If we get another threat 10+ hero a 3 hero dunedain deck may suffer.

Maybe not. Dunedain thrives on engaging enemies, so maybe they purposefully want Dunedain to have higher threat.

Side quests? Adding rpg like elements!

Have you seen an example of this side quest? It's a nasty condition that floats around and makes your life more miserable until you put enough progress onto it. Nothing rpg like in this.

I admit I must agree with this. If all side quests are going to be basically locations with nasty effects, I will be dissapointed. I think though that this is only a basic example of what side quests are, and maybe we'll get more diverse and interesting side quests, like the ones I was talking about.

A good point Joe, but they'll need threat reduction at some point.

If we get another threat 10+ hero a 3 hero dunedain deck may suffer.

Maybe not. Dunedain thrives on engaging enemies, so maybe they purposefully want Dunedain to have higher threat.

Sure that occurred to me, and may certainly be the case since it would fit the theme they are building around the trait, although i feel it will just force me to choose non-thematic solutions for the deck i.e. spirit glorfindel, even hobbits would feel unthematic with the story they are building around the expansion. The rangers are keeping them safe not bringing hobbits along with them on their adventures at this point. So, i doubt I'll see a 7 threat hero, and the best I can hope for is under 10. I'd be satisfied with that.

According to the upcoming list, The Lost Realm is expected by Q4 2014!?

According to the upcoming list, The Lost Realm is expected by Q4 2014!?

Situations like this, IMO, must be interpreted just like effect inconsistencies when playing a game. If it's worse for the players, that's the correct answer. So if the news article says it'll be released early in 2015, that will probably be the case.

Opinions on Tactics Aragorn?

This expansion at first look is very promising. I'm glad that LotR is in such a great place.

I really like Tactics Aragorn. Both of his abilities feel very thematic. I'm having visions of an Aragorn, Hama, and Eomer deck that could handle all of the enemies for a 3 or 4 player game. Hama would let you recycle feints and thickets of spears while Aragorn engages any enemies that slip onto other players and makes all enemies easier to kill with his passive. Rohan Warhorses, daggers, spears and Eomer with Firefoot should give enough attack power to finish off any enemies you are engaged with. Aragorn could also make straight shot effective against 1 defense enemies.

Opinions on Tactics Aragorn?

Love the -1 Defense bit. As for his other ability, I hate that it requires you to make a kill first, so generally you'll have to wait until the other player has already defended an attack first (Quick Strike is a valuable alternative). Of course, you can also use it on enemies in the staging area, which means you can have a turn to attack it without having to defend it that round. I just wonder how often that scenario will play out with a high-threat Dunedain and/or Tactics deck. There are also a few other ways to pull enemies to you, (e.g. Westfold Outrider), so I don't feel like we need his ability, though a consistent ability available on a hero is nice and he can pull multiple enemies per round assuming he can kill multiple enemies per round.

An interesting combo can come from cards like Noiseless Movement, Advance Warning, and/or A Light in the Dark that can keep enemies in the staging area, so we can avoid having to defend, but then (assuming we engaged at least one enemy or we had one engaged from the previous turn), we can kill an enemy, pull a new one down, kill it, pull another down, etc. Some cool combinations related to Merry, Brand Son of Bain, Rohan Warhorse, and/or other readying effects could keep the killing cycle going. We could also have Haldir and/or Dunhere in another deck to attack them before Aragorn pulls them down.

Gotta have at least two decks to really make him powerful and even then I wonder how often we can make Aragorn's ability really useful. Gonna have to playtest him to find out I guess.

I *LOVE* this! The new mechanics are very interesting, to say the least! Shuffling player cards into the encounter deck ; sidequests ; and the hyper-offensive nature of purposely causing engagements is fantastic. I can't wait!

Ability of Aragorn should work on Immune to player card effect enemy? there is no target and this is passive ability also.....im confuse about it........

Ability of Aragorn should work on Immune to player card effect enemy? there is no target and this is passive ability also.....im confuse about it........

I assume you are talking about his -1 Def ability. I believe that it technically targets all enemies engaged with you, though you're right that the wording makes it difficult to determine.

I think that 'immune to player card effects' will trump anything written on a player card, including passive effects.

Now there is a great reason to attach Rivendell Bow to Aragorn...with Ranged he will be amazing.

Side quests? Adding rpg like elements!

Have you seen an example of this side quest? It's a nasty condition that floats around and makes your life more miserable until you put enough progress onto it. Nothing rpg like in this.

I admit I must agree with this. If all side quests are going to be basically locations with nasty effects, I will be dissapointed. I think though that this is only a basic example of what side quests are, and maybe we'll get more diverse and interesting side quests, like the ones I was talking about.

I just really hope they don't take this too far =\

Sounds awesome but too much focus on "side quests" could really be a bad thing I reckon

Now there is a great reason to attach Rivendell Bow to Aragorn...with Ranged he will be amazing.

I will admit, I tried clicking the orange text expecting to reveal the stats of some sweet legendary gear... Old habits die hard it seems... *shakes fist at WoW*

This dude seems really good in the right deck even without any of the other dunedain/engaging support to come...

So long as you have plenty of defense and are not currently engaged to too many enemies you can play him for free, take on a relatively weak enemy (most of the time), easily defend against it and ignore its when revealed effects AND threat and then dispatch it with Legolas to gain progress.

Also the fact is your more than likely going to have the enemy affected by this card come out anyway within the next few turns if it does not come out as a shadow card so this card merely puts it straight into play engaged with you so you can KILL IT FASTER =D

Now there is a great reason to attach Rivendell Bow to Aragorn...with Ranged he will be amazing.

I will admit, I tried clicking the orange text expecting to reveal the stats of some sweet legendary gear... Old habits die hard it seems... *shakes fist at WoW*

hahahahahahaha even though both cards are already revealed I did the same.

Shiny orange link?!!? *clicks furiously*

This dude seems really good in the right deck even without any of the other dunedain/engaging support to come...

So long as you have plenty of defense and are not currently engaged to too many enemies you can play him for free, take on a relatively weak enemy (most of the time), easily defend against it and ignore its when revealed effects AND threat and then dispatch it with Legolas to gain progress.

Also the fact is your more than likely going to have the enemy affected by this card come out anyway within the next few turns if it does not come out as a shadow card so this card merely puts it straight into play engaged with you so you can KILL IT FASTER =D

Would be cool to drop a few of those in one round and then play the sweet lady that draws you a card for each engaged enemy.

Just played Nightmare Passage through Mirkwood and ran x3 copies of Dunedain Hunter in my deck. Drew one in my opening hand and a second later on. I used the first and chose King Spider with his effect:

Avoiding his nasty when revealed and simply having a fairly weak enemy engaged.

The second Dunedain Hunter I played ended in me choosing this enemy:

Again I avoided a nasty effect as all my characters were ready as it was the planning phase. Not to mention how weak this enemy is with only 1 attack and 3 hitpoints which even the Dunedain Hunter himself can kill in one hit.

Needless to say they were amazing in this particular game with next to no setback. I also had Treebeard out and between Haldir with a rivendell blade, dagger and dunedain mark, legolas, treebeard and the two hunters I was easily able to slay all enemies that came out inclusive of Ungoliants Spawn! Ungoliants Spawn reduced only Elrond and Glorindels willpower by 2 and they both survived on 1 willpower escaping her onslaught! Got very lucky that the round she was revealed I could only commit those two heroes due to an Ungoliants Brood causing all of the tactics/leadership team to be exhausted minus Elrohir who escaped due to a crazily helpful unexpected courage.

So far for this particular quest and my deck 5/5 for this ally! I think he will vary massively on the quest however

I really wanna use Hammer-Stroke, then Sneak Attack the Sarn Ford Sentry in for massive card draw.

I really wanna use Hammer-Stroke, then Sneak Attack the Sarn Ford Sentry in for massive card draw.

In a 4-player game, right?

Yes he looks pretty powerfull to me

I think that 'immune to player card effects' will trump anything written on a player card, including passive effects.

Yeah, I think one of the clarifications of "immune to player card effects" was that it stops any effect that directly interacts with the stats of such a card or changes its game state, With this in mind, I think Tactics Aragorn's effect is a no go for "immune" enemies.