2016 is here! New year means new beginnings. Hopefully at least.

What do you hope to see or predict in this year for LotR?

I hope to see more beornings. I want to see that trait developed.

I also want to see Doomed and the Encounter keyword get some more love.

My biggest hope is to see more Tactics support. I long for the day to make a viable mono tactics deck for solo that has a decent chance at winning a good chunk of quests. I still feel it's not quite there yet.

Dale and Scout traits ^^

Saruman hero.

I would love a Doomed archetype or "pack" of cards centered around Saruman hero and Artifacts. Palantir, rings, staff etc. That would be so cool, but any of those things for separate would be great as well.

Other than that, it seems like we will get lots of book and ffg created unique allies, which is nice.

The Woodsman deck is slowly cooming to its well deserved top notch place, but would need a few key cards to nail it. Maybe just a few allies, a few events and a hero. But its a close call already.

Saruman hero would be immensely fun, but I wonder where he would fit in the next cycle and/or saga expansions (well, evidently not in the saga expansions...).

I would like to see more development of the encounter keyword cards.

Thranduil.

I also would very much like to see a Dwarf hero who supports or otherwise interacts with the slowly developing "discard from deck" dwarf miner deck.

I also would love to see a Tharudir Hero.

I also would love to see a Tharudir Hero.

Hah! Love it.

Forced: When 3 shadow cards are in play, Thaurdir attacks the first player, deals an additional shadow card to each enemy in play, heals 3 damage from each enemy, and jumps the shark.

A doomed/Saruman theme would be interesting, especially if there were effects or abilities that increased the threat elimination level.

I feel this would be appropriately thematic. Saruman may have access to certain foresight and powers due to his toying with the powers of darkness, and due to his formidable power he could resist Sauron a bit longer than most.

For instance, I think it'd be neato to have a Saruman hero who could "soak up" a certain number of threat caused by the doomed keyword (i.e., put travel markers on Saruman equal to the doomed value to prevent the increase in threat, up to a certain max of travel markers, possibly with an expensive way to remove such markers). Or maybe Saruman (or another card) could flatly increase the threat elimination level beyond the standard 50.

Of course, many cards in the associated release would have the doomed keyword.

A doomed/Saruman theme would be interesting, especially if there were effects or abilities that increased the threat elimination level.

I feel this would be appropriately thematic. Saruman may have access to certain foresight and powers due to his toying with the powers of darkness, and due to his formidable power he could resist Sauron a bit longer than most.

For instance, I think it'd be neato to have a Saruman hero who could "soak up" a certain number of threat caused by the doomed keyword (i.e., put travel markers on Saruman equal to the doomed value to prevent the increase in threat, up to a certain max of travel markers, possibly with an expensive way to remove such markers). Or maybe Saruman (or another card) could flatly increase the threat elimination level beyond the standard 50.

Of course, many cards in the associated release would have the doomed keyword.

Raising the threat elimination level is brilliant for Saruman/Doomed. Perfect ability for an attachment IMO, similar to Favor of the Valar.

I would actually like to see a dual sided hero that could have totally different abilities or stats or icons (but same starting threat) that you could either flip mid game by paying resources or discarding cards.

I would actually like to see a dual sided hero that could have totally different abilities or stats or icons (but same starting threat) that you could either flip mid game by paying resources or discarding cards.

That hero wouldn't work with various game mechanics that involve heroes being flipped facedown/shuffled into the deck, etc. So I don't see that happening. Closest thing I see is a hero that consists of a couple of cards that are interchanged dinamycally during play.

Not mentionning the fact that ohmygodIhavetousedifferentsleeves for this hero, as I black sleeve all my player cards.

My wish for 2016 would be a return to Mirkood (hehe), for multiple reasons.

First we don't have a Thranduil hero and a Mirkwood theme would fit his release quite well.

Second Mirkwood and it's surroundings were part of the first cycle. So it's been quite long since we have been there and not all quests were that great.

Third there are still some unused areas. We could travel east to the lonely mountain and rhûn, which aren't visited outside the Hobbit saga (+ battle of laketown). Also we could maybe help Galadriel in the destruction of Dol Guldur.

I dont see any problem about repeat locations in new cycles. For example, Mirkwood Forest, but instead searching for Gollum, it might Silvans (thranduil) fighting and quitting out ambush orcs.

I wish they release the latest nightmare decks and standalone scenarios in French, Spanish and German (and all languages the game has been transtated into but that has fallen behind in POD publication!)

and

Thranduil hero and some Dalesmen

a new Eagle

and a Happy new Year to y'all

I recently read the passage where Wídfara makes his only appearance. An ally version of him would be great this cycle. A Lore Rohan ally with some encounter deck scrying ability sounds pretty cool.

A hero with the Encounter keyword!

I just want retailers to receive their shipments of the Mirkwood cycle packs I'm missing.

Radagast Hero and the return of the creature keyword.

We haven't seen a creature card since...Gwaihir? And Bill the Pony before that? And before that it was all the way back in Mirkwood. Would love to see more creatures introduced.

Maybe more Eagles, but I would love to see other animals as well. There are a lot of forest creatures that could fit the bill--maybe some wolves or hounds as a counterpoints to the wargs. Giant boar, stags, elk, moose or bears could all conceivably be very dangerous in combat. Or even things like moths that could be used to scout the encounter deck or deliver messages (exchange cards or resources).

And if we are going to see the return of creatures there would be no better time for the return of Radagast. I've already talked in more detail about how much I would love a new Radagsat hero elsewhere but something like this could be awesome:

Neutral Hero. [11-threat cost]. 3/2/2/4. Resources from Radagast's resource pool may be used to pay costs associated with any Creature, Mount, or Eagle card. Action: Exhaust Radagast to put a Creature ally from your hand into play. That ally gains: "At the end of the round, shuffle this card back into your deck."

Add in a Radagast spell and attachment ala the Gandalf treatment (perhaps a staff or cloak for the attachment and some kind of creature related buff or summon for the spell) and you would have a very solid Hero that works both mechanically and, I think, thematically. His power isn't the best in the world but it works to facilitate existing creature effects and it makes sense that the beasts of Middle-Earth would come to his aid.

And remember, Radagast and Gandalf could share spells as Flame of Arnor is not limited to Gandalf.

Elladan & Elrohir allies to match each other's Hero card sphere.

Elladan & Elrohir allies to match each other's Hero card sphere.

That would be awesome. Would love to see a Tactics Elrohir and Leadership Elladan ally so that we weren't locked in to always using those two heroes together (and by necessity, Tactics/Leadership).

More broadly, I'd like more support for secrecy and tricksy ways to deal with enemies, ideally themed so that it doesn't clash with hobbits (A Elbereth Githoniel works, but not Ride Them Down). During the Grey Company's book club discussion of A Shadow of the Past, they mentioned that it's unthematic that the quest essentially forces you to fight the black riders. Obviously it's tricky to balance powerful effects like A Elbereth Githoniel, but I'm hoping the sixth saga box (which we might get this year) will include some powerful events and attachments to support players who want their decks to be more focused on Frodo and Sam than high-threat heroes and an army of allies. I loved Staff of Lebethron and Taste it Again (and appreciated In the Shadows) from The Land of Shadow, and would like to see more cards like them.

I have often wished that the core game had come with an additional phase for sneaking and stealth. Perhaps sneaking past an enemy would keep it in the staging area, but would exhaust it to represent sneaking past it; exhausted enemies wouldn't make engagement checks, but could be optionally engaged, and their threat would be reduced by one, to a minimum of one. Exhausted enemies wouldn't ready in the Refresh phase; once you've managed to sneak past the enemy, you don't need to do it again. When a quest card is completed, exhausted enemies would be shuffled back into the deck. You could then have encounter cards featuring keywords that interacted with this mechanic, such as an Alarm keyword that readied all enemies in the staging area.

Obviously, it would need to be balanced (I'm no game designer!), and it would probably have called for an additional attribute on player cards, but I really would have liked to have had that option as opposed to always needing to charge in with guns blazing. I think the best that I could hope for would be player cards that had this effect on enemies in the staging area, but having it as a core mechanic really would have made the game feel more three-dimensional, in my opinion.