Several years ago I was very much involved in LotR SBG and I had a good collection, including some excellent sourcebooks, the final rulebook (final at the time) and the much interesting Legions of Middle earth.

For various reasons I left the hobby around 2006-2007 and my collection was stored away in some boxes.

Now I'm back to the hobby of wargaming mostly with historical, but LorR still has a soft spot in my heart and I decided to check the status of the game and resume my passion.

This website is very helpful but I think I still miss some information, so here I am asking for help in my first post.

What I would like to do is to have some fun with scenario and campaign-related solo gaming but also introduce the game in my club with some nice skirmish.

So I thought I had all the necessary, big blue rulebook of SBG, the warband book I found here in this website for solo and campaign and the legion of middle earth for the skirmish.

Then I realised the Hobbit is also appealing (especially the starter set) but I understand lot of things changed including point value and rules so basically my big blue book is outdated for everything concerns point value and profiles and the starter set minibook do not include them, so should I also buy the big Hobbit book?

Also I understand legions of middle earth is outdate because after that 4 or 5 big sourcebook were published covering all the different factions, and they are also not available anymore in the stores.

Now I'm a bit lost, surely I am not interested in playing tournaments but I tend to like well tested ruleset and good list for both background and balance so I'm thinking that probably the new rulebook should be next steps....so, who can help me understanding what's the best to do in my situation?

Cheers!

Hi! First off, welcome back to the hobby!

As far as rules are concerned, if you want the updated rules for every model you will have to buy the five sourcebooks: "Free Peoples", "Kingdom's of Men", "Fallen Realm's", "Mordor" and "Moria and Angmar". Of these, only "Mordor" and "Moria and Angmar" are still available from GW's web store. You will also have to buy the big Hobbit rulebook, along with the Desolation of Smaug sourcebook. The Battle of the Five Armies sourcebook can be downloaded for free from GW's web store. Further on, you should also download the latest Lotr/Hobbit FAQs and Erratas from the Black Library, and get yourself on to the Great British Hobbit League Facebook page, as they have their solutions on situations not clearly covered by the official rules. Someone recently posted a similar question to yours, and you will find links to the above mentioned sourcebook, FAQs and Erratas in my first comment in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=31393

If you want some good hobby content to watch and listen to, I would strongly suggest the GBHL podcast youtube channel. They provide the community with excellent daily content. There is also the DCHL youtube channel, the Mid-Sussex wargamers youtube channel, and the Green dragon podcast:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWBrZb ... Igl1jR1kPQ
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Eja6 ... eAyLyTpJsA
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL4uzt ... hudjaLKECQ
https://soundcloud.com/the-green-dragon-podcasts

I hope this helps!

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Welcome back! I was on "hiatus" from LOTR for a number of years, too and just recently returned to the game.


You don't need The Hobbit rulebook, unless you want to game with the heroes, warriors, and scenarios from The Hobbit movies. There are some... tweaks to the rules in The Hobbit hardcover, but nothing earthshaking and you can certainly still play with the old "One Ring" hardcover.

If you do want to include The Hobbit material in your games, you will also need the Desolation of Smaug and Battle of Five Armies supplements from the further profiles and scenarios in those. I think the DOS supplement is still for sale, and the BOFA supplement can be downloaded from the GW website.


For the full and most up to date set of profiles and point costs, you do need these books. Two of them (Mordor and Moria & Angmar) can still be orderd from GW US but the other three (The Free People, Kingdoms of Man, and Fallen Realms) and all OOP. They can still be found on fleabay, but the third hand market does seem to be drying up, so if you want them I'd buy sooner rather than later.

Hope that helps!

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Mike

“The Ring has awoken, it’s heard its masters call.”
– Gandalf