Hello everyone,

I was wondering, do we think that we have to exhaust Bilbo to defend against Gollum when he attacks after failing to find a match to a riddle?

I encountered a scenario where Gollum attacked twice in one round and I realized Bilbo was exhausted and so took two damage from an undefended attack and died immediately.

I think I know that the answer is 'yes, we do have to exhaust him' but I don't want to believe it and I need to hear someone else say it! ha ha!

Cheers!

If you are thinking during the first part with the riddle, I would venture to say the answer is no, he does not exhaust. I only say this because the quest states that when you fail a riddle, Gollum attacks Bilbo, does not say he has to "defend." If bilbo had to exhaust, this would seem an unfair encounter mechanic. Anyways, thats my two cents.

The rules insert does say that Bilbo cannot "defend (except against Gollum)." That seems to imply that he may defend normally when attacked by Gollum. Characters always exhaust to defend unless otherwise specified, so Bilbo must exhaust to defend against Gollum. If Bilbo is exhausted, he must take an undefended attack (which will probably end the game).

Basically, don't fail two riddles in the same turn.

Yeah!

I do think we have to exhaust him to defend and that he can take an undefended attack…

Man, I'm having a hard time getting through this without Bilbo dying!

I think a tri-sphere deck is probably not the best against the riddles…

It certainly makes things easier to use a one- or two-sphere build, since many of the riddles involve naming a sphere (note that you cannot name "neutral"). Make sure you are using the resource bonus on Bilbo's Magic Ring liberally (just about every round, if possible). Still, sometimes you just can't come up with the answers to Gollum's tricksy questions.

As I have not yet played this 3rd Hobbit quest, but did read the rules on the riddles briefly, I can see that fewer spheres might be helpful. But wouldn't the use of Stargazer or Gildor pretty much take care of the issue? Or am I missing something…

benhanses said:

You shuffle your deck immediately before discarding cards to the riddle effect. Gildor and the Stargazer won't help.

starhawk77 said:

Thanks for the info… I only skimmed through the booklet briefly. Maybe I'll try to squeeze in a game tonight to see how the mechanic plays out!

starhawk77 said:

Question: Is there an action window between shuffling the deck and revealing cards for the riddle? (Thematically, I assume there isn't…)

Golden_Nightingale said:

It's a bit unclear. Caleb Grace of FFG has said that "players can take actions when answering a riddle," but the only example in the Hobbit rules insert involves taking an action AFTER revealing riddle cards. Based on that example, I'd be inclined to say that you can't take actions between shuffling and revealing, but I haven't seen anything definitive.

It seems pretty clear you are supposed to guess and not use Stargazer et al.

It's a brutal quest, but one of their best IMO. I am wondering if we will see some mechanic like this for escaping the Elven King's halls.