Back to Basics, Revisited: Army Composition & Unit Profiles

Good morning gamers,

Well, we're in a new world since the last time we did a "how to play" series, so we're kicking off 2026 by revisiting our "Back to Basics" series. To my surprise and delight, some of the articles from this series remain some of the Top 20 articles viewed in any given 30-day period - which could be a Google roaming bot or it could be that both new and returning players are reading our older stuff. Either way, I'll take it. :)

As we did back in 2021, we're going to learn to play the game by looking at the fun aspect of the game that starts before you show up at the table: creating an army and how to understand the profiles you're looking at.

Army Composition Basics: Heroic Tiers

When building an army, you have to start with heroes - and not all heroes are equal. In past editions of the game, there either wasn't a hero-to-warrior ratio you had to follow (during the Legions of Middle-Earth days when I got started) or there was a 1:12 ratio (when the "warband" books came out). Since the last edition, there are five different tiers of heroes, giving you differing levels of command for your heroes. What is interesting in the newest edition of the game is that heroic tiers aren't listed on the hero profiles anymore - this is good, because many army lists and Legendary Legions in the last edition would change the heroic tier of a hero, so there would be conflict between the unit profile and its army lists. Now, the heroic tier is determined by the army list alone - which I think is at it should be.

Like we did last time, we'll look at Minas Tirith unit to illustrate how these heroic tiers work:

Aragorn is the King is a Hero of Legend - many would follow him and listen to his commands . . .

Heroes of Legend can lead 18 warriors in their warbands. They also pass their first "Stand Fast" roll automatically, which we'll cover in a later post (but for now, just know that when your army thinks it's time to flee the field because they've lost a lot of guys, these heroes say, "No, we've got this!" and the warriors stay in the fight). Heroes of Legend are rare - 0-3 choices for most army lists - but they allow you to bring a LOT of guys with them (relative to the "standard hero"), allowing you to bolster your numbers without the "tax" of an extra hero.

Faramir is a leader among his people and a Hero of Valour in all of his army lists - there are captains serving under him, but he's not a man who everyone would follow . . .

Heroes of Valour can lead 15 warriors in their warbands. Besides the "slightly-larger-than-average" warband, these guys have very little else going for them over the next class of heroes (but if you want to get to the magic number of 30 models, these guys are super helpful). In many army lists, your "Army General" (more on that later) will be either a Hero of Legend or a Hero of Valour.

Madril is a Hero of Fortitude and your typical captain of troops, capable of leading a "standard set" of them . . .

Heroes of Fortitude are the most common kind of hero and they can lead 12 warriors in their warbands. Most armies will have at least one Hero of Fortitude because they tend to be very affordable and provide you with a good number of slots for troops. For a good number of factions, they are also the only models with access to Heroic March, which we'll cover in our next post.

Damrod is a minor hero, more of a sergeant than a captain . . .

Minor Heroes are able to lead 6 warriors in their warbands. These represent the sergeants in the army, capable of leading a small band but not a full company. Models like Eowyn would hold the respect of a few people, but would not be viewed as a great captain on the battlefield.

Courtesy of Games Workshop - Pippin isn't a leader at all . . .

Independent Heroes cannot lead any warriors because they're heroes who . . . well, don't actually lead people. Unlike other heroes, however, these heroes can be placed in a friendly hero's warband (taking up one of their warrior slots). This allows you to "tuck away" a hero into another warband (which can be extremely valuable).

Army Composition Basics: Army Lists (and the Biggest Change from the Previous Edition)

In the previous edition of the game, there were five ways you could create an army list:

• Pure Army Lists: You go to the army book, you pick an army list, and you build lists using just the units from that army list. This was the easiest way to build a list and most of the lists were automatically "themed" because it was "a bunch of Minas Tirith guys" or "A horde of Goblins." You received an army bonus and needed at least one Hero of Fortitude/Valour/Legend to be your army leader (now Army General). Depending on who you talk to, this might be considered how army list building works now.
• Historical Alliances: Factions that historically worked together (e.g. Minas Tirith with Rohan/the Fiefdoms, Erebor Reclaimed with the Halls of Thranduil/Survivors of Lake-town, Mordor with the Easterlings) could be taken together and got to keep their army bonuses AND got to take models from both factions (though heroes from one faction couldn't lead warriors from another faction). Each faction needed at least one Hero of Fortitude/Valour/Legend in the list.
• Convenient Alliances: Factions that existed at the same time but didn't work together (e.g. the Shire and Minas Tirith, the White Council and Rohan, Moria and Isengard) could be taken together but lost their army bonuses and otherwise acted normally. Like historical alliances, you could take models from any mix of the factions you chose, but heroes from any faction chosen could only lead warriors from their own faction. Each faction needed at least one Hero of Valour/Legend in the list.
• Impossible Alliances: Factions that didn't exist at the same time and so couldn't work together (e.g. Numenor and Minas Tirith, Barad-Dur and Mordor, Sharkey's Rogues and any other evil faction) got penalized heavily. Thanks to the first erratas released in the last edition, these armies lost their army bonuses, each faction had its own break point and breaking one faction broke the whole army, neither could benefit from banners/banner effects from the allied faction, they didn't benefit from friendly heroic actions called by heroes from the allied faction, and they wouldn't benefit from the Stand Fast of an allied hero (which is used to keep warriors from fleeing the battlefield when half of the army is broken). Yep, there were some pretty steep penalties for being impossible allies, so players needed to consider twice whether it was worth it. Each faction needed at least one Hero of Valor/Legend in the list.
• Legendary Legions: these army lists allowed you to relive moments from the books or movies that might be hard to do with the normal alliance matrix. Legions like the Return of the King Legendary Legion (which allowed Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli to lead Warriors/Riders of the Dead) allowed heroes who would normally not be able to lead troops to led warriors AND keep the Dead of Dunharrow army bonus AND give some neat new rules to Aragorn. Because these lists couldn't be allied together, there was a limitation on how well they could deal with other army lists and for some players, being locked in with a Legendary Legion didn't feel as good because you couldn't adjust your list to your meta. Depending on who you talk to, this might be considered how army list building works now.

The biggest advantage you got in the old edition from allying with other factions was the ability to supplement weaknesses. The Corsairs of Umbar, for example, had no warrior cavalry options (and their only hero cavalry option was probably going to be left at home most of the time in favor of their other hero choices). As a Historical Ally with the Serpent Horde (Haradrim), you could get access to cavalry heroes and warriors for pretty cheap - great for fleshing out the Corsair ranks with mobility options while not giving up the army bonuses for either faction.

The biggest disadvantage to allying was that your army became split focus: you usually couldn't include all of the bells and whistles you would normally take with Corsairs if you ran an allied contingent of Haradrim. Similarly, because cavalry cost more than infantry, you would not have as many numbers as you otherwise would with a pure Corsair list - and since Haradrim models are not any more resilient than Corsair models, you'd be dying just as quickly but have a lower break point.

In the current era of the game, we live somewhere between the Legendary Legions and Pure Lists of the old era - there is no alliance mechanic anymore, which leads most lists (a few very notable exceptions exist) to be reasonably conceived to have existed in Middle-Earth. For many players around the world, this has been a barrier to entry - yes, the game is still as fun as it always was (and some of the core rules have been changed for the better with new rules being added to make it even better than before), but the ability to flex your list to do different things has been lost. And that is a big deal for most players - including for some of us here at TMAT. It hasn't affected me - I was a big champion of Legendary Legions as a way of stretching the mind and giving me a challenge/incentive to lean hard into one thing. However, even I am finding lists that I used to enjoy playing unavailable to me now - and that's sad.

List Types - Play Styles

Centaur wrote an article back in 2015 about various different play styles in the game. While the article is old, the principles of it still apply in the current edition. I won't cover the same ground he did, but for a beginner's knowledge, here are a few different "play styles" that you will find in MESBG - not all of these are competitive, but each has an appeal to different players. I will say that these categories aren't mutually exclusive - some of them overlap - but the mindsets of each bullet point are different, so consider what appeals to you as a player:

• Horde Lists & Elite Lists: some factions (like a pure Goblin-town army or Sharkey's Rogues) are going to run lots of models - far more models than their opponent has. They can do this because the models that they field are really cheap and at least on paper, they're really, REALLY bad at fighting (we'll get into what makes a model good/bad at fighting later). These are horde lists - you're counting on having more guys than your opponent and either overwhelming them with guys or "just having more guys" around objectives. Elite lists, by contrast, focus on having a smaller number of guys, but each of your models boast a good profile, able to limit the damage they take and deal lots of damage in return. All-hero lists, such as the Fellowship or the Champions of Erebor, tend to be examples of elite armies (though armies with expensive warriors, like the Iron Hills and any of the Elf factions, can qualify as well).
• Asymmetric Lists: we'll get into the phases of each round of the game in the next few posts, but suffice it to say that each round of the game moves through five phases (the Priority phase, the Move phase, the Shoot phase, the Fight phase, and the End phase). While most armies deal their damage in the Fight phase (where models that have charged each other are trying to kill each other with swords or axes or whatever), some lists can be built as asymmetric lists which try to exploit weaknesses in enemy models, usually by taking advantage of the earliest phases in the game - the Move phase (where models are maneuvering around the board, charging each other, and casting magic) and the Shoot phase (where models are . . . well, shooting at each other if they have a bow or something). Most factions don't force you into favoring Move phase or Shoot phase damage, but a few can be built to really capitalize on these elements of the game. Most Elven lists can be fielded with lots of heavily-armored Elves, but some can also be run with Legolas, Tauriel, and a Captain or two leading a bunch of Mirkwood Rangers - everyone in this list can have a bow, everyone can shoot at the enemy, and you can deal LOADS of damage to your opponents (if the dice don't ate you and the terrain is fairly kind). Other lists that can be early-phase-heavy lists include armies with lots of chariots, war beasts, or camels that do damage to models when charging in the Move phase, throwing-weapon-heavy lists that can perform shooting attacks when charging in the Move phase (or being cast in the Shoot phase), and magic-heavy lists that can do damage (or neutralize enemy heroes) in the Move phase. The caution with these kinds of lists (from someone who has run plenty of shooting-heavy lists over the years and LOVES magical powers) is that if that one phase doesn't yields results, you can be in a lot of trouble.
• Tool Kit Lists: some lists can build redundancies into their army so that they can deal with anything they face. A tool kit list takes lots of different elements so that no matter what kind of list they're facing, they know they have some kind of answer to it. Including a model with access to magical powers, anti-archery rules (be it high defense or an actual anti-archery bubble rule), a big hero to either clear out warriors or cut through big heroes/monsters, shooting, a heavily-armored anvil to receive the enemy charge and "die slowly" to buy your other models time - any of these things will give you the ability to deal with horde armies, elite armies, phase-heavy lists, and whatever else your opponent thinks up. These lists tend to be hard to build at low points levels, but are often the most competitive lists at higher points levels. These lists are also a lot harder to build in the new edition - your best bet is to look for the "big battle lists" where you might find the right mix of casters, heavy-hitters, and good warrior selections.
• Thematic & Aesthetic Lists: some lists aren't written to maximize points spent or even be able to handle everything - they're built because you "are playing to theme" or are trying to include models that you like the look of or painted really well and want to show off to your friends on the tabletop. Thematic lists are often easy to build with the new army list structure (though some of them can break theme still) and some builds can be a bit more competitive by giving you extra rules that encourage your desired build than in the previous edition of the game (the Shire has seen a real renaissance in the new edition with its hero-shut-down options). Some models look really cool - if you include these models in your list because you think they're awesome (even if their rules don't look as good as other options), you are probably running an aesthetic list. 
• "Stubborn" & Ownership Lists: there are some lists that we build where we sit down and say, "I want to run a list that has <model_name> and <another_model_name> in it - how do I make this work?" These kinds of lists I refer to as stubborn lists - and they are most often run by Centaur. :) Centaur referred to "underdog" lists, which are lists that if anyone else in the world ran them, they probably wouldn't do well, but because you built the list this way and you have an idea that you want to make work, you can pull off victories (often when viewed as having the disadvantage in the fight). If you want a good challenge (or have an aesthetic list you want to run), you might want to look into a stubborn list. New players will fall into a similar list building mindset - the ownership list - where you look at just the models you own and say, "What do I want to run?" In this paradigm, models are either good choices or bad choices based on what you have - and there's nothing wrong with this. I would recommend not criticizing models as "bad" just because you don't own them though - I used to do this and have had to eat my hat since then.

Okay, so we've gotten some idea of how heroes allow you to bring a certain number of warriors to the fight, how you can choose to run pure/allied factions (or run a Legendary Legion), and gotten some idea of different play styles that can use. Now we get into the thick of the discussion: understanding those profiles in the the various sourcebooks and figuring out "what makes a model good to take."

Hero and Warrior Roles - Fitting Your Style

When given the choices of heroes and warriors, most factions have to pick and choose from a multitude of profiles (some lists have very few options, so their lists write themselves). Here are some general questions you might want to ask when figuring out what units to buy (to illustrate this, we'll use the Defenders of Helm's Deep army list, which depicts Theoden and his brave warriors from Rohan standing alongside Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Haldir, and the resolute Elves of Lothlorien):

• Do you want the maximum number of models or fewer models? The Legion requires you to run Theoden (who, as a Hero of Legend, can bring 18 troops) - but do you want to fill out his warband with 18 models BEFORE picking up another hero? Or do you want to pick up a few heroes to support Theoden (perhaps Aragorn, Haldir, and/or Legolas) and THEN start getting warriors?
• Do you want the cheapest troops or more elite troops? Generally speaking, cheaper troops means more troops (or better heroes), but by dropping a few warriors (or one hero), you can often give your cheap-as-chips units extra equipment (throwing spears for some of your Warriors of Rohan so they can shoot at enemy models instead of having to wait for the enemy to engage them) or buy better troops instead (replace those Warriors of Rohan with shields for Rohan Royal Guards with shields - or replacing your Warriors of Rohan with bows with Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows). You can also pick up things like a banner (or two), trade one big hero for two little heroes, and the like.
• Are you looking for the best value for cost? Some models get bonuses "for free" relative to other profiles (High Elf Warriors get +2 Courage while Dwarf Warriors get +1 Defense and +1 Courage "for free" relative to Warriors of Rohan), while others give you a bonus that's hard to get (extra Strength, for example) for "just 1 point more" (Khazad Guards, for example, cost 3 points more than a Dwarf Warrior with two-handed axe, but get +1 Strength, +1 Defense, and the Bodyguard special rule - all of which are really nice upgrades and make a Khazad Guard "more worth the points" than a Dwarf Warrior with two-handed axe).
• Are you looking for maximum killing power? If so, you're probably trying to mount as many heroes as possible (and maybe running as many heroes as you can with a token amount of warriors to screen for them while the heroes chew through the enemy). You might also look into siege engines to supplement a large body of shooting models so you can kill the enemy before he gets to you.
• Do you want to focus heavily on one part of the game? I don't generally recommend this, but find myself playing this way a lot. :) Whether it's an army that heavily emphasizes magic (lists that have lots of Ringwraiths, for example), shooting (like my basically-everyone-can-shoot Rohan lists or my more-than-half-of-my-models-can-shoot Gondor/Khazad-Dum lists), or cavalry (a lot of Rohan lists come to mind), you may like an army that "does one thing" - and if that thing works you'll win the game (probably). If that thing doesn't work, though . . .

Okay, so you have an idea of the kind of army that sounds fun to you? Well, let's dig into the profiles for that army and see what everything means.

Hero and Warrior Profiles: What Do the Numbers Mean?

So you have an army list that you want to try, you have a list of models in that army list you'd like to use, and you open the appropriate sourcebook (either the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book with Theoden on the cover, the Armies of the Hobbit book with Thranduil on the cover, the Armies of Middle-Earth book with the hordes of Mordor on the front, or the Legacies of Middle-Earth book - which is not valid for GW-run games, but seems pretty accepted in non-GW-run games - that you can download from the GW website) and you see the following set-up:

Photo Credit: Games Workshop, of course!

First off, models have keywords, which show up in special rules in bolded text. Arvedui has the keywords of Man, Arnor, Hero, Infantry, and Unique. Two of those - Infantry and Hero - have the most impact on the game, as certain rules trigger if you're interacting with an infantry model (e.g. cavalry that charge infantry get a few bonuses) and heroes have a few extra rules over infantry (such as being needed to bring troops or call a "Stand Fast" to keep your models fighting). You'll note that Arvedui is a Hero of Legend in the "Arnor" army list - as discussed above, this means you can bring up to 18 warriors in his warband.

Each hero also has a cost - the higher the points listed, the better the profile (generally speaking - the relative value of a model is often determined by "what you get for their cost"). Games are played at a certain "points level," so expensive heroes may become more or less viable options based on how high your points limit is. Arvedui costs 80 points, which is about what you expect for a mid-tier hero (who live in the 50-90pt range), but much less than most top-tier heroes (who live in the 130-400pt range). Compared to most Man heroes, he's about average - but he doesn't have any upgrade options, so he might not punch as hard as other options.

Then you have the profile's stat line: 

• "Mv" stands for Movement - you can move the model the stated number of inches (6" is considered average - less than that means you're short and slow, higher than that and you're tall and/or fast);
• "FV" stands for Fight Value - the first number shows your skill with your melee weapon (1-10, the higher the better), 
• "SV" stands for Shoot Value, which used to be printed along with the Fight Value. This number shows your skill with any ranged weapons you may have (2+ means you hit your target on the roll of a 2 or higher - the lower this number is, the better);
• "S" stands for Strength - the number shows how hard your model hits when making melee strikes (and can be used for other things too - 1-10, the higher the better in most situations);
• "D" stands for Defense - the number shows how tough your model is (usually because of the kind of armor they're wearing - 1-10, the higher the better in most situations);
• "A" stands for Attacks - the number of dice you roll when attacking in melee (most warriors have 1A and so roll 1 die, most mid-tier heroes have 2A and so roll 2 dice, while most elite heroes/monsters have 3A and so roll 3 dice - though there are ways to get more dice rolls for some heroes, either through a higher Attack stat or other special rules);
• The first "W" stands for Wounds (in my Excel builders, I use "H" for "Health" for reasons you'll see in a minute) - the number of successful wounds you need to suffer to be removed from the board (most warriors have 1W and so die after they've been wounded once, while most heroes/monsters have 2-3 Wounds);
• "C" stands for Courage - a value that needs to be met or beaten when you roll two dice in order for the model to "pass a Courage test" (there are various things that might make you pass a Courage test - more on these in a later post in this series); and
• "I" stands for Intelligence - this is a new stat and it is used for very, VERY niche things in the game. It functionally works like a Courage tests, but you can't use any of your heroic resources to affect the roll - more on what these resources are next.

Heroes have three "heroic resources" that they can use - and these are commonly viewed to be one of the best mechanics in the game:

• "M" stands for Might - "Might points" can be used to modify die rolls and call heroic actions, which allow heroes to improve their stats or do things out of sequence, such as moving, shooting, or fighting. Arvedui has 3 Might points and his specialized heroic actions are "Defense, Strength, and Strike" - if you're curious about these, check out our series on them from late 2020 (or wait for us to revisit them in this series);
• "W" stands for Will (see why I use "H" for "Health"?) - "Will points" can be used to modify Courage test rolls and allow heroes to cast and/or resist magical powers. Arvedui has 2 Will points and has no magical powers in his profile, so he will probably use these to resist magical powers (and pass the occasional Courage test); and
• "F" stands for Fate - "Fate points" can be used to ignore wounds. For each Fate point the hero spends, a die is rolled: the hero blocks a wound for each roll of 4 or higher (4+) that is rolled - Might points can be used to modify these rolls. Arvedui has 1 Fate point, so he might save a wound he takes in a game.

A model also has a starting set of wargear (Arvedui has heavy armor and a hand weapon) and many profiles have options for additional wargear that can be purchased for them (increasing their points cost). The big thing you want to watch for in this category is the word "unarmed," which means the model carries no melee weapon and suffers penalties to their fighting rolls (because, you know, they have no weapon). Some models (like Wargs and fell beasts) have wargear like "Teeth and Claws" - these models don't count as being unarmed. We'll talk more about wargear below.

A model may have magical powers listed on their profile - Arvedui doesn't have any, but each power is listed with a casting difficulty (3+, 4+, 5+, or 6+) which indicates the highest roll you need to get when spending Will to cast the spell. We'll be looking at how magic has changed in a later post, but suffice it to say for now that a) magical casting difficulties on the whole went up this edition, and b) because the casting difficulty went up, magic itself is harder to resist in this edition.

Finally, almost every model in the game has a section for its special rules. Some special rules are "common special rules" which have their full game text provided in the main rulebook. Arvedui, for example, has "Hatred (Angmar)" (which means he gets a +1 bonus to wounding models that have the Angmar keyword in their profile). Arvedui also has "unique special rules," which are not found in the main rulebook (when multiple models have these rules, the page number that they can be found on is referenced). Arvedui, for example, has the "The King in the North" special rule, which gives him a 12" stand fast range instead of the usual 6" stand fast range - we'll talk about stand fasts when we discuss Courage later in this series.

Special rules have the keywords "Active" or "Passive" attached to them, which in general doesn't mean anything. Some magical powers or special rules may prevent models from using "Active" abilities - that's really the only time when this comes into play. 

Wargear - Fitting Your Style

The final thing about unit profiles that we need to cover is wargear - the "extra stuff" you give to your units to make them better. There are common pieces of wargear that most armies get (though some don't), so we'll cover those first. When possible, you probably want to buy spears for your troops, since spears allow models who are not in combat to lend 1 Attack to a friend who has been charged (we'll cover this more next time when we talk about the Move phase). Shields are also good, since they not only increase the Defense value of the model (usually - some exceptions) and they allow the model to "defend by shielding," which gives them more dice to win the fight and not wound the enemy should they win the duel (we'll cover this more when we talk about the Fight phase). Players will differ on whether to give shields to spearmen - I generally recommend it.

As a general rule, armies can equip one-third of their warriors with some kind of bow (rounding up, so if you take 31 warriors, 11 of them can have a bow, longbow, shortbow, crossbow, or some other kind of specialized bow that falls into one of the above categories). Heroes with some kind of bow do not count towards this one-third limit. Not all armies have "good" archers, but I generally find that taking close to 33% bows is helpful no matter how good your warriors are, since not taking bows means that bow-heavy enemy armies get to decide how you play the game (and who wants to do that). Throwing weapons are far less common and can also be used for shooting, but now count towards a second kind of bow limit (so you might have 33% of your army with bows, 33% of your army with throwing weapons, and the other 33% of your army with no shooting options at all).

You also want to have at least one banner (or a hero who counts as a banner) in your army, since banners allow you to reroll dueling dice (which we'll cover more in the Fight phase). Banners are expensive (25pts each) and can make warriors (or certain heroes) targets for your opponent, but their benefits in combat are incredible (especially for heroes and elite warriors). War horns are also expensive, but while one or more war horns are on the field, your units get +1 Courage while within 24" of them, making them more likely to pass Courage tests of all kinds. War horns are also expensive (30pts each), but if you have 30+ models benefitting from it, the cost is probably worth it. Also, models carrying war horns gain the Dominant (2) special rule, which is a new special rule for this edition and allow a war horn model to count as 2 models when determining who has control of objectives and a few other scenario-specific scoring requirements.

Mounts are also quite useful - especially for heroes. Whether it's a horse, warg, or fell beast, a mount give extra movement to a model and a larger base, giving the model the opportunity to smash into more troops. There are downsides to taking mounts (namely, the larger base makes it easier to charge you and limits the number of models that can be within range of certain area buffs, such as banners) - plus mounts themselves are now properly-priced and can make your heroes (and to a lesser degree, warriors) a LOT more expensive.

Conclusion: Getting Started with MESBG

This article has shown how some of the core mechanics of army building work in MESBG - and over the next few weeks, we'll be going over each phase of the game and how they work (and what to think about when you're in them). If you want example army lists, check out our ongoing series "The New Age Is Begun", where we're walking through army lists and seeing what they do and what considerations you may need to work around.

In our next post, we'll be going over the Priority phase and the Move phase (since they're very, VERY related to each other). This is probably the best part of MESBG and showcases a lot of a player's talent and weaknesses. Warfare is all about maneuvering - and most of the movement of your models happens in this phase. Veteran players and novices alike can learn a thing or two about this phase, so pull together your favorite tricks over the next week and dump them in the comments! Until next time, happy hobbying!