Redditor: madlee

I’m annoyed a bit at how they’ve done this-they put the special rules that thematically applies to this moment on a list that doesn’t really make sense. I understand not wanting to devote an entire list to it, but I wish they’d allowed you to choose between taking Boromir *or* Gandalf the white in the minis tirith list (like how you can pick between horses and eagles in men of the west). I want to run faramir, a bunch of knights, Gandalf, and maybe denethor in a corner chewin on some tomatoes

Comment by madlee at 02/02/2025 at 01:07 UTC

6 upvotes

I think they just mean that the other special rules require denethor, so you aren’t taking full advantage of the army bonuses if you don’t take him. You’re correct though, he’s not required.

Comment by madlee at 02/02/2025 at 00:58 UTC

2 upvotes

I have a 7yo boy that I’ve also been playing HQ with, him and his mom vs me as Zargon. He’s really into it but REALLY struggles to stay focused, so games have tended to drag on much longer than they should, resulting in him getting bored, losing focus even more, etc. He still seemed really into it, so there were a couple of things I did that I think helped:

“mini quests”; I printed off some 8x10 dungeon sheets with a couple rooms and hallways each, and sometimes we do a mini quest instead of a full one. These have no real story, just pick a couple of monsters per room, some random furniture, etc. sometimes I let him be zargon for these and I play as a monk. He has a much easier time staying focused for these shorter games, and loves to get the chance to play as the monsters
I got him his own set of dice off of Etsy, since I found we wasted a lot of time passing dice around for rolls
home brew stuff - I made a custom quest for them to play on Christmas, which got them both a custom weapon based off of real world toys he owns. I also let him do stuff that’s not really allowed (like jump up on the table) as long as it doesn’t seem too crazy.
dinosaurs. We got the jungles expansion and aren’t anywhere near getting to it progressing as normal, but I’ll throw the raptors in every now and then because he loves them lol

Comment by madlee at 31/01/2025 at 13:15 UTC

3 upvotes

It’s magic the gathering, they have sets themed after various other IPs (including LoTR). There was a neat promotional thing they did when it came out, where they only produced one foil “the one ring” card. I think it ended up being sold for quite a lot of money

Comment by madlee at 30/01/2025 at 20:08 UTC

2 upvotes

Where are you? If you don’t want it I’ll take it lol. That’s a good deal if everything��s there, and if you’d want to play any of those factions. Witch king and theoden are both in several lists, so they’re both great heroes to get

Comment by madlee at 30/01/2025 at 00:24 UTC

1 upvotes

Glitter and it’s not even close

Comment by madlee at 29/01/2025 at 19:38 UTC

5 upvotes

I think the minimum set of stuff to field a normal sized army is probably one battle host box and the command pack for that faction (one of the packs containing a captain, banner, and one other unit for a given faction). You should be able to field a 600-700 point army using that. You might need another named hero for the isengard box specifically, I know it comes with more models than the others. I'd also pick up the rulebook, but you can probably skip/delay buying the army list books as there are online army builders for the game that have all you need there. I would still buy the one that has the army/faction you want to build, but I wouldn't say it's essential.

For the current battle hosts, I think the lists that let you take everything from the battlehost + the associated command pack are

minis tirith -> atop the wall list

mordor -> host of the witch king (this list is in the free angmar PDF, I think)

isengard -> muster of isengard

rohan -> rohan

Comment by madlee at 29/01/2025 at 00:52 UTC

7 upvotes

It’s also an accessible army for anyone that with the Mordor battlehost to build into, so newer players starting from that may also be drawn to it for that reason.

Comment by madlee at 29/01/2025 at 00:45 UTC

6 upvotes

I didn’t think blades of the dead actually changed mechanically, it still strikes against courage, just 10-courage since they’ve flipped how that works.

Comment by madlee at 29/01/2025 at 00:37 UTC

1 upvotes

Like a lot of people are saying, I think the rules changes are largely an improvement, but it’s missing a lot of models and lists the last edition had, so I think it’s not a great comparison until they release the next book.

Comment by madlee at 26/01/2025 at 20:10 UTC

2 upvotes

Hopefully they clear it up with in the FAQ, it is worded confusingly! If that's there intention, they should have at least put the part that is dependent on the strength in its own sentence, and grouped the S6 hit + knocked flying together in a sentence. The way it's worded now is a bit confusing.

Comment by madlee at 26/01/2025 at 19:58 UTC

0 upvotes

I don’t think that’s accurate based on rules as written, but I guess some people are ruling it that way? The rules only say the knocked prone is dependent on strength, and that the S6 and knocked flying always happen.

Comment by madlee at 26/01/2025 at 15:11 UTC

-1 upvotes

The fell beast wouldn't be knocked prone because it's strength 6, but the rider is Knocked Flying (and in the fell beast's case, that would cause the fell beast to flee, and leave the rider prone). I believe the rider will take a strength 6 hit from the hurl plus a strength 3 hit from getting Knocked Flying.

Comment by madlee at 25/01/2025 at 14:18 UTC

1 upvotes

My first 2 both stayed in our room for a full year. Current baby just turned 4 months old and he’s getting kicked out ASAP lol, I’m too old to be losing this much sleep every night.

Comment by madlee at 21/01/2025 at 10:39 UTC

2 upvotes

Congrats! Something I wish they would’ve told me before my first-the second night is often harder than the first. Babies start to really come online, and you’re already exhausted. If you are at a hospital with a nursery and they’ll take the baby for a while to let you get some sleep between feedings, do it. Also like everyone says, try to nap whenever possible! Good luck!

Comment by madlee at 21/01/2025 at 10:31 UTC

2 upvotes

Regressions happen, it sucks. My daughter didn’t sleep through the night till she was two, and I’m still in the thick of it with a 4mo old now. You’re definitely not alone!

I heard somewhere it takes like 7 years for parents sleep to fully recover from kids and it certainly feels that way sometimes. Then again, my oldest is 7 and he still occasionally wakes us up at night lol

Comment by madlee at 17/01/2025 at 18:19 UTC

3 upvotes

Nobody in their right mind would go to an er for this lol

Comment by madlee at 15/01/2025 at 19:35 UTC

2 upvotes

I've got three kids; my wife barely touched diapers during the first week for each of them, and for each of them I did more of the changing at first, then we gradually settled at about 50/50. Eight weeks and they haven't changed a single one? Why? Either your partner is being very selfish or there's something deeper going on. Either way, you need to have a talk with your partner about it, your child will be in diaper for _years_! Both parents really ought to feel comfortable and capable of doing all of the things

Comment by madlee at 15/01/2025 at 18:44 UTC

20 upvotes

The starter kit has a premade adventure that's lighter weight, and could be a good way to learn the game with a group of people. There's also rules for solo play (strider mode), which is how I got into it (and is nice for learning since you can play entirely at your own pace).

I've found a couple of youtube channels helpful, particularly Ryan of the North[1] and Will at the World's End[2]; both of these have tutorial videos that go over specific mechanics.

1: https://www.youtube.com/@RyanoftheNorth

2: https://www.youtube.com/@willattheworldsend

There's also a pretty active discord[3] that has lots of resources and helpful people on all the time.

3: https://discord.com/invite/the-one-ring-lotr-rpg-348254014598545408

My personal recommendation would be to just make a character, and do a short "quest" without worrying about the story or the details too much; Pick a place to start, do a council (just run through the mechanical bits without worrying about role playing too much). Pick a spot on the map and do a journey, then when you get there, do a small combat. Then you can either throw that away, or start to build a story from there. That's just how I learn best though (hands on). I started with a strider mode character and used ChatGPT to help flesh out some details / come up with ideas.

Comment by madlee at 11/01/2025 at 15:54 UTC

4 upvotes

I’m shiiiiiiiting, shitting every CoLoOoOr

Comment by madlee at 11/01/2025 at 15:53 UTC

1 upvotes

Hey thanks! Yeah I sort of regret not trying to actually make a mod out of it, but I had fun drawing it and thinking through the mechanics nonetheless

Comment by madlee at 11/01/2025 at 15:51 UTC

1 upvotes

Heh, I forgot all about this comment; still relevant in my mind as I happen to have a 3 month old now as well!

We’ve done it different ways; I can’t remember how we did it at the time (usually just improvised, as you can *usually* find water, and if we were at a restaurant or something we could just ask for a cup). This time we have mostly just mixed the formula a bit before we want to feed him, then just let it cool off (swirling it around in the bottle helps it cool off faster).

We’ve also relaxed a bit this time (it’s our third now), and while we still boil water ahead of time, I tend to let it cool down, then mix it cool and warm it up with a bottle warmer.

Congrats by the way! Hope you’re getting some amount of sleep :)

Comment by madlee at 08/01/2025 at 21:37 UTC

2 upvotes

lol I drove by this earlier and did a double take, how did it get up there??

Comment by madlee at 06/11/2024 at 23:54 UTC

4 upvotes

I love it! I’m also working on an osgiliath modular board, so thanks for the inspiration!

A couple questions: What size are your tiles? And did you attach the buildings directly to the board or are they separate pieces? The d love to know more about the materials/process you used. It looks great!

Comment by madlee at 16/09/2024 at 14:09 UTC

3 upvotes

I got the game last year and thought that I'd only be interested in good armies, but i've ended up putting the most time and effort into my army of gothmog.