Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I haven't yet bought the new lotr sourcebooks, but I was wondering what is dakka's opinion on how the rules have changed for better or worse and whether there have been significant changes to characteristic profiles.

I've got three of the five new sourcebooks, Moria & Angmar, Mordor and the Kingdooms of Men, form what I can tell it's mostly a collection of everything to date in the relevant army lists, although the grey company list (Arnor) has had quite a shakedown, making it more fluffy, is the first thing that jumped out at me. Couple of points changes on some guys, info on the new scenarios and how to make an army using the new "Warband" system. Overall I think it's pretty good, means I can't take as many goblins for the same points as I need a hero for every twelve guys, as opposed to one hero and 74 goblins!

You don't get a lot for £15, but in terms of positives, they're nicely presented and logically laid out. Personally, I would have liked to have seen key characters (i.e. the Fellowship) in both of the "Good" books. Gandalf is arguably just as important to the defence of Minas Tirith as Aragorn (arguably more so), so it's an irritation that he's not present in the Kingdoms of Men book. Merry and Pippin do show up in their respective Gondor and Rohan guises though.

How many pages are they and what other stuff do they cover than the models?

48 pages in the three books I've got, they cover the new 6 missions, army lists and five unique scenarios per books, relating to the forces in the books, for example the Moria and Angmar book has scenarios for re-fighting dwarves and goblins in Moria etc

According to the GW site the Realms of Men book is 60'ish pages.

I'm stuck waiting untill sometime Monday for my books to get to me. I pre-ordered the Fallen Realms + Mordor books as my main collection is far too many Easterlings and their Black Numenorean buddies taking names and whining over who's more loyal to Sauron!

I've read on Warseer that Rohan (aparently) still sucks and that the cost of Easterling pikes has dropped by 1pts. (so now they're only about a single point more expensive than their Gondorian enemies)
Aparently Easterlings also have an option to upgrade one (or more?) warbands to 'black dragons' which seems to give them +1FV meaning they can actually win combats now!

Experiment 626 wrote:According to the GW site the Realms of Men book is 60'ish pages.

Nope, 48 pages

Flashman wrote:

Experiment 626 wrote:According to the GW site the Realms of Men book is 60'ish pages.

Nope, 48 pages

Yep, my bad!

Was thinking about the Free Peoples book which is 64pg's in total, seeing as they have to cram all the varient elf lists, plus dwarves, ents, wizards, hobbits, the Fellowship and all the other odd-ball stuffs in there!

Being a haradrim fan, I think that the fallen realms book is excellent. There are finaly rules for the fat guys withs swords (Abrakhan Guard) and the fact that Haradrim can have half bows (). Also, I realy like the Idea of warbands, and the knight of Umbar has become my permanent friend (Oh, your Strength 8 with 5 Attacks? So am I... )

Bought the fallen realms sourcebook yesterday.

Hereticdave wrote: five unique scenarios per books

Only 2 in fallen realms

Experiment 626 wrote:Aparently Easterlings also have an option to upgrade one (or more?) warbands to 'black dragons' which seems to give them +1FV meaning they can actually win combats now!

Yep. Any easterlings and kataphrakts can be courage and fight 4 for 2 points

nickick wrote: and the knight of Umbar has become my permanent friend (Oh, your Strength 8 with 5 Attacks? So am I... )

Me too. lol!

Got Moria and Angmar and I have to say it is fantastic!! Goblins have been given a few new weapons that many people will overlook.

Im really enjoying the buffs in the Fallen Realms book for the human armies.

Harad & Umbar finally get options to theme their forces to the main cities, (Abrakan, Kharna & Ubmar itself), with abilities to boot. I'm looking to build a basic 750pts force for one of the seven Lords of Umbar, and I've got to say it'll be fun to have terror-causing FV5! Black Numenoreans spearheading my advance!

Rhun & Khand got the biggest buff, but then Rhun was a complete joke to begin with... Their old costs of 10pts for a pike + shield was pretty damn useless on FV3 models - that's what, 2 or 3pts more than a Warrior of Minas Tirith who had the exact same statline?!
Kataphraks were the worst cavalry in the entire game - their old cost was a point more than a Knight of Gondor who had the same statline plus a lance! For that extra cost, Kataphraks got armoured horses and their amazingly crap S3 charges. I can't even begin to recall the number of times those useless terds would bounce off anything defense 5 or better.

At least now any Easterlings can upgrade to Black Dragons for the added pip of FV & courage, so winning combats is finally possible without being forced to include allies from Khand or elsewhere! I still think Kataphraks could have done with S4 though since they don't get options like lances.
But at least I can play my pure Easterling army without being forced to include a front rank of Morannon Orcs or Uruk-hai or Black Numenoreans now!