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So I stopped in a hobby shop in '02 with a friend of mine and they were running a scenario for LotR. I thought it was a great game, and wanted to play immediately. However, I was in Texas, and the terrain board was probably 1'x1' and no other players in sight (the shop was so small, things had to be moved around for that demo board).

Anyways, I've never really forgotten that game. I wanted to get into WHFB, but watching the games left me underwhelmed. I play 40k currently, and think LotR may be more my speed, but I'm not quite sure how to get a force together. There's a *very* small following near me, so I would probably end up playing against my boy more often than not (he's a great opponent though, so I wouldn't mind at all). I'm not sure I would want to pick up the starter until I know what kind of armies I would want us to have.

He's interested in the Free Peoples (he really wants Borimir to be an option) and I'm undecided, but leaning toward something like Mordor where I could get a mixture of things like humans, monsters, those really dark looking wraiths, etc.

Is there a better way to start than the Hobbit starter? What would you recommend knowing our overall goals? Would the Hobbit set be worth it for the good guys and the bad guys can be sold or kept for scenarios (3rd army we both control, team up of our armies against the trolls or whatever)?

What would a starting force look like for some of the armies? We don't mind playing *very* small point games to start off while we practice our fantasy painting, tactics, rules, etc. Like, even one or two equivalent characters dueling would probably be fun (also, our FLGS carries a lot of LotR models and all of the books necessary, I believe).




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Also, I feel I should mention that my son LOVES the Hobbit book, movie and is just about to start watching the LotR movies before he reads the books. He has been into the fantasy genre since he was 4 and needed explanation while I read him the Hobbit. This may be fueling the desire to play this as a fantasy/magic/bows & arrows/swords & shields kind of game!

Get this:
http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-Return-Stategy-Battle/dp/B007U7B9CO/ref=pd_sim_sbs_t_9
That set contains Minas Tirith and Mordor dudes. Plus (very outdated) rules. Could be something worth looking at.

After that, check eBay for more recent rules (the One Rulebook, the blue one with the ring on the cover, is very very good still) and there's loads of lots of models for cheap.

For Mordor, you're looking at a core of Mordor Orcs with a contingent of Morannon Orcs with maybe a troll. Depending on the kind of army you want to play, you could back them up with Trackers, Warg Riders, Black Numenoreans or Morgul Knights.

My Mordor army consists of 24 Mordor Orcs, 24 Morannon Orcs, 6 Warg Riders and the Witch-King on Fell Beast. Next I'd add a Mordor Troll and maybe some Trackers. I've won several games with them so far. That would roughly equl 750 points, which is a very decent-sized game.

For Free Peoples, you'd want a strong core of Warriros of Minas Tirith. Back them up with a few specialist Fiefdoms troops and Citadel and Fountain Guard. Cavalry-wise you can't go wrong with Dol Amroth knights or Minas Tirith Knights (but Dol Amroth knights are a lot better and more fun). I'm not sure about lists though.

The profiles for these models would be in the hardcover rulebook with the Onre Ring.

Have fun playing!


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If you want to play scenarios, you could try and get the Mordor or Gondor in Flames books. They're great - army lists and scenarios. They're outdated, however, but you should be able to scour eBay for them. For points matches, you won't really need much more than the One Rulebook, though the rules are outdated and the profiles have been updated. The new army books aren't so good, I don't find, because they lack the scenarios, and I much prefer the legions of Middle-Earth army lists anyway.

Well for models the best and cheapest place to look is ebay. People sell big lots of unpainted or primed models for dirt cheap.

I recently pi ked up 40 warriors of Minis Tirith unprimed for 40 bucks (shipping included) and also 46 goblins for 28 bucks. You really can't go wrong with buying masses of infantry off ebay.

Personally I don't really like the hobbit models so will be sticking with the classic models. I just use the mini rulebook that was in the old mines of Moria boxset. It has a lot of the point values but I believe if you get the big hardcover one rulebook to rule them all it has 90% or more of the point values. You can get one off ebay for 30 to 50 bucks.

Since your interested in orcs and free people's basically you can get the main models on ebay for cheap as a perfect start and then get other models when you feel ready. Best keywords I found for scouring ebay is "lotr games workshop" or "lord of the rings games workshop" because I had a hard time searching at first because there are a lot of Lord of the rings stuff haha

So after re-watching LotR with the little guy, we're both kind of interested in creating...scenarios of sorts. Like, he's coming at me with "wouldn't it be cool if we replayed the one where Borimir died to see exactly how many Orks it would take to kill him without the archer?" and "how would you make a barricade for the goblins to have to smash through in the mines?"

I know next up is the novels once school starts back up, but for now we're loving summer break for movie marathons and miniature gaming.

So, without having a "scenario book," and just playing around with point costs, how easy or difficult would it be to get ahold of heroes from the movies and some monsters to pit them against? (FLGS has incredible scenery to play on, so that's not a concern).

Well, there's loads of really cheaqp models on eBay. Really, really cheap models!

Regarding scenarios, it may be easier to get a journeybook, it's a lot easier and they're really good scenarios. You could try by yourself though!

The Skirmish LOTR game is probably the one you want. Why not try to get the Mines of Moria Boxed Set? It is probably out of print but you might be able to get it on Amazon or Ebay. If you can land that you get the rules and the Fellowship plus many goblins and a Troll to battle with.

Truth is that those scenarios are weighted a bit toward the Good side so if you want a "fair" game you may need to drop Aragorn or maybe more than one person from the Fellowship. Or else eventually obtain more evil models.

But don't let that dissuade you. Just as much fun taking turns with the Fellowship.

Yeah, going for the not OOP ines of moria set is a good way to get the fellowship, plus 24 goblins and a troll. It is a REALLY easy game to pick up, although i guess to keep up to date you would need the hobbit rule book.

I never had a starter set, you just got a few boxes of what i wanted and went for it with the (current at the time) RotK rules book.

How would you describe the gameplay in comparison to Mordheim or Warhammer? I'm not familiar with the ruleset and have never seen it played.

It's a small scale game, based on individual soldiers instead of a unit. However, it's a bigger scale than Mordheim - I have about 50 models in my 500 point Mordor army.

What I like about it is how you can emulate tactics from real life. It's also fairly simple, but difficult to play well. What's important are the heroes, and how you manage their might, will and fate points.

There's a modification of the I-go-you-go system - the player with priority moves all his models, then the other player moves his models, then the play with priority shoots, then the other player shoots, then there''s the fight phase.

It's great fun, you should play! (and no I don't work for GW)