Hey everyone,

How common is it to decide (whether solo or co-op) to NOT travel to a location from the Staging area and tackle to the Quest card? I ask because as I reveal cards during the Quest phase, they seem to always show Location cards. And while some Locations give positive attributes to your Heros, I never seem to get to put tokens on the actual Quest cards. Again, I am new to the game and only use the pre-made decks from the Core Set. That said, I absolutely love this game!

Really depends on the scenario and the locations themselves. You do not have to travel during the travel phase; traveling is always optional. It's frequently a good way to reduce the cumulative threat in the staging area, but there are definitely times when traveling is not the best decision. If you have enough willpower, you might be better off ignoring some 1- and 2-threat locations in order to place more progress on the quest card. I know there are certain locations that I never travel to (for a variety of reasons).

If you're struggling with a glut of locations, the Spirit sphere has several cards (Northern Tracker, Lorien Guide, Strength of Will) that can help you. Alternately, try using Faramir's ability with a bunch of cheap allies (e.g. Snowbourn Scout). Hopefully, that will generate lots of willpower and allow you to generally ignore any locations that turn up.

Thanks for the advice! I am sure that it is also bad luck when it comes to the shuffling of the Encounter deck. But the Threat "battle" always forces me to travel to eliminate a couple of threat from the location card. I will try those ideas you mentioned and hope for the best!

If I have a Northern Tracker or two on the table, I rarely travel to locations because of the negative effects so many of them have. It's easier to just wait three turns or so for the trackers to get rid of them.

I totally agree and take it a step further. A Northern Tracker just entered play? Forgive me everyone but I just won.

ruchlas said:

dwarrowdelf cycles have sort of cut his usefullness as some of them take off a token everytime a token is placed on them

I am sure you are right rich. I forgot to mention I have just made my way to Khazad Dum because I am pretty new player. Only on late December has the game passed to my hands and I am sort of running to catch everyone up. So I have no Dwarrowdelf experience yet. Tolkienology is great by the way! Keep it up!

ruchlas said:

cheers mate- sorry if i spoiled the horrific surprise that awaits you!

Yes Tracker was really broken in the time of SOM (first cycle). It was as you say : Play tracker??? You win the game 80%. Cose tracker destroy all idea of Travel phase. But since KD and Second Cycle is change. He is still powerful but not broken anymore. From all Core set broken in My opinion we still have one who really deserve errata: limit once per round. Who is it??? Sure……Beravur!

Glaurung said:

Not really. She can only be used more than once per round if you use something to ready her. In practice, I use her to get 2 cards and spend them (with 2 players) to add two willpower with Eowyn. That 2 willpower I could have gotten by simply committing her to the quest. However, I now get to draw two cards and discard 2 cards (well, with two players, one draws 2 and each discards one, but we take turns), getting to keep the more useful cards. So, she is definitely useful, but not broken. Alternately, I could have readied someone with 3 willpower and used him to commit 3 willpower instead of the 2 I get from Beravor. So, I either get more card flexibility or an extra willpower. Early game, the card flexibility is better, but once I've built up enough cards, the extra willpower starts looking good, since that wins the game. My conclusion: Beravor is a good card, but not broken and certainly not an auto-win.