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 A Living Card Game (LCG) is a card game from Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) using a fixed distribution method, as opposed to Magic and other Collectible Card Games. Starting with a Core Set that provides a bunch of cards and all the tokens and bits to get you started (e.g. Call of Cthulhu), you can then buy more card in periodically released set packs (e.g. The Skavenblight Threat). These packs will always contain the same cards, so if you have your heart set on playing with, say, Tyrion Lannister, The Executor, or Boromir you just go and buy the pack of cards with the card you're looking for in it (City of Secrets, Escape from Hoth, and The Dead Marshes, respectively). This thread is to discuss strategy, get advice on deck-building, share upcoming events, arrange games online, etc.  Links: CardGameDB - card spoilers, deckbuilders, and discussion forums for all of FFG's LCGs OCTGN - platform for playing card games online, including LCGs SA's Netrunner thread SA's Star Wars Card Game thread IRC: Server - irc.synirc.net Channel - #lcgoons We now have an IRC channel to facilitate setting up online games, asking questions, and idling. Come join us! Taran_Wanderer fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Feb 4, 2015 |
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Feb 13, 2014 18:35
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 23:36 |
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Yay! A separate thread where I can constantly talk about how great/fun/super LOTR LCG is  I just beat Khazad-dum last night and the Dwarrowdelf APs were handed to me about 45s ago. Excited to dive in to those ASAP. Expect session reports and my lovely deck lists 
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Feb 13, 2014 20:13
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LOTR:LCG I have Core, Black Riders, Heirs of Numenor and the entire Against the Shadow cycle's worth of APs, and a couple assorted APs (Foundations of Stone, Journey of Rhosgobel). Is an outlands-centered leadership-mono deck the best possible deck here, with Hirluin, Aragorn, and then ??? (Boromir? Not much Gondor synergy, mostly just Outlands). How well does a Hobbitty-deck do outside of BR? What colors work best with a Hobbity deck? I mean Sam seems like a given, Merry seems like a beatstick (especially with Frodo in BR), but Pippin or Fatty or alternate-Pippin as a 3rd?
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Feb 13, 2014 20:34
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Sweet. I got my second Core set, Khazad-Dum, and Over Hill And Under Hill recently, sat down and put together some decks but haven't gotten to try them out yet. Since we usually play with three I went with: Gimli / Legolas / Denethor - The deck that should be able to handle almost all of the combat needs. Denethor is a solid defender and gives access to some healing stuff from Lore. Aragorn / Theodred / Nori - Primarily Leadership, thought Spirit made sense to fit in because of Celebrian's Stone. Not many Dwarves but it was basically either Nori or Dwalin for the spot, Dunhere doesn't do a lot in 3-player games including a higher threat Tactics-based deck. Eowyn / Eleanor / Beravor - Questing and support. Beravor seems to fit in nicely to either add questing power, draw cards, or even defend in a pinch, and she's one of the best recipients of Unexpected Courage, both copies of which are in this deck. Eleanor seems weak stat-wise but I think we'll appreciate her ability. I think the biggest problem I have now is trying to not spend money on all the cards I could conceivably want, since I'm already interested in a bunch of other deck ideas. Thorin/Balin/Ori Dwarves, maybe mono-Tactics with Gimli/Beregond/[Legolas or Hama], and the Spirit/Lore deck would be insane with Eowyn/Spirit Glorfindel/Elrond. But not only do I not want to blow all the money to get everything right away, I think the game itself would be less enjoyable if I just went straight for the power cards and blasted through every quest with relative ease.
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Feb 13, 2014 20:45
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Nibble posted:I think the biggest problem I have now is trying to not spend money on all the cards I could conceivably want, since I'm already interested in a bunch of other deck ideas. Thorin/Balin/Ori Dwarves, maybe mono-Tactics with Gimli/Beregond/[Legolas or Hama], and the Spirit/Lore deck would be insane with Eowyn/Spirit Glorfindel/Elrond. But not only do I not want to blow all the money to get everything right away, I think the game itself would be less enjoyable if I just went straight for the power cards and blasted through every quest with relative ease. Good luck with that. Less than even 2 months ago I had the Core set. Now I have Core, Black Riders, Khazad-Dum, Dwarrowdelf cycle, and Hobbit Part 1. I can't stop buying them!  
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Feb 13, 2014 20:56
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Oh hey, I just noticed Voice of Isengard is now shipping! Who's looking forward to playing with Saruman and Grima?
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Feb 13, 2014 21:26
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One thing about the LCG format that I didn't see in the op is that in order to do competitive play you usually need to buy two core sets.
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Feb 13, 2014 21:41
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I was going to ask this in the Netrunner thread, but its probably more of a general competitive LCG question. Does the "living" mechanic mean that someone with just a core set is always going to be smashed by someone with the expansions? To use Netrunner as an example, is there anything in the expansions that can't be countered by something in the core deck? (I've got Netrunner and LoTR LCGs on the way, so I haven't actually played them yet)
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Feb 13, 2014 21:43
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I believe there was a recent post in the Netrunner thread where someone with just a Core set ended up placing very well in a local tournament. I'm assuming if you want the theoretical best-of-the-best deck you're going to have to spend some extra money, but seems like player skill may be able to make up some of the difference.
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Feb 13, 2014 21:54
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frgildan posted:One thing about the LCG format that I didn't see in the op is that in order to do competitive play you usually need to buy two core sets. I'll put something about that up there. Bent Wookiee posted:I was going to ask this in the Netrunner thread, but its probably more of a general competitive LCG question. Does the "living" mechanic mean that someone with just a core set is always going to be smashed by someone with the expansions? To some extent, though it's worst with A Game of Thrones. Netrunner has a much higher emphasis on how you play rather then what's in your deck, so with that it's less of a problem. I know that several of the top decks at Worlds for Star Wars: The Card Game were core only, too.
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Feb 13, 2014 22:01
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Taran_Wanderer posted:I'll put something about that up there. Yup! For A Game of Thrones you will always be crushed. In fact, the decks the base game gives pre-made for you don't even have enough cards to be tournament legal. (I think they're about 20 under?) This means you have to start pulling mostly neutrals from the other decks and honestly in A Game of Thrones a deck with a ton of neutrals won't get you far. I play both Netrunner and AGoT, and it was definitely more of a priority to start getting expansions for the latter. I can't say how this compares to other LCGs, so it'd probably be best to look into that specific game. edit: I assumed by your question that you also meant just one core deck. If you have two then what I said applies a little less, but only by a little. bean mug fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Feb 13, 2014 |
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Feb 13, 2014 23:33
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Living Card Games are designed to be as close to the "best of both worlds" of boardgames and CCGs as you can get. The core set makes a great "board game" experience, and offers tons of replay-ability if you don't want to deckbuild. The problem is they have to compromise in order to make that a reality... namely, one-ofs in the core set. Most LCGs are at such a point where 2x Cores are more than sufficient, and the diminishing returns on a 3rd are terrible. SW:TCG only needs 2 for complete playsets of every card. The generally accepted advice is first buy a core, play it and see if you like it and want to dig deeper. If it gets it's dirty hooks in you (it will), pick up a second core in your shipment of far too many data/story/chapter/whatever packs that are already shipping from CSI. FFG has me buying monthly packs for Netrunner and Star Wars. I'm slowly catching up with LOTR, and I have a "balanced boardgame" setup for AGoT. is an apt emoticon for what FFG does to me.
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Feb 13, 2014 23:41
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Would people be interested in a sort of step by step on converting existing CCGs into LCGs? I've been working on this off and on for the past year or so with 7th Sea since I own a large amount of the card base for it and its been a lot of fun.
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Feb 14, 2014 01:10
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Warhammer Invasion is probably one of the best games to play for a couple, I have to say. It's easy to teach and the theme carries over well in the card mechanics. I've built almost all the decks with theme first and mechanics second, but the nice thing is that they end up pretty decent decks as far as I can tell.
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Feb 14, 2014 01:17
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Basically, the Core sets will get you crushed, but most of the time you'll need but a few well-chosen packs to turn them into something decent.
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Feb 14, 2014 02:42
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Zombie #246 posted:Warhammer Invasion is probably one of the best games to play for a couple, I have to say. It's easy to teach and the theme carries over well in the card mechanics. I've built almost all the decks with theme first and mechanics second, but the nice thing is that they end up pretty decent decks as far as I can tell. Yeah, I really enjoyed playing a few games with the core set, I like the ruleset a lot. For whatever reason I like keeping it as a "board game" LCG rather than a "buy a ton of cards and deckbuild" LCG. Speaking of "buy a ton of cards", more LotR chat: tonight we tried out the decks I built against Escape from Dol Guldur, and found it... surprisingly easy? Everything just seemed to flow nicely for us and we were never particularly threatened. The one-ally-per-round restriction kept our development slow, and we got the "discard all event cards" treachery in the setup which was annoying, but none of the enemies or treacheries seemed particularly threatening: we had to read and re-read Iron Shackles because we were like "really, that's it?" I know it's definitely a scenario that's designed to be more difficult with fewer players, but we didn't expect it to feel considerably easier than Journey Along the Anduin. Anyone else have this experience, or did we just get lucky somehow? Are the Khazad-Dum and OHaUH quests generally more challenging?
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Feb 14, 2014 03:17
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El Estrago Bonito posted:Would people be interested in a sort of step by step on converting existing CCGs into LCGs? I also did this with Magic if anyone is interested in my set of closed Archenemy decks. Edit: Also is this thread only for Fantasy Flight games? Or would discussing Mage Wars and Pathfinder Adventure cards be fine too? Rutibex fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Feb 14, 2014 |
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Feb 14, 2014 08:22
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Nibble posted:Speaking of "buy a ton of cards", more LotR chat: tonight we tried out the decks I built against Escape from Dol Guldur, and found it... surprisingly easy? Everything just seemed to flow nicely for us and we were never particularly threatened. The one-ally-per-round restriction kept our development slow, and we got the "discard all event cards" treachery in the setup which was annoying, but none of the enemies or treacheries seemed particularly threatening: we had to read and re-read Iron Shackles because we were like "really, that's it?" I know it's definitely a scenario that's designed to be more difficult with fewer players, but we didn't expect it to feel considerably easier than Journey Along the Anduin. Anyone else have this experience, or did we just get lucky somehow? Are the Khazad-Dum and OHaUH quests generally more challenging? I think it was mostly a matter of luck. Did you remember the errata? I know they made the Nazgul immune to attachments, at least.
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Feb 14, 2014 14:52
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Nibble posted:Yeah, I really enjoyed playing a few games with the core set, I like the ruleset a lot. For whatever reason I like keeping it as a "board game" LCG rather than a "buy a ton of cards and deckbuild" LCG. You can get very lucky in Escape From Dol Guldur depending on which hero gets randomly abducted. I got through it first time with my Spirit/Leadership deck, but it would have been a very different story if Aragorn had been taken instead of Glorfindel. It was tougher without Glorf, but I had access to both spheres and by the time I got him back I already had Aragorn dual-sphered and Light of Valinor in hand for the combo.
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Feb 14, 2014 15:31
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Rutibex posted:Edit: Also is this thread only for Fantasy Flight games? Or would discussing Mage Wars and Pathfinder Adventure cards be fine too? I would imagine that is kosher. FFG just has the trademark on the name "LCG" not the distribution model. I would love to see what a game between two good MW players looked like. I found the game lacking in fun myself.
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Feb 14, 2014 15:34
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djfooboo posted:I would imagine that is kosher. FFG just has the trademark on the name "LCG" not the distribution model. Yeah, non-FFG games are cool. I just couldn't find something convenient to call them all.
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Feb 14, 2014 16:08
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Me and a friend got through Dol Guldur on our first attempt, with just the base box cards (although I had 2 boxes), we were 1 card draw away from losing from about 1/3rd in until the end. Just got lucky we could handle everything. Me and another friend then tried it later with all the cards from the entire Mirkwood cycle and we got hosed pretty hard. This quest depends a lot on what hero gets captured and what enemies you're going to draw. If you start off with Ungolianth's spawn during setup, this quest turns into an 8. Or a 9.
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Feb 14, 2014 16:35
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Taran_Wanderer posted:I think it was mostly a matter of luck. Did you remember the errata? I know they made the Nazgul immune to attachments, at least. Yeah, I actually must have gotten a more recent reprint of the Core set since everything has its errata printed. Nazgul can't have attachments, Beravor is once per round, Protector of Lorien is capped at three, etc. The Nazgul, despite sounding somewhat threatening on paper, just wasn't a problem by the time we faced it. Since we couldn't summon a bunch of allies each turn, the Tactics/Lore deck spent all of its resources on attachments instead. So after we rescued the prisoner (Eleanor, which I suppose is a pretty lucky pick), he optionally engaged the Nazgul, defended with Denethor, no shadow effect (didn't matter since I had Hasty Stroke ready anyway), then Gimli with Dwarrowdelf Axe/Dwarven Axe/2 damage counters + Legolas + Veteran Axehand killed it in one shot. And the questing push following that was made trivial after Kili & Fili telling A Very Good Tale brought Faramir and a Guard of the Citadel into play, letting the Leadership/Spirit player crap out an enormous amount of Willpower each round after that. So far it's basically felt like the initial setups that throw extra encounters at you before you've had a chance to develop can be the most difficult parts, but the "status quo" of handling 3 encounter cards per round seems really easy for three players to manage once you've gotten a few things into play. The specialization really helps, since I didn't have to worry about any monsters all game besides one of those 1/1/1 Orc guard tokens, and meanwhile the Tac/Lore player never committed a single character to the quest, but demolished the Nazgul the instant it appeared.
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Feb 14, 2014 16:49
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djfooboo posted:I would imagine that is kosher. FFG just has the trademark on the name "LCG" not the distribution model. I have been trying to find any Mage Wars opponents at all  I bought the game 2 weeks ago and have yet to convince anyone to play it. The huge board and all the tokens make it really hard to play in the college cafeteria like all the Magic people do and I got the only copy from the local game shop (special ordered for me) so there isn't anyone there. Board game night has pretty much been taken over by Agricola; so I haven't had any chances 
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Feb 14, 2014 17:01
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Another Voice of Isengard article/spoiler! http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4651 Less than a week away! ...I'll probably get it with the Super Bowl prop bet money I got...
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Feb 14, 2014 22:59
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Are there any sorts of resources/primers for deck building in GoT? I got a core set and it seems fun but I'm a bit stymied on how to build a deck other than "put Stark cards in a Stark deck." Edit: saw the link to cardgamedb in the OP, I'll check it out.
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Feb 15, 2014 01:37
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J Miracle posted:Are there any sorts of resources/primers for deck building in GoT? I got a core set and it seems fun but I'm a bit stymied on how to build a deck other than "put Stark cards in a Stark deck." Yeah, cardgamedb has the largest amount of info about AGOT. This thread has some great overall info to get you started, and the First Tilt articles go over deck building basics for new comers or those with a limited budget. Unfortunately, the site's article search isn't working at the moment, so it's a bit harder to find. For some quick and dirty deck-building advice, I recommend at least half your deck be characters, with at least half, maybe even three-quarters, of those characters being cost 2 or less. Include the +gold and cost reducing locations for your house, and always have Valar Morghulis in your plot deck.
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Feb 15, 2014 02:55
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Just picked up the first 4 out of 6 APs from the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle for LotR LCG. So many new options for deckbuilding! I typically play solo, so getting through the 2nd and 3rd quest in the core set ranged from rough to impossible. Can't wait to throw some new deck attempts together to give the new quests a shot and retry the core set quests.
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Feb 15, 2014 18:42
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inSTAALed posted:Just picked up the first 4 out of 6 APs from the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle for LotR LCG. So many new options for deckbuilding! Yeah, I have a pretty significant card pool (all of the big box expansions and then entire Khazad-Dum AP cycle) but I have never managed to beat Escape from Dol Guldur (core quest 3) with a solo deck. I cruised through it with 2 players but I am skeptical that it is even possible solo without a huge amount of luck -- although that hasn't stopped me from trying. Anyone have any pointers? Next time I think I will try it with a mono Spirit deck... but I suspect that it will be too hard to kill monsters (stupid Ungoliant's Spawn). If you find some quests too difficult, you might actually want to start playing 'two handed'. This guide from Tales from the Cards will help you get started. It is a little harder to manage but I actually find it way more enjoyable than solo.
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Feb 15, 2014 20:18
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DirkGently posted:Yeah, I have a pretty significant card pool (all of the big box expansions and then entire Khazad-Dum AP cycle) but I have never managed to beat Escape from Dol Guldur (core quest 3) with a solo deck. I cruised through it with 2 players but I am skeptical that it is even possible solo without a huge amount of luck -- although that hasn't stopped me from trying. Anyone have any pointers? Next time I think I will try it with a mono Spirit deck... but I suspect that it will be too hard to kill monsters (stupid Ungoliant's Spawn). I've considered playing two handed before, but I would prefer to just bash my head against everything solo unless I am playing with someone else. Escape from Dol Guldur is pretty much entirely luck solo because losing one of your heroes is hard to overcome. I've pretty much wrote that one off for the time being. Someone on BGG has a core set only deck that can beat it "reliably" with forcing one of the three heroes to be the one captured. Link to that is here.
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Feb 15, 2014 20:38
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Picked up the LOTR core set last night as a friend and I were hankering for a difficult 2-player coop game. We weren't disappointed; The first several turns of the first scenario seemed like an impossible task was in front of us, but between Legolas in his Tactics deck knocking out locations post-travel and Faramir from my Leadership deck turning our built up allies into a questing machine, the second half was a breeze. As soon as we finished we were looking over the other two decks, drooling over the abilities we were missing, and already plotting what we'd put in a two color deck. So I think it went over pretty well. I've been looking over some of the adventure packs and there are a few with heroes I really want, but it's frustrating that they need a base expansion before you can use it... Is this requirement just for the adventure/encounters? I can't imagine the hero and player cards are locked to a specific scenario.
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Feb 17, 2014 00:31
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Diosamblet posted:I've been looking over some of the adventure packs and there are a few with heroes I really want, but it's frustrating that they need a base expansion before you can use it... Is this requirement just for the adventure/encounters? I can't imagine the hero and player cards are locked to a specific scenario.
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Feb 17, 2014 00:43
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In Lotr, what should I buy for dwarves after Khazad-dum? That plus core set doesn't seem like enough.
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Feb 18, 2014 06:00
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Baron Porkface posted:In Lotr, what should I buy for dwarves after Khazad-dum? That plus core set doesn't seem like enough. The two Hobbit saga expansions have a ton of Dwarf stuff, it seems.
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Feb 18, 2014 06:49
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Nibble posted:The two Hobbit saga expansions have a ton of Dwarf stuff, it seems. Definitely this. Last night I built a hobbit secrecy deck for giggles. We'll see how it works...
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Feb 18, 2014 14:36
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Baron Porkface posted:In Lotr, what should I buy for dwarves after Khazad-dum? That plus core set doesn't seem like enough. As said, the Hobbit Saga expansions add a bunch of great dwarf stuff, but also look for The Long Dark for Erebor Battle Master and Ring Mail.
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Feb 18, 2014 15:07
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Taran_Wanderer posted:As said, the Hobbit Saga expansions add a bunch of great dwarf stuff, but also look for The Long Dark for Erebor Battle Master and Ring Mail. I think Tactics cards in a Dwarf deck can be hard to put in. The majority of dwarf allies are in the Leadership/Lore spheres. I think Hardy Leadership is a much better card over Ring Mail, and the Battle Master has lost some of its flair when it got errata to only get pumped by other Dwarf allies you control, not characters. I'm not saying Tactics doesn't have a place in a Dwarf deck. If I'm building one, I'm more likely to build a Leadership/Lore deck with Dain, Ori, and Thorin/Bifur, and have a 2nd player deck with Tactics, maybe Tactics/Spirit.
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Feb 18, 2014 15:23
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Taran_Wanderer posted:As said, the Hobbit Saga expansions add a bunch of great dwarf stuff, but also look for The Long Dark for Erebor Battle Master and Ring Mail. Just be aware the Erebos Battle Master got errata'd and so it only gets +1 attack for each dwarf ALLY instead of character. EDIT: Oh snap beaten.
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Feb 18, 2014 15:30
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j8910 posted:Just be aware the Erebos Battle Master got errata'd and so it only gets +1 attack for each dwarf ALLY instead of character. If you buy the reprints it actually has this text on it!
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Feb 18, 2014 15:37
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 23:36 |
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Is there a PDF or image lurking around out there that has all the set icons on one sheet? I want to print them off and stick them onto my box so I know which sets are where. I have too many drat sets and they got mixed up so I can never find anything quickly now.
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Feb 18, 2014 16:16
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