A Mines of Moria for The Hobbit. What would be in the box?

[Getifa Ubazza]

As the title asks. If GW do a Mines of Moria style boxed set for The Hobbit, what do you think would be in the box?

I have not read The Hobbit yet, so have no idea.

Mines of Moria has; The Fellowship, 24 Moria Goblins, 1 Cave Troll and Balins Tomb terrain.

I suppose they would have Bilbo, Gandalf, The Dwarfs and perhaps Gollum. The only part of The Hobbit I know is the 3 Trolls putting the Dwarfs in sacks and Gandalf saves them by keeping the Trolls arguing until the sun comes up. Then there is Bilbo and Gollums riddle contest. There is something about a Goblin King, But beyond that I'm pretty clueless.

So what do you think would be in a The Hobbit themed "Mines of Moria" style boxed game?

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

I would guess you'd get Bilbo, Gandalf, and the dwarves on the good side and goblins and then either the three trolls or some spiders on the evil side. Could be just goblins, that would be pretty boring though...

[sugnathefeeble]

The battle of 5 armies is already availible

[Dr Grant]

Pretty sure the OP was talking about an SBG box, BoFA is Warmaster scale/ruleset.

As far as the evil forces go I reckon it would be some combination of goblins, wargs and spiders, all of which could benefit from new plastic sculpts. As much as I love the moria goblin figures they're over 10 years old now and amongst the oldest figures in the range. In addition it's pretty likely that the goblins in the new films will have had some sort of redesign and so benefit from new sculpts. Similarly the wargs could benefit from a little more variety than the 2 poses they currently have (I'm trying to clear some room in the painting schedule to paint up some of those gorgeous new 40k wolves to use as wargs) and the spiders are crying out for new sculpts. I'm also assuming that the movies will be supported via 2 new Journey books and all these troop types could turn up in a variety of scenarios throughout the narrative whereas the trolls would likely only appear in one scenario and so wouldn't be the most versatile figures to include in a starter box. I think the trolls will be released as a multi-part plastic box-set, priced and packaged similarly to Fantasy's current Monstrous Infantry range (Vargheists etc.).

As far as the good forces go, as much as the dwarf company/Gandalf/Bilbo option seems obvious, I reckon GW will be releasing the dwarves as a Finecast box set like the current Fellowship. It's possible they'll do 2 versions, one in Finecast and one in plastic but I personally can't seem them cannibalising the Finecast sales by including all the dwarves in the starter box. That then begs the question what the good forces would be, If what I've said is true then realistically it could only be Wood Elf plastics for the first film. If they release a starter box for each film then the second one could include some Dwarves and men of Laketown as well. This wouldn't be all that strange as their starter boxes for the 3 LOTR films all had basic warriors and no heroes, if the box contained Wood Elves and spiders that would also make for some good themed scenarios.

Ultimately though I don't think there will be a new starter box set. This November I think we'll get the first of 2 Journey Books, Finecast dwarves, Finecast heroes (Elrond, Gandalf, Beorn, Goblin King, Bilbo etc) plastic trolls and some new plastic goblins, wargs, spiders and Wood Elves.

I'm basing all of this on my opinion that they're going to end the first movie just after the fight with the spiders in Mirkwood and the cliffhanger will be that the dwarves have been captured by the elves. If I'm wrong about this then it could drastically change what figures will be released to support the first film. The other variable that we should consider is that we have no idea how much of the Dol Goldur, Necromancer, White Council stuff is going to be included (based on reports and the trailer it would seem like a lot) and this could obviously open the door for all sorts of other troops, it would also be another reason to include Wood Elves.

Anyhoo, that's my 2 cents, thoughts?

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

Yeah all things considered, I kind of doubt a new boxed game or, if there is one, I would also guess it would be more along the lines of the earlier movie-tie-in boxed games that came with good troops and evil troops, rather than a band of heroes. I think goblins/wargs/spiders vs. wood elves seems likely as the chosen forces for a starter set with armies.

But if it were to be done in more of a MoM set-up, depicting the focal characters, then Thorin & Co. seem like a given. It does seem backwards to release them in both plastic and finecast, but then the MoM set was released long after most people would have likely collected at least one set of the Fellowship characters (if not more, lord knows there are enough of them!), and they've continued to sell metal and later finecast versions of those figures anyways.

[Dr Grant]

Oh yeah it's certainly not out of the question they'd do both, the only difference is that this time they'd be released at the same time. When the plastic Fellowship came out they were the 'new' version then the finecast version came out several years later and they were the 'new' version. As far as I know they've never released 2 different sets of the Fellowship at the same time as would presumably be the case with the dwarf company. Who knows, maybe they'll release Finecast this year and then plastic next year as part of a starter set for the second film? That would essentially guarantee them both sales.

The other thing about having goblins, wargs and spiders in the box is that actually gives you a good Moria starting force for SBG as well as the Hobbit scenarios.

I'm also keen to see how they differentiate the dwarves rules wise, will Fili and Kili be dwarf warrior profiles with a fate point? Will Thorin be as powerful as Dain? Will Balin be more akin to the old dwarf presented in the book (and shown in the trailer) than the awesome warrior in the SBG rules? I really hope there's a wide range to their profiles and we don't essentially get 13 dwarf captains.

I'm really excited about all this, both the films and the GW expansions, I'm holding off expanding the gribblies part of my Moria army in the hope of some lovely new figures!

[Getifa Ubazza]

Kind of a shame everyone doubts a MoM style boxed set for The Hobbit. I thought it would be a sure thing to apeal to the film fans who wouldn't be interested in GW normally. An everything in one boxed set of sorts, similar to Dread Fleet perhaps. Still, at least we will get the Dwarfs in "Finecast", so I guess that's something.

New Woodelves huh? Hope they work with the old ones, as I already have a Woodelf Warband.

[Dr Grant]

I'm only making educated guesses, you may well get the box set you want with the cheap plastic dwarves you want, don't lose hope!

As for the Wood Elves, I think it will depend on how they appear in the film. The elves in the Hobbit are Mirkwood elves rather than Lothlorien elves so there's a good chance they could look different and so justify new figures. Don't forget that GW's current Wood Elf figures are largely extrapolated from a few very brief shots in Fellowship and in the promotionally material, there's a lot more GW design in the Wood Elves than in say the Uruk-Hai. If there are new figures I'm sure they'll look good alongside the current ones though, there's nothing to stop you having a few allied war bands of Wood Elves from different forests! For my money the best Wood Elf models they've done are the metal archers released for FoTR, beautiful sculpts that still hold up really well.

[destroyerlord]

Dr Grant you raise some very interesting ideas. I think it would make sense not to have a new starter until the second movie drops, if you think about things from a standard wargaming point of view, i.e. wanting a plastic kit to have a long lifespan/exploiting finecast releases first and then getting everyone to buy the plastics later. The Hobbit however, is a massive blockbuster merchandising release, and that means new hobbyists, which means GW will want a new boxed set out. All the kiddies (and me too!) will want to buy a box with Dwarves in it, not the fellowship. Either strategy is possible.
I would be very happy with a box that has new wood elves vs. orcs and spirits of Dol Guldor. I'd be equally happy with dwarves vs. goblins/wargs/spiders based on the second film. And even better would be one this December and one the following December, but that may be a little greedy.

[Vampiric16]

There is scope for two mines of moria style boxes.
The first could include the company of dwarfs, gandalf and bilbo, along with goblins (plus the goblin chief they kill in the caves). The second could include the White council, and various Dol Guldur troops.
Only 'problem' is that you'd get Gandalf twice.

[JFQ]

If a finecast box set of Bilbo the dwarfs and Gandalf were released, and considering the price of finecast models it would be ridiculously expensive. The new command sets are £24 for four finecast models, 13 Dwarfs + Bilbo and maybe Gandalf, and you're at 15, that would be like £90 if it followed the pattern of current pricing.

This sort of makes me think that it would be more likely that they would release them in plastic in a starter set type thing.

But then again the current finecast fellowship is £37

[Spider-pope]

Ultimately though I don't think there will be a new starter box set. This November I think we'll get the first of 2 Journey Books, Finecast dwarves, Finecast heroes (Elrond, Gandalf, Beorn, Goblin King, Bilbo etc) plastic trolls and some new plastic goblins, wargs, spiders and Wood Elves.


Anyhoo, that's my 2 cents, thoughts?

I would have to say i disagree. Most of the posts in this thread are looking at 'The Hobbit' from a hobbyists perspective, that it'd be best to wait until both films have been released, to go the Finecast route with Thorin's company etc. which are all valid points from a hobbyist point of view.

The thing is though like The Lord of the Rings that precedes it, The Hobbit SBG isn't just going to be aimed at hobbyists. This is a product Warner's are going to want out in book and toystores, the initial release is merchandise as well as a tabletop game. I think we can expect to see at least one new starter box set alongside the films.

And i'm pretty sure we'll see a plastic Thorins company in said starter set. I've no doubt that New Line/Warners and GW would have loved to have featured a plastic Fellowship right off the bat with LOTR, but plastic casts weren't up to snuff back then to fulfil the requirement that each model resemble their actor. That has since changed. And from a marketing perspective a big picture of the stars of the films battling various beasties is a much easier sell than a box with a few generic men or elves.

[Peregrin]

What if on the good side of the box we only get a few of the dwarves and Bilbo, and a few pieces of scenery that look like webbed dwarves? That would cover the merchandise angle without giving too many 'heroes' in one box. I doubt the movie will focus on and develope all 13 dwarves. Some will most likely end up as glorified extras fighting in the background, I expect.

[Getifa Ubazza]

What if on the good side of the box we only get a few of the dwarves and Bilbo, and a few pieces of scenery that look like webbed dwarves? That would cover the merchandise angle without giving too many 'heroes' in one box. I doubt the movie will focus on and develope all 13 dwarves. Some will most likely end up as glorified extras fighting in the background, I expect.

I really hope they don't do that. In LotR, they were able to give some time to all 9 members of The Fellowship, so hope they will do the same with The Dwarf "Fellowship". Plus GW themselves can expand on each Dwarf, in the same way they did with Boromir.

[GodlessM]

Well there's three obvious scenes that would work; the earliest and IMO most likely would be the fight with the Goblins, so you'd have Bilbo, Gandalf, the Dwarfs, Azog, and the Goblins. Next scene would be the Spiders in Mirkwood, however that is rather unimaginative for a game I reckon. Last is the Battle of Five Armies, but they've done that so to speak.

[Peregrin]

I can see them including the battle of 5 armies in a Journey book, but it would be an aweful lot of figures for a starter set.

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

I can see them including the battle of 5 armies in a Journey book, but it would be an aweful lot of figures for a starter set.

I think as with the earlier boxed games it would just include some troops representative of the forces involved, but obviously not the entire armies present. Maybe 8 or 12 each of the Mirkwood elves, Lakemen, and dwarves and then a bunch of goblins and warg riders (perhaps with a troll?).

[Peregrin]

What? No bats?