So which Boon from Shadow of the Past would you pick? While I love Gildor, I'm going to argue for Mr. Underhill for a couple reasons: The first is that you know you will be able to use it. Second, it can get you out of a bad initial start. Third is that it allows for greater risk taking in when it comes to determining who will quest and who will be on "Hide Duty". Lastly is the just plain cool factor attendant with a Hobbit using a using an old-school cover identity to outwit Sauron. (with all due to credit to his pointy-hat wearing case officer) Conversely it's chief drawback is its quantity (one-time per game) but I think this is substantially mitigated by its quality...if you are using it you are probably saving a hero's life.

As for Gildor, his chief benefit is that he could help for several rounds. His secondary benefit is his indirect ability to cancel an encounter card when he is drawn. (Did someone say Gildor's Council?) But his drawbacks are significant, particularly the possibility you may see him late if at all. He also requires a steady paycheck potentially complicating Mr. Underhill's--er I mean Mr. Baggins's--ability to use the Ring or pay for cards, esp Frodo's Intuition. Lastly, he effectively precludes the use of Gildor 1.0, a very useful ally. I admit that the idea of unexpected aid first pioneered in Massing is exceedingly cool, but I think when looking at the ability of each to help you get to Rivendell, Mr. Underhill is your guy.

Mr. Underhill all the way. It provides some safety to an unexpected encounter that could end the campaign for a character.

When I play two-handed, I prefer choosing Gildor. Mr. Underhill his great, but I almost always have the defenders I need plus Sentinel on standby. In two handed I almost always go through the encounter deck by the end of the game, so I'll see Gildor at some point. Having a free encounter card is just awesome, and if he comes into play as an ally (assuming he's not discarded as a shadow card), even better.

I was wondering which boons people preferred to choose at the end of a Knife in the Dark?

I put Tireless Ranger on Fatty, as he was the defender for one of our decks, and Skilled Healer on Sam, as he defended on the other deck. Basically used the boons to shore up the weak points of our Hobbit decks -- defense!

We also chose those Boons thinking they would probably interact with the Flight to the Ford deck. That, unfortunately, was not the case. I always play new quests blind, and I was predicting that the Ranger, Healer, Warrior, and Noble traits would help out in the final quest of the expansion. Imagine a treachery card saying "Reduce the Ringbearer's life by 5. Any player may exhaust a hero with the Healer trait to cancel this effect."

I very much admire blind play of a scenario (aka honest play) though I think it significantly increases the likelihood of a loss. Not sure what if anything can be done about that though. Our game was partially blind (honest); I had played SotP solo a couple times before we tried BR last weekend but we went into KitD and FtR blind which I think made them more fun. That we managed to survive was even more astonishing considering that we erroneously started with all the Ringwraiths in the deck and so had all Nine to deal with at Weathertop

As for which Boons, we went with TR on Elrohir to make give him strong defense right out of the block (it was Elrohir as Steward of Gondor with a Gondor Shield assisted by Arwen who made it possible to survive Weathertop) Sam was given SH and Glorfindel was given Noble Hero because he always quests once he has Light of Valinor. These worked well in FtR and our group never felt real significant pressure though at the end Frodo was down to 2 life so it was closer than it felt if that makes sense.

I also very much agree with GrandSpleen re the traits and am similarly disappointed that they at least so far mean little. There is no value in the Healer trait nor for many other traits...in general FFG seems to have just slapped the traits on cards but with little thought about how they would actually be executed. Re Healer specifically, FFG missed a great opportunity with Evil Wound that IMO would have been so cool from a thematic perspective: "If you have a character with the Healer trait, Lore of Imladris gains the following: "Increase the Ring-Bearer's Life by 2 if it is below 5." Regarding traits in general, I remain hopeful that, to quote one of my favorite Zeppelins songs, "all will be revealed."

We played two players and took Gildor, Noble hero and valiant worrior. Mr. Underhill didn't seem that useful after first scenario, where we needn't it and used it only for victory point, whereas Gildor works as Gildors councel+powerful ally, even if you discard him imidiately. We managed to win third scenario with no single burden (even the one from last bridge), so Iż guess it wasn't bad choice.