Armies of Middle-Earth SBG: Moria in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game

Deep beneath the misty mountains lie the caverns of Moria. In ages past, the greatest kingdom of the dwarves gave way to foul goblin invaders. After the fall of Azog, the land lay quiet for years, until Balin's ill-fated expedition, and the Fellowship's own venture into this forsaken land, awoke an ancient malice...

Few armies in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game have such a diverse list as Moria. From spammable cheap troops to elite, monstrous heroes, there is no such thing as a "standard" Moria force. So grab your torch, brush up on your elvish passcodes, and venture with us into the long dark of Moria.

Photo Credit: YouTube

Case Study: Dwarf Archery Tactica, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Today we get to do a deep-dive into my beloved bearded fellows – the Dwarves of Moria! This post revisits a post I did back in August 2014 (and a post we did back in April 2011), where I talked about my Dwarves and the strategy for using them. Today, we’ll be using them as a case study to recap what we’ve talked about in the previous two posts in this series (one on shooting in SBG, one on using throwing weapons).

Dwarves of Khazad-Dum/Moria: Why Skirmish?

A few of the armies we looked at in the previous post don’t have access to spears at all – Rohan has throwing spears but not normal spears. Among those armies that don’t (really) have spears are the Dwarves of Khazad-Dum (Sharkey's Rogues is another one). Yes, if you get 1 Vault Warden team for each 1 archer you bring along, you’ll have a “traditional shield-wall” complete with spears, but that’s not only very expensive to actually acquire, but also very one-dimensional. And perhaps that’s not a bad thing.

Where the Dwarves of Khazad-Dum thrive is in their flexibility: while the Army of Erebor list is almost strictly melee in nature, the Dwarves of Khazad-Dum have many shooting choices that allow them to skirmish with their opponents very well. With ballista to force your opponent to move towards your ranks, two kinds of bowmen to lay down medium-range fire, and two options for throwing weapons (besides several hero choices), the Dwarves of Khazad-Dum are a surprisingly good shooting army.

While most of the units I’ll be highlighting in this post are Dwarf Warriors and Dwarf Rangers, I will say that the three more dominant choices of units (Khazad Guards, Vault Wardens, and Iron Guard) are solid elite warrior options. While Iron Guard will show up near the end of this post, I’m not going to talk about Khazad Guards or Vault Wardens except to say that they make great anvils for the rest of your armies. Dwarves are tough to kill – and this is especially true of Khazad Guards and Vault Wardens, so including some of these can help you bog down some of the enemy’s assault force while you harass the flanks (or come crashing through a part of the battle line that’s been softened by archery during the advance).

Throwing Weapon Theory: How to Make Them Work, Revisited

Good morning gamers!

In our last post, we looked at how shooting has changed in the new rules of the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game and what kinds of considerations you should think about when it comes to including archery in your army. In general, I think all armies benefit from having some kind of archery presence, but some definitely benefit more than others. While most armies have a limit of 33% of their models being able to carry bows, you can allow more of your army to contribute to shooting damage by including throwing weapons in your army (especially on your non-bow-armed models). That’s what we’ll be looking at today. This post revisits a topic we covered back in July 2015, for those who want to see what was written there . . .

How have throwing weapons changed?

There are three big changes that have come to throwing weapons since I got started playing the game back in September 2010. The first and foremost change is that the number of “throwing weapon types” has grown. While whips existed as a special rule and not a fully-fledged piece of gear, all other kinds of thrown weapons (be they daggers, axes, or spears) were the same – 6” range, Strength 3 hit. With the Hobbit Strategy Battle Game, a distinction between throwing spears (8” range) and all other kinds of throwing weapons (6” range) was added. This has been retained in the new rules, with some other throwing weapons (like whips) being canonized as gear items as well.

The second change is that unless you’re shooting your throwing weapon on the charge, you suffer the “scoot-and-shoot” penalty (see our last post for what this is). While only a small change to your To Hit roll, it makes running away from an assaulting force a bit less effective (which, in a game where 1 pip of difference a die can have huge consequences, is no small thing). Still, throwing weapons are still quite valuable despite this reduction – and the fact that you don’t suffer it when you charge means you should be charging into combat with these guys (because you might just get a lucky wound in!).

The third change (and perhaps the most nuanced of them) is the addition of Heroic March. When I did my last post, the Hobbit rules were introduced and Heroic March became a thing (but we didn’t adopt it in our gaming group until the new release). Heroic March allows infantry models to overcome the greatest problem with throwing weapons: getting extra movement to start the next round as close as possible to the enemy throwing weapon models. While Heroic March doesn’t allow you to charge anyone, the extra 3-5” of movement (which stacks with movement gained from a Drum, if your team can get one) is invaluable. Where Dwarf and Goblin teams were at a distinct disadvantage with 5” move against 6” throwing weapons, now they can clear 8” of ground in a single turn (which should be enough to stand just outside someone’s control zone OR make up ground if your opponent ran like mad away from you to buy himself more space). While this doesn’t make your soldiers more resilient against throwing weapons, it might take a turn or two less to close with them (which can be huge).

With these changes in mind, we’ll dive into what makes throwing weapons so great (and probably my favorite aspect of the MESBG game).

Shooting: Getting the Most out of Archery, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

This post begins a new five-part series on shooting in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game. This is a part of the game that, until recently, has received mixed reviews in our gaming group because shooting has been viewed as unreliable by many of the  factions of our players. This post will provide an overview of how shooting works and some of the fundamental considerations you should think about when using it in the game (as well as re-doing a post we did back in February 2016). Our next posts will be an in-depth look at throwing weapons (a very particular kind of shooting attack), going through two case studies on emphasizing shooting in army lists with my beloved bearded folk (Kingdom of Moria) and their arch nemeses the Greenskins of Moria (showing in both of these lists how placing a greater emphasis on archery can make both of these factions more powerful than they would be otherwise), and wrapping up the discussion with some thoughts on how to employ skirmish units in your armies (with special guests!).

So, let’s get started by understanding shooting…

Armies of Middle-Earth SBG: Far Harad in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game

                              

Photo Credit: MattThrelkeld on Imagr

Updated February 2024: We come at last to the final participants in the Battle of Pelennor Fields: the mysterious Mahud from Far Harad. While their fleeting limits of film glory are limited almost exclusively to running down Rohirrim astride their Mumakil, the Mahud in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle game have more up their sleeves than giant elephants.

I try to flag excellent community resources up here whenever I can, and Far Mahud happens to have a great one: DCHL Devin's video on How to Play and Buy Far Harad (Mahud) is a fantastic introduction to the different units, strengths, weaknesses, and playstyles of this faction (updated for the new rules set, too!), so be sure to check that out. If you still want to know what we think, carry on...

Workbench Update: Isengard

Good morning gamers,

Over the past few months, we’ve been working through our workbench projects on the Forces of Evil I own (since they don’t get their own time in the sun much). With recent journeys to Angmar, Mordor, and Moria, our current travels take us to the tower of Orthanc where Saruman and his minions see some minor repairs and some new arrivals.

Axes and Shields: Easterling Tactics in MESBG

Hey Reader!

A few weeks ago we got a question on our Easterling army post from Memento, who noted that he was having trouble keeping up with kill count with Easterlings, as they have some of the fighting stats and capabilities of Gondor, but with less power units (and, when you consider the heroes that Gondor has access to, that makes a lot of sense). And truthfully, this has always been a problem in our gaming group, and I suspect across the globe: how do you kill stuff with Easterlings?

Some have just teamed in a power hero or an alliance (Shagrat has made an appearance in our group, and Khandish chariots are a natural choice), but in today's post I want to stick with a fully Easterling force for two reasons. First, I don't know what models you have access to, so I'll plan on you just having access to Easterling models. Second, I don't want you to think, "Easterlings have a massive flaw, so I need to supplement it": Easterling just fight differently from other forces, and that's something that it took me a while to discern.

Easterlings are a very forgiving army, with D6-7 on most of your units so you don't die easily (and even against units that wound on Courage, you're sitting on C4+ for everyone, and +1 after your army breaks). What frustrates Easterling players is that, while their army can hold in a slog against most everyone, they can't kill things very quickly, which results in a brutal loss after a valiant attempt to hold the line. And that's what we're going to address today.

So let's begin with the nuances of how Easterling combat differs from other groups, and then discuss some specific tactics and unit combos to make this happen.

Last Month on TMAT... (September 2019 Edition)

It's been a busy September here at TMAT. After kicking off with a workbench update on converting Morgul Stalkers and Black Numenoreans, we jumped straight into reviews of more factions who fought at Pelennor Fields (the Fiefdoms, the Dead of Dunharrow, the Easterlings, Khand, and the Serpent Horde), returned to the Fellowship of the Ring for an advanced look at how to get the most out of the Fellowship's unique units (tactical units, the hobbits, and its big beatsticks), introduced a new series ("Fly you Fools!") dedicated to exploring formation and maneuvering options for our beloved and beautiful (if not always overly-bright) models, and capped it off with a descent into Moria.