The New Age Is Begun: The Lothlorien Army List

Good morning gamers,

I had been playing SBG for about a year before my wife got me an eBay lot of Galadriel, Celeborn, and unarmored Haldir with no bow (that sculpt did not age well). I had been playing with Wood Elf Warriors (not called Lothlorien Warriors) in the Thranduil's Halls list (before the Hobbit films changed that list A LOT) and had Legolas leading a bunch of Elves, all of whom couldn't be shot. I used to ally in Gandalf into the list to keep them alive while crossing the inevitable no-man's-land, until our good mate Zorro told me, "You know you can ally Legolas with Galadriel and run all those Elves for like 40pts less, right?" And I basically never looked back. :)

Today, we're tackling Lothlorien - a list that I think has been good throughout the ages, but has gotten particularly good with the return of its cavalry and super-elite infantry with the release of the Armies of Middle-Earth book. I'm also not the only person who thinks this - Lothlorien doesn't have more profiles than a lot of other lists (and it certainly doesn't have a lot of army list bonuses), but the units it has are good, they're very well costed, and the whole list can play incredibly asymmetrically into big-nasty lists or horde lists. Let's see what's baking in the Golden Wood, shall we?

Lothlorien: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list both does and doesn't have the same profiles from the last edition: you have Galadriel (caster form, not war form), Haldir, Orophin, Rumil, Galadhrim Captains, Lothlorien Captains (nee Wood Elf Captains), and Lothlorien Stormcallers. The list also has Celeborn, but this version of Celeborn is vastly different from his previous version and has to be taken in his pajamas. I converted an armored Celeborn from one of the old metal Haldir's Elves sculpts . . . that guy isn't seeing much use these days. The warriors are all the same, so the only real profile change is the overhaul of the previous Celeborn (who was awesome) and the arrival of the new Celeborn profile (who is also awesome, but for very different reasons).

There is a functional difference in this list, however, when it comes to profiles: in the last edition, you would usually use Lothlorien as part of an allied list, instead of as a mono-list. While there aren't any "bad" profiles in Lothlorien, the list gave you access to a cheap "unlimited" caster in Galadriel, F6 supporting models with Guards of the Galadhrim Court, 10pt D6 front-line guys, and 18-21pt cavalry models - all of which were appealing to lists with limited unit choices, like Numenor (which brought S4 to the mix), Fangorn (which was really profile-constrained), the Misty Mountains (the dreaded "birdbath" list with the eternal Gwaihir model), and the Fellowship (Boromir/Legolas/Aragorn would love to slot in and help out their Elven friends). Not only is allying a thing of the past, but these heroes provided something that Lothlorien definitely no longer has: a fast-moving/hard-hitting Strike hero. Yes, there are some heroes with Heroic Strike in the list, but none of them are toting more than 2 Attacks, one of them is Unarmed with 1 Attack, and their only 3 Attack hero is "stuck" at F6 . . . in that comparison, having a F7+ hero with 3 or more Attacks (Boromir, Aragorn, Gwaihir, Treebeard, Isildur, and Elendil - JUST from the list of profiles above) would be most welcome.

It's a new era, but the bones of the list are still good and so I think the list itself is definitely worth a try. Let's see what our army list bonuses are.

Back to Basics, Revisited: Cavalry in MESBG

Editor's note: sorry to the 182 viewers who saw a blank page - the article was written, but didn't get pasted in on time. :-)

Good morning gamers,

We're back in our Back to Basics series today and we're looking at a part of the game that became much more balanced in the current edition of the game: cavalry! 

When you could buy a horse or armored horse for 10-15pts/hero, there was basically no reason NOT to buy it. Now, for basic mounts costing 20-25pts/hero (more for elite cavalry options, like the White Warg) and with the addition of the Sharpshooter keyword on many bow-armed heroes, buying a horse is still usually a good idea, but you might choose to pass on it if you don't think you can keep the mount alive.

While we'll be covering the basics of how cavalry work today, you can find more tactical discussions about how to use cavalry in our Cavalry Charge formations series (which was written for the last edition of the game, but the mechanics haven't changed and the articles are still very much applicable to the current edition of the game).

Moving Your Cavalry

It won't come as any surprise to start off by saying that cavalry move faster than your everyday, run-of-the-mill infantry. Sure, there are things like Wild Wargs that move as fast as a horse can and are TECHNICALLY infantry, but man-sized models (and shorter ones) are going to move 4-8" and cavalry will be faster than that (10-12"). This extra movement usually means that a) they can reach a far-flung objective in a turn or two, b) can get around the enemy flanks to charge vulnerable units, and c) if equipped with ranged weapons, they can usually "kite" away from enemy infantry while still shooting at them (moving at half speed, as we talked about in the Shoot Phase post).

The New Age Is Begun: The Rangers of Mirkwood

Good morning gamers,

This post officially kicks off Elf month and we're doing so by talking about more Dwarves. :) Yes, we're tackling a really fun list from the last edition that's seen a greatly expanded roster . . . many of which you will probably not be able to throw into your final list unless you're playing at a very, VERY high points level (at which point, I'd like to direct your attention to the Battle of Five Armies army list that we'll look at later this year). Welcome one of the big powerhouses of shooting: the new imagined Rangers of Mirkwood.

Rangers of Mirkwood: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Last edition, this list had five profiles in it: Legolas, Tauriel, Mirkwood Ranger Captains, Mirkwood Rangers, and Wood Elf Sentinels. Four of these profiles (not Wood Elf Sentinels) stayed in the list, but the list picked up fourteen new profiles: Bilbo and the thirteen Dwarves of Thorin's Company (a bit awkward for a band name, but their music is alright). This gives the list some much-needed diversity and introduces another angle that you can lean into in order to expand the list to higher points levels (and honestly, I think some kind of Thorin's Company element is necessary in any list, but more on that later).

The list has two composition rules that bear noting when talking about this make up: Mirkwood Rangers can only be led by Mirkwood heroes (Legolas, Tauriel, and Mirkwood Ranger Captains) and Mirkwood Rangers don't count towards your army's bow limit (which is a much-needed carry-over from last edition). I will note that unlike Thorin's Company and to a much lesser degree the Army of Lake-town, you can't field the Thorin's Company members as part of a single warband, which makes your warband count high (good for some scenarios, bad for others).

Army List Bonuses

Besides the two list building rules that were mentioned above, we have two other general rules: you need to include at least one Unique Elf hero (so, Legolas and/or Tauriel) and if you choose Legolas, he must be your army leader (Tauriel otherwise). Both of these heroes are Heroes of Valour, so you'll get 30 warrior slots (625pts for both heroes with max gear and max warbands) - this seems like a pretty decent collection of models for 625pts, but let me assure you, this is probably all you need for this list. If you choose to take Thorin (more on him in a minute), he will only be a grenade hero . . . something he's very, very good at. The other Dwarves will likely be grenades, which can be helpful too.

The New Age Is Begun: The Army of Lake-town

Good morning gamers,

One of our readers asked when we'd do the Army of Lake-town - and I mentioned that I needed to do Thorin's Company first. This post closes out "Dwarf month" and it features . . . exactly four Dwarves. It also has one Elf and that makes it an interesting bridge into the month of May, which will be Elf month. Yes, we're reviewing the Army of Lake-town today - an army that used to be super powerful in the last edition and now really does need to lean into the non-Lake-town elements of the list (which, if we're honest, was always the strength of the Army of Lake-town last edition - see our Bare Necessities post for more on that, which did cover adding in Gwaihir, but not from the Misty Mountains list so he didn't have to be your army leader).

Army of Lake-town: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has all of the old profiles that you'd expect - the Master of Lake-town, Alfrid, Braga, and Lake-town Guard Captains for your conventional heroes, Lake-town Guard as your only warrior option, and then Alfrid, Bard, and Bard's kids as "the rest of it." This edition, however, we have the guests of Bard's home as well - Tauriel, Kili, Fili, Oin, and Bofur (though notably . . . not Legolas . . . I guess he didn't stay long enough?). These additional heroes are the only way to "ally in" non-Lake-town bodies, which is good because Lake-town has always had fine-not-great profiles that you can buy on a budget to make space for something really strong (and something that's usually better than Bard).

Army List Bonuses

This list has some of the standard rules constraints for mixed-list armies - your Lake-town Guard can only be led by Lake-town Heroes and Bard's Family can be included either in Bard's warband or in Tauriel's warband. Tauriel's warband can also take the Dwarves, which could be useful if you know maelstrom might be a thing.

The Rise of Angmar: What Models Do You Need to Buy?

Good morning gamers,

It's been nearly three years since we were in this series, but we're finally closing out our review of what models you need to play through the scenarios in last edition's supplements. Right before the new edition dropped, The Rise of Angmar was released and boy are there some interesting models in it! Since it's been so long, I thought it might be good to review the costs of the preceding sourcebooks (keeping in mind that both inflation and made-to-order are a thing):

• Gondor At War: $3500
• The Scouring of the Shire: $1100
• War in Rohan: $3700
• Quest of the Ringbearer: $2100-$3200 (depending on whether you want to play just the scenarios from the book, Fantasy Fellowships, or both)
• Fall of the Necromancer: $1100
• Defense of the North: $4951

NOTE: we have quite a bit of Arnor and Angmar Forgeworld models in this supplement, so we should expect things to be pricey. As always, I get no kick-backs from GW for doing this post, and as such, I'll do what I can to save you some cash and then offer ways to save even more money if you're willing to do some conversions or proxying at the end. We will assume that we already have the Battle for Osgiliath starter set, since that was the starter box when the book dropped (and it's actually quite handy for a few things).

Can this supplement pass the nearly $5000 investment of Defense of the North? It's gonna be hard, but let's dig in and find out!