The Bare Necessities, Part XXVI: The Easterlings

Good morning gamers,

We've recently viewed the factions of Barad-Dur and Arnor and how you can run these lists with a balanced list in mind. Today, we continue observing lists I don't intend to collect by looking at one of the most iconic armies in the game, beloved by one of the largest fan-bases in the game, and often critiqued for "not having enough teeth" by everyone in the game (especially its fan base): the Easterlings.

I don't like Easterlings - I've made that abundantly clear in numerous posts. That being said, my son has taken a fancy to Easterlings, and far be it from me to crush his little dreams and aspirations. So, I reached out to our resident Easterling players to get their feedback on how you'd build an Easterling army with a balanced list in mind. My good mate MinutemanKirk has already shared thoughts on Easterling list builds, so check that out if you haven't already read it. Below are some tailored thoughts from Centaur.

Easterlings List Building Principles with Centaur

• Fast Models: So, the natural option are kataphracts; while they are heavy cavalry they do move at 10", but what makes them unique is that you can take a drum on your cavalry. This, as far as I know, is the only civ that has this option. So you can save Might by not calling Heroic March, or move even faster by calling Heroic March. And since all of your heroes work well mounted (personally I don't like mounting war priests, but you could), this could also be filled by your heroes if you don't want to buy a ton of kataphracts.
• Banners: You can take banners on foot or on horseback, so plenty of options for banners. And at c. 32-34 pts [if you put the banner on an Easterling Warrior], not that expensive either.
• Models: With most of your infantry costing 8-11 pts, and even your cavalry only costing around 14pts, it's not hard to get numbers with an Easterling Force. The fact that your captains only cost around 50-55 pts also helps (assuming you're not mounting everyone).
• Ways to Neutralize Enemy Heroes: You have two really good neutralizing options on its face: Khamul (for Transfix and Compel, not to mention area denial in case you mount him and they don't want to be charged) and Amdur (free Heroic Strike if an opponent calls one, and F6 with an elven-made weapon if they don't call one). In addition, though, with heroes who are hard to knock down and the ability to pike support, they also reduce the kills a hero/monster gets in a match and forcing the spending of more Might, which I would contend is a way to neutralize heroes.
• Ways to Augment Your Models: This is primarily done by heroes: war priests provide both Fury and Bladewrath and Amdur provides a banner rule. Naturally you have drums and banners among the warrior options, but that's about the extent to which they augment their models. So not a lot of options, but the options they have are what the army needs.

Thanks guys - we'll be looking at Centaur's Easterling list (it's a pure list), with other lists following at the end.

Now live: TMAT Drafts!

Last weekend, TMAT's MinutemanKirk, Tiberius, Centaur, Rythbryt, and Red Jacket got together (remotely, of course) to live-draft the top leader, caster, and support models for the forces of good. At stake is the honor and glory of winning the draft (and maybe some public ridicule). 

You can find the video on YouTube by clicking the link below, or over on the TMAT Sbg channel page. Let us know how we did in the comments section! And don't forget, you can also play along with us--or some of your mates--by downloading the draft board (you can find the link in the YouTube description, or by clicking here).

Click here to watch

Articles referenced in this video:

• Guest Post from MinutemanKirk
• The Difference between Aragorn, King Elessar and Aragorn - Strider from the Return of the King Legendary Legion
• TMAT Talks - Spellcasters
• TMAT Talks - Supports

Introducing TMAT: Drafts! Premiering June 26th on YouTube

Last weekend, the TMAT team got together to reassess our top picks for magic casters, supports, and leader models--through a thirty-pick live draft! Surprise surprise, we learned a thing or two (and had a ton of fun). 

The full draft for the forces of good premiers this Friday, June 26th, but we have a sneak peek for you over on the TMAT Sbg YouTube channel. 

TMAT Drafts: Leaders, Casters, & Supports (Forces of Good)

YouTube Premier

June 26, 2020

9PM GMT  |  4PM EDT  |  1PM PDT

youtube.com/TmatSBG

We also have a downloadable draft sheet that you can download here, in case you and your mates want to play along! We hope to see you Friday night, and if you do draft along with us, let us know in the comments!

The Bare Necessities, Part XXV: Arnor

Good morning gamers,

Today we cover a faction I don't really have an interest in collecting: Arnor. I certainly am not interested in buying the GW Warriors of Arnor, who make up the core of the list - $5/model in three-model increments is steep (but if you're just going to use this army in casual games, you could get Roman Auxiliaries or Early Imperial Legionnaires from Warlord Games as Warriors of Arnor if you wanted).

Thankfully, my fellow TMAT admin Centaur has been using Arnor for a while (converted a bunch of Warriors of Minas Tirith into Warriors of Arnor a while back - the conversion is pretty easy). I've played against him a lot with it (though not in a while and not under the new rules) and Arnor probably has a special place for him, because it not only allows him to run his favorite Good Support Hero (Malbeth the Seer), but also allows him to get his beloved Hobbit Archers into yet-another-army. :-)

Arnor is commonly derided in the community groups as a poor choice in large-points-match games. At/below 500 points, they're considered very strong because of their relatively-cheap F4/D6 spear-armed troops with a 5+ save to keep anyone who does get wounded from actually dying. No cavalry, lack of killer heroes, and limited warrior choices are often cited for their inability to be competitive at higher points levels. This sounds like a proper challenge for the TMAT team. :-)

So today, we'll be reviewing a 700-point list for Arnor that tries to meet all of our normal list building requirements. Before we dive into the list, here are Centaur's thoughts on the five elements of list building for Arnor and some interview questions I gave to Centaur to answer.

Arnor List Building Principles with Centaur

• Fast Models: Naturally, you don't have any of these - there should be a medal for "zero mountable models," but alas, here we are, :-P I will say this: you can forego this by 1) using Heroic March, or 2) compensate for speed with range attacks if you choose not to ally with a faction that has fast models. It's not as effective, but it will do the job: you can dismount/remove a good number of enemies with archery, as you have a lot of solid 3+ Shoot models in the army. If you do choose to ally, any of the Elf factions can provide you with excellent cavalry support.
• Banners: Arnor has cheap banners, so you can get away with 1-2 in your army easily. I personally don't run two, but that has more to do with my philosophy of spamming Arnor warriors - more on that in a bit.
• Models: Since your warriors cost 5-9pts each, getting to 30+ models is easy to do even at lower point levels. I recommend taking both of your named heroes (as Arvedui and Malbeth both provide useful bonuses for the army), but you could even get away with 55pt captains if you needed to, as they are very good as-is.
• Ways to Neutralize Enemy Heroes: Truthfully, you have almost nothing to neutralize heroes. The big tool you have, though, is Malbeth's Foresight rolls, as they can (with relative ease) make a Heroic Combat unsuccessful by keeping your men alive, reducing casualties, protecting weak units by keeping D6 models on the table and preventing wounds to D3-4 models, and mitigating enemy archery (so the Legolas/Bard/etc. characters suddenly don't do nearly as much as they thought they would). (Ed: I'd also include a mention of Arvedui's Heroic Defense option here, should your opponent try to take a big hero and squish him. ~Tiberius)
• Ways to Augment Your Models: basically the only way you can do this is a massive Stand Fast from Arvedui and the same Foresight save from Malbeth, so yeah...that's all you have, :-P I'm sorry, :-P

Interview with Centaur on Arnor

T: When building an Arnor force, what's the balance that you choose between Rangers of Arnor and Hobbit Archers?

C: So, they provide two different things for your force. Hobbit archers provide the exact same level of ranged capability for half the cost of a ranger, but it 1) has a lower FV, and 2) cannot take a spear, so they are less useful in melee. So I recommend taking a 2:1 ratio of hobbits to rangers. You are primarily bringing hobbits for shooting (so this maximizes your shooting).

T: Is there ever a reason to take Captains of Arnor with bows?

C: No. Unless you're guaranteed to be defending in a fight so you don't ever move and shoot, the 4+ Shoot makes it so that you'll rarely use the bow for anything in the match. If you cost less than 50pts that would be one thing, but since you cost 55 pts, you're on the more expensive side for captains, and that means I tend to find the shield more useful, as you'll need them for holding down big foes.

T: Do you need allies with this list?

C: No, though allies are very useful. Your special rule is okay but not great, and you can live without it. So my recommendation is scratch it and choose another army to complement you well to round yourself out. Personally I'd go with Khazad Dum (F4 D7 front line of Khazad Guards backed up by D6 spearmen with ballista support? That's a tough nut to crack, especially when the front line are D7 and the second rank is D6 with a 5+ save) or Rivendell (supporting magic, cavalry, and a F5 D6 frontline with D6 spearmen who have a 5+ Save), but you have a decently wide set of options including, ironically, Fangorn - not a bad choice if you need some anti-hero breaking power. Personally, though, I don't think you need to ally in allied forces. You have cheap ranged attacks to pick off enemies, and with incentives to take captains you will have a lot of deployable warbands, allowing you to counter the deployment of your enemies if you have a Reconnoiter or similar match where speed is victory. You have a solid fighting line that is hard to kill combined with large numbers, making it hard to break you, which does two things for you. First, you don't give up VPs for being broken, and you don't see the effects of the low Courage on your army nearly as much as you would otherwise. Naturally high terror armies will cause trouble, but that just means shooting them to death before they come. And heck, worst case scenario, you Schiltrom and let them charge you. No high-Terror model has good ranged attacks (save Smaug), and even if you do get hit you have a 5+ chance of shrugging off the damage if you play it right. So screw terror models, :P And with lots of ranged attacks, high numbers, and a lot of F4, you'll have a lot of chances to deal damage and won't actually suffer as much as you'd think.

Thanks for the insights Centaur - we won't be getting into Fangorn today, but we'll see what we can do with the other allied factions later in the post. :-) For now, let's see what Centaur cooked up for us today.

The Bare Necessities, Part XXIV: Barad-Dur

Good morning gamers,

In this post, we begin the armies I'm not that interested in collecting and so don't feel qualified to do a list-building discussion on them. The good news is, I play with a few guys who LOVE armies that not only get a lot of attention on this blog, but also are factions I don't see myself owning. Like ever. :-) 

We begin the discussion of these factions by looking at Rythbryt's thoughts on Barad-Dur. I do need to say that as a Mordor/Angmar player who already has some converted-up Black Numenoreans, lots of Orc Warriors/Trackers, Warg Riders planned in the future to support my Angmar force, and plenty of Ringwraiths, that this faction wouldn't be hard for me to start (just need to pick up Sauron, right?). I should also say that given how much I love spell-casters and the fact that Sauron is easily the best evil spell-caster in the game (check out our podcast on Evil spell-casters for more), this should be a shoe-in force for me.

Most of my interest in Barad-Dur, to be honest, is because my son is starting to play MESBG and is playing with Barad-Dur (borrowing my Mordor/Angmar guys to support his Sauron model). It's fun for him to use, but I don't really see the need to collect Sauron (theoretically, I could just borrow my son's model). So in the interest of being a better coach for my son, let's talk to our resident Barad-Dur expert and see what we can do!

Rythbryt: Let me begin by saying I love Barad-Dur… but not really at this points level. The problem is Sauron, who you basically have to take to justify taking this faction over Mordor. At 400 points all by his lonesome, he’s more than half your 700 point list. And while we can squeeze another 29 models into 300 points, it’s going to present some difficult challenges for us. So let’s begin. 

Taking Stock

The goal of this exercise is to build a well-rounded list that can perform across a spectrum of different scenarios, so Tiberius gave me some parameters for the list. Since we already know we’re taking Sauron, let’s see how we’re doing on those parameters with just Sauron, in reverse order of difficulty:

• You must be able to neutralize a big enemy hero. We’ve got this one. Sauron is one of the few models with the stats to neutralize any hero (yes, even Smaug who’s only F8, and the Balrog, who can only wound Sauron on natural 5s or 6s - Ed. actually, he can Rend Sauron on 4s...because he's the Balrog and he's awesome that way. ~Tiberius). Add his superior magic (Transfix (2+), Compel (3+), and Chill Soul (4+) as staples, plus Sap Will (4+) and Resistant to Magic against casters), innate Terror / Ancient Evil to keep low-courage swarms off of him, and of course The One Ring, and they don’t get tougher than Sauron. We can neutralize anyone, and obliterate almost anyone… as long as no one shatters his mace.
• There must be at least 1 actual banner (for those banner VP scenarios). Another easy (if painful) ask. There’s no way we’re taking a F9, 4 Attack Sauron and not giving him a banner. It does eat into our remaining 300 points, though (hence why a Barad-Dur list at 700 points is a tough ask).
• There need to be at least 30 models. This may sound counter-intuitive, but I would actually try to reach this number (if not higher) even if Tiberius hadn’t required it. Yes, Barad-Dur’s army bonus makes it less important for you to horde out, provided you can keep Sauron at 3+ wounds. But the best way to keep Sauron at 3+ wounds is to surround him with as many models as you can. More models means more in-the-ways for shooting attacks, more scatter targets for siege weapons, more control zones enemy models have to cut through to engage Sauron, more disposable models you have to pull a big hero out of combat with Sauron, and (most importantly) more threats that enemy heroes have to deal with while they’re trying to deal with Sauron. You can’t “horde out” with Barad-Dur at 700 points, but with some planning and economy you can get to 35+ (thanks to Sauron’s ability to lead 24 models in his warband, and the points-efficiency of the humble orc and Orc Captain). 35 models isn't huge, but it's at least an average size force at 700 points (going off of the Green Dragon Podcast's suggestion of 1 model per 20 points as an average-size force), with a hero who is well-above-average.
• The list has to include at least 4 models who can move more than 6” (for objective grabbing). For Barad-Dur this probably means cavalry models. Again, this is something that I would want to include anyway, mostly because it’s always a good idea to have at least a few cavalry models in your army who can counter-charge enemy cavalry to negate their charge bonuses (plus having some fast objective grabbers is a must-have for several scenarios). Fortunately we have a few cavalry profiles to choose from, and even some mounted hero options.
• You need at least a few ways to augment your models (war gear options, auric boosts, army special rules, or some sort of special character synergy). We could cheat here and argue Sauron’s army bonus fits this bill; otherwise, this one is going to be the hardest, mostly because with just 275 points left (after we take Sauron and his banner) for at least 29 more models, four of which need to move fast, we just don’t have that many points left for extras. But we’ll see what we can do.

I would add to these one more, just for personal taste:

• More Might. Yes, Sauron is tough. But you really want to bank his Might for his ring saves later on, because if he goes, your army goes. Many scenarios strongly incentivize us to use Might in some fashion (moving first, heroic combats, etc.), so if we’re going to be conservative with Sauron’s, we need someone else’s to burn when we need it.

Alrighty then. Now for the fun part—theory crafting!

The Bare Necessities, Part XXIII: The Corsairs of Umbar

Good morning gamers,

This is the final post for this volume of our series on list building - and we're ending it with an army that I've wanted to collect from the very beginning (just haven't settled on what I wanted it to look like): the Corsairs of Umbar. Corsairs are great troops - F4/4+ for most of their troops with throwing weapons on their most basic troops (Corsairs of Umbar) and their most basic captains (Corsair Captains and Corsair Bo'suns) AND their most killy captains (Dalamyr, Delgamar, and Hasharin). Throwing weapons are my thing - so naturally, I should own some of these guys. So what's the hold up, you ask?

The Corsairs of Umbar: Do You Need Allies (and how important is Heroic Strike when you have lots of throwing weapons)?

Corsairs have a pretty good army: 

• They've got options for cheap heroes (Captains/Bosuns cost under 60 points);
• They've got 3 Attack heroes (Dalamyr and Hasharin - who are Heroes of Valor in this list);
• They've got heavily-armored heroes (Black Numenorean Marshals - who can also be mounted on horses with lances);
• They've got crossbows/normal bows to supplement their throwing weapons; and
• They've got average-cost troops (8-10 points all-around).

What they don't have is what makes the list challenging:

• Most of their models don't have great Defense, capping out at D4 for warriros and D5 for heroes (if you don't include the Knight of Umbar, Black Numenoreans, Black Numenorean Marshals, and the pavises);
• Their 3 Attack heroes are strapped for Might (Hasharin have 1 Might, Dalamyr has 2 Might);
• Their heavily-armored troops can't take spears, so you're likely to have light troops in your army regardless of how you try to run it;
• Black Numenorean Marshals are the only fast/mounted models in this list;
• Your crossbows are great, but unlike crossbows in other armies, the models who carry them are only D3 when they finally get engaged;
• Their troops might be average cost, but that's because they predominantly have average stats (Strength 3 and Courage 3).

While I think having throwing weapons makes up for a lot of these weaknesses (of course I do, right?), not having fast troops is a big problem. Sure, you can March (Corsair Captains, Black Numenorean Marshals, and Corsair Bosuns can all March), but with as little Might as the Corsairs have in their list, I'm not inclined to rely on Marching. 

The question then becomes: how important is it to have fast troops? If that's important, then you need to look for allies (the Serpent Horde is a Historical Ally and has great cavalry options; Mordor is a Convenient Ally and has good cavalry options too).

But there's another question: since you only have Heroic Strike on two models (Dalamyr and Hasharin), how important is it to be able to call Heroic Strike? Most players use Strike as a means of contesting an enemy mega hero who has a higher Fight Value than you have - but if you can use your throwing daggers to shoot a friendly model that's been charged by a big hero (your Mega-Boromirs, King Aragorns, Gil-Galads, you get the picture), do you really need to have it in your army? I'm not convinced you do. Ergo, here's the list we have for today - it has exactly one specialized Heroic Action (and personally, I think it's the most important Heroic Action of all).

The Bare Necessities, Part XXII: The Army of Thror

Good morning gamers,

We've been looking at armies that I'm hoping to start collecting in the coming months/years. If you've followed this blog for any period of time, you know that I've been a fan of Dwarves since I got started in the hobby in 2010. My beloved bearded fellows from Khazad-Dum are a shooting army (using Dwarf bows, normal bows, and throwing axes) that also sports high Defense. Today, we look at the Army of Thror, which lacks the bows/Dwarf bows, but retains that iconic high Defense that we expect from Dwarves. When trying to build a balanced list, however, the question becomes "How do we compensate for the innate limitations of this list?"

The Army of Thror: How Important is Archery and Mobility?

The Army of Thror has one of the most limited army selections for a Force of Good in the game (and certainly is one of the most limited forces in the Armies of the Hobbit). With two warrior options, two generic heroes, and five named heroes, you've got more options than some factions (like my beloved Numenor or the Garrison of Dale), but the weird thing about these profiles is that the profiles we've been given basically all do the same thing! Yes, you've got two-handed weapon options on your throwing-axe warriors, but all of our warriors are infantry who are likely to be D7 and have to do the majority of their killing in melee. Yes, you've got heroes who kill things in different ways, but they're all melee infantry heroes who are trying to kill things with whatever they have. So the question is, how important is the lack of archery and lack of mobility in this list?

The Army of Thror has a great army bonus (Thror being treated as a banner to friendly Erebor models within 6" of him). The way I see it, you have a few options to build your army:

• Pure Army of Thror with lots of Heroic March: we've covered in our post on cavalry that 7/12 of the scenarios in the main rulebook require you to get somewhere. If you're going to run a pure Army of Thror list, you want to bring 1-2 captains in your list for up to 4 Heroic Marches in the game to propel your army across the board. Pairing these guys with Thror means you've probably got room for about 1 more hero in the army (Thrain to save money, Thorin gives nice auric buffs, Dwalin is about the same cost as a captain and has REALLY good damage potential).
• Army of Thror allied with the Garrison of Dale: you can get good archery from Dale (Elf archers with lower Fight/Defense/Courage/cost), but unless you supplement them with lots of Grim hammers/Guardians of the King with throwing axes, you still won't have a lot of archery. Because Dale doesn't have any cavalry, you still want 1-2 Captains in your army to help you March up the field. That extra hero we talked about above is probably taken up by Girion (who is an excellent archer, even if you don't take his Windlance).
• Army of Thror allied with the Iron Hills: here you merge the option for fast troops (Goat Riders and Dain) with an option for shooting models (crossbows and ballistae). The downside to this army, of course, is the expense in $$$$ of actually buying the models. If you're looking for the best overall list of options, this appears to me to be the best option.

I don't have any of these models right now, so here's what I'm looking at collecting (and it'll be long time before I do this - it's going to be EXPENSIVE)!