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I've been thinking of getting back into the Lord of the Rings SBG, which I haven't played since the Mines of Moria boxed set was out. The Escape from Goblin Town Boxed Set looks like a pretty nice package, but I'm told that the pocket rulebook included in the boxed game is missing point values and character statistics found in the stand-alone, hardback rulebook. Is this the case? And if the hardback rulebook does include points values and statistics, is it possible to play the complete game straight out of it without needing to buy any of the other army books (such as Free Peoples, Mordor, etc)?

Thanks for any information, I'm trying to plan out purchases without coming up with things that aren't helpful or that I don't need.

So if you buy Escape from Goblin town you will have all the rules and profiles for the stuff in the starter, you will just be lacking the points values. This means you can only really play with the models you have in the starter, and only doing scenarios from that book.

If you buy the hardback you will be able to play normally using any of the Hobbit models.

If you wish to use LotR models you will need to buy the army books.

It's bullcrap how much you have to pay just to play this game. You want to combine the goblin king and his goblins with uruk hai? You will have to buy:

1. Escape from Goblin Town ($125)
2. The Hobbit SBG Rulebook ($85)
3. 2X Uruk hai warriors (~$50)
4. Uruk hai Command(~$40)
5. Fallen Empires Army book ($28)

So almost $330 just for 5 warbands. In the old days you could buy 24 models for 33 dollars. Honestly if you want to play SBG you will have to scour ebay it seems

Or he could use points values from his Mines of Moria book...

 SkaerKrow wrote:
I've been thinking of getting back into the Lord of the Rings SBG, which I haven't played since the Mines of Moria boxed set was out. The Escape from Goblin Town Boxed Set looks like a pretty nice package, but I'm told that the pocket rulebook included in the boxed game is missing point values and character statistics found in the stand-alone, hardback rulebook. Is this the case? And if the hardback rulebook does include points values and statistics, is it possible to play the complete game straight out of it without needing to buy any of the other army books (such as Free Peoples, Mordor, etc)?

Thanks for any information, I'm trying to plan out purchases without coming up with things that aren't helpful or that I don't need.

You cannot play the most up-to-date Lord of the rings / the hobbit without the big rulebooks or sourcebooks.

Minus The models needed to play, you *need* the following:

The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey Rulebook

The Sourcebook for your Chosen Army (Fallen realms etc)

The Game "the Hobbit" Is infact the latest incarnation of The Lord of the rings: SBG. Allowing you to use all the the SBG Models alongside the New releases. Included in the Large rulebook are Points values for the Hobbit minitures, Updated / New core rules for the entire game (Lord of the rings / the hobbit) and statlines (new ones i belive but as i have the big rulebook as im sticking with goblin town i do not have a sourcebook to confirm this) for all of the Lord of the rings SBG mini's. New scenario's, campagne rules, Create your own scenario section etc.

No recent Boxed starter sets have included points values for quite a while now, i however cannot tell you how to play or collect, to answer your question fully:

:- Points values are in the Big rulebook for all of the hobbit mini's, and only updated statlines(?) for LOTR SBG.
:- Yes you can play with the rulebook & escape from goblin town right away, however if you want to use for eg: a uruk-hai warband with goblin town, you would need the Relavant sourcebook.

I hope this helps.

Tezerel wrote:
So if you buy Escape from Goblin town you will have all the rules and profiles for the stuff in the starter, you will just be lacking the points values. This means you can only really play with the models you have in the starter, and only doing scenarios from that book.

If you buy the hardback you will be able to play normally using any of the Hobbit models.

If you wish to use LotR models you will need to buy the army books.

It's bullcrap how much you have to pay just to play this game. You want to combine the goblin king and his goblins with uruk hai? You will have to buy:

1. Escape from Goblin Town ($125)
2. The Hobbit SBG Rulebook ($85)
3. 2X Uruk hai warriors (~$50)
4. Uruk hai Command(~$40)
5. Fallen Empires Army book ($28)

So almost $330 just for 5 warbands. In the old days you could buy 24 models for 33 dollars. Honestly if you want to play SBG you will have to scour ebay it seems

Most don't want to do Gobbos and their king.

Say I wanted to do Mordor Orcs.

New Rulebook - $85
2x Mordor Orcs - $49.50
2x Morannon Orcs - $49.50
Mordor Troll - $41.25
Warg Riders - $29.75
Sharku - $24.75
Gothmog - $36.25
Mordor Book - $28.00
TOTAL - 344 dollars
Use a model from the Orc boxes or use the Troll as a Chief.

The army is a very large army - about 750-900 points, 56 models with a monster and you'll never need to change much in the army.

It's honestly not that bad the game.

Thanks for the replies, all. Sorry if my opening question was a little muddled, I've read some conflicting reports on the contents of the two incarnations of the Hobbit Rulebook.

So, if I'm understanding this right, if one was to purchase the Escape From Goblin Town set, and the necessary LotR Sourcebooks, they would have the most up to date incarnation of the SBG rules, and would be able to play using any models found in their Sourcebook, but would not have points values for the new Hobbit models?

Correct.

However with missing out on the BRB you lose Statlines and points for 48 Differant, New & Cool Units.

(this is a moot point if your not interested in the Hobbit line of models at all)

I am interested in them, quite a bit actually, but I also expect that GW will release a revised rulebook when the next movie comes out. Once that happens, my Hobbit rulebook basically becomes a lovely paper weight. Buying Goblin Town at least nets me some miniatures with what may be a dead-man-walking rulebook.

Thanks for clearing all of this up for me, everyone. I feel like I can make an informed purchase now.

I highly doubt for the next hobbit movie they will make a new rule book. The escape from goblintown mini rule book will go pretty far.

As for the cost of things, it is slighlty cheaper them most minis games ( not by much but it isnt crazy espensive.)

For the rulebooks you can find them online if you look...

As for the minis, yea it is nice to find the older boxes thats 24 guys for 33, but current prices arnt terrible. Tons of web seller stores can sell them for 25% off. So 18.56 for 12 guys is pretty good. You can make your captians custom from the box sets even if you like converting a little. I have 1600 points of dwarfs and didnt buy a single of the command packs( The 40 follar ones for 4 figs).

I dont know how your area is but ours average is 1000pt armies.

To save money I went with dwarfs as the starter give you the named ones. Using one of them as a proxy dwarf captian and 1 box of dwarf warriors nets you 173 points. Pretty cheap moneywise.

Playing 40k and now this, dont let the "this is mega expensive" haters distract you. Far cheaper then 40k for the points. And that is always a good thing.

 SkaerKrow wrote:
I am interested in them, quite a bit actually, but I also expect that GW will release a revised rulebook when the next movie comes out. Once that happens, my Hobbit rulebook basically becomes a lovely paper weight. Buying Goblin Town at least nets me some miniatures with what may be a dead-man-walking rulebook.

Thanks for clearing all of this up for me, everyone. I feel like I can make an informed purchase now.

What i would really like GW to do is to release a sourcebook including New units, Stats and scenarios from the Newer film and keeping the ruleset in this BRB. becuase at the moment. i hope i dont jynx it but This gaming ruleset for LoTR... It aint Broke, So dont fix it Gw

As a final Note, the Desolation of Smaug is due out Dec 2013. thats a year away. could you really not use any of the models in this line for a year? (For points mached games) but also the BRB isnt just a BRB, it is the sourcebook for the Hobbit Mini's.

I got the Big rulebook for 65 I think from Thewarstore. got it fast too.
I will say the hardback book is very well done. Most hardback Novels when they first come out are around 25.00 MSRP for hardback, and most contain no color pictures.

The rulebook is still very overpriced, and contains a ton of useless information, especially for someone just updating their ruleset.