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I took advantage of the Warstore Black Friday sale to order the Escape from Goblin Town LE set.

I'm not a big GW guy, but I do have the Mines of Moria set and my daughter and I enjoyed painting it up and playing out the scenarios, using the included rules and other fantasy skirmish rules.

So how does this set compare?

The 'get started' guide is set up a little differently. The Moria book has an assembly guide, a how to set up a game, and then uses increasingly complex scenarios to teach the rules, and also has a painting guide which shows figures painted by someone who never touched a paint brush or at least tries hard to give that impression. It is clearly set up to get someone new to the miniatures hobby started, without intimidating them.

The new book skips the assembly (the set DOES have B&W assembly guides printed on separate sheets of paper) and walks the player through turns of a single scenario to teach the rules, but then includes a bunch of other scenarios. No painting guide and all the models painted in the book look very well painted. Maybe not as 'newbie friendly' as the Moria set for the 'get started book' but since I'm not a newbie that does not bother me. I do like it.


The actual rulebook is a digest sized book like the one from Moria, and is filled with the typical GW photography and pictures from the upcoming movie. No surprises here. What DID surprise me, and not in a good way, was the lack of forces/troop info. The Moria rule book had pretty much all the characters and troops from the three LOTR films, their stats and point costs. This book has NONE. The 'get started' book has the stats for the figs included in this set, but no points.

Now, I fully understand why some folks will think This Sucks. And they have a major point. GW is saying 'shell out your bucks for the hard cover rule book or get bent'. Having said that, it really does not bother me. I figure the points from my Moria book will do just fine for what I want to do, and I'm much more scenario driven vice points driven anyway. Heck, I'll most likely use these figures with other rule sets as well. And I'll use some historical minis as Rohan troops if I feel like it. Is GW gonna stamp my meal card No Dessert and bend my dog tags? I think not.

I really like the terrain that came with the Moria set. It allowed you to set up Balin's Tomb like in the movie, giving you columns to hide behind, piles of stuff to break up movement, a big door for a troll to smash open, a well and all the other cool stuff. Plus it was fun and easy to paint (my daughter painted most of mine) and stores easily. The terrain in this new set is just not as cool. It consists of a bunch of 'wooden' platforms and some poles which would raise them off of your playing surface to elevate them. The detail is good and they look easy and fun to paint, but they are just not as interesting, and if you glue the legs onto them, they will be a bitch to store. Having said that, I think combined with my Moria set it will make a fun set up for some goblin bashing fun (or for some hero bashing fun if you roll that way).

The figures... I like the new set. I liked the Moria set too. In both you get a small group of good heroes and a goblin horde to ruin their day. Moria came with a nifty cave troll, this comes with a big troll sized Goblin King. I think this comes with more goblins than the Moria set did, and includes a couple goblin characters besides the Big King Dude. You also get Thorin and crew (to include Gandalf and Bilbo) vice the nine members of the Fellowship. So from that perspective you get more figures than the Moria set. Since again, I'm not a points oriented guy, and the points costs are not included, I have no idea how many points a player who wants to play LOTR at his GW shop is getting with this set. And I don't care, though you may. I do like the figures. I intend to paint my goblins to match my Moria set (which by the way are not the typical green flesh tones) vice the GW/Movie pale flesh look to help tie them in. I'm not a huge fan of the Dwarves stylingm but that is not GWs fault. The figures are really nice for plastic figures and I think they are more detailed than the Moria set that I do like.

I did get the Radagast figure, and you get a card with his stats and a scenario using him. You also get a ruler that is a two piece plastic thingie. I guess it is functional... Dice and some printed assembly guides are also included.

All in all, I am glad I got this. As we were looking through it this morning my daughter was very impressed and is excited to help paint it up. That alone makes it worth it for me. We read The Hobbit together a couple of years ago (she is 10 now) and have watched the animated movie a few times (gee, they put the whole basic story into a single movie that was enjoyable... Go figure).

It has good and bad points I tried to bring out. I used the Moria set to compare as I thought it appropriate and it happens to be a set I have. I am happy with my purchase.

I also picked up the new Orcs, both the Warg mounted set and the foot troopers. I'm strongly considering an Orc force (with goblin levie troopers?) for a modification to the Saga rule set.

Jake

Nice review!

I don't think I'll actually be getting the set myself, as none of my group wants to update, but I wish I could use the Scribe! Spawning more Goblins is something I'd really like to do!

Very interesting. Thanks for the review!

I think also that for those of us who already own the sourcebooks we don't need to invest in 85 for a hard book.

I heard a complaint that some of the rules were missing from the small book?

Dr. What wrote:
Nice review!

Indeed.

Hope you and your daughter have fun.

thelordcal wrote:
I think also that for those of us who already own the sourcebooks we don't need to invest in 85 for a hard book.

I heard a complaint that some of the rules were missing from the small book?

What rules would that be? I didn't find anything missing, but I haven't read the rulebook properly. I could look it up and report if any rules really are missing.

I was under the impression all the rules are in the small book, just not the force info and hobby stuff.

Now don't quote me on this, But the only parts missing from the rulebooks (BRB / LRB) are Hobby, Gaming, Forces & Lore

If you want to just play out of the box your fine, if you want to expand your force you *need* the BRB

EDIT: I got the Boxed set on release and i found all the sculpts to be top-notch for what they were, I have not seen or played the Moria boxed set, however this is still a great review

Doo you need the BRB though if you have the sourcebooks?

Yes. As the new BRB replaces the sourcebooks, but not the Army specific Books (Fallen realms, angmar etc)

Except that the FAQ refers to the the army/forces books as source books:

ERRATA
Note that some of the profiles in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey rules manual will vary from those in the five source books: Mordor, The Fallen Realms, Moria & Angmar, Kingdoms of Men and The Free Peoples. When picking a force, you should use the rules and points values featured in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey rules manual in place of those found in the source books

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Hence my question in this thread.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/493635.page

When picking a force, you should use the rules and points values featured in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey rules manual in place of those found in the source books

Doesn't say 'must'. And I suspect I'll play with my toys the way I want, as will plenty of other groups of folks.

And I may very well be one of those folks, but I'm still curious what the the changes are.

CptJake wrote:

When picking a force, you should use the rules and points values featured in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey rules manual in place of those found in the source books

Doesn't say 'must'. And I suspect I'll play with my toys the way I want, as will plenty of other groups of folks.

I'm confused. I thought the Hobbit book doesn't even contain all the model stats, so you have to also buy the sourcebooks...?

Just like 40K or WFB, you need the main rulebook and your army book/codex/sourcebook. There may (or may not) be updated profiles/points for some/all of the units in your source book in the new Hobbit SBG rulebook (the BRB not the pocket edition), but you still need the source book for special rules, wargear options, force organization, etc.

 Shrapnelsmile wrote:

CptJake wrote:

When picking a force, you should use the rules and points values featured in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey rules manual in place of those found in the source books

Doesn't say 'must'. And I suspect I'll play with my toys the way I want, as will plenty of other groups of folks.

I'm confused. I thought the Hobbit book doesn't even contain all the model stats, so you have to also buy the sourcebooks...?

Go back to my first post, the small book from my Moria set has stats. And it seems the GW website has stats for at least some of the new stuff, for example the hunter orc stats are listed at the bottom of the product listing....

Additionally, I won't always be using GW rules when I use these figures.

Jake

That's a cracking review and while the contents may (only just mind you) be worth the moolah, it is the fact that the mini version does not contain any points and royally screws most existing players over that I will no longer be investing, which is a shame

Besides, LOTR never needed fixing in the first place so I'll just stick to my old rules

Thanks for the review. I've never played LOTR or Hobbit (or whatever it is called). But I'm thinking about buying it for my two little brothers (ages 10 and 12) and teaching them how to play. Maybe use it as a gateway to tabletop games. They each read a lot, and are currently almost finished with the whole LOTR series. They also play board games quite well, even beating me in Stratego a few times.
Does this set contain enough to entertain two kids for a while, do the scenarios have replayability? I ask because I want an all inclusive game, They won't have the money to expand armies for a while, but I want to get them used to moving models around.

Each scenario in the boxed set seems quite balanced. For each game you could'nt gues the winner, I've replayed all of them and im still hooked.

Also if you get the limeted edition with radagast you'll end up with 6 scenario's to play. once you've played thorugh them all just roll a D6 to find out whjat game your playing next

Making up new scenarios with what is included isn't too hard either.

only lotr army i really want is an all wolf army...I just want an all wolf army for some system
I do like the goblin town (or nilbog as I have taken to call it)