TLHH DC Project: The Great Eye - Wraith

[simplegarak]

I'm not saying we should throw tribal keywords and races out the window - we should clearly make use of the design space we have. What I'm saying is that in order for this to be a "culture matters" set, the cultures of cards has to matter! So we have to emphasise culture's strengths, and mention them on cards. Each culture likes to work with other cultures and hates others, and so this should also be reflected in the card design. Tribal keywords are great - they allow you to build great cross-culture decks - but they should not be our primary focus.

Also, I'd like to question the flavour reason for Nazgûl working with or trackers, for example. There basically isn't one. The keyword Nazgûl have the most to do with in other cultures is besieger because they led the assault on Minas-Tirith. So by all means have tracker tribal that works with or or Dunland trackers, but Nazgûl are a bit off there I feel.

I hope you are getting what I'm trying to say.

Thranduil

Obviously I was drawing Nazgul "tracking" from the early part of Movie 1 where they are tracking down a hobbit named Baggins.  Since search cards were only on a few of the earliest cards and then never referenced again, it wouldn't hurt anything for them to be ditched all together.  Also, there were never any or trackers.  All trackers in the game have been Orcs and either or .

Even then, had the biggest beef to a "tracker" theme.  trackers didn't really care and beefed minions kind of across the board, the only exceptions were: Under the Watching Eye, Seeking it Always, and Spies of Mordor.  Tol Brandir is kind of across the board except trackers didn't show up till after Fellowship sites.

The only thing Freep people ever got was Fearing the Worst.

[Thranduil]

Just as these are Nazgûl trackers, I'm assuming there will be transplanted and trackers, besiegers etc. in this set, just as there are going to Southrons.

But that wasn't really my point and I hope that I was making sense.


Also, I'd like to see some ideas for (subtitles not yet finalised! ) WAC01 The Witch-King, Tracker Lord and WAR01 The Witch-King, Twilight Lord as I expect these 2 to be the cornerstone of the strategies for this culture.

[chompers]

Well this is what we have proposed so far ... any other ideas for Witch King ...

WAC01 is the Tracker Witch King ...

WAC01
* The Witch-King, Leading Seeker
Str: 14
Vit: 4
Site: 3
Minion – Nazgul
Fierce. Tracker.
When you play the Witch-King, you may take a search card from your discard pile into hand.
While you can spot another tracker, search cards are twilight cost -1 and stealth cards are twilight cost +1.

WAC01
•The Witch-King, Searching for the One
Minion • Nazgûl
Strength: 14
Vitality: 4
Site Number: 3
Tracker. Fierce.
When you play The Witch-King, you may spot a companion with resistance 4 or less to take a Shadow search card into hand from your discard pile.
Each time you play a search card, you may exert The Witch-King to exert the Ring-bearer. Then, if the Ring-bearer is exhausted, he or she puts on The One Ring until the regroup phase and each Nazgûl gains twilight.

WCA01
* Witch King, ? Tracker ?
Strength 14
Vitality 4
Site Number 3
Fierce. Tracker.
The Witch King is strength +2 for each search card you can spot (limit +6).

WAR01 is the Twilight Witch King ...

WAR01
* The Witch-King, Lord of Twilight
Str: 14
Vit: 4
Site: 3
Minion - Nazgul
Twilight.
Each other twilight minion is strength +1.
Response: If the Ring-bearer wears The One Ring at the end of a skirmish phase, cancel all remaining assignments and assign the Witch-King to skirmish the Ring-bearer.  The Free Peoples player may add a burden to prevent this.

WAR01
•The Witch-King, Drawn to The Ring
Minion • Nazgûl
Strength: 14
Vitality: 4
Site Number: 3
Fierce. Twilight.
Response: If the Ring-bearer wears The One Ring at the end of a skirmish phase, exert The Witch-King twice to cancel all remaining assignments and assign The Witch-King to the Ring-bearer; he loses fierce until the regroup phase and The One Ring's game text does not apply. The Free Peoples player may add 2 burdens to prevent this.

WAR01
•The Witch-King, Drawn to The Ring
Minion • Nazgûl
Strength: 14
Vitality: 4
Site Number: 3
Fierce. Twilight.
Each time the Ring-bearer wears The One Ring at the end of the last non-fierce skirmish phase, you may suspend the current phase and begin a skirmish involving The Witch-King and the Ring-bearer; The Witch-king loses fierce and cannot gain fierce until the regroup phase and The One Ring's game text does not apply to this skirmish. The Free Peoples player may add 2 burdens to prevent this.

[Thranduil]

WAC01
* The Witch-King, Leading Seeker
Str: 14
Vit: 4
Site: 3
Minion – Nazgul
Fierce. Tracker.
When you play the Witch-King, you may take a search card from your discard pile into hand.
While you can spot another tracker, search cards are twilight cost -1 and stealth cards are twilight cost +1.

I like the simplicity of using only the first ability. (I'm not a fan of the second, and I don't think this card needs both). My issue is that it perhaps doesn't interact with enough of the set's themes?

WAC01
•The Witch-King, Searching for the One
Minion • Nazgûl
Strength: 14
Vitality: 4
Site Number: 3
Tracker. Fierce.
When you play The Witch-King, you may spot a companion with resistance 4 or less to take a Shadow search card into hand from your discard pile.
Each time you play a search card, you may exert The Witch-King to exert the Ring-bearer. Then, if the Ring-bearer is exhausted, he or she puts on The One Ring until the regroup phase and each Nazgûl gains twilight.

Hmm... I like the fact that he cares about resistance and that he deals with the Ring-bearer/Ring as well. But each Nazgûl gaining twilight is not for the tracker lord, but for the twilight lord. Perhaps a better second ability would be something like "Each companion bearing a search card is resistance -2" or "Each time you play a search card, you may make a companion resistance -2 until the regroup phase" or something like that. Or perhaps simply this would be the best idea:

Each time you play a search card, you may exert The Witch-King to exert the Ring-bearer.

WCA01
* Witch King, ? Tracker ?
Strength 14
Vitality 4
Site Number 3
Fierce. Tracker.
The Witch King is strength +2 for each search card you can spot (limit +6).

This is great simple design. The only difficulty could come in depending on how many search cards remain in play and how many are events. If there are enough condition search cards, then this could be a great one to run with. But again, he could interact with more of the sets themes like the Ring-bearer, resistance or The Ring.

WAR01
* The Witch-King, Lord of Twilight
Str: 14
Vit: 4
Site: 3
Minion - Nazgul
Twilight.
Each other twilight minion is strength +1.
Response: If the Ring-bearer wears The One Ring at the end of a skirmish phase, cancel all remaining assignments and assign the Witch-King to skirmish the Ring-bearer.  The Free Peoples player may add a burden to prevent this.

WAR01
•The Witch-King, Drawn to The Ring
Minion • Nazgûl
Strength: 14
Vitality: 4
Site Number: 3
Fierce. Twilight.
Response: If the Ring-bearer wears The One Ring at the end of a skirmish phase, exert The Witch-King twice to cancel all remaining assignments and assign The Witch-King to the Ring-bearer; he loses fierce until the regroup phase and The One Ring's game text does not apply. The Free Peoples player may add 2 burdens to prevent this.

WAR01
•The Witch-King, Drawn to The Ring
Minion • Nazgûl
Strength: 14
Vitality: 4
Site Number: 3
Fierce. Twilight.
Each time the Ring-bearer wears The One Ring at the end of the last non-fierce skirmish phase, you may suspend the current phase and begin a skirmish involving The Witch-King and the Ring-bearer; The Witch-king loses fierce and cannot gain fierce until the regroup phase and The One Ring's game text does not apply to this skirmish. The Free Peoples player may add 2 burdens to prevent this.

These are all essentially the same idea ie. Return to Its Master, just different ways of fixing it. I think it's really cool to have a card like this, but I wonder if the amount of game text required is actually worth it in the end. And you definitely couldn't fit the text we want to fit on any of these cards ("While the Ring-bearer is wearing The One Ring, the Ring-bearer and each Nazgûl gains twilight.") Perhaps we could see some other designs for that interaction? Or perhaps that interaction would be better placed elsewhere.


So in conclusion:

For WAC01:
• Needs to interact with search cards
• Could he interact as well with the Ring-bearer? RB wounding? Burdens?

For WAR01:
• I think the twilight text is the best idea for this guy. Is there a clean design that makes this work?
• Less wordy designs?

Thranduil