The Lord of the Rings: Armies of Middle Earth: War of the Ring

Wednesday, 4 February 2009

War of the Ring

Guy and I are very excited about the new War of the Ring mass combat rules from GW. They don't come out until April, it seems, which is just as well as we will need to get a lot more figures painted! I don't know much about the rules yet although having asked a few Games Workshop guys they are not based on Warhammer.

A few interesting things I have picked up. They use units of eight figures which you can combine into bigger units but that effects their manoeuverability, which is an interesting one I haven't come across before but seems perfectly logical when you think about it. There is a one stage wounding process; not the Warhammer hit followed by wound sequence. Heroes are very important in effecting the fighting abilities of the unit they are with. There will be new command figures and special bases for the figures. The book is really thick, apparently, and contains all the army lists. Can't wait!

Having painted 12 Uruk Hai in a day yestarday I am thinking that this must be an army to go for and possibly Gondor, who are equally quick to paint. I have also wanted to do the Last Alliance Second Age battle between Elves and Men and Sauron's orcs on Mount Dooom.

I wonder whether the reason for the whole thing (other than selling a lot more figures, naturally) is the imminent arrival of the two new Hobbit films and the ability to do the Battle of Five Armies?

3 comments:

paulos18 February 2009 at 21:56
Just trying to get a handle on what is coming out for the new War of the Ring release.

I saw this release schedule on a UK shop: War of the Ring Releases

However I haven't seen them elsewhere not even on GW's own site, can this be right?

Cheers
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legatus hedlius19 February 2009 at 05:49
The guy I spoke to didn't have a date but he did say April so that could be right. The new command sets are largely because the rules require a musician figure and they haven't done those before.
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Charles Feduke10 March 2009 at 06:54
I recently demoed this system last Sunday - you may be able to find a local GW retailer who has a copy of the rules. GW has done a very good job with the mass battle rule set, the game is fast (the theme of dice reduction common to WHFB and WH40K is, as you said, gone) and is a pleasure to play. A lot of stuff releases April 4th, though the infantry and cavalry bases have already been released so you can get the drudgework out of the way before the new book hits the shelves.

The War of the Ring rule book is full color and does indeed contain all of the updated stats for every army and every model.
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Wargaming Middle Earth

I confess that I had never been a fan of The Lord of the Rings until Peter Jackson's monumental films came out. I had never read the books and had, years before, given up on The Hobbit half way through. Now I have read most of them (I am still struggling to finish the Return of the King) and whilst acknowledging their influence and scope still don't think they are particularly readable.

No, for me , it was the fantastic images created by the film that inspired me. Oddly, when Games Workshop came out with their Fellowship of the Ring boxed set I didn't buy it as I couldn't see how you could turn a film featuring largely invincible heroes into a satisfactory game.

It wasn't until D'Agostini came out with their Battlegames in Middle Earth part-work that I got interested, at the prompting of my little boy, Guy, and subsequently subscribed to the magazine; eventually collecting every issue.

I painted the 12 goblins included in the first issue in a day and my little boy and I immediately played a game using these and the cardboard Aragorn included as well.

Since then I must have acquired hundreds of figures, although very few are painted. Most are designed by the Perry brothers and are, as a result, completely gorgeous. Some of them are truly remarkable portraits, in 25mm, of the actors who played the parts in the films.

Occasionally, LotR games are played at Guildford but the main driver for me in getting more figures done is Guy, who loves playing the game.

So over the next year or so I will see how many more of these splendid figures I can get onto the gaming table and even have a go at making some scenic items.