1. I've declared a defender against East Bight Patrol (2 hit points). I then play Swift Strike (After a character is declared as a defender, deal 2 damage to the attacking enemy). East Bight Patrol dies. What happens to its shadow card?

2. Dealing shadow cards is the first thing that happens in the combat phase, correct? When in the combat phase do you play feint (Choose an enemy engaged with a player. That enemy cannot attack this phase.)? Is it before shadow cards are dealt to engaged enemies? If not, what happens to the shadow card of the enemy chosen (who thus cannot attack)?

In these two cases, are the shadow cards just discarded?

A couple more questions:

3. If I engage the hummerhorns rather than waiting for them to engage me, do I still take 5 damage to a hero? The text reads "After hummerhorns engages you. . ." It does say anything about "After you engage the hummerhorns". Along the same lines, if I engage the Forest Spider, does it get an extra attack point?

4. Are the spiders brought into play by Passage through Mirkwood Quest card 3B (Don't leave the Path) revealed by the encounter deck, the players or the Quest card? If they are revealed by the encounter deck, then Thalin's ability can be used against them as they enter play, correct?

1. The shadow card will be discarded with the defeated enemy.

2. Dealing shadow cards is the first thing you do during the combat phase. Players have the opportunity to use actions before the first player starts resolving enemy attacks, and this is normally when I play the card. There are many chances during the combat phase to use actions, and the only requirement has been that Feint must be played before and enemy is chosen to resolve their attack. In the case of using feint, the shadow card dealt to the Feinted enemy is discarded at the end of the combat phase.

3. The rules state on page 16, "Whether an enemy is engaged through an engagement check, through a card effect, or through a player’s choice, the end result is the same, with the enemy and the player engaging one another. In all cases, the player is considered to have engaged the enemy and the enemy is considered to have engaged the player."

4. The quest card says to "add it to the staging area" therefore it is not revealed. Thalin's ability won't work on it, but likewise the When Revealed effect isn't triggered either.

Going to toss in a question here instead of starting a new thread.

Regarding the Despair card's shadow effect that nullifies the defending character's defense, is that just the character card's printed defense? We can still boost the defense with cards like Blade Mastery and Protector of Lorien, correct?

Incorrect. The card states that "defending character does not count its DEF". This means that no matter what the DEF is, no matter how you got it, don't count it. This is very different from a hypothetical card effect that says "defending character's printer DEF becomes 0" or something of that nature.

radiskull said:

Brutal. I hate Despair even more. I had Protector of Lorien on Bilbo and was defending with him when Despair came up as a shadow card and since it works that way poor Bilbo should have died.

Thank you for your help, Kiwina. I also have a question about when to start a thread. Quite often after a play session I have a few questions like those I asked in this thread. Should I start a new thread, or is there a thread for these "nooby" questions?

I'd recommend starting a new thread - it's easier to find when searching or browsing. Just my 2 cents, and I've seen it done either way.