OCTGN Tutorial

I've had a few people ask about using OCTGN, so I put together a fairly basic tutorial.  Enjoy!

Custodio de la Casa del Manantial

Today, an interesting card appeared on my Twitter feed.  A spanish LOTR blog released a supposed spoiler for an upcoming card.  Custodio de la Casa del Manantial, roughly translated to Custodian of the Spring, is a new Ent ally.

His text translates to: "Cannot have restricted attachments.  Enters play exhausted.  Response: After the Custodian of the Spring readies , heal 1 point of damage on an Ent character." The effect sounds very similar to Silvan Tracker, though more limited. There will definitely be synergy with the recently spoiled Treebeard hero, who gains willpower and attack by dealing himself damage. I hope this card turns out to be real, and if so, look forward to adding him to my Ent decks.

Sidetrack - The Lord of the Rings Deck-Building Game

Welcome to the first Sidetrack entry.  These are meant to be opportunities for me to discuss things not related to The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game.  For this first entry, I chose to stay close to the card game.  I'd like to talk about The Lord of the Rings Deck-Building Game.

Cryptozoic has put out a wide variety of deck-building games: Street Fighter, Naruto, DC Comics, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings.  All of these are essentially the same.  All are based on the Cerberus engine, which is a fancy word for "Theme Glue".  Regardless of the theme, you basically have a hand of cards, all of which are used to either gain power (the currency of the game), hurt your opponents, or do some shenanigans.  I first played the the DC version and was not a fan.  I did not understand why I was Nightwing, but was collecting different colored power rings, or how I spent punches to buy a kick.  With that said, I actually like the Lord of the Rings version.

Why?  Maybe it's bias towards LOTR, though I am a fan  of DC Comics.  Maybe it's a bias towards DC to the point that I can't get over the abstraction.  Regardless, I enjoy it, to the point of buying all three versions, sleeving it, and even buying a custom insert so I could hold them all in one box.

What do you think? Have you played any of Cryptozoic's games, and which is your favorite?

Keep Running!

A Call to Arms

The Treason of Saruman is shipping now.  We've already had a preview of some of the cards and quests, but now we given a look at the heroes we will be getting.  We already knew about our new Fellowship hero, Aragorn v4.  Now we have our two other heroes: Théoden and Treebeard!

Many people online were predicting a new version of Théoden, considering the source material.  Personally, I had completely written off a hero version of Treebeard when we got the ally version in the last cycle.  As it stands, I'm more excited for spirit Théoden than I am hero Treebeard.  His ability to boost willpower and strength is interesting, especially since there is so much opportunity for in-sphere healing.  Théoden shows lot of promise.  Already being in the same sphere as his niece, Éowyn, shows promise by itself, but his cost reduction should make a lot of the more expensive Rohan cards more viable.  

My favorite from this update is Herugtim.  This weapon works well Théoden, either version, or Éowyn.  Add some willpower boost, like Dúnedain Quest, or Éowyn base ability, and you can get some significant attack power.  All in all, I'm excited to get my copy late next week.

Nightmare Run Episode 1 - Passage Through Mirkwood (Solo)

In the first episode of the series, Nightmare Run, I decided to take the Dúnedain through the nightmare version of our first quest, Passage Through Mirkwood.  It didn't go well..  Regardless, here it is, and I hope you enjoy!

Impressions - The Lost Realm - Events, Attachments, and Side Quests

Events

There are three event cards in The Lost Realms, with spirit missing a card.  Tireless Hunters is what I call a "soft" version of feint.  During combat, you're able pull an enemy over to you, and if it has been dealt a shadow card, then it is removed.  This could be used to move an enemy from another player that isn't set up to defend an attack, or even bring an enemy down from the staging area.  Back in the core set days, the Hill Troll in Journey Down the Anduin could be a daunting enemy.  It was common to forest snare him until you could deal with it.  Unfortunately, you either had to spend a feint, or deal with his 6 attack for at least a round.  In this case, you could use this card to pull him down after enemies have attacked, then snare him during the next turn's planning.
Expert Trackers reminds me of Strength of Will. Instead of a static amount of progress, you are able to place progress on a location relative to the threat of an engaged enemy.  There's not much to say about it, it's solid.  As long as you have a deck with a good number of scouts or rangers, I don't see a reason not to include it to help with location control.
Ranger Summons is the card that got me excited for this expansion.  First off, it's a signal card, so it has synergy with our new watchman.  For one cost, this card places a ranger ally into the encounter deck.  I have to imagine that this was inspired by The Massing at Osgiliath's Ranger of Ithilien.  It can do damage to an enemy, or put progress on a location, then you get to give it to whichever player needs him most.  Solid stats for the cost, but I wish it would of had a shadow effect, like the Ranger of Ithilien.  Perhaps that would of been overpowered.  Regardless, I'm very happy with this card, and I can tell from my initial playthroughs that it is very satisfying to see them come up during staging.

Attachments

Heir of Valandil reminds me of O Lórien!  To fit in with the Dúnedain trait, instead of being a static reduction, it is relative to the number of engaged enemies.  I imagine it will be good as we get through the cycle and fill out the number of Dúnedain allies.  I don't see any value, however, in a mono-leadership deck, considering the amount of resource acceleration available.
Secret Vigil is my favorite attachment from the expansion.  It provides a lot of utility that isn't available in tactics, particularly threat reduction, both enemy and player.  There was a core set card, Power in the Earth, which had similar effects, but for location.  It didn't, however, provide any additional utility beyond reducing the threat in the staging area.  It fits right into what tactics is meant to do, and not only benefits the player who played it, but each player.
When I saw Athelas, the first thing I did was pull up the quest cards for A Journey to Rhosgobel, to see how it was written about the Athelas objective cards.  These can't be used to for the last quest card in AJtR, but it could still heal Wilyador earlier in the quest.  My second thought was relating it to lembas, another recent lore attachment.  Where as that only healed three hit points, and readied the character, this heals all damage and removes a condition.  Not having a cap on healing isn't as big of a deal for me, as the most you would typically heal is four, but I'm always happy to have more condition removal.  Also, it doesn't have to heal the character its attached to, so there's flexibility there.  Unfortunately, you have to exhaust the attached character, so you use up their utility in exchange for the healing.  A small inconvenience for sure, but there's plenty of value to make up for it.
Star Brooch is a solid questing boost.  As opposed to The Favor of the Lady or Dúnedain Quest, which both cost two, for one you get the same boost, and it cannot be reduced.  The only trade off is limit one per hero, and you have to put it on a Dúnedain or Noldor hero, but that still opens it up to plenty of valid targets, such as Idraen or Glorfindel.  This attachment would come in very handy in quests where there are willpower reduction conditions, such as Black Breath.

Side Quests

A new addition to the player card line up, side quests allow for the players to take a break from the main quest for some added benefit.  Similar to The Battle of Five Armies, players decide which quest card they will take on, and then quest against that.  Not only do you get the benefit of the side quest, but it could also be useful in quests where you don't want to progress too quickly, such as Conflict at the Carrock, where you usually want to build up before taking on the trolls.  The only neutral card in The Lost Realm is a side quest, Gather Information.  Limit one per deck, it allows the players to search their decks for a card of choice, and add it to their hand.  Similar to Word of Command, being able to pull those key cards from your deck could be game changing.  In the quests included with The Lost Realm, there are various effects which can penalize you for how many quests are in play, but for all previous quests, I don't think there's any negative to include this.

Final Thoughts

Looking at the new cards as a whole, I'm very excited for where the designers are taking the game.  None of the cards drastically change the way the game is played, but they all give the players new options to explore.  Regardless if you build a Dúnedain deck, a lot of the cards can be included in older builds.  I look forward to testing out these cards in future plays.  What do you guys think?  What is your favorite card?  Are there combos that I didn't mention that merit further exploration?

Across the Ettenmoors

FFG announces the third adventure pack in the Angmar Awakened cycle: Across the Ettenmoors.  In  this quest, our heroes will journeying through the troll-fells, fighting new troll enemies, such as the Ruthless Hill-troll.

With 12 hit points, he can be nasty, especially if you can't finish him off in one attack.

Here, we see a call back to the Hill Troll of the Anduin, except instead of extra threat, we're seeing lost progress.

In addition to the new quest, players will also get a new tactics hero, promised to boost defense.  Will this be a new power defender, like Beregond, or will he have a passive defensive boost?  I hope the later, as that should help with the new focus on engagement.  We will also see new signal, mount, and Ent cards.  I am very excited for the new Ent cards, as I want to flesh out that archetype further.  We should expect this adventure pack some time in Q3 2015.