The Way Into Mordor - Shire (9/30: Well-earned Comfort & Wonderful Folk)

[Thranduil]

Now For It!
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
If the fellowship is at a battleground or forest site, cancel a skirmish involving a Hobbit. At any other site, discard an unbound Hobbit.
"They crawled. The turf was deep and yielding, and that helped them....They gave the watch-fire a wide berth, and wormed their way forward bit by bit...."

I think both abilities should say "unbound Hobbit" to make the card more coherent. Other than that, should probably cost .

Squatted and Listened
Event • Regroup
Stealth.
If the fellowship is at a battleground site or you can spot 3 hunters, you may add 2 threats to play this event during a skirmish involving an unbound Hobbit.
Discard an unbound Hobbit to discard a minion (or 2 roaming minions).
"The hobbits remained flat on the ground, as Grishnákh had left them."

I don't think you should have those 2 unrelated requirements - I would choose one or the other. I also think for power level concerns it should be 2 burdens, and even then I'm not convinced it should be able to discard 2 minions. Yes Diversion is not very good, but I think the fact it costs and allows you to also save a Hobbit already makes it much better, and all the other stuff is rather OP to me.

Here We Find Tokens
Condition • Support Area
Each time a Hobbit is played from your discard pile, you may add (or spot 2 hunters) to play a possession or artifact on that Hobbit from your discard pile.
"‘They were borne by the hobbits....I will take these things, hoping against hope, to give them back.'"

I think you could expand it to "each time a Hobbit is played" and if this is the main recursion card, then I also don't think the "from hand" clauses are necessary on the pipes. It's a fairly nice card to have; I'm not sure I'd use it - I'd probably just stick to not having possessions in my Hobbit discard deck - but that's probably fine.

Thranduil

[sickofpalantirs]

Now For It!
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
If the fellowship is at a battleground or forest site, spot 2 unbound Hobbits to cancel a skirmish involving a Hobbit. At any other site, discard an unbound Hobbit.
"They crawled. The turf was deep and yielding, and that helped them....They gave the watch-fire a wide berth, and wormed their way forward bit by bit...."
prolly could cost 0.  but with the canceling, guess its fine.

Squatted and Listened
Event • Regroup
Stealth.
If the fellowship is at a battleground site or you can spot 3 hunters, you may add 2 burdens to play this event during a skirmish involving an unbound Hobbit.
Discard an unbound Hobbit to discard a minion (or 2 roaming minions).
"The hobbits remained flat on the ground, as Grishnákh had left them."
fine.

Here We Find Tokens
Condition • Support Area
Each time a Hobbit is played from your discard pile, you may add (or spot 2 hunters) to play a possession or artifact on that Hobbit from your discard pile.
"‘They were borne by the hobbits....I will take these things, hoping against hope, to give them back.'"

looks fine to me...Though maybe the artifact is a bit hefty, being able to use phial of galadriel once a turn...should be fine though.

[lem0nhead]

Now For It!
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
If the fellowship is at a battleground or forest site, spot 2 unbound Hobbits to cancel a skirmish involving a Hobbit. At any other site, discard an unbound Hobbit.
"They crawled. The turf was deep and yielding, and that helped them....They gave the watch-fire a wide berth, and wormed their way forward bit by bit...."

Wow thats an uber event, its just so flexible. Not sure if thats isnt too good for 1.

Squatted and Listened
Event • Regroup
Stealth.
If the fellowship is at a battleground site or you can spot 3 hunters, you may add 2 burdens to play this event during a skirmish involving an unbound Hobbit.
Discard an unbound Hobbit to discard a minion (or 2 roaming minions).
"The hobbits remained flat on the ground, as Grishnákh had left them."

I might drop the roaming bit.

Here We Find Tokens
Condition • Support Area
Each time a Hobbit is played from your discard pile, you may add (or spot 2 hunters) to play a possession or artifact on that Hobbit from your discard pile.
"‘They were borne by the hobbits....I will take these things, hoping against hope, to give them back.'"

I think this is ok.

[DáinIronfoot]

Yay! It warms my heart to have my three "normal" reviewers all together again, even if it turns out to be brief. for all of you, for old times' sake.

Alright, I dropped the much-maligned roaming minion text from Squatted and Listened, and went back to the original 2 threats rather than 2 burdens to play it during a skirmish; otherwise I think it's way too similar to Diversion.

We've got plenty of cards to discard our Hobbits, but what about replaying them? Well, we've already seen two cards in other cultures that can do it:

Nice Little Hobbitses (re-post)
Event • Maneuver
Discard Sméagol to play a Hobbit from your discard pile, or discard a Hobbit to play Sméagol from your discard pile.
"‘We'll be nice to them, very nice, if they'll be nice to us, won't we, yes, yess.'"

•Treebeard, Eldest Ent (re-post)
Companion • Ent
Strength: 12
Vitality: 4
Signet: Gandalf
Unhasty.
Maneuver: Spot a Wizard and exert Treebeard to play an unbound Hobbit from your discard pile.
Maneuver: Discard 2 cards from hand or exert an unbound Hobbit to allow Treebeard to skirmish and participate in archery fire until the regroup phase.
"‘I told Gandalf I would keep you safe, and safe is where I'll keep you.'"

Additionally, I also reprinted Treebeard, Earthborn, who can substitute as your discard pile with discarded Hobbits.

But we need some cards that get in on the act, so here we go....

Where Are We Going?
Event • Fellowship or Regroup
Play an unbound Hobbit from your discard pile to make each site's Shadow number -2 until the end of the turn.
"‘I suppose I was knocked on the head....'"

Unlike the original Knocked On the Head, this one not only replays the Hobbit, but does so with an additional benefit, an idea that seemed popular with the discarding/replying Sméagol strategy. (See the bottom of this thread if you need to refresh your memory.)

Out of Reach
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
Play an unbound Hobbit from your discard pile to make a minion skirmishing an unbound companion strength -2.
"There was for a moment turmoil and confusion. Pippin sprang up and ran."

Same story here. I tried to go with things that made sense for Hobbits, like trimming twilight and making enemies less effective in battle.

Now, look back at Nice Little Hobbitses and Eldest Ent up above. Notice which phase they replay Hobbits in? Remember, that's the same phase that this set's Merry, Young and Brave and Pippin, Very Small discard themselves in, so it would obviously be advantageous to discard them (and reap the benefits of doing so), then replay them and discard them again in the same phase, now wouldn't it? Currently Nice Little Hobbitses and Eldest Ent are the only cards (including Big D's) that do this, and for good reason: it shouldn't be TOO easy to pull off such a potentially powerful combo, so forcing you to combine them with Wizards and Ents or Sméagol is a good thing. But I wanted to have at least one way that the Hobbits could pull it off without relying on other cultures/companions, so here's my stab at it:

•So Far So Good
Condition • Support Area
Stealth.
Each time a Hobbit is discarded from play, you may add a token here.
Maneuver: Remove 3 tokens from here to play a Hobbit from your discard pile.
"‘You will get almost a chapter in old Bilbo's book, if ever I get a chance to report to him.'"

What do you think?

[Thranduil]

Where Are We Going?
Event • Fellowship or Regroup
Play an unbound Hobbit from your discard pile to make each site's Shadow number -2 until the end of the turn.
"‘I suppose I was knocked on the head....'"

The problem with the design of this card is that you're having to compensate for the fact that fellowship choke is much better than regroup choke... Though I suppose the fact that it replays discarded Hobbits balances it... The problem with reviewing this card is that it has a very different focus depending on whether it's fellowship or regroup, but I think in order to be useful in the fellowship phase it would have to be , which doesn't change all that much in the regroup.

Out of Reach
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
Play an unbound Hobbit from your discard pile to make a minion skirmishing an unbound companion strength -2.
"There was for a moment turmoil and confusion. Pippin sprang up and ran."

This is all cool.

•So Far So Good
Condition • Support Area
Stealth.
Each time a Hobbit is discarded from play, you may add a token here.
Maneuver: Remove 3 tokens from here to play a Hobbit from your discard pile.
"‘You will get almost a chapter in old Bilbo's book, if ever I get a chance to report to him.'"

I'm fine with this. Any sort of powerful combo you could make with it would likely be so card intensive as not to be worthwhile.

Thranduil

[DáinIronfoot]

Anyone else? SoP? Lem0n? FM? EL? John-boy? Anyone?

[lem0nhead]

Nice Little Hobbitses (re-post)
Event • Maneuver
Discard Sméagol to play a Hobbit from your discard pile, or discard a Hobbit to play Sméagol from your discard pile.
"‘We'll be nice to them, very nice, if they'll be nice to us, won't we, yes, yess.'"

Nice flexibility. Not sure it need 1 cost.

•Treebeard, Eldest Ent (re-post)
Companion • Ent
Strength: 12
Vitality: 4
Signet: Gandalf
Unhasty.
Maneuver: Spot a Wizard and exert Treebeard to play an unbound Hobbit from your discard pile.
Maneuver: Discard 2 cards from hand or exert an unbound Hobbit to allow Treebeard to skirmish and participate in archery fire until the regroup phase.
"‘I told Gandalf I would keep you safe, and safe is where I'll keep you.'"

Hmmmm ok, i hate the unhasty mechanic though, so unworth it. Dont no what d were thinking.

Where Are We Going?
Event • Fellowship or Regroup
Play an unbound Hobbit from your discard pile to make each site's Shadow number -2 until the end of the turn.
"‘I suppose I was knocked on the head....'"

Wow thats good. Not sure if -2 is too good.

Out of Reach
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
Play an unbound Hobbit from your discard pile to make a minion skirmishing an unbound companion strength -2.
"There was for a moment turmoil and confusion. Pippin sprang up and ran."

Yeah ok.

•So Far So Good
Condition • Support Area
Stealth.
Each time a Hobbit is discarded from play, you may add a token here.
Maneuver: Remove 3 tokens from here to play a Hobbit from your discard pile.
"‘You will get almost a chapter in old Bilbo's book, if ever I get a chance to report to him.'"

Coolio, very viable.

[DáinIronfoot]

I'll drop the cost of Where Are We Going? to . I just realized that since you still have to pay the cost of the Hobbit you're replaying, the benefit of the -2 Shadow number isn't quite as great as I initially thought. If there are any objectives, then please raise them and I'll reconsider. Thanks!

Now, for something completely different. Since there are only two unbound Hobbits--and four Hobbits total--in this set (the least in any of my sets besides Lasting Alliances...only three total Hobbits there, and all Ring-bound), I figured this would be a good opportunity to create some cards that encourage splashing them in with companions from other cultures. So here are cards that do that for the three cultures you'd most likely pair them with in this set. I tried to do things that made sense for those cultures, but it is up to you to tell me how I did in that mission. Oh, and of course, to enjoy!

Get Under Cover
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
Spot a valiant companion to prevent an unbound Hobbit from being overwhelmed unless that Hobbit's strength is tripled.
"‘It will not be any comfort to us, if these riders discover that we are not Orcs after we are dead.'"

Drawn To Battle
Event • Skirmish
Spot a ranger or knight to make a Hobbit strength +3.
"Then Boromir had come leaping through the trees. He had made them fight."

A Hasty Folk
Event • Skirmish
Spot an Ent or Tree to wound a minion skirmishing an unbound Hobbit.
"‘We will come with you. We will do what we can.'"

[Thranduil]

Get Under Cover
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
Spot a valiant companion to prevent an unbound Hobbit from being overwhelmed unless that Hobbit's strength is tripled.
"‘It will not be any comfort to us, if these riders discover that we are not Orcs after we are dead.'"

Drawn To Battle
Event • Skirmish
Spot a ranger or knight to make a Hobbit strength +3.
"Then Boromir had come leaping through the trees. He had made them fight."

A Hasty Folk
Event • Skirmish
Spot an Ent or Tree to wound a minion skirmishing an unbound Hobbit.
"‘We will come with you. We will do what we can.'"

I love all of them! Great cards. Drawn to Battle is the one I'm least sure about... Rangers do better for Ring-bound Hobbits, but knights kind of only work for unbound... unless you follow the film I suppose. I'm sure it's fine!

Maybe the other two can also get unloaded keywords? Tale?

Thranduil

[Gil-Estel]

Get Under Cover
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
Spot a valiant companion to prevent an unbound Hobbit from being overwhelmed unless that Hobbit's strength is tripled.
"‘It will not be any comfort to us, if these riders discover that we are not Orcs after we are dead.'"

Drawn To Battle
Event • Skirmish
Spot a ranger or knight to make a Hobbit strength +3.
"Then Boromir had come leaping through the trees. He had made them fight."

A Hasty Folk
Event • Skirmish
Spot an Ent or Tree to wound a minion skirmishing an unbound Hobbit.
"‘We will come with you. We will do what we can.'"

Maybe you can change ranger or knight into just ? And A Hasty Folk is a bit odd in my eyes. Direct wounding from the trees? I don't know. Direct healing would be more to my liking, since the draught was healty for those young hobbitses. But it's your party.

[DáinIronfoot]

Maybe you can change ranger or knight into just ?

I had seriously considered that, but I wanted this to potentially include rangers from other cultures (, mostly). I wouldn't be strongly opposed to changing it if you feel strongly about it, though.

A Hasty Folk is a bit odd in my eyes. Direct wounding from the trees? I don't know. Direct healing would be more to my liking, since the draught was healty for those young hobbitses. But it's your party.

There's a good bit of both healing and wounding with my Ents and Trees. (Check here to see what I mean.) But there's more healing than wounding, and one area Ents (and Trees) always struggled in was finishing minions off. So I wanted to toss in a simple little helper like this.

Thanks for the review, buddy!

[lem0nhead]

Get Under Cover
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
Spot a valiant companion to prevent an unbound Hobbit from being overwhelmed unless that Hobbit's strength is tripled.
"‘It will not be any comfort to us, if these riders discover that we are not Orcs after we are dead.'"

Fine as long as you cant make hobbits valiant.

Drawn To Battle
Event • Skirmish
Spot a ranger or knight to make a Hobbit strength +3.
"Then Boromir had come leaping through the trees. He had made them fight."

Sound.

A Hasty Folk
Event • Skirmish
Spot an Ent or Tree to wound a minion skirmishing an unbound Hobbit.
"‘We will come with you. We will do what we can.'"

Thats quite good, as hobbits mix better with ents than knights or valiant men. Hmm...

[FM]

Get Under Cover
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
Spot a valiant companion to prevent an unbound Hobbit from being overwhelmed unless that Hobbit's strength is tripled.
"‘It will not be any comfort to us, if these riders discover that we are not Orcs after we are dead.'"

Fair enough.

Drawn To Battle
Event • Skirmish
Spot a ranger or knight to make a Hobbit strength +3.
"Then Boromir had come leaping through the trees. He had made them fight."

Again, fair. I like the splashability

A Hasty Folk
Event • Skirmish
Spot an Ent or Tree to wound a minion skirmishing an unbound Hobbit.
"‘We will come with you. We will do what we can.'"

Also nice.

[Elf_Lvr]

Get Under Cover
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
Spot a valiant companion to prevent an unbound Hobbit from being overwhelmed unless that Hobbit's strength is tripled.
"‘It will not be any comfort to us, if these riders discover that we are not Orcs after we are dead.'"

I think it'd be fine even if you could make hobbits valiant, but whatever.

Drawn To Battle
Event • Skirmish
Spot a ranger or knight to make a Hobbit strength +3.
"Then Boromir had come leaping through the trees. He had made them fight."

Cool.

A Hasty Folk
Event • Skirmish
Spot an Ent or Tree to wound a minion skirmishing an unbound Hobbit.
"‘We will come with you. We will do what we can.'"

Interesting. Although I think the Ent/Hobbit combination lacks other wounding... this could be really good in a Gandalf, PG deck with Treebeard.

[DáinIronfoot]

Get Under Cover
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
Spot a valiant companion to prevent an unbound Hobbit from being overwhelmed unless that Hobbit's strength is tripled.
"‘It will not be any comfort to us, if these riders discover that we are not Orcs after we are dead.'"

I think it'd be fine even if you could make hobbits valiant, but whatever.

Well, I DO have one valiant Hobbit in my RotK set...bet you can guess who. But anyway....

The culture already has some unbound Hobbit love thanks to Ents and Trees, so now it's time to tie them together more from the side. Off we go!

Their Aim True
Event • Archery
Exert an unbound Hobbit and spot an Ent to make the fellowship archery total +1. Any Shadow player may exert a minion to prevent this.
"‘A hit! A fine hit!'"

I know that, by rule, and should only very rarely (if ever) have archery. But combined, it makes perfect sense when you think about the lethal stone-throwing Merry and Pippin did from Treebeard's back.

Hold On, Little Hobbits!
Event • Fellowship
Spot 2 unbound Hobbits and an Ent to make the move limit for this turn +1. Each Shadow player may draw up to 4 cards.
"‘I always like going south. Somehow it feels like going downhill.'"

I really just wanted to find a use for that lore, but I also wanted a card that again took something neither nor should be good at...unless, again, combined. So I just meshed that with the lore, and it actually seemed to work. How do YOU like it?

Singing and Laughing
Event • Fellowship
Spot X companions to heal an unbound Hobbit X times.
"The old Ent now took the hobbits back, and set them on his shoulders again, and so they rode proudly at the head of the singing company with beating hearts and heads held high."

This is inspired by cards like Peace of Mind, but obviously encourages decks with several companions (like, say, Ents? ) rather than just Gandalf. But it's flexible enough that you can use it with just the good Wizard as well...after all, for a single heal ain't bad, right?