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Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual
The Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game is the tabletop game for 2 or more players that allows you to play through the events from The Lord of the Rings™ and The Hobbit™ with your collection of Citadel and Forge World models. Take control of your favourite heroes, villains and armies, recreate scenes from the movies and books, and gather your forces together to do battle with your opponent in a test of wits and prowess. This 208-page hardback rules manual is a comprehensive guide to the hobby of building, painting and playing games with your Middle-earth models, whether you choose the forces of Good or Evil.
Introduction
This section features an overview of the wider hobby of collecting, painting and playing with Middle-earth miniatures, from the very basics of choosing your army, the items you need in order to run games, setting up your battlefield and understanding the rules and profiles you’ll use in-game.
Rules
Here, you’ll be taken through the meat of the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game – the actual rules that you’ll use to play:
- Basic Principles: a primer on the fundamental concepts and terms used in the book, this section briefly explains a few things that the newcomer may find daunting;
- Turn Sequence: each turn is divided into 5 phases – Priority, which determines who acts first, Movement, which covers moving your models on the tabletop, interacting with terrain and using control zones, Shoot, which covers ranged attacks, Fight, which covers close combat, and Courage, in which your models are tested to see if they stand their ground or flee in terror;
- Monsters: while their basic rules are typically the same as those for other models in the game, Monster models are particularly powerful – this section covers their special rules. This includes War Beasts, huge creatures ridden into battle, crushing the foe as they march on;
- Weapons & Wargear: split into 4 subsections – close combat, missile, equipment and armour – this section explains the variety of weapons and wargear available to your models, and the impact your choices will have on your tactical decisions;
- Magical Powers: certain models have the ability to cast magical powers, and this section explains targeting, casting and resisting those powers during the Move phase, with a list of every Magical Power available to cast;
- Special Rules: this section collects together all the passive and active Special Rules which can appear on model profiles, compiled for easy reference;
- Advanced Rules: found in certain Scenarios, these rules – covering water features, sentries, passengers and carrying objects – come in handy when recreating scenes from the history of Middle-earth;
- Siege Engines: rules for fielding these immense and obvious threats, covering their movement, firing, upgrades and crew (and their ability to launch severed heads as ammunition…);
- Sieges: throughout the history of Middle-earth, many sieges have taken place – here are the basic rules for creating your own sieges with your models.
Narrative Play
Narrative Play games allow you to recreate your favourite battles and scenes from both the books and the films, using your collection of Citadel and Forge World models. Each Scenario – found in The Armies of The Lord of the Rings™ and The Armies of The Hobbit™ – has a selection of special rules that balance them, providing an experience closely matching the scenes from the books and films.
Introduction
This section features an overview of the wider hobby of collecting, painting and playing with Middle-earth miniatures, from the very basics of choosing your army, the items you need in order to run games, setting up your battlefield and understanding the rules and profiles you’ll use in-game.
Rules
Here, you’ll be taken through the meat of the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game – the actual rules that you’ll use to play:
- Basic Principles: a primer on the fundamental concepts and terms used in the book, this section briefly explains a few things that the newcomer may find daunting;
- Turn Sequence: each turn is divided into 5 phases – Priority, which determines who acts first, Movement, which covers moving your models on the tabletop, interacting with terrain and using control zones, Shoot, which covers ranged attacks, Fight, which covers close combat, and Courage, in which your models are tested to see if they stand their ground or flee in terror;
- Monsters: while their basic rules are typically the same as those for other models in the game, Monster models are particularly powerful – this section covers their special rules. This includes War Beasts, huge creatures ridden into battle, crushing the foe as they march on;
- Weapons & Wargear: split into 4 subsections – close combat, missile, equipment and armour – this section explains the variety of weapons and wargear available to your models, and the impact your choices will have on your tactical decisions;
- Magical Powers: certain models have the ability to cast magical powers, and this section explains targeting, casting and resisting those powers during the Move phase, with a list of every Magical Power available to cast;
- Special Rules: this section collects together all the passive and active Special Rules which can appear on model profiles, compiled for easy reference;
- Advanced Rules: found in certain Scenarios, these rules – covering water features, sentries, passengers and carrying objects – come in handy when recreating scenes from the history of Middle-earth;
- Siege Engines: rules for fielding these immense and obvious threats, covering their movement, firing, upgrades and crew (and their ability to launch severed heads as ammunition…);
- Sieges: throughout the history of Middle-earth, many sieges have taken place – here are the basic rules for creating your own sieges with your models.
Narrative Play
Narrative Play games allow you to recreate your favourite battles and scenes from both the books and the films, using your collection of Citadel and Forge World models. Each Scenario – found in The Armies of The Lord of the Rings™ and The Armies of The Hobbit™ – has a selection of special rules that balance them, providing an experience closely matching the scenes from the books and films.
- GenresFantasy
240 pages, Hardcover
Published August 1, 2018
4 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 29, 2018
Great rulebook, combining the best elements of many previous editions of the game into a single tome that looks like it will be incredibly entertaining to play. I can't wait to get this on the table!
April 10, 2019
This massive tome provides quality content on a visual, story line and game-play level far exceeding my expectations. The book was an absolute pleasure to read, with stunning full-color pictures, lovely painted miniatures, and helpful diagrams to explain the rules. The system mechanics are just complex enough to capture the dynamic themes within Tolkien's work without getting mired in excessive tables, minutia or charts. Fight mechanics yield cinematic results, yet accommodates at times a large number of models with relative ease. The Fate system for heroes set the stage for memorable and sometimes unpredictable, exciting conflicts. Middle Earth SBG is currently our favorite miniature game rule set and this book by Games Workshop brings the magic of this universe to life on your table top. Now bring on Battle Companies for those smaller, narrative matches. Our minis group is all-in with this treasure of a game.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews