The Future of LotR

Here is my brief plan for the LotR SBG

1) Construct totally new terrain for the LotR environment. If you like the terrain at Sunshine now, I believe you will really enjoy the terrain I am working on presently. It be self contain, which means it will only be used by the LotR players. It will be unique to the LotR story/theme, different areas, will be as accurate as possible to the story.
I will start with the "Fellowship" material and work my way towards "Return of the King". Although I will put Helms Deep and Minas Tirith temporarily aside as this will be large projects that will delay the other items if I undertake them right away.
I have shown some test samples and everyone agreed that it looks great.

2) I will purchase/have all of the principle characters (Ring Wraiths, Barrow Wraiths, Tom Bombadil, Shire Folk) on hand so we can play the scenario's. I will also purchase the entire line of source books so we can avoid the redundant battle material I have expeirence in all of the other SBG I have played. You will be able to reenact the entire LotR story start to finished in a somewhat RPG method, but not be weighted down with the pencil and paper that most RPG have.

3) Convert Battle of the Five Armies so we can have a epic LotR campaign. So now you can have both skirmish
and company based battles.

4) Painting groups, were we help each other to paint our armies. My goal being, everyone's army will be painted.
This will accomplished by each member bring about 200 points to the Sunshine. One person starts with the base coat, then hands it to the next person who does the dry painting, then gives it to the next person who does the details, and so on until finished. All armies will be work on the same time.

5) I will be updating The Traitor Legion LotR section with History, background, tactics and other resources to help with the full enjoyment of the game.

I will return to this topic and update it as I become more focused and have new items to added.
Please submit request or suggestions.
I really expect this to turn out to be a premier SBG!


JerryB

Sounds great!

Hey Jerry,take a look at this site:Old Glory Miniatures They have a few buildings which could be used for buildings in Bree or any other town.I know your gonna use the GW buildings so maybe adding a few of these could add some diversity.They also have some cool minis that could be used as Bree militia. A cool scenario would be a what if battle where my Uruks raid Bree which is defended by a small Gondorian patrol and the local townsfolk.

Hey Jerry,here's another site where you can find some cool stuff.They have really cool battle mats that could be used to represent the ground in Mordor or Isengard.Click here.

This is a fantastic site. And just yesterday I was getting ready to take my wallet out and purchase a "Knights Out" battle mat (good thing my wallet was empty) at the War Zone website.

Thank you very much for this resource. You will probably see this as the primary surface for LotR.

Remember I want LotR to have the BEST! And these items look like nothing that is available anywhere else (store wise).


JerryB

jerryb wrote:This is a fantastic site. And just yesterday I was getting ready to take my wallet out and purchase a "Knights Out" battle mat (good thing my wallet was empty) at the War Zone website.

Thank you very much for this resource. You will probably see this as the primary surface for LotR.

Remember I want LotR to have the BEST! And these items look like nothing that is available anywhere else (store wise).


JerryB

i have been using Old Glory miniatures for a LONG time, they are great, heck, most of my russian infantry is Old Glory miniatures! they make good quality minis

@Luis:Yea, Old glory minis seem to be nicely sculpted and cheap! I'm gonna see if I can buy a pack of revolting peasants to use as either villagers for the Bree scenario or wildmen of Dunland.

@Jerry:Glad you liked the site,Their mats seem really cool 'cause they have lots of detail in them.Not only that but they're made of rubber so you can roll it up and transport it easily.

wow, those battlemats are awesome! I might get one for myself

Yea,the mats are cool aren't they Matt?

@Jerry: I found a site where they still carry the big box sets for LotR:Clicky here

Solskritt, you keep doing this and you are going to push me into bankruptcy.

You dirty RAT!

JerryB

Maybe that's my secret plan...who knows?

Presently I am in the midst of painting "Old Forrest/Mirkwood/Fangorn Forrest". My matts from Fuckzzy may be hear by Thursday (what a nightmare that turn out to be) but I will believe when I see it.

I have completed painting and flocking four hills, with four more pending. I have also purchase 3 additional hills that are ready made.

I purchased additional trees, I really don't recall how many there are presently.

I currently have a 6 x 4 GW battlematt.

I purchased two more houses for Rohan, for a total of six (I think thats enough for 28mm).

I purchased a Hobbit house.

Pending are painting two full GW castles, ruins (various vendors), completing Hobbinton; completing Bree; Barrow downs; and more hills for certain areas in Middle Earth.

Roads, rivers and various terrain are on the way fro JR Miniatures.

Building a continent takes awhile, but I believe I am progressing at a pretty respectable level.

The final goal is to able to go anywhere in Middle Earth and have the terrain for it.

JerryB

Man! Your on a roll! Keep up the amazing work Jerry!

I believe an update is due.

War of the Ring was not release at the start of this topic (obviously) and now the LotR SBG landscape has dramatically changed. Its popularity has gone from ZERO to HERO. Perhaps GW has finally seen the light and respects and wants their customers happy or am I smoking too much Hobbit Weed.

Frantic made me aware of the GW Minas Tirith fort terrain model at Outland and I was able to procure perhaps the last of its kind, unless GW re-runs this product, but that is very unlikely (it's a shame, because it's very nice model).
Many thanks Frantic. This is great for the LotR gaming community. I need to at least make extension to make it practical to play as really does not cover a large area.

My terrain building has come to a complete stand still, due to my work on my armies. I can not give an estimate right now when I can resume, but I will give an update. I will continue with most of the plans mention above with exception of the order. Note: everything can and will change, my ultimate goal is to make this the best possible Strategic Battle Game.

JerryB

No problem. considering the newness of WoTR I dont think playing regular games will be redundant for quite some time so I'd say you've got lots of time to get all your plans together.

Go team!

It's not finalize, but I may be able to procure another Minas Tirith Castle model.

JerryB

So Jeryy...did you do a little dance of joy when all this explosion of WoTr interest flared up ? ?

Luis, I was surprised by the response actually, but I have a guarded outlook. Let's see if most of the players maintain their interest.

I want LotR/WotR to be on or near the same level as Fantasy and 40K, then I will do the happy dance.

I believe LorR/WotR to be the FOW of Gamesworkshop, meaning their most balance product, which I thought would never happen. They (GW) recently release WotR quick reference in PDF, unless I am mistaken, you can not get this for Fantasy or 40K. It's like a totally different company is running LotR. I hope they don't change when the game becomes mainstream.

JerryB

This happy dance you speak of must be performed publicly. Just so we can be certain that your keeping to your word.

Hopefully not, particularly how cheap it is to play. I think its great from what I've seen so far!

Ive read the rules, I really like them. Is this really a GW product?

It's hard to imagine, but yes, yes it is a GW product.

They actually got something right. Now lets just hope that if it takes off they don't do what they've done with 40k and Fantasy.

Worse comes to worse, you keep those original rulebooks!

Scurrdi, that is one of my concerns. That once LotR/WotR becomes a main product line they will back to their old tricks of fucking the customer.

The comment about using the original rulebooks happen to D&D.
4.0 apparently did not go over well with the majority of the current players, so most just still play 3.5.

Now if they (GW) would convert ALL of the metal armies to plastic I would perform two public displays of a happy dance.

JerryB