can someone clarify this for me?

in the rules it says if the free peoples players marker reaches the finale space or 1 of saurons markers (i assume) or all 3 sauron markers reach the shadow falls space the finale begins

now you check for instant win via missions

i get it up to there but then it says if neither player can fulfill the mission its nazgul vs hero but to check for domination , this confuses me because wouldnt the player who initiated the finale automaticaly be dominant?

then it says for sauron or free peoples to move their marker 1 space up the track if they are fulfilling the mission they have , but right before that it says if they fulfill the mission they auto win

is this a contradiction on itself or am i reading it wrong?

rapatpamp said:

Finale kicks in at the end of the Story Step, so after you move all 4 tokens, so neither side being dominant is possible.

Also, there are 2 points to consider in the Finale.

1) Dominance. Let's say Heroes are dominant, then Sauron can't win before combat even if he completed his mission and the Heroes didn't complete theirs. If there is a tie for dominance, then both sides reveal their missions and if only one side has completed the mission, that side wins. But if one side is dominant, then only that side can auto-win by having completed their mission.

2) Mission. If you don't win by completing your mission (maybe you didn't have dominance), you then get to move your tokens 1 step. For Sauron this can either mean tie in dominance, so no deduction for the RWs in combat or a reduction in the amount of deduction. For Heroes, this can remove Sauron's dominance.

I understand all that except

the finale can only kick in when either 1: free peoples reaches the finale space or 2: sauron gets all 3 markers on the shadow falls (or beyond) or he gets 1 token on the finale correct?

if thats the case then domination would be (saying free people made it there 1st)

free peoples would have a number of 0 (using lowest number)

sauron would have a number of ? (using the lowest between how close 1 token to finale or all 3 to shadow falls)

so my point is kinda whoever hits thier finale reqirement 1st should (probably) be dominant so why the need to check (I know it can "tie" in cases both reaching at same time leading to no dominance per say) it kinda confuses me

but anyway thanks for the reply

rapatpamp said:

Doesn't matter who got there first, if it's not the only token in the Finale space at the end of that step. You move all 4 tokens (possibly) in that Story Step, then after all have been moved, if any 1 token is in the Finale spots or all 3 of Sauron are at "Shadow Falls" or beyond, Finale kicks in.

I'll give you an example of today's game. Hero Token was 2 steps away from Finale. Sauron's Red token was 3 steps away (but moving 4 steps), Black and Yellow hadn't even reached stage II.

Story Step.

Move all tokens. Hero and Sauron Red are in the Finale, Finale starts. Dominance is tied.

I have 4 games done, in 3 there has been a tie for dominance during the Finale. Once Sauron totally ran amok, moving his Black marker 6 spaces a turn! He reached the Finale 4 steps ahead of the Hero token, but he hadn't completed his Mission. Hero had, so he got to move his token 1 step, making the final combat at "only" +3 Fortitude and Health for the RWs. Yeah, Sauron outlasted to win that combat.