New Hobbit Game Announced

Games Workshop has announced a new board game based on the Hobbit movies. The Hobbit Motion Picture Trilogy: Hunt for the Arkenstone: A Middle-earth Adventure Game is a new cooperative board game in which players control Thorin Oakenshield and his allies as they try to return the Arkenstone to the Throne Room inside the Lonely Mountain. Meanwhile, Azog and his followers attempt to track them down in what Games Workshop describes as a "tense, action-packed" game for two or more players. As is typical for Games Workshop games, Hunt for the Arkenstone will include 15 plastic miniatures, assumably of Thorin and his allies and select orc foes.

Although they're best known for publishing Warhammer 40K, Games Workshop has long published the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game, a miniatures skirmish game based on the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. Almost every movie character has gotten a miniature in the game, along with supporting units and even armies and characters who barely appeared in one of the movies. Earlier this month, Games Workshop announced that it would be releasing a new edition of Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game, with new content from the upcoming War of the Rohirrim animated film.

Games Workshop has occasionally published other board games set within the world of Lord of the Rings, including a game that recreated the famous Battle in Balin's Tomb from Fellowship of the Ring. Many of Games Workshop's games are designed to introduce readers to mechanics and concepts featured in their larger games, although others have strictly been showcases for the miniatures and original board game designs.

No release date or price has been announced for The Hobbit Motion Picture Trilogy: Hunt for the Arkenstone: A Middle-earth Adventure Game, but pre-orders for the game will go live this Saturday.