The White Hand 2 PDF

METW - The White Hand Player’s Guide
Copyright Pierre Jonas Castillo 2001

c
edited by Markus Richartz
with contributions from:

Benjamin A. Sorensen (b_took)
Contents
1 Introduction 7
2 Fallen-Wizards 8
2.1 Alatar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2 Alatar specific stage resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.1 Bow of Alatar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.2 The Great Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.3 Huntsman’s Garb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.4 Join the Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.5 Orome’s Warders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.6 Squire of the Hunt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3 Gandalf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.4 Gandalf specific stage resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.4.1 Await the Onset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.4.2 Chambers in the Royal Court . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.4.3 Gandalf’s Friend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.4.4 Give Welcome to the Unexpected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.4.5 Grey Embassy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.4.6 The Grey Hat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.4.7 Ring of Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.5 Pallando . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.6 Pallando specific Stage Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.6.1 Arcane School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.6.2 Pallando’s Apprentice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.6.3 Pallando’s Hood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.6.4 Prophet of Doom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.6.5 Stave of Pallando . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.6.6 Truths of Doom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.7 Radagast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.8 Radagast specific Stage resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.8.1 Friend of Secret Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.8.2 Girdle of Radagast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.8.3 Glove of Radagast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.8.4 Master of Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
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Contents Contents
2.8.5 Pocketed Robes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

2.8.6 Radagast’s Black Bird . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.8.7 Shifter of Hues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.8.8 Winged Change-Master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.9 Saruman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.10 Saruman specific Stage resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.10.1 The Forge-Master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.10.2 Many-coloured Robes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.10.3 Man of Skill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.10.4 Saruman’s Machinery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.10.5 Saruman’s Ring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.10.6 The White Hand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3 Characters 31
3.0.7 Doeth (Durthak) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.0.8 Euog (Ulzog) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.0.9 Lugdush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.0.10 Ugluk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.0.11 Ill-Favoured Fellow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.0.12 Sly Southerner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.0.13 Squint-eyed Brute . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4 Stage Resources 34
4.1 General Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.1.1 A Merrier World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.1.2 A New Ringlord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.1.3 A Strident Spawn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.1.4 An Untimely Brood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.1.5 Bad Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.1.6 Blind to all Else . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.1.7 Delver’s Harvest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.1.8 Double-Dealing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.1.9 Earth-Eater . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.1.10 The Fortress of Isen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.1.11 Fortress of the Towers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.1.12 Gatherer of Loyalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.1.13 Gnawed Ways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.1.14 Great Patron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.1.15 Great Ruse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.1.16 Guarded Haven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
4.1.17 Hidden Haven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
4.1.18 Legacy of Smiths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
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4.1.19 Mischief in a Mean Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

4.1.20 Never Refuse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.1.21 Plotting Ruin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.1.22 Shameful Deeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.1.23 Spells Born of Discord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.1.24 Thrall of the Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.1.25 War-Forges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.1.26 Wizard’s Myrmidon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.1.27 Wizard’s Trove . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.2 Factions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.2.1 Greater Half-Orcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.2.2 Half-Orcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.3 Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.3.1 Keys of Orthanc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.3.2 Keys to the White Towers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
5 Fallen-Wizard Sites 49
5.0.3 Deep Mines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.0.4 Isengard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.0.5 Rhosgobel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
5.0.6 The White Towers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
6 Hero Resources 52
6.1 Allies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.1.1 Noble Steed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.2 Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.2.1 Promptings of Wisdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.2.2 The White Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6.2.3 The White Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6.3 Factions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
6.3.1 A Panoply of Wings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
6.3.2 Beasts of the Wood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
6.3.3 Wild Horses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
6.3.4 Wild Hounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
7 Minion Resources 57
7.1 Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.1.1 The Black Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.1.2 Counterfeit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.1.3 Crept Along Cleverly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
7.1.4 The Fiery Blade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
7.1.5 Govern the Storms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
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7.1.6 Open to the Summons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

7.1.7 Piercing all Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
7.1.8 Poison of his Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
7.1.9 Sojourn in Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
7.1.10 White Light Broken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
7.2 Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
7.2.1 Blasting Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
7.2.2 Liquid Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
7.2.3 Mechanical Bow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
7.2.4 Vile Fumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
8 Hazards 65
8.1 Creatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
8.1.1 Goblin-Faces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
8.2 Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
8.2.1 Blind to the West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
8.2.2 Ire of the East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
8.2.3 Cast from the Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
8.2.4 Cruel Claw Perceived . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
8.2.5 Echoes of the Song . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
8.2.6 Flotsam and Jetsam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
8.2.7 Fool’s Bane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
8.2.8 Foul Tooth Unsheated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
8.2.9 Heart Grown Cold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
8.2.10 In the Grip of Ambition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
8.2.11 Inner Rot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
8.2.12 Longing for the West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
8.2.13 Mask Torn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
8.2.14 Nature’s Revenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
8.2.15 Power Relinquished to Artfice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
8.2.16 Rolled Down to the Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
8.2.17 Something Else at Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
8.2.18 Whole Villages Roused . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
8.2.19 Will You Not Come Down? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
9 Summary and overall Analysis 76

9.1 General Influence/Direct Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
9.2 Character Points and Character Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
9.3 Ally Points and Ally Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
9.4 factions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
9.5 Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
9.6 Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
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Contents Contents
9.7 Kill MP’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

9.8 Overall MP Gathering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
9.9 Recycling and Deck Manipulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
9.9.1 Event Recyclers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
9.9.2 Resource Recyclers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
9.10 Corruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
9.11 Home Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
9.12 New Ringlord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
6
1 Introduction
While playing as a Fallen-wizard I have discovered a few things concerning each Fallen-
wizard’s abilities, stage resources and strategies:
1. All MPs played by a Fallen-wizard player are worth 1 MP each. However, each
Fallen-wizard has a “MP boost “ ability that depends on his mission. This MP boost
automatically gives full MPs to certain resources. Knowing which type of resource
can be boosted by your Fallen-wizard can help determine your resource strategy.
2. Fallen-wizards have an “area of operation “, which is that set of regions on the map
where their special abilities work best. It is also where their stage resources will work
best. This can usually be determined through their home sites. However, this does
not mean that you’re limited to this area. Your imagination and creativity is the
limit as to where your Fallen-wizard will operate.
3. Each Fallen-wizard’s stage resources are, in my opinion, divided into four categories
that help him in advancing his goals: “mind alterers “, recyclers, ability maximizers
and the MP stage resource. “Mind alterers “ are those that lower certain character’s
mind and increase that character’s direct influence. Recyclers are those that allow
you to recycle certain resources. Except for Alatar, each Fallen-wizard has two
recyclers. Ability maximizers are those that maximize your Fallen-wizard’s abilities,
further boost his MPs, or makes up for your Fallen-wizard weak spots. MP stage
resources are those that give you marshalling points once you accumulate a certain
number of SPs and provides your Fallen-wizard the chance to grab even more MPs.
It relies heavily on how much your Fallen-wizard has accomplished at the that point
in the game when you decide to play this card.
This review is devided by Fallen-wizards. In each Fallen-wizard’s section, his specific stage
resources will be listed and discussed. Also included is each Fallen-wizard’s individual
description as stated in the MEWH rules insert.
All cited card-texts, included images and used trademarks are

c by and the properties of
Tolkien Enterprises.
7
2 Fallen-Wizards
2.1 Alatar
“The fallen Alatar (Lord of the Hunt) is the master of animate nature - he
is a hunter. He likes to do things personally. He is more likely to dominate
individuals rather than peoples. He is obsessed with defeating Sauron by turning
Middle-Earth into a well-ordered game-preserve.“
ALATAR - Warrior/Scout/Ranger/Sage (C)

[GI: 17; DI: 10; P/B: 7/9; Home Site: Any non-“Dragon’s Lair“ - R&L in a wilderness]
Unique. Hazards your companies defeat (even with *) are worth full kill mar-
shalling points. If you have more than 7 stage points, all detainment attacks
against your companies attack normally instead. If at one of your wizard-
havens when a hazard attacks one of your companies, he may immediately join
that company. Alatar must face a strike from the creature (in all cases). Fol-
lowing all of the creature’s attacks, Alatar must tap (if untapped) and make a
corruption check.
Alatar’s Fallen-wizard is tough! He now Wilderness being the most common region
has a prowess of 7, and with just a Dagger on the map, Alatar can pop up just about
of Westernesse, he’s a whooping 8/9! He anywhere, just remember you cannot play
still has his teleport ability that can be re- him at Dragon’s Lairs. A thing to remem-
ally maximized with his increased prowess. ber when playing a fallen Alatar deck is
However, he lost his -1 to opponent’s card that the bulk of its MPs mainly come from
draw ability. He still has 10 points of direct “combat “-item MPs, creature kills and al-
influence that can be useful to control char- lies with prowess. If he and certain specific
acters and to gather factions - the latter stage resources are in play, you will get full
more especially as Alatar’s stage resources MPs from these three catagories. Alatar’s
do not concentrate on factions. However, character should almost be composed com-
your general influence gets reduced to 17 pletely of warriors so as to use warrior only
once you bring him into play. His home resources (espcially Risky Blow). Expect
site is very flexible as well, depending upon combat frequently when playing a fallen
your strategy. You can play him at the Alatar Deck, and be sure to make use of it
White Towers and focus on Eriador, or by collecting the kill MPs. Take note that
play a Dragon recruiting strategy. With when Alatar is in play, defeated hazards,
8
2.2. ALATAR SPECIFIC STAGE RESOURCES CHAPTER 2. FALLEN-WIZARDS
regardless of having an asterisk or not, are

worth full kill MPs. Strangely, Alatar is
the only Fallen-wizard that has only one
recycler. Alatar’s specific stage resources
do not boost your character and faction
MPs. However, two general stage resources
- Gatherer of Loyalties and Great Patron -
make up for this. If Gatherer of Loyalties is
in play, Dragon Factions, can give a maxi-
mum of four MPs from each (even dragon
factions like Scorba which usually only give
3 MPs to minion players).
2.2 Alatar specific stage resources

2.2.1 Bow of Alatar
Permanent Event (R) [SP: 2; CP: 1]
Unique. Alatar specific. Place this card on Alatar if he is in play. If on Alatar,

you may tap Bow of Alatar to allow him to face a strike from an attack against
his company regardless of the attack’s normal capabilities and his status. If
such a strike fails, the attack’s body is reduced by 1.
This card maximizes Alatar’s ability to face

a strike from any creature every turn and
increases the chance of defeating it. This
card works best against one attack, one
strike creatures. Just make sure Alatar will
defeat the strike so as you get the kill MP.
2.2.2 The Great Hunt

Permanent Event (R) [MP: 1; SP: 3]
Alatar specific. Playable if you’re Alatar and have at least 12 stage points. Your
opponent reveals cards one at a time from his play deck or his discard pile (your
choice). Any hazard creature revealed immediately attacks Alatar’s company.
This process stops when 5 creatures or all cards of the deck (or pile) have been
revealed. Reshuffle play deck if used. Thereafter, your opponent discards face-
up. Whenever your opponent discards a creature during your turn, you may
choose to have it attack Alatar’s company. Cannot be duplicated.
9
This is Alatar’s MP stage resource that is you have those defense cards in your hand
a more powerful version of the The Hunt. just in case.. Plus, it allows Alatar’s com-
Don’t let this card’s 1 MP let you down. pany to face creatures your opponent opts
You might get more if you play this card to discard (by the time he figures out he’ll
right. This card is best played from the just give Alatar more MPs instead of elim-
sideboard once you figure out what type inating him). Additionally, you also get to
of hazard your opponent uses. It will def- have non-fallen Pallando’s ability of having
initely hurt most heavy creature hazard your opponent discard face-up.
strategies and helps Alatar collect those
kill MPs. Be careful, though. Your op-
ponent might be playing Nazgûl or the
unique Dragons and you might end up los-
ing more MPs than gaining them (I played
this card and the first creature revealed was
the Witch-King of Angmar!). Make sure
2.2.3 Huntsman’s Garb

Permanent Event (U) [SP:1; CP:1]
Unique. Alatar specific. Place this card on Alatar if he is in play. If on Alatar,

you may tap Huntsman’s Garb during your end-of-turn-phase to take Risky
Blow, True Fána or The Hunt from your discard pile to your hand.
Alatar’s recycler card allows you to re-

trieve Risky Blow, True Fána and The
Hunt back. This card works best if you
plan to wipe all of your opponent’s crea-
tures one by one, or if you expect to face
attacks and strikes insteadif avoiding them.
10
2.2.4 Join the Hunt

Permanent Event (R) [SP: 2]
Unique. Alatar specific. Your weapon/shield/armor/helmet items in Alatar’s

company are each worth full marshalling points. Your allies with a prowess
attribute in Alatar’s company are each worth full marshalling points.
(see Orome’s Warders)
2.2.5 Orome’s Warders

Unique. Alatar specific. Playable on Alatar if Join the Hunt is in play. Your
weapon/shield/armor/helmet items are each worth full marshalling points. Your
allies with a prowess attribute are each worth full marshalling points. Your Elf
factions are each worth 2 marshalling points.
Join the Hunt and Orome’s Warders are

the MP boosters to Alatar. With them,
you get full marshalling points to all your
“combat “-items and all your allies with
prowess. Orome’s Warders boosts Elf fac-
tions’ MPs as well.
2.2.6 Squire of the Hunt

Permanent Event(U) [SP:2; P/B: +1/+1]
Unique. Alatar specific. Warrior only. Playable on one of your warrior charac-
ters at one your Wizardhavens (or in your starting company). +1 to his direct
influence. This character requires 2 points of influence to control and may only
be controlled by general influence or Alatar.
11
2.3. GANDALF CHAPTER 2. FALLEN-WIZARDS
Alatar’s mind alterer is best played with trol! (you would need Thrall of the Voice
your starting company so as not waste a to play Celeborn initially.
turn going to a Wizardhaven just to play it.
It can make your weaker warriors stronger
through the P/B modifiers and saves in-
fluence points by reducing the influence
needed to control the warrior to 2 points.
Or play it on a strong warrior like Celeborn
to make him a 7/10, 5 Mind, 2 DI charac-
ter requiring 2 points of influence to con-
2.3 Gandalf
“The fallen Gandalf (the Careworn) is the friend of peoples, fate and Middle-
Earth. He manipulates peoples and their rulers rather than dominate them - he
is not an empire builder. He has lost hope of defeating Sauron. He just wants
to delay the Dark Lord’s final victory as long as possible, and to save as many
of the Free Peoples as possible.“
GANDALF - Warrior/Scout/Sage/Diplomat Fallen-Wizard (C)

[GI: 18; DI: 9; P/B: 6/9; Home Site: Any Free-Hold]
Unique. Can use spirit-magic. May untap at the end of your organization
phase. Your characters and hero allies are each worth full marshalling points.
Gandalf may tap to “test“ a ring in his company.
Fallen Gandalf lost his +1 corruption mod- sources, particularly characters and allies.
ifier but retains his ring test ability. His His home site can make him gather hero
abilitiy to untap at the end of the organi- factions easily at the Gondor area. He has
zation phase. allows you to test those gold a faction booster, which makes him flex-
rings if you plan a fallen Gandalf ring strat- ible in either a Gondor or Eriador-based
egy. This untapping ability also allows you muster. If you intend to boost your items,
to tap Gandalf freely during the organiza- you have to use Legacy of Smiths as there
tion phase to remove corruption cards or to are no Gandalf item-booster stage cards.
get cards from the sideboard, and start the His home site makes fallen Gandalf a fa-
movement/hazard phase untapped. Addi- vorite when playing decks centered in the
tionally, he can now use spirit-magic cards. Gondor area as it contains the highest
You need not also play Great Patron as number of Free-Holds on the map. Just
characters and hero allies give full MPs. watch out for Slayers and Assassins - two
On the downside, his DI is reduced as of the most popular Wizard killers - as this
well as your GI once he is in play. Most is the area where there are usually played.
of Gandalf’s MPs are focused on hero re- Alternatively, you can turn this threat to
12
2.4. GANDALF SPECIFIC STAGE RESOURCES CHAPTER 2. FALLEN-WIZARDS
your advantage by using Ready To His Will

and turning the Slayer or Assassin into an
ally. His home site can also make it easier
to fulfill the requirement of his stage MP
card - turning up to three Free-Holds into
Wizardhavens using three Chambers in the
Royal Court.
2.4 Gandalf specific stage resources

2.4.1 Await the Onset
Permanent Event (R) [MP:5; SP:3]
Gandalf specific. Playable if you are gandalf and have at least: 12 stage points,
two protected Wizardhavens, 4 factions and 6 characters. Each faction you play
after Await the Onset is worth 1 marshalling point regardless of other cards in
play (place these factions under Await the Onset). Each of your marshalling
point cards in a company not in one of your Wizardhavens when the game
ends is worth 1 marshalling point regardless of other cards in play. Cannot be
duplicated.
This stage resource can force your compa- Day of Reckoning.

nies to stay at your Wiazrdahvens. Just
make sure that before you play this card,
either you will not play any more factions
as you will only get 1 MP from them, or
only play 1 MP factions. Make sure, too,
that before the game ends, all your MPs
are at your Wizardshaven(s). This card is
best played if you are ready to call your
13
2.4.2 Chambers in the Royal Court

Permanent Event (U) [SP: 1]
Gandalf specific. Playable on one of your hero Free-hold sites in play. This site
becomes a Wizardhaven for your companies, loses all automatic-attacks against
your companies, and is one of Gandalf ’s home sites. Nothing is considered
playable as written on the site card. If one of your companies is at this site,
all attacks against it are canceled. Other Fallen-wizards may not use this site
as a Wizardhaven. Discard this card when the site is discarded or returned to
its location deck. It cannot be discarded otherwise. Cannot be duplicated on a
given site.
This card is very important especially if can halp you in fulfilling the requirements
you play to center around the Gondor of Await the Onset.
area, as there are no nearby Wizardhavens
in sight. More of if you have a fallen
Alatar/Pallando/Saruman as an opponent
and they took nearby Isengard for their
own. It is best play this card after you
played a resource on it (preferably a fac-
tion) and play No Strangers at this Time
so as not to discard the site. Plus, this card
2.4.3 Gandalf’s Friend

Unique. Gandalf specific. Playable on one of your characters at one of your

Wizardhavens (or in your starting company). +2 to his direct influence. This
character requires 1 point of influence to control and may only controlled by
general influence or Gandalf.
Gandalf’s mind-alterer is perhaps the best

among the five Istari. It makes any one of
your characters have 1 mind and +2 to his
direct influence, allowing you to make up
for the lack of Gandalf’s DI and your GI.
14
2.4.4 Give Welcome to the Unexpected

Unique. Gandalf specific. Place this card on Gandalf if he is in play. If on

Gandalf, your unique non-character cards normally worth 1 marshalling point
are each worth 2 marshalling points.
There are a lot of unique non-character

resources that most hero players would
not consider putting because of its low
MP. Fallen Gandalf players love playing
this card because it instantly boosts those
penny resources.
2.4.5 Grey Embassy

Unique. Gandalf specific. Place this card on Gandalf if he is in play. If on Gan-

dalf, your unique hero factions normally worth 2 or fewer marshalling points
are each worth 2 marshalling points. If on Gandalf, your unique hero factions
normally worth 3 or more marshalling points are each worth 3 marshalling
points.
A fallen Gandalf player’s alternative to

Gatherer of Loyalties, even better actually
as it boosts his faction MPs.
15
2.4.6 The Grey Hat

Permanent Event (U) [SP: 1; CP: 1]

Gandalf, you may tap The Grey Hat during your end-of-turn phase to take
New Friendship, Wizard’s Test, or Hobbit-Lore from your discard pile to your
hand.
Gandalf’s recycler allows you to retrieve

two important resources in a fallen Gandalf
strategy. New Friendship will help him in
corruption checks and influence attempts,
while Wizard’s Test will help him in testing
rings. If you plan to center near The Shire,
Hobbit-Lore will help Gandalf in recruiting
Hobbbits at Bag End.
2.4.7 Ring of Fire


Gandalf, you may tap Ring of Fire during your organization phase to Narya
from your discard pile to your hand.
Gandalf’s second recycler allows you to re-

trieve his power card, Narya and use it al-
most every turn to make him a very power-
ful Fallen-Wizard. Just make sure you can
handle the corruption checks caused by this
Elven-Ring.
16
2.5. PALLANDO CHAPTER 2. FALLEN-WIZARDS
2.5 Pallando
“The fallen Pallando (Master of Doom) is the master of peoples and fate. He
rules and dominates peoples. He is obsessed with building his own empire de-
feating Sauron by force of arms.“
PALLANDO - Warrior/Ranger/Sage/Diplomat Fallen-wizard (C)

[GI:20; DI: 7; P/B: 5/9; Home Site: The White Towers]
Unique. Can use spirit-magic. Your Man, Dwarf, Elf, Dunadan, Hobbit, Orc
and Troll factions are each worth 2 marshalling points. You may keep one more
card than normal in your hand.
Pallando retains his extra card-in-hand Playing the minion Palantír of Elostirion
ability - very important for card advantage on him (or any sage) will add another card
- which makes fallen Pallando decks cycle to your hand. His home site is also cen-
quickly. Like fallen Gandalf, he can use trally located in the Arthedain region that
spirit-magic. His low prowess will make is adjacent to a number of regions where
you think twice if you want to move him faction sites are available.
or not, but most fallen Pallando decks usu-
ally prefer leaving him sitting at his Wiz-
ardhaven. His ability to boost a wide range
of factions makes him excellent for faction
recruiting decks. His DI greatly decreased
(usually used for his faction gathering), but
his stage resources make up for this weak
spot. His home site at The White Tow-
ers provides him the opportunity to join a
starting company, as this is the usual start-
ing site of most Fallen-wizard companies.
2.6 Pallando specific Stage Resources

2.6.1 Arcane School
Permanent Event (R) [SP:1]
Pallando specific. Sage only. Playable on a non-Hobbit, non-Dwarf sage at

one of your Wizardhavens (or in your starting company). The character may
use sorcery, spirit-magic, and shadow-magic. Cannot be duplicated on a given
character.
17
2.6. PALLANDO SPECIFIC STAGE RESOURCESCHAPTER 2. FALLEN-WIZARDS
This card allows a fallen Pallando the op- as well.

portunity to play various magic cards by
his sage character(s). Imagine this sage go-
ing to an opponent’s company and playing
A Malady without Healing or any other
wicked magic card. Your opponent will
not only be focusing on your hazards, but
your “stalking“, magic-wielding characters
2.6.2 Pallando’s Apprentice

Unique. Pallando specific. Sage only. Playable on a non-Hobbit, non-Dwarf

sage character at one of your Wizardhavens (or in your starting company). +1
to his direct influence. This character requires 2 points of influence to control
and may only be controlled by general influence or Pallando. This character
may tap to use a Palantír he bears.
Pallando’s mind-alterer is limited only to

certain races and a certain skill. On the
upside, it allows this character to dupli-
cate Saruman’s ability of using a Palantír
(preferably that of Elostirion, minion ver-
sion).
2.6.3 Pallando’s Hood

Permanent Event (U) [SP: 1; CP: 1]
Unique. Pallando specific. Place this card on Pallando if he is in play. If on

Pallando, you may tap Pallando’s Hood during your end-of-turn phase to take
Gifts as Given of Old, Wizard’s Voice, or Eyes of Mandos from your discard
pile to your hand.
Pallando’s recycler allows him to make full

use of his abilities. Gifts as Given of Old
and Wizard’s Voice are very useful for Pal-
lando’s faction recruiting, while recycling
Eyes of Mandos maximizes Pallando’s card
advantage.
18
2.6. PALLANDO SPECIFIC STAGE RESOURCESCHAPTER 2. FALLEN-WIZARDS
2.6.4 Prophet of Doom

Pallando specific. Playable if you are Pallando and have at least 12 stage points
and 5 factions in play. Pallando need not be at the appropriate site when making
an influence attempt on an opponent’s resource or character. Such an influence
check is modified by half (rounded up) of Pallando’s unused general influence
(to a maximum of 10) instead of his unused direct influence. Subtract from the
attempt the number of regions between Pallando’s site and the site where the
influence attempt would normally be made. Discard if you have fewer than 5
factions in play. Cannot be duplicated.
This is Pallando’s MP stage resource, and This is the only MP stage resource that
fully maximizes his faction gathering. This can be discarded if its faction requirement
is similar to Hour of Need (given that Hour has not been met.
of Need is not usable by Fallen-wizards),
and makes Pallando virtually the only
Fallen-wizard to have such ability. Just
protect yourself from influence attempts
by your opponent or Muster Disperses and
make sure you have at least 5 factions in
play so as to keep this card in the table.
2.6.5 Stave of Pallando

Unique. Pallando specific. Place this card on Pallando if he is in play. If on

Pallando, you may tap Stave of Pallando during your end-of-turn phase to take
a faction from your discard pile to your hand.
Pallando is the second Fallen-wizard to you.

have a second recycler. This recycler
is quite different from the other Fallen-
wizards’. Instead of resource events, it re-
cycles any faction in your discard pile. So
you can bring factions into your discard
pile from the sideboard and recycle them,
or retrieve a faction you discarded, or even
one your opponent influenced away from
19
2.7. RADAGAST CHAPTER 2. FALLEN-WIZARDS
2.6.6 Truths of Doom

Unique. Pallando specific. Your general influence is increased by 6 points. You

may only use 2 of these 6 points to control characters.
This is the card to help protect Pallando

from influence attempts, Call of Homes and
Muster Disperses and other hazards that
target general influence, it is also a big
boost to your stage point total.
2.7 Radagast
“The fallen Radagast (of the Greenwood) is the friend of animate nature. He
looks at Middle-earth as a big garden with people as the gardeners. He persuades
but doesn’t dominate. He plans to help nature protect itself from the Dark Lord.“
RADAGAST - Warrior/Scout/Ranger/Diplomat Fallen-wizard (C)

GI: 22; DI: 5; P/B: 6/9; Home Site: Rhosgobel]
Unique. Your unique factions that are neither Man, Dwarf, Dúnadan, Hobbit,
Orc, nor Troll are each worth 2 marshalling points. Your hero allies each are
worth full marshalling points. Hero allies Radagast controls have no movement
restrictions. When Radagast’s new site is revealed, he may draw one additional
card for each Wilderness in his company’s site path.
Fallen Radagast loses his +1 corruption does not actually fully support his card
modifier, but retains his extra card draw drawing ability, that site being in a dark-
for moving through the Wilderness. This domain (and very close to Dol Guldur -
means that many fallen Radagast decks a favorite Darkhaven of minions); so plan
will have him actively moving around the carefully on the turn you decide to reveal
map most of the time to draw cards. How- Radagast. On the upside, you can play
ever, with the new MEWH rule that Fallen- Blackbole at Rhosgobel with ease. His
wizards can only be brought into play at MP stage resource fixes this Wilderness-
their home sites, Radagast may risk a lot less problem (see below). His MP boosting
when trying to cross west over the Misty ability focuses mostly on “wildlife“factions,
Mountains. Rhosgobel (he is the only one except for Elves. (Animals, Wolves, Eagles
who can use this site - one of his unique and Ents, to name a few). He also boosts
privileges over the other Fallen-wizards) hero allies he controls, plus he allows the
20
2.8. RADAGAST SPECIFIC STAGE RESOURCESCHAPTER 2. FALLEN-WIZARDS
bigger ones to roam Middle-earth. Tom weak DI by letting the bird to gather the
Bombadil can now cross the Misty Moun- factions instead of him when needed.
tains, and the Ents can come out from Fan-
A great site for Radagast to focus on is at
gorn Forest to the sea. He has the most GI
Wellinghall because it is near to Rhosgobel
any Fallen-wizard has, but his DI is also
and you can get the Ent allies. It is also a
the lowest. That means you need to control
good place to set up the Girdle of Radagast
your characters with GI, so watch out for
(see below).
Call of Homes, Muster Disperses or influ-
ence attempts by your opponent by keeping
some GI free. Radagast will almost com-
pletely use his DI for getting factions.
Fallen Radagast’s stage resources are quite
unique: his three stage Shapeshifter cards
(similar to the Ringwraiths’ mode cards)
and the only stage ally. Using the
Shapeshifter cards, Radagast’s abilities
change, depending on what type of mis-
sion you want Radagast to undertake. The
Black Bird covers up or supports Rad’s
2.8 Radagast specific Stage resources

2.8.1 Friend of Secret Things
Unique. Radagast specific. Your companies with a company size of 2 or less

may play allies at tapped sites.
This card works best at sites where you together.

can play other resources aside from allies,
or contains more than one ally. It lets
Radagast’s small companies to play usu-
ally unique allies at a tapped site. Play
this card on Radagast’s sized two company
at Wellinghall and you now have an army
of Ents. Play this at Old Forest and you
can have the couple Tom and Goldberry
21
2.8.2 Girdle of Radagast

Radagast specific. Playable on one of your protected Wizardhavens if you are

Radagast and have at least 12 SP and 6 allies and/or unique factions in play
(the factions must be playable at sites in the Wizardhaven’s region or adjacent
regions). The Wizardhaven’s region and all adjacent regions become Wilderness.
Cannot be duplicated.
Radagast’s MP stage resource automati- will create.

cally converts any given area on the map
into one big forest. This helps in making
the terrain suitable to Radagast, especially
when he tends to travel frequently. Play
this in an area near Rhosgobel (preferably
Fangorn) and all you’ll see are trees. Just
be careful from those deep Wilderness crea-
tures that will get the attention this Girdle
2.8.3 Glove of Radagast

Unique. Radagast specific. Place this card on Radagast if he is in play. Any

non-unique ally with 1 mind (a copy of which he does not already control) is
considered playable with Radagast at his site. This ally may be taken from your
discard pile or hand.
This recycler allows Radagast to play pop- this card into play.
ular non-unique allies such as Noble Hound
and War-wolf straight from the discard
pile. It also helps in meeting the require-
ments Radagast needs to set up his Girdle
(see above). Though you do not continu-
ously recycle these resources, it allows you
to discard them freely at the earlier part of
the game and retrieve them once you get
22
2.8.4 Master of Shapes

Permanent Event (U) [SP: 1; GI: 25; DI: 1; P/B: 9/10; CC: -2]
Radagast specific. Shapeshifter. Place this card on Radagast if he is in play.

Return this card to your hand: when you play another Shapeshifter card or,
if you choose, during your organization phase. In addition to adopting the
given attributes, Radagast’s skills become Warrior/Ranger. Radagast’s prowess
is only modified by -1 when not tapping to face a strike. Radagast may bear,
but may not use items.
The first of the shapeshifter cards makes -3. He need not cower from creatures with
Radagast one powerful Wizard. His a prowess of 10 or lower. However, he may
prowess is high enough for you to take on not use items he bears which means he can-
some of the nastier creatures. His body can not modify his physical stats from items
only be defeated by a good roll. His ranger (he can still modify it with short-events,
skill will make full use of Crept Along Clev- though) and you also have to watch out
erly (recyclable with Pocketed Robes - see for his CPs, as that -2 modifier can mean
below) and can protect his companies from the end of the game.
Rivers and Enchanted Streams. However,
you can virtually make no use of his 1 DI,
which means all your characters will be un-
der GI.
This card’s second ability allows Radagast

to remain untapped until the site phase be-
cause he only suffers a -1 mod, instead of a
2.8.5 Pocketed Robes

Unique. Radagast specific. Place this card on Radagast if he is in play. If on

Radagast, you may tap Pocketed Robes during your end-of-turn phase to take
Crept Along Cleverly, Wizard’s River-horses, or Herb-lore from your discard
pile to your hand.
Radagast’s recycler can retrieve one of

three resources that are all useful in a
wandering Radagast deck. It allows you
to cancel attacks through Wizard’s River
Horses and Crept Along Cleverly. Herb-
lore can provide an untapping on healing
effect without the delay of moving to a
Wizardhaven.
23
2.8.6 Radagast’s Black Bird

Scout/Diplomat Ally (U) [MP: 1; SP: 3; Mind: 2; DI: 3; P/B: 2/8]
Unique. Radagast specific. Playable at one of your Wizardhavens. You may

return Radagast’s Black Bird to your hand: during your organization phase or
if its controlling character leaves active play. Radagast may play this ally at
any site (tapped or untapped) and need not tap himself or the site to do so.
This ally may attempt to influence factions as if he were a character. He may
cancel a strike directed against him - tapping afterwards if not already tapped.
The only stage ally in the game is a very ally Radagast can take along in his Winged
useful pet for Radagast. It can come in Change-master mode (see below).
and go out of play at will. If it is wounded,
just return it to your hand (the only stage
card to do so) during the org phase and
make it come back during the site phase
untapped. It can get the factions Rada-
gast may have trouble to muster, and it
may cancel a strike. Plus, it’s the only
2.8.7 Shifter of Hues

Permanent Event (R) [SP: 1; GI: 27; DI: 3; P/B: 6/10; CC: -2]

Return this card to your hand: when you play another Shapeshifter card or,
if you choose, during your organization phase. In addition to adopting the
given attributes, Radagast’s skills become Warrior/Diplomat. Radagast may
not move. You may keep one more card than normal in your hand. Radagast
can tap give +2 to the corruption checks of the characters in one company
through your next organization phase (this company must be moving with at
least one Wilderness in their site path). Radagast may bear, but may not use,
items.
This second shapeshifter card transforms (he’s a tree!) and suffers a -2 modifier to
Radagast into a tree and becomes much his corruption checks.
harder to kill with a body check. He may
not move to a new site and his DI is just
enough to control a 3-mind, 1 MP charac-
ter. However, he can help with his com-
panies’ corruption checks as long as they
are moving through a Wilderness. Similar
to Master of Shapes, he can’t use his items
24
2.8.8 Winged Change-Master

Permanent Event (R) [SP: 1; GI: 19; DI: 8; P/B: 3/9; CC: -2]

Return this card to your hand: when you play another Shapeshifter card or, if
you choose, during your organization phase. In addition to adopting the given
attributes, Radagast’s skills become Scout/Diplomat. If no other characters or
allies (except his Black Bird) are in his company: Radagast may move to a new
site with no region card maximum, he has no site path, and he is considered to
move through no regions. Radagast may bear, but may not use, items.
This Shapeshifter card actually allows physique is the weakest in this mode. You
Radagast to fly from one corner of Middle- cannot use items to enhance this, and you
earth to another (as long as he’s alone or cannot use those Warrior or Ranger only
with his Black Bird) with no hassles at all. cards. Additionally, one well-placed River
He has no site path and moves through no can leave him twiddling his thumbs dur-
regions, which means only creatures that ing the site phase. As with the other
can be played keyed to the sites. His in- shapeshifter cards, he suffers a -2 corrup-
creased DI can only mean that this card is tion check modifier and he cannot use his
very useful for gathering big MP factions items.
located at different parts of the map. Be
careful if you use Radagast for this rea-
son, though. As he will not control char-
acters, they will be under GI, and with it
being reduced to 19; you might be vulner-
able to various hazards and influence at-
tempts. Also, take note that Radagast’s
25
2.9. SARUMAN CHAPTER 2. FALLEN-WIZARDS
2.9 Saruman
“The fallen Saruman (of Many Colors) is the master of inanimate nature. He
gathers knowledge and makes inanimate objects. He is obsessed with using his
own personal power, items, and abilities to contest Sauron.“
SARUMAN - Scout/Ranger/Sage/Diplomat Fallen-wizard (C)

[GI: 15; DI: 12; P/B: 6/9; Home Site: Isengard]
Unique. Can use sorcery. Your non-weapon/ non-armor/non-shield/non-helmet

items are each worth full marshalling points. May tap to use a Palantír he bears.
-1 to all corruption checks. At the beginning of your end-of-turn phase, you may
tap Saruman to take one spell or sorcery card from your discard pile to your
hand.
At first glance, Saruman seemed to have man can go to the White Towers if he
become weaker in his Fallen-wizard ver- plans to join his companies there or vice-
sion. He now has a -1 corruption check versa. However, the land may be too hos-
modifier - a reason to include The White tile, so make sure to pack some cancelers.
Wizard in a fallen Saruman strategy. His His home site is in reach to gather Anduin
DI is increased by 2, but his GI has Vales, Eriadoran and Gondor factions, as
been reduced by 5. He primarily boosts well as many gold ring sites west and east
MPs from “lore“-items: rings, Palantíri, of the mountains.
and other non-“combat“-items, which, in a Saruman is the Fallen-wizard that needs a
game where companies are bound to face protected Wizardhaven the most. His two
combat, may not be of much help. How- stage resources, Saruman’s Machinery and
ever, Saruman’s home site of Isengard al- The White Hand, needs this requirement
lows you to instantly play Palantír of Or- for them to be played. Plus, the other re-
thanc on him to allow you to recycle those quirement of The White Hand is A Strident
cancelers (which is usually found in fallen Spawn, which also needs a protected Wiz-
Saruman decks, as he is a scout). If you haven. Make sure to include the Keys of
leave him sitting at Isengard, he will almost either the White Towers or Orthanc so as
always tap during the whole turn either to to make sure you own the place.
get a Technology item (using Saruman’s
Machinery), to tap the Orthanc-stone, or
to retrieve a card from the discard pile.
In addition to recycling spell cards, he may
now also recycle sorcery cards, particularly
White Light Broken, which can help Saru-
man with his corruption checks (it acts like
a backup First of the Order).
His home site can be reached from
Arthedain or Rhudaur in one turn, so Saru-
26
2.10. SARUMAN SPECIFIC STAGE RESOURCESCHAPTER 2. FALLEN-WIZARDS
2.10 Saruman specific Stage resources

2.10.1 The Forge-Master
Permanent-Event (C) [SP: 1]
Unique. Saruman specific. Playable on a non-Hobbit sage character or a Man.

+1 to his direct influence. The character requires 2 points of influence to con-
trol and may only be controlled by general influence or Saruman. If at a Wiz-
ardhaven during your organization phase, you may tap this character to place
a non-unique weapon/armor/shield/helmet minor item with any character at
The Forge-master’s site. The recipient need not tap to receive this item, and
the item may be taken from your discard pile, sideboard, or hand.
Saruman’s Mind alterer is limited only to them on your deck. You need not waste
non-Hobbit sages and Men, but reduces deck space for the minor items and no need
that character’s mind to 2 mind. It’s re- to tap the character playing it.
cycling ability, however, is not that useful
as it only recovers “combat“ minor items
(items Saruman can’t boost and items that
actually don’t have MPs) - used perhaps to
retrieve those important minor items dis-
carded by “Rats!“. However, it may be use-
ful to fill up Armories if you pan on putting
27
2.10.2 Many-coloured Robes

Permanent-Event (U) [SP: 1; CP: 1]
Unique. Saruman specific. Place this card on Saruman if he is in play. If

on Saruman, he may tap during his end-of-turn phase to take Ringlore, Lordly
Presence, or First of the Order from his discard pile to his hand.
Saruman’s first recycler is very useful if you way of untapping him at the end-of-turn
plan to play either a multiple ring strategy phase so as to use his Fallen-wizard abil-
or faction gathering strategy. It can also ity and this card’s ability. Watch out for
help Saruman a lot by recycling First of the this card’s CP, as it might prove disastrous
Order for those nasty corruption checks, to Saruman with one bad corruption check
thus making his checks for the rest of the dice roll.
turn a +1 instead of a -1. What’s unique
about this recycler compared to the other
Fallen-wizards’ is that it you have to tap
Saruman, not the card, to recycle the above
cards. Not very helpful, especially if you
need Saruman to retrieve his spell and sor-
cery cards. You may want to have some
2.10.3 Man of Skill

Permanent (U) [SP: 1; CP: 1]
Unique. Saruman specific. Your permanent-events that require a site where

Information is playable are each worth 2 marshalling points.
This MP booster stage resource allows you and winning the game.
to turn those 1MP information cards (usu-
ally requiring a sage to play) to 2 MPs.
Cards to consider include: When I Know
Anything, When You Know More, That
Ain’t No Secret (which doesn’t require you
to tap the site). His home site is centrally
located to 4-5 Information sites, and this
card can help you in balancing those MPs
28
2.10.4 Saruman’s Machinery

This card allows you to get those Blasting Fires, Liquid Fires and Vile Fumes
at your Wizardhaven without the risk of going to those shadow-holds and dark-
holds. Just make sure there’s at least one character at the site so as to prevent
this card from being discarded.
This card allows you to get those Blasting

Fires, Liquid Fires and Vile Fumes at your
Wizardhaven without the risk of going to
those shadow-holds and dark-holds. Just
make sure there’s at least one character at
the site so as to prevent this card from be-
ing discarded.
2.10.5 Saruman’s Ring

Unique. Saruman specific. Place this card on Saruman if he is in play. If on

Saruman, you may tap Saruman’s Ring during your end-of-turn phase to take
a ring item (other than The One Ring) from your discard pile to your hand.
Saruman’s second recylcer is very helpful to Saruman.

when playing a pure ring strategy. Us-
ing this card, you can save deck space
by putting ring items in your sideboard
and letting this card take them to your
hand. In a One Ring strategy, it allows you
to recover tested rings or those discarded
by Rolled Down to the Sea. Be careful,
though, as this card will add another CP
29
2.10.6 The White Hand

Permanent Event (R) [MP: 6; SP: 3; DI: +2; P/B: +1/0]
Saruman specific. Playable on Saruman if he has the following in play: at

least 12 stage points, at least 3 factions, A Strident Spawn, and Saruman’s
Machinery. Cannot be duplicated.
Unlike the other Fallen-wizards’ MPs stage Tree played on Wizard’s Trove and that’s a
cards, Saruman’s MP stage resource only whooping 11 MP gain! Best played if you
gives Saruman 6 big MPs, 3 SPs, and a are ready to call your Day of Reckoning.
boost to his prowess and DI; and with
those requirements to bring it to play, it
can be difficult to pull it off. Kind of dis-
appointing, too, given that this is the in-
spiration for this expansion. Saruman de-
serves something more from this card, but
the 6 MPs can be a deciding factor in win-
ning the game. Combine this with a White
30
3 Characters
3.0.7 Doeth (Durthak)

Warrior/Sage Orc (R) [MP:1; Mind: 4; DI: 0; P/B: 4/9; Home Site: Any Dark-Hold]
Unique. Half-orc. Discard on a body check result of 9.
Doeth is unique to other Orc characters in

that he is the only sage orc in the game.
This means a pure Orc company can now
pack important sage only cards like Voices
of Malice and let Doeth play them. His
body is tough enough unlike many Orc
minions as well.
3.0.8 Euog (Ulzog)

Warrior/Diplomat Half-Orc (R) [MP:2; Mind: 5; DI: 1; P/B: 5/9; Home Site: Any Dark-
Hold]
Unique. Half-orc. Leader. Discard on a body check result of 9. +2 direct

influence against Orcs and Orc factions.
Euog is another unique Orc, as he is the bonus too.

only Orc minion with the diplomat skill.
Give him a Blazon of the Eye and he can
be very effective in Mordor caravanning f
to get those Orc factions. He can also use
diplomat only cards that are usually used
by covert minion companies. His prowess
and body are reasonable enough to face
various attacks, and his 2 MPs is a nice
31
CHAPTER 3. CHARACTERS
3.0.9 Lugdush
Warrior/Scout Orc (U) [MP:1; Mind: 4; DI: 0; P/B: 5/8; Home Site: Isengard]
Unique. Uruk-hai. Discard on a body check result of 8.
The fourth unique Orc scout in the game.

This means you can now have a starting
company of the four unique Orc scouts and
just have a hazard limit of 2. He is also the
only Orc scout to have a home site not re-
ally connected with Sauron, but with Saru-
man. His prowess and body are average,
and he carries 1 MP.
3.0.10 Ugluk
Warrior/Ranger Orc (R) [MP:2; Mind: 5; DI: 0; P/B: 5/9; Home Site: Isengard]
Unique. Uruk-hai. Leader. Discard on a body check result of 9. +3 direct

influence against Orcs and Orc factions.
Another Orc leader, he has the useful

ranger skill, and the highest body of any
Orc. He is useful if you don’t want (or
need) another Orc scout.
3.0.11 Ill-Favoured Fellow

Warrior/Ranger Orc (C) [MP: 1; Mind: 3; DI: 0; P/B: 2/9; Home Site: Any Dark-Hold]
Half-orc. Discard on a body check result of 9.
3.0.12 Sly Southerner

Warrior/Scout Orc (C) [Mind: 2; DI: 0; P/B: 1/9; Home Site: Any Dark-hold]
32
CHAPTER 3. CHARACTERS
3.0.13 Squint-eyed Brute

Warrior Orc (C) [Mind: 2; DI: 0; P/B: 3/9; Home Site: Any Dark-hold]
These three characters provide new non-unique characters for minions and Fallen-wizards
and are somewhat better compared to their MELE counterparts.
Ill-favoured Fellow is the cheapest Orc ranger in the game together with Orc Tracker.
However, unlike the Tracker, he is much harder to kill with a higher body. Plus, he does
not have a -1 corruption check modifier. However, his prowess is one less than the Tracker’s
prowess of 3. Ill-favoured fellows are a good replacement for Trackers if you want to include
rangers in the company.
Just as Ill-favoured Fellows are the best replacements for Orc Trackers, Sly Southerner is
the replacement for Orc Snifflers. Their higher body, higher discard roll and the absence
of a negative corruption check modifier makes them a better choice over the Snifflers.
Squint-eyed Brutes are better compared to Orc Brawlers or Orc veterans. They have a
higher body at the expense of a higher mind compared to the Brawlers and at the expense
of a lower prowess compared to the Veterans. Plus, they don’t have any corruption check
modifiers. With all these characters being common it should not prove to hard to get a
bunch.
33
4 Stage Resources
4.1 General Events

Stage cards are a new type of resource card playable only by Fallen-wizard players. Most
of these cards are permanent-events, and each stage resource help a Fallen-wizard player in
achieving victory by “boosting“ their MPs, improving their table advantage or by plainly
giving them more MPs. Each Fallen-wizard also has a set of specific stage resources playable
only by that Fallen-wizard (see Stage Resources - Specific). General stage resources are
stage cards that can be played regardless of which Fallen-wizard you are. Some of these
are very helpful to certain Fallen-wizards, as not all of their specific stage resources cover
each dimension in their play, leaving them a weak spot that could cost them the game.
Unless you are playing as a Fallen-wizard, most of these cards are of no use to you.
A trick when playing as a Fallen-wizard is what stage resources, both general and specific,
are you going to include in your deck. This is very important, as you need to fill up your
resource half with MP resources and support resources. Trying to fit in stage resources in
the mix can be quite difficult, especially if you’re trying to limit your deck size to the 30/30
minimums. A way to deal with this is by figuring out which Fallen-wizard you’re going to
play as; look at the specific stage cards applicable to the wizard, and then fill in any gaps
with the generic stage cards. For example, if you are going to play as fallen Alatar, it is
quite obvious that he boosts item and kill MPs to their maximum, as well as allies with a
prowess attribute, but you might want to use generic stage cards to increase item points.
4.1.1 A Merrier World

Permanent-event (C) [SP: 2]
Playable if you have more than 7 stage points. Hazards your companies defeat
(for which you otherwise get 1 MP) are each worth full kill marshalling points.
Cannot be duplicated by a given player.
A useful card, this one duplicates fallen

Alatar’s special ability by giving you full
kill points from hazards. Very helpful if
you are not playing as fallen Alatar and
expecting to kill lots of hazard creatures,
or worth considering for the sideboard in
case you get lucky and kill some creatures
anyway.
34
4.1. GENERAL EVENTS CHAPTER 4. STAGE RESOURCES
4.1.2 A New Ringlord

Permanent-event (R) [SP: 3; CP: 1]
Playable on your Fallen-wizard if he has The One Ring at one of your Wiz-
ardhavens. Only one A New Ringlord may be played in a given turn. Make
a roll during each of your end-of-turn phases if your Fallen-wizard is bearing
The One Ring and is at a Ruins and Lairs where Information is playable. Add
1 for each A New Ringlord you have in play. If the result is less than 6, your
fallen-Wizard is eliminated. If the result is greater than 9, you win the game.
A New Ringlord is the stage resource card cards. You still need to get to the Infor-
that will enable a Fallen-wizard player to mation site and there make a roll that is
win a One Ring victory. However, this perhaps the most decisive one for a Fallen-
card carries with it 1 CP, which means wizard One Ring strategy. Only the 3
your Fallen-wizard will be forced to carry Ringlord cards can help you in achieving
a great deal of corruption (a total of 10 victory. Given you have 3 Ringlord cards
CPs - 7 from the Ring and 3 from the in play; a double one on the dice roll will
three Ringlord cards). Take note that your automatically kill your Fallen-wizard. You
chances of winning is greater if you have 3 will need to roll at least a seven if you want
copies of this card on your Fallen-wizard, as to win it. If you roll a value between 2-6,
each card will modify the roll that you have nothing happens and you will have to wait
to make during the end-of-turn phase by another turn to roll again. Again, this can
+1. If you only have one copy of this, you be the time your opponent needs to catch
might end up with a dead Fallen-wizard up and win.
and a big loss. Additionally, if you want
3 copies of this card in play, you will have
to spend three turns sitting at the Wizard-
haven to bring each Ringlord card down
that is sometimes enough for your oppo-
nent to win the game. It does not end with
the successful play of 3 A New Ringlord
4.1.3 A Strident Spawn

Permanent-event (U) [MP: 1; SP: 4]
Unique. Playable if you are Pallando or Saruman and have 6 or more stage
points and a protected Wizardhaven. Each of your Half-orcs requires one less
point of influence to control. During your organization phase, you may take
one Half- orc character from your discard pile to your hand. You may play
Half-orc characters at your Wizardhavens, and even if your Fallen-wizard is
not there. Cannot be duplicated by a given player.
35
Only worth putting in the deck if you are Unique, meaning you can only have one
playing as fallen Pallando or Saruman, this copy of this and you have to beat your op-
card is very helpful if you want to include ponent (if he is playing as the other fallen
Half-orc characters in your deck and use Wizard listed in the card) to play it.
them actively during the game. Plus, it
is a good alternative to Bad Company if
you don’t want to play pure Orc or Troll
characters. The only delay you might have
when attempting to play this card is try-
ing to have a protected Wizardhaven. Take
note that there is errata making this card
4.1.4 An Untimely Brood

Permanent-event (C) [MP: 1; SP: 4]
Playable if you are Radagast or Alatar and have 6 or more stage points and
a protected Wizardhaven. One non-unique ally with a mind of 1 is playable
at one of your tapped or untapped protected Wizardhavens each of your site
phases. Cannot be duplicated by a given player.
Similar to Friend of Secret Things, but

playable by both Alatar and Radagast, this
card encourages you to leave a company in
comparative safety at a wizard haven and
still accumulate MPs every turn.
4.1.5 Bad Company

You may play Orc and Troll characters and include them in your starting com-
pany. Cannot be duplicated by a given player.
This card allows you to play Orcs and

Trolls and form overt starting companies.
However, since there are a lot of restrictions
concerning the play of Orcs and Trolls as
stated in the rules, you might think twice
about using this card. Use this card only
if your FW strategy heavily relies on such
characters.
36
4.1.6 Blind to all Else

Your ring items are each worth full marshalling points. Cannot be duplicated
by a given player.
This stage resource is obviously used for

FW ring strategies. Unless your resource
strategy revolves around rings, you do not
want to include this in your deck, unless
you want to increase your stage points, as
this card has no prerequisite stage card to-
tal before it can be played.
4.1.7 Delver’s Harvest

Permanent-event (U) [MP: 1]
Playable during the site phase if one of your companies enters the Deep Mines
site.
A penny MP stage card that is easy to play

and worth putting in the deck if you are
going to exploit your travels in the Deep
Mines. Note this does not tap the site, and
can be played at a tapped site. You do not
have to tap a character to play it, and it
can be duplicated during a site phase, so
you can play 3 in one turn if you want to.
37
4.1.8 Double-Dealing
Playable on a site. If the site is a minion site, you may play appropriate hero
resources there. If the site is a hero site, you may play appropriate minion
resources there. Discard when this site is discarded or returned to your location
deck.
Normally, you can only visit minion sites site has.

that are Ruins & Lairs. You must use
hero sites for the rest. This makes it hard
for FW companies to get minion resources
that cannot be played on Ruins & Lairs.
This card allows you to play resources of
different alignments without going through
automatic-attacks different versions of the
4.1.9 Earth-Eater
Permanent-event (R) [MP: 1]
Technology. Playable during the site phase if one of your companies enters
the Deep Mines site and you have more Delver’s Harvest cards in play than
you have Earth-eater cards. Tap Earth-eater to take a minion non-unique
weapon/armor/shield/helmet major item from your sideboard or discard pile
to your hand.
A good card to play together with Delver’s

Harvest in that it also provides another
penny MP. Just make sure you play
the Delver’s Harvest cards first before
this card. Its ability to retrieve minion
“combat“-items can be very useful, too, if
you want to supply your characters with
arms or if you need item MPs.
4.1.10 The Fortress of Isen

Permanent-event (U) [SP: 3]
Unique. May not be a starting stage card. Playable if you are Alatar, Pallando,
or Saruman. Playable on Isengard. Isengard is protected. Other Fallen-wizards
may not use the Wizardhaven card for Isengard. Cards that give marshalling
points are not playable at the site by your opponent in all cases. Discard this
card when the site is discarded or returned to its location deck.
38
This card is essential for certain Fallen- the errata, this card was much more pow-
wizard strategies; particularly those that erful as opponents had a hard time playing
need a protected Wizardhaven to play any creatures on the Fallen-wizard’s com-
other stage resources or MP resources. panies, especially heavy creature hazard
Plus, it allows your Fallen-wizard the priv- strategies. Considering that Gap of Isen is
ilege to use this Wizardhaven all for him- a central region in the map (it is perhaps
self (if your opponent is also a FW). This is one of the safer routes to cross the Misty
the first of the two that protects one of the Mountains), it also has access to many MP
most used Wizardhavens: Isengard. This sources on both sides.
is obviously going to be seen in most fallen
Saruman decks, as that is Saruman’s home
site. However, Pallando and Alatar can
also use this site, if you plan to use this
as their Wizardhaven as well. Take note
that this card has been errated to minimize
the dominant squatting strategies. Before
4.1.11 Fortress of the Towers

Unique. May not be a starting stage card. Playable if you are Alatar, Pallando,
or Saruman. Playable on The White Towers. The White Towers is protected.
Other Fallen-wizards may not use the Wizardhaven card for The White Towers.
Cards that give marshalling points are not playable at the site by your opponent
in all cases. Discard this card when the site is discarded or returned to its
location deck.
The second of the two cards that protects card, though. As with Fortress of Isen, this
anther useful Wizardhaven: The White card was much more powerful before the
Towers. This one is probably included errata as most opponents cannot play deep
in almost all Fallen-wizard decks primar- Wilderness creatures. However since the
ily because most FW companies start off errata this card is still widely used by FW
at the White Towers. Second is its central players.
location in the region of Arthedain, which
is adjacent to a number of regions whose
sites are sources of various MP resources:
factions, items and allies. If the Fortress
of Isen can be seen in most fallen Saru-
man decks, this one can be seen in most
fallen Pallando decks as this is his home
site. Saruman and Alatar can still use this
39
4.1.12 Gatherer of Loyalties

Playable if you have more than 3 stage points. Your unique factions are each
worth 2 marshalling points. If you are Alatar, your unique Dragon factions
are each worth 4 marshalling points. If you are Pallando, your unique factions
normally worth 3 or more marshalling points are each worth 3 marshalling
points. Cannot be duplicated by a given player.
An essential card to put in the deck if you an instant 2 MP.

are playing Fallen-wizard, this one boosts
your faction MPs. If you are playing as a
particular FW listed on this card, you get
to increase more certain faction MPs. if
your are playing as fallen Alatar, Scorba
Roused becomes 4 MPs. Fallen Pallando’s
Rangers of the North gets full MPs. The
Hobbits and hero Hillmen faction become
4.1.13 Gnawed Ways

Permanent-event (R) [SP: 1]
Playable on one of your Deep Mines sites. The Deep Mines site is now adjacent
to an Under-deeps site of your choice whose surface site is in a region containing
or adjacent to the region containing the Deep Mines surface site. The movement
number required to move between these two Under-deeps sites is (7). This card
may also be played as a hazard on one of your opponent’s Deep Mines sites.
Discard this card when Deep Mines is discarded or returned to its location deck.
Cannot be duplicated on a given Deep Mines site.
Another card worth considering putting in gies think twice before going deeper under-
your deck if you’re intending to visit the ground. Balrog strategies can make use of
Deep Mines; this card helps you have a it by suddenly forcing their Deep Mines to
series of under-ground tunnels to connect be entered by the Balrog’s company.
certain sites that may be essential to your
strategy. Imagine your Deep Mines site at
the White Towers suddenly connected to
The Iron-deeps or The Under-vaults. You
can make a quick dash at these under-
deep sites and grab some big item MPs.
It can also be useful as a hazard in that it
can make Fallen-wizard Deep Mines strate-
40
4.1.14 Great Patron

Your characters and allies that normally give 2 or more marshalling points are
each worth 2 marshalling points. Cannot be duplicated by a given player.
Another essential card to put in the deck to

get full MPs from your 5-mind characters
and to increase your ally MPs. Considering
that a large part of a player’s MPs either
comes from items or factions, this card will
be useful in balancing out those MPs.
4.1.15 Great Ruse

Playable during the site phase on a Shadow-hold or Dark-hold hero site if you
have an overt company there. Replace the hero site card with the corresponding
minion site card. Discard when this site is discarded or returned to your location
deck.
A site changing stage card that can be use-

ful if you intend in organizing overt FW
companies. A card to include if you plan to
recruit the factions playable at the minion
Darkhavens, or plan to squat at shadow-
holds collecting War-wolves, Blasting Fires
and Snaga-hai, plus it gives you a mar-
shalling point.
4.1.16 Guarded Haven

Playable on one of your Wizardhavens other than Isengard, The White Towers,
or Rhosgobel. The site is protected. Cards that give marshalling points are not
playable at the site by your opponent in all cases. Cannot be duplicated on a
given site. You may not use this card as a starting resource.
In case your FW opponent got first in get- is a good alternative to have a protected
ting the Fortress of the Towers or Isen, this Wizardhaven of your own. It gives you 1
41
MP plus it prevents your opponent from Haven.

using this certain site to get MPs. Simi-
lar to the two Fortress cards, however, this
has been errated making it less powerful.
However, it still allows you to play cer-
tain stage and MP resources that requires
a protected Wizardhaven. A good stage re-
source combo for this card is using Hidden
4.1.17 Hidden Haven

Playable on a non-Dragon’s lair Ruins and Lairs in a Wilderness, Border-

land, or Shadow-land ; the site must normally be a Ruins and Lairs. This site
becomes one of your Wizardhavens and loses all automatic-attacks. Nothing
is considered playable as written on the site card. If one of your companies is
at this site, all attacks against it are canceled. Other Fallen-wizards may not
use this site as a Wizardhaven. Discard this card when the site is discarded or
returned to its location deck. It cannot be discarded otherwise.
A useful card if you do not wish to start Haven so as to make the Hidden Haven pro-
off at The White Towers. It can also be tected.
useful if you plan to cross east of the Misty
Mountains, as there are no Wizardhavens
out there (unless you’re fallen Radagast).
If you include this card in your deck, make
sure to play something first at the site be-
fore playing this card to make full use of it.
It can be a good combo card to Guarded
4.1.18 Legacy of Smiths

Playable if you have more than 6 stage points. Your non-ring items are each
worth full marshalling points. Cannot be duplicated by a given player.
Another essential card to get full MPs off

your non-ring items; unless you’re only
playing with 1 MP items, this card is im-
portant to get a boost from your items.
42
4.1.19 Mischief in a Mean Way

Permanent-event (R) [MP: 2; SP: 2]
Playable during the site phase on a Border-hold site if you have 10 or more stage
points. This site becomes one of your Wizardhavens and loses all automatic-
attacks. Nothing is considered playable as written on the site. If one of your
companies is at this site, all attacks against it are canceled. Other Fallen-
wizards may not use this site as a Wizardhaven. Discard this card when the site
is discarded or returned to its location deck. It cannot be discarded otherwise.
This card’s effect is similar to Hidden get discarded.

Haven, except this card is only playable at
the site phase and needs a SP minimum re-
quirement. Make sure you play something
out of the Border-hold (Border-hold fac-
tions, Noble Hounds) before playing this
card. You can even add No Strangers at
this Time to make sure the site does not
4.1.20 Never Refuse

All corruption checks by your non-Wizard characters caused by your magic

cards are modified by +2.
If you are planning to play a magic-heavy

resource strategy or even if you just plan to
include magic cards in your deck, this card
can be helpful as most of those magic cards
have big negative modifiers to their result-
ing corruption checks. Take note that this
card can be duplicated.
43
4.1.21 Plotting Ruin

Playable if you have more than 7 stage points. You must use minion site cards
for Hero Havens, Free-holds and Border-holds.
Another site-changing stage resource, this

time if you intend to play certain minion
MP resources (especially items at minion
versions of the hero Havens) at the sites
listed in the card.
4.1.22 Shameful Deeds

Playable if you are not Alatar and have more than 6 stage points. Hazards
with an asterisk [*] attack your companies normally, not as detainment. Such
hazards your companies defeat while this card is in play give you full kill mar-
shalling points. You receive no kill marshalling points from other hazards if this
card is in play. Cannot be duplicated by a given player.
This card can only be played by non-fallen ing this card in the sideboard and bring it
Alatar decks, it is not particularly useful as into your deck if your opponent is playing
it only gives you full MPs from * hazards. a free-people (*) hazard creature strategy.
While there are some hazard strategies that
use Free Peoples as creatures, it is very sel-
dom as most players still prefer the tried
and tested creatures such as Cave-drakes,
Slayers and Sellswords. As you don’t get
MPs from these creatures while this card is
in play, you might want to consider includ-
4.1.23 Spells Born of Discord

Your Fallen-wizard may use sorcery, spirit-magic, and shadow-magic. Cannot

be duplicated by a given player.
44
A stage card that allows your Fallen-wizard can handle the resulting corruption checks.
to play magic cards, some Fallen-wizards
can already use certain magic cards, but
this card allows you to use all three. If you
plan to include magic cards or are running
a heavy magic resource strategy, this card
is useful. Imagine Alatar casting A Malady
without Healing. Just make sure your FW
4.1.24 Thrall of the Voice

Instead of a normal character, during your organization phase you may bring
into play one character (including a minion agent) with up to a 6 mind. Place
this card with the character. -1 to his mind to a minimum of 1. Such a character
may also be in your starting company.
A useful starting stage resource, this card

allows you to play up to three 6-mind char-
acters in your starting company. It can
even allow you to play agents, somewhat
duplicating the effects of Open to the Sum-
mons. Or allowing you to play an orc or
troll without a Bad Company.
4.1.25 War-Forges
Playable on one of your protected Wizardhavens (not by Radagast). You may

tap War-forges to make an additional non-hoard, non-unique minor item playable
at this site this turn (if the site is tapped or not). The item may be taken from
your discard pile or sideboard. Discard when this site is discarded or returned
to your location deck. Cannot be duplicated on a given site.
If you plan to use Armory in your deck, this

card can be useful in quickly getting those
penny MPs as it speeds up your acquisition
of minor items.
45
4.1.26 Wizard’s Myrmidon

Playable on one of your non-Fallen-wizard characters. +1 to his direct influ-

ence. The character requires 3 points of influence to control and may only be
controlled by general influence or a Fallen-wizard. Cannot be duplicated by a
given player.
Another useful starting stage resource, this

is the basic mind-alterer cad available for
all Fallen-wizards. It reduces a charac-
ter’s mind, thus saving you precious GI. It
even increases his DI - helpful in controlling
characters and influencing factions.
4.1.27 Wizard’s Trove

Permanent-event (R) [SP: 1]
You may play The White Tree at one of your Wizardhavens if Sapling of the
White Tree is stored there. Place Wizard’s Trove with The White Tree - which
is worth full marshalling points. Your Wizardhaven becomes protected. Ignore
the text of The White Tree. Alternatively, you may store one miscellaneous
marshalling point card at one of your Wizardhavens. Any reference to the site
where the card can normally be stored are transferred instead to the Wizard-
haven. Place Wizard’s Trove with the stored card - which is worth full mar-
shalling points.
This card is very helpful in a number of The White Tree. If you plan to play cards
ways. First is that it allows you to play The like Fate of the Ithil-stone, you get the full
White Tree at your Wizardhaven. Second MPs. However, it’s much easier to just play
is that it gives you full MPs from the Tree - the Tree for a quick 5 MPs.
a good +5 increase to your MP total. Plus,
it can be very frustrating to hero Gondor
decks if you manage to plant the Tree first.
Third, it protects your Wizardhaven - a
good alternative to the two Fortress cards
or Guarded Haven. Its alternative effect
can also be useful if you don’t plan to play
46
4.2. FACTIONS CHAPTER 4. STAGE RESOURCES
4.2 Factions
4.2.1 Greater Half-Orcs
Orc Faction (R) [MP:2; SP: 1]
Playable at one of your protected Wizardhavens (if tapped or untapped) if you

have A Strident Spawn and Half-orcs in play and if the influence check is greater
than 11.
4.2.2 Half-Orcs
Orc Faction (U) [MP:1; SP: 1]
Playable at one of your protected Wizardhavens (if tapped or untapped) if you

have A Strident Spawn in play and if the influence check is greater than 9.
MEWH provides two new factions that only need a protected Wizardhaven and A
are playable only by Fallen-wizards. Both Strident Spawn to play; and the influence
are non-unique, carry stage points and are check is lower. Greater Half-orcs are much
playable at their protected Wizardhavens. harder to recruit, as you need to have at
A problem both of these factions present least one Half-orcs faction to get them out
is that there are certain requirements to in addition to the protected Wizardhaven
be met in order for them to be played. A and A Strident Spawn requirement. Plus,
bad shuffle can ruin the strategy. Hence, the influence check is much higher. It is
it is helpful to prepare your deck with the suggested that the Greater Half-orcs are to
important cards listed in the faction cards come from the sideboard and just get them
to get them out easily if not quickly. The when you have at least one Half-orc faction
Half-orcs are the easier to play, as they in play.
47
4.3. ITEMS CHAPTER 4. STAGE RESOURCES
4.3 Items
4.3.1 Keys of Orthanc
Special Item (R) [MP: 2; SP: 1; CP: 1]
Unique. Playable at Minas Tirith. During your organization phase, you may:
take The Fortress of Isen card from your play deck or discard pile to your hand
or discard The Fortress of Isen card if in play by another player. Reshuffle your
play deck if searched.
4.3.2 Keys to the White Towers

Special Item (R) [MP: 2; SP: 1; CP: 1]
Unique. Playable at Barrow-downs. During your organization phase, you may:

take the Fortress of the Towers card from your play deck or discard pile to your
hand or discard the Fortress of the Towers card if in play by another player.
Reshuffle your play deck if searched.
The two stage items included in MEWH sion. Even if having a protected Wizard-
are useful only to Fallen-wizards and only haven is not integral to your strategy, it
if you plan to have a protected Wizard- can still be useful to include in your deck
haven. It can be very useful if your FW just in case. It’s better to have a place to
opponent is also using the same Wizard- stay at and heal rather than have nothing
haven as yours. These two Keys virtually at all. Finally these keys are a guaranteed
gives you the right to build or own either 2 MPs each Ű even if you don’t manage to
Fortress even if your opponent already has play Legacy of Smiths.
as long as you have them in your posses-
48
5 Fallen-Wizard Sites
The four sites included in MEWH are usable only by Fallen-wizard players, three of them
having a respective hero and minion counterpart. These three are treated for the Fallen-
wizard player as Wizardhavens. The other, Deep Mines, is a totally new site located in
the Under-deeps and normally adjacent only to a protected Wizardhaven.
5.0.3 Deep Mines

Ruins and Lairs (Under-deeps) [opponent draws/you draw: 2/1; SP: 3]
A company may move to this site only from one of your protected Wizardhavens
and only if you have more than 6 stage points. The protected Wizardhaven is
the surface site for Deep Mines (i.e., the sites are adjacent and the movement
roll required to move between them is 0). You receive the three stage points
if any of your companies are at the site. May be duplicated in location deck.
Cannot be duplicated on a given Wizardhaven.
The Deep Mines is a new site that can only Noldo Lanterns and Dwarven Lightstones
be included in a Fallen-wizard’s location (from Dark Minions) are playable here, as
deck. This site is used for the play of cer- are Delver’s Harvest and Earth Eater.
tain stage resources and it provides you 3
SPs. Note that because of the errata this
site cannot be duplicated at a given Wiz-
ardhaven. You should also be wary of crea-
tures that can be keyed to Ruins & Lairs
as they can be played keyed to this site.
This is a useful site for Fallen Wizards, as
5.0.4 Isengard
(Wizardhaven) Gap of Isen (C) [opponent draws/you draw: 2/2]
Special: If one of your companies is at this site, all attacks against it are
canceled.
The first of the two Wizardhavens that ac- central to certain Fallen-wizard strategies
commodates all Fallen-wizards, this card is (especially Saruman’s being his homesite)
49
CHAPTER 5. FALLEN-WIZARD SITES
as it is one of the two Wizardhavens on

which a Fortress can be built, it is located
in the Gap of Isen region, and has access to
a variety of MP sources on both sides of the
Misty Mountains. Being a Wizardhaven,
any attack against any of your companies
at this site is canceled.
5.0.5 Rhosgobel
(Wizardhaven) Southern Mirkwood (C) [opponent draws/you draw: 2/2; SP: 1]
Special: Only Radagast’s companies may use this card. This site is a protected
Wizardhaven. If one of your companies is at this site, all attacks against it are
canceled. You receive the stage point if any of your companies are at this site.
This Wizardhaven is exclusively for use by this card, it can still be useful for the play
Radagast and his companies. Therefore, of certain cards, and essential for a fallen
only fallen Radagast players can actually Radagast deck if you intend to actually
move to the FW version of this site. Plus, play the wizard himself (as it’s his home
it’s a protected Wizardhaven. This means site).
fallen Radagast companies, unless they are
based in the Eriador or lower Misty Moun-
tains area, need not worry about having a
protected Wizardhaven or a place to heal,
and companies at this site have direct ac-
cess to the Deep Mines without having to
play additional cards (to make the haven
protected). Even with the errata given on
50
CHAPTER 5. FALLEN-WIZARD SITES
5.0.6 The White Towers

(Wizardhaven) Arthedain [opponent draws/you draw: 2/2]
Special: If one of your companies is at this site, all attacks against it are
canceled.
This is probably the most popular Wizard- cation in Arthedain is also quite strategic
haven, this being the common starting site as there a number of MP sources close by.
of most Fallen-wizard companies, and the
home site of Fallen Pallando. It is the sec-
ond of the two Wizardhavens that accom-
modates all Fallen-wizards, and has the
same benefit the FW version of Isengard
has, namely all attacks against any of your
companies at this site are canceled. Its lo-
51
6 Hero Resources
6.1 Allies
6.1.1 Noble Steed
Ally (C) [MP: 1; Mind: 1; P/B: 0/8]
Playable at any tapped or untapped non-Haven site in Rohan, Southern Rho-

vanion, Khand, Dorwinion, Horse Plains, or Harondor. If each character in a
company controls a Noble Steed (or Bill the Pony or Shadowfax), the company
may move up to two additional regions. Tap to cancel a strike (not from an
automatic-attack) against its bearer or itself.
A substitute to Shadowfax (which is eliminate compared to the Hound. Addi-

unique), this ally makes a nice addition to tionally, similar to Shadowfax, it has a very
any Rohirrim theme deck. It can be played good ability if you plan to travel to sites
at a number of sites in the regions listed that can be reached in one turn.
above and is also a good ally to get to-
gether with 3 Noble Hounds if you plan to
squat in Dunharrow (or any Border-hold
in the listed regions). Its combat ability
is pretty much in par with the Hound’s ex-
cept it cannot be used against auto-attacks.
It has a higher body, making it harder to
6.2 Events
6.2.1 Promptings of Wisdom
Permanent-event (U) [CP: 2]
Light Enchantment. Playable during the organization phase on a ranger. Target

ranger may tap to cancel all hazard effects for the rest of the turn that: force
his company to return to its site of origin or that tap his company’s current
or new site. If so tapped, target ranger makes a corruption check. Cannot be
duplicated in a given company.
52
6.2. EVENTS CHAPTER 6. HERO RESOURCES
A nice ranger specific card that can be used card does carry 2 CP) or from corruption
as a backup in case Goldberry cannot be cards played on them.
played (to prevent the company from be-
ing forced to return to its site of origin).
Additionally it prevents a site from being
tapped from hazards effects such as Long
Winter and Foul fumes. However, it forces
your ranger to tap as well as make a corrup-
tion check. This can be dangerous as you
can lose your ranger from a failed roll (this
6.2.2 The White Council

Playable during your organization phase in your marshalling point pile if your
Wizard is in a Haven and you have more marshalling points than your opponent.
Your opponent must be a Fallen-wizard or a Wizard. Cannot be duplicated on
a given turn.
A very good penny miscellaneous MP card

especially for fast hero decks, this card is
best played coming from the sideboard.
Just let your Wizard rest at a Haven and
bring down this card. It is also good to
balance out those MPs.
6.2.3 The White Wizard

Unique. Playable on a Wizard with Sacrifice of Form. +2 to his direct influence,

+1 to all of his corruption checks. Discard if Saruman is in play as an opposing
Wizard.
This card is obviously best played if you the use of his special abilities. This card
are Saruman. In his Fallen-wizard version, provides a solution to his corruption prob-
it can very much help him in his checks as lems. Additionally, it provides another rea-
he will have a +1 to all his checks (fallen son why Sacrifice of Form is very useful for
Saruman has a -1 corruption check modi- a deck that uses its Wizard. If played on
fier). Plus, Saruman is perhaps the Wiz- hero Gandalf or hero Radagast, they gain a
ard that performs a lot of checks through virtual +2 to their corruption checks. The
53
6.3. FACTIONS CHAPTER 6. HERO RESOURCES
+2 to your Wizard’s DI is not bad, too.

To top it off, it has 2 MPs to balance out
points. You might want to put this card
in your sideboard if you plan to use Sacri-
fice of Form. If your opponent is Saruman,
don’t bother playing this card.
6.3 Factions
The four factions listed below are quite different from previous hero factions. First, these
are the only non-unique hero factions. That means you are safe from duplicating them even
if your opponent gets to play them first and lowers the possibility of you ending up with
zero faction MPs. Second, they can be played at the sites listed on their cards regardless
of tapped or untapped status. This provided heroes the chance to caravan and get these
factions at their listed sites similar to certain minion strategies. Before, they can only
caravan at a limited number of sites to get not so many resources. With these cards, it
added a new dimension to hero caravanning. Third, they provide additional abilities that
can help companies that can help in their strategies. Additionally, some of these factions
are not limited to heroes. Even minions (covert) can play them.
6.3.1 A Panoply of Wings

Animal Faction (C) [MP: 1]
Playable at any tapped or untapped non-Haven, non-Shadow-hold, non-Dark-

hold site in a Wilderness if the influence check is greater than 11. Standard
Modifications: if Radagast is your Wizard (+3). Discard this faction to make
information playable at such a site.
The first of the four non-unique hero fac- make Information playable is also good if
tions of the game, this is the most playable you plan to pack many Information cards
since a large percentage of the regions in in your deck, but remember you will lose
Middle-earth are Wilderness, as long as it the faction (and it’s MP point) if you uti-
is not a Dark-hold or Shadow-hold, you lize this option.
can play this faction. Obviously, Radagast
decks are most likely to use this card, as he
is the only one who has a bonus to the in-
fluence check (although Radagast doesn’t
actually have to make the check, as long
as you are playing Radagast any of your
characters get the bonus). Its ability to
54
6.3.2 Beasts of the Wood

Animal Faction (C) [MP: 1]
Playable at any tapped or untapped non-Haven, non-Darkhaven, non-Dark-

hold site in Woodland Realm, Western Mirkwood, Heart of Mirkwood, Southern
Mirkwood, Fangorn, or Cardolan if the influence check is greater than 11. Stan-
dard Modifications: if Radagast is your Wizard (+3). Tap this faction to cancel
an attack keyed by name to one of the regions listed above. May also be used as
a minion resource card that is only playable by a character in a covert company.
The second of the non-unique hero factions bonus, minion covert companies can also
of the game, however, this one is more lim- play this faction.
ited in terms of sites playable. As with
A Panoply of Wings, Radagast gets the
bonus. Its canceling ability is useful if you
plan to center your strategy around any of
the regions listed on the card, and you can
use it turn after turn, as its use doesn’t re-
quire the faction be discarded. As another
6.3.3 Wild Horses

Animal Faction (R) [MP: 1]
Playable at any tapped or untapped non-Haven site in Rohan, Southern Rho-

vanion, Khand, Dorwinion, Horse Plains, or Harondor if the influence check
is greater than 11. Standard Modifications: Men with home sites in the regions
listed above (+3). Tap this faction to allow any company with one of the regions
listed above in its site path to move up to 1 additional region.
This card is another great addition to a like Théoden and Erkenbrand do.
Rohirrim theme deck. It can be playable
at any site in Rohan (plus at a number of
other regions as listed on the card) and can
also be useful if your companies tend to
travel far and wide as long as any of the
listed regions is part of the site path. Un-
like the other factions, Radagast decks do
not get a bonus on this one, but characters
6.3.4 Wild Hounds

Animal Faction (U) [MP: 1]
55
Playable at any tapped or untapped Ruins and Lairs in a Wilderness if the

influence check is greater than 11. Standard Modifications: if Radagast is your
Wizard (+3). Discard this faction to cancel an automatic-attack at a Ruins
and Lairs or an attack keyed to Wilderness or Ruins and Lairs. May also be
used as a minion resource card that is only playable by a character in a covert
company.
The last of the Animal factions, it is the company. But this power is offset by the
second most playable of the four factions serious drawback that you lose the faction
listed. Radagast decks also receive a bonus when you use it.
to this faction and minion covert compa-
nies can also play this card. Its canceling
ability is superior to Beasts of the Wood
as it is not limited to a number of sites.
It can even cancel nasty creature on-guard
cards like Cave-drake or from Dragon at-
tacks due to Dragon’s Desolation or Rumor
of Wealth, as well as attacks from another
56
7 Minion Resources
7.1 Events
7.1.1 The Black Council
Playable during your organization phase in your marshalling points pile if your
Ringwraith is in a Darkhaven and you have more marshalling points than your
opponent and your opponent is a Ringwraith. Cannot be duplicated on a given
turn.
The minion version of the hero The White

Council, this is a very good penny mis-
cellaneous MP card. It’s much easier to
play compared to The White Council, as
most minion decks tend to have their Ring-
wraiths sit at a Darkhaven to use their abil-
ities. It is also good to balance out those
MPs.
7.1.2 Counterfeit
Permanent-event (R)
Magic. Spirit-magic. Playable on an Orc character in a spirit-magic using

character’s company. The Orc is considered to be a Half-orc for all purposes.
Unless he is a Ringwraith, the spirit-magic using character makes a corruption
check modified by -3. Discard if the Orc character is in a company that does
not contain a spirit-magic using character.
A card of very limited use, you would only

consider putting this in the deck if you need
to have Orcs in the company of men and
a half-orc is not suitable (and also a spirit-
magic user to play this card).
57
7.1. EVENTS CHAPTER 7. MINION RESOURCES
7.1.3 Crept Along Cleverly

Short-event (C)
Ranger only. Cancels a Wolf, Animal, Spider, Dragon, Drake, or Undead attack
against a ranger’s company.
A card that only emphasizes the impor- can have 2 copies of this card plus 2 of the
tance of rangers in the game, this is a vari- hero version. One of the most useful cards
ant of the hero Many Turns and Doublings. in the whole expansion.
It can also cancel Dragon and Drake at-
tacks, but it does not have the alternative
option when Gates of Morning is in play.
As most players now are wary of hazards
such as River and Long Winter, rangers
will almost always be seen in any company.
If you are playing as a Fallen-wizard, you
7.1.4 The Fiery Blade

Permanent-event (R)
Playable on your Ringwraith or a Ringwraith follower. Each strike against the

Ringwraith receives -1 body (-2 body and -2 prowess against The Witch- king).
Discard The Fiery Blade after a strike against the Ringwraith fails or if the
Ringwraith has Morgul-blade. Cannot be duplicated.
Similar to Morgul-blade, this card helps vastly superior to Morgul-blade if you are
your Ringwraith effectively kill off crea- playing as the Witch-king.
tures or characters and is useful in proac-
tive Ringwraith decks. However, like
Morgul-blade, once it serves its purpose, it
is discarded. If you are not playing as the
Witch-king, you might be better off using
Morgul-blade as it also provides a minus
to the strike’s prowess. You can have this
card as a back-up. However, this card is
7.1.5 Govern the Storms

Short-event (R)
Magic. Sorcery. Cancel all hazard effects for the rest of the turn that: force a
sorcery-using character’s company to return to its site of origin or would tap
its current or new site. Unless he is a Ringwraith, the sorcery using character
makes a corruption check modified by -4.
58
This card can be a good alternate for Pierc- the resulting corruption check might be too
ing All Shadows (see below) if your compa- much for any non-ringwraith sorcery-using
nies are composed mostly of sorcery-users, character.
as you can play it in response to a hazard Ű
and your magic user can be tapped or even
wounded. However, it is just a short-event,
which means that unless you include three
copies of this card or have means of im-
mediately recycling this card, you are bet-
ter off using Piercing All Shadows. Plus,
7.1.6 Open to the Summons

Permanent-event (U)
Playable on a minion company. One agent minion may be played with target
company at a Darkhaven - place this card with the agent. -1 to his mind to
a minimum of 1. This card may be played with a starting company in lieu
of a minor item. When played as such, reveal it when starting companies are
determined as if it were a character. Cannot be duplicated on a given character.
A great card for Ringwraith players as you think the loss of one starting minor item
can now start the game with any of the for the company can be made up by the
agents in the starting company. It can gains one agent can give to the company.
be noticed that the different attributes of This card makes the resource card Faithless
the minion agents are much more superior Steward much more playable Ű as you can
compared to their non-agent counterparts, start with the appropriate agent by using
and this card provides minion players the this card.
chance to play them immediately and not
wait anymore for them to be drawn. Plus,
these agents can only be played at their
home sites, which can slow down a deck, as
they might be located at some other part of
the map. The same goes for Fallen-wizard
players who can now play some of these
agents. A card worth considering if you
59
7.1.7 Piercing all Shadows

Playable during the organization phase on a ranger. Target ranger may tap
to cancel all hazard effects for the rest of the turn that: force his company to
return to its site of origin or that tap his company’s current or new site. If
so tapped, target ranger makes a corruption check. Cannot be duplicated in a
given company.
The minion counterpart of Promptings of Also road-block hazards are less of a prob-
Wisdom, this is a nice ranger specific card lem for minions, many minion decks never
that prevents a company from returning to leave shadow or dark lands, and Beorning
its site of origin, as well as protects certain Skin-Changers are treated as hazard crea-
sites from being tapped from hazards ef- tures (not a short event) against minions.
fects such as Long Winter and Foul Fumes.
However, it forces your ranger to tap as
well as make a corruption check. Although
the 3 CPs on a minion ranger can tap him
at the most, if your ranger is also carrying
other CP cards with him (items, corrup-
tion cards, etc.), this can be dangerous as
you can lose your ranger from a bad roll.
7.1.8 Poison of his Voice

Short-event (U)
Magic. Spirit-magic. Playable on a hazard permanent-event on a character in a

spirit-magic-using character’s company. Discard target hazard. Alternatively,
playable on a spirit-magic-using Fallen-wizard. -6 to his stage points (to a
minimum of 3) for the rest of the turn. Unless the spirit-magic- user is a
Ringwraith, he makes a corruption check modified by -3.
Most players would seldom use this card’s anti-FW hazards like Inner Rot and Cruel
first ability as you can easily remove haz- Claw Perceived. If this card were not a
ard permanent-events with Voices of Mal- magic card, it would see more use.
ice or Twilight (if the hazard is also an en-
vironment), or even Ancient Secrets. Plus,
the corruption check modifier for Voices of
Malice is lower in comparison to this card’s.
However, Fallen-wizards may try using this
card for its alternate effect of reducing their
SPs to protect themselves from those nasty
60
7.1.9 Sojourn in Shadows

Short-event (R)
Magic. Shadow-magic. Playable before strikes are assigned on a character fac-

ing an attack in a shadow-magic using character’s company. Target character
cannot be assigned a strike from the attack. Unless he is a Ringwraith, the
shadow-magic using character makes a corruption check modified by -4.
A magic card that is very good in a redi- at Shelob’s Lair). Although all these tricks
rection strategy. However, since it is a have been made illegal: current rulings say
magic card, it will be rarely seen in most that Sojourn in Shadows is NOT playable
decks, as you will still need a shadow-magic against automatic-attack...
user to play it. Plus, the corruption check
can be devastating to the caster, but this
can be a crucial card in some active ring-
wraith decks as it is possible to avoid an
attack against a lone Ringwraith using this
card Ű even if the attack can not be nor-
mally cancelled (like the automatic attack
7.1.10 White Light Broken

Short-event (U)
Magic. Sorcery. Playable on a sorcery-using character. All of his corruption

checks are modified by +2 for the rest of the turn. Alternatively, playable on a
sorcery-using Fallen-wizard. -4 to his stage points (to a minimum of 3) for the
rest of the turn. Unless the sorcery-using character is a Ringwraith, he makes
a corruption check.
This card may be considered putting in a This card can be best played as a support
deck that relies heavily on sorcery cards as to Poison of His Voice and vice versa.
it helps in the corruption checks of any one
sorcery-using character for the rest of the
turn, since most sorcery cards cause big
corruption checks to non-Ringwraith sor-
cerers. Its alternate effect is quite similar
to Poison of His Voice; only it reduces your
SPs by 4 instead of 6. This can be helpful if
you need to reduce your SPs to a minimum.
61
7.2. ITEMS CHAPTER 7. MINION RESOURCES
7.2 Items
MEWH introduces a new item keyword: Technology. These new items are designed only
for minions, but Fallen-wizards can use them, too. Three of the items listed below add
yet another dimension to minion squatter decks in that they can be played at tapped or
untapped Shadow-holds - sites where War-wolves and Snaga-hai are playable. Plus, the
special discard ability of two of these cards, Blasting Fire and Liquid Fire, are very useful
in combat and influence. A detailed analysis of both cards will be discussed on each card
entry below.
7.2.1 Blasting Fire

Special Item (C) [MP: 1; CP: 1]
Technology. Playable at a tapped or untapped Shadow-hold, Dark-hold, or a

site with a Dwarf automatic-attack. Discard to cancel all automatic-attacks at
a site against the bearer’s company, any influence attempts against factions at
the site this turn are modified by +2.
The first technology item is very useful in Riven Gate as it only needs an untapped
most minion decks, being playable at a character to bring it down from your hand.
tapped site means minion companies can It can affect any site’s automatic-attack
sit in comparative safety (at a dark-hold) (not just Border-hold’s), does not cause
and play multiple little MP cards a turn. corruption checks and it has 1 MP.
Influence is more valuable for minion play-
ers, and the +2 this card gives when influ-
encing factions will be very helpful. Plus,
it cancels all automatic-attacks at a site,
which obviously duplicates the effects of
Riven Gate (from MEAS). This card, how-
ever, is much easier to play compared to
62
7.2.2 Liquid Fire

Special Item (R) [MP: 1; CP: 1]
Technology. Playable at a tapped or untapped Shadow-hold, Dark-hold, or a site

with a Dwarf automatic-attack. Discard to cause all strikes from all attacks of
a non-Dragon, non-Nazgûl, non-Balrog creature keyed to a site to fail (resulting
body checks for the creature are modified by -2).
The second technology item can be very

useful if a company expect to kill lots of
creatures during a game. As with Blast-
ing Fire, it can be playable at certain sites
minion companies usually squat in. Its 1
MP does not hurt, too.
7.2.3 Mechanical Bow

Major Item (C) [MP: 1; CP: 1; P/B: +2/-1]
Weapon. Technology. -1 to bearer’s body. Warrior only: +2 prowess to a

maximum of 8; -1 to the body of any strike its bearer faces if he taps to face the
strike.
The only technology item that is a weapon, (combined with Saruman’s Machinery).
a warrior character is best to use this, and
most minions are warriors. However, it also
gives the warrior a -1 to his body. Although
the ability to give -1 to a strike’s body can
be good to get the kill MPs, you have to
tap the warrior just to get this effect. All
in all not the best weapon available Ű and
most likely seen in Fallen Saruman decks
7.2.4 Vile Fumes

Special Item (U) [MP: 1; CP: 1]
Technology. Playable at a tapped or untapped Shadow-hold, Dark-hold, or a site

with a Dwarf automatic-attack. Discard during the site phase at a Border- hold
or Shadow-hold to make all versions of the site Ruins and Lairs. Its normal
automatic-attacks are replaced with: Gas - each character faces 1 strike with 7
prowess (cannot be canceled). Keep Vile Fumes with the site until the site is
discarded or returned to its location deck.
63
The fourth technology item is not as use- Lairs if you are a minion player). You are
ful as Blasting Fire or Liquid Fire as it most likely to play this card with a squat-
only replaces an automatic-attack with an- ting company for its MP value, rather than
other one that cannot even be canceled. for it’s discard effect.
Though this can be useful, minion com-
panies would definitely prefer to have an
automatic-attack they can cancel. If you
plan to change Border-holds to Ruins &
Lairs, it can be useful if you are playing
against hero speed faction decks, but not
so much for minions (you definitely don’t
want to change Shadow-holds into Ruins &
64
8 Hazards
8.1 Creatures
8.1.1 Goblin-Faces
Creature (R) [MP: 1; P/B: 7/-; Playable: Border-Lands, Shadow-Lands, and Border-Holds]
Orcs. Men. Three strikes. Following the attack, the attacker looks at a number
of cards from the top of the defender’s play deck equal to the number of successful
strikes of the attack. The attacker may place any of these cards face down on
the bottom of the defender’s play deck (in any order he chooses). He places the
rest on top of the defender’s deck (in any order he chooses).
Goblin-faces is another good addition to acter as well as the number of cards you
any Orc or Man hazard strategy, but what can displace.
makes it unique is its ability to displace
up to three cards your opponent might be
expecting to draw by putting them at the
bottom. You just have to make sure the
strikes will succeed to benefit from this
ability. Add some Orc/Man enhancers to
increase your chances of wounding a char-
8.2 Events
Most of the hazard events in this expansion concentrate on Fallen-wizards. Some of these
can only be used against Fallen-wizards (e.g., Blind to the West, Cast from the Order,
etc.) while some can reach its maximum effect if played specifically against Fallen-wizards
(e.g., Cruel Claw Perceived, Inner Rot, etc.). Additionally, most of the hazard permanent-
events’ effects designed against Fallen-wizards greatly depends on their total Stage Points.
You might think twice when considering to include these cards in your deck but due to the
official tournament rules stating that you can add up to 10 pre-selected anti-FW cards in
your sideboard, you need not worry about wasting sideboard space for these cards when
going to tournaments. You can carefully select these 10 cards so you can be prepared
when playing against a Fallen-wizard player. However you need to include ways to access
your sideboard (such as Nazgul or An Unexpected Outpost) to utilize them, and often
65
8.2. EVENTS CHAPTER 8. HAZARDS
you’ll find the delay a problem. If you believe it likely you’ll face a Fallen-Wizard deck it’s
probably worth including some of the more generic hazards (that also affect Wizards or
Ringwraiths) straight in the main deck.
8.2.1 Blind to the West

Short Event (C)
Targets and cancels one hero short-event played by a Fallen-wizard earlier in

the same chain of effects. This card can be played at any time and does not
count against the hazard limit. Remove this card from the game.
8.2.2 Ire of the East

Short Event (C)
Targets and cancels one minion short-event played by a Fallen-wizard earlier

in the same chain of effects. This card can be played at any time and does not
count against the hazard limit. Remove this card from the game.
These two cards are very similar to the alternate use of Many Sorrows Befall except that
it can be duplicated in the play deck and targets specific resource types. Blind to the
West targets hero resources while Ire of the East targets minion resources. If you put 3
copies of each card in a deck plus Many Sorrows Befall, you can cancel up to 7 resources by
your FW opponent, assuming they use minion and hero short-events. Plus, unlike Many
Sorrows Befall, these two cards do not count against the hazard limit and can be played
anytime (like Twilight). However, once used up, these cards are removed from the game,
all in all staple anti-FW cards.
8.2.3 Cast from the Order

Permanent Event (R)
Playable on a Fallen-wizard. Make a roll and add the Fallen-wizard’s stage

points. If the result is less than 16, discard this card. Otherwise, place this card
with the Fallen-wizard. The Fallen-wizard’s player must use minion sites for
Border-holds, Free-holds, and hero Havens. Also, the Fallen-wizard’s company
is overt.
66
A hazard permanent event that can only be the fallen wizard’s company as it is now
used against Fallen Wizards - this card pre- overt.
vents FW companies from easily entering
hero Border-holds, Free-holds and Havens.
It also prevents them from acquiring those
hero factions and allies, as they cannot
play them at minion versions of those sites.
Plus, it can be of great help when you are
playing a hero deck and would like to initi-
ate company vs. company combat against
8.2.4 Cruel Claw Perceived

Permanent-event (R)
Playable on a Wizard, Fallen-wizard, or Ringwraith. His general influence is

modified by -1. If he is a Fallen-wizard, this modifier is instead: -9 if his stage
points (SPs) exceed 20, -7 if his SPs exceed 15, -5 if his SPs exceed 10, or -3 if
his SPs exceed 5 (use the first modifier that applies). Additionally, the Fallen-
wizard’s hand size is reduced by 1 if his SPs exceed 10, and by 1 more if his
SPs exceed 20. Cannot be duplicated on a given character. Discard when any
play deck is exhausted.
This card can be used against any align- it off, it can reduce their players’ hand size
ment, so worth considering in any haz- by 1 or 2.
ard deck, but preferably against a Fallen-
wizard as it greatly reduces his player’s
general influence depending upon his to-
tal SPs. Knowing that influence is also a
valuable commodity for FWs, this card can
help in influence attempts against them as
well as a good support card against influ-
ence destruction hazard strategies. To top
8.2.5 Echoes of the Song

Short-event (C)
If your opponent has more than one stage card and 4 or more stage points, he
must discard one stage card of his choice. Alternatively, force a target character
to make a corruption check. Remove this card from the game.
67
This card can be very helpful in slowing suspect you may face a Fallen Wizard op-
down a FW player from achieving victory ponent.
by forcing the discard of one stage card. It
can lower his MP total, which can give his
opponent the boost needed to catch up and
call the End-of-Game first. It’s alternate
effect duplicates Weariness of the Heart al-
though it also gets removed from the game
(so you cannot recycle it). Worth consid-
ering in a general corruption deck if you
8.2.6 Flotsam and Jetsam

Permanent-event (R)
If a player has 15 or fewer cards in his play deck (20 or fewer if a Fallen-wizard),
all effects are automatically canceled which allow him to search through or look
at any portion of his play deck or discard pile outside of the normal sequence
of play. Discard when any play deck is exhausted. Cannot be duplicated.
A more specialist version of Bane of the Also this card can act as a limited backup
Ithil-stone, this card will most likely be to Lady of the Golden Wood, as you can
preferred by decks that want to use Palan- only include one of her in your deck (she’s
tíri but wants to avoid the doubling of CPs unique), against minion opponents.
caused by Bane. However, this card’s ef-
fect can only be used if any deck has al-
ready thinned out, or usually the later part
of the game. It is worth considering as
a sideboard card to bring in against spe-
cialist decks that rely on manipulating the
play deck when it is reduced to a few cards.
68
8.2.7 Fool’s Bane

Permanent-event (U)
Playable on a Fallen-wizard. Influence checks he makes against hero resources

are modified by: -9 if his stage points (SPs) exceed 18, -7 if his SPs exceed 12,
-5 if his SPs exceed 7, -3 if his SPs exceed 3, or -1 if his SPs exceed 0 (use the
first modifier that applies). Additionally, his Elf characters and Elf factions are
each worth 0 marshalling points in all cases. Cannot be duplicated on a given
Fallen-wizard. Discard when any play deck is exhausted.
Although playable only against Fallen Wiz- by a Marvels Told or Voices of Malice fairly
ards, this card can be devastating if a FW quickly.
player centers his MP acquisition through
factions (especially fallen Pallando and
fallen Gandalf). His capability to influence
his opponent’s resources is also weakened
by this card. Plus, his influence over the
Firstborn is totally wrecked, as he won’t be
getting any MPs from such characters and
factions. Expect this card to be removed
8.2.8 Foul Tooth Unsheated

Permanent-event (C)
Playable if your opponent is a Fallen-wizard. If your opponent has 7 or more

stage points and is not Alatar, hazards his companies defeat (while this card
is in play) without an asterisk [*] are worth no marshalling points. This card
overrides any conflicting resources.
Unless you are playing as fallen Alatar, this

card will totally rob you of those kill points
that most players need to balance out their
MPs. And unless you have a card to help
you eliminate Free People hazards, don’t
expect any kills unless this card is gone.
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8.2.9 Heart Grown Cold

Permanent-event (U)
Fallen-wizard players must use minion site cards for hero Havens. If a Fallen-
wizard has more than 4 stage points, his player must also use minion site cards
for Free-holds. If a Fallen-wizard has more than 7 stage points, his player must
also use minion site cards for Border-holds.
This card is the cheaper version of Cast

from the Order, being its uncommon coun-
terpart. However, this card’s effect is
quicker to take effect, as you no longer need
a roll. Just wait for the Fallen Wizard’s
stage points to add up to a total of 8 and he
will similarly end up being refused help at
hero havens, free-holds and border-holds.
8.2.10 In the Grip of Ambition

Permanent-event (C) [CP: 1; SP: 2(3)]
Corruption. Playable on a Fallen-wizard or a Wizard. He receives 1 corruption

point (CP). If he is a Fallen-wizard, he receives 2 stage points. If he has more
than 7 stage points, he receives an additional stage point. Cannot be duplicated
on a given character. During his organization phase, target may tap to attempt
to remove this card. Make a roll - if this result is greater than 8, discard this
card.
Being playable against both Wizards and corruption cards do.

Fallen Wizards, this is a very good corrup-
tion card. It’s add-more-SPs effect against
Fallen Wizards can be very useful in com-
bination with hazards like Inner Rot. Add
its high discard roll requirement and you
have a powerful card, even though it does
not force corruption checks the way other
8.2.11 Inner Rot

Permanent-event (R) [CP: 1(*); SP: 2]
Corruption. Playable on a Wizard or a Fallen-wizard. He receives 1 corruption

point (CP). If he is a Fallen-wizard, he receives 2 stage points and the CPs
70
received are instead: 4 CPs if his stage points (SPs) exceed 18, 3 CPs if his SPs
exceed 11, 2 CPs if his SPs exceed 5, 1 CP if his SPs exceed 0 (use the first
that applies). The target makes a corruption check whenever his controlling
player plays a stage card. Cannot be duplicated on a given character. During
his organization phase, target may tap to attempt to remove this card. Make a
roll - if this result is greater than 6, discard this card.
A very nasty corruption card especially this card with In the Grip of Ambition and
against Fallen Wizards - although the a Fallen-wizard will know the real danger
checks might not be as frequent as the of falling.
other staple corruption cards, playing this
card on the Fallen Wizard will definitely
force a player to think twice if he still wants
to play stage resources: if he plays one, his
SPs and probably CPs will increase AND
he will make a check. Its high discard roll
requirement doesn’t help, too. Combine
8.2.12 Longing for the West

Corruption. Playable on a Wizard or a Fallen-wizard. He receives 2 corruption

points and makes a corruption check at the end of his untap phase if not at a
Haven (or Wizardhaven). Cannot be duplicated on a given character. During
his organization phase, target may tap to attempt to remove this card. Make a
roll - if this result is greater than 6, discard this card.
Another corruption card specifically de- This card should definitely be considered
signed against Wizards and Fallen-wizards, in any corruption strategy vs. Wizards or
this card works best in combination with Fallen Wizards.
Lure of the Senses and Lure of Creation.
That way, the Wizard/Fallen-wizard is not
safe anymore wherever he is as he will
be making corruption checks every untap
phase. It is also as hard to remove as the
Lures mentioned, and you need to roll at
least 10 if the Wizard chooses not to tap.
71
8.2.13 Mask Torn

Permanent-event (R)
Fallen-wizards may not bring characters with more than 4 mind into play. If a
Fallen-wizard has more than 9 stage points, he may not bring characters with
more than 3 mind into play. Discard when any play deck is exhausted.
This card prevents Fallen-wizards from

playing those 5-mind, 2 MP characters.
Plus, if their SPs are high enough, all they
can play are 1 MP characters. Probably
most effective if your hazard strategy re-
turns or discards characters Ű as with this
card in play your opponent will struggle to
bring in replacements.
8.2.14 Nature’s Revenge

Permanent-event (R)
Playable on a site in a Wilderness that normally is a Border-hold or a Shadow-

hold, or on a non-protected Wizardhaven in a Wilderness. All versions of the
site become Ruins and Lairs and each gains an additional automatic- attack:
Animals - each character faces 1 strike with 7 prowess. Discard this card when
the site is discarded or returned to its location deck.
This card can make sites like Bree and then the animal enhancers will help boost
the Old Forest difficult to enter; and sites the automatic attacks.
like Moria and Goblin-gate more danger-
ous. For Fallen Wizards, it makes even
their very homes an unsafe place to stay in
(except Radagast). Cave-drakes can now
attack companies entering such sites as well
as Dragons (using Dragon’s Desolation), or
if you use animals as your main strategy
72
8.2.15 Power Relinquished to Artfice

Permanent-event (R)
Playable on a Wizard, Fallen-wizard, or Ringwraith. His prowess and direct

influence are each modified by -1. If he is a Fallen-wizard, these modifiers are
instead: -5 if his stage points (SPs) exceed 20, -4 if his SPs exceed 15, -3 if
his SPs exceed 10, -2 if his SPs exceed 5 (use the first modifier that applies).
For Alatar and Radagast, reduce the modifier to 0 for prowess and double it for
direct influence. Cannot be duplicated on a given character. Discard when any
play deck is exhausted.
This card can be played against any align- and other influence reducing hazards to
ment, this time lowering the prowess and create a real problem for your opponent.
direct influence of your avatar. Against
Fallen Wizards, the effects are much more
disastrous. They are now incapable of ef-
fectively facing combat (except for Alatar
and Radagast) and exerting their influence
(especially against Alatar and Radagast).
Combine this with Cruel Claw Perceived
8.2.16 Rolled Down to the Sea

Short-event (R)
Unique. Opponent must discard a ring from his hand or from one of his com-
panies if available. If no rings are available as such, he must reveal his hand to
you.
At first glance, this card is great against

ring strategies, especially against One Ring
decks. However, it has also become a sta-
ple card as it allows you to look at your
opponent’s hand Ű and any player should
be able to benefit from knowing what cards
your opponent is holding.
73
8.2.17 Something Else at Work

Permanent-event (R)
Playable on a character. Any influence check he makes is modified by -1 and

any test for a gold ring in his company is modified by -1. If he is a Fallen-
wizard, these modifiers are both instead: -4 if his stage points (SPs) exceed 14,
-3 if his SPs exceed 9, -2 if his SPs exceed 4, -1 is his SPs exceed 0 (use the
first modifier that applies). Cannot be duplicated on a given character. Discard
when any play deck is exhausted.
Another hazard permanent event that has worth considering for the sideboard for use
devastating effects on a Fallen Wizard’s in- against ring strategies.
fluence, this time around working on his
checks. The other effect of lowering your
chances to get a desired ring can be crucial
especially if you are playing a One Ring
strategy, and although it cannot be du-
plicated on a given character, it can be
duplicated in a company (just play it on
other characters). This card is certainly
8.2.18 Whole Villages Roused

Short-event (R)
Playable on a hero Border-hold or Free-hold. The site has the automatic-attacks

indicated on the corresponding minion site card (detainment against hero com-
panies) but with +2 prowess. Alternatively, playable on a minion Shadow-hold
or Dark-hold. The site has the automatic-attacks indicated on the corresponding
hero site card (detainment against overt companies) but with +2 prowess.
This card can be very effective against fac- “automatic attack“ strategy Ű as you have
tion recruiting type of decks in that it cre- an easy way to create automatic attacks at
ates auto-attacks on a seemingly safe site. hero Border and Free-Holds.
Although these attacks can only be detain-
ment depending on what alignment you are
playing, it may tap out an entire company
before it can play the faction (or any re-
source playable at the site, for that mat-
ter). Very good for slowing down hero
speed faction decks and squatter minion
decks. This card fills in a blind spot in an
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8.2.19 Will You Not Come Down?

Playable on a Fallen-wizard at a Wizardhaven. Your opponent must choose to

either: discard from play enough stage cards (of his choice) to reduce his stage
point total below 7 or to receive 4 stage points. Cannot be duplicated on a given
Fallen-wizard.
This card presents a very tough choice for ardhaven for long.
a Fallen Wizard player: will he reduce his
SP total to 7 and slow down his run for
victory or will he take the 4 SPs and risk a
bigger effect from dangerous hazards such
as Inner Rot and Power Relinquished to
Artifice? Probably only Fallen Alatar can
afford to ignore the threat of this card, as
it is rare that a Fallen Alatar sits at a Wiz-
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9 Summary
9.1 General Influence/Direct Influence

Radagast gets 22 GI and 5 DI once in play, Pallando 20/7, Gandalf 18/9, Alatar 17/10
and finally Saruman 15/12.
The total influence is 27 for each Fallen Wizard; 3 less than a Hero Wizard. However, this
is only part of the tale:
• Radagast’s Shifter of Hues Unique Stage Resource boosts him to 27/3 - returning
him to the total of 30 that heroes enjoy, while Master of Shapes takes him to 25/1,
slightly behind other Fallen Wizards (and the 1 DI he has is virtually worthless).
Winged Change-Master makes him a 19/8, which is the most useful for a traveling
company (though the movement ability of Winged Change-Master seems to belie
that).
• Pallando, however, has the very useful Truths of Doom, upping his influence total to
33 (though 4 of these may not be used to control characters).
• Every Fallen Wizard *except* Radagast has a specific card that reduces the Influence
required to control one character (since all have access to Myrmidon, that one cancels
out in considering effects on influence between the Fallen Wizards). Assuming this
is played on a 5 mind character, this means: Saruman, Pallando, and Alatar get an
extra 4 influence (2 Influence required and +1 to the given character’s DI). Gandalf
gets an extra 6 influence (1 Influence required and +2 to the character’s DI).
Assuming Shifter of Hues on Radagast, this actually brings the rankings to:
1. Pallando: 37 (33 for character control)
2. Gandalf: 33
3. Alatar and Saruman: 31
4. Radagast: 30
Finally, if you can get it into play, the White Hand increases Saruman’s DI by 2, bringing
him to 33.
When all possible stage cards are considered, Radagast is actually *last* in the influence
contest. Pallando is the first by a country mile, since he’ll have Free GI others can only
dream of.
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9.2. CHARACTER POINTS AND CHARACTER PLAY CHAPTER 9. SUMMARY
On the other hand, taken strictly by itself, Radagast will have the highest base GI total
at the cost of a great deal of DI. Saruman has the inverse problem; a great deal of DI at
the expense of GI.
Oddly enough, Cruel Claw Perceived hurts all FWs on the Influence end far more than
Power Relinquished to Artifice. The reduction to DI is doubled in the case of Alatar and
Radagast - but Radagast has lousy DI anyway, so he’ll cap at zero. Alatar has enough DI
to be hurt by it, but even then, the reduction to GI from Cruel Claw is guaranteed to not
cap - even in the case of Fallen Saruman.
9.2 Character Points and Character Play

Great Patron is the generic Character Points Stage Resource, but Gandalf can get full
MPs for characters without it. Both Pallando and Saruman have access to Strident Spawn,
which allows them to fetch Half-Orc characters from the discard pile and play them even
if your wizard is not at the site. While the card is unique, it means that both Pallando
and Saruman have better options for character play than the other Fallen Wizards - once
an Avatar comes into play, further characters must be played at the site the avatar is at
or under DI. Strident Spawn circumvents this neatly, and further reduces the influence
required to control the Half-Orc characters by one. This card puts Pallando and Saruman
further ahead on the influence contest. Since Great Patron easily mimics Gandalf’s char-
acter MP ability (keeping in mind that Fallen Wizards will never have a 3 Marshalling
Point character), the rankings are as follows:
1. Pallando (best character play options with very versatile Influence)
2. Saruman (less versatile influence)
3. Gandalf (no need for Patron for full MPs)
4. Alatar/Radagast
9.3 Ally Points and Ally Play

Great Patron is the generic card for allowing Unique Allies to be worth 2 MPs. However,
several Fallen Wizards have ally-affecting abilities:
Both Radagast and Alatar have access to Untimely Brood, which allows non-unique ally
play at Havens. In addition, Radagast boasts the ability to give Hero Allies full MPs
(which only really applies to Tom Bombadil), and allow small companies to play allies at
tapped sites (mainly applying to Ents), to play 1 Mind allies at his current site, and to
get a guaranteed ally MP in the form of Radagast’s Black Bird, which might as well be a
permanent event for all the effort Radagast has to put into playing it. Alatar can give full
MPs to allies with a Prowess attribute through Orome’s Warders, which makes a difference
77
9.4. FACTIONS CHAPTER 9. SUMMARY
with Tom Bombadil and Last Child of Ungolianth. Finally, Gandalf with Give Welcome
makes Unique 1 MP allies worth 2 MPs, which Great Patron cannot do.
Concerning ally play, the rankings are:
1. Radagast (incredible options for playing allies and good MPs for them)
2. Alatar (good MPs for allies and access to Untimely Brood)
3. Gandalf (fairly good MPs from unique 1 MP allies)
4. Pallando/Saruman
9.4 factions
The standard faction MP card is Gatherer of Loyalties, making Unique Factions worth
2 MPs. Radagast makes unique non-standard race factions worth 2 MP, while Pallando
makes standard race factions, unique or not, worth 2 MPs, makes unique factions normally
worth 3 or more MPs worth 3 MPs, and can recycle factions with Stave of Pallando. Alatar
makes Dragon factions worth 4 MPs (even the 3 MP ones) and Elf Factions worth 2 MPs.
Gandalf makes unique Hero factions worth 2 or 3 MPs, respectively. Both Pallando and
Saruman have access to non-unique Half-Orc factions playable at Havens. Unfortunately,
with cards like Hidden Haven, Mischeif in a Mean Way, and Chambers in the Royal Court,
most factions are playable at Havens, so the ability of Strident Spawn doesn’t mean as
much as one might think. Therefore, the Fallen Wizards rank as follows:
1. Pallando (best MPs from factions and best options)
2. Gandalf (good MPs from Hero factions, but not as many options)
3. Alatar (great MPs from Dragon factions, but more dangerous)
4. Saruman/Radagast (Half-Orcs require a Unique card, while Radagast automatically

pumps unique factions like Ents/Eagles, but doesn’t have many aids to playing them
safely)
9.5 Items
Legacy of Smiths makes all non-ring items worth Full MPs. Blind to All Else makes Ring
items worth full MPs. Alatar can do without Legacy to get full battle gear MPs, while
Saruman can get full non-battle-gear MPs. However, what this essentially means is that all
Fallen Wizards are equal when it comes to marshalling points from items. Fallen Saruman
has absolutely no ability to get better MPs from items than any other Fallen Wizard. As
far as Item play, though, Fallen Saruman can recycle Rings with Saruman’s Ring. Before
the Balrog set, this made Fallen Saruman the only practical choice for a Rings-for-Points
deck, since he could pull the Special Ring from the discard pile to hand. Whispers/Rumors
78
9.6. MISCELLANEOUS CHAPTER 9. SUMMARY
obsoleted this advantage. Saruman’s Ring gives Saruman a good defense against Rolled.
Saruman’s Machinery allows 1 MP items to be played at a Haven – if you have two of
them, that’s 2 item MPs/turn. However, one cannot give Saruman an edge in item play
because of this – Wormsbane alone is worth 4 turns of one Saruman’s Machinery.
All Fallen Wizards tie in terms of item MPs. The only things Saruman can play more
easily are 1 MP items after getting a Unique card (Fortress) into play.
9.6 Miscellaneous
All Fallen Wizards with the exception of Alatar have a big Miscellaneous MP card (Alatar’s
is a miniscule Miscellaneous MP card).
1. Saruman: 6
2. Gandalf/Radagast: 5
3. Pallando: 3
4. Alatar: 1
In addition, Saruman and Pallando have access to Strident Spawn, while Radagast and
Alatar gain access to Untimely Brood.
1. Saruman: 7
2. Radagast: 6
3. Gandalf: 5
4. Pallando: 4
5. Alatar: 2
However, Saruman also has Saruman’s Machinery, and with a little work can get 3 copies
into play.
1. Saruman: 10
2. Radagast: 6
3. Gandalf: 5
4. Pallando: 4
5. Alatar: 2
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9.7. KILL MP’S CHAPTER 9. SUMMARY
After all that, Saruman has the card Man of Skill, which makes all cards that require info
to be worth 2 MPs. Almost all of these are miscellaneous (the exception being the Anduril
permanent event), so they also fit under this category.
The clear winner, then is Saruman. Radagast takes a long second, while Alatar is clearly the
worst. What this means is that Saruman’s Item MP ability is somewhat misleading. Other
Fallen Wizards can do that equally well. Where nobody can touch him is in miscellaneous
MPs. Any deck that does not make use of these is neglecting a major portion of Saruman’s
strength in favor of a snare and delusion, which is oddly thematic - obsession with Palantiri
destroyed him in the books, as well.
9.7 Kill MP’s

The generic cards are Merrier World and Shameful Deeds. However, there’s no way to
force your opponent to attack you with either type of Creature.
Therefore, Fallen Alatar is the only consistent source for Kill MPs, since Great Hunt forces
creatures to attack you, and he can recycle The Hunt in the meantime to be attacked each
turn. The other Fallen Wizards are equally lousy at acquiring good kill MPs.
9.8 Overall MP Gathering

Each first ranking is worth 5 points, while each last is worth 1, with ties being split to the
lowest and a fraction for each. Arbitrary, I know, but let’s see what happens:
1. Pallando: 14.75
2. Gandalf: 14.25
3. Alatar: 13.50
4. Radagast: 13.25
5. Saruman: 13.25
However, Radagast is known as the cheeziest of Wizards - why? It’s the question of risk
vs. reward. Radagast’s main source of MPs is allies, and allies are consistently the safest,
most dependable form of MPs. They are very hard to discard, and Radagast makes them
easily played from the safety of havens. Factions can fail on the influence roll, items carry
corruption, and a Great Hunt may fail or worse, backfire, but allies are a sure thing. So
adding a risk vs. reward scenario to the above, Radagast and Gandalf come in as clear
winners. Gandalf and Radagast can get all of their MP types easily from havens, while
Pallando has very strong Haven play hampered slightly by the need for an ally. Saruman
and Alatar risk the most to get their MPs, since Alatar needs Greater Item Sites for big-
ticket weapons and gets attacked by Hunts, and Saruman needs info sites, which usually
requires moving.
80
9.9. RECYCLING AND DECK MANIPULATION CHAPTER 9. SUMMARY
9.9 Recycling and Deck Manipulation

Each Fallen Wizard has a card that lets them choose a resource event out of three to bring
to their hand. In addition, each Fallen Wizard except Alatar has a method for pulling
another resource from the discard.
9.9.1 Event Recyclers

• Alatar can recycle Risky Blow, True Fana, and the Hunt
• Gandalf can recycle New Friendship, Wizard’s Test, and Hobbit-Lore
• Pallando can recycle Gifts As Given Of Old, Wizard’s Voice, and Eyes of Mandos
• Radagast can recycle Crept Along Cleverly, Wizard’s River Horses, and Herblore
• Saruman can recycle Ringlore, Lordly Presense, and First of the Order by tapping
himself instead of the card
With the event recyclers, there’s some disparity. Alatar’s is the most clearly suited to
acquiring his preferred MPs, with all three events useful for killing creatures and Risky Blow
for getting in to Greater Item sites/Dragon’s Lairs. Pallando comes in a close second - Gifts
for Influencing factions, Wizard’s Voice increasing his already large Influence advantage,
and Eyes of Mandos for finding cards he needs. After these comes Gandalf, with New
Friendship to help with either Corruption or Influence, but Wizard’s Test sending him in
the direction of rings when his main focus is Free-Hold hero play and Hobbit-Lore being
of limited usefulness. Radagast does well in recycling a canceler for an active party, but
his best advantage is in Shifter, which gives him a tidy -2 to corruption and makes River
horses dicey and mainly useful for its Nazgul-reducing function rather than as a canceler.
On the other hand, it can do some astonishing things with Master of Shapes - just watch
the corruption. Herblore is meh. In the last place we put Saruman. The fact this requires
*him* to tap is widely decried as the worst typo ever made on a card. With Saruman’s
innate -1 to ccs, tapping him to Recycle First of the Order seems like a good thing until
you realize that you’re accepting a corruption point from the Robes in order to recycle it
in the first place. Lordly Presence helps Saruman influence factions, but faction play is a
particularly weak point for Saruman – he is outclassed by every single other Fallen Wizard
except Radagast, and even then, it’s debatable. The most interesting one is Ringlore,
which has great synergy with Saruman’s Ring and even a little with Man of Skill – you’ll
be visiting info sites anyway, so make the most of them. Also, since it is the only card that
requires Saruman to tap instead of itself, anything that untaps Saruman will let you use
this card more than once during the end of turn, but this is also of dubious value – since
First of the Order can be duplicated, you can get two of those, but holding on to them for
your opponent’s turn is a bit much.
81
9.9. RECYCLING AND DECK MANIPULATION CHAPTER 9. SUMMARY
9.9.2 Resource Recyclers

• Gandalf can bring Narya to hand during the organization phase and Ring of Fire
does not give a corruption point
• Pallando can bring a faction to hand at the end of the turn
• Radagast can play a 1-mind ally from the discard pile during the site phase
• Saruman can bring any ring item (other than The One) to his hand at the end of
the turn
The big winner here goes to Radagast, of course - playing MPs from the discard pile
is pretty big. Gandalf is second, because he makes ccs as a minion - Narya during the
Organization phase and New Friendship from Grey Hat make him a master of untapping.
Pallando takes third because he must hold on to the faction during his opponent’s turn,
but he has an easy time playing them. Saruman’s Ring is by default the worst (though
still better than Alatar’s complete lack) because it can often turn into little more than a
defense against Rolled Down to the Sea.
Special mention should be made of a few things:
• The Forge-Master can play battle gear minor items without tapping the site from the
sideboard/discard during the organization phase. This can give Saruman’s characters
a noticeable boost at the cost of a small amount of corruption, and it’s surprising how
useful even the +1 prowess from a Dagger of Westernesse can be. Also, Radagast
does not have access to the surprisingly useful War-Forges, which allows for the play
of such sundry minor items as Strange Rations, Cram, Horn of Anor, or Secret Book
directly from the sideboard.
• Pallando innately increases hand size by one, allowing for much better card flow.
Radagast does the same with Shifter of Hues.
• Both Pallando and Saruman have access to Palantiri use (Pallando through Pal-
lando’s Apprentice), which can, depending on the Palantir in question, help with
card flow. The main ones to consider would be the Palantir of Orthanc, a utility
recycler, and Palantir of Annuminas for bringing sage only cards to the hand.
• Gandalf untaps at the end of the organization phase. This alone makes him the
single best sideboarder outside of the some minions.
• Saruman may tap at the end of turn phase to recycle a spell or sorcery card. This
precludes the use of Many Coloured Robes, and is arguably better, since it gives him
access to cancelers, influence enhancers, or support cards in a way that Robes does
not.
82
9.10. CORRUPTION CHAPTER 9. SUMMARY
Overall, in terms of recycling and deck manipulation, I would say Pallando is the clear
winner, but followed closely by Radagast. The extra hand size and Eyes of Mandos, not
to mention options on Palantiri and minor items with War-Forges and the ability to pull
factions makes him the strongest. Radagast’s Shifter gives him hand size and Glove is
absurdly strong, but Pocketed Robes is not as inspiring. Gandalf takes the third, with a
great deal of generic utility in all the things he can recycle. Saruman comes next - Alatar
lacks a second recycler, and while it can be argued that, for all intents and purposes,
Saruman lacks an event recycle, he has some utility in Forge Master, spell recycling, and
Palantiri use. Alatar is overall the worst in manipulating his own deck. He works wonders,
though, in manipulating an opponent’s deck.
9.10 Corruption
Radagast, when he uses any Shifter card, actually has the largest penalty to corruption.
On the other hand, Saruman and Gandalf are the most likely to face repeated corruption
checks – Saruman from spells, Gandalf from Narya if he’s using it. Of the two, Saruman’s
innate -1 is deadly more times than I’d personally like to have experienced, while Gandalf
has an easy time recycling a corruption helper with Grey Hat. Alatar is likely to have an
Item or two on him, so his corruption total will also be a little high. Pallando is least likely
to have corruption and least likely to be forced to it.
Therefore, rating resistance to corruption, we have:
1. Pallando
2. Alatar
3. Gandalf
4. Radagast
5. Saruman
Radagast will likely be using Shifter, but it’s difficult to force corruption checks on a person
who’s not moving from Rhosgobel and simply playing allies there.
9.11 Home Sites

Gandalf’s Home site of any Free-Hold or any Chambers in the Royal Court is a clear
winner here. This gives him access to just about the entire map, and *safe* access to it -
he can come in and play Chambers immediately, allowing him to relax for the rest of his
days, Awaiting the Advent. Alatar’s home site of any Ruins & Lairs in a Wilderness (non-
Dragon Lair) comes in second, since it allows him to quickly join his company and gives
him access to virtually the entire map, but can be a tad more dangerous. Pallando’s home
site of the White Towers, where Fallen Wizard companies can start, is reasonably safe,
83
9.12. NEW RINGLORD CHAPTER 9. SUMMARY
since neither he nor a company will need to move there. Rhosgobel can be bad if trying to
move there, since it is in a Dark-Domain, but Radagast’s companies rarely need to move
there - Radagast himself is sufficient. Saruman’s home site of Isengard is hideous. The
Gap of Isen is home to Cave Worms, which makes moving from it a difficult proposition,
while coming in at the Ruins & Lairs version is practically begging for Cave Drakes, Pukel-
Men, and a host of others; a company trying to move to Isengard on the first turn can
be nailed by the aforementioned Cave Worms, not to mention Rain-drakes, Corsairs of
Umbar, and completely ridiculous things like Trolls From the Mountains. Since Saruman’s
ability suggest an active rather than Haven-squatting game, and since Skin-Changers make
him require an escort, trying to leave the Gap of Isen to gather MPs is the Middle Earth
equivalent of a root canal – good for you once it’s done, but very, very painful.
9.12 New Ringlord

Saruman, with Saruman’s Ring and the ability to recycle Wizard’s Test, wins hands-down.
Gandalf comes in a distant second, with his ability to recycle Wizard’s Test or test himself
in the case of Blind. The other three are all equally lousy. On the other hand, New
Ringlord is a risky proposition at best, though still doable.
Rough Stage Point Totals For Full MPs And All Specific/Necessary Stage Resources:
1. Gandalf: 22
2. Radagast: 23
3. Alatar: 24
4. Saruman: 28 (32 with 2 Machinery, 36 with 3)
5. Pallando: 30
Note that these should not be taken as expected totals for a deck - sometimes one does
not wish to include all possible stage resources and skimps on an MP source for similar
reasons. At its basics, though, Gandalf’s lack of a need for Great Patron and Gatherer of
Loyalties to get character/faction MPs made his total low, while Radagast’s default stage
points rise if you include Rhosgobel stage points.
In summation, Saruman seems to earn his overall title of “Worst FW“ mainly because of
Legacy of Smiths equalling his item ability and the general riskiness of his play - corruption,
creatures, and influence busters all seem to have an effect against his most desired means
of acquiring MPs. Radagast commonly gets the cheeze award because of the safety of his
MP sources combined with the utility of cards like Friend of Secret Things and Glove as
well as his high base GI. Overall Pallando and Gandalf are midliners - reasonably safe play
for potentially better rewards than Radagast, while Alatar is something of a Wild Card –
he can Hunt or not Hunt with equal skill, getting full MPs off of Allies, Battle Gear Items,
and Dragon Factions.
84

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METW - The White Hand Player’s Guide

Copyright Pierre Jonas Castillo 2001

edited by Markus Richartz

with contributions from:

2.8.5 Pocketed Robes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

4.1.19 Mischief in a Mean Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

7.1.6 Open to the Summons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

9 Summary and overall Analysis 76

9.7 Kill MP’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

All cited card-texts, included images and used trademarks are

ALATAR - Warrior/Scout/Ranger/Sage (C)

regardless of having an asterisk or not, are

2.2 Alatar specific stage resources

Unique. Alatar specific. Place this card on Alatar if he is in play. If on Alatar,

This card maximizes Alatar’s ability to face

2.2.2 The Great Hunt

2.2.3 Huntsman’s Garb

Unique. Alatar specific. Place this card on Alatar if he is in play. If on Alatar,

Alatar’s recycler card allows you to re-

2.2.4 Join the Hunt

Unique. Alatar specific. Your weapon/shield/armor/helmet items in Alatar’s

(see Orome’s Warders)

2.2.5 Orome’s Warders

Join the Hunt and Orome’s Warders are

2.2.6 Squire of the Hunt

GANDALF - Warrior/Scout/Sage/Diplomat Fallen-Wizard (C)

your advantage by using Ready To His Will

2.4 Gandalf specific stage resources

This stage resource can force your compa- Day of Reckoning.

2.4.2 Chambers in the Royal Court

2.4.3 Gandalf’s Friend

Unique. Gandalf specific. Playable on one of your characters at one of your

Gandalf’s mind-alterer is perhaps the best

2.4.4 Give Welcome to the Unexpected

Unique. Gandalf specific. Place this card on Gandalf if he is in play. If on

There are a lot of unique non-character

2.4.5 Grey Embassy

Unique. Gandalf specific. Place this card on Gandalf if he is in play. If on Gan-

A fallen Gandalf player’s alternative to

2.4.6 The Grey Hat

Unique. Gandalf specific. Place this card on Gandalf if he is in play. If on

Gandalf’s recycler allows you to retrieve

2.4.7 Ring of Fire

Unique. Gandalf specific. Place this card on Gandalf if he is in play. If on

Gandalf’s second recycler allows you to re-

PALLANDO - Warrior/Ranger/Sage/Diplomat Fallen-wizard (C)

2.6 Pallando specific Stage Resources

Pallando specific. Sage only. Playable on a non-Hobbit, non-Dwarf sage at

This card allows a fallen Pallando the op- as well.

2.6.2 Pallando’s Apprentice

Unique. Pallando specific. Sage only. Playable on a non-Hobbit, non-Dwarf

Pallando’s mind-alterer is limited only to

2.6.3 Pallando’s Hood

Unique. Pallando specific. Place this card on Pallando if he is in play. If on

Pallando’s recycler allows him to make full

2.6.4 Prophet of Doom

2.6.5 Stave of Pallando

Unique. Pallando specific. Place this card on Pallando if he is in play. If on

Pallando is the second Fallen-wizard to you.

2.6.6 Truths of Doom

Unique. Pallando specific. Your general influence is increased by 6 points. You

This is the card to help protect Pallando

RADAGAST - Warrior/Scout/Ranger/Diplomat Fallen-wizard (C)