Wrath and Ruin - 1st AP of The Vengeance of Mordor Cycle

[Gizlivadi 1,071]

We know the One Ring is x1 in the box. I hope that's not the case for contracts.

[Bullroarer Took 994]

I see three alternatives:

1.  There is no contract.  I don't believe this, but it might be true.

2.  There are two neutral cards in this pack.  Tom and the contract.

3.  The contract has a sphere.  This might means you have to have one, two or three (yes please!) heroes of the matching sphere in order to play the contract.

[Halberto 51]

4 hours ago, player3351457 said:

Good catch -- I didn't think to look on the hero page. I think you're right -- Thorin is a clear choice.

 

On another note, it says that theres a hero and 3x of each player card. Does that mean we don't get a contract in this pack? Or are we, in general, getting 3 copies of contracts?

I hope the di not waste cards for 3 copies of the contract. They are set up cards and unique,  no reason to have more than 1 copy.

[sappidus 449]

Article was revised to include a pre-order bonus if ordering from FFG:

No idea what's on the other side of these…

[Gizlivadi 1,071]

Thorin Stonehelm, finally!

Also, does anybody know why those gondorian shields look so weird? I notice I can count only 5 stars asymetrically aligned, along with the fact that the crown is below the top star (and the fact that it shouldn't even be there, as the crown was only displayed when there was an actual king, and not in the Steward-ruled Gondor of the timeframe the game takes place in).

[Kjeld 175]

According to this site, there should indeed be seven stars (representing the palantiri):

Quote

The emblem of Elendil and his heirs was seven five-pointed stars, each representing one of the palantíri that Elendil brought from Númenor. In Gondor they were set on a sable coat of arms, together with the White Tree, which represented any of the descendants of Nimloth that grew in Minas Ithil and, later, Minas Tirith. To this device the Kings of the line of Elendil added the Silver Crown, which was the chief mark of royalty. In Arnor a single five-pointed star became used as a device, the Elendilmir, representing the Star of Earendil. In Gondor the device including the stars and the Silver Crown fell out of general use, until the time of Elessar and the Reunited Kingdom.

Tolkien Gateway further notes, "Upon Arnor's fall and the failing of the line of the Kings of Gondor the crown was largely dropped from usage and not until the coming of Aragorn, and the raising of his banner at the Battle of Pelennor Fields, was the crown used again."

And from the actual books:

Quote

There flowered a White Tree, and that was for Gondor; but Seven Stars were about it, and a high crown above it, the signs of Elendil that no lord had borne for years beyond count.

The Return of the King, LoTR Book 5, Ch 6, "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields"

To me, it looks as though there is space on that shield for seven stars, but the 3rd and 6th (counting clockwise from left) are missing for some reason. The shield is also positioned oddly relative to the soldier's body (too far to the side), assuming he's holding it with his forearm strapped horizontally parallel to the back of the shield. That may account for some of the odd appearance as well.

Edited July 2 by Kjeld

[stimpaksam 75]

Maybe it'll be mentioned in the flavor text or something. Or they just gave the artist too much leeway in their interpretation.

[Gizlivadi 1,071]

Maybe the missing stars are a intended as a reference to lost palantiri? In any case, there is definitely some artistic license regarding this illustration (and all the gondorian shield/banner art in this game depicting the crown).

[Wandalf the Gizzard 340]

Perhaps that five-star sigil was used when the rightful heir fled to Rhun during the Gondorian Kinstrife.

[Wandalf the Gizzard 340]

If not, huge woopsie by FFG.

[GILLIES291 626]

4 hours ago, sappidus said:

Article was revised to include a pre-order bonus if ordering from FFG:

No idea what's on the other side of these…

Nice! Tempted to pre-order now. And I'm guessing we are getting a new Gondorian ally now too based on the other two being player cards?

[Felswrath 632]

There will likely not be a contract in this set. The announcement article for A Shadow in the East stated that there will be 29 player cards (this does not include heroes). This would be 9 sets of three plus two more cards. One is the Ring, the other is presumably the contract. This would suggest that contracts do not come in sets of three. We know of 4 allies, and 3 events so far. We'll see what the other cards are.

[GILLIES291 626]

I sure hope there is a contract in this one 

[Alonewolf87 97]

8 hours ago, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

Perhaps that five-star sigil was used when the rightful heir fled to Rhun during the Gondorian Kinstrife.

I am also of this opinion

[player3351457 47]

I'm sorry to bump this to the front page and get everyone's hopes up... but I haven't seen it budge from the upcoming page, no follow up article or spoiler cards beyond that which came out in the initial announcement.

The article said to expect it 3rd quarter 2019... which ends next month. Any hope it sticks to that timeline?

[PocketWraith 541]

Gandalf put his hand on Pippin's head. "There never was much hope," he answered. "Just a fool's hope, as I have been told."

[Amicus Draconis 78]

This year FFG had a 2 months release schedule: The Ghost of Framsburg: February 7th, Mount Gundabad: April 4th, The Fate of Wilderland: June 6th, A Shadow in the East: August 2nd. This is not counting both PoD scenarios from June 28th. So I expect the next AP in the first week of October, probably on the 3rd.

[Durins_Father 111]

Would be nice for everyone at Con of the Rings, we'll get to play the scenario there. Would have liked the second AP as well though. At least we already know what the hero is in the pack, so we get to build around that one a little. 

[silverthorn 104]

I didn't know they'd revealed the hero yet

[Durins_Father 111]

I am willing to bet that with the article mentioning a Dwarf hero, and with Thorin's art in the promo cards for pre-ordering this pack, we can be pretty confident it is the same Thorin Stonehelm that we got in the 2 player set. Caleb even confirmed that the heroes in that box would make an appearance at one point, and this cycle would have been in development at the same time. With pack 2 having a Spirit hero, it would also make sense that this pack would have a Tactics hero. So all signs point to Thorin, even though we haven't seen his non-alt card form in the article yet.
Will likely mean that our second Leadership hero in this cycle will be Gildor, who I really want to put into my decks already!

[Durins_Father 111]

Also, I sure hope that the art on that Gondorian shield is changed to 7 stars instead of 5. As someone interacting with the Palantiri often, it really pains me that the art director or the artist got that wrong. Might have to use a white sharpie to fix the issue. 
Do we have any guesses for the card already? Looks to me like either a Gondorian footsoldier (which would tie in nicely with Gondor swarming low cost allies), or an effect like Reinforcements or Strength of Arms, just because the art is so similar to those cards. Would be nice to interact with a lot of allies in order to do something nice again. 

[player3351457 47]

3 hours ago, Durins_Father said:

With pack 2 having a Spirit hero...

How do we know the sphere of the second pack hero? Isnt that assumption based on the fact that this hero is tactics?

[Wandalf the Gizzard 340]

49 minutes ago, player3351457 said:

How do we know the sphere of the second pack hero? Isnt that assumption based on the fact that this hero is tactics?

There was a Leadership and a Lore hero in the deluxe, and a tactics hero will be in Wrath and Ruin. The next Spirit hero  will most likely come in pack 2.

[Felswrath 632]

4 hours ago, Durins_Father said:

Also, I sure hope that the art on that Gondorian shield is changed to 7 stars instead of 5. As someone interacting with the Palantiri often, it really pains me that the art director or the artist got that wrong. Might have to use a white sharpie to fix the issue. 
Do we have any guesses for the card already? Looks to me like either a Gondorian footsoldier (which would tie in nicely with Gondor swarming low cost allies), or an effect like Reinforcements or Strength of Arms, just because the art is so similar to those cards. Would be nice to interact with a lot of allies in order to do something nice again. 

I think they'll throw us a curve ball, and the card will be an armor attachment: Shield of the Five Stars. 

[Durins_Father 111]

43 minutes ago, Wandalf the Gizzard said:

There was a Leadership and a Lore hero in the deluxe, and a tactics hero will be in Wrath and Ruin. The next Spirit hero  will most likely come in pack 2.

Correct, based on previous expansions, there is a fair chance that this is the case if Thorin is indeed in this pack. Wouldn't understand if FFG releases a promo card with him on it in a pack he isn't in. It would also mean we get multiple Dwarf heroes this cycle, if Thorin isn't the one mentioned in the article.