First Impressions: Mordor, Part I

Good morning gamers,

Back in 2014, the "warband supplements" were released that broke up the armies that were in the "Legions of Middle-Earth" supplement into five different sets of units: the Kingdoms of Men (Minas Tirith, Rohan, Arnor, and Numenor), the Free Peoples (Elves, Dwarves, Ents, Eagles, Woses, and Hobbits), The Fallen Realms (Isengard, Rhun, Harad, Umbar, and Khand), Moria and Angmar (surprisingly this had Moria and Angmar in it . . . who woulda thunk it), and Mordor (which was really Mordor and Barad-Dur).

With these supplements, you could run lists from various army lists and it introduced the idea that a "warband" was composed of one or more heroes and up to twelve warriors (fewer if the hero leading the warband had a brother or a friend with him). Some heroes were independent heroes and couldn't lead anyone - but this was a major departure from the Legions of Middle-Earth supplement, where each allied contingent just needed one hero for any number of warriors (there were maximum model counts based on your points level, but a LOT of lists were just "one hero plus a boat load of guys").

These supplements didn't change a lot of the actual profiles (and integrated profiles that could be found in random supplements instead of the Legions book or the One Rulebook), but they did change the way you built armies . . . and it was the first time that it was made patently clear that "Mordor" had so many profiles in it, that it got its own book. Yes, the primary factions of Minas Tirith, Rohan, and Isengard have always had a lot of profiles to choose from (and this has only become more true as time has passed), but Mordor has always been the big dog when it comes to choice - and for that reason, getting started with Mordor has always been a bit of a tough thing because you're bombarded with options.

In the current version of MESBG, there are currently eight army lists from Mordor (which accounts for nearly 40% of the Evil army lists in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement) - and one of those army lists features Easterlings and Haradrim to make things interesting. Within these army lists are a host of profiles, some of which get the rinse-and-repeat across multiple lists, but many of the hero options are unique to one or two lists. Instead of trying to slap our way through a BUNCH of profiles, I thought it prudent to split up what was once a massive tome and focus today on just the Orc and Uruk-Hai profiles. In our next post, we'll go through the scary stuff (mostly monsters and spirit models . . . oh, and Easterlings). Let's begin with the "lowly Orcs" who show up in basically every Mordor list . . .

Orc Profiles: How Have They "Changed?"

We begin with the newly-imagined Gothmog profile, which benefits from having an absolutely GORGEOUS new model and was a unit I was toying around with a lot in the previous edition. In this edition, he's available as a Hero of Legend in the Army of Gothmog (where he is required and will be your General) and a Hero of Valour in the Legions of Mordor (where he isn't required and might not be your General, if you've taken the Witch-King, at least one Ringwraith, or the Mumak War Leader). Gothmog got a 10pt reduction, but with his Warg getting a 10pt increase, he comes in with Warg and shield at the same cost he used to be: 145 points. Honestly . . . I don't think the Warg is worth taking anymore.

Photo Credit: Giphy

In the previous edition, the Warg was a cheap way to make a so-so combat profile on Gothmog (F5/S4/3A with 3-Might-and-Strike), but in the current edition, he's a lot less of a combat entity (F5/S4/2A with 3-Might-no-Strike). While the Warg would get you 1 extra Attack, I think Gothmog is slotting into a position where he wants his fights to be very, VERY well managed - and being able to squirm easily through an infantry block seems to be a great way to go (at least to me).

Gothmog retained Heroic Defense and has Master of Battle (2+) - a reduction from the "full Master of Battle" that he's had since the profile's inception - and retained his two auric profiles that grant Hatred (Men) near him and rerolling all failed to Wounds for Orcs near him (or not near him if you're taking him in the Army of Gothmog). For 125pts, Gothmog with a shield provides you with a decent Might battery (and pretty reliable free heroics from Master of Battle) on a survivable chassis (3 Wounds/1 Fate at Defense 7) - perfect for being a "good" Orc General. There are probably better generals out there, but Gothmog is either on the high-end of fine or the low-end of good in my book (particularly because he isn't competing with much in the lists that he's in . . . hooray for new list building schemas?!?!?!).

The Stuff of Legends: The Rangers of Mirkwood

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: Today's article is the long-anticipated review of the Rangers of Mirkwood Legendary Legion from the Fall of the Necromancer sourcebook (previous edition stuff). While I could have taken a swing at this a while back, I thought our resident Mirkwood Ranger expert Red Jacket should have a chance at it - and with life events finally giving him some breathing space, here it is!

~~~~~

Red Jacket: As someone who essentially started playing this army before Fall of the Necromancer ever canonized it as a specific legendary legion, I immediately became a big fan. Seriously… 100% Elf bow army?  What’s not to love? (Quite a bit actually… but I am obsessed with Elves and archery, so my love overcomes. Kind of like Tauriel… the made up character… loving a dwarf…) Fair warning, this list may end up hurting you (But at least what you had was real).

Legion Tax: 90pts
Photo Credit: Giphy

In all seriousness, however, this list is in many ways one-dimensional, but comes with some special rules that really help it be much more than a one trick pony. So let's dive in and take a look. 

Part 1: What Do You Need? 

To start, this legion requires you to bring either Legolas Greenleaf, Prince of Mirkwood starting at 95 points, or Tauriel with Elf bow for 90. It also lifts the bow limit restriction, allowing for 100% bows. 

There are only three possible heroes in this legion: 

1. Legolas, whom you should never take in this legion without the elven cloak: 100 pts

2. Tauriel with Elf bow: 90 pts

3. Mirkwood Ranger captain: 75 pts

Then there are only two unit options: 

1. Mirkwood Rangers (obviously) for 14 pts, and the option to add a war horn (Don’t).

2. Wood Elf Sentinels for 25 pts, which are really fun units.

The first special rule is “Knife mastery.” This is really the make or brake rule for this legion and will feature heavily my “Part 2” analysis. It allows re-rolls of 1 to wound when making strikes, and allows models “shield” with their knives as long as they are not also using their “knife fighter” or “blade mistress” special rules. More about those special rules below. 

First Impressions: Moria

Good morning gamers,

I've said this a lot on this blog, but I got my start in the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game back in 2010 with the Mines of Moria starter set. As a result, the first "traditional" army that I collected was Moria. I enjoyed having buckets of Goblins running around the board (for a time, with a 5+ Fury Save thanks to Groblog and two Shamans) and once the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game came out, I acquired the long-desired-but-couldn't-justify-it-because-he-was-just-bad flagship piece of Moria, the Balrog. Fast forward six years and my Moria list has grown only slightly, getting some extra grunts, converting a Warg Marauder to complement the one that I own, and the Watcher in the Water. A great list, a fun list . . .

. . . and it's still fun in the new edition. Yes, the list has been GREATLY paired down, but as someone who most enjoyed using the Depths of Moria LL since the release of Quest of the Ringbearer, most of the tools available to that Legion are still available now. In today's post, we're going to walk through the profiles that we still have, look at how they've changed, and then also look at what's been lost (both permanently to the Legacies document and temporarily to the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement). Let's start off with the big guy himself . . .

Moria Profiles: How Have They "Changed?"

Photo Credit: Gifs.alphacoders.com

If you're playing Moria this edition, it's probably for the Balrog. I must say that you don't HAVE to take the Balrog in the Depths of Moria army list, but since your list of units is Goblin Captains, Goblin Warriors, Cave Trolls, and the Watcher, you need to really want to use the Watcher or a horde of Cave Trolls to skip on the Balrog. As has always been the case, the Balrog pays a lot of stats and special rules, but not for the traditional complement of heroic resources that you'd expect on a big hero. Yes, the Balrog has retained nearly unparalleled combat stats (F10, S9, 4 Attacks) and very good defensive stats (D9, 10 Wounds), as well as a suite of good special rules (Fearless, 18" courage debuff radius, Terror, Resistant to Magic), but without Might points or Fate points, there are limitations to taking the big man (though he has special rules still that mitigate these handicaps somewhat).

There were some changes to the Balrog's profile, most of which were positive. Like the Dwellers in the Dark of the previous edition (affectionally called "baby Balrogs" by us and I assume others), the Balrog now has an 8" Move value - which is not the Fly special rule (because . . . you know . . . he has wings), but the extra movement on a big-base model is always nice. Like all monsters, the Balrog picked up Dominant, but Dominant (10) is one of the very, VERY few double-digit Dominant keywords and while he's passing on the Dominant (3) he'd get for being the army leader in a Depths of Moria list, it VERY much offsets his high price tag.

He picked up a new rule (Large Target) that is sort of a nerf, but also probably should have been on his profile anyway - lots of monsters have picked this one up, so it's not a big deal (and frankly, if your opponent wants to target him with most kinds of archery instead of your grunts, you're kind of okay with that. Similarly, his Flame of Udun rule changed slightly, allowing Balrogs to wound immune-to-fire models with their swords, which they were previously unable to do (seeing two Balrogs fight in a Contest of Champions game was hysterical in the last edition, since neither could wound the other). They can't wound immune-to-fire models with anything else (no whip damage, no Flame of Udun damage, etc.), but at least they can do damage with their swords now.

First Impressions: Gundabad and Dol Goldur, Part I

Hey Reader!

Welcome back! We're back reviewing more of the armies from the new edition, and today we're looking at the 19 profiles tied to Azog, whether they be part of his hunters or his legion. This one has seen small tweaks to...actually most of the profiles, and some of them have toned down some of the craziness of the old edition (some of which I'll miss, but some of which honestly makes sense and is fine. I see why they did it, even if it dropped the power curve on my Azog's Hunters lists), but the small changes do change some of the decisions you make, in ways that I think are healthy.

Leader Overview: How Have Azog and Bolg Changed?

Photo GamesWorkshop

So let's start with the big man himself: Gorgowrath's go-to man, the beast for destroying any hero, and a monster without the monster keyword: Azog the Defiler. Azog is largely the same: still F7 (grumble grumble, he's not that great in the movies or the books, but whatever), still S5, and the clarity of his special rule helps to remove some of the potential shenanigans that can come with his wounding heroes on a 3+, so great job rules team! And just in general I appreciate the greater use across the books of the use of "natural" when combined with a number to provide clarity: good choice all around.

He has access to heavy armor to get up to D7, which is good because while he has 3 Wounds he still only has the 1 Fate Point, so he can be fragile. And his White Warg isn't much better: still only D5 with 2 Wounds and 1 Fate, so once again, just watch out for archery and magic as that could be devastating to you. But there are two major changes that should be noted here, both of which are less than optimal.

An Incomplete History of MESBG Content Creators

Good morning gamers,

TMAT just passed its fourteenth anniversary (our first post went up on February 14, 2011, but our first post with any meaningful content went up on March 8, 2011 - fourteen years ago last Saturday) and to celebrate that, I wanted to tackle what has become an absolutely impossible task: documenting the history of MESBG content creators.

I'll start by saying that I'm not doing this to toot our own horn - I'm doing it because one of the largest drivers for the creation of this blog is that back in 2011, there was basically no one doing what we do - there were very few people doing anything on the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. Nowadays, you can barely cruise a Facebook group without seeing someone's article or podcast or YouTube video advertised (and if you ever watch something MESBG-related on YouTube, you'll be absolutely BOMBARDED by recommended videos). It's a great time to be an MESBG fan, but it wasn't always this way.

While I'd love to get every content creator into this blogpost . . . there is no living way that I could possibly know of all the content creators for MESBG that are active right now or that have ever posted MESBG content - so if I didn't catch you in this article, please don't be offended. I've captured here the blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels that I follow regularly, as well as those mentioned by a lot of other content creators (who, once I hear about them a few times, I definitely check out). Feel free to provide contact details in the comments if you want - here or on Facebook - if you have stuff you like (and while I won't talk in detail about everything I follow, you should check out the sidebar on the blog for the full list of things I keep up with)!

Finally, I'm also writing this to pay some homage to the content creators who used to create MESBG content and have probably fallen off the radar (and may never have been on the radars of newer players). Our game has a great and hallowed history and during times when GW wasn't actively giving us things to read, watch, or listen to, there has always been a small corps (now a veritable horde) of amateurs who shared their love for the game in print, in audio, or in video formats. It is primarily to these creators - both those still with us and those who have sunset their platforms - that I dedicate this post. 

It began . . . well, it began as you might expect . . .