The Ultimate Middle-Earth SBG Thread

That would honestly have been so much better - GW could have finally replaced those horrendously expensive Forge World Iron Hills Dwarves with some plastic ones released first through this box and then later on their own. It's a pity the models for old Dain and Thorin III were Forge World, because they could also have been saved to be released in plastic in the boxed game.

We could have got:
Dain Ironfoot and Thorin III in plastic
24 new plastic Iron Hills Dwarf Warriors (especially if they had customisable Spear, Mattock or Crossbow options)
6 new plastic Iron Hills Goat Riders, or a plastic version of either the Iron Hills Chariot or Ballista

vs

The Dragon-Emperor of Rhun (if he had been made in plastic)
12 Easterlings
12 of the new Black Dragons or Dragon Cult Acolytes (if they had been in plastic)
6 Kataphrakts

Something like that would honestly have looked great, I would have considered buying that, but instead they want everyone to buy into the human factions and consign all of the actual fantasy races to Forge World

 

Looking for a new project?

The wargames Atlantic late Roman legionaries boxed set, with the addition of a head from the wargames Atlantic goblins set, make convincing orcs.

Both sets used in this conversion are available in my wargames Atlantic section, with individual sprues also available separately.

 

A nice idea, though GW already have good-value plastic Mordor and Morannon Orc boxes for standard Middle-Earth Orcs, so there's not much reason why an Evil player would want to go a different route, unless for some strange reason they really didn't like the way the Orcs looked in the PJ films and prefer the Angus McBride illustrations upon which the WA Goblins are based.

 

Apparently what an AI program made from the term "Gondolin".

I fucking love it.



Also a client sent in this shot of some elves he bought from me.

 

So, these are the wargames Atlantic Romans. But I keep thinking that, with an appropriate color scheme and white tree, they could masquerade as Gondorians

 

If you're not specifically interested in replicating Gondor from the films and just want a representative of Gondorian troops from the books, then possibly.

 

Remember my guides to converting Middle Earth models that are otherwise overly-expensive and lacking in poseability if one goes via the 'official' route? Well @ChapterAquila92 has given me a lead into making some of my ideas much easier to facilitiate.

Unreleased Miniatures has been making all sorts of metal and resin models and bits for Middle-Earth-themed races and factions. Though their unit packs of three figures are still a bit too expensive to be practical for forming Warbands, their individual character figures are a lot more affordable than GW ones, plus the jewel in the crown is the range of shields and heads they make for converting Middle-Earth models.

For instance, my idea of using Galadhrim Elf Warriors as Elves of Rivendell:

Is now much easier to achieve with the packs of Rivendell Elf heads and shields they offer:



Not to mention that the icing on the cake is that the Galadhrim Elves are a bit more multipart than most of the Middle-Earth plastics, with both their heads and shields being separate from the bodies:

 

And similarly, my idea of using Fireforge's Stone Realm Dwarves as Iron Hills Dwarves:

Can be made all the more a reality by swapping the Fireforge rectangular shields that come with the Stone Realm kits for these metal Iron Hills-style ones:

Plus offering a pack of two Goats:

So that if the Fireforge Rambukk Raider riders fit, these can be used to make Goat Riders while the Fireforge Rams can be saved to serve as the steeds for a chariot proxy if you can find one.

 

That should work, given the size of the rams.

The last alliance heads and shields are nothing new. Mainly, When I was still taking 3D printing orders last year before I paused: I got a lot of requests for medbury miniatures Shields and heads.

 

Not long ago I heard from the owner of my newest local FLGS that Middle-Earth will allegedly be getting a new Edition (presumably some time after the upcoming Arnor scenario book). To be honest I don't see why that would be necessary (unless it's another revised edition that simply collating all the FAQs released over the past couple of years together) as of course a lot of people say it's the most balanced it's ever been, but one thing I would like to see is a change in army selection rules.

I know I've mentioned it before, but for the benefit of those who weren't around at the time of the thread's early posts, the one thing I really do not like about the SBG in its current state is the 'Warband' method of army selection, where you have to take a number of heroes plus Warriors alongside them, and that you can have heroes without Warriors but not Warriors without Heroes. This format first appeared in February 2012, in an attempt I believe to introduce more restrictions for competitive play (as part of a set of five Lord of the Rings Sourcebooks specifically designed for more competitive play than the previous sets of Sourcebooks), but I really think it did this the wrong way, principally because it reeks of GW wanting to push more hero models.

However I've not thought of an alternative until now.

I've lately been reading up all I can on the long-lost version of the SBG called War of the Ring. Released in April 2009, it essentially embodied a separate version of the SBG into a rank-and-flank wargame inspired in part by Warhammer Fantasy while also basing a lot of its mechanics on the SBG. I only ever got to play it once at my nearest Games Workshop, but it was a lot of fun. Sadly it seemed to lose steam and vanish by late 2011/early 2012 down to balance issues and it competing with Warhammer Fantasy and requiring more models than the latter to play, but I still keep thinking about it and wanting to have another go at it. I've even found a revised version of it called War in Arda, pioneered on the One Ring forum, that adds in rules for all the Hobbit units and factions and reduces the number of models required to have a good game of it.

One of the things I like a lot about War of the Ring is its army selection rules, based around Warriors rather than Heroes as it should be:

• Formations of Warriors are divided into Common (run of the mill troops), Rare (elites) and Legendary (special formations headed by special characters, probably the inspiration of Legendary Legions in the current version of the SBG).
• Your army can contain any number of Common formations, but no more than half your points can be spent on Rare formations.
• Your army can also contain any number of Heroes and Legendary formations, so long as each Hero or Legendary formation is only taken once (can't have multiple versions of the same character running around... looking at you Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes).

It's probably a pipe dream as the current Middle-Earth team are as obsessed with the Warband format as they are with pushing the four main factions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy over every other army, but if there were to be a new edition, I'd love to see the Warband format scrapped and replaced with the War of the Ring version as follows:

• All Warrior types are divided into Common or Rare
• Your army can take any number of Common Warrior models or Heroes (so long as each hero is only taken once)
• Up to half your points (or models perhaps, as per Bow Limit) can be spent on Rare Warrior models
• Keep the existing rules for Bow Limit and Legendary Legions (whatever the existing rules for Legendary Legions are, @Imrahil it'd be great if you could confirm).

Simple but an effective way of stopping armies from being filled with elites, and stopping players from being forced to buy and convert a load of Heroes.

If they did this it'd really encourage me to get back into the SBG.