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.
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| 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).
I assume this question was asked because there's a Fangorn army list bonus that prevents Ent models from being affected by Wrath of Bruinen (and Merry and Pippin aren't Ents). While we're on the subject of Merry and Pippin riding Treebeard, I'll add that there's an errata about how you can interact with Merry and Pippin while they're riding on Treebeard (namely that they can't be targeted by melee attacks):
Page 24 – Treebeard – Merry & Pippin
Change the third sentence to:
Merry and Pippin are treated as Passengers (though this will not give Treebeard either the Cavalry or Mount keywords), with the exception that they cannot be targeted individually by shooting attacks, Magical Powers, or special rules, and Strikes cannot be made against them in Combat.
The interesting thing about the Wrath of Bruinen FAQ is that special rules that have affected a part of a model have traditionally applied to the whole model (such as having Resistant to Magic or Fortify Spirit on a rider applies the same rule to the mount because the "model" gets the special rule). The Merry and Pippin special rule essentially applies the army list bonus that prevents Ents from being affected by certain magical powers to all parts of a "model" in the same way that normal special rules would be applied. That's good to know (though I don't know of any other special rules that would army list bonuses outside of their expected contexts).
A very easy FAQ was brought up about whether or not you can take Rohirrim Traitors in the warband of a Rohan King of Men - I assume this is because the Rohirrim Traitors have the right keywords to appear in a Realms of Men army list, but are in fact Evil models instead of Good ones . . . the answer is "no", so you can't get guys with Hatred (Rohan) for free in the Rohan element of any Realms of Men list . . . sounds about right to me:
Q: If I take a Rohan King of Men in the Realms of Men Army List, can I include Rohirrim Traitors in the army? (p.134) A: No.
In the main rulebook, there was a question about supporting models adding their own Fight Value to the duel - and yes, as it has always been, a supporting model lends its Fight Value to determine who has the highest value in the fight:
Q. The rules for Supporting say that the model contributes a single dice to the Duel Roll that uses the Supporting model’s own Fight Value; is this used to determine the highest Fight Value in the Combat? (p.104) A. Yes. If the Supporting model has the highest Fight Value of models contributing dice to the Duel Roll, then that model’s side will win the Combat.
In past editions of the game, we've seen the Fleetfoot special rule (and the Hunt Master special rule on Fimbul) allow cavalry models to gain their charge bonuses while in difficult terrain - there was an FAQ that clarified that this applies to rules like Spectral Walk as well:
Q. If a Cavalry model has the Spectral Walk special rule, do they gain the charge bonuses when charging into Difficult Terrain? (p.129) A. Yes.
There was another FAQ that specifically highlighted Knights of Dol Amroth who gain bonuses from the Fiefdoms army list (I had to do a double-take, as I thought it was a reference to their +1 Fight Value getting mis-printed as +1 To Wound) by being near Dol Amroth heroes - rules that proc from being within range of a certain thing are really "one or more of a certain thing" and can only be triggered once (unless they specifically state otherwise). We've seen this with multiple Harbinger of Evil bubbles for ages - there's a specific exception in the Black Riders army list that can cause a second penalty to stack, but in all other situations, you can only be affected by Harbinger once:
Q. If a Knight of Dol Amroth is within 6" of two Dol Amroth Heroes that have charged, do they benefit from multiple +1 bonuses To Wound? (p.85) A. No. Unless explicitly stated, multiple instances of the same rule are not cumulative. In the above example, the Knight of Dol Amroth would only gain a +1 bonus To Wound. Another example is the Drums in the Deep special rule; a Moria Goblin model cannot benefit from multiple instances of it, no matter how many Moria Goblin Drums you have.
In the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement, there was a question about the timing for the Battle of Fornost special rule "The Charge of Gondor," which gives Gondor cavalry models +1 Fight Value on a turn in which they charge. The timing, as you might expect, begins "when they charge" and ends at the end of the turn. This is particularly informative since Earnur's Master Duelist special rule triggers at the start of any Combat involving him (and so he'll be F7 if he's charged before that point - and his Fight Value can't be modified by enemy special rules/magical powers starting then):
Q. When does the Charge of Gondor special rule take effect? (p.93) A. Once a Gondor Cavalry model has charged, they gain the benefit of this rule for the rest of turn. So, for rules such as Eärnur’s Master Duellist, he will be Fv 7 before he can potentially increase it at the start of a Combat.
We had a clarification that affects passenger models (we have a pleasantly large supply of those this edition) - passengers can't do anything in Combat per the rules manual, so they can't declare Heroic actions while passengers (in the Defenders of the Pelennor list, this specifically applies to the free Heroic Combats they can call - but I assume this would also apply to declaring Heroic Moves with their Might even though it's not in a Combat?) - I will note that both Merry and Pippin can have their Might spent FOR them by Eowyn and Gandalf respectively, just not their free Heroic Combats:
Q: If Pippin or Merry are taken as passengers in the Defenders of the Pelennor Army List, can they declare a free Heroic Combat while they are passengers? (p.116) A: No – as per the Passenger rules (p.135 of The Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual), they cannot contribute to a Combat in any way.
Mordor Uruk-Hai were clarified to trigger their new Cleaving Blow special rule whenever they get a 6 To Wound, which includes either dice that's rolled when you need to get a 6/4+ or a 6/5+ on your wounding result (I am a firm believer that Cleaving Blow is a good ditch-effort deterrent against multi-wound models ramming into Mordor Uruk-Hai, but you really don't want your Uruks charging non-Transfixed multi-wound models that aren't Hobbits or Goblins normally):
Q: How does the Mordor Uruk-Hai Cleaving Blow special rule work in cases where you need to roll a 6+ followed by a further dice? (p.154) A: It will trigger if either of the dice rolled are a natural 6.
As should probably always be the case, we had a clarification on Grima - as was true in the last edition (at least how we played it here at TMAT), if a hero gets a heroic action for free, he doesn't have to spend anything extra if he's near Grima . . . as a player who enjoys running Grima, this is the world as it should be:
Q: If a Hero within 6" of Gríma Wormtongue declares a free Heroic Action, does the Wormtongue special rule increase the cost of that Hero model’s Heroic Action? (p.160). A: No. In the case of a free Heroic Action, no Might points are expended to declare the Action, and so Grima’s ability does not increase the cost.
There was a consistency clarification on the Army of the White Hand army list that says that Saruman can't modify wounding rolls from Conjure Lightning - this is the same logic that prevents chariot drivers from modifying impact hits, prevented Sorcerous Blast casters from modifying collateral hits in the last edition, and I assume prevents the modification of Wrath of Bruinen hits too:
Q: When using the Conjure Lightning ability of the Army of the White Hand Army List, can Saruman use Might to change To Wound Rolls? (p.219) A: No.
Finally, we have a clarification that Elf bows indeed shoot Elf arrows, which means that since they're Elven weapons, they will apply a -1 penalty to the Unholy Resurrection rules for Nazgul of Dol Guldur:
Q. If a Nazgûl of Dol Guldur is slain by an Elf bow, do they suffer a -1 penalty when rolling for the Unholy Resurrection rule? (p.130) A. Yes. The rules for Elven weapons (page 106 of The Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual) state that “Any weapon with the word ‘Elf’ in its name is automatically considered to be an Elven weapon.” As an Elf bow has the word Elf in its name, it is an Elven weapon, which applies the -1 modifier.
That's it for the easy stuff - now for some real changes . . .
Rules That Got Changed
There were two errata to the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement that I was pleased to see and that definitely changed some things. First, Gulavhar is back up to a 12" Fly (YAYE FOR HIM!) instead of a 6" Fly and second, Druzhag has a 6" range on his Enrage Beast magical power (less yaye for him, lots of YAYE for his opponents).
The Armies of the Lord of the Rings saw an errata as well (besides the Treebeard/Merry & Pippin clarification discussed above), which is a reduction in the base cost of Ringwraith models in the Black Riders army list from 110pts to 105pts. This was, apparently, done to make sure you could field all nine at 1000pts . . . instead of all nine for 1020pts . . . I don't know if the drop from 110 to 105 would be "broken" in any other lists with Ringwraiths of this caliber, but I'd be down for applying it further than the Black Riders list, personally.
The last errata is a change to the new scenario "Sites of Power", which has a special rule called "Strange Aura" that can give models reroll 1s To Wound or Fearless depending on a roll. When originally printed a 1-4 gave you rerolling 1s To Wound and you got Fearless on a 4-6 . . . which made a result of 4 really, really good. This has been clarified that Fearless is only handed out on a 5-6.
As we move into the Designer Commentaries, there was a question about official models being dismounts for mounted models. This question extended a clarification that was pretty in-depth last time around for the right model to represent Warg Rider dismounts, but this time is applied to Mirkwood Elf Knights. In the Warg Rider cases, models would keep the same gear or lose gear (losing a throwing spear and possibly a shield to have a standard spear) - but here, we have a unit straight-up gaining war gear - and more importantly, clarifying that if there are multiple pieces of gear the model could have, you choose the option that gains the fewest pieces of wargear (or the cheapest option):
Q. The rules state that when a model Dismounts, it discards any wargear it is carrying that is not represented on the official dismounted model. What happens if the dismounted model has wargear that the mounted model didn’t have? For example, if a Mirkwood Elf Knight Dismounts, the dismounted models (Mirkwood Elf Warriors) all have options the Knight does not. (p.69) A. In rare cases like this, the dismounted model gains wargear so it can be accurately represented by the model. In cases where multiple options are available, you must choose the option that sees the fewest pieces of wargear gained and choose the wargear that is the cheapest in points cost. For example, in the case of the Mirkwood Elf Knight, it would Dismount and be represented by a Mirkwood Elf Warrior with a shield, as that is the option worth the fewest points – we presume the warrior found a discarded shield on the battlefield. In the given example, you cannot use a model with an Elf bow or Elven Glaive as they both cost more than a shield.
What is interesting to me is the reverse question: if I have a Rider of Rohan with throwing spears (bow, shield, throwing spears as gear), my rules-as-written approach would be to chuck the bow and replace the model with a shield and throwing spears option. Similarly, I would expect a Rivendell Knight with shield or Galadhrim Knight with shield and Elf bow who dismounts to pick either the bow-only or the shield-only (if equipped with a shield) option. But why am I not forced to pick the cheaper option between the two? I get that Mirkwood Elf Warriors have to take a piece of gear and the Galadhrim/High Elf Warriors don't so they don't run into this situation, but it seems like there would be a much easier fix to just make wargear optional for Mirkwood Elf Warriors and have the dismount be a dude with just the sword. But whatever, I don't make the rules.
Leaving this FAQ question aside, we had a clarification that just like Ugluk can proc two rules by killing one Orc, so also Shelob can proc two of her rules with just one model - perfection:
Q: If Shelob is included as part of the Cirith Ungol Army List and eats one friendly model does she gain bonuses for both “She is always hungry” and Swift Hunter? (p.146 & 215) A: Yes.
There was a clarification that the Campfire for the Three Trolls works like other objective markers, which didn't really answer the question of whether it's open ground, impassible, or other terrain . . . for that, you have to look at the rulebook for how objectives work, apparently:
Q. Is the Three Trolls Campfire Open Ground, Impassable or something else? (p.157) A. The Campfire is treated like an Objective Marker, though it doesn’t actually count as one for Scenario objectives (see p.157 of the The Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual).
There was one last FAQ that made a big change to the way certain scenarios work - you can't pick mounts that have the Hero keyword to be your target in scenarios where that applies:
Q. Can a Mount with the Hero keyword be chosen as an opponent’s target in Fog of War scenarios? (p.167) A. No. . . . Or should we say, nay.
I have to say that this is a big FAQ for me - not only was it fun to pick units like the White Warg as my target in Fog of War (that will be missed for sure), but I feel like the way this FAQ was answered missed the pun by using "nay" instead of "neigh." I checked and "nay" is not the British spelling of "neigh" - as an avid user of Dad Jokes, this one was poorly done. Missed opportunity, GW, missed opportunity . . . also, I loved the attempt. :)
. . . And Then There's Bofur . . .
I . . . totally didn't see Bofur as the center of my head-scratching for this FAQ. I'm a patreon of the Battle Streams in Middle-Earth YouTube channel (which I highly recommend you join - Damian can take my money and that's fine with me) and I've seen rules questions in our chat on and off for the past few months asking about how Bofur's rules work, especially while he's mounted on a Troll Brute (it's a war beast where the driver doesn't have a base to measure from). There was a clarification on the Troll Brute - but not the one I was expecting . . . turns out, if you include a "war beast" as a model in your army, you don't have all-Infantry heroes:
Q. If, in an Erebor Reclaimed army, Bofur is upgraded with a Troll Brute, can the army still benefit from the “To the King!” special rule? (p.89) A. No – it no longer includes only Infantry Hero models, so does not meet the requirements.
And then there's the second longest FAQ ever (after "how exactly does the Dwarf Ballista work" from the last edition) . . . I'll let you read it and then I'll give my commentary:
Q. What rules are affected by Bofur’s Steadfast special rule?
A. If a model is directly affected by a special rule, then they can
attempt to ignore its effects via Steadfast. These can be special
rules that directly target Bofur, such as the War Bat’s Pluck
special rule. It can also be rules that indirectly target them, such
as the bonus of +1 To Wound effect from a War Bat’s Piercing
Talons or the ability for Azog To Wound on a natural 3+ via his I
am the Master special rule.
It does not ignore rules that benefit an enemy model but don’t
directly affect the model. For example, Steadfast cannot ignore
a Hunter Orc Warriors’ Savage Hunters special rule, even if that
model will be making Strikes against a model benefiting from
Steadfast – only the Hunter Orc is affected, even if the end
result is more dice rolled against your model! Similarly, rules
such as The Three Trolls Kitchen Utensils cannot be ignored, as it
is the Trolls that are re-rolling any dice of a natural 1.
The Steadfast Roll is made when a special rule is triggered. For
example, you would only test if Steadfast allows a model to
ignore the Harbinger of Evil (X) rule when they take a Courage
Test while within range. The benefits of Steadfast only apply for
that test as well – the next Courage Test would require another
Steadfast Roll.
The Steadfast rule does not negate a special rule – it simply
means the model ignores its effect. So a War Bat would still
make To Wound Rolls against the model, just without the +1 To
Wound Roll if Steadfast applied, and the War Bat would get the
bonuses against models not benefiting from Steadfast.
Similarly, it only allows a model to ignore the parts of a rule
that affect them, not the entire rule. For example, Steadfast
will allow a model to attempt to ignore the part of the Pits of
Dol Guldur Surprise Attack which stops models from declaring
Heroic Moves. If the Steadfast Roll is successful, that model can
declare Heroic Moves but it does not stop Azog’s controlling
player from winning Priority; all other models you control
must have each separately passed a Steadfast Roll to be able to
declare Heroic moves.
Lastly, Steadfast does not apply to every rule – for example,
it cannot be used against Strikes. If in doubt, look for a big
header that says ‘Special Rules’ above the rule you are hoping
to negate.
I appreciate the depth of this response - but let's also break it down to understand why it's here and what this special rule covers. Before we dig into all of the implications of this wall of text, let's put the current wording of the Steadfast rule out there for context:
Whenever a friendly <Erebor/Thorin's Company> Hero within 3" of Bofur is affected by an enemy special rule or Magical Power, they may roll a D6. On a 3+, the model will ignore its effects. In the case of a Magical Power, any Resist Tests must be made before using this special rule.
When the Steadfast rule came out in its current state with the new edition, there were a lot of questions about what kinds of special rules were affected by this. If I have Gwaihir charging into Bofur or someone nearby with Monstrous Charge, can he turn it off? Can he turn off Fly for a model that charges him or a friend nearby? Can he turn off Harbinger of Evil? How about army list special rules? Hatred? Anduril? Anything related to Grima? There's a lot of special rules out there and saying that you can turn off a "special rule" is pretty generic. Hence we get the treatise you see above. Let's break it down . . .
The first set of rules that are affected are the ones that I think all of us thought of right away when reading the Steadfast rule: things that target Bofur or certain friendly models within 3" of him. These rules have the "target hero" text in them, which includes rules like A Fell Light is In Them. There are some rules with similar wording that are not so straight-forward and these might lead to more confusion than this FAQ has cleared up - rules like Legolas's Pinpoint Shot special rule (can Bofur prevent Legolas from targeting him with a shot if Bofur is Engaged in combat with a model friendly to Legolas?) or the Gandalf's Rockets special rule (can Bofur prevent Gandalf from using his fireworks to target himself or friendly models near him?). These examples are both direct-targeting special rules, so I assume the avoidance of these rules very much applies. Take that, emerging Shire meta . . .
Amazingly, however, Steadfast can also remove To Wound bonuses from enemy models. The I am the Master special rule on Azog is called out, but Anduril has similar-but-different wording and since +1 To Wound from the War Bat Piercing Talons is called out, I assume special rules like Hatred and Celeborn's Battle Wisdom will be similarly avoidable. I don't think this applies to war gear that "just gives +1 To Wound" like lances and two-handed/hand-and-a-half weapons because those are not tied to "special rules" (see the end of the discussion on Steadfast below), but this is a bit of a conjecture on my part. If any of this seems confusing and unintuitive for you, read on . . .
Perhaps more amazing to me was that while special rules that targeted the model intending to hurt Bofur in the form of bonuses To Wound were specifically called out as avoidable by Steadfast, as we get into the second paragraph, we read that rules that allow the attacking model to reroll their combat dice don't specifically target the attacked model and so cannot be avoided - so Hatred is fair game, but Ancient Enemies is just fine (yet another reason why Gundabad Orcs are better than Blackshields). While this is specifically applied to the Kitchen Utensils of the Three Trolls, it would certainly apply to things like Poison, Venom, and the aforementioned Ancient Enemies (along with a host of other reroll 1s rules in specific profiles).
The other thing that's specifically said to be exempt are special rules that give a boost to the attacking model without directly affecting the target model - the primary example of this is the Hunter Orc Savage Hunters special rule, which boosts the Attack stat of charging Hunter Orcs. The fact that this is called out as unavoidable (even though it increases the chances that the Hunter Orc beats and wounds Bofur or select friends nearby) makes me wonder why things like Azog's I am the Master rule or the War Bat Piercing Talons rules are prohibited - both of these kinds of rules make the attacker better at attacking, regardless of the kind of unit they're hitting. They don't "target" Bofur in the same way that the Pluck or A Fell Light special rules do. While being as respectful as possible, I feel like the consistency of the argument is a bit shaky here.
As we get into the third paragraph we get two pieces of information that are both interesting and a bit troubling: the first is that special rules that are statically applied to models can be targeted by Steadfast. The example provided is Harbinger of Evil, which doesn't require the active choice of the player with the Harbinger unit to target a specific model - all enemy models are affected by rules like Harbinger of Evil just by being within the Harbinger range. Static special rules aren't numerous, but they are common - the most common of them are Harbinger of Evil (of course) and Terror, both of which "affect" enemy models with a potential downside. If Harbinger is a valid rule to be ignored, so also would Terror.
There are other niche rules like the Balrog's Fiery Lash and the Watcher in the Water's Tentacles that "affect" the model by dragging it from where it is - if a rule like Harbinger is a valid shut-down, I think something more directly "targeting" the model would certainly qualify as well. I don't know if Monstrous Charge falls more within the +1 To Wound/wound-more-easily rules or the static ones that affect a model, but Monstrous Charge is certainly caught here (and rules like Fly that enable a model - especially a monster - to charge Bofur or a nearby applicable model might be targetable too, as being charged/Engaged affects the model). I dearly hope that applying this to Fly is a stretch, but I can definitely see it.
The second - and perhaps most encumbering nature of this FAQ - is that we have to test for Steadfast every time a rule that "affects" an applicable model would be used and the example provided is with Harbinger of Evil. If Bofur and seven other members of Thorin's Company (in their Thorin's Company or Champions of Erebor forms) are all within range of a model with Harbinger of Evil (6-18" radius, depending on the model), you get to roll a 3+ for each, then test for Terror . . . except that Terror is a special rule that "affects" the model that has to test for it.
We are told in the fourth paragraph that the rule itself isn't removed or prevented, it's just that the effects of the rule are ignored by the model that passes the test. As an example, if Bofur is fielded in an Army of Lake-town list and is charged by a War Bat, along with a Lake-town Guard, Bofur could roll to avoid being affected by the War Bat's Piercing Talons, but the Guardsman can still be wounded on a 3+ by the Talon bonus. I'm happy with this (this rant won't all be complaints, see?).
What I am less happy about is that this has also been applied to army list special rules - the example provided is that if the Pits of Dol Guldur uses their "trump card" Surprise Attack rule (which gives them priority and prevents enemy heroes from declaring Heroic Moves), Bofur and applicable models near him can test for Steadfast and on a 3+, they can declare Heroic Moves (not for free, of course, but they can yank the teeth out of this special rule just because they brought Bofur). While this isn't furthering the application of the Steadfast's impacts that much further, there are army bonuses like the Promise of Wealth special rule in the Besiegers of the Hornburg army list that could be denied their +1 To Wound while near an objective against Bofur and his buddies (as we've determined +1 To Wound rules are fair game) and the Balrog's ". . . and Flame" special rule can probably be shut off as well (as it directly targets an enemy model with a harmful effect).
Garrison of Dale players beware as well, as your Defenders of Dale special rule is most certainly in peril, though the Long-standing Alliance special rule in the Defenders of Erebor army list and the Bring Down the Dragon special rule from the Garrison of Dale are probably protected (as they "just" grants rerolling 1s To Wound or rerolling failed To Hit rolls). It is unclear to me how the Grey Wizard special rule in the Shire army list is affected as Gandalf being able to target two heroes with his Cart is certainly an "affecting" rule, but it may be that you can roll at the start of each turn to see if they can be targeted at all (or do you have to wait for Gandalf to say he's targeting them and then loses his opportunity).
Finally, we are assured that not everything in the game is a special rule - but as has hopefully been seen in this short tirade of sorts, while the rule only applies to special rules (and Magical Powers - don't forget those Magical Powers like directly-targeted ones like Transfix/Compel and those auric-affects-you ones like Fog of Disarray or Aura of Dismay), there are a LOT of special rules that might be affected. It's probably a good idea to work out with your opponent which of his rules you can test for and which ones you can't before you start playing to avoid a fight.
While I've tried to be positive throughout, I will say one last thing that is a bit of a positive for me: I think Bofur got better after this FAQ and that makes me happy. In a way, he's become the heir of Floi - able to do things that shut down certain game interactions that you don't like, but limited to himself and perhaps some friends near him. When I first read the FAQ, I was like, "Oh no - all of the Hatred (Man) boosts in the Muster of Isengard are going to be negated for Lake-town Guard near Bofur in an Army of Lake-town list", but thanks to the use of the Erebor/Thorin's Company Hero keywords in Steadfast, the application of this rule will be small. I also had some concerns about the Steadfast rule being used to prevent bad things happening to a friendly Gwaihir (who can be taken in several lists with Bofur), but those appear to be fine. That said, he will be a TERROR to deal with in Erebor Reclaimed, Army of Erebor, and Defenders of Erebor lists that lean into those Erebor Hero models, as you can shut down a variety of things that would slow you down. As someone who was pleasantly surprised by Bofur's performance in Fantasy Fellowships a few years ago, I'm glad that my favorite Dwarf from the Hobbit films gets a bit of time in the sun.
Also . . . despite covering a TON of things with regard to Steadfast, they still haven't answered where you measure the range of Steadfast from if Bofur is on a Troll Brute - he and the war beast are distinct models according to the war beast rules and you normally measure from the driver's base . . . and he doesn't have one.
Conclusion
And that's the August 2025 FAQ! The game is finally in a complete-ish state, but I fully expect February 2026 to ring in some changes for both the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement and the Matched Play Guide as players are munching on new scenarios and testing out new army lists. If you have thoughts on the FAQs presented here, let us know in the comments below! Until next time, happy hobbying!
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