Big thanks to DCHL Devin and his team for running the best SBG event on the continent!

Amazing terrain. Awesome fellowship. Loads of fun. And the guest of honor Adam Troke. He was super cool.

The armies were amazing. People went all out.

I brought my Corsairs of Umbar and had a blast. All of my opponents were a pleasure to play. One guy from Ireland. One from Canada. Then Connecticut and Arkansas. What a big mix. I met people from England and even the west coast.

Loved the Troke seminar. SBG is alive and well.

Big thanks to Devin, the Judges, our speakers, Adam T. and others for an awesome NOVA. The addition of the seminars was awesome this year.

Paul Rozumski
DCHL

Glad to hear it proved a rousing success! I look forward to the pictures.

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"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

After listening to the Troke seminar I gathered the following...

1. The Special Strikes will be looked at with much scrutiny.

2. Magic may be leveled out a bit.

3. Hurl will be looked at.

4. Battle Companies is coming soon.

5. Armies who fought at the Battle of Pelennor Field and Osgiliath will be the first featured in the new set coming in spring or summer.

If you were there please let me know if you think I interpreted things right.

Adam answered a boat load of questions and gave as much info as he could.

Kardoosh,

I participated at NOVA and confirm your interpretation! I will add that Adam said his favorite army is Dol Amroth.

Agreed with what was said about Adam's comments. I am thinking that battle companies and epic battles (pelennor field and osgiliath) will be used for campaign play. I wasn't a big fan of the original battlehosts ruleset, but I would be interested in more linked scenario gameplay. I miss the old journeybooks so this new approach may fill the void.
Magic could use a look. Magic is present in LOTR, but it appears to be more of an enabler on the big screen. However, in SBG, if you don't bring magic to the table in a big way you are taking a big risk. At NOVA we didn't see Aragorn (he's costly) but the point is it would be nice to be able to take a Aragorn or Theodeon and know I'm on equal footing with magic users.


Paul

The new set you are referring to is sourcebooks right? I mean books replacing the current "Kingdoms of men" etc.
Do you know if the new rulebook is coming before this set or after?

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Conversation/Ideas over painting etc, can check here:
http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=29455

I don't have an idea when the new rules/sourcebook are coming. However, I bet in Spring 2018 we will start to see more models.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we are still missing some models from the There and Back Again. That is, we've got the profiles, but not the models. If that's the case, I would expect to see those models come out before newer ones. I was really excited to see the quality of the models at the Forgeworld booth at NOVA so I expect to see amazing stuff for our upcoming Battle of Pelennor Field and Osgiliath releases.

Paul

Another vibe I got from Adam was that he is not going to streamline it so much that it becomes like age of sigmar. I hope he does away with the special strikes or just limits them as special rules for particular units. I'd like to see in the way get worked on. It slows the game down a bit. Anyone else feel that way? I wonder if you made it simple like if you're firing over or thru a rank it's a 6 to hit. Like the old volley. Not sure if that would be out of balance.

@Kardoosh I actually play without special strikes because I don't play very often and being 13 can't get to any tournaments and I also don't know how to use Special Strikes but I find it fine without them.

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A ginger bread and born.

Even at the GT I only had one opponent use a bash.
I imagine at the top tables there may have been more but I'm not certain.

I'm not sure if the new rule set will released in the spring. It may just be the campaign books with army stats and special rules

Can't wait!

I think they will release a generals kit which comes with everything you need to play. Looked like charts and game aids.

People love to Hurl with monsters. To avoid the devastating effects of Hurl, you've got to spread out your forces so all the Monster can do is Hurl your model into no one, Rend that one model or do normal strikes. You'll see people rend your model if there's no one to Hurl the model into.
If you guys remember before special strikes, monsters were pretty weak. You could bread crumb a monster by having weak models pin down a monster turn after turn. The special rules really made monsters a force to be taken seriously.
I don't want any more special rules or strikes in the game because I feel like it'll complicate the game. I'm with everything now, but I don't want to have to get an academic degree to play the game and I don't want to have to constantly reference rules or be educating players during a competitive game. Just want to keep the game moving.

Paul
DCHL

I think the game as it stands is close to perfect. I totally agree with DCHL Paul about adding too much. I hope they streamline a bit. I think Hurl is pretty self regulating. In the tournament I only got it off with nice effect a couple of times. The other times they were spread out or I lost the combat. It's a solid action but I don't think it's OP.

The future of the game looks bright.

Not to get a bit off topic, but hurl is borderline OP. Especially for an 80 point cave troll. Just shorten the throw distance to a standard 3 inches or a certain number of inches for a certain strength. Then one does not end up having a shield wall getting trapped in a fight because a monster got a lucky throw.

I did not make it to NoVA the past two years, I have been too busy. Glad Devin is still master of ceremonies.

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richmondwarmancers we play Lord of The Rings, Battlefleet Gothic, Infinity, some board games, and really whatever tickles our fancy..

Just my opinion, but I don't care for the special strikes as they slow the game down too much.

Adam addressed this a bit in the seminar when he spoke about wanting attacks to represent the weapon the actual figure is modeled with. He also said the two rules that keep him up at night are Hurl and special strikes and that both will be addressed in the next rules rewrite.

I thought it was interesting when hespoke about play testing the hurl rule before including it in the rule book and how none of the play testers thought to hurl down the line of combat.

Magic needs to be changed too. If they really want to encourage people to play single faction armies they need to change things.

I am ok with every change they do except POWER CREEPING. Power creep for those who don't know, is a process where new content slowly outstrip the power of previous alternatives. If this happens with Pelennor (and Lotr as an extension) and we see new overpriced but also vital models by the anti-wargame company Forgeworld, then it is a bye-bye from many players. We parasite in this game by being indifferent to the Hobbit and keeping up with our Lotr collection. Power creeping is what happens to 40k. If this happens to Lotr then it is done.

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Conversation/Ideas over painting etc, can check here:
http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=29455

I believe Valadorn is addressing two topics in his post. Yes, we have seen power creep, meaning that some Hobbit models are seen as underpriced and overpowered for points cost, especially when played with older models from LoTR. This would be an excellent topic for the SBG team to write about.

Secondly, he is concerned that in order to stay ahead of the power creep, he must buy specific models for his army. I am in agreeance. I enjoy playing with a wide range of models. After all, playing with a model after all that hard work painting it is fun. I'm sad that some models don't seem to be competitive and never get fielded. From what I understand, Adam and co are trying to address this problem in future releases. Nevertheless, I also don't want to feel pressured to buy and field specific models because my army is no longer valid.

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

Power creep existed in this game well before the Hobbit, let alone the FW takeover. Harad says hi. Tournaments are still dominated by LotR era armies, not by Gundabad, Mirkwood or even Iron Hills. If anything, the future will likely see some older profiles toned down, while indeed making some stronger, but those who need it: Théoden, Balrog, all the ones people have been waiting for years for to become useful.

I believe that Iron Hills and Gundabad is not dominating the tournaments, but can equally have chances to win them, as Lotr armies.

There is no problem if they change an old profile and not speaking by the game balancing aspect. It is going to be the same model, the same price, the same material.
The problem is going to be if they add a new profile, an overpowered model, that's gonna be released by FW and it is going to cost a hell of money for some countries.
If they buff Balrog for example, and they release a new pose of it (as they did with Gwahir), while the old version remains with the old price, then there is no problem. We won't speak for power creeping in this situation.
Let the collectors pay for it. When it comes to tabletop gamers it is a shame, and I put emphasis again and again on the ethical aspect of it, because there is one, even in a capitalist world.

P.S.: Sorry for my many grammar mistakes. I am really typing down hasty..

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Conversation/Ideas over painting etc, can check here:
http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=29455