New Plastic Mordor Orcs Previewed For Middle-earth SBG

Games Workshop keep the reveals coming with another big reveal for the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game. They just casually dropped that there are going to be new plastic Mordor Orcs coming soon, replacing the classic Orcs that wargamers have used over many years to bolster the forces of Sauron and Saruman.

Mordor Orc Warriors // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game

The set that Games Workshop have in the works will feature twenty-four new Orc Warriors which can be armed with a variety of weapons like swords, maces and picks. That covers sixteen of your Orcs. The other eight can then be built using spears and other two-handed weapons.

Mordor Orc Warriors // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game

Four of your Orcs can also have their weapons swapped out for bows if you'd prefer to unleash a bit of pain from range. There are also several different head options available for some of the miniatures, so you can switch up how your servants of The Eye look.

Similarly to the way Games Workshop approached the Rohirrim, these plastic Mordor Orcs have all been designed to match the look of the older miniatures. A lot of these poses mirror the old ones exactly and the various Orcs have just had a glow-up to include all of the detail offered by modern techniques. It's a nice love letter to the original miniatures.

Mordor Orc Warriors // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game

These will be a great addition to the Orc horde that you might have amassed as part of the Battle of Osgiliath set. You can use these as your rank-and-file Orcs alongside the more elite Morannon Orcs that you got in that set, along with the snarling Gothmog.

Again, because of the way these have been sculpted, they should fit rather seamlessly into your existing Orc collection or perhaps give you a good excuse to build a new warband. You could make them look great with some good basecoats and a healthy, dirty wash!

New Mordor Battlehost

If you are starting out in Middle-earth, then you could also go for the Mordor Battlehost, which will be available alongside this Orc release.

Mordor Battlehost // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game

This Battlehost comes with twenty-four Orcs alongside six Warg Riders, all led by the stunning plastic Witch-King of Angmar who comes mounted and on foot. This should have you sorted for your initial games very easily indeed. You could even learn to play at a smaller points level by just counting one of your Mordor Orcs as a Captain and painting him differently.

Battle Companies Return!

One of my favourite ways of playing Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game is with Battle Companies. This is a campaign-focused game mode where your warriors tell a story over the course of several games, celebrating their victories and licking their wounds after defeats.

Battle Companies // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game

It contains a lot of core elements of campaign games that folks will be familiar with. You'll be able to track your gold and influence, changing wargear and the experience that you spend on making your warriors and heroes better.

The new Battle Companies book will also come with its own narrative campaign built in. Considering we just talked about how good campaign games are on the XLBS last weekend, this seems an apt way to try it out as a game mode.

It's great to see Battle Companies back and hopefully, it opens up more routes into playing what I consider one of the best Games Workshop wargames.

What do you make of the new plastic Mordor Orcs?