Star Lord, now you are really part of the club! You have but recently joined us and now you are in full on anticipation mode... the claws are in!

Star Lord, now you are really part of the club! You have but recently joined us and now you are in full on anticipation mode... the claws are in!

Thanks! I still don't have all the adventure packs yet, and I only have one Core, but as LOTR fan it's great to see the storylines from the books being implemented to the game. And the Battle at Helm's Deep is one of my favorite moments from the books as well as the movies, so to see this battle being translated to a campaign is something I'm very excited about.

Finally!!

Woooooooooooooooo!!!!

I got my copy of the Lost Realm and I have just played the first quest.

The two spirit cards in this box, which I think they still have not been spoiled, are:

-"Annuminas Guardian" (approximate translation). An ally with cost 4 (0, 2, 2) and 3 hit points. He gains 1 will point with every enemy engaged with you.

-"Star Brooch" (approximate translation). Cost 1. An attachment for a Noldor or Dunedain hero. That hero gains 1 will point if his controller has some enemy engaged with him. In addition to this, the will power of that hero can not be reduced.

Very interesting the first quest. It introduces the new mechanics based on secondary quest cards included in the encounter deck. Wonderful and more enjoyable than the "Time X" keyword.

I hope that brooch cost is 1?

I hope that brooch cost is 1?

Yes, it is.

<3

Any chance of seeing a picture of both cards? Please? Just wanna see the art really.

I would love to see images too. The Guard of Annuminas sounds really interesting - love some spirit dúnedain to keep Idraen, Northern Tracker and Greyflood Wanderer company!

YES! There's been such a lull! I'm so happy!

Thank you, brilliant!

I'm curious about star brooch - what does the last part mean in gameplay terms? Is it a kind of immunity to eg Ungoliant's Spawn's reveal effect or does it do more that I'm missing? If the second effect is that situational, I'm thinking about whether the cost and slot is worth 1WP. Definitely better than favour of the lady but still. I like the artwork on both cards.

It's an obvious include into quests like Nightmare Passage Through Mirkwood and Redhorn Gate. I'm curious - does that immunity to WP reduciton works always or only if you have an enenmy engaged?

Wow someone has lost realm already! It must be only days away then, cannot wait for encounter spoilers!!

The last two player cards are not bad but don't seem overly special.

The Star broach seems very very good for The Redhorn Pass (Freezing Cold, Snowstorm etc), Nightmare Dead Marshes (Lost Soul of Lorien) and Stone of Erech (Do I even need to say anything for this one?) but otherwise will more or less just provide the +1 willpower when engaged with an enemy which is ok but not great. The Ally seems a little better and can provide a high amount of willpower when engaged with many foes allowing you to potentially keep other characters back from questing for use in combat and alternatively when engaged with no enemies or only one or two he is more useful for combat with his decent stats and 3 hitpoints.

It's an obvious include into quests like Nightmare Passage Through Mirkwood and Redhorn Gate. I'm curious - does that immunity to WP reduciton works always or only if you have an enenmy engaged?

It looks to me like it is only when an enemy is engaged with you.... which is far less helpful.

It's an obvious include into quests like Nightmare Passage Through Mirkwood and Redhorn Gate. I'm curious - does that immunity to WP reduciton works always or only if you have an enenmy engaged?

Both the +1 WP bonus and the immunity to WP reduction work as long as you are engaged at least with one enemy. I did not find this item useful in the first and second quest, but it has some use in the third.

As you said it is clear that it was thought to be used in some quests as Redhorn Gate and so.

Thank you, brilliant!

I'm curious about star brooch - what does the last part mean in gameplay terms? Is it a kind of immunity to eg Ungoliant's Spawn's reveal effect or does it do more that I'm missing? If the second effect is that situational, I'm thinking about whether the cost and slot is worth 1WP. Definitely better than favour of the lady but still. I like the artwork on both cards.

That is right. It gives you immunity to WP reduction due to cards like Ungoliant's Spawn, etc. But you need to be engaged at least with one enemy.

Well, that puts a dent

It seems like Halbarad and Star Brooch really love Son of Arnor - guess we will have more engagment manipulation with this cycle. Another effect allowing you to pull enemies from staging during planning would make this mechanic a lot more viable.

BTW, it seems thematically appropriate that with Dunedains you want to engage but also want to keep your threat low, so that you can take full advantage of these abilities: it feels kinda like you're ambushing enemies.

Have you noticed star brooch is in the art for Idraen as well? I've been wondering since seeing her what that star was meant to be.

Keeping as many enemies engaged with you as possible without killing them, but just accepting blows, feels more like some Shaolin technique than anything related to ambushing. To me, at least.

This will give renewed life to things like Forest Snare, since paying 3 resources to have an enemy permanently trapped with you will finally bring consistent benefits. Better dust the card off in anticipation!

If they don't have it at the shop tonight I will definitely be like

Keeping as many enemies engaged with you as possible without killing them, but just accepting blows, feels more like some Shaolin technique than anything related to ambushing. To me, at least.

It's quite different from what I wrote: if you have means to engage an enemy during planning, it works just fine -> you remove his threat from staging and don't have to withstand an extra attack. I suppose this is how they're meant to be played, let's see if the new cards will support my hypothesis.

I think voluntarily keeping enemies engaged with you is not the way it's supposed to work: what benefit not having to exhaust to quest if you need to defend an additional enemy?

Forest Snare gathers dust nowdays? Really?

Very enjoyable box in general, much better than Voice of Isengard and its "Time X" keyword which I hated. I prefer the new mechanics that use the secondary quest-cards inside the encounter deck. They force you to face them in order to avoid some effects of every kind (Time X, to lose your hand, to lose an ally-objective, to reveal or support enemies, etc). The first quest in the box might be one of my favourites since "Heirs of Numenor". The second quest was good enough too.

But the third quest, that uses the spectres, is absolutely brutal if you use a thematic deck instead of an optimal "free-built-deck". And I am not really sure if an optimal deck could deal with it with less difficulty. It reminds me of Dol Guldur and Ithilien. At this moment it is hard to my mate and me to think in some way to beat it with our decks formed by dunedain and noldor. There is one enemy in this quest that I consider "broken". When revealed he summons to the staging area all his copies from the discard pile, so he is capable of add three of his mates apart from him at once if the encounter deck has run too long at that moment. It is crazy.