Battle Games in Middle-earth (magazine)

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Cover of Battle Games in Middle Earth Pack 78, January 2006 (UK). It was originally intended to be the last issue of the magazine, but the deadline was extended due to unprecedented popularity.

Battle Games in Middle-earth Magazine (BGiME) was a fortnightly magazine published by DeAgostini in conjunction with British games manufacturer Games Workshop. Unlike White Dwarf, which is dedicated to the three core systems of miniature wargaming produced by Games Workshop, BGiME was exclusively about The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.

It was sold in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, and Poland. The magazine became more popular than the publishers had anticipated, and the deadline was extended several times. Having completed the series of magazines relating to the films, it then went on to explore the rest of the Lord of the Rings universe, includes miniatures that were featured in the The Lord of the Rings book but not the films. The last issue was Pack 91, featuring Sharkey from the Scouring of the Shire.

[edit] Content

Each pack came with a free Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game miniature, including some exclusive to the publication at the time. Exclusive miniatures were much sought after in countries where the magazine was not sold, and included Háma, Théodred and a much sought after conversion kit. However, these have become available as separate components on the Games Workshop website or as miniatures released with new supplements. The magazine itself featured five consistent parts:

Guide to Middle-earth, introducing the theme of the magazine from the works of Tolkien
Playing the Game, introducing the full rules (including some exclusive ones) in installments
Battle Game, featuring a themed battle that can be played using armies built up from previous packs
Painting Workshop, a step-by-step guide to converting and painting the free miniature featured in the pack
Modelling Workshop, a full guide to building terrain and scenery for playing battle games on

[edit] Acclaim

The magazine has been extremely popular, mostly due to it outdoing the basic and unreliable White Dwarf terrain and painting articles with detailed and dependable "masterclass" guides. The first few packs were simple for beginners, but with the accumulation of techniques the final packs managed to outdo even contemporary Warhammer articles in White Dwarf - dispelling the myth that Lord of the Rings SBG is intended as a beginners' game.

At the time of the series' end, The Lord of the Rings section of White Dwarf issues was being sharply criticised for the lack of content, and viewed as little better than a catalogue. However, with BGiME finished its series, two members of its team (Mark Latham and Glenn More) joined the White Dwarf team. It is expected that White Dwarf's future articles will be improved to the BGiME standard, as Steve Hammatt (who was forum moderator for the Games Workshop forum) said:

"Hopefully this will mean good things for future LOTR content in White Dwarf." [1]