The Uncountable Hoard

[Thranduil]

Some of you old timers may remember my old Hobbit block consisting of 3 sets: The Hobbit, The Battle of Five Armies and The White Council. Well, recently I've been retouching them (and putting them into lackey - cough! cough! ) and I think I've managed to approach one of the strategies from a rather different angle and I thought you guys might want to take a look.

Those who reviewed my cards on the old CC may remember the strategy of site-stacking seen in The Battle of Five Armies (set H2) whereby you could stack sites on your cards then discard them (which returned them to their adventure decks) for an effect. The motivation behind this was that I wanted to do more with the adventure decks because at the moment they just sit there and do very little else. Well, I've decided to retouch this idea and, in fact, scrap it!

Instead, I'm following the same motivation to a different conclusion which is still focused on doing things with the adventure decks and the adventure path. So, here are some of the cards - let me know what you think!

These 2 companions are obviously very simple and hardly groundbreaking, just there as a quick introduction into the concept. (By the way, the Eagle strategy works by continually discarding and replaying your Eagles and Wizards).

Farsighted Eagle
Companion • Eagle
Str: 5
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Winged (This companion can only take 1 wound per phase).
When you play this companion, you may spot 2 companions to replace the current site with a site from your adventure deck.
... he could see the glint of the moon on goblin spears and helmets...
H2 U 63

Circling Eagle
Companion • Eagle
Str: 5
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Winged (This companion can only take 1 wound per phase).
When you play this companion, you may spot 2 companions to play the fellowship's next site.
... they began to go down circling round in great spirals.
H2 U 59

Now we get into something rather different to begin thinking about manipulation the adventure deck directly.

Eagle's Eyrie
Condition • Support Area
When you play this condition, you may spot an Eagle to return your site on the adventure path to your adventure deck and choose an opponent to replace it.
Skirmish: Reveal up to 3 sites from your adventure deck to make an Eagle strength +1 and damage +1 for each mountain site revealed. Discard this condition.
You ought not to be rude to an Eagle, when you... are up in his eyrie at night.
H2 U 62

Now come more expositions on the theme.

Circling High
Event • Maneuver
Spot an Eagle and reveal a site from your adventure deck to, until the end of the turn, make the current site gain the game text of the revealed site.
... the birds were already high up...
H2 U 60

Down the Wind
Event • Skirmish
Spot an Eagle and reveal a site from your adventure deck with Shadow number 3 to wound an unwinged (ie. without the "Winged" keyword as showcased by the companions above) minion skirmishing that Eagle.
Just at that moment, the Lord of the Eagles swept down from above...
H2 U 61

Next time will have some more different stuff.

Thranduil

[lem0nhead]

Hooray thank god you scrapped the stacking sites thing!

Farsighted Eagle
Companion • Eagle
Str: 5
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Winged (This companion can only take 1 wound per phase).
When you play this companion, you may spot 3 companions to replace the current site with a site from your adventure deck.
... he could see the glint of the moon on goblin spears and helmets...
H2 U 63

The ranger from shadows was better, think you could easily lower the spotted companion number.

Circling Eagle
Companion • Eagle
Str: 5
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Winged (This companion can only take 1 wound per phase).
When you play this companion, you may spot 3 companions to play the fellowship's next site.
... they began to go down circling round in great spirals.
H2 U 59

See above, though much better than "carrying" sites!

Eagle's Eyrie
Condition • Support Area
When you play this condition, you may spot an Eagle to return your site on the adventure path to your adventure deck and choose an opponent to replace it.
Skirmish: Reveal up to 3 sites from your adventure deck to make an Eagle strength +1 and damage +1 for each mountain site revealed. Discard this condition.
You ought not to be rude to an Eagle, when you... are up in his eyrie at night.
H2 U 62

Cool, do you choose or is it random from your adventure deck? Otherwise its always going to be 3 mountains if u pick isnt it (except if your low on sites obviously)?

Circling High
Event • Maneuver
Spot an Eagle and reveal a site from your adventure deck to, until the end of the turn, make the current site gain the game text of the revealed site.
... the birds were already high up...
H2 U 60

I think this answers my previous question. Fair enough.

Down the Wind
Event • Skirmish
Spot an Eagle and reveal a site from your adventure deck with Shadow number 2 or more to wound an unwinged (ie. without the "Winged" keyword as showcased by the companions above) minion skirmishing that Eagle.
Just at that moment, the Lord of the Eagles swept down from above...
H2 U 61

Should cost at least 1 maybe 2.

Thranduil

[FM]

But the Eagle can only take 1 wound, wich is kinda better than a Ranger, lem0n. Also, he said Eagles are discarded and replayed, so it's reusable with more ease. And I like the concept of spoiling what's about to come to earn a profit now. See, you can let a companion die if you really trust you're gonna nail them with teh Shadow, but what if you don't? Otherwise, you can let them know what's coming and prepare better. You can even bluff them into stopping, for a Radagast-drop triple-move that they didn't see coming... and wlak through your sites anyway.

[lem0nhead]

Winged is good but u can even start the ranger who is 6 strength and u guarantee your site 2 even if you go first.

[sickofpalantirs]

wow...thats an insanely interesting idea. all are fine.

[Anvar]

Farsighted Eagle
Companion • Eagle
Str: 5
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Winged (This companion can only take 1 wound per phase).
When you play this companion, you may spot 2 companions to replace the current site with a site from your adventure deck.
... he could see the glint of the moon on goblin spears and helmets...
H2 U 63

My inclination is to make this guy strength 6. Winged isn't all upside, in fact it can be quite bad, and site switching is less good than playing the next site, in general.

Circling Eagle
Companion • Eagle
Str: 5
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Winged (This companion can only take 1 wound per phase).
When you play this companion, you may spot 2 companions to play the fellowship's next site.
... they began to go down circling round in great spirals.
H2 U 59

Seems fine to me. Though I would be fine with Str 6 as well.

Now we get into something rather different to begin thinking about manipulation the adventure deck directly.

Eagle's Eyrie
Condition • Support Area
When you play this condition, you may spot an Eagle to return your site on the adventure path to your adventure deck and choose an opponent to replace it.
Skirmish: Reveal up to 3 sites from your adventure deck to make an Eagle strength +1 and damage +1 for each mountain site revealed. Discard this condition.
You ought not to be rude to an Eagle, when you... are up in his eyrie at night.
H2 U 62

I like how this card becomes more difficult to use the later the game goes on. Do both halves of this text need to be on the same card? I think it overcomplicates it. Perhaps there should be one card that does the first bit (an event?) and leave this condition with just the second ability.

Now come more expositions on the theme.

Circling High
Event • Maneuver
Spot an Eagle and reveal a site from your adventure deck to, until the end of the turn, make the current site gain the game text of the revealed site.
... the birds were already high up...
H2 U 60

Cool

Down the Wind
Event • Skirmish
Spot an Eagle and reveal a site from your adventure deck with Shadow number 2 or more to wound an unwinged (ie. without the "Winged" keyword as showcased by the companions above) minion skirmishing that Eagle.
Just at that moment, the Lord of the Eagles swept down from above...
H2 U 61
I think the site should be cost 3 or more. Otherwise it's all too easy. In general I would go for shadow cost 0 or 3, to make players have to work to gain the benefit.

A really funky idea. I can already imagine a burrito that has a different effect for different twilight costs/terrain keywords you reveal. The mind boggles.

Anvar

[Thranduil]

Hooray thank god you scrapped the stacking sites thing!

I knew you'd be happy!

I should make a point: one of the interesting things about dealing with sites in this way is that it gives a way to scale costs which LotR is currently not very good at (there's no difference to what a FP player can play during a turn at site 1 or site 9). Hence cards like Eagle's Eyrie can start to become useless in region 3. They'll be lots of other things which trigger of how many sites you have on the adventure path.

More cards a bit later. Thanks for all the reviews!

Thranduil

[Thranduil]

Here are the last cards for the Eagle strategy dealing with this theme (I'm pretty sure these are the last anyway...). At some point will move onto a quick look at Orcs, Bilbo and finally Smaug!

I can already imagine a burrito that has a different effect for different twilight costs/terrain keywords you reveal. The mind boggles.

For this, you'll have to wait and see! :hey:

Great Eagle
Companion • Eagle
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Winged (This companion can only take 1 wound per phase).
When you play this companion, you may reveal a site from your adventure deck. If that site's terrain keywords match the terrain keywords of the current site, you may take a event into hand from your discard pile.
The goblins hated the eagles, and feared them...
H2 C 65

Swooping Eagle
Companion • Eagle
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Winged.
When you play this companion (except during the fellowship phase), you may remove for each site you have on the adventure path.
... their talons tore at goblin faces...
H2 C 81

World Far Away
Event • Maneuver
Spot an Eagle to choose one: return your site from the adventure path to your adventure deck and replace that site with a random site from an opponent's adventure deck; or replace the current site with a site from your adventure deck.
They circled up in the sky and looked down upon the ring of the Wargs, a tiny spot far far below.
H2 C 87

[lem0nhead]

Great Eagle
Companion • Eagle
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Winged (This companion can only take 1 wound per phase).
When you play this companion, you may reveal a site from your adventure deck. If that site's terrain keywords match the terrain keywords of the current site, you may take a event into hand from your discard pile.
The goblins hated the eagles, and feared them...
H2 C 65

Does it have to match them all or what?

Swooping Eagle
Companion • Eagle
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Winged.
When you play this companion (except during the fellowship phase), you may remove for each site you have on the adventure path.
... their talons tore at goblin faces...
H2 C 81

Id clarify "for each site of yours you have" just to make sure.

World Far Away
Event • Maneuver
Spot an Eagle to choose one: return your site from the adventure path to your adventure deck and replace that site with a random site from an opponent's adventure deck; or replace the current site with a site from your adventure deck.
They circled up in the sky and looked down upon the ring of the Wargs, a tiny spot far far below.
H2 C 87

Nice.

[Thranduil]

Does it have to match them all or what?

Yes, currently it has to match them all. Do you think it should be any matches?

Thranduil

[lem0nhead]

No i agree i think thats fine as it is, i was just checkin.

[sickofpalantirs]

Great Eagle
Companion • Eagle
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Winged (This companion can only take 1 wound per phase).
When you play this companion, you may reveal a site from your adventure deck. If that site's terrain keywords match the terrain keywords of the current site, you may take a event into hand from your discard pile.
The goblins hated the eagles, and feared them...
H2 C 65
fine so essentially you think winged is worth and extra twilight?

Swooping Eagle
Companion • Eagle
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Res: 6
Winged.
When you play this companion (except during the fellowship phase), you may remove for each site you have on the adventure path.
... their talons tore at goblin faces...
H2 C 81
I think a limit is in order. could it remove the twilight he added?

World Far Away
Event • Maneuver
Spot an Eagle to choose one: return your site from the adventure path to your adventure deck and replace that site with a random site from an opponent's adventure deck; or replace the current site with a site from your adventure deck.
They circled up in the sky and looked down upon the ring of the Wargs, a tiny spot far far below.
H2 C 87

fine.

[Elf_Lvr]

All look fine, but the way the first companion is worded, I think you'd have to match ALL terrain keywords of the site. Is that what you intended? Because it'd be pretty difficult to match Mount Doom, for example, or some dual forest/battleground sites.

Besides the fact that Mount Doom really messes with your strategy right now anyways.

[Thranduil]

fine so essentially you think winged is worth and extra twilight?

Yes, essentially I do! Or rather, I think Eagles are worth an extra twilight for winged + ease of replay.

could it remove the twilight he added?

Yes he can, but I don't think that's a problem. The Eagle strategy would add a lot of twilight and to have good removal which you have to work very hard to get seems fine to me, even though it can potentially remove (though this requires you to be at site 9 where it's almost irrelevant and for every single site on the adventure path to be yours).

All look fine, but the way the first companion is worded, I think you'd have to match ALL terrain keywords of the site. Is that what you intended? Because it'd be pretty difficult to match Mount Doom, for example, or some dual forest/battleground sites.

Besides the fact that Mount Doom really messes with your strategy right now anyways.

Yes you do have to match all keywords, and yes it would be difficult to match Mount Doom and yes it does mess around with your strategy, which seems fair enough - it is Mount Doom, it should make a big impact on the game.

Thranduil

[Thranduil]

Well that lot wrapped it up for the Eagle site cards. So now we're moving on to Orcs as prompted by GT's minion of the same name as the one coming now (the Orcs in the Hobbit block tend to be able to draw lots and lots of cards, by the way):

•Bodyguard of Bolg
Minion • Orc
Str: 13
Vit: 2
Sit: 4
To play, discard 2 cards from hand.
While you have 3 or fewer sites in your adventure deck, each other Orc cannot take wounds.
The bodyguard of Bolg came howling against them, and drove in upon their ranks like waves upon cliffs of sand.
H2 R 100

And now some fun events that mess around with the adventure path:

Lost Ways
Event • Shadow
Exert an minion to choose one: reveal a random site from your opponent's adventure deck and replace a site on the adventure path with the revealed site; or replace the current site with an underground or mountain site from your adventure deck.
... the roads out of the East towards Mirkwood vanished or fell into disuse...
H2 C 128

Raid and Plunder
Event • Regroup
Spot 2 minions to reveal a site at random from each player's adventure deck. Add , where X is the total of those sites' Shadow numbers. You may replace a site on the adventure path with one of the revealed sites.
H2 C 130