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. :)

Pick #4: Defenders of Erebor

I think there's a lot of play with this army list once you're at/above 600pts - you can have Bard II and Thorin III for free heroic shenanigans and a March Captain along with a fair number of guys. At 600pts, however, this list is really limited in models unless you're leaning hard into Dale. This list had my lowest model count with 29 models, but it's got a banner, 19 D7+ Dwarves, and 9 Esgaroth bows with my army leader (Bard II) happily safe in the back (or safely supporting the battle line):

I'm a fan of Mattocks and I could have gotten to my desired 30 model minimum by swapping one Iron Hills Warrior for a Warrior of Dale with shield and spear and downgrading six of the shield/spear Dwarves into mattocks guys, but I felt like the list was going to lose a lot of its flexibility (and some of its resiliency) by doing that. 29 models isn't my comfort zone at 600pts, but it's 29 models that are mostly hard to remove, so the list might be fine. Still, it didn't seem quite as strong as my other three options, so it gets to live at slot #4.

Pick #3: Muster of Isengard

This is another list that I think a lot of people are sleeping on - it's Saruman and his elite boys, and with Grima in the works, you can have good shenanigans, a scary battle line/open phalanx, good archery, very good numbers (33 models at 600pts), good movement from the free March, extra damage against a lot of lists with Hatred (Man), and you don't break until you've lost 22 models . . . yeah, I think it's good:

This list has a streamlined set of profiles and it's got good options with Saruman and Grima . . . and I'm gonna be honest, I looked into running Saruman at this event REALLY hard because while I wanted to take him to a bunch of events last edition, I never actually did. So why not run this list? I've got another Saruman list that just seems stronger than this one . . . which makes me feel like a sell-out to the meta, but don't you worry, what you'll see in a moment isn't the "meta" way to run Saruman. :)

Pick #2: The Garrison of Ithilien 

I have been using this list in our custom scenario campaign this year and I have to tell you, I think there's a lot to this list. Lots of bows (even with a functionally lower bow limit - and for those of you who have been with us for a while, you know I'm a shooting guy!), free VPs for each of the travelers, access to a banner and fast troops, and you can still get three heroes who can lead 6+ warriors for about 200pts. This list isn't the best for walking places quickly, but Heroic March/Knights of Minas Tirith (this list has Madril and a single Knight) make up for this at least a little. My list at 600pts has Frodo in it (no Sam or Smeagol), but also sports a LOT of models and 20 bows:

Honestly, the only reason I didn't run this list was because I wanted to run Saruman and because I pushed myself to get 18 Dunlendings painted - this list may actually have been better, but the heart wants what it wants and I managed to get everyone painted in time, so I'm running . . .

Pick #1 and Tournament List: Army of the White Hand

Now I want to say that I know everyone and their brother is running White Hand lists - but this is not a super competitive build. Nope, this is a "run what you own" version and I don't own any Crebain, I don't own the Oathmaker, and I don't own more than eight Wild Men with spears (and I only have four flaming brands too). All in all, it's not an optimized list - and I had to take two Wild Men with bows because I ran out of other options - but I got 18 Wild Men painted in two weeks, which made me very happy:

This list could certainly be better than it is, but I'd be a lot worse on numbers. 44 models is pretty high for 600pts, I have plenty of Scouts to bring F4 to bear against my foes (and S3 shortbows), and I love the new Dunland models! They were hard to put together, but not any more difficult than Wookiees or B1 Battle Droids for Star Wars Legion that I've been building on and off for the past few years (neither of which I enjoyed building - and both of which I will probably have to build more of in the coming years).

Given that the scenarios are going to be Domination, Destroy the Supplies, and Fog of War, I feel like the list can do a good job at taking all comers - Saruman will have a good shot at locking down at least one enemy hero each turn (to say nothing of the weather effects he gets access to in this list), I've got enough guys to get on objectives and stay there, I've got two March chieftains for getting me where I want to be, and I've got a decent array of shooting supplemented by a real banner. A few Crebain would be nice additions (my numbers would drop) and the Oathmaker would be epic (Fearless would be grand - especially since there are lists with the Balrog and Sauron), but that might be okay in the long run.

Hopefully you enjoyed this little journey - we'll see how the tournament goes (and if I even play - looks like we'll have an odd number)! Stay tuned for some thoughts on the Garrison of Ithilien on Monday and until then, happy hobbying!