"Is War Of The Ring by Games Workshop Dead" Topic

Just wondering who plays WOTR out there, that is beside myself and one of my friends. I never see any support anywhere for the game and the GW stores just say they sell the miniatures but no-one ever plays the game at the stores.

I have a copy of the rulebook, but haven't got enough models together to play yet. It looks as if even a small game will need 200 or so models, which is way more than I have at the moment- pity, because it looks like a good system, way better than warhammer.

You must missed the annoucement that some new Misty Mountains supplement or whatnot is coming out soon.

I enjoyed the skirmish game. Problem was I couldn't find anyone to play against. Our LGS didn't even carry it until War of the Ring came out. Then everyone wanted to jump into that game. It was hot for a couple of months but latter lost steam. I think one of the problems was people were expected to build large armies fast. None of the armies I saw had more than two units painted. The rules weren't very balanced for hard core competetive play.

GW ended up having WotRings compete with its WF game. They should have left it as a skirmish level game. It was a good rules set with faboulus minis in a popular setting.

It sure seemed dead as a skirmish game.

I play it. Albeit the lads I play with don't have their own armies, and like the comment above, a large portion of my units aren't painted.

It is a great rule set, but I do prefer the SBG…

There is an active group at my local game store.

I play it. It's as popular as other GW products, but there is a following and new releases do trickle out from GW.

If it would have come out in 2005 or so,I would have played it,because I had a large collection at one point. Never played the skirmish much.I started selling it off in 2007 and only have a few figures left.

I wonder why it is necessary at all, other than as another promotional gimmick by GW.

I have been playing Fantasy Miniatures (Mass Battles, don't care too much for skirmish fantasy, which is really all LotR and WHFB are. WHFB is just dressed to look like a mass combat game) since 1979, and I have always tried to press for the using of Historical Rules as much as possible (I did have some problems with this in my youth due to the preconceptions of my elders at that time, who were more than a little prejudiced against Historical Rules.

I have found that almost any set of Historical Rules needs very little added to it in order to make a fit with Fantasy. Which is why I don't see a need for WotR, it is really just an excuse to sell you more figures for a game that you don't need in order to buy more figures.

And, 200 figures is NOTHING for anyone who has built a reasonable historical army… Why should it be an issue for playing Fantasy (well, other than the grotesque prices of GW, but there are always ways around that… Second hand, discounts, eBay, etc…)?

It would be nice if they would come back to the center a bit in their creation of new figures for the line though. Middle Earth is not their Warhaammer world, which they seem to be pushing toward.

Yeah, the skirmish version was stone dead for the most part. I own the new rules and want to try them out. My only wish is that GW had released the big battle set during the movie releases. Who knows how large the game may have grown. The SBG game combined with the large amount of cheap plastics simply made little sense. You couldn't build 150-330 figs and use the SBG rules. So, interest waned.

I'm glad they released them.

Thanks,

John

"I have found that almost any set of Historical Rules needs very little added to it in order to make a fit with Fantasy. Which is why I don't see a need for WotR, it is really just an excuse to sell you more figures for a game that you don't need in order to buy more figures."

I'm curious-- what game(s) do we NEED, anyway? I'd say none of them. But nice of you to decide what all the rest of us should and shouldn't be playing. Next you'll be giving us definitions of what a "proper" wargame is and all that.

Oh, and while we're at it I'd really like to know what manufacturers are out there that DON'T want us to buy their products!

That seemed just like a reasonable personal opinion to me.

I talked to the Perry brothers at Historicon and it seems
they are still working 9 to 5 sculpting LOTR figures for GW. GW seems to think the game is worth supporting. It may not be as big as Warhammer or 40k but it still might be bigger than any of the historical ranges out there.

I'm amazed LotR has lasted as long as it has actually. If a GW game isn't Warhammer or 40K it usually doesn't last very long.

I just hope that the Perrys will be working on rank-file figures rather than strange & outlandish characters… I don't mean some Orc with a strange name or a banner and command group or two… I mean things like those Orcs of the Red Eye that are supposed to be Sauron's bodyguard… Sauron wouldn't freaking have Orcs as a bodyguard, first of all. He had plenty of Black Numenoreans to fill that role, and the Orc bodyguard was hideous… Almost as bad as the first Swan Knights.

Both the LOTR SBG and WOTR are alive and well in my neck of the woods. If they are dead someone needs to tell GW so that they will stop investing in new minis, books, and cancel the WD articles. As recently as May, they released plastic Swan Knights, Morgul Knights, more heros, more terrain, a new WOTR supplement, etc. Neither of these games are ever likely to replace the GW stable, but as horses go, they seem to still have legs. With respect to playing LOTR with Warhammer, it is just not my cup of tea. Just my $0.02.

Lost Pict

I'm amazed LotR has lasted as long as it has actually. If a GW game isn't Warhammer or 40K it usually doesn't last very long.

You're ignoring their history. The various iterations of their Epic 6mm rules were steadily supported for well over a decade before their relegation to the Specialist Games backwater, and anecdotally outsold Warhammer Fantasy in the US for several years. GW's business model was tripod for a long time, and overall (rather than local) LotR figure sales and support are more than strong enough to make an argument that they're attempting to shift back in that direction.

WOTR is alive and well…

In fact our club is doing a WOTR particaption game for next years English Show Circuit. It was going to be LOTR but we had to change to WOTR to keep the pace up and reduce the time playing, to around the half to three quarters hours mark.

I'm glad they keep produceing figs

Alive and well

Works well for a Demo game we did one last year and it grabs peoples attention due to the subject and the scale means it can last all day.
Good simple rules suit participation games well too.

Much like I've just accomplished with this message thread, we have a small sect bent on resurrecting it in our local store in Northern Virginia. :)

Which store? I am in MD and always up for LOTR.

Game Parlor in Chantilly. We may try it at other locations later. Most of us are regulars at the HMGS shows, so I expect we'll be running/playing games there in the future. We should be at the GP on the 14th around noon if you're interested. They even have LOTR stuff still on the shelves!

Firstvarty, Been there a but to buy dtuff in years past. I cannot make it December, but could in January.

Okay, I'll try to notify you when we pick a date. I think we're aiming to start a campaign, and getting together once a month, playing on the 3rd weekend, probably Sundays noonish.

Roger shoot up a flare in January

Your Blog is inspired. I think you have quite the collection! I have in the past few years bought a ton of figures, but have a lot of work to do to get them ready for the battlefield. One nice thing about our fledgling group is that we all only play with painted miniatures, so the games look pretty good.

Thanks you. I have a bit of everything and have sizable painted forces for Rohan, Harad, Easterlings, Mordor, Morgul Vale, Isengard, Gondor, Arnor, Army of the Dead, Lothlorien, Wood Elves, Dwarves, the Shire, and Fangorn.

I have primed but not yet painted Mahuds, Corsairs, Khand, and Dunlending forces to get battle ready.

Looking forward to some WOTR in the New Year! If you comment on one of my blog entries – I will respond with a direct email for further planning.