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If I wanted to get into this game, which version of the rules is recommended? I'm slightly confused about the relationship / interaction between the Lord of the Rings version and the Hobbit version.

In my opinion, both those questions have different answers.

The most current is the Hobbit one, so that's the one you'll need for any organised play or tournaments. However, for starting out, the (out of date but still functional) Big Blue LotR book is best. It has loads of profiles in it, and 95% of the rules are exactly the same. It often goes pretty cheap on EBay.

You mean this one, right?



Would it make sense to start there and get an Escape from Goblin Town set later? From what I understand, that has a new rulebook that lacks unit profiles. Would the profiles from the pictured one be compatible?

I have the main LotR rulebook and the Legions of Middle Earth expansion. A local guy is looking to spread LotR in the area as a replacement for AoS. He only has (afaik) the main rulebook, but said you're limited to 1/3 ranged units in an army. However, I only read that in the LoME expansion. Is it somewhere in the main rulebook?

Don't mean to hijack, but it seems related! Thanks.

@TheWaspinator: that's the one! If you're starting out, especially with multiple factions, as the Profiles in there are all functional (the later/current sourcebooks changed a few things, but not much) and cover basically all of the FotR-RotK film stuff and some of the book stuff too.

There are a few rules added in the Hobbit book, such as new army building methods and rules for specific types of hand weapon, but those can be summarised on a sheet of A5 paper if you really want them.


@Dr. Cheesesteak: yep, the 33% bow limit applies to all armies unless otherwise noted in their army list (Rohan, Harad, Arnor and Azog's Hunters being the main factions to tweak the limit either partially or totally). It's been around since about the Two Towers rulebook if I recall, as all-bow armies were completely broken in FotR.

 TheWaspinator wrote:
If I wanted to get into this game, which version of the rules is recommended? I'm slightly confused about the relationship / interaction between the Lord of the Rings version and the Hobbit version.

Most Current? - As said, The Hobbit hard cover is the most current version of the Strategy Battle Game rules (that is, the system used for the LOTR and Hobbit). LOTR and The Hobbit are, in effect, the same game. You will also need the Desolation of Smaug and Battle of Five Armies supplements to have the stats for the characters and units introduced in the second and third Hobbit movies.

Best? - I actually tend to lean towards the old "One Ring" hard cover rulebook over The Hobbit rulebook. I'm not yet sold on the worth of some of the changes in the newer version (ex. special rules for weapons and new monster combat rules). This is a totally subjective opinion, though. I know other people who love these new rules. For that matter, I played the game quite happily for years with just the old Return of the King softcover rulebook from the ROTK starter set.

I dislike the latest rule edition that got put out and much prefer the older blue book.

The main issue is the new force organization requirements. Having to take 1 hero for every 12 warriors is stifling and I much preferred to old way(complete freedom in number and mix of miniatures from the chosen list) because that let you have an actual army with only 1-2 heroes leading it to do heroic stuff. And you still had the option to go full hero mode and take nothing but characters if you wished. You end up with either too many or too few heroes depending on how you want to play.

Aside from that, the system is solid and mostly balanced outside of certain weird lists or limited factions. Like the Grey Company or any other list which lets you bypass the 33% bow limit.

What post?

 Agondrae wrote:
Download drop box an BAM!

Just a suggestion. If you are distributing copies of offical GW material, you may want to take this to PM. The mods tend to frown on copyright violations...

Good point..

I've got the "one ring" rulebook and found the relevant FAQ, but can't find the King of the Dead / Army of the Dead profile PDF that is mentioned in the FAQ. Is it still available anywhere?

Hmm, I thought the AotD were in the original Big Book? I shouldn't imagine that PDF is around anywhere these days. For what it's worth, I think the profiles are exactly the same as the ones in the Free Peoples book, so if you can track down a copy of that then it'd do.

All of the PDFs that GW released for free/download are located here http://www.dchobbitleague.com/games-workshop-articles.html

You may be able to find the article in WD that had the Army of the Dead info in it!

The Hobbit book is the most current and supercedes the 'one ring' book. I'm not sure why the hobbit book has such disdain from classic players as the only updates are:

special weapon strikes
monsterous mount rules
special monster strikes
force organization
a cleaner, more easily read rulebook

The special weapon strikes are entirely optional and not always a good thing. The monster rules again have a cost/benefit balance. Force organization keeps things fluffy as you don't see an army with Sauron, A balrog, and Smaug.

I'd buy the hobbit mini book off ebay (very very cheap these days). This will give you the most current rules and the additional rules listed above if you want to use them. You could easily not use them and play the old set with the current rulebook too.

Its not fluffy to have one hero for every 12 dudes.

That's not what I said dude...

What I said is it keeps people from playing massed power heroes from different factions together which is unfluffy.

As for fielding 12 dudes, I recall seeing the aragorn and legolas fighting alongside rohan and gondor soldiers, and ringwraiths fighting alongside orcs... there was also those pesky goblins shooting arrows at the fellowship during the balrog confrontation. I guess it is fluffy to have heroes leading packs of soldiers! ( both from the books and films perspectives)

 Grey Templar wrote:
Its not fluffy to have one hero for every 12 dudes.

the game and stories are hero centric. I have no issues with it. My elves would be significantly stronger if I could trade Haldir for 8 more elves, etc. Its a hindrance for gobblins maybe but their characters are dirt cheep.

 455_PWR wrote:
The Hobbit book is the most current and supercedes the 'one ring' book. I'm not sure why the hobbit book has such disdain from classic players as the only updates are:

I would not call it distain and I certainly would have no problem playing the Hobbit rules. I'm just not totally behind all the changes.

special weapon strikes - I thought there was enough differentiation between weapons in the original rules. I don't think the new special weapons strikes add anything to the game beyond additional complicaitons to running combat.

special monster strikes - I'm still undecided on this change. Not quite sure if it was needed or not.

force organization - Generally like these, although I do have a bit of a problem that they prevent "canon" forces, like Aragorn leading the Army of the Dead.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Its not fluffy to have one hero for every 12 dudes.

I think fielding troops without a hero is "unfluffy" as the story and the game are both focused on the heros. The number 12 can be argued, I suppose, but they had to set the mark somewhere and 12 seems to work well enough with the scale of the game.

I know I'm a little late to the party but is someone able to PM me the changes to the new hobbit rule book from the old blue one? I've just come back to lotr and usually don't go to competitions so just in house games with my old blue book is fine, but I've lost contact with my old lotr opponents, so may need to get my head around some of the new stuff before I mosey on down to my flgs to find some new opponents. It would be much appreciated


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Also where can I get army supplements? Like moria & angmar? I'm basing a goblin army off the old rule book but there seems to me so much more in the range of models that i have no clue what the rules are.

Please don't ask for rules like that, dakka doesn't support people trying to not have to buy the rulebook. Thanks

That's fair my mistake. But as for the supplements I can't buy those new, not from what i can find so I was asking for directions rather than rules.

After doing a little bit of research I think I have come to the conclusion that to have everything up to date one would need (and please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong):

* The Hobbit mini-rulebook (in Hobbit boxed game)
* Kingdoms of Men (OOP)
* Free Peoples (OOP)
* Mordor (available on GW site)
* Moria & Angmar (OOP)
* Fallen Realms (OOP)
* Heroes and Villains of Middle-Earth (free PDF from GW)
* Battle of the Five Armies (free PDF from GW)

And that should get you the most current core rules and every profile for LOTR and Hobbit models.

Only thing you're missing is the Desolation of Smaug book, with profiles for Bolg and co, Mirkwood Elves, giant spiders, beorn and Laketown guys.

So key questions is how does one get a book such as Moria & Angmar? Is it only on sites such as eBay?

 vorrax-ghul wrote:
So key questions is how does one get a book such as Moria & Angmar? Is it only on sites such as eBay?

Legally, yeah. Your only gonna find it from 2nd hand sources, or maybe a few stores which still have it on the shelves.

 vorrax-ghul wrote:
I know I'm a little late to the party but is someone able to PM me the changes to the new hobbit rule book from the old blue one? I've just come back to lotr and usually don't go to competitions so just in house games with my old blue book is fine, but I've lost contact with my old lotr opponents, so may need to get my head around some of the new stuff before I mosey on down to my flgs to find some new opponents. It would be much appreciated

Without getting into copyrighted material, the main differences I am aware of were new special rules for different weapons (ex. swords, axes, hammers, etc. are all different now) and there are some new rules to buff up monster attacks. I don't think there were any real changes to the core rules, however.

 vorrax-ghul wrote:
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Also where can I get army supplements? Like moria & angmar? I'm basing a goblin army off the old rule book but there seems to me so much more in the range of models that i have no clue what the rules are.

Unfortunately, eBay or one of the online trading groups is your best bet these days. It looks like the Mordor book is still available from GWUS, but the others seem to be permanently OOP. Some people are listing the OOP books for crazy prices, but if you are patient and keep looking they still pop up for fairly reasonable prices on occasion. I would advise you to move quickly, as they are only going to become harder to find as time passes.

GBHL has a few vids on YT explaining the changes in the Hobbit version in detail, might be of use.

I have been having a hell of a time finding the army books for not-crazy amounts of money. I made sure to buy a copy of the Mordor book while GW still has it just to be on the safe side.

Occasionally you can find gems on Amazon if you click the tiny 'new & used' link on the item page. I got a new, sealed copy of War of the Ring for less than $20 with Prime shipping and I just bought a 'Like New' copy of the 'One Rulebook' for about $40.

But those army sourcebooks are elusive.

Its a huge pain i've spent days just trawling through sites looking and i've almost decided that the old blue book is good enough i just wont be able to go to competitions, well not any big ones. Which is a shame but oh well.

The main thing is the cool models that you have and don't have any profiles for.

Also thanks for the info guy really helpful

 vorrax-ghul wrote:
The main thing is the cool models that you have and don't have any profiles for.

Hopefully, once they re-launch the game as a Specialist/Forge World product, they will re-release the stats for all the heroes and warriors. <fingers crossed>