[MECCG] CRF 6 Turn Sequence
Ichabod
Middle-earth: Collectible Card Game Collected Official Rulings File
Version 6 current as of July 10th, 1997.
If playing in a tournament, be sure to check Section III: Tournament
Rulings first, as some of them differ from the rulings for casual play.
Otherwise, be sure to check all factors involved with your ruling
question; including any relevant turn sequence, term, or card.
These are clarifications to the rules for the Middle-earth:
Collectible Card Game, except where noted as errata. Unless otherwise
stated, they assume you are playing the one-deck standard game.
This rulings file will be updated every now and then. Items marked
with a @ are either new, changed, or certified free of editor
infestations for the latest update.
The Annotations from the Middle-earth: The Wizards Companion have now
been integrated into the rulings. They are denoted as annotations and
retain their original numbering as given in the Companion. Note that
Annotations 11 and 24 have been modified from what is printed in the
Companion.
The official netrep, rules archivist, and Crossing-guard of Mordor is
Craig "Ichabod" O'Brien <ich...@cstone.net>.
The official website's hurl is http://www.ironcrown.com. Middle-
earth rulings are also on Ichabod's website at
//www.cstone.net/~ichabod.
The best way to get questions answered is to post them to the usenet
newsgroup rec.games.trading-cards.misc with [METW], [MELE], or [MECCG]
in the subject. The second best way is to email the netrep at the above
adress.
Promotional cards can be obtained by sending a SASE to ICE with a
letter requesting them. If you can, please enclose two booster pack
wrappers. International customers should include an IRC.
I. TABLE OF CONTENTS
II. Turn Sequence Rulings
III. Rulings by Term
IV. Tournament Rulings
V. Card Errata and Rulings
II. TURN SEQUENCE
A. Begining of the Game
If a character is put in the deck due to duplication in the starting
company, then it does not count against the 10 character limit.
Either draw numbers for the whole game or roll dice for the whole
game.
B. Untap Phase
Corruption checks triggered at the end of this phase happen after
everyone untaps. Characters that tap to aid the check will not untap
until their next untap phase.
You may do things besides untap during this phase.
C. Organization Phase
Choosing a New Site
Rules Erratum: When a company splits any of the resulting companies
can move with region movement. Region movement is not limited to one
company of a split.
Region cards are not unique. However, any single site path cannot
have more than one copy of a particular region.
Any company may declare as its new site a site already on the table.
That site will remain on the table at least until the end of that
company's movement/hazard phase.
Two companies may not start at the same site and move to the same new
site.
Followers
A character cannot use a bonus to direct influence against "Blue
Mountain Dwarves" to control characters with the home site Blue Mountain
Dwarf-hold.
Bonuses to direct influence against characters apply only once, not
for each character.
Organizing Companies
If a company splits up, their player chooses which characters are the
original company and which characters are a new company, unless
otherwise directed by a card. All resource permanent-events played on
the original company stay with the original company.
Company composition changes, including bringing a character into
play, must all be done at the same time during the organization phase.
During this time no other actions may be taken.
Playing Characters
Rules Erratum: You may play a character if you do not have enough
influence to control them. However, if there are any characters you do
not have the influence to control at the end of your organization phase,
the character you brought into play this turn must be returned to your
hand.
You may play a character under general influence at their home site
without a company at that site. The one exception to this is if you are
playing Standard Game and your Wizard has been revealed. In that case
your Wizard must be present to bring a character into play under general
influence.
Hobbits may only be brought into play at Bag End, not at Havens.
Storing Items
@ Minions who roll equal to or one less than their accumulated
corruption when storing an item are only tapped.
D. Long Event Phase
E. Movement/Hazard Phase
General
Annotation 25: A company is considered to be at the site given by its
site card at all times except from the moment their new site card is
revealed during their movement/hazard phase until their old site card is
discarded during the same movement/hazard phase. During this period a
company is considered to be en route between sites and not at any site.
Annotation 26: If at the start of a movement/hazard phase there are
multiple effects in play such that their net effect depends on the order
they are applied, the player who is currently not taking his turn
decides the order in which they are to be applied. Once this
interpretation is established, all further actions are applied in the
order they are resolved for the rest of the turn.
Once the effects of an environment card have been applied to a target
during a given movement/hazard phase, that effect is not applied again
to that target during the current turn.
A company is not considered to be at its new site until the end of
the company's site of origin is removed. A company is only considered
to be moving during its movement/hazard phase, and only if it plays a
new site card.
Resource cards cannot be played between the movement/hazard phases of
two different companies.
You do not have to decide how many cards you want to draw before you
start to draw them.
Companies at the same non-haven/non-darkhaven site must join at the
end of all movement/hazard phases, before the site phase starts.
Companies at the same haven/darkhaven site may join at this time.
If companies would join at the end of the movement/hazard phase such
that the company composition rules are violated, one company of the
hazard playerąs choice must return to its site of origin.
If two companies join at a site, cards affecting one of the companies
now affect them both.
A company's movement/hazard phase is concluded when both players
agree to reconcile their hand sizes. No actions may be taken until the
site phase or until both players have drawn cards for the movement of a
following company.
Combat
Strikes are assigned in the following manner: First the defending
player assigns strikes to his untapped characters; Second the attacking
player assigns the remaining strikes; Third the attacking player may
assign extra strikes as -1 modifiers to characters' prowess. Each
character must be assigned one strike before any character gets an extra
strike. The extra strikes are not assigned to a character until that
character's strike is resolved.
Cancelling an attack does not defeat it.
A creature cannot be canceled based on region type if that creature
was played keyed to a region by name.
Side effects of losing a character are resolved immediately after the
character is lost, before other characters resolve their strikes.
If a creature has a body, each strike is only defeated if the body is
defeated for that strike.
If an attack states all characters in a company face a strike, then
effects which allow a character to face more than one strike have no
effect against the attack. Similarly, effects that change the attack's
number of strikes have no effect. As an exception, effects which reduce
the number of strikes to a specific number do work.
The Strike Sequence
The strike sequence is a period of time that begins when a player
announces one of his characters will resolve a strike. It ends after the
strike dice-roll or strike cancellation, and any body checks resulting
from that strike.
Annotation 16: When a wounded character becomes unwounded, he is
considered in his history to have been wounded and must face any special
actions the wounding strike presented him.
Annotation 17: The only actions that may be declared during a strike
sequence are those outlined in Annotation 18.
Annotation 18: When a defending player chooses to resolve a strike
against a particular character, the only actions that may be taken by
either player until the strike dice-roll is made are the following: play
hazard cards that affect the strike, the attacker may decide to use any
or all of his remaining -1 modifications due to strikes in excess of the
company's size, a target untapped character may take a -3 modification
so that he will not automatically tap, and the defending character may
play resource cards that affect the strike. An action that has the
condition that a target character tap, but which otherwise has an effect
not outlined here, may not be declared at this point. This is true even
if the recipient of the strike would be the target character tapping and
thus recieve -1 to his prowess.
Annotation 19: Following each successful strike or failed strike, a
body check must be rolled (unless the failed strike has no body).
However, if the strike calls for any special actions to follow it (e.g.,
a character wounded by "William" may be required to discard his items),
these special actions are resolved before the body check. The body check
is the first declared action in a nested chain of effects that
immediately follows the strike dice-roll and special actions resulting
from the strike. Other actions may be declared in response to a body
check, in the same chain of effects, but these are limited to those
actions that directly affect the body check dice-roll. E.g., Tookish
Blood could not be declared in response to the body check caused by
Giant Spiders wounding a Hobbit. No action may be declared in response
to a special action resulting from a strike unless the special action is
a dice-rolling action, i.e., a special action is generally considered
synonymous with the strike dice-roll. If the special action is a dice-
rolling action, an action may be declared in response to it if the
action directly affects the dice-roll.
Annotation 20: If more than one special action is to follow a strike,
the defending player decides the order they are resolved.
Annotation 21: A successful strike against a character is synonymous
with that character being wounded, i.e., inverting a character card on
the playing surface is not a seperate action from the successful strike.
Cancelling a strike does not defeat it.
A strike is only defeated if the body of the strike is defeated.
Wounded characters only suffer a -2 prowess. In general, wounded
charcters are not considered tapped.
Prowess modifications from items come first. Then other bonuses are
applied in the order the player controlling the character decides. Even
a bonus given on a character's card is applied after item bonuses.
Movement
Starter movement works as follows: Each company will have a face up
site card showing where it is. This is called the site of origin. By
the end of the organization phase put a face down new site for each of
your companies that you wish to move. If a company's site of origin is a
non-Haven site, the new site must be the nearest Haven. If the site of
origin is a Haven site there are two options. If you want to go to
another Haven you may go to one of the two nearest Havens listed on your
site of origin card, the new site card would be one of these two Havens.
If you want to go to a non-Haven site it must be one which lists the
site of origin as the nearest Haven. If the company successfully makes
it to the new site, discard the site of origin at the end of that
company's movement/hazard phase. For a minion company, replace Haven
with Dark Haven in the above paragraph.
Region movement works as follows: To move a company from its site of
origin to another site using region movement, lay down a series of up to
four regions and the new site by the end of your organization phase.
Each region in the series must list on its card the regions that are
connected with it in the series as adjacent regions. The region at the
beginning of the series must be the region listed on the site of origin
card. The region at the end of the series must be the region listed on
the new site card. A site which lies more than four regions away from
the site of origin may not normally be reached in one turn with region
movement.
Region movement can be used to move from one non-Haven/non-Dark Haven
site to another non-Haven/non-Dark Haven site.
A company does not have to move each turn. If a company does not move
it still has a movement/hazard phase. No cards are drawn for the company
and the only hazards that can be played on the company are creatures
that can be keyed to the company's site and events.
Lebennin and Ithilien are not adjacent, even though they look that
way on some maps.
Playing Hazards
The hazard limit does not change if a character is eliminated or
discarded during the movement/hazard phase.
Hazard permanent-events count against the hazard limit. Some hazard
permanent-events allow you to tap or discard them for an effect, and
this counts against the hazard limit unless specified otherwise on the
card.
Hazards may only be played on a company whose movement/hazard phase
is being resolved. Long-events and permanent-events may effect more than
one company even though they are only played "on" one company.
If a card must be keyed to two or more instances of a region type,
those region types do not have to be consecutive in the site path.
If a creature hazard resolves and there are no longer any instances
of the region or site it was keyed to, then the creature is immediately
discarded for no effect on play. If any instances of the region or site
it was keyed to are in the site path when the creature resolves then the
creature takes effect, even if those instances are not the ones that
were there when the creature was declared.
If you say you are done playing hazards and your opponent plays a
resource before the movement/hazard phase ends, you may then continue
playing hazards, assuming you have not yet reached the hazard limit.
A creature that can be played in a specific region by name can be
played on a company using starter movement if that company's site of
origin or site of destination are in that specific region.
If a company is moving from a surface site to an Under-deeps site,
hazards may not be played keyed to the region of the surface site.
Angmar Arises, In Darkness Bind Them, and Reaching Shadow may not be
used to play creatures keyed to double shadow-lands.
Returning to Site of Origin
If a company returns to its site of origin, its site path immediately
disappears.
An effect that returns a company to its site of origin may not be
declared in the middle of an attack.
F. Site Phase
General
The Golden Rule: in order to play any card or take any action during
the site phase, the site must be entered. This means facing any
automatic-attacks, even if you have entered the site on a previous turn.
The Golden Rule, Part II: A resource does not have to be played
during the site phase unless the card says so; or unless the card is an
item, faction or ally.
The Golden Rule, Part III: There is no one resource card per site
phase rule. The only requirements for playing such a resource are that
the site be untapped and that you faced any automatic-attacks at the
start of the site phase. If you can find a way to untap the site or play
a resource at a tapped site, you can play more than one resource per
site phase.
Company vs. Company Combat
The defender may take actions that affect the attack or any of the
strikes. The attacker may only take actions that affect individual
strikes.
True Fana and Sacrifice of Form cannot be used in company versus
company combat.
Exploring A Site/Automatic-attacks
To explore a site, first declare you are exploring the site. Then
face any automatic-attacks at the site, and any on-guard hazard
creatures or agents revealed. If you have any untapped characters; you
may then tap one to play an item, information, ally or faction card. For
most items and information cards the site will say if they are playable
at that site. Special items, and factions and allies, say on the
resource card at which sites they are playable.
A card that can cancel an attack can cancel an automatic-attack, and
this counts as facing the automatic-attack.
The automatic-attack is not a hazard, nor is it a creature.
Automatic-attacks added to a site are faced after the normal
automatic-attacks for the site. Multiple automatic-attacks are faced in
the order listed and/or resolved.
@ Company composition and overt/covert status is checked before each
automatic attack
Influence Attempts
It is not possible to influence an item away from a Wizard or
Ringwraith.
You must enter a site to make an influence attempt.
You may influence a Hobbit if you are not at Bag End.
A successful influence attempt on an opponent's resource does not tap
the site.
On-Guard Cards
Rules Erratum: An on-guard may only be revealed if it could have also
been played during the movement/hazard phase. This means all targets of
the card must have existed during the movement/hazard phase in order for
the card to be revealed.
A revealed on-guard card retroactively takes effect as though it were
both declared and resolved immediately prior to the chain of effects
during which it was revealed.
There are two cases when a face down on-guard card may be revealed:
1) When the company announces it will face a site's automatic-attack,
but before the automatic-attack is itself faced. The site must have an
automatic-attack to reveal the card now. The card must either modify
the automatic-attack or be a creature hazard keyable to the site.
2) When the company plays resource that potentially taps the site.
The card must affect the company or a character in the company that site
phase. Note that this clarification is looser than the rule printed on
p.61 of the Unlimited Rulesbook
A creature revealed as an on-guard card is considered a hazard
creature attack, not an automatic-attack.
A successful ring test does not allow an on-guard card to be
revealed.
You may reveal a card in response to an influence attempt against a
faction even if the on-guard card only has an effect if the attempt is
successful. You may also reveal a card in response to such an attempt
that affects the actual influence attempt.
Only declared or on-going cards and effects can be considered when
determining the validy of revealing an on-guard card. Cards in your
hand, your opponent's hand, play deck, discard pile, etc. cannot be
considered and potential effects that have not been triggered cannot be
considered.
A corruption card can be revealed as an on-guard card, so long as it
otherwise is legal, because a character in the company is affected.
A card that changes the company's site type cannot be revealed unless
this has some obvious effect on the company that site phase.
A card cannot be revealed that returns a company to its site of
origin.
A card cannot be revealed that taps a company's site.
A card cannot be revealed that potentially removes a character from a
company.
A card cannot be revealed that forces a company to do nothing during
its site phase.
A card that potentially removes an ally from the company can be
revealed, so long as it otherwise is legal.
A card may not be revealed that taps a character in the company.
Some long- and permanent-events can be revealed on-guard and effect
multiple companies.
You may play two on-guard hazards on the same site only if two
companies are moving to the same site.
The on-guard card is not considered to be in any player's hand.
G. End-of-Turn Phase
End-of-Turn effects are triggered by the ending of the End of Turn
phase. Once both players are done with all actions in the End of Turn
phase, all End of Turn effects are declared and resolved in the order
chosen by the current player.
Cards may be played during the End-of-Turn phase after hand size has
been reconciled.
H. Free Council
If you have 0 marshalling points in characters, items, factions, or
allies then your opponent's points for that type are doubled. This
includes if you are brought down to 0 points in a category due to
negative marshalling points.
Characters may tap to aid corruption checks. Note that the player
calling the Free Council does not get an untap phase before it.
Long- and permanent-events still in play will still have an effect.
Only resources that directly affect corruption checks may be played
during the Free Council.
------- "The Crossing-guard of Mordor" -------
Craig "Ichabod" O'Brien http://www.cstone.net/~ichabod
ich...@cstone.net Me:CCG Official Netrep
"It's for discipline that the Lord scourges his worshippers" Jdt 8:17 -- Check out my Shadowfist, INWO, and MECCG traders on my web page --