5 minutes ago, Onidsen said:Why would having a guarded leadership attachment (likely the Orthanc-stone) force the last card to be an event? I haven't noticed that the packs follow rules about ally/event/attachment distribution.
That's fair, but has there been a pack lately that has only had one event in the whole pack? This would be the first to my memory.
4 minutes ago, player3351457 said:That's fair, but has there been a pack lately that has only had one event in the whole pack? This would be the first to my memory.
So in the last 5 cycles (this included) it's happened twice where a pack contains a single event. So in theory it's possible, I'm just playing the odds 🙂
29 minutes ago, EBerling said:
My money is on a Guarded Spirit weapon in the final AP (possibly even Anduril, since Aragorn), as that would give us a guarded item in half the packs this cycle (1st, 4th, 6th).
Of course, even gaining access to the Leadership sphere with Gwaihir would be useful, since it would facilitate Sneak Attack, which is an amazing card with either Gandalf, Desendant of Thorondor, or Meneldor.
You think they would leave a sphere out on the guarded side of things? Oof. The incompleteness bothers me.
Leadership would be awesome, for all the points you mentioned.
17 minutes ago, player3351457 said:You think they would leave a sphere out on the guarded side of things? Oof. The incompleteness bothers me.
I think a lot of people are assuming that there'll be a Guarded weapon from each of the spheres, to round out the Glamdring, Orcrist, Durin's Axe set.
One could make an argument that the Arkenstone and Necklace of Girion are pretty close to Leadership cards anyways
... but a Leadership guarded The Iron Crown or Dragon Helm or something would be awesome.
2 hours ago, AllWingsStandyingBy said:
I think a lot of people are assuming that there'll be a Guarded weapon from each of the spheres, to round out the Glamdring, Orcrist, Durin's Axe set.
One could make an argument that the Arkenstone and Necklace of Girion are pretty close to Leadership cards anyways
Do you mean the Iron Crown of the Witch King? That's the first thing, that comes to my mind. Oh, I loved Shadows of Angmar.
By the way, I like Support of the Eagles. It is basically 3 attack or 4 defence for 3 resources, if you already have a Guardian or Vassal out.
I don't see why they can't have a Crown of the Windlord tactics attachment as well as a leadership guarded attachment (some sort of Armor/helm would be cool). That makes the most sense to me. I do feel like we'll get guarded Spirit Anduril in the final pack to go with Spirit Aragorn.
Currently we are missing 4 cards what I would like to see/what would make sense with the themes so far to me are:
tactics - crown of the windlord attachment that lets you take Eagles back out of or into play.
Leadership - Dunedain/Ranger Event similar to We are Not Idle but for trapped/engaged with you enemies to gain resources/cards
Leadership - the suspected Guarded attachment, something like: Thror's Golden Cup cost 0, guarded location. When this card is free of encounters, choose a player, that player draws three cards and adds three resources to a hero he controls.
Or
Durin's Armor, Cost 1, attach to a hero character. This counts as 2 restricted attachments. That character gains +2 Attack, +2 Defense and +2 Hitpoints. Exhaust Durin's Armor to ready attached character.
Spirit - Master Ally Smeagol that is free and allow travelling to a Location during the planning phase to help with guarded cards but can turn on you.
5 hours ago, player3351457 said:The reason I am anticipating an event is that we already have two attachments, neither of which are guarded, and with only two left to spoil (tactics and leadership) and only one event currently, I would guess we have a guarded leadership (to help round out the guarding this cycle), and that would force the last card to be an event.
That is exactly what I thought as well. I really want an attachment for Gwaihir but it looks more likely that it will be an event, with a leadership guarded card.
46 minutes ago, Amicus Draconis said:Do you mean the Iron Crown of the Witch King? That's the first thing, that comes to my mind. Oh, I loved Shadows of Angmar.
Morgoth's Crown, forged in the First Age. I think it was technically destroyed during the First Age, but I.C.E. (Iron Crown Enterprises) had it as a unique Major/Greater item playable by both Heroes and Minions alike.
53 minutes ago, Amicus Draconis said:By the way, I like Support of the Eagles. It is basically 3 attack or 4 defence for 3 resources, if you already have a Guardian or Vassal out.
Yea, I like the idea of a card, and it can be pretty good, but I just find it to be a "Win-More" card. Games where you can bring it out and make good use of it are generally going very well and are games that are going to be won whether or not you actually play Support of the Eagles, in my experience. It's cost of 3 Tactics is awkward for an Eagle deck using Radagast and/or Elrond or any other non-mono-tactics lineup, and generally I find I'd rather play other cards in my hand instead of Support of the Eagles. So it feels like a real luxury card, especially since lately I'm more than happy to throw away my Vassals/Guardians to attacks in order to power up the Misty Mountain Flock and ready Gwaihir. So for me it's a neat card that is too expensive for what it does and doesn't turn losing games into wins, but just turns wins into snazzier wins.
47 minutes ago, General_Grievous said:Spirit - Master Ally Smeagol that is free and allow travelling to a Location during the planning phase to help with guarded cards but can turn on you.
This is a really wonderful idea. A+
I love Support of the Eagles, but I love hero defense and it's an *outstanding* value. Pricy, but the choice of (at least) 3 attack and (at least) 4 defense is terrific -- especially when it is not limited to 1 per hero, not restricted, and raises the stat for the whole phase. Its only drawback is requiring a tactics hero.
It is pricy, and so are Eagles, but it doesn't have to live in a full-fledged Eagles deck. Vassal/Guardian/Misty is all you need, the first two give you the +3 attack, +4 defense choice, and once you get Misty out you can let your Vassal(s) go away and then your Guardians to buff the Support. Because of lack of card draw, I found my tactics deck got resource-heavy midgame despite the cost of Eagles (due to lack of draw); and Eagles are a *lot* more affordable now than they used to be thanks to Mablung or Hirgon or Radagast with Staff.
Whether it's "win more" is really quest dependent. Quests reliant on willpower-based progress it doesn't do much for you, since even without it Eagles can take care of most combat in an expensive way. But then, tactics resources are not the best way to provide extra willpower! Quests that use battle and siege questing it rocks, as do the two cheap eagles. Boss quests it is *very* valuable for providing boss-proof defensive levels, and also for massive attack. You can't get buffs that large cheaper, with the glaring exception of Blood/Fire with a resource generator.
If you use a tactics dwarf hero in a Radagast Eagles deck, you can cheat it into play for free with Well-Equipped and Wizard Pipe.
8 hours ago, dalestephenson said:you can cheat it into play for free with Well-Equipped and Wizard Pipe.
Or even Thror's Ring
I did a breakdown for the BGG audience here:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2377638/breaking-down-messenger-king-targets