http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3199

New deluxe expansion is now officially announced.

Bilbo Baggins is a new hero, can be played as a free and 4th hero, and introduces a new sphere of influence: The Baggins Sphere.

Very, very interesting direction!

mmmmmm......dont know what to think really. exited doesnt quite get there...intrigued would be a better word. to be honest ive felt a bit 'meh' about this whole thing since the news leak, and thats a VERY strange thing coming from me given how much i love the hobbit

im a bit confused- is a proper expansion or what?

i like the treasure thing- will that be a one off card type unique to this expansion?

can we use the player cards in our usual decks?

can someone please make me more exited for this

This is intriguing. I'm curious if this Bilbo who is a Hero but not one of your three heroes will be the only way to get Baggins resources or if we'll get regular heroes as well. If there are no regular heroes then any Baggins cards are basically useless outside of those scenarios, and lack of player cards is already my biggest complaint.

Also, I'm not sure what I think of the treasure cards. While I am usually a big fan of "unlocking" stuff, I don't know that this will work well. You now have to track which scenarios you've beaten and the treasure you gained from them before you can use them in your deck? Are they part of the encounter deck or the player deck?

Well this is far from release, so I'm sure we'll get additional announcements that will explain some of the new stuff.

Bilbo will be allowed to be used in current scenarios. In fact, he can help facilitate the Secrecy keyword with his 0 threat. He's a risk since him being killed ends the game, but just the same...

Well I thought this is just lovely! While I'm not entirely sure about whether or not I'm thrilled about it, I do think that anything to do with this card game has the ability to excite me beyond what is decent. The idea of it being a "saga expansion" makes me feel it'll be special, and the idea of it being the first half in a two-part (?)deluxe expansion set seems even more so. I presume there will be no second cycle of adventure packs coming out this year, anyway.

The treasure thing is interesting, though I'm also a bit confused by how they work - sounds like they're turned up from the encounter deck, though orcrist was free and unguarded, so presumably you can gain immediate possession of them? Hm. Makes me wonder what fresh hell they have in store for us.

There's not a tremendous amount to go on, but I am more excited about this now than I was last week!

I don't quite know what to think of this "expansion" yet. Kind of a strange direction...

Magali Villeneueve's dominating as usual! ha ha!

Make sure to also check out the About page on the expansions seperate website. It has some pictures of other player cards and encounter cards!

Did you read the "about" page on the minisite ?

http://fantasyflightgames.com/edge_npm_sec.asp?eidm=136&esem=1

Some cards and a few more infos...

Definitely an interesting direction. So now there's a distinction between "Deluxe Expansion" and "Saga Expansion?" I think the new Saga Expansion is a neat idea. If they keep going with these, I think we'll see scenarios for a bunch of the scenes in the novels. I, too, am worried about the number of player cards. I hope there are non-Baggins heroes and such to incorporate into other decks.

As for the treasures, I'm totally confused. If they're in the encounter deck and you find them during one game, do you just leave them out in future games? Or do you have to find it again each time you play. That really wasn't clear to me. I'm excited to learn more, even though this wasn't at all the kind of expansion I was expecting. Still, having just finished the Hobbit in the past week, I am super excited to try this set out.

EDIT: So it looks like we will get a bunch of normal cards as well. That makes me a lot more excited about this expansion.

Bit of an odd one this

a Bilbo who doesn't look like he's just escaped from the 70s has to be a good thing, but otherwise, I'm a bit uncertain.

no indication yet how many card there will be - 150ish? seems to be the standard. Probably lots for the encounter decks, it'll be interesting to see how much if any of it is useable in conjunction with the other cards and quests we already have.

As I say I can't really make my mind up about this- I kind of hope it works, and inspires them to produce a Silmarillion Saga expansion -that said, I don't want things like this to take too much attention away from boosting the pool of regular cards.

Here is my money...

So now, where is my ''The Hobbit - Over Hill and Under Hill'' expansion box ?

ok ive gotta say this- it is so annoying that they are splitting it into 2 - nowhere is the book split into two, unlike the trilogy-which is long and could be justifyed with the amount of material...... it is purely copying and jumping on the money wagon of the films- ive said this from the start and ill repeat it- i love the fact that we see new material but FFG come on -do your own thing....

im a long way from bought on this idea

bring on the hate..............

richsabre said:

Well, a lot really happens in The Hobbit. More than one expansion could cover, I'd say. But trying to split it into 3 could be stretching it, not because the source material is in short supply, but because it could bore the customer base. Two expansions is nice because we get to experience more scenarios from the book, but can look forward to other expansions besides a whole year of The Hobbit. I think two Saga Expansions is a good a balance in that regard.

Now, let's look at The Hobbit. If you were making scenarios, how many scenarios would you make? Assuming 3 scenarios, per expansion, how many expansions is that? You have to keep in mind how much depth to put in each scene. Is the troll part a whole scenario, or just one stage? How about Mirkwood? Do you have a separate scenario for the Elven King's palace and for the spiders? Or do you have stage 1 looking for the Elves, stage 2 defeating the spiders, and stage 3 escaping the elven palace? I'll think about this myself and get back with an answer on how I would split it up. I'd be interested to see if most people would try to do 1, 2, or 3 expansions to cover the story of The Hobbit.

yes, true i guess....im sorry im depseratly trying to find love for this

I like that this is not 1 expansion. The idea that we'll get more cards is invigorating.

Hmmm, wonder if we would have seen something like this so soon, if the movie was not being released in the near future.

So, this saga expansion will come in place of the regular boxed set and cycle? Or is it in addition to, with another to come down the line?
Are the player cards legal with the regular set cards? Obviously, they wil be compatible.
The treasure cards look like they will come off the encounter deck or perhaps off play and once you have taken possession of them, you can put include them in your decks permanently, but as befits treasures, there will only be one of them, since they should be exceedingly rare.

Sounds intriguing, though I would hope that they aren't going to replace a whole regular cycle to do this.

VERY excited about this "saga expansion". Glad to see that the game designers aren't afraid to continue to shake things up a bit (I think the treasures are a great idea, and if you don't like how they have to be "unlocked" just use them from the get go!).

I also really like the distinction of "saga expansion" as well. I'm imagining there will be fewer of these than normal expansions because there is a finite amount of book material to cover with scenarios but they make for an exciting change of pace.

Pretty stoked!

I'm very excited about this as well.

I love the normal cards that are coming out and can't wait for more of them, but special "saga" deluxe expansions based on the books is a great idea and a great way to get us cards from stuff that doesn't fit *exactly* into the current timeframe.

The books are why we are all LotR fans in the first place, so characters, scenarios and things right out of those is awesome. Looking forward to more of these maybe down the road based on other main books and even the Silmarillion, etc.

Budgernaut said:

i know ive already quoted this but ive just remembered what i meant to say.....id therefore do not 1 2 3 but a whole cycle, properly just like the others.....no change of system, yes put the new mechanics in just like all the other times, but keep the system the same, instead of mindless newline cinema copying

I guess the best way to look at it is this way -

Not to belittle the effort involved (because it was a big deal when other’s failed the task), but If Aragorn's quest to hunt down Gollum is fine to fit into one main set along with six adventure packs then an adventure the size of the one from "The Hobbit", i guess you could fit it into at least two of these special packs, if not more. And two sets is great especially if they are out before the first film, as they seem to plan.

Ok, let's not mince words here (and this isn't a go at anyone in particular, just some thoughts on negative comments over this) - yes, FFG are going to try to cash in the kudos, interest and love/joy that will be out there when the Hobbit movie arrives. And you know what, GOOD ON THEM. It's a business as well as something they enjoy. Who wouldn't do the same? And you know what's more - they have so far produced quality goods for this line, I am loving what they have done, and I ain't gonna start moaning because they are doing something to boost interest in what I think is a great game. Same goes for Cubicle 7 who produce the rpg, which by the way is set in the Wilderland right now - great idea, because in December 2012 people will be really interested in that region, all of a sudden. I hope LOTRO has a peek that way next year too.

The converted have been sat here wanting more Hobbit stuff, LOTR gets most of the attention. About time I say.

Well said, Timbolton.

In re-reading the article and thinking about it a bit more, I think I can answer some of my own questions. There won't be enough player cards here to make proper decks, therefore regular cards will have to be mixed in. Also, it very much sounds like this will be a boxed set with a second boxed set coming later, no cycle to be made out of it.

Finally, I wonder if we will see a Gandalf hero card?

However we get treasure cards, that Orcrist is pretty cool. 0-cost, for 2 attack, and "Response: After attached hero destroys an Orc enemy, add 1 resource to that hero's resource pool."

-Awesome!

And the Burglar Baggins card is a pretty cool idea. Notice the new sphere? "Action: Bilbo Baggins gets +2 willpower, +2 attack, and +2 defense until the end of the phase. (You may spend a [bilbo] resource from Bilbo Baggins' resource pool to play this card even if you do not control Bilbo Baggins." Maybe not the most interesting card, but you can spend someone else's resources!

I'm curious about that Tactics card with Gandalf wielding Glamdring. Definitely close to orcs, too... because it's glowing.

Altogether, I figure that no matter how you "unlock" treasures or use the new sphere, the cool thing is we're going to have scenarios from The Hobbit. Hard to complain, there. And I'm curious how that Stone-giant figures into everything....

Titan said:

From a themey standpoint I kind of hope not. Gandalf left the party just to show up in the nick of time even more in The Hobbit than he did in The Lord of the Rings, lol.

I am especially curious about the 5 ( 4 with Bilbo ) new heroes. Any thoughts? Maybe FFG will use the dwarves from the first 'fellowship' we haven't already seen . Fili, Kili, Thorin, Oin, Ori, Nori?