Minions were the principle "cool new thing" in Dark Minions. They are pretty cool now, and just wait until Lidless Eye comes out :-)
Woffung - Minion - Warrior/Diplomat Man - 1 MP - 4 mind - 1 DI - 4/8 -
Home Site: Lake-town, Dale, Shrel-Kain
Unique. Agent.
Well, aside from the picture (I dig the jester's cap), Woffung is a pretty typical Minion. His 4 mind means you can have 9 similar agents in your deck (counting 4.5 towards the Council of Lorien limit). This is proportional to his 1 DI, which isn't a lot, but can provide that extra one to put you over the top when he's influencing something away (such as the Men of Lake-town, Norhtern Rhovanion, Dale, or Dorwinion). He's 4/8, so he's got a pretty good chance of wounding someone if he's at his homesite and unrevealed. He's a warrior, so he can use cards like Cunning Foes to help his attack and a diplomat so he can use cards like Twisted Tales (another dark card with cool art). He's also only worth 1 MP if your opponent manages to knock him off. His homesites provide him easy access to the above factions as well as Dragon hunting region, so he may be able to interfere with a company heading up there, although would you rather have one strike at 4+2d6 or three strikes at 18? The homesites are also border-holds, so he can tap to play any of Orcs, Nazgul, Men, Dwarves, Dunedain, Elves, and Hobbits (expect Dwarven, Elven, Hobbitish, etc. creatures coming soon...) there. Most of those aren't too impressive, most of the men can be played on the way there anyway and some of the others don't exist yet. If you have the right enhancers, orc attacks can be pretty nasty and there aren't normally any shadow-lands on the way to his homesites. Nazgul attacking at border-holds is pretty nasty. However, your opponent may be anticipating some nasty creatures, so might be prepared. If she's prepared to cancel with Dragon-feuds, Dragons Hunger, and the like, he could be in for a real surprise.
Those are the stats specific to Woffung, but the rest of this review will be about agents in general (though I haven't gotten quite enough chances to play with them to really have their strategic nuances down). As I see it, there are three main uses of agents: attacks, influence, and creatures. Agent attacks are interesting because they get their own 2d6 roll, so they can provide a pretty formidible attack for a low number of MPs. On the flip side, a two can always be rolled, giving a (fairly) easy kill. Plus, if you have an agent with a homesite that is frequently visited, you can give a nasty surprise with +5 prowess, +1 body, and attacker-chooses. There are, of course, cards to help you out. Cunning Foes and Sudden Fury are two of the better ones.
Influence is another good agent strategy. Most agents have homesites where factinons are playable, so cards like Twisted Tales and Your Welcome is Doubtful, and Good Sense Revolds can either slow a faction strategy down or double your own MPs by knocking out your opponent's only faction MPs. You can also use cards like Will Not Come Down and others to influence away your opponent's characters and allies. This strategy can be very effective against resource strategies that focus their factions in one area.
The third agent strategy, using them to attack with other creatures, can be pretty effective. If your opponent choses to go to one of your agent's homesites, you can hit him with creatures. Orcs and Nazgul are playable most places, as well as some other creatures. It may be better to use orcs on the site pathes with Angmar Arises, Reaching Shadow, Morgul-night, Choking Shadow, et al. Nazgul, however, can be pretty nasty. A company moves from Rivendel to Bree. He thinks he's doing pretty well, as all of your attacks have been shadow-based, he's moving through two wilderness and a border-land, and he's got a Twilight. Then you reveal Bill Ferney and announce that you will be facing the Witch-king of Angmar. Ouch. And you can even play enhancers like The Pale Sword or Morgul-kinfe. Only problem is that doing this counts as two against the hazard limit, but so does playing Fell Beast, Morgul-horse, Awaken the Earth's Fire, etc.
So Woffung is a pretty average minion, a class of cards which have several strategies now, and will have gobs more in Lidless Eye.
| Ratings for Woffung: | |
|---|---|
| Isildur: | 5.0 |
| Frodo: | 7.0 |
| Swamwise: | 6.3 |
| Wormtongue: | 6.5 |
| Legolas: | 4.0 |
| Strider: | 6.5 |
| Gandalf: | 6.0 |
| Farmer Maggot: | 7.0 |
| Average: | 5.2 |
Card names and text copyright 1996 by Iron Crown Enterprises, all rights reserved. This document copyright 1996 by Trevor Stone. Permission given to duplicate so long as no profit is made and the copyright notice is kept in tact, blah, blah, blah.