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Hi all thanks for taking 5 minutes to have a look.

I have recently started the game and have good number models now. I also ahve a few rule books. Kingdoms of men, the feollowship, return of the king and the mini rule book.

My question is:

Having looked for the twin towers book, I have noticed many other books, are they all needed. For instance I have a the return of the king, but have seen the same title with diferant covers. Also individual battles that are includeing in the main books. I'm not very sure I what I need basicaaly.

Any help ecxplaining them all would be grand.

Cheers guys.

To play the 'current' edition, you need the following:

- The Hobbit SBG rulebook, best found on EBay in the form of the paperback mini-book (still has the full game rules, just no profiles, but GW do those as a free PDF)

- The relevant Army Books for your force:
Kingdoms of Men (Gondor, Ronan, Numenor, Arnor)
The Free Peoples (Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, Ents, Eagles)
The Fallen Realms (Isengard, Harad, Easterling, Khand, Umbar)
Moria and Angmar (does what it says on the tin)
Mordor (ditto)

For Erebor Dwarves, Laketown, Elrond's Household, Azog's Hunters and The White Council, see the free PDFs on the GW/BL site, 'Heroes as Villains of Middle Earth' and 'The Battle of the Five Armies'



Other books you might find a use for, but are by no means essential:

-Journey Books, with scenarios from the books/films, painting/modeling guides and such:
Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King

- The One Book To Rule Them All:
The blue-cover, hardback rulebook. The game rules in this are replaced by the Hobbit book, but it has most poor pre-Hobbit profiles in, so is worth getting if you have several armies and/or can't find the current sourcebooks. They aren't technically up to date, but are close enough.

- Legions of Middle Earth:
Again, OOP and technically outdated, but is the best way to get pretty much every profile/army list in one place.



I think that covers all of it, hope that helps.

Thanks Paradigm, thats kinda what I was thinking. I supose then any other books are campiagn based or more detailed scenarios?

There are a bunch of older Sourcebooks that, while outdated, do have good stuff in them. Typically, you'll get the relevant profiles for the events in question, some background fluff, paint/terrain guides and a series of linked battles that form a campaign based on the books/films/stuff GW made up. Off the top of my head, there was:

A Shadow in the East (predominantly Easterling stuff)

Gondor in Flames (Osgiliath, Ithillien and Minas Tirith)

Khazad Dum (The War of the Dwarves and Orcs, The Fall of Durin, Balin's Expedition)

The Fall of the Necromancer (The battle of Dol Guldur)

The Ruin of Arnor (the fall of Arnor/rise of Angmar)

Harad

Mordor

Thats the ones I was asking about. cool thanks.

I think the Fall of the Necromancer is the only one I do not have.

I keep wondering if I should sell all of my LotR SBG books, because I don't really play it any longer (I am working on a Fantasy Supplement for Saga, Gripping Beast's Dark Ages Skirmish rules).

But then I think about that they are kinda collector's items at this point.

And, maybe once every blue moon, I might decide to play it.

I do wonder, though, what they put in The Fall of the Necromancer?

What sort of undead do they give The Necromancer?

He was not called "The Necromancer" for nothing (and no, the Nazgûl do not count, since they were neither active, nor openly associated with Sauron at that time - Only Khamûl was present at Dol Goldur, and he kept a low profile during Sauron's absence in the East).

Tolkien did mention undead armies, but never commented further. Sauron did have the Dead Marshes relatively close by to draw upon, as well as the remnants of the battle of the Gladden Fields, and the Battles of the Undeeps, where Éorl came to the rescue of Cirion.

So... There were no shortages of dead to turn into Un-Dead.

And the assault upon Dol Goldur would have been mainly Elves from Lórien accompanied by Galadril and Celeborn, Saurman (oh, and of course, Gandalf), and Elrond (probably with a host from Lindon as well). Should have been a real dust-up. Sauron would not really have fought, as he was still too poorly put together to waste his strength on such a contest. He had bigger fish to fry.

Still... It would be interesting to see what they did with it.

MB

I believe Fall of the Necromancer marked the first appearance of Spectres and Shades, and I think Barrow Wights might have been included as well, so there was at least some kind of undead presence, although not legions of zombies or skeletons or anything (although both could be counts-as Orcs if you were so inclined). In the current rules, you can still run a spirit-based army under the Angmar list (and a nasty one at that, Shades are horrifying and nothing short of brutal combined with Spectres).

It's been a while since I've seen the book, but I'm pretty sure the actual siege of Dol Guldur scenario was a pretty massive one, featuring most of the White Council (and Glorfindel), and plenty of Elves/Orcs. Sauron had a weaker Necromancer profile that was used, and was far less scary than his ring-bearing 2nd Age profile.

Having looked for the twin towers book, I have noticed many other books, are they all needed. For instance I have a the return of the king, but have seen the same title with diferant covers. Also individual battles that are includeing in the main books. I'm not very sure I what I need basicaaly.

There have been several books for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Games:
The original rules book and sourcebooks that came out during the time the movies came out,
and the later rules book and sourcebooks that came out after all the original movies were done.

Simple break down:

Original rulebook is the one with a ringwraith on horse with a black/blue cover. It's a single photo from the Fellowship movie.

Fellowship of the Ring
the green cover is the original sourcebook from the Fellowship starter.
the blue cover with Frodo, a moria goblin, and the One Ring, with miniatures on the bottom half is the last sourcebook for that movie.

The Two Towers
the red/burgandy cover is the original sourcebook from the Two Towers starter.
the blue cover with Saruman, Theoden, and the One Ring, with minatures on the bottom half is the last sourcebook for that movie.

The Return of the King
(this is where it might get confusing)
the blue cover with Aragorn riding on a horse and NO miniatures on the cover is the original sourcebook from the Return of the King starter.
the blue cover Aragon, the Witch King, and WITH miniatures on the cover is the last sourcebook for that movie.

Then there was the blue covered rules book with just the One Ring on the cover.
The blue covered Legions of Middle-Earth (I dont know much about this one, but I heard it is mostly about who can ally with who).
The blue covered War of the Rings book - which is a massed battle system, akin to Warhammer Fantasy.
The blue covered Warhosts book - which is an expansion to War of the Rings.

Basically, if the cover is a photo from the movie = original rule/sourcebook.
Cover has movie photos with miniatures = last updated sourcebook.
Cover only has miniatures on it = one of the "Best of White Dwarf" compilations/scenario books or War of the Rings.

Then there are the Hobbit books, which have the ring in the center with miniatures inside it.
Hardback: The Hobbit an Unexpected Gathering
Softback: The Desolation of Smaug
White Dwarf special: The Battle of the Five Armies (also available in PDF on GW website)

Hope that helps.

 thisisit wrote:

Having looked for the twin towers book, I have noticed many other books, are they all needed. For instance I have a the return of the king, but have seen the same title with diferant covers. Also individual battles that are includeing in the main books. I'm not very sure I what I need basicaaly.

There have been several books for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Games:
The original rules book and sourcebooks that came out during the time the movies came out,
and the later rules book and sourcebooks that came out after all the original movies were done.

Simple break down:

Original rulebook is the one with a ringwraith on horse with a black/blue cover. It's a single photo from the Fellowship movie.

Fellowship of the Ring
the green cover is the original sourcebook from the Fellowship starter.
the blue cover with Frodo, a moria goblin, and the One Ring, with miniatures on the bottom half is the last sourcebook for that movie.

The Two Towers
the red/burgandy cover is the original sourcebook from the Two Towers starter.
the blue cover with Saruman, Theoden, and the One Ring, with minatures on the bottom half is the last sourcebook for that movie.

The Return of the King
(this is where it might get confusing)
the blue cover with Aragorn riding on a horse and NO miniatures on the cover is the original sourcebook from the Return of the King starter.
the blue cover Aragon, the Witch King, and WITH miniatures on the cover is the last sourcebook for that movie.

Then there was the blue covered rules book with just the One Ring on the cover.
The blue covered Legions of Middle-Earth (I dont know much about this one, but I heard it is mostly about who can ally with who).
The blue covered War of the Rings book - which is a massed battle system, akin to Warhammer Fantasy.
The blue covered Warhosts book - which is an expansion to War of the Rings.

Basically, if the cover is a photo from the movie = original rule/sourcebook.
Cover has movie photos with miniatures = last updated sourcebook.
Cover only has miniatures on it = one of the "Best of White Dwarf" compilations/scenario books or War of the Rings.

Then there are the Hobbit books, which have the ring in the center with miniatures inside it.
Hardback: The Hobbit an Unexpected Gathering
Softback: The Desolation of Smaug
White Dwarf special: The Battle of the Five Armies (also available in PDF on GW website)

Hope that helps.

Well thats a comprehenshive breakdown.

Thanks very much, guess i have the last updtae versions of what I have. SO now to find the blue copy of the twin towers.