MESBG Christmas Lists, List #11: The Kingdom of Moria . . . and Friends?

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: Merry Christmas to all! I hope you've been enjoying this series - it's always great when content creators from across the international community contribute to a project like this (and I feel very blessed that anyone out there who generates good content wants to even be involved with our work here)! Today's "Christmas list" comes to you from . . . me! I've hinted at this list several times this year and it has got to be one of the most FUN lists I've ever played - and it's a throw-back to the way I originally built my Kingdom of Moria lists for MESBG (which was actually the "Erebor" list in the LOTR SBG days). So stroll with me down memory lane as we look at the most awesome Dwarf list I ever made (while most of the posts in this series have been short . . . this article will only be short compared to some of my other work . . . and maybe Rythbyrt's article)!

Oh, and I'm going to cheat and provide multiple lists, but they nest together, okay?

The Evolution of a Crazy Impossible Alliance

It's no secret - I'm a huge fan of the Kingdom of Moria: the heroes are excellent (Balin, King's Champions, and Dwarf Kings are/can be all budget F6/D8+ combat heroes - and two of them give you Heroic March, which is always nice to have as an option), the warriors are excellent (their core troops are 9pts each with 1 piece of gear, while their elite units get stronger and more expensive), and as a whole, they're incredibly forgiving as a faction. You can also splurge on two plastic boxes of core troops (two boxes of Dwarf Warriors, two boxes of Dwarf Rangers, or a box of each like I did), the Balin/Floi pack, and a King's Champion pack (with an optional Dwarf King pack, if you can find it), and you can get started with the army quickly and easily.

No matter how competitive you want to be, this is a great starting foundation for MESBG - good, resilient heroes and solid, resilient troops. What more could you want . . . besides cavalry . . . and spears . . . and maybe some magic . . . yeah, there's some to be desired in this list, but hey, you gotta give something, right?

Like most new players to the game, I stuck to pure lists for a while - I mean, I was slowly collecting models and we were playing at low points levels, so allying just wasn't on my mind at the time. I allied Gandalf into some Wood Elf lists (before getting Galadriel), and I allied Legolas into everything (including Dwarf lists), but I eventually got around to looking at the profile for Radagast the Brown . . . and boy did I have a crazy idea. 

You see, back in the day, you were able to do "volley fire" with 10+ bows of the same type, so if you had 10 Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows, you could shoot at targets that were within 18" normally and at models that were 18-36" away from you by hitting on a 6. The trick was, only one model in your army needed to be able to see the target . . . and Radagast could (and still can) "see" everyone thanks to the Master of Birds special rule. 

MESBG Christmas List #10: Erebor Reclaimed

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: Our Christmas list today is provided to you by my son, Gorgoroth. While preparing for our 1000-point siege THRO tournament, Gorgoroth tried MANY different lists, ranging from the Return of the King Legendary Legion (that list was scary) to an Azog's Legion spam list (featuring the big man himself, of course). After testing a lot of things, Gorgoroth decided that he wanted elite units (at least F4) and resilient units (preferably D8). So naturally, as I was converting up Warriors of Erebor to be Iron Hills Dwarves to support War of the Ring era Dain, my son was like, "Hey, those guys can be D8, right?" And I was like, " . . . yeah . . ." And he was like, "Well, can I try them out?" And I was like ". . . yeah . . ." And he basically never looked back. So . . . here's Gorgoroth to tell you all about his new favorite army.

Gorgoroth: First off, I'd like to point out that Dain (old) is an awesome dude and I love him. He has great hitting and staying power as far as I'm concerned, plus, he looks supercool. But he isn't the only guy I need to talk to you about. I also like Gloin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor. Now, comparing him to Dwalin (champion version), he is not too much worse and costs a lot less, so I run him a lot more than Mr. Dwalin and he still kills everything. 

And now I have Bifur. He is used for heroic moves and for his 12 model capacity. Now everyone knows three heroes is not an army so I saw this and took 40 dudes in the army for numbers. and they killed everything (did you notice I love the Ctrl-B button?). Anyway, I had like 200 points left so I went "Huh this would look so darn awesome if only I had some speed . . . I took the armies of the hobbit book . . . page 30 . . . Huh! Goat Riders! So I took 6 riders (with war spears, obviously) plus a captain 'cause turns out they can totally have goats (which, in my book is labeled as awesomeness). So then I found myself at 1000 points and I said "yeah, let's do this!" And we did it!!!!!!

Here's my list:

• Dain Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain [AL]
• 8 Iron Hills Dwarves
• 9 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
• Gloin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• 5 Iron Hills Dwarves
• 6 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears
• Iron Hills Captain on war goat
• 4 Iron Hills Dwarves
• 6 Iron Hills Goat Riders
• Bifur the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• 6 Iron Hills Dwarves
• 6 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears

1000 points, 54 models, 1 thrown stone hitting on a 3+, 54 D6+ models, no fast models but 2 Might for Heroic March, 10 Might

Tiberius: I'm not sure that much else needs to be said - it was awesome. At THRO 2023, Gorgoroth's list was one of two undefeated lists, narrowly beating my Balrog list as the attacker in the burn-the-village scenario and keeping Dronak's spider spam list from burning a bunch of buildings as well (though he would have been good defending the walls too, since he would have just dropped his mounted contingent). Dwarves hurt and they're hard to kill - especially when there are fifty of them. We'll be back soon - until next time, happy hobbying!

MESBG Christmas Lists, List #8: Isengard

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: Today's Christmas list comes to us from our very own Red Jacket, who has his army from the 2023 TMAT Grand Tournament. I had the "pleasure" of playing against this list and boy is it good at what it does. Take it away, mate!

Red Jacket: This year, for our TMAT grand tournament in the spring, I ran an Assault on Helms Deep Legendary Legion list. I find this legion to be both interesting, and enjoyable to play. The legion itself has a few quirks, strongly incentivizing the use of siege weapons, allowing for quasi-spam tactics with Fight 4, Defense 6 troops which is basically unheard of, and permitting an Uruk-based army to really rely on shooting.

My list was 623 points (600+the year of the tournament, 2023) and is outlined below:

• Uruk-Hai Commander with shield
• 4 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 7 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with pike and banner
• 4 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
• Uruk-Hai Captain with two-handed sword
• 2 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 2 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 8 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
• 2 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
• Uruk-Hai Siege Veteran with Isengard Assault Ballista
• 1 crew
• 1 crew with pike
• Uruk-Hai Siege Veteran with Isengard Assault Ballista
• 1 crew
• 1 crew with pike

623 points, 38 models, 8 crossbows hitting on a 4+ AND 2 ballistas hitting on a 4+ (and rerolling 1s), 8 D6+ models, no fast models but 4 Might for Heroic March, 4 Might

Check out Red Jacket's work on Instagram!

MESBG Christmas Lists, List #7: The Army of Dunland Legendary Legion

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: This week, we've seen Christmas lists from Mitchell and Markus Hammond from the Durin Show - what better way to wrap up the week than to have Matt Hammond, the third member of the Durin Show, send in a list he enjoyed using this year! What do you have for us today, Matt?

Matt: I like lists that center around heroes. Special abilities and rules that accompany most of these characters add flavor, and the potential to enjoy strategic ploys that make the army unique to your playstyle. As a result, most of my MESBG games take on a “Warriors hold the line while the big fellas do the work” kind of approach. Let’s talk about a new army that I have been playing with that completely changes that dynamic.

Vikings... uh, I mean the Army of Dunland.

I picked up this army on an impulse (I am prone to those). On the surface, low fight, low defense, high strength, and high numbers make it look not too dissimilar to playing other trending toward horde lists. However, it is the heroes and the elite troops that make this army so much fun to play and make it very different than most Middle-Earth armies. 

MESBG Christmas Lists, List #6: Lurtz's Scouts Legendary Legion

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: It's a Hammond brother double play! If you missed the Christmas list from Mitchell Hammond a few days ago, you can find it here. Today, it's Markus Hammond from the Durin Show at bat - and he's brought one of my favorite Legendary Legions!

Markus: After reading my brother’s blog post, I am beginning to see a pattern: Hammond’s gravitate towards armies or list ideas that have been written off by the larger community. I’m not sure what that says about us, but I know it creates a lot of good fun! 

The army I’ve most enjoyed playing the past 18 months has been Lurtz’s Scouts legendary legion. When the army first dropped, I heard lots of social media (and local) commentary about how it was only good at 400-500 pts, or was the neglected sibling when compared to Ugluk’s Scouts because animosity was “that much better”. Being a big fan of Isengard, and because the attack on Amon Hen is one of my favorite scenes from the movies, I instantly bought as many old metal Uruk Hai scouts off eBay as I could find and built 900 pts of scouts. 

MESBG Christmas Lists, List #5: The Fell Beings of Mirkwood

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: As someone who has a tight bond (and runs a podcast) with his brothers, I absolutely love seeing other brothers share a strong bond (and if they also run a podcast, even better!). Naturally, I'm therefore a huge fan of the Durin Show - and the amazing chemistry that the Hammond brothers have on that channel. If you haven't checked out their stuff yet, you should - see the links on the sidebar for both their podbean and YouTube channels. Today's list comes from one of the hosts of the Durin Show, Mitchell Hammond, who has made quite a splash on the West Coast of the US with the Fell Beings of Mirkwood Legendary Legion. Mitchell, what do you have for us today?

Mitchell: I have been playing a lot of Fell Beings of Mirkwood Legendary Legion this year. I built the list after I was a guest on the Into the West podcast when they said this particular Legendary Legion was only meme tier. After building and painting it, I have taken the list to five events this year including Adepticon and Clash on the Coast. While I built it at first as a challenge to prove it was not meme tier, I have secretly found it to be one of the most fun armies I have ever played.

For example, the Legendary Legion bonuses are great! Gaining Hatred (Elf), specifically with bats, spiders and heroes, really pays off when you see an Elf army. However, I've found that the rule that comes into play most often is giving Woodland Creature to the entire army. In my experience, most boards at an event have some sort of woodland terrain, so having Orcs moving 6-12" through woods can completely catch your opponent off guard.

MESBG Christmas Lists, List #4: Minas Tirith

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: Today's list is the first of the TMAT team's lists and per the usual, Centaur is the first of us to submit his list (well, list and article - I was still writing my article, but the list was definitely chosen already). Centaur has chosen his list from our recent THRO 2023 tournament - one that I had the "privilege" of playing against . . .

• Boromir, Captain of the White Tower on horse with the Banner of Minas Tirith and shield [AL]
• 7 Osgiliath Veterans with shields
• 8 Osgiliath Veterans with shields and spears
• Faramir, Captain of Gondor with heavy armor and bow
• 3 Osgiliath Veterans with shields
• 3 Osgiliath Veterans with shields and spears
• 8 Rangers of Gondor with spears
• Beregond, Guard of the Citadel
• 6 Citadel Guard with longbows
• Ingold, Warden of the Rammas Echor
• 1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with shield, spear, and banner
• 4 Knights of Minas Tirith with shields
• 2 Rangers of Gondor with spears
• Siege veteran with Gondor Battlecry Trebuchet
• 2 crew
• Siege veteran with Gondor Battlecry Trebuchet
• 2 crew

1000 points, 50 models, 11 bows hitting on a 3+ AND 7 longbows hitting on a 4+ AND 2 trebuchets hitting on a 4+, 30 D6+ models, 5 cavalry, 14 Might

Centaur: I was told this was a siege tournament, and I love trebuchets, so I decided upfront I'd run a trebuchet-heavy list. At one point I had three in the list, but I dropped it to two, because I found I only had like 30ish guys running around beyond the trebs, and that felt unwise. So I dropped it down to two. But I really love how this list plays, because it's a multi-threat list that has good synergy with each other.

A pic of Centaur's ODF in action at TMAT's THRO 2023 tournament

Minas Tirith is a very resilient, and thus forgiving, army: lots of D6+ options, both for infantry and mounted troops, and when you add trebuchets to the list you get really good damage output alongside your heroes, which covers over the fact that your infantry are all S3 and don't tend to contribute as much to the damage total. The trebs provide you with reliable threats against big enemy heroes and monsters, and encourages them to hide behind terrain, which is advantageous for us. But the other thing they do is that they allow you to hang back, soften up for 20 minutes, and force them to take you where you're more defensible, because you have plenty of range, easy access to line of sight thanks to doing Volley Fire, and the weapon itself is pretty resilient, so bringing it to its knees is not easy to do.

So with this list, you've got Boromir and Faramir lined up to deal damage, plus Ingold and Beregond to provide supporting assistance along the lines. And then you have a solid wall of 15 "Heavy Infantry" who are F4 D6 around Faramir and F5 D6 around Boromir, and have that sweet, sweet C5 for getting into Terror models (which I correctly assessed would be all over the place in this tournament). Tack on 4 knights for harassing the flanks, 10 rangers to spear support, some Citadel Guard to give a mix of S3 archery to keep the enemy honest if they chose to skimp on D6 in favor of D5, and a bannerman just to provide a second banner bubble further down the line, and you're golden. Each threat helps each other: whittle away at range, force them up toward us, then hit them with a solid F5 line with plenty of banner support to win the day.

So this is a classic "Centaur-Special" Underdog list: I don't think most people would run this list, and inasmuch as they do, I think they'd run it differently (Warriors of Minas Tirith instead of Osgiliath Veterans, more Rangers instead of Citadel Guard, etc.). But I think I can win with this list, and I pulled a win against a solid Mordor-Easterlings list and a draw against the Balrog. And I'd say that's not half bad, :P 

Tiberius: As the person who got over 30 models SQUASHED by trebuchets while approaching with his Balrog (and a dead siege tower - don't forget about the siege tower), I can say this is a very strong list indeed (and I was very happy to get a draw at the very last minute!). One treb doesn't seem that dangerous, but two trebs (especially if they're both hitting for consecutive turns) can be absolutely crushing (quite literally). Thanks, Centaur, for the list - and we hope you enjoyed reading about it! We'll be back in two days - until next time, happy hobbying!

MESBG Christmas Lists, List #3: Angmar

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: Our Christmas list today is from long-time friend of the blog and Aussie-tournament-winning phenomenon Sharbie from the Against All Odds blog (watch for updates from him in the side-bar or just follow his blog). Sharbie's been playing with a lot of nasty things on the table over the past year (mostly of the big, high-powered monster variety) and today he brings us a list featuring Angmar and the dreaded glass-cannon Gûlavhar - whatcha got for us today, Sharbie?

• The Witch-King of Angmar on horse with the Crown of Morgul and 3M/12W/2F [AL]
• 6 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields
• 6 Angmar Orc Warriors with spears
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with Orc bow
• 1 Dead Marsh Spectre
• 1 Wild Warg
• Gûlavhar, the Terror of Arnor
• 6 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with spears
• 1 Angmar Orc Warrior with spear and banner
• 1 Angmar Warg Rider with throwing spears
• 1 Dead Marsh Spectre
• Barrow-Wight
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with shields
• 5 Angmar Orc Warriors with spears
• 1 Wild Warg
• Orc Captain on Warg
• 1 Wild Warg
• 1 Angmar Warg Rider with shield

750 points, 46 models, 1 Orc bow hitting on a 5+ AND 1 throwing spear hitting on a 5+, 2 D6+ models, 4 cavalry + 1 flyer + 3 fast infantry, 8 Might

Check out Sharbie's articles on Gûlavhar at the end of the post!

Sharbie: This list is hardly unique or original: variants of it have won many a tournament, and it's mostly a particular spin on a standard recipe. However, I wanted to showcase it anyway for three reasons. First, it's been easily my most successful tournament list. I've won a lot of games and several events with variants of it, and it deserves some credit for those.

MESBG Christmas Lists, List #2: Isengard

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: One of my favorite blogs to read (both when they post new things and when I need inspiration from their older content) is the Drawn Combat blog - those guys over there are amazing and I've really enjoyed their "500 under 50" series, as well as the lovely conversion work they do. If you haven't found their blog yet - you should read what they have (it's all awesome) and if possible, attend their Valourbowl tournaments that they run (proceeds go to charity). It is my great pleasure to share with you today a list from Drawn Combat's Dan Stu - take it away, Dan!

Dan: My favourite list from this year was the list I took to Harry Parkhill’s ‘Lord of the Imps’ 805pt tournament in Lincoln. It was my second time attending, and I’ll be sure to go back again next year.

The tournament brings a particular list-building quirk; at the end of the first day, your army’s leader dies along with their warband, to be replaced your nominated Lieutenant who becomes the leader for day 2. This leaves a points gap which can be filled by adding in warbands or warriors. The format shakes things up and encourages a strong emphasis on theme, with lots of people – myself included – bringing armies they’d never normally consider.

MESBG Christmas Lists, List #1: The Host of the Dragon Emperor . . . Revamped?

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: We're doing something special for Christmas this year - I reached out to people across the international SBG community, and asked them to pass along a "Christmas list" that they ran this year and what they liked about it. The gentleman who is providing our first list needs no introduction (but I'm giving him one anyway): if you've interacted at all with the SBG podcasting community or spent any time at all on the GBHL Facebook page or their website, you know the name Harry Parkhill. Yes, it's the Ent, the myth, the Legend himself, bringing us a very fun take on a very dominant list in SBG right now - take it away, Harry!

Harry: On the first day of advent, SBG game to me . . . "an army of Red and Gold a-gleam . . ."

It was March when I took my Dragon Emperor on his last outing before retirement. Clearly the fearsome general is an imposing sight on the tabletop, regularly reaching top tables and winning tournaments for the formerly pitiful Easterlings. The poor souls in Red and Gold had been unloved by so many for so long but the arrival of Rutabi, Brorgir, Acolytes and the Emperor changed that for certain.