As was shown many times during the books, it is not prudent to incur
The Black Enemy's Wrath - Hazard - Long-event
Each Under-deep site, Dark-hold, and Shadow-hold has an additional
automatic-attack (cannot be canceled): Lava Flows - 1 strike against each
character with 6 prowess (weapons do not modify prowess against these strikes).
The penalty for an untapped character not tapping against one of these strikes
is -5. Cannot be duplicated.
I'll just say whoa. Each character recieves a strike at 6 prowess. Right now that's just a little better than Crebain. On top of that, they can't use weapons. On top of that, even Glorfindel has a chance to fail if he stays untapped. So while 6 prowess strikes aren't too much to worry about, it can be enough to make a character that's normally tough (like a wizard) tap, which is the general idea of this card anyway.
Keep in mind that this attack is faced after the other attacks, so if your opponent goes to an under-deeps site he will have faced a pretty tough attack normally, plus maybe one from your hand, and then this one. Chances are that the weaker members of the company will be left for this one, and they won't be untapped for the items. This card also works well with Arouse Minions, making SURE that the characters won't stay untapped (even Glorfindel carrying Wormsbane has to roll a 6 to avoid :-)
There are just two disadvantages to this card. First, it's a long-event, so it hurts you too. You can get around that by careful timing (if you're going to go to a border-hold, eg), though. The other disadvantage is that if there is not a time rush and you do not play this card on guard, your opponent can just wait around a turn. Thus, this card is best used when time is going to be a factor (one or two deck games).
Of course there is the obvious card to play with this, Will of Sauron. This carries all the usual caveats of WoS, but if you plan on getting that combo out then you should base your item gathering around Ruins & Lairs. This will mean that any strategy designed for getting items at places other than normal Ruins & Lairs will get wuite messed up. Other combos include Arouse or Incite Minions (if you want to make SURE that they wait another turn) or this card along with cards like Awaken Denizens to close off Shadow, Dark, Under-deeps, AND Ruins and Lairs.
So all in all, The Black Enemy's Wrath is a nasty card, one of several that disincourages journeys to the Under-deeps and the holds of darkness and shadow.
| Ratings for The Black Enemy's Wrath: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 8.5 |
| Gandalf: | 5.5 |
| Strider: | 6.0 |
| Smaug: | 9.5 |
| Samwise: | 8.4 |
| Farmer Maggot: | 8.0 |
| Frodo: | 6.5 |
| Eonwe: | 7.5 |
| Legolas: | 7.0 |
| Average: | 7.4 |
Card names and text copyright 1996 by Iron Crown Enterprises, all rights reserved. This document copyright 1996 by Trevor Stone. Permission given to duplicate so long as no profit is made and the copyright notice is kept in tact, blah, blah, blah.