The hobbit, minatures and strategy battle game annoucement in White Dwarf

[Thuggrim]

Pretty much as it says on the tin, 2 page spread announcing new minatures and a game from my reading.

[fracas]

more details please?

[Thuggrim]

That is about it to be honest, 2 page picture of dwarfs, bilbo and gandalf - all know the hobbit:unexpected journey is out in december blah blah. We are excited about the forthcoming tabletop battle game and range of new minis etc and continue to exploration of Middle Earth that began with The LOTR strategy battle game. Follow movie news at the hobbit.com and gw new release in WD and on the website.

Clearly making a distinction between the 2 games, and suggesting a link. Should be cool.

Also interesting how the one project with the company blamed by many here for preventing GW releasing the news is the one project with 5 months-ish pre-announcement.

[fracas]

Interesting

So a new rules set or just a campaign supplement?

[Karak Norn Clansman]

Pictures, please.

Good news! I look forward to buy the dwarves, gobbos and maybe even some elves in due time.

[Thuggrim]

Er that was it no further details and the double page spread was Thorins company with bilbo and gandalf you can find that stuff on the Hobbit website. Just thought I would point out it does look like a new game. If that is completely new or a reworking of the strategy battle game I have no idea. I could speculate but thats not rumours

[BTJ]

Also interesting how the one project with the company blamed by many here for preventing GW releasing the news is the one project with 5 months-ish pre-announcement.

Not really, to be perfectly honest. New Line (understandably) want to control leaks, and thus GW has to show it's watertight. They also want to get hype going, hence the trailer release and PJ's videos and the like, and this ad in WD is part of that. It pushes the Hobbit to the forefront of 80,000+ minds (everyone who buys WD, and the people like me who just read the shop copy), and creates interest on related merch. Tbh, I'm amaed they haven't been pushing GW to produce more generic LotR models to be released over the next few months to drum up even more interest and make it a core game in practice, as opposed to theory

[Thuggrim]

I would say the reason I said that is I believe New Line and the agreement has nothing to do with GW policy, it is an excuse that has been falsely used before. It was not required last time and there were no LOTR related links. GW could very easily do the same for their own products

I must admit I would expect a bi/tri monthly feature in the run up to build interest and retain what remaining players the LOTR system has, a lack of releases though makes sense as combined with the hype machine it is likely to mean a spike of interest and purchasing rather than distracting/diverting funds from the hobbit game/minis

[Austinitor]

The annual report specifically lists December as the release date for the Hobbit stuff (whatever that will be).

We plan to do so every month, including December 2012 when we will release our new Hobbit range to coincide with the film.

[Thuggrim]

Indeed I was just going to add this, still no clarification on the relationship between that and Lotr, but clearly calls it a range.

Oh and 3 hobbit films means more goodies, reckon that made for happy people in Lenton

[BTJ]

Just had a thought. Could the Hobbit be a separate game on a smaller scale than LotR, but using the same scale minis? That way they could print WD rules and drive up magazine sales, while selling a 50e rulebook as opposed to a 30e expansion. That or range merely refers to the models, just as there's the space marine range,or Empire range.

[Austinitor]

It would be interesting if it was... I'd love it as a Talisman/WHQuest style expandable dungeon-crawler.

[40Kossar]

Maybe it's LOTR 2, we've seen Warhammer 8th and 40K 6th edition out, so maybe a change to rework the game, hopefully keeping the stats, or it could be a re release of the Battle of Five Armies.

[Adyger]

Man, it's going to be messed up if they change the system again. First it was SBG, then I was in the process of converting/building my forces to be able to properly play War of the Ring, then, out of nowhere, they pull a 180 and switch back to SBG (which did knod of make sense, since I can't see the hobbit being played with War of the Ring rules), but if it is now something completely different again, I think I'll freak out.

[Lord Dan]

The rumor clampdown has nothing to do with NLC. From the 2012 Financial report:

Sadly this is not something that I can say too much about: keeping details of our future releases secret until just before they are available to buy adds to the excitement and success of each launch. In the last 12 months we have narrowed the disclosure window to the weekend before release and sales of new products - and of White Dwarf which showcases the new products - have been significantly higher as a result.

This will be a continuing trend.

[Thuggrim]

Adgyer I would just build the forces you want and play to rules agreed with your opponent, unless your stuck playing in gw and even then you should be able to play wotr. I also have a theory that the systems will be compatible - maybe new force books but unlikely, and they will use the 3 films, particularly film 1 and 2 to spring board box game releases for a skirmish system and a mass battles system. I could of course be completely wrong but the Hobbit does lend itself to such a model, either that or they need to fix the skirmish system so it scales up to mass combat.

Absolutely agree Lord Dan, what I have said all along. Does show how far from their target audience I have become as it if anything reduces the money they recieve from me, as I only have large sums of hobby cash if I have alloocated it over a few months so these sudden releases particularly of limited run products mean I just don't buy them. The rest of the stuff I will buy when I intend to work on that army. On the other had I already have allocated cash for the new horus heresy book and woodelf novel...

[BTJ]

Maybe it's LOTR 2, we've seen Warhammer 8th and 40K 6th edition out, so maybe a change to rework the game, hopefully keeping the stats, or it could be a re release of the Battle of Five Armies.

After the 'overhaul' with the books? Doubt it.

[Thuggrim]

After the 'overhaul' with the books? Doubt it.

That wouldn't stop a core system overhaul if the basic work for that had been done at the start of the year - more than likely as it would need to be ready for printing by the end of July probably, and the last thing to be addressed would of been the scenarios in order to match them to the films.

BAttle of Five armies may re-release but probably not as that was essentially warmaster 2.0 and never recieved the support it deserved.

[Tokamak]

Just had a thought. Could the Hobbit be a separate game on a smaller scale than LotR, but using the same scale minis? That way they could print WD rules and drive up magazine sales, while selling a 50e rulebook as opposed to a 30e expansion. That or range merely refers to the models, just as there's the space marine range,or Empire range.

Unlikely, the Hobbit has and LotR have a similar variety in scale of battles. Though that doesn't mean GW couldn't use this opportunity to release a '2nd edition' game with improved and streamlined rules which also work for LotR.

[Olórin Istar]

Does anyone think it possible that te Hobbig boxed game could be more of a quest game in the style of Talisman or Advanced Heroquest?

They could have it expandable with these rumoured "adventure" sets and let the miniatures also work with the existing skirmish and wargames.

I loved the journey books for SBG so for me a kind of narrative/quest angle would be fantastic and possibly enable you to enact scenes that aren't strictly combats.

Pushing the adventure side whilst making it completely compatible with the SBG would seem like a win-win to me.