I normally don't post my reviews on these forums, but since its written and ready to go, I figured I might as well. Here are my thoughts regarding the new expansion:
* So what exactly is this release?
Conflict at the Carrock is second monthly expansion or "Adventure Pack" released for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, an LCG (Living Card Game), produced by the publisher Fantasy Flight Games. This release is also the second of six Adventure Packs that together compose the "Shadows of Mirkwood" expansion cycle, a series of sequential monthly releases that will each contain one new hero card, three copies of nine brand new player cards, as well as the quest and Encounter cards devoted to playing a unique new scenario that will introduce novel challenges for the players to test their skill and deck building prowess against. Although every Adventure Pack possesses enough unique quest and Encounter cards to be played as its own, stand-alone scenario, when played in sequence, the six different quests of the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle together weave an epic tale of the players' heroic adventures in Middle-Earth.
NOTE: To be able to play this expansion, you will require a copy of the Lord of the Rings: The Card Game Core Set. For more information about the Core Set and the rest of this Living Card Game series, please see the link to my full review of the base game in the first comment below.
* So what is this new scenario all about?
In Conflict at the Carrock, the players continue their journey along the banks of the Anduin river in search of the wretched creature Gollum, only to hear rumor that a group of marauding trolls are threatening to displace or destroy the inhabitants of the Carrock, a nearby valley and home to a race of skin-changing men called the Beornings. Coming to the aid of their leader, Grimbeorn the Old, the players seek to put an end to the troll incursion and vanquish the brutish enemies. Little do the players know, however, but the trolls themselves are quite aware of the players' presence nearby, and they await naught but the opportune moment to stuff each of the heroes one by one into nasty, smelly sacks, only to haul them off to be roasted alive. Although the trolls themselves are formidable combatants more hardy and dangerous than most creatures the players have thus far encountered in Middle-Earth, they become still more monstrous when battling the players in the company of one another, or while doing battle at the Carrock itself. Whereas the previous installment of the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle focused on bringing restricting locations to bear against the players, Conflict at the Carrock focuses on overwhelming the players with the sheer brute force and potency of their adversaries. The quest, although relatively short at a mere two stages, will nevertheless test the players' ability to survive against some of the hardest-hitting, most resilient enemies yet, and also introduces two utterly merciless treachery cards, the aforementioned "Sacked!" cards that prevent the attached hero from attacking, defending, questing, using abilities or collecting resources, and the card "A Frightened Beast," which, unless one player is able to sacrifice a Creature ally they control, forces each player to immediately raise their threat by the total combined value of all threat in the staging area. Even before the players make it to the second stage of the quest and their inevitable showdown with the formidable gang of trolls begins, they must contend with other new creatures called Muck Adders, serpents of relatively low attack strength that, if given the chance to damage a character, inflict a fatal venom that will cause instant death to any heroes or allies unlucky enough to become its victims.
The second part of the quest, however, is where the players are truly challenged, as the Carrock replaces the active location and the mob of four unique trolls enter the staging area as a group. Whereas each individual troll is a daunting opponent by itself, with 2 Threat, 4 Attack, 2 Defense, and 10 Hit Points, when engaged with a player, each of the trolls grants himself and his companions a bonus, either +1 Attack, +1 Defense, forcing players to raise their threat by 3 after being attacked by a troll, or upon attack shuffling all copies of the incapacitating "Sacked!" treachery card back into the Encounter deck from the discard pile. Even if entangled by a Forest Snare, each of the trolls will nevertheless continue to provide their companions with their respective passive bonus until they are either slain or succeed in squashing the heroes into jelly; additionally, until the Carrock location is fully explored, all trolls are granted a further +1 Attack and +1 Defense. As the trolls engage with players from the staging area at the relatively low threat value of a mere 34, the players must decide quickly and carefully how best to deal with these brutal opponents lest they be overwhelmed by the entire group at once and smashed into bits in relatively short order. Once the band of trolls ultimately does enter the staging area, however, it is important to keep in mind that the players are given not even a moment's reprieve, as they must continue to contend with "Sacked!" cards coming off of the Encounter deck that cannot be cancelled, as well as the possibility of drawing an all-too-familiar Hill Troll (or two), from the Encounter deck during staging. If you thought that Hill Trolls were bad in the "Journey Down the Anduin" scenario, just wait until one of them is engaging you with 8 Attack and 5 Defense on top of their 9 Hit Points and particularly nasty, threat-elevating ability! The only assistance in handling this daunting assortment of new encounter cards the players may end up electing to receive comes in the form of Grimbeorn the Old himself, an objective ally card shuffled into the Encounter deck that can be brought into play under the players' control through gradually amassing eight Leadership resources on his card while it sits in the staging area. Although difficult to bring into play, the players are nevertheless aided in their attempt to recruit the exceptionally powerful ally by two locations; one, Bee Pastures, which allows players to search the Encounter deck and discard pile to put Grimbeorn into the staging area, and another, Oak-Wood Grove, that, while active, allows all resources to be spent as Leadership resources, making his lofty cost of eight much more attainable. Grimbeorn himself is by far the strongest ally the game has introduced to players thus far, weighing in at not only a hefty 4 Attack, 3 Defense and 10 Hit Points, but specializing in fighting trolls, as he does not need to exhaust to defend against them. Conflict at the Carrock is meant to be a difficult quest, and the players will indeed find themselves hard pressed to amass the strength necessary to not only survive the troll onslaught, but to eventually slay each of the brutish creatures in order to satisfy the scenario's requirements for player victory.
* What cards does this Adventure Pack come with? (SPOILER ALERT)
Conflict at the Carrock comes with 60 never before seen cards broken down as follows:
- One copy of 1 new Hero card, the Spirit character Frodo Baggins.
Threat 7: 2 Willpower, 1 Attack, 2 Defense, 2 Hit Points. Hobbit. "After Frodo Baggins is damaged, cancel the damage and instead raise your threat by the amount of damage he would have been dealt."
- Three copies of each of 2 new cards in the Leadership sphere.
> Dunedain Warning: Attachment (1). Attach to a hero. Attached hero gains +1 defense strength.
> Second Breakfast: Event (1). Action: Each player returns the topmost attachment card from his discard pile to his hand.
- Three copies of each of 2 new cards in the Lore sphere.
> A Burning Brand: Attachment (2). Item. Attach to a character. While attached character is defending, cancel any shadow effects on cards dealt to the attacking enemy.
> Longbeard Map-Maker: Ally (3). 1 Willpower, 1 Attack, 1 Defense, 3 Hit Points. Dwarf. Action: Spend 1 Lore resource to give Longbeard Map-Maker +1 Willpower until the end of the phase.
- Three copies of each of 2 new cards in the Spirit sphere.
> Eomund: Ally (3). 2 Willpower, 1 Attack, 1 Defense, 2 Hit Points. Unique. Rohan. Response: After Eomund leaves play, ready all Rohan characters in play.
> Nor Am I A Stranger: Attachment (1). Title. Attach to a character. Attached character gains the Rohan trait.
- Three copies of each of 2 new cards in the Tactics sphere.
> Beorning Beepkeeper: Ally (4). 1 Willpower, 2 Attack, 1 Defense, 3 Hit Points. Beorning. Action: Discard Beorning Beekeeper from play to deal 1 damage to each enemy in the staging area.
> Born Aloft: Event (0). Condition. Attach to an ally. Action: Discard Born Aloft from play to return attached ally to its owner's hand.
- Three copies of one new sphere-neutral card.
> Song of Wisdom: Attachment (1). Song. Attach to a hero. Attached hero gains a Lore resource icon.
- Two new quest cards to represent each of the phases of the Conflict at the Carrock scenario.
- Thirty new Encounter cards to be included within the Encounter deck that players must face in the Conflict at the Carrock scenario (to be combined with the "Journey Down the Anduin" and "Wilderlands" Encounter card sets)
* So what are your thoughts about Conflict at the Carrock?
Far more than the previous Adventure Pack, The Hunt for Gollum, I was very excited to open up this expansion pack and play through the new scenario. As the premise for this quest is having to do battle with some of the most powerful enemies yet, I was very much looking forward to putting my decks through their paces and seeing just how well (or poorly), I would do. After playing through the scenario and experiencing the new creatures and other cards firsthand, I have to say that I think that the new Encounter cards introduced in this expansion are brilliant. Before having to contend with the daunting group of four trolls during the second half of the scenario, you are likely to face the new "Muck Adder" enemy. While it only has 2 Attack, it has the very low engagement cost of 20, and if it does any damage whatsoever, the recipient must be discarded immediately. While you may think you are safe to block this enemy with one of the many 2 Defense heroes or allies, there are no less than six shadow cards in the Encounter deck for this quest that either subtract 1 from or entirely negate a defending character's Defense value, potentially leading to some very unpleasant surprises. Just like the new enemies, the "Sacked!" cards can be brutal as well, highly reminiscent of one unlucky hero being chosen to be the prisoner in the "Escape from Dol Guldur" scenario; there are [the number of players + 1] copies of this card included in the Encounter deck each game, and not only do they utterly incapacitate their attached heroes, but they cannot be cancelled, and their shadow effect reads "resolve this card's 'When Revealed' effect." These merciless treacheries can only be removed from play through effects that discard Condition attachments (i.e., Miner of the Iron Hills), or through killing any of the four new trolls, as each of their cards includes the text, "after defeating [this enemy], you may choose and discard 1 'Sacked!' card from play." While there is understandably a lot of pressure to remove the "Sacked!" attachments from heroes as quickly as possible, these cards are made even worse considering that the Encounter deck is filled with copies of the treachery card "Roasted Slowly." This treachery card not only destroys all heroes with attached "Sacked!" cards when it is revealed, but must also be shuffled back into the Encounter deck after its effect is resolved, where it can then lay in wait to either destroy more heroes or, if it happens to be revealed as a shadow card, will remove wounds from the attacking enemy, should it happen to be a troll.
Though designed to be a challenge for players to win, approximately equivalent in difficulty to the "Escape from Dol Guldur, the hardest quest of the Core Set, I found this new scenario to be a very enjoyable experience, and a fantastic nod to the classic encounter with trolls from J.R.R Tolkien's "The Hobbit." Although indeed a daunting task at times, this scenario is nevertheless absolutely winnable, as I was able to do so on my first attempt (two players), through the use of a wounded Gimli enhanced with multiple Dunedain Marks, Dwarven Axes, and a copy of Unexpected Courage, in addition to a multitude of allies sacrificed to absorb the brunt of the trolls' attacks. However, a multitude of other winning strategies come to mind as well, so players need not be or feel shoehorned into building their decks around one single effective strategy if they want to have any hope of winning. To help struggling players to turn the tide against their troll adversaries, Grimbeorn the Old is an extremely powerful ally that can serve in a pinch as a literal wall against multiple troll attacks each round (should players feel the need or desire to invest eight resources into recruiting him), and this expansion also provides two new player cards to help players to transform their heroes into practically impregnable shields to stave off trolls and other particularly high attack strength enemies. I found this scenario to be quite possibly my favorite yet, as the mechanics of the new quest and Encounter cards not only work exceedingly well, but are very heavily inspired by Tolkien lore, with this scenario paying tribute to one of my very favorite novels; indeed, the primary antagonists from this quest are even given names, much like the stone-trolls Bert, Tom and Bill from "The Hobbit."
* What are your thoughts on the new player cards?
Although I love the new Encounter cards, the new player cards were somewhat of a mixed bag for me. Although this release provides two new cards to make characters much better defenders than ever before, the way that I have traditionally constructed my decks doesn't really find either of these to be necessary additions. Whereas it would perhaps be an interesting strategy to attempt to design a deck around playing multiple copies of "Dunedain Warning" (+1 Defense), on an already high-defense character such as Denethor, and then to further solidify his defense with "A Burning Brand," a card with the very alluring effect of passively negating any and all shadow effects dealt to the enemy the attached character is defending against, my two-player decks operate well without any need for dedicated defenders. However, the new hero, "Frodo Baggins," immediately found a welcome spot in my Spirit/Lore questing and support deck, as his 2 Willpower is not only very respectable, but his ability can easily turn potentially devastating, hero-eliminating damage into the gain of a mere few Threat points (i.e., losing a hero to 1 damage from an untimely "The Necromancer's Reach" simply becomes the gain of 1 Threat instead, or losing a hero to a small, yet undefended attack could instead result in the gain of a couple points of Threat, etc). The introduction of the new ally "Eomund" as another powerful questing Spirit character is yet another welcome addition, but his ability at the moment seems like merely a situational bonus, as opposed to something to construct a deck around, considering the current Rohan allies. However, being able to add the Rohan trait to anyone (even characters), through the peculiarly named "Nor Am I A Stranger" attachment may make attempting to create combos with Eomund a little more appealing; still though, compared to the likes of Steward of Gondor, the only card currently able to provide the Rohan trait to characters (as opposed to Gondor), seems rather lackluster. However, being able to combo Eomund with Sneak Attack or the new Tactics card "Born Aloft" with the right heroes in play being granted the Rohan trait (i.e., Gimli, Legolas, or Beravor, etc), could be a fairly potent combination in the right deck. In considering the remaining new cards, being able to return attachments to your hand from your discard pile through playing "Second Breakfast" does not seem necessary for inclusion in any deck given the present state of the game (considering how infrequently attachments are discarded), and the two new non-unique allies Beorning Beekeeper and Longbeard Map-Maker both seem rather expensive for what they do. I can't perceive the ability of the former being at all necessary at the moment, and for the latter, exchanging 1 Lore resource for 1 Willpower, while potentially very powerful, seems prohibitively expensive when compared to cards such as Radagast's Cunning or Secret Webs unless the player happens to have an abundance of Lore resources. Still, all of these threat-reducing cards certainly have their advantages and disadvantages, so I will have to see how useful the Map-Maker ends up being. One of the cards that I was most excited about that was released in Conflict at the Carrock is Song of Wisdom, the Lore version of Song of Kings that finally allowed me to make use of the Rivendell Minstrels from The Hunt for Gollum in my Lore/Spirit deck, in order to help the lone Lore hero Beravor to get out some of the more useful Lore cards faster than having to rely solely upon her own resource generation (with an occasional bonus from Theodred here and there). These song cards serve to make a character with Steward of Gondor even more powerful, and I look forward to the Tactics and Spirit versions of Songs of Kings/Wisdom eventually being released. All things considered, I think that this is a great expansion to pick up, and while the new player cards are not exactly stellar at the moment, the scenario itself was a great experience to play through, and my questing/support deck appreciated several powerful new additions. My enthusiasm for this game has never been greater, and this latest release has opened up more deck building options than ever before. I look forward to picking up the next Adventure Pack in the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle, but until then, I hope you found this review helpful, and enjoy your gaming!
For more information about the Lord of the Rings: The Card Game Core Set and what it means to be a Living Card Game, please see my full review of the base game at http://tinyurl.com/3m8mxx2
* Can you link me to the official previews released by FFG?
For official previews of Conflict at the Carrock published by Fantasy Flight Games, check out some of the following (linked in the order of their release):
"Of Adventures to Come" http://tinyurl.com/3ssjdhu
"There Be Trolls Here" http://tinyurl.com/3h9g7s2
"The Muster of Rohan" http://tinyurl.com/3ssf9u8
"Walks in the Twilight" http://tinyurl.com/426rppc