E18 – Insane in the MemDain (Insane in the Dain)


Click here to download this episode!

– Welcome
– Reveal the winner of the Bill The Pony Contest! (James P)

– News
– FFG Articles
Boromir 2 – http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=2988
Long Dark – http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=2975
– Facebook update
– Numbers
– Discussion
– Agus’ Threat Tracker

– Content
– Where to next?
– Review of KD Player Cards
http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/lotr/lord-of-the-rings-card-spoiler/_/khazad-dum/

– Sign off

 

24 thoughts on “E18 – Insane in the MemDain (Insane in the Dain)”

  2. I dont think KD is brutal or crazy difficult. I think this is a normal level of difficulty for this game. Not hard not easy. Its ok. Actually i like to have it little bit more hard. And i really hope in tournament rules there will be no cards like Will of the west, Beravur, Trackers or Protector of Lorien…….

    • I also think that Khazad-dum is neither too easy nor too hard, and just like you, I do tend to prefer quests that force the players to really struggle to win. During some of my first play experiences, from time to time I certainly ended up being a little bit overwhelmed by the inability of my decks to properly manage Goblin Swordsman & Spearman, but I’ve since been able to change things up to dispatch them without too much trouble.

      Regarding FFG rating the difficulty of these quests, I simply fail to see how The Seventh Level could be anywhere near a 3 – considering that Conflict at the Carrock (a pretty straight-forward and easy quest, in my opinion), is a 7… I just don’t get it. Such an arbitrary rating system! Early Cave-trolls or god forbid an Orc Horn Blower can be a complete pain in the ass, depending on your deck.

      If an when LOTR LCG ever becomes a real tournament game, I’m very curious indeed to see what changes or restrictions FFG will put into place.

      • Ya my thoughts exactly me and my wife thought level 3? No big deal! Set up phase hornblower followed by both cave trolls…needless to say we turned around and ran out of moria and my wife said “let’s save that eagle again instead!”

      • Yeah, I tend to agree with your take on the expansion scenarios, Mitch. While none of them are prohibitively challenging, they all seem much more difficult than other scenarios with similar ratings. Into the Pit is much harder than The Dead Marshes, Flight From Moria is harder than Conflict at the Carrock (and, in my opinion, Escape from Dol Guldur), etc. I’m starting to think that the scenarios in Khazad-Dum are rated relative to one another rather than in the context of the Core/Shadows of Mirkwood scenarios. That’s the only sensible explanation.

        Regardless of the difficulty, though, I’ve really enjoyed all of the quests in the box. They are terrifically thematic and showcase a number of pretty inventive mechanics. I love the goblin shadow effects that just create overwhelming hordes of enemies (well, I don’t love it when I’m playing against it, but you get what I mean.). From a strategy standpoint, Thalin and Gondorian Spearman are absolute all-stars in Moria.

        Quick word on the preview cards: Bofur is crazy good and, thankfully, unique. Timely Aid is completely absurd if you can play it for 1, and still pretty solid if you pay the full cost. Should fit in nicely in any deck that runs Gildor or Gandalf’s Search.

        On to the K-D player cards. Bifur and Dwalin are very good with Dain. Really, that last sentence should just read, “[insert Dwarf character] is very good with Dain.” Zigil Miner has already been discussed ad nauseum, so we know how solid he is. Erebor Record Keeper lets you pull off some pretty fun Dwarf shenanigans. The rest of the cards are mostly just decent. Dwarrowdelf Axe and Untroubled by Darkness are both cheap cards with good effects, but nothing game-breaking. Veteran of Naduhirion pales in comparison to Eagles of the Misty Mountains, but it’s still an ally with 3 attack (4 with Dain). I think the only really bad card is Ever Onward. Just too expensive for a minimal benefit.

        Anyway, great episode. Keep ’em coming!

  3. Correction regarding the dual-sphere Aragorn: I rigged him up in Photoshop. I don’t know whether Strange Eons actually can do that. I make all of my cards using GeckoTH’s Photoshop templates posted on boardgamegeek.com.

    I actually had to chop up bits of the template and move them around as well as discover for myself how to create the color blending effect in the text box.

    But anyway, for anyone with Photoshop I recommend downloading these templates. They allow you to make cards with a pro “finished” quality look, and with a bit of savvy you can do extra tricks as I did.

    Here’s GeckoTH’s attachment card template: http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/71479/attachment-card-template-300dpi-psd

  4. I’d LOVE to have Boots from Erebor in almost any deck with one of those two Health Hobbits. I can’t tell you how many times Bilbo’s two Health has meant that he’d die from Treachery/Shadow cards. (Especially on Journey to Rhosgobel.) Getting a little bit of extra leeway on how much damage you let Gimli or Gloin take is pretty nice too.

  5. I’m also with Brian about going to Mordor. I’d like to see it “skirted” ala the Black Gate, Cirith Ungol, etc, but actually going to Mount Doom…why? To destroy the Ring? I don’t want to just replay the books.
    I’m also not to keen about questing directly in Hobbiton, up until the scouring, it’s supposed to be pretty separate from the main goings on. That said, there’s also a LOT around there that makes for great gaming fodder. Breeland, The Old Forest, The Barrowdowns, etc. You could even venture into Buckland a bit with the various spies of the Enemy looking for Mr. Baggins. I’d like to see a cheap tactics Hobbit ally to represent the Bounders.

    • For sure. I would find the journey to Mordor to be too revealing of an enemy we’re supposed to understand primarily through scare tactics. Though Tolkien described the geography of Mordor in great detail, Sam and Frodo didn’t really have much else to talk about in the lands with the exception of a few run-ins with orcs.

      A haunted house is only scary until you go in there and explore it yourself. Unless the makers at FFG can find a way to actually make me fear for my life when I play Mordor scenarios…

  6. So Mitch is the person you were talking about teaching someone to play on passage through mirkwood in episode 16.5 your new lady friend? 🙂

  7. Have you guys seen TragicTheBlathering’s play through with the GIldor and Zigil Miner combo? It’s insane, though I suspect it is harder to pull off than it seems, but when it hits, it’s a heavy weight!

    here’s the link:

    P.s., he even gets great use from Gandalf’s Search!

  8. Hello guys, another great show but leave Mitch alone and don’t poke him 🙂

    Concerning Bofur: I wouldn’t play his sneak attack ability repeatedly but only once to match willpower/threat and voila: no threat increase and you get a 3-resource ally into play for just 1!

    Concerning Zigil Miner: Many words have been written about how mega-overpowered he is and I’ll add to that. I can’t believe that FFG unleashed him after everyone was saying for months how OP SoG is (and SoG is unique after all). They could have easily fixed ZM by him providing only 1 (or 2 with only 1 revealed card) resources after a correct guess but why he is giving the guessed amount in resources is totally beyond me (balance and common sense-wise). Why they repeat the early MtG design mistakes???

  9. i think that ffg was thinking that any mega cost cards you had that would hit (Gandalf?) with ZM you wouldn’t choose to discard because they are too powerful. Lots to discuss on the cast!

  10. I had the chance to play a couple of games with the new cards now and came to two conclusions:

    First: I changed my initial assessement of “Narvi’s Belt” – it’s not as useful as I suspected. Still it’s not “UNplayable” but it’s the weakest resource management options in the current game (SoG, Horn, Bifur, Ziggy, Songs). I tried it in a 3-sphere-dwarf-deck and the drawback of being unique and its steep cost of 2 without providing resources turns out to be too clunky in order to give any significant advantage.

    Second: Zigil Miner is even better than I thought. Apart from the resource generation we all know about another thing became obvious to me. If you construct your deck right and know how to use ZM you really don’t need any songs (so far a must in a 3-sphere-deck) as you can put his resources on different heroes you control. This works even more if you have Bifur in your party. The devaluation of songs by ZM just accelerates the uselessness of Narvi’s Belt (being an expensive super-song) even more.

  12. Good day! I know this is kinda off topic but I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest writing a blog article or vice-versa? My website addresses a lot of the same topics as yours and I believe we could greatly benefit from each other. If you might be interested feel free to send me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you! Superb blog by the way!

  13. I liked all the episodes so far, but this is is first one when I was laughing so hard that I cried. And it was 1 AM and I probably woke up everyone on my street. “I’m sorry, but you only have three lines each episode: Boromir is the man, it costs a card and… unplayable.” – that’s when I completely lost it.

  14. I like the show a lot. And as a person who did a lot podcasting in the past, I have to say that I’m very impressed by the quality of editing and discussion right from episode 1.

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