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Every year as autumn rolls in I get all nostalgic and my mind turns to the Lord of the Rings. I've literally never met an active player. I like the new support for the range and the consolidated branding. I'm just curious, how active are your communities, and is anyone in Chicago?

Here in Louisville we've been trying to get it active. We had an initial great burst with Battle Companies and about 12 active players but that has dropped to 2-3 active players now.

I'm not sure what it is about the game that keeps people off from it.

The two things I hear consistently are that the balance between good & evil is wonky (in battle companies I definitely agree, in the main game I don't see the balance as that horrible though I agree that if someone shows up with a legendary hero and you haven't prepared for that then you can be crushed in the list building phase like AOS or 40k) and that the want was for armies clashing, and SBG is kind of still a low model-count skirmish.

The balance os actually better than many notice. Ignore heroes you can’t deal with as much as possible and kill off the warriors so they can’t complete the objectives.

The game has become pretty popular round me, I’ve seen a lot more people playing it than I have previously. Of those I’ve spoken to that have played multiple editions, this is the best we’ve all played

auticus wrote:
Here in Louisville we've been trying to get it active. We had an initial great burst with Battle Companies and about 12 active players but that has dropped to 2-3 active players now.

I'm not sure what it is about the game that keeps people off from it.

The two things I hear consistently are that the balance between good & evil is wonky (in battle companies I definitely agree, in the main game I don't see the balance as that horrible though I agree that if someone shows up with a legendary hero and you haven't prepared for that then you can be crushed in the list building phase like AOS or 40k) and that the want was for armies clashing, and SBG is kind of still a low model-count skirmish.

Balance isn't really wonky. If anything it's the sort of game where any list should be able to take on all comers. I run a bow free Mordor list using Morgul knights as harassment and it does well enough against good and evil lists. Even bow heavy Elves and Harad. And if someone is showing up with a legendary hero and crushing opponents, then the opponents aren't exploiting those single hero weaknesses enough. You'd be surprised how fast Aragorn, Boromir and others go down even by a lowly Moria goblin when you have them trapped properly. This game is most definitely not won in the list building stage.

I see that most of the items on the GW web store are out of stock, and this doesn't seem to have changed in over a year. I can't figure out if they've underestimated demand or haven't put the mold and sprue back into production.

A lot of stuff has been going in and out of stock for a number of reasons. A big chunk of stuff has been pulled for rebranding and will be back soon and a lot of stuff just due to the sudden surge in popularity. I've been on the mailing list for a few different items and almost all of them sell out within an hour or so of coming back into stock. Not a bad thing all things considered. Speaks well for the health of the game.

Balance isn't really wonky. If anything it's the sort of game where any list should be able to take on all comers.

It takes some practice but I for the most part agree.

We're really active here in Toronto! We've got a running league going with around 10 players! If you walk into the Lfgs, 5 times out of 10 there will be a person playing lotr.

We have a growing community in Richmond, VA, USA - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1550656775233092/


Automatically Appended Next Post:

auticus wrote:
The two things I hear consistently are that the balance between good & evil is wonky (in battle companies I definitely agree, in the main game I don't see the balance as that horrible though I agree that if someone shows up with a legendary hero and you haven't prepared for that then you can be crushed in the list building phase like AOS or 40k) and that the want was for armies clashing, and SBG is kind of still a low model-count skirmish.

Weird, that's not a complaint I ever hear. Expensive heroes are so easily to neutralize that I usually never take them. You literally just avoid them and win the game through VP's.

 judgedoug wrote:
We have a growing community in Richmond, VA, USA - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1550656775233092/


Automatically Appended Next Post:

auticus wrote:
The two things I hear consistently are that the balance between good & evil is wonky (in battle companies I definitely agree, in the main game I don't see the balance as that horrible though I agree that if someone shows up with a legendary hero and you haven't prepared for that then you can be crushed in the list building phase like AOS or 40k) and that the want was for armies clashing, and SBG is kind of still a low model-count skirmish.

Weird, that's not a complaint I ever hear. Expensive heroes are so easily to neutralize that I usually never take them. You literally just avoid them and win the game through VP's.

Here in louisville we have only done a battle companies campaign where good ended up doing really well. My rangers ended up running far and away from the pack becoming neigh unstoppable even with the rerolls.

We as a community have never played the "real game" yet as battle companies was meant to ease people into the ruleset and allow them to build and paint their models. All of the local perceptions are based on the time spent with BC.

Right now I'm trying to get more people involved. On Saturday I tried to Herald in the new edition by having an a-historical battle of pelennor, but everyone bailed on me, so it was just me and Atticus running a small demo game.

I'm hoping people will turn out for a gondor at war campaign.

Right now I'm painting some more Harad and have some gondor warriors on order so that I can have both an evil and good force to allow interested parties to get involved without having an army of their own.

I plan to do an ithellien ambush event to generate more interest in the future.

A few of my friends were getting into Battle Companies, and I thought what the heck, like 5 or so models isn't that hard. Somewhere in the process I forgot that I was only supposed to be doing 5 and ended up building an army for a full game. Whoops.

The upshot is that I reached out to the local scene, and from what I can tell, ME SBG alive and well over here in Scotland. There's a local tournament next month with over 40 players playing, and regular meets for casual games.

I'm still mustering my forces, but I get the feeling that if I wanted a game, I could make something happen without too much effort.

I'm playing the new release using the Pelennor fields set with a friend at my club.

I have to say, with the various changes here and there, it's probably my favourite wargame of all the ones I play at the moment.

Every game we've had has been a nail-biter and comes right down to the wire. That's something I've not really experienced in tabletop games for a very long time.

I play 40k a little bit, but my interest has died off lately, and Darklands by Mierce Miniatures. Darklands is also often down to the wire, but it's extremely crunchy (in a good way) however the rulebook has a mismatched index that makes learning very difficult.

By comparison the Middle Earth SBG is both easy to pickup, quick to play and seems to have tons of depth in it's way of playing.

 Bloviator wrote:
Every year as autumn rolls in I get all nostalgic and my mind turns to the Lord of the Rings. I've literally never met an active player. I like the new support for the range and the consolidated branding. I'm just curious, how active are your communities, and is anyone in Chicago?

Will you be at adepticon next March? I could bring a battle company handful of figures and we could borrow some terrain for a few matches.

 Bloviator wrote:
...is anyone in Chicago?

My son and I are total noobs to table-top gaming and despite there being a big 40K presence around here, we both decided we liked the Lord of the Rings and we decided to go with the new release of Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game for our first game. However, we really don't know of anyone to play with yet, though we have been enjoying the game together.

We are in the Rockford, IL area. Are you in Chicago or the suburbs?

I play in Springfield plaza in the nova area

Springfield, CT?

We have a feldgling MESBG group in Albany NY.

I've won the last 2 games with my Rivendell force.

I'm trying to get some games going in Madison, WI if anyone is in the area!

Rocmistro wrote:
Springfield, CT?

We have a feldgling MESBG group in Albany NY.

I've won the last 2 games with my Rivendell force.

Hope we see some of you guys at the Mythicos SBG tournament on Sunday!

https://mythicosevents.com/lord-of-the-ring

We're having a mini tournament on the 15th. Casual, so everyone can learn the rules.

I've recently gotten into LoTR . Love the rules. It seemed a bit quirky coming off many, many years of playing Warhammer but works pretty good in my opinion.

.

My FLGS has four or five people.

I got to play my first couple real games this past Friday and had fun. The group was great, super friendly and helpful. I learned some of the intricacies of the rules. For a pretty simple ruleset, there are some devious tricks you can pull off!

The first game was a Mordor v. Mordor Morannon civil war with Take and Hold (the scenario with 5 objectives?). It was ended up a close match, although my guys were almost tabled. I got lucky where my Orc Shaman survived combat with a Black Numenorean, got pushed back, and then sprinted for the furthest objective!

My second game was against Minas Tirith with Denethor as the leader and Boromir as the muscle. We randomly rolled for a scenario and got Contest of Champions (I had a list with Shagrat as the leader, so a-ok in my book). It took all three of my Heroes - Shagrat, a Morannon Captain, and a Shaman - and a lot of luck to hold back Boromir, but Denethor got taken out by a Morannon and that was the game.

I have been playing in a LotR SBG Battle Companies campaign over the last month. I have been enjoying it despite my initial dislike of the rules back in 2001, which was the last time I played SBG.

Despite the degree of rules-crunchiness (i.e. options provided by the rules) I am not convinced these rules work all that great for something as small as a BC skirmish; namely due to the pressure created to group one's models to gain dice advantage in duels. But I think they will be splendid for forces in the 25 to 35-model range.

callidusx3 wrote:
Despite the degree of rules-crunchiness (i.e. options provided by the rules) I am not convinced these rules work all that great for something as small as a BC skirmish; namely due to the pressure created to group one's models to gain dice advantage in duels. But I think they will be splendid for forces in the 25 to 35-model range.

I kind of agree with this, if I'm honest. I absolutely love the core Middle-earth SBG game for both scenario play and for the regular points matches of 500-1000 points, but Battle Companies doesn't really do it for me.

That being said, I've never been the biggest fan of any 'skirmish' system for a bigger wargame that can be described as 'the core game with less models but some bolted on extra rules.' Small skirmish games really need to be specifically designed for purpose from the ground up to engage me, and Battle Companies is no exception there.

The community here in Victoria stayed alive during the Dark Years, so there was already a good base when it got re-released.

The local community in Middle Tennessee seems to have really taken off since the game relaunched and I got into it at the same time(I'd had a Goblin Town box set in my closet for a while before but never played it). There's a scheduled game night every Friday and most of the time they seem to have pretty good attendance, unfortunately that's usually a crap night for me to make it, but I've still gotten a few games in.

So far I think it's probably my favorite rule set GW has out right now. I don't mind the high degree of streamlining of AoS in 2000+ games, but smaller games I like a little more crunch(in general crunch is inversely proportional to game size for me). It fills its little gap between skirmish and big army games very well, but it does lose its way if games are to big and get bogged down or two small and things get wonky.

Hobby wise I still like AoS more, the newer AoS models are very nice(some over design, especially in heroes though) and I just find the more fantastical designs more fun to paint. That being said, some of the newer heroes(and even some of the older ones) for SBG are really good, but the old plastic kits like the Morannon and Mordor Orcs in my Mordor army are pretty dated compared to GW's more modern plastic troops(of course there's some sad dated troops in the AoS range, but some new really good ones too).So I hope we one day see them not only update heroes but also troops, but I doubt we'll see any any time soon. At least the hobbit ranges are a little better than the LotR ranges. I guess the one benefit is that those plastic troops that GW put out in the early 2000's where often one piece models or maybe add an arm, so they're at least quick to build.

Still going on strong here, and was able to snag more pre-order goodness. Golfimbul and bandits

Its pretty strong here, having fun with battle companies. But I find the models are trickey to get, out of stock, unavalible, or they are resin or metal, you seem to need tonnes of blister, like a whole army in blisters.

Though I love it, the game itself I think is great.

I kind of would like to though it would have to be me setting it up. I never had the chance before, but the lord of the rings has been big in my family for... as long as i've been alive really

Not entirely certain on what books i would need for it though