| Lord of the Rings Tradable Miniatures Game By Sabertooth Games A review by Anthony S Burdge 
Last year at Toy Fair 2003 we were privy to seeing the prototypes for the forthcoming Lord of the Rings Tradable Miniatures Game by Sabertooth Games.
Jessica and I were very enthusiastic to say the least. Why? While having an abundance of enjoyment building and painting miniatures from the Games Workshop
strategy battle game, we do not have the time to take part in huge gaming campaigns at a retail store, which is 1 ½ hours away by public transportation in New York
City. The enthusiasm for LOTR:TMG was quite high when we saw the game being played on a huge foldout hex map with illustrations from known sites in Middle-
earth. The miniatures are the highest quality pre-painted models I have ever seen they amazingly depict our heroes quite vividly.
When Jessica and I watched Sabertooth and Games Workshop staff duke it out
across a bridge we were amazed at the swiftness of gameplay and the fact that the characters strengths equal the actions it would take in the tales. Aragorn took out
4 Uruks before being eliminated, of course he did not get eliminated in the books or film, but dice rolls did not determine his actions, but nonetheless he still whupped
Uruk behind. One of the beauties is the models are light to carry with the folded maps and
rulebook while traveling. Just recruit the models you want in your army using the point system, and you are ready to go average game using 1000 points to construct
your army can take 30-45 minutes. If you are a modeling hobbyist/enthusiast, love building the miniatures, but have no time to get to the retail store, then LOTR:TMG
is just what you need to play with your mate at home. 
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The representative for Sabertooth kindly gave us a starter set and booster pack to take home and play and of course review. She said there were literally 3 pages of
rules, and upon reading the booklet, there was. In regards to the rules, very simple and straight forward, clear and concise. (a href="http://sabertoothgames.com/
lotrtmg/downloads.jsp">Download them here) Many tradable miniature games by companies other than Sabertooth in the past were never up to par in quality of
the models, and players, like myself, were always left questioning the rules. Not the case here, everything you need to know is right there and their 
Each of the models has a base with symbols informing the player of its abilities, rarity, action points and more.
The beauty of having all their stats on the model’s base is that it eliminates booklets of paper, and the need to keep track of its health and actions is right there. If you
are unable due to lack of space build terrain’s to play upon then the foldout maps are ideal and you can battle right there on the hex maps. 
