spiked (#17759),

The foolishness is in being left with that useless card and giving Frodo an opportunity to escape. You did well to recognize that you were better served to actually face the Balrog, since you had heard through the grapevine that he had a streak of cowardice and all Frodo needed to do was dance menacingly to make the big bully run away.

-MMM

Octavian (#17783),

Well I had heard the Balrog was full of hot air.....

...but seriously: do you think she should be forced to obey the text card?

spiked (#17786),
Well, those are the rules. But tell her she won, if it makes her happy.

I thought that Frodo's retreat takes place before cards are played -- in fact, there would be no combat, because Frodo would retreat sideways immediately. What am I missing?

Bruce Gee (#17791),

You are missing the fact that Frodo's ability is optional. Most of the time you will want to use it but in certain, rare circumstances (such as the one described) the good player may decline to do so.

Maybe I am mistaken also, but it seems to me that if she'd attacked you with Saruman, she could have skipped the card-playing phase and just smooshed the little bugger. Not to insult your wife by any means, but it seems from your description that she just attacked with the weaker piece for the situation.

John

CapAp (#20053),
I interpreted it to mean that Frodo's sideways retreat would have put him into Saruman's path.

-MMM

spiked (#17759),

Reading your scenario very carefully, Frodo should have died. You stated that "Frodo [is] backed into a corner" and that "in front of him both Saruman and the Balrog; so no way forward for poor old Frodo." The only place on the board that could happen is that Frodo is in Bag End and that Arthedain and Cardolan are occupied by Saruman and Balrog. Assuming that IS the correct setup, as soon as Balrog moved into Bag End with Frodo (and Frodo cannot retreat sideways because Bag End is a corner space), your numerical one card was revealed along with Balrog's Retreat card. Balrog cannot retreat sideways, so the card is ignored. The numerical one is added to Frodo's base power of one for a total of two. Frodo = 2, Balrog = 5, Frodo dies.

~Jeff

Gamemaster (#20327),

I believe the author was using "backed into a corner" as a figure of speech. You'll note that he had contemplated using Frodo's sidestepping power before realizing that the only card left for the opponent was Retreat. Obviously this could not have taken place in Bag End.


-MMM

I have the same question.

Let's simplify it a bit though first.

Dark player attacks light player. Assume that the battle makes it to the card playing and that each player only has one card left. The dark player has a retreat card. It doesn't matter what the light player has for this question. Assume that the dark player would win the battle if he didn't retreat. Must the dark player obey the text on the retreat card, thus running away from a battle that he would have won, or may he choose to ignore it?

My wife (the light player) determined that if the dark player were allowed to ignore the card's text then the dark player would be able to use the retreat card as a way of "scouting" the light player's card and then if the dark player determines that he can win if he ignores his played card then he'll just ignore it. Otherwise the dark player would just retreat. This really would seem unfair.

We decided that a card played is a card played and the dark player in this case MUST retreat. We figured that Pippin (the light character in our example) had tricked the Balrog (again, in our example) into thinking that he (Pippin) was a big and nasty creature so the 'Rog decided to turn tail. The lesson learned was to not get stuck with a retreat card when you must play it and you don't want to retreat (unless you can't retreat, etc).

UncleBuck (#20391),


Your decision was/is correct. All players must abide by their cards.

The only time the dark player could ignore the card text is if they are unable to carry out the action. For example, if the dark player played the retreat in the mountains, the retreat would be ignored since a character can not move sideways in the mountain.

hope this helps.

Marc M