Hi,

I am very late to the LOTR party but have been playing Sci FI, Fantasy an Historical games for years. I've wanted to get involved for the last few years but the expectation that GW were to drop the game held me back. The news of the new specialist games team has made me now take the leap.

Manage to pick up a copy of the 'One book to rule them all' off ebay and a couple of old OOP metal figures to begin with.

Waiting on Escape from Goblin Town for Christmas off the kids

Question I have though is that looking around at the five current source books and especially the three that are OOP, I can see them on ebay ect but they seem very inflated in price. I understan thats because they are OOP. The earlier sourcebooks seem to be more reasonablly priced I think. Can I manage with these older sourcebooks? (Especially Harad)

Hi and welcome to the forum, great to hear you've made the plunge! The game is alive and well and the independent scene is as big as it's ever been so it's a great time to get involved!

As for the sourcebooks, the older sourcebooks will have outdated rules, points values and profiles. Whilst the majority of them are the same, there are quite a few important differences across the various factions (and yes, I'm afraid there were a fair few important changes to Harad).

The biggest change with the new sourcebooks is that you now select your armies via warbands. This format (which basically means for every hero you can have up to 12 warriors) is explained in the front section of each of the five new sourcebooks so you would be able to get those rules from one of the two books still in production.

If you were playing friendly games at home or with friends then there's nothing to stop you using the older points values and profiles but as soon as you venture out to start playing against the wider community you'll need to be using the latest profiles. My best advice would be to get hold of the two sourcebooks that are still available while you can and then look to pick up the others along the way. You can always pick up the older ones to get you started, they're also great to have in your collection as they contain some really great hobby and scenario articles, The Scouring of the Shire and The Fall of the Necromancer are the best in my opinion.

I hope that helps! Enjoy Goblin Town, it's a great set with some really gorgeous models.

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Thanks Dr Grant that explains a lot. I've managed to pick up 4 out of the original 6 sourcebooks off eBay pretty cheaply and will pick up the others as well.

Friendly games will be the way forward, but I think I'll. pick up the two available like you suggest and watch for any bargains.

Here's hoping there may be updated books under the new venture!

The One Rulebook is also out of date now. However, when you get the Hobbit starter set for Christmas you will find included a mini Hobbit rulebook which contains the current evolution of the rules. Most noticeable changes are to shooting, extra Heroic actions, brutal power attacks with monsters and special weapon strikes.

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