Edited my version of Terrifying Legend above, to make the wording of the Regroup skill much easier to understand.
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Stone Giant minions: Really interesting! Such a new way of playing minions! Of course they'll need playtesting, but seems like a great new form of working with archery.
I believe the pack has 2 solvable problems: 1) they are very expensive and there is only 6 minions in the whole draft, so
getting them at time will be difficult (unless you add a way to get them from draw deck), and 2)
your draw deck will be discarded very fast by Stone Returns to Earth and the 2 Giants (unless you add a mechanism to get cards back to main deck). Of course, problem #2 can be countered by building really big decks, but that only worsens problem #1. So those mechanisms to get them soon and return discarded cards must be added in this sub-pack (or in another sub-pack of Beatdown pack 3).
I've been toying with an idea... I'd change the archery skill of Boulder Rock a bit: instead of directly "making the Shadow archery total +2", it might allow the FP player to choose instead to
allow bearer to fight . That can be done like
Saruman's Staff or
Phial of Galadriel Star-glass, if you interchange the order of the 2 passive senteces in each Giant ("This minion may not..." must be the first):
Boulder Rock Possession
Strength +2 Vitality +2
Bearer must be a
Giant.
Archery: Discard this possession to
make the Free Peoples player choose to either make the minion archery total +2
or remove the first sentence of bearer's game text until the regroup phase.The text seems long but uses only 6 lines (still has some room for lore text). Since
bearer's first sentence can be removed only once, if that happens and the Giant bears more Rocks, all remaining Rocks can be discarded for automatic +2 archery or be left there to add +2 strength each. That strength bonus also will make the idea of allowing the Giant to fight much more fightening (so the chances increase that the FP player will choose to add archery).
Hope this helps.
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Also a Took: Yes!
It'll make Bilbo really an interesting choice for skirmishes.
Let it be Dwarven!
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Pity: No, this one will be really overpowered. Because can be player from discard. And the idea of playing it from discard is, to allow Bilbo to survive better and win more skirmishes (and remove some doubts by the way). Lamentably seems too perilous for the balance and good playing experience.
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Blue Mountains pack: About the
event to attach followers for free, I suggested a way to balance it and would like to hear your opinion
. In short terms, you need to also discard X cards from hand, which limits your Shadow cards and/or your FP events (Skirmish/Regroup tricks):
"Discard X cards from hand to attach X
followers to your companions (without paying their aid cost) and heal X wounds from
companions."
The pack will probably need a weapon. I believe a "Dwarven Warhammer" would fit well with the theme of the "fierce exiled smiths", a heavy and expensive weapon costing
or
but with a fixed damage +1 bonus, and some other text. Or a "Dwarven Knife" bearable with another weapon:
Dwarven Knife Possession • Hand Weapon
Bearer must be a
character.
This weapon may be borne in addition to 1 other hand weapon.
Each minion skirmishing bearer is strength -1.
"'Careful with these. I just had them sharpened.'"Useful with defender bonuses, and with a Dwarf you want to protect from being swarmed (like Fili the protector). And Dwalin defender +2! (if bearing 2, -2 strength to each minion he faces; as such, can be better on
Bilbo's Balin's pack). Might even discard itself to wound an Orc in the skirmish ("Skirmish: Discard this weapon to wound an Orc skirmishing bearer")...
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A Plan Long in the Making: The idea was to include it in either a "Battle of the Five Armies" FP pack, or in a "Sauron Pack 2" pack in a Beatdown or Swarm pack. (I know, none of those packs exists yet.) A Sauron Pack 2 can be based on the skirmish direct wounding
Orcs:
Orc Soldier,
Orc Hunters,
Orc War Band and
Orc Cutthroat (and
Mordor's Strength). I made an armor possession for that purpose, usable by any Orc (like Goblin Footman):
Dol Guldur Armor Possession •
ArmorStrength +1
Bearer must be an Orc.
Response: If bearer is about to take a wound, discard this armor to prevent it.
Skirmish: Remove
and discard this armor to wound a character skirmishing bearer.
"'...the gateway to reclaiming the lands of Angmar...'"A built-in
Mordor's Strength (or
Whirling Strike), with another skill to prevent a wound (useful against Orcrist, as you want).
About the
event A Plan Long in the Making, it only does 5 things and only the last 2 can be considered troublesome:
1.- Adds twilight.
2.- Puts cards on the top of your deck.
3.- Makes players reconcile hand.
4.- Makes cards that must be played at a specific phase (fellowship or shadow) may be played at another phase (maneuver). It's the same as adding each card a text like
Long Spear's (but without cost): "You play this card anytime you could play a maneuver event".
5.- Allows special abilities of specific phases (fellowship and shadow) to be used at another phase (maneuver).
Decipher made cards that do all those things, except #5:
1.- No explanation needed.
2.-
On Your Doorstep, We Will Meet Again Soon...
3.-
Under Foot,
Lembas,
Lembas Bread,
Secluded Homestead...
4.-
Great Heart,
Long Spear,
Dernhelm's Blade,
For the Mark...
5.-
None (so far as I know)
So the most and perhaps only controversial point is number 5: using special abilities outside their specific phase. So I remove that point. (The reason I added it was to use Shadow abilities like Hatred Rekindled, but considering you can get back the specific cards you want from discard, you won't need Hatred Rekindled to get Orcs from discard).
A Plan Long In The Making Event • Maneuver
Heal X Free Peoples characters to add X and place X cards from your discard pile on top of your draw deck (except Smaug).
Each player reconciles hand. Players may play cards as if it were the Fellowship or the Shadow phase.
"'Our enemy has summoned his full strength.'"It's very costly: only
and 1 card returned from discard for each character you heal. That means this card will be useless at the early game, because allies and companions must accumulate wounds to be effective. It also costs
, which means you need to heal 3 or more companions/allies to start adding twilight. And the FP player will know what cards you are returning to deck, so will be warned when deciding what cards should play and what should not (that can represent Gandalf telling them about the coming Army)...
All in all, the FP player gets:
- a lot of healing,
- reconciles,
- can play cards drawn when reconciling.
The Shadow player gets:
- cards from discard (at a very high price),
- some twilight to play them (to muster a larger force),
- some additional twilight the FP player may be adding.
That's all. Decipher created cards twisted the rules even more:
A Dark Shape Sprang,
Return to its Master,
Whisper in the Dark,
The Witch King's Beast are some examples.