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I have been bitten by the LOTR bug and have been buying a few bits on eBay.

Some of the new Hobbit figures are great, however, especially the plastic Rivendell knights and the plastic dwarves and I am sorely tempted to actually place an order with GW!

As I am holding off buying any source books until we find out what the "re-release" involves, I don't have any army lists - Is it possible to mix these figures with the LOTR models in a single force?

Thanks...

Basically yes, with some fairly minor limitations.

1) Each force is made up of warbands. A warband consists of a hero and up to 12 troops, all from the same list;

2) A force may have multiple warbands if you have the points for them. Although all warbands must be from one side (Good or Evil), you can mix ("ally") warbands from different army lists in a single force. Following point 1) above though, each warband must be from a single list;

3) There are some other limitations,for example most armies limit the number of bow-armed troops you are allowed to take.

For example Hobbit stats and Warband composttion, take a look here. Warbands are at the end of the file:

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/Errata/The_Hobbit/Heroes_and_Villains_of_Middle-Earth_EN.pdf

Note that some of the warbands are split a little uneasily at the moment - the Rivendell list from The Hobbit would not allow you to take figures from the Eregion and Rivendell list in the LotR Free Peoples army book. That's only within a single warband though - you can have a warband from each list in your force. And really, the Rivendell split I just mentioned works out as cavalry in one warband, infantry in another.

There's also no rule that a warband has to fight as a unit - figures can support each other, banners and horns work for everyone in the force, and most heroes' abilities can affect any warband their force (there are exceptions, animal leaders for example, but that is listed for the affected heroes).

Brilliant, thanks!

I guess there's a chance that a new edition will have new lists that merge all the Rivendell bits together, so for now I will just buy the bits I like, and worry about making valid lists later

Yeah, I'm sure there will be a tidying up of lists, but they warband system is not THAT much of a burden.

And if you're lacking a named hero, just paint up or mark one of the troops as a captain.

Have TONS of fun with the game!

IIRC, the warband system appeared before the hobbit. Sourcebooks like Fallen Realms, Mordor, Free People and so on have it as a force organisation rule in the first pages, with examples...

The warband system appeared in the sourcebooks which started coming out in early 2012, leading up to the release of Unexpected Journey in theaters in late 2012, along with the new core book and miniatures.