"Fire lept from thatched roofs and wooden beam-ends as he hurtled down and past round again, though all had been drenched with water before he came. Once more water was flung by a hundred hands whenever a spark appeared. Back swirled the dragon. A sweep of his tail and the roof of the Great House crumbled and smashed down. Flames unquenchable sprang high into the night. Another swoop and another; and another house and then another sprang afire and fell; and still nor arrow hindered Smaug or hurt him more than a fly from the marshes."
- The Hobbit, pg 211 (Houghton Mifflin, trade edition)
Like the Crash of Battering-Rams :: MEDM :: Hazard Short-Event :: R
Playable on a strike. If the strike is succesful, the wounded character's body is reduced by one until the end of the turn for every complete increment of 5 the strike was successful by (subtract the character's prowess plus the dice roll from the strike's prowess, divide by five, and drop any fractions).
"A sweep of his tail and the roof of the Great House crumbled and smashed down." - Hob
Art by John Howe
Yet another really fun Dark Minions card. Unfortunately, this one is not so easily playable. Usually, with Dragons and Nazgul, the wounding of the character is not in question. What frustrates many people is having a tough body check afterwards that will most likely fail. So what to do?
This card allows you to take advantage of the difference in the prowess of the strike and the prowess+roll of your opponent's helpless character. Unfortunately, 5 is a big number, and I seriously doubt that anyone will ever get more than a -3 to a character's body.
But, you might be able to get that and more with the use of cards such as Pierced by Many Wounds, or something of that sort. But how often do you get your dragon's and Nazgul to have more than their usual number of strikes? Not too often. Let's say you manage to be able to get Itangast to attack a Hobbit company and your opponent has run out of cancelling cards. Itangast has an 18 prowess, and your typical hobbit, we'll say Bilbo, has a prowess of 1; the difference is 17, which means a -3 to Bilbo's body (down to 6) when you roll your body check. Not too shabby.
But more often, the character who faces the big creatures won't be so wimpy, and will have an average prowess of 5. 18 - 5 = 13, which means a -2 to their body. Still not bad, any body with a -2 is a welcome alternative to an 8 or 9.
Like the Crash of Battering-Rams is one of those cards that require the patience of Job. It is absolutely critical to the success of this card that you wait for the right moment. With other cards, success isn't so cut and dry. But with this one, a poorly planned play of this card can be an utter waste of a golden opportunity.
After all, why waste a good wounding if the body check is so tough? Creatures to enhance with this card include: Durin's Bane, any Nazgul or Dragon or Drake, a buff undead attack, or even more fun, the Orc-Lieutenant at 3 strikes at 16 (that involves a big combo, but sounds fun, doesn't it?).
Since this card affects the body before the body check is resolved, cards like Healing Herbs and Foul-smelling Paste won't save their nice big character before you get a chance to wipe them off the table. Better to get them while they are weak than give them a chance to escape unscathed. And let me tell you, it is so frustrating to get to wound a big character like Lieutenant of Morgul or Angmar, and then allow them to escape because your dice just can't make it over 9.
Radagast
Reader Comments
Sly Southerner: I think Radagast's examples are wrong. In the case of Bilbo vs. Itangast, Bilbo's prowess would not be 1, but 1 + 2d6, or 8 on average. 18 - 8 = 10, which would result in a -2 modification to Bilbo's body instead of a -3 modification.
In the case of a character with a prowess of 5, his prowess + 2d6 would be 12 on average, and 18 - 12 = 6, so this would result in a -1 modification to that character's body.
All in all, considering most hazard creatures have a prowess less than Itangast's 18 and LtCoBr's effect is even less impressive than Radagast says, I don't think Like the Crash of Battering-rams is worth including in a serious deck.
Original card review taken from : http://fan.theonering.net/morgulrats/
With the authorization of the webmaster.
The reviewing team consisted of Gwaihir (Chris Farrell), Gimli (Nathan Bruinooge), Ohtar (Charles E. Bouldin, Esq.), Radagast (James Kight), Joshua B. Grace (Beorn), Martijn Steultjens (Fram Frumgarson), Jason Klank (Saruman) and Jeffery Dobberpuhl (Wormtongue)
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