Back To Basics: Army Composition & Unit Profiles

Good morning gamers,

I recently introduced a friend to MESBG and I was reminded that there are a lot of rules in MESBG (no kidding, right?). Helping our friends slowly immerse themselves in the rules is a critical part to not turning people off to the game, so I figured it might be good to take a few weeks to review what's "really important" in each phase of the game with a mind to helping new players get going in the game (and helping us veterans "go back to basics"). 

I'm going to start off by saying that if you want to watch a very good synopsis of how MESBG works, you should check out Jacob Lucas's video on Conquest Creations - it's really good. We're going to dive into how to play the game next week, so this might be a good piece of homework to do before you read any more articles in this series. 

What we're going to talk about today is the a priori discussion of how to build an army list in MESBG. With erratas that come out every February and August, just reading the book isn't actually enough to build an army list anymore (much to pity) and I'll put in a plug now for the Bare Necessities series that I did in 2020 (and will be returning to in a few weeks when this series is completed). You can also check out the Conquest Creations video on what makes lists competitive if you want to see Jacob's take - he and I covered very similar ground. 

Army Composition Basics: Heroic Tiers

When building an army, you have to start with heroes - and not all heroes are equal. In past editions of the game, there either wasn't a hero-to-warrior ratio you had to follow (during the Legions of Middle-Earth days when I got started) or there was a 1:12 ratio (when the "warband" books came out). Now, there are five different tiers of heroes, giving you differing levels of command for your heroes. Let's look at Minas Tirith as an example:

Aragorn is the King - many would follow him and listen to his commands . . .

Heroes of Legend can lead 18 warriors in their warbands. They also pass their first "Stand Fast" roll automatically, which we'll cover in a later post (but for now, just know that when your army thinks it's time to flee the field because they've lost a lot of guys, these heroes say, "No, we've got this!" and the warriors stay in the fight). Heroes of Legend are rare - 0-2 choices for most armies - but they allow you to bring a LOT of guys with them, allowing you to bolster your numbers without the "tax" of an extra hero.

Faramir is a leader among his people, with captains under him but not a man who everyone would follow . . .

Heroes of Valor can lead 15 warriors in their warbands. Besides the "slightly-larger-than-average" warband, these guys have very little else going for them over the next class of heroes (but if you want to get to the magic number of 30 models, these guys are super helpful).

Madril is a captain of troops, capable of leading a "standard set" of them . . .

Heroes of Fortitude are the most common kind of hero and they can lead 12 warriors in their warbands. Most armies will have at least one Hero of Fortitude because they tend to be very affordable and provide you with a good number of slots for troops. For a good number of factions, they are also the only models with access to Heroic March, which we'll cover in our next post (though you can read ahead on what that Heroic Action does here).

Damrod is a minor hero, more of a sergeant than a captain . . .

Minor Heroes are able to lead 6 warriors in their warbands. These represent the sergeants in the army, capable of leading a small band but not a full company. Models like Eowyn would hold the respect of a few people, but not be viewed as a great captain on the battlefield.

Courtesy of Games Workshop - Pippin isn't a leader at all . . .

Independent Heroes cannot lead any warriors because they're heroes who . . . well, don't actually lead people. Unlike other heroes, however, these heroes can be placed in a friendly hero's warband (taking up one of their warrior slots). This allows you to "tuck away" a hero into another warband (which can be extremely valuable).

With one of the previous FAQs, heroic tiers play an important role not just in deciding how many warriors you can bring along, but also in your options for allying with other factions. Let's dig into that next!

Army Composition Basics: Pure Lists vs. Allied Forces vs. Legendary Legions

Thanks to the campaign supplements that have been released (starting with Gondor at War and continuing with the Scouring of the Shire, War in Rohan, and Quest of the Ringbearer - and even more to come) there are three ways you can run your armies: you can run a "pure" list from a single faction in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings or Armies of the Hobbit books, you can run an allied force between two or more factions from those books, or you can run a thematic "Legendary Legion." For those curious about the rules for these Legions, you should check out our recent series on Legendary Legions.

Each of these options has its own strengths and weaknesses and can appeal to different players based on what they want to get out of the game. Pure lists (e.g. just taking models from Isengard, Minas Tirith, or the Iron Hills) get an "army bonus" that makes certain elements of their army (and sometimes all elements of their army) a bit better than their normal profile. If your army bonus is good (the Iron Hills, Halls of Thranduil when running Thranduil or Mirkwood Rangers, the Fiefdoms, or Barad-Dur), then running a pure list can make sure that you keep that bonus and get the most out of it. The downside to running a pure list is that many factions don't have the breadth of options in their hero or warrior selections to deal with other armies on their own. Some factions (like the Garrison of Dale, Numenor, and Arnor) have very few hero and warrior options and next to no cavalry options (Numenor has some, the other two are all-infantry). This doesn't make them bad factions - I rather like all three - but it does mean your options are more limited.

Allied lists follow a matrix that's provided in the back of the Armies of the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit books that indicate (roughly) whether factions existed at the same time as each other and whether they worked together or not. 

• Historical Alliances: Factions that historically worked together (e.g. Minas Tirith with Rohan/the Fiefdoms, Erebor Reclaimed with the Halls of Thranduil/Survivors of Lake-town, Mordor with the Easterlings) get to keep their army bonuses AND get to take models from both factions (though heroes from one faction can't lead heroes from another faction). Each faction needs at least one Hero of Fortitude/Valor/Legend in the list.
• Convenient Alliances: Factions that existed at the same time but didn't work together (e.g. the Shire and Minas Tirith, the White Council and Rohan, Moria and Isengard) lose their army bonuses, but otherwise act normally. Like historical alliances, you can take models from any mix of the factions you choose, but heroes from any faction chosen can only lead warriors from their own faction. Each faction needs at least one Hero of Valor/Legend in the list.
• Impossible Alliances: Factions that didn't exist at the same time and so couldn't work together (e.g. Numenor and Minas Tirith, Barad-Dur and Mordor, Sharkey's Rogues and any other evil faction) get penalized heavily. Thanks to the first erratas released, these armies lose their army bonuses, each faction has its own break point and breaking one faction breaks the whole army, don't benefit from banners/banner effects from the allied faction, don't benefit from friendly heroic actions called by heroes from the allied faction, and won't benefit from the Stand Fast of an allied hero (which is used to keep warriors from fleeing the battlefield when half of the army is broken). Yep, there are some pretty steep penalties for being impossible allies, so consider twice whether it's worth it to do. Each faction needs at least one Hero of Valor/Legend in the list.

The biggest advantage you get from allying with other factions is the ability to supplement weaknesses. The Corsairs of Umbar, for example, have no warrior cavalry options (and their only hero cavalry option is probably going to be left at home most of the time in favor of their other hero choices). As a Historical Ally with the Serpent Horde (Haradrim), you can get access to cavalry heroes and warriors for pretty cheap - great for fleshing out their ranks with mobility options while not giving up the army bonuses for either faction.

The biggest disadvantage to allying is that your army becomes split focus: you usually can't include all of the bells and whistles you would normally take with Corsairs if you run an allied contingent of Haradrim. Similarly, because cavalry cost more than infantry, you're not going to have as many numbers as you otherwise would with a pure Corsair list - and since Haradrim models are not any more resilient than Corsair models, you're going to die just as quickly but have a lower break point.

Your final option is to run a "Legendary Legion," which allows you to relive moments from the books or movies that might be hard to do with the normal alliance matrix. Legions like the Return of the King Legendary Legion (which brings Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli into the Dead of Dunharrow list) allows heroes who would normally not be able to lead troops (like Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli) to lead Warriors of the Dead and Riders of the Dead AND keep the Dead of Dunharrow army bonus AND give some neat rules to Aragorn (Anduril for free, 6" banner for your spirit models). That seems like a pretty good deal to me.

The downside to these lists is that some of your equipment choices are made for you (not always a bad thing) and shoring up weaknesses is much harder because the list of models you can bring is pre-determined. If you run the Riders of Theoden and run into a magic-heavy, shooting-heavy list, you could be in big trouble (trouble that could have been avoided by running Rohan allied with a Gandalf-led Minas Tirith historical ally, a Galadriel-led Lothlorien historical ally, or a Galadrield-Lady-of-Light-led White Council convenient ally). Yep, there are weaknesses to running Legions, but in most cases the Legions give you at least a potential edge over running a pure army or allied contingent.

Examples of Good Allies:

• Gwaihir: Gwaihir is a Hero of Legend in the Misty Mountains army list and so can ally with anyone in the game as a historical/convenient ally. Whether he's a one-model-drop or leading a few Eagles, you can get some great killing power and a mobile model into any Good faction in the game with the only real concern being losing your army bonuses (which most factions can do just fine without).
• Galadriel, Lady of Light: the White Council is historical allies with Rivendell (and Thrain the Broken if you take Gandalf) and convenient allies with everyone else except Numenor and Arnor - so if you want good protection from enemy archery and enemy magic, she's a great addition to any Good army (and as a Hero of Valor, she can also be a one-model-drop into most lists).
• Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood: the Halls of Thranduil are convenient allies with everyone (except Erebor Reclaimed, the Iron Hills, and the Survivors of Lake-town, who they are historical allies with). As a Hero of Valor (do you sense a theme here), you can add an excellent archer who can pierce through anti-archery bubbles (like those created by Galadriel, Lady of Light or Gandalf) or snipe important models off of objectives. Depending on how you ally him in, you can also bring archers, heavy infantry, or cavalry with him to supplement the weaknesses of any Forces of Good army.
• Suladan the Serpent Lord: Suladan is not mentioned in the books (unless he is the Black Serpent chieftain that Theoden slays at the Pelennor Fields), but he's a great hero for the Serpent Horde - and any army, really. As a Hero of Legend, he can lead 18 troops, has a 6" banner for rerolls all along the battle line, a decent combat profile, and is mobile while mounted on his horse. For a maximum of 120 points, he's a bargain.
• Durburz, Goblin King of Moria: This was one of the first heroes I bought for Moria and he's a great guy to ally Moria's trademark models into any faction (except Barad-Dur and Sharkey's Rogues, who are Impossible Allies). Durburz is cheap - only 70 points - so you can drop him, a Cave Troll, a Bat Swarm, a Warg Marauder, and up to 12 Goblins for less than 300 points. Since you're convenient allies with basically everyone, you're just looking at losing your army bonuses and you can have a good swarm of troops, some killing power, and some mobility - all because you brought Durburz.
• Nazgul of Dol Guldur: These guys are cheap Heroes of Valor - including any one of them (I think the Witch-King is a good start, lots of people like the Lingering Shadow too) allows you to bring heavy infantry (Gundabad Orc Warriors), light infantry (Hunter Orcs), fast infantry (Fell Wargs), cavalry (Hunter Orcs on Fell Wargs), and/or skirmishers (Mirkwood Spiders) into almost any Evil faction you want from the Armies of the Hobbit. AND you're historical allies with Azog's Hunters and Azog's Legion, so you'll keep their army bonuses if you ally (which is good for both of them).

Okay, so you know now what to think about when choosing the kind of list you want to run - but each of these list options is dependent on one critical piece: your own personal play style. Let's look at what those could be for a minute.

List Types - Play Styles

Centaur wrote an article back in 2015 about various different play styles in the game. While the article is old, the principles of it still apply in the current edition. I won't cover the same ground he did, but for a beginner's knowledge, here are a few different "play styles" that you will find in MESBG - not all of these are competitive, but each has an appeal to different players. I will say that these categories aren't mutually exclusive - some of them overlap - but the mindsets of each bullet point are different, so consider what appeals to you as a player:

• Horde Lists & Elite Lists: some factions (like a pure Goblin-town army or Sharkey's Rogues) are going to run lots of models - far more models than their opponent has. They can do this because the models that they field are really cheap and really, REALLY bad at fighting (we'll get into what makes a model good/bad at fighting later). These are horde lists - you're counting on having more guys than your opponent and either overwhelming them with guys or "just having more guys" around objectives. Elite lists, by contrast, focus on having a small number of guys, but each of your models boast a good profile, able to limit the damage they take and deal lots of damage in return. All-hero lists, such as the Fellowship or the White Council, tend to be examples of elite armies (though armies with expensive warriors, like the Iron Hills and any of the Elf factions, can qualify as well).
• Asymmetric Lists: we'll get into the phases of each round of the game in the next few posts, but suffice it to say that each round of the game moves through five phases (the Priority phase, the Move phase, the Shoot phase, the Fight phase, and the End phase). While most armies deal their damage in the Fight phase (where models that have charged each other are trying to kill each other with swords or axes or whatever), some lists can be built as asymmetric lists which try to exploit weaknesses in enemy models, usually by taking advantage of the earliest phases in the game - the Move phase (where models are maneuvering around the board, charging each other, and casting magic) and the Shoot phase (where models are . . . well, shooting at each other if they have a bow or something). Most factions don't force you into favoring Move phase or Shoot phase damage, but a few can be built to really capitalize on these elements of the game. The Halls of Thranduil can be run with lots of heavily-armored Elves, but can also be run with Legolas, Tauriel, and a Captain or two leading a bunch of Mirkwood Rangers - everyone in this list can have a bow, everyone can shoot at the enemy, and you can deal LOADS of damage to your opponents. Other lists that can be early-phase-heavy lists include armies with lots of chariots, war beasts, or camels that do damage to models when charging in the Move phase, throwing-weapon-heavy lists that can perform shooting attacks when charging in the Move phase, and magic-heavy lists that can do damage (or neutralize enemy heroes) in the Move phase. The caution with these kinds of lists (from someone who has run plenty of shooting-heavy lists over the years and LOVES magical powers) is that if that one phase doesn't yields results, you can be in a lot of trouble.
• Tool Kit Lists: some lists can build redundancies into their army so that they can deal with anything they face. A tool kit list takes lots of different elements so that no matter what kind of list they're facing, they know they have some kind of answer to it. Including a model with access to magical powers, anti-archery rules (be it high defense or an actual anti-archery bubble rule), a big hero to either clear out warriors or cut through big heroes/monsters, shooting, a heavily-armored anvil to receive the enemy charge and "die slowly" to buy your other models time - any of these things will give you the ability to deal with horde armies, elite armies, phase-heavy lists, and whatever else your opponent thinks up. These lists tend to be hard to build at low points levels, but are often the most competitive lists at higher points levels.
• Thematic & Aesthetic Lists: some lists aren't written to maximize points spent or even be able to handle everything - they're built because you "are playing to theme" or are trying to include models that you like the look of or painted really well and want to show off to your friends on the tabletop. Thematic lists are often best run now as Legendary Legions (though some thematic lists haven't been addressed yet by the sourcebooks that have been released) and these can make thematic play a bit more competitive by giving you extra rules that encourage your desired build (like the Return of the King or Defenders of Helm's Deep Legendary Legions). Some models look really cool, but don't have a boost in rules that make them better than other models (like Osgiliath Veterans) - if you include these models in your list, you are probably running an aesthetic list. 
• "Stubborn" & Ownership Lists: there are some lists that we build where we sit down and say, "I want to run a list that has <model_name> and <another_model_name> in it - how do I make this work?" These kinds of lists I refer to as stubborn lists - and they are most often run by Centaur. :) Centaur referred to "underdog" lists, which are lists that if anyone else in the world ran them, they probably wouldn't do well, but because you built the list this way and you have an idea that you want to make work, you can pull off victories (often when viewed as having the disadvantage in the fight). If you want a good challenge (or have an aesthetic list you want to run), you might want to look into a stubborn list. New players will fall into a similar list building mindset - the ownership list - where you look at just the models you own and say, "What do I want to run?" In this paradigm, models are either good choices or bad choices based on what you have - and there's nothing wrong with this. I would recommend not criticizing models as "bad" just because you don't own them though - I used to do this and have had to eat my hat since then.

Okay, so we've gotten some idea of how heroes allow you to bring a certain number of warriors to the fight, how you can choose to run pure/allied factions (or run a Legendary Legion), and gotten some idea of different play styles that can use. Now we get into the thick of the discussion: understanding those profiles in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit books and figuring out "what makes a model good to take."

Hero and Warrior Roles - Fitting Your Style

Okay, so now we have some idea about what the profile looks like (and how the numbers can make models good) - I encourage you to pour over sourcebook after sourcebook to get a better idea of what to expect from your units and what actually makes a model good. When given the choices of heroes and warriors, most factions have to pick and choose from a multitude of profiles (some lists have very few options, so their lists write themselves). Here are some general questions you might want to ask when figuring out what units to buy (to illustrate this, we'll use the Defenders of Helm's Deep Legendary Legion, which depicts Theoden and his brave warriors from Rohan standing alongside Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Haldir, and the resolute Elves of Lothlorien):

• Do you want the maximum number of models or fewer models? The Legion requires you to run Theoden (who, as a Hero of Legend, can bring 18 troops) - but do you want to fill out his warband with 18 models BEFORE picking up another hero? Or do you want to pick up a few heroes to support Theoden (perhaps Aragorn and/or Legolas) and THEN start getting warriors?
• Do you want the cheapest troops or more elite troops? Generally speaking, cheaper troops means more troops (or better heroes), but by dropping a few warriors (or one hero), you can often give your cheap-as-chips units extra equipment (throwing spears for your Warriors of Rohan so they can shoot at enemy models instead of having to wait for the enemy to engage them) or buy better troops instead (replace those Warriors of Rohan with shields for Rohan Royal Guards with shields). You can also pick up things like a banner (or two), trade one big hero for two little heroes, and the like.
• Are you looking for the best value for cost? Some models get bonuses "for free" relative to other profiles (High Elf Warriors get +2 Courage while Dwarf Warriors get +1 Defense and +1 Courage "for free" relative to Warriors of Rohan or Warriors of Minas Tirith), while others give you a bonus that's hard to get (extra Strength for example) for "just 1 point more" (Khazad Guards, for example, cost 2 points more than a Dwarf Warrior with two-handed axe, but get +1 Strength and the Bodyguard special rule - both of which are really nice upgrades and make a Khazad Guard "more worth the points" than a Dwarf Warrior with two-handed axe).
• Are you looking for maximum killing power? If so, you're probably trying to mount as many heroes as possible (and maybe running as many heroes as you can with a token amount of warriors to screen for them while the heroes chew through the enemy). You might also look into siege engines to supplement a large body of shooting models so you can kill the enemy before he gets to you.
• Do you want to focus heavily on one part of the game? I don't generally recommend this, but find myself playing this way a lot. :) Whether it's an army that heavily emphasizes magic (lists that have lots of Ringwraiths or Barrow-Wights, for example), shooting (like my everyone-except-Galadriel-can-shoot Lothlorien army or lists that can have up to 50% of their models armed with bows), or cavalry (Rohan comes to mind), you may like an army that "does one thing" - and if that thing works you'll win the game (probably). If that thing doesn't work, though . . .

Okay, so you have an idea of the kind of army that sounds fun to you? Well, let's dig into the profiles for that army and see what everything means.

Hero and Warrior Profiles: What Do the Numbers Mean?

Model profiles contain a few key elements - let's look at a fairly new profile that hasn't been released in an official sourcebook yet (you can find the working profile on the ForgeWorld website here):

First off, models have keywords, which show up in special rules in bolded text. "Old Dain" has the keywords of Dwarf, Erebor, Infantry, and Hero. Those last two - Infantry and Hero - have the most impact on the game, as certain rules trigger if you're interacting with an infantry model (e.g. cavalry that charge infantry get a few bonuses) and heroes have a few extra rules over infantry (such as being needed to bring troops or call a "Stand Fast" to keep your models fighting). You'll note that Dain is a Hero of Legend - as discussed above, this means you can bring up to 18 warriors in his warband.

Each hero also has a cost - the higher the points listed, the better the profile (generally speaking - the relative value of a model is often determined by "what you get for their cost"). Games are played at a certain "points level," so expensive heroes may become more or less viable options based on how high your points limit is. Old Dain costs 130 points, which is more expensive than most mid-tier heroes (who live in the 50-90pt range), but much less than most top-tier heroes (who live in the 90-400pt range). Compared to most Dwarf heroes, however, he's pretty expensive (and this causes many Dwarf players to argue about how "good" he is for his cost) - though I contend that any non-Dwarf faction would LOVE to have a hero like this. :-)

Then you have the profile's stat line: 

• "Mv" stands for Movement - you can move the model the stated number of inches (6" is considered average - less than that means you're short and slow, higher than that and you're tall and/or fast);
• "F" stands for Fight Value - the first number shows your skill with your melee weapon (1-10, the higher the better), while the second number shows your skill with any ranged weapons you may have (2+ means you hit your target on the roll of a 2 or higher - the lower this number is, the better);
• "S" stands for Strength - the number shows how hard your model hits when making melee strikes (and can be used for other things too - 1-10, the higher the better in most situations);
• "D" stands for Defense - the number shows how tough your model is (usually because of the kind of armor they're wearing - 1-10, the higher the better in most situations);
• "A" stands for Attacks - the number of dice you roll when attacking in melee (most warriors have 1A and so roll 1 die, most mid-tier heroes have 2A and so roll 2 dice, while most elite heroes/monsters have 3A and so roll 3 dice - though there are ways to get more dice rolls for some heroes, either through a higher Attack stat or other special rules);
• The first "W" stands for Wounds (in my Excel builders, I use "H" for "Health" for reasons you'll see in a minute) - the number of successful wounds you need to suffer to be removed from the board (most warriors have 1W and so die after they've been wounded once, while most heroes/monsters have 2-3 Wounds); and
• "C" stands for Courage - a value that is added to the sum of two dice that are rolled to determine if you "pass a Courage test" (you "pass" if you get a sum of 10 or higher - though your Courage stat can be used for other things too).

Heroes have three "heroic resources" that they can use - and these are commonly viewed to be one of the best mechanics in the game:

• "M" stands for Might - "Might points" can be used to modify die rolls and call heroic actions, which allow heroes to improve their stats or do things out of sequence, such as moving, shooting, or fighting. Old Dain has 3 Might points and his specialized heroic actions are "Resolve, Strike, Strength, and Challenge" - if you're curious about these, check out our series on them from late 2020;
• "W" stands for Will (see why I use "H" for "Health"?) - "Will points" can be used to modify Courage test rolls and allow heroes to cast and/or resist magical powers. Old Dain has 3 Will points and has no magical powers in his profile, so he will probably use these to resist magical powers (Dain doesn't need Will to pass Courage tests, as we'll see in a moment); and
• "F" stands for Fate - "Fate points" can be used to ignore wounds. For each Fate point the hero spends, a die is rolled: the hero blocks a wound for each roll of 4 or higher (4+) that is rolled - Might points can be used to modify these rolls. Old Dain has 1 Fate point, so he might save a wound he takes in a game.

A model also has a starting set of wargear (Old Dain starts off with Heavy Dwarf armor and Barazantathul - his axe) and many profiles have options for additional wargear that can be purchased for them (increasing their points cost). The big thing you want to watch for in this category is the word "unarmed," which means the model carries no melee weapon and suffers penalties to their fighting rolls (because, you know, they have no weapon). Some models (like Wargs and fell beasts) have wargear like "Teeth and Claws" - these models don't count as being unarmed. We'll talk more about wargear below.

A model may have magical powers listed on their profile - Dain doesn't have any, but each power is listed with a casting difficulty (2+, 3+, 4+, 5+, or 6+) which indicates the highest roll you need to get when spending Will to cast the spell. For more information on how to cast magic, check out our post on that (and for an in-depth view of every spell in the game and the people who have them, check out our series on Mastering Magic).

Finally, almost every model in the game has a section for its special rules. Some special rules are "common special rules" which have their full game text provided in the main rulebook. Old Dain, for example, has "Fearless" (which means he automatically passes Courage tests - hence why using he doesn't need Will to pass Courage tests). Dain also has "unique special rules," which are not found in the main rulebook (when multiple models have these rules, the page number that they can be found on is referenced). Dain, for example, has the "Venerable" and "King Under the Mountain" special rules, which make him less likely to pass jump/leap/climb tests (so just don't try those) and allows more models to pass their Courage tests to say in the fight after their side has lost half of their models.

Special rules have the keywords "Active" or "Passive" attached to them, which in general doesn't mean anything. Some magical powers or special rules may prevent models from using "Active" abilities - that's really the only time when this comes into play. 

Wargear - Fitting Your Style

The final thing about unit profiles that we need to cover is wargear - the "extra stuff" you give to your units to make them better. There are common pieces of wargear that most armies get (though some don't), so we'll cover those first. When possible, you probably want to buy spears for your troops, since spears allow models who are not in combat to lend 1 Attack to a friend who has been charged (we'll cover this more next time when we talk about the Move phase). Shields are also good, since they not only increase the Defense value of the model (usually - some exceptions) and they allow the model to "defend by shielding," which gives them more dice to win the fight and not wound the enemy should they win the duel (we'll cover this more when we talk about the Fight phase). Players will differ on whether to give shields to spearmen - I generally recommend it.

As a general rule, armies can equip one-third of their warriors with some kind of bow (rounding up, so if you take 31 warriors, 11 of them can have a bow, longbow, shortbow, crossbow, or some other kind of specialized bow that falls into one of the above categories). Heroes with some kind of bow do not count towards this one-third limit. Not all armies have "good" archers, but I generally find that taking close to 33% bows is helpful no matter how good your warriors are, since not taking bows means that bow-heavy enemy armies get to decide how you play the game (and who wants to do that). Throwing weapons are far less common and can also be used for shooting, but do not count towards your bow limit (allowing some armies to have shooting options on all of the units they take).

You also want to have at least one banner (or a hero who counts as a banner) in your army, since banners allow you to reroll dueling dice (which we'll cover more in the Fight phase). Banners are expensive (25pts each) and can make warriors (or certain heroes) targets for your opponent, but their benefits in combat are incredible (especially for heroes and elite warriors). War horns are also expensive, but while one or more war horns are on the field, your units get +1 Courage, making them more likely to pass Courage tests of all kinds. War horns are also expensive (30pts each), but if you have 30+ models benefitting from it, the cost is probably worth it.

Mounts are also quite useful - especially for heroes. Whether it's a horse, warg, or fell beast, a mount give extra movement to a model and a larger base, giving the model the opportunity to smash into more troops. There are downsides to taking mounts (namely, the larger base makes it easier to charge you and limits the number of models that can be within range of certain area buffs, such as banners).

Finally, for those of you who prefer a good hobbying challenge (or just want to add some spice to your army), you can do a weapon swap for your model - giving your Warrior of Numenor a flail instead of a sword. Warriors can do a weapon-swap for 1 point each and generic heroes can do a weapon swap for 5 points each. Named heroes cannot do weapon swaps and keywords on your weapons (such as "Elven-made" or "master-forged" will be lost if you swap them).

Conclusion: Getting Started with MESBG

This article has shown how some of the core mechanics of army building work in MESBG - and over the next few weeks, we'll be going over each phase of the game and how they work (and what to think about when you're in them). If you want example army lists, you can check out our Bare Necessities series on list building, our Stuff of Legends series on Legendary Legions, or the 500 under 50 series on the Drawn Combat Blog (which is great for those of you just getting into the hobby, as the guys there have given various ways to build good starter armies on a tight budget).

In our next post, we'll be going over the Priority phase and the Move phase (since they're very, VERY related to each other). This is probably the best part of MESBG and showcases a lot of a player's talent and weaknesses. Warfare is all about maneuvering - and most of the movement of your models happens in this phase. Veteran players and novices alike can learn a thing or two about this phase, so pull together your favorite tricks over the next week and dump them in the comments! Until next time, happy hobbying!