Announcing the TMAT THRO 2025 Tournament!

Good morning gamers,

It's that time of year - The Hunter's Red October will be hitting the TMAT community again (but in September this time, not in October). The tournament will be held in Purcellville or Berryville, VA on September 20, 2025. This will be our first tournament under the 2024+ rules set (now that we have a complete set of profile supplements), which I think is pretty exciting! Without further ado, here are (in my typical style) the Ten Commandments of the Tournament (Rules):

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