I've been watching the pattern of the locations of each cycle, Gondor, Isengard, Harad, Mirkwood, Khazad Dhum, The Grey Havens, etc.

But the map is getting smaller. The only locations I feel are left that haven't been explored are Hobbiton (which aside from the Scouring of the Shire, I can't see), The Iron Hills (I also can't see because it'd be too similar to Khazad Dhum), Rhun (would be cool to see what they'd do with that), and...Mordor.

Now I know Mordor is the Land of Shadow and no one would go venturing in there without a GOOD reason, but I feel like that could open up a whole new way to play LOTR! Like what Cataclysm did for Warhammer: Invasion. Maybe somehow throw in some PvP or something to represent the shadow overcoming friendship and cooperation.

Anyway, just a thought. What do you guys think the next cycle will bring?

My guess would be Northern Rhovanion with Erebor/Dale as the settled places and the Withered Heath for a more wild setting (it's also the perfect place for dragon and drake enemies). There's also the Ice Bay of Forochel and Khand. I think there's plenty of room for exploration

After Dreamchaser and Harad, I am prepared to be surprised

1 minute ago, donkler said:

After Dreamchaser and Harad, I am prepared to be surprised

I think one more to the east, Rhovanion/Dale, and then one more to the north, Grey Mountains/Forochel. Khand is too similar to Harad, and only mentioned by name in Tolkien, so it's hard to extrapolate anything without being a copy of Sands.

16 hours ago, Gizlivadi said:

My guess would be Northern Rhovanion with Erebor/Dale as the settled places and the Withered Heath for a more wild setting (it's also the perfect place for dragon and drake enemies). There's also the Ice Bay of Forochel and Khand. I think there's plenty of room for exploration

I agree with this. Northern Rhovanion/Erebor/Dale/Withered Heath would also give the designers the opportunity to come full circle and to flesh out the Dale keyword (for which there are few cards in the game). It would also be a good cycle in which to introduce Thranduil (especially if at least one quest takes a detour into Mirkwood).

12 minutes ago, TwiceBornh said:

I agree with this. Northern Rhovanion/Erebor/Dale/Withered Heath would also give the designers the opportunity to come full circle and to flesh out the Dale keyword (for which there are few cards in the game). It would also be a good cycle in which to introduce Thranduil (especially if at least one quest takes a detour into Mirkwood).

I really think this is where we're going since we've seen a handful of Dale and Mirkwood cards already. Traits like that need to be fleshed out more. And 100% on Thranduil.

It would also be an appropriate place to renew the Eagle trait, adding a second sphere would be great for example.

And... why not an airborn adventure!?

22 hours ago, Gizlivadi said:

My guess would be Northern Rhovanion with Erebor/Dale as the settled places and the Withered Heath for a more wild setting (it's also the perfect place for dragon and drake enemies).

35 minutes ago, Sicaire said:

It would also be an appropriate place to renew the Eagle trait, adding a second sphere would be great for example.

And... why not an airborn adventure!?

Dragons and eagles fighting in the air above Erebor? Okay, this HAS to happen!

On 2/14/2017 at 7:30 PM, Gizlivadi said:

My guess would be Northern Rhovanion with Erebor/Dale as the settled places and the Withered Heath for a more wild setting (it's also the perfect place for dragon and drake enemies). There's also the Ice Bay of Forochel and Khand. I think there's plenty of room for exploration

We can only hope -- Erebor, Dale, and the Iron Hills seem like a gaping hole in the game.

Well, assuming there's another cycle at all (I kind of think this next one or two will be the last), then I'd say we're either in east Rhovanion or inside Mordor. I doubt Forochel can happen at this point just because they didn't do it in the Angmar cycle and there's not enough up in that bay for a whole cycle, plus I think forochel would be best as a gencon/fellowship type scenario like murder at the prancing pony. I also think it's possible they could just do a cycle where we hop all over middle-earth to just revisit all the major location before they wrap up the game. That is probably not too likely, but I'd like for that to be the last cycle.

Given that we received nine quests out of the rumor that a tiny bit of Numenor was sticking out of the water, I wouldn't write off any region of Middle Earth for insufficient material.

52 minutes ago, Willange said:

Well, assuming there's another cycle at all (I kind of think this next one or two will be the last), then I'd say we're either in east Rhovanion or inside Mordor. I doubt Forochel can happen at this point just because they didn't do it in the Angmar cycle and there's not enough up in that bay for a whole cycle, plus I think forochel would be best as a gencon/fellowship type scenario like murder at the prancing pony. I also think it's possible they could just do a cycle where we hop all over middle-earth to just revisit all the major location before they wrap up the game. That is probably not too likely, but I'd like for that to be the last cycle.

There's enough up there. There's an entire group of people, the Lossoth, about whom we knew the same amount as we knew about the Dunlendings, yet we got an entire cycle around them. Same with the Haradrim. Forochel connects to the Iron Mountains, so if we have another cycle to the east in Rhovanion and Dale, we could have another cycle trekking along the Iron Mountains towards Forochel in search of the sunken Palantiri, and possibly run into some remnants of Morgoth's Balrogs near the ruins of Utumno.

Well I suppose you all have good points... maybe it's just that I really don't want another whole cycle based on next to nothing... Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed the latest stuff, but I'd rather stick to the more iconic stuff that people have mentioned (such the region around Erebor).

So just a thought...

Do people think that the next cycle will pick up directly from the end of this one like Sands did with Dreamchaser? If so, then it should be pretty close to where we finish Poros right?

The Crossings of Poros takes us into Gondor, specifically South Ithilien, an increasingly dangerous place between the books and within sight of Ephel Duath and Mordor. However, while I don't think Gondor and environs is necessarily exhausted due to Heirs of Numenor, I'd be surprised if we didn't visit a comparatively new place next, and the only one in close proximity is Mordor -- but as Frodo found, getting into Mordor from the West (or North) is extremely difficult. Exploring South Mordor seems more feasible, since there are roads East and South and "vast slave worked fields", which at least gives some possibilities for living of the land, disguising yourself as servants or outsiders, and perhaps even getting help from local slaves. If we had ended the cycle in Khand instead of Ithilien I could see Mordor as a possibility, and I certainly hope that in some future cycle we get introduced to the Variags of Khand.

It would be cool from a flavor perspective if they did something like having the next cycles all take place in different parts of Middle Earth, but during the same time period as Harad, and all ending in Mordor. Then the final cycle could naturally be in Mordor with some epic quests reflecting all the different groups of heroes joining forces.

I agree that if they ever do Mordor, that'll be the last cycle. Anything after that would just be anticlimactic.

1 hour ago, Bunston said:

I agree that if they ever do Mordor, that'll be the last cycle. Anything after that would just be anticlimactic.

Valinor

4 hours ago, Network57 said:

Valinor

Touché

Blue Mountains?