The New Age Is Begun: The Last Alliance Army List

Good morning gamers,

A few weeks ago, I walked through the Numenor army list in the new edition of MESBG. That army list has four profiles in it and poses a significant threat at low points levels (especially if they can kill enemy banners or if the scenario doesn't give you VPs for having a banner). Today, we're looking at the more robust army list of the Last Alliance, a historical alliance I ran a LOT in the last edition, which has both advantages and trades that it needs to make when compared to the Numenor army list. Let's see how things have changed since last year . . .

The Last Alliance: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

In the previous edition of the game, Numenor had access to all of the same profiles that it has now - Elendil, Isildur, Captains of Numenor, and Warriors of Numenor. The Rivendell contingent has changed significantly, however:

• You still have access to Gil-Galad and Elrond as your "big heroes", but you've lost access to Glorfindel (a crowd-favorite as a second anti-magic hero alongside Elendil) and if you left Gil-Galad at home, you COULD ally Elendil with Elladan and Elrohir and still have a historical alliance (because loopholes in the rules).
• You still have access to Rivendell Captains, but you lost access to the other mid-tier Rivendell heroes - Erestor (cheap combat hero/throwing weapons), Gildor Inglorion (March/caster), Cirdan (auric caster), Lindir (Elrond-augment/anti-magic auric boost), Arwen (caster), Stormcallers (very, VERY situational magic support), and Bilbo Baggins (ringbearer alongside Elendil) - all but Cirdan, Erestor, and the Stormcallers that nobody took would mess with your historical alliance status if you had Gil-Galad in the list (but leave him at home and you're fine - again, loopholes).
• You still have access to Rivendell Warriors (nee High Elf Warriors), but lost access to Rivendell Knights, which means you're legging it this edition - and only if you can afford a third hero with Heroic March.
• If you're playing with the Legacies document, you also add Erestor to the list - which is great, because having a cheap Unique Rivendell hero is NECESSARY to get this list to play at lower points levels. I wrote this article before the Legacies documents dropped, so I'll be adding text in red that clarifies how the list changes if Erestor is allowed in the list.

With an army list rule that requires you to run at least one of the named men (Elendil or Isildur) and at least one of the named Elves (Gil-Galad or Elrond), your "army list tax" is quite high with these guys, hitting at least 300pts but more likely closer to 350pts. Tack on a March hero and you're somewhere in the 375-465pt range - that's a LOT of points for three heroes! With warriors that will cost you 10-12pts without counting more expensive gear like banners, you're looking at a hefty starting price and should probably steer clear of this list until you reach 700pts (but you CAN make something sort of work at 600pts).

With these limitations in mind, let's see what army list bonuses you're gaining (especially vis-a-vis Numenor).

First Impressions: The Elven Kingdoms, Part II

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: Today's article is provided by Red Jacket (the TMAT team's biggest Elf fan) and he's diving into the "Rivendell" faction - which will cover both the profiles available to  the Lindon, Rivendell, and Last Alliance army lists. Red Jacket has been playing with these guys from the beginning of his venture into SBG and boy have they undergone some changes over the years.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Today, I’m comparing and contrasting the Rivendell profiles in the 2024 edition with their

counterparts in 2018. While I learned to play the game with Isengard, Rivendell was the first

faction I invested in on my own. They are my favorite. Peter Jackson’s take on the high elves struck my fancy from the very first moment I saw them on screen, and they are a challenging and rewarding faction to bring to the table. I’m very excited to dig into the new edition’s treatment of this, the best of factions.

Before diving in, a few housekeeping things. First, as per my last article on the carry-over Rohan profiles, I won’t be commenting on the new intelligence stat. Second, all profiles switched to hand weapons, and removed special strikes. I will only be commenting on this in as much as I feel it truly impacts how the model regularly interacts with the game on the tabletop. Finally, in the case of heroes, I will not be commenting on heroic tiers.

So without further ado, let’s take a look at these new profiles.

Gil-Galad, High King of the Noldor

Photo Credit: Pinterest

Stats:

Gil-Galad didn’t receive any change in his stats, though his fight value was functionally buffed quite a bit, as I will outline later in the heroic actions section.

Wargear:

No functional change to his wargear, including Aiglos’s special rule.

Heroic Actions:

• Heroic Challenge
• Heroic Resolve
• Heroic Strength

This is where we start to see the first differences in the profile, most obviously, removals. In the 2018 edition, Gil-Galad also had access to Heroic Strike and Defense. I don’t mind the loss of Strike in this new edition. With the vast majority of heroes capping out at F6, and Strike now only being a D3 role, his F9 is actually much more powerful now than it was

in the previous edition. It was often hard to justify spending might on Strike before, and now, it’s even less worth it. While technically it’s a loss because you can’t match some of the biggest models in the game, (the Balrog, Sauron if he Strikes, and a handful of monster heroes with a chance to reach F10 if they Strike), in general you are actually much more likely to find yourself secure in the face of Striking heroes.

Nemesis: How to Fight Against Elrond

Good morning gamers,

This is our third week in our Last Alliance-focused thread of our Nemesis series (after stepping away from the series for a few weeks) and we're looking at one of the greatest Elven heroes in the game: Elrond. When Centaur and I got started playing MESBG, Centaur jumped feet-first into both Rohan and Isengard . . . and he bought Elrond. Why? Because Centaur LOVES Elrond. I mean, he really, REALLY loves Elrond. I mean, if you asked him who the top three spell casters for the Forces of Good are, Elrond makes the list. He . . . REALLY . . . likes Elrond.

His Elrond has been epic in many a game against me. My Elrond has been hot and cold - and while he's killed many things, he has never gotten me more than two Foresight points in a tournament game before (while Centaur's seems to always roll 5s or 6s . . . not that I'm bitter or anything). Yes, Elrond is good - and if you're not ready for him, he can really make things look unwinnable. So how does one prepare to fight this guy? If you think it's with the same tools you'd use against Gil-Galad, you'd be kind of right . . . let's see where the overlap is by understanding what Elrond is bringing to the table.

What Makes Elrond So Hated?

Like Gil-Galad and Elendil (though certainly not to their extent), Elrond has a really solid combat profile - he's F6 with 3-Might-and-Strike on an Elven-made weapon, he's got 3 Attacks, access to a mount, and Lord of the West for effectively 4-5 attacks when he's dueling and 3-8 wounding dice with an unconditional reroll, depending on whether his cavalry bonuses are all active. His sword, Hadhafang, is also a hand-and-a-half sword, so if you're okay with two-handing (which you generally should be - give it a try sometime), he can also get +1 To Wound, which is a great way to make sure he's not blunted by most units. Furthermore, Hadhafang gives him +1 To Wound against Spirit models, which means he'll wound those pesky Warriors of the Dead on a 5+ WITHOUT two-handing (4+ if he is) and can even get some crazy-low wounding difficulties against the likes of the Balrog.

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

I actually didn't mention Elrond in my discussion on how to counter the Balrog (though if you go ALL the way to the bottom of the comments, you'll see a discussion of it in brief), so I'll just go over the highlights now: Elrond (base S4) begins by wounding the Balrog on a 6/4+, which is pretty good all things considered (lots of heroes start - and stop - here). This means Elrond is expected to deal maybe one wound/turn if he can manage to trap the Balrog. Thanks to the Balrog being a Spirit model, this gets improved to a 5/3+, which puts him quite close to 1 wound/turn without a trap (and close to 2 wounds/turn with a trap). If he two-hands as well, he can improve his wounding difficulty to a 4/2+, which is going to put him on 2-3 wounds against an untrapped Balrog and 3-5 wounds against a trapped Balrog - which is INSANE. 

If Elrond is also able to reroll all failed To Wound rolls with Enchanted Blades (say, from Cirdan), he's likely to be wounding the Balrog very, very well and actually stands a better chance of killing him than any other Rivendell or Numenor hero. And this assumes that Cirdan used his Might point to channel Blinding Light, instead of channelling his Enchanted Blades to give Elrond yet another +1 To Wound (3/1+ with rerolls on all failed To Wound rolls). I think in most worlds, Cirdan isn't going to be channelling this spell . . . but Celeborn has 3 Might for channelling it and is historical allies with Elrond . . . so that might happen. If you're a D8 or lower Spirit model (as basically every other Spirit in the game is), Elrond is basically wounding with everything without the Enchanted Blades . . . chew on that for a bit . . .

Nemesis: How to Fight Against Gil-Galad

Good morning gamers,

We're back in our Nemesis series for the next few months and we're going to be focusing on the heroes who fought for or against the Last Alliance for most of the next few posts. Our journey begins with one of the nastiest Elven heroes in the game: Gil-Galad. Back when Heroic Strike wasn't a thing, having a F9 hero was pretty sweet, but even in an age where Strike exists, having a F9 hero is guaranteed to make your opponent cough up some Might (and being guaranteed to get to the all-desired F10 is a nice option). So what makes this guy so hard to deal with? And what tools can you use to fight against him? Let's dig in and find out!

What Makes Gil-Galad So Hated?

Like most combat heroes, we need to start by looking at Gil-Galad's offensive profile. He's one of four heroes who is innately F9-10 (and by far the cheapest - his rivals are the Balrog and the Dark Lord Sauron) and with 3 Attacks, a reroll to his dueling and wounding rolls with the Lord of the West special rule, Aiglos (a spear that confers +1 To Wound without any penalties), and a mount (your stock-standard horse for 10pts), it's not hard to get a lot of damage out of this guy.

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

The pairing of Fight 9 and the Blood and Glory special rule make him particularly dangerous against heroes, most of whom will have to declare a Heroic Strike (if they even have that option) to tie or beat his Fight Value and if he manages to kill the hero (not hard if he can knock the model prone while on the charge or if he's got some help in trapping the target), he gets a Might point back. Striking from F9 can be unnecessary, but if you're going to get the Might point back, it's probably worth doing anyway.

If Gil-Galad was all that was potent or dangerous in his list, he'd probably be okay - but the Rivendell list is loaded with options to make Gil-Galad work at basically any points level. There are some Rivendell heroes that confer no penalties at all to your army building - Elrond and Glorfindel are pricey heroes, but they make excellent wing-men for Gil-Galad (especially Elrond, since he might be able to help you win you priority on a close roll with his Foresight points or knock foes near Gil-Galad prone with Wrath of Bruinen). If you're looking for more budget-restricted killing power, a mounted High Elf Captain or Erestor are excellent choices for 85-100pts. Most players who face Rivendell fear Cirdan with Gil-Galad, since shooting Gil-Galad and charging all those Elves they brought gets harder. Oh, and any Terror you invested in is a lot harder to preserve unless you have Sap Will in your army.

Quest of the Ringbearer Inspired Lists: Rivendell Revisited

Good morning gamers,

We're back in Quest of the Ringbearer and discussing lists we can make for Matched Play based on models we've collected from the sourcebook. Last time we looked at Angmar and today we're digging into their ancient foe, Rivendell.

I know what you're thinking though:

You: "Aren't we given basically no Rivendell units in Quest of the Ringbearer - just Gildor, Arwen, and technically Glorfindel?"

Me: "Correct - next to none."

You: "And we've got loads of other factions we could be building for?"

Me: "Absolutely - and we will."

You: "But we're still covering Rivendell today?"

Me: "Yes."

You: " . . . Why? . . ."

Me: "Because of these guys . . ."

Yes, I've been searching high and low for these two models for AGES and now that I have them, I'm getting them on the tabletop! So strap in - we're going to see how we can finnagle Quest of the Ringbearer to suit our needs (and maybe purchase a few more models along the way).

The List

If you limit yourself to just the models from Quest of the Ringbearer, your Rivendell collection is . . . depressingly small:

• Gildor Inglorion is used in one mission (Shortcuts Make Long Delays);
  
• Arwen Evenstar is used in one mission (Flight to the Ford);
  
• You have the option to use Glorfindel in Flight to the Ford instead of Arwen; and
  
• You have 6 Wood Elf Warriors in the Lothlorien scenarios (and probably have 18 other Wood Elf Warriors if you bought the plastic box) who could be used as Noldorin Exiles.

This doesn't give you much to go on - so go purely from Quest of the Ringbearer, you need to a) collect models for Fantasy Fellowships, and b) be okay allying with Lothlorien and the Fellowship. Some of the members of the Fellowship (Aragorn, Boromir, and Legolas in particular) are powerful heroes who can increase your damage output (up-close or from a distance) and Aragorn/Boromir have March for your army (so Gildor doesn't have to spend his Might point doing that). With Fantasy Fellowships, you get access to:

• An armored-version of Haldir (and Celeborn, actually); and
• 12 Galadhrim Warriors (though you probably have 24 if you picked up the plastic box). 

With the knowledge that you could do a direct swap of Aragorn for Glorfindel, the list you could run looks like this:

• Gildor Inglorion
• 1 Noldorin Exile with throwing daggers
  
• 5 Noldorin Exiles with Wood Elf spears and throwing daggers
• 4 Noldorin Exiles with Elf bows
• HISTORICAL ALLY: Haldir with heavy armor and Elf bow
• 5 Galadhrim Warriors with shields
• 5 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 5 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• HISTORICAL ALLY: Aragorn - Strider with armor and bow [ARMY LEADER]
  
• Boromir of Gondor with shield
  

With 29 models, 11 fast infantry with a free Heroic March from Aragorn (or 6 Might for March on Boromir if you run Glorfindel instead of Aragorn), and 13 Might points (plus Mighty Hero if you run Aragorn), this is a truly terrifying list (vulnerable to archery, perhaps, but a terrifying list all the same). However, it doesn't feel very Rivendell-like - AND it doesn't really give Gildor or Glorfindel the time to shine that they really deserve. So instead, I've recently been trying something else out (plus most of my Galadhrim Warriors have Elf bows and spears . . . so I can't play this list right now).

Most Rivendell lists will sport a bunch of High Elf Warriors, which we don't have in any of the QOTR scenarios. Many Rivendell lists will also include at least a few Rivendell Knights, which we don't have in any of the QOTR scenarios either. With access to Noldorin Exiles, you probably don't NEED Rivendell Knights for speed per se, but many players would prefer the high-Defense, lance-wielding, all-bow cavalry models over their half-priced, more fragile, all-throwing-weapon-capable infantry models. I get that.

TMAT GT: Tiberius's Army Thoughts

Good morning gamers,

This coming weekend is TMAT's Grand Tournament and we're doing an escalation tournament with the following point levels and scenarios:

• 450 - Hold Ground
• 600 - To The Death
• 750 - Fog of War

I've been wanting to throw an escalation tournament for ages - I developed armies in an escalation tournament style to teach people the game since I got started playing (100 points of warriors only, 250 points by adding a hero or two and some additional warriors, and slowly adding more points with additional warriors and heroes until you get to 500-700 points). This approach allows people who are new to the game (or haven't played in ages) to understand the core mechanics slowly and ease them into a game that has (if we're honest) a LOT more rules than the game requires.

Developing armies that can do well at three different point levels and are good at missions that do different things is hard to do - and so I had many armies swirling through my brain before I finally quieted the petitions from the boxes and picked one. Extra bonus points are awarded at this tournament if you have a "nesting dolls" style build, where the 450 is a subset of the 600, which is a subset (naturally) of the 750 - as opposed to having the 450 army be a subset of the 750 army and the 600 be a subset of the 750 army (but not having all of the models in the 450pt list in the 600pt list). Here are the armies I considered taking - and why I didn't chose the ones I did.

Overly Pedantic Stats: Best Elven Faction?

 Hey Reader!

We're back with another episode of Overly Pedantic Stats, and this post was prompted by the fact that I'm revisiting Rohan, and as I started thinking through the Helm's Deep legendary legion, it got me to wondering whether it was worth it to purchase Lothlorien models, as I've never run Lorien before.

Now, in the last iteration of the game (and I've mentioned this in the past on this blog), I thought that the Galadhrim were a terrible model, failing to be as cheap as wood elves, as resilient as high elves, or as deadly as mirkwood elves. But with the newest iteration of the game where 1) the Galadhrim now have heavy armor instead of just armor, and 2) you can only get wood elves in a Lorien list or a Gildor Inglorien warband for Rivendell, I was curious to see how good Lorien is now.

And that meant it was time for overly pedantic stats analysis. We'll be looking at five elements of the army: killing power (both in melee and at range), duel winning ability, resilience to damage, mobility, and overall cost. Inasmuch as magic factors into these rankings (Blinding Light helping with resilience, Nature's Wrath helping with killing power as it deals wounds and traps targets that are on the ground, etc.) we have also considered magic, but do not have a dedicated "Magic" category, and that will highly favor the fleshed out army lists over the less fleshed out lists.

We will discuss each of them in order from weakest to strongest, looking at the following factions: Rivendell, Lothlorien, Halls of Thranduil, and the Helm's Deep Legendary Legion contingent of Galadhrim.

Mastering Magic: Augmenting Damage Spells

Good morning gamers,

We've only got two more posts left in this series - and today we have some really fun spells: Bladewrath, Enchanted Blades, and Enrage Beast. These three spells are held by only five models - three with Enchanted Blades and two special models who alone have Bladewrath and Enrage Beast. While we've looked at spells that do damage (either as a blast, in an area, or to a single model), restore stats/resources, remove stats/resources, protect friendly models from magic, breaking items, neutralizing enemy combatants, scattering models, and provide auric benefits (either by enhancing nearby models/the caster OR by scattering models), today's spells are the only ones that make you more lethal in combat (though I guess a channelled Shroud of Shadows counts as well).

Fair warning, I only have two of the models in this list, so pictures will be scarce . . .

What Do These Spells Do?

The most common of these spells is Enchanted Blades. When cast normally, the caster picks a friendly model within range (6" for all of them) and if cast successfully, the model is allowed to reroll all failed To Wound rolls it makes. When channelled, the target model also receives a bonus of +1 To Wound (which is cumulative with similar rules, such as the bonus provided by using a two-handed weapon or having the Backstabbers/Hatred special rules).

Bladewrath allows a caster to pick a friendly model within range (6" as well) and that model makes Strikes in the Fight phase at Strength 6. If channelled, this is improved to Strength 10. It's important to note that the model itself doesn't become S6/S10, but rather resolves Strikes at S6/S10 (otherwise, this would be a great counter to the Rend/Hurl Brutal Power Attacks or special rules like Monstrous Charge).

Finally, Enrage Beast picks a friendly Bat, unridden Warg, or Spider model within range (12" this time) and increases the target model's Fight, Attacks, Strength, and Courage values by 2 until the End phase. Because this boosts the model's characteristics, this IS a good counter to the Rend/Hurl BPAs and rules like Monstrous Charge. When channelled, the target's characteristics are increased by 3 (instead of 2). While this is a powerful augment, the friendly model then suffers a S10 hit at the end of the round because of how exhausting being awesome can be (most models will be wounded on 3s - which still means a 33% chance of avoiding any damage at all).

All three of these spells are useful - especially if you are using units that "have problems wounding." Adding someone who has these spells can increase your overall damage, but picking the right model to augment is often the difficulty with these spells (and making sure they stay within range). To help with this, let's understand who has these spells and how best to use them.

Mastering Magic: Call Winds and Instill Fear

Good morning gamers,

Well, we've been plowing through magical spells for a while now, but we come today to the last spell in the arsenal of MANY evil spell-casters (causing us to wrap up a LOT of models today). While Ringwraiths (and other evil casters) have neutralizing spells in the form of Transfix/Compel, a precision damage spell in Black Dart, and the ability to reduce enemy resources/stats via Sap Will and Drain Courage (the Witch-King also has access to Your Staff is Broken), Ringwaiths have a very iconic spell in the game that can scatter enemy models: Instill Fear.

While Instill Fear is a good scattering spell, we'll be talking about a more precise scatter spell as well: Call Winds (which is only available to Galadhrim and High Elf Stormcallers).

Nazgul: "I'm casting Instill Fear - SCREEEEEEEEECH (or is that Transfix now? oh well, whatever!)!"

What Do These Spells Do?

Instill Fear is an area-of-effect scatter spell that affects all models within 3" of the caster (not because the spell says it's 3", it's just always 3" for all the models that have it). All enemy models within 3" of the caster have to pass a Courage test or make a full move directly away from the caster (or until they run into something/someone) and are afterwards unable to move (basically, they run in fear). If channelled, the models that test for Courage have to roll three dice and use the lowest two dice (which, if you haven't seen the math for it, is pretty brutal for anything that is below Courage 5 - and even C5 models are only 60% likely of passing). Add to this that most models with Instill Fear have some kind of Harbinger of Evil/Ancient Evil special rule attached to them, models really have to be Courage 6 to have a better-than-not chance of passing this channelled spell . . . ouch.

The models test in the order the caster wants, so it's pretty common to test with the models furthest from the caster first, then working your way inward. You can cast this spell a few milimeters from a model (aka within an enemy model's control zone), but after the scattering, you will need to complete the charge against whatever model you entered the control zone of first.

Call Winds is a precise scatter spell, targeting a single model and pushing that model back D6" (2D6" if channelled). The model stops if it hits an obstacle (but not models) and is Knocked Prone. Unlike previous versions of the game, models aren't forced to stay on the ground for the rest of the turn (which is sad). Like Sorcerous Blast, the Strength of your target doesn't dictate whether the model can be knocked Prone - anyone is fair game. This spell is different from Sorcerous Blast in two ways, though: first, this spell doesn't knock any other models Prone if they're in the path of the scattered model. Second, no damage is done to the target (or anyone else the model would pass through - even when channelled). While not a damage spell, it certainly changes the way an enemy model can behave for the round (and usually the next round as well).

Mastering Magic: Area of Effect Spells

Good morning gamers,

Today we start our fifth post in our "masterclass" series on Magic in MESBG. We've looked at Sorcerous Blast, Immobilize (et al), auric spells, and restoration spells. Today we look at some of the most fun spells in the game: area-of-effect offensive spells! As fun as rooting a model in place can be, as great as regaining heroic resources is, and as awesome as augmenting models around you is, we REALLY want to do massive damage. While you can do that with Sorcerous Blast under certain conditions, it's easier with some other spells - or is it? The spells we'll be covering today are: Collapse Rocks, Wrath of Bruinen, Nature's Wrath, Panic Steed, and Tremor.

What Do These Spells Do?

These spells can be grouped together in different ways, but here's the basics of each spell:

• Panic Steed removes the mount of the target (becomes an area-of-effect when channelled);
• Nature's Wrath knocks enemy models Prone near the caster (and deals S2 hits when channelled);
• Wrath of Bruinen also knocks enemy models Prone near the caster, but also inflicts a S2 hit (channel for higher Strength on the hits);
• Collapse Rocks deals a S5 hit to a target model that is near a rocky piece of terrain (becomes an area-of-effect when channelled); and
• Tremor deals a S6 hit and knocks models Prone who are on a D6" line away from the target model.

All of these spells have the ability to affect an area of the board - but some require you to channel them in order to get the area of effect to occur. Wrath of Bruinen, Nature's Wrath, and Tremor all affect a given area of the board (3" around the caster for Wrath of Bruinen and Nature's Wrath, D6" line away from the target for Tremor). Collapse Rocks and Panic Steed become area of effect spells when channelled (2" around the target for Collapse Rocks, 3" around the target for Panic Steed).

Most of these spells also knock their targets Prone: any hostile figure within the affected area of Wrath of Bruinen, Nature's Wrath, or Tremor are Knocked Prone (with cavalry suffering from Knocked Flying instead of rolling on the Thrown Rider chart). Collapse Rocks and Panic Steed don't innately Knock Prone, but Panic Steed does require a roll on the Thrown Rider chart.

Most of these spells do damage: Wrath of Bruinen does Strength 2 hits (Strength 3 if channelled, Strength 8/9 if the target is in a water feature) to all affected models, Collapse Rocks does a Strength 5 hit to all affected models (so long as the targets are near a rocky piece of terrain), and Tremor does a Strength 6 hit to all affected models. Panic Steed removes the mounts of the affected models, but otherwise doesn't do any damage. Nature's Wrath does no damage innately, but does a Strength 2 hit to all affected models if channelled (basically becomes Wrath of Bruinen without the water feature rule).

Finally, most of these spells affect only enemy models. Wrath of Bruinen, Nature's Wrath, and Panic Steed only harm enemy models (which makes them great spells to cast when your opponent charges one of your battle lines). Collapse Rocks and Tremor have to be used more carefully, since their damage (Strength 5 and Strength 6 hits!) are suffered by both friendly and enemy models.

For those of you who like charts, here's the visual summary of what is described above:

	Collapse Rocks	Nature's Wrath	Panic Steed	Tremor	Wrath of Bruinen
Area of Effect?	*	X	*	X	X
Knock Targets Prone?		X	**	X	X
Damage Spell?	X	*	**	X	X
Affect Only Enemy Models?		X	X		X

* Channelled version meets the requirement

** Models that get a 1 on the Thrown Rider chart will be Prone and take a S3 hit

Mastering Magic: Restoration Spells

Good morning gamers,

We're continuing our "masterclass" series on magic today by looking at spells that regrow heroic stats (Might, Will, Fate, and Wounds - which is technically not a heroic resource, except that heroes tend to be the only ones with more than one of them . . . though not always . . . if you ignore monsters . . . and Half-trolls . . . you get the idea though).

We've already looked at spells like Sorcerous Blast, Immobilize (and all its lil' friends), and auric spells - all of which are included in the casting arrays of some of the best casters in the game (Saruman and Gandalf in all their various forms). The spells we'll be looking at today - Blessing of the Valar, Renew, Refreshing Song, and Strengthen Will - might not look like much, but in many ways, they have a tendency to be the go-to spells for those turns where "you don't have anything to do." Their impact, however, can be game changing.

What Do These Spells Do?

Two of these spells do the same thing as each other, just targeting a different heroic resource: Blessing of the Valar restores 1 Fate point that was previously spent (or D3 Fate if channelled), while Renew restores 1 Wound that was previously lost (or D3 Wounds if channelled). Since many heroes have 2 Wounds and 1 Fate point, I doubt either of these spells would be channelled much - plus, one-out-of-three times you channel it you get the exact same result as an unchannelled version . . . so why take the risk of wasting a Might point (see my post from February 2019 on magic and my post on wasting Might points for more info)?

Refreshing Song restores 1 Might, 1 Will, 1 Fate, AND 1 Wound that were previously spent/lost. This spell currently can't be channelled (neither caster who has these spells has Heroic Channelling - and neither has any Might anyway), but if it could be channelled, it would restore all lost Wounds (which makes it pretty much like Renew - which you probably won't channel). This is a really powerful spell (even unchannelled - I think it's the best spell in the game) because it can refresh 4 stats simultaneously. If used on a caster (who is likely burning through Might and Will to cast channelled spells, and possibly also Fate and Wounds if he's being attacked), you can turn 1 Will point from Tom Bombadil or Goldberry into more than one heroic resource on someone else. This is great!

The final spell is Strengthen Will, which on paper looks to be the Will-equivalent of Blessing of the Valar and Renew. But there's a key difference: 

Strengthen Will doesn't restore a Will point that's been lost in the fight - it gives the target a Will point.

This small difference allows the target model to have Will if they didn't start with any Will OR allows them to increase their Will above their starting amount. This is a key difference and goes into the strategy of some of the heroes who have this spell.

One final note on these spells: they can all be cast on the caster instead of a different model nearby (since all models are considered friendly to themselves). This is huge, since getting Will points back on a caster, restoring Wounds on an expensive hero, or regrowing Fate points on an important model is huge. The exception to this is casting Refreshing Song, since the casters who have these spells can't be affected by magical powers.

The Bare Necessities, Part XII: Numenor

Good morning gamers,

We’ve already reviewed how you can build different lists for Minas Tirith, Isengard, Rivendell, Mordor, Lothlorien, and Angmar with scoring victory points in mind. All of these armies (what I've binned in "Volume II" - Volume I included the elements of balanced list building) are armies that easily meet all five requirements - they have access to fast models (all have cavalry options, some have fast-infantry options), they can all get 30+ models with relative ease, they can all take banners, and they have ways of neutralizing enemy heroes while augmenting their own.

In this post, we begin Volume III of our discussion on list building and look at factions that don't automatically pass all five of the criteria we set forth in our original posts. We’ll be looking at the faction of Numenor today to see how you can work around their very limited list of profiles (hopefully to be solved in a supplement someday) and come up with a competitive list that gives you more options.

Numenor: Pure Vs. Last Alliance

You know what the biggest problem with running Numenor is? You only have 1 Warrior profile and 3 Hero profiles (though we’ve been given a hint that an Anarion profile will be released someday . . . maybe before we die?). There are several factions (but not many) that only have a single Warrior profile – Fangorn, the Misty Mountains/Radagast’s Alliance, or the Wildmen of Druadan immediately come to mind. While most of these are monster armies (so their warriors basically have hero stats), the Wildmen of Druadan have a niche ally in Rohan to give them a good selection of warriors to ally in (and that can benefit greatly from spear-carrying infantry) and a great selection of heroes to ally in. Sure, there are some factions that don't get warrior choices at all (and the Desolator of the North only gets a single hero profile), but since Numenor is a "conventional army," it's a shame that they are limited in their choices for models. Or are they?

The good thing about Numenor (if you're running it pure) is that while there aren’t a lot of Numenor profiles, the equipment options given to the generic profiles in this army (Warriors and Captains of Numenor) is quite diverse, so you can build an army off of it (plus there are weapon swaps - see my previous post on weapon swaps for more on that). Still, there are some glaring holes in your army - the two largest of which are that your only cavalry options are heroes and no warriors can be higher than Defense 5. That being said, as a Numenor player, I’m very happy that they got some love in the new release (having S4 on your Warriors is nice, though it would have been awesome to see those Captains of Numenor get the boost to S5 - just sayin').

I go back and forth every day between whether Numenor should be played as a pure army or always be used in an allied force with Rivendell. Numenor supplements the “we don’t kill things” problem that Elves tend to face and the High Elves solve the “we don’t get D6” problem that Numenoreans grumble about. Rivendell also solves the "we can't get mounted warriors" problem - though Rivendell Knights are pretty expensive to field in large quantities. So, why not put them together? Whether you choose Gil-Galad or Elrond (or both), you’ll get a great hero to supplement your Numenor force.

Whether you choose Elendil or Isildur (you could do both, though Isildur won’t have the Ring and so is about twice as expensive as a Captain with some-but-not-many benefits), you’ll get a great S5 combat hero to supplement your Elven force (with the ability to two-hand or be D8 - which is amazing). Numenoreans are marginally cheaper than Elves while Elves are marginally better in combat (higher Fight, higher Defense, better bows, lower Strength), so they complement each other well. By choosing to ally them together, however, you get less of both – it’s rare that you’ll run three of the four epic heroes from the Last Alliance in any game below 1000 points. In all likelihood, you’ll only get two out of the four, which means you need to make some hard choices about whether to include Elendil OR Gil-Galad OR Elrond (and you’re probably picking only one or two of these).

Since I’ve already done a post on Rivendell, I was going to focus on a pure Numenor force. However, in the interest of making an army that plays scenarios well, I’ve decided to do an allied list today because of Numenor’s inability to get fast units on its own (outside of spamming captains and mounting Elendil/Isildur). Since one of the scenarios (Reconnoitre) requires you to get models off the board – and that usually means running your fast models off the board – I didn’t think Numenor had a very good chance of doing this on its own, since running your captains off the board isn’t normally a good idea (see my post on Mordor for a counter-example). For those who think Numenor is good without allies, I will provide a pure Numenor list at the end, but I don’t see it being as balanced as an allied list (which is the whole goal of these posts, right?). So, let’s look at the Last Alliance!

The Bare Necessities, Part VIII: Rivendell

Good morning gamers,

So far, we’ve looked at ways you can build an army for Minas Tirith or Isengard that maximizes on the victory points you can score in a game. Today, we turn our attention to Rivendell and see a particular kind of list that gives you good access to fast units, decent numbers, a banner, ways to protect your heroes, and ways to neutralize enemy heroes. While we'll cover just about everything in Rivendell here, you can get a compact summary in Rythbryt's review of Rivendell.

Rivendell: How Many Heroes (and Which Ones)?

While Minas Tirith and Isengard have a great selection of both heroes and warriors, Rivendell does not. While its hero selection is one of the best selections in the game (only beaten as a group, in my opinion, by Erebor Reclaimed – though there are several Rivendell hero choices that are better than what you’ll find in Erebor Reclaimed), Rivendell only has two warrior choices (three if you take Gildor Inglorion). With no Legendary Legions to use (though I’m hoping for a Last Alliance Legion at some point – I predict it will follow a similar army construction rule as the Ugluk’s Scouts LL), Rivendell is what it is, though it does have a good elite infantry profile and one of the best cavalry profiles in the game.

The main question then becomes which heroes do you include?

• The three Lords of the West (Gil-Galad, Elrond, and Glorfindel) are very tough heroes to take down - I played all three recently against my good mate Red Jacket - only managed to gronk Gil-Galad with the Balrog while Elrond and Glorfindel wrecked havoc on me everywhere else;
• The Twins and Erestor are great combat heroes for their cost and easily afforded in small point games if you need lots of power;
• Arwen, Gildor, Cirdan, and High Elf Stormcallers are good casters for being under 100 points;
• Lindir can provide additional auric buffs and make Elrond more effective as a caster; and
• High Elf Captains are the only heroes who can call Heroic March twice (Gildor can call it once).

So who do you take? Here’s my take (see what I did there?):

Armies of Middle-Earth SBG: Rivendell in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game

Photo Credit: Council of Elrond

After tackling the unholy, vile, tortured, and mutilated Uruk-Hai last time, it's time for their holier, purer brethren to enjoy their day in the sun: elves. We begin, of course, with the purest of pure elves from Rivendell (unless you're partial to Galahdrim). Rivendell is both a diverse and monotone list; there are a ton of variations on Rivendell lists, and yet if you've fought one of them, you sort of feel like you've fought them all. And it's almost always a painful experience...

If Rivendell is your jam, I'd highly recommend you listen to the Green Dragon Podcast's Ep. 55: Rivendell, which discusses the ins and outs of the factions in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings rule book, in two hours of glorious goodness. Then, if you still have a fix, you can see what we have to say...

Tiberius Battle Company Log, Entry #2

Good morning reader,

In our first post, I talked about the strategy for my Last Alliance battle company, as well as how my first two games went (close games - one victory, one loss). Today, we see what two adventures befell my battle company last weekend.

Battle Company after Game 2: 8 models, Rating of 145

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).

Tiberius Battle Company Log, Entry #1

Good morning reader,

Yep I know what you're thinking - Tiberius, what are you doing posting today? It's not Monday!?!?!?! I know, I know. That's because today's post begins an irregular series that I'm starting on Battle Companies.

This year's TMAT GT is going to be Battle Companies themed, where we all pick one (or more) Battle Companies, play against each other "regularly," and include one Battle Company that we developed this season to use in a larger army (points limit still TBD because people are lobbying for a higher points level, whether the alliance matrix is allowed is also being debated). All in all, it should be fun.

For my first battle company, I've decided to do the Last Alliance. Those of you who have followed the blog for a while know that I got started with Rivendell thanks to the White Council units (Elrond, Arwen, old Glorfindel model, Erestor proxy, thought about getting Cirdan for a while). I originally got a few High Elf Warriors just so I could run a handful of bodyguards around my Elf/wizard heroes because they were getting overwhelmed. That then led to a larger contingent that is now a full-fledged army.

Numenor took off at about the same time: I picked up a boatload of Numenor warriors from eBay (and traded/bought a bunch from some friends who were eager to get rid of the Numenoreans that came with their High Elves) and acquired Elendil and Isildur in a large hero lot on eBay. With a recently converted Captain of Numenor on horse and a lot of conversions to turn the all-sword-and-board army into a more diversified force, Numenor has been chomping at the bit to be used.I

Using/Fighting Spellcasters: Unlimited Casters, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

We come to the last post in this series – we’ve revisited a four-part discussion we did years ago on Combat Mages, Auxiliary Mages, Multi-Purpose Will Mages, and now we finally address Unlimited Mages. The original post is here. Of all the mages in the game, these types of casters have the potential for the most Will in the game (in aggregate) and are virtually the only casters who can be active at casting magic each turn for the entirety of the game. For our purposes, we’re following this taxonomy for casters:

• Multi-Purpose Will Mages: Anyone with the Will of Evil rule (or a similar rule) and has spells (who uses Will to cast magic AND stay alive…and possibly other things);
• Unlimited Mages: Anyone who gets “free Will,” has spells that can be cast, and does not fall in the previous category;
• Combat Mages: Anyone with 2+ Attacks, has spells that can be cast, and does not fall in either of the previous two categories;
• Auxiliary Mages: Catch-all for everyone else, usually limited casting with some kind of immediate/lasting benefit to the army.

Using/Fighting Spellcasters: Auxiliary Mages, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

In our last post, we revisited the subject of combat mages in MESBG – how the heroes we covered in a post a long time ago have changed and what other heroes we failed to cover before. In the older post, we lumped in a discussion on Auxiliary mages who do a few niche things to help your army because at the time, the only one I wanted to talk about was the Moria Goblin Shaman. Today, we’ll be taking an in-depth dive on Auxiliary mages across the lists and explore how to get the most out of them. As a reminder, we’re following this taxonomy for casters:

• Multi-Purpose Will Mages: Anyone with the Will of Evil rule (or a similar rule) and has spells (who uses Will to cast magic AND fight AND stay alive…and possibly other things);
• Unlimited Mages: Anyone who gets "free Will," has spells that can be cast, and does not fall in the previous category;
• Combat Mages: Anyone with 2+ Attacks, has spells that can be cast, and does not fall in either of the previous two categories;
• Auxiliary Mages: Catch-all for everyone else, usually limited casting with some kind of immediate/lasting benefit to the army.

Using/Fighting Spellcasters: Combat Mages, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Today we continue our series of revisiting old posts and updating them for the new rules set. A while back, we did a three-part series on using/fighting spell-casters and we classified some of them as “Combat Mages” (or basically, people who fight really well and ALSO have magic). In that post, we also lumped in Auxiliary mages who do a few niche things to help your army and since there wasn’t that much to say about either of them, we lumped them into the same post. Today, we’ll be talking about the first group only (Combat Mages), though the list will be a little longer (four entries instead of two). We’ll be covering Auxiliary Mages/Ringwraiths/unlimited Will casters in the next few posts of this series. For our purposes, we’re following this taxonomy for casters:

• Multi-Purpose Will Mages: Anyone with the Will of Evil rule (or a similar rule) and has spells (who uses Will to cast magic AND fight AND stay alive…and possibly other things);
• Unlimited Mages: Anyone who gets "free Will," has spells that can be cast, and does not fall in the previous category;
• Combat Mages: Anyone with 2+ Attacks, has spells that can be cast, and does not fall in either of the previous two categories;
• Auxiliary Mages: Catch-all for everyone else, usually limited casting with some kind of immediate/lasting benefit to the army.