The Battle of Carn Dûm

FFG has announced the fifth adventure pack for the Angmar Awakened cycle of LOTR LCG.  In this adventure, the players will be trying to stop a Sorcerer from complete some vile ritual.  We can expect a number of orcs to fight through, before facing the Sorcerer himself.

In the preview article, FFG teases a new Dúnedain hero, as well as continuing the Valour trait.  One of the most interesting additions is the new attachment, Favor of the Valar.  For the first time, the players have a card which can attach to the threat dial.  This card acts as a reactive threat reducer, where it only triggers when the player would be eliminated, dropping down to five below.  As mentioned in the article, it falls right into the valour trait, since you have to be at 40 threat to trigger those traits, which is a dangerous level.  

We can expect The Battle of Carn Dûm in stores late third quarter 2015.

The Treachery of Rhuduar

FFG has announced the fourth adventure pack in the Angmar Awakened cycle.  The Treachery of Rhudaur has the heroes leaving the troll-infested lands of Across the Ettenmoors, into the undead lands of Rhudaur.  

To really press the side quest mechanic, The Treachery of Rhudaur requires to run through the side quests specific to this adventure.  I can see this as a thematic way to search for your path through this ruined city.

 Also included in this AP is a new and powerful hero, Erestor.  We had previously seen Erestor in ally form, where he allowed you to discard a card to draw a new one.  In this case, he allows the player to draw extra cards at the beginning of the round, but at the cost of discarding all cards in hand.  Per Matt Newmann, this sounds like it will be a theme of the Noldor in this cycle, where cards are discarded for various effects, to represent the decline of their people.  I am very interested to see this effect come into play, as it works very well with Eowyn, as well as Protector of Lorien.  Bringing Erestor to a quest such as The Dunland Trap would be interesting, as many of the effects are regardless of how many cards you draw.  We will get a chance to see these cards in the third quarter of 2015.

The Land of Shadow

Hot on the heals of Treason of Saruman, FFG has announced the fourth saga expansion, The Land of Shadows.  In this expansion, we return to Frodo's journey to destroy The One Ring.  We see our third version of Fellowship Frodo.  This version appears to be less interested in hiding and more up front action.  In addition, we see a new double-sided card.  Players will face the dual nature of Gollum/Smeagol, where they may be able to fight along side the friendly Smeagol, or have to fight off the vile Gollum.

Outside of our new version of Frodo, and his new fellowship card, no news is revealed regarding what other player cards will be.  There is a hint of new ranger cards.  A new Faramir, perhaps?  We can expect more news to come out over the months we have to wait, when this is released in the third quarter.

Custodio de la Casa del Manantial

Today, an interesting card appeared on my Twitter feed.  A spanish LOTR blog released a supposed spoiler for an upcoming card.  Custodio de la Casa del Manantial, roughly translated to Custodian of the Spring, is a new Ent ally.

His text translates to: "Cannot have restricted attachments.  Enters play exhausted.  Response: After the Custodian of the Spring readies , heal 1 point of damage on an Ent character." The effect sounds very similar to Silvan Tracker, though more limited. There will definitely be synergy with the recently spoiled Treebeard hero, who gains willpower and attack by dealing himself damage. I hope this card turns out to be real, and if so, look forward to adding him to my Ent decks.