Nightmare Run Episode 5 - Escape from Dol Guldur (2p)

Derek joins me, once again, to try to rescue a prisoner from the evil fortress of Dol Guldur!

Nightmare Run Episode 4 - Journey Down the Anduin (2p, Take 2)

In this episode of Nightmare Run, I am joined by Derek of The Grey Company.  Are we successful in our adventure down the Anduin? Watch and see!

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.

Sidetrack - Sentinels of the Multiverse

Back in 2011, the same time that Fantasy Flight brought out Lord of the Rings: The Card Game, a small company named Greater than Games brought out their first game, Sentinels of the Multiverse.  The game follows exploits of various superhero teams (Freedom Four/Five, Prime Wardens, Dark Watch) as they fight the villains of their world and beyond.

If I explain this game to someone who already knows LOTR, I call it LOTR lite.  It's similar, but simpler at the same time, and this simplicity has its advantages as well as its own drawbacks.  Where as in LOTR, you have to build a deck before coming to play, in Sentinels, each hero has their own deck which is used each time that hero is chosen.  The only customization available is through the promo versions of certain heroes, which allows for different starting abilities, but otherwise they play exactly the same.  Instead of an encounter deck, the players choose which villain they will face, and a location.  These two choices will have their own respective decks.  The locations are especially interesting, as certain locations are more friendly to the players than others.  One of my personal favorites is Silver Gulch, where the heroes and villain have found themselves sent back in time to the Old West, in the middle of a shootout!  The combinations of different villains and locations allows for replayability, but because the players have limited hero customization, certain characters are significantly more powerful than other based on who and where is involved in the fight.
Sentinels of the Multiverse has enjoyed significant success, with five expansions out to date, another due later this year, a handful of mini-expansions, and a spin-off game in Sentinels Tactics, a scenario-based miniatures game.

If you're interested in checking out Sentinels, I highly recommend Sentinels of the Multiverse: The Video Game.  Developed by Handelabra Games, this implementation is loyal port of the card game onto your digital devices.  Currently, you can get the base game, a few of the mini-expansions, and the first expansion, Rook City.  Not only is it significantly cheaper than buying the physical version, the video game version takes care of a significant amount of the accounting required in the game.  In the card game, between passive effects, temporary effects, advanced rules, etc, it can be very difficult to catch all the effects that take place, even with all of the tokens included in the game.  The digital edition tracks all of that automatically, for a much smoother experience.

I'd be interested to see who has played this, and what your opinions are.  What's your favorite heroes?

Climbing the Ranks Playtest Episode 1

This is the first playtest of my custom quest, Climbing the Ranks.  Unfortunately, OCTGN disconnected, ending the play session early.  I'm going to try to record another session this week.

Nightmare Run Episode 3 - Journey Down the Anduin (Solo)

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.

Location Lock

Monday night, I spent entirely too much time watching The Grey Company's twitch stream.  After a loss to Nightmare Morgul Vale, Matthew and Dan began discussing various topics of the state of this game.  The one that stuck out to me was location lock.  For those that don't understand the term, this refers to the situation where, especially in multiplayer games, the staging area is filled with locations to the point where they cannot be cleared fast enough, which then leads to a slow loss due to threat gain each turn until threating out.
The first time I recall experiencing location lock was back in the days of the core set.  Here I was, with his brand new game, and four decks to choose from.  In hindsight, I almost wish there had been less cards in that core set, to the point where they had two starting decks, both dual sphere.  Just like the core rules mention ignoring shadow cards until comfortable with the game, I wish they had given us these decks, so I wouldn't, like so many, assume that each of the decks were equally viable.  I played Passage through Mirkwood with the starting Leadership cards, and beat it with no problem, even after foolishly not pulling Ungoliant's Spawn in quest stage 3, when that was the objective (I kept questing until I got him, and with that still won).
With that win under my belt, I tried again with tactics.  It's an often repeated story, but needless to say, it didn't go as well.  I had a tough decision each round to determine who to quest with.  If I quest with Gimli or Legolas, I'm losing combat power, but if I don't, I'm slowly losing ground in the staging area.  I believe I ended the quest with Old Forest Road still as the active location.  The staging area was filled with all manner of location, and no chance to get rid of them.
That all said, whose fault is it?  Was it my fault for playing a deck that wasn't crafted for that particular quest?  Was it the designer for not making a more accessible quest?  I tend to favor placing the blame on myself, but that has a lot to do with the experience I have with the game, and it could be very off-putting for someone brand new.  So, what do we do about this?  The easiest choice is to build to handle locations.  You put in your Northern Trackers, Asfaloth, Riddermark's Finest, etc, but you're still dependent on being able to pay for them, and pull them out of the 50 cards in your deck when you need them.  What could the game itself do to cushion the blow of location pile up.

Detours

My first thought was an alternative to the travel action.  Similar to how the upcoming valor action seems to be an improved version of another action, based on the player's threat.  My idea, which I'm calling detour, is an action taken during the travel phase which, instead of making the location active, shuffles the location back into the encounter deck.  For example, perhaps a location has Travel: Deal 1 damage to a hero, it could be paired with Detour: Deal 2 damage to a hero.  Perhaps detours can only be taken if there already is an active location, but the important thing is to give the player a way to temporarily avoid a location, but at a cost worse than travelling to a location, and buffering your questing.

Multiple Active Locations

In most cases, the players are limited to one active location.  In Assault on Osgiliath, Ruined Tower introduced the concept of having two active locations. Similarly, Foundations of Stone and Breaking of the Fellowship both had separate staging areas for each player, each with their own active locations.  This is used very limited, and I am of the opinion that it is good to continue to do so.  Thematically, it makes sense when you have separate staging areas for players, but otherwise, it falls apart.  Furthermore, I think it confuses things a bit when you have two or more buffers for the quest.

Power Reduction through Errata

One of the more drastic means of correcting such an issue is errata, which has been a tool used conservatively to this point, to which I am thankful.  At this point, the number of meaningful erratas is limited enough to remember, but if used more heavy haneded, it could be come hard to keep up with updates without updated cards.  That said, it's still a tool that can be used.  There is a term in many card games called Power Creep.  This is something that I believe could be it's own post, but for the sake of this one, I will keep it limited location control.  Certain cards require a boost in encounter card power.  One such example is Asfaloth.  When it came out, most 2 quest point locations were negligible.  Due to this, we saw many more 3+ quest point locations, or locations which were immune to player card effects.  I believe that if Asfaloth was limited to placing 1 progress token, even when attached to Glorfindel, it would require less power creep on the location side.  Further, it could be a Travel action, so it couldn't be done before resolving questing.  To counter this, it could cost one less to attach to Glorfindel.  Perhaps Northern Trackers and Lorien Guides could have a planning action instead of a response, where they are exhausted to add one progress to locations, so you don't gain their willpower to the quest.

What are your thoughts on the matter?  Is location lock an issue we should worry about, and if so, what ideas do you have to counter it?

Strange Eons Tutorial

In previous posts, I've shown custom cards that I have made.  In this entry, I show how I do it.

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.

Impressions - The Treason of Saruman - Player Cards

Thanks to back ups at the west coast ports, we are blessed with back to back big box expansions.  The Lost Realms is still fresh, but we can now continue our journey through The Lord of the Rings saga, entering into the events of The Two Towers.  In this entry, I will give my opinion on the player cards for this saga expansion.

Heroes

All these heroes have been spoiled prior to the release, but this did not lower my anticipation.  Fellowship Aragorn gives us a fairly different saga hero, compared to Frodo or other Frodo.  Gone is The One Ring, and now Aragorn has a readying ability.  We already have multiple attachments which have abilities specific to Aragorn, such as Celebrian's Stone or Sword that was Broken which can give this version of Aragorn even more utility.
Théoden, King of the Rohirrim, was a hero that divided the community when the tactics version came out.  A new version was released in this pack.  Now a spirit hero, gone is his willpower boost, replaced with a much needed cost reducer for Rohan allies.  Since there is no resource generation, save for Miruvor, in spirit, and Rohan allies can be fairly pricey, this is a welcome ability.  Also, it allows you to reduce cost down to zero, so cards like Westfold Horse-breeder can play for free.  The only downside that I see for Théoden is his threat.  Prior to Théoden's release, Idraen was the highest threat spirit hero, with 11 threat, and the same stats as Théoden.  Obviously, if you want to to run monospirit, there are plenty of low cost heroes you can pair him with, but you're going to be in rough shape if you're trying to splash spirit with him.
Treebeard had just recently been introduced as an ally, and now we see his hero version.  Just like hero Gandalf did, playing hero Treebeard removes a versatile ally from your deck.  There were very few decks that I didn't put the ally version of Treebeard in, due to his powerful stats and his resource generation.  Even if there aren't any more Ents in the deck, ally Treebeard's resources are still useful for readying him.  That said, hero Treebeard has solid stats.  His action ability, while potentially risky, can allow you to have a powerful quester/attacker turn one.  Being able take damage after staging to boost your willpower can be savior, just like Eowyn's card discard ability, but not limited by the number of players in the game.  Since he's lore, he already has in sphere healing abilities, whether it's the core classic Self Preservation, or more recent cards such as Athelas, which allow you to continue recycling his ability.

Allies

Four allies came with this saga expansion, three of which are ally versions of former heroes.  Ally Gimli is a solid addition to any Dwarf deck, or leadership decks in general.  Now in the leadership sphere, his ability to ready after an enemy is revealed allows him to react to the enemy.  Whether that is using Gimli's sentinel to defend, or to attack back with his 2 attack (more likely 3 with Dain).  At four cost, he's also a great candidate for A Very Good Tale, which again still has utility in case enemies show up.
Legolas has been a solid hero since the core set.  His ability to add progress has always been a boon to the tactics sphere, which typically lacks in questing.  While this version doesn't have progress generation, the ally version has card draw, another ability lacking in tactics.  Typically, if I want card draw in a tactics deck, I pull out Foe-hammer, which requires a hero attacking and a weapon.  Though Legolas draws one card, versus Foe-hammer's three, his draw is more reliable and with less parts to get the combo.  That all said, I wish there was some synergy with the silvan cards of the Ring-maker cycle.  There is no benefit to bouncing Legolas back to your hand, and since he's tactics, there is not an eligible silvan hero (aka not Legolas) to pair with him. That said, he's a strong addition and definitely a card I'll be messing with.
Hama was an hero famous for his event recycling ability, especially the infamous "Hama lock" which had previously been used to break Shadow and Flame, now errata'd away.  In the most recent COTR podcast, they state that the hero version is a younger version of Hama, where this ally version is an older version, where he has taken the the role of Doorward to King Théoden and Captain of the King's guard.  This version definitely represents his more defensive side.  Already solid stats for three cost, or two if brought into play with Théoden's ability, Hama really shines during combat.  He gets to ready and gains 3 additional defense.  Because of the readying, he gets could be committed to the quest first, and then still defend.  At the end of the combat phase, you have to discard him, but there are still ways to get more utility out of him.  Since he's going to get discarded anyway, he would be a good candidate for Ride to Ruin, or if you want to save him, you could always attach Born Aloft to him to bring him back to hand and play later.
Quickbeam is the only ally from this expansion that doesn't have a previous hero version.  A unique Ent ally, so though you can only have one on the table at a time, his stats make up for the uniqueness.  Like other Ents, he has to come into play exhausted, however he has an ability that gives him immediate utility.  For the cost of one damage from his three hit points, he gets to ready when he enters play.  Normally, we would be concerned to take damage, but at his cost, and the synergy with Booming Ent, I don't see a reason not to include him and not take advantage of his response.

Attachments

The first attachment is a new mount.  Arod, able to attach to any hero, or Legolas, is able to place progress on a location.  Attaching it to hero Legolas, along with two Blades of Gondolin, and you have to potential for up to five progress placed on locations after a kill.  Throw in Asfaloth, and you have another progress, two if it's on Glorfindel.  With the new ally version of Legolas, it can be used on him as well.  Arod could also work well in a Rohan deck, using Westfold Horse-breeder to pull it, and then attaching to Éomer.
Ent Draught is a fairly simple attachment.  Extra hit points are nice, but it doesn't really excite me.  Similar to classic attachment, Citadel Plate, it gives extra hit points, but doesn't take up a restricted slot.  This makes it good for Treebeard, who relies on taking damage to boost questing and attacking, or hero Gimli.  It also gives you a little extra to handle quests with archery.
Herugrim is one of my favorite cards from the expansion.  This weapon opens up the opportunity for questing decks to have significant attack power.  Two of the strongest heroes to attach to: Eowyn or either Théoden.  Include Steed of the Mark or Unexpected Courage, along with willpower boosting, such as The Favor of the Lady or Dúnedain Quest, and you have the opportunity to quest strongly and still attack enemies that come down.  If you include Nor am I a Stranger, granted a longer combo to setup, you have unlimited choices of who to use this with.
Shadowfax is another unrestricted mount, though limited to Gandalf.  Shadowfax gives Gandalf ranged and sentinel, as well as a readying effect.  This is definitely a multiplayer card.  Thematically, it makes sense to include it, and it is neutral, so it is flexible regardless of what heroes accompany Gandalf.  Even with that, I would use Unexpected Courage over Shadowfax in a solo game.  If you're using hero Gandalf, more than likely you are using Wizard Pipe, so getting Unexpected Courage to the top of your deck so Gandalf can use any sphere shouldn't be a problem.

Events

Entmoot is similar to Mustering the Rohirrim and The Eagles are Coming! where you can pull allies of a certain trait into your hand.  I find it interesting the inconsistencies between these cards.  For Rohan, you have to pay 1 resource, and only get to pull 1 ally out.  With the eagles, you can pull out as many as you find.  The Ents work the same as the eagles, but you have to have an Ent character in play.  If you're playing with hero Treebeard, then the requirement for an Ent character isn't a problem, but if you prefer the ally version, then you need to have something out before the card is effective.
Helm! Helm! seems situational.  You have to exhaust and discard a Rohan ally to discard a non-unique enemy enemy engaged with you.  This means you probably don't get to utilize the ally you are discarding since it has to be ready.  I suppose you could use ally Hama's ability to ready so that it can be exhausted and discarded.  It also has to happen only after enemies have attacked, so it doesn't even allow you to save a defense, meaning you may have to lose two characters for especially rough enemies.
The Three Hunters is the last event included in the expansion, and is the third Fellowship card.  I'm not a big fan of both Fellowship and Baggins sphere cards, since you can't play it unless you are controlling the respective hero, and it cannot be used outside of the saga quests.  At three cost,  it seems like it will be hard to save the resources until the card holder is able to play it.  Obviously, there is resource smoothing that could be used, such as Théodred's response, or Errand-rider, but I would be hesitant to put any resource acceleration on Aragorn, unless I planned to use an attachment to give him additional resource icons.  That all said, if the resources are available, the card's ability is strong.  Being able to ready three heroes and give them stat boosts could be useful regardless of the reason.  Perhaps you need three additional willpower to boost questing, or you need to added combat strength to deal with enemies that showed up.  It's unfortunate that is requires that the player controls Fellowship Aragorn, as it makes it unavailable in The Black Rider and The Road Darkens.

Final Thoughts

In many ways, the player cards in Treason of Saruman are welcome additions to the card pool. Some of which are more situational than others, but there is a place for each card. It's hard not to compare these cards to what we received in The Lost Realm, because of how closely they were shipped. In my opinion, I am more excited about the cards from The Lost Realm than Treason of Saruman. There are strong cards in this expansion, but I feel The Lost Realm introduced new ways to run a deck, where as these cards feel like more of the same. 

What's your thought? I'd love to hear if you agree or disagree. 

Nightmare Run Episode 2 - Passage Through Mirkwood (Solo, Take 2)

In this episode of Nightmare Run, I get my revenge on The Passage through Mirkwood.

Sidetrack - Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

Last September, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was released to much fanfare.  Instead of following the stories already told in Tolkien's Legendarium, Monolith Productions decided to make their own story.  The video game follows the story of Talion, a Gondor ranger assigned to guard the border between his home land and Mordor.  His garrison is attacked by Orcs, led by the Black Hand of Sauron.  The Black Númenórean sacrifices Talion and his family in an effort to summon a wraith, who ends up being (semi-spoiler) Celebrimbor, the Elven Lord who crafted the rings of power for Sauron.  Over the course of the game, Talion's power grows as Celebrimbor's power is revealed, and eventually he gains the power to dominate lesser minds (namely Orcs) to build an army up against the forces of Mordor.

This game does a good job of weaving old characters and new into the story without it feeling tacked on.  During parts of the game, you are following Gollum as he finds artifacts for the "Bright Master", and other times you are hunting with Torvin the dwarf, tracking down the mighty Graug.

I have enjoyed playing through this game, and hope that they continue the story.  Bringing it back to the living card game, inspired by Ian's (Tales from the Cards) work on the First Age, I have been developing custom player cards and quests to follow the adventure of Talion.  In a later post, I will share some of the cards I have made, but here's a sneak preview of what is to come:

OCTGN Tutorial

I've had a few people ask about using OCTGN, so I put together a fairly basic tutorial.  Enjoy!

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.

Sidetrack - The Lord of the Rings Deck-Building Game

Welcome to the first Sidetrack entry.  These are meant to be opportunities for me to discuss things not related to The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game.  For this first entry, I chose to stay close to the card game.  I'd like to talk about The Lord of the Rings Deck-Building Game.

Cryptozoic has put out a wide variety of deck-building games: Street Fighter, Naruto, DC Comics, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings.  All of these are essentially the same.  All are based on the Cerberus engine, which is a fancy word for "Theme Glue".  Regardless of the theme, you basically have a hand of cards, all of which are used to either gain power (the currency of the game), hurt your opponents, or do some shenanigans.  I first played the the DC version and was not a fan.  I did not understand why I was Nightwing, but was collecting different colored power rings, or how I spent punches to buy a kick.  With that said, I actually like the Lord of the Rings version.

Why?  Maybe it's bias towards LOTR, though I am a fan  of DC Comics.  Maybe it's a bias towards DC to the point that I can't get over the abstraction.  Regardless, I enjoy it, to the point of buying all three versions, sleeving it, and even buying a custom insert so I could hold them all in one box.

What do you think? Have you played any of Cryptozoic's games, and which is your favorite?

Keep Running!

A Call to Arms

The Treason of Saruman is shipping now.  We've already had a preview of some of the cards and quests, but now we given a look at the heroes we will be getting.  We already knew about our new Fellowship hero, Aragorn v4.  Now we have our two other heroes: Théoden and Treebeard!

Many people online were predicting a new version of Théoden, considering the source material.  Personally, I had completely written off a hero version of Treebeard when we got the ally version in the last cycle.  As it stands, I'm more excited for spirit Théoden than I am hero Treebeard.  His ability to boost willpower and strength is interesting, especially since there is so much opportunity for in-sphere healing.  Théoden shows lot of promise.  Already being in the same sphere as his niece, Éowyn, shows promise by itself, but his cost reduction should make a lot of the more expensive Rohan cards more viable.  

My favorite from this update is Herugtim.  This weapon works well Théoden, either version, or Éowyn.  Add some willpower boost, like Dúnedain Quest, or Éowyn base ability, and you can get some significant attack power.  All in all, I'm excited to get my copy late next week.

Nightmare Run Episode 1 - Passage Through Mirkwood (Solo)

In the first episode of the series, Nightmare Run, I decided to take the Dúnedain through the nightmare version of our first quest, Passage Through Mirkwood.  It didn't go well..  Regardless, here it is, and I hope you enjoy!

Impressions - The Lost Realm - Events, Attachments, and Side Quests

Events

There are three event cards in The Lost Realms, with spirit missing a card.  Tireless Hunters is what I call a "soft" version of feint.  During combat, you're able pull an enemy over to you, and if it has been dealt a shadow card, then it is removed.  This could be used to move an enemy from another player that isn't set up to defend an attack, or even bring an enemy down from the staging area.  Back in the core set days, the Hill Troll in Journey Down the Anduin could be a daunting enemy.  It was common to forest snare him until you could deal with it.  Unfortunately, you either had to spend a feint, or deal with his 6 attack for at least a round.  In this case, you could use this card to pull him down after enemies have attacked, then snare him during the next turn's planning.
Expert Trackers reminds me of Strength of Will. Instead of a static amount of progress, you are able to place progress on a location relative to the threat of an engaged enemy.  There's not much to say about it, it's solid.  As long as you have a deck with a good number of scouts or rangers, I don't see a reason not to include it to help with location control.
Ranger Summons is the card that got me excited for this expansion.  First off, it's a signal card, so it has synergy with our new watchman.  For one cost, this card places a ranger ally into the encounter deck.  I have to imagine that this was inspired by The Massing at Osgiliath's Ranger of Ithilien.  It can do damage to an enemy, or put progress on a location, then you get to give it to whichever player needs him most.  Solid stats for the cost, but I wish it would of had a shadow effect, like the Ranger of Ithilien.  Perhaps that would of been overpowered.  Regardless, I'm very happy with this card, and I can tell from my initial playthroughs that it is very satisfying to see them come up during staging.

Attachments

Heir of Valandil reminds me of O Lórien!  To fit in with the Dúnedain trait, instead of being a static reduction, it is relative to the number of engaged enemies.  I imagine it will be good as we get through the cycle and fill out the number of Dúnedain allies.  I don't see any value, however, in a mono-leadership deck, considering the amount of resource acceleration available.
Secret Vigil is my favorite attachment from the expansion.  It provides a lot of utility that isn't available in tactics, particularly threat reduction, both enemy and player.  There was a core set card, Power in the Earth, which had similar effects, but for location.  It didn't, however, provide any additional utility beyond reducing the threat in the staging area.  It fits right into what tactics is meant to do, and not only benefits the player who played it, but each player.
When I saw Athelas, the first thing I did was pull up the quest cards for A Journey to Rhosgobel, to see how it was written about the Athelas objective cards.  These can't be used to for the last quest card in AJtR, but it could still heal Wilyador earlier in the quest.  My second thought was relating it to lembas, another recent lore attachment.  Where as that only healed three hit points, and readied the character, this heals all damage and removes a condition.  Not having a cap on healing isn't as big of a deal for me, as the most you would typically heal is four, but I'm always happy to have more condition removal.  Also, it doesn't have to heal the character its attached to, so there's flexibility there.  Unfortunately, you have to exhaust the attached character, so you use up their utility in exchange for the healing.  A small inconvenience for sure, but there's plenty of value to make up for it.
Star Brooch is a solid questing boost.  As opposed to The Favor of the Lady or Dúnedain Quest, which both cost two, for one you get the same boost, and it cannot be reduced.  The only trade off is limit one per hero, and you have to put it on a Dúnedain or Noldor hero, but that still opens it up to plenty of valid targets, such as Idraen or Glorfindel.  This attachment would come in very handy in quests where there are willpower reduction conditions, such as Black Breath.

Side Quests

A new addition to the player card line up, side quests allow for the players to take a break from the main quest for some added benefit.  Similar to The Battle of Five Armies, players decide which quest card they will take on, and then quest against that.  Not only do you get the benefit of the side quest, but it could also be useful in quests where you don't want to progress too quickly, such as Conflict at the Carrock, where you usually want to build up before taking on the trolls.  The only neutral card in The Lost Realm is a side quest, Gather Information.  Limit one per deck, it allows the players to search their decks for a card of choice, and add it to their hand.  Similar to Word of Command, being able to pull those key cards from your deck could be game changing.  In the quests included with The Lost Realm, there are various effects which can penalize you for how many quests are in play, but for all previous quests, I don't think there's any negative to include this.

Final Thoughts

Looking at the new cards as a whole, I'm very excited for where the designers are taking the game.  None of the cards drastically change the way the game is played, but they all give the players new options to explore.  Regardless if you build a Dúnedain deck, a lot of the cards can be included in older builds.  I look forward to testing out these cards in future plays.  What do you guys think?  What is your favorite card?  Are there combos that I didn't mention that merit further exploration?

Across the Ettenmoors

FFG announces the third adventure pack in the Angmar Awakened cycle: Across the Ettenmoors.  In  this quest, our heroes will journeying through the troll-fells, fighting new troll enemies, such as the Ruthless Hill-troll.

With 12 hit points, he can be nasty, especially if you can't finish him off in one attack.

Here, we see a call back to the Hill Troll of the Anduin, except instead of extra threat, we're seeing lost progress.

In addition to the new quest, players will also get a new tactics hero, promised to boost defense.  Will this be a new power defender, like Beregond, or will he have a passive defensive boost?  I hope the later, as that should help with the new focus on engagement.  We will also see new signal, mount, and Ent cards.  I am very excited for the new Ent cards, as I want to flesh out that archetype further.  We should expect this adventure pack some time in Q3 2015.