The Wastes of Eriador

By MyNeighbourTrololo, in The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

Honor Guard is a great card, glad to see some repeatable damage cancellation for tactics. Something tells me it's going to be seeing a lot of play, especially when not using Lore to get healing.

Love the new valor keyword, that's going to be awesome.

You'll see a Lore side quest that does what? Oh, snap! It lets you add a card from the encounter deck to the victory display!

Right, I followed that much. There are other cards that do that too. I thought you were implying it had something specifically to do with side quests.

I really hope it doesn't require a card with the same name in the victory display, because that would make it sooo situational. Although if you could use it on non-treacheries, I guess that would be nice. The partial letter before the e doesn't look like it could be an m though. Looks more like an l or d. Joezim would be able to figure this out.

Tactics Boromir + Gondorian Shield + Honor Guard = WIN. And then using readying by raising your threat by 1 (and you will be quickly around 40 for Valour effects).

The Door is Closed looks beautiful, and at first glance I was overjoyed for seeing another card that could cancel treacheries (among other things). But now I fear the missing word is "title," which would make the card very situational -- even if there suddenly were several different cards to put encounters into victory display.

Two more things. Does Honour Gaurd work on Beorn? The wording is different than Dori.

My thought as well, but since it targets the damage and not Beorn it should work.

I like a lot the art of Ranger of Cardolan. Hooray!

Either Ranger of Cardolan is an objective ally or we are getting two neutrals. Unless, as pointed out, some of these cards are not from this pack.

Objective allies do not have costs and have different design layout.

I am very excited to see this, and even though I am still catching up on old scenarios (I have not played the Ringmaker Cycle yet, although I have it!) I am probably even more excited about Angmar Awakened. I am especially curious about the side quest mechanics as well as night/day.

Also gotta say that I love the Valor feature. I have found Secrecy difficult to play, but Valor should kick into gear in most my games! :)

I think it's crystal clear that these side quests are indeed player cards. The last preview for the Lost Real confirmed it. Also, Trololo is right in that The Door is Closed cancels a card of which another copy is in the victory display, so the Lore side quest basically guarantees you that you will be able to cancel it if it appears. Pretty good!

Does anyone else absolutely love the art on these cards?

I was actually hoping for some break in the game. I noticed quite often that there were lacks of content release. So as a new player, I thought this would be the moment to get up close with the current release, but that doesn't seem to be the case. :(

I think it's crystal clear that these side quests are indeed player cards. The last preview for the Lost Real confirmed it. Also, Trololo is right in that The Door is Closed cancels a card of which another copy is in the victory display, so the Lore side quest basically guarantees you that you will be able to cancel it if it appears. Pretty good!

Does anyone else absolutely love the art on these cards?

The art is fabulous!

Wow looks good only a warrior without attack??? They could have given the honour guard +1 attack

Well, to be fair he's just there to prevent damage. To be honest I really really like these two new Gondor allies. They are IMO exactly what Gondor needed, especially Leadership Gondor with the Veteran, but also Tactics Boromir will love the Guard. Gondor decks will be now more viable than ever, which is what we should have gotten at the end of the Against the Shadow cycle! Well, better late than never.

Nice pack. Bad packaging. As we did not have enough plastic to throw away. I liked the old boxes....

What it means to be a Noldor elf in the spirit sphere? Glorfindel, Duh? What does this mean?

Valor is big boost for doom player cards, as well as high threat hero combinations. There are a lot more hero combinations that start with high threat then secrecy hero combinations, so I think many of these cards will be very useful to decks that don't fret about high threat.

Out of the Wild + Scout Ahead will work great with The Door is Closed! I could see a secrecy deck with Lore and Spirit with Test of Will for treacheries, and the two new cards for enemies or locations. Maybe also a Dwarf deck that uses Zigil Miner and mining-the--deck cards. You could be able to really prohibit the encounter deck from playing its most deadly cards. Maybe this could be the birth of a new archetype?

So much new content around which is great but hard to know what to buy first.

Packaging is as real disappointment though as I liked that the deck protected encounter cards in each set fitted perfect to a box (player cards store in separate run). Also it spoils the collection - sigh.

What it means to be a Noldor elf in the spirit sphere? Glorfindel, Duh? What does this mean?

I guess we'll find out when pack/cycle is out.

Noldor has had a sub-theme of (player) deck manipulation. Not all of the cards have supported it, but a lot of them have.

Scout Ahead, the Lore side quest is great. So in solo play you get to look at top 5 cards, throw 1 into the victory display, and put the remaining 4 back in any order. That's a good level of control there. Too bad it's only 1 per deck, although that's a good thing from a balance perspective.

My English is not good.

The explanation of Valour keyword said "you may only...if...", Does it mean must?

Can I choose the action (not choose the Valour action) when my threat is 40+?

I'm liking the trend for damage cancellation for tactics.

My English is not good.

The explanation of Valour keyword said "you may only...if...", Does it mean must?

Can I choose the action (not choose the Valour action) when my threat is 40+?

You can choose to use the non-Valour response if you have 40+ threat.

It's just saying that Valour responses are allowed when you have 40+ threat, and not less than 40.

They totally nailed it with the damage preventing for Tactics. Not only it makes heavy or mono Tactics a lot more viable, but it's really fitting as well, as damage prevention means more or less that you're such a good warrior that can evade or block the enemy's blows. I don't get it when people say it's not thematic or shouldn't be in Tactics.