Hey all. The player cards were spoiled over at BGG and I wanted to share. Here is the link if you would rather read over there. Lots of Outlands synergy going on it would appear. Not so much for the Gondor trait this pack.

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/973501/card-info

New Hero - Hirluin the Fair (leadership)

Starting skill is 1 for all 3 skills
Cost 8
4 Health
He is an "outlands" character
Ranged

You may use a resource from Hirluin the Fair resource pool to pay for any Outland card of any sphere

NOTE - his stats are low because this deck has a lot of "all outland models Gain +1 stat


------------
Leadership Card

cost 2 Warrior of Lossarnach
Outlands
1 for all stats 1 health
_ each outlands character gains +1 Armor
--
cost 0 Gaining Strength
- action - discard 2 resources from hero to gain 3

tactics cards

cost 1 Knight of the Swan
0 stats 1 health - Each outland you control gains +1 attack

cost 1 Gondorian Shield
Attach to a hero - restritcted
Limit 1 per hero
Gain +1 armor (+2 if has gondor trait)


spirit

cost 2 Ether Swordman
outlands
1 for all stats
each outland character you control gains +1 willpower

cost 1 Ring of Barahir
attach to a hero
artifact
attach hero gains +1 hp for each artifact attached. If aragan gain lore


lore
cost 1 Anaflas herdsman
outlands
- o for stats health
each outlands character gains +1hp

cost1 mithrandirs advice

draw 1 card for each her you control with "lore" resource


Colorless cards

cost 0 A good harvest - Action - name a sphere - until end of phase you can spend resources of any sphere when paying for cards that belong to named sphere

very interesting…..and you know what i was right!…..didnt i say…."look everyone, i know you're all thinking denethor, but its certainly going to be Hirluin The Fair.." haha, yeah i know, complete rubbish

anyways, it wouldnt feel like a spoiler if i didnt ask this…..piccy spoilers anyone?

Oh yeah I remember!!! Nice Rich! And btw I wanst thinking Denethor.

Interesting… not where I thought they would head with the Hero… but some intruiging possibilities!

If this "spoiler" is correct, then Aragorn can become a one-man rainbow BEAST… lol. Here's a scenario:

Aragorn (core leadership) + Celebrian's Stone (gives Spirit icon, +2 willpower, restricted) + Ring of Barahir (gives Lore icon, +1 health for each artifact) + Horn of Gondor (gains resource when character leaves play, restricted), Sword that was Broken (every character +1 willpower).

That would be an attachment heavy deck for sure, but you'd end up with Aragorn with 9 health, 5 willpower, 3 attack, and 2 defense. He would also boost all of your other characters willpower, and gain a resource every time another character left play (which would nicely fuel his response to ready after questing). On top of all that, he could spend resources on Lore, Leadership, and Spirit cards (throw in a Steward of Gondor for an extra 2 resources each turn, and ****)… and with that new "A Good Harvest" free neutral event, he can purchase Tactics for good measure… lol.

Personally, unless I was running him with a lot of Tactics allies (for the extra willpower), I would drop the STWB, which costs 3 resources, and include the SoG. That still leaves him with 8 health and 4 willpower, a crap-ton of resources per turn, ability to quest and ready every turn…

If everything went right (as always, it's only as good as the cards you draw), this would be a pretty decent Secrecy setup. Add a Tactics hero to him, run with just the two of them…. I'm thinking Hama. Aragorn quests, readies, and defends. Hama attacks and recycles. With the ring providing lore access, Aragorn pays for healing, card draw, and threat reduction (from spirit), plus all the non-tactics allies… Find a way to boost his defense a little bit (Arwen and Dundain Warning) and you've got your questing and defending tank all rolled into one…

Those of you interested in the artwork for Hirluin the Fair should check out this page, which interestingly just went live 4 hours ago. It's an awesome picture and really captures the feel of the character. I can't wait to get my hands on this AP.

Little disappointed it wasn't Denethor, but Leader of Blackroot Vale Archer is acceptable too.
In fact, I think I like that FFG is using little-known figures that faught valiantly during War of Ring.

Surprised to see Ring of Barahir isn't Leadership like other Aragorn artifacts,
That Resource Event seems useful when used with Wealth of Gondor so you can play 3 cost card on first turn,
or with Leadership Boromir who are likely to have 2 Resources during planning phase if he saved 1 Resource for his ability last turn.

Cannot wait till I actually get these cards…

Edit: a 0 hp ally? I guess now we know card's passive effect takes place immediately when a card enters play, otherwise that ally could never be in play.

Style75 said:

amazing!

Ellareth said:

is that not a typo? i read it as 0 for stats, then health…..then missing

I'M HYPED HYPED HYPED! Wow, those cards look amazing! I like the fact that this was the "outlands" pack. They should do this kind of thing more often, really adds consistency!

And I like Hirluin a lot! Finally we're getting lower threat heroes. I knew it wasn't going to be Denethor, lol. Looks interesting, and I like pretty much every player card in this pack. As I said, I'm hyped.

I cannot wait to make an outlands deck. Making Hirluin an absolute beast with all those allies is going to be fun. Already thinking of other heroes to match him with. A very good tale is going to be a must have in this deck just to get all those guys in play ASAP

I must say, however, that as much as I like the cards so far, I am dissapointed by the fact that the Outlands characters do not have also the Gondor trait. Why is that? Doesn't make sense at all.

Gizlivadi said:

Can you imagine leadership boromir with 3 of those tactics outlander allies in play although?? The rest of those allies would have +4 ATK…that would be gnarly. It would have been nice to see a little cohesion between the two of them however. It is still possible however to play them both together unlike two different traits like dwarves and nolder. For example, a Hirluin, leadership boromir, and Beregond deck would be very competitive in the HoN quests

Pharmboys2013 said:

Maybe that is 'the' hero for Gondor, give Gondor trait to Outland characters and Outland trait to Gondor characters.
Denethor, Imrahil, or Faramir that can interchange Gondor/Outland trait while certain conditions are met (ready, have resource, under certain threat, over certain threat, remaining HP, enaged with X enemies, minimum threat of X in staging area, etc.)….. or would that be just too powerful?

The cards seem amazing. It is hard not to think of an Outlands deck right away. So many of them are good, but how about Mithrandir's Advice in a mono-Lore?

I'm still not sure about the exact wording on some of these. Pics would be most appreciated.

And as for the Gondor-Outlands synergies, I think it is bound to come. Hunter of Lamedon is already there. But I am thinking more of an event. There is Mutual Accord combining Gondor and Rohan, there could be White City Call Leadership 0 cost event doing the same as the above for Gondor and Outlands.

Gizlivadi said:

Same here.

While the Outlands cards are nice, Gondor got shafted so far. I know that Outlands make sense, but come on. It's like having a Silvan-themed AP with most of the cards being Sindari. Now I hope that we'll get at least something like Mutual Accord for the Outlands and Gondor.

As I have said in another thread, the whole Gondor expansion is a dissapointment for me so far.

richsabre said:

speechless …

klaymen_sk said:

I think that this was simply the Outlands AP. It's pretty much guaranteed we'll see a proper Gondor themed AP soon enough, and hopefully with a Mutual Accord for Gondor and Outlands characters.

I don't think that this cycle will be that much Gondor focused as expected. Probably, many Gondor cards will be left for a future "Return of the King" saga box.

karagh said:

Nah, by the time we get to the Return of the King, they will be expanding Middle earth way further than just making the "basic" cards for a faction such as Gondor. We'll be having powerful Gondor decks a lot earlier than Return of the King.

Well, just got my order in for The Steward's Fear and a bunch of the unlimited FFG card sleeves from my fav online hole-in-the-wall site…

Anxious to put together a deck where Aragorn pretty much does everything by himself… lol. There'll be questing, defending, attacking, healing, threat reduction, card draw, action potential, treachery and shadow cancelation, location control, etc, etc… In thinking of what kind of a title I should give such an amazing deck, I settled on the simple:

"Aragorn".

lol… in all seriousness, that ring is gonna make him ridiculously good! (cuz he wasn't already)

all he needs now is the one ring right?

He needs Anduril (reforged) to either boost his attack or lower his enemies defense and obviously give him the tactics icon !

DevastazioneH88 said:

I'm probably in the minority here, but I don't like that Aragorn got plenty of toys with bonuses specific for him and other heroes feel so…..neglected. I know, he is a hero in the books, but these stories are before them, so he is just a strider/ranger/whatever.

If we got some proper non-race specific (Dwarrowdelf axe, Rivendell blade) non-situational (Blade of Gondolin) weapon attachment. No, Spear of the Citadel doesn't cut it.

Who is everyone thinking of teaming Hirluin with?? Thinking about some possibilities:

Elrond: can help pay for any of the 4 colored Outland allies, Vilya can help play them faster, gives access to lore sphere for card draw

Bilbo: instant draw advantage and lore sphere, but having two statistically weak heroes to start the game would be difficult

Boromir (tactics): provide some necessary strength in the early game from his multiple action potentials. Thematic too. Throw a gondorian shield on him and he can stave off all the enemies until Hirluin is up and running

Theodred: any additional resources on Hirluin will be super advantageous to get those allies out ASAP. A second leadership hero allows first turn access to steward of Gondor too.

Aragorn(leadership): serves same purpose as Boromir but slightly less desirable because of him using up a resource. Late game he can pay for multiple spheres with his attachments both old and new however

who else you guys think?