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 Kid_Kyoto wrote:


And y'know, if they are smart and if they like money, a year from now they'll put out Hobbit - the single movie edition cutting the 3 films into one 2 hour one thus getting our money agian, and shutting up critics

That would be the only money the Hobbit Movie(s) would get out of me.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Saw it today, found it surprisingly good.

Yeah some odd weaknesses, like trolls out in the sun and um sand worms? Sand worms?

But the Justice League of Middle Earth brought a smile to my face.

I'll have to do a more thorough review in the OT forum but it did briefly make me wish GW was still all in on this, I'd love some of the trolls from the final battle.

I may even get the extended editions for this 'trilogy' after all.

And y'know, if they are smart and if they like money, a year from now they'll put out Hobbit - the single movie edition cutting the 3 films into one 2 hour one thus getting our money agian, and shutting up critics

What, like Troll McFlail Hands? Much like the first two films, there was a good movie inside of that bloated bunch of nonsense. It was there...but it was dragged down by BS. I very much agree that one could take the extant material and cut it down into a good 3 hour movie. I'd give it another hour of good material.

Don't get me wrong, I like a good adaptation. I also enjoy imaginative expansions on the books. I quite like Dain and his war pig. Fun, cool, and dos not inherently detract from the story. But there was so much other bloated nonsense. I actually laughed out loud when Legolas ran up those falling stones.

And yes, I forgot to mention the sandworms in my previous post...I think that my mind is trying to block them out.

I thought we were talking about free rules for games workshop hobbit and lord of the rings models not people to complain about whether or not they like the movies? Did I miss something?

weeble1000 wrote:


What, like Troll McFlail Hands?

That's exactly who I was thinking of! I'd love to have him as a plastic kit along with Ram Head and Catapultback.

Maybe when the next trilogy - Troll McFlailhands vs the Hawt Red Headed Elf Chicks - comes out...

I was hoping GW would re-release the Battle of the Five Armies warmaster type game for this movie. I sold off my copy years ago but at this point would buy it again if the opportunity arose. Of course, they probably would have to redesign the figures/units to better match the film to comply with licensing requirements, but it would still be a product I would be interested in.

As for the movie, I took the wife, daughter and Son2 (who was home for Christmas) to see it in the local Imax. It was a decent enough popcorn movie. I, like others, would have preferred if they had stuck closer to the book, but we enjoyed it. I have the first two extended versions on BluRay, and will add this one when it is released to round out the set.

Anyone know when in January GW is going to be releasing the rest of the smaugs?

Why do you keep calling them sand worms? They were very clearly Nydus Canals. They even had the same animation!

weeble1000 wrote:

Don't get me wrong, I like a good adaptation. I also enjoy imaginative expansions on the books. I quite like Dain and his war pig. Fun, cool, and dos not inherently detract from the story. But there was so much other bloated nonsense. I actually laughed out loud when Legolas ran up those falling stones.

When folks roll their eyes at Legolas's antics, I think they keep forgetting that in the LotR, Tolkien wrote about the elf walking on the snow in the mountain pass - without disturbing or sinking into the surface. Yeah, he's that freaking ridiculous.

However, that "war pig" was silly. Had it been a wild boar, I could have seen that. Heck, if it hadn't been the same pig from a couple scenes earlier with the men of Dale leading the bare pig around town it might not have been so bad. Did like the mountain goats, though.

 Stormonu wrote:

weeble1000 wrote:

Don't get me wrong, I like a good adaptation. I also enjoy imaginative expansions on the books. I quite like Dain and his war pig. Fun, cool, and dos not inherently detract from the story. But there was so much other bloated nonsense. I actually laughed out loud when Legolas ran up those falling stones.

When folks roll their eyes at Legolas's antics, I think they keep forgetting that in the LotR, Tolkien wrote about the elf walking on the snow in the mountain pass - without disturbing or sinking into the surface. Yeah, he's that freaking ridiculous.

However, that "war pig" was silly. Had it been a wild boar, I could have seen that. Heck, if it hadn't been the same pig from a couple scenes earlier with the men of Dale leading the bare pig around town it might not have been so bad. Did like the mountain goats, though.

Except that the mountain goats came out of nowhere, with no context whatsoever, unless I fell asleep when they were introduced. They just...appeared on screen. Dain riding his war pig at least makes some sense, and the pig was introduced when Dain and the Iron Hills dwarves first appeared on screen. Presumably, those mountain goats were brought by Dain, but I sure as hell didn't see them in the film before Thorin and who-cares-who-these-dwarves-are started riding them.

That's awful filmmaking.

And there's a subtle difference between mentioning that an elf walks lightly on top of fallen snow and depicting an elf running up falling blocks 20 minutes into an overblown fight scene that should have lasted 2 minutes. Elves are cool and ephemeral and totes awesome, yes. Mr. JRRT had a hardon for elves, yes. And it was a little nod to the fans to show Legolas walking on top of the show in the appropriate scene. That does not justify the BS CGI movie-destroying shenanigans PJ has Legolas doing in those films.

The rams came with Dain's army, and there's a shot in the trailer which shows them charging en masse over a hill that didn't make it into the film. It will doubtless be in the Extended Edition, along with the dwarven Chariots and Ballistae that suffered the same fate.

I have no issue with Legolas; yes, he's doing stuff that shouldn't really be possible, but on the other hand, he's an elf, that's kind of their MO. Add in the fact he has had centuries of training and it's really not that hard to explain his antics.

lol, but yeah...completely made up character, too. And while I did like Tauriel it was kinda lame how she and Legolas kinda stole Bilbo's thunder in the MIrkwood fight with the spiders.

Yup. This alone made me really dislike the second one. As i heard that Beorn has only a 30 second appearance in Five Armies (but i'm sure legolas has a 45 minute goblin genocide-killpage spree knowing Jackson), I will be waiting until this hits HBO rather than seeing it in theatres.

At least if Jackson chooses to do the Silmarillion its chock full of Elves for him to gratify himself sexually to.

Just in case there are any interested LotR players here (I live in hope) that don't often check the sub-forum, a few of us down there have put together an unofficial supplement that expands a lot on the GW free one (in that, you know, it has actual content! )

Here's the link if anyone wants to check it out.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/60/629677.page#7492899

Anybody who has feedback should feel free to PM me.

There is alot of hate for a series that broke box office records. I personally loved the movies. The models I love even more, but I admit that I mostly use them for playing Cubicle 7's One Ring RPG.

I like the books (in fact I like The Hobbit book significantly more than the LOTR books) and I also liked the movies (preferred the LOTR movies to The Hobbit mainly because The Hobbit felt like it was trying too hard to recreate the LOTR movies, but I do like both).

Though I still hate axe-in-head Dwarf, bird poo wizard and scrotum beard and a few others.

The table top game by GW though... I just can't get in to it. I love the models but GW has just mistreated the franchise far too much. If Mirkwood Rangers were $40AUD instead of $70AUD, I would have bought several boxes, instead I've bought none, if Gundabad Orcs were plastic and reasonably priced I would have bought a ton, instead I've bought zero). I haven't touched a single model in The Hobbit range which is amazing given how much I love so many of the models.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
I like the books (in fact I like The Hobbit book significantly more than the LOTR books) and I also liked the movies (preferred the LOTR movies to The Hobbit mainly because The Hobbit felt like it was trying too hard to recreate the LOTR movies, but I do like both).

Though I still hate axe-in-head Dwarf, bird poo wizard and scrotum beard and a few others.

The table top game by GW though... I just can't get in to it. I love the models but GW has just mistreated the franchise far too much. If Mirkwood Rangers were $40AUD instead of $70AUD, I would have bought several boxes, instead I've bought none, if Gundabad Orcs were plastic and reasonably priced I would have bought a ton, instead I've bought zero). I haven't touched a single model in The Hobbit range which is amazing given how much I love so many of the models.

Oh dear lord. I had looked online at the Mirkwood rangers and decided to get a few sets. Must have been on the US site, because they were listed as $40, which I thought was brilliant and fair. That's damn witch elf prices but with monoposed figures. I'm devastated. Not surprised, mind you, but devastated.

Yup I am in the same boat. Love the minis. Like the rules. Hate the price. It's the price and nickel and diming GW did with The Hobbit and end of LotR that I gave up on it and stopped buying.

I was going to start a project where I bought all GW LotR/The Hobbit minis, but with 1/2 the reduction of what you got in the box, and 1/3 the price (so a price increase) on the old units and the ridiculous prices of the new units, I just gave up on my project and stopped buying anything LotR/The Hobbit. Sadly the free rules, while good, got me to take a look, but once I see the prices, I just cringe and shake my head on what I could have bought if the prices were reasonable.

Yeah, same reason I never bought any of the Hobbit figures myself, despite using a bunch of the LotR range for Kings of War as well as the actual SBG. Depending on the force(s) you're interested in, a lot of historical ranges work to make the various Kingdoms of Men, with slight;y different aesthetics (though not much for Normans>Rohirrim). WGF Orcs work for PJ's ME Orcs, and then there's millions of plastic Moria Goblins and Uruk-Hai floating around on eBay...

I'm an Elf player primarily. I'm sure there will be suitible Mirkwood Elves around somewhere, but I'm more concerned about the armoured varients of Elves which I've yet to see alternate companies make. Thankfully I already have a few from why back when, but there's no way I'll be buying any Elven cavalry or such, which is so sad. Maybe if they do drop the licence and have a clearance sale, though at this rate I think the company is more likely to melt the models and send me a molten carcass of broken Elven dreams with any purchase over $450; in a pretty limited edition box.

I think it's sadder for me because LoTRs brought me to the hobby, I won NSW GT using Elves and always found the rules so rewarding

Yeah, the elves have a much more specific look to them than the Mounted Normans>Rohirrim, and I'm in the same situation with the newer elven models. Your best bet for clearance would be local stores running them out, since most etailers have stopped carrying the LotR/Hobbit range due to the various GW shenanigans of the past few years.

The inflation in this is staggering. An elvish weapon that can be used as a hand weapon, great weapon, spear, or shield all at once? M/W/F 3/3/3 Bilbo? A Hero riding a Hero with two separate M/W/F profiles? Auto-wounding on 3+? Twenty Wounds on Smaug?

I remember a game that was subtly unbalanced, not these levels of crazy. That said it's a pretty solid adaption of the movie, given the degree to which the movie was an ever-escalating series of increasingly absurd stunts.

I'll have to make a trip to Perth for that, my flgs already cleared before I moved here. I don't want to miss out and every time I go to a store they have less and less of the range, though your suggestion for the Normans for Rohirrim would actually diversify (and drop the cost!) of them a lot, especially their cavalry options. Those 6 poses got old fast. Then again, I wish the High Elves had the model diversity of the Rohirrim.

Stupid LoTRs films designing absurdly unique and visually stunning Elven armour...

Rohirrim (and Dunlendings) are actually really well served for models, since they're both pretty well based off of Normans and Saxons:

http://store.warlordgames.com/products/dark-ages-norman-infantry-plastic-boxed-set
http://store.warlordgames.com/products/dark-ages-norman-knights-plastic-boxed-set

http://store.warlordgames.com/products/dark-ages-saxon-thegns-plastic-boxed-set/


Dark Ages Vikings and generic Warriors also work especially well for Dunlendings and Wild Men:
http://store.warlordgames.com/collections/dark-ages/products/dark-ages-viking-hirdmen-plastic-boxed-set
http://store.warlordgames.com/collections/dark-ages/products/dark-ages-warriors

Here's those Orcs I mentioned earlier:
http://wargamesfactory.com/webstore/myths-and-legends/orc-warband

Tre' Manor's Red Box Games has some nice character models in scale with LotR models across several races including Elves, though they're honestly too expensive per model, IMO, to fill out an army with - but a FotR-sized skirmish warband would be very doable.
https://azazelx.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/how-big-is-that-dwarf-anyway/
https://azazelx.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/red-box-games-size-comparisons-with-gw-lord-of-the-rings-figures/
http://red-box-games.com/

Looking further, there's a whole lot of additional options listed here:

http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=27240

So anyway, Elves remain tricky - especially PJ-Movie-themed ones, which is a real shame, but there are a lot of options for the "dirtier" races out there.

Thank you for the post, I really appreciate the effort it has taken to compile that and have saved it (and likely quite a few bucks when I actually buy them!)

This is one of the best thread titles in Dakka history, in my opinion.

 Azazelx wrote:
Rohirrim (and Dunlendings) are actually really well served for models, since they're both pretty well based off of Normans and Saxons:

http://store.warlordgames.com/products/dark-ages-norman-infantry-plastic-boxed-set
http://store.warlordgames.com/products/dark-ages-norman-knights-plastic-boxed-set

http://store.warlordgames.com/products/dark-ages-saxon-thegns-plastic-boxed-set/


Dark Ages Vikings and generic Warriors also work especially well for Dunlendings and Wild Men:
http://store.warlordgames.com/collections/dark-ages/products/dark-ages-viking-hirdmen-plastic-boxed-set
http://store.warlordgames.com/collections/dark-ages/products/dark-ages-warriors

Here's those Orcs I mentioned earlier:
http://wargamesfactory.com/webstore/myths-and-legends/orc-warband

Tre' Manor's Red Box Games has some nice character models in scale with LotR models across several races including Elves, though they're honestly too expensive per model, IMO, to fill out an army with - but a FotR-sized skirmish warband would be very doable.
https://azazelx.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/how-big-is-that-dwarf-anyway/
https://azazelx.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/red-box-games-size-comparisons-with-gw-lord-of-the-rings-figures/
http://red-box-games.com/

Looking further, there's a whole lot of additional options listed here:

http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=27240

So anyway, Elves remain tricky - especially PJ-Movie-themed ones, which is a real shame, but there are a lot of options for the "dirtier" races out there.

There's a lot of unique aesthetics in LOTR so that while you can pick out forces here and there that can be replicated with 3rd party models, there's so many that either don't work well or are incomplete.

Given the moronic price of Gundabad Orcs, I'd love to see someone make some alternatives for those bulkier style Orcs. Though I guess converting Urak Hai is an option..

Ah the sandworms... when did Middle Earth get access to the spice of Arrakis?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 AduroT wrote:
Why do you keep calling them sand worms? They were very clearly Nydus Canals. They even had the same animation!

It's called Shai-Hulud

 Ouze wrote:
This is one of the best thread titles in Dakka history, in my opinion.

Thank you. I try.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Though I still hate axe-in-head Dwarf, bird poo wizard and scrotum beard and a few others.

A note on "scrotum beard":

That was actually a pretty accurate depiction of untreated advanced goiter.

Spoiler contains a picture of a human with the same condition.

Azazel: Thanks for that post, very useful and informative. I've been looking at doing Middle Earth through historicals for a while but that's a nice summary.

 AkhilleusK42 wrote:
Thank you for the post, I really appreciate the effort it has taken to compile that and have saved it (and likely quite a few bucks when I actually buy them!)

Not a worry. Wargames Factory also have a fair few Dark Ages figures that would also work well for Rohirrim and Dunendings. Again with the Saxons and Vikings, and throw in some ancient Celts and Germans as well.
http://thecombatcompany.com/categories/wargames-factory.html


Automatically Appended Next Post:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
There's a lot of unique aesthetics in LOTR so that while you can pick out forces here and there that can be replicated with 3rd party models, there's so many that either don't work well or are incomplete.

Given the moronic price of Gundabad Orcs, I'd love to see someone make some alternatives for those bulkier style Orcs. Though I guess converting Urak Hai is an option..

Absolutely true if you're going with the WETA/PJ films' aesthetics. On the other hand, several of the forces work just fine, and it doesn't preclude anyone who wants to play the game from doing so using any of the other imagery that has been used for LotR before the films. As you said, the Gundabads aren't far off the Uruks. Just some new heads and maybe some greenstuff press-moulded shields and you'll be okay for the armoured ones.