Wow, I wouldn't think the game (or you in this case) would surprise me so much after so long of playing it. That is what you get when you don't study the rulebook hard enough. Thanks!

Tritogenia said:

Yes yes that how you should to play this cool event.

Forgive me, as I don't speak a single word of French. But I am lazy enough to use Google Translate, so here is the text from that linked magazine using Google to translate:

LIVE THE DREAM
The three new scenarios in The Hobbit: For Mountains and Underground capture the excitement and emotions of the novel. Bilbo, Thorin and their company must avoid a trio of powerful trolls, shelter from storms and thundering giants, surviving an ambush goblins, fighting a pack of Wargs and a strange face creature known as Gollum in a riddle contest far below the surface. Each of the three scenarios in The Hobbit: For Mountains and Underground brings excitement and challenge. These scenarios should be played as much as experienced as they draw you into the incredible story this journey with a beginning, middle and end. In addition, scenarios can be combined to form a campaign that will allow you to relive the events depicted in the first half of the novel. And with the release later this year, a second box which will take events of the second half of The Hobbit, you can trace the whole of this fantastic journey. Meanwhile, players gain the benefits of capacity Unique Bilbo. Appearing in The Hobbit: For Mountains and Underground as a hero of the new sphere of influence: Baggins, Bilbo will join the adventure under the control of the first player. Which means that the first player can have up to four heroes, but the main actor of this extension is not a hero like other. As in the novel, the audacity and the spirit of Bilbo may save you from the worst situations. The scenarios contain innovative mechanical balance the combined efforts of the players with the central role of Bilbo. This one can not gain resources through card effects players, but each scenario offers ways to spend those that will accumulated. That Bilbo uses its resources to release the Dwarves bags of Trolls, he leads his companions through the ambushes Goblin, or uses his mind to solve puzzles, the use of its resources can have a major impact: the Players will have to choose wisely each expense. Rendezvous in a preview of next EdgeEnt.com for more information on resource use of Bilbo.

TREASURES The Hobbit: By Underground Mountains and renews the game The Lord of Rings, the Card Game in many ways. In addition to Bilbo Baggins and scenarios that closely follow the events of the first half of the novel, this extension gives us the first treasures! The treasures are new maps that represent players quelquesuns objects of the rarest and most expensive that your characters can find as they sail to Middle-earth. But players can not add these valuable items directly to their decks. To use a treasure card, players must first locate the in the scenario. It is only then that they "unlock" the possibility of using these cards later in the famous scenarios. Treasures increase the replayability of exciting scenarios Hobbit by rewarding players beyond mere victory over each quest. In addition, they establish a continuity in the countryside that unifies all the scenarios of the extension. We will disclose more information on these exciting new maps in another preview on our site.

WHAT IS AN EXTENSION OF SAGA?
While an extension of the classic Lord of the Rings, the game Cards creates new original adventures in Middle-earth, Extension of this saga gives us the chance to follow the exciting J.R.R. story imagined by Tolkien. The characters, enemies and scenarios Hobbit, By Mountains and Underground are directly learned from the first half of the novel and the second extension Saga, forthcoming normally during 2012, will transport players until the conclusion of the book. Scenarios Hobbit, Par Monts et Underground can be played by independently of each other or be joined to form a campaign offering greater immersion in the game world

Also, if you download that magazine as a PDF file, you can hilight all the text fields of the cards and export them. This allows you to see what the "hidden" text on the cards is (such as the text on Gollum that is behind the top of Gandalf). Again here is a poorly translated version of the card texts that are on that screen (I have erased the copyright lines and tried to convert into the actual terms used in the game where it is obvious, otherwise I have left as it translated in Google):

GOLLUM. Enemy.
74 (card number in set, I believe)
2/21 (card number in box)
0 (threat)
2 (attack)
3 (defense)
5 (health)
Forced: when the first player responded to a “puzzle” (similar to a locate test perhaps?) without getting at least one “line card criteria announced” (some sort of counter or keyword on the encounter card??), Gollum attacks Bilbo Baggins (do not assign him to shadow map this attack).
"If precious asks, and it does not respond, we eat, my precious. "- Gollum, The Hobbit

THE MOUNTAIN PASS (Quest card)
Beyond the cold and Misty Mountains – (name of the encounter, I assume!)
27 (card number in set)
Once revealed: Search the encounter deck for a Giant Stone (perhaps they mean “Stone Giant”??) and place it in the staging area. Then shuffle the encounter deck. Reveal a card from the encounter deck for each player and place it in (the staging area?)

STING (TREASURE)
Artifact. Object. Weapon.
20 (card number in set)
Attach to Bilbo Baggins. Restricted.
Bilbo Baggins gets +1 willpower, attack, and defense
Response: when Bilbo Baggins is inclined to defend, discard the top card of the encounter deck. (Inflcit) the enemy attacking damage equal to the value of threat of the card discarded.
"Thou shalt be called Sting. "- Bilbo The Hobbit

GOBLIN CAVES. Location. Cave.
3 threat
13/18 (card number in box)
If Goblin Caves are the active location, enemies get +1 threat.
Shadow: The defending player increases his threat level X, where X is the number of enemies engaged in combat with him.

COUNTRY OF HOBBITS (Probably more like “Hobbit Country/Land”)
Location. Western Land.
38 (card number in set)
1 threat
17/29 (card number in box)
Response: when at least one progress token is placed on the HOBBIT COUNTRY (or whatever it’s called), the first player draws a card.
Shadow: The defending player must put the first card of the encounter deck discard pile in the staging area.

GANDALF (Ally, Istari)
10 (card number in set)
5 - resource cost
4 - willpower
4 - attack
4 - defense
4 - health
Gandalf is not inclined to engage in one search. (He does not exhaust to commit to a Quest)
Forced: At the end of the refresh phase, discard Gandalf. You can increase your threat by 2 to cancel this effect.
"I am Gandalf, and Gandalf is me! "
- The Hobbit

Yes, you somehow play the riddle game, sweet. If you guess wrong, Gollum attacks Bilbo.

What can you with degrees in numerology think of the numbers? How many player cards are we getting?

lleimmoen said:

I'm curious how many card in total we'll be getting. I need to know how many sleeve packs to get for this. Anyone know? Do you think it might be a similar count to KD expansion?

I bet it is considerably bigger than KD. They wouldn't have FIVE heroes in there for nothing, or would they?

Given that each of the three quests seems to be in a totally different kind of landscape (woods, misty mountains, underground caverns) i wonder if we'll have totally standalone encounter decks for each quest… so we wont be using the same cards each time. i hope so, that will be nice

well theres bound to be goblin/warg encounter deck that is used throughout

im thinking that because this set isn't likely to be used as the base for the next adventure pack cycle, they could do 60 cards (or something like that) for the encounter decks (which is more than we got for the standalone set for massing at osgiliath), 3x5 for the heroes, and 3xwhatever for the player cards -- and that will roughly be the size of the first box-set. so we won't have to reuse cards in each quest.

but even if they cut it down to the size of the khazad-dum box-set, they still wont need to re-use many of the cards in each quest.

I've just realised I've been thinking it was five heroes + new Bilbo across both Saga Expansions, but it's five heroes in the first one alone! This makes me even more excited about this game now!

spalanzani said:

It's five heroes including the new Bilbo in the first box

I feel pretty good about saying we'll see Thorin, Balin, Fili & Kili.

Bullroarer Took said:

I'm gonna go with: Bilbo, Thorin, Balin, Gwaihir, & maybe Beorn.

Sadly we will be getting only dwarf heroes (exluding Frodo because he is limited to the saga set). It wouldn't make much sense for them to give us anything besides Dwarfs. However I hope we get to see some good hobbit event and attachment cards from this SE.

it would make sense if we got a hero or two who werent dwarves but were from the book- thranduil for instance, or bard

We need a eagle hero. Hope for Gwaihir!

Any chance of seeing Gwaihir, Thranduril, Beorn or Bard will be deferred until the second box I think. Perhaps Elrond, but I see him as a high powered ally.

I wonder if Fili and Kili will have complimentary powers ala Elledan and Elrohir?

Bullroarer Took said:

I would understand Thranduil and Bard being thematically better in the second box but surely not Gwaihir, and Beorn can go either way. I think the box 2 will begin with Mirkwood, not with Wargs and the Eagles rescue. Mirkwood is such a long part of the story that you gotta have the entire quest devoted to it. Then you have got Smaug, and finally the Battle of Five Armies.

Bullroarer Took said:

Bullroarer Took said:

I would understand Thranduil and Bard being thematically better in the second box but surely not Gwaihir, and Beorn can go either way. I think the box 2 will begin with Mirkwood, not with Wargs and the Eagles rescue. Mirkwood is such a long part of the story that you gotta have the entire quest devoted to it. Then you have got Smaug, and finally the Battle of Five Armies.

richsabre said:

That is my favorite deck as well. I also have song of heroes and the glorfindel leadership cards + songs…if all goes well, I make some decent money while equipping awesome gear.