Greetings - perhaps it will be easier for everyone if we asked all the questions in one thread? I will start, and in time, all the previously asked questions will make their way here I hope too.

1. Can a hero 'defeat' himself by using his last card to move somewhere (with 0 card in life pool)? This way, he will transport himself to the nearest haven.

2. And the next question - connected to the first one. If a hero has 0 favour tokens, can he choose 'lose X favour tokens' option as in some Peril cards and/or when being defeated?

3. If a hero is moved to another location by an encouter card, does he have another encouter in that location in the same turn?

4. If a combat ends with both combatants exhausted, does it mean that monster/minion is undefeated and claims victory - allowing Sauron to place influence tokens equal to its wisdom? This would mean that in most combats its better to outlast the hero or just survive the fight instead of doing maximum damage to him.

Skie said:

#1: Nothing in the rules to prevent that.

#2: No.

"Q1) The Peril card, I'll-met Company, reads "The hero must choose to either lose 2 favor or have Sauron draw 2 Corruption cards and choose 1 for the hero to receive" Are we right in assuming that in these cases, if the entire payment of favor cannot be made then the other adverse event MUST occur? That is, a here who has only 0 or 1 favor cannot choose to lose 2 favor, then end up with reduced payment because he doesn't have 2 favor?

A1) "Yes, if the entire amount of favor cannot be paid, the other effect must occur."

Official clarification from Corey K in this thread: www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/447030

#3: If the card says have an encounter there (some do), then you do, otherwise no.

#4: Yes.

Thank you,one more question after today's game (and the dwarf now holds the title of the most corrupted hero with 8 corruption cards on him and Morgul Blade in his back)

1) Do corruption cards work immediately? Ie. if a corruption cards says 'you can have only 3 favour' or 'you can have only 7 cards' do I have to discard the surplus right after I got the corruption card? Or on the future turn (as some other corruption card say).

Skie said:

Depends on the card and wording, future turn doesn't affect you yet, if there is no such clause, then immediately.

The Hero Combat Cards Fall Back in english have 0 attack and in France 1 attack... Examples are Eometh and the man elf!

Also the zealot monsters with 0 attack and 2 defense in english and 1 each in french?

Which is it?

grouik said:

All my Fall Backs are Attack-1, Defense-1 (going by memory, though 40 games played).

Dam said:

But I suppose that hero CAN choose to receive X damage even if he has not enough cards in hand/life pool ?

I have another questions.

1) When a hero uses "retreat" card in combat to move to an adjacent location, and this combat was in combat/peril step in travel phase. Does he continue with exploration, or must combat/peril in the new location ?

2) When Sauron plays a shadow card on a hero "at the start of heros turn" that hero must combat some creature and skips his ambush step, does he has to defeat this monster to continue his turn ? And after combat, can hero rest ?

Rasiel said:

Aren't most (all?) Peril cards Sauron's choice?

I have another questions.

Rasiel said:

#1: www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/442650

#2: Hero turn only ends if he fails to defeat a monster in the Combat/Peril Step. Since those Shadow Cards say skip the Ambush step, I tend to look at them as start of turn "ambush". And yes, Hero can rest, so Beravor could take the damage-sponge approach, sit there and take it, then Rest and Heal (if not in a Shadow Stronghold or no Minion/monster in her location).

Two more questions: and thank you for your patience!

1) In a rare case of two heroes and a minion standing together, can the heroes somehow fight together against the minion?

2) Could you clarify 'Ithil stone' shadow card?Which one does it allow:

a) Search the discarded/plot deck and take one of 'Saruman corrupted' or 'Denethor falls into madness' cards into hand

b) If one of the cards is already in Sauron's hand, search for another or play the one that he already has (if able)

c) Search the deck and then (if able) play one of the plot cards

Aren't most (all?) Peril cards Sauron's choice?

I have another questions.

[/quote ]

I dont know now but on some of them is heroes choice. Anyway on encounters is almost every decision heroes choice...

btw i dont have card with me but i remember that you can search for one of those the plot cards and if you wish play it (plot you have searched). Not exactly sure about exact wording, but i think there is something like "search/take ... then you can play it ... " so if you have the plot card you wish to play in your hand already you can still play it (take it from deck/discard is not prerequisite)

What happens when we remove the influence token(s) on an location during the 'hero rally step' and there's also a monster token? Must we remove also the monster token?

wernerkellens said:

I've been playing a few games of this as Sauron and a few things left me a bit unclear.

Clarify me..

1} Finale step and missions:

-Does the game favour heroes?

ie. both sauron and hero token would finnish in the same turn but heroes move first.

-When are missions used to achieve total victory?

Same situation as above, does sauron count as neither dominant, or heroes dominant.

What if neither are dominant?

2) Random shuffle cards in peril, encounter and corruption cards

These are a bit random.. Are they just means to reshuffle your deck if you have good cards in discard or general method of reshuffling the decks

since these lack any priority and there's no mention of reshuffling decks.. These cards just seem a bit too ackward..

In encounter you can't decide to use it, the corruption version is just weak.

Spluuga said:

"At the end of the Story step, if a story marker has reached the
Finale space (at end of the Story Track), the game Finale begins." (p. 33)

So Finale kicks in only at the end of the Story step, meaning all tokens are moved first, then checked (Shadow Falls also applies to the above quote).

Spluuga said:

First you check for dominance. If Sauron has it, reveal Sauron's Mission, if complete -> Sauron wins. If Heroes have dominance, revealtheir Mission, if complete -> Heroes win. If there is a tie for dominance, both reveal, if one has complete, other doesn't, complete Mission wins. If you have a tie and neither (or both) have completed their Mission -> final combat. If you don't have dominance, you can never win by Mission.

Spluuga said:

Decks are reshuffled when you exhaust them as well. IIRC, the Peril reshuffler gives the Hero a Corruption card and then shuffles the deck. It's still better than nothing, especially if you draw 2 location-specific Peril (and the Hero isn't at either one). Also, if you know a Hero is going to or through Moria, but the Balrog is already in the discard, might pick the reshuffler to hopefully draw Balrog when the time comes. For the Corruption deck, "Wretched" is my absolute favourite (as Sauron) card. Immediate end to the Hero turn is huge (especially if you get it even before their Rest step). Others aren't that great, lose 2 Favor one can hurt at a critical time. With no reshuffler, you might not see the same card twice, giving the Heroes the ability to card-count (okay, so Wretched is gone, I can risk a corruption since my turn won't end), with the reshuffler, I've seen Wretched drawn 3 times in a game.

Thanks that clarified it pretty nicely. Wasn't quite sure if it worked like that.

Dam said:

The Peril reshuffler is my favorite but the corruption is a bit circumstational since it also teleports hero back to haven.. It's not bad but sometimes it feels weak although it ends turn. But thats a good point about card-counting hadn't thought it that way. I think the wretcheds weakness is that it's really random and you usually can't choose when you need it. sometimes you get to draw 2 and choose which is nice but sometimes just a regular sticking corruption is what you want.

Spluuga said:

Note that if you have multiple Havens nearest, Sauron gets to pick which one. Dagorlad for example is 3 spaces away from a host of Havens (Lothlorien, Minas Tirith, Edoras, Erebor, Woodland Realm all 3 away IIRC, too lazy to check ). Knowing the Hero deck influences the decision on which Haven, since some are poorer at moving in certain terrain. Also, if your Plots are in Mordor/Gondor region (or just generally south), dumping a Hero to Erebor/WR can buy you two turns without that hero (if Plots are up north, dump them at Minas Tirith instead).

Hmm.. Another thing.. In final battle the combat is done by "all standard combat rules", since there is no restriction anywhere I suppose Sauron can play at the start of combat cards in final battle?

Some morgul blade ought to even the scores a bit I think..

Spluuga said:

Note that Sauron can only play 1 Shadow card per turn and final combat is outside the turn framework, so no Shadow cards in the finale.

"Q: Can Sauron play a Shadow card during the finale?
A: No." (FAQ)

Dam said:

Ah.. meh.. I have to say that reasoning is a bit stretched for normal game logic.. Could've just mentioned that restriction somewhere in the rules.

I wonder who wrote the rulebook.. It somehow feels the rules are described just a bit off from what I am used to..

Of course that just means I play games with different logic.. Then again I sometimes question their logic too.

Which is kinda funny, because I always read the rules that no Shadow card in the finale.

"Only one Shadow card may be played per player’s turn ." (p. 17)

"Once the Finale begins, players no longer take normal turns ;
instead the following steps are followed" (p. 34)

emphasis added

Dam said:

To me one shadow card per turn is a limit not a requisite.. maybe it's the may or something that confused me. I usually read card rules that state you _can_ play only one card per turn and may is reserved for other permittable actions. Also I read most of the rules at night.. But there is always a bit different logics that the game designers have on wording the rules and others interpreting their slight nuances with experience from other games. Also i've just had a few games so my knowledge on these things is a bit limited and still trying out how these things work.

Sorry if it has already been asked, but I'm not sure about this.

In the FAQ we can read :

Q: How do Sauron’s “cannot be canceled” cards work during combat?
A: “Cannot be canceled” abilities are always resolved before other
effects (even though hero combat cards are usually resolved first).

My question is : When are “Cannot be canceled” abilities resolved ?

During step 3d (previous round abilities) or during step 3e (current round abilities) ?

In other words, if my opponent has played a card saying "in the next round, cancel your opponent's melee card" on the previous round and if I reveal a melee card saying "cannot be canceled", is my card canceled ?

I really can't decide which way is the good one.

Thanks.

I'll dig around more at home (at work, no access to goodies), but taking "cannot be cancelled" as the ultimate is how it's supposed to be taken. So your opponent played "in the next round, cancel your opponent's melee card" and you play a Melee cannot be cancelled on the next round, your card would still take effect.

Q: Can Sauron revive one of his minions (with a shadow card) and put him on a location with hero ? (shadow card states you can put him on a location with an influence not that the rules for monsters apply too)

Rasiel said:

I don't see why not. However, since the Hero Rally Step clears non-Shadow Strongholds of influence, Sauron would need to take an Influence Action first (IIRC, this particular card is playable during Sauron's Action Step) to place influence in said location.