HoME Design Thread

[infectedsloth]

Originally Posted by White Knight

NAME = GANDALF
GENERAL = JANDAR
SPECIES = MAIA
PLANET = ARDA
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = WIZARD
PERSONALITY = WISE
SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

His class should be Istari like it was before. Having him be an Istari sets him apart from Heirloom, Erevan and the Elf Wizards. Him being a wizard undermines his significances in the Tolkien universe.

Originally Posted by White Knight

STATS, MASTER/BASIC
LIFE = 7
MOVE = 5
RANGE = 4
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 3
POINTS = 180

I'm fine with this, playtesting will show if his points need adjusting.

Originally Posted by White Knight

BLAZING STRIKE SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 1. Attack 3.
All opponents' figures adjacent to Gandalf are affected by Blazing Strike Special Attack. Roll attack dice once for all affected figures. Each figure rolls defense dice separately. At the end of your turn, after using Blazing Strike Special Attack, you may move Gandalf up to 4 spaces. Gandalf does not take leaving engagement attacks when moving this way.

LEADERSHIP
After taking a turn with Gandalf, you may move up to 3 small or medium Unique Heroes you control up to 4 spaces each. Any figures moved by Leadership must end their movement adjacent to Gandalf. Figures moved by Hasty Retreat do not take leaving engagement attacks.

Leadership combined with Raelin still needs more playtesting, but I'm content with it as is. I still like Blazing Strike Special Attack. An alternate name for Blazing Strike that I like is Flame of the Ithron Special Attack. Ithron is Sindarin for Wizard.

[Son of Arathorn]

As a small note, based on some of the playtests I've seen, I think people find Gandalf overpowered dragging Raelin around, and clunky when the movement for Leadership is reduced to 4 to keep him in check. If it's an issue, I think we need to address it now. Should we find a way to exclude Raelin and keep Leadership at 5?

[faure]

Should we find a way to exclude Raelin and keep Leadership at 5?

Might be getting a bit clunky but you could try one of these:

LEADERSHIP
After taking a turn with Gandalf, you may move up to 3 small or medium Dwarf, Elf, Hobbit, or Human Unique Heroes you control up to 5 spaces each. Any figures moved by Leadership must end their movement adjacent to Gandalf. Figures moved by Leadership do not take leaving engagement attacks.

OR

LEADERSHIP
After taking a turn with Gandalf, you may move up to 3 small or medium Unique Heroes without the Flying or Stealth Flying power you control up to 5 spaces each. Any figures moved by Leadership must end their movement adjacent to Gandalf. Figures moved by Leadership do not take leaving engagement attacks.

Aside from Raelin there might still be considerations with Gandalf dragging around some of the heavy hitters such as Kaemon Awa, Sonlen, or Tandros. While you could restrict to Small Unique Heroes, the usefulness might be minimal.

[boromir96]

How about,

LEADERSHIP
After taking a turn with Gandalf, you may move up to 3 small or medium Non Flying Unique Heroes you control up to 5 spaces each. Any figures moved by Leadership must end their movement adjacent to Gandalf. Figures moved by Leadership do not take leaving engagement attacks.

Same language as Jotun's throw.

[faure]

Looks pretty good -- I've added one minor edit for consistency with Jotun's card:

LEADERSHIP
After taking a turn with Gandalf, you may move up to 3 small or medium non-flying Unique Heroes you control up to 5 spaces each. Any figures moved by Leadership must end their movement adjacent to Gandalf. Figures moved by Leadership do not take leaving engagement attacks.

[caps]

The 4-move restriction is "clunky" on purpose--that's a feature, not a bug. That way the player has to make choices. If we find that playtesting requires excluding Raelin (which is far from a given after only two tests, although definitely a major concern) then we should still leave the restriction at 4.

[infectedsloth]

Originally Posted by capsocrates

The 4-move restriction is "clunky" on purpose--that's a feature, not a bug. That way the player has to make choices.

I agree. limiting it to 4 move helps check a powerful power, and makes for some difficult choices.

Originally Posted by faure

LEADERSHIP
After taking a turn with Gandalf, you may move up to 3 small or medium Dwarf, Elf, Hobbit, or Human Unique Heroes you control up to 5 spaces each. Any figures moved by Leadership must end their movement adjacent to Gandalf. Figures moved by Leadership do not take leaving engagement attacks.

I actually like this idea if you changed it to 4 move. It solves the Raelin problem (or potential problem) it's thematic with out being limiting game play wise.

I'd rather keep leadership as is, and wait for more testing or change it to the above with 4 move instead of 5, and test from there.

I don't like the non flying idea, it seems out of place and wired thematically, but for Jotun it made sense. Why can Gandalf lug around Tul-Bak-Ra or Warden 816 and not Raelin?

[boromir96]

Originally Posted by capsocrates

The 4-move restriction is "clunky" on purpose--that's a feature, not a bug. That way the player has to make choices. If we find that playtesting requires excluding Raelin (which is far from a given after only two tests, although definitely a major concern) then we should still leave the restriction at 4.

I thought features were supposed to be nice. I realy didn't like the 4 move thing. It just really hurts your development, and basically makes you cede the high ground..

[caps]

Originally Posted by boromir96

I thought features were supposed to be nice. I realy didn't like the 4 move thing. It just really hurts your development, and basically makes you cede the high ground..

... Decisions, decisions.

Seriously. Potentially *every turn* Gandalf can move, attack all adjacent figures or make a powerful short-range attack, then possibly move 4 spaces again, and then move 2-3 other heroes 4 spaces. He does a lot, and I would like to keep some restraint in this design.

Let's see some more tests with Raelin.

[boromir96]

Originally Posted by capsocrates

... Decisions, decisions.

Seriously. Potentially *every turn* Gandalf can move, attack all adjacent figures or make a powerful short-range attack, then possibly move 4 spaces again, and then move 2-3 other heroes 4 spaces. He does a lot, and I would like to keep some restraint in this design.

Let's see some more tests with Raelin.

Yes, it can be powerful, but it forces you to draft an almost all Hero Army.

Working on it!

[faure]

Let's see some more tests with Raelin.

And some others that should be tested:
Kaemon Awa
Sonlen
Migol and/or Mogrimm
Sir Gilbert
Skahen

[Smithy Winfred]

Just my two sense on this matter. Why is the power named Leadership? If you plan on limiting it only to the Fellowship (or similar figures) why not change the name to "Leader of the Fellowship" or something else a bit more interesting, right now it's kind of a boring name (unless you plan on reusing it)

Might want to test the Flagbearers as well, they could easily become over powered if they can get such a good movement boost.