Games - Battle Games in Middle Earth

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	Games - Battle Games in Middle Earth

Battle Games in Middle Earth Magazine (BGiME) is 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 is exclusively about the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.

It is sold in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, and Poland. The magazine became more popular than the publishers had anticipated, and the deadline has been extended several times. Having completed the series of magazines relating to the films, it is currently beyond Pack 78, and now includes miniatures that were featured in the Lord of the Rings books but not the films. It has recently been announced that the last pack will be Pack 91, featuring Sharkey from the Scouring of the Shire.

Content

Each pack comes with a free Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game miniature, including some exclusive to the publication. Exclusive miniatures are much sought after in countries where the magazine is not sold, and include Hama, Theodred and a much sought after conversion kit. The magazine itself features 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

The magazine has been extremely popular, much do 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 current packs outdo even WD's Warhammer articles, dispelling the myth that Lord of the Rings SBG is intended as a beginners' game.

The Lord of the Rings section of recent White Dwarf issues has been sharply criticised for the lack of content, and has been viewed as little better than a acatalogue. However, now that BGiME has finished its series, two members of its team (Mark Latham and Glenn More) have 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 is currently forum moderator for the ) said: "Hopefully this will mean good things for future LOTR content in White Dwarf."

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