Jamros wrote:
Was it a mistake for GW to bother with this range?
I have brought the Escape from Goblin Town set and the hardback rulebook, both of which are fantastic products I highly recommend to everyone - so I have given £125 to the Hobbit Range since it began (and may well have spent near that much money on lotr models since The Hobbit part 1 came out).
So no, it was not a mistake, almost everyone in the sbg community has to have spent atleast £50 on the rulebook, because the new rules are pretty funky.
However, the reason lotr models are still fun to collect is because they form powerful in game armies and some models, like Khazad Guard, Abrakhan Merchant guards, and Feral Uruk Hai, have such good profiles that they are worth the hefty pricetag. With The Hobbit models we get things like Grimhammers, who are terrible in game, Azog and Bolg who have bonkers profiles and cost too many points, Lindir who is just unplayable thanks to the lack of a mounted/armoured model.
The irony is that the two most appealing in game models, Thorin and the Goblin King, were both available in the relatively cheap starter set. Eagles are nice, and well costed, but thanks to the way good armies are structured they are tricky to fit into a list. Thror and Thrain similarly seem really handy, but they cannot lead all my lotr dwarves because of licensing differences. The two box sets that seem worth buying from a gamers perspective are the rivendell knights, Azog, and Radagast on sled, not because either are overpowered, but because they are effective, relatively easy to work into an army, and do something other units do not, which is appealing.