Desperate Rescue
Event • Response
If your companion is about to be captured, exert a companion to prevent that.
“...had tied him up again and were dragging him away. He gave a shout and slashed at the spiders in front of him.”

•The Legend of Bandobras Took
Condition
Tale. Bearer must be a Hobbit companion.
While skirmishing an Orc, bearer is strength +1.
Skirmish: Exert bearer and discard this condition to make bearer strength +2 and damage +1.
“...Old Took’s great grand-uncle Bullroarer...He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green Fields, and knocked their king Golfimbul’s head clean off with a wooden club.”

Dáin’s DC Duos #61

Would you believe the culture for Lasting Alliances is almost done already? Three events and a condition and we’re through! I already see a couple holes I’d like to fill in later, but after the four cards I mentioned, we’re done for the time being.

So, here’s two of them, and once these get a couple reviews, we’ll move on and post the last two...then start our fourth culture in three weeks after that. Enjoy!

Desperate Rescue
Event • Response
If your companion is about to be captured, exert a companion to prevent that.
“...had tied him up again and were dragging him away. He gave a shout and slashed at the spiders in front of him.”

Hm...I would make it a condition and have it discard when used...

Yesterday we featured a couple powerful cards dealing with rescuing captured characters. (See Duo #60 if you have no clue what I’m talking about.) Now here’s a card that keep those characters from ever getting captured in the first place. The only real downside is that, as an event, it can potentially clog your hand while you just sit back and wait for your opponent to try and capture someone. Still, it might be worth it to hold one in reserve, or ensure you have some way to draw it when you need it, because a couple copies of this card can really shut down capturing altogether.

•The Legend of Bandobras Took
Condition
Tale. Bearer must be a Hobbit companion.
While skirmishing an Orc, bearer is strength +1.
Skirmish: Exert bearer and discard this condition to make bearer strength +2 and damage +1.
“...Old Took’s great grand-uncle Bullroarer...He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green Fields, and knocked their king Golfimbul’s head clean off with a wooden club.”

Nice. And with Stone Trolls, now Hobbits just need men hate...

This is certainly one of the more unique cards in Lasting Alliances...or any of my other sets, for that matter. Bandobras Took really has nothing to do with the rest of the storyline. But he IS mentioned in both The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, and his story is inspirational to Bilbo and helps prod him out the door on the Quest of Erebor, so I thought it deserved a brief mention. Plus it makes for a good opportunity for some rare Hobbit rage.

As mentioned when I posted Sting, Elven-knife, damage bonuses are very, very rare for Hobbits. Even strength bonuses can be hard to come by, at least compared to other FP cultures. This card affords a potential strength +2, damage +1 boost to any Hobbit companion--even the Ring-bound or Ring-bearing variety--for only one twilight. That’s hard to come by for ANY culture. The downside? It’s unique, so you’re only going to get to do this once. That’s why it might be nice to keep on that companion until you REALLY need that big boost, and just reap the minor, conditional strength boost in the interim...which still isn’t bad at all for only , right?

Thanks for the reviews, guys. I opted to go with AP’s suggestion for Desperate Rescue. I’d rather not make it a condition unless it really, really needs it.

Dáin’s DC Duos #62

Time to play Auld Lang Syne, or Pomp and Circumstance, or whatever send-off song you wish, because this marks the end of the culture. Once the Duos from Lasting Alliances are winding down, I will close out with a handful of cards for a few of the cultures, and will be one of them. There’s a little more I want to do with ol’ Bilbo, but I want to move on for now.

Anyway. We close out with two cards that may seem familiar to you, but they’re almost a must in Lasting Alliances. Enjoy!

Goblin-bane
Event • Maneuver
Spot Sting, Glamdring, or Orcrist and exert its bearer X times to wound X Orcs or X Uruk-hai.
“He took out his sword again, and again it flashed in the dark by itself. It burned with a rage that made it gleam if goblins were about; now it was bright as blue flame for delight in the killing of the great lord of the cave.”

Yeah, yeah, you know...

Yeah yeah, I know. This is just a cheap knock-off of Orc-bane. It’s identical except for the lore and a few little characters inserted into the old text: O-r-c-r-i-s-t.

The use for this card goes up 50% with Lasting Alliances’ addition of Thorin’s blade Orcrist. Considering how powerful both Thorin and Orcrist are, they would likely be used a lot. Bilbo would also be used quite a bit, as he’s the primary Ring-bearer, and thus Sting would see a lot of play. And we all know how often Gandalf (and Glamdring) pops up in fellowships.

Orc-bane is still a perfectly useful card with Sting or Glamdring, so I hardly nullified it. Still, I feel bad about virtually overwriting it, but in this case, I think it was both justified and necessary.

I Will Do The Stinging!
Event • Skirmish
Exert a Hobbit companion to have him or her replace a wounded unbound companion in a skirmish. That Hobbit is strength +1 for each threat you can spot.
“He darted backwards and forwards, slashing at spider-threads, hacking at their legs, and stabbing at their fat bodies if they came too near.”

Kinda powerful. Especially with Pippin, Sworn to service and Merry, Rohirrim Squire...

Cards like this have been around in the culture since Mount Doom’s Brave and Loyal. The post-Shadows world has brought us Pippin, Brave Decoy and Frodo, Frenzied Fighter with similar abilities. So this is nothing new. Why waste my time with it, then?

There are a couple key differences between those cards and I Will Do The Stinging!. The first is pretty obvious: unlike those others, this one comes with a built-in strength pump. We’ve already covered (pretty exhaustively) that threats are a very big part of Lasting Alliances gameplay; several cultures on both sides add and remove them in droves and have lots of cards that key off them in both good and bad ways, depending on which side of the table you’re sitting on. So if there’s going to be some threats around, why not use them? Not only can you get your Hobbit in there to try and save a wounded comrade, but you can give that Hobbit a fighting chance at winning!

There’s one other big difference that may rustle some feathers, but I wanted to throw it out there. Unlike the other cards I mentioned, this one has no text requiring that Hobbit to be unassigned. Your Hobbit CAN be unassigned, certainly, but they can also just as easily be assigned to a big baddie of their own. Not anymore! If, say, Sauron is assigned to your Hobbit, you can effectively cancel that skirmish, cancel the skirmish of another wounded companion, and assign that Hobbit to the minion(s) that second companion was skirmishing.

One limitation from the other cards remains in place: you can’t save the Ring-bearer with this card. The only exception among those cards (and this one) is Frodo, and for very good reason, I think.

Okay, once we get these settled down, it’ll be time to start a new culture! I think we’ll wait until tomorrow for that, but you never know what that crazy Dáin is going to do. Tune in next time to find out what culture is next!

Goblin-bane
Event • Maneuver
Spot Sting, Glamdring, or Orcrist and exert its bearer X times to wound X Orcs or X Uruk-hai.
“He took out his sword again, and again it flashed in the dark by itself. It burned with a rage that made it gleam if goblins were about; now it was bright as blue flame for delight in the killing of the great lord of the cave.”

I Will Do The Stinging!
Event • Skirmish
Exert a Hobbit companion to have him or her replace a wounded unbound companion in a skirmish. That Hobbit is strength +1 for each threat you can spot.
“He darted backwards and forwards, slashing at spider-threads, hacking at their legs, and stabbing at their fat bodies if they came too near.”

Kinda powerful. Especially with Pippin, Sworn to service and Merry, Rohirrim Squire...

Dáin’s DC Duos #61
Desperate Rescue
Event • Response
Toil 2.
If your companion is about to be captured, spot a companion to prevent that.
“...had tied him up again and were dragging him away. He gave a shout and slashed at the spiders in front of him.”
IMO make it cost ) and exert a shire companion to prevent that

•The Legend of Bandobras Took
Condition
Tale. Bearer must be a Hobbit companion.
While skirmishing an Orc, bearer is strength +1.
Skirmish: Exert bearer and discard this condition to make bearer strength +2 and damage +1.
“...Old Took’s great grand-uncle Bullroarer...He charged the ranks of the goblins of Mount Gram in the Battle of the Green Fields, and knocked their king Golfimbul’s head clean off with a wooden club.”

Goblin-bane
Event • Maneuver
Spot Sting, Glamdring, or Orcrist and exert its bearer X times to wound X Orcs or X Uruk-hai.
“He took out his sword again, and again it flashed in the dark by itself. It burned with a rage that made it gleam if goblins were about; now it was bright as blue flame for delight in the killing of the great lord of the cave.”
what can I say? un original, and very D-like. I am ashamed dain .

I Will Do The Stinging!
Event • Skirmish
Exert a Hobbit companion to have him or her replace a wounded unbound companion in a skirmish. That Hobbit is strength +1 for each threat you can spot.
“He darted backwards and forwards, slashing at spider-threads, hacking at their legs, and stabbing at their fat bodies if they came too near.”

Goblin-bane
Event • Maneuver
Spot Sting, Glamdring, or Orcrist and exert its bearer X times to wound X Orcs or X Uruk-hai.
“He took out his sword again, and again it flashed in the dark by itself. It burned with a rage that made it gleam if goblins were about; now it was bright as blue flame for delight in the killing of the great lord of the cave.”

I Will Do The Stinging!
Event • Skirmish
Exert a Hobbit companion to have him or her replace a wounded unbound companion in a skirmish. That Hobbit is strength +1 for each threat you can spot.
“He darted backwards and forwards, slashing at spider-threads, hacking at their legs, and stabbing at their fat bodies if they came too near.”