Now that the new deluxe has released, what hero combinations have you been using or plan to use? Is everyone trying the new Aragorn with Halbarad? If so, who are you using or planning on using with them. I try to play thematically when I can, so I might try Berevor, Halbarad, and Aragorn leadership first, but I'd like to try the two new heroes together but am not sure who use with them.

Mablung gains a lot with all the dunedain effects that engage enemies outside the encounter phase.

Plan to play two handed with Halbarad, Elrohir and Elladan as the heroes for one deck and Elrond, Haldir and Spiritfindel as the heroes for the other =)

The ranger cards are awesome, and I know my Gondor/Dúnedain-loving friends has eagerly been expecting them. Myself I'm holding out for more Noldor goodness further on, but of course I'll put together some ranger decks for solo play.

Mablung gains a lot with all the dunedain effects that engage enemies outside the encounter phase.

I forgot about Mablung, that seems solid. Unfortunately I skipped the Ring-maker cycle as I didn't care for the theme or the time mechanic.

Other thematic ideas I had:

Halbarad, Aragorn (lead), Frodo

Halbarad , Aragorn (lead) , Glorfindel (spirit)

Glorfindel (Spirit), Aragorn (tactics), Frodo

I don't get my box until Tuesday , so these ideas may fall by the wayside once the quests hit the table.

We'll be getting more Noldor support in the next cycle, I'm so excited for that!

Halbarad + Sam seems too good to pass up, probably with Pippin (Lore) or Merry (Tactics) as the third.

In theory, Halbarad+Sam+Pippin should be a solid combo..in practice against the quests in this box particularly...its just doesnt work

In theory, Halbarad+Sam+Pippin should be a solid combo..in practice against the quests in this box particularly...its just doesnt work

In what ways do they not work? Are there just too many strong enemies? Would they work with a tactics/ranged support?

I think the issue may be that at 24 threat, you are just high enough that you won't get a ton of enemies staying in the staging area. Also, in solo Halbarad isn't going to get many targets anyway. I'm not certain, though.

Sam and Halbarad don't work together in the sense that Sam wants to engage and enemy but kill him that same turn and Halbarad wants to keep an enemy engaged.

I'm trying to come up with something beyond Halbarad/Mablung/Aragorn(T). I'd like to incorporate some of the Spirit and Lore Dunedain cards but haven't yet come up with a good way of doing that.

I tried a Idraen/Bereavor/Haldir deck as a two player pair but it didn't have enough willpower to hold down it's end.

I'm thinking that Lead/Tactics will have to be split up into a Lead/Spirit and Tactics/Lore deck.

The problem is both decks are competing for taking enemies...

I think you just need to replace Beravor with a better quester, probably another Spirit hero and you'll probably have to stray from rangers. Otherwise if you want to go solo, just make sure you include Celebrian's Stone and Sword that was Broken.