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.