MESBG Christmas Lists, List #6: Lurtz's Scouts Legendary Legion

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: It's a Hammond brother double play! If you missed the Christmas list from Mitchell Hammond a few days ago, you can find it here. Today, it's Markus Hammond from the Durin Show at bat - and he's brought one of my favorite Legendary Legions!

Markus: After reading my brother’s blog post, I am beginning to see a pattern: Hammond’s gravitate towards armies or list ideas that have been written off by the larger community. I’m not sure what that says about us, but I know it creates a lot of good fun! 

The army I’ve most enjoyed playing the past 18 months has been Lurtz’s Scouts legendary legion. When the army first dropped, I heard lots of social media (and local) commentary about how it was only good at 400-500 pts, or was the neglected sibling when compared to Ugluk’s Scouts because animosity was “that much better”. Being a big fan of Isengard, and because the attack on Amon Hen is one of my favorite scenes from the movies, I instantly bought as many old metal Uruk Hai scouts off eBay as I could find and built 900 pts of scouts. 

After playing about 40 tournament games with the army from 500-850 pts, a few things stick out to me. First, the army moves really fast AND your opponent isn’t ready for it. Base 8 movement, with access to drumming and marching, allows the army to play like an all mounted kiting Rohan force staying just out of charge range until the perfect moment. The second is how effective shooting can be. I’m generally a giant hater of shooting in MESBG (a long topic I can’t afford to dive into here!) but the scouts allow you to field a horde of troops, meaning the quantity of S3 bows is impressive. And don’t forget you can kite around with a drum moving 5.5 inches, taking those pot shots while waiting for a great opportunity! 

Another observation for me was how important it is to be patient with this army. The extra movement allows you to wait one extra turn before rushing to objectives late game, taking one extra turn to fire a few shots and maybe force your opponents hand and capitalize on poor positioning, but most importantly… forcing you as a general to see the battlefield from a skirmishing perspective as opposed to classic battle lines that stacks 2-3 models deep and charge into the fray.

The army has weaknesses, including but not limited to, Lurtz matching up against heroes of legend, low defense across the board, and most notably no spear support. But the fast movement, the surprisingly good shooting, woodland creature, and Strength 5 captains will give a general tools to overcome any obstacle. The last thing I’ll say, is bring a captain with a 2H weapon! You’ll be amazed how many times that extra punching power will come into play against pesky dwarves with shield wall. Nobody believes me on this last point - you just have to experience it for yourself. :-)

For those interested in trying out this super thematic and fascinating army (I’m not biased at all…), here is my 750 list that I used in 2022 at Adepticon and ended up taking 1st place:

• Lurtz with shield (leader)
• Uruk-Hai Drummer
• 7 Uruk-Hai Scouts with shields
• 4 Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows
• 1 Uruk-Hai Scout with banner and shield
• Ugluk
• 8 Uruk-Hai Scouts with shields
• 4 Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows
• Mauhur
• 7 Uruk-Hai Scouts with shields
• 4 Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows
• Uruk Scout Captain with two-handed weapon 
• 7 Uruk-Hai Scouts with shields
• 4 Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows

749pts, 51 models, 16 Uruk-Hai bows hitting on a 4+ AND 1 Uruk-Hai bow hitting on a 3+, 1 D6 model, 51 fast infantry, 10 Might 

Tiberius: I love a good Uruk-Hai list - and boy are Lurtz's Scouts lists fast! I personally give my Captains Uruk-Hai bows, but Centaur would second the use of the two-handed axe (and boy have I lost a lot of guys to it). I have enough Scouts to play at 600pts, but I may need to fix that and get some more. :-) We'll have another Christmas list in a few days - be safe out there, Merry Christmas, and happy hobbying!