Trebuchets are weak

[mrweasely]

Trebuchet's are incredibly expensive, taking 25-33% of the non-FSP turn's energy to create.

Siege towers are comparatively cheap, taking 14-20% of the non-Hunting turn's energy to create.

Add to that, the shadow has three event cards that basically trump Free siege superiority: Fighting Uruk Hai, Deep Trenches and Great Engines, and Grond, Hammer of the Underworld. In effect the Free can only afford to heavily defend 1 stronghold per game, and the Shadow is very likely to trump it. Or steamroller it with Strife. Or just ignore it altogether.

Trebuchets should be a headache for the shadow. They are not.
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I think trebuchets could use a boost. I'm not sure what's appropriate. Here are some ideas:

• Trebuchets - Captains of the West: Add one die to the Free People's combat roll for each trebuchet.
  
• Half price Trebuchets - a muster die gets you two trebuchets, or a trebuchet and a regular, or a trebuchet and a leader ....
  
• Trebuchet - Shield Walls - remove a Trebuchet to cancel one hit among two or more hits.
  
• Bastions of Stone replaces Last Defenses on all cards it appeared on. It reads: "After the leader reroll, the Free People scores one additonal hit, and cancels one shadow hit, per Trebuchet in the battle."
  
• Trebuchet - The Black Catapult - If the free people play a combat card, they may draw a strategy card at the end of the round of combat.
  

All of these effects are assumed to be "in the region" of a Trebuchet. E.g. you can use them in sallies. Its exciting and thematic when the FP dig themselves out.

[Lord Aragorn]

On the one hand trebuchets, should be cheaper because of game balance. On the other hand, maybe is better that Shadow have stronger siege engines. The Shadow should be military stronger.

[mrweasely]

Strongholds are weaker in Twilight of the Third Age than in the base game. Siege towers give the shadow more wiggle room than they had before.

It used to be that the Shadow had to balance attack dice (Character, Armies, and A/Ms) versus troops. The wiggle room was provided by elites either busting down for speed, or getting killed for hit-points.

Now musters converted to siege towers let the Shadow keep their elites for hit points and also get many more attacks than they did before. They get an extra form of wiggle.

This is especially pronounced on the smaller, 3-5 hit point strongholds. Trebuchets are way too expensive for what they do in that situation. One Deadly Strife blows through their walls like a freight train through warm butter.

[Goodgulf the Grey]

I'm not convinced that Trebuchets need a boost. They are currently the only FP unit that can be Mustered by a Nation not at War. The cost is only a factor of available Muster dice and the same comparison can be drawn for FP Regulars, Leaders, and Elites. Also, if a Shadow attack is broken the the SP loses all his Catapults while the FP keeps his Trebuchets.

I agree that there are some Shadow cards (as you mention) that can help the SP break a Stronghold and Trebuchets do not help as much in those instances, however they still have some value as they allow a +1 combat modifier against Grond and Uruk Hai for the first round (while the FP cannot play any cards unless a companion is present) and against Great Engines they are targets as opposed to free Catapults (not that great of a trade-off here though).

If the Shadow does not have the above cards and must attack into a 2 Trebuchet Stronghold then they can be in for a long siege if the FP has Muster dice available to rebuild the Trebuchets.

Having said all that, some of your concerns have merit and I think that the FP combat cards around Trebuchets are a little weak.

I don't like the half price Trebuchet idea since one Muster shouldn't get you 2 Trebuchets as sacrificing them in sieges would simply be too strong and the SP would have to rely on key cards to succeed in any sieges.

Among the Siege Engines - If you get a hit during your combat roll, you may eliminate one Catapult in addition to your hit. You may do this again with your leader re-roll.

I like your Bastions of Stone idea but it might be a little too strong. How about...

Bastions of Stone - After the leader reroll, you may eliminate 1 or 2 Trebuchets from the Stronghold. Score 1 additional hit and cancel 1 shadow hit for each Trebuchet eliminated.

One other idea would be to allow the FP to take Trebuchets as casualties during sieges (1 hit per Trebuchet). This might be too strong since it would allow Strongholds to increase their defense under siege but it would be like an overcosted Regular...

[mrweasely]

GG,
Your points are well taken, as always.

I think that giving Trebuchets 1hp might be too much. One of the fun parts of the game is trying to build up The North to go help the Elves. But with 3 dice to get the North to war, 3 muster dice for 6hp, and 2 move dice, the Elves would just be better served, hit-point-for-die, by buying trebuchets. They have to be a leaky defense - hence the "trebuchet shield wall" proposal, that lets them be hp only if they can't stop 100% of the damage.

For clarification's purpose, the 2-for-1 trebuchets would presumably not be allowed to be built in the same stronghold.

Re: Bastions of Stone - it could just be Heads of the Fallen. I don't think the FP would complain about that.
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Fiddling with individual systems, rather the game balance as a whole, is kinda silly. Nevertheless, I yearn for a semblence of symmetry between SA and FP siege.