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Momotaro wrote:
The current army books, all OOP:

Fallen Realms (Isengard, Harad, Easterlings)
Moria and Angmar
Free Peoples (Dwarfs, Rivendell, Lorien/Mirkwood, Shire, Eagles and Ents)
Kingdoms of Men (Gondor, Rohirrim, Fiefdoms, Arnor, Numenor)
Mordor

Both the Mordor and the Moria & Angmar books show as available on the UK site.

 ZergSmasher wrote:
This is actually very exciting news, except for one thing: even when LotR was popular and going strong in most places, there never was a community for it in my area. I don't know anyone else around here who has any of the minis, and even mine are mostly sitting unassembled and unpainted in boxes. I have the Mines of Moria set (completely painted, but horribly so!), and its included rulebook, as well as the Fellowship journey book and the Free Peoples army book. Miniatures wise I've got some Dwarves, some Elves, some Gondor (including Faramir and Denethor), a few additional Moria goblins and a cave troll beyond the ones that came in Mines of Moria, some Mordor Orcs, and a couple of sets of Easterlings. I also have a few Nazgul.

One thing that hurt my collection was the switch to taking a leader for every unit of basic troops. I don't have near enough leaders in my collection.

One of the hintsin the Battle Games in Middle Earth magazine series was too paint a basic troop model slightly differently, for example, adding a gold trim to a cloak or helmet to indicate increased status. Job done.

Yeah as for books, the current books aren't actually confusing, there is only the Hobbit rule book, the five source (army) books, and the three little update books with new stuff from the three Hobbit movies. All you really need is the rule book and the source book for your army. I see some people here saying they like the old blue rule book better but I've heard a lot of people say the Hobbit adds some much-needed changes (for example making Monsters more useful), and it's also the one people are mostay playing nowadays afaik. Your mileage may vary! Even if you use the blue book, you should still definitely get the source book for your army since the lists in the blue book are very incomplete and not up to date.

 Ghaz wrote:

Both the Mordor and the Moria & Angmar books show as available on the UK site.

Well spotted - thanks for that.

Mordor is also in stock on the US page. But in any case, looks like they will all be back in print in May-June.

Moria and Agmar, Mordor and Desolation of Smaug are still available in UK.

I'm weirdly excited for this, as I've never played it nor hitherto been that curious about it other than one or two models (Mumak, Fellbeast) to paint.

For someone who wasn't war gaming while it was popular the first time, can anyone summarize how it plays, or point me towards an article or similar that does?

 Azreal13 wrote:
I'm weirdly excited for this, as I've never played it nor hitherto been that curious about it other than one or two models (Mumak, Fellbeast) to paint.

For someone who wasn't war gaming while it was popular the first time, can anyone summarize how it plays, or point me towards an article or similar that does?

Very quick version:

- It's a skirmish game, in that every model acts individually, but the rules can comfortably handle 60+ minis a side without bogging down.

- The setting aside, the USP of the game is how it handles heroes, both named and otherwise. Even combat beasts like Boromir or Gothmog act as force multipliers both passively (nearby troops can use their Courage for tests) and actively (there are an array of Heroic Actions that Heroes can use that affect nearby troops by spending Might points, which are limited). I can't really think of any similar mechanics in other 'big' games.

- Unlike, say, 40k, most of your troops are pretty standardised, the only real 'loadout' choices you get are adding spears/bows/shields, there are very

- The game plays very smoothly, usually you're rolling only 2 or 3 dice at once, and the core rules are really rather simple.

Basically, it's a great game! A good place to start research is the Great British Hobbit League (GBHL) on Youtube, they do some very good batreps and are basically responsible for keeping the game alive when GW couldn't be bothered.

Excellent, thanks. Simple and smooth are things I'm a fan of in games!

 Azreal13 wrote:
Excellent, thanks. Simple and smooth are things I'm a fan of in games!

LOTR is widely regarded as the tightest ruleset GW ever wrote. Not a huge amount of cheese or obvious 'must buy' units, battle weapons and tactics (excluding monsters and magic) are roughly similar to real life equivalents, and the game is as big or as small as you like with no real issues. It becomes a bit clunky/time consuming at 100+ models per side, but anything smaller, and it's fine.

It's tight, fast playing and intuitive. Alternating activation leads to a great "cat and mouse" feel at times.

Complex tactics arise from a simple base of rules, and positioning arises naturally from the rules base in a satisfying way. You make a shieldwall because it just makes sense to do so, and you put your spears in the second rank. But it's flexible so that if you want one soldier to break away and heroically hold off a monster, he can.

The heroic aspect is handled extremely well through the expenable resources of Might, Fate and Will. Might is proactive, allowing you to boost your rolls or call special "out of sequence" actions with nearby troops, mounting a heroic counter charge and so on. Fate and Will are more passive, but Will allows for the use of and resistance to magic, whereas Fate points are expended to keep your heroes alive longer.

Monsters and magic feature but do not dominate overmuch.

I love the game, and am super excited to see it coming back. I hope it catches on as the main GW "fantasy" game.

 bubber wrote:
is this the 1st rules set as in 'Fellowship of the Ring' with single minis or the 2nd set which had the movement trays for units?.

The original game was the "Strategy Battle Game" which is what the old "One Ring" and the current "The Hobbit" hardcover rulebooks are for. These are also the rules that almost all the supplements are for. From all the rumors and official announcements, this is the game that is being supported by FW.

The game that used the movement trays was the "War of the Rings" game, which never really caught on. AFAIK, there was only ever one WotR supplement published by GW titled "War of the Rings: Battlehosts"

More from Facebook:

More News from more sources!!:
1) A Box Game like the Horus Heresy WILL NOT happen for Lord of the Rings
2) A New starter set will come out for Middle Earth SBG
3) A New Hardback rule book will come out
4) Osgiliath Ruins are coming back. The Laketown Buildings are not
4) New models will come in boxes, not blisters of 3

Oooh, new starter! Fingers crossed for a BotFA set with some plastic Iron Hills Dwarves, Mirkwood Elves and Gundabad Orcs! In which case, put me down for one at least!

Yeah I could go for that too haha. Maybe with a big Troll or something too.

 Paradigm wrote:
plastic ... Gundabad Orcs!

DOL GULDUR ORCS

... ahem ... I would also love to see the Gundabad Orcs in plastic, as I am sure they were meant to be.

I would love to see a Bo5A starter set - what a missed opportunity this was ! Thanks a lot, New Line ! Well, here's the chance to make amends.

I really like the armour design of the Gundabad orcs in the film so a plastic kit would be awesome.

Count me in as excited.

This game, when it first began, is literally what got me into Games Workshop and tabletop modelling in general. Specifically, the magazine - can anyone else remember the magazine? Battle Games in Middle Earth? It was amazing. Easily the best promotional material GW ever produced - and that's not even just because of the great amount of models you got as part of the deal, either!

Models coming in "boxes of 3" as rumored, scares me. :-p Having just picked up some 40k Ogryns for conversions for "This is Not a Test", I feel gross spending $40 for three models... and those are on 40mm bases with loads of bits.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Models coming in "boxes of 3" as rumored, scares me. :-p Having just picked up some 40k Ogryns for conversions for "This is Not a Test", I feel gross spending $40 for three models... and those are on 40mm bases with loads of bits.

Might wanna reread it, it says models are coming in boxes now, not in blisters of three as they were during the hobbit releases.

 ImAGeek wrote:

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Models coming in "boxes of 3" as rumored, scares me. :-p Having just picked up some 40k Ogryns for conversions for "This is Not a Test", I feel gross spending $40 for three models... and those are on 40mm bases with loads of bits.

Might wanna reread it, it says models are coming in boxes now, not in blisters of three as they were during the hobbit releases.

LOL... you are correct sir. I read it as there being an extra comma before, "of three". :-p

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Models coming in "boxes of 3" as rumored, scares me. :-p Having just picked up some 40k Ogryns for conversions for "This is Not a Test", I feel gross spending $40 for three models... and those are on 40mm bases with loads of bits.

You've misread what was written. The models will now come in boxes (with no number of models in the box specified) instead of blisters of three models.

Manchu wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:
plastic ... Gundabad Orcs!

DOL GULDUR ORCS

... ahem ... I would also love to see the Gundabad Orcs in plastic, as I am sure they were meant to be.

I would love to see a Bo5A starter set - what a missed opportunity this was ! Thanks a lot, New Line ! Well, here's the chance to make amends.

To be fair, the films do use the names Moria, Gundabad and Dol Guldur Orcs pretty much interchangeably. Azog is described in AUJ as a Gundabad Orc, who then leads an army of Moria Orcs (Gandalf in BotFA) from Dol Guldur, while Bolg leads actual Gundabad Orcs from Gundabad... Confused? Me too!

Robin5t wrote:Count me in as excited.

This game, when it first began, is literally what got me into Games Workshop and tabletop modelling in general. Specifically, the magazine - can anyone else remember the magazine? Battle Games in Middle Earth? It was amazing. Easily the best promotional material GW ever produced - and that's not even just because of the great amount of models you got as part of the deal, either!

Yeah, same for me, my first (and for a long time only) wargaming experience, excellent value and a top quality product.

ImAGeek wrote:

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Models coming in "boxes of 3" as rumored, scares me. :-p Having just picked up some 40k Ogryns for conversions for "This is Not a Test", I feel gross spending $40 for three models... and those are on 40mm bases with loads of bits.

Might wanna reread it, it says models are coming in boxes now, not in blisters of three as they were during the hobbit releases.

Yeah, hopefully it'll be something of a reduction in price. If I can get 10 Gundabad Orcs or Mirkwood Elves, even in Finecast, for abour £30, that's a hell of a lot better than 3 for £15!

So, since I am "new" to the game... when purchasing something like a box of those aforementioned Mirkwood Elves, would the boxes/blisters come with bits to WYSIWYG them (IE, put bows on a couple, swords on others, etc...) or was this game less concerned with specific modeling?

 Paradigm wrote:

Manchu wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:
plastic ... Gundabad Orcs!

DOL GULDUR ORCS

... ahem ... I would also love to see the Gundabad Orcs in plastic, as I am sure they were meant to be.

I would love to see a Bo5A starter set - what a missed opportunity this was ! Thanks a lot, New Line ! Well, here's the chance to make amends.

To be fair, the films do use the names Moria, Gundabad and Dol Guldur Orcs pretty much interchangeably. Azog is described in AUJ as a Gundabad Orc, who then leads an army of Moria Orcs (Gandalf in BotFA) from Dol Guldur, while Bolg leads actual Gundabad Orcs from Gundabad... Confused? Me too!

The films vary quite a bit from the original books, so you can take anything they say with a hefty pinch of salt. Pretty much though, Gundabad Orcs come from the Arnor/Angmar area to the north of Mirkwood and East of Eregion/Arnor/Shire region and Northwest of the Lonely Mountain. Moria is sort of slap bang in the middle of the Misty Mountains which themselves are west of Mirkwood. Moria is far to the South-West of the Lonely Mountain. Finally, Dol Guldur is in the Southern tip of Mirkwood, South of the Lonely Mountain. The Orcs that fought at the Battle of the Five Armies mustered at Gundabad and it's most likely that they largely dwelt there. Dol Guldur on the other hand didn't play too large a part until the latter stages of the War of the Ring when they assailed Lothlorien. It's also worth noting that in the book The Hobbit, Azog is in fact the Great Goblin and was beheaded by Gandalf. It's Bolg who then leads the Orcs at the Bot5A.

My comment was meant to distinguish between helmet designs in the movies (rather than anything about proper Middle-earth lore) - I'd like to see the fin-type helmets from the last film in addition to the crested-type ones currently available
(albeit, in Finecast).

Really looking forward to this. Never had the chance to get into the game before, I just really hope there's a reprint or something of the Free Peoples sourcebook, I really want to build up an Elven amy around Gil-Galad as it's as close as I'm going to get to a First Age army.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
So, since I am "new" to the game... when purchasing something like a box of those aforementioned Mirkwood Elves, would the boxes/blisters come with bits to WYSIWYG them (IE, put bows on a couple, swords on others, etc...) or was this game less concerned with specific modeling?

This is definitely a WYSIWYG game. For example, there is a general bow limit - only 33% of your Warriors can be armed with bows/crossbows per allied contingent (some lists have exceptions to the limit). It is very important to know which kind of weapon a model is wielding in this game as there are weapon-specific special attacks. Even though (nearly) every model is considered to be armed with a handweapon (e.g., even if that archer only looks like he has a bow), if the weapon is not visible on the model then the model cannot execute the special attack. Boxes come with a pretty fair assortment of shield, spear, bow, etc.

 Manchu wrote:
My comment was meant to distinguish between helmet designs in the movies (rather than anything about proper Middle-earth lore) - I'd like to see the fin-type helmets from the last film in addition to the crested-type ones currently available
(albeit, in Finecast).

You mean the Isenguard Uruk Hai? They've got to be one of the nicest looking sculpts GW came out with (Obviously based on the films).

It would be nice if they were to release the kits with a variety of weapon options. For example, the Warriors of Minas Tirith set includes 4 Swordsmen, 4 Spearmen and 4 Bowmen. It would be better, IMHO, if you could opt to assemble 12 of each weapon type. Similarly, the Warriors of the Last Alliance set grouped Galdhrim with Men of Numenor - forcing you to buy the whole set then promptly discard/sell half the set if you only wanted to to collect one of those armies.

 Manchu wrote:

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
So, since I am "new" to the game... when purchasing something like a box of those aforementioned Mirkwood Elves, would the boxes/blisters come with bits to WYSIWYG them (IE, put bows on a couple, swords on others, etc...) or was this game less concerned with specific modeling?

This is definitely a WYSIWYG game. For example, there is a general bow limit - only 33% of your Warriors can be armed with bows/crossbows per allied contingent (some lists have exceptions to the limit). It is very important to know which kind of weapon a model is wielding in this game as there are weapon-specific special attacks. Even though (nearly) every model is considered to be armed with a handweapon (e.g., even if that archer only looks like he has a bow), if the weapon is not visible on the model then the model cannot execute the special attack. Boxes come with a pretty fair assortment of shield, spear, bow, etc.

It's worth noting that pretty much every model, both the Finecast and plastic ones, are single-pose, mostly single-piece minis. So it's not so much a case of 'putting' a bow or spear on a model as it is buying a model with a bow or spear.

Most plastic box sets are split 4/4/4 hand weapon/bow/spear, the exceptions being Uruks (5 pike, 5 shield), Easterlings (4 sword, 4 box, 2 pike), and some of the Hobbit sets. Finecast and metal minis tend to come in 3s or 4s with the same weapon.