Good morning guys how are you?

My name is Andy and I am a magpie hobbyist!

I am seriously thinking about getting back in to the SBG after a very long hiatus!

I loved the game when growing up through school and college, and now I am old enough to buy all the toys I really want to get back in to the game. I was wondering if any of you guys knew if there were any events ran regularly in the UK, preferably beginner friendly?

Also where would you start with collecting again, what rule books and accessories will I need? I have always been a lover of the good human armies like Rohan and Minas Tirith, so that is what I aim to collect.

I look forward to your advise.

Regards

Andy - @Praetoriian

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Fool of a Took!
I take army commisions!

1-Rohan and Gondor you can find in ABUNDANCE on ebay for fair prices. This is by far 100% guarantee the best way to start a new army for a decent price. Anything different someone says will not be as true.
2-You need the Kingdoms of Men rulebook for all man related rules. In terms of Hobbit rules, you can find a paperback copy of them on ebay as well for the easiest find and cheapest one. Otherwise they are in a box set of models youre not interested in with Dwarves and Goblins.
3-Rohan is tough to play as a new player. Theyre a glass hammer, and very finicky. You have to play like real Rohan would fight. Move and shoot a lot, and then charge in when you have a decisive advantage.
4-There are tournaments all over the UK especially Britain. I dont have links because unfortunately(in terms of events) I dont live there.
Check the section of this forum for events and whatnot. The GBHL is huge. They have good players of course but also they are friendly people and can teach you a lot. Id probably still suggest going to smaller local tournaments at first, but Id still say look them up. They have a facebook page as well somewhere with updates on events and their locations.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

Hi Andy,

I'm in much the same boat as you, just an extra month down the line! So here's what I found out that you'll want to know:-

On events

LOTR went through a bit of a dead stage for a good chunk of the last decade, but over the last two years has been making quite the revival. A lot of people are in the same boat as you and me, and thinking back on it with fond memories, are returning to their roots I think. The result has been a flourishing independent event/tournament circuit based heavily around an organisation called the Great British Hobbit League (or GBHL) which runs things to do up and down the country. One of their most recent events in Stockport had over a hundred players! You can find them on Facebook here:-

https://www.facebook.com/groups/472128942815892/?fref=ts

I'm planning on making my way over to the East Grinstead event in a month and a half or so, and am quite looking forward to it.


On rules

The rules are a bit awkward right now, and centred across multiple books. The main rulebook (with all the core mechanics of the game) can be found in the main 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey' rulebook, as seen here:-


http://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/The-Hobbit-An-Unexpected-Journey-EN

It's quite bulky and pricey, but there's a pocket sized version available with the 'Escape from Goblin Town set'. It usually comes up on Ebay for a bit less money. The downside to this is that the larger version also comes with the rules for some Hobbit-centric models/warbands that can't be found anywhere else and aren't included in the pocket sized version. So if you want a complete set of rules, you'll grab both, one for those rules, and one for easy play use.

There's also been fresh Hobbit warband rules released in 'The Desolation of Smaug' expansion:-


http://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/The-Hobbit-The-Desolation-of-Smaug-EN

as well ones from their Five Armies expansion, which are available to download for free here:-

http://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/The-Hobbit-The-Battle-of-the-Five-Armies-Strategy-Battle-Game-PDF

Virtually all of the original LOTR armies on the other handcan be found within one of these five sourcebooks:-

Mordor (which carries rules purely for the Mordor Army List)


Moria and Angmar (Which, unsurprisingly, carries rules for those two factions)


Kingdoms of Men (which contains rules for Rohan, Gondor, the Fiefdoms of Gondor, and Arnor)


The Free Peoples (Which has rules for the Dwarves, High Elves, Wood Elves, White Council, Wanderers in the Wilds, The Fellowship, & The Shire)


and the Fallen Realms (with rules for Isengard, Harad & Umbar, & The Eastern Kingdoms).



Unfortunately, all but the first two are out of print, and the remainder go for high prices on Ebay (up to fifty pounds!) Let me know if you have difficulty sourcing the Kingdoms of Men one though, and I'll see if I can help you out.

On Collecting

The LOTR game was on GW's backburner for quite some time due to poor sales. With the recent revival and a change of heart towards specialist games though, GW is advertising for fresh model designers and rules producers for LOTR literally right now, so we'll probably get a revival of support from the company in a year or so.

Right now though, many models are out of print, and hard to find. There's a number of recasters on Ebay who charge extortionate prices for copies of some figures, so if you're willing to put your hand in your wallet, you can usually find 99% of things, but high demand models that were produced towards the end of the game manufacture can be pricey.

The current ruleset dictates that you need a minimum of one hero for every twelve warriors your have, so you tend to find far more Heroes in armies these days. Gondor is lucky in that they have a pair of super cheap heroes though, that allow them to bulk their forces out quickly without having to spend many points (Damrod and Beregond). So if you're hoping to field Minas Tirith, I'd pick those two up first, along with a large batch of standard Warriors and Knights. If you supplement them with some Citadel Guard with Longbows, some Guards of the Fountain Court (with shields added) and one or two more heroes of your choice, you'll have a flexible and usable army in no time.

Great post Ketara.

I’ll just add one thing. You can actually download all the profiles from An Unexpected Journey from http://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Rul ... bit-errata

Hey guys,

Thank you for the amazing replies, it has been a great help.

I've also finally been accepted in to the Great British Hobbit League on Facebook.

I've started to trawl ebay for LOTR bits, managed to bag myself the mini rulebook and the White Dwarf with Five Armies booklet in, still need to acquire the big book and DOS. Though It looks like the Kingdoms of Men book is going to be hard to acquire, at the moment there is only one on ebay and they want £50 for it. Maybe I will just have to be patient an keep looking for one.

I think my first purchase will be the basic box of Minas Tirith Warriors and a character model, then once they are built and painted keep adding more as a slow grow project. I see that GW still actually produces quite a few of the Minas Tirith box sets and blisters etc so they should still be easy to get hold of.

I will let you know my progress when there is some. Thanks again especially to Ketara, that was an amazing post, way more information than I expected to get!

Kind regards

Andy - @Praetoriian

_________________
Fool of a Took!
I take army commisions!

That sounds like a good plan. I'm just starting to piece together my Mordor army. Hopefully we'll get a game at one of the events!

Oh, and check your inbox. I sent you something that might be of help.

Thanks Ketara for the information again, appreciate it a lot, yeah maybe, I hope to have a force ready for around May, so will start to sign up for events then I reckon.

I've been able to acquire my first lot of Minas Tirith models and they arrived in the post today. Got a box of warriors which I think I will be converting so I can dual purpose them as Osgiliath Veterens, and I also got the metal Knight with banner, I really like this model so will definitely need some knights to accompany him in the future.

I also have some bids on ebay for some captains and rarer characters so will have to wait and see on those.

I am tempted to start a project log on my force as a beginners perspective, so keep an eye out for that.

Regards

Andy - @Praetoriian

_________________
Fool of a Took!
I take army commisions!