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By Bullroarer Took, in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

I agree completely JC. If the transaction was made and the product in the buyer's power, they should be able to show it at will. Now regarding hero Amarthiul, first of all it's unexpected and awesome to have him, since Turch never became a player card. His ability is very good, but I think the lack of willpower really hurts the Dunedain archetype, i.e. the Secret Defenders deck this cycle was supposed to develop. For example, Rohan has Eowyn, hobbits have Sam, silvans have Galadriel and Celeborn, noldor have countless high wp heroes, etc while Dunedain have at most 2 wp heroes, which really hurts the deck for solo. And I know this is not a faction game and I could just put Sam but we still should be able to build strong solo faction drcks. And Stwb is never a guaranteed first turn play, and in current quests you just need good questing from the start. Still, he's a great combat splash hero. I do hope though that we get some kind of wp boosting attachment for the Leadership Tactics dunedain deck to work in solo.

I was really hoping for a low threat cost alternative option to Sam and at 10 threat and his abilities Amarthiul is definitely a nice option but 1 willpower is definitely very troubling... if he just had 2 willpower and only 2 defense...

Dunedain definitely won't be heavy questers, but I guess we kinda knew that the archetype was all about combat. Too bad for solo players, but it's starting to get pretty interesting for multiplayer.

This hero has unique stat box. I like it. When I was designing custom stuff, I was always afraid of doing something like 1/3/3/3 because it seemed weird to me. A tleast now I know I was wrong :)

I've been thinking what pure Dúnedain solo could look like. Here a hypothetical first few turns.

Heroes: Halbarad, Marty and Aragorn (lore)

Starting threat: 32 (!)

Turn 1. Play Steward of Gondor on Aragorn, play a West Road Ranger. Now quest with Halbarad, Aragorn and West Road Ranger. Willpower: 5 (descent). Enemy comes down, Marty blocks.

Turn 2. Play Dúnedain Hunter, put another enemy into play. Either Forest Snare or Sarn Ford Sentry (2 card draw). Play Weathered Hill Watchmen. Quest with Halbarad, Aragorn, Sarn Ford Sentry. Willpower: 6 (mediocre). Enemy comes down, Marty blocks, Halbarad Blocks, Dúnedain Hunter blocks.

Turn 3. Here's where things get silly. Marty + Steward + Heroes = 6 resources. Add Heir of Valandil for 2-3 extra discount. Now we're getting to spend 8+ resources each turn. Sarn Ford Sentry and Weathered Hill Watchman provides more card draw, Halbarad and Marty can defend as well as the new Leadership blockers. Other Dúnedain are strong enough to block at least 1 weaker (4-) enemy to buy time. You'r ally swarm quickly grows out of control. Add a spirit song or Celebrian's stone and late game location control is save through the spirit Dúnedain. Once established, Dúnedain kick ass, that's for sure!

But, how well will it do in less favorable opening hands? Can it's high starting threat deal with the high level enemies it must immidiately engage? Maybe switch Aragorn for Pippin? Can Descendant of Kings, Ranger of Carlogan and Sneak Attack keep you alive? How dangerous are shadow cards? What are the chances of getting location-locked? Halbarad and Marty can only absorb 5 HP, will that be enough? It'll be fun to play, that's for certain.

I guess that the best way to go with Dunedain for solo right now is to cOmbine it with another trait (hobbit, Gondor, Rohan). There are not enough cards to make a viable solo deck.

I guess that the best way to go with Dunedain for solo right now is to cOmbine it with another trait (hobbit, Gondor, Rohan). There are not enough cards to make a viable solo deck.

And that's precisely what frustrates me about their design, especially when most other traits work great in solo.

I guess that the best way to go with Dunedain for solo right now is to cOmbine it with another trait (hobbit, Gondor, Rohan). There are not enough cards to make a viable solo deck.

And that's precisely what frustrates me about their design, especially when most other traits work great in solo.

Yeah, I hear you. I guess it is in the nature of a living card game, a trait being developped with cards that are released sporadically through various card packs.

The only trait that was release almost in one pack were the Outlands.

Will ANYBODY please post some pictures?

Will ANYBODY please post some pictures?

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They should put the cards on CARDGAMEDB this week.

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The approach of introducing a homebrew hero over a few adventure packs is pretty cool.

Yeah, but it does mean you can't go back and play through the cycle with him as a hero :(

I have to say I think this is actually a rather glaring weakness of the new hero.... you can't use him while playing Wastes of Eriador, Across the Ettenmoors or Treachery of Rhudaur.... which for those who embrace the "one deck/s to rule them all" approach is rather unfortunate. Also it is just annoying because they are still fairly new and fresh and part of the current cycle so are for many players the most played quests right now.

I can't think of any hero that cannot be used in certain quests (excluding Saga where this sort of thing really needs to happen or quite a few quests would make no sense, Saruman or Grima fighting themselves, two copies of Aragorn in play etc) except for Faramir and now Amarthiul.

Also seriously what is with his 3 health...? why does he not have at least 4? He is a dunedain warrior.... not a hobbit or dwarf... dwarves only have TWO heroes with 3 hitpoints btw and every single other one has at least 4 yet this guy somehow has 3...

yep thats right hes ranked with people like Eowyn and Denethor and Caldara for hitpoints...

He also has 3 defense, 3 attack and 1 willpower so is more or less built for combat yet has this high defence but awful amount of hitpoints... the 1 willpower also seems to be a massive waste of a stat.....

A statline of 0/3/3/4 would be way better on this guy. 2/3/2/3 would be even better. Hell I'd even pay the extra single starting threat to have him be 2/3/3/3 or even 1/3/3/4. I would even prefer he be 2/2/2/4 like Halbarad as boring as that is!! That single hitpoint makes all the world of difference!

Struggling with this hero personally.... amazing abilities that fit right into the Dunedain theme and make Dunedain decks far more of an option now and great traits (warrior, ranger AND dunedain) but to me the absolute worst stat line ever for both what he is meant to represent and what you want to do with him (attack AND defend). Awful health yet high starting defence and no sentinel so a very awkward and below average defender. Lastlucker willpower and an attack value of 3 which is nice but can be found across a multitude of heroes most of which have additional offensive abilities.

So he doesn't quest well, is an average and risky defender at best and is even an average attacker...

I know I am judging this hero very harshly and he does have fantastic abilities but I had high hopes for this hero and he seems like he is all about the abilities to me :P

Edited by PsychoRocka

Thanks for the illustrations DeadLord. ;)

I'm not agree with you PsychoRocka. 3 Defense is a very good stat for a Hero!

Only 7 heroes have 3 or more defense (Beregond (4) and Dáin Ironfoot Denethor Elrond Erkenbrand Gandalf and Treebeard having 3). On a pool of 65 heroes, it's pretty cool ! And it's hard to say it's a bad defender. Even with 3 HP. I agree that 3 HP is a bit low, but i used to play Denethor as main defender, and he also has 3 def and 3 HP. It's a Dunedain, so you can play Weather Hill Watchman to retrive Dunedain Warning and have very quickly 4 Def, which is very strong. Maybe we will have a dunedain attachement that boosts the HP of a Dunedain Hero. Maybe the Lore Cloack on the Dread Realm pack...

3 attack is also huge ! Except for Beorn, no hero have more than 3 in attack.

I love the idee of helping a hero in a cycle, playing with him as an objective, and then, when you saved him, you can play him as a Hero. I find the idea very thematic, and it increase the immersion and improve the narration. For me it's not an issue that you can't play him on 3 scenarios. There are now 70 scenarios available to play. If you for example choose randomly your scenario at the beggining of a game, you can play with him 96% of the times. Otherwise, you can just swap him with Mablung for example.

And his abilities are so strong! Having acces to feint, to Dunedain Hunter... when 1 enemy engaged is so cool!

And the extra resource is amazing too.

Edited by Valiko33

I think I would have him something like 2/2/3/4.

I must admit Feint is the very first card I thought of with him, works very well. I hope we see some nice dunedain attachments as well, a nice weapon and a defensive attachment..

Also just for the record I don't believe we actually have rescued Amarthiul at any point have we? Iarion was captured and Amarthiul set out with us to rescue him.. Then during Escape from Mount Gram it is Amarthiul that sneaks into the jail and rescues/releases the initial hero rather than us saving him. Unless in treachery he gets taken captive as well..? I don't have that one yet..

I think I would have him something like 2/2/3/4.

At 11 threat yeah?

Anyone knows why spanish translations are in the net first?

I think I would have him something like 2/2/3/4.

At 11 threat yeah?

Yeah. Small price to pay.

At this point I would kill for something like this:

Unique Leadership attachment, cost 1

Attach to a Dúnedain hero.

Action: Exhaust [NAME] to exchange attached hero's defense and willpower until the end of the phase.

This would be enough to make the Dúnedain archetype so much better in solo.

In spain there is a not bad community of players. In the best spanish blog, there is one podcast with an interview to one of the distribuitors in spain. He tells how the distribuition goes ahead.

PD: language --> spanish

Bummed about the Lords of Eldar. Needs to be in your discard pile, buffs speicif, rare, trait and still costs 3.

Love Lords of the Eldar, strong event card

Nice pack! Long defeat is pretty cool.

I think Lords of the Eldar was specifically made for the Erestor deck, and in that deck I think it works fine.