I am intrigued but somewhat let down by the new hero. If she had better stats or was the -2 per hero I would be much more excited but -3 total is kind of underwhelming that's practically 1 treachery or 1 phase of unsuccessful questing and then that's negligible. Who am I kidding tho, I'll still give her a shot especially if the art is good. I'm glad the silvan trait is slowly being developed more as well. Crossing my fingers extra hard for a lore Haldir hero in the 5th AP.

1 last note, I'm not unhappy that they're making solo sphere themes heroes (though I don't prefer them) but if they make Faramir's ability solo sphere focused ill be crushed

Actualy its realy nice that they want us to created mono sphere decks. Its way easier to create 4 decks without buying another expansions for 3-4 players. Already we got for spirit - rohan deck (questing like crazy and now even some def also), leadership - outland deck (hirluin + theodred) which is quite nice for solo playing and tactic eagle deck. Now we could make lore deck with new hero + bilbo secrecy deck or just add denethor for some taking enemies.

richsabre said:

TheLightdarker said:

Not to mention beorning!

Well, I was a bit hesitant to comment this early but I will.

Mirlonde seems very good to me. Again, not outside a mono-Lore (or major-Lore in some rare combo, perhaps with either Glorfindel). Her stats are very decent, considering she costs 7, right? 2 willpower, 2 attack for 7 is good, especially once we get more Silvan love. It is bound to be coming though we might wait some time. Silvan Tracker seems a must in a mono-Lore with Mirlonde. The problem for the majority of Silvan allies is the 1 hp, and I do wonder whether we see a card that boosts that in the future. They might have a hard time keeping up with the other quickly expanding factions, if we don't.

Forlong is good but I don't think I'll play more than a copy. From my experience, though my deck is quite good at putting Outlands into play, it is often usually mid-game when I have an Outlands ally from every sphere. Of course Forlong is good without the extra readying, given the more hp. The readying will be good for A Very Good Tale, for instance, but since you will have already had many Outlands in play, that might not matter too much. So really, what you get will usually be one extra action (quest + combat).

I am surprised to see Leadership and Lore mono-events being what they are. I was expecting something to deal with the usual weaknesses of the spheres. Like card draw for Leadership and especially resource acceleration for Lore. The two events given surely have lots of potential but for now Leadership-Lore Outlands decks seems too good to me to pass for either mono-deck.

I always love to see more Elves. However, they are quite random in what they do, and again, with the existing expanded factions, Silvan and Noldor might have to wait to be truly competitive (though of course you can do a hell of a lot with Glorfindel, or Elrond to an extent). The Refuge is especially intriguing, 2 willpower for the cost of 1, just so very nice.

And I was very much looking forward to the White Tower Guard, but again, that was when I was thinking of mono-Leadership Gondor deck, but now with the Gondor trait being still under-developed, I don't have such a deck.

The Tactics attachments seems pretty underwhelming, but I'm might be missing a combo here, perhaps a future one.

Overall, I like the cards very much, as always pretty much, the one thing I'm still missing in this cycle is more Gondor. Now, there won't be a Gondor hero coming next, so I hope for Faramir and another Gondorian in packs 4 & 5. And especially I hope in many more allies, and other synergies for the great nation. Cause as it is, their Outlands regions seem just so much more powerful than their original main force.

SiCK_Boy said:

So again a beautiful hero art as all Magali's pictures are. Nice.

Ohnomycocoa said:

And if more Silvan Trackers are in play, she'll get more healing, so she can soak some attacks in such case.

I have to say I'm quite disappointed…I may like that she's a made up character (though there are so many characters in tolkien lore…well maybe not many female characters…anyway)…but her ability is really poor (good stats though)…I would have liked her much more if her ability would be minus 1 threat to lore or silvan heroes (choose 1 at the beginning of each game)…that would be great, you could use her efficiently with legolas or any other silvan that will come out…(granting us a few choices for a good secrecy silvan deck)…but like this…just disappointing…in a mono lore she might be useful…but in a mono lore where will you get resources ? who will you kill enemies with ? (yeah there are some decent fighters but what when you have to deal a lot of damage ?) how will you ready your heroes ?…she might be good in multi but in solo I don't see her as a playable character…

What I want to know is how do you have this pack already?

klaymen_sk said:

Nice !

Rapier: It was available at my FLGS. I seriously have no idea why they had it this early. I live in Gatineau (Ottawa area), Canada. Normally, expansion packs are available at the date FFG posts the "available now" news on their front page; I've seen it happen a couple time when it was available a day or two earlier, but that was usually after some preview / spoiler had already surfaced somewhere (and I've had case where it was late by as much as a week). In my case, I went to the store to pick up the latest Star Wars FP that was announced on Friday, and I just saw they not only had it, but also The Druadan Forest and Future Proof from Netrunner (which is also theoretically supposed to release on the 31st). Which was great since the store pays the taxes for you if you buy 3 boardgames (LCG counts as boardgame at that store), so I got all 3.

I'm really not familiar with image hosting; if someone has better instructions on how to share images, let me know. In all cases, here's a link to a Flickr account I just created: http://www.flickr.com/photos/96454752@N05/8841180232/. Let me know if it works. I have scans of all the cards (I scan them for use on OCTGN). Not sure if I'll upload them all, but since there were questions about the new hero, here it is. Feel free to repost if you can somehow make it appear directly in the forum.

Thanks Sickboy- looks great

Art is really great, and link works, so waiting for other card scans.

Mono lore deck with her can be very strong. My vision is her, Denethor and Bifur for starting threat of 20. Deck Idea is simple, 3 copies of Rivendell minstrel to fetch songs, any number of songs from sphere, or multiple spheres you want to use, and after that you can add whatever cards you want, can work as 3 character secrecy deck with spirit added. Bifur is good in this deck as song target.

if you want to do the links then go onto the image,

click one of the sizes and then right click on the image.

then click view image

then copy the URl

then go onto FFG site and new post.

then at top right there is add image icon

paste the url into the bar

rich

Wow that art is fantastic. Thanks for posting. Def gonna try and use her now

The player cards are not very outstanding, but then again most of those will actually see play I suppose, if not all of them. They're not amazing, except for Forlong but I don't see any completely useless card. And that art, man, I will buy this at least for the art only. However I'm sad to see that the Gondor trait got shafted again. By the second Dwarrodelf AP, Dwarves were already a powerful archetype, and this isn't the case for Gondor.

Gizlivadi said:

I see Silvan Refugee getting litle play time…

Inspite being a 2 willpower for 1 cost, the ability is a bit hard…

Edit: I consider it being worst than Escort from Edoras (has a similar effect and quests at 4 willpower) and West Road Traveller…

Gizlivadi said:

And i think is right. We dont need some more powerful broken think. Now players cards is not to powerful but quite interesting to build up something new!

I like all silvan cards.

CJMatos said:

It's funny they made this card. I always thought that characters in this game are mostly of very little value, with all those cheap chump blockers you don't mind sending to their deaths… it doesn't feel right to me, and having so many of those makes this card so much worse. If only characters were harder to kill… But oh well, I see myself using the refugee in some elven deck I guess. Elves need cheap questers too, not just Rohan.

Also, I see this card now in a secrecy deck (hope they develop secrecy better in the future) as the cheap quester so vital in the first few turns.

I'm quite happy about the new cards. Milronde might not have the best stats, but her ability is helpful. Mono lore decks are already pretty strong, but mono lore decks with a low starting threat - wow!

Now I only have to wait until August before this stuff will be sold in Germany.

*shakes fist at translators*

I find pretty much all cost 1 allies interesting just for the cost. I wonder whether we shall see a 0 cost ones in the future. I often play Citadel Custodian for 0 but it is obviously not the same thing. As for the Refugee, I am still bound to think we shall see some sort of Silvan (or Noldor) protection, safety cushion of sorts, thus their strategy based on characters staying in play (as opposed to leaving it - as with Rohan or Eagles) will have a solid ground in Silvan Refugee.

Gizlivadi said:

FFG have three APs to change it (one was metioned that it will enhance Outlands) and I hope they will do so.

Glaurung said:

Who says anything about broken cards? Proper playtesting would help. Also Outlands decks are nothing to sneeze at. At the expense of developing Gondor, I may add.

leptokurt said:

Yes, what a pitty. The German players still only have " Heirs of Numenor " as ther latest product.

lleimmoen said:

i also like 1 cost allies- they are very useful for when you have the likes of elrond in a deck….in my lore/spirit deck i can include 1 cost allies from any sphere and be able to play them immediatly without the need for songs

rich

what keywords are used on the quest? the one where you fight with willpower- is that 'ambush' (i can remember)

thanks