Newbie agent question

[Chizakura]

I got into meccg thanks to a friend of mine, but am still rather new with maybe a dozen games under my belt. Recently, I wanted to incorporate agents into my hazards, but reading through an example of the rules about agents attacking a company left me a little confused and was hoping someone might be able to help me out. My question is a two parter pertaining to the attack.

From http://www.meccg.net/netherlands/meccg/ ... #Attacking the following example is given:

"During your opponent's movement/hazard phase (MH-phase), you play Gisulf, counting as one against your hazard limit. He is placed face-down and is considered to start at any of his home sites: Woodmen-town, Lake-town, or Dale (your choice whenever he is initially revealed). Gisulf may not take an action this turn-he was just played. However, if one of your opponent's companies were to move to one of Gisulf's home sites this turn, Gisulf could attack it during its site phase.

During your opponent's next MH-phase, his main company moves to Lórien. You decide to move Gisulf to a site in the Anduin Vales so that he is closer to more sites reachable from Lórien. He can do this because Woodmen-town is in Western Mirkwood, which is adjacent to Anduin Vales. One of your own company's is at Eagle's Eyrie and Framsburg is in your discard pile, so those cards are not available for Gisulf to use. Thus, Gisulf can only move to Gladden Fields or Beorn's House. You move him to Gladden Fields (counts one against the hazard limit), tapping him and placing that site card (his current site) face-down on top of Gisulf. Maybe your opponent will try to get a ring next turn.

Gisulf untaps during your untap phase. During your opponent's next MH-phase, his main company reveals that it is moving to Goblin-gate. Since Goblin-gate is in High Pass and High Pass is adjacent to Anduin Vales, you move Gisulf to Goblin-gate-tapping him and placing your Goblin-gate site card (his current site) face-down on top of him.

At this point Gisulf is at the company's new site and you could play certain hazard cards: e.g., Seek Without Success (returns the company to its site of origin). Unfortunately, you don't have any of these cards in your hand.

During the site phase, the company enters Goblin-gate and faces the automatic-attack. Then, you decide to attack them with Gisulf. He is turned face-up and the site cards on Gisulf are revealed and checked. He traveled from Woodmen-town (his chosen starting home site) in Western Mirkwood to Gladden Fields in Anduin Vales to Goblin-gate in High Pass. Each of these regions is adjacent to the previous one played, so Gisulf moved legally. The Gladden Fields site card is returned to your location deck and Goblin-gate is left face-up with Gisulf.

Gisulf's prowess for this attack is 7 (5 normal, +2 because he was face-down when the attack was declared). Elladan is untapped and is in the target company, so your opponent chooses him to take the attack. Elladan's prowess is 5 (his normal prowess of 5 because he decides to tap). You (Gisulf) roll an eight for a total of 15, while your opponent rolls a six for a total of 11-Elladan is wounded.
Marshalling Points from Agents"

Now, from what I can tell, when the agent moves to Goblin-gate via his agent action during the opponent's movement/hazard phase, it causes him to tap (as all agent movements do). Then, during the site phase, it sounds like the agent attacks Elladan while still being tapped since he doesn't untap until my untap phase. Is this ok? I guess there are no rules stating that an agent can't attack while being tapped so I assume that part is legal. The next part that I'm more confused about is that, from a tapped status, he attacks Elladan with, I guess, no penalty? The example shows that Gisulf's base prowess is 5 (+2 for a total of 7 for being face down) so he suffers no 'tapped' penalty for attacking Elladan. Is that just how agents work? That they suffer no penalty attacking a character/company while tapped? They seem to work like regular characters in a lot of the other ways so is this just an exception for them?

Thanks for any/all help in advance.

[Bandobras Took]

You are correct; agents have no penalty for being tapped.

This is because agents must tap to move, while characters need not tap just to move. Anybody who's tried to use agents aggressively knows that it's a pain just to get an agent to the same site as a company.

Incidentally, the player in the example was pretty silly to move to Goblin-Gate unless he needed to play Gollum and had already tapped and discarded Moria.

[Chizakura]

Thank you sooo much for clarifying that for me.

I'm rather excited about trying to use agents, but I'm also skeptical that I will be able to execute the strategy I have in mind effectively b/c of my lack of experience and strategic/tactical knowledge. If it's hard enough for seasoned players, I'm a bit intimidated to employ it in a game until I play some more (sadly, b/c of the locations of my friends, we only get together once a month or so to play so I lose out on practice).

My resource strategy is rather generic (basically treasure hunting through the use of Thorough Search with a physically robust group of characters), but the hazard strategy I wanted to employ was a split deck of undead and agents in which I would try to fill in the holes in the area the undead can cover with things like Choking Shadows and cover the other areas by spreading out a team of agents to strike at their party in havens, the Gondor region and west of Moria, High Pass, etc. I figured that I may be able to herd my opponent into my agents if he sees my undead the first time he steps into shadow/dark regions/holds.

And, if you don't mind, I have a follow-up question related to agents and the actions they can take. I've noticed that some agents have the option to attack an opponent during the movement/hazard phase (along with cards, I think), does that mean that they can, again, attack during the site phase of the opponent if the opposing company chooses to enter a site?

Eg, if The Grimburgoth I have is at the same site as their company and I choose to attack them during the movement/hazard phase by tapping, then can The Grimburgoth attack again during the site phase assuming he survives the earlier encounter?

Thanks again.

[Bandobras Took]

Sure, provided the company enters the site.