Really looking forward to the ranger and trap support as these are my favorite archetypes to play. Also, the quest seems really cool.

Additionallly, even though I am way behind, I really like seeingthe cycle end because I can't wait to see where the next cycle takes us!!

I'm looking forward to this pack. Emyn Arnen Ranger will definitely help in my thematic deck for Journey to the Cross-roads, and I enjoy different pairings of traits.

While Cirith Gurat (from the fifth adventure pack) is an FFG-created location, The Crossings of Poros is not. The Poros is a river that started in the Mountains of Shadow and flowed west, joining the Anduin shortly before the Anduin flowed into the sea. It was the border between Ithilien and South Gondor (also called Harondor), which is described in Tolkien's map of Middle Earth as "now a debatable and desert land." In T.A. 2885 (five years before Bilbo was born), while Túrin II was the 23rd Ruling Steward of Gondor, Appendix A tells us:

Quote

[Túrin's] chief peril lay in the south, where the Haradrim had occupied South Gondor, and there was much fighting along the Poros. When Ithilien was invaded in great strength, King Folcwine of Rohan fulfilled the Oath of Eorl and repaid his debt for the aid brought by Beregond [20th Ruling Steward], sending many men to Gondor. With their aid Túrin won a victory at the crossings of the Poros; but the sons of Folcwine both fell in the battle. The Riders buried them after the fashion of their people, and they were laid in one mound, for they were twin brothers. Long it stood, Haudh in Gwanûr, high upon the shore of the river, and the enemies of Gondor feared to pass it.

Folcred and Fastred, sons of Folcwine, were Théoden's great-uncles. I wonder whether there will be a reference to Haudh in Gwanûr in the quest.

7 hours ago, Teamjimby said:

another Ent hero? Predictions?

Treebeard mentions the three oldest Ents in Fangorn: himself, Leaflock and Skinbark. He says:

Quote

Only three remain of the first Ents that walked in the woods before the Darkness: only myself, Fangorn, and Finglas and Fladrif - to give them their Elvish names; you may call them Leaflock and Skinbark if you like that better. And of us three Leaflock and Skinbark are not much use for this business. Leaflock has grown sleepy, almost tree-ish, you might say: he has taken to standing by himself half-asleep all through the summer with the deep grass of the meadows round his knees. Covered with leafy hair he is. He used to rouse up in winter; but of late he has been too drowsy to walk far even then. Skinbark lived on the mountain-slopes west of Isengard. That is where the worst trouble has been. He was wounded by the Orcs, and many of his folk and his tree-herds have been murdered and destroyed. He has gone up into the high places, among the birches that he loves best, and he will not come down. Still, I daresay I could get together a fair company of our younger folks

There's no evidence that either Leaflock or Skinbark participated in the attack on Isengard. So far we've gotten a Skinbark card, but no Leaflock card (which fits with Leaflock being more passive). The likeliest candidate for a new Ent hero is Quickbeam, but I could see us getting another version of Treebeard, or else Leaflock or Skinbark.

I added three copies of the Trap and the Ranger to my modified Dúnedain Trappers deck with Loragorn, Damrod and Amarthiul (based on Seastan's great deck) and they are amazing! You forest snare a 3-4 threat enemy and then the Rangers quest for a lot and a couple of those tactics traps almost always negate the threat in the staging area to being with.

16 hours ago, Seastan said:

This pack looks really exciting. Truly some game-changing cards for Dunedain and for Gondor rangers.

Followed seems to not have a limit 1 per enemy on it. So if I have two copies in play they would both attach to the enemy and I'd subtract 2X treat every round?

When you think about t, Followed equates to a 1 cost ally with 2-3 willpower that's immune to treacheries - in tactics. That's crazy!

Wind from the Sea looks great for multiplayer, particularly with Shadow of the Past.

Why would Wind from the Sea have that synergy? I think the player-added encounter cards are always removed from the game (I believe even if used as a shadow effect) and this one specifically says that it is after you reveal it, so I don't see why Shadow of the Past would make a good synergy unless I misunderstood your meaning.

11 minutes ago, Willange said:

Why would Wind from the Sea have that synergy? I think the player-added encounter cards are always removed from the game (I believe even if used as a shadow effect) and this one specifically says that it is after you reveal it, so I don't see why Shadow of the Past would make a good synergy unless I misunderstood your meaning.

If it comes up as a shadow effect you can put it back on top of the encounter deck for next round.

Ah, so it does. I had to check the rules again. It appears I had that mixed up as I was going with the remove from play rules not realizing that there was a specific entry about the case of shadow effects.

Followed is cool, but I see it as only really useful for Dunedain decks, since they receive other benefits for having enemies constantly engaged. In other types of decks, I don't see it being worth it to have to keep defending that enemy every round or paying for a forest snare for that bit of extra questing power. I don't see much synergy with other trap related cards either.

Another thing, since it starts unattached, you have to hope by the encounter phase something with low threat doesn't unexpectedly engage you. Following a Goblin Follower is not going to be ideal. It's nice that Dunedain Hunter is a great remedy to this issue and fits thematically into the Dunedain synergy.

46 minutes ago, donkler said:

Followed is cool, but I see it as only really useful for Dunedain decks, since they receive other benefits for having enemies constantly engaged. In other types of decks, I don't see it being worth it to have to keep defending that enemy every round or paying for a forest snare for that bit of extra questing power. I don't see much synergy with other trap related cards either.

Another thing, since it starts unattached, you have to hope by the encounter phase something with low threat doesn't unexpectedly engage you. Following a Goblin Follower is not going to be ideal. It's nice that Dunedain Hunter is a great remedy to this issue and fits thematically into the Dunedain synergy.

If you take Dunedain against anything with Goblin Follower, you're probably quite OP for that encounter deck anyways Maybe Nightmare.

You can also just wait until you engage something with high threat, then play down a Forest Snare on it, and play Followed to your play area. Then play Guardian of Ithilien to push it back to the staging area and engage it again that turn to get Followed to attach.

Or a way to get your Emyn Arnen Rangers powered up: Engage a high threat enemy and defend it. Next turn, play Ranger spikes to the staging area then play Guardian of Ithilien to trap the enemy up there.

Most ent cards are lore and tactic, we may need a tactic ent hero

Maybe we'll get an FFG-made-up ent hero ¿?

2 hours ago, Rajam said:

Maybe we'll get an FFG-made-up ent hero ¿?

Have the made up any of the current heroes? I'm not familiar with the lore, but I had the impression that all the heroes were actually mentioned on the books and only some of the allies, location and enemies were made-up. Am I wrong?

11 minutes ago, xchan said:

Have the made up any of the current heroes? I'm not familiar with the lore, but I had the impression that all the heroes were actually mentioned on the books and only some of the allies, location and enemies were made-up. Am I wrong?

Idraen, Rossiel, Na'asiyah, Thalin.

Thanks!

9 minutes ago, xchan said:

Thanks!

I'm sure there's more. Those are just the ones off the top of my head.

Eleanor, Beravor, Mirlonde, Caldara, Amarthiul. All the new Harad heroes. Argalad, I think.

6 hours ago, JsBingley said:

Most ent cards are lore and tactic, we may need a tactic ent hero

It should be a tactic Ent Hero actually: so far, we know to what Sphere will belong all Harad cycle heroes but 2 and no tactic hero has been spoiled. Each cycle with its Deluxe so far featured 8 heroes, with 2 belonging to each of the four spheres.

From the FFG articles, we know:

- Sands of Harad: Gimli (lea) and Legolas (spi)

- pack 1: Kahliel (lea)

- pack 2: Thurindir (lor)

- pack 3: Scout hero (should be tactic)

- pack 4: Rohan hero (spi)

- pack 5: lore hero

- pack 6: Ent hero (should be tactic)

6 hours ago, Sicaire said:

It should be a tactic Ent Hero actually: so far, we know to what Sphere will belong all Harad cycle heroes but 2 and no tactic hero has been spoiled. Each cycle with its Deluxe so far featured 8 heroes, with 2 belonging to each of the four spheres.

Not quite true - Khazad-Dum/Dwarrowdelf had three Lore heroes and only one Leadership, and obviously the Core Set had 12 heroes so it couldn't balance out so neatly with the cycle of six. From Heirs of Numenor onwards you are correct though.

Shadows of Mirkwood and Khazad-Dum added together balance: 8 heroes, with two from each sphere. Dwarrowdelf has two Tactics heros and two Lore heroes, so at the end of a cycle those spheres typically have one more hero than Leadership and Spirit (though the Saga expansions since Treason of Saruman have unbalanced that; if we get two non-Fellowship heroes in The Mountain of Fire, one Leadership and one Tactics, then the Saga expansions will have a perfect sphere balance in their heroes).

So what do we think the exact text of "Followed" is? My guess:

Followed

Condition. Trap.

Play into your play area unattached.

If unattached, attach to the next eligible enemy that engages you.

While the attached enemy is engaged with you, reduce the total (threat) in the staging by X, where X is the attached enemy's printed (threat).

Sound good?

46 minutes ago, Bullroarer Took said:

So what do we think the exact text of "Followed" is? My guess:

Followed

Condition. Trap.

Play into your play area unattached.

If unattached, attach to the next eligible enemy that engages you.

While the attached enemy is engaged with you, reduce the total (threat) in the staging by X, where X is the attached enemy's printed (threat).

Sound good?

Yup, seems about right.

Follow-up: what happens if the staging area has negative threat?

Nothing. You can't get below zero.

4 minutes ago, Authraw said:

Yup, seems about right.

Follow-up: what happens if the staging area has negative threat?

The same as happens to anything else which goes negative - it just stops at 0.

I've played a few more games now with the new trap and ally.

"Followed" is extremely powerful. In a Dúnedain/trap deck that aim to keep as many enemies as possible engaged with you, you will likely be able to engage enemies with 3+ threat via Dúnedain Hunter. And since the trap isn't unique or limit one per enemy a couple of them can easily negate 5-6 threat.

Just make sure to keep this in mind when you commit characters to the quest as you don't get to chose if you want to apply the effect or not. Sometimes you don't want to progress too quickly to the next queststage.

Add a couple of "Emyn Arnen Rangers" and questing will never be a problem anymore. Is it too powerful?

29 minutes ago, Mazarbul said:

I've played a few more games now with the new trap and ally.

"Followed" is extremely powerful. In a Dúnedain/trap deck that aim to keep as many enemies as possible engaged with you, you will likely be able to engage enemies with 3+ threat via Dúnedain Hunter. And since the trap isn't unique or limit one per enemy a couple of them can easily negate 5-6 threat.

Just make sure to keep this in mind when you commit characters to the quest as you don't get to chose if you want to apply the effect or not. Sometimes you don't want to progress too quickly to the next queststage.

Add a couple of "Emyn Arnen Rangers" and questing will never be a problem anymore. Is it too powerful?

Definitely not surprised by this. Those two cards are unbelievable in a Dunedain Trap deck. You used to have to find room for spirit cards in your deck to get decent willpower, which meant making room for Idraen or songs or Celebrain's Stone. Now you just drop a 1-cost trap (free with Damrod) and it can quest for 3 pretty easily, and now you have a bunch of 2-cost lore allies that also quest for 3 and have 2 hit points.