With the shutdown in the UK, Games Workshop has kept the hype train going for all of us stuck at home during the Coronavirus quarantine. While I wouldn’t call the first announcement overly surprising as it has been speculated as the next book to get released, but the Quest of the Ringbearer is officially the next book coming out in MESBG which is really welcome news.
What is this new book? It contains scenarios from the Lord of the Rings movies along with campaign rules (so each scenario will affect a future scenario or characters who take damage will carry that over to the next scenario). While the LOTR scenarios have been core to LOTR SBG and Hobbit SBG and reprinted as one-off scenarios in many places, the campaign way of playing has only taken place in The Journeybook supplements (there was one for each LOTR movie) which are now quite old and not easy to find. I suspect this new version will have a different campaign system then that did as well. What is also cool is that GW is teasing that you can use “alternative” Fellowships like Saruman leading the Fellowship or Haldir instead of Legolas for example. These rules came out in the White Dwarf a long time ago and it is cool to see them be included here in book form. Games Workshop has been doing a good job of updating and more or less replacing older supplements which were popular in MESBG. It used to be difficult to get ahold of some of these supplements but that is no longer an excuse for jumping into the game which is fantastic.
I am excited for this release as when I got into this game, this is ultimately what I wanted to play. It doesn’t get anymore thematic than playing through the Lord of the Rings and my hope is that they redo some sculpts that are only in metal like the original mounted Ringwraiths which are really tough to get the nine you need. A plastic Fellowship would obviously be a strong seller too and very welcome.
That’s not all though! A couple of new characters are getting miniatures as well. The rangers Anborn and Mablung will be released in plastic or resin. Games Workshop didn’t indicate which it will be but they certainly look great and should be easy to paint up well with edge highlighting. I do think the eyes could be tricky on these two as they are so small but that is the only issue I can see with them and they’re excellent sculpts with sharp detail.
As always, I enjoy writing these articles because I like to hear what others think so let me know what you think of these two releases in the comments below. Will either fit into your busy wargaming schedule? I don’t know how I’m going to squeeze it in myself, but I look forward to these all the same and will certainly try my best!
Kuribo's Painting 
As most of my Middle Earth shenanigans take place in the ‘One Ring’ RPG then the miniatures will be more useful than the book. I do want some wood elves and Men of Dale first. Most of my civilians are printed as I bought a whole host of STL’s for that reason.
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Those One Ring books are pretty good. I’ve read through a couple of them and can understand why the system is highly regarded. Those are both cool factions in LOTR. GW’s wood elves are a bit hit or miss as the plastic wood elves are pretty poor by their high standards and the metal ones are what I would recommend instead. There are some pretty good Men of Dale sculpts if you don’t mind shelling out for them. I think they’re a bit pricey because many of the Hobbit minis seem to be more expensive for whatever reason.
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Yeah, I want a few metal ones for any wood elf characters or NPC’s – same for the Men of Dale. Most of my elves end up being ranger miniatures.
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The ranger sculpts are pretty good in MESBG so that makes sense. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before but I would say that the Mirkwood Rangers are definitely among the best elf sculpts GW has made. They would work great as Wood Elf characters as well.
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Ok, I can resist Rohan at war and hobbit stuff, but this book might have to be purchased. This is the first I’m hearing about it, so thanks for the heads up.
I’m gonna have to see what the scenarios are and do some research on it. Might wait till I see some reviews. But I agree, the events around Frodo are the heart of lotr. But these will be hard to write, as Frodo doesn’t really do much except kinda walk along. 😀
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I can totally understand and you’re very welcome 🙂 I’ve heard there are 28 scenarios in the book though that information could be wrong. This book will basically update the “Journeybooks” as they are known which contain scenarios based on each movie. So it will likely have the hobbits escaping the Ringwraiths in the Shire, Weathertop, and near Rivendell, the famous fights in Moria and Amon Hen and then the bigger battles in The Two Towers and Return of the King, I’m pretty sure. It will be epic in scale but should be a lot of fun to play through if you’re willing to undertake the hobby challenge. I probably am and will set aside a decade or however long it takes to play through them all! 😀
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Just a small correction: Anborn and Mablung have never been released before, so they’re not re-released in plastic but are totally new profiles and models. Really cool too, because they are explicitly mentioned in the books and play a role in Frodo and Sam’s story.
I am of course overjoyed with this upcoming supplement and will pre-order it as soon as it’s up for sale.
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Corrected! I was thinking of Madril and Damrod when I said that which is definitely not the case. Thanks for letting me know. I would be disappointed if you weren’t going for the upcoming supplement. Your collection of miniatures and terrain is pretty much built for it! 🙂
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I missed this one – the book looks interesting and I’ll attempt to pick it up (was unable to get the recent Rohan campaign book as well). The ranger models look great as well, but I know the price will be ridiculous given their niche nature and the current state of both GW and MESBG pricing.
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I’ve heard FW prices in Australia are particularly brutal alongside availability which is a shame. Hopefully you’re able to get it at launch (or whenever you’d like buy it). I probably won’t be getting the rangers as they don’t fit into any scenarios I’ll be playing in the near future even if they look pretty nice.
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I get a lot (most, really) of my GW stuff from a friendly UK source. It takes a bit longer, and it’s a little more hassle, but it works out a lot better financially. If I were paying local Aussie prices for everything… well, I wouldn’t be paying OR playing anymore…
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That is good to hear. We don’t have any of those hoops to jump through here in the States though I do know that FW shipping prices are really high. Even with that, I feel for everyone in Australia. It seems frustratingly expensive to live there at times.
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Downside of course is that I can’t get everything.. and even some of the UK prices are highway robbery insanity…
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