Dragon's Hoard Scenario

   by Jeff Stolt

History

Before Sauron rose again in the East, before Wizards were corrupted, and when the Nazgûl were just nightmares from the South, there were Dragons. The Dragons were such an overpowering
menace to the land that the free people of Middle Earth convened a Free Council in the spring to take action against them. But the Council could not decide upon a single course of action. It
was suggested that large armies be formed to combat each Dragon in turn. Other plans involved small groups of men, elves, or dwarves using stealth and surprise to slay the Dragons. After days of debate, the Free Council was undecided between the best two strategies. So it was agreed that both schemes be tested. The most successful method will be fully endorsed by the Council and
used to rid the world of Dragons. You are one of the five great wizards that live among the people of
Middle-Earth. You have volunteered to prove that your strategy is the better. The Free Council will meet again in the autumn to deliberate once more and make its final decision.

General Rules

All tournament rules apply with the following additions and exceptions:

  1. Only Hero/Wizard companies are allowed.
  2. Either player MAY call the Free Council when both play decks have been exhausted, or when either player has 9 discarded Dragon sites or has 4 Dragon kills. Tapped sites are considered discarded sites during Free Council.
  3. You are allowed 1 non-unique, non-hoard major item and 2 non-unique, non- hoard minor items in the starting company. Alternatively, you are allowed 3 non-unique, non-hoard minor  items in the starting company.
  4. You must have at least one unique manifestation of each Dragon in your hazard deck. The nine Dragons are as follows: Itangast, Smaug, Leucaruth, Daelomin, Scatha, Agburanar, Bairanax, Scorba, and Eärcaräxe. You do not have to include all three manifestations of each Dragon, but you must include each Dragon in your deck at least once.
    Note: Since some of these are rares, if you do not own the cards, I am permitting proxies.  Find some way to designate the card (e.g. write the name of the dragon on a common card).  I will have cheat sheets with all the stats of the various dragon cards to hand out to anyone using proxies.  You can always look the card stats up at the excellent site:  http://fan.theonering.net/morgulrats/
  5. You WILL NOT receive "creature kill" Marshalling Points for killing your own Dragon Ahunt and At Home manifestations, but you WILL receive Tournament points for them. All hoard items are worth +1 MP. (For example, the Jewel of Beleriand [a minor hoard item] is worth 1 MP.)
  6. Weakest Link Method is NOT used in this scenario. [I.e. a tie is a tie]
  7. For the sake of this scenario, the following sites with Dragon automatic- attacks will never lose their hoard status: Gold Hill, Lonely Mountain, Irerock, Dancing Spire, Gondmaeglom, Caves of the Ulund, Ovir Hollow, Zarak Dum, and Isle of the Ulond. However, these sites WILL lose their automatic-attack  if their corresponding unique Dragon manifestation is killed. Also, these sites are never shuffled back into the site deck.  The following cards are not allowed in any play deck or
    sideboard: Fell Winter, Long Winter, Snowstorm, Gollum's Fate, & Cracks of Doom.

Tips

  1. You can win this scenario with zero Marshalling Points.
  2. Tapping a site twice does not give you more Tournament Points.
  3. Dragons are probably tougher than you imagine.
  4. All 3 manifestations of a Dragon can be in play at the same time.
  5. Your opponent can probably still play dragons on your company if you go to a Dragon site that has lost its automatic-attack.
  6. Most Dragon attack modifiers don't affect Drakes.

Tournament Points

Each player gains tournament points for the following Marshalling Point Ratios and Victory conditions:

   a.MP Ratio of 2 or greater, over your opponent: 4 points.
   b.MP Ratio of 1.5 up to less than 2, over your opponent: 3.5
     points.
   c.MP Ratio of less than 1.5, over your opponent: 3 points.
   d.Marshalling Points tied with your opponent: 2.5 points.
   e.Opponent is awarded points for option c: 2 points.
   f.Opponent is awarded points for option b: 1.5 points.
   g.Opponent is awarded points for option a: 1 point.
   h.Each unique Dragon manifestation in your kill pile: 2 points.
   i.Each Dragon Auto-Attack site in your discard pile: 1 point.
   j.Every 3 Dragon Auto-Attack sites in your discard pile: 1 point.

Tiebreakers
(Use ONLY if Tournament Point totals are tied) A) Compare the unique Dragon manifestations in each creature kill pile against the table below. Whichever player has the highest ranked Dragon gains 1 extra tournament point. If neither player has killed a unique Dragon manifestation, go to step B. B) Compare the Dragon Automatic-Attack sites in each discard pile against the table below. Whichever player has the highest ranked site gains 1 extra tournament point. If both players have the same site, go to step C. C) Whichever player has the most Dragon Automatic-Attack sites gains 1 extra
tournament point. If both players have the same number of sites, add the ranks of each player's sites together and award 1 extra tournament point to the player with the highest total. If there is still a
tie, compare creature kill Marshalling Points and prowess totals.

Rank                Site                        Dragon
9 (highest)        Gold Hill                Itangast
8                    Lonely Mountain      Smaug
7                    Irerock                    Leucaruth
6                    Dancing Spire          Daelomin
5                    Gondmaeglom          Scatha
4                    Caves of Ulund        Agburanar
3                    Ovir Hollow             Bairanax
2                    Zarak Dum              Scorba
1 (lowest)       Isle of the Ulond      Eärcaräxe

Notes

The first goal of this scenario is to encourage players to go to hoard sites. Almost every rule change was made to accommodate this goal. For example, players are required to play with Dragon manifestations in their decks. This is because the goal of this scenario is to actively hunt down and kill these Dragons, or find ways to beat them. Therefore, players should be required to have them available to play. The Dragon/Site ranking table was derived according to specific criteria. The prowess of each Dragon, proximity of their site, usefulness of the At Home manifestation, and power of the Dragon-specific Short Events all determine the rankings. Essentially, if it's more difficult to kill a Dragon, that Dragon will receive a higher ranking. However, the proximity of a Dragon to "Dragon Country" was the primary method to determining its ranking. For example, Eärcaräxe is completely separated from the other Dragons, so it receives the lowest ranking, despite its high prowess. Please note that all players should end up with at least 1 Tournament Point for completing each round. For a lower-scoring system, subtract 1 Tournament Point from the all the Marshalling Point results
(a-g) listed above.