Month in Review: November 2023

These months just keep going faster and faster. Seemed just yesterday that I wrote the October review, yet here we are. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I haven’t written that many articles this month, but have been mostly busy behind the scenes and working on one long article instead. Regardless, I will use this article look ahead to the final articles to come for the blog in 2023, and reflecting on the past 30 days of content.

November 2023

It was a relatively quiet month in the community, with plenty of people taking a bit of a break from the game after Con of the Rings oversaturated them a bit with the game. We have had no news out of FFG or any of the community content teams to really cover here. We are not due for another FFG article for half a year until Ered Mithrin comes out, so we can keep this section relatively short. On to the blog’s updates!

Scenario analyses

We’ve only had a single scenario analysis on the blog this month, but it was a big one! Articles on POD quests are usually pretty lengthy, but considering this was my first time covering an AleP scenario, I needed some extra time to finish the article. It has been well-received by the community and its creators, so I hope to one day be bold enough to cover the Nine are Abroad as well. That might even be a longer article considering that the quest can also be enjoyed in Epic Multiplayer. To further dive into the AleP scenarios, I did hire a new author who has promised to go through the Oaths of the Rohirrim cycle from beginning to end. While I have set no deadline for these articles, I hope that we get our first articles soon.

Nightmare analyses

We are also one more step closer to NM completion, now that the NM Wastes of Eriador has an article. This was done a lot faster than the Siege of Erebor, which gives me hope that I can complete this series within a year or two, depending on the help I get. December should see the release of the Escape from Mount Gram Nightmare scenario analysis, after which work will begin on Battle of Carn Dum, though I expect that will have to be released in January, given the complexity of that quest in normal mode alone! From there, I will have completed the Angmar Awakened cycle, and hope to either complete other cycles in 2024, or to set my sights on the Nightmare Sagas.

Additional articles

There were no additional articles released this month, as Erebor took most of my time to write this month. For December, I have my usual End-Of-Year article planned, though it will probably be a bit shorter than previous years due to time constraints. Still, if inspiration strikes and I have time left after work, I feel like more articles could be releasing in December!

The Future

It has been a busy month for me personally, as the new house is keeping my evenings filled with paperwork and preparing for the move. I do like that almost everything is ready to go by now, though the actual move won’t be for another month. Expect some downtime from me for weeks 52, 1, and 2, as I try to get settled in the new place. In order to make some space for my new stuff, I did have to sell my alt art and playmat collections, which has helped to give me some insight into the recent prices for these items. I will be updating the Collectables article accordingly next month!

I have also hired another editor for the blog to go back to older articles and refresh them a little. It is a task I cannot do myself without sacrificing time meant for new articles. This addition to the team should help to keep the older articles relevant, including new links to cards we missed, new insights in old strategies, and fixing my many spelling mistakes.

December will probably go by very fast between work and preparing for the move. I hope to have some time for the Mt. Gram article and the end-of-year review. Aside from that, we might have another AleP article. In the new year, I will have a look around and see if some of my co-authors have done any work as of late, and maybe even have a deadline set for their next article. That should allow us to start the new year fresh, with some brand new articles! Hope to see you all then, have some great holidays with lots of games!

~Aa’menealla nauva calen ar-malta~