The New Age Is Begun: The Battle of Fornost Army List

Good morning gamers,

Editor's Note: Before we begin the formal post, I just wanted to say that we just passed the 5 million view mark - we're so happy that you guys read our stuff and we'll keep doing what we can to provide accurate information and thoughtful articles about the game we all love!

One of the last games I played in the old edition (not including the practice leading up to our throw-back tournament we did last year) was with the Battle of Fornost. I had to proxy Earnur with Elessar, but golly was the list fun to use. In this edition of the game, the Battle of Fornost remains a powerhouse list, with a very unique flavoring of different factions that is probably only rivaled by the Battle of Five Armies, the Legions of Mordor, or the Defenders of the Pelennor. Of all the Rivendell-style armies, this one has the most warrior diversity by far and also has a really interesting array of heroes. Let's see what this list brings and why it seems to be a good list in the competitive scene.

The Battle of Fornost: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list is composed of three elements: Gondor, Arnor, and Rivendell. The "Arnor" section is incredibly fragmented, but this also makes for some very interesting options for your list building. The Arnor heroes include Aranarth (Valor) and Rangers of the North (Minor or Independent) and all of these guys can lead Hobbit Archers (more on this later in the post).

The Gondor contingent is Earnur (required, Legend) and Captains of Minas Tirith and they can lead Knights of Minas Tirith and Warriors of Minas Tirith (pretty restrictive, but really all you need). The Rivendell contingent includes Glorfindel (required, Legend), Cirdan (Fortitude), and Rivendell Captains (Fortitude) and they can lead Rivendell Warriors. Thirteen total profiles doesn't seem huge (and is less than the total number of heroes available to any of those omnibus lists I mentioned earlier!), but it has an incredible array of models to choose from - heavily-armored men (foot and mounted), heavily-armored Elves (mostly on foot), unarmored Hobbits (on foot, obviously), and hero-warrior Rangers (all on foot).

The New Age Is Begun: The Rivendell Army List

Good morning gamers,

I got started with Rivendell by accident - I got a bunch of Rivendell heroes for my White Council list . . . and then I was like, "You know, I can ally the White Council into a Rivendell list" . . . and then I was like, "You know, I could use some more Elves to support my Numenoreans", and then I finally said, "What the heck, let's flesh this thing out." Rivendell has always been a solid and popular choice - perhaps because of that awesome sequence at the start of the Fellowship of the Ring where the Rivendell Elves are fighting alongside the Numenoreans in a cool battle sequence. I knew I always wanted this army in my collection and they're in a really interesting place this edition. Let's see both what's cool about these guys, what's competitive about these guys, and how they've changed in this new version of the game!

Rivendell: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has most of the Rivendell models available in the last edition - you have Elrond and Glorfindel as your beater heroes (no Gil-Galad though), you have Rivendell Captains for Heroic March, you have Elladan, Elrohir, and Erestor as your cheaper beaters, and Arwen, Lindir, and Bilbo for support work (no Cirdan). Losing Gil-Galad and Cirdan (and Gildor for a very select few of us) does change the list a lot from the last edition, but these two heroes don't function the way they used to, so that change is to be expected. You still have Rivendell Warriors and Rivendell Knights, but with the loss of Gil-Galad, you also lose access to King's Guard, so you're "stuck" at F5 on the warriors. This is a minor change, but having F6 Elves to support your lines isn't a bad thing.

Army List Bonuses

Last edition, Rivendell had a rule that helped them with their archery if their bowmen were near their Army Leader (now General) and didn't move . . . while the Lindon army list kept that rule, this list traded it for three other rules - all three of which are situationally good. The simplest is the Protection of Imladris rule, which gives all of your models +1 to their Courage Tests. Elves already have good Courage, but no matter how good your Courage is, there's usually a chance that you'll mess things up. Having Courage 4+ across the warriors in this list is great and your top-tier heroes might have a 2+ Courage stat, which is fabulous. Sometimes this rule will matter and sometimes it won't - but it's good to have. 

Similarly situational is the Defensive Stance rule, which is the design team's attempt to represent the "windmill" thing we see at the start of the Fellowship of the Ring - friendly Elf Warrior models get to reroll 1s To Wound if they didn't move in the Move Phase. This is great for players like me who used Feint a lot in the last edition and probably doesn't look like much to others - whatever. When two-handing with your frontline Elves and you're responding to enemy charges, this is a really strong rule and can turn definitely failed rolls to potential successes. Since Might might be limited in your list (see what I did there?), this does "reward" you for stemming an assault, but only if you intend to not defend by shielding. So . . . is this a good rule? It can be, but it isn't always going to be invoked - and I think it's markedly worse than the Last Alliance "wound enemies that charge you on a 6" rule.

The New Age Is Begun: The Lindon Army List

Good morning gamers,

I mentioned to Red Jacket a while ago that I was interested in writing the article on the Lindon Army List. He's our resident Elf expert and he was like, "Please do - I have nothing good to say about it." :) Well, here I am, doing my best then to defend what a lot of Elf players have probably dismissed. Yes, this list has issues - and yes, you're probably better off with the Last Alliance or Rivendell army lists - but in a way, this list in incentivized to do the one thing that I've always thought Elves were really good at: spam out guys and beat the enemy down with numbers. Having played quite a few games of that with a film-accurate Helm's Deep convenient alliance in the last edition, I feel a little at home looking at this list and I wanted to share some of my thoughts on how it might work here. Let's dive into another one of Tiberius's mad dreams (with anything related to Legacies in red), ayuh?

Lindon: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

When the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book dropped, we were given a very thin number of profiles: Gil-Galad and Elrond as our big heroes, Cirdan and Rivendell Captains as our supporting heroes, and Rivendell Warriors and Rivendell Knights as our warriors. That's all. Thankfully, these heroes did cover most of the bases you'd want, but it also seems a bit dry on paper relative to the Rivendell faction we had in the last edition.

With the arrival of the Armies of Middle-Earth book, we added . . . Glorfindel. Just Glorfindel. The Legacies document then shook things up by giving us Erestor and a Stormcaller . . . that's it. Yes, the list is pretty unchanged from its original release, but the addition of a different power hero and potentially a mid-tier beater and a backup caster leads to some interesting decision-making options. Still, no one's going to argue that this isn't a light bench - it is - but the bones of the list are still solid and I think it lends itself to a streamlined approach to army building that can do quite well.

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 Road to Rivendell Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're delving into another army list today and this one I'm SUPER excited about. Why? Because the Road to Rivendell army list (our topic for today) is a list that I have been running for AGES. I've run them as:

• A battle company (the Wanderers in the Wild);
• A low-points level historical alliance between the Fellowship and Rivendell;
• A mid-points level historical alliance between the Fellowship, Rivendell, and Lothlorien;
• A mid-points level convenient alliance between the Fellowship, the Shire, and the Wanderers in the Wild (Barliman and Bill); and
• A high-points level convenient alliance between Rivendell (Glorfindel, Gildor, Arwen), the Fellowship (Aragorn, Hobbits), and the Wanderers in the Wild (Tom and Goldberry) . . .
• . . . oh, right, and I made up a custom legendary legion for them a few Christmases ago.

Yeah, I've played this list kind of a lot. When I saw that it was becoming its own thing, I was both very excited AND very pleased that this list got Gildor and Noldorin Exiles from the Legacies document and picked up Tom Bombadil and Goldberry from the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement! All told, this began as a low-points level, all-hero list and with the two newest adds, it can now reach high points levels too! Let's see what's new in 2025 with this army list . . .

The Road to Rivendell: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Five of the heroes in this list have already been reviewed not once, but twice in the Fellowship and Breaking of the Fellowship articles - check those out for the full run-down. One other hero has been reviewed once, and the remaining three profiles are "brand new". Here's how the profiles have been adjusted without rehashing all that I've written there:

• The list is focused on the Fellowship coming to Bree, leaving Bree, and journeying to Rivendell - so naturally, we have Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin with very little gear available. Amazingly, Frodo has access to Sting and the Mithril Coat, which he certainly didn't have in the films (Weathertop would have gone VERY differently, I think, if there was Mithril between Frodo and the Morgul Blade - or was it a spiritual piercing?);
• You also have Aragorn in the list, which is good because without him, you couldn't kill much of anything with this list (one model excepted);
• From the Bree contingent, we have Barliman Butterbur, Harry Goatleaf, and Bill the Pony - all of which were either previously in the Fellowship army list or were part of the Wanderers in the Wild list and historical allies with the Fellowship;
• We have Arwen, who was both historical allies with the Fellowship in the Rivendell list and was later errata'd to be part of the Fellowship list if you had Aragorn in the list:
• New to the scene are Tom and Goldberry, who were Convenient Allies with everyone in the old edition - they were an expensive dynamic duo, but oh so much fun; and 
• If your tournament setting allows the Legacy documents, you have access to Gildor Inglorion and up to 12 Noldorin Exiles (because they are the only Warrior models in the list, if you have at least 10 of them, you can have 4 with bows and 4 with throwing weapons).

The original nine characters come in with all their available upgrades (bow for Aragorn, Sting and Mithril Coat for Frodo) at a tidy 500 points, but Tom and Goldberry allow you to hit 700 points and Gildor and Company can hit 222 (very satisfying) with a banner, 3 Wood Elf spears, 4 throwing daggers, and 4 Elf bows. 

First Impressions: The Elven Kingdoms, Part II

Good morning gamers,

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

~~~~~~~~~~~

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

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

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

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

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

Gil-Galad, High King of the Noldor

Photo Credit: Pinterest

Stats:

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

Wargear:

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

Heroic Actions:

• Heroic Challenge
• Heroic Resolve
• Heroic Strength

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

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

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.

Thematic List Building Challenge: The Road to Rivendell

Good morning gamers,

Last time we were in this series (just over a month ago), we looked at a highly restrictive list of units (those defending Minas Tirith in the films) and tried our best to find a way to make it competitive. Whether we succeeded or not is anyone's guess. Before that, we looked at the book-variant of the Defense of Minas Tirith, which means we had two lists from the Return of the King. The two posts prior to those were the book-variant and film-variant of the defense of the Deeping Wall of Helm's Deep . . . which means we had two posts from the Two Towers. Looks like Fellowship is due for a look, eh?

Today, we're looking at a list that I've tried to make work for years - and it involves cherry picking out desired units from SIX different army lists, all centered around the events that surrounded Frodo's departure from the Shire until his arrival in Rivendell. Can these units be run in a competitive setting? Well, let's find out . . .

The Theme

I read the Lord of the Rings every year (and by "read," I mean "listen to audiobooks" - which is kind of like reading if you have long commutes and get car sick . . . or are the one driving . . . as is the case for me). Every year when I relisten to The Fellowship of the Ring, I always come back to a list idea: bring an army that represents Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin (and I usually try to get Fatty Bolger in there too) trying to get to Rivendell. There are a HOST of characters that are introduced in the first book of Fellowship and most aren't revisited when you get to the return journey in The Return of the King.

Nemesis: How to Fight Against Elrond

Good morning gamers,

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

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

What Makes Elrond So Hated?

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

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

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

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

Nemesis: How to Fight Against Gil-Galad

Good morning gamers,

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

What Makes Gil-Galad So Hated?

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

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

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

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

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: Wood Elf Warriors and Noldorin Exiles

Good morning gamers,

In our last article, we talked about Gildor Inglorion and what his value is to a Rivendell list. Part and parcel of his utility is based on Noldorin Exiles - another model (along with their more vanilla Wood Elf Warrior cousins from Lothlorien) that gets heavy critique from the competitive community. I have been using Wood Elf Warriors since I began playing the game in 2010 and today I want to share the reason why I haven't collected Galadhrim Warriors for my Lothlorien army until recently (and mostly for Quest of the Ringbearer/Fantasy Fellowship scenarios, though having the option for armored Elves is an interesting choice). I've also been playing recently with Rivendell and Gildor is one of my first inclusions (along with 5-9 Noldorin Exiles). We'll look at what these guys give you and why you should care to try them out. Let's get right on it!

Why NOT To Take Wood Elf Warriors

Some of my favorite units in the game, warts and all . . .

Wood Elf Warriors are available in the Lothlorien army list for 8pts each and as Noldorin Exiles in the Rivendell army list for 9pts each (they get +2" of movement). When you compare this to the armored Rivendell/Lothlorien counterparts, you can see the cost savings that come from relying on Wood Elves (and the extra speed from Noldorin Exiles), but it comes at a heavy price - 3 Defense points:

Wood Elves vs. Armored Elves . . . no comparison?

To make a fair comparison, what you're seeing above are Galadhrim/High Elf Warriors with shields and spears vs. Wood Elf Warriors/Noldorin Exiles with Wood Elf Spears. Both of these units can spear-support AND defend by shielding - and both are very common occurrences in Lothlorien and Rivendell armies. Their special rules differ slightly (Stalk Unseen for the Wood Elf Warriors thanks to their Elven Cloaks) and their stats are basically the same - except when it comes to their Defense stats.

In Defense Of: Gildor Inglorion

Good morning gamers,

Today we're viewing a hero who doesn't get a lot of credit in the Rivendell list: Gildor Inglorion. Once one of the hardest models to find in the MESBG range, this hero is one of the cheapest casters in the game (and can cast Immobilize on a 3+ with 4 Will points - pretty reliable at stopping people), but for a number of reasons, lots of players abandon this guy upon viewing him. Well, today we seek to change that and highlight a few things this hero provides to Rivendell that is useful to their team. Let's get stuck in!

Why NOT To Take Gildor Inglorion

So happy I own this guy . . . finally . . .

The root of most of Gildor's critiques is the comparison he has to two other Rivendell profiles: Erestor and High Elf Captains. These three heroes are the mid-tier heroes in Rivendell (worse combatants than Gil-Galad, Elrond, Glorfindel, and the Twins; better combatants than Lindir, Arwen, Cirdan, Bilbo, and Stormcallers) and are roughly cost-equivalent (for being Elves - Gildor is 70pts, Erestor is 85pts, and High Elf Captains are 75-100pts). When you compare their profiles, Gildor just doesn't look as good as the others:

The three "mid-tier combat heroes" for Rivendell

We'll start with Gildor's Defense 4 stat - because he's unarmored, he's vulnerable to taking damage. With 2 Wounds and 1 Fate point, you run the risk of having this hero shot out before he can do anything useful (while the other two are pretty resilient to taking damage).

Quest of the Ringbearer Inspired Lists: The Serpent Horde

Good morning gamers,

We've looked at a variety of armies in this series so far - we've looked at traditional armies like Angmar and Ugluk's Scouts, as well as an all-hero army (the Breaking of the Fellowship), and an army that we needed to be fleshed out a bit in order to make it work (Rivendell - though you could do it with Fantasy Fellowship models if you're okay making Rivendell the allied contingent). Today, we're looking at an army that is, by no means, a competitive choice - and there are hard counters to it for sure. But there are also many armies that will be quaking in their boots when they fight it - it's the Serpent Horde, run the only way you can with Quest of the Ringbearer as your basis. Let's get stuck in!

The List

Quest of the Ringbearer has lots of models in it and for exactly one mission, you need to invest in the Serpent Horde - here's what you need:

• You need two War Mumaks of Harad (currently the entry barrier for me);
• You need one box of Haradrim Warriors (I have half of these guys right now).
  

And that's it - still ~$250, but "that's it." Fantasy Fellowship missions don't get us any other models, so there's exactly one way to run this force - double Mumaks:

• War Mumak of Harad with Rappelling Lines [ARMY LEADER]
  
• 5 Haradrim Warriors
• 5 Haradrim Warriors with bows and poisoned arrows
  
• War Mumak of Harad with Rappelling Lines
  
• 5 Haradrim Warriors
  
• 5 Haradrim Warriors with bows and poisoned arrows
  

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

700 points, 24 models, 10 bows hitting on a 4+, 2 D6+ models (the Mumaks), 2 war beasts with 22 passengers, 4 Might

This list has already been mentioned on the blog in our Bare Necessities series, though I only presented it as an idea (I didn't cover it in the main article). Today, we flesh out the discussion on this list and see how it approaches each of the scenarios. If you want to learn about Mumak tactics from the professionals, read Dan Entwisle's article on Warhammer Community.

Army Theory

The list above has two models on the ground - the Mumaks. On each of the Mumaks are 11 models (of the possible 13 models) and we have three kinds of models up there: a commander who drives the Mumak, 5 melee models with no extra gear and 5 ranged models with bows to shoot at the enemy. We did this for a few reasons. First and foremost, two Mumaks that have archers on them will mean that staying away from us is going to be all-but-impossible - and if we can threaten the enemy with bows, our opponent will need to engage us as quickly as possible or risk getting picked off a little at a time. Engaging, of course, could mean getting picked off a lot at a time, but I digress.

We could have placed all of our archers in one Mumak and put all of the melee models in the other (which could save us 10 points for Rappelling Lines on one of them - that would be another bowman and 3 spears, probably), but I instead chose to give both Mumaks Rappelling Lines, which is important for two reasons. First and foremost, Mumaks don't want big heroes to charge into them, so being able to peel them off and force them to fight something else is a good way to make them burn through resources. You can also have three Haradrim charge someone like the King of the Dead so he can't call a Heroic Combat and kill the Mumak (which he can do with a single wound). Since all models in the Howdah automatically pass Courage tests, you don't have to worry about the Terror or Harbinger of Evil, so you can just charge him. Pulling him off can give you a chance to kill a little more before he gets there - and maybe even get a charge off on the following turn.

Quest of the Ringbearer Inspired Lists: Rivendell Revisited

Good morning gamers,

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

I know what you're thinking though:

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

Me: "Correct - next to none."

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

Me: "Absolutely - and we will."

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

Me: "Yes."

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

Me: "Because of these guys . . ."

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

The List

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quest of the Ringbearer: Model Collection Update, Part II

Good morning gamers,

We're back with another update on my collection of models for the Quest of the Ringbearer missions. Last time we focused on Part I (up to Rivendell) and today we're revisiting Part I and covering Part II (through Moria).

Part I: The Shire to Rivendell

Since the last update, I got the last of the required figures for Part I, so here they are! First up, we have a model I've been dying to find for ages - Gildor Inglorion! He gets a bad wrap from most of the community, but is pretty good with Tom Bombadil (he's the kind of model who wants more than 1 Might point and can use the Will/Fate/Wound boost too) and gets you access to cheap, fast skirmishers.

8" move with 2-4 Immobilizes a game . . . Pretty good deal.

Next we have two more Barrow-Wights (four total), but I decided that I needed to be able to tell the wights apart better, so I painted the new guys in a similar style to my old ones and then decided to play around with object source lighting with glowing blades:

The red guy turned out really well . . .

Next up, we have three characters from Bree - Barliman Butterbur, Harry Goatleaf, and Bill the Pony (who is used in Part II). Barliman was another experiment in wet blending to get some wear and texture to his hair and clothing (especially his apron). I love the details on this model and want to try him out sometime:

I think I can empathize with Butterbur more than any other character in the story . . .