47 minutes ago, Stewart777 said:

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.

Any enemy in play, engaged with you, another player or in the staging area.

48 minutes ago, Stewart777 said:

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?

The damage gets removed when an ally is removed from play.

49 minutes ago, Stewart777 said:

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.

Yes, optional engagements are limited to one per player per encounter phase, unless there is a card saying otherwise like Halbarad hero (you can also use effect like TaAragorn, Son of Arnor or Knight of Minas Tirith to engage enemies outside the encounter phase). And yes, that's the difficulty of that stage, the piling up of enemies and locations, so you should get it over as soon as possible

32 minutes ago, Alonewolf87 said:

Any enemy in play, engaged with you, another player or in the staging area.

The damage gets removed when an ally is removed from play.

Yes, optional engagements are limited to one per player per encounter phase, unless there is a card saying otherwise like Halbarad  hero (you can also use effect like TaAragorn  , Son of Arnor  or Knight of Minas Tirith  to engage enemies outside the encounter phase). And yes, that's the difficulty of that stage, the piling up of enemies and locations, so you should get it over as soon as possible

Hmm, seems my deck needs some changes made, thanks.

You know what shadow card I hate, Despair , text instructs you to ignore a characters defence. I've had several heroes killed this way, and then it's game over. And I love defence!

2 hours ago, Stewart777 said:

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.

If you return ally to hand, any damage gets removed.

You can optionally engage 1 enemy during the engagement phase, which is always your maximum for optional engagements unless you are using Hero Halbarad (he gives you two). You don't automatically engage enemies at all via engagement checks, because that is skipped in stage 2. But if you have other ways of engaging enemies (for example, by sneak attacking Son of Arnor in the combat phase after the enemy attacks phase is done), you can certainly do that. Only engagement checks are affected.

Edit : sorry, mistake. Is there a way to delete a post ?

Man, just starting to play Khazad-dum (Into the Pit) and got 2 terrible starts...

In the first game the first encounter card I drew was Crumbling Ruin , which reads: " Each player must exhaust a character and discard the top card of his deck, if able. If the printed cost of the discarded card is equal to or higher than the remaining hit points of the exhausted character, discard the exhausted character. "

And I drew a card that was equal, so I had to discard a hero. Didn't continue with that game...

Second game, the second encounter card I drew was Sudden Pitfall , which reads: " The first player must discard 1 questing character he controls, if able. This effect cannot be canceled. "

So again I had to discard a flippen hero!

So I guess my question isn't so much about the rules - but when you start a game and a hero dies or is discarded right at the beginning do you just start over?

Those 2 treacheries are stinkers though. They both had yellow borders so I hope there are not too many around otherwise it's game over if A Test of Will doesn't show up.

In both case another character could have take the hit instead of the hero. So if you want to prevent these an ally would be more useful than a test of will, since sudden pitfall (who come over in others scenario of the second cycle) can't be countered. Those kind of cards are also typical of what I dislike in the cycle 2 (that is the worst of the game to me, but I'm clearly an exception), and I found this kind of effect less and less present in the rest of the game.

Loosing a hero on the first few turns in often the sign of a needing restart, but I do have keep playing some to see if I'm able to win anyway, and manage to win some. Feel free to restart if you're not longer enjoying the game you are playing, no matter why this occur ;).

Good luck for your next games.

Yeah it seems sometimes the designers just go, "What is the worst possible Treachery we could give the player - let's go with that" Treacheries which ruin a game in a single go... well let's just say I'm not a fan of them.

Well I came close on my first try of Into the Pit but failed at the last hurdle when a defending hero was killed when a shadow card gave an Orc +3 attack for a total of 6 attack! That was it from there onward.

Yes, some "Game Over" cards are really unpleasant. Like I said there would be less of them in the future. But the rest of the encounter cards of the cycle is mostly considered as easy compared to the rest of the game. So be prepared when you are moving to another cycle, especially if it is cycle 3. On the beginning playing and loosing every games I play at Heirs of Numenor made me think I got all wrong about building LOTR decks ^^. It help me to upgrade my skills :).

5 hours ago, Stewart777 said:

So I guess my question isn't so much about the rules - but when you start a game and a hero dies or is discarded right at the beginning do you just start over?

Usually. After the first few cycles, the designers moved away from feel-bad, insta-kill cards like these that give the players little choice in how to avoid, build around, or even cancel them.

This is good to know. I have decided to start from the beginning and bought some APs from the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle and was curious about Khazad-dum so gave the first quest a go. But I was starting to think twice about buying anymore LOTR stuff, but if they improved on the game in future cycles then I will keep on buying. Heirs of Numenor is next (which I hear is quite hard) but at least you can still find APs for that cycle (it's near impossible to find AP's for the Dwarrowdelf cycle, even at inflated prices they are mostly no where to be found).

I played a game of Into The Pit when I lost a hero in turn one thanks to Sudden Pitfall (I forgot it couldn't be cancelled), and we still won. But that was a two-player game. In solo I would probably start again immediately.

7 hours ago, Stewart777 said:

But I was starting to think twice about buying anymore LOTR stuff, but if they improved on the game in future cycles then I will keep on buying.

Heirs of Numenor is the low point of the cycles, but it's worth it.

To me Heirs of the Numenor was the top of my experience of LOTR. It ask me to really think about the game, to deckbuild better decks than I use to do before. There is better scenario since (they keep improving many things) but it was the moment where I go from "playing the new AP once with a friend" to "getting involved in the game and thinking about it diversity" due to the excitement of the challenge.

So, the success of Heir of Numenor it seem to depend of who was playing it ^^. To get a little more data I make a poll some years ago about what what cycles/AP do people like the most and Heirs of Numenor come right after The core set and Khazad-dum.

In a poll about which cycles people like least, Heirs of Numenor would also be a popular pick.

There was a poll here a while back: https://boardgamegeek.com/article/29502672#29502672

One question was 'which deluxe+cycle do you like the best, non-saga' (for people who have played several cycles).

Khazad-dum came in first, Grey-Havens a close 2nd. Lost Realm was a distant 3rd, with Heirs narrowly behind it. Then core+Shadows of Mirkwood, then Voice of Isengard, then Harad. Poll was out July 2018, which was just after Wilds was released, and some people voted for Wilds as well.

5 hours ago, dalestephenson said:

In a poll about which cycles people like least, Heirs of Numenor would also be a popular pick.

Probably :). But Hobbit would probably be the winner ^^.

On 10/31/2018 at 2:11 PM, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

When a card instructs you to make an immediate attack, you resolve it there and then, following the normal rules for enemy attacks in the combat phase. Always deal a shadow card for immediate attacks unless stated not to. The enemy still attacks as normal during combat as well ."

The final part of this doesn’t correspond with the Online Rules Reference booklet which states:

6.4a The active player (starting with the first player) chooses an eligible enemy that he or she is engaged with to resolve its attack. An eligible enemy is one that has not yet attacked this round and is still able to attack.

Therefore an enemy that made an immediate attack before the combat phase cannot make another attack. It has already made an attack this round.

Is there something I am missing?

Well, 6.3 on the same page also say that each enemy engaged with a player will get an opportunity to attack during the Combat phase, but no, I don't really think you're missing something in the text of the Rules Reference. However I am certain that if you submitted a rules question Caleb would confirm that immediate attacks do not prevent the enemy attacking normally in the Combat phase as well.

As a relevant precedent, players are also restricted to only declaring one attack against each enemy per round, but this limit is circumvented by card effects which grant attacks (like Quick Strike, Haldir, Hands Upon the Bow, etc). It makes sense that the same principle would apply to enemies - attacks triggered by card effects don't count as their one framework attack for the round.

Edit - And now I see this was answered properly in other threads.