ACTIVATE: Take a hitherto unused battleground or path location from the appropriate deck and place it face up on the table. If you activate a path and there is already an active path in play, combat must be resolved on the active path before resolving the new path’s activation text.

ACTIVE PATH/BATTLEGROUND: A path or battleground that was activated earlier this round for which combat has not yet been resolved.

ATTACK ICONS: (battleground), (path).

CARRYOVER LIMIT: The maximum number of cards you can have in your hand at the end of the Action step. It is also the maximum number you may have to be allowed to pass your action, even when you have the same or greater number of cards than an opponent.

CYCLE: Place a card in the cycle pile. When your draw deck runs out of cards, shuffle the cards in your cycle pile and use them to replenish your draw deck.

DEFENSE ICONS: (battleground), (path).

DRAW: Take a card from the top of the draw deck.

ELIMINATE: Place a card in the eliminated pile. Eliminated cards are permanently out of the game.

FACTION: Dúnedain, Dwarf, Elf, Hobbit, Rohan, Wizard, Isengard, Monstrous, Mordor, Southron. Each is represented by a specific icon and card template.

FORSAKE: Choose a card to eliminate, from your hand, your reserve, or the top of your draw deck.

IN PLAY: A faction card is in play when it is face up on the table, either in reserve, on a battleground, or on a path.

LEADERSHIP ICONS: (attack), (defense). Leadership icons are counted only if the character is supported.

LOCATION: A battleground or path.

MOVE: Move a faction card from your reserve to a path or battleground.

PASS: Skip a turn, either because you have fewer cards than each opponent, or you are at or below your carryover limit.

PLAY: Take a card from hand and put it in play, or in the case of an event card, resolve its game text and put it in the eliminated pile. Usually, you must cycle 1 card from hand when you play a card.

REACTIVATE: Like activating a battleground, except it is taken from a scoring area.

RECYCLE: Shuffle the cards in your cycle pile (sometimes together with any remaining cards in your draw deck) to form a new draw deck.

REMOVE: Eliminate a card from wherever it is, taking it from your draw deck or cycle pile, if it is not in play.

RESERVE: Cards played to your reserve are placed face up on the table, but not on a battleground or path. Cards played to your reserve cannot be moved later in the same round.

SCORING AREA: The set of battleground and path cards collected by a team after winning combats, and any corruption tokens the Shadow may have accumulated.

SUPPORT: For a character’s leadership icons to count, the character must be on the same battleground as a supporting army of the same faction. An army can only support one character.

TAKE, FROM A DECK OR PILE: Locate and take a specific card from a draw deck (reshuffling afterwards) or pile.

TYPE: Army, Character, Event, Item.

WIELDER: A character in play with an item on it.

WINNOW: Eliminate 2 cards from hand to draw 1.