CoE weekly Rulings/Clarifications 19

1. Does the automatic-attack boosting ability of Balrog of Moria affect the additional automatic-attack it creates to Moria (so becoming one strike with 20 prowess)?

*** Yes.

2. Legendary Hoard: what game effect does the inverting of the target Dragon at Home (when it's required to be discarded) have?

*** The wording on Legendary Hoard can be confusing. I suggest treating "invert" as "flip over"and players remembering the actual status of the At Home Dragon manifestation. Thus, if it has been Marvels Tolded, consider it discarded and the other player is free to play his/her version of the same At Home Dragon. If the dragon has been eliminated, apply all the effects of a slain dragon.

Therefore, a "flipped over"At Home Dragon under Legendary Hoard does not apply any of its effects. This also avoids any confusion as to how many times the dragon has been rotated and any possible cheezy abominations of a cool thematic card.

3. Is Great Secrets Buried There considered to be a resource or hazard Permanent-event when in play and played as a resource on yourself?

*** It's a hazard card when it's resolved on the table as a permanent-event. It's a resource when it's played as such and not resolved yet.

[Thanks to Nigel Buckle for answering 4. a)]

4. a) Can you use Promptings of Wisdom to cancel the effect of Faces of the Dead or does this work only when the effect applies to the whole company?

*** Promptings won't work unless the character targetted is the character that has Promptings Of Wisdom played on them, as Faces targets a character not the company itself.

b) Am I correct in saying that the rest of the effect applies (eg, the character still splits off into another company, he just doesn't go back to the site of origin), and so he's not with their company to face any more hazards (say, a Snowstorm)?

*** Yes, you are correct.

5. [With reference to An Unexpected Party]

a) Can I make someone a follower even if he requires no influence to control?

*** Yes. You can even play a character directly into DI if available from your hand.

b) Can I make someone a follower even if I can't afford to when I declare it, even if I'll be able to after I've done so?

*** No. You can't use the text of An Unexpected Party once the dwarf is out in GI with too high of a mind to fit into DI to have it remodified.

[Thanks to Nigel Buckle for answering 6-8]

6. Lure of Creation states "A revealed Wizard receives 2 corruption points AND makes a corruption check at the end of any movement/hazard phase during which his company moved to a Haven." Does this mean that every time this wizard moves to a haven he gets 2 CP's and then makes a CC. The reason I ask is because on my cards the 'and' is Bold and in all caps, while the text of the other Lure cards have the gaining of Corruption points and the CC mechanism in two separate sentences.

*** Nope, the card is just badly written - it's a standard corruption card, you play it on the wizard and it gives 2 CP (as indicated in the bottom lefthand corner). Whenever a wizard moves to a haven he makes a corruption check.

7. The minion versions of the palantíri state that they can only copy the abilities of minion palantír, but the hero versions have no restriction. Does this mean the hero version of the Palantír of Amon Sűl can copy the card drawing effect of the minion version of the Palantír of Elostrion, if both are in play?

*** I think you can't for the following reasons:

1/ The minion version has the restriction and these cards were printed with hindsight (when METW was printed ME:LE hadn't been considered).

2/ In the rule section using ME:TW with ME:LE you can play opposing items but you cannot use the items special abilities.

3/ In the White Hand rules minion resources can't target/affect hero resources and vice versa.

8. If you are playing Balrog and you bring in Bűrat and then follow that up with the others of the trio, are you still allowed to bring in another non-Unique character? I think so, just wanting to check.

*** The troll trio's abilities for bringing other members of the gang into play is special to them.

9. I was playing under the assumption that multiple copies of Helms of Iron are cumulative. e.g. If three are in play, then non-bodied orc, trolls, and men would have 6 body. 4 body for the first HoI, and +2 for the second and third together.

*** Your assumptions are correct.

10. Can a non-wizard character be eliminated by Abductor?

*** No. Strike Sequence: Annotation 19 - "Following each successful strike or failed strike, a body check must be rolled (unless the failed strike has no body). However, if the strike calls for any special actions to follow it (e.g., a chracter wounded by William maybe required to discard his items), these special actions are resolved before the body check." Thus, once a non-wizard character is wounded by an Abductor, they are discarded without a body check.

11. Does Bill the Pony ability, when discarded, override environments like Snowstorm, Long Winters, Foul Fumes. for returning to the closest haven?

*** Yes, because you don't have a site path when you use Bill the Pony's teleporting ability.

12. Annotation 15: An attack must be the first declared action in a chain of effects; i.e., a creature card may not be played in response to another card in the same chain of effects. Revealing an on-guard creature is an exception. Does this mean that Tidings of Bold Spies can not be played in response, only at the start of a chain, or does this only apply to creatures.

*** That Annotation is referring to creature cards. Tidings of Bold Spies can be played in response.

13. Regarding Alone and Unadvised, the phrase: "All of his corruption checks are modified by adding the number of characters in his company" makes me think that this includes CC's from other sources, such as Weariness of the Heart.

*** The corruption check modidification is referring to all of the cc's resulting from this particular Alone and Unadvised card.

14. a) If my company "teleports" using Farmer Maggot against an assassin's attack, what happens with the two remaining attacks ?

*** They fizzle.

b) What if you use a card such as Forewarned is Forearmed or Unabated in Malice to cancel the cancelling ability of Farmer Maggot? Does this cancel Farmer Maggot?

*** Cancelling an attack is an additional after-effect of Farmer Maggot. Just because an attack can't be cancelled due to certain cards, doesn't mean that you can't teleport with Farmer Maggot. The attack won't be cancelled, as in the case of Forewarned at Ettenmoors and Unabated, but the company will have already teleported, thus they are no longer there to face the attack.

15. Extra strikes are assigned as -1 modifications. They are strikes, they are assigned, so: If a lone scout w/ a Ring of Stealth is attacked by a Cave-drake, can he use the ring to cancel the strike assigned as a neg. mod? If he does and defeats the other strike, does he get the MP's, as the extra strikes need not be defeated?

*** No and no.

16. a) If you are a Fallen Wizard and move a company with Regiment of black crows to Morannon, and then play Great Ruse, do they disappear?

*** There is no minion version site of Morannon so you cannot play Great Ruse.

b) What about Wondrous Maps?

*** Same as a).

17. Or if you have a company moving to a Refuge, and you are Cast From the Order?

*** If you are Cast from the Order from a previous turn, you may not play Refuge. If you have Cast from the Order played on you while you're moving to Refuge, as per the CRF under "sites", your opponent must provide the minion version of the site if you don't have it available. Neither of you can do that so you get to the normal Refuge.

18. Do the resource cards that turn into sites count as the same site? If two companies use Wondrous Maps in the same region, do they combine? I think that they wouldn't, they are following different Maps, but IF you had two companies moving to Morannon they should combine because there is only one Morannon.

*** These sites are all separate. There would be no combining because none of these resource sites are unique. As for Morannon, it's a big gate. You could be on opposite ends or sides of the gate.

[Thanks to Nigel Buckle for answering 19]

19. CRF says about White Mountains and its ilk to read "Otherwise" as "Alternatively." Observing closely the punctuation, I might infer that I can use the alternate (second) effect even if I'm not using region movement and without tapping a Ranger. Is this true? The second effect also seems to retain the assumption that the company's at least moving, which the first sentence doesn't stipulate.

*** I'd rule you can play this card on a company containing a ranger. You can either tap the ranger and move as if the listed regions were adjacent OR as long as the site you moved to was in one of the listed regions (and you could do this with starter or region movement) then the hazard limit is reduced by 2. Furthermore if the player wasn't going to use one of these effects (reduce hazard limit or move as if the regions were adjacent) then playing the card would be illegal (playing for no effect).

20. Does Black Vapour completely fizzle Riddling Talk, or just the part that discards the creature? In other words, is it still worth going through the riddling to see if the hazard limit is reduced?

*** It just cancels the cancellation of the attack. Reduction of hazard limit cancels the hazard, not specifically the attack. Thus, Black Vapour does not affect the hazard limit reduction capabilities of Riddling Talk. So it's still worth going through the riddling to see if the hazard limit is reduced.

Brian "No Cheeze" Wong