Coruhaer · RingsDB

A questing ability is useful even on a character with only 1 . An attacking ability is useful even on a character with only 1 . But a repeatable defending ability is useless on a character with only 1 . And that's what I find odd about Coruhaer. His ability triggers after he defends an attack, i.e. only after the whole attack is resolved, which means he has to survive the attack in order for you to use his ability. But he has only 1 and 2 , so he's not likely to survive an attack from anything that you'd want to use his ability on. Especially when you factor in that the only place you can use him in is the Angmar Awakened campaign, and nearly all the enemies in the Angmar Awakened cycle have 3 or more and can kill Coruhaer in one hit. You'd have to put in extra work (like Stand Together) to make him do anything - and at that point, why bother playing Coruhaer in the first place? The tipping point for me is that all of the other boons that Coruhaer is offered right next to (Berelind and others) are strong all on their own and need no extra work or deck construction to get the benefit of. I actually started a discussion thread on BoardGameGeek about this card, and the consensus generally fits with my opinion.

Did FFG mean to say "after Coruhaer is declared as a defender", like Gondorian Spearman? That would have made a lot more sense, especially given the two cards' similar stats. I might even house-rule it to play it like that despite what the card says, just so that I can try to get some use out of this otherwise-useless-looking card. Or maybe they were just being really cautious with what they could do with a 0-cost ally. It makes me wonder what happened in playtesting that Coruhaer's ability ended up as useless as it is.

PS: I just realized that there are no continuous or boosts for allies in the core set or in the Angmar Awakened cycle. If FFG intended that we make use of Coruhaer by finding ways of boosting his defense (see my "update" below), it makes me wonder exactly how they intended that we do so. I also just noticed that he isn't a Warrior or Noble, so even if you go outside the Angmar Awakened cycle and into other repackaged cycles, you can't even put Raiment of War, Hauberk of Mail or Ancestral Armor on him.

5/2/23

waltercardcollector 31

Update: I sent in an email to the FFG rules questions form asking about Coruhaer, and their answer was "if you want to use his ability, you should find ways of boosting his defense." This seems totally backwards to me because Coruhaer is a boon ally and is therefore a reward for doing something well in the story, and the last thing I want from my reward is to have to put in extra effort to make it not fail at doing what it's supposed to do. — waltercardcollector 31 8/29/23

Update 2: I'm going to try a house rule where Coruhaer's ability reads like this: "Response: After Coruhaer is declared as a defender, spend 1 resource to give him +3 DEF for this attack. Then, after the attack ends, if Coruhaer is still in play, deal 2 damage to the attacking enemy." This way he will still be helpful against the many 2-health enemies that the campaign will throw at you, while not automatically dying — waltercardcollector 31 4/26/24

against a 2-attack enemy that happens to get a boost from a shadow card. — waltercardcollector 31 4/26/24

worth using https://ringsdb.com/card/01038 and a 0-cost neutral ally who can chump or attack for 1 or take an arrow is not a bad thing overall. — doomguard 2168 4/26/24

@doomguard I do see your point, but I have found that Stand Together is usually not worth using to begin with, and Coruhaer doesn't really make me want to put Stand Together in my deck because if I draw Stand Together and don't draw Coruhaer then I'm stuck with a dead card. — waltercardcollector 31 5/29/24

stand together is not bad at all and imo far away from beeing a dead card. mostly not worth a slot but together with this here and perhaps an additional gondorian spearman there is potential. — doomguard 2168 5/29/24

@doomguard I can see that as well, but the thing is, the other boons that are offered alongside Coruhaer give you powerful effects that work all on their own and require little to no building around with the rest of your deck in order to be good. (Berelind and Laermuin encourage you to do things that most decks already do anyway, Chieftain's Brooch requires a trait-based deck but traits are one of the easiest things to build around, and with Mail of Eärnur reducing threat is something a lot of decks already do anyway.) To make Coruhaer good, you would basically have to reorient part or all of your deck around him. — waltercardcollector 31 8/13/24

@walter in solo you might not choose him but in multiplayer its better than nothing, and each boon can only be taken once if i remember correctly — doomguard 2168 8/14/24

@doomguard I do agree that it's better than nothing, but there are 4 boons that are offered alongside Coruhaer and all of them stand on their own a lot better than Coruhaer does. — waltercardcollector 31 9/10/24