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.

Fall of the Necromancer Inspired Lists: The Dark Denizens of Mirkwood Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Warning: There will be references to Spiders in this post (and a picture below). Mythopoeia, stop reading now - you've been warned!

In our third article in this series on the Fall of the Necromancer, we turn to an army that . . . doesn't have a Legendary Legion: the Dark Denizens of Mirkwood! Yes, we're looking today at an army of beasts - bats, Wargs, and SO many Spiders.

Photo Credit: Fall of the Necromancer 

The Fall of the Necromancer includes several missions that focus on the spiders (and other creatures) that flooded into Mirkwood and were fought off by the Elves who lived there. This means we have a fairly large collection of models to use in Matched Play:

• The Spider Queen (with her Broodlings)
• 2 Bat Swarms
• 6 Giant Spiders
• 6 Mirkwood Spiders
• 6 Fell Wargs
  

Since the Spiders are 240pts cumulatively, the Bat Swarms are 70pts together, the Spider Queen is 115pts, and the Fell Wargs are 48pts, you can get all of these models for 473pts - but I don't think this list wants to go in 27pts down into a 500-point game. So instead, we're going to ally in another army today and up the points level to 700 points - let's look at the list!

Thoughts on 3D Printing Your Models

Good morning gamers,

Warning: There will be references to Spiders in this post (and a picture below). Mythopoeia, stop reading now - you've been warned!

3D printing has been around for a while now and we here at TMAT have been introduced to 3D printing primarily through Centaur and Red Jacket. Centaur has worked on a variety of printing projects, ranging from D&D miniatures and substitute sculpts for the Middle-Earth range to terrain features of various kinds (both in resin and FDM). 3D printing is not a straightforward art form, though, and in today's post we're going to look at the things 3D printing is good for - and when you should just buy the real thing.

Disclaimer: I'm going to reference a lot of people that are creating/selling things that you can use - and none of them are sponsors of this post. In fact, the links I've provided give me no kick-backs, there's no affiliation/advertising going on - everything you see below are things I've admired, used, or seek to use in the future. Support them if you want - I just wholeheartedly believe in what they're doing!

Why Do We 3D Print Stuff?

3D printing has advanced a lot over the last few years and with STL creators like Loot Studios and Medbury Miniatures (along with a host of other creators on My Mini Factory) creating incredible sculpts to print, printing hobbyists are able to print models now that fit the aesthetic they like. The usual appeal for 3D printing begins with the expense: assuming everything prints right (and you invest the capital in a printer), you usually pay pennies per model for the materials used (resin/filament) instead of dollars per model.

You also gain the control to print as much as you want of the models you want instead of being dependent on model availability. While price can affect how much of something you get, there are rampant cries of models being unavailable in the GW webstore (usually right when you need them for an event). Printing what you want does assume that you or someone else has made the sculpt you want and that you have the right equipment/the material needed/the know-how to actually do it, but on the whole, you have the power to choose. Oh, and you probably need to plan ahead and give yourself enough time to make them all too.

Finally, 3D printing sometimes gives you more dynamic poses for really, really old sculpts (some of which have very flat designs because of how they were cast decades ago). Having an army that pops off the board more is great for the players of the game and if it encourages you to paint/play with the army, so much the better.

The Stuff of Legends: The Fell Beings of Mirkwood

Good morning gamers,

Legendary Legions are one of my favorite aspects of the most recent rendition of MESBG - they give those of us who like thematic game play a new way to use the existing armies (and sometimes make what would be convenient/impossible alliances actually playable and sometimes competitive). In each sourcebook, we've received 2-7 new Legions and with six books under our belts, there are a veritable host of Legions to use.

But in each supplement (well, most of them at any rate), there are certain Legions that . . . just don't excite me as much as others (and I think I speak for a lot of MESBG users when I say they're not exciting). In Gondor at War (the first supplement released), players rallied quickly to the Return of the King and Riders of Theoden Legendary Legions, but the Men of the West and Army of Gothmog just . . . didn't seem like worthy investments for most players. Similarly, War in Rohan gave us really amazing Legions like the Defenders of Helm's Deep, Ugluk's Scouts, and the Army of Dunland, but it also gave us the Wolves of Isengard and the Riders of Eomer who . . . well, just don't seem to stack up to the other Legions in the book.

Defence of the North contains six Legions and of the six Legions presented in the book, there is one Legion that stands out more than the others as unnecessary: the Army of Dale (especially after the August 2022 FAQs showed that the Windlance was supposed to be available in the Garrison of Dale list all along). While Jeremy Hunthor likes the addition of Sworn Protector in the Legion, adding Sworn Protector to the army bonus if Brand is in the list would make the Legion unnecessary - and no, I won't change my mind (#LegionForLorien). :-) A close second, however, is the Fell Beings of Mirkwood. Like I said in my review of the Army of Gothmog, this Legion has some nice buffs to it (though their actual impact is much less than originally meets the eye), you're probably better off just running a convenient alliance if you want this list instead of the Legion itself. Still, it's a Legion - and I've taken up the mantle to find out a way to make this army unique and cool and somehow relevant in competitive play. Let's dive in!

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Legion Tax: 110pts

The only required model in this list is Razgush, War Leader of the North. For just over 100pts, this means that, at any points level, you can get quite a few models in your force. Razgush boasts a pretty solid profile for being an Orc hero - F5/S4/3A with 3 Might on offense, D7 with 3 Wounds/1 Fate on defense. Against Elves in this Legion, he'll get +1 FV (great for fighting grunts, fine for fighting heroes) and has access to Heroic Strike to challenge someone big. His mace (Bone-breaker) negates the Elven-made dueling boost when Fight Values are tied, so if you do happen to tie the enemy Fight Value (F6 Elven troops/Elven-heroes-who-can't-Strike or a tied Strike-off/select non-Elf heroes carrying Elven blades), at least the enemy isn't getting an advantage. Of course, this is also a poor man's version of the Elven-made keyword, since it won't give you an Elven-made advantage against F6 heroes who have mundane weapons (like Boromir of Gondor or a large number of Dwarf heroes). But still, it's nice to have.

The Bare Necessities, Part XLI: The Dark Denizens of Mirkwood

Good morning gamers,

We've talked about a lot of armies in this series that have a variety of models available to them - fast units, banner-carrying units, etc. However, in today's post, we're looking at an army that has no problem being fast, but struggles with having low defense, no spears, large bases, and average Fight Value (for the most part). We're talking about the Dark Denizens of Mirkwood - an iconic monster-mash army (that has only one monster - but lots of scary things) that features creatures of all shapes and sizes. Can you make a balanced list with this army? Well, let's see what we can whip up, shall we?

Photo credit: Tumblr

The Dark Denizens of Mirkwood: What Creatures Do You Need (And How Do You Keep Them From Dying)?

The models available to the Dark Denizens of Mirkwood list has access to several different creatures and each has a different role to play in the army. The Spider Queen is your only hero option and she's a very offensive-heavy hero. Paired with a Bat Swarm, she's capable of toppling anyone's Fight Value if you can get the Spider Queen and a Bat Swarm in the same fight, so her Heroic Defense can be used as insurance against a bad match-up.

You have two other Spider options in your army: Mirkwood Spiders have a terrible Fight Value, but can use their Spider Webs to Paralyze warrior models (and hero models who have run out of Fate or fail a Fate save) and so skip straight to the wounding roll. Giant Spiders, by contrast, are F4 with a good Strength value - miniature versions of the Spider Queen and designed for getting locked in and smashing through things.

Bat Swarms and Fell Wargs have more tactical uses - Bat Swarms aren't great in fights on their own, but since they half Fight Values, they can be deadly when paired in a fight with a Giant Spider (since Bat Swarms half your Fight Value rounding down, your opponents will need to be F10 if they want to have a higher Fight Value) or the Spider Queen (who will always have the higher Fight Value). Even if paired with Fell Wargs (who are F3), enemy models will need to be F8+ in order to have the higher Fight Value - AGAINST WARGS!!!!

Speaking of Wargs, Fell Wargs are great for grabbing objectives, charging models that are hiding behind terrain, and theoretically are good for boosting your numbers. However, since they are your only 1 Wound model and only about half the cost of Spiders (and one-fourth the cost of Bats), your total wound count isn't much different by spamming Fell Wargs than it is spamming Spiders or Bat Swarms - and I think the tactical utility of these units is much better. Having a few of these guys to dig up Prizes/Heirlooms or sitting on objectives isn't a bad thing though, so use them appropriately.

This is a light bench and you're locked in at D4 or less (even on the Spider Queen), so your number one objective is to figure out how to keep your units from dying. You don't have any Historical allies and your Convenient allies list is short but has a surprising amount of options. While allying with Smaug is probably a pipe-dream, allying with Azog's Hunters, Azog's Legion, Goblin-town, Mordor, and Moria give you options for spamming numbers and adding in heroes who can distract from the Spider Queen's danger.

Fall of the Necromancer: What I Want To See In The Legendary Legions

Good morning gamers,

Less than a month ago, we got a preview from Games Workshop about the next supplement coming to the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game: the Fall of the Necromancer. Unlike other supplements, there are no new models being released with this supplement - instead, the game designers have developed a scenery kit for Dol Guldur and are bringing back older sculpts back to the range (including the much-sought-after White Council blister which has the very-rare Galadriel, Lady of Light sculpt - why did I buy the old Lady of Light sculpt when it was MTO?!?!?!?!). 

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community
Another supplement I didn't know I wanted . . .

They also announced that alongside the 13 narrative scenarios (an upgrade over the 7 scenarios from the original Fall of the Necromancer sourcebook released in the early 2000s) there would be four Legendary Legions in this book with a bit of a spoiler about what they are. Like I did with Quest of the Ringbearer, let's dig in today and make our predictions for the next supplement!