In December The War of the Rohirrim hit cinemas. Along with this came an update to the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. If I am honest, two things that will never fail to excite me are an epic miniatures-based board game and Lord of the Rings spin offs. So, I am very much the target audience for this product.
I missed getting on board with Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game when the original movie trilogy released. In 2001 I was a fresh out of university, working to afford driving lessons and little else! When my local gaming store/café ran a Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game trial day, I went along with one of my children and we were both thoroughly hooked.
As a result, The War of the Rohirrim: Battle of Edoras Starter Box was pre-ordered!
At the point where models have now been made and then games played, it is time to give it a review and let you all know what it is like.
Opening the Box
As you open the box, you are greeted with a pile of plastic sprues containing a massive 56 models and two houses. Alongside this, is a hinged 24” ruler to used playing games. Also included, is a hard-backed rulebook containing all the rules for playing the game. There is a box-specific rule booklet containing stat blocks for the miniatures and scenarios that you can use to introduce yourself to the rules. It will also tell you how to build the different miniatures that you get. Finally, you’ll find a large glossy paper play mat to run scenarios on and a summary sheet of key information that you can refer to without flicking through the rulebook.
The Artwork
The cover artwork looks thematic to The War of the Rohirrim theme. The rest of the “artwork” is quite limited.
The majority of imagery used is from the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Movies or photographs of miniatures.
The images of miniatures, especially those included in the game box, can provide a useful guide on colour schemes for painting.
The Miniatures
As a player that remembers buying 2nd Edition Warhammer 40,000, where the amount of customisation you had in building the miniatures included was the angle you could stick the orks’ bolt pistols on, the miniatures in this are amazingly detailed and customisable; the Hill Tribesmen in particular.
The downside, if you wish to see it this way, is that this means the figures take a lot of building; a YouTuber bragging that they built it all in “just 12 hours” gives you an idea of how long it takes.
Wulf High Lord of the Hill Tribes is a really dynamic and striking model that stands out in the set. His horse leaning as it turns and the lord gesturing with his blade really help to make this a great looking centrepiece to the vicious Hilltribe Army. His opposite number Haleth Prince of Rohan sits astride a rearing horse, looking like he is amidst a rousing speech to inspire his men in defending their homes.
A real bonus are the houses that come with the game. These huge pieces of terrain look amazing and make for a fantastic visual during games. A far cry from the card terrain I remember having in boxed games when I was younger.
Playing the Game
The War of the Rohirrim scenario book provided contains a series of four starter battles. These are designed to introduce you to the game and bring in a few extra rules and models each time.3
The first scenario sees the players taking models into combats. This brings in the rule for duels, spear assists and shielding. In a combat each player roles dice equal to the total number of attacks for their model/models in the engagement. Whoever rolls the highest wins that combat. The models on the winning side then get to strike at the enemy as they back off. Strength characteristic is compared to defence to determine the roll needed to cause a wound. Based on my past experiences playing Warhammer, I was amazed that there was no “armour saves” in Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game; armour is accounted for in a model’s defence characteristic and makes wound rolls harder. The Rohan player seems to come out on top in this scenario.
Moving to scenario two we introduce shooting to the game also the idea of holding objectives. The Rohan player has a host of bowmen with which they pour fire onto the Hill Tribesmen. As shots are made, you find out about hit rolls and in the way checks. A successful hit means another check vs defence to see if a wound is caused. Once more the Rohan army seems to walk away with this battle, the bows are just too strong and without Targg’s heroic march to get them up the board more swiftly Hill Tribe numbers are decimated quite quickly.
The third scenario sees heroes introduced more formally. Players are encouraged to use “might” a special statistic for heroes that allows them to increase a dice roll, altering the outcome and helping to turn the game. The impact of might can be huge in the game, far more than you might think. Similarly, in this scenario you discover the difference maker that is a model’s fight score. The fight score only ever comes up in the event that a duel role is a tie, however, the maximum score being limited to 6 (you cannot even might to 7) means that, in a large combat, a hero with a really good fight score often finds things going their way. In this scenario, the Hill Tribesmen find themselves having to set fire to the two houses, this is done by moving up and standing next to them and rolling a 6 (or 5+ if you have a flaming brand). The Hill Tribesmen heavily outnumber Rohan in this encounter and this gives them a huge advantage. Chances are the Rohan models are fought off and unable to protect the buildings from arson attacks!
Finally, the fourth scenario sees the princes of Rohan making their last stand versus the Hill Tribesmen. All rules are now in play so it is time to grab those rulebooks and find out what your characters can do. At last, all heroic actions are available and you see why the word “strategy” is a key element in the game’s name. With Hill Tribes reinforcements roles allowing their lost troops to re-join the battle, they generally have a huge edge in this encounter and the Princes of Rohan have no choice but to try and hold out in a war of attrition.
These few scenarios gave me enough knowledge of the game that next time I visited the local game store/café I could support running games between players. One thing my son noted is that the rule book states that scenarios might be unbalanced to help them unfold in the same way as the movie. For example, the Hill Tribesmen burn the houses in the movie so this is the more likely outcome in the scenarios. This can end up feeling a little unfair, however, the larger rulebook includes sample scenarios to use in matched play that should be more evenly matched.
It is also worth noting that the model by model activating can make games run really long. A 9 vs 11 miniature game I played managed to run to 5 hours! So set aside a chunk of time to play this game to its fullest.
Based on first impressions, I feel like mastering the use of heroic actions could be a huge key to being more successful in games. This opportunity to learn more and improve makes me want to play it more frequently and try out different troop types and strategies.
Final Thoughts
The War of the Rohirrim Battle of Edoras boxset represents a great way to experience Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. It does a brilliant job of guiding you through your first few games, slowly increasing the number of elements of the rules included in the game.
There is quite a sizeable cost to the boxset, however, this is good when compared to the individual costs for the components. The miniatures across both armies would cost £130 and the rulebook £40, so you have already got plenty for the RRP of £140 before you add in those super houses, the scenario book and playmat. However, this boxset is more of an introduction to the game than something that encompasses all you’ll want/need going forward. You will be keen to buy more!
Due to the costs involved, I’d strongly recommend attending a local Warhammer Store or Friendly Local Gaming Shop to try the game out before you make such a large financial commitment. If you decide that getting into Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game is something that you know want to do, this is a super buy containing an awful lot of stuff that you’ll find incredibly useful moving forward in the hobby.
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