Hi,

Been now playing for some while and I find there is a lack of cards, or better, type of cards.

Sylvan (we have 1 red Hero, but in red no allies) also the majority of the cards is green (without a hero) but only 1 card that effects Sylvan cards (ally that heals).

Noldor (we have a red + purple hero) while the Noldor playing cards are green and blue (green unique ally, blue unique ally and effect).

It would rock to see some love for Sylvan and Noldor, I doubt I'm the only thema player on this forum….

Laiyna

ps: as mentioned before, we also lack Female Hero's but thats old news

laiyna said:

I hear there's also some green Noldo, I think his name is Glorfindel.

Could've gotten our proper elves out, but instead got Bilbo and Frodo .

I stand corrected, we have a green Noldor hero but at a cost of 12, it still would force me to play without blue (where my Noldor cards would be) and a starting threat of 32.

well fffg seem to have a funky way of release theme sets of cards- such as theyll put random ones in packs that are new traits- such as the dale ally in the recent pack…..also i stick with my previous comments on the female side- they just arent there in the narrative- and ffg has enough of tolkiens proper matieral to sort out before they resort to making yet more up

I agree with this initial post, though I would also say that Glorifindel is actually a really good hero if you couple him with other low costing heroes. Overall though, I would also like to see more cards and more variety, but don't worry, it's coming, the game is still very young. Happy gaming!

Female characters have been given more than enough attention, Éowyn is the most powerful questiing hero, Beravor is most powerful drawing tool, Arwen among the best allies in the game overall. And we still have Galadriel to come - although her theme has already been given attention on a few cards.

I hope the traits will get more attention soon: Noldor, Silvan, Gondor, yes, but I would also like to see cards attending to Warrior, Ranger or even Noldor. Not to mention specific characters beside Aragorn getting some card love. And I hope it shall not get lame on smaller "factions" like Dale or Beorning, they need some boosts too, they will likely not get many so the ones they do get better be powerful.

There is a lot to deal with! They haven't even touched Gondor etc yet really….. a vast amount of heroes still to come etc!

It will take time to build up the card base as with any game, but we just have to be patient! So far they are doing a really good job, excellent art and great thematic missions!

Drengi said:

Whaaaa ? Boromir, Denethor, Imrahil. Faramir as ally (if we're counting uniques). That's all the big guys from the books, maybe toss in Beregond if feeling so inclined. Eleanor from MEQ also reps for Gondor.

I was more getting at the non-hero cards for Gondor! There are a few, but not many combos or support cards etc!

Im talking about the sort of attention Eagles and Rohan have got so far!

* by Noldor I meant Noble among the traits… couldn't edit the post…

I agree with the original post. The racial synergies are weak outside of dwarf. Eagles are a distant second with their interweaving synergies between The Eagles Are Coming, Eagles of the Misty Mountains, and Radagast. Other than that, there are precious few trait based multi-card synergies. Everything else is mostly one off combos. I tend to think that they should be working towards more meaningful "blocks" of synergized cards that form the core of many decks. It is thematically stronger if these are based around race.

Rohan and Noldor/Silvan are well developed in numbers of cards, but very poorly developed in synergies that make it highly advantageous to keep the cards together.

I agree, there simply isn't a lot of synergy outside of dwarf, eagle and rohan. I was building new decks a couple of days ago, having previously used a rohan and an eagle deck, and wanted to try something new. I was a little disappointed that I could not build much in the way of powerful and clever combinations for silvan, noldor, ranger, dunedain etc.

I guess it is coming, but it 's a little weird in my mind to release so many cards for certain themes that do not have any meaningful synergies (for example there are tons of dunedain cards, and they get nothing special out of being combined in a deck). A few well designed cards would pull the themes together and make them playable as a theme deck, but they simply aren't right now.

It will however be interesting to see the other themes developed, as I am sure they will be.

Great observation there Gartock! I also anticipate such "catalyst" cards in the future to help really make traits more meaningful in the game.

yeah i agree- there are plenty of things they can, and will do with traits- using thr dunedain for instance…..think of the grey company, now im sure a card relavant to this wil have big implications for a dunedain deck- such as the

the grey company (attachment)

attach to a dunedain character

attatched character gets +1 willpower, +1 defense and +1 attack for each dunedain character in play

richsabre said:

Irony here for me as I'm trying to build and run a Grey Company deck with Loragorn, Elladan & Elrohir and there really isn't anything special about this deck. (In fact most of the times it works better using the original Aragorn.) I hope this will change, and I think it will.

richsabre said:

richsabre said:

That card would need to be ridiculously expensive or slimmed down (fewer pumps) from that proposed text. There aren't a bazillion Dunedain characters yet (compared to the dwarves, etc), but with the 2 heros and a small handful of allies, that card would be near-broken status (Running a deck with Aragorn and Bervor would automatically give +2/+2/+2 to anyone that card was on, throw in even a few allies, and a +5/+5/+5 boost card is easily achievable). I do like the theme/concept behind it, however. A proposed change/version (in keeping with a "Secrecy" theme that seems to be appropriate for the Dunedain/Rangers):

The Grey Company: attachment, neutral sphere, 5 cost

Text:

Secrecy 3

Attach to a Dunedain or Ranger character. Attached character gets +1 willpower, +1 defense and +1 attack for each Dunedain or Ranger hero you control.

Action: Exhaust the Grey Company to draw a card. While exhausted, The Grey Company does not add to attached character's willpower, attack, or defense.

This still may be too powerful, actually. With the addition of the Ranger element, that adds two more heros (the twins) to choose from. The high cost is applicable for its potent ability. I thought the added card-draw ability would reflect the Ranger's/Dunedain's resourcefulness, but tried to do it in a way that required the player to make a choice between his need to bolster his stats, and his need to get cards in hand (questing/fighting vs. card throughput). But being able to have that option every turn is still pretty powerful. I'm no card-maker, that's for sure. Just some thoughts on a theme I would love to see more development for.

benhanses said:

I found your fix very interesting. May I do a little tweak?

The Grey Company: attachment, neutral sphere, 5 cost

Text:

Secrecy 3

Response: After this card enters play, give attached character +1Will, +1Def or +1ATK permanently for each Ranger or Dunedáin in play.

Action: Exhaust the Grey Company to draw a card. While exhausted, give this character -1Will.

This way, the ability is way weaker, but if the attachment is destroyed (somehow) you still have the bonuses.
I find the possibility of having 3/3/3 bonus on a Hero very disturbing.

Could also be 'you control' instead of 'in play'.

cordeirooo said:

Hmmm… I thought I had already included the "hero you control" aspect to help limit the potency of the idea. This would mean the MOST you could get would be the 3/3/3 bonus, which I agree seems TOO huge. That's why I added the card-draw/stat-cancel to the "card". I'm not sure how the "permanent" idea would work. In a card game, it seems like it would be difficult to remember what permanent card effects were in play without seeing the actual card on the table (and in this case would make the card even more potent if you caould keep the stat ability even if the card was lost due to a shadow effect or treachery card). I think that's why you don't see that kind of phrasing very often in CCG/LCG's. I can't think of any off the top of my head in the LOTR LCG…

Steering back toward the initial concept of the thread, I have been somewhat disappointed in the lack of playability that the "core" tactics sphere has to offer (I like the idea of the Eagles theme, but that's a pretty specific and dedicated concept) for general play. Sure you can fight and defend just about anything. But that's it. There's virtually no or little ability to quest, generate resources, card draw, etc… I get that each sphere has its strengths and weekensses, but it really is pretty impossible to solo with a dedicated tactics deck through many of the encounters. A proposed card like the one we've been discussing would at least provide some options. Honestly, even if it only increased a SINGLE stat (willpower, attack, or defense) and had the option to exhaust for card draw with a loss to that stat, it would STILL be in EVERY SINGLE TACTICS DECK. EVER.

benhanses said:

True, it was in bold and I didn't noticed the "Hero" there.
It is also true that LotR CCG doesn't use permanent effects (which I find weird).

It is not true that it's difficult to remember permanent card effects, actually. L5R is a great game and very successful and have loads of permanent bonuses, and it is only one player trying to remember not 2-4. I'm using permanent effects in my homemade quests and I'm still to have any problem.

In the end, I'll agree that my 'version' isn't the best to what you wanted to achieve, but even permanent, it is way better to have +1/+1/+1 than a +1 to a single stat.