Things You Should Know About...

Minion, Fallen-wizard and Balrog Decks

This document is intended for players that have little or no experience playing against minion decks, fallen-wizard decks, and Balrog decks. It might be a good thing to read this before building a deck for a general opponent tournament or an opposing alignments tournament (i.e. tournament in which you will probably have to face minion, Fallen-wizard and/or Balrog players).

Minion Decks

• Starting sites - Minion starting companies may start at Minas Morgul and/or Dol Guldur.
• Playing Ringwraiths - Ringwraiths (the minion equivalent of a wizard) can be played at Minas Morgul, Dol Guldur or their home site.
• General Influence - Minion players have 5 extra general influence points which cannot be used to control characters. (They protect a minion player against certain hazards (e.g., Call of Home and Muster Disperses) and influence attempts by you.)
• Covert and Overt Companies - An overt company is a company with orcs and/or trolls in it. A covert company is a company with no orcs and no trolls in it, or a company with only half-orcs and men in it. (Half-orc characters are introduced in The White Hand.)
• Detainment attacks - When a strike from a detainment attack is succesful, an untapped character is tapped instead of wounded. You can never defeat a detainment attack. The following types of attacks are detainment:
  • Any Nazgul attack against a minion company
  • Any attack keyed to Dark-domain, Shadow-hold or Dark-hold
  • Any Orc, Troll, Undead, or Man attack keyed to Shadow-land
  The parameters above also apply if an attack is keyed to a region or site name which happens to be of the appropriate type.
  Examples: an Orc-warband attacking a minion company in a Shadow-land is a detainment attack. The same Orc-warband attacking a minion company in a Wilderness is a normal attack. Shelob "can be played at any site in Imlad Morgul or Gorgoroth". Since all sites in these regions are Dark-holds and Shadow-holds, Shelob's attack is always detainment against a minion company.

• Kill Points and Trophies - A minion player does not get kill points for defeated hazard creatures, unless there's an asterisk (*) besides the number of kill points listed on the card.
  If an orc or troll character has faced a strike from a hazard creature attack that has been defeated, that orc or troll may place that creature's card under him (asterisk or no), to get certain bonusses:
  [Total number of kill points on trophies: bonus (not cumulative)]
  • 1: +1 direct influence.
  • 2: +1 prowess, +1 direct influence.
  • 3: +1 prowess, +2 direct influence.
  • 4: +2 prowess, +2 direct influence.
  Example: an overt company defeats Dwarven Travellers (1* kill points). Shagrat takes the trophy; he gets +1 on his direct influence. The minion player still receives the kill MP. If Shagrat gets another trophy worth 1 kill MP later on, he gets a +1 on his prowess.

• Corruption - If the roll for a corruption check for a minion character is equal to that character's corruption point total or one less, the character is tapped instead of discarded. He is not considered to fail the corruption check in this case. So, it's harder to corrupt a minion than it is to corrupt a hero.
  Ringwraiths never make corruption checks and no corruption cards may be played on them, ever.
  Example: Gorbag, a minion character, has four corruption points. He has to make a corruption check. If he rolls a three or four, he's tapped (if he wasn't tapped already; if he already was tapped before the check, nothing happens). If he rolls a two, he's eliminated.
• Ringwraith movement - Ringwraiths cannot move to non-haven sites, unless certain cards are played that say the Ringwraith now can move to a non-haven site. They can only use starter movement.
• Company versus Company Combat - Minion companies may attack hero companies and vice versa during their player's site phase, after having faced the auto-attacks. The exact rules can be found in the Lidless Eye rulebook.
• "Calling the Council" - A minion player can only "call the Council" (it's called "having an audience with Sauron" for a minion player, by the way) if he/she plays a Sudden Call card. He/she still has to fulfill all other requirements.
  Example: To call the council in a two-deck game, a minion player has to accumulate 25 MP, exhaust his deck and play a Sudden Call card.

Fallen-wizard Decks

• Wizard duplication - A Fallen-wizard player must tell you which Fallen-wizard he will be playing before the game starts. If you have one or more copies of the normal wizard corresponding to that particular Fallen-wizard in your deck or sideboard, you may replace them with other wizard cards. You may not play the wizard corresponding to the Fallen-wizard your opponent is playing. (So bring some extra wizard cards to a tournament!)
• Extra sideboard - You can bring up to 10 cards to a tournament, preselected to be used against a Fallen-wizard player (usually these are only hazards). You can add them to your normal sideboard if your opponent declares that he's playing a Fallen-wizard.
• Decks - Fallen-wizard decks can include both hero and minion resources. However, Fallen-wizard players may only include up to two copies of each non-unique resources in their combined play deck and sideboard (instead of three). Also, Fallen-wizards cannot play with characters with a mind higher than 5, unless they use certain cards that say they can (e.g. Thrall of the Voice).
• Stage resources - The greenish cards Fallen-wizard players use are called "stage resources". A Fallen-wizard player starts out with a few stage resources, more can, and probably will, be played later on. They are played during the organization phase (with a few exceptions).
• Stage points - Stage points are the numbers printed inside the white cogs on stage resource cards. Stage points represent how far a Fallen-wizard has deviated from his original mission. (A lot of hazards from The White Hand punish players for having a lot of stage points, but, on the other hand, a lot of Fallen-wizard cards require a certain amount of stage points, so for a Fallen-wizard, having a lot of stage points can be both good and bad.)
• Starting site - A Fallen-wizard's starting company may start at the White Towers (a Wizardhaven, a haven for Fallen-wizards only) or at any Ruins & Lairs site in Rhudaur or Arthedain.
• General Influence - A Fallen-wizard player has 20 general influence until he plays his Fallen-wizard. Then, the number inside the white hand printed on the Fallen-wizard's character card becomes his general influence.
• Marshalling points - All non-stage resources cards worth marshalling points are only worth 1 marshalling point to a Fallen-wizard, regardless of the value printed on the card. Fallen-wizard abilities and stage resources can modify the number of marshalling points certain cards give.
  Example: The stage resource Great Patron reads "Your characters and allies that normally give 2 or more marshalling points are each worth 2 marshalling points." Normally, Balin would be worth only 1 MP to a Fallen-wizard, with this card in play, Balin's worth 2.
• Corruption - Corruption checks for a Fallen-wizard's non-Orc, non-Troll characters are handled as if the player were a wizard, i.e. the usual way. Corruption checks for the Fallen-wizard himself, as well as for Orcs and Trolls, are handled as if they were minion characters (see minion section above).

Balrog Decks

• Characters - A Balrog player uses minion characters. However, he can only use orcs and trolls. Unless they're "Balrog specific" (if a card is "Balrog specific" it says so on the card) their mind must be lower than 9 (i.e. a Balrog player can't play with any of the three troll lieutenants).
• Starting sites - Balrog starting companies may start at Moria and/or The Under-gates (both are havens for the Balrog).
• Playing characters - The Balrog (the character card) must be played at The Under-gates. Characters with a home site of "Any Dark-hold" (e.g. Troll Lout) have a home site of "Any non-Dark-hold Under-deeps site" instead. A Balrog player may bring up to two characters into play during his organization face (instead of just one). One of these two must be non-unique. A non-unique character with a mind of 3 or less may be played from the player's hand, discard pile, or sideboard.
• Moving - When a Balrog company moves to a site (even if it's a haven) both players draw cards based upon the site being moved to.
• Sites - Balrog players have different site cards for all Under-deeps sites, all Dark-holds, and Moria, Carn Dum, Dol Guldur, and Minas Morgul. They must use these instead of the normal minion site cards.
• Factions - Balrog players may only play Orc, Troll, Dragon, Wolf, and Animal factions.
• General Influence - Just like a normal minion player, a Balrog player has 5 extra general influence points that cannot be used to control characters.