Their horses were of great stature, strong and clean-limbed; their grey coats glistened, their long tails flowed in the wind, their manes were braided on their proud necks. The Men that rode them matched them well: tall and long-limbed; their hair, flaxen-pale, flowed under their light helms, and streamed in long braids behind them; their faces were stern and keen. In their hands were tall spears of ash, painted shields were slung at their backs, long swords were at their belts, their burnished shirts of mail hung down upon their knees.
–The Two Towers

In The Return of the King , the Rohirrim’s timely arrival upon the Pelennor fields turns the tide of battle against the Dark Lord’s forces. With horns and the thunder of their steeds’ hooves, the horse-lords of Rohan swept upon their foes as dawn came to the battle. They rode from Edoras, carried swiftly by their horses. From the days of their first king, Eorl, whose great mount understood the speech of men, the Rohirrim have shared a deep and reverent bond with their horses.

The Riders of Rohan

With the upcoming release of The Hunt for Gollum , players of The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game will be better able to call in reinforcements from Rohan with Mustering the Rohirrim and Westfold Horse-Breaker .

Players who attended The Hunt for Gollum preview events have already remarked upon the utility of the Westfold Horse-Breaker. With one Willpower, he can contribute during the Quest Phase, and for two cost, he makes a reasonably priced defender, though he can’t survive confrontations with many enemies. These are both reasonable uses for the Westfold Horse-Breaker, but his most notable contribution is the ability to choose and ready a hero. Thematically, we imagine he helps a hero mount a steed and ride onward–to quest, travel, or fight. Immediately, one might think about Gimli defending against the Hill Troll , getting swatted for four wounds, and finding himself too exhausted to rejoin the fight, despite his fury. Enter the Westfold Horse-Breaker. He hands the reins of a steed to Gimli , and Gimli returns to attack for his two damage and the extra four from his wounds, putting three wounds on the Hill Troll past its defenses. Without the Horse-Breaker, Gimli sits on the ground twenty paces off and watches the Hill Troll lumber after his companions.

Still, is it worth including a card like Mustering the Rohirrim, which searches for a Rohan ally, if the only Rohan ally in your deck is the Westfold Horse-Breaker? And is it worth the one resource expenditure to search your deck when there’s no guarantee you’ll find a legal target in the top ten cards? Probably not.

Fortunately, Westfold Horse-Breaker isn’t the only Rohan ally in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game . Players already have access to both the Snowbourn Scout and Horseback Archer allies from the Core Set, and they’ll soon gain access to Éomund when Conflict at the Carrock releases in Q3 of 2011.

It doesn’t take a statistician to realize that including nine Rohan allies in a deck (or 12 with three spheres of influence) gives you a better chance of conducting a more successful muster than including only three. With the additional allies, Mustering the Rohirrim becomes a far better option. It helps you find the allies when you need them to defend or place progress tokens on locations, and it helps you field the diversity you need. Use the Horseback Archer’s Ranged ability to assist your teammates, or exhaust him to play Rain of Arrows . Find an event to return Éomund to your hand, and he can ready all Rohan characters in play, including heroes such as Éowyn and Dúnhere as well as the other Rohan allies you just pulled from your deck with Mustering the Rohirrim.

As the Adventure Packs continue to add diversity to the available card pool, players will continue to find new and intriguing combinations to better complete Quests. Join our community forums to discuss your discoveries with other players and check back here for additional previews as you look forward to the impending releases of The Hunt for Gollum and Conflict at the Carrock .

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is a cooperative card game that puts 1-2 players (or up to four with an additional Core Set) in control of the most powerful characters and artifacts of Middle-earth. Players will select heroes, gather allies, acquire artifacts, and coordinate their efforts to face Middle-earth’s most dangerous fiends. The Living Card Game format allows players to customize their gaming experience with monthly Adventure Pack expansions to the core game.