The new edition of the Middle-earth™ Strategy Battle Game is in full swing and with the release of Armies of Middle-earth™ players can get some of their favourite non-film characters onto the battlefield. In short, it’s a great time to be a fan of Middle-earth!
For those of you with existing collections, we’ve also created two legacy documents, which include the rules for models and army lists not covered in any of the three Armies publications.
Separated into Good and Evil, each document contains profiles and army lists that allow fans to use models no longer officially supported as part of the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game. Each profile has been updated to work alongside the new edition, and each Army List allows you to field the models in the new format. Some profiles will also include a list of existing army lists they can be included in – for example, Grimbold of Grimslade can be included in the Kingdom of Rohan and Fords of Isen army lists.
The profiles and army lists are not intended for use in matched play events, and will not be legal for any official Games Workshop events, nor at events officially supported by Games Workshop. That being said, you can use them on your own tables and event organisers are more than welcome to use them at their own events, so long as it is clear to all participants that the Legacies of Middle-earth documents are in use.
Regardless of the restrictions, the profiles and army lists presented in the documents are complete. A good deal of care and attention has gone into designing, playtesting and balancing these rules. As with all things Middle-earth, the intent was to capture the spirit of beloved characters and bring them to life on the tabletop.
Take the Expedition to the East Army List, which allows you to include Múrin™ & Drár™ and Cirion™, Lieutenant of Amon Barad™ alongside warbands of Dwarves and Minas Tirith. Amongst the special rules given by the Army List is Spoils of War, which sees the army questing for treasure even as the battle rages!
Expedition to the East:
Spoils of War
At the beginning of the game, before either Army has been deployed, your opponent secretly chooses a piece of terrain on the board; this contains the treasure your Army is seeking.
If a friendly model ends its Activation in base contact with a piece of terrain and is not Engaged in Combat, it may search that piece of terrain. If it does, your opponent must reveal if that was their chosen terrain piece. If it was not, nothing happens. If it was, then the model discovers the treasure and leaves to return it to Minas Tirith. Remove the model from play – it does not count as a casualty.
If when the game ends you have discovered the treasure, you gain an additional 2 Victory Points. This can never take this Army’s controlling player’s total Victory Points above 20.
Evil players have their own tricks to call upon too. Among them is the Variags of Khand Army List, which offers the Khandish Fury special rule, which when activated gives friendly Warriors within 3" of a Hero +1 Fight Value for a turn – perfect for a well-timed Charioteer charge!
Variags of Khand:
Khandish Fury
Once per game, at the start of any Fight Phase, you can declare that you are using this ability so long as there is at least one friendly Hero model alive and on the battlefield. If you do, then until the end of the turn friendly Warrior models that are within 3" of a friendly Hero model gain a bonus of +1 to their Fight Value.
While these are complete profiles and lists, there are no plans to release miniatures to use them with – the rules are intended for people who already have these miniatures in their collection.
The road goes ever on for the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game, and there are plenty of exciting things to come. If you have rules questions, you can email the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game team at middle-earthfaq@gwplc.com. They won’t respond directly, but your questions will inform future FAQs and errata.
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