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Boulder Rock: Ok if you don't want a strength bonus. I know it interferes with the Archery skill, the Shadow player must use one or the other. But I wanted the Giants (and Trolls) to have a skirmish bonus alternative, which also increases stopping power. Still, that might create confusion among players, so it'd be ok if you keep it without strength bonus.
Perhaps you may give it a small and brief playtest on the skirmish & stopping side, with +2 strength.
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I've been working on the Laketown Men, but meanwhile have had a lot of troubles to deal with. I lack a definite response only for Braga and the Spear of the Guard, but at least I know what worries me about those current versions.
Corrupted MenI think this Shadow does too much:
high strength fierce minions, high vitality, big and perdurable pumps, easy damage bonuses. (Dwarves can do little more than decide who'll take the risk, hoping to not be overwhelmed.) That
needs some adjust, but what worries me most is the lack of room to counter by the FP player. For instance, if Braga has 2 or 3 weak Orcs, he can spend them before the FP player has any time to kill them in skirmish. That lack of FP maneuverability makes the skills too hard to counter, which adds to their fierce keyword and high base attributes.
These Men's attributes were originally based on Men, but I believe you
remodeled them after Decipher's
trackers (site
6, moderately high strength & vitality, low twilight). But
Orcs aren't fierce, so these Men can deal twice the wounds with the same hard-to-defeat strength. And since their vitality is so high, wounding methods will rarely stop them (they're also not Orcs, so Azanulbizar can touch
merely their fuel). I'd reduce their vitality and keep them fierce, so a victorious damage +1 Dwarf (unlikely due to
Men's strength) or direct wounding tricks can prevent them from fighting twice.
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Gangsquad Spies: Perhaps I'd lower its strength to 8. Besides that, seems fine. But I wonder why this minion has a loretext denoting authority, and Laketown Patrol (the real authority) has a loretext denoting observation. So
"What are dwarves doing in these parts?" should be in this minion.
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Alfrid's Influence: It's unclear if it's unique or not. I see a unique dot at the right side of the initial "A". This card depends on Gangsquad Spies to be replayed, and also Gangsquad Spies can only be replayed by this condition, so this Shadow seems in great trouble if it gets discarded. Extra copies won't stack, so I'd make it non-unique.
Also, you can change it from "you may
play" to "you may
take into hand" a
Man from discard.
That way, you can take a copy of Gangsquad Spies and retain it for the next site if you fear your Influences will be blasted either after maneuver phase (
Sting, Bifur, Accorn), or during maneuver
but after removing your Orcs (Azanulbizar / Burning Fir Cones / Tauriel + Ancestral Knowledge), circumstances that unable the Spies to recover it (and thus unable you to later replay the Spies).
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Laketown Patrol: 10 strength, 4 vitality, fierce AND negates weapon bonuses
... that's even stronger than
Troop of Uruk-hai! Whose combination of attributes and skill makes hard to defeat and erase (even for Gimli!). And since the Patrol also negates weapon bonuses for all Dwarves, erasing it will be a necessity with certain decks. So I think it should either be str 10 vit 2 (hard to defeat, easier to kill by direct wounds), or str 9 vit 3 (easier to defeat, harder to kill). But vit 4 is clearly excessive. Might have another skill to compensate that attribute reduction, something perhaps like
Orc Chieftain to incentivize playing the Spear on it.
Laketown Patrol
Minion • Man
Strength 9 Vitality 3 Site 6
Fierce.Each
companion loses all strength bonuses from weapons.
Response: If you play a weapon on this minion, add (limit once per turn)."If you come in peace lay down your arms."That way, playing a Spear on it from discard during the Shadow phase would need
and would return
(having the Footman as fuel). Those
can be used for more Orc-fuel, for another Man, or for weapons/conditions during Maneuver.
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Spear of the Guard: +2 str only, +3 seems too much for strong and fierce minions. And the damage bonus is abusive, too powerful and too easy to pay. Moreover with Laketown Patrol having 4 vitality points! I believe Laketown Men shouldn't kill by damage, but by multiple skirmishes, or by overwhelming. Then, an alternative is to remove strength bonuses from one follower: "
Skirmish: Exert bearer to discard the bottom card of your draw deck. If it is a minion,
make a companion lose all strength bonuses from one follower."
The spear's bonus already helps bearer's high base strength (twice per site!), so having also a skill to support bearer seems overkill. So perhaps the exertion-depending skill might be changed to only help another
Man in skirmish, which would give the FP player some degree of maneuver by trying to defeat/wound bearer first. Still, don't know how to mix that with the skill I just proposed, making all fit into 4 or 5 lines.
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Braga: Don't know what to change here. His attributes are well, he only needs to give more maneuver range to the FP player. If his skill would only last during the phase it is used, then the FP player would have a chance to kill some Orcs before
Men take their turn to fight. Still, Men are a bigger threat so the stronger Dwarves will face Braga & Company, assigning weak Dwarves/allies to Orcs, so don't know if that'll be enough maneuver room...
If Braga's skill lasts until regroup, then should be +2 only.
That's all by now.
EDIT: Changes in green.