as it says.........loving the artwork. but more to the point secrecy seems like an interesting function, going to be hard keeping it below 20 though

richsabre said:

Yes sure below 20 is really difficult. Sounds like play with 2 heroes instead 3?

I've been experimenting with 2 player games only using 3 heroes total recently. I think 20 is a good number for secrecy as it is a very achievable threat level but not so high that it is really easy.

With Ziggy having single hero decks is not an issue resource wise and Bofur is the perfect companion to the prince. So starting at 11 threat gives you a few turns b4 there is a problem. The other deck need to run more traditional though I would think. Still you only need one deck running secrecy cards.

We will have to see how it goes as it will depend on what the secrecy cards do.. all in all I think it is a really good addition to the game.

For solo players I think secrecy will be hard to maintain. I do have a Ziggy solo deck i am refining that uses JUST dunhere that starts at 8 threat I made it as a experiment, and if you got zig in your 1st hand it played surprisingly well, so with "secrecy" cards in it, it might be a "real"deck some day.

Remember secrecy (as i understand it) is a modify to the cost, so it might cost 5, but with secrecy it will cost 2. Still Ziggy will trigger at 5 not 2 as 5 is the base cost. The point I am trying to make is that if the secrecy cards are to low cost then Ziggy will not function reliably and thus the solo single hero deck might never get off the ground as I have envisioned it at this stage.

If you can start your threat in the mid-20s and get a GG and sneak Gandalf early, getting your threat below 20 is not impossible. Keeping it there long enough to use/get secrecy in hand might be, but not with the right card drawing machines as booored and some of the others have taught me!

Zjb12 said:

i believe we may be seeing some more threat reduction cards in the near future.....would make sense

One of the things I've been happiest about with Khazad-dum, is that the strength of the dwarf synergy has taken some emphasis away from Spirit and their evil queen, Eowyn who constantly says to us, "you don't really think you can beat a game with ME, do you?"

However, now with this secrecy thing, I'm worried that this will again put the spotlight back on Spirit as the strongest sphere.
That being said, seeing that this first secrecy card is for Leadership, perhaps it will at least encourage us to use other spheres in combination with Spirit.

Narsil0420 said:

yeah eowyn is the evil queen indeed, im sick of seeing her attractive face in my decks, though im cutting her out piece by piece

Is Éowyn really that bad?

I built a Spirit deck just because of her! I really like her whooping 4W and the possibility of rising it even more.

cordeirooo said:

no i was joking mainly, my point though is that she is really useful to the point where many players cant quest without her, and i find her very limiting and a little boring to use in decks

I think he meant to say "you don't really think you can win the game without me."

Yeah. Since I bought the game, she was in my decks. Though my first reason was because she is one of my favorite of LotR's characters.

I'm now creating a 'Campaign' of sorts, where you must do the entire first cycle (TMaO included) with the same decks. The difference between that and the rulebook campaign, is that you got bonuses and penalties according to your failure or victories in each scenario. If you fail the 'Escape From Dol Guldur' losing by threat, your penalty to the first AP is that you cannot have Eowyn in the starting heroes until you win again.

Grudunza said:

I haven't made a single deck using Eyowen form the days of Conflict of the Carrock.. I think she is the most over rated hero in the game. Your seriously gimping your deck synergy and ability to be consistent by using her. I'm not saying that she can not be in winning decks, but she, imo, is a waste of a slot. Do your self a favor and try building some decks with out her, I bet after a while your scores will be much higher than they were b4.. she is sorta like the training wheels for the game, a way for new players to get some relief form the early pressure form the encounter deck, but she is next to useless in mid to end game... far better to have a "real" hero that is useful though out the entire match.

Seriously, try it, build some deck with out her... you will never look back.

booored said:

Sadly there aren't enough Spirit heroes (or heroes in general) to go around for four decks yet that wouldn't have duplicate heroes.

richsabre said:

Bofur looks like a really useful card. An event and an ally built into one.

Pay 1 resource a turn for 2 questing or save up 3 resources to get him out for real. An interesting trade off in the early stages of the game. He also opens up the potential to deliberately fail the first round of questing in order to save a couple of resources getting him in play. Nice.

Memetix said:

You don't even have to quest unsuccessfully in order for him to stay in play. You only have to NOT quest successfully, meaning that even a tie between willpower and threat will suffice. Since there is an opportunity for player actions after encounter cards are revealed during the staging step, you'll always know whether or not he'll remain on the table. He's outstanding, and I'm glad he's unique.

richsabre said:

It certainly would! I suspect we've already begun to see such things in the figure of Dwalin, and there are a couple of recent cards such as Ever Onward, and Elfhelm from the dead marshes pack, that can help to prevent it spiralling out of control. So maybe a Leadership-Spirit pact may be the way forward with Secrecy?

I agree with you about Eowyn there boooored.