E17 – Shadowing Mirkwood


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– Welcome
– Bill the Pony Custom Card Contest Extended! Vote on Facebook!

– News
– Final Khazad-Dum Previews

– Content
– Review of the Shadows of Mirkwood Cycle

-TUNE IN NEXT EPISODE FOR THE KHAZAD-DUM REVIEW!

– Sign off

35 thoughts on “E17 – Shadowing Mirkwood”

  2. I really enjoyed the show. I liked hearing your wrap up of the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle. My favorite quest is Conflict of the Carrock especially since I am mainly a Tactics player. It is fun, allows for a challenge with new decks, and is a good intro mission to new players. My favorite cards for all the adventure packs are the Eagles. I love the theme of them swooping in, helping out, and then moving on. It is very much like them in the books too. I just wished that instead of Beorning Beekeeper we got another Eagle ally.

    I can not wait to hear your next podcast on Khazad-Dum. I hope you didn’t forget about my challenge to you guys.

    • Tactics really shines when all the trolls roll up on you at once, it is all out battle. I like how the eagles can’t have attachments, I find it funny, because, you know, they fly.

      The KD episode is going to be the most epic episode ever times infinity.

      We haven’t forgotten the challenge and will discuss it on episode 19!

      • Sounds great. I am excited to try all the new quests in KD. My meta finally got through the first mission after 3 tries. Unfortunately, we have not gotten a chance since to try out the other 2.

        As to Bifur, my one friend is considering really hard about replacing Glorfindel with Bifur. It would greatly reduce his starting threat, he almost always uses Glorfindel for questing, if Dain is used then there is no change in Willpower, and he has a Lore/Tactics deck so having basically a built in Song of Wisdom is very useful for him.

  3. Please make sure you have clear start and end points for kaz spoilers. The vast majority of players will not have the thing and most I think do not want spoilers. All you need to do to make everyone happy is give us a warning b4 you start. If your super cool you can also edit the final audio file to insert a comment giving the time code for when you stop spoiling.

  5. Hey guys, thanks for another great episode! I have thoroughly enjoyed this cycle, with Return to Mirkwood and A Journey to Rhosgobel being my favorite Adventure Packs.

    I just wanted to mention that I’m currently running a Rohan deck and an Eagle deck (from one Core Set and the AP’s) together in two-player games. They’re fantastic–fun, thematic, and pretty darn effective. A Spirit-Leadership Rohan deck quests like mad and obliterates locations, but it can struggle with combat. Meanwhile, a mono-Tactics Eagle deck can’t muster much willpower, but it just murders any foes unfortunate enough to come off the encounter deck. Boromir+Vassal of the Windlord/Eagles of the Misty Mountains/Winged Guardian+Support of the Eagles is just nuts.

    For me, then, the best part about this cycle has been the fact that the two “tribal” decks are not only viable but complementary. I like winning, but winning with two awesome thematic decks is even better. If you have not done so yet, you owe it to yourself to play the Eagle deck in a multiplayer game. Anyway, keep up the great work, and I look forward to Khazad-dum!

    • Your post is almost ver batem what I would say about my own two decks. I’m currently working on a third Lore (with a splash of either leadership or spirit) control deck. My Rohan deck is really not well designed for a solo game, but in MP I love how it flows together when I can chain some combos.

      • Absolutely. Questing with all your characters, playing Astonishing Speed, then sending Eomund on a Ride to Ruin (sorry) and wiping out a location while readying all your Rohan guys (and, possibly, Imrahil) is one of life’s simple pleasures.

  6. Regarding Bifur: He comes in handy when you have out an Erebor Record Keeper, who requires a lore resource to spend to ready a Dwarf hero. Just slide a resource over to Bifur, then exhaust the record keeper and spend it to ready Dwalin, setting him up for another threat-releiving attack. Or ready Dain after he defends so that your dwarves can attack with greater power. I think Bifur + Erebor Record Keeper is a viable combo for a dwarf deck.

    • Thanks to Dain Ironfoot, Bifur has become my new Eowyn! Very low starting threat, great willpower, plus Dwarf synergy makes him great. With the help of Song of Travel in my Spirit/Lore deck, being able to receive undesirable or unneeded resources from the other player also means I’ll always have plenty to pay for little things like Hasty Stroke or A Test of Will if I would have otherwise ran out, and it can also speed up resource accumulation for big purchases like Northern Tracker in a deck that normally only uses one Spirit hero. I’ll talk about it at length during the next episode, I’m sure, but so far I am LOVING our new Dwarves!

  7. Hi Guys, another great show. I enjoyed it a lot. But be friendly to each other, don’t start “infighting” 🙂

    Regarding “Beafur”: As a stand alone card, his ability is really “meh” but he perfectly fits when you want do a Leadership/Lore Dwarf Deck which naturally will be Lore heavy (better cards, more dwarves and more expensive cards). But due to the current state of dwarf heroes you’ll have to stick to Dain, Gloin and Bifur – and now he shines: even though having only one lore hero you still can play a lore heavy deck. So, his ability is more like making another hero dual sphere (like having a free lore song every turn), and that’s not so bad.

    • Re: Biefer Sutherlund. I was trying him out in a non- “dwarf deck” capacity. I was thinking that with Brandon running SoG, that half that payoff could go to Bifur, and then i’d have 2 spirit, and 2 lore resources per turn for ‘purchasing.’ i figure he’s of obvious use in a dwarf deck but was curious as to whether or not he could help “beef up” 😉 any other strategy that i already try to employ.

      we’ll discuss on next ep. of ‘cast.

  8. It seems that nobody likes “Brand, son, cousin and brother of Bain” even though he has decent stats for a tactics hero (willpower!). I see him more like a poor-man’s-Legolas in a 3 or 4-player game when Legolas is already being played by another player. But then: I never, ever use him because his artwork makes my eyes bleed.

    On the same account: I never bothered with Gildor bc his artwork gives me an unpleasant AD&D/Ravenloftesque feel. I think I’ll put stickers on both Brand’s and Gildor’s artwork… 🙂

    • Although everybody’s opinion can (and should!) vary, here are some very hastily written thoughts on Brand son of Bain before I head to work, and why I don’t really ever care to use him in my two player games, despite his ability appearing pretty useful. To benefit from his ability:

      1) The other player must have an enemy engaged with them (potentially putting them at risk of losing heroes/allies, etc, if their deck is not adept at combat)

      2) The other player must have a character currently exhausted that can benefit from readying (pretty easy though, if they have for Beravor, for example, but even then there also comes a point where they may already hold all the cards they need)

      3) Your attack must be sufficient to kill, and not merely wound, that enemy. Unless the other player can contribute to combat, 3 Ranged damage alone (more with Dunedain Mark, Blade of Gondolin, etc of course), is not amazing.

      4) You must not have used him to quest or block earlier in the round (I don’t like that he has 2’s for both of these statistics, given his combat ability and measly 3 hit points. I think its a waste of starting threat).

    • Brand maybe, but Gildor? 😮 I think that’s some of the best art in the game. There are a lot of great artists who do work for this project, and Magali’s pieces are as good as any.

      • I don’t say that Gildor’s artwork is bad. I personally just don’t like the style of this particular card and in my opinion it’s more AD&D than Middle-Earth. I like the other art by Magali like Ring Mail, Elfhelm, Arwen, Zigil Miner and his Silvans. Interestingly there is an alternate version of his Bifur (at http://magali-villeneuve.blogspot.com/) without spectacles which I prefer over the actual version (again: wise guys with glasses are more AD&D and Harry Potter than Tolkien for me)

        But then, you can’t argue about taste, can you? 🙂

      • @Shelfwear: Hahaha… I had seen the “sans spectacles” version of Bifur before, but since you’ve mentioned Harry Potter, now I don’t think I’ll be able to un-see Dumbledore every time I put Bifur on the table!

  9. Your guy’s read on Bifur is way off.

    – Lore has trouble generating resources so he helps with that.
    – When you play a dwarf deck, Bifur’s going to be the minor sphere in your deck so it helps to be able to give him resources to even out the resources.
    -If you’re playing a tri-sphere deck, you can put Narvi’s Belt on him and create way more versatility for your resources.
    -Bifur + Gloin is a great combo
    – Dwarves are the new power in the universe and so really (thanks to Dain) Bifur has 3 willpower not 2 and makes him a solid quester for your dwarf party.

    Had enough? 🙂

  10. On a side note: after having listened to the (very good) show I realized “They haven’t (honorary) mentioned Massing at Osgiliath”. Sure, its not part of the Mirkwood cycle but interestingly I’d rate none of the Mirkwood APs higher than MaO. Usually when we are near the end of a LotR LCG gaming evening, we decide to play Osgiliath as “the finisher” and chuckle while we get stomped by the forces of Mordor…

  11. So I went to look at Mitch’s reviews on Amazon on my phone and it froze my internet browser you guys weren’t kidding when you said those things were in depth. Good work though Mitch!

    • Thanks Avalanche! They’re probably a good deal longer than they need to be, but it’s somewhat entertaining to make them. I’m a little hesitant to start my Khazad-dum review after I’ll have gotten a good chance to really sit and play through all the scenarios tomorrow, because I’m afraid it’ll end up being something like 20 written pages long… o_o;

  12. Okay my two cents on Bifur is he works really well. I use him in my new straight Lore deck with Song of travel. He gets out the unexpected courages and the Zigil Miner.

    I like him. He isn’t the best Lore Hero but look at the others they are pretty sweet. Denethor the Tank, Beravor the card draw engine, Bilbo everyo first players friend.

    My new deck revolves around the old card draw engine and the Zigil Miner to generate lots of resources. Bifur fits in perfectly to the tri-Lore hero deck when using songs.

    http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/lotr/lord-of-the-rings-decks/_/lord-of-the-rings-decks/the-answer-is-three-r181

    • My latest decks make me picture Dain Ironfoot swooping into combat mounted atop Gwaihir while the rest of his Dwarven crew flap around on Winged Guardians and Vassals of the Windlord, hacking goblins and trolls into giblets.

  14. I appreciated the shout out on this episode guys. Hoping I win the BTP contest. It would be nice after being told my Eleanor card was a “complete buzzkill” 😦

  15. So today I played a 4 player game where Parting gifts would have worked well if I had known a player had it. I was running Spirit Lore with only Eowyn as a spirit hero and really needed extra resources. The player who had SoG could have helped me get out Northern Tracker, Unexpected Courage, Galadhrims, etc.

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