https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Middle-earth-Battle-Companies-2017english

GW has revived the old White Dwarf rules and it is now available to order. Discuss!

_________________
- Wild
Battle Companies Developer

(CE) Battle Companies 2016 Edition

Very glad to see a full-fledged release for this little system, with a hardback rulebook, White Dwarf support and special bundles on the webstore (the latter rather meaningless, but I feel it does add a bit more commitment).

Got my copy on release yesterday, and the book looks great. Not just with the expected scenarios and decent list of possible companies, but some nice pictures of various players' bands (the Middle-earth team and other familiar names), rules for terrain and upgrades, and some hints for releases and rules changes to come.

I figured the 'no profiles without models' policy would mean no elite profiles would be invented for this book, and this is indeed the case. From a player's perspective, I like the fan-edit for this, but simultaneously they have actually limited the very extensive lists by having various troops only available as reinforcements rather than upgrades, simplifying/streamlining the promotion system (and requiring rather less specific miniatures) along the way while balacing the different companies. The injury tables have I think changed for the better being rather less harsh, and heroes have gotten some very nicely altered tables to roll on for upgrades.

Overall, I love it (as I was sure I would), can see the reasons for the changes (or indeed lack thereof) that I somewhat dislike and see loads of things I'm a big fan of. As a final note, the introduction mentions extra material may be added not just in White Dwarf but also free PDFs apparently, so plenty to look forward to.

I am glad to see an official release finally supported! I am also very grateful to those who have spent tireless years creating the beloved Fan-made supplement as well. I look at your work and say your efforts directly contributed to this release. Without your efforts, this expansion would not exist. Thank you so much!

Hoping to pick this up next month!

_________________
Backlog Reduction Oath

My WIP: viewtopic.php?f=50&t=21545&start=40

I am very impressed with this book so far! I’ve played a few of the match play scenarios and they are quite fun and I fully expect the others to be good as well. I’m really looking forward to the narrative campaign in the book also! I’m starting to plan out terrain builds and future purchases to allow my gaming group to play through the campaign, which will likely take several months with our typical gaming schedule. I think there is enough in this book to keep me occupied for some time while I wait for some of the much anticipated updates that are set to arrive next year!

Also quit happy with the oficial BC supplement.

I am little bit afraid about the ballance between factions (some of them lack troop advancements) - but I hope it will work fine.

_________________
My This and That Again WIP blog: viewtopic.php?t=25598

I thoroughly enjoy Battle Companies; it's perfect for basically single warband campaign games. It blends the elements of other campaign-based Specialist Games with the elegance of the LoTR Strategy Battle Game's rules / combat system.

Battle Companies as a game only benefits from ideas from these aformentioned games, such as lots of multi-tiered terrain to hide behind due to the limited model count.

I'm working on generating more interest in this game in local gaming community. I highly recommend it to any wargamer.

It looks really good - I've got it sat in my shopping basket from the GW website along with the Hobbit "cheat sheet" and tokens stuff.

I really enjoy the hardcover. I like the streamlined rules, and it's easy to houserule any parts that one might not like or is not present in the rules.

I do wish they had bundled in even more stuff though. Having additional material later on is great, but I feel like the Erebor / Gundabad battle companies could easily have been added in the main book instead of in a separate two-page White Dwarf article.

_________________
For scenario and campaign playthroughs, visit https://aiwendil.net/

Agreed - I doubt I will be able to grab any of those White Dwarf articles so will miss out on lots of the official stuff. What would be nice would be a "Best of White Dwarf..." like they used to release on a regular basis years back, with a summary of all Battle Companies stuff to date. Better still a pdf set of files with all Battle Companies stuff that have appeared in White Dwarf to date.