The Hobbit

The Hobbit is a popular book by J.R.R.Tolkien, although it perhaps better now known in the mainstream thanks to the trilogy of movies based on the book by Peter Jackson (which is strange since the Hobbit has been around for DECADES as a book while the movies are recent).

The plot

The story follows the tale of Bilbo Baggins (the hobbit of the title) as he joins a band of dwarves in their quest to find a legendary treasure in their ancient lost city, which their forefathers were driven out by Smaug, a great and terrible dragon who is the terror of the lands. This journey sets off a train of events which would eventually lead to Tolkien's most famous work, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, with Bilbo finding the One Ring and returning with it to the shire, Sauron in his guise of the Necromancer being driven out of the mirkwood and left for his true lair in Mordor, and many of the characters in the Hobbit that would go on to be in LoR undergoing significant personal growth and changes.

The films

It was not surprising considering how popular the Lord of the Rings trilogy was that at some point the Hobbit would be made into a film. As the work on it commenced it was announced that the Hobbit would be split into a two part movie, which surprised many but they went with it. It was when it was revealed it would be a trilogy itself that cries of annoyance rang through the air, along with jokes about the producers and the film studio execs outdoing the dwarves in terms of gold hoarding.

The first movie featured an awful amount of walking and future plot building.

The second movie ramped things up although it had frankly hilarious scenes like Orlando Bloom (Legolas) doing his best Eldar Harlequin impressions through long scenes of acrobatic juggles and jumps that just made the orcs seem utterly pathetic. There were rounds of applause for his displays in the cinemas for Emperor's sake.

Like with the LoR trilogy, the first two movies are building up for a nice big epic battle in the third installment.

Games Workshop wargame adaptation

Games Workshop has produced a new version of their Lord of the Rings miniature game, titled, to no-one's surprise, The Hobbit (Strategy Battle Game). The game however has failed to shake the very foundations of creation as was intended and for the most part is a cash-in with the very excitable teen boys who are over-bowed by the abilities of acrobatic elves (Thranduil model is faboulous) and wisecracking dwarves from the movie settings.

Use your old models. New "evil" guys are pushovers. Game uses models from Lotr SBG but has changed rules. Monsters were buffed and can now hurl models with low strength value across enemy ranks knock them to the ground and suffer STR 5 hits. Elves seem OP but every elf fgt will cry if you take the Shadow Lord Nazgûl into your army (6's to hit, come at me bro).