Conflict at the Carrock:

"A variety of new player cards offer exciting deck-building options, featuring new and familiar faces. Frodo Baggins is beginning to feel restless in the Shire while the Beorning Beekeepers offer their assistance to anyone willing to help drive the troublesome Trolls away. A Long-beard Mapmaker discovers a hidden Dúnedain Warning that just might help the heroes avoid defeat.

Conflict at the Carrock focuses on the lumbering Trolls terrorizing the Beornings, and while facing them in combat is fearful enough, Sacked! cards will endanger your heroes at every turn. Muck Adders will snap at your heels while you try to navigate the difficult locations surrounding the Carrock."

A Journey:

"During their search for Gollum, the heroes must take a detour in order to save a valuable ally. Since the Eagles play such an important role in the Shadows of Mirkwood Adventure Packs, players will want to retain the trust of their winged allies by saving one of their kin. In order to do so, they must bring the bird to Rhosgobel and seek out the wizard Radagast, who knows many secrets of the wild.

A Journey to Rhosgobel contains 60 fixed cards from the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle. In this exciting expansion, even more Eagles join the Tactics sphere, while Leadership players are given a Dúnedain Quest that will inspire confidence in their cause. The heroes’ trek through Mirkwood leads them to Haldir of Lórien, whose unnatural agility will aid the party in their task. However, the sky grows dark with foul minions of the Shadow, and every step toward Rhosgobel causes the heroes’ avian ally more pain. There is no time to lose!"

The Hills:

"Having lost Gollum’s trail at the Carrock, then embarked on a mission of mercy to Rhosgobel, the heroes now come to the hills of Emyn Muil, where they have only one objective: to find Gollum. This engaging Adventure Pack contains the first ever single-card quest, in which players must gather victory points by exploring a wide range of locations. Can you scour Emyn Muil and determine Gollum’s whereabouts before it’s too late? With 60 new cards for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, The Hills of Emyn Muil will augment existing decks while providing players with entirely new challenges for their heroes."

The Dead Marshes:

"The Dead Marshes is the fifth Adventure Pack in the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game! The hunt for Gollum draws to a close… unless he finds his way to escape once and for all.

The Dead Marshes introduces a Quest featuring the unique, new Escape mechanic that allows players to experience how slippery Gollum can be! With 60 new cards for The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, The Dead Marshes enhances existing decks with new Allies, Attachments, and Treachery cards. This expansion also offers players an iconic Hero and a wholly fresh Quest experience. "

(emphasis mine)

If FFG just posted those descriptions on the shop page, they simply copy + pasted the descriptions from each adventure pack's respective announcement article. Still, gotta say that I had forgotten a lot of what they posted in those articles before I re-read them the other day (i.e., I had forgotten they spoiled "The Carrock" card).

I really don't remember reading about Haldir or a single quest card...but who knows! either way, it was a good refresher!

Yup, totally. The first time I read some of those articles I didn't realize that some of them had such obvious giveaways as to what the cards were, i.e., a Longbeard Map-Maker found a Dunedain Warning... etc

Looking forward to checking out all of these packs, though! Time goes by too slowly... or maybe I just need more of a life to fill up the emptiness between adventure packs.

Good stuff indeed! I am so excited to see what kind of Beorn cards they include in the Carrock set.

Wait...."Long-Beard Mapmaker"? Does that title scream Dwarf to any of you guys??? I mean, we already have 3 dwarf heroes, Dain Ironfoot, and other various dwarf allies...I love dwarves, so, hope Mapmaker is another one!

Map-maker has the ability to spend 1 resource to give him plus 1 will (unlimited). Pretty sweet.

DurinIII said:

There's two, Grimbeorn the Bold and Beorning Beekeepers. Grimbeorn's an objective card that's really powerful and Beorning Beekeepers are a tactics ally with the action: discard beekeeper to give 1 damage to all enemies in the staging area.

Narsil0420 said:

Hey Matthew, how do you know all that? Have you got the Carrock already?

Narsil0420 said:

As an ally? How does he spend the resource? Meaning any resource of the controlling player?

Yes, the controlling player pays the resource(s) (unless the text specifies that all players may pay it but for the map-maker its not the case)

Ha ha, I was enjoying my secret knowledge (ooh that would make a good card title...) I found out here:

www.lotrlcg.com

He hasn't put up the images yet (except for Grimbeorn) but if you search for Shadows of Mirkwood cards you can see the info for all the cards from the set.

These trolls look rough!!! Not to mention the sacked cards!

Great. Thanks. I have sent you a private message, too, btw.

Anyway, I know it is early to speculate about its difficulty level but Carrock seems hardcore. Perhaps the often positive location travel effects will balance it out a bit but some cards just seem brutal. Sacked! is like an infinitely worse Caught in the Web and that itself can hurt. I believe Wilderness and Spiders will be the other two encounter sets.

ps: card 27 is missing yet, probably a Leadership card, assuming Dunedain Warning is also such although the icon is not there.

Yes, I had a look on the encounter cards and they seem very dangerous (combat wise and treacherywise), the locations arent that dangerous this time. Just to give you a feeling: at first when I saw that the carrock encounter deck is to be played in mix with the Wilderness cards I thought "****, those two Hill Trolls will return", now after having seen the cards I think "The Hill Trolls are the lesser of all the problems you'll face".

Slowly Roasted is brutal as well. I'm thinking Fortune or Fate and the Miner from the Iron Hills will have a big role to play in this scenario.

Shelfwear said:

Haha, yes.

Dúnhere with the Dúnedain Mark will be the Hero here, I believe. Also, Sneaked or Stood and Fought Son of Arnor will be of GREAT help here.

lleimmoen said:

Sneaked Miner, a combo to rival Sneak Gandalf in this scenario.

ClydeCloggie said:

Yeah, you are right, of course. I just don't like changing a deck between scenarios and Miner is pretty useless in some, whilst Arnor is great overall. However, I may have to alter the habbit to have a chance against the Trolls with Sacks.

ps: I like the names a lot

lleimmoen said:

re names: acknowledgement that The Hobbit is a children's book; Bert , Tom and William would be proud, no doubt.

re Miner: yes, I normally include him in the Mirkwood and Dol Guldur scenarios and swap him for another ally in the Anduin and Gollum scenarios, but he looks like a must for Carrock.