Too true. I know this was not a problem before. I for some reason thought of Gondor who beside the heroes (which are great) only got 3 allies (one of which is sh*te, guess which). But we really are in the very beginnings (hopefully they won't prove me wrong by running into bankruptcy).

I'd also vote for the Shire and its surroundings. No urge in moving south yet. There's room to create some adventure around ether the spies, maybe a quest to thwart Saruman's plans on seizing the Southfarthing's herb plantations...

But I actualy believe they'll want to send us toward the Lonely Mountain soon. They'd be crazy to not try to link with the upcoming movies (doesn't mean they'll follow it, but they can build on the momentum while retaining their independant creative freedom). There are plenty of adventures to be had in this area; we know Sauron eventualy tried to corrupt the dwarven kingdoms and they were under attack during the war of the rings; there are bound to be some scouting adventure possible during the timeframe covered by the game.

yeah guard of the citadel is terrible- i assume you mean him other wise there must be 2 aweful ones

thing is, when they release these random allies from far off areas, what happens when we get to these areas? i mean take rohan for instance, which must be an deluxe at some point seeing its importance...now will ffg have a hard time bringing out more rohan cards when we finally get there?

khazad dum wasnt a problem- we didnt have many dwarves at all, but mirkwood may as well have been called rohan/eagle cycle

obviously theres plenty to do on an entire country, but still, people may be a little sick of rohan allies by the time we get there (or maybe if they leave it long enough it will work out- which is probably what theyll do)

I want to do a post on terrible cards. Guard will be there, first place likely. I wrote about him shortly after the release, and you know some cards age well, this guy has only gotten worse in my view, he is no way. And there are bad cards with nice theme but this Citadel Guard has defense of 0! And (not to offend the artist) I quite dislike the picture and scratch my head why this card got on the cover of the box.

Yes, I believe they should put Rohan further off. Of course I would like to see Éomer and especially Théoden (I have a hunch he will be great fun to play, perhaps having some sort of kingly effect as Dain has) but I see it would be unfair to further expand on their realm before other factions will have grown in power.

I know many love the Dwarves. And reading the Hobbit, I have to fall in that category too. But in the game, I see their flooding as another potential threat. There were 13 with Bilbo, unfortunately we will not see Thorin, Kili, Fili but the other ten are all possible (and 3 reality already). And take this, we already have 5! Dwarven heroes as opposed to 1 Silvan and now 2 Noldor. I hope not to see another Dwarven hero in this cycle but I feel we shall. I would rather see them as allies. Bofur is mighty one by the way, the real thing.

what has always confused me is that thorin was released by barachi (i think thats the artist name- the same as did beravor- amazing artist) on his/her site...did ffg just think about it, commision it, then realise he was dead??? he cant still be coming as i doubt he would have been put on the site..anyways.

i think we shall see all of thorins co remaing before the end of this cycle, i think for sure we will see bombur which i am looking forward to

in a post several months ago i did a list of all the nations/traits/creatures that havnt even emeraged....just to see how much scope ffg had to work on, and if that is ok with you i shall do the same here, if anything to satisfy my own curiosity....

what we havnt seen...some are more likely than others but i attempt to give a full list

ENTS/HUORNS

DRUANDAIN/WOSES

WIGHTS

UNDEAD ARMY

OTHER SPIRIT THINGS- ie watchers at cirith ungol

HARADRIM

EASTERLINGS

BLACK NUMENOREANS

WHATEVER THE HELL BOMBADIL/GOLDBERRY ARE

STONE GAINTS

OLOG HAI

WERE-WOMRS of the east- pushing it a bit me-thinks

i may come back as i think of more

anyways.....im not sure what that proves...perhaps it gives you hope for the amount things FFG have yet to touch on

It's threads like this that make me want to go back to the books and re-read them all

I've said it everywhere else, though, so I'll say it here too - I really hope for some Haradrim soon!!

spalanzani said:

well we'd definatly have to go south for that.....dont worry, theyre a core part of the armies of evil so we will definatly see them at some point

now the easterlings on the otherhand attacked dale/erebor area, so we may see them quicker i believe

OH I FORGOT- MUMAK!!!

what a card that will be

10 defene and 20 hit points, and everytime you attack it you have a chance of being stamped on!

Mumak of Harad

engagement value- 25

threat 5

attack 7

defense 10

hit points 20

Forced: after declaring an attack on Mumak of Harad discard the top card of the encounter deck. If that card is an enemy, discard all characters taking part in the attack

Easterlings! Yay!

Man, there's just so much good stuff that could come out of this, I might just explode with delight...

yes, thats what i will feel like when we get to the shire....middle earths a beautiful place, but there aint no place like the good old shire.....ivy bush inn anyone?

Yes, please. Ivy Bush, Green Dragon, etc. It is indeed the Shire that brings the warmest of feelings. And as the spring slowly springs, I feel like I should reread the book(s), I am just not sure whether to pick up the Hobbit of the Fellowship.

I hope to see the inns as interesting locations or objectives, or even attachments (on locations - I hope to see more of those like Ancient Mathom, I think it is a great idea).

The Shire is great because so many things meet up there, as mentioned above, the Elves wander through, the Dwarves dwell near by, and the evils are really "cool" too. I want to see spies, bandits, wolves, and even the trolls from the area seem much more interesting than elsewhere.

Hi, it is my very first post ever in any forum so please be kind (and English is not my mother tongue). 

I've read several suggestions about what kind of cycle ffg could come out with.  Shire, Isengard, Gondor... but still wondering what's on the mind of Nathan French and his team. 

If they consider The Lord of the Ring lcg to be based on Tolkien's complete work instead of the 3 tomes' story everyone knows about, we should even expect to buy someday quests or allies, even heroes based on underdog characters such as the two other Istari, Alatar and Palando.

I'm refering to another card game that was released I believed in 1995, Middle Earth: the Wizard.  Too many rules but a great game.  Anyway, it was possible to play heroes from the first to the third age together.

I would not have expected the same from FFG but since I discovered from you guy that Eleanor and Berevor are made-up heroes, I am opened  to everything.

Why not thinking the we might get a cycle about the dragons.  Since Smaug could be defeated on the last quest of a ''Dale cycle'' or Erebor, or Lonely Mountain, another cycle could show up final stage enemies such as Scatha, Eärcaraxë, Bairanax, Agburanar, Scorba and Daelomin, since every dragon covers a specific region of Middle Earth.

hi, and welcome tornak...do not fear- you will find us a pleasant bunch on here :D

i had this discussion a few months ago and i do not belive it is as simple as FFG saying yeah lets create the blue wizards, or yep lets take something out of unfinsihed tales and put it in. they all have different licenses, and while ffg may be allowed to create their own content (to an extent) it all depends on what license they have at the moment

i have heard that christopher tolkien guards the rights to the silmarillion like a dragons horde

now we have seen alot of characters, some from the hobbit, some from the trilogy, but i doubt ffg will ever go so far as to break tolkien lore as to have 1st,2nd and 3rd age characters all togetther- i hope they dont

now when ive said this previously - people have said wait? we already can take characters and put them through moria, and then have them live out thier lives until the fellowship events- whats that about then?

well----theres limits.......and i dont think ffg will ever do 1st age material....could be wrong, but i dunno, just dont feel it ever going there

and anyways my tolkien puriest self says i dont want that to happen, as much as i crave new material

you say nate considers this game to be based on ALL tolkiens work? ..he's got his work cut out for him then, because with the silmarillion, akallabeth, Ufinished tales, the hobbit, the trilogy, the appendices, tom bomadils adventures....theres a hell of a lot there....the heirs of numenor its self inc.all the days in exile would give them years worth of heros

most of those dragons are iron crown creations correct? the only tolkien named dragons i cant think of are smaug, glaurung, ancalagon and scatha....the iron crown game i have never played, though what i have gleamed from looking at it, it seems to be a lot more looser on the lore of arda than this game

mind you i would love to see the blue wizards if we ever went east- thought being failed and leaders of cults as tolkien guesses- they may end up being enemies

PS. a shameless advert- seeing as you seem keyed in with tolkien lore - take a look at my series on mondays- they may (or may not!) be of interest to you

 Tornak: FFG established that the timeline for the game's adventures resides between the end of The Hobbit and Bilbo's birthday party in The Fellowship of the Ring.

Although nothing could prevent them from stepping away from this rule, I think they'll stick to it for a while, creating adventures based on tid-bits we know happened but never saw fully recounted in the books (like the capture of Gollum; although we know that Aragorn did it pretty much by himself in the books, it was an untold tale).

So I don't see us going to kill Smaug, since he died in The Hobbit. But exploring the happenings in the Dale area during those subsequent years could be a way to get a cycle located in this area.

i thought they had said that sick boy- though i wasnt fully sure so i didnt mention it

also the hunt for gollum got its own chapter in unfinished tales, though i dont particularly think that ffg took much (if anything) from it that couldnt be found in the appendices