Wargburgers, coming up!
Before I get into it though I'd like to raise the question: Warg, or Wolf? What precisely differentiates either creature is murky and uncertain, and perhaps it's more like Orc/Goblin in that there isn't actually a difference between Wolf and Warg.
I see Wolves as cheap, fierce, tracker Warg minions. As an intelligent society of doggies, should divide their labors and act as a whole. So I separated them into "frontliners," "dense packs" and "tha Leadah." Being trackers, they have access to UTWE and Seeking It Always, which will become very interesting. The frontliners are cheap scouts and fighters with some degree of independence. The packs are meant to support other Wargs and be supported by them, a "strength in numbers" approach. The Leader gathers them together and directs the assault. 3 minion cards, 1 for each. Plus 3 support cards (1 warg mount, 1 condition and 1 event).
Adding a splash of
trackers to fellowship block would indeed be very interesting and should be thoroughly pursued (...or tracked?).
Mountain Wolf
Minion • Warg
Strength: 7 Vitality: 2 Site: 4
Tracker. Fierce.
When you play this minion, you may spot another card and X wounds on a companion to add .
Skirmish: Discard this minion to make a Warg (or a fierce Orc) strength +3.
"'How the wind howls! It is howling with wolf-voices."
A tired companion will slow down the whole Fellowship, so this scout exploits wounds on companions for twilight (UTWE will help a lot). The Skirmish skill makes it jump from one fight to another (even if didn't finish his own), portraying group support and a feral attack from all flanks (and takes the place of a pump card). By pumping "Wargs or fierce Orcs," can help Warg-riders aswell.
Are there any
cards that specifically target or pull
Warg possessions? I don't believe so, but if there are any I'd second my own motion (
) to make these
trackers Wolves to help keep the subcultures separate. 2% issue though, in either case!
As for Mountain Wolf itself, I really like your initial brief on how these trackers "feel": cheap and fierce; I'd also like to add
simple as a third descriptor, especially on the minions. I understand why the Skirmish ability is there but I think the play effect is likely sufficient, and ditching the skirmish bit could give you something like:
Mountain Wolf Minion •
Warg/Wolf/Demon/Monster/Targeted Maiar Hallucination
Strength: 8 Vitality: 2 Site: 4
Tracker. Fierce. When you play this minion, you may spot another
card and X wounds on a companion to add
.
"'How the wind howls! It is howling with wolf-voices."I almost want to take a page out of
's textbook and drop these guys' vitality to 1 in favor of even greater strength curves. So a
/9/1/4 stat split on Mountain Wolf - easily mowed down by archery fire or other pre-skirmish wounding, but dangerous once you let it get into biting range. Removing the skirmish ability definitely makes the card worse, but since the idea here is to make the pack operate as a unit more than as individuals, I think we should favor "weaker" minions with synergy and one or two decent support cards.
Hunting Wolf Pack
Minion • Warg
Strength: 6 Vitality: 3 Site: 4
Tracker. Fierce.
Each Warg (or fierce Orc) is strength +2.
For each wound on a character skirmishing this minion, it is strength +1.
"In the dead of the night many shining eyes were seen peering over the brow of the hill. Some advanced almost to the ring of stones."
You get stronger by joining the Mob. The more copies, the stronger they'll be (like the previous, Warg-riders are included). For themselves only, they exploit wounds too but for strength, like a wolf smelling the blood on its prey.
Drop the fierce Orc targeting. I think the incidental synergy with pre-existing
trackers is sufficient. I love this card though - everything about it oozes wolfiness. I almost want to suggest making wound-spotting a core feature of these guys since it makes so much flippin' sense to push them in that direction.
All Around Them Condition
Search. To play, spot a
Warg/Wolf/Whatever. Bearer must be a companion.
While skirmishing a
tracker, add 1 to the number of wounds you can spot on bearer for each
card he or she bears.
"The howling of the wolves was now all round them, sometimes nearer and sometimes further off."I'm not sure how effective this would be outside of a subculture where wound-spotting was pushed heavily, but I like the concept! (Also, yup, Tolkien refers to these creatures as Wargs in the text so I suppose that's a firm vote for Wargs, not Wolves.)
•Hound of Sauron, Captain of the Pack
Minion • Warg
Strength: 9 Vitality: 3 Site: 4
Tracker. Damage +1. Fierce.
Each fierce Orc or tracker is strength +2 and twilight cost -1.
Shadow: Discard a card from hand to play a tracker, mount or search card from your discard pile.
"Without warning a storm of howls broke out..."
The Pack Leader makes Wargs and fierce Orcs (and classic Orc trackers) cheaper and stronger, and helps to muster a host of them from discard pile. Can also recover discarded copies of UTWE or Seeking It Always, or mounts for warg-riders. Also, it's a strength 11 fierce, dmg+1 beast on its own.
Hmm...
•Hound of Sauron, Captain of the Pack Minion •
WargStrength: 11 Vitality: 2 Site: 4
Tracker. Fierce. Each
tracker is twilight cost -1.
Shadow: Discard a
card from hand to play a
tracker (or search card) from your discard pile.
"Without warning a storm of howls broke out..."Losing the damage bonus and pip of vitality pushes the strength up to 11. Again, I've axed the fierce-orc component. I almost want to suggest making the shadow effect free ("Shadow: Play a
tracker or search card from your discard pile.") in an effort to incentivize the unique minion over swarms, but maybe we could take a hint from
Tol Brandir and go with something like "Shadow: Play up to 3
trackers and/or search cards from your discard pile; end your Shadow phase." So many options for this minion, but no matter what I agree that recursion is important - and flavorful - for this subculture to get feet under it.
Tracking Warg
Strength +3 Vitality +1
Possession • Mount
Tracker. Bearer must be an Orc with a twilight cost of 4 or less.
Bearer is fierce and a tracker.
When you play this mount, you may exert bearer twice to discard a stealth condition or a classless possession.
"Even magic rings are not much use against wolves..."
Can make "any Orc that costs less than 5" join the Wolf pack (from Goblin Runner to Tower Assassin). Also, can give fierce and vitality+1 to Orc Hunters, or to a Troll's Keyward wielding a Moria Axe. Being a tracker possession, Hound of Sauron makes it cost -1 (while bearer gets the strength +2).
The discard skill is meant to ditch Fearing the Worst (the nemesis of tracker decks). Also, can discard "classless possessions"... Athelas, Bill the Pony, pipeweed, Lembas, Thror's Map... you know, the kind of things you forget about when running from a Rottweiler. Can also get rid of ATfNBS, Escape, Horn of Boromir, Catapult, RBoW and Book of Mazarbul.
At all costs I think we should avoid drawing mechanical comparisons between
Warg trackers and
Warg mounts. This card feels more like Rise of Saruman and less like Mines of Moria and that makes me feel skittish: enabling just about
any Orc to bear it also introduces a host of balancing concerns, since you'd need to test the mount on every single Orc to see what breaks the game and what doesn't. It's messy, and the standout reason why I prefer
's
Warg-rider keyword over anything the
culture ever attempted.
I'd say cut possessions from the subculture entirely. It's certainly a neat idea but it draws the focus away from what the subculture should be good at: cheapy minions with a strong preference for sniffing out bleeding companions.
The Hunt Is Up!
Condition • Support Area
Search. Shadow: Discard an Orc to play a Warg or a mount from your draw deck.
Response: If a mounted Orc is about to be discarded, discard its mount to play a Warg minion with a twilight cost equal or lower from your discard pile for free.
"'The Wargs have come west of the Mountains!'"
This will be the backbone of the new subculture. The Shadow skill ditches any Orc to get Warg minions or Warg mounts from deck. So you can discard an Orc Scout to start the ball rolling with Warg minions, or discard a Goblin Runner to enhance a Goblin Scavengers or Ancient Chieftain with a Tracking Warg mount. This Shadow skill brings Wargs from draw deck, while Hound of Sauron does if from discard.
The Response skill makes a mount keep the fight when the rider gets killed. Which will work wonders with riders: a dead Warg / War-warg / Tracking Warg rider will bring Mountain Wolf for twilight + a pump, or a Hunting Wolf Pack for a strength boost to the remaining riders. A dead Sharku's Warg rider can be turned into a Hound of Sauron.
Of course, the Shadow skill can discard a mounted Orc to also trigger the Response skill: playing a mount/minion Warg from deck AND a Warg minion from discard pile. Crazy, isn't?
Unfortunately what I said ^ sets me against this version of the card. Moreover the game text here is just too complicated for what should be, in essence, a fairly straightforward subculture. I'm a huge fan of providing additional support to
Warg-riders but these cards probably aren't the best place for such support.
Minimal deviation:
The Hunt Is Up! Condition • Support Area
Search.
Shadow: Discard a
Orc to play a tracker from your draw deck.
Response: If a tracker is about to be discarded, remove
to play a
Warg with a twilight cost equal or lower from your discard pile for free.
"'The Wargs have come west of the Mountains!'"I've shifted the cultural enforcement around a bit, forcing the Shadow player to already have a
Orc in play but allowing them to pull any tracker with the discard. Now the Response ability includes a multicultural element (enabling it to splash into, say, an Ugluk deck) but its effect only pulls
Wargs. I'm not sure if this kills the card's versatility or not; I'm just trying to skirt around the concept of
mounts for now without completely rewriting the card. But...
Maximum deviation:
The Hunt Is Up! Condition • Support Area
Search.
Assignment: Spot a companion (except the Ring-bearer) with X wounds to play X
trackers from your draw deck. Discard this condition.
"'The Wargs have come west of the Mountains!'"Leaning into the blood-sniffing theme established earlier. I haven't thought out how balanced this is... I just really like the concept of
Wargs spotting wounds
. Of course, this version of the card is open to all
trackers and not exclusively Wargs.
How The Wind Howls!
Event • Shadow or Skirmish
Search.
Play a Warg minion (or a mount on your Orc) from your draw deck or discard pile.
"'Even if we live to see the dawn, who now will wish to journey south by night with the wild wolves on his trail?'"
Resourcefulness, like Foul Things / Host of Thousands for Wargs. And for mounts. And during skirmish, if needed.
That's all. 5 or 6 cards (you can cut off the event if you wish) for a new subculture, which helps 2 old subcultures aswell.
As is - and removing the mount/Orc parenthetical - I'd say this card should be
. Not sure how useful it would be with those changes though. I
do appreciate your adherence to
lacking pumps, so perhaps something like...
How The Wind Howls! Event • Shadow or Skirmish
Search. Play a
Warg from your draw deck or discard pile; its twilight cost is -1.
"'Even if we live to see the dawn, who now will wish to journey south by night with the wild wolves on his trail?'"Always useful, always free, probably too easy to abuse
But then this popped into my head:
Snarled and Sprang Event • Skirmish
Reveal your hand. Make a
Warg strength +1 for each Shadow card revealed.
"'Fling fuel on the fire!' cried Gandalf to the hobbits. 'Draw your blades, and stand back to back!' In the leaping light, as the fresh wood blazed up, Frodo saw many grey shapes spring over the ring of stones."Yes, it's a bit sacrilegious within
, but it comes at a cost of efficiency as most Shadow players will try to dump all their cards into play well before a skirmish phase.
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If I accidentally skipped over anything or said something dumb, my apologies! Tonight is opening night so I won't be intellectually-available until Monday when the show is finished. In the meantime I'll be stuck thinking about wound-sniffing as a
Warg mechanic and maybe by next week I'll have a card or two percolating along those lines. Sorry for the delay in responding - this seems to be a unifying trait among us stalwarts of TLHH lol - but time stands still here, or seems to, as it should! May the Valar watch over you.