So It Begins, Part 8: Ride Out

 Good morning gamers,

For the astute observer, we jumped from Scenario 6 to Scenario 8 - this isn't a typo. Centaur's 3D printer was angry about the humidity in his house and wouldn't print the last bits of the Deep Citadel that we needed for the Fall Back to the Keep scenario, so we're postponing it until the air gets dryer - we'll post it when it's ready, I promise.

We're almost done and today we're back in a scenario that we've played before in Fantasy Fellowships: Ride Out. I'm not going to lie, I have been playing with the Ride Out army list a lot this year and I am feeling pretty confident about how things are going to go. Let's see if I can smash up the Uruk-Hai without mounted Dwarf heroes this time!

Ride Out (War in Rohan, p. 38)

I decided to change up the scenario participants to make the fight more balanced - there are a lot more Uruks than are normally in the scenario:

• Forces of Good: 599pt Ride Out
• Theoden with everything 
• Aragorn on Brego with armor 
• Legolas on horse with armor 
• Gamling with everything 
• 2 Riders of Rohan 
• 2 Rohan Royal Guards on horses with throwing spears 
• Forces of Evil: 594pt The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 1 Uruk-Hai Uber-Captain 
• 3 Uruk-Hai Captains 
• 15 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields 
• 15 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes 
• 1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with banner 

Outnumbered 35-to-8, let's see if we can beat these guys up! The board is a 48"x48" setup, but since Centaur could start near the end of the Causeway, he did:

The New Age Is Begun: the Survivors of Lake-town Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're kicking off the last month of the year for digging through the army lists in the game and we'll be building up to the Battle of Five Armies by the end of the month! We're starting off with the least exciting of the armies we have yet to cover and that's the Survivors of Lake-town. This list differs greatly from the Army of Lake-town that we covered earlier in the year - and while it used to be a more common choice last edition (not as common as the Army of Lake-town, but some people played it), it's fallen from favor in its current iteration. Let's see why - and what there is to like about it still this edition . . .

Survivors of Lake-town: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Our profiles are the same ones we had last edition: we have Bard and his kids, Alfrid, Hilda-Bianca, Percy, and Lake-town Captains/Militia for the Lake-town contingent and we have Gandalf the Grey and "mega Bilbo" as our side characters. Unlike the Army of Lake-town, we didn't get any of the other people that show up with these guys (no Legolas, Tauriel, or other Mirkwood characters - and definitely no Dwarves). Is this enough to work with? Maybe, but surely we're going to get rules to make our guys awesome, right?

Army List Bonuses

This list has four special rules, besides the requirement to take Bard as your General every game. Two of our rules are Bard-centric (as is fitting): first, he gains Mighty Hero and Fearless via the Heir of Dale rule, which means he'll never run from a fight, he'll be able to charge whatever nasty your opponent has automatically (unless the Crown of Morgul is involved), and he gets a free Might point each turn for calling a Heroic Action, boosting a roll, or just sitting and wasting away (because unlike Aragorn, this fella doesn't have Heroic March). Bard also gets a rule (Saviour of Lake-town) where other friendly Lake-town models within 6" of Bard (not Alfrid) get +1 Fight Value and treat Bard as a banner with a range of 6" - this gives a nice boost to an otherwise untrained rabble of troops, but it isn't going to save the day on its own.

The New Age Is Begun: the Wraiths on Wings Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're approaching Halloween and we're wrapping up "spooky month" with the Wraiths on Wings list. For you bat enthusiasts, this list is . . . well, probably not as good as any of the lists with Bat Swarms in them (and I don't think it's better than the Shadows of Angmar list that has Gulavhar in it - more on that list next year). :) Still, it's one of three lists that can run "the flying circus" (alongside the Army of the Great Eye and technically the Legions of Mordor - I don't know why you would do that, though) and it's the only one that gives special boosts to your Fell Beasts. It's also really hard to use (both on the table and in the list building phase). Let's try to take a positive view of this, though, and see what this list has to offer!

Wraiths on Wings: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Our profile selection is just as bad as last time: we have the Witch-King and Ringwraiths. That's it. In a way, it's better because our Ringwraith profile is the top-tier variant, so everyone has 2M/14W/2F - a good profile, I think. The bad news is that we have to take Fell Beasts on everyone (you can - but shouldn't - upgrade those to Armored Fell Beasts if you want to), which means we're super expensive and you can get nearly two Black Rider Ringwraiths for the cost of one Wraiths on Wings Ringwraith. I don't know that this is good or bad, but it's a thing . . . and it's an absolute and unequivocal nightmare for list building.

Army List Bonuses

This list really should have more rules (I feel like a broken record after last week, but hey, I think I'm being fair here?), but the two it has are good and universally useful. The first rule (Full Force Charge) allows the first friendly Monster model that charges to deal a S5 impact hit to each model he charges (hits are dealt to both the mount and rider where that's a thing). If everyone he charged is killed, then he can keep moving per normal, but won't deal any more impact hits that round. This requires thinking a bit about who you want to deal impact hits to and who you want to do the impact hits with, but you won't have many models - it's fine.

The second rule (Strafing Attack) allows a friendly Monster model who ends its move unengaged to pick an unengaged model that they passed over (trace the path you moved along with the width of the path being the width of the Fell Beast base) and deal a S5 hit to that unit (hits are dealt to both the mount and the rider again). If the unit survives, it's knocked Prone. This is a great way of dealing with a mounted enemy hero as there's no counterplay to being knocked over (unless you have Brego), no roll to be made to see if you're knocked Prone (like Gundabad Bats have), and no requirement that you have to deal a wound first. The one drawback of this rule, however, is that you can't end in combat - which can be fine, more on that later.

So It Begins, Part 6: The Causeway

Good morning gamers,

We're doing a scenario today that really should be in Fantasy Fellowships and yet isn't: the Causeway. In Fantasy Fellowships, there's a Helm's Deep scenario with Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli in it, a scenario with Aragorn and Legolas in it, and one with Gandalf in it. This makes the Gimli less valuable in the campaign and this scenario features him and Aragorn . . . so I am 1) very happy we're getting to it, and b) absolutely terrified that the Uruk-Hai are going to tear through my heroes. :-)

The Causeway (War in Rohan, p. 34)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario:

• Forces of Good: The Fellowship 
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Forces of Evil: Mostly The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes

This scenario requires at least 10 Evil models to get through the gate (which has 1 Wound and D8) or to kill both Aragorn and Gimli. If one hero dies but the other lives (and 10 models don't get off the board), then it's a draw. If both heroes survive and fewer than 10 models get off the board, Good wins 

To help Evil out a bit, Uruk-Hai Warrior models get to come back when they die - that means there are gonna be TONS of dice coming for me!

The New Age Is Begun: The Black Riders Army List

Good morning gamers,

When the Quest of the Ringbearer sourcebook came out, I had to buy it - I just had to. The legendary legions in the book (which parallel the idea of army lists that we have today) were all awesome - an updated Rangers of Ithilien list, a Depths of Moria list that gave neat buffs to the Balrog, a Lurtz's Scouts list that gave the Uruk-Hai speed and some cool rules for Lurtz, a Cirith Ungol list with a fun kill-count mini-game, a really cool Fellowship list that made the Fellowship members feel really awesome, and an all-Nazgul list that was . . . well, it was pretty awesome. The last list, the Black Riders, was a bit of a polarizing one (since the Ringwraiths originally could kill themselves by casting Black Darts with all their Will, kill the enemy General, quarter themselves, and win 3-0 on the first or second turn . . . until an FAQ changed that), but it was always an interesting army to run and a very interesting army list to build, since you had to balance your need for Fate points with your need for Will points.

In the current edition of the game . . . we have a Black Riders list (the last of the lists that requires you to take the Witch-King), but it feels very different. I think it's fair to say that we're pretty upbeat here at TMAT and we try to find reasons to run each list. I'm gonna say it, though: I think this list feels a lot worse this edition than it did last edition . . . and I'm not compelled to run it, like, at all. However, this being TMAT, I assume that if you're reading this, you are a) interested in the thematic running of the Black Riders, b) you're up for "hard mode" and want to give yourself a challenge, or c) you're just getting into the game and you're curious about whether this list is any good. So, in the best good-faith effort I can muster, I'm going to dive into the Black Riders list and depart from my usual script a bit in order to explore how this list has changed and what I think would make it better.

The Black Riders: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Like last edition, we have two profiles available to us: the Witch-King (who we have to take) and Ringwraiths (who we functionally have to take). Both of these are the mid-tier profiles, so we have 1M/10W/1F on each of the Ringwraiths and 2M/14W/2F on the Witch-King. As is expected, they have to take horses (bringing the Witch-King to 140pts and your Ringwraiths to 105pts - in this list alone, the cost of their horses went down to 15pts) and each can take a Morgul Blade but no other equipment. That's all we got - hopefully we get rules that make up for this, right?

Army List Bonuses

There are still four rules that this list gets - and you need them all for sure. The rule that makes this list work is The Will of Sauron rule, which makes friendly Ringwraiths not lose Will points for being Engaged in Combat for the Will of Evil special rule. Without this rule (spoken by someone who ran all-Ringwraiths in the game before the Black Riders was a thing), your list is on a timer and if you can't kill enough of the enemy before your Will runs out, you lose (not fun). You also have Terror in the Night, which is technically weaker but functionally better than what you had last edition: enemy models who are in range of multiple Ringwraiths get -2 to their Courage instead of -1. Previously, it was -2 if you were within Harbinger range of 4-6 models and -3 if you were within range of 7-9 Ringwraiths. Now, if you're within range of 2+ Ringwraiths, you apply a -2 penalty - which is good if you get to 2-3 Ringwraiths, the same if you have 4-6 Ringwraiths in range, and worse if you happen to have 7+ Ringwraiths in your list and they all happen to be in range of someone. All in all, these are two great rules.

There are two situationally good rules that help the list out. If your opponent brings a Ringbearer, one of your heroes who could charge the Ringbearer can declare a free Heroic Combat via the Hunt the Ringbearer special rule. If both players declare Heroic Combats, this free one will always go first. Free Heroic Combats are always good (and guaranteeing that you go first is always a good thing), but this will only matter if your opponent actually brings a Ringbearer. Additionally, there's a once-per-turn, once-per-hero-each-game ability for your Ringwraiths to cast a Transfix spell that counts as being cast on a 6 (and it counts as their spell that's cast this turn). This rule (Screech of the Nazgul) is a powerful way to make sure that your opponent doesn't get to go with important heroes without spending resources (or getting lucky with free resources), which helps to make sure that big heroes don't go crashing through your fragile heroes.

The New Age Is Begun: the Minas Morgul Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're continuing our "Ringwraith Month" by covering one of the more popular Mordor lists (in light of a popular Angmar list last week): Minas Morgul. This is "the other conventional army where you have to take the Witch-King" (we're tackling the third and last Witch-King-required list next week) and it's quite the popular choice for new and veteran players alike. At the time of this writing, there are 1333 games played with this list since the start of the new edition (according to TTA) and it has a 47% win-rate . . . but as I mentioned in my sign-off last week, I think this has to do with a mixed bag of experienced and inexperienced players using it. 

The podium results stats in TTA tell a very interesting tale: since the start of the current edition, there have been 25 podium finishes at 106 events, giving it a 22.6% podium finish rate with Gold finishes at the 2026 Australian Masters, Silver and Bronze finishes at the 2026 Hamburger Meisterschaft tournament (53 players), and a Bronze finish at the 2026 The Ring Goes South tournament (48 players). That's . . . a good list by anyone's standard. By comparison, there are 18 army lists with a better event podium percentage (one of which is a "free build", so that one doesn't really count?) and only five lists with a greater number of podium finishes (Men of the West, Depths of Moria, Lurtz's Scouts, Kingdom of Khazad-Dum, and the Last Alliance - yes, it pipped out the Army of the White Hand by 1 podium slot). In both categories, it's the highest-rated pure Mordor list (Fell Beings and Assault on Lothlorien supersede it in the event percentage stat, but those have non-Mordor things that grab your attention). Let's see what's so hot about this list!

Minas Morgul: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has the same top-tier version of the Witch-King, but like the Host of the Witch-King that we looked at last time, he isn't forced into taking a particular mount. Unlike last time, however, he has access to both Fell Beast options and a normal Horse, along with a two-handed weapon, a Morgul Blade, and the Crown of Morgul. I don't know that you need more than just the mount (20-50pts), but it's nice to have options. Supporting him are mid-tier Ringwraiths, Kardush the Firecaller, and Mordor Orc Shamans as casters, Mordor Orc Drummers as a support piece, and Mordor Orc Captains, Morannon Orc Captains, and Mordor Orc Taskmasters as your March heroes. The Ringwraiths have to be your hitting pieces (depending on your perspective on the March Captains, I guess), but it's a pretty well-rounded group of profiles (despite its short length).

On the Warrior front, we have a roster that's about the same length: Mordor Orc Warriors and Morannon Orc Warriors make up your "core" units, with options for Morgul Stalkers, Orc Trackers, Spectres, and Mordor Trolls as your specialist picks. There's a lot of power in these units - Morgul Stalkers have 2 Attacks, Orc Trackers are decent shooters, Mordor Trolls take a lot of resources to bring down (and with F7/S7, they're pretty dangerous if they have a banner nearby and some Orcs to screen for them), Morannon Orcs are S4/D6 (and sometimes F4), and Spectres have Blades of the Dead . . . but as we'll see shortly, they're not the only dangerous warriors in this army . . .

Army List Bonuses

The army list bonuses are pretty different from those in the Host of the Witch-King that we looked at last time - but they make a fight between a Host of the Witch-King fight and Minas Morgul very one-sided. While the Host of the Witch-King grants Orcs near Spirit Heroes the Terror special rule, Minas Morgul gives friendly Orcs near Spirit models (that's Heroes and Warriors) an automatic pass when Charging Terror models - that's really good! The other glamor rule is that your Mordor Orc Captains and your Mordor Orc Warriors (but not your Morannon Orc Captains/Warriors, Orc Taskmasters, Orc Shamans, or Orc Drummers) get the Blades of the Dead special rule - this makes them an absolutely punishing army to fight if you have average Courage! Finally, if your opponent brings a Ringbearer to the fight (sans Sauron), there will be a -1 penalty to their Sauron's Will special rule, which means that you'll be controlling the Ringbearer half of the time while they wear the Ring . . . yeah, that Ring isn't going to be coming on very much!

These three rules are simple but they make the list VERY aggressive, since they encourage you to get your Orcs into the enemy quickly and hopefully chop through armies that paid for Defense and Terror instead of better Courage. All in all, it shouldn't be surprising that this is a very popular list.

Announcing the TMAT THRO 2026 Tournament!

 Good morning gamers,

It's that time of year again - it's TMAT's The Hunter's Red October tournament! The tournament will be held in Purcellville, VA on December 5, 2026. This year's tournament is a team tournament and it's set up differently than anything we've done before. Players will select whether they want to be Good or Evil and will place an army token on a space from the Return of the King Risk map (hereafter called the"strategic map").

Without further ado, here are (in my typical style) the Ten Commandments of the Tournament (Rules):

1) Thou Shalt Understand The Canon

The ruleset we will be using is from the most recent Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual (the Fellowship walking one). The supplements for the Armies of the Lord of the Rings, the Armies of the Hobbit, the Armies of Middle-Earth, and the Legacies of Middle-Earth will govern the profiles and army lists being used. Any GW errata for these books will take precedent over the printed text of these documents.

2) Thou Shalt Honor Thy Alliance

This tournament follows the alliance "restrictions" provided in the main rulebook - players will pick one army list from one of the following army lists that can be found in the GW-issued supplements for this edition and follow all list building requirements for that army list:

GOOD (30 lists)

• Army of Dale
• Army of Erebor
• Atop the Wall
• The Beornings
• The Breaking of the Fellowship
• Defenders of Erebor
• Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Defenders of the Pelennor
• The Eagles
• Fangorn
• The Fellowship
• The Fiefdoms
• The Fords of Isen
• Garrison of Ithilien
• The Grey Company
• The Grief of Eomer
• Halls of Thranduil
• Kingdom of Rohan
• Lothlorien
• Men of the West
• Minas Tirith
• Paths of the Druadan
• Reclamation of Osgiliath
• Return of the King
• Ride Out
• Riders of Eomer
• Riders of Theoden
• Rivendell
• The Road to Helm's Deep
• The Road to Rivendell
• The Shire

EVIL (29 army lists)

• Army of Dunland
• Army of Gothmog
• Army of the Great Eye
• Army of the White Hand
• Assault on Lothlorien
• Assault Upon Helm's Deep
• The Black Gate
• The Black Riders
• Cirith Ungol
• Corsair Fleets
• Depths of Moria
• The Easterlings
• Far Harad
• Fell Beings of Mirkwood
• Grand Army of the South
• Harad
• Host of the Dragon Emperor
• Legions of Mordor
• Lurtz's Scouts
• Minas Morgul
• Moria
• Muster of Isengard
• The Serpent Horde
• Ugluk's Scouts
• Umbar
• Variags of Khand
• Wolf Pack of Angmar
• Wolves of Isengard
• Wraiths on Wings

For this tournament, only one copy of an army list may be present in the alliance (see #3 below). In addition, only one copy of each named hero is allowed across the alliance. 

So It Begins, Part 5: Retreat to the Hornburg

Good morning gamers,

Editor's Note: we just passed the 6 million page views mark . . . I imagine those AI models are partly to blame, but hopefully that means our articles are helping people. :-) Whoever is reading these articles, it means a lot to us!

We're revisiting a scenario from Fantasy Fellowships in our custom Helm's Deep campaign today. Despite the amazing explosions of the last scenario, the Uruk-Hai have managed to blow a hole in the wall. Can we keep them out while keeping our heroes alive?

Retreat to the Hornburg (War in Rohan, p. 32)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario - and we did remember this time to boost one of the Captains to the Uber-Captain, so this should work out better than last scenario:

• Forces of Good: Mostly The Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• Forces of Evil: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 4 Uruk-Hai Captains
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 8 Uruk-Hai Berserkers

This scenario requires at least 10 Good models to get across the opposite game board - this will involve getting up the stairs on our board, which presents an interesting choke point situation. At least two of those models need to be heroes, so if I lose too many guys or too many heroes, the game will end early.

To help Evil out a bit, Uruk-Hai Warrior models get to come back when they die on the siege ladders - I forgot to ask Centaur to bring his ladders, so he can maneuver them along the wall if he wants. Additionally, all those S4-5 Uruk-Hai get to reroll all failed To Wound rolls . . . this is gonna HURT!

The New Age Is Begun: The Host of the Witch-King Army List

Good morning gamers,

It's October, and as we lead up to Halloween, we'll be covering some of the spookier lists involving Nazgul that we haven't covered to date. Our first list appears to be one of the front-runners for most competitive lists featuring the Witch-King: the Host of the Witch King army list. This list has a strong array of both hero and warrior options and gives you basically everything you could want in an Angmar list (except monsters). Let's see what you can do with this list! As we've been doing, anything tied to the Legacies will be highlighted in red.

The Host of the Witch-King: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has to take the Witch-King, which comes in his 3A/3M/18W/3F form, but only has the options for horse and Morgul Blade. These are perfectly good options and help to keep the Witch-King's cost down (usually at 170pts after you've taken a horse - not bad for a Hero of Legend). Your Heroes of Valour are the Dwimmerlaik and the Tainted if you're playing with Legacies, as well as the Shadow of Rhudaur and Aldrac, Warlord of Carn Dum. Your Fortitude heroes include generic March Captains (Angmar Orc Captains and Captains of Carn Dum), Fraecht, Nazthak, and Shades. Finally, you can get Angmar Orc Shamans and Barrow-wights as Minor Heroes, which limits how many models you can bring with your Barrow-wights, but they're still terrifying heroes to have to fight.

The warrior list looks pretty lean - and it is - with Angmar Orc Warriors, Angmar Warg Riders, Spectres, Warriors of Carn Dum, and Werewolves. While this isn't a wide array of options, you have basically everything you'd want in a list except cheap fast troops (Wild Wargs for most Angmar lists) and decent archers (Orc Trackers, for example). Still, you have efficient infantry, efficient cavalry, and whatever Werewolves count as (not quite monstrous infantry, but they're close to it). 

Army List Bonuses

Besides needing to take the Witch-King, you aren't allowed to take more than 50% of your army as Carn Dum models . . . I can think of only one or two people in the world who are probably sad about this, but whatever - there's another army that allows you to spam the "moose men" if you want them. Beyond this minor constraint, there are three bonuses that you get for playing this list: first, as Angmar has long had as its defining trait, your Orcs gain Terror while within 3" of a friendly Spirit Hero (so that would be the Witch-King, the other named Ringwraiths, the Shadow of Rhudaur, Shades, and Barrow-wights. 

Second, the Witch-King only loses Will Points if he loses a combat in the Fight Phase (instead of all the time). This rule as written seems to indicate that if the Witch-King calls a Heroic Combat, wins, kills his opponent(s), charges into at least one enemy model, and then loses the follow-up combat, he'll lose 1 Will at the end of the Fight Phase per normal (even though he won his first fight). Finally, to help the Witch-King have a better chance of not losing (some) fights, he gets +1 Fight Value while Engaged in combat with an enemy Man model. In an era where Eowyn has the "Man" keyword (unlike the first few years of the previous edition), this feels like a bit of a missed thematic opportunity, but I digress. If you find yourself fighting "men" a lot, the Witch-King will be a F7 menace who will probably not be losing Will points for fighting if he's running through warriors for 170pts mounted. This is a good list to run the Witch-King in (which is good, since he's required and all).

The New Age Is Begun: the Realms of Men Army List

Good morning gamers,

This is the last Rohan list we need to cover - and honestly, it's a list that I'm keen to take to a tournament (though it won't be a hipster pick - Centaur took it to our GT earlier this year). The Realms of Men isn't your traditional Rohan list, but like the Defenders of the Pelennor, the Men of the West, or the Paths of the Druadan, you have the option to take Rohan models, so it counts. :) Unlike a lot of Rohan lists, this is the kind of "Rohan list" that doesn't mind seeing Wild Men of Dunland on the other side of the board, since it can take a few Rohan guys to supplement a host of not-Rohan guys. I've delayed talking about this list until now because there are SO many things to consider when fielding it and I think we've finally covered enough of the profiles to have a good discussion about what this list is bringing to the table and what it isn't.

The Realms of Men: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list is weird in that it doesn't really have a bounded list of profiles. The only profile that's showcased in the list is the "King of Men" profile, which we've seen earlier in the month in the Fields of Celebrant list. Beyond that, you're allowed to bring any non-unique heroes (Captains of <wherever>, King's Huntsmen, Knights of the White Tower, siege veterans) and basically any warrior so long as you meet the requirements for that hero (e.g. you need the "Leader (X)" keyword to bring "Elite" units) with the exception that a Rohan King of Men cannot lead Rohirrim Traitors from the Usurpers list (check an early FAQ for that one).

The rules are pretty straightforward: 1) you have to take a King of <wherever> to take any other heroes of <wherever>, 2) each hero can only lead warriors from the same faction (Gondor leading Gondor, Arnor leading Arnor, etc.), and 3) whichever realm has the most models - not the most points invested in it - has its King become the General. Pretty simple, right?

With five factions of men to choose from (Gondor, Rohan, Arnor, Numenor, and Dale), we have quite the list of options, though functionally, I think your actual hero options are smaller than the list would imply - more on that later in the Strategies section. There are not that many warrior options that appear to be redundant and overall, you can cover most of your bases really well with 1-2 factions (though mixing in more than that is certainly possible too).

So It Begins, Part 4: The Deeping Wall Is Breached

Good morning gamers,

We're revisiting a scenario from Fantasy Fellowships in our custom Helm's Deep campaign today. Despite the amazing explosions of the last scenario, the Uruk-Hai have managed to blow a hole in the wall. Can we keep them out while keeping our heroes alive?

The Deeping Wall Is Breached (War in Rohan, p. 30)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario - and we forgot to boost one of the Captains to the Uber-Captain, so . . . sorry - it may have changed a few things in the scenario but might not have as well:

• Forces of Good: Mostly The Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• Forces of Evil: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 3 Uruk-Hai Captains
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 8 Uruk-Hai Berserkers

This scenario is cool because we're playing for seven VPs: Good has four named heroes, each of whom is worth 1VP to Good if they're alive and 1 VP for Evil if they're slain. Good gets 2 VPs if they can avoid losing more than 13 of their 28 models (so, don't break) and Evil wins if Good loses more than 14 models (so, breaking the Good army - note that losing exactly 14 models is a draw on this VP category). Finally, if there are more Uruk-Hai outside of the water at the end of ten turns, Evil scores a VP. If there are more Good models than Evil models (not counting anyone on the walls) outside the water, they score a VP.

The New Age Is Begun: the Paths of the Druadan Army List

Good morning gamers,

Rohan has a lot of army lists this edition (citation needed) and one of the oddest ducks in the line-up is the Paths of the Druadan. Released in the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement, this list features the heroes from the Riders of Theoden, your typical mounted Rohan warriors, as well as the tad-expensive-but-loaded-with-rules Wose Warriors led by Ghan-buri-Ghan. This list has an interesting play style, an interesting set of rules, and is a whole lot of fun to use. Let's see what we have to work with in this list!

The Paths of the Druadan: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

As was said above, this list includes the six named heroes in the Riders of Theoden list (Theoden, Eomer, Eowyn, Deorwine, Elfhelm, and Gamling), Captains of Rohan (obviously), and then Rohan Royal Guards, Rohan Outriders, and Riders of Rohan. The list adds to this line-up Ghan-buri-Ghan and Wose Warriors, who in the last edition could only be taken in Ghan-buri-Ghan's list (or if you ran Rohan allied with the Druadan, you could have leaderless warbands with 10-12 Wose Warriors inside them). This edition, Ghan-buri-Ghan and the Rohan heroes can mix and match the troops they lead, much like you can do with the Men of the West army list. This is a great change in my opinion and a huge change for list building. In an era where you can't take leaderless Wose warbands, this is the only way you can use more than 15 of them - and for a very, very, VERY small segment of the SBG population, that means their collections are still valid. :) Let's see what bonuses we have to encourage us to run this list . . .

Army List Bonuses

Last edition, the Paths of the Druadan Legendary Legion required you to take Theoden, Ghan-Buri-Ghan, and 15 Wose Warriors. This edition, you only have to take 12 Woses (3 slots left over), so that's nice? Riders of Rohan don't count towards your bow limit in this list, which is novel for the lists we've been looking at this month.

The other rules are the same as they were last edition: there's a special rule (Know All Paths) that allow you to win the roll-off for Heroic Moves on a 3-6 (or 1-4) instead of the usual 4-6 (or 1-3). In a list that wants to skirmish, this is a huge bonus. Similarly, the Waypoints special rule allows you to place three tokens after deployment is over that remove difficult terrain penalties for your Rohan models, which is great for making sure that your horses are moving at full speed (and getting Charge bonuses) through woods, rocky ground, or swamps. Finally, the Kill Orc-folk rule allows all friendly models to reroll TO Wound rolls of 1 on their Strikes against Uruk-Hai, Orcs, and Goblins. Paired with Hatred on your Woses, this makes them very reliable at killing Goblin-town Goblins (wounding on 3s and rerolling 1s), pretty reliable at killing most Orcs, Moria Goblins, and some Uruk-Hai (wounding on 4s and rerolling 1s) and decently good at killing the D6 Uruks, Orcs, and Goblins (wounding on 5s and rerolling 1s). 

The New Age Is Begun: the Fords of Isen Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're back for another week in Rohan month (Volume III!) with the Fords of Isen army list. A while back, the TMAT team did a podcast episode where we drafted Legendary Legions and I got the first pick of the first round. My choice was easy: Theodred's Guard. I took them to a low-points event that Centaur threw and came in third with them (tying one of my best performances at an event) and I know I wasn't alone in the international community for thinking they were good. Still, this list may have been a controversial choice for some, but I think most players would agree that it was playable if not very good - and then when the new edition arrived and you couldn't run it anymore, I eagerly awaited the arrival of the Armies of Middle-Earth book and the resurgence of a proper mixed-arms Rohan list (one that didn't require the War of the Rohirrim heroes, most of whom I still have to buy). With the release of both the Armies of Middle-Earth and the Legacies documents, we have a pretty good army list that has only gotten better with a recent errata. Let's see what's cooking for one of Rohan's finest lists!

The Fords of Isen: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has more profiles available to it than the Fields of Celebrant list - but only if you allow Legacy profiles to play, which seems fair considering the Fields of Celebrant is a Legacy list. For named heroes, we have to take Theodred and we can/should take Elfhelm and we can also take Grimbold if Legacies are in play. For generic heroes we have Captains of Rohan and maybe King's Huntsmen. On the warrior front, we have Rohan Royal Guards, Riders of Rohan, Rohan Outriders if Legacies are in play, and Warriors of Rohan (who can technically be taken as one of two forms, Warriors of Rohan or Helmingas, if Grimbold is in your list - though only in his warband).

That's . . . not a lot of profiles, but as is usual for not having a lot of profiles, this list makes up for that with a lot of special rules - some of which are copied over from the Legendary Legion of last edition (which I always thought had an excellent set of special rules).

Army List Bonuses

For army creation rules, we have to take Theodred (I don't know why you wouldn't in any case) and we can take up to 50% throwing spears, thanks to an errata - we are definitely going to take advantage of that! There are two passive rules that are pretty good: when your army breaks, all of your models gain Dominant (2) (Resolute Rohirrim) and everyone (including Theodred) gets Sworn Protector (Theodred), so they'll pass Courage tests if Theodred is alive and on the battlefield (Protect the Prince). The first rule might require some record keeping in Reconnoitre (see a recent discussion on the latest FAQ for more on that), but otherwise we're able to effectively double our army on objectives once we've lost half of our army and we don't have to worry about break tests/Terror walls so long as Theodred is alive - perfect!

Additionally, there's a fail-safe rule for Theodred that's new to the list (The Courage of Elfhelm): if he is fighting within 6" of Elfhelm, enemies cannot target Theodred with Strikes if they can target someone other than him. This means that a) we want Theodred to fight dangerous things with a buddy or three, b) we want to take Elfhelm in every list (already done, but still), and c) we want Elfhelm to stay near-ish to Theodred.

There are two notes I'd like to make about special rules that are not in this list: first, this is another Rohan list where Riders of Rohan do count towards your bow limit. Second, this is also one of a few Rohan lists where you don't get Strength +1 on the Charge. Between these two rules being absent, you're actively being encouraged not to go too hard into cavalry and instead are encouraged to bring a mixed arms force (more on that in the profile discussion below).

So...We're Getting New Battlehosts!

 

Hey Reader!

In case you hadn't heard the news from last month, word on the street is that we're getting new battlehosts for Middle Earth! So I figured, might as well dredge up the old articles about potential new battlehosts for the Forces of Good and Forces of Evil that we made like 4 years ago, and see how well we did!

Now as a quick reminder, these articles were written back in 2022, when we were getting new supplements every other year, along with new sculpts, profiles, and heroes, and while the new edition has given us some new sculpts (new Rohan warriors/horses do look good!), it's not as common as it was back in those days that we get new kits. And since we haven't gotten any new battlehosts since then, technically the details are still mostly the same from these articles from yesteryear in terms of which kits might quickly become new ones for us.

So while these article are old, let's see how well they did!

The New Age Is Begun: The Fields of Celebrant Army List

Good morning gamers,

The month of September will tackle the last four army lists with Rohan models. We're kicking things off with a list that harkens back to when I first got started with Rohan: the Fields of Celebrant. Back in the last edition, you could run Eorl the Young with other named heroes if you were okay losing your army bonus . . . and I figured that the Might regen from Gamling's banner (which was far more reliable last edition) and the Arise, Riders of Theoden rule from having Theoden in your list made everything better (Eorl basically became a cheaper version of Eomer, slightly worse in some ways and slightly better in other ways). This edition, you don't need these boosts nearly as much - so let's see if the requirement to work with Minas Tirith (which was an option last edition but wasn't required) changes anything about how the list operates.

The Fields of Celebrant: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list doesn't give us a lot of profiles, but most of our bases are covered. We have to take Eorl the Young and a Gondor King of Men (and we're limited to taking a single King of Men in this list). The list also has Captains of Rohan/Minas Tirith for generic hero support and a basic warrior unit (Riders of Rohan and Warriors of Minas Tirith) and a more specialized warrior unit (Sons of Eorl and Citadel Guard). I think there are models that would be good to add to this list, but I think what we have is perfectly functional.

Army List Bonuses

This list has the two expected rules restrictions for list building: Rohan Warriors can only be taken by Rohan Heroes and Gondor Warriors can only be taken by Gondor Heroes. I gotta say, while I fully accept these list building restrictions, it sure makes me appreciate the more open list building options you have in lists like Men of the West and Defenders of Helm's Deep, where you can mix-and-match your warbands to make each a bit more balanced and self-sufficient. This list, like a lot of other lists, has a clear build: some infantry blocks in certain warbands and a threatening cavalry charge in others.

To assist with these list building restrictions, there are three special rules that affect the models in the list. With the Gondor's Last Defence rule, Gondor models that are within range of an Objective Marker get to reroll 1s when making Strikes, which is . . . not nothing, but certainly not as good as what you see in Atop the Walls where it also affects shooting attacks. The Rohan models bring a once-per-game rule (The Charge of Eorl) that requires friendly Cavalry models (your Rohan models that are still mounted and the King of Men if he took a horse) to Charge if they choose to move and can Charge AND they get to reroll all failed To Wound rolls when making Strikes. This operates just like the Ride Out army list rule and Theodred's rule but NOT like Beorn's Berserk rule: if the unit can Charge and chooses to move, it has to Charge - but it doesn't have to Charge if it chooses not to move.

The New Age Is Begun: the Defenders of the Pelennor Army List

Good morning gamers,

This month is "Pelennor month" and we've covered the Fiefdoms (lots of Gondor units with special take-this-hero-to-get-these-warriors rules), the Grief of Eomer (a mix of Gondor and Rohan units, led by two smashy heroes), and the Return of the King (all of the ghosts with the Three Hunters thrown in). Today, we're taking all of those units - plus a bunch of others who show up in the Atop the Walls list - and putting them into one monster list! In trade for this greatly expanded roster, we're going to have a single special rule . . . but don't let that knowledge cramp your style. The list is very strong and gives veteran players a lot of options for list building. Let's see what we have to work with today!

The Defenders of the Pelennor: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

There are a ton of profiles in this list - the full list is provided in the profile adjustment section below. Suffice it to say that if you're looking for someone from Minas Tirith, the Fiefdoms, Rohan, or the Rangers who was fighting in the War of the Ring, chances are good that you'll find them in this list.

Army List Bonuses

This list has some army building restrictions - none of which are unique to this list. Your Rohan Warriors have to be led by Rohan Heroes, your Gondor Warriors need to be led by Gondor Heroes, and your Dunharrow Warriors have to be led by a Dunharrow Hero or one of the Three Hunters. The omission in this list is that the Rangers don't have the ability to lead anyone - they're included because of their appearance in the Return of the King book, where they led Clansmen of Lamedon (and other Fiefdoms militia from the coast), so it seems to me that they should be able to lead other units (maybe if there are no Dunharrow units in your list to be book-accurate?).

Beyond this, there's only one rule: each Hero in your army gets to declare a free Heroic Combat once per game. This is a really great rule since a) it's free, so Grima can't make it cost extra Might, b) it affects all heroes regardless of their affiliations, and c) it's easy to keep track of for both you and your opponent. On its face, this is weaker than the Riders of Theoden army list (where you get a once-per-game Heroic Combat on a single turn if Theoden is still alive, but also get +1 Strength on the Charge) and probably weaker than the Return of the King (where you get Anduril for free and F4 on some of your Warriors), but overall, it helps this list a lot in that you can take the list in any direction and you won't be fighting against the army list bonus.

So It Begins, Part 3: Plant the Charges

Good morning gamers,

We're back for our third scenario in our custom Helm's Deep campaign. Today, the Uruk-Hai are trying to blow up the culvert with some fancy explosives! Can Aragorn and his friends kill all three torch-bearing Berserkers before the wall is blown?

Plant the Charges (War in Rohan, p. 28)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario:

• Forces of Good: Mostly The Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• Forces of Evil: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 4 Uruk-Hai Captains
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 8 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
• 3 Demolition Teams

This scenario requires Evil to blow up the Deeping Wall via the culvert, while Good needs to kill all three of the torch-carrying Berserkers (hereafter referred to as "torch-boyz"). I will say from the outset that Gorgoroth was watching us set up, and he told Centaur, "You know, you should just keep one of your Berserkers with a torch really far back." Centaur was like, "Yes, I should - but this is scenario play." So . . . for you meta gamers out there, enjoy the resulting fireworks display as both Centaur and I go all-out for not-a-draw!

The New Age Is Begun: the Return of the King Army List

Good morning gamers,

One of the most popular Legendary Legions last edition was one of the first Legendary Legions that was released: the Return of the King. This list is really easy to collect - just get the Three Hunters, the King of the Dead with Heralds, and a box of the Warriors of the Dead and you're pretty much golden (especially if you use one of the Heralds as a banner-carrying Warrior of the Dead). When all is said and done, that's not a lot to spend (by wargaming standards) and you have a perfectly functional, durable army. Today, we're looking to see if that inexpensive army is actually worth taking - and if so, how you do it. Let's dive in and see what's cooking in the Vale of Erech!

The Return of the King: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list requires us to take both Aragorn and the King of the Dead - these are two heroes that we'd probably want to take anyway (and if you don't want to take the King of the Dead, consider the list that we're looking at next week instead). In addition to these two, we have Legolas, Gimli, and Heralds of the Dead as our heroes (Heralds being the only generic hero option) and we have Warriors of the Dead and Riders of the Dead for our warrior choices.

I think this list lost a real opportunity by not including other options - namely Dunedain/Rangers of the North as heroes in any list and Angbor the Fearless as a required choice (instead of the King of the Dead) and Clansmen of Lamedon if you don't take the Dead. The addition of the Lamedon contingent allows you to do the Book-accurate part of Aragorn and his men arriving at the Pelennor (the Dead help them get the black ships from the Corsairs, but don't actually come to the Pelennor). I guess if you want to play with that list . . . come back next week. :)

Army List Bonuses

There are two army list bonuses that center around Aragorn and one for the King of the Dead. Aragorn gets Anduril for free (a 40pt value) and this helps him keep up with the absurdly low wounding difficulties of the Dead. Additionally, friendly Dunharrow Warriors will get +1 Fight Value while within 3" of him, which means some of your warriors (but not many at all) will be F4 . . . that's something that you used to have to get with spearmen before and now you're getting it for free - yaye!

The King of the Dead picks up a niche rule that allows him to spend a Will point when he Charges to force each enemy model within 3" of him to pass a Courage test or move as far as possible directly away from the King of the Dead. This is what Instill Fear used to do last edition - and if you're not keeping the King of the Dead from being shut down by magic, this gives you a good use for his 6 Will points.

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

Good morning gamers,

Last week, we looked at the Fiefdoms army list and today, we're truncating down the Fiefdoms side of the house and adding in some Rohan units as we look at the Grief of Eomer army list. This list finds its origin in a scenario from the Gondor at War supplement from the last edition and it feels like several lists we've looked at over the past few months. Let's see what's in this double-heavy-hitter list, shall we (there's only one legacy profile, we'll highlight the relevant sections in red like we always do)?

The Grief of Eomer: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list is supposed to represent the scene from the books where Eomer rallies his Eored after seeing Theoden and Eowyn on the ground and begins a death-charge into the thick of the enemy. He's rescued by Imrahil and a host of Dol Amroth and Minas Tirith troops. As a result, we have two distinct contingents: a Rohan side and a Gondor side, both of which can only take Warriors in warband led by Heroes of the same faction.

The Rohan side of the house is incredibly light, with just Eomer, Captains of Rohan, Warriors of Rohan, and Riders of Rohan. The Gondor side of the house has Imrahil and Hurin as the named heroes, Captains of Minas Tirith/Dol Amroth for the generic heroes, and Knights/Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth for the Fiefdoms working alongside (maybe) Warriors/Knights of Minas Tirith. You don't have any specialized units for either side (unless you count the Dol Amroth troops as specialists). 

Army List Bonuses

The army list bonuses that this list gets are pretty good - Eomer is always under the effects of the Price of Grief, which isn't a downside if you plan ahead (more on that in the Strategies section below). He also gets +1 Fight Value when he Charges, so if you can keep him going, he'll be a F7 hero (like Imrahil). Eomer also gets Fearless and any Rohan models (Hero and Warrior) who can see him automatically pass any Courage Tests they have to take - so they have Fearless as long as they can see him, which is brilliant.

Finally, the Gondor side of the house gets a bonus of rerolling 1s To Wound when they Charge . . . which is not nothing, but also not very much. This bonus is better as the wounding difficulties drop, so charging into D3 Wild Men is pretty good, charging into D4-5 Orcs will feel good sometimes, charging into D6-7 heavy troops from a whole heap of factions (and in particular into lists that play like this one) will see the rule crop up occasionally but rarely. So . . . whatever.

So It Begins, Part 2: The Walls of Helm's Deep

Good morning gamers,

We're back for another scenario in our custom Helm's Deep campaign. Today, the Uruk-Hai have made it to the walls and they'll be battling through the defenders, trying to get a hold of the walls. Can Aragorn and his friends kill 35 Uruk-Hai in 12 rounds? Can we keep Aragorn alive? We'll see - here are our participants . . .

The Walls of Helm's Deep (War in Rohan, p. 26)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario:

• Forces of Good: Mostly The Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• Aldor
• Haleth, Son of Hama
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• Forces of Evil: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 4 Uruk-Hai Captains
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 12 Uruk-Hai Berserkers

The record keeping for this scenario is tricky - we tried our best to keep a faithful tally. You will see how this went shortly . . .

The New Age Is Begun: the Fiefdoms Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're kicking off Pelennor Fields month with a list that I'm very glad I waited to review until after the FAQ dropped: the Fiefdoms. At the start of the last edition, I was completely blown away by the "overlapping bubble" rules that the army list had (the Fearless and Banner buffs in particular) and the units themselves were pretty average cost for above-average Fight (for the most part) and low-to-average Defense (for the most part). At the end of the last edition, I was building lists around Imrahil and Gandalf the White, using Minas Tirith frontliners supported by Dol Amroth pikemen. This edition, the Fiefdoms plays pretty differently with some very, VERY drastic changes to reign them in (and yet no commensurate price drop appears to be present for their units) - I'm a pretty generous person and I try to write that way on this blog, but I gotta say, this army seems a little over-priced on a few units and so . . . prepare for not a lot of variety in the lists at the end. :) Let's see what lies beyond the realm of Minas Tirith as we travel south and west through Gondor to find the oft-unsung heroes of the Pelennor fields. As we do in this series, anything that's strictly tied to Legacy profiles will be in red.

The Fiefdoms: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

There aren't any new profiles for this Gondorian subfaction - though Imrahil got a fancy new sculpt! We have the OG named heroes of Imrahil, Forlong, Angbor, and Duinhir alongside Captains of Dol Amroth for our generic heroes. We also have Knights of Dol Amroth (foot or mounted), Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth if you're using Legacies, Clansmen of Lamedon, Axemen of Lossarnach, and Blackroot Vale Archers. While we have all of these guys on the roster, your actual roster may vary a little . . .

Army List Bonuses

The army list in this edition is . . . a little weird, but thematically better than last edition. While you used to be able to take all of the warrior types in the list, regardless of which heroes came with them, now you have to have at least one hero of each subfaction (Dol Amroth, Lamedon, Lossarnach, and the Blackroot Vale) in order to bring warriors of the same type. This makes sense to me - though as was noted in our custom list at the end of the last edition, the Clansmen of Lamedon that show up at Minas Tirith are led by an unknown Captain, not Angbor . . . so maybe there should have been an exception for Clansmen of Lamedon?

The profiles are, however, exactly what you expect: Prince Imrahil and Captains of Dol Amroth (who can give you access to Knights/Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth if you want someone cheap), Angbor the Fearless (who gives you access to Clansmen of Lamedon), Forlong the Fat (who gives you access to Axemen of Lossarnach), and Duinhir (who gives you access to Blackroot Vale Archers). This functionally means that you might be forced into two or three of the factions if you want an all-around list (cavalry/expensive front-line infantry - and/or supporting models - from Dol Amroth, bows/supporting models from Blackroot Vale, front-line guys from either Lamedon or Lossarnach).