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Episode 25
– Welcome
– Ghost Army Contest Update
– News
– Lost in the Long Dark
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3244
– Something Tookish Woke Up
http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3218
– Discussion: Brian’s Rohan Deck
– Watcher in the Water Player Card Review
– Sign off
- Contact us
- cardboardoftherings@gmail.com
- www.facebook.com/cardboardoftherings
- @cotrpodcast on twitter
- cardboardoftherings.com
- cardboardoftherings on cardgamedb.com
- GirderZombie on MTGO
- Play a game on VASSAL
Cardboard of the Rings 
Last I checked, Montana has no sales tax.
Time for a road trip to Montana!
Neither does Oregon… just don’t move there, because the property tax is what’ll get you, or so I hear.
Pro tip from a native Oregonian: Live/claim residency juuust barely on the Washington side of the Columbia River. Then, buy all your stuff in Portland. Best of both worlds.
Solid, focused and funny episode guys. Well done!
You’re right about Bilbo Baggins: The name “Baggins Sphere” is silly. “Baggins resource” would have been better. I too think that the Baggins cards revealed so far are underwhelming. I would not have included any Baggins cards but made Bilbo Baggins like:
Bilbo gains 1 Baggins resource every time you successfully quest (he doesn’t collect resources normally).
Pay 1 Baggins resource to cancel one treachery card, then draw two encounter cards and put any of them into play that have shadow effects. I call it “burglar gamble”.
This seems like a slick solution, UNLESS they are holding back on all the really amazing Baggins cards and have just showed us the filler so far. We can only hope.
Regarding the Baggins sphere, I think it’s interesting to keep in mind that according to the “Something Tookish” article…
“…The Hobbit also introduces five unique cards specifically designed for the expansion’s scenarios. These include Bilbo Baggins (The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill, 1), an event with the Baggins sphere of influence, and the new treasure cards.”
…it looks like we only get a measly one “Baggins sphere” player card. Maybe The Hobbit Part 2 will have something a little more exciting to play?
In any case, +1 for “Shearwolf!”
To be fair, it is somewhat difficult to think of a sphere name that really “fits.” I think part of the problem is that “Baggins Sphere” breaks the pattern of naming spheres after distinct concepts. If we already had an “Aragorn Sphere” instead of Leadership, “Baggins” wouldn’t seem so jarring. I’d recommend Sphere of Cunning, but it sounds enough like another word that I doubt Brandon could say it on air without giggling.
As for the episode content, it was mostly stellar. I do think you’re selling Watcher of the Bruinen a bit short, though. Along with cards and resource tokens, character actions are also a limited resource. The Watcher allows you to translate cards into an action advantage. Sure, discarding cards sucks, but so does defending with your souped-up Gimli instead of using him to crush an enemy. In scenarios with lots of enemies (The Seventh Level, The Massing at Osgiliath), I think the Watcher has tremendous value. Discarding cards is quite a bit more palatable when you remember that, by doing so, you are NOT exhausting characters that might otherwise have had to defend. Not an outstanding ally, but certainly a lot better than you guys suggested.
All good points on Watcher of the Bruinen. He does provide an alternate source for disguarding dead cards from your hand to your benefit. I think I’d rather discard a card for an additional blocker most times than an extra point of willpower. If you have a few unique cards in your deck this card certainly offers another avenue to use them.
Glorfindel and Gildor Inglorion are both unique Noldor characters.
In regards to the usefulness of Elrond’s Council – I’m surprised you guys forgot about the unique Noldor characters Gildor Inglorien and Glorfindel. Both very much playable too.
Oregon has no sales tax either.
I see someone brought it to your attention already on FB. So I’ll add that I enjoyed Jared being more vocal in this episode.
I’d love to play a game with any (or all) of you guys sometime. So whats your current preferred way to play? Vassal? Maybe I can catch ya there.