…about the characters in the On the Doorstep. We got four heroes and four allies in OHaUH, I think it will be the same here. Further, I really believe we shall see Gloin, Dwalin, Bifur and Bombur again, so that the saga has all thirteen Dwarves included. Those four plus Balin and Oin (previously not released) would only leave two spots for non-Dwarven characters but if one takes a look at the characters in the Hobbit, there really might only be Bard and Thranduil appropriate. Of course we could get another Dain but that would probably be pointless as the initial version is so good. Gwaihir could further complicate matters but perhaps Eagles can re-appear in later adventures.

So, if it is really Balin, Dwalin, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bombur, Thranduil and Bard, I should try and put them into categories. I think Balin, Bard and Thranduil are pretty sure for heroes, perhaps Oin might get the final hero spot as Dwalin, Gloin and Bifur had already got one. It would leave Bombur for a double ally, same as his brother.

Now for spheres, Bard seems set for Tactics (Black Arrow would support the notion). It would just mean no Tactics Dwarf heroes in the Hobbit, why not after all. Thranduil for Leadership, being King and all, not a sure bet though as we have Brand in Tactics and Denethor in Lore. Still, I would probably think Leadership because we already have three Leadership Dwarf heroes. Balin Spirit, Oin Lore. Here the "educated" guess is quickly becoming a wild speculation. Bombur's second ally version could be spirit, fits that better than Lore for me.

Of course, I might be off with the returning Dwarves but I really do not see that many book characters filling the numbers instead. Beside Gwaihir, there are few named characters, and Master of the Lake-town would not seem fit a player card in the first place.

What do you think?

i think you should be around correct there, or at least on the right lines

i have been wondering about thranduil most, as silvan need some love and if we get thranduil, whenever thay may be youd think wed get some silvan allies….and perhaps we shall given that mirkwood is involved heavily in this stage of the book, though perhaps seeing as the spiders are the enemies in the quest and not elves as speculated, thranduil may not be an objective as i thought so this gives support to him as a hero..

i think that he will be something like

Thranduil- leadership

threat 13

willpower 4

attack 1

defense 2

hitpoints 5

Quest action- while thranduil is ready during the quest phase , all enemies recieve 1 damage as they are revelaed from the encounter deck

this means even though you have 4 willpower you will need to think if he is not better being ready. also i think its important silvan have a 'camoflague' as ive said in earlier posts so the damage represents swift and secret arrows

rich

I don't believe that Thranduil will apear as a hero or as an ally, because in The Hobbit he is not a very goog friend to the company. He only became an ally in the Battle of the Five Armies.

According to your reasons, it is more likely to see Gwahir as a character than Thranduil, in The Hobbit he helps much more…

Bard is a likely choice but we will not have a quest to kill smaug in the saga expansion.

CJMatos said:

You may be right. I was thinking of the characters in the first place but it is true that for a large part Thranduil is more of an antagonist in the story. However, you could still use Legolas and say Denethor for the quests so I am not sure they will be so strict. Perhaps one quest shall have Thranduil as an objective so that you will not be able to take his hero card for that one.

richsabre said:

I do not think Thranduil's willpower will be greater than 2. I think he might be more of an attacker - or dealing damage character, as you suggested. I would really love to see camouflage…

perhaps- though i would like to see an elvan hero who is poor at attacking as they are all 2 or more (with the expection of one of the twins)

perhaps 4 is too much, but given his force of will keeping the dwarves locked up for so long and in waiting out the siege before the battle of 5 armies id think we shall see him as a willful character

and i know i keep saying this on the other thread- but id really like to see a different artist tackle an elf lord for a change

rich

richsabre said:

I would like that too. I was just judging by the game so far, perhaps (and I hope) I am wrong in that regard.

lleimmoen said:

or even better i would like to see a really different type of hero- sort of what they did with glorfindel, so have some radical new stats but it comes at a price….keep it fresh and all that

lleimmoen said:

Denethor is not a king!! =)

GrandSpleen said:

Nor did I say he were. I had actually considered noting Denethor's stewardship but I thought better of it, finding it redundant since this site was full of fans well knowledgable of such trivia.

on that note id really like to see the 'noble' trait finally get a use in the game!

richsabre said:

I'll second that…

I don't think we'll get another Gloin, since Gloin is the only member of Thorin's company in the core set, and the core set is required to play the saga expansions. If Oin, Dwalin, Bifur, and Bombur are allies, that would leave one hero spot that could be Gwaihir. I hope this theory is accurate, since it would make it possible to include all of Thorin's company in a two-player game. Skilled thematic players willing to take a beating could even try the saga with no other allies in their decks…

Yes for the above, and above the above.

Noble, warrior, ranger, scout, etc. they all need support, but noble especially might be interesting to see.

And certainly I will try a coop game with all 13 unique Dwarves, plus the generic Dwarf allies, I think those fit well also.

i think noble should have a rally mechanic

rally

cost - 1

action - exhaust a noble character and choose a character in your discard pile with the same 'race' trait. add that card to your hand and give exhausted character 1 resource

richsabre said:

thats a pretty cool idea; not only do i like the idea of taking advantage of "noble" but the fact that you made it influence the face of the noble is pretty innovative as well

Yes, I really hope they go for it soon. It would be a shame to make up all those interesting traits only to have them useless. But I think that won't be the case, I feel as now we make Dwarf or Noldor decks, we could be in some time making Noble or Warrior decks.