These patches are pretty bad.  remember how the first few packs and boxes had different numbers of cards before the current standard of 3 copies of each card was established? 

Well what if these kits included some foils of the more popular cards that you only got one or two of?

I liked the pins better than patches, and the Playmat was wonderful! More stuff like that would be cool. The patches and deck boxes are more sad than anything. And fairly useless.

One thing that is being done right however, is the achievement sheets.  These are a lot of fun and really challenge players to do things differently.

 I agree that these league kits are definitely lacking from the previous ones. The patches aren't a big draw for my players, but the playmats and pins and power counters were. Personally, I loved the power counters. I even played in a CoC League just to win the Cthulhu counters so that I could use them for Greyjoy power counters for A Game of Thrones.

The achievement books are interesting, but with the last league kit I got nobody cared enough to try for them. I don't mind paying for a league kit, but I do want something more than this. After the shipping is added in these kits are easily over $20, and my players just aren't getting excited by them.

All that being said, I certainly hope there is some sort of League Kit for both LotR and SW. I understand that the whole LCG model doesn't allow for the traditional prize structure for ccgs, but I think there are better options that patches that most of my players don't go through the work to put on anything.

 @laddical

I agree that it would be cool to see some league play stuff (I'm even thinking along the lines of what Arkham Horror had).

@jasonpanella

It definitely seems like these are geared towards competitive play, but they don't seem to include anything that restricts them to it.

The LOTR rulebook references using the score sheet for teams in tournament play. Tournaments for a co-op game might seem counterintuitive, but since they have a scoring system it's entirely possible to do something.

But even if they didn't create a retailer kit that supported tournament play they could at least create something that supported "league" play, where people could come together, play for achievements/points to earn... something. Badges or patches like the kits above wouldn't be my first choice, but it'd be something, which is more than nothing. I'd prefer, as @Kaine82 said, to have foil extended/alternate art cards, deck boxes, or playmats - something that would be useful in-game.

 @jasonpanella

Pretty much hit the nail on the head there. Not sure what that was all about!

 @laddical

I could be totally wrong here, but do you think these kits are solely for LCGs with competitive play? I think that makes sense. And as far as them not supporting the LotR card game...I mean, they're releasing adventure packs monthly, all of which seem to be selling well (judging from how fast they sell out from online retailers). That seems like support to me. 

 i wish i could get one :c

Insert obvious Blazing Saddles joke here about Patches...

"Patches? We don't need no stinking patches!"

 At least they made the poster better... the text doesn't cover half of it anymore so you can actually give it out as a prize. But apart from that... no one in my playgroup wants those patches. As silly as it may seem yet another set of house specific power tokens would make us happier. Alternate art promo cards maybe of most favourite plots like Valar would be very appreciated.

I really miss the dye sublimated neoprene playmats and the laser etched tokens.

I participated in the game night kit survey FFG did last year and I have no idea why patches were viewed as a good idea.

The deck boxes should be for general sale, not limited promo items.

FFG has increased the price of the kits while reducing the content. FFG should shoulder more of the bill in promoting their games. Very expensive games, I might add, when taking the long term faithful fan into consideration.

I was a lot more successful in promoting CoC LCG when the promo kits were actually useful.

This is so stupid. Why would you go to the time and expense of acquiring a license to something as popular as "Lord of the Rings" and then completely ignore it in your promotions? It makes me wary of buying any future product for it - or for "Star Wars" - because such a lack of support indicates to me a lack of faith in the product overall. And that just means that the next time the license comes up, it's going to go to another publisher *again*, and these two properties deserve a company that's going to actually take care of them.

How about some foil extended art cards, real deck boxes, and more playmats.