"This new country seemed threatening and unfriendly. As they went forward the hills about them steadily rose. Here and there upon heights and ridges they caught glimpses of ancient walls of stone, and the ruins of towers: they had an ominious look."

–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of Across the Ettenmoors, the third Adventure Pack in the Angmar Awakened cycle for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!

After a daring prison break, several of Middle-earth's heroes race south from Mount Gram, with the fortress's Goblins and commander hard on their heels. They push across the region's tainted lands at an exhausting pace, managing to buy themselves a meager bit of distance from their pursuers. However, other dangers lie squarely before them. Their journey leads them to the edges of the Ettenmoors, also known as the troll-fells, a stretch of land rumored to be riddled with Trolls. Still, with the hordes of Mount Gram at their back, the heroes know there's no path for them but forward. The hills rise, the rocky ground lies quiet under dark clouds and flashes of lightning, and the heroes press on.

The scenario introduced in Across the Ettenmoors thrusts you squarely into the heart of this hostile region, where the oppressive silence is broken only intermittently by the heavy footfalls of towering, lumbering Trolls. In this scenario, you don't need to slay some fell rider or uncover the Dark Lord's hidden servants; you need only survive your journey through the Ettenmoors…

In Search of a Place to Rest

First and foremost, making your way through the Ettenmoors also means finding some way to survive the scenario's myriad Trolls. No fewer than ten of these hard-hitting enemies lie in wait for you and, like the Ruthless Hill-troll (Across the Ettenmoors, 75), they're certain to provide a stiff test to even the game's most stalwart defenders and its most valiant warriors.

Thus, your first challenge in Across the Ettenmoors is to find some way to avoid, deflect, or otherwise deal with the attacks of such brutal foes as the Ruthless Hill-troll and the Cruel Mountain-troll (Across the Ettenmoors, 74). Beyond that first, most pressing task, however, lie a number of other challenges. Your escape from Mount Gram has not gone unnoticed, and its Goblins of Mount Gram pursue you into the moors, spurred forward by their commander. You have no road before you and must not get lost as you choose your own path through the Ettenmoors' rugged and perilous terrain. Then, even as your fatigue wears you down, foul Weather slows your progress.

As all these concerns weigh heavy upon you, it's no wonder that one of the scenario's key features is its inclusion of four different "Safe" objective locations. Each of these locations also bears the "Guarded" keyword, but if you're able to find your way to one of them, it can grant you a moment's respite. Whenever your heroes travel to one of these locations, making it the active location, you immediately return all engaged enemies to the staging area. Then, so long as your active location is a safe location, you ignore the "when revealed" effects on all treachery cards, you ignore the printed text boxes of all encounter side quests, and enemies do not make engagement checks.

Altogether, with its brutal onslaught of encounter cards and its safe locations, Across the Ettenmoors presents you the opportunity to embark upon an all-new sort of adventure in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, a halting and perilous journey through an untracked and uncharted lands. It's a journey that you make in bursts, racing from one safe location to the next, while evils close in upon you from all sides.

New Assistance in Your Time of Need

Fortunately, you can also make use of the Adventure Pack's new hero and player cards. Across the Ettenmoors introduces a new Tactics hero, who lends versatility to your fellowship's defensive efforts, as well as three copies each of nine different player cards. These touch on several different themes simultaneously, and you'll find new Signals, Mounts, and Ents taking their place alongside new Valour effects and a Tactics side quest.

This side quest, Delay the Enemy (Across the Ettenmoors, 58), is particularly effective against the scenario's massive enemies, and even more so the more players you have in your game, especially if you find yourself short-handed for Sentinel and Ranged characters when one of your teammates gets ambushed. In such a situation, though it costs you a turn that you don't commit your characters to the main quest, Delay the Enemy can release your fellowship from as many as four enemies, and that can easily prove the difference between having your heroes escape the Ettenmoors alive or meeting their demise within its rugged hills.

However, like each of the other player side quests we've seen from the Angmar Awakened cycle, Delay the Enemy is "Limit 1 per deck," meaning you'll have a hard time guaranteeing that it shows up when you need it… unless you have some means to find it. Naturally, then, Across the Ettenmoors also introduces the one-cost Signal, Dúnedain Message (Across the Ettenmoors, 56), a card that's destined to appear in many of the decks that utilize side quests. Additionally, not only does Dúnedain Message allow you to search for Delay the Enemy, it allows you to search for any other side quest you might include in your deck, like Gather Information (The Lost Realm, 14), and, in turn, it's an event for which you can search whenever you bring a Weather Hills Watchman (The Lost Realm, 3) into play.

Can You Find Your Way to Safety?

Will you be able to keep your nerves in the face of the many Trolls, Goblins, and other perils of Across the Ettenmoors? If you utilize its new player cards effectively, and you can find some safe place to rest and recover from your fatigue, you might just escape with your lives!

Look for Across the Ettenmoors to arrive at retailers in the third quarter of 2015!