Yeah, so I am going to play this game now. I know fantasy is better and all that, but I got into Warhammer under the premise that I was going to play Lord of the Rings. It's taken me close to five years, but I am definately about to shell out the money needed to reinact all the major battles.

Do either of the rule books give unit break downs on the major battles? i.e. the number of each type of unit on either side of the battle of Helm's Deep

If you want a codex, you need to get Legions of Middle Earth; which I have a copy of I believe.

Let me know when you want to start; I saw you in there tonight looking thru stuff, I believe.

I'll start getting my Goblins painted up and my Balrog finished (about less than an hour left on the Balrog) so I can start playing.

Maybe we can talk Fulminata into tricking his wife into thinking he has to work late so he will use another night to come in to play.

Neither book has an exact breakdown of units for specific battles. War of the Ring has many scenarios based on conflicts from the books, with armies described as special characters and the points values of the rest of the army, but you pick the specific units within those points values.

You're not going to find opponents for War of the Ring though, at least not yet. War of the Ring is effectively LotR: Apocalypse. Like 40K: Apocalypse, no one gets into it without first spending a lot of time playing the lower model count game. First you'd need to build interest in LotR, and then WotR might follow eventually.

There are scenario books for Lord of the Rings that lay out specific scenarios for that game along with the specific models needed to fight them, but I don't have any of them. I just have the core rules and the Legions of Middle Earth book that provides army lists so you can do point based games of LotR (the core book includes stats and point values, but not army lists, because it was originally designed just to be played with scenarios). If you're interested in the scenario books, I'd suggest looking at the listings on GW's site and then having Chris order one for you that you think sounds interesting.

As for my playing, my best bet would be to get in the occasional noon game, or even a game on board game night (but the latter probably no more than once a month). Claiming I'm working late doesn't do so well since I work at home

Does this game run a lot like the other GW games?

They all use miniatures

Both LotR and WotR are actually a bit of a refreshing change from the other GW games. To begin with, LotR is a skirmish game, but doesn't use the exact same set of core rules found in GW's other skirmish games, like Mordheim and Necromunda.

LotR uses interlaced turns instead of an igo/ugo model. Both players have an opportunity to move before either player can shoot, then both players have an opportunity to shoot before either can fight.

Command and Control are very important issues in LotR. The side that loses its heroes is not automatically defeated, but is going to be at a very severe disadvantage due to having to test for Courage as individual models instead of being able to rely on the heroes to test for them. The same applies to models that get too far from their heroes. You can send a flanking force around the side, and it can be quite effective, but if they don't have a hero accompanying them, then they are also going to be quite fragile.

WotR isn't quite as different as it used to be, as 8th Edition Fantasy has borrowed some ideas from it, but it still has some concepts that are unique to it like the uniform arrangement of units into blocks of 8 infantry or 2 cavalry (as well as some concepts that it used to share with Fantasy that it no longer does, like area terrain instead of true line of sight).

I've never actually played WotR, but it looks quite interesting.

Im pretty interested in constructing the actual terrain from the books. I found a site that gives an amazingly accurate break down of how to build them all. Playing the game is pretty much secondary to the actual modeling of this for me. I want to play it of course; but the lack of interest most people have isnt a deterant for me. I figure if I can make some convincing terrain peices, people will definately want to get an occasional game with me.

The massive battles would be fun, but I think its more of a fulfilling my childhood fantasys of playing as Eomer and Aragorn kind of thing lol.

Aparently "The Two Towers" rulebook, as well as three issues of White Dwarf chronicle how to set up Helm's Deep.

My memories are just as old, but I believe you are correct in your recollections, Chris.

I should point out that prior to the release of WotR, GW was really pushing bigger battles using the LotR rules. I have it on good authority from a friend of mine who was a GW store manager at the time, that these bigger battles using LotR basically break the game. I suspect the Helm's Deep scenario falls into that category, but if you're just looking to build interesting terrain, then that shouldn't be a factor.

Incidentally, there is a Helm's Deep scenario in WotR. It's basically a 5000 point battle, and with no epic heroes allowed on the evil side, that's a heck of a lot of uruk-hai!

Now I'm getting the itch to play again...

I have to disagree with fulminata at least somewhat. I am not a huge fan of LOTR the basic game as the scenarios are very jaded and the outcome is all but decided. If you like to play recreations, this game system is wonderful. It is also a great way to get started. WOTR is in my opinion the much better system. You are allowed more freedom and the outcome is not biased as in LOTR. Take what you will from each game as they have their ups and downs. We do stock a WOTR rulebook and several models that can be used in both systems. If I start to see more people interested in this game, I will certainly expand my line to accomodate. I even have a couple of guys at the store who have at least a starter army.

LotR started as a purely scenario based system, but since the publication of Legions of Middle-Earth it's been playable as a point-based competitive game that's at least as balanced as any of GW's other systems.

Having only played the game using Legions of Middle-Earth, I have to completely disagree with the statement that "the outcome is all but decided."

yeah im definately going to play with the models as I get them, so LotR is my first choice to play. I think I may get that starter that Chris has once I get the money.