Ringwraith Manual

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Leon
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Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2007 12:18 pm

The idea of this document is to provide a list of ringwraith abilities and some comment on the main strategies, including the virtual cards. I will try to update the document from time to time. The normally written text is the text as published on cards on in the MELE rulebook. If I am leaving out anything please inform me. In Italics I add my ideas and comments to each RW and some of the other cards. So feel free to ignore the Italics and use the rest. If we ever get a Middle-Earth wiki as somebody suggested, this would be a good article. The last section is the only part that is really new.

If you consider this sufficiently useful, could this post be made sticky?
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Bandobras Took
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Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:30 pm

I was actually considering writing a similar document. Here are a few points concerning active RWs:

Active RWs in general:
An active Ringwraith brings a good deal to the table. Extremely high prowess, very good DI (for a Minion -- 4 or 5 DI is pretty much the cream of the crop), immunity to corruption, and immunity to effects that require or check against mind. I used to think that ICE went overboard in limiting their active play, but after some more experimenting, I'm starting to change my mind.

The Witch King: Heralded Lord+WK Unleashed+Words of Menace and Deceit gives him a staggering +19 DI, making him one of the few possibilities for a Minion influence deck.

Khamul: Most people looked at Khamul and tried for Fell Riding CvCC. ICE fooled us all -- without the Virtual card, Fell Rider is a poor choice for Khamul, and aggressive CvCC an even poorer choice. Khamul Unleashed makes his company able to survive attacks that would seriously hinder any other RW, so he's better than the WK for leading a party of RWs to gather MPs. The main reasons aggressive CvCC in Fell Rider sucks for him is:

1) River
2) Your opponent will just cancel the attack anyway.

Indur: Is actually the CvCC RW of choice. Plop down Uvatha as a follower (for River), and use his Unleashed, and his attack cannot be canceled. This makes Indur the bane of the FW haven-squatters.

Adunaphel: Is one of the few RWs that you want to use Fell Rider with, because her Unleashed requires her to be alone and you want to be overt anyway. Adunaphel is a creature killer with her Unleashed. Just one card reduces any attack to one strike and -2 body. Send her to Minas Tirith and dare your opponent to play Maia against her while she picks up a Palantir, Burns the place to the ground, and finally carts of some Prisoners to Minas Morgul. Alternatively, sending her romping through Dragonland, killing off your opponent's Ahunts and playing Remnants of Old Robberies on them (Remnants can be duplicated on an attack, that's potentially 18 MPs for Itangast Ahunt :)). Her best use is probably to squat at a multi-MP site where you're likely to be attacked.

Uvatha: His Unleashed combined with Forced March/Leg it Double Quick makes him a RW for spectacular card draw -- most likely to be combined with a minion dunk strategy. Other than that, I agree that he is the RW Follower par excellence.

Mainly, I think too little attention was paid to active RWs as resource gatherers. People have falsely divided Ringwraiths into CvCC or haven squatters, but there is another option.

Fell Rider: I actually rate Fell Rider as the weakest of the mode cards because it prevents Uvatha as a follower, and Uvatha's Ranger skill is almost a necessity for any active RW deck. Not only that, but it makes the RW's company overt, which can get messy if you're not careful. Akhorahil is one of the few who can use it well because he has an alternate method for dealing with river (Deeper Shadow), with Adunaphel second, since you want her to be overt in an attempt to rack up kill MPs. Other than that, it pretty much sucks. Don't use it.

Heralded Lord: The -2 to prowess for the whole company is pretty nasty. The WK can counter that somewhat with Fiery Blade, and he has overall the most reason to want to use Heralded Lord, but other than that, this is a niche card. It is stronger than Fell Rider in most cases because it still allows for RW followers.

Black Rider: Is actually the mode card of choice for even CvCC decks. An extra character (or two) is usually worth more than the prowess boost of Fell Rider, and you're not overt, which makes a whole bunch of auto-attacks/creatures a non-factor anyway. The lack of prowess penalty lets your RWs work to full effect.

Getting around the "stop at a haven" limitation is as simple as a Forced March. Alternatively, just keep the MPs with your RW, let them be discarded, and shuffle them back in with Back to the Fray. There's a faction card playable at each haven (well -- not Geann-a-Lisch); an Active RW has every other turn, if wanted to influence them.

The Ring Leaves Its Mark: Never, ever underestimate this card for an active (and even a haven-squatting) Ringwraith. Forget fetching mode cards; there's (unless I'm mistaken) not another card in existence for untapping your RW. In an active deck, this helps Khamul hurdle Rivers or allows you to chance going through an auto-attack tapped; in a haven-squatter deck, it can be used to sideboard while still allowing the "tap at haven" abilities; and the odds are in your favor that the roll will succeed.

RW Followers: You did not mention that playing a Ringwraith Follower causes any corresponding Nazgul hazard manifestation in play to be discarded (MELE, Using MELE with METW, 5 - Characters and Companies). This makes Uvatha even more a follower of choice, preventing creature recycling, and puts Adunaphel in runner-up position with her generally weaker skills.
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Bandobras Took
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Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:30 pm

Oh -- you may also want to consider home sites. The WK's home site/ability combined with Uvatha/Indur makes him a good candidate to nab Last Child; Khamul's homesite degraded severely in usefulness when they decided any RW could start at Dol Guldur; Adunaphel can play orcs/trolls from the discard pile as many times as she can tap in an organization phase, etc.
Leon
Posts: 312
Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2007 12:18 pm

I am not sure when I have time to add this information. Feel free to adjust the document yourself if you have time and take out my ideas. It is a start with all the rules and cards concerning ringwraiths

My first idea for any document was to have all the information together to allow me to get into discussions at all.

It may well be that I do not have enough experience with minions to estimate everything correctly. As far as I have seen, Hoarmurath, The Lidless Eye/Sauron and the Balrog are played and little else.
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