#2 Ally for Cost Value - Wandering Ent

The runner-up in our list of Allies with the best Cost Values is the humble Wandering Ent. This Lore ally is found in the Celebrimbor's Secret adventure pack from the Ring Maker cycle expansions. His Cost Value is 225%.

As we have already noted, Lore characters often have average stats in all areas, so you have plenty of options when they are in play. Another thing we have previously noted is that Ents (such as Treebeard and Booming Ent who also had good entries on this list) enter play exhausted to balance their cheap costs.

Wandering Ent is no exception to either of these. When compared to the two Ent cards we have already seen, this one scores even higher possibly because he has no text power at all. Treebeard provided resources and Booming Ent could build up quite a large bonus to their attack, but the Lore Ent is just a plain useful ally.

But to really see how good value he is, we can compare him to a Lore ally released much earlier; Haldir of Lorien. This Ent and Haldir are Lore allies with exactly the same stats, but Haldir costs four resources whereas the Ent only costs half of that! Well, what are we losing when we swap Haldir for the Wandering Ent? The Ent doesn't have the Ranged or Sentinel keywords, but in my opinion the Lore sphere is the best one for solo play anyway. We have the entering exhausted effect, but I'm not convinced that that balances the cheap cost of this tree herder. He is very simple, and very good value. That is why Wandering Ent makes it into second place on this list. So which card is the only card that offers better Cost Value?...

#5 Ally for Cost Value - Treebeard

The fifth Ally in our list of allies with a great Cost Value is Treebeard. This neutral Ally is found in the Antlered Crown adventure pack from the Ring Maker cycle. His Cost Value is 175%.

Treebeard is the most well-known Ent character from Lord of the Rings, and appears in the trilogy as a leader of the tree herders. Like all Ents, he enters play exhausted because he is not willing to be hasty and get involved too quickly. But from the next round onwards, you find that your four resources have been well spent! He has average Willpower and very good attack and defence values.

So he would be considered good value for money anyway, but if you have any other Ent allies in your deck then the resources he collects effectively mean you get money off for playing them!

Last but not least, even if Treebeard is the only Ent in your deck, he can still be really useful. Like Gandalf, the fact that he is a neutral card makes him useful in multi-sphere decks. Also, every other round you can use his resources to get some action advantage; need a good push on questing but not sure if you will have enough defenders if another enemy appears? Treebeard can quest, and then (assuming you didn't do it in the previous round) spend his resources to ready himself when you know you need an extra defender or attacker later on.

#6 Ally for Cost Value - Booming Ent

The sixth best Ally for Cost Value is the ferocious tree herder, the Booming Ent. This tactics Ally is found in the Antlered Crown adventure pack from the Ring Maker expansion cycle. His Cost Value is 175%.

I do like the mechanic used for Ents that states they enter play exhausted. That, combined with the inability to have restricted attachments, gives a great feeling that these beings are big and powerful, but never hasty to enter the battle. This particular Ent is apparently a loud one, who gets stronger (and presumably louder) when any of his Ent friends have been wounded.

This Ally should cost, according to the formula, three and a half resources. Getting him for only two, with the balance of needing to wait one round before he actually does anything, seems like a good deal. Two attack (minimum) and two defence makes him useful in the combat phase of each round, as we would expect from the Tactics sphere.

He should be useful in any quest that involves combat, unless perhaps the quest is one which plunges you straight in the deep end and requires ally aid from the very first round.

4th Worst for Threat Value - Grima

Grima, the sneaky advisor to the King of Rohan, enters the Threat Value list four entries from the bottom. He is a Lore Hero found in the Voice of Isengard deluxe expansion from the Ring Maker cycle. His Threat Value is 89%.

The formula calculates that his Threat Cost should be eight instead of nine, so why have the designers raised it by one? Grima does not boast particularly strong stats in any one area, but like many Lore Heroes he is at least flexible and gives you options.

The designers seemed to consider that his ability, which doesn't require Grima to exhaust, is worth the extra Threat point. The ability to reduce card costs every round is certainly powerful, but it comes with it's own penalty of raising your threat even further. I can't speak on whether this is a worthwhile trade because I have never played using the Doomed player card mechanics in the Ring Maker cycle. For aggressive players, this might certainly be appealing. Grima turns out to be another Hero that you would use for his power, not his stats.

5th Worst for Threat Value - Galadriel

The Hero that takes place of being the fifth worst for Threat Value is the lovely lady of the forest, Galadriel. She is a Spirit Hero found in the Celebrimbor's Secret adventure pack from the Ring Maker expansion cycle. Her Threat Value is 89%.

This is another case where a Hero who appeared in one of the top positions in the Stat Value list has appeared in the bottom of the Threat Value list. For these cases, it seems to be that a Hero must be so exceptionally good in one area that their Threat Cost is set artificially higher to compensate for this.

Galadriel made it into a top position for Stat Value because of her four Willpower, however she has absolutely no Attack or Defence values. But you could say that all of this doesn't matter anyway, because Galadriel is currently the only Hero in the game that you are not allowed to use for questing, defending or attacking. So does her Threat Value mean much anyway? I don't know. On an average quest, to decide whether her Threat Cost of nine is worthwhile you need to weigh whether her action power is valuable enough for you.

#5 Ally for Stat Value - Saruman

For the first post in our series looking at the Stat Value of Allies currently available, the treacherous wizard Saruman enters the list in 5th place. He is a Neutral Ally found in the Voice of Isengard expansion from the Ring Maker cycle. His Stat Value is 333%.

By comparison to Hero Stat Values, this is extremely high, and we still have four other Allies to go that are even better! The calculation for Ally Stat Values is different for Hero Stat Values (see the tab at the top of the page), but follows the same principle. As we look at the best and worst Allies with this figure, we shall see that Allies vary a lot more than Heroes; it is much rarer for an Ally to have a straight forward value of 100%.

But let's look at Saruman in a bit more detail. The reason for his high Stat Value is in plain sight; a portion of his Resource Cost has clearly been replaced by the Doomed keyword in his text box. You might wonder if his low cost is also due to the fact that he leaves play at the end of the round, too. He shares this mechanic with the Ally versions of Gandalf, but Saruman is placed higher than his Istari brethren in the Stat Value list because his stats are less balanced. His Attack value of five for such a low cost earns him this position.

#3 Hero for Stat Value - Galadriel

The third position in our list of Heroes with the best Stat Value is possible a controversial one. It is taken by Galadriel. She is a Spirit Hero found in the Celebrimbor's Secret adventure pack in the Ring Maker cycle expansions. Her Stat Value is 178%.

This is an usual entry on the list, and a good example of the fact that my formula for determining Stat Value only takes printed values into account and ignores keywords and text powers or limits. The noble elf has an impressive four Willpower, a quality only found in one other character in the game, yet her text box states that she cannot use it for questing. What good are powerful stats if you can't use them? Well, there are two possible answers.

The first is that her action power might be able to earn her a place in a team all by itself. Getting one free round of questing out of each ally is interesting, but much more powerful is the exhaust action. Reducing threat every round, and getting a card while you do it? In a solo game that is the same as never having to raise your threat in the refresh phase and drawing two cards instead of one, for every turn!

The second answer is that Galadriel could make use of her four Willpower during a quest that requires you to use stats for tasks other than questing, defence and attack. As an example, she could be a great help with the Hide tests used in the Black Riders Saga expansion. But this has limited application.

In most quests, a solo player may want to include Galadriel in their team because of her powerful exhaust action. The only thing they have to balance, however, is the fact that they somehow need to assign three roles (quester, defender and attacker) to the two Heroes that make up the rest of their team.