I was hoping to find this thread here and luckily it was created just today
Allright, before I give you my thoughts on the subject at hand, here is what I think about the whole range of stuff that they have done:
Blisters of 3 troop warriors - really?! I don't think so! No way I'm paying 65 quid for a single warband of say, Laketown Militia. I'm just gonna use Warriors of Dale instead for the purpose of reconstructing that scenario for BOFA. Same with elves - just use the Palace Guards instead, while you can purchase just one blister of bowmen and maybe remove one of the regular guys from the warband to make them all fit perfectly into it. It's not the best, but definitely better value for money if you ask me.
Gundabad orcs? No problem - convert your Uruks and use their resin swordsmen as captains instead! Thats what I'm doing right now
Now, on the subject of new releases:
In my opinion, here is what I feel we should get to make the whole thing more complete:
- Dain foot (no helmet) and mounted on a piggy (wearing a helmet)
- Bain, with a sword as well. Would look cool to have him and Bard fight a longside. He could also be made an independent character, since he is still a kid and cannot lead any tropps at this point yet.
- The 9 in their shade/spirit form like in the film, those looked so nice and beutiful and also distantly resemble the figures we know so well. Would look fantastic!
- Gundabad Orc Captain with a halberd and a half sun helmet. The halberd can use same rules as Easterling Halberd aka Elven Blade.
- Orc Berserkers/ Gundabad Berserkers. Remeber those orc dudes wearing some armour and fluffy cloaks? Also mainly using 2-handed clubs, swords and sword-axes? To refresh your memory - one attacked Thorin when he was lying at the edge of a frozen waterfall and he stabbed him with the remains of his sword, the 2nd one attacked him with a sword-axe/sword-pick and was slain by Legolas who thrown the Orcrist at him. Before that, we see a whole bunch of them going for Thorin and wielding exact same big clubs with long spikes as the one used in Bolg's original design (now used as Gundabad Orc General) and others wield the 2nd movie version of Bolg's cleaver, that he had in DoS (Desolation of Smaug). A set of 12 of those guys with either the new profiles or at least same profiles as Uruk Hai Berserkers would be a great addition!
- Gundabad Orc General model needs to have rules for it, otherwise it a waste of a very nice model that nobody will purchase for any reason other than just use as alternative design for Bolg. But that way you could have both Bolg and this dude if the rules for him were made, or you could use him as a generic leader of the force if you are playing a custom scenario without any particular named heroes.
- Catapult Trolls. Those would make a great plastic kit with variations!
- Battle Trolls. Should I even bother explaining? I think you get the idea
- Ironhill Dwarfs. Pikemen and swordsmen would be nice, as we already have warriors of erebor with axes and grim hammers with pick hammers. So having an infantry with short dwarven versions of a Gladius, Falcata or a Machette/Scimitar would be really cool. Here are some reference images:
look at the guy on the left: http://wetaworkshop.com/projects/the-hobbit-the-battle-of-the-five-armies-2014/
http://wetaworkshop.com/projects/the-hobbit-the-battle-of-the-five-armies-2014/
http://wetaworkshop.com/projects/the-hobbit-the-battle-of-the-five-armies-2014/
http://wetaworkshop.com/projects/the-hobbit-the-battle-of-the-five-armies-2014/
- Half Trolls/Ogres. Could easily go as halftrolls and use same profile as Harad halftrolls.
- Bats. That would be pretty nice as a more numerous counter unit against eagles for example, making up their lesser strength in numbers.
- Thranduil on Elk. Even if the model never gets made, at least introduce new rules in either White Dwarf or a PDF file, so that people can try converting him and actually use it.
So, all of this is nice, but of course for me it's Dain i'm most worried about. If he never gets released, then we all gonna gang up on them and "give those (Oooh, naughty word) a good hammerin'!" (c) Dain Ironfoot, BOFA