In Defense Of: Citadel Guard

Beregond and the Citadel Guard stand alert!

Hey Reader!

Today we're continuing the In Defense Of series, and Tiberius asked me to jump in and chat about the Citadel Guard, as Minas Tirith is not lacking in quality infantry, and these guys tend to draw the short straw compared to the Warrior of Minas Tirith (who is about the same cost), the Ranger of Gondor (if you want archery support from your infantry), and the Tower Guard (who are just all-around better in most respects).

And I think this is a shame, because these models look awesome, and are awesome, and fill an often-needed (and much bemoaned) role in the Minas Tirith faction. We will start by looking at why people tell you not to take this model, then we'll discuss why you should take it, and then close out by discussing how to make it work effectively in your army list.

Why NOT To Take Citadel Guard

Citadel Guard are something of a poster child for, "jack of all trades, master of none" units in Middle Earth SBG: everything they offer you can get elsewhere (kind of) in the list, but other units can do it better. Citadel Guard are Fight 4, but so are Tower Guard and (potentially) Osgiliath Veterans and Warriors of Minas Tirith (if you take the right heroes next to them), so they are not an auto-include for high Fight Value armored infantry. They have the Bodyguard special rule, but with most Minas Tirith infantry starting at C3-4, and the army special rule bumping up the Courage value by 1, an army that is predominately C4-5 is basically getting the effects of Bodyguard without worrying about whether the army leader is alive or not. They have heavy armor, but most models in the Minas Tirith list have that, and their inability to take a shield makes them less resilient than most infantry in the list. 

And while they can take spears or longbows, Rangers of Gondor can take both a spear and a bow at the same time, and while their bows are not as powerful (S2 for the ranger, compared to S3 for the citadel guard), rangers sport a 3+ Shoot Value instead of a 4+ Shoot Value, so they are more likely to get a chance to roll said damage roll (which is arguably better for the law of averages).

Announcing the TMAT Spring Zephyr Tournament!

  Good morning gamers,

Spring is coming, and we're welcoming it with the TMAT Spring Zephyr tournament! The tournament will be held at Patrick Henry College on March 23, 2024. Like the Winter Whirlwind tournament from last year, we're going to do another play-a-bunch-of-quick-games event. 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 (the Sauron one) 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.

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.

In Defense Of: Uruk-Hai Scouts (and Uruk-Hai Scout Captains)

Good morning gamers,

When Centaur and I got started playing MESBG, the first armies Centaur collected were Isengard and Rohan (very thematic choices). While Eomer, Warriors of Rohan, and Rohan Royal Guards became the mainstays of Centaur's Rohan army (and still are today, actually), Isengard was always led by Ugluk and Vrasku and behind them were a host of Orc Warriors (cheap bodies with access to spears) and Uruk-Hai Scouts. While the Uruk-Hai Scouts play a central role in one of the most exciting combat sequences of the Lord of the Rings films, their use in MESBG is often relegated to the two Legendary Legions that rely on them for good Fight Value and Strength (Ugluk's Scouts and Lurtz's Scouts).

This is a shame, because Uruk-Hai Scouts are actually quite good in MESBG, but due to a variety of reasons, they just don't see as much play. Since both Centaur (hi guys!) and I love Uruk-Hai Scouts, I decided to do a tag-team with him in this article - but I'm going to limit my scope to the value that Uruk-Hai Scouts have in the generic Isengard faction (allied or pure), NOT these Legions (though I have some thoughts on the Ugluk's Scouts legion regarding how these guys pair with orcs, which we'll talk about below). Anyone who's played with Ugluk's Scouts or Lurtz's Scouts knows how invaluable these guys are to the line-up (they're either all you have or one of two warrior choices you have), but their utility in the general Isengard faction is questionable. So today, while discussions about these two Legions will certainly arise, we're going to focus our efforts on addressing the utility of Scouts in Isengard generally.

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

We're also going to broaden the discussion a bit to Uruk-Hai Scout Captains, who often vie unsuccessfully for slots with Uruk-Hai Captains (aka, the "guys from Helm's Deep") - these guys have a good place in Isengard lists too, despite the dominance of their more armored cousins. Let's see what's so "bad" about these Scout models before we talk about what's so good about them . . .

Why NOT To Take Uruk-Hai Scouts

Our discussion of Uruk-Hai Scouts begins with a look at Uruk-Hai Warriors: when I got started collecting Isengard (about two months after Centaur because our good friend/fellow admin-on-hiatus Zorro bought a TON of Uruk-Hai Warriors used on eBay), I was like, "why would I invest in Uruk-Hai Scouts when I could pay +1 point/model to get +1 Defense with Uruk-Hai Warriors?" In most respects, Uruk-Hai Scouts and Uruk-Hai Warriors are the same, except that the Uruk-Hai Warriors pay +1 point to get heavy armor instead of standard armor and the equipment choices they can take. We'll get into war gear next, but the first reason most players avoid Uruk-Hai Scouts is because their armor gets increased.

5 Reflections on Fantasy Fellowships (Centaur Edition)

Hey Reader!

So Tiberius and I just finished up Fantasy Fellowships, and I thought I'd take a few minutes to reflect on some of the mistakes I made with my fellowship, things that are useful (if not essential) to success in Fantasy Fellowships when building a fellowship, and a few final thoughts on scenario design that I'd adjust.

1.  Don't Skimp on Your Wizard

The nine companion slots are not created equal: skimping on, say, the Fated Companion, is not as big a deal because you don't actually use that slot very much in the campaign. And the wizard slot is one of those slots you shouldn't slouch on either, because there's a loooooot that rides on that character.

The fact that it's the primary defender on Atop the Walls and the linchpin in The Bridge of Khazad Dum (more on that scenario later) aside for a moment, the wizard slot is one of the few reliable positions for providing support for your Fellowship, and especially stat recovery (which is a huge issue in Fantasy Fellowships, as you don't always automatically reset your stats at the start of each scenario).

I used Gildor (proxied by my wood elf warrior, as I don't own Gildor but look forward to picking him up soon), and he's a decent fighter with 2 Attacks and F6 S4, and with 4 Will Points and a 3+ Immobilize, he's not a horrible caster. But he's not a great caster for this spot, as he has limited utility, limited survivability (D4 with 2 Wound 1 Fate is not good), and a limited number of Will Points.

While Gildor placed decently in Tiberius's ranking of eligible characters, I think you should aim for someone higher than him. He won't provide the critical punch you need in beat-down fights like Balin's Tomb and Warg Attack, he will struggle to complete mission objectives when he is the focal character, and he can be wiped out in a single round, and I'm not a fan of any of those things, :P So while I loved using him, and he's still a top five caster in my mind, if I was doing Fantasy Fellowships again, I'd probably opt to invest more in this slot - probably my boy Elrond if I'm honest.

In Defense Of: Mattocks

Good morning gamers,

A surprising number of posts in the last two rounds of this "In Defense Of" series have centered around two-handed weapons - whether it's models who have to fight two-handed (like Bofur the Dwarf or Moria Blackshield Captains) or models that can fight two-handed even if they have other options (like Morannon Orc Captains - if you give them a two-handed weapon instead of a shield - or Mordor Trolls). I've even written an entire article talking about why two-handing can be okay (ignoring models who don't suffer the dueling penalty from the discussion). Today, we're going to continue looking at the topic of two-handed weapon options by looking at an equipment choice that I've come to appreciate having here and there in my Erebor Reclaimed lists: mattocks.

Photo Credit: Spikey Bits

For starters, there are a handful of models that have this rather specialized kind of weapon - most of them can be found in the Erebor Reclaimed/Iron Hills factions:

• Bofur the Dwarf (Thorin's Company)
• Iron Hills Captains (Erebor Reclaimed/Iron Hills)
• Iron Hills Dwarves (same)
• Iron Hills Goat Riders (same)
  

A mattock is described in Bofur's profile as being a "two-handed weapon, which can use either the Bash or Piercing Strike Special Strikes," which is neat since Bashing with a two-handed weapon makes your Bash more likely to work and getting +1 To Wound when you've raised your Strength value to improve your wounding roll is even better. There's nothing to dislike about this, right?

Well, actually no - most competitive players (including the Into The West podcast team) will tell you that the models look cool, but the mattock isn't worth taking. And on its face, I think they're right. However, there's more to this weapon than meets the eye - let's see why mattocks are critiqued so heavily and then we'll look at why (and more importantly how) they can be worth taking.

Why NOT To Take Mattocks

Our discussion of mattocks has to begin with a comparison between a mattock and a pick-hammer. If you look at the Grim Hammer profile from the Army of Thror, you'll see that a Pick-Hammer is a "hand-and-a-half weapon, which may use either the Bash or Piercing Strike Special Strikes." Wait a minute - did you say you can choose whether you want to use this thing one-handed or two-handed? Are you telling me that the Grim Hammers of Erebor knew how to wield things that look almost EXACTLY like the mattocks wielded by their Iron Hills brethren with one hand! Why yes, yes they could - and that's stop number one for many players (including our very own Rythbyrt): there's no reason why a mattock should have to be wielded two-handed when pick-hammers are a thing.

In Defense Of: Moria Blackshield Captains

Good morning gamers,

Last week I tried to give a passionate defense of Mordor Trolls (and who knows if I succeeded in making them look good), but today we're turning to yet another unloved model: the Moria Blackshield Captain. Moria has lots of great heroes, ranging from powerful monsters (like the Balrog and the Watcher in the Water) to puny-but-cheap/functional heroes, like Moria Blackshield Shamans and Durburz. Among the host of options available to Moria is a model that looks really cool but . . . well, just falls shy of the mark for most people - which is a shame, because he's actually really good. Join me today as we walk through what's so great about the Moria Blackshield Captain . . . but first, we gotta talk about the critiques this guy gets (in general, the comments are fair critiques) . . .

Why NOT To Take Moria Blackshield Captains

If the Moria Blackshield Captain were the only generic Captain option for Moria, that would be one thing, but Moria has two generic heroes who can lead 12 troops and have Heroic March: Moria Blackshield Captains and Moria Goblin Captains. Without any additional gear, the Blackshield Captain costs 10pts more and has +1 Defense (which is mitigated if the Moria Goblin Captain takes a shield - which not everyone does), has +1 Courage (bringing him up to C4 innately and C5 if there's a drum around), and gains the Hatred (Dwarf) special rule (+1 To Wound against Dwarves - which can be awesome, more on this later).

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

One of these boosts is free - but the benefits of all of these boosts are highly situational. Being D6 is generally a good thing for a hero (many warriors will wound you on 6s - as will most shooting attacks), but it isn't very good if you're up against another hero, who probably wounds you on 5s (if not 4s if he gets +1 To Wound). Being C4 is also good - but only marginally better than being C3 (and if C4 is good enough, than a Moria Goblin Captain within range of a Moria Goblin Drum is going to be C4 as well). Furthermore, both of these hero options can automatically pass any Courage tests they need to take if they're within 6" of a Moria Goblin Shaman who has cast Fury or if they are within 12" of the Balrog . . . so the Courage thing might be moot.

Preventing Burnout and the 2024 TMAT Release Schedule

Good morning gamers,

Okay, I'm a guy who writes articles for the internet - I'm allowed to make click-bait titles and not apologize for them. Usually the first Thursdays are formation posts, but as this is the first week of the new year, I wanted to do a quick review of the posts we did last year to give some perspective on what to expect from this blog during 2024. The TL;DR is simple - I'm cutting back a bit on my writing on this blog this year.

2023 In Review

From January through November, we had an article released every Monday (including taking scenario participants from the various sourcebooks into Matched Play, some In Defense Of articles, a few Back to Basics articles, a new Nemesis series, and Rythbyrt emerged from the woodwork to continue his long-running Armies of MESBG series - including some anti-Angmar articles) and every Thursday (which covered a TON of different topics, but included formation articles, FAQ reviews, rules changes I'd make, and some math articles on optimizing your Fantasy Fellowships . . . and updates on the Minas Tirith/Osgiliath project). These articles alone were almost 100 articles written last year.

What you look like after writing close to 100 articles every Monday and Thursday (and every other Saturday - more on that next) for a year . . .

During this same time, we had articles coming out every other Saturday on Fantasy Fellowships - both deep-dive analyses of what your models actually need to be able to do in the various missions you'll have, but also reviewing how my Fantasy Fellowship (the Erebor Reunion) did in their missions. Some of these missions were incredibly close and others were over very quickly (one way or another), but all in all, it was quite fun.

Then in December, we did a "Christmas List" series where we here at TMAT and various other content creators from across the globe contributed army lists that they'd been playing this year and really enjoyed (for whatever reason - competitive success, fun to play, wacky idea finally realized, you get the idea). I am both incredibly humbled that the guys who participated actually wanted to be part of this little blog's life, but equally amazed at the generosity and sense of unity that complete strangers can have just because of a hobby they both do. The lists are great - if you haven't checked them out yet, you really should!

To Harry, Dan, Sam, Mitchell, Markus, Matt, and the TMAT crew (and all the other guys who wanted to help out but were too swamped with work) - you guys are truly the best!

All told, this gave us a grand total of 139 posts in 2023 . . . or put differently, more than one article every three days. That's . . . a lot of writing. Not all of it was me writing (especially in December), but I did write the lion's share of them. One of the articles I wrote last year was about things I appreciated about MESBG more because my son got me into Star Wars Legion - and while my opinions about Legion have improved since then (and most of the critiques in that article aren't held as strongly by myself anymore), I did decide that - Legion noob though I am - I really do want to start putting up more Star Wars content for both Legion and Imperial Assault on our alternate channel (which you can find here). To do this, I need to cut back here because if I don't, I'm going to burn out. 

In Defense Of: Mordor Trolls (and sort of Isengard Trolls)

Good morning gamers,

First off, happy new year! Or, for you math-heads out there . . .

Golly, I love math . . . I know, I have a problem . . .

We're back in our In Defense Of series for the next few weeks and I wanted to start off with what has become one of my favorite Mordor units: the Mordor Troll. If you ask basically any competitive player, they will tell you that these models are just not worth taking - which is a real shame, because they have been available in both of the starter sets since the MESBG revamp and are highly customizable models (not to mention that Mordor/Isengard Trolls can be fielded in three army lists, as well as three Legendary Legions - yes, there are three of them, check my work if you like).

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community
Also, don't miss the weapon swaps on all the Orcs . . .

There are a wealth of reasons why these models are discouraged from competitive play and today, we begin the year with the impossible task of trying to provide a counter-perspective to . . . basically everyone in the community, including me from a year ago (though I don't know that this will be as hard of a sell as defending Osgiliath Veterans) . . . so in typical Tiberius style, let's get into it!

Why NOT To Take Mordor Trolls

Any discussion of Mordor Trolls has to begin with a discussion about Mordor Troll Chieftains - Mordor Trolls are warrior models, which means they don't have heroic stats (Might, Will, Fate) and since they're expensive warrior models, they will cost more than heroes who have heroic stats AND won't have heroic stats themselves. As great as the Mordor Troll's profile is (F7/S7/3 Attacks on offense, D7/3 Wounds on Defense - and Courage 4, which is pretty good for a monster), most Strike heroes can get above F7 reliably (or at least to F7), they can roll 3+ Attack dice (especially if there are multiple models that charged the Troll), and dealing 3 wounds to a trapped monster isn't that hard - and for some heroes, the trap isn't even necessary. It's in times like these, that you really want the 2-Might-and-Strike of the Troll Chieftain (who has all the same stats as a Mordor Troll, except that he has 2 Might, 1 Will, 1 Fate, Defense 8, and Heroic Strike/Strength - all of which are/can be incredibly useful).