Pages

Monday, February 27, 2023

War in Rohan Inspired Lists: The Army of Dunland Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Last time we mentioned there are lots of ways you can run your Isengard faction models in Matched Play - and while Uruks do make up the mainstay of most of the missions, the other prominent subfaction of the Isengard models in War in Rohan are the models from Dunland. Dunlendings got new life with War in Rohan and the Army of Dunland Legendary Legion has been a force on the tabletop since its release. In War in Rohan, we get almost all the Dunland models - and in general, we get them in good quantities:
  • Gorulf Ironskin
  • Frida Tallspear
  • The Wild Man Oathmaker
  • Thrydan Wolfsbane on foot and mounted
  • 3 Dunlending Chieftains
  • 12 Wild Men of Dunland
    • TECHNICALLY, we have 12 vanilla Wild Men of Dunland and 12 Wild Men of Dunland with two-handed axes
  • 16 Dunlending Warriors (6 shields, 6 bows, 4 two-handed axes)
    • TECHNICALLY, we have three boxes of these guys since we have 3 Chieftains, which means we have 12 shields, 12 bows, 12 two-handed axes, and 3 banners
  • 6 Dunlending Huscarls
  • 6 Dunlending Horsemen
Photo Credit: War in Rohan

This is a rather large collection of models, but there's a glaringly obvious model missing: Crebain. Despite being released in War in Rohan, Crebain don't show up in any of the scenarios - and the penalty they apply to hitting them with ranged weapons, their Fly special rule, and their multiple Wounds makes them great for holding objectives and sneaking to get artifacts. Yep, they're a really good model - and thanks to us applying these stupid list building constraints, we're going to build a list today without them.

Saturday, February 25, 2023

Fantasy Fellowship Deep-Dive, Part 2

Good morning gamers,

We're in Part 2 today of our Fantasy Fellowship journey, tackling what is one of the most iconic scenes from the Fellowship of the Ring: the journey to and through Moria. In Part 1, we reviewed what kind of foes we're going to face in the first three missions and what that ACTUALLY means you need for five of your Fantasy Fellowship heroes. Today, we tackle the next four missions and look at what you're going to have to face . . . and where you can save some points and invest some points to get the most out of your Fellowship. Let's get into it!

Part 2: The Moria Sequence 

 

Photo Credit: Quest of the Ringbearer
Our first mission doesn't actually start in Moria - and it's kind of a chaotic mess!

We actually have a wide variety of models we'll be facing in these missions - and while most of them are garbage, we have four scenarios with no rest points between them (Wargs in the Night, Balin's Tomb, Escape from Dwarrowdelf, The Bridge of Khazad-Dum), so this is going to be a grind fest where we need to conserve resources as much as we can. We'll be facing the following models: 

  • 1 Wild Warg Chieftain (1 mission) 
  • 18 Wild Wargs (1 mission) 
  • 2 Moria Goblin Captains (no extra gear, 3 missions) 
  • 24 Moria Goblins (standard gear, 3 missions) 
  • 1 Cave Troll (with everything, 2 missions); and 
  • The Balrog (1 mission) 

In all four scenarios, we have all nine members of our Fellowship - and in the first scenario, we also get Bill the Pony. First and foremost, we want our models to be F4 if possible and at least a few of them should have Heroic Strike. We'll be fighting F3 Wargs and F2 Goblins/F3 Goblin Captains - being F4 gives us an advantage against anything except "the big boss" from each mission (the Wild Warg Chieftain, the Cave Troll, and of course, the Balrog). F4 is good enough, so that's what we should shoot for. In the previous path, F4 is handy against the Barrow-Wights and pretty reachable for most of our "four Hobbit" slots. Anyone who isn't F4 should try to be F3 so they get at least a roll-off chance (if not a slight advantage against a single Goblin and about even odds against two Goblins). 

 

Friday, February 24, 2023

The Road to the Winter Whirlwind Tournament

Good morning gamers,

Centaur sprung a surprise* tournament on us and the tournament is intended to get some of the players who have drifted from the game over the years to come back and give it a try (and to introduce some new players to the game). As such, the tournament tomorrow will be 300pts (with no single model costing more than 150pts) and we'll be playing 5 games (45min each). Centaur picked one scenario from each pool and each round, he'll draw the pool that we'll be using (so we need to prepare for 6 scenarios but will only be playing 5 of them). 

We haven't had a tournament at/under 300pts in a long time (we had a 150-pt event in 2017 - and that one didn't require heroes), so this was an interesting challenge. While most people might think that a low points limit would mean fewer armies than normal for my consideration, I can assure you that I tested no less than TEN different lists at this points level (and wrote up a TON more that never even made it to the tabletop). Let's take a look at the front-runners!

Honorable Mention: Vanilla Mordor

Which is more scary: a winged monstrosity or a horde of Morannons!

Last September, I got a Fell Beast (you can see him in a few pictures here, close-ups to come in the next Quest of the Ringbearer collection update) - and it is FUN to use! When Centaur mentioned off-handedly that he was going to do this, I immediately looked to see if I could pair my knowledge of spell-casting, my love of Ringwraiths, AND my new Fell Beast model into a list - but the 150pt limit for individual models really limited what I could take:
  • The Witch-King of Angmar on Fell Beast with 3M/11W/2F [ARMY LEADER]
    • 2 Morannon Orcs
    • 6 Morannon Orcs with shields
    • 6 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
    • 1 Morannon Orc with shield, spear, and banner
Veteran Witch-King players will see the glaring omission from this list: the Crown of Morgul. With it, the Witch-King not only casts more reliably with less Will, but is also always 3 Attacks (4 Attacks on the charge). Still, this list behaves exactly as you think it will: it'll win if the Witch-King lives and it will lose if the Witch-King dies. With the Fell Beast as part of the investment, I need to be at least a little aggressive with him - and I ultimately didn't like how swingy my games could be just based on his fights. I would encourage players to experiment with this kind of list without a 150pt cap (or just swap the Fell Beast for a horse, the Crown, and 2-3 Will depending on whether you take an armored horse or not) - it actually is a good list. Alas, it was far less reliable than the other contenders you'll see below.

Thursday, February 23, 2023

Top 10 Best Skirmishers in the Game - Centaur Edition

Hey Reader!

So in preparation for telling you about this post, I think I need to make five caveats first like I did in our last post on archers. But before we launch into that, we're looking at the best skirmishers in the game today!

So first, I have to call this post "Centaur Edition" because if I thought the archers post was going to have detractors, boy howdy is this one going to have detractors (especially since someone's favorite camels and another person's woodland hoodlums didn't make the list, :P ).

Second caveat: since I'm combining evil and good in this list, like the last one, expect to see more Forces of Good models in this ranking as they are generally better at shooting, but also because Forces of Evil just in general doesn't have a lot of throwing weapons. Sure, Goblin Prowlers and Umbar are a thing, but beyond that it's pretty sparse. Less than half of the evil factions have throwing weapons (and four of those that do only have the Warg Rider profile), whereas over half of all Forces of Good factions have access to at least one warrior profile with them, and that's even before factoring in the more favorable alliance matrix that Forces of Good enjoys that allows for easy access to throwing daggers and throwing spears.

Third caveat: I'm only looking at warrior models for this comparison, mostly because we already reviewed the heroes in a previous podcast (and if you're wondering, I think the best skirmisher hero bar none in the game is Elfhelm, Balrog's whip included), but also because some of the special rules/Might point discrepancies make them hard to compare to each other, so I figured warrior profiles were closer in value and form to each other.

Fourth caveat: as we mentioned before there's a difference between an archer and a skirmisher, so this is a look at skirmishers: people who can move their full distance and shoot in the same turn. So you will see no evaluation of bows or crossbows in this ranking, and as much as I love them, I'm not reviewing throwing stones either.

So sorry hobbit rock lobbers: I love you all to bits, but I won't be ranking you. Pour some entdraught out for the best boys getting shafted in both the archer and skirmisher posts by Centaur.

Monday, February 20, 2023

War in Rohan Inspired Lists: the Assault Upon Helm's Deep Revisited

Good morning gamers,

At its core, the War in Rohan supplement is about two factions: Rohan and Isengard. Last time, we looked at the MANY units we have at our disposal from the War in Rohan scenarios to bring to Matched Play for various Rohan lists and today we look at the other big faction available: Isengard.

One of the first factions I started collecting in MESBG (back then the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game) was Isengard - I had 18 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields, 16 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes, a Captain with shield, and a banner guy. A few chop-shop sessions later, and I had a few crossbows converted up (including a Captain) and over the last twelve years, I've accumulated many, many Uruk-Hai models and Dunlending proxies (historical Saxon Thegns from Warlord Games - and with all the spears that box set came with, it is easily one of the best purchases I've made for the hobby, period). As I've documented throughout this blog, it took me a long time (and forcing myself to use Saruman) to get me to love Isengard - and when the faction got a revamp in the new edition (mostly to Saruman), I REALLY started to enjoy using them.

Photo Credit: War in Rohan

In War in Rohan, our Isengard collection is wide open - especially if you took my advice and bought a Battle Host box:
  • Heroes:
    • 8 Uruk-Hai: Vrasku, 5 Uruk-Hai Captains with shields, Ugluk, Mauhur
    • 7 Dunlendings: Gorulf Ironskin, Frida Tallspear, The Wild Man Oathmaker, Thrydan Wolfsbane on horse, 3 Dunlending Chieftains
    • 8 Orcs: Grishnakh, Snaga, Sharku on Warg, 1 Orc Captain on Warg, 4 Orc Captains with shields
  • Warriors
    • 125 Uruk-Hai: 24 Uruk-Hai Scouts (8 shields, 8 Uruk-Hai bows, 8 vanilla), 85 Uruk-Hai Warriors (35 shields, 35 pikes, 12 crossbows,3 banners), 16 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
    • 40 Dunlendings: 12 Wild Men of Dunland, 16 Dunlending Warriors (6 shields, 6 bows, 4 two-handed axes), 6 Dunlending Huscarls, 6 Dunlending Horsemen
    • 66 Orcs: 18 Warg Riders (6 shields, 6 Orc bows, 6 throwing spears), 48 Orc Warriors (16 shields, 16 spears, 8 Orc bows, 8 two-handed weapons)
  • Siege Weapons:
    • 5 Uruk-Hai Demolition Teams
    • 1 Isengard Assault Ballista
With almost 300 models at our disposal (plus Saruman, Grima, and Lurtz if you buy the Isengard Battle Host and the Lurtz and Ugluk sets), we certainly have enough models to run a variety of lists, including the Army of Dunland Legendary Legion (which I decided to give its own post - we'll go into that next week), a vanilla Isengard list, an Ugluk's Scouts list, or at low points levels a Lurtz's Scouts list or a Wolves of Isengard list. Today, though, we'll be looking at one of the most competitive armies in MESBG right now: the Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legendary Legion. As dominant as this Legion is, our list will look a lot different from the way most people do it because . . . well, we will have a maximum of one ballista.

Thursday, February 16, 2023

Top 10 Best Archers in the Game - Centaur Edition

Hey Reader!

So in preparation for actually telling you about this post, I think I need to make five caveats first (which, coincidentally, will also introduce the post, so it's not so bad, but five caveats at the start of a post is a new one even for me). But before we launch into that, we're looking at the best archers in the game today!

So first, I have to call this post "Centaur Edition" because it's almost certainly going to cause some disagreement among the rest of the team here, so I decided to put my name in the title to make it easier to do replies from my colleagues who are not going to like some of my criteria or decisions in what follows, :P

Second caveat: since I'm not breaking this down between evil and good, this is going to combine models from both, so expect to see more Forces of Good models in this ranking as they are generally better at shooting. That's not because I like Forces of Good more, that's just because Forces of Evil has more monsters and war beasts, so Forces of Good tends to be better at shooting to counter those.

Third caveat: I'm only looking at warrior models for this comparison, mostly because we already reviewed the heroes in a previous podcast (which is admittedly old, as it was pre-Mablung/Anborn among other archers), but also because some of the special rules/Might point discrepancies make them hard to compare to each other, so I figured warrior profiles were closer in value and form to each other. This also means that since every ranged siege weapon has a hero attached to it, I have not included siege weapons in this ranking.

Fourth caveat: in my opinion there's a difference between an archer and a skirmisher, so you will see no evaluation of throwing weapons in this ranking. I'm also defining an "archer" as someone who shoots at least 18" with their shot, so I'll consider 12" shots and shorter as part of the skirmisher ranking. So if you're looking for goblin prowlers in this ranking, that's why they aren't on here, :P

And final caveat: I'm using a criteria for this comparison that will guide my thinking on them. I'm ranking the archers on three categories: damage potential (which weighs the Shoot Value and Strength of the archer's weapon to determine how likely they are to damage a target, which I suspect a lot of people look at when weighing the effectiveness of an archer), resilience (not weighted as highly, but an archer who dies quickly won't contribute as much as one who can survive incursions against hostile strikes/fire), and utility (which is defined here as, "filling the roles that archers are typically used to fill based on the scenario," including holding objectives, "board control" by encouraging enemies to avoid moving through specific parts of the board, pinch hitting in melee combat as needed whether by spear supporting or being thrown into the enemy en masse to overwhelm them, etc.). So if you disagree with the criteria, naturally that will skew the way you read the results.

One place where this may come up, for example, is that I have not considered cost in this analysis, so for people looking for, say, Moria Goblins, Ruffians, Orc Trackers, or any number of other low-cost models in this list, first off I agree that quantity has a quality all its own (I run Shire, for those who are newer to the blog, and they didn't make the cut), but we have not used that as a criteria for this ranking. So just because an army fields archers that are not among the best in the game does not mean that their archery is poor: it means that they are (hopefully) getting good value out of lower quality archers to meet their needs.

But that doesn't entitle poor quality archers to a place on this list. So there. So with no further ado, let's hit the list!


#10: Moria Goblins from the Assault on Lothlorien Legendary Legion

PC: GamesWorkshop

See, I included some goblins for you! These guys place low on the list because they are still 5+ Shoot with S2 shortbows, but if that's the case - literally the worst starting statline for an archer in the game - why did they make the list? Their guaranteed +1 to wound against most models makes them effectively S4, which is excellent damage potential for archery. 

The issue of course is that they are hitting on 5s and 6s, so while other models may wound less often, they also hit far more often, and that means their ceiling for damage is better than these guys. But they still make the list thanks to this nifty special rule, even ahead of models with a 4+ Shoot Value with S2 bows (like Warriors of Rohan, Warriors of Minas Tirith, Khandish Warriors of various kinds, Corsairs, and Easterlings).


#9: Rohan Outriders / Forces of Good Rangers

Two of the oldest models I own

Rohan Outriders are great: D4 is respectable for an archer, as is their 3+ Shoot Value with a 24" range. The fact that Rohan Outriders can be mounted on horses means that they can quickly and effectively redeploy if needed, and they can borrow a Stand Fast regardless of range, which makes them great for camping on objectives. 

The issue with these guys, though, is that they are only F3 with S3, so if they get caught they will likely be removed in short order by almost anyone that charges them, so holding objectives is not easy for them. And since they only have a S2 bow, dealing wounds is actually quite hard for these guys: you wound about half as much as a S4 bow, and in general less often than a S3 bow, and that puts them down here. 

Similarly, Rangers of Arnor / Rangers of Gondor / Blackroot Vale Archers / Dwarf Rangers with Dwarf Longbows may not have the same special rules as the Rohan Outrider, but they all start at F4, the humans can spear support the front rank to help while providing close fire support, and the dwarf rangers come with other special rules to help them fill the typical archer roles that you need in an army, all of which I felt was worthy of placing at the same level, so I'm grouping these guys together as they are too close to call.


#8: Watchers of Karna with Bows

PC: GamesWorkshop

These guys are basically Rohan Outriders with a few exceptions: you get access to poison which helps your damage potential, you start at F4 to help you maintain an objective, you get Resistant to Magic to keep you from being moved off of an objective, and you can be put them in a howdah to provide excellent supporting fire if I'm not mistaken (not to mention you're immune to taking Courage Tests for break checks, if I recall correctly, so you'll stick around longer). 

Not a bad model, but the S2 starting point with rerolling 1s to wound is not a reliable way of dealing damage compared to some of the others on this list. You will roll 1s, but the fact that a lot of models in the range are wounded on 6s makes the reroll unlikely to work, which is why they finished 8th on our list. But as far as Forces of Evil archers go, these guys are among the best you get.


#7: Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai Bows / Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf Bows

I should finalize my dwarf painting scheme...

These guys may only have a 4+ Shoot and an 18" range, but the presence of a S3 hit coupled with good melee prowess - and in the case of the dwarves, high Defense at D6 - these guys are arguably better at dealing ranged damage consistently than those that came before them while still fulfilling the full range of things archers are expected to perform for you. 

And considering that the scouts have Woodland Creature and can get 8" move if you have Mauhur (and sometimes you'll get that bonus for free if you field a legendary legion), their ability to fill the utility role only gets better based on your list building choices.

Not much to say here: decent chance to hit with decent damage is excellent.


#6: Ents with Throwing Stones

I don't like the standard ent sculpt, so here's
"Vivaldi's Four Seasons," WIP

So ents have an 18" range - which is my cutoff for range for this ranking - and they do a S10 hit, which is a really good chance to wound generally in this game, but it's worlds beyond most archery in this game, and stronger even than most siege weapons. 

And with a 4+ Shoot, that's actually not a bad chance to hit as well. So while you cannot field these guys en masse at anything less than 2000 pts, as far as archer cover and fire suppression go, these models are great! 

Tack onto this that the presence of an ent will often redirect the flow of models toward another place, and they do firing lanes and board control very well. Plus they are very rarely going to flee an objective, and driving one off of an objective is very hard to do, so they are great at the utility category all around.


#5: Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth Bows / Citadel Guards with Longbows / Unarmored Elven Archers

Don't care what they say: I like Citadel Guard

Warriors of Dale and unarmored elven archers (Wood Elf Warriors and Mirkwood Rangers) get the S3 at 24" with a 3+ Shoot that a lot of factions prize, which is excellent. What places them behind the next few entries is that you are only D3-4 and F4-5 with S3, so if you are charged you are more resilient and effective than most of the previous profiles, but not as good as the next few. 

And while Citadel Guard may only have a 4+ hit, they make up for this with the ability to be mounted with the Bodyguard special rule, making them great objective holders, so long as your army leader is resilient or not near the fighting, which is basically every high-tier Minas Tirith hero. And with the ability to quickly redeploy to a new firing position, Citadel Guard are a great fire support option.


#4: Uruk-Hai Crossbowmen / Iron Hills Crossbowmen / Corsair Arbalesters

PC: GamesWorkshop

All crossbows in the game sport S4 at 24" with a 4+ Shoot, which is phenomenal damage potential. And with the presence of F4 and S3-4 if someone closes, moving them off of an objective is not easy either. Tack onto this that they are all D5-6 at least some of the time (the arbalesters are less resilient when engaged in melee, but sport the D6 at range which is nice), it makes them quite resilient. 

Mirkwood Rangers make up for this a bit with the Knife Fighters special rule, but ask anyone who has played them and they'll tell you that when wounds are being rolled it's a bad day for them (as most models in the game wound them on 4s).

The only drawback (and what places them behind the next one on our list) is that they cannot move and shoot on the same turn. This reduces their utility slightly, and that slight edge cost them the third place spot.


#3: Beornings with Greatbows

PC: Forgeworld

To start off, it bears repeating that this is not a good bow, it's a greatbow! XD (also dang, two jokes in one line - I'm really on a roll today) 

Okay, seriously though: these guys are S4 at 24" with a 4+ Shoot just like the crossbows before them, but in addition you can move up to 3" first before firing. That's a hair better than a crossbow, even before looking at the chasse that carries it. 

Admittedly, they have lower defense than crossbows in general, but that actually matters less than it seems because of the rest of the profile. While you're only D4 instead of D5-6, your resilience is actually better in some respects because you have 2 Wounds instead of 1, and since you're F5 S4, if someone charges you they are not likely to move you off of the objective without serious commitment. 

Add onto this that they have a good Courage value and come in an army list with plenty of distractions to avoid people shooting at them, and you have a good baseline for everything you want a ranged attacker to do. All around, a fantastic archer.


#2: Armored Elven Archers

Still finalizing the painting scheme

In a move that surprises basically no one, armored elven archers from any number of elven factions are high on this list. With S3 at 24" with a 3+ Shoot, they deal good damage at range to their foes. And with F5 D5 to back that up, they are very effective at holding ground and keeping it for you. 

The fact that you can hold objectives reliably on C5 and can win ties against most people who charge you is only an added benefit on top of their already excellent shooting prowess. Add onto this that you can also redeploy through woodland terrain quickly and easily is just further gravy on top. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, elves feature high on this list, but it begs the question: who comes in higher than these guys?


#1: Mounted Armored Elven Archers

One of Tiberius's Galadhrim Knights

Elves on horses! Take everything we said about armored elven archers and increase their speed by a lot, give them a shield to bring them up to D6 thanks to Expert Rider, and they're still the F5 S3 resilient guys we like except that they can preempt potential charges with a countercharge at long range. 

And the Rivendell and Lorien varieties both offer something unique from an archer perspective. The Rivendell Knight is more of a softening tool, taking some shots at range but really excels at charging home with their lances and high Fight Value. The Galadhrim Knight, on the other hand, takes advantage of Fleetfoot with an insane amount of movement, making them excellent skirmish cavalry that, if pressed, can resort to melee with a good level of competence (basically better Rohan Royal Guards with no throwing spears). If you're looking for tactics on how to use them, as well as an apologetic for the models, check out Tiberius's post here.

If you're looking for archers - admittedly the most expensive archers in the game, sans Khandish charioteers if I'm remembering correctly - these are the best there is.


Conclusion

Now someone's going to say, "Blah blah, Khandish chariots," or "Blah blah, Haradrim with poison," and I hear you - a lot of those guys came in around 11-13 on the list. The issue with all of those is that the 4+ Shoot is a bad starting place, and since Khandish models in particular are incentivized to move, it will often drop to a 5+ Shoot, which is not a good starting point for S2 archery. To be honest, I felt stretched at times to include S2 archery at all, as there was so much S3 archery that I found the only way to even work them into the equation was to group a lot of models, and I felt bad about that (but if I hadn't, it would have literally only been the top five spots split up, which is boring).

So I'm sorry to Khand and Umbar in general, but that's how the cookie crumbles. In an Evil Only ranking I think they are close to the middle of the pack, but in an all warriors ranking I think they fall behind. Get a 3+ Shoot if you want to make the list.

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"We watch the skies for the great tides of evil or change that are sometimes marked there." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Monday, February 13, 2023

War in Rohan Inspired Lists: Theodred's Guard LL Revisited

Good morning gamers,

As we delve into the War in Rohan supplement, looking at how to take the scenario forces into Matched Play, it makes sense to start with the primary protagonists of the scenarios: Rohan. This means we're starting the series with LOTS of options, as we not only got new profiles in War in Rohan (Helm Hammerhand, Haleth, and Aldor), but we also got a bunch of new Legendary Legions that allow us to run Rohan in different ways. With all the choices ahead of us, let's look at what we have to work with!

We essentially get everything we could want from Rohan if we collect all of the models for the scenarios (like I did for the Scouring of the Shire, I've grouped things a bit because the list is LONG):
  • The Royal Family: Theoden, Theodred (no throwing spears), Eomer (no throwing spears), and Eowyn (no throwing spears)
  • Supporting Named Heroes: Elfhelm, Grimbold, Gamling, Hama (no extra gear), Haleth, Aldor, Erkenbrand, Eorl the Young, Helm Hammerhand
  • Generic Heroes: 3 Captains of Rohan with shields, 1 Captain of Rohan on horse with shield
    • Also, we have at least 1 King's Huntsman because we bought at least one command blister
  • Infantry Warriors: 36 Warriors of Rohan (12 shields, 12 throwing spears and shields, 12 bows), 12 Rohan Royal Guards with throwing spears
    • +13 Warriors of Rohan if you collect everything you need for the big Battle of Helm's Deep scenario
    • You also have 1 war horn (with shield and throwing spear) and 1 banner from the command blister along with 1 banner and 1 war horn from Grimbold's command blister 
  • Mounted Warriors: 24 Riders of Rohan (8 with throwing spears), 3 Rohan Outriders on horses, 12 Rohan Royal Guards on horses with throwing spears, 6 Sons of Eorl
    • You also have 1 Rider of Rohan with banner from the mounted command blister
For those keeping track, the only Rohan models we're missing are Dernhelm (though we have Eowyn) and Deorwine, Chief of the King's Knights. We're light on Rohan Outriders and have a small but functional number of Sons of Eorl, but otherwise we have 12+ of every other Rohan Warrior model - and we have THREE banners we could bring in our army. Pretty good, I feel - something we can work with for sure.

Saturday, February 11, 2023

Fantasy Fellowships: The Erebor Reunion, Part 1

Good morning gamers,


Today we're going to look at the first three missions of Fantasy Fellowships for my Fellowship. Our last post walked through what we have to face in these missions (Ringwraiths and Barrow-Wights), so let's see how we did!

Mission #1: Buckleberry Ferry

My team of "hobbits" wants nothing to do with hiding from some lowly Ringwraiths - nope, go in fast, take them down one at a time, job's done. The players I have are:
  • Ringbearer: Old Bilbo Baggins with Sting and the Mithril Coat
  • Companion: Farmer Maggot with Grip, Fang, and Wolf
  • Rohan-bound Friend: Bofur the Dwarf
  • Gondor-bound Friend: Bifur the Dwarf
With a Fellowship that wanted to get locked in quickly, I lined up my guys as far forward as possible and were ready to rush for the southernmost Nazgul straight away:

It's surprising how close you can start to these guys if you really want to fight them . . .

I charged headlong forward and the nearest Nazgul got a 6 for his sentry roll, moved into position to see us, and immediately sounded the alarm:

SSSCCCEEEEEETTTCCCHHH!!!

Thursday, February 9, 2023

War in Rohan: What Models Do You Need?

Good morning gamers,

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community
We're preparing for our FOURTH round of the what-do-you-need-for-scenarios series. Because I love Quest of the Ringbearer so much (check out our page for everything we've written about that), we started with what you need for Quest of the Ringbearer (and Fantasy Fellowships) and have since also covered Gondor at War and The Scouring of the Shire. Our travels take us this time to the next chronological sourcebook to be released, War in Rohan.

Commonly held to be one of the best (if not THE best) supplement released by Games Workshop in this newest iteration of MESBG, War in Rohan is a powerhouse supplement for those who like matched play, introducing Legions (such as the Assault Upon Helm's Deep, Theodred's Guard, and the Defenders of Helm's Deep) that have podiumed across the globe and proven their metal at a variety of points levels. It also introduced a bunch of models, to include most of the current Dunland collection (like the infantry heroes and crebain), as well as selected models from Rohan and Isengard. Oh, and some Ents too (though only one has an official sculpt). Yes, if you're a matched play enthusiast (and chances are . . . you are), War in Rohan might be the best (or at least the most competitive) starting point for you.

But what if you don't JUST want to butt heads with whatever weird concoction of troops your regular playing buddy has thrown together - what if you'd like to play through some of the incredible scenarios that were provided in War in Rohan? Well, today we're going to look at the models you need (and as usual, ways to save some cash along the way). Let's dive right in!

Monday, February 6, 2023

FAQ Time: Breaking Down the February 2023 FAQ

Good morning gamers,

I happen to be on vacation, but that doesn't stop me from checking out what's new in the SBG community - and at the top of the list is the newest dump of FAQs. As the first set of FAQs since the release of the Battle of Osgiliath box set and the updated rulebook, I was excited to see what changes were in store (and whether the old rulebook would continue to be supported now that we have a new one). You can find the article here and the FAQ page here. Let's dig in and see what changed!

Photo Credit: Reddit 
No matter how many times I tell myself to play it cool , I just can't stop myself from looking for the questions I asked . . .

General Observations

First off, there were no updates for the Gondor at War, Scouring of the Shire, War in Rohan, Quest of the Ringbearer, or Fall of the Necromancer sourcebooks - apparently, these have been hashed out enough and we're just focused on the Defence of the North and the quadrumvirate of necessary sourcebooks (the main rulebook, the Armies of the Lord of the Rings, the Armies of the Hobbit, and the Matched Play Guide). Check out these pages if you want, but there's nothing new there (much to pity - I asked for some things in these).

There were only two erratas (and no FAQs) in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book - one of which I asked for and totally expected to make it in without my input and one that I didn't ask for, wish I'd asked for, and am thrilled made it in (but more on this later).

There were four FAQs from the main rulebook that, apparently, didn't make it into the rules rewrite - these include what makes a model count as "trapped" (e.g. you can't just be fighting a cavalry model that charged you), what a model can do when they're transfixed (the infamous "degree of common sense" FAQ), the need to measure vertical distance when using Swift Movement, and the need for making a scatter roll when using Severed Heads.  

Finally (and alluded to in the previous point), the main rulebook FAQ was truncated to just what hasn't been covered since the new rulebook release. This . . . was kind of expected on my part, but I also wish hadn't happened. For version control (and to promote a new product), it makes sense that the Middle-Earth team has done away with the old rulebook FAQs - but if they'd kept the old main rulebook FAQs as a static document and provided the new one as well, then players wouldn't have to buy the new sourcebook . . . which, I guess would translate into less profit for them. Still, the new rulebook was advertised as an incorporation of the old FAQs - and now it's required because the old FAQs don't exist. 

Okay, with that, let's get into one of the shortest FAQ releases we've seen to date!

Thursday, February 2, 2023

Cavalry Charge: An Overview of Cavalry and the Battle on the Marchfeld

Good morning gamers,

We're beginning a new series of formations articles dedicated to the use of cavalry. Some factions in the game don't have access to cavalry natively in their lists (though Forces of Good factions can ally in Elven cavalry pretty easily with Haldir + Galadhrim Knights, Legolas + Mirkwood Cavalry, or Elrond + Rivendell Knights), and many factions that do have access to cavalry also have good infantry options. For a long time, I left cavalry at home, relying on the greater weight of numbers I could get from infantry spams instead of getting some/a lot of cavalry (perhaps that explains why I love Khazad-Dum so much). Perhaps you've felt this desire too.

Some factions can be competitive without cavalry - Goblin-town and the Assault Upon Helm's Deep LL chief among them. Some factions can legitimately run "all cavalry" (or very, VERY heavy on cavalry) and do well - Rohan (whether it's the Riders of Theoden LL or a vanilla hodge-podge list) and some very edge-case Erebor Reclaimed lists chief among those. For most armies, though, getting a few cavalry into your army is quite beneficial for handling objective/travel missions or for swinging a flank in favor of your infantry - but this has sparked a question in my mind (and I would guess in the minds of other players as well): what exactly does having cavalry do for me - and how do I use them effectively? If you've found yourself asking this question, let's take a look at what you can do with cavalry in MESBG - and use a rather important battle in history to showcase the benefits (and limitations of cavalry).

The Battle on the Marchfeld

For those interested in learning more about this battle, I highly recommend the Baz Battles video on the subject - their stuff is really good. By 1278, heavy cavalry were a dominant force in central Europe - the Mongols had already invaded Europe, sweeping in with a mix of light, skirmish cavalry as well as heavy lancer cavalry. In the Holy Roman Empire, German heavy cavalry (especially in Bohemia and Bavaria) were some of the most elite cavalry in the world, completely covered in plate heavy mail armor and dealing devastating damage on the charge with lances or hand weapons. The next door neighbor of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Hungary, still relied on skirmish cavalry.

During the mid 1200s, the King of Bohemia, Ottokar the II, had both gained territory south of Bohemia and lost it when the newly-elected Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph I claimed the lands for the Imperial throne. What followed was a clash between Ottokar's forces (heavy cavalry) and the joint allied forces of the Holy Roman Emperor (heavy cavalry) and some allied forces from Hungary (skirmish cavalry).

The battle began with the Hungarian horse archers harassing the heavy knights of the Bohemians. The Bohemian ranks suffered little damage, but their morale was reduced by the assault. Both lines of heavy knights charged into each other and began a bloody battle. A few hours into the melee, a (rather dishonorable and unchivalrous) counter-attack was launched by Rudolph's forces, hitting one flank of Ottokar's line and causing a panic. As the Bohemian ranks began to break, the Hungarian light cavalry swept in to assist in killing those in retreat.