I was wondering if any of you dislike Time mechanic, or have found any problems with in particular.

What bothers me most is - let's say we just completed quest stage 1 and we advance to stage 2. We have to put 5 time counters on it. Great, we have 5 turns to complete this stage... actually, no, you only have 4 turns since at the end of the refresh phase of the current turn, one time counter will be removed and you couldn't do anything about it.

This was just an example, the problem occurs when a card has only Time 2. Boar Guardian has a nasty effect which removes one ally from play when the last time counter is removed. And in the case I described above, it can happen that you have only 1 turn to kill him otherwise its effect will trigger.

I hated this the most in To Catch an Orc, where you only have little time to capture Mugash. You complete stage 2 -> stage 3 comes into play along with Mugash. You cannot place progress on stage 3 unless Mugash is attached to a hero. It is best to beat Mugash in one turn since at the end of the phase you remove one time counter and you only have 2 turns left then. Which means:

- Kill Mugash in one turn -> 2 turns left to place 15 progress

- Kill Mugash in two turns -> 1 turn left to place 15 progress (which can be hard)

- or repeat all of this and reveal even more encounter cards (which is even harder)

It can become a bit tedious, at least for me. What do you guys think?

It doesn't bother me. They designed/balanced the scenario taking that into effect, so I'm sure the difficulty of avoiding any time effects was planned. Now I generally assume that a time effect will go off once, and I try to make sure I can avoid it going off twice. I liked the Mugash effect because it was so nasty. It made you really have to go all out to make sure you got him fast and quested fast.

I actually haven't had a chance to play any of the quests with Time Counters except Dunland Trap, but I agree with Teamjimby. I'm sure they've playtested all of these tests many many times, so I'm sure they're balancing the quests knowing that a time counter will be removed right away.

Yes, it's definitely a challenge to deal with Mugash, but that was intentional.

Yeah, I agree that time scores was designing with the things you described in mind. This is more of a demoralizing effect than an actual one.

It's essentially a new way to add effects to the scenario cards. The options before were ususally when getting to the stage, or usually with staging (i.e. extra cards). The time counters are a neat way of making intermediate intensities. Time 2 clearly means you are very likely to suffer the effect at least once, time 5 means you have a very good chance of avoiding it, but you shouldn't turtle on that stage. At the end of the day, it's an elegant way to make the power curve of the encounter deck more variable.

Im fine with Tmechanic. Is looks really balanced and deep minded. You need build a better deck or improve your player skill to deal with that probably. But true Mugash quest with 3 + players can be really brutal

when I play solo I hate time mechanic...

I have fun building my army slowly, now i get pressure all the time. Dont like it at all.

when I play solo I hate time mechanic...

I have fun building my army slowly, now i get pressure all the time. Dont like it at all.

I actually really like Time, and wouldn't mind seeing it in player cards. Lots of design space there.

when I play solo I hate time mechanic...

I have fun building my army slowly, now i get pressure all the time. Dont like it at all.

Yes but that's the point though, turtling renders the older quests so easy as to be practically obsolete by any half-decent deck. It's better for the health of the game overall. I get why you don't like it though.

People rarely like being pushed out of their zone of comfort

I'm quite a fan of the mechanic, for the reasons given above on the whole. It is evidently used in scenarios to give a push to players, although one slight complaint I have at the moment is that it's coming in so much, all the quests are starting to feel a bit pushy. Sometimes changes of pace are needed as well. Overall though, it's a very good piece of design.

I agree with monkeyrama. I enjoy the mechanic very much but it could easily be overdone if they continue into other expansions. Two quests I really enjoy that are basically "TIme" but in a different way are the Journey to Rhosgobel and the one where you are transferring Frodo to Rivendell (i.e. you have to win before the character dies). Those quests, to me, are a little more suspenseful than the time mechanic as a whole, but are ultimately very similar.

In truth, I have less of a problem with the time mechanic (don't find it problematic) than I do the fact that you can draw a really bad location (i.e. Hills of Dunland) and still quest successfully to a stage which requires you to put in a card for each player. That always bugs me because the random draw of the cards makes the game randomly difficult. However, I will not complain because if there was no randomnesss then it would get really boring.

Maybe a bit oftopic but….

The game is a good shape now. With all this new cards mechanics and nightmare decks game is shine now. 2 years ago it was much more boring and slow. I really happy with everything accept one . we need get more players cards.

I really happy with everything accept one . we need get more players cards.

I agree, but I also disagree. Sometimes I feel like we lack choices in some areas, but I'm also saddened by the number of cards I'll never get a chance to play simply because I can't keep up with the game. I'm sure that non-casual players will get bored of using the same cards over and over much more quickly than I would, but as a semi-casual gamer, I feel like I'm largely being left in the dust.

Maybe a bit oftopic but….

The game is a good shape now. With all this new cards mechanics and nightmare decks game is shine now. 2 years ago it was much more boring and slow. I really happy with everything accept one . we need get more players cards.

Very much agree: the game looks to be in very safe hands design-wise, and is always throwing up new and interesting ideas that reshape the meta. Which is good, cos the first cycle or two, willpower and threat reduction were the rulers, so that change up has been welcome.

Maybe a bit oftopic but….

The game is a good shape now. With all this new cards mechanics and nightmare decks game is shine now. 2 years ago it was much more boring and slow. I really happy with everything accept one . we need get more players cards.

How can we increase the rate of new player cards being introduced to the game? Maybe a 60 card pack with no quest cards? A one - off deluxe expansion with player only cards that complements the core set?