by nssxxx
yes - it can go like this.e.g.:
- towards the end of the game, you have a gandalf in your hand and your threat is really high and you have a really tough monster engaged - what do you use gandalf for?
- before it gone change din the FAQ, you could risk playing your whole hand of cards in the last quest phase to try and win, but you could get screwed if it didn't pay off
- if you are short of resources and you spend them all on Faramir to give a questing boost, whereas you could have bought in 2 or 3 cheaper enemies
Overall, the dynamics between threat and questing, deciding where to apply your heroes/allies and the "unknown" factoring of whether you will draw a Treachery/Location/Enemy drive a very very high number of overall possibilities, which dwindle as you exhaust the enocunter deck and get closer to eaither victory or defeat, and in some cases you are close to both.
The main differnence from chess of course is it is completely random, so you may get times when the encounter deck can be very benign, or very very harsh, and you will have had very little pre-information or hint that this is coming (unlike in chess where you can see your opponents strategy reveal itself gradually.)