Helm Hammerhand Rides Into Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
August 5, 2025 by brennon
Games Workshop revealed another new miniature for the new edition of the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game. Continuing to fill out the roster for War of the Rohirrim, you will soon be able to get your hands on the miniature for Helm Hammerhand, King of Rohan.
Helm Hammerhand // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
This represents Helm Hammerhand during his time as King of Rohan, riding out to battle the forces of Wulf and the assembled wildmen and traitors that have rallied behind his banner. You get a couple of different options for Helm in the set when it comes to heads (I think I prefer the unhelmeted version) and you also get the foot and mounted options within the plastic set.
Helm Hammerhand // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
Rules for Helm Hammerhand can be found within the Armies of The Lord of the Rings supplement alongside the rest of the main characters from the recent movie. You can also build a themed force around him, his sons and his daughter, which should be mighty indeed. I hope this drives me to actually get my War of the Rohirrim set painted at some point.
The War of the Rohirrim Journal
As well as the new miniature for Helm Hammerhand, you will also be able to get the first Middle-earth Journal for the new edition, War of the Rohirrim.
The War of the Rohirrim Journal // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
This smaller forty-eight-page supplement covers more from The War of the Rohirrim. You will find inside an eleven-page battle campaign that follows the events of the movie and uses the new and existing miniatures from the range. It also comes with a load of hobby content, painting guides and more, so you can work on bringing your Warriors of Rohan and Hill Tribesmen to life.
Could you be tempted to dive in and pick up more for the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game?
"This represents Helm Hammerhand during his time as King of Rohan, riding out to battle the forces of Wulf..."
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One of the things I loved about the Middle Earth range was the realism. Everything was well proportioned and looked very grounded in reality. Which is why some of the stuff for War of the Rohirrim just doesn’t work. This Helm model looks way too warhammery. The paint job isn’t helping, way too bright, which I guess is what they wanted to get close the the look of the animated movie.
However that maul just looks ridiculous. If anyone has ever used a maul, you will know just how impractical and useless it is as a weapon, especially from horseback where your ability to swing two handed is severely limited. It looks kind of silly and that’s a real shame, because the middle earth miniatures were a real breath of grown up fresh air among the hyperbolic, over the top style of Warhammer.
It’s only really something that has come out of the War of the Rohirrim stuff to match the anime art. A lot of the main stuff is still in keeping with the older aesthetic, even the more modern Forge World stuff (when you see it in the flesh, it really works).
I do agree the paint jobs don’t help. VERY bright and “clean” which is great for showing off the miniature but not for getting a sense of the feel of the range.
@brennon what main stuff? They hardly release anything these days. But all Rohan characters have very much in this new cartoony style, which (in my opinion at least) is quite jarring when placed against everything else in the range. Not entirely sure War of the Rohirrim has done the franchise many favours. Or at least the game.
Prince Imrahil, War Drakes, new stuff for the Corsairs of Umbar, Beechbone etc – all come out in the last few months.
The new wildmen and Rohan warriors are fine, I have the impressions that their proportions are even better than some of the older range.
As for Helm, he is based on the anime that is based on the saga of Helm. He kills a troll bare handed and it also reflects in his stat line of the game.
@caledor2 I am well aware of what it is based on, that doesn’t really change my opinion of it in any way. Also, no matter how strong he is, you cannot wield 2 handed weapons effectively from horseback as the horse tends to get in the way.
Helm never killed a Troll. He is described as stalking through the Dunlending Camp “like a snow troll” not killing one, that’s just an anime thing.
The next thing you’ll tell me is that an elf can’t ride a shield like a skateboard down a set of castle steps, firing arrows the whole time!
@fightcitymayor Yeah, that’s right. They can’t. And that scene is a blight on what is otherwise a fantastic set of movies. To this day my mind boggles as to who thought that scene worked with the overall tone of the film and the preceding film. Likewise the scene with the Elephant
Wait until you find out about lava-surfing dwarves… ugh.
The Helm model I actually like. I recently sat through the War of the Rohirrim movie – it’s light fluff, just a filler so they keep the franchise up or whatever. Very low effort. The model is bang-on for what the movie portrays him as.
The film is probably the problem.
The pose looks very like an homage to John Blanche’s Knight Panther, which I love. Though I do agree with m’learned colleague @onlyonepinman on the Wathammerification of the range
For the the record, I absolutely don’t hate Warhammer. Not overly bothered about Age of Sigmar, but I don’t hate it. And I absolutely adore the old world as a setting and all the old John Blanche artwork – without any doubt one of the best settings ever imagined. But those things are kind of what made Middle Earth miniatures what they were. A total break from the warhammer style with something much more grounded and down to earth. The new Rohan Warriors don’t seem to suffer from these problems, but my god the character models just seem completely out of place.
It’s absolutely not a dig at you and while I have very few Middle Earth minis I do share your concerns for this range. I guess now they don’t need signoff from the studios (and maybe actors – not sure exactly how it worked) they’ll abuse the freedom that gives. Shame
Very few minis but a half assed desire to do a hobbit army one day before they disappear.
I used to have an all-hobbit army. It was hilariously good. The throw stone option was, with a lot of luck, very good.
Noted. I’m a step closer to another project 🙂
@somegeezer no dig was taken, just thought it worth clarifying before anyone assumed I was GW bashing or anything. And in GWs defence here, this probably looks quite close to the animated style of the film it came from.
I understand the criticisms, but honestly I dig this take on Helm. I quite fancy doing him and his kids in a more muted style to match my existing Rohirrim.
Alternatively, he’ll make a *great* generic human general/warlord for any number of Fantasy game systems…..
This guy looks more like Marvel’s Odin than a LotR character.
Does War of the Rohirrim actually have fans?
I quite enjoyed it. Actually kinda hoping we might get a follow up as I *think* I know where they were planning on going with the character of Hera.
There won’t be a follow up and they didn’t have any plans, this was a rushed, low effort and low budget film that needed to be made just to keep the licenses.