Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game Battle Companies

Perhaps the best discovery in recent times to play games with, as even Noshi picked up an intrest.

Battle Companies is the skirmish ruleset for games set in the world of Tolkien, and it has a minimal entry level to be able to be played.

Note: You WILL need the basic Rulebook (which frankly can be of any edition, as there are no edition specific additional rules in this one) and the Army books for the stats and gear (which actually can be of any edition as well, as long as you agree with your opponent).

Every player selects a warband (with a few additional ones having appeared in White Dwarf, about every faction has been covered), whom usually range between 4 to 10 figures each.

This small force can grow and get more experience (or suffer casualties!) through the various scenarios you play.  Basically, Mordheim in Middle Earth... which is a good thing.

Now, the nature of the MESBG rules make these little skirmishes games that last about an hour, but require some serious thinking.  Unlike the other GW systems, a mob alpha strike on a hero can turn out very sour... for the mob.  Remember that Tolkien's works where all about the greatness of heroes, and the rules really reflect this well.

After building and then selecting your warband, it is time to play as there are 12 standard scenarios in the book, all to be played on 4x4 tables.  Ranging from looting camps to holding off trolls, they are nice and varied it seems.

And then we come to the "extra" stuff to make your games more intresting.  The first being the way you can have scenery influence your games, depending where in the extensive world of Middle Earth your adventures play out.

It also features a large narrative campaign for the (Good side) player to go through.  Despair not, for the evil players a similar one has appeared in White Dwarf as well if you want to play this sort of narrative stories.

The final pages of the book are reserved for an army showcase, as well as rules to incorporate your brave little warband into larger games of MESBG.

A nice little book, but one will need to do a search on the GW store to find it, because it is not listed "basically" anymore on there.

But if you want to get into MESBG as fast as possible, and learn the rules with only a handfull of models so it stays oversightful, this is the book for you to add to your basic rulebooks collection.

And now to go paint Elves for Noshi...