First Impressions: Mordor, Part I

Good morning gamers,

Back in 2014, the "warband supplements" were released that broke up the armies that were in the "Legions of Middle-Earth" supplement into five different sets of units: the Kingdoms of Men (Minas Tirith, Rohan, Arnor, and Numenor), the Free Peoples (Elves, Dwarves, Ents, Eagles, Woses, and Hobbits), The Fallen Realms (Isengard, Rhun, Harad, Umbar, and Khand), Moria and Angmar (surprisingly this had Moria and Angmar in it . . . who woulda thunk it), and Mordor (which was really Mordor and Barad-Dur).

With these supplements, you could run lists from various army lists and it introduced the idea that a "warband" was composed of one or more heroes and up to twelve warriors (fewer if the hero leading the warband had a brother or a friend with him). Some heroes were independent heroes and couldn't lead anyone - but this was a major departure from the Legions of Middle-Earth supplement, where each allied contingent just needed one hero for any number of warriors (there were maximum model counts based on your points level, but a LOT of lists were just "one hero plus a boat load of guys").

These supplements didn't change a lot of the actual profiles (and integrated profiles that could be found in random supplements instead of the Legions book or the One Rulebook), but they did change the way you built armies . . . and it was the first time that it was made patently clear that "Mordor" had so many profiles in it, that it got its own book. Yes, the primary factions of Minas Tirith, Rohan, and Isengard have always had a lot of profiles to choose from (and this has only become more true as time has passed), but Mordor has always been the big dog when it comes to choice - and for that reason, getting started with Mordor has always been a bit of a tough thing because you're bombarded with options.

In the current version of MESBG, there are currently eight army lists from Mordor (which accounts for nearly 40% of the Evil army lists in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement) - and one of those army lists features Easterlings and Haradrim to make things interesting. Within these army lists are a host of profiles, some of which get the rinse-and-repeat across multiple lists, but many of the hero options are unique to one or two lists. Instead of trying to slap our way through a BUNCH of profiles, I thought it prudent to split up what was once a massive tome and focus today on just the Orc and Uruk-Hai profiles. In our next post, we'll go through the scary stuff (mostly monsters and spirit models . . . oh, and Easterlings). Let's begin with the "lowly Orcs" who show up in basically every Mordor list . . .

Orc Profiles: How Have They "Changed?"

We begin with the newly-imagined Gothmog profile, which benefits from having an absolutely GORGEOUS new model and was a unit I was toying around with a lot in the previous edition. In this edition, he's available as a Hero of Legend in the Army of Gothmog (where he is required and will be your General) and a Hero of Valour in the Legions of Mordor (where he isn't required and might not be your General, if you've taken the Witch-King, at least one Ringwraith, or the Mumak War Leader). Gothmog got a 10pt reduction, but with his Warg getting a 10pt increase, he comes in with Warg and shield at the same cost he used to be: 145 points. Honestly . . . I don't think the Warg is worth taking anymore.

Photo Credit: Giphy

In the previous edition, the Warg was a cheap way to make a so-so combat profile on Gothmog (F5/S4/3A with 3-Might-and-Strike), but in the current edition, he's a lot less of a combat entity (F5/S4/2A with 3-Might-no-Strike). While the Warg would get you 1 extra Attack, I think Gothmog is slotting into a position where he wants his fights to be very, VERY well managed - and being able to squirm easily through an infantry block seems to be a great way to go (at least to me).

Gothmog retained Heroic Defense and has Master of Battle (2+) - a reduction from the "full Master of Battle" that he's had since the profile's inception - and retained his two auric profiles that grant Hatred (Men) near him and rerolling all failed to Wounds for Orcs near him (or not near him if you're taking him in the Army of Gothmog). For 125pts, Gothmog with a shield provides you with a decent Might battery (and pretty reliable free heroics from Master of Battle) on a survivable chassis (3 Wounds/1 Fate at Defense 7) - perfect for being a "good" Orc General. There are probably better generals out there, but Gothmog is either on the high-end of fine or the low-end of good in my book (particularly because he isn't competing with much in the lists that he's in . . . hooray for new list building schemas?!?!?!).

The Stuff of Legends: The Rangers of Mirkwood

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: Today's article is the long-anticipated review of the Rangers of Mirkwood Legendary Legion from the Fall of the Necromancer sourcebook (previous edition stuff). While I could have taken a swing at this a while back, I thought our resident Mirkwood Ranger expert Red Jacket should have a chance at it - and with life events finally giving him some breathing space, here it is!

~~~~~

Red Jacket: As someone who essentially started playing this army before Fall of the Necromancer ever canonized it as a specific legendary legion, I immediately became a big fan. Seriously… 100% Elf bow army?  What’s not to love? (Quite a bit actually… but I am obsessed with Elves and archery, so my love overcomes. Kind of like Tauriel… the made up character… loving a dwarf…) Fair warning, this list may end up hurting you (But at least what you had was real).

Legion Tax: 90pts
Photo Credit: Giphy

In all seriousness, however, this list is in many ways one-dimensional, but comes with some special rules that really help it be much more than a one trick pony. So let's dive in and take a look. 

Part 1: What Do You Need? 

To start, this legion requires you to bring either Legolas Greenleaf, Prince of Mirkwood starting at 95 points, or Tauriel with Elf bow for 90. It also lifts the bow limit restriction, allowing for 100% bows. 

There are only three possible heroes in this legion: 

1. Legolas, whom you should never take in this legion without the elven cloak: 100 pts

2. Tauriel with Elf bow: 90 pts

3. Mirkwood Ranger captain: 75 pts

Then there are only two unit options: 

1. Mirkwood Rangers (obviously) for 14 pts, and the option to add a war horn (Don’t).

2. Wood Elf Sentinels for 25 pts, which are really fun units.

The first special rule is “Knife mastery.” This is really the make or brake rule for this legion and will feature heavily my “Part 2” analysis. It allows re-rolls of 1 to wound when making strikes, and allows models “shield” with their knives as long as they are not also using their “knife fighter” or “blade mistress” special rules. More about those special rules below. 

First Impressions: Moria

Good morning gamers,

I've said this a lot on this blog, but I got my start in the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game back in 2010 with the Mines of Moria starter set. As a result, the first "traditional" army that I collected was Moria. I enjoyed having buckets of Goblins running around the board (for a time, with a 5+ Fury Save thanks to Groblog and two Shamans) and once the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game came out, I acquired the long-desired-but-couldn't-justify-it-because-he-was-just-bad flagship piece of Moria, the Balrog. Fast forward six years and my Moria list has grown only slightly, getting some extra grunts, converting a Warg Marauder to complement the one that I own, and the Watcher in the Water. A great list, a fun list . . .

. . . and it's still fun in the new edition. Yes, the list has been GREATLY paired down, but as someone who most enjoyed using the Depths of Moria LL since the release of Quest of the Ringbearer, most of the tools available to that Legion are still available now. In today's post, we're going to walk through the profiles that we still have, look at how they've changed, and then also look at what's been lost (both permanently to the Legacies document and temporarily to the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement). Let's start off with the big guy himself . . .

Moria Profiles: How Have They "Changed?"

Photo Credit: Gifs.alphacoders.com

If you're playing Moria this edition, it's probably for the Balrog. I must say that you don't HAVE to take the Balrog in the Depths of Moria army list, but since your list of units is Goblin Captains, Goblin Warriors, Cave Trolls, and the Watcher, you need to really want to use the Watcher or a horde of Cave Trolls to skip on the Balrog. As has always been the case, the Balrog pays a lot of stats and special rules, but not for the traditional complement of heroic resources that you'd expect on a big hero. Yes, the Balrog has retained nearly unparalleled combat stats (F10, S9, 4 Attacks) and very good defensive stats (D9, 10 Wounds), as well as a suite of good special rules (Fearless, 18" courage debuff radius, Terror, Resistant to Magic), but without Might points or Fate points, there are limitations to taking the big man (though he has special rules still that mitigate these handicaps somewhat).

There were some changes to the Balrog's profile, most of which were positive. Like the Dwellers in the Dark of the previous edition (affectionally called "baby Balrogs" by us and I assume others), the Balrog now has an 8" Move value - which is not the Fly special rule (because . . . you know . . . he has wings), but the extra movement on a big-base model is always nice. Like all monsters, the Balrog picked up Dominant, but Dominant (10) is one of the very, VERY few double-digit Dominant keywords and while he's passing on the Dominant (3) he'd get for being the army leader in a Depths of Moria list, it VERY much offsets his high price tag.

He picked up a new rule (Large Target) that is sort of a nerf, but also probably should have been on his profile anyway - lots of monsters have picked this one up, so it's not a big deal (and frankly, if your opponent wants to target him with most kinds of archery instead of your grunts, you're kind of okay with that. Similarly, his Flame of Udun rule changed slightly, allowing Balrogs to wound immune-to-fire models with their swords, which they were previously unable to do (seeing two Balrogs fight in a Contest of Champions game was hysterical in the last edition, since neither could wound the other). They can't wound immune-to-fire models with anything else (no whip damage, no Flame of Udun damage, etc.), but at least they can do damage with their swords now.

First Impressions: Gundabad and Dol Goldur, Part I

Hey Reader!

Welcome back! We're back reviewing more of the armies from the new edition, and today we're looking at the 19 profiles tied to Azog, whether they be part of his hunters or his legion. This one has seen small tweaks to...actually most of the profiles, and some of them have toned down some of the craziness of the old edition (some of which I'll miss, but some of which honestly makes sense and is fine. I see why they did it, even if it dropped the power curve on my Azog's Hunters lists), but the small changes do change some of the decisions you make, in ways that I think are healthy.

Leader Overview: How Have Azog and Bolg Changed?

Photo GamesWorkshop

So let's start with the big man himself: Gorgowrath's go-to man, the beast for destroying any hero, and a monster without the monster keyword: Azog the Defiler. Azog is largely the same: still F7 (grumble grumble, he's not that great in the movies or the books, but whatever), still S5, and the clarity of his special rule helps to remove some of the potential shenanigans that can come with his wounding heroes on a 3+, so great job rules team! And just in general I appreciate the greater use across the books of the use of "natural" when combined with a number to provide clarity: good choice all around.

He has access to heavy armor to get up to D7, which is good because while he has 3 Wounds he still only has the 1 Fate Point, so he can be fragile. And his White Warg isn't much better: still only D5 with 2 Wounds and 1 Fate, so once again, just watch out for archery and magic as that could be devastating to you. But there are two major changes that should be noted here, both of which are less than optimal.

An Incomplete History of MESBG Content Creators

Good morning gamers,

TMAT just passed its fourteenth anniversary (our first post went up on February 14, 2011, but our first post with any meaningful content went up on March 8, 2011 - fourteen years ago last Saturday) and to celebrate that, I wanted to tackle what has become an absolutely impossible task: documenting the history of MESBG content creators.

I'll start by saying that I'm not doing this to toot our own horn - I'm doing it because one of the largest drivers for the creation of this blog is that back in 2011, there was basically no one doing what we do - there were very few people doing anything on the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. Nowadays, you can barely cruise a Facebook group without seeing someone's article or podcast or YouTube video advertised (and if you ever watch something MESBG-related on YouTube, you'll be absolutely BOMBARDED by recommended videos). It's a great time to be an MESBG fan, but it wasn't always this way.

While I'd love to get every content creator into this blogpost . . . there is no living way that I could possibly know of all the content creators for MESBG that are active right now or that have ever posted MESBG content - so if I didn't catch you in this article, please don't be offended. I've captured here the blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels that I follow regularly, as well as those mentioned by a lot of other content creators (who, once I hear about them a few times, I definitely check out). Feel free to provide contact details in the comments if you want - here or on Facebook - if you have stuff you like (and while I won't talk in detail about everything I follow, you should check out the sidebar on the blog for the full list of things I keep up with)!

Finally, I'm also writing this to pay some homage to the content creators who used to create MESBG content and have probably fallen off the radar (and may never have been on the radars of newer players). Our game has a great and hallowed history and during times when GW wasn't actively giving us things to read, watch, or listen to, there has always been a small corps (now a veritable horde) of amateurs who shared their love for the game in print, in audio, or in video formats. It is primarily to these creators - both those still with us and those who have sunset their platforms - that I dedicate this post. 

It began . . . well, it began as you might expect . . .

First Impressions: The Hill Tribes

Good morning gamers,

We're doing "part three" of the Isengard faction, specifically focusing on the Hill Tribes profiles from the new War of the Rohirrim film. These models "sort of" replace the GW-created Dunland profiles that have existed for a while (Thrydan Wolfsbane, Dunlending Chieftain, and Dunlending Warriors) or that were introduced in the War in Rohan supplement (Gorulf Ironskin, Frida Tallspear, Dunlending Huscarls, Dunlending Horsemen). We'll look today at how these new profiles compare to the old ones (trying to find profiles that "do similar things") and see what the new face of Dunland looks like.

It's gonna take a while to get to this guy, but he's really what it's all about . . .
Photo Credit: Reddit

Dunland Profiles: How Have They "Changed?"

Our first stop is the lead antagonist from the new film, Wulf. This guy has pretty decent stats for being a Dunlending/Rohan guy - though Fight 6, 3 Attacks/Wounds, and 3 Might/3 Will/2 Fate are pretty good no matter who you are. The closest comparison I have for this guy - since he's just designed to be a beater - is Gorulf Ironskin, who sported an excellent profile for his cost - he was only F5, 2 Wounds, and 1 Will/1 Fate, but otherwise matched Wulf in all of his other stats AND bested him in Strength with S5 instead of S4 (and he got free Heroic Defenses against heroes - which was really helpful when you're only Defense 5). 

Speaking of Defense 5, Wulf's just wearing normal armor, so with Defense 5, he's a pretty squishy leader, but he has access to a horse, he has the Hatred (Rohan) special rule (when that applies, it'll be awesome), and he has a cool new special rule that gives him a personal banner reroll and the ability to reroll 1s To Wound against heroes. The banner part of that is always gonna be great and you'd think that getting a bonus when fighting heroes would make him slot into a hero-hunter kind of guy (especially with General Hunter giving him a Might Point back if he kills an enemy general). However, with "only" Fight 6, "only" Strength 4, and "only" 3 Attacks (and no bonuses To Wound except against Rohan and whatever rerolling 1s does for you), he's not going to reliably fight heroes well - especially if they still have stats. Sure, he can have the Fight Value advantage against a lot of generic heroes, but if your opponent reaches D5 or higher, you're not THAT likely to deal damage to them. This is something Gorulf used to struggle with only occasionally, but I'm afraid Wulf is going to blunt off a lot of heroes if they have stats to make things interesting.

Still, Wulf has a mount, is a little expensive with or without it (130pts with/110pts without - so just take the horse), and that will probably make sure he gets the matchups he wants and I think he'll be fine at killing troops (and eventually a beleagured general/enemy hero). With stats roughly similar to Eomer (except in the Defense and Fate departments), I think Wulf is fine (but unspectacular).

First Impressions: Isengard, Part II

Good morning gamers,

We're back in Isengard today and we're going to cover the rest of the faction after covering the Uruk-Hai last time. We've got mostly men (or Istari, who are like men) today, though there are some Orcs, Wolves, and birds in the discussion as well. There's also a smattering of four different army lists today, so lots of context for the units we're viewing.

Isengard Non-Uruk Profiles: How Have They "Changed?"

If you're interested in learning about the changes to the Uruk-Hai profiles for the Isengard faction, you should check out the previous article in this series. Today, we're looking at the other units in the Isengard faction, which will have some overlap with the discussion next time of the Hill Tribe units.

We need to start our discussion of Isengard with the big man himself: Saruman. There are two army lists with access to Saruman: the Army of the White Hand list (where he isn't required, but all of the army list bonuses only work if he's on the board) and the Muster of Isengard (where he is required, but oddly enough has no army special rules tied to him being in the list). From a stat perspective, Saruman is basically unchanged - same numbers, Courage/Intelligence value of 3+, nothing special.

Saruman still has the Palantir, which now forces a roll-off with the likes of the Azog Ambush rule (awesome, since it used to be overridden and wasted) and is still a very valuable reason for taking Saruman. He picked up a new rule, Saruman's Deceit, which allows him to apply a -1 penalty on a single enemy hero's attempts to resist magical powers cast by Saruman against the hero (though a natural 6 remains a 6). If you think two-handing with the penalty is bad (I don't, but many people do), then this is like applying the new rules for two-handing to your resist tests . . . chew on that for a minute.

FAQ Time: Reviewing the February 2025 FAQ

Good morning gamers,

On Valentine's Day, we got some love from the GW team in the form of an FAQ drop - the first of the new edition (and really the first in a year)! There weren't a lot of changes, but I thought the clarifications were good and nothing really changed. You can view the updated PDFs here (which have been periodically updated since the drop of the new books - and the Armies of the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings actually had their drops the day before, but without the date change). I have included the relevant FAQ text for context (but not the errata text - we'll be summing that up instead).

Photo Credit: Reddit 
I submitted a few things - but I was mostly happy with the changes in the actual books, so . . . yeah, I wasn't digging furiously this time through.

What Didn't Have Changes

There was quite a bit that hasn't changed - most notably that we still don't have a release date for the next supplement (Armies of Middle-Earth) or the Legacies document. Most of the rules sections were unaffected - there were individual profiles that had weapon/stat changes, some profiles/profile options were added to army lists for completeness, and some rules that had sentences that were present in past editions have snuck back in for clarity. Most of the errata were "tidying up" changes, not mega changes.

Most of the rules clarifications fall into one of three categories: to what extent does new text for old rules change the way things have always been, how powerful are cavalry (and what are my options in lists that have new cavalry mechanics), and how do objective markers work? Let's start off with the errata and then we'll dive into the FAQs.

First Impressions: Isengard, Part I

Good morning gamers,

One of the first armies I started collecting back in late 2010 was Isengard - specifically, a bucket of used Uruk-Hai Warriors (Captain, banner, 18 shields, 10 pikes). A few purchases and conversions later, and I had a few Captains, a Saruman, and some Uruk-Hai Scouts/Orc Warriors to go with them. All in all, it was a pretty economical way to get started with an army.

And I hated it. I hated running my Isengard army. I looked for all KINDS of ways to use them well and no matter what I did, the Elves, Dwarves, and sometimes Rohan/Gondor/Moria armies in my meta would just seem to run right over me. And don't get me started on those crazy Angmar Orc/Hunter Orc lists that Centaur used to run during the warband era - I was paying far too much for Uruks and not getting nearly the value I felt I should have for their stats.

And that feeling of frustration and despair set me on one of my most important MESBG journeys: the decision to figure out how to get the most out of expensive spellcasters (Saruman in particular - back BEFORE he was super awesome) and how to get the most out of good-stat, expensive troops(Uruk-Hai of all stripes). Fast forward not one but two editions later, and we're seeing Uruk-Hai profiles that have either changed in very subtle ways or haven't changed at all - and in an edition where lots of characters are seeing a new renaissance, it's very tempting to look at the very familiar profiles in the Isengard section of the book and feel like they've been left behind a bit. 

But it's not true - the Uruks of Isengard are still very strong. Let's take a look today and see what the Isengard garden variety of Uruks look like!

First Impressions: The Kingdoms of Men, Part IV

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: Red Jacket is back with a review of his beloved Rohan heroes. There will be one point of cross-over with my post on the new War of the Rohirrim heroes, but this should cover all of the previous Rohan heroes who didn't make their way into the undying lands of the Legacies document and the not-so-undying-lands of the greatly-anticipated Armies of Middle-Earth supplement. Forth Eorlingas!

* * *

Red Jacket: Today we are going to examine the profile updates for some of the new edition’s Rohan faction.  Specifically, we are looking at the profiles that carried over from the 2018 Edition Armies book and supplements. This article does not review the new profiles introduced in the 2024 edition… as if there weren’t enough Rohan heroes already. Nor will it comment on the tragi… I mean… “necessary” removal of some of the heroes that weren’t featured in the film. (Even though at least one of them was.) (Yes I know there is another book coming.)

Despite that angsty intro, I like most of the actual changes made to the profiles. I have just a couple more housekeeping things to comment on before diving in.

First, as you are no doubt aware, all profiles had an intelligence stat added in the new edition. I won’t be commenting on it much, since this is a compare and contrast article. Second, all profiles switched to hand weapons, and removed special strikes. I will only be commenting on this in as much as I feel it truly impacts how the model regularly interacts with the game on the tabletop. Finally, in the case of heroes, I will not be commenting on heroic tiers. While in the old edition, they were fixed (more or less) and were a significant aspect of the profile and hero choice in list building, that is not the case in the new edition, with tier being dependent upon the list they are taken in.

So without further ado, let’s take a look at these new profiles.

 

Battle Report: The Three Trolls v. Muster of Isengard

Hey Reader!

In a stunning turn of events, we are back with ANOTHER BATTLE REPORT! I hope to get a lot more battle report content out on the blog this year, because writing battle reports has been fun, and I've missed it, so hopefully you'll be seeing more coming down the pike soon! :)

We decided to do a 600pt match today; Tiberius will be fielding his Muster of Isengard list (Saruman is BACK baby!), while I will be playing The Three Trolls, because monsters! And also this list is wildly different from the previous edition, so I figured it's worth taking them out for a spin (since I don't think I ever got to use them in the last edition thanks to the whole 400pts thing)!

Army lists are below:

Tiberius's List: Muster of Isengard

Warband 1

Saruman (Army Leader)

7 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes 

6 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields 

2 Uruk-Hai Berserkers 

3 Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows

Warband 2

Uruk-Hai Captain

1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with banner 

2 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes

3 Uruk-Hai Berserkers 

6 Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows

Enemy Warband

Grima Wormtongue

TOTAL: 600pts, 33 models, 5 Might, 1 DOPE CASTER

Centaur's List: The Three Trolls

Warband 1

Bill the Troll (Army Leader)

Warband 2

Bert the Troll

Warband 3

Tom the Troll

Troll Hoard: 

Nothing Like a Warm Fire (Campfire Banner/Resistant to Magic/Courage effects are increased from 6" to 18")

Full Bellies (All trolls start with 3M / 3W / 3F)

Bowl 'Em Over (Trolls may use their throwing stones as throwing weapons, and may reroll their Hurl distance)

Cover of Darkness (the game will be played at night, and the trolls gain Cave Dweller)

TOTAL: 600pts, 3 models, 9 Might

First Impressions: Misty Mountains, Part I (and a Sneaky Top 10 Ranking Post)

Hey Reader!

Welcome back! We're back reviewing more of the armies from the new edition, and today we're looking at the 3 profiles tied to The Three Trolls. This army was hard to use in the last edition, both because of a restrictive alliance matrix (all of which required you to lose your army bonus), but also because they only had like 400pts worth of units total in the list. So if you were playing at higher points levels, you were forced to ally if you didn't want to give your opponent a huge advantage.

But those days are over: now in the new edition this army plays at high points levels as well! So we'll jump into how the units have changed, how the army special rules have changed (as they finally have a legendary legion of sorts), and how their points scale at higher points levels without adding warrior options.

First Impressions: The Elven Kingdoms, Part I

Good morning gamers,

I know I've said this a bajillion times before, but when I got started playing MESBG back in 2010 (during the Legions of Middle-Earth era and when it was called LOTR SBG), the first warrior pack I got for the Forces of Good was Wood Elf Warriors. I opened it minutes before opening the Dwarf Warrior pack, which quickly became a favorite of mine and a bane to the other guys starting to play the game with me, but it was my Wood Elf Warriors that eventually defined one of my favorite play styles: everyone shoots and if we get caught, we die. Over the years, I've collected Galadhrim (on foot and mounted) and have amassed most of the heroes, but with a new edition of the game, I can safely say that I both know how Lothlorien should be played . . . and honestly admit that I have no idea what I'm doing with them at the moment. :) They've both changed and not changed - I promise this makes sense, let's make some sense of that, shall we?

Lothlorien: How Have They Changed?

So we need to start out by addressing that there are some profiles that have left the Lothlorien list at this juncture and should arrive in the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement (since they didn't appear in the list of profiles being sent to Legacies):

• Combat Celeborn (wait, isn't that the only Celeborn? Why no, no it's not - keep reading);
• Orophin;
• Rumil;
• Galadhrim Knights (and mounted Galadhrim Captains);
• Guards of the Galadhrim Court; and
• Wood Elf Sentinels

This . . . doesn't leave us with much, but there are some cool new toys in real old packages that we have to play with now. Let's start off with . . .

Photo Credit: Tenor.com

Galadriel got 5pts cheaper and . . . pretty much stayed the same - at least as far as her stats and rules are concerned. She's still unarmed with a bad number of Attacks and a low Strength stat, but she's still F6, so with some help, she can win very, very managed fights. She still gets a free Will point each turn and can take her mirror (which is now on a 40mm base - something I need to hobby up so I can play with her soon!).

But there were some big changes to her special rules. First off, the Mirror of Galadriel not only allows a friendly hero during each End Phase within 6" of the Mirror to regain all their previously-lost Fate points, but if either Galadriel or Celeborn is in base contact with the Mirror, you can get a +1 bonus to your Priority roll . . . that's NUTS (and makes the 25pt investment very, VERY much worth it). Second, Galadriel's spell suite changed quite a bit. She has <check the list - it looks wrong>. All in all, very much the same profile - but now with some new tricks.

The Stuff of Legends: The Host of the Witch-King

Good morning gamers,

We're wrapping up the second-to-last Rise of Angmar Legendary Legion for the Stuff of Legends series (we've got two more Legions to do after this - watch for them later this year). Today we've got the Host of the Witch-King, which is basically "Angmar without Gulavhar and monsters" - and of all the Evil lists in the Rise of Angmar supplement, I gotta say this is the only one that immediately jumped off the page to me as "really good." While I've been pleasantly surprised by some of the features of the other Evil Legions (and VERY surprised with the Battle of Fornost Legion), this one sticks to doing most of what Angmar does normally - and then kicks it up a notch to do it better. Let's see what's new with this Legion . . .

Part 1: What Do You Need?

This is what the Legion is all about . . . but you don't have the buy the Crown
Legion Tax: 70pts
Photo Credit: Giphy

The only unit you need to take is the Witch-King - and while he's base 70pts, you're probably fielding him for at least 100pts because you want a horse, all 3 Might points, and at least 1 Fate point. For reasons we'll see a bit later on, all of these are very useful for getting the most out of this guy - but at 100pts, that's a ridiculously low price to pay for a Hero of Legend who is a good combatant and a good caster.

What you ACTUALLY need is another supporting hero, of which there are a good number to choose from. If you want your probably-infantry-heavy list to move faster, you'll want an Orc Captain (blissfully cheap at 40pts base, can be given a shield and a Warg for 55pts total). If you want some really interesting boosts for your Ringwraiths (the Witch-King and possibly others) and your Orcs (Terror and Courage, anyone?), you want the Shade. If you want some devastating short-range magic, you want a Barrow-Wight or possibly the Shadow of Rhudaur. If you want to take an Orc Shaman or Nazthak . . . I mean, that's your call, I guess - but your guess is as good as mine for why they'd be in your list besides the giggles of thing (oh, and did you see what I did there?). :-)

You will also need a bucket of Orcs - and I mean a full bucket. If you bought the Mordor (read Angmar) Battle Host box, you already have 24 of these guys - that's a good start. Now get another box of Orcs so you have 48 and you're beginning to talk business (and if you want to have more than 6 Warg Riders, you may want to consider just buying a second Battle Host - this will give you a crown-wearing Witch-King and a non-crown-wearing Witch-King, both of which are useful). Orcs are cheap and for this Angmar list to function, you're going to need lots of cheap-but-average bodies to be able to hold ground, screen important heroes, and get traps - and Orcs are some of the best units in town to do that.

First Impressions: The Kingdoms of Men, Part III

Hey Reader!

Welcome back! We're back reviewing more of the armies from the new edition, and today we're looking at the profiles for Arnor (including the new ones that came in the Rise of Angmar) and the 4 profiles for the Army of Dale that are in the Armies of the Hobbit book.

I have reason to believe that there will be more profiles for Dale coming in the Armies of Middle Earth book (Knights of Dale, Windlances, and who knows: maybe something new? We'll see), so this is not a holistic look at Dale (very probably). Arnor is likely present in its totality, so this is likely our full review of your options for Arnor. We'll start with Dale, and then we'll do a deeper study of Arnor.

Dale Overview: How Have They Changed?

There have been several changes to Dale - some of them are pretty small, but some of them are pretty big, completely changing how you use a specific profile.

King Brand and Bard II have to wait for the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement before they can be used again, along with Knights of Dale. So we'll cruise past those.

And Warriors of Dale haven't really changed: still a F4 warrior, still has a great Shoot Value, and still has access to those S3 longbows, so you can get "elven archery for cheaper" because you're not paying for F5 and better Courage. You also get Hatred (Dragon) which...if you find yourself fighting a dragon it's nice to get a bonus to your wounding roll, especially when you're looking at S3 (in close combat or at range with an Esgaroth Bow). But when you're starting at S3, and you're looking to wound something that's like D9, it's not a major boon: you're still headhunting a hard roll.

Now, that being said, if someone were to take a D7 Dragon with Moria, for example (assuming a profile similar to what we saw in the last edition), that would be 5s to wound, which means if you have reason to believe you'll be facing a Dale army (not unreasonable, as Dale has performed pretty well so far in the new edition tournament scene), taking an upgrade to improve the Defense of your dragon may be a really, really good idea. Because wounding it on 5s could be very bad for your health. Just a thing to think about.

First Impressions: The Kingdoms of Men, Part II

Good morning gamers,

NOTE: there has been an update based on a comment made below - the change is in red.

I have not yet seen the War of the Rohirrim film, but I plan to get it on Amazon Video and I am excited to watch it (though I am one of those filthy people who was like, "I'm not enough into Anime that I'm going to go to the theatre and see it by myself, so I'll wait for it to come out on video" . . . sorry, film production team). Anyway, we have a bunch of cool new profiles for Rohan from the film and today, we'll be reviewing them, along with the profiles that they "replaced" in the Rohan list (that got legacy'd or just removed from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book).

War of the Rohirrim-Rohan Profiles: How Have They "Changed?"

On October 29th, there was an announcement on Warhammer Community of what was going to move from the Rohan army range into the Legacies document - these profiles included:

• Grimbold and his Helminga command options;
• Eorl the Young
• Erkenbrand
• Rohan Outriders (and their unofficial infantry version, "Rohan Outwalkers")
• Sons of Eorl
• King's Huntsmen

These profiles filled some very niche roles in their lists:

• Grimbold provided a high-Strength, low-wounding-difficulty hero with Mighty Blow who could upgrade your warriors to S4 (something they'll miss in the current edition, I'm sure);
• Eorl the Young gave you a slightly-cheaper, slightly-softer version of Eomer who could skip spending a Might point each turn;
• Erkenbrand had a super war horn built into his profile and could upgrade Riders of Rohan to treat him as a banner;
• Rohan Outriders/Outwalkers were slightly cheaper than Warriors/Riders of Rohan and had a better shoot value with no axe/shield option;
• Sons of Eorl were decent cavalry options that got much better when near Eorl; and
• King's Huntsmen were theoretically snipers who had stronger-than-normal bows and a greater likelihood of hitting their intended target (and a gimmick that allowed them to get all of their previously-spent Might points if they killed a Hero or Monster).

It is into this space that the new Rohan profiles from the War of the Rohirrim emerge - and today, we'll go through each of the new profiles and see what niche roles have been filled and what's left behind by legacy'd profiles (and one updated profile).

Battle Report: Fangorn v. Numenor

Hey Reader!

Who coulda guessed: not only a battle report (which we haven't done in a while), but also a battle report testing out some of the new army lists from the new edition (which I'm going to call 5th Edition, based on The One Rulebook, Warbands, The Hobbit, MESBG, and now the newest 2024-2025 edition, which is what we're playing), showcasing armies that we both think are interesting and are quite different from their previous iterations. So what better way to show you some new content than by crushing our foes on the field of battle!

Tiberius and I had a Saturday morning free (well, watching the children, but they also love the game, so we have fans watching and playing at smaller tables), so we decided to meet up for a 700pt match! Tiberius will be fielding his Numenoreans (with some proxy elves, as he hasn't built enough spearmen yet), while I will be playing Fangorn, because monsters!

Army lists are below:

Tiberius's List: Numenor

Warband 1

Elendil (Army Leader)

7 Warriors of Numenor with shields and spears 

6 Warriors of Numenor with shields 

4 Warriors of Numenor with longbows 

Warband 2

Numenorean Captain #1 (Kaladin)

4 Warriors of Numenor with shields and spears 

3 Warriors of Numenor with shields 

3 Warriors of Numenor with longbows 

Warband 3

Numenorean Captain #2 (Not Kaladin)

4 Warriors of Numenor with shields and spears 

3 Warriors of Numenor with shields 

3 Warriors of Numenor with longbows 

TOTAL: 700pts, 40 models, 7 Might*

Centaur's List: Fangorn

Warband 1

Treebeard with Merry and Pippin (Army Leader)

Beech Ent (Ent Warrior with reroll 1s to wound in close combat)

Oak Ent (Ent Warrior with 4 Wounds instead of 3)

Warband 2

Birchseed (new Ent hero that can call a free Heroic Move each turn if you 1) don't win priority, and 2) your opponent chooses to claim priority. So situational, but very useful for covering bases)

Ash Ent (Ent Warrior with 3+ Shoot Value, and may move up to 3" and still stoop to throw a stone)

TOTAL: 700pts, 7 models, 4 Might*

Scenario: Our scenario for this match is Fog of War, which has changed since the last edition. Not by much, but it has changed. Here are the scoring conditions:

• You get 5VPs if the friendly non-army leader hero you nominate has suffered no wounds, lost no fate, and is still alive at the end of the game; you gain 3VPs if the hero has lost Fate but hasn't suffered any wounds and is still alive at the end of the game, and you gain 1VP if the hero has been wounded, has lost Fate, but is still alive at the end of the game (which is a nice change from the last edition: there's always a reason to go for wounds against heroes). 
• You get 5VPs if the hostile non-army leader hero you nominate is slain in melee at the end of the game (full honesty: I forgot about this change specifying that it has to be in close combat during the game - I had a lot going on), 3VPs if the hero has suffered at least one wound at the end of the game, and 1VP if the hero has lost at least one Fate Point at the end of the game.
• You get 5VPs if you have at least 2 models and the enemy has no models within or touching a terrain feature you specify that is fully within the enemy's half of the board (the "fully within" is also new this edition, and does cut down on the number of potential terrain features someone might choose as those straddling the middle line aren't options anymore - not a bad change, either, especially since it solve issues for big bases that wouldn't fit nicely on terrain features by allowing you to be in base contact instead of having to go into it, so yay for mumaks and Ents having more options); you get 3VPs if you have at least 2 models and at least double the number of models within or touching said terrain feature, and you get 1VP if you have more models within or touching said terrain feature.
• You get 2VPs if you slay the enemy army leader, and you get 1VP if you wound the enemy army leader.
• And finally, you get 1VP if you break the opponent, and 3VPs if you break the enemy without being broken.

So all told there are now 20VPs (instead of 12) on the table, and it's generally easier to get VPs, especially against those notoriously hard to remove models, which I think is healthy.

We rolled for board edge, and I won the roll; I chose the lower board edge, and after deployment it looked like this:

For this game, I'm choosing to protect Merry, as I don't think Tiberius is going to try to kill Treebeard: I think he's going to speedbump Treebeard as long as possible, and throw Elendil at Birchseed. I am going to slay the Non-Kaladin Captain, in part because he looks like a warrior, so I'm more likely to just rush him, and also because Tiberius likes Kaladin, so he's more likely to keep him safe, lol. And I'm going to attempt to get to the stable (top-right ruin building near the bridge), relying on Birchseed's free heroic moves if I don't get priority to tie down enemies and give me a (hopefully) competitive advantage in getting to and holding the objective.

And with that, to war!!!

First Impressions: The Kingdoms of Men, Part I

Good morning gamers,

Editor's Note: This post has been edited based on a comment that was made below - changes are in red.

Today kicks off a study on the Kingdoms of Men from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book and we're covering two small factions today: the Dead of Dunharrow (who show up in the Return of the King army list and the Defenders of the Pelennor army list) and Numenor (who show up in the titular Numenor army list, the Last Alliance army list, and potentially in the Realms of Men army list). These two factions, I think, got some of the best changes in the new edition and both appear to be very good for new players of the game to sink their teeth into. Let's take a look at how these guys have changed from the old edition and what's to like about them.

Dunharrow: How Have They Changed?

This faction has had four profiles since the release of Gondor at War: the King of the Dead (unique hero), Heralds of the Dead (generic heroes, sorta like Captain models, but not quite), Warriors of the Dead (infantry dudes), and Riders of the Dead (cavalry dudes). There were some small changes and some large changes to each of these profiles.

Photo Credit: Tenor.com

All of these profiles have access to Terror, Blades of the Dead, and Spectral Walk. Though the text for Blades of the Dead has changed, the effective use of it is still the same: you wound against the opposing unit's Courage (10 - the roll difficulty) instead of their Defense value. In an age where S3 models can't use Piercing Strike to wound a D8 Dead of Dunharrow model on a 6+ instead of a 6/4+, the fact that these guys can still carve through people with relative ease is a good thing (and a huge draw for new players who want their guys to stay on the table and clear out their opponent's models).

First Impressions: The Free Peoples, Part II

Hey Reader!

Tiberius kicked us off at the end of the year with a great start to our review of the members of the Fellowship in the new edition, so today I'm picking up the baton and looking at the next group of Free Peoples profiles: the 5 hobbit profiles tied to The Shire, and the 4 Ent profiles. Longtime viewers will not be surprised about this, as I've been our longstanding Shire player and recently ran a list at a tournament that was centered around throwing stones, so it combined hobbits with ents for great shenanigans (not necessarily a lot of wins, but it was fun). 

So let's take a look at what changes we have to the profiles that are present in the main Armies of the Lord of the Rings book (with the knowledge that there are likely to be more profiles coming in the Armies of Middle-Earth book).

The Hobbits: How Have They Changed?

Tiberius talked in the previous post about how the Four Hobbits have changed as members of the Fellowship; all you need to know about their use outside of that list for Shire purposes is that 1) Frodo can't take the Ring or any of the cool toys, as Bilbo has them at this point in the story, 2) Sam has access to Rosie Cotton, which is incredible, and 3) all of the members of a Shire list pass Fate rolls on a 3+ and can reroll Failed Fate rolls, so they are far more durable (as are the other profiles we're going to look at), even if a lot of the hobbits are D3. So let's look at the other 5 hobbit profiles in the book.

Top 10 Ranking: Middle Earth SBG Supplements

Hey Reader!

In a continuation of our Top 10 series, we're looking today at...all of the supplements for the recent edition of the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game! I'd been holding out hope for an actual Top 10 (as we don't have 10 supplements - but more on that below), but since this is the twilight of the old edition, maybe now is a great time to rank them, as we have the complete list now.

Our ranking is going to gauge the quality of the supplements in five categories, designed to reward the various aspects of these disparate books. First, we're looking at the epic factor of the campaign: how cool/vast/epic is the scenario lineup in the book? Unsurprisingly, if your supplement includes an attack on Minas Tirith, Helm's Deep, Balin's Tomb, or assaults on one or more capitol cities, those books will get higher scores in this category than, say, smaller skirmishes in less visible conflicts.

Second, we look at cost: how much money does it cost to buy the book and all the models you need to play through the campaign. So supplements that involve smaller numbers of models, smaller numbers of Forgeworld/metal models, and require less specialized/out of production kits, will score higher than, say, supplements that require you to buy 2-3 Mumakil and/or a dozen Forgeworld resin heroes, for example.

Third, we rate the content in the book for balance: are the scenarios written in such a way that the scenarios are lopsided (either always to one side or the other, or just lopsided back and forth between the Good/Evil forces)? Are the legendary legions imbalanced, and likely to be FAQed? Having powerful legendary legions doesn't necessarily grant a lower score, but a book with legendary legions that are likely to be changed alongside scenarios that may not be fun to play due to too many uphill battles, will rank lower in this category than a book that shows signs of heavy testing and evenness in its design and execution.

Fourth, we rate the scenarios for variety: are most of the scenarios just a mix of "kill things or get units off the board," or do they include interesting/unique scenario objectives? Do they do anything interesting with forces, deployment, and/or scenario special rules? The more variety there is in the campaign, the higher the score.

And finally, we look at new options: how many new profiles, legendary legions, terrain kits, and/or ways to play the game (really only applicable with Fantasy Fellowships in Quest of the Ringbearer, but we did want to reward that supplement for creating a very interesting new way to play the game!) are in the supplement? Some supplements are heavier or lighter on material (guided by the content in the book), so supplements with more "goodies" will rate higher than ones with less.

So with that, let's take a look at the books we've come to love over the past decade!