#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?...

#4 Ally for Cost Value - Elrond

The fourth position in our list of allies with good Cost Values is the elf who runs Rivendell, Elrond. This Lore ally is found in the Road Darkens box from the LOTR Saga expansions. His Cost Value is 183%.

It is quite normal to see characters in the Lore sphere that have good stats for everything. You are left looking at several good options and wondering which is the best for right now. Elrond is one of these characters, offering particularly good Willpower and Defence

But he offers these at a really good cost. These same stats have been seen before on the Lore ally Gildor Inglorion, who costs five resources. So Elrond's cost of three shows why he has such a good Cost Value! The balance put in by the game designers is that, like Gandalf, he won't stay around for long. He leaves play at the end of the round.

If you consider that whichever stat you use will only be useful for a single round, you may think that Elrond is really just a bit like an Event card. Need to boost a characters attack by two this round? Elrond can effectively do that by entering play and joining with the attack, but paying three resources for this doesn't seem like good value for money any more.

Which is why it is also good that Elrond, like the Core Set version of Gandalf, offers us several options when he enters play. Healing and drawing a card are both useful, but Lore already offers several other cards for these. What makes Elrond stand out most is that he is only the third card released that allows you to discard Condition Attachments. This, all by itself, may be the reason you want to include him in your deck.

The Worst for Threat Value - Bilbo

The shame! The disappointment! As we come to the end of this list, it turns out that the first expansion ever released for LOTR LCG was the worst Hero for Threat Value. The offender in question is the original Hobbit himself, Bilbo Baggins. He is a Lore Hero found in the Hunt for Gollum adventure pack in the Mirkwood cycle of expansions. His Threat Value is 67%.

If Bilbo is on your team, you are unlikely to send him questing. You are also unlikely to use him for attacking. Both of these stats have a value of one that can quickly be passed by. The only job he might be good for is that of a defender since is Defence value is two. But even this is a poor offering, as a better Lore defender is already included in the Core Set (Denethor has a Defence of three) and Bilbo only has two Health. Many reasonably average enemies would kill him without breaking a sweat. Yes, you can always boost his defence with various player cards, but we can't count on that, can we? So the only thing left to consider is his power.

Bilbo allows the first player to draw an extra card every turn. Card drawing effects are extremely helpful in this game, it must be said. But Bilbo's power only applies to the first player, so his power benefits from having less players in a game, which usually makes a quest harder, especially in the earlier cycles. In a solo game it means you will draw two cards every turn. That's good, but is it good enough? I'm afraid I don't think it is.

Our formula calculates that Bilbo should have a Threat Cost of six. But the designers of the game have here made their biggest ever manual increase of a Heroes Threat Cost, and increased this by three to be a total of nine! Nine? If Bilbo cost six he would be a likely Hero for Lore teams, or at a cost of seven he would still be looking good in a Hobbit team. But nine? It seems overpriced. In fact I would go so far as to say that in Bilbo, the designers have made their biggest mistake in overpricing a Hero. It's not as if the Lore sphere doesn't have other card drawing effects. I think that this Hobbit will unfortunately remain in a restful state for much of his life, writing about the quests that he hears other Heroes bring back tales of.

Team - Core Set Lore Heroes

Finally we come to the last Heroes provided in the Core Set, those belonging to the Lore sphere. Do they make a good team?

As we already know, all Heroes from the Core Set have a Threat Value of 100%, and these three are no exception. The stats on each Hero add up perfectly to their Threat Cost. However, the Stat Values are a mixed bag.

Glorfindel has a Stat Value of 100%. According to the formula he is an average Hero, though this is surprising considering his stats. The formula does not take into account that both his Willpower and Attack are value three, it simply notes that the highest value he has printed is three. As with many characters in the Lore sphere, we are left with choices, since Glorfindel excels in more than one category. Indeed, we shall find that the Stat Value formula will often fall short of telling the whole story for characters in this sphere.

Beravor only has a Stat Value of 80%, because paying a Threat Cost of ten appears high for a Hero with a value of two as her highest. But here we see a design common in Lore characters- this highest stat is shared between several stats, or in this case, all three of them. It is completely your choice whether she contributes to questing, defending or attacking, because she can make a fair offer for all of them. The only issue is that she is another Hero that suffers from Annoying Power Syndrome. Her stats indicate that you will want to exhaust her to use her for something during each round, but her Power requires that you exhaust her too. One character offering four equally valid choices is kind of annoying. On the good side, at least she will always be useful, and is a prime candidate for pairing with a sphere that has readying abilities.

Last, but definitely not least, we have Denethor. He has an impressive Stat Value of 150% due to his impressive defence value of three. We have already mentioned him in earlier posts.

Is this a team that works well together? I would say yes. As an example, assume you are using this team in a solo game where there are no enemies in play at the beginning. You can exhaust Glorfindel as your main quester, giving you a fair value of three. It is worth noting that him being exhausted does not prevent you from using his healing Power. Then you can see what type of card comes out of the encounter deck. If it is an enemy then you can defend handily with Denethor and attack with Beravor. However, if the card revealed is either a location or treachery then before the round ends you will be able to exhaust your two remaining Heroes to both draw two cards and have a look at what will appear from the encounter deck next round. Not bad at all.

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.

10th Worst for Threat Value - Elrond

Having looked at the three Heroes with Threat Values higher than 100%, we will next look at the Heroes with Threat Values lower than 100%. These are characters whose stats predict a certain Threat Cost, but for various reasons the designers of the game have pushed the Threat Cost higher than it would normally be. The reasons vary, as we shall see.

There are currently ten Heroes with Threat Costs lower than 100%. The first of these, sitting in a position as the tenth worst Hero by this measurement, is Elrond. He is a Lore Hero found in the Shadow and Flame adventure pack in the Dwarrowdelf cycle expansions. His Threat Value is 92%.

Elrond's stats indicate that his Threat Cost should be twelve, but he has been released with one of thirteen instead. Since the designers have not gone by numbers alone, we must assume (as we will with all Heroes on this "worst Threat Value" list) that the power in the text box is what the designer feels has justified the extra cost.

The ability to pay for allies in any sphere is unique in the game, and certainly makes multi-sphere deck building a lot easier. Being in the Lore sphere he provides access to many healing cards and so his response power also plays to his strengths.

I would say that although raising his Threat Cost by one above the Predicted Threat seems justified by the multi-sphere power, I would find him annoying to use in a team that didn't quickly provide some readying abilities. Such strong figures for both Willpower and Defence seem wasted if only one can be used each round for the entire game.

#6 Hero for Stat Value - Denethor

Only two Heroes from the Core Set made it into the top seven ranks for Stat Value, and the first of those that we see is Denethor. He is a Lore Hero from the Core Set. His Stat Value is 150%.

His defence of three for his Threat Cost of eight make him a very efficient defender for your team. The Lore sphere which he belongs to also has access to some good cards for cancelling shadow effects and healing your characters if they ever get hit by an enemy that is tougher than normal.

There are four other Heroes with a defence of three. It is interesting to note that two of them have good Stat Values and two do not.

The two that do are Dain Ironfoot and Erkenbrand. Dain's defence of three and Threat Cost of 11 give him a Stat value of 109%. However you are more likely to find him useful for his ongoing power than for his defending ability. Erkenbrand's defence of three and Threat Cost of 10 give him a Stat Value of 120%. His power makes it obvious that he is good for one job, defending.

The two Heroes with three defence that have a Stat Value of less than 100% are Elrond (Lore) and Gandalf (Neutral). Elrond has a Stat Value of 92% and Gandalf has a Stat Value of 86%. In both cases this is due to their highest value stat of three being not so great compared to their Threat Costs of thirteen and fourteen respectively. But obviously their Threat Costs need to be this high due to them having powerful stats across the board; they are not one-trick ponies. So here we can make an observation; Heroes which have more than one powerful stat may score badly for Stat Value.