Hobnanigans Fun

Hobnanigans Fun

This year is flying by... while I have read that lotro is not putting out "major" new content soon, I am very content with that as I can barely keep up with the minor content updates. Fangorn? Yes!... it is an update, but I think it came out the same week as the Anniversary festival, then as I was getting ready to go toward Fangorn, I got drawn in to a few raids and other activities, not to mention that the stat calculations were changed and I spent time playing with "new lotro math", plus there were new quests in Trollshaws to see (yes, they were for level 40-ish but I don't pass up any quests ever), and then along came Hobnanigans!

I will get to Fangorn eventually, but I wanted to recap some of the fun from Hobnanigans. It will be a short duration mini-event that pops up periodically (One rumor I read was a few days each month; we shall see). 

So, in short, it is a game of soccer (or hockey) where your team tries to boot chickens into the opposing goal. The game is setup to be 3v3 or 6v6. The field for 6v6 is slightly bigger than the 3v3 field. There were a few glitches that I'm sure will be worked on, but overall, it was addicting and lots of fun. It had some neat loot to barter also.

I didn't get many good pictures while playing, but here is one where the Game Hen (the chicken ball) decided she had enough and flew up and refused to come down. That did seem to happen a lot, especially during 6v6, undoubtedly something to be worked. Regardless, it was still fun hanging out with friends doing something that didn't involve dire situations saving the world. You can see that a few friends and I were in Red (see the R above the heads and the added red cloaks).

Game Hen has had enough whacking at Hobnanigans

Pet Chickens: Here is the chicken pen for chickens that can be bartered. There are six of them.

All the Chickens

Ok; the white chicken is reasonably easy to get. I won a couple of white chicken tokens plus enough Hobnanigans tokens to get that one. Friend Lyn also won a Red Chicken token. I didn't see any of the more "advanced" chicken tokens and clearly, this weekend wasn't enough for me to barter a more advanced chicken as the prices were fairly high.

Hobananigans - Chicken pet barter costs

So, I got a White Chicken. I'm no Loremaster so I'm not used to animals following me around. I can't imagine wanting that while questing, but while flying around town or at festivals... sure, why not. :)

SuperChicken and Danania at home

Cosmetic Egg-quipment: There were a few cosmetics that could be bartered. I'll always get all of the festival outfits and put them in our vault but given the other goodies to be had and my limited token supply, I passed on all of these.

Here are the barter prices.

Hobnanigans - equipment barter costs

Chicken Housing stuff: There was lots of Hobnanigans housing stuff. There was so much I missed taking screenies of page 2. Here are several views of stuff.

Hobnanigans - housing stuff (part 1)

Hobnanigans - housing stuff (part 2)

I went with the most I could afford and got the Small Hobnanigans Field with White Chicken. It looks neat. :) Here is the field sitting at my house. You can gauge the relative size of it by the size of my guard dog sitting behind it. It fits a "Large Yard" space.

Small Hobnanigans Field with White Chicken

Hobnanigans Emotes: The chicken pet and the miniature housing item were good, but what I really liked were the Emotes. I will probably attempt to barter more emotes next time. There were a total of five emotes to be bartered.

I got the "Chicken Drive" Emote. Here is a shot of me whacking chickens at home in Falathlorn. Good times. 

Supergirl tries out the Chicken Drive Emote

Deeds and Titles: There are titles associated with deed reputation level. Top it out to become a Hobnanigans All-star. 

I am definitely looking forward to playing again with friends and making new ones at the next Hobnanigans Games. Keep a look out! 

Steed of ODOGIL

Supergirl rides the Steed of Odogil

Happy Anniversary Lotro! Just like that Lotro is 7 years old and hopefully it will be around many many more. With the Anniversary comes the Anniversary festival. The activities are the same and there are a few new goodies to get this year. Of course, my course was set for the horse and his name is Steed of Odogil. (Correction: If you read this post the first day, you might have noticed that I misspelled the steed's name; I originally spelled it Ogodil. I was very consistent misspelling it the same way through the entire post. :) Thank you Detective_Fallacy of reddit lotro, Reddit lotro - steed_of_ogodil )

There is a new robe and cloak. I'm sure I will get them and toss them in the vault; my friend The Elven Tailor showed some pictures of them at this post, Elven Tailor - 7th-anniversary.

If you need help finding the goodies, CSTM has you covered. The events are the same as last year, so the guide is still the best as always. CSTM - 6th Anniversary festival Guide

Anniversary Steeds: If you like and do not have them, previous Anniversary Steeds are available for barter or sale during the festival. I love that addition that began during this past Yule festival to allow newcomers to have access to previous festival steeds.

Here is a view of the ones available at the 2014 festival. Henry Peartree in the middle of Bree is one such barterer who sells them.
You can find the previous ones in the Horse Gallery, All the Steeds.

Anniversary festival can be lots of fun, especially with friends. And, if you haven't got friends, festival is a nice way to meet people. :)

Here are a few links to previous Anniversary festivals:
Teal Fireworks Horse and Supergirl flies like you have never seen (fun at Beer Bash)
Revellers Gilded Warsteed (available via "Lost Envelopes") 
Happy 5th Anniversary lotro (one of my earliest posts on this site)
In a beginning hole far-far-away... (I was riding the 4th Anniversary Steed, aka Anniversary Steed in my first post)

Steed of Odogil: The Steed of Odogil is a bit Halloweeny to me. He is a black steed, black cloak with orange trim and stars.

Steed of Odogil

Warsteed of Odogil - Default colors: The Warsteed of Odogil looks similar. We will see in the rest of the pictures that the black neck sash does not dye, so look for complements to a black neck. :) 

Warsteed of Odogil - Default Colors

Warsteed of Odogil - Black with Black: The most obvious route to match the black undyeable neck is to keep the rest of the outfit black. Here the Warsteed in all black, which most closely resembles the original horse. 

Warsteed of Odogil - Black and Black

Warsteed of Odogil - White with White: Contrasting and showing off the undyeable part, here is White with white hide.

Warsteed of Odogil - White and White

Warsteed of Odogil - Flaxen Chestnut hide, Copper Hair, Burgundy Outfit:
The tri-tone color scheme of the gold/black/dye outfit made me want to break from my routine of having hair and hide the same color. here is one I put together. What do you think?

Warsteed of Odogil - Flaxen Chestnut hide, Copper hair, Burgundy outfit

Warsteed of Odogil - Black Cherstnut hide, Chestnut hair, Umber outfit:
So many choices for colors. Here is another one.

Warsteed of Odogil - Back Chestnut hide, Chestnut hair, Umber outfit

Warsteed of Odogil - Dun hide, Sooty hair, Ered Luin outfit:
Hmm, I think this combination might be one of my favorites. Which variations do you like?

Warsteed of Odogil - Dun hide, Sooty hair, Ered Luin outfit

I hope you have a great festival time! See you soon.
Here is a parting shot I took of a festivaller today at the Beer Brawl.... Good times. :)

Good times at Beer Bash