The Guard Guide: An FAQ

Guard is one of the most powerful mechanics in The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game. Mastering it can be the key to success. In this guide, we'll go over the basics of Guard, and cover a couple tips and tricks that will help you utilize the mechanic and maybe even think about it in a different way.

The Basics

Guard is a unique and somewhat complex mechanic that lets players use individual Characters to protect the rest of their party. If a Character is on Guard, Enemies must attack that Character before they can target anyone else.

There are actually two types of Guard:

1. Allies or Enemies with the Guard keyword come into play with Guard active. At the beginning of each upkeep, they’ll go on Guard again automatically.

Guard of the Citadel (appropriately!) has Guard. It doesn't cost the player any actions to Guard with this Ally, but the player also doesn't have any control over whether or not the Guard of the Citadel will Defend—it happens automatically.


2. Any Character can activate Guard by pressing the Defense button. If a Character goes on Defense, they’ll gain Guard until they are attacked. It costs an action to activate Guard, so Characters who do so will become exhausted, and the action will pass back to Sauron.

The Defense buttons sits under the card detail view. Heroes and Allies alike have the Defend button. Since Heroes have high Health values, it can be tempting to Guard with them multiple times—but remember, your Heroes are your most valuable units.

Characters on Guard deal damage back to their attackers. Because of this, attacking Characters who are on Guard comes with a risk.

How Do I Use Guard?

Allies with Guard will come into play Defending automatically; no need to activate the ability or spend an action to defend. Further, Guard will reactivate every upkeep for these Characters.

By playing the Guard of the Citadel in this scenario, the player will be able to defend their Heroes and their powerful Ally Wilelk from the spider Bosses.

Characters without Guard, however, can still go on Defense. By clicking the Defend button in the detailed card view, you can spend an action to Guard with that Character.

Characters with the Block keyword make excellent Guards, because they can absorb some of the damage they receive while Defending.

Be aware: Ranged units can bypass Guard units. They also can attack Guards without fear, as Guard Characters cannot deal reciprocal damage back to Ranged attackers.

Since Faramir has the Ranged keyword, he can target other enemies through the Guarding spider.

When Do I Use Guard?

Guard gives players a way to distribute damage from Sauron among their characters in order to protect their valuable Heroes. It creates a sense of flexibility in how players can deal with incoming damage.

That flexibility comes at the cost of tempo. Since Guarding takes an action, it can often be just a little too slow to use profitably. Players end up taking multiple turns guarding over and over again, and eventually they find themselves out of available moves. Don’t fall into this trap—use Guard wisely and sparingly, and consider Sauron’s possible moves before you put a character on Defense.

In this scenario, Erkenbrand would be a powerful Ally to have in play. But the player doesn't have enough resources! By playing Gaining Strength, however, they could go up to 4 resources...


...But playing Gaining Resources would pass the action back to Sauron, giving him a free attack. The player needs to ask: Is this loss of tempo worth the risk?

Does Sauron still have resources to use? Does he have Ranged units that could potentially bypass your Guards? Will the reciprocal damage from your Guard units make an impact on his current board? Consider these conditions carefully before activating Guard!

Tempo is a term used in card games to refer to an advantage in actions or turns. If you make more moves, you've got the tempo advantage. If you spend actions to prepare, you're probably sacrificing some tempo.

Why Should I Use Guard?

In The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game, you have no player life total. Instead, you lose the game if all of your Heroes are defeated. As a result, they are the most valuable units you have—their Health is essentially your player life total. You need to protect them to ensure victory.

If all three of your Heroes fall in battle, you'll lose the game. But some Quests will require you to protect Allies like Bilbo. In that case, you'll need to be extra diligent with Guard!

So, how do you protect them? The answer is Guard. Is a Hero starting to look a little worse for the wear? Do you want to protect a Ranged Ally to ensure they can get in another attack?

Basically, think of Guard as a way to distribute damage among your Characters, as you choose.

How Does Sauron Use Guard?

Some of Sauron’s minions have Guard, as well. These units will, just like Allies with the keyword, automatically go on Defense during each upkeep. Like the player’s Guard allies, they’ll drop their defense once they’re attacked the first time in a round, and they’ll deal damage back to their attackers, too.

But there are a few key differences between how the keyword works for Allies and how it works on Enemies.

Most importantly, Guarding Enemies not only protect Sauron’s other units: They also protect Objectives and Hazards. Characters cannot interact with Objectives through Guarding enemies. The exception to this is characters with the Stealth keyword, who can sneak by Guarding enemies and engaged with Objectives freely.

Delob is protecting the other spiders, but by being on Guard, the fearsome spider is also stopping the player from resolving Thick Webs. By protecting Objectives and Hazards, Sauron impedes the player's progress.

Sauron uses Guard to halt progress and protect his most valuable enemies. Guards can be particularly annoying on a board with high-value units like bosses. If you’re having trouble taking down Guard enemies, trying bringing along a Hero with Ranged like Faramir or Legolas. That way, they can attack past the Guarding enemies or attack them without receiving reciprocal damage.

Additionally, cards that exhaust Characters or Enemies will remove Guard, as well. Note that becoming Exhausted itself doesn't remove Guard; effects from the opponent that Exhaust units will also remove Guard. Some examples of this effect include Sudden Riposte, Mablung, and Thick Webs.

Advanced Tips

Guarding Before Travel

Usually, when you unlock travel at a location, you probably have pretty good control of the board. It can be tempting to move on to the next location as soon as possible, but often it’s better to stick around and take a few actions from a commanding position.

One of the best ways to take advantage of an empty board is to activate every Character, either by adding their Willpower to your Fate pool, using their Powers, or, of course, Guarding.


It can be very tempting to travel the moment its unlocked. But traveling against an empty board is throwing away valuable actions. Here, the player can put Wilelk on Defense, now that they've taken out the spiders. He'll stay on Guard through travel and be ready to Defend at the next location!

If you place a Character on Guard before traveling, they’ll stay on Guard even through the next round. Remember, a Character doesn’t drop Guard until they’re attacked. In this way, you can anticipate Sauron’s set-up for the next location and prepare your forces for the board. By activating Guard early and often, you’ll mitigate the cost that comes with using it as an action.


There's no real reason to activate Guard on Erkenbrand on an empty board, however—since he has the Guard keyword, he'll be on Defense automatically at the next upkeep.

Reciprocal damage

It’s important to note that Characters on Guard will deal damage back to their attackers. So, Erkenbrand will deal 2 to incoming foes—as long as those foes don’t have the Ranged keyword, which allows them to attack Guards without fear of counter-damage.

Sauron’s Guards deal reciprocal damage, too. Be careful who you attack guards with, as they’ll be receiving damage back. Often, small units with Block make the best counter to Guarding foes. The Block keyword mitigates the damage they’ll receive on the reciprocal attack.


It's also worth noting that, since Guard takes an action, Characters with Stalwart can still make an attack even after they've gone on Defense.

Which Allies Make The Best Guards?

Obviously, Allies with Guard like Guard of the Citadel and Erkenbrand make up the first line of defense against Sauron. These cards were designed to play to the strengths of the Guard mechanic.





But any Ally can go on Guard, and some of them are better at it than others.



Imladris Caregiver heals a character on Arrival, but its own 4 Health makes it an excellent defender.



Tactics Allies are generally more aggressive than other Spheres, but Allies with high Health, like the Veteran Axehand, still Defend well in a pinch.



Warden of Annuminas has Surge, which grants an extra action the turn that its played. You can use this Surge to immediately put the Warden on Defense, taking a Guard action.



Like the Caregiver, Rhovanion Outrider’s impressively high Health stat makes it a good blocker, should there be no Objectives or Hazards for it to engage.

[Vilgefortz]

Very helpful!

[Lucman]

Pretty basic but necessary for new players!