"...we put the thought of all that we love into all that we make." ~Wood Elf Leader, The Fellowship of the Ring
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Quick Starter Armies with the Armies of the Lord of the Rings!
Good morning gamers, We've previously looked at how to take the Army of Edoras box set or the Armies of the Hobbit supplement and get st...
Thursday, July 31, 2025
Quick Starter Armies with the Armies of the Lord of the Rings!
Monday, July 28, 2025
The New Age Is Begun: The Muster of Isengard Army List
- We have Saruman and Grima - and unlike the Army of the White Hand army list, this one has to take Saruman (so we'll always have Saruman . . . and likely will always have Grima).
- We have Uruk-Hai Captains/Uruk-Hai Scout Captains and Uruk-Hai Shamans, but we don't have any of the named Uruk-Hai heroes (except Vrasku if Legacies are in play).
- We have Uruk-Hai Drummers thanks to an FAQ, but none of the Orc or Dunland heroes.
- We've got Uruk-Hai Warriors, Uruk-Hai Scouts, and Uruk-Hai Bersekers - but none of the other warriors (no Orcs, no Warg Riders, no Dunland stuff).
Monday, July 21, 2025
Top 10 Most Improved Good Profiles from The Armies of the Hobbit
Hey Reader!
- 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 Good in the book, so only good profiles will be considered here.
- We're ranking the most improved profiles, not the strongest profiles: Dain is incredible, always has been, and he remains incredible in this edition. But he stands mostly where he did last edition (near the top of the slayer heroes for the Forces of Good, maybe higher since most axes can't add +1 Strength anymore, and via his Headbutt rule he can still knock people prone, so he hasn't technically lost the benefit of a hammer from last edition), so he doesn't make the list. No shade: some of the greats are still great, but that's a post for another day.
- The "Most Improved" means that the profile had to exist last edition, which is not really an issue with the Hobbit books (there's a comment coming, I'm sure, about how GW doesn't really do much with this part of Tolkien's timeline, and they're not wrong to be disgruntled about that), but it is a disclaimer we're making: you do have to step above where you were last edition.
- 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.
All images from the new book! |
Thursday, July 17, 2025
Quick Starter Armies with the Armies of the Hobbit!
Monday, July 14, 2025
The New Age Is Begun: The Last Alliance Army List
- You still have access to Gil-Galad and Elrond as your "big heroes", but you've lost access to Glorfindel (a crowd-favorite as a second anti-magic hero alongside Elendil) and if you left Gil-Galad at home, you COULD ally Elendil with Elladan and Elrohir and still have a historical alliance (because loopholes in the rules).
- You still have access to Rivendell Captains, but you lost access to the other mid-tier Rivendell heroes - Erestor (cheap combat hero/throwing weapons), Gildor Inglorion (March/caster), Cirdan (auric caster), Lindir (Elrond-augment/anti-magic auric boost), Arwen (caster), Stormcallers (very, VERY situational magic support), and Bilbo Baggins (ringbearer alongside Elendil) - all but Cirdan, Erestor, and the Stormcallers that nobody took would mess with your historical alliance status if you had Gil-Galad in the list (but leave him at home and you're fine - again, loopholes).
- You still have access to Rivendell Warriors (nee High Elf Warriors), but lost access to Rivendell Knights, which means you're legging it this edition - and only if you can afford a third hero with Heroic March.
- If you're playing with the Legacies document, you also add Erestor to the list - which is great, because having a cheap Unique Rivendell hero is NECESSARY to get this list to play at lower points levels. I wrote this article before the Legacies documents dropped, so I'll be adding text in red that clarifies how the list changes if Erestor is allowed in the list.
Monday, July 7, 2025
Top 10 Most Improved Good Profiles from The Armies of the Lord of the Rings
- 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, so no fear: those are coming! But in the words of Elessar, "it is not this day!"
- We're ranking the top ten most improved profiles for the Forces of Good in the book; there will be a separate article for Forces of Evil, "but it is not this day!" So tune in later for a peak at those!
- We're ranking the most improved profiles, not the strongest profiles: Elendil is fantastic this edition, and he went up to Fight Value 8, which is incredible! But that's literally the only change that happened to him (other than the loss of an alliance matrix, and the shield), so he didn't make the list. What we're trying to rank here are the profiles that have undergone the most changes for the best (changes for the worst will come in a future post, possibly, if you guys want that), not which models are now the best. It also means expect that the top of the list is going to be comprised of models that didn't have a lot of special rules before, but now have special rules that give them useful synergies with others and/or make them a vibrantly new profile in their own right (and often weren't that good/had glaring downsides, but now are auto-include models).
- The "Most Improved" means that the profile had to exist last edition, so the new War of the Rohirrim profiles were not reviewed, as they weren't part of the last edition. Hera is great, Old Helm would not have made the cut any which way you cut it, and the others are all actually quite interesting, but none of them made this list because of a technicality. I've been toying with a Top Ten post ranking the War of the Rohirrim profiles, but since I've yet to play with any of them and have seen very few battle reports from others on their performance on the table, I've been putting it off. If you'd like to see it, let us know!
- There were 38 profiles that made the cut of, "Things changed that make this profile functionally different and/or materially better than it was in the previous edition," so I had to cut that list into almost a quarter. We won't be doing an "honorable mentions" listing for all of them (we will list a few that are noteworthy), but suffice it to say, there's a lot of profiles that were considered! So bear in mind that we can't give time to all of them here.
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Images all from the new book! |
Thursday, July 3, 2025
Unexpected Military Formations: The Irolas "Shieldwall"
Monday, June 30, 2025
The New Age Is Begun: The Erebor and Dale Army List
Good morning gamers,
- The army bonuses that used to be active with a historical alliance were useful - getting a 3+ shoot on all of your Dale models was good, as was a 6" banner for Thror (even though it didn't count as an "actual banner"). So long as you had 33% of your Dale guys with Esgaroth bows and 67% of your Dale guys with shields and spears (and possibly spears on those bowmen), you could get 10 (or 15) spears in your list to back up Guardians of the King who were protecting Thror's flanks (getting a banner reroll and an extra die - two-handing, anyone?).
- There used to be no limit on how many Grim Hammers or Guardians of the King in the old edition - that means you could have 33% of your Dale contingent with bows (5 guys and Girion if you just take and fill Girion's warband) and all of your Dwarf warriors could be Grim Hammers or Guardians of the King. I don't know if you've fought against a D7 throwing weapon army before, but it's scary - it's really scary! And then you throw in the power heroes of Thror, Thrain, and a Captain of Erebor (or Grim Hammer Captain) for March? Yikes!
Thursday, June 26, 2025
Updated Armies of Middle Earth (Mordor and Khand)
Good morning gamers,
Just a short interruption on this off-week Thursday to let you know that Rythbryt is finally working on those Seventh Edition updates to our Armies of Middle-Earth Series. :-P The format has had to change slightly, because traditional "factions" have gone away, giving way to multiple army lists (and for some/most of these lists, you need 2 army books plus maybe a Legacies PDF to get the entire roster of profiles that each can take). Plus, you know... some profiles have changed and stuff. :-P
First up this week are Mordor and Khand, which you can access via their old links here:
- {7th Edition} Mordor in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game
- {7th Edition} The Variags of Khand in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game
Each write-up has been updated to include the complete roster of all profiles that have the "Mordor" and "Khand" faction keywords (respectively), complete with a unit-by-unit summary of which lists can field these models now, what benefits the model gets (if any) from being taken in that particular list, and where you can find the original profile as well as the army list (Armies of the Lord of the Rings, Armies of the Hobbit, Armies of Middle-Earth, or Legacies). In addition, we've updated the general strengths/weaknesses of the "faction" as a whole, and updated our final section to talk (briefly... or at least briefly-ish) about why you might prefer one Mordor list over another, and which lists lean heavily into a specific theme, allow you to replicate older alliances, etc.
As with everything we do, this is a work in progress--and it turns out that updating some of the larger write-ups takes some time when you need to sort through three books (and occasionally an army builder) to get the whole picture (the Mordor update alone took about 10 hours... hopefully the rest will be faster, now that we've ironed out the process some). Still, we hope this proves useful to you as you begin to navigate the new edition. And don't forget, you can also catch up on our profile reviews for the new edition over on this page.
Finally, as always, please let us know in the comments if there's anything we've missed or can improve (or if there's a particular faction you'd like Rythbryt to prioritize next--rumor is that he's looking at dwarves, camels, and fellows if left to his own devices ;-) )!
Monday, June 23, 2025
The New Age Is Begun: The Numenor Army List
Thursday, June 19, 2025
Quick Starter Armies for the Battle of Edoras Box Set!
Monday, June 16, 2025
The New Age Is Begun: the Road to Rivendell Army List
- A battle company (the Wanderers in the Wild);
- A low-points level historical alliance between the Fellowship and Rivendell;
- A mid-points level historical alliance between the Fellowship, Rivendell, and Lothlorien;
- A mid-points level convenient alliance between the Fellowship, the Shire, and the Wanderers in the Wild (Barliman and Bill); and
- A high-points level convenient alliance between Rivendell (Glorfindel, Gildor, Arwen), the Fellowship (Aragorn, Hobbits), and the Wanderers in the Wild (Tom and Goldberry) . . .
- . . . oh, right, and I made up a custom legendary legion for them a few Christmases ago.
- The list is focused on the Fellowship coming to Bree, leaving Bree, and journeying to Rivendell - so naturally, we have Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin with very little gear available. Amazingly, Frodo has access to Sting and the Mithril Coat, which he certainly didn't have in the films (Weathertop would have gone VERY differently, I think, if there was Mithril between Frodo and the Morgul Blade - or was it a spiritual piercing?);
- You also have Aragorn in the list, which is good because without him, you couldn't kill much of anything with this list (one model excepted);
- From the Bree contingent, we have Barliman Butterbur, Harry Goatleaf, and Bill the Pony - all of which were either previously in the Fellowship army list or were part of the Wanderers in the Wild list and historical allies with the Fellowship;
- We have Arwen, who was both historical allies with the Fellowship in the Rivendell list and was later errata'd to be part of the Fellowship list if you had Aragorn in the list:
- New to the scene are Tom and Goldberry, who were Convenient Allies with everyone in the old edition - they were an expensive dynamic duo, but oh so much fun; and
- If your tournament setting allows the Legacy documents, you have access to Gildor Inglorion and up to 12 Noldorin Exiles (because they are the only Warrior models in the list, if you have at least 10 of them, you can have 4 with bows and 4 with throwing weapons).
Monday, June 9, 2025
The New Age Is Begun: The Breaking of the Fellowship Army List
Thursday, June 5, 2025
Unexpected Military Formations: Epic Movie Moments, Revisited
Monday, June 2, 2025
The New Age Is Begun: The Fellowship Army List
Good morning gamers,
Monday, May 26, 2025
First Impressions: The Free Peoples, Part III
Thursday, May 22, 2025
Top 10 Soup Lists for MESBG v2!
Good morning gamers,
Monday, May 19, 2025
First Impressions: Gundabad and Dol Goldur, Part II
Thursday, May 15, 2025
The Road to the TMAT GT 2025 - Tiberius's List
- Saruman [ARMY LEADER]
- INDEPENDENT: Grima Wormtongue (or in an enemy warband)
- INDEPENDENT: Uruk-Hai Drummer
- 8 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
- 7 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
- 1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with pike and banner
- Thrydan Wolfsbane on horse
- 4 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
- 4 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
- Mauhur
- 12 Uruk-Hai Marauders with Uruk-Hai bows
- Galadriel with the Mirror of Galadriel [ARMY LEADER]
- 1 Wood Elf Warrior with Wood Elf spear and throwing daggers
- 9 Wood Elf Warriors with Elf bows
- Celeborn with Elven-made hand-and-a-half sword and heavy armor
- 3 Galadhrim Knights with Elf bows
- 4 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers
- 4 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers and Wood Elf spears
- 1 Wood Elf Warrior with Wood Elf spear and banner
- Galadhrim Captain on armored horse with shield and Elf bow
- 6 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers
- 6 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers and Wood Elf spears
Monday, May 12, 2025
First Impressions: The Kingdoms of Men, Part V
Good morning gamers,
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Photo Credit: Giphy |
For 50pts, Denethor joins the Minas Tirith regulars and has heavy armor instead of normal armor, pushing him to D6 (which is great in a world where Piercing Strike is not a thing). He also picked up 2 Might/1 Fate, which means he finally has the ability to boost his arrival rolls in maelstrom missions or calling Heroic Moves/Combats - nothing special, unless you were used to him needing an escort to go where you wanted him and when you needed him to move.