So glad to hear, I was definitely hoping it would help new players!

I second this. This type of content is super helpful for newcomers.

Same !

I 1000% agree. We need you sir!!

Yes

Thanks so much!

Thanks! I plan to do a bit of an overview of each cycle when I get around to making my Buyer's Guide eventually.

Just came came back to your KZfaq , hope you add more of the boxes in this format . It’s really the best way I seen to present the boxes . Eagerly waiting !

Thanks a bunch! Never a better time to get back in - all the repackaged content gives you more bang for your buck :)

Thanks so much for the encouragement!

Splendid! I'm really glad it was helpful!

My pleasure! So glad it was helpful!

I loved it too.

I'd like to if I have time! It wouldn't be soon though, life's quite busy at the moment :)

Thanks so much! I certainly hope they’ll do a 2nd wave of starter decks to help fill in what’s missing - eagles, outlands, hobbits (the most spread-out archetype). They’re taking their sweet time rolling out this repackaged stuff so we’ll see what happens!

Nice! Have you got a decklist posted on ringsdb you can share?

@@TheGameLocker sure do! ringsdb.com/deck/view/364200 😃

@@Rabid_Wombat Gives me this message: You are not allowed to view this deck. To get access, you can ask the deck owner to enable "Share my decks" on their account.

@@TheGameLocker sorted - sorry about that 🤗

@@Rabid_Wombat Thanks for sharing!

Maybe one day :)

Planning on it, got some other priorities first though ;)

I'm glad you enjoyed this video! My priority is finishing my tutorial series, no promises on the rest but we'll see :)

And don't forget Raven Winged Helm!

@@TheGameLocker Yeah that one is even more icing on the cake. This Expansion looks sweet!!!

That’s a great question that was thankfully answered by the designer with a very similar ability (hero Treebeard, who can damage himself to boost his willpower/attack). Sadly no, you can’t cancel the damage and still get the benefit because taking the damage is the “cost” you must pay to trigger the ability. The ability is worded with the standard format of “pay X cost TO do Y ability”. Anything before the word “TO” is the cost of an ability. If the cost doesn’t change the board state, then you haven’t actually paid the cost. So you actually have to damage the derndingle warrior in order to boost his defense. Hope that helps!

Thanks for the explanation! That’s great to know as I’ve been playing it wrong, I used that combo to block Ungoliant’s Spawn indefinitely but will need to find a new way!

Healing is your solution there - find a way to heal derndingle warrior like with Wellinghall Preserver, self-preservation, or Daughter of the Nimrodel and you can defend with him repeatedly :)

Elven Spear is a great attachment for Elladan, but don't forget it can also go on Silvan heroes! Haldir and Legolas would love this attachment.

I think you mean the "Campaign Expansion", right? Hero expansion just has the player cards I show in the video. The Campaign expansion has the 9 quests that make up the Angmar Awakened campaign, no player cards (except the boon cards you can earn and use during that campaign). Hope that helps!

Eventually :)

​@@TheGameLockercan't wait for this!

Best allies that you'd have are Angbor, Daughter of the Nimrodel (with Elrond's healing), Envoy of Pelargir, Erebor Guard, Erebor Hammersmith (can retrieve stuff after Arwen discards), Faramir, galadriel's handmaiden, Gandalf, Mirkwood runner, Naith Guide, Northern Tracker, Ranger of Cardolan, Wellinghall Preserver, Zigil Miner.

Oh and since you can pay for tactics allies with Elrond: Beechbone, Beorn, Defender of Rammas, Derndingle warrior, Honour Guard, Longboard Sentry, Westfold Lancer, Westfold Outrider.

@@TheGameLocker wow ok I’ll study this! I’m way off lol

@@hobbitonpiper there's certainly no "right or wrong" when it comes to how to build your deck, those allies are just my 1st impression options I would consider when building the deck :). Do you use ringsdb.com by chance? You can make an account there, enter the collection you have, and it lets you browse your collection by card type & sphere without having to rifle through your cards. It's the best way to build decks too since it also shows you the cost curve and sphere distribution of the deck so it helps you balance things out.

@@TheGameLocker I’ll check that out!

Interesting thought - could possibly be useful in a scenario like that. The problem is if there are turns you have a surplus of combat strength (like, not that many enemies around and you have tons of attackers), then you probably won't benefit much from the effect of that side quest. And in the other situation, if you're getting location locked and you have more attack power than willpower, then you're probably on-track to lose the quest and the one side quest isn't going to be enough to save you. Very situational card at best, not generally useful. Though these types of situational cards are often the most fun to try to build decks around :)

Hi! Yes, any progress tokens on the discarded location are also discarded, they never carry over unless a card effect tells you to do that. The new location becomes the active location, but that’s not the same as you “travelling” to that location. so if the location has some effect that would normally trigger when you “travel” there, it doesn’t get triggered by Distant Stars. hope that helps!

I’m working on some solo decklists that can beat the Angmar Awakened campaign using just a revised content cardpool. I’d like to make one using the Dunedain cards, but the problem is it’s a tough archetype to make work well in solo without a larger cardpool. Dunedain is awesome in multiplayer games though!

Hi there! It's definitely possible, but with only a small cardpool I would highly recommend you do one or more of the following to make it more enjoyable: 1) play that Angmar campaign on what the rulebook calls "easy mode", which I call "small cardpool mode", because it will help balance for the fact that you don't have a lot of card options to overcome the many challenges you'll face; 2) play the game in campaign mode - it's easier and more enjoyable. First play through the core set campaign, and without spoiling anything you'll be able to take two particular "boon" cards with you into each quest in the Angmar Campaign that absolutely makes it easier and more enjoyable. 3) it's easier 2-player (or 2-handed solo) than it is 1-handed solo, but 1-handed is still doable. 4) buy some of the starter decks to expand your cardpool. Elves deck is the best, but they all have useful cards. You can check out my unboxing if you want a full breakdown of what's in each box. Hope that helps!

@@TheGameLocker Thanks! I didn' know that campaign mode from core set (played only "classic" mode so far) let me keep som boons for another storyline! Don't want to decrease difficulty, so that sounds like perfect solution ^^. When it comes to starter decks - since revised reprint is stil uncertain (of what cycles will or will not be reprinted, besides gossips and speculations), I'll try to avoid them for a while to not have redundants in my cardpool. So campaign and 2p (it's my default configuration of play anyways). Thanks once again for reassuring!

Unlikely due to time restraints :)

@@TheGameLocker lame but fair

Yeah I agree, the repackaged content is going to offer the best the game has to offer in a more convenient and easier to find (and slightly cheaper) format. One of the designers talked about that in an interview with CardTalk, basically this was the first cycle that everyone in the studio was unanimously proud of - it’s the first of the very BEST cycles in the game. The story is amazing, and the quests are so thematically rich and unique that they wanted players’ first experience to be some of the best the game has to offer. The quests in cycles 1-4 are hit-or-miss. Plenty of good stuff, but you’re not missing much at all in terms of story by skipping it, and you’re not missing much in terms of player cards if you buy all four starter decks.

The hero box does not quite give you a complete deck the same way the starter decks do. There are some amazing cards in there, but I think the starter decks are more “complete”, so I’d probably recommend those first, then later on if you want to expand your cardpool even further then the Angmar box is a good purchase. It’s going to get even better when the Dream-chaser Hero box gets released eventually - those two hero boxes together make a nearly complete Noldor deck that is extremely fun to play.

@@TheGameLocker Thanks for taking time to response. Looking forward for more videos from you. A nice play through that teach about different phase will be nice.

Working on a full How To Play series as we speak :)

The Angmar Awakened Campaign Expansion will definitely be playable - it's playable with just a core set, especially since you're looking at playing 2-3 players (the game is more balanced at 2-3 compared to solo). I'd recommend just playing with what's called "easy mode" in the rules. It's not a "baby mode", I would just think of it as "small card pool mode", since it'll make up for the fact that you don't have all the cards released before that. If that makes the game too easy for your group and you want more challenge, then bump it back up to normal mode. I don't think the Angmar Hero Expansion (with the player cards) is essential for enjoying the campaign. Possibly a better purchase might be some of the starter decks for factions your friends are most interested in. If playing Dwarves, elves, or Gondor will get your friends excited to play, that'll be a worthy purchase :). All the starter decks come with EXCELLENT player cards (I made a video showing them all if you want to see them). Final thought, about "powerful" cards. I wouldn't say the early cards were necessarily weaker than the later cards. There are a handful of cards in the core set that are too expensive, but there are also some that are too powerful (Steward of Gondor, Test of Will). There are some AMAZING cards in the first cycle (Shadows of Mirkwood), and the most powerful cards in the game are in the second cycle (Dwarrowdelf). Powerful cards don't necessarily make the game more FUN, just easier. So don't worry about chasing after the most powerful cards. Just get the cards that look fun, and adjust the scenario difficulty to your liking by adding resources at the beginning and/or taking out the gold-bordered encounter cards. Play for fun! Hope this helped, let me know if you have other questions along the way!

This season of life is keeping me from making more - the door isn't totally closed, but it will at least be a long time until I'm able to make more :)

I wish I had more time - but right now it's low on the priority list. The Fellowship of the Ring box is one of the BEST expansions for new players to buy - great quests, great player cards, nice storage box!

@@TheGameLocker Thanks for your response

Haha, what other coop games has your group tried and hated? This is quite different than most other coop board games.

Never left ;)

We’re almost certain it will be Dream-Chaser and Ered Mithrin based on designer interview comments, combined with the makeup of the starter decks. I’m guessing Dream-Chaser is next.

thanks!

No promises ;)

Yep, I saw it :). Brilliant marketing to just call it “the fellowship of the ring saga expansion”, makes it much clearer to new players what that box actually is. I’m considering doing a card analysis early before it’s released since there’s no new content.

@@TheGameLocker I’d definitely be interested in watching that if you make the video. Article seems to imply the next two sagas will also at some point be repackaged, or if anything maybe reprinted, I hope the Hobbit saga would be too.

@@theMikeKop I think it's quite clear from the article that the other sagas will be repackaged in the new format: "Also, this campaign will continue to its conclusion at Mount Doom in LATER EXPANSIONS, so keep an eye out in the future!" Since they say "later" and "future", that has to be a new product, not just a reprint. Sad that it is $10 more expensive than the boxes used to be buying them individually, but global pandemic and all I suppose...

Yeah all of these repackaged expansions are 100% compatible with the original content. This isn't a 2nd edition, it's just a repackaging of the old content in fewer boxes, and a new campaign mode added where it wasn't there before (e.g. Angmar didn't have campaign mode before, but the Saga expansions did).

@@TheGameLocker Thank you! I suppose the artwork is different?

@@skiddwister9143 Nope, it's literally the same cards with the same art. The new campaign cards use a few new art pieces, but mostly reuse art from the old nightmare decks. There are a few VERY minor changes on a few of the reprinted cards (some intended, some unintended mistakes) that are tracked on ALEP's website here: alongextendedparty.com/ffg-semi-official-faq/

@@TheGameLocker I loved the card game from the beginning but got away from it. Your channel has reinvigorated my love of it and I'll be pulling it out soon.

I’m no expert on MC, I’ve played 2 games of it just to try it out. Funny enough, playing Erestor + Arwen is a bit like playing Marvel Champions since you basically burn your whole hand, using your cards as resources, and draw a new hand every turn. I much prefer the theme, artwork, deckbuilding, and quest design in LOTR LCG compared to MC. It’s a different game though, and MC is much easier to pick up and play since you don’t actually need to build decks.

0 cost cards still require a resource match to play from your hand. So that means you need to either add a tactics sphere to one of your heroes with cards like Song of Battle/Narvi’s belt/Hero Gandalf, or you need to find a way to “put it into play”, which bypasses the sphere match requirement. “Reforged” is the best card to do this, it’s from the Ered Mithrin cycle, which we are 99% sure will get the repackaged treatment. Hope that helps!

@@TheGameLocker Thanks! I appreciate it. Just now getting into the game with the core set and the Dwarves and Rohan Starter Decks. Considering getting the Angmar Expansions soon. Appreciate the info! Any chance you could go over what comes in the Campaign Expansion soon?

That’s low on my priority list for videos, but I’m keeping notes as I play through the campaign so I could potentially film a full review of the campaign box. If you just want to know what comes in it - it’s 9 great quests with brand new campaign cards that link them together, a single rulebook/campaign book with the full story text (previously this was on 6 separate rule sheets plus the deluxe box rulebook), and a box that is almost identical to the revised core set (I.e. it has a GREAT insert that can be used to store 2 campaigns)

Yep! Except for the heroes.

@@TheGameLocker Thanks! Gonna put this at the top of my list then.

Planning on it! But whatever content I do produce will take a while since I just had baby #3.

@@TheGameLocker Congrats on the baby! My first is due to be one at the end of the month. I'm a Marvel Champions player moving over to LOTR for the first time and your vids have been extremely useful.

That’s great! I think you’ll slide right into this one. The deckbuilding is certainly a lot more open-ended and flexible than Marvel. If you like the hand-management of Marvel you’d love a Noldor deck with Erestor. He basically turns this game into Marvel Chanpions :)

I think all the quality packaging is going toward the Campaign expansion - which I'm almost certain will be the same quality as the revised core box, which is very sturdy and has a great functional insert.