2 most anticipated things so far was Galadriel and the Ents, so after the announcement of Celebrimbor's Secret AP 2 questions arise.

1 Is this the most anticipated AP (and expansion over all) so far ?

2 Are there any more great things to anticipate from now on (consider the LOTR saga is on and not something to anticipate) ?

I'd love to read your thoughts.

I'm most excited for the Trouble in this T-titled town, because I love urban quests.

I would still include the LOTR saga because we know so little about what the heroes, quests, and campaigns will be. I am more excited about that than anything else in the game.

But as far as any particular player cards or quests that haven't been announced yet? Nothing else comes to mind, especially now that Gwaihir has been spoiled.

I really want to defend the Shire against the Ringwraiths as a Dunedain Ranger!

Also, I'd love to Return to Mirkwood at some point and have new quests there with an Elven story since that's my favorite area of ME.

I want new Gimli and Legolas heroes!

So far? That's probably true.

I'm more excited for the Nin-in-Eilph than Celebrimbor's Secret. The Player cards in Celebrimbors are awesome but the actual quest itself and encounter cards in Nin-in-Eilph look the coolest and most unique so far out of the ring maker cycle.
I usually get a lot more excited for cool encounter cards and quests than cool player cards, mainly because I really want new quests and adventures quite badly and am already quite happy with my decks (new cards if they fit are obviously welcome though!).

Not a big fan of Dunlendings (Don't like the Fords of Isen quest, least fun quest in VOL in my opinion) so Dunland trap isn't really that exciting but Three Trials onwards look so sweet (I'm aware three trials still has a dunland theme but you are fighting spirit guardians so it should hopefully be pretty unique), Trouble in Tharbad and Nin-in-Eilph look the best so far. The Urban and Swamp environments (very different type of swamp to what we've had so far however) and the enemies found within just look so cool, way more exciting than just more orcs and more mountains/forests.

Probably the most anticipated AP so far. I do very much hope for a new version of Gimli during the Saga quests. I also hope they expand the Dunedain trait and would look forward to this almost as much as the Silvan cards. Now that I think about it, my most anticipated part of the cycle is the Silvan trait getting some love, hands down.

Yeah the elf love we are getting is pretty exciting considering I've run Elf decks since I got this game. Some more cards for the Noldor Trait as well would be nice though.

I'm definitely looking most forward to this pack and others in this cycle all look awesome! Sagas will be cool too and hopefully some action in the North but this pack is definitely at the top of my list

For me, Boromir and Glorfindel (Spirit after the initial core disappointment) were the most anticipated characters, but Galadriel and Silvan come close... I am excited about the other three 2-cost Silvan allies, and the rest of the returning events.

For me, I think Voice of Isengard was the most anticipated expansion. As far as APs go, though, Celebrimbor's Secret could well tip Foundations of Stone from the top spot, yeah...

How long till we see Círdan?

How long we wait before deliverance?

Hey all, been awile since my last post, a few other games have kept me busy lately, but i think they have come and gone and now I'm back to my old stand by.

Great news really looking forward to Galadrial.

I have not read all the posts contained in the thread, but anyone thinking about teaming her up with Grima?

His doomed effect could be nullified by her ability, and also draw a card. With Keys of Orchanc, you could get some of the higher cost silvan lore allies into play easily, she will also gain lore with her ring. Maybe have Celeborn as the other hero for some more silvan synergy. Starting threat 28 is not so bad.

Certainy not thematic, but could be good, maybe.

Edit moved to another thread

No, a good mechanical combo, it seems. I really think Celeborn is a given with Galadriel, not only for the theme but their abilities both benefit allies during the round they enter play, so why not have them even if you are a Boromir-type of player. Then Lore is certainly a must, so there Gríma applies. As it is now, Silvan allies are often 3-cost but the new ones shall be 2-cost it seems, which will make it easier even without some sort of resource acceleration. Celeborn is Leadership, so he can get to some tricks. If you have Bifur as the third hero, you can play Gaining Strength on round 1 and have three resources on him -- not bad either. But for a really thematic deck, we do need Haldir of Lórien.

How long till we see Círdan?

Great call, I pretty much forgot about him when I said Thranduil together with Tom Bombadil and Goldberry are the last major characters not yet portrayed by player cards. Well, neither Thranduil nor Círdan have many pages in the books (or hardly any) but they are certainly important characters in the history of Middle-earth.

By the way, what do you think Círdan will be? Noldor? I know he was from Telerí, but they won't go for that surely.

How long till we see Círdan?

Great call, I pretty much forgot about him when I said Thranduil together with Tom Bombadil and Goldberry are the last major characters not yet portrayed by player cards. Well, neither Thranduil nor Círdan have many pages in the books (or hardly any) but they are certainly important characters in the history of Middle-earth.

By the way, what do you think Círdan will be? Noldor? I know he was from Telerí, but they won't go for that surely.

That's an interesting question. They've been able to fudge Celeborn and Legolas as Silvan, because they were living with Silvan people and are leaders of Silvan. However, you can't really say the same for Cirdan, and he's not Noldor either. I'm not sure how they will handle this. There's probably zero chance they will introduce a new Elf trait, so they'll likely just make him Silvan.

How long till we see Círdan?

Great call, I pretty much forgot about him when I said Thranduil together with Tom Bombadil and Goldberry are the last major characters not yet portrayed by player cards. Well, neither Thranduil nor Círdan have many pages in the books (or hardly any) but they are certainly important characters in the history of Middle-earth.

By the way, what do you think Círdan will be? Noldor? I know he was from Telerí, but they won't go for that surely.

That's an interesting question. They've been able to fudge Celeborn and Legolas as Silvan, because they were living with Silvan people and are leaders of Silvan. However, you can't really say the same for Cirdan, and he's not Noldor either. I'm not sure how they will handle this. There's probably zero chance they will introduce a new Elf trait, so they'll likely just make him Silvan.

They should have made Silvan, Noldor, Grey Havens and "Elven" (Elven should have been defined as any of those 3) - then they could have done all three and still made cards that effected all Elves.

The Dwarfs definitely needed to be split up on similar grounds. (Not so sure about a human trait - I don't think the human nations were as collaborative as the elves and dwarfs at this time).

The scope of LotR LCG is not that big. It would be another question if LotR have seen so many releases as other, competitive LCGs, like Netrunner, but with this slow motion of releases I doubt separating existing traits would be good for the game's health.

Netrunner:

1 X Core

2 X deluxe expansions

12 X small expansions

LotR:

1 X Core

3 X deluxe expansions

3 X saga expansion

18 X small expansions

3 X GenCon expansions

9 X Nightmare Expansions

Seems to be plenty of releases.

Not as many player cards per release though.

Netrunner is extremely young, and he already has 2 deluxes and 12 aps. And I see netrunner news on the news page all the time.

Seems to be plenty of releases.

Not as many player cards per release though.

This is the real issue with the development of the decks. Most of the competitive LCG's only contain player cards, so they have the development of themes and traits and alternative styles of play much more rapidly.

Also as fully competitive games they have a much more living tournament scene, receive timely errata on any cards that need it and have many advantages (in general the board game developing community is more experienced at making competitive games, and competitive card games).

We've been left with a lot of dead traits as a result of this. (Beorns have no develoment at all, we have Esgorath and Dale with no idea at all how they will play or even if they'll play differently from other human traits) - until the most recent set of card spoilers warrior and traits like that (other than noble) were actually useless.

Not that I want to do the game down - I'm sure the adventures take a lot of designing and testing as well so it's not that we get less cards - it's just that we get all the cards for our "opponents" and we never get to play as "them".

I for one doubt that we'll ever see the support of the traits such as beorning or esgorath, traits function not only as a game-mechanic related, but also as a theme-related, giving us a bit much of a story behind the card.

Seems to be plenty of releases.

Not as many player cards per release though.

This is the real issue with the development of the decks. Most of the competitive LCG's only contain player cards, so they have the development of themes and traits and alternative styles of play much more rapidly.

Also as fully competitive games they have a much more living tournament scene, receive timely errata on any cards that need it and have many advantages (in general the board game developing community is more experienced at making competitive games, and competitive card games).

We've been left with a lot of dead traits as a result of this. (Beorns have no develoment at all, we have Esgorath and Dale with no idea at all how they will play or even if they'll play differently from other human traits) - until the most recent set of card spoilers warrior and traits like that (other than noble) were actually useless.

Not that I want to do the game down - I'm sure the adventures take a lot of designing and testing as well so it's not that we get less cards - it's just that we get all the cards for our "opponents" and we never get to play as "them".

I really think the main problem here was the lack of foresight -- or the change of direction since the beginning. To be clear, I really like where the game is going at the moment, I think the current design team is doing a very good job. But, they have a hard deal ahead of them. As you say, so many dead traits from the start, like Archer or Healer. We have not seen any support for Archer and it makes very little sense too as you have the ranged keyword. And none of the ranged heroes are Archers. Then you see a boon card giving the Healer trait, yet there is no support of it whatsoever. I want this to change, I want the gaps to be filled but as you say, there is not much room within the 10 player cards we get with each expansion, and since there are constant delays and we only get a cycle per year, this gets really complicated.

That said, I just love the game and I want it to continue indefinitely, so the problems now may become good things in the future as they get solved. I want to see more weapons, more items, more skills. I want to see even Beornings and Dale and Esgaroth developed -- up to a point at least (and I really think it is actually easier to design cards for the minor traits as you need not worry too much about broken synergies when the cards are few). I want to see armies developed, so maybe even the Archers (not to mention Warriors) get their place. The Captain of Gondor or Wingfoot, they are interesting cards but they do nothing for the ranger or warrior allies, for instance. This needs to be solved, I feel. Well, I stop ranting now...

I really think the main problem here was the lack of foresight -- or the change of direction since the beginning. To be clear, I really like where the game is going at the moment, I think the current design team is doing a very good job. But, they have a hard deal ahead of them. As you say, so many dead traits from the start, like Archer or Healer. We have not seen any support for Archer and it makes very little sense too as you have the ranged keyword. And none of the ranged heroes are Archers. Then you see a boon card giving the Healer trait, yet there is no support of it whatsoever. I want this to change, I want the gaps to be filled but as you say, there is not much room within the 10 player cards we get with each expansion, and since there are constant delays and we only get a cycle per year, this gets really complicated.

That said, I just love the game and I want it to continue indefinitely, so the problems now may become good things in the future as they get solved. I want to see more weapons, more items, more skills. I want to see even Beornings and Dale and Esgaroth developed -- up to a point at least (and I really think it is actually easier to design cards for the minor traits as you need not worry too much about broken synergies when the cards are few). I want to see armies developed, so maybe even the Archers (not to mention Warriors) get their place. The Captain of Gondor or Wingfoot, they are interesting cards but they do nothing for the ranger or warrior allies, for instance. This needs to be solved, I feel. Well, I stop ranting now...

You're right it all depends on the length the game goes. It's also a shame (I feel) that many people are so reluctant to have errata in this game compared to any competitive game.

They wouldn't bother taking out traits that were dead (healer, archer) because they're not effecting anything - but it may be that as they start to develop these traits they realize they're useful and they haven't maintained them. (We have plenty of ranged characters that aren't archers, and plenty of healers that aren't healer).

All games of this scope have problems at release - the most successful (Magic) gets around it by just having all cards become obsolete - meaning that if they do make a mistake it doesn't effect the main formats of the game for too long. I think they had pretty good foresight to include everything they did in the core set.

Then during the first cycle they dropped some of the stuff that wasn't currently useful (archer trait) - and now they can't really do anything with it without errating the archer trait back in to a whole host of cards. (Although it wouldn't necessarily need to be added to heroes - it could be kept as an ally thing).

Ranged and archer could have been distinct - Vassal of the Windlord has ranged (the ability to attack at range) but not with a bow (so if we got an ally bow attachment that could only be used on... archers that's why you need the trait ). Even Ithilian Archer doesn't have the archer trait though, so it's highly unlikely that they could use the trait without it being disjointed now.

Looking at the cards that don't have archer though, they might be able to salvage the trait by having it be archers in an army (thematically) rather than anyone that can use a bow - but still.