Unique encounter cards?

By mr.thomasschmidt, in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

Just thought of a thing being one of those guys taking it slow with the game :D I have all the AP released but don't wanna open them until I get to them. That is until I beat the Anduin quest and at least try Escape quest. I know, I'm strange :)

So maybe it's obvious but since there's unique attachments, heroes and allies are there any unique enemy cards? And if so what happens then when you reveal one? Nothing or does it get surge?

There are unique enemies - for example in conflict at the Carrock. so far, those are the only ones I've come across (although I'd assume the Witch-king is unique too) they're currently in the "leave to one side, then bring in to play at a specified point in the quest" format.

That's right.

I'm wondering why FFG made unique enemies, especially because there is only 1 card of those in the AP, so it doesn't seem necessary at this point. But perhaps they plan something like the Doppelgänger card in CoC, to produce an exact copy of an enemy already e.g. in the staging area. Then this wouldn't be allowed for unique enemies.

and in practical terms, giving an Encounter card Victory points is much more effective at making it 'unique' as it means it doesn't go in the discard pile and get shuffled back in - had a nasty moment at the Carrock, when we reshuffled the discard pile and one the unique trolls we'd just killed came lumbering back for more.

mr.thomasschmidt said:

Just thought of a thing being one of those guys taking it slow with the game :D I have all the AP released but don't wanna open them until I get to them. That is until I beat the Anduin quest and at least try Escape quest. I know, I'm strange :)

So maybe it's obvious but since there's unique attachments, heroes and allies are there any unique enemy cards? And if so what happens then when you reveal one? Nothing or does it get surge?

I think you have strong will. If i have all those packs in my home i open them in the first 30 min!!!!

I would just assume that they are being consistent with other unique cards when it comes to making certain enemies unique. I mean, the trolls have proper names...so I just assumed that made them "unique" by default.

Exactly. Uniqueness doesn't have to be game relevant. Sometimes it's just necessary for the flavour of the world.

HilariousPete said:

That's right.

I'm wondering why FFG made unique enemies, especially because there is only 1 card of those in the AP, so it doesn't seem necessary at this point. But perhaps they plan something like the Doppelgänger card in CoC, to produce an exact copy of an enemy already e.g. in the staging area. Then this wouldn't be allowed for unique enemies.

I believe the trolls are unique to make the quest card text simpler. The quest cards refer to unique troll cards, rather than having to name each troll.

Thus far, do we have any named beings, either allies or enemies, that are not unique? I had thought that anything with a name. rather than a generic title, got the unique symbol.

@Kiwina: Yes, it's a simple way, but how can the uniqueness of e.g. Rhosgobel be explained by this?

Bohemond said:

Thus far, do we have any named beings, either allies or enemies, that are not unique? I had thought that anything with a name. rather than a generic title, got the unique symbol.

I think that's the reason (or the flavor, like Rubinon pointed out, or both). I found only 2 examples where this "design rule" for uniqueness is perhaps broken: The River Ninglor (but you can argue that it's a large river and this location only presents a part of it, so uniqueness is not required), and perhaps the Nazgul of Dol Guldur (but this can be a generic Nazgul card too, for the Witch King is specifically named and unique).

Edit: Ah, I found more examples: The Brown Lands, The East Bight, River Langflood etc... but you can argue that they're big regions, too, and the players have to explore several parts of the Brown Lands. But they missed Chieftain Ufthak (he was the one orc which was caught by Shelob, and the orcs to which Sam is listening speak about him)

There are 2 unique locations in Emyn muil: Amon Lhaw and Amon Hen

I would assume that at some point FFG may include cards that interact with unique cards in some way, or maybe it's just for completeness.

Double post. sad.gif

I think it's quite cool storywise :)

Giving encounters uniqueness and individuality adds a certain depth to the encounter deck flavourwise because you don't just think, uuuuh, I'm fighting bats again/exploring a forest, but WOW I'm fighting a SPECIAL enemy, etc. :)

maybe some unique cards will reappear in a different shape (nazgul on fell beast/nazgul on horse/on foot) but you can only use one at a time... or when mixing encounter sets together for individual scenarios... whatever :D