any of our fine american players posted full visual spoliers yet? been checking BBG but nothing that isnt on here

forget it.....found it on cardgamedb....also realised that its actually available in Uk though not in the store i preordered from....grrr...

Thanks for the pointer.

All cards look gorgeous, even though the power creep phenomenon (http://mtg.wikia.com/wiki/Power_Creep) has started. The Dwarrowdelf Axe fully replaces Dwarven Axe and puts it on the trash heap where Dark Knowledge has already landed (due to Burning Brand). Guess the next big Box Expansion will introduce Mithril Axe that costs 0 and does even more damage.

Anyway, looking forward to play the new cycle.

Shelfwear said:

funny, i was thinking the same when i looked at the cards....some look very powerful,and not for much cost- look at durins song....all that for 1 cost. i really hope that ffg take measures (if there are any....??) to prevent this from becoming a problem, though the only way i see this happening is restricting cards and what you can include in decks, which i dont really like the sound of as that seems a bit too restricting on the whole custumisation aspect of the game. however being a theme player its not too bad....im going to need plenty of core set cards to complete various theme decks and you know i like to make decks on artwork and other stuff, so the core set will never go out of style for me

on a related note...there really isnt many expensive cards at all from what ive seen in khazad

Shealfwear: Not that I disagree with you about the new axe entirely (it is a better axe in general) but, the old axe can still be equipped by ANY character as a pump, whereas the new axe is strictly attached to a dwarf. Overall though, yeah, the old axe won't see nearly as much play in my deck. You are right, the art in this set is beautiful and better than the core in my opinion (though don't get me wrong, I love the core set art).

No, the old axe can only be attached to a hero (not character), the new one on the other hand to any dwarf character which is much more useful in any Dain/Dwarf deck

richsabre said:

Would you mind posting a link? I'm not as familiar with navigating that site, and I'm hungry for spoilers.

Thanks!

juicebox said:

Full Khazad-dum visual spoiler

Thanks for card list)

Thank you, some very fine artwork!

Shelfwear said:

Shelfwear said:

You are totally wrong. I think a lot of people expect power creep so much, that they tend to see it everywhere. Even though Dwarrowdelf Axe and Burning Brand are better overall than Dark Knowledge and Dwarven Axe, this is not related to any power creep.

Dwarven Axe adds 2 attack instead of 1 to character like Dwalin. You can attach it to Legolas to make his ability more effective. .And finally, you don't need to play Dwarven heroes when you use old axe. As I said, given existing card cardpool, Dwarrowdelf Axe will see much more play than Dwarven Axe (a lot of people will play dwarven decks), but it is not better in every aspect. Dwarrowdelf Axe does not fit into every deck with Tactic..

Same with Burning Brand and Knowledge. While I agree that brand is much better overall, you must prepare the deck to use its full potential. For instance, you need lore blocker to make it effective. Dark Knowledge does not have such restrictions, you can block the attack using a different character. Once again, Brand is better but it will not fit in every deck with Lore.

But later or soon we will gona see power creep... Khazad-dum is only first steap to such a pass...

Aluminium said:

i did a quick google on this and it seems to appear on alot of card games which leads me to believe it isnt really aviodable, i cant see how it is aviodable without sacrificing creative elements of the game i.e. card restrictions

It really depends on exactly where you see the difference between the normal addition of new cards and a "power creep". In every game with a wide range of options (e.g. a huge card pool) there a better/stronger options/cards and weaker ones. This is natural. And without doupt already true for the base game of LotR.

Every expansion that includes player cards will always include good ones and bad ones as well. Sometimes even a very good one or a very bad one. Like in the base game! As long as the card pool is small you'll have to make compromises by filling up your deck of good cards with mediocre ones. As you get more and more cards you'll be able to improve your decks and get rid of the not so good cards. People would not be very happy about expansion packs that includ mediocre or bad cards only.

So to me a "power creep" would be the introduction of cards that are generally and significantly better than the existing ones on average. If there is one awesome card in an expansion that's fine with me because there are like 5-10 awesome cards in the base set as well. If I compare KD-cards with cards like "Northern Traker", "Gandalf", "Erebor Hammersmith", Celebrian's Stone", "Steward of Gondor", or "Dwarven Tomb" I can by no means see a "power creep".

so? Who cares about power creep? Why is this even a bad thing... No one complains about a level 1 axe in skyrim being replaced by a level 20 axe ages latter... I mean who keeps all there old armor in fall out? No one ... maeybe just to dress up ... Like if you pla ya MMO and you kill 20 rats for your first quest and then at level 50 you can aoe and kill 1000 rats with one spell.. dose anyone complain?

Power creep in a dueling game can be a very bad thing.. not so much in a LCG.. it is more of a problem in collectable card games were the "completeness" of personal collections is much more patchy... so basically whom ever spend the most money wins. SO there are some arguments against power creep for dueling games.

This is co-op / solitaire... power creep means nothing... yes quest get easier as the card pool gets bigger.. so frick'n what? I would rather have great new cards come out, and also the current quest that come with those player cards will be of proportional difficulty. You can always just use the restricted card rules when making your decks to limit the card pool to make it more challenging when going back to old quest as well.

I just find it werd that in alsmot every game on the planet, espeshally in computer games, there is progressiion of player power, where old content becomes more easy and newer content is harder and this is fine.. look at any cRPG... hey stuff that.. look at any paper RPG.. anyone play Call of Cthuluh (the rpg)?

My point is .. yes there is power creep.. my other point is so ******* what?

booored said:

i think the point is that in games like elder scrolls and so on you dont actually have material things...they are computer images, whereas here you actually have cards you paid real money for, which may or may not become useless, thats what has people worried. i occasionally play LOTRO and power creep there is terrible, you start in the shire and bree etc, and by level 20 all those areas are pointless because they no longer hold a challenge, you can 1 shot every enemy in sight, despite them being a central area to the game. i would not pay for such a game.

but yes, i see youre point, i also would rather see the game progress and move forward and get great new cards instead of concentrating on what came out 2 years ago etc. however i still would like to be able to use core set cards in 2 yrs also. but as has been said, it will be a long time (if ever) before cards such as unexpected courage, gandalf, celebrians stone etc become useless. i hope.......