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4 Swordsmen, 4 Archers...

2 SPEARS? WHAT THE ? I don't need Archers, I need spears! The spears are infinatly more useful than bows. Does GW actually listen to us?

It perhaps wasn't the smartest move but now you'll end up buying more packs for those spearman so smart in that respect.

What's more stupid is that they have packs of 10 when warbands can be up to 12.

12 models, 4 of each kind, would have been the best thing for everyone.

I think the Swordsmen / Pikemen should of had enough weapons supplied to equip the lot either with swords or pikes (with shields modelled on already).

Heck, even a cheap new plastic Captain cut into the sprue would of helped calm the internet LOTR fanbase rage!

Clearly its a policy made to make us spend more, and as a result it is the reason that even if I DO eventually do a lotr army it wont be easterlings, and why I just probably wont play lotr, because this is just treating us like s-h-i-t.

However I must say that its a very smart policy when you think of it since there were so many great releases for easterlings this month : people will spend some money on them before they realise theyre gonna have to spend a fortune to play them since you'd need about 4-5 boxes to get the pikes you need.

I hope people from GW marketing check out these forums, and I hope they read this : you are selfish money grubbers, and we'd be more than happy to spend a fortune on your products if we felt you're werent such despicable human beings.

Hate to go off topic. I am looking to start LoTR I have no idea or how it's played, what do the different things offer like Bows vs Spear vs Swordsmen?

I was looking at this as a starter army:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&categoryId=cat750022a§ion=&pIndex=1&aId=20400011a&start=2&multiPageMode=true

There really is no need to fuss about the content and price of the new boxes when there are plenty of the old boxes (often still sealed) kicking about on ebay for a cheaper price

If you want large boxes you can also use sites like darksphere and wargamestore (for the UK anyhow) as they still have the old stock with a discount as well.

Even with the large boxes, you only get 4 which is ridiculously low, Spears/Pikes are the Easterling warriors only real bonus for their price.

Well, the box design was a giant cluster-feth because the spears cost way too many pts under the old Shadow in the East book.
Consider the fact at the time, you paid a premium cost on the spear compared to an utterly identicle warrior of minas tirith. For the added cost, you got to support with 2 'ranks' of spears exactly in the same fashion as pikes. Only problem was;
a) The Gondor lists has plenty of elite warriors like citadel guard, fountain court guards, knights of dol amroth, various fiefdoms warriors and such to form the front lines of your spear hedges.
b) Easterlings were an army of base FV3 men with not elite units at all - you were forced to include allies to make your over-costed infantry work!

Anyways, the plastic spears suck balls. So damn flimsy and they bend like crazy even when you're being carefull with them!
The on-line store still has the blisters of metal easterlings thankfully, and those packs should always come 1x sword + 2x spears. Sure the cost sucks, but at least with the metal ones, you won't have to be constantly custom building new spears!

Lord of the rings USED to be affordable, now its 27.50 effectivly for 24 models, staterted of at £15 when I first started 5 years ago :O The shed load of metal models I brought from Gripping Beast are cheaper model for model then the GW plastic ones!!!!!! How can GW even justify it? :( Kiss goodbye GW, the only stuff ill be buying now is what I find second hand

Easterlings/Uruk-Hai/Army of the Dead were 20 models for (most recently) $27.50 US. That is $1.375 per figure.

With the new packaging, you get 10 models for $22.25. That is $2.225 per figure. An 85-cent-per-model increase.

Since they are just reboxing the sprues instead of cutting new ones, the selection of weapons is extremely unbalanced for the game in question. (This is more evident in the aforementioned boxes; the sets that were originally 24 to a box have a better balance.)

The game is "let's see how much we can charge before they stop buying." I stopped playing a long time ago. I think that means I won.

I'm planning on ordering some Kataphrakt sword arms and more brass wire to make my own pikes.

Speaking of Kataphrakts, great plastic kit! Because the sprues double up you get enough to make 2 Captains, Banner Bearers and Wardrummers (great for converting spare infantry models). The Wardrummers have separate torsos and legs, which is great for anyone wanting to chop and change to make some Heroes.

I started making a plastic War Priest from one of the casualties, one of the spare capes and some other spare bits.

FULL KATAPHRAKTS AMDUR, DRAGON KNIGHT, CAPTAIN!
CAV FTW!