Month in Review: July 2018

I don’t know about you guys, but July has been a very warm month for me. But despite the high temperatures and little rain, I managed to continue the blog this month and had some interesting articles released. Let’s review this month and see what August has in store for the blog and the game!

July

There has been no official content released this month, and there has been very little news about the game. With GenCon around the corner, I hope to see at least the release of The Withered Heath and am curious to see how the new competitive mode plays out during the convention. With little news to work with, I have spent this month completing some articles for the ongoing series on mechanics and traits, as well as continuing the scenario analyses.

Cycle scenarios

My goal of completing the Ringmaker cycle is within reach, with only Nín-in-Eilph and The Three Trials to go. Thanks to my awesome co-authors, I have been able to move through this cycle a lot faster as they have volunteered to write some of the scenarios for me. Hopefully, I will be starting work on the Angmar Awakened cycle soon. This cycle will be very interesting since it will also start to include encounter side-quests in the deck. Besides the normal progression style articles, there has been an article about Race Across Harad. This article should help players struggling with that particular quest. I would usually have gotten to that quest in a few months time, but thankfully my co-authors took it upon themselves to do the write-up and they have done a marvellous job!

Saga scenarios

The Saga is also moving ever onward, with the fellowship now moving through Moria and on to the falls of Rauros. Next month should see the conclusion of The Road Darkens Saga expansion, and perhaps already the start of the Treason of Saruman box. But with people going on vacation in these months, I cannot give a proper indication on how much of the saga will be completed in August. I am glad to announce that the Hobbit saga will be continued shortly, so that will be even more content for you to read while soaking up the sun.

Trait Analyses

Since there wasn’t much news to cover in July, it gave me the opportunity to catch up on some of the traits in this game. I covered mechanics like the Player side-quests and Victory Display mechanics that are featured in the player cards of the Angmar Awakened cycle. These articles were well received and have hopefully inspired some of you to try the decks out. I also covered the Isengard trait that has received only a couple of cards since its introduction. Hopefully, more of this trait will be developed in the future, at which point the article will be updated. Since the trap decks are enjoyed so much these days, we also had a big article contributed to that.

For August, I might write some articles on traits that haven’t been covered yet, though not a lot remains at this point. I might have to tackle another big trait like Gondor or Dunedain soon. Might do Dunedain since it ties in well with the next cycle that will be covered.

Staples

The staples of our card pool have also received a new article this month, focussing on readying effects. With a lot of staples yet to cover, I hope to bring some more articles your way next month. I really enjoy going through the card pool and finding some hidden gems for specific mechanics in this game. Since the articles don’t take much time to write, I might set my mind to a couple and flood the blog with them in August. Or I’ll keep them in reserve for a rainy day (boy, do I hope for a rainy day with these temperatures).

Additional Articles

No news or released content meant no news articles this month. So I had to figure out something else to write about that would benefit the community. After a question in the facebook group, I knew what had to be done. And so the LOTR LCG Urban Dictionary was born. The article gives a brief synopsis of all the slang used in the community. Not only is this helpful for new players to understand conversations, it was also well received by more skilled players who got a nice laugh. I want to thank everyone for contributing their words to this list. If you have any other suggestions, I am hoping to update the article every now and then, so let me know!

For August I hope to do some reviews on the new AP that should be released. If not, I will be open for suggestions for other articles to benefit the community. If nothing else comes to my mind, I might do another Q&A in August, since it has been a while since the last one and much has changed. There might also be the odd article here and there talking about the game or the community, but I do not have any inspiration for those yet. Let me know your ideas, and I might get one out during next month.

The Future

August will be a busy month for me. Not only will I be travelling to the USA for a week (not for GenCon unfortunately), but I will also be busy in the latter half of the month for preparing to go back to school. On top of it all, I have found a place of my own so I will be moving during the end of August, start of September. This will definitely impact the number of articles that I will release during this time. I trust that my co-authors will soften this blow in content by doing some writing of their own. I will also create a backlog of articles to keep you guys entertained while I am painting the house and trying to find the best place for my game room. On the bright side, this new house is much closer to my school so I will have less travel time per day, meaning I might dedicate more time to the blog after things have settled down.

August will also be the start of the Angmar Awakened cycle, with 9 new scenarios to cover. If you are reading this and want to try and do the write up of one of them, let me know! I will be happy to assist you with it. All 9 scenarios are open at this time so you can pick one you like most. I can imagine that Escape from Mt Gram will be a fun one to write about since there are a lot of ways to approach that quest. If writing articles is not to your liking, and you want to still help us out, Patreon is also still an option.

Speaking of Patreon, I will be creating some cool loot now that I have access to a laser cutting machine. I will not spoil the loot yet since I hope to be bringing it to Con of the Rings then. The loot will be free for any Patreon supporter and co-author I meet at the Con. I will also be reserving some of the loot for those that are supporting the blog but unable to make it to the Con. It will serve as a token of my appreciation for everyone in the community that is helping me out with this blog. I cannot thank you enough, both Patreon supporters and authors. If you are not yet supporting the blog, but want the loot, you can either contact me for an article you would like to write or support me via Patreon here. On the Patreon page will be a more detailed article on the loot, and if you have questions, feel free to ask.

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