While listening to LOTR audio while traveling, I started wondering how many named characters (especially with dialogue) don't yet have cards in the game. So I thought I'd take a systematic approach and look at them chapter by chapter. With one post per day I could get through the entire work in less than two months. I'll put a * symbol by those that have dialogue, and put a bracket around those who are dead/departed by 3001 (year of Bilbo's Party). Names are listed in order of appearance, and cards spoiled but not released are included.

I:1 A Long Expected Party

*Bilbo Baggins (2 saga heroes, Lo Hero, Ta Hero, Sp Ally)

*Frodo Baggins (4 saga heroes, Sp Hero)

[Old Took]

*Ham (Gaffer) Gamgee (Lo Ally)

*Sam Gamgee (Le Hero, Sp Ally)

*Old Noakes

*Daddy Twofoot

[Drogo Baggins]

[Primula Bandybuck]

[Old Master Gorbadoc Brandybuck]

*Sandyman the miller

[Holman Gamgee]

*Gandalf (N hero, two Ne allies)

*Otho Sackville-Baggins

*Lobelia Sackville-Baggins

*Odo Proudfoot

Everard Took

Melilot Brandybuck

*Rory Brandybuck

*Gollum/Smeagol (two objective allies, one objective, three enemies)

Adelard Took

Dora Baggins

Milo Burrows

Angelica Baggins

Hugo Bracegirdle

*Merry Brandybuck (Sp Hero, Ta Hero)

Sancho Proudfoot

Those without cards never left the shire, though I'd like to see Lobelia getting a card for whacking ruffians with her umbrella. Merry needs an ally version, and both Frodo and Sam deserve another hero version.

Odo Proudfoot should have a Lore ally that lets you draw a card every time you explore a location to represent his "Proudfeet".

This clearly shows we need a whole cycle in the Shire.

Yep, and coincidentally a cycle in the Shire could lead us to the White Towers (which also coincidentally appear in the art for Gildor hero, who could come out next cycle), which hold a palantir and thus it could tie in to a theme of wizards and artifacts. (Did I already say ARTIFACTS?)

This is a great idea!

Very thorough

I:2 The Shadow of the Past

Folco Boffin (Lo hero)

*Fredegar Bolger (Sp hero)

*Peregrin Took (Lo hero, Sp hero)

*Ted Sandyman

Hal Gamgee (Le ally)

*Saruman the White (enemy, N ally)

Sauron the Great

[Gil-Galad]

[Elendil]

[Isildur]

[*Deagol]

*Aragorn (three saga heroes, Le hero, Lo hero, Ta hero)

[Acalagon the Black]

Thoughts -- we need a Saruman hero and a SpAragorn to complete the collection. I credited Sauron with no dialogue, though he has some in the Silmarillion. I do think it ironic that in a card game entitled "The Lord of the Rings", that the Lord of the Rings himself has no card at all.

The inclusion of Acalagon is because I consider named creatures to be "characters" for the purpose of the list, though that mostly just affects mounts.

22 hours ago, banania said:

This clearly shows we need a whole cycle in the Shire.

I'm pretty sure that the next cycle will takes place in the Shire.

FFG, or at least Caleb and Matt likes patterns.

First pattern:

All of the FFG created heroes were out in the 2d or / and in 5th AP of each cycle. (except for Khaliel)

Cycle 3 : Deluxe Main faction -> Gondor

AP 2: Mirlonde (Silvan)

AP 5: Caldara (Gondor)

Cycle 4: Deluxe Main faction -> Rohan

AP 2: Idraen (Dunedain)

Cycle 5 : Deluxe Main faction -> Dunedain

AP 2: Rossiel (Silvan)

AP 5: Amathiul (Dunedain)

Cycle 6: Deluxe Main faction -> Noldor

AP 2: Lanwyn (Dale)

AP 5: Na 'Assiyah (Corsair)

Cycle 7: Deluxe Main faction -> Silvan / Dwarf

AP 1: Kahliel (Harad)

AP 2: Thurindir (Dunedain)

Cycle 8: Deluxe Main faction -> Dale

AP 2: Haldan (Woodman)

Second pattern, there is a FFG created hero related to the current cycle faction in each cycle (except the 4th cycle...).

Cycle 3: Caldara (Gondor)

Cycle 5: Amathiul (Dunedain)

Cycle 6: Na 'Assiyah (Corsair)

Cycle 7: Kahliel (Harad)

Cycle 8: Haldan (Woodman)

Third pattern there is a link between hero of AP 2 and AP 5 and the next cycle (or the following).

Cycle 1 AP 5 Boromir (Gondor) --> Cycle 3 Gondor

Cycle 4 AP 2 Idraen (Dunedain) --> Cycle 5 Dunedain

Cycle 4 AP 5 Galadriel (Noldor) --> Cycle 6 Noldor

Cycle 5 AP 2 Rossiel (Silvan) --> Cycle 7 Silvan / Dwarf

Cycle 6 AP 2 Lanwyn (Dale) --> Cycle 8 Dale

Cycle 7 AP 2 Thurindir (Dunedain) --> Cycle 9 Dunedain ?

Cycle 7 AP 5 Floco (Hobbit) --> Cycle 9 Hobbit ?

Cycle 8 AP 5 Bilbo (Hobbit) --> Cycle 9 Hobbit ?

So for me it's obvious:

Cycle 9 will be either a Dunedain or a Hobbit cycle. We already went to Arnor, so i'll bet we will discover the Shire in the next cycle.

One correct -- Folco Boffin is *not* an FFG-created hero. The four friends who helped Frodo prepare for his move to Crickhollow were Merry, Pippin, Fatty, and Folco. Folco evidently lived close to Hobbiton, because on the day they left Folco went home after lunch and that's the last we hear from him. The reference in chapter two is after mentioning Frodo's "many friends" -- Folco and Fredegar are named as "two of these", but Merry and Pippin are singled out as his closest friends.

11 minutes ago, dalestephenson said:

One correct -- Folco Boffin is *not* an FFG-created hero. The four friends who helped Frodo prepare for his move to Crickhollow were Merry, Pippin, Fatty, and Folco. Folco evidently lived close to Hobbiton, because on the day they left Folco went home after lunch and that's the last we hear from him. The reference in chapter two is after mentioning Frodo's "many friends" -- Folco and Fredegar are named as "two of these", but Merry and Pippin are singled out as his closest friends.

Correct. Thanks

I'll edit my post. That doesn't change my point though, AP 5 of cycle 7 and cycle 8 are still Hobbit Heroes. ^^

We never been to Edoras in any scenario of the game. We went to Cairn Andros, Minas Tirith, Isengard, Bree etc..., but never in Edoras 😞

I wish we will go there in some scenario. Maybe in cycle 10 in 2022. ^^

So far there are no invented (either ally or hero) Hobbits, Noldor, Beornings, Eagles, Outlands, or Esgaroth.

Great lists! Would also love to see some Shire action. Either as a new story or as a "final saga pack" that contains Burning of the Shire and the whole counter attack over three missions and with new Sam/Frodo hero characters and Merry/Pippin allies.

That or Mordor, Mordor would be sweet.

56 minutes ago, dalestephenson said:

So far there are no invented (either ally or hero) Hobbits, Noldor, Beornings, Eagles, Outlands, or Esgaroth.

In the digital game there is now Tom Took...

Haven't really played the digital game, despite getting the collector's edition -- is there new artwork for Tom Took that might show up in our game?

I do wonder *why* they would invent a Took, when there's so many existing Tooks available in appendix C.

They reused some Treachery art for Tom, if I recall. And I have no idea why they felt compelled to invent their own Hobbit when there are *so many* named Hobbits in the books.

One strong argument for the next cycle being Hobbit is that the past few cycles always have had cards sort of "announcing" development to come (the Beorning Guardian and Knight of Dale in past cycle), and we start seeing Hobbits in AP5 of this cycle.

Furthermore, there is Tom Cotton.

That guy boosts Hobbit allies when they enter play, but there are not much Hobbit allies to choose from right? And the Raise the Shire event is bound to raise no one if you don't have Hobbit in your deck...

The player card development has been very consistent this past few years, so I'm sure we're bound for a massive injection of Hobbit cards coming soon.

Finally, it's a Lord of the Rings game, and we haven't had yet a Deluxe centered on Hobbits. How silly does that actually sound?

1 hour ago, banania said:

... but there are not much Hobbit allies to choose from right?

There are 10 Hobbit allies total , of which 6 are unique . So that means there are only 4 non-unique Hobbit allies in the game right now.

In contrast, there are 16 Hobbit heroes (10 playable outside of Sagas) representing 8 unique characters: Bilbo, Fatty, Folco, Frodo, Merry, Pippin, Sam, and Tom.

I love the idea of the shire being the next setting but there are so many amazing hobbit cards that it feels tough to fit them all in one deck. It would probably stress me out to get a whole cycles worth on top of what we have. There are so many auto includes I have trouble cutting down to a reasonable deck. I do agree and have also observed that most of the small amount of non unique allies for hobbits are not strong.

We could see a thain title attachment

I:3 Three is Company

*Elrond Halfelven (Lo hero, Lo ally)

Lotho Sackville-Baggins

[Elbereth Gilthoniel]

*Gildor Inglorion [boon ally, Le hero, Lo ally]

This chapter is also where we meet the Black Riders, but they are not named, nor except for the Witch-King are they ever distinguished.

While not in the Lord of the Rings itself, Tolkien named the one Nazgûl in Bag's End Khamûl the Easterling according to Unfinished Tales and he even got his own card in the Nightmare deck.

I:4 A Short Cut to Mushrooms

*Farmer Maggot (Ta ally)

Grip

Fang

Wolf

*Mrs. Maggot

No first name is given in the text for either of the Maggots. The dogs are large and ferocious, and well-trained, and probably would be useful allies against non-Nazgul enemies.

I:5 A Conspiracy Unmasked

[Gorhendad Oldbuck/Brandybuck]

No new (living) characters were introduced in this chapter.

If you buy LotR as a book(s), you'll have an index of all characters and on which pages they appear. That should shorten your work. But it depends on the print version if it has such index.

50 minutes ago, Flrbb said:

If you buy LotR as a book(s), you'll have an index of all characters and on which pages they appear. That should shorten your work. But it depends on the print version if it has such index.

True. Bit i personally love the way he is doing this on a daily / chapter base. I spend some time every evening to check the book for information on the lesser known characters...

I do have a printed book, and proceeding alphabetically through the index would reduce the chance I miss a character in the text. But I think order of appearance is more interesting, and I think that's easier to do working through the text than through the index. It also lets me separate characters with dialogue from those that do not more easily.

I:6 The Old Forest

Old Man Willow (enemy)

*Tom Bombadil

*Goldberry

Bombadil does have a boon associated with him, but no ally. Like Sauron, his power level is not comparable with anything we have in the game, so any card would underrate him.