Hi, I was looking into getting the game for my friends and I to play, and I read over the Games Workshop website. I have two questions.

1. Which rulebook should I get? Wikipedia seems to talk about the One Rulebook to rule them all, but I can't find that on GW website. My understanding is that there are two separate games, Strategy Battle Game and War of the Ring. Which one is better to get, if I am not so interested in heroes and more interested in basic troops?

2. How do I collect the miniatures once I get the rules? I can't find them for sale on GW website or Citadel Miniatures website, and the websites don't say. Any help is appreciated!

Thanks.

These rulebooks are for the strategy battle game (sbg). It is a skirmish scale game where you control each warrior seperately. War of the ring (wotr) is a company based game, with movement trays. I would go for sbg first, as it requires less figures.

The most up to date rules are the one rulebook:http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat450005a&prodId=prod1140214
And the mini rule book in the MoM:http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat450005a&prodId=prod1140216
(They both have the full rules, the one in MoM just has less profiles and some hobby tips. The other profiles can be found in sourcebooks, and there are lots of hobby tips around the net.)

For the forces, look to the right hand side of the page, under lotr forces, then you can choose what faction, and then troops/heroes/monsters etc. http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/landingArmy.jsp?catId=cat460002a&rootCatGameStyle=

Thanks much.

A few more questions:

How do I get the rules for special pieces like Ents or Balrogs? Is it a sourcebook? If so, where do I buy those?

How big of a table is needed for this game? I have a 6 ft by 4 ft table and I'm wondering if that's enough.

The balrog is in both the one rule book and the mini one. The mini one has rules for treebeard, but not normal ents. I'm not sure about the big rulebook.
Your table is definitely large enough for SBG, and is okay for smaller games of wotr.

Thanks again. One last question, how do I know what army composition to buy? Is there a guide somewhere?

Yes get Legions of Middle Earth it has all of the army lists.

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Behind My Hedgerow

I play most of my games on a 4'x4' board, that's how most of the scenarios are set up. You can even play on 2'x4' for small armies or for scenarios with specific goals. I've played a couple games on 6'x4', but the armies were pretty large.
Legions of Middle Earth (LoME) has the army lists, but the details are very out of date. It's still a valuable resource (for the alliance rules and generic scenarios if nothing else), but if you are building a specific army you'll probably want the sourcebook for that region. Let us know which armies you're interested and we can point you to the right sourcebook.
Balrogs are in the main rules and the Khazad-dum sourcebook. Treebeard is in the main rules, while Ents in general are in the Two Towers journeybook.

Here's a link to an excel LoME file you can download. this has what units are in wehat army lists, so you don't buy stuff that doesn't work together. It's really helpful for quickly making a bunch of possible lists. http://www.lonelyknight.0fees.net/