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| donimator |
![]() Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 1:36 pm |
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--- description ---
Losing initiative is something the Free Peoples’ side generally tries to avoid. But timed correctly, it can be a key strategy for any Fellowship.
--- end description ---
Initiative is defined as ’The power or ability to begin or to follow through energetically with a plan or task’. Initiative in Lord of the Rings is a mechanic developed in King Block (and then seemingly abandoned through War of the Rings and now into Hunters). Initiative is usually determined by the number of cards in the Free Peoples hand - if they have four or more, the Free Peoples’ player has initiative. Some Shadow cards give the shadow side initiative regardless of the Free Peoples hand by meeting requirements or spotting tokens such as Harsh Tongues, Southron Chieftain, or More Unbearable. When the Shadow has initiative, lots of bad things happen. Minions or their pumps get stronger and companions can be more expensive to play.
However, it is also an effective Free Peoples’ strategy to lose initiative. Several cultures have cards that actually support the act of losing it, representing the desperation and determination of the people of Middle-Earth when the going gets tough. Effective strategies can be developed around purposely losing initiative either in a mono-culture deck or with a rainbow fellowship. First, I’ll break it down culture-by-culture to show some cards that contribute to this strategy. Remember, in almost all cases, you are trying to lose initiative to trigger the effect of another card.
Also note that when you play a card requiring you to have initiative, you must still have four cards in hand after playing that card. The card you play does not count towards the number of cards in your hand. If part of the cost is to discard cards, and this cost makes you lose initiative, any effects triggered by losing initiative happen before the effects of the card being played. Just a handy tip that emphasizes ’timing is everything’.
 Culture: Dwarves are the kings of drawing cards and this act may let you gain and lose initiative several times each turn, triggering the effects of other cards. Memories of Darkness is such a card that acts when initiative is lost. It allows you to play a condition from hand or the discard pile. Much of their drawing ability is keyed to the Fellowship phase such as Aggression, Calculated Risk or Well-equipped, but cards like Gimli’s Armor let you discard during the skirmish phase and Gimli, Lively Combatant draws 1 for each skirmish win. If Memories of Darkness is in play you can play conditions that will aid in subsequent skirmishes such as Dwarven skill or Dark Ways. It is an effective way to play conditions outside the Fellowship phase to deprive the Shadow player the twilight to play minions.
 Culture: Elves have fewer cards that support initiative than other cultures, but it can still be an important component of an elf deck. Glimpse of Fate is the condition that allows you to make a minion strength -4 until regroup each time initiative is lost. Hope Comes can be discarded during the skirmish phase to draw three cards, potentially regaining initiative with the hope of losing it again. If you can get the cyclical process going, you can often take care of troublesome minions before they ever get to skirmish. Legolas, Fearless Marksman drives initiative losing decks and is a great splash companion to help other cultures. Discarding four cards in the archery phase to wound a minion will almost always lose initiative, starting the cycle well before the skirmish phase.
 Culture: Gandalf cards draw and discard in several phases making this culture a good one for helping drive the initiative losing engine. The key card, Brooding on Tomorrow, allows you to make the shadow player discard a condition every time initiative is lost. That can be several times each turn if some of these cards are played. Final Account lets you discard two cards in Fellowship to retrieve two cards from the discard pile. Played right, you could lose and regain initiative during this one action. Skirmish actions and events also set this cycle in motion. Gandalf, Manager of Wizards and Glamdring, Elven Blade both allow you to remove cards from hand to aid in a skirmish, again discarding a condition if triggering Brooding on Tomorrow. With a skirmish win, Echoes of Valinor allows you to draw cards to potentially regain initiative.
 Culture: Smeagol has only a few cards keyed to initiative on the Free Peoples’ side, but is an important cog in a multi-culture deck geared towards losing initiative (cog...geared...nevermind  ). Smeagol, Always Helps lets you discard 2 cards to require his strength be tripled for an overwhelm. This protects Smeagol and is a safe and reliable way to lose initiative. Where Shall We Go is another useful event. Discarding two cards to wound a minion twice is a powerful effect on its own but can also trigger initiative-losing cards.
 Culture: Gondor shines in this strategy and is one of the most reliable either on their own or mixed with other cultures. Hardy Garrison is the key card, allowing you to wound a minion each time initiative is lost. There are many cards that allow you to discard in the maneuver, skirmish and regroup phases that can trigger this extra wound. For example, Gondorian Sword lets you discard three cards to make a companion damage +1, effectively placing three wounds if the companion wins the skirmish. Footman’s Armor lets you discard cards to gain a strength bonus if about to be overwhelmed and if played right could let you kill a weak minion in a swarm and then actually win the skirmish. Ranger of Osgiliath lets you exhaust a minion in Regroup and if you still have initiative, a Reckless Counter will finish it off when the extra wound is triggered. Obviously, this all requires you to keep Hardy Garrison in play.
 Culture: Rohan’s initiative-losing effect is less useful, but could be a killer depending on your meta. Fell Deeds Awake allows you to liberate a site each time initiative is lost and can cripple most site-control Shadow strategies. Key cards to support this are Leowyn or Riding Armor, allowing discards in the Fellowship phase or in response to a wound, respectively, to help trigger Fell Deeds Awake or other cultures’ cards. Overall though, Rohan is a weak-link in this strategy.
 Culture: Hobbit cards provide strong support for a losing initiative strategy. A Light in His Mind allows you to remove a burden each time initiative is lost and can be an effective anti-corruption strategy. As a rule, there are few Hobbit cards that discard or draw cards as part of their cost or effect. But the ability to take Hobbits back into hand a la Merry, Swordthain or Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver can regain initiative if timed correctly during the skirmish phase. This sets your hand up for another loss of initiative through other culture events and a triggering of the effect once more.
One important mechanic not mentioned that can strongly support initiative loss is muster. The and cultures allow for several companions to gain muster which can trigger an initiative loss in the regroup phase and another round of responding actions. If you muster with exactly four cards in hand, you lose initiative when you discard the cards and regain initiative when you draw back to four. You can then discard one more to reconcile, losing initiative again before your turn has ended (cheap, I know, but it can result in another couple of burdens or conditions removed.)
Perhaps Gondor provides the best mono-culture to construct an initiative-losing deck. Hardy Garrison allows you to wound a minion and many cards that trigger this also wound (Targon, Madril, Faramir’s Aide). But relying on a single condition takes the fun out of this strategy. Here’s a ’Rainbow package’ that combines some of the best effects to build the crux of a fellowship:
- Frodo, Protected by Many - for muster
- Faramir, Captain of Gondor - spotting requirements for Hardy Garrison
- Aragorn, Strider - same as above
- Smeagol, Always Helps - (I know, I mentioned Smeagol, Hurried Guide above, but this one exhausts in Assignment allowing you to finish off a minion with a Hardy Garrison wound)
- Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver - spotting for A Light in His Mind, wounding of roaming minions, plus a pincushion for archery wounds (discard wounds when returned to hand)
- Merry, Swordthain - as Pippin, minus the wounding
- Gandalf, Manager of Wizards x2 - allows you to play Brooding on Tomorrow and also lets you lose initiative in skirmish phase by removing cards from hand
- Faramir’s Sword - with some site control will usually allow Pippin’s ability to work by making minions skirmishing Faramir roaming
- Where Shall We Go x2 - Smeagol, discard cards to wound twice - perfect for this deck
- A Light in His Mind x2 - remove burden each time initiative is lost
- Brooding on Tomorrow x2 - discard Shadow condition each time initiative is lost
- Hardy Garrison x2 - wound a minion each time initiative is lost
Seventeen cards to make this strategy work gives lots of opportunity to customize it in other ways. Site manipulation helps, and can be achieved from , , or cards. Echoes of Valinor is a good choice if Gandalf is going to be winning some skirmishes. In any case, this package should let you lose initiative at least once each turn, taking a burden and a shadow condition with it and causing a wound.
The initiative mechanic seemed to primarily benefit the Shadow side. It was meant to prevent the Free Peoples player from dumping their hand in Fellowship by providing some powerful effects to Shadow when initiative was lost. But by carefully controlling when it happens and giving your Free Peoples side the opportunity to lose and regain it through several phases, the act of losing initiative can be an effective Free Peoples strategy. |
| Last edited by donimator on Mon May 15, 2006 9:00 am; edited 3 times in totalA good friend will bail you out of jail. A really good friend will be sitting beside you saying, "Man, we screwed up!" |
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| bobtheorc |
![]() Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 2:41 pm |
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Joined: 19 Mar 2006
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Interesting article
However I do want to point out that both Memories of Darkness and Aggression are x-listed. Also Gimli, Lively Combatant only draws ONE card for each skirmish win. And with Merry, Swordthain do you have to play a possesion to return him to hand? I have always liked glimpse of fate. The only problem I can see with a deck that discards a lot of cards is how can it discard all those cards? It seems like you would have to have a number of semi-useless cards to discard with say Legolas, Fearless Marksman .
Also Gandalf, Manager of Wizards techincally does not discard cards, he only places them on top of your deck.
And fianlly the deck has 4 cultures wich could be dangerous against minion that spot cutlures over say 2.
The article was well written though and was easy to read.
Will vote later. |
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| donimator |
![]() Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 3:28 pm |
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Joined: 23 Mar 2006
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Thanks bobtheorc, you bring up some good points I’ll address as best I can. A fair bit of luck and patience is required with this type of deck, but knowing what to play and when can make it pretty strong.
bobtheorc wrote: Interesting article
However I do want to point out that both Memories of Darkness and Aggression are x-listed.
True, they were not included in the sample build. I just wanted to show what each culture had and how the mechanic was intended to be used. With the power of dwarven conditions and their drawing and discarding ability, Memories of Darkness was destined to be X’ed
Quote: Also Gimli, Lively Combatant only draws ONE card for each skirmish win.
Thanks for the catch, just some overzealous typing. You can still lose init by playing an event to get to three cards and drawing one to regain init.
Quote: And with Merry, Swordthain do you have to play a possesion to return him to hand?
No. ’Up to 2 possessions’ can also include 0. The costs are met by not assigning Merry to a skirmish.
Quote: I have always liked glimpse of fate. The only problem I can see with a deck that discards a lot of cards is how can it discard all those cards? It seems like you would have to have a number of semi-useless cards to discard with say Legolas, Fearless Marksman .
This is where you have to fill out the rest of your fellowship with good supporting cards that will let you take cards back into hand (Saved From the Fire) or benefit from cards in the discard pile - Cirdan, The Shipwright. It is also good when paired with a Shadow that can play from discard like gollum or Nazgul, Corsairs, Morcs, etc. The option to discard is here if the push is needed. In many cases you will lose init by playing cards in fellowship and playing events. This type of deck can handle a bigger card count 35/35 usually and drawing is rarely a problem.
Quote: Also Gandalf, Manager of Wizards techincally does not discard cards, he only places them on top of your deck.
True, but you remove them from your hand, thereby affecting initiative. This is a better answer to your comment above because the cards you place on your draw deck come back into your hand. This Gandalf is much more effective than the Legolas which is why he was included in the sample build.
Quote: And fianlly the deck has 4 cultures wich could be dangerous against minion that spot cutlures over say 2.
You can counter many of these abilities (strength bonuses, twilight addition) by direct wounding through discards and initiative loss. I think there’s enough here to counter any shadow specifically keyed to Rainbow fellowships. Obviously this deck will have harder matchups then others, but it is pretty solid and works good with a shadow side that you need to cycle.
A deck with a similar core build was runnerup at 2005 worlds |
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| ingold55 |
![]() Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 3:57 pm |
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i like the article, and have been wandering about how to make initiative in my favor as the freeps. you just need to do an article on the minions.  |
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| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 7:23 pm |
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Joined: 07 Apr 2006
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You included Hardy Garrison!  You Rock!
I’d better get going with some more keyword articles, before other people write them first! |
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| sickofpalantirs |
![]() Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 7:38 am |
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| Good articlew overall but Smeagol always helps does not effect intiative(unless you assign a minion to him and use Don’t look at them or whatever it is called look at the link to him and you will see you got the wrong smeagol. |
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| Hazael |
![]() Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 11:34 am |
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I use hardy garrison too
Madril, Faramir’s Aide is great with it, as is Pippin, wearer of black and silver |
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| donimator |
![]() Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 8:46 am |
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sickofpalantirs wrote: Good articlew overall but Smeagol always helps does not effect intiative(unless you assign a minion to him and use Don’t look at them or whatever it is called look at the link to him and you will see you got the wrong smeagol.
I know Smeagol, Always Helps is not the obvious choice for this deck - Smeagol, Poor Creature or Smeagol, Hurried Guide might be better for their discard actions. But Smeagol, AH is too good paired with Hardy Garrison. If you can exhaust a minion and then play cards to lose initiative, the Hardy Garrison wound will trigger to kill that minion. It depends on how you build out the rest of the deck if you want to include this version of Smeagol or not. |
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| sperzdechly |
![]() Posted: Sun May 14, 2006 8:53 am |
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Joined: 05 May 2006
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Good article, well written, very clear. But you missed some important cards like Sam, Resolute Halfling (one of the best cards allowing to loose iniciative - mainly because you can discard one cards at the time, moreover its effect combined with Frodo, Son of Drogo and Aragorn, Elessar Telcontar helps to have whole fellowship healed at every site) and So Fair, So Desperate which is one of the most powerful pumps for hobbits. On the elves culture side, we have City of the Trees which have great potential to take back initiative and loose it again, triggering Glimpse of Fate for example. It would be nice, if you showed some complete deck using this strategy, based on cards mentioned in article and mayby muster characters.
P.S. Gandalf, Manager of Wizards do not discards cards, he’s putting them on top of draw deck. |
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| donimator |
![]() Posted: Mon May 15, 2006 8:55 am |
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Joined: 23 Mar 2006
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sperzdechly wrote: Good article, well written, very clear. But you missed some important cards like Sam, Resolute Halfling (one of the best cards allowing to loose iniciative - mainly because you can discard one cards at the time, moreover its effect combined with Frodo, Son of Drogo and Aragorn, Elessar Telcontar helps to have whole fellowship healed at every site) and So Fair, So Desperate which is one of the most powerful pumps for hobbits. On the elves culture side, we have City of the Trees which have great potential to take back initiative and loose it again, triggering Glimpse of Fate for example. It would be nice, if you showed some complete deck using this strategy, based on cards mentioned in article and mayby muster characters.
Thanks sperz, for some good comments and additions. I stopped short of a complete deck to avoid the ’use this card instead’ comments. I just gave a base of cards that can make the strategy work with the assumption it could be customized to suit any player’s style. With this base, one can focus on Hobbits, Gondor or Gandalf quite easily.
Quote: P.S. Gandalf, Manager of Wizards do not discards cards, he’s putting them on top of draw deck.
And as mentioned a couple of posts up, it is just a question of semantics. For initiative, it does not matter where the cards go, only that they leave your hand. The fact they are going on top of your draw deck is a bonus. |
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