It’s a big shiny ball that men, Hobbits, and corrupt wizards like to stare into. Too bad only Nobles can use it in the game.
Card Theme
The theme is spot on. Look into the future, and you may be rewarded …. or cursed.
Card Synergies and Interactions
Grey Wanderer, Risk Some Light, Lore Denethor, Needful to Know, Celduin Traveler, Ithilien Lookout, Far Sighted
Ring Rating
Card Talk uses the highly scientific yet arbitrary scale of 1 ring for the card to rule them all to 10 to be cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came.
The Palantir got a lot easier to use with the Grey Wander contract (although it can still to be fun to use with low starting threat heroes), making its value increase since it first came out. With the contract, your threat starts low, you can start with the Palantir in play, and you can ready after using the Palantir. There are also secrecy cards that let you peek at the top cards of the encounter deck when in secrecy. This makes your hit rate with the Palantir increase. With three players, you know exactly what cards you will be getting. In solo, you can set yourself up for multiple rounds. And, even if you don’t know what’s coming the fun of guessing the card type and revealing could (maybe) make up for any threat increase you end up taking.
Guardian of Esgaroth is fairly clear as where it stands: an armsman from Dale, likely after the events of The Hobbit. Following Bard the Bowman to rebuild their ancestral lands, the Men from Dale would benefit from trade from both the Elves of Mirkwood and the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain.
Card Theme
The card’s theme becomes quite evident in the deckbuilding direction it demands. Dale is a wealthy land of warriors and craftsmen. Guardian of Esgaroth pushes a deck towards plenty of attachments, including weapons, armour, and horses. The Men of Dale leverage their affluent position to be well prepared for war.
Card Synergies and Interactions
Guardian of Esgaroth fits into a fairly typical Dale deck. Brand son of Bain and Bard son of Brand provide synergistic heroes, with a third slot open for player preference (either to double up with more Leadership/Spirit or open up another Sphere). Personally, I enjoy Theodred for resource smoothing.
Then the rest of the deck can be an assortment of other Dale allies and low cost attachments. In particular, Wild Stallion stands out as an excellent card for the deck, as it provides the Guardian with +2 to all stats.
Additionally, cards that provide extra actions per turn out of Guardian shine. Valiant Determination enables questing for 5 on top of attacking or defending for 5 each turn.
Spare Hood and Cloak has been a surprisingly effective card for the deck. With the heroes, it immediately draws a card. Then it lets you pass the cloak to the Guardian to get an extra action in an emergency, while also letting the Guardian pass it back in rounds in which its combat power isn’t needed. This brings an extra level of flexibility to respond to a critical turn.
Ring Rating
Card Talk uses the highly scientific yet arbitrary scale of 1 ring for the card to rule them all to 10 to be cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came.
Guardian of Esgaroth requires support, but acts on an often unused axis of the game – universally powerful allies. There are often min/maxed allies or universally average allies, but an ally that hits 5/5/5/5 (thanks to Wild Stallion) benefits from many effects that are costed to only apply to allies instead of heroes. This allows it to benefit from cards like Strength of Arms and Valiant Determination to act in multiple phases, for example. A 5 Defense/5 Health Ally also is unlikely to die to an unfortunate shadow, meaning you can heal off the damage and reuse it. And worst case scenario, losing a buffed ally isn’t as consequential as losing a buffed hero. And you can have three of them at once.
However, it requires a significant investment in deckbuilding to make it work.
This deck was part of my four player fellowship running all the “shuffle into the encounter deck” events.
Main Deck
Hero (3) Amarthiúl (The Battle of Carn Dûm)
Bard son of Brand (The Wilds of Rhovanion)
4P Ranger Summons by David Renaud
This deck was part of my four player fellowship running all the “shuffle into the encounter deck” events.
Brand son of Bain (The Wilds of Rhovanion)
I adore the notion of ‘reach’. Defence in depth provided by spears and shield walls really highlights Gondor going into its shell under Denethor’s reign. With a renewed vigour during the Battle of Minas Tirath, the spear becomes aggressive again and wields itself with devastating efficiency.
Card Theme
Given it is a ‘thorns/reflection’ style card it works well with ANY blocker. Anything where you’re needing a tactics defender OR a defender that can have this cost paid by someone with Tactics is nice.
Card Synergies and Interactions
Beregond Tactics is a super synergy as you can play 2 cost attachments for free. If this is drawn in the opening hand you’re in a good stead. Things that search your deck for attachments (Master of the Forge) allows you to find something quickly outside your opening hand.
Ring Rating
Card Talk uses the highly scientific yet arbitrary scale of 1 ring for the card to rule them all to 10 to be cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came.
Spear of the Citadel provides a defender an ability to damage an enemy. The timing of “is declared” can be used to the advantage of the player. Enemies that have 1 health or have one remaining will die before resolving their attack and shadow card.
In addition to this a defender can provide the additional damage, block the attack, and then have declared attacks hit the said attacker and this damage could be enough to kill it.
Editor’s Note: There’s not much to about the men of Dale that isn’t in The Hobbit. They are Northmen that came from the southern part of Rhovanion and built Dale when Thror re-established the Kingdom Under the Mountain. The city prospered with Erebor until Smaug attacked and destroyed Dale. After the events in the The Hobbit, Bard and his son Brand ruled the lands around Dale. During the War of the Ring, forces of Mordor invaded overrunning Dale. The men joined the Dwarves of Erebor and remained there under siege until news came of Sauron’s defeat.
Card Theme
The theme is quite nice. The scout helps to eliminate threat of locations in the distance. When needed for combat, he is mounted and ready.
Card Synergies and Interactions
He works great by himself. He is even better in a dale deck when having his willpower boosted or with other location-control cards.
Ring Rating
Card Talk uses the highly scientific yet arbitrary scale of 1 ring for the card to rule them all to 10 to be cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came.
Rhovanion Outrider is often overlooked for Northern Tracker, but he is often superior. The ability to target a single location with his ability can get around exploring many locations that have “forced: when it leaves play” abilities. He is cheaper than Northern Tracker and often times actually provides even more willpower than the Tracker. He is very affordable in many spirit decks, not just Dale or Vilya decks. In solo or two-handed play, there often aren’t that many locations in the staging area anyhow. The outrider is my go-to location control these days.
I tried to pick a card that perhaps falls somewhere in the 6 – 8 Rings range. 1 Ring cards are easy to discuss, based on their versatility and lore, and 10s challenge the reviewer to come up with some possible use and to otherwise complain. Easy pickins! Anyhow, I tried to think of a card I have included sporadically and what it’s possible utilization could be.
Here comes Windfola. The reason I have placed this in the lower tier range of rings is due to the cons outweighing the pros. Let us explore:
Windfola is the steed Eowyn took to battle secretly in the ride of the Rohirrim to save Gondor at Pelennor Fields. It carried Eowyn and Merry up until encountering the Witch-King, whose screech made the horse go wild. The horse abandoned the pair, and as far as I can tell is not seen in the text again.
Card Theme
Now, let’s review how Windfola works in practice. First, he can only be attached to a spirit hero or to tactics Eowyn. Very appropriate so far. Now, it does exclude tactics Merry, which in gameplay is fine because it does not sync well with him. It also cannot be attached to ally Merry, which is just as well, as he works best if he can pop into play multiple times. Let’s examine, then, how well Windfola syncs with the three heroes most associated with him: Spirit Eowyn, Tactics Eowyn, and Spirit Merry.
Spirit Eowyn syncs very well with Windfola. First, Eowyn’s ability specifically targets her willpower,and she, in the vast majority of cases, will be questing. Windfola first gives a boost to her willpower and prevents her from being taken out of the quest. Further, Eowyn is hardly ever the target of restricted attachments beyond willpower boosts or quest specific items, so she is happy to take this cheap attachment as one of her two given restricted slots.
Tactics Eowyn is a bit of a different story. At this point, Windfola is out of sphere, so either another spirit hero is needed (precluding some other cross-sphere combo) , or some help is needed across the table. Tactics Eowyn definitely wants Golden Shield and isn’t necessarily the dedicated quester her spirit counterpart is. Sure, to bring her to solid combat readiness, you might need to bring Unexpected Courage or Herugrim, both of which are blue cards, but it might take a while on the list of cards before you get to Windfola. Worse yet, Windfola takes up that one restricted slot, and unless you are running Eowyn in a three hunters deck, you can pretty much kiss her usefulness outside the quest phase (save once per game) goodbye … which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if you are setting her up as splash red hero who can quest. Still, Windfola doesn’t seem to mesh nearly as well with this version of Eowyn.
Spirit Merry is perhaps the worst candidate of the three. Spirit Merry thrives when he has his Hobbit Pony, as you would like to decide in the moment whether you would like a threat drop or need a little extra push in the quest phase. Windfola assumes you are going to quest with this hero without a shadow of a doubt. In fact, you are in such need of this hero to quest, you are willing to take a restricted slot in order to guarantee that hero stays committed, encounter cards be damned. Now, I should point out that if you are running an all-hobbit lineup, Windfola on Merry with Elevenses is a fairly decent combo.(Still, the action windows and card text prevent you from being able to trigger Merry in addition to Elevenses and Windfola at the same time). Still, reading the card text on Merry, Hobbit Pony, and Windfola shows that while it isn’t the worst combo in the world, you will be better off in all cases without one of the attachments.
Since Spirit Eowyn is the only efficient candidate of the five character choices associated with the lore of the card, I rate it low in this category.
One final note. I think Windfola is missing one clause that could bump it into 5 or even 4 ring territory. Right at the end, include the text, “Then, you may discard Windfola to ready the attached hero.” This line improves all of the four cons I’ve held against it: One, it is right in line with the lore: the steed abandons them right in time for battle, for which they are now ready. It sits well with a Tactics Eowyn with a Golden Shield or a Spirit Merry now ready to jump on the next enemy that flips from the encounter deck. The ability allows for an easy restriction removal, when appropriate, while giving the added benefit of a second action. Players would actually bring 3 copies of Windfola, hoping to trigger it multiple times to recommit and ready with a back up in hand. It behaves as a willpower boost and a conditional ready, improving its versatility. It had potential to be solid, albeit with a specific trigger in mind.
Card Synergies and Interactions
I’ve mentioned it already, but unless you are running a Forth! The Three Hunters contract or the Golden Belt, you are only working with two restricted attachments per hero. There are certainly restricted attachments that see less play than Windfola, but according to the Hall of Beorn, this is the 6th ranked restricted steed out of the 9 (I should note that the last place, Tireless Thoroughbred, is probably ranked lowest due to release date). These restricted slots are precious, and give way to some of the most powerful boosts in the game. The restricted guarded take an extra element to get into play but (1) cost the same as Windfola (2) usually give a bigger boost and (3) have an ability that is generally useful and not quest specific. Armored Destrier essentially gives two defenses, one for free, and two defenses are needed much more often than two quests from the same character. Most see some kind of conditional, secondary boosts that would have been great to see here (“+2 willpower if attached hero is Merry or Eowyn”).
I will admit later that the cost of 1-for-1 willpower is enough to convince individuals it’s worth including in decks. Addressing the issue of uniqueness, how many copies do you dare bring? I know this is a constant battle for unique cards but some uniques you don’t even question (Steward of Gondor, Gandalf’s Staff in a Gandalf deck, you get the drill). Once you play Windfola, what do you do with the next one you draw? Well, if you are playing with Spirit Eowyn, great, more willpower. That’s about it. You would love to see a 1-for-1 boost that could be stacked. This would be one of the best willpower attachments in the game. For now, you might sprinkle in a single copy, MAYBE two into a deck featuring a Spirit, questing hero.
Now it does have some good economic value. How often will you win a quest by one willpower? Perhaps more than you might think. “Just one more point… one more to clear that location… one more to clear that quest card. Come on, where can we find one more willpower? Anything??” Yes I think we have all said it. Said it enough times that when you are running a spirit quester, you glance at Windfola and it gives you pause. Should you just throw it in? Sure. One copy. Go. I know there are plenty of deckbuilders who cringe at that idea, who like to squeeze every last deck thinning card in. I am not one of those deckbuilders. I like to include some generic boosts. That being said, I usually will opt for 2-for-2 instead of 1-for-1 for no real reason. I find myself including 2 cost 2 willpower allies instead of Windfola.
How niche is it? Well, okay, in a Forth! The Three Hunters deck that includes a Spirit hero, Windfola is in auto-include. Why? Either its a 0-for-1 (and soon 2) deal, or it’s a 1-for-2 deal if the contract is flipped. That spirit hero is going to be questing for you, I am sure (unless…you brought Beregond?) and you don’t have the luxury of including 2-for-2 allies any more. You also cannot remove that hero from the quest… it would be devastating. Windfola keeps you Spirit Hunter dedicated to it. Particular quests can devastate you with quest removal. Notice that Windfola doesn’t PREVENT quest removal, but allows it and then triggers a request. This nuance is important because if an encounter card allows you to remove a questing character as an option, take it! I am looking at Inner Flame and Inner Shadow from the Shadow and Flame quest, Stars in Sky from Druadan Forest, and I am sure there’s more.
Is someone bringing Elfhelm? And you have a spirit hero? Windfola without a question. In a combo I’d like to see, other commit triggers also are re-established. Let’s just assume we can get Song of Travel on the appropriate heroes. Tactics Bilbo gets a massive willpower boost and can lay some serious damage in the staging area. Leadership Frodo can ready two heroes and lower your threat by two. Theodred can give more money, Lotheriel can get another ally into play, Eomer can strike again, and Legolas can ready another. It takes some finagling but for one cost, who wouldn’t want to try?
Ring Rating
Card Talk uses the highly scientific yet arbitrary scale of 1 ring for the card to rule them all to 10 to be cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came.
In the end, you are not running this card without a spirit hero, and that has to earn it some rings out the gate. You ARE running this card if you are running a spirit questing hero in a three hunters deck, or against a scenario that has devastating hero removal from quests. It loses some rings from the bottom 10 for that. The economics allow for some splashing in spirit hero decks, and when you come back to Core Eowyn, you get a nod of approval from fellow players when they see you play Windfola on his rider.
He charged in with Gandalf and helped save humanity!
Editor’s Note: Phil here is referring to Erkenbrand arriving at Helm’s Deep with all the men he could gather and Gandalf. For those only familiar with the movies, Eomer being banished and brought back by Gandalf is one of the changes made from the book. In the book, he was imprisoned and freed once Gandalf broke the spell on Theoden. He then was at Helm’s Deep with Theoden and the rest.
Card Theme
He came paired with The Day’s Rising, which I love, but don’t actually use much. He really lives up to the role when he defend, readies, then attacks. Get ’em Erky! Plus, his ability cancels shadow effects, which could be a reference to breaking the ranks of Saruman’s forces.
Card Synergies and Interactions
Hauberk of Mail, Armored Destrier, and Warrior Keyword
Ring Rating
Card Talk uses the highly scientific yet arbitrary scale of 1 ring for the card to rule them all to 10 to be cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came.
I like Erkenbrand as much as I like Beregond. Sure, he doesn’t start with the same defense, but his ability is better than either Beregond abilities in my opinion. Canceling any shadow effect adds an incredible amount of control to combat. He’s also in Leadership, giving him access to Hauberk of Mail and Armored Destrier, meaning he can block for 4 twice without sweating any shadow effects. I’ve just started splashing him into my decks as a go-to defender and I couldn’t be happier with the results.
The contract references Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas pursuing the Urak-Hai after the breaking of the fellowship in The Two Towers.
Card Theme
This card harkens back to the core of The Lord of the Rings where a few brave souls can change the fate of the world. Rather than relying on hordes of allies swarming. Your three heroes must be brave and bold enough to risk this journey alone. But are given significant aid from the Valar and their gifts (cost-reduction), blessings (willpower boosting) and their healing (yeah still healing). I can really see how the developers wanted to create that feeling of a small band of heroes working alone to overcome the armies and traps of the enemy as they sprint across locations.
Card Synergies and Interactions
This contract combos with strong heroes that can get the most out of its boosting by being capable fighters and questers. As such it requires and works best with as much readying as you can throw at it: Leadership Aragorn, Spirit Legolas, Leadership Frodo, and Sam Gamgee are all excellent candidates for this contract. Arguably and ironically (since he is dead by the time of this contract’s namesake) Tactics Boromir is the best hero to make this really work with his ability to ready often throughout all phases of the game and help you with hide, escape, sailing, fortitude, racing and other tests. He’s always ready for you.
Anything else that helps with giving your few characters more actions such as Light of Valinor, Unexpected Courage x3, Shadowfax, Magic Ring, Steed of the North, Steed of the Mark, Rohan Warhorse (lots of mounts here), readying events and all of those delicious food-readying items are key to include.
Heroes that draw cards will help you get this contract flipped sooner and Erestor can do often do it round 1.
This deck excels in most quests because it completely ignores any effects that harm allies. And while you get to entirely avoid any treacheries, enemies or other hindering affects that target allies, this also can make quests where you have an objective ally you have to protect become extremely hard and create more auto loss events. Likewise when you are always defending with heroes shadow effects that discard the defending character are often game over in that moment.
Also Pelennor Fields, while beatable, absolutely requires having Will of the West in your starting hand as you have no allies to be put into play. Meaning your entire deck is discarded on the second phase and you skip right to the third much harder one. Also Wind-Whipped Rain and other discard all attachments you control are game-Enders. But still overall the benefits far outweigh the negatives of this contracts deck-building requirements. Also Ranger Summons or other players sending you their allies (looking at you Rider of the Mark and Blue Mountain Trader) is a great way to sneak in some allies into your deck. As there is no restriction on side B of the contract or gaining allies through other means.
Ring Rating
Card Talk uses the highly scientific yet arbitrary scale of 1 ring for the card to rule them all to 10 to be cast back into the fiery chasm from whence it came.
Alright hear me out here. I have been playing a Forth, The Three Hunters Gandalf, Spirit Legolas and Tactics Boromir deck for a solid year and a half now as I have been taking on every single quest in the game with the same deck, no changes or substitutions. And I can honestly say that this card is a 1, it’s the one contract to rule them all.
Firstly it completely opens up a new style of play that wasn’t really practical before. This is something the contracts were meant to do generally, but this one takes the cake for sheer power and changing up the game to the point that it almost feels like a different game entirely. Traditionally in our lovely game you are trying to build up an ally swarm as quickly as you can and then once you have raised the shire (or perhaps all of middle earth) you can casually walk through the game with your horde of allies both unique and not. This contract limits you to your three heroes only, and suddenly this game shifts from a classic strategy game horde builder to a classic dungeon crawler. This also feels so much more thematic as often it’s the work of a few heroes against the forces of the enemy that wins the day. You have to choose strong heroes because that’s all you have to take on the horrors of the enemy. Then with your heroes you slowly progress through the quest looking for more loot (oops I mean items, loot is another deck right?) to make your heroes stronger. Once you have two restricted attachments per hero suddenly your heroes becomes super powered, charged with willpower bonuses and by the end your fully levelled up mecha-warrior heroes battle their way to the finish.
Now next let’s talk about power, Bond of Fellowship is great to start with an extra hero, and Perilous Voyage helps with card draw and some crazy fun on the B side, but this contract is hands down the strongest of the lot. You are given an cost reduction of 1 for each of your heroes first restricted attachment EACH ROUND! That is essentially three free resources a round (or 4 with saga heroes) if your deck is full of restricted items (which it should be!). Helping to increase your board state is incredibly helpful and just ask Beregond how much he likes his cost reduction. So three extra resources a round of purchasing power is a great way to accelerate the often most difficult part of quests which is getting your engine going. And if you aren’t hurting for questing too badly you can even delay flipping your contract a few rounds to further utilize this early game acceleration.
But what happens when you flip that contract? All of a sudden you get a willpower boost for EACH restricted attachment on your heroes. And 2-4 extra willpower per hero makes questing a breeze for the second half of the game. Also you get the added benefit of a built in healing of 1 on each of your heroes a round. This greatly boosts your characters survivability as you have no chump blocking allies around.
But wait there’s more! While attachment-hating quests can completely ruin your burglar’s turn decks, and Escape From Dol Guldur ends your grey wandering before it begins, this contracts negative is actually a benefit. Think about the standard flow of the game traditionally. You are trying to increase your board state to build up your engine and then power through the quest as you deal with enemies that pop up and clear locations. The encounter deck always wants to attack you by filling the staging area with locations, swarming you with enemies (or strong attacks/damage), stealing your cards/resources, blocking your questing and finally attacking your board state. So many treachery cards and enemies specifically target allies. As they assume every player has some. When you don’t have allies at all, then a good chunk of the encounter deck more often then not will simply miss in their attempts to hurt you. This gives you more time to further build up your board state and be able to crush whatever remains.
One must also talk about the weaknesses of this contract to balance out the sheer power of it. And while you get to entirely avoid any treacheries, enemies or other hindering affects that target allies, this also can make quests where you have an objective ally you have to protect become extremely hard and create more auto loss events. Likewise when you are always defending with heroes shadow effects that discard the defending character are often game over in that moment.
Also Pelennor Fields, while beatable, absolutely requires having Will of the West in your starting hand as you have no allies to be put into play. Meaning your entire deck is discarded on the second phase and you skip right to the third much harder one. Also Wind-Whipped Rain and other discard all attachments you control are game-Enders. But still overall the benefits far outweigh the negatives of this contracts deck-building requirements. Also Ranger Summons or other players sending you their allies (looking at you Rider of the Mark and Blue Mountain Trader) is a great way to sneak in some allies into your deck. As there is no restriction on side B of the contract or gaining allies through other means.
When playing with this contract you do need to make sure you have a ton of readying so Unexpected Courage x3, Shadowfax, Magic Ring, Heroes that ready other heroes, and all of those delicious food-readying items are key to include. And Tactics Boromir is permanently glued to this contract for me for all of the cards that need you to exhaust a character outside do the traditional questing and fighting phases including but not limited to hide, sailing, and escape tests.
All in all this contract is the best example of how one single card can completely change how a game is played, how it feels and how it turns a novelty idea in the before-contract times into one of the most powerful archetypes in the game. That is why this card is a 1 to me and it’s extremely hard for me to not just always want to build another Forth, Three Hunters deck.
TLDR: This contract completely changes the entire gameplay feel, takes the teeth out of the encounter deck since there are no allies to harm, and gives you crazy early game resource acceleration and second half power questing.
Most Valuable Card: Oh, Sam. When will it be your day? Not this day. While he was great defending and attacking back while equipped with Sting, I think the better option here is Fellowship of the Ring. I already chose the Redbook of Westmarch, and while I am not explicitly not choosing a card twice, it think it makes sense to give this card it’s due. It wasn’t until this card entered play that I felt 100% comfortable that I was going to quest successfully each round and place enough progress on the locations and quest card to actually make it through the scenario.
Thematic Win: Beating the second cave troll with a group of characters. It’s a subtle thematic accomplishment, but in a scenario where Caleb has explicitly said that he wanted to break with the books here, at least a little, to provide the option for players to outrun the Balrog, it’s something. Especially since I decided to take Caleb up on his alternate universe option of outrunning Durin’s Bane. So having a small group of folks gang up and kill the cave troll felt pretty good.
First and foremost, I need to get this out of the way. I may have interpreted the rules incorrectly, but the Fellowship contract is vague about what happens during the saga with boons. And by vague, I mean it’s not mentioned at all. I was forced to interpret the rules and used the burden precedent that says to shuffle the burden into your deck after it hits the table. There is also a line in the Black Riders Rules document on page three that says that “…players may include any boon cards as recorded in the Campaign Pool in their decks. These cards do not count against their deck minimum.” And while this doesn’t necessarily apply because the contract talks about a deck maximum, it does give some credence to my theory that boon cards don’t count when counting the number of cards in your deck. It may be a poor decision on my part, but if it invalidates all my wins, so be it. I chalk this up to it being a solo game and I can play it how I want. But, I am uncertain that adding two extra cards to my player deck, and sphereless cards at that, will greatly impact the outcome of my game play. If you have any insight into this rule, please leave a comment.
Next, I have to take the bigger view and talk about BOTH versions of this scenario I posted. For this entry, I’m not going to give you a behind the scenes run of the game but rather more of a report of the feel of these plays. I was so excited to put Thorongil on Fellowship Frodo to get a spirit resource and use him as a defender that I completely didn’t even read the card. And I would guess that we are all guilty of that. In fact, I made the same mistake again in a later scenario with, of all heroes, Spirit Aragorn. Don’t worry though, you’ll see that play as well. But I played these scenarios and it wasn’t until after they were edited and I had moved on that I was told that the Thorongil on a fellowship here is verboten. It was during our live play of Epic Multiplayer Helm’s Deep that Joseph Forster casually mentioned that Thorongil could only be played on “normal” heroes. I asked him to repeat what he had said and I also looked it up on Hall of Beorn. Lo and behold, it says it right there in plain English. I was crushed because I had already put this episode in the can. But, it definitely a big enough error that I knew it impacted the outcome. Spirit Frodo is a great defender. I used him as such. I needed to play it again. I was bummed.
But, surprisingly, I was able to win in much the same fashion as I did on my error video. I was able to get through fairly easily in just the perfect number of rounds. At the time, I thought the plays were very different. But as I look at them now, they are pretty similar. Also, the feeling at the end in outrunning the Balrog was the same.
Lastly, by outrunning the Balrog, it saved me from having to enter the “Do Balrogs have wings?” debate and just not including those scenes in the video.
Most Valuable Card: It’s getting much harder to *not* pick Sam as the most valuable card, but I still feel strongly about spreading the love around and it seems that in this play, Thorongil really showed its value. Yes, Sam was towered up and was able to defend a few things and kill off a few things, but without Thorongil giving me access to Tactics Merry, I would have been really hard up for a heavy attacking character. So, in the end, it wasn’t Sam who gets the nod, but rather Thorongil. I’m sure that both will come in clutch in several scenarios, so we will see how that goes.
Thematic Win: The best part of any scenario is when the play lines up with what the books give you. And, this was perfect. And it wasn’t just because of how the scenario was designed, but how the encounter deck randomly worked to line up particularly well to the book. In the first stage, all that was flipped we locations. In that stage of the book, the fellowship was really just trekking through Middle-earth. Getting four locations early on and then not really seeing many after that just felt right for the scenario. I guess I am cheering the encounter deck, then? Go Caleb?
This was the first scenario that I remember playing several times, not only to get the mechanics down, but also to get a win. I guess I may be exaggerating by saying “several” but I know that I didn’t play the scenario just twice. It seemed that I would always get stuck early on with the surging wargs. Whether it was luck or not, I was glad it worked out the way it did.
The first stage of this scenario is pretty unique up to this point in the game. To get such a crazy amount of choice and options after the first planning phase is ridiculous, but I always keep in mind if the game gives, it will take away. So I was fortunate to get such a great bunch of cards at the Counsel of Elrond. A first turn Rosie, with a hobbit cloak, coupled with the Thorongil I played in planning means that I have a defender (Sam) that can easily defend most attacks and and an attacker (Merry) who can really do some damage. And with Rosie’s flexibility, those characters can get even beefier. It’s a crazy good start for this deck and for the scenario. The only thing I think may have been better is if I saw a Red Book of Westmarch show up somewhere.
As I progressed through the second quest stage, I was thankful to keep damage off locations and that I was getting locations at all. Like I said above, it was cool that the flow of the scenario from the encounter deck seemed to favor the flow from the book. But I was legitimately worried that I was going to get location locked, but even as more locations flipped, then I started to think that I was going to see a raft of enemies show up. It was a vicious cycle that I was nervous about. And it took several rounds to clear the stage. Yes, turtling is good. But sometimes it does not work out. But, by the end of the second quest card, I felt pretty good about my board state.
As an interesting note, I ended up putting a second Unexpected Courage on to Merry (17:07) instead of giving it to Sam. As I said at the beginning of this process, I sometimes miss some moves or make bad decisions. I am not the perfect player. But the decision to give Merry a second UC and let Sam stick with just the one Fast Hitch is an interesting choice. I would love to know what others would do. I don’t think that was a bad decision because another UC gives Merry the ability to quest, ready, use his spirit ability, ready, then attack and use his Tactics tricks. That’s a pretty good use. But, putting the UC on to Sam would allow multiple defenses, and since he was equipped with Sting, it’s possible that his defenses kill the enemy before it even attacks. So the dilemma there was real and because I didn’t know the future, I chose what I thought was best. It turned out okay, but this particular decision is interesting enough for me to ask for your opinion.
Also, right after this, I had a little bit of a misplay. I engaged the Crebain and that should have put a damage on the location. Then, the Redhorn Foothills would have forced me to discard a card from my hand and that could have been any one of the four cards. . Then, immediately afterward, I forgot to place damage on Eregion. Had I remembered, it likely would have impacted my decisions right then, but I do go back and correct it. Its still a little frustrating because I think the game was designed that those decisions effect the choices that are made now. I engaged the Warg without a care in the world, not thinking about the damage. I may have made a different decision had I remembered the trigger.
Something that never happens, at least when I’m playing the Sagas, is Frodo defending. He’s just too fragile. But, it happened here (27:35). With a Mithril Shirt, that gives him 3 defense and 3 hit points which makes him a reasonable defender, especially against smaller enemies. Sure, he’s not going to take a swing from a Hill Troll, but he can handle a Warg attack. So good for Frodo. And it serves as a gentle remind that Frodo can be much more that just the Ring Bearer and quester. Also, just as a side note, during this same time in the play, notice that Bilbo took care of another enemy in the staging area. I can’t overstate how great Bilbo can be. Not always. But sometimes he is invaluable.
I was able to zip through stage three quickly enough and move on to stage four, the Watcher in the Water stage. One of the pieces of trivia I have picked up from being deeply involved in the community for so long is that the Watcher capturing Frodo was not part of the original design of the scenario, but rather a suggestion by Ian Martin. Of course I know that Ian was part of the Grey Company and runs his blog, Tales from the Cards, I didn’t know how deeply he was part of the behind the scenes from beginning. He must have either been play testing this scenario for FFG or was part of a super secret spoiler. Either way, was a cool addition and speaks volumes to the humble nature that Caleb has in designing games.
Stage four was pretty trivial at this point. I made a small error in math with my damage on the Watcher. Since Frodo was captured, Merry only attacked for five, so only 7 damage should have gone on the Watcher, but that error was trivial. I was able to YOLO quest the next round and enter the mines practically unimpeded. Yay me!
Off to our Journey in the Dark and as a spoiler I’ll say that you shouldn’t hold your breath to see a Balrog.
Most Valuable Card: This is the shortest play to date, both by time and by rounds. At just under 27 minutes and at four rounds, the race to the Ford of Bruinen seemed so easy. Trust me, behind the scenes, I played this scenario a few times where I really struggled to get going. But, by a long shot, the reason I was able to do so well on this particular play was because of the timing of drawing Frodo’s Intuition. For two Fellowship resources I was able to get 5 cards and every Hobbit hero was able to get an extra willpower. This made my Hobbit heroes alone quest for 20. That’s some powered up questing. But the beauty of the card isn’t really its willpower boost, although in this case, it was amazing. The beauty of the card is its card draw. And yeah, so Gandalf coming out was nice, but I was only able to get to Gandalf by playing Frodo’s Intuition. And, because of the timing coming out in the last round, it really was the card that pushed me over the edge for the win.
Thematic Win:
Well, here we are. The first major weird decision I had to make because of the difference between the movies and the book. For those that don’t know what I’m talking about, its Glorfindel who rides the injured Frodo to Rivendell in the book, but the Peter Jackson made the decision to instead use Arwen to carry Frodo. While it is never stated in the movie, I hope that the horse used was still named Asfaloth, but I digress. The decision then becomes do I take the same liberty as PJ or do I try, somehow, to keep with the book. The Tolkien lover in me decided to honor the book as much as I could. That means that as much as possible I didn’t show Arwen’s face in the clips, but rather showed her from the back. When I reached the Ford, it was unavoidable for one clip, or so I thought, but up to that time, you can’t really see the face of the elf on the horse. So, if you have never seen the movies and you are only using the Theatrical Campaign as a reference, it’s possible that you could mistake Liv Tyler’s Arwen for the Balrog slayer himself, Glorfindel. You see that in the second cut scene where I only show the sweeping horse shot from the back. It’s Glorfindel, right?
This play of Flight was quick. I was able to rush through it in four rounds. I’m sure it’s not a record, but I’m also sure that it’s pretty quick. There’s a reason that Caleb decided to put 15 life counters on Frodo and not just five or ten. It’s because players may need them. And there were a few plays were I did need them. But I was so surprised by this play. All the cards I needed kinda just lined up for me. But that happens when I play the scenario a few times and record a few times. The cards on the win line up well.
While I hated it, the first round Nazgul was a pain. I was grumpy that it came out and I obviously should have played it different, but you can never predict what the encounter deck is going to throw at you, so I had an odd sense of satisfaction by choosing not to get a Nazgul, but then getting a Nazgul anyway. It felt more like a chase with more Nazgul.
The other part of the scenario that would get me is that the Fell Rider, the one that starts in the staging area, has an engagement cost of 30. That limited my time I could turtle in the first stage because my threat was 25. If something crazy happens, 30 is right around the corner. At least once I remember being forced to engage him when I wasn’t ready, and it was because of its 30 engagement cost. It wrecked me. But again, I love highlighting how powerful Bilbo is because he can effectively cancel threat and also deal direct damage passively and softening up enemies is, in my opinion, an underrated strategy in the community. In this particular play, I was able to engage the Fell Rider in the second round, it already had two damage on it from Bilbo, and then Sam was able to kill the thing outright. And that’s great.
As the final rounds progressed, I was completely shocked that I actually was able to get through the second and final stage in one big YOLO quest. Like totally shocked. The willpower I’m able to generate from the Hobbit deck is good. Usually it’s not top tier, but in this case to use 6 characters and commit 24 to the quest is phenomenal. Some quick math means that each character was questing for four. That’s Eowyn and Gandalf level stats. And I knew I needed it for just the one round. So the mega push came at the right time, and while I knew I’d clear the location, clearing the quest came as a surprise.
I know that I cleared the Ford and the quest in the same turn and I didn’t have to kill off the Witch-king using the Fords response, but I just felt I needed to honor the designer here. It was so obvious that the whole point of the Ford was to destroy the Nazgul chasing you. I was able to do that. And it was good. I even tried to setup killing two Nazgul using the Ford, but I just didn’t feel comfortable keep two engaged with me. One silly encounter card where they make an immediate attack or a bad shadow card and I’m toast. So cooler head prevailed and while I didn’t wipe out the whole pack of nine riders, I was able to take out their leader.
For a short play, this scenario really packed some tension. I hope you enjoy!
Card Talk: A LOTR LCG Podcast and Blog 