Middle Earth Downsizing



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36 thoughts on “Middle Earth Downsizing”

  1. I saw the announcement the other day – apparently someone has said the rules are also changing to be less complex. Just a rumor but I feel as if after 10th they just want to dumb down every game. Stay away from Heresy GW!

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  2. Some of the models being retired were literally only released last year – and some just a few months ago. Three entire factions have been nuked from the game. An entire range of properly-themed and tasteful Dunland warriors have been wiped all for the new atrocious anime models. Included in that wipe are a host of brand new models for that faction they only released last year. Moria Orcs have been utterly gutted and are basically just Goblins and Trolls now – special models and characters wiped. The whole thing is a disaster. Middle Earth did best when GW forgot about it and left it alone.

    This is a small system, with a small but very passionate fan base. The reaction to this has been devastating in the various groups. I've never seen demoralisation like it. It doesn't have the mass of hobbyists that 40K and Sigmar has to mess about with it like this. I've been collecting it since the very first Fellowship box released and this is by far as bad as the 'dark ages' when the system seemed to be close to being permanently pulled as the hype from the films faded and The Hobbit failed to make a mark. Any enthusiasm for a new edition has been completely torched with this announcement.

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  3. GW didn't renew the New Line Cinema licence (will end in 2025) and switch to War of the Rohirrim licencing (it was in one of the investor report). They still have the Hobbit licence. A "cleanup" was thus expected for miniature that didn't crossover, expect more to come out.

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  4. I’ve been playing Warhammer since 3rd edition 40k, I remember the finestcast controversy, the nuking factions, nuking fantasy, the multiple heartless editions of 40k, 8th pulled me back then lost me soon in to all the data cards, been an observer ever since. Didn’t even buy 40k space marine 2 as much as I loved the first game.
    I collected Legions of Azgorth and rebased them for sigmar, my original army was tomb kings.
    When hours heresy came out it was amazing as well, and now it’s a shell of its former inspiring 7th edition old age rules. (I felt like keywords saved more time than all these data sheets)
    In 40k I played traitor guard which didn’t exist for multiple editions late in to 8th and now also don’t exist at all. GW as killed off every single thing I loved about them. And they spat on me in my opinion with the DEI “not wanted” comment.

    Now I want them to die, I want this company to fail, I haven’t spent money on them in years and can say I spent over 20,000$ easily on Warhammer in my life. I would have GLADLY spent another 20k if they just had the passion and love they had back in 5th edition 40k and Warhammer fantasy, 2 man Gw stores. If you were never around to see it, I don’t know how to describe it to you, it was absolutely brighter days.

    Fuck you GW, I am committed to your downfall and will encourage others every step of the way.

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  5. Khamul here. I was named by Master Tolkien himself. I want my profile back.

    Entire Khand is gone. Half of Haras is gone, entire Mahud is gone.

    Its funny how they didnt remove Buhrdur or other named Angmar heroes they just released. I dont remember Angmar shade from the movie.

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  6. I love middle earth and I still have all the original rule books and models. It was the single best game system that GW ever made and ill defend that. I was going to start my easterling army but when I saw GW prices I was done, this news just cements this. To any fellow fans my call to you, recast, pirate and print anything you need. GW doesnt want your money, fine. There are others who do.

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  7. The thing that sucks most about this is that they had clearly stopped manufacturing and stocking the "last chance" kits months prior to this announcement, meaning we didnt get any chance to buy with the knowledge they're not coming back into stock. This reiterates how poorly ran their marketing team is.

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  8. It sucks that it is being downsized…. BUT, GW needed to sort it’s stock issues out. It’s totally out of control. I know they are building another factory and warehouse etc but trying to buy their models is impossible at the moment… they did it to themselves by releasing so much crap so often and the stock issues is now the hangover.

    Unfortunately, this means some stuff that doesn’t sell well is going to get axed which sucks for the people invested in it. The same thing will probably happen to legion imperialis next year.

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  9. Never saw the point of this.. Role-playing in that world is hardly fun. Let alone wargaming.. You need something like the Warhammer World, not this.. I get why GW had to get the license.. But they should have managed the Warhammer world better in the long run.. That is where their strenght lay..
    Well, now they havethe joke Age of Sigmar.. So they takked up for all eternity,.. But GW is beyond their Golden Age anyways.

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  10. Looks like most the things they are purging are GW own interpretations. This is very like linked with WB making a renew interested in their LoTR universe and upcoming projects presenting "official" variants. It's probably the same as with the original Necromancer and White Council miniatures that where released before hobbit movies.

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  11. They didn't have the problem with having to cast things up for single sales when they encouraged individual price sales for conversion through mail order. The problem was the bookkeeping side of I and they couldn't be bothered.

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  12. Holy hell, mr mac, then I visited geedub's lotr section just in time back then, not for reasons you'd think tho. Explanation: I'm making a homebrew founding(of traitor stock, a loyalist chapter from each). Inspiration for iron warriors' one? The topic at hand, specifically the mordor(barad dur tower) and its allies, even more specifically the ringwraiths and sauron. The idea was, each captain would wear a ringwraith-inspired helmet as his badge of office(chapter master gets sauron ofc), and specialist offices(chaplain librarian etc) would have 1 too. Since movies weren't any help, artist wolfdawg thankfully had something I could work with(as said, named ringwraiths), and ofc I checked gw's ringwraith section.
    Main color of chapter, forgot to say, gunmetal blue with steel trim, for ringwraith-and-co. helmets, perhaps the original gunmetal grey with orange could work, any suggestions?

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  13. Honestly though recasts or printing are the way to go for lotrsbg anyway, they have much better quality for the characters than gw finecast and you can get recasted metal minis cheap too if you look.

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  14. Glad I stuck to 6th and also to the few I managed to somehow keep over the years (of Fantasy, not 30K/ 40K/ Necro!), just a shame it's a dead game in my area and I have to travel to my nearest city to play Fantasy at all now=/

    GDubbs touching anything old, is the touch of death, since they refuse to handle it with A, with care, which means following customer feedback and criticism B, refusing to pay for professional play testers and taking their advice on board C, doing everything as cheaply as possible. It's a state of affairs that cannot continue, particularly giving the sub-par output and outrageous prices GW are pushing, especially

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