MESBG Christmas Lists, List #11: The Kingdom of Moria . . . and Friends?

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: Merry Christmas to all! I hope you've been enjoying this series - it's always great when content creators from across the international community contribute to a project like this (and I feel very blessed that anyone out there who generates good content wants to even be involved with our work here)! Today's "Christmas list" comes to you from . . . me! I've hinted at this list several times this year and it has got to be one of the most FUN lists I've ever played - and it's a throw-back to the way I originally built my Kingdom of Moria lists for MESBG (which was actually the "Erebor" list in the LOTR SBG days). So stroll with me down memory lane as we look at the most awesome Dwarf list I ever made (while most of the posts in this series have been short . . . this article will only be short compared to some of my other work . . . and maybe Rythbyrt's article)!

Oh, and I'm going to cheat and provide multiple lists, but they nest together, okay?

The Evolution of a Crazy Impossible Alliance

It's no secret - I'm a huge fan of the Kingdom of Moria: the heroes are excellent (Balin, King's Champions, and Dwarf Kings are/can be all budget F6/D8+ combat heroes - and two of them give you Heroic March, which is always nice to have as an option), the warriors are excellent (their core troops are 9pts each with 1 piece of gear, while their elite units get stronger and more expensive), and as a whole, they're incredibly forgiving as a faction. You can also splurge on two plastic boxes of core troops (two boxes of Dwarf Warriors, two boxes of Dwarf Rangers, or a box of each like I did), the Balin/Floi pack, and a King's Champion pack (with an optional Dwarf King pack, if you can find it), and you can get started with the army quickly and easily.

No matter how competitive you want to be, this is a great starting foundation for MESBG - good, resilient heroes and solid, resilient troops. What more could you want . . . besides cavalry . . . and spears . . . and maybe some magic . . . yeah, there's some to be desired in this list, but hey, you gotta give something, right?

Like most new players to the game, I stuck to pure lists for a while - I mean, I was slowly collecting models and we were playing at low points levels, so allying just wasn't on my mind at the time. I allied Gandalf into some Wood Elf lists (before getting Galadriel), and I allied Legolas into everything (including Dwarf lists), but I eventually got around to looking at the profile for Radagast the Brown . . . and boy did I have a crazy idea. 

You see, back in the day, you were able to do "volley fire" with 10+ bows of the same type, so if you had 10 Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows, you could shoot at targets that were within 18" normally and at models that were 18-36" away from you by hitting on a 6. The trick was, only one model in your army needed to be able to see the target . . . and Radagast could (and still can) "see" everyone thanks to the Master of Birds special rule. 

Nemesis: How to Fight Beorn and Grimbeorn

Good morning gamers,

This is our fourth article in this series on how to fight "bad" or "mean" models and today we're tackling Beorn and Grimbeorn, two of the toughest monsters in the game right now. With a new Legendary Legion released in the Defence of the North supplement giving new life to Beorn (and a profile to Grimbeorn - at long last), the bears are a real danger you could see on the tabletop. But how bad are these guys - and what can you do to fight against them? Let's dig in and see what all the hullabaloo is about . . . did you catch the "Baloo" reference there?

What Makes "The Bears" So Hated?

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community 

Since the rules update in 2018, Beorn has had one of the strongest profiles for the Forces of Good (and to be honest, he has one of the toughest profiles in the game period). Despite having incredibly good stats while in bear form (F8/S8/D8 with 3 Attacks/Wounds/Might/Will/Fate and C6 with Fearless), Beorn wasn't nearly as prolific on the tabletop as other Good monsters like Gwaihir or Treebeard. Armies of all-Eagles and all-Ents have been seen throughout the world at tournaments (for the Ents, this was particularly true after the release of War in Rohan), but Beorn only made an appearance here or there.

If I had to guess, this is probably due to two reasons: first and foremost, he's a 200-point hero who couldn't lead troops cheaper than 100 points (Great Eagles) - and most players aren't going to dump 200 points into a hero who can't lead troops unless they've already got a heap of models (and why do that when you could run Gwaihir or Treebeard or just more guys?). Second, Beorn isn't as fast as Gwaihir (8" move isn't bad, but it isn't a 12" Fly), doesn't give you three models towards your army size like Treebeard (for the same cost as Beorn), and doesn't have the alliance options you get with either of these other two monsters. Third, there were the occasional games where Beorn would just not want to change from a man into a bear (getting a 4+ can sometimes be elusive). To be fair, Beorn in man form is no slouch - he's really good - but he's not nearly as resilient as he is in bear form - and he doesn't have Brutal Power Attacks (most particularly Crushing Strength). Yep, there are ample reasons to take someone other than Beorn in your army.

Nemesis: How To Fight Gwaihir

Good morning gamers,

As we continue our series of examining good models that can really wreck your day, we're turning to one of the most feared Good models in the game right now: Gwaihir. This is a monster that has incredible agility thanks to Fly, a very impressive combat profile (with only one caveat), and is incredibly survivable. But like most models in the game, there are options available to you when you see this guy on the other side of the board - none of them will be easy, but we'll review some of the tools you can use to counter him. Let's dig into why this guy is so good!

What Makes Gwaihir So Hated?

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community 

To understand why Gwaihir is such a threat, we need to begin with his alliance matrix (or two, actually). Gwaihir appears in two lists - he's a Hero of Legend in the Misty Mountains and a Hero of Valour in Radagast's Alliance. When fielded in Radagast's Alliance, he has no historical allies (since their only historical ally is the Misty Mountains - and since Gwaihir is the only hero in that list, you can't run it), but has a few Convenient Allies (all of the armies in the Armies of the Hobbit book, as well as Lothlorien, Fangorn, and the Rangers, oddly enough). If you're running one of these lists and want Gwaihir to be your grenade hero instead of your army leader, you can certainly take him from this list.

Most competitive players will field him from The Misty Mountains, however. In that list, he's a Hero of Legend (almost certainly your army leader) and he's at least Convenient Allies with every faction (and he's Historical Allies with the Fellowship, Thorin's Company, and Radagast's Alliance as was mentioned above). While the Fellowship and Thorin's Company can certainly benefit from adding Gwaihir to their ranks, most of the time you're going to see Gwaihir appear either in a pure Misty Mountain list (where you're counting on lots of flying monsters to trash enemy warriors), a monster-mash army where Gwaihir and some Eagles ally with either Ents or Bears (or both), or as a one-model drop into a more conventional force that wants a hard-hitting slayer for the low-low price of 150 points. This last one is the usual way you see Gwaihir in competitive play.

Since he can ally with everyone, what is it about this guy that makes him an attractive option (especially when compared to Elven heroes who can also ally with everyone)? For starters (as was just mentioned), Gwaihir is "only" 150 points - which is admittedly a lot to pay for a hero who probably isn't bringing any warriors to the table, but relative to the cost of other heroes, it's a steal. As the cheapest of the eight members of the F8+ club (which features Treebeard/Beechbone from the Fangorn list, Gil-Galad from the Rivendell list, Beorn in bear form from Radagast's Alliance/the Beornings LL, Smaug from the Desolator of the North list, The Dark Lord Sauron from the Barad-Dur list, and the Balrog from Moria/The Depths of Moria LL), Gwaihir is likely to have a higher Fight Value than most opposing models once everyone's out of Might. But his offensive firepower isn't just limited to a great Fight Value: with S6 (S7 on the charge if he's got either of his army bonuses - which he usually doesn't) and 2 Attacks + Monstrous Charge, it's quite likely that he's wounding troops on 4s if not 3s - and that's a lot of dead troops if he's charged into them.

The Bare Necessities, Part XLIII: Radagast's Alliance

Good morning gamers,

We recently looked at both the Misty Mountains and Fangorn factions and today we wrap up the last of the Good all-monster armies (and the last of the participants in the Battle of Five Armies): Radagast's Alliance. Shockingly, this army isn't historical allies with the forces that were at the Battle of Five Armies - maybe because allying in Gwaihir historically into these armies would be broken, maybe because they didn't "officially" work with Erebor, Dale, or the Halls of Thranduil but arrived as an "enemy of my enemy." If you thought, though, that this army would just be a repeat of the discussion on the Misty Mountains, think again (well, sort of).

Photo Credit: Pinterest

Radagast's Alliance: More Than Just Eagles

The Misty Mountains faction is historical allies with a few factions (the Fellowship, Thorin's Company, and Radagast's Alliance) and convenient allies with everyone else in the game. This makes dropping a model like Gwaihir easy for virtually every army in the game (armies like the Fiefdoms or the Rangers probably want to keep their army bonuses, which is the only reason you'd want to forego allying in a F8/S6, nigh-unkillable-without-a-lot-of-effort monster into your force).

Radagast's Alliance may have the same lineup of models (and adds two more), but it doesn't have the same alliance structure. Instead, it can only ally with the Misty Mountains historically and can conveniently ally with the Elven factions (Rivendell, Lothlorien, and the Halls of Thranduil), a few all-hero/monster factions (Thorin's Company, Fangorn, the Wanderers in the Wild, the White Council, and the Rangers oddly enough), the men from the Armies of the Hobbit (the Army of Lake-town, the Survivors of Lake-town, and also oddly the Garrison of Dale), and some of the Dwarves from the Battle of Five Armies (the Iron Hills and Erebor Reclaimed). So basically . . . you gotta be from the Armies of the Hobbit (or Fangorn or the Rangers - who, as I've already said, probably don't want your help).

That's really limited as a set - and when looking for a balanced list to feature these guys, you have very few options that have a) actual banners (Elves, Dwarves, and Dale), b) fast troops besides Radagast's Alliance itself (Elves and Dwarves), and 30+ models (not the all-hero/monster lists). That made picking our list for today incredibly difficult.

And yet, the biggest question about this list is this: what kind of big hero (or maybe two) do you want to add to another faction to deepen its bench? Some of the factions listed above have a good selection of beater heroes (most notably Rivendell and Erebor Reclaimed, arguable case for Thorin's Company, the Iron Hills, and the Halls of Thranduil), but wouldn't mind having a F8 monster hero (or F7 monster warrior) to back up a hero or two of their own if they have the points for it.

When it comes down to it, this faction becomes more than just "another army of Eagles" - it gives you options. Not only do you have the ability to "just get Gwaihir," but you can also add in heroes like Beorn (who might be the most dangerous model against a single hero in the game) and Radagast (who has several tricks for shutting down heroes brought by your opponent - and can be dangerous in combat if he's equipped properly). While I could have talked about a faction that ran a handful of monster models, I felt like the list below showcases something this faction does well: gives you a better killing hero than what you have in your own list. To see how this works, let's look at today's list:

The Bare Necessities, Part XL: The Army of Lake-town

Good morning gamers,

Today we cover one of the most competitive armies for the Forces of Good in MESBG right now: the Army of Lake-town. If you're looking at running a list pure, this army . . . well, doesn't look very good. In fact, compared to their cousins (the Survivors of Lake-town, which we'll cover in a few weeks), it looks downright awful. But this army is one of the cheapest hordes that have access to spears you can find and this means you can get a healthy amount of numbers and have plenty of points to ally in big heroes. Lake-town doesn't have the suite of allies that you'll find from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings, but the options they have are solid. So how do we begin to piece together a good army from Lake-town? Let's dig in and see what we have to work with and you'll soon see.

The Army of Lake-town: Who Needs A Horde?

So when you think of horde armies, you generally think of evil factions - Goblin-town, Moria, and Sharkey's Rogues, for example. Some good factions qualify - like the Shire - but most good factions run average-cost models (or very elite/expensive models), which can keep them from "hording out" (though there are builds for Minas Tirith that can horde out by taking cheap heroes). Lake-town has only one expensive hero (Bard) and everyone else costs no more than 50 points - and with most of them (not Bard's children) able to lead 12-15 models and your warrior models costing 5-7 points each, you can get a full warband of guys for under 120 points. If you're getting that many guys for that kind of cost, you can easily get 65+ models in a 600pt game (and at 700, you're looking at over 70 models easily).

Battle Report: TMAT GT 2021 Round 1

 

Hey Reader!

Welcome back to the blog! It's been a while since my last battle report, so as I prepared for the tournament I opted to bring some scratch paper and record what happened in each battle. As the tournament was three rounds, this will be the first in a three-post series showing how my army did in the tournament.

I.  Overview: My Army

As a bit of background, I ran an Isengard army, centered around the theory I had for rethinking Isengard to optimize points for the value you receive. So for your knowledge, this is the army I was running for this match:

Warband 1

Lurtz with Shield (Army Leader)

1 Uruk Scout with Banner and Shield

2 Feral Uruk-Hai

2 Orc Warriors with Shield/Spear

3 Uruk Scouts with Shields

Warband 2

Ugluk

1 Feral Uruk-Hai

2 Orc Warriors with Shield/Spear

4 Uruk Scouts with Shields

Warband 3

Isengard Assault Ballista with Siege Veteran

Warband 4

Isengard Assault Ballista with Siege Veteran

TOTAL: 23 models, 449pts, 8 Might