Prairie Saplings

This is the fellowship that I most often play with. Shieldmaidens of the West Road is my favorite deck; it's intended to tell an alternate history of Eowyn and her best friend Dunhere. Bees in the Branches is the deck I've built for my friend who I most often play with; it adds to that alternate history an expeditionary crew of hobbit explorers, led by Pippin.

A bit of fan-fic synopsis:

Dunhere, a capable spear-thrower and perhaps the fastest Rider in all of Middle-Earth, is a trans woman. However, she is forced to pass as a man in order to fit into the Rohirrim's patriarchal military structure. Eowyn is good friends with her, and feels oppressed by the confines of court. She requests of her uncle Theoden that Dunhere be assigned to her as a personal bodyguard. The request, though unusual, is granted, as Dunhere is trusted by the leadership of Edoras. Shortly after, Eowyn and Dunhere run away with fine spears and the fabled Golden Shield of Rohan. They travel the open grassland of Rohan and after a few scrapes, realize they are capable women, and that there are so many people in need of help. They roam the West Road looking for those in need. Eowyn is free at last to fight and develop her skills as a warrior and rider, and Dunhere is free to express her gender openly while teaching her friend the craft of riding warhorses and thunderous speeds. They occassionally call on the skills of the many women horse-breeders of the land. Also, a few of the more free-minded men among the Rohirrim, Gamling in particular, join them in their travels through Rohan and Dunland, valuing the Shieldmaidens skills and dedication to helping the people.

Peregrine Took has been commissioned by the Old Took himself to explore the Old Forest and to travel south to reveal the mysteries of the forest's rumored ancestral kin. For this adventure--considered a certain death sentence for the young Master Took by most sensible hobbits of the Shire--Pippin takes with him his cousin, Meriadoc Brandybuck, a keen would-be swashbuckler, and also an unhappy young polymath gardener with prodigious skill in accounting named Samwise Gamgee. Sam is, in particular, well known for his ability to calculate exchange rates of Southern currencies, especially Gondorian, with remarkable accuracy and speed; though of a poorer background than the other two, he finances much of their trip after they discover that hobbit money is little good beyond the borders of Breeland. Their adventures take them eventually far south to Fangorn forest. There, they spend several years writing up a Treaty of Happpy Friendship with the Ents, all the while learning about the peoples of Eriador and taking down copious notes on scrolls to bring back to the libraries of Tookland.

One day, at a crossing on the West Road, the hobbits and the shieldmaidens meet, and agree to roast vegetables together in a stew over a fire. In Lady Dunhere and Lady Eowyn, Pippin and company are delighted to find smart and fierce friends who feel as strangely other in the world as themselves. It has not been easy being so small outside the Shire. Eowyn is not quick to take to the hobbits. They are very cute, but even these gay little man-children can't empathize without minimizing. Life as women is life as objects of sex and negotiation in most kingdoms and countries of Middle-Earth, even if the old books of Edoras romanticize the flowing gowns and uselessly long hair of the ladies of court. Dunhere and I are the greatest warriors in Rohan, and yet we are not allowed to fight unless we strap our breasts down and throw our voices. This land crumbles while a hundred thousand able-bodied women are told they cannot handle a sword. Oppression is a thick hide armor over these weak old bones of Rohan, Eowyn thinks.

Still, Dunhere vouches for the hobbits. She takes a liking to Sam. She sees in him a compassionate soul. Sam often speaks of his friend and partner Frodo, who he misses deeply as they are now separated not only by the conventions of class and sexual orientation, but also by the great distances of Middle-Earth. All five eventually agree to call upon one another when in need and to help keep the lands and common peoples between Rohan and the Shire safe in these dark times, and to always call one another friends.

Okay, so fan-fic synopsis over.

A bit on how I play. I play a kind of cheat-hack way. I give myself one gold per hero at start (so 2 gold per hero heading into the first planning phase). And rather than mulligan, I just select my first six cards individually before play. For Shieldmaidens of the West Road I most commonly choose Strider, Golden Shield, Spear of the Mark X2, Resourceful, and Gamling. For Bees in the Branches I usually start with Treebeard, Steward of Gondor, Song of Wisdom, Ent Draught, Elf-stone, and Beorn. I play on standard difficulty from there or with nightmare if I'm feeling adventurous. I have a lot of the Saga expansions that I bought for cards, but I have to say I much prefer to play through the new stories. I haven't purchased the Lost Realm or any of the later deluxe expansions yet (only a few of the cycle packs for cards), and I really enjoyed playing through the sobering story in the Ring-Maker cycle, so I'm really excited to play through Angmar and onward. It's really exciting to be able to craft stories through deck-building and to see new stories unfold in Middle-Earth!