Just finished reading all the SBG stuff in the new WD, I'll try and be careful about direct rules/points values etc. but obviously spoilers abound about the contents of the WD below:
The UK price for the starter set is £75. Contains:
13 Dwarves
Bilbo
Gandalf
Radagast (limited)
36 goblins (2 of the boxes available separately, implication is they're 1 piece models but all 18 are unique - pretty cool)
Goblin King
Grinnah (very cool sculpt not shown in leaked photos)
Teeny Tiny Goblin
Goblin Scribe (an incredibly cool mini with a weird foetus-type goblin hanging in a wooden swing)
Goblin King's throne (very cool model)
2 big platforms and 4 walkways of Goblin town scenery (looks like 1 set from the leaked photo, implication is that the separate set for £35 gives you the same stuff again and you can build it up, the board they use for the battle report looks incredible)
Note, despite rumours, all the starter set models and scenery are sculpted by the Perrys.
Small version of the rules manual
Getting started booklet
2 new style range rulers (they actually look like old wooden rulers
Dice
This really does represent a very good deal; Goblin town is £35 and 2 boxes of goblins would cost £40. So comparatively you get all the characters, throne and books etc. for free.
The new Hardback book is 288 pages, £50, looks very nice, all the rules pages have been completely redesigned (although the core rules remain the same). It contains all the new profiles for the Hobbit figures and there are 7 narrative scenarios recreating the events of the film. It also heavily implies that LOTR is not forgotten with a War of the Ring section that I think contains more scenarios and lots of new pictures of classic LOTR figures. The sourcebooks are absolutely not invalidated, there's even a page in WD advertising them as being compatible with THAUJ:SBG - Damn, what a hideous new acronym...
The old plastic MOM fellowship is released for £30!!! errr, no thank-you
As an aside I already like almost every figure more in these official photos than I did in the leaked ones, the 360 degree pics are really nice, Bilbo looks like Martin Freeman and I really like the new Gandalf figure. Fimbul the hunter also has an (excellent) pose on a warg and is £25 for both versions.
Rules
The main rules changes are mainly only hinted at rather than explained (Adam Troke is the author of the new book and his 'designers notes' are two pages long
He writes more about his intent than about the actual rules) but they are largely as Jobu describes.
Surprising amount of new heroic actions (4), for heroic march think Mordor War drum and heroic channeling makes Gandalf's spells more powerful somehow (incidentally there's an implication that some magic powers may have changed slightly). As overwhelming as this may seem (3 to 7 is a big jump) it should allow for some interesting new tactical options and hopefully Heroic Accuracy will give some worthwhile options in the shoot phase.
Troke says that the changes to monsters are 'to counter traditional tactics against them' I would guess (and it's only a guess) that this means that barge and maybe hurl can be used before combat to kill single models and possibly let the monster move again to prevent the single sacrificial warrior tactic.
One of the most interesting things was reading about how the company of Dwarves would work, how powerful they are etc. Obviously there are no profiles but I think we can safely assume that each dwarf at least has 1 might point so the company is a heroic action behemoth, i think a few of them will have two points and then the 'big 3 fighters' (Dwalin, Thorin and Gloin) could have 3. In addition each dwarf seems to have 1 special rule that seems to enhance the company so that they are greater than the sum of their parts, it's pretty cool. The key seems to be combining them to best advantage, there's an implication that one of the abilities uses up Will whilst one of the dwarves can restore Will in some way so you would pair them up etc.
Think that's about it, overall I'm very impressed, the figures look incredible in the new scenery and the changes in the rules seem to be interesting enough to change up tactics whilst retaining the core mechanics of the game I love so much. I'll be picking up the starter set, rulebook, trolls and finecast goblin captain with a big smile on my face.
Hope this helps guys!
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"Leave Sauron to me."
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These guys. Gotta admire the balls though.
