Month in Review: October 2021

Well, this has certainly been a quiet month for the blog, so I will keep this update short. The community got to get together this month during both Con of the Rings and Lure of Middle-Earth being held this month. I hope that everyone had a wonderful time and finally got to play with their physical cards again. There wasn’t much news outside of the two conventions, other than the sign-up for Lure of Middle-Earth 2022 has already been opened. The convention will return to being held in March, as the October convention of this year was needed because of COVID. The Lure of Middle-Earth 2022 convention will be held in the same German castle as all the other years and will take place between March 4th and 6th. You can register via this link: https://lureofmiddleearth.com/registration/. I will try and attend, but I will be going through some home renovations around that time next year, so I am not 100% certain if I can make it.

October 2021

FFG did not release any news, other than we got to learn that the new Core Set will include 3 copies of all the original Core Set player cards (excluding heroes and 8 copies of Gandalf). This is wonderful news for people trying to get more copies of cards like Unexpected Courage or Henemarth Riversong!
As for the blog, it has been a very quiet month in terms of articles. I had the first week of October off from work but had 0 time to work on articles. After that, I have been too busy to focus on writing for the game properly. There is still plenty to cover, but I just cannot find the time to start. Other authors have also been taking a break. I will be pushing them for articles next month, but some are taking a long break due to new work, moving house, or expanding the family. Let’s briefly go through the segments of the blog to cover what we did work on!

Scenario analyses

There were no main-line scenario analyses finished this month, though I did make a lot of progress on the Land of Sorrow. Understand that this quest is quite difficult, so it is taking me more time to go through the quest and discuss the various strategies. Beyond Land of Sorrow, I do expect that we will finish Fortress of Nurn by the end of the year. That completes the Vengeance of Mordor cycle, allowing me to expand some articles from the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle.

I have been getting questions on whether or not I am going to cover AleP expansions. At the moment, I do not own any, so I cannot do any First Impressions articles or scenario analyses. I would like to focus on my updated quest analyses for the first cycle first and continue my progression with the NM content, POD scenarios, updating the traits, etc. There is a lot coming out of AleP right now, so I will have plenty to cover once I feel like I am ready for it.

If someone else wants to start covering AleP though, reach out to me, and I can see if we can set something up. Not only would that continue to increase the number of articles on the blog, but it also helps people who are just picking up the expansion.

Nightmare analyses

One day, I wasn’t feeling the motivation to cover Land of Sorrow, so I tackled the Long Dark nightmare scenario and completed it within a few days. It’s not a very difficult one, so it didn’t require so much effort to beat and then write about. I am well on track to complete the NM analyses for the Dwarrowdelf cycle, though some big quests are still in the way. Expect articles on those quests before the end of the year!

Epic Multiplayer analyses

People who went to Con of the Rings got to enjoy playing some new Epic Multiplayer scenarios made by Purple Wizard! The NM version for Fire in the Night was a lot of fun to play online during Can’t of the Rings, and we are expecting a rules article on that quest soon. Once that article has been released, we will let Purple Wizard relax a little bit, and maybe he will be back next year with a different quest!

Additional articles

I completed one additional article this month, which covered the narrative for the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle. I expect to finish more of the articles in this series over the coming weeks, as they don’t take much time to complete, as all the stories have already been written for me. This allows for some more content this month, which will be great! It also helps people who don’t have quick access to their rule sheets to find the narrative after completing a quest.

The Future

This hasn’t really been my month, and I have had another rough couple of weeks mentally. Luckily, I expect that November will be a little easier, though I will still have some events that I’d rather skip. I do like that the pressure of shipping out the loot is behind me now, though I do not yet know how I am going to top the swag from this year. I think I’ll work on that a little bit with the Patreon supporters.

Speaking of the supporters: I am grateful that many of you didn’t leave as soon as you got the book. While we have lost a few people, we also gained a few folks that do not want to miss out on next year’s loot! We are losing a bit of money compared to previous months, but I think it will be enough to start designing some more loot for next year. I will also be taking a bit of money for a new keyboard, as the current one is slowly malfunctioning after over 10 years of service.

For November, I hope it won’t be a repeat of this month with so few articles. We all just needed a little break, and I was missing out on the Con-review articles that I normally do this year. Still, I love writing for the blog, and with the game growing more and more, it seems that there is still a lot of demand for the articles. As long as that demand is there (and there is air in my lungs), we will continue! Hope to see you all again next month with a more positive review article!

~Aa’menealla nauva calen ar-malta~