Next Updates for the Hobbit Draft Game

[Durin's Heir]

My friend Enola, I'm sorry for this long absense. I was unable to connect for several reasons .

That version of Bolg resembles more his hunter role in the 2nd film, but works well anyway for the wounding theme. If it shows to be overpowered in the playtests, you can change the passive skill from archery to regroup.

For the Thematic Packs, I'd prefer that those new names you are adding were reserved for future Extension sets. I mean, the "Riddles" add-ons are good, but don't resemble at all the Riddle game in both book and movie, we can make with that title in a future time a bunch of good "riddle" and events and conditions with it, or some other things like the proposed "Pity" event, some stealth cards and even a different version of Gollum, Sting or The One Ring. And the same goes with other themes. For instance, Thorin's pack has no room for fortifications or cool events for Smaug or the Company. I'd leave the old names in the packs as they are, and don't add any new names that might spoil the potential of those themes for further Extension sets.

In respect of the new cards in the add-ons, I have some mixed impressions. There are good cards and others that need more work. Anyway, I love the new sites. Some need a bit of refinement, but they will give a stronger importance and funnier mechanics to the sitepath.

[-Enola-]

sadly for us the USS dolar is a very expensive....like 3 times our local money and have a lot of taxes ,so we printed our selves and play with good sleeves....its not the best but is  playable =D

Ok, I can send you the pdf with all the cards. I have to update it before .

My friend Enola, I'm sorry for this long absense. I was unable to connect for several reasons .

No problem, take your time .

For the Thematic Packs, I'd prefer that those new names you are adding were reserved for future Extension sets. I mean, the "Riddles" add-ons are good, but don't resemble at all the Riddle game in both book and movie, we can make with that title in a future time a bunch of good "riddle" and events and conditions with it, or some other things like the proposed "Pity" event, some stealth cards and even a different version of Gollum, Sting or The One Ring...

If there will be future extensions, it will be in the same format as it is done now : Beatdown/Swarm pack or Supplementary pack of 22 cards.

I want that all the cards done with these new cards describe completly the book and the movies. I don't think we miss something now with these new cards.


I just update the new sites of the supplementary packs, tell me what you think about this, I will create all these cards next week ^^.

[Durin's Heir]

About the sites.

- Dol Guldur: Everything is ok with this one. Allows you to retain Gandalf at a very high cost, and the Shadow number is very high. I'd add to it only one thing: battleground keyword. As far as the card room allows it. An ancient fortress must be a battleground, abandoned or not, and that adds more peril to the site besides that frightful Shadow number of .

If there is an exhausted companion, you cannot choose to preserve Gandalf. If you want to change that, "exert each unexhausted companion" should work.

- Great Hall: I love the concept of this site. This one seems equilibrated and powerful too. But the name might be improved a bit. If you refer to that "street" or "hall" of gold in which Thorin confronts himself and throws away his crown, that is "the Gallery of the Kings". If you instead refer to the throne room where Thorin and Dwalin dispute, then "Throne Room" or "Thrór's Throne" might work well.

- On the Doorstep: The name doesn't convince me really, it's an event or situation in the book rather than a specific location... I wonder what location you do refer. Is it the "Secret Door"? In that case should be also an underground. Or is is the "Front Gate of Erebor"? I think that the Secret Door, or Thrór's Door, should be the right one given presence of the Map and the Key.

It should cost a bit more given the skill it offers to the FP player, or . And might allow to play the item from the draw deck too, as they enter the mountain to recover things they don't have right now.

- Northern Slopes: What can I say? Cool site. Perhaps to reduce the Shadow number by 1; if it potentially adds for each doubt, adding + * for each companion can be too much. 8 is a good twilight number, Summit of Amon Hen is a good example of that twilight number, card drawing and doubts/burdens correlation.

- Master's House: About the name, it can be The Master's House very well, but might be Esgaroth Town Hall too. Or Esgaroth Armory if you want to represent instead the place where the Dwarves were caught stealing (BARD: "You won't find better outside the city armory"). It lacks some wording: says "At the start of the fellowship phase, exert a...", while should say "you may exert a...".

The skill is great. But can be changed to the "start of the regroup phase" instead, to reflect their need to move fast towards the montain; given the requirement it shouldn't be a big imbalance. The requirement might be extended from "exert a [Dale] ally" to "exert a [Dale] ally or 3 Dwarves", to allow a chance to steal the weapon. A last thing: each site 6 must be a river, no matter how many walls surround the place.

- The Carrock: Lovely site! You can pay the twilight cost of the follower at regroup and discard a minion by the way. It can cost instead, it's very far from Rivendell and offers a strong skill.

- Ettenmoors: The Shadow number is too high, given such strong skill, should be enough. The skill seems very good, except that it allows Gollum to assign himself to an unarmed Bilbo. I think it should say "Orcs are not roaming", that way excludes Gollum, Smaug, or non-[Troll] Trolls, Spiders, Nazgul and Sauron. While Orcs are always present and plentiful in any Shadow deck.

- Forest River: Great skill! Returning Elrond can be very annoying . Very costly, so the Shadow number might be +1. If the card room allows, change it to "to return Gandalf or an ally, and all cards on him or her, to its owner's hand". If we add toys for Elrond, Galadriel or Legolas in a future Extension set (Nenya, Vilya, Hadhafang, Phial of Galadriel, another Orcrist...), discarding them with this site can be really annoying, while returning them to hand allows the Shadow player to clog the opponent's hand and thus slow down both his/her FP and Shadow sides. And returning those tools to hand assures abundant twilight pool in the next turn (Glamdring + Gandy = or ; + Wizard Staff = or ). Another point is the possibility of adding in Extensions some [Spider] conditions, or of any other Shadow culture, bearable by companions or allies; those conditions will prefer to be returned to hand instead.

There are some sites 1 and 3 we can add in Extension sets (The Prancing Pony, "White Council" Courtyard...), but those 8 sites are awesome my friend.

[-Enola-]

Thank you, I took into account most of your ideas.

Here you can find all the new cards (see the front page of this topic):

http://hobbitdraftgame.free.fr/New_Updates/

Tell me what you think about all this .

[Durin's Heir]

Thank you, I took into account most of your ideas.

Great! About Town Hall, if you remove "hand" in "hand weapon", there will very probably be enough room to add the river keyword (site keywords tend to get more importance with each Extension). That way you might also play a ranged weapon too, which includes the Black Arrow and might include the Windlance if it's added in another (or this) Extension. About the Windlance, people say that in the Extended Edition of BotFA Bard will try to use it, so it should play its part after all.

Here you can find all the new cards (see the front page of this topic):

http://hobbitdraftgame.free.fr/New_Updates/

Tell me what you think about all this .

I'll start with the 3 Nazgul cards that were modified:

(C) - 1x • Ulaire Attea, Revived: Cost (6). minion. Nazgûl. Site 5. Strength 12, Vitality 3. Fierce. Skirmish: Return an Orc to your hand to make a minion strength +2 (or +3 at a forest) until the regroup phase.

I'm still worried about the overpowered impact of Attea's skill. You corrected the +4 strength at a forest, but the main problem remains and is that this skill erases the chances for the FP player to counter it. If it lasts until the regroup phase, the FP player just can't try to kill the Orcs in skirmish before fighting the Nazgul. If you remove the "until the regroup phase" part, the FP player will have a way to counter it and everything should be ok.

(C) - 1x • Ulaire Enquea, Revived: Cost (6). minion. Nazgûl. Site 5. Strength 11, Vitality 4. Fierce. Each time an Orc returns into your hand, you may exert Ulaire Enquea to exert a companion (except Bilbo).
(C) - 1x • Ulaire Cantea, Revived: Cost (5). minion. Nazgûl. Site 5. Strength 10, Vitality 3.

The Nazgul will be constantly replayed and it's relatively easy to return an Orc to your hand. Thus, these 2 abilities might be overpowered if they are directed by the Shadow player. I see 2 options here: (1) to make the Free Peoples player decide who gets the exertion or wound, or (2) to add an additional cost like "remove " and keep the decision in the Shadow player's hand.

(1)
Enquea: "Each time an Orc returns to your hand, you may exert Úlairë Enquëa to make the Free Peoples player exert a companion. (except Bilbo)."
Cantea: "Each time an Orc returns to your hand, you may exert Úlairë Cantëa to make the Free Peoples player wound an ally."

(2)
Enquea: "Each time an Orc returns to your hand, you may exert Úlairë Enquëa and remove to exert a companion."
Cantea: "Each time an Orc returns to your hand, you may exert Úlairë Cantëa and remove to wound an ally."

Please remember that Elrond and Saruman kicked their spectral skulls without much effort, so Cantea shouldn't kill them so easily.

I have more comments but those must be processed a bit more, and it's a bit late here.

[-Enola-]

Ok for Town Hall, the text was first the same text as The Troll Hoard (site 2) but from discard pile (site 6). The Windlance gives the reason of all this.


Attea : I think he is ok now,  the Attea's strategy is the same as Wicked Spider. This one works well and doesn't seem overpowered after many tests. Battle of Azanulbizar or Dwarn Take you All! are great against it. The cost of Attea is too high to have a lot of Nazguls and Orcs, even with He Is Summoning His Servants. Nazguls need to win their skirmishes.

Ok for some indirect wounds for Enquea and Cantea.

I have another question: do you think we need more quasi-similar abilities for Nazguls in order to have a more stable strategy for the Nazguls in a Draft ?

[Durin's Heir]

Ok for Town Hall, the text was first the same text as The Troll Hoard (site 2) but from discard pile (site 6). The Windlance gives the reason of all this.

Ok for some indirect wounds for Enquea and Cantea.

and .

I have another question: do you think we need more quasi-similar abilities for Nazguls in order to have a more stable strategy for the Nazguls in a Draft ?

Indeed! Redundant abilities are a clever way to make them more stable. In the Troll Pack, the other Beatdown subpack of 15 cards based on strong, fierce and unique minions, each Troll has 3 copies. Thus, if we aim for 3 different "gameplay goals" and each is distributed among 3 different abilities, the distribution would be statistically the same. But more powerful if 2 or 3 of those Nazgul happen to meet at the battlefield, which is a good thing as far as we prevent them from being excessively powerful when combined (see Attea and Toldea).

Attea : I think he is ok now,  the Attea's strategy is the same as Wicked Spider. This one works well and doesn't seem overpowered after many tests. Battle of Azanulbizar or Dwarn Take you All! are great against it. The cost of Attea is too high to have a lot of Nazguls and Orcs, even with He Is Summoning His Servants. Nazguls need to win their skirmishes.

The main difference between Attea and Wicked Spider is the base strength. If we consider that Sauron (or Stealth Sorcery, cool card!) can assign him at his will, that base strength makes him too powerful if he also blocks non-event FP counters AND lasts during the 2 skirmishes of a fierce Nazgul.
Attea and Wicked Spider's skills also differ in the cost: Wicked Spider discards the Orc while Attea returns it, thus you can use Attea to preserve an Orc which otherwise would be killed for a next Shadow phase (or for Toldea's skill). Wicked Spider can't do that, and with that low base strength it makes sense to have the strength addition last during both skirmishes.



Thorin Pack:

- Dwarven Song: Great card! I think it should play followers too, as the song at Bag End harangues the dwarves (and even Bilbo) to the adventure. It has some errors: it says "reveal the top 10 cards from your draw deck" while should say "of your draw deck", and it doesn't specify that you must "Shuffle your draw deck" or "Return the rest in any order". Does it allow you to play all revealed cards, or only one? It's unclear in my opinion. If it's all cards, it should say "each" like Eomer Keeper of Oaths; if it's only one, it should say "a" like Faramir Defender of Osgiliath.

If you want to give it a turn, try this: "Exert 2 companions to reveal the top 10 cards of your draw deck. You may play each possession, artifact or follower revealed. Heal a Dwarf for each card played this way. Shuffle your draw deck." That way it becomes a gamble: if you reveal 2 or more playable cards then the exertion cost is compensated and you might even get some healing, otherwise an infructuous search will cost you wound tokens. Those are 5 card lines, while a corrected version of the current card (adding "shuffle your draw deck") uses 4.

A last thing. If there is a "Dwarven Song", there must be a "Goblin Song" too!

- The Shadow Arkenstone: I see some improvements here, but also some errors. Not needing to spot Smaug is a good thing, that way Smaug doesn't give away the most valuable part of his hoard only to play mind games with Thorin. And the restriction to "site 7 or higher" is a clever replacement to the new lack of a spotting requirement.

Errors I found are that it says "each non-Wise character", which affects minions; should say instead "each non-Wise companion or ally". And where is the strength addition? It gave its bearer power over the lords of the Seven Dwarven Houses (in the film). Bilbo was protected by Bard and Thranduil when he brought it to them. So it should give some benefit to its bearer, and I see 2 possibilities then: to make bearer strength +2, or to give strength +1 to each companion or ally of bearer's culture.

A small benefit of the strength +2 bonus is that the only way for the FP player to get rid of The Shadow Arkenstone is to send its bearer directly to death. Which excludes Bilbo, so you must kill either Thorin or Bard. Killing Thorin is always a huge loss, and Bard is harder to kill if his base strength is 8, besides being an ally who cannot fight or take arrows too easily.

A last thing: Thranduil might be included amongst the characters that can bear it, otherwise it will destroy any deck based on Elf allies. So it would end up this way:

•The Arkenstone, King's Jewel [No Culture]
Artifact
Strength +2
Plays on Bilbo.
At site 7 or higher, each non-Wise companion
or ally of another culture than bearer's
is strength -2.
Bilbo, Bard, Thranduil and Thorin gain this
ability: "Maneuver: Add 2 doubts to
transfer the Arkenstone to this character."

You removed the lore text, probably because Smaug doesn't give away the new Arkenstone and that previous text doesn't have any connection with your new version. I suggest this one: "'Watch it corrupt his heart and drive him mad...'"

- Thieving!: Exerting a single Orc may be too powerful, I'd change it to 2 Orcs and reduce the twilight cost to or . And I think it should say "to discard a possession or artifact borne by a companion", otherwise it will be able to discard support area cards like fortifications or The Arkenstone. If it discards possessions of any culture it can discard an Iron-Forged Weapon borne by a Dwarf. It should be a card I think, for mere flavor as it doesn't change the gameplay at all.

I'd add this line: "You may exert The Great Goblin twice to play this event from your discard pile".


Thrain Pack:

- Du Bekâr!: I like the defender bonus and the dependence it has with Dwarven followers. And the surprise it will cause as an assignment event. But it has the problem of being a suicidal event like Disquiet Of Our People, which isn't in the spirit of Thorin's trademark war cry. I'd make the it instead a variable strength pump (depending of followers), which gives a fixed defender +1. It would be somewhat similar to Banner of the White Tree:

Du Bekâr!
Event • Assignment
Exert a companion to make him defender +1 and strength +X until the regroup phase, where X is the number of followers you spot.

- Azog, Servant of Sauron: Nice! The flavor is quite direct, he's determined to take Thráin's Ring. The Sauron culture prevents him from being mounted on huge +4 strength wargs, thus he's not unbeatable and that's a good thing.

- Goblin Reinforcements: Very powerful. I fear it might be excessively powerful considering all those different twilight addition and cost reduction mechanisms for the Shadow side (Swarming Goblin would be abusive, even worse with Dark Bats), plus the dependence the Boxing Dwarves have on followers, so a limit or additional cost would be a good idea. Something like "you may remove to play an Orc..." to avoid easy swarms. And it must specify the transference to a character, otherwise it will trigger when they return to support area at the end of the turn or by a card's effect (like Bofur or Gwaihir).

[-Enola-]

Thank you for your comments.

I will answer soon. But do you have other comments on the other packs ? Because I will print (on paper) these cards soon (during next week) and if there are any changes I will re-create all cards which need to be changed in one time .

[Durin's Heir]

Thank you for your comments.

I will answer soon. But do you have other comments on the other packs ? Because I will print (on paper) these cards soon (during next week) and if there are any changes I will re-create all cards which need to be changed in one time .

I have comments on all the new cards, but have to refine them before posting. And here I post about 4 more Add-ons, so only 2 Thematic packs and 2 Shadow Packs (Smaug and Azog) remain. And I think I'll post them during the next 1 or 2 days at most.

As a side note, just noticed there is not a single Troll culture card in these Add-ons. The War Axe may be borne by a Troll, but anyway can't be a match for the Troll Knife. On the opposite end, Sauron is represented by 4 cards, though that's not a bad thing considering cards like Jail...

Troll: 0
Wraith: 1
Gollum: 1
Spider: 2
Smaug: 2
Moria: 3
Gundabad: 3
Sauron: 4

Gandalf and Bilbo are those who play tricks to the Trolls, so if we were going to create a [Troll] trick or minion then it would be natural to include it in Bilbo's or the Wizard Pack in my opinion.

...


Dain Pack:

- Boar Mount: This card rocks. And rocks even more if we consider that, after the additional cards, Dain's Pack is loaded with warfare tools for both Light and Evil sides in the struggle.

I think that the title and picture in this card might perhaps be changed from "Boar Mount" to "Battle Ram", considering there is only 1 Boar and lots of... er... there's 4 Rams in the (theatrical version of the) film. In the Extended version will appear those lots of rams that we saw in the movie trailers and we see in your magnificent Iron Hills Army card. Though that's a minor detail.

Perhaps a damage bonus mechanism would be a good addition. Something like "Skirmish: Exert bearer to make him damage +1". To depict the path they clear from Orcs when riding towards Ravenhill.

- War Axe: The restriction to only Orcs doesn't make much sense to me, moreover if it's Conan Stevens' Bolg's hybrid axe-mace and there isn't yet any version of that Orkish Veteran. I'd make it a weapon instead with no cultural restriction, that way you'd also be able to spot it to play Jail. Nonetheless, I like the gametext. Though to wound Bilbo directly might be too powerful. So I'd change it to "you may wound a companion (except Bilbo)" or "you may exert Bilbo or wound another companion".

- Savage Warg: Seems well equilibrated. And fierce, damage +1 (or +2) minions are always great to see in action.


White Council Pack:

- Lindir: Very powerful my friend. Both skills are too strong, so I'd increase his cost to . The healing skill is overpowered if lacks any cost, so I'd change it to "At the start of each of your turns, you may exert a Dwarf or an Elf to heal an ally.", that way he can still support any ally-heavy strategy but now reflecting the ancient mistrust between Dwarves and Elves (Thorin: "Close ranks!"), and recalling the good-old Shoulder to Shoulder mechanism in the meanwhile. That way at the start of your turn you can exert Elrond to heal Lindir (or any other ally), and then heal Elrond up to 2 times...

The skirmish skill is too strong, even if he wasn't able to heal himself. You can exert an unwounded Lindir twice and spot 5 Wise allies to make Bilbo strength +10, or spot 4 Wise allies for +8... So it needs a limit. And needs also to support White Council allies too, therefore I'd change it to "Skirmish: Exert Lindir to make a Free Peoples character strength +1 for each Wise character you spot (limit +3 if that character is not Wise)."

•Lindir, Elven Minstrel
Ally • Home 3 • Elf
Strength 5  Vitality 3
At the start of your turn, you may exert a Dwarf or an Elf to heal an ally.
Skirmish: Exert Lindir to make a Free Peoples character strength +1 for each Wise character you spot (limit +3 if that character is not Wise).

Still very powerful, but more equilibrated I believe.

- The Great Enemy: What can I say? Excellent! It has a little text error: it says "take in hand" while should say "take into hand". But besides that, . If you want to make it more versatile, "Spot X Wise characters or remove X doubts to..." may broaden the possibilities if there are too few Wise characters to spot (or none at all); Sauron was the Great Enemy of all the Free Peoples after all.

- Stealth Sorcery: Another brilliant card here. I'd change a bit the wording of the first line: "Wise allies may participate in skirmishes". And also needs to specify an exception: "Assign a minion (except Smaug) to a companion or...". Besides that, great! I love the synergy this card will have with the Dol Guldur Blade.


Wizard Pack:

- Burning Fire Cones: I like this event very much. Maneuver is the right time for massive wounding to Orcs, in addition to Battle of Azanulbizar and exertion mechanisms in the Shadow player's hands like the Great Goblin or Azog. Though there are some details that I'd change:

1. In the title the correct word is "fir" instead of "fire" (a fir is a tree, I think "sapin" is the translation to french).
2. The twilight cost is too high if we consider that 3 is the cost of loud and spectacular things like Eagles Are Coming, Gathering of the Three Rings or Thrór's Heirlooms; or would be better in my opinion given the other costs of exerting Gandy and discarding a follower.
3. If we add Wargs as minions in another Extension (or in this Extension, I firmly believe that The Wolves Army MUST be a Warg) this event should wound them too; in that case it should say "to wound X Orc or Warg minions".
4. This event MUST have some interaction with forest sites. Some ideas that come to mind are "to wound X Orc or Warg minions (twice at a forest site)", or "Exert Gandalf (or spot him at a forest)", or "Then, if not at a forest site, discard a follower"; or any better thing we might invent. I'd vote for the first one .
5. Do you mean " follower" or "Dwarf follower"? There's a subtle difference, because " follower" includes Roäc. But this one is not an important thing after all.

- Hunting Pack: Hmmm, this is evil . Goblin Scimitar, Troll Knife, Dol Guldur Blade exerting a companion each time they get played.... I'd reduce it's power a bit. "Each time you play a possession on your Orc, you may exert that Orc to make the Free Peoples player exert a companion (or 2 companions if that Orcs is Yazneg)". The exertion requirement would set a natural limit and fit well with Warg mounts giving vitality to Orcs.

- Crawling Evil: "Maneuver: Exert 2 Spiders or discard this condition...", this card is great but must have some way of sustaining it on the board if you are playing with Spiders.


Esgaroth Pack:

- Alfrid, Lickspittle: Hmmm, I dislike this one. Alfrid has great potential for a Shadow follower, but to the Good Guys side he does absolutely nothing in the films. He helps The Master, but he isn't a good guy in PJ's interpretation. He just annoys and mocks and hinders the steps and movements of everyone in his path. For the Free Peoples card slot here, I'd rather have the Windlance instead.

However, this is what I mean with a Shadow version of Alfrid. It uses a new mechanic I've been developing for Man followers (both evil and good): "You may attach this follower at the start of the turn." It won't fit very well in this Extension, but in a future one, who knows.

•Alfrid, Counselor to the Master of Lake-town [Dale] (Shadow card)
Follower • Man
Strength +1
Aid - Make each player draw a card.
Bearer must be a companion or a [Dale] Man.
You may attach this follower at the start of the turn.
Special abilities in cards of bearer's culture gain this cost: "Discard 3 cards from hand or exert a companion".

He's meant to make special abilities too expensive, thus nullifying them or making them backfire. Which includes Fellowship phase abilities, that's the point of transferring him at the start of the turn. But here I'd add the Windlance.

- Power Struggle: Another good card. But with the same problem as Goblin Reinforcements: needs to set a limit or cost, given the strength of the swarming methods created in this game. Anyway, here the cost should be lesser given the difference between ally defenders and mere followers. "Each time the Free Peoples player assigns an ally to a skirmish, you may remove or discard a Shadow card from hand to play an Orc from your discard pile".

- Terrifying Legend: .

[-Enola-]

Thank you a lot for your answer. I think you miss the Bilbo Pack .
Changes will be done next week.

[Durin's Heir]

Thank you a lot for your answer. I think you miss the Bilbo Pack .
Changes will be done next week.

You are welcome. Bilbo and Mirkwood Pack weren't posted, but here they go:

Bilbo Pack:

- Bilbo's Pony: It lacks the "Bearer must be Bilbo" part. Seems good as a replacement for Power According to His Stature and other wounding tricks, but feels like it lacks a disadvantage at underground sites. Something like "When the fellowship moves to an underground, add or discard Bilbo's Pony". It would make a nice card struggle with Underground Lake.

- Underground Lake: "... to heal a minion twice or add a doubt (or both if you spot Gollum)". I know that these Shadow additions cannot work only with their correponding culture as they will support a randomly-chosen Shadow Pack, but they should be stronger when they work with their specific culture.

Perhaps you might exchange the doubt addition, which can be too powerful as a splash card in other corruption cultures, with a skill to turn a minion fierce: "Skirmish: Discard this condition to heal a minion twice or to make a minion fierce until the regroup phase (or both if you spot Gollum)". Fierce is almost always a strong addition and a fierce Gollum is even more powerful than just adding a direct doubt.

- Stone Giants: "Each time When the fellowship moves to site 4", see The Long Dark. Seems ok. Though if we were going to add a [Troll] card, I'd remove this one to clear a slot (such Troll card should be inside either Bilbo's Pack or the Wizard Pack).


Mirkwood Pack:

- Double Shot: Nice card for wounding. I'd like to see something to allow that Elf archer to fight Orcs (only Orcs, otherwise that archer will be used as cannon fodder to face Smaug or a Troll), so I'd add this: "You may exert Legolas or Tauriel to make him or her strength +3 and may be assigned to skirmish Orcs until the regroup phase." The idea is to allow them only to fight, not to participate in archery fire, to prevent them from taking Shadow arrows. Strength +3 seems huge, but given the low base strength and the absolute absense of pumps for elves, strength 9 would allow them to win some small fights.

- Bolg, Servant of Sauron: He's a terminator like Lurtz or his father, and being fierce always spices up the fight. But strength +2 for each dead guy is extremely powerful, at the end of the game each Orc might be strength +6 or +8 for absolutely free . Therefore ensuring easy swarms, which we don't want. So change it to +1 for each, or give it a limit like "For each character in the dead pile, your Orcs are strength +2 (limit +3)". Or both strength +1 for each, AND limit +3.

- Enchanted River: "Each time When the fellowship moves to site 5", like The Long Dark. To strengthen the Spider culture, add something like this "Maneuver: At a forest site, discard this condition to discard a follower. You may play a [Spider] card from your discard pile." To play a Spider minion or another Spider condition like Crawling Evil or Spider Nest (or Caught in Webs and other tricks in a next Extension). 6 card lines.



And here is the commentary about Smaug's Pack.

Shadow Smaug:

- Dragon's Malice: Looks great! But given both Smaug and this condition are unique and have too low card slots, and that Smaug is somewhat hard to play and comes late, it just can't work as Worry does with Uruks. So you might add this to enhance it a bit: "(or both if he kills an ally in that skirmish)." "'You care about them, do you?! Good. Then you can watch them die!'"

- Smaug's Awakening: Seems good. Perhaps would be better if it said "discard a Shadow card from hand" or "discard a minion from hand", to reduce the chances of easy swarms.

- Wrath of the Dragon: Nice image, looks great! The text change is great too. I'd extend its effect to the support area: "...a artifact or a Free Peoples support area possession." To allow Smaug to discard fortifications, and other support area possessions that might come in the future like Beorn's ponies (he ate ponies in the book) or the Windlance (if it's not borne by Bard).

A thing I love about this card is that it allows you to discard the Dwarven Arkenstone in the right time to play the Shadow one, which depicts well the problems that Bilbo had when he tried to take the Arkenstone before Smaug's glance.

- Twisted Gold of Dragon: Simple and effective. Watchful Orc can turn the current site into a mountain, and then get discarded along with 2 buddies to play Smaug.

- Dissension: I think that Smaug losses too much corruption potential with the change in this card (erasing the Regroup doubt addition) and the remotion of The Shadow Arkenstone to Thorin's pack. Perhaps the Smaug non-culture was too powerful in that aspect, but Smaug must be able not only to destroy tools and lives, but to inflict terror and strong mind pressure to anyone in his path. And Dissension will need to spot doubts to be effective in a skirmish, so in my opinion that Regroup skill and the original cost of were in the correct direction.

The cost of playing from hand cards that a Shadow player can replay from discard should be high, either in exertion, discarding from hand, doubt removing... or twilight. That way the Shadow player will need a more complex situation to abuse its effect, so I believe that is a good amount. Perhaps even if playtesting proves it too good a card.


So now only the review for Azog's Pack is missing .

[Durin's Heir]

Here is the last comment, Azog's Pack. Frankly I love the card images you made for this pack ...

Azog's Army (20 cards):

- Demolition Troll:

- Dark Bats:

- Azog, Commander of the Wolves Army: I know I said it before. But in my opinion there are too many cost reduction or twilight adding cards, and Azog should be "the head of the snake" that Thorin tries to cut off to weaken and scatter the outnumbering invaders. "While you can spot 3 minions, each minion is strength +2." would be better I think. And Azog himself would be a beatdown tank instead of a mere swarmer who is no match for Thorin in an one-to-one fight.

- Were-worms: Seems good by itself. But in combination with Swarming Goblin, it worries me A LOT: if you have al least 1x Dark Bats in play and the current site is battleground, you can discard the Were-worms and remove to play 9 Orcs from discard. Then you play 3x Swarming Goblin to recover those you just invested, and you still have 6 Orcs from discard into your hand, and each will cost -1 for each Dark Bats and Azog you have in play. And you can even take The Wolves Army from discard to replay the Were-worms, and keep the madness going over and over again...

I don't think that this Were-worms should be changed, but instead the Swarming Goblin must change. And The Wolves Army too.

- Swarming Goblin: This card is the incarnation of EVIL . In teamwork with the Were-worms, this Goblin will be a non-unique Bill Ferny with strength +1. I mean, you will EASILY play much more minions than defenders, and then each of these strength 5 Goblins will be free for you to assign, just like Bill Ferny.

So I'd add a cost to add those : "When you play this minion at a battleground site, you may exert a minion to add ". This culture works much with exertions, and reducing the vitality resource should balance it a bit. And also exerting them will turn archery and direct wounding into viable ways to counter it (and remember that both strategies aren't so stable as they depend heavily on events).

- The Wolves Army: The ability seems good, and is well balanced in attributes and cost. Anyway, I still think that this minion should be a Warg instead, and given that there's no possession bearable by a Warg (and shouldn't), it should pump itself by spotting wounded companions: "At a battleground, The Wolves Army is strength +1 for each wounded companion."

I know that being a Warg it won't be playable from discard with Host of Thousands, Hatred Rekindled and the Were-worms, but still Azog and the Dark Bats will be able to play it or bring it back to hand. And that way the Were-worms / Wolves Army replaying cycle is prevented.

- Assaulting Goblin: Seems great my fellow! But this Orc is splashable so YOU MUST ADD A RESTRICTION (by culture or race), otherwise they will make Sauron (!), Nazgûl (!), Spiders (!!), Gollum (!!!) and SMAUG (!!!!!) very dangerous and problematic. "Skirmish: Exert this minion to make another Orc or minion strength +2 (or +4 if at a battleground)." That way it will be able to pump Trolls, Wargs, and any Orc like the [Gundabad] and versions of Bolg and Azog.

Maybe +4 strength at a battleground is too much and should be +3 instead, but only playtesting will prove me right or wrong.

- Vicious Warg: The skill and attributes seem ok, except for that vitality addition which is too strong. Reduce it to +1. Remember that this culture will use vitality as its most valuable resource (even above twilight) so +2 vitality will devastate the balance. And to equilibrate, reduce the cost to .

With vitality +2 not only Azog will be excessively powerful, but Assaulting Goblin will be a huge pain too.



So here it is. The last piece of the commentaries. Hope they are useful.

[ramolnar]

I'm procrastinating so I took a look at the swarm cards. I don't know all the cards in the format, so I'm not an expert, but I believe you're playing Rule of 9. This is crazy - is there a constructed format?

Assaulting Goblin needs to be culturally restricted - I'd say Moria Orc myself. Maybe all Orcs is OK.

For me the problem card is Were-worms. Very few cards get to play multiple cards from the discard pile: Ulaire Nertea from set 1 and Relics of Moria. One of those is Banned in extended and the other is R-listed in a format with Madril and 9 companion starts! That should say something. And you have Host of Thousands which lets me pull what I need to start the chain.

Just quickly looking, honestly I think I can play 20 minions at site 9 with this setup. If you're ever planning a constructed format this would be crazy.

3 Host of Thousands
2 Were-worms
3 Dark Bats
1 Smaug

4 Swarming Goblin
4 Assaulting Goblin
4 Goblin Vanguard (to replay Were-worms and Dark Bats)

1 Yazneg
1 Narzug
2 Azog Commander
1 Watchful Orc (to add battleground)
2 Orkish Marauder (to wound big fellowships)
3 Orkish Aggressor

[Durin's Heir]

@ Ramolnar: I'm glad to see your commentary and the help it brings. You are mentioning some very important points. Very welcome!

I'm procrastinating so I took a look at the swarm cards. I don't know all the cards in the format, so I'm not an expert, but I believe you're playing Rule of 9. This is crazy - is there a constructed format?

There isn't YET a constructed format, but if this is going to be included in Gemp constructed will be the main format, and as you point out that can mean huge troubles. And constructed format is not limited to Gemp only, as anyone can print multiple copies of these cards to play constructed games with their friends...

So we must build those new cards of the new packs the way songs like Pinball Wizard or Another Brick In The Wall part 2 were composed: meant to work both very differently and marvelously well in 2 completely different contexts (as the sole piece of attention and as a mere chapter in a much longer creation). Here those 2 contexts (constructed and draft) differ in the number of available packs and copies of cards to combine. So we must keep creating the new cards thinking in the copies and possible interactions they will have in the Draft Game, but also thinking in all possible combinations they might have with any other card (regardless of pack), having up to 4 copies each.

Assaulting Goblin needs to be culturally restricted - I'd say Moria Orc myself. Maybe all Orcs is OK.

The restriction is an imperative need, is too powerful and somewhat nonsensical to help any minion. Restricted to "any Orc" allows interaction between Azog's Moria army and Bolg's Gundabad army, or the versions of Azog and Bolg. But if it were "any Orc and minion" it would allow the Assaulting Goblin to support Trolls and Wargs, and that'd represent Azog's army in a better way I think.

For me the problem card is Were-worms. Very few cards get to play multiple cards from the discard pile: Ulaire Nertea from set 1 and Relics of Moria. One of those is Banned in extended and the other is R-listed in a format with Madril and 9 companion starts! That should say something. And you have Host of Thousands which lets me pull what I need to start the chain.

Hmmmm, you are very right. Removing to replay X minions is a heavy cost if X is a big number, EXCEPT if you have 1 or more Dark Bats reducing the cost of the whole bunch, and is even less costly if you can add loads of twilight with Swarming Goblin.

A possible solution is to add a side cost to that . Something like "Shadow: Remove and discard X cards from hand to take X minions...", that way you prevent the Shadow player from recovering more minions than cards in hand. Then at maneuver Azog can play more minions trying to pull a swarm...

Just quickly looking, honestly I think I can play 20 minions at site 9 with this setup. If you're ever planning a constructed format this would be crazy.

3 Host of Thousands
2 Were-worms
3 Dark Bats
1 Smaug

4 Swarming Goblin
4 Assaulting Goblin
4 Goblin Vanguard (to replay Were-worms and Dark Bats)

1 Yazneg
1 Narzug
2 Azog Commander
1 Watchful Orc (to add battleground)
2 Orkish Marauder (to wound big fellowships)
3 Orkish Aggressor

In a constructed format you might even add 4x Goblin Runner (exactly the same as Decipher's). So it's very worrisome.

Anyway, the problem with Goblin Vanguard was strongly reduced when that Orc was removed, and although its text was preserved the minion that holds it is unique: The Wolves Army. So an almost endless cycle of Were-worms/Vanguard is not possible anymore, as The Wolves Army can only retrieve it once. Anyway, that loop should be reduced even more: the Were-worms can play only Orc minions. And The Wolves Army should be a Warg minion instead of an Orc, if that is changed only Azog Commander will play it from discard at Maneuver (and Were-worms works at Shadow), or Dark Bats will recover it to hand at regroup, and that delays the loop to the next site.

But, again, I agree totally with you: the Were-worms can be a really troublesome card, as far as it doesn't have a limit or a heavy side cost like discarding X cards from hand, or removing X doubts.

Again, thanks for your help .

[-Enola-]

Thank you a lot for all your comments. I put all the new updates here.

http://hobbitdraftgame.free.fr/Boosters2.html