Hey guys, I was hoping to pick your brains a bit on what would be best to spend my money on at this point in the LOTR world. So I've finally got all the Mirkwood cycle purchased. So far I have core set x2, all Mirkwood AP's and the KD expansion. I'm typically only able to buy a few packs here and there so it's unlikely that I will be able to purchase a whole cycle anytime soon. I'm curious what your guys opinions are. I have a few options, the first being slowly purchase Dwarrodelf AP's and be way behind the current cycles. Second, just jump ship and go for the new Gondor expansion and maybe the hobbit. Third just try and pick and choose AP's and expansions no matter what cycle they are in based on what has the most interesting/best cards (for example the last two Dwarrodelf AP's look like they have some really interesting/powerful cards). I did hear that the hobbit was more of a side set that didn't really integrate with the main game/cycles, is that accurate? Basically, I don't know how linear the game is and how much it is going to require having all the previous cards to really work well.

skip the hobbit and buy the dwarrowdelf packs….the ones with glorfindel and elrond in….they areeasily two of the most powerful cards in the game, and they come with alot of very powerful combo cards such as light of valinor, asfaloth and vilya

while you can of course go straight to numenor, i think you will be missing out on a lot of great cards in the dwarrowdelf cycle that will be very helpful later on

rich

Exactly. The Dwarrowdelf cycle has some really very good player cards, though I found some of the quests to be very hit-and-miss. For player cards, you can't go wrong with #5 and #6, possibly #3 and #4 as a second-tier thing. For quests, #1 and #5 were firm favourites of mine!

The Hobbit box is a side-thing, with a lot of the player cards being closely tied into the theme of the box. If you go for theme, you won't be integrating most (if not all) of these player cards into your regular decks, as some of the heroes/allies aren't around anymore by the time the main game takes place. It's an interesting-enough box, don't get me wrong, but you're probably best off going for at least some of the Dwarrowdelf stuff before pressing on with Heirs of Numenor.

Thanks guys! I think that answers my question. While I would enjoy the hobbit from a story perspective I think I will go with trying to fill out some dwarrodelf packs and then see how HoN is shaping up in a few months! I placed an order for AP's Shadow and Flame, Foundations of Stone, and the Watcher in the water! I'm super excited to get some of those player cards in my decks. I feel like Elrond and Glorfindel are going to make a lot of quests much much easier lol. On a side note, with cards that strong coming into the game I wonder how much power creep is going to take hold in this game. It would be kinda sad to make the original quest completely obsolete and essentially WAY to easy with later cards but I do get the wanting to have more powerful cards and more dramatic encounters.

i'll just add one more vote for skipping the hobbit. you might miss out on a few player cards, but there's a load of cards that you're not even allowed to use in the other cycles (like the baggins sphere and treasure cards). if you could have used the treasure cards in the other cycles too then it might have been worth adding to your set

ryan t said:

This news article may allay your fears on that score - looks like, somehow, we're going to be getting add-ons for the original quests that can bring them back to the table.

spalanzani said:

Plus you can always restrict your card pool to cycles available when the pack was released (e.g. only use SoM for SoM quests, DD and SoM for DD, etc.)

agree with john and spalanzani, and you can also make theme decks which tend to be harder to pull off

rich

I did try a themed dwarf deck and failed miserably but that was without any of the Dwarrodelf cycle. Once I have more dwarves, especially dwarves with will power, it should be a lot more fun! I'm definitely looking forward to all the different combinations. I do like that fact that worst case scenario you can limit to only packs released up to the quest. I do feel like that would allow a more "pure" experience. That is of course assuming the creators are building quests with only past released cards in mind .

dwarves are easily the most developed race in the game by the end of the dwarrowdelf. still the key dwarf is ironically the one released in return to mirkwood- dain. using him everything else fits in place, though of course the hobbit box helps as well

rich

Without knowing what's in HoN we won't be able to advise you about whether you should skip straight to it or not. Or is the cardpool for it released somewhere?

Rapier said:

no- they never release full spoilers, only a handful of them are known

rich

Rapier said:

I have a list of confirmed spoiled cards (we've seen them) on a thread somewhere (and at BGG: www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/863157/hon-known-card-list-spoilers)

I would disagree about totally skipping the Hobbit…especially for Tactics. In multiplayer, Beorn can be a lifesaver in certain quests, and cards like goblin-cleaver and foe-hammer provide Tactics with much needed card draw and even more opportunities to deal damage. Tactics Bofur is a great ally as well. At least, that's the opinion of a Multiplayer fan.