The Lord Of The Rings LCG: Challenge Of The Wainriders

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce Challenge of the Wainriders, the third Adventure Pack in the Vengeance of Mordor cycle for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game! In addition to providing new allies and tools to help you overcome the hardships you face as you draw ever-nearer to Mordor, this 60-card pack picks up where you left off in The City of Ulfast with a thrilling new scenario that will challenge your group of heroes like never before.

Read on for more information on Challenge of the Wainriders!

Race for Your Life

Accustomed to roaming about the great expanse of Rhûn in nomadic wains, the Easterlings you have encountered value the freedom that only the wind in their hair and the earth rushing beneath them can provide. They may have no allegiance to Mordor, but they are no friend to the West either. Rather than turn you over to Ulchor, then, they will allow you to continue your chase if you can defeat their champion in a chariot race.

Beginning at the Wainrider Camp (Challenge of the Wainriders, 75), this Adventure Pack sees you and your party embark on a thrilling race to determine your fate. Instead of progressing through the quest deck as normal, however, this race takes a different approach entirely. When setting up Challenge of the Wainriders, the quest cards are arranged next to one another in two rows that both the Challengers (Challenge of the Wainriders, 65) and Wainriders (Challenge of the Wainriders, 64) advance around in a circuit. The first to complete two circuits wins the race.

As they make progress in the quest, the Challengers advance around the circuit!

To succeed in this challenge, you must make progress in each stage as quickly as possible. But the Wainriders are aggressive and experienced racers who are unafraid to attack even while travelling at high speed. In addition to the Wainrider Champion (Challenge of the Wainriders, 66) engaging every player while the challengers are at the same stage as the Wainriders, others, like an Aggressive Racer (Challenge of the Wainriders, 67) will pester you even if they are lagging behind.  

What’s more, the Wainriders themselves may be the least of your worries. Although it begins in an open field, the track quickly leads to a sharp turn alongside the edge of a ravine and through difficult terrain. The track can become especially crowded during these stretches (Challenge of the Wainriders, 71), making it even more difficult for you to separate yourself from the pack.

The White Wizard

The Wainriders make their home on the plains of Rhûn and beating them in this race will not be easy. Fortunately, you’ll have plenty of help as you rise to their challenge, beginning with a new Lore hero. As the head of the White Order, the wizard Saruman (Challenge of the Wainriders, 54) has much to offer as your quest grows nearer to Mordor. Saruman has always desired power no matter the cost, and this continues in his first appearance as a hero in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. Not only can he play events with the printed doomed keyword from any sphere, he readies after you do so.

This makes Saruman an incredibly versatile character with a wide array of powerful events at his fingertips. He could, for instance, sound the horns (Challenge of the Wainriders, 56), allowing every player to put an ally like Nori (Challenge of the Wainriders, 59) into play in time to lend his strength to an attack. Similarly, he could become Far-Sighted (Challenge of the Wainriders, 58) and gaze into the encounter deck to know what to expect in the next leg of the race.

A wizard is even more powerful with his staff, of course, and Saruman’s Staff (Challenge of the Wainriders, 63) is no exception, complementing the White Wizard’s prodigious power in every way. Saruman’s strength relies on cards with the doomed keyword and his staff gives you a chance to replenish your supply by searching the top five cards of your deck for one of these cards and adding it to your hand. Alternatively, the staff can negate the high cost of playing Doomed events, giving you more time to complete your task.

With his ability to play Doomed events from any sphere, Saruman is a powerful hero who can operate with little help from others. You can put this strategy into action by using him in conjunction with The Grey Wanderer (Challenge of the Wainriders, 74) contract. This contract restricts you to a single starting hero, but it also allows that hero to begin an adventure with an attachment in play. If your chosen hero carries The One Ring, this attachment could be a powerful Master card like Power of Command  (Challenge of the Wainriders, 55) that raises the willpower of every unique character you control. Better yet,  The Grey Wanderer imbues this hero with extraordinary abilities, making them a true force to be reckoned with.