“The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the road has gone, and I must follow, if I can.”
— Bilbo Baggins, The Fellowship of the Ring

The Battle of Five Armies represents a unique scale of conflict that sits between pure skirmish and epic mass battle. It’s chaotic, fragmented, full of shifting alliances, and told from a first-person perspective that zooms in and out between individual heroics and army maneuvers. This essay explores which gaming systems best capture this “in-between” scale and the challenges of representing it on the tabletop.

What Makes “Midway” Battles Distinct

Scale Characteristics

Midway battles occupy a unique position between skirmish and mass battle, where individual heroes like Bilbo and Thorin can influence the outcome while large formations clash and move across the battlefield. These battles feature chaotic fragmentation where alliances shift and communication breaks down, while narrative perspective shifts between limited viewpoints that reveal the larger picture.

The Battle of Five Armies

Tolkien’s description of the Battle of Five Armies exemplifies this scale, where Bilbo’s presence and choices matter personally while thousands of warriors clash on each side. The battle features shifting alliances as Dwarves, Elves, and Men unite against Goblins, with chaotic communication where orders don’t always reach their targets, and heroic moments where individual actions can turn the tide.

Why This Scale is Challenging

Midway battles present unique design challenges including system limitations where most games focus on one scale or the other, command complexity where orders are messy rather than clean, narrative control difficulties in managing both individual and army levels, and mechanical tension where individual vs. army mechanics can conflict.

System Comparisons

Pure Skirmish Games

What They Do Well:

• Individual heroism matters
• Tactical choices are meaningful
• Character development possible
• Narrative control maintained

What They Miss:

• Can’t represent vast armies
• Larger forces feel artificial
• Strategic scope is limited
• Scale mismatch for midway battles

Pure Mass Battle Games

What They Do Well:

• Epic scope and spectacle
• Command and control mechanics
• Army-level decision making
• Strategic depth

What They Miss:

• Individual heroes get lost
• Personal stakes reduced
• Narrative control difficult
• Tactical nuance flattened

Midgard Heroic Battles

Potential for Midway:

• Heroes matter individually
• Armies maneuver as units
• Command system creates friction
• Scale between skirmish and mass

Challenges:

• May not capture Tolkien’s tone
• Magic system needs adaptation
• Balance between scales difficult
• Narrative control still limited

The Tolkien Challenge

Why Scale Matters for Middle-earth

Tolkien’s themes require both scales through personal growth where characters must develop individually, epic stakes where conflicts must have world-changing consequences, narrative unity where small and large conflicts serve the same themes, and emotional impact through intimate moments within epic scope.

The System Design Problem

Creating systems that handle both scales is challenging due to mechanical tension where individual vs. army mechanics conflict, narrative control difficulties in managing both scales simultaneously, player agency issues where different scales require different decision-making, and thematic consistency challenges in maintaining Tolkien’s tone at both scales.

Potential Solutions

Hybrid Systems

Some approaches to handling both scales include scale shifting where rules adapt to different scales, nested mechanics that place individual actions within army context, narrative framing through story structure that accommodates both, and player choice allowing players to choose their preferred scale.

Campaign Integration

Linking different scales through campaigns involves skirmish to mass where personal actions affect larger conflicts, mass to skirmish where army outcomes create personal scenarios, narrative bridges through story elements that connect scales, and character progression where heroes grow from skirmish to mass battle.

The Missing Middle

Developing systems for midway battles requires hero-army integration where heroes matter but don’t dominate, command friction where orders don’t always work, narrative perspective through limited viewpoints that reveal the larger picture, and chaotic fragmentation where alliances shift and communication breaks down.

The Battle of Five Armies as a Model

What Makes It Work

Tolkien’s narrative technique succeeds because of personal perspective where Bilbo’s limited viewpoint creates intimacy, scale shifting that zooms in and out between individual and army, chaotic realism where orders don’t always work as intended, and heroic moments where individual actions can turn the tide.

How Games Can Capture This

Several approaches to midway battles include narrative framing using story to bridge scale gaps, mechanical integration through rules that handle both scales, player agency providing meaningful choices at both levels, and thematic consistency maintaining tone across scales.

Practical Implementation

For Game Designers

Game designers should develop scale awareness by understanding what each scale does well, focus on narrative integration by designing for story rather than just mechanics, ensure player agency by providing meaningful choices at all scales, and maintain thematic consistency across scales.

For Players

Players should make scale choices by picking the scale that serves their story, practice system mixing by combining different systems for different scales, maintain narrative focus by using story to bridge scale gaps, and design campaigns by structuring them to use appropriate scales.

For GMs

GMs should plan scale transitions by determining how to move between scales, use narrative control through story to manage scale shifts, maintain player engagement by keeping players invested at all scales, and ensure thematic unity by maintaining consistent tone across scales.

The Long Defeat of Scale

Tolkien’s mastery of scale embodies the theme of the long defeat through personal sacrifice where individuals must give up personal goals, epic stakes where conflicts must have world-changing consequences, narrative unity where small and large conflicts serve the same themes, and enduring hope where even in defeat there is honor.

This creates a tension between individual growth where characters must develop personally, group unity where the fellowship must remain together, personal sacrifice where individuals must give up personal goals, and shared purpose where the group must serve something greater.

Conclusion

The challenge of creating Tolkienian midway battles is not just mechanical—it’s narrative. We must find ways to honor both the personal and epic scales while maintaining the thematic unity that makes Tolkien’s work so powerful.

The best systems for midway battles are those that: The key principles are to respect both scales by not forcing one scale to do everything, maintain narrative control by allowing focus on what matters, preserve thematic unity by keeping Tolkien’s tone across scales, and enable player agency by providing meaningful choices at all levels.

In the end, the midway battle question is not about mechanics—it’s about story. And in Middle-earth, every story, from the smallest skirmish to the greatest battle, serves the same themes of hope, courage, and the long defeat.

This essay is part of an ongoing exploration of how to capture Tolkien’s themes in tabletop gaming. For more on this topic, see the other essays in this series.