The LAF Games Workshop Discussion Thread

[beefcake]

Honestly the old metal one is nicer. If you can find one it’s worth it!

If I could find one cheap I would but at least $100 is a bit too much

[Coenus Scaldingus]

That new Middle-earth starter set looks to be decent value - the annoying type of pricing where you may as well shell out for the whole thing if you just want the book and some of the figures inside, as buying those seperately would cost the same, but now they're accompanied by another mountain of minis which you are sure to find a use for at some point. Not great for the backlog though.

Pretty happy with what I've read of the rule changes too - clearly aimed at both more balance and more theme, the latter of which is certainly not unimportant for the immersion into the setting. It looks to become the best edition of one of GW's best games.

[peleset]

Agreed, not crazy just unseemly.

I don't follow this game, so I wonder how much of this is new and how much is old material. Perhaps a trawl of Ebay for an old edition could scratch your itch and give you a better idea of if you want to go #@$%! deep into the GW money pit.

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

I agree with Peleset, I would try to get an older version of the rules. I suspect little will be changed.  Wait a few months until people have written a few reviews and then decide whether you need the new rules.
There are few GW figures I would use.   Northstar for elves and orcs (goblins), Conqueror for dwarves.

[Coenus Scaldingus]

This is not like the usual GW rules releases where i.e. a new codex has a few points changes and two new units. Fixing some inbalances, creating new ones that will be partly fixed with a new codex of another army that now has things to be fixed etc.

They spent the past two years revisiting and revising every single profile in the game, doing so simultaneously to create interesting and balanced rules all across the line (rather than the power creep that otherwise is typical). Special rules have been reworked and rewritten to avoid confusion in interactions, while rewarding thematic play and armybuilding.

The main ruleswriter is both a highly competitive player and has a great love of Middle-earth, both of which show. Older versions of the game were certainly playable, and I enjoyed them a lot, but some parts were quite messy or just too clearly imbalanced. It really looks as if they tried to fix that and create a better game, rather than sell more of whatever thing's new. Just because it's Games Workshop doesn't mean it can't be made with passion and quality in mind.

[RAD]

Does anyone knows if the rules include small  scale skirmish rules like battle companies?

[olyreed]

I don't think the new rules will have battle companies in it, I will check later when I get my copy but they only recently released the battle companies rule book, think it was the first to go under the Middle Earth title that GW have changed to

[zemjw]

New epic Reaver Titan up for pre-order - £35.00 https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Adeptus-Titanicus-Reaver-Battle-Titan-2018

I have one of the originals in my display case. May have to pick this up,  if for no other reason than nostalgia 

Will be interesting to see how much bigger the new one is

[Vanvlak]

New epic Reaver Titan up for pre-order - £35.00 https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Adeptus-Titanicus-Reaver-Battle-Titan-2018

I have one of the originals in my display case. May have to pick this up,  if for no other reason than nostalgia 

Will be interesting to see how much bigger the new one is

Me too, except my old metal Reaver is still to be constructed - and I just ordered the new one.

[waitwhat]

My local doesn't reserve copies of things either. I've asked before, it's not policy. They also limited copies to three per customer to prevent someone walking in and buying them out of stock in one go.

I just managed to get the last copy in my local WH Smith's by fractions of a second because the guy stood in front of them paused to readjust the pile in his arms.

I have to question the morality of the people buying these in bulk. What are you gonna make on this after fees and postage, like a tenner maybe? Personally I'm feeling guilty enough picking one up, thinking about the feel-bad of the kids coming along later. Smh

[Lost Egg]

None of the newsagents, Tesco or what have you around me are selling it but my father in law managed to pick up a couple of copies (for my kids) from his village newsagent and they are in the middle of nowhere. The distributions seems really hit and miss.

[MachinaMandala]

If you've got a Games Workshop / Warhammer shop near you, drop in there, they've always got a copy.

[Arlequín]

It seems that the magazine is also being sold in Europe after all. A group of 40k fans in Spain bought it:

No import either, it's actually in Spanish and cheaper too at 1.5€... £1.30-ish. When I was living there GW was usually more expensive than in the UK.

[Mason]

This is not like the usual GW rules releases where i.e. a new codex has a few points changes and two new units. Fixing some inbalances, creating new ones that will be partly fixed with a new codex of another army that now has things to be fixed etc.

They spent the past two years revisiting and revising every single profile in the game, doing so simultaneously to create interesting and balanced rules all across the line (rather than the power creep that otherwise is typical). Special rules have been reworked and rewritten to avoid confusion in interactions, while rewarding thematic play and armybuilding.

The main ruleswriter is both a highly competitive player and has a great love of Middle-earth, both of which show. Older versions of the game were certainly playable, and I enjoyed them a lot, but some parts were quite messy or just too clearly imbalanced. It really looks as if they tried to fix that and create a better game, rather than sell more of whatever thing's new. Just because it's Games Workshop doesn't mean it can't be made with passion and quality in mind.

Well, you have certainly made me think about it.
 

[mcfonz]

Ok, so middle earth.

When people talk about imbalance it tends to mean 'tournament' style play where you want to be able to have a game where you have two evenly matched forces line up against each other.

I think it's really important to remember that this is not what the original LotR game from GW was intended for. Hence they had different books for the different movies.

It encouraged you to replay moments from the movies and books and had scenarios to depict that. So naturally, when converting it to play in competitive games it was going to have imbalance issues because at least initially, it was intended more for narrative play.

Although I have not played masses of it, for me, it was one of the best sets of rules GW had released in a long time for proper skirmish level - small sided armies.

I loved the 'hero' mechanic that allowed interruption of play and inspired moments. I still feel that this could have been brought into the other games. I felt it really depicted how a truly heroic character or personality can affect a battle.

So in large, I'm not overly surprised it needed balancing for how they now would like people to play the game, mainly because the origins were quite different.