The Stuff of Legends: The Rangers of Mirkwood

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: Today's article is the long-anticipated review of the Rangers of Mirkwood Legendary Legion from the Fall of the Necromancer sourcebook (previous edition stuff). While I could have taken a swing at this a while back, I thought our resident Mirkwood Ranger expert Red Jacket should have a chance at it - and with life events finally giving him some breathing space, here it is!

~~~~~

Red Jacket: As someone who essentially started playing this army before Fall of the Necromancer ever canonized it as a specific legendary legion, I immediately became a big fan. Seriously… 100% Elf bow army?  What’s not to love? (Quite a bit actually… but I am obsessed with Elves and archery, so my love overcomes. Kind of like Tauriel… the made up character… loving a dwarf…) Fair warning, this list may end up hurting you (But at least what you had was real).

Legion Tax: 90pts
Photo Credit: Giphy

In all seriousness, however, this list is in many ways one-dimensional, but comes with some special rules that really help it be much more than a one trick pony. So let's dive in and take a look. 

Part 1: What Do You Need? 

To start, this legion requires you to bring either Legolas Greenleaf, Prince of Mirkwood starting at 95 points, or Tauriel with Elf bow for 90. It also lifts the bow limit restriction, allowing for 100% bows. 

There are only three possible heroes in this legion: 

1. Legolas, whom you should never take in this legion without the elven cloak: 100 pts

2. Tauriel with Elf bow: 90 pts

3. Mirkwood Ranger captain: 75 pts

Then there are only two unit options: 

1. Mirkwood Rangers (obviously) for 14 pts, and the option to add a war horn (Don’t).

2. Wood Elf Sentinels for 25 pts, which are really fun units.

The first special rule is “Knife mastery.” This is really the make or brake rule for this legion and will feature heavily my “Part 2” analysis. It allows re-rolls of 1 to wound when making strikes, and allows models “shield” with their knives as long as they are not also using their “knife fighter” or “blade mistress” special rules. More about those special rules below. 

The Stuff of Legends: The Host of the Witch-King

Good morning gamers,

We're wrapping up the second-to-last Rise of Angmar Legendary Legion for the Stuff of Legends series (we've got two more Legions to do after this - watch for them later this year). Today we've got the Host of the Witch-King, which is basically "Angmar without Gulavhar and monsters" - and of all the Evil lists in the Rise of Angmar supplement, I gotta say this is the only one that immediately jumped off the page to me as "really good." While I've been pleasantly surprised by some of the features of the other Evil Legions (and VERY surprised with the Battle of Fornost Legion), this one sticks to doing most of what Angmar does normally - and then kicks it up a notch to do it better. Let's see what's new with this Legion . . .

Part 1: What Do You Need?

This is what the Legion is all about . . . but you don't have the buy the Crown
Legion Tax: 70pts
Photo Credit: Giphy

The only unit you need to take is the Witch-King - and while he's base 70pts, you're probably fielding him for at least 100pts because you want a horse, all 3 Might points, and at least 1 Fate point. For reasons we'll see a bit later on, all of these are very useful for getting the most out of this guy - but at 100pts, that's a ridiculously low price to pay for a Hero of Legend who is a good combatant and a good caster.

What you ACTUALLY need is another supporting hero, of which there are a good number to choose from. If you want your probably-infantry-heavy list to move faster, you'll want an Orc Captain (blissfully cheap at 40pts base, can be given a shield and a Warg for 55pts total). If you want some really interesting boosts for your Ringwraiths (the Witch-King and possibly others) and your Orcs (Terror and Courage, anyone?), you want the Shade. If you want some devastating short-range magic, you want a Barrow-Wight or possibly the Shadow of Rhudaur. If you want to take an Orc Shaman or Nazthak . . . I mean, that's your call, I guess - but your guess is as good as mine for why they'd be in your list besides the giggles of thing (oh, and did you see what I did there?). :-)

You will also need a bucket of Orcs - and I mean a full bucket. If you bought the Mordor (read Angmar) Battle Host box, you already have 24 of these guys - that's a good start. Now get another box of Orcs so you have 48 and you're beginning to talk business (and if you want to have more than 6 Warg Riders, you may want to consider just buying a second Battle Host - this will give you a crown-wearing Witch-King and a non-crown-wearing Witch-King, both of which are useful). Orcs are cheap and for this Angmar list to function, you're going to need lots of cheap-but-average bodies to be able to hold ground, screen important heroes, and get traps - and Orcs are some of the best units in town to do that.

The Stuff of Legends: Buhrdur's Horde

Hey Reader!

We're back, looking at more legendary legions, and today we're looking at Buhrdur's Horde from the Rise of Angmar supplement. This is one of those flavorful "creature legions" from the Rise of Angmar book, and while Tiberius did a great job of looking at the wolves/wargs list, today we're looking at the trolls/wargs version, led by none other but the big man himself (and my personal favorite leader for Angmar): Buhrdur!

Part 1: What Do You Need?

The Legion requires you to take Buhrdur, Troll Chieftain, which is 110pts. This is not a bad tax: it's right about what you'd expect from a legendary legion, and for most points levels you can use the legion with some level of effectiveness.

Of course, if you want to maximize the effectiveness of Buhrdur, you should also take at least one Hill Troll, as that gives him the reroll of a dueling dice as long as he's only fighting infantry (and no monsters), so your effective tax is 185pts. But truth be told, that's pretty low for a legendary legion, especially since you're getting two F6 monsters out of the deal.

Part 2: What Do You Get?

Legion Bonuses

Buhrdur's Horde has three special rules, and they're all really good (if a bit situational at times). The first is Masters of Terrain, I love because it's simple and all-inclusive: "Friendly models gain the Woodland Creature and Mountain Dweller special rules."

This is awesome for two reasons. First, they remembered that Mountain Dweller is a thing! That makes it easier to run through rocky terrain, so it's more all-encompassing of difficult terrain than just Woodland Creature, but also because it allows you to reroll failed Jump, Leap, and Climb tests, and while those may not come up very often, you'd be surprised how many low stone walls, edges of ruins, and fallen trees are on boards. It's always nice when you get a chance at a reroll to get your guys where they need to be, and I love that this legion's theme of exceptional bushcraft is so easily woven in.

The Stuff of Legends: The Wolf Pack of Angmar

Good morning gamers,

AAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Yep, today we're tackling the Wolf Pack of Angmar Legendary Legion - and boy has this been the golden boy of the Rise of Angmar sourcebook. No, it's not the strongest of the Legions - but it's definitely got the most flavor and I think a lot of players were looking forward to being able to throw together a pack of wargs and actually have a chance of winning games (well, games that weren't heavily skewed to fast armies already).

While I haven't been playing with this Legion, my son Gorgoroth has been intrigued by it, so I've seen it mostly in the context of doubles games and I can tell you, there are strengths to this list . . . and definite drawbacks. So let's hash through this very popular, fun Legendary Legion and see what there is to like about it.

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Legion Tax: 80pts

This Legion only requires you to take a single model: a Wild Warg Chieftain. This guy gets buffed up to an "Uber Warg Chieftain," who has 3 Might, 3 Will, 2 Fate instead of the usual 2 Might, 2 Will, 1 Fate of a Warg Chieftain. Unlike the "Uber Troll Chieftain" of the Black Gate Opens LL, this guy gets no special rules to make him better, but like the Uber Troll, he gets improved to a Hero of Valour.

The Stuff of Legends: Army of Carn Dum

Hey Reader!

We're back, looking at more legendary legions, and today we're looking at The Army of Carn Dum from the Rise of Angmar supplement. This legion is interesting: it has very strong Dunland vibes, both in terms of warrior/hero profiles as well as in non-magical support characters. But the special rules do make it feel a bit different from Dunland, and by extension quite different from Vanilla Angmar as well.

Part 1: What Do You Need?

The Legion requires you to take Aldrac, Warlord of Carn Dum, which is 120pts. This is not a bad tax: it's not the smallest, but it's not the largest either. It's more than Theoden, but less than the Dragon Emperor, so not bad. It means I'd probably never play this legion below 400pts (and for reasons you'll see I'd probably not play it above 600pts), but the tax is not bad.

Of course, in reality, you need more than that: one of your special rules involves Fraecht's Incantations of Power, so if you don't take him (65pts), you're leaving special rules on the table. You also have a special rule (and a cool special rule!) involving banner ranges, so if you don't take a banner (25-50pts if you take 1-2 banners), you're also not taking full advantage of your special rules. So the "True Tax" of the legion is 210-235pts, not 120. Which...for a F3 army, is quite high. You get pretty good value out of this, but it is a high tax.

The Stuff of Legends: Army of Arnor

Hey Reader!

We're back, looking at more legendary legions, and today we're starting our deep dive into the Army of Arnor from the Rise of Angmar supplement. This legion is similar to some of the other legendary legions that have come out where they are "the legendary legion for that small minor army, so that all of them get at least one," and yet it's not for reasons that we'll discuss below. But if you are getting Army of Dale / Chief's Ruffians / Army of Dunland vibes from this legendary legion, I don't blame you!

Part 1: What Do You Need?

The Legion requires you to take Arvedui, Last King of Arnor, which is only 80pts. This is one of the smallest "Legion Taxes" for any legendary legion (Sharkey's Rogues, Wolves of Isengard, and Ugluk's Scouts come in lower, but this is still quite impressive), meaning you can technically play this legendary legion at almost any points level.

Of course, in reality, you need more than that: two of your three legion bonuses are tied to Malbeth the Seer, so effectively you need to take another 70pts to actually use all of your legion bonuses. That being said, a 150pt "True Tax" is not bad at all for a legendary legion.

Beyond this, you need "Arnor" models: Warriors of Arnor, Rangers of Arnor, the new Knights of Arnor (I recommend taking a mix of all three of these), and you can even throw in Dunedain and Rangers of the North if you like. 

You can also include Aranarth (the son of Arvedui) and Argadir (the right-hand man of Arvedui, and an auto-include in my book), and Captains of Arnor (which I'd take at least one of these guys if you can) to round out your hero choices.

The Stuff of Legends: The Battle of Fornost

Good morning gamers,

Before we get started with today's post, I just wanted to note that thanks to viewers like you, this little blog just passed 3,000,000 page views . . . so from all of us here at TMAT, thanks so much for your viewership - it means the world to us!

When we here at TMAT heard that the Rise of Angmar supplement was going to drop shortly before the new edition of MESBG was going to come out, we were like, "Yeah, there's no way we can review all of the changes that have come with this before the new edition drops." As a result, we decided to close out 2024 with an homage to the outgoing edition of the game, getting in all of the Legion reviews and army updates based on the changes that were provided for this beloved edition of the game. More old-school MESBG will follow in 2025, but intermixed with the new stuff.

We're starting off this seven-part series with a review of the Legion that I was most surprised by in the Rise of Angmar book: the Battle of Fornost LL. Obviously, this list was going to be in the book - that wasn't the surprising bit - but I was rather stunned by the options available for list building. While there are some elements of the army that I don't like, the list itself is . . . actually quite interesting. Let's take a look at what you need to run this list and what list building styles you can do with it.

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Legion Tax: 245-290pts

This list has one of the highest Legion taxes in it, since you have to take Earnur (who is probably mounted with a lance - but doesn't have to be) and Glorfindel (who is probably mounted with the Armor of Gondolin - though he doesn't have to be). On foot and with Glorfindel in his pajamas, these two heroes come in just shy of 250 points - maxed out, however they "only" cost 45pts more, so it's probably a safe bet that both will be mounted and armored.

Both are Heroes of Valour and unlike other Legendary Legions with required heroes that are the same tier (like Cirith Ungol or the Return of the King LL), you have the full flexibility of picking which of these heroes will be your army leader. Glorfindel has 3 Fate points, Fortify Spirit, an Elven-made weapon, and Lord of the West, which makes him a pretty compelling choice for your army leader, but without the lance and as the better stall-someone-who-is-big option, his place as army leader might not be a given.

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 #7: The Army of Dunland Legendary Legion

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: This week, we've seen Christmas lists from Mitchell and Markus Hammond from the Durin Show - what better way to wrap up the week than to have Matt Hammond, the third member of the Durin Show, send in a list he enjoyed using this year! What do you have for us today, Matt?

Matt: I like lists that center around heroes. Special abilities and rules that accompany most of these characters add flavor, and the potential to enjoy strategic ploys that make the army unique to your playstyle. As a result, most of my MESBG games take on a “Warriors hold the line while the big fellas do the work” kind of approach. Let’s talk about a new army that I have been playing with that completely changes that dynamic.

Vikings... uh, I mean the Army of Dunland.

I picked up this army on an impulse (I am prone to those). On the surface, low fight, low defense, high strength, and high numbers make it look not too dissimilar to playing other trending toward horde lists. However, it is the heroes and the elite troops that make this army so much fun to play and make it very different than most Middle-Earth armies. 

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 #5: The Fell Beings of Mirkwood

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: As someone who has a tight bond (and runs a podcast) with his brothers, I absolutely love seeing other brothers share a strong bond (and if they also run a podcast, even better!). Naturally, I'm therefore a huge fan of the Durin Show - and the amazing chemistry that the Hammond brothers have on that channel. If you haven't checked out their stuff yet, you should - see the links on the sidebar for both their podbean and YouTube channels. Today's list comes from one of the hosts of the Durin Show, Mitchell Hammond, who has made quite a splash on the West Coast of the US with the Fell Beings of Mirkwood Legendary Legion. Mitchell, what do you have for us today?

Mitchell: I have been playing a lot of Fell Beings of Mirkwood Legendary Legion this year. I built the list after I was a guest on the Into the West podcast when they said this particular Legendary Legion was only meme tier. After building and painting it, I have taken the list to five events this year including Adepticon and Clash on the Coast. While I built it at first as a challenge to prove it was not meme tier, I have secretly found it to be one of the most fun armies I have ever played.

For example, the Legendary Legion bonuses are great! Gaining Hatred (Elf), specifically with bats, spiders and heroes, really pays off when you see an Elf army. However, I've found that the rule that comes into play most often is giving Woodland Creature to the entire army. In my experience, most boards at an event have some sort of woodland terrain, so having Orcs moving 6-12" through woods can completely catch your opponent off guard.

Nemesis: How to Fight Against Legolas

Good morning gamers,

We're back to the Forces of Good and this time, we're looking at one of the first heroes I used in the game (and a hero who remains one of my favorites to put on the board): Legolas Greenleaf. Legolas has two profiles in the game (one for the Fellowship and a "slightly better" profile in the Halls of Thranduil - more on this later) and appears in SIX Legendary Legions (the Grey Company, the Return of the King, the Men of the West, the Breaking of the Fellowship, the Defenders of Helm's Deep, and the Rangers of Mirkwood) - and with the Halls of Thranduil being Historical or Convenient allies with basically everything in the game (a Halls of Thranduil list without Thranduil will be Impossible Allies with Grimbeorn and his squad of Beornings . . . why?!?!?!?!), it's not hard to see Legolas at an event or on the other side of the table, regardless of your points level.

The famed archer who was epic in the Lord of the Rings films and defied all natural laws in the Hobbit films is easily the best archer in the game (though I ranked the Bolt Thrower higher when we did our Sniper podcast) and knowing how to beat him is something every general should know. What makes this guy such a powerful piece, such a great leader for an allied contingent, and so annoying in certain scenarios? Well, let's take a look at this Elf among Elves and find out . . .

What Makes Legolas So Hated?

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community 

It should come as no surprise that Legolas is most dangerous when he's shooting. Shooting has been critiqued by various crowds in MESBG as contributing to a negative play experience, mostly because your opponent has no say about it once he's done moving his models. There's no opposed dueling roll, there's no resist test, and there's no armor save (for most units - some units grant saves of various kinds and heroes might have Fate points) - once you're done moving models, the other guy gets to shoot at you . . . and you have to take it. Legolas does this better than any other model, since his Deadly Shot special rule allows him to either perform three shots hitting on his normal Shoot Value (3+ if he hasn't moved, 4+ if he's moved up to half his max movement) OR perform a single shot that hits on a 2+ and ignores all modifiers (to include the move-and-shoot penalty, negative modifiers like Blinding Light, in-the-way rolls, and even the rule that prevents a Good model from shooting into a friendly combat). Yes, Legolas can do the shooting thing all the time.

While getting 3 shots each turn would appear to be his most deadly quality (and I've killed 2-3 models in a single turn plenty of times with him), it's the second part of his Deadly Shot rule that gives most competitive players pause. Usually, if you have an important support piece that you don't want to lose (a Goblin Scribe, a Dead Marsh Spectre, or a low-Defense/low-Wound army leader), you just tuck them behind 3-4 guys or a wall/rock and you're feeling pretty good about them not getting hit from enemy archers. But if Legolas can see the model, he can hit the model on a 2+ - even if he's moved that turn! Furthermore, if Legolas wants to hit the MOUNT of a big hero, he can choose which part of the model to target with the 2+ To Hit and if he's willing to spend Might to make it work, there are very few mounts in the game that can survive for long when Legolas is on the other side of the board. This is particularly true for any of the multitude of heroes who lacks Horse Lord and has no way to prevent wounds on their mounts. Oh, and Blinding Light won't make that mount any more safe . . . it's annoying.

Nemesis: How to Fight the Assault on Lothlorien Legendary Legion

Good morning gamers,

Last time, we looked at the much-feared Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legendary Legion and some strategies you can employ to fight it. Today, we turn to the other "Assault" legion (the Assault on Lothlorien) to see what the hype is about this list . . . and some things you can employ to fight against it. Yes, it shoots things - and yes, it has crazy shenanigans that the Helm's Deep list doesn't quite have - but it also plays very differently and can be beaten with some other methods of attack. Let's dig in and see what all the fuss is about (especially now that they've changed a bit).

What Makes The Assault on Lothlorien Legion So Hated?

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community 

The first thing that annoys players about fighting this Legion is that it's a horde list - this critique isn't unique to the Legion, but any time you can get a large number of models at basically any points level, someone is going to gripe. Sometimes bringing a horde to the board (I'm a poet, I know) is fine - no one seems to complain that much when there's a Denethor-led Minas Tirith spam list on the board - and there are plenty of lists that run "just a lot of Orcs or Goblins" that no one things is oppressive. It's not like this list is spawning new models from behind your lines like Goblin-town or has +10 or +15 models on you at the start of a game (though it might).

What makes this list annoying is that it's a horde list with other stuff. The list has access to Moria Goblins (5-7 points depending on what gear you give the Moria Goblin Warriors and your opinion of Moria Goblin Prowlers), Orc Warriors and Trackers (5-10 points depending on the gear you give them, potentially more if you invest in a banner), and Wild Wargs (which all heroes can lead and are very cheap fast infantry). If you spend 250-300 points on these things, you can easily field 40 warriors at most points levels, so long as you have the heroes to lead them.

Enter the shamans in this list: on the named front, you've got Druzhag and Ashrak (at least one of them is required), who come in at 50-90 points, but fielding both is certainly possible at 500+ points. You also have Muzgur (who is required along with one of these Goblin guys - and now has to be your army leader), who at 70 points is one of the cheapest Heroes of Valour in the game (normally he's Fortitude, but in this list he's Valour). Pick up all three of these guys (or two of these guys and one other hero) and you can horde out pretty easily.

On the generic hero front, you have both Moria Goblin Shamans and Orc Shamans (45 or 50 points, respectively) who are able to lead 12 warriors in their warbands, thanks to the promotion to Fortitude status in the Legion. Which one you prefer used to depend very much on your view of Orcs - are they just a handful of spearmen behind the Goblins or are they a proper shieldwall (half shield, half spear-and-shield). Now that you have to have fewer Goblins than Orcs, it'll be hard for any player to have exclusively Goblins in their shieldwalls, but I have always liked the picks that can help the Orcs reach S4 (which you can get with Moria Goblin Prowlers who have to fight two-handed, but not Moria Goblin Warriors) and the flexibility of not having to have these guys arrive near the Goblin lines. I used to be in the minority opinion on this - time will tell how the new meta for this list will shake out.

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.

Nemesis: How To Fight The Balrog

Good morning gamers,

We're kicking off a new series here at TMAT today: Nemesis! I've been planning this series for a while now and it was born, actually, out of the In Defense Of series (where we take models that lots of players think are worthless or "bad" and explore how valuable they can be/how to make them work).

Nemesis tries to do something similar: we're going to be looking at models that lots of players say are "too good" or "unfun" or "unfair" or "overpowered" or "pick-your-favorite-phrase-that-means-there's-something-insanely-too-good-about-it" and explore how to beat those models. Sometimes these models will have a Legendary Legion, an army bonus, or an alliance that causes them to go from "fine/fair" to "too good/overpowered" and when that's the case, we'll flag it in the article.

Our first stop happens to be one of my favorite models and one that, when run well, can REALLY ruin your day. Yes, it's Devin Moreno's least favorite model in the game: the Balrog. This guy is not only one of the most expensive models in the game (and tied for most expensive model available to the Moria faction), but he's also the figurehead of one of the most feared Evil Legendary Legions in the game. Let's see what's up with this big guy that makes playing against him so unfun.

What Makes The Balrog So Hated?

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community 

The Balrog begins with unparalleled stats: he's F10 (innately higher than any other model in the game), he's S9/D9 (so Rending doesn't help enemy monsters wound him more easily and he's wounded on 6s or worse by basically everything in the game), he's got 4 Attacks (on-par with most big heroes when they're mounted and on the charge, better than most other heroes), 10 Wounds (less than Smaug, sure, but on-par with Mumaks and better than anyone else), 10 Will and Resistant to Magic (because locking down monsters with magic is a good idea), and C7 with Fearless (because, you know, why not have both).  His only real "down-side" in his core stats is his 6" movement, which is "fine" on a 60mm base, but can mean that getting his positioning requires some thinking. Not having any Might points or Fate points is also a knock to the profile, but as we'll see in a moment, there are mitigations for this.

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.

Defence of the North Inspired Lists: Assault On Lothlorien Legendary Legion Revisited

Good morning gamers,

If you've been following discussions across the Facebook groups about the state of the game right now, there's one Legion that's shaken up the meta more than any other Legion: the Assault on Lothlorien. This list makes you always play at night (which limits enemy archery range), has tons of creatures that can be buffed by Druzhag/Ashrak, and a bunch of shamanic characters to make their grunts (Goblins, Orcs, Bats, Spiders, and Wargs) go racing without fear into their enemies. Yep, it's a horde that can outshoot better armies and can deal quite the punch where it wants to be.

Photo Credit: Defence of the North 

Since we're walking through the Defence of the North sourcebook and seeing how we can take the forces in it into Matched Play, the Assault on Lothlorien Legion was clearly going to be discussed, but the list you're going to see today is FAR from the list you're likely to see across the gaming table because, as is usually the case, the scenarios don't give us all the models we'd normally want. This doesn't mean the list we're going to look at today is garbage, but rather, it requires a different approach to play.

Our models are a mixture of units available in the Mirkwood missions and the Lothlorien missions (depending on whether you want Orcs or Goblins):

• Muzgur, Orc Shaman
• Druzhag the Beastcaller and Ashrak
• 1-2 Orc Captains (depending on whether you chose to substitute a Taskmaster for an Orc Captain in two scenarios)
  
• 1-2 Orc Shamans (see above)
• 48 Orc Warriors (who also need to be used for Warg Rider dismounts)
• 6 Warg Riders
• 6 Orc Trackers
• 48 Moria Goblin Warriors (who you'll also need to be used for Warg Marauder dismounts)
  
• 8 Giant Spiders
• 12 Fell Wargs
• 2 Bat Swarms
• 3 Warg Marauders
  

This list of models is only missing a few models from the Legion list, but the ones its missing really changes the options you have for its game play. First and foremost, we don't have any Moria Goblin Captains or Shamans, so we're capped at a max of 30 Goblins, Spiders, and Fell Wargs. This is . . . usually not the way you want to run this list. :-) While I usually abandon Ashrak in favor of a Moria Goblin Captain and an Orc Shaman (see my review of the Legion), I think if you only have the models from the scenarios at your disposal, he becomes an auto-include.

Ashrak becomes doubly necessary since we don't have any Wild Warg Chieftains, who provide the biggest muscle of the list, which means you need to lean hard on Giant Spiders to get any kind of punch in the army. If you're going to use spiders, you definitely want Ashrak in the list so they get the upgrade from Poison to Venom (rerolling all failed To Wounds instead of just rerolling 1s To Wound).

Finally, the Spiders are super important in this list because we don't have any Moria Goblin Prowlers. Prowlers not only get bonuses to wound (from their two-handed axes, their Backstabbers rule, and the Legion bonus for outnumbering an opponent). This is pretty nasty when paired with their +1 To Wound with their throwing daggers, but not having them means our skirmishing abilities are going to be really limited. So what kind of list can we run with this? Well, it's actually not THAT different from the list I looked at when I reviewed the Legion - let's see what we have!

Defence of the North Inspired Lists: The Host of the Dragon Emperor Legendary Legion Revisited

Good morning gamers,

One of the most popular Legions from Defence of the North is the Host of the Dragon Emperor, featuring shiny new models that have revolutionized a faction that everyone loved to look at and no one thought was competitive on its own. If the measure of success for a Legion is making an uncompetitive force competitive, this Legion has clearly succeeded.

One would think that, if you were looking to take your scenario-play armies into Matched Play, the Easterlings would be a pretty good place to start (and since you won't have Amdur or Khamul in your force, you might as well run the Legion) - but when you ACTUALLY look at the models you need, you'll find there are a few problems in your usual list building choices. Let's see what we have to work with:

• Brorgir the Conjurer and Rutabi, General of the Dragon Legion
• Easterling Command blister
  
• 30 Easterling Warriors (12 shields, 6 shields and pikes, and 12 bows)
• 5 Kataphrakts and 1 Easterling Captain with armored horse, shield, and sword
• 18 Black Dragons (9 shields, 9 shields and pikes)
  
• 12 Dragon Cult Acolytes
• 4 Rhunish Drakes
  
• The Dragon Emperor
  

There are several things that we'd usually want in an Easterling Legion army that we don't have here - most notably, we have only 15 pikes and we don't have a war drum on any of our Kataphrakts (and none of them have been upgraded to Black Dragons). Like I did when I was preparing for the Defenders of Erebor post, I looked at this list of models and thought to myself, "Self, we have no drum and we need more pikes - this isn't going to work."

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

I can't do anything about the lack of a war drum (not within the constraints of this series), but I did get lucky on the pike front. I knew right away that I was going to "cheat" and say, "I need two boxes of Easterling Warriors, so I'm going to use 8 shields and pikes instead of just 6." This is "better," but still not good. As I mentioned in the what-models-do-you-need post, however, I got a second boon on this front: in the second scenario, we need 12 Easterling Warriors with shields, 5 Easterling Kataphrakts, and 1 Easterling Captain with armored horse, shield, and sword - and THAT means we need 18 shield and sword guys. How many shield guys do we get in two boxes of Easterling Warrirors? Only 16. So . . . if we want all dismounts for all our Easterlings . . . we need a third box. :-) And THAT means we actually have . . . 12 pikes. With 21 total pikes to work with, let's see what kind of list we can build!

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

Good morning gamers,

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

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

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

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

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