The troll card says he's a level 1 monster but he has a blue banner so when I have the troll in play does he take up 2 levels of war council or just 1?

Just 1.  Until the dragons expansion came out, all creatures took 1 position...NO matter what the color of banner they are.    

So the basic spider, Troll, Elemental and Giant took 1 spot in the creature (1 for each creature of course).

Cab

It may seem counter-intuitive, but it has worked well so far in the game - compare the Green Banner Forest Giant to the Blue Banner Hill Giant:  the additional die that the Hill Giant receives in battle is offset by the ability of the Forest Giant to move two hexes and battle, plus the Forest Giant likely has many more hexes from which to throw logs than the single hex that the Hill Giant receives for tossing boulders.

If one allows the Green Banner Giant Spider to retain its ability to store lore, then comparing it to the abilities of the Blue Widow holds up well as well.

Play the Fire Dragon and it will quickly become apparent why it costs 3 levels to field.

 yes, I thought this as odd at first as well, but comparing the Green Giant Spider to the Troll made me change my mind. I do prefer the Giant Spider, since it's ability to use a stored lore before any rolls to web an opponent prevents that opponent from battling back and also scores hits on flags. awesome! and it can move a lot, and so its easier to benefit from cover; it's a 2 die creature, after all.

Green Spider cannot store Lore anymore not any other creature for that matter. Personally after the Creature rules have changed we use only the Blue Spider. Green Spider has lost its power. Moving 4 instead of 3 does not offset the Blue Spiders power level.

I agree on all other points made above about the other creatures.

Woow! I didn't even know they changed the creature rules. I guess I'm pretty behind on the times. Well the green spider is pointless now. His poison ability is never going to work. The only way it would work is if he gets some bonus dice from a lore card and even then the chances of him poisoning a unit are very slim. I guess I'll just use the blue spider from now on.

FragMaster said:

This is exactly why I feel an exception should be made for the Giant (green banner) Spider with respect to the rule changes for creatures.

In fact, I would make it the best of both worlds, and allow the Giant Spider to web and poison at two lore.  With the original rules, I have never found a situation where I would prefer to posion a unit rather than web it.

 The Green Banner Spider is not pointless... His poison ability really was difficult to launch even when storing Lore.

The ability to Poison was going to be schedule for the Giant Scorpion, but that is another story...

Richard Borg

Oh your such a tease Richard!

Richard Borg said:

maybe not pointless, but a lot weaker. the possibility to make an attack with a Green Giant Spider that had already one Lore accumulated, webbing the opponent before even rolling the attack, was a very powerful one. you didn't had to hope for a Lore on the two dices attack role to web your enemy, thus preventing any Battle Back and thus translating Flags into damage.

but perhaps the consideration to change Creature rules (one that I was not aware of, since my Creatures box will arrive in February) came thinking that this possibility of web use was too much powerful and made the Green Giant Spider unbalaced. right now, I don't know what I'll do, if house ruling or moving along with the official rules.