Next Updates for the Hobbit Draft Game

[-Enola-]

Update:
http://hobbitdraftgame.free.fr/LastPacks.html

[-Enola-]

We made a Hobbit tournament with 8 players last Sunday. We tested the new cards.

Update of the first post.

[Dictionary]

"No Finner Blade" should be "No Finer Blade". Also "A Wise Advice" should simply be "Wise Advice". I like the new Gandalf

EDIT: The title "Boulder Rock" doesn't really work in English. I'd suggest "Great Boulder" instead.

[-Enola-]

Thank you .

I update all this in the first post of this topic.

I already printed Boulder Rock .

[-Enola-]

First post is updated.

[-Enola-]

Big update of the card images.

http://hobbitdraftgame.free.fr/LastPacks.html

[Shapeshifter]

Good work! The full-image conditions look very cool, although I find the text on Terrifying Legend a bit hard to read.

[-Enola-]

Thank you. Yes I know, but the picture is beautiful . The text will always be in front of the fire, that makes it difficult to read .

[Phallen Cassidy]

How long have these errata been up?

[-Enola-]

We are still testing cards affected by these errata. I let you know as soon as they will be definitive.

The Bolg Shadow would have been overpowered on gempukku without those errata.

[-Enola-]

Probably the last version of the new cards:

http://hobbitdraftgame.free.fr/LastPacks.html

[Durin's Heir]

Travellers Pack

- Betsy Butterbur: She's ok, except that lacks her surname in the gametext. I'd use a picture of her serving food to Gandalf, since without the Wizard the loretext makes little sense.


- Burning Fir Cones: The idea of taking a cone and carrying it as a possession to use in any future time of need (Dol Guldur? Battle of the Five Armies?) seems a bit artificial to me; should be an event, a portrayal of improvisation as events are. The need of skirmish events to make it work and (even worse) the revealing of your whole hand, don't seem right in my opinion. I'd try with something like this:

Burning Fir Cones
Event • Archery
Spell.
Exert Gandalf and return X attached followers to your support area to spot X minions (except Smaug). Wound those minions twice.

The idea is to make it a group effort depending not only on Gandalf, but also on Dwarf followers (and the toll of their aid costs). More powerful than the possession (2* X wounds) but more costly, and cannot focus all wounds on a single minion (like Sauron or a Troll). It can weaken Sauron before Assignment.

If you keep the possession, I'd broaden it to any FP event (skirmish or not, with a "limit 3" or 4). And change the revealing of the whole hand to "reveal X Free Peoples skirmish events from your hand".


- Scouting Warg: Scouts must be cheap, was a bit absurd (and could turn Azog/Fimbul into the Cave Troll/Lurtz!), and is still a bit too high for me. I mean, + (and +[3] if from discard) consumes a good part of the twilight meant for the main forces of the Shadow pack. Nazguls for instance are expensive and don't have any support for Orcs...

The regroup skill requires bearer to survive Thorin, twice. That's very unbalanced: too hard for Yazneg, and too easy for The Orc Army. So I'd much rather have something like this:

Scouting Warg [Gundabad]
Possession • Mount
Strength +2  Vitality +1
Bearer must be an Orc.
Bearer is fierce.
If bearer is Yazneg, he is strength +5 and each time a event is played or a follower is attached, you may exert a companion.
"Send word to the Master: we have found the Dwarf-scum!"

Punishing events should be powerful in a Pack with so much FP event-support (discarding possessions is better when the Pack provides many weapons/mounts). Exerting a companion whenever the Company tries to escape (or to gather together and fight) gives a good hunting flavor. The most disuptive tricks are during Maneuver (Dwarf followers, Azanulbizar, AK, LoI) and most need exertions, so this combo will make them sweat twice for each one as Yazneg will always be alive during the that phase. So this combo makes any Shadow much more perilous, by blocking or taxing events and followers that often make, say a Moria Swarm or Esgaroth Beatdown, somewhat easy to survive.

Pumps can help to defeat this str 12 Orc hunter, but even so the Company won't escape unharmed (and like Promise Keeping, direct exertions mid-skirmish can be lethal). All that for a 2-card combo costing (or with Goblin Footman)! If is excessively powerful, might also require to "remove to exert a companion".

The current loretext is counter-wise (Yazneg excusing his defeat), so I propose a new one which is more menacing.


- Bill Ferny Sr: The assignment skill is OP, blocks Thorin completely when trying to face Azog/Smaug (like Desertion). Although can be nullified by a single wound (by Kili/Burning Cones), it's worrisome given the skill to return over and over...

Perhaps the answer is to make Thorin defender +1: that way, Ferny Sr becomes a +4 str pump like his son, but in his own manner (and returning anytime he wants). Thorin is no longer totally focused on Ferny, but his skirmish becomes much more perilous; perhaps Ferny should also be dmg+1 to make that skirmish deadly dangerous (he'd be the backstabber).

He should also be able to choose other Royal Dwarves than only Thorin (in case he's already dead). "A Dwarf companion with a damage bonus" would include also Glóin, Dwalin and Fili. That'd make Dwalin much more unlikely to survive if using his def+X skill (even if using support from Dori + Bofur/Fili).

•Bill Ferny Sr., Agent of Azog [Gundabad]
Minion • Man
Strength 4  Vitality 2  Site 2
Damage +1.
Shadow: Discard 2 cards from hand to play Bill Ferny Sr. from your discard pile.
Assignment: If Bill Ferny Sr. is unwounded, Assign Bill Ferny Sr. to a Dwarf companion with a damage bonus. That Dwarf is defender +1.
"A promise of payment... for your head."

2 vitality now, but no "must be unwounded" requirement; thus, only Kili twice, Dawn Take You All or the Burning Cones can nullify his assignment effect. The returning skill is cheaper also.

With the aforementioned, can fight a Royal Dwarf alone (absorbing him as defender), or support another minion facing that Royal Dwarf (not blocking the defender, but making the deed really dangerous). If alone and lucky enough, might even kill Fili/Dwalin if pumped by Anger!


Balin Pack

- Thrór: The SFTF effect is a really ingenious way of portraying his influence over the years! But killing 2 Dwarves for that effect is too much. I'd change it to Thrór only, + add (like SFTF) + exert "a Dwarf companion"/Thorin twice (which makes the early game more dangerous with all the twilight just added). But killing Thrór + a member of the Company is too much a load for the dead pile/rule of 9, and also is unaccurate with the story. One dead Dwarf is enough to trigger Not At Home, and to weaken Thorin with Dragon Sickness.

•Thrór, Overthrown King
Companion • Dwarf
Strength 7  Vitality 5
At the end of any phase, place Thrór in your dead pile.
Fellowship: Exert Thorin twice, add and place Thrór in your dead pile to take up to 3 cards into hand from your draw deck.

The first line was changed to do exactly the same, but mirroring Isildur Heir of Elendil.


- Iron Hills Chariot: The 1st skill is great. But I always loathed the fact that Cirdan played against the rules (only you can look at the cards in your discard pile, and thus opponent cannot verify if your X events in discard are true or not). To avoid that, can be reworded to "exert Balin and reveal X events with a twilight cost of 0 from your discard pile". The same, but clearer for your opponent.



Blue Mountains Pack

- Catapult Troll: I think it should have more precision targeting than just revealing a card at random. You improved it a lot by revealing a card from the Shadow player's hand (so Hatred Rekindled can filter), but that'll often be far from enough. If instead you chose the twilight by paying a cost, it'd be much better considering it's a hit-or-miss situation: the Troll is a bonus card with 1 or 2 copies in deck, drawn at total random, unlikely to be replayed and costing ...

Catapult Troll
Minion • Troll
Strength 11  Vitality 3  Site 5
Maneuver: Exert this minion and wound an Orc X times to make the Free Peoples player discard his or her card in play (except a companion) whose twilight cost is X.
"It is not unlikely that they invented... the ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once...

(That loretext is a line I always loved in the book!) You now choose what value will take X: the Orc wounds itself by charging the device. Since you cannot wound 0 times, Rings will always be protected. I made it cost -1, but also made the site number +1, so it doesn't absorb too much twilight (along with the Orc-fuel) at the late game. Azanulbizar can weaken or erase some of the Orc-fuel, so under some circumstances expensive FP cards can be protected.



Errata

- Sauron: I don't like the changing of culture of the whole Bolg Pack, to fix the unbalance of this single card. The OP combo of a fierce, dmg+1 minion direct-assignable CAN STILL be done with Fimbul (and enhanced by possessions / pumps). So why not excluding specifically that troublesome keyword? "Each Orc that has no damage bonus is strength +1 and fierce." That erases almost any possible combination of those 2 keywords + a direct assignment, regardless of cultures (the only way of mixing them is a dmg+1 Orc on a mount, but that's very expensive and hand-dependant).

But now the 1st skill uses +1 line, so the Assignment skill must be reduced: "Assignment: Exert Sauron to assign an Orc or Nazgul to a companion (except Bilbo). That companion may exert or add 2 doubts to prevent this." Exactly the same effect, but shorter: just like Saruman SotE's wording, "that companion" is always under the FP player's control, so that translates to "the Free Peoples player may exert or add 2 doubts".

A new loretext, showing his persuation attempt on Galadriel: "You cannot fight the Shadow. Even now you fade..."
 




=============

Just for fun, I rearranged in 3 minutes the old idea of a Molten Gold Monument artifact, although there's no room and its effects are very limited:

•Molten Gold Monument

Artifact • Support Area
Strength -2  Vitality -2
Fortification. To play, exert 3 Dwarves.
Skirmish: If no card is stacked here, transfer this from your support area to a minion at site 7 or 8. If bearer is killed, return this to your support area and stack bearer here.
"This is Dwarf gold! And we will have our revenge!"

The idea was to trap a key minion under all that gold. If that minion has only 1 copy in the deck (SMAUG!), that means it vanishes from the game. If not, less copies of Goblin Runner / Footman always mean gain.



=============

I should be updating this with more ideas in the following minutes/hours, just want to post what I got before my connection fails / my health crumbles as a house of cards / a new earthquake / nuclear war begins / aliens invade / Jimi Hendrix resurrects and knocks on my door for a guitar...

No more updates in this post.

[-Enola-]

Last Packs

- Betsy Butterbur: Ok for the gametext. But I can't find a HD and luminous image with her and Gandalf.

- Burning Fir Cones: The whole pack is around skirmish events. This possession works well with the pack.

- Don't know yet about the Scouting Warg and Bill Ferny Sr .

- Thrór: No, the current version works well, players love him!

- Iron Hills Chariot: Ok for this "exert Balin and reveal X events with a twilight cost of 0 from your discard pile". I will ask other players if they find it easier to read.

- Catapult Troll: Some players love random effects, and this one is well balanced.


Errata

- Sauron: I didn't change the culture of the Bolg Shadow only due to Sauron. Mirkwood and the Bolg Shadow were too strong together, same with the Wargs. A Gundabad culture in the Swarm Packs was a mistake.
Sauron seems balanced now, and Fimbul is necessary to make it good.



==========================

-  • Molten Gold Monument is really fun!

[Dictionary]

No Finer Blade and Wise Advice still have title errors on that page. He Is Summoning his Servants should say: "2 Wise characters" and not "2 Wises" as Wise is not a noun (Compare Fierce with Hunter).

[Durin's Heir]

Again, I'm posting what I have by the moment, so beware of updates! More Yet To Come.

@Dictionary: I agree with you about No Finer Blade, it has an extra "n". But to me, "A Wise Advice" seems like Tolkien's "...a red day, ere the sun rises! / Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!" Of course, you're a native English speaker and I cannot be included into that category, but this is the way I see this specific issue.

Thank you for keeping the help for this project! Nice to see you're alive and kickin'!



Travellers Pack

- No Finer Blade: I believe you're avoiding an easy replay of Orcrist, but that shouldn't be punishing Sting too. Thorin has his active skill to recycle Orcrist but Bilbo has nothing, so "spot Gandalf to play Glamdring or Sting" would be better. I still think it should give dmg +1, it can make the difference for Bilbo/Gandalf but would do little for Thorin ('cause most minions in his path will die anyway).


Elrond Pack

- Vilya: I like it better, increasing a companion's strength is clearer than reducing strength to a minion, and also all the byproducts of healing cannot be piled upon a single minion.   Here's a different loretext (since you just copied 3R27): "But Sauron could not discover them, for they were given into the hands of the Wise..." (from The Silmarillion, Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age)

- Hadafang: Good gametext. A new lore: "...and in that war this Age will be ended." (the best I could do with 1 line, from The Silmarillion: "Nonetheless I forbode that the One will yet be found, and then war will arise again, and in that war this Age will be ended.")

- Rivendell Scout: I don't see the danger of making this ally cost , and be strength 7 and an archer... often site 3 allies don't come soon enough to fight there, and anyway you'll always prefer to fetch Elrond or Lindir with AWINL. The pack has no way of making them fight (but if the Scout was an archer, might be summoned by The Evil Becomes Stronger if the packs meet).

This loretext should be better: "Strange for Orcs to come so close to our borders. Something or someone has drawn them near." (Elrond, Hobbit film #1)

- Dark Sorcery: The blocking of Gandalf's 1st skill is great, but will do nothing against Friend of Thorin. So against him, should provide more than just drawing 2 cards once. Why not make it like Enchanted River: "Discard this condition or exert 2 Orcs to draw 2 cards"? It'd be a lasting effect for most Shadow builds, and a game changer that'd allow the Shadow to set up much faster, but with a cost that cannot be taken lightly in a metagame with so much direct wounding (Rivendell Scout, Azanulbizar, Kili and DTYA; plus Lindir/Elrond reloading the Scout/Kili). Otherwise, it's merely a costlier version of Threat of the Unknown (which is already lame).

An alternative loretext: "There is no light, Wizard, that can defeat Darkness!"



Balin Pack:

- Balin's Armor: This card is awesome: makes Balin a much better fighter, a much better "counsellor" so to say (event recycler-fetcher) and portrays also his frienship with Bilbo.   But I'd give it a better loretext: "...for there was no hauberk... of better make than his short corslet forged beneath the Mountain..." (The Two Towers, The King of the Golden Hall)

- Ori's Slingshot: I think it needs to help Ori a bit more... something like "Ori's bearer is an archer" would be nice, and changing the Archery skill to Assignment or Skirmish instead (so they don't interfere). Finally, the loretext is a thing I invented (and not a good one!) so must NOT be inside quotation marks... I'd even try something else, like "A bold heart is enough weapon when hands are moved by loyalty" or so.

- Careful With These: The gametext is good, a fine support card for Balin (and Corrupted Lakemen). But the title and loretext were very old ideas about Fili, Kili and weapons, so I think this is a good chance to bring instead the "Blunt The Knives" song, which should mix well with Balin's joyful spirit.

Blunt The Knives!
Event • Fellowship
Choose one: draw 2 cards; play Balin from your draw deck; or place 2 cards from your discard pile beneath your draw deck.
"And when you've finished, if any are whole,
Send them down the hall to roll!"


- The Ancient Forges: This card is very good. Alternative loretext: "Lead him to the forges. We kill the dragon."

- Bridging Troll: Seems strong, but since needs some Orcs + to be totally useful, should make easier that combo along with the main Shadow pack force. I liked the strength bonus for small Orcs, perhaps a twilight reduction might help them too: "Each Orc is twilight cost -1 (and strength +1 if its vitality is 2 or less)."

Another change I'd implement is the base stats, for both Bridging and Catapult Trolls: cost , vitality 3, site number 4 and no keywords are equivalent to Goblin Flankers, whose base strength is 11. I'd go a bit farther and fix a cost with site number 5, so it's cheaper at the late game and easier to play with the main force of the Shadow Pack (but that might cause some confusion for new players, so I'm not really sure).

Bridging Troll
Minion • Troll
Strength 11  Vitality 3  Site 5
Each Orc is twilight cost -1 (and strength +1 if its vitality is 2 or less).
Skirmish: Exert this minion and discard an Orc to make the Free Peoples player discard a possession or artifact.



Blue Mountains Pack

- Dwarven Warhammer: This can be borne by any character, allies included. So that would allow Dain to bear followers (the Aid cost paid at start of maneuver allows a follower to be attached to a companion; nothing is ruled about attaching them via card effects to anywhere specified). I'm totally OK with that; it'd allow Dain to get more skirmish power if replacing a dead Thorin via Crown of Erebor.

But if you dislike that, then the Warhammer must either be borne only by companions, or the effect must specify "If bearer is a companion...". The loretext must be between quotation marks, since it's a quote from Tolkien.


- Bombur Barrel Rider: I like the picture, loretext and attitude of this card. But I don't like the restriction to Bombur only; you said you didn't want HWWR to work only with Beorn, and this is the same with Bombur here (except that Bombur is more vulnerable to Yazneg). It might instead "discard a Dwarf follower with a twilight cost of X to discard X minions" except Smaug, that keeps Bombur as the greatest user but now not the only. And given the power loss, add something else like "you may draw X cards" or "you may heal X companions".

The title feels a bit dumb, I'd change it something around "Eager for Brawl" to keep the warrior theme. The effect is a bit useless against the Bolg Army, which often self-discards anyway, so healing X companions would make it useful in that scenario too.

Eager for Brawl
Event • Response
If the fellowship moves during the regroup phase, discard a follower with a twilight cost of X to discard X minions (except Smaug). You may heal X companions.
"Go Bombur! Go!"