The New Age Is Begun: The Kingdom of Rohan Army List

Good morning gamers,

This is the close-out post for 2025 and we're looking at the Rohan list that forms the core of the Rohan faction: the Kingdom of Rohan. Unless you're building a list around Helm Hammerhand or Eorl the Young, chances are good you can find the hero you're looking for in this list. It also gives you special rules that make most of the Rohan heroes better at what they do. Let's see what's great about this list - and what separates it from the other Rohan army lists.

The Kingdom of Rohan: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

We have basically all of the Rohan profiles in the game - there's no Merry in this list (and consequently, you can't take Merry with Eowyn) and you can't take heroes like Eorl the Young or anyone from the War of the Rohirrim film. Aldor and Haleth from the Helm's Deep list and Sons of Eorl are also not available, but you get everything else - which makes this a very good starting point for most Rohan players. Along with a huge selection of heroes (many of which are available in the Riders of Theoden army list - more on that next year), you get as many warriors as possible - which is frankly the same two profiles (warriors and guards) on foot or on horses. In some ways, you have a lot of profiles . . . in other ways, we don't . . . but what we have is good.

Army List Bonuses

The army list bonuses in this list don't appear to be particularly crazy, but they're VERY good for Rohan lists. Most Rohan heroes (and warriors) are going to be mounted, so getting Strength +1 on the Charge will help some of your units get an easier wounding difficulty than before. Similarly, most of your Rohan heroes will want to be mounted and have the Horse Lord special rule - passing the "free save" on a 5+ instead of a 6+ is super good and makes keeping your horses easier while preserving your Fate points.

The New Age Is Begun: The Shire Army List

Hey Reader!

Today we're discussing what was one of my first (and still my favorite) armies when I joined this hobby: hobbits! Naturally the list has changed a bit since last edition (as this was not one of the old legendary legions), and some of the profiles have changed, but on the whole, it still plays similarly (albeit sometimes with different models) from the last edition.

The Shire: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

The list of models you have in this army list hasn't changed from the previous edition, other than the fact that, naturally, you lose the alliance matrix. And this is a big loss: with a good Green Alliance with The Rangers and an army special rule that didn't always come up (thus opening up a lot of options for convenient alliances), not having access to Aragorn (for your everyday beatstick while still having solid numbers), Dunedain (for good fighters interspersed in the lines), Fellowship members (in case you want some good fighters, beefy tanks, etc. for pretty cheap), ents (for big bruisers that also throw stones!), the Dead of Dunharrow (for a durable front line that can slay!), the Eagles (if you're okay with losing some punch on your eagles in exchange for vastly greater numbers), and various elves (for great Courage, great shooting, and good heroes), you lose a lot by not having an alliance matrix.

The Citadel of the Stars, Part VIII: Flight to Minas Tirith

Good morning gamers,

This is it - this one is for all the bananas, as they say (or is that just something I say?). This has been a fun series and we're wrapping up the intro missions from the Battle of Osgiliath starter box - we've made the scenario participants Matched Play legal, but we didn't alter the scenario victory conditions. Let's see who we have with us today . . . 

Flight to Minas Tirith (Battle of Osgiliath, p. ??)

We've decided to use the following models in today's game:

• Forces of Good: Garrison of Ithilien
• Faramir, Captain of Ithilien 
• Madril, Ranger of Ithilien
• Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien 
• 4 9 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 4 8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows
• 8 15 Rangers of Gondor
• 4 2 Rangers of Gondor with spear
• Forces of Evil: The Army of Gothmog 
• Gothmog, Lieutenant of Morgul
• 1 Morannon Orc Captain with shield
• 6 Morannon Orcs
• 6 12 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 6 Morannon Orcs with spears
• 6 12 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
• 1 Mordor Troll

We gave shields to all the Morannons and added a Captain for the Evil forces and upscaled the Good army to compensate . . . the have +12 models over their original numbers (~50pt handicap?). All I have to do 

The New Age Is Begun: the Ride Out Army List

Good morning gamers,

Editor's Note: well, I wasn't keeping a close look at the numbers, but we just blew past the 4 million views mark - from all of us here at TMAT, thanks for taking the time to read our stuff. :-)

This is it - this is the last list from the battle of Helm's Deep and it's a fun cavalry list! Ride Out is not a list that I thought I'd like when I first read it, but there's a LOT here that I think is good and at a wide variety of points levels. Let's see what Theoden and his final sally from the Hornburg has to offer!

Ride Out: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has everyone that you'd expect to be in the list given the scene of everyone riding out of Helm's Deep (and the Ride Out scenario from War in Rohan) - it's got Theoden, it's got Gamling, it's got generic Captains, it's got Aragorn, it's got Legolas, and it has the non-Legacy mounted Warriors (Rohan Royal Guards and Riders of Rohan). 

What I feel sad about is that the list doesn't include Gimli in it. Yes, I know it kind of does with the horn rules. Yes, I know he doesn't go riding around with Legolas in this one (like he does in the Road to Helm's Deep list). Yes, I know it would be silly to have him running around with the group - but like the Gimli slot in Fantasy Fellowships seems a bit less important than the other two because he's not here in the scene. I don't know that you'd want him in the list even if you could take him, but still, it feels sad to not have Gimli in here. Moving on now . . .

Army List Bonuses

The army list bonuses are interesting. As is usually the case, Riders of Rohan don't count towards your bow limit, which is good because you'd be really capped for options because of the Elite keyword on Rohan Royal Guards (and only two guys who can take them). Thanks to the For Death and Glory special rule, everyone is Fearless, which makes Bodyguard an irrelevant rule, but is also great for making sure you pass any kind of courage test you have to take. Once per game, you can pretend that Gimli is in your list by using The Horn of Helm Hammerhand Shall Sound in the Deep; One Last Time, which gives all of your cavalry models the Terror special rule at the top of any Move Phase (not the start of a friendly activation, so if you'd moving second, you can turn this on to keep your cavalry from being charged before you get to go). Like the Look to the Sun rule we looked at last time, I feel like this should be able to last for more than one turn - it's an okay rule and could be really useful . . . if you remember it on the turn in which it matters most.

The New Age Is Begun: the Riders of Eomer Army List

Good morning gamers,

There were two Legendary Legions during the last edition that I absolutely loved and that almost everyone thought was trash: the Men of the West and the Riders of Eomer. Yes, there were issues with both of these Legions - and I asked in an email before almost every FAQ/Errata release for a few things - and I'm happy to say that just as my beloved Men of the West got a glow-up (and are actually quite good now), so also the Riders of Eomer got a few very, VERY needed changes and they too have had some time in the sun. Once again, this army list doesn't just feel like the development team listened to us - they particularly listened to me. This makes me very happy - so let's dive into Eomer, Gandalf, and all their brave boys!

The Riders of Eomer: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

If you're playing with the Legacy profiles, nothing's different from the Legendary Legion of yester-year - you have Eomer, Gandalf, Erkenbrand (maybe), and Captains as your heroes and Riders of Rohan (maybe Redshields) as your warriors. Pretty straightforward, right?

Well, yes and no - on paper, the profiles are all the same. However, the special rules for both the army list AND the rules of some of the units have changed as well, which means that previous strategies with this list have changed a bit - all for the better, I think.

Army List Bonuses

As was previously the case, Riders of Rohan don't count towards your bow limit - yaye for more than one warrior in each army. :) Eomer is still always your General, which is good because you can then be a bit more reckless with Gandalf (and you can pick him as a hero to keep alive in scenarios like Fog of War). 

The special rules also improved a bit - Gandalf can still use Look to the Sun once per game at the start of any friendly activation phase (so if you're moving second, you don't need to declare you're using it until your opponent has finished moving) to make any enemy models engaged with your Cavalry models get a -1 penalty to their dueling rolls. This rule feels less powerful now that Gandalf's Cart is a thing (and can happen every turn), but it's still very good for getting a big charge off.

The Ride for Ruin and the World's Ending special rule got a nuanced but necessary change: instead of getting Strength +1 on the charge while within 12" of Eomer, the Strength +1 bonus is now global. Since the generic Rohan bonus last edition was global, the 12" limit to Eomer felt . . . bad - and there wasn't even a Fearless-while-charging or other sort of glow-up that you got alongside it. Now, it's global and it's good.

Finally, Eomer got a new special rule in this list (To the King!) that gives him a free Heroic Combat each turn - which is SO GOOD in a cavalry list and super good with Eomer's improved profile!

The Citadel of the Stars, Part VII: The Fall of Osgiliath

Good morning gamers,

This is our penultimate scenario in our custom Osgiliath campaign and we're playing the Fall of Osgiliath from Gondor At War. This scenario required only minor force adjustments to make it legal under the new edition and was an interesting scenario because it involves cutting through part of the enemy army to escape from the rest of the enemy. Let's see who our participants are . . ..

The Fall of Osgiliath (Gondor at War, p. 16)

We've decided to use the following models in today's game:

• Forces of Good: Garrison of Ithilien
• Faramir, Captain of Ithilien 
• Madril, Ranger of Ithilien
• Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien 
• Anborn, Ranger of Ithilien 
• Mablung, Ranger of Ithilien 
• 4 8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 4 8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows 
• 12 Rangers of Gondor
• 4 Rangers of Gondor with spear
• Forces of Evil: The Army of Gothmog
• Gothmog, Lieutenant of Morgul 
• Gothmog's Enforcer
• Guritz, Master of Reserves 
• 6 9 Morannon Orcs
• 6 9 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 6 9 Morannon Orcs with spears
• 6 9 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears

This is our first scenario with Gothmog, who I know a lot of people critique in his new state. The improvements to Morannons against Men and the reduction in cost for Gothmog (if you don't take the Warg) means the cost of this list in this edition compared to the previous edition is only about a 25pts difference - pretty negligible. Let's look at how our board looks . . .

The New Age Is Begun: the Defenders of Helm's Deep Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're pivoting for the next few weeks to look at some Rohan lists and we're kicking things off with one of the Legendary Legions that I enjoyed playing last edition (though I never took it to an event - I was close, but I didn't): the Defenders of Helm's Deep. This list is one of the few Rohan lists that can't take horses, but golly does it have a lot of options available to it! Let's see how this list has changed, for changes have happened (though things feel pretty much the same as they always were).

The Defenders of Helm's Deep: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Compared to the old Legendary Legion, the only change to the profiles available to you is that you have to be playing with Legacies in order to use the King's Huntsmen. Other than that, things haven't changed. I'm going to be honest, though, I had hopes that we'd get a Deeping Wall force and a book-accurate option that gives you Eomer and access to horses and drops the Elves (kind of like how you can build an Eagle/non-Eagle Men of the West list now). Still, not losing profiles is good - happy enough.

Army List Bonuses

The army list bonuses are basically unchanged as well. You still get a boost to your Courage after you break for models near Theoden (Warriors get +1 Courage and reroll failed Courage tests while within 6" of Theoden), you still get +6" to the range of your bows/Elf bows when you stand still and shoot (which is only a 1.5-3" gain over what you'd have by moving and shooting, but also retains your base Shoot Value), and the army is limited to 33% of its force having the Lothlorien keyword (more on this later). In addition to this, a rule that used to be on Haldir's profile got moved to the army list rules: while within 6" of Aragorn and/or Theoden, he treats them as a banner, he passes all of his Courage tests, and also gets to reroll failed To Wound rolls. As I said above, things feel pretty much the same - not a bad thing, just a thing.

The New Age Is Begun: the Lurtz's Scouts Army List

Good morning gamers,

A few years ago, we did a draft of the Good and Evil Legendary Legions for the TMAT Talks podcast. One of my mid-round picks was the Lurtz's Scouts Legendary Legion. I always loved playing with that list - it was fast, it got pretty good numbers at most points levels, and it was filled with cool-looking Uruk-Hai (who are themselves very good at chopping through things).

This army couldn't charge a Terror wall or stick around after the fight for anything (despite being told that they do not know pain and they do not know fear, but they were nevertheless very fun to play. Today, we're diving into their current army list in the new edition - and I think they're better in this edition, but there's one change I wish was made that would really help them out. Let's see what these guys have to offer!

Lurtz's Scouts: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

The list of models you have in this army list hasn't changed from the previous edition if you play with the Legacy models. It's still just Lurtz and Ugluk for the named heroes (and Mauhur with Legacies), Scout Captains and Drummers for the unnamed heroes, and Uruk-Hai Scouts for your warriors. Like the Assault Upon Helm's Deep list that we looked at last time, you're trading a greatly reduced profile list for a hero you can't get anywhere else (Lurtz) and a bunch of special rules. Is it enough? Depends on what you like, I guess . . .

The Citadel of the Stars, Part VI: Hunter or Hunted

Good morning gamers,

We're continuing through our custom campaign in Osgiliath and playing through the third scenario from the Battle of Osgiliath starter set: Hunter or Hunted. The scenario victory conditions are . . . a little weird, but could also be really fun. As we have been doing, we're adjusting the participants so the game will have street-legal lists for the new edition.

Hunter or Hunted (Battle of Osgiliath, p. 6)

We've decided to use the following models in today's game:

• Forces of Good: Garrison of Ithilien
• Faramir, Captain of Ithilien 
• Madril, Ranger of Ithilien
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 8 Rangers of Gondor
• 4 Rangers of Gondor with spear
• Forces of Evil: The Legions of Mordor
• 2 Morannon Orc Captains with shields
• 4 3 Morannon Orcs
• 4 3 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 4 3 Morannon Orcs with spears
• 4 3 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
• 1 Mordor Troll

In order to win this game, Good needs to kill the Troll and Evil needs to kill Faramir . . . needless to say, I intend to be a coward and hide with my bows drawn and shoot for as long as I can.

The New Age Is Begun: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep Army List

Good morning gamers,

We've already viewed the Muster of Isengard and Army of the White Hand lists for Isengard - or in short, the two lists you can run Saruman in. Today, we're poking at a list that was very strong in the last edition and has fallen from grace a bit (in my opinion, at least) in the current edition: the Assault Upon Helm's Deep. This army list has retained many of the units and rules that it had in the last edition, it's received a few nice buffs, but it's also lost some things, so there's not all good news for Helm's Deep players. There are no Legacy profiles in this list (and only a few things were added with the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement), so let's take a look at what Helm's Deep players have to work with now!

Assault Upon Helm's Deep: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Like in the last edition, your options for units is incredibly limited - you have Uruk-Hai Captains/Shamans as well as Siege Veterans for your Ballistae as your heroes, and the sturdy-and-reliable Uruk-Hai Warrior and power-house Uruk-Hai Berserker for your standard-cost warriors and Isengard Trolls and Uruk-Hai Demolition teams (besides the ballistae) for your warriors. And that's it - no seriously, that's it!

When you compare the line-up to the Muster of Isengard, this comes in about the same - you get a small selection of units, but everything is elite (and as a result, it's all expensive). The upside that this list has over the Muster of Isengard is that you don't have to take Saruman - you can instead take 2 Captains and a Shaman/Ballista/a third Captain for the cost of Saruman and Grima. The downside of this list is that . . . well, you don't have access to Saruman (or cheaper Uruk-Hai Scouts as an alternative to Uruk-Hai Warriors). The profile selection alone isn't enough to scare me off this list, but as we look at the army list bonuses, I'm kind of concerned about how good this list is now . . .

The New Age Is Begun: the Barad-Dur army list

Good morning gamers,

We recently had our annual THRO tournament here at TMAT and we had three guys who participated in five game days for Star Wars Legion (a four-part tournament and a single-day three-game Recon event) and one intro-to-Bolt-Action game day who joined us for their first Middle-Earth event. One of them expressed an interest in running Sauron . . . and I was like, "Well, we know the three scenarios you're going to play and he's not a bad take." So that got me thinking faster than normal about how the Barad-Dur list has changed in this edition - and as a result of much thinking, here's an article. :) Also, there's only one Legacy profiles to examine, so any discussion of that profile is marked in red, per the usual for this series.

Barad-Dur: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

The profile selection is more or less what it was before - we still get access to Sauron, the Witch-King, and generic Ringwraiths for our spirit contingent, we still get access to Troll Chieftains and Mordor Trolls (both of which saw glow-ups to help them out this edition) for our supporting monsters, we still have access to siege weapons (both kinds) to provide long-range support, and we still have access to basic Orcs and Black Numenorean heroes/warriors, like we did in the last edition.

What we've lost in this edition is Shelob and Orc Taskmasters - and honestly, if that's all you're losing, you're in a pretty good place. Shelob is a very maneuverable piece and she added a bunch of the special rules she used to get only in the Cirith Ungol list into her base profile, so it's a bit sad that she's not available here. Not being able to whip Sauron into getting a free Might point when he declares Heroic Moves may not have been much of a thing in the last edition, but it could have been a thing . . . and now it's not.

All told, the world is still a pretty good place for this list and if you were used to running it previously, not much has changed (though some of the profiles and options have changed, so pay close attention when list building and invoke that arcane art of "reading").

The Citadel of the Stars, Part V: Ambush

Good morning gamers,

We're past the half-way mark in our custom Osgiliath campaign and we're in the second scenario from the Battle of Osgiliath starter set. We've adjusted the scenario participants quite a bit here - instead of all-Rangers vs. a mix of Morannons, we've got a half-Rangers/half-tin-cans Ithilien list against yet-another-Legions-of-Mordor list!

Ambush (Battle of Osgiliath, p. 4)

We've decided to use the following models in today's game:

• Forces of Good: Garrison of Ithilien
• Faramir, Captain of Ithilien 
• Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien
• 3 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 3 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 8 6 Rangers of Gondor
• 4 1 Ranger of Gondor with spear
• Forces of Evil: The Legions of Mordor
• 2 Morannon Orc Captains with shields
• 4 6 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 4 8 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears

In the actual scenario, there are 12 Rangers of Gondor and Damrod against 16 Morannon Orcs (which is actually pretty cost-comparable, Good is favored slightly). We've basically taken the original Orc participants and upgraded two of them to Captains and equipped everyone with shields - nothing too drastic there (except the addition of heroic resources and F5 vs. men on two of the models). Good has changed a lot, adding in Faramir and an extra dude and swapping out 6 Rangers for 6 Warriors of Minas Tirith. This will be different, but understand that the promotion to D6 doesn't make the death-by-archery any better for the Morannons in this fight (it just makes them harder to kill in melee).

The New Age Is Begun: the Army of the White Hand Army List

Good morning gamers,

If Ardacon is any indication, then the Army of the White Hand is a good list - all three people who podiumed in the Invitational Masters event were running the list and that probably says more about the view of this list that the highest competitive minds have rather than how good the list is at your local tournament scene. That being said, everyone's talking about "the White Hand" list and whether Crebain are broken because of it. The list is more than just about Crebain - but Crebain are also very important to it working well. Let's see what's up with this list and some thoughts for running it, shall we (and as always in this series, anything related to Legacies will be highlighted in red for whatever players or tournaments don't allow Legacy models)?

Army of the White Hand: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list is the closest thing to a "normal Isengard list" from the last edition. You have access to Saruman and Grima, most of the Uruk-Hai profiles, most of the Orc profiles, and all of the Dunland profiles from the last edition (especially if you include the models that moved to Legacies). The primary profiles that you're missing are Lurtz, Ugluk, Mauhur, and Uruk-Hai Drummers from the Uruk-Hai hero side of the house, Uruk-Hai Warriors and Berserkers for the Uruk-Hai warriors, and the ballistas and bombs (which are oddballs, but still Uruk-Hai). You're also missing Snaga and Sharku from the Orc contingent - but that's literally it. Everyone else and their brother shows up in this list - and that means there are a LOT of options.

The list also doesn't have required heroes, so you can technically run whatever you want in it - Centaur used it for the first scenario of our custom Osgiliath campaign because it is LITERALLY the only list where you can get just Orc Captains and Orc Warriors in your army! Now, all the army list bonuses are all tied to Saruman, so you should probably run him, but you don't have to - and that's great. There's also a wide variety of subfactions that are represented in this list - Dunland, Uruk-Hai, Orcs, and of course Saruman and Grima - so depending on the theme you want to run, this list provides a nice canvas for your play (if you have a competitive bent, the options are probably less, but there's still some variety).

The New Age Is Begun: The Lindon Army List

Good morning gamers,

I mentioned to Red Jacket a while ago that I was interested in writing the article on the Lindon Army List. He's our resident Elf expert and he was like, "Please do - I have nothing good to say about it." :) Well, here I am, doing my best then to defend what a lot of Elf players have probably dismissed. Yes, this list has issues - and yes, you're probably better off with the Last Alliance or Rivendell army lists - but in a way, this list in incentivized to do the one thing that I've always thought Elves were really good at: spam out guys and beat the enemy down with numbers. Having played quite a few games of that with a film-accurate Helm's Deep convenient alliance in the last edition, I feel a little at home looking at this list and I wanted to share some of my thoughts on how it might work here. Let's dive into another one of Tiberius's mad dreams (with anything related to Legacies in red), ayuh?

Lindon: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

When the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book dropped, we were given a very thin number of profiles: Gil-Galad and Elrond as our big heroes, Cirdan and Rivendell Captains as our supporting heroes, and Rivendell Warriors and Rivendell Knights as our warriors. That's all. Thankfully, these heroes did cover most of the bases you'd want, but it also seems a bit dry on paper relative to the Rivendell faction we had in the last edition.

With the arrival of the Armies of Middle-Earth book, we added . . . Glorfindel. Just Glorfindel. The Legacies document then shook things up by giving us Erestor and a Stormcaller . . . that's it. Yes, the list is pretty unchanged from its original release, but the addition of a different power hero and potentially a mid-tier beater and a backup caster leads to some interesting decision-making options. Still, no one's going to argue that this isn't a light bench - it is - but the bones of the list are still solid and I think it lends itself to a streamlined approach to army building that can do quite well.

The Citadel of the Stars, Part IV: The Orcs Cross the Anduin

Good morning gamers,

We're here for Part 4 of our Osgiliath campaign and we're opening up the scenario booklet from the Battle of Osgiliath starter box. This scenario originally has no heroes and helps totally new players understand the basic mechanics. There's even a printed strategy section in the book, which boils down to "use shieldwall" for Good and "wrap-and-trap" for Evil . . . duly noted 

The Orcs Cross the Anduin (Battle of Osgiliath, p. 4)

We've decided to use the following models in today's game:

• Forces of Good: Minas Tirith
• 1 Captain of Minas Tirith
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows
• Forces of Evil: The Legions of Mordor
• 1 Morannon Orc Captain with shield 
• 3 Morannon Orcs
• 3 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 3 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
• 3 Morannon Orcs with spears

We just added a Captain to each list - nothing fancy. The Minas Tirith list would be much better with Denethor in it (and maybe some Citadel Guards or Guards of the Fountain Court), but we're sticking to the participants as much as we can here.

The New Age Is Begun: The Reclamation of Osgiliath Army List

Good morning gamers,

This will be our last Minas Tirith-oriented post for a bit - don't worry, though, we'll be back to tackle the Pelennor army list in the future! Thanks to our Osgiliath custom campaign, I've been able to play with a wide variety of Minas Tirith lists and while I've only played one scenario with this particular list, golly was it fun! The Reclamation of Osgiliath army list is one of those "big hero with a bunch of guys" kind of list and boy does it pack a punch when it gets going! Let's see what there is to know about this one (and in a stunning turn of events, there's been no changes to this list from either the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement or the Legacies document, so what you see in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement is actually what you get) . . .

The Reclamation of Osgiliath: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

I'm not going to lie, this list is REALLY constrained for profiles - eight in total. On the hero side of the house, you have Boromir, Faramir, and Madril as your named hero options, supported by the lowly-but-awesome Captain of Minas Tirith. These four provide you with a good spread of options for heroes, though having one really expensive, one sort-of-expensive, and two cheap heroes can make for awkward decisions (as we'll see throughout this post).

Your warrior options are similarly constrained but good - you have the ubiquitous Warriors of Minas Tirith and Knights of Minas Tirith, who give you solid combat profiles at fairly affordable prices and then you get Rangers of Gondor and Osgiliath Veterans as your specialist options. This is the same corps of warrior choices as you'll find in the Garrison of Ithilien, but you aren't allowed to take 50% bows in this list, so you're more likely to see a dominance of the melee guys in this list instead of the Ranger-heavy list builds for the Garrison of Ithilien.

Army List Bonuses

There was no Legendary Legion like this in the old edition, so our point of comparison is the standard Minas Tirith army bonus of yore - +1 Courage. Yaye. We've traded this for three special rules, the first of which is This City Was Once the Jewel of Our Kingdom, which gives everyone the Mountain Dweller special rule. As was mentioned in the Garrison of Ithilien review, Mountain Dweller is a great rule to add to your army when a lot of them already have Woodland Creature - though I will note that since you're more likely to have models that won't have Woodland Creature in this list, it would actually be quite nice to have the flex option that the Garrison of Ithilien has in this list (but I'll take moving through rubble terrain without penalty and getting +1 to movement rolls for free).

The Remember Today, Little Brother special rule is one of the hallmarks of this list vis-a-vis the Minas Tirith list we talked about last time: Boromir and Faramir can spend each other's Might, Will, and Fate while they are within 3" of each other. Since Boromir is likely to be mounted and Faramir has to be on foot, it is likely to be rare that they'll stay with each other the whole game, but if you're worried about your opponent filling your army leader/banner full of holes, at least you can spend his brother's resources to keep him alive? Also, a 9-Might Boromir sounds pretty devastating . . .

Finally, there's the once-per-game For Gondor! special rule, which is declared at the start of any Fight Phase when Boromir is alive and on the battlefield. Friendly Gondor Warrior models within 6" of him (so not Faramir, Madril, or Captains of Minas Tirith) gain +1 To Wound when making Strikes - this is killer (literally!) and can swing a shieldwall-grind pretty quickly. This +1 To Wound also stacks with other To Wound benefits, such as Boromir's Son of Gondor special rules, lances for Knights of Minas Tirith, or Hatred (Mordor) on Osgiliath Veterans - given the right conditions, a good For Gondor! turn can be absolutely devastating to an opponent!

All in all, the rules aren't game-breaking but they can be very splashy - if you like those kinds of rule sets, this is a good one. If you were hoping for more . . . well, let's look at the profiles to see if there's some things there to convince you that the list is good . . .

The New Age Is Begun: the Minas Tirith Army List

Good morning gamers,

Today we're tackling the Minas Tirith army list, which has some distinctives among the Minas Tirith factions of the game, despite starting with a pretty limited set of profiles (the Armies of Middle-Earth and Legacies supplements fleshed out the list a lot more). If you're just getting into the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game and have the Armies of the Lord of the Rings in hand, this is a pretty good army to start with for several reasons which we'll get into today. Let's see what the list has to offer (and in case you're new to this series, anything in red is tied to using the Legacies document)!

Minas Tirith: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has most of the "tin can" units that were available to Minas Tirith in the last edition. You only have one of the "big three" beater heroes (Boromir, no Elessar or Gandalf), but you have a nice supporting cast of Denethor, Faramir, Irolas, and generic Captains of Minas Tirith from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book. When you add in the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement, you have access to Hurin, Ingold, Beregond, and Bolt Throwers, which gives you some alternate options to Faramir, Irolas, or Captains - as we'll see a little later, I don't think there's a substitute for Boromir . . . that's probably as it should be. If you expand your horizons to include the Legacies profiles, you add in Cirion and Knights of the White Tower, which means you're glutted for hero options, many of whom are living in the F5/2A/no horse realm, so it's very much a "season to taste" based on your play style or preference for models. Besides Pippin, the only model that I feel should be here but isn't is the Trebuchet option . . . I'll whine about that more later, but everything else that should be here is here.

On the warrior side of the house, we have four profiles: Warriors of Minas Tirith and Knights of Minas Tirith can be taken by anyone, Citadel Guard can be taken by Denethor, Boromir, Faramir, and Irolas (but in practice, probably just Irolas), and Denethor can take Guards of the Fountain Court (read: he should probably JUST take Guards of the Fountain Court, maybe some Warriors of Minas Tirith to stand in front of them, but I'm not sure that you want to do that). While you don't have Rangers or Osgiliath Veterans (Hatred (Mordor) would be pretty sweet here), you have basically everything else - and since a lot of heroes can take Citadel Guard with longbows, you have decent bow options and very good heavy infantry options. All in all, it's a pretty good list!

The Citadel of the Stars, Part III: Osgiliath

Good morning gamers,

This scenario is sort of deja vu for us here at TMAT - Centaur and I have played this scenario twice during our Fantasy Fellowship campaign (once with me controlling my Fellowship and once with him using his fellowship). This will be the third time we've played the scenario - and like the last two times, we will not be using the exact units in the scenario. :)

Osgiliath (Quest of the Ringbearer, p. 54)

We've decided to use the following models in today's game - due to Anborn and Mablung moving to Legacies (and the already 200pt advantage for Good), I've removed them from this mission . . . but for a bit of foreshadowing, I think I could have used a few more bodies:

• Forces of Good: Garrison of Ithilien 
• Faramir, Captain of Ithilien 
• Madril, Captain of Ithilien 
• Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien 
• Frodo Baggins with Sting, Mithril Coat, and Elven cloak
• Samwise Gamgee with Elven cloak
• Smeagol
• 4 5 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 4 5 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 4 2 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows
• 1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with banner
• 8 Rangers of Gondor 
• 4 Rangers of Gondor with spears
• 2 Osgiliath Veterans with shields 
• 2 Osgiliath Veterans with spears 
• 2 Osgiliath Veterans with bows
• Forces of Evil: The Army of the Great Eye 
• 1 Ringwraith of Fell Beast with 2 Attacks, 2M/14W/2F
• 3 Mordor Orc Captains
• 12 Mordor Orc Warriors with shields 
• 12 Mordor Orc Warriors with spears
• 6 Mordor Orc Warriors with two-handed weapons 
• 6 Mordor Orc Warriors with Orc bows
• 1 Mordor Orc Warrior with banner 

Evil is unchanged (except that the Ringwraith has 2 Attacks base now - huzzah!) and good has lost the Legacied Ranger heroes and traded only two Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows to get melee guys. Some of the hero profiles have changed a bit, but otherwise we've got more or less what we used to have.

The New Age Is Begun: Atop the Walls Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're continuing our walk through the Gondor army lists and we're turning to a list that's sort of like a list I used to run in the old edition - and if you've played through the Gondor at War supplement or Fantasy Fellowships, you'll recognize the name of this army list right away: it's the Atop the Walls army list, which means the most important units you can take are Gandalf on Shadowfax and . . .

TREBUCHETS!
Photo Credit: Guerre-Anneau

This isn't the only list that has access to trebs, but it's certainly the list where they are the most effective (and thanks to having such a limited selection of profiles, you're most likely to field them here). This list is basically a streamlined version of the pure Minas Tirith list from yester-year, but with a few special rules tacked on to make things interesting. Let's see what's in store on the white walls of Minas Tirith, shall we (as we have been doing, anything related to the Legacies document will be highlighted in red)?

Atop the Walls: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Our heroes of Legend and Valour are simple: Gandalf and Hurin respectively. The addition of Hurin is great - he's in Minas Tirith in the books and governs in Aragorn's stead after the battle of the Pelennor is over, so he'd be here for sure. We'll dig into the profiles more in a moment, but suffice it to say that we have two solid beater heroes available to us. On the Fortitude side of the house, we have access to the two heroes that you got with Gandalf (and Pippin) in the Atop the Walls scenario from Gondor at War in the form of Beregond and Irolas - both of whom remain solid choices in this edition (and Beregond got QUITE the glow-up with the rules changes). You also have generic choices in the form of Captains of Minas Tirith (very reliable March heroes) and Knights of the White Tower (F6 generic heroes with Heroic Strike). You also have Pippin, who you will never take just for himself.

In addition to these traditional hero options, you have access to both Gondor Avenger Bolt Throwers and Gondor Battlecry Trebuchets. As we'll see next in the army special rules section, these guys can be a tad more effective in this list than in other lists and the way that they're helped can make them reliable means of forcing your opponent to play the game the way you want. There will be some times when they're also just like all other siege engines, so there's that.

The New Age Is Begun: the Men of the West Army List

Good morning gamers,

Google informs me that this post is the 1000th post on the blog . . . apparently, we've had a lot to say since March 2011. :) From all of us here at the TMAT blog, thanks for reading our stuff, bearing with any inaccuracies we've had (always tell us if we've messed something up - we try to go back in a timely manner and clean them up!), and just generally encouraging us by engaging with our platform. It means the world to us that people read our stuff!

Today is a post I've been looking forward to for a LONG time. There was no way I was going to write this article before the Legacies document dropped and boy was I happy when it did! Since about 2020, I've been playing on and off with what is now the Men of the West army list - and much to my disappointment (despite email after email before the errata documents were released semiannually), the list never received any of the love that I thought it deserved. With the release of the new edition, this army list encapsulates so much of my feelings for what the design team did:

They listened to us - and specifically, they listened to me.

Now I'm not vain enough to think that I was the only person asking for updates to this list - there have been others who did quite well with the Men of the West LL in the previous edition and our own competitive player friend-of-the-blog Sharbie has touted the army list's credits in the new edition. But I've been playing the game for a long time and been writing about how that list wasn't a bad Legendary Legion (though it could have used some updates) for a long time too - and they listened. They listened to me. And maybe you don't care and haven't cared about this list at all in your life, but there's probably a corner of the game where they listened to you too. So walk with me as we explore how this list as changed from drool to cool (though it's always been cool to me) as we stand alongside Aragorn and the brave men of Gondor and Rohan at the Black Gate . . .

The Men of the West: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

There have been very few adjustments to the profiles available in this list - though there have been a few notable additions, nothing has been lost. You still have to take Elessar, but now you can (usually) take an armored horse on him as well - which solves one issue that Rythbyrt always had with this list. For big power heroes, you still have Legolas, Gimli, the Twins (now that the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement is here), Prince Imrahil, Eomer, and Gandalf the White - which gives you a stronger all-hero corps than most of the all-hero armies that you find in the sourcebooks (see my thoughts on the Fellowship and anticipate my thoughts on Thorin's Company).

Supporting this cast of named man-sized heroes are the same generic heroes we had before (Captains of Dol Amroth, Captains of Minas Tirith, and Captains of Rohan), the same lesser named heroes of Beregond (some serious updates to this guy were made this edition), Merry, and Pippin, as well as Gwaihir (the new "kid" on the block) if you choose to not take any horses on your heroes (which complicates a list that Rythbyrt liked to take in the last edition). We'll talk about the decision to take Gwaihir or not a little later, but suffice it to say for now that the option to have Gwaihir in the list (and potentially Eagle warriors - though unlikely in my opinion because of the heroes you have access to for about the same number of points) is a welcome change.

On the warrior front, we still have Knights of Dol Amroth (on foot only), Warriors of Minas Tirith (now F4 and slightly more expensive), and Warriors of Rohan (better skirmishers than they were in the last edition now that their throwing spears can be used as standard spears in all lists), but if you include the Legacies document, you also have access to Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth - which I BEGGED for so . . . many . . . times . . . #TheyListened. All in all, there are no cavalry warrior options, but the options you have in this list have always been good/fine and now they're good/better.

The Citadel of the Stars, Part II: The Retaking of Osgiliath

Good morning gamers,

We're back for Part 2 in our custom Osgiliath campaing and we're back in Gondor at War to see if Boromir - without his horse or shield - can retake Osgiliath! As we said last time, we're going to change up the scenario participants to make it Matched Play legal for the new edition - and while we could have been truer to the listed participants by sticking with the Army of the White Hand (now that they have access to Trolls), we decided to shake things up a bit and make it a roughly 525pt game between the Reclamation of Osgiliath and the Legions of Mordor!

The Retaking of Osgiliath (Gondor at War, p. 10)

We've decided to use the following models in today's game:

• Forces of Good: The Reclamation of Osgiliath
• Boromir, Captain of the White Tower with the Banner of Minas Tirith
• Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
• 8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 9 Rangers of Gondor
• Forces of Evil: The Legions of Mordor
• 3 Morannon Orc Captains with shields
• 6 Morannon Orcs
• 8 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 8 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
• 6 Morannon Orcs with spears
• 1 Mordor Troll

I wanted to make two notes about the Legions of Mordor list (which we reviewed recently in our New Age is Begun series): this list can be run with just the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book and has 32 models at 525 - and so at 550, you could add a banner to it and it would be quite strong, in my opinion. You could also drop 1 Morannon Orc with no extra gear to get shields on 8 people - that would be good too.

The New Age Is Begun: The Garrison of Ithilien Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're kicking of a review of several Minas Tirith factions today and we're starting with a faction that I've been playing a bit with mostly in the context of scenario play in our custom Osgiliath campaign. The Garrison of Ithilien army list, which is the rebranded version of the Rangers of Ithilien Legendary Legion (which was first introduced in Gondor at War but was then updated in Quest of the Ringbearer and was adjusted in several FAQ releases), is still a powerful shooting list on the tabletop, though some nice adjustments have been made to the army list in order to reduce opportunities for a negative play experience. This list hasn't lost all of its teeth, though, and I think it's a bit of a sleeper list in the current meta. Let's see what Faramir's shooty boyz have going for them this edition, shall we? As we've done in recent articles, anything related specifically to the Legacy profiles will be highlighted in red.

The Garrison of Ithilien: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

When we're looking at profiles available to us, we have basically everyone we had last edition: on the Ranger hero side of the house, we still have Faramir, Madril, and Damrod - and if you are able to include Legacy models, you also have Anborn and Mablung. These guys have had some changes to them, but by and large, they are either more-or-less what they always were but 5pts more expensive OR they got some nice buffs for a 15pt cost increase. All in all, not bad. For non-Ranger heroes, we still have Captains of Minas Tirith (who changed a bit) and Frodo/Sam/Smeagol, who can still be their own warband or part of Faramir's warband - which they might have an easier time being in now that the bow limit rules have changed (more on that shortly).

On the warrior side of the house, the list retained Warriors of Minas Tirith (who had one minor change), Rangers of Gondor (who had one minor change), and Osgiliath Veterans (who had three changes - ultimately all ending as a net positive). In addition to these, the list got access to Knights of Minas Tirith, which means you can have fast units without paying for a horse for Faramir or Captains of Minas Tirith (which you had to do last edition). While March is probably embedded in your list, it's always nice to have some fast units that can Charge - or fast units that can run REALLY far to meet an objective condition if they're benefitting from a March/Heroic Combat. All in all, the list is more or less what it was, but the one option they got makes the list as a whole a lot better.

Army List Bonuses

Like in the previous version of the game, you have to take Faramir in this army list - but unlike the errata'd version of this list late in the previous edition, you don't have to take Frodo, Sam, and Smeagol anymore. This requirement was added when Rangers of Ithilien lists at lower points levels were clocking in with 30+ bows and they've made a different list building constraint to make sure that negative play experience is toned down.

Instead of having Rangers of Gondor not count towards your bow limit in warbands led by the five Ranger heroes, the entire list now has a 50% bow limit. This means that for every Ranger with a bow that you want to field, you'll have to field a tin can as well. Functionally, this means that cavalry and shieldwalls of some kind are going to be common, but it also means that Warriors of Minas Tirith and Osgiliath Veterans with bows are not going to show up in this list. There are other lists where they might find a place (though nothing is certain), but it won't be this one - you want Rangers in this list, as many as you can field.

The Road to THRO 2025: Tiberius's List

Good morning gamers,

Bonus post! We've got our first tournament under the new edition coming up and here's my path (as usual) to preparing for the event. I have a lot of lists that I've tried and a few that I haven't tried, but here were the contenders and why I did or didn't take each one. I will say that I left my Balrog at home because I ran him a lot last edition and I have a bunch of lists I didn't get to run last edition that look good/still look good now. We'll start with . . .

Pick #5: Numenor

I'm in love with the new Numenor list and while they can't get a banner, I think it's a REALLY strong list (and so easy to acquire second-hand off from players who want the Elves and not the Numenoreans if you're willing to do some kit bashing)! At 600pts, you can get a 33-man list with Isildur on a horse and two Captains OR you can get a 35-man list with Isildur on foot and two Captains. I don't own a mounted Isildur model, so I've opted for the 35-man option:

Leaving this list at home was an easy choice - I've played with it a few times and liked it, but my son liked it too and it's also easy for new players to use (and we've got a few new people for this event). My son toyed with running the mounted-Isildur version of this list until the day of the deadline, so I passed on it but I'm committing myself to running some variant of this list at some point during this edition . . . we'll see how my follow-through is on that. :)

Top 10 Most Improved Evil Profiles in the Armies of Middle Earth Book

Hey Reader!

(Okay before we begin, you should know, because he won't tell you, so I will: Tiberius has a birthday this week! So leave him a comment below telling him how much you appreciate everything he does for this channel! Okay, back to the article)

We're here at last: the last of the Top 10 posts in our Most Improved profiles series, today looking at the Armies of Middle Earth book for the Forces of Evil. Now that we know all the armies that someone can be fielded in, potential models that they can pair with, and special rules, we're set to rank the top ten most improved models for the Forces of Evil in the Armies of Middle Earth book.

As we did in the top ten most improved profiles for the Forces of Good, a few caveats before we look at the list: 

• We're ranking the most improved profiles in The Armies of Middle Earth book, so we won't be looking at profiles beyond that book.
• We're ranking the top ten most improved profiles for the Forces of Evil in the book, so only evil profiles will be considered here.
• We're ranking the most improved profiles, not the strongest profiles: just because a model is strong or powerful doesn't mean it will appear in this ranking, because if they're basically the same as they were last edition, they won't be much improved. 
• The "Most Improved" means that the profile had to exist last edition, which is not really an issue with this book, but again it's something we're looking for in this ranking series.
• There were more profiles than this list can hold, so yes, I couldn't include all of the ones that I thought were interesting/useful. There will be some honorable mentions, but suffice it to say, if you really thought that someone should have made the list and didn't, there's a good chance that they were considered and just didn't break the top ten.

And so with that, let's look at some cool profiles!

Honorable Mention: Druzhag the Beastcaller

Druzhag has always been a useful shaman - one of the most common named shamans you would see at a tournament, and his ability to turn a lowly Wild Warg or spider into a behemoth is a highly effective use of points. And he remains that: Enrage Beast is still really good, and that's still mostly why you're taking him.

But he picked up some new tricks: first, he picked up Writhing Vines, so he can create difficult woodland terrain, potentially after cavalry have already committed to a charge (so goodbye the vast majority of charge bonuses!), or potentially before they've charged, causing their movement to be quartered within its range (which is a great way to prevent charges in the first place, which Moria needs).

The second thing he picked up is that if he suffers a wound, before rolling Fate, he can roll a D6: on a 2+ the wound can be passed off to a beast within 2" of him. This is key: removing Druzhag was a huge priority last edition, and effectively caging him (and thus passing on firepower to maintain a protective bubble around him) was critical to getting the most value out of him. But now, after hits have successfully resolved as wounds (which means probably not all of the potential wounds that could have been dealt), you have a chance to pass those wounds off to wild wargs or spiders that you don't need/care about as much as your shaman. And on a D4 base (that can still roll for Fate if you roll a 1), that's really, really good.