I did promise to share some thoughts of my own in my first ever post here. Here they are, some of them, for those like me who enjoy predictions, etc.

It has been discussed in another thread what scenarios we should expect in the remaining saga boxes. I think the box V will begin with the sort of prequel to the great battle. It may just follow the Grey Company but I hope it will also follow the Ride of the Rohirrim. Like you have to get there with both armies in time. But the Rohirrim reinforcement may be somehow included in the second scenario, The Battle on the Pelennor Fields. I think the final scenario of this box will be The Black Gate Opens. The last stand of the armies of the West against the storm of Mordor. You stay alive long enough, you win, perhaps?

As for the box VI, I too believe that the Scouring of the Shire will come as PoD (which I don't like) or a Fellowship event (the same thing, pretty much?). I understand why but I don't think it is right. Like Tom Bombadil, the scouring is a very important event in the book, one I believe Tolkien found essential to conclude the story (well, the Grey Havens conclude it though).

Now for the player cards, and heroes. It is a given Faramir will appear as a hero in box IV. I think he will be Leadership, maybe even Spirit though Leadership would be a better fit for Gondor. I don't think he will directly interact with the traps then. I know the cycles and sagas are two different things but I still believe they do not want to have two Lore Faramir heroes. The traps need to get better, the ranger mechanic is still very under-developed, I would say. It works well in some scenarios but mostly it does not -- and some latter tricks, like Toughness, are directly against Rangers' direct damage (which had been weak even before).

The other hero in the box I am not sure of, but I hope it will be a Lore Gondor ranger who does directly interact with the traps. And more traps, thank you very much. Perhaps not only in Lore? Tactics seems to be a good fit for them, too.

Box V. Denethor hero or ally. The core set matters, so I think we will only get an ally in the saga. We need Éomer, he's neither in the core nor in the saga yet. He will be a new hero, I am quite sure. Beregond might show up, probably an ally. Imrahil of course, most likely a hero. Merry and Pippin? I would like to see Dernhelm attachment, as was suggested here before. Snowmane, a sure bet. A Spirit mount attachment for Théoden.

Box VI. Oh, I am not sure, really. No new heroes appear. We might just get attachments and events, not even the new allies appear -- unless we cover the Scouring. And unlike in the cycles, the player cards in the saga take direct inspiration from the chapters covered.

Summary:

Book IV

Faramir - Hero (bet), Leadership (?), high willpower (wish); Gondor, Noble, Ranger

Anborn - Hero (?), Lore (bet), works with traps (bet); Gondor, Ranger

Traps (bet)

… more Lore cards overall, we might see fewer later

Book V

Imrahil - Hero (bet), Tactics (?); Gondor, Noble

Éomer - Hero (bet), Leadership (bet - future king); Rohan, Noble, Warrior

Denethor - Ally (bet), Lore (?); scrying (wish); Gondor, Noble

Beregond - Ally (bet), Tactics (?); Gondor, Warrior

Merry - Ally (bet), Spirit (?); Hobbit, Rohan (?)

Pippin - Ally (bet), Leadership (?); Hobbit, Gondor (?)

Snowmane - Attachment (bet), Spirit (?); mount, readies Théoden (wish)

Dernhelm - Attachment (wish), Tactics (if); swaps Éowyn's willpower with attack as a planning action, gives her Tactics icon

Trebuchet - Attachment, Tactics (all wishes)

Gondor and Rohan events (wishes)

… more Leadership cards overall, we saw fewer before

A tactics Eowyn?

Of course, this is a possibility. But I think since there is an Éowyn hero in the core set, they will rather invest the slot to someone else (not previously covered by the core or saga: Éomer is obviously a major character, and Imrahil not a minor one). But of course, they might give us 4 heroes in the box V, especially as we might get 0 in the last (not counting the Fellowship sphere, of course).

With the Battle of Pelenor fields, would be nice new rohan cards. I'd like a lot to increase the rohan sinergy up to see cards like We do not sleep more playable (for example it happened with Silvan Tracker -with silvans-, or recently with Son of Arnor and Dunedain Watcher -with dunedains-).

Yes, indeed. Rohan synergies need be strengthened a little. I find Háma ally a very interesting card: for both Ride to Ruin and Helm! Helm! I hope there will be others in the times to come. I am still struggling to use Ride them Down properly. I was looking forward to that card so much but I am afraid in maybe 40 games with the card in my Rohan deck, I might have used it twice. Also, Forth Eorlingas, another staple-should-be Rohirrim card is a bit hard to use since Rohan has higher threat cost heroes (Théoden, Éomer, their best attackers perhaps) and little threat reduction. And Dúnhere does not need it.

For box 5, they really need to go back to 4 heroes + 1 fellowship hero. There are so many great chrachters in this part of the book. :3

Which heroes would you like to see? I'm having a hard time coming up with 4, assuming we will get Faramir in the next box and we won't get new versions of Aragorn, Gimli, or Legolas. I don't expect a new Gandalf or Pippin. The Grey Company went with Aragorn to the Paths of the Dead, so you could maybe get another Halbarad, Elladan, or Elrohir. Tactics Eowyn? I know people have wished for it, but I don't see that happening unless they drop her willpower to 2. Maybe we could get new versions of Beregond and/or Imrahil.

I don't know, there are no obvious heroes that jump out at me, unlike Theoden and Treebeard in Treason of Saruman or Faramir in Land of Shadow.

Don't you think that Imrahil is pretty obvious? They won't leave out such a character from the saga, not if we got Háma and Quickbeam. The Prince has many more pages in the book. And if he appears he may as well be a hero. Then Beregond is a given, though he might only be an ally. I think they will only give us two heroes (plus the Fellowship one), and none in the last box.

Well new hero versions of Legolas and Gimli are already long overdue. Then you have Imrahil and Eowyn would be cool too.

And one for a long shot -> ally Ghan-buri-Ghan.

Hopefully new versions of Merry and Pippin. New Imrahil as well, though I believe they will all be allies.

I still don't think they will repeat any heroes from the core set or previous sagas. The fact that we just got Gimli and Legolas allies further diminishes the chances of new hero versions of them. I think this also makes Eowyn unlikely.

We already have 2 versions of Merry and Pippin and we saw them in the first saga, so it's unlikely we'll see them again.

Imrahil and Beregond should be in that box, but who knows if they will be heroes or allies. They feel on the same level as Hama and Quickbeam. I'm still holding out hope for new versions of Elladan and Elrohir. Either way, I doubt it will be more than 2 heroes + Aragorn.

Tactics Eowyn ally?

I personally think the whole never repeating heroes from the core set thing is nonsense. It's so hard to build thematic decks, in multiplayer at least. There are so many principal characters with only one version, yet there are five fellowship characters in tactics! I want as many options to play with my favourite characters as possible, not be stuck using the same version of legolas for four years. I like what they are doing with the allies but quite frankly it's not enough.

For the fifth box I'd like to see Denethor, Imrahil, (Bergil ally maybe?). A boon designed for Eowyn to make her more Dernhelm like and one for Aragorn to recognise his Gondor status. I'd maybe even like a Gandalf the White hero but I realise there is no hope of this.

BEREGOND ALLY!!!!!

I personally hope for more Gondor (not Outlands **** it...) captains, that arrived to support Minas Tirrith before its siege. As Heros or Allies. And of course more generic allies (I want to see their epic wariors, not their shipwrights )

And of course remake of Faramir hero (which is very probable for the next expansion).

For paths of dead? Brothers and Halbarad allies.

Snowmane of course.

^ Halbarad, Elladan, Elrohir allies, yes, this sounds very good. We should really get many characters in the box no. 5, and close to none in no. 6 (but they can still somehow compensate for it, I am sure).

There is still so much the designers can do with the game. So far we have only got glimpses of all the different army units of middle-earth, for instance. We still don't have a generic Rohan Rider, Gondor Archer, Elven Swordsman, Elven Knight, for instance. And I would like to see a Hobbit Slingshot. There is just so much just off the military side of things they can do. I mentioned trebuchets above, I think those would be great -- together with enemy catapults and siege towers.

If they want to, this game can go on for a very long time. Of course, just a fraction of it can show up in the saga but I hope something really exciting will.

We still don't have a generic Rohan Rider...

Rider of the Mark? http://hallofbeorn.com/Cards/Details/Rider-of-the-Mark-RtR

Yes, you are right. I change that to a Rohan Knight, then, haha. We did get a few riders indeed, generic ones, the very bad horse-back archer, this spirit almost useless rider, and the very useful Westfold Outrider. I would like to see more combat-ready Rohan allies, though.

For the last box, my money is on Sam spirit hero.

Sam is arguably the biggest character in the RotK, so he has got to be there. And spirit because:

- we already had him in leadership,

- having a strong will is "his thing".

- he does not really fit as tactics (he is no warrior).

- lore might fit him perhaps, bit it seems a stretch (he knows a thing about gardening, but he can hardly be called a lore master).

I was thinking about this thread and I remembered one of my favorite briefly mentioned characters from the last book. When Frodo and company are about to depart for the shining lands they meet this old powerful noldor named Cirdan. He is on par with Elrond and Glorfindel. Then you find out that Gandalf also has a ring of power, one of the three that was made for the elves. Basically, this guy Cirdan had it first but then gave it to Gandalf. And it was Cirdan and Glorfindel who defeated the Witchking first time around when Glorfindel gave the prophecy about Eowyn killing him. So anyway, I am certain that we will eventually get Gandalf's ring of power, probably in the last saga box. But I also think that if they have made an ally and hero version of Erestor then surely they will give us a Cirdan card, probably ally but maybe even a hero.

I think you must be right. Círdan is now overdue. He and Thranduil might be the only two really iconic characters the game is yet to give us. Well, I am also hoping for Tom Bombadil (and Goldberry) outside of PoD.

However, I believe Círdan will more likely show up in this cycle. He was from the Teleri branch but they will probably make him a Noldo for the sake of consistency. There is a Lore hero coming in the second adventure pack, I think it could be him. But perhaps Spirit would be even more appropriate and he might close the cycle as the last hero in the pack six.

The more I think about it, the more I think that Círdan will be a lore hero and will be in pack 2, and hopefully he will be the hero that will bring this whole victory display mechanic into an actual archetype. One of the clues would be the "Keen as Stars" event, quote which refers to Círdan but that strangely shows Galadriel in the art.

Edit: Nevermind the last bit, the event is called "Keen as Lances"... Kind of a wasted opportunity IMO.

But still, I hope you are right. I hope Círdan will be the enabler of the "Victory" strategy; just as Erestor is of the Noldor run. Though it may be asking too much to have two Noldor Lore heroes in those roles. But I would like it.

They might have another card called Keen as Stars.

we are getting distant stars soon!

and we have stars in sky as a druadan treachery