Right now with the new code this is my current strategy. I use the postpone lock feature with the ring button as part of my strategy. I'll postpone locks until I have finished Beast Frenzy and usually complete my trip to Erebor before I challenge Smaug. Then during Smaug multi ball I'll usually complete a mode or 3 and of course Feast Frenzy starts as well. Then by the time I'm back to one ball, Into the Fire will be ready to start. Then it's rinse, repeat through Barrell Escape and then Battle of Five Armies. Last night I got a new G. C. score of 5,023,233 using this approach.

Smaug multiball, try to start beast multiball at the same time

All about The Resurgence of Sauron mode which is lit by shooting the left ramp. Shoot this immediately to only light that mode. Next collect your first lock but do NOT collect it on the right ramp. Now you will notice your lock rollovers blinking a bit. This is to add a ball to the next mode and you want this. Rollover all four again and then each orbit will now have a green circle underneath it. Shoot the ball towards whichever one you feel more comfortable with. Once you do that, hit the ring button to pass on the lock and start the mode. As long as you haven’t finished any set of drops or shot the right VUK, it should still be The Resurgence of Sauron.

This is a switch hit mode even though it is telling you to shoot the left ramp. Two ways to play this, first is safe and second is risky with more reward.

a.) While you have a nice ball save going go ahead and aim at those spinners since most hobbits don’t really give you a lot of bumper hits. What you are doing here is building the value of the left ramp to collect. In the newer code it appears that the value doesn’t lock in on the first ramp shot. When you are down to about 10 seconds in the mode go ahead and shoot the ramp. You will see the cyan colored light come on behind the left ramp which means the next shot collects that value plus adds 12 seconds. You can be risky and go for more spinners or just keep shooting the left ramp. It finishes in five shots I believe and gives you the arkstone and a multiplier increase for into the fire.

b) Shoot the right ramp immediately to lock Smaug ball 1. Flail until you light the rollovers again, lock ball two, again lock ball three. Now you have 4 balls in play and the switches are piling up! When you lock balls and start smaug the timer pauses for the animation. You probably wasted about 20-30 seconds to do that so go ahead and shoot the left ramp twice to get that 12 second add. Critical part here is do NOT start beast frenzy as Goblin will block the left ramp. If you are running short on time consider draining the balls just to get a trap on the right because you want to finish the mode as you can get the left ramp north of 50,000 a shot.

If you finish the mode with at least two balls in the play you will run treasure hunt which each red shot collects a percentage of the mode points (like victory laps after crank it up on MET). After you hit a shot it turns off. Hitting all red shots will reset them for more collects and I’m guessing higher points. This goes on until you drain out.

A decent mode score is 50,000 with a good one going well above 300,000. This is the best way to play in a tournament. After that like Doyle said start beast and actually focus on collect dwarfs. If you played The Resurgence of Sauron decent enough then you should have almost all of them. Then focus on spinners to the erebor arkstone and your playing into the fire at double value. Should be at least 600,000 total points after that. If your playing in a league that you need more then I envy you. My friend has this machine so I have had a few games on it but not enough to figure out an optimal strategy especially with the feeder modes (one ring is the best start). If people show an interest in this thread I’ll add to it as I discover stuff. Good luck!

PS If you accidentally qualify other modes before starting The Resurgence of Sauron you can shoot the left ramp and use the flipper to change to The Resurgence of Sauron until it hits a switch in about three seconds.

NICE!!

Wow! Amazing how little Hobbit play-strategy stuff you can find. I am trying to get to "There and back again" - and do the mode qualifiers as possible. I haven't been able to do this yet. But I am getting closer. Best I have done is 28 modes...

The key that I can find is to get Radagast / Man / and Elf modes out of the way as quickly as possible.
Qualifying those are lateral / cross-playfield shots are dangerous to drain out the outlanes or a weird floater SDTM.

What I have been doing is the following:
-There are four modes that have triple qualifiers. I work to get those out of the way. Then I move into Radagast modes. Because they are easy/not dangerous to qualify.
--Rescue Gandalf E/G/R
--Thief in the Night E/M/B
--Moon Runes E/D/G
--Queer Lodgings D/B/G --> This one I really don't worry about because it has no R/E/M qualifiers.

Then I move into:
--Fall of Erebor D/M
--Orc Attack E/M
--Fire & Water E/M
--Evil Revealed R/G

At this point you would have the following:
-7 modes complete
....of those....
--2 Radaghast Modes done (3 to go)
--4 Man Modes done (1 to go)
--5 Elf Modes done (4 to go)
.....................(remember they don't all add up because there are double and triple qualifiers, here)

You only then have 3 Elf modes to complete:
--Interrogation E
--Demise of Bolg E
--Dual in Lake Town E

3 Radaghast modes to complete:
--The Bait R (During "The Bait" I don't really play the mode. I shoot the captive ball from the left flipper. )
--Radagast the Brown R
--Dol Guldur R

1 Man Mode to complete:
--Flashback M

Of course - as you are doing this - you need to use your mode-multiballs / Beast Frenzy's / Smaug multiballs to your advantage.
For example - There are some modes that are just GREAT for multiballs - and others that aren't so much.
Dul Guldur - is a great mutiball mode, for example. For me - Moon Runes is TOUGH with a lot of balls. Because they are always getting in the way.
If you own the game - I am sure you know this.

That is my key - Is to constantly be moving the captive ball hits forward. You light extra ball at 25 and at 50. But NOT at 75.
I do this ANY time I have a ball saver / etc... I always try to sneak in a captive ball shot or two.

So - if you can actually do this... and still be alive with a ball or two in the bank you can then start knocking out the "Easier-to-qualify" modes.

This - to me - feels possible.
But any machine that has 31 modes to qualify and then start / lasting approx 30 seconds each (some more and some less).
Knowing that pinball is a "failure game" and you-do-in-fact lose every ball at some point - You need a LOT of extra balls to get through it.

Captive ball hits at 25 and 50.
"All modes Qualified" extra
Mystery - if you're lucky
I have my machine set up for an extra ball based on your score, as well. The knock ball...

Well - I finally swapped out my flipper mechs... and coil sleeves. And wouldn't you know it... hardly any coil fade / and you can consistently hit your shots.
Who knew!!!

I have been able to get to TABA about 4 times, now... its a blast...
Still can't beat BE or BOTFA, tho.

I am killing Smaug on a regular basis, lately, as well.

For the life of me I can’t get past stage 3 of BOTFA, just too many ball sinks trying to hit the captive ball

Yes! I know this. The key is to try to calm the whole playfield down. Try to cradle as many as you can on one flipper and play on the other flipper.

I backhand the "DWARF" letters. Then try to tag the captive ball.
The worst part - is after you beat that.... the next phase is "BASH 30 BEASTS"
(I don't know what comes after that - The beasts are easy and relatively safe to hit. But still.... doing anything "30" times is hard in pinball)

And there are 7 stages. I would guess that stage 7 is "Victory" laps.
If I ever sell - the glass is coming off to see the end of it...
There are still some modes I can't beat, either.

Defeat of Azog
The Bait
Queer Lodgings

I use those modes to hit the captive, and lock balls... It's just not worth it... too hard, too risky.

I took the glass off once just to see and while I don’t recall exactly I think one of the stages was literally 100+ beasts so uhh ya good luck lol