Board Game The Lord of the Rings. The Card Game

The updated base edition has new maps that combine previously disparate plots into a single campaign, and also contains the necessary components for not two, but four players at once, who together will be able to test their strength in adventures from the world of J. R. R. Tolkien!

After fierce confrontations in «The War of the Ring» and its younger version «The War of the Ring. The Card Game», and in anticipation of new plots for the game «The Lord of the Rings - Journeys in Middle-earth» we turn the heroes` gaze to where the heroic saga only began. In this game with illustrations by a team of artists, you will turn to 17 little-studied years, during which the search for the truth about the discovery of Bilbo Baggins in the caves of the Misty Mountains continued. While Frodo waited for news from Gandalf in Hobbiton, the Shadow grew steadily over the Free Peoples of Middle-earth. Will you have enough will and courage to thwart Sauron`s sinister plan?

A living card cooperative in the world of The Lord of the Rings

As you can see in the description of the word «living card game», this primarily means that the series is constantly updated and supplemented with new heroes and adventures. This game is the beginning of an epic card-driven adventure, during which you will be able to develop your characters between large series of episodes by adding and changing the deck, discover new mechanics that will change the gameplay perception of Middle-earth, and visit many familiar and unfamiliar plots in Tolkien`s world.

Gameplay features of card adventures in Middle-earth

The game gives each player a deck of cards, based on three prominent heroes of Middle-earth. Each hero has his «suit» in the form of a rune at the bottom of the card. Each individual rune gives the player access to allies and items that can be added to their deck.

To successfully complete the scenario, the heroes will have to solve a series of scenes with various tasks: searching for items and allies, collecting resources, defeating enemies, visiting locations, etc.

One of the main features of the card game is the lack of additional randomizers (tokens, dice, or decks) for passing the tests. All the symbols necessary for the tests are depicted on the cards played by the participants. That is why the basic rules are more accessible, and the depth of the deck-building strategy and tactical tasks for playing cards are incredibly more diverse compared to the rest of the live card games.

The game will last several rounds. Each of them is divided into seven phases.

1. Resource Phase. This is the beginning of the round, during which each hero must place one resource, and each player draws another card into their hand, if they can still do so. If your deck is exhausted, no card drawing occurs.
   Before the end of the resource phase, there is a special «action window» that can be found in most of the seven phases of the round. During the ««action window» , players can take turns activating special properties of cards in play, events from their hand, or cards out of play, if the card text allows it.
2. Planning Phase. This phase allows you to prepare for further events of the round. During the planning phase, players take turns playing and attaching ally or item cards to their heroes, paying their cost.
3. Adventure Phase At the beginning of this phase, each player may select and return any number of their characters to «exhaustion» . Exhausted characters cannot be used again this round, including to set up a defender against an enemy attack. After selecting the heroes who will go on a quest, each player receives a card from the encounter deck and activates its properties. To advance in the adventure, the sum of all the Willpower values ​​of the characters involved must be higher than the total threat level of all the cards in the scene area. Otherwise, the threat level of the players will increase, and all events and enemies will become more dangerous for them. 
4. Travel Phase. Players have the opportunity «move» all heroes to a new open location. This location should be placed separately on the game table. It becomes an active location, which will affect the progress of quests and card effects.
5. Encounter Phase. Players take turns choosing enemies to confront. If a player`s threat level is higher than the enemy`s threat level, this enemy is moved to his zone for combat, even against the player`s will.
6. Combat Phase.Players take turns engaging enemies in their game zone. The first to attack are the enemies, against whose attack the player can set up a defender -  «&ra This is the last phase of this round.

Updated content of the core edition

In 2022, an updated core edition was released, dedicated to the decade of the series. All the main mechanics of the series remained unchanged, but the updated content is worth special attention.

Among the innovations:

• There are now enough components for a four-player game. This applies not only to tokens, but also to cards for starting decks and hero cards.
• New mechanics can be found in the game. The properties of «advantage» and «burden» have been added to the cards from later releases.
• The three basic storylines can now be combined into a campaign. You can also choose not to combine them, although Gikach advises playing them together and in a row to best experience the progress of the characters and consistently reveal the game mechanics.