So It Begins, Part 2: The Walls of Helm's Deep

Good morning gamers,

We're back for another scenario in our custom Helm's Deep campaign. Today, the Uruk-Hai have made it to the walls and they'll be battling through the defenders, trying to get a hold of the walls. Can Aragorn and his friends kill 35 Uruk-Hai in 12 rounds? Can we keep Aragorn alive? We'll see - here are our participants . . .

The Walls of Helm's Deep (War in Rohan, p. 26)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this 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
• Aldor
• Haleth, Son of Hama
• 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
• 12 Uruk-Hai Berserkers

The record keeping for this scenario is tricky - we tried our best to keep a faithful tally. You will see how this went shortly . . .

The New Age Is Begun: the Fiefdoms Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're kicking off Pelennor Fields month with a list that I'm very glad I waited to review until after the FAQ dropped: the Fiefdoms. At the start of the last edition, I was completely blown away by the "overlapping bubble" rules that the army list had (the Fearless and Banner buffs in particular) and the units themselves were pretty average cost for above-average Fight (for the most part) and low-to-average Defense (for the most part). At the end of the last edition, I was building lists around Imrahil and Gandalf the White, using Minas Tirith frontliners supported by Dol Amroth pikemen. This edition, the Fiefdoms plays pretty differently with some very, VERY drastic changes to reign them in (and yet no commensurate price drop appears to be present for their units) - I'm a pretty generous person and I try to write that way on this blog, but I gotta say, this army seems a little over-priced on a few units and so . . . prepare for not a lot of variety in the lists at the end. :) Let's see what lies beyond the realm of Minas Tirith as we travel south and west through Gondor to find the oft-unsung heroes of the Pelennor fields. As we do in this series, anything that's strictly tied to Legacy profiles will be in red.

The Fiefdoms: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

There aren't any new profiles for this Gondorian subfaction - though Imrahil got a fancy new sculpt! We have the OG named heroes of Imrahil, Forlong, Angbor, and Duinhir alongside Captains of Dol Amroth for our generic heroes. We also have Knights of Dol Amroth (foot or mounted), Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth if you're using Legacies, Clansmen of Lamedon, Axemen of Lossarnach, and Blackroot Vale Archers. While we have all of these guys on the roster, your actual roster may vary a little . . .

Army List Bonuses

The army list in this edition is . . . a little weird, but thematically better than last edition. While you used to be able to take all of the warrior types in the list, regardless of which heroes came with them, now you have to have at least one hero of each subfaction (Dol Amroth, Lamedon, Lossarnach, and the Blackroot Vale) in order to bring warriors of the same type. This makes sense to me - though as was noted in our custom list at the end of the last edition, the Clansmen of Lamedon that show up at Minas Tirith are led by an unknown Captain, not Angbor . . . so maybe there should have been an exception for Clansmen of Lamedon?

The profiles are, however, exactly what you expect: Prince Imrahil and Captains of Dol Amroth (who can give you access to Knights/Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth if you want someone cheap), Angbor the Fearless (who gives you access to Clansmen of Lamedon), Forlong the Fat (who gives you access to Axemen of Lossarnach), and Duinhir (who gives you access to Blackroot Vale Archers). This functionally means that you might be forced into two or three of the factions if you want an all-around list (cavalry/expensive front-line infantry - and/or supporting models - from Dol Amroth, bows/supporting models from Blackroot Vale, front-line guys from either Lamedon or Lossarnach).

The New Age Is Begun: The Army of Thror Army List

Good morning gamers,

We occasionally get requests for army lists to review - and at the start of last month, we got a request for the Army of Thror (which was originally slotted for coverage in July, but was pushed to make space for last week's article on Moria). Well, we're answering the mail again and we're tackling the Army of Thror - which is a list that comes under a LOT of scrutiny by the competitive community, but I think this is a very solid list if you run it a particular way.

The Army of Thror: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has the five named Dwarf heroes from last edition (Thror, Thrain, Young Thorin/Balin/Dwalin), as well as three generic heroes (Dwarf Kings - new to the list, Erebor Dwarf Captains, and Grim Hammer Captains), all of whom have Heroic March. The warrior contingent is exactly what they had before: Erebor Dwarf Warriors and Grim Hammer Warriors (with an upgrade for Guardians of the King for any taken in Thror's warband). All in all . . . they gained Dwarf Kings and otherwise, it's the same old profiles we know (and maybe love).

Army List Bonuses

This list started with the least impressive array of special rules in the game: Thror is treated as a 6" banner (which is good - but he doesn't count for VPs and you can't take any normal banners), everyone gets +1 To Wound an enemy model who is carrying an Objective Marker (which aren't always in the game), and everyone gets to reroll 1s To Wound when making Strikes while they're in their own deployment zone.

Now on the whole, these rules - if expanded a bit - would be really good: a 6" banner rule on a hero is always welcome, but it feels a bit bad when compared to the Ravenhill rule for Thorin or the Shire rule for Rosie, both of which give a 6" banner to a list that really needs it AND the target hero counts as a banner for VPs. Additionally, getting +1 To Wound is awesome, but it would be far better if it applied to enemy models who were near or carrying an objective marker (as you'd add a bunch of scenarios where it applies - and it would be more like the Gaffer's Flower Pots, which is a good rule). Finally, rerolling 1s while in your deployment zone is very similar to the Atop the Walls special rule that allows shooting attacks and melee attacks to reroll 1s while the unit is near an objective marker - and while rerolling 1s isn't usually seen as good, the value of rerolling a 1 gets better as your strength value goes up (and Atop the Walls has both kinds of Gondor siege weapons, so they're regularly wounding on 3s or 4s and rerolling 1s). 

So It Begins, Part 1: Raise the Ladders

Good morning gamers,

Every year, Centaur and I try to do some kind of scenario thing - in recent years, we've played through Fantasy Fellowships, the Scouring of the Shire, and a custom campaign through all the Osgiliath missions. Today, we're starting this year's campaign, which will be playing through the scenarios related to Helm's Deep from the War in Rohan supplement. We'll be using the new profiles, but we won't be altering the scenario participants to make legal Matched Play lists (it just doesn't work for Good this time around). We'll also be showing off the amazing terrain from Conquest Creations' Kingdom of Saxonia, Volume II - Jacob has really outdone himself and boy was making the terrain a ton easier than before!

The Walls of Helm's Deep (War in Rohan, p. 26)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this 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
• Aldor
• Haleth, Son of Hama
• 8 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 8 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 8 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
• 12 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
• 5 Siege Ladders

We could have made this a Matched Play game by adding Theoden to the good side - the points are one-sided towards the Forces of Good and they have the walls . . . we'll see how this goes. The victory conditions for this scenario are based on how many ladders Evil can keep up - if Good can knock down 4+ of the 5 ladders, they win. If Evil can keep up 4+ of the ladders, they win. If there are 3 ladders left standing, it's a draw. 

The New Age Is Begun: the Moria Army List

Good morning gamers,

We got a request a few weeks ago (at the time that I'm writing this) to review the Moria army list - and despite how crazy this world is, we listen here at TMAT and I found a slot for the article to fit in. So . . . tell us what you want us to review and we'll see what we can do. :) The Moria army list differs quite a lot from the Depths of Moria list, despite the fact that the core units of both armies are the same. Between rules that are present in each list and each having a different "big monster" (or monsters) in it, you can get a very different experience playing Moria than a "Depths" list. Let's see what causes these differences, shall we?

Moria: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has all of the GW-named Goblins in it (both Durburz and Druzhag from the Armies of Middle-Earth and Ashrak and Groblog from the Legacies document), all of the generic Goblin heroes (both Moria Goblin Captains/Shamans and Blackshield Captains/Shamans), and all of the big monster heroes from the last edition EXCEPT the Balrog (Dragons, Cave Drakes, and the Watcher in the Water). 

You also have access to most of the old Moria warrior profiles - Moria Goblin Warriors/Prowlers/Drum, Blackshield Warriors/Drum, Warg Marauders, Dwellers in the Dark, and Cave Trolls. These profiles are available to any hero in the list. Druzhag opens up a few other profiles: the big profile that was missing from the list above - Bat Swarms - as well as Fell Wargs and Mirkwood Hunting Spiders (who might actually be useful in this list - more on that below). All in all, unless you really liked Wild Wargs last edition, you have everything you had before - hooray!