Battle Companies, despite its flaws, is my favorite way to play MESBG. I absolutely love narrative campaign skirmish games. My current nerdlife dream would be to play in a long term campaign that combined elements of map based wargaing, grand tactical scale miniatures, MESBG sized battles, and Battle Companies type narrative campaigns. Overly complex and ambitious, I'm sure. But it could be very much the LOTR version of the old Mighty Empires game.

The community version which has a full pdf is much better balanced and is still continued to be updated unlike the original

Yes certainly! Have a campaign going at the local GW store with some friends and also a separate campaign on the go at home with my boys (8 & 10). The kids are some tough competition! My 10 year old is using Goblin Town and is thrashing my Iron Hills Dwarves at the moment (have enough enough models and you will roll some 6s).

Really enjoyed this as always Ben. I've always loved the idea of Battle Companies but never been able to explore it as I'd like. I did a four game series on the GBHL back in the day but that was all filmed in a day so felt really quick and didn't allow for any of the cool modelling opportunities you allude to. I actually took part in Dewi's Battle Companies challenge last March and went all in in getting a company converted up and painted, I was really enjoying it but only got as far as finishing 10/14 models so it's been on indefinite hiatus since then. I'm planning on finishing it this March/April - only a year late - and really looking forward to finally showing off the models! We've also gone back and forth with doing Battle Companies in SBG Mag for years now but never quite found a way to make it work. It wouldn't work as a series as we only publish once or twice a year so it would just take forever to get anywhere so we have even sketched out how we could do a full 48 page BC special but even that would be tight for the space we would need - ah well, maybe something in the future. Ultimately I just don't have the time for the kind of regular casual gaming that BC needs and so it remains an exciting and appealing part of the game that's tantalisingly out of reach for me sadly - Damian

Cool video! Looking out for the first batrep.

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Sounds great, would be good to see a Batrep.

I loved when my gaming group ran a Battle Companies campaign, even though we historically fail at campaigns, and annoyingly the campaign did end up failing, with the two people who were responsible for running it, caught real lives and had to stop. As much as I love the system, it's not actually a good way for new people to get into Lord of the Rings, the randomness of the reinforcements, and the lack of model availability even to purchase. I had a nightmare time trying to find Wood Elf Sentiels when I rolled two of them for my company. I did end up finding four on ebay, for an exorbitant cost.

Hi Ben, not played it but will certainly give it another look, thank you 🥳👍

so this is becoming one of my favorites especially since I play necromunda the most

I realy enjoy Warcry and thought this might be an option to get into LotR Strategy game. But I looked the battle companies book up and you need the book and at least two other books and up to three other books (core rules and armybook of Hobbit or armybook of LotR). This ain't no cheap way to enter the hobby. As stated I am buying Warcry stuff from GW, so I'm not a "Boycott GW" kinda guy, but 3 books but 142,50 € up to 192,50 € without even having a model is not a cheap entrypoint at all. Even getting into AoS or Warhammer 40k is cheaper (the core rules and battlescrolls for free). And other games like f.e. Oathmark sell their whole core book, which has everything you need to play, for 26,95 €. The prices for LotR tabletop are an impudence!

stupid question. i dont have a 4 foot table, can this be played on 3x3

Comparing the two now, Battle Companies feel a little like a first attempt at what Kill Team is now. Not saying that's a good or bad thing, it's just interesting to spot the similarities. It does seem like a fun way to play the game. I just wish my locals could commit to a campaign past the first couple of games.

Trying to get some interest in Battle Companies at the local shop. It's pretty heavy on 40K and on card games. Any suggestions on getting some interest built up?

About to start this but wondering, how many minis do I need? I am playing Last Alliance but I have no idea how many i need to paint up as prefer to do them all at once to ensure consistency in scheme

As a new player, is it wiser to buy the new Battlehosts or the Battle Companies? Thanks!

Honestly I think Battle Companies is the worst way to play SBG. It creates too much paperwork, takes away the iconic heroes from The Lord of the Rings and replaces them with chaff. I’d highly recommend playing 200pt games to start with!