The Scouring of the Shire Inspired Lists: Angmar Revisited

Good morning gamers,

This is our last post in this series of taking your Scouring of the Shire scenario collection and using them in Matched Play - and today we're focusing on a faction that only makes an appearance in three scenarios in the appendix of the sourcebook. Angmar is one of the most competitive factions in SBG and has been dominant certainly since the MESBG rules were issued a few years ago. But the Scouring of the Shire scenarios include a rather generic set of models from Angmar that you can take - and depending on how you make your purchases, you may have some extra models lying around that you can use. Here's the list:

• Golfimbul;
• 1 Wild Warg Chieftain;
• The Witch-King on foot and mounted on a horse (if you purchased the Battle Host as recommended);
  
• 12 Warg Riders (4 shields, 4 shields and throwing spears, 4 Orc bows);
• 8 Wild Wargs (actually 12 Wild Wargs because they come in packs of 6); and
  
• 12 Orc Warriors (but we actually need 48 Orcs because we need 6 bowmen and there are 4 in each box of 24 models)
  

If we have 12 Warg Riders, 12 Wargs, and 48 Orcs . . . that's plenty to work with! Where we'd run into trouble is with the heroes, but that's easily solved by picking up the Mordor Battle Host to get a "free" Witch-King model for the same cost as a box of Orcs and Warg Riders. As such, our hero corps is pretty simple: one big caster, one big wolf, and one fat, fat Orc!

Fantasy Fellowship Deep-Dive, Part 1

Good morning gamers,

As you'll know if you've been following us for the past few weeks, our gaming group here at TMAT is walking through Fantasy Fellowships right now. When I was helping my son, Gorgoroth, pick his Fellowship, I found myself wondering, "So what are we actually going to face?" Unlike Matched Play, we can know our opponent's force ahead of time (and can even know the scenarios we're going to play), so this allows us to do something that you generally don't find in a Matched Play environment: you can meta-game things a bit - even if you're being theme-y.

Photo Credit: Quest of the Ringbearer
So how dangerous are these guys really?

And so, this mini-series in Fantasy Fellowships was born. For all you meta-gamers out there who were curious about how to optimize your Fantasy Fellowships (even if you want to stick to a theme), this series is for you! To start off with, we're going to look at what your opponents are going to be - and how good each of your heroes needs to actually be. Let's dig in!

Weather Conditions for Matched Play!

Hey Reader!

So I was down in Florida for Hurricane Ian (as my parents live there, and my family and I helped them ready their house for the storm), and during the course of the storm I had an idea for weather conditions that one could add to a matched play or casual game to make things more interesting. And since I came up with some ideas, and Tiberius and Rythbryt are used to my scatterbrained post ideas by now, I decided to share them with you all, :P 

So if you've ever been looking to fight an epic battle in the midst of a hurricane, today's the day!

We'll start by looking at each of the weather condition events in turn, first looking at what triggers the event (as some of them are battlefield-wide for the whole match, like a hurricane, while others happen at specific times, like a tornado), and then look at what it does mechanically. If you have ideas, feel free to let us know in the comments below!

It's worth noting that several other tournaments have added weather as a feature, and I've looked at those, and they look like a lot of fun. I've avoided repeating those ideas, though, in part because I think that sometimes it bogs down the game (as some of the resolutions of weather can be very involved), and I really do want this to be a feature in a scenario, but not something that will require more than 1-2 minutes to resolve at the start of a round (and ideally not more than 30 seconds). These are designed to be quick and dirty rules so that they don't slow down the game.

The other thing that I wanted to convey is simplicity: they are easy to understand, so even a new player isn't going to be thrown for a loop while learning the game. Snow slows you down, lightning strikes the tallest thing - all of these things allow for easy resolution while also allowing you to grasp the concept and make a plan for how to deal with it. Simplicity that can still facilitate strategy. That's our motto.

So with no further ado, looks like there's a weather system inbound...

The Scouring of the Shire Inspired Lists: The Chief's Ruffians LL Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Last time we saw how you can take your Scouring of the Shire collection and make a Matched Play army for the Shire (and Rangers). Today, we're looking at the other side of the coin and looking at the Ruffians of Sharkey's Rogues. Our list is quite fleshed out - if you bought enough Ruffians to play with the Lockholes campaign rule (see our What Models Do You Need article for what this is):

• Sharkey and Worm
• Sid Briarthorn, Rowan Thistlewood, and Bill Ferny
• Lotho Sackville-Baggins and Ted Sandyman
• 30 Ruffians
• 10 Ruffians with whips
• 20 Ruffians with bows
• 12 Hobbit Militia
  

Photo Credit: The Scouring of the Shire

72 warriors with lots of heroes to lead them actually gives you a lot to work with, but today, we're definitely going with the Legendary Legion and looking at what 600 points of Ruffian spam can do!

Announcing the Winter Whirlwind Tournament of 2023!

Hey Reader!

It is my privilege to announce a new TMAT tournament: Winter Whirlwind 2023! This tournament, set to take place on Saturday, February 25, 2023 at Patrick Henry College, is a Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game tournament, following the rules laid out by GamesWorkshop. 

The tournament will consist of 5 matches (that's right: five matches in one day!), using one scenario from each pool (one pool will not be used - more on that below!). So you will have an idea of what possible scenarios will await you, but which scenario will occur each round will be drawn just before the round starts.

Below is the information regarding how to register for the tournament and what to expect!

I.   Tournament Schedule and Scenarios

The tournament will consist of five (5) matches. The schedule is below:

     9:30 AM: Check-In and Army List Verification (see Part IV below)

     10:00 - 10:45 AM: Round 1

     11:00 - 11:45 AM: Round 2

     12:00 PM: Lunch Break

     1:00 - 1:45 PM: Round 3

     2:00 - 2:45 PM: Round 4

     3:00 - 3:45 PM: Round 5

Each round will run for 45 minutes, or until the end conditions for the scenario are reached, as noted in the rules for the scenario. If there is less than two minutes remaining on the clock, players must both agree to start a new round. If one or more players do not agree to start the round, the game ends and scores are calculated (because we're on a clock, people, and I'm trying to keep a tight schedule).

Minas Tirith Me Up: Osgiliath/Minas Tirith Terrain, Part V

Good morning gamers,

It's our fifth post in this terrain mini-series on our Minas Tirith/Osgiliath board. As we talked about last time, we're just working on some buildings today, fleshing out our boards so we can have more whole buildings when we play (instead of only half-buildings or open plinths). We'll be kit-bashing the Zorpazorp templates for Lachie's Minas Tirith project, so if you already have your templates printed, you can follow along!

Photo Credit: Sott.net

Four New Buildings

Our first building that we're making is based on the wider tower structure - originally, this thing has a double-arch side, a single-arch side, and two closed sides. This modification will be simple - we're going to have one single-arch side and three double-arch sides, which will not only make this building different from its original design, but when we split it in half, each half will not only be different from its brother, but will ALSO be different from either of the other halves from the previous building:

Building #1 - lots of doorways so the building can be rotated in any direction (based on how I want the arches below to face)

I've also modified the top of the building significantly - each side has a door-like arch. This is because this building is intended to have a walkway bridge OVER part of the map, similar to one of the buildings in Lachie's Tuber-Town - so let's look at where he's going to connect to next.

The Scouring of the Shire Inspired Lists: The Shire Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Today marks the beginning of a three-part series where we look at the models we have in the Scouring of the Shire scenarios and design a list for use in Matched Play. Unsurprisingly, our first stop will be . . . the Shire. The quintessential "good guys" of Tolkien's famous tale, the Shire is often viewed as a non-competitive choice in Matched Play because they have low Defense, they're slow, they have (basically) no spears, and their heroes are weak. And perhaps because they are so heavily critiqued, Centaur has made it his mission to champion them and trounce us here at TMAT again and again with his "waistcoat brigade." Those dashing chaps are more than they seem - let's look at the models we have to work with (I've done some groupings - the list is quite long):

• The Four Travelers (Frodo of the Nine Fingers, Samwise the Brave, Meriadoc & Peregrin, Captains of the Shire);
• Three combat Hobbit heroes (Holfoot Bracegirdle, Robin Smallburrow, and Farmer Maggot);
• Six support Hobbit heroes (Will Whitfoot, Farmer Tolman Cotton, Hamfast "the Gaffer" Gamgee, Baldo Tulpenny, Lotho Sackville-Baggins, and Folco Boffin);
• Four "damsel" Hobbit heroes (Rosie Cotton, Paladin Took, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, and Fredegar "Fatty" Bolger)
• 12 Hobbit Militia
• 8 Hobbit Archers (and 1 Hobbit Archer with war horn)
• 12 Hobbit Shirriffs
• Bullroarer Took (who seriously limits our options for heroes)
• Gandalf the Grey
• ALLY - The Rangers: Aragorn - Strider
  
• ALLY - The Rangers: 3 Rangers of the North
• Bilbo Baggins
  

While the warrior count is very low (33 Hobbits + 3 dogs) and a few less bows than we'd actually want (we probably want 4-5 more), you CAN run the Defenders of the Shire LL at 750 points if you run all the models you have and do 6 weapon swaps on Hobbit Militia or Hobbit Archers. This will "only" give you 52 models, 16 of which (roughly one-third of your army) are heroes. Tactical benefits aside of having all those heroes, you probably want more bodies than that.

Photo Credit: The Scouring of the Shire

The scale of the Scouring of the Shire book is much smaller than the other sourcebooks (Fall of the Necromancer varies in its scope, admittedly), so it would make more sense for us to lower the points level in this post to something smaller than our usual 700pt list. Like we did for the Men of the West last year, I landed on 600 points - and this list is an homage to my good mate Centaur who, I know for a fact, will critique only one thing about the list below: the lack of Anduril. Let's dig in!

TMAT Fantasy Fellowship Campaign Preview

Good morning gamers,

Over the past two years, I've been working on collecting and painting models for Quest of the Ringbearer - and specifically, models needed for Fantasy Fellowships. Yes, I've also collected models like Barliman Butterbur, Harry Goatleaf, and Gildor Inglorion who appear in the Quest of the Ringbearer book and NOT in Fantasy Fellowships (unless you choose to bring them in your fellowship), but for the most part, I've been trying to build up my collection so I can play through the campaign with some of the guys in our area. Well, at long last, I have enough terrain built and enough of the models procured for us to begin, so I'm setting out on a LONG journey with my son Gorgoroth and my good mate Centaur as we seek to play through a Fantasy Fellowship campaign together (which, let's face it, doing this with my son and best friend feels awesome and exciting, no matter how things turn out in the end)! Let's get some organizational details out of the way first and then we'll jump into the Fellowships!

A quick note: for the past few years (I can't believe I just wrote that!), we've been posting regularly on this blog on Mondays and Thursdays every week. Fantasy Fellowship/Quest of the Ringbearer content has popped up on the Thursday free-for-all posts for quite some time, but hasn't drawn as much interest from our readers as other topics (based on reported views as well as comments - though there are a few of you out there who love it immensely and I see you!). As such, since the Fantasy Fellowship/QOTR content is going to be increasing this year, I've decided to dedicate every other Saturday to Fantasy Fellowship content instead of taking over a bunch of the Thursday slots. This means extra work for me for most of the year (current projection is through September), but also means more content for you. So . . . you're welcome. :)

Fantasy Fellowships: The Campaign

As we've covered before, there are several new scenarios (nine in total) that we get from War in Rohan and Gondor at War. The interesting change is that we lose certain scenarios in order to get a story that follows all the members of the fellowship rather than just Sam and Frodo. Your Ringbearer and your Companion remain two of the most important choices in your list but the other characters are not throw away options (except for Boromir, sadly).

We'll have a series of article that deep-dives into the different Fellowship positions based on the missions you need to play/opponents you need to face (though you can check out some initial thoughts here), but for now, you should know that we've mostly chosen a theme for our Fellowships (me and Centaur) OR just a bunch of models that we think are cool (in the case of Gorgoroth). Let's dig into the Fellowships!

The Scouring of the Shire: What Models Do You Need?

Good morning gamers,

Photo Credit: Games Workshop

We're going to do a short series walking through the Scouring of the Shire book, which is not only the cheapest supplement available from Games Workshop, but also happens to be one of the most thematically developed scenario sagas that has been released to date and introduced more new profiles than any other supplement so far - and second place isn't anywhere close to matching what was released there.

You might think, "Oh this will be easy - get a bunch of Hobbits and you're good." In some ways, you'd be right - but the ACTUAL answer of what you'll need is a bit more nuanced. Let's take a look at what you need to play through this amazing sourcebook!

Part 1: Skirmish in Bree to Maggot's Farm (3 scenarios)

The first three scenarios are designed to set up the invasion of the Shire and can all be seen on the Failed Charge Games YouTube channel if you're interested in seeing how the scenarios play. In these first three scenarios, we'll be buying a lot of Ruffians and most of their hero options. Here are the purchases we need to make:

Purchase #1: 24 Ruffians

This requires the purchase of two boxes of Ruffians - for the first three scenarios, we only need 12 Ruffians (technically), but we also need 8 Bree Villagers. While you can certainly look to other miniature lines for generic peasants (or use Survivors of Lake-town - though THAT's not going to save you any money), you're going to need more Ruffians anyway, so the best way to save money is to just get more Ruffians. We need 6 Ruffians with no extra gear, 2 Ruffians with whips, and 4 Ruffians with bows for these early scenarios and each blister comes with exactly this number, so a second blister would require you to use some whip-equipped Ruffians as normal Bree Villagers (but who cares).

Purchase #2: 4 Hobbit Militia

Hobbit Militia are the backbone of most of the Shire forces in this supplement - and in the first scenario, we need 4 Militia. Done - $15 well spent. Do a good job with these guys, as you will be using them frequently in the supplement (along with 4-8 others) - and name them all (it helps them roll better . . . or lets you call them out when they flub).

The Battle of Osgiliath Box Set: Brief Review and Quick Starter Armies!

Good morning gamers,

So with a new box set in hand, I am eagerly painting up MORE Morannon Orcs, a Troll, and the new Gothmog sculpts while Centaur hastens away to the more reputable part of town with the Forces of Good models (and the terrain from the box set too). This starter set, while not as good in value as the Battle of Pelennor Fields box set, is still well worth the money if you are a) new to MESBG and want some armies to get started with quickly and are interested in collecting both Minas Tirith and Mordor, or b) already have a fairly developed collection but are interested in both the new terrain and the new hero blisters. 

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community 

A few highlights from me:

The Gothmog model is great - I embedded a magnet in the warg so I could use the same shield on his back and the warg. The surprising thing for me was that he's missing half his stomach, which at first confounded me on how to magnetize him . . . until I saw the magnet-sized circle already embedded in his leg!

With a magnetized shield, I can give my old Shagrat model the other one!

I magnetized the weapon arm too - though I didn't drill quite deep enough (nothing a little putty can't fix).

The tokens provided in the new box include new markers for Heroic Defense (awesome), Heroic March (awesome), Heroic Resolve (sure, fine), and Heroic Accuracy (well . . . okay). Not necessary for game play, but nice to have. On a similar note, the ruler is new, the dice are blue and a very dark red, and the scenarios are very similar to the style of the Mines of Moria starter set back when I got started - so that's all sort of cool (though I would have been happier if we got Gondor and Mordor dice, just saying).

What we're going to look at today, though, is three ways (under $50, under $75, under $100) to kick-start your Minas Tirith or Mordor collections to quickly get valid armies for Matched Play with a single purchase (or two or three). Oh, and if you're interested in the perspectives of other players on how to start with this new box set, check out the article from Rob on the Over the Edge of the Wild blog - those Irishmen have some good ideas.

Before we get started, let's reiterate something I say in all of these posts: I get no kick-backs from GW, these aren't affiliate links, I don't advertise for them and get paid for it - I just love the game. I also love a good deal and want to save money were I can (I'm on a budget and all), so these are my thoughts on how someone else on a budget can get excited to play the game while keeping their wallet in mind (you know, after you drop $200 on the new starter set). Let's get started!

Fyrd Formations: The Battle of Maldon

Good morning gamers,

Today we're going to look in this formation post at a battle that occurred in Northern England during the tenth century, which featured a "gambit-gone-right" by the Norse against the English: the Battle of Maldon. You can check out an excellent visualization of it here as well as read about it further here. Depending on when you read this, you may also have access to a re-released translation that Tolkien did of the Battle of Maldon for Oxford (check out the announcement here). Many players seek to use shieldwalls to their advantage in SBG and this battle has some interesting insights into how to use shieldwalls effectively - and what to very much avoid at all costs. Let's take a look!

The Battle of Maldon

In 991 AD, the English lord Bryhtnoth prepared an army of Fyrdmen to resist an invasion by a Viking lord believed to be Olaf Tryggvason (the eventual king of Norway) near the town of Maldon, which controlled a major riverway into Nuthumbria. Bryhtnoth held his troops on the mainland, while Olaf's forces were encamped on an island that would be soon connected to the mainland when the tide ebbed. From the translation of the old poem by Karl Seigfried, we read:

The tide went out; the seamen stood ready, Vikings many, eager for battle. The protector of the warriors then commanded the war-­hard warrior to hold the bridge, he was called Wulfstan, brave with his kin, that was the son of Ceola, who shot the first man with his spear who stepped there most boldly on the bridge. There stood with Wulfstan warriors unafraid, Ælfere and Maccus, two bold men, who would not take flight at the ford, but they steadfastly defended against the enemies, as long as they were allowed to wield weapons.

That last bit seems ominous . . . anyway, an initial assault by Olaf when the land bridge emerged was repulsed by Bryhtnoth, but Olaf issued a challenge to Bryhtnoth, requesting that his troops be allowed to cross the passage to fight on equal terms. From Seigfried's translation (emphasis added):

When they perceived and readily saw that they found bitter bridge-­wardens there, the hateful strangers began to use guile, asked that they might have passage to land, to fare over the ford, to lead the foot-troop. Then the nobleman began because of his overconfidence to allow too much land to hateful people.

Then the son or Byrhtelm began to call out over the cold water (warriors listened):

“Now a way is opened to you, walk quickly to us, men to battle; God alone knows who may control the place of slaughter.”

The slaughter­-wolves waded (not mourning because of water), the Viking troop, west over the Pante, carried shields over gleaming water, ship-men bore shields to land. Byrhtnoth with his warriors stood there ready against the hostile ones; he commanded them to form the battle-­wall with shields, and to hold that formation fast against the enemies.

The Battle of Osgiliath: Unpacking the New Rules Updates

Good morning gamers,

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

Centaur and I split the Battle of Osgiliath starter box right before Christmas and I have to say, there's nothing quite like opening a big box of plastic right before Christmas! I started assembling Gothmog the day after it arrived so Centaur could have the instructions all for himself but then poured over the new rulebook with my son Gorgoroth.

I had heard that there were no substantive changes in the book - just incorporating erratas that have crept up through the years since the MESBG revamp. I decided I could spare a few hours for a thorough examination and compiled the list of changes here - and as best I can tell, these are the full list of changes. What surprised me was . . . not all the changes were previous erratas (and no, I'm not emailing the FAQ team to see if any of these additional changes were intentional). I would like to go on record and say that I did my examination of what the differences were two days before the Unexpected Podcast team released their review of the changes (check out their video if you want their review of a few changes - the link provided starts after the list review when they dig into the rules and runs for ~35min). Matt, if you're reading this, you don't need to read the rulebook cover to cover - I got you. :-) Anywhere that we're seeing new rules in the new book, I've placed a "NEW" at the start of the paragraph. If there's a slight change from previous FAQs, you'll see a "SEMI-NEW" instead. Here we go!

Player Code of Conduct 

NEW: This got some attention from the Unexpected Podcast team, and it's both new and not new. This is really an extension of the most important rule (have fun) but it's the first time that players have been given guidelines for how to create a good playing experience - and the inclusion of it in the rules seems to me to be an attempt to codify what has sprung up in the MESBG community organically. Things like being a graceful winner and loser make a lot of sense, and I find myself already helping my opponent from time to time (or all the time - what can I say, I like to make my life hard). I do think there's a place for letting the other player make mistakes in deployment or with a tactical decision and not having a penalty applied (some lessons need to be learned the hard way), so I would always use this code as a guideline instead of as the basis for a penal code.