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Looks even GW has given up hope of selling their Hobbit games.

Source:

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?51688-The-Hobbit-The-Battle-of-the-Five-Armies%99-Strategy-Battle-Game-%28PDF%29

Link:

http://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/The-Hobbit-The-Battle-of-the-Five-Armies-Strategy-Battle-Game-PDF?_requestid=2745526

I can't see this hanging around too, too long. I doubt GW will renew the license.

Isn't that the one that came out in last week's WD?

Maybe. But knowing the answer would require caring.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/624219.page#7424820

Yes, they posted these rules over a week ago. Shame it was for a whole four models.

At least they've been made available for free to those who may have been interested but don't have a retailer nearby that stocks the weekly WD.

They also put some free rules up for Tyranid minis, I noticed, the other day.

I'd be interested in the Tyranid stuff...

But KK's right, couldn't give a feth for the Hobbit stuff.

 Padre wrote:
But KK's right, couldn't give a feth for the Hobbit stuff.

Don't worry, neither does GW.

 H.B.M.C. wrote:

 Padre wrote:
But KK's right, couldn't give a feth for the Hobbit stuff.

Don't worry, neither does GW.

I guess this is proof that free rules don't sell models. Too bad it's not the full set of rules.

boyd wrote:
I guess this is proof that free rules don't sell models.

Yeah, and I'm sure no one bought the toxicrene or the new zoanthropes, either.

Mishandling a license is not proof of anything other than GW no longer has any idea what the feth it's doing.

Surprisingly not in a $65 book

GW is probably happy this license is at its end. Initially when the first set came out (10 years ago?!?) it did pretty well. Even into the second movie. People were buying the models just to collect but our local area had a large but short lived group playing LOR. Problem was by the time the third movie came out it had tanked but GW locked in for ten years. Anyone who even mentions signing another license deal like that should be flogged hehe

That and the films themselves were terribly mishandled.

One film from the short Hobbit book would have been awesome.

Two could have been good.

Three...

I fell asleep during Hobbit 2: The Padding, and have no plans to see Hobbit 3: the Last 30 Pages. And I'm not the only one. I think a bloom is well off this rose.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
That and the films themselves were terribly mishandled.

One film from the short Hobbit book would have been awesome.

Two could have been good.

Three...

I fell asleep during Hobbit 2: The Padding, and have no plans to see Hobbit 3: the Last 30 Pages. And I'm not the only one. I think a bloom is well off this rose.

Awesome, I totally agree! The second film was absolute bum cloth, and I never watched the first, as my wife informed me it was trash. I have no plans to watch the third.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

I fell asleep during Hobbit 2: The Padding, and have no plans to see Hobbit 3: the Last 30 Pages. And I'm not the only one. I think a bloom is well off this rose.

You and me both.
Benedict Cumberbatch as a dragon going on, and on and on with the occasional treasureslide, then I wake to find dwarfs running all over the place with smaug going bananas trying to catch them.

Was there something about a dropping a whole statue of molten gold on Benedict? Or was I just dreaming?

I remember a hawt redhead. That I do remember.

I wouldn't call them trash...jeez, that's pretty harsh. It really should have been kept to two movies, though...they have way too much padding. They even went as far as making up new gak just to keep the movie running even longer and at that point I have to say "Okay, come on, really?"

I mean I love Smaug, and I like that he has a lot of screen time, but it just seems wrong to invent so much new dialogue and scenes for him, just to try and keep him in the movie as long as possible. The funniest thing to me is that the movies are long as gak, and they have so much stuff crammed into them, but they still cut out enough to make "extended editions". The Hobbit is going to have a longer combined running time than the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, I bet, and that's just insane for a story that fit pretty nicely in a single book.

But yeah, I'm still a super nerd for the movies personally, but it does feel like too much and I suppose I can't blame people for not liking it. I don't agree that they're "trash", though.

Anyway, speaking solely about the models and the game, though, I think GW killed it from the onset with their ludicrous prices. They are so far beyond what the LotR models cost it's just...even "ludicrous" doesn't seem an apt description of them. The core rulebook costs at least twice what the originals did, if not more, and when people are staring at a massive $80 investment just for the core rulebook it's no wonder the vast majority turn and run out the door. The starter set is well into triple digits and I'm pretty sure the original Mines of Moria box was at least half that, as well. A box of troops used to be something like $20 for 20 models if I'm not mistaken, may be a little off here or there, but not a bad value as far as GW products are concerned. Boxes of plastic troops for The Hobbit game are twice as much for half as many models. There's also the fact that the LotR game was actually advertised and marketed to people, whereas you likely wouldn't even know there was a Hobbit game unless you just happened to wander into a GW store and see the crap on a shelf...at which point you would laugh and walk back out the door again because they're asking you to pay $85 for three ugly Finecast trolls, and trying really, really hard to pretend that they're not just going to dump all support for the game and pretend it never existed as soon as Battle of Five Armies leaves the theater, leaving you with a dead game and a hell of a lot of money wasted.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
I remember a hawt redhead. That I do remember.

Do you think she could ever love me?

lol, but yeah...completely made up character, too. And while I did like Tauriel it was kinda lame how she and Legolas kinda stole Bilbo's thunder in the MIrkwood fight with the spiders.

You still need the Desolation of Smaug rules to play Battle of Five Armies though..

 Sidstyler wrote:
I wouldn't call them trash...jeez, that's pretty harsh. It really should have been kept to two movies, though...they have way too much padding. They even went as far as making up new gak just to keep the movie running even longer and at that point I have to say "Okay, come on, really?"

I mean I love Smaug, and I like that he has a lot of screen time, but it just seems wrong to invent so much new dialogue and scenes for him, just to try and keep him in the movie as long as possible. The funniest thing to me is that the movies are long as gak, and they have so much stuff crammed into them, but they still cut out enough to make "extended editions". The Hobbit is going to have a longer combined running time than the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, I bet, and that's just insane for a story that fit pretty nicely in a single book.

But yeah, I'm still a super nerd for the movies personally, but it does feel like too much and I suppose I can't blame people for not liking it. I don't agree that they're "trash", though.

Having not seen the third one, I give both Hobbits so far a 10/10 score (especially factoring in the DoS Extended Edition which does wonders for the pacing) and would rank them easily alongside LotR as the best films ever made. I honestly don't see how they could have fit so much into just 2 films, even if they added another half an hour to each to bring them up to LotR non-extended length (and for the record, Extended LotR has a much longer run-time than Extended Hobbit, I think, unless BOFA EE adds in over an hour, which I doubt), so I am very glad them made the transition to three.

As for the added stuff, almost all of it is taken and adapted from the appendices, and I'm greatful for all of it; had they stuck to the book itself, the whole thing would fall so far short of the magnificence of LotR it would be laughable.

Anyway, speaking solely about the models and the game, though, I think GW killed it from the onset with their ludicrous prices. They are so far beyond what the LotR models cost it's just...even "ludicrous" doesn't seem an apt description of them. The core rulebook costs at least twice what the originals did, if not more, and when people are staring at a massive $80 investment just for the core rulebook it's no wonder the vast majority turn and run out the door. The starter set is well into triple digits and I'm pretty sure the original Mines of Moria box was at least half that, as well. A box of troops used to be something like $20 for 20 models if I'm not mistaken, may be a little off here or there, but not a bad value as far as GW products are concerned. Boxes of plastic troops for The Hobbit game are twice as much for half as many models. There's also the fact that the LotR game was actually advertised and marketed to people, whereas you likely wouldn't even know there was a Hobbit game unless you just happened to wander into a GW store and see the crap on a shelf...at which point you would laugh and walk back out the door again because they're asking you to pay $85 for three ugly Finecast trolls, and trying really, really hard to pretend that they're not just going to dump all support for the game and pretend it never existed as soon as Battle of Five Armies leaves the theater, leaving you with a dead game and a hell of a lot of money wasted.

This, on the other hand, I agree with entirely. GW's greed is what has killed the game. They saw how fast the LotR stuff sold when the films were out, and the game was easy/cheap to get into, so assumed we'd happily pay double for the same stuff. The first strike was the halving of the box sizes, to see if we could take it, and I'd guess the reaction to that was poor enough they decided to approach the Hobbit stuff with minimal effort, hence the Finecast troops, a whole set of Thorin's Company sculpts that have never been released, and overpriced-then-free rules.

I'd rank Hobbit 1-Nothing Happens, Hobbit 2-the Padding, and Hobbit 3-the Last 30 Pages collectively as the second best Hobbit adaptation after this one:

Thanks for posting these. It really does show how GW's interest in making the series accessible to gamers has waned. As well as pricing it almost entirely solely into the collectors market, the progression from hard back rulebook, to smaller softcover to 30 page PEF is pretty telling.

As for the Hobbit films, I'm with the naysayers. I love the LoTR movies. I loved the extended versions and watch them often. I've even re-watched each of the 4 commentaries and the special features. The Hobbit films, unfortunately are a poor imitation. LoTR was a great example of taking a massive tome, and distilling the best (and most useful for the chosen narrative) parts into an excellent series of movies. The Hobbit is an example of taking a small (read "one movie") book and blowing it into three movies by cramming in more chase scenes and new-trilogy-SW-style-overblown-action sequences than one can count. It's a real shame Peter Jackson couldn't trust the Hobbit material the way he trusted the LoTR books.

My wife feels the same way as I do about the LoTR movies. Not only was she unimpressed with the first two Hobbit movies, she fell asleep while we were watching the last movie this weekend. LoTR instills in the viewer a sense of wonder. Tolkien's world is allowed to unfold in all it's beauty and the viewer is treated to a great movie experience. The Hobbit on the other hand numb the senses with meaningless and improbable action sequences and additional Jackson-created material.

Sum up, despite how much I love the LoTR movies, I'm probably going to not purchase the Hobbit. Rather, I think I'll keep LoTR in my mind and let Hobbit films fade from memory.

 Paradigm wrote:
I honestly don't see how they could have fit so much into just 2 films, even if they added another half an hour to each to bring them up to LotR non-extended length (and for the record, Extended LotR has a much longer run-time than Extended Hobbit, I think, unless BOFA EE adds in over an hour, which I doubt), so I am very glad them made the transition to three.

Well it's entirely possible I was talking out of my ass, then. Maybe they just felt really freaking long to me, I dunno.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
I'd rank Hobbit 1-Nothing Happens, Hobbit 2-the Padding, and Hobbit 3-the Last 30 Pages collectively as the second best Hobbit adaptation after this one:

But I don't think there are any other Hobbit adaptati-oh...

 Eilif wrote:
As for the Hobbit films, I'm with the naysayers. I love the LoTR movies. I loved the extended versions and watch them often. I've even re-watched each of the 4 commentaries and the special features. The Hobbit films, unfortunately are a poor imitation. LoTR was a great example of taking a massive tome, and distilling the best (and most useful for the chosen narrative) parts into an excellent series of movies. The Hobbit is an example of taking a small (read "one movie") book and blowing it into three movies by cramming in more chase scenes and new-trilogy-SW-style-overblown-action sequences than one can count. It's a real shame Peter Jackson couldn't trust the Hobbit material the way he trusted the LoTR books.

Yeah. In some ways it feels like the approach with The Hobbit was almost exactly opposite to the one they took with LotR. If I remember right Jackson did face some criticism from fanboys for cutting too much out, so maybe that's part of it. In reality though it's probably just the studio wanting to milk every penny out of it that they possibly could, or wanting to make it a trilogy just because LotR was a trilogy and made tons of money.

Could've been worse, though. They could have made The Hobbit a saga.

Not impossible of course -- may well be something that we just haven't heard about.

I hope GW gets as far away from this Hobbit rubbish as it can as soon as it can. The films were garbage and were always going to be since Hollywood saw the possibility for a new LotR trilogy.

They should pick up a license for something like Star Wars and get ready for the massive pile of steaming fan service that JJ is brewing up. Money to be made right there.

LotR movies = good, Hobbit movies = bad, Hobbit game = no thanks!

 Sidstyler wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:
I honestly don't see how they could have fit so much into just 2 films, even if they added another half an hour to each to bring them up to LotR non-extended length (and for the record, Extended LotR has a much longer run-time than Extended Hobbit, I think, unless BOFA EE adds in over an hour, which I doubt), so I am very glad them made the transition to three.

Well it's entirely possible I was talking out of my ass, then. Maybe they just felt really freaking long to me, I dunno. ...

…heah. In some ways it feels like the approach with The Hobbit was almost exactly opposite to the one they took with LotR. If I remember right Jackson did face some criticism from fanboys for cutting too much out, so maybe that's part of it. In reality though it's probably just the studio wanting to milk every penny out of it that they possibly could, or wanting to make it a trilogy just because LotR was a trilogy and made tons of money.

Don't sell yourself short. Your observations regarding length were spot-on.

The Hobbit could have easily have been cut down to one film and if done properly it would have been a better film than all/any of the 3 films Jackson delivered. The fanboys who demand that a book adapted for screen be detailed in it's entirety have no concept of how the medium of film works. The point of a film is NEVER to put every bit of a book on screen. The film exists to play out a set story visually in a set amount of time. When as a screenwriter or director bows to the fanboys the quality of the film almost invariably suffers.

Interestingly, listening to the writers commentary on LoTR is a how-to for successful adaptation of books for cinema. The writers are constantly talking about how they removed/skipped/rearranged sections to fit the narrative of the film. They are entirely aware that the film cannot be successful if it tries to cover every plotline in the books. They rarely add elements not present in the books and are absolutely ruthless with the cutting, even chopping parts that are known fan favorites in service to the films narrative structure. The end result is a spectacular trilogy of films and I just wish the Hobbit had been approached in the same way.

I'd much rather have one excellent Hobbit picture than 3 exercises in fantasy-action-mediocrity.

The Hobbit films have been a disappointment except in one way- the designs and costumes have been as good (for the most part) as the excellent designs and look of the LOTR trilogy. This makes it ideal for translation into miniature form. I would be all over the Hobbit plastic kits if they were priced in any way reasonably. Hell, even at current prices I've still picked up the orcs on the new wargs and the giant eagles. There is some lovely stuff there.

But the price is too high, and I think we can see that from the Escape from Goblin Town limited editions still being on sale now, three years after release. Not enough bang for your buck. Which is a shame because it used to be one of the best value for money offerings GW had.

These rules are little more than stat blocks. I read the scenarios and they are not as good as the ones presented in the old Journey books at all- a pale reflection. For one, it's movie scenarios only, whereas the older books used to provide movie or book versions to appeal to a wide variety of fans. Add to that all the Trademarking symbols everywhere and it unfortunately makes the whole thing look very tacky.

A massive disappointment, but hopefully fans will make their own scenarios and share them around. The game system is still among GW's best.

Davy: but then that would mean they couldn't have a stranglehold control of it ("The more you tighten your grip...") and they'd have to share the pie with every other single piece of SW merch put on a shop shelf or store page.

It's a real shame Peter Jackson couldn't trust the Hobbit material the way he trusted the LoTR books.

That's funny, because from what I hear about the Hobbit movies, Pyjamas treated the book with just the same amount of respect as LotR.

 Da Boss wrote:
I think we can see that from the Escape from Goblin Town limited editions still being on sale now, three years after release.

Indeed - complete with that 'resplendent' Radagast the Brown mini to sweeten the deal.



http://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/The-Hobbit-Escape-from-Goblin-Town-Limited-Edition-ENG

GW really should have thought this one through. They renewed a license to sell war games off the back of a franchise with very little war in it. I believe we all said as such at the time.

The fact that The Hobbit wasn't very good probably didn't help matters.