How to Play War of the Ring: The Card Game

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Select a scenario

Choose from Trilogy (2-4 players), Two-Player Duel, Three-Player Duel, or Fellowship of the Ring scenarios

Assign decks to players

Each player takes their designated faction deck:

Prepare player decks

Shuffle all cards of appropriate factions together to form each player's draw deck

Distribute tokens

Each player takes one Ring token and one player aid card

Give starting player token

The Frodo player receives the starting player token

Arrange battleground decks

Separate Shadow and Free Peoples battleground cards into two shuffled decks

Assemble path deck

Stack path cards in order with path 1 on top through path 9 on bottom (do not shuffle)

Draw starting hands

Each player draws 7 cards, then cycles 2 cards face down to their cycle pile, keeping 5 cards

Set up play area

Designate space for each player's draw deck, cycle pile, eliminated pile, and reserve area

Prepare scoring areas

Each team designates a scoring area for won battlegrounds, paths, and corruption tokens

Place combat and corruption tokens

Set all combat tokens and corruption tokens to the side for later use

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Location Step (starting player only)

Activate one battleground randomly from your team's battleground deck, then activate one path from the path deck with number one higher than the previous round

Action Step

Players take turns in order (Frodo, Witch-king, Aragorn, Saruman) taking one action or passing until all pass consecutively

Combat Step

Resolve combat on each active battleground and the active path in order chosen by starting player

Victory Check

Calculate scores and check if either team has won by 10 or more points

Draw Step

Free Peoples players draw 3 cards each; Shadow players draw 4 cards each; pass starting player token

Play a card

Take a card from hand, cycle a different card, then place the played card according to its type:

Move a character or army

Move one card from reserve to an active path or battleground (cannot move cards played this round)

Cycle a card

Place one card from hand face down on your cycle pile

Winnow

Eliminate 2 cards from hand to draw 1 card

Use an action ability

Resolve "use an action to..." text on a card in play

Use Ring token

Discard your Ring token to draw 2 cards (once per game in Trilogy)

Pass when allowed

You may pass only if your hand size is less than or equal to your carryover limit (2 cards), OR your hand has fewer cards than each enemy player

Count Shadow attack icons

Total all path attack icons on Shadow cards and tokens

Apply path defense

Cancel attack icons equal to defense icons on the path itself

Eliminate Free Peoples cards

Free Peoples must eliminate characters to cancel remaining attack icons until all are canceled or no cards remain

Cycle surviving defenders

Any remaining Free Peoples cards on the path are cycled

Eliminate all attackers

All Shadow characters in that combat are eliminated

Award victory

Free Peoples win if all attacks canceled (score path's victory points); Shadow wins if attacks remain (score corruption tokens equal to uncanceled attacks)

Identify attackers and defenders

On Shadow battlegrounds, Shadow defends; on Free Peoples battlegrounds, Free Peoples defends

Count attacker icons

Total all battleground attack icons including leadership icons from supported characters

Apply battleground defense

Cancel attack icons equal to defense icons on the battleground

Eliminate defending cards

Defenders must eliminate cards to cancel remaining attack icons

Cycle surviving defenders

Any remaining defending cards are cycled

Eliminate all attackers

All attacking cards are eliminated