TLDR: Someone remade Helm’s Deep so we can suffer all at once! Join here on Saturday 21:00 GMT to see me try my best to beat it!
I was approached by community member, co-writer, and all-around great guy Purple Wizard to join in his latest Epic Multiplayer scenario. He has been working hard to transform certain climactic battles into a format that allows for up to 12 different players at 3 different stages. People might remember the Epic Multiplayer variant of A Storm on Cobas Haven that was played at last year’s LCG Con. Purple Wizard has been hard at work at designing the format around one of the most epic quests that this game has to offer: Helm’s Deep.
This of course has not been an easy task, as Helm’s Deep has some unique quest mechanics that have the encounter deck make progress on the stages, and players have to hold out for at least 8 rounds before they can win. The base version also has campaign-compatibility to keep in mind. Not this version though. Purple Wizard was able to tweak the quest in such a way that the game is still based on the original, but is its own stand-alone product, keeping the theme and some of the mechanics in mind of the original.
I will be playing this new variant of Helm’s Deep this coming Saturday, June 19th at 9 pm GMT (4 pm EST). There will be three places to watch the stream, with each stream having a different table with different players from across the community. The channels where you can track the games are as follows:
- Wandering Took’s Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/wanderingtook
- CardTalk’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj-QcL_YcA_DQKe7bSe9byA
- Three is Company’s Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcXeDPMUTw2f_El7yvwjDww
In each stream will be community creators who make amazing content for the game, so you will get the chance to watch them defend the Hornburg during their streams. I will be joining Wandering Took on his channel, together with Beorn from Hall of Beorn. It will be a great time to hang out with these guys and hopefully secure a victory before it gets too late for me. I will likely be bringing an Eagle or a Dale deck to the party, so you’ll have that to look forward to!
I personally have not seen any of the encounter cards or rule sheets for this quest yet, aside from two rules that I had to keep in mind during deckbuilding. Good thing too, else I would have brought a very different deck to this quest. Purple Wizard will be posting an article on Vision of the Palantir with the specific rules for the scenario that have been implemented to make the quest possible from 3 groups of solo players to up to 20 players spread across 5 groups. This article will be posted as soon as the stream begins so that I do not have the chance to peek at the rules and adjust my deck to absolutely stomp it.
If you are unable to join the stream and watch the games live, I am certain that all three streams will be recorded and uploaded to Youtube for you to rewatch. The encounter deck for the scenario will likely also be shared after the stream, so you can load the quest up on OCTGN yourself and play with friends. If you are looking to play the quest with people from the community, then there will be a community play event on July 17th at the same time as Saturday’s stream. This will allow you to prepare for the battle to come and to try and hold Helm’s Deep against Saruman’s forces with the community. Make sure to be on the League of Cooperative Gaming Discord server to be a part of this event. I am not yet certain if I will be aiding in the defense that day, depending on if I want revenge for a loss. At least you’ll learn the rules by that time and can organize decks with fellow players. If you want more info on this, contact Purple Wizard on the Discord server for more details.
I hope I will see you all in the stream’s chat this Saturday. I am looking forward to some more community interactions like this over the summer! I will have more announcements about other projects like this in the weeks to come, stay tuned!
Vision Of The Palantir 