http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5172

"The Treason of Saruman introduces thirty-nine new player cards (six new boons and three copies each of eleven different cards) and three renowned heroes, including the Fellowship sphere version of Aragorn."

That has to mean a new Legolas and Gimli, right? Theoden would also fit, though.

Yes, it's Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn, as you can read on the description page of the expansion! =)

This looks like it could be better than I was expecting (and The Road Darkens was a lot better than I had expected).

Man, not 4 heroes again? Why now? Gandalf was neutral and could be built into any colored deck, but now only two heroes? What are they, some kind of spirit-tactics and lore-leadershit hybrids?

Cool!

I've got to be misunderstanding the Palantir's effect. It looks like it says this (I bolded the parts I have to guess at):

Exhaust Aragorn and Palantir of Orthanc to discard the top card of the encounter deck. If Aragorn's willpower is greater than the discarded card's threat, you may add Palantir of Orthanc to the victory display and remove it from the campaign pool to choose a player. That player reveals one fewer encounter card this phase (to a minimum of 1).

If that's correct, I don't really understand it: it looks like a boon version of Gildor's Counsel, but you choose a specific player. In the saga expansion, players each reveal 1 card... so if you choose 1 player to reveal 1 fewer card, but to a minimum of 1--- that would do nothing, unless there are scenarios (like Breaking of the Fellowship), where one player may be revealing several cards per turn. So you'd end up with a rather weak boon effect that has no effect except is a handful of scenarios. That can't be right, can it?

I'm looking forward to next September!

The Shadowfax teaser is pretty funny.

"...............alf"

The Shadowfax teaser is pretty funny.

"...............alf"

lolz.

I can't wait until a game where someone has spent about 8-10 resources loading Gandalf up with attachments, and then gets some "...discard all attachments" encounter card effect.

Shadowfax makes the Galadriel ally a bit better. Being a 3-cost attachment, it maximizes the value of her effect.

Yes, it's Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn, as you can read on the description page of the expansion! =)

Note however that it doesn't say they're hero versions specifically:

"As with its scenarios, all the heroes and player cards in The Treason of Saruman are inspired directly from the first half of The Two Towers. Among them, we find new versions of each of the Three Hunters"

And hopefully there won't be any complaining about the number of player cards since they very specifically told us how many there were...

Man, I really like the sound of the Helms Deep scenario. As far as I understood it, it sounds like the enemy will be putting "progress" or more likely damage on the quest cards and we'll be using our willpower to try and stop them.

Or defense power. You see that "Defense" keyword on the quest card? Wondering what that one means! And how it differs from "Siege," which has "Helm's Deep" written all over it.

Nice preview article. Will try to touch upon the points they mentioned:

-While fellowship Aragorn was already spoiled from gen-con i would just in general like to commend the designers in learning from what i would consider "mistakes" from their first hobbit saga expansions. The Baggins sphere player cards were absolute trash and the resources of the Baggins sphere themselves were too greatly integrated into the mechanics of the quest in my opnion. I like how so far the fellowship player cards have been strong considerations and the resources are used more for specific hero's ability than as a dependent variable in you passing the quest.

-I am once again slightly disappointed by the inclusion of only 2 legitimate heroes in the box since heroes are the driving force of variation in deck types but so be it. And while the description page confirmed we'll be getting new versions of legolas and gimli yet didnt specifically say they would be the two heroes....get real, absolutely zero doubt they will be the two heroes. Wouldnt be surprised if we get some significant unique allies like we did in road darkens for Theoden, Eowyn, Eomer, etc.

-We only saw one true player card, but I like how the spirit event shown continues the Rohan theme of willingly discarding allies. I think its also relatively safe to guess that we'll get a few more player cards that will hopefully amplify the rohan trait to the point we would like it to be at since with so few cards remaining to get in the ring maker cycle, we may not see it there.

-For the uruk-hai, it seems like a very interesting mechanic. I originally thought it would be will power heavy but after seeing quest stage 1B for it, i really have no idea how thats going to play out, which is exciting...always impressed by how the designers keep each scenario fresh. Helm's Deep should be pretty epic, they didnt fully explain the whole "switching" roles thing the encounter deck will be doing but i got a very seige of cair andros vibe from it. Finally i think road to isengard is going to be really difficult Saruman will likely be a terrible presence all game, and hand hate will be a very difficult mechanic to combat.

Looking forward to it. Keeping my fingers crossed it keeps the Q1 release window

We saw three player cards, Helm! Helm!, Shadowfax, and The Three Hunters.

We saw three player cards, Helm! Helm!, Shadowfax, and The Three Hunters.

I subjectively didn't count shadowfax since we still have no idea what it actually does nor three hunters since I don't see fellowship cards as true player cards because of their inability to drastically influence the player card pool due to the limited scenarios they're allowed to be played in.

Would be funny playing Saruman and Grima player card throughout and after the Treason of Saruman scenarios.

I mean, if Sarumans personally shows up only at the third quest of the saga box, nothing stops us from using him in the first and second. And there is no mention of Grima, but he'll probably be an enemy of the first quest.

Here's a random question: since we know what areas of the books are covered by these three scenarios, what do you think we can expect from GenCon or Fellowship event quests? Assuming they continue the recent (delicious) trend of adding extra quests into the campaign.

hmmm...nice spoilers! We already know how Quest Stage 1B of the Uruk-Hai works, more or less at least. Seems again a race against time with the pursuit value getting higher the more enemies pile up in the staging area and the quest points being equal to the pursuit value.

I wonder what nasty effects Ugluk will have though, since it seems we won't be able to get rid of him!

From the Road Darkens and now what's been revealed from the Treason of Saruman I really don't see anything missing from the books so I don't think we'll get any more print on demand filler quests for missed content.

Can you think of any Fellowship Event potential quests that would have been missing in these most recent Sagas?

fellowship quests...well... the only major parts missing from the 3 quests are merry and pippins adventures into fangorn...

Amazing, I am really excited for this expansion, unlike Road Darkens.

And finally, new Gimli and Legolas (right, right?), about time. :S Only disappointment is that there will be only 2 heroes instead of 4. I guess we can expect every saga to be like this from now on.

Luckily, they can continue awesome idea of adding extra quests into the campaign quite easily.

Apart from announced quests, there are many nearly equally important events in Middle-Earth, such as:

- First and Second Battle of the Fords of Isen

- Battle of Dale and siege of Erebor

- Sieges of Lothlórien

- Assault of Corsairs of Umbar, pillage of southern coast of Gondor

I assume that this is is just the tip of the iceberg, beacuse the flames of war have spread throughout Middle-earth.

Don't forget that saga quests must involve our heroes directly. PoD quest won't include it's own instance of a Fellowship hero just for that particular quest.

I'm hoping for ally versions of Legolas and Gimli so we can get our hands on a proper and thematic Theoden hero.

I wouldn't bet on it. There is a "Three Hunters" event that targets heroes, after all.

Theoden's arrival as an alternate take on his original hero card will probably occur when they release the battle of Pelennor Fields. I'd say it's at that point in the story that his character has truly grown and changed and that seems like a more thematic opportunity to re-introduce a hero card for him.

My 2 cents