Just finishing playing this game with me and g/f. We played it "together", just playing the solo game with the Spirit Deck.

We thought we had the game sewn up. Gandalf had been out once and was in the discard pile. We had both of the cards in hand that allowed us to get an ally back from the discard pile and put it into play. We were on stage 3, Ungoliants Spawn had just come out, so we thought we were sorted. We got 5 damage on Ungoliants Spawn, and then the treachery card came out that meant we had to discard all event cards!

We still won, but it was a bit tougher.

Q1: Forest Spider. It gets +1 Attack in the round that it engages a player. We played it that if WE chose to engage IT, it did not get the +1.

Q2: Because of the Trackers, we were able to place progress markers on locations still in the staging area. When these had enough on, we discarded them. Right?

Q3: Not really a question, but getting Gandalf back 3 times (or what we were going to do) seemed a bit good.

Paul Grogan said:

Q1. The Spider gets the +1, no matter who engages who. P.16 of rulebook

Q2. Right

Q3. Well...you didn´t get him three times finally, did you? ;-)

Paul Grogan said:

Paul Grogan said:

1. unfortunately it states in the engagement section of the rule book, when engaged you engage the monster and the monster engages use, regardless of who initialises the engagement, so the spider gets +1 even if you optionally engage the spider.

2. Yes, in my book. Although there have been posts that are suggesting you still have to travel to the location to remove it from the board, one for the FAQ I guess, but I've been playing the same as you for now.

3. Gandalf is a good card, so deck building tactics that allow multiple uses of him are entirely viable i would have thought. Don't think it is a game breaker though...just yet. Gandalf and sneak attack is a very powerful combo (see seperate thread discussion on that), as was your tactic, but as you found out, the game has ways of foiling your plans..

Thanks for the quick replies, just found the encounter section on p.16 and it is clear.

We were also not 100% sure about Dunhere. We played it that he can attack a creature in the staging area. So this means that creature is not engaged, meaning it doesnt attack first.

So, we had a creature in the staging area with 2 shield icons. Each turn, Dunhere would wander off, deal 1 damage to it and come back safely.

Paul Grogan said:

Yes, that sounds right for Dunhere. He is particularly good at dealing with Goblin Snipers in Journey Down the Anduin.

I think he would really shine in a Spirit/Tactics deck. Eowyn, Dunhere, and Thalin would be good. Slap a Blade of Gondolin and a Dwarven Axe on Dunhere and suddenly you have a 4 attack (5 vs orc) character that gives you a success token when he kills something in the staging area. Keep your threat down with Spirit and quest with Eowyn and Thalin and you might never have to defend. Thalin will weaken all the enemies you plan on having Dunhere kill. (You also only start with 26 threat)