The Road Ahead: New Set from Thranduil!

[Thranduil]

Lookout – Regroup. (You may play this companion any time you could play a regroup event; if you do, discard it from play).

This text really should be worded differently as to prevent it being too much of an event.  As is what would seem to happen is card comes into play and is immediately discarded.  Is that what you had in mind or did you want it to stay through the phase?

You've hit exactly the nail on the head! The card comes into play and is immediately discarded, and so, when you play a card using its lookout ability, it essentially works like an event.

Thran

[Thranduil]

If there are no comments on the previous cards, then I'll continue. Some traitors here (traitor is an unloaded keyword) and some followers, as well as a riff off Strange-Looking Men which probably isn't ban-worthy!

MEU01
Breeland Slanderer
Minion • Man
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Sit: 2
Traitor. Lookout — Maneuver. (You may play this minion any time you could play a maneuver event; if you do, discard it from play).
To play, spot your card.
When this minion is killed or discarded from play (except during the regroup phase), you may discard a follower from play.
A U 95

MEC06
Breeland Informer
Follower • Man
Strength: +1
Traitor. Aid — .
To play, spot your card.
While the fellowship is at a dwelling site, each time bearer is assigned to a skirmish, you may look at 2 cards at random from the Free Peoples player's hand.
A C 94

MEU05
Rohirrim Turncoat
Follower • Man
Traitor. Aid — .
When this follower is transferred from your support area to a minion, you may look at the top card of the Free Peoples player's draw deck; replace it or discard it.
A U 110

MER04
•Unferth, Traitor to Rohan
Follower • Man
Site: -3
Traitor. Aid — .
To play, spot your or card.
When Unferth is transferred from your support area to your minion, you may reveal up to 3 cards at random from the Free Peoples player's adventure deck; add for each site revealed with Shadow number 2 or more.
A R 117

MER06
Sleight of Hand
Event • Maneuver
Stealth.
Exert your or traitor minion to transfer a possession or condition borne by a companion to another eligible bearer.
A R 112

[Not a Zombie]

I like them mostly, the only thing is why would anyone use breeland informer when there is rohirrim turncoat?

[Thranduil]

Funny that I never made any sort of connection in my head between those two cards' abilities! Quite right. Rohirrim Turncoat is now changed.

Thran

[Not a Zombie]

If there are no comments on the previous cards, then I'll continue. Some traitors here (traitor is an unloaded keyword) and some followers, as well as a riff off Strange-Looking Men which probably isn't ban-worthy!

MEU01
Breeland Slanderer
Minion • Man
Str: 6
Vit: 3
Sit: 2
Traitor. Lookout — Maneuver. (You may play this minion any time you could play a maneuver event; if you do, discard it from play).
To play, spot your card.
When this minion is killed or discarded from play (except during the regroup phase), you may discard a follower from play.
A U 95

Finally some good follower hate, looks good!

MEC06
Breeland Informer
Follower • Man
Strength: +1
Traitor. Aid — .
To play, spot your card.
While the fellowship is at a dwelling site, each time bearer is assigned to a, you may look at 2 cards at random from the Free Peoples player's hand.
A C 94

Typo, you forgot the word skirmish, otherwise great.

MEU05
Rohirrim Turncoat
Follower • Man
Traitor. Aid — .
When this follower is transferred from your support area to a minion, you may look at the top card of the Free Peoples player's draw deck; replace it or discard it.
A U 110

I like these changes

MER04
•Unferth, Traitor to Rohan
Follower • Man
Traitor. Aid — .
To play, spot your or card.
When Unferth is transferred from your support area to your minion, you may reveal up to 3 cards at random from the Free Peoples player's adventure deck; add for each site revealed with Shadow number 2 or more.
A R 117

I don't think it would hurt to give him some stats, and it might fit flavor a bit to reduce site number of the bearer? Just a thought. Cool card tho!

MER06
Sleight of Hand
Event • Maneuver
Stealth.
Exert your or traitor minion to transfer a possession or condition borne by a companion to another eligible bearer.
A R 112


Cool.

[Thranduil]

Some Easterlings now, and probably the last cards I will be posting for a while. I understand these might not be the most mind-blowing of cards, but comments are greatly appreciated. (I'm experimenting with Easterlings at site 6, which makes flavour sense to me—after all, there coming from at least as far afield as Mordor which gets site 6 minions).

MEC02
Easterling Vanguard
Minion • Man
Strength: 4
Vitality: 2
Site: 6
Tracker. Lookout — Maneuver. (You may play this minion any time you could play a maneuver event).
When this minion is discarded from play (except during the regroup phase), you may spot your other card to add , where X is the Shadow number of the current site.
A C 106

These two following are part of Shadow minion cycles.

MEU03
Easterling Sentinel
Minion • Man
Strength: 7
Vitality: 2
Site: 6
To play, spot your card.
Each time the Free Peoples player plays a site, you may add a threat.
A U 104

MEC03
Easterling Tactician
Minion • Man
Strength: 10
Vitality: 2
Site: 6
Besieger.
While the fellowship is at a battleground site, this minion is fierce.
While you can spot 6 companions, each of your minions is fierce,
A C 105

You may recognise the influence of an older Easterling with this one...

MER02
•Easterling Commander
Minion • Man
Strength: 11
Vitality: 3
Site: 6
Besieger. Fierce.
Skirmish: Spot 2 battleground sites on the adventure path and remove to make your or besieger minion strength +2.
Skirmish: Spot 4 battleground sites on the adventure path and remove to make your or besieger minion strength +4.
A R 103

[sickofpalantirs]

They are all pretty straightforward to me.  Like the Combo of Easterling Vanguard with Elevated Fire.

[Thranduil]

Huh... Apparently I've been away for quite a while!...

Well, I hate leaving projects like this set unfinished, so I dug up my old files and started updating the cards and adding lore texts. I will probably go through all the cultures here over the course of a few weeks, and any comments would be greatly appreciated.

In case you've forgotten (which I'm certain you haven't!), this is the start of the next block in my series of Dream Card blocks. These are supposed to be moving the game forward after Hunters block, and it is assuming that the ridiculousness from that block has been fixed. So, in chronological order, my additions to the LotR TCG card pool are:

20) Light & Shadow
21) The Twilight World
22) Back to the Light.

23) Reflections II

24) The Road Ahead

The sort of innovations we've had in previous sets:

• Lots of resistance/burdens matters cards
• Corrupted as a means of talking about any companion with resistance 0
• Getting more cool (i.e. unique) characters at lower rarities
• All the sets I have produced (except for Reflections II) in this cycle are designed to be playable in booster draft/sealed events
• Culture-shifting characters (e.g. Éowyn, Merry etc.)
• Adding races to followers, because why not?!
• Followers in new cultures and expanding Shadow followers
• Allowing flavour to guide the cards as much as possible—e.g. if a card makes sense for it to be a search card, or a weather card, or a ranger and so on, then it will have it!

Anyway, do browse some of the links above if you're interested in any of that.


So what's new this time round? Well, again, you could browse the previous discussions in this thread, as many of the cards will be repeated now. Basically, The Road Ahead is a set built around sites and the site path. It's also exploring other such shared space between your FP and SH sides, such as discard piles, hands. It's trying to use game resources, like the adventure deck, in new ways never-before-seen in LotR TCG. Further, it introduces the extra rarity R+ into a non-Reflections set; all other games do it, LotR would have done it eventually, had it survived the journey. It is also in theory draft-worthy.

I shall post some cards now. Mostly, what happens is people go through the cultures in alphabetical order. Controversially, because the sites are so key in this set, I'm going to start with the sites! Quite a few of them are reprints from War of the Ring block (which by this point would have rotated out). More of them are reworked and updated versions of old Movie Block sites. Some are old titles with entirely new text. And then, given that a lot of the sites are also part of the starter decks, I'll put the two starter deck characters below as well.



•Anduin Banks (reprint)
River.
The minion archery total is +2 for each companion you can spot over 4.
A S 224

•Bag End
Dwelling.
At the start of your fellowship phase, you may exert a companion to play a Free Peoples follower from your draw deck; shuffle your draw deck.
A C 225

•Crashed Gate
Battleground.
At the start of the maneuver phase, you may exert your besieger minion to discard a Free Peoples possession from play.
A S 226

•Dammed Gate-stream (reprint)
Marsh.
At the start of your fellowship phase, you may play a Free Peoples card from your draw deck (except an event); shuffle your draw deck.
A S 227

•Deeping Wall
Battleground. Plains.
Engine cards cannot be discarded from play (except by its owner's Shadow cards).
A S 228

•The Dimholt
Ruins. Underground.
When the fellowship moves from this site in region 2, each character must exert.
A U 229

•Dimrill Dale
Plains.
Shadow: Exert your minion to play a Shadow condition from your discard pile. Limit once per player per turn.
A S 230

•Dwarrowdelf Chamber
Ruins. Underground.
At the start of your fellowship phase, you may exert a companion to play a Free Peoples tale condition from your draw deck; shuffle your draw deck.
A C 231

•East Road (reprint)
Forest.
Each companion is twilight cost +2.
A S 232

•Eregion Hills
Ruins.
Cards may not be played or stacked on this site.
A R 233

•Gates of Argonath
River.
Maneuver events may not be played.
A S 234

•Golden Hall
Dwelling.
When the fellowship moves to this site in region 1 or 2, discard all weapon cards from play.
A S 235

•The Great River
River.
Cards may not be played from draw decks or discard pile.
A S 236

•Hall of the Kings
When the fellowship moves to this site, each player may return a card in his or her discard pile to his or her hand.
A R 237

•Haunted Pass
When the fellowship moves to this site, each Shadow player may search his or her draw deck for a minion and take it into his or her hand; if you do, shuffle your draw deck.
A U 238

•Heights of Isengard (reprint)
Battleground.
Each time your companion wins a skirmish, you may discard a condition from play.
A S 239

•House of Elrond
Dwelling.
When the fellowship moves from this site in region 1, spot your companion to remove a burden.
A U 240

•Meduseld
Dwelling.
Fellowship: If the fellowship is in region 1, spot 2 of your companions to make the move limit +1 until end of turn. Limit once per turn.
A S 241

•Moria Stairway (reprint)
Underground.
Each character bearing a hand weapon is damage +1.
A S 242

•Northern Ithilien
Forest.
Shadow: Remove a threat to play Gollum from your discard pile.
A C 243

•Osgiliath Crossing
Battleground. River.
Each knight character is strength +1.
A S 244

•The Prancing Pony (reprint)
Dwelling.
At the start of your fellowship phase, you may add a burden to play a ranger card from your draw deck; shuffle your draw deck.
A S 245

•The Riddermark
Plains.
At the start of your fellowship phase, you may exert your companion to play a Free Peoples mount card from your draw deck; shuffle your draw deck.
A S 246

•Saruman's Laboratory
Shadow spell cards are twilight cost -1.
A S 247

•Tol Brandir
River.
Shadow: Play a tracker card from your discard pile. Limit once per player per turn.
A S 248

•Tower of Ecthelion
Mountain.
cards may not be discarded from play (except by Free Peoples cards).
A S 249

•Weathertop
Ruins.
Assignment: Spot 3 burdens and discard 3 cards from your hand to assign your minion to skirmish a companion. That companion may exert to prevent this.
A U 250



•Faramir, Ranger of Ithilien
Companion • Man
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Resistance: 7
Ranger.
While you can spot a ranger card, Faramir's twilight cost is -1.
While the fellowship is at a forest site, each Shadow event played in a skirmish involving Faramir is twilight cost +1.
"War will make corpses of us all."
A S 81


•Éomer, Knight of the Riddermark
Companion • Man
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Resistance: 6
Knight.
While you can spot a knight card, Éomer's twilight cost is -1.
While the fellowship is at a plains site, Éomer is strength +1 and an archer.
"Death! Death!"
A S 148

[menace64]

•Bag End
Dwelling.
At the start of your fellowship phase, you may exert a companion to play a Free Peoples follower from your draw deck; shuffle your draw deck.
A C 225

Isn't it a rule that you automatically shuffle the deck when you go through it?

•Dammed Gate-stream (reprint)
Marsh.
At the start of your fellowship phase, you may play a non-event Free Peoples card from your draw deck; shuffle your draw deck.
A S 227

Seems pretty clunky. First, since during your fellowship phase all Shadow cards in your deck are inactive, you couldn't pull one if you wanted to. And if the card you can pull is that specific, I'd suggest just outright saying it.

•Deeping Wall
Battleground. Plains.
Engine cards cannot be discarded from play (except by its owner's Shadow cards).
A S 228

Shouldn't it be machine?   Just kidding I also think it's dumb that Decipher made both machine AND engine keywords.

•Dimrill Dale
Plains.
Shadow: Exert your minion to play a Shadow condition from your discard pile. Limit once per player per turn.
A S 230

Possible alternate: "...from your discard pile. End your shadow phase."

•Dwarrowdelf Chamber
Underground.
At the start of your fellowship phase, you may exert a companion to play a Free Peoples tale condition from your draw deck; shuffle your draw deck.
A C 231

Are there any tales that aren't conditions?

•East Road (reprint)
Forest.
Each companion is twilight cost +2.
A S 232

Horribly, hilariously unbalanced. You should be ashamed of yourself.

•Eregion Hills
Cards may not be played or stacked on this site.
A R 233

Fairly useless, but it occurs to me that it would be neat to have a Ruins site keyword!

•The Great River
River.
Cards may not be played from draw decks or discard pile.
A S 236

Really like the flavor on this one. You could also make this a Battleground because of that short archery exchange in the first book.

•Osgiliath Crossing
Battleground. River.
Each knight character is strength +1.
A S 244

Knights could always use more love. I approve.

•Saruman's Laboratory
Shadow spell cards are twilight cost -1.
A S 247

If only Decipher had retained this level of flavor! Their disregard for the little things like unloaded keywords is one of the major issues in post-Mount Doom sets, I think.

•Faramir, Ranger of Ithilien
Companion • Man
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Resistance: 7
Ranger.
While you can spot a ranger card, Faramir's twilight cost is -1.
While the fellowship is at a forest site, each Shadow event is twilight cost +1.
"War will make corpses of us all."
A S 81

There's nothing seriously wrong with this card, and without remembering the rest of the cards in your set I'd recommend keeping this cost-boosting mechanic to Faramir alone. There's a reason Dauntless Hunter was banned for so long.

•Éomer, Knight of the Riddermark
Companion • Man
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Resistance: 7
Knight.
While you can spot a knight card, Éomer's twilight cost is -1.
While the fellowship is at a plains site, Éomer is strength +1 and an archer.
"Death! Death!"
A S 148

Do you have a knight Ring-bearer? (That would be neat.) Also, I'd say drop his resistance to 6 for two reasons: First, archery doesn't come standard with ; and Second, since this is obviously a capture of his suicidal/maniacal actions on the Pelennor, he should be more susceptible to corruption.

I also read through your last most-recent post. I suggest renaming Easterling Vanguard. Vanguard is used in-game for big bad minion hordes, not puny little Rosie Cotton-bate.

[TelTura]

•Bag End
Dwelling.
At the start of your fellowship phase, you may exert a companion to play a Free Peoples follower from your draw deck; shuffle your draw deck.
A C 225

Isn't it a rule that you automatically shuffle the deck when you go through it?

Aye.

When you finish looking through it, reshuffle it and give the player to your right the opportunity to cut it. There is no penalty if you don't find (or choose not to play) a card you are looking for in your draw deck.

•Dammed Gate-stream (reprint)
Marsh.
At the start of your fellowship phase, you may play a non-event Free Peoples card from your draw deck; shuffle your draw deck.
A S 227

Seems pretty clunky. First, since during your fellowship phase all Shadow cards in your deck are inactive, you couldn't pull one if you wanted to. And if the card you can pull is that specific, I'd suggest just outright saying it.

I agree with the clunkiness.  Should say "...you may play a card from your draw deck (except events)."

[Thranduil]

Thanks for the reviews! Really glad that there are still people on this forum paying attention!

So one of the things I've been going for in these new sets is clarity and consistency of wording for abilities. So some of the ways of expressing things might feel clunky at first, but it's for clarity's sake. That's why I'm doing things like specifying that you should shuffle your draw deck when you look through it. That said, "non-event Free Peoples card" is particularly unappealing. I guess the fact that I play mostly Magic: The Gathering now comes out occasionally!

But great comments. I will make some changes, as suggested.

Thran

[hsiale]

Fairly useless, but it occurs to me that it would be neat to have a Ruins site keyword!

Useless only as long, as no other cards refer to it. Which is easy to fix when making a DC set And starting a new block is a great place to introduce new unloaded keywords.

Eregion Hills could be both Ruins and Hills (which is also a terrain type that could be good for the game but we don't have it currently). My idea for ruins: those places are often haunted. So they help wraith characters (both shadow and FP), they lower resistance, work with burdens and so on. Possible other ruins: Weathertop, City of the Dead. Ruins could become a new best location for Nazgul (with most forest-related cards rotating out). No idea for hills so far, but I guess someone will come up with a good one

[Thranduil]

I'm loving the ruins idea. In fact, I've updated a few more of the sites to be ruins and will make it a focus of later cards in the block. In fact, it fits incredibly nicely with where I know that the block would be headed, assuming I get round to actually finishing it.

In the meantime, here are some cards for which I have done the lore text. In no particular order, here are some cards!

I will now briefly introduce the set mechanics:

Lookout — Phase. (You may play this card any time you could play a Phase event; if you do, discard it from play).
Basically this allows you to use characters/conditions/possessions as events, or you could play them as normal.

Monument. (A monument card is always active).
This idea came from thinking about sites, and one thing about sites is that they are always active. So I thought that maybe that was a good way of making site-like cards. So there are a series of monuments, which in general have something to do with the shared space/interaction between your Shadow and FP side, to make the fact that they're always active relevant. It is generally on R or R+ cards only.

Pursuit.
This has no rules in itself, but it is a 'callout keyword'. This is just to indicate that the following line of text has something in common with other Pursuit text, that it counts the number of times the fellowship has moved this turn.

Adventure paths.
You'll notice several of these cards use the adventure path and the adventure decks in new ways. This is a key feature of the sites matter theme running through the set.



•Alcarin, Knight of Osgiliath
Companion • Man
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Resistance: 6
Knight. Lookout — Regroup. (You may play this companion any time you could play a regroup event; if you do, discard it from play).
When Alcarin is killed or discarded from play, you may reveal an opponent's adventure deck. If you do, heal a companion for each site with Shadow number 2 or more revealed.
A U 72

•Aragorn, Hope of Gondor
Companion • Man
Strength: 8
Vitality: 4
Resistance: 8
Knight.
Companions in your hand get Lookout — Skirmish. (You may play that companion any time you could play a skirmish event; if you do, discard it from play).
Each time you you play a companion, you may choose one: make a companion strength +2; or make a minion's site number +2.
‘"A great doom awaits you, either to rise above the height of all your fathers since the days of Elendil, or to fall into darkness with all that is left of your kin."'
A R 73

•Aragorn, Of the Three Hunters
Companion • Man
Strength: 8
Vitality: 4
Resistance: 8
Ranger.
At the start of the regroup phase, if an opponent is ahead of you on the adventure path, you may discard a minion from play.
"We will not abandon Merry and Pippin to torment and death. Not while we have strength left."
A C 74

Barricade
Condition • Support Area
Fortification.
Maneuver: Spot your knight or ranger card to transfer this condition from your support area to the fellowship's current site.
This site is a battleground.
‘... there stood up from the rear of the wide court behind the Gate a towering bastion of stone, its edge sharp as a ship-keel facing east.'
A C 75

•Boromir, Marked by Destiny
Companion • Man
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Resistance: 5
Valiant. Defender +1.
When Boromir is killed during a skirmish, kill all minions he was skirmishing.
"They will look for his coming from the White Tower. But he will not return."
A R 76

•Brego, Aragorn's Steed
Possession • Mount
Bearer must be a valiant Man or Aragorn.
Each time the fellowship moves from a battleground site, you may heal bearer.
Response: If a Shadow card is about to make you discard 1 or more cards from your hand or from the top of your draw deck, exert bearer to prevent that.
A R 77

•Defensive Fire
Condition • Support Area
To play, spot 2 of your companions.
While the fellowship is at a battleground site, the fellowship archery total is +1.
While the fellowship is at a forest site, the minion archery total is -1.
‘Shot and dart fell thick; siege-towers crashed or blazed suddenly like torches.'
A U 78

Deliberate Retreat
Event • Maneuver
Stealth.
Pursuit – Spot your companion to make each minion site number +1 until the regroup phase for each time the fellowship has moved this turn. Then, you may return a roaming minion to its owner's hand.
"Pull back! Pull back to Minas Tirith!"
A U 79

•Faramir, Knight of Osgiliath
Companion • Man
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Resistance: 7
Knight.
At the start of each skirmish involving Faramir, if the fellowship has moved more than once this turn, each minion skirmishing him must exert.
"Sauron will strike us soon. And he will strike hard."
A C 80

•Gondor Craftsmanship
Condition • Support Area
To play, spot 2 cards.
While the fellowship is in region 1, each Free Peoples condition you play is twilight cost -2.
While the fellowship is in region 2, each Free Peoples condition you play is twilight cost -1.
Regroup: If the fellowship is in region 3, discard 2 Free peoples conditions from play to wound a minion.
A R 82

Gondorian Blade (reprint)
Possession • Hand Weapon
Strength: +2
Bearer must be a Man.
While the fellowship is at a forest site or bearer is a ranger, bearer is damage +1.
‘And about each hill a ring was made facing all ways, bristling with spear and sword.'
A C 83

•Madril, Ranger of Ithilien (reprint)
Companion • Man
Strength: 6
Vitality: 3
Resistance: 7
Ranger.
Fellowship: If the fellowship is at a forest site, exert Madril to play the fellowship's next site.
"... we must look to our own borders, Faramir. Orcs are on the move. Sauron is marshalling an army."
A C 84

Ranger of Eriador
Companion • Man
Strength: 6
Vitality: 3
Resistance: 6
Ranger. Lookout – Regroup. (You may play this companion any time you could play a regroup event; if you do, discard it from play).
When you play this companion (except in your starting fellowship), you may play the fellowship's next site.
‘"Lonely men we are, Rangers of the wild, hunters – but hunters ever of the servants of the enemy."
A C 85

Throwing Knife
Possession • Hand Weapon
Strength: +1
Lookout – Archery. (You may play this possession any time you could play an archery event; if you do, discard it from play).
Bearer must be a companion.
When this possession is discarded from play, you may wound a minion.
A U 86

Tracking the Enemy
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
Make a ranger character strength +2 (or +4 if an opponent is ahead of you on the adventure path).
‘"At last!" said Aragorn. "Here are the tracks that we seek! Up this water-channel: this is the way that the Orcs went after their debate."'
A C 87

•Turgon, Knight of Gondor
Follower • Man
Strength: +1
Knight. Aid – .
While the fellowship is at a battleground site, each minion skirmishing bearer is site number +2.
‘"By our valour the wild folk of the East are still restrained, and the terror of Morgul kept at bay..."'
A C 88

Guardian of the Citadel
Companion • Man
Strength: 5
Vitality: 3
Resistance: 5
Knight.
When you play this companion, if the fellowship is at a sanctuary, you may play a condition from your discard pile.
‘The Guards of the gate were robed in black, and their helms were of strange shape, high-crowned... and above the cheek-guards were set the white wings of sea-birds...
A U 89

•Vorondil, Defender of Minas Tirith
Follower • Man
Knight. Aid – .
To play, spot a companion.
Skirmish: Exert bearer twice to make him or her strength +1 for each dwelling site on the adventure path. If bearer wins that skirmish, you may replace the fellowship's current site with a dwelling site from your adventure deck.
A R 90

•White Tree of Minas Tirith
Artifact • Support Area
Monument. (This card's game text is always active while it's in play).
To play, exert 2 of your companions.
If you have no cards in your adventure deck, you win the game.
‘... in the midst, drooping over the pool, stood a dead tree...'
A R+ 91

[Not a Zombie]

•Alcarin, Knight of Osgiliath
Companion • Man
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Resistance: 6
Knight. Lookout — Regroup. (You may play this companion any time you could play a regroup event; if you do, discard it from play).
When Alcarin is killed or discarded from play, you may reveal an opponent's adventure deck. If you do, heal a companion for each site with Shadow number 2 or more revealed.
A U 72

Seems powerful to be able to see an entire adventure deck, but it may be fine. I'd maybe make it reveal 3 at random and heal for one or more.

•Aragorn, Hope of Gondor
Companion • Man
Strength: 8
Vitality: 4
Resistance: 8
Knight.
Companions in your hand get Lookout — Skirmish. (You may play that companion any time you could play a skirmish event; if you do, discard it from play).
Each time you you play a companion, you may choose one: make a companion strength +2; or make a minion's site number +2.
‘"A great doom awaits you, either to rise above the height of all your fathers since the days of Elendil, or to fall into darkness with all that is left of your kin."'
A R 73

Seems good, goes with any culture and if they have a discard type lookout ability it could get very interesting. I'd make it "...make an unbound companion...". Since most rangers aren't ringbound after TTT, I think it would work.

•Aragorn, Of the Three Hunters
Companion • Man
Strength: 8
Vitality: 4
Resistance: 8
Ranger.
At the start of the regroup phase, if an opponent is ahead of you on the adventure path, you may discard a minion from play.
"We will not abandon Merry and Pippin to torment and death. Not while we have strength left."
A C 74

Seems fine. Nice lore.

Barricade
Condition • Support Area
Fortification.
Maneuver: Spot your knight or ranger card to transfer this condition from your support area to the fellowship's current site.
This site is a battleground.
‘... there stood up from the rear of the wide court behind the Gate a towering bastion of stone, its edge sharp as a ship-keel facing east.'
A C 75

I'd maybe add an ability, like the minion archery total is -1 at this site or something, it seems like a baricade would do more than make a battleground to me.

•Boromir, Marked by Destiny
Companion • Man
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Resistance: 5
Valiant.
When Boromir is killed, discard each Shadow possession, Shadow follower and Shadow character from play.
"They will look for his coming from the White Tower. But he will not return."
A R 76

Wow, crazy powerful. A really big swarm or sauron, just kill him and poof, problem solved plus some. I'd have him splashed in every deck I own. I'd make it "...discard a Shadow follower, Shadow possession, or Shadow minion...". Or maybe one of each.

•Brego, Aragorn's Steed
Possession • Mount
Bearer must be a valiant Man or Aragorn.
Each time the fellowship moves from a battleground site, you may heal bearer.
Response: If a Shadow card is about to make you discard 1 or more cards from your hand or from the top of your draw deck, exert bearer to prevent that.
A R 77

I don't see the flavor to the response, but it's a fine ability.

Defensive Fire
Condition • Support Area
To play, spot 2 of your companions.
While the fellowship is at a battleground site, the fellowship archery total is +1.
While the fellowship is at a forest site, the minion archery total is -1.
‘Shot and dart fell thick; siege-towers crashed or blazed suddenly like torches.'
A U 78

Super powerful as well, many multi cultural wounding decks already have farimir RB and Aragorn, so it would be more fuel on the fire. I'd maybe make it unique and change the 1's to 2's, but tough to say.

Deliberate Retreat
Event • Maneuver
Stealth.
Pursuit – Spot your companion to make each minion site number +1 until the regroup phase for each time the fellowship has moved this turn. Then, you may return a roaming minion to its owner's hand.
"Pull back! Pull back to Minas Tirith!"
A U 79

I like it. Lots of flavor.

•Faramir, Knight of Osgiliath
Companion • Man
Strength: 7
Vitality: 3
Resistance: 7
Knight.
At the start of each skirmish involving Faramir, if the fellowship has moved more than once this turn, each minion skirmishing him must exert.
"Sauron will strike us soon. And he will strike hard."
A C 80

Fine, maybe a little over priced (see Theodred, Second Marshal of the Mark). I'd give him a similar twilight reduction ability.

•Gondor Craftsmanship
Condition • Support Area
To play, spot 2 cards.
While the fellowship is in region 1, each Free Peoples condition you play is twilight cost -2.
While the fellowship is in region 2, each Free Peoples condition you play is twilight cost -1.
Regroup: If the fellowship is in region 3, discard 2 Free peoples conditions from play to wound a minion.
A R 82

I'm not a fan of choke of any kind, but it seems fine.

Gondorian Blade (reprint)
Possession • Hand Weapon
Strength: +2
Bearer must be a Man.
While the fellowship is at a forest site or bearer is a ranger, bearer is damage +1.
‘And about each hill a ring was made facing all ways, bristling with spear and sword.'
A C 83

•Madril, Ranger of Ithilien (reprint)
Companion • Man
Strength: 6
Vitality: 3
Resistance: 7
Ranger.
Fellowship: If the fellowship is at a forest site, exert Madril to play the fellowship's next site.
"... we must look to our own borders, Faramir. Orcs are on the move. Sauron is marshalling an army."
A C 84

Ranger of Eriador
Companion • Man
Strength: 6
Vitality: 3
Resistance: 6
Ranger. Lookout – Regroup. (You may play this companion any time you could play a regroup event; if you do, discard it from play).
When you play this companion (except in your starting fellowship), you may play the fellowship's next site.
‘"Lonely men we are, Rangers of the wild, hunters – but hunters ever of the servants of the enemy."
A C 85

Throwing Knife
Possession • Hand Weapon
Strength: +1
Lookout – Archery. (You may play this possession any time you could play an archery event; if you do, discard it from play).
Bearer must be a companion.
When this possession is discarded from play, you may wound a minion.
A U 86

Seems fine, sorta like a double shot.

Tracking the Enemy
Event • Skirmish
Stealth.
Make a ranger character strength +2 (or +3 if an opponent is ahead of you on the adventure path).
‘"At last!" said Aragorn. "Here are the tracks that we seek! Up this water-channel: this is the way that the Orcs went after their debate."'
A C 87

I'd go for +4 if opponent is ahead, see SotNK

•Turgon, Knight of Gondor
Follower • Man
Strength: +1
Knight. Aid – .
While the fellowship is at a battleground site, each minion skirmishing bearer is site number +2.
‘"By our valour the wild folk of the East are still restrained, and the terror of Morgul kept at bay..."'
A C 88

Seems fine, maybe can cost

 

Guardian of the Citadel
Companion • Man
Strength: 5
Vitality: 3
Resistance: 5
Knight.
When you play this companion, if the fellowship is at a sanctuary, you may play a condition from your discard pile.
‘The Guards of the gate were robed in black, and their helms were of strange shape, high-crowned... and above the cheek-guards were set the white wings of sea-birds...
A U 89

Fine.

•Vorondil, Defender of Minas Tirith
Follower • Man
Knight. Aid – .
To play, spot a companion.
Skirmish: Exert bearer twice to make him or her strength +1 for each dwelling site on the adventure path. If bearer wins that skirmish, you may replace the fellowship's current site with a dwelling site from your adventure deck.
A R 90

Seems good.

•White Tree of Minas Tirith
Artifact • Support Area
Monument. (This card's game text is always active while it's in play).
To play, exert 2 of your companions.
If you have no cards in your adventure deck, you win the game.
‘... in the midst, drooping over the pool, stood a dead tree...'
A R+ 91

I always like alternate win conditions, so this definitely floats my boat.

[Thranduil]

Seems powerful to be able to see an entire adventure deck, but it may be fine. I'd maybe make it reveal 3 at random and heal for one or more.

Yes I've tried to keep effects that reveal whole adventure decks down to a minimum. It may be that in general it's too annoying...

I'd maybe add an ability, like the minion archery total is -1 at this site or something, it seems like a baricade would do more than make a battleground to me.

I see your point, but there's already the card below that reduces the archery total so I'd prefer something else.

Wow, crazy powerful. A really big swarm or sauron, just kill him and poof, problem solved plus some. I'd have him splashed in every deck I own. I'd make it "...discard a Shadow follower, Shadow possession, or Shadow minion...". Or maybe one of each.

Yes, you're probably right. In fact, it might be fine with discarding all followers and possessions and forgetting about minions. EDIT: I've had a better idea! Updated.

Super powerful as well, many multi cultural wounding decks already have farimir RB and Aragorn, so it would be more fuel on the fire. I'd maybe make it unique and change the 1's to 2's, but tough to say.

Hmmm... Definitely can see your point on uniqueness...

Fine, maybe a little over priced (see Theodred, Second Marshal of the Mark). I'd give him a similar twilight reduction ability.

Well, it's a ability—it's not a ability. And I never said that this version of Faramir was going to be that good!

Thanks for the comments. Very helpful. Will make some changes.

Thran