When it comes down to the combat phase, talking things out rarely works (except that one time in Druadan Forest). So usually, you will need to fight your way through your enemies in order to get rid of them. For this, our heroes and allies make use of their attack stat, which doubles as the main source of progress during Battle quests. But even the best attackers in the game will need some support, and boosting the attack stat is usually a good way to kill more enemies or to bring down larger foes more quickly. In order to do that, you can equip various weapons to your characters or use temporary buffs to help you out against a particularly nasty enemy. But which ones are the best for your deck? I will try to answer that in this article, looking at the best ways to boost your attack strength per sphere and what specific options are available for each archetype.
To set a reference value to 1 point increase in attack strength, we look at Dunedain Mark. For 1 resource you get +1 attack and the option to move the attachment around between heroes. This is a bit of an older example, and towards the end of the game’s life, attachments granted more and more attack strength for a similar cost, but 1 resource being equal to +1 attack is a good baseline going forward, just to see how other attack buffs stack up against one another. This value can also be seen in other cards around that time, such as Dwarven Axe (when put on Dwarves) and Blade Mastery (realistically, you are only using one of the two stats).
Tactics
When it comes to Weapon attachments, no sphere comes close to Tactics. It has most of the attack-raising attachments, and most traits that have even a smidge of Tactics in their cardpool will see their attack buffs appear in this sphere. This is also true for events that increase the attack strength of a character. Examples of this are Khazad! Khazad! and Unseen Strike, both of which give a character +3 attack until the end of the phase. With so many attack buffs, it is difficult to choose just one, but when you take into account the ease with which this weapon can slot into most decks, it’s no wonder this is a Staple for many players.
Dagger of Westernesse
Originally meant to be used for Hobbits, this dagger has been adopted by many decks over the years to provide additional attack strength to many heroes. The fact that it can go on any hero without restriction (not counting Eagles, Ents, and Beorn) makes this a very versatile weapon for only 1 resource. It gives the attached character +1 attack, as you would expect, but when attacking an enemy with a higher engagement cost than your threat, the buff doubles to +2. This makes it great in the early game if you have a low enough starting threat, allowing you to swap this weapon later on for something better if anything is available for that hero. This weapon is not only ideal for Hobbit/Ranger decks that increase the engagement cost of enemies, but it also works well with sniper heroes like Legolas and Haldir, who will want to keep a low threat and have the enemies engage other players.
During the later half of the game, the Dagger loses some of its utility as your threat will exceed the engagement cost of many enemies. Even then, it is a 1-for-1 attack buff, which is still decent. And many final bosses will have an engagement cost of 50, making this weapon very useful against them. The only problem with this weapon is that it fills a Restricted slot, but that is expected from this sort of attachment. You can dual-wield these Daggers at least, and in a Three Hunters deck, it will even be a free attachment when taking side A of the contract into account.
Leadership
After Tactics, Leadership has the most weapons and attack boosts. These usually take the shape of trait-specific global boosts, as we see for Boromir and Dain Ironfoot. But in the Weapons department, Leadership has a lot to offer. Valiant Sword works in Noble decks, Orcrist provides resources each time you kill an enemy with your +2 attack, and there is always Dunedain Mark to fall back on if you need a static +1 attack for cheap. Leadership’s attachments are generally more generic than Tactics’, but can still pack a punch. The card I want to highlight has gone a bit unnoticed, though, but I think the effect should still be taken into account if you want to find a way to deal a lot of damage during a single turn.
For Gondor!
For the simple cost of just 2 Leadership resources, all characters in play get +1 attack. This is not all allies, and not just for the player that played the event, no: ALL CHARACTERS! This global increase in attack can help to swing the battle in your favor, especially if this is combined with a readying effect like Strength of Arms or Grim Resolve. 2 resources for an event might be a lot, but that is just saving Steward’s resources until the combat phase. Even better, the event can be reduced in cost with Good Meal on a hero like Leadership Frodo or Sam Gamgee.
The kicker for this event is that any and all Gondor characters (including heroes) get +1 defense until the end of the phase. This makes many players believe that the event belongs in a Gondor deck. And while that may be where you get the most value out of the event, it can still work well in any generic deck that needs a one-time boost during the combat phase. Even beyond that phase, this event can help you during a Battle-quest. And should you really need more attack power and you have the resources to spare, just play extra copies of the event. It’s unlimited. I don’t really get why this card is overlooked so often, but I will make sure to bring it in a lot more decks in the future.
Spirit
I always feel like Spirit is a more peaceful sphere that doesn’t do a lot of attack power-ups. But there was actually quite a wide variety of cards to choose from for this segment. Most of the Spirit-boosts do boost other stats as well, seeing how Lords of the Eldar, Eregion Survivor, and ally Sam all get +1 to all their stats. But there are some attack-specific boosts as well, with Herugrim being a potential 4+ attack boost on a Rohan hero if you manage to boost their willpower. But there is one card in the set that is worth including in most decks if you are looking for an easy way to boost the stats of your allies, including attack strength.
Wild Stallion
This is a truly unique ally, as you can choose to make it into a Mount attachment during any Planning phase. So you can spend the 2 resources for this ally and use it as a standard 1/1/1/1 ally and wait until you have the perfect target to attach this Mount to. Being a Creature ally makes this a card that is worth including in a deck with Radagast, as you can then play it for free.
Once the right target for this ally is on the table, you can use the Wild Stallion in the Planning phase to turn it into an attachment on any ally. It becomes a Restricted attachment that adds its base stats to that of the attached ally, providing a +1 boost to everything, including attack strength and hitpoints. The attachment also counts as a Mount objective, allowing you to benefit from some synergies with the Rohan archetype. The attachment is most useful in a Dale deck since you will likely get additional boosts from having an attachment on an ally (Guardian of Esgaroth gets +2 to all stats with this Mount), but individual targets like OHaUH Gandalf or Jubayr are good options as well. This card isn’t used often for attack boosting a character, but it is flexible enough that I would consider it a staple. Just make sure that you get it attached on an ally before you lose it to a direct damage effect while it is itself an ally.
Lore
Lore doesn’t do a lot with attack buffs for your characters; there are only a handful of weapons to choose from. The other effects can be hit-and-miss. Treebeard is a pretty good hero who can boost his own attack, but his ally version is more worthy of the Staple label than the hero is. He can be pretty sweet to get going, though, getting boosts of +5 attack whenever you deal enough damage to him. But it requires a decent chunk of your deck to keep him alive. On the other hand, Lore Faramir can have an infinitely high attack buff, scaling with the number of enemies in the staging area. But that is a bit counter-intuitive since you will want to use that attack strength to kill enemies and perhaps engage a few of them. So looking through all the options in sphere, I have settled on the one card that is flexible enough to include in several decks if you are looking for an attack boost.
Legacy Blade
Being a free Weapon attachment is already great for this card since there is nothing required to just play this on whatever hero you want! It does fill a Restricted slot, but if you are including this in a Forth, the Three Hunters deck, then you can quickly get all your heroes’ Restricted slots filled with this attachment being played after you’ve used the cost-reduction on another attachment. At the start of the game, this attachment won’t do anything, but it will increase the attached hero’s attack power by 1 for each side-quest in the victory display. This is capped at +3, since you would otherwise get some crazy high attack stats in certain quests. The attachment can also be played multiple times on the same hero (keep in mind the Restricted slots), allowing you to get a double boost whenever you clear a side-quest.
The Blade works with both player side-quests and encounter side-quests. That means that certain quests in the game will favor this attachment more, such as Intruders in Chetwood and Fire in the Night. These quests have plenty of side-quests of themselves, so you do not have to include any of your own. If you are playing a quest without encounter side-quests, then bring at least Gather Information and Keep Watch (if you also have Tactics). These side-quests allow you to find the Blade (or another card) and will reduce enemy defence, making the Blade even more useful. This is a card that gets better in the late game and can even outshine many Tactics weapons, making it more useful on heroes like Haldir and Argalad. Thurindir is another popular choice since he also gets a willpower boost when you clear a side-quest. Use a Steed of the North to ready him and hit the engaged enemy for a lot!
Neutral
Being the part of the cardpool with the fewest cards overall, it comes as no surprise that the amount of attack buffs is quite limited for Neutral. You will likely have to look at other spheres to increase your attack stat unless you are playing some specific archetypes. The Ring of Power event can be included in any deck with The One Ring, allowing the wielder +1 to their stats at the cost of exhausting the Ring and raising your threat. Hobbit decks can also boost their stats further if you are including 2 copies of Friend of Friends. It will take a while to set up, and you are required to have 2 Hobbits, but it does provide a nice buff to all stats. The one card that I would consider making space for in your deck deserves a shout-out, though.
Narya
I really love the theme of this card, as the Ring of Fire was meant to ignite the fire inside the hearts of the people of Middle Earth. And what’s a better way to do that than to be able to ready 2 allies across the table and provide them with +1 attack and defence? Narya does come with a few limitations, considering only Cirdan and Gandalf can wield this ring. It is also quite expensive but definitely worth the resources if you have a way to ready the hero (Light of Valinor, Shadowfax). That’s because Narya requires the attached hero to exhaust in order to ready 2 allies, so you need to keep the hero up until the combat phase if you want to make optimal use of this ring. But being able to ready 2 characters anywhere on the table more than makes up for that, especially since you can trigger this effect during enemy attacks, readying your defender and giving them a boost to their defence. Attackers can also get good uses out of this ring, giving them another attack against a different enemy for +1 attack. The ring even provides the attached hero the Leadership sphere icon, giving you access to another sphere to draw attack buffs from.
Trait-specific attack buffs
The following attack buffs are specific for certain archetypes. If you are running a deck with that archetype, then these cards are worth including!
- Dain Ironfoot not only buffs attack by 1 point while he is ready but also boosts willpower on all Dwarves in play.
- Leadership Boromir gives all Gondor allies a much-needed +1 attack while he has a resource in his pool.
- Celeborn provides a buff to all stats for Silvan allies during the turn they enter play, attack included.
- Durin’s Song is a very powerful +2 to all stats until the end of the round. Use this on a Dwarf with some readying effect, and you can destroy a lot of foes.
- Guthwine provides a +2 attack buff to any Rohan hero and allows you to return an ally from your discard pile upon killing an enemy.
- Charge of the Rohirrim is a difficult event to get to work, but if you do, all Rohan heroes with a Mount will get +3 attack for the phase!
- Knights of the Swan are required in an Outlands deck to boost your host of allies to +3 attack.
- Tom Cotton provides each Hobbit ally +2 attack during the round they enter play.
- Lords of the Eldar can provide a global buff to Noldor of all their stats, including attack power.
The last stat boost remaining to be discussed is defence, which will be the topic of the next article. If anyone has any further topics that they would like to see a Staples article on (that hasn’t been discussed yet), feel free to let me know. This is a fun and lighter series that I like to write, but finding the right topics can sometimes be a bit difficult.
Vision Of The Palantir 