(The rights to produce a role playing game version of the films were sold to another firm, Decipher, Inc.) They also have the rights to produce Battle of Five Armies, a game based on the battle of similar name from The Hobbit, using smaller miniatures to enact larger battles (more akin to the Warmaster system).

The current Lord of the Rings range stems from Games Workshop's rights to produce a skirmish war game based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit books and films, in the 25mm miniature scale. The earliest releases were semi-solid base, having a small solid base later releases were slot based. This was the first range of Lord of the Rings miniatures that Citadel created, taking over from Grenadier Miniatures in 1985, before the licence passed to Mithril Miniatures around 1987. In the 1980s, Games Workshop produced a range of miniatures for The Lord of the Rings, using original character designs based on fantasy art popular of the time. In 2015 Forge World, a division of Games Workshop focused on specialist resin miniatures and conversion kits as well as the Specialist Games ranges, assumed production of The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game and all supplements. These aspects of the hobby are covered in Games Workshop's monthly White Dwarf and on various gaming websites, as well as formerly in the fortnightly Battle Games in Middle-earth. These include the collecting, painting and conversion of miniature figures used in play, as well as the modelling of gaming terrain from scratch. In addition to gaming, The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game includes other common elements of the miniature wargaming hobby. Also, in War of the Ring, heroes are treated more like upgrades for their company rather than individual models, as they are in the original game. In War of the Ring only dice to determine damage are rolled. In the original game players both roll dice to determine who wins the fight and then the victor rolls to see how much damage is done. Combat within the game is also treated differently.

Larger creatures such as Ents and Trolls are treated as separate models and do not use movement trays. This allows for much easier and quicker movement of large numbers of models at once. Firstly, War of the Ring uses a larger number of models but the models are placed on movement trays with two cavalry models or eight infantry models on each. This expansion differs from the main game in several ways. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings by streamlining the game system. In early 2009, Games Workshop also released an expansion to the original game called War of the Ring which, according to the company, allows players to emulate the large battles included in J. This new rule book combined the original LotR SBG and Hobbit SBG into one cohesive, cross compatible rule set. This was superseded by a new rule book in 2018, called simply Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual. Another complete edition of the rules, often called The One Rulebook to Rule them All, was released by Games Workshop in September 2005, while a compact edition entitled The Mines of Moria was also released. Games Workshop has also expanded its licence with original material on areas such as Harad and Khand, with mixed reactions. Later, beginning with the Shadow and Flame supplement, Games Workshop began to add content that was featured in the original book but not in the film adaptations: e.g. New box sets with updated rules were also released for The Two Towers and The Return of the King films. The game was initially released in 2001 to coincide in with the film The Fellowship of the Ring. It is based on The Lord of the Rings film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson, and the book that inspired it, written by J. Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, previously marketed as The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Strategy Battle Game, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Strategy Battle Game, The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies Strategy Battle Game and The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, is a tabletop miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop. Game length varies according to battle size, while rules complexity can vary by army. The cover of The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game rulebookДЄpproximately 2.5 hours per 500 points of miniatures

Armies of the third age