So It Begins, Part 1: Raise the Ladders

Good morning gamers,

Every year, Centaur and I try to do some kind of scenario thing - in recent years, we've played through Fantasy Fellowships, the Scouring of the Shire, and a custom campaign through all the Osgiliath missions. Today, we're starting this year's campaign, which will be playing through the scenarios related to Helm's Deep from the War in Rohan supplement. We'll be using the new profiles, but we won't be altering the scenario participants to make legal Matched Play lists (it just doesn't work for Good this time around). We'll also be showing off the amazing terrain from Conquest Creations' Kingdom of Saxonia, Volume II - Jacob has really outdone himself and boy was making the terrain a ton easier than before!

The Walls of Helm's Deep (War in Rohan, p. 26)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario:

• Forces of Good: Mostly The Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• Aldor
• Haleth, Son of Hama
• 8 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 8 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 8 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• Forces of Evil: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 4 Uruk-Hai Captains
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 12 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
• 5 Siege Ladders

We could have made this a Matched Play game by adding Theoden to the good side - the points are one-sided towards the Forces of Good and they have the walls . . . we'll see how this goes. The victory conditions for this scenario are based on how many ladders Evil can keep up - if Good can knock down 4+ of the 5 ladders, they win. If Evil can keep up 4+ of the ladders, they win. If there are 3 ladders left standing, it's a draw. 

The New Age Is Begun: the Lurtz's Scouts Army List

Good morning gamers,

A few years ago, we did a draft of the Good and Evil Legendary Legions for the TMAT Talks podcast. One of my mid-round picks was the Lurtz's Scouts Legendary Legion. I always loved playing with that list - it was fast, it got pretty good numbers at most points levels, and it was filled with cool-looking Uruk-Hai (who are themselves very good at chopping through things).

This army couldn't charge a Terror wall or stick around after the fight for anything (despite being told that they do not know pain and they do not know fear, but they were nevertheless very fun to play. Today, we're diving into their current army list in the new edition - and I think they're better in this edition, but there's one change I wish was made that would really help them out. Let's see what these guys have to offer!

Lurtz's Scouts: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

The list of models you have in this army list hasn't changed from the previous edition if you play with the Legacy models. It's still just Lurtz and Ugluk for the named heroes (and Mauhur with Legacies), Scout Captains and Drummers for the unnamed heroes, and Uruk-Hai Scouts for your warriors. Like the Assault Upon Helm's Deep list that we looked at last time, you're trading a greatly reduced profile list for a hero you can't get anywhere else (Lurtz) and a bunch of special rules. Is it enough? Depends on what you like, I guess . . .

The New Age Is Begun: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep Army List

Good morning gamers,

We've already viewed the Muster of Isengard and Army of the White Hand lists for Isengard - or in short, the two lists you can run Saruman in. Today, we're poking at a list that was very strong in the last edition and has fallen from grace a bit (in my opinion, at least) in the current edition: the Assault Upon Helm's Deep. This army list has retained many of the units and rules that it had in the last edition, it's received a few nice buffs, but it's also lost some things, so there's not all good news for Helm's Deep players. There are no Legacy profiles in this list (and only a few things were added with the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement), so let's take a look at what Helm's Deep players have to work with now!

Assault Upon Helm's Deep: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Like in the last edition, your options for units is incredibly limited - you have Uruk-Hai Captains/Shamans as well as Siege Veterans for your Ballistae as your heroes, and the sturdy-and-reliable Uruk-Hai Warrior and power-house Uruk-Hai Berserker for your standard-cost warriors and Isengard Trolls and Uruk-Hai Demolition teams (besides the ballistae) for your warriors. And that's it - no seriously, that's it!

When you compare the line-up to the Muster of Isengard, this comes in about the same - you get a small selection of units, but everything is elite (and as a result, it's all expensive). The upside that this list has over the Muster of Isengard is that you don't have to take Saruman - you can instead take 2 Captains and a Shaman/Ballista/a third Captain for the cost of Saruman and Grima. The downside of this list is that . . . well, you don't have access to Saruman (or cheaper Uruk-Hai Scouts as an alternative to Uruk-Hai Warriors). The profile selection alone isn't enough to scare me off this list, but as we look at the army list bonuses, I'm kind of concerned about how good this list is now . . .

The New Age Is Begun: the Army of the White Hand Army List

Good morning gamers,

If Ardacon is any indication, then the Army of the White Hand is a good list - all three people who podiumed in the Invitational Masters event were running the list and that probably says more about the view of this list that the highest competitive minds have rather than how good the list is at your local tournament scene. That being said, everyone's talking about "the White Hand" list and whether Crebain are broken because of it. The list is more than just about Crebain - but Crebain are also very important to it working well. Let's see what's up with this list and some thoughts for running it, shall we (and as always in this series, anything related to Legacies will be highlighted in red for whatever players or tournaments don't allow Legacy models)?

Army of the White Hand: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list is the closest thing to a "normal Isengard list" from the last edition. You have access to Saruman and Grima, most of the Uruk-Hai profiles, most of the Orc profiles, and all of the Dunland profiles from the last edition (especially if you include the models that moved to Legacies). The primary profiles that you're missing are Lurtz, Ugluk, Mauhur, and Uruk-Hai Drummers from the Uruk-Hai hero side of the house, Uruk-Hai Warriors and Berserkers for the Uruk-Hai warriors, and the ballistas and bombs (which are oddballs, but still Uruk-Hai). You're also missing Snaga and Sharku from the Orc contingent - but that's literally it. Everyone else and their brother shows up in this list - and that means there are a LOT of options.

The list also doesn't have required heroes, so you can technically run whatever you want in it - Centaur used it for the first scenario of our custom Osgiliath campaign because it is LITERALLY the only list where you can get just Orc Captains and Orc Warriors in your army! Now, all the army list bonuses are all tied to Saruman, so you should probably run him, but you don't have to - and that's great. There's also a wide variety of subfactions that are represented in this list - Dunland, Uruk-Hai, Orcs, and of course Saruman and Grima - so depending on the theme you want to run, this list provides a nice canvas for your play (if you have a competitive bent, the options are probably less, but there's still some variety).

The Citadel of the Stars, Part I: The Defence of Osgiliath

Good morning gamers,

Centaur and I are pleased to be bringing you another campaign series this year, running on alternate Thursdays through the rest of the year! While we've done Fantasy Fellowships as well as the Scouring of the Shire, we decided this year to show off the Kingdom of Tor Ithilas terrain that I picked up last year and play through eight scenarios centered around the city of Osgiliath (home of the Citadel of the Stars). Three of these scenarios will be from the old Gondor at War supplement (including today's scenario), four will come from the Battle of Osgiliath starter box, and we'll be replaying the Osgiliath scenario from Quest of the Ringbearer as well.

Normally, we follow the scenario participants list closely, but we decided to have some fun with this and a) use the new ruleset instead of the old one, and b) use the scenario participants to provide a baseline for two game-legal army lists from the new edition. As such, the models we'll be using might change slightly from the original list - but where we could stick to what was originally given to us, we have. Let's see who we have for the Fall of Osgiliath scenario!

The Defence of Osgiliath (Gondor at War, p. 8)

We've decided to use the following models in today's game:

• Forces of Good: The Garrison of Ithilien
• Faramir, Captain of Gondor
• Madril, Captain of Ithilien
• Damrod, Ranger of Ithilien
• 6 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 6 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows
• 8 Rangers of Gondor
• 4 Rangers of Gondor with spears
• Forces of Evil: The Army of the White Hand (I know, right?)
• 3 Orc Captains
• 12 Orc Warriors with shields
• 12 Orc Warriors with spears
• 6 Orc Warriors with two-handed weapons
• 6 Orc Warriors with Orc bows

The board is a 48"x48" setup, with the Orcs within 12" of one side of the board, and the Gondorian models within 6" of the center of the board. There are three objectives that the Orcs are going to try to destroy (in base contact without fighting or shooting) before 10 turns have passed - one objective is set up in the center and the other two are space equidistant from the center objective and the left/right board edges:

Damrod is up on the second level of the building near the center (this was a mistake - I forgot he had 2 Attacks!), Faramir was right in the center, and Madril was over to the left, ready to lead some of my troops towards that objective. Centaur deployed his Orcs with the majority in the middle, but a solid hit-squad of guys ready to attack each of the side objectives (the Captains don't have the whispy bases). The Orcs can come back in this scenario on a 5+, so the model disparity is going to be seriously high by the end! With the units deployed, we started Turn 1!

Turn 1: Priority Good

I had three of my Rangers stand and shoot while the other units began to fade towards the side objectives. I don't have any cover near the center objective, but I'm counting on those bows not being very effective. Centaur pushed up the board but didn't March towards me.

I shot a lot of bows (15 in total) and killed . . . two guys. Not bad, all told, but . . .

. . . those dang Orc bows hit with like four guys (out of SIX!) and killed two of my Rangers in the middle . . . not what I wanted when starting this game! Without any fights to resolve, we moved to Turn 2!

The New Age Is Begun: The Muster of Isengard Army List

Good morning gamers,

In the last edition, one of my favorite ways to run Isengard was to have Saruman and Grima leading a ton of Uruk-Hai and utilizing a supporting cast of Thyrdan on a horse and Mauhur leading fast Scout bowmen. You can't run that list exactly in the current edition, but you can get most of the way there with the Muster of Isengard army list. With the addition of Uruk-Hai Shamans from the Armies of Middle-Earth and Vrasku from the Legacies document, you can get a pretty interesting Isengard army with this list (especially if you've purchased the Isengard Battle Host box and a commander pack - or converted an Uruk-Hai Captain for yourself). Let's see what's great about this list!

Muster of Isengard: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

The profiles available to us now, compared to what was in the Isengard army list, is now quite limited:

• We have Saruman and Grima - and unlike the Army of the White Hand army list, this one has to take Saruman (so we'll always have Saruman . . . and likely will always have Grima).
• We have Uruk-Hai Captains/Uruk-Hai Scout Captains and Uruk-Hai Shamans, but we don't have any of the named Uruk-Hai heroes (except Vrasku if Legacies are in play).
• We have Uruk-Hai Drummers thanks to an FAQ, but none of the Orc or Dunland heroes.
• We've got Uruk-Hai Warriors, Uruk-Hai Scouts, and Uruk-Hai Bersekers - but none of the other warriors (no Orcs, no Warg Riders, no Dunland stuff).

This is a lean list - but there are some pros to taking this army list instead of the Army of the White Hand (or even Isengard in the previous edition).

Army List Bonuses

If you ran vanilla Isengard in the last edition, you broke like everyone else after losing more than 50% of your models, but you didn't have to test for breaking until you lost 66% of your models. The updated text for "You do not know pain, you do not know fear" is that "The Break Point for this army is 66% rather than 50%," so now you both break and start testing at 66% - perfect. 

Quick Starter Armies for the Battle of Edoras Box Set!

Good morning gamers,

The new edition has been out for just over 6 months, and while we don't have all of the models that are in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit supplements, we do have enough to get started in the game. As I did with the Battle of Osgiliath box set, I'll be looking today at the very practical question of how to turn your collection of models from the Battle of Edoras starter set into an actual army on the tabletop at different price points.

Before we dive in, I'd like to reiterate something that I do from time to time on this blog: 

GW is not sponsoring us here at TMAT. 

I get no kickbacks from the way you spend money, I don't have affiliate links, and I'm not associated with a webstore or physical store of any kind. We here at TMAT are just a bunch of gamers trying to play with toy soldiers on a budget. As a result, the recommendations I provide here are the result of much thinking and planning - mostly for myself and maybe my musings and plannings will help you too! With that, let's start by looking at the Forces of Good from the starter set . . .

400-point Army of Edoras for $200: The Battle of Edoras Box Set

Our first stop is . . . well, just the contents of the box set. This is technically more than $200 USD in the GW store, but it's less than $200 if you buy it from an independent retailer - it also isn't going to be a great army, but it can be yours with just the purchase of the box set (which not only gives you the rulebook and a cheat sheet of the profiles for the units in the box set, but also gives you some terrain, some dice/measurement sticks (get a tape measure, of course), and a paper mat to put on your table . . . all good things).

The list writes itself since we only have two heroes and 24 Warriors of Rohan - all of which we can field at 400pts:

Haleth is a good beater hero, though a bit fragile. Hama is . . . fine as a shooting hero, but probably a bit overpriced. Still, they're yours and they will get you into the game with enough of an experience to help you figure out what you want - exactly what a starter box should do.

Now as we add some money to our price point, we can get an "actual" army . . .

Unexpected Military Formations: Epic Movie Moments, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Back in 2021, I ran a four-part series where I took four classic fighting scenes from the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit films (I added a fifth one in 2022) and looked at how you might bring that scene to life on the tabletop with MESBG. The first of those posts looked at an Uruk-Hai pike block formation (what I've since called a "loose phalanx") and how/why you might best use your pikes in games of MESBG.

The army list (Legendary Legion, really) that was most inclined to use that strategy was the Assault Upon Helm's Deep list - and with the various changes that I think have made that army list worse in this edition, I figured it would be good to review different formations you can run in order to get the most out of the classic Uruk-Hai assault force. For context, we'll be using the following 600-point force:

We'll begin with the most basic of the formation elements: the loose phalanx.

Formation #1: The Loose Phalanx

Like we said in the article back in 2021, the value of this formation is that we're spreading out our formation to provide a larger frontage and we're going to have models in the front-rank this time that either have 2 Attacks base (Berserkers) or can have 2 Attacks if they defend by shielding (Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields). There's a new cause for concern in this set-up, however: Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields can now benefit from Shieldwall. While there was definitely a case before for alternating shield-Berserker-shield-Berseker-etc., you'll now want to have two distinct phalanxes: one with Berserkers and one with Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields:

two six-file phalanxes, banner/3 captains nearby

I have intentionally made three choices with the disposition of these phalanxes: first, as mentioned above, I've created one beater phalanx with six Uruk-Hai Berserkers in it, backed by six pikes. This formation will have no problem charging Terror-causing units but is only D5, so you'll want to be careful with its engagement. Whatever Berserker isn't supported in each file will have 2 Attacks at F5 (pretty good) and the supported Berserker can two-hand with 2 pikes backing him up. This seems like a solid fighting force to me and could certainly benefit from the banner, but I don't think it needs it.

First Impressions: Isengard, Part II

Good morning gamers,

We're back in Isengard today and we're going to cover the rest of the faction after covering the Uruk-Hai last time. We've got mostly men (or Istari, who are like men) today, though there are some Orcs, Wolves, and birds in the discussion as well. There's also a smattering of four different army lists today, so lots of context for the units we're viewing.

Isengard Non-Uruk Profiles: How Have They "Changed?"

If you're interested in learning about the changes to the Uruk-Hai profiles for the Isengard faction, you should check out the previous article in this series. Today, we're looking at the other units in the Isengard faction, which will have some overlap with the discussion next time of the Hill Tribe units.

We need to start our discussion of Isengard with the big man himself: Saruman. There are two army lists with access to Saruman: the Army of the White Hand list (where he isn't required, but all of the army list bonuses only work if he's on the board) and the Muster of Isengard (where he is required, but oddly enough has no army special rules tied to him being in the list). From a stat perspective, Saruman is basically unchanged - same numbers, Courage/Intelligence value of 3+, nothing special.

Saruman still has the Palantir, which now forces a roll-off with the likes of the Azog Ambush rule (awesome, since it used to be overridden and wasted) and is still a very valuable reason for taking Saruman. He picked up a new rule, Saruman's Deceit, which allows him to apply a -1 penalty on a single enemy hero's attempts to resist magical powers cast by Saruman against the hero (though a natural 6 remains a 6). If you think two-handing with the penalty is bad (I don't, but many people do), then this is like applying the new rules for two-handing to your resist tests . . . chew on that for a minute.

First Impressions: Isengard, Part I

Good morning gamers,

One of the first armies I started collecting back in late 2010 was Isengard - specifically, a bucket of used Uruk-Hai Warriors (Captain, banner, 18 shields, 10 pikes). A few purchases and conversions later, and I had a few Captains, a Saruman, and some Uruk-Hai Scouts/Orc Warriors to go with them. All in all, it was a pretty economical way to get started with an army.

And I hated it. I hated running my Isengard army. I looked for all KINDS of ways to use them well and no matter what I did, the Elves, Dwarves, and sometimes Rohan/Gondor/Moria armies in my meta would just seem to run right over me. And don't get me started on those crazy Angmar Orc/Hunter Orc lists that Centaur used to run during the warband era - I was paying far too much for Uruks and not getting nearly the value I felt I should have for their stats.

And that feeling of frustration and despair set me on one of my most important MESBG journeys: the decision to figure out how to get the most out of expensive spellcasters (Saruman in particular - back BEFORE he was super awesome) and how to get the most out of good-stat, expensive troops(Uruk-Hai of all stripes). Fast forward not one but two editions later, and we're seeing Uruk-Hai profiles that have either changed in very subtle ways or haven't changed at all - and in an edition where lots of characters are seeing a new renaissance, it's very tempting to look at the very familiar profiles in the Isengard section of the book and feel like they've been left behind a bit. 

But it's not true - the Uruks of Isengard are still very strong. Let's take a look today and see what the Isengard garden variety of Uruks look like!

Battle Report: The Three Trolls v. Muster of Isengard

Hey Reader!

In a stunning turn of events, we are back with ANOTHER BATTLE REPORT! I hope to get a lot more battle report content out on the blog this year, because writing battle reports has been fun, and I've missed it, so hopefully you'll be seeing more coming down the pike soon! :)

We decided to do a 600pt match today; Tiberius will be fielding his Muster of Isengard list (Saruman is BACK baby!), while I will be playing The Three Trolls, because monsters! And also this list is wildly different from the previous edition, so I figured it's worth taking them out for a spin (since I don't think I ever got to use them in the last edition thanks to the whole 400pts thing)!

Army lists are below:

Tiberius's List: Muster of Isengard

Warband 1

Saruman (Army Leader)

7 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes 

6 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields 

2 Uruk-Hai Berserkers 

3 Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows

Warband 2

Uruk-Hai Captain

1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with banner 

2 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes

3 Uruk-Hai Berserkers 

6 Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows

Enemy Warband

Grima Wormtongue

TOTAL: 600pts, 33 models, 5 Might, 1 DOPE CASTER

Centaur's List: The Three Trolls

Warband 1

Bill the Troll (Army Leader)

Warband 2

Bert the Troll

Warband 3

Tom the Troll

Troll Hoard: 

Nothing Like a Warm Fire (Campfire Banner/Resistant to Magic/Courage effects are increased from 6" to 18")

Full Bellies (All trolls start with 3M / 3W / 3F)

Bowl 'Em Over (Trolls may use their throwing stones as throwing weapons, and may reroll their Hurl distance)

Cover of Darkness (the game will be played at night, and the trolls gain Cave Dweller)

TOTAL: 600pts, 3 models, 9 Might

In Defense Of: Uruk-Hai Scouts (and Uruk-Hai Scout Captains)

Good morning gamers,

When Centaur and I got started playing MESBG, the first armies Centaur collected were Isengard and Rohan (very thematic choices). While Eomer, Warriors of Rohan, and Rohan Royal Guards became the mainstays of Centaur's Rohan army (and still are today, actually), Isengard was always led by Ugluk and Vrasku and behind them were a host of Orc Warriors (cheap bodies with access to spears) and Uruk-Hai Scouts. While the Uruk-Hai Scouts play a central role in one of the most exciting combat sequences of the Lord of the Rings films, their use in MESBG is often relegated to the two Legendary Legions that rely on them for good Fight Value and Strength (Ugluk's Scouts and Lurtz's Scouts).

This is a shame, because Uruk-Hai Scouts are actually quite good in MESBG, but due to a variety of reasons, they just don't see as much play. Since both Centaur (hi guys!) and I love Uruk-Hai Scouts, I decided to do a tag-team with him in this article - but I'm going to limit my scope to the value that Uruk-Hai Scouts have in the generic Isengard faction (allied or pure), NOT these Legions (though I have some thoughts on the Ugluk's Scouts legion regarding how these guys pair with orcs, which we'll talk about below). Anyone who's played with Ugluk's Scouts or Lurtz's Scouts knows how invaluable these guys are to the line-up (they're either all you have or one of two warrior choices you have), but their utility in the general Isengard faction is questionable. So today, while discussions about these two Legions will certainly arise, we're going to focus our efforts on addressing the utility of Scouts in Isengard generally.

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

We're also going to broaden the discussion a bit to Uruk-Hai Scout Captains, who often vie unsuccessfully for slots with Uruk-Hai Captains (aka, the "guys from Helm's Deep") - these guys have a good place in Isengard lists too, despite the dominance of their more armored cousins. Let's see what's so "bad" about these Scout models before we talk about what's so good about them . . .

Why NOT To Take Uruk-Hai Scouts

Our discussion of Uruk-Hai Scouts begins with a look at Uruk-Hai Warriors: when I got started collecting Isengard (about two months after Centaur because our good friend/fellow admin-on-hiatus Zorro bought a TON of Uruk-Hai Warriors used on eBay), I was like, "why would I invest in Uruk-Hai Scouts when I could pay +1 point/model to get +1 Defense with Uruk-Hai Warriors?" In most respects, Uruk-Hai Scouts and Uruk-Hai Warriors are the same, except that the Uruk-Hai Warriors pay +1 point to get heavy armor instead of standard armor and the equipment choices they can take. We'll get into war gear next, but the first reason most players avoid Uruk-Hai Scouts is because their armor gets increased.

In Defense Of: Mordor Trolls (and sort of Isengard Trolls)

Good morning gamers,

First off, happy new year! Or, for you math-heads out there . . .

Golly, I love math . . . I know, I have a problem . . .

We're back in our In Defense Of series for the next few weeks and I wanted to start off with what has become one of my favorite Mordor units: the Mordor Troll. If you ask basically any competitive player, they will tell you that these models are just not worth taking - which is a real shame, because they have been available in both of the starter sets since the MESBG revamp and are highly customizable models (not to mention that Mordor/Isengard Trolls can be fielded in three army lists, as well as three Legendary Legions - yes, there are three of them, check my work if you like).

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community
Also, don't miss the weapon swaps on all the Orcs . . .

There are a wealth of reasons why these models are discouraged from competitive play and today, we begin the year with the impossible task of trying to provide a counter-perspective to . . . basically everyone in the community, including me from a year ago (though I don't know that this will be as hard of a sell as defending Osgiliath Veterans) . . . so in typical Tiberius style, let's get into it!

Why NOT To Take Mordor Trolls

Any discussion of Mordor Trolls has to begin with a discussion about Mordor Troll Chieftains - Mordor Trolls are warrior models, which means they don't have heroic stats (Might, Will, Fate) and since they're expensive warrior models, they will cost more than heroes who have heroic stats AND won't have heroic stats themselves. As great as the Mordor Troll's profile is (F7/S7/3 Attacks on offense, D7/3 Wounds on Defense - and Courage 4, which is pretty good for a monster), most Strike heroes can get above F7 reliably (or at least to F7), they can roll 3+ Attack dice (especially if there are multiple models that charged the Troll), and dealing 3 wounds to a trapped monster isn't that hard - and for some heroes, the trap isn't even necessary. It's in times like these, that you really want the 2-Might-and-Strike of the Troll Chieftain (who has all the same stats as a Mordor Troll, except that he has 2 Might, 1 Will, 1 Fate, Defense 8, and Heroic Strike/Strength - all of which are/can be incredibly useful).

MESBG Christmas Lists, List #8: Isengard

Good morning gamers,

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

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

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

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

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

Check out Red Jacket's work on Instagram!

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

Good morning gamers,

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

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

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

MESBG Christmas Lists, List #2: Isengard

Good morning gamers,

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

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

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

Nemesis: How to Fight the Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legendary Legion

Good morning gamers,

The Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legendary Legion has been rocking the meta (or should I say piercing the meta? Bombing the meta?) since its release in War in Rohan. It's a Legion that isn't constructed around a top-tier hero (it's got no named heroes at all), but instead gives greater reliability to its siege engines and allows you to run more Uruk-Hai than you usually would be able to with Heroes of Fortitude/Minor Heroes.

Many competitive players have identified this as a list that's unfun to play against - stand back and shoot at the horde of Uruk-Hai and you get torn up by crossbows and ballista. Try to close with the ranged units? You get blow up with a bomb team (and have to face a pike block with whatever's left). When you as a player feel caught between a rock and a hard place, it's hard to have fun (unless you like a good challenge and don't mind losing . . . like I do . . . most of the time).

I've fielded this list a few times (though I don't run more than 2 ballistas/1 demo team on principle) and one of our resident Isengard enthusiasts here (Red Jacket) has run it at several of our events with different configurations. Having had to play Red Jacket's Assault Upon Helm's Deep list at 623 points at the TMAT 2023 Grand Tournament earlier this year, I have to say the two ballistas backed by nine crossbows was nasty and awful (and naturally, I had to play against it in Lords of Battle where my Orcs and Barrow-Wights needed to close in fast . . . and he killed more with his ballistae once I got within 12" of him than from farther away).

But there's got to be a way to crack the code - how does one beat up a list like this? I mean, the list has been out for ages - surely, there's a proven method for beating them? Well, there are several strategies you can use - but before we get into them, let's break down what about this Legion makes it feared.

What Makes The Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legion So Hated?

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

The first thing you'll hear people gripe about are the long-range threats in this list. The list begins with Isengard Assault Ballistas, which are probably too cheap for what they do. When compared to other siege engines, you get a comparable crew size, a comparable Strength/Defense, the Large Siege Engine requirement (which makes you a siege target - very handy when fighting other siege engines, but does place a requirement of 2+ unengaged crew to fire it), and good rules (Accurate/Piercing Shot, 6" minimum range) - for a discount bargain price of 65 points. You can see the full comparison below:

If the ballistae weren't enough to make you gag, each ballista comes with 1 siege veteran (Minor Hero) and 2 crew who don't have shooting weapons, so you can take +1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with crossbow for every ballista you take - that's 76 points for a S9 ballista and a S4 crossbow. Sheesh, that's rough. Add into this that you can field 13 Uruk-Hai Warriors - 8 with pikes/shields, 5 with crossbows - for 135 points, and it's not hard to see why the pairing of crossbows with ballistae would drive people nuts. Sure, you have to field 1 Uruk-Hai Captain (who can lead 18 Uruk-Hai) for every ballista you want to take, but that's not a high tax.

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

Good morning gamers,

This is the third post where I'm going over what I'd change if I were able to make changes to MESBG. As I've done with profiles and rules, I want these changes to be small and straight-forward but have a valuable impact on the game. Legendary Legions are the topic of today's post and I wanted to pick Legions that really only needed one change made to turn them from an "uncompetitive" or "bad" Legendary Legion (if such a thing exists) and make them at least an option for those who are competitive. One of the Legions I listed here is one that capitalizes on something that is way too cheap right now and needs to be more expensive. Finally, one Legion that I picked to improve is one that has been begging for a change for the sake of theme - so let's get into it with my boys, the Men of the West!

Legion #1: The Men of the West

It's no secret - I love this Legion as-is. Yes, there are some serious problems with it. And yes, people tell me I'm crazy for liking it. And yes, I don't care what anyone says - the Legion is good and has lost me a lot of games . . . but it's also won a lot of games, once I found a points level that worked for it (it's in the 500-625 range - and that's it). The primary problem with the list is that you can't get F4 troops for under 10 points - oh sure, for one turn all of your Warriors of Minas Tirith and Warriors of Rohan within 12" of Aragorn (so . . . all of them) can be F4, but once that turn of glory is over, you'd better have gotten the numbers to a good disparity, or it'll be an uphill battle against any force that's F4. 

The sad thing about it is that Minas Tirith AND Rohan have access to F4 infantry innately (something Rythbyrt tried to fix last Christmas with a Legion revamp) - and basically ALL of the Fiefdoms warriors are F4 infantry as well. Thanks to Imrahil and the men of Dol Amroth being present at the Black Gate in the books, the Legion gives us access to Imrahil (who is just SO expensive for what he does without his horse/lance) and Knights of Dol Amroth on foot. These guys are F4 - and can be F5 near Imrahil and F6 when near Imrahil and kind of near Aragorn for one turn - but they're also really expensive. Running these guys "for the F4" is possible, for sure, but it's also an unnecessary expense.

The Meta is Dead, Long Live the Meta

So next week, Tiberius will have a much more thorough, well-reasoned, dispassionate summary of the latest FAQs and Erratas that dropped on Thursday. 

But while you're waiting, allow me to be dis-dispassionate and express what we're all feeling:

Photo Credit: tenor.com (and The Wizard of Oz, of course)

So I have slightly mixed feelings about some of the changes that were made to a few popular lists (well, okay... one very popular ally choice). But overall, I'm like the rest of you: all my very thematic list ideas are overjoyed tonight that another round of power-creep fad lists have been restored to their proper place: history (or at least the niche pile).

In no-particular-order-of-overjoyness:

No more Lake-Town Spam (well, allied at least)

Like most of you, when I first read The Armies of the Hobbit, I took a look at the Army of Lake-Town, thought "man, that's boring," and kept right on reading. Then, like you, one day I was looking around for something cheap and decent to ally into something very large and cool and expensive (it's usually some sort of list with Gwaihir, isn't it?), and thought "hey, this is a VERY cheap way to get 50+ dudes who aren't complete duds in combat." And then I (like you, maybe) took them to a tournament, felt kind of guilty about it, and then forgot the guilt after kicking other people's butts with them.

Well, no more. At least mostly.

Fantasy Fellowships: The Erebor Reunion, Part 4c

Good morning gamers,

In our last battle report, I told Centaur, "I don't think this game is going to take very long." The Ride Out scenario went on for about five turns and was done in about 30 minutes. I was right. When Centaur and I looked ahead at this scenario (Eomer's Return), I said, "Yeah, this is basically the same scenario except you get +10 Uruk-Hai and I get +20 Riders . . . I don't think it's going to take very long." And I was right - as you will see. :) This scenario does have some pretty big changes from the previous one, not least of which is that I've dropped my two combat heroes (Dwalin and Nori) and swapped in my wizard (Gandalf the Grey, newly minted as Gandalf the White). I don't have Theoden (and his +1 FV buff, which would be super nice) and Gamling (for replenishing Might on Theoden or himself) and instead have Eomer (who hits harder than either of those other guys, but doesn't come with a shield or throwing spears - really, GW, really?!?!?!) and Erkenbrand (who is really underrated). Yep, there are definitely some changes.

What's interesting about these two scenarios is that they highlight the difference in play style between the Riders of Theoden and Riders of Eomer Legendary Legions - in Ride Out, your focus on heroes and Royal Guards with throwing spears makes you WANT to get that glorious charge off. Death! they do not have, but it's not that hard for four decent-to-great heroes to carve up 23 Uruk-Hai. It just isn't. The Eomer's Return scenario very much plays the way the Riders of Eomer play - you want one big charge (with lots of Combats to take advantage of those -1 penalties you're inflicting) and before that you want to soften the enemy up with archery. It helps that in this scenario, the Uruk-Hai have lost all their crossbows . . . so yeah, we're going to skirmish for a while, whittle down the numbers, then come thundering into combat with as many cavalry as we can, and have a good time. Let's get into it!

Eomer's Return

The board is a 24"x48" setup, with the Riders packed into 3" of one side of the board (the Riders barely all fit!) and the Uruks get a nice, wide, 12" zone to deploy in. As you can see, we deployed thusly:

Turn 1: Priority Good

Good began by moving up 5" with everyone and Gandalf successfully cast Strengthen Will on himself - so glad this is now cast on a 3+! (7/6W) Oh, and I do think this is Gandalf's most underrated spell - particularly for Gandalf the Grey, but definitely also for Gandalf the White. I know that I get a rest point for Gandalf after this mission, so I plan to blow through a TON of Will . . . but it doesn't hurt to have a little extra.