You might have noticed this on my last post, but I finally came up with a name for the grand narrative. Agents of the White Council. I kind of like the ring it has. Maybe it’s a little on the nose, but it’s here to stay, so we might as well get used to it.
Also, it’s a little problematic in terms of theme, implying far more regular activity on behalf of the council than the canonical literature gives us reason to suppose existed. But we’ve already established that we’re in a slightly alternate universe, so I’m not too bothered by it.
The Story Thus Far
Anyways, it’s time to start doing the actual work of this series. Today’s primary topic was going to be how we’re going to prepare for Passage through Mirkwood. But first, we’ve got to figure out the theme of our decks.
In many ways, the thematic considerations of the Core Set quests are going to have an oversized impact on this series. The choices I make now will become thematic exceptions in future quests – heroes who only make sense in the setting of the new quests because their story up to that point has led them there. But the field isn’t completely open. Even though our story will be living in a universe different from the one which Tolkien’s novels inhabit, I still want to maintain coherence with the canon as much as possible. The alternate universe we will be inhabiting will still be a universe in which all or most of the events of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings have or will occur as the books describe them. Deviations will only happen when the quests cannot be reconciled any other way *cough* Dwarrowdelf cycle *cough*.
So, that will make a lot of heroes rather tricky to fit in, as most of them were definitely off doing other things during the time frame the quests are set it.
A number of these Tolkien-created heroes could be shoehorned into the setting fairly easily enough (Aragorn in particular seems to have been everywhere and done everything), but I’m actually going to start by looking at the FFG-created heroes, who will cause far less narrative trauma to work around. Here’s a list of all of the current heroes created by FFG, along with their backgrounds.
Leadership
- Amarthiul (Dunedain)
- Kahliel (Haradrim)
Tactics
- Thalin (Dwarf – no background given)
- Na’asiyah (Corsair)
Spirit
- Eleanor (Gondor)
- Caldara (Gondor)
- Lanwyn (Dale)
- Idraen (Dunedain)
Lore
- Beravor (Dunedain)
- Thurindir (Dunedain)
- Mirlonde (Silvan, presumably Woodland Realm but not explicitly stated)
- Argalad (Silvan, presumably Woodland Realm but not explicitly stated)
- Rossiel (Silvan, Lorien)
Now, of these heroes, one that really appeals to me from a narrative standpoint is Eleanor. (Maybe it was all that talk of her leading an honor guard of Gondorian Spearmen into Moria from last time.) I love the idea of having her be a roving agent in the service of Gandalf, pursuing the interests of Gondor in her downtime.
In fact, the story is starting to write itself in my mind as I’m thinking about it. Eleanor, a bright young student of ancient lore, is mentored periodically by Mithrandir. As she grows older, she becomes more and more concerned by the Shadow in Mordor, and studies everything she can to understand what her people are up against. Noting her mastery of the field, Mithrandir begins to involve her in the great currents that are moving towards the War of the Ring. He can’t be everywhere, of course, and having more people available to create the sort of gentle ripples that can grow into a counter to the Dark Lord’s machinations is the sort of thing that Gandalf would highly appreciate.
This isn’t her first adventure – she’s young still but not inexperienced. This is the first time she’s been so far afield, though. She may well be related to Denethor – or perhaps Imrahil of Dol Amroth (which makes her related to Denethor by marriage). A minor cousin of Imrahil’s line, perhaps?
Anyways, she’s been sent by Gandalf into the north. Probably to Dale and Erebor, actually. Gandalf has some subtle work for her; her real purpose there – whatever her cover story is – is to nudge Dale and Erebor into greater military readiness against the threat of Mordor. Once she’s in Dale, it’s not too hard to find a story reason to get her to Mirkwood.
So – this is all very exciting and the beginnings of a compelling story. But, since we are following a set of rules that are going to lock me into this choice of a hero for quite some time, it’s worth asking the question. Is Eleanor a hero that I want to be carting around across the length and breadth of Middle-Earth? In other words, can she pull her own weight?
I think that the answer to that is unequivocally yes.
The most punishing and ridiculous encounter card effects are treacheries. Even in the first cycle, such notable cards as Evil Storm, Exhaustion, and almost all of the ridiculous treacheries in Return to Mirkwood can be game-ending. And the treacheries just get worse from there. Master’s Malice, anyone?
There is a reason, after all, that to this day, A Test of Will is considered to be a staple card for any deck containing the Spirit sphere. Some decks even include Dwarven Tomb just to recur it.
But A Test of Will does you no good if you don’t draw it. Or if you’ve already played it and used up all your cancellation. Eleanor is a guaranteed protection against treacheries from the start of the game, and continues to function in that capacity until she leaves play. Admittedly, she requires that you reveal an encounter card to replace the treachery, which does run the risk of revealing something even worse, but there are very few things which I’d be even less excited to see than a treachery that is worth cancelling.
Also, the fact that I’ll be running a two-handed fellowship means that I’m much more likely to come across a nasty treachery over the course of the game than if I were playing with a single deck.
But even if cancellation is a worthwhile tool to bring in my arsenal – and the prevalence of A Test of Will definitely indicates that it is important to have – the real question is this: is it worth a hero slot in my decks? I think so. Against quests that have only one or two game-ending treacheries, I free up my deck slots to use on allies or attachments, or other events. Against quests that feature a wide array of nasty treacheries (or awful When Revealed effects on enemies or side quests), I can double up with A Test of Will and feel very secure in my insurance policies.
So that’s decided, then.
Now, having access to the Spirit sphere, there are a number of high-willpower allies we could bring into play, especially if we pick a second hero from the Spirit sphere. Thematically, Caldara seems to be a good fit. She could easily enough be a scout or messenger under Eleanor’s command. But that essentially locks us in to a specific style of deck. And, while I love the idea of Caldara decks, they are really hard to make them thematic and still effective. The most useful allies in the Spirit sphere just aren’t going to be easy to fit in here. Glorfindel, Jubayr, Elfhelm, and so on are all ideal targets for Caldara’s ability but are so widely disparate that it would be exceptionally difficult to construct a narrative that put them all together in the same place for quest after quest after quest.
So I think we’ll take a hard pass on Caldara. The other two FFG-created Spirit heroes are Idraen and Lanwyn. Both are combat-oriented heroes with built-in readying that let them contribute in the quest phase as well as using their impressive combat stats. Of the two, Lanwyn is less threat. She’s got a more conditional readying effect, but it is also more versatile. And, she’s a Dale hero, which lends itself quite nicely to the narrative we’ve already begun to weave.
So, I have an attacking hero who also has a good willpower score to lend questing support. I have treachery cancellation. I need a good defender – I would rather not chump block all day, especially with my rules regarding unique allies. Of course, Eleanor can handle that after she’s been boosted up a little bit. The ideal attachment for that, of course, is Gondorian Shield. For that, I’ll need Tactics. In fairness, Lanwyn would have made that a strong contender as well – attack boosts in Spirit for non-Noldor characters are rather hard to come by. Unless I really wanted to make her an Elf-Friend and give her Mirkwood Long Knives. But that’s a lot of deck space devoted to a combo in a sphere without a lot of innate card draw.
So, with my attacker and my defender sorted out, I need a Tactics hero who can provide questing support. Ideally a low threat, since the only consistent attack boosts that Lanwyn is eligible is the Dagger of Westernesse, so I’d like to remain under the engagement costs of enemies. The obvious choice is the Tactics version of Eowyn. Unfortunately, that choice is unsatisfactory on thematic grounds. Getting Eowyn out of Meduseld and traveling from Imladris to Harad and every point in between causes a great deal of problems for the shield-maiden of Rohan. Not least the fact that if she had actually gone on these quests, she would most certainly not be feeling like she had been consistently denied the ability to do deeds of renown. Which is kind of an important plot point in her character arc. Because of that, she sneaks off to the Pelennor Fields and goes on to destroy the Witch-King of Angmar.
We probably don’t want to mess that one up.
Both Dale/Esgaroth Tactics characters are not exceptionally useful in the context of the deck’s we’re building. Both are high-attack ranged characters competing with Lanwyn for their role. Not to mention the thematic issues – like the fact that Bard the Bowman is dead, and Brand son of Bain is king in Dale. I doubt that the king has enough free time to spend years going on various quests for Gandalf.
There are a couple of potential Gondor heroes that could fit the bill. Mablung and Hirgon both have sufficiently useful willpower as well as being just thematically close enough. Set whichever one as the leader of Eleanor’s escort, and we’re home free. Mablung’s resources offer up a possible escape valve – via Livery of the Tower – for taking undefended attacks before Eleanor is set up as a defender. Also, with some readying and a Gondorian Shield, Mablung is an even better defender than Eleanor. Hirgon is less threat, and offers the possibility of bringing in a 2-cost defender on round 1. If we manage to quest successfully, of course.
But there is one other option – a completely different angle – that opens up some interesting interactions.
Thalin. Thematically, he’s a win. A Dwarf with no backstory, so we can claim that he either comes from Erebor or was originally from the Iron Hills and emigrated to Erebor with Dain during or after the events of the Hobbit. And since we’ve chosen Lanwyn as our second hero, we can pair a Dwarf of the Mountain with a Woman of Dale. The bond between the two kingdoms was certainly strong enough that we don’t need any special narrative justification to get there.
But what about mechanically? He’s only got 1 willpower, and we are going to be required to commit him to the quest to make use of his ability. In addition, one point of direct damage can be useful in softening enemies up for Lanwyn’s counter-strike. Looking ahead, a combination of Thalin and a cohort of Gondorian Spearmen will absolutely annihilate many of the enemies in the Khazad-Dum deluxe expansion. So, taking steps towards trivializing the combat phase is certainly something I can get behind.
Looking at that set of 3, we’ve only got 3 starting willpower between them (assuming we don’t send Eleanor to the quest, which is a reasonable assumption). That could be a potential problem – even with high-willpower questing allies, we could easily struggle to overcome an early staging area.
On the other hand, we’re going to be consistently paired with a second deck, and it’s not extremely difficult to make up some of the willpower deficit with a second set of heroes. At the end of the day, the only way to really get a sense for how it will turn out is to give it a test run and see how it functions. I’ll report back on that one.
Next time on Agents of the White Council, we’ll really look at Passage Through Mirkwood and how we’ll go about deckbuilding for it. Because deckbuilding against this quest is relatively simple, we’ll also look forwards to Journey Along the Anduin a little bit.
In addition, we’ll examine the theme of the quest, and come up with a thematic companion deck that will fit seamlessly into the narrative. Hope you’ll join me there!