Middle-earth: The Lidless Eye Quick Reference Sheet

by Matthias Weeks

SEQUENCE OF PLAY

UNTAP PHASE
Each of your characters may do one of the following:
Heal (if at a Darkhaven) or Untap
Untap all of your other tapped non-site cards unless stated otherwise

ORGANIZATION PHASE
Play one Character or Ringwraith
Reorganize companies
Store items at Darkhavens/appropriate site (requires a corruption check)
Transfer items between characters (requires a corruption check)
Store other cards at their designated site
Play a new site card or stay at current site
Tap to attempt to remove corruption cards (you may opt to take -3 penalty to stay untapped [or if the characters is tapped already], one removal attempt per card)

LONG EVENT PHASE
Remove your long event resources
Play new long event resources
Remove opponent’s long event hazards

MOVEMENT/HAZARD PHASE (each company has its own M/H phase)
Reveal new site
Draw cards as indicated on new site card (if moving to a darkhaven draw cards as indicated on site you are leaving)
Play hazard long events
Play all other hazards and on-guard cards (as indicated by region types and site path)
Play resources
Discard all tapped non-haven site cards
Resize hand (usually to 8)
If a company did not move - hazards may only be keyed to the existing site

SITE PHASE
You may choose to not enter the site
You may enter the site
If you enter the site, you must face all auto-attacks as indicated on site card
Resolve all on-guard cards
Untapped characters may attempt to play an item, faction or ally that is playable at the current site. Tap character and site.
Make influence attempts vs. opponents items, factions or allies

END OF TURN PHASE
You may discard one card from your hand
Resize hand (usually 8)

GENERAL INFORMATION

• You are allowed up to 6 starting minions which may not exceed 20 mind points.
• Starting companies begin the game at Minas Morgul or at Dol Guldur.
• You may begin the game with 2 minor items.
• Orcs and Trolls may not be in the same company as Dúnadain, Elves and Dwarves (unless at a Darkhaven). Men may travel in any company.
• You may only have one Leader per company (unless at a Darkhaven).
• Minions brought into play during the game may be done so at their home site or any darkhaven, provided requirements are met.
• Minions may tap to cancel one automatic-attack at their home site.
• You may play a Sudden Call card when you have acquired 20 MP’s or you have exhausted your play deck once.

COVERT/OVERT

Overt: Any company containing an Orc, Troll or a Ringwraith in Fell Rider mode.
Covert: All other companies not containing the above (i.e. Men, Elves, Dwarves and Dúnedain).

RINGWRAITH INFORMATION

• May be brought into play at Minas Morgul [or Dol Guldur] or [one of] their appropriate home site[s].
• All rings in a Ringwraith’s company are automatically tested during the end-of-turn phase with a die roll modification of -2.
• May carry items, but may not receive bonuses.
• Never makes corruption checks.
• May not be in a company with a non-Ringwraith character unless at a Darkhaven.
• May not use region movement.
• May not use a site path containing a coastal sea region.
• Ringwraith followers may only be discarded as indicated on mode cards.
• Ringwraith followers may not use abilities.
• Return Ringwraith to hand on a body check of 7 or 8 (simulates the elimination of the Ringwraith’s mount). Opponent may not play this Ringwraith.
• Characters in a company with a Ringwraith have their corruption checks modified by +2.

COMBAT SEQUENCE

1. Reveal a creature hazard
2. Defender may cancel creature hazard
3. If attack is not canceled, attacks are assigned to characters by defender unless stated otherwise on creature hazard card.
4. Assign strikes - defender chooses which untapped characters will face the strikes unless otherwise noted on creature hazard card.
5. Attacker assigns remaining strikes to any tapped or wounded characters (if any - maximum of one total strike per character from steps 4 and 5)
6. Attacker may now choose to assign any extra strikes to characters (i.e. the number of strikes was greater than the number of characters)
7. Defender may now cancel strikes a character is facing
8. Characters not facing a strike from an attack may tap to support a character facing a strike
9. Roll dice for each strike and apply results

COMBAT MODIFIERS

DETAINMENT ATTACKS

The following are considered detainment attacks against minion companies:

• All Nazgûl attacks
• Any attack keyed to a Dark-domain, Dark-hold or Shadow-hold
• Orc, Troll, Undead and Man attacks keyed to Shadow-lands
• As indicated on hazard creature card

A successful detainment attack causes the target of the attack to only tap. Detainment attacks never wound [and are never defeated].

BODY CHECKS

If a strike is successful against a character they must immediately make a body check.
The following applies to all body checks:

• Attacker rolls the body check
• A character is eliminated if the body check is greater than their body attribute
• An already wounded character has their body check roll modified by +1
• Certain characters (i.e. Orcs and Trolls) are discarded on a body check result of # or #, in this case you must discard the character if the modified body check roll is equal to either of these numbers

COMBAT RESOLUTION

In order to defeat a creature you must:

• defeat all the strikes from a creature (a canceled strike is not considered defeated)
• If the strike had a body the body must also be defeated

If an attack is defeated (i.e. all strikes and body checks were defeated), you may:

• Place the creature card in your marshalling point pile if it contains an ‘*’ next to its marshalling point value and/or
• If an Orc or Troll in a company faced a strike, they may take the creature as a trophy.

An attack that is defeated, does not contain an ‘*’ and cannot be taken as a trophy (i.e. the attack was defeated by Men, Dwarves, Dúnedain, Elves or a Ringwraith) is placed in your opponent’s out-of-play pile.

CORRUPTION CHECKS

The following apply to all corruption checks:

• An untapped character may tap to modify the corruption check of another character in the same company by +1
• If the corruption check is equal to or one under the character’s corruption total, the character taps [the character is not considered
• If the corruption check is 2 or more under the character’s corruption value, the character is eliminated

Unofficial ME:LE Quick Reference Sheet by Matthias Weeks. Inspired by Jeff Clark.