As there now quite a few questions and speculation around a few of the cards I thought I'd start a thread to start to collate them so that FFG at least can go to one place. As new questions arise that can't be fully answered by the current rule set or forumites, we can add them to this thread and bump it every so often.
Following a suggestion fro Entropy42, I'm now going to keep the thread updated with the best guess answer from the forum, as well as questions (to try and keep it useful until an official FAQ comes out) but to do this....
If you've got a question please ask it in its own thread first, I can then monitor those threads, and take the question and forum consensus (if there is one and add it here. otherwise this thread will get bogged down with questions and responses and counter responses, which isn't the intention, and makes it really difficult for me to keep the thread up to date, and I'm likely to miss a question being asked (or answered).
From looking at other threads the questions that I don't think have full answers yet are...
1. If Ungoliant's Spawn has already been defeated, or is already in play when Don't Leave the Path Enter play, what happens?
We actually have an official answer to this, but i have just added it for completeness, the answer is that if it is already defeated it must be defeated again, but if it is already in play, this does count as it being found and therefore will only need to be defeated once (not twice).
2. How does the Forced action on the Dol Guldur beastmaster work? When is the extra shadow card applied, and as it uses the words "After xxx attacks" (in the same way that Chieftain Ufthak has) how does the Chieftain's forced action work in comparison?
Best guess: The cards are best interpreted as having the word When rather than After. The polish version of the card actually has the word “When” rather than After. This means that DGB is dealt two shadow cards and Ufthak has an initial combat strength of 5 in the first round in which he engages a player (ouch!).
3. If a location in the staging area has enough progress tokens on it (from the Northern tracker for instance), is it immediately removed from play, or does it still have to be made an active location, before it is removed?
BG: It is removed from play as soon as it has enough tokens on it. Any suplus go onto the quest as normal.
4. If you defend with multiple characters and still take damage, how is that damage applied amongst the defenders?
BG: You can split the damage amongst the defenders as you see fit.
5. When exhausting a character to a quest, do i exhaust a character and then use the Response relating to that character then exhaust the next and so on, or do i exhaust all simultaneously and then apply their responses in any order i want? (Important when using the Aragorn/Theodred combo). How about Old Forest Road and Strength of Will? Can the players travel to OFR, then use SoW, then use the response on OFR to ready the character that was just exhausted to meet SoW, or do the responses on a location take precendence and have to be taken first?
BG: Responses can be used in any order, which solves the OFR vs SoW problem, and I think general concensus is that each player's heroes committing to the quest is done simultaneously and separately to completing Responses, so all characters can be exhausted simultaneously, allowing Theodred's power to be used on Aragorn and then for Aragorn to ready using the resource he just obtained from Theodred.
6. Can you use Protector or Lorien to discard multiple cards to obtain > 1 defence or willpower bonus per round/phase?
BG: Yes.
7. If an enemy cannot attack (caught in a forest snare for instance) do they still get dealt a shadow card?
By the rules, an attack consists of 4 steps (P. 18 rulebook). Dealing a shadow card is not one of those 4 steps but revealing a shadow card is. Therefore by the rules a shadow card is dealt but not revealed and is then discarded at the end of the phase. So the dealing of the card is currently a moot point and only relevant to burn through the encounter deck.
8. How does Thalin's ability interact with cards with only 1 hit point that have a when revealed action or surge key word? Is the text ignored because Thalin kills it as soon as it revealed or do the surge or when revealed action still occur?
BG: When revealed actions still occur as constant effects and when revealed card effects have similar triggers. As surge is only resolved after When revealed effects, Thalin's ability would remove the 1 hit point card before it could surge.
9. If a shadow effect or some other process causes a hero to lose an attachment, does this include negative attachments such as the Caught in a web treachery card? In effect can the shadow effect benefit the hero in this case?
BG: No. The player is not considered to be in control of such cards as they are never played by a player.
10. When encounter cards come into play outside of the quest phase what parts of the card are still relevant? The description of surge/doomed states this only applies during staging step of quest phase, so is that keyword ignored? How about cards such as Pursued by Shadow, as outside of the quest phase NO hero is considered committed to a quest (although they may still be exhausted from previously committing to the quest), so is the when revealed affect applied to all heroes or is it ignored completely?
BG: The surge and doomed keywords are ignored if the card is turned outside of the quest phase. Other card effects are relevant as normal.
11. Are attachments considered their own card for purposes of exhausting (such as "Steward of Gondor") or does the hero they are attached to need to be exhausted to use them? The card says "Exhaust Steward of Gondor" which makes me believe it is just the card, and you can use it every turn to get a bonus 2 resources.
BG: Yes only the card is exhausted, not the hero.
12. How does Dunhere's ability work?
Dunhere can attack enemies in the staging area during the phase when other heroes attack (enemies engaged). Dunhere's +1 only works when he attacks an enemy in staging and only when attacking alone, the two are mutually inclusive. Dunhere's attack rating is compared against the enemies’ defence rating as normal. Dunhere' does not deal direct damage.
13. One of the Spirit ally cards (Northern Tracker) allows him to place a single progress token on every location in the staging area when he commits to a quest. Is this done before new cards are drawn and you compare Willpower vs. Corruption?
BG: Yes. Northern Tracker's ability is a response so this is done in response to the game occurrence (commiting to a quest) and before any other game occurences occur (such as pulling a new staging card).
14. When dealing cards into the staging area during the questing phase, do i deal 1 card per player, or 1 card per player that has a hero questing this round?
BG/official: 1 card per player.
15. Do enemies count as characters for effects such as the horn of Gondor?
BG: No. They are not characters, only heroes and allies are classed as characters.
16. When a hero can attack twice (such as Aragorn's ability) can both attacks be against the same creature?
BG: No. Each player can only attack each enemy once with which he is engaged. A hero can only participate in this attack once. If a hero is somehow able to ready after being exhausted from attacking this enemy, he can then be used to attack a different enemy that has not yet been attacked by the player, but not the same enemy twice.
17. What happens when a "Hill Troll" attack goes undefended?
1.) Hill troll's damage all goes directly to threat. OR...
2.) Damage goes unto a hero and spills over into threat.
BG: 2. Damage must be applied as in the rules (onto a single hero for an undefended attack), any excess damage is then applied as defined on the Hill Troll card.
18. When is the feint card played? Can it be played in conjunction with the Gondorian spearman as a defender?
BG: By the rules, an attack consists of 4 steps (P. 18 rulebook). Therefore the feint card must be played before any of these steps occur and once played prevent any of these 4 steps from occurring. As one of these 4 steps is declare defender, Feint and Gondorian defender cannot be played against the same attack in the same round.
19. Do the threat of engaged enemies still count during the questing phase? Do engaged enemies disengage at the end of each round?
BG/Official: Only the threat of enemies in the staging area count when determining threat during the questing phase. When enemies move from the staging area to engaged with a player, the enemies stay engaged with that player over subsequent rounds unless a specific effect allows them to move back to the staging area. While engaged their threat is no longer counted, in the same way that the threat of an active location is no longer counted.
20. How does Legolas' ability or the Misty Mountain Goblin card work if there is an active location?
BG: The active location works as a buffer so progress tokens are added or removed from the active location first, and then the quest if neccessary, if an active location is in play.
21. Can you have cards in your player deck from a sphere that doesn't match the sphere of one of your heroes?
There is nothing in the rules that directly disallows this, although the player (except when using a certain hero/card combo) will not generally be able to play those cards from his/her hand.
22. What does "eligible enemy target" mean on the Quick Strike card?
BG: Eligible means "If it was the Combat Phase and you could normally declare that character as an attacker against that enemy." That would mean only Dunhere can attack Enemies in Staging and Ranged characters could attack Enemies engaged with other players. Other characters would have to attack Enemies engaged with you. (Thanks to Apophenia for this concisely worded answer)
23. The Brown Lands card says that after player travel place 1 travel token on it, this would mean that the location would cancel itself?
BG: This is correct. The main issue with the Brown Lands is it excessive threat (5), which must be dealt with prior to travelling to it and the need to be able to make it an active location before you can remove it (unless you have a way of adding progress tokens to cards in the staging area).
24. How does Beorn's ability work with sneak attack?
BG: Both cards have exactly the same trigger condition and therefore you can choose in which order to apply the text. This means you can return him to your hand via sneak attack ruling rather than to the deck by Beorn's own ruling, if you prefer.
25. Do treachery cards effects resolve when they are drawn as shadow cards?
Official: Only cards with a stated shadow effect resolve when drawn as a shadow cards. All other effects on the cards, regardless of card type are ignored.
26. Can you place an attachment on another players hero? Does the hero need to be of the same sphere as the attachment?
Official: Any character that meets the requirements of the attachment can receive the attachment. Unless specifically stated as a requirement on the card, you can play attachments on any hero (or character if the attachment allows), including another players' and/or one that is a different sphere to which the attachment belongs
27. During engagement checks, if there are two enemies with the same threat in the staging area which one engages the player?
Each player makes an engagement check in turn. If there are two enemies with the same threat rating equal to or less than the players threat then the player must choose to engage one of the enemies, which one is the player's choice (through discussion with the other players, if they so wish). Play then proceeds to the next player to make their engagement check and so on.
28. Does the horn of Gondor ability work for all participating players´ characters or only the player of the card?
The horn's ability applies to all participating players characters
29. If when defending an attack, the revealed shadow effect deals damage and destroys the defender, is the attack now considered undefended?
P. 18, bottom left: "If a defending character leaves play or is removed from combat before damage is assigned, the attack is considered undefended." In this statement, damage assigned refers to damage generated by comparing attack strength vs. the defenders defence strength. As the defender was destroyed prior to this being calculated (via a direct damage shadow effect) the attack is considered undefended.
30. Henamarth Riversong and Glorfindel are questing. In the adventure phase I draw "The Necromancer's Reach" and Riversong dies cause of that. Does his Willpower count towards the questing willpower?
The Willpower vs. threat calculation is completed during step 3 of the Questing phase, only characters still alive and considered questing during that stage have their willpower counted. As Riversong was destroyed during an earlier step, when the new encounter card is added to the staging area, his willpower is NOT counted during stage 3 of the questing phase.
31. Can I attach two of the same attachment to the same character? Two Citadel plates or Two Protector of Loriens?
The only restriction currently with attachments is that a single character is restricted to a limit of 2 attachments with the keyword "Restricted". This allows you two place 2 citadel plates etc onto the same character (if it helps picture this as being a single suit of better quality armour, rather than 2 separate suits). Note however, that each attachment is treated separately, so if there is a cost to activate the card (as is the case with Protector of Lorien), that cost must be paid for each card individually.
32. If there is an active location (with or without tokens) and despair has just revealed, what do you do?
The Despair card specifically states removing tokens from the quest card and there is nothing within the rules that states progress tokens should be taken off the active location in lieu of the main quest. However, as Legolas adds tokens to an active location in lieu of the quest card (based on the answer to question 20) The active location can be considered a buffer, an extension of the current quest, therefore you could remove tokens first from the extension and then from the quest card, if necessary. We hope that exactly how and when active locations should be considered as a buffer for the quest card is fully clarified in the official FAQ.
33. Do the Orc Guards generated by the effects of the Tower Gate location and Out of the Dungeons quest have the Orc Trait?
BG: Common sense would say yes, those cards do have the Orc trait, but there is nothing in the rule book or anything on the Tower Gate/Out of the Dungeons cards to support this. So until there is an official FAQ response to this, play it how you see fit.
34. If the first card attached to an objective is a location with "surge" keyword, I reveal another card from the encounter deck but where do I place this new "surged" card? Do I attach it to the objective, together with the first encounter card - and both of them are protecting the same objective card - or do I place it separately in the staging area?
Resolve any keywords as they occur. So you would attach the Enemy with Surge to the Objective, then draw an additional card. Just the first card counts as guarding the Objective.
If you draw another Surge, you resolve it as though you would any other Surge - by drawing an additional card.
35. Because of the Dungeon Jailer I need to place an Objective back into the deck,
1) What happens to the Encounter card attached / guarding it?
2) What do I do with it once the Objective card is later revealed from the deck?
- Only unguarded objectives are returned to the deck. If the objective still has a Encounter card, both remain in the staging area.
- Follow the instructions on P. 24 of the rule book. The objective card is placed in the staging area and the next Encounter card is turned to guard the objective due to the guarded keyword.
Any other unanswered or heavily debated questions I have missed?
