LotR TCG Card Strategies - #26

Enheartened Foe

Last time, I spoke about the benefits of Savagery to Match Their Numbers making a minion suddenly fierce. Let me expand on that by talking about...

247. Enheartened Foe

This has the basic effect/cost ratio of one wound from one card. It's similar to Lurtz's Battle Cry, Blade Tip, Hate, and just about any minion. Like all those cards, it may possibly do more than one wound if the minion overwhelms a companion. (or, with Blade Tip, if the opponent doesn't remove it next turn.) Sure, you could just use another minion and fight two companions, but this card doesn't cost any twilight. That's a great bargain if using it on a high priced Band of the Eye or Morgul Hunter. It's also useful since Sauron Orcs roam until site 6.

OK, so it's a solid card, but what's so important about being "suddenly fierce"? It disrupts the opponent's plan. That's a very basic, and powerful, CCG strategy.

Lord of the Rings is a game of very limited resources. You only have so many cards a turn, you can only take so many wounds, you only have so much healing. As a result, a lot of strategy turns into "damage control". Things like "how can I fight the Cave Troll without losing a Companion?" or "can I keep Legolas out of combat long enough to get to a Sanctuary?" or "Thrarin, come here, I need you."¹

When the opponent is faced with your minions, choosing defenders is usually based on two criteria: who can win, and who can take a wound. If they see a Fierce minion, they know to plan for that Skirmish, too. For example, if they plan to sacrifice Merry against a fierce Cave Troll, they may let him take a wound from a smaller minion first. That way when he dies, he takes that other wound out of play with him. If they didn't plan for a fierce Band of the Eye, that other wound could be sitting in play still. A worse situation happens if they use resources to win one skirmish and then don't have cards to use on the fierce one. Say the opponent uses Hobbit Stealh on a skirmish between Frodo and an Orc Abusher, if they had just taken the one wound they could have canceled the skirmish with the fierce Morgul Warden.

Another basic CCG strategy is to press the advantage. You can wait to play the Enheartened Foe until you see that the opponent has no Skirmish events. That way you keep killing companions instead of drawing out one Skirmish event from your one Reaction. It's that flexability that makes the strategy so powerful. There is advantage in the "surprise factor".

¹Some players call Thrarin "phone-a-friend". so, yes, that's a joke within a joke.