For a beginner, the most difficult aspect of picking up The Lord of the Rings^TM Tradable Miniatures Game can be the Special Abilities (SA’s). Movement, Combat and Archery are simple concepts that most individuals have experience with elsewhere; however it is Special Abilities that really make the game interesting and strategic. You can read over the Special Abilities list and learn what each one does and when it is activated, but just by reading it do you gain an understanding of how to use it on the field of battle? Most probably not.

Below are some notes on how to better understand and effectively use the SA’s. These are intended to help beginners to the game get a better grasp of strategy and game play without having to play an inordinate amount of games to do it. Some SA’s require more thought than others and have more uses in the game. Some are simple to comprehend and use while others have uses that don’t automatically seem obvious. Experienced gamers will get little benefit from these rudimentary overviews and may even know of other tactics that can be used with a particular SA.

Movement

Battle Awareness - This Special Ability allows a figure’s Kill Zones to extend in a 360-degree circle around the figure. Every hex adjacent to this figure is a Kill Zone. That means that opposing figures cannot outflank him, run around his backside freely without having to stop and the figure with the Battle Awareness SA can assign damage dice to any figure adjacent to him. This purely defensive SA can be very helpful to figures that have been surrounded, allowing them to continue fighting until the bitter end. A strategic use of this SA would be to place a figure with it in a position on the map where he can effectively block off any number of opposing figures. Using all adjacent hexes effectively may mean that there is no route past him that is not free of Kill Zones, where a regular figure would have those &qout;weak spots", allowing enemies to flow past. The map with ruins would be a very good place to utilize this strategy, as the amount of impassable hexes is numerous. While the figure with Battle Awareness is "plugging the hole", his archer compatriots can be plugging enemy figures in contact with him.

Fast - This Special Ability allows a figure to double its movement for that turn. Note that if the figure chooses to run also, you must first calculate all "doubling" abilities and then "adding" abilities, so a figure with 4 in movement that used this SA and then "ran" would end up with 9 total hexes in movement possible ( (4 x 2) + 1 ). The best use of this SA is for offensive purposes. Naturally, you can use it to get far away from any dangerous enemy figures, but what really makes it special is its offensive capabilities. Offensively, Fast allows you to rush archer figures and to outflank figures. The first is an effective counter to archery armies, stay just out of range of their deadly missiles and then, when you have initiative, activate Fast and move your figures into base contact with the archers. This will eliminate their archery abilities and render them simple melee units. And obviously, most archer figures are not designed to excel in melee combat. The second is considerably more powerful. To use this SA to the best of its ability, you will want to be Defender during the turn. So if you win Initiative, choose Defender (going second in the turn). While defending, your opponent must make his movements first. After he has made his movements, your figures can activate Fast and then move behind enemy figures and outflank them. You will have a free +1 attack in the subsequent Combat Phase against your opponent’s figures and he will be unable to do any damage to your figure unless he has the Battle Awareness SA. Next turn, if you win Initiative, you may move away freely (since you are not in that figure’s "kill zone") if you go first. While this tactic may not be as effective against Hero’s due to their enhanced toughness and extra Wounds, it is extremely useful against minions with low toughness and only 2 Wounds. Sometimes, merely placing a few Fast units to one side of the map will cause an opponent to re-think his strategy knowing that at any time, those units could just "turn on the afterburners" and get in behind his troops.

Fast Strike - This Special Ability allows a figure to both move and attack during the Action Phase. This means that the figure can potentially attack enemies twice per turn, once in the Action Phase and once during the Combat Phase. To utilize this SA, the figure must activate it during the Action Phase and declare its actions. Since this attack happens during the Action Phase and not the Combat Phase, there are no bonuses from the Spearman SA or outflanking and any figure killed is immediately removed from play (unlike the Combat Phase where figures remain until the end of the turn, allowed to use AP’s and SA’s). Frequently, the AP cost for this SA can be pretty high so wait until you have a very good chance of eliminating an opponent before wasting the AP.

Magical Force - This Special Ability allows a figure to move an enemy figure during the Strategy Phase. The figure with this SA must have Line of Sight (LOS) and must move the target figure according to its normal movement, obeying all movement rules. You may not force the enemy figure to "run" or activate Fast if it has that SA. This SA can be very powerful and hence it is only located on the most powerful characters so far, such as Gandalf, Saruman and certain Black Riders. It can be devastating if used correctly and can be instrumental in defeating an opponent’s army. There are several ways this can be done: The most obvious method of emasculating your opponent’s army is to render his most powerful Hero worthless. This can be done simply by moving it backwards each turn and facing him away from your minions. That means that if he is an archer he cannot fire and he must use his movement for the turn merely getting back to the spot he was before. Meanwhile, the rest of his army is probably already moving forward ahead of him. This can be especially effective against UR Legolas, with only Crack Shot allowing him to shoot in any given turn and that uses up valuable Action Points. Another way this SA can be used effectively is to use it force enemy figures to disengage from your own most powerful ones. For example, if your opponent has a Nazgul in contact with UR Aragorn, Gandalf might use his Magical Force SA to move the Nazgul away from Aragron, thus allowing Aragorn 5 free Combat Dice rolls. Better yet, use it against minions and watch Aragorn take out one per turn. You may also use this SA to bring enemy units within archery range. Either way, this SA, used effectively, can cause more havoc than any other on the field of battle.

Sneak - This powerful SA is seen most often on Hobbits and Nazgul, but there are several minions who have this as well. Its most obvious use is to ignore terrain and terrain modifiers completely when moving, including restrictions regarding enemy units and impassable terrain. This can be very useful when attempting to make contact with figures protected by terrain or fellow enemy figures. However, what makes this so powerful is that the figure can freely leave enemy Kill Zones. Like the SA Fast, you can use this Special Ability to maneuver around your foes attempting to get behind them, thus generating free +1 attack that usually cannot be reciprocated. For example, if an opponent moves a figure into base contact with your figure having Sneak, when it is your turn to move you can just activate Sneak and then move directly behind the figure that just engaged you. Then, during the Combat Phase, you will be able to attack without any fear of harm coming to your figure.

Tyrant - This Special Ability gives henchman adjacent to this figure +1 movement for the turn. This does not give the Hero with this SA +1 movement however. This SA is not game breaking but can be very helpful at the beginning as you can give some henchman a "boost" in an attempt to gain some strategic ground. Later, it will be less effective as the figures have mostly already gotten into base contact and movement will be restricted.