Unexpected Military Formations: The Irolas "Shieldwall"

Good morning gamers,

Editor's Note: anytime you play a game for a while, double check your work - to get the speed you want in the list below, you need to run a Captain of Minas Tirith with or without Irolas (as Irolas doesn't have March anymore). What's provided below is still accurate if you have both in your list - consider swapping out for Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears if you leave Irolas at home.

We had a reader reach out to us via Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/tmatsbg) and ask us about a doubles tournament he's headed to and for some advice on a Defenders of the Pelennor list. I sent several suggestions to support an Army of the Dead contingent led by Aragorn (for his doubles partner), but I recommended taking the following warband from Minas Tirith:

The event is, apparently 800pts, which means there's 400pts up for grab for each player - and this warband comes in at just under half of one of the lists, so there's plenty of room to expend (especially in the Defenders of the Pelennor list!). After presenting this idea, however, I was asked "how do you play it?" And instead of trying to use words to describe why you'd want to use this for doubles and how this formation works, I decided to just turn it into a post with pictures. :) I still have to convert 2 Numenoreans into Citadel Guard to have the models, so ignore the two Numenor guys standing in for Citadel Guard in the pictures below.

Why Run This Formation?

To understand why this is a good warband for doubles games, we need to understand how doubles deployment/scoring works in the six scenarios we had in the previous edition (yes, I know the new Matched Play Guide is out, but I don't have a copy yet and I don't think those scenarios are going to change very much). Previously, the rule for doubles (and I assume it will still be true in the new edition) is that speed is king. Most of the time, both allied forces will deploy in separate parts of the board, usually with 24" to cross to get to the other person's army (sometimes more, sometimes less). This means that two armies that have foot-slog across the board at 4-6" speed are unlikely to meet up and if your opponent has two fast armies, they can both engage one force, beat it to a pulp, and then about-face and take on the other force. This . . . is a recipe for disaster.

If you're not going to run all-cavalry, then you want Heroic March in your list - and Irolas has Heroic March. He doesn't have 3 Might anymore, but he's got 2 Might and if he's pushing up a wall of infantry - possibly in tandem with a Captain of Minas Tirith and MORE infantry - then he's doing his job and making sure your units arrive alive.

The New Age Is Begun: The Erebor and Dale Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're looking at an army list that's in a bit of the dumps right now. This hasn't stopped us here at TMAT from looking for good things to like about them, but after playing a few games with this army list . . . it could use a face-lift when the next set of erratas drop. The list is Erebor and Dale - while the Garrison of Dale is seeing a lot of time in the sun and the Army of Thror might see more play now that there's an updated Matched Play guide to make their army bonuses useful, this list . . . is basically at its zenith already and is STILL not valued very highly. Let's see how this list has changed and what's to like about the list!

Erebor & Dale: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

The profile selection hasn't changed much - we have almost all of the same units we always had (no windlances or Knights of Dale - the windlances would have a place in this list, I think, but I'm not sure about the Knights given that we have D7 Erebor Dwarves for the same cost). What has changed, however, is our ability to use the army rules that were available in the Army of Thror and the Garrison of Dale factions:

• 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!

In trade for these two things (army bonuses and minimal limits on our shooting options), we got some new rules. We'll look at those now, since they're the primary changes that have happened for the army list.

Army List Bonuses

Let's begin with the biggest gotcha in the room: your bow limit and throwing weapon limit is likely to be lower in this list than in other lists. Wait a minute, you say, I thought this was supposed to be higher? Yeah, me too at first blush. The numbers you see are "50% bows" and "50% throwing weapons", but these are actually limited to "50% of Dale Warriors can have bows" and "50% of Erebor Warriors can have throwing weapons." Since both factions can have one or the other (bows/no throwing weapons for Dale, no bows/throwing weapons for Erebor), we get a sliding scale that might or might not be better in one (but not the other) than if we ran an allied list previously.

Let's look at an example of what I mean: because you round up with bow limit, you can take 6 Esgaroth bows if you have 11 Warriors of Dale in your list. Additionally, you can have 6 Grim Hammer Warriors if you have 11 total warriors in your Erebor contingent. This gives you 22 models, 6 of which have bows and 6 of which have throwing weapons . . . or less than 33% bows (27%) and less than 33% throwing weapons. Yes, half of our army can shoot - but a standard army list that smashes multiple army lists together with normal list building constraints (like the Men of the West, Legions of Mordor, or Defenders of the Pelennor) can get to two-thirds shooting capacity if they want to.

Updated Armies of Middle Earth (Mordor and Khand)

Photo Credit: Warhammer.com

Good morning gamers,

Just a short interruption on this off-week Thursday to let you know that Rythbryt is finally working on those Seventh Edition updates to our Armies of Middle-Earth Series. :-P The format has had to change slightly, because traditional "factions" have gone away, giving way to multiple army lists (and for some/most of these lists, you need 2 army books plus maybe a Legacies PDF to get the entire roster of profiles that each can take). Plus, you know... some profiles have changed and stuff. :-P

First up this week are Mordor and Khand, which you can access via their old links here:

• {7th Edition} Mordor in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game
• {7th Edition} The Variags of Khand in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game

Each write-up has been updated to include the complete roster of all profiles that have the "Mordor" and "Khand" faction keywords (respectively), complete with a unit-by-unit summary of which lists can field these models now, what benefits the model gets (if any) from being taken in that particular list, and where you can find the original profile as well as the army list (Armies of the Lord of the Rings, Armies of the Hobbit, Armies of Middle-Earth, or Legacies). In addition, we've updated the general strengths/weaknesses of the "faction" as a whole, and updated our final section to talk (briefly... or at least briefly-ish) about why you might prefer one Mordor list over another, and which lists lean heavily into a specific theme, allow you to replicate older alliances, etc.

As with everything we do, this is a work in progress--and it turns out that updating some of the larger write-ups takes some time when you need to sort through three books (and occasionally an army builder) to get the whole picture (the Mordor update alone took about 10 hours... hopefully the rest will be faster, now that we've ironed out the process some). Still, we hope this proves useful to you as you begin to navigate the new edition. And don't forget, you can also catch up on our profile reviews for the new edition over on this page.

Finally, as always, please let us know in the comments if there's anything we've missed or can improve (or if there's a particular faction you'd like Rythbryt to prioritize next--rumor is that he's looking at dwarves, camels, and fellows if left to his own devices ;-) )!

The New Age Is Begun: The Numenor Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're tackling a hidden gem (I feel) in MESBG today: Numenor! Yes, the Last Alliance gets a lot of press. Yes, the Realms of Men SHOULD get a lot of press. Yes, Numenor can't get banners anymore and that might put them behind in VPs. But this is a list that isn't hard to collect because EVERYONE and their brother is selling unused Warriors of Numenor on eBay because they wanted the Rivendell Warriors that came in the box (and with a little kit-bashing, it's not hard to make the three warrior types or generic captains that you need to make the list work). It's also got a lot of strength in the new edition and not a lot of rules if you are new to the game and looking for Elves-light to start off with. So let's see what's in store for one of my favorite factions in the game - specifically, how they've changed and how to run them in the new edition.

Numenor: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Like last edition, Numenor has four profiles: Elendil, Isildur, Captains of Numenor, and Warriors of Numenor. As we walked through in our First Impressions article, however, these profiles have all seen some changes (more on those later). While I've extended this section in our previous posts in this series, I'm not going to belabor it here - we have four profiles available to us and if we want more, we need to run the Last Alliance or the Realms of Men instead (both of which are excellent lists and very well might be better than this list on paper, if not in practice).

Okay, let's dig into the army bonuses for this army list and how it changes the units you field.

Quick Starter Armies for the Battle of Edoras Box Set!

Good morning gamers,

The new edition has been out for just over 6 months, and while we don't have all of the models that are in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit supplements, we do have enough to get started in the game. As I did with the Battle of Osgiliath box set, I'll be looking today at the very practical question of how to turn your collection of models from the Battle of Edoras starter set into an actual army on the tabletop at different price points.

Before we dive in, I'd like to reiterate something that I do from time to time on this blog: 

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! With that, let's start by looking at the Forces of Good from the starter set . . .

400-point Army of Edoras for $200: The Battle of Edoras Box Set

Our first stop is . . . well, just the contents of the box set. This is technically more than $200 USD in the GW store, but it's less than $200 if you buy it from an independent retailer - it also isn't going to be a great army, but it can be yours with just the purchase of the box set (which not only gives you the rulebook and a cheat sheet of the profiles for the units in the box set, but also gives you some terrain, some dice/measurement sticks (get a tape measure, of course), and a paper mat to put on your table . . . all good things).

The list writes itself since we only have two heroes and 24 Warriors of Rohan - all of which we can field at 400pts:

Haleth is a good beater hero, though a bit fragile. Hama is . . . fine as a shooting hero, but probably a bit overpriced. Still, they're yours and they will get you into the game with enough of an experience to help you figure out what you want - exactly what a starter box should do.

Now as we add some money to our price point, we can get an "actual" army . . .

The New Age Is Begun: the Road to Rivendell Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're delving into another army list today and this one I'm SUPER excited about. Why? Because the Road to Rivendell army list (our topic for today) is a list that I have been running for AGES. I've run them as:

• A battle company (the Wanderers in the Wild);
• A low-points level historical alliance between the Fellowship and Rivendell;
• A mid-points level historical alliance between the Fellowship, Rivendell, and Lothlorien;
• A mid-points level convenient alliance between the Fellowship, the Shire, and the Wanderers in the Wild (Barliman and Bill); and
• A high-points level convenient alliance between Rivendell (Glorfindel, Gildor, Arwen), the Fellowship (Aragorn, Hobbits), and the Wanderers in the Wild (Tom and Goldberry) . . .
• . . . oh, right, and I made up a custom legendary legion for them a few Christmases ago.

Yeah, I've played this list kind of a lot. When I saw that it was becoming its own thing, I was both very excited AND very pleased that this list got Gildor and Noldorin Exiles from the Legacies document and picked up Tom Bombadil and Goldberry from the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement! All told, this began as a low-points level, all-hero list and with the two newest adds, it can now reach high points levels too! Let's see what's new in 2025 with this army list . . .

The Road to Rivendell: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Five of the heroes in this list have already been reviewed not once, but twice in the Fellowship and Breaking of the Fellowship articles - check those out for the full run-down. One other hero has been reviewed once, and the remaining three profiles are "brand new". Here's how the profiles have been adjusted without rehashing all that I've written there:

• The list is focused on the Fellowship coming to Bree, leaving Bree, and journeying to Rivendell - so naturally, we have Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin with very little gear available. Amazingly, Frodo has access to Sting and the Mithril Coat, which he certainly didn't have in the films (Weathertop would have gone VERY differently, I think, if there was Mithril between Frodo and the Morgul Blade - or was it a spiritual piercing?);
• You also have Aragorn in the list, which is good because without him, you couldn't kill much of anything with this list (one model excepted);
• From the Bree contingent, we have Barliman Butterbur, Harry Goatleaf, and Bill the Pony - all of which were either previously in the Fellowship army list or were part of the Wanderers in the Wild list and historical allies with the Fellowship;
• We have Arwen, who was both historical allies with the Fellowship in the Rivendell list and was later errata'd to be part of the Fellowship list if you had Aragorn in the list:
• New to the scene are Tom and Goldberry, who were Convenient Allies with everyone in the old edition - they were an expensive dynamic duo, but oh so much fun; and 
• If your tournament setting allows the Legacy documents, you have access to Gildor Inglorion and up to 12 Noldorin Exiles (because they are the only Warrior models in the list, if you have at least 10 of them, you can have 4 with bows and 4 with throwing weapons).

The original nine characters come in with all their available upgrades (bow for Aragorn, Sting and Mithril Coat for Frodo) at a tidy 500 points, but Tom and Goldberry allow you to hit 700 points and Gildor and Company can hit 222 (very satisfying) with a banner, 3 Wood Elf spears, 4 throwing daggers, and 4 Elf bows. 

The New Age Is Begun: The Breaking of the Fellowship Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're back in our in-depth reviews of the new army lists for MESBG and today we're looking at "the other Fellowship list" (really it's one of four, but we'll get to the others soon): the Breaking of the Fellowship. This list has kept a lot of what the old Legendary Legion had, but it's been changed in a few profound ways to give those of us who enjoyed using it something new to tinker with.

I covered the Breaking of the Fellowship Legendary Legion in our Stuff of Legends series back in April 2021 and I gotta say, there are both not a lot of changes to this list and some very BIG changes to this list. Let's dig into what's new in 2025 . . .

The Breaking of the Fellowship: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

In the previous edition, we had eight profiles - the Fellowship members who were alive when the fighting at Amon Hen started. For the most part, the wargear they had in the films was accurately conveyed in the wargear options for the models (Aragorn's bow was at the boats with Boromir's shield, but Boromir got his shield and Aragorn's bow was noticably absent). I mentioned this to GW several times and in this edition of the game, Aragorn has his bow. Yes, I am taking credit for that change (though hopefully not sole credit for it - surely someone else was thinking the same thing I was).

Unexpected Military Formations: Epic Movie Moments, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Back in 2021, I ran a four-part series where I took four classic fighting scenes from the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit films (I added a fifth one in 2022) and looked at how you might bring that scene to life on the tabletop with MESBG. The first of those posts looked at an Uruk-Hai pike block formation (what I've since called a "loose phalanx") and how/why you might best use your pikes in games of MESBG.

The army list (Legendary Legion, really) that was most inclined to use that strategy was the Assault Upon Helm's Deep list - and with the various changes that I think have made that army list worse in this edition, I figured it would be good to review different formations you can run in order to get the most out of the classic Uruk-Hai assault force. For context, we'll be using the following 600-point force:

We'll begin with the most basic of the formation elements: the loose phalanx.

Formation #1: The Loose Phalanx

Like we said in the article back in 2021, the value of this formation is that we're spreading out our formation to provide a larger frontage and we're going to have models in the front-rank this time that either have 2 Attacks base (Berserkers) or can have 2 Attacks if they defend by shielding (Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields). There's a new cause for concern in this set-up, however: Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields can now benefit from Shieldwall. While there was definitely a case before for alternating shield-Berserker-shield-Berseker-etc., you'll now want to have two distinct phalanxes: one with Berserkers and one with Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields:

two six-file phalanxes, banner/3 captains nearby

I have intentionally made three choices with the disposition of these phalanxes: first, as mentioned above, I've created one beater phalanx with six Uruk-Hai Berserkers in it, backed by six pikes. This formation will have no problem charging Terror-causing units but is only D5, so you'll want to be careful with its engagement. Whatever Berserker isn't supported in each file will have 2 Attacks at F5 (pretty good) and the supported Berserker can two-hand with 2 pikes backing him up. This seems like a solid fighting force to me and could certainly benefit from the banner, but I don't think it needs it.

The New Age Is Begun: The Fellowship Army List

Good morning gamers,

In case you're new here, the TMAT team loves to do list-building. Back in October 2018, I embarked on a "first impressions" series to evaluate the factions from the revamped Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game (aka, the previous edition - and hereafter MESBG). In July 2019, Rythbyrt began his Armies of Middle-Earth series, walking through many of the factions in MESBG. In January 2020, I started my "Bare Necessities" series, which walked through how to build balanced lists that optimized for possible VP scoring with each faction in the game. In 2021, I started our "Stuff of Legends" series, where we walked through most of the Legendary Legions that were released in the various sourcebooks (we're getting the last few out this year, despite a new edition eclipsing our timeline).

So naturally, when the new edition of MESBG dropped last December, I started planning out the next series of list-building reviews by "faction" (or more appropriately, "army list") and so begins a new series specific to the 2024 revamp of MESBG. I've entitled it "The New Age Is Begun," which comes from a line in the Return of the King, where Aragorn is talking with Gandalf about rebuilding Middle-Earth after the defeat of Sauron. While overlooking the realm of Gondor, Gandalf says,

This is your realm, and the heart of the greater realm that shall be. The Third Age of the world is ended, and the new age is begun; and it is your task to order its beginning and to preserve what may be preserved. For though much has been saved, much must now pass away . . .

The new edition does feel like the older edition, but it also feels new (and some things have been lost), so the quote above seemed to be a fair summation of where we're at. In this series, I'll be walking through the various army lists that are now available to us (roping in my fellow admins to weigh in on their favorites) and talking not only about how the list works, but also how it's changed from the previous edition of MESBG. We start off where it all began for me: with the Fellowship of the Ring.

I covered the Fellowship of the Ring previously in a tandem Bare Necessities post with Thorin's Company back in April 2020 and Rythbyrt covered them in the Armies of Middle-Earth series WAY back in July 2019 (basically when he started the series). Despite their ages, both articles aged well with very little changes that affected them since their writing (which is also a bit of an indictment, but whatever - we're in a new age right now, remember?). I got my start with the Fellowship back when I started playing SBG in September 2010, so these guys have always been near and dear to me. Let's see what they're up to and how the list has changed . . .

First Impressions: The Free Peoples, Part III

Good morning gamers,

This is my last post for now in the First Impressions series and today we're finishing sort of where we began: with the Free Peoples. While we've already looked at the members of the Fellowship, their associates in Bree, the Ents, and the Hobbits of the Shire, our focus today is largely on the White Council - three of the strongest wizards that the Forces of Good have access to and one fairly erratic Dwarf (who is surprisingly reliable in the new edition).

I'd like to begin this discussion with a brief review of the previous edition and the role these characters played in shaping the meta and many of the rules changes we saw in the semiannual rules updates. When the MESBG revamp happened in 2018, it didn't take long for a lot of people to find out ways you could abuse the alliance matrix to include characters like Cirdan, Arwen, and Shades in your lists - and the inclusion of these characters in basically everything not only added the list building restriction that you needed a Hero of Valour/Legend to ally conveniently/impossibly, but some heroes underwent heroic tier changes (like Cirdan/Arwen becoming Minor heroes, but also Haldir/Dwarf Kings/other Kings becoming Heroes of Valour to make most thematic list building dilemmas work).

While this initial wave of changes didn't involve the members of the White Council, it was the limitation of Cirdan from the "easy alliance" choice that made many competitive players look to Galadriel, Lady of Light as the new default - a Hero of Valour who could ally with just about anyone conveniently and brought good anti-archery, good anti-magic, and a decent combat buff to your army. I mean, with very few exceptions, a strong competitive list began with Galadriel (and Rythbyrt even won one of our GTs with Galadriel+).

As a result, Galadriel herself got reduced to a Hero of Fortitude so you'd have to bring her with another big hero (which you could certainly do, but it came at the cost of using other big heroes - like Gwaihir - or dumping a budget hero and 10+ warriors from your list). At about the time that Lady of Light players were driven to sadness, the Vanquishers of the Necromancer Legendary Legion dropped and players figured out that they could cast Nature's Wrath/Wrath of Bruinen on their own fights while engaged in combat to knock EVERY enemy model prone and never take damage. The heroes who didn't have access to these spells could also rely on things like Sorcerous Blast to knock people into the right fights and knock all THOSE people prone, preventing anyone from being able to do reliable damage in melee unless they had very strong magical resistances on EVERY model in their army (which basically no one else had). Oh, and the list was very strong against magic and archery because Galadriel was in it.

This Legion got nerfed in various ways, not the least of which was the requirement to have 470pts of heroes in it (Saruman, Galadriel, and Gandalf), which meant you probably weren't running it below 650 because you wanted Elrond in the list (unless you were crazy like me - I was fine at 500 with those three characters), but also the heroes were prevented from casting their knock-Prone spells while engaged in combat. This made the Legion still show up in some events, but it was certainly never as strong as it was when it was released.

So with all this as background, let's look and see what's become of some of the characters who have shaped the meta at various times and see if they're still as good as they were or if they've fallen a bit by the wayside.

Top 10 Soup Lists for MESBG v2!

Good morning gamers,

Perhaps the most defining (and divisive) change in the newest version of MESBG is the change from a list of Good and Evil factions that have an alliance matrix that rewards or "penalizes" historically-accurate or historically-impossible list building choices to a set of "army lists" that can't interact at all. Throughout the previous edition of the game, Rythbyrt was a big fan of the "mix up a cool army from multiple army lists" approach to list building, including some that involved Khazad-Dum/Army of Thror Dwarves mixed in with other factions or Camels into just about every Evil list you can think of. This kind of "soup list building" approach was dabbled in by me near the end of the last edition (particularly so I could get Floi and Bombur together for the "eternal Floi" shenanigans that it opened up) and a little bit by Centaur (who, like me, is more of a purist when it comes to list building).

While the first pass through the new edition might make you feel like "soup list building" days are a thing of the past, think again - as we wait for the Armies of Middle-Earth book to drop and eventually the Legacies document (though as has been pointed out to me, there is no money coming off of that supplement, so the more cynical side of me feels like "it'll get done whenever they get around to it"), here is a Top 10 list (yes, Centaur might be our usual Top 10 guy, but he doesn't have a monopoly on those posts!) of armies you can use out of the box today to get cool mixed lists on the tabletop (and maybe even use some of those Legacied/Armies of Middle-Earth lists that we don't have access to yet). 

By "soup lists," I'm referring to armies that can field different mixes of units together in order to get a more interesting play experience - and of course, those that rank higher are going to be those that can have radically different play experiences depending on how you mix them. There will be some where you're a little stove-piped, but each has ways to make them feel different and interesting. Let's start off with . . .

Pick #10: Battle of Fornost

This list has a lot of list building options in it, but of course it differs from some of the other "soup" lists we're going to talk about later because it has required heroes. Earnur and Glorfindel are unlikely to be taken without their mounts, so they're a 320pt tax on the list right out of the gate. With 36 warrior slots between the two heroes, you could run this list with just the two heroes and fill out their warbands with some Elven infantry and a mix of Minas Tirith infantry and cavalry (and someone will clearly have a banner).

Where the "soup" aspect of the list comes in, however, is what you choose to do AFTER you've gotten a solid anvil of men and Elves with some sort of Cavalry hammer to support them. The list has access to Captains of Minas Tirith and Rivendell Captains (on foot) if you want to take "more of the same", but it also has other options that you shouldn't sleep on.

First Impressions: Gundabad and Dol Goldur, Part II

Good morning gamers,

A while back, Centaur walked through the Azog's Hunters/Azog's Legion elements of Gundabad and Dol Guldur and today, I'm wrapping up the discussion on these new profiles with those that appear exclusively in the Rise of the Necromancer army list. Back in the old edition, this was an all-hero list that sported the Necromancer, the nine Nazgul of Dol Guldur, the Keeper of the Dungeons, and an unlimited number of Castellans of Dol Guldur. The list has lost access to Castellans (at least until the Legacies document tells us otherwise), but has gained some very interesting things in trade. Let's dig in and see how this spooky list looks in the new edition!

Sauron, the Necromancer: How Have He "Changed?"

The most profound change to this profile has got to be the no-spoiler-alert-given nature of outright naming "The Necromancer of Dol Guldur" "Sauron, the Necromancer." I mean, if I've only read the Hobbit and I read a casual reference or two to some necromancer who has set up shop in some castle called Dol Guldur in the south of Mirkwood that Gandalf apparently sends packing while the Dwarves are blundering in the Lonely Mountain without him and haven't read the second chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring since its release seventy-one years ago . . . okay, I hope everyone catches the sarcasm here because I can't flag it any better - the name change is good, moving on. :)

Besides the name change, the Necromancer went down 50pts to a jaw-droppingly-low 200pts and can lead Fell Wargs, Hunter Orcs (on or off Fell Wargs), and Spiders just like he used to be able to do in the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur faction during the last edition. Being able to set up a cheap wall of guys to screen him from danger, protect the flanks of his minions (who can also lead these troops), buff out your numbers, and give you access to things like raw speed and bows (but not banners) is super, SUPER helpful.

He also picked up the base 2 Attacks, free casting die when he spends at least one casting die, the ability to cast two different spells against two different targets each round, and Resistant to Magic rules that he had in the Rise of the Necromancer Legendary Legion, which makes him both a reliable caster, but also fairly resilient to enemy magic and can stand his own in combat (especially since he retained Drain Soul and Curse . . . and can be fielded with Mirkwood Spiders who can Paralyze enemies or sap them of their Fate points - more on these guys later).

The Road to the TMAT GT 2025 - Tiberius's List

Good morning gamers,

I've been busy for the past few months (not too busy to write, but my weekends have been taken up by a TON of things), so I was happily surprised when Red Jacket reached out to us and scheduled our GT for the year. It's not every day that I attend a tournament without having to do any of the planning, so I was excited to figure out what list I'd be bringing. The tournament will be a three-round, random-pairing tournament with assignments being made before the first round is played. The pools will be #2 (multiple objectives), #4 (killing things), and #3 (objects).

This tournament will also be the last hoorah of the old edition (while we wait for the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement - and possibly the Legacies of Middle-Earth document - to drop), so when picking my list, I was first and foremost interested in running lists that don't appear to be valid lists in the new edition. There is a prohibition on Impossible Alliances at this event (so Floi can't be run with Bombur this time), but there were still plenty of lists that I wanted to run. Without further ado, here are the lists that I considered for the event (and the one I locked into running)!

Honorable Mention: Isengard

Years ago, I stepped out of a tournament that Red Jacket threw so my son could take his first step into our gaming community. It was the first time that any of our kids had participated in an event and I offered to be his coach (and sub in if he got tired). He got a little overwhelmed by the end of the last game, but he also had a lot of fun and played well. The list I almost took to that event was a 750-point version of the list below - and so naturally, I considered taking a list like that, since a) I never actually ran Saruman in one of our events under the 2018 MESBG revamp because I dropped, and b) because the list felt really, really strong:

• Saruman [ARMY LEADER]
• INDEPENDENT: Grima Wormtongue (or in an enemy warband)
• INDEPENDENT: Uruk-Hai Drummer
• 8 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 7 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with pike and banner
• Thrydan Wolfsbane on horse
• 4 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
• 4 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• Mauhur
• 12 Uruk-Hai Marauders with Uruk-Hai bows

The thing is . . . this list is basically a Muster of Isengard list in the new edition. Yes, I need to swap out Thrydan/Mauhur for Uruk-Hai Captains/more guys and I can't upgrade the Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows to Marauders to boost their movement (but will have an extra guy out of it), but this is the kind of list that I can run now without having to "waste" a throw-back event moment. So as much as it pains me to admit that this is the list I probably should run, I'm not going to run it. Don't worry, my dear Uruk-Hai boyz, I'll bring you out to play this edition, I promise.

Pick #5: Lothlorien Pajama Party

This list is a variant of a list I took to a GT a few years ago - but it's got Celeborn and the Mirror of Galadriel instead of Haldir and a few guys. The "pajama party" doesn't work quite like it used to, since the current edition of the game slaps half of the throwing daggers off the Wood Elf Warriors (now Lothlorien Warriors), but it is harder to shoot when you don't have cover thanks to changes with Elven cloaks. This list also has a mounted Galadhrim Captain and some Galadhrim Knights, who are not currently in the Lothlorien list, so this would be something I can't run now (that and Celeborn has a weapon and heavy armor):

• Galadriel with the Mirror of Galadriel [ARMY LEADER]
• 1 Wood Elf Warrior with Wood Elf spear and throwing daggers
• 9 Wood Elf Warriors with Elf bows
• Celeborn with Elven-made hand-and-a-half sword and heavy armor
• 3 Galadhrim Knights with Elf bows
• 4 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers
• 4 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers and Wood Elf spears
• 1 Wood Elf Warrior with Wood Elf spear and banner
• Galadhrim Captain on armored horse with shield and Elf bow
• 6 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers
• 6 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers and Wood Elf spears

The Lothlorien list in the new edition certainly can't run this way, but it can also do things that this list cannot do. While the new Armies of Middle-Earth supplement does not appear to have a Lothlorien army list, Galadhrim Knights were not listed as moving to the Legacies document, so I assume they'll be provided in the Armies of Middle-Earth book but be added to the Lothlorien army list (kind of like models released in the supplements of the last edition were said to be included in existing factions - like Anborn/Mablung being included in Minas Tirith lists). We'll see how all this shapes up, but I'm reasonably certain that once the new book drops, I'll be able to run a list like this. So . . . in the bin it goes for this event.

First Impressions: The Kingdoms of Men, Part V

Good morning gamers,

It is probably a little ambitious to try to tackle close to twenty profiles in a single post, but I couldn't find a good way to break up the Minas Tirith faction (like I did with Isengard, Mordor, or Rohan with Red Jacket's help). So, today we close out the last of the "big four" and cover ALL of Minas Tirith in one fell swoop. There's a lot of overlap between army lists in the warrior department, but many of the heroes appear in only 1-2 army lists - let's see who the big winners in the new edition are!

Minas Tirith, Osgiliath, & Ithilien: How Have They "Changed?"

Last edition, almost all of my Minas Tirith lists had Denethor in them - for 35pts, he was a SUPER cheap Hero of Valour who had enough Courage/Will points to almost never fail his Broken Mind test and his combat stats - while unimpressive - were not bad at all (F5/S4/2A, the kind of stats you'd find on upper-end mid-tier heroes who cost twice as much as he does and usually lead fewer troops). In the new edition, Denethor has gotten a price hike and a few very cool upgrades.

Photo Credit: Giphy

For 50pts, Denethor joins the Minas Tirith regulars and has heavy armor instead of normal armor, pushing him to D6 (which is great in a world where Piercing Strike is not a thing). He also picked up 2 Might/1 Fate, which means he finally has the ability to boost his arrival rolls in maelstrom missions or calling Heroic Moves/Combats - nothing special, unless you were used to him needing an escort to go where you wanted him and when you needed him to move.

He's also got a 5+ Intelligence stat, which is important because now the Broken Mind rule requires you to pass an Intelligence test instead of a Courage test (and since Intel tests can't be boosted with Will, this means you'll need that raw stat to be as high as possible - and a 5+ is pretty dang high). Assuming you remember to roll for this special rule and you don't have Boromir in your list and alive on the board, Denethor remains well-positioned to pass this test, so if it's contributing to a lower price point, I'm good with it. The Broken Mind rule itself is largely the same, but now that Denethor has Might/Fate points, there is a clarification that the opposing player can't force you to burn those resources while Denethor is under enemy control - that's nice!

Nine Companions: Building a Hero-Heavy . . . Shieldwall?

Good morning gamers,

Today we're continuing our ongoing formations series (my, it's been a while since we did one of these!) and we'll be talking about hero-heavy and all-hero lists (more to come on this topic as the year progresses). Most of the posts we've done with formations have to do with conventional armies that have a handful of heroes working in concert with a host of warriors (usually infantry, occasionally cavalry). If you've ever tried to move from a conventional force to a hero-heavy force (either all-hero or heavily slanted towards heroes), you have probably found that you need to think differently and play differently than you would with a conventional force - especially in objective missions.

Today, we're going to look at a few different ways you can set up your heroes on the board in order to make all-hero or hero-heavy lists function well as a shieldwall (especially if you find yourself up against a conventional force). We're going to first look at why you'd want to run more heroes as opposed to the bare minimum number of heroes (maxing out on warriors instead) and then look at how you can change your formations to maximize the value of your heroes. Let's dig into it!

Understanding Heroes: Why Run More Heroes?

Heroes are one of the best features of MESBG - and chief among the reasons they're so great is that they give you access to Might points (or at least, most of them do). Might points can, of course, be used to boost rolls (making an almost-win into a win-by-tying or a win-by-being-higher), which makes the hero unit FEEL better than his weight in grunts in certain situations. Most players, however, want to use their Might points for calling heroic actions - though which heroic actions you want to be calling will be heavily influenced by what your opponent has.

When I got started playing MESBG back in 2010 (it was LOTR SBG back then), there were only three heroic actions: Move, Shoot, and Combat. Move and Combat were basically all anyone called - and we all hoped that our big combat heroes with 3 Might would be able to call 3 Combats and kill 2 models followed by 2 more models for three turns . . . well, this doesn't really happen very often, but if it does, boy do you feel like your hero is something special!

For hero-heavy and all-hero armies, Heroic Moves and Heroic Combats are your most useful heroics - not only because every hero has these, but also because Heroic Moves and Combats alter the tempo of the game, allowing you greater control in where your heroes are and what their matchups are. Yes, having Heroic Strike can be really valuable too - but hero-dominant lists will get FAR more value out of crashing through grunts than they will rivaling big pieces . . . especially if your force doesn't have warriors around to guard the flanks of the heroes while they work.

First Impressions, Dwarves of the Hobbit, Part I

Good morning gamers,

Back in 2019, I wrote an article that compared the Dwarves of Thorin's Company and their Erebor Reclaimed "future selves", looking at which version of the two was better (hint: it was basically always the Champs). While there may have been slight changes to the Dwarves over time, the difference between the book-released profiles and their ending state was pretty negligible. This led to a common critique of Thorin's Company in particular (and to a lesser extent the all-Dwarf-hero Erebor Reclaimed list) when new all-hero Legendary Legions were being released and the lack of synergy between the Dwarves made Thorin's Company and Erebor Reclaimed look like a poor all-hero army choice.

Now we have a new edition and we'll be looking at nearly thirty profiles today as we consider how the profiles for all thirteen Dwarves of Thorin's Company (and their Hobbit companion Bilbo) have changed - and boy do we have some interesting changes today! Let's start off with the two that are not related to each other . . .

Thorin and Bilbo: How Have They "Changed?"

Thorin has always been a bargain deal for less than 150pts - and he was such a good deal, that I considered an Impossible Alliance with Thorin's Company Thorin and Balin, King of Moria for our GT last year and ended up taking Thorin King Under the Mountain with Balin, King of Moria instead. Dwarf heroes tend to pile in a lot of stats into a small points package and golly is that still true of Thorin in this new edition of the game. 

Thorin's Company Thorin is still 100pts base but he picked up Heroic March as a heroic action (which matters less in the Thorin's Company list since everyone gains March and can use Will to call it, but it matters a lot more in the Rangers of Mirkwood list where he is the only Dwarf hero that can declare a March). His stats remain the same as they ever were and the rerolling-1s element of the old Thorin's Company army bonus got rolled into his profile, which is really good for him and particularly good for his S4 buddies. Additionally, friendly models can benefit from Thorin's Stand Fast, which is good to have in the same way that it's good to have Stand Fasts in Elf lists.

Photo Credit: Giphy

King Thorin went up in price by 15pts (130pts base) and picked up F7, Fearless (which he never had), Hatred (Gundabad), and the old Du Bekar army bonus - though it applies to all Dwarf models now instead of just the Champions of Erebor, but also only has a radius of 3" instead of 6". Ancestral Fury was modified to only give him a free Heroic Combat on a turn in which he Charges, but it's still a free Heroic Combat, which makes Thorin an excellent choice for carving through troops.

He traded Heroic Resolve for Heroic March (which doesn't matter in Erebor Reclaimed since everyone has March in that list too, but matters a lot in the Ravenhill and Battle of Five Armies lists) and he lost access to the war goat - which hurts A LOT - but retained access to Orcrist and if you build your list in a particular way, this can make him very, very deadly. I do fear that he may fall into the "Durin problem" a bit in the Ravenhill/Battle of Five Armies lists since a 5" move hero isn't hard to stay away from, but in the Erebor Reclaimed list, he can declare a Heroic March and still charge after using the 8" movement from it - that's the same maneuverability of a goat on a straight-away, but might actually be better than the movement of a goat in a congested area.

Turning now to Bilbo, Bilbo got a 5pt-reduction in cost (55pts base) and still has Strike/Defense/Resolve like he did before (which is a good suite of options, especially on a Ringbearer/support piece). His profile didn't otherwise change - and honestly, with all the other changes that are happening (and the fact that the Ring doesn't half Fight Value if there's someone other than the Ringbearer in combat), I'm not sure how high Bilbo is on my to-take list anymore. Still, he was overpriced before, so I'm glad he got a slight points drop.

Burglar Baggins also got a points drop and is 75pts now (-15pts!). Despite this steep decline in cost, he got boosted to 2 Attacks, his Mithril Coat protects against Rend now and allows him to reroll Fate rolls of 1. Like his Thorin's Company version, he still has Strike/Defense/Resolve, which gives him some good options in a Lake-town list, but he seems kind of expensive for a Battle of Five Armies list (so expect to see him a lot more in Assault on Ravenhill and possibly Survivors of Lake-town lists).

First Impressions: The Elven Kingdoms, Part II

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: Today's article is provided by Red Jacket (the TMAT team's biggest Elf fan) and he's diving into the "Rivendell" faction - which will cover both the profiles available to  the Lindon, Rivendell, and Last Alliance army lists. Red Jacket has been playing with these guys from the beginning of his venture into SBG and boy have they undergone some changes over the years.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Today, I’m comparing and contrasting the Rivendell profiles in the 2024 edition with their

counterparts in 2018. While I learned to play the game with Isengard, Rivendell was the first

faction I invested in on my own. They are my favorite. Peter Jackson’s take on the high elves struck my fancy from the very first moment I saw them on screen, and they are a challenging and rewarding faction to bring to the table. I’m very excited to dig into the new edition’s treatment of this, the best of factions.

Before diving in, a few housekeeping things. First, as per my last article on the carry-over Rohan profiles, I won’t be commenting on the new intelligence stat. 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.

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

Gil-Galad, High King of the Noldor

Photo Credit: Pinterest

Stats:

Gil-Galad didn’t receive any change in his stats, though his fight value was functionally buffed quite a bit, as I will outline later in the heroic actions section.

Wargear:

No functional change to his wargear, including Aiglos’s special rule.

Heroic Actions:

• Heroic Challenge
• Heroic Resolve
• Heroic Strength

This is where we start to see the first differences in the profile, most obviously, removals. In the 2018 edition, Gil-Galad also had access to Heroic Strike and Defense. I don’t mind the loss of Strike in this new edition. With the vast majority of heroes capping out at F6, and Strike now only being a D3 role, his F9 is actually much more powerful now than it was

in the previous edition. It was often hard to justify spending might on Strike before, and now, it’s even less worth it. While technically it’s a loss because you can’t match some of the biggest models in the game, (the Balrog, Sauron if he Strikes, and a handful of monster heroes with a chance to reach F10 if they Strike), in general you are actually much more likely to find yourself secure in the face of Striking heroes.

Thoughts on Scenario Play for Matched Play Players

Good morning gamers,

Here at TMAT, we do a lot of things - we post articles on the internet about the unique aspects, strengths, and weaknesses of each faction, we probe the depths of the best and worst Legendary Legions to see what good can be found in them, and we explore ways to beat the nastiest of models and elevate the most despised models in the game. All told, if you're interested in Matched Play content, we've probably got you covered (except battle report videos - we don't really have the time for those and lots of other people are doing them really well these days, so we're not going to get in that game).

One of the other things we do here at TMAT, however, is scenario play. After looking at the views on our pages over the past year, it's clear that among the demographic of least popular posts by views are the scenario-driven posts. Over the past two years, Centaur and I have played through a Fantasy Fellowship campaign (from my favorite supplement) as well as the Scouring of the Shire campaign (from Centaur's favorite supplement) - and while neither of these series generates a lot of views (in general), we really enjoying scenario play - and you should expect to see more scenarios from us this coming year as well!

But what is it about scenario play that appeals to us? More importantly, is there value in scenario play for other people - especially those who are less driven by theme and more interested in the competitive aspects of Matched Play? With scenarios from the Fellowship of the Ring, Two Towers, and Return of the King available for download now, I thought that it might be a good time to reflect on my lessons learned from scenario play and I will be contending today that there's a benefit to everyone to play through scenarios - let's dig in and see why that is!

Why Play Scenarios?

Chances are good that if you're reading this blog, you're already invested in (or are looking to invest in) the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game by Games Workshop. This game is incredible and VERY fun to play. While the core rules are good and the models can be stunning, the biggest draw for most players is their ability to be immersed in a world that they love from books that they've read or films that they've seen.

Sometimes, when playing a Matched Play game, this immersion is lost - I mean, if you see the Fellowship of the Ring fighting against a Last Alliance list on a board that looks like it's from Mordor . . . well, that's not how the story went. Other times, the immersion is still there, but mostly in a what-could-have-been kind of way - if you see the Fellowship of the Ring fighting against a band of Uruk-Hai but Gandalf is there, you could say, "Well, this is how things might have been if Gandalf had turned around and ran faster in Moria." This is not as bad as the first case, but it's still not quite the same.

First Impressions: Harad and Umbar, Part I

Good morning gamers,

Today we're combining the factions of Umbar and Harad from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement. When the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement arrives, we should have a lot more to talk about, but right now, we've got four profiles for each faction . . . that didn't seem like enough to justify two posts. As a result, we're lumping the "evil men who aren't Easterlings or Dunlendings or have big mouths" into one post today - but expect Parts 2 and 3 to come out when the new book hits the market.

Umbar Profiles: How Have They "Changed?"

We're starting off with Umbar which . . . really need some updating. :) In a way, the Corsairs can still play the game they've always been able to play - spam a bunch of cheapish F4 guys. Each Corsair unit isn't "cheap" exactly, but when you factor in the sub-60pt cost for their Heroes of Fortitude, you can get a full warband of guys for just 158-163pts. Copy/paste that a few times and you've got a horde list (52 models at 650pts).

The Corsairs of Umbar are only available in one list - the Corsair Fleets - which I assume is because they never actually made it to the Pelennor. We'll see if they're integrated into the new "Army of the Red Eye" list from the Armies of Middle-Earth, but I'm only a little optimistic. Their faction also got paired down in this supplement to four models which are . . . possibly still competent.