"Lord of the Rings Wargame" Topic

Which is the latest Lord of the Rings wargame, is it The Battle of Five Armies?

Is this the best rule set of all the LotR wargames?

I think that's the game I'm on about. It's the wargame with orcs, dwarves, elves, wargs, Gondorians etc.

I'm late to the party so I'm not even sure if the latest game is still on sale. There's these rules which are free to download: link

I've had a cursory search but I'm not really sure what I am looking for.

Any info appreciated

Thanks all

Don't play GW,and the prices on the link reminded me why. Thanks for the LOL Moment!

The link was to a free download of the Battle of the five armies sourcebook – thanks GW.

The GW Middle Earth skirmish rules have a tortuous history. They started with a LOTR set released with the Fellowship of the Ring movie tie-in box set. This was expanded/changed in the Two Towers movie tie-in box set. And yes, you've guessed it, again with the Return of the king movie tie-in box set.

There were additional supplements adding new creatures/heroes/troops, and also adding in the things from the books that Peter Jackson left out.

Phew!

Then there was a "definitive" reissue of the rules, a nice hardback book which tweaked and tidied up a few things. This stood unchallenged for a couple of years…until The Hobbit films started.

The Lord of the Rings skirmish game was then rebranded as The Hobbit skirmish game. It was pretty much the same game, with a few tweaks to the combat system which personally I didn't like. But it was pretty much the same game, and included LOTR monsters/troops (IIRC) making it "backward compatible" with the LOTR game. The main new material was to cover the new heroes/monsters/troop types (e.g. Misty Mountain goblins) from The Hobbit films.

Just to add some confusion (!) GW also issued a Battle level set of rules – basing up one's skirmish game figures into units. I don't know much about this – I bought it, but have never played it.

The link also "thinks I would like" to pay £27.00 GBP for two figures.

No thanks,GW. I would not.

Me neither – I would use figures I already have from other manufacturers.

There's no-way I'd spend £118.00 GBP on the "heroes of Erebor" either – 13 dwarves and 1 hobbit for £118.00 GBP? No thanks – even if I had liked the Peter Jackson concept of the dwarves, and mostly I didn't much.

Still – it was nice of GW to give the latest source book away – does make one wonder if they see much future for the game. However, since just about everything Tolkien wrote about (and a lot he didn't!) has already been covered it could be looked at as a "finished product".

Yeah,sorta like being "nice" enough to give a free hit of meth.

Possibly I exaggerate.

Or not.
BTW,what's the price on Radagast, the Jar Jar Binks of the PJ universe?

Thanks for the info

The game still has it's fans and i would guess you could find some less expensive copies on places like bartertown or maybe ebay. The figures may be harder to find but there are other companies who make suitable figures.

Mark68, The LOTR "Movie tie in name here" Strategy Battle Game is a great game. I think most people just refer to it as LOTR SBG.

Setting aside The Hobbit movies and Games Workshop prices it is a great game that you can use for lots of different settings and any figures you want.

Give it a try. The Basic rules can be had very cheap on ebay. Look on ebay for the Return of the King rules.

Also in the UK there is a very active SBG community. Let me know if you have any other questions.

@Hafen, why bring the hate to a post when someone is just asking for information?

Xin/Jeff

I'll echo Jeff in saying they are a great set of rules. You should be able to find a copy for a good price on E-bay, etc. They provide an excellent frame for many genres beyond just LOTR: Medievals, Ancients, and Dark Ages especially, but even Pulp games would work well with some gun rules bolted on.

Jeff

That's a reasonable – but tricky – question to answer.

Few things wind up fans of Tolkien's actual work more than Jackson's interpretation of it.

And – to parallel that – few things annoy gamers more than some of GW's business practices, both real and apocryphal. That includes (in a world of mostly amature industry pricing structures) their very, ummm, 'market driven' (and 'professional') prices.

A heady conflation of the two is pretty much guaranteed to wind up someone somewhere at any given moment in time.

John T

Xin: who said anything about "hate"? I said "thanks" and "LOL". That's "bringing the hate"?

Hafen should be censured for an opinion on what he (I assume) perceives negatively? This is not preschool. I thought his comment was ironical which doesn't convey well in print. YMMV.

Hardly hate; the presentation of Radagast was totally childish (and low even for PJ's work) in the Hobbit Movies at some points, GW pricing does seem capricious at best, and this is TMP… in all its glory.

Why not challenge 20thMaine? He just was more diplomatic but critical of the prices while acknowledging the free rules part was nice.

I may even take a look when I get outside the multiple firewalls and computer security blocks to see if it is worth downloading.

I was momentarily confused, as there used to be a "BoFA" game that was an element based game based on Warmaster, and used a completely different figure scale (10mm).

But the free download is clearly "SBG" based.

Thanks all for the information

@Jeff – So the Return of the King rules are the best to get?

IIRC the Return of the King rules were a small version of the hardback book (literally pocket sized). It left out all the additional background info & scenarios, and obviously was much smaller print.

Depending what you want to do any of the editions could be ok – the problem with The Fellowship / Two Towers ones (and why I guess a lot of people disposed of them) is they only covered "the story so far….".

So the fellowship has the heroes and moria orcs and probably trolls. Two towers adds in Warg riders and Southrons…and…you get the idea

Ok thanks for the info

For the most complete pre-Hobbit rules this is best:

auction

Get the hardback version, rather than the reduced content paperback that was packaged with the Mines of Moria starter set. As per link you can find this on ebay quite often. I never bought into the Hobbit rules & figures as by then the cost had passed my tipping point but I still play the original game with this rulebook (often referred to on websites as "The One Rulebook" to rule them all) with my hundreds of figures on a (semi)regular basis

the reduced content paperback that was packaged with the Mines of Moria starter set.

Oh yeah, that's right – I must have bought 4 starter sets (!).

I got The Hobbit starter set as well, which came with the paperback version of the "The Hobbit" ruleset.

Hmm….5 starter box sets, the hardback book, plus additional figures…all the supplements…lots of issues of the Battlegames in Middle Earth partwork (particularly issue 1 ). I don't think I can really count myself as a GW "hater" – although as there are always options for any game I do reserve the right to buy figures I actually prefer . I do admit to being a bit of a Tolkien obsessive (but not so bad that I don't recognise it ).

I've been finding GW LOTR figures on Ebay as well as Amazon. If the price is too much I move on. Normally I look for box sets in the $20 USD-$30.00 price range depending on shipping. I have many of the supplements and the Return of the Kings Box set. I need to look for the hardback One ring rule set.

By the way, I hate the high prices as much as the next guy. Depending on the kit, when ordering on-line shipping is free from GW.

Duane

(Ahem)--Just to clarify: I do not "hate" GW. They were after my time,so to speak--I pretty much stopped playing fantasy after the Ral Partha Zulu War range came out,so GW passed me by completely. "Hate" implies(to me at least) an emotion too strong to be directed at any miniatures company--inspired by a sense of betrayal,of being subjected to injustice,or things of that nature. Maybe there are those who do feel that way about GW,for some reason,but I am not one of them,and I'm sorry if my comments sounded that way. MB caught my meaning: GW is,for me, not an object of hatred,but a source of amusement,and yes,bemusement. That's all.

Peter Jackson,on the other hand…but I ranted enough on the Fantasy Media board;should anyone care what I think,they can go there.

Oh,yes,while I'm at it,apologies if I offended any Jar Jar Binks fans.

I play GW with 1/72 miniatures, problem jews?
Buy the return of the king, mostly all units there plus italeri, zvezda and red box

"apologies if I offended any Jar Jar Binks fans"

Jar Jar Binks has fans?

Well,you never know.

I must say I don't quite understand noigrim's post.

At least I hope I don't.

So the Return of the King rules are the best to get?

No, absolutely not. Those are thirteen years out of date.

The best version is the current version. The Hobbit Strategy Battle Game incorporates all the errata and faqs that the older versions needed as was as slight rules updates (monsters have special attacks, for example).

Or, if you are in no hurry, Games Workshop is releasing the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game later this year, which rolls all of the LOTR and Hobbit figures and such into a single line, headed by the new Specialist Games division and Adam Troke.

Or possibly "yes".

The ROTK will be cheaper to pick up, personally I prefer the big hardback, and I thought the Hobbit game wasn't as good due to some of the "tweaks" (or, if you prefer, "fixes").

It's a matter of taste though, ain't it ?

Stuff from The Hobbit will be missing – it depends how important this is to you as to whether that matters. And that probably depends if you're a bigger fan of the books or the films. The rules, as such, even if they are 13 years old, still work (of course!).

Anyone know if there's an errata list for this edition of the game?

Anyone?

*290thMaine
Makes a pretty good point why many of us got annoyed w/ GW. And the constant 'buy me Rules', created simply to promote the sale of particular miniatures. Or 'new rules' that would no longer permit you to use miniatures you had purchased only a few yrs earlier.

Their 'pricing policy' recalls the Prophetic words from the original Ghost Busters.
(bill murrys character speaks) "No job is too big, NO FEE IS TOO BIG."

As for the Hobbit, I have NEVER understood why 'Radagast' was portrayed in such a way, that at times it seemed difficult to take him serious as one of the five Istari.

I have sets I have yet to open let alone paint, but Im a pushover for great 'plastic' miniatures.
And I give GW fair credit, the do make 'some' of the best out there. But they dont mind charging the most either.

I think maybe the point was that 1/72 mini's aren't popular, but not to sure of the phrasing used.

Dark Alliance make excellent stand-ins for the LotR world, coupled with a bunch of historic figures from across various 1/72 manufacturers.

The game – bit too slow for me once you got a lot of kit on the table – it is a "skirmish" game really. But good, and I liked the heroes fate rolls etc. Poor ol' Boromir…