Long Winter / Foul Fumes - proposed errata or house rule?

Errata issued by the CoE, open discussion of candidate rules for errata, and submissions for the Annual Rules Vote.
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sarma72
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Ok thanks for the input here. Apparently I was wrong in thinking that the need to have ranger would be triggered by the site's path, whereas what's actually checked is the company's path to the site. So no worries there.

As for the second part, if this is to be interpreted as bad weather affecting sites in remote locations, then I still think that what should matter is the region where they sites are located, not how you get there from the closest Haven. Take Shrel-Kain, a perfectly civilised town in a rich borderland (Dorwinion, famous for its wines). Surely if hit by bad weather they would be able to do well, unlike some other places in the middle of a Wilderness and which would thus effectively cut off from the rest of Middle Earth till springs come... Another notable example is Bag End which in the middle of the Shire (site path [-me_wi-] [-me_wi-] [-me_fd-]). In fact, this site is also interesting in that its Minion version (site path [-me_sl-] [-me_wi-] [-me_fd-]) would not be affected by Long Winter, which clearly introduces an inconsistency. There may be more examples of this contradiction, but I have not checked.

My proposal would be to have the second part triggered only if the site is actually located within a Wilderness, by changing the corresponding text to

"Additionally, if Doors of Night is in play, each non-Haven site in play within a Wilderness is tapped. Cannot be duplicated."

That would spare the following sites (I'm checking only Hero) with two [-me_wi-] on the site's path from the closest Haven but which are not actually located within a [-me_wi-]:

Bag End
Barad-Dur
Mount Doom
Minas Morgul
Shelod's Lair
Shrel-Kain
Urlurtsu Nurn
Cirith Gorgor
Nursing Camp

and further impact:

Ettenmooors
Cameth Brin
Hermit Hill
Long Galen

which happen to have only one [-me_wi-] in their site path, the same as their closest Haven (Rhudaur, Wold & Foothills, Alfalas).

Likewise, for Foul Fumes, the proposal would be to change the second part into

"Additionally, if Doors of Night is in play, each non-Haven site in play within a [-me_sl-] or a [-me_dd-] is tapped. Cannot be duplicated."

which would spare only sites in the Withered Heath Dragon country:

Caves of Ulund
Dancing Spire
Gold Hill
Irerock

Finally, it would also make sense to also change the second sentence in Storms of Osse into

"Each non-Haven site in play within a [-me_cs-] is tapped. Cannot be duplicated."

Indeed, again it does not make sense that this would those inland sites

Gobel Mirlond
Haudh-in-Gwanur
Nurniag-Camp (site path [-me_wi-] [-me_fd-] [-me_cs-] [-me_wi-] [-me_sl-] [-me_dd-] !!!)
Southron Oasis
Urlurtsu Nurn ([-me_wi-] [-me_fd-] [-me_cs-] [-me_wi-] [-me_sl-] [-me_dd-])
Variag Camp ([-me_wi-] [-me_fd-] [-me_cs-] [-me_wi-] [-me_sl-])

that are reachable also from elsewhere.

So in the end, I think that changing the second part of Long Winter and Foul Fumes, as well as similarly fixing Storms of Osse as I suggested would not only a) be thematically consistent but would also b) avoid a clear contradictions in how these cards affects differently the Hero and Minion version of some sites, although this does not apply to Foul Fumes as this would not affect a Ringwraith player. I am not a super expert to judge whether these changes would not greatly unbalance the game. Possibly they may make it easier to reach Mount Doom and One Ring decks, and may reduce the usefulness of Storms of Osse although as far as I know this is already mostly a sideboard card...
Last edited by sarma72 on Fri May 07, 2021 5:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Theo
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Variag Camp would become unaffected as well.
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