Hi everyone,

I hope that this is the right sub-forum for this topic.

I want to support my Hobbit hoby by showing the game to a friend of mine. However, I don't know how the beginner game should look like. I was thinking about these two armys:

1.Army: Suladan on horse with 12 warriors of Harad

vs

2.Army: Goblin shaman, cave troll, 11 Moria goblins

Is this battle good for showing him tabletop?

Should I use all the rules? If not, which should I leave out?
Should we just play until one killed everything or take a scenario?
Which army should I take, which should he take?


Thank you for your answers

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My suggestion for starting out is as follows:

Run 'demonstration' simulations of the major parts of the game, explaining as you go. Rather than starting out with a proper game, talk him through moving, shooting and fighting with only the models necessary (so 1 'player character' and 1 'target' that stands there to be shot at and then fought). This should hopefully get the basics down so your first game goes smoothly.

For the first game, I say 50-70 points apiece and no heroes. Take some archers, some Cavalry if you have them (no more than 1-2 per side, though) and just get the basics down.

Then, move up to 150ish, introducing Courage, Heroes and possibly Magic rules here. 1 hero and 1 Warband a side (go larger than 12 if needed). After that, you can move onto 'full' games with all the rules in place, and hopefully he'll understand the process by then.

I know that didn't really answer your question, but I hope it helps! It's always good to get some new folks into the game!

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I agree with Paradigm. Slowly nudge them into the game. Now, of course, if they already have a foundation in the game, or at least are aware of some of the rules, you might be able to skip a few steps, or even head straight into a full game. You don't have to do as Paradigm said though. Just a while back I played a game with some guy who knew none of the rules. A full-fledged 800 point game. He had models and had been thinking about getting into the game for a while, but had never played. So I offered to teach him and he wanted to just jump right in. And he beat me, by one guy too! (We played To the Death!) Sufice to say he felt pretty confident about the rules after that. However, that;s not always thecase, and I still stand by Paradigm's method. As for which force is better for a "beginner" game, either really. So long as you mix in some bows, spears, and shields (if available) into each force, you would then have two solid forces to go against each other with. And whichever one the beginner chooses, go against him with the other. That way he can grasp all of the core rules in one go. However, I would still skip some of the more complex rules and save them for a later date (Heroic Actions, Monster special attacks, etc.) Hope that helps.

Yeah, if the friend is new to tabletop gaming altogether, then very small forces to start out, just to learn the turn order and basic game mechanics, is probably the way to go. I would pick two pretty evenly balanced forces, by which I mean similar model count and ability, orcs vs Rohan or something, and just a small handful of models. Build from here to include characters for MWF, heroic actions, and stand fast, then maybe monsters and magic.

If your friend already plays tabletop games, though, then you can probably get away with a more complex introduction, staring off with larger forces and including heroes and cavalry from the get.

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Well, that's my 2 cents.

Okay,

thank you for your answers. I thought about playing the beginner scenarios from the small book from the mines of Moria. Or if I should take just one model for each site, which of the following are best: Warriors of Minas Tirith, Rangers of Arnor, Moria goblins, warriors of Harad, warriors of Umbar, or high elves?

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The Mines of Moria tutorial scenarios are a great way to ease somebody into the game. I've converted two people with them so far, I'd call that a great success!

Of course, that's a great success. I hope that I will be able to do the same.

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Also remember that different people learn or like different things.

It may be worth letting your friend read through your rulebook (its how I got into 40K) but if they're not a reading type you could link them the demonstration video on youtube from the GBHL channel.

Mines of Moria is usually quite fun because people get to use their favourite fellowship characters and goblins are easy to kill

Thank you for this tip; I already gave him the A4 Moria book and a link to the GBHL beginners battle report. Now we only have to have the time for some games.

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Awesome, hope you both have some epic gaming.

Thank you. But he did not decided yet to start SBG.

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