Reinforcements

It’s a double Sneak Attack!

Background

There is no flavor text to link the card to a specific event in the books. There are a few specific instances of reinforcements arriving it could relate to.

1. The arrival of Dain and his dwarves from the Blue Hills to reinforce Thorin and his company at Erebor while besieged by the Men of Dale and Elves of Mirkwood.
2. Gandalf, Erkenbrand, the Rohhrim they gathered, and the Hurons reinforcing Theoden at Helm’s Deep.
3. The Rohirrim reinforcing Gondor at The Battle of Pelennor Fields.
4. Also at The Battle of Pelennor Fields, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and the Gondor’s armies from the southern fiefdoms.

The art depicting Gondorian soliders is likely referring to the arrival of Aragorn with the southern fiefs’ armies.

Card Theme

Placing 2 allies into play definitely fits with more troops arriving to aid those already engaged in battle. Those troops leaving soon after seems a little of mismatch. More likely in a battle reinforcements would relieve the battle weary troops that they could fall back, rest, and rejoin the battle later. If the mechanism allowed returned any 2 allies controlled by the player that would be more thematic, but also incredibly more powerful.

Card Synergies and Interactions

Allies with Enters Play or Leaves Play Abilities

Discard Recursion

Triggered Abilities by Characters Entering or Leaving Play

Aside from the effects you can get back by putting 2 allies into play, there are some cards that trigger effects when one enters or leaves play. Valiant Sacrifice is one of the few options for card draw in Leadership. Tactics Eomer, Leadership Prince Imrahil, and Gwaihir heroes all benefit from Reinforcements being played to activate their attack boosting or readying effects. Eagles of the Misty Mountains like Eomer can gains additional combat power although getting the ally back to hand can be better in many situations. Defender of the Naith with its readying works well if a player plays Reinforcements during combat preferably after it had defended once.

A Very Good Tale

Readying

Nonbo – Play or Play from Hand

One distinction to watch for in the ability text of card is when it says “play” or “play from hand”. These will only trigger if player paid the card’s resource cost to play it from their hand. Putting the card into play which the rules considers different won’t trigger these abilities.

Nonbo – Ents

All the Ents enter play exhausted. Putting them into play means they can’t be used for anything besides as targets for direct damage effects. Quickbeam is the notable exception since he can be readied at the cost of 1 damage on himself.

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 Reinforcements at 5 rings. It can be very powerful when a deck is built around it. I’ve played some decks that recur it several times. They’re fun toolbox decks that can find an answer to what many quests throw at them. The 3 cost of the event itself often means that decks that focus on playing it don’t build up much of a board state without some resource acceleration.

The 3 cost and restriction that 3 heroes pay for it means it can’t just be slotted into any deck. While Sneak Attack can put a single ally into play for a single Leadership resource. This is much easier to include in a deck even if there is minimal Leadership resources.

Still it is a very multiplayer friendly card because the effect is not limited to the controlling player. Players that coordinate their decks in a fellowship can make the best use of this. Particularly with many running the non-unique Silvans and/or Eagles to double up on their enter play effects.

• Joe – 7
• Dave – 6
• Grant – TBR
• Ted – 3
• Matt – 5
• Average – 5.25

External Links

• Tolkien Gateway – Battle of Five Armies
• Tolkien Gateway – Battle of the Hornburg
• Tolkien Gateway – Battle of Pelennor Fields
• Hall of Beorn
• Ringsdb

Sample Decks