Grappling Hook

One interesting thing to note is that Grappling Hook is not restricted. So it could be attached on, say, Vassal of the Windlord. This is ridiculously hilarious from a theme standpoint (I picture an eagle carrying a rope in his claws, the grappling hook trailing across the ground), but powerful from a mechanics standpoint. It would allow the Vassal to quest for 3 even on a non-battle quest, and still be available on a later turn to make an attack. (Or even on this turn if Narya readies him).

Indeed this could be hilarious from a thematic perspective. However this is a 3x include whenever I am playing Legolas (Core) for he usually stands back and waits for an enemy to pop out of the encounter deck. This card allows him to be a power-quester for those few rounds that you get buried in locations. Also this doesn't happen more than 1-2 times per game, so it is a really good deal for 1 resource.

And if you think that the eagle combo is funny, just imagine using this on Beorn (Core ally) and then triggering his shape-shifting for the 5 attack bonus to the quest. Quiet orc camp on the hill and then suddenly a wild bear jumps over like Tarzan. Those times...

Pretty sure I’m alone here but I think this is my favorite card from the entire box. It’s not super flashy but it’s thematically hilarious and genuinely fills a hole in the meta that’s been there since Core.

The most common 2-player setup you see is people running one deck designed to engage and combat enemies (often with some Sentinel and/or Ranged characters to help out when the flop forces the other guy to take an enemy) and the other player running a deck designed to place progress and manage the non-enemy threats from the Encounter Deck.

But sometimes the Encounter Deck just doesn’t cooperate and it can often lead to the Combat-focused player having very little to do in a given turn. Now with a couple Grappling Hooks on hand you can easily turn that kind-of-boring, kind-of-annoying eventuality into a big Questing turn that can put a lot of progress on the board. Especially since it’s not uncommon for a Tactics Hero to be sitting on 5 or 6 attack by the middle of a game.

Great design, great theme, great card. 

This could come in handy on several occasions. What I like most about it is the "discard" part, otherwise it would have been clearly overpowered. With its current text, it remains a valuable attachment without breaking the game. I'm still not certain whether I'd put it in a deck, since those that sport Tactics heroes tend to lean heavily on the attachment side already, but I'm certainly happy that the option is here.

This could come in handy on several occasions. What I like most about it is the "discard" part, otherwise it would have been clearly overpowered. With its current text, it remains a valuable attachment without breaking the game. I'm still not certain whether I'd put it in a deck, since those that sport Tactics heroes tend to lean heavily on the attachment side already, but I'm certainly happy that the option is here.

I can see that. 

It's not for every deck or every player count but it can really round out a Combat-focused deck. After all, sometimes there just isn't anyone to fight...

Plus, it's a lot easier to buff Attack than Willpower (usually) so effects like Khazad! Khazad! can work really well to put a lot of progress down quickly in scenarios where you're in a rush.

I hear you, but it still gives me (welcome) headaches as to what to leave behind in order to include it.

Let me give you an example:

Several months ago, I've put together a Tactics/Leadership deck tailored for multi and centered around a Gondor/Rohan alliance. It featured Beregond/Eomer/Theodred. In the combat department, it absolutely destroyed  everything unfortunate enough to cross its path and the gold was abundant. Being highly specialized however, it was inevitably atrocious in the questing department, relying almost exclusively on the other player(s) to deliver. There were games when our questing power was simply not enough. I still remember a specific one when we threw our decks against the third quest of the Khazad Dum box (a quest that never caused me any problems when I played solo) and the encounter deck simply laughed at us. It was both frustrating and pathetic to send Eomer for anemic questing simply because there was no enemy in sight.

Now, the Hook really helps in such cases. Eomer on Firefoot and a Hook in place of a lasso with rodeo music on the background is both hilarious and effective. But like I said in my previous post, such decks as the one I refer to here tend to sport loads of attachments. This one specifically had, if memory serves, the Horn of Gondor, 3 Stewards, 2 Heirs of Mardil, 3 Gondorian Shields, 2 Spears of the Citadel, 2 Rohan Warhorses and 2 Firefoots. I do not dare to cut any of the aforementioned attachments because they are integral to my deck's strategy and this one has weak draw, so extra copies of some of those attachments guarantee I'll see them sooner than later. Not to mention that I can always give extra non-uniques to my fellow players. If I decide to add the Hook, then the attachment count will raise even higher at the expense of allies and events and I'm not sure I want that. Frankly, I'd firstly change the hero line-up and Tactics/Leadership ratio (Beregond/CS Aragorn/ Theodred seems promising in both questing and combat, since plenty of economy + Gondorian Fire turn Aragorn into a monster, while his respectable willpower plus his broken sword/Celebrian's Stone aid tremendously in questing) before adding the Hook in the original deck. And Aragorn is  Gondor incarnate thematically, so I do not betray the spirit of the original deck.

In short: the Hook really addresses an inherent Tactics problem. But it's definitely not an auto-include as it first might seem. Especially in multi.

I can see that concern--I actually think that's a "problem" with tactics generally. I think it has probably the largest number of generically good cards (outside of combo considerations) of any sphere. Whenever I'm building with Tactics it's always a struggle to keep to 50. 

Like I said before, I don't think this is an auto-include by any means. And you're right--for a lot of Tactics decks it's really hard to find space for a card that doesn't help the deck do what it's primarily supposed to be doing. 

But I do think this is the best option we've had yet for Tactics decks looking for some Questing versatility. For me, I value the flexibility enough that I would probably just throw a couple copies in on top of my 50 cards before I left it out all together but that is obviously going to depend on your exact loadout and what decks you're partnering with. 

I am always playing with my wife and this brings the total amount of cards to be chosen to 100. Many cards manage to fit in that number that would otherwise be left out. Not that everything can be crammed in the decks, but playing duo certainly opens some design space that wasn't previously there for solo.

It is worth mentioning that none of the decks is specialized to the extreme - that is an apporach we do not like and find suboptimal for our playstyle. Thus it is not unnatural for the Tactics player to go for whatever questing help there is - Blade of Gondolin, Arod, now Grapling Hook, too.

The amazing thing about LotR LCG is that it is cooperative - cards are valued more from the personal approach of each player rather than from some objective "power level". Not that some cards are not obviously strong, I refer to the rest specialized effects. There are not that many bad effects - only strategies some people don't like or enjoy.

For my playstyle this card is a godsend - like Late Adventurer on steroids. It is like a guarantee against bad Encounter deck draw. Which reminds me that it is also a little quest specific, but hey, almost everything in this game is quest spceific

I am always playing with my wife and this brings the total amount of cards to be chosen to 100. Many cards manage to fit in that number that would otherwise be left out. Not that everything can be crammed in the decks, but playing duo certainly opens some design space that wasn't previously there for solo.

 

It is worth mentioning that none of the decks is specialized to the extreme - that is an apporach we do not like and find suboptimal for our playstyle. Thus it is not unnatural for the Tactics player to go for whatever questing help there is - Blade of Gondolin, Arod, now Grapling Hook, too.

 

The amazing thing about LotR LCG is that it is cooperative - cards are valued more from the personal approach of each player rather than from some objective "power level". Not that some cards are not obviously strong, I refer to the rest specialized effects. There are not that many bad effects - only strategies some people don't like or enjoy.

 

For my playstyle this card is a godsend - like Late Adventurer on steroids. It is like a guarantee against bad Encounter deck draw. Which reminds me that it is also a little quest specific, but hey, almost everything in this game is quest spceific

I actually like this card so much because it doesn't feel Quest-Specific to me. At lower player counts you will almost always have a flop here or there from the Encounter Deck that just doesn't give your Tactics Heroes anything to do--and that's true of almost any scenario (except, I suppose, those that start with bosses on the board). 

It's not for every player deck, by any means. But in any heavy-combat Tactics deck (even one that doesn't exclusively focus on combat) it seems to make a lot of sense.

Also this is yet another card that shares name with another LCG - Netrunner. The world is a small place.