Please keep this type of content up. This series is insanely helpful for those of us who didn't get into the game until it's repackaging/reprinting. Thank you!
I just recently got into the LOTR card game with the revised edition. This content is perfect for new players and gets me more engaged with the game itself. Thanks, great videos.
Probably the best card by card breakdown of a card game set that I’ve seen on UA-cam. Love the fact that you’re looking at this from multiple angles, both as a brand new product and from how cards mesh with other, older sets.
Love to see the other sets if you ever have the drive to do an Unboxing & Analysis for those. These videos have taught me a lot about the game. Thank you for the effort put into them.
I really enjoy how you summarize the box by factions. Made it very easy for me to realize it’s a box for me. Would love to so similar stuff for the other boxes / cycles even if they aren’t released as a full box yet
Just came came back to your UA-cam , hope you add more of the boxes in this format . It’s really the best way I seen to present the boxes . Eagerly waiting !
After listening to this analysis, I've started approaching all cards with respect to their interaction with different archetypes. Love to listen to your Dreamchaser analysis, too. Please, please, please!
I just bought the core set and two starter packs. Thanks so much for the great videos and content! Really helped me know what to buy first and how to avoid mistakes in the game!
I love this content! I hope you keep making LotR LCG content, I'd love to see you unbox the Campaign and discuss, or create broader videos explaining common deck strategies, great staple cards, deckbuilding tips, etc. :D
Really great analysis! Very helpful for a new-ish player like myself! It is always great to hear explanations of card interactions and synergies. The possibilities for decks are endless and this makes it so fun and interesting to see! Great job!
This was a really good breakdown of the Angmar Awakened hero expansion! I can't find any unboxings like this for the Dream-chaser hero expansion or for any of the saga expansions. Are you going to do those?
Are you planning to do the Campaign Expansion Unboxing and Analysis? By the way, thank you to your videos with LofR LCG, they are helping us to get into it.
Very helpful. I'm just getting into this game (I only have the core set and this one that just came out) and wasn't sure how to use some of the new cards. Thanks a lot!
@@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.
To echo what others have said, what a great video! I own all of the content but haven't touched most of it, so I really appreciate you dividing the cards into the different archetypes to show off synergies and themes. I also like the occasional combo you show with different cards. I'm looking forward to the next cycle analysis :). Question: With the most likely next boxes being Dreamchaser and Ered Mithrin, how do you think they'll introduce some of the other archetypes from the left-out cycles? Do you think there will be more starter decks, such as Eagles from the SoM cycle or Outlands from HoN?
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!
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 :)
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!
@TheGameLocker I'm a complete novice, but my first thought about "Delay the Enemy" would be that it's a battery for storing otherwise wasted attacks. So you'd never set out to quest there, but if you have combat power that's unneeded that turn, you could quest there, essentially saving combat value for a future turn. Or is it the case that you very rarely have available attack value that goes unused on characters who have no little or no willpower? Also, would it be useful if the threat level of the cards in the staging area is high, and you're able to generate more attack value that turn than you can willpower, just to keep the amount of threat you add that turn down to a reasonable level?
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 :)
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!
Amazing breakdown! I only own the new re-releases but I own them all and just opened this yesterday. I’m now forming my first Vilya deck with some success (Arwen, Elrond, and purple Aragorn as I don’t have red Eowyn). Still working on allies but am getting closer. I can’t stack the deck (no Stargazer) but Elven Light and Gather Info is working. Would you mind to give me a list of allies you would include from my card pool for this? I think I’m close but choices are slim (Gandalf, northern trackers, faramir, a Beorn of course…but then it gets hazy lol)
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.
@@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.
Hello and thank You for the video! I am another new player in LotR, thanks to revised content release. Is it possible to succesfuly play Angmar campaign with just this hero expansion and revised core set (this is all I got right now, plus new revised saga expansion). I heard that Angmar quests ar rather insane... Thanks for help!
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!
Honestly, for someone like me who didn't get the proper chance to get into LOTR LCG until it was so deep into the run it was hard to find all the expansions, I think these revised boxes will be better for me. Though, I do question: why did they skip three cycles and go straight to Angmar?
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 issue with Elven Spear is that there are to my knowledge only 2 Noldor Tactics heroes. Elladan and Glorfindel. Elladan is part of the second cycle, which seems will not be redone (pity, it has some really strong cards in it, Elrond and Vilya are part if it, for example). And Glorfindel is very recent ALep addition. And there are 4 version of Glorfindel - the Core set Lore one (I dont really play him), Spirit Glorfindel hero (again part of the second cycle, 5 threat, with Light of Valinor, very strong combination!), Spirit Glorfindel ally - costly, but can be played from discard pile. And Tactics Glorfindel hero. TBh, if you can get your hands on that Khazad-Dum, I can recommend it. Especially if you are like me and like to play Noldor. There are four heroes in it, Elladan, Elrohir, Glorfindel and Elrond. And the starter deck for Silvans only give you Elrond. And that is without Imladris Stargazer, so it is blind Elrond Vilya - yuck.
Never noticed the typo on "Foe Hammer" @ 43:34 ! "...delight in the killing of *hte* great lord of the cave." Where you disappeared to bud? We need dream chaser reviews, the repackaged saga stuff and the upcoming Erid Mithrin stuff! 🙏
Bought this week or so ago, but did not open until campaign released... and now seeing booklet realised I threw mine away... Will know for next time I guess.
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!
"Looks at Honor Guard" This guy is one of the most overpowered Allies. It gets even more hilarious when Pillars of the Kings is played to raise your threat to 40 and now, you pretty much saved yourself from Hummerhorn and Hill Troll damage. PS: Merry looks almost identical to Willow Ufgood XD!!!
When you play Distant stars, do we lose the progress points you have on the location you are swapping or they carry over to the new location you have chosen? What do you mean by the travel effects point you mentioned?
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!
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...
Btw: at the moment I have the old core set, most of shadows over mirkwood cycle, and the first Khazad-dum box. Once I can convince two or three to people to play this game with me, I would get the new base game for the card pool to build sth. more interesting anyway. Do you think the two new Angmar boxes together are playable with my limited cardpool? (Looking at two or three players total.) Looking at newer cards I realised how weak most early cards were.
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!
I collected much of the stuff in the first series. For those of us who did that, is it possible to buy the new stuff and fold it in with our older stuff?
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).
@@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.
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)
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.
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.
Great video! As a new player, this is incredibly helpful. Looking forward to see your 2022 buying guide video 🙌 It will be awesome if you can compare this game with Marvel Champions as well. They seems to be very similar, but my impression is that you can “do more” with LOTR than MC. You expert opinion will be appreciated! Thanks!
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.
@@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 :)
What a terrible terrible box - I thought it would be up to the same quality as the Marvel Champions Expansion boxes which are quite sturdy and durable.
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.
Please keep this type of content up. This series is insanely helpful for those of us who didn't get into the game until it's repackaging/reprinting. Thank you!
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
I just recently got into the LOTR card game with the revised edition. This content is perfect for new players and gets me more engaged with the game itself. Thanks, great videos.
Thanks so much!
Probably the best card by card breakdown of a card game set that I’ve seen on UA-cam. Love the fact that you’re looking at this from multiple angles, both as a brand new product and from how cards mesh with other, older sets.
Love to see the other sets if you ever have the drive to do an Unboxing & Analysis for those. These videos have taught me a lot about the game. Thank you for the effort put into them.
I really enjoy how you summarize the box by factions.
Made it very easy for me to realize it’s a box for me.
Would love to so similar stuff for the other boxes / cycles even if they aren’t released as a full box yet
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 UA-cam , hope you add more of the boxes in this format . It’s really the best way I seen to present the boxes . Eagerly waiting !
the best breakdown of the cards in this set I've seen. Thanks. Looking forward to checking out your other videos on LotR LCG ✌️
After listening to this analysis, I've started approaching all cards with respect to their interaction with different archetypes. Love to listen to your Dreamchaser analysis, too. Please, please, please!
I just bought the core set and two starter packs. Thanks so much for the great videos and content! Really helped me know what to buy first and how to avoid mistakes in the game!
Splendid! I'm really glad it was helpful!
Love the core set and picked up the Gondor and Elf starter decks. This is very helpful as I plan my future decks and purchases
Glad it was helpful!
I love this content! I hope you keep making LotR LCG content, I'd love to see you unbox the Campaign and discuss, or create broader videos explaining common deck strategies, great staple cards, deckbuilding tips, etc. :D
Thanks so much for the encouragement!
I’m a new Lotr lig player, and I love your channel! Please make this kind of content with all new expansions! 🙌🏼
Really great analysis! Very helpful for a new-ish player like myself! It is always great to hear explanations of card interactions and synergies. The possibilities for decks are endless and this makes it so fun and interesting to see! Great job!
This was a really good breakdown of the Angmar Awakened hero expansion! I can't find any unboxings like this for the Dream-chaser hero expansion or for any of the saga expansions. Are you going to do those?
Maybe one day :)
Are you planning to do the Campaign Expansion Unboxing and Analysis? By the way, thank you to your videos with LofR LCG, they are helping us to get into it.
I'd like to if I have time! It wouldn't be soon though, life's quite busy at the moment :)
I really hope you continue making videos for this game. These are really good. I'm just starting in the game and need more info :)
Thank you for the great LotR LCG videos. I hope you will do some more when additional revised content arrives! 😁👍
Great and very complete review. I would just modify several of my decks with your advice.
your lotr lcg overviews is awesome :) thinking of getting back to the game because of your vids :) cant wait for the angmar awakened campaign box
Thanks a bunch! Never a better time to get back in - all the repackaged content gives you more bang for your buck :)
Fantastic video. I hope you do a similar for the new Dream Chaser Hero Expansion.
I hope you continue this series with Dream Chasers and the Saga boxes
Very helpful. I'm just getting into this game (I only have the core set and this one that just came out) and wasn't sure how to use some of the new cards. Thanks a lot!
My pleasure! So glad it was helpful!
Impressive analysis. I really liked that you clustered the cards by archetype , rather than Sphere.
I loved it too.
Such a helpful video! Just grabbed me a box!
Finally my Mono-Lore Ranger Deck gets some gas - thanks for the excellent breakdown!
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!
Please keep going with your channel, great content.
Very good! Somehow I can’t change the video quality in YT.
Great. Thanks. Please do one for Dream Chasers hero expansion?
Planning on it, got some other priorities first though ;)
To echo what others have said, what a great video! I own all of the content but haven't touched most of it, so I really appreciate you dividing the cards into the different archetypes to show off synergies and themes. I also like the occasional combo you show with different cards. I'm looking forward to the next cycle analysis :).
Question: With the most likely next boxes being Dreamchaser and Ered Mithrin, how do you think they'll introduce some of the other archetypes from the left-out cycles? Do you think there will be more starter decks, such as Eagles from the SoM cycle or Outlands from HoN?
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!
Will there be this, but for Dream Chasers ?
No promises ;)
Totally agree we need dream chaser and saga next. Even play throughs your good to listen too
I'm glad you enjoyed this video! My priority is finishing my tutorial series, no promises on the rest but we'll see :)
Excellent video. Going theme by theme is genious. All the other content goes sphere by sphere and it's impossible to follow.
Loving these videos. Can you use Derndingle Warrior and Honour Guard together to get the bonus armour but negate the damage?
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 :)
Halbarad Hero: Today I learned that I can only optionally engage with one enemy per turn!
I'm sure this will make several cards more valuable to you ;)
Awesome video! I’m sure this is a rookie question, but what is the difference between the Hero Expansion and the Conquest Expansion?
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!
So I was wondering if you were going to do an unboxing if the campaign boxes as well?
Unlikely due to time restraints :)
@@TheGameLocker lame but fair
@TheGameLocker I'm a complete novice, but my first thought about "Delay the Enemy" would be that it's a battery for storing otherwise wasted attacks. So you'd never set out to quest there, but if you have combat power that's unneeded that turn, you could quest there, essentially saving combat value for a future turn. Or is it the case that you very rarely have available attack value that goes unused on characters who have no little or no willpower? Also, would it be useful if the threat level of the cards in the staging area is high, and you're able to generate more attack value that turn than you can willpower, just to keep the amount of threat you add that turn down to a reasonable level?
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 :)
Great video. Are you going to do a similar one for the Fellowship Saga?
Eventually :)
@@TheGameLockercan't wait for this!
Any chance for dunedain deck list? It seems to be a fun deck to play ❤
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!
Amazing breakdown! I only own the new re-releases but I own them all and just opened this yesterday. I’m now forming my first Vilya deck with some success (Arwen, Elrond, and purple Aragorn as I don’t have red Eowyn). Still working on allies but am getting closer. I can’t stack the deck (no Stargazer) but Elven Light and Gather Info is working. Would you mind to give me a list of allies you would include from my card pool for this? I think I’m close but choices are slim (Gandalf, northern trackers, faramir, a Beorn of course…but then it gets hazy lol)
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!
Hello and thank You for the video! I am another new player in LotR, thanks to revised content release. Is it possible to succesfuly play Angmar campaign with just this hero expansion and revised core set (this is all I got right now, plus new revised saga expansion). I heard that Angmar quests ar rather insane... Thanks for help!
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!
Honestly, for someone like me who didn't get the proper chance to get into LOTR LCG until it was so deep into the run it was hard to find all the expansions, I think these revised boxes will be better for me. Though, I do question: why did they skip three cycles and go straight to Angmar?
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 issue with Elven Spear is that there are to my knowledge only 2 Noldor Tactics heroes. Elladan and Glorfindel. Elladan is part of the second cycle, which seems will not be redone (pity, it has some really strong cards in it, Elrond and Vilya are part if it, for example). And Glorfindel is very recent ALep addition. And there are 4 version of Glorfindel - the Core set Lore one (I dont really play him), Spirit Glorfindel hero (again part of the second cycle, 5 threat, with Light of Valinor, very strong combination!), Spirit Glorfindel ally - costly, but can be played from discard pile. And Tactics Glorfindel hero. TBh, if you can get your hands on that Khazad-Dum, I can recommend it. Especially if you are like me and like to play Noldor. There are four heroes in it, Elladan, Elrohir, Glorfindel and Elrond. And the starter deck for Silvans only give you Elrond. And that is without Imladris Stargazer, so it is blind Elrond Vilya - yuck.
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.
Thank You for your videos!!
Never noticed the typo on "Foe Hammer" @ 43:34 ! "...delight in the killing of *hte* great lord of the cave."
Where you disappeared to bud? We need dream chaser reviews, the repackaged saga stuff and the upcoming Erid Mithrin stuff! 🙏
Great video, thank you
Bought this week or so ago, but did not open until campaign released... and now seeing booklet realised I threw mine away... Will know for next time I guess.
Are you done making video's? I have really enjoyed your videos
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 :)
Do you have a link for your Beravor tri color Dunedain Deck?
Hi, are you planning to do the Saga of the fellowship of the ring?
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
Thanks!
"Looks at Honor Guard"
This guy is one of the most overpowered Allies. It gets even more hilarious when Pillars of the Kings is played to raise your threat to 40 and now, you pretty much saved yourself from Hummerhorn and Hill Troll damage.
PS: Merry looks almost identical to Willow Ufgood XD!!!
And don't forget Raven Winged Helm!
@@TheGameLocker Yeah that one is even more icing on the cake. This Expansion looks sweet!!!
When you play Distant stars, do we lose the progress points you have on the location you are swapping or they carry over to the new location you have chosen? What do you mean by the travel effects point you mentioned?
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!
Seen the announcement for the next repackaged product to come out later this year after the Angmar Awakened campaign expansion?
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...
Btw: at the moment I have the old core set, most of shadows over mirkwood cycle, and the first Khazad-dum box.
Once I can convince two or three to people to play this game with me, I would get the new base game for the card pool to build sth. more interesting anyway.
Do you think the two new Angmar boxes together are playable with my limited cardpool? (Looking at two or three players total.)
Looking at newer cards I realised how weak most early cards were.
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!
I collected much of the stuff in the first series. For those of us who did that, is it possible to buy the new stuff and fold it in with our older stuff?
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.
Thanks. Now I'm hyped to buy an expensive game, while my normal playgroup hates co-op games... 😅
Haha, what other coop games has your group tried and hated? This is quite different than most other coop board games.
Since Elven Spear is a 0 cost, couldn't it go into a Leadership, Lore or Spirit Deck as well?
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)
What is your thought about getting 2 starter decks (the 2 that you recommend in the other video) is better or getting this Hero Expansion?
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 :)
Please come back!
Never left ;)
Does each card have 3 copies?
Yep! Except for the heroes.
@@TheGameLocker Thanks! Gonna put this at the top of my list then.
If you had to guess what cycle would be next in this form what would you guess?
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!
Great video! As a new player, this is incredibly helpful. Looking forward to see your 2022 buying guide video 🙌
It will be awesome if you can compare this game with Marvel Champions as well. They seems to be very similar, but my impression is that you can “do more” with LOTR than MC. You expert opinion will be appreciated!
Thanks!
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.
Hi, are you still making content ?
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 :)
MAKE DREAM CHASER CYCLE VIDEO NOW, MAKE VIDEO, I NEED VIDEO, PLEASE
What a terrible terrible box - I thought it would be up to the same quality as the Marvel Champions Expansion boxes which are quite sturdy and durable.
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.
What a stupid box for just two decks of cards.
Any chance to get this analysis videos for Dreamchaser and Ered Mithrin as well? I really enjoyed them and they help a lot.