The Road Goes Ever On and On… The Next Edition of Middle-earth™ Strategy Battle Game
Welcome back to ‘The Road Goes Ever On and On’ – our regular blog covering all things Middle-earth.
If you’ve been keeping an eye on Warhammer Community recently, you’ll know that a new edition of Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game is on the horizon. So, we tracked down the Middle-earth team to see what they could share about the biggest update the game has seen in a long, long time…
The Next Edition
As you may have heard, the new edition will focus on the upcoming
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim™ movie. This is an incredibly exciting prospect – it’s the first new movie we’ve been able to work on since
The Hobbit: Motion Picture Trilogy™. Whilst we can’t go into too many details just yet (more in the coming weeks!), you’ll find a taster of what you can expect from the next edition below.
The entire core rules have been rewritten in an effort to streamline and modernise both the way that the rules are presented and the game itself. Clearer language, consistent terminology, and making the rules easier to follow have been the priorities, and a selection of new rules have been added to inject even more narrative flavour into the game.
“There were a number of things we wanted to tackle, but the important thing to point out is that for those among us who have been playing for many years, the new edition will still play like the game we all know and love. We are always listening to what the fans of the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game have to say, and much of the work that’s gone into the new edition has been to bring your feedback to the game where we can,” explains Lead Games Developer Jay.
“There are no major changes to the core mechanics of the game, which have stayed the same since the game’s first release back in 2001. The new edition will build on the solid foundations of the past. That isn’t to say that there aren’t some minor changes. There is always room for improvement, and we in the Middle-earth team have spent a great deal of time working on this edition to provide what we believe to be the very best version of the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game to date.”
In this edition, the team have also taken the opportunity to streamline and remove as much unnecessary complexity as possible to create a smoother experience for players.
“The likes of the In The Way chart that states different values for different obstacles, and Special Strikes, are good examples of this,” Jay says.
“The In The Way chart was one that was seldom used, if not forgotten entirely, so we’ve done away with it – In The Ways tests are now passed by rolling a 4+. Special Strikes, on the other hand, we found many people simply weren’t interacting with, or were trying to bend to gain an in-game advantage that wasn’t intended. So they’re sailing off into the West – all hand weapons are now the same, regardless of whether they’re a swords, axes, maces, or clubs. This also means players are free to convert their models to carry whatever hand weapon they wish.”
There is also a greater focus on narrative armies than before, especially in Matched Play. The Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game centres around key storylines from the movies and books, and allowing players to recreate those scenes and armies on the tabletop is a key part of the gaming experience. Every profile in the game is split into a series of Army Lists, each designed to focus on a particular scene, battle, or group of characters from the movies or books, and each with their own flavourful special rules. The aim is to have every army feel like an iconic scene, and to evoke the wonderful world and themes of Middle-earth!
Jay explains:
“The current edition introduced Legendary Legions – special Army Lists that represent key armies and events from the page and screen. These proved to be wildly popular with fans, so we’ve taken this concept one step further.
“Now every Army List will be presented in the same manner as Legendary Legions, ensuring that every army fits the theme of Middle-earth. There are loads of these to choose from, and we have taken great care to make sure that if there is a scene in the movies showcasing characters fighting alongside one another, then there is an appropriate Army List to represent that on the tabletop.
“For players that like to find the most potent combinations, fear not! Many of these Army Lists will still provide ample opportunity for you to try out your combinations and see what you can come up with.”
As part of this greater focus on the narrative, every profile has been reworked and many characters have received updated or new abilities to better represent them on the battlefield.
Jay continues:
“This isn’t to say that every profile has drastically changed, more that we have taken the opportunity to rebalance many of them, add extra flavour, or simply see if we can tweak how they work to better represent the character on the battlefield. In many cases the profiles will still function in the same way, however, they will have updated wording for their rules to fit in with the new edition and to make them clearer for players to understand.
“One thing we have looked at is the distribution of Fight Values – something that fans have been asking about for a long time. There are a lot of models in the 3-6 range of Fight Values, making it quite congested. Whilst we haven’t changed the maximum value (Fight Value still caps at 10), we have taken the opportunity to spread out the Fight Values in that 3-6 range, and even a few beyond. This means profiles that would have been considered to be the ‘top of Fight Value 3’ will see themselves bumped up to Fight Value 4, and those at the ‘top of Fight Value 4’ will see themselves bumped up to Fight Value 5, and so on. This is applied to both Heroes and Warriors, so you may well see some fan favourites being that bit more potent in the next edition!
“There will also be a new Intelligence characteristic, which will work in much the same way as Courage. In the current edition, a model’s Courage characteristic is often used arbitrarily to make tests that feel a bit odd, such as seeing if a model has the wits to spot an invisible Ringbearer. In the new edition, these sorts of tests will be taken with a model’s Intelligence characteristic instead – no more will the blood-crazed Uruk-hai Berserkers suddenly be experts in spotting invisible models!
“Finally, we have added a number of new, thematic special rules to various profiles, helping to invoke their characters from the films and make them feel even more like they do on-screen. Sam can now use his frying pan in combat, Lurtz can potentially shrug off Wounds, and Isildur can potentially wield the Shards of Narsil should Elendil be slain!”
What Does This Mean for Middle-earth?
Upon the release of the new edition, two supplements will be available –
Armies of The Lord of the Rings™ and
Armies of The Hobbit™. Each of these will focus solely on the heroes, villains, warriors, creatures, and armies from their respective films. “But what about anything that isn’t directly in the films?” we hear you cry. Fear not, young Hobbit, an additional supplement will be released a short while later entitled
Armies of Middle-earth™, which will focus on any profiles that do not feature in the films themselves. Writing an entire new edition and reworking every profile has proven to be a Mûmak-sized task, so to make sure everything is as good as it can be, this supplement will arrive a little later than the others – but still precisely when it’s meant to!
Legacies of Middle-earth
The Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game has been going strong now for over 20 years, and as a result has had many years of profiles and miniatures. To continue supporting the game and bringing you amazing new miniatures, some older profiles are going to have to make way in order for new, exciting miniatures to flourish. These will not feature in any of the supplements, however, they will feature in the
Legacies of Middle-earth™ PDF which will be available to download for free at the same time that
Armies of Middle-earth™ is released. This PDF will contain updated rules for all the profiles to fit with the new edition, and will also have a selection of Army Lists for you to use those profiles in. While profiles and Army Lists in the
Legacies of Middle-earth™ PDF will not be legal for official Games Workshop-run Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game events, tournament organisers are still absolutely welcome to allow them in their own independent tournaments and gaming weekends. And, of course, you can use them at home or at your gaming clubs.
Current Middle-earth Supplements
With such a comprehensive update to the game, all previous Middle-earth supplements will no longer be valid for Matched Play. That doesn’t stop you from using them at home of course – the Narrative Scenarios contained within them will still work for playing through the stories and scenes (though may require some subtle tweaks with the new edition), and much of the hobby content such as the building and painting guides will still be just as useful!
Rise of Angmar™
The recently announced
Rise of Angmar™ supplement was written for the current edition, and as such will also cease to be valid for Matched Play upon the release of the new edition. We are well aware of the short shelf-life of
Rise of Angmar™ and wanted to make sure that you, our customers, have all the information before you purchase it.
Rise of Angmar™ is a chance for collectors to wrap up the current edition of the game with the last supplement for it, and still contains plenty of exciting Matched Play content that will see out the final months of the current edition. Also, the Narrative Scenarios featured within are some of the most exciting and dynamic we have produced, and will keep fans of Narrative Play going for many more months!
However, as the release of
Rise of Angmar™ comes so close to the new edition, there will also be a free
Armies of Arnor and Angmar PDF available to download upon the launch of the new edition, containing the rules for using the profiles and associated Army Lists for both Arnor and Angmar, so that anyone who purchases the new models doesn’t have to wait for
Armies of Middle-earth™ to be able to field them in the new edition.
The August Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game FAQ
With the next edition so close, we have made the decision not to release our usual FAQ and Designer’s Commentary document in August. Don’t worry, we will be back on schedule in February with our usual updates – the first of the new edition!
We will be providing plenty more updates in the coming weeks and months, so keep your eyes peeled on Warhammer Community for all the details!
