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Hi guys,
So, to be quick, I used to collect / play A LONG TIME AGO, Uruk-Hai mainly. I stopped it and focus on 40k for like 10-12 years but I still have my Uruk and was wondering what was the state of the game / range / community ? I know the rules are still amongst the best by GW, aren't they ? And LoTR still get support by GW.
But are Uruk-Hai (Isengard) still playable ? The basic models are still the same ? Etc
Thanks a lot guys !

The game is in good shape I guess. It's gotten consistent releases since they launched the Battle for Pelennor box set, both from GW and FW.
GWs releases have mostly been books of various sorts. Army books/campaigns, etc. But there has been a smattering of heroes re-released in plastic. (The Three Hunters, The King of the Dead.)
FW has been producing excellent secondary/minor characters.

There hasn't been any plastic troops released in quite a while. The hobbit range was the last wide release of plastic kits, I believe.
The entire range itself is still very strong. As far as i'm aware, there aren't any glaring gaps in the range. Nothing missing units or such. And there hasn't been any of the range retired besides metal/resin heroes. And it looks like GW are working towards getting most of these in plastic.

Can't really speak as to the community presence. I really guess that comes down to where you live. My local GW store for example has quite a few young, school age lads who are mad for it.

Can't say in what sort of state any of the individual armies are in. But the basic models are indeed still the same. Saruman and Grima got new plastic models though!
If you are interested in picking up the game again, then I highly recommend getting the Battle of Pelennor box set. Not only does it give you (what I have been told) are two solid starting armies for Rohan and Mordor, you also get 20 Oathbreakers, which I believe is almost an army in its on right, but you get the current, unabridged rule book too. Even buying it straight from GW nets you quite a considerable saving!

I will second that the pellenor box set is a pretty good deal. Lots of neat guys in there, and the mordor side is, if i remember right, pretty complete.

So I finally found my old Huruk-hai and...well I'd better buy new ones !
Fortunately TLOSR game is pretty cheap. I didn't find the game in battlescribe though, so I guess I'll have to go back to good old pen and paper lists ?
I noticed the Huruk-hai ram isn't available anymore though :/

The Uruk-Hai ram was included on the list for a planned Made-To-Order that didn't happen, so will presumably happen once the current to-do is over

Prefer some of the newer Uruk models to the older ones.

 Snrub wrote:

The entire range itself is still very strong. As far as i'm aware, there aren't any glaring gaps in the range. Nothing missing units or such. And there hasn't been any of the range retired besides metal/resin heroes. And it looks like GW are working towards getting most of these in plastic.

There's bunch of stuff missing. Cirdan, armoured glorfinded on horse, regular uruk hai captain w/2 handed(not scout captain), far harad went OOP, shade OOP, the angmar vampire bat is OOP etc.

Some never have had model, some had but have gone OOP. Ebay helps for some but 100£ for shade in ebay...yeah right.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Slinky wrote:
The Uruk-Hai ram was included on the list for a planned Made-To-Order that didn't happen, so will presumably happen once the current to-do is over

Better get it when it comes. After that back to ebay

There is enough available to make most armies playable (with some exception such as Far Harad which is basically gone), but tneva82 is correct. There are large quantities of models OOP. GW cycle through with Made-to-order runs but they've been up front about saying the range will never be 100% available. So it can be a bit tough. If you're good at conversions/sculpting/green stuff, then you could bash up some of these missing models but its a lot of effort.

eBay obviously provides a means of acquiring most of them, but yeah they're usually very expensive.

Yep. You can get by sometimes and if 3rd party models are OK it's easier. Worth keeping in mind though in what faction you are attracted to. For example angmar is pretty tricky atm to start with basically just cave trolls, troll character and wild warg chieftain available from what separates angmar from mordor army...Otherwise it's basically mordor with army rule that requires spirits in army which means you are forced to take nazgul's as those are atm only spirits on sale...

Far harad is even trickier.

And if you want to build tournament top list some models for some factions like Cirdan is OOP.

Generally for majority of factions you can get by but worth scouting around for what's available on GW and what ebay prices are(those shades are just ridiculous...lucky thing it's fairly generic so if you don't NEED official GW model plenty of alternatives).

And to think originally goal was to have every profile to have model on sale. That was quickly forgotten.

No, the goal was to give a profile to every model ever made. They clearly stated they are cycling models in order to maintain warehouse stocks low and replenish them when a new supplement comes out (see Rohan and Dunland for istance). A new supplement for near and far Harad was rumoured, we hopefully think old and new miniatures will come out again when it hits the shelves.

It's now called the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game, so the army lists are in Battlescribe as "Middle Earth".

It's in a good place right now - all the rules and army lists are in three books, and there are another three campaign books. Battle Companies is there if you want a smaller skirmish game.

The minis available are in a bit of a mess, but the core of most forces is there and I like the minis. The prices for elites in metal, characters and Forgeworld resins are a bit steep, and the latest price rises on plastics were also silly. £25 for six 18 year old plastic cavalry models is not for me.

Fortunately, the historicals miniatures scene has never been better, and you can get proxy figures in plastic, metal or resin for many lines much cheaper than GW. Footsore make excellent, reasonably priced metal and resin models, and Dark Age plastics from Victrix or Gripping Beast are very nice. Victrix and Footsore in particular are as good as GW figures.

There's also the Oathmark plastics line for fantasy. Although the style is a bit older-looking than GW's latest, the figures are full of character, and the price is good. Many other good fantasy lines in various materials - Wargames Atlantic make nice plastic halflings, TTCombat are about to release halflings in resin.

People have been making very nice "Angus McBride" style orcs by mixing the bodies from Oathmark and the heads/helmets from Warlord plastic orcs.