Games Workshop has a lot of plates to spin. Its two largest plates, full to the brim with roast dinners and gravy threatening to drip down the sides, contain the meat and potatoes of Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar. Smaller plates needing less attention orbit around them, containing specialist games like Blood Bowl, Legions Imperialis, and Kill Team.

Occasionally it all gets too much, and Games Workshop purposefully lets one of its plates fall. If players aren’t tucking into whatever meal lies sumptuously on its surface, there’s no need to expend the energy in spinning it (which makes for a weird dining experience, but go with the metaphor). Rarer still, the company picks up the shards from the floor, glues them all together, and gives it a new lick of tinted varnish before throwing it back in the kiln, ready to be spun again. If this has got a bit much for you, that plate represents Warhammer: The Old World.

The plate that holds Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game (MESBG) is teetering dangerously. The game that practically saved the company in the early ‘00s has now languished without support for years, and Workshop seems to have condemned it to meagre releases of ornamental models or gimmick materials.

To make matters worse, both of these releases were limited. The translucent Army of the Dead were only available via Made to Order, and the ‘Get Off The Road!’ diorama is currently only available at Warhammer World itself after a brief MtO period.

The best MESBG release this year was an Age of Sigmar model in disguise

Other than those two, there were just two releases for the game last year. Faramir, Madril and Damrod, Rangers of Ithilien released in March, alongside Gothmog, Lieutenant of Sauron. They’re all nice models, but it’s hardly groundbreaking stuff. There was no equivalent to the Rohirrim army box that accompanied Theoden’s new model, and nothing in terms of rules updates or new scenarios. There was another Made to Order re-release of out-of-production Two Towers models – Rohan and Uruk-Hai – back in January, and a bunch of terrain in April, but nothing else.

Players have been hoping for an Arnor refresh (which, seeing as it doesn’t appear in the films, might be a stretch), new characters for the Battle of the Last Alliance, which seems much more reasonable, or simply anything to show that the company still cares about spinning this plate.

MESBG has a strong core playerbase, and the Great British Hobbit League is a thriving, and fun, tournament scene. There’s even a fan-made magazine with excellent production quality, all created in spite of Games Workshop’s lackadaisical attitude to supporting the system. These fans are committed to the fantastic skirmish game – widely known as one of the best rulesets Workshop has ever produced – and deserve to be shown some love.

The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King Aragorn and Arwen Wedding

The biggest insult to MESBG in 2023, however, was the ambivalence Games Workshop showed towards the 20th anniversary of The Return of the King film. The film that won 11 Oscars, the film that capped off the best fantasy movies ever made, the film that helped Games Workshop reach the next level through its licensed models, was ignored completely.

Workshop didn’t do a lot for The Two Towers anniversary either, but it did showcase two epic dioramas made by fans. There was also the aforementioned Made to Order featuring heroes and villains from the film released a month after the anniversary, so perhaps Return of the King will get a similar treatment later this month.

Even if this potential rerelease arrives, it’s still not enough reverence for Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game. I’m not suggesting that it should get releases on the scale of 40K or AoS, but it should at least receive as much love as the likes of Blood Bowl (a game I enjoy deeply).

2023 was a busy year for specialist games, with Legions Imperialis releasing and The Old World being heavily marketed and developed, so it’s natural for others to take a backseat. But in that year of all years, The Lord of the Rings needed something to keep its plate spinning. And that something would preferably be released with a healthy serving of respect.

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