agreed- i was particularly impressed to see the nameless things featured in the packs- ffg obviously have some good 'tolkien boffins' working on the team

Plus there's such a high variety of most of these…

yeah for instance within men you can spread it out to

men of dale

men of gondor / ithillien

men of rohan

men of breeland

dunedain

men umbar/harad/rhun

men in forochel

woodsmen near borders of mirkwood

perhaps even the slaves of Nurn

all the different types of elves- mirkwood, lorien, grey havens, rivendell

dwarves of the iron hills

dwarves of the blue mountains

and within each of these you can have different tpyes again so

spearmen

swordsmen

axemen

archers

spearmen

healers

standard bearers/ musicians/bards

captains/leaders/guards of important people ie city guard

scouts

horsemen

and this is just to name a few - you have of course different orcs- misty mountains/isengard/mordor etc and trolls the same

so i do not think ffg will run out soon…if ever in the course of the game….

yeah, because the MAIN REASON why I play this game is the relative adherence to Tolkien's stories and characters… if they start putting in "generic" fantasy features, this will ruin the game!

I already don't like the fact that in the future probably, you are going to be able to make a hobbit deck and wander around moria, meet the balrog, say hi, run away, go to osgiliath… WHAT THE ***** the hobbits NEVER would have wandered on their own in middle-earth! that's plain ridiculous! all other characters I could accept, though through our playing the quests and Tolkien's book, Aragorn and Boromir etc. have met the balrog twice (!?!?) and have already been to Moria… but roaming around with three hobbits… think about it: they wouldn't even have the willpower or stamina or strength 17 years ago - just look at frodo, other than his ability… or bilbo. making pippin and sam and merry… it could work but THAT already is a very far-fetched theme in Tolkien's world…

MORE freedom - absolutely not stick to the system…

Vyron said:

im a lore freak as many know, and i agree ffg need to draw boundaries and stick to them, otherwise we may as well call this 'world of warcraft' or some such middle earth copy…..however i also think being able to play about with characters and situations is a big plus point to this- the customization is what draws many people….i think they have the balance right at the moment so hope they stick with what theyre doing

rich

No, the giants are real. Thorin mentions them also. And Gandalf later says he'll need to find a decent giant… So these are no Balrog's wings actually.

As for the variety: yes, no way they'll ever need bringing more stuff. Name the characters? Surely, no way around it pretty much, just try your best and look for hints in Tolkien's dictionary (as I believe they have, do and will). Create new races, creatures, things? No!

Just look at some military oriented games, Elven factions have a number of army ranks as Rich said, archers, scouts, rangers, sentry, swordsmen, militia, riders, lancers, horse archers, special units - and that is only within military and Elves! And the game hasn't even begun to employ any of the traits they have created, there's no card for the already existing traits like Warrior, Ranger, Archer, Minstrel, Crafstman, Scout, Healer, let alone Noble or Steward (found on Denethor - I am much interested if that one ever sees some importance).

booored said:

Thematically I think that either Pippin or Merry could make sense as Leadership hobbits at some point. I am thinking of the later parts of TLOTR, once they have had the experience of serving Denethor/Theoden and of fighting in the big battles - when they return to the Shire, they are both perceived as lordly/princely figures, and it is them (not Frodo who stays in the background) who organise the successful resistance to Saruman's forces in the scouring of the shire.

i believe that we may see again 2 versions of merry and pippin - pre Return of the King and post RTK, as i think they are two of the most changed characters in the year (and a day?) that it took to go to mordor and back

yes, THAT I can live with… so you're assuming that this LCG will in fact cover the "book" part of LOTR? i.e. the war of the ring? that would actually be great to play as a team in a HUGE campaign start from the shire, pass the misty mountains, lorien, the anduin, etc…. all the way to mordor

I could imagine wiser and older and mightier versions of the hobbits or other characters… but as this game was originally supposed to cover the 17 years "inbetween"… well… so far, so good, I can't complain!

well from the start of the game there was much talk on the 'limitations' and that they were from the years of the end of the hobbit until around the long expected party - we now know this not to be true with the hobbit box set- so i guess its possible