The big FAQ thread is awesome, but I want to make sure FFG knows which questions are not answered in the official FAQ in the hope that we can get an updated version. Based on my maintenance of the PDF version of an unofficial FAQ and card reference (BTW, you think they would have thought to contact me on this topic), here is what I'm still not sure about:

1) Doomed keyword takes place after Thalin's ability but before any other potential player "Response" triggers?

2) Surge keyword takes place after any potential "Response" triggers?

3) Want to confirm: When Revealed takes place before any potential "Response" triggers?

4) Once and for all: Legolas (and Blade of Gondolin) will put tokens on the Location because it is a buffer, or will it go on the Quest card because of the golden rule?

5) When Revealed and Surge keywords take place after Thalin's potential to kill an enemy, but what about Doomed?

6) Can Eleanor's ability be used during game setup? I think so.

7) Unexpected Courage: could this be used to allow Dunhere or a Ranged character to attack the same enemy twice as long as that enemy is not engaged with you? Rules say you can only attack each enemy you are engaged with once per turn. This is probably a loophole, but a rules lawyer would allow you to attack another enemy twice in the same turn this way, but this might not have been the intent.

8) Caught in a Web: if you have two attached to the same hero, do they need to pay 4 to ready or only 2?

9) Goblin Sniper: If the only two enemies in the staging area are both Goblin Snipers, can you not engage either of them?

10) Need to clarify turn sequence chart and action windows

11) Dungeon Jailor: if you return a guarded objective card, what happen to the guard, remains in the staging area? What about this objective card coming out later as a shadow card and then being discarded, do the players have to wait until the whole encounter deck is reshuffled and then it comes out again (hopefully not as a shadow card)?

12) Nazgul of Dol Guldur: if the shadow card has no shadow text, does this count as "shadow effect resolves" or not?

13) Tower Gate: do the "Orc Guards" get discarded into the player's discard pile when defeated (assumption is yes)?

14) Dungeon Torch: want to confirm that threat increases by a total of 3 each round.

15) Necromancer's Tower & Through the Caverns: Sneak Attack and Stand and Fight could put additional allies into play still, correct?

Good luck. It is extremely disappointing to see that the official FAQ didnt address half of the FAQ appearing on these forums or BGG. The player base is here, posting on these forums. The questions are here. So, when they were producing the FAQ, they should have looked here, seen all the questions, and answered them.

They also seem to be pretty much ignoring any emails sent to them with "We've been asking this on the forums since day 1 and you didnt answer it in the FAQ, so people are still arguing about it. Please tell us the ruling".

We'll go back to having to interpret certain rules our own way.

Another unanswered question:

If Strength of Will is used to complete Tower Gate, does the Forced event on Tower Gate still occur? Why is this a Forced event and not a Travel event?

kirkbauer said:

Except it is covered in the official FAQ

Simultaneous Effect Timing
If two or more conflicting effects would occur simultaneously, the first player decides the order in which the effects resolve.

Since both try and resolve at the same time (after you travel to the location) then the first player decides on the order. This should mean Tower Gate is discarded before the Orc Guards are placed.

xris said:

Since Forced effects "initiate and resolve immediately, whenever their specified prerequisite occurs" I would say that they trigger before you get a chance to play Responses. This would mean that the effects are not simultaneous. This might be incorrect but I like to play dangerously.

Exactly why I think this is not clear, even with the FAQ...

efidm said:

Since Forced effects "initiate and resolve immediately, whenever their specified prerequisite occurs" I would say that they trigger before you get a chance to play Responses. This would mean that the effects are not simultaneous. This might be incorrect but I like to play dangerously.

<edit> Sorry, screwed up the above fomatting...</edit>

What you are saying here is that Forced Effects have priority over Responses, which might well make sense but it is not a view that is supported by the Rules / Official FAQ.

Both Forced Effects and Responses are Effects. Please read page 23 of the rules "Card Effects".

There are several kinds of card effects in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. On the hero and player cards, card effects fall into one of 5 categories: constant effects, actions, responses, forced effects, and keywords. On the cards found in the quest and encounter decks, card effects fall into one of 6 categories: constant effects, forced effects, when revealed effects, shadow effects, travel effects, and keywords.

The FAQ tells us how to deal with Simultaneous Effects, not how to deal with simultaneous Forced Effects or simultaneous Responses but how to deal with simultaneous Effects. The Forced effect on Tower Gate and the Response on Strength of Will are both Effects that occur at the same time (after you travel to the Tower Gate location), therefore the FAQ tell us how to deal with them

xris said:

It is with much broken pride that I am reversing my position. Your argument about card effects is strong and I don't think I can break it down. Unless the FAQ changes, I will bow to your argument.

Another one: it is not clear if Wolf Rider attacks and then retreats, or if you get a chance to attack him before he returns to the top of the encounter deck...

kirkbauer said:

Since it says he goes to the top of the deck "after combat", and combat is the name of a phase, I would say the ability triggers at the end of the combat phase, giving you the possibility to attack. Since it also is a shadow card, by definition, that would be consistent with other shadow cards. But do also note that he does NOT engage you, at least it doesn´t say so.

Felix said:

This raises more questions.

Is Wolf Rider considered a Shadow card still? Is it a Shadow card or is it now considered a "normal" enemy? For example, can we play "Forest Snare", "Feint", "Quick Strike", etc.?

From page 20 of the rules

Shadow Cards Leaving Play Shadow cards remain on the enemy to which they were dealt throughout the combat phase. If that enemy leaves play, discard its shadow card from play. At the end of the combat phase, discard all shadow cards that were dealt this round.

If Wolf Rider is still considered a Shadow card, then could you defeat the enemy it is was originally dealt on to remove Wolf Rider from play? This would mean it attacks you (during Resolving Enemy Attacks) but you do not get to attack it (during Attacking Enemies) if you happen to defeat the original enemy before you target Wolf Rider.

If we look at the Shadow text on Wolf Rider, it gets resolved during Step 3 Resolve shadow effect of Resolving Enemy Attacks.

"Wolf Rider attacks the defending player" - this implies that it interrupts the current flow of the Combat phase and adds a few new steps in the proceedings. It might help if we knew if it was still considered a Shadow card at this point or has it now become a normal enemy.

"That player may declare 1 character as a defender" - this is the first of the new steps, we now perform Step 2 Declare defender, which interrupts the attack on the character that was defending before Wolf Rider was revealed as the Shadow card.

"Deal Wolf Rider is own Shadow card" - We now go back to the start of the Combat phase and deal a new Shadow card, not that it makes much difference but it seems odd that a defender was declared before the new Shadow card was dealt. I now assume that Wolf Rider performs Step 3 Resolve shadow effect and then Step 4 Determine combat damage, before we go back to the original attack. This means we cannot choose to delay the attack of Wolf Rider.

"After combat, return Wolf Rider to the top of the encounter deck" - Since we had to interrupt the Combat phase to deal with this Shadow Wolf Rider, it could well mean that once combat has finished (for the interrupt) Wolf Rider is returned that instant. But if we don't take that view there are still other interpretations that could be inferred, for example it might mean that Wolf Rider is returned to the top of the encounter deck even if it was defeated and returned to the discard pile!

I came across a few questions last night in my first attempt at Quest 3. I don't know if these have already been addressed.

There is a condition card that attaches to the top of your deck. It says to discard it next time you should draw a card. There is then a card that causes the top card of your deck to be placed face down as a 1/1/1 enemy. How do these interact? I am not DRAWING a card, as the word "draw" isn't used and the card does not go to my hand. Do I discard it? Do I use that card as the face down enemy? Do I take the next card and use it as the enemy?

Also, regarding the face down enemy, if I am eliminated and a face down enemy is engaged with me, does that enemy go to the staging area? As far as I remember, it doesn't have threat, so I don't know how engagement would work with it.

Also, regarding the condition, is there a limit on how many conditions one character can have? Particularly how many of the same condition? I can't seem to find condition rules in the rule book. We had two of the "pay 2 to restore this character" condition come up and just attached both to the same guy. If that is a legal choice, I wonder then if you would need to pay 4 to restore him.

And objective cards... if one gets shuffled back in, how does it return to the staging area? Please tell me if revealed as shadow they are put in the staging area. Otherwise, you could theoretically never have the opportunity to claim the objective if luck of the draw is against you.

Adam said:

Can I suggest you start off by having a read of the new FAQ as that does resolve a number of your questions

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game FAQ v1.1

News Item, An Updated FAQ is Available

Adam said:

You need to take note of the wording here. Iron Shackles (Core 105) states "The next time a player would draw 1 card...", while Tower Gate (Core 107) states "each player places the top card of his deck..."

So, it is as you say, you are not drawing a card with Tower Gate. When you place the top card of your deck, the When Revealed card effect from Iron Shackles is not triggered.

Adam said:

No, the face down card returns to your discard pile. See Page 25, Control and Ownership. "A player “owns” his heroes and the cards that he has chosen for the player deck he is playing. A player “controls” all cards that he owns, unless another player or the encounter deck takes control of the card through a game effect. Any time a card leaves play, it reverts to its owner’s hand, deck, or discard pile".

The Encounter deck took control of one of your cards (due to Tower Gate), once the Orc Guard is discarded then it returns to your discard pile.

Adam said:

Why should there be a limit? "Condition" is just a trait and there are no limitations on the number of traits. From page 8 of the rules.

"Traits: Text designators that, while carrying no rules in themselves, may be affected by other cards in play."

It may be that the Condition is on an Attachment card in which case the usual "Restricted" keyword (see page 24) applies as would it being "Unique" (see page 8). Currently none of the existing cards Condition cards from the Core set are either Restricted or Unique.

As for your specific question on Conditions, the FAQ answers them.

Adam said:

Currently, I believe, there is only one way the existing Condition cards (Core 108-110) can be shuffled back into the Encounter deck and that is by way of Dungeon Jailor (Core 101).

Here's a clue to the answer... if you can, make sure you never let these Condition cards get shuffled back into the encounter deck!

If the Condition card is later turned up as a Shadow card then it stays as a Shadow card and gets discarded into the discard pile after the end of the Combat Phase (as per page 20, Shadow Cards Leaving Play). There is no exception due to the fact it is a Condition card. You have to wait (and wait, and wait) until it is turned up as a normal Encounter and not as a Shadow!

Thanks. I must have missed any answers in the FAQ, though admittedly I just glanced through it after reading the very confusing section on attacking multiple times. I'm still unclear on the Iron Shackles vs. Tower Gate situation though. Is Iron Shackles considered the top card of my deck? I'm not drawing, so I know I don't discard it by your clarification, but I'm not sure if it's considered part of the deck for purposes of this effect. Either I need to use it or the card under it as the "guard."

Adam said:

I still haven't got my head round 1.11 in the FAQ I understand the example but the explanation seems to contradict itself somehow. Need to spend more time to understand what they are trying to say, which for a FAQ is not good.

Adam said:

I do not consider Iron Shackles to be attached to the top card specifically, it is an Attachment attached to the deck, not a card. It might be attached to the top of the deck but the key word for me is deck, not card. I would place Iron Shackles face up on top of my deck to remind me it's there so I wouldn't forget about it.

When Tower Gate comes along, I now extract the top card of my player deck as an Enemy and place it face down in my Engaged area. Now clearly Iron Shackles is in the way but due to the fact I am not drawing a card to create this Orc Guard then I do not discard Iron Shackles at this point. I pull the top card of my deck (not Iron Shackles) and use that.

After Tower Gate, my deck contains one card less than it did but Iron Shackles is still there waiting for the time I need to draw a card from my player deck.

Hope that helps

xris said:

I assume you mean Objective cards here, so I will add another question. Are Objective cards discarded when the hero carrying them is killed? It happened when I played just now (best game yet, missed it by 4 tokens) and I just tossed it into the discard, but we never saw it again.

The objective cards are put back in the staging area. It is written on the cards.

I searched the forums and couldn't find an answer. With Tower Gate, the card you take from the top of you deck to be used as an Orc, what happens to the "orc" after you defeat it. Does that face down card go back to the top of your deck, or do you have to discard it? Or does it go in your hand?

Jimson said:

Defeated enemies get put in the discard pile. Since you own the card it gets placed in your discard pile.