Busy trying Journey Up the Anduin, man this is a hard one. At the beginning of every encounter phase if you have a resource on the quest you have to play a card from the Evil Creatures deck... That's double the encounter cards plus you can potentially get 2 Hill Trolls! This is way harder than anything I've tried yet. Anyone finished JUTA yet?

Anyway, got a question about Lost In the Wild , the text reads

Quote

When Revealed: The player with the most cards in his hand without a copy of Lost in the Wilderness adds Lost in the Wild to his hand. (While in a player’s hand, Lost in the Wild gains: "Cannot be discarded by player card effect. Forced: After you play a card, discard each card in your hand.")

So basically you keep this Treachery card in your hand until the next time you play a card from your hand and then you discard every other card from your hand; so you're left with no cards in your hand. Is that right?

I manage to win it after 2/3 loss with a solo mono tactics decks, a pretty weak solo deck to me. Many of my solo decks will crush it without looking really to his mechanism. But my reference is power deck build with the full cardpool so, nightmare aside, very few new scenario are challenging.

It is right. So if you can't counter it (test of will) play a card as fast as possible so you won't discard any of your future draw.

39 minutes ago, Rouxxor said:

I  manage to win it after 2/3 loss with a solo mono tactics decks, a pretty weak solo deck to me. Many of my solo decks will crush it without looking really to his mechanism. But my reference is power deck build with the full cardpool so, nightmare aside, very few new scenario are challenging.

Impressive!

What heroes did you use?

39 minutes ago, Rouxxor said:

It is right. So if you can't counter it (test of will) play a card as fast as possible so you won't discard any of your future draw.

Great thanks.

Got a question about Goblin Sniper and the Great Yew Bow .

GS' text reads

Quote

During the encounter phase, players cannot optionally engage Goblin Sniper if there are other enemies in the staging area.Forced: If Goblin Sniper is in the staging area at the end of the combat phase, each player deals 1 point of damage to 1 character he controls.

GYB's text reads

Quote

Attach to a hero with the printed Ranged keyword. Combat Action: Choose an enemy in the staging area. Exhaust Great Yew Bow and attached hero to make a ranged attack against that enemy. Declare attached hero as the attacker. No other attackers can be declared for this attack.

During the combat phase, can you kill the GS while he is in the Staging Area?

I ask because when they say "engage", by that definition it would mean that GS would have to come out of the Staging Area and then be placed in the player area and engage the player. And technically you're not engaging the enemy, you're making a ranged attack (sniping) on the enemy. Thoughts?

The only thing Goblin Sniper stops you from doing is using the optional engagement step in the Encounter Phase to optionally engage it. Since Great Yew Bow has nothing to do with this step, it's fine to use it.

The general trick with Journey Up the Anduin is to stall on Stage 1, doing the best you can to clear active locations without placing progress on the main quest. That will give you some time to build up your board state before taking on the rest of the quest.

Cards that let you adjust how much you're sending after staging (but before resolving the quest) can be really helpful here. Protector of Lorien, Radagast's Cunning, and Secret Paths, for example, all let you under quest by a bit and then add just the right amount to avoid placing progress on the main quest.

1 hour ago, Authraw said:

The general trick with Journey Up the Anduin is to stall on Stage 1, doing the best you can to clear active locations without placing progress on the main quest. That will give you some time to build up your board state before taking on the rest of the quest.

Cards that let you adjust how much you're sending after staging (but before resolving the quest) can be really helpful here. Protector of Lorien, Radagast's Cunning, and Secret Paths, for example, all let you under quest by a bit and then add just the right amount to avoid placing progress on the main quest.

Good thinking. While on the subject. If you can place progress on the active location/quest do you have to.

For instance with Tactics Legolas and his Response which puts 2 progress on the active location when killing/participating in a kill. Do you have to add that progress or can you choose not to?

Responses are always optional, so you don't have to trigger Legolas' ability if you don't want to.

3 hours ago, Stewart777 said:

If you can place progress on the active location/quest do you have to.

From questing successfully, yes. Responses on player cards are optional, though.

Using Unexpected Courage can you defend against one attack, then ready, and then defend against another attack?

I suspect no, as there's no action window, but just thought I would ask to make sure.

27 minutes ago, Stewart777 said:

Using Unexpected Courage can you defend against one attack, then ready, and then defend against another attack?

I suspect no, as there's no action window, but just thought I would ask to make sure.

Yes, you absolutely can! There is an action window between every step of enemy attacks (signify attacking enemy, declare and exhaust defender, reveal shadow card, calculate combat damage, and assign damage) so you could even wait until after the shadow effect resolves before using Unexpected Courage if you wanted.

Oh excellent! I paged through the LOTR Online Rules and must have read it wrong. That could have changed a few games in my favour! Thanks.

On 11/5/2018 at 7:40 AM, Stewart777 said:

Oh excellent! I paged through the LOTR Online Rules and must have read it wrong. That could have changed a few games in my favour! Thanks.

The hero with Unexpected Courage cannot, however, attack the same enemy twice in the same phase. Defending multiple attacks from the same or different attackers is fine, though.

15 hours ago, TwiceBornh said:

The hero with Unexpected Courage cannot, however, attack the same enemy twice in the same phase. Defending multiple attacks from the same or different attackers is fine, though.

Not quite right, you may only declare one attack against each eligible enemy, but as long as someone else legally declares the attack, you are free to join. Even events like Quick Strike and Hands upon the Bow allow multiple attacks.

2 hours ago, Amicus Draconis said:

Not quite right, you may only declare one attack against each eligible enemy, but as long as someone else legally declares the attack, you are free to join. Even events like Quick Strike and Hands upon the Bow allow multiple attacks.

This also isn't quite right, except in the case of a ranged character and an enemy considered to be engaged with all players. Ranged characters from an unengaged player can join in an attack declared by an engaged player, but an attack declared by an unengaged player (using ranged characters) cannot be joined by characters controlled by another player (engaged or not).

36 minutes ago, dalestephenson said:

... but an attack declared by an unengaged player (using ranged characters) cannot be joined by characters controlled by another player (engaged or not).

Where does it say that?

The rules say about ranged:

And the FAQ says about limitations on attack :

Nowhere can I read, you cannot join a ranged attack, it even says you can "participate in attacks against the same enemy" unlimited times under certain conditions.

Reviewing the rulings, you are correct -- a ranged character not engaged with an enemy *can* join in attacks declared by another player, unengaged or not. What they can't do is join in a ranged attack against an engaged enemy. So I'll use an example to illustrate my understanding of how it works, and assume that Path of Need is attached to the active location, so that heroes can attack without exhausting.

Scenario A: Player 1 has Tactics Bard, Player 2 has Tactics Legolas, Player 3 has Tactics Gimli and is engaged with a non-immune troll. Player 1 uses Bard to declare a ranged attack on the troll, who now has -2 defense (thanks to Bard's ability). Legolas is ranged and can join the attack, but Gimli cannot join. Player 2 uses Legolas to declare a ranged attack on the troll, Bard joins the attack, giving the troll -4 defense (his ability, cumulative), but Gimli cannot join. Player 3 uses Gimli to declare an attack on the troll, Legolas and Bard both join the attack, giving the troll -6 defense.

Scenario B: Player 1 has Tactics Bard, Player 2 has Tactics Legolas and is engaged with a non-immune troll, Player 3 has Tactics Gimli. Player 1 uses Bard to declare a ranged attack on the troll, who now has -2 defense. Legolas can't join because he's engaged, Gimli can't join because he's not ranged. Player 2 uses Legolas to declare an attack on the troll, Bard joins the attack and the troll now has -4 defense. Player 3 can't declare an attack at all if he lacks a ready ranged character.

Scenario C : Player 1 has Tactics Bard and is engaged with a non-immune troll, Player 2 has Tactics Legolas, Player 3 has Tactics Gimli. Player 1 uses Bard to declare an attack on the troll, but since it isn't ranged the troll's defense is not affected. Legolas can join the attack. Player 2 can use Legolas to declare an attack on the troll on his turn, but Bard cannot join because he's engaged. Player 3 cannot declare an attack at all if he lacks a ready ranged character.

I was trying to keep things simple for a new player who probably has a limited card pool, but thanks for the clarifications/reminders, Dale and Amicus. Your rules fu is acknowledged and admired. ?

On 11/8/2018 at 9:04 PM, dalestephenson said:

Reviewing the rulings, you are correct -- a ranged character not engaged with an enemy *can* join in attacks declared by another player, unengaged or not. What they can't do is join in a ranged attack against an engaged enemy. So I'll use an example to illustrate my understanding of how it works, and assume that Path of Need is attached to the active location, so that heroes can attack without exhausting.

Scenario A: Player 1 has Tactics Bard, Player 2 has Tactics Legolas, Player 3 has Tactics Gimli and is engaged with a non-immune troll. Player 1 uses Bard to declare a ranged attack on the troll, who now has -2 defense (thanks to Bard's ability). Legolas is ranged and can join the attack, but Gimli cannot join. Player 2 uses Legolas to declare a ranged attack on the troll, Bard joins the attack, giving the troll -4 defense (his ability, cumulative), but Gimli cannot join. Player 3 uses Gimli to declare an attack on the troll, Legolas and Bard both join the attack, giving the troll -6 defense.

Scenario B: Player 1 has Tactics Bard, Player 2 has Tactics Legolas and is engaged with a non-immune troll, Player 3 has Tactics Gimli. Player 1 uses Bard to declare a ranged attack on the troll, who now has -2 defense. Legolas can't join because he's engaged, Gimli can't join because he's not ranged. Player 2 uses Legolas to declare an attack on the troll, Bard joins the attack and the troll now has -4 defense. Player 3 can't declare an attack at all if he lacks a ready ranged character.

Scenario C : Player 1 has Tactics Bard and is engaged with a non-immune troll, Player 2 has Tactics Legolas, Player 3 has Tactics Gimli. Player 1 uses Bard to declare an attack on the troll, but since it isn't ranged the troll's defense is not affected. Legolas can join the attack. Player 2 can use Legolas to declare an attack on the troll on his turn, but Bard cannot join because he's engaged. Player 3 cannot declare an attack at all if he lacks a ready ranged character.

I asked Caleb about this issue and his answer was:

Quote

No, you cannot participate in an attack against an enemy engaged with you when it is initiated by a teammate using Ranged. Your non-Ranged characters only get to attack during your attack window. Your Ranged characters can join in an attack your teammate initiates, but only if it is against an enemy engaged with another player.

While this is not (yet) adressed in the FAQ, I can at least confirm that Dale is right.

Got a question about ally Gandalf from the Core set.

Now the text says when Gandalf enters play you can

• draw 3 cards
• deal 4 damage to 1 enemy in play
• reduce your threat by 5.

So let's say I immediately deal damage to an enemy engaged with me and kill it. My question is can Gandalf then go on to quest or do any other actions in that round before he is discarded?

I was watching a video and according to the guy playing he can! I always thought that Gandalf could only do one action per round.

For the video check the link below, the bit you want starts at 8:30 and he goes pretty quick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGeEKsLZ9M0

Well, when you play Gandalf, any responses to that effect trigger. Exhausting Gandalf is not part of the cost to use his response, the only prerequisite is that Gandalf must enter play. You can then exhaust him to commit to the quest, defend an attack, attack an enemy, etc. at the appropriate time.

12 minutes ago, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

Well, when you play Gandalf, any responses to that effect trigger. Exhausting Gandalf is not part of the cost to use his response, the only prerequisite is that Gandalf must enter play. You can then exhaust him to commit to the quest, defend an attack, attack an enemy, etc. at the appropriate time.

Ah excellent, this changes a whole lot!

Another question regards Ally Gandalf. It's in regards to what "in play" means.

One of the choices you can choose when he enters play is to "deal 4 damage to 1 enemy in play". Does this apply to enemies in the staging area or only enemies engaged with you?

I wouldn't think so, but would just like to clarify.

Edit: Got 2 more.

- The shadow text for Pursued by Shadow reads "Shadow: Defending player chooses and returns 1 exhausted ally he controls to its owner's hand. If he controls no exhausted allies, raise his threat by 3."

Now if I return that ally to my hand, does any damage on that ally remain, or does it get removed?

- On the second quest card of Journey Along the Anduin the text reads "Reveal 1 additional card from the encounter deck each quest phase. Do not make engagement checks during the encounter phase. (Each player may still optionally engage 1 enemy each encounter phase.) "

Does this mean you can only engage 1 enemy during the combat phase? Even if you would like to engage more. Because you would have to quest pretty well to overcome the amount of enemies and locations that would stack up in the staging area.

Any enemy (except immune one of course) is eligible for Gandalf damages.

Ah thanks, that means I could have damaged the Hill Troll in the staging area.... ah well next time

I made an edit to my post with 2 more questions, if you don't mind answering.