...are now up on Cardgamedb (including encounter spoilers): http://www.cardgamedb.com/index.php/lotr/lord-of-the-rings-card-spoiler/_/lord-of-the-rings-saga-expansions/the-flame-of-the-west/?sort_col=field_141&sort_order=asc&per_page=30

Here are the player cards in order(including boons):

Aragorn

Eowyn

Beregond

Prince Imrahil

Sterner Than Steel

Desperate Defense

Golden Shield

Livery of the Tower

So no Éomer, but aside from that it's pretty close to what I expected. Roheryn completes the Aragorn sphere-giving attachments. For Banner of Elendil (which I'm glad we got, though it's weird that we'll be allowed to play it in The Black Riders and The Road Darkens), it's worth recalling the timing of attacking, from the core rulebook:

I suppose that Quick Strike shenanigins would also work, to declare an attack while Aragorn is attacking someone else.

Grimbold is fantastic for Imrahil/Eomer decks. Helps for questing and then discard for Feint. A rare unique ally where you don't mind drawing extra copies.

Halbarad is solid just for numbers. In Dunedain decks he's going to be very efficient. In Hobbit decks he will help keep several effects active. Pretty decent 1-of in several deck types.

Ghan-Buri-Ghan is going to be great in some quests and iffy in others. The action is always good, but 2 resources for a one-time use is pretty costly. Thror's Map is better.

Roheryn seems mediocre. There aren't too many enemies that one Dunedain hero can kill on its own, certainly not enough that you are need the option to do it every turn. Not Restricted, so you can have multiple weapons. Tactics Aragorn can has the Def penalty, so that would help kill, but Roheryn has negative interaction with Aragorn's ability. It's a card that can pay off huge, but it needs a lot of setup to do it.

Nice!!!!!

The problem I have with cards like Roheryn is that they're pretty much useless unless you're using Gondorian Fire or some other shenanigans. I'm very torn on ally Halbarad. He kinda fits in a Dúnedain deck as he becomes very cheap, but unless I'm using Damrod I'd rather use the hero version, and his second ability is pretty useless unless you're using Sam. With that said, he's gonna be a must for any deck with Sam, especially with the other Hobbits..

Halbarad of the Grey Company is wearing green.

Awesome!

Really digging Grimbold, Feint on a stick w no exhaust for effect.

Also Halbarad... Wow. I think he's going to enable so many decks/effects.

Really digging Grimbold, Feint on a stick w no exhaust for effect.

Also Halbarad... Wow. I think he's going to enable so many decks/effects.

Don't forget Grimbold's 2WP. Super nice for Red.

Halbarad will bring Unseen Strike back into many deckses.

Grimbold is pretty good but I doubt I'll make much use of him. He's fairly expensive for a feint. He costs you 3 where you could always just chump block with somebody cheaper. Yes, the "enemy doesnt attack" is very useful some of the time for avoiding shadow effects, but I don't know if I'd think it's worth the cost.

Halbarad seems great! His ability is going to make for very strong play with Dagger of the Westerneese.

Guri Buri Ghan seems solid as well, I mean 2 cost for 2 WP most of the time, very few locations have 1 threat. Sometimes his WP will be lower or higher, I'd buy that for 2, especially out of Lore. His special effect could be useful.

Roheryn yeah... fantastic with Support of the Eagles or Gondorian Fire... sad elsewise. I sort of hate to see a card that even further encourages Gondorian Fire, it's good enough already. Disappointed here.

Grimbold is pretty great, especially as a Tactics ally with 2 wp. He doesn't have to be ready to use his ability which makes him particularly good. And that's not even considering all the Rohan trait support there is.

Halbarad strikes me as pretty cool too as a nice versatile ally that fits well into the Dunedain archetype. You could easily use his passive ability to get some extra mileage out of Dagger of Westernesse or Unseen Strike.

Ghan seems solid too at 2 cost in Lore. I feel like his wp could easily be at least 2 or 3 most of the time

The more I think about Roheryn, the more I think I like it. It does not seem very hard to put on some Dunedain Marks or Sword of Numenors onto a Leadership hero to start making them hit like a truck. Especially when you have Amarthiul letting you play tactics events in combat without needing any tactics heroes.

Really digging Grimbold, Feint on a stick w no exhaust for effect.

Also Halbarad... Wow. I think he's going to enable so many decks/effects.

Don't forget Grimbold's 2WP. Super nice for Red.

Halbarad will bring Unseen Strike back into many deckses.

Exactly, the no exhaust for effect is a really nice touch.

...

DAGGER OF WESTERNESSE

Can't believe I hadn't even thought of that. Aragorn, Dagger, Rohyren, Halbarad.

Very cool stuff

I think Grimbold is pretty fantastic. He's a 2wp quester in Tactics that in a pinch can save you from an attack. While it's true that you could chump block the attack with a different ally, there are a lot of shadow effects that trigger when an ally is killed. I think he would be especially strong in a Santa Theoden deck that is splashing Tactics (either with TEowyn for questing/lower threat, or Eomer to attack who has added synergy with Grimbold). With Spirit, you could also potentially save Grimbold with Gamling. He also has 2hp, which makes him less vulnerable than a lot of spirit 2wp questers, or can let him take an Archery for you.

Ghan-buri-Ghan seems pretty good. He's going to be fairly cheap WP in Lore, as he'll rarely be contributing less than two. How useful his action is will vary on the quest you are playing.

I like Roheryn, I think it gives a Dunedain deck another defensive solution, set up a hero to kill enemies as they engage. It may be viable with other direct damage options if you can't kill the enemy in one attack.

Love these cards! I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't get an ally Éomer, but maybe (hopefully) they're saving him for the next and final saga expansion. One question that arises though: how would ally Halbarad's second ability interact with heroes like Sam Gamgee and Pippin? Do they benefit from the +10 engagement cost, or does Halbarad's effect only start applying after you've made the appropriate checks for Sam and Pippin's effects?

Halbarad & Taste it again go together well.

I think Grimbold is pretty fantastic. He's a 2wp quester in Tactics that in a pinch can save you from an attack. While it's true that you could chump block the attack with a different ally, there are a lot of shadow effects that trigger when an ally is killed. I think he would be especially strong in a Santa Theoden deck that is splashing Tactics (either with TEowyn for questing/lower threat, or Eomer to attack who has added synergy with Grimbold). With Spirit, you could also potentially save Grimbold with Gamling. He also has 2hp, which makes him less vulnerable than a lot of spirit 2wp questers, or can let him take an Archery for you.

Sure, that's all true. But he's all of that for 3 cost. I play a lot of Rohan and this is the sort of card that disappoints me. Honestly it feels like they made him cost 1 more than he should have just so Theoden could reduce his cost. There's a lot of those kinds of Rohan allies.

I think Grimbold is pretty fantastic. He's a 2wp quester in Tactics that in a pinch can save you from an attack. While it's true that you could chump block the attack with a different ally, there are a lot of shadow effects that trigger when an ally is killed. I think he would be especially strong in a Santa Theoden deck that is splashing Tactics (either with TEowyn for questing/lower threat, or Eomer to attack who has added synergy with Grimbold). With Spirit, you could also potentially save Grimbold with Gamling. He also has 2hp, which makes him less vulnerable than a lot of spirit 2wp questers, or can let him take an Archery for you.

Sure, that's all true. But he's all of that for 3 cost. I play a lot of Rohan and this is the sort of card that disappoints me. Honestly it feels like they made him cost 1 more than he should have just so Theoden could reduce his cost. There's a lot of those kinds of Rohan allies.

I think that even a blank 2WP, 2-cost ally in Tactics would be pretty far above the curve. Certainly, we have not had that yet. The fact that we now have one if you take into account Santa Theoden is actually pretty surprising.

I think Roheryn still has a lot of potential without Gondorian Fire.

I often have Tactigorn with the following attached in lots of games:

-StwB

-Unexpected Courage

-Dagger of Westernesse

Quest for 3, ready Aragorn and optionally engage a weaker foe in the engagement phase. Kill that enemy with Tactigorn and Roheryn's ability instantly to not only rob it from its attack that turn but also to trigger Aragorn's ability and pull another enemy to the combat deck. This could either be an enemy that is already engaged with another player or an enemy in staging that will inevitably engage another player during engagement checks anyway.

You do not get to use Aragorn's ability during player attacks (unless you can ready him again obviously) so it doesn't provide a feint like effect against an enemy in staging at that point but it does still provide a similar effect against the enemy that was killed with Roheryn before it could attack.
In situations where you will not be able to use Tactigorns ability normally (no enemies will remain in staging or engaged with other players) you still get a feint like effect from Roheryn where you would not without it. I think this provides flexibility to Tactigorn and allows you to use his engagement ability in a new completely different way.

The second player in a two player game could stop either of two enemies engaging the first player by killing the first with Roheryn's effect after optionally engaging it then engaging the other with Tactigorn's effect.

Now granted that without a card like Gondorian Fire the vast majority of the time Aragorn is not going to have much more than say 5 or so attack strength. With just one dagger of westernesse he has 4/5 attack (and -1 defense to enemies!) and honestly most scenarios have quite a few weaker enemies that have between 4 and 6 combined hitpoints and defense. Even though you are just taking out weaker enemies with this effect you are still stopping them from ever getting an attack (and potentially triggering shadow effects) and so long as you are getting double duty out of Aragorn with Wingfoot or UC or whatever anyway I think it is well worth using Roheryn. I just wish it didn't give the tactics sphere considering in my opinion it is most useful on Tactigorn given his -1 defense allowing Roheryn's ability to actually be usable without Gondorian Fire.

EDIT: Use in campaign mode and give Aragorn boons like Intimidation and Valiant Warrior to further boost attack and make Roheryn more potent.

Halbarad is also extremely useful as many have pointed out he boosts Dagger of Westernesse and Unseen Strike quite a bit.

He is also great with Staff of Lebethron and various Hobbit effects.

No one seems to be discussing his cost though! He is a free 2/2/2/3 ally with a great ability if you are engaged with 4 enemies. For certain combat decks this could be amazing and honestly even at 1 or 2 cost he is still VERY cheap and effective. Hell I would play him for 3 given his stats and ability and still be happy. Four cost is a bit expensive but honestly that is the sort of cost we would normally see for an ally with a nice ability and the 2/2/2 across the board stats anyway (Gimli, Ranger of Cardolan, Haldir, Prince Imrahil, Eagles of the Misty Mountains). If he stated at 5 cost he would be NOWHERE near as good but honestly just needing one or two enemies engaged to make him super cost effective to me is very useful/powerful.

I see where you (grimbold believers) are coming from, I really do. But to me if I look at a card and say "I would not even think about playing that without Spirit Theoden" then it's a bad card.

I want cards like Westfold Horse Breeder. Does she go in every deck? No. If you're running mounts then there is a good chance yes. If you're running mounts AND Spirit Theoden then she becomes quite a good deal. Same thing with Westfold Outrider, good stats, not amazing. With Theoden it feels like you're getting a deal. Grimbold seems that with Theoden he's maybe allright.

And add to that that if you have Sp Theoden on the board you necessarily have access to loads of 2 cost 2 WP allies... I'm just not impressed.

There are plenty of decks where I would happily pay 3 tactics resources for 2 WP. The fact that I can sack Grimbold for a free Feint in case of emergency is just icing on the cake. I only expect to pay 1:1 for my willpower if my deck includes Spirit, otherwise I consider 3:2 to be a solid questing ally.

Halbarad is going into my Noldor/Dunedain deck right away.

Ghan Buri Ghan will probably be a 1-of in most of my Lore decks from here on out, just for his willpower potential.

Roheryn makes me want to pair up Aragorn and Elfhelm. With Roheryn and Celebrian's Stone Aragorn gets +1 to every stat! Add in Tale of Tinuviel or Elf-Friend + Fair and Perilous and you've got yourself a janky combo.

Holy Hell, looks like Aragorn arriving during the last quest is a bigger deal than we first anticipated.
He gets both Anduril and Banner of Elendil attached to him for free as he enters play!

Both are obviously artifacts so he will quest without exhausting right away (and gains Sentinel).

With StwB and Banner of Elendil attached he gives all of your other characters +2 Willpower........

Halbarad is also extremely useful as many have pointed out he boosts Dagger of Westernesse and Unseen Strike quite a bit.

He is also great with Staff of Lebethron and various Hobbit effects.

No one seems to be discussing his cost though! He is a free 2/2/2/3 ally with a great ability if you are engaged with 4 enemies. For certain combat decks this could be amazing and honestly even at 1 or 2 cost he is still VERY cheap and effective. Hell I would play him for 3 given his stats and ability and still be happy. Four cost is a bit expensive but honestly that is the sort of cost we would normally see for an ally with a nice ability and the 2/2/2 across the board stats anyway (Gimli, Ranger of Cardolan, Haldir, Prince Imrahil, Eagles of the Misty Mountains). If he stated at 5 cost he would be NOWHERE near as good but honestly just needing one or two enemies engaged to make him super cost effective to me is very useful/powerful.

Exactly. We do not have to look far for it, Prince Imrahil from the same box is 4-cost and the same stats. Yes, he is Gondor which has more potential than Dúnedain, but he is also Spirit which are in general cheaper. And I find Halbarad's second ability superior to Imrahil's in a right deck.

The character distribution means one thing, there will be Éomer in the last box, I cannot see past that. And it seems also given he will be hero, otherwise they would have made him an ally here. Further, Leadership feels more probable than Tactics (him becoming king at the time) since those are the two spheres left if they are going to get equal number of heroes across saga. But, supposing all above is right, what of the Tactics hero then? Surely not Meneldor, and I would not like to see another Sam, as I feel we shouldn't get a character twice in the saga (outside the Fellowship sphere), but who then?

We've goten "leftover" characters as allies before, namely Skinbark and Gamling, never heroes. Thus, I personally think we'll see ally Éomer, hopefully Leadership (and reinforcing those Rohan discard decks with Théodred), and we'll probably see his hero version in the next cycle.

I'm hoping that the last Tactics hero of the saga will be an eagle. I imagine Gwaihir would fill that slot nicely.

That said, I'm too hyped for this set to be too speculative for the last saga at this time.