I just finished playing an awesome game of The Hunt for Gollum with my two roommates, and we found an awesome combo. I decided to go with a tactics/spirit deck using Legolas. One of roommates then saw the possibilities Brand could offer. It was pretty cool. He would have Brand attack an enemy engaged with me, and Legolas would help. The enemy was defeated, progress was placed, and Brand readied Legolas who then helped kill something else when possible. On the final stage we actually made 9 progress through this and the use of A Common Cause and Blade of Gondolin.

Where is the issue here? Thats just good card synergy. Better than having a bunch of random cards that are only good alone. Well thought out tactics like that make a game more fun, when compared to relying on dumb luck.

There isn't an issue. I was just sharing an amazing find. I agree that games like this are way more fun when you set up good tactics, not only in your own deck, but with your friends' as well.

Thanks for sharing your strategy.

I have tried them both in one supporting deck. That, from what I can say in the limited experience, is pretty good as well as you just want enemies engage with the other player and Legolas with Brand can help kill almost anything very quickly, and thus readying a character and placing progress. Their combined support attack strength of 6 is often too much to handle even for the likes of Louis and Co.

That what i waiting for.

Tournaments, 2 players as a team play against quest which one they never see before. Difficult at least 7. So than you need to have good decks working very good as a team and combine as well.

I am currently experimenting with a variation of this combo as well to great success. I typically play solo with two decks and have built a first incarnation of a theodred-brand-legolas deck to compliment a Eowyn-Frodo-Berevor deck. If you can get UE on Berevor and use the ranged guys to get kills you're putting progress tokens on the quest/location, clearing enemies pretty efficiently, and drawing rediculous amounts of cards. I've only played passage through mirkwood with the combo but I won in 5 rounds with a score of 42.

While a nice idea, I don't think you can do that. Ranged allows you to attack enemies engaged with other players, either when announcing attacks yourself or when said player announces his attacks. The rules don't allow player x's ranged characters to support player y's ranged characters attacking anyone but player y. Sadly.

The problem with this is that you then have to play with two people using tactics. That's inconvenient. Also you have to be using Brand AND Legolas in a game when they both serve the same function (your dedicated attack hero). I don't know about you guys but I'm usually trying to diversify my heroes as much as possible so they each provide a different benefit.

Narsil0420 said:

Actually, a friend and I just finished a game in which we used a similar strategy and it worked remarkably well. He used Legolas/Brand/Eowyn while I took a defensive dwarf/gondor deck using Denethor/Gimli/Gloin. I pretty much just engaged most enemies while he kept his threat low and defended while he picked them off with Brand and Legolas (adding quest tokens and readying one of my characters for a counter-attack). On the first turn I dropped 2 Dunedain Warnings on Denethor giving him 5 defense and later in the game I managed to get a Citadel Plate and A Burning Brand on him, making him an unkillable wall. Between Eowyn, Gloin, and some of his other allies (Radagast and whatnot) he was able to control most of our questing while keeping Legolas and Brand available for the attack.

You guys should really try this out with some friends, its a great strategy.

xBeakeRx said:

You're not alone. I thought of this shortly after he was spoiled. I play with my girlfriend and our plan is for her to use Eowyn, Legolas and Brand (same as your friend) while I will be using Aragorn, Denethor(Bilbo? not sure yet) and Beravor. Beravor quests and, depending on quest and situation, Aragorn will use his ability to quest and then ready. Denethor will obviously be for defence. She will quest with Eowyn and attack on my side with both Legolas and Brand, and I may use Aragorn for either defence or attack depending on engaged enemies.

She will use the spirit cards and Gandalf to keep her threat low and will also try and get Radagast out early so he can save up resources for her eagles which will be used as a backup attackers/defenders in case something slips through to her side. I will continue to bolster my defence with Lore's nice allies like Haldir and Gildor.

Haven't got the pack yet so can't test, but I think theoretically it's a pretty sound strategy.

Anuviel said:

Yeah, that's pretty much the exact strategy we had, I think you'll be happy with the results. We've only tried it on Passage Through Mirkwood so far, so we've yet to put it up against the more difficult scenarios, but I think it should still perform well.

Kløve said:

All the rules say in regard to this is: "A character can declare ranged attacks against these targets (enemies engaged with other players) while its owner is declaring attacks, or it can participate in attacks that are declared by other players."

I believe that if Player 1 declares an attack against an enemy engaged with Player 2 and Player 3 also has Ranged characters, then Player 3 can participate in the attack declared by Player 1. I also believe that Player 2 could participate in the attack with his characters, since the enemy is engaged with him. I do realize the rules and FAQ don't address the engaged player participating and others may not play that way, but that option makes sense to me.

Kiwina said:

I very much agree with the first part of this statement. The rules for Ranged don't care who declared the attack - the Ranged characters can participate regardless. For the second part, I think that's a reasonable interpretation - the rules don't address it one way or the other, but it's certainly reasonable to think so. I see that you've added that question to the FAQ thread; hopefully we'll get some official clarification soon. (Have you tried submitting the question to Nate?)

radiskull said:

Not yet. I wanted to see how people responded in the FAQ first.

Can a ranged character declare attacks on an enemy engaged with another player if that player who the enemy is engaged with does not declare an attack?

Anuviel said:

I believe so, I dont see why they couldn't

Kiwina said:

Who is "Brand the Son of Bain" I searched lotrlcg.com for brand, bain, and son and he dosn't come up....

xBeakeRx said:

Yes, they can. They can declare attacks against any enemy engaged with a player.

booored said:

Brand son of Bain is the newest tactics hero. He was released in the Hills of Emyn Muil adventure pack.

Anuviel said:

Yes. There are 2 times when a ranged character can attack an enemy engaged with another player. Here is an example.

Player 1 has a ranged character. Player 2 is engaged with an enemy.

1) During player 1's turn when he is declaring attacks he may choose to declare an attack with a ranged character against Player 2's engaged enemy.

2) During player 2's turn he may declare an attack against an enemy. If he does so then Player 1 may choose to have his ranged character participate in the attack. However, if player 2 does NOT declare an attack then player 1's ranged character cannot declare an attack because it is not his turn.

Make sense?

it perfectly makes sense ))

Svenn said:

Re 2): You're right that player 1's ranged characters can participate in player 2's attacks, but only insofar as player 2 attacks enemies he is engaged with. If player 2 has any ranged characters that attacks an enemy engaged with player 1 or player 3, player 1's ranged characters cannot participate.

Having re-read the rules re: ranged characters, I still think that player 1 cannot assist player 2's ranged characters, if they attack an enemy engaged with player 1. However, if player 2 attacks an enemy engaged with player 3, player 1's ranged characters can participate, according to the rules. Maybe the next FAQ will have something on ranged characters?

The rules say a Ranged character "can participate in attacks that are declared by other players." The rules don't add any kind of condition that limit that participation to only enemies engaged with other players, so it stands to reason that any time another player declares an attack your ranged characters may participate regardless of who is engaged with the target.

Kiwina said:

The rules state:

"A character with the ranged keyword can be declared by its controller as an attacker against enemies that are engaged with other players. A character can declare ranged attacks against these targets while its owner is declaring attacks, or it can participate in attacks that are declared by other players."

The ranged keyword specifically applies to enemies engaged by another player. You are taking that line out of context.