board77

Before meeting Hobby in Liverpool on Saturday I wandered into a GW shop in Southport. I was just killing time, having a look at their LotR stuff. In general I much prefer Mithril Miniatures models but hey, any LotR is better than none, right? So I picked up this huge box called "Battle of the Five Armies". It looked interesting. It came with all the plastic miniatures required for the battle plus a rulebook and some scenery. It was also STG£50 or about €75.

While I was looking at this, one of the shop guys came over and asked me if I was interested in LotR. I said that I was but that I had never done any wargaming. I bought Warhammer years ago, but found it to be too complicated for a casual hobby. I had done a little Roleplaying but mainly I've decided to stick to Boardgaming. He told me the the box I was currently holding was more like Warhammer, with battalions and large armies but that I might be more interested in the LotR Tabletop strategy game. I explained that my gaming buddies and I manage to get together for a couple of hours once every few months and that complicated unstructured games would be a problem. He then proceeded to run me through a simple scenario in about 15 minutes with hardly any explanations.

This game really works for me. Firstly, it's based on individuals, not squads or battalions. Effectively, everything is a skirmish. Also, everything uses standard six-sided dice and for the most part you simply roll high-low for each event. The scenario we played had Aragorn and 4 Gondorian soldiers in Moria (ostensibly a cleanup operation) after the War of the Ring against about 8 orcs. We agreed that the skirmish would be decided if Aragorn broke through to a certain spot within 5 turns, or if he was killed. Simple victory conditions! Each character could move six inches on their move unless they were Archers and planned to shoot in that move (in which case they could only move 3 inches). Movement was done first (turn order is decided by die roll). Then ranged weapons. I had an archer aiming at an orc but there was a bridge in the way. First I had to roll 4,5 or 6 to make sure the arrow did not hit the bridge. Then a similar roll to decide if it struck the enemy, and finally another roll to decide if the enemy was killed. There was no counting of hit-points. No critical-hits. No wounds. If I had rolled a 6 then a 6 then a 2 it's assumed my arrow missed the bridge struck the orc but bounced off his armour. When we got to close combat more powerful characters like Aragorn got to roll with more dice. Characters with a shield could roll extra dice in defense, but then lose the opportunity to counterattack.

It was all very simple while still retaining the fun aspect and giving enough options for variety and strategy to come into play. In essence, if one player learned the rules he could explain as he went along.

I think I may purchase a copy, but I thought I'd mmention it here first. Anyone here play?

Alatar

I started playing a similar game from Games Workshop. Mordheim. It is similar in that the battles are little skirmishes generally focusing on the individual rather than the group. In Mordheim you have a warband with no more than 12-15 (each warband differs) fighters. You fight with your friends and you gain experience and level up your little fighters.

Mordheim is played pretty much exactly as you described how the LotR one is played. There are little charts that tell you what you need to roll for a hit and wound. There are also no hit points which I like.

I've seen the LotR pieces, but haven't seen much of the specific games you can play. Battle of Five Armies sounds cool, though.

This looks interesting as a starter set:

http://uk.games-workshop.com/storefront ... Img=255627

Quote:

Follow in the footsteps of the Fellowship with a new boxed game for The Lord of the Rings. The Mines of Moria is a self-contained version of the strategy battle game that includes everything you need to play in one box. It's packed full of models all gamers will want. A new Fellowship, a Cave Troll, Moria Goblins and Moria themed scenery. The box contains a 112-page version of the new Lord of the Rings rulebook and a 32-page booklet, containing four scenarios that follow the Fellowship's journey trough Moria.

It will retail for STG£40 which isn't bad considering the content. The rulebook alone goes for STG£30

40 pounds? Geez, still too much for me right now, but I agree it does look interesting. The Mines of Moria is one of my favorite parts of the book.