So I guess the two sets will be stand alone "deluxe expansions" which will come out in addition to the regular APs and deluxe expansions.

So there is still the chance of an elf cycle after this one…….. I hope.

Also it sounds like the treasures can only be used in the Hobbit adventures:

Still, treasures do more than bolster heroes; they establish continuity in a campaign that unites all three scenarios from The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill, meaning the scenarios become something greater than the sum of their parts. They combine for a grand adventure!

5 heroes will probably mean that we get 1 of each sphere and Bilbo.

Also I guess we won't see the baggins sphere in our normal APs.

I think we will see encounters form the core set again…….Or they have to put more cards into the box. But I think it is the same price as the normal deluxe expansions so the reuse of core set cards seems likely.

Yenninho said:

And Dori appears to be an ally, if you go to the website for "The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill" and click on "About."

I am way excited. The art keeps getting better and better, and the "Hobbitesque" direction is amazing. One happy customer here!

muemakan said:

Yeah, I was thinking about this as well. I think it'd be cool to add a few more cards to the existing core set encounter sets and then re-use some of those. They could even add a few treasures to those sets or something.

The only minor problem with this, is that thematically speaking, Bilbo and the Dwarves don't go thru Mirkwood until about the second half of their journey, and they definitely don't go to Dul Guldur. Though I guess some Anduin River stuff would be semi-okay. I guess adding some of the encounter sets to some new ones would make them fit okay though since its just a lot of goblins, wargs and trolls anyway though.

Mighty Jim said:

70's Baggins is smooth. I'm guessing the player cards will be interchangeable. The treasure looks to be scenario specific(maybe rules to pad other encounter decks with treasure?) and I'm guessing the Baggins Sphere resource can be used to pay for anything...or will be limited to paying costs to stave off scenario specific encounters.

Wow, I'm pretty excited about the new expansion. Being able to play the adventures of the main books is great, and FFG's decision to clearly separate between a "usual" expansion and a "saga" expension is also good.

Given the limited amount of potential heroes in the main books, I feared a primitive recycling of heroes (e.g. "Aragorn or leader in the dark" = Aragorn just as a spirit hero with some stats changed...). But the new Bilbo Baggins features a complete new idea. And giving players Bilbo as a special (zero-cost) hero is also good, since he will be necessary thematically in most (all?) of the quests.

And I'm especially excited for the new encounter cards in wilderness (and not underground or in dungeons), like the rock-throwing giant or the High Pass! Can't wait for this expansion to be available. Thx to Shiv@n and Budgernaut for the link to the "about" page, I would have missed that page.

Mattr0polis said:

Maybe not the Dwarfs but Gandalf goes to Dol Guldur and raids the fortress with the help of the Elves after he leaves Thorin's Company & Bilbo temporarily. Even though this is not mentioned in "The Hobbit" book, it happens as Tolkien wrote later and the occurences will most probably be part of the film as the trailer suggests.

Curious what you others think about this. Doesn't it seem a bit early in this game to introduce an entirely new spin (as in the case with the newly spoiled Bilbo card)? Please don't misunderstand me however,I have every intention of buying this new set; though I would rather just have more cards that can work off of the core set and adventure packs. Are the cards in this special hobbit set able to mix with the current card pool without problems?

thanks,

Joseph

I'm just glad that we're getting 5 heroes in this expansion instead of the paltry two in the previous one. I do like the idea behind the treasure cards. I know someone made a houserule to include rewards for beating scenarios in succession using the Dunedain attachments, so it's cool to see something similar to that in the rules.

yeah thats what i want to know- have i missed a block of text somewhere? can you use the bilbo sphere cards in other decks

I have a load of questions about this expansion, just off the top of my head

1/ Can you use the same heroes that you use in the regular game? Most obvious, can I use two Bilbo baggins heroes (in some weird, Dr. Who time warp event?). I have not read the Hobbit in a long time but would some of the characters not even been born yet? I know Legolas is about 3,000 years old, but was Aragorn even alive then. Forgive me, my Ring lore is a bit rusty?

2/ The box looks all happy and warm smles and hobbit goodiness, does that mean that the scenarios are going to be easy? The difficulty of the original boxed set I am sure made many players (myself included) scream and howl like the protagonists in an H.P. Lovecraft story. I just looked at the advertisements and thought that it would be a few difficulty 1, 2 or 3 scenarios.

3/ What new rules will be included. I always wonder if expansions like this are designed to correct all the design flaws of the original game and have a 2.0 set.

Anyways, those are the questions I am screaming out now. Any insight would be most welcome. Any speculation would also be welcome.

I think the Baggins Sphere cards will be playable in decks outside of the Hobbit. I am sure we may get a new version of Frodo, and don't forget Bilbo is part Took so whenever we get Pipin he will probably be Baggins sphere (Who knows maybe Lobelia Sackville-Baggins might make an appearance). I am sure there will also be an attachment ala Resourceful or a Song that will allow the use of the Baggins sphere as well. As far as the five new heroes I am going to go with Thorin (Leadership), Gwahir or Beorn (Tactics), Balin (Spirit), Ori or Nori (Lore), and of course Bilbo (Baggins Sphere.)

I am very excited about the idea of the Saga Expansions as this can lead to an actual telling of the Lord of the Rings and possibly the Silmarillion and who knows Children of Hurin or Unifinished Tales/History of Middle-Earth stuff.

Treasure cards sound like a cool mechanic and finally help scenarios lend themselves to a campaign mode. Especially if Saga Expansion scenarios are designed with a better flow and faster pace to them to get more scenarios in at one sitting of the game.

You definitely wouldn't be able to use two Bilbos. The card is unique, so only one in play at a time.

radiskull said:

+1

most card games are unique by card "name".. the way to look at it is that it isn't teh "card" that is unique but the name of the card.. so if they have the same name, even if they have different "titles" you can not use that card twice.

Here is an example from CoC (who nate is a designer of as well, these games share much)

PS - check out the power creep on this card lol

Arwen is the first example of this that will be released with the next adventure pack. You won't be able to use the spirit ally Arwen with the quest objective Arwen for the two scenarios that she is in. Arwen can't escort Arwen, lol.

Now THAT's power creep.

radiskull said:

hehe

Aragorn would have been alive at the time of the Hobbit, although only about ten years old - I think the Hobbit is about 2941, and Aragorn was born 2931.

That said, Bilbo's Birthday party, (when the LCG notionally starts) is 3001, at which point Eowyn was 6, and she seems to manage fine being a hero. - She was only 26 at the time of the War of the Ring, as good as she was, Miranda Otto was about 10 years older than Eowyn was supposed to be...

To steal a phrase from Doctor Who, I think they've decided that it's all just "wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey" rather than going for any clear chronology.

Re: Shub-Niggurath - ridiculous power creep (and very annoying as I only have the Core set version)

Guys, how can you play that other game? I for one could not stand looking at the ugly pics?

... i know it is not much to the topic, and it is meant partly as a jest, those pics though they really gave me an unsettling feeling, i had to go calm myself watching some middle-earth artwork afterwards... cheers

Hastur360 said:

history material wont be in given they are draft material and analysis, UT probably the same, i think given this news then silmariliion has a higher chance of being done, though i still heavily doubt that, silmarillion rights are tougher to aquire

children of hurin is just an extended version of a part of the silmarillion so i doubt we shall get both

I am really excited for this. My only complaint is that stuff comes out for this game faster than I can keep up.

scottindeed said:

ha...i agree with you on that one

lleimmoen said:

You're not the only one. It didn't bother me too much when I first saw those posted (though I definitely wasn't expecting it) but I ended up having a nightmare about Shub-Niggurath last night from those pictures . . . creepy stuff.

I can't help feeling a tiny bit cynical now, as it was pointed out on here whether they would have produced this expansion so soon if the movie wasn't due out. But then, I've felt cynical when I read the Khazad-dum announcement, and I very quickly got over that. So I'm sure it won't be anything that'll stop my enjoyment of this!

I am beginning to look upon it more as a game-within-a-game, so that while it is most likely possible to use the cards elsewhere, from what I've seen so far it looks so highly thematic to The Hobbit that I'd probably want to keep it a little bit special, and not go including Baggins cards in every deck I make. Although that may just be because I'm slightly confused about that... But it looks excellent, and I'll definitely be snapping it up, cynicism or no!