Additional Rules for The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth

Hey there, fellow adventurers! I’m here to give you the lowdown on some extra rules that will enhance your experience playing The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth. So grab your swords and let’s dive in!

Search Tokens and Clue Cards

When exploring the vast lands of Middle-earth, you’ll come across search tokens and clue cards. These can give you valuable information or aid you in your quests. Just like a detective gathering clues to solve a mystery, you must collect enough clue cards to gain insights and unlock the secrets of your journey. So keep your eyes peeled!

Hidden Information

Now, here’s where things get interesting. Sometimes, you’ll encounter hidden information during your adventures. This means that not everything is revealed to you right away. You may have to use your wits and make some educated guesses to figure out the full picture. Don’t worry, though, this will only make your victory taste even sweeter!

Choice and Consequence

Every decision you make as a hero has consequences. Choosing which path to take, who to trust, or how to handle a particular situation can greatly impact the outcome of your journey. So think carefully and weigh your options before making a choice. Remember, every action has a reaction, and it’s up to you to shape the destiny of Middle-earth!

Skills and Abilities

As you progress, you’ll gain new skills and abilities. These will come in handy when facing the challenges that lie ahead. Whether it’s a mighty warrior’s strength or a cunning rogue’s stealth, your unique skills will play a crucial role in overcoming obstacles and defeating powerful foes. So embrace your inner hero and let your abilities shine!

Cooperative Play

The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth is a cooperative game, which means you’re not alone in this epic adventure. You’ll be working together with your fellow players to achieve a common goal. Communication and teamwork are key to success. Coordinate your moves, share information, and support each other every step of the way. Remember, true heroes stand together!

So there you have it, my friends. These additional rules will add depth and excitement to your journey through Middle-earth. Remember to cherish every moment, and may the spirit of adventure guide you on your quest!

Hey there! I want to tell you about some extra rules you need to know in order to play the game.

Let’s Talk About Enemies

I’ve got some important details for you about enemy groups.

An enemy group can either be ready or exhausted. If an enemy group is exhausted, it means either the app activated them or they’ve already attacked. You’ll know an enemy is exhausted because their portrait in the app will be dark.

Now, here’s the deal with exhausted enemies – they can’t do much. They can’t activate or counterattack, and you can’t provoke them. The app will ready all enemy groups again at the end of the shadow phase.

Getting Under the Skin of Enemies

When I’m standing right next to an enemy group, certain actions I take can really get on their nerves and make them want to attack me. There are a few different situations when I can provoke an enemy:

So, let’s talk about what happens when a hero wants to make a move but there’s an enemy lurking around. This is where provoking enemies comes into play. But what does that mean, you might wonder? Well, it’s actually pretty simple.

First, there are a couple of situations where a hero can provoke an enemy:

• Before a hero moves out of a space that has a readied enemy
• Before a hero interacts with a token in a space that has a readied enemy

Okay, now that we know when to provoke an enemy, let’s see how it’s done. All you need to do is find the provoke button, which you can locate on the left side of the enemy portraits in the app. Once you’ve found it, select the portrait of the enemy you want to provoke.

When you provoke an enemy, they immediately take action, attacking the hero according to what the app tells them to do. It’s like a quick response from the enemy, so you better be ready!

After the enemy finishes their attack, the hero can choose to either move away from the enemy’s space or do an interact action, whichever suits their plan.

Here’s something interesting: when you provoke an enemy, their group doesn’t exhaust like it would during an enemy activation or counterattack. It’s like a temporary burst of energy for them!

Interrupting Enemy Activations

Have you ever come across abilities in a game that can interrupt an enemy’s turn? Well, I have, and one such ability is called “Child of the Lhun” skill card, which belongs to Elena. This skill allows Elena to apply hits or modifiers to an enemy, effectively stopping their activation momentarily. To use this ability, all I need to do is select the enemy’s portrait, input the hits or modifiers indicated by the skill card, and then I can continue with the enemy’s turn.

Now, let’s talk about placing enemies.

When it’s time to place an enemy group on the map, the app tells me where to put them and how many figures are in the group. Once the enemy group is placed, the app adds their portrait to the enemy bar at the bottom of the screen.

Here’s an important rule: For every enemy portrait shown in the app, there should be a corresponding enemy group with one or more figures on the game map. It’s essential to keep this balance to ensure a fair gameplay experience.

But wait, there’s more! Let’s talk about elite enemies.

When you come across elite enemy groups in the game, you’ll notice that they are a cut above the rest. These powerful foes have some distinct advantages that set them apart. You can easily identify an elite enemy group by their portrait, which is adorned with a spiked frame and a banner icon.

Once an elite enemy group is deployed on the map, you and your fellow heroes will need to take note. As a visual indicator, a token featuring the elite banner with a red background will be placed alongside the enemy figures, letting you know that you’re going up against a formidable force.

When you encounter an elite enemy group, you’ll notice that their bonuses are displayed in the enemy menu. You don’t need to worry about applying these bonuses manually because the app takes care of that for you. However, if you’re curious about the effects of these bonuses, you can select them in the enemy menu and see how they affect the game.

Furthermore, elite enemies have a special ability. Even when they’re exhausted, they can still counterattack. It’s like they never run out of energy!

Bonuses of an Elite Enemy Group

Duplicate Enemy Groups

There might be occasions when you encounter multiple enemy groups of the same type that are not elite. In such cases, each additional enemy group will be assigned an enemy banner. This banner will be displayed next to the enemy’s portrait in the app. It helps you distinguish between the different enemy groups so that you can strategize accordingly.

So, when we heroes want to bring in some reinforcement enemies, we simply place the duplicate enemy group right there on the board. But we don’t stop there – we also put this cool enemy banner token next to those figures. It’s like a little flag that says, “Hey, look, these guys are with us too!”

In the first group of Orcs, there isn’t an enemy banner. But in the second group of Orcs, they use the blue enemy banner.

Skills Cards that I’m Ready to Use

Remember when I talked about the rally phase? Well, during that phase, if I scout some cards, I get to choose one of them and prepare it. How? Easy! I just place it faceup below my hero card. But here’s the catch: I can’t have more than four prepared cards. If I try to prepare a fifth card, I have to say goodbye to one of the cards I already prepared.

Now, hero and item cards are great and all, but skill cards? They’re a game-changer. These cards give me special abilities that help me achieve my goals. But there’s a catch here too. I can only use these abilities while the skill card is prepared. So, if I reveal a skill card during a test, its abilities are ignored. Only prepared skill cards can lend a hand.

When you play a skill card, it will have text that tells you when and how to use its ability. To use the ability, you simply do what the card says. Many skill cards will tell you to discard the card from your prepared area after using the ability.

Here’s the Deal with Keywords

Some skill cards have bolded keywords, which are like shorthand for abilities that show up a lot on cards. If you see a keyword like “Sprint 1” on a card, you can find the rules for that keyword in the Quick Reference section at the back of the rulebook.

Traits: They’re Just Special Labels

Other skill cards (and item cards) might have italicized traits, like “Dwarf ” or “Tactic”. These traits don’t do anything on their own, but there may be other game effects that refer to cards with specific traits.

Things That Are Close to You

Did you know that some abilities and rules have to do with objects or areas that are close by? When we say something is close by, we mean that it’s in the same space or in spaces that are right next to each other. So, if you have something that’s close by, it includes that thing and all the things right next to it. But here’s something interesting – something is not considered close by if it’s just itself.

Let’s put it into practice

Now, there are some special abilities that are not attacks, but they do apply hits and modifiers to enemies. When you want to use these abilities, you need to go to the enemy’s menu and input the hits and modifiers. Then, you select the option that says “Apply”. But there’s a catch – if the app asks if you want to counterattack, you should always select “No”.

Special Skill Cards

Did you know that there are special skill cards called weakness and title cards? These special cards are actually part of the skill decks that heroes use.

Title Cards

Let me tell you about title cards. See, these cards represent the choices that heroes make during a campaign. They’re like a reminder of the hero’s important decisions. The cool thing about title cards is that they come with powerful abilities. However, heroes can only use these abilities once during an adventure. When a hero gets a title card, they search for the specified card in the unused title skill cards and immediately get it ready to use.

Weakness Cards

Now, let’s talk about weakness cards. Every hero starts the game with one weakness card in their skill deck. These cards don’t really do anything on their own. Their sole purpose is to make heroes’ skill decks messy and cluttered. Basically, they’re just there to take up space and don’t contribute any icons during tests.

When I go on an adventure and come across a weakness, I have to add it to my skill deck discard pile. But if I want, I can temporarily remove that weakness from my skill deck by preparing it, even though it doesn’t give me any special abilities.

Resetting My Skill Deck

There are a few times when I need to reset my skill card deck:

• During the rally phase
• When I run out of cards in my deck
• If an effect tells me to do so

To reset my deck, I shuffle the cards in my discard pile with any remaining cards in my deck, and then I put the newly shuffled deck face-down. The prepared cards are not shuffled in.

Boon Cards

When it comes to heroes, there’s something special about them – they can become hidden, emboldened, or determined. These unique abilities give them an edge in battles and challenges they face. So, if a hero is lucky enough to gain a boon, they get a boon card that matches its type and keep it in their play area. The card will explain the benefits of the boon.

Magic Items That Bring Good Luck

When I go on adventures, I sometimes come across special treasures called trinkets. Trinkets are items that have a unique symbol () at the bottom. If I find a trinket, I get to search through unused item cards until I find the specific trinket card, and then I put it next to my other items.

Once I have the trinket card, I need to place a certain number of depletion tokens on it. The number of tokens is shown in the lower-left corner of the card.

When you want to use up a trinket, like a hero, you need to take one of its depletion tokens and remove it from the card. When all the depletion tokens are gone, the trinket can’t be used anymore and is turned face down for the rest of the adventure.

At the start of every adventure, trinkets get a fresh set of depletion tokens.

And now, let’s talk about dual-wielding.

When you’re a hero, you can use more than one item to attack as long as all those items have the same stat being tested. This means that you can spend successes () to activate abilities on any of the items you’ve chosen to attack with.

I have an interesting tidbit to share with you! Did you know that when you’re playing as a hero and you want to attack an enemy group that’s right next to you, there’s something important you need to keep in mind? It turns out that all of the items you choose for your attack must have this special icon called “ranged ()”.

If you’re a hero armed with a “Sword” and a “War-Maker,” you have the ability to wield both weapons at the same time when you’re testing your might in battle.