So It Begins, Part 6: The Causeway

Good morning gamers,

We're doing a scenario today that really should be in Fantasy Fellowships and yet isn't: the Causeway. In Fantasy Fellowships, there's a Helm's Deep scenario with Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli in it, a scenario with Aragorn and Legolas in it, and one with Gandalf in it. This makes the Gimli less valuable in the campaign and this scenario features him and Aragorn . . . so I am 1) very happy we're getting to it, and b) absolutely terrified that the Uruk-Hai are going to tear through my heroes. :-)

The Causeway (War in Rohan, p. 34)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario:

• Forces of Good: The Fellowship 
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Forces of Evil: Mostly The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes

This scenario requires at least 10 Evil models to get through the gate (which has 1 Wound and D8) or to kill both Aragorn and Gimli. If one hero dies but the other lives (and 10 models don't get off the board), then it's a draw. If both heroes survive and fewer than 10 models get off the board, Good wins 

To help Evil out a bit, Uruk-Hai Warrior models get to come back when they die - that means there are gonna be TONS of dice coming for me!

The New Age Is Begun: The Black Riders Army List

Good morning gamers,

When the Quest of the Ringbearer sourcebook came out, I had to buy it - I just had to. The legendary legions in the book (which parallel the idea of army lists that we have today) were all awesome - an updated Rangers of Ithilien list, a Depths of Moria list that gave neat buffs to the Balrog, a Lurtz's Scouts list that gave the Uruk-Hai speed and some cool rules for Lurtz, a Cirith Ungol list with a fun kill-count mini-game, a really cool Fellowship list that made the Fellowship members feel really awesome, and an all-Nazgul list that was . . . well, it was pretty awesome. The last list, the Black Riders, was a bit of a polarizing one (since the Ringwraiths originally could kill themselves by casting Black Darts with all their Will, kill the enemy General, quarter themselves, and win 3-0 on the first or second turn . . . until an FAQ changed that), but it was always an interesting army to run and a very interesting army list to build, since you had to balance your need for Fate points with your need for Will points.

In the current edition of the game . . . we have a Black Riders list (the last of the lists that requires you to take the Witch-King), but it feels very different. I think it's fair to say that we're pretty upbeat here at TMAT and we try to find reasons to run each list. I'm gonna say it, though: I think this list feels a lot worse this edition than it did last edition . . . and I'm not compelled to run it, like, at all. However, this being TMAT, I assume that if you're reading this, you are a) interested in the thematic running of the Black Riders, b) you're up for "hard mode" and want to give yourself a challenge, or c) you're just getting into the game and you're curious about whether this list is any good. So, in the best good-faith effort I can muster, I'm going to dive into the Black Riders list and depart from my usual script a bit in order to explore how this list has changed and what I think would make it better.

The Black Riders: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Like last edition, we have two profiles available to us: the Witch-King (who we have to take) and Ringwraiths (who we functionally have to take). Both of these are the mid-tier profiles, so we have 1M/10W/1F on each of the Ringwraiths and 2M/14W/2F on the Witch-King. As is expected, they have to take horses (bringing the Witch-King to 140pts and your Ringwraiths to 105pts - in this list alone, the cost of their horses went down to 15pts) and each can take a Morgul Blade but no other equipment. That's all we got - hopefully we get rules that make up for this, right?

Army List Bonuses

There are still four rules that this list gets - and you need them all for sure. The rule that makes this list work is The Will of Sauron rule, which makes friendly Ringwraiths not lose Will points for being Engaged in Combat for the Will of Evil special rule. Without this rule (spoken by someone who ran all-Ringwraiths in the game before the Black Riders was a thing), your list is on a timer and if you can't kill enough of the enemy before your Will runs out, you lose (not fun). You also have Terror in the Night, which is technically weaker but functionally better than what you had last edition: enemy models who are in range of multiple Ringwraiths get -2 to their Courage instead of -1. Previously, it was -2 if you were within Harbinger range of 4-6 models and -3 if you were within range of 7-9 Ringwraiths. Now, if you're within range of 2+ Ringwraiths, you apply a -2 penalty - which is good if you get to 2-3 Ringwraiths, the same if you have 4-6 Ringwraiths in range, and worse if you happen to have 7+ Ringwraiths in your list and they all happen to be in range of someone. All in all, these are two great rules.

There are two situationally good rules that help the list out. If your opponent brings a Ringbearer, one of your heroes who could charge the Ringbearer can declare a free Heroic Combat via the Hunt the Ringbearer special rule. If both players declare Heroic Combats, this free one will always go first. Free Heroic Combats are always good (and guaranteeing that you go first is always a good thing), but this will only matter if your opponent actually brings a Ringbearer. Additionally, there's a once-per-turn, once-per-hero-each-game ability for your Ringwraiths to cast a Transfix spell that counts as being cast on a 6 (and it counts as their spell that's cast this turn). This rule (Screech of the Nazgul) is a powerful way to make sure that your opponent doesn't get to go with important heroes without spending resources (or getting lucky with free resources), which helps to make sure that big heroes don't go crashing through your fragile heroes.

The New Age Is Begun: the Minas Morgul Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're continuing our "Ringwraith Month" by covering one of the more popular Mordor lists (in light of a popular Angmar list last week): Minas Morgul. This is "the other conventional army where you have to take the Witch-King" (we're tackling the third and last Witch-King-required list next week) and it's quite the popular choice for new and veteran players alike. At the time of this writing, there are 1333 games played with this list since the start of the new edition (according to TTA) and it has a 47% win-rate . . . but as I mentioned in my sign-off last week, I think this has to do with a mixed bag of experienced and inexperienced players using it. 

The podium results stats in TTA tell a very interesting tale: since the start of the current edition, there have been 25 podium finishes at 106 events, giving it a 22.6% podium finish rate with Gold finishes at the 2026 Australian Masters, Silver and Bronze finishes at the 2026 Hamburger Meisterschaft tournament (53 players), and a Bronze finish at the 2026 The Ring Goes South tournament (48 players). That's . . . a good list by anyone's standard. By comparison, there are 18 army lists with a better event podium percentage (one of which is a "free build", so that one doesn't really count?) and only five lists with a greater number of podium finishes (Men of the West, Depths of Moria, Lurtz's Scouts, Kingdom of Khazad-Dum, and the Last Alliance - yes, it pipped out the Army of the White Hand by 1 podium slot). In both categories, it's the highest-rated pure Mordor list (Fell Beings and Assault on Lothlorien supersede it in the event percentage stat, but those have non-Mordor things that grab your attention). Let's see what's so hot about this list!

Minas Morgul: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has the same top-tier version of the Witch-King, but like the Host of the Witch-King that we looked at last time, he isn't forced into taking a particular mount. Unlike last time, however, he has access to both Fell Beast options and a normal Horse, along with a two-handed weapon, a Morgul Blade, and the Crown of Morgul. I don't know that you need more than just the mount (20-50pts), but it's nice to have options. Supporting him are mid-tier Ringwraiths, Kardush the Firecaller, and Mordor Orc Shamans as casters, Mordor Orc Drummers as a support piece, and Mordor Orc Captains, Morannon Orc Captains, and Mordor Orc Taskmasters as your March heroes. The Ringwraiths have to be your hitting pieces (depending on your perspective on the March Captains, I guess), but it's a pretty well-rounded group of profiles (despite its short length).

On the Warrior front, we have a roster that's about the same length: Mordor Orc Warriors and Morannon Orc Warriors make up your "core" units, with options for Morgul Stalkers, Orc Trackers, Spectres, and Mordor Trolls as your specialist picks. There's a lot of power in these units - Morgul Stalkers have 2 Attacks, Orc Trackers are decent shooters, Mordor Trolls take a lot of resources to bring down (and with F7/S7, they're pretty dangerous if they have a banner nearby and some Orcs to screen for them), Morannon Orcs are S4/D6 (and sometimes F4), and Spectres have Blades of the Dead . . . but as we'll see shortly, they're not the only dangerous warriors in this army . . .

Army List Bonuses

The army list bonuses are pretty different from those in the Host of the Witch-King that we looked at last time - but they make a fight between a Host of the Witch-King fight and Minas Morgul very one-sided. While the Host of the Witch-King grants Orcs near Spirit Heroes the Terror special rule, Minas Morgul gives friendly Orcs near Spirit models (that's Heroes and Warriors) an automatic pass when Charging Terror models - that's really good! The other glamor rule is that your Mordor Orc Captains and your Mordor Orc Warriors (but not your Morannon Orc Captains/Warriors, Orc Taskmasters, Orc Shamans, or Orc Drummers) get the Blades of the Dead special rule - this makes them an absolutely punishing army to fight if you have average Courage! Finally, if your opponent brings a Ringbearer to the fight (sans Sauron), there will be a -1 penalty to their Sauron's Will special rule, which means that you'll be controlling the Ringbearer half of the time while they wear the Ring . . . yeah, that Ring isn't going to be coming on very much!

These three rules are simple but they make the list VERY aggressive, since they encourage you to get your Orcs into the enemy quickly and hopefully chop through armies that paid for Defense and Terror instead of better Courage. All in all, it shouldn't be surprising that this is a very popular list.

Announcing the TMAT THRO 2026 Tournament!

 Good morning gamers,

It's that time of year again - it's TMAT's The Hunter's Red October tournament! The tournament will be held in Purcellville, VA on December 5, 2026. This year's tournament is a team tournament and it's set up differently than anything we've done before. Players will select whether they want to be Good or Evil and will place an army token on a space from the Return of the King Risk map (hereafter called the"strategic map").

Without further ado, here are (in my typical style) the Ten Commandments of the Tournament (Rules):

1) Thou Shalt Understand The Canon

The ruleset we will be using is from the most recent Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual (the Fellowship walking one). The supplements for the Armies of the Lord of the Rings, the Armies of the Hobbit, the Armies of Middle-Earth, and the Legacies of Middle-Earth will govern the profiles and army lists being used. Any GW errata for these books will take precedent over the printed text of these documents.

2) Thou Shalt Honor Thy Alliance

This tournament follows the alliance "restrictions" provided in the main rulebook - players will pick one army list from one of the following army lists that can be found in the GW-issued supplements for this edition and follow all list building requirements for that army list:

GOOD (30 lists)

• Army of Dale
• Army of Erebor
• Atop the Wall
• The Beornings
• The Breaking of the Fellowship
• Defenders of Erebor
• Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Defenders of the Pelennor
• The Eagles
• Fangorn
• The Fellowship
• The Fiefdoms
• The Fords of Isen
• Garrison of Ithilien
• The Grey Company
• The Grief of Eomer
• Halls of Thranduil
• Kingdom of Rohan
• Lothlorien
• Men of the West
• Minas Tirith
• Paths of the Druadan
• Reclamation of Osgiliath
• Return of the King
• Ride Out
• Riders of Eomer
• Riders of Theoden
• Rivendell
• The Road to Helm's Deep
• The Road to Rivendell
• The Shire

EVIL (29 army lists)

• Army of Dunland
• Army of Gothmog
• Army of the Great Eye
• Army of the White Hand
• Assault on Lothlorien
• Assault Upon Helm's Deep
• The Black Gate
• The Black Riders
• Cirith Ungol
• Corsair Fleets
• Depths of Moria
• The Easterlings
• Far Harad
• Fell Beings of Mirkwood
• Grand Army of the South
• Harad
• Host of the Dragon Emperor
• Legions of Mordor
• Lurtz's Scouts
• Minas Morgul
• Moria
• Muster of Isengard
• The Serpent Horde
• Ugluk's Scouts
• Umbar
• Variags of Khand
• Wolf Pack of Angmar
• Wolves of Isengard
• Wraiths on Wings

For this tournament, only one copy of an army list may be present in the alliance (see #3 below). In addition, only one copy of each named hero is allowed across the alliance. 

So It Begins, Part 5: Retreat to the Hornburg

Good morning gamers,

Editor's Note: we just passed the 6 million page views mark . . . I imagine those AI models are partly to blame, but hopefully that means our articles are helping people. :-) Whoever is reading these articles, it means a lot to us!

We're revisiting a scenario from Fantasy Fellowships in our custom Helm's Deep campaign today. Despite the amazing explosions of the last scenario, the Uruk-Hai have managed to blow a hole in the wall. Can we keep them out while keeping our heroes alive?

Retreat to the Hornburg (War in Rohan, p. 32)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario - and we did remember this time to boost one of the Captains to the Uber-Captain, so this should work out better than last scenario:

• Forces of Good: Mostly The Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• Forces of Evil: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 4 Uruk-Hai Captains
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 8 Uruk-Hai Berserkers

This scenario requires at least 10 Good models to get across the opposite game board - this will involve getting up the stairs on our board, which presents an interesting choke point situation. At least two of those models need to be heroes, so if I lose too many guys or too many heroes, the game will end early.

To help Evil out a bit, Uruk-Hai Warrior models get to come back when they die on the siege ladders - I forgot to ask Centaur to bring his ladders, so he can maneuver them along the wall if he wants. Additionally, all those S4-5 Uruk-Hai get to reroll all failed To Wound rolls . . . this is gonna HURT!