The key GW Hobbit/LOTR rumour that everyone missed.

Just a quick morning note:  I am sure you have all been avidly following the rumours of a new edition of the War of the Rings and SBG rules. I was quite looking forward to this and the film and the new release would drum up a bit of interest in a game I quite enjoy. Even with last year's price rises - the LOTR mini cost wasn't TOO bad compared to the  market at large, as long as you were getting some of the better sets. Sometimes I pay a bit extra for models I really want and their LOTR range has some cool stuff in it, even if I do like to field large armies pretty much composed of historical plastics instead. However, OneRing forums tell me that the new way they will sell these figs is to halve the box size but only decrease the cost of the box by 33%. The GW website says it will be $44 NZD for 12 plastic figures, and not some of the best ones going either. That's more than what I pay for a box of 44 Gripping Beast Vikings.

This isn't a price rant - just a note - good luck getting too many people to play WOTR now. 

It is astronomically expensive by our standards. A typical 1000pt Gondor Army that I field spends over a third of the points in just three epic heroes but still contains 152 infantry models and another 12 cavalry. If I had bought all of those infantry new from GW this morning (and still converted those Axemen from plastics, not bought them as metals) then that's about $557 NZD just for the plastic infantry. That is 1000pts - a points level I am often told is too low. A lot of you will say "welcome to GW" but the reality is that many of the WOTR players were actually not habitual GW customers and will likely fall away again. I'm lucky, I already have most of what I want from GW and was planning any new armies using the likes of Conquest Games, Perry Miniatures, Wargames Factory, Warlord Games, and Gripping Beast anyway. 

But still, the likely dent in my favourite games popularity around here is a shame.I hope more people get the idea of playing with alternatives a bit more visibility. I do it, War of the Ring Blog does it, Hour of Wolves and Shattereds Shields does it, I am sure there are others - looks like a positive way forward for WOTR. Me - I have some theories about Esgaroth...

Thanks for reading.