This weekend, Games Workshop has a slew of exciting new releases up for preorder for their long-running Lord of the Rings licensed miniature wargame: Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game. We got a chance to check out the Rohan Battlehost, a ready-made fighting force designed to get players into the game quickly. Read on for our thoughts on the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game Rohan Battlehost army set from Games Workshop, as well as a quick look at the other Battlehosts and Middle-earth Strategy Battlegame releases up for preorder this weekend.

Included in the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game Rohan Battlehost is all the miniatures you need to start a force and begin your grand adventure. To start, the set contains the force's leader, Éomer, who has two models - one mounted and one on foot. In MeSBG, warriors on horseback are often knocked off of their horses, and are then represented (should they survive the attack) as a miniature on foot.

The Battlehost also includes 24 Warriors of Rohan, who come with a variety of weapons including swords, spears, and battle-axes. And then there are six Riders of Rohan, horseback warriors who can hurl spears and then close in fast to charge their enemies.

Though the Rohan Battlehost doesn't contain any of the rules necessary to field them, the rules for each of the four upcoming Battlehosts, and quick-start rules to play the game, have just been posted for free on the Warhammer Community website. You will also need your own measuring tape and dice (the game uses standard d6 dice).

Building the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game Rohan Battlehost is a much simpler process than other models we've seen from the MeSBG and the wider catalogue of Games Workshop model sets. Though they do come unassembled and unpainted, so you will still need plastic clippers to snip the models from their sprues, and plastic glue to glue them together (and to their bases). For the on-foot Rohan soldiers, those come in one single piece on their sprue, and only need their shields glued to their arms. The horseback soldiers and Éomer have a few more pieces to them, but they were really rather easy to put together. The photos you see throughout this review that feature gray miniatures are the miniatures we received, which we were able to build in one sitting (taking about 1.5 hours max). 

This set has everything you need to start an army in Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game, though as mentioned above not everything you need to jump directly into the hobby. This is, however, a fantastic assortment of Rohan miniatures for anyone interested in the game, and their ease of assembly makes this an alluring introductory product. As we'll briefly cover below, there's a new Starter Set due to release this winter, which may be an easier entry point for complete newcomers to the hobby in general, but if you've collected, built, and played other wargames, this box set is a great way to jump in.

Perhaps inspired by the release of the new Amazon Lord of the Rings show (though not featuring characters, models, settings, or anything related to that IP), Games Workshop has put renewed effort behind supporting Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game in a wide-reaching way. I'm thrilled to see this, as I'm a huge fan of the game, and they've been diligent about releasing cool new models like the Dragon Emperor in resin via Forge World, but we haven't seen a lot of support lately for brand new players hoping to jump in until now!

The Rohan Battlehost we just spoke about isn't the only Battlehost up for pre-order, there's also a new Battlehost for Minas Tirith (featuring Gandalf and Pippin), one for Mordor (featuring the Witch-king), and one for Isengard (featuring Saruman and Wormtongue). Though we haven't dove too deeply into these other Battlehosts, they all seem well-balanced to fight against one another, meaning you and a pal could each grab a Battlehost and be ready to fight shortly thereafter.

And then just look at this beauty! This is a new box set coming out this holiday season (with a special preorder window opening from the 10th of September until 8am BST on the 26th of September, with shipments scheduled to arrive before Christmas). As the press release states, this set "...contains 54 miniatures, including stunning new sculpts for Faramir, Madril, Damrod, Gothmog, and Gothmog on Warg. Accompanying these heroes are 12 Warriors of Minas Tirith, 12 Rangers of Gondor, 24 Morannon Orcs, and a Mordor Troll... two sets of Gondor Ruins for you to create your own Osgiliath battlefield... [and] ...an updated rules manual, a booklet containing the game profiles for the miniatures and scenarios, dice, and a range ruler, giving you everything you need to start playing."

We'll keep you updated on all of these upcoming releases aimed at getting new players up to speed with Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game.

The copy of Rohan Battlehost used in the creation of this review was provided by Games Workshop.

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