Back to Basics, Revisited: Monsters in MESBG

Good morning gamers,

Last time, we talked about how cavalry work in MESBG and today, we're turning to an element of MESBG that can absolutely alter the way a game can go: how monsters work. When I first got started in the game, things like "Brutal Power Attacks" weren't a thing - and neither was Heroic Strike (every hero had Move, Shoot, and Combat - and that was it). This meant two things with regard to monsters: first, a Monster was quite likely to have a higher Fight Value than anything he was fighting (or at least a tied Fight Value). Second, the go-to tactic for dealing with them was hoping one poor, unfortunate soul would be brave enough to tie them down for a turn - and if the dice were kind, he'd get a 6 while the monster wouldn't and he'd live to do it all over again on another turn. Or . . . you'd just shoot the guy/tie him down with an Immobilize to make him F1 with 1 Attack. My, those were odd times . . .

While the Hobbit rulebook modified this strategy some (early versions of Brutal Power Attacks were a thing), monsters - especially Warrior monsters - were in a bit of a spot because EVERY hero could call Heroic Strike and win the Fight Value mini-game. When the MESGB rules revamp arrived in late 2017, we got a rebalanced set of Brutal Power Attacks and Heroic Strike was constrained to certain heroes. Heroic Defense was added to others in that edition, which allowed for more diverse options for dealing with monsters.

In the current edition, Heroic Strike got toned down, Brutal Power Attacks changed slightly, and Dominant X was added to monsters. With no less than FOUR things you can do when you win a fight (and for some Hero monsters you can pick from a few more options), a lot of new players (to say nothing of us old vets who have various versions of the old rules sets in our heads) might forget some of the nuances of how these rules work. So what we're going to walk through today is not only how monsters work in MESBG, but how to use them well and how to fight against them if you see them across the table.

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

 

Photo Courtesy of GamesWorkshop

Hey Reader!

We're back with another shire-centric list!!! This is what I knew you DEFINITELY WANTED!!!

And after looking at orc lists recently, I'm not going to lie: it's so freeing to see cheap, horrible, waistcoated infantry again. Never fails to bring me joy.

Today we're looking at the Battle of Greenfields list: the niche part of Shire history where Bandobras "Bullroarer" Took led the hobbits of the Shire to a victory over Golfimbul and his orcs of the north.

Battle of Greenfields: Changes for 2025

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This list didn't technically exist last edition; you could take Bullroarer as part of a Shire list, and if you did you couldn't take any other named heroes (so all of the hobbit heroes), but it was very common to team in people like Gandalf and Rangers, so there were options.

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.