"Opinions on GW War of the Ring?" Topic

Read with interest Mike Siggins glowing review of War of the ring in the last Battlegames mag and wonder what the folks here think of the game after 6 months of play.

I had a short game courtesy of a redshirt in the GW in Aberdeen this summer. I thought it was fun, although the most amusing part was watching the poor GW chap cringe as he is trying to sell me on the game but no matter what he does to try and give me an advantage I roll spectacularly badly and get thumped every turn.

It seemed like a fun game, and Mike Siggins suggests it would adapt well to other genres/periods. Curious as to what the early adopters here think and has anyone successfully used it outside of Middle Earth?

I think it is a good game, though I have not played much so far. I am thinking about doing a second version of "Age of the Trebuchet" to go with WOTR rules. However, this is a "one day " project.
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Mick

We were having a discussion in the hobby store last month about how the redshirts always have to lose to customers in demos (is that why they chose that colour)

We said if you really wanted to drive them nuts you would make incredibly stupid plays to make it impossible for them to lose, then be a sore loser.

Even worse, make like you're going to buy the game and an army in one shot, but oh, maybe I should try the game first. Hmmm, maybe that's too cruel, they are people after all.

It is always fun watching the red shirts make up rules to lose games. I've always thought it was a good strategy to sell stuff. When 3rd edition of 40K was out I watched a guy get his space marines total thumbed in close combat by some dark eldar, they were hitting on 3+, wounding on 4+ and the marines weren't getting very good armor saves either.

He was playing against two middle aged women who had wandered in there for some reason. I thought he did it quite convincingly.

"Hmmm, maybe that's too cruel, they are people after all."

That can't be true. People don't shoot out candy when you hit them with sticks.

I think there are some great ideas in WOTR and it could be fun, but the rules and lists have some pretty fundamental holes that make it very frustrating and prone to abuse by power-gamers. The really maddening thing is that GW could go a long way towards fixings the problems if they would release an FAQ, but nothing yet as far as I know.

DColtman has it spot on.
Its got the potential to be a fantastic rule set, usuable with little conversion to all sorts of time periods and settings. Trouble is its badly written in places with rules open to all sorts of interpretations as well as some glaring contradictions and inconsistencies. On another forum there ended up with a 12 page thread arguing just on the basics of movement and manoeuvere.

If you dont want to play competitivly and have a gaming group whos happy to work out some house rules and play in the spirit of the game, its an utter blast- fast and simple with fun mechanics. If not avoid like the plague until GW release a FAQ (which allegedly I have heard they are refusing to do)

Yessir, we've had a lot of fun with it but the fun has been punctuated by a lot of discussion of how to interpret the rules.

"That can't be true. People don't shoot out candy when you hit them with sticks."

That's really funny.

I've never heard of the term "redshirts" and had no idea that they're supposed to lose the games. That's also funny.

Steve
cavalcadewargames.com
nycjadie.wordpress.com

While it is the best large combat system that GW has come up with to date, it was a few years late to save their LOTR line.

Unfortunately, many people are unwilling to try it, since they were so unhappy with the LOTR SBG.

Yep,as I've said before,already sold my hundreds of LOTR figures because I didnt have a massed rule set to play them with.

Is it the general opinion that it's come too late?

I remember talking to CC about LOTR mass combat years ago. I wondered at the time why they didn't use the Warhammer system, and remember reading that part of the deal with Newline required the creation of new game. Hence new LOTR skirmish game.

Shame as massed Uruk Hai pike on 20mm bases would look great, as would ranks of mounted Rohirrim knee-to-knee on 25x50s. I definitely enjoyed playing the WOTR rules, and they have the feel of fast-play WAB, with dice a plenty and simpler combat resolution.

One of the aspects that I am not sure about is the basing. The frontage of infantry is almost 30mm per fig and cav is about 50mm. It seems that this might make it difficult to adapt to other genres, although I concede its just a visual thing really.

I suppose I could get used to it, and it looks ok with large units. Is anyone else bothered by the basing?

I think the basing is one of the best things about WOTR. It actually allows the minis to be ranked up without nearly as many problems at the denser WHFB regimental basing does.

While it is elegant in some ways, it is clunky in others – including the much debated rules for turning units.

If not WOTR, what would you suggest as an alternative for massed battles?