Barrows of Edoras

[Ulmo]

O mighty wise ones, please help with our foolishness.

We played Tower block today and site 3 was Barrows of Edoras. We have always played it by discarding your hand and drawing 4 at the start of the fellowship phase.
But reading it today, it doesn't specify that it happens at the start of the phase, which means that I wouldn't have had to discard Glamdring, Lightning Brand 

Am I right in that the discard and draw happens when I choose in the fellowship phase?

[CCCORNIV]

  I'm the guy he was playing against.  I've meant to take this card out of my deck for awhile, because the way we play it, it always ends up screwing me over also.    Like Ulmo said, we have always played it this way, probably wrong, but I saw it as a counter to those who might save their posessions in anticipation of the Golden Hall.

[NappyKorn]

This seems to be a good question. I would like to add to it if I may. Do you even have use that sites text if you choose not to? Can you play all your freeps cards then use it after that to get rid of some shadow cards in hope to get more freeps? What if you want to keep your hand, can you just not use the sites text? In other words is the text optional or is it a mandatory game text?

[CCCORNIV]

 I think since it says "Place your hand beneath your draw deck and draw 4 cards" instead of "Place your hand beneath your draw deck TO draw 4 cards" that it is a mandatory action. We were playing it as "At the start of your fellowship phase place your hand beneath your draw deck and draw 4 cards."  Which we never questioned until today.

[Ulmo]

Reading it again, I'm thinking it is an action because it is 'Fellowship:', suggesting it is optional.  So you have the choice to discard if you have a crap hand.

[CCCORNIV]

That's true, you and Nappy may be right about it being optional.  You have to admit that it's been more exciting playing it the way we have though. 

[Elessar's Socks]

As a special ability (game text preceded by a phase in bold, in this case "Fellowship"), it's an optional action. You don't have to perform this it if you don't want.

You also get to choose when to perform this (during fellowship actions), so you can play some cards from hand, then place the rest beneath your deck to draw 4.

[NappyKorn]

Either way it is not done during the start of or it would state that. It would read like Pelennor Flat. Even in that card it states they MUST do it where this card doesn't say you must. We will get a more rule worthy member to judge this card, but I'm pretty certain it isn't at the start of the fellowship phase.

[Ulmo]

I think that between the 4 of us, we have figured it out. 

Thanks NK, ES and CC.

And yes, playing it the wrong way did make for exciting play, well at least it was more interesting. Good thing that after I discarded Glamdring, one of the 4 cards I picked up was Shadowfax  :hey:

[CCCORNIV]

Thanks Nappy and Socks for straightening us out.   

My fellowship was on life support early in the game and each time I had a new companion came into play, it left play and took a short trip to the dead pile,  so it didn't cause too much damage to me.  Ulmo wiped me out at site 6.

[Ulmo]

One more card we know how to play ... 

I may have wiped you out at 6, but I was doing my best to lose   

[NappyKorn]

Ulmo and CCCORNIV do you two play each other in person or do you play over the net via Lackey or SDA? If you 2 play on sda maybe we can get a game together someday . It appears you 2 are fans of the block format and I have few decks for those. I do however have 1 fellowship block deck and 2 movie block decks if you play via the net.

[Ulmo]

We play in person. His office is next to mine. We started about 2 years ago, but after my 3rd child was born we stopped. We started playing again about 2 months ago. To start off we only had Towers cards so that's all we played. Then we got Fellowship cards and played with just those. Every day at lunch we play, each week having a different block, this week is Fellowship but I haven't finished building a full deck yet so I brought a Towers deck instead. We're just keeping to the block until we've built decent decks in each block format, then we'll start going to movie block decks. Corn was sick last night and only came in to work to play at lunch - it really gives us something fun to look forward to at work.
I've been meaning to build decks in sda but haven't had the time. When I get a fellowship deck built on sda, I'll be posting that I'm ready for a game

[Elessar's Socks]

Either way it is not done during the start of or it would state that. It would read like Pelennor Flat. Even in that card it states they MUST do it where this card doesn't say you must. We will get a more rule worthy member to judge this card, but I'm pretty certain it isn't at the start of the fellowship phase.

Nah, you're right. I used "during fellowship actions" as shorthand for "during 'Fellowship' phase actions". Like any other phase action, you can't use it at the start of the phase.

And that's awesome, Ulmo and CCCORNIV!

[NappyKorn]

Yeah I noticed right after I posted that I got the warning message that 2 other posts were made while I was typing mine, but I went ahead and posted mine without reading yours first. So my message had nothing towards your wording ES just bad timing in our 2 posts crossing . After I posted mine I thought well crap ES nailed it before I got mine posted .