Separate from the fact that I liked these cards as they were, my thoughts on the new versions:
Woodland Bard: This just feels like a mana-hungry way to double down on Tacticians. I’d rather see the Mage buff on this card, honestly.
Spirit Shaman: I don’t see myself ever putting this in a deck. Human Mages are already so situational that I can’t imagine this being worthwhile to use, except in a Win More capacity. Being able to empower other people’s units is certainly cool, but counting on it is too risky to be the only justification for putting this in a deck. So, looking at the Human Mages:
Wizard:
Early to mid game, +50-100 damage for ten mana is useful in exactly one scenario: you have one Wizard and you need 50-100 more damage to kill a stack you’re about to be in melee combat with. In all other scenarios (actually, even in this one) I’d rather just have another Wizard in the first place.
Late game, when maybe you have the mana to justify casting this to empower a bunch of Wizards, it’s nothing but a Win Faster card. You could still just lock down whatever you’re killing indefinitely.
Blind Justice:
Early and midgame, this is a boss-sniper. +25% does make it more effective in Valour-limited situations, but there’s no way to predict before the game starts whether it’ll be useful or not (and if I’m not expecting to have easy access to Valour, I’m not going to be bringing a bunch of Blind Justices anyway…). Plus, having one of these Shamans in play would actually bring back the silly Blind Justice Valour-farming problem that it was recently nerfed to address! So that’s an issue.
Late game, Blind Justice already verges on a Win More effect. Empowering it obviously just exacerbates this.
Storm Friar: Wrath of the Gods is the Human ability where this effect really shines. However, Storm Friar is already highly situational, and for two more mana I could get +100% damage by using a Gnostic Mage instead. As fun as this combo would be, I have a hard time bringing Storm Friars anyway, and I’m certainly not going to bring another card just to give him a little boost.
Pirate Captain: Cool idea, especially with the Savages as Rogues. It sounds like the +25% would apply after all other bonuses (Bigwig, Fortifications, etc). Assuming that’s the case, I think this is a big improvement to the existing Captain, whom I currently use almost exclusively for debuffing Immortal Elves.
Blood Shaman: This is monstrous! I would take at least a couple of these on every map with Orcs even possibly available. That probably means it’s too strong, but I think the flavor is in the right place. The bonus should probably be dropped to ~2, though.
So basically I like most of the abilities, but most feel to me like they should be moved or tweaked. These would be my updates:
Woodland Bard: All Mortal Mages within 3 Leagues gain 25% Strength to Ranged Attacks for 12h.
[Elves can actually make use of this ability consistently, so let them do so! Might need to make the High Elf a Shaman or something, though.]
Spirit Shaman: All Mortal Warriors within 3 Leagues gain 2 Strength for 12h.
[Move the Orc ability over here to make room for their new one; see the Blood Shaman notes.]
Pirate Captain: All Mortal Rogues within 3 Leagues gain 25% Strength for 12h.
[No change, assuming the +25% applies after all other bonuses.]
Blood Shaman: All Orcs within 4 Leagues get +4 Strength. All non-Orcs within 4 Leagues get -4 Strength.
[Doubling down on the old situational ability. Flavor-wise it’s similar to the Spirit Shaman, but in contrast to his “Humans band together with everyone” ability, the Orcs get a “Orcs have no need of non-Orc allies” ability.]
I really like these ideas, but I think @IHG-BlightedPea was looking to create more cross-race synergy with these cards.
so having them optimized for their own race (although I guess pirate captain is primarily a goblin booster) doesn’t really help them as ways to boost multiracial decks
It’s not that I think they necessarily need to be optimized for their own race (though obviously my Orc suggestion would encourage that), it’s that I want them to be usable in single-race scenarios. Otherwise I just don’t see them getting any play.
A valid point. This is all the more reason I’d like to see subtypes as a more prominent aspect of the game that spans races. If Elves got mages and humans got royalty/nobles, there would probably be enough synergy within a race to make their bonuses usable on single race maps, but in theory a player could carefully construct a deck that made use of the subtype across multiple races.
I actually love all of these ideas. I think they’re different and interesting and could very well see play. Some might be overly strong (Tutors…), but I would be happy so see any of these being playtested.
I really like the concepts as well, but I think the first set, while super useful and exciting, is the least applicable to the background of the cards themselves. I would love to see these abilities in play, but not on these four cards. Building structures just doesnt fit the meta for the cards in question, IMO.
All that said, a card that grants XP out of the gate? I so want that. Reducing on deployment time? I really want that too.
Of the sets, the valour buffs and their interaction with the traits is the one I am most interested in – seems like a good way to explore deck building.
I worry that tutors, especially more than one in play, will be too game breaking.
The art for these cards is in two separate pairs of heroes. Each in thier opposing race.
I always wanted to see more cards that helped build your economy so I asked Penny to consider a buff for locations for the Shamans. I like the idea the the Orc Shaman could buff a location so that it produced valour at the same time it produces is gold. The Human one could produce Mana.
The samans would be doing a blessing on the place, some kind of ritual that may or may not require a human or orc sacrifice.
What I was trying to do with these guys originally was to create a situation where players would need to communicate before using the power. Its not really working because, most of the time when you are playing elves, you are also fighting elves not goblins.
For the orb wielding guys I would like to have some some big power that really does require some communication and coordination in multiplayer. Drain all the mana from the world to do some big explosion perhaps.
The danger is that it could be used for trolling, but I think right now the game doesn’t do enough to encourage good co-operation.
This is cool! I agree that it’s not doing enough to make that happen, if that’s the intention behind it.
What about making them powers that require additional contributions from other players in order to do anything (positive) at all?
Winds of Fire: Every town you control loses 10% of its population. If Winds of Ice is in effect, all Mortals (everywhere) gain +15 Strength for the next 12h. Costs 12 Mana.
Winds of Ice: Your heroes and units move at half speed for the next 1 day. If Winds of Fire is in effect, all Mortals (everywhere) gain +15 Strength for the next 12h. Costs 12 Mana.
I really like all the new ideas. I think my order would be buffing settlements, finding cards, and then Valour, with Valour significantly less interesting.
I love the idea of permanent settlement buffs. I also agree that they sound like concepts for totally different cards later down the road. It’s something I’d like to see each race get as well… Maybe dwarves can build roads and trolls can set up a “monster portal” that allows for deployment of monster cards?
