Has anyone played it in a melee scenario?? Is it possible?? I ask because it seams very easy to stop a player from winning by taking the gold from the hand since you have to have more than any other hand to win besides getting to 15.

More specific questions…..

In the rules said that when a player attacks the hand of another, the defending player counts the hands str in that challenge even if knelt. Can the attacker declare stealth on a Hand? If the answer is no, does deadly or intimidate work on the hand? is the hand "declared" a defender"? can the attacker declare stealth on the other characters (since technically you are not attacking the player you are attacking the hand)??

Is there a more specific handbook rules for this modality??

Also, about deckbuilding. It said that you can select a unique (not army nor direwolf) of any house independent of yours. Can you select a neutral unique like beric?

Francisco G. said:

Francisco G. said:

Since it's a normal challenge, it's the same as any other normal challenge. Other characters can be stealthed and declared as defenders (when you get to that point in the challenge). The only special rule is that the Hand is automatically a participating defender - the same as any other defender, just without needing to be declared (or have the corresponding icon, etc.) So the Hand counts the same as any other participating defender would. Intimidate, Deadly, Scouting Vessel, or anything that works on participating characters can work on the Hand. (Note that, following that reasoning, Stealth doesn't work on the hand because the Hand becomes a participating defender as soon as the challenge is declared. Stealth will not remove a character from the challenge once it is participating, so even though you can Stealth the Hand, it doesn't do any good.)

Francisco G. said:

Francisco G. said:

Thanks Ktom, i thought it was like that but wanted to make sure.

I think we will have to use a house rule to stop the ganging up with the hands….somethink like "Only 1 challenge can be declared on any players Hand each challenge phase. You can't attack the hands out of the challenge phase (in case of epic events and such)"

Cheers, have a nice day.

Francisco G.

Given that the rules specifically say you can only attack the Hand during one of your 3 normal challenges, I don't think the "not outside of the challenge phase" rule is necessary. The Hand of the King rules do not say you can attack the Hand with a card-created challenge opportunity (like the Epic Phase or Shadow Politics), so I don't think you can.

The rules say "as 1 of your 3." Don't take that to mean "once per round by any means."