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Apparently there's a rumor floating about for a new starter set for everyone's favorite system: War of the Ring. The rumor states it will be Gondor vs Mordor, and may have new Wargs/(Riders?), bu other than that, it's alarmingly vague.

Thoughts? Good? Bad? Indifferent?

Well Harry's put his weight behind it, so I'll believe it.
Apparently it could be released later this year.

I think it's good. It makes sense to have a starter set. If it's good enough, I may succumb...

and once agian the SBG players get the middle finger from GW. I do have to admit that i'm looking forward to it...tho i probbly won't get it as i all ready have 94 unpainted orcs and to many Warriors of Minas Tirith.
I hav e to worry about the price as they will have to sheel out a fair few modals in the set for both sides as well as the pocket rule book so i would expect it to be £60.

I think it would have been best if they'd done a revamp of the SBG starter set at the same time so that WotR doesn't overshaddow it, especially as SBG can be a nice starting point for WotR (i.e. it requires less minis so can be played while you're still building up an army for WotR). They could also have themed it so that the two sets could be combined for an even larger WotR army, either by making the pairings be the same (e.g. both have GondorvsMordor) or by thematic alliance (e.g. one set have GondorvsMordor and the other RohanvsFallen Kingdoms) - you wouldn't need to buy both sets, but if you did it'd give you a broader base from which to work.

Another idea is that instead of a starter set, they should do some sort of army deal - i.e. a preset army of, say 1000pts, that is cheaper to buy than buying all the parts seperately and perhaps comes with an exclusive mini.

Dinadan, GW have clearly moved on to WotR as their main LotR system. They're not going to spend the resources revamping a SBG starter when WotR doesn't have one.]

That said, if previous starters are anything to go by, there should be some unique models in the set. What I'd love is if they put in a SBG rulebook as well. I mean, what have they got to lose? Their marketing can say they're selling you 2 gaming systems, as the models for a WotR starter should be easily enough for some good SBG games. The MoM rules at least are already done up so they don't even have to spend money on making a new one (though I'd like one with all the new WD profiles in it personally).

Like Cal said, SBG is out. I feel the chances of proving String Theory are higher than the chances of GW giving us another SBG book, and nobody can prove string theory.

The marketing idea behind it, while it seems ludicrous to us, makes perfect sense to GW: release an excellent skirmish game, then release a mediocre mass battle game that requires you to buy four-five or more times the models needed for one army in the skirmish game, then phase out the skirmish game by not letting staffers in your stores teach it. Then everyone buys War of the Ring, spending too much on the models, then upon realizing that War of the Ring is a far inferior system, just stop playing.

And thus, what was meant to be merely an expansion for the Strategy Battle Game has phased it out completely. I honestly would not be surprised if in the future they quit putting the SBG profiles even in White Dwarf.

This is precisely the reason why I will not buy Lord of the Rings models from Games Workshop anymore. There are other game systems that have just as good models and rules on par with the SBG.

Cheers,
Fenrir

Cal585 wrote:

Dinadan, GW have clearly moved on to WotR as their main LotR system. They're not going to spend the resources revamping a SBG starter when WotR doesn't have one.].

Hence why I said that I think they should. I wasn't talking about GW policy as is, but how I'd like to see it.

combining them would be a good idea marketing wise however i doupt it for a few reasons;
1 - GW don't even teach SBG anymore
2 - The staff requirements have changed so that you no longer need to know the rules for LOTR eiather WOTR OR SBG when a ferw years ago they where needed to work the shop floor.
3 - GW contiunasly disapoint the SBG players every month with LOTR not evne having a mention in 2 of the last 12 issues of WD and having mediocer rules. They only even stock something like 2 copys of new modals and my local is one of the largest in the UK!.