Entier Ents (Draft)

[mrweasely]

Introduction
The ents in Twilight seemed less cool than I hoped. In the books the Ents launched a devastating sneak-attack against an unwary foe. In the game, the ents can't sneak up on anyone: first you have to get a companion to Fangorn, then you have to spend a muster die, announcing your intention to "sneak attack". Then you have to wait, and wait, and wait to roll a WoW to bring out Gandalf. For all that trouble, you'll probably roll 5 hits in 15 dice thrown - not a lot to show for 3 action dice and a companion's worth of trouble, plus the inconvenience of the Ent cards sticking in your hand all game.

A cheaper fix would be to have the Ents faction enter with an additional ent, or to simply put them into play directly when a companion enters Fangorn, or give them Leadership 5.

That's not the approach here - instead they're fully integrated into the WotR army system. One can fight pitched battles, with, for example, Treebeard and the Ents on one side, and the Balrog and trolls on the other. Delete all the pre-existing Ent rules, and replace them with this:
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Faction Card

When a companion ends an action in Fangorn, place the Ents faction into play. Eliminate any shadow army in Fangorn, then add two ents there.

For the rest of the game Fangorn becomes impassible and un-attackable terrain to all armies except Ents.

Special ability: Entmoot - If a character is in Fangorn, spend a muster die to place an Ent in Fangorn.

The ents are initially "at peace". They can't move or attack. They go to war when Treebeard enters play.

Thereafter they can move and attack on the same sorts of die results as other armies - e.g. army-die, or character-die when accomponied by a leader.
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Treebeard

Treebeard enters play when Gandalf the White enters play, or when a companion ends an action in Fangorn, whichever happens later.

Treebeard is a "character" with level 2 and leadership 2. Treebeard may not move by any mechanism except being dragged along by a moving/attacking/retreating Ent army. If treebeard ends up in a region without an Ent, remove him from the game.

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Ents around the Neighborhood

Ents move, attack, and defend like regular armies, with some restrictions.

In order for ents to move or attack into a region that doesn't already include ents, they must show that after the move the new region will be able to trace an "entwood" of regions containing Ents all the way back to Fangorn, including Fangorn itself.

Ents may not form an army with other Free army units, however they DO count against the stacking limit for a region.

An Ent/Free army attacked by the shadow is not attacked as a unit. The Ents and Free are attacked in turn, in the order of the Free Player's choosing. Companions may choose which army they fight with. Free leaders only fight with free armies. Treebeard must fight with the Ents, of course.

Ents may never retreat into a stronghold. It is not their style.

Ents cannot change the ownership of settlements. To capture something, the Free People have to move in a non-ent army unit. Nevertheless, no shadow recruitment is possible (not even with cards) in a region containing only ent army units.
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Fighting with Ents.

Ents are army units and have a combat strength of one.

In battles with ents, neither side may play combat cards, but ents might have a combat effect on the first round of battle (see below).

In calculating SA combat strength in Ent battles, regulars have a combat strength of zero. Thus, to have any chance against Ents, tha SA has to bring at least a few elites (or maybe a Balrog).

Ents hit in combat are not removed from the game, rather they're turned on thier sides. However, if a sideways ent is hit, then it is removed from the game.

An attacking ent may also be turned on its side to continue a siege combat.

Ents ignore terrain modifiers to hit, e.g. Orthanc's walls.

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Ent Cards

Replace the event card text of the three ent cards with this text:

Play only if Treebeard is in play.

Either move an Ent army or attack with any one ent army, using the combat effect below for the first round of combat.

Then stand all ents in the game back up.

Finally, if a companion is in the same region as Treebeard, you may play another ent character card.

[SevenSpirits]

I don't like the ents much either. This looks like a good way to make them more interesting, though I have two immediate concerns.

I don't like how you have to spend muster dice to get them. Eating up Free muster dice makes the game worse.

The other thing is that your ents aren't very surprising either. In fact, they are significantly more predictable than the expansion ents as written.

[mrweasely]

Agreed, they're not suprising at all unless you're holding 2 or more ent cards. I lost sight of that during the writing. I lost sight of a lot of things.


The entish damage system should be simplified out of existance in favor of the cards just adding more ents. Then, to be "suprising", the Free can still daisy-chain two or three ent cards in one palantir play.

I rather like the bit about how orc regulars can't affect ents in combat, except as hit points to shield the elites.

[Goodgulf the Grey]

I like this concept. It may make the Ents too strong but here is my take on how to make Ents Entier ;D

How the Ents Enter the Game
If Saruman is in play and a Companion is in Fangorn, bring the Ents of Fangorn faction into play using a Muster die. Elminate any Shadow units in Fangorn and place one Ent in Fangorn. If Gandalf the White or a hobbit is in Fangorn then place Treebeard in Fangorn also. Fangorn may not be attacked for the rest of the game.

Treebeard: If a companion is in Fangorn, every time the Shadow player uses a Muster die to employ the "Voice of Saruman" ability, place on Ent in Fangorn.

Ents are only recruited by the Treebeard ability and from the three "Ents Awake" cards. Ents are kept separate from other units occupying the same region, cannot be attacked by Enemy units, do not effect enemy movement, and do not count for stacking purposes. Ents do not give control of a region to the Free Peoples player. Ents are limited by the counter mix and once an Ent is removed it is permanently out of the game.

Entwood: At least one Ent must be in Fangorn at all times. Excess Ents may be used to move and attack when the Ents are activated. The Ents are only activated by the 3 Ents Awake cards OR by a Will of the West die result. Once activated the Ents may perform movement and attacks so long as enough Ents remain in the Entwood to do so.

Movement:
To move the Ents, take one Ent from the Entwood and place it in a region adjacent to a region already containing an Ent. The region must be free of enemy units. This can be repeated as long as enough Ents are available in the Entwood.

Attack:
You can attack a Shadow Army adjacent to a region containing an Ent. This is fought like a regular battle. The Ents combat strength is equal to the number of Ents in the Entwood (up to 5). Combat cards may be played by either side and the SP can retreat into a Stronghold before combat if necessary. This does not end the combat and instead a siege battle may be initiated by the Free Peoples player. For this siege the Ents are always considered to have superiority and can continue the siege for an additional round at no cost.

Ents are considered Elite units for combat card purposes and they fight with no leadership unless Treabeard is in Fangorn (he has 2 leadership). Ents are only hit on a combat result of 6 (this can be modified by combat cards). When the Ents take damage, the first point of damage can be applied by laying an Ent in the Entwood on its side. The next point of damage will eliminate this Ent. In this way it takes two hits to kill an Ent, but there will never be two damaged Ents in play. Ents may be damaged/removed in order to extend a siege for further rounds if needed.

After the Ents are done with all movement and attacks then stand up any damaged Ent in the Entwood.

If there is a Shadow army in a region with an Ent when the Ents are activated then the Free Peoples player MAY attack it but it is not required.

If an Ent attack eliminates all Shadow units in Orthanc, or if Orthanc is free of enemy units and an Ent is moved there, remove Saruman from the game.

If the last unit in the Entwood is eliminated then return all Ents from other regions (if any) to Fangorn. The Ents are no longer considered active when this happens and may make no further movement or attacks until activated again by a Will of the West or an Ents Awake card.

[ira212]

mrweasely said:

Introduction
In the game, the ents can't sneak up on anyone: first you have to get a companion to Fangorn, then you have to spend a muster die, announcing your intention to "sneak attack". Then you have to wait, and wait, and wait to roll a WoW to bring out Gandalf. For all that trouble, you'll probably roll 5 hits in 15 dice thrown - not a lot to show for 3 action dice and a companion's worth of trouble, plus the inconvenience of the Ent cards sticking in your hand all game.

A cheaper fix would be to have the Ents faction enter with an additional ent, or to simply put them into play directly when a companion enters Fangorn, or give them Leadership 5.

I don't mind the Ents in the new game; their purpose, in my mind, is to create an interesting decision between emptying orthanc and leaving people behind.

Your proposal seems overly complex to me. Simple changes are preferrable, IMO. Possibilities include:
1) At the beginning of the turn, after rolling dice, spend an Elven Ring to change a die to a WoW.
2) Give the ents leadership equal to the sum of the leadership of the companions in fangorn.
3) Put the ents in play with a muster or a character die (or maybe just any die.)
4) If the ents attack a region and inflict 2 (1?) more damage than necessary to kill all units in the region, put the ent used for the attack in the now-empty region.

#4 reacts to the tactic of leaving a lone dunlanding in the fords of isen to stop a whole ent.

I think if you used all of these, the ents would see a lot more play, but the game would be too much in favor of the FP. With the rules as written, the game seems well-balanced.

[mrweasely]

I agree that my suggestions here are bad.

[mrweasely]

Ent actions
Ents have no position on the political track, they're "at war" as soon as the faction is in play.

Ents can not be mustered directly, instead they come into play by cards.

Ents can move and attack like other Free armies, using the same sorts of action dice.

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Ents around the Neighborhood

Ents may not form an army with other Free army units, however they do count against the stacking limit for a region.

An Ent/Free army attacked by the shadow is not attacked as a unit. The Ents and Free are attacked in turn, in the order of the Free Player's choosing. Companions may choose which army they fight with. Free leaders only fight with free armies. Treebeard must fight with the Ents.

Ents may never retreat into a stronghold. It is not their style.

Ents cannot change the ownership of settlements. To capture something, the Free People have to move in a non-ent army unit. Nevertheless, no shadow recruitment is possible (not even with cards) in a region containing only ent army units.
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Fighting with Ents.

Ents are army units and have a combat strength of one.

In calculating SA combat strength in Ent battles, regulars and Dunlendings have a combat strength of zero. Thus, to have any chance against Ents, tha SA has to bring at least a few elites (or maybe a Balrog, or sumpthin').

Ents hit in combat are removed from the game like regulars.

Retreating into siege against an ent army does not halt the combat, and any Ent can continue a siege attack for free.

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Ent Cards

Replace the event card text of the three ent cards with this text:

Move any/all companions up to two regions each.

If the ent faction is in play, add up to two ents to any ent army or Fangorn.
If the ent faction is not in play, and a companion is in Fangorn, put the ent faction into play.

If Gandalf the White is in play move or attack with an Ent army.

Finally, if a companion is in the same region as Treebeard, you may play another ent character card.

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Faction Card
When the ents are put into play, remove any shadow army and/or Minions in Fangorn. Then, add four ents and Treebeard.

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Treebeard
Treebeard is level 1 leadership n, where n is the number of times The Voice of Saruman has been used this game. Treebeard must end every action with an Ent army, or immediately be returned to Fangorn.

[animalmother]

Animalmother's House Rule on Ents, intended to increase their surprise factor, but not to make their appearance inevitable, and intended to replicate their incredible toughness and strength:

At Start, the FP Player secretly records the location of Treebeard and the eight Ent units. The FP Player may secretly locate the nine Ent units in any one, two or three forested Regions. A forested region is any Region containing a green forest symbol. Forested Regions in which there are at-start SP or FP forces may NOT be used as secret Ent locations.

The Ents are distributed among three Ent populations, each corresponding to one of the three Ent cards in the original WOTR Event Card deck: "Treebeard, Ents, and Hurons." When the FP Player secretly records the location of an Ent population, he records as in the following example:

TREEBEARD: FANGORN. This means that the "Treebeard" Ent Leader token and two Ent units are secretly located in Fangorn.

ENTS: N. MIRKWOOD. This means three Ent units are secretly located in North Mirkwood.

HUORNS: W. MIRKWOOD. This means three Ent units are secretly located in West Mirkwood.

Thus, three, six, or nine Ent units can be secretly located in a single forested Region.

Disregard all the text on the original WOTR Ent Event Cards, and use the following Ent rules instead:

If SP armies (not Nazgul or Minions) invade a forested Region containing Ents, the Ents secretly recorded for that Region instantly appear on the map to repel the invader from their forested Region. (The FP Player must show the SP Player the secret notation locating the Ents, if the SP Player demands it.) The Ents as a whole, however, do NOT go to "At War," and the Ents whose forested Region is invaded CANNOT leave their Region after repelling the invader until they are "At War;" nor can they retreat.

All nine Ent units go to "At War" when three conditions are simultaneously met: 1) All three Ent cards in the Events Deck have been drawn and laid (face down) in front of the FP Player. 2) The Fellowship, a Hobbit or Elf Companion, or Gandalf, or an Elf Leader, or Galadriel, is present in Treebeard's Region, and 3) the SP have built a Siege Tower or Trebuchet within two Regions of Treebeard's location. No Muster Action Die is needed to activate or to bring the Ents to At War, and all Ents on the map are "At War" as soon as all three conditons above are met. (Reason: Trebuchets and Siege Towers use a lot of wood, angering Ents; the Ents communicate through deep subsonic booms which travel across Middle Earth, so they can muster simultaneously although far apart.)

Two hits, both inflicted in the same Combat Round, are needed to destroy one Ent. Thus, one hit in a Combat Round has no effect on Ents. Two or three hits inflicted in the same Combat Round destroy one Ent. Four or five hits inflicted in the same Combat Round destroy two Ents. If there is a mixed Ent/other FP force in a Region, any odd hits which would have no effect on a pure Ent force must be inflicted on the non-Ent FP component of the force. The FP Player is free to distribute hits among his mixed Ent/non-Ent forces as in normal Combat.

Ents hit on a 4,5, or 6 in forested Regions and on a 5 or 6 in non-Forested Regions.

Treebeard acts as both a Leader (one-re-roll for failed die rolls) of the Ents and a Regular Ent unit in Combat. Only Treebeard may provide re-rolls for Ent dice rolls, and Treebeard may not provide Leader re-rolls for non-Ent FP forces. If Treebeard is present in an Ent force, the force may repeatedly attack SP Strongholds. Ents always hit on a 5 or 6 when attacking SP held Strongholds, Cities, and Fortifications, even when the Stronghold is Dol Guldor, in a forested Region.

Character Action Die rolls which activate Treebeard allow Treebeard to move/attack with Ents, only. Treebeard may not move/attack non-Ent units using a Character die roll. Army Event die rolls move forced containing Ents and other FP National units, as usual.

Any given population of three Ents may not move further than two Regions from its originally recorded secret location. They are homebodies. Ents have a movement allowance of two, and may blitz through any Region free of enemy combat units to reach a second Region. Ents may also move one, and only one, Region to cross an impassable mountain border. Even Ents have a hard time moving above the treeline.

Ents may not be replaced and never number more than the original nine units. All usual Combat and Movement rules, except as noted above, apply to Ents.

[animalmother]

Better wording for third sentence of paragraph fourth from bottom in post above: Treebeard allows Ents to attack SP Strongholds in an unlimited number of Combat Rounds; without Treebeard, Ents can only attack a SP Strenghold for one Combat Round.

Better wording for third paragraph from bottom in post above: A Character Action Die roll allows Treebeard to activate only Ents for Movement or Combat. As usual, an Army Action Die roll allows all FP units in a Region, both Ent and non-Ent, to be activated for either Movement or Combat.

[mrweasely]

I like most of what you've written.

I scratch my head that the Free has to draw all three Ent cards to get them into play, PLUS some other stuff...Getting all three ent cards is already 1/10 chance or so. Ents should come out in 33% of games, IMHO.

[animalmother]

Mr. Weasley, you are right. There are 24 Character cards, and only three are "Ents Awake" cards, so there is a roughly 1/8 chance of drawing an Ent on any given card. meaning that usually most of the 24 Character cards would need to be drawn to get the Ents to At War -- too late in the game most of the time. Instead, drawing and placing two Ents Awake cards face down on the table, plus the other two factors (Siege engines and Companion with Treebeard), should be sufficient to bring the Ents to "At War." When the Ents are "At War." the remaining three Ents would be mustered instantly. When the third "Ents" awake card is finally drawn, it can still be used as a Combat card, but only as a Combat card.

[animalmother]

Mr. Weasley, you are right. There are 24 Character cards, and only three are "Ents Awake" cards, so there is a roughly 1/8 chance of drawing an Ent on any given card. meaning that usually most of the 24 Character cards would need to be drawn to get the Ents to At War -- too late in the game most of the time. Instead, drawing and placing two Ents Awake cards face down on the table, plus the other two factors (Siege engines and Companion with Treebeard), should be sufficient to bring the Ents to "At War." When the Ents are "At War." the remaining three Ents would be mustered instantly. When the third "Ents" awake card is finally drawn, it can still be used as a Combat card, but only as a Combat card.