|
November 30, 2004
Orcs are the foundation of any good fantasy villain line up. The legions of Mordor couldn't have invaded a convenience store if the troops were composed of ill-tempered gnomes, rabid hobbits or even those pesky gelatinous cubes. When you have an alliance of Men and Elves to slaughter, a Gondor to siege, a Moria to infest, or an Online League to win, bring some Orcs. Two of the new customizable League Cards are Orc minions, one from the Sauron culture, one from Moria.
The Sauron Culture League Minion: Morgul Patrol
The Morgul Patrol starts out as a rather featureless minion: 3-cost with Strength 9, Vitality 3, site number 6 and no game text. These Orc lackeys are very much like a Morgul Skirmisher or Morgul Warden only without any special abilities. But after you play some League games and earn some League Character Points, you can start modifying this minion. The following League Abilities can be purchased for just 1 League Character Point each...
- Strength +1
- The site number of each [Sauron] Orc is -1
- Besieger
- Tracker
The Strength +1 upgrade can be purchased 3 times (3 League Character Point total cost) to give these feisty Orcs a base strength of 12... stronger than any 3-cost Sauron minion. The Patrol's ability to reduce the site number of other Orcs let's you play other Orcish opponents for potentially less twilight and avoid those pesky Ranger abilities that eat Roaming minions for lunch. You can buy that ability up to three times and make all other Sauron Orcs site number -3! Also for just one point you can add Besieger or Tracker keywords (or both for a mere 2 points) and make your League minion compatible with cards like Under the Watching Eye, Tower Walkway, Din of Arms and a whole host of other fun/evil cards.
For 3 League Character Points each, you can modify your Morgul Patrol to have these special abilities...
- Skirmish: Exert Morgul Patrol to wound a character it is skirmishing.
- Response: If Morgul Patrol wins a skirmish, exert it to make it fierce until the regroup phase.
With 3 Vitality, the Morgul Patrol can inflict some serious pain with its Skirmish special ability. Unless your opponent has a mount, archery or some way of wounding your Morgul Patrol, you can wound a companion twice and (ideally with your modified Strength 12) cause 3 wounds in a single skirmish. Of course, if you add Gothmog's Warg you have yet another point of Vitality with which to exert your Patrol and wound your foe. The Morgul Patrol's Response action speaks for itself as being fierce is always a good thing.
Finally, the Morgul Patrol's last ability costs 5 League Character Points and works like this... “Regroup: Exert Morgul Patrol to make the Free Peoples player exert X companions, where X is the number of burdens you spot.” While the Morgul Patrol can't directly add burdens by itself, it can take serious advantage of a burdened Frodo. Much like the old Isengard Orcs, the Morgul Patrol can deal out some havoc if left alive in Regroup phase. Even if you face off against companions with Armor or other kinds of wound prevention, this ability helps you to keep adding red tokens on your opponent's fellowship, one way or another, and stop them from moving forward.
The Moria Culture League Minion: Moria Skirmishers
While initially weaker than the Morgul Patrol (3 twilight cost, Strength 8, Vitality 1, site number 4 and no game text), the Moria Skirmishers have some very fun upgrades that help them grow up into mighty Moria minions that fit well into swarm or archery deck or even lend a helping hand to The Balrog... Here are the Moria Skirmishers’ League Abilities that cost 1 League Character Point each…
- Site Number -1
- Strength +1
- Vitality +1
After you play a few League games you can take your Moria Skirmishers to the gym and beef up their raw skirmish-winning attributes. For just 1 League Character Point this minion can come in to play at Site 3 without Roaming Penalties. The Strength and Vitality boosts can each be purchased 3 times giving this minion a maximum potential of Strength 11 and Vitality 4. The extra Vitality is exceptionally useful in soaking that Fellowship Archery that can often pick apart a nicely played Moria swarm...
How about some game text and special abilities? Well, for 3 League Character Points each, you can add the following League Abilities to your stylishly helmeted Orcs...
- Archer
- Each time Moria Skirmishers wins a skirmish, you may exert a companion.
- While skirmishing an Elf or Dwarf, Moria Skirmishers is strength +2.
With the Archer keyword your Moria Skirmisher not only gets to add to the Minion Archery Total but also gets to use cards like Bitter Hatred and take advantage of the extra strength from the Archer Commander minion. The second of those League Abilities lets your Moria Skirmishers cause some awful havoc from winning skirmishes; not only do you get to select which companion is exerted but the game text is not a special ability and so can't be stopped by Cavern Entrance or certain brothers of Boromir. When combined with the 1-cost strength increase, the Moria Skirmishers can achieve strength 13 when fighting Elves or Dwarves... speak friend and enter a world of pain.
The Moria Skirmishers 5-point ability is this author's personal favorite... “Shadow: Discard this minion to play a [Moria] minion. The twilight cost is -10.” Needless to say, you can have a LOT of fun with this little trick. Oh sure, the ability has its limitations: it won't let you play a minion from the draw deck or discard pile and you'll have to discard Moria Skirmishers to do it... but, with the new Site Path mechanics making Underground locations more plentiful, this ability lets you bring out some Balrogage with as little as 3 twilight at Site 4 (With 3 twilight in the pool, play a Goblin Runner (bringing pool to 4), then play Moria Skirmishers and then play The Balrog, Terror of Flame and Shadow for 1 cost by using this League Abilities!). Or, try playing a Moria Skirmisher for 3 cost and then using his ability to play a Host of Moria for free (or 2 if he's Roaming). You can then use the Host's ability to play the Moria Skirmishers back from Discard and you end up getting a cost 3 and a cost 7 minion in play for just 6 twilight! With cards like Host of Thousands and Foul Things this ability can, with the right cards in hand, allow you to play some hefty Moria minions AND your pumped up Moria Skirmishers on a very tight twilight budget.
Look for these two Orcish nasties and many other customizable Online-only League Cards when League Play arrives on December 11th!
| 
