Back to Middle Earth - Strategy Battle Game that is!

What does the eye command??

"You WILL play MESBG...mwah-ah-ah-ahhhhh"

It's been a few years since I broke out my Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game figs and rules [2005 softback, spiral bound].  No, I don't know why.  There's lots of pros to playing this game:

- The rules have always been excellent and were developed by Alessio Cavatore and Andy Chambers.

- Game has always had a dedicated following that is smaller than WHF but larger than, say Frostgrave, Malifaux, or SAGA.  

- You can also play narrative games driven by the book / movie plot lines, or pick-up games or competitive play in tournaments. 

Also, you don't have to use GW figs if you don't want to, as long as the figs represent what they are in rule terms well. Helps if they are 28mm plastics and such.

For various reasons, my mind turned back to reading the books [yet again] and breaking out the stuff I have left after my last selling spree. I'm also looking for something I can play regularly without any rule changes.  The flip side to this is that if I do this, I should ditch one other project... always hard to do!

I kept some of my favorite official GW stuff:

- Fellowship and Nazgul

Original metal Fellowship from the box set above, with some extra hobbits in Lorien cloak. Below, the parts I painted in the early 2000s - played a lot of FOTR scenarios...

This plastic set is also great - love Sam with Pan, Gimli with throwing axes!

Lovable curmudgeon who started all the trouble, more or less...what has he got in his hand?

"Hello, we're from Mr. Sauron's repossession team - we understand you have something of his?"

- Moria goblins...

...and MORE goblins!  About 100 altogether...

- Last Alliance Men in Black, including some kings and characters

- Some Mordor, Isengard Uruk-hai and characters, including Sauron and some mounted orcs.

- Force of Gondor

- Official GW Dwarf archers

- Dwarfs, from the Vendel collection [HERE]

and a close-up - note the details!

...and of course, more to clean and paint...

- Alternative plastics?

These may end up as Rohirrim foot...or lots of other guys...

So there is plenty to work with, and the figures are lovely and a joy to paint.  It is amazing how much they look like their real-life actors from the films!

How to get back into the Game?

This was a Facebook driven enterprise, with there being a Philly SBG group [CLICK] that has already been quite helpful and welcoming.  For buying and selling models, there's plenty of aftermarket on Fb [CLICK] and [HERE] for USA.

After some posting, I was able to work out an unlikely three-way meeting at a central game store location, Six Feet Under in Gap, PA [CLICK]. This was a great venue with lots of table space.

I built armies with New Recruit [CLICK] after discovering that Army Builder was not useful anymore [including all my old lists] and Lonely Knight wouldn't download past my security system.  Battlescribe is also a possibility.  I also downloaded the free Middle Earth SBG start guide [CLICK], which reviews all the essential rules, conveniently, and is a great tool to get people playing. There are also quick start guides for various factions, which anyone could use for any force, including historical and mythological, with a bit of imagination [HERE].

Not knowing what else to do, I made 500 point lists for my Moria Goblins and Kingdom of Moria dwarfs, and headed out to Gap. We managed to all coordinate and arrive, and then I found myself facing a regional champ and another experienced player, who each put out 250 points of Erebor dwarfs and Mirkwood elves.  

This was a friendly game to get my head back into the rules, so a couple of times they told me about new rules and what I should do. Otherwise, they just corrected my mistakes and oversights and answered questions. One of them had his dad with him, and he helped with some advice a few times since he also plays Moria goblins.

The Challenge!  Durburz has a Cave Troll, and he wants YOU to play!

I've always been happy with how these figures turned out!

To win the scenario Fog of War we each need to designate:

- a friendly leader to keep alive, 

- an enemy leader to kill, and 

- a terrain objective to take,

all of which are kept secret from the opponent.  I admit, I forgot about the victory conditions in the effort to play the game, remember rules, and such.

A few turns into the game: 

I tried to flank the Alliance forces by ganging up on the Dwarfs.  This kind of worked, and of course I outnumbered the opposition and they did get a bit spread out.  The troll has hammered a couple of dwarfs, but won't last long...Durburz is trying to seal the deal on breaking the enemy, but the goblins are generally having trouble to close with the forces of Good due to Thranduil causing Terror.

my smaller square bases weren't as stable on the table as the larger round ones.

On the right, my Goblins have thinned out the opposition, but lost a bunch themselves.  They would be surrounding and slaughtering except that they can't pass Courage to close with the Terror-causing enemy often enough!

In the near center, my archers are preparing to join the fray...their shooting really isn't worth much, so surrounding is their best bet!

The goblins brought their own rhythm section!  Drums, drums in the deep...boom, Boom, BOOM! and a whack-dadda-bang-bum!

Despite pretty poor dice all around, I managed to lose, mostly due to forgetting the victory conditions anyway!  My host kindly gave me a coveted Philly SBG club die regardless, and offered to help me play a tournament soon.  This would be my first one since I played a Flames of War tournament a dozen years ago, or so.

Overall, I am evaluating my motivation and painting desire, and am coming up with a "yes" on getting back into this at several levels.  While the narrative driven scenarios are my favorite way to play, followed by pick up "matched play" games, there's plenty of options so I'm preparing my forces for a bigger event in a week.

The game plays smoothly and has even been gently improved without much "rules creep" unless you insist on bringing Sauron and the Mumakil to the table.  These rules would also work very well in any dark ages situation. They have all the basic rules for weapons of the period, plenty of stats that are already rendered into a points system, and the historical armies from which most of them are derived would make nice themes.  The Rohirrim are, after all, basically Lombards.

The game puts emphasis on tactics and gaining initiative - "Priority" - each turn, which can allow you to move and then move again before your opponent.  So things *matter* in MESBG and you don't suffer the death of a thousand rule cuts. You want priority to keep your fighting line intact and maneuver to your advantage - you also get to shoot first.

Heroes can intervene and move out of sequence a limited number of times. This makes it a challenge to know when and how to use your leaders effectively.  Overall, a great, tightly written game that has only improved in the various editions.

Stay tuned!