lleimmoen said:

Just to be clear, I think the card is awful and doubt I would ever include it in a deck. If you compare Heavy Stroke to "Khazad, Khazad", I think you can begin to see why Heavy Stroke is built for Gimli. On a dwarf with three or four attack Khazad Khazad! will always be more effective (before you even begin to factor in cost). +3 attack will do more than doubling your damage. Khazad Khazad! is clearly the better card, but their are some corner cases when Heavy Stroke outperform or augment it. And those cases arise when you a single dwarf hitting for big damage against a larger target (Greater Cave Troll, Nazghul, Watcher, etc.) Gimli is the dwarf most likely to make those big swings.

Right.

I agree that the card is awful. Mostly because I see no reason why making such a card when there are so many options. This card really brings little to none to the game.

I am not asking for super powerful cards, interesting is more the word (and I'm getting it mostly, don't get me wrong designers). If the card were meant for anyone, then I'd think it be another "nice" way to boost Dúnhere, or other interesting combat "options" like Mirkwood Runner.

I enjoy (combat) cards like Fresh Tracks, there's nothing about it that screams over-powered but it brings new choices.

I agree. It's a very situational card for when you just need a few extra points of damage. (The Carrock Trolls are another use.) So why limit it more by making it dwarf only?

There can be only 3 copies of the same card in the deck legally.

So, you may include heavy stroke as something like weaker version of Khazad for the case you're not so lucky with your hand and/or drawing.

From other perspective, Khazad plainly gives one dwarf +3 atk untl the end of phase, while Stroke deals direct damage based on what character have dealt this turn.

For instance, damage from heavy stroke is not combat damage and therefor can't be cancelled by some shadow effects and stuff. And it ignores defense, if this means something. So, basically, if you manage to group up enough men to take down half health of heavy armored foe, you can use the Stroke to finish it immediately.

As I'm still waiting for the pack: How many copies of Path of Need are in the pacK? I think there was some kind of discussion about that and I can't remember reading the answer…

There are 3 copies of Path of Need in my AP.

Btw, FFG staff, if you are reading this - congrats for the Foundations of Stone adventure! It immediately became one of my favourite quests, perhaps even the most favourite. Very innovative mechanisms (Quest stage 4 and its enemies, of course!) and very thematic cards and drawings. They depict more "mythic" places (the greenish- blueish pics on quest card 4, and the location which gives you access to objectives)! Good job!

HilariousPete said:

Hmm sounds really ok cose i heard from other players who already got it this quest is really good. From both perspective: coop game and solo game. Is quite hard, interesting and going to be more harder with progress. As is should to be in m y opinion. Sounds like FOS and TAF will be 2 most cool quest after each other!

Yes, this quest is really cool. Though I need to warn you, it is not as hard as Massing at Osgiliath, or EfDG and RTM solo ;-) But the scaling should be good. I only tried it 2 times in 2-player-games, but the mechanisms for scaling look exceptionally good.

It's a very good scenario, and one of the most innovative quests to date. FoS plays fine solo, but it really shines in multiplayer (since the multiple staging areas can really disrupt cooperative strategies). Not super difficult, but quite fun with a group.

Got FoS today, played it twice, and I already love it. Lots of fun in solo mode, multi player must be even more awesome. My second game was very interesting. I played with new Glorfindel, Frodo and Bifur. I lost Frodo against "Unexpected Trap" in round 1, but had two copies of "Resourceful" in my starting hand to balance this out. Imladris Starglazer is the powerful card she promised to be, very useful in this scenario. Threat managing becomes a whole lot easier with her, and some of the monster's effects can be manipulated by her.

This is an excellent designed quest, a challenge but still beatable (at least with spirit/lore). The opponents are awesome, the treacheries are nasty, the locations not too harmful, and there are some nice objectives to claim. I like the restriction of the last encounter card (you're not allowed to send more characters questing than heroes), I like the branching paths in stage 3/4, like the increasing difficulty towards the end. This one is indeed well done!

leptokurt said:

Hmmm sounds too good to be true but if Leptokurt himself say it…… so is should be true. Cannot wait. Should be in Bangkok next week.

Glaurung said:

After six games I am at 4-2. A lot depends on the adventure card that one gets dealt in stage 4. IMO the toughest one is "Cave of the Ancient One" (translation correct?). This card forces you to reveal 4 encounter cards, but needs only 5 progress tokens. In my last game I had a card that forced me to discard my whole hand and to reveal two encounter cards. This one needs 11 progress. That game was rather easy, but still fun and interesting.

The (Ancient) Nameless One's are nasty enemies, but can be defeated easily with Gandalf, before they do any harm. Stargazer is very helpful to reduce their ATT dn HP to a minimum.

Btw I love how they screwed the Ziggy decks with this one!

Got it today. Play 3 games lose all of them! My Elven brother +Eowin deck not really good against this one.Change Eowyn to new Glorifindel.

Play another 2 game. 1 lose and win one at last! But is not cose of Glorifindel but is really depend which quest 4 you got. If you get easy one you have a god chance to win. If you get one with 4 cards revealed every time i lose. Anayway quest is cool cannot wait for coop game with 2 or even 3 players.

This time FFG got to the point. Hope SAF will be also cool!

Glaurung said:

Haven't played it solo yet. Completed a 3-player game, and do agree it depends largely on which site 4 you pull. We probably got a perfect match for the decks we were running, and ran through sites 4 and 5 in just two turns. (Gimli/Dain dwarves dealt with Nameless things, Loragorn and Glorfindel decks quested)… I don't expect that same fortune to hold in the next few iterations as I try different decks for solo play. Do enjoy the variety this game affords as you attempt different configurations for each encounter.