Month in Review: March 2019

Time flies when there is no content to cover. With no major releases during this past month, I have been focusing my efforts into updating various series on the blog and introducing the new Storage Hub, that I plan to continue in the future. With guest appearances on both Card Talk and Cardboard of the Rings, March has been a very community focused month for me, which was nice. Let’s discuss the major things that got developed on the blog in the past month.

March

With me having enough time to spend on the blog, I have been busy updating various articles and especially the video links at the bottom of each article. While this is not a very noticeable update, I still find it important to do, in order to keep these articles relevant. If you find any combo in an article that is new or not discussed, feel free to let me know. The articles will improve with the hive-mind of the community contributing to it.

As mentioned earlier, there has been no major news out of FFG, and besides the European Lure event (which I didn’t attend but plan to next year!), the community has been relaxing as well. Card Talk could relax a little after their Silvan February and released an episode with me talking about one of my favourite heroes. Cardboard of the Rings also invited me on the show to talk a little about the deckbuilding article I released last month. I had a great time with both shows and will look into letting my voice be heard a little more after this month.

Scenario Analyses

I myself have been working on 2 scenario analyses this month in the Dream-chaser cycle. I published both Fate of Numenor and the Drowned Ruins one, as I like the quests with locations a lot. I will be going to Temple of the Deceived next, and will work backwards in order to complete the cycle. With 1 author now free from the Saga analyses, he will start with a couple of scenarios from the Haradrim cycle, making the transition to the next cycle easier once I and some others complete the Dream-chaser one. Next month will undoubtedly see at least some more of the scenario analyses.

Saga Analyses

After a long period of no saga content, we suddenly had 3 articles on the saga at once. I welcomed 2 new authors who both took on the POD quests of the saga, plugging that hole in the narrative. With both authors now free, we will look towards making some more standard scenario analyses and the Nightmare Saga analyses, starting with A Shadow of the Past. I have no timeframe on these yet, but will update you if I learn more. The biggest contribution came in the form of the Helm’s Deep review, which has been long in the making. We are now ready to more on to some easier scenarios after having covered one of the biggest and most popular quests out there.

Player Card Reviews

After the Core Set had been completely analysed, we took a little break before moving into the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle. With the Hunt for Gollum released this week, Silblade will be continuing his series at a steady pace. If you want to argue against some of his opinions, please check the FFG forums, likely under the strategy tab. For April, we will likely move on to Conflict at the Carrock, and perhaps even further.

Traits

With February being the month of traits, I had to conclude the entire list in the first week of March. I only needed the Warrior trait, so that got released pretty early in the month. With the new Creature synergy coming up, I feel that the list will be expanded a little further next month. On top of that article, be sure to catch another secret trait article in the very early hours of the new month. I hope you will enjoy that one too.

Staples

The Staple series has been on the back foot a little bit these last few months. But as I haven’t heard any complaints or people asking for specific Staple articles, I think I will keep them in reserve for a little while longer. I would like to focus on completing this cycle of scenarios first, and those take up most of my blogging time. But if people really want an article on a specific Staples topic, let me know, and I might get to it during the next month.

Storage Hub

Due to a lot of people lately talking about storage solutions, I wanted to expand the blog a little in order to give everyone the opportunity to show off the method they use to store their game. With many solutions out there, the hub can serve as a gallery for people to look at the different options they can adopt in order to improve their own storage solutions. I have had several people already contributing to the hub and will be looking forward to more articles being added next month.

Additional Articles

There were no additional articles this month, as I didn’t receive Mount Gundabad yet. I am hoping to get it next month, so a review of those player cards will be done once the pack is in my hands. For other articles, I will need some inspiration from the community. I have had some vague ideas on an article describing the life cycle of an LOTR player, though I am not sure if I have enough material to work with if I do decide to make it. If you have any other ideas for topics, feel free to suggest them. I did get a suggested topic from one of the Patreon supporters, so I will get to work on that one soon. Hopefully it gets published some time next week.

The Future

April will be a busy month for me, after 2 months of relaxing. I will hopefully start my graduation track and work quite a lot during the day. This will leave less time for article writing and community interactions, but I will see what I can put out in terms of content. I will also be working on various assignments and an exam, so that will drain some more time from my usual schedule. But with so many co-authors on the blog these days, I am sure we will be able to meet our requirements of 5 articles (since we passed the next goal on Patreon). This will all depend on the type of graduation assignment I will do, if it is a lot like my previous internship, I will have a lot of time to spend on the blog, but such a case would be rare.

In terms of views, the blog is doing better than ever. I have noticed a rising trend in my views over the last 3 months, and it seems to me that the community is still growing and enjoying the blog. I find this a great sign and am looking forward to spending more time with this awesome community next month (if everyone would stop asking about reprints…). In terms of finances, I am happy to announce that I doubled my subscribers on Patreon who have made it possible for me to seriously consider getting some loot out to you all. We’ve met the second goal, so now it is on to the next one!

I have also been spending some time on a folder with exclusive content like scenario analysis bundles and various infographics. These are Patreon exclusive and I hope to be bringing more of these out in the future. The analysis volumes aren’t a lot of work to make, but take a long time to fit on their pages and make into a cohesive whole. I will be releasing the first Volume on the first 2 cycles when the blog hits the 100.000 views or when the Patreon contributions hit $30 or higher. The rest of the folder will remain exclusive to those supporting the blog financially, as that helps me tremendously.

I hope you all enjoyed the content this month, and will excuse any potential drop in frequency next month, but I will try to keep it at a minimum.
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