I'm relatively new to this game and am wondering why this card has no reviews as yet.

Lothiriel has quickly endeared herself to me as my favourite quester. I'm getting the feeling that more people prefer spirit Eowyn. My preference is for Lothiriel. Given that she has one less printed willpower: why?

For one thing, she costs one less threat point. But that's hardly the reason, on its own, for my preference. It's her ability I really love...

Assuming that you have Eomer in play (which gives her the Rohan trait) , there are just so many opportunities to put cards into play (albeit for questing only) for free. Got a Rohan character in hand that could help with questing? No worries, bring them along for free. A Gondor character? Well they could come instead. A noble character? Sure... Why not. Granted , they only stick around for one round (she looks well enough but maybe she has bad breath?) before waving goodbye to the fair lady. But boy can you quest fast with this gal! For instance, say you have an Escort From Edoras in hand. Normally, you'd pay 2, it would give you four willpower towards a quest and then disappear. With Lothiriel in play, it'll do the same thing but for free. And four willpower for free, even if for one phase only, seems pretty awesome to me. Compare that with the apparently more popular Eowyn... get rid of one card for only one more willpower.

But what I really love is that when Lothiriel puts a character into play for free, you not only get the benefit of that character's willpower for free, but also that character's card text for free. For example, bring a Westfold Horse-breeder questing for free and have a look through your deck for a mount attachment as a bonus. Or bring a Westfold Lancer along and do some damage to some creature lurking in the staging area while you're at it. Eomund with Lothiriel is one of my favourite combos... He comes along for the quest (again, for free) and, when waving goodbye, readies every other Rohan character in play. What's not to love?

And if all that wasn't enough... when Lothiriel's chums leave her side, they (generally) don't get discarded, but go back into the deck, ready to join her again at some critical point.

Having played Anduin a good number of times, with various kinds of decks (to get a feel for the game) I eventually plucked up courage to face the infamous Dol Guldur. Used a couple of random decks and took a beating. Thought about what was needed and realised... "OK, I need to quest hard but I can only play one ally from my hand per round.... BUT. I can sneak them in another way." Again, enter Lothiriel. Built a deck around her (and a second deck to compliment it) and BOOM. Instant win. Fluke? Tried it again... and again... and again. I'd estimate an 80 percent win rate. I'm now building up to trying the thing true solo. I'll see if Lothiriel can work as the linchpin.

So if you haven't tried a deck with Lothiriel, I'd recommend taking her along with Eomer and loading up a deck with useful allies that share a trait with her.

Apologies to all those people to whom all these musings of a newbie are either completely obvious, outdated in the light of later cards, or both