I have had this game for 48 Hours. I am just now sitting down to play. I had a quick question that I may have missed in all the rules and tutorials I have seen...when building the player deck, do i use each card in the sphere of influence for the heros I chose? Even the duplicates? I guess I was confused about whether or not only single versions of each card get shuffled into the player decks.

Thanks!

if you mean the single sphere deck then yes all the cards and 1 copy of gandalf, if you mean a multi sphere deck its completely up to you, when making a deck the rules are

50 cards min.

no more than three copies of each card allowed in a deck

you can have multiple copies of uniques in a deck but only one is allowed in play at a time

richsabre said:

Yes Thank You. I was referring to the sphere deck. You answered my question.

I have another though. The first game example in the core set rule book (p10) says "each player chooses one of the four spheres of influence and uses the starter deck for that sphere." I noticed however in the example of the Play Field Setup on p11 that "Tom" and "Kris" chose Hero's from two different Sphere's. I assume the Rule book just starts the player out with a single sphere of influence for the first game?

Thanks

yes i think the idea in the book was that it would be too complicated to do multi sphere for your first game, for your first couple i would recommend just taking a bash at each sphere to get thier flavour

Thank you. I appreciate the help.

no worries............

A few more questions

1. Sneak Attack Card - At the end of what phase do i put the ally i played back? I placed the Ally during the planning phase....committed him to a quest...and he took damage points...do the damage points just get dropped when placing the ally back into my hand?

2. Celebrians Stone - If attached hero is Aragorn, he also gains a "symbol" resource icon. What is this?

3. Son of Arnor - I played this card which asks me to "choose and enemy card in the staging area or currently engaged with another player. Engage that enemy." If I am playing Solo without a second player, does this card work?

hendersondayton said:

1. he/she/it goes back at the end of the phase you played them.....so you sneak attack gandalf in the quest phase, he quests then goes back, he cannot defend attack etc. any damage points are wiped unless he is killed then he is discarded from play

2. he gains a spirit icon, thus allowing him to buy spirit cards, basically this is a song of travel card

3. i never play this card as he is really not much use to a soloer, you can still play him for his (2?) attack, but his special ability will not work as there is no second player, best saving your pennies for a better card in my opinion

richsabre said:

I am getting mixed responses to the question of when I can play Ally or Attachment Cards. Some are saying only during the planning phase, others are saying anytime. Which is correct?

On Question #3, I had people tell me I could play the card on an enemy that is currently engaging one of my other characters. Is that true?

i think the first question may be getting cleared up in your other post...but basically you buy all cards in the planning phase

allies and attatchments can only be played in planning phase

events can be played in any of the GREEN areas on the timing chart in the back of the rule book

as for arnor, i apolgise about that one as i looked again and was wrong....it appears it has two effects- 1 allows you to engage an enemy that is currently engaged with another player and 2. it allows you to engage an enemy in the staging area immediatly after it enters play (ie in the planning phase) thus taking it out of the quest phase as it is engaged

as for it allowing you to engage an enemy engaged with another character- enemy cards only engage you as a player, not individual character, its during declaring defenders that indivuals are picked out, so i dont believe this can be true

I used son of arnor in the recent tourney for conflict at the carrack to sometimes take down trolls during the planning phase to do just that, remove them from the questing phase.

Here are a few others:

1. Location cards take precedence over Hero Responses? Ex. Aragorn is commited to quest. During the Travel phase the group travels to old forest road. The Response for Old Forest Road says "After you travel to old forest road, the first player may choose and ready 1 character he controls."

Aragorns card however says, "Response: After Aragorn commits to a quest, spend 1 resource to ready him."

2. Do you have to commit players to a quest? In a single player game, can u skip this quest phase if you don't have nearly enough willpower to avoid the hit to your threat points?

hendersondayton said:

1. Aragorn's ability has to be triggered right after he was committed to the quest. I had also a hard time to understand the whole meaning of the "response" effect. So listen carefully: a response is triggered right after a certain event happens that is ususally described on the card that includes the "reaction". "After" should be read as "right after". Have a close look at the descriptions for the several keywords in the rulebook and in the FAQ. It's very helpful!

So in your case Aragorn already had been readied before you revealed the encounter card, if you had used his ability. You could have readied another character in that case.

2. Players don't have to commit characters to a quest, but they cannot skip the quest phase. If you send no character questing, you have a total WP of 0. Which means that you have to add the total amount oft hreat in the staging area to your threat level.

hendersondayton said:

I think you are getting things mixed up here. As such, Location cards don't really have anything to do with other Responses, Heroes or otherwise.

Repeat the mantra: Follow the Phases

Aragorn's response applies during the Quest Phase.
Location card response's applies during the Travel Phase.

By the time the Location response appears, the Quest Phase is over. Plus, I'm not sure why you seem confused over this. During the Quest Phase, Aragorn can ready himself at a cost of 1 resource. During the Location Phase, Old Forest Road can ready one of the first player's Characters. This can be any character, not just Aragorn, why do you think these two responses are linked?

hendersondayton said:

You MUST perform the Quest Phase, even if none of your characters are committed. You are not allowed to skip the phase just because you decide none of your characters are Questing this turn.

I would suggest you download the following from BoardGameGeek > Comprehensive Card Reference & Unofficial FAQ

It will help tremendously! Also make sure you have the latest official FFG LotR LCG FAQ. Universal Head THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE CARD GAME Rules Summary & Reference might help as well.

@leptokurt: So I would have exhausted Aragorn to commit him to the quest, then spent a resource to ready him again..at the same time. Not sure what you meant by "you could have readied another character in that case."

@Xris: I just need to keep in mind your comment, follow the phases. Besides ALLY or ATTACHMENT cards, no other cards really carry over from one phase to the next.

xris said:

Since I bought the game a week ago, a lot of the Card Errata's have been re printed...but the ones that have not (are red in the PDF)...do you guys just write on the card itself or just keep a copy of this list with the game?

edit: sorry misunderstood this one.....thought you meant did you correct the cards themselves,,,,,