Top 10 Hero Choices for the Realms of Men

All photos courtesy of GamesWorkshop

Hey Reader!

I've been playing around with the Realms of Men list recently (and took them to the TMAT GT this past May, where I finished with 2 Wins, 1 Loss, and 1 Draw), and as part of my experimenting with different iterations of the list, I decided to do a Top 10 post looking at the hero choices, because things are INTERESTING in this list.

There are quite a few heroes available to you (5 Kings, 6 Generic Captains, 2 specialists in the Knight of the White Tower and the Rohan King's Huntsman, and several siege captains), so all of them will make the cut! But how useful they are is another question. Before we start the review, let's look at what we'll be ranking in this assessment.

• To start, you need to take a king to field their relevant captains and warriors, but we are not going to therefore say, "Ah yes: the king is automatically higher ranked because you need him to run the captains." We'll evaluate each individually for their usefulness in the list.
• We will consider what kinds of warriors you get access to by taking a given hero, as unit options are part of why you'd consider taking a king/captain, and whether you should branch out into a second, third, or more factions because of what options will be unlocked.
• We will assume that you are playing at a standard points range (600-800pts), so that there is no assumption of only having 1-2 kings: you can run as many as you want, which means that there are reasons to mix and match factions. So just because one faction may be stronger than another in terms of options, that doesn't automatically move them to the top (or bottom), though it may give a reason for pushing deep into one or the other.
• Kings do have access to Heroic Strike; this will naturally lend them to being taken, and does make them inherently valuable. But Heroic Strike on its own does not necessitate "Top 5 Status."

So with no further ado, let's jump into the list!

The New Age Is Begun: The Erebor and Dale Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're looking at an army list that's in a bit of the dumps right now. This hasn't stopped us here at TMAT from looking for good things to like about them, but after playing a few games with this army list . . . it could use a face-lift when the next set of erratas drop. The list is Erebor and Dale - while the Garrison of Dale is seeing a lot of time in the sun and the Army of Thror might see more play now that there's an updated Matched Play guide to make their army bonuses useful, this list . . . is basically at its zenith already and is STILL not valued very highly. Let's see how this list has changed and what's to like about the list!

Erebor & Dale: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

The profile selection hasn't changed much - we have almost all of the same units we always had (no windlances or Knights of Dale - the windlances would have a place in this list, I think, but I'm not sure about the Knights given that we have D7 Erebor Dwarves for the same cost). What has changed, however, is our ability to use the army rules that were available in the Army of Thror and the Garrison of Dale factions:

• The army bonuses that used to be active with a historical alliance were useful - getting a 3+ shoot on all of your Dale models was good, as was a 6" banner for Thror (even though it didn't count as an "actual banner"). So long as you had 33% of your Dale guys with Esgaroth bows and 67% of your Dale guys with shields and spears (and possibly spears on those bowmen), you could get 10 (or 15) spears in your list to back up Guardians of the King who were protecting Thror's flanks (getting a banner reroll and an extra die - two-handing, anyone?).
• There used to be no limit on how many Grim Hammers or Guardians of the King in the old edition - that means you could have 33% of your Dale contingent with bows (5 guys and Girion if you just take and fill Girion's warband) and all of your Dwarf warriors could be Grim Hammers or Guardians of the King. I don't know if you've fought against a D7 throwing weapon army before, but it's scary - it's really scary! And then you throw in the power heroes of Thror, Thrain, and a Captain of Erebor (or Grim Hammer Captain) for March? Yikes!

In trade for these two things (army bonuses and minimal limits on our shooting options), we got some new rules. We'll look at those now, since they're the primary changes that have happened for the army list.

Army List Bonuses

Let's begin with the biggest gotcha in the room: your bow limit and throwing weapon limit is likely to be lower in this list than in other lists. Wait a minute, you say, I thought this was supposed to be higher? Yeah, me too at first blush. The numbers you see are "50% bows" and "50% throwing weapons", but these are actually limited to "50% of Dale Warriors can have bows" and "50% of Erebor Warriors can have throwing weapons." Since both factions can have one or the other (bows/no throwing weapons for Dale, no bows/throwing weapons for Erebor), we get a sliding scale that might or might not be better in one (but not the other) than if we ran an allied list previously.

Let's look at an example of what I mean: because you round up with bow limit, you can take 6 Esgaroth bows if you have 11 Warriors of Dale in your list. Additionally, you can have 6 Grim Hammer Warriors if you have 11 total warriors in your Erebor contingent. This gives you 22 models, 6 of which have bows and 6 of which have throwing weapons . . . or less than 33% bows (27%) and less than 33% throwing weapons. Yes, half of our army can shoot - but a standard army list that smashes multiple army lists together with normal list building constraints (like the Men of the West, Legions of Mordor, or Defenders of the Pelennor) can get to two-thirds shooting capacity if they want to.

First Impressions: The Kingdoms of Men, Part III

Hey Reader!

Welcome back! We're back reviewing more of the armies from the new edition, and today we're looking at the profiles for Arnor (including the new ones that came in the Rise of Angmar) and the 4 profiles for the Army of Dale that are in the Armies of the Hobbit book.

I have reason to believe that there will be more profiles for Dale coming in the Armies of Middle Earth book (Knights of Dale, Windlances, and who knows: maybe something new? We'll see), so this is not a holistic look at Dale (very probably). Arnor is likely present in its totality, so this is likely our full review of your options for Arnor. We'll start with Dale, and then we'll do a deeper study of Arnor.

Dale Overview: How Have They Changed?

There have been several changes to Dale - some of them are pretty small, but some of them are pretty big, completely changing how you use a specific profile.

King Brand and Bard II have to wait for the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement before they can be used again, along with Knights of Dale. So we'll cruise past those.

And Warriors of Dale haven't really changed: still a F4 warrior, still has a great Shoot Value, and still has access to those S3 longbows, so you can get "elven archery for cheaper" because you're not paying for F5 and better Courage. You also get Hatred (Dragon) which...if you find yourself fighting a dragon it's nice to get a bonus to your wounding roll, especially when you're looking at S3 (in close combat or at range with an Esgaroth Bow). But when you're starting at S3, and you're looking to wound something that's like D9, it's not a major boon: you're still headhunting a hard roll.

Now, that being said, if someone were to take a D7 Dragon with Moria, for example (assuming a profile similar to what we saw in the last edition), that would be 5s to wound, which means if you have reason to believe you'll be facing a Dale army (not unreasonable, as Dale has performed pretty well so far in the new edition tournament scene), taking an upgrade to improve the Defense of your dragon may be a really, really good idea. Because wounding it on 5s could be very bad for your health. Just a thing to think about.

Is Arnor Just "Lame Minas Tirith"?

Hey Reader!

Recently when I did my post talking about my predictions/hopes for the new Arnor supplement, one of our commenters made an interesting (and I don't think altogether wrong) comment that "As is, it's hard to see it as anything other than 'lame Minas Tirith'."

And to be honest, YantheMan makes a good point: not only should each army feel different from the others (Mordor and Angmar share a lot of profiles, but they feel very different and are run very differently despite overlapping so much), but there should be a reason to field an army like Arnor over and against Minas Tirith (which will likely always be a more fleshed out faction in the game, and rightly so).

But as someone who has run both Minas Tirith and Arnor, I wanted to spend a few minutes just mulling over whether this claim is actually true, whether this is the right comparison we should be making, and then ending with some thoughts on how the game designers could flesh out Arnor in a way that is satisfying and cool and different without having to invest tens of thousands of dollars into new sculpts (because let's be real: it's not going to happen).

Defence of the North Inspired Lists: The Defenders of Erebor Legendary Legion Revisited

Good morning gamers,

To kick off the series of taking your Defence of the North scenario forces into Matched Play, we're looking at what has become my favorite Legendary Legion from that book: the Defenders of Erebor. These guys are NOT crowd favorites - armies like the Assault on Lothlorien, the Host of the Dragon Emperor, the Fell Beings of Mirkwood, and the Beornings are all proving to be popular armies and incredibly competitive (at least at certain points levels). While the Army of Dale has been championed by some players as very competitive (I don't dare disagree with Rob from the Unexpected Podcast team or Jeremy from the Green Dragons - and I've had by butt handed to me by Centaur a few times with that Legion), no one seems to be talking about the sixth Legion from the book (well, besides Sharbie).

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

So the mantle falls to me - and boy do I love these guys. Usually, my force choices with these guys involve a bunch of "vanilla" Iron Hills Dwarves (who come with shields by default), some spears to back them up (some Dale, some Dwarves), and a bunch of Dale bowmen to run around in skirmish triangles to hold objectives and guard flanks. I also run one of the pairs of heroes and some Champs (starting wtih Bifur), occasionally including a Captain of Dale or an Iron Hills Captain for March. What we have to work with in the "Dale saga" scenarios is . . . well, incredibly limited on these fronts, which made me really struggle with the army list I wanted to make. Here's what we get in the first group of scenarios:

• Brand, King of Dale
• Bard II, Prince of Dale
• One Dale command blister (Captain with shield, Warrior with banner, Warrior with war horn)
• 6 Warriors of Dale with shields
• 8 Warriors of Dale with shields and spears
• 6 Warriors of Dale with Esgaroth bows
• 12 Knights of Dale
  
• Dain Ironfoot, King Under the Mountain
• Thorin III Stonehelm
• Iron Hills command blister (Captain with shield and spear, Warrior with banner and shield)
• 12 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears (and shields)
• 6 Iron Hills Dwarves with mattock
• 6 Iron Hills Dwarves with crossbows
  

Did you notice that we only have 6 Esgaroth bows, no "vanilla" Iron Hills Dwarves, and no Champs to work with? Yeah, me too - it made me really dread having to write a list. After spending some time being bummed about how awful the list was going to be (and considered NOT covering the Legion), I wrote the article we covered last Thursday about what models you need to play everything in Defence of the North and remembered that, like in the Return of the King, there are some wonderful things that can be found in the Appendices . . . and my day got a lot, LOT brighter. :-)

Unexpected Military Formations: Trapping Your Own Heroes?!?!?!?!

Good morning gamers,

Today we're covering a formation that I've been trying out with the new Defenders of Erebor Legendary Legion: a way to trap your heroes so they can proctor free Heroic Combats. In general, trapping your own models is a horrible idea - but in that Legion specifically, you can turn heroes with fairly run-of-the-mill profiles into absolute monstrosities. However, as we'll see later in this post, this formation actually has applicability to lists outside this Legion for those of you who want to add an extra dimension of cunning to your game play (an innocent mind game with your opponent, if you will). Let's get right into it!

The Objectives of the Formation

In the new Defenders of Erebor Legendary Legion, there are two Legion bonuses that grant free Heroic Combats to the four "royal" heroes from the Legion - and they're triggered if the corresponding hero of the pair is trapped:

[A Bond Forged in War] If either Dain or Brand would be Trapped at the start of the Fight phase, then the other may declare a Heroic Combat without spending Might. If successful, they must join their Trapped ally's fight if possible. If this is not possible, then they must move as close as possible to their Trapped ally.

[The Heirs of the Kingdoms] If either Thorin III Stonehelm or Bard II would be Trapped at the start of the Fight phase, then the other may declare a Heroic Combat without spending Might. If successful, they must join their Trapped ally's fight if possible. If this is not possible, then they must move as close as possible to their Trapped ally.

If you've taken Brand, he has the Stoic Fighter special rule in his profile which gives him still MORE bonuses when he's trapped:

ACTIVE - At the start of a Fight involving Brand, check to see if he would be Trapped should his side lose the Duel roll, with the exception of if a friendly model can Make Way for Brand. If Brand would be Trapped, he may reroll a single D6 to win the Duel roll, and a single D6 when rolling To Wound.

These rules paired together gives us an interesting incentive to . . . well, actually trap our own guys. Trapping a model is actually quite easy in the game if you only have one avenue of retreat, as a model must Back Away if it can, but friendly models don't have to Make Way (that's optional). Prior to the August 2022 FAQ, since any model that can't Back Away is trapped, a player could legitimately declare after moving a friendly model (we'll say he has a spear) to block the retreat of Dain, Brand, Bard, or Thorin, that the spearman is "not going to make way" and the hero would be trapped.

The Stuff of Legends: Defenders of Erebor

Good morning gamers,

We're back in the Defence of the North supplement to view a list that I had very mixed feelings about when I started playing with it - and even after playing a half-dozen games at various points levels, I feel like I still don't fully understand it. I can say that I've been pleasantly surprised with a few of the models in the list - and have some very surprising shenanigans that can be run with it. And more importantly, I can say that I love it - I love this Legion a LOT.

Let's dig into one of the hallmark lists of the new supplement and what it has to offer (fair warning: this article is LOOOOOOONG)!

UPDATE: Many thanks to the anonymous user who pointed out that Barazanthul is in fact Master-forged (as it always should have been). Some parts of this article have been updated accordingly.

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Legion Tax: 165-240pts

The list requires at least one named Dale hero (either Brand or Bard II) and at least one named Erebor hero (Dain, Thorin III, or one of the living, mobile Champions of Erebor during the War of the Ring - Dwalin, Bifur, Bofur, Dori, Nori, or Gloin). With Brand/Bard costing 100-110pts and the Dwarves costing between 65 and 130pts, this Legion actually has a quite variable tax on it (as low as 165pts if you took Bard and either Bifur or Bofur - though probably Bifur - or as much as 240pts if you take Brand and Dain - which is quite likely at high points levels because of the Legion rules).

Usually in these posts, this is where I go into what you ACTUALLY need to take. This Legion . . . doesn't really have that. No, this Legion has so many different facets to it that I don't think I can boil the list down to "here's what you need to take." Instead, I found myself feeling a strange sense of DeJa'Vu when I was writing lists for this Legion - getting flashbacks to the start of the new edition of MESBG and over the past few years writing lists for one of the most thematic army lists in the game that HASN'T been turned into a Legendary Legion: the Last Alliance.

Unexpected Military Formations: The Gear Tooth Formation

Hey Reader!

In my last post I talked about the Army of Dale legendary legion, and near the end I had an offhanded comment about how I think you can maximize your use of the Wall of Blades special rule on your Knights of Dale and Bard II through an effective formation, and that is what we're going to discuss today! Look at me actually completing a project. Hyperfocus ADHD for the win.

I'll be presenting two variations on the "Gear Tooth" formation, the first being the one that I suspect the designers of the game had in mind (or at least it's a standard deviation from what the game designers had in mind), and then I'll follow up with what I think is actually a more effective version that does all of the same things but better.

Now it's worth noting before we go into this that the Gear Tooth formation is really only effective as a defensive formation, which makes sense since Wall of Blades can only be used when you are charged. So keep in mind that if you're looking for an offensive formation there are better options out there, like the Boar Snout or a similar formation.

The Stuff of Legends: The Army of Dale

My current force: working on a converted archer captain and a second windlance

Hey Reader!

Tiberius asked me to tackle the new Dale legendary legion, as I'm starting to get into Dale and bought up a starter force to get that underway (so following the Nova Open, expect some Dale content on the blog! Huzzah for new armies). As always, we'll start by looking at what you're required to take (and what you should include on top of that), why you would run the legion over and against a "Vanilla Dale" force, as you're giving up an alliance matrix to get the legion bonuses, and then we'll move into the strengths and weaknesses of the legion before moving into changes we'd make and some list building.

As a quick caveat: I'm just starting to get into Dale, so you won't see an extensive amount of time-tested, proven strategy in this post. I've got some ideas (and one of them will lead to a spin-off formations post, so keep an eye out for that in the coming weeks!), but fair warning: this is a green Dale player giving you advice.

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Still working on color scheme, but once that's done, I'll wash and base them

The only model you technically need to include in your list is Brand, King of Dale - you don't technically need to include Bard II, but you probably should, as he's good at what he does and will contribute to the army damage count, which we need when the fighting gets to melee because we have no cavalry (more on that in a bit).

The nice thing about this is that Brand is only 110 points, which means you could run this legendary legion at a 150-point tournament (and you'd do okay, I think, if you did). As far as legendary legions go this is near the middle, but it's still very affordable (and some of the legions that technically have a lower tax will effectively pay more because they want a horse for Thrydan, equipment for Eomer, etc.).

The Bare Necessities, Part XXXIX: The Garrison of Dale

 Good morning gamers,

Today we will be delving into the Garrison of Dale, the army that, until recently, had the fewest profiles of any army to date (except the Black Riders LL). With a new warrior profile and the option of 1-2 named heroes, this army might not have the depth that most competitive armies do, but you do get access to most of the common wargear options in the game (making your units fairly flexible, despite having only a few options). But this begs the question: what can you do to make this list a balanced list? Let's take a look at what is rapidly becoming my favorite army of Men from the Armies of the Hobbit book!

The Garrison of Dale: How Important is Your Army Bonus (and What's Coming Our Way)?

At the time of this writing, the models for Brand, Bard II, and the Knights of Dale were announced (and their working rules available), but with a Legion including them and the Erebor Dwarves imminent, who knows how the new profiles will be run. For our purposes today, we'll be viewing the Hobbit era Dale list and we'll come back and view these new profiles (probably in the context of whatever comes from War in the North) at a later date.

With three profiles to view, you'd expect this army to struggle at almost every points level. And yet, it doesn't. Why? Because the models that this army has, the equipment options available to these models, and the ally options this army has, give them a way to play that makes the army work at any points level.

The big question, though, is how important your army bonus is. On its face, if you compare the Garrison of Dale to Numenor (who is also profile-restricted), you have very similar profiles. Warriors of Numenor are F4/4+ (as are Warriors of Dale), S4 (+1S over Warriors of Dale), D4-5 depending on whether you have a shield or not (same as Warriors of Dale), and C4 with their army bonus (+1 over Warriors of Dale, same Courage base) for +1 point/model. This means that if you're considering allying the Garrison of Dale with Rivendell, you get either +1S or +1C for free by allying with Numenor instead of Dale.

War in the North: Understanding the Erebor Reclaimed Revamp

Good morning gamers,

Photo Credit: Pinterest

We've received a lot of information about the upcoming sourcebook for the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game, both in the form of articles hinting at capabilities and new "working" profiles for Dain, Thorin III, Easterling Dragon Acolytes, and most recently the profiles for Bard II, King Brand of Dale, and Knights of Dale. In today's article, we're looking at what we think we know about the models that have been announced (they are subject to change - though historically very little if any changes have been made from the "working" rules and the final published rules), how you can use these models now, and what kinds of Legions we want to see in the new release.

Profile Review - Dain

Courtesy: ForgeWorld Downloads

Dain has gotten a review already from a variety of people (I recommend you check out the Durin Show and Ali King's exhaustive review on the GBHL website), but I'm going to make a few observations about this guy that might shock the internet world: I actually think he's a pretty good hero. Not compared to other Dwarf heroes (half of which are underpriced at the least) - as Ali King covers in his article, most big Dwarf heroes outclass this version of Dain for equal/less cost. However, if you compare this particular hero (F6/3A with 3 Might/Strike and +1 To Wound without penalties; D8/3H with 1 Fate), most armies would LOVE to get a hero like that! Not only do some armies like Arnor, Dale (more on them in a bit), and the Survivors of Lake-town have no models anywhere near the caliber of this hero, but they have the points space to pay an extra 50 points to replace one of the heroes they have with a guy like this! Even Numenor wouldn't mind having Dain in place of Isildur if Elendil is also in the army - and that tells me that this guy has a good profile.

Unfortunately, he exists in one of the few army lists in the game that has SO many hitting pieces at/below 100points that he's unlikely to see daylight. As specified in their rules, you can run this version of Dain in an Erebor Reclaimed army, but don't have access to the six Dwarves that are dead already (Thorin, Kili, Fili, Balin, Oin, Ori) or Bombur (who is too fat to walk on his own at this point in the story). The remaining six members of Thorin's Company are some of the best heroes you have anyway:

• Dwalin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor is 115pts with no goat, but is S5 and either has the free +1 To Wound OR has 4 Attacks with no +1 To Wound. For 15pts less and +1 Fate (in exchange for -3 warrior slots, -1 Will, and -1 Wound), he seems like the most likely candidate for a "direct swap" but fitting both of them into an army is going to be hard unless you're going REALLY hero-heavy (almost 250pts in two heroes).
• Gloin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor was evaluated by Ali King to be one of the most points-effective Dwarf heroes in the game and for 90 points (40 points less than Dain), he gets the same combat profile in every respect (weapon master instead of Master Forged) and gets to reroll 1s To Wound at the cost of -2 Will, -1 Wound, -1 Courage, and Fearless (I'm treating the Stand Fast boost and the Venerable penalty as a wash). That wound (and the +6 warrior slots) needs to make up for 20pts of value - and maybe it does - but I think I'd jump for Gloin first.
• Dori the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor doesn't have Strike and he's only F5, but other than that, his offensive stats are more or less the same. Coming in at only 75pts, though, he's nearly half the cost of Dain and against F4 troops (or below), he's going to be just as dominant. Dori's cheap and if paired with Gloin, the two of them cost only marginally more than Dain and will kill far more things.
• Nori the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor wraps up the trifecta of cheap heroes. At only 80pts, he's got effectively 4 Attacks (7 dice if shielding) to win the fight and gets effectively 4 dice to wound (7 dice if he traps someone). He's also F5 but has Strike and can dual-role as a troop killer and a hero staller (potentially killer, though S4 will hold him back). Considering that you can get Nori, Dori, and Gloin for about the same cost as Dwalin and Dain, I'm not sure that you'd pick Dain and Dwalin over these three (maybe you would, maybe not).
• Bifur the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor gives you free Heroic Moves after he gets the axe head out of his skull and at 65 points is one of the cheapest Strike heroes in the game. If he's fueling your charges and clobbering warriors, I'd say he's worth it (though F4 isn't great).
• Bofur the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor is another cheap Strike hero (again at F4) and provides some interesting head-hunting synergies for magic casters. He's powerful and dangerous and he and Bifur together cost the same as Dain.

As Ali noted in his write-up, Dain doesn't have March anymore - and none of these other Dwarf heroes have March either, so there's also the draw of an Iron Hills Captain for speed (and potentially free Heroic Moves/Combats/Strikes/Defenses with Master of Battle (5+)), so you gotta factor that into your calculations as well. I do think Dain is worth taking, though, but he's got to be part of this larger group of people - NOT the main point of the army (like Dain in his younger days tends to be). We'll talk about my army building ideas later, but for now, let's move onto Thorin III Stonehelm.