits equal to his Level. Normally Characters never take hits.
Whichever Army is being attacked, of either side. It just locates the battle — for example a card needing the Fellowship in the defending Army's region works whoever is defending.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
Yes — it works for the attacker as well as the defender.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes in effect — the Leader re-roll can't roll more dice than the Combat roll, so fewer combat dice also shrinks it. The base-game Witch-king gives 2 Nazgûl Leadership for it.
The rulebook's "Event Cards" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
No — every Combat card lasts one combat round, affecting that round's rolls (and through the Combat roll, the Leader re-roll).
After both sides have rolled their Combat rolls and Leader re-rolls, when casualties are removed together.
Several experienced players agree, including a rules-team member; there is no official ruling we could confirm.
One region per action, whatever Leaders or high-Level Characters it contains; only some Event cards move Armies further. But nothing limits how many actions you spend on the same Army in a turn, so it can move and attack repeatedly with separate dice.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — but the two parts are now two Armies, so it uses both of the die's moves and nothing else can move with that die. A Character die allows only one Army move, so it can't split an Army into two destinations.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — no figure may move twice in the same action, and Armies can't pick up or drop off figures along the way. The second move of the die may only move figures that haven't moved yet; the ones that just arrived stay put.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
With an Army die, yes — Characters may stay, but Free Peoples Leaders can't be left without Army units. With a Character die, the moving part must still include at least one figure with Leadership; any other Character may stay behind.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — Free Peoples Leaders exist only with friendly Army units. They can't move on their own (even with a Character die), and one left alone, or recruited where there are no units, is eliminated at once for good. Nazgûl, by contrast, may be alone or recruited alone.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Anywhere inside its own Nation's borders, and it may leave them, but it can't enter another Nation's territory except by retreating. In a mixed Army, units of an At War Nation may enter a non-war ally's Nation, but an Army containing non-war units can't move into the At War Nation's territory.
The designer ruled on the rare lone-Leader case in 2016, and experienced players agree on the general rule.
Only with its At War units — the others must stay out in a rearguard, which can't advance afterwards. If no rearguard can be formed (only one At War unit), the designer's ruling is that a lone passive Leader just goes along to no effect and shares the unit's fate. A Leader of a non-war Nation provides no Leadership for a Character-die attack.
The rulebook's "Armies, Movement, and Battles" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
One Regular or Elite is an Army; the rules set a maximum but no minimum. A Nazgûl, Leader or Character with no Army unit is not an Army, so it can't move with an Army die, count for cards that need an Army, or hold a Stronghold.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Anywhere, any distance, with one Character die moving as many as you like to different regions — except into a region with a Free Peoples-controlled Stronghold that no Shadow Army is besieging. They may share regions with Free Peoples Armies and freely fly into or out of a besieged Shadow Stronghold. The same limit applies when an Event card moves them.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — Nazgûl, the Witch-king included, ignore sieges for movement. Flying in, they join the besieged Army inside (and die with it if it is wiped out); they can fly out again later.
No — the rule only stops them moving into such a region; one already there may stay. A ruling that it had to leave at its next move was withdrawn in favour of this.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
No — an Army moves with its Nazgûl normally, one region; a flying Nazgûl takes nothing with it.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — Companions and Minions (the Mouth of Sauron included) moving without an Army can neither enter nor leave, nor pass through, such a region, unless an Event card allows it. That stops players reinforcing or rescuing a besieged Stronghold with Characters. Nazgûl are exempt.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — a separated Companion entering a region with a Shadow-controlled Stronghold must end his move there, even if a Free Peoples Army is besieging it, and card movement like Gwaihir's doesn't override this. He may move on with a later action. A Shadow Stronghold the Free Peoples control doesn't stop him, and the rule doesn't apply to the Fellowship.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Nothing — they coexist. Only Armies can be attacked, so Companions, Minions and Nazgûl without friendly Army units can't be attacked, don't block enemy movement and don't protect a Settlement.
No — Characters only fight as part of an Army. Some Event cards inflict casualties from Nazgûl near an enemy Army, but that isn't a battle.
No — a Level 0 Character can't move at all unless an effect gives it a Level, as when the Balrog is activated in Lords of Middle-earth.
No — regions fully divided by a thick black line aren't adjacent for anything, cards included. So Cruel Weather can't move the Fellowship from Lórien into Moria, and Rage of the Dunlendings can't reach Orthanc from South Dunland.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — the water is sea, not a river, and the islands are decoration, so Armies can't move or attack directly between them.
Yes, it may leave in any direction, even deeper into enemy territory, as normal movement with an Action die. Leaving at least one unit behind keeps the siege going. The besieger never retreats; after a failed siege round it simply stays.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Only in a free City, Town or Stronghold of the units' own Nation that its side still controls. You can't recruit Elves in Helm's Deep, Gondor units in the North, or anything in a Settlement you captured from the enemy — the Shadow can't muster in a conquered Minas Tirith, nor the Free Peoples in Minas Morgul. The reference chart's "friendly Settlement" is shorthand for this.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No to both — a Muster die can't place units in your Stronghold while the enemy besieges it, and a Stronghold the enemy holds isn't your Settlement even while you besiege it. Only recruiting Event cards get around this (see Event Cards: General Rules).
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — recruiting is limited to the figures available in that Nation's reinforcements; you can't substitute another Nation's units, use counters for extra figures, or pull units off the board. Shadow casualties return to reinforcements and can be recruited again; Free Peoples casualties can't.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
With a Muster die like other Sauron figures — two per die, each in a different free Sauron Stronghold the Shadow controls, and only once Sauron is At War. Not in Orthanc or other non-Sauron Strongholds, not in a Sauron Stronghold the Free Peoples hold, and not into a besieged one (though they can fly in). Their Leadership works regardless of Sauron's political status.
No — every eliminated Character, Minions included, is out for good. The Witch-king is a Minion, so he doesn't return as a Nazgûl; ordinary Nazgûl, however, go back to reinforcements and can be recruited again. The only comeback in the base game is Gandalf the Grey returning as Gandalf the White.
The rulebook's "Armies, Movement, and Battles" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Only Regular and Elite units, per player per region. Leaders, Nazgûl, Companions and Minions don't count, so any number of them can share a region. A besieged Stronghold's Army is limited to 5 units, while its besiegers keep the normal 10.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
At the end of each action, so you may briefly overstack — for instance swapping two adjacent Armies, or moving fresh troops into a siege before the old besiegers leave. The owner then chooses which excess units to remove, and they return to reinforcements rather than becoming casualties; Free Peoples units removed this way can be recruited again. A move-then-attack card such as Corsairs of Umbar must meet the limit before the battle.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — Isengard recruits normally while Orthanc and its other Settlements are Shadow-controlled. The Shadow loses only Saruman's die and the abilities on his card, such as The Voice of Saruman and Isengard Elites counting as Leaders.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
They're reinforcements. They enter by recruiting — with Muster results once their Nation is At War, or with Event cards, which don't need it.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2013.
After the Combat roll you re-roll your missed dice, up to your Leadership (maximum five). Each die is re-rolled only once, there is a single re-roll per round, and you can never re-roll more dice than you rolled, so Leadership above your number of misses is wasted unless a Combat card needs it. Natural 1s can be re-rolled (unless Confusion forbids it); dice that hit can't.
“I confirm, only one Re-roll of the failed dice is allows.”
— cybernex, designer
Players disagree on this and there is no official ruling; the answer gives the better-supported reading.
No — the rules team's position is that re-rolls aren't optional, in combat or in the Hunt. Older printings say players "can" re-roll, which is why some treat it as optional; the latest rulebook drops "can" and simply says both players re-roll.
The rulebook's "Armies, Movement, and Battles" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
At most five, however many units, Leaders or Characters it has. Leaders add no dice — they give re-rolls instead.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
After — Combat Strength becomes dice (maximum five) first, then "roll fewer dice" effects come off the dice actually rolled. So 6 units facing a two-die reduction roll 3; 10 units facing three Companions with a per-Companion card roll 2. Effects that lower Combat Strength itself apply before the cap. A reduced roll also limits the Leader re-roll to the dice rolled.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — Leadership is your full total (each Nazgûl 1, the Witch-king 2), and only the re-roll is capped at five. An Army with Leadership 7 can give up 2 and still re-roll the maximum.
No — a modifier applies only to the roll it names. Some cards affect the Combat roll, some the re-roll, a few both; Relentless Assault, for instance, boosts only the Combat roll.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No re-roll — a card's separate attack before the Combat roll or after the re-roll is rolled once, and modifiers to the Combat roll don't touch it. If the card states a target number, use it; otherwise use the battle's normal target (so Charge still needs 6 against a besieged Stronghold or in a City's first round).
Several experienced players agree, citing the rulebook's page 30; there is no official ruling.
Yes — modifiers add up and apply in sieges too, so a besieger with +2 hits on 4 or more. A natural 1 still always misses and a natural 6 always hits.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
From that Nation's casualties if any are there — from any earlier battle, not just this one — or otherwise from its reinforcements. The Regular must be the same Nation as the Elite. You can't remove the Elite outright for a single hit while a Regular is available; if none is, the Elite is eliminated. An Elite can also be removed to absorb two hits.
The rulebook's "Armies, Movement, and Battles" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Shadow casualties go back to reinforcements and can be recruited again. Free Peoples units, Leaders and Characters that are eliminated — in battle, by a card, even by their own cards — can never be recruited again; casualty Regulars only come back to replace a downgraded Elite. Units removed for exceeding a stacking limit are not casualties.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — Elites are only downgraded when taking a hit or extending a siege, and then one Elite becomes one Regular.
The rulebook's "Armies, Movement, and Battles" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
No — hits must be taken from Army units; Character Level has nothing to do with combat. When the last Army unit in a battle is eliminated, every Leader and Character with it dies too, Nazgûl and Minions included. The exception is a card such as Heroic Death that lets you sacrifice a Companion.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — all friendly figures in a region form one Army. When it defends, every Character there fights, shares its fate and retreats with it, into a siege too. Only the attacker can keep figures out, by leaving a rearguard.
No — the attacker fights from its own region and doesn't enter the defender's region until after winning. So a Companion or Nazgûl in the attacked region adds no Leadership; fly it into the attacking Army's region first.
No — the attacker stays in its own region throughout and moves in only after the defender is eliminated or retreats. The siege is the only case of opposing Armies in one region; card effects that refer to "the battle's region" mean the defender's region.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Before the battle, the attacker may split off a rearguard that stays out of the fight. Both parts need at least one Army unit, so Characters or Nazgûl can't be kept safe on their own. Rearguard figures can't advance, and if the attacking part is wiped out, its Leaders and Characters die with it. In a Character-die attack, at least one figure with Leadership must be in the attacking part.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Advancing is optional: all, some or none of the attacking figures may move in, but whatever advances must include at least one Army unit, and rearguard figures can't. Leaders and Characters needn't go, even after a Character-die attack — Saruman, for example, can lead an attack out of Orthanc and stay put.
The rulebook's "Armies, Movement, and Battles" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Only after a round has been fought and the attacker has chosen to continue — never before the first round, except by retreating into its own Stronghold or with the Scouts card. Continuing doesn't cost the attacker another die, and once the attacker ceases, the defender can't retreat.
Several experienced players agree, quoting the rulebook's pages 10 and 31; there is no official ruling.
To one adjacent free region: no enemy Army and no enemy-controlled Settlement, even an empty one, and never the attacker's region. It may retreat into regions with friendly units, into one where it is besieging an enemy Stronghold, and across another Nation's border even if not At War. The whole Army retreats together into a single region.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — the whole Army retreats, Characters included. The only figures left behind are Level 0 Characters such as Saruman, who can't move and stays alone in Orthanc.
No — only the defender retreats; the attacker can only cease the attack and stays where it is. A sortieing Army that stops simply remains in its Stronghold.
The rulebook's "Armies, Movement, and Battles" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Against a City or Fortification, only in the first round of each battle (a new attack starts at 6 again). Against a besieged Stronghold, every round. A field battle in a Stronghold region whose defenders haven't withdrawn inside gives no bonus at all — both sides hit on 5+.
The rulebook's "Event Cards" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Yes, one per player per round; each lasts only for its round. The attacker chooses first, then the defender (the card backs are visible), choices can't be taken back, and once revealed both cards' effects must be applied.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Each Companion with it adds 1 to the Army's Combat Strength — one more die, up to the five-dice cap — and nothing else; it doesn't add re-rolls or count as a unit. Several Companions' bonuses add up. Strider, Aragorn, Gandalf the Grey, Boromir, Legolas and Gimli have it; Gandalf the White, the Hobbits and Saruman don't. It's applied before cards that cut dice, and cancelled by effects that cancel abilities (Words of Power), not by those that cancel Leadership.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — Leaders are the grey Free Peoples figures you recruit (Nazgûl follow the same rules when leading Armies). Companions and Minions have Leadership but aren't Leaders, so a card naming only Leaders doesn't include them; any figure with Leadership still lets an Army use a Character die.
No — the rolls are treated as simultaneous, so rolling one after the other is fine, as is rolling re-rolls together or one at a time. When casualties matter, the attacker removes them first.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2016.
One round per action. The attacker can extend it for another round only by downgrading one of its Elites to a Regular each time, so sieges usually take several actions. You may also stop and start a fresh siege battle with a later die, choosing a new rearguard each time.
“remember that Sieges end after 1 round of combat, unless you "spend" your Elites to go on”
— cybernex, designer
The rulebook's "Armies, Movement, and Battles" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Every round — the first-round-only rule is for Cities and Fortifications. Modifiers still apply, so a +1 lets the besieger hit on 5 or more. Siege battles otherwise use the normal sequence of Combat cards, Combat roll and Leader re-roll, but the defender can't retreat.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
At the start of any combat round, including before the very first — no dice are rolled. A defender with more than five units can fight a round in the field first and withdraw later. Alternatively, after a round, it may make a normal retreat to an adjacent region if the attacker presses on.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — withdrawing ends the battle and the attacker's action at once. The attacker may move in (all, some or none of its Army) to besiege, but attacking the Stronghold needs a new action, so the defender gets to act in between. Nor can the attacker downgrade an Elite to keep going, since no siege battle has begun yet.
The rulebook's "Armies, Movement, and Battles" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Five Army units; Leaders and Characters don't count. The whole defending Army must go in — you can't leave part outside — and any units over five are removed to reinforcements, not casualties. The besiegers outside keep the normal limit of 10.
No — every figure in the defending Army goes into the Stronghold with it, even Saruman (the Level 0 rule only covers retreats to another region). Figures friendly to the defenders, the Fellowship included, are inside; figures friendly to the besiegers are outside in the region.
Yes — units are inside a Stronghold only while besieged, and a siege only begins when a defending Army withdraws into it. You can't recruit straight "inside" an unbesieged one. When the last besieger leaves or is destroyed, the defenders are simply back in the region, with no die needed.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — the Elite is simply removed and the siege continues. A Shadow Elite used this way returns to reinforcements; a Free Peoples Elite goes to the casualties, and its replacement Regular may come from casualties.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — it can attack any adjacent region. The siege holds while it fights, because attackers don't leave their region; it is broken only if every besieging unit then advances out. The besieged Army itself can only attack the besiegers, by sortie.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — only the Army already besieging can start a siege battle, and one die can't both move units and attack with them. Reinforcing the siege takes one action and attacking another.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — the besieged units and any Nazgûl with them take no part in that battle, and the besiegers don't get the Stronghold's protection. Your besieged units don't count toward the relieving Army's stacking limit; after a win you choose how many advance so the region stays within 10. A relieving Army that is wiped out loses its Characters even though friends survive inside.
The rulebook's "Armies, Movement, and Battles" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
The besieged Army attacks the besiegers in a field battle, using any die that lets it attack (a Character die if it has Leadership). It's the attacker, so it can't retreat; if it stops, it simply stays in the Stronghold, still under siege. A sortie can leave a rearguard inside, which must include an Army unit.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Only by breaking the siege — defeating the besiegers — or with the few cards that move figures out (Paths of the Woses, Dead Men of Dunharrow). Until then he stays inside and dies if the Army defending it is destroyed.
The rulebook's "Armies, Movement, and Battles" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
No — outside the walls it's an ordinary field battle and both sides hit on 5+. The Stronghold protects only an Army besieged inside it; the first-round 6s rule belongs to Cities and Fortifications.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes, and no — a Settlement with no enemy Army units is free for army movement, so you simply move in (or through, with a multi-region card move) and take control. It's a move, not an attack, so the same Army die can still move a second Army, and it doesn't trigger cards that care about attacks. The capture still moves that Nation on the Political Track.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — capturing needs at least one Army unit. Leaders, Companions, Minions and Nazgûl on their own can't capture, and they don't stop an enemy Army from moving in and capturing either.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
The Free Peoples capture Orthanc without a battle, and Saruman survives there — capturing a region never eliminates a Character in it, and Level 0 Saruman can't leave. He is eliminated only with an Army in battle or by a card such as the Ents cards.
No — the control marker keeps it yours until an enemy Army retakes it, even with nothing there. An empty one can be retaken simply by moving in.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Whoever controlled it before — the attacker has no unit left to move in, so nothing is captured. Leaders and Characters on both sides are eliminated with their last units.
Any — control belongs to a side, not a Nation, so any Free Peoples Army can retake a Settlement the Shadow captured. A Nation isn't removed from the game when it loses all its Settlements.
The rulebook's "Overview" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
No — they're Fortifications: no Victory Points, no control marker, no mustering and no sieges. They only help whoever is defending there, by making the attacker hit only on 6 in the first round. Towns, Cities and Strongholds are the Settlements.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
A friendly Stronghold is any you currently control, whoever owned it originally — a Moria the Free Peoples captured is friendly to them. "Shadow-controlled" includes Free Peoples Strongholds the Shadow has taken; "unconquered Shadow Stronghold" means only the Shadow's own original Strongholds that the Free Peoples haven't captured.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — whoever controls a Stronghold can retreat into a siege there when attacked, and a captured City gives its new owner the same first-round protection. You still can't muster there, because it isn't one of your Nation's Settlements.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
A region is free for army movement if it holds no enemy Army units, even with an enemy control marker. A free region has neither enemy units nor an enemy-controlled Settlement. Retreats and most recruiting need a free region; a Stronghold region you are besieging counts as free for you.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
Yes — as soon as you control your own Settlement again you may recruit there, even later that turn.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — every Stronghold can be besieged; the two spare boxes just save board space. Track any extra besieged Stronghold with a marker or by agreement.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
When a region gets crowded you move its Army into one of the numbered Army Boxes at the board's edge and put the counter with the same number in the region.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
One step for each attack on an Army containing that Nation's units, every time, whatever the result. Capturing one of its Settlements moves it a further step, so an attack that takes a defended City moves it two. An attack moves it only that one step — it never jumps straight to At War.
Yes — activation doesn't use up the advance. An attack on a passive Nation's Army flips it to active and moves it one step, both at the end of the action. An enemy Army merely entering one of its regions activates it without advancing it.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — spending an action to start a battle is an attack, so the Nation is activated and advances either way. Each new attack on a besieged Stronghold advances it again, but downgrading an Elite to continue the same siege battle doesn't.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — only Regular and Elite units count; Leaders, Characters and Nazgûl aren't units. When an Army mixes units of two Nations, both Nations advance.
No — retreating isn't movement. The designer ruled that activation needs a deliberate Free Peoples action involving that Companion that ends with him in the City or Stronghold. A Companion entering during a normal Army move does activate it.
“Activating as a consequence of the retreat of a Companion is not possible.”
— cybernex, designer
Take a Free Peoples action that could move him and "move" him zero regions, such as a Character die moving Companions, so he ends his movement there. Moving an Army out and leaving him behind doesn't count, since he isn't part of that action.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling we could confirm.
Companions showing the general Free Peoples symbol — Gandalf and the Hobbits — can activate any Nation. Strider can activate only the North; once crowned, Aragorn can activate any Nation, and entering play in a Gondor City or Stronghold activates Gondor. Companions with a Nation's symbol, such as Boromir with Gondor's, activate only that Nation.
The rulebook's "The Game Turn" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Yes, if the Free Peoples still control it. Declaring in a City or Stronghold the Shadow has captured activates nothing.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — a captured City, Town or Stronghold can't be used to activate or advance the Political Track, and activation counts as an advance. That covers Gimli, Boromir and Legolas's abilities (later printings add "unconquered" to them) and There and Back Again. The automatic advance when the Shadow captures a Settlement is separate.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes, through their card abilities: with Boromir in an unconquered Gondor City or Stronghold, Legolas in an unconquered Elven Stronghold or Gimli in an unconquered Erebor, any Action die result can advance that Nation one step.
Several experienced players agree, including a rules-team member; there is no official ruling.
Yes — by Muster dice, attacks or cards — but it stops one step short: it can't enter the At War box until it has been activated. A card that advances without activating (such as The Red Arrow) can't take a passive Nation to war, while ones that also activate, such as Wisdom of Elrond, can.
No — a Muster die only advances a Nation one step. Activation comes from attacks, enemy Armies entering, the Fellowship or a suitable Companion in its City or Stronghold, and certain cards.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No to the first, yes to the second — nothing in the game flips a Nation back, and its status depends only on its political marker, not on having units on the map.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
One box. The track has four boxes, the last being At War; the positions inside a box only show where markers start and don't matter.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
The Elves are the only active Free Peoples Nation at the start; all Shadow Nations start active and reach At War through Muster results and other effects.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Any card that makes an Army attack causes the normal political reaction, and so do the Ents Awake cards and Dead Men of Dunharrow. Cards that only inflict hits or roll dice against an Army, such as Dreadful Spells and Faramir's Rangers, don't, unless the text says so. A move made with a card has the usual effects of entering regions and capturing Settlements.
Several experienced players agree, including a rules-team member; there is no official ruling.
It defends itself normally and may move within its own Nation and through regions belonging to no Nation, but it can't enter another Nation's territory (friendly, enemy or enemy-captured) or attack anyone, even in a neutral region. It may retake its own empty captured Settlements, since that's a move, not an attack.
Yes — At War Armies can cross into any Nation, and a friendly Army entering doesn't activate or advance it. Units of the non-war Nation may join that Army, but they still can't cross out of their own Nation with it.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — it may stay. The next time it moves, it must move out of that Nation (unless its own Nation is At War by then); if every exit leads further into another Nation it is stuck until then.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — Leaders of a Nation not At War follow the same restrictions as its units, even when stacked with At War units: they can't cross another Nation's border except by retreating, and they can't take part in an attack.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — Companions, Minions and Nazgûl move and fight regardless of the Political Track, as long as the Army units in the attack belong to At War Nations, so Nazgûl can lead an Isengard Army before Sauron is At War. Recruiting new Nazgûl still needs Sauron At War.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Not with Muster dice — those need the Nation At War. Event cards can recruit for it anyway unless they say otherwise.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
No — a retreat isn't normal movement, so it never activates or advances a Nation.
The rulebook's "The Fellowship and the Quest of the Ring" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
No. Each Character die used to move it advances the Progress counter one step and triggers a Hunt; the figure stays at its last known position. Only when the Fellowship is declared or revealed does the figure move, up to the counter's value, and the counter resets. Nothing is recorded secretly, and the Guide's Level doesn't affect it.
The rulebook's "The Game Turn" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
In the Fellowship Phase only, and only while hidden, the Free Peoples may move the figure up to the Progress value (zero included) and reset the counter. It costs no die, isn't a move, normally draws no tile, and the Fellowship stays hidden afterwards. A revealed Fellowship can't declare. Unused progress is lost.
No — declaring never triggers a Hunt or extra tiles, whatever the path. The only exceptions are cards that say so, such as The Balrog of Moria or The Gates Are Closed. Ending in a region with Shadow figures just gives the Shadow re-rolls on the next move from there.
The rulebook's "The Fellowship and the Quest of the Ring" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Declare it in the Fellowship Phase so its move (even zero regions) ends in a Free Peoples City or Stronghold the Free Peoples still control: that heals 1 Corruption. You may do it turn after turn, with the counter at 0, and even while the Stronghold is besieged. A City or Stronghold the Shadow has captured doesn't heal, and a revealed Fellowship can't end there at all.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2011.
Yes, it moves in and out freely and may declare and heal there; the Companion restriction doesn't apply to it. The Ring-bearers aren't Characters and never take part in battles, so nothing happens to them if the Army there is wiped out — though besiegers and Nazgûl in the region give Hunt re-rolls.
No — while in the Fellowship they aren't on the map; only the Guide's ability works. They can't lead Armies, use other abilities (Legolas can't advance the Elves from Lórien), or count as "a Companion in the battle", which the designer defines as one in the fighting Army.
“A Companion is "in the battle" if he's a part of the army fighting the battle.”
— cybernex, designer
Several experienced players agree, citing the rulebook's page 39; there is no official ruling.
All Companions separated by one action form a group that moves together to one region: up to the Progress value plus the highest Level among them, counted from the figure, and zero is allowed. They can't drop anyone off on the way. Later Character actions can move them individually or in new groups. The Progress counter doesn't change, and their route commits the Fellowship to nothing.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
In a Shadow Stronghold, no — they start there rather than entering it, so they can move on (though they must stop if their move enters one). In a besieged Free Peoples Stronghold, yes — they appear inside with the defenders and can't leave until the siege ends, which is a back-door way to reinforce a siege. Separating there is optional.
The rulebook's "The Game Turn" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
At the end of every Fellowship Phase, whether or not you declared, free of charge and even while revealed — and whenever the Guide leaves through separation or as a casualty. The Guide must always be one of the highest-Level Companions still in the Fellowship, so a Hobbit can't take over while a higher-Level Companion remains. A Companion with no Guide ability gives none.
Yes — Gollum becomes Guide as soon as the last Companion leaves, even on the first turn and even on the Mordor Track. From then on the Shadow can allocate only one die to the Hunt.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
Yes — a revealed Fellowship can't move on the Fellowship Track until it hides, but you can still separate Companions and move them.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling we could confirm.
It starts hidden, in Rivendell. The Hidden side of the Progress counter shows the Ring and the Revealed side shows the Eye.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
It ignores enemy Armies entirely — they only give Hunt re-rolls — but it can't cross impassable black borders any more than other figures. Unlike Companions it doesn't have to stop at Shadow Strongholds.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
There's no ongoing Corruption. A revealed Fellowship can't move again until a Character die hides it, can't declare, and is exposed to Shadow cards that need it revealed.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
Yes — like Gandalf the Grey's draw, Sorcerer says "may", so the Shadow can decline it.
Players disagree on this and there is no official ruling; the answer gives the better-supported reading.
It works only in the first combat round of each battle (each new attack is a new battle, so a long siege can trigger it repeatedly). A Combat card counts as used when it's discarded at the end of the round, after the cease and retreat decisions, so the draw comes then — and if the Witch-king was eliminated in that round, there's no draw. A round cut short by Scouts still counts.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
With a Shadow Army that contains at least one Sauron Army unit — Nazgûl don't count as units. He is also a Nazgûl, so he moves with the other Nazgûl on a Character die, and his Leadership of 2 counts as Nazgûl Leadership (relevant to Gandalf the White and to cards).
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — the attacking Army stays in Orthanc until it wins, so his Leadership counts and he may provide it for a Character-die attack. Afterwards the units may advance and he stays behind. What he can't do is start a Character-die move out of Orthanc, because the Character enabling a move has to go with it; use an Army die, or let Isengard Elites provide Leadership.
Yes, for movement and combat — each gives a Leader re-roll and lets its Army move or attack with a Character die. Not for recruiting, so a Muster die still musters normally. Downgrading those Elites to Regulars takes their Leadership away.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
With a Muster result (or Muster/Army die used as Muster), recruit one Isengard Regular in each of the three Isengard Settlements, Orthanc included, or replace two Regulars with Elites in Orthanc. It works only while Orthanc is Shadow-controlled and not besieged, and can be used as many times as you have Muster dice and units. Saruman himself can't enter play until Isengard is At War.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Once per game turn you may use one Muster die as an Army die — for anything an Army die can do, on any Army. (The Lords of Middle-earth version must be used with the Army he is in.)
Up to three regions, always alone (Minions never move as a group), ignoring enemy Armies but not impassable borders. Unlike Nazgûl he can't enter or leave a friendly Stronghold besieged by the enemy, and like them he can't enter a Free Peoples-controlled Stronghold that no Shadow Army is besieging.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
After the Event card's action is fully resolved, and only if Gandalf is the Guide at that moment. If the event separates him, there's no draw; if it makes him Guide (say Strider separates), you do draw. A Will of the West used as an Event result counts, and if the event draws a card itself you get both. The draw is optional.
Once Gandalf the Grey has left play — eliminated in battle or by the Hunt, or removed on the Mordor Track — with a Will of the West result. He enters in Fangorn (even with a Shadow Army there) or an unconquered Elven Stronghold, which means one the Shadow hasn't captured even if besieged. If Gandalf the White is later eliminated, he's gone for good.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
At the very start of the battle, before Combat cards or the field-or-siege choice, and it lasts the whole battle — it can't be switched on and off by round. Words of Power suspends it for one round only, and it ends if Gandalf is eliminated.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Only after he has left the Fellowship, with a Will of the West result, in a Gondor City or Stronghold the Free Peoples control ("unconquered" on the Second Edition card) — not one that is captured, and not one under siege, since he can't enter it then. If Strider is eliminated, Aragorn never comes. Strider and Aragorn are different cards, and cards naming Aragorn mean the crowned version.
No — his ability lets any Action die result hide the Fellowship, but hiding is still a normal action on your turn, so the Shadow usually gets an action first.
It applies only when the Hobbit is not the Guide (as Guide, his Guide ability applies). If he's eliminated while in the Fellowship — as a Hunt casualty or by Lure of the Ring — he is placed back in play as if just separated, moving up to his Level plus the Progress value from the figure, before any reveal move. It works once, since separated Companions never rejoin, and not on the Mordor Track.
Yes — you may separate the Hobbit Guide to reduce Hunt damage by one, or not. Separating him this way isn't a casualty, so it doesn't trigger effects such as Worn with Sorrow and Toil.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
No — Gandalf and the Hobbit must start their move in the same region to travel together.
No — only Companions move in groups using the highest Level. A single Character die can still move every Minion and Nazgûl, each separately, so several may end up together.
Yes — both remain Companions, so either can satisfy a card that needs a Companion (Gandalf the White alone in Fangorn meets the Ents cards' requirement).
The rulebook's "The Game Turn" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
At most one per Companion still in the Fellowship (the Ring-bearers and Gollum don't count), but the Shadow may always place one die even if no Companions are left. It must place at least one only if the Free Peoples recovered dice from the Hunt Box at the start of the turn — so not on turn 1, nor after a turn in which the Fellowship moved only by cards. Eyes rolled afterwards are added on top of the limit. The same rules apply on the Mordor Track.
The rulebook's "The Hunt for the Ring" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Roll one die per die in the Hunt Box, up to five; each 6 is a success. Every Free Peoples die already in the Hunt Box adds +1 to each die. The die used for the current move goes in only after its Hunt is resolved, so the first move of a turn needs 6s, the second 5+, the third 4+.
No — with no Shadow dice in the Hunt Box there's nothing to roll (Free Peoples dice alone don't make a roll), so the Fellowship moves safely outside Mordor. On the Mordor Track a tile is still drawn for every move.
The rulebook's "The Hunt for the Ring" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Every Fellowship move triggers a Hunt roll immediately, and the Shadow can't decline it. Without a move there's no roll — a Fellowship sitting still (or revealed and unable to move) can only be hit by Event cards that draw tiles.
The rulebook's "The Action Dice" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
No — only Action dice used directly to move the Fellowship go into the Hunt Box. A move made by an Event card still triggers a normal Hunt, but adds no die; hiding never adds one.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Up to three, one each for Shadow Army units, any number of Nazgûl (the Witch-king counts), and a Stronghold the Shadow controls in the Fellowship's region — a captured Free Peoples Stronghold counts, and sieges don't matter. Each re-roll lets one failed die be rolled again, and no die is re-rolled twice.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Only the region of the Ring-bearers figure, its last known position, however far the Progress counter has moved. Nazgûl or Armies placed there before the move give re-rolls; a declaration that moves the figure away escapes them.
The rulebook's "The Hunt for the Ring" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
No — any number of successes draws one tile. The number of successes only matters if that tile is an Eye, whose damage equals the successes.
The rulebook's "The Hunt for the Ring" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
No to both. It's revealed only if the drawn tile shows a Reveal icon; otherwise it takes the damage and stays hidden where it is. The Progress counter has already advanced, so the move still counts — only a Stop icon (on some Shadow special tiles) prevents it.
The Shadow draws tiles for a successful Hunt, for a reveal and for Shadow cards and abilities; the rulebook's p. 41 sidebar saying the Free Peoples draw on a reveal is an error. A redrawn tile is drawn by whoever drew the original. The Shadow also draws the random Companion counter, the Guide included.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — drawn tiles stay visible, so either player can work out what's left in the pool; it's open information, not a memory test.
The rulebook's "The Hunt for the Ring" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
In order: first a Play-on-the-Table card already in play (one per tile), then Guide abilities, then optionally one casualty — the Guide, or a random Companion still in the Fellowship, whose Level comes off the damage — and whatever is left becomes Corruption ("using the Ring"). Every step is optional; you can take it all as Corruption.
No — with zero damage there is nothing to absorb, so you can't use a 0 tile to get rid of a Companion. A casualty only absorbs the current damage; a high-Level Companion doesn't heal existing Corruption.
“the possibility of taking a casualty when drawing a 0 tile (for example, to get rid of the Grey, or similar situations), which is also not allowed.”
— cybernex, designer
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Only one casualty per tile — but when the Guide changes, the new Guide's ability can be used at once against the same tile. So you can lose Legolas and then let Merry or Pippin separate, chain both Hobbits, or have Gollum take over. When several tiles are drawn, each gets its own casualty.
One at a time, each fully resolved — casualties, Guide changes and the revealed Fellowship's move — before the next is drawn. The order is: the tile that revealed the Fellowship, then tiles from cards or abilities (Balrog of Moria, The Gates are Closed), then one tile for each Shadow Stronghold on the revealed path.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2014.
When the path the Free Peoples trace for the revealed Fellowship moves into, through, out of or stays in a Shadow Stronghold the Shadow still controls — one tile per such Stronghold, even if the Free Peoples are besieging it. Declaring through one never draws a tile, and neither a captured Free Peoples Stronghold nor a Shadow Stronghold the Free Peoples took triggers it. An Eye drawn as this extra tile does nothing.
Several experienced players agree, quoting the rulebook's page 38; there is no official ruling we could confirm.
The Free Peoples move the figure, up to the Progress value (zero is fine), then reset the counter. Nothing blocks the path, but it may never end in a City or Stronghold the Free Peoples control — a Fellowship revealed in one must move out — and the Free Peoples choose whether the path passes through a Shadow Stronghold.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — a revealed Fellowship can't be revealed again, so the icon doesn't trigger another move or extra Stronghold tiles. A Fellowship that stays revealed in a Shadow Stronghold doesn't draw a tile each turn either.
The designer ruled in 2013 that Gollum's reveal needs damage to reduce; experienced players agree on the rest of the ability.
Two parts. On standard numbered (beige) tiles, ignore the Reveal icon — this is automatic; Eye tiles and special tiles still reveal. Then, if the Hunt hasn't revealed the Fellowship and there is damage to reduce, you may reveal it to cut the damage by 1. That reveal is a normal reveal, so a path through a Shadow Stronghold draws the extra tile. It works on the Mordor Track too, and can let the Ring-bearers survive the final step.
Yes — Gollum becomes Guide the moment the last Companion leaves and can use his ability straight away, for instance to ignore the reveal on that numbered tile.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — he has no Level, can't be separated or taken as a casualty, and cards targeting a Companion can't affect him. His ability only reduces Hunt damage, not Corruption added directly (such as the Mordor Track penalty for not moving).
Put all the drawn standard (beige) tiles back, except any a card removed permanently; special tiles don't return. Refill only when the pool is actually empty at the end of an action or when a tile is needed to finish one — a tile returned by a redraw keeps the pool from being empty.
No to both — only one Play-on-the-Table card can reduce each tile's damage, and it must already be on the table; Event cards are never played as reactions. These cards only work against Hunt damage, so they can't touch The Breaking of the Fellowship or tiles the Free Peoples draw themselves.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Any Hunt tile the Shadow draws, for any reason — Isildur's Bane or Orc Patrol included — but not tiles the Free Peoples draw, as for Challenge of the King. Decide before the tile's effects (such as Shelob's Lair die roll) are resolved; the Shadow draws the replacement, resolved under the same conditions. We Shall Get It! works only on tiles drawn for an actual Hunt.
No — only Hunt damage can be reduced. Cards such as Lure of the Ring add Corruption directly; a Companion only helps if the card has you draw a Hunt tile and resolve it as a Hunt.
Standard tiles are the beige ones with a number or an Eye. Special tiles are added by cards: the blue ones are Fellowship (Free Peoples) special tiles, the red ones Shadow special tiles — so "Fellowship special tile" never means a red tile.
The rulebook's "The Fellowship and the Quest of the Ring" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Only during the Fellowship Phase, with the figure in Morannon or Minas Morgul. You can declare it there and step onto the track in the same phase; if it was revealed there during the Action phase, it waits for the next Fellowship Phase. Entering isn't a move: no Hunt, no tile for leaving the Stronghold, and any progress beyond what the declaration used is lost. It's optional — you may wait outside.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — in the Second Edition it only needs to be in Morannon or Minas Morgul during the Fellowship Phase, hidden or revealed, and it keeps that status. A revealed Fellowship must then hide before it can move along the track. (The First Edition required it to be hidden.)
Entering doesn't reveal it, and isn't a declaration in itself. But if the Fellowship had to be declared in Morannon or Minas Morgul to get there, that declaration (and anything it triggers, like The Last Battle being discarded or a Balrog tile) is fully resolved first.
The rulebook's "The Fellowship and the Quest of the Ring" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Each move still needs a Character die (and the Fellowship must be hidden). There's no Hunt roll: a tile is drawn automatically for every move, even with no Shadow dice in the Hunt Box, and the Fellowship advances one step unless the tile has a Stop icon — a Reveal icon doesn't stop it. You may move several times a turn, each die going into the Hunt Box afterwards. You can no longer declare.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
The number of dice in the Hunt Box — Shadow Eyes plus Free Peoples dice from earlier moves this turn — with no cap of five. The die for the current move is added only after its tile is resolved, so a first move with no Shadow dice can draw a harmless Eye.
The rulebook's "The Fellowship and the Quest of the Ring" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Yes — 1 Corruption at the end of any turn in which the Free Peoples neither tried to move nor hid it on the track. An attempted move or a hide is enough to avoid it, even if the Fellowship ends the turn revealed. This Corruption isn't Hunt damage, so Companions or Gollum can't reduce it, and it can lose you the game.
The rulebook's "Winning the Game" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
It must survive: the final step draws a tile like any other, and if that tile takes the Ring-bearers to 12 Corruption the Shadow wins, while a Stop icon keeps it one step short (you may try again with another die). From the first circle, five steps reach the Crack of Doom. Gollum's damage reduction can save the last step.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
He's removed from the game instead of being placed on the map — I Will Go Alone, The Breaking of the Fellowship or a Hobbit Guide ability still work, but the Companion is gone. That's a removal, not a casualty, so effects like Take Them Alive! or Worn with Sorrow and Toil don't trigger; a Gandalf the Grey removed this way still lets Gandalf the White enter play.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No, they can stay, and the Guide or a random Companion can still be taken as a casualty to absorb Hunt damage on the track. Each Companion left in the Fellowship also lets the Shadow allocate another Hunt die.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Every Eye tile drawn so far, plus any special tiles cards have put into play, are added to the tiles still undrawn — you don't start a new pool. Drawn numbered tiles stay out, and so do Eyes permanently removed by Challenge of the King (or Galadriel's ring in Lords of Middle-earth).
The card can be played any time; its tile is set aside until the Fellowship enters Mordor, or goes straight into the pool if the Fellowship is already on the Mordor Track.
No — the Mordor Track isn't a region. Cards that need Shadow units in the Fellowship's region can't target it, while cards that only need it outside a Free Peoples Settlement region can.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Only through Event cards or blue Fellowship special tiles, since the Fellowship can no longer declare in a City or Stronghold.
No — in the Fellowship Phase you simply move it onto the first step; no declaration or progress is needed, and Shadow units in that region don't stop it.
The rulebook's "Winning the Game" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
No — only in the Victory Check at the end of the turn. The Ring conditions (12 Corruption, or reaching the Crack of Doom) end the game immediately, so the Free Peoples can still destroy the Ring in a turn where the Shadow has already hit 10 points.
The rulebook's "Winning the Game" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
The Shadow — when several conditions are met, the lower-numbered one takes precedence, and the Shadow's military victory (condition 3) comes before the Free Peoples' (condition 4), whoever got there first.
The rulebook's "Winning the Game" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
The Shadow — the tile for the final step is resolved before victory is checked, and the Free Peoples win only with Corruption below 12. Reductions (Gollum's reveal, a casualty, a table card) are applied first. A Reveal icon on that tile doesn't matter; only Corruption and a Stop icon do.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — Victory Points come only from enemy Settlements you hold. Retaking your own just removes the points your opponent had for it; likewise the Shadow loses nothing when the Free Peoples take Orthanc, apart from the Free Peoples gaining those points.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Whoever controls it — the besieged defenders keep the points, even in a Stronghold they captured, until the besieger actually takes it. An empty captured Settlement also keeps its points for you via the control marker.
The rulebook's "Winning the Game" section covers this, and players on BGG read it the same way.
Strongholds 2 and Cities 1; Towns and Fortifications are worth nothing. The Shadow needs 10 points of Free Peoples Settlements, the Free Peoples 4 points of Shadow ones; extra points beyond that don't matter.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — with an enemy Army in the region and no defending units left, the Stronghold falls without a battle and its points count at once, though military victory is still only checked at the end of the turn.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2012.
To individual Nations. The lone Free Peoples player can't use two consecutive actions on the same Nation; a move or recruitment split over two Nations makes both ineligible next time, each mixed Army counts on its own, and a pass in between doesn't reset it. The restriction covers Event cards that act with a Nation too. An earlier remark by the designer that he splits his dice between the two 4-player groups was superseded weeks later by this Nation-based reading.
“The literal interpretation is correct (Nation, not group of Nations).”
— cybernex, designer
The single Free Peoples player plays as in the 2-player game: a 6-card hand limit and two cards drawn each turn. Each Shadow player has a 4-card limit and draws one card a turn, from whichever deck he chooses after the first turn.
No — each player musters only his own forces (though either could muster a Nazgûl).
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
The player whose Nation has the most Army units in it; Leaders, Nazgûl and Characters don't count and never let you act with an Army you don't control, whatever die or card you use. When splitting it, you may only move off a part you would still control.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Not to move or attack with it — no card overrides army control, so The Ringwraiths Are Abroad, Grond or The Fighting Uruk-hai can't activate an Army your partner controls (an earlier answer allowing Grond was withdrawn). A card that recruits where any Shadow Army is may use a teammate's Army.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Either Shadow player may move the ordinary Nazgûl, but only the player who controls a Minion may play or move it — the Witch-king player alone moves the Witch-king and the Mouth of Sauron, and Saruman never moves. A Minion in another player's Army moves and fights with that Army, and its combat abilities (like Sorcerer) work for the controller, but not its other abilities.
No — passing doesn't remove you from the rotation; the player who passed takes his side's next action after the opponents act. A team can pass only while it has fewer dice than the other side.
The Shadow's Leading Player for that turn — so either Shadow player, depending on who holds the token.
Yes — the player icons only restrict the Event half. Anyone on the side may use a card's Combat effect if its conditions are met.
Yes — Companions are shared by both Free Peoples players, and the rule on moving another player's political counter makes an exception for such abilities. Moving an Army a Companion leads, though, is up to the player who controls that Army.
The side's Leading Player rolls all its dice, and the teammates alternate choosing dice to act with, starting with the non-Leading Player. The Leading Player token passes to the other teammate at the start of each later turn. In a 2-player game the tokens aren't used.
Yes — in multiplayer, Southron & Easterling Elites count as Leaders as well as Isengard Elites while Saruman is in play, whichever Shadow player controls the Army they're in.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
They share the win as a team.
No — only the player taking the action discards, from his own hand. The Shadow players may swap one card in Phase 1 to set it up.
The alternate Companions are optional, but the rest of the expansion is meant to be used together; leaving pieces out can upset the balance. Duplicate card numbers aren't errors — they belong to different decks.
The Free Peoples pick their Gandalf the Grey (and, with The Council of Rivendell, their Strider) at setup, and that choice is permanent. The Shadow chooses which Witch-king or Mouth of Sauron to bring in when it does, as long as that version's conditions are met, and may swap the Witch-king for his other version once per game; a swapped Character stays where he is.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Still only one per side per turn to change a die. Using a Ring for its Keeper's special ability doesn't count against that limit, so several can be used that way in one turn. Each Ring is used either for the die change or for its special ability, never both, and then passes to the Shadow as usual.
No — Elven Rings can't change special dice. Some Event cards can, and a die changed by a card counts exactly as if it had been rolled that way (a Lesser Minion die turned into its remove result is removed next turn).
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
If you roll a single Keeper die it is one of your Action dice that turn; if you roll several, you keep only one, and must keep an Eye if any shows. A Keeper Eye goes into the Hunt Box but gives no +1 to Hunt rolls, and recovering it doesn't force the Shadow to allocate a Hunt die. Using a Ring token doesn't remove its Keeper die, nor does losing the die cost you the Ring.
Only if its removal condition holds — for Keeper dice, Gandalf the White being in play — and only when dice are recovered at the start of the next turn, never the turn it was rolled. Discarding the die without acting doesn't save it. Keeper dice also leave when their Character leaves play.
Yes — any special result except an Eye satisfies "any Action die result" on cards and abilities. For the pass rule you count every die you still have, including the special die you chose for the turn. Lesser Minion dice are rolled with the others, so they can't be allocated to the Hunt Box beforehand.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
It's checked when dice are recovered: if he is the Guide then and the Free Peoples took back at least one die from the Hunt Box, the Narya die is added for that turn. On turn 1 you get it if he starts as Guide. Changing the Guide in that turn's Fellowship Phase, or losing him then, doesn't remove it that turn; it's gone from the next recovery once he stops being Guide, leaves the Fellowship or becomes Gandalf the White.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Only Gandalf the Grey, and only once he is out of the Fellowship (in it, only his Guide ability works). Using it takes an Action die and is your whole action. It counts as a Companion's special ability, so it can activate Rohan despite Wormtongue.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2013.
After an action is resolved, spend Vilya to return the die you just used to your unused dice instead of setting it aside or putting it in the Hunt Box, so it can be used again that turn — even the die that brought Elrond in. A Will of the West changed into another result can be kept (the designer confirmed this); one used as a Will of the West (to crown Aragorn, say) can't. A Keeper die can be kept too. It spends the Ring, so it isn't a free every-turn ability.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Whenever a standard Eye tile is drawn, for any reason — Hunt, Event cards, the Balrog, Challenge of the King — except a Kings of Middle-earth corruption attempt. Decide right away; if you decline, you can't change your mind for that tile, though a fresh tile gives a fresh chance. The order is Nenya, then the Shadow's We Shall Get It!, then Mithril Coat and Sting. An Eye removed by Nenya leaves the game.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Only for combat: they're Level 3 Companions for Combat cards (Heroic Death, Black Breath, Words of Power, Mighty Attack) and for combat-related Events — those that let an Army attack, such as the Combat-card restriction in Grond and The Fighting Uruk-hai. Otherwise their Level is 0 and they don't meet Event conditions like The Eagles are Coming! or Stormcrow. The rulebook calling them "Companion cards" means Character cards.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Yes — a besieged home Stronghold is still unconquered, so they enter inside it and join the defenders. They can't enter while it's Shadow-controlled. Galadriel can never leave Lórien and is removed if the Shadow takes it; casualties without a battle, like Return to Valinor, don't kill them. Galadriel lifts only the siege restriction on recruiting in Lórien — the Elves still need to be At War to muster.
No — the rules team confirmed those Elites can't be targeted by Black Breath (or Warriors of Middle-earth's Hideous Speed).
Rolling its die does nothing by itself — you must spend the Use Balrog result as an action (or play A Balrog is Come). While inactive he can't leave Moria, but still adds his Leadership and Combat Strength to the Army with him, fights when Moria is attacked, and can join attacks out of Moria.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
With his own Balrog result, or a Character die like other Minions, or an Army die with the Army he's in. Alone he moves up to two regions; with an Army he moves one, like any Character in an Army. He can't attack alone — only as part of an Army — and is eliminated with it if its units are wiped out in battle. He can't fly into a besieged Moria.
He can enter even if the Free Peoples have taken Moria — only his extra Sauron unit needs Moria unconquered and unbesieged, and it may be a Regular or Elite, not a Nazgûl. His card's own conditions override the At War rule. His arrival can push the Dwarves along the track, but a passive Nation still stops one step short of At War.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
It's mandatory, drawn in addition to any Moria Stronghold tile (the Shadow picks the order against The Gates Are Closed), and resolved like a successful Hunt, so casualties and Guide abilities apply — except that Reveal icons are ignored. An Eye eliminates both the Balrog and the current Guide, Sméagol included, with no damage; if Gollum is the Guide, the Eye is discarded and nobody dies. A Sméagol tile brings Sméagol in as usual. When declaring in Lórien, the healing comes before this tile.
Once he's out of Moria, a Will of the West result can eliminate him; Gandalf can also use a Character die to make him inactive, but only after leaving the Fellowship.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2013.
If Sméagol has never been in play and Gollum isn't Guide, Sméagol enters as Guide with zero damage — whoever drew the tile, by Hunt, Orc Patrol or The Breaking of the Fellowship, unless the card returns tiles without effect (Challenge of the King puts it back in the pool). If Sméagol is Guide, damage is 0 and the tile is removed from the game. If Gollum is Guide or Sméagol has already left, discard it and draw another. The designer confirmed Sméagol tiles stop being worth 0 once Gollum is in play.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No other Companion can be Guide while Sméagol is in the Fellowship. He turns into Gollum as soon as he is the only Companion left, however the others left — a legal way to dodge cards that need Sméagol. He counts as a Companion for Hunt allocation (raising the maximum, not forcing it) and can be taken as a casualty, absorbing damage equal to the highest Level among the other Companions.
Only while Sméagol is the Guide: the moment a Sméagol tile is drawn during a Hunt, the Shadow can add 2 Corruption — not Hunt damage, so nothing reduces it. Mithril Coat and Sting can't touch a Sméagol tile, because it resolves before the Effects of the Hunt begin. Tiles drawn outside a Hunt (The Breaking of the Fellowship) don't trigger it, and the card is discarded once Sméagol stops being Guide.
“The draw of a Sméagol tile can not be influenced by Mithrill Coat, because it's resolved without starting the sequence.”
— cybernex, designer
Several experienced players agree, including a rules-team member; there is no official ruling we could confirm.
It isn't drawn: it goes straight onto the Shadow's table when Sméagol is eliminated or discarded (not if he never appeared, or if Gollum simply replaced him as the last Companion), and it can be used once Gollum is Guide. It's optional: when a tile is drawn for a Hunt, discard it to have a new tile drawn before Hunt resolution begins, so Guide abilities, table cards and casualties then apply to the new tile. The original tile returns only after the Hunt is resolved.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Only when the Shadow plays the Event half of a Character card with an Action die while he is in the Ring-bearers' region at that moment — moving away during the card doesn't matter, and Combat cards don't count. If The Palantír of Orthanc would also trigger, the Shadow draws just one card. In multiplayer only his controller benefits.
Only when the Fellowship is declared, not when it's revealed, and not into an unconquered Free Peoples Stronghold even if besieged (he may join the besiegers normally). He must be placed in the Fellowship's region, so he can't first enter play while it's on the Mordor Track or The Western Way — only by swapping in for the Black Captain.
No — only the base Minions (Saruman, the Black Captain Witch-king, the Mouth of Sauron in either version) satisfy Gandalf the White's Minion condition. The Chief of the Ringwraiths brings a normal Action die, and still counts as a Nazgûl for Hunt re-rolls and cards.
Yes — his condition is that the Black Captain isn't in play, so killing the Witch-king opens the door. His die is removed while the Black Captain is in play (or when another Witch-king is in play and a remove result was chosen); after the Witch-king dies it stays. If the Black Captain arrives later, Gothmog stays on the map without his die. Losing a Lesser Minion die never removes the figure.
“If you muster him, and later you muster the Black Chieftain, he will not "vanish" but he's left in a minor role.”
— cybernex, designer
Yes, for every purpose their cards and the rules don't exclude — combat cards included — but they don't let Gandalf the White enter play.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
With both alternate Hobbits in the Fellowship and one of them Guide, eliminate both to cancel a standard (beige) Hunt tile, Eyes included but not special tiles. It cancels the whole tile, so it must be used before any of it is resolved. The cancelled tile is discarded normally, and since both are eliminated, Worn with Sorrow and Toil triggers (twice).
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
At the end of the action (not between combat rounds), in a region adjacent to the one where he was eliminated. Since he is put back in play rather than moving, he may go into an adjacent besieged Stronghold — the rules team revised this for the Two Decades edition, reversing the 2014 FAQ, which applied normal movement rules. Two Hobbits may go to different regions, and once separated outside Mordor they can't be eliminated.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling we could confirm.
They have no Nation activation symbol — they can start in their homelands and don't activate by ending a move there — but can spend any Action die to activate and advance their Nation, repeatedly, in an unconquered home Settlement. They're Level 2 for movement only and Level 1 otherwise, so they rank below base Level 2 Companions for Guide.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
It keeps the first die used to move the Fellowship each turn out of the Hunt Box, if the Fellowship was at step 1 or more at the start of that action. It doesn't prevent that move's Hunt roll, it only means the next roll still needs 6s. A move made by an Event card such as Swift Boats doesn't use it up.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Characters and the starting Guide are chosen at setup; after the first draw, in turn 1's Fellowship Phase, Companions may be sent to their homelands (alternate Legolas to the Woodland Realm, Gimli to Erebor) with no separation action, and the Guide can be changed. The Shadow gets a visible Action token per Companion starting outside — but Gandalf, Keeper of Narya can't start outside.
It doesn't stop the Fellowship declaring or entering Mordor; it forces a Hunt tile whenever the Fellowship is declared or revealed in Morannon or Minas Morgul. Resolve that tile before deciding whether to step onto the Mordor Track. Played after the Fellowship already stands there, it usually does nothing, since stepping onto the track isn't a declaration.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Play it in any non-siege battle with a Free Peoples Leader or Companion: cancel one Shadow hit. An attacker must then cease the attack; a defender must retreat at round's end if the Shadow presses on and a retreat is possible (it may be into its own Stronghold). If the Shadow doesn't press, nobody retreats, and if the defenders are wiped out, the attacker may still advance.
His Great Sorcery lets a Muster result move or attack only with the Army he is in — not play cards. He may prolong a siege without reducing an Elite once per Action die used for that siege. The Muster die used this way keeps its face, so it doesn't trigger Captain of Despair.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
The Gondor player.
Yes — it works with the base game alone, and even with the First Edition. With Warriors of Middle-earth in play, use the Warriors of Middle-earth version of Treebeard, since his abilities refer to Faction cards.
He needs Gandalf the White in play and a Companion in Fangorn — Gandalf the White there satisfies both. Once Treebeard is in Fangorn he is the Companion the Ents Awake cards ask for, so Gandalf the White (still required in play) is free to leave. He gives no extra recruiting.
After he is in play and any of the three The Ents Awake cards is used, for its Event or for its Combat effect — even if the Combat card is cancelled (by Swarm of Bats, say), since it was still used. A card played before he entered doesn't count, and other Combat cards don't either.
At Level 0 not at all — he can't join a group of moving Companions, and an Army with him can attack (with a Character die) but he can't advance or retreat with it. At Level 2 he moves like a Companion, alone or in a group, and cards like Gwaihir the Windlord or We Prove the Swifter can include him. He may leave Fangorn and Rohan, but there he stops counting as a Companion for Event and Combat cards.
They can be played with him as the Companion present, but he has Leadership 0, so there's nothing to forfeit and they have no effect through him. Root and Branch! gives one re-roll of a missed die per The Ents Awake card played.
Yes — as a Companion he dies with his Army if its units are wiped out. Black Breath still needs at least one Leader re-roll hit to take him even at Level 0. He can be sacrificed to Heroic Death at Level 0, though it cancels no hits.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — they're a separate kind of figure. They can't be attacked, don't take hits unless a card says so, add no Combat Strength, don't count toward the 10-unit limit (Dunlendings have their own limit of 3 per region, Corsairs 5), and never capture or control a region, so Dead Men or Ents destroying a Shadow Army don't retake a Stronghold. Armies can share a region with them.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Only Faction actions. It counts as an Action die solely for the pass rule, so it can't be allocated to the Hunt Box, changed by an Elven Ring, kept by Vilya or used for "any Action die" requirements, and a Faction die that moves the Fellowship through a card doesn't go into the Hunt Box. Normal dice can't recruit or move Faction figures, though an Event (or matching) result can draw or play Faction Event cards.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
They aren't shuffled into any deck. Before each battle, each player takes into hand the Call to Battle cards of every Faction eligible to join it and may play one in place of a Combat card, secretly (the backs match the Event decks). They're taken back after the round, can be reused every round while their conditions hold, and don't count toward the hand limit. They're neither Combat nor Event cards, but an effect that stops Combat cards (like Grond's) stops them too.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
It may be played, but it does nothing unless it adds figures to the starting setup or is a Play-on-the-Table card, which then waits until the Faction arrives (and its whole text still applies). After the Faction is eliminated its cards have no effect, though a card already on the table, like The Dark Door, keeps working, and cards that don't need the Faction can still be played for their other effects.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — elimination is permanent for both sides. Most Factions are eliminated when their last figure goes, but the Corsairs go only when the Free Peoples take Umbar and the Dunlendings only when they hold both Dunland regions, so losing every figure doesn't remove those. A Faction entering play while its elimination condition is already true is eliminated at once.
Dunlendings and Spiders share a Character's fate — eliminated when their Army is wiped out in battle, but not by an Event like Faramir's Rangers that wouldn't kill a Character. Other Faction figures, Corsairs included, are unaffected. Free Peoples Faction figures that are eliminated leave the game; Shadow ones return to the pool.
Players disagree on this and there is no official ruling; the answer gives the better-supported reading.
Only Ships of Great Draught transports Armies; Black Sails and A Great Fleet just move the ships. Each Corsair carries up to two Army units plus any Nazgûl and Minions, but at least one unit must go, everything must start in the Corsairs' region with nothing picked up or dropped on the way, and Faction figures are never transported. Empty Corsairs may sail along. The transported units may join an Army already at the destination.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Transported Armies follow normal movement restrictions, so every region crossed and the destination must be free for army movement — a Free Peoples Army on the coast blocks them, and empty enemy Settlements passed are captured. They move up to 4 regions, or up to 2 and then attack an adjacent region, even one the Corsairs couldn't enter (the Corsairs stay behind if the Army advances). So Dol Amroth can't be attacked straight from Umbar.
Players disagree on this and there is no official ruling; the answer gives the better-supported reading.
Coastal regions on the western seas, the Bay of Belfalas and the Gulf of Lune (Grey Havens included), plus the Anduin up to Druadan Forest and Minas Tirith. They don't cross impassable borders, so North Ered Luin, Evendim and Arnor are out of reach; an early report that they could was overruled.
Yes — Corsairs in a Shadow Army's region can move one region with it, and retreat with it, if they may enter the destination; they add nothing to its attacks and aren't taken as casualties. Sailing at ship speed or carrying Armies needs their Faction cards.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
When the Dead Men enter play, Strider/Aragorn (separated, not in the Fellowship) moves at once to Erech with any Companions in his region. While with the Army of the Dead they move and attack with it but aren't part of any Free Peoples Army, even in the same region, so their Leadership and abilities don't help it. If the Army of the Dead is eliminated, they join the Free Peoples Army there at once (their abilities return next round), and they are not eliminated with it.
Under the current rulebook, at the beginning of any action by either player — on a Shadow action, after the Shadow picks its die but before using it, so not once an attack is declared. Moving Strider away from it disbands it. The earlier ruling that it could only happen alongside an action changing his status has been replaced. Crowning Strider doesn't disband it.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Attack from an adjacent region (or without moving) at 4+, unaffected by Stronghold terrain; surviving Shadow units must retreat to an adjacent region — not into a Stronghold, unless they were already besieged — and Minions or Nazgûl may stay behind. The Dead Men can't enter regions with enemy units, cross mountains (except via The Dark Door from Erech), or capture anything, so the Shadow keeps control of a Settlement they clear.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
As soon as Fangorn has no Ent figures, or no Companion or Fellowship. Under the revised Treebeard card he counts as that Companion while in Fangorn or a Rohan region — but he's never an Ent figure and can't bring the Ents into play on his own. An Ent in the Old Forest Entwood doesn't keep them in play.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
Each move takes an Ent from the Entwood and places it next to a region that already has an Ent, so the chain grows from Fangorn, through free regions only; Ents may move only while more than one remains in the Entwood. Each attack removes an Ent from the Entwood — even the last, which then eliminates the Faction — and attacks a Shadow Army adjacent to an Ent, at a fixed number that siege doesn't change. Moves and attacks can alternate, and attacks may be split between targets.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
They count as attacks for the Political Track — they're the only Factions that attack a Shadow Army without a Free Peoples Army. Leader re-rolls don't apply to their dice. If such an attack destroys every unit of a Shadow Army, Nazgûl and Minions with it (Saruman in Orthanc included) die too.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
The Eagles move to the defending Army's region when the card resolves, whichever side is attacking; in a siege they go into the region, not the Stronghold, and can hit besiegers but not a besieged Shadow Army. Out of the High Airs cancels all Nazgûl Leadership for the round, the Witch-king's included, by eliminating one Eagle. Eagles are never taken as casualties, and the Faction is gone the moment no Eagle is on the board.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
In Dol Guldur and Minas Morgul whoever controls them and even if besieged. They follow normal movement restrictions — no impassable borders, no regions with Free Peoples Army units — but may enter an empty Free Peoples-controlled Settlement. They can't be taken as casualties; with Huge and Horrible in play they count toward stacking limits, the siege limit of 5 included.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
They're recruited only in Dunland Settlements the Shadow controls (or Rohan Strongholds the Shadow is besieging), up to 3 per region outside the normal limit, and may enter Free Peoples Towns and Cities without Armies but not Strongholds. Death to the Forgoil makes all Dunlendings count as Isengard Regulars for that battle, so they can fight, take casualties and count for Great Host, but can't conquer. Fierce Folk lets you eliminate Dunlendings to cancel Combat-roll hits, not extra attacks. With Armed by Saruman they can absorb Ent attacks.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
Yes — but it doesn't stack with the re-roll for Shadow Army units in that region.
It checks at initiative 7, after casualties from the Combat roll and Leader re-roll are removed, counting the effects of any Free Peoples Combat card (No Quarter, Shield-wall), which makes it weaker than Mûmakil — the card's wording was updated in 2020. If the whole Shadow Army dies that round, its Spiders are already gone, so it does nothing; an earlier answer saying otherwise was withdrawn.
No — the tile enters play only if it never has before, however it left; replaying the card only moves Spiders. It also needs the Spiders in play when played, otherwise it's discarded without effect.
It acts as a region next to Grey Havens and the Gondor coast, open only to the Fellowship and to Companions separating from it (they may use it to reach Gondor; one who ends there is stranded). Nazgûl, Minions and Armies can't go there. While the Ring-bearers are at Grey Havens or on the card with the Fellowship Track at 0 or 1, the Fellowship is At Sea and no Hunt tiles can be drawn.
No to the first — nothing moves a revealed Fellowship. Lifted Up and Borne Far Away is a normal move on the Fellowship Track, Hunted as usual, though the die used to play it doesn't go into the Hunt Box. Swift Boats skips the Hunt roll but still needs the Fellowship hidden.
The Faction deck is reshuffled the moment its last card is drawn. Faction cards don't count as Character or Strategy cards for discards like We Won't Go Back or A Power Too Great, though Wind from the West treats them like other Event cards. Gandalf the Grey's draw after playing one comes from the Faction deck.
No — the Faction deck stays complete; you just ignore the rules for Factions not yet in play. Each Faction recruit result adds figures to only one Faction.
The drawn tiles aren't resolved: the Free Peoples must discard one — even if all are good for them — and return the rest with no effect, so a Sméagol tile drawn this way doesn't bring him in. Only Nenya can redraw one of these tiles; Mithril Coat and Sting and We Shall Get It! work only on Hunt draws.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
Each player draws one card from the Character or Strategy deck each turn, and only the Leading Player draws from the Faction deck; on the first turn each player draws one Character and one Strategy card and the Leading Player a Faction card.
Yes, within the timing printed on the Faction card — The Terror of the Dead stops the battle however it began. When it and The Last Stroke of Doom are both played (both initiative 8), the defender's resolves first; in a siege the Shadow decides on extending before the Free Peoples decide to end it.
At least two in the Hunt Box. The attempt is an action that spends one Eye, and you draw one tile per Eye left — so three Eyes allow two attempts, the first drawing two tiles and the second one. Shadow dice allocated to the Hunt Box count as Eyes; Free Peoples dice and Character dice put there by Captain of Despair don't.
“You need min 2 Eyes in the Hunt box to attempt corruption.”
— cybernex, designer
Only as one of its actions, in place of using an Action die, and only while the Free Peoples still have at least one unused Action die — so the Shadow can't hoard Eyes for the end of the turn, nor attempt once it can no longer act itself. Play then passes to the Free Peoples as usual.
“a Corruption attempt cannot be done if the FP player is out of action dice.”
— cybernex, designer
Players disagree on this and there is no official ruling; the answer gives the better-supported reading.
Only once per full game turn — unless an Event card grants an extra attempt, which may come before or after the normal one. Every tile for an attempt must be drawn (unless you use the rulebook's optional alternate system), one at a time.
Refill it with all the standard tiles under the normal rule and keep drawing — the designer reversed an earlier ruling that cut the attempt short. Eyes drawn and set aside return to the pool when the attempt ends, but Eyes removed from the game (by Nenya or Challenge of the King) stay out. Sméagol tiles, like special tiles, are ignored and redrawn during an attempt.
“if you have to do something with the pool and the pool is empty - even if temporarily - you replenish the pool, rather than truncating the action.”
— cybernex, designer
No — cards and abilities that block or modify Hunt draws (The Western Way, Nenya and the like) don't apply to corruption attempts. Kings tiles otherwise count as normal numbered tiles, for instance for Gollum.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
One per action. When a Nation is activated or advances while an appropriate Companion stands with its non-Awakened, non-Corrupted Sovereign, discard one random tile — and if one action both activates and advances the Nation, or moves it several steps (Book of Mazarbul), still only one. That sentence was added to the rules in 2024, replacing a 2023 answer that allowed one per step. Shadow actions that activate or advance the Nation count too; once it's At War, nothing more triggers.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
A Companion outside the Fellowship showing that Nation's icon or the Free Peoples icon, in the Sovereign's region (a Companion besieged in the Stronghold there counts). The Fellowship itself doesn't help, nor do Companions without an icon such as most alternate Lords of Middle-earth Companions (Legolas aside). If they're together only because one retreated into the other's region, nothing is removed.
As Free Peoples Leaders of their Nation in every way: they add 1 Leadership, move only with an Army of their Nation, are eliminated if left alone or if their Army is destroyed, and can be killed by Black Breath. Their Level means nothing yet. If a non-Awakened Sovereign is eliminated, his Corruption tiles go back to the Hunt Pool.
One experienced player answered this; there is no official ruling.
An Awakened Sovereign can't be corrupted and is a full Companion for every rule and card — he moves alone, with other Companions, and in or out of Armies. To Awaken he must be within his Awakened Level of the indicated region (that move is part of Awakening), unless a card such as Aid in Time of Need awakens him where he stands. A Ruler die result of any face can awaken one even under Threats and Promises.
Spending the Ruler die (any result, Will of the West included) or that Sovereign's Ruler token is the action that activates it; once active it lasts until he leaves the game. A Ruler token only activates its own Sovereign, and the Free Peoples can't use a Ruler token and an Elven Ring in the same game turn.
The designer answered this directly on BGG in 2023.
Rolling it means discarding one other Action die (never a Special die from Lords of Middle-earth — those are a separate pool), and the designer recommends the Shadow choose first for all such choices when combining expansions. The Shadow Ruler die must be rolled, never allocated to the Hunt, and Eyes go to the Hunt Box only after the Shadow decides how to use its Kings die. Vilya can keep a used Ruler die unless it was a Will of the West.
The highest-numbered tile is discarded and the rest go back into the Hunt Pool. Kings tiles aren't added back when the Fellowship enters Mordor, and they stay face up, so cards that remove a random hidden tile can't take them.
Helm's Deep counts as an Isengard Stronghold only while the Shadow controls it; it remains a Rohan region for cards, reverts if the Free Peoples retake it or Théoden is eliminated, and still can't be mustered into while besieged. The overlay tiles are used only with this content.
Yes — both draws happen, in the order the Free Peoples choose.
No — forfeited Leadership (Lord of Bats) or the self-inflicted hit (Red Wrath) is the cost and stays paid even if Daring Defiance or Shadows in the North cancels the effect. Using a Chieftain's combat ability means revealing a Combat card whose bold play condition is met.
After the Action Roll phase — so after the Free Peoples have discarded their die for the Ruler die — and with no limit per turn. The Shadow may use them and an Elven Ring in the same turn.
No — Event cards override the rules when they say so, but not other Event cards, so while Your Welcome is Doubtful is in play cards like Ever at Your Service can't remove Corruption. Cards offering a choice between mustering and removing a tile still draw a card either way.
No — cards only override what they mention, so the Elite comes from reinforcements under the normal rules. Abilities such as Brand's Call to Arms must be carried out as fully as possible.
Add the cards of every expansion in use — shared numbers aren't replacements; only the base cards listed in the Kings replacement reference come out, and the promo cards are added too. With Fate of Erebor, Dáin and Brand aren't used and the Fate of Erebor cards aren't replaced. The rulebook ends with notes on combining it with Warriors of Middle-earth.
It doesn't move the Fellowship figure on the map. With a Character result on the Ruler die you may move the Fellowship along the Fellowship Track with one fewer Hunt die rolled, and that Ruler die then goes into the Hunt Box. When a Ruler die Character result separates or moves Companions, every Companion and group gets one extra region.
The Corruptor token is used only in 3–4 player games. Ever at Your Service has no player icon, so either Free Peoples player may play it, but a player can only recruit units of Nations he controls with it.
Players disagree on this and there is no official ruling; the answer gives the better-supported reading.
Each Siege Tower adds one re-roll in the normal Leader re-roll step, as if it were a Leader, even in an Army with no Leadership — all rolled together and no die twice. They aren't Leaders and add no Leadership, so effects on Leaders or Leadership ignore them, while effects on the Leader re-roll itself (Foul Stench, Black Breath) include them. Gandalf the White removes only the Nazgûl's share.
At the end of each siege battle started with an Action die, add one Despair token per Catapult in the region, to a maximum of five; they build up over repeated battles. A Ruler die from Kings of Middle-earth can be used for a catapult attack like a normal Action die.
The die does both: Confusion counts the natural 1 as a hit on the Shadow after the Combat roll, and the Despair token, applied after the re-roll, then makes it a hit on the Free Peoples too.
The Free Peoples take it back at the start of each qualifying siege battle or sortie. Characters on it don't count toward the Army's Leadership — so Battle Is Vain (initiative 1, Free Peoples choose whom) can stop Companions being placed but can't reach those already there — and can't use their special abilities, Théoden's included. It counts as a Combat card for Character effects, so Galadriel is Level 3 for its Sacrifice result.
Several experienced players agree; there is no official ruling.
No — all Shadow Armies share one pool of siege engines, which the Free Peoples never use, so they need no Nation rings. The Fellowship/Palantír tokens aren't used when you also play Lords or Kings of Middle-earth.
Adding works like recruiting — the Leader comes from reinforcements — and can be done even into a besieged Army. The Éowyn promo card's attack can be used to make a sortie.