If Tiberius Were King For A Day: Top 5 Legion Changes I'd Make

Good morning gamers,

This is the third post where I'm going over what I'd change if I were able to make changes to MESBG. As I've done with profiles and rules, I want these changes to be small and straight-forward but have a valuable impact on the game. Legendary Legions are the topic of today's post and I wanted to pick Legions that really only needed one change made to turn them from an "uncompetitive" or "bad" Legendary Legion (if such a thing exists) and make them at least an option for those who are competitive. One of the Legions I listed here is one that capitalizes on something that is way too cheap right now and needs to be more expensive. Finally, one Legion that I picked to improve is one that has been begging for a change for the sake of theme - so let's get into it with my boys, the Men of the West!

Legion #1: The Men of the West

It's no secret - I love this Legion as-is. Yes, there are some serious problems with it. And yes, people tell me I'm crazy for liking it. And yes, I don't care what anyone says - the Legion is good and has lost me a lot of games . . . but it's also won a lot of games, once I found a points level that worked for it (it's in the 500-625 range - and that's it). The primary problem with the list is that you can't get F4 troops for under 10 points - oh sure, for one turn all of your Warriors of Minas Tirith and Warriors of Rohan within 12" of Aragorn (so . . . all of them) can be F4, but once that turn of glory is over, you'd better have gotten the numbers to a good disparity, or it'll be an uphill battle against any force that's F4. 

The sad thing about it is that Minas Tirith AND Rohan have access to F4 infantry innately (something Rythbyrt tried to fix last Christmas with a Legion revamp) - and basically ALL of the Fiefdoms warriors are F4 infantry as well. Thanks to Imrahil and the men of Dol Amroth being present at the Black Gate in the books, the Legion gives us access to Imrahil (who is just SO expensive for what he does without his horse/lance) and Knights of Dol Amroth on foot. These guys are F4 - and can be F5 near Imrahil and F6 when near Imrahil and kind of near Aragorn for one turn - but they're also really expensive. Running these guys "for the F4" is possible, for sure, but it's also an unnecessary expense.

Back to Basics: War Beasts in MESBG

Good morning gamers,

Last time, we delved deep into the rules for Monsters in MESBG - and what an iconic part of the books and films they are! Today, we look at yet another well-known facet of the Middle-Earth world - and one that has TONS of rules that can scare off new players (and confuse veterans - like me): war beasts.

In theory, these things should be easy to understand - I mean, they affect two different models (War Mumaks of Harad/Far Harad and Great Beasts of Gorgoroth), but with pages of rules for war beasts in general and several-page spreads for the specific profiles (to say nothing of the price of buying them), most players (new and old alike) are happy to wave a hand at these models and move on to other armies. Well, in this article, my goal is to break down the rules for war beasts into a few simple principles so you can not only feel more confident in bringing these models to the tabletop, but also be more confident about their rules should you see one on the other side of the board. Let's get into it!

War Beasts: Monsters that Aren't Monsters

What dominated most of the last post was an in-depth view of the different Brutal Power Attacks (BPAs) that monsters can use if they win a combat (and what helps them dominate the board as tactical pieces instead of just "big, stupid, high-stat models"). War beasts can't perform brutal power attacks. They can't. I'm sorry.

While monsters are usually a single model (or a single model with both a mount and rider profile), war beasts count as two models: the driver and the war beast aren't treated as a single model like cavalry models are. This is important as a spell cast against the war beast (or shooting attacks against the war beast) won't be testing for mount-or-rider like they would against cavalry models. We'll get into a few more of the interactions between drivers and beasts later in the Move Phase discussion.

The war beast also comes with a howdah - which doesn't count as a third model, but does allow the war beast to carry its driver and some passengers. Each war beast has a list of the number of models that can fit in the howdah (however they're stationed) and the kinds of models that can be in it. This will never include enemy models, despite what they may or may not do in the films. Unless a rule says otherwise, models may not exit the howdah and all models included in the driver's warband must be placed in the howdah.

Finally, there are limitations on the heroic actions declared by the driver of a war beast. The most common heroic actions that will affect a war beast are Heroic Moves (so it moves before your opponent) and Heroic Marches (so it goes farther when it moves). In both of these cases, only Heroic Moves and Marches declared by the driver will affect the Mumak - you can't have someone on the ground shouting, "Go!" for it to do anything. Similarly, a Heroic Combat called by the driver of the Mumak will have no impact on the Mumak since the driver is not engaged in the same fight (what with him being a separate model and all), nor will a Heroic Combat called by another hero in the same fight as the Mumak be able to get the Mumak to perform a move after the Combat resolves. The Grand Army of the South has an exception for this, but in general, war beasts can't utilize heroics besides Move/March.

There are other things that make war beasts weird though - let's look at what they do in the Move phase.

Fantasy Fellowships: The Erebor Reunion, Part 5b

Good morning gamers,

Last time, I skated around the Ringwraith in the Dead Marshes, but this time, the same Ringwraith decided to take 2 Might/2 Fate in addition to his 10 Will and Fell Beast and join a band of Orcs to sack Osgiliath! Yep, I've been looking forward to this scenario for a long time and we're finally here! Let's get into it!

Osgiliath

The board is a 24"x48" setup, with 40 Orc models and a Fell Beast on one side, and my Fellowship of six models and 36 Gondorian models on the other. There are three buildings that will be used as objectives that the Orcs are going to try to wrestle away from the Gondorians:

With the units deployed, we started Turn 1!

Turn 1: Priority Good

Centaur called a Heroic March with the Western Orc Captain (1/2M) and I responded by calling a Heroic March with Madril (1/3M) - I brought most of my troops towards the eastern board edge, while the Orcs rushed to hedge out the western objective.

In the Shoot Phase, Faramir killed an Orc with his bow (1/3M) - otherwise, two Orc bowmen, two Orc two-handers, one Orc shield, and a Ranger were killed:

In the Fight Phase, I lost an OsVet in combat in the northern objective, as was one Orc:

If Tiberius Were King For A Day: Top 5 Rules Changes I'd Make

Good morning gamers,

In our last post in this mini-series, I looked at five profiles (well, four profiles and a unit upgrade) that I would "fix" in order to make thematic profiles/upgrades more competitive. All of these involved a minor tweak that would give the unit/upgrade a place among its current competitors - and I don't think any of them were THAT earth-shattering or meta-breaking. Today, we turn our attention to five rules changes that I would make that fix known problems in the game or make things viable that should be (but aren't right now). Like the last post, I wanted my changes to be minor in nature (no big overhauls) but have actual consequences - and I think only one of these is an actual overhaul of a major system (maybe two of them), but I think all of them make the game just a bit better. Let's take a look!

Rule #1: Barriers 

If you talk to competitive players, this is the thing that gets people - picture a board with a barrier between two armies as shown below:

If the Orcs get to move first, they can move into base contact with the barrier and gain an in-the-way bonus from shooting attacks AND an in-the-way bonus from strikes in melee. All you have to do is touch it, like this: 

This is really good and this is how people are "supposed" to play with barriers. However, what you can ACTUALLY do in the game is move near the barrier without touching it - and this will not only still give you the in-the-way from the barrier (probably), but it will also prevent your opponent from charging you (since he can't fit his bases on your side of the barrier) AND it will prevent him from reaching the barrier because your control zones extend beyond the barrier:

The Orcs are all showing off different ways of not touching the barrier - and only the second guy from the top is chargeable . . . if the charging model gets a 6 . . .

The Dwarves, in this situation, can only rely on shooting to clear out the Orcs - and with the barrier in the way, that's really hard. Dwarf Rangers have a better chance than most of actually getting the 6 to Jump, but it's still going to be hard. Most competitive players will tell you, "Yeah, we all know it's a thing, but we don't do it because we want to be good sports and have a good game." This has been a known glitch in the game and I propose a really simple fix to the problem: a model may not come within 2" of an obstacle without coming into base contact with it. Theoretically, you can do something similar with a wall, keeping a model next to a wall to prevent an opponent from getting too close to an objective marker or something - but the principle is the same: force players to either defend the barrier or not go near it. I chose a 2" restriction so that the new rules change that requires you to get a 6 to charge after a Jump/Leap wouldn't continue to preclude models from jumping barriers. This seems like a simple and easy change to me, but drop me a note in the comments if you think this is too simple or misses something.

Back to Basics: Monsters in MESBG

Good morning gamers,

Last time, we talked about how cavalry work in MESBG and today, we're turning to an element of MESBG that can absolutely alter the way a game can go: how monsters work. When I first got started in the game, things like "Brutal Power Attacks" weren't a thing - and neither was Heroic Strike (every hero had Move, Shoot, and Combat - and that was it). This meant two things with regard to monsters: first, a Monster was quite likely to have a higher Fight Value than anything he was fighting (or at least a tied Fight Value). Second, the go-to tactic for dealing with them was hoping one poor, unfortunate soul would be brave enough to tie them down for a turn - and if the dice were kind, he'd get a 6 while the monster wouldn't and he'd live to do it all over again on another turn. Or . . . you'd just shoot the guy/tie him down with an Immobilize to make him F1 with 1 Attack. My, those were odd times . . .

When the Hobbit rules were released everything changed, since monsters could now do horrible things with the "suicide Bob" who tied them down and heroes could combat warrior Monsters better with the addition of Heroic Strike (which was on EVERYONE back then). When the rules revamp arrived in late 2017, the rules for monsters changed yet again (and what counted as a "monster" became clearer), bringing in a nice balance between the really powerful Brutal Power Attacks that were introduced in the Hobbit rules and the counters you can employ with heroes.

But with no less than FOUR things you can do when you win a fight (and for many Hero monsters you can pick from a few more options), a lot of new players (to say nothing of us old vets who have old rules sets in our heads) might forget some of the nuances of how these rules work. If any of this describes you, strap in as we delve deep into what monsters can do - and can't do - in MESBG (and at the end, we'll talk about how to use them well and fight them well).

What Kinds of Monsters are in MESBG?

Middle-Earth is full of monsters and in MESBG we get lots of different kinds of monsters. As a very general taxonomy, here are the kinds of monsters you can expect to see on the tabletop:

• Faux Monsters: these are models that have stats very similar to monsters but lack the "Monster" keyword. Examples of this include Wild Warg Chieftains, Giant/Mirkwood Spiders, the Necromancer of Dol Guldur, and Half-Trolls - they may look like monster models, and they may turn your models into goo, but they aren't technically monsters.
• War Beasts: these are models that have the "Monster" keyword but can't use Brutal Power Attacks. They trade these rules for a host of other rules which are beyond the purviews of this article (you'll have to come back next week to learn about how these things work). There are currently two examples of this kind of "monster": anyone riding a Mumakil and Great Beasts of Gorgoroth.
  
• Lumbering Monsters: these are models with the "Monster" keyword and 6" movement. While these models can be either warriors or heroes, they tend to be slow, sit on big bases (usually circular, occasionally an oval), and have MASSIVE investments in stats (most have at least F6, S6, D6, and 3 Attacks/Wounds). Examples of these kinds of models include any kind of Troll, most Ents, the Dark Lord Sauron, and the Balrog.
• Fast Monsters: these models are slightly faster than the "Lumbering" monsters listed above - they have the "Monster" keyword and have more than 6" of movement, but don't have the Fly special rule. The increased speed on these models usually means their Defense is lower than the Lumbering variety, but that's not always the case. In trade, these models might have some kind of special rule that helps them ignore difficult terrain penalties (some or all types of difficult terrain) or otherwise use their increased speed to get to the targets they want). Some (but not all) of these monsters also have Monsterous Charge - something you don't see on the Lumbering models. Examples of these monsters include Shelob/the Spider Queen, Beorn/Grimbeorn, Ogres, and Cave Drakes.
  
• Flying Monsters: perhaps the most potent monster class in the game, these models have the "Monster" keyword as well as the Fly special rule, which gives these models an incredible 12" of movement (so long as they don't end their movement in a piece of woodland terrain or in a building). This increased movement - and the ability to ignore control zones when they move - allows the placement of these models to be far easier than other monsters. Examples of these models include Ringwraiths mounted on Fell Beasts, Great Eagles, Gulavhar, and Dragons (because you should always take the Wings upgrade).
  

These five kinds of units can have massively different play styles - some boast big, beefy profiles with high points costs, others boast good-not-great profiles at a much reduced cost, and still others can pair their nasty melee profile with ranged attacks or magical powers. With this brief understanding in mind, let's look into three distinctives that make monster models different from other models in the range!

Announcing the TMAT Hunter's Red October 2023 Tournament!

 Good morning gamers,

Fall is hastening to us, so it must be time for THRO 2023! The tournament will be held at Patrick Henry College on October 14, 2023. This year, we're going to do another good vs. evil team event while trying out the rules for siege scenarios in War in Rohan. Without further ado, here are (in my typical style) the Ten Commandments of the Tournament (Rules):

1) Thou Shalt Understand The Canon

The ruleset from the updated Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual will be our baseline. The Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement will govern the rules for armies from the Lord of the Rings, while the Armies of the Hobbit supplement will govern the rules for armies from the Hobbit. Legendary Legions and profiles from any of the GW supplements may be used, provided that the army building requirements for the Legendary Legion are followed. Any GW errata for these books will take precedent over the printed text of these documents.

The rules for siege equipment and siege scenarios can be found in the War in Rohan supplement. This supplement will be the definitive authority for how siege gear works, except as amended in this post.

2) Thou Shalt Honor Thy Alliance

This tournament follows the alliance "restrictions" provided in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings and Armies of the Hobbit supplements - players are allowed to have "pure" armies or Historical/Convenient/Impossible alliances. Legendary Legions from any of the Games Workshop supplements can be taken as well, but obviously cannot take allies nor be taken as allies.

Because this is a team event, no Legendary Legion may be taken more than once across the alliance. Additionally, each named hero may only appear once across the alliance (across all the various identities a character may have). If there is a conflict with two players wishing to bring the same character, the Tournament Director will notify the player(s) who submitted their list(s) later that list(s) modifications are required.

If Tiberius Were King For A Day: Top 5 Profile Changes I'd Make

Good morning gamers,

Any person who reads Tolkien or watches the films is bound to love something about Middle-Earth (assuming they're the fall-in-love-with-Fantasy type). For some players, this often rears its head in MESBG with cool custom profiles being proposed for characters that show up Tolkien's works that aren't the Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit, custom Legendary Legions, or occasionally cool scenarios that try to recreate events from Middle-Earth's history.

But more often than not, I see this love for characters, profiles, and factions displayed in a request for updates to existing profiles. Questions like, "How do you get Osgiliath Veterans to work? I love the sculpts and I think they're so cool, but they just don't seem to be worth it - what do you do to make them work?" Have you seen these questions? And have you asked them?

Well, I've decided to compile my list of five profiles that I like (for various reasons) and what I would change about them to make them "better" if I were the King of SBG for a day. I will say that the profiles I've chosen are not only models that I like and think need a slight alteration, but they're also models I play with regularly (and would play with more if their rules were tweaked ever so slightly). With that, let's dive into . . .

Profile #1: Osgiliath Veterans 

Let's start with a profile that everyone struggles to see the point of or a use for (though I tried really hard last year): Osgiliath Veterans. "OsVets" cost +1pt more than Warriors of Minas Tirith and have an identical profile to them with two exceptions: first, they get +1 Courage (which makes them C5 with the Minas Tirith army bonus), and second, they trade the chance of having +1 Defense with the Shieldwall special rule for the chance of having +1 Fight Value if they're near Faramir or Boromir (which is actually easier to do than keeping Shieldwall up). 

Back to Basics: Cavalry in MESBG

Good morning gamers,

About two years ago, I revisited a mini-series on how to play MESBG and in it, we covered how to build a list, what goes on in the Priority/Move Phase, the Shoot Phase, and the Fight Phase. When I closed out the Fight Phase article, I mentioned that if we thought of covering other topics, we'd expand the series - and we're doing that today!

Once you've mastered the core rules of MESBG (which we've basically done by covering the phases of the game and army construction), you can tackle some of the more advanced rules of MESBG - and that's what we're going to focus on for the next few weeks. Our first stop is one of the most common things you'll see on the tabletop: cavalry. We talked about the bonuses cavalry get in the Fight Phase in a previous post - and we've been looking at how to get more out of your cavalry models (and some formations you can use) in our recent Cavalry Charge formations series. What we're going to cover today are the basics of cavalry and some of the often-overlooked rules of cavalry to serve as a refresher to you veterans of the game and to clue any newbies into how cavalry work. Let's dig in!

Moving Your Cavalry

It won't come as any surprise to start off by saying that cavalry move faster than your everyday, run-of-the-mill infantry. Sure, there are things like Wild Wargs that move as fast as a horse can and are TECHNICALLY infantry, but man-sized models (and shorter ones) are going to move 4-8" and cavalry will be faster than that (10-12"). This extra movement usually means that a) they can reach a far-flung objective in a turn or two, b) can get around the enemy flanks to charge vulnerable units, and c) if equipped with ranged weapons, they can usually "kite" away from enemy infantry while still shooting at them (moving at half speed, as we talked about in the Shoot Phase post).

But cavalry are different from infantry when they move - first and foremost because their bases are larger than your standard infantry base. Larger bases are a thing when it comes to moving - gaps between models or between a model and a terrain piece have to be pretty big for a 40mm base to pass through them. These large base sizes also mean that more models can charge into a cavalry model's base (or monster's base or whatever), so cavalry should expect to be charged by more things than usual.

Fantasy Fellowships: The Erebor Reunion, Part 5a

Good morning gamers,

Today kicks off the scenarios for Part 5 of Fantasy Fellowships and it's all about Frodo/Old Bilbo Baggins and Sam/Farmer Maggot and his dogs. Oh, and Smeagol. :) The first scenario we have on the docket is the Dead Marshes - a scenario I played before and knew could take a long time or a short time depending on the participants involved. While Frodo and Sam don't really want to tangle with a Nazgul on Fell Beast, Smeagol can wound the Nazgul on a 6 (5 if he uses his Might point) and Maggot can use Piercing Strike with his two-handed scythe to wound him on 5s (4s if he has his Might point). Old Bilbo wants nothing to do with this guy. So . . . while I intend to not fight a Nazgul if I can help it, I'm feeling better about it than with the normal participants (where you have to hope that Sam can Strike up high enough to beat the wraith's Fight Value and someone can get a wound in). Let's get into the scenario!

The Dead Marshes 

The board is a 48" x 48" setup, with six spectres in six marshes, the Fell Beast on one side, and my Fellowship of six models on the other:

My plan was to go towards the northern board edge to make two of the spectres non-players in the game - here's how we got on!

Turn 1-3: Priority Good, then Evil, then Good

The first three turns of the game were all about maneuvering - in Turn 1, three of the spectres were under my control (top-left, bottom-right, right-most), two spectres were under Centaur's control (bottom-left moved 3" through the swamp, top-right moved full and got out of his swamp), one spectre didn't move at all (center), and the Nazgul flitted 3" forward:

On Turn 2, I continued to advance northwards, while two spectres didn't move (bottom-left and right-most), three spectres moved under my control (top-left, center, top-right), and one moved under Centaur's control (bottom-right - he got out of the marsh and moved to intercept). The Nazgul moved 6" under my control and decided that there was something very interesting in the southeast corner of the board:

On Turn 3, I started to near some of the spectres, but things looked pretty good for me again - I got to move two of the spectres (top-left - he's looking for mushrooms around that hill - and bottom-right), two spectres didn't move (top-right and bottom-left), and two moved under Centaur's control (center moved full, rightmost moved through the marsh a bit). The big swing here was that the Fell Beast got to move fully under Centaur's control - and boy can that guy close a gap fast:

FAQ Time: Breaking down the August 2023 FAQ

Good morning gamers,

Once again, I find myself on vacation when the FAQs drop, but that doesn't keep me from looking up what's new for the game! With very little new content released for the game this year, I was kind of curious what would come out of this new batch of rules - would it be a slight modification to the game we love (like the last set)? Or would they finally get through the (moderated) laundry list of things I requested (they have answered one of my questions a time or two). For those who want to jump straight to the source material, you can find the article here and the FAQ page here (though admittedly, the FAQ page doesn't seem to open reliably - you have to refresh a few times sometimes). Let's get into the changes!

Photo Credit: Reddit 
I say this in every one of these posts - this is always me at the start of February and August . . . always . . .

What Didn't Have Changes - and Battle Companies

While fewer sourcebooks received no love this time than last time, we did have a few that escaped edits this time around. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Fall of the Necromancer supplement has no changes, but on a sadder note for me, the Quest of the Ringbearer sourcebook also had no updates. Perhaps I was too late in my email with recommended changes (and clarification questions) from Fantasy Fellowships, but alas, I'll have to wait at least 6 months before my questions about scenarios and model substitutions are answered . . .

In other news, the red-headed-cousin of MESBG (Battle Companies) had two changes - heroes don't increase their points value when they gain heroic actions (unlike stats/special rules/war gear) and heroes who don't have armor (like Uruk-Hai Berserkers) can't get armor or upgrade it.

Q: Do Heroic Actions gained by a Hero increase their points cost? (p.9) A: No.

Q: If a Hero isn’t wearing any type of armour, but a member of their Battle Company has the ability to take a type of armour (armour, heavy armour, etc.), can the Hero purchase a type of armour from the Armoury? (p.73) A: No. The only option a Hero has is to upgrade armour to heavy armour. If the Hero doesn’t have any armour then they cannot choose this option. This will likely be because the Hero in question has made a name for themselves as a ranger, scout or some similar role that doesn’t require armour and taking some would only hinder their natural talents.

While some of you may play Battle Companies and might mourn the lack of attention to certain sourcebooks, that's not why you're here - let's get the boring stuff out of the way and then we'll dive into the meat of the newest changes to MESBG . . .

Armies of Middle-Earth SBG: Khazad-Dum in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game

Something wicked this way comes...

Photo credit: Brrokk Barrowbane

So if you showed up this week hoping for our wrap-up on countering Angmar... sorry. My hands stopped working.

Instead, I've got a more traditional "Armies of Middle-Earth" for you, on the OG tanks in MESBG: the Dwarves of Khazad-Dum. So hopefully all is forgiven.

Cards on the table: when it comes to elves vs. dwarves, I'm solidly on Team Dwarves. I don't remember if dwarves were the first faction I played when Tiberius and Centaur finally persuaded me to play MESBG (shortly before it became MESBG), but it was definitely one of the first. And at the time, the only way to play dwarves (at least in our gaming group) was Khazad-Dum. So this list has always had some sentimental value for me, and I expect it will always be so (although that does not explain my snail's pace when it comes to painting their models). 

I'm splitting this review up into two parts because the new edition of the rules split this faction up into two: Khazad-Dum (today) and Kingdom of Moria (next time). I'm doing this even though those of us who play know they're really the same faction differentiated by a single (albeit, important) hero choice: to Balin (and Floi) or not to Balin (and Floi)? As such, if you stumbled on this review after reading the Kingdom of Moria review, you'll see some overlap (and vice versa). I've tried to front-load the differences (so you can gloss over the rest), but apologies on the front end if you find this repetitive (It's not my fault!).

As always, you'll find a list of handy community resources at the end, but I want to flag the 4.5 hour gem that is the Green Dragon Podcast on Khazad-Dum--way more than you'll ever need to know about what makes Khazad-Dum amazing... so definitely read this first (otherwise, you won't need it).

Army Quick(ish) Hits

• Strength: Dwarves = TOUGHNESS. Stat-wise, there's two things that make dwarves "dwarves" in MESBG: they move 5" instead of your "standard" 6" (more on that shortly), and they have ready access to D7 warriors (or better), and even more defense on their heroes. Add these excellent defensive stats to very good combat stats overall (Fight 4, with ready access to shields and banners), and generally access to axes and/or Strength 4 on their warriors (if not both), and dwarf armies become tough to engage, tough to wound, tough to shift, and they're tough to rout. The Kingdom of Khazad-Dum is no different, with Courage 4 standard on all your core units and Defense 7 on most models (the notable exception are your skirmishing Dwarf Rangers, Dwarf Warriors with bows, and Iron Guard--all of which make up for the lack of D7 with other stats / shenanigans). Add in Bodyguard on your Khazad Guard, Courage rerolls from the Shieldbearer, banners aplenty, and shields everywhere (for both more attacks and an option for non-lethal strikes), and you have a force that can perform well at all stages in the game.

The Meta is Dead, Long Live the Meta

So next week, Tiberius will have a much more thorough, well-reasoned, dispassionate summary of the latest FAQs and Erratas that dropped on Thursday. 

But while you're waiting, allow me to be dis-dispassionate and express what we're all feeling:

Photo Credit: tenor.com (and The Wizard of Oz, of course)

So I have slightly mixed feelings about some of the changes that were made to a few popular lists (well, okay... one very popular ally choice). But overall, I'm like the rest of you: all my very thematic list ideas are overjoyed tonight that another round of power-creep fad lists have been restored to their proper place: history (or at least the niche pile).

In no-particular-order-of-overjoyness:

No more Lake-Town Spam (well, allied at least)

Like most of you, when I first read The Armies of the Hobbit, I took a look at the Army of Lake-Town, thought "man, that's boring," and kept right on reading. Then, like you, one day I was looking around for something cheap and decent to ally into something very large and cool and expensive (it's usually some sort of list with Gwaihir, isn't it?), and thought "hey, this is a VERY cheap way to get 50+ dudes who aren't complete duds in combat." And then I (like you, maybe) took them to a tournament, felt kind of guilty about it, and then forgot the guilt after kicking other people's butts with them.

Well, no more. At least mostly.

Unexpected Military Formations: The Terror-V Formation

Good morning gamers,

Just over a month ago, I brought a nasty four-Barrow-Wight Angmar list to our TMAT Grand Tournament - and while I had a lot of fun with it, I also learned a lot about battle lines with Terror while playing with the list. It was really fun to have 47 models running around, most of which could cause Terror because I had FOUR Spirit heroes leading them (and a Warg Chieftain - who didn't grant Terror, but had it innately).

While I learned that Terror without Harbinger played very differently from Terror WITH Harbinger (man, I would have loved to have had the Witch-King in any form in my list), I also learned one very surprising fact: a straight line of battle isn't that great for a Terror-causing horde. "Wait," I hear you say, "Isn't fighting in a battle line a good idea when you have lots of Terror-causing models? I mean, isn't it great when you expose no flank and force your opponent to charge your lines where you probably have spear-supports and all?" Well, yes - these can be good. But they also restrict your maneuverability a lot. So I found a better way to deploy - let's dive into that.

The Problem With Terror "Battle Lines"

There's nothing wrong with a battle line - it's good to provide a solid line to the enemy to charge into as it makes sure your supporting units (spears generally, but in Angmar's case, this also includes those Spirit heroes who provide the Terror to the Orcs in the first place). But take the following 140-point warband as an example:

I love this warband so much . . . but they're better when you've copy/pasted them a few times . . .

This warband has a five-man frontage that can all benefit from Terror from the Barrow-Wight and they are all easily within range of the banner in the center of the formation. We could have Warg Riders with throwing spears or just Wild Wargs guarding our flanks as well. Let's assume at the start that this warband is operating on its own - what happens when it runs into a 141-point warband like this:

"Bridge Four!" I mean, "For Numenor!"