LotR Journeybooks back on the site

whafrog · **Posted:** Sat Nov 24, 2012 3:52 pm

On GW's website I noticed the Lord of the Rings journeybooks are available again. As far as I know, they weren't available last week. Good for beginners to the game, IMHO, glad to see them restored.

wowbagger · **Posted:** Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:27 pm

Yes your right. The weren't there yesterday. I checked! Strange that they had been off the site for a while just to reapear. maybee they changed them a bit (for instance the painting guides).

whafrog · **Posted:** Sat Nov 24, 2012 6:13 pm

New painting guides would be worth it for me, since I've migrated to all the new paints.

wowbagger · **Posted:** Sat Nov 24, 2012 6:59 pm

i havent bought a single new pot (but i also havent been painting much lately)

Sticky Fingersss · **Joined:** Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:20 am **Posts:** 1776

Maybe they have been mildly updated?

Athelas · **Posted:** Sun Nov 25, 2012 8:57 pm

Excellent service to offer your customers GD. Very convenient. I have to keep the conversion chart handy when I'm ordering paints.

I agree it's great to see the journeybooks back. The content was excellent and it will undoubtedly draw new players brought in by The Hobbit releases, to look at the LotR miniature range.

IsleStaggerholm · **Posted:** Sun Nov 25, 2012 9:00 pm

Problem is Athelas he can't ship the paints to you because you are outside the European Union.

greendragon · **Posted:** Sun Nov 25, 2012 9:06 pm

Ah the old trade embargo

Back on topic: I just realized I never actually played the Two Towers journeybook, and its my favorite film! Looks like I might consider it, give my Uruk's something to do. First and more importantly though is to play through the Hobbit journeybook =D

kidterminal · **Posted:** Mon Nov 26, 2012 6:52 pm

I was in my local GW store 2 weeks ago and the Journey Books were on sale in the store, but not the SBG one ring book.

Bartelomeus · **Posted:** Tue Nov 27, 2012 4:00 pm

I got rulebooks from the startersets of each LOTR movie which include some scenario's. Anyone knows how different the scenarios are and if the journeybooks are still worth buying?

Dr Grant · **Joined:** Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:50 pm **Posts:** 1339

Definitely good to have them back, they're an excellent starter resource and a great way to transfer new adopters from the Hobbit to LOTR.

As for whether or not they're still worth it, assuming that they haven't changed (which IMO they won't have) then I'd still say yes, although not as much as they used to be. They all have new profiles at the back which at the time were great but are now all available in the sourcebooks and some of which are out of date.

However, there's some really nice terrain guides in there and some useful painting stuff. They really were 'hobby' supplements rather than gaming supplements which I loved. TTT one talks you through how to create the whole of Helm's Deep, it's pretty cool.

The scenarios are also great, they were designed with the miniatures range in mind so they're considerate of the box sets. For example, Balin's tomb needs 24 goblins, The Warg attack needs 6 Riders of Rohan and 18 Warg Riders, the combatants always multiplied nicely into the box sets (bear in mind this was the era of 24 to a box) and there was rarely any kind of '36 goblins' scenario to force you to buy another box.

They are also largely very fun to play, playing through the Fellowship book and collecting/painting as I went was how I got into the game a few years ago. The scenarios occasionally need a bit of modding to tighten up but they're often very well written and feel heavily play-tested. Balin's tomb, Aragorn's stand, the Wrag attack one and Lothlorien are particularly good from Fellowship and the Warg Attack, The Three Hunters and the 4 Helm's Deep ones from The Two Towers are also great.

I don't think the Return of the KIng one is as good as the other two, for one thing it doesn't list the combatants and instead gives you point values. Whilst this offers the players more choice it also gives the impression they weren't as heavily play-tested and, to me, made them slightly less collectable.

I also think there's a stronger element of 'buy these new figures' in the ROTK book as the scenarios almost all feature more obscure troops like the Woses, fiefdom droops etc.

The other thing is that the Return of the King journey book heavily favours the LOTR book over the film and there are very few scenarios in it that recreate elements of the film as depicted (the other 2 certainly have book specific stuff too but the ratio is favoured towards the film). Whilst some people will like this approach I don't think it works in a supplement that is heavily film-branded and which most players will use to replay the battles from their favourite scenes.

There's my 2 cents, if it were up to me, I'd pick up The Fellowship and Two Towers books and skip ROTK.

Enjoy!

greendragon · **Posted:** Wed Nov 28, 2012 12:07 am

Wow, very impressive post Dr. Grant - you've actually inspired me to list the journeybooks on my site asap! I geniunely thought nobody cared for them so wasn't going to include them unless asked, but that is a really well thought out post with a few very good points, once again you're the top poster I've seen anywhere! Keep it up

wargrider · **Joined:** Sun Nov 25, 2012 10:21 pm **Posts:** 5

I do agree with Dr Grant.
I used to have all three of them but lost the first and third one while moving.
Best expansions for LOTR in my opinion.
Although they are the only books I've had in my life that lose their pages. Maybe GW has fixed the problem by now but I don't know.

Lord Hurin · **Posted:** Wed Nov 28, 2012 3:44 am

I've only got The Two Towers because I loved Erkenbrand and Ugluk (in 1998, the Toy Vault Ugluk and Gandalf figures were the first non-book LotR merchandise I ever got) and we were building Helm's Deep when it came out. I'm not sure about the RoTK one, but I think I definitely need to add Fellowship to my Christmas list.

Sticky Fingersss · **Joined:** Sat Oct 09, 2010 11:20 am **Posts:** 1776

I agree, FOTR and TTT were great (I think TTT was the best) but ROTK fell short on the other 2.

Dr Grant · **Joined:** Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:50 pm **Posts:** 1339

Oh GD you flatter! :-)

Thanks for the kind words, I may continue my witterings...

Athelas · **Posted:** Wed Nov 28, 2012 10:50 pm

Agree with Dr Grant. The journeybooks offer hobby information as well as movie specific scenarios now unavailable elsewhere. Well worth purchasing.

Lord Hurin · **Posted:** Wed Nov 28, 2012 11:01 pm

I personally loved the option of doing it either way - by the movie or by the books.

wowbagger · **Posted:** Thu Nov 29, 2012 9:58 am

Do you guys know if they the scenarios in the Hobbit rulebook are also in the small book from the starter set? Or maybee they will come out with a journeybook for the dwarfs seperatly (but i guess we would have seen them by now, and them including scenarios in the rulebook also makes it unlikely)? Would be a good way to provide painting and hobby advice/guides like in the 'old' journeybooks.

whafrog · **Posted:** Thu Nov 29, 2012 1:49 pm

The MoM set had more MoM scenarios than the big rule book, so I'm sure they'd include at least the same ones.

LotR Journeybooks back on the site

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