Happy New 2017 to everyone!

I thought it was the right time to start off on an LCG blog/session report/variant/experiment - yes, I'm not sure what exactly to call this right now, but here's the background...

I have been playing the game on and off since it came out and have a fair collection of expansions and packs to go with my Core game - everything through 'Shadows of Mirkwood', 'Khazad-dum' and then patchy from there - a few deluxe boxes (Isengard, Heroes of Numenor, Lost Realm), some Saga boxes (the first Hobbit and Black Riders) and some adventure packs here and there.

So, a fair few cards...

I'm also almost exclusively a solo player that likes to build theme into decks and quests.

So what I'm proposing on my (rather unexpected) journey is going way back to the start and trying each Quest solo with just the card pool that was available at the time.

But because I have a bit of experience with the game, then I know that this would be very frustrating doing it as it stands and without a bit of 'customisation' on my part.

I've been playing around with various solo tweaks over the last 2 weeks and think I've probably got most of the game balance issues right for me.

So this is how I'm going to do it and playing solo 1 handed with 3 Heroes:

1) 1 Core Set only - no multiple power cards like 'Unexpected Courage' I'm afraid.

2) Playing with just the cards that were available at the time (not sure what I'm going to do with the Saga cards just yet - I'll cross that bridge when I get to it - lets hope it's more a Brandywine bridge than Moria!!)

3) Playing in Easy Mode - so reduced encounter card pool and 2 Resources per Hero at the start. I'm also drawing 6 cards, allowing a single Mulligan and then choosing a card from the remaining deck to be my 7th card - the first card drawn on the first round.

4) Making decks that areas thematic as possible that fit within the quests - no Eagles in Moria for example - although the Hero gene pool might get a bit mixed up if Tolkien fans look too hard!

5) I'm making a few concessions to the solo player as I feel that, certainly initially, the game was never a balanced solo experience.

So my additions are going to be:

a) Ranged and Sentinel - yes, those old favourites! I'm going with:

Ranged: Exhaust a Character with Ranged to resolve their Attack (before Step 1 of Combat Phase begins but after Shadow card is dealt) when you optionally engage an Enemy.

Sentinel: Exhaust a Character with Sentinel to add that Character's Defence to another Character.

b) Starting Boons - I'm going to create 8 Boons - all Neutral cards (but with Sphere bonuses)and a player chooses 1 Boon for each Hero at the start of the game. The Boons are all 'one shots' ie discard the Boon to get the bonus. There are no duplicated Boons either, so 3 different ones in play:

Boons:
1. Lucky Strike (Tactics) - gain +2 Attack until end of phase (+3 Attack if attached to a Tactics Hero)
2. Dodge (Tactics) - gain +2 Defence until end of phase (+3 Defence if attached to a Tactics Hero)
3. Far Sight (Spirit) - gain +2 Willpower until end of phase (+3 Willpower if attached to a Spirit Hero)
4. Hidden (Spirit) - reduce your Threat by 2 (3 if attached to a Spirit Hero)
5. Healing Balm (Lore) - Heal 2 Hit points on 1 Character (3 if attached to a Lore Hero).
6. Wisdom (Lore) - Draw 2 cards (3 if attached to a Lore Hero)
7. Inspiration (Leadership) - gain 2 Resources (3 if attached to a Leadership Hero)
8. Resolve (Leadership) - ready any 2 Heroes (3 if attached to a Leadership Hero).

It's up to a player what Boons he chooses so he could give his Tactics Hero extra Attack/Defence, although I think it would be better for a solo player, to 'fill in the gaps' of his party, so if I was playing without Lore, I might want to choose Inspiration or Resolve as these are what Lore does naturally. Similarly, if I had no Spirit Hero then I would choose Far Sight or Hidden.

BTW - if anyone would like to make these Boon cards a physical reality - I'm rubbish with Photoshop and just am an ideas man! - then I'd welcome your help!!

c) Havens - More about these later - but I'm nicking another idea from Gizlivadi....

So, more on my Havens idea....

Here I'm riffing on 2 ideas that others have already had - Havens and Gifts.

Now apologies to Banania and his excellent 'Tales of Years' campaign, but I think a 'Gift' card is something I buy my other half in a store! I would have said 'Free Peoples' cards as a thematic 'race' boost, but what I'm trying to do here with my Haven cards is combine the 2 and give a flavour of a Middle Earth Haven (like Rivendell for example) as well as the peoples that dwell there.

So I'll nick some of Gizlivadi's ideas on Havens and Banania's ideas on Gifts Thanks to both of you - your work is excellent!

I'd like these to be released as if they were included in the release of the game and, again, be thematic in their release - so there will be 2 Havens available to me from the 'Core Set' - Thranduil's Halls and Lothlorien - as these both tie into the themes of the initial 3 Quests included in the Core Set.

As I travel through the Quests, then more Havens will be released...

I want ‘Havens’ as a card type to reflect the time when they would have been released and the card pool at the time but also with a bit of foresight too – so the Silvan mechanic of returning an ally to your hand or the Noldor mechanic of discarding cards to the discard pile etc – to get a theme of the Free peoples of Middle Earth.

So, all Havens have a number on the Haven card which is the maximum number of Allies that can reside there at one time. Allies are always played to a Haven at -1 cost and are considered Neutral in Sphere if played there – so you can have Allies enter play that don’t have to match a Hero’s Sphere. I think this would have been very important in the early life of the game where the card pool is small and trying to build a thematic deck would have been very difficult. For example, in my first card below, the only Sylvan Hero available was Legolas, a Tactics Hero. But the Sylvan Allies available were Silverlode Archer (Leadership) and Daughter of Nimrodel (Lore). By playing these Allies to Thranduil’s Halls as Neutral Allies, we get around this problem.

Whilst at a Haven, an Ally cannot Quest, Attack, Defend or use keywords such as Ranged or Sentinel. They can use abilities however.

Your Allies at a Haven can get to your party by Travelling. Exhaust the Ally in the Travel phase to simulate them travelling (through the ‘Wilderness’) and then they can be used in your party in the next round.

You also get X+1 'Haven Resources' at the start of the game and played on the Haven card that can be used to trigger effects on the Havens. X is the number of players in the game, so in my solo games, each Haven will have 2 Haven Resources.

So, my first Haven, since the first quest ‘Passage through Mirkwood’ starts there, is

‘Thranduil’s Halls’ (3) Woodland Realm, City.
A player must control a Silvan Hero to play this Haven. Silvan allies only.
Action: Pay 1 Hero Resource to return a Silvan ally at this Haven to your hand (Limit once per round).
Action: Pay 1 Haven Resource to give a Silvan Character you control Ranged until the end of the round.

And since ‘Escape from Dol Goldur’ starts in Lothlorien, my other Core Set Haven is:

‘Lorien’ (4) Forest.
A player must control a Silvan Hero and a Noldor Hero to play this Haven. Silvan and Noldor allies only.
Action: Exhaust 2 allies here to choose an ally in the wilderness. Add that ally’s Attack, Defence and Willpower to 1 Hero until the end of the round.
Action: Pay 1 Haven Resource to search the top 5 cards of your deck for a card and add it to your hand. Shuffle the rest back into your deck. Then, discard a random card from your hand.

So my new, 'improved' Core Set contains an extra 10 cards in all - 8 Boons and 2 Havens...

As always, thoughts and opinions are welcomed... as is help in creating my new Haven cards...

'The Road Goes ever On...'

Glad to see my idea of Haven cards still alive! The fact that pretty much all cards of the Location type in this game are considered encounter and thus "evil" (or else some weird Objective like Minas Tirith) is IMO a thematic problem of the basic structure of the game. Simply put, this game should have good locations, period. I like the idea of player locations where you can put allies that don't necessarily have to go in your company and can do work "from afar" like Miner/Stargazer or Master of the Forge, and that was one of the main thematic principles of Haven cards. The problem with that basic design idea is that, sadly, the game game has gotten so relentless and punishing that you just can't afford to play an ally in a Haven (even if the cost was 0) who could instead be a chump-blocker. Your Thrandui's Halls prototype, for instance, is just no use in a solo game. Giving Ranged does nothing, and the first ability, you have to ask ¿why would I do that? ¿Why would I return a silvan ally played at the Haven to my hand? ¿So I can play it in my main party next round? ¿Then why didn't you just play in with the party to begin with? So, for the Havens the main thing is that the benefits you get should compensate for not having a potential chump-blocker or archery receiving ally in play. On the other hand, having all allies played there cost -1 and be neutral can lead to heavy abuse, as I could just play a huge ally in my Haven, then have it travel and in 1 turn (which compensates for the -1 cost) I can have a huge out of sphere ally in my main party that I wouldn't be able to play otherwise. Sure, for some of the utility allies it doesn't really matter, but if I'm playing mono-Tactics being able to just have Gildor or Arwen at neutral cost really trivializes the handicaps player decks should have (kinda like starting the game with a completed slightly worse The Storm Comes, which would already be overpowered). I do like, however, having resources on the Havens, I think you can play a lot with that idea (in my original version the cost for Haven abilities was exhausting the allies at the Haven).

I'm not trying to be pessimistic, I'm just stating the problems I encountered when testing my own Haven cards. I still think, however, that there's a balanced way to make these work, I just haven't quite come up with it yet. I hope one day that we get official "good" locations in the game, so hopefully Caleb's looking at this thread!

Im going to follow this.

I wanted to do something similar once I complete my collection and run through all the quests at least once. My first thought was to only use cards from a cycle and see how that goes, as I want to build decks for every heroes and use the highest number of cards. As I dont think that will be completelly possible, I was planning on adding fun made stuff (reworked cards, gifts, havens, boons and burdens) to compliment the stuff and achieve a bigger story inmersion.

If Im not wrong, theres enough player cards to build 2 decks per cycle, which is great for the fellowship solo variant rules.

My knowledge of the tolkien lore is limited so Im always looking for other players ideas. I agree with Gizlivadi that it felt weird not having positive locations in the game, but Im not sure how to integrate them. I placed an order on artscrow for a bunch of fun made stuff (included the havens from both banania and giz) and will test them out. However, Im also unsure about the mechanics. I would end up tweaking them too to fit my needs.

Im glad you are still looking into your havens cards Giz as we might be able to come with something. So far, I think that I will scratch the moving allies as a cost and make them as a permanent accessible power similar to attachments once their costs are paid, with some exhausting a specific traited ally to give a bonus type of actions. Im thinking of using progress tokens to unlock them, so while having them available will increase my win chances, spending time unlocking them instead of advancing the quest should compensate that. What do you think?

I've been playing with one deck since I bought the core. Buying the expansions in order, trying to complete each quest before I buy more. The game says it can be played solo but I guess the game would rather it be played with two decks. I bought Khazad-Dum, about 4 adventure packs, and Over Hill and Under Hill.

I see that you went BACK and played like this. Should I be using two decks always? Conflict at the Carrock is kinda too much with one deck.

Your Thrandui's Halls prototype, for instance, is just no use in a solo game. Giving Ranged does nothing, and the first ability, you have to ask ¿why would I do that? ¿Why would I return a silvan ally played at the Haven to my hand? ¿So I can play it in my main party next round? ¿Then why didn't you just play in with the party to begin with? So, for the Havens the main thing is that the benefits you get should compensate for not having a potential chump-blocker or archery receiving ally in play. On the other hand, having all allies played there cost -1 and be neutral can lead to heavy abuse, as I could just play a huge ally in my Haven, then have it travel and in 1 turn (which compensates for the -1 cost) I can have a huge out of sphere ally in my main party that I wouldn't be able to play otherwise. Sure, for some of the utility allies it doesn't really matter, but if I'm playing mono-Tactics being able to just have Gildor or Arwen at neutral cost really trivializes the handicaps player decks should have (kinda like starting the game with a completed slightly worse The Storm Comes, which would already be overpowered). I do like, however, having resources on the Havens, I think you can play a lot with that idea (in my original version the cost for Haven abilities was exhausting the allies at the Haven).

I'm not trying to be pessimistic, I'm just stating the problems I encountered when testing my own Haven cards. I still think, however, that there's a balanced way to make these work, I just haven't quite come up with it yet. I hope one day that we get official "good" locations in the game, so hopefully Caleb's looking at this thread!

Well, Ranged does have an ability in my solo version - see my initial post!

Also, Silvan strategies rely a lot on them entering or leaving play, so being able to do that at Thranduil's halls does give benefits if playing a Silvan deck...

Yes, my take on Havens give advantages to the player, but I'm only playing solo, not competitive or 2 handed - I just want them to give a bit of thematic help along the way!! I still think that solo play (1 handed) is really difficult without a huge card pool, so this is my way of 'softening' the game a little for me as I go along the journey.

it's also a great 'thought experiment' too!

Glad to have you aboard though and any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Glad to have people along for the journey! Why not come along as well?

I plan to do 1 Quest per week, then report back the following weekend with how the game went, any things I might have tweaked for the solo gamer etc.

The 'rules' for the quests that I'll be undertaking are set out above, but to restate them:

1) 1 Core Set and use only cards available at the time of release.

2) Easy Mode, with a Mulligan allowed and then 1 card chosen from your deck

3) 40 card decks for the Core Set, then moving onto 50 cards once we get past it.

4) Choice of 3 Starter Boons (see above) plus a Haven (again, see above) if you wish and are able.

5) As thematic a deck as I can build!

6) Using my Ranged and Sentinel mods (see above) for solo gaming

So this week, I'm off for a, hopefully, easy stroll as we do 'Passage through Mirkwood'...

As a sidenote on Havens, what about allowing respective Heroes to start there too?

The ruling here is that when a Hero is at a Haven, do not count his Threat. This would mean that you could start with 3 Heroes but have one at a Haven so that 'Secrecy' kicks in and you bring the Hero from the haven when you want him?

For example Aragorn (Lore) could remain in Bree until he joins the party? And what about keeping Galadriel at Lorien?? Very thematic...

Eowyn is a great character in the lore of Middle Earth, but 4 Willpower? Really?? That’s as much as Gandalf!

She faced down the freaking Witch-King. The Witch-King causes routs by his mere presence. Certified badass Imrahil, ensconced atop the best defensive fortifications in Middle-Earth, cowers when the Witch-King shows up. Even Gandalf is nervous about fighting the Witch-King! And Eowyn not only willingly confronts the Witch-King, she taunts him. I think she deserves 4 Willpower.

‘Passage through Mirkwood’

My first deck was a Spirit/Lore deck with Eowyn and Dunhere teaming up with Beravor. My starting Boons were ‘Lucky Strike’ for Dunhere, ‘Leadership’ for Beravor and ‘Resolve’ for Eowyn .

I had a reasonable first hand so didn’t Mulligan and picked ‘Henamarth Riversong’ as my 7^th card – always a great card for solo!

Unfortunately, on my first attempt, ‘Ungoliant’s Spawn’ came up on the second turn and this, coupled with lots of Locations raised my Threat so high that then all the enemies that had come out swarmed down and did me in! So I tried again with the same Heroes and this time it went very smoothly, no sign of a nasty big spider, I got to travel down Beorn’s path and all the heroes escaped Mirkwood!

For fun, I then had an attempt and changed 2 of the Heroes, so Legolas and Glorfindel join up with Beravor for a Tactics/Lore deck this time. For Boons, I’ve gone for ‘Farsight’ for Glorfindel, ‘Hidden’ for Beravor and ‘Resolve’ for Legolas.

Since I have Legolas, I can test my ‘Ranged’ mod for solo play and can also use ‘Thranduil’s Halls’ as my Haven for the quest – and even though the Actions won’t be much useable here (although my ‘Daughters of Nimrodel’ can now shoot arrows!’), since Allies are Neutral if played there, I’ve put 2 ‘Silverlode Archers’ in my deck to represent the soldiers of the Woodland Realm and buddies of Legolas!

This time, my starting hand had ‘Riversong’ already so I didn’t Mulligan and chose ‘Blade of Gondolin’ as my 7^th card knowing that my questing power was lower than before so putting this on Legolas is a good thing.

The game went really smoothly and I got to test all my mods for solo play – Boons, Havens and Ranged. Again, all my Boons saw play and weren’t overpowered. It was fun to put some Allies at Thranduil’s Halls –including a ‘Silverlode archer’ which I paid for with Tactics Resources as I had a hand full of Lore!

Ranged came into play twice in the game as enemies engaged me, and again, this didn’t feel overpowered or unthematic. In fact, to keep the theme, I didn’t add my +1 Attack bonus from ‘Blade of Gondolin’ when Legolas made a Ranged attack against an ‘East Bight Patrol’! Getting ‘Self Preservation’ on Beravor was a real bonus and this time I chose to take the ’wrong’ path and end the game with ‘Ungoliant’s Spawn’ coming out to play! But fortunately I could get Gandalf out just at the right time and squished it!

​A fun, although easy quest to start my journey!

So, a week down and next week my journey continues along the Anduin river...

‘The Road Goes ever On...’

I've updated my Haven rules to make them a bit more balanced:

Haven Rules

Havens are cards that represent the famous locations in Middle Earth where the heroes gain equipment, rest and allies. Havens include places such as Rivendell, Lothlorien, The Shire etc. Each player may choose a Haven at the start of the game and then raise their starting Threat by the Cost of that Haven. Note that many Havens have restrictions on when they can be played depending on the player’s Heroes.

All Havens an Ally number on the Haven card which is the maximum number of Allies that can reside there at one time. Allies are always played to a Haven at -1 cost and are considered Neutral in Sphere if played there – so you can have Allies enter play that don’t match a Hero’s Sphere.

Whilst at a Haven, an Ally cannot Quest, Attack, Defend or use keywords such as Ranged or Sentinel. They can use abilities however. Allies at a Haven can get to your party by Travelling. Exhaust the Ally in the Travel phase to simulate them travelling (through the ‘Wilderness’) and place a token on them. When there are tokens equal to the Quest card number currently in play, remove all tokens and place the ally with your party at the start of the next round. This simulates the ally having to travel further from the Haven as you progress with your quest.

Havens also start with a number of Haven Resources that are placed on the Haven card. These can be used to trigger effects on the Havens. Haven Resources cannot be used as normally generated Resources.
Note that ALL Actions or Responses on a Haven card have an inherent ‘limit once per round’ on them.

Optional: A player may also place a Hero at a Haven at the start of the game. Whilst at the Haven the Hero is under the same restrictions as an Ally there (such as not being able to quest, attack or defend etc), but also does not contribute their threat to the starting total. A Hero may travel to join the party as normal but adds his threat if as soon as he leaves the Haven (to go into the ‘Wilderness’).

The two Havens that would have been included in the Core Set would be:

‘Thranduil’s Halls’ Cost: 2. Allies: 3. Resources: 2. Woodland Realm, City.
A player must control a Silvan Hero and no Dwarf Hero to play this Haven. Silvan allies only.
Action: Pay 1 Resource to return a Silvan ally at this Haven to your hand.
Action: Pay 1 Haven Resource to give a Silvan Character you control Ranged until the end of the round.
"At the far end were gates before the mouth of a huge cave that ran into the side of a steep slope covered in trees.”


‘Lorien’ [/b]Cost: 2. Allies: 4. Resources: 3. Forest.
A player must control a Silvan Hero and a Noldor Hero to play this Haven. Silvan and Noldor allies only.
Action: Exhaust 2 allies here to choose an ally in the wilderness. Add that ally’s Attack, Defence and Willpower to 1 Hero until the end of the round.
Action: Pay 1 Haven Resource to search the top 5 cards of your deck for a card and add it to your hand. Shuffle the rest back into your deck. Then, discard a random card from your hand.
“There are no trees like the trees of that land. For in autumn their leaves fall not, but turn to gold.”

Thoughts and opinions are welcomed as always...

If you put a hero in a heaven, does he collect resources? If he does, I'd say that it's too strong with galadriel. She is already considered one of the best heroes, and this would make her have much lower starting threat (the threat of heaven is 7 lower, all you lose is her 4 hit points)

If you put a hero in a heaven, does he collect resources? If he does, I'd say that it's too strong with galadriel. She is already considered one of the best heroes, and this would make her have much lower starting threat (the threat of heaven is 7 lower, all you lose is her 4 hit points)

I was going to say so, yes - the Hero does collect resources.

Galadriel could be a problem as her Hero card is designed as if she is at the Haven already really.

So perhaps it would be better if Heroes did NOT collect Resources whilst at a Haven and only does so if they leave?

OR - instead of generating normal Resources, they generate Haven Resources?

Thanks for the comment - it does help.

Getting ready to ‘Escape from Dol Goldur’

This quest is just nuts solo!

Even with 2 players it’s so difficult and with the Core set cards only solo, nigh on impossible! I don’t think FFG should have put this in the Core set as it stands, so for my game, I tweaked this one so it is more like the lore of Quest card 1A and now an ally is captured rather than a Hero.

Quest card 1B ‘The Necromancer’s Tower’ now reads:

“When Revealed: Select 1 unique ally card from your deck and place it facedown next to the Quest deck. Remove all copies of that ally from your deck and place them out of play. The ally is now considered a "prisoner", cannot be used or be damaged until it is "rescued" (as instructed by card effects) later in this quest. The players, as a group, cannot play more than 1 ally card each round. Players cannot advance to the next stage of this quest unless they have at least 1 objective card.”

Now you could say I just nerfed the whole quest by doing this, but from bitter previous experience, it’s just not a good quest for solo, and endless defeats time after time in the core set doesn’t sit well with me. To try and balance this then I’ve tweaked Quest 2B too so that you need to keep the captive alive until the end of the game (otherwise it was all a waste of time anyway!).

Quest card 2B ‘Through the Caverns’ now reads:

“Response: After placing any number of progress tokens on this card, put the "prisoner" ally card into play with 1 damage token on it. The ally has been "rescued" and may now be used normally. If the rescued ally is killed at any time, the players instantly lose the game. The players, as a group, cannot play more than 1 ally card each round. Players cannot advance to the next stage of the quest unless they have rescued the prisoner and have all 3 "Escape from Dol Guldur" objective cards.”

I’m also ruling that the ‘player card’ Orc guards from ‘Tower Gate’ location and Quest card 3B do have the ‘Orc’ trait!

Have a go at my version – I’m sure it’s still tough, but more enjoyable for the more casual, thematic player!

“The Road Goes Ever on...”

So, I've been helping dragoncymru with the graphic design of the Havens. Created a whole new template to accomotade to his rules. *Credits to banania for providing some graphic materials from his own Havens in his Tale of Years campaign.*

Here's the very first one, Thranduil's Halls!

Many thanks Giz - these look amazing!

‘Escape from Dol Goldur’ (2)

My adventure continues and the initial Heroes and Boons I chose for this quest were an experimental mix of 3 Spheres with Beravor (with Dodge), Eowyn (with Far Sight) and Legolas (with Resolve). I chose Gleowine as my captured ally. With Legolas as a Hero, I can have a bit of help from ‘Thranduil’s Halls’ too.

When I was constructing my deck, because I had 3 Spheres, I made sure that as many cards as possible were low cost so that they could be afforded easily. My initial hand contained both ‘Unexpected Courage’ and ‘Blade of Gondolin’, so once again, I went for ‘Riversong’ as my 7th card.

I had to have a few goes, but I BEAT the quest! This was the first time I’ve done this, so using my rules and mods (along with Easy mode) seems to have relaxed the difficulty. It’s quite a fiddly quest actually with a lot of things to remember like the Nazgul, the Objective cards, the orc guards etc. When I did beat it, on my third attempt, I think I just got lucky with how both the player deck and the encounter deck played out.

One hero and combo I think you must have in this quest is Legolas with a ‘Blade of Gondolin’ as he hacked up all the Orc guards and made great progress. My ‘Ranged’ buff also really helped here as Legolas took them all out as they came down on me (even though I didn’t add the +1 Attack from the Blade).

I think the best tactic is to get the Map first and shove it on your Questing Hero (Eowyn obviously) as it does little effect. Then try and engage the Nazgul on Quest 2B if you can – before picking up the Key and the Torch. This means that you can quest through 2B and then 3B with less problems and as quick as possible. I made sure I got ‘Self Preservation’ onto Beravor before she picked up the Key too.

Even doing this it can be tough going against the Nazgul without a few allies he can gobble up! I did play the official errata though and didn’t try to ‘Forest Snare’ him as with the errata you can’t play attachments on the Nazgul. ‘Feint’ plus a Gandalf or 2 were the way to go.

Having another, more thematic, attempt, I swapped out Eowyn for Glorfindel (with Far Sight) and did a Tactics/Lore deck - again with Beravor (having Dodge) and Legolas (Resolve). Poor old Gleowine was still my captured ally! Since I had both a Silvan and a Noldor hero, I thought I would use ‘Lorien’ as a thematic starting Haven!
And I got beaten up soundly!

With an increased starting threat, little way to reduce that threat, as well as reduced questing power meant that it rocketed up before I could get going. Spirit as a Sphere seems crucial in this quest and although I could remove my Tactics cards to just do a Spirit/Lore deck again, Legolas with his Blade is also so crucial, so I think my initial 3 Sphere deck was a good choice!

I was very pleased with my success through the quest –a very enjoyable experience.

And that’s it for the Core Set! I have to say that my tweaks have made it a more accessible and pleasurable game without being too easy or too fiddly.

I’m very excited to be adding new cards to my card pool and making up a 50-card deck with them as I start hunting for that sneaky and tricksy Gollum...

“The Road Goes Ever on...”

Preparing for ‘The Hunt for Gollum’

It’s so great to have new player cards to add to decks. With the first expansion deck released, each Sphere gains 2 new cards with 3 copies each and we get a new Neutral card too with the ‘Song of Kings’. With the addition of expansion cards, I’m going to increase my deck size now to 50 cards.

And so to our new Hero –Bilbo! As much as I am thrilled to have a new Hero to use in quests, and a great Hero for solo play too, I still can’t see how his threat is SO high. I can only think that back in the early life of the game that designers thought that the extra card draw was so powerful, they ramped the threat up accordingly. But even now with a load of available Heroes we have never seen this kind of inflation again. I think that if they could go back in time, and change it they would. So even though I said I wouldn’t alter card texts, here I am going with:

Bilbo- Threat 7

Another card that is not really for solo play, as far as I can see, is ‘Campfire Tales’. Since I thought telling stories is better with a bigger audience, I’ll go for:

Campfire Tales – Each player draws a card. If the number of Characters controlled by a player is greater than 5, that player draws 2 cards.

And it’s time I included a new Haven too. I want to put a new Haven in every other adventure pack and want to try to be thematic and link the Haven into the quest in some way. Since I know that the Carrock is around the corner, I’m adding:

I think a thematic group of Heroes looking for Gollum would include Aragorn, as Gandalf would have naturally turned to his ranger friend, so I’m looking to develop some Leadership cards into a deck...

“The Road Goes Ever on...”

Haven Update

A few more tweaks to my Haven rules, and I think I’m pretty locked down on these now. I’ve tweaked the rules about Heroes and Haven Resources and Allies played there being Neutral.

So the rules for Havens now are:

Haven Rules

Havens are cards that represent the famous locations in Middle Earth where the heroes gain equipment, rest and allies. Havens include places such as Rivendell, Lothlorien, The Shire etc. Each player may choose a Haven at the start of the game and then raise their starting Threat by the Cost of that Haven. Note that many Havens have restrictions on when they can be played depending on the player’s Heroes.

All Havens an Ally number on the Haven card which is the maximum number of Allies that can reside there at one time. Allies are always played to a Haven at -1 cost.

Whilst at a Haven, an Ally cannot Quest, Attack, Defend or use keywords such as Ranged or Sentinel. They can use abilities however. Allies at a Haven can get to your party by Travelling. Exhaust the Ally in the Travel phase to simulate them travelling (through the ‘Wilderness’) and place a token on them. When there are tokens equal to the Quest card number currently in play, remove all tokens and place the ally with your party at the start of the next round. This simulates the ally having to travel further from the Haven as you progress with your quest.

Havens also start with a number of Haven Resources that are placed on the Haven card. These can be used to trigger effects on the Havens. Haven Resources cannot be used as normal Resources but can be used to pay for Allies played at the Haven. Haven Resources are considered Neutral and can be used to pay for Allies from any Spheres –so you can have a few allies from a Sphere that does not match a Hero in play.
Note that ALL Actions or Responses on a Haven card have an inherent ‘limit once per round’ on them.

Optional: A player may also place a Hero at a Haven at the start of the game. Whilst at the Haven the Hero instead generates Haven Resources each turn instead of normal Resources and is under the same rules as an Ally there (not being able to quest, attack or defend etc), but also does not contribute their threat to the starting total. A Hero may travel to join the party as normal but adds his threat (and starts to generate normal Resources) as soon as he joins the party. Whist in the ‘Wilderness’, a Hero generates NO Resources.

Working with fellow players and their generous time-giving (not to mention excellent photoshop skills and syntax questions!) has meant that I am trying to do some more with my new Havens and have decided to make a support card for each Haven. These will all be unique, Neutral attachments with the idea that these would be released alongside the Haven cards if they were in the Core set or deluxe expansions and then alternately with a new Haven in Adventure Packs. This means 2 support cards in the Core set or a Deluxe expansion then 1 every other Adventure Pack. Since ‘Hunt for Gollum’ would have had ‘Beorn’s House’, then ‘Conflict at the Carrock’ gets the support card ‘Beorn’s Ponies’ and so on.

So my first 3 Havens in the Core Set and the first 2 Adventure Packs with their respective support cards are:

‘Thranduil’s Halls’ Cost: 2. Allies: 3. Resources: 2. Woodland Realm, City.
You must control a Silvan Hero and no Dwarf Hero to play this Haven. Silvan allies only.
Action: Pay 1 Resource to return a Silvan ally at this Haven to your hand.
Action: Pay 1 Haven Resource to give a Silvan Character you control Ranged until the end of the round.
"At the far end were gates before the mouth of a huge cave that ran into the side of a steep slope covered in trees.”

‘Defenders of the Realm’. Cost 1. Unique. Attach to Thranduil’s Halls.
Response: After Defenders of the Realm enters play add 2 Haven resources to Thranduil’s Halls.
Planning Action: If the active Location is a Forest, discard Defenders of the Realm to play a Silvan ally from your hand at -2 Cost.
“They dwelt most often at the edges of the woods, from which they could escape at times to hunt.’

‘Lorien’ Cost: 2. Allies: 4. Resources: 3. Forest.
You must control a Silvan Hero and a Noldor Hero to play this Haven. Silvan and Noldor allies only.
Action: Exhaust 2 allies here to add the (Attack), (Defence) and (Willpower) of an ally in the wilderness to 1 Hero until the end of the round.
Action: Pay 1 Haven Resource to search the top 5 cards of your deck, add 1 to your hand, shuffle the rest back into the deck then discard a random card from hand.
“There are no trees like the trees of that land. For in autumn their leaves fall not, but turn to gold.”

‘Elves of the Golden Wood’. Cost 1. Unique. Attach to Lorien.
Response: After Elves of the Golden Wood enters play add 2 Haven resources to Lorien.
Action: if you control a Silvan or Noldor character, discard Elves of the Golden Wood to reduce your Threat by 2
“They heard nearby Elvish voices singing and knew that they were making songs of lamentations for his fall.’

‘Beorn’s House’. Cost: 1. Allies: 2. Resources: 2. Refuge
Beorning and Woodmen allies only. Beorn plays at -1 Cost here.
Action: Exhaust an ally here to choose an ally in the wilderness. Until the end of the phase, each enemy engaged with you has –X Attack where X is the cost of the wilderness ally.
Action: Exhaust an ally here and pay 1 Haven Resource to heal 2 Damage on each of your Heroes.
“They soon came to a wooden gate, high and broad, beyond which they could see gardens and a cluster of low wooden buildings.”

‘Beorn's Ponies’. Cost 1. Unique. Attach to Beorn's House.
Response: After a Beorning is discarded from play, add 1 Haven resource to Beorn’s House.
Travel Action: Discard Beorn's Ponies to travel to a non-Underground location without resolving its Travel effect.
“He would provide ponies for each of them, and a horse for Gandalf.”

Preparing for a ‘Conflict at the Carrock’

The next Hero to join the ranks is another Hobbit, this time from the Spirit Sphere – Frodo. Frodo has a really good ability in being able to soak up damage and is much better costed than his uncle Bilbo! With a limited card pool at this stage in the life of the game, a Hobbit-themed deck is not yet possible, but I’m looking forward to trying to make one!

The rest of the cards in the expansion are a mixed bunch, although the star has to be the excellent ‘Burning Brand’ which went straight into my deck. Since I’m also trying to be thematic, I’ve included copies of the rather pricey ‘Beorning Beekeeper’ too. None of the player cards are ‘non-solo’, but since I’m doing some card-pool revision, there has to be an obligatory card tweak. I’ve already done Lore (Bilbo), Spirit (Wandering Took) and Leadership (Camp Fire Tales) cards, so I looked at the Tactics Sphere this time. It was almost the ‘Beorning Beekeeper’ but I managed to increase the use of that card in my Haven rules and new support cards, so I decided on just a tiny change to the other Tactics card to give some card synergy, so:

Born Aloft – gains keyword ‘Eagle’.

“The Road Goes Ever on...”

And many thanks to JC for making my Haven support cards: Here's the one I'm adding currently to 'Beorn's house' Haven:

I am intrigued by the concept of havens. Over the years they have been brought up as a possibility a number of times. With your implementation, I quite enjoy the thematic element of the allies travelling to join your party.

With regards to game balance, I think there are serious problems. If the only goal is to just have fun with it then you can ignore what I have to say, but there are plenty of allies in the game who are used just for their ability, and they are some of the best allies in the game: Henamarth, Gleowine, Faramir, Zigil Miner, Warden of Healing, Imladris Stargazer, Master of the Forge, and Errand Rider, to name a few. You are allowing these allies to not only be played at 1 less cost (assuming you eventually make havens for all these traits), but starting the game with a Haven that gives you a few resources to pay for them - all for a cost of 1-2 starting threat. Concrete example: You can play down a Master of the Forge on Lorien on turn 1 without spending any of your heroes' resources. Now he fetches a card for you every turn, with no danger of getting killed from treacheries.

As for the optional rule with heroes in a haven, the same argument applies. You could just take a deck with Erestor or Beravor and put them in a haven, effectively reducing your starting threat by 10.