Top 10 Ranking: Middle Earth SBG Supplements

Hey Reader!

In a continuation of our Top 10 series, we're looking today at...all of the supplements for the recent edition of the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game! I'd been holding out hope for an actual Top 10 (as we don't have 10 supplements - but more on that below), but since this is the twilight of the old edition, maybe now is a great time to rank them, as we have the complete list now.

Our ranking is going to gauge the quality of the supplements in five categories, designed to reward the various aspects of these disparate books. First, we're looking at the epic factor of the campaign: how cool/vast/epic is the scenario lineup in the book? Unsurprisingly, if your supplement includes an attack on Minas Tirith, Helm's Deep, Balin's Tomb, or assaults on one or more capitol cities, those books will get higher scores in this category than, say, smaller skirmishes in less visible conflicts.

Second, we look at cost: how much money does it cost to buy the book and all the models you need to play through the campaign. So supplements that involve smaller numbers of models, smaller numbers of Forgeworld/metal models, and require less specialized/out of production kits, will score higher than, say, supplements that require you to buy 2-3 Mumakil and/or a dozen Forgeworld resin heroes, for example.

Third, we rate the content in the book for balance: are the scenarios written in such a way that the scenarios are lopsided (either always to one side or the other, or just lopsided back and forth between the Good/Evil forces)? Are the legendary legions imbalanced, and likely to be FAQed? Having powerful legendary legions doesn't necessarily grant a lower score, but a book with legendary legions that are likely to be changed alongside scenarios that may not be fun to play due to too many uphill battles, will rank lower in this category than a book that shows signs of heavy testing and evenness in its design and execution.

Fourth, we rate the scenarios for variety: are most of the scenarios just a mix of "kill things or get units off the board," or do they include interesting/unique scenario objectives? Do they do anything interesting with forces, deployment, and/or scenario special rules? The more variety there is in the campaign, the higher the score.

And finally, we look at new options: how many new profiles, legendary legions, terrain kits, and/or ways to play the game (really only applicable with Fantasy Fellowships in Quest of the Ringbearer, but we did want to reward that supplement for creating a very interesting new way to play the game!) are in the supplement? Some supplements are heavier or lighter on material (guided by the content in the book), so supplements with more "goodies" will rate higher than ones with less.

So with that, let's take a look at the books we've come to love over the past decade!

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 16: The Battle of Bywater

Good morning gamers,

This is it - this is for all the bananas! We've reached the end of the Scouring of the Shire campaign and we're playing the Battle of Bywater scenario. This scenario is really old, but with the campaign bonuses we've been getting for winning scenarios, there are a few adjustments from what's in the book:

• Maggot with his dogs, the Gaffer, and Ted Sandyman are here;
• Holfoot Bracegirdle and Robin Smallburrow can't call heroic actions because the Ruffians won the Arrest of Folco Boffin scenario;
• Pippin has -2 Might for losing the Attack on Tuckburough; and
• Merry gets a free Heroic action from winning the Old Cotton's Farm scenario.

The Battle of Bywater

The board is set up with the Ruffians on one side and the Hobbits hemming them in on the other three board edges. As you can see, the flowers from the Gaffer have been placed near the middle . . . apparently Centaur thinks he'll be fighting there (and he would be right).

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 15: Old Cotton's Farm

Good morning gamers,

We're almost through the Scouring scenarios - and today, Centaur gets to use one of his favorite heroes: Farmer Cotton. The Hobbits have the Ruffians surrounded - can they keep most of their heroes alive and quarter the Ruffians? Let's find out!

Old Cotton's Farm

The Ruffians begin surrounded and the Hobbits have surrounded their circle of models. The southern ambush has Frodo and Merry in it, while the northern ambush is led by Sam and the Gaffer. Several Hobbit Archers have perched themselves on the smials on the northern side. The Gaffer's flowers are all near the southern side (to up the damage there).

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 14: Attack on Tuckborough

Good morning gamers,

Happy Halloween - and my deepest apologies for not getting the words typed up for this before going on vacation (I've done this before and I know I will do it again). Today we have the Attack on Tuckburough scenario which is the first scenario to feel like a Matched Play scenario with a twist. This scenario has been modified in three ways because of the scenario bonuses from the linked campaign, so this may not be reflected in your games if you just play this scenario!

Attack on Tuckborough

Both forces are trying to control the five objectives on the center line and can deploy up to 12" forward (which we did). Centaur has added Will Whitfoot to his army for this scenario, thanks to winning the Mayor's Arrest scenario. Centaur also gets free priority win from Bounders Strike Back scenario. Finally, Paladin has no Might for losing the Lockholes scenario, which seems a bit harsh.

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 13: The Lockholes

Good morning gamers,

Today Centaur and I will be playing a scenario that I have been looking forward to playing - the Lockholes! This scenario has an optional rule that I mentioned back when I reviewed the lists you can make with the Scouring of the Shire scenario participants and it's required a little extra record keeping as we've been playing.

The Lockholes has four Hobbit Militia and Lobelia and Fatty "locked up", but if other heroes were carried off in a previous mission (Will Whitfoot and Folco Boffin) or were killed in a previous mission (Farmer Maggot and Gaffer Gamgee), you can replace the Militia with the heroes and rescue them instead. Centaur happened to win most of these scenarios, so only Folco Boffin has been added to the captives list. If he escapes, I'll get +3 Ruffians in the Battle of Bywater scenario.

The Lockholes

Centaur deployed with most of his guys on the road, with archers on one flank and a few Militia on the other. My Ruffians are pretty spread out to cast a big net for them.

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 12: Brockenborings

Good morning gamers,

We're doing the Brockenborings scenario today, which is very similar to three other scenarios we've played to date - like The Mayor's Arrest, The Death of Lotho, and The Arrest of Folco Boffin, the Ruffians will be trying to capture two Hobbit heroes - and they'll just have Hobbit Militia to protect them. Like the Death of Lotho, I'll be spread out trying to guess where the Hobbits are going, but unlike that scenario, my hero (Bill Ferny) starts on the board. Like all three scenarios, the heroes given to the Shire player aren't great combatants, but unlike those three scenarios, I don't have a great hero (Bill Ferny is just sad). Let's look at the board - and cover a few caveats about the scenario before we get into it!

Brockenborings

As you can see, we have a smial in the center of the board in which Fatty, Lobelia, and eight Hobbit Militia begin in base contact. Fatty and Lobelia are trying to get off any board edge and I'm trying to capture them (using the At 'Em Lads or Put 'Em In Chains rules to Paralyze them) and get them off any board edge. If either of them are killed (or if one escapes and the other is captured), the game is a draw. Like the Folco scenario, this means that both of us want them to get close to the edge of the board - we just want to be the one moving them off. My units had to deploy at least 15" away from any Good model, so I've made a ring to hem them in as best I can, with Bill playing flex in the middle of the southern board edge.

Warning: before reading any further, you should know that your play experience in this scenario might be VERY different if you play it on your own from what you're about to read. For starters, because of the way my Shire panels are built, any smial tile we used would have allowed Centaur to travel ~12" to the north of the board to get off the board and since all of my models had to start 15" away from any Hobbit model, Centaur was like, "so I could deploy touching the northern side of the Hobbit smial, you'd have to start 15" away from me, and I could get both of my models off by moving 11" north before you could do anything . . . let's make a game of it and not do that." I appreciated that very much.

Second, thanks to Lotho not dying in the Death of Lotho scenario, Centaur adds 1 Might point to Lobelia's profile, which means Centaur goes from having 0 Might across his army to having 1 Might in his army - that's gonna be handy wherever Lobelia is. If you're playing the game normally, having 1 Might point on Bill isn't a big swing, but it does mean that the Evil player will be guaranteed to go first. Additionally, if Evil wins the Death of Lotho scenario, then Lobelia can't use her Fate point in this scenario (or any other scenario she's in for the rest of the campaign), which . . . would be huge in this scenario. The Death of Lotho scenario has big rewards for both sides if you're playing the linked campaign.

Third, because Centaur won the Bounders Strike Back scenario, he got to put 8 traps (two of each type) on the board . . . I love traps, but golly it comes with a healthy respect as well. My biggest fear is, oddly enough, that I'm going to get slowed down by them and not that I'll take damage from them. Yes, damage would be bad, but getting tied down by those Hobbit Militia will be bad (and it'll be even worse if the Hobbit Militia can write someone off as stuck in a pit instead of having to actually charge my guys).

So with all that prologue, let's see if I can bind up some Hobbits!

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 11: The Bounders Strike Back

Good morning gamers,

This scenario is OLD - back when Centaur and I got into the game in the Fall of 2010, this scenario was available for download from the GW website, with directions on how to adjust the game for alternative participants. With very few models in our collections - and none of them from the Scouring of the Shire - we had a lot of fun seeing if Merry and Pippin from the Fellowship (20pts) could beat up 10 Orcs (60pts) . . . the game was a lark, but we also learned how limited Merry and Pippin are as characters.

Today's scenario features 5 Tookish Hunters and 12 Ruffians (standard load-out of 6 vanilla, 2 whips, and 4 bows) and we're basically doing a deja vu scenario to the Maggot's Farm scenario where about half the Ruffians we have here try to get across a similiarly-sized board with only Maggot and his dogs to stop them (mostly his dogs, though). Oh, and Centaur gets 20 traps in this scenario . . . lovely.

The Bounders Strike Back

The Ruffians start 12" up the board and as such, they started as far up as they can. To win, I need to get 5+ Ruffians off the far board edge. Centaur wins if he can kill 8 of them - he started with his Hunters as far forward as they could go and scattered the traps as a way to hem me in. The raised portions with the trees are all woodland terrain and we have some trees for cover . . . but not much. Critique us if you want to, but I'll tell you now that adding slower terrain cover would have both advantages and disadvantages for the Ruffians - more on that later, though.

With Centaur automatically claiming priority on the first turn, we began the grind fest!

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 10: The Old Storehouse

Good morning gamers,

The scenario we've got lined up for today is the Old Storehouse, which will involve Hobbit Militia backed by Hobbit Archers, Fatty, and Baldo trying to steal stuff from "the storehouse" (in the form of a pig, some ducks, and two sheep). My Ruffians will start as sentries in this game (we LOVE sentries), and the entire board has the "nighttime conditions" in effect (can't shoot beyond 12", +1 To Wound with your shooting attacks). I've faced Centaur's Hobbits in nighttime conditions one too many times (and an unfortunate number of those times has been with D3 Wood Elves), so I know that his shooting attacks are going to be deadly. If any Shirriffs are killed in melee, they'll instead be Paralyzed.

The Old Storehouse

Baldo got three extra traps for this scenario for winning a previous scenario, so Centaur got to put out a few extra traps in addition to the eight that were already there. Centaur had to split up his models between the two opposing board corners, so he put all four archers on one side with Baldo and two Militia near the bottom-right corner and then put Fatty and the other six Militia at the top-left corner. I spread my guys out at the top-left and bottom-right of the storehouse because . . . you know, I've got sentries and don't want them spread out in a useless position. With the board set, Good claimed priority on Turn 1 and we got stuck in!

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 9: Arrest of Falco Boffin

Good morning gamers,

It's scenario NINE and we have one of the oddest scenarios to date - Folco Boffin (one of the WORST heroes in the game) and eight Hobbit Militia (one of the WORST warrior profiles in the game) are going up against a bunch of Shirriffs . . . is it even possible for them to win?

The Arrest of Folco Boffin

The board has three Hobbit smials on it - the 12 Hobbit Shirriffs and two heroes deployed within 3" of the southern board edge and Folco and his friends deployed within 3" of the northern board edge. The Shirriffs can Paralyze and carry Falco and the Militia, but they can't kill them - if Centaur's Militia can win fights, they could gain the upper hand quickly. There will be no Thrown Stones this game ("we don't want hurt you guys") - it's basically a bar fight on a roadside, so let's see how it goes!

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 8: Uprooting Bagshot Row

Good morning gamers,

We're back with another Scouring of the Shire scenario, and this time we have The Gaffer and some angry Hobbit Militia trying to keep Bill Ferny and a squad of Ruffians from tearing trees on Bagshot Row. The scenario rules might look a bit like deja vu, but I think this scenario was better than its predecessor. Let's dig into it!

Uprooting of Bagshot Row

The rules for this scenario are simple: the Ruffians need to quarter the Hobbits (there are 13 of them, so three remaining) and the Hobbits need to kill Bill Ferny (if both happen on the same turn, it's a draw). This is . . . exactly the same scoring conditions as we had in the first scenario (Skirmish in Bree - though if Bill Ferny doesn't kill 2 models in that scenario, it's also a draw), but there are some really key differences in the supporting rules.

First, all the Hobbits and Bill Ferny must charge if they can - this makes it so Bill Ferny has to either stay completely out of the fighting (which could slow down the speed at which the Hobbits are quartered) or he needs to get stuck in (possibly without support). This you-gotta-charge rule is absent from the Skirmish in Bree scenario and makes the game more exciting if you want to use Bill's Might point to help you kill stuff faster - though Bill Ferny does have to do some fighting in the Bree scenario or the game is a draw - but in this scenario, he at least has the option to stand back if he wants to.

Second, the Gaffer gets +1 FV when fighting Bill Ferny (which means they'll both be F3 and neither has Heroic Strike). The Gaffer also rerolls failed To Wound rolls in combat against Bill (or rerolling 1s/rerolling all faileds with his stones if Bill Ferny is within 4" of a flower or has removed one or more of his flowers respectively). This gives the Good side a hero who's not particularly good, but is also not bad - and last time, they didn't have a hero to fight the Ruffians at all.

Third, last time, the Ruffians walked on from one board edge while the Good models started in the middle of the board. This time, the Ruffians start on one side and the Hobbits start on the other - that allows the Hobbits a bit more choice on how they want to play, though the bows on the Ruffian side do make it so they can't just sit and wait for the Ruffians to charge.

Okay, so with all that in mind, we set up as you see above - Centaur got his Hobbits as far up as he could and I deployed my Ruffians as close to 3" away from the smial as I could. Bill Ferny is touching the chimney and feels very exposed at the moment. Centaur then placed his flowers and decided to use them to make a "no man's land" across the center, undoubtedly to either make a kill zone for his stones or to force me to go around, which will limit my application of numbers. Let's start round one!

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 7: The Burning of Woody End

Good morning gamers,

It's scenario seven, baby, and we've got a flash-back to the War in Rohan village scenario today (which was actually based on the mechanics in this book because . . . you know . . . Scouring came first). We've got a 4'x4' board with over 20 Hobbits and slightly more Ruffians and it's all about setting things on fire! Also, for the 20+ viewers who saw the article without the photos in it last Thursday before I reverted/rescheduled it . . . my apologies - I was camping and forgot. Let's see how the scenario went . . .

The Burning of Woody End

The board has five Hobbit smials on it (the one in the center is a "great smial" - not a good smial, but a great smial) - the Hobbits deployed within 2" of a smial and the Ruffians deployed within 3" of any board edge. The Ruffians are trying to burn the smials by being in base contact during the End Phase of each round without shooting/fighting that round. On a 5+, the smial burns. Unlike the War in Rohan village scenario, the Ruffians can also set the smials alight with flaming arrows (needs to wound against D6 - that's 6s To Wound with the bows and 6/4+ with the whips). Hobbits can then attempt to put out the fires at the end of their Move (NOT during the End Phase), giving up their opportunity to shoot to roll a D6 and put it out on a 6 (or set it hopelessly ablaze on a 1). The game lasts for 10 turns - and with some very interesting heroes in Baldo Tulpenny and Rowan Thistlewood, we've got a great game ahead of us!

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 6: The Death of Lotho

Good morning gamers,

This is our sixth Scouring scenario and we've taken the same four Hobbit smials from the last scenario and rearranged them a bit for the Death of Lotho. The participants are similar to what we had last time, but we've scaled down the number of warriors (nine Ruffians, three have whips; eight Hobbit Militia) and really downgraded the heroes (Lotho Sackville Baggins and Worm). There's no way to fix botched rolls (especially if Lotho uses his Might point to call a heroic action instead of boosting a roll), so every roll matters - let's see if the Ruffians can catch and kill Lotho!

The Death of Lotho

This scenario starts similarly to the previous one, with Lotho and his Hobbit Militia bodyguards starting within 3" of the center of the board. This time, however, Lotho can try to escape off any board edge instead of one in particular. The Ruffians deploy outside of 6" of a Hobbit model, so once again, I can't charge on the first turn. The Hobbits win if Lotho escapes off any board edge, while the Ruffians win if Worm kills Lotho. If any other Ruffian model kills Lotho, it's a draw.

Worm doesn't start on the board and his official location is unknown at the start. Four objective markers are placed at the center of each map tile (represented here by three sheep and a pig) and each of these can move 6" each turn. When any of these move into base contact with Lotho, a die is rolled and on a 5+, it's Worm! If the first three come up as duds, the fourth one is immediately Lotho. This does mean that the Ruffians begin with one fewer model than the Hobbits and have to guard more overall area - we'll see if they can pull it off!

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 5: The Mayor's Arrest

Good morning gamers,

We're back in the Scouring supplement today and after a pack of Hobbit Militia couldn't keep Ted Sandyman from getting into his mill last time, another brave band of Hobbit Militia will be attempting to escort the Mayor of the Shire, Will Whitfoot, to safety. Attempting to capture the Mayor today is Sid Briarthorn and a motely crew of Ruffians - let's see what happens!

The Mayor's Arrest

The board has four Hobbit smials in it and Will Whitfoot is attempting to get off the board edge at the top of the photo above. Sid arrives on that board edge with some thug friends, but also has some flankers coming in from the left and right. Both sides have 13 models (one hero and twelve warriors), so the Ruffians have a points advantage (about 30pts) over the Shire force, not to mention the Fight Value advantage they have. The only advantage for the Shire is . . . they have Centaur at the helm (who has used Hobbit Militia for years).

While the Shire player will win if Will can get off the top board edge, the Ruffians will win if they can bind Will and drag him off any board edge (including the top board edge). Let's see what happens!

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 4: The Old Mill

Good morning gamers,

NOTE: Today, the Kickstarter for Jacob Lucas's Kingdom of Tor Ithilas dropped - and the project is already fully funded! Be sure to check it out (it's a bargain price - and if it's at all like his previous work, the terrain is going to be AWESOME for game play) and back it if you can! Also, I don't get anything for advertising for Jacob - his stuff is just awesome. Okay, back to today's planned content . . .

We're back in the Scouring of the Shire supplement (Hey Reader!) and while the Ruffians had a hard go of it last time, this scenario appears to be a lot more promising. The Ruffians are attempting to take over Sandyman's Mill - and with Ted Sandyman joining them (with the keys to the building in hand), they hope to drive off the rabble-rousing Hobbits that stand in their way and get the wheels of industry moving.

The Old Mill

The board is a 2' x 2' board - but we have a slightly different setup than the book has. Originally, the right board edge is supposed to represent the doors of the mill . . . but Centaur 3D-printed a mill from Dark Realms' Hobbit Village line instead and we're going to enter that. I'll probably do a terrain post near the end of the year, but the design of the 1' x 2' panel that the mill sits on marries up with the two Brandywine River tiles from the previous scenario. 

The forces in this scenario appear to favor the Ruffians pretty heavily - I start with Ted and 12 Ruffians (8 vanilla, 4 with whips), while Centaur has . . . 12 Hobbit Militia. Yikes . . . The Ruffians win if they can get into Sandyman's Mill (with Ted opening the door or by dealing 2 wounds to a D7 door that always counts as being trapped) before they are quartered.

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 3: Maggot's Farm

Good morning gamers,

We're back for more Scouring of the Shire fun (Hey Reader)! We're playing the Maggot's Farm scenario which has exactly ten models in it - let's see if Maggot's famous dogs can keep the ruffians out! 

Maggot's Farm

The board is a 2' x 4' space with some wooded areas leading to Maggot's Farm. Centaur added some grazing animals to the landscape and one of his spare Ruffian models is our scarecrow (set up where the road to Maggot's land begins). The dogs start the game as sentries and are spread out within 6" of the scarecrow. The Ruffians will come on from the right side of the board on the first turn and Maggot might arrive starting on the turn after the dogs spot the Ruffians. The Ruffians win if four or more of them cross over the left board edge, while the dogs/Maggot win if they can kill four of them. If three get off and the other three die, the game is a draw.

Unlike other Sentry missions, this scenario gives the dogs a 6" detection range instead of a 3" detection range (or being hit but not killed by archery, per the usual) . . . which is huge. Because this happens at night, the dogs also cause Terror in this scenario (which is big) and I only hit on a 6 in this scenario with my shooting attacks (1 whip and 3 bows), which . . . isn't THAT bad considering our 5+ Shoot Value, but is also not great. With the lower Fight Value and only double the dogs' starting model count, we'll see how this goes!

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 2: The Ruffians Arrive

Good morning gamers,

We're back for scenario two of the Scouring of the Shire campaign and today Bill Ferny is back, leading a ragtag band of Ruffians and Lotho Sackville-Baggins against a company of Hobbit Shirriffs and a few Hobbit Militia bounders, led by Holfoot Bracegirdle and Robin Smallburrow. Let's see how this goes!

The Ruffians Arrive

The Ruffians and Hobbits start on opposite sides of the Brandywine Bridge in roughly equal numbers. The game lasts for 12 turns and Evil wins if they can Paralyze Robin and Holfoot and get them off the western board edge. The Hobbits win if they can prevent this from happening and if Holfoot and Robin are still alive. If either Holfoot or Robin should be killed, the game is a draw.

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 1: Ruffians in Bree

Good morning gamers,

Last year, Centaur and I played through Fantasy Fellowships every other Saturday and it was a lot of fun. I think Quest of the Ringbearer is the best supplement released to date and the scenario options in it certainly contribute to that. Centaur (Hi Reader!) firmly believes that The Scouring of the Shire supplement is better, so when we were probing through scenario campaigns to do this year, the choice was clear: we were doing Scouring.

Centaur has been collecting Hobbits for ages and has recently printed a bunch of Ruffians to support his GW Sharkey's Rogues heroes, so after finding and painting Robin Smallburrow, he was good to provide all the models. With his help getting some 3D printed roads and smial doors (and a mill - all paid for by advertising revenue from this blog by viewers like you . . . thanks, guys), I undertook the terrain side of the house. Now you know who to critique for what.

Our first scenario begins in Bree, which means I get to show off some really old, child-proof terrain today . . .

Ruffians in Bree

The board is a 4'x4' board in two panels - I have an Inn of the Prancing Pony in the middle for Quest of the Ringbearer, so we measured out a 12" radius in all four cardinal directions and marked the edges with black dice (you can see one at the bottom of the image behind the Ruffian models).

The scenario participants are 4 Hobbit Militia and 8 Bree Villagers (Hobbit Militia with +2" of movement, +1 Strength, and -1 Courage) against Bill Ferny (remember him?) and 9 Ruffians (3 bows, 2 whips, 4 vanilla). To win this scenario, the Bree-folk need to kill Bill Ferny (2 Wounds/1 Fate with Defense 3 and only 1 Attack), while the Ruffians need to quarter the Bree-folk AND Bill Ferny needs to kill two models. If the Ruffians quarter the Bree-Folk but Bill Ferny kills 0-1 models, the game is a draw. Let's see if we can make some mischief in Bree . . .  

The Scouring of the Shire Inspired Lists: Angmar Revisited

Good morning gamers,

This is our last post in this series of taking your Scouring of the Shire scenario collection and using them in Matched Play - and today we're focusing on a faction that only makes an appearance in three scenarios in the appendix of the sourcebook. Angmar is one of the most competitive factions in SBG and has been dominant certainly since the MESBG rules were issued a few years ago. But the Scouring of the Shire scenarios include a rather generic set of models from Angmar that you can take - and depending on how you make your purchases, you may have some extra models lying around that you can use. Here's the list:

• Golfimbul;
• 1 Wild Warg Chieftain;
• The Witch-King on foot and mounted on a horse (if you purchased the Battle Host as recommended);
  
• 12 Warg Riders (4 shields, 4 shields and throwing spears, 4 Orc bows);
• 8 Wild Wargs (actually 12 Wild Wargs because they come in packs of 6); and
  
• 12 Orc Warriors (but we actually need 48 Orcs because we need 6 bowmen and there are 4 in each box of 24 models)
  

If we have 12 Warg Riders, 12 Wargs, and 48 Orcs . . . that's plenty to work with! Where we'd run into trouble is with the heroes, but that's easily solved by picking up the Mordor Battle Host to get a "free" Witch-King model for the same cost as a box of Orcs and Warg Riders. As such, our hero corps is pretty simple: one big caster, one big wolf, and one fat, fat Orc!

The Scouring of the Shire Inspired Lists: The Chief's Ruffians LL Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Last time we saw how you can take your Scouring of the Shire collection and make a Matched Play army for the Shire (and Rangers). Today, we're looking at the other side of the coin and looking at the Ruffians of Sharkey's Rogues. Our list is quite fleshed out - if you bought enough Ruffians to play with the Lockholes campaign rule (see our What Models Do You Need article for what this is):

• Sharkey and Worm
• Sid Briarthorn, Rowan Thistlewood, and Bill Ferny
• Lotho Sackville-Baggins and Ted Sandyman
• 30 Ruffians
• 10 Ruffians with whips
• 20 Ruffians with bows
• 12 Hobbit Militia
  

Photo Credit: The Scouring of the Shire

72 warriors with lots of heroes to lead them actually gives you a lot to work with, but today, we're definitely going with the Legendary Legion and looking at what 600 points of Ruffian spam can do!

The Scouring of the Shire Inspired Lists: The Shire Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Today marks the beginning of a three-part series where we look at the models we have in the Scouring of the Shire scenarios and design a list for use in Matched Play. Unsurprisingly, our first stop will be . . . the Shire. The quintessential "good guys" of Tolkien's famous tale, the Shire is often viewed as a non-competitive choice in Matched Play because they have low Defense, they're slow, they have (basically) no spears, and their heroes are weak. And perhaps because they are so heavily critiqued, Centaur has made it his mission to champion them and trounce us here at TMAT again and again with his "waistcoat brigade." Those dashing chaps are more than they seem - let's look at the models we have to work with (I've done some groupings - the list is quite long):

• The Four Travelers (Frodo of the Nine Fingers, Samwise the Brave, Meriadoc & Peregrin, Captains of the Shire);
• Three combat Hobbit heroes (Holfoot Bracegirdle, Robin Smallburrow, and Farmer Maggot);
• Six support Hobbit heroes (Will Whitfoot, Farmer Tolman Cotton, Hamfast "the Gaffer" Gamgee, Baldo Tulpenny, Lotho Sackville-Baggins, and Folco Boffin);
• Four "damsel" Hobbit heroes (Rosie Cotton, Paladin Took, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, and Fredegar "Fatty" Bolger)
• 12 Hobbit Militia
• 8 Hobbit Archers (and 1 Hobbit Archer with war horn)
• 12 Hobbit Shirriffs
• Bullroarer Took (who seriously limits our options for heroes)
• Gandalf the Grey
• ALLY - The Rangers: Aragorn - Strider
  
• ALLY - The Rangers: 3 Rangers of the North
• Bilbo Baggins
  

While the warrior count is very low (33 Hobbits + 3 dogs) and a few less bows than we'd actually want (we probably want 4-5 more), you CAN run the Defenders of the Shire LL at 750 points if you run all the models you have and do 6 weapon swaps on Hobbit Militia or Hobbit Archers. This will "only" give you 52 models, 16 of which (roughly one-third of your army) are heroes. Tactical benefits aside of having all those heroes, you probably want more bodies than that.

Photo Credit: The Scouring of the Shire

The scale of the Scouring of the Shire book is much smaller than the other sourcebooks (Fall of the Necromancer varies in its scope, admittedly), so it would make more sense for us to lower the points level in this post to something smaller than our usual 700pt list. Like we did for the Men of the West last year, I landed on 600 points - and this list is an homage to my good mate Centaur who, I know for a fact, will critique only one thing about the list below: the lack of Anduril. Let's dig in!