The Cold Arm of Angmar

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Darksatin
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THE COLD ARM OF ANGMAR

A scenario for the Middle-earth Collectible Card Game taken from The Northern Waste (MERP #2025)


" ... in summer his power wanes ; but now his breath is deadly, and his cold arm is long. "
- The Return of the King - pp. 322


The land of Forodwaith has suffered long under the icy grip of sorcerous evil - once crushed under the thumb of black Morgoth, it is now tortured by the dreaded Witch-king of Angmar. His dark magics send forth clouds of frosty death upon the Northlands, and creatures of Darkness bound from the biting winds to attack those Free Peoples who struggle to survive in the cold expanses of this land.

Vôteli, a tietäjä among the Lossoth, knows her land will die under the cold fist of Angmar. And she knows the fell prophecy : that no living man may hinder the Witch-king. Glorfindel was not the first to utter it when he counseled Earnur on the battlefield of the North : the mystics of Evermist had long foreseen it, and similar foretellings had circulated among the viisaat and benkinimittäjät of the Lossoth. Yet there was a wise one, a grandmother of grandmothers, who revealed to Vôteli a flaw : that she, Vôteli, a woman, is no living man - she may to be the one to bring a end to the Lord of the Nazgûl.

So Vôteli has taken it upon herself to venture into the warm lands of the South, to gather brave warriors, weapons of might and powerful armies to attack the Witch-king in his citadel at Carn Dûm. Only when she, woman of the Lossoth, has dispatched the Witch-king and has ended his evil magic will the suffering of her land end.

This is a solitaire scenario, for one person to play alone.

OBJECTIVE :
You, Vôteli, must meet the Witch-King in single combat and defeat him. A difficult task for any, but you must face him in his own citadel, protected by his elite guard, and surrounded by his own artifacts of power. Therefore, you must scour the land for brave warriors willing to accompany you on this seemingly suicidal quest, gather weapons and other powerful items to assist you against the Witch-King and his guard, and convince the peoples of Middle-Earth to send armies to defend you as you assault Carn Dûm.


DECK CONSTRUCTION :
You will need the following :

1) two starting characters : one of which is Vôteli, the other can be any character with a mind of 5 or less.

2) one starting minor item of your choice for each character.

3) a resource deck of 25 cards of your choosing. This may include up to 6 other characters ( including one copy of one Wizard ), plus any items, factions, allies or resource events. You may have no more than three of each non-unique card.

4) a hazard deck of 30 cards, divided as follows :
* 20 hazard creatures, 10 keyed to Wilderness / Double Wilderness, 5 to Free-Domains / Borderlands, 5 to Shadow-lands / Dark-domains ;
* 10 other Hazard event cards of your choice ( including corruption cards, Nazgûl, Dragon Ahunt manifestations, etc. ) ;
* You may not use no more than three non-unique hazards in your deck.

5) Site cards based on your resource strategy. These must include Lossadan Camp ( starting location ) and Carn Dûm ( ending location ).

6) A Witch-king deck ( 10 cards ) which consists of :

* Witch-king of Angmar
* Doubled Vigilance
* The Pale Sword
* Redoubled Force ( x 2 )
* Rogrog
* Doors of Night ( x 2 )
* Fell Winter
* Angmar Arises

7 ) A map of Middle-earth or appropriate region cards

SETUP :

Vôteli begins play at Lossadan Camp. Place the Carn Dûm site card at the top of the play area and the Witch-king deck beside it. Carn Dûm in all cases remains in play for the entire game. Draw 6 cards from your resource deck for your starting resource hand. Your hand size is 6 for this scenario.

TURN SEQUENCE :
1) Untap Phase :
* Turn over the top card from the Witch-king deck and place face up next to Carn Dûm.
* Follow the Untap Phase procedure normally otherwise.

2) Organization Phase
* Transfer any items between characters.
* Bring in one character, if enough general influence is available. For this scenario, you have 25 general influence.
* Reorganize your companies
* Select your destination site. If the Witch-king has been revealed, you may choose Carn Dûm as your destination site. Only then may you choose Carn Dûm.

3) Long-event Phase
* Play any resource long-events.

4) Movement / Hazard Phase
* Draw 2 plus the number of resource cards indicated on the destination site.
* Draw the number of hazard cards indicated on the destination site, and put them in a hazard hand. The hazard hand size is 5, but there are no cards in it at the start of the game.
* Play any hazards which are playable based on the indicated site path, up to the hazard limit for the company. Choose the order of hazard cards to be most dangerous to the company ( such as another Orc attack before an Orc-lieutenant ; or a Despair of the Heart before a Cave Drake ). Resolve attacks using Standard Rules ( but see below for additional Special Rules ).
* At the end of the movement / hazard phase, discard or draw to the hand size of both the resource and hazard hand, 6 and 5 respectively.

5) Site Phase
* If the company is at Carn Dûm ( the final turn ), follow the steps in " The Assault on Carn Dûm" section below.
* Otherwise follow the Site Phase procedure using Standard Rules.

6) End of Turn Phase
* You may chose to discard 1 resource card, and then draw to return your resource hand to 6 cards.


THE WITCH-KING DECK :

This deck of 10 cards represents the Witch-king's increase in power over the course of the game. As Vôteli struggles to assemble aid, the Witch-king gains awareness of the threat against him, and he prepares for her.

Turn over 1 card from this deck at the beginning of each of your turns. Place them all in a row next to Carn Dûm. When the Witch-king is revealed, Vôteli may face him that turn, or wait until the following turn, making one last attempt to gather resources the turn he is revealed. She must move to Carn Dûm and face him by the end of the next turn. (As a note, Vôteli will not want to stray too far from the vicinity of Carn Dûm, for fear she may not be able to race back in time when the Witch-king is revealed.) If any card from the Witch-king deck would otherwise be discarded, shuffle it back into the Witch-king deck.


THE ASSAULT ON CARN DÛM :

After the Witch-king appears in his citadel, Vôteli may move to Carn Dûm. Follow the normal rules for the movement / hazard phase. At the site phase, the following will occur :

Assaulting the Citadel ( facing the automatic-attack ) :

If Doubled Vigilance is revealed, you must follow the instructions on that card before facing Carn Dûm's automatic attack ( for this scenario, Doubled Vigilance can legally be played, and must be played, on Carn Dûm. The Doubled Vigilance attack may be canceled. Carn Dûm's normal automatic-attack is Orcs - 4 strikes with 7 prowess. In this scenario, this attack cannot be canceled. Therefore, the company will have to face this attack, and face it alone, unless they have successfully recruited armies to fight this battle for them.

Each faction you have successfully played reduces the number of strikes and the prowess of this automatic-attack by 2. Remaining strikes will be faced by the company.

Defeating the Witch-king's personal guard :

If Rogrog has been revealed, the characters must fight him before facing the Witch-King. This attack cannot be canceled. Any untapped character may choose to face him. If no other characters are untapped, Rogrog will attack Vôteli. If Rogrog is defeated ( the strike is defeated ), he is removed from the game. In addition, if Rogrog is destroyed ( his body is also defeated ), the Witch-king suffers a - 4 to his prowess for the remainder of the turn.

Battle with the Witch-king :

Here the Witch-king and Vôteli meet in single combat. This may occur even if Vôteli is tapped or wounded. Play this attack as a single strike on Vôteli, which cannot be canceled.
* Other characters in the company may support Vôteli as normal.
* The Witch-king's prowess will be modified by the Pale Sword if in play.
* Resolve the strike normally otherwise.

* If the Witch-king's attack succeeds, Vôteli is wounded. Roll a body check for her. If it fails, Vôteli dies and the game is over. If it succeeds, combat continues ( though Vôteli is - 2 to prowess and - 1 to body for being wounded ).

* If the attack is defeated, roll a body check for the Witch-king (remember to reduce his body by half, and subtract any other modifiers ). If the body check fails, Vôteli wins. If it succeeds, combat continues ( the Witch-king suffers no penalties for being previously wounded ).

* The battle continues until one or the other of the combatants is defeated. This means there may be multiple attacks by the Witch-king on Vôteli during this final site phase.


SPECIAL RULES :

Marshalling points : marshalling points do not count for this scenario.

Influence : Vôteli is considered to have a pool of 25 general influence which she may use to bring in characters. Characters may be brought into play at any site ( including Wizards ). Wizards are considered to have a mind stat of 12 for this scenario.

Corruption : Vôteli has a + 2 modifier to all corruption checks for this scenario. If Vôteli fails a corruption check, the game is over ( she has lost heart, and left her quest in shame ). If any other character ( including a wizard ) fails a corruption check, he is removed from the game taking with him any items he bears. In this scenario, a Wizard being corrupted does not end the game.

Gates of Morning / Doors of Night / Twilight :

Doors of Night may be duplicated for this scenario. Gates of Morning is considered to be in play until the first Doors of Night is revealed from the Witch-king deck. A Doors of Night may be removed by Gates of Morning (or Twilight) - that single Doors of Night is shuffled back into the Witch-king deck. If more than one Doors of Night is in play when Gates of Morning is played, one Doors of Night is shuffled back into the Witch-king deck, and the Gates of Morning is discarded. The other Doors of Night remains in play.

Factions :

Each faction in play at the time of the assault on Carn Dûm lowers the number of strikes and the prowess of the automatic-attack of Carn Dûm by 2.

Strike Sequencing :

For attacks labeled "Attacker chooses defending characters", strikes must be assigned in the following order : to Vôteli ( regardless of status ), to wounded characters, then to tapped characters, the untapped characters. Other attacks may have strikes assigned in any order, provided that all untapped characters are assigned strikes first.

If an attack has more strikes than there are characters in the company, the additional strikes must be assigned as -1 modifications to character's prowess. Assign these modifications evenly among all characters in the company, then follow the order indicated above for "Attacker chooses" strikes for the remainder of the modifications. (Thus, if Vôteli and Dori face an attack with 5 strikes, each would face one strike. Vôteli's prowess would be modified by - 2 and Dori's by - 1.

Long-events :

Resource and hazard long-events last for 2 turns in this scenario, except Fell Winter in the Witch-king deck. This long-event, once revealed, remains in play for the remainder of the game.


VICTORY CONDITIONS :

You win if Vôteli succeeds in destroying the Witch-king, thereby breaking his grip of sorcery on her land; You lose if Vôteli is killed or corrupted.


A SAMPLE DECK :

Resources ( 25 cards ) :
Blue Mountain Dwarves
Elves of Lindon
Lossoth
Rangers of the North
Wood Elves
Black Arrow
Habergeon of Silver
Orcrist
Shield of iron-bound Ash
Sword of Gondolin
Torque of Hues
Barrow-blade
Concealment
Dark Quarrels
Dodge * 2
Fellowship
Lapse of Will
Marvels Told
Muster

Hazards ( 30 cards ) :

Wilderness Creatures ( 10 ) :
Carrion Birds
Cave-drake ( x 2 )
Dire Wolves ( x 2 )
Hobgoblins
Orc-patrol
Orc-warriors
Orc-raiders
Wolves

Free-domain / Borderland ( 5 ) :
Brigands
Crebain
Slayer
Wargs ( x 2 )

Shadow-land / Dark-domain ( 5 ) :
Corpse-candle
Ghouls
Orc-lieutenant
Orc-warband
Orc-watch

Despair of the Heart ( x 2 )
Hoarmûrath of Dir
Lure of Expedience ( x 2 )
Minions Stir
Muster Disperses
Ren the Unclean
Scorba Ahunt
Wake of War

Characters Starting :
Vôteli (with Black Arrow)
Beretar (with Dagger of Westernesse)

Wizard :
Radagast

Rest of Character Pool :
Thorin II
Boromir II
Glorfindel II
Kili
Celeborn

Witch-king deck :
Witch-king of Angmar
Doubled Vigilance
The Pale Sword
Redoubled Force ( x 2 )
Rogrog
Doors of Night ( x 2 )
Fell Winter
Angmar Arises

Primary Sites :

Lossadan Camp
Carn Dûm
Grey Havens
Lorien
Rivendell
Barrow-downs
Blue Mountain Dwarf-hold
Bree
Himring
Moria
Mount Gram
Tharbad
Thranduil's Halls
Zarak Dûm
User avatar
kober
Posts: 200
Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 10:31 am
Location: Ottawa, ON

This is a seriously cool scenario, I really love the setting :) Although, I find it rather strange that the sample deck is missing either Gates of Morning or a Twilight, especially that Doors of Night are making 20% of the Witch-king deck. The couple times I played it, I replaced both Black Arrows with GoM.
praetorian7
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Nov 04, 2013 1:13 am

Hi, I just started playing this deck and was wondering about this part. Black Arrow says "Warrior Only" but yet Voteli isn't a warrior or is she a warrior for this scenario only?

Characters Starting :
Vôteli (with Black Arrow)
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Darksatin
Posts: 621
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 6:14 pm
Location: Chalon sur Saône, France

praetorian7 wrote:Hi, I just started playing this deck and was wondering about this part. Black Arrow says "Warrior Only" but yet Voteli isn't a warrior or is she a warrior for this scenario only?
Characters Starting :
Vôteli (with Black Arrow)
No, Vôteli is not a warrior, even for this scenario. It's a mistake of ICE.
So, another minor item must be choosed for her...
praetorian7
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Nov 04, 2013 1:13 am

Hey Darksatin, thanks for the replies. I've been playing some games and had some questions that maybe you or anyone else might help me with this scenario/rules in general. Thanks again Dark

1. Does Lapse of Will stay in play permanently if I move to fight Angmar and keep "clashing" with him?

2. Does Minions Stir affect Automatic Attacks?

3. Do Automatic Attacks affect Voteli or can I choose the character?

4. What cards not included in the default decklist do you think would help me defeat Angmar? I seem to have no trouble during play until I move to fight at Carn Dum. Maybe include more Barrow-Blades in the deck and go after that first?
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Darksatin
Posts: 621
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 6:14 pm
Location: Chalon sur Saône, France

Hello,

I see that you enjoy this scenario !

1) Long-events stay in play for 2 turns. The battle between Vôteli and The Witch-king can last several rounds. So I would say that Lapse of Will can stay in play for 2 battle rounds, and after it is discarded (it will be too powerful if it was like a permanent-event).

2) Yes.

3) Automatic Attacks affect Vôteli. But you can choose another characters if they are untapped.

4) Barrow-blade cannot be duplicated on a given Dagger.
But Vôteli with Orcrist has 11 prowess against Nazgûls.
The Witch King with Pale Sword and Lapse of Will in play has 15 prowess and 6 body.
So, it is not very difficult to succeed.
If Vôteli was a warrior, Aiglos would be a terrific weapon for her…
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zirilan
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Location: c:\

Darksatin wrote:If Vôteli was a warrior, Aiglos would be a terrific weapon for her…
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CCG Collector
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The resource deck says it contains 25 cards (and the rules say it has to), but there are only 20 in the list. Is this an error in copying? Which five additional resources should complement those?
Middle Earth and other CCG unboxings, booster openings, and guides: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCCGCollector
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Darksatin
Posts: 621
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 6:14 pm
Location: Chalon sur Saône, France

CCG Collector wrote: Thu Oct 04, 2018 6:53 pm The resource deck says it contains 25 cards (and the rules say it has to), but there are only 20 in the list. Is this an error in copying? Which five additional resources should complement those?
There are only 20 resources in the original book (see the attached file).
Maybe the 5 characters in the "rest of character pool" count as resources...
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gollum51
Posts: 313
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2008 6:30 pm

Rules says « a resource deck of 25 cards. This may include up to 6 characters ».
So yes the sample deck is correct (20 resources + 5 characters).
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