The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game – The Hunt for the Dreadnaught
The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game – The Hunt for the Dreadnaught Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Expansion Symbol
The cards in this expansion can be identified by a ship symbol before each card's collector number.
Difficulty Modes
The Hunt for the Dreadnaught has three difficulty modes: Easy, Standard, and Hard. When playing this scenario, choose which difficulty mode to play, find its corresponding Setup card (as denoted by the card's title), and remove the other two Setup cards from the game. For Epic Multiplayer Mode, each group may choose its own difficulty mode.
Rules and Terms
Ships
There are two kinds of ship cards: ship-enemies and ship-objectives (as denoted by the card's card type). Both ship-enemies and ship-objectives count as ship cards, but have different rules associated with them.
Ship-Enemies
Ship-enemies function in the same way as enemies and are considered to be enemies for all purposes, with the following exceptions:
- Attacks made by ship-enemies can only be defended by ship-objectives. Non-ship characters may not defend against a ship-enemy.
- If an attack made by a ship-enemy is undefended, damage from that attack must be assigned to a ship-objective you control, instead of to a hero you control.
Ship-Objectives
This scenario includes six unique ship-objectives and four copies of a non-unique ship-objective. Ship-objectives are encounter cards (not player cards) which function in the same way as objective-allies and are considered to be allies (and characters) for all purposes, with the following exceptions:
- Ship-objectives can only attack ship-enemies. Non-ship enemies may not be attacked by a ship-objective.
- Ship-objectives can only defend against attacks made by ship-enemies. Ship-objectives may not defend against attacks made by non-ship enemies.
Preparing Your Fleet
This scenario's Setup card instructs the players to "prepare their fleet." To prepare their fleet, each player chooses and takes control of one of the six unique ship-objectives, Basic side faceup. Each ship-objective that is not used (including the 4 copies of Gondorian Warship) is then set-aside.
The Corsair Deck
The Corsair deck is a separate deck made up of only non-Ship enemies, and represents the pirates and raiders players may encounter on Corsair ships.
This scenario's Setup card instructs the players to "prepare the Corsair deck." This is done by removing the 13 non-Ship, non-unique Corsair enemies from the encounter deck (encounter cards numbered 18 through 30), placing them in a separate facedown pile, and shuffling it. This pile is referred to as the Corsair deck. The other non-unique enemies remain in the standard encounter deck.
The enemies in the Corsair deck are only revealed through encounter card effects, such as the Boarding keyword.
The Corsair deck has its own discard pile. Whenever a non-Ship Corsair enemy would be placed in the discard pile, place it in the Corsair discard pile instead. When the Corsair deck runs out of cards, immediately shuffle the Corsair discard pile back into the Corsair deck.
Global Values
Global values are calculated based on the total number of participating players among all groups at the start of the event. The Searching the High Seas quest stage 1B and the large Dreadnaught enemy have global values.
- The global quest point value for quest stage 1B is 8 per player among all groups. In Epic Multiplayer Mode, this value is shared between all of the groups, and is tracked by the event organizer.
For example: 16 total players are split between four groups of four. At the start of the event, the event organizer sets the global quest point value for quest stage 1B to 128 and announces this value to the players. Progress placed on any group's copy of stage 1B contributes to stage 1B's global quest point value. During the event, the event organizer keeps track of the progress that is placed on stage 1B, and notifies the players when stage 1B has accumulated enough progress to advance. Once this takes place, each group will advance independently at the end of their quest phase.
- The Dreadnaught enemy has a global hit point value of 15 per player among all groups. In Epic Multiplayer Mode, this hit point value is shared between all of the groups, and damage placed on any copy of the Dreadnaught is tracked by the event organizer.
Immune to Player Card Effects
Cards with the text "Immune to player card effects" ignore the effects of all player cards. Additionally, cards that are immune to player card effects cannot be chosen as targets of player card effects.
Per Player (player symbol)
The player symbol next to a value multiplies that value by the number of players in that group who started that scenario.
Keywords
Archery X
While a card with the Archery keyword is in play, players must deal damage to character cards in play equal to the specified archery value at the beginning of each combat phase. This damage can be dealt to characters under any player's control, and it can be divided among the players as they see fit. If there is disagreement as to where to assign archery damage, the first player makes the final decision. If multiple cards with the Archery keyword are in play, the effects are cumulative.
Boarding X
Boarding is a keyword that appears on many ship-enemies. After a ship-enemy with the Boarding keyword engages a player from the staging area, reveal the top X cards from the Corsair Deck and put the revealed enemies into play, engaged with that player. The Boarding keyword does not resolve if that enemy engages a player from another player's play area, or from the encounter deck or discard pile.
Massive
An enemy with the Massive keyword cannot leave the staging area, is considered to be engaged with each player, and attacks each player in turn during the combat phase.
Pillage X
Pillage is a keyword that appears on some enemies. After an enemy with Pillage X attacks a player, that player discards the top X cards of their deck.
Epic Multiplayer Mode
Epic Multiplayer Mode is a variant in which any number of players can play The Hunt for the Dreadnaught together in multiple groups. To play in Epic Multiplayer Mode, first divide the players into separate groups. At least one player must be assigned to each group, and no more than four players may be assigned to a single group. It is recommended that players be split between groups as evenly as possible. Each group requires one copy of this product in order to play.
After dividing players into groups, designate one person to be the "event organizer." The event organizer is responsible for tracking the progress placed on each group's quest stage 1B and damage placed on the Dreadnaught.
During gameplay, observe the following additional rules:
- Each group has its own play area, and plays the game separately from the other groups. Rules, actions, and card effects cannot affect players in other groups, unless explicitly stated otherwise.
- Each group can proceed to the next round or quest stage independently of one another; there is no need to wait until all groups have reached the same point before proceeding.
- Players may freely communicate between groups.
Contracts
This product includes one player card: the contract titled A Perilous Voyage (card number 47). This card may be used for constructing decks for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game.
Contracts count as player cards, but they are never included in a player's deck and do not count towards a player's minimum deck size. Instead, each player may choose one contract to put into play along with their heroes at the beginning of the game with its "A" side faceup. If a contract places restrictions on the contents of a player's deck, those restrictions must be met in order to choose that contract.