We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game: 20th Anniversary of Fellowship of the Rings

On the eve of the 20th anniversary of The Fellowship of the Ring, it seems hard to believe there was ever a time when we didn’t have the great Lord of the Rings trilogy and have such a perfectly rendered vision of the wondrous place of Middle Earth. It is, in my estimation, the best adaptation of a fantasy novel ever put to screen, and I question whether we’ll ever see the likes of it again. It was the perfect confluence of the right director with the right cast with the right studio providing the right budget, with a cutting edge visual effects team, and with the same artists and consultants who knew Tolkien and worked with him personally. I doubt the same movies could be made again today. I think The Hobbit trilogy showed us how difficult it is to catch that lightning in a bottle.

Seeing The Fellowship of the Ring in Theaters

I went to see The Fellowship of the Ring at a theater that my brother-in-law managed, and, because he managed it, we got to go in and see it the day before it released in a theater that was empty except for a handful of people including me, my wife, my brother and his wife, and my dad.

To say we were blown away by The Fellowship of the Ring is too mild a sentiment, but it’s hard to put into words what it was like. I was born into a Tolkien-loving family. My dad read The Hobbit to us when we were eight and nine, and he read Lord of the Rings when we were eleven and twelve. I was not a reader as a kid–despite growing up to become a writer–and those books held a precious (get it?) place in my heart.

I remember the first time that anyone saw a clip of the movie was a scene with the Fellowship walking along the crest of a hill beside some ruins–it’s in the movie, but I don’t think the movie or books ever say what those ruins are. The clip is the perfect introduction, showing us in order the members of The Fellowship as they’re leaving Rivendell. Few people knew any of the actors from the movie–I knew Liv Tyler from Empire Records and John Rhys Davies from Indiana Jones, and I had a vague idea who Ian McKellen and Sean Bean were–but when we saw them in those first few seconds everyone knew they were the perfect fit. Ian McKellen WAS Gandalf. Elijah Wood WAS Frodo. Sean Astin–who I only knew as Rudy–was instantly and forever the only person who could possibly be Samwise.

So imagine my delight when the wargame company that I knew the best, Games Workshop, got the license to make the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game–the official wargame of Lord of the Rings.

Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game

The Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game started, for me, as a very skirmish-level game, usually played with no more than two or three heroes and maybe ten bad guys. This was because, first, there wasn’t a wide range upon release, but second, because I just could afford many models. But I did save up my money and get the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game Fellowship set: the nine. Gandalf, Aragorn, Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippen, Legolas, Gimli, and Boromir.

The set of models for the Fellowship has changed over the years. (In the twenty years since Fellowship of the Ring, Games Workshop’s models have got exponentially better.) But this is the current set, and it’s fantastic. (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games)

But, when it came to the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, and it came to models from Games Workshop, I wasn’t nearly as interested in the heroes as I was in the villains. And I didn’t want Orcs. I wanted the Nine. The Ring Wraiths. And, the one that I wanted more than any other was The Balrog.

The Balrog was such a good model, a real innovation at the time. The way that the lava broke through his blackened skin is something that has been copied a million times since then, but when this model first dropping in White Dwarf it was something entirely new and magnificent. (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games)

A couple years ago I actually got a second Balrog model to make a book nook for an author friend of mine, J. Scott Savage. I made the “You Shall Not Pass” scene from the Bridge of Khazad-Dum, painting the Balrog and Gandalf. You can watch the entire video. (I was new to making YouTube videos when this was done, so forgive the fact that sometimes the camera is upside down.)

Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game: The Two Towers and Return of the King

But when I was reading the Lord of the Rings with my dad there were two things that I remember best. Recall that I was only twelve years old at the time, and there’s a lot of the Lord of the Rings that is a little dry to get through, especially if you’re a kid being read to at bedtime when you’re trying not to fall asleep. But I remembered Helm’s Deep clearly.

In fact, the entirety of The Two Towers is the clearest of the three books, in my mind. I loved Rohan. I instantly fell in love with Eowyn, my first literary crush. (I continued to be in love with Miranda Otto in the movies.) (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games) I loved to hate Saruman and especially Wormtongue. (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games)  I adored Treebeard. (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games) Eomer was the hero. (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games) And Gandalf coming back? That was perfection. (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games)

I have long dreamed of realizing Helm’s Deep as a terrain piece for the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. I would love to build it–if it weren’t so BIG and if I had a place to put it. But with this models you can imagine if it were happening there.

But the second thing that I remember clearly from reading the books with my dad was The Battle of Pellinore Fields, which is why I am so happy that this is the current starter set for the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games) The Battle of the Pellinore Fields had everything I wanted: siege warfare (I loved castles–still do), orcs, trolls, the charge of the Rohirrim, the army of the dead, and the Oliphaunts (or the Mumaks of Harad as I eventually learned they were called. I always used the Hobbit word Oliphaunt.) (Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games)

Lord of the Rings Miniatures Gifts for My Dad

Over the years I have made my dad several gifts of miniatures. I’m not sure if he collects miniatures on his desk because he loves miniatures (he does) or if he collects miniatures on his desk because I started giving them to him (I do a lot).

As I’ve already written about on this site, this week for Christmas I am giving my dad a fully painted and assembled Mumak of Harad, the model I am most proud of painting, ever in my whole life. This thing is seriously my favorite thing, and I am grateful that my dad has a big desk where he can place this. It’s pretty gargantuan.

But a couple years ago I made a different gift for my dad, another book nook. This was my first attempt at a book nook, and I knew I wanted to make one from the Lord of the Rings so I contemplated my options: what would make a good nook–something narrow, underground, dark. I thought of Bilbo and Gollum and that could have worked. I thought of the Balrog (and, as mentioned, I eventually did that one). I thought of the caverns of Isengard, and that’s where I really wanted to go initially. But then I came upon the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game’s Dead of Dunharrow, and knew I had to make a city of the dead.

Thanks for going down memory lane with me. This week is Christmas, and every Christmas vacation my family watches all of the Lord of the Rings movies–the extended editions, of course–back to back. So we have that to look forward to. I’m not sure which models I’m going to be picking up next. My twelve year old son, who is a replica of me when I was twelve, asked for Thorin’s Company from The Hobbit, so that’s wrapped up under the tree for him.

What are your thoughts? Do you play the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game? What’s your favorite models?