Erebor Hammersmith

Tremendous value for cost ally that is great to recur attachments.

Background

The Hammersmith is one of Durin’s folk or a Longbeard Dwarf. The Longbeards are the only Dwarves introduced in The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings although there are other clans of Dwarves descended from the original 7 fathers created by Aule. The Dwarves of Erebor originally came Khazad-Dum or Moiria after being driven out in the First Age. Erebor in the books is known for having been occupied by the Dragon Smaug during the Third Age not long prior to Sauron’s return.

Card Theme

Many attachments in the game are items. The Hammersmith then could be seen as repairing those items in the discard pile. Once repaired, it is then it can be used again in play. A similar logic seems to be applied to the Reforged card from the Vengeance of Mordor cycle. A thematic disconnect, however, is that neither card is limited to attachments with the Item or Artifact traits. They can bring back Titles like Steward of Gondor or Skills like Self Preservation.

There is also a nice tie in with the Dwarf Mining mechanism that discards cards from a player’s deck. even though it was not developed later cycles. The Erebor Hammersmith lets players dig in their discard pile for “treasure”. Akin to the mining effects dig through the deck for “treasure” like Hidden Cache.

Card Synergies and Interactions

Single Use Attachments

There are some very useful attachments that a player can play and then later discard for an effect. Erebor Hammersmith can get extra uses out of these cards. In the same sphere, there are several one time healing attachments such as Lembas, Athelas, and Healing Herbs. Lembas will even ready the hero it is attached to making it a favorite for defending heroes. Cram and Miruvor are other one time readying effects that are useful to recur. Thror’s Map is another good in sphere option that can let players avoid a travel effect.

Attachments that can go on enemies, locations, or quest cards are also good targets, such as, Ancient Mathom, Ranger Provisions, The Long Defeat, or Secret Vigil. This is because they are discarded when the attached enemy, location, or quest card leaves play. Many have strong effects due to the additional requirement of exploring the location, completing the quest card, or defeating enemy it is attached to.

Traps

These are very similar to the single use attachments although typically these provide ongoing effects. Ambush is the exception since it is discarded to allow the player(s) to attack the enemy before defending. Once the enemy is defeated, Erebor Hammersmith can bring them back to be used again.

Discard Effects

The other kind of discard effect has players discarding cards from the top their deck. This is often referred to as “mining” or “milling” (milling is the common term for this in Magic the Gathering) despite the designers calling it “delving” in an FFG livestream in early 2022. Mining effects work better with Erebor Hammersmith because the more that is discarded from the deck, the more options the Hammersmith has to put into your hand. The ability paired with mining then acts like card search and draw.

Dwarf Tribal

Dwarf allies have many ways they can become better. The primary one is Leadership Dain Ironfoot that boosts both willpower and attack of all Dwarves when he is ready. Hardy Leadership can give the Hammersmith and all other Dwarves +1 hit point. On top of those global boosts, there are attachments like Boots from Erebor, Ring Mail, and Armor of Erebor that can go on a Dwarf character. The Hammersmith’s 3 hit points lends itself to being built up into a secondary defender.

Put in Play Effects

Sneak Attack, Stand and Fight, A Very Good Tale, To me! O my kinsfolk!, and similar cards that put allies into play don’t trigger the Hammersmith’s ability. The response says, “After you play,” which is different from putting an ally into play per FAQ 1.16. Put into play effects then are a nonbo with the Erebor Hammersmith.

Quest Specific

There are many quests where the Hammersmith’s ability will be very helpful since effects that discard attachments or attachment hate is sprinkled throughout the game. There are a couple stand out quests where this can help more than others. The first is Foundations of Stone. There is a part of the quest where players have to discard all Item, Weapon, and Armor cards. That is going to be most attachments that players typically use and the Hammersmith can help get them back.

Ring Rating

Card Talk uses the highly scientific yet arbitrary scale of 1 ring for the card to rule them all to 10 to be cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came.

I rate Erebor Hammersmith at a 2. He is tremendous value for stats. I’ve played him a bit more recently in the Revised Core Set campaign, and he is one of the few allies that can defend a 2 or 3 attack enemy and survive most of the time. On top of that, He is a Dwarf. Dain, Hardy Leadership, and Dwarf character attachments can all make him better. He is quite cheap at only 2 Lore resources. Lore doesn’t have much in sphere resource acceleration. This means that players typically have to play on the resource curve and load up on efficient allies.

On top of all this, he has an incredibly useful and versatile ability to return an attachment from the discard pile. This ability only got better with Dwarf Mining effects becoming more prevalent in the card pool. Attachments being discarded directly or indirectly by the encounter deck only gives it more opportunities to shine. If you’re playing Lore, Erebor Hammersmith is always near the top of the list to be included.

• Dave – 3
• Grant – 3
• Ted – 3
• Matt – 2
• Average – 2.75

External Links

• Tolkien Gateway
• Hall of Beorn
• Ringsdb

Sample Decks