Hey guys......I just acquired the LOTR: The Card Game recently. It seems like a great game, especially once I figure out exactly what I'm doing. I have a couple of dumb questions that I would greatly appreciate somebody's help with.. If a Location card is drawn as a shadow effect card, is that simply placed in the Encounter deck discard pile with no shadow effect occurring for that attack? (Does that happen in the case of any drawn encounter card that has no shadow effect, at that point?)

Also, if an enemy cannot attack that turn, due to a card such as the Forest Snare for example, is an encounter card still drawn as a shadow effect? Since an enemy attack doesn't occur, I would say not, but thought I should try to confirm that.

Lastly, in a thread I was reading a couple of days ago, some players were discussing Glorfindel's damage healing ability action in terms of this only being allowed once PER GAME. On the Glorfindel card in the set that I purchased, it states (Limit once PER ROUND). Is my card correct? Or was a correction to the card communicated that I am simply not aware of..?

Thank you in advance!

Schmiegel

Welcome to the game!

Yes, if a card is dealt as a shadow card and has no Shadow effect, it'll just be discarded at the end of the Combat phase.

Also, if an enemy is prevented from attacking, it will still be dealt a shadow card, but that card will be discarded at the end of the phase with no effect.

Glorfindel's ability is once per round, not per game. They may have been talking about the quest "Journey to Rhosgobel" which at one point has an effect that any card that is used for healing is removed from the game, which would affect Glorfindel.

Schmiegel said:

Yes, cards attached to an enemy as a shadow card that do not have a shadow effect printed on the card are simply discarded at the end of the combat phase.

If an enemy cannot attack, it is still dealt a shadow card, though the card will not be flipped during the combat phase and will be discarded at the end of the phase.

I believe the thread you were reading about Glorfindel's ability is related to a particular scenario, A Journey to Rhosgobel. In one part of that scenario it instructs you to remove from the game any card that heals damage on Wilyador, the eagle. Normally Glorfindel's ability is limited to once per round.

I hope that helps, and welcome to the game!

[blast, Radiskull beat me to it, but I'm publishing this anyway since I took the time to write it!]

Thank you, that helps very much! A couple more questions... Dunhere's special ability allows him to target enemies in the staging area when he attacks alone. So as an example, say the threat level for his controlling player is 29 and there is an Ungoliant Spawn (32) in the staging area. During the hero attack component of the Combat phase, Dunhere could gallop out to the staging area and attack the Ungoliant Spawn before it had a chance to attack.. Is there any downside to this? Does Dunhere have to stay engaged with the Ungoliant Spawn now that he has attacked it..? Or does that move the Ungoliant Spawn into an engaged posture against the player that controls Dunhere..? Or, is Dunhere simply able to return to his fellow heroes and begin a regular turn again the following round? (And maybe gallop out alone again if the Ungoliant Spawn has to remain in the staging area?)

Another question pertains to "Don't Leave the Path" (3B) of the Passage Through Mirkwood quest. The text states..When Revealed: Each player must search the encounter deck and discard pile for one Spider card of his choice, and add it to the staging area. The players must find and defeat Ungoliant's Spawn to win this game.

So can the Ungoliant's Spawn be one of the spiders that the players "find" in the encounter deck? And would it be a legal play to then drop a Forest Snare onto the Ungoliant's Spawn and prevent it from ever attacking?

One last question...If a card's Shadow effect is "Defending player must choose and discard 1 attachment he controls", what would happen if the defending player controlled no attachments? Is there any other penalty, or is it just no harm, no foul..?

Again, thanks in advance for any insights!

Dunhere is free to attack with no strings attached. He's awesome! Of course, the problem with attacking alone is that there are some enemies he won't be able to damage without getting other attack boosts. Still, I love Dunhere's ability.

Yes, Ungoliant's Spawn is fair game for drawing from the encounter deck or discard pile. It's pretty much the best strategy so you don't have to deal with all the other cards in the deck, especially if you haven't come across Caught in a Web yet.

My understanding is that if a shadow card tells you to do something and you can't do it, you just move on. No harm, no foul, like you said. Now, this is different when the action is optional. For example, a location may have a travel effect that reads, "Each player must exhaust one hero he controls to travel here." If all your heroes are exhausted you simply cannot travel there.

Thank you Budgernaut! And one more..

The "Thicket of Spears" event card states "you must use resources from 3 different heroes' pools to pay for this card." That would mean that a player would need to have all 3 heroes that he controls be from the Tactics sphere, correct? That is, you couldn't have one player have one of his Tactics heroes pay a resource and have another player have two of his Tactics sphere heroes pay resources, could you? I'm under the impression that Event cards are paid for by one player, and that multiple players can't share the cost.. I'm pretty sure that's correct, but I question it now because it seems like "Thicket of Spears" wouldn't get played all that often, in that case.

But maybe some decks and hero parties are purposely built with that sort of thing (Tactics specialty) specifically in mind.

You're correct - you need 3 tactics heroes to use Thicket of Spears. And you're further correct in thinking it doesn't get played that often.

Yeah, I think it mostly gets played in 3-4 player games when each player is using a different sphere. Then the Tactics sphere will use it for themselves or to protect other players. I just used it last night when playing a solo game with two decks for Return to Mirkwood (because it's virtually impossible solo). I used a Spirit/Leadership deck and a Tactics deck. Thicket of Spears bought us some time with the Attercop, Attercop.

radiskull said:

Interesting to know.

Another one...can Dwarven Tomb be used to restore a Spirit sphere hero who has been killed back to life?

Schmiegel said:

No

The "Pursued by Shadow" treachery card has the following shadow effect: "Defending player chooses and returns 1 exhausted ally he controls to its owner's hand. If he controls no exhausted allies, raise his threat by 3."

In the game I'm playing, Faramir is the exhausted ally in question. He has two damage tokens on him as he returns to the owner's hand. If Faramir is re-purchased and put back into play, does he return to action with those two damage tokens on him, or does he return with a clean bill of health? Thanks in advance!

Faramir would not have memory of previous wound, so he'll be put into play with full health.

This will sound idiotic....but so be it. I just finished playing the "Journey Along the Anduin" quest, and at the end when I lost (when each player's threat level skyrocketed over 50 - I play solo but control 2 decks, with 3 heroes on each side), I had a grand total of 1 progress token on the active location and the grand sum of zero on the quest card itself. At one point I had more progress tokens on the quest card itself, but those were robbed by a treachery card or something. (And I'm referring to the first quest card "To The River", that one that requires 8 progress tokens to pass). This was after seven rounds of play. Zero progress tokens on the first quest card and one on the active location...

So the question is, am I doing something wrong, or is this normal? I've played the quest around five times now, and of course lost each time. The best I've done is to get about halfway through the second quest card (the one that requires 16 progress tokens to pass).

This is the first living card game I've played. Perhaps the problem is that this game is designed for people who are much more expert at this sort of thing..Either that or I must be doing something terribly wrong.

I'm somewhat confused by the size of decks that the rules require one to play. On page 10, the rules specify how to play "For the First Game". Then on page 27, there is an explanation of tournament deckbuilding and customization. I'm not really seeing anything "in between".. I only own the original, core set.

How do most new players play the game? I have been customizing two decks of 50 cards each, for two players (where I am both players), with 3 heroes controlled by each "player" (me). While I realize that you'd have to be sitting at the same table and watching me play to be able to point out what is going wrong, has there been anything I've said here to this point that is clearly not the correct way to play the game? Or am I just grotesquely bad at it? Thanks for any advice or feedback!

@ schmiegel

Which are your heroes?

I play them in various combinations. I've used all of them a few times. I just finished another attempt that lasted five rounds, I had 3 progress tokens on the first quest card when it ended.

Those heroes were Gloin, Gimli and Thalin in one grouping (the three dwarfs) and Eowyn, Beravor and Aragorn in the other.

In the previous quest I used Eleanor, Denethor and Gloin in one group and Legolas, Eowyn and Thalin in the other.

It sounds like you're having trouble with the Troll then if it is the first quest card.

Ideally you want both deck's starting threat to be under 30 to give you a couple of turns to get some cards and resources into play. Forest Snare is best for the pesky Troll, though you'll still have to withstand one round of his attack (remember Attachments can only be played in the Resource phase). Gimli is good to defend against one of his attacks (which will then pump him up to attack next round). Other cards that will help are Feint and Protector of Lorien.

In the second part of the quest you'll need some Questing muscle - Northern Tracker is especially good to get rid of location cards that build up.

Have you tried monosphere tactics and monosphere spirit.

Thanks for the advice, Scottindeed and Muemakan, it's much appreciated! Interestingly, I have tried most of what you suggested, presuming I'm lucky enough to get those cards (Forest Snare, Feint, Northern Tracker). As far as the monosphere tactics and monosphere spirit, I haven't tried that.

As I understand it, after the "First Game" (according to the rules as I interpret them..) players are supposed to be building decks via the tournament/customization mode, with a minimum of 50 cards per deck. I'm not seeing any rules other than those two options for the number of cards that are supposed to comprise a deck. I don't think I missed anything, but who knows. I only own the core set, so I only have 29 cards of the tactics and spirit type. That would seem to preclude me from trying any monosphere strategy, at least until I purchase another adventure pack or expansion and get more cards.

Is this correct? This could be the essence of my problem. Maybe I am not interpreting the minimum number of cards in the deck rule correctly...

I got to the point of defeating the first quest with regularity, but seem to be regressing lately in the Anduin quest, to the point of absurdity. It's mostly been trial and error, with an emphasis on the error part. Maybe I should just read through all the comments on the forums. Is that what you do? Thanks again!

building a deck is

minimum 50 cards

only 3 copies of each card maximum

any combination of spheres is allowed

Schmiegel said:

This happens to me all the time, and I've been playing for months! I don't think I'm "grotesquely bad" at it, but sometimes I'll go off adventuring with entirely the wrong kind of fellowship for the quest, more out of curiosity than anything, but I find the game so magnificent that each scenario bears repeated assault really well (either that's game design or I have a bad memory for which beasties come in which scenario).

This seems to be the right place to be asking dumb questions instead of starting a new thread.

So I have been having problems with this game. I bought this game quite awhile ago but finally got the chance to play it, and I cannot win a game. I only have the core set and Return to Mirkwood. I’ve been playing Journey down the Anduin, I just can’t seem to win no matter which sphere/heroes I use.

Is there a rule on how many enemies or location are supposed to be on the field► In one game I was playing there were four locations in the staging area. How am I to quest with all that threat► In another swamped by enemies.

Also when playing a multiplayer game, say there was three enemies all with threat over 35 in the staging area. Player 1 has a threat of 36 and player 2 has a threat of 30. Does player 1 have to take on all three enemies if player 2 does not engage an enemy and no enemies engage player 2►

Thanks for reading.

Reckless Outlaw said:

There''s no limit to the number of cards in the staging area. You can usually mitigate the amount of threat by engaging enemies and traveling to locations, but sometimes you just get overwhelmed. Cards that can generate more willpower (e.g. Faramir) or place additional progress tokens (Northern Tracker, Lorien Guide) may help you deal with a glut of locations. As for the enemies, Dunhere can pick them off before they engage you, while Feint and Forest Snare can limit their attacks.

In the second scenario, if all three enemies have engagement costs of 35, all three will indeed engage Player 1 if Player 2 chooses not to optionally engage one of them during the encounter phase. Basically, you always continue making engagement checks until there are no more enemies left to engage any player (see p. 16 of the rules for a detailed breakdown).

starhawk77 said:

Thanks for the help and advice Starhawk.