There is a “World First” preview of Siege of Mirkwood posted by a fan who wrote about their experience talking to the Turbine developers about the upcoming “Digital Expansion”. You can find that post here.

Basically, he spoke to them about several things, but the most interesting one for me is about the new Skirmishes. In a nutshell, it sounds like these skirmishes will be in adition to your leveling experience, and will be battle that you fight by yourself, or with groups of three, six or twelve players. Well, not by yourself, as each player will have one soldiers that they command. The example of a skirmish that was used was that the players would have to defent the Prancing Pony in Bree from Sharky’s men. The Prancing Pony will have hit points, and based on how well you defend it, you will get a certain amount of skirmish points in the end.

These skirmish points can then be used to upgrade/custamize your soldier, to whom you will be able to give traits and abilities.

A few last details are that it sounds like these skirmishes will be scalable to your level, and that you will gain access to this part of the game at level 30.

See you in game!