So with the AtS player card awards thread up in the forums (I refuse to post in that thread because my choices have already been posted many times and if I did it would just be redundant), I wanted to make a thread in which you can post in a paragraph or two your final general impressions of the cycle, your opinions of the player cards, the quests, the story and the overall quality of the cycle.

I'll begin by saying that I really enjoyed AtS in terms of quests (this cycle plus HoN is the first one in which I've been completely "involved" in the game from the start). The best part about it for me have been the scenarios themselves, they have been the best ones so far and the most enjoyable with all the battle and siege questing which I like (specially for tactics), and we've got a good mix of easy, medium and hard scenarios. The story as well is great (unsurprising, since it's probably the aspect they wanted to push the most), and the theme and locations i.e. Gondor and its surroundings, has been so far my favorite in the game.

Now, on the other hand I think that the player cards have been the weakest aspect of this cycle. Dwarrodelf gave us so many amazing cards for so many types of decks that to be honest I cannot help but be dissapointed with the player cards of AtS. The mono sphere focus is certainly nice but I still think that the support for mono sphere is a bit lacking. I've made mono sphere decks of all four spheres but not really because of the Books of the 2-cost events but rather becasue the card pool is just large enough to support them. The mono sphere "cycles" have been pretty much accesory to the building of monosphere decks rather than the main reason to build them, which I don't like.

And then, of course, you have Outlands. When HoN and AtS were first announced, I was hyped to build Gondor themed decks. And now that the cycle is over I can't help but to feel cheated. I'm not really an Outlands hater (though I still feel they are way too overpowered) but I really wanted to see more support for Gondor. And apart from the gondorian rangers which I think were a success, the lack of good Leadership Gondor allies is really dissapointing. So yeah, Visionary leadership turns Boromir into a gondorian Dain which is good, but the gondorian allies themselves are just so weak stat-wise that it's just not worth it (and the ONE ally that could have redeemed the trait for me, Knight of Minas Tirith, DOESN'T work with Boromir. BOO). I guess I just hate that Outlands had all the support that Gondor should have had, and that's my main and final thought about this cycle.

Well, that was longer than I had thought it would be, so what about you? What did you think of AtS in general?

Why do you think the Knight doesn't work with Boromir? I've found he is worth the addition even if you dont have all Tactics heroes

Against which scenarios specifically? I've tried it and not being able to use his ability is frustrating, especially when he gets an attack boost that allows him to damage an enemy (because let's face it, in most of the current scenarios that 3 strength will rarely even damage an enemy that is not engaged with you). I guess you could still use him (a 4 attack ally is nothing to sneeze at) but I'm specifically talking about the design decisions the developers made for Gondor. When you make Boromir and then the knight with an ability that will not be useful with him is frustrating from a design standpoint. Much like the fact that the Gondor trait is so spread out the 4 spheres, and most of the allies being either lore rangers or mono sphere supporters. We got a lot of Gondor allies but very little synergy between them.

as usual i have really enjoyed this cycle. i think the introduction of a proper narrative and the inserts is the strong point of the cycle, and i hope ffg continue with this and build upon it in the next cycle.

the quest have been a mixed reaction for me. when i first saw HoN anncouned i was very excited, as i imagined the obvious- grand battles around gondor and morder. this, in a way, was exactly what we got. battle and siege are plenty, and so are the many powerful enemies.

however, the cycle took an unexpected turn with the more clandestine narrative theme. even though i enjoyed it, i think it probably could have happened in a different area....not sure what could have suited it better, but i did feel that there was too little emphasis on the military aspect that i initially expected.

despite this, i do not feel that an all out war cycle between mordor and gondor would have been appropriate themeatically, so overall i guess i am pleased ffg decided upon the less obvious choice in the storyline

the player cards...firstly i did not enjoy outlands. getting almost an entire deck set up in 1 pack was a nice idea, but overall i like the anticipation of new cards spread throughout packs. also i don't like the general theme of outlands. they are too obvious in their deck choices, and have become impossible to errata.

i did however very much enjoy the traps, and this i feel is the star of the packs. ever since using forest snare i have awaited new traps, and i am pleased that they were assigned to rangers as they should have been. i wish we had actually got more ranger allies, though the ones we did get were nice.

weapons.....i really was looking forward to weapons in this cycle, however i am disspointed we didnt get all that many. however the ones we did get were great. also there were many tactics cards in the cycle that were basically weapon attatchments in other forms (fire of gondor for eg.) so on that point things werent so bad.

heroes....overall very good. my favourites are beregond, faramir, pippin (though out of place), theoden looks great though i havent yet got him, and boromir.

the art, as usual, was fantastic. this game really does continue to amaze me in this area. the only area i didnt like was the druadan art, mainly because i didnt imagine them to be like that, but that is subjective. some of the best art was in the assault on osgillaith pack. i know i always get it here for not liking the films (untrue) but i really thought one of the best areas was osgilliath and for once i am pleased that the art is similar. the tower is particularly amazing.

overall, this cycle is perfectly fine. i think i am a little less enthusiastic about it than the previous two becuase i have never been a 'gondor' type of fan, more of a quiet shire/wilderlands fan.

rich

Against which scenarios specifically? I've tried it and not being able to use his ability is frustrating, especially when he gets an attack boost that allows him to damage an enemy (because let's face it, in most of the current scenarios that 3 strength will rarely even damage an enemy that is not engaged with you). I guess you could still use him (a 4 attack ally is nothing to sneeze at) but I'm specifically talking about the design decisions the developers made for Gondor. When you make Boromir and then the knight with an ability that will not be useful with him is frustrating from a design standpoint. Much like the fact that the Gondor trait is so spread out the 4 spheres, and most of the allies being either lore rangers or mono sphere supporters. We got a lot of Gondor allies but very little synergy between them.

Solo maybe not great, but multiplayer Boromir would buff him, since it doesn't have to be Allies you control. Ive also found that a 3 cost 4 attack Ally is useful.

Thanks rich, I was looking forward to your opinion.

You make a good point about the art, which I forgot to mention in my review. It was really pleased with the art as well, but as you say I didn't like the depiction of the Druadan so much (I imagined them as a little bit more human) but I liked the autumnal colors in the forest itself. I must admit I'm not the biggest fan of the art for this game (the spot in my heart for "best Tolkien art" was taken by Meccg long ago). I'm not a fan of digital art, not because it is digital, but because (as an illustrator myself that dabbled for a bit with PS) in many pieces you can just see the filters and tricks the artists use, and while traditional art has them too, the ones for digital art just feel kinda cheap and lazy (you can see that a lot in the Core set, but it has toned down big time in these later cycles which is very good). There are still a lot of pieces in this cycle which deserve IMO a place amongst the classic Tolkien arts (Children of the Sea, Faramir and Lieutenant of Mordor off the top of my head). I really wish though that the art in these cycles depicted more of the actual "main" characters from the story instead of generic anonymous heroes (some of my favs have been Gildor's Counsel and Fortune or Fate because you can tell it's Lotr, it's just iconic, and not just from a random RPG).

Solo maybe not great, but multiplayer Boromir would buff him, since it doesn't have to be Allies you control. Ive also found that a 3 cost 4 attack Ally is useful.

The thing is, I play almost exclusively solo so I don't consider multiplayer synergies, but you're right in that respect. Also 4 attack for 3 is still great, there's good value in that.

I've been happy with the player cards in this cycle. They are more subtle than the awe-inspiring cards of the Dwarrowdelf cycle and allow for some fun combinations with older cards, like Light the Beacons + Stand Together, Trained for War and For Gondor!, or Spear of the Citadel and Gondorian Spearman. I have been a little underwhelmed with the AP heroes. Faramir is my favorite, and I've made good use of Mirlonde. But I haven't warmed up to Caldara, and Pippin just doesn't work very well in multiplayer. I'm not into Outlands so Hirluin is wasted on me, although I am happy to see a Ranged hero outside of Tactics. Haven't had a chance to use Theoden yet but his ability seems small in scope even though it's a global ability.

The quests I have found pretty interesting. The Heirs quests all have special places in my heart -- I know where to go if I ever want to get punished. My fingers sting a little bit when I lay hands on the card box that houses my Heirs collection. I loved The Steward's Fear, by far my favorite among this cycle. Druadan is a fun quest and not too challenging if you build a healing deck -- fun to see a relatively unused deck archetype shine like that. Amon Din was an easy quest but that suits me fine I liked the mechanic and theme. Then you have your big battles, Osgiliath and Blood of Gondor can have a ton of combat but you can finish them both very quickly if the cards fall correctly. There's nothing like the epic Siege from the Heirs box or the frantic flight in Into Ithilien (bad memories of that one, hah!). Haven't played the Morgul Vale yet.

Now, my gripe. The narrative focus was a letdown for me. Awesome start with The Steward's Fear, I loved the secret hunt through Gondor's underworld. And the villain escapes in the end!! I thought for sure this was just the beginning. Then, in the Druadan Forest.... nothing. End of the hunt? No way, too anticlimactic... I am still waiting for a big reveal in the Morgul Vale-- maybe I will be surprised. If that mystery man has been pulling the strings all along, or hell, maybe he is even Alcaron himself!! He was totally egging the company on after Amon Din. I know nothing about the quest, but I'll be wearing a frowny face is there is nothing in Morgul Vale that relates back to Steward's Fear.

I enjoyed the quests and the art a lot. It was a nice addition to add the plot inserts to the quests. I'm kind of mixed on siege and battle. On the one hand, it opens up a lot of new options. But on the other hand, it makes willpower (and Spirit in general) totally useless, and it becomes very difficult to use one deck for all the quests.

Regarding the player cards, I enjoyed the mono-sphere concept. It opens up a lot of new deck construction ideas. My only complaint is that it wasn't developed enough. It feels very similar to Secrecy, because you have to really go out of your way to take advantage of those cards, but they generally aren't strong enough to make up for everything you are losing.

I love the traps and rangers, although I wish Faramir had more synergy there. I like the Gondor development. I'm not a big Outlands fan, but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. All of the Dwarf cards feel out of place and not very good.

As usual, I share many views with Richard.

Osgiliath is my favourite art of the cycle, too. But I liked it overall, Amon Dín has some great locations too.

One pack I could totally do without is Steward's Fear. It is here where the Outlands come, and I wish they were gone and had a few more Gondor stuff instead. That quest for me is the worst ever, and one I will surely not replay. It is a great trouble to even set up and then it goes on forever - Caleb should have placed the time mechanic on himself that time.

But otherwise, though I still haven't played the conclusion, this has been the best cycle yet. The player cards, outside of the terrible Outlands, were interesting, often innovative, and nicely powered with really no obvious choice save a few like Visionary Leadership for Gondor (but it was most needed for the faction lacking in willpower).

Also the quests were new, though made for coop (and I really think it is the idea now, I believe they hardly even play test much for solo play). Drúadan Forest is nasty and certainly blunts some old tricks. Osgiliath is great and very unique. And overall, what really is nice for me that there are new ways to win scenarios. Tactics can suddenly win, even on its own sometimes.

This cycle was definitely my favorite so far. I found each quest to be very different and the mechanics fit very nicely with the theme. I especially liked the narrative elements and the inclusion of story material in the AP inserts was a nice touch. I'm a huge fan of Tolkien's books and I really appreciated that the designers not only dug deep into the lore of Gondor to come up with the story behind the cards, they pretty much got it all right. Often when I see games attempt to use Tolkien's lore they make a real mess of it and I appreciate the fact that FFG is getting it right. I can think of no other LotR game on the market that has done such a good job of merging Tolkien's story and game mechanics.

My favorite quest was "The Steward's Fear". The scenario mechanics really brought to life the idea of a hunt through the city, especially the underworld mechanic. I especially like the fact that this scenario has a huge amount of replayability. You know how it's going to end up, but I find that no two play throughs are the same. To anyone who's only ever played this scenario once or twice I suggest you try it again, you might be surprised. My next favorite was Encounter at Amon Din mostly because it's a quick and easy quest that is perfect for teaching new players how to play. Thirdly I like Assault on Osgiliath because it does a good job of capturing the feel of a grinding battle for control of the ruined city. I only play two player so I'm not worried about the whole one turn win possibility.

So for me the quests were the real star of this AP cycle. The player cards were a mixed bunch. I'm okay with Outlands. I never use them myself because they are totally boring, but I have given them to new players to help them learn the game and it's been very useful. The mono-sphere boosters are very welcome and feel spot on in terms of power. I was disappointed that we didn't see more Gondorian soldier types. That's my only real gripe from this cycle. In general I felt that the designers were trying to reign in the power creep after the explosion of powerful cards from the Dwarrowdelf cycle and I think this is a really good decision on their part.

The artwork is superb and is the best of any card game currently on the market (I like it even better than Magic). I appreciate that it stays true to Tolkien's lore and is not over the top in terms of magic, armor, and weapons. I like the art so much I would probably continue to buy the game even if I didn't play it.

Final verdict: Best AP cycle so far. Thank you FFG, keep 'em coming!

I'll break my review down into the following sections (writing this for my own memory than stating intent): Player Cards, Quests, Art, Narrative

Player Cards: Certainly a mixed bag with some hits, misses, and everything in between. I was originally excited by the outlands and built a deck with them right away but got somewhat bored by their linear playstyle and by the fact that the pack they came in can be frustating to play with them! (zealous traiter.....). Didnt use them again till Encounter at Amon Din because I wanted to make use of the Lord of Morthond card which i did, and then abandoned the deck after that AP not using them again. I also wished gondor had become stronger, not to the point of dwarves, but despite the gains i feel like they still havent gained much since the HoN box and while visionary leadership obviously helps, it also feels a little redundant at this point as well with ally Faramir and Sword that was Broken providing very similar boosts. I didnt mind the monosphere cards at all as i feel that they were necessary but most were also kind of underpowered. I didnt like the hero monosphere themes at all as it restricts where those heroes can be used but i'm at least grateful that 2 out of the 3 of them were custom heroes whom i have no nostalgia or attachment for. The ranger trait was very exciting to watch develop although i've disappointingly found that it is more satisfying on paper than in practice, perhaps if it were paired consistently with a deck for questing it would be better...I'm also excited by the influx of Rohan cards at the end of the cycle, it seems they are on track to play similarly to the rangers and already seem slightly better at it thanks to Dunhere and his newfound relevance with the sword of westernesse and spear of the mark.

Quests: In general I enjoyed them. What I liked most was the setting, it was fun scouring the streets of the city or fighting large battles or saving people out in the countryside. I thought it portrayed a great picture of the southern region of middle earth and I prefered it more than the caves of the previous cycle. As for the individual quests:

The Steward's fear- I dont replay this one often mostly because of the hassle it is to set up and a lot of the encounter cards just really p*ss me off to be honest. The aforementioned zealous traiter, local trouble, and lost in the city (particularly for its shadow effect) were just really annoying cards. The different plots and villains each game was a fantastic mechanic that i hope they try and implement in further quests

The Druadan Forest- This was just OK for me. As i play mostly solo I never really had to much of a challenge and it was relatively straight forward aside from the last stage. Just average all around for me.

Encounter at Amon Din- I actually really enjoyed this one, it was nice to try new and different decks on and had good narrative feel to it IMO, i also really digged the art of the boss enemy. Not every quest has to be super tough to be enjoyable for me, it just has to be fun and this quest was.

The Assault on Osgiliath- This was another just plain "fun" quest. I liked the mechanic of capturing different parts of the city and the encounter deck had a lot of ways of putting on the hurt without ever feeling just plain cheap like it so often can. Probably the only quest i bother with the set up of playing two handed because its still a blast.

The Blood of Gondor- Kind of a let down for me, just spits out a bunch of enemies and thats it. It just lacks that special something for me and I'm not sure how often i'll revisit it in the future. I did kind of like the setting of the crossroads and wish they could have made each directional road more important to the quest somehow. The hidden mechanic was just kind of whatever for me, felt like something that was added in just for the sake of adding something different in.

The Morgal Vale- Even though I have yet to beat the quest through 5 attempts I still like it. It has the same quality as AoO did where its quite difficult but never feels cheap, and I like the 3 Captain mechanic, gives a lot of significance when clearing a stage. As a solo player I think its a little harder at least to start because the staging area is going to start with 5 no matter what prior to staging which is kind of difficult for solo and not so much for 2 or greater. I also like the urgency it gives you with the "to the tower" objective. A fitting end to the cycle.

Art: The art is always awesome and I'm getting tired of typing.

Narrative: This part was fantastic, I loved reading the intros and conclusions and it was a surprisingly well designed story from start to finish. I think their writers did a good job of thematically setting up each quest rather than just assuming that your group of heroes is here, now here, now here. The best part easily though was the extra "prequel" material included with the morgal vale. I'll be looking forward to seeing what more people say about that as more people get the pack.

Alright thats it, congrats if you actually bothered to read all that

Overall I have really enjoyed this cycle and are looking forward to the next.

Like Grandspeen I have enjoyed a more subtle approach to the player cards than the previous cycle, other than Outlands. I don't mind that there is an Outlands deck as it could be quite helpful for new players (and it nice to see variety, somethings work really well...). Personally found the learning curve pretty steep in this game and if I had been able to temporarily remove the deck building aspect whilst learning the game mechanics then I probably would have.

Loved that the deluxe pack was full of defensive Gondorian goodness and heaps of encouragement. In the form of enemies, battles & sieges to field them and lots of tactics hero's & tactics cards in general. I really like the battle and siege mechanic and hope that they are still used, even if sparingly, in future cycles.

Found it ironic that this cycle is generally,MUCH easier as a solo player than I found the earlier cycles... because I have switched to mostly playing solo ...with a deck full of cards from previous, less subtle, cycle... so whilst I would have liked solo to be a little harder, I can always add a deck or make changes.

The story that ran though all the adventure packs is a nice touch and i hope that they do something similar though out the Voice cycle. finally I rather enjoyed the random aspect of the stewards fear adventure or the stewards surge as i came to think of it.

I can't speak for the quests because I haven't gotten to play any of them yet, but I really like most of the player cards. I think they did a good job of giving most of the cards an archetype that they really fit into best, so there weren't any cards that were really like "this card should be in pretty much every Lore deck" or something. There were the Outlands, Mono-sphere (for each sphere), Rangers/Traps, Gondor, Rohan, Gondor/Rohan combo, and Hobbit. With the lack of power cards, I think some people were getting upset because so few cards could make their current decks stronger, but they really opened up the possibilities for other deck types.

The only thing that sucks is that they didn't get any of the archetypes really fully developed (except maybe Outlands, but I get the feeling that it'll see some more cards in the future too, just like dwarves are still seeing a few cards here and there). This AP cycle really just started opening the door to adding a lot more decisions into deck building other than the spheres and heroes to use. Before this cycle, you could choose a few heroes and the cards practically picked themselves after that. Now you really need to look into what archetypes you want, and whether to use cards that synergize better with the archetype of use standard power cards.

There are definitely some cards that missed the mark, as with every cycle, and at this point it's getting harder to hit the mark because the card pool has hit a place where you need to build the game out horizontally more than vertically (greater variety versus greater power). I think the game designers are doing a great job at starting to create a greater variety of plausible strategies but there's plenty more work to be done to make them great.