Had our first win with this scenario tonight.  

Sleeping Sentry was revealed as the first card during setup. We used Eleanor to cancel and replace, and what do you know! The second Sleeping Sentry came out. I now believe that this card CANNOT BE BEATEN. Threat went up by 7 on the first questing phase. Anyway, the card exhausted everyone during setup, BUT that meant both copies of Sleeping Sentry were in the discard pile. Nothing to worry about!

The game after that was not exactly smooth sailing, but we won in the end.

GrandSpleen said:

yes- thats probably the best way to get the card, the bastard is when it comes as a shadow effect and guess who doesnt have any cancelling left?

rich

Road to Rivendell is a really fun scenario provided you make one simple tweak to the encounter deck… remove Sleeping Sentry before you start playing. This card is so obviously broken I have no problem pretending it doesn't exist. Problem solved as far as I'm concerned.

For those who like their games a little harder, just replace sleeping sentry with another treachery from a different set. There's plenty out there that fit thematically and would provide a reasonable challenge without causing insta-kill rage quitting every time.

Sleeping Sentry? What sleeping sentry? Not in my encounter deck.

I don't know why so many people here can't see the obvious:  this card is horribly broken, and a clear sign of bad design.  It's a "You Lose" card, plain and simple.  It does not make the game more exciting, it makes it incredibly, frustratingly random.

The "solution" is no better.  Yes, Denathor, Hennamarth, and most particularly A Burning Brand will take care of it.  But that's the problem:  once you have A Burning Brand in place, you never see another Shadow card ever again.  So it all comes down to putting A Burning Brand in your deck and then crossing your fingers and hoping you get it early.  That isn't strategy, that isn't tactics, that isn't subtle gameplay, it's dumb luck.

One clear problem with this game is how incredibly binary it is.  Both Encounter cards and player cards are a mix of incredibly powerful and incredibly weak effects, so that it comes down to whether you get your ridiculously overpowered cards out first (Steward of Gondor, A Burning Brand) or if the Encounter deck gets its horribly overpowered cards out first (Sleeping Sentry, pretty much any of the Trolls).

It's bad design.  It's not subtle or interesting, it's just stupidly random.  What I find to be particularly egregious is that the designers have quietly conceded to significant mistakes in player card design (read:  Zigil Miner), but can't be bothered to fix obviously broken Encounter cards like this one (or obviously broken quests like Rhosgobel, for that matter).

i suppose, flavour-wise, it doesn't make much sense that your characters always die every time. why cant they just be wounded?

it would be better if the card said something like "add 1 wound to each exhausted character". That way it is more like an ambush. Some characters might still end up dying, if they are already wounded or weak, but you have at least got a chance to survive it

i might actually start playing that quest like that from now on, with that house rule. it's better than just abandoning the card altogether

I think we need more "sleeping sentry".

That 1 trechery or shadow effects per adventure that tells you 'keep this card in mind, or you lose'

Trechery cards deserve as much attention as enemies and locations when building a deck, yet most decks are more about 'yeah let's kill giant spiders and orc chieftan, slaying legendary Balrog and Watcher or two along the way' than 'let's watch out for trechery of our enemy'.

Back in core set days, I needed to really watch who to quest and who to exhaust, how many hit points remained in my heroes because of direct damage cards (Orcs… Necro's Reach… Hummer shadow).

But when playing Mirkwood Cycle without Dol Guldur Orc set, Dwarrowdelf Cycle without Hazard of the Deep set, and Massing at Osgiliath, there is no tension at all, because all your questing characters are safe.

What we need is a way for each sphere to be able to prepare for Trechery cards (so far Spirit and Lore are only ones to have it), and couple of really nasty trecheries per pack that needs to be dealt in different ways (like Sudden Pitfall, I like it in a way it forces you to not quest until you get atleast 1 questing ally, and not defend with hero without a cancel trechery.. just changes the way I play).

I have to agree with Ellareth on this one.  The card is by all means negatable.(Unlike some horrible treacheries) Think: A test of will, elenor, and hasty.  My play group has both won and lost to this scenario.  We have the technology to build better decks.  We can build them better, faster, stronger. 

I think we need more "sleeping sentry" type treachery cards in future scenarios. Why? Because every scenario should have some kind of "motivator" to keep you from just sitting around and not progressing until you have a comfortable set of allies and attachments in play. If you move along quickly, and build decks that quest well, you have a much smaller frequency of running into the sleeping sentries and hazardous pit type treacheries. I like the tension and pressure to move quickly that fear of a card engenders. It just means you can't be lazy and slow build and takes away some of your control, which I like.


Pluse, I feel like the effects are pretty thematic… especially with the flavor text on a quest card mentioning you being worn out from your journeys.

I dearly hope FFG does not errata sleeping sentry, but rather makes more treacheries like it in the future.