Back to Basics: Siege Engines in MESBG

Good morning gamers,

Today we're continuing our "back to basics" series and going over the rules for siege engines in MESBG. Like monsters and war beasts (which are technically monsters), the siege engines of Middle-Earth are some of the most iconic things you'll see in the films - whether it's the ballistas and bombs of the Uruk-Hai at Helm's Deep, the trebuchets and catapults during the siege of Minas Tirith, or the "twirlie whirlies" of the Iron Hills, it's undeniable that the game would be worse off aesthetically if these models didn't exist in some form.

But siege engines aren't like other shooting units (for the most part) and they have their own list of dos and don'ts that can give newer players (and old veterans) pause before fielding them (not to mention a negative play experience if you're not expecting their damage output or special rules). In fact, very few FAQs have been issued where at least one siege engine wasn't addressed in some way (indicating that how a siege weapon is used or how it interacts with other units is up for debate by both new and long-time users).

Furthermore, as I was preparing for this post, I realized that while there are "rules for siege engines," every SINGLE rule for how a siege engine works is broken by at least one siege engine - there is so much diversity amongst siege engines, that the rules for siege engines aren't even universal! So today, we're breaking it down (and get used to the phrase "for the most part" - it's already come up and it's going to be coming up a lot more) and trying to make the rules for siege engines clearer for everyone. Let's dig in!

Siege Engines - Army Composition

Before we get into how siege engines are used, we have to talk a little bit about what you have to consider at the army building level in order to GET siege engines in your list in the first place. To begin with, for the most part, every siege engine profile has both a siege engine (with its own stats) and some amount of crew that comes with it (there are usually 2-4 models by default). Each siege engine (for the most part) has upgrades it can take, including additional crewmen that can be purchased for a certain number of points/model (which is in line with the comparable core warrior choice from the army list without any extra gear).

For the most part, each siege engine is its own warband with one of the initial models upgraded for free to be a "siege veteran," who has +1 Might/Will/Fate and counts as a Minor Hero (he can lead 6 siege crew, some number of which will be provided automatically with the cost of the siege engine). Most siege engines that have a siege veteran can upgrade their siege veteran to a "siege captain" for a hefty amount of points (usually about the same as getting an extra Captain) in order to upgrade his profile to that of your standard Captain from the army list (the usual boosts are +1 Fight Value, +1 Strength, +1 Defense, +1 Attack, +1 Wound, and +1 Might) and increase his heroic tier to a Hero of Fortitude (allowing him to lead 12 crew members instead of 6). He's also allowed to take non-mount gear that's available to a Captain, which could aid their resilience (e.g. a shield) or damage output (e.g. a two-handed weapon). Regardless of whether the warband leader is a siege veteran or a siege captain, the siege engine doesn't take up one of his warband slots and the leader can only take siege crew in his warband (in case that wasn't clear earlier).

For every siege weapon you wish to include (for the most part), you need at least one Hero of Fortitude, Valour, or Legend in your army. This usually means that you'll have one captain or mega-hero with a contingent of warriors for every one siege weapon you wish to include in your army. You could, however, upgrade one or all of your siege veterans to siege captains and run an all-siege team . . . but no one does that for reasons we'll see in a bit (not to mention the unit restrictions we talked about in the previous paragraph).

In competitive circles, you might see a list like this at 800 points for the Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legendary Legion - notice that we had to include three Uruk-Hai Captains in order to field the 3 Assault Ballistas (and each ballista comes with a siege veteran and two crew, one of which is carrying a ballista bolt that counts as a pike - see the profile on page 179 of the Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement):

• Uruk-Hai Uber-Captain with shield [ARMY LEADER]
• 5 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
  
• 5 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with pike and banner
  
• 3 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
  
• Uruk-Hai Captain with crossbow
• 9 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
  
• Uruk-Hai Captain with shield
• 5 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 6 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
  
• 3 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
  
• Uruk-Hai Siege Veteran with Isengard Assault Ballista
• 1 Siege Crew
• 1 Siege Crew with pike
  
• Uruk-Hai Siege Veteran with Isengard Assault Ballista
• 1 Siege Crew
• 1 Siege Crew with pike
  
• Uruk-Hai Siege Veteran with Isengard Assault Ballista
• 1 Siege Crew
• 1 Siege Crew with pike
  

That's a lot of Uruk-Hai - 49 models in total! While siege engines look expensive, once you account for the models you're getting (as we've said before, this is usually 2-4) and the M/W/F you (usually) get on the siege veteran (which you usually have), they're not THAT expensive. Okay, so let's assume that you understand how to build a list with siege engines in it - let's get into actually using them in game by looking at . . .

Siege Engines - Deployment

Yep, we're not even playing the game yet - because siege engines deploy before any other warbands deploy. In scenarios where you have a board edge (most scenarios work this way), you and your opponent roll to determine board edges and (edit) when you want to deploy a siege engine warband, you deploy your siege engines within 6" of the board edge (edit: and in maelstrom scenarios, you don't alternate deployments of siege engine warbands - the force that picks its board edge deploys all of its siege engines, followed by the other force deploying all of its siege engines). If you don't have a board edge (either because you have a maelstrom mission or you have a "corner deployment" scenario), you pick a board edge to count as your board edge (it has to be attached to form at least one of your deployment corners if it's a corner mission) and deploy within 6" of the board edge (and in your corner deployment zone, if you have one). This gives us the first rule about siege engines:

Siege engines are going to begin the game away from the action - sometimes that's good, and sometimes that's bad.

In the handful of scenarios where you want to stay away from your opponent and don't have to go anywhere, this is a good thing - you can hedge up near/around the siege engine, sit back, and let it pound the snot out of the enemy. In a few other scenarios (most notably in Pool 2), your siege engines might be able to start on/near some objectives (so you can move onto them/guard them with your starting location). Since most scenarios don't allow you to do either of these things (and some armies might have special rules that make their models ineligible targets from far away), there could be models in your army that can't be brought bear against your opponent quickly simply because they have to be deployed far away. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't - it's a trade, not a given.

There are some scenarios, however, where you don't start on the board (three maelstrom missions and Reconnoitre). In Reconnoitre, you still have a "board edge" that you control, so these guys will start on the board at the start of the game. In maelstrom, you nominate one board edge to be "your board edge," with the full understanding that a) your models might come onto the board from somewhere else, and b) that your opponent's models can choose to walk on directly behind you. Yes, it's a risky business in those missions being a siege engine - and one of the greater reasons for actually buying extra crew for your siege weapons!

The last thing we need to talk about deployment are the units: as we've already mentioned, for the most part (are you tired of that phrase yet? Get used to it), your siege engines need to be within 6" of your board edge (or a board edge if you don't start on the board) and your crew need to deploy in base contact with it (for the most part, at any rate).

Okay, we've built our list and we've deployed our siege engines - let's finally get into how to use these things in-game!

Siege Engines in the Move Phase and Fight Phase

In the Move phase . . . you generally want to try to do very little with your siege engines, since siege engines can't move and shoot in the same round (for the most part). Moving a siege engine is pretty simple, though: three non-Monster models can move together while in base contact with a siege engine in order to move their full Move distance, two non-Monster models can perform a half-speed move, and a single non-Monster model can't budge a siege engine. Monster models count as three models (and so can move a siege engine on their own).

At least two of your models (including your siege veteran) will probably want to stay in base contact with it (for reasons we'll see in the Shoot Phase section), but your crew can drift up to 6" away if they choose. You might want to do this either to a) draw line of sight from a "spotter" who gets a better vantage point than he would if he was in base contact with the siege engine, or b) because he can begin controlling an objective for your team. A siege engine itself doesn't count towards controlling an objective - only the crew does - so it's generally a good idea in objective-based missions to move a siege engine so it's parked over/near an objective so as many of your siege crew can be within the required radius of control while still shooting with the siege engine.

There are only two considerations for siege engines in the Fight phase: destroying the siege engine and fighting with your crew. Destroying a siege engine in melee is straight-forward but not easy: if an enemy model spends an entire turn doing nothing but standing in base contact with the siege engine, the siege engine will be "disabled" and is removed from the board as a casualty. You can also shoot them, but most people will try to disable them. Since the model has to start the turn in base contact and end the turn in base contact, a model will need to get into contact on a previous turn and STAY in base contact (unengaged, un-Compelled, and un-shot) during the following turn. The usual way that this works is that the crew have been overrun and are mostly/all dead.

To keep this from happening, your crew can attempt to defend the siege engine by charging enemy models before they get into base contact with it. Some siege engines do this better than others - and if you have more than 1-2 crew (we'll see shortly why that's important), you may be able to engage the enemy attackers with some of your crew while the rest of the crew fires away. Most siege engines have 2-3 crew, so if you're defending your siege engine from a handful of models, chances are good you're not shooting anymore. This leads to our second rule of siege engines:

Know when you need to shoot with the siege engine - and know when you're better off just fighting.

As we'll see later, some siege engines are better at this than others, but your siege crew are melee models too - sometimes you need to use them as extra bodies to hold ground, get traps, or hold the enemy at bay away from an important point for a little longer. Okay, that's the two boring phases out of the way - let's dig into the Shoot Phase!

Siege Engines in the Shoot Phase

It should come as no surprise that the Shoot Phase is where most siege engines pull their weight. Let's talk a little bit about how shooting with siege engines works. First and foremost, you need to identify if your siege engine is a "large" siege engine or a "small" siege engine, which is provided in the profile of each siege engine. If the siege engine is "large," you'll need to have at least two friendly models in base contact with the siege engine, but if the siege engine is "small," you only need one friendly model in base contact with it to fire it. These models need to have not moved this turn and cannot be Prone.

Friendly models who are not "crew" of the siege engine CAN help fire it, but they count as "untrained crew." If you have more untrained crew than trained crew, you'll only hit on a 6 instead of the normal shoot value of the crew. Additionally, heroes who count as untrained crew cannot use their Might points to influence siege engine shooting-related rolls (they don't know what they're doing, after all). Untrained crew cannot use their Shoot Values when shooting a siege engine, even if their shoot values are better than the crew's shoot values, though it has recently been clarified that heroes like Girion or Bard who can take a siege weapon (windlance) as part of their gear will count as trained crew if you field them with another siege engine (since apparently, they do know what they're doing). This leads to our third rule about siege engines:

Generally speaking, you want to have 3-4 crew, regardless of how many crew you start with.

Next, you need to identify if your initial target is a "siege" target or a "battlefield" target. Siege targets are, for the most part, big things: houses, boats, big gates, "large" siege engines, Mumaks, and Mumak howdahs (but not Smaug or Great Beasts of Gorgoroth - both have been classified as battlefield targets). For the most part, unless your opponent brought a Mumak or a "large" siege engine, you won't see siege targets in your games. Battlefield targets include everything else and they are, for the most part, small things: infantry/cavalry models, monsters (that aren't Mumaks), "small" siege engines, doors, etc.

Once you know what your shoot value is (based on the types of crew you have manning it) and the kind of target you're shooting at, you can shoot with the siege engine: for the most part, you'll need to pick an enemy model that's in line-of-sight of at least one crew member (hence why you might drift a model or two up to 6" away as a "spotter") and, for the most part, within 48" of the siege engine itself. You'll then need to roll To Hit like you would with other shooting.

If the target is a battlefield target (most things are), you'll need to make a "scatter" roll. On a 1, your shot misses the intended target and hits nothing OR hits one of your guys within 6" of the intended target. On a 2-5, your shot doesn't hit the target you want but instead hits a target of your opponent's choosing that is still in line-of-sight of one of the siege engine's crew and is within 6" of the initial target (though a lot of siege engines in the game reduce this to 3" thanks to the "accurate" special rule). On a 6, the initial target is indeed hit. You'll then need to check for in-the-way rolls that need to be made to the new target and finally end up with whatever model is going to be hit by the siege engine.

Some siege engines have the "volley fire" special rule which changes the To Hit/To Scatter rules a little. The units that have this rule are, for the most part, catapult-like siege engines - we'll get into what this does in the upcoming taxonomy discussion, but suffice it to say that these things . . . well, they break most of the rules we just laid out. :-)

Once you know the model (if any) that you hit, you roll To Wound. For the most part, (are you tired of hearing this - hang in there, we're almost done) any battlefield target that suffers a wound from a siege engine that isn't saved is automatically slain, while models that survive are knocked Prone. Models that are D10 (Sauron) or have 10+ wounds (Smaug and the Balrog) only lose half of their wounds, rounding up (so 10 Wounds on Smaug, 5 Wounds on the Balrog, and 3 Wounds on Sauron). This forms our fourth rule about siege engines and is why siege engines can be both loved and hated: 

Siege engines only have to get lucky and they'll kill big stuff dead.

By now, you're probably tired of the phrase, "for the most part." Now is the part of the post where we walk through all of the siege engines that exist in the game (9 actual siege engines, 1 faux siege engine). As I've alluded to throughout this article, there's quite a bit of rule-breaking that happens with this list!

Siege Engines - A "Brief" Taxonomy

We're going to start off with one of the most iconic siege engines in the game . . . and the one that isn't actually a siege engine at all in a technical sense: the "bomb teams" of Isengard.

Non-Siege-Engines: Demolition Charges

First off, we need to address the "not-a-siege-engine" that gets lumped in with siege engines: Uruk-Hai Demolition Teams. This 80-82pt unit doesn't have the "SIEGE ENGINE" keyword and so doesn't require a Hero of Fortitude to field, but its rules are covered in the Siege rules in the main rulebook (and its rules use terminology like "siege target" and "battlefield target"), so we often think of it as a siege engine. For those who are curious, none of the "for the most part" references you've seen so far in this article refers to these guys - they're not siege engines, despite their perception.

A demo team deploys as three models inside another warband, is moved like a heavy object (two infantry or one monster/Burly infantry model can move it at full speed, one non-Monster/Burly infantry can move it at half speed, cavalry can't carry it at all), and the charge can be detonated at the start of the Fight phase (after Heroic Actions because it doesn't specify that it happens before Heroic Actions are declared). When the charge is moved, it can't be placed so that it overlaps with anyone's base.

To detonate the charge, a friendly model in base contact that isn't engaged in combat needs to pass a Courage test (Fury is really helpful if you don't want to use your Berserker) - and if the model isn't carrying a Flaming Brand, they'll need to get a 6 on a random roll to detonate it (I always pay 82pts for a demo team to get +2 Flaming Brands on the basic guys - and I always pay for a Shaman for Fury). Additionally, the charge must be within 2" of at least two enemy battlefield target (or one enemy siege target) - something that got added to the rules when players were blowing up their own guys to end the game early (a clever bit of gamesmanship, but not something I think should be a legitimate use of bomb teams) or to assassinate a single enemy hero (which I think was a legitimate use of bomb teams).

If successfully detonated, the controlling player rolls on the detonation table (rolls two dice and picks the highest if he's running the Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legendary Legion): on a 1, the bomb doesn't detonate this time, but will get a +1 to its detonation roll next time. On a 2-5, the "normal stuff" happens and all models within 2" of the charge (not the models detonating it) suffer D6 Wounds (cavalry suffer this on the mount and the rider). On average, this should deal 3-4 wounds, which is enough to outright kill most things in the game (and can deal a grievous blow to the most stalwart of models). On a 6, things have gone horribly right for you and everyone suffers 2D6 wounds (which should deal 7 wounds, but has an off chance of doing only 2-3 wounds). Warriors are basically dead by default when this happens, as are most heroes. A charge that blows up near another charge will cause a "chain reaction" detonation on a 4+, which might mean that a hero could take 7-10 wounds in a single moment - and THAT is game over for basically everything in the game.

Demo charges can be attacked by enemy models - it has D7 and 3 Wounds and you'll need to roll a D6 for each successful wound: on a 6, it detonates (just like a model without a Flaming Brand would) and if it suffers 3 wounds without getting a 6 this way, it will be removed from the board without killing anything. With only a 40% chance of it detonating when you attack it, there is an incentive to try to shoot these things before they get to you - but of course, with D7, that usually requires a great deal of effort (and your opponent is going to try his hardest to keep it from happening). It's often much easier to shoot the guys with the torches (the Berserker by default and possibly the two carriers) and make your opponent have to get a 6 to detonate it instead.

Non-Insta-Kill Siege Engines: Gondor Avenger Bolt Thrower

Bolt throwers differ from other siege engines in three keys ways: first and foremost, Bolt Throwers get to shoot more than once, getting D6 shots each turn - or the higher of 2D6 shots if you buy the Swift Reload upgrade (something that made me rank them highly in our Top 10 Snipers podcast and made Rythbyrt rank them highly in our Top 10 Big Honkin' Things podcast). In addition, these shots don't make a scatter roll - they hit just like normal crossbows.

Firing multiple times does a few things for this siege engine (and undoubtedly contributes to making it a popular choice for Minas Tirith players): first, it makes it more likely that you actually hit something with your siege engine (all other siege engines are one-and-done kinds of models, though a few have rerolls on their To Hit/Scatter rolls). Second, it can deal high-Strength damage (S7 is pretty good, wounds most things on 4s or 3s) to multiple foes (unless it gets 1-2 shots, since it has a 4+ shoot value). Third, the potential to get lots of shots generally means your opponent will steer a whole squadron of his army away from a Bolt Thrower (or several Bolt Thowers - they're pretty cheap at 50pts each) instead of counting on a single model to scatter the shot onto - that's board control for you!

The second key difference is its range: unlike all of the other siege engines we're going to talk about, Bolt Throwers only have a 24" range, which means it generally can't park 6" from the board edge at the start of the game like all other siege engines can and threaten the enemy. Sure, if it's a centerline deployment scenario, they might be able to shoot on Turn 1, but since it's a Forces of Good model that doesn't have volley fire (more on that in a bit), any friendly models that are "in the way" of the shot will make the target model ineligible, which means Bolt Throwers have to be exposed to an enemy charge OR not take shots at all (or be elevated, but that's not always an option).

The third difference (one that most people are okay with, I think) is that unlike all other siege engines, Bolt Thowers do not outright kill/knock Prone models that they wound. Being able to insta-kill up to 6 models a turn would be crazy sauce, so thankfully this weapon doesn't do that - but with three models (two warriors and a siege veteran - check the erratas for the Armies of the Lord of the Rings, since the book only says it comes with two), you're not paying that much for the Bolt Thrower and you're getting +2 melee models towards your bow limit (so for each Bolt Thower you include, you can also take a bowman). As a glorified crossbow (shooting around 3-4 S7 shots/turn normally or 4-5 S7 shots/turn with Rapid Reload), it's pretty good - and that's putting it quite mildly.

If you're planning on running a spam Gondor list (maybe with Denethor and a bunch of the named Captain heroes), you should at least consider getting 1 Bolt Thower with Rapid Reload OR 3 Bolt Thowers without Rapid Reload (which costs about the same as 2 Bolt Thowers each with Rapid Reload).

Piercing Shot Siege Engines: Isengard Assault Ballistas, Mordor Siege Bows, and Dwarf Ballitas

This is the most standardized set of siege engines in the game - and it includes two of the most popular ones you'll see on the table (Isengard Assault Ballistas and Dwarf Ballistas). There are two key unifying features of these types of siege engines: Accurate and Piercing Shot.

Accurate means that these siege engines only scatter 3" instead of 6", which doesn't SEEM like much of a difference, but it makes a HUGE difference for your opponent. If you're targeting an infantry model embedded in the front of a battle line, your opponent could put a guy in a third rank to be the target of the scatter - but this often means that he'll need one scatter-target for every five files in the battle line, as opposed to one scatter-target for every eleven files. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but if you have multiple ballistas that hit on a single turn, your opponent probably needs two scatter-targets for every five files or he risks having to lose one of his front-line models. Of course, the problem with these scatter-targets being BEHIND his lines is found in the second rule: Piercing Shot.

When you've rolled to Scatter with these siege engines and you have your "target," you determine which models are "in the way" of the final target - which could be the models in your battle line if you put your spotters behind your ranks. After passing (or failing) the in-the-way rolls required, the controlling player deals a S9 hit to the target model (wounds basically everything on 3s, occasionally wounds on 4s or 5s). Thanks to Piercing Shot, if the target is a Battlefield target and is S5 or less, it will be knocked Prone as usual but also thrown D6" away from the ballista (use the same line you drew to determine in-the-ways). As is usually the case when a model is flung backwards like this, he'll stop if he hits an obstacle or a model that is S6 or higher (and the obstacle/S6+ model that stops the movement/any model the target passes through will suffer one S6 hit).

So what does this mean practically for these siege engines? To counter them, your opponent probably wants its scatter-targets in front of the lines to avoid having an in-the-way roll on his main ranks, but the model that's hit might STILL go flying through their ranks dealing S6 hits. With a 3" scatter range, it's pretty hard for your scatter-targets to not go through your ranks.

But there are differences between these siege weapons. The Dwarf Ballista is the middle-ground at 60pts and comes with a D10/3 Wound chassis that deals a S9 hit and has two crew (one siege veteran, one crewman, each with a 4+ Shoot Value). Extra crew (Dwarf Warriors with no extra gear) can be bought for 8 points/model (good deal if you don't mind them being stuck with the siege engine) and you can get Flaming ammunition if you think you're going to run into a siege target (I generally wouldn't count on it).

The Mordor Siege Bow is slightly cheaper at 50 points and comes with a D10/3 Wound chassis that deals a S9 hit, but has 3 crew (one siege veteran, two crewmen, each with a 5+ shoot value). Extra crew (Orc Warriors with no extra gear) can be bought for 5pts/model (good for spamming models, that's about it) and you get the same upgrade options as the Dwarf Ballista (aka, don't buy them - except possibly more crew).

But the most common of these kinds of siege weapons is the Isengard Assault Ballista, particularly in the Assault Upon Helm's Deep LL. For only 65 points, you get a D10/4 Wound chassis that deals a S9 hit and 3 crew (one siege veteran, two crewmen - one counts as carrying a pike - each with a 4+ shoot value). You can also buy the Superior Construction upgrade to increase the range from 48" to 60", which I don't generally feel is all that valuable, unless your Tournament Organizer allows you to shoot at the table two boards over to kill that annoying Goblin Scribe who's hiding in the back. ;-) For those of you who are truly new to the game . . . please understand that I'm kidding here and you can't actually do that . . . but OH how I wish someone would sometimes. :-)

The Isengard Assault Ballista has the best of all worlds (more crew than the Dwarf Ballista, better shoot values on its crew than the Siege Bow, more Wounds on the siege engine than either). Furthermore, this one is a Large Siege Engine, which makes it a siege target instead of a battlefield target, so targeting it with another siege engine won't auto-kill it and can't scatter shots directed at it onto your crew OR trigger area-of-effect rules (see more on this later). In the Legion, you also get to reroll To Hit and To Scatter rolls of 1 (as has already been alluded to), making these things rarely miss hitting something - and can hit the target they want slightly more often than most siege engines. There's a reason people hate these things . . .

Precision Siege Engines: Windlances

At first blush, you'd think the Windlance of Dale would be included with the other bolt-throwing units. It's profile is incredibly similar - a D10/3 Wound small siege engine that shoots at S10 shot (ooooohhhhh) and has two crew (one siege veteran, one crew, additional crew cost 7pts each) who start with a 4+ Shoot Value, but can have a 3+ Shoot Value if they keep their army bonus or are run in the Army of Dale LL. With Accurate baked into their profile, these things look pretty good and very similar to the previous three profiles.

The S10 seems like a nice addition - as is the higher Shoot Value, but there's one key difference between Windlances and other Ballistas: there's no Piercing Shot. With no I-knock-you-back-into-your-friends rule, a Windlance is going to target a single model, scatter onto a model that's pretty close by, and only wound that model. The end.

There are only two consolations to people who want to run these: first and foremost, you start with Superior Construction, so you have 60" range instead of 48" range . . . yaye? Also, you have the 3+ Shoot Value and S10, which means you'll hit slightly more often than other siege weapons, and will wound really tough things (D8 or D10) more easily than the other ballista options (but literally everything else you'll wound on the same difficulty). At 75pts each (10-25pts more than the other competitors), I feel like this siege engine leaves something to be desired.

Catapult Siege Engines: Mordor War Catapults and Gondor Battlecry Trebuchets

I've alluded to both volley fire siege engines and area-of-effect rules in the discussion of ballistas above - and both rules apply to the next four siege engines! Catapults are some of the most iconic siege engines in the Middle-Earth films and the first two to discuss are the Mordor War Catapult and the Gondor Battlecry Trebuchet.

Both siege engines have the Volley Fire rule, which is included in their Indirect Fire rule. With a range of 12-96", these things can shoot incredibly far (until you get too close) and thanks to Volley Fire, they don't require having line of sight themselves to the enemy - only a friendly model needs to have line of sight! Furthermore, terrain and models that are not actually ABOVE the final target don't count as in-the-way (any model in a forest counts as having a tree in-the-way, but anyone who isn't under a bridge or roof or something is gonna be taking the hit directly). These kinds of weapons can sit comfortably behind your lines (or a building or a hill or . . .) and pound away at the enemy until they are forced to close - and this pairs nicely with their Area Effect rule as well.

Area Effect is nasty - if you target a Battlefield Target. Per the usual, if you target a Battlefield target with one of these siege engines, you have to roll To Hit and then To Scatter (with a standard 6" distance). Once you've figured out who the target is, all models within 2" of the target model suffer a S5 hit that doesn't insta-kill them (while the target suffers the full S10 wrath of the siege engine with the insta-kill rule). Anyone who survives this is knocked Prone . . . as you'd expect.

Both of these siege engines also have a Wall-breaker rule, which allows you to roll two dice when rolling To Wound against a siege target and pick the highest - and if you pair the shot with Flaming Ammunition, you can reroll 1s as well . . . which seems a little redundant when you're rolling two dice To Wound and picking the highest, but whatever. As I mentioned above, siege targets aren't that common in most games, but if you want to more reliably wound a Mumak (wounded on a 3+ with the Howdah in-the-way) or if you want to hit another big siege engine (both of these are Large Siege Engines, and so are treated as Siege Targets instead of Battlefield Targets), this seems like a pretty good upgrade to have.

The 6" scatter is one of the biggest critiques of these guys - with a large (read "normal") scatter range, your opponent can have a single model behind his ranks and have him alone suffer the blow for his friends. Thanks to the 2" area of effect, however, it's unlikely that your opponent is going to have too many of these spotters close together - so shooting with one catapult and killing the spotter may make life a living hell for your battle line when the second catapult hits. For more on how to get past the "limitations" of a 6" scatter, check out Centaur's write-up on Trebuchets here.

The other common critique of these two siege weapons is their cost. A Trebuchet costs 80 points (30 points more than a Bolt Thrower - or 10 points more than a Bolt Thower with Rapid Reload) and comes with 3 crew (same as a Bolt Thower after the errata), doesn't have any neat upgrades that you really need, and has to hit with a single shot instead of potentially more than one (though admittedly you could get some collateral hits with the Trebuchet). With D10/3 Wounds and a S10 hit (and a 4+ Shoot Value), I think both are pretty good siege weapons, but the American competitive community seems to heavily favor the Bolt Thower (which is fine - Centaur and I will keep the secret to ourselves).

The Mordor War Catapult is the second most expensive siege engine in the game, coming in at 160 points base and it comes with three Orcs and a Mordor Troll as its crew (that's 130 points in value once you factor in the Might/Will/Fate on the siege veteran). The attached Troll allows it to reroll its To Hit and To Scatter rolls - oh, and it really disincentivizes charging it with a small detachment of warriors. For reasons I don't know, the Orc crew of THIS siege engine have a 4+ Shoot Value (as does the Troll), so you're hitting pretty reliably anyway, but the reroll makes you on-par with what the Uruks are going to be able to do in their Legion. The Orcs manning this siege weapon are also C3 (an upgrade - though the Troll is only C3 instead of his normal C4). You get some pretty garbage upgrades (Engineer Captain for 40pts and Flaming ammunition for 15pts), but you get the option for Severed Heads for 5 points (which I would always take).

Severed heads allows you to forego the S10 hit on the target and the S5 hits on everyone within 2" of the target to deal one S3 hit to everyone (oh, and you don't knock anyone prone). Why do this? Because anyone who survives has to pass a Courage test - and if failed, they flee and are removed as a casualty. Suddenly, D6 models with low Courage are afraid of being killed - though if your opponent  paid for high-Courage Elves, you still have the S10/S5 squishing option, so there's that. For 5pts, this isn't a huge investment and if you happen to face low-Courage models, it's crazy good.

Single-Crew Catapult Siege Engine: Catapult Trolls

You know how I said at the beginning that, for the most part, one model in the initial crew is upgraded for free to be the siege veteran and get that oh-so-good extra Might/Will/Fate? Well, this guy is the exception. The Catapult Troll from Azog's Legion comes with "some Goblins" on his back as his "crew" and he is "the siege veteran" - but no, the Catapult Troll doesn't get the bonus Might/Will/Fate. Why? Dunno - take it up with the rules design team.

This guy differs from other siege weapons in a few other significant ways. First off, Catapult Trolls can move and shoot - though he will only hit on a 6. Still, being able to move 6" (potentially more with a March) and shoot an insta-kill shot isn't bad at all. Second, you can't disable him and remove him from the game by staying in base contact with him for a whole turn . . . which makes sense, since you'd be fighting him and one of you would be backing away anyway. Third, this guy doesn't have any crew on the ground - and they don't count as models in your army either. Nope, it's a one-model siege engine, something you can only get with Bard or Girion otherwise.

His big claim to fame is that, like the Mordor War Catapult, he can reroll To Hit and To Scatter rolls, has volley fire, deals S6 Area Effect hits (instead of the S5 hits you see on the previous two catapult units), has an impressive 5 Wounds with D7 and is a siege target (being a Large Siege Engine, after all). With access to Brutal Power Attacks (Hurling at S10 instead of his usual S7), a very impressive profile, and an extra D6 S3 hits from the Goblin crew if he strikes normally, most things don't try to run this guy over. He's incredibly expensive, but worth every penny (or at least Gorgoroth and I think so).

The Last Siege Engine: Iron Hills Ballistas

We've come to it at last - what was the most feared siege engine until the Assault Upon Helm's Deep LL came along: the Iron Hills Ballista. The "twirlie whirlies" behave a lot like the catapults and trebuchets we've already seen, but also have some of the qualities that make ballistas feared and reliable. First off, Iron Hills Ballistas have the "reliable" special rule, which gives them Accurate (3" scatter) AND the ability to reroll 1s To Hit. With a 4+ shoot value, that's pretty close to having a 3+ shoot value.

Iron Hills Ballistae also have a minimum range of 12" and have Volley Fire with S4 area of effect hits. Additionally (and this is the big appeal of these things), when you determine the model they hit, you need to make a note of the path of the projectile: because of that scene from the extended cut of the Battle of Five Armies, any shooting attacks that are less than S7 can't target models within 3" of the path (or cross the path) for the rest of the turn. S7+ shooting attacks can be blocked on a 5+ as well. Yeah, it's an archery deterrent as well as a hero killer.

It's also a lot more expensive than the other catapults and ballistas that don't have a Troll attached to them. With an errata that boosted them to 125pts each, you're paying a lot for this siege engine - but of course, you're not paying for a Blinding Light hero, so maybe it's worth it. Fielding two of these is pretty hard (about 500pts if you field Dain, a Captain, and two Ballistas), but boy would you not fear enemy archery with two of them active!

Siege Engines: Should They Be Limited to Siege Missions?

Siege weapons can be really powerful in Matched Play games - as the dominance of the Assault Upon Helm's Deep LL has demonstrated since its release. While other siege engines can struggle to gain traction amongst competitive players, it's perfectly clear that the ability to insta-kill models (for the most part) and be able to threaten the enemy from a far distance (for the most part) are appealing to some players.

And to other players, this is a huge turn-off. Should you be able to insta-lose an important model just because a siege engine managed to get a wound in? Since shooting is the one thing in MESBG where your opponent gets no say (besides positioning), are the strengths of siege weapons just too much? Do they ruin MESBG?

I generally think that siege weapons are fine in matched play - what they do well are things that shooting generally does anyway. It's pretty evident that shooting-heavy lists can make for a negative play experience as the rules currently stand, but since bows aren't going anywhere anytime soon, it seems unfair to dismiss siege engines. There are ways to cope with shooting from a distance - and in some ways, coping with siege engines can be easier than coping with gunlines of bows or crossbows (or hordes of throwing weapons). The Isengard Assault Ballistas in the Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legendary Legion got a slight nerf in that they now only reroll 1s when making To Hit and Scatter rolls (instead of whatever they wanted), but they're still going to be seen on the top tables at competitive events and they're still very much to be feared.

Some armies won't enjoy a match-up against shooting-heavy armies, but MESBG is such a diverse game that it's common for one army to find a mismatch against another (be it a magic-heavy list, shooting-heavy list, cavalry-heavy list, model-heavy list, or hero-heavy list). Bad match-ups happen - but I generally feel like this is something that should be anticipated in the list building phase of the game.

Conclusion

Hopefully this has synthesized the rules for siege engines (for both new players and long-time players of the game). In our final post (for now) on the basics of the game, we turn to one of the most obscure, most nuanced, and most powerful elements of the game: the One Ring. With only five Ringbearers in the game (and several pages of rules to go with it), it's easy to think, "Yeah, I don't need to know about this" and turn the page. But for competitive players, a healthy understanding of what you can and can't do with the Ring can make all the difference in giving you an edge over a tough opponent. Join us next time as we delve into what the most iconic piece of Middle-Earth lore is all about - and until next time, happy hobbying!