Top 10 Ranking: Middle Earth SBG Supplements

Hey Reader!

In a continuation of our Top 10 series, we're looking today at...all of the supplements for the recent edition of the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game! I'd been holding out hope for an actual Top 10 (as we don't have 10 supplements - but more on that below), but since this is the twilight of the old edition, maybe now is a great time to rank them, as we have the complete list now.

Our ranking is going to gauge the quality of the supplements in five categories, designed to reward the various aspects of these disparate books. First, we're looking at the epic factor of the campaign: how cool/vast/epic is the scenario lineup in the book? Unsurprisingly, if your supplement includes an attack on Minas Tirith, Helm's Deep, Balin's Tomb, or assaults on one or more capitol cities, those books will get higher scores in this category than, say, smaller skirmishes in less visible conflicts.

Second, we look at cost: how much money does it cost to buy the book and all the models you need to play through the campaign. So supplements that involve smaller numbers of models, smaller numbers of Forgeworld/metal models, and require less specialized/out of production kits, will score higher than, say, supplements that require you to buy 2-3 Mumakil and/or a dozen Forgeworld resin heroes, for example.

Third, we rate the content in the book for balance: are the scenarios written in such a way that the scenarios are lopsided (either always to one side or the other, or just lopsided back and forth between the Good/Evil forces)? Are the legendary legions imbalanced, and likely to be FAQed? Having powerful legendary legions doesn't necessarily grant a lower score, but a book with legendary legions that are likely to be changed alongside scenarios that may not be fun to play due to too many uphill battles, will rank lower in this category than a book that shows signs of heavy testing and evenness in its design and execution.

Fourth, we rate the scenarios for variety: are most of the scenarios just a mix of "kill things or get units off the board," or do they include interesting/unique scenario objectives? Do they do anything interesting with forces, deployment, and/or scenario special rules? The more variety there is in the campaign, the higher the score.

And finally, we look at new options: how many new profiles, legendary legions, terrain kits, and/or ways to play the game (really only applicable with Fantasy Fellowships in Quest of the Ringbearer, but we did want to reward that supplement for creating a very interesting new way to play the game!) are in the supplement? Some supplements are heavier or lighter on material (guided by the content in the book), so supplements with more "goodies" will rate higher than ones with less.

So with that, let's take a look at the books we've come to love over the past decade!

#10: Wistful Thoughts: The There and Back Again Supplement

Do you remember the supplement that was basically Quest of the Ringbearer but with Thorin's Company? Do you remember how we got a revamped version of Fantasy Fellowships called Creative Companies that allowed you to switch out everyone for other heroes with small restrictions?

Oh, and remember how hard it was to fight The Trolls with all of your guys basically being unarmed, and how we had to escape the wargs on an open plain, only to be rescued by Elrond (what a king but still such a bro - love that guy). And then how we got the map (reroll priority in the mini-game where you enter Erebor without waking Smaug), and how they had those cool hidden rules for the goblins ambushing us in their caves, and the cool missions that involved a metric ton of running for 5" models?

And then how it moved into convincing Beorn not to kill us, and trying to quietly sneak through the Halls of Thranduil, and reclaiming Erebor from Smaug and then keeping it from Azog?

I don't remember it either, because it never came out, but boy howdy that would be so much fun. So if Jay, Rob, or anyone on the team is reading this, we'd be glad to help!

#9: Wistful Thoughts: The Durin's Folk Supplement

Adam Troke did a great
job on this book!

We only got one dwarf supplement this edition (Defense of the North) and it was splitting time with Dale and pointy-eared princes the whole way through (not to mention evil men, orcs, and arachnids - Part 1 of 3 is the only part with dwarves in it). But based on the old Khazad-Dum supplement from yesteryears by Adam Troke, we imagined the new supplement tied to Durin's Folk.

We start off with a really flavorful scenario where you have any eight dwarf models you want (because all that matters is their 5" movement), and they spend the mission trying to hide in Aule's forge from Yavanna (who uses the base template of an ent or balrog, so take your pick as to which model you use: it's the same to the dwarves), and you're trying to avoid being found by her. It's a lark, it's a hoot, and either way she doesn't destroy them because her husband's a pretty cool dude. But man, wouldn't that mission have been great?

Then we'd go into the beginning of the dwarf kingdoms: the Misty Mountains, the Grey Mountains, the Blue Mountains, and how the various kingdoms form, uprooting goblins and foul creatures in the dark places of the world. We encounter a drake lair (with baby drakes - remember those from the set! We give them stats like Fearless with F2 S3 with 2 attacks each or something adorable like that), a dragon, orc assaults from Gundabad, orc assaults from the period of the Kingdom of Angmar, and the dangerous forces of Dol Goldur, helping to meld the Hobbit/LotR eras together, as Durin's Folk face constant challenges in both eras and more.

Then it would climax with the twilight days of these kingdoms: Azog (Book Azog, but also technically beginning of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Azog) taking Khazad-Dum, the dwarves failing to reclaim it, the fall of Erebor to Smaug, the reclamation of Erebor from Smaug (skip over Battle of Five Armies because of the There and Back Again supplement - no need to cover the same ground, but you could copy-paste this back again), the assault on Erebor by the Dragon Emperor, and a final mission to close us out with Gimli setting up his kingdom in the Glittering Caves of Helm's Deep (and driving out the local Bat Swarms that have taken up residence in it that Erkenbrand couldn't get rid of because the Shoot Value on your average Warrior of Rohan is dumpster fodder).

Man that was a great dream - never came out, but if Jay, Rob, and the rest of the team are reading this article: we would be glad to help you all with it (boy, do we have ideas!) - and we'll do it for free! :P

#8: Wistful Thoughts: The Last Alliance Supplement

Do you know why Gandalf talks about "the great battle of our time"? Because there was another great battle against the forces of Sauron, and that battle happened before all of that: the battles between the Last Alliance of Men and Elves (and also dwarves, by the way - they don't get enough credit, but they did actually help back in those days) and the forces of Mordor.

Oh so many good scenes: the big fight at Dagorlad that leads to the dead men that Frodo encounters later, and the death of Anarion near Barad-Dur, the deaths of Elendil and Gil-Galad on the slopes of Mount Doom, the fall of Sauron, and of course the pivotal final mini-game where Elrond is trying to convince Isildur to cast the ring into the fire! So much tension, so much epic all the time!

...Yeah I suspect that one was on the table to be produced (they did put the time into new elf hero sculpts, and made a point of noting the Second Age armor of the herald of Elrond, so I feel like that kind of book is slated to come someday), but man, would I love to see that book. 

Anywho - now that we've gotten some wistful thoughts out for the future (and provided a thumbnail that doesn't spoil last place - the actual reason for doing these three, not to mention getting us up to 10), let's take a look at the books that actually did arrive this edition.

#7: Fall of the Necromancer

Cool cover, to be fair

If you've purchased all of the supplements, it will probably not surprise you that I ranked this one last. It was the lowest rated supplement by a long shot (18/50), and that didn't surprise me, as it's thinner than the other supplements, costed more than Scouring of the Shire, and thus in general has less content than the other supplements did.

It had a decent score in the Epic Scale category, as the overthrow of the Necromancer and the capture and rescue of Gandalf are really cool scenes. But this is the highlight in the matrix, and it's not nearly as high as most of the other supplements (beat Scouring of the Shire, but the others were all on-par or better).

What primarily holds back the book is the scenarios: this book contains some of the most imbalanced scenarios in the game, and it is probably the least varied of all the supplements. This is perhaps not as surprising considering how early it was released in the lineup, but still: not great scores in this regard.

And with only 4 new legendary legions (6th out of the 7 supplement for most legions), 1 new terrain kit (Dol Goldur), and 0 new unit profiles, it didn't surprise me that this one came in last, as it shot itself in a whole category purely by lack of new material.

It has a lot of cool new stuff: the legendary legion for the White Council fixes a number of the common issues with all-hero armies, and the Pits of Dol Goldur legendary legion has some really powerful special rules (that aren't very overpowered: great design here). But in so many categories it just falls short, so it takes last place.

#6: Defence of the North

Oh look, a dwarf!

It hurts me to put Defence of the North here, because I love this supplement: so many cool new ideas, concepts, and epic moments being covered here. Plus it gave some love to elves and dwarves, who were marginalized for most of the edition.

And it has many things going for it: lots of epic moments (four kingdoms are on the verge of falling in this supplement alone!), and there are 21 new things in this supplement (including the ability to run Beorn in a real army all his own, not just an add-on to Radagast!), so it didn't surprise me that this book scored well (29/50).

What holds it back is the scenario design and execution: A lot (and I mean 75% of 22 scenarios) are purely, "Slay models" or "Get models off the board edge" for objectives, and a similar percentage of the scenarios borrow their special rules from one of the legendary legions. So there's a lot of overlap and lack of variety, even though it's really three campaigns in one.

It also hurts its score in the cost department: you have a number of Forgeworld kits (including ranks of Iron Hills Warriors and Mirkwood troops of various kinds, which stacks up quickly), including some of the most expensive kits in the Middle Earth range, along with large numbers of various infantry (yay for 3 campaigns in one supplement). So while I think the new content in the book is solid (Easterlings finally became a competitive army, Beornings became a thing, and the Assault on Lothlorien list became so good that - unsurprisingly - it had to be nerfed down to keep it from being too strong), it doesn't surprise me that it comes in 6th.

#5: Quest of the Ringbearer

Solid book all around

This one also hurts to put this low, because it not only has the most integral scenes from the original movie trilogy in it, but it also has Fantasy Fellowships, which makes campaign scenarios near infinitely replayable, which is crazy good. And it scored well (30/50), but got held back for several reasons, some of which it can't help.

Let's start with the biggest hurdle: cost. You have to buy 2 Mumakil, a lot of troops from a lot of armies, several Forgeworld-only models, and (what causes the price to spiral) a lot of them are only used once (Balrog appears in one mission, Mumaks appear in one mission, etc.). So it's a lot of expense because you're not reusing models like you do for other supplements.

Beyond this there are some issues but nothing that pushes it to a horrible score in any given category; there are only 4 new profiles, 6 new legendary legions, 1-2 new scenery pieces (if you include Amon Hen, which came out after the supplement was released and isn't mentioned directly in it, but we'll count it), and Fantasy Fellowships, so it's light on new content.

But on the whole it does really well: some of the best designed scenarios in the edition, lots of variety in objectives (that Old Forest mission! That's one for the books when it comes to creativity, though admittedly it can suffer from balance issues if you're not careful), and of course you've got many epic moments ranging from facing down barrow wights, defending Balin's Tomb, escaping through Osgiliath (probably one of my top five scenarios ever: just so well done), bringing the Ring to Mount Doom, and everything in between. Just a wonderful supplement on the whole, that scores around the middle of the pack (if not above-average) in basically every category except cost.

#4: Rise of Angmar

Twilight supplement
naturally has wraiths

Narrowly beating out Quest of the Ringbearer (32/50) we have Rise of Angmar. It didn't surprise me that it would place high, as it's chock full of new profiles and legions (one of the highest counts for new material out of all of the books), and with the fall of Arnor several times plus the counterattack from Earnur (plus appendices containing even more glorious moments and the world's greatest troll), it didn't surprise me that the final supplement to be released would perform well. Lots of lessons learned over years of making supplements.

That being said, there are a few things that hold it back. The need to purchase so many Forgeworld kits, along with collections of metal models (the price for the Arnor/Ranger models alone outweighed the cost of the entire Scouring of the Shire supplement, just to give you an idea of scale when it comes to cost - and then there's all the Evil models to buy), makes the supplement quite expensive to play, though there is more overlap in models than you'll find in Quest. 

What is more, while the balance is decent in the scenarios, they do show a general lack of variety (why isn't the Great Plague scenario played like the Old Forest scenario? Why does it involved orcs and stuff fighting against Arnor guys? I feel like this was a place where some extra flavor could have been injected, but instead we got another "Slay them" mission), and that holds back its final score.

But on the whole this supplement is excellent: with scores that ranged from 4-10, there was no "low score" anywhere in this book, and that's a good sign about its quality.

#3: Scouring of the Shire

Still my favorite after
all these years

Probably a shock to most people (who haven't played through this supplement), but Scouring of the Shire (which is my personal favorite supplement) won the bronze medal. It's true: it has the lowest score for epic scale, because even though it's a very pivotal moment for the main characters of the story, let's be honest: The Battle of Bywater holds nothing to the major engagements in the other books, let alone the rest of the scenarios in the supplement.

That being said, Scouring pulled out an impressive third place finish (36/50) by performing admirably in all the other categories. With by far the lowest cost (yay for using mostly the same 30ish metal models for like 80% of the campaign, I'm not even kidding), incredibly diverse missions, and incredible game balance for the vast majority of the scenarios (which admittedly is easier to do when you only have 4 warrior profiles in the entire campaign supporting a bit more than a dozen heroes), the overall quality of the supplement is on full display. There's even a mission where both players are playing hobbits against each other, and it totally makes sense! Incredibly well designed all around, 10/10, highly recommend.

And while we didn't rank this per se, the fact that it thoroughly fleshed out two armies that were very small and hard to use before the supplement came out, plus giving them legendary legions that they could use in competitive environments, is all good news. So while it finishes behind supplements like Gondor at War and War in Rohan (which are deservedly at the top of this ranking), it's a strong finish for the shirelings and the ruffians.

#2: Gondor at War

The first, the OG, and
still among the best

This one was a nail-biter, decided by 1 point, but in the final assessment Gondor at War finishes in second place (37/50). This supplement is unmatched for epic scale: as great as Helm's Deep is, there's just so much going on in Gondor at War, and all of it is top-tier stuff. Personally I'm not a huge fan of the card-based mini-games, but eh, it's whatever. The rest of the scenarios are great, with a good spread of variety across the whole (and rather impressive considering it was the first supplement that was launched).

And while people are right to clamor about there being no Defenders of Minas Tirith legendary legion, there's no doubt that 1) the legions in this book were dominant (it boasts the way to play Rohan in the edition, a powerful way to play the ranger side of Minas Tirith even after the nerf, and while Grand Army of the South might not be one that you see all the time in tournament play, when it comes up you had better have a plan or that game can go south fast), 2) tons of new models and options (with 23 new things, it came out on top above all other supplements), and 3) all around it is a solid book in almost every category.

Sure, cost held it back (the issue with needing 3 Mumaks and a lot of troops from several armies), but honestly you expect that when you're going for the highest score in the epic scale category. So if you haven't picked up Gondor at War yet, you should consider giving it a look, because the content on the whole is very good (even if it's for the former edition).

#1: War in Rohan

I remember when it
dropped: still awesome
to this day

And coming in at first place is War in Rohan (38/50): yet another supplement where cost was an issue, but not as much of an issue as you'd expect, thanks to the third party market having easy access to Rohan and Isengard models, especially post-Battlehosts. The heroes can be expensive, as there are a lot of them that are used in the campaign, but the troops aspect is very cheap.

Scenario design and execution is also very good: lots of different scenarios with different special rules, making them feel very different from each other. And with War in Rohan giving us both 20 new things to use (not even including the siege rules that you can use for siege games, so technically could be more than that) and epic moments spanning the history of Rohan from Day 1 under Eorl the Young to the ending of the Third Age, there's non-stop fun going on in this book.

So while it was a close run, I think the veterancy of the writing team in designing this book comes through as the horse lords barely outpace the sons of Numenor in taking the crown.

Conclusion

A new edition being upon us begs the question what new supplements we'll see, and naturally we'll do a follow-up review once we, you know, actually have ten to do, but since we're closing out an edition I wanted to do a final send-off to the books that have kept me company over this part of the journey. If you haven't played narrative scenario play, you should give it a look: there's a lot of interesting stuff in here that could reinvigorate your love for the hobby and give you epic moments with your friends. So if any of these have sparked your interest, give them a look!

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"Centaurs are concerned with what has been foretold!  It is not our business to run around like donkeys after stray humans in our forest!" ~ Bane, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone