33 thoughts on “E14 – Gollum’s Pleasure”

1. 

   You guys rock! keep up the good work.

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     Much appreciated! I think you were on of our first FB fans as well? Good man.

2. 

   For Narvi’s Belt, we do currently have a Leadership Dwarf hero, Gloin. This attachment is good for any Tri sphere deck. The flexibility of the Belt is such a huge boon. If you are running low on one resource, just kneel the Belt to help you. Next turn you can use it for the other sphere you have.

   I really enjoyed the show. Interesting to hear you lists and play through experiences.

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     I was too distressed by the outright, violent hatred displayed toward the card to think straight. But I’m glad to see you’re with me on this one 🙂

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     Yeah, I actually did a bit of a double take when some of the guys declared the belt “unplayable.” As you noted, it will look great on Gloin, and it allows a player to splash cards from multiple spheres without worrying about pulling the correct Song. It’s any Song you need it to be at any given moment. That’s definitely a playable card.

3. 

   Hey guys, thanks for another quality show!

   Return to Mirkwood looks great. Both the player cards and the encounter previews seem like they’ll make for a fun, challenging scenario. Attercop is an awesome, ally-munching machine. It’s also non-unique, so the poor player guarding Gollum might have to deal with two or three of those buggers all at once. Seems like Wandering Took might make a comeback just to ensure that spider fodder is always where it needs to be. I’m also anticipating some decidedly un-cooperative moments: “Here, YOU take Gollum. Oh, by the way, there’s a giant spider chasing him…” Should be a blast.

   Hard to argue with the Leadership picks, especially Steward. I’ll cast my vote for the new Dunedain Watcher. I think it’s definitely the best or second-best Leadership ally (Faramir is usually better, but can also seem like overkill rather than a really efficient play). The built-in Hasty Stroke ability is really helpful. Plus, it’s easy on the eyes 😉

   Haven’t had a chance to play Dead Marshes yet, but it sounds great. Definitely agree that any kerfluffle surrounding Gollum’s absence in Stage 2B is a bit silly. I understand that the inconsistent and ambiguous terminology in this game does not sit well with rules lawyers, but this is one case where no over-thinking is required. If Gollum isn’t in play, he can’t be captured. It would be nice if Gollum had the errata Mitch mentioned, although one of the spoiled cards from Return to Mirkwood (A Shadow of the Past?) can move cards from the encounter discard pile to the top of the encounter deck.

   Appreciate the great content–keep it coming!

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     I thought about including the watcher myself, if anything just for that picture…. good lord.

     But ultimately, and forgive me if I’m wrong on this (I’m at work and can’t verify my notes or cards), the watcher requires discarding itself for her effect to take place, right? I have such a tough time swallowing the ally actions that require a discard. I know it’s a natural part of the ebb and flow of the card movement, but it’s so hard for me to justify it, especially when creating a top-5 list.

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       Yep, discard is required, and I am often loath to sacrifice such a fetching lass (although, as allies go, Rivendell Minstrel is probably the most “fetching”). It’s a safety net card; decent if you never use the ability, but potentially game-saving if you do. Kind of like Landroval in this respect. For me, that bailout factor coupled with the body (and here I mean the stats, underwhelming as they may be) merits a spot in the top 5, as I think it will typically do more to help win a game than a card like Grim Resolve.

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       Fair enough. However… I feel compelled to argue further…

       The minstrel? Come on! I guess redheads and brunettes just aren’t meant to be chased by the same man.

4. 

   A great podcast as usual, just have listened to the first part of it on my way to work this morning, but two things:

   Narvi’s Belt = Gloin’s Belt (as James mentioned above). I cant believe you guys ignored Gloin on the show as this item is nearly custom build (tailored?) for him 🙂

   Mirkwood Bats = a nasty challenge. I like them because cards like these do a important job in leveling the quest difficulty: We all know LotR LCG quests are very hard at the beginning, are ok in the middle and once you are set with attachments and allies they are a cakewalk. This card is not that evil when drawn it in the first couple of turns (not much allies in play yet) but is devastating in the mid/endgame. Sir, I like these Bats indeed!

5. 

   Hey guys. “Jason H.” here. It was really cool hearing my name on your show. My fandom of the game and your show will always go hand-in-hand. Thanks, Mitch!

6. 

   We’ve taken to just conceding the game when Gollum goes into the discard pile as a shadow or escape test card. Otherwise we’re just sitting there for what feels like hours waiting to finish the deck and reshuffle, then hope that Gollum doesn’t get discarded yet again! In the meantime there’s little danger from enemies or threat, so it’s really just a boring slog of going through the motions.

7. 

   Another entertaining podcast, guys! I particularly enjoyed Andrew’s Cockney Snowbourn Scout impression.

   I just wanted to weigh in on Narvi’s belt. Other commenters have mentioned it but I wanted to add to what they’ve said. I feel like this card was made with Gloin in mind. With Steward and Self Preservation and even some Citadel Plates and a Song of Mocking (all of which Gloin could play if he had his technicolor belt on), Gloin would be a resource machine.

   Sure, the belt isn’t a card that you would want in every deck, but it could be the basis of a very good deck design, and to me, the most interesting cards in any constructed deck game are those that can be very powerful under the right circumstances, but which are not no-brainers for every deck. Cards like the belt or Imrahil or Silvan Tracker or Will of the West/Common Cause that don’t seem very good on the surface can be awesome in the right deck.

8. 

   Wow there is some love for the belt! Now I did catch myself before declaring it “unplayable” (which is never wholly a true statement) but I maintain that it is limited to dwarves, and I’d rather sacrifice the flexibility of having it produce any resource to the songs which can be attached on any hero. That being said I have been wrong once or twice(!) and time will tell.

   After playing DM a few more times I agree that it can become a real drag if gollum gets away and then gets discarded. Our first 5 games stayed alive but it can really just die.

   Brandon.

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     Don’t try to weasel out of it Brandon! You’ve been called out! Out I say!

     • 

       Yikes, I’m in trouble! I shouldn’t have belted out my opinion on it so quickly.

9. 

   With all the Dwarf focus for Khazad Dum, Dain II in RtM and 2 more Dwarf heroes on the way, I really doubt this card will prove “unplayable”. We haven’t even seen the card set yet in KD to really be making calls on the usefulness of any cards.

10. 

    I submitted a Grima. I hope it’s of some interest. 🙂

11. 

    How can people that do not wish to register on facebook see all the custom card entries?

    • 

      We can make a public gallery of some sort after the contest is over. The gallery on FB may be viewable by those who aren’t registered either, which would be nice. One way or another, we’ll make sure you can see them!

      • 

        Brian, WordPress might have a widget that you can link to a photo site so that people who don’t like FB can view the Grima cards.

    • 

      You should be able to see the pictures from the host custom card contest on the main page of this site. zombiemailman was correct, there is a widget to add a flikr account, so check em out! We will post some of the Grima pics the day we record episode 15, which should be next Wednesday. Enjoy, and thanks for listening!

12. 

    In most collectable card game that I have played, ressource menagement is a major factor in a competitive deck. So why would it be different in this game?

    Every one know that the dwarfs are coming in force in the next few month. So even if the belt has a lot of restrictions ( attach to a dwarf, unique), it will have a lot of possible target.

    Last thing. The belt might not be as strong as I think it is, but it is far from unplayable since dwaf deck will be a good tribal deck ( just look at Dain which as been officialy preview on FFG).

13. 

    Just wanted to say a couple things about Ep 14:

    1. As far as “Plundered Armoury” goes, your trying to fix a card from one side. Don’t assume everyone uses 3 Northern Trackers (or any, for that matter) and if you want to travel there for the feel of the card, don’t play NT or include it in your deck. No need for a card fix, just change your play.

    2. When Gollum is shuffled back into the deck in Dead Marshes and he comes up with no tokens and you win with a 0 escape test (as per Andrews point), it reminds me of how Aragorn captured him in the Dead Marshes: He happed to see his tracks and stumbled upon him peering into a pool and nabbed him.

    Great episode!

    • 

      I think our reaction to the location is based around the idea that it originally seemed, in our heads, like they came up with a way to reward players for directly traveling there, giving us incentive not to northern track it away. But when we really took a look at the card, we realized it’s no different from any other location that a northern tracker strategy will take care of. Of course, not everyone uses it in their decks, but it would have been nice to see a fresh, new location with a mechanic that wholeheartedly discouraged tracking it away without making it outright illegal.

      • 

        Ya, I do agree with you that a mechanic discouraging tracking would be excellent. However, I REALLY liked your idea that FFG could actually use the trait words (ie. Dungeon) to specifically say -maybe even per scenerio- that those cards cannot be explored with card effects.

14. 

    Guys I’m not feeling the love in this episode ;-P

    My Lore/Spirit draw all your cards deck can be found here:

    http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/lotr/lord-of-the-rings-decks/_/lord-of-the-rings-decks/revised-lore-spirit-r140

    I also have four other decks I play. Currently revising an Eagle deck for the new AP and starting to put together a Dwarf deck with Khazad-Dum in mind.

    Thanks for the games Brian and Mitch.

15. 

    I was eager to listen to your top and flop Leadership cards. Leadership has the best auxiliary cards in the game but to be honest the worst allies. Except Faramir and Snowborn “The Chump” Scout I hardly see any Leadership allies being played. They have an odd attribute distribution (some willpower, some attack and no defence) and cost on average 1 resource more than what their attributes are worth. Brok PipeFist and LongJohn Orc-Slayer are good examples of overpriced and underperfoming.

    • 

      I’m going to start putting Snowbourn Scout in every deck, just so I can feed him to a giant spider and go,”Wot, me agayn?”

      You’re right that Leadership allies seem generally weak (look at Guard of the Citadel compared to Erebor Hammersmith). The Dunedain Watcher is pretty good, but it would be nice to get a few more solid Leadership allies. I think Brok maybe, possibly, might be playable once Khazad-dum is released, but I’m not holding out too much hope.

      • 

        Everyone at work gave me really weird looks when I just started laughing when they talked about the snowbourn scout saying “wot, me agayn?” I couldn’t stop laughing and now they all think i’m insane. Now I probably can’t play the snowbourn scout without laughing. Great episode as always and appreciate the shout out even though you meant Simon P. and not Jamie P. Two weeks in a row I got mentioned!

16. 

    When we talking about Locations and travel phase:

    The whole idea of travel effect and explored location to go there and meet a danger there is destroy by Tracker. Who need to travel and face all those problems when is much easy just discard it from staging area??? So ability of tracker and other similar cards really destroy all aspect of traveling and make travel phase really boring and stupid in my opinion. There is the hole in the rules and hole in one of the very important part of the game….

    But if they fixed this, then we will have very nice aspect of traveling some bonuses and minuses what we can meet to be on locations and so on.

    For now traveling is not really exiting part of the game. IN ME CCG location cards and travel on them play much more interesting role and in my opinion is right.

    There is also terrain bonuses and minuses on locations. For example in the forest all Sivan charachters get attack +1. Underground no eagles and horses and all orcks get attack +1.Plain give all horse will power +1 and mountains can provide some bonuses to Eagles as well.

    The game is still fresh. Lets hope every thing will be better with second cycle.

17. 

    Why are you guys talking about a hat that can see really well? (Sorry, lame, I know, but it honestly did pop into my head. I’ll blame it on the fact that I married a Canadian. Most Americans will have no idea why I’m going on about far-seeing toboggans.)

    Wow, you weren’t kidding about Mitch’s epic Amazon reviews. What I thought was hyperbole turned out to be understatement, which I didn’t even think was possible. Those things are unreal.

    Jared, thanks for the decklist! I was hopping on here to ask for that. 🙂

    Awesome episode, guys. You shouldn’t worry about the 2 hour run time since you’re entertaining throughout.

18. 

    Hey guys! Don’t know if you’ll see this since I’m only getting into your podcast about five years late…

    One great use / combo I’ve seen for Son of Arnor is to play him when you have a Forest Snare in your hand. Then you’re able to engage an enemy in the planning phase, and Snare him before he ever gets a chance to attack.

    Maybe you’ll mention it later on! I’ve been having a blast catching up with you. I’ve currently played through half of Dwarrowdelf (only started the game about 4 months ago), so it’s been super fun “reminiscing” with you all!