The Citadel of the Stars, Part VIII: Flight to Minas Tirith

Good morning gamers,

This is it - this one is for all the bananas, as they say (or is that just something I say?). This has been a fun series and we're wrapping up the intro missions from the Battle of Osgiliath starter box - we've made the scenario participants Matched Play legal, but we didn't alter the scenario victory conditions. Let's see who we have with us today . . . 

Flight to Minas Tirith (Battle of Osgiliath, p. ??)

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

• Forces of Good: Garrison of Ithilien
• Faramir, Captain of Ithilien 
• Madril, Ranger of Ithilien
• Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien 
• 4 9 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 4 8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows
• 8 15 Rangers of Gondor
• 4 2 Rangers of Gondor with spear
• Forces of Evil: The Army of Gothmog 
• Gothmog, Lieutenant of Morgul
• 1 Morannon Orc Captain with shield
• 6 Morannon Orcs
• 6 12 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 6 Morannon Orcs with spears
• 6 12 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
• 1 Mordor Troll

We gave shields to all the Morannons and added a Captain for the Evil forces and upscaled the Good army to compensate . . . the have +12 models over their original numbers (~50pt handicap?). All I have to do 

The New Age Is Begun: the Ride Out Army List

Good morning gamers,

Editor's Note: well, I wasn't keeping a close look at the numbers, but we just blew past the 4 million views mark - from all of us here at TMAT, thanks for taking the time to read our stuff. :-)

This is it - this is the last list from the battle of Helm's Deep and it's a fun cavalry list! Ride Out is not a list that I thought I'd like when I first read it, but there's a LOT here that I think is good and at a wide variety of points levels. Let's see what Theoden and his final sally from the Hornburg has to offer!

Ride Out: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has everyone that you'd expect to be in the list given the scene of everyone riding out of Helm's Deep (and the Ride Out scenario from War in Rohan) - it's got Theoden, it's got Gamling, it's got generic Captains, it's got Aragorn, it's got Legolas, and it has the non-Legacy mounted Warriors (Rohan Royal Guards and Riders of Rohan). 

What I feel sad about is that the list doesn't include Gimli in it. Yes, I know it kind of does with the horn rules. Yes, I know he doesn't go riding around with Legolas in this one (like he does in the Road to Helm's Deep list). Yes, I know it would be silly to have him running around with the group - but like the Gimli slot in Fantasy Fellowships seems a bit less important than the other two because he's not here in the scene. I don't know that you'd want him in the list even if you could take him, but still, it feels sad to not have Gimli in here. Moving on now . . .

Army List Bonuses

The army list bonuses are interesting. As is usually the case, Riders of Rohan don't count towards your bow limit, which is good because you'd be really capped for options because of the Elite keyword on Rohan Royal Guards (and only two guys who can take them). Thanks to the For Death and Glory special rule, everyone is Fearless, which makes Bodyguard an irrelevant rule, but is also great for making sure you pass any kind of courage test you have to take. Once per game, you can pretend that Gimli is in your list by using The Horn of Helm Hammerhand Shall Sound in the Deep; One Last Time, which gives all of your cavalry models the Terror special rule at the top of any Move Phase (not the start of a friendly activation, so if you'd moving second, you can turn this on to keep your cavalry from being charged before you get to go). Like the Look to the Sun rule we looked at last time, I feel like this should be able to last for more than one turn - it's an okay rule and could be really useful . . . if you remember it on the turn in which it matters most.

The New Age Is Begun: the Riders of Eomer Army List

Good morning gamers,

There were two Legendary Legions during the last edition that I absolutely loved and that almost everyone thought was trash: the Men of the West and the Riders of Eomer. Yes, there were issues with both of these Legions - and I asked in an email before almost every FAQ/Errata release for a few things - and I'm happy to say that just as my beloved Men of the West got a glow-up (and are actually quite good now), so also the Riders of Eomer got a few very, VERY needed changes and they too have had some time in the sun. Once again, this army list doesn't just feel like the development team listened to us - they particularly listened to me. This makes me very happy - so let's dive into Eomer, Gandalf, and all their brave boys!

The Riders of Eomer: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

If you're playing with the Legacy profiles, nothing's different from the Legendary Legion of yester-year - you have Eomer, Gandalf, Erkenbrand (maybe), and Captains as your heroes and Riders of Rohan (maybe Redshields) as your warriors. Pretty straightforward, right?

Well, yes and no - on paper, the profiles are all the same. However, the special rules for both the army list AND the rules of some of the units have changed as well, which means that previous strategies with this list have changed a bit - all for the better, I think.

Army List Bonuses

As was previously the case, Riders of Rohan don't count towards your bow limit - yaye for more than one warrior in each army. :) Eomer is still always your General, which is good because you can then be a bit more reckless with Gandalf (and you can pick him as a hero to keep alive in scenarios like Fog of War). 

The special rules also improved a bit - Gandalf can still use Look to the Sun once per game at the start of any friendly activation phase (so if you're moving second, you don't need to declare you're using it until your opponent has finished moving) to make any enemy models engaged with your Cavalry models get a -1 penalty to their dueling rolls. This rule feels less powerful now that Gandalf's Cart is a thing (and can happen every turn), but it's still very good for getting a big charge off.

The Ride for Ruin and the World's Ending special rule got a nuanced but necessary change: instead of getting Strength +1 on the charge while within 12" of Eomer, the Strength +1 bonus is now global. Since the generic Rohan bonus last edition was global, the 12" limit to Eomer felt . . . bad - and there wasn't even a Fearless-while-charging or other sort of glow-up that you got alongside it. Now, it's global and it's good.

Finally, Eomer got a new special rule in this list (To the King!) that gives him a free Heroic Combat each turn - which is SO GOOD in a cavalry list and super good with Eomer's improved profile!

The Citadel of the Stars, Part VII: The Fall of Osgiliath

Good morning gamers,

This is our penultimate scenario in our custom Osgiliath campaign and we're playing the Fall of Osgiliath from Gondor At War. This scenario required only minor force adjustments to make it legal under the new edition and was an interesting scenario because it involves cutting through part of the enemy army to escape from the rest of the enemy. Let's see who our participants are . . ..

The Fall of Osgiliath (Gondor at War, p. 16)

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

• Forces of Good: Garrison of Ithilien
• Faramir, Captain of Ithilien 
• Madril, Ranger of Ithilien
• Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien 
• Anborn, Ranger of Ithilien 
• Mablung, Ranger of Ithilien 
• 4 8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 4 8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows 
• 12 Rangers of Gondor
• 4 Rangers of Gondor with spear
• Forces of Evil: The Army of Gothmog
• Gothmog, Lieutenant of Morgul 
• Gothmog's Enforcer
• Guritz, Master of Reserves 
• 6 9 Morannon Orcs
• 6 9 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 6 9 Morannon Orcs with spears
• 6 9 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears

This is our first scenario with Gothmog, who I know a lot of people critique in his new state. The improvements to Morannons against Men and the reduction in cost for Gothmog (if you don't take the Warg) means the cost of this list in this edition compared to the previous edition is only about a 25pts difference - pretty negligible. Let's look at how our board looks . . .

The New Age Is Begun: the Defenders of Helm's Deep Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're pivoting for the next few weeks to look at some Rohan lists and we're kicking things off with one of the Legendary Legions that I enjoyed playing last edition (though I never took it to an event - I was close, but I didn't): the Defenders of Helm's Deep. This list is one of the few Rohan lists that can't take horses, but golly does it have a lot of options available to it! Let's see how this list has changed, for changes have happened (though things feel pretty much the same as they always were).

The Defenders of Helm's Deep: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Compared to the old Legendary Legion, the only change to the profiles available to you is that you have to be playing with Legacies in order to use the King's Huntsmen. Other than that, things haven't changed. I'm going to be honest, though, I had hopes that we'd get a Deeping Wall force and a book-accurate option that gives you Eomer and access to horses and drops the Elves (kind of like how you can build an Eagle/non-Eagle Men of the West list now). Still, not losing profiles is good - happy enough.

Army List Bonuses

The army list bonuses are basically unchanged as well. You still get a boost to your Courage after you break for models near Theoden (Warriors get +1 Courage and reroll failed Courage tests while within 6" of Theoden), you still get +6" to the range of your bows/Elf bows when you stand still and shoot (which is only a 1.5-3" gain over what you'd have by moving and shooting, but also retains your base Shoot Value), and the army is limited to 33% of its force having the Lothlorien keyword (more on this later). In addition to this, a rule that used to be on Haldir's profile got moved to the army list rules: while within 6" of Aragorn and/or Theoden, he treats them as a banner, he passes all of his Courage tests, and also gets to reroll failed To Wound rolls. As I said above, things feel pretty much the same - not a bad thing, just a thing.