Back to Basics: Heroic Actions in MESBG

Good morning gamers,

Today, we're talking about what heroic actions are available to heroes in MESBG. When I first got started playing SBG back in 2010, there were only three heroics: Heroic Move, Heroic Shoot, and Heroic Combat. These heroics are the only ones available to all heroes, but other heroics have crept up through the intervening years (and when the MESBG rules revamp happened in 2018, the other heroics became specialized and were listed under each profile . . . which was good, because Captains of Rohan being able to out-fight Cave Trolls for two rounds was just silly).

But what heroic actions are out there? And are there traps to any of them that should be avoided? We're going to deep-dive into all of this today as we explore one of the best aspects of the MESBG system. I'll be dropping links throughout the discussion to our previous Heroic Heroes series where I talked about how these heroic actions work and some of the best heroes that could use them back in 2020 - the articles are old, but the lists have held up pretty well over time - and other articles that we've done on heroic actions so you can learn more if you want to. Let's take a look!

Common Heroic Actions: Move, Shoot, and Combat

As has just been stated, every hero in MESBG has access to Heroic Move, Heroic Shoot, and Heroic Combat. At least two of these are incredibly useful heroic actions (whether there's value to calling Heroic Shoot is very much a debatable question) but all three share one thing in common: they all change the cadence of the phase that they're called in. Let's see how they work.

Heroic Move

I mentioned very briefly in the Move Phase post of our how-to-play section of this series that a hero who declares a Heroic Move can either move before the normal priority-player's movement or can call "With Me!" to allow the declaring hero and all friendly models within 6" of the hero to move before the normal priority movement, though the declaring hero has to move first, the friendly models within range have to end their movement within 6" of the declaring hero's final movement, and anyone who can't end within 6" of the declaring hero's final position OR that doesn't want to move within 6" of the declaring hero can't move at all. Heroic Moves are incredibly useful because they can allow you to move first.

Because Heroic Moves alter the cadence of the Move Phase, if both players have heroes who declare Heroic Moves, a roll is made to see which player gets to move first - one player is assigned the values 1-3, while the other is assigned the values 4-6 and a single die is rolled (the Evil player is 1-3 and the Good player is 4-6, but in Matched Play, you'll need to decide which player is which if it's a Good-vs.-Good or Evil-vs.-Evil match). Each player then takes a turn resolving one of their Heroic Moves. You can cancel a Heroic Move declared by an enemy hero by charging them.

For most factions in the game, moving first is really good - cavalry models can get their charge bonuses by moving first, heroes get to pick their matchups instead of having their opponents decided for them, and models that are trying to escape from enemy models with an object that's worth victory points have the opportunity to get in a better position (and even out of reach of an enemy model). Yes, Heroic Moves are awesome.

They're also costly - you'll hear veteran players talk about "Heroic Move-Offs," which is the colloquial term for when both players declare Heroic Moves to see who goes first. In most cases, the side that loses the 50/50 roll is going to have their Heroic Move cancelled, which results in a wasted Might point (hence my caution about counter-calling Heroic Moves with actual Might points back in 2019). For most players, this is just seen as part of doing business, but as the game drags on, wasted Might is felt acutely and this can have a psychological impact on your game play. Blaming dice is all fine and good - and losing priority a ton of turns in a row and NOT winning any of the Heroic Move-Offs can be a real pain - but the choice to counter-call a Heroic Move is a choice that we make, and so before you counter-call a Heroic Move (or even declare the first one), one should always examine the board and see what the ACTUAL risk is of moving second. Sometimes it's fine to move second.

Heroic Shoot

Heroic Shoots allow the hero who declares them (and all friendly models with ranged weapons within 6" if the hero says, "Loose!") to perform a shooting attack before the priority player's normal shooting. On its face, this seems like a good way to get your archery in before the other guy's archery - maybe even pulling the teeth from his shooting action before you get mauled to pieces.

This idea, though it intuitively makes sense, doesn't happen very often. Because most missile weapons wound on 6s (sometimes 5s - and very occasionally 4s), only a handful of the bows that hit their targets will actually wound their targets. Furthermore, because only a fraction of your total missile weapons will hit their targets (the most common To Hit values are 3s, 4s, or 5s - so somewhere between 1/3 and 2/3 of your shots will hit), you need to be rolling a ton of dice in order to cause any damage to the enemy. Don't call this Heroic Action - it's very unreliable and rarely gives you a good trade on your investment (read this post for the reasons why - in it, I address high-volume archery lists, in case you're curious about those, and in the comments I provided the math for factions like the Fiefdoms who can get rerolls on a lot of their rolls if a Heroic Shoot has been declared . . . it's still not worth it unless you're desperate).

Heroic Combat

Back when there were only three Heroic Actions, Heroic Moves and Heroic Combats were the things you wanted to use your Might points on if you could help it. If you had high-Fight heroes like Gimli or Balin (like I did), you wanted to go smashing through grunts and Heroic Combats helped you do that. A hero who declares a Heroic Combat gets to resolve their fight before the normal priority player's choice of fight order - if all the enemy models engaged with the hero are killed then the declaring hero and any friendly models engaged in the same fight (recall that spear-supporting models don't count as being engaged) get to perform a move, which can be used to charge other models. Unlike Heroic Moves, there is no requirement that the declaring hero has to move first or that friendly models have to end within 6" of the declaring hero.

This heroic action is the most common heroic action to be declared for free by different special rules - sometimes these free heroic combats are limited to Legendary Legions (like the Pits of Dol Guldur, the Defenders of Erebor, the Wolves of Isengard, or Helm's Guard), sometimes they're tied to specific heroes being engaged in combat (both versions of Sam, Bard/Bain, Deorwine, and Dwarf Shieldbearers), and sometimes they're "just free" (Elendil and King Thorin). While some heroes are smashier than others (Sam is by far and away the weakest, Elendil or Azog is probably the strongest), if any of these heroes gets into the same fight as a big hero, you can use this free heroic action to slingshot a bigger hero somewhere else (and if that hero declared another heroic action, like Heroic Strike - more on that in the next section - an unsuspecting enemy hero/monster could be in for some pain).

Because a good Heroic Combat can change the battlespace mid-phase, Heroic Combats are commonly viewed by all players as good heroic actions to call. They do require you to kill the thing that you're fighting WHEN you're resolving the Heroic Combat, however. It's been clarified that if two heroes are fighting each other and they both declare a Heroic Combat, an interesting scenario can play out. If we have Elendil fighting against Mauhur, Mauhur is stuck at F5, so Elendil uses Narsil to declare a free Heroic Combat. Elendil chooses to two-hand without penalties with Narsil, which means he'll wound Mauhur on 3s if he wins . . . things are looking pretty bleak for Mauhur . . .

. . . so Mauhur declares a Heroic Combat as well. A roll-off is made after all the other heroics are declared for the round and Isengard wins the roll-off. Mauhur's Combat is resolved first, he loses the fight, and he's killed . . . the Combat failed. However, Elendil's Combat hasn't been resolved yet, so when Elendil is selected to resolve his Heroic Combat . . . he has no opponent to kill and so he can't go anywhere . . . cheeky dead Uruk! Yes, this is a weird case - and one that's been clarified in the designer commentaries, if you're curious about it. Heroic Combats are awesome, but you need to a) be able to kill the person you're fighting, and b) it can be denied you if the other hero declares a Combat and is able to resolve their Combat first.

Another interesting way you can blunt a Heroic Combat is by not making way. Backing away is not optional, but making way for a friendly model IS optional, so if you know that a big nasty hero is going to kill a friendly model - especially if that hero is mounted and is going to knock the front model prone anyway - you can choose to not make way, treat the front model as trapped, and retain your current formation. This denies extra movement and can keep your lines more intact, limiting the charging hero's options.

One final thing we need to say about Heroic Combats: while it's very common to use the movement you get from a Heroic Combat to kill more models, don't underestimate the value of using a Heroic Combat to move models up the board. I play with the Kingdom of Moria a lot - and one of the things that any Dwarf player knows is that Dwarf infantry are slow. Like, really slow. If you're playing a scenario where you need to get somewhere (any scenario from Pools 1/2/5 and some scenarios in Pool 6), getting somewhere is paramount, so using your additional movement to actually fulfill the scenario objectives can be more beneficial than killing more bodies.

Okay, these are the three heroic actions everyone has access to - let's take a look at the first three of the eight specialized heroic actions . . .

Specialized, Valuable Heroic Actions: March, Defense, Strike

If you were to pulse the various Facebook groups for MESBG players about what the three best specialized heroic actions are, they'd probably say Heroic March, Heroic Strike, and Heroic Defense in some order. Of all the specialized heroic actions, it's probably because these heroics do things that would appear to be universally useful - they're not dependent on what units your opponent brought or what terrain is between you and them and they provide meaningful benefits that can win you games. They can also be traps - let's see how they work, how they're often employed, and how they can actually hurt your game play.

Heroic March

Our first stop is Heroic March - which, as a Dwarf player, I'm a HUGE fan of. Heroic March is, on its face, quite simple: the declaring hero adds 3" of movement (or 5" to the mount's movement if cavalry or if the hero/its mount has the Fly special ability) and cannot Charge during the Move Phase. The hero can shout "At the Double!" to boost the movement of nearby friendly models in the same way, but they also cannot charge this turn, and like Heroic Moves, the Marching hero needs to move first and all friendly models need to end their movement within 6" of the hero or not move at all.

This can lead to some very interesting things - unlike Heroic Moves, a hero who declares a Heroic March doesn't have to be the first model to move during their Move Phase, so if you have units nearby who want to charge, they can do so BEFORE the hero who declared the Heroic March moves (moving afterwards would prevent them from charging). Another odd situation to be mindful of is that if you have a hero who declares a Heroic Move near another hero who declares a Heroic March, then the "Move hero" won't get the extra movement, while the "March hero" will not only get the extra movement, but will have to end his move within 6" of the "Move hero." This can frustrate your plans if you're not careful.

The final thing that needs to be said about Heroic March is what happens when there are scenario objectives that require a model to get off the board edge. In scenarios like Reconnoitre, you might have a hero who is Marching friendly models towards the enemy board edge, hoping to get off the board before time expires (or they get caught/shot). If the hero declares a Heroic March and can use the extra movement to get off the table, the models nearby will need to end their movement off the table as well . . . or not move at all. Similarly, if the March hero falls short of getting off the table, then nearby models who benefit from the extra movement will need to stop just short of getting off the table as well. So . . . measure, measure, measure before you commit to the March.

It's quite rare for a named hero to have Heroic March (except in the Isengard and Rohan factions, where March is everywhere), but most of your generic, unnamed heroes have Heroic March. I've always thought this was great, since it makes sure the "normal guys" have a place among armies with lots of named heroes. I will confess that I wish one of the Champions of Erebor who are present in the Defenders of Erebor LL had March, because taking an Iron Hills Captain or a Captain of Dale just feels sad when there are six champs and four royal profiles to pick from. Of course, most of those profiles (and usually a fair few heroes from each faction) have access to . . .

Heroic Strike

Besides Heroic Moves and Heroic Combats, this heroic action is probably the most popular heroic action in MESBG - and it's also the most straight-forward in what it does for you: the declaring hero adds D6 to their Fight Value, maxing out at Fight 10. We've all been there - we've lost really important duels because our opponent's hero had a higher Fight Value than us. So what in the entirety of MESBG could be better than boosting your Fight Value for the low-low price of a Might point? Well, quite a lot, actually . . .

If you want the full synopsis, I'd recommend Rythbyrt's five-part series on Heroic Strike (which, despite being old, is still timely and accurate). If you want a shorter synopsis, you can check out my caution against counter-calling Heroic Strikes in my also-old-but-timely article on wasting Might points. The really skinny answer is this: boosting your Fight Value only matters if the duel is tied . . . and there's a lot of variance that you can have if you and/or your opponent don't roll a lot of dice. If you both have heroes who have 2 Attacks and Heroic Strike at F5-6, the odds that you tie highest values is quite low, so whether you Strike or not actually matters LESS than whether you boost your final result (or just boost a Fate point).

Heroic Strike matters most when the dice pools are high - a F10/4 Attack Balrog with some Goblin friends is pretty intimidating for a reason, while a horde of angry F6 Dwarf heroes (most of whom can probably Strike) is going to scare a Balrog just as much. Using Heroic Strike with Dwarves is probably a good idea, but only 1-2 models probably NEEDS to Strike, because if the Balrog doesn't get a 6, it doesn't matter what you get - so long as it can get to a 6 (or higher than the Balrog's roll. If you pay 1 Might to boost your Fight Value and it doesn't match or beat your opponent's ending Fight Value, it's a wasted Might point. It's that simple.

That being said, a tiny hero (like Ugluk) can force a bigger hero (like Old Dain) to spend valuable Might points just by declaring a Heroic Strike. Does Dain want to risk having a lower Fight Value than Ugluk (who will wound him on 6s if Dain doesn't use Piercing Strike, but also won't die if he gets a 6-high)? Or does he declare a Heroic Strike and hope that he gets the higher Fight Value still? What if Ugluk only gets boosted from F5 to F6? There's a conundrum there that can be valuable, regardless of what your final Fight Value is (and what your highest dueling roll is).

Still, lots of people like Strike, so far be it from me to say that Strike is bad (I've gotten plenty of good use out of it . . . and wasted a lot of Might points with it as well). Since not everyone has this heroic action, it's worth talking in the same breath about . . .

Heroic Defense

There are MANY heroes who have both Heroic Strike and Heroic Defense, but the strategies for both are pretty different. Heroic Strike boosts your Fight Value to give you the opportunity to automatically win (or tie when you would have lost) a duel. A hero who declares a Heroic Defense changes their opponent's wounding roll so that they can only be wounded on a natural 6. It's been clarified in a recent FAQ that if the declaring hero's Defense value is high enough that two rolls are needed (e.g. Durin will be wounded by a S4 model on a 6/4+), then both rolls need to be natural 6s . . . yeah, that's gonna be hard to do.

The strategy that's being employed here is simple: I'm not going to do anything to help me win the duel or do more damage if I win, but if I lose, I'm hoping to still be here (perhaps just as healthy as I was before the duel), unless you get REALLY lucky. Sometimes players will get natural 6s - and the more dice that are being thrown, the more likely that's going to be. However, most of the time, your average Heroic Defense situation should lead to you taking no more than 1 wound - whether you're D3 or D7, you are probably not taking more than 1 wound. Yaye!

There are some heroes who have Heroic Defense instead of Heroic Strike, and this places them in an interesting position in their armies. On the one hand, they're highly encouraged to find the biggest, baddest thing the enemy has and "road block" it, but by doing so, they're giving the enemy hitter the opportunity to kill a hero model. Deciding how to use Heroic Defense models takes some finesse, especially if they have both Defense and Strike in their arsenal.

Okay, these are the specialized heroic actions that most players deem to be "good" - let's look now at the ones that get some grief . . .

Specialized, Situational Heroic Actions: Channelling, Resolve, Accuracy, Challenge, Strength

This pile of heroic actions happens to be the red-headed cousin set of heroic actions - the ones that everyone critiques as not being worth it, except in a handful of situations. Last September, I presented my thoughts on changes I'd make to make these heroics a bit more appealing (minor changes with major impacts). We'll start off with . . .

Heroic Channelling

Besides Heroic Strike, this might be the simplest heroic action in the game: instead of the declaring hero using the "normal version" of a spell they're going to cast, they get to use the "channelled version" of the spell, which is spelled out (see what I did there?) in the main rulebook. In general, the channelled versions of spells do the normal thing a bit better (e.g. extending a 6" auric radius to 12", reducing or gaining D3 stats instead of 1 stat, increasing the Strength of the damage hit issued), but occasionally the spell will be fundamentally changed (going from a one-turn effect to a game-long-as-long-as-you-don't-run-out-of-Will effect, reducing enemy Fight Value/Attacks instead of just keeping them from hitting someone, or dealing a hit to the target instead of just breaking their stuff). There's definitely a case to be made that not all magical powers should be channelled (and that makes this VERY situational).

Another thing that makes Heroic Channelling situational is that you can effectively cancel a Heroic Channel just by charging the caster. In our last post, we walked through how magic works in MESBG and since the caster (generally speaking) has to be unengaged in order to cast a magical power (or in some cases, possibly two magical powers), this heroic action can be wasted by losing a Heroic Move-Off or just not having priority when you need it.

Channelling also has innate risk when it comes to actually casting the spell - I've recommended against channelling if you only have 1 Might left in your store (I'll make an exception for Cirdan casting Blinding Light). Since you will have to spend your last Might point to Channel, any failure to cast the spell results in the Might point being lost, as well as any Will points you spent in the attempt. When you channel, cast like you mean it - and it always helps to have at least one Might point to make sure the dang thing goes off when you channel.

Still, there are some magical powers (VERY FEW) that are worth channelling and so it's great that we can do this. Furthermore, if you happen to run the Black Riders Legendary Legion, each of your Ringwraiths can cast a free channelled Transfix once during the game, which means you can get the benefits of a channelled spell without the use of Might or Will (it counts as being cast on a 6, so it can still be resisted, but it's hard . . . it's really hard). Channelling can be fun - and it can certainly shake up the way your opponent plays - but it's also a risk, so most players don't do it often. Speaking something most players don't do very often . . .

Heroic Resolve

This heroic action isn't simple, but doesn't require doing much: the declaring hero isn't allowed to move and all friendly models within 6" of the declaring hero (including the declaring hero) receive one free die when they have to perform a Resist test for the rest of the turn. The declaring hero can still do things, just not move. If you're worried about enemy magic coming in, this is a way to get free dice.

But if your opponent didn't bring any magic . . . it's not doing anything for you. Additionally, if your opponent brought oppressive magic, it's entirely possible that ONE die isn't going to do anything for you ("roll well" only works for so long). Yes, if this stacks with special rules like Resistant to Magic (+1 free Resist die), Fortify Spirit (+2 free Resist dice), or just spending Will (+1 Resist die per Will point, returned to your Will store on a natural 6), you can stand a good chance of shutting down an enemy magical barrage, but your hero needs to be okay with not moving - and the magical threat needs to be enough to warrant that.

For most players, this is a bridge too far . . . now for a bridge that's WAY to far for me . . .

Heroic Accuracy

I am, perhaps, the world's biggest opponent of Heroic Accuracy as it currently exists in the game - at least in the content-creation world for MESBG. I've heard the tales of how players have shot up important heroes, killed a guy carrying an artefact or a prize, or killed that horse that was under that big hero (back when you were allowed to reroll "successes" on those rolls) JUST because they used Heroic Accuracy. Well . . . I'm too much of a math-head to be swayed by that - I don't like Heroic Accuracy. Here's what it does . . .

Heroic Accuracy allows the hero who declares it (and all friendly models within 6" with missile weapons if the declaring hero shouts "Take Aim!") to reroll all failed in-the-way rolls in the Shoot phase. As I've said in a previous post . . . this can easily be a wasted Might point because Heroic Accuracy doesn't increase your likelihood of hitting the target (a prerequisite for any in-the-way rolls you want to make) OR increase your likelihood of wounding the targets that you manage to hit (which is often the hardest roll to pass when shooting). If the models that are in-the-way have roughly the same Defense value as the targets you want to hit, it's often a better idea to just fire into the first rank, plow through warriors, and eventually reach your target (at the very least, you'll be scaring the target to behaving differently).

I'm willing to entertain the notion that "desperate times" might call for a Heroic Accuracy - but any shooting hero (most of the models that have Heroic Accuracy have a ranged weapon baked into their profiles) who spends a Might point on Heroic Accuracy isn't spending that Might point to boost a wounding roll - and frankly, if you just plow through the guys in between with your bows (or adjust your firing lanes ahead of time to avoid the in-the-ways - even if it costs you shots THIS turn), you can achieve a similar result to calling Heroic Accuracy . . . without calling Heroic Accuracy. I'm just saying, I don't think you need this one . . . but it's here if you want to give it a try.

Now for my favorite heroic action . . . and probably the LEAST loved heroic of the bunch . . .

Heroic Challenge

Heroic Challenge is the only heroic action to receive a change in text since the MESBG revamp in 2018. The idea of this heroic action is very thematic: a hero who declares this heroic action must be engaged with an enemy hero of the same Heroic Tier or higher. The idea is that the declaring hero is attempting to start a one-on-one duel with the targeted hero, which I have to say, is incredibly awesome.

If the challenge is accepted, then all other models who were involved in the combat (both engaged models and supporting models) cannot roll dueling dice, make Strikes, or lend their Fight Values. It's important to note that the other models who were involved in the fight do not back away or make way - they actually remain where they are, but don't actually do anything. Because these other models cannot make Strikes, monsters models that are no longer participating in the fight cannot perform Brutal Power Attacks (which are not Strikes, but are made instead of making Strikes).

In addition, if the challenge is accepted, both heroes involved in the Heroic Challenge have to charge each other if possible until one of them has been slain and other models may not charge either hero until the Challenge has been resolved. While this prevents models from getting involved in the combat directly, it does not preclude shooting into the combat, casting magic on either of the participants, or forcing models involved in the Challenge to make way for other models (thereby preventing them from charging into each other on the next turn). Yes, there are some ways around the mono-e-mono rule, but for the most part, if the challenge is accepted, you're in for it until one of the two heroes is dead.

Finally, if the challenge is accepted and one of the two heroes is slain, their surviving hero will immediately gain D3 Might points, which can take them above their starting Might level. This is the big reward for accepting a Challenge - you get at least 1 Might point back. Like the magical powers I mentioned last time, it would be nice if this was a D3+1 boost instead of just a D3 boost - I've declared several Heroic Challenges with heroes in the game (Lurtz in the Lurtz's Scouts Legendary Legion and Shagrat in generic Mordor mostly, but also Aragorn in the Breaking of the Fellowship Legion) and when my challenges have been accepted, it's been a real pain to go through all the work of killing the other guy . . . only to regain the Might point you spent declaring the Challenge in the first place. Shagrat and Lurtz make up for this somewhat (Lurtz gets his Might point back if the challenge is declined - more on that shortly - and Shagrat gets an extra Might point from the Blood and Glory special rule), but it would just be nice if the reward for the hard-fought fight didn't just put you back where you were when you started (and possibly lower than you were before, because you may have had to declare Strikes/Defenses against the hero you were locked in combat with).

All of the above rarely happens, because most players decline the Heroic Challenge instead of taking the risk that the enemy hero will gain D3 Might points. If the Challenge is declined, then two penalties are applied: first, any Heroic Actions declared by the declining hero will only affect themselves (so Heroic Moves won't allow other models to move with the Hero) until the Hero who issued the Heroic Challenge is slain. Second, the declining Hero cannot use their Stand Fast! for the remainder of the game. For most players, losing their Stand Fast! might hurt, but waiting for the hero to be killed off by someone else before they can have friendly models benefit from a Heroic Move/Shoot/Combat/March/Resolve/Accuracy is just fine (especially since the value of Heroic Shoot/Resolve/Accuracy is conditionally useful at best). Furthermore, heroic actions like Heroic Strike/Defense/Channelling/Strength (which we'll cover next) aren't affected at all, so if you're a combat hero, you might not care as much if you lose utility on those other heroic actions, since you probably want to lean into Heroic Strike/Defense anyway.

I've already made my recommendations on how to further change this heroic action, but I will say that there are very few heroes who can use this heroic action effectively - though it is an interesting way to potentially save a hero who's been surrounded or to remove Stand Fasts! from an army with bad Courage. It's highly situational and for most heroes, it's not worth calling. Okay, on to the last heroic action . . .

Heroic Strength

Heroic Strength often gets lumped into the pile of worst heroic actions in the game, since the only benefit that you get from it is increased Strength. A hero who declares a Heroic Strength adds D3 to their Strength stat for the rest of the duration of the Fight Phase, maxing out at Strength 10. Most of the models that have access to Heroic Strength either have access to Heroic Strike as well or lack Heroic Strike and have a high Strength value as-is (mostly monsters, but there are also heroes who starts at S5 and can get +1 To Wound in the mix as well). Because an increase in Strength doesn't necessarily mean you'll be reducing your wounding difficulty, there are some players out there (I used to be one of them) who didn't think using your Might point to increase your Strength was as good of an idea as just saving your Might point to boost your wounding roll.

It was Rythbyrt who showed me that increasing your Strength stat can have some incredible uses - particularly if you've been charged by a cavalry model/model with Monstrous Charge or if you're up against a monster model with high Defense and Rend. For more on this, check out Rythbyrt's series on Heroic Strength near the bottom of our Tactics page (this series is old, but like many things we've mentioned during the past month, is still very timely). Heroic Strength doesn't always help you on the wounding roll, but if your opponent was counting on knocking you over in order to deal a killing blow, this can change the amount of damage you're taking considerably - and if they get a poor dueling roll, it can force out Might points to avoid losing the fight!

When looking at heroes who are good at declaring Heroic Strength, I'd highly recommend heroes who also have access to the Piercing Strike special strike, since this can give them an additional Strength pip when making Strikes (it does not keep them from being knocked over, though) and will ensure that your difficulty will be reduced by at least one level - if not two - when making your wounding roll. For more on this, check out my post on the best heroes for declaring Heroic Strength (which is old, but also hasn't changed much with recent releases).

Conclusion

Heroic actions are one of the best parts of MESBG - most of them are dynamic and can lead to some very exciting play! Whether it's duking it out to see who gets to move first with Heroic Moves, seeing if that hero can kill a second group of guys with a Heroic Combat, or two heroes declaring Heroic Strike to try to reach the ultimate F10 (and seeing if they can get a good enough dueling roll to make that matter), heroic actions help us get what we want most: the feeling like our heroes are actually good and worth taking. In the end, that's part of what makes the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit narratives so appealing as books or films and it must be replicated in the game well. And I, at least, think it is.

Hopefully you enjoyed the continuation of our "back to basics" series - next Monday, we'll be returning to our Nemesis series and we'll be looking at one of the most dangerous Elven heroes in the game: Gil-Galad. The High King of the Elves is a dangerous prospect to see on the other side of the board and if you don't know how to counter him, he can really mess you up. Even with the pointers we'll be looking at next week, an experienced player can still make your life hard, so come ready to learn about where to begin fighting this guy, and until then, happy hobbying!