Journey Book Content

malky23 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 14, 2013 1:25 am

Hey guys, wondering if some of yous could help me out a bit here. Im not exactly new to the hobby but more returning to it after about 10 years as I finally have all the time in the world at the moment! I decided to dig out all my old minis as a way of preventing me from wasting all my time in front of the TV :-D

My question is what exactly is the content that is in the LotR journey books?

This may seem a ridiculous question to you all but I have never been interested in gaming, just the painting and modelling of scenery etc. For this reason I have completely overlooked all of the books thinking that they were all just about game rules and scenarios. However since stumbling upon a thread on here about a scenery project I heard about the Journey books and how they have terrain guides in them. Is there much information about scenery building in them which would make it worthwhile for me to buy or is it mostly gaming related? There is not a Games Workshop anywhere close to me that I could go and look in so I rely heavily on the internet.

I have hundreds of figures just sitting around in boxes and laid out loosely on a wooden board with a few polystyrene shapes as [a very poor excuse for] scenery which is how I left them many years ago due to time restrictions and hundreds more on sprues that I have bought recently on ebay in anticipation of building some scenes!

As I now have loads of time to spare, I would love to start building some scenes from the movies which I am just totally obsessed with for somewhere to display my models!

So if yous reckon the books are good for my needs or if there are any other books that you would recommend I would be grateful of the help!

Thanks in advance for any help guys!

Farmer Maggot · **Posted:** Mon Oct 14, 2013 10:55 am

The 3 journey books provide a good mix of scenarios, scenery and painting.

They each follow the story with scenarios and include scenery projects for the scenarios along with painting guides (although the painting guides are not detailed just a list of colours to use, and not the new range).

The scenery projects start quite simple with rocky outcrops and end with Minas Tirith.

Here is a list of the scenery projects:

Fellowship of the Ring
* Rocky Outcrops
* Hills
* Building a table
* Rivers
* Ferry, ford & jetty
* Amon Sûl
* The Mines of Moria
* Balin’s Tomb
* Dwarrowdelf
* Amon Hen

The Two Towers
* Craggy Hills
* Rohan Buildings
* Undergrowth & rough terrain
* Orthanc Scaffolds
* Emyn Muil
* The Dead Marshes
* Osgiliath Ruins
* The Deeping Wall
* Breached wall
* The Gatehouse
* Curved Wall

The Return of the King
* Minas Tirith—Walls
* Minas Tirith—Towers
* Minas Tirith—Gate
* Pyre

Hope that helps, if you can find the old Battle Games in Middle Earth magazines they have some good painting and scenery guides too (especially the later ones).

malky23 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 14, 2013 11:04 am

Ah OK that's a good help thanks! Are the scenery project quite detailed then or are they just more like guidelines really, like they were in the original box set books? I have a two towers book that came with the box set but the book only has like a 2 page spread of pictures of someone building an awesome looking helms deep! Always wanted to build something that detailed and awesome but couldn't find a guide!

I do actually have basically the full set of battle games magazines minus a few random ones I missed but I really stopped looking at them at about issue 50 or so therefore many of them are still unopened. I feel slightly reluctant to open them incase I lose interest again soon (not likely) as they would be worth more sealed! Might go and dig them out though and have a bit of a look through!

Thanks for the reply!

Beowulf03809 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 14, 2013 3:14 pm

The terrain projects in the Journey books are very well detailed and also add nicely on each other as they set some up for reuse through the book (and even across books if I remember correctly).

I think the scenarios (which sometimes pull in from the book where the movies did not go) are fantastic as well.

Dr Grant · **Joined:** Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:50 pm **Posts:** 1339

I'd just like to echo what others have said really. The terrain guides in the journey books are fantastic and very detailed. However, you mention having BGIME and the terrain guides in there are also absolutely fantastic, progressing from really simple stuff to the incredible Mill in the last issue.

The scenarios in the first 2 books are also excellent and are based around sensible collections based on the boxed sets that gamers should already have (24 Moria goblins, 18 riders of Rohan, 20 fighting Uruk hai etc.) - they never really felt like GW were trying to get you to buy loads of figures. I think the Return of the King one jumps the shark a little as it moves to points match games without any force guidance which I think may be a little off-putting for new gamers. The terrain guides are still great though.

malky23 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 14, 2013 8:00 pm

Thanks for the tips guys! I've spent basically all day looking through the first 55 issues of BGiME and can say I'm well impressed! I think I basically stopped looking at the magazines after about issue 20 which is when I ran out of time for things! Heading out tomorrow to stock up on all the materials I could never afford before so will hopefully have a load of foam card, Styrofoam balsa wood etc! Gonna be busy for the next while :-)

Might invest in the journey books too! I really like the look of the bucklebury ferry scene that I've seen a few places!

Thanks again everyone!

rumtap · **Posted:** Tue Oct 15, 2013 2:28 am

Hi All,

I've also been considering purchasing the journey books so I found this thread very helpful. I've seen different editions of the books available (different covers). Is there a great deal of difference between these?

Farmer Maggot · **Posted:** Tue Oct 15, 2013 8:37 am

As far as I know the journey books always had the same cover. However there were original rule books for each of the three films that include old versions of the rules and a few scenarios, it’s probably those you’ve seen. If you’re looking for the journey books then you should make sure the covers match those on the GW site.

Dr Grant · **Joined:** Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:50 pm **Posts:** 1339

Maggot's Bang on the money here, the alternate covers are the original 2001/2/3 rulebooks that contain outdated rules and will be of no interest you beyond a collector's point of view.

The ones pictured here are the ones you're after:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catal ... Style=lotr

rumtap · **Posted:** Tue Oct 15, 2013 9:36 pm

Thanks guys, i suspected as much but wanted to be sure before i spent my hard earned.

Rangefinder · **Posted:** Wed Oct 16, 2013 3:44 pm

...From a bigger fan of the LOTR movies and SBG.
Hobbit may grow on me still...

I purchased these Journey Books.
They do not have the big "One Ring" on the front.
I bought them for the modeling and scenarios. So very cheap!!!

I have that little "pocket rule book" from MOM. Then, a buddy of mine went off to college this fall, and left me his EFGT with the pocket rule book. So I have the new rules too. Now I am working on collecting up all the new source books for SBG. It's all you need to run SBG for LOTR.

*heck, you can pick up the Hobbit pocket rule book solo on ebay too!

So, you can save your $$$ on rule books and starter sets and buy mini's instead

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