Alliance: *Another* New Mechanic!

[menace64]

This just came to me (like they all do...).

The Hour of Men
Event • Skirmish
Alliance: . (You may replace "" with "" anywhere in this card's gametext.)
Exert a Man to make that Man strength +1 for each Man companion you spot.
"'This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth. I bid you stand, Men of the West!'"

It's pretty simple, really. Alliance lets you play cards across cultures, bridging gaps and barriers and adding options of symmetry. Plus it's a big boost in flavor, as these kinds of cards can be spotted:

Let Justice Be Done Upon Him!
Event • Response
To play, spot 6 companions.
If a minion is killed during a skirmish and you can spot no other minions, spot 4 Free Peoples alliances to choose a Shadow player to draw 8 cards, then reveal his or her hand. If there are any minions in his or her hand, discard your hand. If not, The One Ring is destroyed and the Shadow is defeated.
"'Let the Lord of the Black Land come forth!'"

Pretty wordy, but I just let myself go on this one. It'd be a difficulty to pull off, but man... just the option to win like this would rock.

I suppose there's just enough room for Shadow alliances...

Join With Him
Condition • Support Area
Alliance: . (You may replace "" with "" anywhere in this card's gametext.)
Each time you play a alliance, you may take a Orc into hand from your discard pile.
"'He is gathering all evil to him. Very soon he will summon an army great enough to launch an assault upon Middle-earth.'"

It's not complicated at all. It's got a high cost because of the fact that's it can be used by an Isengard player or a Sauron player, the trade off being that this card allows you to splash BOTH cultures together seamlessly, and can be spotted by other cards.

[Thranduil]

The Hour of Men
Event • Fellowship
Alliance: . (You may replace "" with "" anywhere in this card's gametext.)
Exert a Man to make that Man strength +1 for each Man companion you spot.
"'This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth. I bid you stand, Men of the West!'"

Join With Him
Condition • Support Area
Alliance: . (You may replace "" with "" anywhere in this card's gametext.)
Each time you play a alliance, you may take a Orc into hand from your discard pile.
"'He is gathering all evil to him. Very soon he will summon an army great enough to launch an assault upon Middle-earth.'"

Funky idea. The Hour of Men needs a phase for the action, and Join With Him should be unique (playing 1 alliance and getting 4 minions does not sound pleasant), but awesome stuff.

Let Justice Be Done Upon Him!
Event • Response
To play, spot 6 companions.
If a minion is killed during a skirmish and you can spot no other minions, spot 4 Free Peoples alliances to choose a Shadow player to draw 8 cards, then reveal his or her hand. If there are any minions in his or her hand, discard your hand. If not, The One Ring is destroyed and the Shadow is defeated.
"'Let the Lord of the Black Land come forth!'"

This is also a completely separate awesome idea: alternative win conditions for the Free Peoples. I've been wondering how to approach these for some time. for 2 fun ideas!

Thranduil

[DáinIronfoot]

I second Thran. for blowing our minds once again. If you could actually get a whole set together with all your ideas, you'd blow us DC veterans out of the water!

[sickofpalantirs]

wow...menace...get some sleep
but seriously, both AWESOME concepts, especially the instant win condition...shadow has had put forth his strength and that ilk..freeps should have something like that.

[menace64]

I second Thran. for blowing our minds once again. If you could actually get a whole set together with all your ideas, you'd blow us DC veterans out of the water!

If I randomly come up with one or two new mechanics I may pursue designing a set, but I have a long-standing history of letting all my projets go belly-up half-way through (a character flaw that is present in more areas of my life than just these forums, mind you). I'd like to put another set together. I'd just hate to get something started and then have it go undone.

We'll see.