- Town Hall: This card is OK. But if you rewrite it as a fellowship special ability (with a "limit once"), cards that copy sites will utilize its text in other sites (or twice at site 6). That means more importance to this site during the draft.
"
River. Sanctuary. Fellowship: Exert a [Dale] ally to play a weapon from your discard pile
(limit once)."
- Burning Fir Cones: I don't think it's a good idea to have it in the Travellers Pack. I'd rather have it in Balin's pack or the Blue Mountains pack, as it'll discard Dwarf followers and those packs will be intensive in event play (To Me! O My Kinsfolk!) or in direct follower replay.
The problem with the Travellers pack is that it works with card discarding and recycling (and with events, which are immediatly discarded). The Shovel is key to recycle the events and the discarded cards, and shouldn't be excluded
at all cost (besides, the pack needs a permanent strength bonus like that small weapon). The pack doesn't provide outer support from followers or allies, and as such the other components of the pack have similar importance to keep the Company relying well on itself: wound prevention and remotion (Dwarven Cloak and Dwarven Thirst), solid pumps (Never Forgave and Also a Took, and this "
Hand Axe" shovel) and card fetching (Betsy / A Chance Meeting).
The Thirst and the Cloak depend on the Shovel recycling, otherwise will deck you out. So I believe there's no room here to add the Burning Cones, but given the follower dependance it'll be ok in Balin's or Blue Mountains pack.
- Wizard Pack: Don't remove the
Warg presence there. The current Savage
Warg is good against
guys, but also gives
Gwaihir more use and importance. And with either
Radagast's Sled or a Beorn event, Wargs are the correct foes.
- Betsy Butterbur: Nice adaptation. Is actually better than A Chance Meeting as costs no twilight nor exertions on companions, while the event is too expensive at the mid and late game (where Gandalf can be absent, the wounds stack and take toll, and a little more twilight increases a lot the risks). But
the current version of
The Prancing Pony can't play Betsy from the start. And Betsy can't be recycled by Balin. So either change the Pony to be able play her, or keep A Chance Meeting but with a cost reduced to
or
and no exertions (only spotting Thorin and Gandalf).
A possible Prancing Pony might be this:
The Prancing PonySite 1
At the start of the turn, each player may take into hand a site 1 ally or a Man minion from his or her draw deck.
- Furious Warg: Seems good, really interesting and powerful, and does a nice contrast with the
Wargs which counter instead special abilities
. But the Travellers pack will be better in my opinion with The Last Lights of Durin's Day + Ferny. The Quest was in
peril more due to time issues and mercenaries/spies, than by wargs tracking their trail. This Furious
Warg will be better in Balin's or the Blue Mountains pack.
- Bill Ferny Sr: Really interesting. And
powerful : The assignment skill prevents Thorin (if not defender +1) from fighting a big minion like Smaug, Azog, a Troll... Perhaps you meant "While unwounded, Bill Ferny Senior can only be assigned to Thorin and by a Shadow player", which would make him a str +4 pump like his son Ferny
SSF.
You can make a bigger minion in the same fashion as this (with an Assignment skill), by using a picture where 2 men (obviously Ferny and Squint) follow Thorin at the
Streets of Bree (that's the only part when those 2 can be seen together at the same picture). "Group of bad guys" minions are usually stronger, like
Uruk Vanguard or
Goblin Patrol Troop.
A last detail:
- Never Forgave, Never Forgot: I found this quote from the ROTK Appendices, when Thráin and Thorin talk after the Battle of Azanulbizar. The part highlighted in red might be a better lore text:
Thráin said to Thorin Oakenshield: '...Will you come with me back to the anvil? Or will you beg your bread at proud doors?'
"'To the anvil,' answered Thorin. 'The hammer will at least keep the arms strong, until they can wield sharper tools again.'"...
"Older" topics.
- The Shadow Arkenstone: Your "
Blade Tip" version is cool, like
Blade Tip +
Lemenya LoM. But the main problem is that it
affects bearer only, while the dispute for the Arkenstone caused
entire nations of good guys to become enemies. It weakened the position of the nation that didn't have it.
Now I agree that it must be self-discardable. But only Thorin should do that, to overcome its evil influence he'd had to strain himself a lot. Not Bilbo getting doubts, but instead Thorin getting exertions. So I made a self-discardable "Divide and Rule" Arkenstone, identical to my previous proposal except by the
underlined parts.
•
The Arkenstone, King's Jewel [No Culture]
Artifact
Strength -2
To play, spot Thorin. Plays on Bilbo.
If bearer is Bard, he's strength +2 and
characters are strength -2. If bearer
is Thorin, non-
allies are strength -2.
Bilbo gains
this skill: "Maneuver: Add 1
doubt. Attach the Arkenstone to Bard or
Thorin, or exhaust Thorin to discard it.""'What is that? In your hand... Show me!'"It's true, Bard didn't want the Arkenstone for himself, but while Thorin still doesn't pay the ransom he must keep it to protect his people (and his Elf allies) by mantaining a strong position to negotiate. So Bard must be a possible bearer.
Requires spotting Thorin because he is the one who's obsessed with it, and if Thorin discards it he can be easily killed; if killed, any Shadow player can play another copy of this evil Arkenstone and Dwarves will be in bad shape with no way to discard it and no one to represent them and prevent the strength reduction.
The transference adds 1 doubt, but the self-discard skill adds 1 doubt too because it too requires a transference: is Thorin who must have it in his hands before discarding it.
- Orkish Bow: The flavor is really good. But can return
Sting to hand, which has the same -2 str effect as The Shadow Arkenstone on Bilbo (the Aggressor, Gollum, and swarms like Bolg's Army will feast). Lorewise, Bilbo didn't lose his sword at Mirkwood so this Bow should exclude
weapons (perhaps
weapons too).
This Orkish Bow will trigger naturally in good part of the sitepath: all sites 2, 5 and 6 (and at some sites 4 and 7: Wooded Cliff, Underground Lake & Erebor); while the rest will have
Watchful Orc. Therefore, it'll be very influential. Then, returning a weapon to hand so frequently will clog the opponent's hand (like
Vilya +
Elrond HtGG against Shadow conditions).
That can be avoided: if the Bow instead nullified both the bonuses and the text of a weapon, the figthing effect would be exactly the same but there wouldn't be any hand clog. So I made a version that spots a weapon, and while the weapon is at a forest or river it loses all text and bonuses:
Orkish Bow [Gundabad]
Possession • Ranged Weapon
Strength +1
Bearer must be a [Gundabad] Orc.
Bearer is an
archer.When you play this possession, you may spot a non-
weapon. While its bearer is at a river or forest, that weapon loses all game text and bonuses.
I owe you still
the Orkish Bow and The Last Lights of Durin's Day.