Hi folks, first time poster here!

Last week I finally got HfG and CatC. I mainly played CatC with a Tactics/Lore deck (Gimli, Legolas and Bilbo)? I have both Forest Snares in my deck, as usual (is anyone playing a lore deck without them?). However, during my games I never used them, because I spent my resuources to other cool Lore card (Minstrel of Rivendell, Daughter of the Nimrodel) or I don't have any resources. When fighting the troll quartet, I have Feint (2x) and Quick Strike (2x) available, because thanks to Bilbo I could draw all my cards by that point, so no need to play Forest Snare there.

In fact I never used Forest Snare in any of these games. That makes me think that this card has become rather useless if you have those sweet Tactic event cards with you. I remember I loved this card in my earlier games (JdtA!) and it was a must-have, but now I'm thinking about replacing it with something else, at least when playing HfG and CatC.

Has aynone made the same experience or do you think that I am completly nuts?

Btw, I think FFG did a great job to increase the usefulness of the Tactics/Lore-combo. I used to play Leadership/Spirit most of the time until I got my first two expansions. I still wonder how this combo faces against the JdtA.

Hello,

and welcome! I do not always play Forest Snare but it can be very useful. I do not think Quick Strike is of much help against big enemies like the trolls in the Carrock because only one of your characters can attack (plus ranged characters of other players who are not engaged with the attacked enemy). So unless Gimli is on some highly efficient drugs, it won't help you to fell a troll in one blow.

A very good combo with Forest Snare is Son of Arnor. Not only he helps questing (without him questing) and attacking but he helps you play Forest Snare withough having the enemy been dealt with in the combat phase. It is an expensive combination to play but a very effective. And if you have ways to get rid of these cards when you don't need them, via Protector of Lorien for instance, all the better then.

Indeed, Forest Snare is not as essential as it has been (due to larger card pool and different scenarios) but is still has its uses on Anduin and Carrock (if you engage more than one unique troll). I'd consider it as an emergency card now, which has it's uses in a support deck (Lore/Spirit) for trapping enemies that mistakenly engaged you rather than in a fighting deck (Lore/Tactics) that usually straightforward kill enemies instead of trapping them.

I think what you are running into is that in multi-sphere decks, resource management is key and a three cost card like Forest Snare becomes less appealing. Any card above two cost when you are multi-sphere has to be a knockout card, especially when it is your minority sphere like in your situation. This is especially true if you are running a game without any songs or resource generation cards.

That being said, running with a Horn of Gondor and Song of Wisdom on Legolas might provide you with more opportunities to play high cost Lore cards. You still might not find a use for Forest Snare, but allies like Haldir and Gildor could find some play.

Puzzle said:

Exactly. The card is useful, but paying 3 ressources with only one lore hero in my deck seems a bit too costly to me. With two lore heroes things would a bit different, of course. But even then I'd have to save my money to play Gandalf 11 times.

You could always throw in song of travel to help curve some of those more expensive lore cards too. I was not a huge fan of having songs floating around simply to increase my resource icon spotting, but I have realized that it is not a bad idea.

IMO you should play your deck few times and see how it fits. If you are running may allies (and tactics have a lot of cheap ones) i believe you will see that in many cases you will rather sacrifice a cheap ally than playing it due to its high cost.

also like every one else suggested before me, adding at least 2 songs to your deck will help your resource management a lot.

Cheers

leptokurt said:

HI and welcome to the forum!!

I completely agree, tactics is making a real comeback in my decks at the moment. I think the fabled "eagle" deck is not "a thing".. but a "creature" deck my come into play down the line that includes them... but still I think there is a number of really cool stuff going on in Tactics that is making it a much more legit sphere choice for solo and 2 player. Though I still think it is pretty weak in some areas and needs support.

Still I have been playing around a bit and found that a leadership splash using Steward of Gondor and the leadership song allows you to use the higher dmg tactic heros and their awesome combat tricks while still having access to some of the neat law stuff. 4 sphere decks are not as crazy as it sounds now wit those song splashes allowing you to get your hero pools to pay for multiple spheres. Especially if you are playing with 2+ players and have a load of songs between you/

DurinIII said:

Did you mean "Song of Wisdom"?