Hi,

i've enjoyed at few matches now and all of them as Sauron. A friend of mine wich i always played with during those matches. Likes to choose the Dwarf. Main reason, high STR and high damage combat cards. Almost all of my monsters are defeated within 2 cards from him (Sweep & Reckless) and most of the time i can't really counter those cards with my combat hand.

The problem is that he now uses these combats to gain more cards. And this is why im posting my question.

an example:

His round begins, he draws his hand cards (offcourse technically in the end of Saurons turn.)

No rest

No ambush

Travels 1 space and goes into combat.

He then puts his strengt into fortitude in order to draw more cards

So he gains 5 or 8 card (i thought his STR was 3 or 4 basic)

Defeats my monster with 1 or 2 cards (in 90% off the battles he fights)

And moves on with his drawn cards and the unused cards from combat.

To get down to my question:

When a hero enters a battle does he":

a. Draw cards equal to his FOR and or AGI (what the hero chooses) combines that stack with his hand stack and goes into combat with it.

After wich the inevetable happens that he defeats my minion and now has more cards to move around the board.

Or what i'm thinking of when i'm reading the rulebook (but it does not specify in my opinion)

b. Draw cards equal to his FOR and or AGI (what the hero chooses) and does NOT combine that stack with his hand. and goes to battle with his drawn combat stack/cards.

To clarify:

When a hero goes in combat. He draws cards from his life pool and uses the drawn cards for combat. putting aside the cards he had in his hand before the combat started.

At the combat resolution he then places the combat cards played and the combat cards in his hand, wich are named the combat stack by the game. Into his rest pool and then moves on with the hand he had before combat.

This is because especially the dwarf but i'm guessing the other heroes to can gather a lot of cards in their hand that way and move around the bord in 1 turn like crazy.

and i know of atleast 1 training card that says: deal damage equal to the number of cards in your combat stack. this killed one of my minions in 2 combat turns :-(

Sorry for the long story but i like to give the whole information when im asking a question. Is there anyone who can clarify my situation for me?

Ginko said:

Against Thalin, forget about monsters, dump all the influence you can on his paths. With Wisdom 1, all you need is 2 influence and you get to draw Peril cards. Thalin will be up to 5+ Corruption in no time.

Ginko said:

I think things would be much different if you guys played by the rules . Let's use Thalin here. He has For 5, Str 7, Agi 2, Wis 1. In your example, he moved once, so start of combat, he has 4 cards left (as he drew 5 cards during the Hero Draw Step).

Now, he gets to use his Agility to either add to Str or draw cards. Since he already has Str 7, probably wants more cards, so Agi 2 = 2 cards (other options are 1 card and +1 Str or +2 Str). Thalin has 5 cards, Str 7. Don't know where you got the idea that he would draw according to his Fortitude during combat. Only the monster draws according to its Fortitude, but that's because it has no cards in "hand" previously, unlike the Hero.

Ginko said:

Cards in hand ARE NOT in the combat stack. Only cards played count, so on the first turn, that card would do no damage, since there are 0 cards in the combat stack.

"All cards that each combatant plays during
combat must remain in front of him in a pile known as his
“combat stack.” The purpose of each combatant’s stack is
to keep track of how much strength he has spent, as well as
which cards he played during the previous combat rounds." (p. 29)

Note that there isn't even a mention of the word hand in that description, so again, don't know where you got the idea that cards in hand = combat stack.

LOL!

we thought the battle began bij drawing cards as Sauron AND as a hero...... but this is something else

i saw the heros become more powerful after each monster token they defeated so i strarted trying to find the definition for the combat stack.

But you're right. just read the preperation steps again and it does not say that the hero needs to draw his FOR + AGI but only his AGI if he chooses...

I just explained it to my friend and now he's complaining that i'm getting overpowered..... Lol Sauron likes this

alrighty... that helped us alot...(atleast me) we tend to make assumptions from the rules like with the combat step. Our assumption was that since Sauro has to draw the hero also draws his FOR.

OK, thnx for the quick awnser..