New Middle-earth Heroes Of Rohan Ride To Victory Soon
August 12, 2025 by brennon
More of the War of the Rohirrim character miniatures were previewed this week for the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game by Games Workshop. Fréaláf Hildeson and Olwyn join the fight on the side of the Rohirrim against the Hill Tribesmen soon.
Fréaláf Hildeson // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
The first of the miniatures previewed this week was the First Marshal of the Riddermark and Lord of Harrowdale, Fréaláf Hildeson. Fréaláf tries to convince Helm Hammerhand not to rise to Freca and when Edoras is besieged, he urges the army to flee so they might fight another day. Alas, Helm would not listen to his nephew. Still, Fréaláf would ride to Héra's aid at The Hornburg and take up leadership of the Rohirrim in the aftermath.
You could potentially play out a lore-accurate clash between Fréaláf and Wulf in the ruins of Edoras, changing things up from the War of the Rohirrim scenarios presented in the new journal.
The miniatures are nice and do match up well to the look of the character from the anime movie. I feel like the kit is missing a cloak on his back, either as part of the mounted or on foot miniature. It would also be neat to see if the set comes with a helmet for him, too.
The second of the new characters revealed is for Olywn, a Shieldmaiden of old and an aid to Héra.
Olwyn // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
Olywn has some of the coolest moments in the film, especially when she gets to yeet her shield into her enemies. She comes both mounted and on foot and again matches up very nicely with the character from the anime.
She has some great rules in-game, which allow her to hold her own even when surrounded. It makes her a good character for keeping an objective and halting the advance of the enemy. Stick her together with Héra and you'll have some fierce female fighters for your Rohirrim warband.
Both of the miniatures above will come in a six miniature set, which will also include Lief, the young page who follows Héra and his friends to the Hornburg.
Heroes of Rohan // Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game
All of the miniatures are plastic, completing the selection of main characters for the War of the Rohirrim. This means you've now got Helm, Héra, Lief, Olwyn and Fréaláf alongside Helm's sons, Haleth and Háma. Match this with the evil usurpers of Rohan and you'll have everything that you need for your War of the Rohirrim scenarios.
What do you make of the new miniatures?
"This means you've now got Helm, Héra, Lief, Olwyn and Fréaláf alongside Helm's sons, Haleth and Háma..."
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Horses on druuuuuuuuuuuuugs XD They look way to happy. (See discusion on discord last night XD)
Think its all the morphine from their cybernetic perfectly round knee implants
This was a movie I wanted to like; alas, K-pop Daemon Hunters was far better.
OmFG.
I really want to like these new Middle Earth releases but I really just cant get on with the sculpting, design or posing of them. Probably as its based off the animation but it just looses all of the realistic look of the classic ranges.
I think that the design of the characters (which is absolutely not GW’s fault) looks too much like Japanese anime, rather than an animated version of the Peter Jackson films. However having bought a box of the new Rohan warriors, I can say that it is limited to the characters; the regular soldiery is absolutely fine.
🤮
Frealaf could quite easily fit in a sci fi army, what a truly awful design.
I said it before the film was released and I will say it again. War of the Rohirrim will be the death of the Middle Earth Strategy Battle game.
The aesthetic of the new characters is simply too far removed from Peter Jackson’s vision of the world and the models just look out of place. I can’t see these being big sellers but GW won’t have a great deal of choice in what they release. I doubt GW can get away with not releasing anything related to the new film and get to keep the license and so this will likely set the tone for the next 10 years, until Warner vomit out another pile of crap just to keep the rights from reverting to Tolkien Estates.
My advice to anyone who loves the Middle Earth Miniatures is buy what you can while you still can.
I don’t know that I’d go so far as to say it’ll be the death of the game but these new miniatures from War of the Rohirrim aren’t leading me to be a returning customer. Got my stuff. I’m good until they release something more in line with Peter Jackson’s vision. I know they don’t have the license but I’d game Rings of Power over WotR
If lots of people feel like you and decide not to be a returning customer then GW will simply stop making the miniatures as sales returns won’t be high enough to justify the investment. That’s what I think is going to happen. And I don’t see warner bros releasing anything new for the franchise any time soon, not least because they have probably adapted everything worth adapting. Anything new would either be a reboot or would be “original material” or stuff extrapolated from the foot notes and I don’t think there’s a huge audience for that. They will release something in 10 years, when the rights are up for renewal and probably nothing until then.