Middle-Earth: Strategy Battle Game – Great Eagles

An exciting event for fans of The Lord of the Rings was the release of The War of the Rohirrim animated movie. To coincide with this release Games Workshop/Warhammer have updated the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game with updated rules and brand new models representing characters and forces represented in the movie.

The literal biggest new models in this release phase are the Great Eagles. As well as being renowned for their heroic rescues in the original trilogy of movies they also feature in the new film.

What is in the Box

You’ll find the sprues containing the miniatures, flight bases, larger bases to hold the flight bases and an instruction booklet to guide construction.

Impressions

Firstly, detailing on the models is amazing, they are covered in detail right up to the texture of the feathers.

Second, the miniatures are not so miniature. Their wings span incredibly wide adding a huge feel to the model.

Finally, the character in the faces and pose are striking and dynamic. The models look as if they are in flight, and one seems to be swooping to strike.

Building

The instruction leaflet in the box offers guidance on the build. My son (12 years) set about the task and did not encounter any difficulties. You need to be proficient with snips and a file is handy for finer detailing to get things fitting.

The overall finish at the end was really good. All you can think is “these look cool” and “they’re massive”.

One issue that we have encountered is that the feet are tiny and have a habit of falling off, however, I think with time the bond will strengthen.

Painting

My son painted the Great Eagles using a mixture of citadel and army painter colours. He said that they were nice to paint, he spent a lot of time adding extra levels of detail with washes and dry brushing to highlight the wonderful textures on the sculpts. The box offers a couple of different schemes to paint the eagles that represent the different play options for the models in the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game: Armies of The Lord of the Rings Book. Either as Great Eagles or Great Eagle Fledglings.

Playing

The Great Eagles are the only flying option for the armies of The Free Peoples. They go up against the Fell Beast of the winged Nazgul and Smaug. With a fight value of 7, Great Eagles are as good in combat as the mightiest warriors and better than the Fell Beasts that you might send them against (obviously they aren’t as good as Smaug but he is a 700 point model so that’s probably a given). With the Monstrous Charge and Terror special rules the Eagles are awe inspiring attackers smashing enemies to the floor.

Thanks to the new armies rulebook, it is even possible to take an entire army of eagles that adds a strength bonus to their charge!

Final Thoughts

The Great Eagles look amazing!

They are powerful models that will be great to use in-game.

My son is super excited to take them along to our local gaming store and get them on the table to show them off and try them out.