The New Age Is Begun: The Ravagers of the Shire Army List

Hey Reader!

Today we're discussing a shire-centric list!!! GET HYPED!!! It's the orcs led by Golfimbul to attack the Shire, but still: WE'RE BACK!!!

And after all my complaining about Buhrdur's Horde, good news for you: I'm actually positive on this list. I actually think I like it more, even though it lacks a power hero, but more on that below.

Ravagers of the Shire: Changes for 2025

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This list is pretty different from what we had last edition, mostly because we're dealing with two faction tags: Golfimbul and the Hill Trolls have the Angmar keyword, while the captains, shamans, and orcs of various kinds have the Mordor keyword. So just know upfront that there's going to be some juggling of keywords (and it matters for a few rules).

Top 10 Hero Choices for the Realms of Men

All photos courtesy of GamesWorkshop

Hey Reader!

I've been playing around with the Realms of Men list recently (and took them to the TMAT GT this past May, where I finished with 2 Wins, 1 Loss, and 1 Draw), and as part of my experimenting with different iterations of the list, I decided to do a Top 10 post looking at the hero choices, because things are INTERESTING in this list.

There are quite a few heroes available to you (5 Kings, 6 Generic Captains, 2 specialists in the Knight of the White Tower and the Rohan King's Huntsman, and several siege captains), so all of them will make the cut! But how useful they are is another question. Before we start the review, let's look at what we'll be ranking in this assessment.

• To start, you need to take a king to field their relevant captains and warriors, but we are not going to therefore say, "Ah yes: the king is automatically higher ranked because you need him to run the captains." We'll evaluate each individually for their usefulness in the list.
• We will consider what kinds of warriors you get access to by taking a given hero, as unit options are part of why you'd consider taking a king/captain, and whether you should branch out into a second, third, or more factions because of what options will be unlocked.
• We will assume that you are playing at a standard points range (600-800pts), so that there is no assumption of only having 1-2 kings: you can run as many as you want, which means that there are reasons to mix and match factions. So just because one faction may be stronger than another in terms of options, that doesn't automatically move them to the top (or bottom), though it may give a reason for pushing deep into one or the other.
• Kings do have access to Heroic Strike; this will naturally lend them to being taken, and does make them inherently valuable. But Heroic Strike on its own does not necessitate "Top 5 Status."

So with no further ado, let's jump into the list!

The New Age Is Begun: The Buhrdur's Horde Army List

Hey Reader!

Today we're discussing a list that I got excited about when I heard Rise of Angmar was going to include it, and that I really, really want to love because it has one of my favorite heroes in the game in it, and he's the centerpiece of what they do. So before we start the semi-hate-fest that this post is going to be (because man this list is really constrained, and hard to make work, and I say this as someone who has put in the reps with it all edition so far and boy has this been hard), I just want to say upfront:

I like Buhrdur, and I want him to succeed.

So everything I say next should be taken in the spirit of constructive criticism and finding ways to make tasty lemonade, because I really do want to see this army list work! But as it is, it has a lot of limitations, few answers to common problems, and relies on a whole lot of luck to bring in the wins.

Buhrdur's Horde: Changes for 2025

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The list of models in this army list hasn't changed from the previous edition: it's representative of the orcs and terrifying creatures common in the Third Age in the forests of Rhudaur and the mountains near Imladris, and is an Angmar army that has no undead in it (which is pretty unique, but also pretty cool). With a mix of orcs, wargs, and trolls, at the very least, you do have access to fast models, which not every army does.

The New Age Is Begun: The Battle of Fornost Army List

Good morning gamers,

Editor's Note: Before we begin the formal post, I just wanted to say that we just passed the 5 million view mark - we're so happy that you guys read our stuff and we'll keep doing what we can to provide accurate information and thoughtful articles about the game we all love!

One of the last games I played in the old edition (not including the practice leading up to our throw-back tournament we did last year) was with the Battle of Fornost. I had to proxy Earnur with Elessar, but golly was the list fun to use. In this edition of the game, the Battle of Fornost remains a powerhouse list, with a very unique flavoring of different factions that is probably only rivaled by the Battle of Five Armies, the Legions of Mordor, or the Defenders of the Pelennor. Of all the Rivendell-style armies, this one has the most warrior diversity by far and also has a really interesting array of heroes. Let's see what this list brings and why it seems to be a good list in the competitive scene.

The Battle of Fornost: Changes for 2025

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This list is composed of three elements: Gondor, Arnor, and Rivendell. The "Arnor" section is incredibly fragmented, but this also makes for some very interesting options for your list building. The Arnor heroes include Aranarth (Valor) and Rangers of the North (Minor or Independent) and all of these guys can lead Hobbit Archers (more on this later in the post).

The Gondor contingent is Earnur (required, Legend) and Captains of Minas Tirith and they can lead Knights of Minas Tirith and Warriors of Minas Tirith (pretty restrictive, but really all you need). The Rivendell contingent includes Glorfindel (required, Legend), Cirdan (Fortitude), and Rivendell Captains (Fortitude) and they can lead Rivendell Warriors. Thirteen total profiles doesn't seem huge (and is less than the total number of heroes available to any of those omnibus lists I mentioned earlier!), but it has an incredible array of models to choose from - heavily-armored men (foot and mounted), heavily-armored Elves (mostly on foot), unarmored Hobbits (on foot, obviously), and hero-warrior Rangers (all on foot).

The Road to the TMAT GT 2026: Tiberius's List

Good morning gamers,

I love the week leading up to an event - lists are in (usually), spreadsheets are being made, rules are being reviewed, and final practice games are being run. It's always a good time - and I love it all. As is usually the case, there's never one list that has taken my attention during the lead up to an event, so I culled the many thoughts to five lists . . . and those are the ones I will be sharing with you today.

Pick #5: The Garrison of Ithilien 

I had a blast with this list - it gets slightly more than 50% shooting thanks to the heroes in it and it has a very healthy model count of 32. I tested several variants of this list, including one that pushed 40 models but didn't have Smeagol and Sam in it. At the end of the day, the biggest limitation on this list is that its only answers to big heroes is its volume of S2 archery and Frodo with the Ring - and I wanted more options:

I still think this list has potential and I really liked the shooting. That did become a bit of the theme of these lists and as a long-time proponent of shooting-heavy lists, perhaps it's not a surprise that I also looked at . . .