Happy New Year!

I made the next adventure pack in advance, so I want to share with you the whole new part of Player Card Review series.:)

Link: https://visionofthepalantir.com/2020/01/04/player-card-review-road-to-rivendell/

I'm looking forward to your comments. Share your own TOP/SHEEP CARD and which sphere was enriched at most here.

Silblade

Elladan is of course only useful with his brother on the table, but in contrast to Elrohir attacking many enemies can also be done without readying a super attacker, as a host of weaker allies can also do the job. The most noticeable effect of Elladan is ensuring that Elrohir can defend as good as any other hero released so far with repeatable readying.

The Dúnadain Wanderer is only useful in a Secrecy deck, which themselves are not useful yet. When such decks are viable, the Wanderers can do amazing work with A Very Good Tale while also offering good stats and keywords for their cost. But for now they are not worth the cost and the only way to play them for a good discount means weakening your board state deliberately, which I am no fan of.

Lure of Moria only works in dwarf decks, but with all the dwarf cards released so far, there should be enough targets available.. The only downside of this card is, that I have not yet really had a need to use it in the first place, as dwarves tend to be overpowered compared to other traits and the encounter deck anyway.

While the Rivendell Blade offers a better cost effect ratio than Dwarven Axe or Blade of Gondolin and can be used on allies, it also has two definitive drawbacks: Firstly, it only attaches to elves, so all the dwarves will not be able to use it and you need to make room for Silvan or Noldor characters in your decks. Secondly, it affects the stats of an emeny, which means, that it will not work at all against immune enemies or those with next to no armour. Luckily this whole cycle does not have any immune enemies, that can actually be attacked, and certain goblin or tentacle enemies tend to die without the help of a Rivendell Blade anyway.

Hail of Stone allows you to kill enemies without the need to defend or engage them, which may allow you to avoid nasty effects during engagement or defense. It also helps in the quest phase to get rid of threat to improve the outcome of the quest. The next scenario stars tentacle enemies, all of which have nasty forced effects and low engagement costs, so this event is one of the best ways to avoid these effects. It is also one of the reasons, many boss enemies are immune to player card effects: If you could just kill them, as soon they appear, this event would trivialize many quests.

The Rider of the Mark is as effective as a non-unique quester gets at this point in the game excluding dwarves buffed by Dain. His action can be handy to help another player with pseudo ranged and sentinel and the discarding of a shadow card is another benefit. The problem is that shadow cards must be resolved after being revealed, so the Rider will not help against the worst cards like Sleeping Sentry. It can be useful for the preemptive safe keeping of a defender, when a potential shadow card can wreck you, but I usually solve this problem with A Burning Brand.

Song of Eärendil can help another player to stay in secrecy, which I still do not like, or to stay below the engagement cost of a dangerous enemy like Durin's Bane. This enemy is actually the only reason I have ever used this card. In future cycles it can be used to reach valour faster or to help other player mitigate the effect of doomed cards.

I usually pack at least one copy of Bombur into one of my decks when playing a scenario with a lot of Underground locations with at least three threat like Zigil Mine Shaft, Upper Hall, Lightless Passage or Fouled Well. He obviously has no synergy with Dain Ironfoot, so he can be used outside of a dwarf deck. Just remember that he is worthless with the wrong encounter deck.

Out of the Wild is another secrecy card and therefor not worth the cost and deckspace so far. Within a viable secrecy deck in the future though it is just amazing to remove a horrible card from the encounter deck to not bother you for the rest of the game. Be sure to use scrying to get the best value out of this event.

The End Comes is a very weird card: Reshuffling the encounter discard pile into its deck is an unusual effect. It can be worth using, if you use Denethor's ability to dump a couple of terrible cards at the bottom of the encounter deck to reshuffle it, so you have a better chance of avoiding these cards. But to trigger this effect, a dwarf needs to leave play. The best option to do this is Sneak Attack, which can be used in any phase. The other option would be chump blocking, as long as you have an enemy to attack you.

Even though it has some drawbacks, Rivendell Blade is the top card of the adventure pack in a progression environment. The requirement for an elven character restricts the use of this attachment somewhat, but it can be used with allies, freeing your heroes to use other restricted attachments. Just check the immunities of your enemies, or this card might not be helping you. Later when secrecy decks become viable, Out of the Wild will become the best card, as it can outright remove a card from the game. But with threat higher than 20 this event is just too expensive.

The worst card is The End Comes , as it cannot be triggered reliably on its own and in most cases has no actual beneficial result.

The most enriched sphere is Tactics with a very good attachment, a reliable attacking hero and an event which allows a swarm deck to kill enemies without enagaging and defending them.

My take:

As I wrote about the previous pack, even with multiplayer you want Elrohir and Elladan in the same deck -- if you put them in different decks, you have to wait until one gets sentinel or ranged before they work together, and working together is what makes them great. Of the two Elrohir is more important due to how defense and attack works in this game, but as they're tied at the hip you don't have to choose.

Dunedain Wanderer is good value at 2 -- but it's only 2 cost in secrecy, and it will be a long time before you can have solid secrecy decks that actually *stay* in secrecy. Given that, and the fact that a secrecy deck is going to mulligan for more useful cards like Timely Aid and Resourceful, odds of having Wanderer in hand when you have 20-or-less threat and *2* leadership resources aren't actually that good. Of the four secrecy allies (the other three show up in Ringmaker), Wanderer is the only one that a 20-threat tri-sphere deck can't play on turn one, and that's no small thing when the most common secrecy lineup is Sam/LoPippin and a Merry. He's a big expensive dud. The one good thing that can be said for him is that if you get him out he works well with A Very Good Tale from the Hobbit saga. And that's in the context of the full card pool -- as of Road to Rivendell, he's a straight-up coaster.

Lure of Moria is incredibly powerful in a Dain-driven swarm deck. The contrast with the previous global tribal event (We Do Not Sleep) is instructive. Instead of 5 spirit resources, it's a much more affordable 3 leadership. Instead of merely allowing questing without exhausting, it can ready all dwarves at *any* point, such as after defending. And most importantly, with Dain around *all* dwarves are of use for both questing and attacking, unlike the Rohirrim. Lure of Moria is so good that it unfortunately got We Are Not Idle nerfed -- the best fix IMO would be to remove Lure of Moria from the game when played. It's that good. And if it's good with one dwarf deck, it's good with more than one -- like Dain himself it works on all dwarves everywhere, so the more dwarf decks in play the better. Once Dwarrowdelf and the Hobbit saga are out, there's plenty of raw material for multiples.

Rivendell Blade is great, although at this point there aren't a lot of valid targets, mostly just Elladan and Legolas (or out of sphere, Silverlode Archer) -- which are enough, because it's really good. The downsides are obvious -- if the enemy is immune it's worthless, and if it has less than 2 defense you lack full effectiveness. But it's cheap and it's not hero restricted, and when cheaper ranged Silvan allies arrive on the scene that can be handy. One lovely thing about its defense reduction is that it sticks, which is important with multiple decks. So if you have Elladan with a Rivendell Blade in a two-deck fellowship, and the enemy is engaged with the other deck, he can attack the same enemy twice, the first attack with -2 defense and the second attack with -4 defense! Legolas with Unexpected Courage can pull the same trick.

Hail of Stones is a fantastic card. I don't put it in all my tactics decks, but I have put it in my deck and I can tell you it gets used. Yes, it needs multiple spare bodies to take out enemies, but it's not uncommon to use 3 exhaustions (defense, two attackers) to take out even ordinary enemies, and this can eliminate enemies without the hazards of combat. It's common as dirt to reserve characters for possible combat -- and if you're running an Eagles deck in tactics it's great to find a use for Vassal/Guardians that doesn't involve them being discarded or paid. The real issue is saving the card for when it's most useful.

The key to its greatness is that it's not a combat action like many other useful tactics events. That allows you to kill enemies with nasty when-engaged effects *before* they engage, and also to kill newly revealed enemies before the quest resolves. In the next cycle this card is worth including just for Zealous Traitor. But practically every quest has an enemy you'd want to kill in staging. In Road to Rivendell, for example, you can deal with a Warg that just hopped back to staging, using attackers that were ready and waiting to kill it. And there's that annoying Goblin Sniper -- 48 threat, can't be optionally engaged, damages you when enemies come out, and while he can be attacked in staging by ranged characters, his 3 defense makes eliminating him tough. But he's got one hit point, so this card and a spare body can take him out. It's also a fantastic card for non-immune boss fights, since it ignores defense.

Rider of the Mark provides 2-for-3 questing, which is nothing special but (with 1 attack and 2 hp) is a good base if the ability is useful. In one-deck solo, it's useless. In two-deck solo, blind shadow removal isn't typically useful (with a few quest-specific exceptions like wargs, or Smaug in Lonely Mountain), but even in a case like Lonely Mountain where you *really* want to get rid of the shadow card repeatedly, you need Spirit on both decks to keep it going back and forth. Transferring an ally from one deck to another can be situationally useful, but it's typical more useful for attackers/defenders than questing allies. I see this as a sideboard card in the context of the full card pool, but at the point of release there aren't any other 2-for-3 spirit allies that aren't unique, so he can fit easily in the same deck as 3x West Road Traveler, the only more efficient non-unique quester in spirit. Your rating of him seems unduly harsh given his relative efficiency, from a progression POV.

Song of Earendil can be useful to keep a partner deck in secrecy, but since the secrecy window is so narrow until repeatable threat reduction shows up, it would require you to get and play this early. I think the more common case is with repeatable threat reduction and/or Lore Aragorn, which at the point of release doesn't exist yet. But LoAragorn shows up in this cycle, at which point (if he's in a deck with spirit) you can share the wealth of his threat reduction with a partner deck. But that usage won't last long, once Desparate Alliance comes out sharing Aragorn himself becomes a better option, and you'll have to wait for Fastred or SpMerry or Spirit Beregond for Song of Earendil to be useful again.

Bombur is a terrible card unless you're playing a quest where you expect Underground locations to constantly be in staging. That pretty much confines him to multiplayer sideboard territory.

Out of the Wild's ability to remove cards from the quest can be so powerful that it was errata-ed to prevent recurring -- you are showing the non-errataed card, it now goes to the Victory Display instead. That's quite possibly the best errata FFG ever did, because it simultaneously fixed the broken combo while making it *better* for the common case (use in a Victory Display deck). It's a pity they didn't take a similar approach for other combo victims. Still, the VD deck doesn't come online until the Angmar cycle, so at this point it's just a useful card in a secrecy deck, and secrecy decks aren't useful yet. At full price it isn't compelling outside a VD deck.

The End Comes is the most sideboardiest of side board cards. It's only useful in a handful of quests, none of which have been released at this point of the game, and it has an additional condition of a dwarf leaving play -- something that dwarves don't usually do at all without being destroyed, with the lone conditional exception of Spirit Bofur questing successfully for one (and much later, Dwarven Sellsword). So which quests would you be able to predict *in advance* that you might want to shuffle cards back into the encounter deck, badly enough to include this turkey in your deck? One is coming soon in the Hobbit Saga -- while you can "win" the first quest by running out the encounter deck, that's cold comfort if you haven't earned the treasures yet. You may want to replenish the encounter deck until you've got the Key/Purse/Resources to truly win. Later on in the Angmar cycle, there's a super-annoying enemy called the Cursed Dead that pulls all its copies out of the discard pile, nerfing that could be worth The End Comes if you're running Bofur/Sellsword anyway. Dreamchaser has its own annoying undead surger who keeps returning to the top of the encounter deck when killed, forcing a reshuffle if you're running Sellsword (from the same cycle) might be worth it. And that's all I can think of. This would be a *very* niche card without the dwarf requirement, that makes a terrible card vastly more terrible. What were they thinking?

I'm tempted to say leadership is the most enriched sphere, since this pack dramatically enhances leadership by turning a useless leadership hero into a useful one (Elrohir), but I'm no fan of Dunedain Wanderer, Elladan's a fine hero in his own respect, and both Rivendell Blade and Hail of Stones are outstanding cards. End Comes is easily the worst card, an impressive feat in a pack containing Bombur. I'm going with Hail of Stones as the best card.

@Amicus Draconis
Played with Dúnedain Wanderer in progression style (that means within Road to Rivendell ) in Secrecy deck - with 2 heroes ( Glóin + Bifur ). For 2 cost he was very useful ally, the best ally with 2 cost in Exchange for stats (1-2-2-2 + Sentinel + Ranged , cool!). Ofc, Timely Aid + Dúnedain Wanderer works as well.

I agree with Lure of Moria - it's one of the rare cards, where in majority situations you actually don't need it, but you are glad you have it in your hands, in reserve (because you can't know, what encounter deck prepare you for nasty surprise).

Great note about Rivendell Blade vs. "immune enemies". I haven't met such kind of enemies yet (if I remind correctly), but that's absolutely truth Rivendell Blade is short on such enemies.

In Watcher in the Water , Hail of Stones really can be on of the best events, because 2/3 Tentacle enemies own so troublesome Forced effect, that attacking them in classic way can be devastating for your army. Alas, here Longbeard Orc-Slayer won't help you with his otherwise useful ability - Tentacles are not Orcs , they surely (b)eat Orcs .:D

Interesting - I have always preferred Secret Paths before Bombur .:)

On Out of the Wild I have a bit different view - I think it worth for even its 3 cost, because the effect is great. But I definitely understand your view.:)

Thanks for your own chosen TOP CARD / SHEEP CARD / MOST ENRICHED SPHERE ! I was also thinking about Tactic sphere, where btw appears good hero - but we know, what he needs and how he works. Standalone he can't do nothing useful. And Hail of Stones in my eyes isn't a good card, but it's because of my general reluctance to cards with effect " exhaust X characters to do Y ".

@dalestephenson
Yep, playing Elladan + Elrohir in two different decks needs attachments adding Ranged + Sentinel keywords. Dúnedain Cache , Dúnedain Signal , Rivendell Bow , eventually Arwen Undómiel can solve this deficiency, the options are available. Surely, even other heroes would utilize Sentinel and Ranged keywords, thus improving own flexibility.

As I have already written to Amicus, played with Dúnedain Wanderer in progression style (that means within Road to Rivendell ) in Secrecy deck - with 2 heroes ( Glóin + Bifur ). For 2 cost he was very useful ally, the best ally with 2 cost in Exchange for stats (1-2-2-2 + Sentinel + Ranged , cool!). Ofc, Timely Aid + Dúnedain Wanderer works as well.

Exactly. Lure of Moria outperforms We Do Not Sleep in all aspects, difference between them is flagrant, like between Grim Resolve and We Do Not Sleep (however, these events share same cost).

Very surprised by your evaluation of Hail of Stones , thanks for your opinion.:) As I said to Amicus, in my eyes isn't a good card, but it's because of my general reluctance to cards with effect " exhaust X characters to do Y ". Actually, within every round I use almost every character to some action (questing/defending/attacking/using ability), thus no opportunity to let some character unused and ready for Hail of Stones.

Thanks for the point at Out of the Wild and its errata, but I just didn't understand well, what do you mean by this: "That's quite possibly the best errata FFG ever did, because it simultaneously fixed the broken combo while making it *better* for the common case (use in a Victory Display deck)." What's broken combo here (and with what)?

The End Comes perfectly illustrates the variety as for usefulness of different cards: every card cannot be the gem. Some cards are amazing, some cards are rubbish, some cards are average and some cards are useful only in some situations. We can talk about such cards and discuss their usefulness, which can be evident ( The End Comes and on the other side Steward of Gondor ), or less evident (here for example Hail of Stones :), or Shadow of the Past ).

I think the combo was with other cards that can recycle events from the discard pile, allowing you to remove almost all the encounter deck. Now Out of the wild goes in victory display, thus you can play each copy one and only one time (and it adds 2 cards in the VD, not just one).

@Silblade,

Yes, it's possible to give sentinel/ranged to Elrohir/Elladan, and any dedicated multiplayer combat deck is going to want to have that capability if it doesn't start with it. Arwen Undomiel in particular is an ally *any* heroic defender wants on the table if at all possible. But the Elrohir/Elladan combo is weaker if they start in separate decks, because they can't work together *until* those attachments come out, and I'd much rather be looking for Dunedain Mark and Dunedain Warning than Dunedain Cache (overpriced) and Dunedain Signal. Also, if you don't know whether Elrohir or Elladan is going to be able to work across the table first, you have to make Elrohir's deck capable of killing and Elladan's capable of defending. Much more efficient to just make a dedicated combat deck with both in it. Solo's more straightforward as the third is a quester, most commonly Arwen in the full pool for both theme and synergy with the twins' resource needs.

Yes, Dunedain Wanderer is worth having in a two-hero secrecy deck in hopes of getting for two resources -- and to help justify the fact that you're playing a secrecy deck in the first place at this point in the card pool even though there's only one really good secrecy decks. I agree that the only place this card is worth having is in a secrecy deck -- and that's exactly why it's a terrible card! Consider your own Gloin/Bifur deck. You have a maximum of five turns to play Dunedain Wanderer, barring threat reduction, less if the encounter deck doesn't cooperate. You can't possibly play it before turn two, and then it takes both of your resources to play something that isn't remotely a game changer -- it's just a 1-wp/2-att body with no tribal synergy (the sentinel/ranged does come in handy to help out the actual competent deck covering for the two-hero deck's weakness. Well, the ranged part, anyway. 2/2 defense isn't very useful). You're definitely not going to mulligan for this turkey, not with Timely Aid and Resourceful in your deck. And if you play Timely Aid, you're hoping that it'll snag Haldir or Faramir, not this card.

On Hail of Stones, I find I *routinely* have unexhausted characters after staging -- specifically those characters reserved to attack and defend. (Later in the card pool, if I'm running tactics I also have Honour Guard(s) unexhausted at this point). I suspect you do too. And the longer the quest goes on, the more such characters I typically have. An enemy killed in staging with Hail of Stones is an enemy who doesn't need to be defended/attacked. I'll also happily redirect my attackers even with an engaged enemy, if there's someone newly revealed that I really don't like.

While I like nuking them after staging to save threat, another nice Hail-point is immediately after clearing a stage, in the case where the new quest stage puts out enemies.

As Miceldars said, the broken combo was recursion of Out of the Wild -- event recursion is behind practically every broken combo, and this one could potentially remove all cards from the encounter deck. The errata not only preserved the common case, but made its synergy with Keen As Lances stronger. With that said, I don't think OotW is terribly useful at this point, because secrecy decks are so bad and 3-lore is an expensive gamble that you'll find something worth yanking. Though if there's one quest that's true of, it would be Road to Rivendell, where the ability to cancel Sleeping Sentry trumps all else.

It's true that every card can't be the gem, and I personally feel that staples (cards that are good value in any deck of the sphere against any quest) should be confined to the core set. There's room for situational sideboard cards, like Power of Orthanc -- only useful in quests with conditions. There's room for cards that are useful only in conjuction with certain traits, like Dwarrowdelf Axe. But it's a complete waste of cardboard to combine a situational sideboard with a severe deck restriction (dwarf leaves play). The End Comes is so bad that it'd be more useful as a proxy for extra copies of Brok Ironfist.

15 minutes ago, dalestephenson said:

Though if there's one quest that's true of, it would be Road to Rivendell, where the ability to cancel Sleeping Sentry trumps all else.

When I finally picked this cycle early last year I did a semi-progression play through, trying to use as many of the (non-coaster) cards from the same pack to play through the quest. It was such a good feeling to fire off Out of the Wild blind and snag sleeping sentry.

Also 🤣

16 minutes ago, dalestephenson said:

The End Comes is so bad that it'd be more useful as a proxy for extra copies of Brok Ironfist.

@dalestephenson
I fully understand that Elrohir + Elladan can work, if they are together at one player's side - one defender + one attacker + one quester remains. The roles are firmly given within one deck. On the other hand, I think it doesn't change anything in multiplayer games - for them I would strongly recommend attachments adding Sentinel + Ranged keywords. Dúnedain Cache is, as you said, overpriced, so Rivendell Bow is far better option for Elladan. Their true strength arises from ability to cover whole board, not only their own engagement area.

I would compare Dúnedain Wanderer to Haldir of Lórien , who has almost same stats, but costs 4. That's 2 more resources than Dúnedain Wanderer in Secrecy mode. However, in non-Secrecy mode Dúnedain Wanderer doesn't worth for 5 cost, not with 1-2-2-2. As for Secrecy decks, I still think its playable with 2 heroes and in progression style, even in this moment, when Timely Aid , Dúnedain Wanderer , Out of the Wild and Needful to Know are out. I have played with Secrecy deck with 2 heroes until Flame and Shadow , where the missing hero was too considerable.

Yeah, you are right that many characters stay unexhausted after staging - because you save them for defending/attacking duties. Thus Hail of Stones can profit in this moment at most and remove some bothersome enemy from the staging area, just before it could engage you. But I'm experiencing that I must cope with more than one enemy. Some you can afford to not defend them, some of them you must defend to protect heroes. In mid- and late game, its highly probable you will face more enemies at once, thus you haven't right time for using Hail of Stones. Alas, in Dwarrowdelf cycle you meet many enemies, Orcs and Tentacles are quite common species. From my point of view, for playing of Hail of Stones I can't find a right time without not endangering heroes.:(

I ask, which cards can return Out of the Wild back to the game? I know only Will of the West, which could do it.

8 minutes ago, Silblade said:

I ask, which cards can return Out of the Wild back to the game? I know only Will of the West, which could do it.

The Scroll of Isildur is the relevant one here, I believe, using the Erebor Hammersmith to get it back out of the discard pile (and some incredible amounts of card draw to draw through the deck).

Here's a fellowship that could (at the time) play any event an infinite number of times:

https://ringsdb.com/fellowship/view/4619/95-token-black-gate-or-beat-any-other-quest-on-turn-1

But a card like Out of the Wild can be plenty powerful if played nine times during the quest, which is what you would do if you have three copies, three Scroll of Isildur to recur them, and draw through your deck, all of which can be done easily enough in the right deck. Throw in Will of the West to do it again. If you reach the end of the deck you can also play any event once per turn by using Elvenking to recur Galadhrim Weaver. Ered Nimrais Prospector is another way to grab a card out of the discard, but dwarves aren't recurred as easily as Silvans. (Broken combos manage it with the Hammersmith, of course.)

For Elrohir/Elladan, I fully agree that you want them to get ranged/sentinel for covering in multi-player, I'm just saying you don't want to make that the top priority when they start at only 3 defense and 3 attack. I've tried them in separate decks and the same deck (dedicated combat) in otherwise similar fellowships, and it went much better when they started together.

Haldir's stats are reasonably close to Dunedain Wanderer, but (aside from being cheaper), 2 willpower makes him more flexible than DW's 1 willpower, and 2/3 *in Lore* gives him much greater defensive potential than DW's 2/2 in Leadership. It's also obviously easier to come up with four lore resources with three heroes than five leadership resources with two heroes. But DW's big problem isn't just unaffordability out of secrecy, it's also that he's not that special *in* secrecy. He's good value at 2, but he's not special or game-changing. The secrecy allies that come out in Ringmaker are much better in this respect, since the two that cost 1 both have enters-play abilities and the vanilla ally is free.

I appreciate that you can beat most of the Dwarrowdelf quests while covering for a two-hero secrecy deck, but let's take a step back and look at the target audience for detailed card reviews in a progression context -- new players playing progression. Am I incorrect? I think it's a disservice to such players to suggest they play two-hero secrecy decks, because at this point of the game any two-hero secrecy deck immediately becomes better by adding a third hero instead -- the secrecy cards just aren't powerful enough to compensate for the intentional weakening of your board state. Playing two-handed you can cover that weakness with a strong partner deck, but should new players be encouraged to do that? They certainly should not bring a two-hero deck to one-deck solo or pickup multiplayer. If you're going to make the case that Dunedain Wanderer is a useful card in a two-hero secrecy deck, you should at least make clear that two-hero decks are inherently weaker at this point in the game. You only have to wait a few more packs before the three-hero secrecy deck becomes possible with SpGlorfindel (though DW is a terrible card in *that* secrecy deck, too).

On Hail of Stones, I think it's reasonable to be wary of a card that not only wants character exhaustion, but *multiple* character exhaustion. But in your evaluation you said you never actually ever put in any of your decks, so your evaluation is theoretical. I put it in my TaGimli/Thalin/SpEowyn deck and it was still in it cycles later -- it got used, and when it got used it was absolutely worth the exhaustion. Killing an enemy -- any enemy -- typically costs a minimum of two exhaustions, one defending and one attacking, so killing a 2-hp enemy with Hail is just the usual cost, minus the risk that comes with defending. I wouldn't waste this event on an ordinary 2-hp enemy, I want a higher value target. (Thalin + Gondorian Spearman is the correct solution to 2-hp swarmers....) . But exhausting two characters to defend/destroy a 2 hp enemy is *normal*, exhausting three characters to defend/destroy a 3 hp enemy is *normal*, and exhausting six characters to defend/destroy a 6 hp boss enemy in one turn is also normal -- if you have the bodies to engage and destroy a new enemy, you usually have enough bodies to fire off Hail of Stones. The question for me isn't usually whether I can spare the exhaustions, it's whether the new enemy is worth using Hail of Stones on.

It's true that sometimes you'll already have enough engaged enemies that must be defended against that you can't spare the bodies to eliminate a new enemy. In that case, there's two possible outcomes -- the new enemy is coming for you and you're in trouble, or the new enemy is the obnoxious stay-in-staging type, and he'll stick around until you *can* spare the bodies.

The example you used from Road to Rivendell hits one of the attractive targets because of the when-engaged effect, but is weakened by the presence of Ambush (a keyword that works directly against this event). As such it makes it looks like all the stars need to align for the event to be any good. But there are other enemies in the quest that are viable targets:

Goblin Archer -- can't be optionally engaged, high engagement cost, and deals damage every time an enemy is revealed. He can be attacked with staging, but with 3 defense you need 4 ranged attack to take him out, anything less is worthless. 1 hp means 1 exhaustion. Well worth it.

Crebain/Turbulent Waters -- Normally you engage this enemy optionally (if you're below 35), since with 0 attack and 0 defense combat is *much* easier way to deal with him than exhausting three characters. But if you didn't clear Turbulent Waters, or want to travel to it for threat reasons, you can't afford to leave Crebain in the staging area where encounter cards can't be cancelled. Sleeping Sentry can lose you the game.

Mountain Warg -- this is usually just out of frustration for me -- when he pops back into staging yet again because of his no-effect shadow, and I have a bunch of attackers standing around that were *going* to kill the Warg, it can be terribly satisfying to just take it out with stones.

Black Uruk -- this is a pure efficiency tactic. With 3/3/2 stats it only takes two exhaustions to take him out with Hail, while it can take several attackers to get past his defense. If you don't have Thalin/Gondorian Spearman, this is a case where you can *save* exhaustions by using the event.

Chieftain of the Pit -- he attacks for 8 on the turn he comes out, so even if you have a defender and enough attackers to take him out (2/4), using the event will save that defender for another day.

And this isn't even a particularly good quest for the event -- indeed, because of the Ambush keyword it's one of the *worst* quests for the event. The very next quest is littered with those obnoxious tentacles *and* has a non-immune boss. Once you get 5 progress on the second stage, you can win the quest instantly in the planning stage with just six allies -- or with Gandalf and just one extra ally.

The last sentence is misleading: The Watcher has 9 hitpoints, you do not need 5 progress to kill it (though you need them to win) and Hail of Stones can be played in any action window.

Right, you can damage/destroy Watcher before 5 progress occurrs, but Hail of Stones will only "win instantly" if you already have the 5 progress needed to clear stage two. You can play Hail of Stones in any action window, but Planning is likely to be the phase where the most unexhausted characters are available. Mustering up nine characters to exhaust immediately after the quest resolves will be more difficult (though if the Watcher is already damaged, quite possible). During a quest it's difficult for anything but a swarm to muster enough bodies to take out a high-HP enemy in staging, but taking it out to *end* the quest is much easier, since you don't need to reserve anyone for anything; it's the tactics equivalent of an all-out questing push. A lot of later quests will spoil the fun with immune bosses, but certainly not all.

@dalestephenson
I won't argue with you that 3-heroes deck are better than 2-heroes deck. They are - any 3-hero deck is better than 2-hero deck, I agree. To play Secrecy (and utilize new cards) you have 4 choices:
1) buy expansions ( The Black Riders at most I think?) with low-starting-threat Hobbits .
2) wait for Spirit Glorfindel . With him you are able to get together group with 19 starting threat. That means you have 2 rounds for using cards for secrecy cost (thus it's a big pressure on you to find and play cards with reducing threat effects).
3) go with 3-heroes deck with as lowest starting threat as possible and include many cards with reducing threat effect. You will start with over 20 threat in any case.
4) start with 2 heroes.

To begin with Secrecy deck I think choices 2 and 4 are the most comfortable. Question is, if 4 type of cards with Secrecy are enough to attempt to build Secrecy deck (DW + TA + OutW + NtK). I think it's possible, although not ideal. But, I did it repeatedly in progression mode.:)

Well, I tried Hail of Stones several times in decks - but I had never used it in practice. When I had it in hands, it was the first target I was willing to discard due to some effect ( Éowyn's ability, Protector of Lórien etc.). Not intentionally - the situation was never in that way Hail of Stones could be well utilized. So in practice I have never used Hail of Stones, though I tried it. My thoughts from this card is the mix of theory and my own feelings.:)

To eliminate enemies like Goblin Archer , Black Uruk , Goblin Swordsman etc. I use Thalin with Gondorian Spearman , that's my favourite strategy. Maybe bcause of this combo I hadn't need for using Hail of Stones. Though Hail of Stones can be the part of this combo.;)

Thalin + Gondorian Spearman is a fantastic combo for Dwarrowdelf and its glut of 2-hp enemies. When I played through with TaGimli/SpEowyn/Thalin I ran 3x Gondorian Spearman to go with my Eagles. Of course, that also meant that I often had unexhausted bodies after staging, since I didn't want to chump my Spearmen, and both Winged Guardian and Gondorian Spearman are useless as attackers. Thalin does mean that Goblin Archer never becomes an annoyance, but he does make it easier to knock off heftier foes with Hail of Stones -- Gandalf makes it a lot easier.

I found that I rarely tossed cards to SpEowyn -- at that point Gandalf is the only card draw option in a Tactics/Spirit deck, so cards are precious, I only sacrificed a precious card if necessary to clear a location or stage. Protector of Lorien dropped out of my Leadership/Lore deck before I played Dwarrowdelf since Denethor + Dunedain Warning + A Burning Brand was my defensive strategy and cards were still too precious to me to use for questing. That doesn't make Protector of Lorien a bad card, just a bad fit for my particular deck and my particular playstyle. I hate tossing cards unless I'm running Elven-light, Caldara, or Noldor.

There's nothing wrong with building weaker decks just to try out new cards. There's also nothing wrong with intentionally playing weaker decks. Since it's not a competitive game, it's not at all important to run the most powerful and most efficient combinations possible. With that said, when rating cards for their utility on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, a card that is *only* useful in an intentionally weak deck -- and honestly, isn't very good at all in *that* deck -- deserves a poor rating.

Totally, Thalin and Gondorian Spearman works togetger well. Sometimes I add Swift Strike, so some troublesome enemies with up to 4 HP can be eliminated earlier than you must deal with them. But, not always such combo can happen, not with 1-2 Core sets.

Surprised, I often use Éowyn's ability for increasing Willpower, if anything goes "wrong". With Protector of Lórien it was rather example than experience from practice - I also let this attachment aside with Khazad-Dum incoming. For tossing cards, best is to prepare your deck for this strategy, altough I think Éowyn doesn't explicitly need that. But cards in future, like Watcher in the Bruinen or Trollshaw Scout needs the special approach to work well. I am willing to make such strategy for them, but I haven't tried it yet for myself.

Agree, decks can look differently, everyone can find own "champion", or just to try non-standard decks. Actually, game will tell you, how quality deck you made and different scenarios can give you a hint, where you have the weakness.

Understood what you indicated (for Dúnedain Wanderer ), though I evaluated him quite high because of my own very good experience with him. For me, it's the case of good card in certain decks (here Secrecy), despite in other decks it doesn't worth it. The usefulness of any card I subjecitvely judge according to my own experience and thoughts, but of course I pay attention to the reference from other players, who can give me a hint about usefulness of some card. In Road to Rivendell , the nice example is Song of Eärendil , which I couldn't appreciate sufficiently until I had read some feedback from other players…. there I have discovered possible combos and opportunities, how to play with this card. Thus, I have realized the usefulness of this card and adjust the original evaluation I would have to give.

If playing SpEowyn in a solo deck, you're limited to a 1 wp boost. If something goes wrong and I would take threat, I only toss a card to reduce the threat gain by one only if I'm worried about eventually threating out, or there's some quest-related punishment for questing unsuccessfully and I'm one off. Otherwise I'd rather have the card. If I'm one away from clearing a location and there's a location I want to travel to, I'd definitely toss a card for that.

SpEowyn's ability obviously has more potential with more decks at the table. I've never played 4-player myself, but when I played 3-player with an SpEowyn deck at the table I discarded much more often than I had in solo or two-deck play.

I think we've beaten the value of the early two-hero secrecy deck to death, but go back for a moment to the 4 options you listed for a beginner's first secrecy deck: three-hero with hobbits (Black Riders needed), three-hero with SpGlorfindel (Foundations of Stone needed), three low-threat heroes and hope for threat reduction (add Elrond's Counsel to SpGlorfindel), and two-hero. Because of his cost and lack of immediate impact, Dunedain Wanderer fits comfortably in only one of those decks, the two-hero deck. And even there, it needs to be an early deck -- by the time there are enough cards for a decent two-hero solo deck, you have more options. There are 41 different creators that have published Strider/Timely Aid/Resourceful decks, and just 11 different creators that have published Strider/Dunedain Wanderer decks. It's a marginal card *even in a two-hero deck*. You're one of two creators that published a Gloin/Bifur support deck for pre-Strider two-handed play, and in both of Beorn's versions DW doesn't make the cut!