Thanks for this video! A local shop was offering this box with a nice discount, and before purchase I knew I could count on you to have a good yet concise look through the contents. I'm personally not that interested in the game itself, but instead the miniatures. Years ago GW had this cool MESBG starter set with Moria theme and I sadly missed that (tho, I bought the phenomenal Battle for Skull Pass instead). Now I'm getting these nostalgic minis, partly thanks to your review. Cheers!✌️
Yeah, this is basically the old Moria starter set without the terrain. They did sell the terrain separately a while back and you may still find some copies of that in games stores or online. Thanks for watching I’m glad the video was helpful.
They could do several games like this, with Moria alone... - Last Stand at Balin's Tomb (play with Dwarfs only, trying to escape Moria, getting eaten at the gate, stabbed in the tunnels & crushed in Balin's Tomb) - Fight for Moria (Dwarfs trying to retake Khazad-Dum from the Goblins, winning the battle, outside, but Khazad-Dum remains in enemy hands) - Enter Moria, Khazad-Dum (fight off the "Guardian", be very stealthy/silent in the tunnels, reach Balin's Tomb) - Battle in Balin's Tomb (THIS game) - The Bridge of Khazad-Dum (run fast enough to the bridge, hold off the Balrog long enough, and escape) - Fall of Moria (play as Goblins only, trying to fend off Dwarfs or stealthily trying to escape) Every set with different minis & "boards", of course, combinable with each other. GW: 🤑
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring oh dear oh my. When'd they last announce a Quest game? January I think. It's that time again, soon :) I'm not expecting much, but hope is ever present.
Agree with all you've said here, thanks for sharing...I was hoping mine woudl rock up in the post today, but no, maybe tomorrow. It would have been nice if it was a double-sided board. The other side could have been another pre-set scenario using some or all of the Fellowship, like Aragorn and the Hobbits on Weathertop against a handful of Ringwraiths, or the entire Fellowship defending their camp against Wargs at night in Hollin...sure, there would have bee an additional expense for a few extra minis, cards and board printing, but worth it I reckon...
Ordered it only for the minis. Recently I dived in the mesbg, got battle of osgiliath set, minas tirith battlehost and Isengard battlehost! After this one arrives I will start painting everything up😁
The game isn't great, but it's a fantastic way to get all the Fellowship, plus a lot of goblins and a cave troll. The miniatures made it well worthwhile.
Awesome review! I just ordered this for Christmas the other day. First time I’ve bought a skirmish game. Wish they’d included some of the old 3d terrain that the old Moria set had, otherwise it looks great!
It would have been nice to include the terrain, but I suspect they were hoping to drum up some secondary product sales by leaving it out (the Moria terrain is currently sold out on the UK site, and I don't know if that was the case before this game launched!). I'm lucky to have plenty of dungeon bits and bobs to dress the scene if I want to.
Yeah that’s probably it. I’ll probably try and get some of the Moria terrain myself and use it in the game. Are you gonna do a video about using general bits of terrain to create different challenges that you mentioned in the video? Seems like with that and a maybe moving the positions of the Fellowship, it’d be really easy to create a lot of fun variants on the scenario.
I'm hoping to get a "vanilla" playthrough up on the channel first, but then there's a chance I might do something about changing up the scenario a bit in different ways.
That's possibly so. I should have checked the UK site when the game was first announced, when I was checking for the pricing on the other sprues but I didn't really think about it. GW stock is wonky at the moment. The Balin's Tomb game was showing as no longer available one day into preorders, and stores like Element Games were saying the game was out of print and no longer being supplied by GW, then yesterday it came back into stock and Element Games are taking orders again as they are expecting more stock to arrive.
The battle system with the dice; swords and shield's, just reminds me of HeroQuest-it appears to be the same. I like the look of this game and probably will pick it up.
It's very similar, except the use of the ring symbols to trigger abilities, and the special dice for the troll. Unfortunately, I didn't think much to the game itself after repeated plays, as it has some flaws that really hamper gameplay. There is another review on the channel where I talk about that in detail.
Got mine in the mail today. Great review. It seems like the only sizable oversight was not including the goblin cards drawn per each turn. I agree, a slash with the number of cards after each turn number would seem to have remedied this.
It's a small thing, but it definitely would have made it a bit smoother to play by removing the need to reference a chart in the rules. Seems odd they would omit it, really.
I don't see how a second smaller number just offset from each turn number would prevent the use of the ring marker. There's plenty of space on the turn tracker to add it without interfering with what's there.
I did wind up ordering this... it's delayed @ my friend's store, so it'll be a few weeks before I get it. I realized I already had several models painted for this (including my [#humblebrag] Silver Demon Cave Troll), so might as well get it as those minis have now spent a solid 15 years just sitting in foam trays and could use some overdue table time. I also should be able to corral one of my daughters and convince them to play over the holiday break. Fingers crossed!
Great review, and an intriguing product. While the box is quite limited in terms of scope and replayability, I can see fans making almost endless new board layouts, scenarios and character cards to cover lots more of the story.
I think so, yes. It has a really simple core system so it's pretty easy to tinker with. I kind of feel GW could have gone a bit further with this and made a Mines of Moria adventure game with modular map tiles. I do wonder if the "A Middle-Earth Adventure Game " subheading implies they might do more games in the setting down the road.
Posting here because this game is coming back next week (for how long idk...). In any case the overall vibe seems to be you get it for the models (especially if you play MESBG) and not really for the gameplay because the gameplay that is there is a bit shallow. I would love to see GW take another crack at these 1 shot scenario LOTR board games, something with a bit more "meat on the bones".
Yeah, it's been delayed in the UK, EU, and Japan though. It's a good buy for the miniatures, but as I discuss in another video here on the channel, the game is pretty flawed despite having some neat ideas.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I think if you play MESBG especially the battle companies version then this might be worth it if you want to start a moria battle company. Outside of getting it for the minis, it doesn't really seem worth it.
A combination of heroic versus realistic proportions, and GW scale creep means the two lines are a little out of whack. The last human miniatures I got from Age of Sigmar were in Cursed City, and Gandalf's head hardly reaches the human vampire hunter's shoulder. They've always been in different styles, but I included that information in the video for people who might be new to the Lord of the Rings stuff.
Got mine Saturday and I thoroughly enjoyed it, even if all I've done so far is an unboxing with it. But I plan to have a day where I chill out, watch the Fellowship and build and paint this set. Great review and a side not if you have the terrain from the old mines of Moria boxe it goes perfectly with this set.
It's a fun game. I figured the Moria terrain would fit, and it's sold out on the GW site at the moment so I wondered if that was because people suddenly bought up sets for this game. Fortunately, I have enough Terrain Crate stuff for it if I really want to decorate the scene - I'm just missing some pillars.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring yeah I need 8 to 10 pillars for my set to be finished off. Also your divider got off better than mine, the troll put his raised arm through mine and I've got one spear goblin slightly bent.
Troll was obviously not pleased about being stuffed in the box. Normally GW games are so jammed with sprues they don't have much room to move around, but the sprues for this game had a bit too much space to float around in the box, I think.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring agreed a small tray or even a separate box would have been better, maybe one that could double as storage for the finished models.
Awesome review, I got a copy myself today but plan on probably using my own dungeon terrain instead. Regardless just a fun small game so can't wait to crack the box
Also you are right that it is simple, and in ways a hero quest style game which for introducing new/family members it is the perfect game. Fun games don't have to be overly complicated and this looks like it hits the mark
Strange they didn't go with a variable setup like Underworlds. That'd still keep the initial distance between the forces but allow for a bit of variation (and it's still keeps the simplicity). It looks easy enough that I could probably play it with the 6 year old (and introduce some abilities as he gains experience or just stick with The Enemy).
Yeah, I think they were going for more of a narrative thing here. The set up reflects how the fight begins in the movie. I think the game is perfect for younger gamers; it's very accessible.
Cheers for the boxing vid. Awesome you got it under 30, I got mine for just over 30 can’t open until Christmas Day 😂.I was looking to get the fellowship like I said for my ye old hero quest and do a mash up game, so this seemed a good way to by the minis I need and the game is an extra bonus. Is a shame about the board lay out, maybe would have been nice to have the scenery thrown in as you can still get that for 15. Was always looking at getting it for my hero quest too ( yep I do love hero quest😂… but decided not to get the new version will stick to my ye old one) lol I’ve talked too much.. cheers again and Merry 🎅
So a rehash of the mines of moria starter set without the scenery and only one of the scenarios from the campaign just modified for a heroquest type combat system. plus an added gameboard..and the really sad thing is that despite all that I might still buy it!!!
It's actually a really fun game. Of course, it's designed to be more of an entry-level product that's easy to pick up and play, but it's also a good way to get these miniatures at a good price for those people who missed Mines of Moria all those years ago.
Strange, i love LOTR but never brought or played any LOTR games but this looks good I think the amount of minis and a simple game set up is very appealing
Terrain would have been nice, but probably would have made it a bit too pricey for what they were doing with this set. I notice the Moria terrain is sold out on the GW website at the moment - I suspect some of that will be people buying it for this game.
Seems like a good candidate for a custom board made from foam or the like. Are the outer squares intended to be on a different level? There seem to be steps leading up in the artwork. I do hope I can track this down after the holidays -- my spouse having objected to me buying myself presents ahead of time.
Yes, the board depicts the scene from the movie so has a raised area around the edge. However, there are no rules for climbing up, jumping down, using stairs, gaining a height advantage in melee or an improved LOS. As far as the game rules are concerned, all the spaces are the same and you can move and attack between then regardless of the board art. I feel like perhaps there was originally going to be something but they stripped it out to keep the game simple (and perhaps accidentally stripped out rules about pillars, as the rules don't say you can't move through them!).
I'm glad I waited on this one. Be careful with the hobbits, as their tiny little ankles are really delicate on these models. They are rather delicate on the metal versions as well. I'm really careful with minis and one of my Merry plastics has been broken for ages and their really isn't a good way to fix them.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring It's a set that really needs a modern upgrade. The pan handle sucks because it's mostly flat and can't be glued. I snipped it all off and used a piece of brass rod that I hammer a bit to make it sort of oval in cross section. Granted these Moria minis have bounced around with me for years.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring yes, auto correct killed my message, sorry for that. I meant that you say rules book and not rulebook, which surprised me a lot.
I play games like this solo all the time and have a great time, but I enjoy solo gaming even with games that aren't really designed for it. There's no hidden information in this game (no hand of cards, for example), so if you can "partition your brain" and just play it trying to do the best possible with each side then you should be able to enjoy it.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Thanks for the quick reply! I bought the game at my FLGS this afternoon. I still have all the Fellow ship mini’s from the 2005 “Mines of Moria” boxed set so those are already painted. Sadly I lost the Goblins and Cave troll so I will have to paint those again. Another plus owning that 2005 set, it did contain all the nice terrain pieces. The tomb, the well the trap doors and 4 pillars!
Already have the minatures in the box set, so I won't be buying it, it's just easier to use the Middle earth sbg rules to play this scenario, what would of been better in my opinion would of been the battle of balin last stand in board game format, would of had more playability options and imagination from the rules writers to go to town .
A lot of the value in this set is built into those miniatures. I definitely think if you have them already this isn't going to be worth the price of entry. I can't believe GW didn't include the profiles for these units for use in the Strategy Battle Game. That was a bit of an oversight.
It looks fun, it seems the concerns about each game being set up the same have come to pass but that hasn't done chess any harm. I probably won't buy it but if like to give it a go.
It's a fun little game, with bonus marks for a cool theme and being easy to tinker with if you want to. I don't think it's going to rock anybody's world, but I'm glad to have it in my collection.
Yeah really not sure why the mark up is higher on this one than Warhammer products. It also doesn't help that its very difficult to find LOTR products below MSRP here in the states. I was excited for this because I thought it would be around $50 but $75 is just too high.
How long before this becomes boring, two playthroughs? Putting another map/scenario on the other side of the board might’ve helped. Love Lotr but sorry, pass!!
How quickly it gets old will probably vary. I think younger gamers and casual players will get more runs out of it. I'm still playing it. If I ever win with the Fellowship I think I might call it a day. There's a playthrough on my channel if you want to see a bit of the game in flow. Oh, and yes, a second map is a no-brainer and should have been included, along with profiles for the miniatures to use in the Strategy Battle Game.
Thanks for this video!
A local shop was offering this box with a nice discount, and before purchase I knew I could count on you to have a good yet concise look through the contents. I'm personally not that interested in the game itself, but instead the miniatures. Years ago GW had this cool MESBG starter set with Moria theme and I sadly missed that (tho, I bought the phenomenal Battle for Skull Pass instead). Now I'm getting these nostalgic minis, partly thanks to your review. Cheers!✌️
Yeah, this is basically the old Moria starter set without the terrain. They did sell the terrain separately a while back and you may still find some copies of that in games stores or online. Thanks for watching I’m glad the video was helpful.
They could do several games like this, with Moria alone...
- Last Stand at Balin's Tomb (play with Dwarfs only, trying to escape Moria, getting eaten at the gate, stabbed in the tunnels & crushed in Balin's Tomb)
- Fight for Moria (Dwarfs trying to retake Khazad-Dum from the Goblins, winning the battle, outside, but Khazad-Dum remains in enemy hands)
- Enter Moria, Khazad-Dum (fight off the "Guardian", be very stealthy/silent in the tunnels, reach Balin's Tomb)
- Battle in Balin's Tomb (THIS game)
- The Bridge of Khazad-Dum (run fast enough to the bridge, hold off the Balrog long enough, and escape)
- Fall of Moria (play as Goblins only, trying to fend off Dwarfs or stealthily trying to escape)
Every set with different minis & "boards", of course, combinable with each other.
GW: 🤑
I think they should just go the whole hog and make Lord of the Rings: Quest. People would eat that up.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring oh dear oh my.
When'd they last announce a Quest game? January I think. It's that time again, soon :)
I'm not expecting much, but hope is ever present.
Agree with all you've said here, thanks for sharing...I was hoping mine woudl rock up in the post today, but no, maybe tomorrow. It would have been nice if it was a double-sided board. The other side could have been another pre-set scenario using some or all of the Fellowship, like Aragorn and the Hobbits on Weathertop against a handful of Ringwraiths, or the entire Fellowship defending their camp against Wargs at night in Hollin...sure, there would have bee an additional expense for a few extra minis, cards and board printing, but worth it I reckon...
I think, even just having the great hall on the reverse with two rows of columns would have helped to add a lot of options to the game.
Ordered it only for the minis. Recently I dived in the mesbg, got battle of osgiliath set, minas tirith battlehost and Isengard battlehost! After this one arrives I will start painting everything up😁
The game isn't great, but it's a fantastic way to get all the Fellowship, plus a lot of goblins and a cave troll. The miniatures made it well worthwhile.
Bought this myself. First foray into LoTR gaming. It looks like this is going to be fun. Great review as usual. Thanks Kevin.
Thanks for the kind words. I hope you have a lot of fun with it.
Awesome review! I just ordered this for Christmas the other day. First time I’ve bought a skirmish game. Wish they’d included some of the old 3d terrain that the old Moria set had, otherwise it looks great!
It would have been nice to include the terrain, but I suspect they were hoping to drum up some secondary product sales by leaving it out (the Moria terrain is currently sold out on the UK site, and I don't know if that was the case before this game launched!). I'm lucky to have plenty of dungeon bits and bobs to dress the scene if I want to.
Yeah that’s probably it. I’ll probably try and get some of the Moria terrain myself and use it in the game. Are you gonna do a video about using general bits of terrain to create different challenges that you mentioned in the video? Seems like with that and a maybe moving the positions of the Fellowship, it’d be really easy to create a lot of fun variants on the scenario.
I'm hoping to get a "vanilla" playthrough up on the channel first, but then there's a chance I might do something about changing up the scenario a bit in different ways.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring That terrain has pretty much been out of stock for ages.
That's possibly so. I should have checked the UK site when the game was first announced, when I was checking for the pricing on the other sprues but I didn't really think about it. GW stock is wonky at the moment. The Balin's Tomb game was showing as no longer available one day into preorders, and stores like Element Games were saying the game was out of print and no longer being supplied by GW, then yesterday it came back into stock and Element Games are taking orders again as they are expecting more stock to arrive.
The battle system with the dice; swords and shield's, just reminds me of HeroQuest-it appears to be the same. I like the look of this game and probably will pick it up.
It's very similar, except the use of the ring symbols to trigger abilities, and the special dice for the troll. Unfortunately, I didn't think much to the game itself after repeated plays, as it has some flaws that really hamper gameplay. There is another review on the channel where I talk about that in detail.
Got mine in the mail today. Great review. It seems like the only sizable oversight was not including the goblin cards drawn per each turn. I agree, a slash with the number of cards after each turn number would seem to have remedied this.
It's a small thing, but it definitely would have made it a bit smoother to play by removing the need to reference a chart in the rules. Seems odd they would omit it, really.
Yeah, but this way you can use the one ring as a turn marker. I'd have had the draw numbers on a card.
I don't see how a second smaller number just offset from each turn number would prevent the use of the ring marker. There's plenty of space on the turn tracker to add it without interfering with what's there.
I did wind up ordering this... it's delayed @ my friend's store, so it'll be a few weeks before I get it. I realized I already had several models painted for this (including my [#humblebrag] Silver Demon Cave Troll), so might as well get it as those minis have now spent a solid 15 years just sitting in foam trays and could use some overdue table time. I also should be able to corral one of my daughters and convince them to play over the holiday break. Fingers crossed!
I hope you have fun with it.
Thank you for the video 👍 probably gonna pick this up to play with my kids. Been looking for an easy skirmish game to play with them.
I think it would be a good fit for that. Thanks for watching.
Great review, and an intriguing product.
While the box is quite limited in terms of scope and replayability, I can see fans making almost endless new board layouts, scenarios and character cards to cover lots more of the story.
I think so, yes. It has a really simple core system so it's pretty easy to tinker with. I kind of feel GW could have gone a bit further with this and made a Mines of Moria adventure game with modular map tiles. I do wonder if the "A Middle-Earth Adventure Game " subheading implies they might do more games in the setting down the road.
Posting here because this game is coming back next week (for how long idk...). In any case the overall vibe seems to be you get it for the models (especially if you play MESBG) and not really for the gameplay because the gameplay that is there is a bit shallow. I would love to see GW take another crack at these 1 shot scenario LOTR board games, something with a bit more "meat on the bones".
Yeah, it's been delayed in the UK, EU, and Japan though. It's a good buy for the miniatures, but as I discuss in another video here on the channel, the game is pretty flawed despite having some neat ideas.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I think if you play MESBG especially the battle companies version then this might be worth it if you want to start a moria battle company. Outside of getting it for the minis, it doesn't really seem worth it.
Scale is right, orks from AoS are huge beasts, and stormcasts are 3 meter tall demigods, so yeah models of humans are same size as fellowship.
A combination of heroic versus realistic proportions, and GW scale creep means the two lines are a little out of whack. The last human miniatures I got from Age of Sigmar were in Cursed City, and Gandalf's head hardly reaches the human vampire hunter's shoulder. They've always been in different styles, but I included that information in the video for people who might be new to the Lord of the Rings stuff.
Got mine Saturday and I thoroughly enjoyed it, even if all I've done so far is an unboxing with it. But I plan to have a day where I chill out, watch the Fellowship and build and paint this set.
Great review and a side not if you have the terrain from the old mines of Moria boxe it goes perfectly with this set.
It's a fun game. I figured the Moria terrain would fit, and it's sold out on the GW site at the moment so I wondered if that was because people suddenly bought up sets for this game. Fortunately, I have enough Terrain Crate stuff for it if I really want to decorate the scene - I'm just missing some pillars.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring yeah I need 8 to 10 pillars for my set to be finished off.
Also your divider got off better than mine, the troll put his raised arm through mine and I've got one spear goblin slightly bent.
Troll was obviously not pleased about being stuffed in the box. Normally GW games are so jammed with sprues they don't have much room to move around, but the sprues for this game had a bit too much space to float around in the box, I think.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring agreed a small tray or even a separate box would have been better, maybe one that could double as storage for the finished models.
Damn I might pick this up, great way to get the little ones into Lord of the Rings!!!
I think it would be great to introduce younger gamers to the setting.
Awesome review, I got a copy myself today but plan on probably using my own dungeon terrain instead. Regardless just a fun small game so can't wait to crack the box
Also you are right that it is simple, and in ways a hero quest style game which for introducing new/family members it is the perfect game. Fun games don't have to be overly complicated and this looks like it hits the mark
They've definitely gone down the route of "fast and fun." It's a pretty minimalist design!
Strange they didn't go with a variable setup like Underworlds. That'd still keep the initial distance between the forces but allow for a bit of variation (and it's still keeps the simplicity). It looks easy enough that I could probably play it with the 6 year old (and introduce some abilities as he gains experience or just stick with The Enemy).
Yeah, I think they were going for more of a narrative thing here. The set up reflects how the fight begins in the movie. I think the game is perfect for younger gamers; it's very accessible.
Cheers for the boxing vid. Awesome you got it under 30, I got mine for just over 30 can’t open until Christmas Day 😂.I was looking to get the fellowship like I said for my ye old hero quest and do a mash up game, so this seemed a good way to by the minis I need and the game is an extra bonus. Is a shame about the board lay out, maybe would have been nice to have the scenery thrown in as you can still get that for 15. Was always looking at getting it for my hero quest too ( yep I do love hero quest😂… but decided not to get the new version will stick to my ye old one) lol I’ve talked too much.. cheers again and Merry 🎅
Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts. I hope you have fun fending off those goblins over Christmas!
So a rehash of the mines of moria starter set without the scenery and only one of the scenarios from the campaign just modified for a heroquest type combat system. plus an added gameboard..and the really sad thing is that despite all that I might still buy it!!!
It's actually a really fun game. Of course, it's designed to be more of an entry-level product that's easy to pick up and play, but it's also a good way to get these miniatures at a good price for those people who missed Mines of Moria all those years ago.
Strange, i love LOTR but never brought or played any LOTR games but this looks good I think the amount of minis and a simple game set up is very appealing
I’m hoping to get a playthrough on the channel soon to show the game in action.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring good can't wait , always found your Blackstone fortress how to play video so helpful
Looks good and affordable but lack about eplayability... I will consider if I found around 40€...
Shame they didn't include the moria scenery sprue as that would have given it much needed dimension.
Terrain would have been nice, but probably would have made it a bit too pricey for what they were doing with this set. I notice the Moria terrain is sold out on the GW website at the moment - I suspect some of that will be people buying it for this game.
Seems like a good candidate for a custom board made from foam or the like. Are the outer squares intended to be on a different level? There seem to be steps leading up in the artwork.
I do hope I can track this down after the holidays -- my spouse having objected to me buying myself presents ahead of time.
Yes, the board depicts the scene from the movie so has a raised area around the edge. However, there are no rules for climbing up, jumping down, using stairs, gaining a height advantage in melee or an improved LOS. As far as the game rules are concerned, all the spaces are the same and you can move and attack between then regardless of the board art. I feel like perhaps there was originally going to be something but they stripped it out to keep the game simple (and perhaps accidentally stripped out rules about pillars, as the rules don't say you can't move through them!).
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Seems like a good opportunity for expansion, then.
Would be very easy to add some elevation rules.
Still waiting for mine to be delivered
Hopefully you won't be waiting long. At least when it does arrive this is a very quick game to get to the table, unlike many other GW games!
those minis looks like have toned down detail from the original ones??
They're the same miniatures. They're just quite old now. It might be the blue and red plastic on camera hiding some detail.
I'm glad I waited on this one. Be careful with the hobbits, as their tiny little ankles are really delicate on these models. They are rather delicate on the metal versions as well. I'm really careful with minis and one of my Merry plastics has been broken for ages and their really isn't a good way to fix them.
I remember you mentioning Sam's frying pan before, and that is a ridiculously thin piece! They are very dainty little things.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring It's a set that really needs a modern upgrade. The pan handle sucks because it's mostly flat and can't be glued. I snipped it all off and used a piece of brass rod that I hammer a bit to make it sort of oval in cross section.
Granted these Moria minis have bounced around with me for years.
These models are a little long in the tooth now.
Rulesbook and not a rulebook? I have never seen that s on any rulebook. 🙂
Sorry, I'm not sure I understand what you mean.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring yes, auto correct killed my message, sorry for that. I meant that you say rules book and not rulebook, which surprised me a lot.
Ah, I see. Fun fact, in this game it's referred to as the "Rules Manual."
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring that's a compromise then! 😉
Would it be possible to play this solo and have a good time?
I play games like this solo all the time and have a great time, but I enjoy solo gaming even with games that aren't really designed for it. There's no hidden information in this game (no hand of cards, for example), so if you can "partition your brain" and just play it trying to do the best possible with each side then you should be able to enjoy it.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Thanks for the quick reply! I bought the game at my FLGS this afternoon. I still have all the Fellow ship mini’s from the 2005 “Mines of Moria” boxed set so those are already painted. Sadly I lost the Goblins and Cave troll so I will have to paint those again. Another plus owning that 2005 set, it did contain all the nice terrain pieces. The tomb, the well the trap doors and 4 pillars!
Being able to add the 3D elements will add some table presence. I hope you enjoy the game.
Already have the minatures in the box set, so I won't be buying it, it's just easier to use the Middle earth sbg rules to play this scenario, what would of been better in my opinion would of been the battle of balin last stand in board game format, would of had more playability options and imagination from the rules writers to go to town .
A lot of the value in this set is built into those miniatures. I definitely think if you have them already this isn't going to be worth the price of entry. I can't believe GW didn't include the profiles for these units for use in the Strategy Battle Game. That was a bit of an oversight.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Yes total oversight by them, as the fellowship is a legal force in sbg would of been a nice gateway into the game.
It looks fun, it seems the concerns about each game being set up the same have come to pass but that hasn't done chess any harm. I probably won't buy it but if like to give it a go.
It's a fun little game, with bonus marks for a cool theme and being easy to tinker with if you want to. I don't think it's going to rock anybody's world, but I'm glad to have it in my collection.
You can set up the minis however you want. GW won' stop you.
Are you sure? I might get a cease and desist letter, especially if I paint them the wrong colours and use Vallejo paints. Now I'm worried 😧
I think you're fine as long as they don't start the Balin's Tomb adventure game super scenario bonanza on Warhammer+.
$75 in the US is way overpriced for 20yr old minis (not that great by today’s standards) and a basic game with one scenario.
US pricing is steep. I got my copy for less than £30, so around $40.
Yeah really not sure why the mark up is higher on this one than Warhammer products. It also doesn't help that its very difficult to find LOTR products below MSRP here in the states. I was excited for this because I thought it would be around $50 but $75 is just too high.
How long before this becomes boring, two playthroughs? Putting another map/scenario on the other side of the board might’ve helped.
Love Lotr but sorry, pass!!
How quickly it gets old will probably vary. I think younger gamers and casual players will get more runs out of it. I'm still playing it. If I ever win with the Fellowship I think I might call it a day. There's a playthrough on my channel if you want to see a bit of the game in flow.
Oh, and yes, a second map is a no-brainer and should have been included, along with profiles for the miniatures to use in the Strategy Battle Game.