Middle-Earth Madness - Witch King Shown vs Minas Tirith [Week 20]

[Blakstone]

This is twentieth and final week of Middle-Earth Madness. The final match was destined to be between the Witch King and Minas Tirith. Which will you choose?

Witch King Showdown

OR

Minas Tirith

These are dream sets so there is no hard or fast rule on what has to be included in either. Imagine you had a chance to greenlight just one LEGO Lord of the Rings set based on a simple description. Which one would you want?

Feel free to respond with comments; however, the official balloting will be the poll.

Summary from previous weeks:

Week 19 - Witch King Showdown defeats the Gondor Battle Pack 26 to 15

Week 18 - Witch King Showdown defeats the Elven Battle Pack 25 to 5

Week 17 - Witch King Showdown defeats Mûmakil Stampede 27 to 5

Week 16 - Mûmakil defeats Warg Battle Pack 17 to 2

Week 15 - Mûmakil tramples the Dead Marshes 19 to 0

Week 14 - Mûmakil defeats Ruins of Osgiliath 12 to 8

Week 13 - Ruins of Osgiliath beats Bridge of Khazad-Dum 12 to 8

Week 12 - Ruins of Osgiliath defeats Edoras 19 to 12

Week 11 - Ruins of Osgiliath defeats Minas Morgul 25 to 7

Week 10 - Minas Morgul flattens Fangorn Forest 29 to 1

Week 9 - Minas Morgul smashes the Gray Havens 30 to 5

Week 8 - Minas Morgul routes the Modor Battle Pack 25 to 16

Week 7 - Modor Battle Pack defeats Amon Hen 27 to 7

Week 6 - Modor Battle Pack defeats Lothlórien 24 to 14

Week 5 - Lothlórien defeats Prancing Pony 23 to 13

Week 4 - Lothlórien crashes Mount Doom 35 to 5

Week 3 - Mount Doom defeats the Rohan Battle Pack 14 to 11

Week 2 - Rohan Battle Pack defeats the Watcher in the Water 14 to 7

Week 1 - Rohan Battle Pack defeats The Green Dragon 23 to 4.

[LegoThomas]

A set called Minas Tirith should be, imo, a 400 € set including the witch king. So... Minas Tirith

[SirBlake]

I don't know about $400, but yes, witch king and fell beast can/should be a part of a Mina's Tirith set. Almost everything we need out of a wave 3 could be covered by Mina's Tirith.

[Blazej_Holen]

Minas Tirith (but sadly I cannot effort 400bucks set, anyway if there will be such a set I wll sell my wife to have it :D )

[Brickadiergerard]

Minas Tirith. Not sure about the $400 price tag, but it would come with a Witch King on a fell beast, Eowyn, some Gondor soldiers, and Faramir back to report on events in Ithilien. What a set that would be.

[Robianco]

Well I agree with the above comments that Witch King Battle should technically be incorporated into a Minas Tirith set... but if we were looking at similar priced sets and Minas Tirith was more of a battle pack and some battlements then I'd go for Witch King Showdown.

I want a Fell Beast with Witch King and Eowyn over Faramir and some Gondorians.

Ideally in a massive set WITH Faramir and some Gondorians!! ;)

[Davidbarrena]

I don't know about $400, but yes, witch king and fell beast can/should be a part of a Mina's Tirith set. Almost everything we need out of a wave 3 could be covered by Mina's Tirith.

Totally agree. If a location deserves "mega-set" treatment, that is Minas Tirith.

[krono111]

Minas Tirith obviously

[Hammerhand]

Gondor battlepack... Oh wait, it got eliminated.

I guess I'm going with Minas Tirith. I would prefer it to be broken down in a couple different sets though, like a courtyard/tower/white tree set, a wall/trebuchet/siege tower set, and a gate set, etc.. Make them all modular, and voila, you can have a big Minas Tirith if you get all the sections, and you would also have an option for a battle pack. That would be ideal for me.

Edited May 12, 2014 by Hammerhand

[Steel Tiger]

And for my final middle earth madness vote, I choose Minas Tirith. Sad that this contest is ending though...

[AFOLguy1970]

Minas Tirith

[TheWorldAhead]

Minas Tirith (but sadly I cannot effort 400bucks set, anyway if there will be such a set I wll sell my wife to have it :D )

That sounds kind of awkward.

Anyway, I voted for the Witch-king Battle because I don't think the scope of Minas Tirith could be accurately captured in a set that is less than about $500. That is a LOT of money; I could never afford it, and goodness knows most kids couldn't. It is essential, yes, but not really feasible in my opinion. The Witch-king Showdown, on the other hand, could be a "future-classic" $60-ish set with the Witch-king on fell beast, Eowyn, Merry, Theoden with Snowmane, Gothmog, and a Gondorian soldier or something like that. The bulk of the brick build could be taken up by the gate of Minas Tirith, or at least some battlements. At this point, however, I think our only hope for the continuation of LOTR is another massive exclusive, so who knows what will happen.

[Master_Data]

That sounds kind of awkward.

Anyway, I voted for the Witch-king Battle because I don't think the scope of Minas Tirith could be accurately captured in a set that is less than about $500. That is a LOT of money; I could never afford it, and goodness knows most kids couldn't. It is essential, yes, but not really feasible in my opinion. The Witch-king Showdown, on the other hand, could be a "future-classic" $60-ish set with the Witch-king on fell beast, Eowyn, Merry, Theoden with Snowmane, Gothmog, and a Gondorian soldier or something like that. The bulk of the brick build could be taken up by the gate of Minas Tirith, or at least some battlements. At this point, however, I think our only hope for the continuation of LOTR is another massive exclusive, so who knows what will happen.

I completely agree. If necessary, I would even give up the gate for this set- it could just have a few shrubs as long as we get it!

[Brick Fiend]

Minas Tirith. FellBeast and Witch King. Eowyn and Faramir. So much could be tied up with this one set.

[Bugbot2008]

Why are we having the final round all of a sudden? What about the towers of Cirith Ungol, or the great Barad dur? They were both mentioned in the nominations.

On topic I have to chose Minas Tirith since it could include potentially anything and everything from the battle of Pelennor fields, so it wins for me by default.

A 400+ price tag seems a bit extreme however, that’s even more than the new Death Star. Helms deep was ¼ of that price and was quite large and well done I think. Minas Tirith also has the same benefit of having a definitive front and back to it, meaning the rear face where it would attach to the mountain can be left open, that would save on bricks and increase play value without looking incomplete like Orthanc does.

Depending on the addition of accessories (Grond, siege towers, catapults, army figs, beasts etc) I think a very economically designed model could be achieved at a more moderate £250/300 price tag (at least that’s what my wallet hopes!).

[Blazej_Holen]

That sounds kind of awkward.

Anyway, I voted for the Witch-king Battle because I don't think the scope of Minas Tirith could be accurately captured in a set that is less than about $500. That is a LOT of money; I could never afford it, and goodness knows most kids couldn't. It is essential, yes, but not really feasible in my opinion. The Witch-king Showdown, on the other hand, could be a "future-classic" $60-ish set with the Witch-king on fell beast, Eowyn, Merry, Theoden with Snowmane, Gothmog, and a Gondorian soldier or something like that. The bulk of the brick build could be taken up by the gate of Minas Tirith, or at least some battlements. At this point, however, I think our only hope for the continuation of LOTR is another massive exclusive, so who knows what will happen.

That was a joke you know? Maybe you should grow up to understand... ;)

[Blakstone]

LEGO does not make those exclusives with new molds. They either make the molds before the exclusive or in the case of The Simpson's house where the Collectible Minifigs came about a month later and use the same molds. If LEGO was to only make one last LotR set, there would be no other set to help defray the cost of the new molds.

You can see this at work in LotR wave two where we got the Saruman hair and the eagle in sets just before the Orthanc.

Cheaper sets can sell more copies which makes helps cover the cost of the mold better. Even though Manis Tirith could contain most everything if it was a $400 set, I would not be able to afford it. I vote for the Witch King.

---

Middle-Earth Madness has gone on for 20 weeks. Once I switched to the more popular sets, it really shortened the game. After all, there is no challenge to set Minas Morgul against Fangorn Forest. I could continue after this wave, but I doubt any newcomers would lose to either of Minas Tirith or the Witch King.

My initial plan was a March Madness style tournament. We would take 16 or 32 sets and pair them off each week the survivors would go one against each other. I could not successfully run 16 matches in one thread a week without polls. Now that I can do it, I wonder how long to let this contest rest before relaunching it in a new format.

Let me know what you think? Shall we relaunch into a new more complex tournament bracket? If so, shall we give this game a break for a week(s)/month(s)?

[Bugbot2008]

Middle-Earth Madness has gone on for 20 weeks. Once I switched to the more popular sets, it really shortened the game. After all, there is no challenge to set Minas Morgul against Fangorn Forest. I could continue after this wave, but I doubt any newcomers would lose to either of Minas Tirith or the Witch King.

My initial plan was a March Madness style tournament. We would take 16 or 32 sets and pair them off each week the survivors would go one against each other. I could not successfully run 16 matches in one thread a week without polls. Now that I can do it, I wonder how long to let this contest rest before relaunching it in a new format.

Let me know what you think? Shall we relaunch into a new more complex tournament bracket? If so, shall we give this game a break for a week(s)/month(s)?

I agree any newcomers would loose against the victor of this round, so best to let it be as is

For the next game I would like to target the Hobbit theme, but that would be best played after the complete content of the sets of the final wave is reveled. I'm all for further revamps of the LOTR tournament in the meanwhile, it passes the time in this period of no news.

[TheWorldAhead]

That was a joke you know? Maybe you should grow up to understand... ;)

I know. I'm sorry if you were offended by my equally sarcastic reply.

[Steph 104th]

Minas Tirith would be an iconic set like the Tower Of Orthanc

[Venunder]

I will say WitchKing, as a decent model at a decent price.

However I would also like several Minas Tirith sets.

Including :

Grond with 4 Battle Trolls in Armour, the Olog-Hai.

Mumak Attack a Mumak and some Minifig Riders.

A Southron Battle Pack

An Army of the Dead Battle Pack.

and

A Gondorian Soldiers Battle Pack.

Although maybe the battle packs could be made as one set with 2 of each soldier.

[Scaevola]

Minas Tirith for me

[Blakstone]

After twenty weeks, Minas Tirith emerges as the victor of the Middle-Earth Madness. It seems fitting that the Witch King was unable to shatter Minas Tirtith.

Final Score: Minas Tirith defeats Witch King Showndown 30 to 12.