Fantasy Quest

Fortune and Glory - New Dangers Deck Complete

2012-03-02T08:07:00.000-08:00

Heroes in The Redhorn Gate, Part Three

2012-02-21T02:22:00.002-08:00

From the FFG article here:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3084

“If Gandalf would go before us with a bright flame, he might melt a path for you,” said Legolas. The storm had troubled him little, and he alone of the Company remained still light of heart.
“If Elves could fly over mountains, they might fetch the Sun to save us,” answered Gandalf. “But I must have something to work on. I cannot burn snow.”
“Well,” said Boromir, “when heads are at a loss bodies must serve, as we say in my country. The strongest of us must seek a way.”

–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Two weeks ago, we explored how different combinations of heroes might each tackle the unique challenges of The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. Decks take on different personalities and the game plays differently depending on your choice of heroes in your starting fellowship.

We believe this variety is a good thing. Players have different personalities, and they should be able to build and play decks that suit them. In solo games, a player’s deck establishes the tenor of the entire game. In multiplayer games, however, a player’s deck influences part of the game, but not the entirety of it. It’s impossible for a player to change the shape of the entire game with just one deck among two, three, or four, but players may certainly still play decks that suit their styles. In fact, multiplayer offers more room for specialized roles than solo play.

Today, we look at some of the current multiplayer archetypes and explore some of the cards that make help these decks quest successfully.

What’s your style?

As the player card and hero pools for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game expand, players gain more options for deck customization, allowing for greater focus on a theme or role than the pre-constructed decks from the Core Setoffer. Many of these reconfigured decks benefit from the combination of heroes and player cards from two or more spheres of influence, combining complementary cards from each sphere to reinforce the deck’s overall purpose.

Below, we identify a few multi-sphere deck archetypes and look at how the heroes play into each of them:

TANK
Heroes: Gimli (Core Set, 4), Boromir (The Dead Marshes, 95), Frodo (Conflict at the Carrock, 25)

The tank’s role is to engage as many enemies as possible, and destroy them. Frodo may seem out of place, but he acts as the “armor” that allows the player to engage more than he can safely block. Absorbing enemies is just as important a part of the tank’s duties as is destroying them.

As long as you don’t hit fifty threat, you generally want a higher threat than your teammates so that you’ll draw enemies out of the staging area before they’re forced to engage your friends. Boromir and Frodo can both raise your threat. Just be careful that you don’t put yourself at risk too early. The Galadhrim’s Greeting (Core Set, 46) is an expensive event for the deck, but it can help you stay in the game longer to support your friends.

Also, allies with Sentinel can help you better defend your teammates. The Gondorian Spearman (Core Set, 29) and Winged Guardian (The Hunt for Gollum, 4) can both block attacks directed at your teammates, and a Feint (Core Set, 34) can come in handy, too. Meanwhile, as you focus on absorbing hits so that your teammates won’t, you can expect to suffer some casualties, making the Horn of Gondor (Core Set, 42) a perfect fit.

HEALER
Denethor (Core Set, 10), Eleanor (Core Set, 8), Glorfindel (Core Set, 11)

The healer’s role is to keep the party alive, both by healing damage and by mitigating the dangers of the encounter deck. While other players focus on questing, attacking, and defending, the healer plays a quieter and subtler role away from the front lines and all the game’s primary action.

Denethor’s ability to scout the top card of the encounter deck is more useful in games with fewer players because he grants you information about a greater percentage of the encounter cards you’re due to face. On the other hand, Eleanor’s ability provides greater impact in games with more players, where you’ll face more cards and it’s more likely a single treachery card may steer your heroes off their course. Critical to your use of the deck is knowing when to use these heroes’ abilities, rather than keep them ready to support your teammates by defending against enemies.

Still, you can supplement these abilities with cards like A Test of Will (Core Set, 50) and Hasty Stroke (Core Set, 48) to lessen the impact of surprises from treachery and shadow effects. And when your scouting fails, you can still help your teammates recover quickly from their bruises with Glorfindel and cards like Lore of Imladris (Core Set, 63), Daughter of the Nimrodel (Core Set, 58), and Beorn’s Hospitality (Core Set, 68).

Apart from Glorfindel, your heroes aren’t much good in a fight, but they are clever. Even though you want to direct your focus elsewhere, if you can prompt some Infighting (A Journey to Rhosgobel, 58) among your foes, you may be able to help your party finish off wounded enemies.

ADVENTURER
Aragorn (Core Set, 1), Éowyn (Core Set, 7), Imrahil (A Journey to Rhosgobel, 50)

The adventurer’s role is to focus as much on questing as possible, and a starting fellowship of Aragorn, Éowyn, and Imrahil can quest with the best of them. Players have long debated whether or not Éowyn is critical to success in the game. She’s not “critical,” but it’s hard to argue that her four Willpower isn’t helpful. In a four-player game, she can quest for as much as eight Willpower if each player sacrifices a card to fuel her ability.

Aragorn and Imrahil fit the deck because they both share two Willpower and the ability to ready themselves after questing. Aragorn readies if he pays a resource from his pool, making him an excellent candidate to serve as the Steward of Gondor (Core Set, 26), and Imrahil readies whenever a character leaves play, meaning that he can react swiftly if your Snowbourn Scout (Core Set, 16) or Westfold Horse-Breaker (Core Set, 6) is struck down by an enemy or rides off to ready another hero.

Plus, Aragorn is Middle-earth’s greatest ranger and the rightful heir to Elendil’s throne. Accordingly, he gets a little extra love and benefit from some cards like Celebrían’s Stone (Core Set, 27), which not only gives him two extra Willpower but also adds a Spirit icon. This means the fellowship can play two-cost allies like Westfold Horse-Breaker and Escort from Edoras (A Journey to Rhosgobel, 55) each turn, rather than needing to save for them. With their extra Willpower, the quester can race forward to put progress toward your quest each turn.

An Open Letter To The Publisher « Christopher Fowler's Blog

2012-02-17T03:54:00.001-08:00

A brilliant author nailing a horrifying media trend...

An Open Letter To The Publisher « Christopher Fowler's Blog:

'via Blog this'

Dear Harper Collins,

I see that you are to pay Amanda Knox £4 million for her memoirs. Apparently she hired a top lawyer used by Barack Obama and George W. Bush to negotiate a book deal about being jailed in Italy for her part in the murder of Meredith Kercher, a British student.

I see that she will reveal ‘never before told details surrounding her case, and describe how she used her inner strength and strong family ties to cope with the most challenging time of her young life.’

I am a jobbing writer who gets paid an often staggeringly low sum for each of my books. If I am found innocent of murdering someone, will you give me a book deal?

Heroes in The Redhorn Gate, Part Two

2012-02-16T03:40:00.003-08:00

From the FFG article here:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3057

“I think no good of our course from beginning to end, as you know well, Gandalf,” answered Aragorn. “And perils known and unknown will grow as we go on. But we must go on; and it is no good our delaying the passage of the mountains. Further south there are no passes, till one comes to the Gap of Rohan. I do not trust that way since your news of Saruman. Who knows which side now the marshals of the Horse-lords serve?”
“Who knows indeed!” said Gandalf. “But there is another way, and not by the pass of Caradhras: the dark and secret way.”

–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

The heroes of Middle-earth undertake great and perilous quests in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, and their threats increase the more fully they come to the Dark Lord’s attention. As in Tolkien’s epic fantasy, the heroes find themselves in the role of the underdogs, a small band setting forth into dangerous wilds and treacherous mines, filled with Orcs, Trolls, and other monstrous enemies.

Among the first choices players must make are which heroes to include in their fellowships. Last week, Nate French explained some of the reasons the rules allow each player to select up to three heroes, and as a rule, it has historically been foolish to choose any fewer. However, this week we explore the development of Secrecy and the impact it may have upon your starting fellowship.

Smart and secret

When we announced The Redhorn Gate back in October, we hinted at the Secrecy mechanic the Dwarrowdelf cycle develops. In January’s article,Boromir’s Guide to Deck Building, Part Two, we defined Secrecy in its simplest terms and we discussed how it can give players a means to accelerate their resources. Players who can keep their threat at 20 or below gain greater card effects at discounted prices.

Still, Secrecy does something more than just accelerate resources. It opens up an entirely different path for deck construction. Because the safest way to ensure you can trigger the discounts of your Secrecy cards is to start with 20 or less threat, Secrecy encourages the design of fellowships with only two heroes (or even just one!).

Today, Lukas Litzsinger, the lead developer of the Dwarrowdelf cycle, discusses how the Secrecy mechanic took shape:

The evolution of Secrecy

While the Secrecy cards introduced in the Dwarrowdelf cycle can be used in any deck, they are easily most useful when you keep your threat at 20 or below. Players can use cards such as The Galadhrim’s Greeting (Core Set, 46) orGandalf (Core Set, 73) to lower their threat, but in order to take advantage of Secrecy from the very beginning of the game, you need a low starting threat, which may lead players to experiment with decks that play two heroes, or even just one.

However, Secrecy didn’t start in its current format. In fact, the mechanic went through a lot of revisions. Because the game already provides lots of incentives for players to lower their threat, anything that rewarded players for lowering their threat as much as possible had to be carefully implemented. Originally, we developed Secrecy cards that could only be played by players who ran just one hero. That was too restrictive, so we tried with two. Fine-tuning the cards became a major concern. If the Secrecy cards were too good, then players who started with three heroes would sacrifice their heroes just to play them, or they might be even more devious and play a bunch of Secrecy cards before reviving their hero with a Fortune or Fate (Core Set, 54). If the Secrecy cards weren’t extremely powerful, then no one would bother playing without a third hero just to use them. Ultimately, we deemed that restricting the mechanic based on the number of starting heroes (or even the number of characters in play) was too problematic.

Basing their play on a threat restriction felt more thematic. Threat already represents how visible your party is to enemies, so making Secrecy effects playable only by players with extremely low threat worked thematically. Since your heroes also set your starting threat level, running heroes with very low threat, or running fewer than three heroes makes it easier to play Secrecy cards without having to draw a lot of threat reduction. It also makes it easier to keep your threat low while the encounter deck tries to raise it.

The last change the Secrecy mechanic saw was the introduction of the variable cost reduction. At first, Secrecy functioned like an on/off switch, but players were too heavily penalized when their threat skyrocketed, making them completely unable to play a bunch of cards in their decks. So the Secrecy discount allows for a middle-ground, requiring a set threat level, but then giving various discounts to the cards. You can still play Secrecy cards without Secrecy, and building a deck with Secrecy cards that suffers an unforeseen spike in its threat level does not leave you with a bunch of unplayable cards in your hand.

Secrecy will open up new strategies for players, and make them reconsider the default rule of three heroes to a deck.

Mage Knight The Board Game - Obligatory “My First Solo Conquest Post” + EuroTrash Health Warning

2012-02-08T09:02:00.000-08:00

I caught a bug from boardgamegeek that Mage Knight The Board Game was awesome and that I was missing out by not having it. So I recently picked up seemingly the last UK copy of Mage Knight – I couldn’t find it anywhere. Eventually I turned up a copy hidden in the RPG section of my FLGS where no board gamer would find it. Or so they thought!

I have to say I was disappointed when I opened the box to discover that the Torvak mini was entirely missing from the game, and that the Round Order tokens were packed so tightly I can’t envision anyone receiving a pristine copy of those – mine were badly scratched up. There were also errata in the rulebook for a couple of cards that should have been corrected before release. After reading positive reports about Wizkids’ customer service I put in my request for replacement bits and am keenly awaiting the results of that, although a week later the order request is still just showing as ’received’.

Limping through the rule book for the past few days I’ve been bumbling through the learning scenario, you know, making the requisite number of mistakes to really start learning it, checking the geek threads to see what I’m doing wrong, and then realising that underneath all the perceived complexities and idiosyncrasies there’s actually a rather simplistic and pleasing game in here.

So what’s it all about? Mages. Knights. Hard to say really. You have deck building sort of like Thunderstone, with similar 'no dice' card-driven combat. You have tile exploration like the D&D Castle Ravenloft games. An overland adventure setting like Runebound. The looming spectre of Magic Realm permeates the air, but having given up on learning that behemoth a long time ago I couldn’t comment further on comparisons there. And you have different ways to interact with all the different places you visit (monasteries, keeps, villages, cities, ruins, tombs, dungeons, mage towers), but mostly this is buying stuff or killing stuff. It's all very interesting, and at the moment I barely even consider long term strategy as I play. It's all about: what the hell can I do with these cards this turn??

In terms of theme it’s not really up there with any of the other fantasy games. I’ve seen other people attach narrative to the game but in my own experience (and maybe this will change with time) there are too many bits and pieces that detract from a narrative experience. This is not a negative, just a by-product of the semi-complex, semi-euro design. Plus the narrative itself is a little weird for those of us unfamiliar with the Mage Knight lore:

“You are a Mage Knight – an uber warrior with a ton of power and dubious motives given power and employed by people with dubious motives to alternately plunder, destroy and give gainful employment to a populace with dubious motives who will occasionally love you for destroying their cities and plundering their homes, although they may become temporarily narked if you burn their monasteries. But not necessarily. Oh, and you’ll conquer this whole country in 3 days or die trying.”

Three days just doesn’t feel very epic. Although the game length will – Mage Knight takes a looong time to play, at least whilst you’re learning the game still.

Just briefly, here are some stat types you’ll find used in the game:

Move : standard spaces cost 2 movement points, hills cost more, mountains even more, etc

Block : creatures usually attack first so you need to block before you can attack back

Attack : for when you do fight back

Influence : for recruiting units to join you

Reputation : a + or - to Influence depending on how nice you've been to the locals

Ranged Attack : kind of like ‘first strike’, lets you attack enemies first unless they're ’fortified', e.g. in keeps or towers

Siege Attack : like Ranged attack but also works against fortified enemies, unless they’re DOUBLY FORTIFIED – that’s right, fortified enemies inside a fortified place

Rangey Siegey Tunnelly Mega Godzilla Attack for TRIPLY FORTIFIED enemies : okay this one doesn’t actually exist per se, although with certain card combo effects you can make it seem like it does.

You get 5 cards from your deck each turn and you build your deck as you go to try and combo up your cards in hand to do cool stuff. An early turn might go:

“I use these two 'Move 2' cards to move 2 plains spaces (which cost 2 Move each) to get to that village and adjacent to those rampaging orcs, I challenge the orcs to fight, they attack me with 'Attack 3', so I use this ’Block 3' card to prevent that, then I use these two 'Attack 2' cards to give me 'Attack 4', they have 'Armour 4' which means I've just enough to kill them, they're dead. That gives me 2 Fame (VPs) and the locals like it when you kill rampaging orcs so I get +1 Reputation too. I think I'll lose that extra 1 Reputation to plunder this village since I'm here anyway, mwahahaahaaa...” Etc.

The more cards you get the more advanced the cards get until you're comboing out of your arse trying to figure out the best way to lay waste to everything and burn the most monasteries. Or you can be nice instead, your choice!

It is a very cool game. It successfully manages to combine deck building, tile drawing, a weird fantasy theme, dice (albeit weirdly – they’re used strictly to generate available mana for each turn), a card draw/battle system, and a developing sense of pace. I'm not sure how it works but it does and once you start playing it, it's nowhere near as complicated as anticipated. So much so that I had some kind of a mental break last night after my gaming buddy left and I played a full Solo Conquest game until 3.30 this morning.

At this point I need professional help...

Our two player run of the introductory scenario took about 3 hours, as did my Solo Conquest game afterwards. The two player basic game (Goal: merely find the first City) was competitive in the loosest sense in that I tried to convey the rules and give advice as we went. We both scored fairly low after the allotted 3 rounds and there were only a few points’ difference between us. I managed to leapfrog to the win at the end mostly by accident with some late game healing – my gaming buddy took a brutal pasting in the last turn which filled his hand with wounds and gave him the unenviable title of Greatest Beating, which dropped his score to just below mine.

I’m still learning the rules myself - and the Cities themselves can be mind blowing so I was determined to crack them last night. I tore through a Solo Conquest game with Torvak (using Norowas’ mini) because I hadn’t used him yet due to his mini’s absence. Goldyx was the elegantly implemented dummy player/timer and was consistent but never frantic – I managed to play all my cards before each round finished.

Time flew and after racing to explore the map, ducking into the occasional dungeon, assaulting three keeps and a mage tower, and slaying a ton of orcs; in the wee small hours of this morning I reached my first level 4 city, stocked full of angry people for me to destroy. You get about 4 enemy units in each city with defensive and offensive traits and skills coming out of their arses. But the Gold Units that you can gain in the later game help out a lot – with mighty catapults and crazy golems joining your army. Plus I nabbed this mega artifact with a one shot ability of "skip the block and damage assigning part of one combat". So the first city was a murder-fest because the poor bastards couldn’t fight back as my Mage Knight and his units stormed over the city’s defenses.

After appointing myself the new leader of the city I realised that defeating a city is a bit anticlimactic because there are no real immediate rewards other than the ability to trade there next turn. I thought I'd never reach the second city and was pleased just to have got as far as I did. Plus it was a level 8 city, which presumably was really tough. It was the last Night of the game and I only had a few cards left so I raced over to the second city to see what I could do. The city was near one of my 3 keeps so I was able to pull a few extra cards into my hand from the keep’s bonus ability. Then, invading the city I pulled out some badass enemies and threw everything I had at them, cancelling enemy attacks with my units, pouring crystals into boosted magical attacks and slowly but surely taking them down one by one.

After an excruciating battle I wiped out all of the white (harder) enemies and had one measly grey (weaker but still tough) Golem enemy left but no more cards or uninjured units. It was the last round of the game and at the end of my go Goldyx would signal the end of the game and give me one more turn to try and win. Sadly this meant nothing to me because I had no cards, crystals, useful mana or units to do anything with. I was spent. I pored over my skills and stared despondently at my hand full of wounds and all my decimated units with a wound on each of them.

They stared back, pleadingly.

I needed to inflict 5 damage but the Golem had physical resistance. I had a skill which I could use once a turn to get +2 Ice Attack that would beat his resistance, and another skill which reduced his armour by 1 for each resistance he had, so I still needed to rustle up 2 more damage to defeat the Golem and win the game.

It was then that I noticed my last unused Tactic card of the game, one which would allow me to reshuffle 5 cards from my discard pile back into my hand. There were some great Advanced cards in that discard pile, but also a lot of basic non-Attack cards and a crap ton of wounds.

Going through the motions I let Goldyx declare game’s end and took my final turn, gingerly shuffling and drawing 5 cards:

A wound

Healing

Movement

Influence

Block

Not one attack card!

Luckily you can play any card except wounds for 1 basic effect, like Block, Move, Influence or, as in this case, Attack. So I put down the four basic cards for Attack 4.

The Golem’s physical resistance halved this down to just Attack 2.

And he fell.

Giggity.

I had just scraped it and lost or used literally everything in the assault. It was epic. I scored about 140 points (will check that figure when I have the game handy later).

There's a lot going on in the game but the fundamentals underneath it all are fairly comprehensible. It's just remembering all the little idiosyncrasies. e.g. "when you do get an artifact you always draw 2 and pick 1", or "monasteries put advanced actions in the unit offer, not in the advanced actions offer". It's not exactly intuitive.

It was awesome though, I had conquered both cities, and the second one was on the very last possible turn by the absolute skin of my teeth.

I may be in sore need of sleep and have a nasty crick in my neck, but I need another full session soon, Doctor Chvatil!

WARNING - this game may cause job-jeopardising sleep loss!

Fantasy Quest Game Layout

2012-02-07T04:05:00.000-08:00

Here's another page from the new FQ rules version. Any spelling and grammatical help is most appreciated!

Heroes in The Redhorn Gate, Part One - A spotlight on the heroes of The Lord of The Rings: The Card Game

2012-02-07T01:59:00.000-08:00

From the original FFG article here:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3045

Aragorn was the tallest of the Company, but Boromir, little less in height, was broader and heavier in build. He led the way, and Aragorn followed him. Slowly they moved off, and were soon toiling heavily. In places the snow was breast-high, and often Boromir seemed to be swimming or burrowing with his great arms rather than walking.
Legolas watched them for a while with a smile upon his lips, and then he turned to the others. “The strongest must seek a way, say you? But I say: let a ploughman plough, but choose an otter for swimming, and for running over grass and leaf, or over snow – an Elf.”

–The Fellowship of the Ring

With the completion of the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle and the release of Khazad-dûm, players now have far more heroes from which to choose as they build their fellowships, but how do you decide which to include? Are there any hard and fast rules about the best ways to combine heroes from different spheres? Have you ever wondered why The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game limits players to three heroes in the first place?

Let’s start by addressing the last of these questions first. While it’s true that players can choose to run fewer than three heroes, it’s generally not advised.

The rule of three

A two-hero fellowship (or even a solitary hero) may be able to make progress toward the quest for a period of time, while slipping beneath the notice of any enemies in the staging area, but eventually the mounting threats of locations and enemies are likely to catch up to a small party. The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is intentionally balanced for three heroes.

The game’s designer, Nate French, explains:

Three is a really strong number for game design. It presents possibilities for different approaches to games that can appeal to different types of players. When you play a game, having to focus on three options can lead you to a balanced approach that works like a tripod leaning equally upon all three sides (a tri-sphere deck, with one hero from each of three different spheres), or you may take a split focus between a major sphere with support from a minor sphere (a deck with two Spirit heroes, and one Tactics hero, for instance). Still another option exists, and you can focus all your efforts on a single point of interest (a focused, monosphere deck).

Having only two options for heroes would be too limiting in possibilities; it creates situations that are all an either/or or a perfect mix. Four options, on the other hand, would start to enter the territory of allowing players to do “everything” right out of the gate, which would lessen the meaning and impact of selecting heroes in the first place.

Another nice aspect of having three heroes in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is that you have three major points of focus each turn: questing, defending, and attacking. With three heroes, your hero base can cover the three main points of the game. With four options, you would start getting to the point where you’re trying to spin too many plates at once. Card games are filled with constantly shifting rules as cards enter and leave play, and adding another multiplier can just prove overwhelming.

Split or focused spheres?

Nate offers both a nice definition of the challenges The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game offers fellowships and a similarly succinct definition of the various approaches players may take to building their fellowships. Each turn players need to divide their fellowship’s attentions between questing, defending, and attacking, and as they consider how best to meet those demands, players can choose to combine two or three spheres of influence, or rely upon the strengths of a single sphere.

Of course, your concerns for deck construction will be slightly different if you’re building for solitary play than if you’re building for multiplayer games. In multiplayer games, players can split the game’s three main tasks (questing, defending, and attacking) between the two decks, so that one player may be responsible for questing while the other may do the dirty work of defending and attacking. In solitary play, however, one fellowship must balance all three tasks.

Many players have long noted they’ve met with greater success when running at least two spheres, whether split between multiple players or combining heroes from different spheres in a solitary deck. This is because the spheres each excel at different aspects of the game (and different tasks). While there are no hard and fast rules about combining the spheres of influence, strong decks must have plans built into them to commit Willpower to the quest, defend and destroy enemies, draw cards, generate resources, and survive the nastiest Treachery cards the encounter deck can throw at them.

Typically, Spirit cards provide high Willpower and efficient means of canceling Treachery effects, Lore cards provide excellent card draw, Leadership provides resource acceleration, and Tactics provides you the means of surviving and quickly defeating even the nastiest enemies. If you draw upon the strongest and most appropriate cards for your deck’s theme from two or three of these spheres, you can gain the traditional benefits of both (or all three) spheres, and you may be able to focus your deck even more keenly than if you hewed to just one sphere.

Ploughmen to plough, otters to swim

While a deck’s “personality” may be most clearly expressed in a multiplayer game, even single-player decks can express dramatically different approaches to the game, starting with their selection of heroes.

QUESTER: Dúnhere (Core Set, 9), Éowyn (Core Set, 7), Theodred (Core Set, 2)
Starting threat: 24

A quester focuses on committing as much Willpower as possible to the quest, while facing as little resistance as possible. Éowyn and Théodred quest each turn, while Dúnhere skirmishes enemies in the staging area. Cards that reduce threat, such as The Galadhrim’s Greeting (Core Set, 46) and Gandalf (Core Set, 73), are key to the success of this deck as they allow Dúnhere to attack without ever first having to face an attack.

FIGHTER: Éowyn, Gimli (Core Set, 4), Legolas (Core Set, 5)
Starting threat: 29

Unlike the quester, the fighter doesn’t shy away from getting down and dirty in combat. While Éowyn focuses on the quest, Gimli can take some hits and gets stronger for them. Legolas rewards you for fighting by adding progress tokens each time he helps defeat an enemy. An Unexpected Courage (Core Set, 57) on Gimli makes him a formidable combatant, and a couple copies of Blade of Gondolin (Core Set, 39) make felling foes even more rewarding.

SAGE: Beravor (Core Set, 12), Bifur (Khazad-dûm, 2), Bilbo (The Hunt for Gollum, 1)
Starting threat: 26

Knowledge is power, and knowledge in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is best represented by the cards and options in your hand. This focused trio of Lore heroes provides tremendous card draw, and you can add to it with Gléowine (Core Set, 62). The Lore sphere features a great number of cards to reduce the threat in the staging area and can convert card draw into Willpower via Protector of Lorien (Core Set, 70), but you’ll probably want to include some Songs to splash cards from other spheres.

PROTECTOR: Boromir (The Dead Marshes, 95), Eleanor (Core Set, 8), Frodo (Conflict at the Carrock, 25)
Starting threat: 25

This fellowship plays its low starting threat against the optional threat increases it can trigger from Boromir and Frodo to gain extra actions. As with the quester, the protector benefits tremendously from cards that reduce threat, allowing Boromir to quest, defend, and attack every turn. Cards you play to boost Boromir, such as Blade of Gondolin and The Favor of the Lady (Core Set, 55), provide tremendous rewards as he can use them all every turn.

JACK OF ALL TRADES: Aragorn (Core Set, 1), Beravor, Frodo
Starting threat: 29

Starting with three spheres, this fellowship can do a little bit of everything. Aragorn allows you to play Steward of Gondor (Core Set, 26) to accelerate your resources, while Beravor accelerates your card draw. You’ll have a lot of options in your hand every turn, and Aragorn and Frodo provide you with action advantage. Aragorn can pay resources to ready himself after committing to the quest, and Frodo can serve as a “defender” even while exhausted, absorbing damage as threat in times of need.

Looking ahead

Are you wondering how these archetypes may change with the release of The Redhorn Gate and the subsequent Adventure Packs from the Dwarrowdelf cycle? Next week, Part Two of this series takes a look at the impact Secrecy is likely to have upon your starting fellowships. Then, in two weeks, Part Three takes a closer look at multiplayer roles and the new hero from The Redhorn Gate!

Fantasy Flight Games [News] - An Update on Star Wars: The Card Game

2012-02-06T18:15:00.000-08:00

Fantasy Flight Games [News] - An Update on Star Wars: The Card Game:

'via Blog this'

In August, we announced the upcoming release of Star Wars: The Card Game, a Living Card Game® based on the original Star Wars trilogy. Today, we would like to share an update on its development.

Fantasy Flight Games’ current catalog of LCGs® offers a variety of exceptional and unique gameplay experiences, with the LCG® format among our most successful publishing categories. With this in mind, we want to make sure that Star Wars: The Card Game features a truly groundbreaking LCG® play experience.

The game we showed off at Gen Con 2011 would have been a strong addition to our LCG® catalog. However, as we were making the final touches to the product, we came to the realization that while it was a good game, it simply was not the greatest, most engaging game experience that FFG could deliver. So, we made a difficult decision and went back to the drawing board on the Star Wars: The Card Game design.

How will this affect the release date?

We are currently expecting to publish Star Wars: The Card Game worldwide just before the 2012 holidays. That said, it can be difficult to predict when the creative process will end, so this date should be taken as an estimate.

While we are disappointed that our original estimated release date will not be met, we are sure that our players would agree that our decision to delay Star Wars: The Card Game was the best one. We are absolutely confident that with the extra time this affords us, Star Wars: The Card Game will become one of FFG’s greatest products ever.

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game - Foundations of Stone

2012-02-06T02:48:00.000-08:00

Fantasy Flight Games [News] - Foundations of Stone:

'via Blog this'

“Something has crept, or been driven out of dark waters under the mountains. There are older and fouler things than Orcs in the deep places of the world.”
–Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce the upcoming release of Foundations of Stone, the fifth Adventure Pack in the Dwarrowdelf cycle for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!

Deeper into the Dwarrowdelf

In the Dwarrowdelf cycle, several of Middle-earth’s heroes escort Arwen Undómiel safely to Rivendell. There, Elrond expresses his concern about the increased Orc activity the heroes noted through The Redhorn Gate and on the Road to Rivendell. He requests the heroes search the Misty Mountains for the cause of the region’s increased Orcish presence, and their search leads them first to the Doors of Durin, where they must battle The Watcher in the Water. Only after they manage to survive the perilous combat do the heroes enter Moria and wander The Long Dark.

Onward and deeper, they press into the mines of Moria. Hazards slow their movement and threaten their health. Orcs confront them at every turn, but with little sign of true leadership or organization. Still, the heroes feel they are ever closing in upon the true source of the Orcish activity. Their search leads them deeper and deeper, down into Moria’s Foundations of Stone.

Trapped!

The new scenario in Foundations of Stone traps the heroes in treacherous underground currents, washing them into the dark waters where the nameless things lair. Older and fouler than Orcs, they will test your heroes to the utmost limits of their resilience. Confronted by an Elder Nameless Thing (Foundations of Stone, 126), washed into the dark, watery recesses of Middle-earth, and with no one to rely upon but themselves, will your heroes survive the trials they face below the Dwarrowdelf’s Foundations of Stone?

Relics lost beneath the mountains

While heroes face all-new dangers and quest mechanics in Foundations of Stone, they find unexpected treasures far beneath the mountains. A pair of powerful Artifacts show up in the least likely of places–the encounter deck–that can give your heroes the edge they need to survive their battles with nameless things. Dwarf characters, especially, will take heart from the discovery of these items, including Durin’s Helm (Foundations of Stone, 120).

Discover Dwarven Artifacts, face the terrifying nameless things, and move closer to the root of the increased Orcish presence within the Misty Mountains when you travel beneath Moria’s Foundations of Stone.

Drizzt Vs Strahd – The Hunt For Strahd Part 2

2012-02-03T04:58:00.000-08:00

Drizzt and Artemis and Vs Count Strahd – The Hunt For Strahd Part 2

We have played a LOT of the D&D Adventure System. But I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve lost to this scenario. Actually I can: every time we’ve played it. But this time we were determined to defeat the evil Count. So much so, in fact, that we also agreed to follow the adventure book’s advice for when you’re feeling down and take three healing surges with us instead of two. Two surges is just never enough for this high level scenario. Especially when you start out a player down.

Drizzt: “This shit just got real yo.”

Artemis: “What?”

Drizzt: “When we finish this Count Drac-... Strahd off for good, we’re going to go and pummel that stupid red dragon Asharno-Ashnoarad-Ashlonaren-.... Ashley. We will end him.”

Artemis: “You see, this is why you and I are mortal enemies. I just can’t stand even the way you speak. You know, this celebrity team-up is not going to last much longer, I’ll tell you that right now.”

Drizzt: “Shh. Look, a messenger pigeon. It’s from Jarlaxle. It says...

“Dear Guys,

I’m sorry I can’t make it tonight. I know we agreed we’d kill Count Strahd and end his centuries-long evil reign of tyranny, but I have football tonight.

All the best,

Jar.”

Artemis: “I knew that bastard would let us down. I told you he would last time when he kept saying his leg was feeling better.”

Drizzt: “Let’s split his treasure.”

We’ve been playing the campaign rules with treasure tokens, which means actual treasures are few and far between but you get to keep them between adventures. It’s more difficult, but more fun, and kind of balances out in the long term if you can survive. On the last adventure I actually played Jarlaxle, but since the guy playing Drizzt wasn’t with us last night I took up the mantle of the the Realms’ Greatest Ranger instead and we decided to leave Jar-Jar at home. Mmzomba loves Artemis so he stuck with the Realms’ Greatest Assassin, who was currently already level 2.

Assembling our powers and treasures we had a good start. Artemis had some speedy boots which made him run as fast as Drizzt, plus he had a magic sword and a few one shot items. Drizzt was carrying the Sunsword over from the Sunsword Adventure and had his good friend Guen the panther with him and with our pansified third healing surge we were feeling pretty confident.

As well as destroying Strahd for good, you also need to destroy all his coffins in this adventure. This is tricky because if you wait until you’ve beaten Strahd you have to waste 10 turns smashing coffins and continue surviving any encounters and monsters left over. However if you start too early you can have Strahd appear very early on and start munching on you – this is also bad because when you then reveal his lair he heals back to full strength. So we decided to leave the coffins alone until after roughly the halfway mark before tipping them over and smashing them up good.

The brutalising nature of Castle Ravenloft Encounters never fail to surprise me, especially after a few games of Wrath of Ashardalon, or particularly Drizzt, which are almost friendly by comparison. Within a few rounds the passage of time was sapping our strength, and every ounce of monster we defeated got discarded as soon as possible to cancel traps and nasty environments. As usual, whilst beating up the minions we consistently drew “100GP” treasure tokens with nary a treasure card in sight. But it didn’t matter, we had the Sunsword!

Guen made a guest appearance early on and dived onto a wolf for a tussle, which then promptly killed her. I couldn’t roll for crap, so every attack Drizzt made with his paltry +6 to hit was a waste of a roll. Thank goodness for Artemis then, who was plonking drawn monsters down as far away from us as possible.

As we plowed through the blazing skeletons, zombies, rat swarms and human cultists (swapped in from Wrath of Ash for the kobold skirmishers) the attrition kicked in and our hit points dwindled away alarmingly fast. By the time we started kicking over coffins Strahd appeared in his crypt with a maniacal laugh, and a string of encounter cards saw him popping in and out of shadows, whispering in our ears, firing off fireballs at us and generally messing with our heads.

Artemis had set a conga line of monsters up chasing us from as far away as possible, which bought us a few turns to try and bring the pain on the old vampire lord. But Strahd has this nasty healing bite which he does. As quickly as we hacked chunks out of him, he’d heal back up by feeding on our blood. Out with the Dailies! We laid down everything we could on him, some of my attacks even landed – and when they did the Sunsword boiled through him with the +1 damage to Vampires.

Due to the layout we couldn’t effectively kite Strahd, and the monster conga was catching up. Artemis fell into a sliding walls trap and was knocked unconscious. I hammered away at Strahd and when he reached 5HP I smited him into mist on his own crypt tile. This meant his next villain phase he merely reformed instead of fighting back. I thought this meant I’d have a breather but a blazing skeleton rounded the corner and wiped me out with a ball of fire.

Artemis popped back up to his feet with a surge and some more precious HP before running over to Strahd, using his magic longsword to whittle away at the seething count. The approaching monster horde included a ghoul, a wolf, a spider swarm, and the dreaded grey hag but we couldn’t afford to take our attention away from the count, who was fighting back valiantly. With another nasty nip he brought Artemis down to 1HP. I stood up after spending our second surge and redoubled my attacks.

After rolling like a n00b the entire game I cranked out a strong hit followed by a natural 20 which saw Strahd’s arm lopped off shortly followed by his head and a comforting musical chord as Drizzt levelled up. Slaying villains always gives you a treasure card in our games because there’s nothing like killing a centuries-old vampire and getting a bag of copper pieces. So I excitedly drew my reward from the combined treasure deck of LoD/Cr/WoA.

A scrimshaw charm – “reroll one die”. Yay. It was Strahd’s last laugh.

But then we realised we still needed to destroy 4 coffins, all blocked by an army of incoming minions who were really unhappy to see their landlord obliterated in front of them. “But we’ve FREED you!” I cried. To no avail.

We had 1 hit point each and that precious third healing surge between us.

Artemis used his cloak of the bat to race right across the dungeon, through the line of monsters, eviscerating a ghoul en route and landing next to a coffin which he promptly threw open. A trap! The poison dart shot out and knocked Artemis unconscious. Despair set in. We’d come all this way, killed Strahd, and now we were going to die because of a bunch of trapped sarcophagi??

I seemingly had nowhere to run and was seriously contemplating charging into the middle of the monster swarm to go down in a blaze of glory when Mmzomba pointed out a corridor tile equidistant between monsters which would leave Drizzt unreachable to monster attacks this turn.

Leaping across the monsters in the way I bravely went and hid in the corridor. Since Artemis was down the monsters started moving towards me instead, and the encounter card for not exploring turned out to be a crippling miasma which slows movement.

Artemis spent our last third surge, stood up and raced to the next coffin, flipping it over and discovering some holy water! His encounter revealed a gargoyle, which he cleverly placed miles away from anywhere so it would not affect us. The monsters nearest to him had headed towards me last turn and would slowly but steadily start making their way back towards Artemis now.

Which meant I’d have to charge through them to reach the coffins. If I ran with a double move I’d reach a tile with two monsters on it, and automatically die from their attacks, so instead I walked over and attacked the spider swarm. The scrimshaw charm turned my two pathetic misses into one successful hit and the spider swarm went down. I opened the nearest coffin: empty. The blazing skeleton and grey hag reached Artemis and laid into him brutally bringing him down to 1 measly hit point. Again.

Recovering from the attacks, Artemis turned to the monsters with revenge in his eyes and Mmzomba picked up the die to roll.

“No! Leave them! Get that last coffin!” I cried, happily risking waking the baby and thus potentially bringing the wife charging downstairs in a fume.

Reluctantly leaving his quarry, Artemis raced over to the final resting place of Strahd and smashed it up with an angry pair of Boots of Speed, probably destroying the Wooden Stake that was hidden in there.

Victory at last – Strahd was defeated and our heroes were all well and healthy!! Well. We had two hit points between us anyway.

We’ d also accrued over 2,000GP so the shopkeeper in Barovia was very happy to see us and Artemis bought a shiny new ring which fired shooting stars.

“Save it for Ashardalon,” Drizzt winked...

Fortune and Glory - New Dangers Part 2

2012-02-02T09:13:00.000-08:00

Hallornothing’s Movie Blog

2012-01-30T06:33:00.000-08:00

Ace movie reviews:

Hallornothing’s Blog:

'via Blog this'

Fortune and Glory - New Dangers

2012-01-24T08:42:00.000-08:00

Below are a couple of potential new Dangers in the interest of boosting the somewhat sparse Dangers deck.

NinjaDorg's The Lost Road - ace review at La Taverne du Jeu

2012-01-17T01:23:00.000-08:00

Our good friend freourslc over at the Tavern has delivered this brilliant, humbling assessment of our very own Lost Road solo adventure for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. Be sure to check it out here:

The Lost Road - a fanmade expansion for LotR - LCG - News - La Taverne du Jeu:

'via Blog this'

The Long Dark of Moria

2012-01-12T02:18:00.001-08:00

It was after nightfall when they had entered the Mines. They had been going for several hours with only brief halts, when Gandalf came to the first serious check. Before him stood a wide arch opening into three passages: all led in the same general direction, eastwards; but the left-hand passage plunged down, while the right-hand climbed up, and the middle way seemed to run on, smooth and level but very narrow.
–The Fellowship of the Ring

Fantasy Flight Games is pleased to announce the upcoming release of The Long Dark, the fourth harrowing Adventure Pack in the Dwarrowdelf cycle for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!

After a brutal conflict with The Watcher in the Water, several heroes of Middle-earth pass through the gates of Moria and begin to scout its ancient tunnels for the root of the increased Orc activity in the Misty Mountains. But it has been many ages since the Dwarves last gave light to the mines. The way is dark and choked with foes and hazards. The ominous dark lingers ever before your party, closing in around you, making it difficult to tell one path from another, and you must be careful to keep your way…

Lost in the mines of Moria

The Orcs of Moria are multitude, but your heroes seek signs of the forces that draw the Orcs together and drive them out into the mountains. As your heroes begin their journey into The Long Dark, they find pockets of Goblin resistance, but with little organization save for that provided by Goblin warlords. To discover the deeper roots of the increased Orc activity, your heroes must delve deeper into the Mines.

The Long Dark introduces 60 new cards, including a new hero, three copies of each player card, and an all-new scenario that pits your heroes against bands of Goblins, the hazards of traveling in the dark, and the risk of getting lost. As your heroes travel through the Dark, Underground realm of Moria, they must navigate carefully or suffer the consequences of losing their way. Any wrong turn may tax your heroes’ energy and limit their options, discarding cards from your hand, or it may lead into a host of Orcs, spiders, and rock adders.

The wealth of Moria

“The wealth of Moria was not in gold and jewels, the toys of the Dwarves; nor in iron, their servant.”
–Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring

The Long Dark poses unique challenges to your band of heroes, but it also provides them with new resources. Four new allies offer their assistance, and your heroes can make use of a number of new events and attachments, including sturdy Ring Mail (The Long Dark, 80).

Originally shown in the announcement of the Dwarrowdelf cycle, Ring Mail has already spurred conversations among fans on our community forums. With the release of The Long Dark, you will be able to better protect your Dwarf and Hobbitcharacters from the hordes of Orcs and Goblins that harry your fellowship through the mines. Perhaps, the extra defense your heroes gain from their Ring Mail may be the edge between success and failure in their quest.

Don your Ring Mail, stock up on provisions, and prepare yourselves for adventure as your party sets foot into the mines of Moria and confronts The Long Dark that awaits them. This challenging and suspenseful Adventure Pack is scheduled to release in the second quarter of 2012!

Boromir's Guide to Deck Construction, Part One

2012-01-10T02:45:00.000-08:00

Fantasy Flight Games [News] - Boromir's Guide to Deck Construction, Part One:

'via Blog this'

“Believe not that in the land of Gondor the blood of Númenor is spent, nor all its pride and dignity forgotten. By our valour the wild folk of the East are still restrained, and the terror of Morgul kept at bay; and thus alone are peace and freedom maintained in the lands behind us, bulwark of the West.”
–Boromir, The Fellowship of the Ring

One of the reasons The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game has entertained so many fans and enjoyed a great deal of success is because it appeals to people across a range of player archetypes–Bilbo, Pippin, and Boromir alike. The game’s narrative structure makes it easy to find a story in every game. Because it’s a Living Card Game, novelty seekers can find new cards to try in their decks and new challenges to face with each monthly release, and enough of the scenarios and their enemies pose sufficient threat to challenge the hardcore Boromirs, who seek glory through conquest. In fact, some of us are still waiting for the combination of cards that will allow us to beat Escape from Dol Guldur solo with a measure of consistency.

The lone traveler’s journey

The game has also found a good measure of success due to its rich solitaire play, but while confronting the challenges of Middle-earth may lead to memorable game experiences, they can also frustrate players with less experience in games with deck construction. The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is unique among these games in that players compete against the forces of Shadow, as controlled by an encounter deck and its artificial intelligence. Still, the encounter deck has its fair share of devious tricks and an arsenal of deadly weapons. Accordingly, it is no simple thing to master the encounter deck and succeed at your quests.

Now that the Khazad-dûm Expansion has arrived, players will face a whole host of new challenges, and some have already wondered how they will fare against the goblin hordes of Moria.

Today, then, we begin a three-part series of deck-building tutorials aimed at the new solo player, but one that should contain helpful information (and reminders) for players of all experience levels.

Sharpening your blade

There’s much to be said for the decisions you make while playing a game, but we begin any conversation about success in a card game by looking at the deck.

While players may find many different card combinations and ways to approach the challenges before them, there are a number of larger, universal concerns that touch upon deck-building in any game, including The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game. No matter the scenario you intend to conquer, you’ll want to consider how your deck may provide you with action advantage, card advantage, and resource acceleration. Additionally, every card designer at some point talks about “synergy,” and it’s important to be able to recognize whether or not your deck is filled with synergies between cards, or if it’s a combination of 50 cards all seeking to do their own thing. Meanwhile, each card game introduces its own game-specific concerns, and in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, it’s always worth trying to maintain as low a starting threat as possible, and including some means of reducing it should it start to rise.

Today, we’ll go into a bit more depth about action advantage and card advantage.

Action advantage

Action advantage refers, generally, to the idea that you can do more than your opponent each turn. In a head-to-head game, like A Game of Thrones: The Card Game, you might gain action advantage through “board control” or a stronger “board position.” In short, if you have more and stronger characters on the table than your opponent, you’re more likely to win challenges and the game. In The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, your heroes are limited in what they can do by the number of times they can exhaust. Do you choose to quest with your hero, defend, attack, or exhaust to use a special ability? Each of these is an “action,” and the more actions you can take, the better.

Part of the solution is to include allies. A lot of allies. Many successful decks are almost half full of allies. Allies who can quest allow your heroes to attack or defend. Allies who block enemies for your heroes allow your heroes to quest or attack. Allies are good and help you gain action advantage.

Another part of the solution is to build your deck around heroes who can ready themselves. Aragorn (Core Set, 1),Prince Imrahil (A Journey to Rhosgobel, 50), and Boromir (The Dead Marshes, 95) all come to your fellowship with built-in means of readying themselves. Still, there are other means of readying your heroes. Spirit heroes can help others find Unexpected Courage (Core Set, 57) or recruit a Westfold Horse-Breaker (The Hunt for Gollum, 6), and now, with the release of Khazad-dûm, your Dwarf heroes can get a boost from the Erebor Record Keeper (Khazad-dûm, 11).

Khazad-dûm introduces another card that clever players may use to find action advantage, Ever Onward (Khazad-dûm, 5). Certainly not the most glamorous of cards, Ever Onward may appear at first glance as though it’s merely a safety net. However, if you know you won’t fall deeper into threat by failing at your quest, Ever Onward can afford you a single turn in which for three-cost, all your characters remain ready to confront the enemies with which they are engaged, allowing you to withhold them from questing and assign them, instead, to defense and attack.

You can even find action advantage from cards that don’t provide you with extra actions but can let you “cheat” around the need to take actions. For example, Dúnhere (Core Set, 9) and Quick Strike (Core Set, 35) can let you attack enemies without first having to defend against them. They can save you the need to heal your characters later, prevent nasty shadow effects from resolving, and free you to focus on questing successfully.

Card advantage

Card advantage comes primarily in four forms. One is card draw. The more cards you can draw, the more options you hold in your hands. Another is subtler but no less effective, and that is the ability to do more with fewer cards. The final routes to card advantage are search and recursion.

There are only a handful of cards in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game that accelerate card draw, and the best of them are ubiquitous among top players. Beravor (Core Set, 12) almost always receives the first copy (or two, or three) of Unexpected Courage when she’s present in the party. While it may seem like a waste of an action to exhaust her to draw cards rather than quest, defend, or attack, nothing could be further from the truth. Card draw is the backbone of versatility. The more cards you hold in your hand, the likelier you’ll be able to find the perfect response to any threat. Furthermore, if another of your heroes is a Protector of Lórien (Core Set, 70), you can convert Beravor’s card draw directly into extra Willpower toward the quest. Bilbo (The Hunt for Gollum, 1), Gléowine (Core Set, 62), and Ancient Mathom (A Journey to Rhosgobel, 56) also provide excellent card draw, as can Gandalf (Core Set, 73), when he isn’t busy wounding enemies or lowering your threat.

Gandalf’s versatility serves as an excellent illustration of the second type of card advantage. Not only is he a powerful ally with tremendous benefits while questing, defending, or attacking, but he also offers your party the pick of his three exceptional abilities whenever he comes into play. At five cost, he’s not cheap, but the combination of Gandalf andSneak Attack (Core Set, 23), both reduces the wizard’s cost and allows you to play him more times. This combination offers classic card advantage. Dwalin (Khazad-dûm, 1) offers similar card advantage with his ability to reduce your threat each time he defeats an Orc. The mines of Moria are filled with Orcs, after all, and if you can boost his strength, Dwalin can both clear away your enemies and control your threat, saving you a card slot you might otherwise spend onThe Galadhrim’s Greeting (Core Set, 46).

Finally, cards that search your deck, reorder the cards on top of your deck, or pull other cards out of your discard pile may not provide you with more options in your hand, but they may ensure you hold the right cards. Dwarven Tomb(Core Set, 53) can be as good as any Spirit card in your discard pile. Gildor Inglorion (The Hills of Emyn Muil, 79) is good not only for his excellent statistics; his ability to manipulate the top three cards of your deck can help you find the cards you need earlier than you would otherwise. Gildor’s search ability can also ensure the success of your Zigil Miner (Khazad-dûm, 9), leading to rapid resource acceleration… a fundamental of deck-building.

Open Wide the Gates of Moria

2012-01-07T08:34:00.000-08:00

Fantasy Flight Games [News] - Open Wide the Gates of Moria:

“It is now many years ago,” said Glóin, “that a shadow of disquiet fell upon our people. Whence it came we did not at first perceive. Words began to be whispered in secret: it was said that we were hemmed in a narrow place, and that greater wealth and splendour would be found in a wider world. Some spoke of Moria: the mighty works of our fathers that are called in our own tongue Khazad-dûm; and they declared that now at last we had the power and numbers to return.”
–J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

The hour of the Dwarves has come. The Khazad-dûm Expansion for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is now on sale at your local retailer and online on our webstore. Pick up your copy today!

Great works begun there

Over time, the whispers of wealth and splendour touched Dwarven hearts and created stirrings within them that would not be quieted. Finally, Balin resolved to explore the mines of Moria and reclaim its treasures for the Dwarves. Ori, Oín, and many other Dwarves traveled with him, and the initial reports they sent back to the other Dwarves told of their entry and the great works they had begun. Then, however, the messages ceased. No word has arrived from Balin in many years.

In Khazad-dûm, a trio of thrilling scenarios take some of Middle-earth’s greatest heroes on daring adventures to Moria, where they search for Balin and his fledgling Dwarven colony.

Balin’s fate is of tremendous concern to the Dwarves, and they offer as much aid as they can in Khazad-dûm. You’ll find new attachments and events to bolster your Dwarves, along with newDwarf allies and two fantastic new Dwarf heroes. Each player card comes in triplicate, so a single copy of Khazad-dûm provides you with a complete play set of all its new cards.

Journeys in the dark

Your heroes’ search for Balin will lead them deep into the mines of Moria and its Dark corners and corridors. The subterranean world of Khazad-dûm is unlike anything your heroes faced in the Core Set or the Shadows of Mirkwoodcycle, and the expansion introduces nine new encounter sets to represent the mines’ new perils. From frightening new locations and treachery cards reflecting the physical dangers of travel through Moria to Orcs and Trolls, Khazad-dûm pushes the game forward with exciting new encounter themes and mechanics.

The wait for this highly anticipated expansion for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game has finally come to an end, and the time has come to begin your journeys through Khazad-dûm.

NinjaDorg's Fortune And Glory: The Cliffhanger Game Review

2012-01-05T03:53:00.000-08:00

Prelude:

Flying Frog Productions bring us another attention-grabbing genre movie, sorry game, with Fortune and Glory: the Cliffhanger Game. The same PhotoShop -> Filter -> Artistic -> Drybrush effect is used once again throughout the design of the game on a series of photos of actors, models and friends of the game’s makers in period outfits, posing at various locations with lots of interesting props. Some people might not like this design format, and whilst I usually prefer digital/painted artwork I must say I like it a lot, and think it nicely fits that B-movie feel FFP’s games have, whilst also letting their games stand out from the crowd.

Biases - I love A Touch Of Evil and Last Night On Earth, but don’t like the look or theme of Conquest of Planet Earth or Invasion From Outer Space.

What is it?

‘Indiana Jones: the Board Game’ without the appropriate licensing. No getting around this glaring comparison. FANG homages old school pulp adventure stories/comics/movies and lets the players become have-a-go heroes who take on the evil Nazis (or the curiously worldwide mob if you prefer) in a race around the planet to accumulate allies and gear and find artifacts of great power that will save or destroy the world.

How does it play?

Roll for initiative, roll for move, draw a (usually) nice Event card if you get a 1 on either roll, move to a location, flip a card, try to find an artefact by overcoming a series of dangers/encounters, gain Glory for successful encounters, use Glory to buy stuff, take artifact back to a city to sell it for Fortune, repeat until you get 15 Fortune and win. This is not a Euro.

The main element is that you’re chasing artifacts which are “dynamically generated” - two cards are put together to determine the artifact’s type and object, e.g. ‘The Eyes’ artifact with ‘of Medusa’ adventure. Each has a number of dangers you must overcome and if you fail one you flip the danger card over to reveal a ‘Cliffhanger’. Your turn ends and you must overcome this more deadly danger on your next go or get KO’d and lose stuff.

What are the bits like?

For the most part, Glorious:

The map of the earth is a really beautiful board – on a par with the Tales of the Arabian Nights earth map, which I feel is really saying something. It evokes the unexplored, exaggerated feel of the time with an emphasis on theme with countries like “The Heart of Africa” and “Amazon Falls” rather than geographical accuracy/consistency. Also feels pretty sturdy.

The minis are really great quality and are what you have come to expect from FFP, with a range of heroes and villains and their henchmen, some temples, and a nice Zeppelin to boot.

FFP’s cards – and there are hundreds of them in FANG - might actually be my favourite in any board game. They feel so sturdy I haven’t yet sleeved an FFP game. Love them. They also look great too, really like how they’ve captured all the different elements. And there is lots of replayability in there – you’ll barely touch most of the decks in a given game and there are a lot: Events, City events, Enemies, Nazi Enemies, Gear, Allies, Adventure/Artifacts.

Great tokens, nicely designed, tactile, thick and generally easy to see on the board. Again, a great standard maintained by FFP.

16 dice. Can’t have too many dice. You get 8 white for the heroes, and 8 green for the villains. Though having rolled better with the greens repeatedly, I switched em around. Scientific logic that.

But occasionally, UnFortunate:

Over 100 plastic coins! This was a big mistake I feel, the ‘5’s can be hard to distinguish from the ‘1’s at a glance, and the plastic is ugly, garish blue and off-yellow/gold and pointless. It looks like it’s from my two year old’s cash register toy. Cardboard tokens like the Investigation tokens from ATOE would have been much better and prettier, and presumably less costly for all involved. Worst of all, the box cover advertises “over 160 plastic bits” without the addendum “most of which are these garbage toy coins”.

Music – the included CD is the same quality as the other FFP games. And love it or hate it, my strong feeling is that these should be optional, rather than included in the box.

Massive – the box is really massive, and doesn’t really warrant the space. Only the board fills it, so if that had come in two parts or something they could have made it LNOE/ATOE sized, or maybe the size of the D&D Adventure System games. As it is the thing is pretty unwieldy and difficult to store.

What’s new for FFP?

I think scope is what they were going for with this one. There’s a high-falutin’ sense of adventure as you race around the world hunting for ancient temples and treasures and fending off villains, racing down city streets or crashing cargo planes into mountains. And the array of elements included in the gameplay such as various effects on artifacts you are pursuing (some positive, some negative), the spread of villainous henchmen across the world, collapsing temples, a roaming Zeppelin dispensing Nazis around the globe, evil hideouts to raid, the events and dangers of exploring cities, all these help feed the idea of a living world you’re exploring. But it’s all very much an evolution of the A Touch Of Evil (and Last Night On Earth to a lesser extent) gameplay, so if you didn’t like that game then the chances are that this one won’t blow your mind.

How is it better than LNOE/ATOE?

More cards, feels like more variation and depth.

The best FFP board yet, puts the ATOE map board to absolute shame - and I liked it!

Feels more streamlined and fleshed out in its gameplay.

You can play cooperative, competitive, solo, or team games.

The Villains’ AI is simple but effective, and really puts the pressure on you when you’re racing for the same artifacts.

You can fight Nazis! Just waiting for those LNOE Nazi zombies to turn up in LNOE now...

How is it worse than LNOE/ATOE?

FANG takes a longer time to play, and takes up more space.

It’s more expensive, and you don’t get significantly much more game for all that extra cash. I got bought this as a great surprise Christmas pressie, but I probably wouldn’t have opted for it myself given the price point. Which is a shame because I’d have missed out on a great game.

The Dangers are limited – as has been stated on the BGG forums before, there just aren’t enough Dangers, and these are the main challenges in the game. For the first few games you won’t notice but when the same ones start emerging after repeated plays it can get samey, even if each has two possible Cliffhangers, chances are you (hopefully) won’t see them anyway.

If I only get one of the three games, which should it be?

Damn, why did I include this question?? It’s a tricky one, and probably comes down to which theme you prefer. Which I think is a testament to FFP’s design skills. I probably prefer A Touch Of Evil but I have all the expansions for that game so it’s an unfair comparison.

Pricewise ATOE and LNOE give probably as much game in the box, so it’s best to start with one of those first to see if you enjoy FFP’s design style, since it is very similar across all their games. Unless your love for pulp adventures trumps zombies or gothic horror of course...

What’s the difference between Fortune and Glory?

I used to know before I played this game but now I don’t anymore! For some reason you purchase things with Glory whilst your hero’s ultimate quest is to amass the most Fortune. Which makes everyone seem more mercenary than heroic. This has irked more than one or two people, and I still find the game designer Jason Hill’s explanation bewildering. But seriously, you’ll soon get over this grammatical curiosity after a game or two and just get on with the adventuring.

Is it any good?

Yes.

There’s a lot going on in this game, and it feels like lessons have been learned from the previous releases even if they are mostly baby steps, like having the option of fixed movement for those who don’t like rolling to see ho far they can go, or making something potentially happen in every single space on the board. The rules took a while to digest, and because there’s a lot going on it’s easy to miss or forget things on your first few plays. And I still can’t find an explanation of the Fortune bonus on Location cards (we just stick the bonus under the artifact card if applicable).

In a turn you have a decent choice of options – I’d read that people thought there was no skill involved and that you just go for the nearest artefact but I often found myself having to choose between different locations and whether or not to chance a city or event or an enemy, or try and pick up an event card en route to an adventure, or whether or not to try and camp down and heal instead of pressing on.

Overall: it’s a lot of fun! It plays well and turns go quickly as downtime is spent watching others encounter a series of dangers and praying for their downfall (not played the coop version yet). It can be a bit faltering as you get the rules down – there are a few more rules than I’d expected after A Touch Of Evil. I’ve played a metric tonne of solo games and it’s still set up on our table for another multiplayer game tonight. The solo game is hard to lose, you’ll soon want to ramp up the difficulty on that, similar for cooperative games. But the competitive game is a heart pounding race to the finish.

It’s early to say but I reckon it’s up there with LNOE and ATOE, both of which I love. And the soloable aspect is a huge bonus for me for when the wife is watching Eastenders, etc.

Summary

If money is no object, jump on in. Otherwise you might want to consider your other options first. Here’s a recap of the pros and cons...

Pros:

Fun game!

Really beautiful board

Brilliant cards

Cool minis

Great theme – really well implemented, smash those nazi scum!!

Lots of replayability in most of the card decks

Fast paced – actions are resolved quickly with a few dice rolls

Good choice of options in a turn

1-8 players

Option to play coop, solo, competitive, or in teams

Cons:

Price – very high for what you get (your country’s price may vary)

Rubbish plastic coins!

Music CD

Mahoossive box

Limited dangers

Legend of Drizzt Review - Boardgame Review Written by MattDP

2011-12-16T02:02:00.000-08:00

Neat review of Legend of Drizzt from our friends over at Fortress Ameritrash:

http://fortressat.com/index.php/articles-boardgame-reviews/2928-legend-of-drizzt-review

'via Blog this'

The Treacherous Dark of Khazad-dûm

2011-12-13T03:45:00.000-08:00

Original article here: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=2896

Without any light they would have soon come to grief. There were not only many roads to choose from, there were also in many places holes and pitfalls, and dark wells beside the path in which their passing feet echoed. There were fissures and chasms in the walls and floor, and every now and then a crack would open right before their feet.
–The Fellowship of the Ring, “A Journey in the Dark”

In The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien leads the Fellowship into the mines of Moria in the chapter titled A Journey in the Dark, but that chapter doesn’t begin in the mines and their suffocating darkness. It begins while the Fellowship trudges through the Misty Mountains, under the dim grey of the waning evening.

Tolkien works hard to establish the darkness–the very palpable and consuming darkness–of the mines of Moria, by establishing the presence and importance of light prior to the Fellowship’s first steps into the mines. The chapter contrasts the presence of light outside the mines with the truer, more profound darkness inside the mines. Even in the wintery night, the Fellowship finds light from flame, the fading sunlight, and the coming dawn. As readers, we’re made to understand that the darkness outside Moria comes and goes in cycles with the light. However, once they enter the mines, Tolkien carefully measures his mentions of light. Darkness abounds, but for almost the entire journey through Moria, only Gandalf’s staff sheds light. Even that light is dim.

The dark of Khazad-dûm

Why does this matter? In the Khazad-dûm Expansion for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, the darkness becomes a significant theme. Players wouldn’t feel like they were undertaking a trip through the perilous underground if the game were full of bright illustrations. Nor would you likely think much about the darkness if it weren’t reinforced.

Much as Tolkien used the words “dark” and “darkness” liberally through the second half of A Journey in the Dark, theKhazad-dûm design team decided it was important to reinforce the theme with Dark locations, Hazards, and other cards that would get you looking for any means to cast light ahead of your travels through the subterranean labyrinth.

Lead developer Lukas Litzsinger offers some insights on the coming darkness.

Developing the darkness

I knew that Khazad-dûm needed to portray the mines of Moria as a physical danger to the party. While it has its fair shares of enemies, even an empty Moria is a dangerous place. Crumbling passages and abandoned shafts create a treacherous landscape. Still, the most pressing design challenge was the darkness. How would this affect a party traveling through the mines?

We made several attempts to give the darkness an active role in the game, such as with darkness tokens, but they all felt strange. They complicated the game more than they enhanced the theme, and we moved eventually to a more elegant solution. Dark locations are difficult to explore. This is both a theme and a mechanic, and you will discover thatDark locations have some of the highest quest point values in the game. Additionally, Dark locations get to be much more threatening as two or more build up in the staging area. They tend to boost each other’s threat as the darkness surrounds your party on all sides.

But in addition to darkness, we needed to represent light. So to represent the importance of light, we introduced aCave Torch (Khazad-dûm, 41) objective that the players use to place progress on these Dark locations.

However, the mines are filled with countless dangers, and while any light is a boon, managing the light is not always as simple as it first appears. While your Cave Torch is Burning Low (Khazad-dûm, 40) you’ll find the mines more threatening, especially the darkest of its Dark corners. Also, your Cave Torch can attract unwanted attention, and as you saw in an earlier preview, any enemies encountered have an uncanny ability to proliferate into more.

–Lukas Litzsinger, Khazad-dûm Expansion Lead Developer

Thanks, Lukas!

The dark mines of Moria hold many dangers, but some heroes push, undaunted, to search for Balin and his missing Dwarven colony. In our next preview, we’ll take a look at one of the doughty Dwarven heroes willing to brave a journey into the heart of Khazad-dûm!

Fantasy Quest Saga Tracker

2011-12-09T06:38:00.000-08:00

Fantasy Quest Saga Tracker

This is an example Saga Tracker design for Fantasy Quest, this particular example is for the Assassinate Leader Saga. The COMPLETE marker is a separate token placed over each element as it is completed. For cooperative group quests every hero would have to complete that element at the same time, at the location designated by the saga to place the COMPLETE marker.

This would potentially help to track the progress of individual players' Sagas more easily, and help to flesh out group Sagas.

The Watcher in the Water

2011-12-08T02:08:00.000-08:00

From the original article here: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=2883

Frodo felt something seize him by the ankle, and he fell with a cry. Bill the pony gave a wild neigh of fear, and turned tail and dashed away along the lakeside into the darkness. Sam leaped after him, and then hearing Frodo’s cry he ran back again, weeping and cursing. The others swung round and saw the waters of the lake seething, as if a host of snakes were swimming up from the southern end.
–The Fellowship of the Ring

Elrond, the Elf Lord of Rivendell, is troubled by the great numbers of Orcs that plagued the heroes who escorted his daughter, Arwen Undómiel, across the Misty Mountains. He asks them to explore the mines of Moria, hoping they can determine if they are the source of the increased Orc activity, but before the heroes can explore Moria’s vast network of tunnels, they must first gain entrance…

Fantasy Flight Games is proud to announce The Watcher in the Water, the third Adventure Pack in the Dwarrowdelfcycle for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game!

Dangers outside the Doors of Durin

Many players have already remarked upon the clever text of the Doors of Durin (The Watcher in the Water, 65) when the card was first revealed in the Dwarrowdelf announcement. Its flavorful recreation of the riddle that nearly stumped Gandalf and the other members of the Fellowship provides one of the highlights awaiting players with The Watcher in the Water.

Of course, fans of The Lord of the Rings have also eagerly awaited the dangers that lurk deep in the lake outside the Doors of Durin, and when it arrives, The Watcher in the Water will reward their anticipation. Seething masses of Tentaclessnake out of the lake to attack and ensnare those heroes who can’t find their way through the Doors of Durin. The tentacles strike swiftly, and heroes who can’t fight them off may find themselves Wrapped! (The Watcher in the Water, 76) and dragged beneath the surface of the waters. There’s no time to relax whileTentacles lash through the air; heroes who aren’t rescued in time will drown.

Into the heart of the Dwarrowdelf

The Watcher in the Water represents a turning point in the Dwarrowdelf cycle of Adventure Packs. Once they pass the Doors of Durin, the heroes of Middle-earth must explore the mines of Moria to find the cause of the increased Orc activity in the Misty Mountains. Yet they must first survive the perils of the fetid Swamps and the ferocious combat with the Watcher’s many Tentacles.

Look for this clever and action-packed Adventure Pack to hit the shelves in the first quarter of 2012!

Treading Boldly into the Mines of Khazad-dûm

2011-11-29T02:39:00.000-08:00

From the original article here: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=2860

Gimli aided Gandalf very little, except by his stout courage. At least he was not, as were most of the others, troubled by the mere darkness in itself.
–The Fellowship of the Ring

The Khazad-dûm Expansion for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game takes the game to a whole new level–the subterranean and labyrinthine tunnels of Moria! Within those vast, dark, Dwarven ruins lurk dangers terrible enough to cause even the stoutest adventurers to tremble. Your torch lights radiate a flickering light that spills onto grey stone walls, fading ever into impenetrable shadows. What is worse in that darkness–the endless, echoing silence beyond your footfalls, or a sudden drip or the clatter of falling rocks?

A journey in the dark

Khazad-dûm introduces a number of new Underground and Dark locations. While these new locations immerse you in your heroes’ subterranean journeys through the mines of Moria, they introduce a number of subtle mechanics. InThe Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, each location has a Threat value that represents the potential dangers awaiting your fellowship. Only by thoroughly exploring a location can you be assured it no longer shelters hidden enemies plotting their ambush or that it doesn’t hold some dark secret you may fail to uncover. In the dark of Moria, locations like Branching Paths (Khazad-dûm, 36) are more ominous than ever, and the darker your journeys, the more your fellowship will feel the darkness surrounding them on all sides, laden with hidden threats.

As the game continues to mature and evolve, the design team has found new ways to work with locations, and Khazad-dûm introduces new ways in which locations interact with each other and with other encounter cards. Since the game’s inception, fellowships have had to work to make sure hidden threats in unexplored locations couldn’t mount against them unchecked. The travel phase remains as important as ever; the locations in Khazad-dûm generally pose higher threats to your fellowship and require greater effort to explore than the locations from the Core Set and Shadows of Mirkwood cycle of Adventure Packs. Still, as one might expect travel through the ancient Dwarven realm’s network of dark tunnels to prove difficult and be laden with tremendous threats, one might also expect the Dwarves to be prepared to deal with these threats…

Untroubled by darkness

The Dwarves are miners, metal-smiths, and no strangers to the dark. The darkness troubles them little, and Khazad-dûm provides Dwarf characters with a number of means of progressing more swiftly through the shadows, Underground, and Dark recesses of Moria. While many players have noted how masterfully the Rohirrim excel at traveling and questing aboveground in the Shadows of Mirkwood, the Dwarves will soon take the lead undeground with cards like Untroubled by Darkness (Khazad-dûm, 10) and Ancestral Knowledge (Khazad-dûm, 12).

The Shadows of Mirkwood cycle saw the development of a number of strong deck-building themes, including Rohanand Eagles decks. In the mines of Moria, the remnants of ancient Dwarf culture surrounds your heroes at every step, and Khazad-dûm provides fans many exciting new opportunities to bring these stalwart warriors to life, including two new Dwarf heroes that let you play Dwarves of any sphere of influence.

Look for the Khazad-dûm Expansion to add new adventure and peril to your adventures in Middle-earth. This deluxe expansion for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game is coming soon!

Legend of Drizzt: Hero Levelling cards for campaign play

2011-11-14T06:53:00.001-08:00

Legend of Drizzt: Hero Levelling cards for campaign play

The following are the Levelling Hero cards for the Heroes of Legend of Drizzt. They are for use with the Dungeons and Dragons Adventures System campaign rules which can be found here:

http://ratdorg.blogspot.com/p/index.html

Thanks to Malone76 and GeckoTH for the templates!

Legend of Drizzt, Artemis and Jarlaxle vs Count Strahd of Castle Ravenloft

2011-11-11T04:49:00.000-08:00

Drizzt, Artemis and Jarlaxle vs Count Strahd

And since I can't find an image of Drizzt Vs. Strahd, here's an image of Drizzt Vs. Red Sonja instead:

From the moment LoD was announced I always liked the idea of taking Drizzt Do’Urden up against Count Strahd in his Castle to see what happens. For our group the setting of Castle Ravenloft is always the most interesting and exciting to return to. Thematically it wins out over Wrath of Ashardalon and Legend of Drizzt, and in terms of difficulty you have ridiculously tough encounters that really paste the heroes over time, combined with standard monsters like the Wraith which casually spit out THREE damage at a time. Much more intimidating than WOA or LOD.

Drizzt and Artemis were quickly chosen as heroes by me fellow adventuring buddies, and picking through the leftovers I thought I’d give Jarlaxle a try. So, you know, don’t go looking for any narrative justification of our hero choices here.

It’s worth mentioning that we always use the Treasure Token rules from Wrath of Ashardalon which can seriously handicap your heroes, especially in the early adventures. Basically instead of drawing a normal treasure card you usually end up drawing a measly 100 gold when you kill a monster (always draw treasure cards for beating villains though). When you do finally draw a treasure, even if it’s just a Potion of Healing, you end up dancing a little jig at the prospect. After each adventure you draw three treasures and may buy one with your haul of gold pieces. Usually this results in the untimely murder of all the heroes after one or two adventures. But if you do survive you can start building up your hero over the adventures, which is really satisfying.

Our favourite mini campaign is the triptych of the ‘Search for the Sunsword’ Adventure followed by the ‘Hunt for Strahd Parts 1 & 2’. Search for the Sunsword eases you in nicely and you also get a cool boost – the Sunsword - when you beat it for taking on the next two adventures as the difficulty quickly spikes upwards. Usually.

Last night we staggered into the crypts looking for Sergei’s Tomb and the fabled Sunsword. Or half of it anyway. For some reason we already had half of the sword, and for another reason we didn’t know who had the half that we already had... had. In any case spirits were high as we laughed about our mighty powers and Drizzt called in Guen the friendly panther straight away. We shouted down the passageways at any hidden monsters, goading and verbally abusing the poor, restless dead as they awoke from their coffins and meandered towards us.

Things started off okay, as they always do, a little bit of damage here and there from monsters and nasty encounters with pseudopods and angry butlers and some gone off food which had become sentient. Artemis went exploring and then throwing the revealed monsters for miles so that they’d never bother us – particularly useful against Gargoyles which he can place back on the empty start tile where they just resume their stone forms and sit there.

Then Drizzt decided to start rolling low, like really low. And before we realised it, the monsters started stacking up and duplicate monsters came pouring out of the endless tunnels. As the duplicate monsters activated, their monster friends whom Artemis had thrown back to the start tile began to catch up and before long we were running around fighting for our lives, wishing we’d brought a cleric along for some healing, cursing the stupid treasure token rules and getting generally pummelled and pinballed between monsters all over the dungeon.

Soon enough the 4XP Grey Hag (sitting inside the card sleeve of a Wraith) reared her ugly head from the monster deck and started moaning and throwing lightning at us, Drizzt got immobilised on her tile by a trap – but crucially not adjacent to her, as Jarlaxle I had spent every last utlity, daily and treasure I had, and Guen got taken out by a malicious fireball from a Blazing Squad (Skeleton).

Artemis was faring a little better and managed to level up after throwing a natural 20, then following it with two more natural 20s just to show off, but his misplaced monsters had all but caught up and after Drizzt hit the dirt we had to spend a healing surge. This caused a Young Vampire Villain to appear and start waffling at us with theatrical gesticulations and amateur dramatics level direlogue about how we were powerful, but not that powerful, etc.

Rolling his eyes at the Vampire’s theatrics, and with just a handful of HP left Artemis found Sergei’s Crypt and grabbed the Sunsword. Quickly realising it would be more effective in Drizzt’s multi-attacking hands he begrudgingly handed it over. And then began the race back to the stairway where a frozen Gargoyle sat, waiting to attack.

Our feet beating stone we legged it back through the dungeon, some of us more quickly than others – hello Speed 7 Drizzt. Piling onto the Gargoyle we took him down with a flurry of blows and then formed up on the stairway together. A wandering Ghoul and some nasty friends (baffled discussion arose here: spider is ‘vermin’, but rat swarm is ‘animal’?) charged us at the stairway whilst the Young Vampire could be heard mincing and waltzing through the dungeon somewhere in the near distance.

We fended off the monsters’ attacks and Drizzt’s turn came around, since he was stood on the stairway with the Sunsword we were able to dash up the stairs and back out into the safety of daylight – a victory!

Our slim pickings had procured us a few hundred gold and we nipped back to Barovia for supplies from the moody townsfolk.

“One single Healing Potion? That’s all we can afford?” spat Jarlaxle.

“Be thankful we can afford even that, thanks to your pitiful efforts,” snarled Artemis.

“Can’t we all just get along, guys? Group hug?” beamed Drizzt.

Counting our blessings that we even finished the adventure, we prepped ourselves for part one of the showdown, dubious of the fact that we’d have to take down Strahd’s Villain henchmen before we can even approach the man himself. Considering we’d literally just run away from a weedy little Young Vampire and barely survived things were looking grim. Artemis was level 2 and had his precious extra Daily power, but we were actually lower on treasures than we were before the first adventure.

Holding our breaths we descended once again into the crypts...

Relatively more cautious in our approach we sneaked about, concentrating on trying to take monsters out where possible instead of blindly exploring ahead. A run of black tiles saw us fetch up many of the quest items quickly (Wooden Stakes, Silver Daggers, etc.) but also gave us a nasty run of encounters. Constantly fighting enemies to keep our experience pile stocked for encounter cancelling we stumbled into the Arcane Circle where Strahd’s henchman awaited.

The Zombie Dragon. We decided to stop exploring until we could take him out. Artemis, having the most HP and feeling the most confident whilst boasting of his Parry and Strike power, went toe to toe with Strahd’s pet. Meanwhile Drizzt, Guen and Jarlaxle circled the beast, taking potshots and collecting the remaining quest items, including the currently useless Dimensional Shackles (although in a distant room somewhere, Klak began to cack himself).

Throwing a hissy fit at the sniping heroes, the Zombie Dragon snarled and took a swipe at a passing Guen and sent her back to her home plane of existence.

“Nooo!” squeaked Drizzt. Despite wanting to save our dailies for Strahd we instead decided to run in and blow them all on the Dragon. Clouds of Darkness engulfed the poor thing as Drizzt used Twin Strikes, Artemis duelled it with his magic longsword, and then Jarlaxle launched a bracer of daggers at the beast, spectacularly missing it by miles. Eventually the undead monstrosity went down and we tottered away from its spasm-throwing body.

Collecting our breath, with Drizzt and Jarl on low HP, Artemis explored the next tile only to discover the Secret Stairway where Strahd awaited. A string of events summoned a human cultist to his side (we swap the cultists from WOA for the Kobolds of CR) and the bloody unwelcome Grey Hag appeared again too.

With resources low and HP lower we set about alternately attacking the Count and his allies. With no powers left my attacks against him were going to be pretty ineffectual on account of the Vampire’s healing ability so I took aim at his cultist minion and launched a dagger into its cowled head. As luck would have it I drew a Treasure Token with ‘Treasure’ on it, which meant I could actually draw a treasure card this time. After my little “yay, a treasure” jig I performed an even bigger jig when the Dragontooth Pick (or Dragon Toothpick) turned up: +1 to hit and +1 damage if you roll 19+.

Drizzt and Artemis laid into Strahd and started well enough, especially since we only needed to get him down to 5HP before he turns into mist and we win this scenario (you only get to properly ‘kill’ him in part 2). But our XP had dried up and the Crushing Walls trap came into effect followed by another series of ingenious traps.

Sidenote: every time we fight Strahd we get hammered by Traps in the final confrontation. Every time. I’m sure the encounter deck knows when we find him. Anyway...

Dodging sliding walls and crossbow bolts we continued to fight the good fight and Artemis with his higher fancy shmancy Level 2 Hit Points drew the Count’s attention for the most part whilst Jarl and Drizzt chipped away at him. After a few misses the Count eventually got a grip on Artemis and began to drain his blood. Soon he was no longer the hero with the highest HP which meant the Count turned his attention to Jarl and Drizzt. Activating after every one of our turns meant that the damage we dealt him started to heal when he struck back.

Soon we were fighting a losing battle, and when the Passage of Time encounter card turned up we all dropped down to 1 or 2 Hit Points each. Grinning through bloodstained teeth the Count redoubled his attacks and took Drizzt out. Jarlaxle attacked back valiantly and then the Count took him out too, before turning on a suddenly lonely Artemis.

We took a pause in the action to appraise the situation and allow our pulsing heart rates to subside a little. We rolled up our sleeves, wiped our brows and pressed on.

Artemis attacked Strahd and hit, Strahd was down to 7HP (effectively 2HP because we only needed to get him down to 5).

Strahd and the Hag attacked back and brought Artemis down to 1HP, whilst healing Strahd back up to an effective 3HP.

Jarlaxle spent a surge and stood up, swung for Strahd and rolled a natural 1. Strahd fought back along with a nasty encounter and Jarlaxle went down to 1HP. Strahd now on 4HP.

Drizzt spent the last surge and stood up, swung for Strahd twice and hit him once with the Sunsword, bringing him back down to 2HP. Strahd and the Hag and encounter fought back and Drizzt went down – on Drizzt’s next turn we would now lose.

Artemis attacked Strahd and inflicted 1 damage. Strahd, Jarl and Artemis stood on (effectively) one Hit Point each. Strahd attacked Artemis and missed.

All eyes on Jarlaxle.

Strahd has a ridiculous 19AC. Wielding the Toothpick I’d need an 11 to win the game. If I failed it would be Drizzt’s turn and we’d lose the game instantly.

50/50 chance (about 25/75 when you factor in my terrible dice rolling ’skills’).

Real life Drizzt decided at that very second he needed to go to the bathroom.

Artemis and I sat in silence and waited for his return.

Drizzt came back.

Sat down.

You could hear a pin drop.

So I rolled.

And this song has been stuck in my head ever since:

The Hunt for Strahd Part 2 to follow next week....