Has anyone else been running a campaign, and then realised several quests in that they maybe made mistakes with their boon choices? I'm playing a pseudo-ironman campaign (in which I have to keep my first success against each quest - if it was just until I failed a quest, I'd be done at Journey in the Dark), and I realised too late that I should have put the boon for +1 willpower and Noble onto Gandalf, so that he could rock Anduril, and quest for 5. Instead it's sitting on Glorfindel, which is still cool, but it's a bit late now to change it (I'm 6 quests in).

Also, out of interest, do people tend to play for the resurrection boon after rescuing the captives, or the other boons (if they have a choice)?

That said, I'm enjoying finally doing a campaign for the first time properly, and have found that I really like the new Theoden, who I've had in a team with Galadriel and Eomer since the start. They're a fun team together, since you get lots of cheap Rohan allies into play, who can quest then chump-block/discard for effects, fueling Eomer to kill everything. And this play through has made me appreciate the Hama ally a lot. As a last resort defender he is impressive. I wish I'd put the time into a campaign sooner, because it is awesome!

Good to hear you're having a ball playing campaign.

I went through the 1st two boxes + old forest & fog on the barrow downs not too long ago.

Used a mono lore Treebeard-Mirlonde-Elrond deck.

Went fine, only lost to fog on the barrow downs once.

Didn't go into the 3rd box yet, as I want to play the quests blind with my buddies first.

And no, I didn't have that 'oh' moment with a boon card (yet) as Elrond can wield Anduril

But maybe I haven't played far enough into the campaign yet.

Planning to start anew 2 handed solo tho. Should be fun!

Yep, 1st time I played campaign mode, I realized I had a boon card that could be attached to a warrior hero, and did not have any warrior hero...

Ooh, Elrond and Anduril is a good one. In my play through Anduril is going on Eomer, who is chewing through enemies very effectively (and with Firefoot can sometimes defend an attack, exhaust with Anduril, and kill two enemies with spillover damage). It was a tactical error not to make Gandalf noble, but I was still thinking of him sacrificing himself to slay the Balrog. In the end that was Haldir's job. I also took the Gildor boon, who has not been so useful. But the overall experience is a massive blast. Not sure why I didn't do it before. And it's forced me to really get to know two decks (Gandalf, Haldir (now Rossiel), Glorfindel(s); Theoden(s), Galadriel, Eomer). Very fun.

The second set of boons that attach to warriors/nobles etc. look very good. But I can't decide (if I succeed in the quest well enough) if I should bring back Haldir (on 3wp, 4att, 2def) who would be beefy...

Go to my Campaign Log and you won't forget a thing! :-)

The campaign I'm playing now (up to treason of Saruman) had so many hero changes that I start with a penalty of 3...

Ooh, Elrond and Anduril is a good one. In my play through Anduril is going on Eomer, who is chewing through enemies very effectively (and with Firefoot can sometimes defend an attack, exhaust with Anduril, and kill two enemies with spillover damage). It was a tactical error not to make Gandalf noble, but I was still thinking of him sacrificing himself to slay the Balrog. In the end that was Haldir's job. I also took the Gildor boon, who has not been so useful. But the overall experience is a massive blast. Not sure why I didn't do it before. And it's forced me to really get to know two decks (Gandalf, Haldir (now Rossiel), Glorfindel(s); Theoden(s), Galadriel, Eomer). Very fun.

The second set of boons that attach to warriors/nobles etc. look very good. But I can't decide (if I succeed in the quest well enough) if I should bring back Haldir (on 3wp, 4att, 2def) who would be beefy...

That Eomer combo is a good one too. I like it.

Also, I've always taken Gildor in my campaigns; and while he's a complete wild card and can just not pop up at all, he has really saved my butt a couple of times.

So don't worry there. He's way better then Mr. Underhill in my book.

And inspired by your having a blast I started my campaign again too just now.

Two decks: Eowyn-Eleanor-Erkenbrand (the 3 E's) quest/buff/block deck & Aragorn(T)-Merry(T)-Bifur, with ents galore.

Did Shadow of the past, which I won with some tight pulled together buttocks moments on hide tests, & Old Forest, which got steam rolled.

Doing the final 2 quests from TBR later this week

I pretty much always use the same two decks but have a tendency to change a hero in my lineup every now and then and every time I do I start the campaign from scratch to avoid a threat increase or the loss of any 'permanent boons'. After restarting so many times I've gotten used to the various boons/burdens you can gain and now avoid making silly choices I used to sometimes make. I think Noble Hero is a pretty amazing boon as it can give a hero the noble trait which can be very beneficial. In my campaign I chose this boon to be attached to Sam for example which means he can now receive both Sting AND Anduril as attachments if I want thanks to the Noble trait gained from Noble Hero. Anduril goes really well on Elrohir as well giving him bonus defense for defending and bonus attack to strike back with (which Elrohir can often do due to his readying after defending ability) both with Anduril's actual ability plus any normal attacks he makes (due to the wording and fact you do not need to exhaust the attached hero after using Anduril's ability you can declare the Anduril attack and then another normal attack so long as there are legal targets and Elrohir remains ready after defending).

Glamdring is amazing on Haldir (who can wield it similarly to Sam with Anduril via Noble hero) who can have this weapon attachment so long as you give him the Valiant Warrior boon which grants him the Warrior trait. Not only does it make him far better at sniping enemies in staging/engaged with other players but whenever he kills an orc (often before it can even attack) you will also draw a card!

I always restart any game in which I lose a hero, gain too many burdens or do not earn the boons of the scenario to have as good a saga campaign pool as possible. I therefore have never chosen the resurrection boon and honestly the fact you can only choose that one boon for your whole party and miss out on all four others (regardless of how many players/decks in your group) seems like way too much of a trade off. I chose Forewarned and Intimidation as my two boons (two handed player) in my most recent saga campaign play through and think that both are far more useful than Beyond All Hope. Cancelling one shadow card every turn is just amazing and boosting Haldir's sniping ability even further (already has valiant warrior) and allowing him to take out some pretty tough foes from the very start of a game all on his own is invaluable. Honestly unless I have a hero I really want to bring back (which I try to always avoid, escape Moria before Balrog appears, beat all other quests without hero deaths) that is integral to at least one if not more than one deck (someone like Dain? Elrond for boosted healing across the board? Celeborn for Silvans?) I would always choose the other option as those four boons you get after beating The Uruk Hai are pretty goddamn amazing and two of them/more I think are way more powerful and useful than just Beyond All Hope. Even Leader of Men which can give an additional resource every turn so long as you quest successfully is pretty **** powerful. Hands of a Healer or whatever the fourth one is called is in my opinion the only dud. Only playing solo would I even consider Beyond All Hope.

As far as Gildor or Mr. Underhill, I always choose Gildor. Having a player card appear out of the encounter deck is always nice and can delay a nasty encounter card coming out. That and the fact you can attack/block with him the turn he appears and his stellar stats that you can then use every turn afterwards. Considering I don't use any of the fellowship cards and never use Frodo's ability I am more than happy to sacrifice the fellowship resource each turn to keep him in play all game whenever he appears. I also always choose The Ring Draws Them as it can not even appear during a game whereas if you choose Gandalfs Delay you start every single game with one less card.... nuts to that! Plus so long as you have sentinel set up the effect of the ring draws them is not really THAT bad anyway.

I really wish I'd thought of putting boons on Haldir to make him snipe better. But, sadly, he's now Balrog meat. Since it was semi-ironman, and I actually beat the quest, I kept the result. The **** Balrog came out even before the third stage though, which was actually very nasty! Didn't quite pull off the questing well enough (I got two trolls in the first turn...god bless Saruman, who hid one for a turn, then helped to smack the other one!). The first time I played I had every copy of Many Pillared Hall out within 2 turns.

Perhaps I could have used Haldir better, but he was mainly in the deck to give me Lore and access to Silvan, so Rossiel has become an interesting and adequate replacement. It's also been fun to play with her, since I used Haldir a lot since his release. But putting Anduril or Glamdring on him is neat, I like.

That's actually been one of my favourite things about the campaign - being able to slightly customise heroes. Unfortunately I put the two boons on heroes with the traits already! But next time...and in any case, Eomer has been an eyeopener. What a beast!

The trouble I have now with Eomer is that he only gets two restricted slots, and one is Anduril for sure. So if I put Firefoot on him then I can't put Rohan warhorse on, and that one is amazing with Anduril - you can exhaust to defend, then attack back with Anduril, and ready after you (inevitably) destroy the enemy. Course, the deck sometimes puts Unexpected Courage on him anyway...but Rohan warhorse is a cheap in-sphere way to get him readying. It's a good problem to have, but I wish I could get another attachment that allows a third restricted attachment.

I decided to go with the two boons rather than resurrect Haldir. So now Glorfindel can gain resources from questing, and Eomer can drop an enemies defence by 2 His starting attack of 4 (with the valiant warrior boost), potentially 6 if an ally leaves play, is enough now to kill most of the big toughies with a defence reduction. I stomped on the pursuing the captives quest, and now have to defeat Helm's Deep, which I've never played before. Fun! Rebuilding the decks takes a while each time though. Gotta work out what tactics cards to lose now that I'm back with two spirit heroes. All good!

A question that may seem silly, but i want to be certain.

When i choose to change a hero with another, all the permanent boons of the first hero are lost, right?

If i change the hero with another of the same name but different sphaire, (merry tact with merry spir) what happens? Does he keep them?

And what happens when the campaign rules give me the option to change heroes without threat cost?

Finally, there is one campaign card that iinstructs each player to put one boon to a hero, and the boons that remain are shuffled on first playr deck. Is this permanent for each quest thereafter ? (the shuffling of the rest of the boons I mean)

Answers:

- Yes

- Yes, permanent boons are transferred to your new Merry, that's why when you get to Treason of Saruman all permanent boons you may have had previously on a regular Aragorn are transferred to Fellowship Aragorn

- Not sure to understand but you can then do whatever you want at no cost, just remember the two mentionned rules above

- No. Non-permanent boons can be added to your deck in future quests but don't get this special treatment unless stated on the campaign card, like at the beginning of The Ring Goes South

On the third, I meant that on Helms Deep, players can change their heroes. What happens to the Boons placed on the previous heroes? I assume they are lost, am I right?

Yes and yes! :-)

I actually don't think Permanent Boons are lost if you just switch the hero out. The only text I see that instructs you to remove a Permanent Boon from the Campaign Pool is when the attached hero is added to the Fallen Heroes list.

But they are attached to a hero, so if he is changed i guess they are gone with him?

Who they're attached to is recorded in the Campaign Log. Whenever you play with that hero, they start with the Permanent Boon attached. Obviously you don't get to reassign the Boon to a different hero when you switch that hero out, but I don't think it removes the Boon from the Campaign Pool completely--if you were to bring that hero back in later, they'd bring the Boon with them.

Basically, you would write "Boromir has Valiant Warrior" in the Notes section of the Campaign Log. When using Boromir, you would use that boon on him. When not using Boromir, you would not use that boon.

Those non-permanent boons (like Anduril etc) can be freely used between say 2 decks after the first quest they show up in? Since the players as a group have earned them, and boons can be added (or not) to decks as you see fit after they are earned unless they are attached to a specified character? Just wanna be sure I'm doing that right!

And yeah, hero uniqueness is tied to their name (so Merry spirit and Merry tactics are both the hero Merry, so no cost for changing them out). This is a big reason for me wondering if, once Snowmane is released, I should swap spirit Theoden out for his tactics version, so that he can quest (for 3!) and then kick butt with a total of 6 att with Herugrim attached. But I'd miss the cost reduction. It's a hard choice, and it may mean dropping Galadriel completely and switching in Eowyn or spirit Merry for a new style of spirit play.

- No. Non-permanent boons can be added to your deck in future quests but don't get this special treatment unless stated on the campaign card, like at the beginning of The Ring Goes South

- No. Non-permanent boons can be added to your deck in future quests but don't get this special treatment unless stated on the campaign card, like at the beginning of The Ring Goes South

IIRC, only on The Ring Goes South it is stated that you can shuffle none earned boon cards on your deck, so after that quest, if i.e. I choose Sting (is solo one hand) i will not use Anduril or Mithril shirt again shuffled on my deck and they will be "discarded" from campaign, so that in solo only one of these could be used on the whole campaign. Is this the case?

It says nothing about non-earned Boon cards. It tells you the players have earned those Boons, which means, as stated, that you can add them to your decks in future quests (though they don't count towards the 50 card minimum).

You are playing in Campaign Mode. Setup: Each player may change hero cards he controls without incurring the +1 threat penalty. The players have earned the boon cards: Sting, Mithril Shirt, Glamdring, and Andúril. Each player chooses one and adds it to his hand. If any of those boon cards remain unchosen, shuffle them into the first player's deck.

So in solo one handed, I choose one to have on my opening hand and all the others will be shuffled on my deck one every single campaign quest?

Wow, this is not what I thought, great news indeed

That's not quite right -- in The Ring Goes South, you add one to your hand and the rest go in your deck. Once you complete the quest, you flip the Campaign Mode card over and it tells you that you can add those cards to the Campaign Pool.

That means that in subsequent quests you can add those Boons to your deck (if you want to). Unfortunately the text from The Ring Goes South that lets you add one to your starting hand is no longer active, so you just have to shuffle them into your deck and hope to draw them normally.

I actually don't think Permanent Boons are lost if you just switch the hero out. The only text I see that instructs you to remove a Permanent Boon from the Campaign Pool is when the attached hero is added to the Fallen Heroes list.

You're right. The Boons still are in the Campaign Pool, but you don't get to reassign them to another hero. If you bring back the hero from the dead (for example with the "Beyond all hope" Boon, the permanent Boons of that hero are back too!

Same case when you get to Treason of Saruman. Every previous Boon you had attached to regular Aragorn being transfer to the Fellowship Aragorn. If you have Aragorn in your list of Fallen Heroes, same case, you bring him back with +1 threat penalty and he comes back with all of its boons.

Caleb Grace about that (asked him by mail a couple of months when coding the Campaign log):

If you remove a hero from the list of fallen heroes with Beyond All Hope, each permanent attachment that was attached to that hero in the campaign log is still attached to that hero.

Nickpes, another of your question:

IIRC, only on The Ring Goes South it is stated that you can shuffle none earned boon cards on your deck, so after that quest, if i.e. I choose Sting (is solo one hand) i will not use Anduril or Mithril shirt again shuffled on my deck and they will be "discarded" from campaign, so that in solo only one of these could be used on the whole campaign. Is this the case?

You're right, only in The Rings Goes South you get to put a Boon into your hand (Mithril Shirt, Anduril, Glamdring or Dard) and the other are shuffled. But whatever you do, the Boons have been earned and are part of your Campaign Pool. If you don't choose to use them in the following scenarios, the Boons remain in your Campaign Pool.

Say at the start of Journey in the Dark, before you draw your starting hand, you can shuffle any non-permanent Boon in anyone's deck (but you don't have to). So it is possible you get one of the Boons in your opening hand (but beware it dilutes your deck as Boons do not count towards the 50-card limit).

Be aware that the setup timing for encounter cards of the Campaign is a little awkward as The Black Riders Booklet says you add those (Burdens or Boons with an encounter card back) to the encounter deck after drawing initial hand. I asked Caleb about it and that's his answer:

The Black Riders booklet implies that cards with the Setup instruction are setup before drawing the first hand.

What about other Boons and Burdens that shuffles into the encounter deck or adds to a player's hand?

From what I understood reading TBR rules:

• Permanent Boons and Burdens are added "at the start of the game" so I guess it's only after step 7 of setup, but I guess it doesn't hurt to attach them during step 3 (place heroes and set initial threat levels)?
• Boons with an encounter card back are shuffled into the encounter deck "when setting up the game", when, exactly?
• "When setting up future scenarios in the current campaign, the players may include any boon cards as recorded in the Campaign Pool in their decks." => so when do I include cards like Anduril, Mithril Shirt? After or Before drawing my initial hand?
• Encounter cards with a player card back are shuffled into one's deck after the drawing of initial hand.

This is kind of important, because I may well have to shuffle Ho! Tom Bombadil! into my deck if I decide to take a mulligan for example. Also, if Boons are shuffled after drawing initial hand, I can't get them in my opening hand.

Answer by Caleb:

You are correct that players technically draw their starting hand before resolving Setup effects. The burden card, Gandalf’s Delay, has a weird timing issue as a result. We have not issued an errata for the card because we found that most players intuitively understood how the effect was meant to be resolved. Gandalf’s Delay is meant to reduce the number of cards in your starting hand by 1.

When playing campaign mode, boons that you have earned are considered part of your deck before you even set up the game. So it is possible to draw boons in your opening hand.

Burden cards with both encounter and player card backs are considered part of the encounter deck and do not get shuffled in until you build the encounter deck (which comes after building your player deck and choosing your heroes). So it is not possible to draw a burden card with a player back into your opening hand.

Glad you’re enjoying the saga expansions!

Funny note: if you strictly follow the rules and setup timing, the Burden card Gandalf's Delay does nothing ^^

Back on player cards, a reminder about Setup instruction rules (from Treason of Saruman booklet):

If a player card with Setup instructions is in a player’s deck at the beginning of a game, that player searches his deck for that card and follows its instructions before drawing his first hand. Similarly, if a burden card with Setup is in the encounter deck at the beginning of a game, search the encounter deck for that card and follow its instructions before resolving the Setup instructions on the quest.

So to sum up a bit, I think the most logical setup timing is this one:

- Permanent Boons are attached to a specific hero and remain attached to that hero, even if you change heroes or if the hero has fallen.

- Non-permanent Boons in your Campaign Pool can be shuffled in your deck before drawing your initial hand.

- Then, you resolve Setup instructions on Boons.

- Then you draw your initial hand.

Which I think in the grand scheme of things is (the 7 step of setup are taken from the rule book). I put in blue the Campaign setup instructions.

1. Shuffle decks

a. Shuffle player decks

Any player can include any Boon from your Campaign Pool in his/her deck. Those cards do not count towards the 50-card limit.

b. Build the encounter deck from the encounter sets indicated on the quest cards

Add any Burden, Burden with a player card back or Boons with an encounter back to the encounter deck.

c. Shuffle the encounter deck.

2. Determine first player, who gets the first player token.

3. Place Heroes and Set Initial Threat Levels

a. At the beginning of the Campaign, record the name of each player heroes. Any change from one scenario to the next adds +1 starting threat (whether intentionally or because a hero has Fallen).

b. Follow any Setup instruction on player cards (attach 'Permament' Boons to the recorded heroes).

c. The first player takes control of a hero from the Fellowship sphere with the Ring-bearer trait at the beginning of each game and attach The One Ring to that hero or takes the control of Aragorn (Treason of Saruman, Flame of the West).

4. Setup Token Bank

5. Draw Starting Hand (6 cards except if Gandalf’s Delay is in the Campaign Pool )

6. Set Quest Cards

7. Follow Scenario Setup Instruction

a. Follow any instruction of quest card 1A.

b. Place the Campaign Card next to the quest card and follow any additionnal instruction.

c. Follow any Setup instruction on encounter cards from the encounter deck (attach 'Permament' Burdens to the recorded heroes).

d. Follow any instruction of quest card 1B.

On a final side note: you could definitely include a Permanent Boon belonging to a Fallen Hero to your deck during step 1. Then, what happens to this Boon during Step 3. b) I don't know, I think it gets discarded. (Discarding or adding a Boon to the Victory Display does not remove the Boon from the Campaign Pool, so I guess it's safe).