I'm sorry for this absence. The same as usually... lately health and energy have been low, while daily activities have been demanding. But nothing that could ever threaten to kill me. "I'm born to rock and roll, I'm here to stay" says an old anthem...
"To play, return your Orc to your hand." It think it's a great idea with the new Boulder Rock, but we had a similar strategy with the Nazguls at a moment, and it makes the game lasts longer: play an Orc, then return it in hand to play another minion.... We will test it.
I think it'll be OK, as depends on the number of minions played. Nazguls can be played 2 per site somewhat easily. But will be hard to play more than 1 Giant per site (before region 3). Thus less Orcs are returned to hand. Also, Nazguls then had skills that costed to discard Orcs from hand (unlike Giants); with 9 different Nazguls and 1 weapon, having to decide whether to spend the Orcs in hand here or there must have lengthened the game a lot.
Giants are much simpler: the Orc is played, and then goes to hand when you play a Giant. Are more expensive, and don't have skills that require specifically to discard Orcs. Still, if happens to lengthen too much the game, you can change it to "To play, discard an Orc."
And the Stone Giants are now damage +1?
That'd be OK but will require to reduce the archery power, to not flood too easily the Company with wounds. That, or increase the twilight cost. But if they'd cost more, it'd be too hard to play enough Giants at the late game. At region 2, playing 1 Giant per site can be enough to get good stopping power and some grind, but at region 3 stopping power won't be that relevant (you simply need to kill). So it's really important to keep them cheap enough at region 3 (but not too cheap)...
Lurtz SoI can be used as a reference (archer, dmg+1 and his strength is similar): ugly and frightening, delivers 3 wounds for 7 twilight, or 5 wounds for 9+ (fierce).
But being damage +1, he often overwhelms weak guys if the stronger defenders don't have 3+ vitality to withstand him. He can easily become fierce, which doubles that overwhelming power. Almost all Dwarves here will have vitality 3, which makes them unable to take 1 arrow and then survive a skirmish to a dmg+1 Giant, even if aren't overwhelmed.
Giants won't become fierce, happily.
I think Giants shouldn't deliver more than 4 wounds each, to allow the total cost (Giant + Orc) to be kept moderate as is it (between
and
)
so you can play regularly 2 per site in region 3. Therefore,
the "limit +X" would need to be reduced to 2 only (2 in skirmish, 2 in archery). If so, Boulder Rock will be the only way to increase the archery beyond that small limit.
-
Boulder Rock: Ok for a fixed number. But I think 3 will be better than 2, to be worthy of the cost. Boulder Rock will often cost
(due to the Footman) if you play only 1 Giant, or
if you play 2 Giants (Footman costs +2 than Yazneg)... this is the order:
1) you play an Orc for
to
,
2) you return it to play a Giant for
or
,
3) you play the Footman for
to get the Boulder Rock from discard.
4) If you happen to have enough twilight, you can play a 2nd Giant for
ot
more (by returning the Footman).
In region 2 (artificial mountains) it's
for the Orcs +
to
= 11 to 13 twilight for "1 Giant + 1 Rock", or 15 to 19 for "2 Giants + 1 Rock". In region 3, you need 3 twilight less = 8 to 10 for "1 Giant + Rock", or 12 to 16 for "2 Giants +1 Rock". Finally, you may replay that Footman you just returned to hand, to get a total of "2 Giants + 2 replayed Boulder Rocks" for 18 to 22 at region 2, or 15 to 19 at region 3.
It's too much twilight for a single item, then it must worth it.
And must be worthy of being discarded by a Troll (which don't have the Orc-returning mechanism to enrich the Shadow/FP cards ratio in hand, and may prefer to keep it for the extra vitality and better stopping power).
-
Bridging Troll: It's similar to
Ordnance Grunt (cost 6, str 12, dmg+1), but +1 vitality and -1 site number. The 2nd skill may have a "limit 3", to prevent this sole card from flooding the board with Orcs if twilight is, let's say, 20 or more.
I don't know where it should go, it may be in Balin or Blue Mountains, but will depend on the needs of the pack. Probably in Blue Mountains, because you said you want that pack to impulse heavy
follower support and combos (which will be countering strongly both Beatdown and Swarm).
I think companions in the boosters will unbalance the draft game.
Totally agree, will be hard to balance AND is not a priority now. I only wanted to post it because the issue was already mentioned, if someone wants to work with that idea. The idea was to make alternative versions that don't end up as dead cards due to the unique ruling (if a player still prefers to use the previous version). The new version'd still have usefulness when used by discarding, without interfering with the previous version in play.
Gandalf Troublemaker was meant as a support card to play
companions from deck, as you said you want. Another thing can take its place, like a
event perhaps titled "At Your Service!":
At Your Service! Event • Fellowship
Exert Bilbo to play a
companion or a
follower from your draw deck.
Hope this helps. "Late is better than never", they say...