When do you Muster Ents?

[Goodgulf the Grey]

The thread on early FP muster dice use got me thinking about when the FP should Muster the Ents and along those lines which companion do you park in Fangorn (if any) to mute Saruman?

Many times when I send Strider to Rohan (en route to Gondor), I will include Merry/Pippin to go get the Ents roused. I like to do this early so that Isengard doesn't get too many musters from Saruman before the Ents show up. This tends to happen around turn 3 (with a good FP separation card) and after the FP has crossed Moria or hasn't been revealed. Otherwise, I tend to wait until Gandalf the White shows up in Fangorn and then get the Ents.

If I'm the SP and the FP doesn't muster the Ents then I tend to over-utilize Saruman's voice and fully Muster Isengard. Then hit Rohan and use Dunlendings to finish the job and hang around in case of a late game Ent attack. If the Ents show up early then I usually use the SP Musters elsewhere (like getting the S&E to War).

[mrweasely]

I have not seen ents roll dice yet. Reacting accordingly, I've stopped putting the faction in play. Heck, its rare for me to even get out Gandalf the White these days.

[SevenSpirits]

Same here as for MrWeasely.

If I do muster them, it's late. I have NEVER seen the Shadow player care about the loss of Voice.

[Goodgulf the Grey]

I agree that losing the Voice ability only minimally impacts the Shadow Player.

I have seen the Ents "Liberate" Lorien/Rohan and allow the FP to take back that stronghold (usually with a small force in Rohan) and occassionally they get Saruman. Sometimes they can intercept an SP army in Rohan and really miss up the plan but this is rare since Gandalf the White is often not in play so early.

[mrweasely]

Vox got worse in the expansion, because once you bring out the Dunlendings, and play Rage of the Dunlendings, you have a 10 unit army in North Dunland, about what you need to take Rivendell or a militarized Shire. You can't bring anything more, so, yuck, I'll take the elite in Dol Guldur / Moria / Orthanc instead, thanks.

By the way, I'd convinced my opponent last night that my stack of 8 dunlendings let me roll 8 charge dice via Old Hatred. However, my concience stepped in and I had to fess up that I only got 5.

(PS: I'm logged in and looking for a game now: DavidCMorse on AIM)