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Friday, December 26, 2014

Beware of Dragon, Part 4: The Defensive Versatile Dragon Types

Good evening gamers,

We've talked about Vanilla dragons, Utility dragons, and Offensive Versatile dragons. In this post, we're wrapping up the tactical overview of dragon builds and focusing on the "defensive versatile" dragon options. As mentioned in our last post, these dragons don't use the Breathe Fire upgrade, which brings a few concerns. The chief benefit to this dragon type is that your Will store can be saved for one of two things: casting magic (if you have the Wyrmtongue upgrade) or passing Courage tests (available to all three builds below). This allows you to protect your dragon either by weakening your foes or ensuring you are resolute enough to stay and fight. The concerns for this build are as follows:

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Operation Tuckborough Update: Trees!

Hey Reader!

First of all, I hope that your Thanksgiving was amazing!  Over the course of the extended weekend I was hard at work with a bread knife, but not because I was baking (we'll, I was baking for the holiday, but the bread knife had nothing to do with it - I'll explain in a bit), and after a few grueling weeks at work and finally having time to upload this, I wanted to give you all an update from the weekend on Operation Tuckborough, which is my Shire board for the TMAT GT IV this March.

Per interesting circumstances surrounding the tournament last year my army, the Waistcoat Brigade (Shire LOME List, which you can find here), dropped from the tournament, and for the GT this year I am bringing more or less the same army (more on that in a future post), and will also be bringing my Shire board to the tournament to accompany them.  To add a bit more flair to the board though I decided to include my first foray into the realm of trees and woodland terrain, and today's post covers the creation of two new pieces of woodland terrain for the board.

Before launching into the step-by-step process, it is worth noting that I followed the ideas laid out by Dan at Mini War Gaming, and I highly recommend their video series on terrain building.  Really good ideas on what tools to use, techniques to provide added stability and longevity to your terrain, and just all-around good ideas, :)  So, with no further ado, let's make some terrain!

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Beware of Dragon, Part 3: The "Offensive Versatile" Dragon Types

Good morning gamers,


In our previous two posts, we talked about the Vanilla dragon type (no upgrades) an the Utility dragon types (one upgrade). These five builds are more affordable options that what we're going to be talking about today, but they only do one thing for your army. In today's post, we're going to be looking at the three possible Versatile dragon builds that include the "Breathe Fire" upgrade, because let's face it, we think breathing fire is pretty cool. Because you pay Will points to use Breathe Fire, we're going to be referring to these dragon builds as "offensive versatile" types, while the non-Breathe-Fire builds save their Will stores for resisting magic or passing Courage tests ("defensive versatile" types). It's important to note that the fact that "offensive" or "defensive" has been tacked onto the Versatile description doesn't mean that taking an "offensive" dragon build lacks defensive options (or that "defensive" dragon builds lack offensive capabilities). Rather, the focus is only on how it enables the use of its Will store. Before we begin, let's get some of the elephants out of the room.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Beware of Dragon, Part 2: The "Utility" Dragon Types

Good morning gamers,


In today's post, we're going to look at the four types of "utility" dragons that you can buy in the LOTR Strategy Battle Game. The following terms will be used throughout the post, so here are their "formal" definitions up front:
  • Utility Dragon - a dragon with a single upgrade is termed a "utility" dragon, since the upgrade provides a niche capability for the dragon to perform a primary function (and very few other functions besides that). This is used to differentiate a dragon with a single upgrade from those with no upgrades (termed a "vanilla" dragon) and those with two upgrades (termed a "versatile" dragon).
  • Lightning Build - a dragon who relies on its fiery breath to devastate enemy ranks and the heroes who lead them. This allows a dragon, for a limited time, to have an archery attack option.
  • Thunder Build - a dragon who relies on the thunderous pounding of its wings to choose its battles, avoid several turns of archery, and often ensures that it will receive its charge bonus.
  • Rain Build - a dragon who relies on magical spells to enfeeble enemy heroes (or warriors, I guess) in order to defeat them asymmetrically. Like fighting in rain, heroes who face a dragon of this kind will not be entering the combat at full strength (if anywhere near the same playing field).
  • Hail Build - a dragon who relies on its tough hide to ignore wounds dealt by the most powerful of blows. This has its advantages against enemy archery, damage-oriented magical spells, and melee attacks.
For the sake of theme, these all have storm elements in their titles - the "hail" build is probably better termed a "rock" build, but since hail is rock-like...you get the picture.

Friday, November 28, 2014

WARGS!

Happy work-off-the-tryptophan-and-carbs Day!

after a much too-long hiatus, I figured it was time to dust off the blogger log-in to post some updates from Karningul. Tiberius and Glenstorm have been working hard at keeping the blog alive, but with a lull for the holidays (and a now-functional camera) I'm hoping to have some down time to draft up some filler to display some of the projects I've been working on for the past... far too long.

my busy hobby table

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Siege Combat: Mordor vs. Rohan

Glenstorm recently acquired an amazing fort that we want to experiment with in our LOTR SBG games (and quite possibly showing up in next year's THRO tournament). This game will be between Glenstorm's beloved Rohan army and my work-in-progress Mordor army. Here are the forces:

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Beware of Dragon, Part 1: The "Vanilla" Dragon Type

Good morning gamers,

In preparation for the release of The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, I'm doing a four-post review of Dragons that you can buy in the LOTR SBG. There are, in my taxonomy, three classes of dragons you can buy and understanding why you would purchase each will assist in deciding what army you build around it. The classes are:
  • Vanilla: no upgrades (cheapest option, melee-oriented)
  • Utility: a single upgrade (medium expense, single-task-oriented)
  • Versatile: two upgrades (most expensive, potential for multi-task orientation)
In this post, we're going to focus on the "vanilla" class - what you get by just purchasing a dragon. As we talk about the "benefits" and "cautions" for playing with dragons, keep in mind that most of what I'm going to relay in this post isn't going to be rocket science or unexpected, but it is important for laying the groundwork for understanding what upgrades (if any) you buy for your beastie.

Friday, November 7, 2014

THRO 2014: Rounds 2 and 3

So in our last post, we discussed the armies that were in the THRO 2014 tournament and how they did during their first rounds. This post will cover the second and third rounds (as well as the post-game information). Let's jump right in!

Sunday, November 2, 2014

The Hunter's Red October (THRO) 2014: Introduction and Round 1

Good evening gamers!

Due to coming down with a one-day-bug yesterday, I'm a little behind where I wanted to be getting these posts up. Here's the first of two posts on The Hunter's Red October 2014 (THRO 2014) tournament. I'll do a brief introduction of the armies (you can read the army lists in the comments on the announcement here), and we'll get into the results for Round 1. As we lost a player right before the tournament, I dropped and reassigned my partner to the team that lost a player - thanks Captain Glot for being cool with that!

Friday, October 17, 2014

Into the Wild: Weathertop, Part 3

So in today's post, I've done some detail painting to the Weathertop board (TEDIOUS!) and finished the columns for the top of the structure. To display some of the terrain work, you'll also see shots of my Ringwraith conversions (more on those guys in coming weeks), a shot here of my son Gorgoroth, and some of the final touches that have been put on my Wild Warg Chieftain conversions (more on them after THRO). While Weathertop is great and all, it's only part of a board that will be used in the upcoming THRO 2014 tournament. The rest of the terrain pieces that will be used will be seen too.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Operation Dunharrow: Terrain Update 1


Hey Reader!

So, I've been wanting to do a Dunharrow map for years now, 1) because Rohan was my first army and I love my Rohan guys, 2) because Eomer, the Third Marshal of the Riddermark, hails from Dunharrow and he's my favorite guy in the Trilogy bar none, and 3) it would give me an opportunity to pursue a very different form of urban map, as I like urban maps, and while I've designed a number in my time, they always have a Gondorian feel to them (nothing against Gondorians; in fact, since my Rohan force is on loan right now for the tournament my Gondorians and Grey Company models will be showing off the terrain pieces to you in this post, :P ).  What is more, I've always wanted to play around with a castle idea, and this map gave me a chance to do that.

In this post, I'll be looking at each of the terrain pieces going into my Dunharrow Map, as each of them has a unique contribution to the board.  Before diving in, I'll note in passing that all of the pieces were cast by GrandManner, which is arguably the best resin casting group in the world, and the detail and quality of their products are truly top-notch.  I'd been looking at investing in some GrandManner pieces for a while, but due to cost and shipping I shied away.  Then they did a 20% off special and some email-based deals, and I caved, :P  What follows is a large purchase from their 28mm Dark Ages Collection, coupled with about 14 hours of painting (plus about an hour of base coating, give or take), and you've got a number of pieces that I'm so glad I got done in time for THRO!

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Conversion Updates: THRO 2014 List and New Arrivals

Hello readers,

When I got back from vacation Saturday morning, my family all went to sleep and I stayed up and hobbied around (because once I'm up, I'm up). For today's rather eclectic post, we're going to be focusing on some conversions and new arrivals that will be seen in the upcoming THRO tournament and quite possibly the next GT...we'll have to see.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Isengard, Part III: Strategy and Tactics

Hey Reader!

Today we conclude our three-week series on Isengard, focusing on some tactics and strategies for pairing and using units in an Isengard force.  Over the past two weeks we looked at the hero and warrior choices for Isengard, and today we want to focus on some beneficial pairings for Isengard heroes and warriors when planning out an army.  I'll mention in passing upfront the following:

This post will not say that running Such-and-Such an army build is wrong.

The point of this post is not to criticize how people build their lists.  Do you want to play a fun thematic list that is centered around Sharkey and Worm?  Go for it!  Play the lists that you enjoy playing (and there is a reason for playing with those two heroes, by the by, as we noted in Part I of this series), and if you have heroes you'd like to use but don't know how to make the most of them, feel free to comment below and me and my team at the How will find a way to fit them into an army you like, :)  What this post is intended to show, however, are some of the best pairings for armies and heroes to suit a particular style of gameplay.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

The White Council: Forty-Man Lists

Good morning gamers,

Today, we're continuing our discussion on the White Council and its utility to add valuable heroes to conventional army lists. While in our last White Council post we added two members of the White Council to various Free People's Lists, in this one we're going to add a single member of the White Council to four thematic lists. Note that with these army lists, you will not be able to capitalize on the army special rule that increases your rolls to resist magic spells, as you need at least two units from the White Council list in order to do that.

As with the last post, I'll only be posting lists that follow the warband creation rules for the new sourcebooks (and mostly be working out of the Free People's sourcebook), but I will be the first to say that an LOME list (following the constraints we place on our tournaments) will probably be more powerful than these, since you can upgrade your units/heroes pretty far by dropping one hero from each list.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Isengard, Part II: Warriors

Hey Reader!

Greetings again from the How!  It's our pleasure to continue this week with another post on Isengard strategy and tactics.  Last week we did a post on the heroes available to Isengard, and in this post we will continue with a discussion of the warriors available to Isengard commanders.  Next week we will complete our discussion with general thoughts on tactics and pairings, as well as some thoughts on what to expect when playing with/against an Isengard army.  My teammate for the upcoming THRO 2014 Tournament will be using Isengard, and I'm excited to see how he fares in the tournament (as we will be testing some new things with his army).

Before discussing the warriors for Isengard, it is helpful to realize upfront that some of their units are "niche" units: I don't expect demolition teams to be standard in anyone's army (though who knows: once this post is over people might begin looking at some of the more unusual unit choices).  Also, there are substantially more unit choices for Isengard than there have been for the other civs I've reviewed (Shire, Rohan, and Grey Company), so realize upfront that this post will look different purely because there is more variety to be seen among Isengard model choices.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

The White Council: Allies Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Nearly two years ago, I wrote a post on how you can use the White Council as an ally for a different list, focusing on Gondor lists that could be augmented by the various skills of the White Council. In today's post (and as yet another build-up write-up to the THRO 2014), we're going to pair up all twelve members of the White Council and ally them with six lists that you could reasonably expect to have found in Middle-Earth. Conveniently, you can find all of these lists in the Free Peoples sourcebook.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Isengard, Part I - Hero Summary

Hey Reader!

So, my teammate for the upcoming Hunter's Red October Tournament 2014 is running an Isengard force for the tournament, so in preparation for the THRO Tournament, I'm going to do a short series of tactical posts on Isengard.  Now Tiberius has done a fantastic write-up on Uruk Captains on our blog (and I'll be borrowing heavily from those when we talk about Uruk Captains below) as well as some amazing commentary on Saruman (which I'll be highlighting under his entry), but I want to spend another three-part series (coming out every Thursday for the next three weeks) looking into some of the things you can do with Isengard as we gear up for the tournament.

In this post, we will be focusing on the purpose of the various heroes available to Isengard, and next week we'll be looking at the warrior selection options.  In the third post we'll talk a little bit about tactics, using 600-point lists as a guide when looking at the tactical element of this list.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Announcing The Hunter's Red October 2014 Tournament!

Good morning gamers,

It is my great pleasure to announce the third annual THRO tournament! The purpose of this tournament, like previous THROs, is to try new things and to bring fun armies (very little, if any, prestige attached). The tournament will be held at Patrick Henry College on October 25, 2014. For this year's tournament, we're experimenting with a few new things: doubles play within brackets, scenarios not commonly found in other TMAT tournaments, and non-board-specific scenario play (more on what this is later). Without further ado, here are (in my typical style) the Ten Commandments of the Tournament (Rules):

Monday, September 1, 2014

Domination: Isengard vs. Angmar (and Weathertop, Pt 3)

Today's post all but completes the Weathertop terrain project I've been working on. In order to provide a bit more detail into the work that's been going on, I decided to call up my good buddy Glenstorm and have him help me try it out in a batrep. Here are the forces:

Monday, August 25, 2014

The White Council: What Build Should I Make?

So last year at THRO 2013, I took a five-man Ringwraith force. We lost two of our games outright and nearly tied our third. Why did I take this army? Because I could and because they're fun. My foes agreed that playing against an army of terror-causing, magic-blasting units was different than the traditional fight, but my "all-hero" lists came under some critique on their competitiveness.

This year, I'm bringing a White Council list, which I think will not only be very competitive, but also will be very, VERY fun to use. The list is as follows:

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Dwarf Tactica: Archery is Everything


EDIT: If you found this page, you should know we've posted an update for the new MESBG rules (2018)! You can find the updated page here.

At TMAT GT 2014, I took my beloved Dwarf army. Since starting the hobby, I knew I wanted Dwarves - I always loved the Dwarves. I still think my Wood Elves are the most sophisticated army that I own, but the Dwarves are my hardiest group (and are not lacking in strategy). They are also very, very fun. Coming into this tournament, though, I knew there was one critique that all Dwarf players must face: how do you fight armies of spears/pikes with no spears of your own.
I must note here that I believe (and will endeavor to show) that the Durin's Folk Dwarf list is better than the Army of Erebor Dwarf list. Though the army from the Hobbit SBG can get spears (D7 spearmen to boot), they cannot get any ranged weapons. Having D7 across the entire army is great, but I hope that at the end of this post, the merits of having archery options instead of spear options is at least as competitive for a Dwarf list as a high defense, spear-toting army.
I must also caveat that more than half the units I brought in my army had ranged weapons: 10 Dwarf bows, 2 Dwarf longbows (normal bows), and 9 throwing weapons in a 39-unit army means that you should have some archery at all times (not to mention the lowest Defense of these units is D5, what is considered to be a good Defense value for archers in the game). This build for a Dwarf army could be viewed as anomalous, but I find it to be the most practical build for a Durin's Folk list.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Terrain Project: Weathertop, Pt 2

After long, long, LONG last, I finally have a post for the blog. Many thanks to Glenstorm for keeping the blog on life support - really appreciate the views!

While my wife and I wait for my daughter to arrive (due date is Thursday), I've been working on a ton of stuff - I've been GMing a fantasy roleplay series (product not yet released, but we'll keep you posted if it ever hits the online stores), painting some High Elves from Warhammer Fantasy (might get a picture update in when at least one set is kind of done), and been learning the art of broadsword fighting for support of a rather successful teen camp that was held in the area recently (themed by the Lord of the Rings).

But today is about Angmar - yes, this report comes in two parts: Weathertop painting and Ringwraith conversions.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Battle Report: Hold Ground: The Dragon Battalion v. The Chill of Angmar


Hey Reader!

Greetings again from all of us at TMAT!  As I get the final preparations done for a high school summer camp at my workplace in a few weeks (and probably won't be posting for the next few weeks because of that, fyi), I decided on Saturday night that I needed to unwind, so I got together with Donatello to get in a quick game with my new Angmar list.  This is the list I'm planning on bringing to the THRO October Tournament this fall (with some possible tweaks), so getting a handle for it is important to me.  As I mentioned in a previous post, this army is a "toolbox" army, doing all kinds of things in a 600-point list, with lots of different angles for attacks.

Don is rocking a modified version of my Host of Rhovanion list (Easterling Army), as he really likes Easterlings (and for new characters it is both very forgiving and gives a good introduction to most of the game mechanics that people will constantly use and face in a given tournament, so I like giving it to casual players), though he's planning on changing up the strategy and casting Fury with his War Priest this time (should help to charge all of those terror units he's got).  Also, he's opting not to take Khamul the Black Easterling, and is instead going with a Dragon Knight, 2 Easterling "Bunker" Captains, and a War Priest, and adding more archery to the list (something about fighting two trolls, a smattering of undead warriors, and a big block of orcs, I think, contributed to that decision, :) ).

Thursday, May 15, 2014

A Different Project: Bretonnia and Beastmen

Hey Reader!

So I posted something like this a few months ago, but every now and then I work on miniature projects that are not from The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, so I figured I'd do a Forge update to show you some of the things we've been working on over here at the How.  The following units are from GamesWorkshop's Fantasy series, and in the future (read: in six months or so) I'll also be doing a Forge update on my growing Infinity collection as well.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Introducing the K-Comp System!


Hey Reader!

So, for the past year or so Tiberius and I have been hard at work (well, hehe: actually, "hard" being defined as "on-and-off-as-we-got-ideas") on a comp system for LOTR SBG.  For those who have a background with tournaments for Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40k, you're familiar with the idea of a Comp System - for those of you who are less familiar with it, I hinted at some of the basics of the comp system in my post regarding "soft lists" in LOTR.  Here, I want to very briefly acquaint everyone with what the K-Comp System is designed to do, what it is not designed to do, and what its possible uses could be for the blogosphere at large and the microcosm of a gaming community.

You can find the most up-to-date copy of the K-Comp System on Scribd here.  I uploaded it to Scribd 1) because I am a firm believer in the wonderful resource that is Scribd, 2) it is available so far as I know in all countries, so it shouldn't cut out any of our viewership, and 3) it's much easier to upload documents there than it is to upload a document through the HTML on this site, and I'm lazy that way, :)  So as you read this post, you'll be able to see what we're talking about via the document on Scribd (though I'll also be including screenshot photos in relevant sections below).

Monday, April 28, 2014

Forge Update: The Horde of Angmar (aka, "The Halloween Army")


Hey Reader!

Welcome back to TMAT!  First of all, I owe you all an apology: I said I'd get this up on Friday, but after arriving home after 11:00 and heading into a busy weekend, I decided to go to bed instead.  So I apologize, :)  So instead, here's a pick-up post for you Monday, :)

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Battle Report: The High Ground: Goblins vs. Wood Elves


Hey Reader!

Greetings again from all of us here at TMAT!  Things have been a bear over here for all of us, and I was extremely excited to get together with Tiberius over the Easter weekend to get a game in with him.  Because he has been working on a Weathertop map and we haven't done a High Ground scenario in ages, we elected to do a High Ground mission.  I wanted to test out his goblins (as I've never run goblins, I like a good challenge, and there's a small side of me that just wants to see how they run firsthand), and he brought out his wood elves (which he hasn't used in ages).  Here are the forces:

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Operation Tuckborough Update

Hey Reader!

Wow, it's been a busy last couple weeks!  The Forge has been extremely busy rolling out projects, and I hope to have a few posts up on those in April.  In preparation for the upcoming TMAT GT, I've been working on a number of terrain pieces for a Shire map to round out Operation Tuckborough.  I wanted to quickly post on the new pieces and the overall board as we head into the GT this weekend (Woot! Woot!).

1.  Barrels and Crates

I ordered a set of crates and barrels from Slave to Painting, which has a number of terrain pieces for various games across eras in addition to miniature models.  Reasonable prices, good quality resin on the pieces I purchased, so I also recommend them.  I first discovered them when directed by a friend of mine to Scott's Wargaming Blog; Scott is a follower on this site, and if you haven't seen his stuff yet, you really should.  He's an LOTR gamer who also does a few other 28mm games, and his paint jobs are fantastic.  So you should check his site out.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Terrain Project: Weathertop

With most of my prep for the upcoming GT already done, today's post is going to be a project that I hope to have done before this summer - Weathertop. Our dedicated readership will recall that at the last Hunter's Red October tournament, I took an army of Ringwraiths. Our dedicated readers will also recall that my first army for Good was the Fellowship of the Ring, and so Weathertop has a special place in my LOTR-nerd heart.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Domination: Tunnel Fighting!

With the TMAT GT rapidly approaching, it took me a little while to decide which army to take: my Dwarves have been in the box since the first GT back in 2012, my Wood Elves are desperate for a shot at redemption after having a terrible time at the first Hunter's Red October tournament, and my Goblins have never been to any tournament at all. The other day, I decided I'd be taking my Dwarves, but I wanted to play them against my Goblins (just in case I changed my mind). Therefore, I called my friend Gaius to control my Goblins and play a quick game. Here are the forces:

The Host of Erebor, my dear bearded fellows and the army I'm taking to the 2014 TMAT GT.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Announcing: TMAT GT 2014!

Another year, another GT!
Time to announce the opening of registration for the third annual Tell Me A Tale Grand Tournament! This tournament is a small 1-day independent tournament for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game and will be played on Saturday, March 29, 2014 in Purcellville, Virginia starting at 10am (players are asked to arrive at least 20-30 min early for check-in and setup). LOTR SBG players in the greater D.C. area and beyond are welcome to attend, but are asked to register NLT Mar 22. The tournament is free to play and the rules for the tournament are provided below.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Dunharrow Campaign, Quest 5: Rohan vs. Dwarves


Hey Reader!

This is Centaur with another battle report!  This will likely be the last battle in the Dunharrow Campaign, though keep an eye on us here at TMAT.  Sometime within the next 6-8 months we may end up doing a group-wide campaign using different civs going for similar mission objectives (what I'll call "achievements"), so we'll keep you posted on that.  Some of the details are being ironed out, but we'll keep you all posted on that, :)  To wrap up the Dunharrow Campaign, I got together with Tiberius after church to play a good ole' Domination game, as I haven't done that scenario yet for this campaign, and he brought a highly unconventional dwarf list to match me.  Here are the armies:

Monday, January 20, 2014

A Noobie's Top Twenty Heroes: One Gamer's Perspective

Hello Readership,

Posts like these can easily spark debates about what hero is better than another. This post is written, therefore, for new gamers and not those who have invested time and thought into making a nuanced army work. The heroes I'm going to evaluate today are going to cut across both Good and Evil and will examine what heroes are best for new players who want to use the heroes in the most direct approach. To make decisions easier, I've provided four categories of heroes: Slayers, Spell-casters, Snipers (read "archers," but I needed an "s" word), and Secondaries (read "captains").

A few things on housekeeping for this post: you can see the Top 20 in each category on the "New Players" page here. Some heroes will show up in the top five on that page that are not provided below, either because I'm only aware of part of their profile or because they overlap with some of the heroes provided (e.g. Gimli, Son of Gloin is remarkably similar to Balin, Son of Fundin...putting them both on the list would get boring and not be that helpful). You will also find on that page the computational scores for each person listed there, providing some point of departure for evaluating their performance. Finally, the computational methods for determining ranking will be provided as a formula, so you can experiment with how heroes you don't see on the list compare. If you have heroes you think should be considered, leave a comment!

Saturday, January 18, 2014

A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy: Heroes of Moria

And after a VERY long hiatus, we're back! When I left off in the underground discussion last time, we talked about some of the units that the Goblin army has and this time, we're going to talk about the heroes - and while we're doing that, we're going to look at some terrain updates since then. There are many, MANY heroes in the Moria & Angmar sourcebook for the Moria list. I'm only going to talk about heroes that I own by highlighting how to use supporting heroes and combat heroes.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Howls in the Night...


Hey Reader!

Yeah, that title was a bit darker than I wanted it to be - it's the new name for the Misty Mountains list I'm building, and it sounded better on paper than when I saw it on the blog, so sorry about that, :P  I'm also working on a "Halloween Army" for my new Angmar list (which will contain most of the scary/ghoulish choices for Angmar, minus Gulavar the Terror of Arnor, as I think he's overpriced for what you get), so more on that this summer.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Rohan Tactics Post, Part II: Warriors

Hey Reader!

Happy New Year!  From all of us here at TMAT, may 2014 be even better for you and your hobbying than 2013, :)  This post is the second installment of my discussion on the Rohan civ for LOTR SBG, and today we'll be examining the warrior selections for Rohan.  For an in-depth look at the heroes available for Rohan, you can find that post here.  I'll be referring back to some of the styles of heroes in that post, so if you hear about me talking about a hero and you're confused about what I mean by a "bunker-style Rohan Captain," refer back to the post, :)  Since there are only a handful of unit selections for Rohan, I'll also be tying my discussion of each warrior in with a hero or two that work well with that unit.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Where the Wild Things Are: Warg Conversions, Part I

After a restful vacation (read, waking up with my son at 2:00 or 3:00am each morning because he took a while transitioning from EST to PST), we're back into the hobby, today focusing on my Wild Wargs, two of which are being converted into Wild Warg Chieftains. The conversions for these models is going to focus mostly on basing for now, but I'm going to be adding details to them later (what to do, still to be decided).

The theme for these guys comes from a one-season Warner Brothers cartoon show:
If you've heard of the Road Rovers, I'm impressed. So today, I'm going to be showing you the original picture of the six main characters from the Road Rovers and their Warg companions.