The variant of Fatty Bolger is a card that I wanted to work for so long, but it is hard to argue that the is quite underwhelming which is a shame considering his (relatively) important role in getting the hobbits out of the Shire. I am happy to say that this Fatty Bolger does not feel like the hindrance of his incarnation. He is in fact a good hero.
Let's talk stats first. Ok, so the stats leave something to be desired. Fatty Bolger has the same stats as Fatty Bolger which are not geat by any means. 1 and 1 mean he won't be contributing much to questing and attacking. The 2 and 3 means he can be used as a decent defender with cards such as Staff of Lebethron and Hobbit Cloak. His can be further increased by cards such as Bill the Pony and Boots from Erebor. It is worth noting that he has nearly the same stats as Bilbo Baggins, and all the same points regarding his stats as described on the Bilbo page apply here.
The stats aren't great, but does he have an ability to compensate for the subpar stats? Yes! Indeed he does.
Basically the ability is to raise your threat by 4 and exhaust Fatty to CANCEL a non-unique enemy just revealed and add it to the victory display. Everyone and their mother should know how strong card cancellation is with cards like A Test of Will, Hasty Stroke, Eleanor, A Stout Heart, and The Door is Closed! are. Also note that the cancelled card is not replaced. In single-player this means effectively no cards are revealed for the questing phase. In multiplayer, this means one less card is revealed. An incredibly useful ability.
Now part of the cost to use the ability is to exhaust Fatty which isn't really much of an ask as his stats aren't great anyways. His ability has obvious synergy with the victory display archetype. He provides an easy way to put an early card into the victory display. Using this ability has many benefits for these decks. (Assuming that the enemy chucked in the victory display shares a trait with other enemies) Rossiel gets a +2, The Door is Closed! receives an eligible target to be cancelled, Keen as Lances has its cost reduced by 1, Buckland Shirriff can be put into play for cheap, Horn-call of Buckland can give an engaged enemy -1 and -1 and ready the attached hero, and Woodland Sentry has a potential target to discard. So many options are opened up from one enemy placed in the victory display.
Another thing to note is that Fatty starts the game at 5 instead of 7. This makes his ability effectively raise your threat by 2 to use. (If Éowyn had a similar cost, she would be much more balanced). Now in my experience, it is generally best to use Fatty's ability sooner rather than later to get sooner use out of the victory display cards. Starting the game at -2 makes it much easier to play secrecy cards such as Resourceful, Risk Some Light, Out of the Wild, Fear! Fire! Foes!, and Needful to Know. Effectively, it allows for easy secrecy for 1-2 rounds before we activate the ability to get some of these cards out.
Fatty Bolger is a success. He has a very strong ability to cancel an enemy and allows for easier play of secrecy cards. The art is incredible as well (with equally fun favour text).
Sidenote: Fatty also works well in traaditional hobbit decks as they tend to struggle with early combat which Fatty solves. He does have stiff competition for the hobbit hero slot with Pippin and Folco Boffin. While both of these are probably better choices, Fatty is still a very serviceable option.
