While I am in the mood to play newshound, here is another preview from the upcoming White Dwarf #350. It also features alot more information on the upcoming War of the Ring. At this point I've now seen and flipped through the book, I've also talked to some GW staff that have read it in detail. First up, from the Magazine-
New Releases
4/4
War of the Ring
Army of the Dead -Plastic
Ent-Plastic
Sons of Eorl- mounted
Halbarad
Isengard Uruk-hai commanders
Morannon Orc commanders
Minas Tirith commanders
Rohan commanders
Grey Company command
4/18
Dwarf Shieldbearers
Elven Stormcaller
Haradrim Hasharin
Minas Tirith citadel guard 2
Mordor Uruk-hai-2
Druzzag, the beast caller
Amdur, lord of blades
Army of the dead standard bearer
Gandalf-Minas Tirith
Witch King- Minas Tirith
Theoden-Pelennor Fields
I scanned this picture to talk about two thing one is legendary formations and two all the new cool command squads getting released...that Rohan one above is particulary awesome.
(I saw the sprue for the Plastic army of dead, they look great and I am sure are going to turn up in WFB VC armies..I also saw the plastic move trays, but not the Ents.) Legendary Formations allow your characters to form uber formations and blast their way thru the hordes of troops you'll be putting on the battlefield, Command squads in WotR have a major impact on how your forces operate, they lead the assault and offer much needed bonuses.
From my own limited look at the book and conversations with the guys, I do know this
One, this it isn't "Warhammer" LotR..its a completely new game , if anything its Warmaster in 25mm before its WFB. Everyone has brand new amended stats for War of the Ring games, and because of the larger scale units are much cheaper, 600 points of WotR is a good sized starting battle. Combat is very macro..you don't roll to wound..hits are kills...everything is about how many dice you throw..a 8 man formation might start with 8 attacks throwing 8 dice...but its got a captain, Banner , musician, and its flanking..so the 8 becomes 12 dice, tc. or (not sure what the bonuses are) hits are kills, so priority is going to be huge, again things like Heros, Banners, musicians all effect who's going first. I don't know if combats are simultaneous yet.
There is quite a buzz going on about War of the Ring in my area. We've been working on a summer campaign based on War of the Ring that can accommodate 24 players, we havent even publicly opened it up yet and I've already got 10 players. the games with feature the normal skirmish games and the new War of the Ring battles. This campaign going to have its own blog...so look for a link soon.
I have been invited to play in preview game of WotR in the next few weeks, that I will be able to talk about here..this will be before the preview weekend at the end of the month so I should have some detailed information then...LotR is an unde rappreciated gem, I hope WotR gives
people a new reason to give it a second look letting the game get the credibility it deserves!.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
War of the Ring!
Posted by JPL at 8:59 PM
Labels: LotR, War of the Ring, White Dwarf
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8 comments:
Thanks for posting the WotR information. I've been wondering what the release schedule on some of the models would be.
"War of the Ring"? - That's what I called my first marriage!
ZING!
Just played my first game of it tonight, and it is a BRILLIANT ruleset. Combat is quite the opposite of the "rubber swords" in LotR, had a formation of Elves hit an Uruk-hai phalanx and there was just massive carnage on both sides. 600 points would be a VERY small game of WotR, think 4-500 points of WHFB or 40K, we played a 1000 point game tonight and even with looking up most of the rules, the whole thing was done in about an hour and a half. Running some hilariously massive games with this should be a breeze. Also, little point of interest- Legendary Formations are not typically formations made up of heroes. While those sorts of things do exist (The Fellowship, all 9 Ringwraiths in a single Company), the Legendary Formations are more frequently a hero with their elite retinue. For example, there is an Army of the Dead formation, and then there is a Legendary Formation with the King of the Dead. Similarly, I was using a Legendary Formation tonight of Haldir and some of his elves from Helm's Deep. The single heroes, like Aragorn, are more like commanders in Warmaster- they get inserted into units to buff them up (tremendously!), but they don't operate on their own.
In terms of play speed, carnage, and tactical flexibility, the only thing WHFB has over it is being the 800lb gorilla- We're going to have to shift people away from the "Aww, but only little kids play LotR, I'm a real man, I play Chaos!" in order to get this thing to do well, but I think when people start seeing huge formations clashing with that kind of game speed, it'll blow minds.
TL;DR version: WotR is fantastic.
I am getting so excited to see these new rules. I have even started planning my purchases for when it releases in April. (I think an upcoming GT list with be Army of the Dead for me)
Sounds good, Now if only our local GW stores had some more LoTR figures. For some reason a lot of boxes (wood elves?) have been pulled from the regular stock/restock. Not a huge deal as I'll just get the store to order some up for me, just a little bit of an annoyance.
Elves and Ents, thats gonna be my force. Why Ents can't be allied with Hobbits (at least in regular LoTR) I still don't understand.
The stocking issue is because there's a hell of a lot of LotR sitting on shelves doing nothing across the metro. I would not be shocked if it turned out that we have the healthiest community for it. I'm really, really hoping that we can get some stock transfers sorted out for the WotR launch. Could be worse, apparently the Bunker isn't getting restocks on Men of Gondor!
Billy,
Anthony mentioned he was going to try to get alot of said product redistributed to Oak Park..is that easier said than done? it be a good move with once the new campaign starts happening you guys will move alot of models..I just mail ordered some orcs they are coming to the shop.
I have a bunch of questions for you concerning WotR but I will save it for tomorrow when I see you!
Hello
Just out looking for other blogs talking about gaming
I have a game blog as well, and have been doing some WOTR and LOTR SBG lately, thanks for the nice post.
Please feel free to checkout my article as well.
http://www.fungamesroom.com/our-first-game-of-the-lord-of-the-rings-strategy-battle-game/
Steve
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