Stunning New Middle-earth Miniatures! Plus, New Edition?
August 9, 2024 by brennon
Games Workshop dropped an absolute bevvy of news this week for those excited by The Lord Of The Rings, The Hobbit and the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game. The Rise Of Angmar supplement is coming soon alongside a suite of amazing miniatures.
Rise Of Angmar // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
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This new supplement follows in the footsteps of the others for the game and covers the founding of Angmar and by extension, the fall of the kingdom of Arnor in the North of Middle-earth. There will be rules and scenarios covering this period and an appendix covering the chieftain of the Dunedain and their escapades before the final years of the Third Age. Exciting.
The Warriors Of Carn Dum!
Leading the way for the miniature preview side of things, we got a look at some of the human warriors who will be fighting for the Witch-king of Angmar. There is a brand new set coming out featuring a mixture of warriors with different weapons and also a banner.
Warriors Of Carn Dum Command // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
Warriors Of Carn Dum // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
These miniatures are superb. It's great that we're seeing Games Workshop explore more of the corners of Middle-earth and introducing lots of interesting new characters and troops to fill in the gaps. The design of these miniatures is superb. I like the geometric shapes of the shields which makes them look like they have been robbed from a Dwarven mountain hold. They also feel distinct and different when compared to the Dunlendings.
They are led by Aldrac, Warlord Of Carn Dum.
Aldrac, Warlord Of Carn Dum // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
This fellow is a callous and barbaric leader who wants to crush the people of Arnor in the name of the Witch-king. He has the Battle Frenzy ability which allows him to declare a free Heroic Combat as long as he killed something in the previous turn. Again, his miniature is ace and in a fun pose. I think the people who sculpted the recent Darkoath Marauders might have been tasked with this range!
We also have the dark and dangerous Fraecht, Vassal Of The Witch-king.
Fraecht, Vassal Of The Witch-king // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
He can chant to conjure strength, swiftness and durability amongst the other Men Of Carn Dum. The billowing cloak works really well to give him a haunting and commanding presence on the tabletop and I think folks are going to have a lot of fun painting him.
The Dunedain Rise!
Moving on from the forces of Evil for a moment, we also had this miniature for Aranarth, First Chieftain Of The Dunedain.
Aranarth, First Chieftain Of The Dunedain // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
He is an Expert Shot and valiant leader, able to rouse the Rangers Of the North and the Dunedain to fight against the shadowy forces that dwell in Angmar and on its borders. The pose of the miniature is very heroic and reminds me of the Return Of The King version of Aragorn from back in the day. I think that a lot of First Age fans are also going to find this a great miniature for representing the likes of Beren and Turin.
A Haunting Shade
A terrible spectre will also be haunting the hills of Angmar and sucking the souls of the living. See what you make of The Shadow Of Rhudaur.
The Shadow Of Rhudaur // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
The forces of Angmar in the current rules for Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game come with the option for including lots of spirits, ghosts and ghouls. This chap seems like he will be a welcome addition to those thematic army lists. He also features interesting design touches that match up to the look of the Barrow-Wights we've seen in the teasers for the new series of The Rings Of Power.
They Have A Hill Troll!
Some of the best miniatures from this suite of previews have to be those below. We start with the amazing new miniature for Buhrdur, Hill Troll Chieftain.
Buhrdur, Hill Troll Chieftain // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
This brand new miniature for Buhrdur is posed in an awesome new way, as if in the midst of combat, and the details are second to none. He will also get himself a new Legendary Legion to lead into battle which means that you'll get to make use of these Hill Trolls too.
Hill Trolls // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
Again, amazing sculpts. These Hill Trolls are better than their Mordor and Cave cousins in that they have an element of intelligence that sets them above others. Alongside the towering Buhrdur, they are going to be a fun thematic force for you to build.
Werewolves Not Swearwolves
Last but not least, we have another set of miniatures for fans of Sauron, the First Age and the Necromancer! Werewolves!
Werewolves // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
These seem to be marmite miniatures amongst the community at the moment. I like these but they do have a distinctly Warg-like quality to them rather than being your classic werewolves. I do wonder if these are perhaps based on some of the concept work that was done for the likes of The Hobbit whilst it was under the eye of Del Toro.
I think these look brilliant though and it will be great to see how they get folded into armies. I sense some First Age fans turning one of these into Carcharoth to hunt down Beren and Luthien.
All of the miniatures, whilst not stated currently, look like they are going to be Forge World Resin releases. That obviously means that they could come with a fairly hefty price tag but they are for one of the more specialised games within Games Workshop's catalogue. We shall have to wait and see.
A New Edition!
Last but not least, we also had the news that the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game is going to be getting a new edition.
The War Of The Rohirrim // The Lord Of The Rings
There are scant details currently but the Games Workshop team has mentioned that we're going to be getting a new Rulebook for the new edition as well as reworked Armies Of... books for The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit. I would imagine that these are going to be ways for them to bring all of the different profiles from various sourcebooks back into one place. We will also see rebalanced profiles as well which help to match the characters from the films and books.
More will be shared in the future but I have an inkling that this won't be a very big shift in terms of the rules. The rules as they stand are why the game is so good! I would guess this will be another tweak and a bit of a reset to undo some fiddly elements of the game. I hope that the old sourcebooks will still be viable for your collection too.
The tease of The War Of The Rohirrim also hints to a new starter set being focused on that particular conflict between the Dunlendings and Rohan during that period. Might we see new plastics for both sides and more hero miniatures to match those already available from Forge World?
Drop your thoughts on all of the Middle-earth news below!
"...we also had the news that the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game is going to be getting a new edition"
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The warriors of Carn Dum are straying dangerously close to Dark Oath warriors from Age of Sigmar, Not a fan.
I knew I couldn’t be the only one who saw it. They immediately bring AoS to my mind, I don’t see Tolkien at all.
I wonder if the new starter set will be coming out along side the animated film due at the end of the year?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14824600/
New models for Rohan are surely a must, I’ve just finished painting the Rohan Battlehost and those could do with an update.
Indeed the Rohan models are very long in the tooth. They could be some of the nicest with an update. The old metals were good, just the plastics were stale almost on release.
It’s going to be interesting to see how they’re going to do anime characters as minis in the usual style of MESBG.
I used to be a werewolf but I’m alright NOWOOOOOOOOOH!
I can see myself picking up Vassal Of The Witch-king because you can never have too many naughty sorcerors.
Personally… I’d rather have a naughty sorceress 🙂
I bought Escape from Goblin Town and painted that eventually. Pelennor Fields is assembled, as is Osgilliath, but neither is painted.
Bought Armies of Lord of the Rings and Quest of the Ring Bearer book. Given I’ve never played the thing I don’t plan on feeding GW any more money.
I the last year they’ve released new editions of 40k, AoS and WFB. Now it’s Middle Earth. Greed is not good.
It’s a great game. If you get a chance I’d highly recommend playing. That said, to me it feels like MESBG is moving from a work of love to a cash grab (it was always a cash grab but it didn’t feel that way to me 15-20 years ago). When I first got into it, it felt like the creators watched the movies and created this game with deep love and respect for the source material. That’s probably why I still have the original rule book that came out and also my blue book. I’m sorry but these Carn Dum… Read more »
Agreed – when it came out originally, I was a massive fan of it. Had a club back then, and it was by far the dominant game! Very accessible, very affordable. Not so much now. Too bad, really. I think when GW did the short lived mass combat version, it failed as it was a bad attempt to get Fantasy players to jump in.
I’d like to play it again, but it’s been so long – I had all the releases as they came out, in the beginning; I couldn’t do that again.
I laughed when I saw the Carn Dum characters. Hard nope. I do like the trolls though. Sometimes I’m tempted to go back to the old blue book. I hope the new edition isn’t just a cash grab
Yeah they look bad, way too Chaos and little original thought in them.
The designs look to be based on the look of the Men Of Carn Dum from the War In The North video game (which I quite like) so that’s a nice nod to other properties within The Lord Of The Rings. I think they look great but everyone likes different vibes.
I hope the new edition is well thought through – the team behind MESBG are usually very good with their sourcebooks/rules etc so I think we’re in good hands.
I haven’t played the video game so I admit ignorance there. Not to my style but if they based on that I can’t fault GW. I hope you’re right that we are in good hands.
I’d rather they not mix styles like that, taking stuff from a cartoony video game is a bit jarring. The team is fantastic, however, I’m worried about the corporate pressure. GW have a history of squatting things and radically changing game systems in the past few years, I hope none of that ever comes to MESBG. It feels very unnecessary and an excuse to sell more books.
The Warriors of Carn Dum are pretty nice, but don’t feel quite right for Middle Earth.
Hopefully if they do do a new edition they do alternating activations and get rid of the dumb to wound table.
MESBG is probably the best known game that has alternating activations, I’m not sure what you mean by that?
What’s wrong with the Wound Chart? What would you replace it with?
Indeed the alternating activations made this a WAY better game than 40k/Fantasy when it came out: instead of sitting for half an hour while your opponent just did crap to you, EVERYONE got a chance to do something! How incredibly innovative for the time. Sometimes I could watch opponents glaze over and drool with boredom – but not with MESBG!
Everything looks great except those Age of Sigmar Carn Dum minis. They don’t really fit with the aesthetic of the rest of the game, something more like Dunland Warriors would have been better. Looking forward to the new Angmar book and getting some of those Hill Trolls. New edition is a pretty blatant cash grab that most of the community seems wary of at best. The game is great and considered one of their best, to go messing with it just to sell more rulebooks is dangerous. I think they could have done a profile overhaul without a new edition,… Read more »
I have a bad feeling about this. Those “warriors of chaos” *eh* ‘Carn Dum’ don’t look like something Tolkien would have had in mind. And this is GW we’re talking about. I think they kind of got lucky with the initial release of the Middle Earth games because there was someone else with passion for the lore that was there to reign in the stupidity GW might have applied to the IP. Given that we’ve had the monstrosity called “Rings of Powaaahh!” I doubt the current owners of the IP care enough to keep GW from going of the rails.… Read more »