The Citadel of the Stars, Part II: The Retaking of Osgiliath

Good morning gamers,

We're back for Part 2 in our custom Osgiliath campaing and we're back in Gondor at War to see if Boromir - without his horse or shield - can retake Osgiliath! As we said last time, we're going to change up the scenario participants to make it Matched Play legal for the new edition - and while we could have been truer to the listed participants by sticking with the Army of the White Hand (now that they have access to Trolls), we decided to shake things up a bit and make it a roughly 525pt game between the Reclamation of Osgiliath and the Legions of Mordor!

The Retaking of Osgiliath (Gondor at War, p. 10)

We've decided to use the following models in today's game:

• Forces of Good: The Reclamation of Osgiliath
• Boromir, Captain of the White Tower with the Banner of Minas Tirith
• Faramir, Captain of Ithilien
• 8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 9 Rangers of Gondor
• Forces of Evil: The Legions of Mordor
• 3 Morannon Orc Captains with shields
• 6 Morannon Orcs
• 8 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 8 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
• 6 Morannon Orcs with spears
• 1 Mordor Troll

I wanted to make two notes about the Legions of Mordor list (which we reviewed recently in our New Age is Begun series): this list can be run with just the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book and has 32 models at 525 - and so at 550, you could add a banner to it and it would be quite strong, in my opinion. You could also drop 1 Morannon Orc with no extra gear to get shields on 8 people - that would be good too.

The New Age Is Begun: The Garrison of Ithilien Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're kicking of a review of several Minas Tirith factions today and we're starting with a faction that I've been playing a bit with mostly in the context of scenario play in our custom Osgiliath campaign. The Garrison of Ithilien army list, which is the rebranded version of the Rangers of Ithilien Legendary Legion (which was first introduced in Gondor at War but was then updated in Quest of the Ringbearer and was adjusted in several FAQ releases), is still a powerful shooting list on the tabletop, though some nice adjustments have been made to the army list in order to reduce opportunities for a negative play experience. This list hasn't lost all of its teeth, though, and I think it's a bit of a sleeper list in the current meta. Let's see what Faramir's shooty boyz have going for them this edition, shall we? As we've done in recent articles, anything related specifically to the Legacy profiles will be highlighted in red.

The Garrison of Ithilien: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

When we're looking at profiles available to us, we have basically everyone we had last edition: on the Ranger hero side of the house, we still have Faramir, Madril, and Damrod - and if you are able to include Legacy models, you also have Anborn and Mablung. These guys have had some changes to them, but by and large, they are either more-or-less what they always were but 5pts more expensive OR they got some nice buffs for a 15pt cost increase. All in all, not bad. For non-Ranger heroes, we still have Captains of Minas Tirith (who changed a bit) and Frodo/Sam/Smeagol, who can still be their own warband or part of Faramir's warband - which they might have an easier time being in now that the bow limit rules have changed (more on that shortly).

On the warrior side of the house, the list retained Warriors of Minas Tirith (who had one minor change), Rangers of Gondor (who had one minor change), and Osgiliath Veterans (who had three changes - ultimately all ending as a net positive). In addition to these, the list got access to Knights of Minas Tirith, which means you can have fast units without paying for a horse for Faramir or Captains of Minas Tirith (which you had to do last edition). While March is probably embedded in your list, it's always nice to have some fast units that can Charge - or fast units that can run REALLY far to meet an objective condition if they're benefitting from a March/Heroic Combat. All in all, the list is more or less what it was, but the one option they got makes the list as a whole a lot better.

Army List Bonuses

Like in the previous version of the game, you have to take Faramir in this army list - but unlike the errata'd version of this list late in the previous edition, you don't have to take Frodo, Sam, and Smeagol anymore. This requirement was added when Rangers of Ithilien lists at lower points levels were clocking in with 30+ bows and they've made a different list building constraint to make sure that negative play experience is toned down.

Instead of having Rangers of Gondor not count towards your bow limit in warbands led by the five Ranger heroes, the entire list now has a 50% bow limit. This means that for every Ranger with a bow that you want to field, you'll have to field a tin can as well. Functionally, this means that cavalry and shieldwalls of some kind are going to be common, but it also means that Warriors of Minas Tirith and Osgiliath Veterans with bows are not going to show up in this list. There are other lists where they might find a place (though nothing is certain), but it won't be this one - you want Rangers in this list, as many as you can field.

The Road to THRO 2025: Tiberius's List

Good morning gamers,

Bonus post! We've got our first tournament under the new edition coming up and here's my path (as usual) to preparing for the event. I have a lot of lists that I've tried and a few that I haven't tried, but here were the contenders and why I did or didn't take each one. I will say that I left my Balrog at home because I ran him a lot last edition and I have a bunch of lists I didn't get to run last edition that look good/still look good now. We'll start with . . .

Pick #5: Numenor

I'm in love with the new Numenor list and while they can't get a banner, I think it's a REALLY strong list (and so easy to acquire second-hand off from players who want the Elves and not the Numenoreans if you're willing to do some kit bashing)! At 600pts, you can get a 33-man list with Isildur on a horse and two Captains OR you can get a 35-man list with Isildur on foot and two Captains. I don't own a mounted Isildur model, so I've opted for the 35-man option:

Leaving this list at home was an easy choice - I've played with it a few times and liked it, but my son liked it too and it's also easy for new players to use (and we've got a few new people for this event). My son toyed with running the mounted-Isildur version of this list until the day of the deadline, so I passed on it but I'm committing myself to running some variant of this list at some point during this edition . . . we'll see how my follow-through is on that. :)

Top 10 Most Improved Evil Profiles in the Armies of Middle Earth Book

Hey Reader!

(Okay before we begin, you should know, because he won't tell you, so I will: Tiberius has a birthday this week! So leave him a comment below telling him how much you appreciate everything he does for this channel! Okay, back to the article)

We're here at last: the last of the Top 10 posts in our Most Improved profiles series, today looking at the Armies of Middle Earth book for the Forces of Evil. Now that we know all the armies that someone can be fielded in, potential models that they can pair with, and special rules, we're set to rank the top ten most improved models for the Forces of Evil in the Armies of Middle Earth book.

As we did in the top ten most improved profiles for the Forces of Good, a few caveats before we look at the list: 

• We're ranking the most improved profiles in The Armies of Middle Earth book, so we won't be looking at profiles beyond that book.
• We're ranking the top ten most improved profiles for the Forces of Evil in the book, so only evil profiles will be considered here.
• We're ranking the most improved profiles, not the strongest profiles: just because a model is strong or powerful doesn't mean it will appear in this ranking, because if they're basically the same as they were last edition, they won't be much improved. 
• The "Most Improved" means that the profile had to exist last edition, which is not really an issue with this book, but again it's something we're looking for in this ranking series.
• There were more profiles than this list can hold, so yes, I couldn't include all of the ones that I thought were interesting/useful. There will be some honorable mentions, but suffice it to say, if you really thought that someone should have made the list and didn't, there's a good chance that they were considered and just didn't break the top ten.

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

Honorable Mention: Druzhag the Beastcaller

Druzhag has always been a useful shaman - one of the most common named shamans you would see at a tournament, and his ability to turn a lowly Wild Warg or spider into a behemoth is a highly effective use of points. And he remains that: Enrage Beast is still really good, and that's still mostly why you're taking him.

But he picked up some new tricks: first, he picked up Writhing Vines, so he can create difficult woodland terrain, potentially after cavalry have already committed to a charge (so goodbye the vast majority of charge bonuses!), or potentially before they've charged, causing their movement to be quartered within its range (which is a great way to prevent charges in the first place, which Moria needs).

The second thing he picked up is that if he suffers a wound, before rolling Fate, he can roll a D6: on a 2+ the wound can be passed off to a beast within 2" of him. This is key: removing Druzhag was a huge priority last edition, and effectively caging him (and thus passing on firepower to maintain a protective bubble around him) was critical to getting the most value out of him. But now, after hits have successfully resolved as wounds (which means probably not all of the potential wounds that could have been dealt), you have a chance to pass those wounds off to wild wargs or spiders that you don't need/care about as much as your shaman. And on a D4 base (that can still roll for Fate if you roll a 1), that's really, really good.

The Citadel of the Stars, Part I: The Defence of Osgiliath

Good morning gamers,

Centaur and I are pleased to be bringing you another campaign series this year, running on alternate Thursdays through the rest of the year! While we've done Fantasy Fellowships as well as the Scouring of the Shire, we decided this year to show off the Kingdom of Tor Ithilas terrain that I picked up last year and play through eight scenarios centered around the city of Osgiliath (home of the Citadel of the Stars). Three of these scenarios will be from the old Gondor at War supplement (including today's scenario), four will come from the Battle of Osgiliath starter box, and we'll be replaying the Osgiliath scenario from Quest of the Ringbearer as well.

Normally, we follow the scenario participants list closely, but we decided to have some fun with this and a) use the new ruleset instead of the old one, and b) use the scenario participants to provide a baseline for two game-legal army lists from the new edition. As such, the models we'll be using might change slightly from the original list - but where we could stick to what was originally given to us, we have. Let's see who we have for the Fall of Osgiliath scenario!

The Defence of Osgiliath (Gondor at War, p. 8)

We've decided to use the following models in today's game:

• Forces of Good: The Garrison of Ithilien
• Faramir, Captain of Gondor
• Madril, Captain of Ithilien
• Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien
• 6 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 6 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows
• 8 Rangers of Gondor
• 4 Rangers of Gondor with spears
• Forces of Evil: The Army of the White Hand (I know, right?)
• 3 Orc Captains
• 12 Orc Warriors with shields
• 12 Orc Warriors with spears
• 6 Orc Warriors with two-handed weapons
• 6 Orc Warriors with Orc bows

The board is a 48"x48" setup, with the Orcs within 12" of one side of the board, and the Gondorian models within 6" of the center of the board. There are three objectives that the Orcs are going to try to destroy (in base contact without fighting or shooting) before 10 turns have passed - one objective is set up in the center and the other two are space equidistant from the center objective and the left/right board edges:

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

Turn 1: Priority Good

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

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

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

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

Good morning gamers,

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

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

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

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

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

  Hey Reader!

We're back with another Top 10 post, today looking at the top ten most improved profiles in the Armies of Middle Earth book from the Forces of Good. Now that we know all the armies that someone can be fielded in, potential models that they can pair with, and special rules, we're set to rank the top ten most improved models for the Forces of Good in the Armies of Middle Earth book.

As we did in the top ten most improved profiles for the Forces of Good, a few caveats before we look at the list: 

• We're ranking the most improved profiles in The Armies of Middle Earth book, so we won't be looking at profiles beyond that book. It also means we're almost done with this part of the series!
• We're ranking the top ten most improved profiles for the Forces of Good in the book, so only good profiles will be considered here.
• We're ranking the most improved profiles, not the strongest profiles: Durin is incredibly powerful, but the change from last edition is literally just an increase from F6 to F7 at the expense of +10pts, and while that means he is improved, and good, and tough to beat, he's not among the top ten. 
• The "Most Improved" means that the profile had to exist last edition, which is not really an issue with this book, but again it's something we're looking for in this ranking.
• There were more profiles than this list can hold, so yes, I couldn't include all of the ones that I thought were interesting/useful. There will be some honorable mentions, but suffice it to say, if you really thought that someone should have made the list and didn't, there's a good chance that they were considered and just didn't break the top ten.

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

Honorable Mention: Khazad Guard

All images from
the new book!

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

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