Hi everyone,

I have some doubts regarding the above mentioned Quest Card. I hope someone can clarify the situation to me.

Thanks to this Card Eleanor can obtain 1 strenght point. She can choose to combat (not defeat) the Black Snake or to Explore Near Harad. And here my problems start:

- if she chooses to explore Near Harad, should Boromir be removed from that place? (Otherwise she could just re-explore that place and gain another strenght point using Boromir's ability).

- and if she chooses to fight the Black Serpent? She gains 1 strenght point of course, but...what about Boromir? Does he remain on the game board? Thus Eleanor could still talk to him and gain another strenght point. It seems a bit to powerfull for a starting quest card to me.

But let's say that Boromir stays where he is and Eleanor can gain up to 2 strenght points. At this point why should Sauron leave the Black Serpent on Near Harad? I mean, if the Black Serpents starts running far away from that place every Hero will decide to complete that quest the "easy" way, and that is by exploring the location and talk to Boromir. This way though, the next time Eleanor will fight against the Serpent she will not gain any strenght point because the Quest is closed.

I apologize if I messed this up, the topic is a bit complicated but I hope someone will be able to help me.

Thanks!!

Cthulhu80 said:

Boromir stays at Near Harad, but getting 2 Str is a tad tougher. Combatting the Black Serpent isn't all that tough, but if your Retreats are missing or get countered, you're in a world of hurt, can easily lose half you life deck. Sequence goes, Eleanor moves to Near Harad, where any sane Sauron, seeing her Mission, has kept BS at. As she enters the location, Sauron chooses Combat (again, unless he's done a lot of pointless work to make it perilous and is an idiot ). If Eleanor doesn't defeat the Black Serpent (and that is highly likely), she completes her Starting Quest, but her turns also ends right there, which most of the time will trigger an Ambush during the Ambush Step on her next turn. All heroes except Thalin, if they fail to defeat the minion/monster during their Travel Step, their turn ends.

Now, if the imbesil Sauron has moved the Black Serpent away from Near Harad, then Eleanor can move there, explore to complete her Quest and then still consult with Boromir for +1 Str or 2 Favor (and possibly another favor from her own ability).

Characters generally remain on board until consulted or specifically mentioned as being removed, so Boromir very likely will spend quite some time at Near Harad.

Thanks a lot Dam!!

Dam said:

I've got 1 more question:

If Sauron would like to prevent Eleanor from exploring Near Harad and consulting with Boromir, He should keep still Black Serpent as long as Eleanor is in game. In an optimistic view Sauron playing vs Eleanor has BS blocked (Like playing chess without a bishop IMO) in a pessimistic view Sauron has BS defeated and Eleanor with a Strenght value of 7, the same of Thalin. Don't you think this is a little too much for a starting quest?

Either keep BS there or use his ability to place a monster there, if that monster is a good one (ideally Oliphaunt), BS can then ride off, leaving NH still protected. Another option is to play the Yellow token Plot that removes all characters and favors from the location it is played at, removing Boromir. Even with Str 7, Eleanor isn't nowhere near as strong as Thalin, mainly because her deck has plenty of weaker cards. And with Agility of 1, she won't be drawing too many extra cards. Str 7 Eleanor doesn't really bother me as Sauron, she still has trouble defeating medium or tougher monsters because of her weak deck.

Eleanor can kill BS, no doubt, but if it takes three turns, that's three turns she didn't get to collect a lot of Favors and wasn't contributing to removing Plots. Since the max duration is 10 turns, with the game mostly ending on turns 8-9 I've found, that's third of the game she's spent doing effectively nothing to hinder Sauron. She might have gotten defeated herself, which would boost Sauron. Worst case scenario is that she kills the BS, only for him to return later via "They Are Terrible".

Thanks for you answer DAM. I've noticed just a little too much "IF" ,but... if you say so, I know you're talking by experience. Thanks