Site Number
Comprehensive Rules 4.0
Site cards represent locations in Middle-earth, and are used to chart the progress of the game. Nine sites are placed in your adventure deck. (See building your deck.)
Site cards have a dark compass in the upper left corner. This symbol is used on sites from the Shadows expansion set onward, differentiating them from sites found in previous sets (which use a different compass symbol, and may also use a block symbol).
If your fellowship moves to a site that has not been played yet, one of the Shadow players must place a new site on the adventure path. (See moving your fellowship.) To determine which player, look at the site you are moving from. Each site has an arrow at the bottom center of the card. This indicates who is to play the new site, with [an arrow pointing to the right] meaning the Shadow player to your right and [an arrow pointing to the left] meaning the Shadow player to your left. In a two-player game, there is only one Shadow player at a time, so that player always plays the new site.
The first time the first player moves during the game, a Shadow player looks through his adventure deck and chooses the next site to place on the adventure path. It becomes site 2. The next time a site is added after that, it will be site 3. Both of those sites are in region 1.
You may play a copy of a site on the adventure path even if an opponent’s copy was already played as an earlier site. The copies are treated as different sites, with each given a different site number.
Some cards allow a player to play the next site on the adventure path at times when the fellowship is not moving. These may be used even when the next site is already there. In such cases, the new site replaces the old one; put the old site back in its owner’s adventure deck. The new site takes the same site number the old site had, so that there is always only one site 1 in play, one site 2, and so on. When a site is replaced, all cards played on or stacked on the old site are moved to the new site.
[Note that this rule quote only applies in post-Shadows formats such as Expanded and Standard. See below for other formats.]
- site section
When you play a game using the Fellowship block, Tower block, or King block format, you cannot choose any site from your adventure deck when it is time to play a new site on the adventure path. Instead, the site which has the next consecutive site number must be played.
[Historical versions of standard such as Towers Standard, King Standard, and Movie Block were never official formats, but unofficially players use the last legal site path released in those formats.]
- Formats section
In the Fellowship block, Tower block, or King block, sites are numbered, and you must include one for each of the nine site numbers.
- Adventure Deck section
Sites in your adventure deck do not have a site number until they are played on the adventure path.
[Note that this rule quote only applies in post-Shadows formats such as Expanded and Standard. See above for other formats.]
- adventure deck section
Each minion is normally played to a certain range of sites beginning with the minion’s site number. If the minion is played to (or is currently at) a site that has a lower site number, that minion is roaming. The player must pay a roaming penalty by removing an additional two twilight tokens when playing that minion.
- Playing Shadow cards section
Ally cards have a home site number indicated just after the card’s type, on the same line (such as Ally • Home 3 • Elf). These home site numbers all refer to adventure paths from the Fellowship block, Tower block, and King block. Allies have no home sites on adventure paths from the Shadows expansion set onward.
- ally section
The sites provided in sets from the Shadows expansion onward have a dark compass in the upper left corner. They have no site number.
The sites provided in Fellowship block sets have no block symbol. The sites provided in Tower block sets have site numbers identified with the Tower symbol ([tower]). The sites provided in King block sets have site numbers identified with the King symbol (
).
Sites with different block symbols are alternatives to each other, not an extension of one another. When a site’s number is specifically mentioned in game text, that number uses a block symbol.
Hobbit Stealth (1C298)
("Skirmish: At sites 1 to 5, cancel a skirmish involving a Hobbit. At any other site, make a Hobbit strength +2.") can cancel a skirmish only at a Fellowship block site. However, this card adds its strength bonus at any other site.
When an effect says "site X or higher," it applies only to sites from the Fellowship block.
When game text refers to "any site X," it applies to any adventure path, regardless of block symbol.
A card which says "any site 5" works at site 5 and at site 5
.
- block symbol section
Each minion is normally played to a certain range of sites beginning with the minion’s site number. If the minion is played to (or is currently at) a site that has a lower site number, that minion is roaming. The player must pay a roaming penalty by removing an additional two twilight tokens when playing that minion.
Block symbol has no effect on whether a minion is roaming or not.
A minion with a site number of 4 must remove 2 more twilight tokens to play at site 3 (or site 3[Tower]). If that same minion plays to site 4 (or site 4), there is no roaming penalty. If he survives the fellowship’s first move to 3, he would no longer be roaming when the fellowship moves to site 4.
- roaming section
