ADVANCED RULES

ABOUT COURAGE

Moria Goblins flee from Boromir after he blows the Horn of Gondor. If a Moria Goblin Captain had been in the combat, this could have been very different.

The most common circumstance when Courage affects a game of The Lord of The Rings is when half or more of your models have been killed. At this critical point, Good armies still have a vague chance of continuing the fight on account of their superior Courage value (especially if they are Elves!). It is more difficult to reach this breaking point for Evil players, because their forces are normally larger than the Good ones. On the other hand, if they do reach it, Evil usually cannot rally, and the game is over. Left to his own devices when the situation becomes difficult, your average Orc will turn tail and run (only the Uruk-hai have a decent Courage). My advice for the Evil player is to take good care of your Heroes, because their superior Courage is invaluable in keeping your force going once half of it has been killed. Shamans also make a great buy, as the Fury they infuse into your troops is sure to keep them going!

HEROES AND HEROICS

In The Lord of The Rings game, Heroes are very, very powerful. A Hero with a lot of Attacks, a very high Fighting value, and a reserve of Might points is nearly invincible in close quarters against normal warriors. If you can use your Might to raise your Combat score to 6, your superior Fighting will ensure that you win any fight against any number of enemies. This reliability is decisive in many cases, allowing you to win difficult fights and get out of the most carefully laid traps. The only problem is that your reserves of Might have a limit, so you can't stay at a super-human level for too long (unless you're Aragorn, that is!). In short, don't waste your points – use them well!

Magical powers are often very useful, but once again, you cannot keep casting endlessly, because you'll soon use up your Will and render yourself both powerless and vulnerable to the magic of the enemy.

The "Orcs Attack" battle report in WD263 only contained four characters, but they still played a major part in the game. They eventually tipped the balance of the battle and handed the Evil side a victory.

I'll conclude by exploring one of the reasons why Heroes are so powerful in The Lord of The Rings game. By spending a point of Might, Heroes and models around them can move/shoot/fight out of sequence and snatch the initiative from the player with priority and counteract his moves. This feat can sometimes prove decisive and it certainly adds a layer of unpredictability to the game. Players not only have to think ahead, but must also consider what would happen if the enemy was to sacrifice his precious Might and do something Heroic. The only chance you have of tackling such outbursts is to commit your own Heroes and anticipate the Heroics of the enemy with your own. This process can easily escalate and lead to a huge waste of Might points in order to 'out-Hero' the enemy, and players really need to keep their nerve and be cautious about an excessive use of this powerful tactic.

Anyway, we are now entering the realm of quite advanced tactics, and I recommend that you begin playing The Lord of The Rings game without these advanced rules. I hope I have managed to convince you that The Lord of The Rings Strategy Battle Game not as simple at it might first appear, but rather a very sophisticated and challenging representation of skirmishes in Middle-earth.

Enjoy!

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Related Articles:
The Lord of The Rings Designers' Notes | Creating Your Own Scenarios

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