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Post by mrweasely on Apr 23, 2007 6:40:58 GMT 1
After the abject failure of the 'Narrow Escapes' thread, I'm back to brainstorming more ways to get more companions to FIGHT and MOVE, rather than slowly bleed to death in the fellowship. Here's my totally bizzare brainstorm, please join in! - Remove all text about "forfeit companion leadership" from all combat effects. You get the good part with no cost in leadership. (Daring Defiance, Mighty Attack, Anduril)
- Companion Action Token - once per ___, move companions, or seperate companions, or move/attack with a free army led by a companion.
- Give some companions WK-like card redrawing ability in battle?
- Pits of the West - character card - you may muster a Free Peoples unit in every settlment containing a companion.
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Post by mrweasely on Apr 23, 2007 6:54:52 GMT 1
- Companions have built-in Heroic Death. Its always available. (edit: this makes Moria Rush unstoppable)
- Companions move for free when the Shadow rearranges Nazgul. Uhm...
- Companions boost National Action Tokens somehow.
- Captain of the West can exceed 5-die limit on combat dice.
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Veldrin
Lord of the Nazgûl
Posts: 1,305
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Post by Veldrin on Apr 23, 2007 9:37:04 GMT 1
If Companion(s) (one or more) are defending in a siege always reduce the number of hits the enemy scored with 1 (not cummulative). (Feels nice with all the Companions except the Hobbits)
[glow=green,2,300]Veldrin[/glow]
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Post by mrweasely on Apr 23, 2007 15:51:18 GMT 1
That sounds interesting. As shadow I never would attack such a stronghold without a combat card, or at least healthy sense of desperation! Fighty WK would become even more key than before. - 'Character-to-Declare' - this was the first variant we tried. Many more companions split, because the fellowship wasn't wedded to its corruption until it'd passed the last Free stronghold. And turn stalls were still good, but the Shadow didn't base their entire strategy around them (ie WK card cycler).
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Post by Goodgulf the Grey on Apr 23, 2007 17:44:18 GMT 1
Allow a National Action Token to be improved with Companions -- I like this one.
How about...
If a companion able to activate a nation is with an army from that nation then
Politics - add 1 to the die roll when using a NAT for Politics.
Attack - The army with the companion may attack using the corresponding NAT.
The companion Action Token would be okay too. Just use it similar to a NAT token except that it can only be used to move companions OR move/attack with an army containing a companion.
I think that these would improve and balance NATs with companion separation.
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SevenSpirits
Nazgûl
PlayTester
Sauron meant no harm. He only wanted to draw the extra cards...
Posts: 283
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Post by SevenSpirits on Apr 23, 2007 18:36:10 GMT 1
- Whenever you declare the Fellowship, you may (immediately afterward) separate a group of companions [or move the companions on the map].
- [If Gollum is the guide], you may declare the Fellowship with a character die at most once per turn. [Then (if Gollum is the Guide), if the Fellowship is in North Ithilien or Dagorlad, heal one corruption.]
- Elven Cloaks and Elven Rope have the additional text "Then you may immediately declare the Fellowship."
I also like the idea of improving the lame companion related combat effects.
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Post by mrweasely on Apr 24, 2007 6:51:58 GMT 1
Prince of Mirkwood / Dwarf of Erebor / Warden of the White Tower
Improve those abilities to: If Lego/Gimli/Boro is in a Elven/Dwarven/Gondor settlement, use any action die as a muster die for that nation. If L/G/B is with a E/D/G army, use any action die as an army result for that army.
Not clear is what to do when Boromir recruits a regular, can the other half of the action die be used to recruit in another nation? There's an equivalent argument to be made with army moves.
This would make Event dice suck a LOT less.
Gandalf could reasonably have this ability with all free Nations.
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Veldrin
Lord of the Nazgûl
Posts: 1,305
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Post by Veldrin on Apr 24, 2007 6:58:13 GMT 1
Sounds a bitt too powerful. Why not simply laet them recruit one Regular unit in the same Settlement/Move the army they are with?
The die would be less effective than a normal Muster/Army.
[glow=green,2,300]Veldrin[/glow]
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Post by mrweasely on Apr 24, 2007 15:44:45 GMT 1
My next test is going to be the following: - Declaring the FSP allows a free seperation.
- The 4 seperator cards get + "Draw or play an event card." appended.
- Ignore "forfeit companion leadership" on all combat cards.
- Watered Down NATs.
- Base Game.
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Post by mrweasely on Apr 25, 2007 17:03:05 GMT 1
Played twice now. In the first game, the Shadow got absolutely trounced. They got only 3-4 vp, and the fellowship was inviolate on its march to Mt Doom. Overly-elaborate session report here: boardgamegeek.com/thread/163125In the second game, the Free were lethargic about activating nations, getting dice, or getting nations to war, preferring to play reinforcement cards and sprint. The shadow responded by never getting the Witch King, doing an elven double whammie, and winning. The FP had only 4 dice in Mordor, and couldn't unmake the ring in 2 turns.
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Post by mrweasely on Apr 27, 2007 19:35:58 GMT 1
> Declaring the FSP allows a free seperation. I declare that this is pretty fun. I had to disallow it on turn 1 though, otherwise Turn 1 Aragorn is too cheap.
> The 4 seperator cards get + "Draw or play an event card." appended. This is very fun. The free people finally get a good "fork" move. Being able to convert Character dice to play Strategy cards is suprisingly powerful. Gandalf the Grey loves to radiate off characters with seperators - with a redraw and a extra card played, its a 0-cost "card cycling" seperation.
> Ignore "forfeit companion leadership" on all combat cards. Fun. Not a big deal, but fun.
> Watered Down NATs. Much more sane. Now subsisting on 4 dice all game is Toxic once again, though with GtG and lots of activations its merely unhealthy. Kinging Me is sometimes worthwile. Yay.
________________________
Overall, this is having the intended effect of getting a few more companions out there. I'm typically seeing 4-5 levels of companions split. The ring game is very dicey and close, with usually all the special hunt tiles going in.
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Post by Goodgulf the Grey on Apr 27, 2007 20:42:38 GMT 1
Why not make the rule that you when the FSP is declared in a new location then the Free People's player may separate companion(s) without requiring a character die.
Good results though. I'll have to play some more games with this. What do you think of using NATs in Twilight?
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Post by mrweasely on Apr 27, 2007 23:11:13 GMT 1
I haven't tried NATs + Twilight against a remotely experienced opponent yet. I'd think it would be fine. Though its been months since I played straight twilight, so my ideas on its balance are totally wonky. (witness my rediculous debates with El Gecko, that I actually think I'm persuading him ...).
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Post by mrweasely on Apr 30, 2007 16:52:01 GMT 1
> The 4 seperator cards get + "Draw or play an event card." appended.
Why stop there? Why not generalize to:
"Whenever the Free player spends an action die to seperate companions, s/he may draw or play an event card".
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Post by mrweasely on May 26, 2007 17:32:04 GMT 1
Galadriel's ability to muster under siege is quite powerful. Boromir, Gimli, and Legolas could do the same thing in Minas Tirith / Erebor / Wooden Realm.
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