I think actually they do collect high tolls on those roads, as in taxes.

@GrandSpleen Yeah, I think I read that somewhere as well.

I think that the precise meaning of "toll" is open for interpretation, and could be read either as a highway toll or as a death toll. The lines from the book are delivered by Gloin to Frodo in "Many Meetings" (Ch. 1, Book 2), and are as follows:

"Frodo learned that Grimbeorn the Old, the son of Beorn, was now the lord of many sturdy men, and that to their land between the Mountains and Mirkwood neither orc nor wolf dared go. 'Indeed,' said Gloin, 'if it were not for the Beornings, the passage from Dale to Rivendell would long ago have become impossible. They are valiant men and keep open the High Pass and the Ford of Carrock. But their tolls are high,' he added with a shake of his head; 'and like Beorn of oldthey are not over fond of dwarves.'"

Bit too late to the party, it seems, but I also did my take on Beornings and a Beorn hero with two sides for the cotr ringbearer contest.

To me Beornings represent the power of Nature. Not like Ents, ancient and beyond average comprehension, but Nature as a force in the Third Age. Wild, mysterious but powerfull.

Twosided cards might represent this, like a Day and Night cycle. 'At the end of the round, turn card'. The only problem I have with such a mechanic, albeit interesting, is that Gandalf mentions 'He is under no spell but his own.' Beorn was capable of controlling himself. So, some forced effect that turns a Beorning into a Bear is not in line with the lore, you would think.

We also don't really know if the other Beornings (the people that live in Rhovanion with their leader Grimbeorn the Old), others being not Beorn, were even capable of skinchanging.

I would also think shuffling back would be the best, to let them rest from their outburst, but not practical indeed. Direct damage is what I gave them, if I remember correctly.

I would not only want to see beefy, strong and expensive Tactics allies, but some Scouts and Trackers should be there too. They were ferious enemies of the Orcs anf hunted them a lot, I suppose.

Last note, Beorn had a lot of Creature/Animal allies, I would love to see more creatures in the game. It's a shame Mounts don't wear the trait..

Final, final thing, I promise! Beorn changed into a giant Bear, but nowhere is stated that if the others were skinchangers at all and if they would change in Bears per se. There is the great Bear meeting in the Hobbit, but these could be normal bears just as much as they could be other skinchangers.

Sorry for the Yodalike rant. Watching too much SW, I have.

I think actually they do collect high tolls on those roads, as in taxes.

I am quite sure it means it is costly (money--wise) to cross. I never considered an alternative. I also remember from the translated version it is so -- though the translation could be wrong, of course.

... and I also think there could be the possibility to explore cooperative synergy between the nascent Woodman trait and the Beorning trait. It seems thematically appropriate that they worked together, given that both come from roughly the same stock. Perhaps Grimbeorn the Old could bring them together somehow, as a leader of both factions?

This would be great. It seems like a wasted opportunity not to get more of them in the Shadows of Mirkwood. But we still haven't got Thranduil and the Mirkwood Elves (except Legolas and Mirkwood Runner, perhaps), so we might be going back there yet?

I thought it like 'the tolls are high' 'it is still hard to go there without losing people, because they are not with that many and there are many Orcs etc.'

Rereading made me think it could also be prices they have to pay indeed, because Dwarves don't like to pay..

I think the tolls refer mostly to monetary cost. Why would the Beornings maintain and protect remote fords as a charitable activity, especially when travel over the Misty Mountains was limited in the period covered by The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings? If they're going to go to the trouble of maintaining access to one of the only trade routes through the Misty Mountains, then yeah, they're going to charge a hefty toll... especially to greedy dwarves!

I like the double sided idea, but as GandalfDK said it should be a choice. The best part about this game is the choices it's constantly forces you to make. That said the stats should change dramtically when flipped. I think Beornings could be a cool way to make tactics a viable solo sphere.

As an example:

Side A: (human side) W: 2, A: 1, D: 1, HP: 3, exhaust this card to flip it.

Side B: (Bear side): W: 0, A: 3, D: 1, HP: 6, exhaust this card to flip it.

You would need cards that ready Beornings specifically obviously.

Now, clearly the allies can't be double sided, so maybe each ally would have an A and a B version. If you have one version in your deck, you must include the other version. Both have the same name and are unique, so they can't be out at the same time. Bear side version maybe says play only if Human side is out. "return Human side to your hand."