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.

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 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 6 4 Warriors 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:

Damrod is up on the second level of the building near the center (this was a mistake - I forgot he had 2 Attacks!), Faramir was right in the center, and Madril was over to the left, ready to lead some of my troops towards that objective. Centaur deployed his Orcs with the majority in the middle, but a solid hit-squad of guys ready to attack each of the side objectives (the Captains don't have the whispy bases). The Orcs can come back in this scenario on a 5+, so the model disparity is going to be seriously high by the end! With the units deployed, we started Turn 1!

Turn 1: Priority Good

I had three of my Rangers stand and shoot while the other units began to fade towards the side objectives. I don't have any cover near the center objective, but I'm counting on those bows not being very effective. Centaur pushed up the board but didn't March towards me.

I shot a lot of bows (15 in total) and killed . . . two guys. Not bad, all told, but . . .

. . . those dang Orc bows hit with like four guys (out of SIX!) and killed two of my Rangers in the middle . . . not what I wanted when starting this game! Without any fights to resolve, we moved to Turn 2!

The New Age Is Begun: The Legions of Mordor Army List

Good morning gamers,

In the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game, there are some army lists that have only a few available profiles (like the Harad list we looked at last time or the Depths of Moria list we looked at the week before). The list we're looking at today is not like those lists. There are other army lists that have quite a few profiles to pick from, but they're all limited to a single faction (like the Minas Tirith or Kingdom of Rohan lists). This list is . . . not like those either.

There are a few army lists that serve as a union of what would otherwise be two different army lists, preserving most of their unit choices and hence giving you a really solid list of profiles for both heroes and warriors (like the Defenders of Erebor or the Men of the West). This list . . . isn't like those lists either. There are, finally, a few - very, VERY few - lists that serve as a melting pot of three or more army lists . . . and standing at the very top of all of those lists is the Legions of Mordor army list. That's the one we're talking about today - and frankly, I thought about tackling it AFTER I talked about all of its component parts, but I also think this is a really strong list and so I wanted to give it attention ahead of the other Mordor, Harad, and Easterling lists.

This is one of the few Mordor lists that has really captured my imagination - and that shouldn't be very surprising, since it has such a wide variety of options. I also think this is one of the few Mordor lists that's actually competitive that few people appear to be playing (as of today, September 8,  2025, there were only 102 games logged in Tabletop Admiral with this list and it had a 41.2% win rate with 42 wins and 60 losses - which is higher than the 37.8% win rate back in mid-June when I originally wrote this article). Like the Mordor army lists of yore, part of the reason for this sad win/loss ratio might just be that there is an incredible amount of variability in how these list can be built. As a result, this post will be less of a deep-dive into the army list itself (now that we have several Easterling lists, every unit will have a deep-dive of its own in a different article in this series), but will rather look at the trade space we have to work with and what different units are bringing to the table.

Take a deep breath, guys - I tried to keep this short-ish . . . and I failed miserably.

Top 10 Most Improved Good Profiles from the Armies of Middle Earth Book

  Hey Reader!

We're back with another Top 10 post, today looking at the top ten most improved profiles in the Armies of Middle Earth book from the Forces of Good. 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 Good 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. 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.

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

Honorable Mention: Khazad Guard

All images from
the new book!

Not much actually happened with Khazad Guards this edition: they're still able to reroll 1s to wound like last edition, they don't have access to Piercing Strike anymore, but they did pick up one nice upgrade for only +1pt/model: they jumped up to F5, making them truly elite infantry, finally on-par with elves.

They don't make the top ten because a lot of the characters above are either the same or lower cost than last edition, or getting far better value, but it's worth noting that we finally have F5 dwarves, and more than that, per the new rules for two-handed weapons, if they roll a 6 for the duel roll they don't get the -1 penalty, which is nice.

Announcing the TMAT THRO 2025 Tournament!

2025-09-19, NOTE: this post has been updated with the tournament lists!

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, 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):

1) Thou Shalt Understand The Canon

The ruleset we will be using is from the most recent Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual (the Fellowship walking one). The supplements for the Armies of the Lord of the Rings, the Armies of the Hobbit, the Armies of Middle-Earth, and the Legacies of Middle-Earth will govern the profiles and army lists being used. Any GW errata for these books will take precedent over the printed text of these documents.

2) Thou Shalt Honor Thy Alliance

This tournament follows the alliance "restrictions" provided in the main rulebook - players will pick one army list from one of the four GW-issued supplements for this edition and follow all requirements for that army list.

Quick Starter Armies with the Armies of Middle-Earth Supplement

Good morning gamers,

We've looked at the Battle of Edoras Box Set, the Armies of the Hobbit, and the Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplements in this series so far, so it makes sense to tackle the last sourcebook in the list, the Armies of Middle-Earth. This supplement (and the Legacies documents, which I will not be covering in this series) were greatly awaited by us here at TMAT - a good number of our local players had lynchpin characters in most of their lists in one or both of these releases, so we're very happy to finally have "the completed set" for list building.

As has been noted in every post in this series, GW is not sponsoring us here at TMAT. I get no kickbacks from the way you spend money, I don't have affiliate links, and I'm not associated with a webstore or physical store of any kind. We here at TMAT are just a bunch of gamers trying to play with toy soldiers on a budget. As a result, the recommendations I provide here are the result of much thinking and planning - mostly for myself and maybe my musings and plannings will help you too!

List building on a budget THIS time is going to be tricky, since we're assuming that you're spending $60 on a rulebook, $50 on either the Armies of the Hobbit or the Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement, AND you're spending $50 on the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement, which means that we'll be looking for armies that you can get for $50 to $350 more (between $200 and $500). As always, I'll provide additional thoughts on how to save money along the way - which with this lot has led to a few conversions that aren't hard. With that, let's start with the Good armies . . .

The New Age Is Begun: The Harad Army List

Good morning gamers,

I don't think there are too many army lists that, after the release of the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement, have as few profiles as the Harad army list. We looked at the Depths of Moria last time and that list was incredibly constrained, but at least the Balrog was doing a lot to help that list compete with its limited bench. Today, we're looking a list that has two ways to play - and honestly, I'm not sure either are bad (though one is DEFINITELY going to be board-dependent for its ability to be competitive). Let's dive in and see what's up in the southlands (Editor's Note: I failed to add the Legacy profiles when I uploaded this page - it was written after the Armies of Middle-Earth dropped and before the Legacies document was provided. The profiles have been added now.)!

Harad: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

As was mentioned in the First Impressions article for Harad (and Umbar - Part II of that series will be coming out either late this year or early next year), I mentioned that there were basically no profiles in this army list: the Mumak War Leader, normal Mumaks, Haradrim Chieftains, and Haradrim Warriors. The addition of the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement have grown our options slightly - Haradrim Taskmasters and Haradrim Raiders are also available - but by and large, you can summarize this list simply: you get the basic guys, the command blister, and the Mumaks. That's it.

If you want expanded options for Harad, the Legions of Mordor should be your next stop (more on them next week) - which not only gives you more Harad units to play with, but will also give you a host of Mordor and Easterling units to pick from as well (supplementing Harad's low Defense stat and slotting them into the weak archery slots that both Mordor and Easterling armies have). It's a match made in heaven - but that's enough thunder-stealing for now. :) You can also look at several other alliance options for Harad in the Grand Army of the South (which is now a Corsair/Easterling/Harad alliance instead of what it used to be) or the Umbar army list (for some spicy Harad/Corsair alliance shenanigans). Whatever your preferred Haradrim flavor is, there's probably a Harad list for you now - but today, we're focusing on what basically was the Grand Army of the South LL of yester-year.

Army List Bonuses

Last edition, the Serpent Horde army bonus gave the Haradrim a 50% bow limit and Haradrim Warriors/Raiders "Poisoned Weapons" so all of their weapons got to reroll 1s To Wound instead of just their bows. Whether it was their daggers, weapon-swapped hand weapons, spears/war spears, or bows, they were rerolling 1s - which isn't great at the micro-level, but in aggregate, it was quite strong. The list has basically retained both of these rules, but now all friendly models with Poisoned Attacks (bow) get Poisoned Attacks on everything - so if all of your Haradrim Raiders have bows, then they'll have poisoned war spears as well. If your Haradrim Chieftains have bows, they'll have poisoned melee weapons too. If your Haradrim Warriors have poisoned bows, they'll have poisoned hand weapons. BUT your Haradrim Raiders/Chieftains/Warriors without bows will all be fighting normally. Oh well.

Mumaks in this list picked up two special rules - they have Harbinger of Evil (12") like they had in the Grand Army of the South army list (and which the Grand Army of the South does not have now . . . that list is very, very different now). Additionally, any Mumak commanders (including the Mumak War Leader) may declare a Heroic Combat for free once per game, which allows the Mumak to execute the Heroic Combat (though there's no pivoting if the Mumak wins). While a free heroic action once per game may not normally tip the scales, this does give the Mumaks some tactical options to deal with being pinned down - more on that later in the tactical section.

Top 10 Most Improved Evil Profiles from The Armies of the Hobbit

Hey Reader!

We're back with another Top 10 post, today looking at the top ten most improved profiles in the Armies of the Hobbit book from 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 the Hobbit 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 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.

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

Honorable Mention: Troll Brute

All photos from
the new book!

This is one of those profiles that could have probably used some additional treatment but didn't get it: it's now Dominant 5, and it gets the benefit of the new monster rules that allow it to perform a wounding roll against a spear support of a model it removes, but it's mostly still the same: everything you love about the troll brute (S10 impact hits, Fearless), but now worth 5 models on an objective.

The other issue with the troll brute this edition is that he's a pretty low Fight Value troll (and fair enough: no eyes, after all) in an edition where tying his Fight Value is easier to do now, so there's that.

FAQ Time: Unpacking the August 2025 FAQ

Good morning gamers,

I didn't submit anything to this FAQ - I've been busy fussing with Star Wars Legion and Bolt Action lists for the better part of the last few months, so I'll be honest, this FAQ snuck up on me and yet, there wasn't that much that surprised me. There was one VERY big change that I totally did not see coming . . . before we get into that, let's take a look at what got updated . . . and then we'll get into the really spicy stuff that creeped up and went unanswered.

Photo Credit: Reddit

What Didn't Have Changes

It should go without saying that there were no clarifications on the Legacies of Middle-Earth document, which GW has already said exists so people can use the "no-longer-supported" profiles - many of which were beloved in the last edition. I'm personally very appreciative that the Legacies document was released and that we have it - if they don't update any of the profiles, I think I'm fine with that.

Beyond that, everything got updates (though the Matched Play Guide only got one update, so it's basically as-is - I expect that to change as more people play the updated scenarios). Let's dig into what didn't really change (or what worked the way we thought it did) . . .

Rules That Worked Like We Thought

There were a few errata to the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement - most of which were expected: Theodred starts with a shield, Druzhag's Fury magical power targets himself, and like in the last edition, Druzhag can include Beast models in his warband, but that doesn't open them up as options in other warbands. I'm not going to reprint the text of these errata here - but you can find them in the Armies of Middle-Earth Designer Commentaries.

I'm going to start with an FAQ on Treebeard carrying Merry and Pippin from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement: the question was asked if Merry and Pippin are affected at all by the Wrath of Bruinen magical power while sitting on Treebeard's head. The answer, as you'll see below, is no - they cannot be targeted and are unaffected. There was a tandem question asked about what happened to them in Treebeard is knocked Prone - the answer is that they, like any rider, are Knocked Flying:

Q: If Merry and Pippin are riding into battle on Treebeard, and Treebeard is hit by a power such as Wrath of Bruinen, are they also hit by it? What happens when Treebeard is knocked Prone? (p.24) A: The Merry & Pippin rule states that they cannot be targeted individually by Magical Powers, and so they won’t be targeted – they would not suffer a hit from Wrath of Bruinen. If Treebeard is knocked Prone, Merry and Pippin will count as being Knocked Flying, as per the result on the Thrown Rider Chart (see p.70 of The Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual).

The New Age Is Begun: The Depths of Moria Army List

Good morning gamers,

Editor's NOTE: this post was edited on August 18th, 2025 to add in comments on the profiles added by both the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement and the Legacies document. AoME updates are shown in blue while the Legacies updates are in red.

It's no secret - I love the Balrog. I love everything about him - at least, since the MESBG revamp back in 2018 (before that, he was definitively worse than a Dragon). In the 2018-2024 era of MESBG, there was actually a lot of counter-play to the Balrog since a lot of heroes had a chance of getting to F10 and even those who couldn't get to F10 just needed the Balrog to NOT get a 6 on his dueling roll and either get a 6 on their own (possibly with rerolls, but also "just being lucky") or by boosting into a 6 with Might points. In the current stat of the game . . . a lot of heroes can't reach F10, but the counter-play of "getting a 6 when the Balrog doesn't" still exists. Still, he's a big boy and can be a dominant power on any board that he's playing on thanks to some of the changes he received. Let's see how the Depths of Moria army list has changed from the previous Legendary Legion (and Moria in general)!

The Depths of Moria: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

I'm not going to dwell on this segment - I covered the units that are available to Moria (and this army list is just those same profiles) in my First Impressions post. The short of it is that from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book, we have the Balrog, the Watcher in the Water, and Moria Goblin Captains for our heroes and Cave Trolls and Moria Goblin Warriors for our warriors. This got updated in the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement to add Moria Goblin Shamans and Moria Goblin Prowlers and by the Legacies document to include Blackshield Captains/Shamans/Warriors/Drums. Unlike a lot of other army lists, however, you don't have any required units in this list, so you can technically run it as a Balin's Tomb list (Captains, Warriors, and a Cave Troll or two), as a Balrog-centric list (with or without the Watcher), or a Watcher-spam list (which would probably be more popular if there were Bat Swarms available to us). As we'll look at next with the army list bonuses, however, we TECHNICALLY have a sixth unit . . . that we get for free.

Army List Bonuses

Many of the army list bonuses are the same as we had in the previous edition - the Balrog starts the game with "Shadow . . ." active, making him harder to hit directly (only on a 5+ or 6+), though this does nothing if you're shooting at a Goblin behind him and he's in-the-way. He can also lose "Shadow . . ." to use the ". . . and Flame" rule, which allows you to set a model (friend or enemy, actually) within 3" of him Ablaze on a 2+, so long as he hasn't been Transfixed or is otherwise unable to use Active Abilities (and no, this isn't a shooting attack, so he can use it even if he's engaged in melee). Finally, the Dominion of the Balrog still gives friendly Moria Goblin models within 6" of the Balrog +1 Fight Value, which is great for your F3 Captains and so-so/usually-not-that-useful for your F2 Goblins (what with many warriors getting promoted to F4). The far more valuable part of this rule is that until your opponent has dealt 5 wounds to the Balrog, you never count as being Broken - which is great for denying VPs, but also means you may need a method for quartering yourself to get the game to end when you want it to (and you'll want to avoid games that end randomly when one side is broken unless you think you can break the opposing force).

The big change to the rules is that the Drums in the Deep special rule used to extend the range of your drums from 12-18" to battlefield wide and give you VPs for keeping them on the board when banners scored VPs. Now, you don't have access to drums, but you do get the effects of a battlefield-wide drum all the time . . . for free. Yes, this is the secret sixth profile - you get a 0-cost Moria Goblin Drum that can never be attacked, can never be turned off, and that affects all Goblins everywhere . . . for free. This is a HUGE change, especially at low points levels - and did I mention that it's FREE?!?!?!?! I'm very interested to see what happens to this guy when the Armies of Middle-Earth book drops and whether the alternative Moria option is better than what's here . . .

Top 10 Most Improved Evil Profiles from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings

Hey Reader!

We're back with another Top 10 post, today looking at the top ten most improved profiles in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book from 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 the Lord of the Rings book.

As we did in the last post talking about 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 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.

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

Honorable Mention: The Dark Lord Sauron

While most spellcaster saw an increase in their difficulty to cast spells, Sauron basically stayed the same, while still picking up useful spells like Fog of Disarray and Foil Magic. In most respects he stayed the same, but he picked up a few really useful abilities this edition.

First off, he gained Dominant 10, which means you have to wound him to allow his army to break, but you also kind of do need to remove him if you want to control an objective near him.

Second, he added a new Brutal Power Attack. In addition to Unstoppable from last edition (which he still has, and while all monsters have a smaller version of this, Sauron's is still better since he gets a guaranteed strike against all spearmen, not just a strike against those supporting the models he slays in close combat), he also gained Flames of Evil, and this ability allows him to, instead of performing strikes normally, allows him to choose a single model in the combat: it suffers a S10 hit, and if they survive, they are knocked Prone and Set Ablaze.

Now this is a niche ability: most of the time you want to use your 4 Attacks, or 1 Attack against everyone. But if you know that you need to wound a D9-10 model, and if you don't finish them off you'll at least be keeping them on the ground for a bit, Flames of Evil will do the job.

Also a small thing, but he's one of the few monsters that is still on a 40mm base, so getting a monster into fights is far easier to do with Sauron than it is with most monsters nowadays, which is not nothing.

Not a major change over last edition, but he's seen some improvement, and we should probably note the guy whose title is in the name of the original source book and the Armies of book that we're studying, so here's the big man himself, :P