What can be more childish than laugh about people when a preview comes up? What the complainers did was not unpleasant at all, it wasn't really angry or disrespectful in any way. It was simply a stance toward a certain action, or the lack of.

And these boards are meant to show one's opinion. As long as the opinion is not disrespectful to others, it is fine. What was highly disrespectful was your redundant comment. Again, this is just my opinion. You can of course disregard it as surely as I will disregard yours.

Well, Rapier, I obviously disagree with you and you obviously disagree with me. Oh well.

lleimmoen: spot on mate. The "laughing" comment is far more childish in my opinion.

Besides, stating that someone shouldn't complain at all is not, as I see it, a "contention." It's an opinion that is equally as valid as the opinion of choosing to complain.

Some of you Tolkein experts can weigh in on this one if you wish: I believe Tolkein started another story that was set after Aragorn died (and featured his sons) and it was basically a murder mystery set in Gondor. He abandoned it. I wonder if this is the basis for the first AP?

It's famine and feast around here. We feasted on the end of Dwarrowdelf and the release of the first Hobbit saga. After short commons we will be feasting again on the second Hobbit saga and Heirs etc. While the pacing might leave something to be desired, we're still getting pretty good material over the long haul.

So, it seems the guys at ffg were not satisfied with one political intrigue themed lcg, so they made another one! Ok, in all seriousness, this is indeed interesting, though I must say it's rather, um, strange. It does feel a whole lot like GOT, and seeing a Plague Doctor kinda guy in Middle Earth is not exactly what i was expecting. It is a very creative concept though, I must give them that. I love the art for Anborn, and many of the card art and themes look pretty cool, though I hope this cycle does not focus too much on secrets and intrigue but rather more on feudal warfare against foreign folk, which feels a lot more like Gondor anyway.

Bullroarer Took said:

Ok, so we first have cycles based around the timeline after the Hobbit and before the Lord of the Rings, then we get expansions based on the Hobbit, and just after that we get a cycle based on the story after the Lord of the Rings (a story which is not even canon and would be pretty much about baseless speculation). If this is how ffg treats the timeline for their games, I would really start to question myself about continuing to play this game. No, I really doubt it is based on The New Shadow.

lleimmoen said:

I think that stating an unwaranted feeling of neglect from a very busy company that is not in fact neglecting you is insulting to others. It's insulting to the staff at FFG.

However I did not mean to offend anyone when I said I laugh at the doomsayers it was not meant to be, "I laugh at them, how stupid they are," it was meant to be, that I was amused by the ranting when it was clearly unwarranted. Which I still think it was.

On a better topic, what is the outlands? Is that the large wilderness between the "good" human kindgom and the Easterling kingdoms? Might we see easterling human enemies?

Rapier said:

the outlands are the southern fiefs of gondor, so i think we shall see many umbar corsairs in this cycle, and we know were are getting haradrim as we have seen the southron company and mumak

as for tolkien's sequel, as i posted on the first page, it is indeed what immediatly came to mind….however there is very very little to go on if ffg are thinking of making a discarded 4th age draft cycle!

rich

Good points there Rapier; you are a smart chap. As far as your outlands question, well, Rich to the rescue!

Rapier said:

I see that. If I am to speak about myself - whether I can be counted among the so-called doomsayers or not - even though I may have shown disappointment toward the lack of news, I still think it was not an offense in any way. At the same time I have more than once honestly called this game my all time favourite.

More importantly, I really think ffg cannot be offended by honest opinions, whether they be praise or not. More so, I would go as far as guessing that they welcome such opinions because as any good company they care about their customers's views. Not least those customers that have spent "fortune" buying their products.

I wonder if this Swordsman is a not the final version?!

A 2 cost ally with 2 willpower and you can have 3 of them in play……thus adding up to a total of 12willpower.

And I guess there will be other outland characters too.

muemakan said:

Can you haer this too? A silent voice from somewhere starts screaming "power creep!!!"

So, who wanna start a thread bout this?

Willpower 2 for cost 2 is nothing new, right? If we disregard Arwen as being unique, we have West Road Traveller (not to mention Escort from Edoras) who has a pretty good effect on top of it, same hp but not attack and defence. What really could make this Ethir Swordsman super strong is the number of Outlands characters. Especially if we get an Outlands hero, as we are probably bound to sooner or later. So coming back to the start, yes, I think there will be power creep warning sign buzzing blinking red.

I would have liked it more with "Each other Outlands character you control receives +1 willpower"

I'm not sure it is power creep though, this ability alone isn't going to even scratch the massively powerful dwarf synergy.

I would expect an Outlands hero and a Gondor hero in the box, assuming we get 2 heroes again.