Top 10 Hero Choices for the Realms of Men

All photos courtesy of GamesWorkshop

Hey Reader!

I've been playing around with the Realms of Men list recently (and took them to the TMAT GT this past May, where I finished with 2 Wins, 1 Loss, and 1 Draw), and as part of my experimenting with different iterations of the list, I decided to do a Top 10 post looking at the hero choices, because things are INTERESTING in this list.

There are quite a few heroes available to you (5 Kings, 6 Generic Captains, 2 specialists in the Knight of the White Tower and the Rohan King's Huntsman, and several siege captains), so all of them will make the cut! But how useful they are is another question. Before we start the review, let's look at what we'll be ranking in this assessment.

• To start, you need to take a king to field their relevant captains and warriors, but we are not going to therefore say, "Ah yes: the king is automatically higher ranked because you need him to run the captains." We'll evaluate each individually for their usefulness in the list.
• We will consider what kinds of warriors you get access to by taking a given hero, as unit options are part of why you'd consider taking a king/captain, and whether you should branch out into a second, third, or more factions because of what options will be unlocked.
• We will assume that you are playing at a standard points range (600-800pts), so that there is no assumption of only having 1-2 kings: you can run as many as you want, which means that there are reasons to mix and match factions. So just because one faction may be stronger than another in terms of options, that doesn't automatically move them to the top (or bottom), though it may give a reason for pushing deep into one or the other.
• Kings do have access to Heroic Strike; this will naturally lend them to being taken, and does make them inherently valuable. But Heroic Strike on its own does not necessitate "Top 5 Status."

So with no further ado, let's jump into the list!

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).

The New Age Is Begun: The Numenor Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're tackling a hidden gem (I feel) in MESBG today: Numenor! Yes, the Last Alliance gets a lot of press. Yes, the Realms of Men SHOULD get a lot of press. Yes, Numenor can't get banners anymore and that might put them behind in VPs. But this is a list that isn't hard to collect because EVERYONE and their brother is selling unused Warriors of Numenor on eBay because they wanted the Rivendell Warriors that came in the box (and with a little kit-bashing, it's not hard to make the three warrior types or generic captains that you need to make the list work). It's also got a lot of strength in the new edition and not a lot of rules if you are new to the game and looking for Elves-light to start off with. So let's see what's in store for one of my favorite factions in the game - specifically, how they've changed and how to run them in the new edition.

Numenor: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Like last edition, Numenor has four profiles: Elendil, Isildur, Captains of Numenor, and Warriors of Numenor. As we walked through in our First Impressions article, however, these profiles have all seen some changes (more on those later). While I've extended this section in our previous posts in this series, I'm not going to belabor it here - we have four profiles available to us and if we want more, we need to run the Last Alliance or the Realms of Men instead (both of which are excellent lists and very well might be better than this list on paper, if not in practice).

Okay, let's dig into the army bonuses for this army list and how it changes the units you field.

Battle Report: Fangorn v. Numenor

Hey Reader!

Who coulda guessed: not only a battle report (which we haven't done in a while), but also a battle report testing out some of the new army lists from the new edition (which I'm going to call 5th Edition, based on The One Rulebook, Warbands, The Hobbit, MESBG, and now the newest 2024-2025 edition, which is what we're playing), showcasing armies that we both think are interesting and are quite different from their previous iterations. So what better way to show you some new content than by crushing our foes on the field of battle!

Tiberius and I had a Saturday morning free (well, watching the children, but they also love the game, so we have fans watching and playing at smaller tables), so we decided to meet up for a 700pt match! Tiberius will be fielding his Numenoreans (with some proxy elves, as he hasn't built enough spearmen yet), while I will be playing Fangorn, because monsters!

Army lists are below:

Tiberius's List: Numenor

Warband 1

Elendil (Army Leader)

7 Warriors of Numenor with shields and spears 

6 Warriors of Numenor with shields 

4 Warriors of Numenor with longbows 

Warband 2

Numenorean Captain #1 (Kaladin)

4 Warriors of Numenor with shields and spears 

3 Warriors of Numenor with shields 

3 Warriors of Numenor with longbows 

Warband 3

Numenorean Captain #2 (Not Kaladin)

4 Warriors of Numenor with shields and spears 

3 Warriors of Numenor with shields 

3 Warriors of Numenor with longbows 

TOTAL: 700pts, 40 models, 7 Might*

Centaur's List: Fangorn

Warband 1

Treebeard with Merry and Pippin (Army Leader)

Beech Ent (Ent Warrior with reroll 1s to wound in close combat)

Oak Ent (Ent Warrior with 4 Wounds instead of 3)

Warband 2

Birchseed (new Ent hero that can call a free Heroic Move each turn if you 1) don't win priority, and 2) your opponent chooses to claim priority. So situational, but very useful for covering bases)

Ash Ent (Ent Warrior with 3+ Shoot Value, and may move up to 3" and still stoop to throw a stone)

TOTAL: 700pts, 7 models, 4 Might*

Scenario: Our scenario for this match is Fog of War, which has changed since the last edition. Not by much, but it has changed. Here are the scoring conditions:

• You get 5VPs if the friendly non-army leader hero you nominate has suffered no wounds, lost no fate, and is still alive at the end of the game; you gain 3VPs if the hero has lost Fate but hasn't suffered any wounds and is still alive at the end of the game, and you gain 1VP if the hero has been wounded, has lost Fate, but is still alive at the end of the game (which is a nice change from the last edition: there's always a reason to go for wounds against heroes). 
• You get 5VPs if the hostile non-army leader hero you nominate is slain in melee at the end of the game (full honesty: I forgot about this change specifying that it has to be in close combat during the game - I had a lot going on), 3VPs if the hero has suffered at least one wound at the end of the game, and 1VP if the hero has lost at least one Fate Point at the end of the game.
• You get 5VPs if you have at least 2 models and the enemy has no models within or touching a terrain feature you specify that is fully within the enemy's half of the board (the "fully within" is also new this edition, and does cut down on the number of potential terrain features someone might choose as those straddling the middle line aren't options anymore - not a bad change, either, especially since it solve issues for big bases that wouldn't fit nicely on terrain features by allowing you to be in base contact instead of having to go into it, so yay for mumaks and Ents having more options); you get 3VPs if you have at least 2 models and at least double the number of models within or touching said terrain feature, and you get 1VP if you have more models within or touching said terrain feature.
• You get 2VPs if you slay the enemy army leader, and you get 1VP if you wound the enemy army leader.
• And finally, you get 1VP if you break the opponent, and 3VPs if you break the enemy without being broken.

So all told there are now 20VPs (instead of 12) on the table, and it's generally easier to get VPs, especially against those notoriously hard to remove models, which I think is healthy.

We rolled for board edge, and I won the roll; I chose the lower board edge, and after deployment it looked like this:

For this game, I'm choosing to protect Merry, as I don't think Tiberius is going to try to kill Treebeard: I think he's going to speedbump Treebeard as long as possible, and throw Elendil at Birchseed. I am going to slay the Non-Kaladin Captain, in part because he looks like a warrior, so I'm more likely to just rush him, and also because Tiberius likes Kaladin, so he's more likely to keep him safe, lol. And I'm going to attempt to get to the stable (top-right ruin building near the bridge), relying on Birchseed's free heroic moves if I don't get priority to tie down enemies and give me a (hopefully) competitive advantage in getting to and holding the objective.

And with that, to war!!!

Nemesis: How to Fight Against Isildur

Good morning gamers,

This year in this series, we've looked at Gil-Galad, Elendil, and Elrond as the major heroes from the Last Alliance (well, and Bill Ferny) - today, we're wrapping up the quadrivium of heroes by covering the cheapest and potentially most difficult to deal with of the lot: Isildur. This guy can be crazy good - and he can also let you know (or at least, mine has let me down a time or twelve). Isildur is a bit of an odd choice for this series, since he's the first model that I'm not only covering here in Nemesis (as a model that you can hate fighting on the other side of the table) AND a model we've previously covered in our In Defense Of series (as a model that gets critique for not being good enough by some players). Isildur is a bit of a polarizing piece, either shredding your army and best heroes to bits or underperforming and seeming inferior to his dad (and sometimes multiple captains).

Recently, Evan Iverson has had some international success with Isildur (allied with some friends that aren't Rivendell to help maximize his benefits) and so we're going to look today at what you can do to help fight against Isildur and make him pay if he shows up on the other side of the board. Let's see what all the fuss is about this guy first . . .

What Makes Isildur So Hated?

For starters, Isildur is usually fielded without Elendil so that he has the One Ring. Isildur is the only Ringbearer who follows the rules for the One Ring and has innate F6, which will give him a higher FV than most other models who can engage him (more on this later). Since he's the second model in the hierarchy for getting the Ring (only behind Sauron) and since you have full control over whether you have Elendil (and eventually Anarion) in your list, you are very likely to have the Ring if you take Isildur - and as I've discussed before (several times, actually, to include an article in our Back to Basics series), there are some really powerful things you can do with the One Ring.

Photo Credit: The Armies of the Lord of the Rings

Before he puts the Ring on, Isildur is still a powerhouse hero with F6/S5/3A, access to a horse, and 3-Might-and-Strike. By any hero's reckoning, this is a great offensive profile - and while there are heroes who can have more Might than Isildur, the presence of the Ring often means that he needs to spend his Might less for calling heroic actions and can use it more for passing the two things that actually matter: dueling rolls and Ring tests.

Nemesis: How to Fight Against Elendil

Good morning gamers,

Last time, we looked at Gil-Galad and ways (with specific units/army building emphases) you can counter him with. Today, we're tackling the biggest hitter from Numenor: Elendil. While some of what we're going to talk about is copy-paste from Gil-Galad, there are a few rules that Elendil picks up (and a few that he drops) that makes his use (and his countering) different from Gil-Galad. Let's see what's so great about the greatest hero of men . . .

What Makes Elendil So Hated?

Elendil has a beastly combat profile - with F7, S5, and 3A with the option for a mount (if you're willing to do some conversion work, since Games Workshop never made a model for this guy), Elendil is about as punch as man-sized heroes come. While F7 isn't the F9 that we see on Gil-Galad, it's higher than any man-sized warrior is going to get and it's also higher than most heroes. Additionally, he carries Narsil, which is a Master-forged hand-and-a-half sword (so he can two-hand without suffering the To Wound penalty) that allows him to declare a free Heroic Combat each turn - if F7 wasn't enough to make you want to hit warriors with this guy, Narsil certainly incentivises it!

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

On Defense, Elendil is no slouch, with D8 if you give him a shield (and aren't two-handing - otherwise he's D7) and has 3 Wounds/1 Fate, which is "fine" and expected for someone who died in the story. Elendil is the quintessential "a good offense is a good defense" character (well, him and Gulavhar, I guess), which means that once he gets into combat, it's very hard to pluck a wound off of him - especially if he's backed by a banner (for a reroll on one of those 4 dice he gets on the charge).

If this wasn't enough, he has the Unbending Resolve special rule, which grants him two free dice when resisting magical powers - even if he runs out of Will. This makes targeting him with magic (especially spells that just barely go off on a low difficulty) very difficult to cast on him. With 3 Will in his store (that he can regain on a natural 6) and 3 Might that don't have to be used if he's just declaring Heroic Combats, it's not hard for him to shrug off the worst magic in the game (well, almost - more on this later).

2023 Hobby Bingo: Tiberius's Board

Good morning gamers,

Well, 2023 has been a year - and it's been full of hobby fun! With Fantasy Fellowships, the Minas Tirith board, several tournaments, and lots and lots and LOTS of Morannon Orcs, there's been a lot to keep me busy during my off nights. I haven't officially done the hobby bingo challenge before, though I've always looked at the boards and thought, "I should do that." Well, this year, I said, "Darn it, we're gonna do it this year" - and I am proud to say that it turned out pretty well. Let's have a look!

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

Row #1: Lots of New Models (and some movies and a tournament)

Our first square in the first row requires us to start a new army, and for me this year, that was easy: Corsairs of Umbar! Throwing weapons are my thing and these guys have them everywhere. I also had these models sitting around for a while, so I don't have all the guys I painted shown here because . . . well, I need a guy for another bingo box:

Box two is easy - watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Yes, I watch the extended cuts every year at least once, usually while I'm working on batch painting something or working on a terrain project. It took me longer than usual to watch them this year, since I had to catch up on a bunch of Star Wars shows, but I finished watching the extended editions of The Fellowship of the Ring on June 28th, The Two Towers on August 14th, and The Return of the King on September 9th.

Box three was checked off on June 24th when I attended our annual Grand Tournament - I got last place with a Quest of the Ringbearer Angmar army (you can read about my process of picking that list here and some thoughts on the scoring system - and a brief overview of my games - here).

Box 4 requires scenic bases for one of my armies and I decided to showcase my basing style for my Erebor Dwarves, as shown on Ori. The bases were done by painting white through a dryer sheet, then washing in black, then spot-highlighting in black, and then making piles of gold and emeralds from green glitter, PVA glue, and gold paint:

Finally, I needed to finish a Good army of at least 600 points. Because of the way Hobby Bingo works, I wanted to have a list that "just" reached 600pts (because I need elements of this project to cover multiple boxes, and you can't double-count a model) and since I spent quite a bit of time this year converting up Grim Hammers, Warriors of Erebor, and Thorin's Company heads into a War of the Ring era Erebor Reclaimed list, I figured I'd grab over 600 points from them. You can see here Thorin III Stonehelm, Dwalin, Bifur, Bofur, Nori, Dori, Gloin, and 7 converted Iron Hills Dwarves with shields and spears:

A Season of Giving: The Last Alliance Fan-Made Legendary Legion!

Good morning gamers,

2022 is almost over and with the first season of The Rings of Power complete, we thought it would be great to have a Last Alliance Legion (and a fitting rival Legion) to lead us into Christmas. With a lot of chatter about a Last Alliance supplement coming out in the coming months (oh please let those new Rivendell sculpts not be a ruse), this is intended to be a stop gap before new content hits the shelves (however long that wait lasts). Let's check out the Legion!

Why Make This Legion?

DOWNLOAD THE RULES HERE!

Since the current rules set dropped, I have loved Last Alliance lists (though I have always loved the prologue scene from the Fellowship of the Ring film and have collected the models for it for a while) - Numenor and Rivendell have some of the punchiest heroes that the Forces of Good have to offer and while their warrior selection is limited, the options the units have are great. So since an alliance between these two factions is already great, how do we make the Legion worth taking while not invalidating an allied list?

I wrote an article earlier in the year about the difficulties with building Last Alliance lists. These issues were:

• Having to choose how many big heroes to include;
• Fitting in tactical heroes is hard when the point levels are low;
• Balancing your mix of D4-5 Men and D5-6 Elves; and 
• Getting mounts in your list is hard.

I wanted to solve all of these without having an oppressive Legion. Fixing some of them would be easy: make both warrior choices good so you don't feel like you're settling, make all of the heroes valuable, and get those tactical benefits available at any points level. How do we do this? Let's find out!

Why List Building For The Last Alliance Is Hard

Good morning gamers,

Here at TMAT, we love list building - I mean, the next best thing to playing the game is planning what army you want to bring to the next game you play, am I right? Well, since the new edition dropped, I've come back time and time again to the Last Alliance (a historical alliance between Rivendell and Numenor) and have enjoyed tinkering with various lists. With this tinkering, I'm often left feeling like I haven't got it quite right - there's always something missing or a glaring vulnerability. So today, I wanted to walk through the things I've discovered with this historical alliance (and while this article wasn't planned to be released right before the Rings of Power series airs, it does seem strangely appropriate to talk about how the allied list functions and what you need to know about it).

Why Writing The List Is Hard

If you've never written a Last Alliance list before, let me walk you through some of the decisions you need to make. First and foremost, since you're choosing to go with a historical alliance between Rivendell and Numenor, you'll need at least one hero from Numenor (Elendil, Isildur, or a Captain of Numenor) and at least one hero from Rivendell (thematically this would be Gil-Galad, Elrond, or a High Elf Captain - though you could argue for Glorfindel, Erestor, or Gildor). Once your Rivendell hero is selected, you also have some Minor Hero options (Cirdan and Stormcallers) and of course, you can TECHNICALLY run the Twins, Lindir, or Arwen with Numenor (though it's not thematically appropriate as it breaks the timeline). 

In Defense Of: Isildur

Good morning gamers,

Today we cover a model that is quite good - and some competitive players really love: Isildur. Isildur is one of the best slaying heroes in the game, but there are a LOT of people who don't like him. Today, I delve into a hero that I love to use at large points levels - and have been running a bunch recently. Let's dig in right away!

Why NOT To Take Isildur

The first limitation for Isildur is his dad: Elendil was commonly viewed in our evaluation of the Top 50 Slayer Heroes for the Forces of Good to be better than Isildur (I dissented) - F7 instead of F6, S5 with a Master-Forged hand-and-a-half sword that grants free Heroic Combats (vs. S5 with a mundane hand-and-a-half sword that doesn't get free Heroic Combats), 2 free dice to resist magical powers (vs. Resistant to Magic only), and all the same gear options (horse and shield), getting Elendil for the "low-low price" of 200pts seems like a really good deal.

While you can get both Elendil and Isildur in your army, Isildur takes a big hit: he loses the One Ring (since, you know, he didn't have it while his dad was alive). Isildur has a pretty great profile (F6/S5/3A with 3 Might on offense, D7-8 with 3 Wounds/2 Fate on Defense), but Striking from "only F6" isn't as great as "I will always have the higher Fight Value period." Similarly, 6" movement can really restrict your movement, but it's remarkably less restricted when you can walk through enemy ranks and provide traps to your men by attacking the spearmen in the formation from the rear. Yes, Isildur is great with the Ring and losing it is kind of a big deal.

Fyrd Formations: Breaking Shieldwalls and the Battle of Brunanburh

Good morning gamers,

Have you ever played a game where both you and your opponent brought S3 armies that were trying to crack through a D6 shieldwall? Is it frustrating to spend all of your game locked in the middle of the board trying to get an advantage over your opponent and failing? MESBG tends to reward armies for having high Defense (or compensate for having lower Defense by fielding far more models) - but how did armies historically break through shieldwalls? While the Svinfilking was a strategy in England, old poetry tells us a few other tidbits as found in an old song (filled to the brim with propaganda) about the Battle of Brunanburh.

In today's formations post, we're digging into the historical text (however accurate) and seeing what nuggets of wisdom can be found from the account. We'll then look at ways you can employ the strategies used historically to MESBG (which, as we all know, don't adequately reflect reality - but still). Let's get right to it!

The Battle of Brunanburh - How To Break Shieldwalls

If you have 12 minutes and want to see a visualization of the battle, check out the YouTube video from Baz Battles (the whole channel is great - I love their stuff). As a brief history lesson, King Aethelstan of the Anglo-Saxons was receiving tribute from the Kings of Alba (Scotland) and Strathclyde (western Nuthumbria), but the kings eventually joined forces (and allied with the Hiberno-Norse from Dublin) and invaded Aethelstan's lands. Aethelstan met them outside the city of Brunanburh and strove to become the first King of Great Britain by defeating their armies. The text we have of the battle can be read here, though I'll be highlighting excerpts from it below.

It Has Come To Me (Again): Thoughts On The One Ring, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

When the new rules dropped back in late 2018, I did a post on the One Ring and how it had changed since the LOTR SBG days (when I first got started playing). Since then, we've had a few FAQ clarifications (a few very needed clarifications) and I've played a LOT with the Breaking of the Fellowship Legendary Legion and those experiences have given me some new perspectives on things you can do to both use the Ring well and fight against Ringbearers. So today, we're going to take a look at what the rules are for the Ring, how these rules have been altered by FAQs and Designer Commentaries, and ways you can use these rules to both use Ringbearers better AND fight against them.

Rules Review (With Errata and Designer Commentaries Notes Added)

There is a whole page of rules dedicated to the One Ring - thankfully it's broken up into sections for us. Let's dig in and see what's interesting in each part of the rules (I've color-coded the relevant Designer Commentary questions to the references from the rules (to include the errata that have been made on it).

Wearing the Ring

[Wearing The Ring] The model with the Ring can put it on at any time during their Move phase. As soon as they do so, they become Invisible. [ERRATA: Whilst invisible, the Ringbearer may move through friendly and enemy models, provided they do not end their move overlapping any part of another model’s base.] If a model who put on the Ring is mounted, their steed will bolt and they must immediately take a Thrown Rider test.

Q: Can a model with the One Ring put it on if they have already been charged that turn? (p.90) A: No.

Q: Do Invisible models ignore enemy Control Zones when they move? (p.90) A: Yes.  

Two things jump out at us from this section: first and foremost, as the Designer Commentary on the main rulebook has clarified, a Ringbearer cannot put on the One Ring if he has been charged already. This will require planning a turn or two ahead, but otherwise isn't a big deal. It can bite new players, though, so if you're just learning how Ringbearers work, you may want to just accept that there's an error or two that might be made when learning the game. This will probably be one of them.

Second, if your Ringbearer can take a mount (Isildur on horse or Bilbo Baggins on a pony), then you'll want to dismount BEFORE you put the Ring on. Because you can put the Ring on at any point in your movement, you can dismount, put the Ring on, and then move without penalty - but the timing does matter.

The Bare Necessities, Part XXXVIII: The Misty Mountains

Good morning gamers,

Today we tackle an army that started off as its own army, then got melded into the Wanderers in the Wild during the warbands era, then got broken out into its own army again in the new edition (and is expanded in the Armies of the Hobbit book with Radagast's Alliance). While you might on first glance think that this army is unnecessary with the advent of Radagast's Alliance (I certainly did), the cool thing about this army is that it is Convenient Allies with almost everyone in the game (and Historical allies with some of the best all-hero armies in the game). While I think their army bonus isn't necessary to have (lots of competitive players agree), this army can provided much needed mobility to lots of armies (or firepower to a spam army). Let's dig in and see what's provided in this army (especially over Radagast's Alliance).

Photo Credit: Tumblr

The Misty Mountains: Built To Ally

Let's start by talking about Radagast's Alliance: with only the Misty Mountains as Historical Allies (which you'd only do to take Gwaihir as a Hero of Legend instead of a Hero of Valor), you're looking at pretty much all of the Armies of the Hobbit as your available Convenient Allies (and select others from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings): 

• You have all three of the factions of Men from the Armies of the Hobbit (the Army of Lake-town, the Survivors of Lake-town, and the Garrison of Dale);
• You also have two of the conventional Dwarf factions (the Iron Hills and Erebor Reclaimed - but NOT the Army of Thror . . . which is weird because you're convenient allies with the Garrison of Dale);
• Like everyone, you have all three of the Elven factions (Lothlorien, Rivendell, and the Halls of Thranduil) and Fangorn; and
• You have three all-hero armies (Thorin's Company, the Rangers, and the White Council). 

With the exception of the Misty Mountains, the Elven factions, and the Rangers, everyone from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book are Impossible Allies with Radagast's Alliance. 

By contrast, the Misty Mountains are Convenient Allies with every faction except the Fellowship, Radagast's Alliance, and Thorin's Company (which are Historical Allies). This means that you only need to decide if your army bonus is worth keeping or whether you can live without it - no other considerations need be made. Some armies (like the Fiefdoms and the Army of Thror) play very differently without their army bonuses - and while they probably CAN live without them, you generally don't want to give them up (both have great historical allies they can take). Other armies (like Numenor or Minas Tirith) can live without their army bonuses - especially if you're allying in high-Courage, high-Fight/Strength models who can do most of your fighting for you (even trapping people by charging the back rank while you press with your grunt infantry).

In today's list, we'll be building a balanced list with a Convenient alliance (the only way we can get 30+ models and at least one actual banner). While there were lots of great ideas I had for this army (some will be included in this article, others will appear in future articles), I wanted the army we showcased today to have at least one Great Eagle. Many armies can benefit from "just adding Gwaihir" - but I feel like that alliance doesn't showcase the Misty Mountains well. So instead, I wanted an army that allowed me to get several Eagles, had enough staying power to hold out for the Eagles to do their damage, AND could get an actual banner (and some fast troops). In my mind, there was one clear choice - not a thematic choice, but a solid choice none the less. So here we go - darn theme and full-steam-ahead!

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.

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!

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

Last Month on TMAT (December 2019)

As we closed out 2019, we finished a series on shooting and started a new series on heroes, causing us to revisit some of our oldest posts on heroes and tactics.

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

Last Month on TMAT (November 2019)

November was full of other-life stuff (with personal travel for all of us), but we still got some content up! With our series on shooting continuing and a few workbench updates, there's a mixture of hobbying and tactics if you need to catch up!