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I love the LotR setting. It's one of my favourite things ever, since I saw the films as a kid. (I haven't actually read the books saying that...I've read most of the first one about three times...I will persevere and read them when I find my copy of fellowship). I'm quite annoyed with myself that I never got into the miniatures game when it was supported. It's pretty obvious that LotR/the Hobbit is dying a slow, painful death where GW is concerned, and my question I guess is; is it in anyway worth getting into this late in the game? Feels like if I did, the rug would just be pulled out from under me shortly anyway.

This is mainly hypothetical, I don't know anyone that plays or anything. Guess it's just curiosity mixed with regret that I left it so long.

Lotr is still alive and kicking over in the UK not as much in the US but if you love the minis building and painting an army will be fun enough to justify getting it. You will find other players its just convincing them to bust out a force and play the game

I say yes, for the following reasons:

1) You are a fan of the series and the setting, so even if the minis are just painted up and used as shelf ornaments, you've got a nice set of collectables that will mean something to you. If you're a painter, you'll love the old LotR metals, they are amazingly accurate and detailed.

2) Especially if you're mostly after LotR stuff rather than The Hobbit, the prices are far more reasonable than you might think. Minis and armies go on eBay for very low prices if you get lucky, typically half of RRP or better. Combine that with the small-uism model count needed (a 750 point army, which is quite a large one, comes in at about 30-60 minis) and you can get up and running with two armies (for demo games) for a lot less than the cost of a 40k army, especially if you buy used.

3) If you can get a game going, the rules themselves are pretty stellar. Detailed, clean and balanced, they're probably better than many games on the market now, and perfectly variable. From skirmishes with a handful of guys a side, to all out recreations of the story's major battles, you have the whole breadth and depth of Middle Earth to have fun with.

And if that convinces you, then check out the forum at www.one-ring.co.uk. It's far more active than this LotR subforum and you can see a lot more of the hobby there. Also check out the Battle Companies rules; they introduce and RPG element to the rules for character progression and operate at 5-10 models a side, so you could just buy a selection from several armies and get going with that, then expand your favourite companies into whole armies.
http://www.one-ring.co.uk/kb.php?a=259

Thanks guys. I'll definitely check out the one-ring forum. I remember hearing good things about the rules too, and I remember all the awesome LotR articles from older WD (like tha hugeeee Minas Tirith they made, the Mumakil conversions etc, one I remember was like an all Warg rider army, that was pretty awesome).

I just feel like I've missed the boat. My areas pretty barren for Wargaming in general, let alone practically unsupported ones.

Is it worth it? Well only you can say so. What is worth to you will not be worth to someone else. Same as what is worth to someone else may not be worth to you?

For me, it's too expensive for what it use to be and since I am use to the cheaper prices it's not "worth" it to me. For you since you don't know what the cheaper prices were they can be "worth" to you.

That being said, for me now that I have quit for a long while, I am thinking of coming back. While I don't play, the collection would be "worth" it to me. Before it wasn't worth it for me because nobody played so is one of the reasons why I quit. Now I am coming back as a collector and painting it could be worth it for me.

I guess for me it will be how good Smaug is. If I am willing to save up the $600+ Canadian (guessing since the rumour is $500 US) for Smaug then I will finish collecting the rest of what I want. If I am not willing to buy Smaug then I will not be willing to collect the rest.

So it all depends on what is "worth" to you. How would it be worth it for you? What wouldn't be worth it for you?

I do know what the prices used to be haha. I wouldn't be getting much of the Hobbit stuff (because that is crazily priced) but more the LotR stuff.

I too am waiting to see what Smaug looks like. I doubt I'll buy him but he must be something special if he's £300...

I don't know really. I guess I probably worded the question wrong, I meant more is there any point starting it now seeing as all support for it will probably be gone within the year.

 ImAGeek wrote:
I don't know really. I guess I probably worded the question wrong, I meant more is there any point starting it now seeing as all support for it will probably be gone within the year.

Now that is hard to say. I say get it, since you can have fun now and even if support stops you WILL HAVE WHAT YOU HAVE BOUGHT. If and when support stops you will not be able to buy anymore and then you will really have remorse. So get what you want, and have fun. Once support stops you will still be able to play if you have friends. If not you have a collection still unless that is not your thing.

Do you have friends that are interested in playing with you? If the answer is yes, then it's certainly worth picking up. However, if you're relying on a mixed gaming group, or (even worse), looking at having to start one of your own, pass on it. LotR is a great game, but the license is getting a bit long in the tooth for GW, and mixed groups tend to fall apart once their game stops being supported.

I actually bought into LOTR pretty significantly last year at about this time, and never found a single person to play it with. I understand that the situation is different over in the UK, but in my neck of the woods the game is completely, utterly dead.