Unboxing: Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game – Pelennor Fields
August 25, 2018 by dignity
Sam attunes to his inner Hobbit as he veritably tears open the box to see the new Middle-Strategy Battle Game Set from Games Workshop.
The Battle Of Pelennor Fields pits the forces of Mordor against the Rohirrim and the Army of the Dead.
The box is packed with a huge amount of miniatures for both sides including special characters like King Theoden and The Witch-king of Angmar. Interestingly, it seems GW have used some of their older casts for the Rohirrim whilst Theoden is a new model.
If you could tickle any of the Mordor hordes who would it be?
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What a great review. All the bases covered, the models, the rule, everything. Great job guys! As for the set, first I am that guy. We have a strong LOTR playing group here in Northern Virginia (USA) and I have played many time using borrowed models, but have yet myself to get stuck in. I think with this new starter set that will change. Thanks again guys for a great review.
The game has had a very successful following for a while now and I would recommend you check out the GBHL group on Facebook. It is superb and exceptionally supportive.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/472128942815892/
I might have to dig out my Rohan again and get stuck in!
The existing plastics are showing their age unfortunately whereas the new Theoden sculpt is better. It probably does not make economic sense for GW to go for a wholesale revamping of the range given that LOTR an The Hobbit are done and dusted.
However, there may be more of Middle-earth to come yet….
The old plastics have a lack of detail and a lot of blending of areas of the model which makes them tough to paint. I think the new Theoden sculpt is amazing though and probably one of their best.
I would love to see them revamping a lot of the characters into multi-part plastic kits.
I’m wondering if GW’s license will cover the new Amazon series.
I suspect it doesn’t.
I’d be interested to see how Theoden scales up to the old plastics..!? All LotR metals are larger than the plastics..
Nice box no doubt but don’t really feel too excited about only one new model and some new rules ?
I love many of the metal models from the range. So much fun to paint…and most of them are one-piece so they are nice and easy to assemble haha.
It’s actually cheaper than I expected… given the box contents I was expecting a GW price of £120, so I’ll certainly be picking it up. My only disappointment is a few months back I bought Escape from Goblin Town and that’s not as good a set… too many goblins and not enough interesting miniatures. And I still have some miniatures from when LotR battles was a magazine, not many but a mix of orcs, minas tirith and goblins. Not to mention some of the RPG figures from when way back when… Gandalf, Saruman, Aragorn, a couple of nazgûl, a balrog,… Read more »
I haven’t seen this level of excitement since the last Tank unboxing :p
Halfords sell ‘glow in the dark’ spray paint which might be perfect for this ghost warriors.
You can make several variants of trolls including the Isengard Troll (with the shield) but in the previous edition you couldn’t use that one in the Mordor army, I don’t know if this is possible now. You always had two variants of mounted and unmounted models as the rider can be thrown of and then you need the unmounted model. Which can be annoying because you need several standard warriors as stand-ins if your riders get thrown off. Because you have the army of the dead, it would have been nice to have a Mümak but I think that would… Read more »
The Witch-King on his Nazgul? Didn’t know there was a mini of one of the other Ringwraiths giving the Witch-King a piggy back. ?
I noticed that too. Justin needs some Tolkien education. Surprised the hobbit…. I mean Sam… didn’t correct him.
I think Sam made the same mistake once or twice himself.
I did stop and rewind at the same point, the Witch-King is a Nazgul, riding on a Fellbeast
My way back into the hobby was the LotR game and a Lotlorien army, complete with Cate Blachard
I don’t think they were actually called ‘Fellbeasts’ by Tolkien. Not sure he gave them any name. The name has stuck however.
Tolkien described them as’fell’ which was old English for cruel or dreadful
Aye I noticed but I have a reputation for being too pedantic as it is. Plus when it gets repeated often enough it hadn’t me doubting myself lol
Clearly you need to get a single volume of the collected works of Tolkien; that way you can double check, then use it to bludgeon the person constantly getting it wrong.
Might need to enlist a friendly Stone Giant to pick it up for you though. ?
Any chance we will see a table made and the game played on BoW?
I don’t plan to pick up the box as I managed to get my hands on a job lot of miniatures very cheap a few months ago when rumours were floating around they were going to release a new edition of the rules, so I’ll just be picking up the new rule book. I plan to start a project for my LotR armies.
I also run a One Ring campaign and plan on taking the action to Rohan at some point. For the RPG I will need some Wargs and Warg Riders that they have on GW website.
And @dracs …. do you have a fear of the word Rohirrim? Seemed like you deliberately avoided saying it and stuck with ‘Riders of Rohan’ when Rohirrim was the more obvious word to use.
Rohirrim is the general term for them yes, but the unit name for mounted rohirrim is Riders of Rohan, while infantry are Warriors of Rohan.
And you say you’re pedantic 🙂
The game has always been tempting, and a good value 2 player battle set along with a new edition makes it more so.
How about a series of videos with @dignity and Sam going through the intro scenarios from the boxed set? Justin can learn the game and use the Rohirrim, Sam can learn to be Evil 😉
Nice unboxing guy’s, with so many minis i would`t know where to start. I myself have always liked the Rohirrim, must have something to do with mass charges of man and horse (sends shivers down my spine). Not looking at buying this box game, as i already have a lot of minis and buying more would see them joining what i have and never seeing the light of day. Now the rule book on the other hand, id have no problem buying as you get to read and not make and paint it.
So being a long time LOTR modeling fanatic, it is important to know that although there is a lot of duplication in the models they are dead easy to convert with head, shield or hand swaps. I also recommend plastic viking saga weapons or even warlord games test of honor or Perry miniatures war of the roses kits to give you some awesome conversion bits. I’ve done tons of converting on these models. Guess I’ll have to start a project blog now to give you some examples! Pre ordered my two books today, looking forward to pick up next SAT.… Read more »
A great unboxing the figure’s look really good, nice to see GW updating the rules and not slash n burn like some games.
Just preordered mine for the bargain price of £69.99… free postage too…
Less than £1 per miniature… about 50p each if you take into account the rules and other bits and pieces included.
This is such good timing for me. I’ve just recently started buying figures for LOTR Strategy Battle Game, (Ebay, and getting them for a really decent price). I’ve been buying the Rohan in large quantities and have started laying out a board. Wait for it…… I’m building “Helms Deep”. I’ve had the Two Towers rules book forever and just recently bought the others including the “War of the Ring” and “Battle Hosts” books. I love the large scale stuff. I know that it’s a change of rules from LOTR-SBG to LOTR-WotR, but I can use the same minis. A bonus… Read more »
Not gonna lie, sunk a fortune on this – I’ve realised I’ve accidentally painted my La Haye Sainte buildings for Waterloo in Gondor-esque colours so my head is full of ideas for Pelennor Fields. Bought the box and a few other bits, some Gondorians, some Haradrim, thinking of replicating some of the villages of the Pelennor as they were used as siege camps by the various forces. Haradrim tents, tilled fields, hedgerows, orchards, siege equipment. Also thinking of how Sarissa’s Roman walls could be re-purposed as the walls of the Rammas Echor…
Dammit I was resisting getting this and you have made me buy it!! Still I have loads of miniatures in a box somewhere from when I was collecting the LOTR Battle Games in Middle-Earth magazin, anyone remember that?
Brilliant unboxing, no hiding of the flaws. Really unbiased, I loved it. Keep up the good work.
Looks like a cool box set, been painting up some of my old lotr stuff lately, this is very tempting!
I am trying to figure out why I would ‘tickle’ an army…. Very odd. Great to see GW giving the LotR/Hobbit a nudge again with a bit of new stuff but.. It really is a nudge with almost no new content bar a few rules change and a new Théoden. I suppose we should be grateful we got anything. There are quite a number of huge holes left for those building armies and I cannot wait to see if these armies appear in the new books. LotR is missing full companies from Blackroot vale, Dol Amroth (though there are one… Read more »
Received my box off eBay yesterday. Not a big GW fan but this is fantastic value for money. Beautiful stuff