Hey there,

I am new to the miniature gaming environment, i got into warhammer 40k (i play orks) i have been playing for a year now but i noticed that there is a LOTR miniature game and i really want to start playing it!

my self and 3 other people are wanting to get into LOTR miniature games and we are not quite sure how to get started.

do i just get the boxed hobbit sets? like escape from goblin town? and there are 4 of us total so do look for a starter box for the faction we like?

any and all information is appreciated. thanks!

Welcome! I'm a new player myself, just started collecting an army this year and gotten to play a few games. Right now the only starter set is the Escape From Goblin Town which has the small version of the rulebook as well as a great start to a Goblin Town army as well as Thorin's Company and Radagast. While technically Thorin's Company can be fielded as an army in points match games, most people don't. They can be used to lead troops from the Iron Hills faction though.

I think I may be getting ahead of myself, first it would be good to know what kind of games are you looking to play? Do you want to recreate events from the movies and books in scenario play? Or play against each other in points match games?

If no one in your group likes the idea of playing as Goblin Town or using the Thorin's Company models you can buy a bigger hardcover version of the rules seperately.

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Th ... Journey-EN

However there is a new rulebook expected to come out Summer 2018, so you might want to hold off splashing cash on the $85 book from GW. You can find the Escape from Goblin Town rules on ebay or trade forums from time to time.

After the basic rules you will need the profile book that has the faction you want to play (again this is assuming you want to play points match games). The Desolation of Smaug book has all the heroes, villains and armies from the Hobbit movies you will need.

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Th ... Back-Again

If you're interested in playing factions from the Lord of the Rings movies you'll need one of these books: https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Th ... 0580000%5D

Mordor has everything you need for Mordor.
Moria & Angmar for Moria and Angmar.
Fallen Realms is for Isengard, Harad and Umbar, Easterlings and Rhun
Kingdoms of Men: Gondor, Rohan and Arnor
Free Peoples: Rivendell, Lothlorien and Mirkwood (not to be confused with the Thranduil's Halls profiles from the Hobbit movies), Durin's Folk, the Shire and some others.

Again, these profiles might change with the new edition of the rules, nobody really knows what that will look like. For sure.

fantastic!
i very much enjoy the points game system that i do in 40k. but i can imagine my self and my friends will be wanting to do all of it. we enjoyed the movies and would love to recreate them.

im glad you mentioned that something is coming out summer of 2018, ill definitely have to get that book when it comes out.

ok, that's what i was thinking about escaping from goblin town. ill end up getting it but i wasn't finding any other boxed set for other factions.

i can see my group basically getting everything on a small scale for now.

ill have to inquire on what armies everyone wants to play/get then take it from there

There were box sets for Mines of Moria that had Moria goblins and the Fellowship and a Last Alliance vs. Moria Goblins as well. For Two Towers there was a Rohan vs. Isengard box and for Return of the King it was Minas Tirith vs. Mordor. They are no longer in production any more, but you can get all the minis that were in them elsewhere.

Haven't got much to add to metalface13's excellent information, but as you mention starting boxes: a main difference between 40k and SBG in force composition is that there simply are very few/different restrictions on what you can use in an army. Although 40k has changed a fair bit since last I looked into it, there probably still are categories of troops, elites, flyers or what have you, and a certain balance is necessary unless using very particular forces (which then mean you can have 100% of X but none of Y). In SBG, nothing of the sort applies, so you can have a full army of Mordor trolls (monsters), or Morgul Knights (elite cavalry), or basic Mordor Orcs. What would be a good start for a force thus varies enormously (although boxes containg a few dozen models of various types used to exist in the past), thus making it less practical to have 'getting started' boxes. Besides, a typical army has only a few dozen figures so buying them as individual sets is easy and fairly cheap already.

To give an idea of the restrictions in this game, there are warbands (every 12 figures need a character to lead them, but this is only relevant for building armylists and deployment, afterwards all miniatures function as seperate entities), a bow limit (normally 33% of Warriors, calculated per faction) and although allying lists is quite common (Gandalf likes to help out where he can), this can 'only' be done between 'Good' or 'Evil' armies (and newer releases tend to have special rules for using 'pure' armies to reward thematic lists which don't cherrypick troops from all over; more such bonuses are expected in the future so you may want to stick to one faction for the time being).

Also: welcome!

I think the new Battle Companies book could be a good way to get started also. You can get a lot of gaming out of a very small number of models (up to 15 for most factions but a couple go to 25). The narrative campaign for Battle Companies could also be a good way to gradually expand the collection of models and terrain in your group, letting your group try several different factions before deciding on a larger army to build.