"...we put the thought of all that we love into all that we make." ~Wood Elf Leader, The Fellowship of the Ring
Pages
Featured Post
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 pre...
Thursday, September 18, 2025
The Road to THRO 2025: Tiberius's List
Monday, September 15, 2025
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 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.
Thursday, September 11, 2025
The Citadel of the Stars, Part I: The Defence of Osgiliath
Good morning gamers,
Centaur and I are pleased to be bringing you another campaign series this year, running on alternate Thursdays through the rest of the year! While we've done Fantasy Fellowships as well as the Scouring of the Shire, we decided this year to show off the Kingdom of Tor Ithilas terrain that I picked up last year and play through eight scenarios centered around the city of Osgiliath (home of the Citadel of the Stars). Three of these scenarios will be from the old Gondor at War supplement (including today's scenario), four will come from the Battle of Osgiliath starter box, and we'll be replaying the Osgiliath scenario from Quest of the Ringbearer as well.
Normally, we follow the scenario participants list closely, but we decided to have some fun with this and a) use the new ruleset instead of the old one, and b) use the scenario participants to provide a baseline for two game-legal army lists from the new edition. As such, the models we'll be using might change slightly from the original list - but where we could stick to what was originally given to us, we have. Let's see who we have for the Fall of Osgiliath scenario!
The Defence of Osgiliath (Gondor at War, p. 8)
We've decided to use the following models in today's game:
- Forces of Good: The Garrison of Ithilien
- Faramir, Captain of Gondor
- Madril, Captain of Ithilien
- Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien
- 6
4Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields - 6
4Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows- 8 Rangers of Gondor
- 4 Rangers of Gondor with spears
- Forces of Evil: The Army of the White Hand (I know, right?)
- 3 Orc Captains
- 12 Orc Warriors with shields
- 12 Orc Warriors with spears
- 6 Orc Warriors with two-handed weapons
- 6 Orc Warriors with Orc bows
The board is a 48"x48" setup, with the Orcs within 12" of one side of the board, and the Gondorian models within 6" of the center of the board. There are three objectives that the Orcs are going to try to destroy (in base contact without fighting or shooting) before 10 turns have passed - one objective is set up in the center and the other two are space equidistant from the center objective and the left/right board edges:
Monday, September 8, 2025
The New Age Is Begun: The Legions of Mordor Army List
Monday, September 1, 2025
Top 10 Most Improved Good Profiles from the Armies of Middle Earth Book
Hey Reader!
- 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. It also means we're almost done with this part of the series!
- We're ranking the top ten most improved profiles for the Forces of Good in the book, so only good profiles will be considered here.
- We're ranking the most improved profiles, not the strongest profiles: Durin is incredibly powerful, but the change from last edition is literally just an increase from F6 to F7 at the expense of +10pts, and while that means he is improved, and good, and tough to beat, he's not among the top ten.
- 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.
- 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.
All images from the new book! |
Saturday, August 30, 2025
Announcing the TMAT THRO 2025 Tournament!
Good morning gamers,
It's that time of year - The Hunter's Red October will be hitting the TMAT community again (but in September this time, not in October). The tournament will be held in Purcellville or Berryville, VA on September 20, 2025. This will be our first tournament under the 2024+ rules set (now that we have a complete set of profile supplements), which I think is pretty exciting! Without further ado, here are (in my typical style) the Ten Commandments of the Tournament (Rules):
Thursday, August 28, 2025
Quick Starter Armies with the Armies of Middle-Earth Supplement
Monday, August 25, 2025
The New Age Is Begun: The Harad Army List
Good morning gamers,
Monday, August 18, 2025
Top 10 Most Improved Evil Profiles from The Armies of the Hobbit
Hey Reader!
- We're ranking the most improved profiles in The Armies of the Hobbit book, so we won't be looking at profiles beyond that book. Never fear, though, we plan to go through all the books!
- 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: Now in an interesting turn of fate a lot of the strongest profiles in this book got reviewed (either in the most improved or most reduced categories), but this is certainly not a ranking of the most powerful options in the book: it's a ranking of who is higher than where they started, so some models well below the average of the power curve will be present on this list.
- The "Most Improved" means that the profile had to exist last edition, which again is not a big issue with the Hobbit book, because we don't get a lot of new profiles here, but it bears repeating: we're only looking at profiles that made the jump from last edition to this edition.
- And while we would normally say here that there's a longer list, the truth is there weren't that many more this time (admittedly some models received the same treatment, so there was some placement of captains/warriors of a similar stripe in the same spot, but unfortunately a lot of models stayed mostly the same from last edition to this edition, which is kind of sad, but it does mean that this list is mostly exhaustive: not much else beyond this list that I felt was a major improvement.
All photos from the new book! |
Thursday, August 14, 2025
FAQ Time: Unpacking the August 2025 FAQ
![]() |
Photo Credit: Reddit |
Monday, August 11, 2025
The New Age Is Begun: The Depths of Moria Army List
Monday, August 4, 2025
Top 10 Most Improved Evil Profiles from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings
Hey Reader!
- We're ranking the most improved profiles in The Armies of the Lord of the Rings book: we will be reviewing profiles for the Armies of the Hobbit, Armies of Middle Earth, and the Legacy PDF in separate posts, but that means they don't count toward this ranking.
- 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: Sauron is still really powerful (more on him later in our Honorable Mentions category), but we're looking at the people who jumped up the most from last edition, not the most powerful profiles in the book.
- The "Most Improved" means that the profile had to exist last edition, so the new War of the Rohirrim profiles were not reviewed. I know, we love snow trolls (boy do I love snow trolls! Super cheap F7 with 4 Attacks if you can keep them charging!), but we're skipping them in this review.
- 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.
Thursday, July 31, 2025
Quick Starter Armies with the Armies of the Lord of the Rings!
Monday, July 28, 2025
The New Age Is Begun: The Muster of Isengard Army List
- We have Saruman and Grima - and unlike the Army of the White Hand army list, this one has to take Saruman (so we'll always have Saruman . . . and likely will always have Grima).
- We have Uruk-Hai Captains/Uruk-Hai Scout Captains and Uruk-Hai Shamans, but we don't have any of the named Uruk-Hai heroes (except Vrasku if Legacies are in play).
- We have Uruk-Hai Drummers thanks to an FAQ, but none of the Orc or Dunland heroes.
- We've got Uruk-Hai Warriors, Uruk-Hai Scouts, and Uruk-Hai Bersekers - but none of the other warriors (no Orcs, no Warg Riders, no Dunland stuff).
Monday, July 21, 2025
Top 10 Most Improved Good Profiles from The Armies of the Hobbit
Hey Reader!
- We're ranking the most improved profiles in The Armies of the Hobbit book, so we won't be looking at profiles beyond that book. Never fear, though, we plan to go through all the books!
- We're ranking the top ten most improved profiles for the Forces of Good in the book, so only good profiles will be considered here.
- We're ranking the most improved profiles, not the strongest profiles: Dain is incredible, always has been, and he remains incredible in this edition. But he stands mostly where he did last edition (near the top of the slayer heroes for the Forces of Good, maybe higher since most axes can't add +1 Strength anymore, and via his Headbutt rule he can still knock people prone, so he hasn't technically lost the benefit of a hammer from last edition), so he doesn't make the list. No shade: some of the greats are still great, but that's a post for another day.
- The "Most Improved" means that the profile had to exist last edition, which is not really an issue with the Hobbit books (there's a comment coming, I'm sure, about how GW doesn't really do much with this part of Tolkien's timeline, and they're not wrong to be disgruntled about that), but it is a disclaimer we're making: you do have to step above where you were last edition.
- 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.
All images from the new book! |
Thursday, July 17, 2025
Quick Starter Armies with the Armies of the Hobbit!
Monday, July 14, 2025
The New Age Is Begun: The Last Alliance Army List
- You still have access to Gil-Galad and Elrond as your "big heroes", but you've lost access to Glorfindel (a crowd-favorite as a second anti-magic hero alongside Elendil) and if you left Gil-Galad at home, you COULD ally Elendil with Elladan and Elrohir and still have a historical alliance (because loopholes in the rules).
- You still have access to Rivendell Captains, but you lost access to the other mid-tier Rivendell heroes - Erestor (cheap combat hero/throwing weapons), Gildor Inglorion (March/caster), Cirdan (auric caster), Lindir (Elrond-augment/anti-magic auric boost), Arwen (caster), Stormcallers (very, VERY situational magic support), and Bilbo Baggins (ringbearer alongside Elendil) - all but Cirdan, Erestor, and the Stormcallers that nobody took would mess with your historical alliance status if you had Gil-Galad in the list (but leave him at home and you're fine - again, loopholes).
- You still have access to Rivendell Warriors (nee High Elf Warriors), but lost access to Rivendell Knights, which means you're legging it this edition - and only if you can afford a third hero with Heroic March.
- If you're playing with the Legacies document, you also add Erestor to the list - which is great, because having a cheap Unique Rivendell hero is NECESSARY to get this list to play at lower points levels. I wrote this article before the Legacies documents dropped, so I'll be adding text in red that clarifies how the list changes if Erestor is allowed in the list.
Monday, July 7, 2025
Top 10 Most Improved Good Profiles from The Armies of the Lord of the Rings
- We're ranking the most improved profiles in The Armies of the Lord of the Rings book: we will be reviewing profiles for the Armies of the Hobbit, Armies of Middle Earth, and the Legacy PDF in separate posts, so no fear: those are coming! But in the words of Elessar, "it is not this day!"
- We're ranking the top ten most improved profiles for the Forces of Good in the book; there will be a separate article for Forces of Evil, "but it is not this day!" So tune in later for a peak at those!
- We're ranking the most improved profiles, not the strongest profiles: Elendil is fantastic this edition, and he went up to Fight Value 8, which is incredible! But that's literally the only change that happened to him (other than the loss of an alliance matrix, and the shield), so he didn't make the list. What we're trying to rank here are the profiles that have undergone the most changes for the best (changes for the worst will come in a future post, possibly, if you guys want that), not which models are now the best. It also means expect that the top of the list is going to be comprised of models that didn't have a lot of special rules before, but now have special rules that give them useful synergies with others and/or make them a vibrantly new profile in their own right (and often weren't that good/had glaring downsides, but now are auto-include models).
- The "Most Improved" means that the profile had to exist last edition, so the new War of the Rohirrim profiles were not reviewed, as they weren't part of the last edition. Hera is great, Old Helm would not have made the cut any which way you cut it, and the others are all actually quite interesting, but none of them made this list because of a technicality. I've been toying with a Top Ten post ranking the War of the Rohirrim profiles, but since I've yet to play with any of them and have seen very few battle reports from others on their performance on the table, I've been putting it off. If you'd like to see it, let us know!
- There were 38 profiles that made the cut of, "Things changed that make this profile functionally different and/or materially better than it was in the previous edition," so I had to cut that list into almost a quarter. We won't be doing an "honorable mentions" listing for all of them (we will list a few that are noteworthy), but suffice it to say, there's a lot of profiles that were considered! So bear in mind that we can't give time to all of them here.
![]() |
Images all from the new book! |
Thursday, July 3, 2025
Unexpected Military Formations: The Irolas "Shieldwall"
Monday, June 30, 2025
The New Age Is Begun: The Erebor and Dale Army List
Good morning gamers,
- The army bonuses that used to be active with a historical alliance were useful - getting a 3+ shoot on all of your Dale models was good, as was a 6" banner for Thror (even though it didn't count as an "actual banner"). So long as you had 33% of your Dale guys with Esgaroth bows and 67% of your Dale guys with shields and spears (and possibly spears on those bowmen), you could get 10 (or 15) spears in your list to back up Guardians of the King who were protecting Thror's flanks (getting a banner reroll and an extra die - two-handing, anyone?).
- There used to be no limit on how many Grim Hammers or Guardians of the King in the old edition - that means you could have 33% of your Dale contingent with bows (5 guys and Girion if you just take and fill Girion's warband) and all of your Dwarf warriors could be Grim Hammers or Guardians of the King. I don't know if you've fought against a D7 throwing weapon army before, but it's scary - it's really scary! And then you throw in the power heroes of Thror, Thrain, and a Captain of Erebor (or Grim Hammer Captain) for March? Yikes!