“The beacons of Gondor are alight, calling for aid. War is kindled. See, there is the fire on Amon Dîn.”
–Gandalf, The Return of the King

Emerging from The Drúadan Forest, Middle-earth’s heroes begin their return journey to Minas Tirith, but dark plumes of smoke rise across the lands of Anórien. Amon Dîn is burning, and it falls to your heroes to save the village’s citizens from the spreading fires and the threat of an Orcish siege.

Encounter at Amon Dîn is the tale of a dramatic rescue mission, but whether the mission succeeds or fails is up to you! You’ll have to move quickly, battle Orcs, and fight fires, and you’ll need to take advantage of whatever assistance you can find.

Hobbit love!

Sounds loke we have a first hobbit Deck around soon. Frodo/Pippin/Bilbo.

Fasy Hitch, Elberet Giltoniel, Good meal, Erebor boots, G greetings, Test of will, hasty stroke, many secrecy lore and spirit cards should to work there too.

Sounds quite funny.

Screw you richsabre !

you know i dont usually do this but what the hell….i was right !!!! hahahahaha….hobbit love indeed ………(if youre wondering about the lobsters the smileys are still in spanish so ive no idea what they all are)

as i said when i predicted it, it sort of makes sense to release them now (especially pip…though im happy he isnt 'gondorized' yet)..any later and it would feel rather late for hobbits to be making an entrance

so great cards all round!

and sorry dam!!

Dam said:

Dont worry Dan they die fast! Hobbits sneaky hobbits!

But i think it will be fun deck and i would like to play it.

i expect the hobbits to be a very fun race to play, i am sure they shall become instant favourites (ive never been an all out attack player so i think they shall appeal to my style)

Playing the Hobbit deck will be like teabagging the encounter deck. "Oh, hey there, Hill-troll. Looks like you're coming to attack--NOPE, bounced back to the staging area by Pippin. Okay, okay, I'll actually let you engage me next turn. Now, how about you miss this Small Target and smack that dude over there? Alright, alright, I promise I'm done. WHOOP, just kidding! Hobbit-sense negates your attack."

You won't defeat enemies so much as you'll toy with them in hilarious ways. Plus, the Hobbit deck will have really solid questing power with a very low starting threat. Should be a ton of fun.

A hobbit secrecy deck would be a lot of fun to play but eventually it's got to be able to kill something right? Still need to see some more viable cards for the archetype before taking on a quest solo. Will only get better with time when we eventually get Merry and Sam

I'm loving the hobbit love. I've wanted to make a hobbit deck since this game came out but obviously did not have the cards to do it. I especially like the flavor they're going for with the new hobbit cards: hard to hit and tricky little devils. That is fantastic and should be fun to play.

The big problem I have is with the lore of this AP. Something seems messed up. From what I remember in the books, Amon Din was simply a beacon tower that would lit to send warning to Rohan. From the description of the quest given in the preview, they state that Amon Din is a village that is under attack and is burning. I fear the author of the AP may have misread that section of the book. What do you think?

Pharmboys2013 said:

Pharmboys2013 said:

Presumebly the idea is that the weak hobbits can hide while amassing allies and progressing in the quest and then if they do have to kill anything it will be with a lot of set-up time because of their low threat and tricky ways.

Personally I would run two hobbits (probably Pippin and Bilbo) and go fo a secrecy deck - I don't think that Pippin and Frodo's abilities actually combo very well. (nor Does Frodo really work well with the new cards, since his special ability is taking hits - which they both negate).

I was going to say how excited rich would be about this, but he's already been here. So do we get Sam and Merry:
a) in APs 1 and 2

b) in later APs from the cycle

c) not in this cycle

I know that doesn't allow all possibilities (since I'm taking the two as one unit), but what does everyone think? APs 1 and 2 heros haven't been spoiled yet, right?

Style75 said:

well people would need to live in the area to be ready to light the beacon- i assume a village isnt a huge step from the lore…though i cant remember if its ever referenced

as to whether we get the other 2 hobbits, i think we shall, certainly given the fact ffg are pushing the hobbit trait in the spoilers. as i said before, i think hobbits to this cycle will be noldor to the dwarrowdelf

rich

My guess we will see one more Hobbit ally and another card or two but not another ally. It is not like with Dwarves that we have 4 heroes of them in each sphere, Gondor only has 5 heroes in total right now and she is desperate to get more.

Two hero secrecy doesn't seem like a good idea from my experience. And with no more secrecy cards in this cycle (presumably) it is not about to change soon.

Pippin is interesting. And I really like Small Target. What makes me reconsider the above statement about no more Hobbit heroes is the fact the other Hobbit event is Leadership, argh…

lleimmoen said:

Hobbit-sense? That event is Neutral.

In the second quest of HoN there is an encounter card I think called Lost Companion. It has a non-generic hobbit on it that doesn't look like one we've seen so far, and different from the new Pippin I think. It is one of Magali's cards, and she likes to use the same likeness for any of the characters that she does when represented on multiple cards. (See Legolas and hands upon the bow/ Boromir and Path of Need/ Arwen objective and Ally).

Maybe this is a sneak preview for another hobbit on its way.

on a related note i much prefer pippin to magalis bilbos.

rich

I love how they are focusing on hobbits now. And I have a small hope that they'll make Sam with awesome stats, because… He's awesome. )

I think this adventure pack should be the one exception to the 'one hero in each pack' rule. Merry and Pippen should come together.

Mattr0polis said:

Merry and Pippin spend quite a bit of time apart (fighting in the siege of Gondor / riding with the Rohirrim)

ElladanandElrohir could be one word for the frequency with which they're ever referred to seperately. They came in two different packs.

Interesting surprise to find some hobbit cards in here (for me anyway), slightly confused on the direction of the cycle though. Steward's Fear starts in Minas Tirith no? Then the forest.. and then we are heading back to Minas Tirith again.

Great news ! hobbit aren't my favourite race but building a deck around bilbo/pippin (+ frodo or any other hobbit due to come out) will be awsome ! I think we might see merry in this cycle (I hope we'll see Sam since he's my favourite hobbit) but I believe we'll get Faramir from AP 1, another Gondor hero on AP 2 (or maybe a Rohan). Then Pip on AP 3 and then I daresay we still need another Gondor hero (or maybe 2) so in AP from 4 to 6 in my opinion there'll be an opening for just one more hobbit (which I guess should be Merry). I hope I'm wrong and we'll get both Sam and Merry. As for the others I'd love to see Tactics Eowyn. Add Faramir for the first AP we've got 4 Heroes. The other two I will not guess yet XD

Abelard said:

fantasy flight tend to do this in their packs- mirkwood had return to mirkwood, dwarrowdelf took us back to face the balrog again, so this time im guessing the climax will be in minas tirith…………

or perhaps not, i mean has that been clarified? what would we do? i cant see it becoming under siege, so maybe the end isnt there after all

rich

starhawk77 said:

Oh, my bad. I have done that before, thinking a Neutral card Leadership, it is the hue… thanks for the clarification.

I will be shocked if we don't get Merry also in this cycle. I think I'm also going to wait until I see Merry before I start racking my brain too hard over Hobbit decks. I love Hobbits, but I'm not feeling it yet. Evading attacks is cool and all, but for solo play especially, it's often just a delay of the inevitable. For a focus of these cards, it's not even all that potent. Feint and Forest Snare are cards that do the same sort of thing, and are generally more useful.

I'd like to see Hobbit as a viable deck type, but this isn't close to enough.