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LOTR/hobbit has nearly all but died in my area. People pop up every once in a while but its hard to keep people playing. We have done tournments in the past with mild success of 6-8 players. I know trying to run a 6-8 week or longer campaign will not work but the idea of trying to do a campaign in a day with 4 turns played out in one day is doable and I think it will be more appealing to players then just standard mission tournment games.

I had one idea of using the battlehosts ruleset for players to try to take over places outside of Bree leading up to one big game with all players involved being the "seige of bree" with the controling faction defending the city.

Does anyone have anything that they have put together and tested or anything that you may have used in the past for something like this?

When I think of LOTR campaigns, I'd generally go for something map-based, but that would be very hard to do in just one day.

With that in mind, I'd suggest you have 3-4 battles, escalating in scale, all of which have an effect on the final or subesquent games. Sticking with your attack on Bree idea, something like this:

Game one: The Brandywine Crossing-400 points per side (split between multiple players if you have more than 2)
Force limits: maximum of one hero per side.
setup: Bridge over river, maybe 6" wide. One back forested, other bank clear.
Victory Conditions: The evil player must get 15 or more models off the Good board edge (non-forested one) within 12 turns. (may be easy/hard so playtest beforehand if you use this)

If the good player wins, 100 points of the evil force are delayed by D3 turns for the final game.
If the Evil player wins, they gain 100 points of models for the final game, chosen only from models used in this game.

Game 2: Escape from Bree- 500 points per side.
Force limits: as per rulebook.
setup: anything really, but preferably with a road running across the board.
Victory conditions: The Good player has 10 refugees and 2 caravans (see below for stats). The Good player must get half the refugees and one caravan off the enemy board edge within 12 turns (as above, turn limit may need changing).

Refugees: M6 F2 S3 D3 A1 W1 C3, unarmed. Special Rule: Escape- The refugees are running from a battle, and are only concerned with escape. If a Refugee loses a combat but is not killed, they are forced back 2" rather than 1", but may make this move in any direction that does not take them closer to an enemy model

Caravans: Heavy Objects, D7 3W, cannot be harmed by shooting.

If the Good player wins, they will gain 100 points of troops in the next battle to reflect the Refugees calling for reinforcements.
If the Evil player wins, all Good models are at -1 C for the first D3 turns of the final battle.

Game 3: The Battle of Bree- 750 points+ (see previous games)
Force Limits: as per rulebook
Setup: two thirds of the board should be filled with streets and buildings. The Good side may deploy anywhere in this area. The Evil side may deploy outside this area, no closer than 10" to any good model.
Victory Conditions: The game will last 10 turns. At the end of 10 turns, the team with most victory points wins. Victory points are awarded as follows:
Enemy model killed: 1 point
Enemy hero killed: 5 points

Good will gain ten victory points for every building left intact, Evil will gain 10 points for every building destroyed (see below)

Destroying Buildings: Buildings can be set alight by evil models as they raze Bree to the ground. To set a building alight, use the following rules:

If a model in in base contact with a building at the start of the fight phase, and is not engaged with enemy models, it may attempt to burn the building. Roll a D6, and add one to the result for each additional unengaged friendly model in contact with the building. On the total of a 6 or more, the building is set alight. Place a marker to represent this.
s.
A Good model may attempt to quell the fire in their next turn by using the same rules above, with each model adding 1 to the total and 6+ being a success.

A building is destroyed if, at the end of the fight phase of the turn after it was lit, it has not been put out.


These have all come off the top of my head, so I'd strongly suggest playtesting them if you decide to use them or something similar to make sure both sides have a good chance of winning. They may be of no use at all, but that's how I'd run a campaign based on that theme, as each game is larger than the last, and adds more the narrative than just 'let's play some LOTR'. This should help generate interest and get people involved.

Hope that is of some use.

Thank you. That just gave me some great ideas. Thats pretty good for just off the top of your head

No problem.

Most of that came from half-forgotten memories of stuff from the old LOTR SBG magazine, so if you're after more of the same, try and track down some issues of that on ebay, as they all have great additional rules and are a load of fun.

I kind of want to break out the minis and try a couple of my missions myself now...

 Paradigm wrote:
No problem.

Most of that came from half-forgotten memories of stuff from the old LOTR SBG magazine, so if you're after more of the same, try and track down some issues of that on ebay, as they all have great additional rules and are a load of fun.

I kind of want to break out the minis and try a couple of my missions myself now...

Im thinking i want to try to get 4 rounds in and in a 10 hour day that will be hard at anything above 300 points. If i used the battle companies rules, with some minor changes. I think armies of that size will be perfect for playing 90 min or less games. That way we can fit more and more rounds in through the course of the day and give it more that campaign feel. I also found a map of bree from LOTR online that i cut up into different plots. Each having a special rule or terrain set up.

Battle Companies would be pretty cool, as you wouldn't need that many models and there would be a point to the games as players progressed. The only problem is that if you're playing with people who haven't used the BC rules before they might take a while to get started as it will take a while to introduce and go over the rules. That said, if you can get a copy to them before the day to have a look over and tell them to turn up with a battle company ready to go to the day, you could save a lot of time.

I tend to find BC games take about an hour max to play and then 20 mins max to do the post-game paperwork, so you should get plenty of games in. It also means that people with small collections can still get involved.

 Paradigm wrote:
Battle Companies would be pretty cool, as you wouldn't need that many models and there would be a point to the games as players progressed. The only problem is that if you're playing with people who haven't used the BC rules before they might take a while to get started as it will take a while to introduce and go over the rules. That said, if you can get a copy to them before the day to have a look over and tell them to turn up with a battle company ready to go to the day, you could save a lot of time.

I tend to find BC games take about an hour max to play and then 20 mins max to do the post-game paperwork, so you should get plenty of games in. It also means that people with small collections can still get involved.

Exactly. I was going to use the concept of the battle companies but rewrite the rules to make it simple to learn in a few min. The problem i was seeing is not all armies are represented. So I was thinking of doing something like allowing people so many points for models and require that weapon types not be repeated. Like you cant have 3 with swords and 1 spear and 1 bow ect

Trimming down the rules sounds like a plan, in that case I'd leave out the part about individual troops gaining EXP, just have 1 character per warband that will (keeps it simple and still allows progress). Ditto for the injury rolls.

Which armies are you thinking aren't represented? I count Angmar, Arnor and Goblin Town, but other than that I think everything's covered.

Elves.

Da krimson barun wrote:
Elves.

and anything from the hobbit.

Da krimson barun wrote:
Elves.

You're right, I've just checked and they're conspicuously absent. It's been too long since I'd looked at those rules. In that case I'd say starters should look something like this:

High Elves:
2 High Elves with Elven Blades
2 High Elves Elves with Spears and Shields
2 High Elves with Elf Bows

Wood Elves:
3 Wood Elves with Elven Blades
2 Wood Elves with spears
2 Wood Elves with Elf Bows

I can't see why they would have left out elves, but these seem about right compared to other warbands.

Edit:
For Hobbit stuff you could just use the old dwarf, goblin and orc ones. Dale is a little more difficult, but what about 3 swords, 3 spears, 2 bows?

 Paradigm wrote:

Da krimson barun wrote:
Elves.

You're right, I've just checked and they're conspicuously absent. It's been too long since I'd looked at those rules. In that case I'd say starters should look something like this:

High Elves:
2 High Elves with Elven Blades
2 High Elves Elves with Spears and Shields
2 High Elves with Elf Bows

Wood Elves:
3 Wood Elves with Elven Blades
2 Wood Elves with spears
2 Wood Elves with Elf Bows

I can't see why they would have left out elves, but these seem about right compared to other warbands.

Edit:
For Hobbit stuff you could just use the old dwarf, goblin and orc ones. Dale is a little more difficult, but what about 3 swords, 3 spears, 2 bows?

I was just thinking of having people come with their own 70 point lists. Gives them more freedom but if they choose something that isnt on the promotion table, they simply cannot be promoted or advanced in any way.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
There are a bunch of fan made ones but I dislike the ballance.

I could also just make it 150 point armies with no named heros/1 hero max. And just use the influence tables and for those that dont have a table they get 1 minature up to 9 points.

Sounds fair enough, so long as everyone is using the same system (ie all BC or all 150pts no heroes).

 Paradigm wrote:
Sounds fair enough, so long as everyone is using the same system (ie all BC or all 150pts no heroes).

I could use the influence table idea but instead of influence points each influence point translates to 3-5 points to add to the list

Equating the table to points sounds like a good idea, as a) it helps with those who don't have actual tables and b) because there's nothing worse than rolling a model that you don't own. This way, people can use what they have.