Arda Minion

Goblin King
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Here are notes from a weekend of extensive play testing in 3 sessions.
First some notes from Tradewindsrider:
"My initial impressions are quite favorable:

- We played two games, one Friday night and an even longer one on Saturday night. Our group is generally less familiar with minions and the hazards that can be played against them, let alone the “flip side” of the sites that now include Darkhavens and Freeholds that are very dangerous to minion companies, so some time was spent in familiarizing ourselves in this new environment.

- The initial choice of Ringwraiths and the draft are, obviously, critical to one’s chances in the game. Especially in a game with fewer players, choosing the Ringwraiths that can have Ringwraith followers is a no-brainer. I do favor Adunaphel’s canceling abilities combined with a covert company, and did okay in the first game with some favorable draws for the MP cards, but not so well in the second game as the covert company proved underpowered. By contrast, the second game was won by a newer player who chose Dwar the Ringwraith and was able to draft two Lieutenants—that company was beefy right from the get-go and, due to Prone to Violence being in effect from the beginning, was a threat to the other companies as well.

- Having the mode cards available to each Ringwraith (instead of waiting to draw them from the 600+ cards of the event deck) was a very useful option to have—some players still preferred to have their Ringwraiths squat or merely travel between Darkhavens, but certainly they add a lot of value by bringing to power to bear to their own missions.

- We still need to think about how to best handle minion characters who are also agents. I believe the ability to choose an Open to the Summons in lieu of a starting minor item is very nice option, but a fair number of the emerging roving characters are agents as well, which makes them difficult to recruit during the game.

- Finally, I really enjoyed the fact that rings are at the forefront of the possible missions in this environment. The Ringwraith’s auto-test and the separate ring draw pile certainly facilitate this aspect, and it certainly makes rings quite a bit more noticeable that in our Hero Arda games."
Goblin King
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Now here come my Notes from the Labor Day weekend of playtesting
The first thing we noticed is that drafting is much more difficult and important than in ARDA. This largely comes down to the large number of minion agents in the character pool and the difficulty of getting them into play. But it is also impacted by all of the special rules over drafting companies.
There are the racial restrictions (Dunadains, Dwarves and Elves won’t party with Trolls and Orcs) and the leader restrictions (Orc leaders or Troll leaders won’t party with each other) to keep in mind, which would almost be enough on its own. But then you throw in so many minion agent cards (25 out of 117 total characters) and so few Open to the Summons cards, and suddenly drafting a decent starting company can be a real challenge. I’ll talk about some possible solutions later after I’ve covered the main points.
Second thing that came out to me was the fact that Ringwraiths themselves are both powerful and weak. Any time you draw a ring that you can test into your Treasure Hand, it is very easy to pop over to Gladden Fields in Fell Rider mode for a quick and easy testing. You avoid some nasty corruption tests this way. On the downside of operating a Ringwraith are the limitations on movement and company composition (you can never let you Ringwraith head to a non-Darkhaven with someone other than a Ringwraith follower). And when Ringwraiths go somewhere, they have to go straight back to the same Darkhaven afterwards. Add to this the fact that a card like Enchanted Stream can block most Ringwraiths (because few are rangers) for one turn and bow them out for a second turn and there is a frustration factor involved. But even with the frustration, it is thematic and so just try getting used to it instead of making up special rules.
Third observation is that there are clear cases where a player can get a winning draft and will be unstoppable. This doesn’t really happen in ARDA, does it? But it can here, and did. We had one game where a player drafted Dwar as his Ringwraith and then drew two Lieutenants in his draft pool. He also dropped an I’ll Report You, put him in complete command of the game. The other two players focused everything they had on the guy and didn’t even slow him down much Not entirely sure what to do about this issue.
Beyond those things there were a lot of cards that were suggested to be moved out of the pool and some suggestions on things to be moved in.
Looking at stuff that we are taking out for the time being:
Some spell cards. Yes, a lot of Ringwraiths use spells. But few minions do and some minion agents do too. We are trying to leave the better spells in and take out the more specialized spells that won’t see much (or any) use.
Deeps and other shortcut cards: These are cards like The Ash Mountain Deeps which allow you to treat two regions as if they were close together if you tap a ranger. More importantly, they can be used to reduce the hazard limit by 2 in specific regions. But because they are so specific, we never saw anyone play any of them in any games.
Small drakes and Hurons: They are just too easy to kill.
Black Horse: With the availability of Black Rider mode cards at any time, this card only creates a liability for the person who uses it. So I’m pulling all 9 out for now.
Coastal cards: Pirates and Sea Serpents are a waste of card space because drawing one means you didn’t draw a card you could play this turn. I saw one coastal move in 3 games.
Something we are considering putting in:
Dragons and dragon or drake buffing cards. Either the actual unique hazard creature or the At Home versions of them. There just need to be some more big creatures in the deck to threaten the big orcs and Ringwraiths.
Thieves and pickpockets. The southern Free Domains are supposed to be risky because they are Wizard Country. But with only five in the deck, they are pretty safe to stomp around. So a couple more hazards in that area that makes you lose your cool stuff would be good.
Those are the major changes. There are a few others. I will write them all down at some point and update the spreadsheet.
Meanwhile, let’s get back to the issue of drafting starting companies and the Minion Agent challenge.
I started trying to get around this issue first by just giving people more choices in the draft: Instead of 2 cards with 6 Mind, make it three or four. Instead of 9 characters in the last part of the draft, make it 12. Another suggestion was that there should be unlimited copies of Open to the Summons usable during the company draft stage of the game. I may try both of these options at the same time.
Another option that I think Gene was starting to throw around was to pull the Agents out of the initial draft pool of the game. Initially this sounded like a very bad idea to me because it would mean that only four players would get a 7+ mind character. There are only 4 Minions with high mind (three lieutenants and one Mouth). This would mean, if the game has more than four players, someone comes up short.
But I’ve since done some thinking about it and there might be a way to make it work.
What if nobody had access to a 7+ mind character initially in the draft?
What if the only way to bring them in was by randomly revealing them in the character pool and then recruiting them?
If I do this, the pressure is now off to give everyone a big character. I can then put all of the Minion Agents into their own card pool completely outside of the character pool.
By creating an Agent Minions Deck, the recruitment could be another aspect of the game. You can recruit any available Minion
Agent, you just have to go to their homesite or Bree to do it.
That might be a fun approach.
But it does raise a rule question: Can a Ringwraith at a Minion Agent’s home site (or Bree) recruit that Minion Agent during the Organization Phase? Is this a violation of the Ringwraith company rule when at a site other than a Darkhaven?
I guess I will need a rules scholar to weigh in on this one before deciding whether to try it or not.
TradewindRider
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Greetings All,

Ah, didn't realize there was an ongoing discussion here! Will post more here shortly.

Kjeld, long time no see! As I mentioned in the post on our StrategiCon activities, we are planning to be at Great Escape Games in Sacramento on Thursday, 20 Sept. Gandalf Gene and I are planning to be there around 11:00 and will stay until closing--would be great if you can join us!

TradewindRider
Goblin King
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A Ringwraith at a Minion Agent’s home site (or Bree) CANNOT recruit that Minion Agent during the Organization Phase. This a violation of the Ringwraith company rule.
So it appears we are going into the realm of special rules for this version of the game. Having 25 characters in the game who can only be brought into the game with Open to the Summons or by sending a Minion with high direct influence to their home site is super limiting and no fun.
I'm inclined to just put all Minion Agents into the draft pool and just treat them all as regular minion cards. Remove Open to the Summons from the game and carry on.
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Shapeshifter
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Goblin King wrote: Thu Sep 06, 2018 3:00 pm Having 25 characters in the game who can only be brought into the game with Open to the Summons or by sending a Minion with high direct influence to their home site is super limiting and no fun.
Don't forget about We Have Come to Kill. Moreover any character with enough DI (maybe extended through the use of rings etc.) may bring in an agent character at the agent's home site.
TradewindRider
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Greetings All,

I think it would still be possible to retain the Agent characters’ special abilities in the environment, and especially use them as hazards, either for stand-alone detainment attacks or to enable other hazard creature at certain sites, as outlined in the rules:

(1) Each player who is dealt one or more Agents among the starting characters still has the option of playing Open to the Summons in lieu of a starting minor item;

(2) The remaining Agents are thrown into the draft pool and come up for possible recruitment as roving characters;

(3) When an Agent is in the pool of 4 roving characters:

(a) The Agent can be drafted by an existing character at the Agent’s home site via DI (per Shapeshifter), or drafted via an Open to the Summons or a We Have Come to Kill drawn from the event deck;

(b) Alternatively, since Agents are considered characters for the purpose of Ringwraith deck construction, we can install an optional rule that we can play an Agent in the draft pool as a *hazard* and operate the Agent under normal Agent rules; we can certainly talk about this and we might have to put some limitations on how often this can be done, but I think it would add a lot of flavor.
Goblin King
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Shapeshifter wrote: Thu Sep 06, 2018 3:13 pm
Goblin King wrote: Thu Sep 06, 2018 3:00 pm Having 25 characters in the game who can only be brought into the game with Open to the Summons or by sending a Minion with high direct influence to their home site is super limiting and no fun.
Don't forget about We Have Come to Kill. Moreover any character with enough DI (maybe extended through the use of rings etc.) may bring in an agent character at the agent's home site.
Shapeshifter, we didn't forget about those two options. But even with both of them, in the four games we played, we saw one Agent Minions brought into play with We Have Come to Kill. They were just too much of a bother. What was worse was that they were clogging up the Random Character Draft deck.
Goblin King
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Notes from Sept. 20th play session
We played as though the word Agent was not on any minion card. And overall, we were quite happy with that decision. So I’ve adjusted the rules narrative accordingly. No need for Open to the Summons anymore.
We also played with all of the unique dragon cards and all of the unique dragon At Home cards. This seemed to go pretty well and made it a bit more challenging to recruit a dragon faction or even walk around dragon country.
We are going to keep those cards in the pool.
We removed Ancient Black Axe, because there are no underdark sites to visit (duh).
There were discussions about removing two other resource cards and two other hazard cards. The resources were Untimely Whisper, which allows you to see five cards in your opponent’s hand and Dark Tryst, which give you three more cards. The arguments for removing both were that they are more useful in constructed deck matches. Their utility in a fixed game cube play environment is much more limited. This is a valid point. I’ve decided remove Untimely Whisper, but keep Dark Tryst. (I like getting extra cards.
The hazard events proposed for removal were Enchanted Stream and River. Both are delay cards that slow the game down and cost a player a turn. They are standard hazards in most Hero Arda decks, but they are arguably more effective in DARK ARDA just because only 3 of 9 Ringwraiths are rangers. This is a valid argument, however, having a Ringwraith stopped by a river or stream is a thematic home run! Running water shut them down twice in Lord of the Rings, so I can’t pass it up. I’m keeping both cards in.
DARK ARDA
Overall Goals: There are two primary goals that have been achieved in the Hero version of the ARDA deck (see Gandalf Gene’s ARDA on this forum) and I’m hoping to come close to matching them. These goals are of equal importance, even though they have to be listed in a sequence. They should be thought of as two goals sitting on either side of a balanced scale. They are of equal importance.
This DARK ARDA game must be able to successfully teach most of the rules of a regular Middle Earth Lidless Eye game. For this reason we try not have a lot of exception rules and we do not make special text for the cards just for this game. We try to use the rules and existing errata on cards as much as we can.
This DARK ARDA game must be fun and in the spirit of the game. This game would be diminished greatly if some cards were not included in the game. Therefore, some special rules have to be made in order to allow access to these cards.
To illustrate how I’ve tried to achieve balance between these two goals, I’m going to discuss the three Ringwraith modes cards that allow them to travel around the map (Heralded Lord, Black Rider and Fell Rider). If I was strictly following the rules, three copies of each of those mode cards would be shuffled into the huge deck. That would mean most players would never have access to them or the ability to shift their Ringwraith into one of those modes. That doesn’t sound like much fun or in keeping with the spirit of this fine game. So instead, I opted to give each Ringwraith a copy of each of the mode cards. They are able assume one of these modes during the organization phase if located at a Darkhaven. If they want to switch into another mode, they must first travel back to a Darkhaven to do so.
This is a case where people can still get a sense of how the regular game is played, but the enjoyment of the game is upheld.
Game Format
DARK ARDA is a game cube MECCG game for 2 to 9 players! Each player is assigned the role of one of the nine rulers of mortal men who were corrupted by a ring gift from Sauron and are now his undead servants.
This version of the game consists of several decks: a 117-card Random Character Deck containing Minions and Minion Agent cards; a 176-card Marshalling Point Deck containing card that give you victory points in this game; a 50-card Ring Deck that represent all the various kinds of magic rings that can be tested for in Middle Earth Lidless Eye; a 55-card Minor Item Deck; and finally a massive 607-card Main Player Deck, which includes 240 Minion Resource cards, 200 Hazard Event cards and 167 Hazard Creature cards. A Minion Location Deck (without any Underdeep locations) is also used when playing DARK ARDA.
Resource Cards: The majority of the minion resources come from Middle Earth: Lidless Eye with most of the card pool being thrown in. One notable series or cards that are not usually included are any of the Ringwraith Unleashed cards. Some of the Unleashed cards are powerful while others are useless in this environment. That and the odds of seeing a card you need being small, led to the decision not to include them.
Hazards: The majority of these kinds of cards come from the Lidless Eye set, but there are a few from every set including ME: The Wizards and ME: The Dragons. The hazard strategies included in the Main Player Deck include: unique dragon cards, men, elves, dwarves, Maiar and drakes with spiders and spawns thrown in for good measure.
The Game Starts
We start DARK ARDA in a slightly different order than other ARDA games.
Step 1: Select Ringwraiths
Each player selects a Ringwraith to play. Once each player has had an opportunity to select their Ringwraith, the Ringwraiths with printed abilities to make other Ringwraiths their followers get to make their selection. The Witch King makes his first pick first, followed by Khamul and then back to the Witch King if there are still selections available. Any remaining Ringwraiths are set aside in the event they can be played later in the game.
Step 2: Drafting Characters
First, each player receives a copy of one Minion or Minion Agent character with 7 Mind or greater (there are a total of 9 in the game). If there are four or fewer players, each player can be given two of these characters each. Second, each player is given two characters of 6 mind (three if 4 or fewer players). The remaining larger characters are shuffled in with all the small characters and then each player is given 9 characters at random to complete their draft pool.
Step 3: Determine Turn Order and Draft Minor Items
Once the draft pool is distributed, all players roll dice to determine who is going first. If you are playing with a group of 5 to 7 players, we play with two players going first simultaneously (thee player simultaneously if there are 8 or 9 players). This is explained in the original ARDA rules. Once first player(s) have been determined, then those who are considered last player(s) are given first chance to pick all of his starting party (or parties) minor items or permanent cards that can be played instead of minor items for their drafted characters. Selections continue in reverse order until all players have made picks from what is available. All unselected minor items and permanent cards are now shuffled into the Minor Item deck. The top four cards in the Minor Item deck are revealed.
Step 4: Verify Starting Parties and create Roving Character Deck. All starting parties are to be checked before the game begins to make sure they are legal. The Lidless Eye rules restricting Minion Agents at the start of the game are not used in DARK ARDA. In other words, Minion Agents are played just as if they are Minions. Unless at a Darkhaven, Trolls and Orcs cannot be in the same company as an Elf, Dwarf or Dunadan character.
Other restrictions on company composition in the Lidless Eye rules are in effect. This means an Orc and a Troll character with the Leader trait cannot be together in a company without using Orders From Lugburtz on the orc. Players who make a mistake in drafting may make adjustments to their starting companies using their draft pool cards. Once all starting parties have been verified as valid, all undrafted character cards are shuffled and placed in a Roving Character deck. The top four cards of the Roving Character deck are revealed.
Step 5: Draw Your Hands
DARK ARDA is played with each player controlling two hands, each made up with different types of cards. The first hand is 8 cards from the Main Player Deck and it is called your Player Hand. The other hand is made up of 5 cards from the Marshalling Point Deck. It is called your Treasure Hand. Everyone is now ready to begin playing! (See special rules below for drawing less cards in the opening hands when playing either Ringwraith followers or Whispers of Rings.)
Special Rules During Play
Unused General Influence Rule
The Council of Elrond has a rule that says Minion Players have 25 general influence at the start of the game. Five of that general influence can never be used to control any characters, but the other 20 influence is. This rule remains in effect while playing DARK ARDA. Don’t forget the 5 unused general influence when calculating results of hazard cards like Muster Disperses.
Simultaneous Turns Rules
For information on how to run the game with two or three active players simultaneously, see pages 5 and 6 of the regular ARDA rules.
Prone To Violence Rule
At the beginning of the game, a copy of the Minion Resource card Prone To Violence is considered to be in play. This means that any company that does not contain a Ringwraith may attack other companies that don’t contain a Ringwraith. When someone draws an actual copy of the card, that person may immediately place the card into the general environment area and draw a new card to replace it. If someone removes Prone To Violence from play, attacking others is no longer an option until a new copy can be played from the Play Deck. You cannot play cards targeting and removing a Prone To Violence card from play until someone actually places the card into play.
Ringwraith Mode Rules
It should be mentioned here that unless a Ringwraith is traveling between two Darkhavens or is returning to the Darkhaven printed on a site card (IE Starter movement), the Ringwraith must be in one of three modes in order to travel. Only Fell Rider mode is considered to be overt.
There is no regional movement for the Ringwraiths themselves. In order to travel to a non-Darkhaven site, the Ringwraith must start at the nearest Darkhaven listed on the location’s card. Ringwraiths are the most difficult characters to move around the board.
However, each player receives a copy of each of the three mode cards which can be played and reused throughout the game. Changing into a mode requires being at a Darkhaven and doing so in the Organization Phase. Changing from one mode to another requires being at a Darkhaven.
Follower Ringwraith Rules
Certain Ringwraith abilities and some resource cards allow Ringwraith cards not being used by players to be used as followers. In all cases, the Witch King gets to make his selection first. Once he and Khamul have made all of their selections, any additional Ringwraiths can become followers to other players who play the resources necessary to recruit them. Follower Ringwraiths are not allowed in a starting company. One can be brought in on the first turn using the standard rules for adding characters to a party. Until Ringwraith followers are brought into play, they sit in the Player Hand taking up space that would otherwise be occupied by resource or hazard cards.
Remember, the wording on all Ringwraith mode cards require that Ringwraith followers be discarded upon returning to a Darkhaven site. During that players next turn, in the organization phase, he may again select any single unclaimed Ringwraith as a follower card and play it instead of drafting a character from the Random Character Deck.
Minion Agent Rule
Minion Agent cards are played as if they were Minion cards or characters in DARK ARDA. They are never played as hazard agents.
Rules for Whispers of Rings and The Ring Deck
In DARK ARDA, rings are very important things. They should also be very fun things to chase after. For these reasons we are playing with the minion resource card Whispers of Rings in the Minor Item Deck. Whispers of Rings is a permanent event available instead of minor item at the beginning of the game that allows the player who chooses it to play up to two ring items underneath it.
A player who selects Whispers instead of a minor item as one of their beginning items in Step 3 of The Game Starts, may, in Step 5, draw 2 cards from the Rings Deck and 3 cards from the Marshaling Points Deck, instead of their normal 5 cards from the Marshaling Points Deck at the beginning of the game. Both of those drawn ring cards may immediately be played under the Whisper card on the first turn. However, this player does not refill his Marshalling Points hand as normal until the end of his or her first turn as an active player.
The Ring Deck
During the normal course of play, players will acquire rings that they wish to test from the Marshalling Points Deck. Once a player tests a ring, that player makes a roll then turns over the top 4 rings of the Ring Deck. He or she may exchange the tested ring for any one of the revealed cards that applies. If the testing player also has a Whisper of Rings card in play, he can check those saved rings for a match as well. If there are no matches, the tested ring is discarded. After resolving a ring test the cards from the Ring Deck which were not selected are placed at the bottom of the Ring Deck or reshuffled back into it. The unselected cards under a Whispers card remain there.
Rule for Resource Events in the Minor Item Deck
There are two Minion Resource Events that are part of the Minor Item Deck. They are Whispers of Rings and Orders from Lugburtz. These two events can be taken instead of a minor item at the beginning of the game. They can also be claimed instead of a minor item when they turn up in the Minor Item Deck.
Whispers of Rings claimed as a minor item (by taping a character at a site where a minor item is playable) are immediately put into play unattached to a character. The player can then choose to draw from the Ring Deck when they would normally draw from the Marshalling Points Deck and place the ring or rings drawn under the Whisper card. That player does not refill his or her Treasure Hand to five cards until after his or her next turn.
Orders From Lugburtz claimed as a minor item is immediately put into play unattached to a character. The player may immediately use it to get around the leader restriction to a company (use We Have Come to Kill to play a second orc leader into a company). Or the player may draft a character during their next turn ignoring the leader restriction.
Sudden Call Rule
Finally, each player is considered to have a copy of Sudden Call in their hand. This card remains in everyone’s hand until one player uses it to start the last turn. Sudden Call can be played as a resource by someone who has reached 25 marshaling points, or as a hazard during the movement hazard phase, when an opponent has reached 25 marshaling points but has not played Sudden Call.
After Sudden Call is played, everyone else gets one last turn before final marshalling point totals are determined.
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Goblin King wrote: Mon Oct 08, 2018 2:19 pm Notes from Sept. 20th play session
We played as though the word Agent was not on any minion card. And overall, we were quite happy with that decision. So I’ve adjusted the rules narrative accordingly. No need for Open to the Summons anymore.
We also played with all of the unique dragon cards and all of the unique dragon At Home cards. This seemed to go pretty well and made it a bit more challenging to recruit a dragon faction or even walk around dragon country.
We are going to keep those cards in the pool.
We removed Ancient Black Axe, because there are no underdark sites to visit (duh).
There were discussions about removing two other resource cards and two other hazard cards. The resources were Untimely Whisper, which allows you to see five cards in your opponent’s hand and Dark Tryst, which give you three more cards. The arguments for removing both were that they are more useful in constructed deck matches. Their utility in a fixed game cube play environment is much more limited. This is a valid point. I’ve decided remove Untimely Whisper, but keep Dark Tryst. (I like getting extra cards.
The hazard events proposed for removal were Enchanted Stream and River. Both are delay cards that slow the game down and cost a player a turn. They are standard hazards in most Hero Arda decks, but they are arguably more effective in DARK ARDA just because only 3 of 9 Ringwraiths are rangers. This is a valid argument, however, having a Ringwraith stopped by a river or stream is a thematic home run! Running water shut them down twice in Lord of the Rings, so I can’t pass it up. I’m keeping both cards in.
Thanks for the update! As much as I look forward to hearing how the play sessions go, I'm always a bit leery of knowing the results because I'm almost done constructing my own copy of the deck and really don't want to have to update everything. It's nice to know the changes are minor.

Now, I don't have a good handle on all of the cards in the deck yet, so when you say you'll play as though minion cards don't have the word Agent on them, are you referring just to characters, or are there resources that are affected by that as well?
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Goblin King
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No resources or hazards are affected by this change. The only agent cards in the whole game cube are Minion Agent characters.
One of the things that is so great about Arda is that there can be so many different versions of the deck out there and none is necessarily the best. I've played five different versions of the Hero Arda and they have all been a blast. I started my Hero Arda as a copy of Gandalf Gene's and I've modified it since then. So think of the Dar Arda as a starting point.
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It's not quite in its final form, but I figured you should see what you inspired, Goblin King.

Image
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Goblin King
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That looks great! Do you have opportunities to get it on a table? I hope so. Looking forward to our next gathering here in Sacramento in November. We will have at least five players, but I'm hoping for more.
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I've got one buddy that I play cards with every month or so, but we're still getting accustomed to the hero rules, so it may be a while before this one sees any play. When that time comes, though, I'll have my camera ready to go!
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dirhaval
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I was reading the post that appeared years earlier in the same thread.
If you still have put those cards out of the deck (mountain resource events, specific magic, coastal sea)
may be have them in separate piles.
For example, make an Eriador pile of Misty Mountain Deeps, the Shire MPs, and items specific to there; not factions/allies
Do the same for Wilderland, Gondor and Mordor. Make another pile of those spells that are not in the deck. A player
that has magic use can instead draw equal to his MP from the pile and picks one (RW, any or draw 4, pick 1).

Yet, looks like to me the game does not need any change. Like the x-agent keyword clause, and mode cards already on hand.
Goblin King
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dirhaval wrote: Mon Oct 22, 2018 11:58 pm I was reading the post that appeared years earlier in the same thread.
If you still have put those cards out of the deck (mountain resource events, specific magic, coastal sea)
may be have them in separate piles.
For example, make an Eriador pile of Misty Mountain Deeps, the Shire MPs, and items specific to there; not factions/allies
Do the same for Wilderland, Gondor and Mordor. Make another pile of those spells that are not in the deck. A player
that has magic use can instead draw equal to his MP from the pile and picks one (RW, any or draw 4, pick 1).

Yet, looks like to me the game does not need any change. Like the x-agent keyword clause, and mode cards already on hand.
I don't think we need any more deck piles. I have kept all of the cards pulled out in a pile that does travel with the game. If, during the course of play, we notice occasions arising where the cards in that pile are useful, we can add them back in to the game. So far, nobody's missed them.
Following the Agent Minion rules in the rulebooks makes almost all of the agents unplayable for the entire game and frequently denies players the ability to have a character with a mind above six in their opening company.
These are our experiences having played a half dozen games now. We will see if that changes as we continue to meet and play.
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