War of the Dragon: The Wheel of Time® – Epic Mode

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend.

If Hero Mode gave you an evening-friendly taste of the conflict between Light and Shadow in War of the Dragon: The Wheel of Time®, Epic Mode is the complete saga. This is the full War of the Dragon experience: a grand, sweeping campaign where armies march across the Westlands, the Forsaken claw their way out of the Dark One’s Prison, Rand al’Thor grows from shepherd to Dragon Reborn, and everything culminates in Tarmon Gai’don, the apocalyptic Last Battle. 

Epic Mode builds directly on the foundation of Hero Mode. You’ll still use the same five actions, manage your map presence, build your tableau of allies, advance your Banner and Wheel, and contest missions. But now the game has a bigger structure, with massive armies, character progression, story-driven events, and a climactic final battlefield confrontation that decides the fate of the world. The map, your leaders, your growing forces, and the tracks are still where the game is won and lost… only now they matter even more.

Note: There’s more of everything in Epic Mode, and it builds upon the rules of Hero Mode. If you haven’t yet read our overview of Hero Mode, we recommend doing so to get the most out of this preview.

What’s Different in Epic Mode

Epic Mode adds three major layers on top of the Hero Mode rules:

• Player-Specific Systems: The Light develops and upgrades their heroes through increasing their power throughout the game, while the Shadow works to free the Forsaken from the Dark One’s Prison. Both sides complete the goals of event cards representing key story moments. 
• Armies and Battles: Instead of resolving the game with character conflicts, large armies now roam the map. When opposing armies meet, you fight a full tactical battle using troop cards, characters, terrain, and more. 
• Bigger Scale: The game opens with a Prologue battle, continues for four full chapters, and ends with The Last Battle.

Bringing The Wheel of Time® to Life

Epic Mode provides an opportunity to weave even more of the narrative of The Wheel of Time into the mechanics of the game, with multiple systems that give each player a distinct thematic journey.

Each player gets a new Inner Wheel tracker in Hero Mode. The Wheel unlocks powerful Leader upgrades for the Light, and frees servants of darkness from The Dark One’s Prison for the Shadow.

For the Light: Developing the Heroes

The Light’s primary narrative arc is the growth of their five core characters: Rand al’Thor, Nynaeve al’Meara, Egwene al’Vere, Perrin Aybara, and Mat Cauthon. These heroes begin at Level 1, and as you advance your Banner and Wheel trackers, complete certain missions, and resolve specific events, they increase in strength.

When a character levels up, a new, more powerful version of their card comes into play. Higher-level cards provide stronger map strength, immediate effects, and potent abilities that can make your leaders more dangerous in battles and area control. 

Rand is the star of the story — prioritizing his progression through Wheel progress yields especially powerful rewards, even granting a sizable boon in the Last Battle.

For the Shadow: Freeing the Forsaken

Shadow’s strategy centers on The Dark One’s Prison — a deck of 11 unique, high-impact cards. Sammael and Rahvin still start in play, but the Prison holds all of the remaining Forsaken, who can each deliver dramatic, asymmetric advantages that can reshape your entire game plan.

You primarily achieve this by resolving your Inner Wheel at the end of each Chapter. The more Prison icons you accumulate, the more cards you can draw from the Prison deck. This system gives Shadow a different rhythm from Light — instead of steadily improving existing heroes, Shadow unleashes devastating new lieutenants who can swing the game in their favor. 

The Shadow can bring their own advantages into the Last Battle — freeing all 11 Forsaken grants an extra reward for the endgame, on top of the abilities of the characters themselves.

Event Cards: Narrative Moments

Both sides also draw from their own decks of event cards, which represent memorable moments from the books. Some cards provide immediate benefits when drawn, while others require you to meet specific conditions, such as holding certain skill icons in your tableau, controlling a key space, or taking a particular action.

When you fulfill the requirements of an event card, you can place it onto the shared Event Track. The first player who completes seven Events claims a powerful advantage in the Last Battle!

Armies and Battles 

Armies bring a whole new layer of strategy to Epic Mode. Each side begins with several army figures, each one representing up to 10 troop cards stored on your player board. Troops range from humble townsfolk and Darkfriends, to elite Aiel, Channelers, Myrddraal, and more.

Throughout the game, you can recruit new troops and distribute them across your armies as you see fit. Once it’s time to fight, they can trigger a battle by entering a space occupied by an enemy army. Battles are the dramatic heart of Epic Mode and replace Hero Mode’s simpler conflict resolution.

The Flow of Battle

Each battle consists of three positions that you’ll have to cover: Vanguard, Center, and Flank. Furthermore, each of these positions is accompanied by a certain type of terrain, which modifies the fight or grants special bonuses. The first step of battle is arranging the battlefield and randomly assigning a terrain type to each position.

Once the battlefield is ready, both players divide their forces across the three positions behind a secrecy screen. You can concentrate everything on one position, or spread troops out to compete for multiple rewards on the battlefield.

After committing troops, both players reveal their forces. The player with a greater total amount of strength wins each position – but special combat icons can cause extra casualties and even swing a position’s result. 

The players claim rewards based on where on the battlefield they were victorious. Each position offers different results: the Vanguard advances your Wheel, Center lets you hold the space on the map and rout the enemy, and losing the Flank will cost you extra casualties.

Because each position in battle grants different rewards, each battle will require its own approach, and the attacker and defender will often play very different games. Is your main objective to hold the area of the map you’re battling in? If so, you’ll want to make sure you claim victory in the Center. Are you an attacker looking to get in, get out, and bleed your opponent’s army before committing a stronger force? In that case, you’ll want to claim the Flank to maximize their casualties. 

Battles are tense and highly tactical. Terrain, troop quality, character abilities, and the rewards that you’re pursuing will all be factors that shape each engagement and inform your secret plans.

The Last Battle

Everything in Epic Mode funnels toward the final confrontation at Tarmon Gai’don. After Chapter 4, the game moves into Endgame Preparations and then The Last Battle.

The Last Battle is the decisive clash. It uses the same battle system as you’ve seen throughout the chapters of Epic Mode, but on a larger scale. Instead of three battle positions, there are four. And instead of bringing one army and dividing it up, each player will bring all of their armies to bear, assigning one to each position. Casualties are higher, and the stakes are greater. This is where you’ll field everything you’ve got: armies, characters, and the advantageous capstone tiles gained from fulfilling objectives throughout the game.

The Last Battle always ends the game, but everything you do in the game leading up to it affects the terms of the fight. You’ll still score victory points for your efforts so far, such as on the map, just like in Hero Mode, and securing an early lead can make the path to victory much clearer. A decisive victory — or crushing defeat — in the Last Battle can often be the difference between a win and a loss.

The Wheel Turns

Epic Mode keeps the five-action core gameplay loop of Hero Mode, while layering on armies, tactical battles, character progression, story events, and a dramatic, climactic finale. The Light side experiences their heroes growing into legends, and the Shadow has the satisfaction of unleashing the powerful Forsaken upon the world, one by one. Every decision — where to march your armies, which events to pursue, how to assign forces in battle, and how aggressively to push your Wheel — builds toward that final confrontation.

The Pattern is woven. The armies are marching. The Dragon is reborn. Are you ready for Tarmon Gai’don? Choose your side, gather your forces, and step into The Last Battle. The Wheel of Time awaits.