I believe I can answer that, it's firing of course

_________________
Commission Painting @FB http://www.facebook.com/squyrepainting
Commission Customers include:
GBHL Youtube Channel
MiniWargaming

Tres amusing James R! Its clearly doing what it says can the can. Someone (It doesn't look like Bard) is clearly firing it from Laketown at an ariel target, and I suspect that we all know who that is, particularly as there was only one evil protagonist at the battle of laketown!

Oh no! I hope they DO NOT have the Bard kill the Dragon with a Ballista!!!!
I can see it now.....i hope i am wrong...please

_________________
Harfoots-The first of the Hobbit people to cross over the Misty Mountains and enter Eriador.

Hi Harfoot,

That was precisely my initial reading of the situation but, the firer does not look like Bard, but I could be wrong!

It is Dale and Bard's ancestor Girion, the Lord of Dale, is firing

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

Interesting. well I always up for more miniature releases. especially special characters and weaponry!

I think Oldman Willow's bang on the money, I think it's Girion defending Dale, if you look at the surroundings and the next shot it looks like a stone city being destroyed, definitely not Laketown. If you look around him there's a bunch of dead Dale warriors who wouldn't be there during the time-scale of the movies. What's intriguing is that PJ said we'd see that in the prologue of the extended AUJ so I'm curious to see if it's been moved to DOS or if it's a second sequence that builds on the one in the prologue.

As for whether or not a Ballista will kill Smaug I strongly doubt it. However much PJ might change the journey, he rarely changes the major beats of the story,

Book spoiler!



The one thing I think he will change is the idea that there are black arrows rather than 1 black arrow. Not sure quite how this will work but I presume they'll be arrow tips made out of Obsidian or something so they pierce the hide of the dragon. Again, for my money, this makes far more sense, the Laketowners having access to hide-piercing arrows rather than a talking thrush that gives away his weakness.

Having watched it a whole bunch of times over the last few days I must say I absolutely love the trailer. The balance of elves/men/dwarves/hobbit is much better in this one and the CGI looks far better (the spiders look fantastic). I think this movie will be remembered as the best of the three and is going to feature the best set pieces of the trilogy. I know some people won't agree but I'm all up for Leggy and Tauriel expanding the Wood Elf section and the shots of Leggy swinging down the web after the spider and Tauriel spinning around firing surrounded by spiders are amongst my favourites in the trailer.

I find the shot of the army of orcs really intriguing, can't wait to see how that fits in, I'm guessing it's the orcs massing towards the end to march on the Lonely Mountain in film 3 rather than a huge battle in film 2 but I could be wrong. The only thing I'm worried about is that there's been absolutely no publicity stuff of Bolg. I hope he hasn't been written out entirely as part of the Azog introduction as he was such a cool design and I'd like the awesome mini to be used in some cool scenarios. My hope is that he was always meant to be Dol Guldor's Castellan so we shouldn't have seen him but he was such a big part of the first film's (pre-trilogy) marketing campaign that it's odd to see him disappear entirely.

Overall though I'm really happy, so excited for December now both in terms of the movie and the miniature range. Can't believe this considering how hyped I was last year but I think I'm even more excited about this movie!

_________________
Finished 2nd in the 2014 GBHL. My Wife's so proud

Free SBG fanzine: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29569

P.S. Forgot to mention, I'm not at all worried about the Leggy/Tauriel romance issue. PJ has said it's not a romance and, as others have said, being 'fond of' someone doesn't mean romance, I imagine they're going to have a brother/sister style relationship. As for Why Leggy would hate dwarves again in LOTR, the events of the Hobbit don't contradict that, the elves, dwarves and men make an uneasy alliance at the Battle of Five Armies to defeat the goblins, they don't have to be the best of friends. However, the seeds could be further sown if Tauriel dies at the Battle of Five armies and one of the Dwarves could have saved her - this would be particularly appropriate if it's Gloin...

Just thinking out loud

_________________
Finished 2nd in the 2014 GBHL. My Wife's so proud

Free SBG fanzine: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29569

I believe I can answer that, it's firing of course [/quote]
Should've expected that. The internet is dark and ripe with sarcasm.

[quote="JamesR"]
They won't kill a female character. They never do.

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

And I guess this confirms a certain someone isn't a black bear in the films.

_________________
"Mickey, my friend!"

I saw something a few posts ago stating hopes that Bard doesn't use a ballista to end Smaug. I can confirm that he uses the black arrow, just as he does in the books.

_________________
http://bdhobbymadness.blogspot.co.nz/

May the wind under your wings bear you to where the sun sails and the moon walks!

The talking spiders and thrush really added to the book from its own perspective but I agree that PJ will probably drop those points. The eagles didn't talk after all.

But even without the thrush I think Bilbo's discovery of the patch on Smaug and passing the information to Bard for the single Hail Mary shot is almost critical to the suspense and fulfillment of the story. Without Bilbo having that role there is no pay off for him finally overcoming the greatest challenge of his life...to go down that tunnel willingly and alone...except to steal a cup and [word deleted] of the dragon.

_________________
Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

I think PJ will play up dol gulder as being more like orthanc, so the orcs will not be coming from the misty mountains but will be coming from dol gulder for the battle of the five armies. We already see the dwarves in the mountain so smaug dies in this movie. So I expect the end to be lake town and the elves coming to the mountain to see it built up for a siege.

_________________
richmondwarmancers we play Lord of The Rings, Battlefleet Gothic, Infinity, some board games, and really whatever tickles our fancy..

I completely agree about the orcs coming from Dol Guldur, assuming that's built up in film 2 as the current heart of evil in Middle Earth that makes a fair bit more sense. That's one of the changes that certainly wouldn't bother me too much, I think it'd make nice narrative sense.

I disagree about Smaug though, I strongly doubt he'll die in this movie. You don't see the dwarves at home in the mountain, just Thorin and Bilbo exploring and that one shot of them all hiding from the dragon flame. I think this movie will end with them driving him out of the mountain and reclaiming Erebor in a far more heroic way than in the book. PJ has hinted at a confrontation between the dwarves and Smaug involving artillery as the climax of the film and the dwarves victoriously reclaiming the mountain and driving Smaug away (towards Laektown) will be a good emotional climax.

_________________
Finished 2nd in the 2014 GBHL. My Wife's so proud

Free SBG fanzine: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29569

I think if Smaug came back in the third movie only to be killed off early it would be anti climatic. It would be as if Helms Deep siege took place in TTT as is, but we don't see the Last March of the Ents until the beginning of RotK. The third movie will be building up to the BoFA. The downfall of Thorin, Bilbo's gifting the stone, whatever backstory PJ puts in for Dale and the Elves for gearing up and marching off, all the tension and failed diplomacy before the armies start to clash...all of that will take much of the early film. Then the Battle itself. And there's a lot of follow up after that before it closes with Bilbo back home.

But this is all speculation.

_________________
Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

Interesting little titbit gleaned from watching the extended AUJ - We now see that exact shot from the trailer of Girion firing the Ballista in the AUJ prologue. It will be interesting to see if it's also in DOS as a flashback to build on the Girion/black arrow theme or if they've just moved it from DOS. I know there's definitely more flashback stuff to Moria concerning Thrain, possibly as DOS's prologue, but as of yet there's been no chatter about a return to Dale. Exciting stuff though, maybe we'll find out more during the live event tomorrow night!

_________________
Finished 2nd in the 2014 GBHL. My Wife's so proud

Free SBG fanzine: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29569

There is more than one of those big bolt-throwing bows on the walls of Dale - check to the top left, there is another unmanned one. The 4 arms would effectively double the power of the weapon and is not unlike some of the many weapons of this general type that were used for over 2000 years (the exact mechanisms were different, but the idea remains the same - use mechanically produced tension to power a projectile of greater size to great distances with greater force than can be done by any mere human.
Maybe you have already seen this:
http://www.framecaplib.com/lotrlib/html ... rlr243.htm

_________________
Published ebooks:
Instrument of the Empire
A Note of Defiance
Phantom Ships, Ghost Flotilla
More to come!