Well.... time to renew my TC subscription that I'd canceled for Harad.

No rush.

I'd also be more excited to see more good Weapons for non-Elves and more Weapons in other spheres.

Long Lake Trader + Spare Hood and Cloak basically lets you exhaust any of your characters to ready any other character every round. Pretty good!

Just now, Kakita Shiro said:

I'd also be more excited to see more good Weapons for non-Elves and more Weapons in other spheres.

So this.

I also like how you can have Bard son of Brand; Brand son of Bain; and great-grandaddy Bard the Bowman all on the table. Gotta love headcanoning that.

35 minutes ago, Kakita Shiro said:

Cool. I didn't realize Guarded X was different.

It's in the article:

"When a card with the Guarded (enemy) or Guarded (location) keyword enters play, you will discard cards from the encounter deck until a card of the indicated type is discarded. Then, you add that card to the staging area and attach the Guarded card to it as a guarded objective."

Necklace of Girion looks amazing. The other player cards definitely look like there's going to be a lot of interesting possibilities.

I also like that apparently the first quest is Journey *Up* the Anduin.

I like it! Cool symmetry with the core set & first cycle.

Bard son of Brand is going to make it easier to play attachments onto allies. Less risky, as you can get the attachment back if the ally dies. Raiment of War is already great, he makes it better. And Warrior of Dale looks like the perfect target-- his text looks to reduce the cost to play attachments on him.

I think that Long Lake Trader is going to be a very nice card to have in the card pool, opening up LOTS of flexibility with attachments. Who wants to pass Magic Ring or Horn of Gondor around the table at need? You do need each player to have their own copy of him, though. There's a small synergy with him and Renewed Friendship, but you have to plan for it. Player A has an attachment he wants for himself. He plays it on Player B, who uses Renewed Friendship on Player A, granting card draw, readying (harder to use), or threat reduction. Player B can then use Long Lake Trader to pass the attachment back. Player B got the opportunity to use the attachment one time, if it's useful to him like Silver Harp, Keys of Orthanc, or Rod of the Steward could be.

To Arms! looks like it will in some way boost an ally who has a player card attachment on him.

So I'm starting to warm to the "treasure" mechanic and wondered "How long until they make a card that must attach to a quest card in play?"

31 minutes ago, Bullroarer Took said:

So I'm starting to warm to the "treasure" mechanic and wondered "How long until they make a card that must attach to a quest card in play?"

The Long Defeat?

1 hour ago, PocketWraith said:

I also like that apparently the first quest is Journey *Up* the Anduin.

Ah, going full circle, returning to where the game started....this must be the last cycle. The end is nigh.

8 minutes ago, Freeman said:

The Long Defeat?

Touche. Forgot about that one.

Hmm ... might have to come back. This is an area I'd really like to explore.

I've skipped Haradrim because the location and theme didn't interest me, and have expansions and packs yet unopened because I got frustrated with difficulty levels of some expansions. As much as I love Middle Earth for its theme and lore, after playing the Arkham Horror LCG the LotR mechanics are just painful.

24 minutes ago, CaffeineAddict said:

Ah, going full circle, returning to where the game started....this must be the last cycle. The end is nigh.

One can only hope they'll also go full circle on difficulty levels for those who just want to build fun decks. <Currently beating my head against Lost Realm and Saga campaign and feeling pretty down on the game>

I love the guarded player card concept. I am imaging a guarded beorning ally that you rescue from imprisonment.

Guarded can be way worse than Doomed though. Would contribute excellently to a grief deck. If everyone plays a Guarded card on turn 1, that’s 4 extra cards. Or if 1 player plays 3 of them... Anyway, the card is awesome, but I see these things getting very little use in multiplayer.

6 minutes ago, GrandSpleen said:

Guarded can be way worse than Doomed though. Would contribute excellently to a grief deck. If everyone plays a Guarded card on turn 1, that’s 4 extra cards. Or if 1 player plays 3 of them... Anyway, the card is awesome, but I see these things getting very little use in multiplayer.

True. It could help if they are all unique, but that also would make them less desirable in a multiplayer situation.

55 minutes ago, Hawkstrike said:

Hmm ... might have to come back. This is an area I'd really like to explore.

I've skipped Haradrim because the location and theme didn't interest me, and have expansions and packs yet unopened because I got frustrated with difficulty levels of some expansions. As much as I love Middle Earth for its theme and lore, after playing the Arkham Horror LCG the LotR mechanics are just painful.

Same. I play on Sleazy Mode which I find lessens the sting of the difficult quests, and makes up for my admittedly weak deckbuilding skills. I skipped Harad for the theme, but probably will get it someday. I need to get the Saga expansions, first, though, which appear to be mostly out of print. But I can be patient. A new cycle to jump back in on will keep me happy enough.

42 minutes ago, cfmcdonald said:

One can only hope they'll also go full circle on difficulty levels for those who just want to build fun decks. <Currently beating my head against Lost Realm and Saga campaign and feeling pretty down on the game>

Yeah, this. I ultimately got through most of the Saga stuff OK (haven't done the Return of the King ones yet, though -- but the Hobbit series were great) but Lost Realm turned me off due to difficulty and I haven't touched the game in six months. I prefer more fun and thematic deck building to power decks and there are too many effects, modifiers, and attachments to keep up with board state.

11 hours ago, Network57 said:

Same. I play on Sleazy Mode which I find lessens the sting of the difficult quests, and makes up for my admittedly weak deckbuilding skills. I skipped Harad for the theme, but probably will get it someday. I need to get the Saga expansions, first, though, which appear to be mostly out of print. But I can be patient. A new cycle to jump back in on will keep me happy enough.

I feel no shame in admitting i often opt to play some quests on easy mode, so I have fun rather than repeatedly getting my face smashed. Sometimes i want a really difficult challenge, but often i just want to enjoy the experience.

Journey UP the Anduin lol. Anyone else wanna begin it with a big troll to commemorate the good ol' times?

1 hour ago, CaffeineAddict said:

I feel no shame in admitting i often opt to play some quests on easy mode, so I have fun rather than repeatedly getting my face smashed. Sometimes i want a really difficult challenge, but often i just want to enjoy the experience.

There are some quests that basically scream for it.

I always play easy mode.

I keep a list of quests I know are too easy in easy mode, and play them normal mode.

And a short list of quests I play Nightmare mode when I feel my deck would crush even normal mode.

I still can't say my win rate is sky high, though.

I'm very happy we're finally seeing Dale, and it looks like the scenarios are heading north. So we might just see what some of us wish for: going beyond Erebor, drakes and more dragons. That'd be insanely cool. I'm excited at the trading Item theme, curious to see where it'll lead! I'm a bit surprised because it seems very specific, and the previous Dale allies are more about location control than anything. The designers seem to have developped the tribes of Middle-Earth with a lot of foreseing and theme binding lately. Maybe they just came up with the idea. That's cool anyway. Maybe some Item attachment will bind the two mechanics.

27 minutes ago, banania said:

I always play easy mode.

I keep a list of quests I know are too easy in easy mode, and play them normal mode.

And a short list of quests I play Nightmare mode when I feel my deck would crush even normal mode.

I love this!

While I understand historically how it happened, I still think it's a shame that the "levels" are labeled as they are. If they had been named something like "Narrative/Expert/Nightmare" from the start, the overall perception of the game from outside the community may have been quite different, and I think in a good way.

Anyway, that ship has sailed. Less than four hours until the big announcement!