Cancel his when revealed?

Cancel his when revealed?

Of course but there are four of these guys lurking in the deck, and several treachery cards that call for cancellation too.

Forest Snare gathers dust nowdays? Really?

At least in my box. Actually, since the box has a lid it doesn't gather dust, but I can honestly say I haven't put it in a deck in an age. 3 cost is prohibitive, and my play style for the past year (I guess) has been to avoid engagement, since I found that a really interesting deck type. I've also noticed that a lot of the enemies I would like to stick it on now can't have attachments, and you need to weather one attack first etc. But I'm more interested now...

*All* my cards currently gather dust though, since I haven't played for about 3 months.

This guy?

If that is indeed the enemy, seems like with only 2 hp direct damage should do the trick.

Very exciting news, good to know there is a tough Quest coming!

Two weeks ago I proxied in all of the spoiled cards we had, which obviously didn't include these spirit cards, and ran a pair of Noldor /Dunedain decks Into Ithilien. The "engaged with you" mechanic is really a paradigm shift in the way you play. I found it best when I could keep my threat low, optionally engage one enemy with another in the staging, defend and destroy the first enemy, and then engage the second at the end of combat with Aragorn (tactics). Now he doesn't contribute his threat during the next questing and if you can Feint or Quickstrike he won't get an attack either.

I'm not saying it's a better way to play, but it is different. For the most part an enemy still gets to contribute threat once and attack once, but the order gets changed up.

Once we see more cards from the cycle we get a better idea of how to use these effects and how good they are.

I have a thematic nitpick on the Star Brooch. As much as I like the art, shouldn't the star have 7 points instead of 8?

Unless I'm mistaken, it's never specified that the Star as used by the Rangers has seven points. It makes sense, as the number seven appears a lot in the history of the Dunedain, but it's not specified in the text. We actually discussed this when coming up with the Grey Company logo and I could not find the reference -- but the adaptations I've seen often use seven points and I really like the look of them. I can live with eight

This guy?

This is it. If there are three of them in the discard pile, the fourth is revealed and you are running out of "A test of Will", you are going to find four of these guys in the staging area for sure. They are weak, ok, but they mean a lot of attacks to stop and likely at the moment you will be facing some other spectres tougher than them. To me it is an example of automatic elimination, at least with my decks of dunedain and noldor.

Thicket of Spears anybody?

Boromir and his shield will laugh at that though.

Or Elrohir with his various attachments.

And then Eomer with Firefoot will have a good time.

To me it still seems funny to think of an enemy with stats like Cursed Dead as "weak." 3 attack and taking an attack strength of 3 to kill used to be a fairly strong enemy. Even now, undefended, it almost kills a hero (and would kill some). But, this comment about the Cursed Dead being weak goes to show that the stats on Allies has seen some power creep.

I don't think he would have been called fairly strong even were he included in the Core set. It brings to mind this guy, who I was always *happy* to see jump out of the encounter deck:

Attack strength of 3 to kill the enemy was on the low end of HP/defense combos even in the Core set days... There were more 2-attack enemies back in those days, but 3 was certainly far from rare.

As to why people aren't too worried about these guys, I would not peg it primarily on ally stats. I think these days we just have more ways to deal with being engaged with multiple enemies at once (and more to come with The Lost Realm of course!), or ways to deal with a flurry of unexpected attacks. Readying effects and attack nullification, not to mention outright killing the enemy with direct damage before it can attack (Goblin-cleaver is a nice card for this guy).

If you want to play thematically, there is no Boromir or Eomer. Elrohir is the best option (and the one I use) but is difficult to survive the firsts rounds.

The funny thing of this quest is that there are a lot of enemies. Cursed dead is disgusting, you kill one or two of them and they appear again to kill you in a group of 3-4.

Another enemy, after engages you, put an enemy of the discard pile into play engaged with you. And there is a tomb, where they resurrect

These guys really don't die

Both spirit cards are meh imo.

Star brooch might have some merit in some quests true, but it is too weak for a slot in my decks.

And I really can't see any use in that ally. Give me Northern Tracker any day for that cost.

If you want to play thematically, there is no Boromir or Eomer. Elrohir is the best option (and the one I use) but is difficult to survive the firsts rounds.

The funny of this quest is that there are a lot of enemies. Cursed dead is disgusting, you kill one or two of them and they appear again to kill you in a group of 3-4.

Other enemy after engages you, put an enemy of the discard pile into play engaged with you. And there is a tomb, where they resurrect

This guys really don't die

Thanks for your post. Somebody that understands my problems.

I am playing thematically, guys, as I said the quest is brutal if you try to play that way. There is no Boromir or Eomer available in that situation. The nations that fought against Angmar were Noldor and Dunedain, so if I have the chance I build a deck with heroes, allies, attachments and events related with that nations. And you can get at least two decks with 90% of cards following that premise thanks to Idraen, Glorfindel, Elrond, Aragorn, Elrohir and Elladan (and Halbarad and Beravor). And both decks are very competitive. They beat the first and second quest confortably. But the third is too much.

Even with freedom to build a deck, this quest has level 7. Of course I guess you will beat it though It is strong enough to challenge your strategy. You can use Boromir if you want but there are another spectre tougher than the Cursed Spectre which summons the first enemy in the discard pile when he engages you. If that guy is in the staging area and the Cursed spectre is revealed during the quest phase and summons three of his brothers, you can end facing six enemies in one encounter phase. Several shadow effects add attack points to the enemies so Boromir could die. In addition to this If you use Boromir your threat will increase fast and there is a treachery card that discard three cards from your deck and add up +2 threat to the staging area for every type of card you discard that way. So you can find +6 threat with a single card along the threat of the other cards in the staging area. Your threat level will be high and the enemies will engage with you on a large scale.

I am not bitching but please understand that I am speaking about playing thematically and you are considering with flippancy a single card while the encounter deck is full of challenges in several cards and situations. Anyway we'd better wait till you can experience the quest first hand. I don't want to spoil every situation and timing of the final quest in the box.

I don't think he would have been called fairly strong even were he included in the Core set.

Attack strength of 3 to kill the enemy was on the low end of HP/defense combos even in the Core set days... There were more 2-attack enemies back in those days, but 3 was certainly far from rare.

As to why people aren't too worried about these guys, I would not peg it primarily on ally stats. I think these days we just have more ways to deal with being engaged with multiple enemies at once (and more to come with The Lost Realm of course!), or ways to deal with a flurry of unexpected attacks. Readying effects and attack nullification, not to mention outright killing the enemy with direct damage before it can attack (Goblin-cleaver is a nice card for this guy).

I think that you're right. I just used Hall of Beorn to look at the allies in the core set and compared them to allies from Heirs of Numenor and Voice of Isengard, and the attack/defense/hit points were roughly comparable. It seems (at least to my memory, when I think back about it) that in the early days of the game, 3 attack strength meant that you were probably going to lose the ally that you blocked with, unless it was an expensive ally. I feel like there have been more relatively low-cost allies printed that are capable of dealing with a 3 strength attack in recent times, though.

I ordered Lost Realm from an online store, and according to tracking it has been shipped out. Unfortunately, the Treason of Saruman's ETA is still unknown.

Does anyone else think the Warden of Annuminas looks like Jory Cassel from Game of Thrones?

Thanks, now I can't unsee this..

Oh, poor Glaurung, he wanted to stray away from the Game of Thrones so bad and now they pull him right back in

Wow, I thought he looked familiar...

We have lost realm in Poland now. Which is funny, because we don't yet have adventure packs from previous cycle. I haven't played scenarios yet, but they look really great.