……..i love dwarves….

what i mean, is that after over a year of continuously getting dwarf allies, dwarf heros, dwarf player cards and dwarven attatchments, i still find them perhaps the most themeatically pleasing of all the developed races so far.

so who's with me on this?

some players have gotten (and understandably so) tired of the dwarven race after the game has focused on them for so long, and this i can completely understand. i thought this for a while myself, but every time i make a dwarf deck i feel connected to this game more than say rohan, or eagles…..or perhaps even noldor though i think they come in a draw on that part.

im guessing a major part of my fondness for fielding dwarfs comes from the fact they are easily the most developed race, so have no 'holes' in thier card pool that the noldor, silvan, humans or hobbits suffer from. but i think it will be interesting to see how many of us, when a few more races reach dwarf development status, carry on playing them…..i hope that i am one of them

thoughts?

rich

I dont really hate dwarves…I'm just kinda tired of Moria and caves. I always really enjoy the outside quests which is one reason I really like Emyn Muil. So yeah I guess those are my thoughts. Since most of the dwarves have dark cave backrounds I usually like the guys with more outside backrounds. But no I don't hate dwarves.

So whats you favorite dwarf hero combo?

Khamul

thanks for the thoughts. im actually tired of moria also….i guess all the dark locations, but once i play the decks in a nice theme quest like emyn i find i really enjoy it.

i have tried a few combos. our conversation last night inspired me to make a bombur deck.

bombur/ oin / balin

its a support deck so i cant see it working well solo at all. it actually played very nicely with my tactics and questing deck. i found oin's tactics and +1 actualy pretty useful.

i think my best though is dain / thalin / bifur.

the resource ability from bifur is so useful, and of course dain……i sort of agree with others that he is rather overpowered and is sometimes a 'must have' hero, but im really trying to break away from dain and use more of thorins company instead.

rich

I'm totally with you, Rich !

But then again, I've always loved the Dwarves in Tolkien's work even though they're not very developped in his writings. So I'm glad that FFG paid so much attention to them because they really deserve it

AjiTae said:

true, thats another reason why i like them so much…..fond rememberings of reading the hobbit when i was 10….

So Rich, Did you find Bombur tottally ussless and you wished you had a differant dwarf hero? Or was he pretty good? What did you use him ofr mostly

Khamul The Easterling said:

i really liked him. firstly you only need 1 dwarf ally in play with a 3 dwarf hero deck to get that ever important '5 dwarfs in play' which was great for oin. secondly i used him for in the way i had planned. burning brand and dunedain warnings or dwarven mail. (and the leadership attatchment that gives a +1 hit point)

he was a considerable defender. i just wished i had had the foresight to put some cram in there to ready him. i only have 1 unexpected courage.

rich

I enjoy making Dwarven decks, they always look so thematic, I usually only take card that go with the theme, no Steward of Gondor, etc. But I do not particularly enjoy playing the decks because any time they win (and it not nearly always with me) it just seems a bit too much, you have got most of the card in your hand or already on the table, hundreds of resources, etc. I am much more looking forward to having such beautifully thematic Noldor (or Silvan, or Gondor - soon, hopefully) deck.

I dig dwarves.

I actually think that we've gotten SO many dwarf cards that they've sort of looped back around to being interesting on account of their being so many different ways that they can be combined and utilized.

The decks I'm using now are elf decks, but I liked my dwarf decks enough that I've left a couple of those made as "standby" decks.

I'm ready to see some of the other cultures get the sort of loving that dwarves have received now though. (With the possible exception of seeing one more Dwarf Hero for the Tactics Sphere. Running four mono-sphere dwarf decks would be wicked.)

I neither hate, nor adore them.

I just don't like that they got most of the cool toys (deluxe expansion and its whole cycle, two saga expansions), while other races seem so neglected. Some even look like poor, overlooked orphans (Silvan).

klaymen_sk said:

all in good time my friend. see it this way - the dwarves came out when the game was young and still getting to grips with the design and so on…think how amazing the 3/4/5 etc. boxes will be for the other races!

rich

I'm not sure. There is only so much FFG can add to the game within the LotR license using existing stuff without dabbling into Silmarillion - which would probably need to be separated from the current game (because frankly, Elrond going to a quest with Denethor is already weird - but Denethor questing with Húrin, that would be just stupid).

And Heirs of Númenor was underwhelming so far, when speaking of player cards. Several good and otherwise mediocre cards, not to mention diluting the card pool with Outlands trait. Call me sceptical, but I don't have much faith for the Against the Shadow cycle.

i see what you're saying but i see the design potential like this

dwarven axe = 1 card. probably its the standard +1 attack, +2 if attatched character is X race. but how many times can you duplicate that? you could have 1 for each race without any of them being useless…each one offers use for each race.

i expect something in AtS such as 'gondorian sword' where theres a +2 attach if gondor character

taking this idea further how many times can you adjust, for instance, dwarven axe, and get an original product. ive mentioned changing it for race, but you could have

+1 damage as well as attack…we saw this with dwarrowdelf axe

+1 hit point

attactched character gets 1 resource after it kills an enemy

player reduces therat by 1 after it kills an enemy

player draw 1 card after…..

player takes 1 card from discard pile

player searches for 1 card in hand

and so on. in each of these you can make them race specific. thats just 1 card. you can of course do this with any of the cards out there. in fact the traits and races are what really gives designers such a large card pool to work with. otherwise, as you say we'd run out pretty quick.

i think the content of middle earth itself is enough….at least enough to hold its own against the other lcgs out there. it may not win on pages per book….but i think it certain wins on side-developed content such as the appendices, which we know from recent spoilers ,the designers are concentrating on.

i have quite high hops for the cycle, i hope to see some interesting mechanics introduced….hopefully it shall not dissapoint

rich

Rich has "quite high hops for this cycle" hahaha. HAve you been working on your hops for the upcoming rabbit race? Sorry I just had to…….

Khamul The Easterling said:

well you are meant to play this game on 1 foot right? or did i miss read the rules somewhere…….

richsabre said:

You forgot to mention a Gondoarian proud trait, Rich. Characters with that trait could get extra willpower with certain events/attachments or less defense and more attack. I'd also love to see some kind of panic trait for the goblins.

good idea! im surprised the dwarves didnt get that one. hobbits could get a 'lazy' trait where they are rendered useless if you dont 1 resource each turn (sounds aweful doesnt it….must be all that food….)