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I spoke to Adam Troke about the Lake Town house at W/Fest and it is designed to be fully modular. The bigger set is all made from combining multiple houses and is not just a custom studio thing.

He talked about making more scenery sets but said they would most likely be forge world resin pieces but it depends on the poularity of this house. One of the ideas mentioned was a hobbit hole.

He (and the whole team) have real enthusiasim for bringing the game back and they even mentioned a longing to bring back the War of the Ring in the future but stressed everything is based on the game selling!

With regard to the dwarf ballista he described it as drawing a line from weapon to shot target and it denying shooting across the line. Like throwing up a shield that would need to be outflanked to shoot or you need to go into combat to get at them.

Tremble wrote:
I spoke to Adam Troke about the Lake Town house at W/Fest and it is designed to be fully modular. The bigger set is all made from combining multiple houses and is not just a custom studio thing.

He talked about making more scenery sets but said they would most likely be forge world resin pieces but it depends on the poularity of this house. One of the ideas mentioned was a hobbit hole.

He (and the whole team) have real enthusiasim for bringing the game back and they even mentioned a longing to bring back the War of the Ring in the future but stressed everything is based on the game selling!

With regard to the dwarf ballista he described it as drawing a line from weapon to shot target and it denying shooting across the line. Like throwing up a shield that would need to be outflanked to shoot or you need to go into combat to get at them.

You can absolutely tell the Laketown houses are all made from a kit. As I said on the SBG forum, the balcony/railing on one building, is clearly repurposed as a fence around a different building in several pictures.

Looks like an awesome kit, and I suspect as a bone thrown to fans, it will be about $40 USD, so $32 or so with typical discounts.

Tremble wrote:

He (and the whole team) have real enthusiasim for bringing the game back and they even mentioned a longing to bring back the War of the Ring in the future but stressed everything is based on the game selling!

War Of The Ring is the one box I regret not buying before they went OOP. That'd be amazing.

 Hellfury wrote:
They would return to the material they were LAST cast in.
Not many metal models were left to look forward to.

But then again, there were a lot of models that were out of production by the time the failcrap business be an, so there is hope in that loop hole for a few assorted old models. Not sure what consolation that is however since the out of production models weren't really major needs.

Uh... many armies are unplayable right now because of out of production models. Corsair Arbalesters, Foot Knights of Dol Amroth, Mahud King + Blowpipes! Tons and tons more!
One of the surprise re-releases at Warhammer Fest was the Shade model, cast in metal, which has been out of production for a few years, and was selling for anywhere from $50-$100 on ebay. Now you'll actually be able to play an Angmar army.
And the Scouring of the Shire set, re-released in metal, which you basically need if you want to play a Hobbit army.

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Tremble wrote:
I spoke to Adam Troke about the Lake Town house at W/Fest and it is designed to be fully modular. The bigger set is all made from combining multiple houses and is not just a custom studio thing.

Oh, excellent, that is fantastic to hear. Thanks!

 judgedoug wrote:
No. Redone, with 30 new scenarios, and new army lists to cover all the armies and units that were never produced. It replaces and upgrades and updates the out-of-print Desolation of Smaug sourcebook and the Battle of Five Armies PDF.

Sigh. I'm actually sorry to hear that. I don't really need yet another $80-90 hardcover rulebook for this game. I'm also worried they won't be able to resist making more unnecessary changes to the rules again. If it was just a compilation of the Hobbit rulebook and the two DoS and BoFA supplements (which I already have) it would be a much easier decision to just skip it.

 mdauben wrote:

 judgedoug wrote:
No. Redone, with 30 new scenarios, and new army lists to cover all the armies and units that were never produced. It replaces and upgrades and updates the out-of-print Desolation of Smaug sourcebook and the Battle of Five Armies PDF.

Sigh. I'm actually sorry to hear that. I don't really need yet another $80-90 hardcover rulebook for this game. I'm also worried they won't be able to resist making more unnecessary changes to the rules again. If it was just a compilation of the Hobbit rulebook and the two DoS and BoFA supplements (which I already have) it would be a much easier decision to just skip it.

I'm definitely not sorry to hear it, as the Desolation of Smaug supplement is sorely lacking in content and the Battle of Five Armies pdf is a joke. And it sure would be nice to have profiles for some of those five armies, which we don't even have yet.

From what I understand, It's not a rulebook, it's a journeybook of sorts that covers all of the Hobbit films. The new rulebook is at some point after this one and will just be the core rules and called Middle Earth SBG, with a single Hobbit supplement (this one) and a single Lord of the Rings supplement (a compilation of the out of print journeybooks)

Is War of the Ring not for sale then? I don't think it was that long ago that I bought my copy. 18 months?

 Fenrir Kitsune wrote:
Is War of the Ring not for sale then? I don't think it was that long ago that I bought my copy. 18 months?

No, seems to have been expunged fully from the GW site.

 ShaneTB wrote:
Made those ruins last night. £18 was very reasonable.

Spoiler:

The Ruins are back?! That is a great kit!


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 Ketara wrote:
There's more.

Oh my land, these look great.

They'd make for a great slum/shanty town too.

Those new dwarves look lovely. If they make models for the ram riders, I'll be sold on getting at least some of them

Rereleases are here! This week, Boromir and Gothmog on foot and mounted make a return, alongside the Kingdoms of Men and Mordor sourcebooks:
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/The-Hobbit?N=102297+4294967072&Nu=product.repositoryId&qty=12&sorting=rec&view=table&categoryId=cat410002-flat


I've started a thread down in the LotR forum to keep a list of what's released and when for reference.

 Paradigm wrote:
Rereleases are here! This week, Boromir and Gothmog on foot and mounted make a return, alongside the Kingdoms of Men and Mordor sourcebooks:
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/The-Hobbit?N=102297+4294967072&Nu=product.repositoryId&qty=12&sorting=rec&view=table&categoryId=cat410002-flat


I've started a thread down in the LotR forum to keep a list of what's released and when for reference.

Question now is, do we buy the books or not? With not knowing what is going on, these can be obsolete just like how my 6th edition rules of 40K became obsolete in less than 3 months of purchase. Not knowing what is going is, is scary especially in making purchases. Gw is going two steps forward, but now are taking one step back. First with the AoS app and now GW releasing paper books that might not be valid in a few months.

They've said the books will remain valid, its just that the next year will hold big compliation, archival edition books. The points, they confirmed, wouldn't change, and these aren't rule books, they're just the army lists. The big books should see the small errata items included.

Adam has said repeatedly that buying these books is a safe choice.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
They've said the books will remain valid, its just that the next year will hold big compliation, archival edition books. The points, they confirmed, wouldn't change, and these aren't rule books, they're just the army lists. The big books should see the small errata items included.

Adam has said repeatedly that buying these books is a safe choice.

I really hope so. But until I can get an official statement from GW, I just can't believe this because of GW previous practices. It's what 1/2 year away or less. Time will tell.

Now does anyone know if you can only buy this through Forge World or will my local shop be able to order LotR product just like now?

The two models rereleased today are GW only, so you can order them from their site or (I think) order them in to a GW store, but not from an indepentant store. The books look like they'll be generally avaialble as they don't have the 'Direct Only' marker.

Honestly, the books are worth buying if you want to play. Any update will be to the core rules (and probably not that likely to change much), the 'There and Back Again' book is simply to cover the three Hobbit films... I don't think I've heard about anything else on the horizon, if there is it'll simply be compilations and additions rather than replacements.

Some people just want to hold on to the narrative that GW is evil, and always has to be, because they had some suspect years. Of course these books are a safe purchase... the guy helming the game said so at an official event... how much more official does one need? :-p

Meanwhile, in the US most stores can stock the web-exclusives but do so at a much reduced discount. My FLGS just said they could order the books and Boromir, but only at 5% off, to me.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Some people just want to hold on to the narrative that GW is evil, and always has to be, because they had some suspect years. Of course these books are a safe purchase... the guy helming the game said so at an official event... how much more official does one need? :-p

Meanwhile, in the US most stores can stock the web-exclusives but do so at a much reduced discount. My FLGS just said they could order the books and Boromir, but only at 5% off, to me.

Well we ARE talking about company that vehemently denied they are going to rerelease space hulk literally weeks until they announced they will rerelease it...

So I can't blame people for not be "let's spend our money instantly without second thought!" just because somebody from GW says something. Especially when said company has history of doing different things to what they have said.

Terrain is very interesting, if it's a good price and hard plastic, I'll go for it.

LotR terrain was always the best due to the designer not slathering it with the "Skull Brush" plugin for Zbrush.

tneva82 wrote:

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Some people just want to hold on to the narrative that GW is evil, and always has to be, because they had some suspect years. Of course these books are a safe purchase... the guy helming the game said so at an official event... how much more official does one need? :-p

Meanwhile, in the US most stores can stock the web-exclusives but do so at a much reduced discount. My FLGS just said they could order the books and Boromir, but only at 5% off, to me.

Well we ARE talking about company that vehemently denied they are going to rerelease space hulk literally weeks until they announced they will rerelease it...

So I can't blame people for not be "let's spend our money instantly without second thought!" just because somebody from GW says something. Especially when said company has history of doing different things to what they have said.

Put it this way. Having just invested money in a brand new print run of rulebooks, what do you think the odds are of them invalidating those rulebooks within three months and making them effective junk stock? Financially, it would make absolutely no sense for them.

The new book is literally just profiles and scenarios for the Hobbit. It is probably that another core rulebook called 'Middle Earth : SBG' and accompanying army sourcebooks will be released, but the rumours I've heard batted about all peg it at the end of next year at the earliest.

 Ketara wrote:

tneva82 wrote:

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Some people just want to hold on to the narrative that GW is evil, and always has to be, because they had some suspect years. Of course these books are a safe purchase... the guy helming the game said so at an official event... how much more official does one need? :-p

Meanwhile, in the US most stores can stock the web-exclusives but do so at a much reduced discount. My FLGS just said they could order the books and Boromir, but only at 5% off, to me.

Well we ARE talking about company that vehemently denied they are going to rerelease space hulk literally weeks until they announced they will rerelease it...

So I can't blame people for not be "let's spend our money instantly without second thought!" just because somebody from GW says something. Especially when said company has history of doing different things to what they have said.

Put it this way. Having just invested money in a brand new print run of rulebooks, what do you think the odds are of them invalidating those rulebooks within three months and making them effective junk stock? Financially, it would make absolutely no sense for them.

Isn't that exactly how the End Times books and the AoS launch played out ?

Has The Hobbit section on the GW store always been there?

If not, it's there now.


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And I painted those ruins up:

The lake town house looks amazing! I hope it's a plastic kit. Could be great for Empire players too :-)

Do those statues come with the ruins? Nice paintjob!

 ShaneTB wrote:
Has The Hobbit section on the GW store always been there?

If not, it's there now.

Since before the first film's release.


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 scarletsquig wrote:
Terrain is very interesting, if it's a good price and hard plastic, I'll go for it. .

Both the Ruins of Osgiliath and Laketown terrain is plastic; and Osgiliath has had a price decrease. Even at full price it was one of the best terrain kits available from anyone.

MacMuckles wrote:

 Ketara wrote:

tneva82 wrote:

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
Some people just want to hold on to the narrative that GW is evil, and always has to be, because they had some suspect years. Of course these books are a safe purchase... the guy helming the game said so at an official event... how much more official does one need? :-p

Meanwhile, in the US most stores can stock the web-exclusives but do so at a much reduced discount. My FLGS just said they could order the books and Boromir, but only at 5% off, to me.

Well we ARE talking about company that vehemently denied they are going to rerelease space hulk literally weeks until they announced they will rerelease it...

So I can't blame people for not be "let's spend our money instantly without second thought!" just because somebody from GW says something. Especially when said company has history of doing different things to what they have said.

Put it this way. Having just invested money in a brand new print run of rulebooks, what do you think the odds are of them invalidating those rulebooks within three months and making them effective junk stock? Financially, it would make absolutely no sense for them.

Isn't that exactly how the End Times books and the AoS launch played out ?

Pretty much for the End Times. You were expected to buy books that would be invalidated within few months anyway So yeah "would they invalidate books they sell right away?" isn't most convincing arqument for company that has history of designing brand new books which were designed to be invalidated within months of release...

(and does GW do printing on their own? If yes reprinting couple copies of books with design done is no real expense)

Not quite the same re: End Times. There, they were launching a massive general overhaul of a main product line. In order to sell the models before the rules elimination (and without leaking that it was going to happen), the models /had to have rules, and there was the knowledge that there was a solid corps of warhammer players who would buy just to keep using those models in their old-style warhammer games. You also had fluff included, which helps to boost the ability to sell books afterwards (not leaving them purely as junk stock).

None of that applies with the LOTR armybooks. Not only that, there are other additional factors working against it. They're effectively relaunching an existing failed (in their eyes) product line and seeing how it fares over the course of a couple of years. To write up new army books for everything would require additional investment (which they'll want to keep to a minimum in case it founders), and if they did it three months after a reprint, would guarantee that the first reprint would be wasted investment.

tl;dr GW makes a lot of stupid decisions, but this would literally be the financial equivalent of them setting fire to money for the fun of it. GW can be dumb, but never that dumb. They always have a business case for their decisions, even if it's a bad decision. And there's literally no business case for doing a fresh set of armybooks three months after reprinting the old ones, because you simply have to say, 'let's do it a year afterwards instead' and you automatically have a better business case.

 Ketara wrote:
Not quite the same re: End Times. There, they were launching a massive general overhaul of a main product line. In order to sell the models before the rules elimination (and without leaking that it was going to happen), the models /had to have rules, and there was the knowledge that there was a solid corps of warhammer players who would buy just to keep using those models in their old-style warhammer games. You also had fluff included, which helps to boost the ability to sell books afterwards (not leaving them purely as junk stock).

None of that applies with the LOTR armybooks. Not only that, there are other additional factors working against it. They're effectively relaunching an existing failed (in their eyes) product line and seeing how it fares over the course of a couple of years. To write up new army books for everything would require additional investment (which they'll want to keep to a minimum in case it founders), and if they did it three months after a reprint, would guarantee that the first reprint would be wasted investment.

tl;dr GW makes a lot of stupid decisions, but this would literally be the financial equivalent of them setting fire to money for the fun of it. GW can be dumb, but never that dumb. They always have a business case for their decisions, even if it's a bad decision. And there's literally no business case for doing a fresh set of armybooks three months after reprinting the old ones, because you simply have to say, 'let's do it a year afterwards instead' and you automatically have a better business case.

You assume reprinting existing books is major financial investement...It is not.

Designing End times books to be invalidated(which buyers of books were already aware of when buying...) is lot more expensive proposition. They were gambling a lot that the customers would buy books they would know are useless junk in few months.

They also don't consider players who don't move on to new version so that arqument is moot. And you don't need expensive to produce books to have rules out anyway.

So overall I can't blame anybody to not be willing to throw without any concern money to company that has known track record of doing what you say they wouldn't do. They can and have done that in the past. Unless you have absolute essential need to have it NOW it's not a problem to wait a bit more to ensure you aren't burning your money.

(and GW has done plenty of burning money down decisions in the past so...)

So happy about this. I hated 40k but I could only find two other SBG players. Now drums once more shall sound sound in the deep, banners shall be raised,shields shall be- WAIT DID THEY SAY FORGEWORLD?! well I'm not so sure now...does anybody know if the game will be back in stores though?

tneva82 wrote:


You assume reprinting existing books is major financial investement...It is not.

It's A financial investment. No, it's not like opening ten new stores or paying Kirby's dividends, but it still costs money. And GW is a company that doesn't even include order slips when making deliveries to other parties they're so tight.

Designing End times books to be invalidated(which buyers of books were already aware of when buying...) is lot more expensive proposition. They were gambling a lot that the customers would buy books they would know are useless junk in few months.

When End Times launched, people didn't know what the end result was going to be. Age of Sigmar came out of the left field somewhat.

They also don't consider players who don't move on to new version so that arqument is moot. And you don't need expensive to produce books to have rules out anyway.

You missed the point. The point being that there was still a potential sales target because Warhammer wasn't being replaced with a slightly updated version of Warhammer, but an entirely new game system. What you're talking about would be more akin to them releasing a new War of the Ring. Age of Sigmar didn't invalidate the previous rules for anyone who still liked to play Warhammer Fantasy Battles, meaning that you could still potentially shift left over stock.

Unlike in this scenario, where if you release a new Kingdoms of Men army book with tweaked stats, there is literally no conceivable audience that will buy it, because the entire playerbase would want the new one and not the old.

I know you want to believe GW is made up of monkeys at typewriters (or the intellectual equivalent thereof), but they're really not. Everything they do has a solid reason and business case behind it. The outcome might not be one you want (more profits for them instead of a better game for you), or it might not work out (because not every business decision is a success in any industry), but that doesn't mean that reason/business case is not there.

As excited as I want to be, one of the big things (IMO) that killed The Hobbit was pricing.... if the new releases are going to be resin and at FW prices, I'm sort of expecting this to flounder the same way The Hobbit did.