The New Age Is Begun: the Army of Gothmog Army List

Good morning gamers,

This February will be "Mordor Month" and we're kicking off our review of four Mordor army lists by looking at the Army of Gothmog. This was one of two Mordor-oriented Legendary Legions that hit the meta when it came out . . . and it really struggled to go anywhere because you could run basically everything in it (without the "big man" you were required to take) in the generic Mordor list last edition. In this current game, this list might suffer from a similar fate with the appearance of the Army of the Great Eye army list from the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement, but time will tell if this old list still has some life in it. Let's see what it does and why you would want to run it over other Mordor lists.

The Army of Gothmog: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

The list of models you can take in this list is not that different from last edition - you still have the quad-fecta of Gothmog, Guritz, Goroth, and Zagdush (if you're playing with Legacies) for your named heroes, "Gothmog's Enforcer" for your named-without-a-name hero option, and Morannon Orc Captains, Mordor Orc Shamans, and siege veterans for the siege weapons as your generic heroes. What we've lost in this edition are the Orc Taskmasters and Orc Drummers that you could take. For warriors, we have Morannon Orcs and Mordor Trolls . . . and if that seems like a scant list, that's just because it is - not having Mordor Orcs actually punishes this list a bit from how I was running it last edition, since the Orc Warriors provided you with the option for cheaper bowmen or spear supports for your Morannon Orc frontline. Still, Morannons are good and Mordor Trolls got a lot better, so this list is . . . well, it was never in a great place, but it's in an okay place now.

Back to Basics, Revisited: The Shoot Phase

Good morning gamers,

We're in our third post on how to play the game and we're tackling one of my favorite aspects of the game: the Shoot phase. This phase of the game is the only phase where your opponent doesn't really get a say in what happens - sure, he can maneuver his troops during the Move phase to make his units harder to hit (or impossible to see) OR even use special rules that make shooting at his troops harder, but once he's done moving, it's all in your hands. For a game that is heavily dependent on "rolling better than your opponent," it's nice that at least one aspect of the game doesn't involve that kind of competition. This also makes armies that focus too heavily on shooting hated by some members of the community, so just be aware of that before delving headlong into it. Let's understand what you can do in the Shoot phase!

The New Age Is Begun: The Riders of Theoden Army List

Good morning gamers,

This is it for Rohan (for the now, anyway) and we're wrapping up two months of Rohan lists with the one that started it all, really: the Riders of Theoden. Back when the MESBG revamp happened, Rohan was . . . well, it's always been a popular list, but it was really popular: the new starter set landed a lot of people with new Theoden models and lots of Riders of Rohan and anyone who didn't already have a host of Rohan models got to enjoy painting three models (a rider, a horse, and a dismount) for every 14-17pts they wanted to spend on warriors . . . good times. A few months after the revamp, the Gondor at War supplement dropped and with it came a host of new Legendary Legions - and while the Black Gate Opens and Return of the King Legendary Legions were incredibly popular, neither of these Legions was as popular or as dominant on the top-tables as the Riders of Theoden. It was, quite honestly, one of very few Legions that looked like it was an improvement on a trimmed-down army list - and from a game design perspective, it was basically the poster boy for what any Legendary Legion was supposed to be.

Fast-forward six years and we've got the Riders of Theoden army list, which hasn't seemed to dominate quite as much as it did back in the day (even as new Legions and a host of new models were introduced to the game). Is this list still worth running? And if so, what's making people shy away from it? Well, let's take a look and find out what we have to work with vis-a-vis last edition!

The Riders of Theoden: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

The profile selection is essentially the same as we had before - we have all the named heroes you'd expect with Theoden, Eomer, Eowyn/Merry (formerly Dernhelm), Deorwine, Elfhelm, and Gamling. Joining the fight we have Captains of Rohan (one of whom you can name as Grimbold - give him heavy armor and a shield why don't ya?), Riders of Rohan, and Rohan Royal Guards (who can be led by Theoden, Eomer, Deorwine, and Gamling . . . so you can field a lot of them, if you don't want throwing spears on all of them. This is the same list as in the previous edition and honestly, it doesn't need any changes . . . you know, unless you wanted to make a mounted Grimbold model and a revamped profile to go with it, GW? :)

Army List Bonuses

Two of your army special rules are the same as they were before - your mounted models get Strength +1 on the charge and once per game, Theoden can cry "DEATH!" and your heroes get to declare free Heroic Combats or Strikes. Getting in a good DEATH! turn has always been the way this list has stood above standard Rohan lists and if you really lean into the heroes, you can have an absolutely devastating turn with this rule (much like the once-per-game Look to the Sun ability for the Riders of Eomer).

There is a new rule, however: any friendly Cavalry Warrior models near Theoden and Eomer get Dominant (2), which is a situationally useful (but the situation is present in most of the scenarios) ability that makes your all-cavalry force feel larger than it is. Like some of the Erebor and Dale rules, however, this is a rule that competes with DEATH! a bit in that the harder you lean into your heroes, the less this rule will be useful. Also, staying within 3" of Theoden and Eomer is not that big of a radius - but in a scenario like Hold Ground, Command the Battlefield, or Divide and Conquer where you really want to be in one or two places, it can be super useful.

The New Age Is Begun: The Road to Helm's Deep Army List

Good morning gamers,

This is the second to last Rohan list we'll be covering (we have a few more to do, but having been in Rohan for most of December and all of January, we need a change of pace, ey?) and this one is an intriguing one. I'll be honest, I think there are some significant drawbacks to taking this list, but it also has some unique abilities built into it and it has plenty of room to scale out to various points levels. Let's see what we get in this list (and what we can do here that we can't do in other lists)!

The Road to Helm's Deep: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list is closest to the generic Rohan list of the last edition, but if you include Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli in this list, you would have had to run a Convenient Alliance with the Fellowship of the Ring in the last edition. Your units are pretty standard - Theoden, Gamling, Hama, and Captains for the Rohan side of the house, along with the Three Hunters - and you can lead Rohan Royal Guards with Theoden/Gamling/Hama and Riders of Rohan (and maybe Rohan Outriders, if you're playing with Legacy profiles) with the others.

Army List Bonuses

Like most Rohan lists, Riders of Rohan don't count towards your bow limit, so if you want to go shooting-heavy (and/or cavalry-heavy), you can. This list also gets the fairly-standard rule of +1 Strength on the Charge for its Cavalry models, but unlike the Ride Out list, this bonus is limited to Rohan Cavalry models (so if you take Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli . . . no dice).

There are two cool things that this list offers. First, if you take both Legolas and Gimli in your list, Gimli may begin as a passenger for Legolas. While mounted on Legolas's horse, Legolas gets rules similar to what Eowyn and Gandalf gain when they have Merry or Pippin mounted with them - Legolas goes up to 3 Attacks and can borrow Gimli's Might/Will/Fate (the Might can't be used to boost shooting rolls). Normally, if a passenger dismounts, they can't do anything - but if Gimli dismounts, he can activate as normal, which is great for making sure that he gets to charge into someone and fight.

Additionally, if one of your heroes dismounts voluntarily or is forcibly dismounted during the game, the hero can end its Move in base contact with a friendly Cavalry Warrior model who is not engaged and "take the horse." The dismounted Warrior model is placed where the Hero was and the mounted Hero model is placed where the Warrior was. This is SUPER good for making sure that your heroes keep up their damage as the game goes on - and also disincentivizes your opponent from attacking your horses if you have warrior support nearby.

Back to Basics, Revisited: The Priority and Move Phases

Good morning gamers,

Last time, we talked about how you build an army and what a model's profile looks like. Today we're covering the first two phases in a battle round: the Priority Phase and the Move Phase. While these two phases are technically separate, they often flow together because the player who wins priority on certain turns can dictate how the round goes. It's also not too controversial for me to say that these are the two most important phases in the game - you can win some games just by moving where you want to and you can lose some games by not being able to move where you want to. So, let's dig in and learn how to play!