http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=4502

I'm a huge tactics fan ad so far I'm loving what I'm seeing...

I also want to see a killer Gondor deck soon... any of you great deck makers have any Ideas for a strong Gondor deck by looking at the new cards?

Strange the preview says that Ship Captain can move a resource from a hero of a different player, but it in fact cannot, according to the card's text.

I really like how Rohan is transitiioning from the Spirit sphere to Tactics. To be honest, I never felt like Spirit was a great placement for Rohan to revolve around in the first place. Tactics, however, is an excellent choice!

I can't wait until Eomer is released to wreak havoc on Orcs... I'm already envisioning a killer Rohan deck in my head with Theoden, Eomer, and Eowyn!

I really like how Rohan is transitiioning from the Spirit sphere to Tactics. To be honest, I never felt like Spirit was a great placement for Rohan to revolve around in the first place. Tactics, however, is an excellent choice!

I can't wait until Eomer is released to wreak havoc on Orcs... I'm already envisioning a killer Rohan deck in my head with Theoden, Eomer, and Eowyn!

I don't think Rohan is "trasnsitioning" from spirit to tactics. I think it's merely expanding to it. Remember Steed of the Mark. I think that in fact the faction will be focused on those two spheres (I feel that spirit is a great sphere for Rohan actually, though of course tactics should be its main sphere). And yeah, those spirit tactics Rohan decks are looking pretty good! Theoden Eomer and Dunhere for the win!

To really round out the trait it would be nice to have a Rohan hero with decent defense (at least 3 points) *cough* Erkenbrand*cough*. As it is right now, the balance of specialty is weighed down with attack power. Dunhere, Eomer, Hama, and even Theoden to a lesser extent all focus around attacking. Eowyn, Theodred, then once again Theoden are all meant for questing (with Theodred not even doing it well). No one for defense.

I think the player card pool in general could use another good defender since they are in such short supply. With power creep on both sides of the table, we have new ways of killing new nastier enemies but haven't gotten a lot of tools to withstand their attacks (other than a sound supply of red shirts). Each time I build a deck with tactics it becomes harder and harder to not include Beregond.

Now I'm just rambling. *leaves topic*

Agreed. There's just too many redshirts and many of them don't really make sense thematically. So a shady Bree-lander can kill a Master of the Forge in a single blow but it takes a couple rounds to kill him? Boo. While the game needs chump blockers and all, pretty much every ally who is not unique or a defensive ally like Defender of Rammas of Winged Guardian is way too fragile.

Tactics spirit is the best combo for Rohan I suppose

Strange the preview says that Ship Captain can move a resource from a hero of a different player, but it in fact cannot, according to the card's text.

I think the article was saying that other players could play the captain to give you resources to make sure the attack/willpower boosts stay up.

^Hmm, maybe, or it probably was, the sentence just doesn't read that way.

As for Rohan and defence, I like when they keep an obvious weakness in a faction. Like with Gondor, they actual had them all quite weak in Willpower and Defence (up to a point), so that Visionary Leadership makes perfect sense.

Now Rohan could try and avoid defending in the first place, so I'd hate to see their hero of 3 defence, even another one of 2. I believe they just have all the heroes they need for the moment, and one can make a really nice Tactics-Spirit deck. And/or even use Théodred for coop and make a great Gondor-Rohan double deck.

I like how Rohan is spread across Spirit and Tactics. Gondor is spread across Leadership and Lore, so together they make all the spheres. I think Rohan needs one two defense hero, with maybe some sort of ability focused on defending, but not one with three. It could even be an ally; but I hope it's Erkenbrand, and I really want him to be a hero and not an ally. So I'm gonna stick with hero.

Defensive Rohan ally? Gamling!

'2-def' Rohan hero with def ability? Erkenbrand! "After Erkenbrand is declared as a defender, ready one Rohan ally!"

I like how Rohan is spread across Spirit and Tactics. Gondor is spread across Leadership and Lore, so together they make all the spheres. I think Rohan needs one two defense hero, with maybe some sort of ability focused on defending, but not one with three. It could even be an ally; but I hope it's Erkenbrand, and I really want him to be a hero and not an ally. So I'm gonna stick with hero.

Yeah, Rohan is taking a good direction ATM. Gondor is spread about all four spheres IMO. That's perhaps why some are struggeling with building Gondor decks. The Against the Shadow Cycle focused mainly on mono sphere decks, but Gondor is made for triple sphere decks. Especialy as it has a lot of cards that boost the resource pool of Gondor heroes, thus balancing the major flaw of triple sphere decks - lack of resources.

Caldera is an example of a heroine, who doesn't work that well because her Gondor trait gives her no synergies with her special ability. I really like her, but she simply doesn't fit into Gondor decks.

^ Oh, not at all. Gondor is great in mono-decks. Not yet fully developed (and of course lacking a few heroes to make it fully thematic) but great. Leadership is their main sphere but the others are not far behind, in that I agree. Spirit has the two girls and craftsmen, and Shipwright can really quest away. Lore has rangers, of course. Tactics have Spearman, Defender, and some weapons. For once ffg have done really well with what the promised, especially once all these gain further support in the upcoming releases. Surely the Ring-maker cycle will see some Gondor love, and once the saga turns South, we shall see much more.

Yes yes will be cool if the Saga will turn south. I would like to see Harad or Umbar and maybe even blue mage…..

Yes yes will be cool if the Saga will turn south. I would like to see Harad or Umbar and maybe even blue mage…..

They don't have anything to do with the saga though.

Yes yes will be cool if the Saga will turn south. I would like to see Harad or Umbar and maybe even blue mage…..

They don't have anything to do with the saga though.

I think he meant Deluxe + Adventure cycles . I'd like to see some other places too (Angmar, south, far east), but now I'm eager to know the Ring-maker AP's !

Ah yes, of course I want to see the blue wizards and a general East based cycle.