I like how Beregond can reduce other player's threat when he successfully defends for them. Shame it's only once per round. But a 4 Defense hero with no Willpower for Spirit and previously we saw Eowyn for Tactics, man the sphere bleed is real with this Saga expansion.

QFT. Spheres mean nothing anymore.

Spirit is getting all the love lately

It can do almost everything now, and without the sphere bleed drawbacks the other spheres get

I don't think Tactics can complain about Spirit from this pack. Tactics Eowyn and Sterner Than Steel makes Spirit a lot more expendable...

This box is amazing...I'm definitely mostly looking forward to Imrahil. Anything that makes my Caldara deck stronger is a welcome sight since I'd say it is my favorite deck to play.

Ioreth, being the only 0 cost ally in the game is a great option for a quick sword-thain.

A mono-Spirit deck (eg any Caldara deck) can use Emery as well.

I'll also note that, even if Imrahil can't give Caldara an extra Ally, you can still effectively play him for 1 resource (via Sneak Attack, since it's been ruled that he completely dodges the return-to-hand clause if he's no longer an Ally at the end of the phase), so he's still got some decent synergy.

Ioreth, being the only 0 cost ally in the game is a great option for a quick sword-thain.

If you don't mind having a hero that can't attack or defend and has the worst possible stat line in the game.

Could someone explain the combo potential with hero Gloin and Livery of the Tower?

I guess it sort of becomes a substitute for Burning Brand; you can use Livery to cancel any damage that might accidentally kill Gloin. You still take as much damage as you can handle, you just have to cancel the excess.

What I'm not clear on is when I would use Livery over Blood of Numenor. Anyone have any concrete examples? (I guess maybe Gloin insurance is one, are there others?)

I can think of two reasons:

1) Blood of Numenor you have to pay up front. Livery you can pay after you take damage.

2) Boosting your defense only prevents damage from attack. This can prevent direct damage from encounter cards and shadow cards.

I guess Livery is better in the case that you want to prevent one damage and you only have one resource, which probably isn't terribly uncommon. I'm not sure I would put it in my deck though.

Could someone explain the combo potential with hero Gloin and Livery of the Tower?

I guess it sort of becomes a substitute for Burning Brand; you can use Livery to cancel any damage that might accidentally kill Gloin. You still take as much damage as you can handle, you just have to cancel the excess.

Yeah, but only if you have the resources already on him. Going from the Wingfoot + Quick Ears ruling where responses that cancel have to occur before any others, Glóin wouldn't get resources from the damage before you'd have to cancel it with Livery.

I like how Beregond can reduce other player's threat when he successfully defends for them. Shame it's only once per round. But a 4 Defense hero with no Willpower for Spirit and previously we saw Eowyn for Tactics, man the sphere bleed is real with this Saga expansion.

QFT. Spheres mean nothing anymore.

Spirit is getting all the love lately

It can do almost everything now, and without the sphere bleed drawbacks the other spheres get

Sure spirit has some 3 attack power heroes, but without the tactics weapons they are still not fully competent in fights.

So the player cards for Flame of the West (with a bit of speculation) are:

Aragorn (Fellowship, 1)

Éowyn (Tactics, 2)

Beregond (Spirit, 3)

? (almost certainly Tactics Rohan ally, likely Éomer, 4)

Imrahil (Spirit, 5)

? (perhaps Leadership ally, 6)

? (perhaps Lore ally, 7)

Sterner than Steel (Tactics, 8)

Desperate Defence (Spirit, 9)

Golden Shield (Tactics, 10)

Livery of the Tower (Spirit, 11)

? (likely attachment, 12)

? (perhaps Fellowship attachment, 13)

Esquire of Rohan (boon)

Esquire of Gondor (boon)

[...]

I hope the Fellowship attachment is Elendil's standard, sewed by Arwen.

Tactics ally: Almost certainly Éomer.

Leadership ally: Almost certainly Halbarad.

Lore ally: Only one which really passes in that sphere is Ghan-Buri-Ghan(just a theory).

Attachments: Don't really know.

Events: Perhaps some Dúnedain focused event taking place in Dunharrow?

How about ally Elrohir & Elladan (tactic/leadership or vice-versa depending how easy they want the 1 ally bro - 1 hero bro combo to be) and lore ally Halbarad (he's a ranger after all and lore loves those) ?

I think the brothers might have been hinted at for Sands of Harad.

Could someone explain the combo potential with hero Gloin and Livery of the Tower?

I guess it sort of becomes a substitute for Burning Brand; you can use Livery to cancel any damage that might accidentally kill Gloin. You still take as much damage as you can handle, you just have to cancel the excess.

What I'm not clear on is when I would use Livery over Blood of Numenor. Anyone have any concrete examples? (I guess maybe Gloin insurance is one, are there others?)

I can think of two reasons:

1) Blood of Numenor you have to pay up front. Livery you can pay after you take damage.

2) Boosting your defense only prevents damage from attack. This can prevent direct damage from encounter cards and shadow cards.

You can always trigger Blood after seeing the shadow card but before resolving the damage, right? If so, then the only major difference is to cancel direct damage, but it seems like a really expensive way to do so. If it's archery damage, I'd probably do better to use those resources to put down an ally with hit points instead. If it's a shadow effect, Hasty Stroke is probably more versatile.

I guess Livery is better in the case that you want to prevent one damage and you only have one resource, which probably isn't terribly uncommon. I'm not sure I would put it in my deck though.

There's an action window between "resolve shadow effect" and "determine combat damage", so in the case of a boosted attack, using Blood could be more efficient or less efficient, depending on how many resources you have available and how much you want to stop. Obviously Blood is worthless with one resource, and Livery is better with two resources -- it can stop two damage, while Blood cannot. With three or more resources Blood has the potential to be cheaper, though with any number of resources, Livery is capable of stopping N damage while Blood is maxed out at N-1.

However, there are other shadows that Livery protects against and Blood does not. Cards that reduce or eliminate defense may not be salvageable with Blood, and cards that do direct damage are not affected by Blood, but can be prevented with Livery. On a high-defense defender, those are precisely the sort of shadows I worry about.

Livery can also reduce damage from undefended attacks. As a use-every-turn measure, Blood's (potentially) lower cost and ability to buff defense for the entire phase is definitely superior. As an emergency save-my-hero protection, Livery is more flexible and powerful. However, it does have the disadvantage of taking a restricted slot, which Blood does not.

Interesting! I hadn't thought about undefended attacks. I'll have to try it out, see if I'm underestimating it.

It's shipping btw.

My speculation:

Box V:

Leadership:1 ally and 1 attachment.

Tactics:1 more ally(sure).

Lore:1 ally.

Fellowship:1 attachment.

Box VI:

Heroes:Leadership and Tactics and Fellowship.

Leadership:3 events.

Tactics:2 events.

Spirit:1 ally and 1 event.

Lore:1 event.

Fellowship:1attachment.

How long until Nyashish? I wanna finally know what's her ability.

Good thoughts about the Livery. The nice bonus of it now is that it is armour. Restricted can be a problem, so of course you have to pick your targets wisely. Right now, Gondorian Shield and Livery of the Tower seem two best restricted attachments for Tactics Boromir. I always see him rather as a defender than a attacker -- though he often does a lot of attacking too. Blood and Fire are hard to apply without Leadership, but Livery is good even without a couple of resources.

So the player cards for Flame of the West (with a bit of speculation) are:

Aragorn (Fellowship, 1)

Éowyn (Tactics, 2)

Beregond (Spirit, 3)

? (almost certainly Tactics Rohan ally, likely Éomer, 4)

Imrahil (Spirit, 5)

? (perhaps Leadership ally, 6)

? (perhaps Lore ally, 7)

Sterner than Steel (Tactics, 8)

Desperate Defence (Spirit, 9)

Golden Shield (Tactics, 10)

Livery of the Tower (Spirit, 11)

? (likely attachment, 12)

? (perhaps Fellowship attachment, 13)

Esquire of Rohan (boon)

Esquire of Gondor (boon)

Since the art for this version of Fellowship Aragorn shows him mounted, and we got Shadowfax and Arod in the Treason of Saruman, I think there's a good chance that we'll get a Roheryn mount attachment in this box. The Grey Company brought Roheryn with them, knowing that Aragorn needed haste. There's a good chance that Roheryn's neutral, to fit with any version of Aragorn, but Leadership would also work.

Since Aragorn's ability relates to artifacts, I expect that we'll get an artifact attachment. If Roheryn's in the box, the artifact would very likely be Fellowship sphere. The standard Arwen made for Aragorn seems the likeliest option.

Or a Grey Company attachment like FotR!

The Standard seems given. An interesting point about the horse...