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More narrative tomfoolery with The Two Towers...

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/qauhhaz2/narrative-play-in-middle-earthtm-to-war/

SamusDrake wrote:
I'm of the mind that if the ME license is genuinely that big of a deal, and its in metal or finecast, then a model needs updating.

I'm guessing that characters like Sauron, Shelob and Gollum will get new sculpts for when The Hunt For Gollum is released in December 2026.

It's December 2027 now. And we're four months past War of the Rohirrim, and four months since the reveal of the plastic Hera, with no release in sight, and we haven't even seen the plastic Helm, if he even exists, nor Frealaf, Olwyn, or Lief, again, if they're even going to get miniatures at all, so if you think GW are particularly keen to cash in on tie-in releases, you must also think they're extraordinarily inept at it.

I don't know about Shelob and Gollum, but a plastic Sauron has been such a no-brainer for so long that I can't see GW wasting that golden goose on a mostly unrelated spin-off, that feels less likely than them just never doing it at all. We'll check in again in three years time when they make a new starter set, we'll get that full refresh of the Last Alliance eventually, lads.

OMG noooooooooooooooo. I haven't been this disappointed since Luke Skywalker was hoping to submit his application to the academy... Still, there is always the fan film in the meantime...

Is it mid-April already? Well blow my nose as time flies! But seriously, its been three months since the film was released in cinemas, and that's usually the spacing between releases for most GW games.

Keeping a positive attitude to the whole situation, I suspect that the resheduling of the WOTR film has caused some headaches for GW and there's no overlooking the fact that the new edition is only now going to be covered in White Dwarf - three months late.

Throw in the removal of the Imperial Knights from the 40K roadmap, the earlier-than-suspected release of the Emperors Children, the 40K drought leading up to Christmas, the appearence of the Knight combat patrols in the current edition of White Dwarf when a codex probably might have been released...maybe its an awkward situation that just had to play out.

Hopefully things will be a bit smoother going forward...

Something will be revealed this week according to Warcom.

Hopefully it will be Olwyn, Frealaf and Lief, along with the WOTR narrative book.

Well, goddamn

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/i88uzy0l/middle-earth-strategy-battle-game-give-the-enemies-of-azogtm-a-taste-of-boulder-with-the-gundabad-catapult-trolltm/

It’s a beauty!!

The miniature is made of Forge World resin.

Well, BOO!

Something of that size and complexity really should be plastic i agree.

That is certainly a thing that exists. Resin though? Yikes.

Interesting addition of the Matched Play Guide.

That's a really cool model and definitely better than the prepainted plastic D&D similar ogre. It's too bad it's resin.

Damn, looks good and has Goblins on it, the only models from the Hobbit movies I collect

Omg! I'm getting 2!

I didn't believe they would ever do this model.

I hope this means plastic Gundabad and Azog. I believe things look promising.

Was really hoping it would be plastic, but glad to have it either way

Pretty cool model if you dont stop 2 seconds to ponder the rationality of the construct.
Im not one to criticise insane fantasy concepts for lack of rational viability, its just that this is the final nail in the coffin for Middle Earth beeing a more realistic and grounded fantasy IMO.

His abs should look slightly more firm to be able to counter the force of the catapult, just to mention one thing that looks pretty bad for the troll.

 Fayric wrote:
Pretty cool model if you dont stop 2 seconds to ponder the rationality of the construct.
Im not one to criticise insane fantasy concepts for lack of rational viability, its just that this is the final nail in the coffin for Middle Earth beeing a more realistic and grounded fantasy IMO.

His abs should look slightly more firm to be able to counter the force of the catapult, just to mention one thing that looks pretty bad for the troll.

Agreed. It's fairly ridiculous to mount a catapult that way when a trebuchet would clearly have been the optimal and more realistic troll mounted option.

Well... it's Fantasy so cool factor is > reality. The esthetics of trebuchet on the back if a troll doesn't need much explanation.

This model gives me a lot of hope for the future of MESBG. If they do dive more into Gundabad and redo those terrible Finecast models mayve that means Mirkwood Elves will get done with it. We are approaching the 10 year anniversary of The Battle of the Five Armies are we not.

I agree. Even if they just redo the molds so they can be converted to FW resin, i would consider that a massive plus.

Maybe they should've made a launch box for Battle of the Five armies instead, and made War of the Rohirrim into a separate game altogether.

The sling attachment to the arm is one of the thinnest connections between two very large resin pieces I've ever seen...

About a decade overdue, but nice none the less. Will be purchasing at least one.

 Fayric wrote:
Pretty cool model if you dont stop 2 seconds to ponder the rationality of the construct.
Im not one to criticise insane fantasy concepts for lack of rational viability, its just that this is the final nail in the coffin for Middle Earth beeing a more realistic and grounded fantasy IMO.

His abs should look slightly more firm to be able to counter the force of the catapult, just to mention one thing that looks pretty bad for the troll.

The side view doesn't show any ropes even tying the catapult platform to the troll! It's just got those little shoulder bars to balance it. Unless the leather 'vest' is connected somehow, but I can't figure it out if that's the case.

GW did a thing!

Fayric wrote:Pretty cool model if you dont stop 2 seconds to ponder the rationality of the construct.
Im not one to criticise insane fantasy concepts for lack of rational viability, its just that this is the final nail in the coffin for Middle Earth beeing a more realistic and grounded fantasy IMO.

zombie_sky_diver wrote:We are approaching the 10 year anniversary of The Battle of the Five Armies are we not.

The 10th Anniversary was last December, and the catapult trolls are an exact recreation of the design from the film, any complaints about how goofy that trilogy looked are a decade late. The now OOP Iron Hills Automatic Bolt Thrower Tower Goat Chariot has been in the game since mid 2017, and I'd call that more hare-brained than 2013's Rhosgobel rabbit sleigh. Frankly I'd still consider the catapult trolls to be quite realistic, in the sense that they were employed to minimal effect by a commander whose entire army was wiped out by the end of the day

 Tim the Biovore wrote:
The 10th Anniversary was last December, and the catapult trolls are an exact recreation of the design from the film, any complaints about how goofy that trilogy looked are a decade late. The now OOP Iron Hills Automatic Bolt Thrower Tower Goat Chariot has been in the game since mid 2017, and I'd call that more hare-brained than 2013's Rhosgobel rabbit sleigh. Frankly I'd still consider the catapult trolls to be quite realistic, in the sense that they were employed to minimal effect by a commander whose entire army was wiped out by the end of the day

Well, it's been 10 years for me of complaining about the numerous, ill-conceived departures from Tolkien's work contained in PJ's Hobbit trilogy. Fortunately, I can choose not to purchase any of them (including the 3 you mentioned above). Yet, I'm glad there are people who will enjoy these models.

Well, I get the complaints but it's still leagues above the blind Troll walking on maces. The catapult Troll might not exactly work, but he looks cool while doing so. The Troll brute on the other hand is just terrible in any way .

Where did the idea that LotR was "a more realistic and grounded fantasy" ever even come from to begin with?

Tolkien?

As LotR is written as the origin/backstory of our own world with all modern myths/fables and religions being based on what "actually" happened prior our age (there is this unkown event at the end of the 4th age were everything started from scratch and mostly humans were left in middle earth after)
so it is as grounded as fantasy can be

it is also the origin of all modern fantasy so there was no "more grounded" one before that

yet it is the movies and how certain things are shown there that is off and takes away the realism from it

chaos0xomega wrote:
Where did the idea that LotR was "a more realistic and grounded fantasy" ever even come from to begin with?

I suspect it depends on what you're comparing it to - would you say the statement applied if comparing LotR to AOS, for example?

 Dysartes wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:
Where did the idea that LotR was "a more realistic and grounded fantasy" ever even come from to begin with?

I suspect it depends on what you're comparing it to - would you say the statement applied if comparing LotR to AOS, for example?

Even normal WFB. I had that discussion 15 years ago when a friend described the difference between high and low fantasy to me and we realized that everything in Warhammer is truly bonkers over the top compared to gandalfs most outstanding spell of casting a searchlight against the nazgul. And it’s the biggest problem of the Hobbit-movies to throw away that difference and turning middle earth into just another fantasy franchise to forget. Why did those stupid Worms that made the tunnels not just eat the dwarven and elven army and the whole erebor - end of story?

chaos0xomega wrote:
Where did the idea that LotR was "a more realistic and grounded fantasy" ever even come from to begin with?

Because LotR is the "end" of fantasy within Middle-Earth. By the end, the elves are all but gone along with magic, Sauron is gone, the Dwarves are dwindling. It's all but over as the more mundane world takes over.

You go back to the first age and futher, the Silmarillion, and the fantasy element is in the epic AoS style of over the top.