It would be nice if this box or one of the upcoming ones was the new Heirs of Numenor though, where everything really got beefed up. Keep moving forward!

Would love to see some card art!! =)

I like how you put the word "just" before describing putting into play a whole buttload of allies, which you need to draw first, and then wait a whole turn for most of them

Well, since they are all cheap as dirt, you can get them into play much earlier than you could the likes of Haldir or Gildor (3 willpower), who have similar stats. In terms of action-advantage-to-cost, these guys are the same as those higher cost allies, and of course you get to save your resources for other stuff.

And of course we all know that drawing cards is not hard for Lore.

Arod is a pretty important card. People who are wanting to run The Three Hunters for the first quest will need all the progress tokens they can get. Also, it appears to attach to the Legolas Ally which Blade of Gondolin does not which could be important in some decks.

In my own case I have been trying to build some decks for the next stage of the saga but they are pretty weak. At the end of the last box I have Merry and Pippen prisoner, Gandalf (apparently) dead and Boromir, Aragorn, Sam and Frodo left alive. Sam and Frodo will be heading east while Aragorn (Lore) will be turning into a saga hero. So that leaves me Tactomir. Assuming I add Gimli and Legolas, I have a whopping 4 willpower (or six if I count Aragorn). May have to use leadership Boromir.

Aside from the fact that strong player cards in abundance = strong encounter cards in abundance, which means that building more thematic decks gets more difficult.

There is no "strong encounter cards in abundance". Have you heard Glaurung? He complains about every new quest being too easy. Wonder why? Because it's normal mode. There is already a lot of strong cards to go around, and new strong card change nothing but provide you with options. And options are always good, especially when those options are viable and are not the pale shadows of existing ones.

I like how you put the word "just" before describing putting into play a whole buttload of allies, which you need to draw first, and then wait a whole turn for most of them

Well, since they are all cheap as dirt, you can get them into play much earlier than you could the likes of Haldir or Gildor (3 willpower), who have similar stats. In terms of action-advantage-to-cost, these guys are the same as those higher cost allies, and of course you get to save your resources for other stuff.

And of course we all know that drawing cards is not hard for Lore.

They're not THAT cheap, and card draw while not a problem for lore, it WILL take time and resources too, and sometimes even actions of your heroes. I just want to see how you're gonna handle a first couple of turns with a fully dedicated Ent deck against an agressive quest, I just wanna see it.

Side note: Gildor is a huge design oversight from my perspective. An unique character with such high cost should not have such a weak action that exhausts him. One of the reasons he is underwhelming.

Now that I got my own copy and read the card, I think the main advantage of Arod is that it lets you put one progress on any location (not just the active location). On the downside, you need to exhaust the attachment, so like Asfaloth it is only once per round. Obviously, Asfaloth is better in that it is less restricted but Arod can be a viable alternative if you are not running Lore/Spirit and still want same additional location control in your deck.

Also, in case people are still waiting for/wanting (text) spoilers, there is a new Boon that attaches to a character brought back from the list of fallen heroes.

Also, in case people are still waiting for/wanting (text) spoilers, there is a new Boon that attaches to a character brought back from the list of fallen heroes.

And what it does? And how it's called?

Side note: By the way, that's what I was talking about not long ago. People already got their sets, while there is even no "Is Now Available" article on the official FFG site yet.

Well, Beorn and Treebeard as heroes make a nicely aggressive combination that can handle anything you want for a couple of rounds. Start from there and the sky's the limit!

Anyway, I promise when all these Ent guys are out I'll make a deck that can smash most quests. You doubt?

Card images are on the CotR facebook page

Well, Beorn and Treebeard as heroes make a nicely aggressive combination that can handle anything you want for a couple of rounds. Start from there and the sky's the limit!

Anyway, I promise when all these Ent guys are out I'll make a deck that can smash most quests. You doubt?

Beorn and Treebeard, while is good, not a perfect solutions and there can be quite a few situations that even they can't handle.

Nah, smashing most quests is already easily achievable (which was kinda my point). Now, how about a deck that smashes all (at least most) nightmares? That one I highly doubt.

So, are there any leadership cards at all in this box?

Sounds too good to be true

You have obviously never played Leadership to its full potential. Best sphere IMO.

And the swearing whenever you mention "Leaders***" really needs to stop. We're all entitled to our opinions but no one wants to see that profanity.

Ha-ha. Ok, guys, this is it. For eons I was using the term "leadershit" on this forum, and some other people did too out of fun, but now this ******* comes in, doesn't likes it, reprots me for this, and guess what? They issue me a warning. For "leadershit". I'm just saying a farewell, because I'm obviously will never stop using it, especially just because some jerk is too noble to tolerate it on the same board his majestic feat honored us enough to tread.

Much cooler and more thematic than Ent player cards if you ask me:

www.boardgamegeek.com/image/2497606/tricil

Can someone please post some encounter cards or say something new about the scenarios?For example,it is possible to add or remove resources from The Defense of Helm’s Deep(from responses and forced,shadows,when revealed effects etc.)?And it is a reward for commiting more to the quest than the threat in the staging area?What unrevealed burdens are?

Haven't tried the scenarios yet til they get up on OCTGN, but re: Helms Deep, if your WP is less than threat, the enemies make progress on the locations/quest. This is bad. Quests seem very cool, new "wizardry" keyword, a bit similar to Scour but triggers when locations are explored in the Isengard quest. Isengard quest has a few copies of ent Objective allies, and you spend the first quest card trying to get them to join you which is pretty sweet.

Veve7: I haven't played the quest yet, so I am not sure. I had quick look through the cards though and did not see any interactions with "The Defense of Helms Deep" at all. Seems like surviving 8 rounds will get you through to Stage 5. Will find out tomorrow whether this is hard or not (probably yes ).

I have my box but I haven't played anything yet, just looked through all the cards.

In the first scenario, you're down a hero for the whole quest (whether you're in campaign mode or not). Ugluk stays in the staging area and you have to fight him in the second stage to win. Grishnak gets shuffled into the encounter deck, and when he comes out he takes one of the heroes off the objective and starts to damage them (you have to defeat him to rescue them).

Helm's Deep: People have already covered the difference in questing mechanics, so I'll just flesh the idea out a little bit. You're fighting orcs, dunlandings, and uruk-hai, most of whom put progress on locations/the quest when they attack/destroy a character. There are 5 quest stages, 4 you must defend (if the fourth is explored, you lose) and the fifth is when you attack back for victory. There's a lot of effects that pull out enemies, and it looks like you'll have to survive 8 turns to win (no other way I noticed to add or remove token on Helm's Deep, but I only looked through the cards quickly and don't have them in front of me).

Last quest you spend the first stage convincing Ents to join you. Then you must survive multiple attacks from Saruman as you march to Isengard. The Wizzardry effects are like Burgle/Riddle effects on cards, in that they trigger at a specific time in the game (mostly when you explore locations) but enemies also get bonuses/triggers when they are revealed as shadow cards. There's also card draw/hand size stuff going on in the quest too. This one will need to be played to get a feel for it. Also, there's a Grima card who is revealed, Doomed 2, and after he attacks he's immediately shuffled back into the deck and you reveal another encounter card.

Overall impressions: first quest looks pretty normal but will be challenging because you're down a hero (though fellowship Aragorn is gonna mitigate that). Helm's Deep looks epic and appropriately difficult, last quest looks really interesting and different. It'll be hard not to skip straight to Helm's Deep.

Well the first quest is going to be ****ed hard if one of your heroes WAS Aragorn because you are effectively going to be down two.

I agree, it's going to hurt me in two of my campaigns. Something funny is that if Aragorn was a Fallen Hero, you still bring him back as Fellowship Aragorn (you still pay the +1 threat penalty and you don't get to play the cool new Boon on him). The plus side is you can still use all your Aragorn attachments on him. The downside is you lose his sphere and abilities and no new Tactigorn either.

Edit: if Aragorn was one of your heroes and he wasn't on the Fallen Heroes list, you get to swap him out for free.

Well that will help.

So sacrificing Aragorn to the Balrog was a bad idea. Its like the old saying: "If you travel with last heir of Isildur, don´t shove him to the abyss. "

Really love what they did with the last boon even if I will personally probably not be using it. No dead heroes on my quest log as I quested through before the Balrog could appear. What is really really cool is that it stops treacheries from being attached (aka condition attachments) to that hero! Invunerable to condition attachments is pretty dang cool!!!

I played Helm's Deep once this morning and there actually was a card that removed one resource from the Defense of Helm's Deep. Overall though the quest is pretty straight forward. The Defense mechanics is cool and the enemies are tough. Playing mainly solo, I did not face too many enemies and kind of wished that there had been more small enemies with surge (like the Snaga Scout in the Massing at Osgiliath) rather than only tough guys. I also found the last stage to be somewhat disappointing. No riders of Rohan coming? No enemies running into Hourns? Instead, you just defeat the last enemies you are engaged with and that's it?

Edit: played a few more attempts just now and got overrun within the first 4 rounds each. I guess that's more like what I expected and hoped for. Not sure whether this morning's tryout was just plain luck or me not being awake enough to get all effects right. Now it looks like there is a real challenge ahead of me. Forget everything I said before! =)

What is really really cool is that it stops treacheries from being attached (aka condition attachments) to that hero! Invunerable to condition attachments is pretty dang cool!!!

I find that "cool feature" highly questionable. There is no treachery attachment in any of the Lord of the Rings Saga's that does not allows you to choose a hero it's going to be attached to. The only time I see it being useful is when you need to attach a "limit 1 per hero" attachment, while all other heroes already has this kind of attachment. For all it worth, it can even harm if you there is an encounter attachment that will do less harm on a hero with this boon, but because of that boon you wouldn't be able to attach it to him.

Thank you!