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Simply put how would you do it?
I've been reading the books and watching the movies (for 27th time) and thought about starting an Isengard army (I was brought into the hobby because my dad bought the mines of Moria for my graduation present) but when I went to my FLGS I noticed that practically no one played it!
Personally I would bring the size up to 28mm,
make some sort of regular unit box set like they have in fantasy and 40k, meaning multiple options like melee, range and great weapons instead of having 8 of each (I'm kinda mad that I have to buy 3 18$ blisters to make a single company of uruk-hai crossbowmen )
So how would you do it?

Lord of battles wrote:
So how would you do it?

OOP is the only way to fix lotr

and

I like the LOTR game system.

It’s a heck of a lot more relaxed then 40k and the like. Look at it as more of a beer and chips game.


It’s the only GW game that I know of where you can get an entire force built up for around $100.
And it’s good at getting people into mini gaming because they at least know of the movie, and $25 for a box of 20 or so guys doesn’t seam to bad... the rules as fairly simple and the game play is smooth.


i have never really played WOTR so to me that just seams like GW trying to get people to buy another 3 armies to boost their 1 up to WOTR size, and buy movement trays at 4$ a pop.... but i must admit, the idea of fighting out the battle of helms deep or the assault on the black gate sounds like it would be a fething blast.


i really wouldent change much. and the warstore can get you those urk hai crossbowmen at aroudn $14 a blister, E-bay can get even cheeper (dirt cheep if you are willing to strip a piss poor paintjob)

Why can't we leave well enough alone?

LotR is *good* for being true 25mm.

Beyond that, it's rules and army lists for what is effectively pseudo-historical minis skirmishes.

My honest answer would be stick with the strategy battle game if you dont want to shell out for large armies (just like every other system it can get expensive). Also as noted before Ebay is your friend here.

Other than that I think they have done a really good job on keeping the game relatively cheap with their plastics.

To each his own. I like 40k but sometimes the newest codex makes the army to play against unbearable. WHFB never drew me as I hated the dwarf sculpts (too cartoony) even though I love the fantasy genre. I like LOTR and the sculpts, just short of the WHFB high elf style helms that Prince Imrahil's knights have.

A lot has to do with marketing. LOTR was at a high when the movies came out 10 years ago (wow, time flew). Everything from Burger King glasses, to bed sheets, to even candy was LOTR. So when GW started making some quality sculpts, it was a win all around. Then ROTK came out, the furor died, and so did sales. Everyone remembers the "LOTR bubble" the CEO talked about when profits fell sharply.

Now "The Hobbit" movie is supposed to come out in the next few years, it may revive LOTR popularity just for a little bit, it might tank depending on the success of the movie. GW appears to make most of it's money on newbies and kids who can get their parents to fork over the cash. Us Veterans tend to pretty much have what we need unless they make a new sculpt of a model that makes a splash (not the "new" basilisk).

Stores are going to push what they feel they can sell. 40k Space Marines are a proven seller, followed shortly by the flavor of the newest codex which bosts sales of that particular model line. How many Necron sales pitches have you seen? How many Dark Eldar? Then compart that to how many LOTR unless the last big one was WOTR, then recently the WOTR supplement coming out?

As far as fixing it, the player have to be the one who organizes more interest for those in your area. My GW was practically salivating at the idea of me bringing in my Elf and Isengard armies to the store because they would in turn bring in LOTR customers. People playing well-painted armies help sell the game! And with GW apparantly starting to focus even more on the sales aspec, that leaves the hobbyist and gamer as the point of contact for the fun part not just the "buy this it's uber good and you'll win all of your battlez! buy buy buy!"

I second brettz123. Ebay is one of my best friends. Keep your eyes open and you get great deals. Plus some brake fluid or simple green and you can strip bad paint jobs off of models and repaint them for your legions.

The only thing it really needs is two people.

One to organize events and the second to run games with the first when no one else appears.

I use to play it with my friend back when RoTK first game out with that one Minis Tirith box set.

The rules pretty much sucked. Back when it was individual models they were just really bad. Haven't really given the new one a spin since my only FLGS doesn't carry it and nobody plays it.

I like that it's cheap, and the miniatures are okay.

I think GW needs to find a way to open it up to people who want to play their own stories. Sure some people enjoy reenacting battles form the story but a lot of people don't and thise who do will get bored of the same battle. I just find the background isn't open enough.

Wait, what? It's a points based game which makes it like anything else. If you want to fight
a battle you can fight a battle.

If you like it, thats fine, but then when you see that they pretty much dropped a whole part of thier company by removing the Specialist Games department, I see it as caitering to a few at the expense of the many.

I really want them to put the game on the back burner and start putting efforts to old favorites like Neromunda, Gorkamorka, Blood bowel, epic, battlefleet gothic, etc.etc.etc.

That game might have been good for a laugh, but when it starts taking up more and more efforts to sell 100 differnet gandolf, frodo, and the others, theres an issue here that revolves around lack of imagination of what they could really do with that game.

I've played it a couple of times and it was not a game to get myself worked up over. It was more like, "How many times can we fight out this scene from the movie", or "How many of these same two or three poses can we paint." I'm not a big fan of that kind of thinking.

Another thing would be to make a few multipart kits to make your own heros and villians. There is only so much ring quests that you can do before its time to start making up a few of your own adventures.

Other then that? How much more can you do with a dog?

Grot 6 wrote:If you like it, thats fine, but then when you see that they pretty much dropped a whole part of thier company by removing the Specialist Games department, I see it as caitering to a few at the expense of the many.

I really want them to put the game on the back burner and start putting efforts to old favorites like Neromunda, Gorkamorka, Blood bowel, epic, battlefleet gothic, etc.etc.etc.

Blood Bowel... that doesn't sound like a fun game. Ouch.

I agree with this sentiment in general. I've played it a few times as part of demo games and don't really care for the mechanics.

Aside from the lack of players, it seems redundant to fantasy for GW. I find that 40k is already much more played than Fantasy and feel that if GW reinvested in some of the ancillary specialist games that these would generate new sales amongst dedicated hobbyists who already have their core forces, but might be interested in a fleet or football team to accompany their army.

I miss the specialist games articles with new rules, units, and scenarios which were one of the few reasons to buy White Dwarf.

Grot 6 wrote:I really want them to put the game on the back burner and start putting efforts to old favorites like Neromunda, Gorkamorka, Blood bowel, epic, battlefleet gothic, etc.etc.etc.

Blood Bowel?

Is this some Nurgle-themed game of dysentery that I've never seen?

And thank god for that.

No, Blood Bowel can stay out of production.

Grot 6 wrote:If you like it, thats fine, but then when you see that they pretty much dropped a whole part of thier company by removing the Specialist Games department, I see it as caitering to a few at the expense of the many.

I really want them to put the game on the back burner and start putting efforts to old favorites like Neromunda, Gorkamorka, Blood bowel, epic, battlefleet gothic, etc.etc.etc.

That game might have been good for a laugh, but when it starts taking up more and more efforts to sell 100 differnet gandolf, frodo, and the others, theres an issue here that revolves around lack of imagination of what they could really do with that game.

I've played it a couple of times and it was not a game to get myself worked up over. It was more like, "How many times can we fight out this scene from the movie", or "How many of these same two or three poses can we paint." I'm not a big fan of that kind of thinking.

Another thing would be to make a few multipart kits to make your own heros and villians. There is only so much ring quests that you can do before its time to start making up a few of your own adventures.

Other then that? How much more can you do with a dog?

Interesting read but unfortunately you don't know what you are talking about. LOTR is not about replaying missions from the movies over and over again. You might want to actually read through the books before you write about it. There are certainly scenarios derived from the movies provided in the older source books but just like anything else you can play them or just use the points system to make up your own battles. This obviously has escaped you.

Now if you just don't like the game then to each his own and you can't be faulted on that but you should at least have your facts right before trying to sway others opinions of something. And on top of that specialist games wasn't axed just to make room for LOTR.

And even better all the money they got from selling the LOTR miniatures allowed them to expand their plastic production and is one of the major reasons we have seen so many new plastic kits in the last six years or so. So overall you may not like the game but you should at least acknowledge the contribution it has made to the rest of the company.

And if you play Blood Bowel on a regular basis please see a doctor .

I love Blood Bowel!

I play it daily.

JSK-Fox wrote:I love Blood Bowel!

I play it daily.

Intestinal disorder?

War of the Ring is a funky little rulesset, nice and simple to get the hang of, then requires alot more thought to get the most out of your units and hammer your opponent.

The little group I game with have decided to do a tale of many gamers with it due to a few of us having played and realising it offers something a bit different- so everyone is doing just one plastic box to get us ready for next Saturday and then go from there.

Having played it a bit, I can't really see anything that needs to change with WOTR, its a pretty tight ruleset and fun to play