Next Updates for the Hobbit Draft Game

[-Enola-]

I think we have the final cards of the Swarm Pack 3 now.

[Durin's Heir]

* Goblin Archery Shadow

I see you removed the Response skill, that's better considering their high vitality.


* Sauron Swarm Shadow

- Orc Sentinel: Str 5 and cost ...
- Dark Sorcery: Much better at regroup, great! Now, what about the [Dale] Iron-forged Weapons? The new version cannot discard them. "Non- card", or "(except a card)" will be better. Also, the Elrond pack might have an item, which perhaps may be borne by companions. Must specify a "Free Peoples card" or a list of FP cultures only, otherwise The Shadow Arkenstone will be discardable.

- Rise of the Necromancer: The cost of prevents abuses (and gives extra value to Mithril Coat ). But still I strongly disagree about the prevention cost, is both too costly and totally wrong with the story. Sauron's power was countered by the will of the White Council (and none of them died meanwhile). That can be portrayed by the Wise exerting or wounding themselves (like "The FP player may assign X wounds to Wise characters"). But Elrond's regeneration (and the potential of more Wise allies) will make it very hard to balance... 

So we can extend that role to the willpower of any good guy (Wise or not): "The Free Peoples player may make you assign X exertions to his or her characters to prevent this." The Shadow player controls the exertions. Alike your version, the idea is to erase defenders, but this one gives the FP player some degree of maneuver (and better flavor). So by shuffling a small amount of Orcs like 3+ the prevention will enable you to exhaust one or more irksome defenders like Gandalf, Thorin or Fili and try to kill them later (helped by Anger). You can even put some exertions on Elrond to assure he won't be healing them.

Rise of the Necromancer
Event • Skirmish
Shuffle X Orcs into your draw deck to make a minion strength +3 for each Orc shuffled this way. The Free Peoples player may make you assign X exertions to his or her characters to prevent this.
"The East will fall... The time of the Elves is over. The Age of the Orc has come."


"Exhausted" is not "dead," and after shuffling your Orcs there will be few or no skirmishes left. So a Morgul Slayer skill would be very useful to finish the work at regroup. Malevolent Orc is perfect to carry such task. "Regroup: Discard this minion to wound a companion (except Bilbo)." Discard, not exert, to avoid combos with vitality bonuses (Goblin Bow).

Malevolent Orc
Minion • Orc
Strength 7  Vitality 2  Site 5
At the end of each of your Shadow phases, you may take a [Gundabad] or event from your discard pile into hand.
Regroup: Discard this minion to wound a companion (except Bilbo).
"I saw them with my own eyes. Rank upon rank of Moria Orcs!"


Hope this helps.

[-Enola-]

The current version of Rise of the Necromancer was well balanced during playtests. I prefer to keep the current version, much easier to test. It could eventually be

2x Rise of the Necromancer
Event • Skirmish
Shuffle X Orcs from play into your draw deck to make a minion strength +3 for each Orc shuffled this way. The Free Peoples player may place Gandalf in the dead pile to prevent this.
"The East will fall... The time of the Elves is over. The Age of the Orc has come."

[Durin's Heir]

- Rise of the Necromancer: Well balanced in gameplay, but very wrong in depiction of the story. Dwarves didn't fight at Dol Guldur, so they couldn't die facing Sauron or his servants. And Gandalf survived the White Council's assault, and also his investigation there 91 years before ("Even I, Gandalf, only just escaped." But escaped, and that's what matters). I mean this: threat of death is a thing, but unavoidable death is a totally different matter.

The powerful alternative cost I propose is uncertain death, but unlike your version it's you who chooses which FP guys get punished. Then the Malevolent Orc's new skill will attempt for the last needed push (isn't that the same bully Orc who batters on Gandalf? ).


- Dark Sorcery: What about the [Dale] weapons?

[-Enola-]

- Rise of the Necromancer: Maybe, but I prefer a balanced game... We are still playtesting this Shadow, this event may change.

- Dark Sorcery: I don't think it's necessary.

[Durin's Heir]

- Dark Sorcery: When this event is played, decks based on the Dale pack will have only Main deck things to discard: followers, Glamdring and Orcrist. That will help Hidden to play more Orcs. Which may be fine, considering the support of fighting (and firing) allies; or the stronger companions, if the Dale hand weapons aren't borne by allies.

- The Great Goblin: I wonder if you tested him working in a Swarm. He (and Narzug costing ) will make the Sentinels draw a lot, that's fine. But what worries me is the huge amounts of Orcs that will be available to fuel his skill... any companion in his path may very well be machine-gunned to death (and he's fierce!).

Or perhaps my worries are unfounded, that's why I'm asking.

[-Enola-]

- Dark Sorcery: Ok I change it. It's forest now and only 2 copies (and 3 for Rise of the Necromancer).

2x Dark Sorcery
Event • Regroup
Spot a minion to make the Free Peoples player discard a Free Peoples card borne by a or companion (or 2 if the fellowship is at a forest site).
"These are dark spells... old and full of hate."

- The Great Goblin: Yes, we test a Goblin Archery list with few Orcs (1-2 copies of the cheap Orcs). It's ok now, because a swarm doesn't use the doubts (except at site 9). Moreover, cheap Orcs die first. We can still limit the skill of the Great Goblin.

[Durin's Heir]

- Dark Sorcery: Much better. Actually, I hadn't realized before the problem with battlegrounds (only site 9, but no regroup phase there; while sites 2 and 5, and one site 4, are natural forests).

- The Great Goblin: Alright. My question was a bit different (2x the Great Goblin in a Swarm, supported by Fimbul), but you hit the nail when saying "a swarm doesn't use the doubts... Moreover, cheap Orcs die first." Then, we must merely consider that + doubt-adding power when designing the Shadow cards of the new Supplementary packs.


(Besides the already mentioned arguments about Rise of the Necromancer) we now agree about everything in the Swarm packs. What's next, Beatdown or Supplementary packs?

[Durin's Heir]

Assuming there's now more attention for FP cards, I think this one might be well in either Balin's pack or the Travellers pack:

Dwarven Sword
Possession • Hand Weapon
Bearer must be a or [Dale] character.
At a battleground, bearer is damage +1.
Response: If bearer is exhausted and wins a skirmish, discard 2 cards from hand to heal him or her.
"Azog the Defiler learned that day that the line of Durin would not be so easily broken."

You said you wanted "more heal for the Dwarves," so it has a built-in End of the Game (portraying Thorin's desperate victory at Azanulbizar). Specially useful with the self-exhausting dwarves (except Dwalin): Kili, Fili, Balin, Nori and Glóin. But the exhausted trigger makes it both hard and risky to abuse.

[-Enola-]

Ok for the Swarm Pack 3. Rise for the Necromancer doesn't need a counterpart for the FP player, I only put it to prevent new players from being easily surprised by the card (so, the cost must be huge and good for the Shadow, here crowd control).

The next part is the Beatdown Pack 3 .

[Durin's Heir]

- Rise of the Necromancer: Alright then. True, is like Massing Strength (which doesn't give an alternative) except for the culture enforcement, which makes wiser to fight the weak non- Orcs first. Didn't see it that way before.

I think the Morgul Slayer skill would be a cool addition, but may twist the already gained balance too much. So let it as it is.


Beatdown Pack 3 means only Corrupted Lake-towners and Wood Elves, before playtestings take place. In pure theory, the Giants are well balanced by now, but that may differ in the practical experience (also, they need to be balanced with the potential support of the Mirkwood and/or Lake-town cards). I'll be working on reviews to post soon.

[Durin's Heir]

*Mirkwood Elves Shadow

I'll start with the Mirkwood Elves. I've been really busy, and by now I have time for only 1 card. It caught my attention because has a problem very tough to solve by thinking inside of the box only.


- Elven Jails: The idea of stacking is very good, but unlike the Jail, if this condition is discarded there's no way to replay the stacked Dwarf companions (no difference from "removed from the game"). So the Elven Jail kills the Dwarf, more or less. There's still not a single way to return any FP card (or "a companion" for the matter) into the draw deck. And we just cannot solve it by adding a text like "when this condition is discarded, shuffle each card stacked here into its owner's draw deck". When you proposed "discard 2 companions" as the alternative cost of Rise of the Necromancer, it had the exact same problem... 

It's a design fault to not provide a recycling tool. Which limits the design of new cards, like this. The Dwarven Shovel was meant to do that. But since the flaw is universal, the solution must be universally accesible. So this should solve the general design failure: in The Clouds Burst Extension you added 5 Shadow cards to the Main deck; in this new Extension, you can add 2 or 3 new FP designed to correct the gerenal design flaws.

Besides recycling, the Shovel would also provide a small weapon, reducing the power gap between Packs with weapons and those without. The old "Boxing Dwarves" problem. As a mere reminder:

Dwarven Shovel
Possession • Hand Weapon
Strength +1
Bearer must be a companion.
This weapon may be borne in addition to 1 other hand weapon.
Fellowship: Exert bearer to place 2 Free Peoples card from your discard pile beneath your draw deck.
"We're making a long-term deposit!"


You mentioned another design flaw, which is the superiority of Leader of the Company over the discardable Gandalfs. Either a tool to prevent discarding him, or a tool that gives benefits when he's discarded (or can't be spotted), would help to balance things. I got this for the first option:

Wizard's Mount
Possession • Mount
Strength +1
Bearer must be a Wizard.
Each time the fellowship moves during the regroup phase, heal bearer.
Response: If bearer is about to be discarded, discard this mount instead.
"...a trumpet-voice, a burning brand, a weary pilgrim on the road."

Narya, Beorn's House and Friend of Thorin would still give benefits (by preserving the mount, you keep the healing and strength). Since Gandalf the Grey has nothing to prevent discard or be replayed, he'd be the most benefited. It requires to be drawn, which may make its effect unstable, so a card to play possessions from deck might be good there... something like an ally perhaps (Albert Dreary, Enduring Entretainer?).

Another possible flaw is the lack of twilight remotion cards, and move limit addition is also very scarce; a event called "The Road Goes Ever On" can solve both problems. Triple moving would make games more intense and interesting...

The Road Goes Ever On
Event • Fellowship or Regroup
Exert Bilbo to remove and to make the move limit +1 for this turn.


I'm merely throwing ideas on the board. But I'm really serious about the Dwarven Shovel.

So what do you think?

[-Enola-]

It's a design fault to not provide a recycling tool. Which limits the design of new cards, like this.

Calm down. There are plenty other ways to design cards... The text of Elven Jails could just change a bit to be correct.

[Durin's Heir]

Alright. Perhaps I'm thinking too fast, haha!   We can think in some alternatives for the current Elven Jails.

However, the problem I describe is not in Elven Jails, but in "the absence of a way to replay or recycle companions" (or "any card"). AWINL can replay a Wise character, if is stacked on Jail and it gets discarded later, but for characters there's nothing. So a "discarded Dwarf companion" means almost the same as "a killed Dwarf." We can add a text to Elven Jails to correct that lack of recycling, but it'd need 3 lines at least, while the current Skirmish skill uses 5.

Also, there are other possible problematic scenarios, like misclicks on Gemp. There's no misclicks with real cards, but when this marvelous project of yours gets included into Gemp, a player may misclick on a Dwarf companion when reconciling, and the Dwarf will be plainly erased. It can happen also with discard mechanics, like Ori, Óin and Riddles in the Dark. That problem arises from the lack of recycling + the fact that each companion has 1 copy max. It's a small design flaw, but a flaw still.


- Elven Jails: We can think in some alternatives. I see 3 by the moment:

1) A transferrable condition may make "bearer cannot be assigned to skirmish." But there's a big difference in numbers: such condition can block 1 Dwarf only, while the stacking Jails has no limit. Given that power reduction, a lower play and skill cost should be considered, so only for playing, and for transferring:

Elven Jails [Mirkwood]
Condition • Support area
Bearer cannot be assigned to skirmish.
Skirmish: If Bilbo is not assigned to a skirmish, remove to transfer this to a companion assigned to a skirmish. The Free Peoples player may add a doubt to prevent this.
"There is no escape from my magic doors..."


2) It might return a Dwarf companion to hand, just like Laketown Patrol. But the companion will almost surely be replayed at next turn, which doesn't resemble a jail with "no escape". So a passive skill that triggers "each time a companion is played" may represent those doors where Dwarves can't escape—not at least without Bilbo's help! Bilbo uses his Ring to liberate his fellows, so "add a doubt and exert Bilbo" might be a good effect. Pair it with Not At Home, and the companion may prefer to simply not return:

(Non-unique) Elven Jails [Mirkwood]
Condition • Support area
Each time a companion is played, add a doubt and exert Bilbo.
Skirmish: If Bilbo is not assigned to a skirmish, remove to return a companion to his owner's hand. His owner may add a doubt to prevent this.
"There is no escape from my magic doors..."


3) Compress text in the current version, to allow the addition of a reshuffling text:

Elven Jails [Mirkwood]
Condition • Support area
If this condition is discarded, shuffle each card stacked here into its owner's draw deck.
Skirmish: If Bilbo is not assigned to a skirmish, remove to stack a companion in a skirmish here. Its owner may add a doubt to prevent this.
(No lore text)


If I had to choose, I think #1 will be funny. Those are the only options I can see by now, but you might think in others.

Hope this helps.

[-Enola-]

I think this text is great (6 lines) and we still have a lore text:

Elven Jails. [Mirkwood]
Condition • Support area.
When this card is discarded, companions stacked here return to its owner's hand.
Skirmish: If Bilbo is not assigned to a skirmish, remove to stack a companion assigned to a skirmish here. Its owner may add a doubt to prevent this
"There is no escape from my magic doors."

The wording "assigned to a skirmish" is important.