[OT] Lord of the Rings TCG

I'm now rated 1949, 71st in the world!

 

Curious how many of you are going to see Two Tower's on Wednesday? Can't wait personally.

R'Bolt

 

I saw it this afternoon, and it was utterly amazing. It was so fun to spot a lot of the card images that I had been seeing for the past month and a half.

 

I agree the movie was_is amazing. A lot different in tone than the first, but a whole lot of fun. I loved a lot of the humorous remarks in this one!

Also still looking for the following LOTR's foils:

4R72 1x Killing Field Elven
R229 1x Easterling Skirmisher's Raider
R259 2x Vision From Afar Raider
R236 2x Toldea Nazgul
R231 1x Enquea Nazgul
2R84 1x Twilight Nelya Nazgul

If anyone has any of these available for trade please send a private message.

R'Bolt

 

I just went undefeated in a tourney today with a Southron/Uruk archery deck, combined with Ring-bound rangers.

Deck title: "I'm not even supposed to be here today."

Starting:
Frodo, Tired Traveller
The One Ring, Isildur's Bane
Faramir, Captain of Gondor
Ranger of Ithilien

Adventure deck:

[1] East Wall of Rohan
[2] Wold of Rohan
[3] Barrows of Edoras
[4] White Rocks
[5] Deep of Helm
[6] Hornburg Armory
[7] King's Room
[8] Wizard's Vale
[9] Palantír Chamber

Free Peoples (37 + 2 starting):

Boromir, My Brother
Boromir's Gauntlets
Cliffs of Emyn Muil
Defend It and Hope X2
Faramir's Bow
Faramir's Cloak
Flaming Brand X2
Gondor Bowmen X2
Gondorian Ranger X3
Henneth Annûn
Mablung, Soldier of Gondor
Might of Númenor
O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!
Ranger of Ithilien X2
Ranger's Bow X2
Ruins of Osgiliath
Sting
Swiftly and Softly
Sword of Gondor X4
Swordsman of the Northern Kingdom X3
The Saga of Elendil
The Shards of Narsil X2
Thrarin, Dwarven Smith
War and Valor

Shadow (39):

Desert Lord X3
Eastern Emyn Muil X2
Elite Archer X4
Elite Crossbowmen X2
Lurtz, Servant Of Isengard X2
One of You Must Do This
Orthanc Assassin X2
Ranged Commander X4
Southron Bowman X4
Southron Fighter
Tower of Orthanc X2
Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
Uruk Crossbowman X4
Uruk Crossbow Troop X3
Weapons of Isengard X4

The bidding of this deck is usually 4, since Frodo can reduce the amount of burdens I'll have, plus there's the odd chance that I draw Cliffs of Emyn Muil in my opening hand. If I can stay ahead of my opponent, I can put the pressure on him to double move to keep up, which will hurt him badly. There's nothing too complicated about this deck; just use the Southrons to shoot people so they're exhausted for Tower, then finish them off with normal archery, or the Uruks who exert to make the FP wound an unbound companion. The Southrons also work great for making it so the FP characters can't exert for other things, like Escape, Trust Me, common Gimli/Legolas, Aragorn's Bow, etc.

Some notes on the sitepath:

I use the Armory instead of Caves of Aglarond, because my Uruks won't be winning skirmishes often enough to make having them be fierce worthwhile. King's Room is also great if my opponent isn't playing Rohan, which will mean lots of extra wounds being thrown around. Palantír Chamber is the obvious choice for Site 9, since by that time, Frodo will be pretty heavily burdened because he had to be an archery sponge too many times.

 

I've got another tourney to play tonight, and I'm gonna stick with this Uruk/Southron deck. It works so beautifully, that I'm going to keep playing it until my local meta can adjust to stop it.

 

FINALLY seen TTT. (Hey, it DID open here a week after the states).
AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME Hey I could go on. .

HIGHLIGHTS:
Helm's Deep. No comparison.

The argument between Smeagol and Gollum. And awesome piece of work. The way it loked like it was two different chaarcters. Well done.

Uruks vs Orcs: "Meats on the menu after all!" (or words to that effect)

There were a lot more changes from the book, but over all I liked the changes. I even liked the idea of elves at Helm's Deep. Kind of made the battle a little more realistic. I especially liked tree beard bringing Merry and Pippin to "the White Wizard"

Aragorn being separated and the battle with the wargs was awesome. A fantastic battle scene.

There were two small points I didn't like.
Faramir This was not Faramir. This was nothing like Faramir.

The ending Not to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet (but i guess if you are reading this thread you would have seen it). Ok, the Frodo, Sam, Gollum bit ended well, but where was the parly with Saruman. Where was the broken staff? At least we didn't have the impaling.

Overall, I loved the movie. Even if there was "too much kissing" as my nephew put it.
Despite my critisisms, I thought it was great. Can't wait for Return of the King, or the Battle of Helm's Deep for that matter.

To Peter Jackson: CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP

 

>>>Not to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet (but i guess if you are reading this thread you would have seen it). Ok, the Frodo, Sam, Gollum bit ended well, but where was the parly with Saruman. Where was the broken staff?

Both halves of the story ended early. The Frodo, Sam, & Gollum story was supposed to have gone on for a while more, and so was the Aragorn, Gandalf, & Co. story. With a large portion of the final book's "winding down and the climax" chapters being condensed or excised entirely (not to mention that RotK the book is shorter than the other two), there wouldn't have been a lot left for RotK if the movies ended where the books do. So they took the last part or two of The Two Towers books and moved them into the beginning of RotK. It's kind of like how they put the very beginning of The Two Towers book into FotR. Boromir died on like page 2 of TTT. But while it's a terrible idea to begin a movie sequel with the death of a major character from the previous installment, it's a great idea to kill someone important in the ending. So they moved the breaks around, but the important storyline parts are still there.

 

Arg, one of my local players pulled a foil ATAR in last night's tourney. We hates him, Precious, yes.

 

Yeah that was an amazing pull, and to think you tried to buy the card for $20, hes only a newbie!

 

WHile I agreed with Boromir's death being in the first movie, and Shelob being in the last, I think the parly with Saruman would have put closure onto that part of the story. I mean, even 10 minutes less of Helm's Deep could have made room for it.

Carrying it over to the third movie is okay, but TTT ends with the impression that "Helm's Deep is over, let's look at Gondor". According to the way the movie went, Gandalf would have had no idea about the Ents and Isengard (as in the book) so he should have said "Now we must deal with Saruman" or "on to Isengard!" We aren't given that impression in the mopvie. It's like he is prerparing to turn Eastward to Gondor.

Still, when a movie is 3 hours long, I guess some things can wait. As has been mentioned, RotK is shorter, and a lot can be packed into three hours.

Something I forgot to add in my last post was that I liked the transition between Frodo/Sam, Merry/Pippin, Three Hunters. I considered it to be smooth and easy to keep track of.

On to game stuff. I was looking at Uruk camp the other day, and thought "This would be a good weapon against early Uruks". Looking further at my cards, it's actually a great site to play with Uruks, as a few gain bonuses from controlling a battleground. Correct me if I am wrong, but Uruk camp is the only site 2 battleground, thus making it the easiest battleground to control. Very balancing. Gereat work by Decipher.

I am lookign at making a Ring-Bound Ranger deck. What shadow culture should I use. I'd like to experiment with Raiders, but would something else go better?

 

As you can see in my deck up above, minion archery is a powerful concept. Duffman beat me in a game on Monday, but that was his minions killing my fellowship. I probably would have been able to kill his fellowship in one or two more turns, though.

 

Yeah Bib's archery deck works quite well, I use an Isengard tracker deck myself which isnt bad at all, 14-2 in tourny play.
Hey Bib, I went to Addictive Behaviors yesterday and Kirk told me that he recalculated the points on Mondays tourny and he said that I won by one point so he gave me the $10 store credit.

 

I use minion archery a lot. I like combining it with damage +1 Uruks.

Heh, I bought 10 packs yesterday, 5 TTT and 5 Realms (I don't have much realms). From the 10 packs, I scored 4 foils. Plus, ALL the rares from TTT were new for me, including Eowyn and the One Ring. I also scored a Southron Archer. In the Realms, I got the rare Arwen and another Boromir's Horn ( ).
While I don't consider the rare Arwen to be a big pull, it's better than the uncommon one. I never pulled the FotR Arwen, so I have had Gwemegil sitting in my binder begging to be used. Now I can at least choose an Arwen.

Onto my wish list for Battle of Helms Deep.

Machines
Bring 'em on. Isengard doesn't have a lot in the way of condition removal (Saruman, BT and Saruman's Power are all I can think of) so maybe the bombs could remove conditions, or maybe tokens.

Wargs
I really hope these are Sauron culture. Isengard is huge, and Sauron needs a boost. Also, I hope they don't mage Wargs possessions. I would rather see them as minions since they fought alone. Warg riders could have abilities like Goblin Pursuer and Goblin Flankers. They get tougher if the Fellowship has moved more than once.

They could also have the ambush skill.

Raider
Oliphaunts. 'Nuff Said.

Gollum
There has been a lot of debate about Smeagol. Particularly what culture he would be. SOme say Gandalf, others say there will bve a new Gollum culture.

To my mind, the best fit for Gollum would be an unbound SHIRE companion. My reasons:

1) He was once a stoor hobbit.
2) He was with Frodo and Sam. Keeping these together under the one culture is easierr to keep track of.
3) If they made Haldir, Arwen and other chaarcters that never moved with the fellowship into companions, it would be plain dumb to make Gollum (a character that spent most of the story travelling with Frodo) anything but a companion.

Will there be new "special" rules for Gollum. I'm not expecting it. Both Mines and Realms avoided specific rules additions, other than game spanning rules like he rule of 4. i don't see the need to do it just for Gollum. After all, there was no "bad" Boromir. Just because Gollum is evil, doesn't mean he had to have special "good/evil" rules. He should be a shire companion, but with a lot of shadow conditions and events that effect him.

Sauron Orcs
To match the book, the orcs that argue with the Uruks have to be Sauron.

That's my thoughts. Any comments would be welcome.

 

Yeah Im really anticipating the upcoming Helms Deep expansion also. The only cards Im really looking forward to that you havent mentioned has to be Grishnakh and the orcs that opposed the Uruks, like you said Suaron needs a boost and I have always wanted a large amount of variety in the game.It seems that everyone only plays Isengard now so with the Helms Deep expansion hopefully Suaron will be beefed up and add a little more variety to what people play.

Im also really curious to see what Gollums ganna be like since he both helps Frodo and Sam and opposes them also. will he be a companion or a minion or somehow a mix of both? Well just have to see.

 

Being "BAttle of Helm's Deep" there will no doubt be plenty of Uruks. Perhaps this expansion will be "Uruks last stand" I can't see them being in RotK and the Ents expansion may focus on orcs rather than Uruks. WHo knows, maybe this will be the Uruks last dominating expansion before Sauron and Raiders take over late this year!

As for Gollum, maybe he could have a strong gametext (perhaps one that reduces twilight when moving) but with a negative twist (maybe exerting Sam or Frodo) Should he be a ring bearer with low resistance? Maybe. Then again, he's already corrupt!

If he is a companion, he should have twilioght of two. That way you can start the fellowship with Frodo, Sam and Gollum. Kinda fits.

BTW, after playing a few games with the TTT sites, does taking the ring to Isengard seem strange to anyone else?

 

Duffman, the official way to do tiebreakers is to throw out the lowest opponents score. So you and I did tie, since we each played a 10 and two 8s.

Besides, didn't I throw out the score cards after the tourney finished? Unless Kirk is one of those guys who paws through his garbage.

 

Yeah I was completely alright with the idea for rolling the di to see who wins, all im saying is that I walked into Addictive Behaviors yeasterday and Kirk said that he recalculated the scores and he said that I was ahead of you by 1 point. So he gave me the $10 store credit. He also says that hes going to make you pay him back, so your ganna have talk to him about this. The only thing is I dont want to end up owing Kirk $10, that would suck.

 

Oh. My. God.

I am now rated 33rd in the world, 1st in Oregon and my rating is exactly 2000!

 

I dont Know if this has been said or not is the TT going to be compatable with LotR card set?

 

Yes, it is 100% compatible with the earlier cards.

 

A couple of Gollum ideas:

Gollum, Grovelling Wretch
Shire Companion
Race: Gollum
Twilight: 2
Strength: 5
Vitality: 4
GT: Ringbound Whenever the fellowship moves, exert a ring-bound hobbit or add a burden.
When you move, do not add twilght for Gollum or Ring Bound hobbits.
"Good Smeagol. Take you to Mordor"

Frodo, Nice Master
Shire Companion
Race: Hobbit
Twilight: 0
Strength: 3
Vitality: 4
GT Ring-bearer (Resistance 10)
Sam and Gollum are strength +1.
"What would you know about such things?"

Gollum, He wants it
Sauron Minion
Race: Gollum
Twilight: 2
Strength: 5
Vitality: 4
GT: Assignment Assign Gollum to a ringbound Hobbit.
If any other minions are assigned to the same skirmish as Gollum, discard him.
"Those filthy theives! They have taken our precious and we wants it back!"

Naturally, if the free people's player has gollum out, they can't play this one unless they use:

The Ring Poisoned his mind
Sauron Condition.
Twilght: 3
Bearer must be Gollum
Shadow reveal Gollum in your hand to place this condition in your support area, and stack free-people's Gollum here.
While this card is in your support area, discard all minion but Gollum. When Gollum leaves table, return Free People's Gollum to table and play this condition on him.

As Sauron culture would be the only one with a Gollum minion, there is no need to spot or exert a nopther minion to play.

How about this...

Wicked, Nasty looking men!
Raider Culture
4 Twilght
Bearer must be Gollum
When the fellowship moves, spot a [Raider] Man to add a burden.

OR

Creeping up Silently
Isengard Condition
Twilight: Bearer must be Gollum
If the Ring bearer is not assigned to a skirmish, exert an [isengard] minion to exert the Ring Bearer.

OR

Uncontrollable Fear
RingWraith Condition
Twilight: 3
Bearer must be Gollum
While you can spot a Nazgul, Gollum is strength -1 and his game text is ignored.

BUT HAVE NO FEAR:

I did it!
Shire event
Twilght: 2
Fellowship or regroup: exert Gollum twice to remove a condition on him.
"I told him to go away and he did!"


Of course, there would be "Nasty fat hobbit" cards that spot Gollum to hurt Sam and the like.

 

Nice. Here are my ideas for the ROTK sitepath:

1) Paths of the Dead/Orthanc
2) Rohan Plains/Drúadan Forest/Stone of Erech
3) Denethor's Chamber/Pelargir
4) Gate of Minas Tirith
5) Pelennor Fields
6) Houses of Healing
7) Minas Morgul
8) Ithilien
9) Black Gate of Mordor

 

My new rating: 2019, 24th in the world.

Sometimes when I look back at my humble beginnings in this game, I laugh. I can't believe how far along I've come in this game.

 

Impressive Bib, congradulations. Well I finally took 7th in Oregon, ive been in 8th for almost a month.