Xelee wrote:
Beowulf03809 wrote:
Not terrible for SBG games, but pretty sad for WotR. Assuming some high-point units:
....
By comparison from another company / game system that same price gets you an army that covers friendly game and tournament point sizes, has a large variety of forces made up of mostly metal miniatures and can be easily competitive (you could build a more competitive version if you spent that same money on specific sets rather than some of the larger boxes).
They fill significantly different niches of course. I will not give up LotR based play in favor of historicals 100%. But it seems GW has a blind eye to the fact that there ARE options out there for gamers. And I don't just mean the choice of which GW system they will play (that seems to be their mentality).
$90 (in South Pacific Pesos/NZD, I think the best we did at one stage was .8 USD) got me enough infantry from a BIG (120 fig) Roman army, in 28mm plastic for Impetvs. Another $25 got me the metal Cavalry and then say another $20 for metal commanders etc (had to have General Maximus). That army almost approaches WOTR in fig count...To compare to SBG/Skirmish, You Can have a SAGA Warband for the price of a box of plastic Vikings/Saxons/unarmoured Vikings (similar to the CURRENT 24 fig LOTR here) - $40 NZD tops - plus some metal characters/particular figs/elites for say another $33 NZD more. That will be for the typical 40-50 fig force. I think SBG Skirmish doesn't come out of the comparison too badly. I know that I am willing to pay more for certain figs, even for historicals, as long as it is in small number.
On the positive side of the ledger, I think that the fact GW (and Battlefront, for that matter) have managed to get the price up there has created hope for many smaller guys that they will actually be able to scrape a living and get some new choices out there for us. In the past, Wargamers could be pretty price-conscious....
I think they will continue to 'try it on'. However, it will kill any realistic prospect of WOTR style Middle-Earth gaming. The fig count in the game is huge, and while I love it, I guess I was lucky to get my GW figs when they were affordable. A lot of the armies can be done using historicals though....
I'd agree; War of the Ring now seems impossibly expensive and quite a pain to collect. I just wanted to add on to the "historical alternative" conversation. I only recently purchased the War of the Ring rulebook, not to actually play WotR, but to use it as a basis for medieval wargaming. I know there are other rule sets that likely provide a more "realistic" recreation of medieval warfare, but I love this system and find it very easy to work with. Both WotR and SBG are highly adaptable rule sets for someone looking to try out historical wargaming, especially medieval wargaming--so, at least initially, there is no pressing need to "start completely over" in my opinion. The main thing I wanted to mention, which kind of goes along with Beowulf's post, is that, often, a scale change can be a really great thing. For example, for my medieval variant, I am using plastic 1/72 scale (20mm) miniatures from manufacturers such as Caesar Miniatures, Revell, Italeri, and Zvezda. For $30 (US), I have about 500 points worth of cavalry and infantry and 54 miniatures, and the miniatures don't look bad at all. A similarly sized Gondorian army would cost approximately $150 (US) currently from Games Workshop. If you're interested in checking out 1/72 scale historicals, let me recommend
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Index.aspx. They have pictures and reviews of just about every 1/72 boxed set on the market. Down the road I also intend to look into ACW using the Black Powder rulebook. I'm not sure what scale to do yet, but I'm leaning heavily towards 10mm metal, with purchases likely from Old Glory Miniatures.
I'm excited for the new Hobbit miniatures. My original intention was to purchase everything in the upcoming Hobbit range, so that I could properly play through any journeybook that gets released alongside the film. I knew it would be expensive, but after delving into 1/72 for medieval, I'm now just not willing to spend too much money on miniatures anymore. Likely, I'll pick up a few boxed sets or blisters for painting purposes. GW's LotR range is still undoubtedly one of the most beautiful ranges available for collectors and painters, but for wargaming, its just too expensive.
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"Leave Sauron to me."
they dont deliver to my country, its not on the list 
