2 hours ago, player3351457 said:

Are we convinced the "four heroes but one of them a star" is referring to the three hunters contract? Why the four? For saga? Though the last line does give it support...

For me it sounds more like a four-hero contract, similar to the Three Hunters, but with a fourth hero instead of three restricted attachments per hero.

We pretty much have only 3 here slots open.

Double-sided Gandalf seems to be a popular guess here. I have a hard time seeing a Daruman 'hero'.

Wilyador is coming but will he be an hero or an ally? I have a hard time believing that an ally Wilyador would be mentioned here specifically.

Spirit Aragorn was often mentioned as a possibility but with both spirit spots in the cycle gone, I do not consider this likely.

Going by normal distribution amongst spheres we have

1xTactics

1x Lore

1x Leadership

left.

My guesses:

Gandalf ( one side Leadership, one side Spirit)

Tactics Wilyador

Lore Sam

Edit: I was obviously wrong here. Frodo is Leadership and not Spirit.

So I guess Spirit Aragorn will happen. I therefore drop Sam off my list and expect Gandalf to be Lore.

Ok I was originally thinking Saruman as technically him and Gandalf both have the mantle of white wizard at one time or another. Could also be Gandalf the White. And small chance it may also be the Blue Wizards which would be a cool entry. But we only have three heroes yet unspoiled if we are going with the collectors edition heroes along with Lothiriel being 3/6 for this cycle. So it could be but makes more sense to have Spirir Aragorn as one and then Gandalf the White/Saruman as one or both of the remaining.

Lothiriel is amazing. Going to be a Spirit staple with that low threat and high WP alone. Not to mention how she revitalizes Rohan builds.

Wouldn't it be cool if Wilyador was a hero? And as much as I would love him to be a healing one (starts with all the excess Athelas in play from JtR!) I feel like the poem more references an attacking one. So perhaps some kind of splash damage Attack where excess damage is dealt to another enemy character or it can attack two enemies in one turn?

One of them a star makes me think Spirit Aragorn, or maybe a Fellowship one if that's the case it could be the 3 hunters one, but it just doesn't fit the rest of the poem. Was Aragorn knighted? Not to my knowledge. The hobbits were absolutely knighted by Aragorn and Eomer and there is four of them so that would be a sweet boost to have them in their scouring the Shire Mode. Also allowing you to play four hobbits would be great! You could even pair up Frodo's four friends with him (woot Fatty!) or Aragorn with the four classic Hobbits if it's not hobbit specific. They could definitely use the help and the boost.

Thorin for sure, nice for us to get him.

Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong dillo! Ring a dong! hop along! fal lal the willow! Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo! (Seriously most anticipated ally here)

Gildor, see #5 and combines great with leaderships main weakness.

It really seems to be referring to the people that the ghosts are stalking which totally says grey company contract to me, Dunedain are one of the weaker traits so would be nice to give them a boost that works along their engagement strategy.

All in all very excited for this cycle, it's pretty much total fan service what most of us wanted. Very much loving this game right now!

40 minutes ago, RebelX said:

Spirit Aragorn was often mentioned as a possibility but with both spirit spots in the cycle gone, I do not consider this likely.

One spot is Lothíriel, have I missed the other one?

Just now, Amicus Draconis said:

One spot is Lothíriel, have I missed the other one?

My mistake! Frodo is leadership and not spirit. So Spirit Aragorn is very much alive...

Check it out: They do a double sided hero with different spheres, therefore opening up a slot for a neutral hero - Saruman! Yeah, not gonna happen :'D

My thoughts on the "reflection" is this.

A hero, whose setup action is to put a certain ally into play on another players side. For the sake of ease, let's say its Fili and Kili.

So you have a double sided hero (fili/kili) of different spheres, the owner of the hero chooses which side is flipped face up. The corresponding opposite ally (kili/fili) is flipped face up and placed in another player's play area.

That's why they're split, and why one has "reached their prime" (hero status). It also works well with both contracts released... the fellowship because it gets another ally in for a player looking to get 9 uniques, and for the three hunters because it works around the dynamic of having an ally "in deck".

It might not be fili/kili, it could be elladan/elrohir, or another set of twins I'm not thinking of... but I like the idea of a hero-ally setup. Maybe not so much the double sided choice... but to be able to play an ally out the gate, even if it's only in two+ player, is very appealing.

I want to revive this thread as it has been pretty darn accurate so far.

1. Two faces, not yet resolved, Gandalf the White or more likely Blue Wizards are my thoughts. And it doesn't fit Saruman at all so that theory is gone.

2. Lothiriel, confirmed and awesome.

3. It's got to be Wilyador either ally or hero but the former seems more likely.

4. This doesn't seem to be three hunters too me, one of them knighted and one of them a star? Leaning towards a 4 hobbit contract that comes with a free weak spirit Hobbit hero since 2/4 of them are awful haha.

5. Thorin Stonehelm.

6. Tom Bombadil.

7. Gildor Inglorian.

8. Another interesting one, Army of the Dead ally or Gray Company ally/contract either is open game and the most likely to me.

I want to be hopeful that there is another double sided hero coming but is there a chance that 1. Could be referring to Saruman as the "mirror"? Probably not because theres that weird "not in play at the same time" issue.

4. I like your analysis here. Maybe the front side of the contract is that you can only have heroes with the hobbit type. And then the other side is an actual hero you can use.

I am doubling down on my hero/ally setup combo. Or maybe ally/ally.

I am once again... reviving this post, with new info and one pack left.

1) still not convinced this is totally resolved. Could be the latest Kings Messenger though. It does make an ally into a hero, though the control thing is weird.

2) check - lotheriel

3) check - wilyador AND eagle hero. Nice

4) still might the last contract. If this allowed 3 heroes + a promoted ally then I would say you are good to go with four heroes. But because of this, I say this one is open.

5) check -- thorin

6) check -- tom bombadil

7) check -- gildor

😎 could be three hunters, though doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I say this might be open too.

I believe number one is Smeagol/Gollum.

54 minutes ago, MikeGracey said:

I believe number one is Smeagol/Gollum.

Perhaps. Though this post came out well after the box was announced so not much of a spoiler. Theres also "in play at the same time" which isn't really the case. Further, when describing "control", one doesn't really control gollum. Not saying you're wrong by any means, but I am not 100% this is the case.

52 minutes ago, player3351457 said:

Perhaps. Though this post came out well after the box was announced so not much of a spoiler. Theres also "in play at the same time" which isn't really the case. Further, when describing "control", one doesn't really control gollum. Not saying you're wrong by any means, but I am not 100% this is the case.

Tom Bombadil was also spoiled before the poem was released I think.

Number 1 could be the new contract, or Smeagol, its kind of weird though.

Definitely still think the last contract has to do with habit four hobbits, what an accomplishment it would be to make us finally use Fatty or Merry (if we get them for free!).

And the last one I'm still holding out hope for Army of the Dead or if the above isn't the final contract, then one for the Dunedain since they are currently the weakest archetype.

I have on good authority that...

1) is coming in pack 6 and that it is radically different that what anyone has been proposing so far.

4) is coming in pack 6 but people have correctly guessed it

8.) no word on this one either way

2,3,5,6,7 have been resolved.

That’s very interesting. 1 is super intriguing, and 4 I feel like is the 4th hero from the start, maybe if it’s a spirit or spirit hobbit hero. And 8 we are way off eh?

4 hours ago, player3351457 said:

I have on good authority that...

1) is coming in pack 6 and that it is radically different that what anyone has been proposing so far.

4) is coming in pack 6 but people have correctly guessed it

8.) no word on this one either way

2,3,5,6,7 have been resolved.

Ok let's guess differently for 1. maybe two cards featuring aragorn, one hero spirit incarnation of his kingly gondor self and a second one ally with a different name, making him thus playable, incarnation of his youth with the limitation he could not be played in the same deck of any aragorn named hero... at least is different from previous guessing....

I thought number 1 was confirmed to be Smeagol/Gollum?

24 minutes ago, MikeGracey said:

I thought number 1 was confirmed to be Smeagol/Gollum?

The give away on this is that gollum is not in play at the same time as smeagol.

Well he is kinda the same person... Wonder if the poem was being... Sneaky

10 hours ago, General_Grievous said:

That’s very interesting. 1 is super intriguing, and 4 I feel like is the 4th hero from the start, maybe if it’s a spirit or spirit hobbit hero. And 8 we are way off eh?

My best guess on the 4th Hero clues is that it allows for playing with 4 Hobbit Heroes, but they each must be of a different sphere ("one of them a star," I am taking to mean one is Spirit). That seems really potent, but comes at the potential cost of secrecy, so maybe it's fine. And four resources a turn is a lot, but if it's spread across spheres maybe that's enough of a balance? Contract could mitigate resource gain in all sorts of ways (e.g. your heros cannot gain spheres beyond their printed sphere, your heroes may not gain resources from card effects, heck the contract could even attach to one hero and prevent that hero from having a resource pool).

So, assuming the Contract is four hobbits related, that makes (1) extra tricky. If the car is double-sided, it's hard to imagine how a double-sided card would work that is not a hero or a contract, and we "know" the last Hero is Aragorn and lots of people have been guessing at a dual Aragorn that flips to "King Elessar," but that doesn't quite capture the "not by the same player at the same time" aspect of the riddle. So maybe it's a pair of single-sided cards, but a player can only have one of them in play at a time? Could two players have the pair in play at the same time? It's weird to think of a card dynamic that "required" multiplayer (or 2-Handed) to use. Maybe even something like a Beorning/Grimbeorn ally who could "transform" into an out-of-play Bear form? Still doesn't quite seem to capture the spirit of the riddle...

I'm totally stumped on this one, which makes it so intriguing and exciting.

Alright just to finally resolve all aspects of this riddle:

1) Thorongil, definitely allows “2 heroes to be in play at the same time while splitting between them”

4) 4 heroes contract one of each sphere and the no one else to shoulder the load must have been referring to the no other hero can help pay for the out of sphere cards of the other three

8.) so seeing the last pack of cards.. like is this one of the Dunedain cards or event? A Desperate Path is my guess since it makes sense thematically. Anyone else have a thought on what this part of the poem was referring too.

4 sounds a lot like a combination of three contracts. 4 heroes references the Bond of Friendship contract, that's pretty obvious. The next bit sounds a lot like Messenger of the King, with an ally promoted to the rank of hero at the start of the game. The final bit could reference Forth! The Three Hunters contract, as they have no other characters on that road. But I don't understand why this couldn't be 3 different paragraphs. Maybe to throw us off?

8 did sound like a Grey Company contract or something, but looking at the cards we have now, it might just reference the fact that we got some Dunedain cards towards the end. That Sparagorn art does look like it takes place at the Paths of the Dead, but that's the most concrete conclusion I can make from that.

The rest lines up pretty accurately with the cards we got.