Where Does Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game Go Now? 

Crazy how much the hobby is exploding now. Went from like 4 events in scotland per year to almost 20 :D.

Enjoyable listen as always dude - thanks so much for all of the kind words and the shout-outs about Battle Streams and the channel/stream - I'm delighted to have inspired you! :-) I don't have much to add here because you listened to me talk about it for 5 hours last night but, in short, the game's fine; I have no idea what's going on but clearly SOMETHING is going on and I can't wait to see what it is as and when it arrives. In the meantime, I've got 60 Hobbits that I've been trying to paint since 2018 and another year of no releases might well help with that! :-) Keep up the good work - Damian

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree that the game is in a good place for players (solid rules, manageable bloat, models available both through and outside of GW), but I'm not sure GW sees the situation in the same light. The most of the best products for ME:SBG in the last year has come from 3rd party sculptors. I think 2024 is going to be a telling year for the game's tenure with GW. If we don't see some significant releases, it would suggest that GW is getting ready to part ways. If that happens, I hope another company buys the game and molds, so the existing community can continue to get corporate support. If that doesn't happen, I'm confident the game will continue on, just as Mordheim has.

If the War of the Rohirim isn't actually just something I imagined and visually is pretty close to PJ's LotR perhaps GW will just pretend Rings of Power never happened and jump in with new stuff based on the War of the Rohirim

It just restarted in my area as well. Our store hasn't been open three months yet, and we got a group of about six. For a new shop, kinda in the middle between two population areas (So almost literal middle of nowhere :P) I think that's rather impressive. Now, we are just starting with Battle Companies, and the store is happy to let us use 3D printed minis for now, but we have a long way to go in the end ^_^

I’ve spent this entire year painting overseas on my down time. Gondor battlehost box, balrog, the fellowship, durburz, groblog, king Elessar (only the foot model so far), Boromir captain of the white tower (only foot model so far), guards of the fountain court, citadel guards, some army of the dead, and some rangers. I have a whole box of goblins I haven’t painted yet that already got shipped home. I got some friends to play battle companies over here and out of the 8 people who played and bought pieces (myself included) only 1 other decided to continue playing. So now I’m going home with a Mordor battlehost, an Isengard battlehost, a Rohan battlehost, a box of Easterlings and kataphraks. At home I still have the majority of the the Osgiliath box set and another half box of goblins. I’ve got my work cut out for me in 2024. So not getting anything new this year is alright by me.

The last I heard, they'd not previewed anything (other than 'Get Off The Road') as the license means they have to start paying once the preview happens, not when the models go on sale. That said, I can also see the delays with The Old World and New Epic also pushing back MESBG previews and releases. GW really, really wants to get those two new games out, so I imagine most of their effort is being placed there.

I'm expecting a big tie-in with the War of the Rohirrim movie coming out next year. I'm certain that's what they were hinting at during Warhammer fest.

Bottom line, Asmodee via their parent have now got the Tolkien Ents licence. They will want to bring the game in house along the lines of their Star Wars games - they'd be fools not to. This means that GW know their licence is ending soon, so the game has fallen even further down their priority list for releases, and will be ending soon, GW won't put in the investment to generate models which they can't sell in a couple of years time when Asmodee take over. At least that's what I feel is happening and why we have stopped getting releases.

i LOVE the MESBG its my 2nd minis game. after Warmachine. i would LOVE an expansion and reissue of the minis

Looking for places around me, but unfortunately I’m in the Birmingham that isn’t a part of the UK. Any ideas on sbg crews in southeast USA

If you liked what I do and fancy giving me a little donation, a Ko-Fi is always welcome ko-fi.com/becauseofdragons

You could always go somewhere else. Middle Earth is a huge place. All the old ICE MERP/Rolemaster campaigns books are available online if you search a about

Khazad dum Quest!

I love the LotR-franchise, but the one faction I am only interested in collecting is Rivendell. But all these miniatures are so old and they do show. For me that prevents me from starting and I am not interested in third party providers that offer miniatures you could use instead. I want pretty GW-Rivendell plastic miniatures.

I'm new , with experience in 40k and bolt action , I was going to play age of sigmar. But I'm LOTR guy first , Star wars second. Middle earth SBG has me Hooked from the IP alone. I will also be making a Star wars legion army after

In my opinion there should be a council of 5 ppl representing the main communities in the world and every calendar year they get together and make small points changes to the game and maybe add some fresh units to small factions. It would breath a whole lot of new life into the game and roster construction. I've seen it done in another miniature game very effectively. Can't be waiting around for GW to release another thing or overturned LL or whatever they decide.

Hopfully they would not waste resources on the rings of power. If we get second age stuff lets go for books.

So the main issue with the game comes from the fact all these things appeared 14 months ago. The game has yet to see any new profiles or books added. While i agree rule wise the game is at a nice spot. There are multiple factions that are simply unplayable either competitively, or lack of sculpts or unavailable all together (arnor, umbar). The Aus scene is very much alive and kicking but i am already seeing players get bored with the same popular lists being at the top tables playing with sculpts that are older than the players themselves. Was a firm believer that this year was going to be the Arnor and Quest for Erebor year, and you nailed all the reasons for that not being the case. I just hope once TOW and Epic are out and about we finally get a big drop (not rohan related for the love of god please!)

Pls no second age …. Rework the old minis pls….

The sad thing is that many of the minis are so old and tired, there are plenty of other new games systems and minis out there that many will be attracted to. Living in Australia GW has always been very expensive and the availability of many models is very sketchy. I think with Asmodee on the scene, Gw will not do anything new, and i think if people want to pick up ant terrain pieces or minis , they shouldnt put this off too long.

Los Angeles is rebooting MESBG

BEN, please do not swear, do NOT swear. I never want to here you use that swear word "finecast" again. 🤣

I get why people didn't like the show, but rings of power models, if done well, would be cool to see

the game is not receiving much attention by gw and it is better off without it by a long shot!

Tournaments are alive and well,.but narrative style games are pretty much dead

The sculpts are just so baaaaad

If you graphed yearly releases of NEW models, it would look really dire. The Osgiliath and battle hosts stuff didn't add anything new. Erase it from existence and we would be in the same situation

I find in australia it seems overpriced and less for value and to me and my understanding it feels like the game is dying due to GW not adknowledging 3D printing as a competition, but for 3D printing I can buy for 35 AUD , more than 24 warriors & be diverse in my 50c per model I could even get rivendell knock off riders or 1000 riders of Rohan. So for me 3D printing is cheaper in these cost of living crisis & if people are creative enough one could make “Thengel, Fengel, & Elendil mounted , maybe an Anárion foot and mounted model , and Plastic Nümenoreans & Arnor warriors and make a Mumak cheap as chips. To me it feels like their not ecploiting opportunities that are available to GW , instead we get a diorama , its table top gaming not painting scenery ….. it almost feels insulting , that they allude to new models & we get one diarama 🤷🏼‍♂🤷🏼‍♂ seems a little cheap , where so many Ideas and history of Arda could be drawn out , even if a few games have Fengel , Thengel , Theoden as heroes of Rohan in a 800 point game , maybe more warriors or dynamic poses

Why do you do your video in that aspect ratio and then have bar at top and bottom, looks terrible!