Fight With Your Battle Companies In Games Workshop’s Middle-earth
December 22, 2017 by brennon
A product that slipped under the radar for me over the last week or has been Battle Companies for The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings line by Games Workshop. This book has you taking a warband of brave warriors or insidiously evil minions and taking through a legacy-style campaign.
Inside the book, you'll find all warband rosters and expansion tables for a myriad of different forces from both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings collections. This means you can pick up a small warband of models numbering between twelve and twenty models (by the end) and get gaming in one of the best systems Games Workshop has produced.
The warbands for the game can usually be made out of the very cheap plastic kits for each of the different factions which is great, although I'm sure a lot of people will want to branch out into their Finecast and metal ranges for some more characterful models to represent their leader models.
You will find a plethora of scenarios in the book to play through as well as a proper narrative campaign set in Fornost for a group to get into. I think this is a great idea and provides a nice avenue of entry for people wanting to play using these Lord of the Rings and Hobbit miniatures that might have accrued in their collection over the years.
You will need the appropriate force book and the main rulebook in order to play as a reminder though!
Will you be giving this a look?
"This means you can pick up a small warband of models numbering between twelve and twenty models (by the end) and get gaming in one of the best systems Games Workshop has produced..."
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It’s good to see GW releasing material for the ‘Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game’. Not sure when the game was re-branded, though. I think it’s a good idea – and seems to confirm ongoing support. I would really like to see new plastic models, though. GW does them so damn well.
This is the first outing of the re-branded title. They are re-visiting Lord of the Rings later in 2018 and all future releases (except maybe the Hobbit stuff that they haven’t done yet) will be in the re-branded title.
Expect a new rulebook under the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game some time in Q2-Q3 I’d say, then there will be source books for the forces.
Ordered mine the first day eligible but I’m still waiting on it.
Looking forward to this one!
Ah nice. GW still keeps LotR miniatures game alive.
Yeah this looks fantastic, I hope it goes down really well with everyone so we got more support for it in the future GW have done massive amount of work to shed the over expensive money hungry image they’ve built up over the years and have done so IMO however looking at some of these prices is the one thing that would keep me away from this, for what they are they are soooo expensive. I’d love to get Dain and an Iron hills army but £40 for a mounted and unmounted is too much. Out of interest anyone have… Read more »
I think the team have done great work, but pricing is an issue for me as I would want to collect to play the scenarios. I have less of an issue with Dains price than I do things like the goat riders and berserkers, troops should be in plastic to make overall cost more paletteable. It was one of my suggestions on the survey. I can see people for whom this is the only minis game, or who like it as a battles game, or even those who will spend time on the troops having a different view but for… Read more »
I picked up this supplemement lst week and itis really fun. It’d be a great way for someone to start a new collection or just for a social campaign with your mates. (There is a great new narrative styled campaign inside that you can work through)
its always good to see the game getting some new material.
It’s a lovely book. With some improvements to the BC mechanics over the original WD article from years ago. Well done to Adam, Jay and all the Ringwraiths who have kept BC alive as a concept over the years. I’m looking forward to the new rulebook that is planned for the summer and am enjoying seeing coverage in WD. The move to FW has meant we aren’t likely to see more plastics any time soon, so having a focus on playing small scale scenarios like this is welcome as it makes playing with FW prices achievable.
May pick this up, never a huge fan of the old battle companies , always felt the setting deserved a less mechanical and more narrative campaign arc. Heard good things though
They’ve added a narrative campaign to this book! In the first one you’re sneaking around in Lake-town to free your friend from captive, against Lake-town Militia with the sentinel rules.
It’s a great book, and a wonderful evolution of the rules. The fan base have done a great job keeping the Battle Companies alive, but great to see Adam and Jay take it on!
Already started our campaign, and played two games on STF Wargaming Studio.
I normally stay away from anything GW since I simply just can’t afford it. I don’t play enough and don’t have the time to merit it.
I have however, been able to play Frostgrave, due to the low entry price and homemade everything. It would seem that GW is learning and adapting to competition from games such as Frostgrave and I’m very happy about that.
This is one game I would love to get into. I’m going to check this out locally and see what it costs to get into.
Had great fun over the festive period from digging out some old LOTR minis, using the latest rules (a gift – oops if being refreshing in 2018!) and running a Frostgrave treasure scenario over a snow and ice 3×3 board. Used the warbands idea from old WD so looking forward to this book to ‘advance’ the survivors. The rules are very clean and fun, and so engaging – especially as a departure from 40k. Interlinking turns and randomly varying priority really had everyone thinking – and shouting. A four way fight was keen but we all initial forgot how ineffective… Read more »