Revisiting Play Styles Part 3: The Linchpin Playstyle

Hey Reader!

Welcome back to the blog! Tiberius wrote a blog post recently about list building for beginners, based on a 2015 post I made talking about the seven list building play styles I noticed at the time. Last time we talked about the Theme Playstyle, and in today's post we are looking at the third playstyle: the linchpin list.

As before, we will look at what this playstyle looks like in concept, and then work to maximize its potential on the table to bring you victory, coupled with thoughts on which armies do this best.

I.  The Linchpin Playstyle: "Focus and Overwhelm"

Also referred to as the "Focus and Overwhelm" strategy, this playstyle looks at one aspect of the game - magic, monsters, mobility, melee prowess, mob tactics, might points, archery (sorry - I couldn't come up with an "M" word for the last one! I feel ashamed), etc. - and turns that up to 11 in the army. If that part of the game works for the controlling player, they are probably going to win because they dominate that aspect of the game.

Shire: an army that focuses on Shooting and Numbers to win

I will go on record (and Tiberius will probably write a reply post on this, which is fine) saying that I think there is a hierarchy in regards to which of these you should overpower to be most effective (more on that below), but before I do, I want to say that you can do any of these quite effectively, and by focusing on any given aspect you may find it easier to beat some of the more powerful armies in the current meta.

And that's one of the nice things about playing a Linchpin army: you can take one aspect of the game that you really like, that your army does really well, etc. and lean heavily into it to attain victory. You tend to see this a lot from Tiberius in our gaming group (most of the time it's magic or archery, as he really loves magic and throwing weapons), but I think we've all dabbled with it at some point.

You'll also find a lot of crossover between the theme playstyle and this one, which is why we're doing these two back-to-back, as some themes focus around a specific aspect of the game (monsters, poison arrows, etc.). But I think they are different because the focus on, "I want as many archers as possible" is very different from a thematic army, and that's why it gets it own list.

Put another way, Linchpin strategies are often incidental Thematic armies: the theme of, "as many ranger as we can fit in" or "as many artillery pieces as I can fit in" is incidental to the actual aim which is, "a butt-ton of dangerous stuff clouding out the sun will hit some people even on a bad day."

So toward that end, let's look at how we can make the most of the Linchpin style.

Quest of the Ringbearer Inspired Lists: Rangers of Ithilien LL

Good morning gamers,

Well, this is our last post in this series for now. We've already seen how to take your Quest of the Ringbearer collection to field armies like Angmar, Rivendell, and the Serpent Horde, as well as Legendary Legions like the Breaking of the Fellowship, the Black Riders, Ugluk's Scouts, and Cirith Ungol. Today, we're covering an army that has gone from dominance to decline in the international competitive community: the Rangers of Ithilien.

The List

We get quite a few Minas Tirith models in Quest of the Ringbearer (despite the faction only showing up in three missions) - here's the full list:

• You have access to several heroes from the Black Gate (King Aragorn, Gandalf the White, and Peregrin Took, Guard of the Citadel);
  
• You'll need Faramir, Madril, and Damrod;
• You'll need the ForgeWorld models for Anborn and Mablung;
  
• You'll need 24 Warriors of Minas Tirith;
• You'll need one Minas Tirith Command blister (for the Warrior of Minas Tirith with banner);
  
• You'll need one box of Rangers of Gondor; and
• You'll need 6 Osgiliath Veterans (two with shields, two with spears, and two with bows) - though you can convert these models pretty easily from Warriors of Minas Tirith if you want too.
  

This Army Will Break Your Local Meta . . .

Good morning gamers,

Let me begin by acknowledging the click-bait title - I couldn't help myself. Centaur has recently been playing with a new army (and exercising a new 3D printer) and I have to admit, I had no idea how powerful it was until it started crushing armies that are deemed crazy powerful (the Vanquishers of the Necromancer in Command and Control, the Black Riders LL in Contest of Champions, and a Balrog/Cave Troll spam from the Depths of Moria LL in To The Death - twice). What army am I talking about? Well, Centaur's been running this one:

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

Yep, today we're looking at Fangorn and how they can single-handedly change your local meta - because traditional, conventional armies (and faddish, awesome armies that are used to fighting conventional armies) have no idea how to fight them. :-)

Quest of the Ringbearer Inspired Lists: Cirith Until LL

Good morning gamers,

We're almost done with the year and we've almost finished with this mini-series of taking our collection from Quest of the Ringbearer onto the tabletop for matched play. Today we turn to a Legion that I was very excited to see (and kinda groaning at collecting - the models are SO EXPENSIVE!) - the Cirith Ungol LL. This Legion, run as a normal Mordor list for a long time by theme-minded fans, looks a lot like the Ugluk's Scouts LL, but behaves very differently. Let's look at what we have to work with!

The List

This is once again an army that can use Orcs - and as we saw with both Angmar and the Ugluk's Scouts LL, Quest of the Ringbearer gives you a LOT of Orcs. Unlike the Ugluk's Scouts list, we only have 16 Uruk-Hai (including Shagrat), so our options for running Uruk-Hai in this Legion is pretty limited (though only just less than the 25 Uruk-Hai we had for Ugluk's Scouts). Thankfully, though, we do have plenty to work with - let's see what we have:

• You'll need the Shagrat and Gorbag pack - the new one with the two poses of Shagrat is best, more on that in a minute;
• You'll also need Shelob, who is a nasty piece of work in this legion;
• You'll need 37 Orc Warriors (12 shields, 12 spears, 6 Orc bows, 6 two-handed weapons, and 1 banner); 
• You'll need 3 Orc Captains and if you purchased the Orc command blister, you also have an Orc Shaman; and
• You'll need 15 Mordor Uruk-Hai - technically, you need 15 with no extra gear, so this could be as many as 30 Mordor Uruk-Hai if you want to spend a lot of money and be technically correct.

True talk: I'm not sure that anyone would ever run Mordor Uruk-Hai with no extra gear in matched play - getting a shield seems to be a popular choice, though I prefer the Orc bow (they're decent archers and scary to charge). I equip some of these Uruks with two-handed maces as well for extra damage. If you're buying 3 packs of Mordor Uruk-Hai so you have 18 warriors (though again, you COULD buy 5 packs so you have 15 warriors without extra wargear), we can safely assume you have 18 Uruk-Hai to work with in reality. Today, we'll be taking advantage of our "actual collection" and assume you have access to 18 Mordor Uruk-Hai (plus 2 Shagrat models) - let's look at the list:

• Shagrat, War Leader [ARMY LEADER]
• 1 Mordor Uruk-Hai with two-handed mace
• 3 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bows and two-handed maces
• 4 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bows
• Mordor Uruk-hai Captain with shield
• 1 Mordor Uruk-Hai with two-handed mace
• 2 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bows and two-handed maces
• 5 Mordor Uruk-Hai with Orc bows
• Gorbag, Orc Captain with shield
• 6 Orc Warriors with shields
• 5 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• Orc Captain with shield
• 6 Orc Warriors with shields
• 6 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• Shelob

The equipment is all wrong and many of the Uruks are Isengard Scouts . . .

700 points, 45 models, 14 Orc bows hitting on a 4+, 5 D6+ models, 1 fast infantry, 10 Might

Revisiting Play Styles Part 2: The Theme Playstyle

Hey Reader!

Welcome back to the blog! Tiberius wrote a blog post recently about list building for beginners, based on a 2015 post I made talking about the seven list building play styles I noticed at the time. Last time we talked about the Collection Playstyle, and in today's post we are looking at the second playstyle: the themed army.

Similar to our last post we will examine what goes into this playstyle, and then discuss how we can maximize the effect of that playstyle and which armies best allow us to maximize the potential of the theme.

I.  The Theme Playstyle: "Feel Over Math"

In a very oversimplified paraphrase of the philosophy, this playstyle comes down to accuracy over aptitude. If Lorien wasn't at Helm's Deep in the books, then we aren't taking elves in a Helm's Deep centric army (and in fact, you're probably playing Vanilla Rohan so you can add Hama and Eomer to the army, as Hama dies there and Eomer is also with them). If Gimli wasn't with Balin when he setup the Kingdom of Moria you won't run Gimli in a Kingdom of Moria Khazad Dum army. The theme comes first.

Minuteman Kirk in our gaming group is renowned for this, and I suspect that Red Jacket falls into this category to some extent as well: the feel of the army is critical to how we build lists.

Now, this means that there's a good chance that good models (like Gimli) won't be taken in an army because they just don't fit the theme, which is why the power level of the model isn't necessarily considered (hence "accuracy over aptitude"). It also means that you may not take advantage of other boons or special rules available to your faction.

Quest of the Ringbearer Inspired Lists: Black Riders LL

Good morning gamers,

Today we dig into a list that is very similar to a list that I ran years ago at a THRO tournament before the new rules dropped (and before the Legendary Legion): the Black Riders Legendary Legion. I've always loved the Ringwraith models - and while managing their Will and risking them being charged to death by the weakest of warriors can be difficult, I love how much raw magical power these guys have and the flexibility they give to your battle lines. But what happens when you run "just Ringwraiths" instead of the hordes of warriors and other beater heroes they usually accompany? Well, you get a REALLY interesting game - especially with the new Legion. Let's dig in and see how we use this list!

The List

With their mounted models returned to the store, you can now get everything you need for this army as follows:

• You'll need the 9 Ringwraiths on foot;
• You'll also need three packs of the 9 mounted Ringwraiths; and
• You can optionally get the new Witch-King blister (which will give you an extra Ringwraith on foot and mounted from the other sets - maybe a good Christmas or birthday gift for someone interested in Ringwraiths, but not interested in running "all Ringwraiths").

Interestingly enough, this comes out to ~$250 - the same as getting all of the Haradrim models we talked about last time! Still, these are iconic models that are used heavily in the early missions of the Quest of the Ringbearer campaign and can be a fun army to use if you like magic and high-risk, high-reward armies. Let's look at the list that we're running:

• The Witch-King of Angmar on horse with 3M/10W/2F [ARMY LEADER]
• Ringwraith #1 on horse with 2M/8W/1F
• Ringwraith #2 on horse with 2M/8W/1F
• Ringwraith #3 on horse with 2M/8W/1F
• Ringwraith #4 on horse with 2M/8W/1F
• Ringwraith #5 on horse with 2M/8W/1F
• Ringwraith #6 on horse with 2M/8W/1F
• Ringwraith #7 on horse with 2M/8W/1F

700 points, 8 models, 8 Black Darts cast on a 5+, 8 D6+ models, 8 cavalry, 17 Might

We have one extra guy in this photo, but Ringwraith #8 didn't want to be left in the box . . .

At 700 points, you can't get all nine Ringwraiths in your army with "the bare essentials" of resources allocated to each. Don't get me wrong - you COULD run all nine models with no upgrades for 600 points, allocating 20 points of Might, Will, or Fate to your models. Split 9 ways, this means all of your normal Ringwraiths probably have 1 Might/1 Fate, while the Witch-King has 2 Might/2 Fate, but it seems to me that by dropping 75 points worth of models to get +15 resources for the remaining 8 models (~2 points more for each of them) is a better move. Yes, you'd want the extra guy in some scenarios, but having a second Might point to boost rolls or call Heroic Moves/Combats seems to have more utility.

Revisiting Play Styles Part 1: The Collection Playstyle

Hey Reader!

Welcome back to the blog! Tiberius wrote a blog post recently about list building for beginners, based on a 2015 post I made talking about the seven list building play styles I noticed at the time (during "The Dark Age" when we were not getting a lot of new content for the game). This post, which will be the first in a series on different playstyles, is designed to revisit, flesh out, and update my thoughts from 2015 as I've progressed as a strategy war gamer, and follow-up on Tiberius's post as a "next step" for beginners as you begin thinking through list building for more competitive play.

Quick disclaimer: if you don't care that much about matched play and just love collecting, then I've done my best to include some of my most beautiful* models for your viewing pleasure, but this will probably not be the best article for you. I'm sorry. 

(* - Centaur's models are not that beautiful. He's aware of this and wrote this note. So don't expect the sun, moon, and stars in what follows, :P)

This post is more for those who have played some matched games, have found that they tend to like running specific models, and want to up their game so that they can place higher at a tournament. I hope this post is helpful for you, :)

I.  The Collection Playstyle: "Current Models"

A small band of Centaur's Azog's Hunters, one of his favorite evil armies

The first playstyle we will look at is what I'm calling the "Collection" playstyle, as frankly it's the easiest one to address, and I suspect it's where most people start when they join the hobby. Back in 2015 I called this the, "Current Models" style of play, where you look at the models that you own and that's how you build your army.

Now, I have to say, as someone who started with this playstyle in 2010 when I joined the hobby, I still use this style to this day over ten years later. Sometimes I don't want to put in an order for 1-2 new heroes and paint them up before a tournament because life is busy (let alone whole sprues of new warriors that will also need storage space once assembled and painted), so even as a veteran player of the game I will sometimes default to this style of play.

So I want to start off by debunking the idea (in case you have it) that this is a "starter playstyle" because it's not: it's a practical playstyle, looking at what you own and building lists from there.

Quest of the Ringbearer Inspired Lists: The Serpent Horde

Good morning gamers,

We've looked at a variety of armies in this series so far - we've looked at traditional armies like Angmar and Ugluk's Scouts, as well as an all-hero army (the Breaking of the Fellowship), and an army that we needed to be fleshed out a bit in order to make it work (Rivendell - though you could do it with Fantasy Fellowship models if you're okay making Rivendell the allied contingent). Today, we're looking at an army that is, by no means, a competitive choice - and there are hard counters to it for sure. But there are also many armies that will be quaking in their boots when they fight it - it's the Serpent Horde, run the only way you can with Quest of the Ringbearer as your basis. Let's get stuck in!

The List

Quest of the Ringbearer has lots of models in it and for exactly one mission, you need to invest in the Serpent Horde - here's what you need:

• You need two War Mumaks of Harad (currently the entry barrier for me);
• You need one box of Haradrim Warriors (I have half of these guys right now).
  

And that's it - still ~$250, but "that's it." Fantasy Fellowship missions don't get us any other models, so there's exactly one way to run this force - double Mumaks:

• War Mumak of Harad with Rappelling Lines [ARMY LEADER]
  
• 5 Haradrim Warriors
• 5 Haradrim Warriors with bows and poisoned arrows
  
• War Mumak of Harad with Rappelling Lines
  
• 5 Haradrim Warriors
  
• 5 Haradrim Warriors with bows and poisoned arrows
  

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

700 points, 24 models, 10 bows hitting on a 4+, 2 D6+ models (the Mumaks), 2 war beasts with 22 passengers, 4 Might

This list has already been mentioned on the blog in our Bare Necessities series, though I only presented it as an idea (I didn't cover it in the main article). Today, we flesh out the discussion on this list and see how it approaches each of the scenarios. If you want to learn about Mumak tactics from the professionals, read Dan Entwisle's article on Warhammer Community.

Army Theory

The list above has two models on the ground - the Mumaks. On each of the Mumaks are 11 models (of the possible 13 models) and we have three kinds of models up there: a commander who drives the Mumak, 5 melee models with no extra gear and 5 ranged models with bows to shoot at the enemy. We did this for a few reasons. First and foremost, two Mumaks that have archers on them will mean that staying away from us is going to be all-but-impossible - and if we can threaten the enemy with bows, our opponent will need to engage us as quickly as possible or risk getting picked off a little at a time. Engaging, of course, could mean getting picked off a lot at a time, but I digress.

We could have placed all of our archers in one Mumak and put all of the melee models in the other (which could save us 10 points for Rappelling Lines on one of them - that would be another bowman and 3 spears, probably), but I instead chose to give both Mumaks Rappelling Lines, which is important for two reasons. First and foremost, Mumaks don't want big heroes to charge into them, so being able to peel them off and force them to fight something else is a good way to make them burn through resources. You can also have three Haradrim charge someone like the King of the Dead so he can't call a Heroic Combat and kill the Mumak (which he can do with a single wound). Since all models in the Howdah automatically pass Courage tests, you don't have to worry about the Terror or Harbinger of Evil, so you can just charge him. Pulling him off can give you a chance to kill a little more before he gets there - and maybe even get a charge off on the following turn.

TMAT Talks: Episode 18 - The Fall of the Necromancer Legions and All-Hero Lists

Centaur, Tiberius, and Rythbryt discuss the newest flavor of the month: the Fall of the Necromancer legendary legions, with a special emphasis on what those legions do to make all-hero lists competitive--and how one might apply those lessons to other all-hero lists that are... less competitive... to improve them (like poor Thorin's Company).

Also, is magic OP? (That is the question.) Oh, and there are also some Black Riders hanging about. (Because when are they not?)

You can check out the podcast over on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!

Music: Happy Haunts by Aaron Kenny
____________________________________________

SHOW NOTES:

Breaking down the Fall of the Necromancer Legendary Legions (0:00)

All-Hero armies that work, and some that don't (1:04:30)

The Black Riders Legendary Legion (1:56:20)

Parting Thoughts (2:28:12)

Bonus: TMAT Talks Reviews... stupid-funny, gratuitously-violent movies from the 2000s (2:31:45)

Holiday Shopping with TMAT!

Sleigh bells ring, are you listenin'?

In the lane, snow is glistenin'!
A beautiful sight!

We're HAPPY tonight!

Walkin' in a winter wonderlan'!

Photo Credit: Pexels.com

December is here, which can only mean one thing: it's once again time to procrastinate buying the perfect Christmas gift for your family and friends with whom you share the mutual obligation of gift-giving.

Now for some of us who share the hobby, this is not actually difficult. I'm mean, really: what gift could be more perfect than a box of still-sprued plastic orcs, just oozing with creative potential? Who could refuse the joy of a disassembled Nazgul? Even the challenge of a fine-cast Great Beast is a joy when the fine-cast is gifted. Plus, the gift of miniatures to someone in your gaming group is almost the same as a gift to yourself, right? (Hey, can I borrow that Sauron next week? After all, I did give him to you for Christmas...)

But gift-buying for the few who haven't seen the light (or who are still stuck in Warhammer)? Well, that's more of a challenge.

That's where we come in. Because you see, over the past year, TMAT has been collecting gift ideas on our blog from hundreds of highly-motivated entrepreneurs who have been spamming our blog* with the perfect way to buy that perfect gift for that perfect someone with that hard-earned money (or kidney) you haven't spent (or sold) on miniature goodness.

So without further ado, here are the top-10 things you never knew you needed this holiday season... until now**:

Unexpected Military Formations: In-set Heroes

Good morning gamers,

Recently, an article was posted on the Against All Odds blog about auto-winning scenarios with the Black Riders LL and how there's no way to fight the list on them (okay, that's a bit of an over-simplification, but it's clear that the Riders LL can have a tremendous advantage in them). Sharbie makes good points in the article, though I'm not convinced that all of the scenarios listed are necessarily an auto-win for the Legion.

These guys are scary for hero-reliant armies . . .

The Black Riders Legendary Legion is certainly one of the most blatant offenders of the "kill quickly and end the game in a few turns" style of play, but there are other lists that can turn those heroes that you love into do-nothings the entire game (and while the game might go on for a while, you don't get any of the fun you anticipated having - see a recent post from the Drawn Combat team for an expose on how this works). Whether it's the Black Riders Legion or another magic-heavy or shooting-heavy list (like the Vanquishers of the Necromancer and the Rangers of Ithilien), there are times when you might feel like everything is gunning for your heroes - and without those heroes, your chances of having an enjoyable game are basically gone.

This has made me think about whether the reason certain scenarios seem rigged to favor one side are due to problems with the lists themselves or because of the lists they're fighting against - or worse, how the lists they fight deploy their troops. As I got to thinking about this, I started forming ideas about how you can build your army (not tailored to fight one list and nothing else) and how you can deploy your forces to mitigate the effectiveness of these kinds of lists in scenarios that seem to favor them. This is a formations post, not a list building post, so we'll focus on formations that lots of armies can run (though I will recommend a few list building tips, as all formations evolve from their lists). Let's look at your options.