Wingfoot is pretty amazing.  Almost makes you wish the cards were larger so the artwork could get the recognition it deserves.  

Ah man, not the Erebor Battle Master, or as I like to call him... the Angry Garden Gnome.  

When Treebeard comes into play each quest, I'm always going to yell: "Break the Dam! Release the River!"

When Treebeard comes into play each quest, I'm always going to yell: "Break the Dam! Release the River!"

After a process that seemed never-ending at times, the First Age custom expansion is complete! First Age takes players back to the First Age of Middle-Earth, including 15 new heroes, almost 100 player cards, and 3 new quests focusing on Beren and Luthien's quest for a Silmaril. I hope you enjoy!
 
http://talesfromthecards.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/first-age-is-here/

When Treebeard comes into play each quest, I'm always going to yell: "Break the Dam! Release the River!"

When Treebeard comes into play each quest, I'm always going to yell: "Break the Dam! Release the River!"

When Treebeard comes into play each quest, I'm always going to yell: "Break the Dam! Release the River!"

When Treebeard comes into play each quest, I'm always going to yell: "Break the Dam! Release the River!"

When Treebeard comes into play each quest, I'm always going to yell: "Break the Dam! Release the River!"

When Treebeard comes into play each quest, I'm always going to yell: "Break the Dam! Release the River!"

When Treebeard comes into play each quest, I'm always going to yell: "Break the Dam! Release the River!"

When Treebeard comes into play each quest, I'm always going to yell: "Break the Dam! Release the River!"

I think the direction they took with Galadriel is perfect for her character.  Providing unseen support for other people is exactly what she did in the Lord of the Rings storyline.  Her on-card ability to exhaust for card draw and threat reduction is also brilliant.  She would work great in powerful doomed decks, I'm thinking.  The synergies are certainly going to explode this cycle.  

I think the direction they took with Galadriel is perfect for her character.  Providing unseen support for other people is exactly what she did in the Lord of the Rings storyline.  Her on-card ability to exhaust for card draw and threat reduction is also brilliant.  She would work great in powerful doomed decks, I'm thinking.  The synergies are certainly going to explode this cycle.  

This is so awesome that I can't quite believe it's not the last pack in the cycle. Galadriel is super powerful, but has a nice in-built limitation (you have to draw Nenya to take advantage of her willpower for questing). Once you've got Unexpected Courage and Nenya going though, you could have Galadriel's 4 willpower for questing, an extra card per turn, and would never raise your threat (other than encounter card effects and Doomed). Add on top of that the bonus that allies don't exhaust to quest on first turn. ****.

Imagine if Gollum was the Fellowship hero of the last expansion.    It'll probably be Frodo, but still...exhaust to bite sounds intriguing.

I rarely use Leadership Aragorn now, but use his Lore version all the time.  All these Ranger additions are going to make him that much more potent in one of my favorite tri-sphere decks: Frodo, Sam, and Aragorn.
 
I was curious as to how many Ranger heroes are currently in the card pool, so I did a quick search in the Hall of Beorn's database:  Both Aragorns, Beravor, Elladan, Elrohir, and Faramir.  We'll also get the new one in this particular AP and I'd be willing to bet that they'll be one in another AP as well (The Three Trials, perhaps?)  
 
I'm excited to get more use out of Faramir.  As much as I want to like him, he usually falls flat in quests, but this single attachment will really make him excellent.

The Ancient Marsh Dweller is for real too. I have a hunch Glaurung will be feeding it dwarves by the dozen.

Wow, really great preview.  The quest itself looks like a blast, the random quest stage mechanics always make for a good and unpredictable time and I agree with Gizlivadi that I am also looking forward to a set of unconventional enemies, the more diverse our foes the more unique the playing experiences IMO.
 
The player cards provided a nice little treat as well.
 
 Island Amid Perils, whilst oddly named, is a really good effect, more powerful than the tactics returning silvan card and even has the potential to combo with its arguably more powerful cousin the tree people.  Everyone already knows this, but i cant overstate how exciting silvan is going to be to play.  No doubt in my mind that Celeborn, Glorfindel (spirit), and Elrond is going to be the new power deck.  I can see the "broken" topics springing up already.  Makes me all the more anxious to see who the Silvan hero we get in Trouble in Tharbad is and if he/she ties into what will be an established archetype at that point.
 
I seem to be in the minority, but I cant really see myself using "Follow me!" much.  The Hammer-Stroke is arguably a better card for the same purpose and is a better sphere match too.  Dont get me wrong, I can see it having its uses...but with a 50 card deck I'm just not going to make space for it.  In a multiplayer game I would think that at least 1 character is using tactics anyway to either drop Hammer-Stroke or have enough Heroes/allies with Ranged/Sentinel that it doesnt matter.  The art is kind of off too so theres that.
 
Wingfoot is amazing.  I think it instantly helps the credibility of Faramir as he can put all those extra stat points to good use with some action advantage and makes him an even better battle keyword quester than he already was.  Beravor is perhaps the best candidate as she could quest and trigger her ability almost every turn providing an insanely consistent and strong source of card draw.  It is also obviously a keen fit on Aragorn, but I'm almost disappointed in the fact that despite them being different spheres this almost instantly makes Leadership Aragorn not necessarily obsolete, but by far the lesser of the two versions by now a wide margin....hes practically the new lore glorfindel.  Side note on the card: unless I already know what the top card is from scrying, I see no reason why anyone wouldnt pick "enemy" everytime.  Unless they already have an enemy engaged with them they need to kill, it likely doesnt matter if you dont "hit" it on a location or treachery because killing enemies is what the extra action advantage is mostly used for...unless your Beravor (srysly this makes her OP again.  Wingfoot is to Beravor is as Dagger of Westernesse was to Dunhere...reviving old heroes that have lost a step)
 
Lastly, while we didnt get a glimpse of the hero, the fact we know that they're a Ranger can help drive some speculation.  I instantly thought of Halbarad, especially since this cycle seems to have some Dunedain support.  The only other notable Ranger I can think of immediately is the Ithilien Ranger Mablung which would be cool to see as well.  Then again maybe they'll surprise us with an FFG created hero.
 
exciting stuff

For the past few days I've been continually tweaking my two currently built dwarf decks to get the ultimate fusion of theme and playability.  Likewise, it soon became a small goal of mine to get all 13 members of Thorin's Company of Dwarves into play at the same time (my record as of now is only 10!)  So, here is what I've come up with.
 
Deck One: Leadership and Spirit
 
Heroes: Thorin, Balin, and Nori
 
Allies: Gandalf (Core 3X), Longbeard Elder (3x), Gloin (2x), Fili (3x), Kili (3x), Dwalin (2x), Bofur (2x), Longbeard Elder (2x), 
 
Attachments: Cram (3x), Narvi's Belt (1x), Hardy Leadership (1x), King Under the Moutain (1x), Song of Travel (1x) 
 
Events: A Test of Will (3x), Hasty Stroke (3x), Sneak Attack (3x), Durin's Song (2x), Dwarven Tomb (2x), A Very Good Tale (3x), Lure of Moria (3x),We are not Idle (1x), To Me! Oh my Kinsfolk! (1x), Hidden Cache (2x)
 
***This deck revolves around a mixture of getting lots of dwarven allies in play as well as a good supply of treachery cancellation.  Nori's amazing ability works great here to lower the starting threat of 30.  Also, if the quest I'm facing is quite challenging, I may substitute Dain Ironfoot in place of Balin, but this of course makes my goal of getting the 13 of Thorin's Company in play at once impossible since there's only one Balin.  
 
 
Deck Two: Lore and Tactics 
 
Heroes: Ori, Bombur, and Oin.  
 
Allies: Gandalf (OHuH 3x), Erebor Record Keeper (3x), Veteran Axehand (3x), Dori (2x), Bifur (2x), Miner of the Iron Hills (2x), Ered Nimrais Prospector (2x), Longbeard Map-Maker (1x),  Erebor Battle Master (2x), Erebor Hammersmith (2x), Bofur (2x)
 
Attachments: Dwarven Axe (3x), Dwarrowdelf Axe (3x), Ring Mail (3x), Song of Battle (2x)
 
Events:  Goblin-cleaver (3x), Feint (3x), Hail of Stones (3x), Khazad! Khazad! (2x), Daeron's Runes (3x), Heavy Stroke (1x)
 
***Now, even though Oin's sphere is Spirit, once you get five dwarves in play, he gains the Tactics sphere.  Furthermore, Ori allows for an additional card to be drawn each planning phase if you have five dwarves in play.  And finally, Bombur counts as two dwarves right off the bat since he is so fat.  With all that in mind, it is crucial to get a Dwarf ally into play on the first turn to reap these benefits, and that is usually not too hard to do because this deck is also filled with allies.  

I also listen to all the Howard Shore albums (including the new Hobbit one) whenever I decide to play with music.  However, I did deviate by playing Pirates of the Caribbean music with the quest Peril in Pelargir because that is a decidedly pirate-y quest!  

I can finally read this thread now that I've finished all three quests. Spoilers ahead!
 
 
We played 2-player.  The first and second quests were moderately challenging.  The first was very "standard" for recent quests, it's just a flood of enemies, and if you can take control of the staging area you've pretty much got it made.  We beat it with a Bard/Yew Bow deck paired with a Dunhere deck at 22 threat each for a staging area attack strategy.  
 
The second quest gave us the most trouble.  We always play blind the first time, so we went in with our Bard/Dunhere decks and got choked by locations.  Went back to the drawing board, put together a tried and true pair of questing decks and the same thing happened.  That time we were just breaking even during questing, which is enough to ensure you lose the game by round 3.  Then we just went overkill by throwing in Eowyn and Glorfindel (replacing Frodo first, then Bilbo).  Once we got a couple of cards down and survived the first two rounds, the rest was very easy.  Mugash was waaaay at the bottom of my out-of-play deck, but we never felt threatened, it just took a long time to find him.
 
The third quest we won playing blind on our first attempt.  First round travel to Edge of Fangorn, second round clear it and claim Mugash.  Third round finished the first stage and went on to stage 2, then quest to victory on round 4.  Those Huorns were certainly ominous and menacing, but the time bomb never went off and we won very quickly.
 
Fun quests, To Catch and Orc definitely was my favorite despite early frustration.  But it did harken back to the days of old -- once you get set up, you can really own the board.  It just gets the most points for uniqueness.  The third quest looks like it has potential: when things go wrong, I think they probably go pretty wrong.  It didn't happen to us, so I'm not sure... was very easy on the first attempt.

I have been playing the 2 nd scenario a lot. It is really pretty challenging solo.
Some spoilers ahead.
The time 2 on the first quest card requires you to quest successfully almost every turn to ensure you can put another time token on the quest card. Usually the first round of questing this is acomplished, but 2nd round with an active location can be difficult to clear and it often requires 8 or more will power to achive, some slow decks that do not have Eowyn and spirit questing power are going to have a challenge with this. If you quest unsuccessfully the 2nd round, you will be down to one time token at the end of the round, and it's likely you will not quest sucessfully third round. At the end of the round when the last time token is removed 2 cards from the encounter deck are revealed. I have not done a through analysis of the threat values of the encounter cards, but it's probably hovering around 3. At this point it's pretty much game over. If you dont quest successfuly on the first round your fate will come sooner. Not only do you have to be able to quest well, you are also going to need to be able to defend high attack enemies that have decent defense and a hefty amount of HP. Also, the unpredictable revealing of Mugash from the out of play deck with engagment of 1 and big time stats will destroy even a good start.
This is one of the more difficult quests I have seen in a while, Maybe I have not thrown a lot of different decks at it yet, but I would put it on par with Morgul Vale.

Man, these quests are awesome!
 
It took me 5 tries to beat the Fords of Isen with Matthew Newman's Rohan deck and the victory was so tense it was great!
 
Still working on capturing that bloody Orc with Glorfindel/Grima/Strider. I just finished an epic 21 turn game where I was 3 progress away from winning!
 
I'm playing pure solo and I haven't had this well-balanced of a challenge in a long time! Way to go Caleb and Matthew!