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. 

3) Thou Shalt Not Bring Too Many Points

All players will create an initial army list that is no more than 500 points. Players are allowed to adjust their army lists between rounds - their army token must move to a space with a site of power that their alliance controls and will have to wait 15 minutes of game time before moving from that site of power.

The army list being used (but not the finished list) must be submitted to the Tournament Director at joshua.kamakawiwoole@gmail.com by November 14, 2026. Players will be notified of the army lists that have been selected and cannot choose an army list that has already been selected. Once the teams have been finalized, the Tournament Director will email each team and they can coordinate the named heroes across their alliance.

Note on proxy/converted models: proxy models will be automatically accepted if the intended model is not available from the GW webstore. Other proxy models will be accepted if they 1) have the same equipment (weapons, armor, gear) as the model it's proxying, and 2) are clearly distinct from other models in the list. Please note any models that a player plans to proxy should be emailed to the Tournament Director. Converted models should have the same gear as the model profile that they're substituting for and should also be distinct from any other models in the army.

4) Thou Shalt Know The Scenario

The Tournament Director will have a stack of cards with the name of a scenario on each and a Matched Play Guide or copy of each scenario near each table. Players will draw a scenario from the stack and that is what will be played - players should be prepared for any scenario.

Tournament points will be awarded to both players based on the number of Victory Points each side received:

• Major Victory (11+ VPs and at least double your opponent's VPs): 6 TPs
• Minor Victory (more VPs than your opponent but not more than 11 VPs and/or double your opponent's VPs): 5 TPs
• Draw: 3 TPs
• Minor Loss (opposing player received a Minor Victory): 2 TPs
• Major Loss (opposing player received a Major Victory): 1 TP

5) Thou Shalt Break Ties Properly

Players will be awarded 1 TP for each territory with a site of power or fortification that they control in addition to the TPs they receive for playing games.

The team with the highest Tournament Point score will win the event. In the event of a tie, the team with the highest number of victories will win the event. If there is still a tie, then the team with the most major victories will win the event. If there is still a tie, then the team with the greatest number of players to have victories will win the event.

6) Thou Shalt Face Different Opponents

This tournament is being run with a map, but the tournament director will do everything possible to make sure players face different opponents each round.

7) Thou Shalt Not Take All Day

This tournament is different from any that has been run before - there is a running clock that will continue running for the entire event. The clock will start at 10:00am and will run until 4:30pm. When there are 5 minutes or less on the clock, any active games will not start a new round. When the timer rings, it's "dice down" and the round is not finished.

Once an army breaks or after their game has lasted an hour, a player may choose to retreat from the battlefield. This could be because they feel that their game will take too long to resolve, they need to get back to a strategic location to prevent another enemy from taking their sites of power, or because they don't think they can change the end score. If a player elects to retreat, the VPs are tallied and if the player has a major loss, then a major loss is awarded (and a major victory is awarded to the opposing player). Otherwise, a minor loss is awarded (and a minor win is awarded to the opposing player). Note that a player who retreats while in a winning position will receive a loss. An army that retreats has a 15 minute delay before being able to move again.

Because there are traveling times and army list recompilation times, players will have breaks between rounds to eat and refresh themselves - it is advised that food is brought to this event, unless a player can work getting food into their break times.

8) Thou Shalt Fight In Middle-Earth

Terrain for this event will be provided by the TMAT team - no players need to bring terrain for the event. All games will play on a standard MESBG board size (48" x 48") with a variety of available locales. The boards will have six objective markers available.

As mentioned at the start, each player will have an army token on the strategic map. There is a 5 minute travel time to go from one territory to an adjacent territory for army lists with at least one infantry model (2.5 minutes for lists that are completely composed of cavalry and/or flyers).

When the army token for a player enters a territory with a site of power or fortification that does not have an enemy army occupying it, the territory is claimed for their alliance (claim the card that comes in the game). If there is an enemy army occupying the territory, then those armies will fight over the territory. Players will make a note of who is playing and the scenario they played on their score sheets.

It is possible for one other player from each team to join a fight in a territory: these new players arrive using the maelstrom rules, except that the entire army will arrive based on a single roll (with the army general modifying the arrival roll if desired). Break points will be unchanged, so if a scenario ends when one player is quartered or randomly after one player breaks, the break point for each player is considered. Players may choose to not join an existing fight and wait for the current fight to finish, then face the enemy player (if victorious) in the next game.

Regardless of how many players are present for each side, a game will only count as one victory or loss for the purposes of scoring.

9) Thou Shalt Be Gentlemen

Players must be courteous to their opponents and play these games in the spirit of good fun. Should a player conduct himself in a manner which destroys the fun atmosphere of the tournament, a red flag will be thrown and depending on the severity of the infraction, the player may be issued a warning against future infraction, forfeit the game, or be dismissed from the tournament.

10) Thou Shalt Not Be Late

All players must arrive by 9:00am in order to get preliminary check-in requirements, set up their armies at their tables, and fellowship with other players. Because army lists can be adjusted on the fly, it is recommended that an army building app or spreadsheet tool is used to compute needed values (break point, quarter point, bow limit, etc.). The initial list should be available during check-in.

The tournament will follow this schedule:

10:00am - 4:30pm - RUNNING CLOCK

4:30pm - 5:30pm - Tear down 

Tiberius, Tournament Director