Announcing the Thrilling Conclusion to The Ring-maker Cycle

“There are many that cry in the Dunland tongue,” said Gamling. “I know that tongue. It is an ancient speech of men, and once was spoken in many valleys of the Mark. Hark! They hate us, and they are glad; for our doom seems certain to them.”
    –J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

War has come to Dunland.

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of The Antlered Crown, the sixth and final Adventure Pack in The Ring-maker cycle for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!

After having found Celebrimbor’s hidden forge and securing its secrets from a horde of Orcs, several of Middle-earth’s heroes near the end of their service to the White Council. First, however, they must return to Isengard, and this means passing through the hills of Dunland, where war has broken loose.

The Antlered Crown introduces sixty new cards to The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, including a new Rohan hero, three copies of each new player card, and a new scenario that carries players deep into battle with the wild men of Dunland. Amid ferocious combats and brutal treachery, you’ll find plenty of moments for heroics, and you’ll have plenty need for stalwart allies.

Naturally, The Antlered Crown delivers heroics and combat-ready allies in abundance; you’ll find allies and events that further depict the ability of Rohan’s finest warriors to charge headlong into battle, as well as a handful of cards that wrap up the cycle’s introduction of the Ent trait to The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game.

Unlikely Allies

“We are tree-herds, we old Ents. Few enough of us are left now.”
    –Treebeard, The Two Towers

While The Ring-maker cycle focuses a great deal of attention toward further defining and enhancing the unique play style associated with the Silvan trait, it also lends new support to several of the game’s other traits, and it introduces several cards for the much-beloved Ents.

Though there are few Ent allies in the cycle, their footprints are large. They are slow to anger and slow to act, but once roused, it’s hard to keep a good Ent down. The Ents don’t make their debut in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game until Celebrimbor’s Secret, but once players gain the opportunity to play with the cards from The Antlered Crown, these Ents are bound to make a major impression upon fans everywhere.

We saw the first of the Ents revealed in the announcement of Celebrimbor’s Secret. At just two resources, the Wandering Ent (Celebrimbor’s Secret, 119) is a powerful ally that boasts a remarkable array of two Willpower, two Attack, two Defense, and three Hit Points. Yet as an Ent, this ally is slow to commit himself fully to your cause, so he enters play exhausted. This is a theme that runs throughout the cycle’s Ent cards, and both of the Ents from The Antlered Crown also enter play exhausted:

• Ents may be slow to anger, but the Booming Ent (The Antlered Crown, 141) is one Ent who has seen too many evils and too much deforestation to sit idle any longer. Portrayed with arrows jutting out of his hide in all directions, this ally gains one Attack Strength for each damaged Ent character you control. Because you’ll be able to command as many as seven Ent allies once The Antlered Crown releases, it’s entirely possible to get this two-cost character up to a massive Attack Strength of nine.
• Finally, the most recognizable of the cycle’s Ents is the venerable Treebeard (The Antlered Crown, 146), who appears as a neutral ally with some truly massive statistics: two Willpower, four Attack, three Defense, and five Hit Points. Moreover, like Radagast (A Journey to Rhosgobel, 59), Treebeard collects a resource each turn, which he can use to recruit other Ents or to ready them. Don’t be too hasty, though, using Treebeard to ready an Ent will cost you two resources, so you’ll have to wait at least one turn to do so.

Though there are only a few different Ent characters in The Ring-maker cycle, these unlikely allies may still make a powerful impact upon The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, especially if they crash into action to aid your heroes during the battles of The Antlered Crown.

No One Is Safe on the Field of Battle

War rages across the hills of Dunland, the horse-lords of Rohan ride into the fray, and even the neighboring tree-herds storm into battle. Can you complete the mission you began in Saruman’s service? Can you deliver the ancient lore you found in Celebrimbor’s secret forge?

Stand fast amid the chaos of war, and make your mark upon Middle-earth in The Antlered Crown. This thrilling conclusion to The Ring-maker cycle is scheduled to arrive at retailers in the fourth quarter of 2014!

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