Kris's Tutorial Game

[zarathustra]

Thanks to KVB for this great tutorial! (Note that this project is still partially in the works: it could be a couple turns longer, and it may have some typos.)

Tutorial Game for the Middle Earth Collectible Card Game


Both players involved used Challenge Decks (Kris using the Stewards of Gondor deck, Mark the Return of the King deck).

Anatomy of a card.

Before starting a game, let's take a look at all the different types of cards. A first distinction that can be made is
that there are a lot of cards with the Lidless Eye on the back, while some have the map of Middle Earth on them. Those last ones are sites,
which I'll describe later. The first ones are subdivided in 3 groups :
- characters (usually either lightblue for heroes or darkish purple for minions, with some distinction for the main characters : the wizards
(coloured as denoted in Tolkien's books), Ringwraiths (red) and the Balrog (red)
- resources (rusty brown for heroes, dark blue for minions) and
- hazards (black).

Tapping

An important game term that can be useful to explain in advance is tapping. Tapping a card is done by turning it 90° sideways, and denotes
that a card has been used. In case it is an item, this might mean the palantir has been gazed into and its power has been depleted for the
turn being, in case of a character it means the character has exerted himself already this turn (perhaps fighting, perhaps gazing in a
palantir) and cannot perform certain actions while performing other actions at a penalty.

Dice

Middle-Earth uses dice to add another segment of luck & danger to the randomized cards in the decks. Whenever this tutorial mentions to make
a roll it refers to rolling 2D6, two six-sided dies, and adding the pips on both dice together. This means that however dire the fate of
Thorin facing Smaug is, there is still a chance of heroism and survival (rolling a 12) for our brave dwarf.

Let's now go to the game itself.

Character Draft

The first part of the game is the character draft, where you decide on your starting company of characters using the characters you selected
in your pool. The character pool is the first deck section we'll describe here, using those of the challenge decks. The character pool of the
Stewards of Gondor deck contains 10 characters : Adrazar, Anborn, Fatty Bolger, Glorfindel II, Sam Gamgee, Theoden, Peath, Ioreth, Haldir and
Balin, as well as 2 minor items, the Horn of Anor and Cram. Generally, a character pool may contain 10 characters and 2 non-unique, non-hoard
minor items (2 classifications of cards that are described in their text box). Now, when the draft starts, both players select a character
from their pool (in this case Kris selected Fatty Bolger while Mark chose Aragorn II) and place them face-down in front of them.

Before going any further into the character draft, let us take a closer look at these characters. Aragorn has a 3 in the upper left corner,
which indicates his Marshalling Point value, i.e. how valuable he is in the war against Sauron. Below his name is an artist's rendition
of Aragorn. To the left of this drawing is a white head and a black hand. The White head (and the numeral within) indicate this character's
MIND, i.e. how "stubborn" he is (it is harder to control somebody like Aragorn than to control somebody like Bombur, after all), whereas the
numeral inside the black hand is this character's (DIRECT) INFLUENCE, which means how much control he can exert on people he meets. Aragorn
has a mind of 9, which is one of the highest in the game, and a direct influence of 3, also a fairly high value. Below the character's art
is the character's race and skill(s). If we read Aragorn's card, we can see he is a Warrior/Scout/Ranger Dunadan - certain actions which are
limited to Warriors, or Scouts, or Rangers are available to him, while actions reserved for Sages or Diplomats (the two leftover skills) are
out of his reach. Aragorn is a Dunadan, one of the many races of characters in Middle-Earth, a fact referred to on a few cards (as we shall
see further in the Tutorial). What else is there on a character card?
Beneath the character's skill and race is its text box, which contains special abilities of the character, a quote from one of Tolkien's
books and the character's home site. In this case, Aragorn's game text states that he is Unique (Unique cards can be placed only once
in a deck, and can only be in play on one side - if the other side draws their Aragorn while yours is in play, they cannot also play him)
and that he has +2 direct influence against the Rangers of the North faction (if Aragorn would ever need to exert his direct influence against
the Rangers of the North faction, his direct influence would be 5 rather than 3, barring other modifiers). Aragorn is also a very
important and irreplaceable character in Middle-Earth (being the last heir to the Throne of Gondor), which is indicated by the -3 Marshalling
Points if eliminated : if a player has failed to keep his Aragorn alive, he is penalized by a 3 Marshalling Point penalty. Aragorn's home
(as far as he has any, being the wanderer that he is) is shown to be Bree.
A last statistic that is important for the game is the character's prowess/body, i.e. how proficient he is at fighting the creatures of
Middle Earth, and how resilient he is when he is wounded by those same creatures. Aragorn's P/B is 6/9, commendable statistics.

If we take this same look at Fatty Bolger, we will see he is worth only 1 Marshalling point, not surprisingly for just a fat hobbit happy
to stay in his hobbithole while Sauron's forces threaten the free people. He has a mind of 3 and a direct influence of 0 - he is quite
gullible and easy to command, but will not be able to muster anybody to his service unless he succeeds in delivering an astonishing speech
(i.e. rolling really good with the dice). If we read on, we see that Fatty is a Scout Hobbit. His special text (Unique. Unless he is one of
the starting characters, he may only be brought into play at his home site. All of his corruption checks are modified by +1. He can tap to
cancel a strike against another Hobbit in his company) shows he is unique, gives us already one of the uses for the Home Site attribute,
shows that Fatty, as a hobbit, is slightly more resilient to the siren's call of corruption than the common Middle-Earther, and gives Fatty
an ability to rescue endangered hobbits by tapping. Fatty's home site is Bag End, and his prowess/body is 1/8 - not surprising for a
halfling.

Once both players have selected a character, they turn them over, and put them in play if they are different or non-unique. If a player
reveals a unique character already in play or just being revealed, the character is placed aside.

We have already talked about Direct Influence, which is how much control your characters can exert over other characters or factions in the
game, but not yet about YOUR influence, also known as General Influence. Each player has 20 points of general influence, to be used to
control characters. Mark just revealed Aragorn, so he subtracts Aragorn's MIND (9) from his general influence to find his REMAINING general
influence. During the character draft, all characters are placed under general influence (so a player must stop drafting once he has 20 points
of mind worth of characters in play already (or 5 characters, the maximum for a starting company), or has no playable characters remaining
in his pool), but during the game, characters can come under the direct influence of other characters (for example, Aragorn could control a
character with 3 mind, or 3 characters with 1 mind each).

In this tutorial game, Kris continued to draft Sam Gamgee (MIND = 4), Glorfindel II (MIND = , Adrazar (MIND = 3) and Anborn (MIND = 2),
for a total of 3 + 4 + 8 + 3 + 2 = 20. Mark drafted Arwen (MIND = 3) , Faramir (MIND = 5) and Annalena (MIND = 3) in addition to Aragorn,
for a total general influence used of 20.

To give a starting company at least a tiny bit of starting equipment, each player may play 2 minor items on characters in their starting
company (with the condition that they are non-unique and non-hoard, but that distinction is easy to make on the item's text box and not
really relevant in this tutorial game anyway). In this case, Kris played a Cram on Glorfindel and a Horn of Anor on Adrazar, while
Mark gave a Star-Glass to Arwen and an Elf-stone on Faramir.

Items are a new card type, so let's take a quick look at them. Being resources, they are the rusty-brown colour for hero players, and have
their marshalling points at the same spot as characters do (and in fact every card worth Marshalling Points) - the upper left corner.
Minor items, however, are worth no marshalling points (being mere trinkets, to be honest), so none of these 4 items have MPs (the other
types of items are Major, Greater, Gold Ring and Special - we'll see every type of item as we continue this tutorial game). Where a
character's race and skill(s) would be, an item has its type. Items that change a character's statistics (P/B, Mind, Direct Influence)
usually have their effects both in the game text box as on the spot where the character's corresponding statistic would be (for example, the
Horn of Anor has a +2 in the Direct Influence symbol (the black hand), where a character would have its Direct Influence printed. However,
it is printed between brackets - and the reason why is in the text box of Horn of Anor : Horn of Anor only gives its +2 Direct Influence
bonus when used to influence factions, and can as such NOT be used to control characters. The Elfstone also has a [+2 DI] symbol, but as
this extra direct influence works against both elf characters and factions, it can be used to control characters (as long as they are Elf
characters). So, with Faramir (DI : 1) bears this Elfstone (+2 DI vs Elves) he can control Annalena (a 3 MIND Elf character).
The last thing written on the card is its Corruption statistic. Items in Middle-Earth tend to weigh heavily on the mind of their bearer,
the more as the importance and value of the item increases. Most minor items carry a low corruption of 1 point (as these 4 do), whereas
a heavily corrupting item like the One Ring carries a curse of 6 points!

With the character drafting over (in this case, nobody could reveal a character at the time another player revealed the same character, as
the character pools of the Challenge Decks are discrete), players decide for each leftover character (never considered to be played, or
"bounced" in the character draft when revealed simultaneously with the opponent's copy of the character) whether to remove it from the
game or to place it in his deck (but a play deck may contain at most 10 characters).

Kris' starting company is Glorfindel with Cram, Anborn, Adrazar with Horn of Anor, Sam Gamgee and Fatty Bolger.
Mark's starting company is Aragorn II, Arwen with Star-Glass, Faramir with Elf-stone and Annalena.

Kris rolls 2D6 and gets 11, Mark only tolls a 5, so Kris will start the game. Both players draw 8 cards (Kris draws Ioreth, a Hauberk of
Bright Mail, Men of Lebennin, Stealth, Marvels Told, Orc-Lieutenant, Orc-Watch and Doors of Night while Mark draws Gandalf, Beautiful
Gold Ring, Sword of Gondolin, Dark Quarrels, Ambusher, Cave-drake, Lure of Expedience and Twilight)

We see a whole lot of new card types here, so we'll pause the game once more to do some more anatomy on them. Ioreth is a character and we
know about those, so we'll just skip here and go to the second new card : a Hauberk of Bright Mail. Another item, but this one is a major
item - the greatest difference between items based on their classification is where they can be played. Minor Items can usually be found
lying around almost everywhere, whereas Greater Items tend to lie only in very dangerous places. The hauberk is of midling importance
apparently, as it is a mere major item. It is worth 2 MPs as can be deducted from the left upper corner, and gives a +2 body bonus to its
bearer. This bonus is repeated in its text, but it carries a condition : the bonus is only given to a Warrior character, and cannot raise a
warrior's body higher than 9. The golden rule here is : everybody can pick up and carry an item, but only a Warrior gets to use it.
Finally, there seem to be plenty hauberks in Middle-Earth (as it does not carry the unique keyword), and they are not very valuable - the
item gives a mere 1 CP.

Men of Lebennin is another resource card, and this one is a Man Faction. Faction cards represent the goodwill of a major group of people in
Middle-Earth - while they hardly ever take a direct role in the game, they supply sometimes high amounts of points found in the centres
of civilization rather than the uncharted wildernesses where wolfs tend to howl, and orcs prowl. The Men of Lebennin give 2 Marshalling
Points when convinced to join you, and how to convince them is explained in their textbox : The character trying to influence them needs
to be at Pelargir, and needs to roll greater than 7 (although he gets a bonus to his roll of 1 if he is a Dunedan). As the Men of Lebennin
are a Man Faction, characters with a Direct Influence bonus against Man Factions will also gain a bonus to their roll, but more about that
when we'll play a Faction during the Tutorial Game.

Stealth is a representative card of the second type of resources - events. Events usually don't give any Marshalling points (as opposed to
Items, Factions and the last type of MP resources : Allies), but generally make it easier for your brave companions to travel the lands of
Middle Earth without dying. This particular one is a Short Event (which means it is immediately discarded after being played) and explains
what it does in its text box : "Scout only. Tap a scout to play at the end of the organization phase only if the scout's company size is
less than three. No creature hazards may be played on his company this turn." Now, what is a company size? As the name says, it is the
number of characters in a company - for example, Mark's starting company has a company size of 4. There is one small exception : Hobbits,
being the small and stealthy folks they are only contribute 1/2 to their company's size, rounded up. This makes the company size of Kris'
starting company also 4 : Glorfindel, Anborn and Adrazar each count for 1, and Fatty and Sam each for 1/2. If one of the hobbits would die
or otherwise leave the company, its size would stay 4. So, using Stealth would require a scout to tap whose company consists of at most 2
characters (or 1 character and 2 hobbits, or 4 hobbits) - and if he does so, no hazard creatures can attack his company for the rest of the
turn - a powerful card, but with severe limitations.

The last resource Kris drew is a Marvel's Told, another short-event. This one requires a Sage to tap, and discards one hazard event from play.
However, when it does so, it forces the sage that tapped to make a corruption check at -2. Making a corruption check for a character means
making a roll and comparing that to the corruption point total of the character. If the roll equals (or is 1 lower than) the character's
total amount of CPs, he is discarded, and if it is even lower than that, the character is eliminated (the difference between discarding a
character and eliminating it is that a discarded unique character can still be played (by the player who owns him if he can return the
character to his hand, or by his opponent if he draws a copy. An eliminated unique character is dead or corrupted so much that the cause of
the Free People means nothing to him, and cannot be played again). A corruption check roll higher than a character's CP total has no effect.
Marvel's Told, however, forces a Corruption Check at -2, which means the roll is reduced by 2 ... a roll of 2 would now already discard a
character without any CPs. If Glorfindel (who is currently bearing a Cram worth 1 CP) would roll a 2 or a 3 after tapping to play the Marvels
Told and discarding the targeted hazard event, he would be discarded).

In addition to these resources, Kris also drew some hazards. Hazards are cards that simulate the evil creatures and cruel environments
created or mustered by Sauron or his master, Morgoth, and are played during the game to harrass your opponent's characters. There are
basically 2 types of Hazards : Creatures (such as the Orc-Lieutenant and the Orc-Watch) and Events (such as the Doors of Night). As Hazards
are played during another player's turn, there is no need to look at Kris's Hazards so far.

[zarathustra]

(Continued...)

Turn 1:


Anatomy of a Turn

Let's quickly say what a turn is like before we go through an entire turn. A turn has 6 phases :
- Untap Phase
- Organization Phase
- Long-Event Phase
- Movement/Hazard Phase
- Site Phase
- End of Turn Phase

The untap phase untaps all the tapped cards of the player whose turn just started.
The organization phase is for two purposes :
- Reorganizing your companies and playing new characters
- Deciding where each of your companies will move this turn (usually defined by what cards you have in hand and where your companies
are right now)
The Long events phase is more or less a clear-up phase for Long-Events
Movement/Hazard phase is divided in little Movement/Hazard steps, one for each of your companies. In this phase, your companies move from
their current site to their new site chosen during the organization phase (if any, squatting companies just stay at their current site),
and your opponent may play hazard creatures in an attempt to wound or kill characters in your companies, or hazard events to demoralize or
corrupt your heroes.
Site Phase is the moment your daring heroes enter the Free Peoples city or Dragon-Lair they moved to, to rally the people of that city to
their side or to search the Dragon's Lair for his fabulous hoard.
In the End of turn phase, there is a bit of clean-up before your turn ends and the next player's turn begins.

Untap Phase :
During this phase, the active player (i.e. the player whose turn it is) may untap all his tapped cards (and heal
wounded characters who are lucky enough to be at a Haven, those few places in Middle-Earth that are sanctuaries and as such mostly safe).
In this case, Kris has no cards to untap, so the untap phase quickly becomes the organization phase.

Organization Phase :
The organization phase is used for 2 big purposes : changing company compositions (by splitting up companies, playing new characters, or
moving characters from general influence to direct influence etc) and deciding where companies will move during this turn.

Changing company compositions
Kris has Ioreth in his hand, a character he really wants to play (because he also has a Marvels Told in his hand, a Sage-only card that
would be ideal to be used by Ioreth, as she isn't very good for anything else), but right now, he is using all his General Influence.
However, Glorfindel has 2 Direct Influence, and Anborn has only a Mind of 2, so Kris moves Anborn under Glorfindel's Direct Influence
(by placing the Anborn character card underneath Glorfindel's card, or another method of indicating this). Kris can't change his
company compositions in any other way (as all his other characters have too little DI and too much Mind), so he plays Ioreth. When playing
a character, you must choose a site to place it at - and you have the choice of any Haven or the character's home site. In this case, as
Ioreth is a frail old lady, Kris wants to keep her safe and plays her at Rivendell.

Movement
To explain movement, first we have to look at what a Site looks like, of course. Let's take a look at Moria, for example.
At the top of the card, where a play card's Marshalling Point value would be, is the site type. Moria is a (s), a stronghold of evil.
The Row of Icons next to its artwork is the site's Site Path to its nearest haven, which can be read in its text box (for Moria, this would
be (W)(W), and its nearest Haven would be Lorien). Beneath the artwork, one can find the name of the Region in which the site is located
(Redhorn Gate for Moria). Everything else in the text-box or on the card can be safely ignored for now.

There are basically 2 types of movement in the Middle-Earth CCG : Starter Movement, and Region movement. When you examine a non-Haven site,
it always mentions a Nearest Haven, and always has a series of Region icons to the left of its artwork. If a company moves from the site's
nearest Haven to this site (or v.v.), these are the region types it would meet IF the company would use Starter Movement (for example, a
company moving from Lorien to Moria, a site with Lorien as Nearest Haven, using starter movement would go through (W)(W)). Starter
Movement is only possible between a site and its nearest haven, or between 2 havens (Haven cards have TWO Site Paths on them, namely the
ways to their closest other Havens. Using Starter Movement from Rivendell to Moria would require 2 turns, as the company would first have
to move from Rivendell to Lorien, and then from Lorien to Moria).
Region Movement is a bit trickier, and requires you to have a Map of Middle Earth, divided in Regions. When you look closely at Starter
Movement, it is easy to see it takes a lot of time : Half the time you are moving back to a Haven; moving from Bag End to the Old Forest
requires a side trip to Rivendell. Region Movement means leaving the well-travelled tracks of Starter Movement, and cutting your own way.
Examine the site where you started and find that site's region. Then, take the site you wish to move to and find its Region, too. Then,
using the map, try to find a sequence of adjacent Regions until you connect both sites' regions. IF this sequence is four regions or less
(including the starting and ending region), this site can be legally moved to from the original site, using the Region Types of all the
Regions in the sequence as Site Path.

Wew, that was tough. Let's look at our example : moving to Moria from Rivendell. Using Starter Movement, this would take two turns - let's
see if we can do it quicker with Region Movement. Close examination teaches us that Rivendell lies in Rhudaur, and Moria - we already know -
lies in Redhorn Gate. When we pick up a map, we can see that Rhudaur is adjacent to Angmar, Arthedain, Cardolan, High Pass and Hollin
(roughly N, W, SW, E, S). Angmar, Arthedain and Cardolan are all in the wrong direction, so let's try two routes : one along High Pass, one
along Hollin. Right now, we have as sequence for these two routes Rhudaur High Pass and Rhudaur Hollin. Let's first continue the Rhudaur
High Pass one. High Pass simply connects the Anduin Vales with Rhudaur, so there isn't much choice of a third region, leading us to Rhudaur
High Pass Anduin Vales. From Anduin Vales, the logical next region would be Wolf & Foothills, and then Redhorn Gate - Rhudaur / High Pass
/ Anduin Vales / Wold & Foothills / Redhorn Gate ... 5 regions, so movement along this route would not be allowed. Let's see if the Hollin
route is more promising (of course it is, it's the way they do it in the books). Hollin, if we take a good look at the map, is connected
with Rhudaur, Cardolan, Dunland, and surprise surprise Redhorn Gate - so we can end our route here already : Rhudaur / Hollin / Redhorn Gate.
Three regions, so allowed by the rules. Let's now look at the Site Path if you want to move from Rivendell cross-country to Moria.
Rhudaur is a (W), Hollin is a (W) and Redhorn Gate is a (W), so the Site Path for this movement would be (W)(W)(W).

Now that we know HOW to move to sites, let's see WHY we would want to do so? I have already mentioned Marshalling Points, but not exactly
what they are - here's the simple explanation : they are the way to win. Try to get as many cards with MPs as you can, representing your
actions to stop Sauron, and win the game. Okay, but how do you GET those MPs?
- Faction (and Ally) MP cards are easy - they say themselves where they want to be played. If we look back at the Men of Lebennin card, it
states it must be played at Pelargir - so to get this faction on your side, you'll have to move to this coastal town in Gondor.
- Items are a bit tougher. When you look at a selection of sites, you'll notice they all say what kind of item is playable there (well,
most of them do - the ones that don't make a very clear message through their silence). Take a close look at the text box of Moria and the
Glittering Caves for example. Moria says "Playable : Items (minor, major, greater, gold ring). The glittering caves say : "Playable :
Items (minor, major). So, the Hauberk of Bright Mail could be played at both sites, but the Beautiful Gold Ring in Mark's hand could
only be played at Moria.

Knowing all this , let's continue with the tutorial game, where Kris is considering his options.

Kris examines his hand to see what he can do this turn and sees he has 2 cards worth Marshalling Points : The Hauberk of Bright Mail and
the Men of Lebennin. The Hauberk being a major item, he could play it at the Glittering Caves, Isengard, Isle of the Ulond, Moria or Tolfalas
(all sites that have "items playable : Major), but the Men of Lebennin can only be played at Pelargir. He looks at the Map and sees that
Pelargir is too far to reach from from Rivendell, so he will have to move in stages. With the Men of Lebennin being a faction, he decides to
send Adrazar to influence them (as he has a special ability : +1 Direct Influence against all Factions). However, of the list of sites where
the Hauberk could be played, 4 are reachable from Rivendell : the Glittering Caves, Isengard or Isle of the Ulond (within 4 regions from
Rivendell) or Moria (3 regions away from Rivendell). BUT none of these sites lie within 4 regions from Pelargir - so nobody who goes to get
the Hauberk can influence the Men of Pelargir in Turn 2. With this in mind, Kris decides to SPLIT UP his company. Adrazar is needed in
Gondor, so he will be send to Lorien (a good staging point for actions in Eastern Middle Earth). Glorfindel is clearly the strongest member
of the starting company, and will be needed in the Wild, so he will be send to the Glittering Caves (the most obvious choice to get the
Hauberk, knowing what other cards are in the deck). Anborn has no choice but to tag along with Glorfindel, as he is controlled by Glorfindel's
fair voice (and Direct Influence). That leaves two weak hobbits to care for. Glorfindel's company already has a scout, so he has no real need
of that skill, and the 1 prowess that both hobbits have doesn't lend itself to much heroics, so they are send to Lorien with Adrazar. Ioreth
will stay behind at Rivendell.

Happy with these movement decisions, Kris takes the Lorien and Glittering Caves site cards from his site deck, and places Lorien face-down
on Adrazar's company, places the Glittering Caves site card face-down on Glorfindel's, and indicates that Ioreth won't move.

Kris now looks through his cards to see if he didn't forget anything, and sees the Stealth and the Marvels Told. Deciding he doesn't want
to meet any creatures with Glorfindel's company, he taps Anborn and plays the Stealth on his company. No creatures will be able to attack
Anborn's company (it is playable because Glorfindel and Anborn are split of from the rest of the starting company already, and have now a
company size of 2). The hobbits are moving to a Haven and as such would be able to heal even after they get wounded he reasons, while
Glorfindel moves to a Ruins & Lairs which is a lot less safe.
The Marvels Told looks to be interesting because Ioreth is a sage and as such will be available to keep dangerous Hazard permanent-events away.

Long-Event Phase :

This phase of the turn is only important if there are long-events in play or in a player's hand. There are none, so nothing happens in this
phase.

Movement/Hazard Phase :

Kris must now choose which company will move or stay first. As he has only 6 cards in hand out of the maximum of 8, he decides to first
stay at home with Ioreth - after each company's movement/hazard phase, every player draws or discards to 8, and Kris wants to have 8 cards
in his hand to have more options when his other companies move.

Now, as this is the Hazard Phase, we'll go ahead and take a closer look at the Hazards in Mark's hand, the only player who may play
hazards now, to make life difficult for Kris's companies.

Creatures
Hazard creatures are the denizens of the lands of Middle-Earth who decide to attack a company.

Marshalling Points : The elimination of one of these vile monstrosities makes the world a better place, and the amount of Marshalling Points
found in the upper left corner of a Hazard Creature is an indication of the amount of evil your characters just eliminated (both the
Ambusher and the Cave Drake in the hand of Mark give 1 MP when defeated).
Playability : All creatures have -where a character's Mind and Direct Influence would be - a list of little Region and Site Type icons.
These icons denote where this creature could be likely encountered. For example, the Ambusher in Mark's hand has (B) and (F) as
playability which means he could be played on a company moving through a (B) or a (F). The Cave Drake has (W)(W) and (r&l), which means he
can be played on a company moving through double Wilderness (a single Wilderness would NOT be enough) or a company moving TO a (r&l) site.
Prowess/Body : Hazard creatures have P/B similar to those a character has, although many of the weaker creatures have a body of "-" (which
more or less means 0).
Game Text : Here the number of strikes a Hazard creature has (which more or less translates to the number of attacker characters) is written,
and possible other abilities a creature might have - for example, the Ambusher has 2 strikes, with the special ability that the attacker
chooses which characters face those strikes (normally, that is the defender's option, but more on that later). The Cave-Drake's text mentions
the same abilities (being very similar to the Ambusher card except in playability) but also mentions again that he needs (W)(W) to attack,
not just (W).

Hazard Events
Hazard events are cards that detain roaming companies without literally attacking them - examples are roadblocks and corruption, or cards
that augment Creatures. In this case, Lure of Expedience is a corruption card which gives 2 corruption points and forces the character on
which it is played to make a corruption check every time a character in his company (including the character the Lure is played on) gains
an item. It also contains an inherent way to get rid of the card. Twilight is another Hazard event, but can also be played as a resource,
and can in fact be played at any time of any turn - what it does is removing an Environment card (which can be either a hazard or a resource).

Hazard limit
One final point about hazards : each company has a hazard limit, which is equal to the company's size (with a minimum Hazard Limit of 2).
This is the maximum number of hazards that can be played during a company's movement/hazard phase.

Ioreth's company
Ioreth does not move and is at a Haven (), which means that none of the creatures in Mark's hand can
attack her - so he just says he is done playing hazards (as he has nothing to play - the Lure of Expedience is best played on a character in
a company that will move sometime, and the Twilight has no targets). At the end of each company's movement/hazard step, both players draw
or discard up to 8, meaning in this case that Kris draws 2 cards, Treebeard and Choking Shadows, and Mark draws none).

Adrazar's company
Then, Kris decides Adrazar and his two hobbit companions will move, and reveals the Lorien site, stating the company is moving using
starter movement (). In the bottom left corner of Lorien there is a 2 in a white and a 2 upside-down in a black box,
which indicates both the moving and the hazard player may draw 2 cards. Kris draws Balin and Concealment, while Mark draws a Lesser Ring and
another Cave-Drake. Mark plays as first hazard creature his Ambusher keyed to , but Kris taps his Sam Gamgee to play
Concealment, cancelling the attack. Then, Mark plays a Cave-Drake as second hazard. When Kris states he cannot cancel it, Mark
may choose 2 characters, each of which is attacked by 1 of the strikes of the Cave-Drake (using the special ability of the Cave-Drake, which
says attacker chooses defending characters). He chooses for it to attack Adrazar and Fatty Bolger. Adrazar taps to face his strike
(indicating he is putting his full focus on the fight), and is 3 prowess versus the 10 prowess of the Cave Drake - luckily, characters attacked
by Hazard Creatures may make a roll and add it to their prowess! Kris rolls an 8 and "easily" defeats the Drake. Fatty then taps to
face his strike, and the 5 he rolls is by far not enough to defeat his strike. Fatty is turned another 90° to indicate he is wounded, and
Mark makes a body check, rolling a 7 where he needed a 9 to kill Fatty (when a character is wounded, the player who wounded him makes a
roll, if the result is higher than the character's body, he is eliminated). Fatty lives! Mark then prepares to play another hazard, but
Kris remarks that the hazard limit against his company was only 2, because hobbits only count for 1/2 for company size. Mark then states he
has nothing further to play, and they reconcile their hands, Kris discarding Balin, Mark being at 8 cards doing nothing.

Glorfindel's company
Then the final company composed of Glorfindel and Anborn (protected by the Stealth) must move. Kris reveals the Glittering Caves, and
indicates his company will use Region Movement (as the nearest haven to the Glittering Caves is Lorien, and he has to start from Rivendell).
He then states that his company will move through Rhudaur (in which Rivendell is located), Cardolan, Enedwaith and Gap of Isen (in which the
Glittering Caves are located), which makes his site path (W)(W)(W)(B)(r&l) - All the regions used are adjacent to the previous and the next
in the sequence, and there are 4 or less regions total, so this movement is legal. Both players draw the indicated 2 cards (Minions Stir and
An unexpected Outpost for Kris, a Cave-Worm and a Ent In Search of the Ent-Wives for Mark). Mark looks sadly at the the Cave Worm (which he
could key to the Gap of Isen) and the Cave Drake (which he could key to the () or ) and then angrily at the Stealth
which prevents him from playing any creatures. He has only one hazard in his hand he could play (given that there is no environment card in
play to target with his Twilight), the Lure of Expedience. He could play the hazard on either Glorfindel or Anborn, but decides to play a
bit more nasty, so he plans to put the Lure on-guard at the site.

What does playing a card on-guard mean?
A card played on-guard is placed face-down on the destination site of the moving company (or of course the original site for a company that
does not move) -which counts as 1 to the hazard limit, just as playing a normal hazard - and can be revealed depending on 2 triggers : the
company faces the site's automatic attack (more on this later) OR the company performs an action during the site phase which would tap the
site (most of the actions a company could perform at a site) and the card would do something right then. If the card is not revealed during
the site phase, it is returned to the player's hand.

In this case, placing the Lure on-guard means it can be revealed when an item would be played at the Glittering Caves (because the Lure of
Expedience states a character with the Lure must make a corruption check when an item is played in his company), and by placing it on-guard
it is a surprise for Kris rather than something that could be calculated - because the Lure has an inherent method to get rid of it
(as printed on the card), if Mark would simply play it on Glorfindel or Anborn, Kris might decide not to risk the corruption check and simply
not play an item this turn; by placing the Lure on-guard this is still a secret. Note that any card can be placed on-guard (even a resource,
a character or an unplayable hazard) - as a bluff.

Mark decides he has nothing more to play and says so, ending the movement/hazard phase of glorfindel's company. Both players draw/discard
to 8, meaning Kris must discard 2 cards (he currently has Hauberk of Bright Mail, the Men of Lebennin, Marvels Told, Treebeard,
Orc-Lieutenant, Orc-Watch, Doors of Night, Choking Shadows, An Unexpected Outpost and Minion's Stir in his hand, and decides to discard the
Orc-Watch and the choking Shadows) and Mark must discard 1 card (currently having Gandalf, Beautiful Gold Ring, Sword of Gondolin, Lesser
Ring, Dark quarrels, Cave-Drake, Twilight, Cave-Worm and Ent in Search of the Ent-Wives in his hand, and discards the Twilight).


Site Phase :

Glorfindel's company
Kris announces he will enter the Glittering Caves with Glorfindel and Anborn. Normally, at civilized places, they would simple walk
through the streets of whatever town they would be, but since they are in a cave, they get attacked by the site's automatic attack. This
attack is printed on the site (beneath the Playable : ). In the case of the Glittering Caves, this is Pukel-Man : 1 strike at 9 prowess.
If the card placed on-guard by Mark was a creature playable at the site (which he was not allowed to, given the Stealth) or a card that
would augment the automatic-attack, he could have revealed it now, and if it was a creature, the creature would attack after the automatic
attack, otherwise the augmenting card would gain an effect on the automatic attack. However, it is not such a card, so Kris just takes
the strike with Glorfindel, and decides not to tap Glorfindel - a dire action which gives Glorfindel a -3 penalty to his prowess.

Why would he do so? Simple. To play an item (or ally, or faction) at a site, the character that will control the item or ally or will
influence the faction needs to be untapped, and taps when he performs the action of playing the resource card. If Glorfindel wishes to play
an item at the Glittering Caves, he will need to stay untapped while facing the automatic attack's strike of 1@9.

Kris hopes for the best and rolls - a 9! The 5 prowess that Glorfindel kept after the -3 modification of his 8 base prowess + the 9 of
his roll is easily more than the 9 of the Pukel-Man, so his company may enter the site. He subsequently taps Glorfindel and plays the Hauberk
of Bright Mail, tapping the Glittering Caves in the progress. Mark now reveals his on-guard card, the Lure of Expediency, and targets
Glorfindel with it. Glorfindel now faces a Corruption Check of 4 (as he has a Cram which gives 1 CP, the Hauberk which gives another 1 CP,
and the 2 CP from the Lure). Luckily, the Lure of Expediency is a Hazard Permanent-Event, and Kris taps Ioreth and plays the Marvels
Told from his hand to remove the Lure, making a Corruption Check at -2 with Ioreth, rolling a 5 - Ioreth doesn't run away cackling madly to
herself, but stays at Rivendell telling stories to the Eldar. The Lure is removed and Glorfindel need not face his CC anymore.

End Phase :

The hazard player returns all his unplayed on-guard cards to his hand (which are none here) and then both players may discard one card from
their hand before returning their hand size to 8. Kris's current hand size is 6, so he draws 2 cards (Halfling Strength and Hobgoblins),
whereas Mark discards a card (the Ent In Search of the Ent-Wives) to get a hand size of 7 and then draws a card (Concealment).

End of Turn : Kris indicates he has finished his turn, and Mark's turn begins now.

Current state of the game :

Kris has the Men of Lebennin, Treebeard, Halfling Strength, Orc-Lieutenant, Doors of Night, An Unexpected Outpost, Hobgoblins and Minions'
Stir in hand, and three companies in play : Glorfindel II with Cram and Hauberk of Bright Mail controlling Anborn (both tapped) at a tapped
Glittering Caves, a tapped Adrazar with Horn of Anor, a tapped Sam Gamgee and a wounded Fatty Bolger at Lorien, and a tapped ioreth at
Rivendell.
Mark has Gandalf, Beautiful Gold Ring, Concealment, Sword of Gondolin, Lesser Ring, Dark Quarrels, Cave Drake, and a Cave-Worm in hand,
and one company in play at Rivendell : Aragorn II controlling Arwen with Star-Glass and Faramir with Elf-stone controlling Annalena.

[zarathustra]

(Continued...)

Turn 1, Mark:


Untap Phase :
Plyaer #2 has no cards to untap, so he has nothing to do this phase.

Organization Phase
Reorganizing Companies
Mark sees his wizard in his hand, and rejoices. Your wizard is a character similar to other characters in your deck, but with a few
differences. For one, he does not require any general influence to control (he is in fact a manifestation of you, the player). Secondly, he
carries an astounding amount of Direct Influence with him (a whopping 10!). Thirdly, because your wizard is a manifestation of the player,
he is very important for you - if he dies, not only do you lose a great character, but you also get a -5 MP penalty (somewhat similar to the
penalty you receive when Aragorn II is eliminated). A wizard's home site is also important - while normal characters can come in play at
any haven or their home site, a wizard can only be played at Rivendell or his home site. If we check Gandalf for his home site, we can see
it is "any haven", so we can choose to play him at Rivendell, Grey Havens, Lorien or Edhellond. Other wizards are more picky on where they'll
come in play.

Mark decides to play Gandalf at Rivendell to immediately use his 10 direct influence. He then places Aragorn II under Gandalf's control.
Then, he puts Annalena under control of Faramir, who has 3 direct influence versus Elf characters thanks to his Elf-stone.

Movement
Mark has 2 playable cards worth MPs in his hand (not counting the Lesser Ring, which is a special item that can only be played when a
Gold Ring item has been tested),so decides to split up his 5-men company - Gandalf, Aragorn and Arwen will go to the Gladden Fields to play
a ring, while Faramir and Annalena will go to Isengard to play the Sword of Gondolin.

Long-Event Phase
Kris has a long-event in his hand now (the Minions Stir), but it is a hazard which must be played during the movement/hazard phase, so
nothing happens during this phase.

Movement/Hazard Phase
Faramir and Annalena
Mark decides to move first with Faramir and Annalena, and reveals Isengard - he's using Region Movement and will traverse Rhudaur,
Cardolan, Enedwaith and Gap of Isen (the attentive reader will have noted that Isengard and the Glittering Caves are in the same region, so
the site path of Faramir and Annalena's company is the same as that of Glorfindel and Anborn last turn : (W)(W)(W)(B), and because Isengard
is also a (r&l), this site type is added to the site path for the full playability of hazard creatures). Both players draw 2 cards (Kris
draws a Sapling of the White Tree and Saruman while Mark draws Stealth and Pukel-Men). Kris has a conundrum now. Let's see what
hazards he is holding : Orc-Lieutenant and Hobgoblins, Doors of Night, An Unexpected Outpost and Minions Stir. The creatures are easily
understood, but let's take a look at the other cards. Doors of Night is a hazard permanent-event, which means it is not discarded like an
ordinary Short-Event, but will stay in play until otherwise removed (similarly to the Lure of Expedience last turn, except Doors of Night is
not played on a character but placed somewhere off the side). It is also an Environment - and even one of the big ones. Doors of Night and
Gates of morning (its resource counterpart) are often the basis of decks, as many resources rely on Gates of Morning to be in play, and
many hazards on Doors of Night. An Unexpected Outpost is one such - a short event which recycles cards from your discard or cycles in cards
from your sideboard (the sideboard -as the name says - is a side deck, from which cards can be fetched with certain cards like Unexpected
Outpost, or some activities as we will see later). The last hazard in Kris's hand is a Long Event - finally we'll see what that elusive
card-type does : A long-Event is somewhere in between a short-event which is discarded immediately after having its effect, and a permanent-
event which is, well, permanent. Resource Long-Events are played during your own Long-Event Phase, and are discarded during your next Long-
Event phase (in effect being in play for one of your turns and one of your opponent's turns), while Hazard long-events are played during your
opponent's movement-hazard phase (counting 1 against the hazard-limit, of course) and are discarded during your opponent's next long-event
phase (also, in effect, being in play for one of your turns and one of your opponent's turns). Minions Stir is a card which boosts Orc
hazard creatures, giving them +1 strike and +1 prowess, or +2 strikes and +2 prowess if Doors of Night is in play.

Kris could play both of his hazard creatures (the orc-lieutenant keyed to (W) or (r&l), the hobgoblins keyed to (W)(W)) - but he wants
to play his Minions Stir first to strengthen them, especially if Doors of Night is in play. But if he were to play Doors of Night and the
Minions Stir, he would fully deplete his hazard limit (because the hazard limit against Faramir and annalena is only 2). He decides to follow
the middle road : He plays Doors of Night, and when it has resolved, he plays the Unexpected Outpost in his hand . (in case you wonder why he
didn't play the Minions stir - maybe the second company will not move through the correct regions, and he will not be able to play his orc
creatures. With the Minions Stir being a Long Event, it would stop working before Mark's next movement Hazard Phase, and the Minions
Stir would be wasted). Kris first looks at his discard pile, but only likes the Choking Shadows enough to recycle it, so goes to his
sideboard and selects a Twilight, to defend his Doors of Night from his opponent's Twilights. He then shuffles both the Choking Shadows and
the Twilight in his deck.

Kris has used up all his hazard limit, and is at 8 cards, so draws no new cards. Mark has 9 cards in his hands, so discards the Pukel-Men.

Gandalf, Aragorn and Arwen
Mark reveals the Gladden Fields, and says he uses Region Movement going from Rhudaur over High Pass to the Anduin Vales ((W)(W)(B)(r&l)).
Both players draw a card (Peath for Kris, Thorough Search for Mark). As first hazard, Kris plays his Minions Stir, which means
every Orc creature will now receive +2 strikes and +2 prowess. Then, he must make a choice between which hazard creature he wants to play
first - and because the Orc-Lieutenant gets a prowess bonus if played after another Orc Hazard, this is an easy choice.

Kris plays Hobgoblins, and keys them to (W)(W), his only option. Mark responds with playing Dark Quarrels, a short-event that
cancels an attack by Orcs, Trolls or Men. The Hobgoblins are orcs and are cancelled. Kris has 1 hazard limit remaining (Gandalf's
company size and thus hazard limit was 3, and Kris already played Minions Stir and Hobgoblins), so he plays Orc-Lieutenant. Normally a
mere 1 strike with 7 prowess Orc, now he is 3 strikes with 13 (+2 prowess and +2 strikes from the Minions Stir, and +4 prowess because the
company faced an Orc attack already this turn - granted, the attack was cancelled, but the company is still considered to have faced them).
Arwen taps and plays Concealment - tap a scout to cancel an attack. The Orc-Lieutenant can't find the company, and is discarded. Hazard
Limit is reached, and Kris draws two card (Stealth and Hobgoblins) and Mark draws 1 card (Glamdring).

Site Phase
Faramir's company
Mark decides to enter Isengard first. The automatic attack is wolves - 3 strikes @7 prowess. Because there is one strike more than there
are characters in the company, the one leftover strike becomes a -1 prowess penalty for one of the characters for the duration of this
attack - and the hazard player decides which character gets this penalty (if there had been 2 additional strikes, the hazard player could
have chosen each character to get one of the penalties, or could have given 1 character both penalties). Kris decides to give the
penalty to Annalena. Faramir will face his strike first and decides not to tap - he is 2 prowess vs 7. Mark makes a roll for Faramir
and rolls a 6, quite enough. He then makes a roll for Annalena, who does tap and is 2 prowess vs 7 (her unmodified 3 prowess, with a -1
penalty from the excess strike) - he rolls a 4, and Annalena is turned upside-down to indicate she has been wounded. Kris makes a body
check for Annalena, but rolls only a 7 - Annalena lives.

The company has faced the automatic attack, so they can enter the site. Faramir is untapped, so he taps and plays Glamdring (Mark could
also have player the sword of Gondolin, but decides to play Glamdring because it gives 1 fewer corruption point and also is Unique, which
means that if Kris would also use Glamdring in his deck and play it before Mark does, Mark would be unable to play his copy.

Gandalf's company
This company also enters the site, and faces the ghost of one of Isildur's brave soldiers who fell at the Gladden Fields : Undead - 1 strike
at 8 prowess. Aragorn taps to face the strike, and his 6 prowess + 2D6 versus the 8 prowess of the automatic-attack means he defeats it
automatically (the worst that can happen is that he would roll a 2 and tie with the attack). Gandalf now taps and plays the Beautiful Gold
Ring, tapping the Gladden Fields.

End of Turn Phase

Mark has only 6 cards in hand, so he draws 2 cards (Twilight and Noble Steed), whereas Kris has 8 cards in hand. Mark notices
he can play the Twilight to remove the Doors of Night, so he does so - the Doors of Night card is discarded. Mark now has only 7 cards
in hand, but will not get to draw back to 8 cards until the end of the first movement/hazard phase of Mark's turn.

Current Situation

Kris has the Men of Lebennin, Treebeard, Halfling Strength, Saruman, Sapling of the White Tree, Peath, Stealth and Hobgoblins in hand, and
has 3 companies in play : Glorfindel II with Cram and Hauberk of Bright Mail controlling Anborn (both tapped) at a tapped Glittering Caves,
a tapped Adrazar with Horn of Anor, a tapped Sam Gamgee and a wounded Fatty Bolger at Lorien, and a tapped ioreth at Rivendell.

Mark has Sword of Gondolin, Lesser Ring, Stealth, Thorough search, Noble Steed and Cave Drake and a Cave-Worm in hand, and has 2
companies in play : a tapped Faramir with Elf-stone and Glamdring controlling a wounded annalena at a tapped Isengard, and Gandalf with a
beautiful gold ring controlling aragorn and with Arwen in his company controlled by general influence and bearing a star-glass (all tapped)
at a tapped Gladden Fields.



Turn2


Untap Phase
Kris untaps all his tapped characters (but not his sites! Sites do not untap!) and heals his wounded Fatty Bolger to tapped status. He
could use his Halfling Strength to heal Fatty to untapped status, but decides to keep that card in hand, in case Fatty or Sam get
wounded during their move to a non-Haven site now.

Organization Phase
Playing character
Kris has Saruman, and has two options to play him : Rivendell and Isengard (Rivendell, as every wizard can be played there, and Isengard
because that is his home site). Since he has another company very close to Isengard (and a card playable on Isengard in his hand), Kris
decides to reveal his wizard at Isengard.

Movement
This turn, Kris wants to play his Sapling of the White Tree and the Men of Lebennin (leaving Treebeard to be played by the Isengarder
company next turn). Once the Sapling of the White Tree is transported to Minas Tirith, a player can play the White Tree itself at - a card
that Kris discovers in his sideboard. But how to transport it to his main deck so he can draw it? Simply - here follow some rules for
easy interaction with the sideboard, for which no additional cards are necessary :

- Getting resources in your deck :
During the organization phase, a player may tap his wizard to take one resource card from his sideboard and shuffle it into his deck (as
long as his deck has 5 or more cards left in it). An alternative is tapping the wizard to take five resource cards from the sideboard and
place them on top of your discard pile.

- Getting Hazards in your deck :
During the Hazard phase, a player may tap and discard a Nazgul permanent-event (counting as 1 against the hazard limit) to take one hazard
from his hazard and shuffle it into his deck (as long as his deck has 5 or more cards left), or alternatively take 5 hazards and place them
on top of your discard pile.
A second way to get hazards from your sideboard in your deck (only useable if your opponent has his wizard in play): at the beginning of the
opponent's turn, you may announce you will halve all opponent's hazard limits for the remainder of the turn (rounded up) to take one hazard
from your sideboard and shuffle it in your deck.

Thus, Saruman taps and shuffles The White Tree in his deck.

Then, Kris decides he will keep Saruman at Isengard. He want to move Glorfindel and Anborn to Isengard too (because Saruman is already
tapped, and won't be able to play the Sapling), but he notices he has only one copy of each site in his site deck - only havens may have
multiple copies in your site deck. However, because Isengard is already in play, Kris may announce his company will move to a site on
table. Checking the distance, he sees the company can easily move from Glittering Caves to Isengard: they're both in the Gap of Isen!
Sam, Fatty and Adrazar need to go influence the Men of Lebennin, so Kris finds his copy of Pelargir in his site deck. To make sure his
characters will reach it safely (after checking whether he can even get there from Lorien) he taps Sam to play another Stealth.

Long-Event Phase
Clean-up
There's finally a long-event in play (Minions Stir), but as it was played during the previous player's turn, it will stay in play for
another turn.

Movement/Hazard Phase
Saruman
Saruman sits in his High Tower and doesn't move. Mark checks his hazards and sees Cave-Drake and Cave-Worm. Cave-Worm is only playable
keyed to regions, so he won't attack a sitting duck. The Cave-drake, on the other hand, attacks R&L. And poor Saruman's fortress is long
since ruined. Because Saruman is alone, the second strike of the Cave-drake becomes a -1 prowess penalty, so the current situation is
Saruman : 4 prowess (6 base - 1 for being tapped, - 1 for facing an attack with 2 strikes) vs. Cave-Drake : 10 prowess. Kris rolls and
gets a 7. 11 (4+7) beats 10 and the Cave-Drake's attack is defeated, because his one strike that was assigned was defeated. Kris places the
Cave-Drake in his Marshalling Point pile and gains 1 kill MP. Mark has no other hazards to play, so both players draw/discard to maximum
hand size : Kris draws 2 cards and gets "Tom" (Tuma) and And Forth He Hastened while Mark also draws 2 cards (he only played one hazard
during this phase but remember : he played a Twilight at the end of his previous turn, so he started this turn with only seven cards in
hand); he draws Marvel's Told and Ghosts.

Glorfindel and Anborn
Glorfindel and Anborn indicate they will move to the Isengard already in play and that they will do so moving through the Gap of Isen (BL).
Both players may draw 2 cards, and Kris draws the Rangers of Ithilien and a Little Snuffler whereas Mark gets his second Beautiful
Gold Ring and his second Cave Worm. Mark then gleefully plays one of his Cave Worms which indicates, amongst others, the region Gap of
Isen as one of its haunts. 1 strike with 16 prowess threathens Glorfindel and Anborn. After long deliberation, Kris decides to take the
strike with Glorfindel. He has more characters than the attack has strikes, so he taps his Anborn in support of Glorfindel. What does that
mean? Simply the opposite of what excess strikes do. Excess strikes give -1 prowess penalities, and characters tapping in support give
+1 prowess bonusses for characters involved in a strike- however, a character tapping to support may not be facing a strike of the attack
himself. Glorfindel taps for 9 prowess and rolls a 7, tying with the 16 prowess Cave Worm. For his second hazard, Mark decides to use
his second Cave Worm. All the company's characters are tapped, so Mark gets to choose which character will face the worm's one strike.
After some thought, Mark decides to attack Glorfindel with it. Glorfindel is 7 prowess (8 -1 for being tapped) and Kris rolls
an 8, failing his strike. He is tapped and Mark rolls a body check, rolling 8 which means Glorfindel lives to tell the tale of how a
Cave Worm backstabbed him while he was still cutting off the head of the first one. Two hazards played, hazard limit reached.

Both players refill their hands to 8 cards; Kris discards Peath and his Little Snuffler, Mark has 8 cards in hand.

Current hands : Kris has the Men of Lebennin, Treebeard, Halfling Strength, Sapling of the White Tree, Rangers of Ithilien, And Forth
He Hastened, Tom and Hobgoblins in hand, while Mark has Sword of Gondolin, Lesser Ring, Stealth, Thorough search, Noble Steed, Marvels
Told, Ghosts and Beautiful Gold Ring in hand.


Sam, Fatty & Adrazar
The hobbits reveal their new site and it is Pelargir in Lebennin, with a site path of [W] (Wold & Foothills), (Rohan), [F] (Anorien)
[F] (Lebennin). Both players draw 2 cards (Dark Quarrels and "Bert" (Burat) for Kris, Concealment and Nothing to Eat or Drink for
Mark). Mark has only one non-creature hazard in his hand right now, and it is not playable, so Kris plays his Halflings Strength
to untap Sam and then the players just go to discard to hand size (Kris discards Hobgoblins and Halfling Strength, Mark discards his Ghosts
and Nothing to Eat or Drink).


Site Phase
Sam & co
Sam & company enter first. Adrazar taps to influence the Men of Lebennin. As previously explained, to play a faction, you need to tap a
character and make an influence attempt, i.e. the roll with all modifiers must exceed the target number as stated on the faction card.
In this case, the target number is 7, and the faction provides an influence bonus of +1 if the influencer is a Dunedan - as is the case.
Adrazar may also add his direct influence to his roll, which is 4 here (1 base, +1 vs factions from his ability, +2 vs factions from the Horn he
carries around). Kris rolls a 5, which becomes a 10; easily higher than the 7 required. The site taps and the faction is placed in
Kris's marshalling point pile.

Saruman, Glorfindel and Anborn
Saruman and his two companions are all tapped (or worse, in Glorfindel's case) so usually there would be no reason to enter the site
(because almost all MP cards require you to tap a character). However, Kris has a And Forth He Hastened in his hand, a resource event
that can be played to untap a character in your wizard's company - he could use that to untap Anborn or Saruman (but not Glorfindel, as he
can't untap until he is healed again). First, though, they need to pass the site's automatic attack : Wolves, 3 strikes @7. Three strikes,
so each character in the company will face a strike. Saruman takes his first - he has 5 prowess and automatically ties his strike. Glorfindel
is 6 prowess (8 base - 2 penalty for being wounded) and automatically wins his strike. Anborn is 1 prowess (2 base - 1 for being tapped)
and Kris rolls a 3. Anborn is wounded and Mark rolls a 12 on the body check - First Blood! Anborn is removed from the game - while
defeated hazard creatures are worth kill MPs for the player who defeated them, killed characters are worth no kill MPs.

The automatic attack is passed and Kris plays his And Forth He Hastened now, untapping Saruman, who taps again to play the Sapling of
the White Tree, tapping Isengard.

End of Turn Phase
Neither player wants to discard a card, so both simply draw to 8 cards (Kris drawing Saruman, Alone and Unadvised and Dodge, Mark
drawing no cards)


Current Game situation :

Kris has Rangers of Ithilien, Saruman, Treebeard, Dark Quarrels, Dodge, Alone and Unadvised, Tom and Bert in hand, and has 2 companies
in play : a tapped Saruman with Sapling of the White Tree with a wounded Glorfindel bearing a Hauberk of Bright Mail at a tapped Isengard
and a tapped Adrazar with a Horn of Anor, an untapped Sam and a tapped Fatty Bolger at a tapped Pelargir.

Current MPs :
Character : 6
Item : 3
Factions : 2
Kills : 1
Total = 12

Mark has Sword of Gondolin, Lesser Ring, Beautiful Gold Ring, Marvels Told, Concealment, Stealth, Thorough search and Noble Steed in
hand, and has 2 companies in play : a tapped Faramir with Elf-stone and Glamdring controlling a wounded annalena at a tapped Isengard, and
Gandalf with a beautiful gold ring controlling aragorn and with Arwen in his company controlled by general influence and bearing a star-
glass (all tapped) at a tapped Gladden Fields.

Current MPs :
Character : 7
Item : 3
Total = 10

[zarathustra]

(continued)

Mark, turn 2


Untap Phase :

Mark untaps all his tapped cards (Faramir, Gandalf, Aragorn, Arwen)

Organisation Phase :

Gandalf taps to use his special game text (tap to test a ring) and so he rolls 2D6. Depending on this result & the ring tested, the result
of testing a ring might vary. The beautiful gold ring's text mentions : - The One Ring (12+); - a Dwarven Ring (10, 11, 12+); - a Magic Ring
(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7); - a Lesser Ring (any result). So, depending on your roll, you can replace the tested (and discarded) ring by a special
ring item from your hand; e.g. if you roll a twelve, you can replace the beautiful gold ring by The One Ring, a Dwarven Ring or a Lesser Ring.
Gandalf rolls a 6, and replaces the golden ring with the Lesser Ring from his hand.

The lesser Ring gives +2 Direct Influence, so Gandalf's 12 influence is now enough to control both Aragorn (9 mind) and Arwen (3 mind).

Faramir has a duty to bring Annalena to safety so she can heal, so they will move to Lorien. Gandalf & his two followers decide to go to the
Bandit Lair in the Brown Lands because they are in the vicinity anyway, and they could play another Gold Ring there.

Long Event Phase :

The Minion's Stir Kris played during Mark's last movement/hazard phase has been in play for both players' turns, and is discarded
now.

Movement/Hazard Phase :

Faramir and Annalena

Mark reveals Lorien and announces his company is moving using starter movement from Isengard to its nearest haven, through [W][W]. Both
players draw their alloted cards (Haldir and Many turns and Doublings for Kris, Return of the King and Rain-Drake for Mark).

There is a hazard limit of 2, and Kris first plays Tom (1@13, keyable to [W][W]). Faramir taps for 8 vs 13. The 7 he rolls is easily high
enough to kill the troll, so Mark puts the troll in his marshalling point pile. Then Kris plays Bert (1@12, keyable to [W]). Because all
characters in the company are tapped or worse, Kris chooses which character faces the strike and he chooses Annalena. Wounded characters
have -2 prowess and -1 body, so Annalena is 1 vs 12. Annalena rolls a 9 which is a nice effort but not good enough. Kris rolls an 8 on the
body check, which normally wouldn't have been bad, except that Annalena has -1 body because she *was* already wounded (this -1 body is not
cumulative; however many times your character is wounded, it still has only -1 body), and so her body was only 7. Annalena dies.

Hazard limit is hit, so both players draw up to hand size. Kris has 8 cards in hand so doesn't do anything, Mark discards his Thorough
Search.

Gandalf, Aragorn and Arwen

Mark reveals the Bandit Lair, and mentions he is moving from the Anduin Vales (B) to the Brown Lands (S). Kris may draw 2 cards (Orc-Warband
and Great Ship) while Mark draws 1 card (Ents in Search of the Ent-Wives).

Kris plays Alone and Unadvised on Arwen (who is bearing the Star-Glass). This corruption card gives 4 corruption points to a non-wizard
character in a company with less than 4 characters, but gives a +1 to each corruption check for every character in the company. So, in this
case, Arwen has 2 effective corruption points. The Alone and Unadvised also forces a character to make a corruption check at the end of its
movement/hazard phase for each region the character moved through. Mark has a marvel's told in his hand, but decides to keep that in case he
needs it for something worse.

Kris decides to play no further hazards. Arwen has to make two corruption checks and rolls a 5 on the first one and a 12 on the second one.

Kris discards his great ship to go down to 8. Mark discards his Sword of Gondolin.

Site Phase

Gandalf, Aragorn and Arwen enter the Bandit Lair, facing the automatic attack of men - 3 strikes with 6. Arwen taps and rolls a 5, so her
total of 7 beats the strike's prowess. Aragorn stays untapped, and rolls a 6. Adding his modified prowess of 3, this again handily defeats
the strike. Gandalf taps and rolls a 4. His 10 (4 + 6 prowess) whacks the man strike.

Aragorn taps to play a Beautiful Gold Ring.

End of Turn Phase

Mark draws a card, Searching Eye. Kris discards his Saruman and draws the Knights of Dol Amroth.

Current hands :

Kris has Rangers of Ithilien, Knights of Dol Amroth, Treebeard, Haldir, Dodge, Dark Quarrels, Many Turns and Doublings, Orc-Warband.
Mark has Marvels Told, Noble Steed, Concealment, Stealth, Return of the King, Rain-Drake, Searching Eye, Ents in Search of the Ent-Wives.

Kris, Turn 3


Untap Phase

All Kris' characters untap.

Organisation Phase

Saruman will go alone to Wellinghall (in order to play Treebeard). The Wounded Glorfindel will go alone to Lorien. Adrazar, Sam and Fatty
decided to take a trip to Dol Amroth to chat with the Knights.

Long-Event Phase

No long-events in play or in hand, so nothing happens.

Movement/Hazard Phase

Saruman

Kris reveals Wellinghall and announces he will move Saruman through the Gap of Isen (B) and Fangorn (W). Both players draw their 1 card
(Doors of Night for Kris, Power Built By Waiting for Mark).

Mark plays Ents In Search of the Ent-Wives. This creature can be keyed to double-Wilderness ([W][W]), Border-land () or Free-Domain ([F]),
and also to Shadow-Land ([S]) if Doors of Night is not in play. Saruman is moving through the Gap of Isen, so the attack is playable.

This attack is 1 strike with 14 prowess, but Saruman needs not despair yet - this attack is detainment against hero companies. What does
detainment mean? Instead of wounding a character after a failed strike, detainment attacks only tap a character - but defeating a detainment
attack also doesn't grant marshalling points or kill the creature.

Saruman decides to stay untapped against the Ent (because the worst that can happen is that he would get tapped anyway), and rolls an 8.
8 plus his modified prowess of 3 is only 11, so he taps while talking to the Ent.

Now Mark plays a second hazard - and in case you wonder why he can still play another hazard, whereas hazard limit was defined as "number of
characters in the company", the hazard limit is always minimum 2. Mark uses this second hazard slot to play his Power Built By Waiting.

Kris has 9 cards in hand and discards the Many Turns and Doublings, Mark draws a card and draws Bergil.

Glorfindel

Glorfindel moves to Lorien and uses starter movement to do this. Both players draw 2 cards because Isengard says so (remember, when
moving to a haven, you draw cards equal to the numbers on the site you came from, not equal to the Haven's cards drawn statistic). Kris draws
an Orc-Lieutenant and a Smoke Rings, Mark draws Tidings of Bold Spies and Forlong.

Mark has no hazards to play and discards his Tidings of Bold Spies and his Bergil, Kris plays his smoke rings to shuffle a Stealth from his
discard pile into his deck and then discards his Dodge.

Sam & Co

They move to Dol Amroth through [F][F], and Kris draws a concealment while Mark draws the Corsairs of Umbar.

Mark plays the Corsair of Umbar, which can be keyed to Belfalas. Kris has 2 ways to cancel this man hazard (Dark quarrels which can cancel a
man attack amongst others, and concealment which can cancel any kind of attack). Because he has an untapped scout, he chooses to play the
concealment and taps Fatty. Mark responds by playing Searching Eye, which cancels one card requiring Scout skill, such as Concealment. Kris
then plays Dark Quarrels, cancelling the Corsairs once more. Mark discards the Corsairs and has reached his hazard limit (as the Searching
Eye hzard short-event counts against the Hazard Limit).

Drawing back to hand-size, Kris draws the Orc-guard while Mark draws the Tower Guard of Minas Tirith.

Site Phase

Sam, Fatty and Adrazar enter Dol Amroth and Adrazar taps to influence the Knights of Dol Amroth. He rolls an 7, and adds his Direct Influence
(1 + 1 vs factions + 2 vs factions) and the bonus from the Faction (+1 if Dunedain). 12 is higher than 8, so Kris puts the Knights of Dol
Amroth in his marshalling point pile.

Saruman is tapped and Glorfindel is wounded, so they do nothing during their own site phases.

End Phase

Kris draws the Scroll of Isildur.

Current Situation

Kris has in play a Wounded Glorfindel with Hauberk of Bright Mail and a Sapling of the White Tree at Lorien, a tapped Saruman at Wellinghall
and a tapped Adrazar, tapped Fatty and untapped Sam at Dol Amroth. He also has the Knights of Dol Amroth and the Men of Lebennin in his
marshalling point pile in addition to the Cave-Worm Glorfindel killed.

Kris' hand : Treebeard, Rangers of Ithilien, Haldir, Scroll of Isildur, Orc-Warband, Doors of Night, Orc-Lieutenant, Orc-Guard

Mark has a wounded Faramir with Glamdring and Elf-stone at Lorien and Gandalf with a lesser Ring controlling Aragorn with a beautiful
gold ring and Arwen with the Starglass and Alone and Unadvised at the Brown Lands.

Mark's Hand : Marvels Told, Noble Steed, Concealment, Stealth, Return of the King, Rain-Drake, Tower-guard of Minas Tirith and Forlong.

[Theskyscreams]

Is there a good video reference for tutorial games?

Most on youtube are solo games with altered rules or very basic starter games without allies, regional movement, etc.

[the JabberwocK]

Is there a good video reference for tutorial games?

Most on youtube are solo games with altered rules or very basic starter games without allies, regional movement, etc.

Not that I am aware of, however this is a great idea and something I am interested in doing. I will add it to my list of things to do. Once completed, I will post it on YouTube and here in this new subforum. I created a new subforum called Learning Resources which I think can be a useful tool for both new players as well as older players looking for a refresh.

[Vastor Peredhil]

the best place for GCCG games is this channel:

zirilanihsanshade on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/user/zirilanihsanshade

yours Nicolai

[Theskyscreams]

Is there a good video reference for tutorial games?

Most on youtube are solo games with altered rules or very basic starter games without allies, regional movement, etc.

Not that I am aware of, however this is a great idea and something I am interested in doing. I will add it to my list of things to do. Once completed, I will post it on YouTube and here in this new subforum. I created a new subforum called Learning Resources which I think can be a useful tool for both new players as well as older players looking for a refresh.

I think a video like this would greatly help the community of interested players.

[the JabberwocK]

I think a video like this would greatly help the community of interested players.

Ok, thanks for your input! I will work on putting something together.

[Theskyscreams]

the best place for GCCG games is this channel:

zirilanihsanshade on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/user/zirilanihsanshade

yours Nicolai

I've seen those and as good as they are I can't understand them or read the text to full see them as a good visual guide for players.

[Theskyscreams]

Is there a good video reference for tutorial games?

Most on youtube are solo games with altered rules or very basic starter games without allies, regional movement, etc.

Not that I am aware of, however this is a great idea and something I am interested in doing. I will add it to my list of things to do. Once completed, I will post it on YouTube and here in this new subforum. I created a new subforum called Learning Resources which I think can be a useful tool for both new players as well as older players looking for a refresh.

I think a video like this would greatly help the community of interested players.

Checking in, did you ever make that video?

[the JabberwocK]

No, I'm sorry, I have not. This is still on my list to do. I will get to it. I've had quite a lot on my plate.

Thanks for following up. I will post in this thread once I've been able to complete this.

[Theskyscreams]

Hey just checking in a few months later. Any news on this?

[Theo]

I was thinking about this a couple days ago too. Let me know if I can help, my friend.

[CCG Collector]

I'm planning on making a video series on how to play this game, but the going is slow. I've already shot the first video, and despite being 20 minutes long, all it covers are the card types and what's required for a deck. I imagine a proper tutorial beyond that will be quite an effort, but it is in the works.