Month in Review: July 2023

It’s been a busy month concerning LOTR LCG. We have gotten our hands on the two expansions for the Dream-chaser cycle, and discovered quite a few new things inside those boxes. It’s still not enough for me to buy everything again, but it will at least help the newer players to expand their cardpool and play some fun quests! We’ve also had a few articles release on the blog, and are busy planning some events for the coming months! The final thing I did this month was to release the books I’ve made for public release. More info on them can be found later on in the article, or by following the links on the side-bar of the blog.

July

FFG has announced the repackaged Two Towers Saga box, which comes to no surprise to any of us. The box includes the Treason of Saruman and Land of Shadow cycle boxes, with no additional cards from those original boxes. We can expect this to be the final thing releasing this year, following the release schedule of 2022. GameZenter also had an announcement. Aside from a reprint they did of the NM and POD packs, they announced that they will no longer be providing reprints for these products anymore. It can’t be due to no demand, since the latest reprints have mostly sold out by now. But this announcement will mean an increase in prices for NM and POD content going forward. This was already seen in a markup on the most recent reprints. It’s a shame we won’t be seeing these packs reprinted anymore, since the PODs will likely not get reprinted. Nightmare decks are also unlikely to be seen again, unless we somehow get all of the bundled for a cycle again some day.

Scenario analyses

The PODs are done! I can’t begin to explain how great that feeling is to me. These quests are some of the most difficult to discuss on a mechanical level, that I’m really happy they’re behind me now. I know that there are some stand-alone quests still being made by fans, but I will save those for another time. Attack on Dol Guldur was a monster among monsters though, since it is also quite difficult to beat, let alone to discuss a winning strategy for. I hope the long article will help many of you to beat the quest whenever someone is brave enough to host an Epic Multiplayer event with it.

As for August and beyond, we are running low on regular scenarios to discuss. The Sagas are still happening, but I am not writing those myself and am dependent on others to find time in their schedule to write them. We will see whenever the next installments will release, though I hope that Passing of the Grey Company will release in August.

Nightmare analyses

This is the next hurdle towards completion of the blog. While I am not looking forward to discussing even more difficult scenarios, at least the articles will be a bit shorter. It will also be fun to review some past scenarios in a new light. When the first of this new batch of NM articles releases, I do not know, but I will likely look to finish the Angmar Awakened cycle first.

Additional articles

Completing the Attack on Dol Guldur article gave me the inspiration to do a write-up for all the Epic Multiplayer scenarios that the game has to offer. This includes the several fan-made scenarios. This overview discusses what is different for each scenario in Epic Multiplayer mode, and shares some tips when attending Epic Multiplayer events. For those looking to join our next event in August, check out the article and follow the link to the Discord server.

The Future

August will be a relatively quiet month from my end. I have decided to take a bit of a break from the blog for a month to have some free time to spend on other things. It won’t mean that there will be no articles, but just not ones written by me. This might change if I feel the urge to write something, but I will try and suppress that feeling for a while. It will mean that September will be packed with more content though, as I might slowly work on some drafts to release in that month.

September will also be the month in which I leave for Con of the Rings. I might do an article for preparing for conventions like it, so that other people might not forget their threat trackers before they leave! Other than that, I want to take a break from being on the internet so much. It’s nothing serious, but it’s a nice change of pace once a year. I hope that you’ll understand and enjoy the content on the blog in the meantime.

Selling books

Just before the end of the month, I started to publish the books I have written in the past few years. There has been a lot of demand for them, so I want to make sure my work is enjoyed by as many people as possible. The books are available to be bought on Blurb, for which there are links on the sidebar of the blog. I tried to keep the costs as low as possible, but shipping might be a bit expensive. Try and adjust your location and see if you can get a better deal that way. If I had to sell the books via a more convenient platform, such as Amazon, the books would have doubled in price, without me making any profit yet. So this is the best I can do for now, aside from the PDF of the Field Guide so that you can print it yourself. That PDF did come with a mistake for the Weather Hills location, but I will post the correct page below so that you can adjust the PDF yourself.