Goblin's, most likely.

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"... Telchar wrought it in the deeps of time."
-On Andùril, The Lord of the Rings

Going by the sort clips from Peter Jackson on Facebook,the choices are the trolls, Goblintown goblins then the Wolf/Warg rider attack and Spiders for the first movie.
I think a troll camp set or spider attack set would be the most fun. A Goblintown set would be less difficult to balance considering how most people play.

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"the same as a duck you must be made of wood"

Hopefully GW will do something similar to the other starter sets (i.e. variety of troops) instead of just pure infantry. For Evil this could be a Goblin Shaman (for magic), a Troll, normal Goblins and possibly Wolf Riders or Spiders/Wargs (for cavalry/faster elements). For good this will probably be Thorin's companions (13 Dwarves, Gandalf and Bilbo).
Making the Dwarf heroes different profiles isn't the tricky bit, it's remembering who's who (helped by the different coloured cloaks), so we will probably have Ranger of the North style heroes (1/1/1) or Iron/Khazad Guard profiles (without armour/equipment), and they will become one warband of heroes (White Council/Fellowship)

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C.A.P.T.A.I.N. = Crazy And Proud To Admit It Now
http://chrisgomhobbyblog.blogspot.com/

It came out with the Hardback rulebook and was actually the first non-movie starter set. Fellowship of the Ring was Last Alliance stuff I believe, The Two Towers was Rohirrim and Uruks and the Return of the King was Warriors of Minas Tirith and Orcs. The Return of the King set was one of my first purchases, I still remember those days fondly. Of course, it was nothing like it is today, just 24 WoMT and 24 Orcs and some basic scenarios for playing with them (which generally included nominating one model the Captain). The MoM set was revolutionary in it's contents. Then when it started getting older and needing a redo, WotR came around and it looked like SBG would be dropped as a specialist game.

I wouldn't be surprised to see The Hobbit boxed set containing all of Thorin's Company in plastic form, some sort of basic enemy (whatever is most common - goblins?) and an introductory booklet. Maybe a journey book as well, though that might be sold separately. Either way, I feel like this would be GW's release of the Dwarves, maybe releasing them in mounted/foot resin packs as well. It would force anyone who wanted to join in the hype to buy an expensive set and then additional models needed for the scenarios while still keeping it nice and neat as a game extension.


And to the original question about release date, though everyone here says December, on Warseer it's generally believed to be November:
January: Vampire Counts army book
February: Vampire models
March: Tyranid and Space Wolves model waves
April: Empire army book
May: Dark Angels or Chaos Codex
June: Necron wave
July: 40K 6th ed
August: 40K model wave
September: Warriors of Chaos book
October: Empire models and Dark Angels or Chaos codex - whichever wasn't released in May
November: Hobbit!
December Warriors of Chaos model wave and 40K model wave

That was from a little while ago and some of the rumours have panned out to be not true, though the accuracy isn't too bad. But I think it's been cited that previously with the other movies, models have hit the shelves before release and so November will be dedicated to the Hobbit and creating as much hype as possible.

If this were the old GW, which gave you 2 months warning for Avance Orders, I'd agree with you, but GW's new philosophy is, you get 1 week to be hyped, so Unless the Hobbit is released in the 1st week of December, GW will probably not even mention the Hobbit models until December.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

I'm not so sure GothmogtheWerewolf what you say makes sense on relation to there other products an ranges but the Hobbit is a one time time as it is very likely that PJ will not make a film of the Simillion or the Sons of Hurin (there just too 'fantasy' and just wouldn't work) so they may make an exception for an event of this size, it wouldn't make sense for them not a grab hold of the Hobbit film and milk it for every penny it worth and then keep milking until there's nothing left as the will never get this level of publicity for one of there projects again.

However this entire conversation is a bit pointless as it would be easier to re-write the laws of physics or prove whether God exists or not than it is to understand what GW is planning as I'm not sure they are even know just look at the number of times they have brought out profiles for units that never appeared and changed army list ect only to change them again in a years time which suggests they don't really know were they want the range to go. Also what the hell is up with WOTR a great system with a few minor problems that obviously took a lot of money and man power to make and now there is barely any support for it and they have doubled the price of models making it hugely expensive to collect

Sons of Hurin? He had 1 son and 2 daughters.

The real reason why fils will NEVER be made of the Silmarilion, the Children of Hurin etc is because Middle Earth Enterprises owns the rights to all Tolkiens works except for the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit and will never sell them, at least under the command of Chris tolkien, who finished writing all of his posthumous works.

And GW will almost certainly not alter their philosphy as they have decided that people will be more excitedf by a surprise than by advance warning. LotR included.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

On the subject of the Silmarillion, I could see it happening in about 10-15 years as a miniseries on HBO or some such thing.

Back to the question about the dwarves, they could make them (at least some of the them) into multi hero groups, like Fili, Kili and Ori, Dori, Nori and Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, like the Twins. Obviously make them weaker, but they could work. Then make Oin, Gloin, Balin, Dwalin and Thorin into their own, more powerful, heros.

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"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

Well, I think they might make an exception for the Hobbit. It is, after all, not a surprise, so GW would want to create as much publicity as possible as the countdown to the first film begins.
Only time will tell though I suppose...

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Better, though difficult, the right way to go, than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe. John Bunyan - Pilgrim's Progress

That was what I was thinking we all know when the Hobbit is coming out so unless they don't release any units until something like the April after the film there is not going to be an element of surprise to increase sales it would make more sense to foster the hype for the films for as long as they can to increase sales instead

I am still hoping for some updated Elf profiles. Elf rangers... An elf chariot might be asking too much. I'd so love a little choice in the High Elf and Arnor lists.

Aye, but GW haven't been acting logically for some time now.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

I hadn't even considered the 3 Trolls Bert, Tom and Bill. Will be nice to see them released as indivdual characters with their own special rules. What might they be?

"They only come out at night" perhaps - Roll a D6 each turn after the first to represent the sun coming up. So turn 2 on a 6, turn 3 on a 5+, turn 4 on a 4+ and so on. If you roll the magic number they turn to stone and move no further for the rest of the game.

They would have to be relatively cheap points wise though and very hard hitting, but that would be fun wouldn't it!


I'm hoping for some new Eagle models and a Battle of the Five Armies scenario.

Most looking forward to Beorn, Bard & the Men of Dale and Smaug

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If you're looking for an opponent or a place to play regular games of the Hobbit SBG in London, visit: http://www.thetitans.org.uk

They would have to be like 50 points for all 3 of them if that were the case, otherwise no one would ever use them.

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"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.

You're right, it wouldn't be viable to take a character who may be out of the game by turn 2.

Ok, instead they lose 1" of their movement each turn if the magic number is rolled, then from turn 6 onwards revert to the turn to stone rule.

I suppose you would need a rule to represent the chance of them actually eating Bilbo and the Dwarves or even stomping on Gandalf.

How about "Making a meal of it" - For every Hobbit, Dwarf or Wizard character killed in combat, Bill Tom or Bert gain +1 Will, +1 Strength or +1 inch movement...

I'm no scholar on game balance so not sure which of these would be best.

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If you're looking for an opponent or a place to play regular games of the Hobbit SBG in London, visit: http://www.thetitans.org.uk

I don't know why they even need a special rule about sunlight? They're exactly the same as every other Hill Troll and Cave Troll in the game, except that they're the classic examples of being turned to stone. The only Trolls that don't turn to stone are Mordor Trolls (and the slightly controversial Isengard equivalent). Sure, I'm betting that scenario will have an end game rule about the sun coming up, but introducing a scenario type rule for normal play? It's like giving Theodred no fate because he gets treacherously poisoned to death. Oh wait...

The 'Making a Meal of It' sounds fun though

I love the (perhaps unintended) spirit of this post! It honestly reads like "well, that Tolkien guy said '13 Dwarves' and buggered everything up, so GW will have to try and make the best of it..." Maybe that's not how you meant it, but that's how it came across.

Personally, I have no faith that GW will be up to the task of writing reasonable, different and flavourful rules for each Company member. They will either ALL be Gimli/ Balin level or ALL be Dwarf Warrior/ maybe Khazad Guard level. And there will be very few differentiating factors among them. That's my prediction anyhow. I hope I'm wrong.

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Gondor: 2339pts
Rohan: 1318pts
Dwarves: 2482pts
Elves: 1091pts
Mordor: 2305pts
Isengard: 1762pts
Moria: 1463pts
Evil Men: 381pts

Well it's not like they made Merry and Pippin into super Hobbits from their company of four. I'm guessing some dwarves will be stronger than others in stats. I think it would be dumb though if each dwarf is given a special rule like the named ringwraiths, now you have a whole lot to remember while playing a game, and "which dwarf does what?" Sometimes simple is more.

It should be an elite company of dwarves, all of them that have stats above a regular dwarf captain and then you go up from there. Some mid range heroes, others as high as Gimli, and a few as high as Dain in stats. Something like Draugluin mentioned in his post.

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My Lotr backlog: 305/952[][][][][][][][][][]32% completed
Painting Lineup: Mumakil x2, Rohan Heroes x8, Haradrim, SKoDA

The sensible thing to do would to make most of the Dwarves Independant Heroes, with just a couple who have leadership qualities (Thorin, Balin, Gloin) being full fledged heroes who can lead their own Warbands.

The two who are related to Thorin (Fili, Kili?) could perhaps have some sort of Bodyguard or Rage rule relating to Balin. While Thorin is alive they pass all courage tests but go beserk when he dies (like Elladan & Elrohir or Eomer Knight of the Pelennor before he got nerfed).

The big fat Dwarf (Bombur?) might have some rule relating to his huge girth...maybe increased Strength (5), but a slower move rate (4") and Clumsiness (must re-roll successful Jump & Climb tests similar to Balin or was it Dain?).

I hope to see most of the Dwarves as relatively cheap Independant Heroes similar to the various Hobbit Heroes. That means 1 M/W/F, 1 Attack, 1 wound, F4/4+ as standard (varying depending on which characters are skilled with bows and which are skilled at melee). Their standard equipment should be fairly basic (hand weapons, and a couple with bows) as they were lightly equipped when they began their journey, and got robbed by the Goblins anyway. But they should be able to purchase better weapons & armour, as they equipped themselves when they reached Erebor.

Only Thorin, Gloin and Balin should be full fledged heroes with multiple Attacks, wounds, M/W/F etc.

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The word on the web is that New Line made GW tighten up on their leaks and rumours so that images from the Hobbit wouldn't be leaked. They asked that all GW releases (40k and WFB) would be the same to prove to them that leaks could be reduced.

It's highly unlikely that GW will give us any sneak peeks if this is true.

In terms of rules I'm expecting the dwarves to be listed as pairs/ trios in the same way as Murin/Drar etc.
I also heard a rumour that it was an entirely plastic release?

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