the Hobbit & SBG

LotR SBG rules got an update in the form of the just released Hobbit rules. The major changes are as follow:

Heroic Uses of Might.
Heroic Move, Shoot, and Fight remains unchanged. There are four additional heroic actions.
Heroic March: allows all friendly models within 6" to increase their movement by 3" if on foot, 5" if mounted. Models cannot charge as part of the march. It is not clear to me whether this increases movement is in addition to other bonuses, such as that provided by a Uruk Hai drummer for instance.
Heroic Channelling: allows magically effect of spells casted to be more powerful.
Heroic Accuracy: allows all friendly models within 6" to reroll their in the way roll when shooting.
Heroic Strike: allows the hero to increase his Fight by D6 and it applies before any other effect (such as transfix).

Monster and Monster Mount Attacks.
Rend: all attacks against one model but applied against its strength rather than defense.
Hurl: allows the monster to grab a model in base to base whose strength is less than the monster's, compare Strength +D6 and if the monster's is higher, the model is thrown a number of inches equal to difference in the modified roll off. The hurled model suffers a S3 hit for each model caught in the path of the hurl, and an additional S6 hit at the end. This appear great against multi wound models.
Barge: all enemy models in the fight back away 3" chosen by the monster and the monster then gets a D6" charge to fight again. This seems the equivalent of heroic fight and thus not available if the monster is part of a heroic fight.
Note: a chariot is considered a monstrous mount so it can hurl, rend and barge? LOL!

Special Weapon Attacks.
Declared before the Fight/Duel rolls.
Piercing strike with axes and picks: wielder gains D3 strength but defend at minus D3. Does a two handed axe also get to pierce?
EDIT by Jobu: special weapon rules only apply to one handed weapons, so a two handed weapon does not get any special rule.
Stun with clubs and staffs: wielder cannot wound but a defender is reduced to Fight 1 and Attack 1 on a roll of 4+. This is only good when attacking with a companion. But since this attack is declared after the fight/duel has already been won, I am not sure how reducing the enemy's Fight makes a difference.
EDIT by Jobu: This applies until the end of the FOLLOWING turn, so it may be useful if you need to get another model into the fight the next turn.
Whirl with flails, scourges and whips: wielder is fight 1 but a win allows a strike against all enemy models in base to base. This should be used when surrounded.
Bash with maces, mauls and hammers: allows the wielder to roll off on a D6 + Strength against a single enemy model in the fight. If the wielder's roll is equal to or greater than the defender, the defender is knocked to the ground. Not sure if an infantry model can bash a cavalry model to the ground, or even a monster/monster mount.
EDIT by jobu: this is very useful to trap a model for any subsequent strikes against it in the same duel/fight.
Feint with daggers and swords: allow a model to fight at minus D3 fight but reroll to Wound roll of 1. Should always be used when facing a higher Fight enemy.
Support with spear and pikes: allows a model to directly fight one base away rather than adds an attack to the front model. It appears pikes are no different from spears.
EDIT by Jobu: yes, but at least a pike can support another pike.  Pike blocks just got more expensive.

Elven blade wielder wins tie Fight rolls on 3+ rather than 4+ unless fighting against another elven blade. Khand chieftains and kings wield elven blades by the way.
Edit by Jobu: they are also usable when mounted now, which they were not before.

Frustration with Games Workshop Hobbit implementation

This is a little bit review and mostly a rant, you have been warned.
The starter set is good, but too expensive and only suitable for limited scenarios in the starter.
The models are nice and are the best LoTR plastic sculpts to date.

Why did GW make the hobbit minis their own army lists? No idea but it was stupid stupid and more stupid. Why should the hunter orcs be outside of an angmar or even mordor list? Putting them in the angmar list would have given angmar exactly what it needs, an elite unit. Or even make a dol gulder list which can have a twilight witch king and regular orcs and spiders? Why are the dwarves outside the erebor list? Why has GW made it so hard to integrate these models into points matched games?

These are the things keeping me from getting any of the other sets. I love the look of the grim hammers but I am not going to get them since I already have a huge erebor army and I do not want to start a hobbit dwarf one. I like the hunter orcs but I am not starting another list just fort hese orcs. I like the elven cavalry but.... Well you get the idea.
Will not buy the white council. Too much for figures I already have. Might buy the plastic eagles since they can be used in LoTR armies. But I have two metal gwahir models and two old GW LoTR eagles as well.

Come on GW get over yourself.

January releases and Red Box Games Kickstarter

The eagles will be released in January, thanks to those at Warseer for the pics of the 40k stuff that did not exactly cut off The Hobbit releases from the next page.  Looks like Gwahir will be finecast and the regular giant eagles will be plastic.   Based on pics from the hardcover rulebook the plastic eagles look pretty nice.
I participated in Red Box Games Kickstarter earlier in the year and just recieved my pledge packs.   They are very well detailed minis.   Cast in what appears to be something similar to finecast.  I will take some pics and post them up once I am done ....multitasking.  These minis are exactly the same scale as GW LoTr and would make excellent replacements for some elites from GW.
Below are front and back pics as well as pics of a size comparison.

Good overview of Dystopian Legions and Hobbit SBG

Here is the link.

Our group has really enjoyed Dystopian Wars, I hope to view a game of the skirmish based Dystopian Legions one day.  There seems to be a great deal of depth ( i.e. complexity...I mean come on, it uses 3 different colors of dice!) especially when cards get involved.  That is not a bad thing but it can put a bit of a barrier between newbs picking up the game when there are none around to give demos.

GW has released updated FAQ's for The Hobbit ( that was fast) as well as the older Army Codices
Here, just click on the left hand side menu.
A couple of interesting things.
Riders of Rohan no longer count toward bow limit!
Same thing for the Rivendell knights.

Still pretty upset over the cost of the new hardcover rulebook.  Smaller than all the other core game systems and really filled with some obvious fluff.  There is a section that is just pictures of minis, no new pics, just copied and pasted into a section.  The hobby section is also really really lacking, nothing about building terrain and a very limited number of painting examples.
$85 for this?  Come on GW.  Your raising prices all the time, while your sales are going down.  Coincidence? I think not.  People are really not seeing the value in your miniatures, especially finecast.  You make great mini's GW, you really do, but the cost of finecast along with it's quality problems as well as the constant price increases on everything else are driving people away from your products.  There is a lot more competition in the table top gaming business.  You will not win in the direction you are going.  Low Price, quality, quantity.....pick two.   I really only see you, GW, picking one.

The Hobbit Starter set:Escape from Goblin Town

So, I already posted the contents of the starter set, but a few more details have become apparent as some early sets have leaked out.  Well, there are apparently no POINTS VALUES FOR ANY OF THE MODELS IN THE STARTER SET.  Profiles, yes, points value, no.  Now I thought the price of the starter set was a bit high, but within reason as the set contains 55 models, scenery, rulers, dice and a mini rule book.
To put this into perspective:
Well, it is more than that. I personally spent $185.00 on the source books that were released earlier in the year so I could play with the latest army building changes and have all the point values for the models I already own. Well, I purchased the starter set so I could incorporate some of the starter models that I wanted to use/like into the armies that I already have, as well as get a handle on the new rules. If there are truly no points values for any of the models in the starter set anywhere in the starter set, then I will just send it back.  Let me tell you something Games Workshop, a starter set is not just for getting people into the game, you are revamping the game and a lot of us who are long time players are interested in those revamps.  Well, this starter set is not good for anything other then the couple of scenarios that you, GW, have in the set. How will this get people to buy more models?  Oh, you want them to buy the $85 dollar rule book?  They will not do that, you might sell one or the other but not both a rule book and a starter set.

Maybe that is your plan.

Hey all you vets, just get the rule book, don't buy the starter set.

Hey all you people interested in starting the game, don't buy the rule book, just buy a starter set. Which does not really lend itself to other purchases without getting the full size rule book or a LoTR source book, which you may not understand.

Updating later

SBG rules changes we know about

I will update this as I learn more:

There is hero synergy, i.e. two heroes next to each other increase each other effectiveness in some way.
There are The Hobbit specific scenarios in the new rule book as well as some from The War of The Ring period ( not rule book/company/formation rules)

There are four new heroic actions:
Heroic Channeling, which gives access to more powerful spells
Heroic Accuracy, which gives an accuracy boost to archery
Heroic Strike, which gives a boost in combat
Heroic March, which gives a movement boost

All monsters gain three power attacks: Barge, Hurl and Rend.
Apparently, Hurl gives you the ability to pick up enemies and throw them.
Rend is apparently useful against models with high defense.

Hand weapons such as swords and daggers allow you to Feint (no clue on what it does)
Two-handed weapons allow you to Bash.

The game remains fully compatible with the current source books.

Hobbit info

So, this is what the tubes with cats say: edited 11-20 fyi 1 euro is about 1.25 dollars

Escape from Goblin Town Limited Edition: 100€ (56 figures!)
Hobbit Rulebook: 65€ (288 pages)
Hobbit Paint Set: 35€
Custom Figure Case: 50€
The White Council: 60€ (4 fig box)
The Trolls: 65€ (3 figure box)
Goblins of the Misty Mountains: 30€ (18 figure box)
Goblin Town: 45€ (scenery set?)
Hunter Orcs: 30€ (12 fig box)
Hunter Orcs on Fell Wargs: 35€ (6 fig box)
Bolg: 20€ (clampack)
Narzug: 15€ (clampack)
Goblin Captain: 13€ (clampack)
Fimbul the Hunter (ft & mtd): 35€

Everything is plastic except the clampacks and the White Council. Yes, the Trolls are plastic.

LoTR:SBG will be renamed The Hobbit:SBG

There will be a new boxed set : Escape from Goblin Town, which will have about 48 miniatures a mini rule book and some scenery.  It will be about $100,

There will be some changes to the rules, but I do not know what they will be and they are supposed to be minor.

New FAQ and DMCA

Here are the new FAQ's.

some notes:
Command/Transfix/immobilize etc just became better, because now you can no longer support that model with a spear :( and special rules that need to be activated can not be used.

Gildor just became usable.

Kings Huntsman special became more useless.

Galadhrim knights move full through woods with charge bonus.




There will be a new LoTR FAQ very soon according to GW on Facebook.
Also the radagast images are being pulled down on all the LoTR forums.  Whoops.  Get it while you can.

Radagast in plastic

Thanks to some one ring members and a Russian site we have our first look at a new Hobbit mini. http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=23932&start=40#p292755
You will have to click the link until I get the pics up.

Battle company blog and news

So, word on the street ( kids effect on my brain......I can only picture Murray from sesame street when I type that ) ........
anyway, The Hobbit minis from games workshop will be out on Nov. 3rd.  There will probably be a journey book ( ala The Fellowhip/TTT/RotK ) and maybe a new version of the core  rule book as well.  Looking forward to seeing what kind of starter set gets released.

Also, there is a battle companies blog.  It has the core upgrade/company requirements as well as some other  companies outside the originals.

Army construction

This has been brewing in my head for a short while. Our whole gang's army list creation meta is pretty similar. We tend to be competitive so our lists are full of F4(or higher) and high defence units. We have almost completely embraced this meta with some slight variations between us. Everyone used to play a themed army centered around one of the army list from Legions of Middle Earth, we also tended to max out on bows, except Fracas, who swears they are a waste.
The new warband rules have changed the meta a little, but it has had the largest impact concerning allies.  The new rules make it easier to have rangers in your minas tirith army, or have those cheap heroes without having to worry about the ally rules that were the backbone of Legions of Middle Earth.  What I have seen it do away with is themed armies.  Now there are shades in almost every evil army, and every evil army has easy access to nazgul without having to worry about ally restrictions.  Both are a cheap and effective single model that can go to any evil army and make a significant impact.  Shade in your easterling army? Sure.  How about that Harad army? sure.  I am not really sure what to make of this yet or if it will really change the style of play in the way that the deployment rules have, we shall see.....

more finecast re releases for August 15th

Which should be the week after the new 40K starter box is released.  GW really seems to be pushing out these finecast conversions.

Haldir with Bow 15-Sep-12 $16.50-Unarmored with Bow
hobbits of the Shire 15-Sep-12 $19.75-Will contain Lobelia SB
Saruman the White 15-Sep-12 $16.50
Galadriel Protectress of Lothlorien 15-Sep-12 $16.50
Kings of Men 15-Sep-12 $29.75
Mauhur 15-Sep-12 $16.50
Sharky and Worm 15-Sep-12 $29.75
Corsair Bo'Sun and Captain 15-Sep-12 $24.75
Mounted Ringwraith 1 15-Sep-12 $24.75
Mounted Ringwraith 2 15-Sep-12 $24.75
Mounted Ringwraith 3 15-Sep-12 $24.75
Haradrim Hasharin 15-Sep-12 $16.50
The Three Hunters 15-Sep-12 $36.25
Shagrat 15-Sep-12 $16.50

New 28mm skirmish

And we have pictures, courtesy of Tabletop Fix, Those tanks are quite large! Can not wait to see the walkers.

As many of you do not  know(but it is now revealed!!!) our group has been dabbling in the Spartan Games Dystopian wars tabletop game.  We have found the models to be quite good and the game mechanics to be fun and contain a high level of player interaction.  None of this I get to move/attack/roll all my dice for 15 minutes, then you get to go.  Well, fresh out of GenCon comes Dystopian Legions.  Time will tell at the size of this skirmish game and it's mechanics.  According the the web site the armies will have access to mini-tanks, walkers, grunts and special leaders capable of....something.  If spartan games can pull off a fun mechanic, I am sure they can do the models, then I would bet they have a winner on their hands.

Someone somewhere may be in some trouble...

This is posted elsewhere, and may be complete rubbish, but when have we ever shied away from rubbish?

This is a lost, of supposedly leaked names of units/boxes from GW coming out next year for their The Hobbit range.

This does not contain sets that are already in production.
Seems like I will have to save some money, since GW stuff is so expensive now.
Some will be finecast as well......"shiver"
GOOD

Dwarves: Kili & Fili & Longbeard Archers 
Dwarves: Bombur with Kettle 
Dwarves: Drogo Baggins & The Tavern Maid 
Dwarves: Dáin & Iron Hill Berserkers 
Dwarves: King Thráin & Longbeard Vanguard 
Dwarves: Young Thorin & Longbeard Mattockguard 
Dwarves: King Thrór 
Dwarves: Dragon Mithril Company of Dwarves 
Dwarves: Dáin Ironfoot & Iron Hill Boar Riders 
Dwarves: Dís, Mother of Kili and Fili 
Dwarves: Gimli (Stubble) 
Dwarves: Samwise Gamgee (Red Book) 

White Council: Mounted Rivendell Nobles 
White Council: Lindir the Harper 
White Council: Arwen & Estel 
White Council: Galadriel (Barrel) 
White Council: Radagast with Roäc & Swoop 
White Council: Galadriel (Water Steed) 
White Council: The War Council 
White Council: Galadriel & Lórien Drumhooves 
White Council: Chief Aravir & Dúnedain Rangers 
White Council: Dúnedain Runecaster 
White Council: Elrond & Rivendell Spearguard 
White Council: Elros & Rivendell Outriders 
White Council: Radagast's Chariot / Spellfire Cart 
White Council: Cirdan the Shipwright 

Men of Esgaroth: King Girion 
Men of Esgaroth: Fram the Watchman 
Men of Esgaroth: The Master of Lake-Town 
Men of Esgaroth: Bard & Greystreak Bowmen 
Men of Esgaroth: Bain & Quickstrings Gang / Trout Guild Militia 
Men of Esgaroth: Alfrid & Loyal Town Guard 
Men of Esgaroth: Garf & Footsoldiers of the Dale 


Beornings: Woodmen Healer 
Beornings: Fair Daughter 
Beornings: Meneldor & Swiftbeak Flock 
Beornings: Gorm & Woodmen Axethrowers / Skin-Changers 
Beornings: Whisperbark / Gnarlfir 
Beornings: Black Bear Pack 
Beornings: Enraged Beorn 
Beornings: Grimbeorn (Greataxe) 

Silvan Elves: Legolas & Mirkwood Fire Archers 
Silvan Elves: Mirkwood Warhost 
Silvan Elves: King Thranduil (Battle Garb) 
Silvan Elves: Tauriel (Mounted) 
Silvan Elves: Castellan Amroth 

Smaug the Golden 
Gandalf (Dual Sword) 
Turin, The Dragonslayer 

EVIL

Smaug the Golden 

Mountain Orcs: Azog & Orc Needlers 
Mountain Orcs: Azog (Wounded) 
Mountain Orcs: Bolg & Great Goblin Bodyguard 
Mountain Orcs: Armoured Hill-Trolls / Frenzied Trolls 
Mountain Orcs: Orc Stone Thrower 

Wargs: Dire Warg 
Wargs: Grinnah & Mirkwood Werewolves 
Wargs: Feral Wolf Pack 
Wargs: The Werebeast 
Wargs: Lagdush & Orc Wolfcloak Warriors 
Wargs: Narzug & Orc Warg-Riders 
Wargs: Dol Guldur Orc Overlords 
Wargs: Orc Chieftain on Warg 
Wargs: Orc Wolfbone Shaman 

Dol Guldur: Leaping Spiders / Shiverfang Spiders 
Dol Guldur: Spiderlings 
Dol Guldur: The Willowhags 
Dol Guldur: Bloodwraiths 
Dol Guldur: Gwethil 
Dol Guldur: The Necromancer / Flesh Avatar 
Dol Guldur: Narzug & Orc Summoner Coven 
Dol Guldur: Tomb Wights 
Dol Guldur: Mounted Tomb Wights 
Dol Guldur: Saruman & The Ringwraiths 
Dol Guldur: Vampire Bat Swarms 

Grey Mountain Dragons: Fire-wyrms 
Grey Mountain Dragons: Braga & Goldscale Worshippers 
Grey Mountain Dragons: Venomblade Assassin 
Grey Mountain Dragons: Goldscale Priest 
Grey Mountain Dragons: Bofur on Cold-Drake 
Grey Mountain Dragons: Dragon Thrall 
Grey Mountain Dragons: Money Bags & Hired Knives 
Grey Mountain Dragons: Fell Hatchlings 

ADVENTURES

Adventure: Gandalf's Quest 
Adventure: The Battle at the East Gate 
Adventure: The Fall of Dale 
Adventure: The Belltower 
Adventure: A Thief in the Night 
Adventure: The Clearing of Foul Roots 
Adventure: Assault on the Barrows 
Adventure: Clash of the Beasts 
Adventure: The Last Stand 
Adventure: The Raven Hill 
Adventure: Thorin's Folly 
Adventure: The Battle of Five Armies 
Adventure: Breaking the Siege 
Adventure: Revenge of the Goblin King 
Adventure: Blacksoil Slope 
Adventure: The Final Onslaught 
Adventure: The Clouds Burst 
Adventure: The Ritual 
Adventure: The Haunted Tombs 
Adventure: The Blight Breach 
Adventure: Gollum's Escape

So here we go again...another big finecast relaunch

With daaa da daaaaahh, another price increase.  You can now get 4, count them 4, finecast LoTR models for the price of $26.50, which is what we used to pay just last year plastic kit with 20/24 soldiers or get you 2 metal blisters of 3.  And honestly,figures that are cast in finecast (AKA:resin) blow.  I have had to get replacements for every one, ranging from missing faces to big visible bubbles obscuring detail to subsurface bubbles causing the model to bend.
here is a list of what will be new or relaunched in August:

On another note I have been working on a couple of posts but have been crazy busy at work.  I will get to them soon.....

How to remove the filth...or paint from a miniature

Edit: Both those figs were stripped, the one on the right was then primed black with P3 black spray primer.
I have also painted straight on the figures without priming them, which also worked fine.  As you can see in the pic not all the primer came off with the soak in the power dissolver, which may work out well if that saves me a step.

I have had in my possession some poorly painted haradrim (not by me, although I have done plenty of poor paint jobs).  Since I started playing them again I wanted to strip them and paint them to match the rest of my army.  I have in the past used pine-sol and/or simple green.  I have never had real good luck with simple green so I had returned to using pine-sol, until a couple of weeks ago when I soaked some plastic BFG imperial cruisers and they got all soft and melty :(.  Sooooo I googled with a few terms ( can not remember which right now ) and up popped and interesting post on the Cool Mini or Not forums about this stuff called fairy power spray.  There was even a video of a chap over the pond using it to strip an eldar fire serpant or falcon or something.  Seemed to work pretty good so I googled some more ( twice in one day...does that mean I will go blind or grow fur on my palms or something?)  and found that in the states it is called Dawn Power Dissolver.  So I googled again ( so going to hell.....oh, wait...) and found that wal mart carries the stuff.  Since it is on the way to my FLGS I picked some up( @ $3:50 for 12 oz/350mls), which is in the dishwasher detergent section BTW.  I tried just spraying it on an letting it sit in a closed container overnight.  Which did take off some of the paint but not all of it, so I bit the bullet and dumped ( it is kind of a gel ) the whole thing into the container and threw in about a dozen plastic haradrim.  Well, I was a bit put-off by the way it looked the next day, the paint had clearly gotten soft and was staining an area in the gel around each figure.  Pulling them out of the gel and letting the excess  fall back into the container also showed evidence of soft paint.  There was still a great deal that was on the mini when I put it under running water to start scrubbing.  Well, much to my surprise a great portion of the paint simply washed right off the mini without any scrubbing!  Giving the mini a brief scrub removes 90%+ of the paint, I could even tell that these had been primed white since most of the primer came off as well.  The biggest problem, which is true for most stripping procedures, is the gooey mess the paint becomes.  It even softened the glue ( I think it was some cyanoacrylate ), so be careful.  There was still a light coating of white primer, enough to make the dark grey plastic a little less grey, but it was really a stain in the plastic than a coating at that point.  Overall I will definitely be moving to this for future stripping needs.  The gel in the container does become stained with the paint and gets darker each time, but after two dozen mini's stripped there does not seem to be any loss of performance. So if you have problems with simple green like me  try Dawn Power Dissolver.  Recommended by Jobu. They should give me some sponsorship.........

The new filth

A previous GT winner posted a couple of lists-as I have said before, reavers are filth......combine them with a shade and they become just stupid.......previously it was hard to get them in the same list due to legions of middle earth restrictions.


All lists are 1v1 lists for games with a model limit of 75.

========
500:

3 Corsair Captains
24 Reavers
7 Watchers of Karna with Bows
5 Haradrim with Bows and Spears

Total 39 models, 12 bows, 6 Might.

==========
750:

Dalamyr, Fleetmaster of Umbar (or 2 Captains)
1 Captain
1 Bosun
1 Shade

24 Reavers
6 Watchers with Bows
6 Haradrim with Bows and Spears
11 Orcs with spears (10 shields)
1 with banner

750, 52 models, 3 Might.

=========
1000: 

3 Captains
2 Bosuns
1 Shade

39 Reavers
12 Watchers with Bows
8 Haradrim with Bow and Spears
9 Orcs with Spears
1 Orc with Banner

999, 75 models, 20 bowmen, 6 Might.


Shadow Lord
Dark Marshal / Undying / Tainted (??) / Another Named Wraith?
Shade
3 Bosuns

21 Orcs with Spears
11 Orcs with Spears and Bows
21 Reavers
11 Watchers with Bows

Total 998 points, 70 models, Shade, Anti-Arrow, 2x Wraiths. 22 Bows. 

=================

For those who are not aware: A Reaver with Spear Support, Banner effect and Shade effect kills Khazad Guards in a ratio of 7:1.