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:

  1. 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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  2. 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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  3. 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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