Ages End, love that set

[Vroengard]

I dunno if there was such an topic before, but I really would like to know what you think about this set, I mean, hunters set is clearly strong, too strong, but no one mentions this tiny little set, the last of its kind, I mean, it is the last LOTR set!!
They made it really balanced, as I think. Here decipher was really creative again! just look at the new pictures and I really love the grima, he's rather strong! arwen, stern words, the nertea...many really good cards. and look at the pippin, I use to play him now in my hobbit deck, he rules, maybe not that much as sam, gew..... I like these conditions, that can be switched to other companions. REALLY cool mechanic  not too strong.  and I really appreciate that they finally created my beloved watcher in the water  I waited so long.....
I think I had to say something about decipher, they really've done right. In this set they have been really creative and made cards for the fans, not the money (maybe both )
you made it, finally!

[FingolfinFinwe]

I too love Ages End, though it is far from perfect.  Nertea and Pippin are overpowered IMO, but I still love them.  The Great Ring is WAY overpowered.  There are also some real duds such as Legolas and Eowyn.  However.. I LOVE the Demon of Might!   

[Gil-Estel]

I don't hate it, but I would have loved more synergy between the 9 companions. The keyword fellowship is riduculous and it would have been so much fun to. see a consistant deck option to play a nine walkers deck. I have one but it would be cool to have seen such thing.
AE should have been I think all about characters. Not weird conditions, but true characters. The 9 ofcourse + a few key characters. Elrond, Galadriel, Arwen, Eomer, Eowyn, Theoden, Faramir, Denethor, Bilbo, maybe another Tom Bombadil.
The shadow side: Sauron, Saruman, Grima, Balrog -which is really, really great in AE- Mouth of Sauron (just because he is soooo cool to see) and ofcourse the nine riders. That would have been cool.

[MR. Lurtzy]

I don't know, besides demon of might and nertea, I don't find the cards in that set to be all that great.

[Elessar's Socks]

I've had a growing appreciation for it; there's some great stuff in there, but others are underwhelming as well. Favorites are Threatening Guide and Dark Horseman. The new Watcher is amazing in tentacle decks (new tentacles are welcome, too). Demon of Might is IMO the best version of the Balrog. The Great Ring is pretty crazy without a set limit, but it helps with skirmishing Hobbit Ring-bearers. Also it's fun figuring out how to use some of the cards: Royal Maiden, Pitiable Guide, Well-traveled Guide, and Rabbit Stew come to mind.

Still not sure about the hot-potato cards. Stern Words, for example, might help Bearer of Obligation but it returns to hand a tad late. Not impressed with the other Nazgul or the Trolls. Sauron's Might and Lady of the Mark merely confuse me.

I am glad there's room to explore (maybe there are sleeper cards still), as opposed to the cultures being too focused on some new one-shot strategy. If anything, the fellowship keyword doesn't do enough! Someone had the neat idea of making it loaded so that while all the companions in a fellowship have the fellowship keyword, they'd all gain Ring-bound. Maybe a future PC could work with it.

[Thranduil]

My issues with Ages End were basically:

1) They have some great and fun cards yes (Demon of Might, Well-Traveled Guide, Eored Captain and more are all awesome cards), but they also have some completely useless cards which there was no reason to print (Lady of the Mark, the Sam, Urgency, Sauron's Might )

2) The hot potatoes are, I think, ridiculously strong, especially Stern Words. +8 to EVERY COMPANION? I mean, come on that's crazy! The one I think is balanced is Army Long Trained, and I would never put that in a deck because it's not good enough. In Twilight annoyed the #$&*@! out of me though - why doesn't it give the Nazgûl twilight?

3) They put a random keyword that doesn't do anything. Okay, some of the fellowship companions are pretty cool (I like all of them except for Gimli, Frodo and Sam) but they don't work together! I will admit that Strength in My Blood and That's Two are both really cool, but if they were going to introduce a new fellowship keyword, they should have made all the members of the fellowship and every FP support card in the set work with them, otherwise it doesn't make a strategy. Given that they didn't do that, there was no reason for the keyword and it just annoyed me.

4) Oh yeah, and the Great Ring is just unbelievably stupid. Really nice design, really clever idea, but terribly executed so that with any burden removal it just becomes ludicrously overpowered.

[King89]

Dark Horseman
The Great Ring
Demon of Might

the most powerful cards of AE and to my mind non of them are are too strong!

most fellowships have two or more cultures, so that nertea can be stoped without too many exertions. or use direct damange, or discard dark horseman / return him to your opponents hand.
facing the great ring? playing cavern entrance and you pwn your opponent. and if it's possible have mount doom in the same region to be i.e. save against traveled leader. each adventure deck should include a copy of cavern entrance.
and last but not least the balrog can be handled with strong comps, skirmish direct damange, wound preventing, and damage bonus remove, example: mithril coat

[Not a Zombie]

2) The hot potatoes are, I think, ridiculously strong, especially Stern Words. +8 to EVERY COMPANION? I mean, come on that's crazy!

I think Stern words is plenty balanced. For one, you are adding 8 twilight to the pool every site, for another, it clogs the #$&*@! out of your hand. its still a fun card though

[legolas3333]

dis anyone else notice that demon of might is basically a reprint of Terror of Flame and Shadow with Fierce instead of the -3 twilight cost ability?

[King89]

dis anyone else notice that demon of might is basically a reprint of Terror of Flame and Shadow with Fierce instead of the -3 twilight cost ability?

with an other card picture.

[Elrohir]

I like this set too. Sceptical Guide, Loyal Friend, Demon of might, Dark Horseman and Sauron's might are my most precious cards. I miss Shelob, Saruman, Galadriel, Denethor...

[Vroengard]

dude, this is called, new card... an balrog with another picture and other abilities that looks completely different can definetly NOT be called an reprint    hahaahhaa great.

[Apopas]

Yeup and it has more text about maneuver and archery. Totally different card.

[legolas3333]

ok i guess it's just my little club but all my pals that play love the not able to assign to  a companion with strength less than 6 and that's their favorite part and i just pull out Terror of Flame and Shadow and tell them that ability has been around for a while

[MR. Lurtzy]

That's completely unintelligible.