Back to Basics: Heroic Actions in MESBG

Good morning gamers,

Today, we're talking about what heroic actions are available to heroes in MESBG. When I first got started playing SBG back in 2010, there were only three heroics: Heroic Move, Heroic Shoot, and Heroic Combat. These heroics are the only ones available to all heroes, but other heroics have crept up through the intervening years (and when the MESBG rules revamp happened in 2018, the other heroics became specialized and were listed under each profile . . . which was good, because Captains of Rohan being able to out-fight Cave Trolls for two rounds was just silly).

But what heroic actions are out there? And are there traps to any of them that should be avoided? We're going to deep-dive into all of this today as we explore one of the best aspects of the MESBG system. I'll be dropping links throughout the discussion to our previous Heroic Heroes series where I talked about how these heroic actions work and some of the best heroes that could use them back in 2020 - the articles are old, but the lists have held up pretty well over time - and other articles that we've done on heroic actions so you can learn more if you want to. Let's take a look!

Common Heroic Actions: Move, Shoot, and Combat

As has just been stated, every hero in MESBG has access to Heroic Move, Heroic Shoot, and Heroic Combat. At least two of these are incredibly useful heroic actions (whether there's value to calling Heroic Shoot is very much a debatable question) but all three share one thing in common: they all change the cadence of the phase that they're called in. Let's see how they work.

Heroic Move

I mentioned very briefly in the Move Phase post of our how-to-play section of this series that a hero who declares a Heroic Move can either move before the normal priority-player's movement or can call "With Me!" to allow the declaring hero and all friendly models within 6" of the hero to move before the normal priority movement, though the declaring hero has to move first, the friendly models within range have to end their movement within 6" of the declaring hero's final movement, and anyone who can't end within 6" of the declaring hero's final position OR that doesn't want to move within 6" of the declaring hero can't move at all. Heroic Moves are incredibly useful because they can allow you to move first.

Because Heroic Moves alter the cadence of the Move Phase, if both players have heroes who declare Heroic Moves, a roll is made to see which player gets to move first - one player is assigned the values 1-3, while the other is assigned the values 4-6 and a single die is rolled (the Evil player is 1-3 and the Good player is 4-6, but in Matched Play, you'll need to decide which player is which if it's a Good-vs.-Good or Evil-vs.-Evil match). Each player then takes a turn resolving one of their Heroic Moves. You can cancel a Heroic Move declared by an enemy hero by charging them.

For most factions in the game, moving first is really good - cavalry models can get their charge bonuses by moving first, heroes get to pick their matchups instead of having their opponents decided for them, and models that are trying to escape from enemy models with an object that's worth victory points have the opportunity to get in a better position (and even out of reach of an enemy model). Yes, Heroic Moves are awesome.

They're also costly - you'll hear veteran players talk about "Heroic Move-Offs," which is the colloquial term for when both players declare Heroic Moves to see who goes first. In most cases, the side that loses the 50/50 roll is going to have their Heroic Move cancelled, which results in a wasted Might point (hence my caution about counter-calling Heroic Moves with actual Might points back in 2019). For most players, this is just seen as part of doing business, but as the game drags on, wasted Might is felt acutely and this can have a psychological impact on your game play. Blaming dice is all fine and good - and losing priority a ton of turns in a row and NOT winning any of the Heroic Move-Offs can be a real pain - but the choice to counter-call a Heroic Move is a choice that we make, and so before you counter-call a Heroic Move (or even declare the first one), one should always examine the board and see what the ACTUAL risk is of moving second. Sometimes it's fine to move second.

If Tiberius Were King For A Day: Top 5 Heroic Action Changes I'd Make

Good morning gamers,

This is the last post in this mini-series where I talk about small changes I'd make to MESBG that I think would have good impacts. It's also our eight-hundredth post ever . . . wow, we've been busy. :-) One of the distinctives of the MESBG system (and part of what I think makes it the best tabletop game in town) is the heroic resources you get for your heroes - specifically Might points. Will and Fate are great and all, but Might points allow your heroes to be more heroic when you need them, and nowhere is this more visible than in the specialized Heroic Actions that heroes can have. 

Unfortunately, not all heroic actions are equal - some are viewed as incredibly niche and others border on completely unusable (and that's from a generous point of view - some players definitely DO see some of the heroic actions as pointless or a waste of time). Today I've taken five heroic actions that I think need a little help and offer a simple fix to each that I think would make them go from eh-to-ooh - let's see what they are!

Heroic #1: Heroic Accuracy

This is probably my least controversial heroic action to change, since some players already see this is a great heroic action. I've heard critique on my post where I talk about Heroic Accuracy being a waste of Might, claiming that the opportunity to hit a priority target past multiple in-the-ways makes the heroic action incredibly good. While many competitive players are in agreement that Heroic Accuracy can help you immensely, I can't get past the fact that in order for it to take effect, you need to a) hit with a shooting attack first, b) have in-the-ways between you and your priority target, c) have to fail in-the-way rolls that then turn into successes, and d) have to wound that target after you pass the rerollable in-the-ways. If any of these conditions aren't met, the Might point spent on Accuracy is wasted (for more on this, read the post linked above).

Cavalry Charge: Heroic Combats and the Battle of Lewes

Good morning gamers,

Last month, we looked at a useful tactic for using Heroic Combats with cavalry models (the wag) - today, we're digging deeper into some principles for using Heroic Combats with cavalry models. Cavalry models gain a lot from the increased movement they get from their mount (and the greater damage output they get when fighting infantry), but to capitalize on this movement, there are a few principles we should keep in mind. We'll be deriving these based on a battle fought in 1264 in England: the Battle of Lewes.

The Battle of Lewes: When Hot-Heads Run Off

The Battle of Lewes was part of a larger war between several prominent English barons who sought a greater role in running the English government and King Henry III. You can read about it here or can watch one of the excellent battle reports on YouTube from BazBattles. Henry III and his son Edward Plantagenet (later known as Edward "Longshanks") led the royalist forces, while Simon de Montfort (a hero of the crusades and dubbed "the wisest and stoutest warrior in England") was the most prominent of the barons opposing him.

As both armies chased each other, laying siege to various towns, the barons finally caught up to Henry's force at the town of Lewes. The baronial army had a numerical disadvantage against the royalists (estimates put them outnumbered 2:1) and one of the baronial flanks was composed of militia - poorly-trained men from London led by Simon de Montfort's son, Sir Henry de Montfort. When the Royalist forces finally arrayed and engaged, Prince Edward led his cavalry into the undisciplined right flank of the baronial army and broke them quickly. As the Londoners fled, the fury of Prince Edward burned hot and he led his horsemen to pursue and kill as many of the scattering soldiers as he could. They eventually found the baronial baggage train and began looting, assuming the battle was well in hand.

Meanwhile, the rest of the lines clashed with the baronial forces pressing the attack hard to gain an advantage. The barons' army fought well and put the royalists to route, capturing King Henry's brother and later capturing Prince Edward when he returned to find the battlefield held by the enemy. A foolhardy pursuit and looting certainly played an important factor in the success of the royalist forces on that day.

Now all of this is a nice story and all, but what can we learn about this incident and apply it to how we use mounted heroes in MESBG (including those famous monster heroes, as we were asked recently in a comment)? I think there are four things we can learn - and some of them are quite positive.

5 More Ways to Waste Might Points

Good morning gamers,

Last time we did this, we talked about the five things that I thought were the biggest waste of Might in MESBG. In October 2020, the Durin Show did an analysis of what was written, so since they seemed to eat it up, we're doing it again! 

Side-note: if you haven't checked out the Durin Show, you should - their discussions are brilliant. 

The situations I'm going to cover might be a bit less controversial this time, but a little controversy is good for getting us to re-think our innate assumptions about this game we love, no? Before we dig in, let's review the principle that we'll be following in this discussion:

Might is too precious of a resource to waste.

If you agree with this sentiment, everything we're going to talk through will make (at least some) sense. If you're like me, though, knowing that something is a waste doesn't make it any less tempting, so naturally, there will be exceptions to everything. :-)

Let's get into it!

Heroic Heroes: Top 10 Heroes for Heroic Strike

Good morning gamers,

Well, we're closing out the year with the specialized heroic action you've been waiting for: Heroic Strike! Ah, Heroic Strike - the specialized heroic action that seemed so stupidly powerful when my mates and I looked at the Hobbit SBG rules that we said, "No thanks - we'll stick with the Legions rules and the big blue rulebook." In the new edition, Strike isn't available to all heroes and so becomes an interesting part of list building theory and meta-gaming. But how useful is it anyway? For more on this topic, you should check out Rythbryt's series on Heroic Strike, where he delved into how useful this heroic action really is (and covers a lot of other things too - things that can make your Heroic Strikes more powerful AND things that can make countering Heroic Strike easier without having to call a Strike in return).

What Does the Heroic Action Do?

Heroic Strike, like Heroic Defense and Heroic Strength, is pretty straight-forward: the hero who calls Heroic Strike in the Fight phase increases his Fight Value by D6. Like all heroic actions, Heroic Strike is called at the start of the Fight phase, but your increase in Fight Value isn't determined until the fight involving that hero is selected to be resolved. This is important because if a F3 Meriadoc, Captain of the Shire calls a Heroic Strike against someone like the Witch-King of Angmar, the Witch-King will need to decide whether to counter-call a Heroic Strike BEFORE knowing if Merry got a 1-2 and retained a lower/tying Fight Value to the Witch-King's original Fight Value of 5. Counter-calling a Strike might be the "safe" way to go, but it would also mean foregoing a Heroic Combat (something the Witch-King is likely to succeed in pulling off if he's on the charge with the Crown of Morgul - and certainly possible if he's riding a Fell Beast).

This increase in Fight Value is also determined before the players choose whether or not they are using any special strikes - so a model armed with a sword or dagger (most models with Heroic Strike have these kinds of weapons) can Strike up to a high Fight Value and then choose to Feint to lower their Fight Value if they're fighting warriors (or low-Fight heroes) in order to not only get a higher Fight Value, but also reroll 1s on their To Wound rolls. Neat, huh?

Heroic Heroes: Top 10 Heroes for Heroic Strength

Good morning gamers,

Two more specialized heroic actions left in this series and today we're tackling the not-as-glamorous of the two: Heroic Strength. If you've been with us for a while, you know that Rythbryt came to the defense of Heroic Strength when the new rules dropped, doing a long series on Heroic Strength and how awesome it is (check out the list of posts here). Heroic Strength doesn't appear to be that useful, but it turns out some heroes can get REALLY good use out of it.

What Does the Heroic Action Do?

Heroic Strength looks pretty simple: a hero can call Heroic Strength at the start of the Fight phase and increases his Strength by D3. In its most direct use, this can be used to increase your wounding potential by +1 (or sometimes +2), making it easier to wound a high Defense model you're fighting (or REALLY smash through a low Defense model you're fighting). However, the actual implications of increasing your Strength can have other uses too. Let's look at a few.

Heroic Heroes: Top 10 Heroes for Heroic Defense

Good morning gamers,

Today we visit yet another clutch and beloved heroic action: Heroic Defense. For many people, this is a great heroic action - anytime you can keep a Troll from Rending you, Azog from smashing your face in, or ignore the benefits of that burly two-handed hammer, you're a happy man. But is Heroic Defense all that it's cracked up to be? And how do you know when to punt on offense and throw your heroic action into defending yourself? Well, that's what we're going to look at today!

What Does the Heroic Action Do?

Heroic Defense is pretty straight-forward in its rules: the hero who calls Heroic Defense in the Fight phase is only wounded on a "natural 6" (that is, a die that "gets a 6" and isn't boosted to a 6 with Might, two-handed-weapon bonuses, special rules, etc.) during that Fight phase. Brutal Power attacks and modifiers don't come into play at all. If the hero would be wounded on a 6/4+ or worse, then you need to get a natural "6/6+" (which is, needless to say, quite difficult). Simple, right?

Heroic Heroes: Top 10 Heroes for Heroic Challenge

 Good morning gamers,

We're half way through our series on specialized heroic actions and we've only got a few specialized heroic actions left. Today, we address what is probably the least loved heroic action in the game (behind Heroic Shoot and maybe Heroic Accuracy): Heroic Challenge. What is, I think, the coolest idea for a heroic action, is also the largest gamble - and because models are limited to one heroic action each phase, calling a Heroic Challenge comes at a high opportunity cost. The trick, though, is to find a hero that is dangerous enough not to be left running around on his own, but not THAT dangerous that you're worried about him killing whoever he challenges. To understand more about this, let's look at what this heroic action does and how to use it.

What Does the Heroic Action Do?

Heroic Challenge is a mouthful of text, which is probably enough to scare most people away from using it. Let's break down what happens:

• At the start of the Fight phase, a hero who has Heroic Challenge must be in base contact with a hero of the same or higher tier (one exception, which we'll address later);
• The challenge can be accepted or declined:
• If accepted, the challenger and the challengee fight in single-combat against each other, forced to charge each other if they can, until one of them dies;
• If accepted, other models may not support the challenger/challengee, may not charge the challenger/challengee, provide their Fight Value/roll dice/make Strikes in any way;
• If declined, the challengee will not be able to affect other models with their Heroic Actions (such as Heroic Moves or Heroic Marches) and cannot declare a Stand Fast!
• Whichever hero slays the other gains D3 Might points - which can put them above their starting Might level.

Pretty simple, right? Declare a challenge and either get Might back OR deny your opponent the ability to call Stand Fasts or effective Heroic Moves. What's not to like? Well, for most people, there's a lot to not like. Let's get into why . . .

Heroic Heroes: Top 10 Heroes for Heroic March

Good morning gamers,

We're on our fourth specialized heroic action today - and it's my personal favorite: Heroic March! I started playing this game with (what is now) the Kingdom of Khazad-Dum, Moria, Isengard, and Lothlorien and ALL of these factions like to use Heroic March (the Dwarves and Goblins in particular). With many, many, MANY factions wanting access to this heroic action (and all but three factions actually having it), it makes you wonder who does it the best for Good and Evil? Before getting into who's "the best," let's get a little reminder of what Heroic March does - ultimately, Heroic March is how . . .

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Back to the action . . .

What Does the Heroic Action Do?

Heroic March gives the hero who calls the heroic action and is unengaged when he begins his move (and models within 6" of him when he begins his move) 3-5" of additional movement, depending on whether they are infantry or cavalry models. In exchange for increasing their max speed, the hero who calls the heroic action (and models that are within 6" of him when he begins his move) cannot charge this turn. Like Heroic Moves, any models that benefit from Heroic March need to end their movement within 6" of the hero who called Heroic March. Models that haven't moved before the Heroic March and choose not to participate in the Heroic March can't move at all during the Move phase.

There are a few nuances in this heroic action that bear mentioning before we go on: first and foremost, this is different from a War Drum. Some models (Uruk-Hai Drummers, Black Guard Drummers, Orc Drummers, Easterling Kataphrakts with the War Drum upgrade, Mordor/Isengard Trolls with the War Drum upgrade) can grant a similar increase in speed to friendly models, but it functions differently in a few respects. Since the extra movement from Heroic March and the War Drum are coming from different sources, they stack with each other (giving you an additional 6-10" of movement to friendly models that are in range of both of them). Speaking of being in range, War Drums cover a 12" radius instead of a 6" radius, granting more of your army access to increased speed. While Heroic March requires you to end within a certain distance of the hero who called Heroic March, the War Drum has no such stipulation, so your army can split up if required. Perhaps the best thing about the Drum is that you don't need Might to activate it (though you usually pay 20-30 points for the benefit of the drum).

So does this make War Drums "just better" than Heroic March? Not necessarily. While War Drums are quite valuable, they come with a major drawback: their restriction on models not being able to charge takes place at the start of the Move phase - not when the hero who declares the Heroic March begins his move. This means that if any friendly model within 12" of the drum (which is a HUGE area) wishes to charge, the drum can't be played at all.

Furthermore, War Drums have keywords for the models that can use them. In the case of Easterling Kataphrakts and Mordor Trolls, the keyword is so general ("Easterling" and "Mordor" respectively) that a pure list will find everyone benefitting. Others (like Orc/Uruk-Hai Drummers) are more restrictive ("Mordor Orc" and "Isengard Uruk-Hai" respectively) and so will only affect part of your army if you have mixed races. Obviously, if you are running an alliance (Easterlings and Mordor, for example), only part of your army will benefit - again, this could be a big problem. Heroic March has the advantage of benefitting all friendly models, regardless of their keywords - and while it comes at the cost of Might, it is quite useful that way.

Heroic Heroes: Top 10 Heroes for Heroic Resolve

 Good morning gamers,

So far in this series on heroes, we've looked at Heroic Accuracy and Heroic Channelling and who are the best heroes (for Good and Evil) to call these heroic actions. Today, we're returning to a very niche heroic action - and the heroic action that is the hardest to deny your opponent the benefits of: Heroic Resolve. This heroic action isn't held by most heroes - and some armies have only a single model with access to it. With the limitations that come with it, is it worth using? Well, that's what we'll discuss below!

What Does the Heroic Action Do?

Heroic Resolve is declared in the Move phase and allows the hero who calls it to grant friendly models within 6" (and the hero himself) to get a free die to resist magical powers during the round. In trade, the hero may not move. In order for this heroic action to take effect, the hero needs to just not die during the Move phase (which would require some kind of impact hit or throwing weapon charge).

For you rules-smiths out there, it is unclear to me whether a model that calls a Heroic Resolve can be moved by an enemy model (either with a Command/Compel or with a special rule like a Fell Light is in Them or the Eldamar Madrigal). We have no FAQ on it, but we do have an FAQ that says the following with regard to Heroic March:

Q: If a model has declared a Heroic March, can they be Compelled/Commanded to charge an enemy model? (p.70 & 97) 

A: No. A model that has declared a Heroic March may not charge that turn, even if moved by another model.

It stands to reason that if Heroic March says a model can't charge and rules that might make that happen are not allowed to make you charge, a model that calls Heroic Resolve would similarly be immune to rules that would make them move. It does seem a bit broken that it would stop things like a Hurl or Barge though, so it probably merits an FAQ submission. For the purposes of this article, I'm assuming that this heroic action grants immunity to spells/special rules that would cause them to move in the Move phase (where the action would be more-or-less voluntary), but not immunity to spells/special rules/brutal power attacks that do an involuntary move (like Hurl, Sorcerous Blast, or Call Winds).

Heroic Resolve is a rare heroic action and has a very niche use: giving you a better chance of resisting enemy magic. If you face armies that have area of effect magical powers (or Sorcerous Blast), this can be a great way to make sure your troops have some kind of resistance to the magical power (though one die to resist a spell that is cast on a 4+ or 5+ isn't a reliable defense). Paired with Resistant to Magic (which would grant you two free dice to resist magical powers), you can provide a real deterrent to enemy casters who are determined to score some quick kills with their magic. While shutting down area of effect spells is great, keeping a hero from being Transfixed (or a warrior from being Compelled towards an enemy hero for a heroic combat) can also be mitigated more by calling a Heroic Resolve.

One final note: last December, I did a post on the best anti-caster models in the game and one of the categories that helped you get on that list was access to Heroic Resolve. If you'd like to see the list of models that have Heroic Resolve (might have had one or two new ones that have been added since then), check it out here. Alight, let's look at some of the nuanced conditions for using this heroic action.

Heroic Heroes: Top 10 Heroes for Heroic Channelling

Good morning gamers,

In our last post, we looked at the heroes who can get the most out of Heroic Accuracy. In today's post, we'll be looking at the Top 5 heroes for using a far more ubiquitous heroic action: Heroic Channeling. Like Heroic Accuracy, I've talked about Heroic Channelling as one of the Top 5 ways to waste a Might point - and this is driven in no small part by how niche the increased effects of a channelled spell might be. Some spells (like Blinding Light) become a TON better when channelled, while others only have marginal benefits (like Immobilize or Chill Soul). Still others often provide D3 of something instead of 1 of something (like Strengthen Will or Banishment), but these spells can end up doing nothing more than the unchannelled version.

Before reading any further, I highly recommend you catch up on our recent series on magic, where I went through all of the magical powers in the game by topic to showcase how you can use each of the spells - and in each post, there's a discussion for when to channel and when to cast normally (spoiler alert: there are some spells that are just not worth channelling. Like ever).

What Does the Heroic Action Do?

Heroic Channelling is declared in the Move phase and allows the hero who calls it to use the "channelled" version of a spell that he/she has in his/her list of magical powers. In order for this heroic action to take effect, a caster needs to:

• Not be charged before they cast a magical power;
• Successfully cast the magical power they wish to channel; and
• If the spell targets an enemy model, the enemy model needs to either not try to resist the magical power OR needs to fail to resist the magical power.

If any of these situations aren't met, then the Might point is wasted and cannot be used. It should be clear that models that have this heroic action need to have magical powers in their profile AND need to have Might points. That said, there are a few models (Thranduil with the Circlet of Kings, Tom Bombadil, Goldberry, and Barrow-Wights) who have access to magical powers, but DON'T have Heroic Channelling in their profiles. For Thranduil, this is because (I presume) his magical powers are once-per-game and come from an item, while the other three lack Heroic Channelling because (again, presumption) they don't have any Might.

Heroic Heroes: Top 10 Heroes for Heroic Accuracy

Good morning gamers,

Today begins a new series that will take us through the end of the year and we'll be looking at each of the specialized Heroic Actions available to heroes in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game. For each heroic action, we're going to review a) what the heroic action does, b) when you would actually use it, c) how you can waste the heroic action, and then d) the Top 5 heroes for Good and Top 5 heroes for Evil who can get the most out of the heroic action being viewed.

Our first heroic action is the heroic action I like the least - Heroic Accuracy. I've discussed Heroic Accuracy in the not-so-distant past when discussing my Top 5 ways to waste a Might point and before that I was pretty harsh on it in my review of the specialized heroic actions back in February 2019. Lest you think I will be coming to this discussion from a jaded perspective, know that I do think Heroic Accuracy has its uses (which we'll cover a bit later). I do think this is the most niche specialized heroic action (and the most likely to waste Might, which we'll cover later), but figured we just get it out of the way from the get-go.

What Does the Heroic Action Do?

Heroic Accuracy is a niche heroic action that allows the hero who calls it (or all friendly models within 6" of him if he shouts "Take Aim!") to reroll all failed In The Way rolls. As I mentioned in my post on wasting Might points, this helps you with a very small (albeit sometimes important) part of shooting in MESBG:

• You roll to hit the target;
• You roll to see if you hit anything that's in-the-way;
• You roll to wound.

It's that second bullet that you can reroll - you need to hit before hand AND you still need to wound afterwards. To understand the usefulness of this heroic action, let's looking at what situations would drive you to use it.

The Bare Necessities, Part V: Making Your Heroes Better (and Keeping Them Alive)

Good morning gamers,

Today is our last post in our series on list building – walking through the different things to consider for your army when thinking about victory points (VPs) that can be scored in a game. As a brief refresher, here’s the list:

• Fast troops who can claim objectives or exit the opposing board edge;
• At least one banner;
• Ways of delaying/avoiding being broken (often in the form of large numbers);
• Means of killing/inhibiting enemy heroes; and
• Means of keeping your own heroes alive/augmenting their damage.

We’ve already covered fast troops, banners, “the numbers game,” and neutralizing enemy heroes. Today, we wrap up the discussion by talking about different ways you can make your heroes better (and keep them from dying). Most of our discussion today will focus around your Army Leader (and your opponent’s Army Leader), though most of it also applies to other heroes.

The Bare Necessities, Part I: On Cavalry (or Fast-Moving Infantry)

Good morning gamers,

Today’s post kicks off a new series on the “bare necessities” for any well-balanced army to employ based on the scenarios you may have to play. While not all unit types (cavalry, archers, and monsters in particular) are available to all factions, most armies can find a way to get cavalry-like movement, archer-like shooting, or monster-like heroes into their armies. In this series, we’ll be looking at some of the most basic things to include in your army in order to give you the opportunity to score maximum points in a game (assuming that the scenarios you play are random and not pre-defined). All games are based on both how you play AND how your opponent plays AND both of your dice rolls, so while your army list doesn’t guarantee you a victory, it does decide how many points you are able to get. As a review, the following categories give you points in different scenarios:

• Getting units off your opponent’s board edge (Reconnoitre);
• Getting units within a given radius of one or more objectives/points on the map (Domination, Hold Ground, Capture and Control, Heirlooms of Ages Past, Fog of War, Storm the Camp);
• Having 1+ banners alive at the end of the game (To The Death, Heirlooms of Ages Past)
• Wounding/killing the enemy army leader or enemy heroes (every scenario, but most importantly Clash By Moonlight, Contest of Champions, Fog of War); and
• Wounding lots of models, either because you’re counting models or because you’re trying to Break/Quarter the enemy army (every scenario, but most importantly To The Death, Lords of Battle, Contest of Champions)

When you break down these five points, it leaves you with five elements of your army that you would need to include if you wanted a chance at maximum points in a scenario:

• Fast troops who can claim objectives or exit the opposing board edge;
• At least one actual banner;
• Ways of delaying/avoiding being broken (often in the form of large numbers);
• Means of killing enemy heroes; and
• Means of keeping your own heroes alive.

These five points will be the crux of what we’re going to be looking at over the next five posts. I figured I’d begin with the one that I’ve only recently come to appreciate: the inclusion of fast troops in your list for strategic purposes. In this post, we’ll be looking primarily at cavalry, though we’ll also be looking for ways you can get access to cavalry-like speed without cavalry (for the factions that don’t have access to them). For additional reading on cavalry, I highly recommend some thoughts Centaur wrote in 2012, a very detailed analysis of what mounts get you from Rythbryt in May 2019, and some of my own thoughts on throwing weapons (if you’re looking into skirmish cavalry).

Magic: Top Five Anti-Casters

Good morning gamers,

In our series on heroes, we’ve looked at Uruk-Hai heroes from Isengard, Dwarf (and wizard and Hobbit) heroes from Thorin’s Company, and the top five ways to waste Might points in the game. Today, we look at the top five heroes that you can employ to resist enemy magic casters (and in preparing for this post, I was rather proud to know that I own most of them - good thing, since almost all of my armies run magic, huh?). :)

How to stop magic?

As I discussed in a previous post on Magic in MESBG, there are four ways to block magic:

• Spend Will (one die for each point of Will you spend – any that get a “natural 6” are returned to your Will store);
• Resistant to Magic (free die anytime you’re targeted by a spell – available whether you spend Will or not);
• Heroic Resolve (free die anytime you’re targeted by a spell, but requires the hero who calls it to stay stationary); and
• Fortify Spirit/Protection of the Valar (two free dice anytime you’re targeted by a spell OR immunity from hostile spells, but requires the hero who casts the magical powers to retain Will OR cast the magical power that turn).

No model has access to all of these innately and most heroes only have access to one or two. Since magic is out of favor for many players these days, you might not get much practice fighting against magic (which can be a nasty surprise). As such, let’s look at some of the qualities that makes a hero a good anti-caster option (in the odd event you run into a double-Ringwraith army).

Top 5 Ways to Waste Might Points: One Gamer’s Opinion

Good morning gamers,

In this series on heroes, we’ve covered an exhaustive reviewof the Dwarves in Thorin’s Company (and which variant is better – the Thorin’s Company ones or the Erebor Reclaimed ones) and revisited a taxonomy on Isengard heroes that we did a while back. Today, we turn to the use of Might, one of the most important resources you’ll have to manage in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game. Some of the thoughts I have in this article have already crept up in some of my other articles, but I think they all bear repeating in one central place. And if you’re going to talk about heroes for a month, talking about Might is probably a good thing to add to the conversation.

The guiding rule we’re going to following today is this:

Might is a scarce and important resource – don’t risk wasting it!

If you accept this rule, everything I’m about to write makes sense (even if it galls us to have to admit in a game). While the purely analytical side of me agrees wholeheartedly with this, I often find myself drawn to violate the following five rules (so naturally, I’m going to caveat exceptions to all of them). :-) Okay, enough blather - let’s get into it!

Sizing Up Dwarves: Thorin's Company vs. Erebor Reclaimed

Good morning gamers!

For those who have been following our blog for a while, my last post showed how I re-did some models I converted for Thorin’s Company. Recently, I acquired all of the new Thorin's Company models (the Dwarves at any rate) and began to re-convert my Thorin's Company rangers to match the color scheme of the army. It was a great project to make my Dwarves look like those in the movies, but I really like the new models (plus, my son was reading the Hobbit at the time, so maybe that kept them on my mind)!

I do like that thanks to the errata, their army bonus gives all of them Heroic March – something they REALLY NEEDED when the rules were originally released. While there are many great things that make this army fun to use, we’ll be using this post not only to showcase how they look now, but also contrasting the Thorin’s Company version of each hero with his counterpart version in the Erebor Reclaimed list (which Rythbryt did a write-up on earlier in 2019). For the purposes of this post, we will only be comparing the profiles of the heroes themselves. I say this because the heroes from the Erebor Reclaimed list can lead Iron Hills Warriors and Iron Hills Goat Riders - both of which are amazing warrior units, as Rythbryt writes about here and here - but the comparisons get really muddy if we include the ability to take warriors vs. having to run as part of a single warband. With that said, let the pictures begin!

{7th Edition} Armies of Middle Earth SBG: The Fellowship of the Ring in the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game

Photo Credit: NewStatesman.com

Updated for 7th Edition (July 2025)

In a story known for its heroes, there is no more important collection of heroes than the Fellowship of the Ring. Every member was defined by their role in the Quest of Mount Doom, though many of them took different roads ere the Quest was completed.

In the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, the members of the Fellowship can be fielded in several armies, and are also included in a myriad of other forces. There are a ton of special rules to master, and the list demands an incredible attention to detail. But every game with the Fellowship plays out like a mini-story, making them extremely memorable.

Is Heroic Strike Good? (Part IV: The Probabilities (Plural) of Heroic Strike)

We come to it at last...

After a lengthy build-up breaking down all the components of a successful duel role, we're finally read to talk about Heroic Strike itself. When does it make sense? And when is it *gasp* a waste?

There's actually a lot to unpack here (far more than I thought there'd be when I originally started writing on it). We'll start by looking at the overall mechanics of Heroic Strike, mostly to understand exactly what benefits (and risks) it carries with it. It's that balancing of benefit and risk that makes it game-winning or worthless (and a lot in-between).

Because Blogger doesn't like long write-ups, this one is split into two parts. This section (part IV) goes over the three basic probability mechanics in Heroic Strike (the D6 roll to increase Fight Value, the "10" cap on Fight Value, and expected distributions of probable outcomes as dice scale upwards). Part V (which you can read here) applies those principles to a case study between two combatants (Faramir vs. Eomer), and also discusses an alternative use of Might ("boosting") and how that might--or might not--make Heroic Strike more attractive (sorry--those "might" puns were purely unintentional).

(Potential math overload ahead)

Is Heroic Strike Good? (Part V: A Case Study in Miniature)

Photo Credit: Dork Lords

This is the second-part of our mathematical write-up on Heroic Strike itself (cut for length because Blogger didn't like the full feature in a single post--boo!). If you missed the first part, you can find it here. To summarize, we looked at the basic components of Heroic Strike. Here are the high points:

• Heroic Strike, like fight value boosts in general, only improve our odds to win drawn combats, and only drawn combats;
• The Strike itself has a lot of variance, since it hinges on a single, unmodifiable D6;
• That variance can be reduced somewhat by the overall Fight Value cap of "10," and can also be reduced by having higher Fight Value to start with; and
• Even though Heroic Strike only impacts the six drawn combat outcomes (of thirty-six total combat outcomes), those scenarios are among the most probable outcomes once we start rolling two or more duel dice, and only become more probable the more dice we add to the duel rolls.

Now, to synthesize all of this, let's take a look at a practical case study between two opponents who share almost identical stat profiles, except for their Attacks. How might calling Heroic Strike (or not calling it) impact their odds to win the fight? And are there other considerations, beyond the mere probabilities of winning and losing, that caution for (or against) spending Might to Strike?

(Maths ahead, as the rubber hits the road.)