So It Begins, Part 8: Ride Out

 Good morning gamers,

For the astute observer, we jumped from Scenario 6 to Scenario 8 - this isn't a typo. Centaur's 3D printer was angry about the humidity in his house and wouldn't print the last bits of the Deep Citadel that we needed for the Fall Back to the Keep scenario, so we're postponing it until the air gets dryer - we'll post it when it's ready, I promise.

We're almost done and today we're back in a scenario that we've played before in Fantasy Fellowships: Ride Out. I'm not going to lie, I have been playing with the Ride Out army list a lot this year and I am feeling pretty confident about how things are going to go. Let's see if I can smash up the Uruk-Hai without mounted Dwarf heroes this time!

Ride Out (War in Rohan, p. 38)

I decided to change up the scenario participants to make the fight more balanced - there are a lot more Uruks than are normally in the scenario:

• Forces of Good: 599pt Ride Out
• Theoden with everything 
• Aragorn on Brego with armor 
• Legolas on horse with armor 
• Gamling with everything 
• 2 Riders of Rohan 
• 2 Rohan Royal Guards on horses with throwing spears 
• Forces of Evil: 594pt The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 1 Uruk-Hai Uber-Captain 
• 3 Uruk-Hai Captains 
• 15 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields 
• 15 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes 
• 1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with banner 

Outnumbered 35-to-8, let's see if we can beat these guys up! The board is a 48"x48" setup, but since Centaur could start near the end of the Causeway, he did:

Turn 1: Priority Good

We advance, I shoot, nothing happens. Riveting start, I know . . .

Turn 2: Priority Evil

Evil advanced up the Causeway and I charged - this will be glorious!

Legolas killed a shield Uruk in the Shoot Phase (1/3M) - lovely start!

Aragorn called a free Heroic Combat and two- handed, won the fight after getting a 3-high by dumping all his Might (3/3M), and killed his foes.

Aragorn killed a few more guys while Theoden won his fight (1/3M), boosted to get three wounds against the Captain (3/3M), and got one of his Might points back from Gamling's banner (2/3M).

Turn 3: Priority tied, Good

The Uber-Captain called a Heroic Move (1/2M), and Gamling counter-called (1/2M). Evil went first (which is why you don't counter-called these things, guys).

Not much happened - Theoden won his fight and dealt one wound to a Captain (1/2H).

Turn 4: Priority tied, Evil

Gamling called a Heroic Move (2/2M) and a Captain counter-called (2/2M). An Uruk climbed onto the only available space and engaged one of my Riders.

In the Shoot Phase, Legolas and a Rider of Rohan both kill pikemen!

Apparently all my heroes want to be divas because Legolas needed to burn almost all his Might to win his fight (2/3M) and Aragorn had to burn his free Might point to win his. The Uruk-Hai who climbed up didn't kill anyone.

Turn 5: Priority Good

The Rohan Royal Guard near the Uruk-Hai who climbed up killed the Uruk with his throwing spears, while the rest of my men charged or blocked climbing routes. There were no kills in the Shoot Phase.

Legolas blundered again, lost his horse, and got a 1 on the Thrown Rider chart, so he's on his back (but thankfully didn't take a wound. In other news, I killed more Uruk-Hai.

Turn 6: Priority Evil

Aragorn called a free Heroic Move and Legolas got up. An Uruk snuck up behind Gamling, but was counter-charged by a Rider of Rohan.

I killed a few more Uruk-Hai, including the guy who was sneaking behind my lines. Not much else to add . . .

Turn 7: Priority Good

I am ready to be wrapped, so I blew the Horn and gave my lads Terror - it did absolutely nothing. :-)

Legolas decided he needed to contribute, so he burned his last Might point to kill two pikemen!

Aragorn called a free Heroic Combat but only killed one guy. Theoden was in a tight spot, but won and promptly failed to kill anyone. Life is good. :-)

Turn 8: Priority Evil

Aragorn called a free Heroic Move and we charged most of the remaining foes . . .

. . . and Legolas got another pikeman . . .

. . . and we killed a lot of Uruk-Hai . . .

Turn 9: Priority Good

. . . and we charged again . . . 

 . . . and we basically killed everyone (but we did lose a Rider). We called it here because there were more heroes on my side than Uruks left on the other (and most of them were prone).

Conclusion 

I know there's a general aversion to Rohan right now because of the proliferation of Wild Men of Dunland/Hill Tribesmen with Hatred, but I gotta say, this list is really fun and hits very hard - I mean, I started with eight guys and while I started with a great choke point, I only lost two guys! This list has a lot going for it and I think it should be more popular than it is.

If you enjoyed this battle report, let us know in the comments below! We'll be back next time with an adapted version of the Eomer's Return scenario - hope to see you there and until then, happy hobbying!

The New Age Is Begun: the Survivors of Lake-town Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're kicking off the last month of the year for digging through the army lists in the game and we'll be building up to the Battle of Five Armies by the end of the month! We're starting off with the least exciting of the armies we have yet to cover and that's the Survivors of Lake-town. This list differs greatly from the Army of Lake-town that we covered earlier in the year - and while it used to be a more common choice last edition (not as common as the Army of Lake-town, but some people played it), it's fallen from favor in its current iteration. Let's see why - and what there is to like about it still this edition . . .

Survivors of Lake-town: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Our profiles are the same ones we had last edition: we have Bard and his kids, Alfrid, Hilda-Bianca, Percy, and Lake-town Captains/Militia for the Lake-town contingent and we have Gandalf the Grey and "mega Bilbo" as our side characters. Unlike the Army of Lake-town, we didn't get any of the other people that show up with these guys (no Legolas, Tauriel, or other Mirkwood characters - and definitely no Dwarves). Is this enough to work with? Maybe, but surely we're going to get rules to make our guys awesome, right?

Army List Bonuses

This list has four special rules, besides the requirement to take Bard as your General every game. Two of our rules are Bard-centric (as is fitting): first, he gains Mighty Hero and Fearless via the Heir of Dale rule, which means he'll never run from a fight, he'll be able to charge whatever nasty your opponent has automatically (unless the Crown of Morgul is involved), and he gets a free Might point each turn for calling a Heroic Action, boosting a roll, or just sitting and wasting away (because unlike Aragorn, this fella doesn't have Heroic March). Bard also gets a rule (Saviour of Lake-town) where other friendly Lake-town models within 6" of Bard (not Alfrid) get +1 Fight Value and treat Bard as a banner with a range of 6" - this gives a nice boost to an otherwise untrained rabble of troops, but it isn't going to save the day on its own.

The New Age Is Begun: the Wraiths on Wings Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're approaching Halloween and we're wrapping up "spooky month" with the Wraiths on Wings list. For you bat enthusiasts, this list is . . . well, probably not as good as any of the lists with Bat Swarms in them (and I don't think it's better than the Shadows of Angmar list that has Gulavhar in it - more on that list next year). :) Still, it's one of three lists that can run "the flying circus" (alongside the Army of the Great Eye and technically the Legions of Mordor - I don't know why you would do that, though) and it's the only one that gives special boosts to your Fell Beasts. It's also really hard to use (both on the table and in the list building phase). Let's try to take a positive view of this, though, and see what this list has to offer!

Wraiths on Wings: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Our profile selection is just as bad as last time: we have the Witch-King and Ringwraiths. That's it. In a way, it's better because our Ringwraith profile is the top-tier variant, so everyone has 2M/14W/2F - a good profile, I think. The bad news is that we have to take Fell Beasts on everyone (you can - but shouldn't - upgrade those to Armored Fell Beasts if you want to), which means we're super expensive and you can get nearly two Black Rider Ringwraiths for the cost of one Wraiths on Wings Ringwraith. I don't know that this is good or bad, but it's a thing . . . and it's an absolute and unequivocal nightmare for list building.

Army List Bonuses

This list really should have more rules (I feel like a broken record after last week, but hey, I think I'm being fair here?), but the two it has are good and universally useful. The first rule (Full Force Charge) allows the first friendly Monster model that charges to deal a S5 impact hit to each model he charges (hits are dealt to both the mount and rider where that's a thing). If everyone he charged is killed, then he can keep moving per normal, but won't deal any more impact hits that round. This requires thinking a bit about who you want to deal impact hits to and who you want to do the impact hits with, but you won't have many models - it's fine.

The second rule (Strafing Attack) allows a friendly Monster model who ends its move unengaged to pick an unengaged model that they passed over (trace the path you moved along with the width of the path being the width of the Fell Beast base) and deal a S5 hit to that unit (hits are dealt to both the mount and the rider again). If the unit survives, it's knocked Prone. This is a great way of dealing with a mounted enemy hero as there's no counterplay to being knocked over (unless you have Brego), no roll to be made to see if you're knocked Prone (like Gundabad Bats have), and no requirement that you have to deal a wound first. The one drawback of this rule, however, is that you can't end in combat - which can be fine, more on that later.

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.