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Hey guys,

My local is starting up a LotR tournament, and I am wanting to get involved, I always liked Minas Tirith, so I am going to go with them, problem is I don't understand a single part of he rules and what is good and what isnt.. Any advice would be appreciated! I want to run Aragorn if possible and the King of Eagles so it looks cool.. But I dont know normal point sizes and all that stuff.. Please help!
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Time for me to try being useful. For minas tirith you'll need the kingdoms of men sourcebook. Every force is divided into warbands of one hero and up to twelve, warriors.
Example 250 pt list
Warband one:
Hero:moria goblin captain with shield
4 moria goblins with spear
4 moria goblins with shield
4 moria goblins with bow.
Warband 2:
Hero:durburz goblin king of Moria.
Cave troll
2 moria goblins with shield

Notice that the second warband only has 3 warriors. A warband requires a hero but dosn't need to have the full twelve warriors.
Aragorn is one of the most expensive models in the game, often around 200 points. Lord of the rings averages around 500 points. He is rarely worth it, unless he kills several hero's and monsters. I can be more helpful if you tell me the point size of the tournament.

Okay, as a new player there are some facts to life in SBG that you need to know before people start telling you what is good and what not.

You are just starting out and learning. if there are model(s) that you think are super cool, PLAY THEM. It doesn't matter if "they aren't worth it at point value X", you think they are darned cool and that is enough reason to play them! Sure you might lose to "tri-hard ninjas", but you can sit comfortably knowing that was the reason and that you are still learning and exploring.

The best piece of advice I can give you is this: Find someone nearby to learn how to play the game with, new or old, and experiment. Make mistakes, lose a whole lot, but keep having fun and learning. Do not get caught up in what the forums are saying is "good" or "bad". Do what you think is cool and right, if it doesn't work then you have learned! If you are unable to find someone to play with, watch this video.



Grab yourself an Aragorn and a Gwaihir the Eagle, grab yourself whatever else you need to fill in the points, and just play.

You'll need the Kingdoms of Men Sourcebook as well as the Free PDF from Games Workshop to be able to know all their stats and point costs. Also you'll need to grab a rulebook off ebay/amazon/whatever. So here is a suggested checklist:

1) Find a fellow player and play some learning games to get a feel for the game, hopefully using some of his models
2) Get the Kingdoms of Men Sourcebook
3) Download the Free PDF of the Heroes & Villain Sourcebook
4) Get yourself a rulebook
5) determine if you will have enough points for the event
6) pick out some more stuff to fill out points, just be sure to follow the warband structure in the rulebook and described in the video I linked above. Your fellow player can help you sort that out.
7) get the models you need.
8) Have a good time.

This was just a quick few thoughts, if you have more questions feel free and ask away!




Just added: (shameless plug) http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/watch/0/694682.page

I'm just saying kommizzar that if he gets Aragorn he'll never get much chances to use him. I'm not advising him to power game but it's disappointing watching a model you payed 30 euro for die or make you lose every game. just kinda felt it was sorta directed at me sorry.

 Da krimson barun wrote:
I'm just saying kommizzar that if he gets Aragorn he'll never get much chances to use him. I'm not advising him to power game but it's disappointing watching a model you payed 30 euro for die or make you lose every game. just kinda felt it was sorta directed at me sorry.

Yeah, that's power gaming.

 Da krimson barun wrote:
I'm just saying kommizzar that if he gets Aragorn he'll never get much chances to use him. I'm not advising him to power game but it's disappointing watching a model you payed 30 euro for die or make you lose every game. just kinda felt it was sorta directed at me sorry.

Nah, I would have quoted you if it was directed toward you. Even if he doesn't get much use out of him after the first ten games of competitive play when he decides Aragorn isn't cutting it, Aragorn is still a "must-have" in any collection. These models are still worth getting for one's collection if they think they look cool.

LoadToad wrote:

 Da krimson barun wrote:
I'm just saying kommizzar that if he gets Aragorn he'll never get much chances to use him. I'm not advising him to power game but it's disappointing watching a model you payed 30 euro for die or make you lose every game. just kinda felt it was sorta directed at me sorry.

Yeah, that's power gaming.

it would be power gaming if I pulled out a list of reavers and a shade with the shadow lord for him. Instead I'm sparing him what I got with my balrog: a pretty paperweight that I really want to use, but really don't want to see surrounded by half an army. Aragorn is ok though nogamaichi. You won't do terribly.

 Da krimson barun wrote:

LoadToad wrote:

 Da krimson barun wrote:
I'm just saying kommizzar that if he gets Aragorn he'll never get much chances to use him. I'm not advising him to power game but it's disappointing watching a model you payed 30 euro for die or make you lose every game. just kinda felt it was sorta directed at me sorry.

Yeah, that's power gaming.

it would be power gaming if I pulled out a list of reavers and a shade with the shadow lord for him. Instead I'm sparing him what I got with my balrog: a pretty paperweight that I really want to use, but really don't want to see surrounded by half an army. Aragorn is ok though nogamaichi. You won't do terribly.

Depends on what value each person has for their models beyond the tabletop. Your Mileage May Vary, but ngomaichi might also like the models to have on display for him to look at. I cannot speak for either of you and there is nothing wrong with any of your preferences. You could wipe your bum with your models for all I care, but as long as you are having fun

Aragorn die and go down like a punk? LOL ive seen this monster cut his way right through armored urik lines single handedly. Aragorn and borimir are straight monsters only one worse is glorifendel

Go down like a punk? Rarely. Kill his value in points? Even more rarely.

Not to mention Aragorn bring one of the best leadership abilities in the game in his free Might every turn, in beginner's terms for the OP this allows him and those around him to automatically Move or Shoot before anything else in any given turn, or boost a crucial roll or even move and fight twice for maximum murderage! That alongside some very beefy close combat stats and I find he's definitely a good addition, especially in larger games!

If you want a nice thematic army including Aragorn and Gwaihir the Eagle, how about something themed around the battle of the Black Gate in RotK? Aragorn leading some Gondor troops, Eomer and heading up a Rohan contingent and Gandalf and the Eagles. Plenty of ways to expand this as well. Legolas, Gimli, Pippin and Merry fit in easily, you'd have the makings of individual Rohan and a Gondor forces as well.

But yeah, Komimizzar has the right of it; the LotR range is full of stunning models and the rules are balanced enough that you can do well with whatever you like the look of!

At first you want to have a mix of heroes and normal warriors. you could take the whole fellowship on mounts and have an army of over 900 points. they're excellent units but costly. you could have 90 uruk-hai warriors for the same points! i personally like to have 12 warriors for each hero that depends on available models.

Yeah, and this will start to take shape naturally while playing. Especially if thematic armies are desired. Faramir and Madril defending osgiliath by themselves would be a very peculiar sight!

 Da krimson barun wrote:
Go down like a punk? Rarely. Kill his value in points? Even more rarely.

Think about what he can do for the army as a whole. If he can break a phalanx line then your troops can shine. He brings to the table what he costs in points.

I really want to start playing this as well. It seems like a huge advancement over what 40K or Age of Sigmar are in today's realm. I just wish the army books would come back in stock so I could get a few to start my armies.

spect_spidey wrote:
I really want to start playing this as well. It seems like a huge advancement over what 40K or Age of Sigmar are in today's realm. I just wish the army books would come back in stock so I could get a few to start my armies.

Dude, DO IT! What armies you looking to start? I might be able to offer some friendly advice, one Hobbit-Hobbyist to another.

I was thinking something with dwarves and then maybe a Uruk-hai with a troll because I like the looks of those models. Of course since it doesn't require alot of minis compared to 40K then I would need to have an elven army as well. I just don't know where to start.

Starting out (in general): find out if you have any local players or if you can get other players to join alongside you. This way you can put this wonderful game to use.

Starting out (collecting): I say, start with one. Two (one evil, one good) if you need the spare army for friends. That way you can focus time and effort into learning the game in a consistent fashion. The consistency is coming from using the same faction in your first several games.

Words from the Thrifty-Prince.

Uruk-Hai are a dime a dozen (not literally) on Ebay. Uruk-hai warriors with shield and warriors with pike are one of the most common models that I have seen in my Ebay scourings. This is due to their high popularity and that they were included in more sets than just their normal warrior box. Trolls are also relatively cheap to pick up second-hand. This is all in assumption that you are fine with used-goods.

If you are looking to go cheap city:

Uruk-Hai: Grab like 2 dozen warriors of whatever load-out you like and a troll. Probably grab a command blister from GW and like... Lurtz. There you go, enough to have fun, granted you have no bows. But there is something to be said for a Defense 6 Strength 4 horde charging down the field.

Dwarves: A little harder to get on Ebay but possible, I just got myself 13 Khazad Guard, a King, and Balin for like... 50 bucks which isn't too bad. The great thing about dwarves is that they are expensive in points so you can take few models and be okay. Gimli is easy enough to acquire and he is a good fifth of the standard 500 point army. Dwarf Warriors are staples and Khazad Guard kicks in face.

Elves: Depends on what elves you want. Mirkwood, Rivendell, Lothlorien. Rivendell is the cheapest to acquire, barring cavalry. But Rivendell also requires conversion work or more money if you want spears at all.


Realistically, you do not have to start anywhere but where you want. As stated above. Though evil tends to be more "warrior focused" just through the fact that they don't have a lot of heroes in general.

(Disclaimer: This post was not proofread but it is late here. I will fix it upon request - Goodnight)

-Wild

The main problem is that most of the items are now webstore exclusive and my local shop only has a few kits in stock. He said that no one that he knows of plays it. He said he just has LOTR fans who bought the models just to paint. So finding players may be an uphill battle.

I would really prefer to buy my items unpainted. So I would probably only resort to used if it is unpainted. The only thing is that I really don't like metal, not a fan of resin either. But the GW site makes it hard to determine on some kits what they are made out of because the description doesn't state.

I had considered starting with the Escape from Goblin Town set. It would give me some dwarven heroes, a rulebook, and some extra scenery. I just don't know if it is worth it since I probably won't use the goblins. I also really like the big rulebook. It has some nice extra stuff in it that the small book lacks.

Anyone have an opinion on Escape from Goblin Town vs. big rulebook and some kits? Would I use enough of the good guys to make it a worthwhile purchase?

If you dislike the goblins and like the big-rulebook, I say don't get Escape from Goblin Town. The dwarven heroes are not really too great in comparison to other options. I think people consider Balin, Dwalin, and Thorin to be worthwhile I think.

If your hobby shop allows it, I'd say that painting your models at the place would be a good way to let people know there is interest and to gain interest when people say "oh neat, Lord of the Rings models." and then when it comes to getting players... start with a friend. See if they'll game with you, see if they'll help you pretend there is more than just you interested and then maybe more players will join alongside you. That is what I did before I moved, granted no hobby shop was involved, but it is what I intend to do again (sort of) where I am now.

As far as getting the items, people do sell them unpainted and GW has them on their site. If those fail you, try seeing if the shop owner will order whatever sets you need. The ones I have known will do that to get a sale.

My local shop will order webstore exclusive stuff for me. I just am afraid to run into the same issue that I have had with Frostgrave. My local shop can only get the books not the minis. His distributor has the minis listed as no longer available and on pre-order at the same time. So trying to get interest in that game has been a little hard since people can only get the book in the shop. Another factor is that my local area is so hung up on 40K it is not even funny. I play it, but it has the worst rules by far. LOL

I wish my area played either, apparently at one time Combat Patrol was the 40k presence around but not anymore. I agree, LOTR SBG is far better rules-wise. It beats most all of GW's systems easily. Sadly... My area is MTG and Malifaux, but at least I can play X-Wing.

All I can say is that if you want to participate in the LOTR world, start with the hobby-aspect and then try and get the game-aspect through a friend or relative if nothing else. With the update coming out relatively soon, the board is set and the pieces are moving. Our time will come!

Does the Escape from Goblin Town rulebook include the details and points for creating armies based upon the Hobbit movie? Does it have further details on any of the LOTR stuff? I ask because I found it pretty cheap on eBay without the minis and if it has enough detail to get me started, then I will buy it and go from there.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/694509.page
This link has the points for the first of the "Hobbit Movie Trilogy". Units from Desolation of Smaug is found in a separate book and I don't know about units from the last movie. Rules for these units cannot be found in either rulebook iirc.

spect_spidey wrote:
The main problem is that most of the items are now webstore exclusive and my local shop only has a few kits in stock. He said that no one that he knows of plays it. He said he just has LOTR fans who bought the models just to paint. So finding players may be an uphill battle.

For what its worth, if I put two armies out on the table at my FLGS and ask if anyone wants to play, I seldom go disappointed. Do this enough and you can begin to build your own LOTR group.

I would really prefer to buy my items unpainted. So I would probably only resort to used if it is unpainted. The only thing is that I really don't like metal, not a fan of resin either.

You shouldn't have any problem finding unpainted miniatures on places like eBay. Most of the factions in the game (certainly the main factions) have plastic figures for their basic warriors, but all the heroes and most of the more specialized warriors are either resin or metal, so theirs no getting away from that. If you are not doing conversions, there's really not that much difference in working with the three different materials, though.

But the GW site makes it hard to determine on some kits what they are made out of because the description doesn't state.

Really? The descriptions on the GWUS website seem to be pretty good at identifying the material as plastic, resin or metal. Its usually near the end of the description.

I had considered starting with the Escape from Goblin Town set. It would give me some dwarven heroes, a rulebook, and some extra scenery. I just don't know if it is worth it since I probably won't use the goblins. I also really like the big rulebook. It has some nice extra stuff in it that the small book lacks.

As far as the Goblintown box, even if you don't want the goblins, its still the cheapest way to get the full set of dwarfs, Gandalf and Bilbo. Buying just those separately will cost around $200US, plus the individual figures are all resin (the Goblintown figures are all plastic). If you are only interested in points match of competitive games, you probably only really want Thorin, Dwalin, and Gandalf anyway but since they are not sold individually but in three different 2-3 figure sets getting just them would actually be almost as expensive as the starter box..

The Goblintown rulebook only contains the warriors and heroes from the first book, and no points for them (although I think you can still download a PDF with those point costs from the GW website). For any LOTR stats and points you need the LOTR armybooks.

Rules for the 'Heroes and Villains of Middle Earth' section of The Hobbit SBG hardcover can be found on GW's Rules Errata page. The Battle of the Five Armies is available in GW's online store HERE.

spect_spidey wrote:
The main problem is that most of the items are now webstore exclusive and my local shop only has a few kits in stock.

If he has a GW account then he can order Direct items to stock in the store.

spect_spidey wrote:
The only thing is that I really don't like metal, not a fan of resin either. But the GW site makes it hard to determine on some kits what they are made out of because the description doesn't state.

If it says resin or finecast, it's finecast. If it doesn't say anything and it's 3 models or less, it's metal. If it's 6 cavalry, or 10-12 infantry, it's plastic. Only characters in plastic are two from the Hobbit range, Legolas and Tauriel, that say they are plastic, plus the Fellowship plastic set, and the Hobbit dwarves in Goblin-Town. Also, there's basically a Captain of Dale in the Warriors of Dale set if you don't like the resin Captain of Dale.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

spect_spidey wrote:
My local shop will order webstore exclusive stuff for me. I just am afraid to run into the same issue that I have had with Frostgrave. My local shop can only get the books not the minis. His distributor has the minis listed as no longer available and on pre-order at the same time. So trying to get interest in that game has been a little hard since people can only get the book in the shop. Another factor is that my local area is so hung up on 40K it is not even funny. I play it, but it has the worst rules by far. LOL

What distributor does he use? Alliance, Golden, and Warlord Games distribute Frostgrave in the USA!

If he has a GW account then he can order Direct items to stock in the store.

He does and will order webstore items for people, but doesn't really stock any of it on shelves due to the white boxes not allowing customers to see what the product is.

If it says resin or finecast, it's finecast. If it doesn't say anything and it's 3 models or less, it's metal. If it's 6 cavalry, or 10-12 infantry, it's plastic. Only characters in plastic are two from the Hobbit range, Legolas and Tauriel, that say they are plastic, plus the Fellowship plastic set, and the Hobbit dwarves in Goblin-Town. Also, there's basically a Captain of Dale in the Warriors of Dale set if you don't like the resin Captain of Dale.

Thank you for this information. Some items did say the material, but there were several that just gave a description of the unit type.

What distributor does he use? Alliance, Golden, and Warlord Games distribute Frostgrave in the USA!

His main gaming one is Alliance and then his backup is Warstore I think. He said he tried dealing with Warlord before, but they want him to order an enormous amount of product each week so he won't use them. I know Brigade seems to be the U.S. distributor for Frostgrave from what I have seen on other forums, but he is unfamiliar with them. It was no huge deal for me as I got the Frostgrave plastics from eBay. But I prefer to support his store when I can. I just hate the idea of promoting and playing games in his store that he has a hard time stocking. I want to help him get some sales, but everything being webstore exclusive makes it hard. People tend to lose their thrill of buying product for a game if they go to the counter only to find that the items have to be ordered for them. LOL

spect_spidey wrote:
He said he tried dealing with Warlord before, but they want him to order an enormous amount of product each week so he won't use them.

He should definitely check w/ Warlord again. Once you set up a trade account with a rep, they have two ways of ordering, much like GW - you can order with a trade account (email or call) through his rep, with excellent margins (several points better than GW for example), and there's no weekly minimums. There is a minimum threshold for free shipping, but you can order less and pay a small shipping fee. The second way is, with the retailer trade account, he can order directly from the website with less of a margin but it includes the entire range of product including made to order items, and also stacks with sales - so for instance Warlord is doing 15% off on all starter army boxes for all their ranges, he'd be able to stack the direct order discount so he still makes his margin so he can still sell the direct order sales stuff to his customers with that discount. I have all the contact info for him to set up an account (I do demo stuff for Bolt Action etc)