Announcing the TMAT THRO 2026 Tournament!

 Good morning gamers,

It's that time of year again - it's TMAT's The Hunter's Red October tournament! The tournament will be held in Purcellville, VA on December 5, 2026. This year's tournament is a team tournament and it's set up differently than anything we've done before. Players will select whether they want to be Good or Evil and will place an army token on a space from the Return of the King Risk map (hereafter called the"strategic map").

Without further ado, here are (in my typical style) the Ten Commandments of the Tournament (Rules):

1) Thou Shalt Understand The Canon

The ruleset we will be using is from the most recent Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual (the Fellowship walking one). The supplements for the Armies of the Lord of the Rings, the Armies of the Hobbit, the Armies of Middle-Earth, and the Legacies of Middle-Earth will govern the profiles and army lists being used. Any GW errata for these books will take precedent over the printed text of these documents.

2) Thou Shalt Honor Thy Alliance

This tournament follows the alliance "restrictions" provided in the main rulebook - players will pick one army list from one of the following army lists that can be found in the GW-issued supplements for this edition and follow all list building requirements for that army list:

GOOD (30 lists)

• Army of Dale
• Army of Erebor
• Atop the Wall
• The Beornings
• The Breaking of the Fellowship
• Defenders of Erebor
• Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Defenders of the Pelennor
• The Eagles
• Fangorn
• The Fellowship
• The Fiefdoms
• The Fords of Isen
• Garrison of Ithilien
• The Grey Company
• The Grief of Eomer
• Halls of Thranduil
• Kingdom of Rohan
• Lothlorien
• Men of the West
• Minas Tirith
• Paths of the Druadan
• Reclamation of Osgiliath
• Return of the King
• Ride Out
• Riders of Eomer
• Riders of Theoden
• Rivendell
• The Road to Helm's Deep
• The Road to Rivendell
• The Shire

EVIL (29 army lists)

• Army of Dunland
• Army of Gothmog
• Army of the Great Eye
• Army of the White Hand
• Assault on Lothlorien
• Assault Upon Helm's Deep
• The Black Gate
• The Black Riders
• Cirith Ungol
• Corsair Fleets
• Depths of Moria
• The Easterlings
• Far Harad
• Fell Beings of Mirkwood
• Grand Army of the South
• Harad
• Host of the Dragon Emperor
• Legions of Mordor
• Lurtz's Scouts
• Minas Morgul
• Moria
• Muster of Isengard
• The Serpent Horde
• Ugluk's Scouts
• Umbar
• Variags of Khand
• Wolf Pack of Angmar
• Wolves of Isengard
• Wraiths on Wings

For this tournament, only one copy of an army list may be present in the alliance (see #3 below). In addition, only one copy of each named hero is allowed across the alliance. 

The Road to the TMAT GT 2026: Tiberius's List

Good morning gamers,

I love the week leading up to an event - lists are in (usually), spreadsheets are being made, rules are being reviewed, and final practice games are being run. It's always a good time - and I love it all. As is usually the case, there's never one list that has taken my attention during the lead up to an event, so I culled the many thoughts to five lists . . . and those are the ones I will be sharing with you today.

Pick #5: The Garrison of Ithilien 

I had a blast with this list - it gets slightly more than 50% shooting thanks to the heroes in it and it has a very healthy model count of 32. I tested several variants of this list, including one that pushed 40 models but didn't have Smeagol and Sam in it. At the end of the day, the biggest limitation on this list is that its only answers to big heroes is its volume of S2 archery and Frodo with the Ring - and I wanted more options:

I still think this list has potential and I really liked the shooting. That did become a bit of the theme of these lists and as a long-time proponent of shooting-heavy lists, perhaps it's not a surprise that I also looked at . . .

Announcing the TMAT GT 2026!

Good morning gamers,

It's that time of year - The TMAT GT is upon us! The tournament will be held in Purcellville, VA on May 23, 2026. Without further ado, here are (in my typical style) the Ten Commandments of the Tournament (Rules):

1) Thou Shalt Understand The Canon

The ruleset we will be using is from the most recent Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual (the Fellowship walking one). The supplements for the Armies of the Lord of the Rings, the Armies of the Hobbit, the Armies of Middle-Earth, and the Legacies of Middle-Earth will govern the profiles and army lists being used. Any GW errata for these books will take precedent over the printed text of these documents.

2) Thou Shalt Honor Thy Alliance

This tournament follows the alliance "restrictions" provided in the main rulebook - players will pick one army list from one of the GW-issued supplements for this edition and follow all requirements for that army list.

The Road to THRO 2025: Tiberius's List

Good morning gamers,

Bonus post! We've got our first tournament under the new edition coming up and here's my path (as usual) to preparing for the event. I have a lot of lists that I've tried and a few that I haven't tried, but here were the contenders and why I did or didn't take each one. I will say that I left my Balrog at home because I ran him a lot last edition and I have a bunch of lists I didn't get to run last edition that look good/still look good now. We'll start with . . .

Pick #5: Numenor

I'm in love with the new Numenor list and while they can't get a banner, I think it's a REALLY strong list (and so easy to acquire second-hand off from players who want the Elves and not the Numenoreans if you're willing to do some kit bashing)! At 600pts, you can get a 33-man list with Isildur on a horse and two Captains OR you can get a 35-man list with Isildur on foot and two Captains. I don't own a mounted Isildur model, so I've opted for the 35-man option:

Leaving this list at home was an easy choice - I've played with it a few times and liked it, but my son liked it too and it's also easy for new players to use (and we've got a few new people for this event). My son toyed with running the mounted-Isildur version of this list until the day of the deadline, so I passed on it but I'm committing myself to running some variant of this list at some point during this edition . . . we'll see how my follow-through is on that. :)

Announcing the TMAT THRO 2025 Tournament!

2025-09-19, NOTE: this post has been updated with the tournament lists!

Good morning gamers,

It's that time of year - The Hunter's Red October will be hitting the TMAT community again (but in September this time, not in October). The tournament will be held in Purcellville, VA on September 20, 2025. This will be our first tournament under the 2024+ rules set (now that we have a complete set of profile supplements), which I think is pretty exciting! Without further ado, here are (in my typical style) the Ten Commandments of the Tournament (Rules):

1) Thou Shalt Understand The Canon

The ruleset we will be using is from the most recent Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual (the Fellowship walking one). The supplements for the Armies of the Lord of the Rings, the Armies of the Hobbit, the Armies of Middle-Earth, and the Legacies of Middle-Earth will govern the profiles and army lists being used. Any GW errata for these books will take precedent over the printed text of these documents.

2) Thou Shalt Honor Thy Alliance

This tournament follows the alliance "restrictions" provided in the main rulebook - players will pick one army list from one of the four GW-issued supplements for this edition and follow all requirements for that army list.

The Road to the TMAT GT 2025 - Tiberius's List

Good morning gamers,

I've been busy for the past few months (not too busy to write, but my weekends have been taken up by a TON of things), so I was happily surprised when Red Jacket reached out to us and scheduled our GT for the year. It's not every day that I attend a tournament without having to do any of the planning, so I was excited to figure out what list I'd be bringing. The tournament will be a three-round, random-pairing tournament with assignments being made before the first round is played. The pools will be #2 (multiple objectives), #4 (killing things), and #3 (objects).

This tournament will also be the last hoorah of the old edition (while we wait for the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement - and possibly the Legacies of Middle-Earth document - to drop), so when picking my list, I was first and foremost interested in running lists that don't appear to be valid lists in the new edition. There is a prohibition on Impossible Alliances at this event (so Floi can't be run with Bombur this time), but there were still plenty of lists that I wanted to run. Without further ado, here are the lists that I considered for the event (and the one I locked into running)!

Honorable Mention: Isengard

Years ago, I stepped out of a tournament that Red Jacket threw so my son could take his first step into our gaming community. It was the first time that any of our kids had participated in an event and I offered to be his coach (and sub in if he got tired). He got a little overwhelmed by the end of the last game, but he also had a lot of fun and played well. The list I almost took to that event was a 750-point version of the list below - and so naturally, I considered taking a list like that, since a) I never actually ran Saruman in one of our events under the 2018 MESBG revamp because I dropped, and b) because the list felt really, really strong:

• Saruman [ARMY LEADER]
• INDEPENDENT: Grima Wormtongue (or in an enemy warband)
• INDEPENDENT: Uruk-Hai Drummer
• 8 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 7 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with pike and banner
• Thrydan Wolfsbane on horse
• 4 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
• 4 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• Mauhur
• 12 Uruk-Hai Marauders with Uruk-Hai bows

The thing is . . . this list is basically a Muster of Isengard list in the new edition. Yes, I need to swap out Thrydan/Mauhur for Uruk-Hai Captains/more guys and I can't upgrade the Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows to Marauders to boost their movement (but will have an extra guy out of it), but this is the kind of list that I can run now without having to "waste" a throw-back event moment. So as much as it pains me to admit that this is the list I probably should run, I'm not going to run it. Don't worry, my dear Uruk-Hai boyz, I'll bring you out to play this edition, I promise.

Pick #5: Lothlorien Pajama Party

This list is a variant of a list I took to a GT a few years ago - but it's got Celeborn and the Mirror of Galadriel instead of Haldir and a few guys. The "pajama party" doesn't work quite like it used to, since the current edition of the game slaps half of the throwing daggers off the Wood Elf Warriors (now Lothlorien Warriors), but it is harder to shoot when you don't have cover thanks to changes with Elven cloaks. This list also has a mounted Galadhrim Captain and some Galadhrim Knights, who are not currently in the Lothlorien list, so this would be something I can't run now (that and Celeborn has a weapon and heavy armor):

• Galadriel with the Mirror of Galadriel [ARMY LEADER]
• 1 Wood Elf Warrior with Wood Elf spear and throwing daggers
• 9 Wood Elf Warriors with Elf bows
• Celeborn with Elven-made hand-and-a-half sword and heavy armor
• 3 Galadhrim Knights with Elf bows
• 4 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers
• 4 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers and Wood Elf spears
• 1 Wood Elf Warrior with Wood Elf spear and banner
• Galadhrim Captain on armored horse with shield and Elf bow
• 6 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers
• 6 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers and Wood Elf spears

The Lothlorien list in the new edition certainly can't run this way, but it can also do things that this list cannot do. While the new Armies of Middle-Earth supplement does not appear to have a Lothlorien army list, Galadhrim Knights were not listed as moving to the Legacies document, so I assume they'll be provided in the Armies of Middle-Earth book but be added to the Lothlorien army list (kind of like models released in the supplements of the last edition were said to be included in existing factions - like Anborn/Mablung being included in Minas Tirith lists). We'll see how all this shapes up, but I'm reasonably certain that once the new book drops, I'll be able to run a list like this. So . . . in the bin it goes for this event.

Announcing the TMAT GT 2025 Tournament!

TMAT’s GT 2025 Official Tournament Rules

Editor's Note: This article was updated on May 12, 2025 with the lists that were submitted for the tournament.

Welcome to the TMAT GT 2025. After a brief hiatus from hosting our local tournaments, we are returning with a final farewell tournament to the RAW 6th edition (Yes we are a little late on the final farewell tournaments. Yes, it’s because many of us are waiting on the Armies of Middle Earth book). Below you will find all the information you need to participate in this year’s TMAT GT. To ensure you are kept up to date as we draw closer, make sure you reach out and express your interest in the event to the tournament director: r3d.jack3t.1853@gmail.com. Without further ado, the tournament rules are as follows:

1: Gameplay Rules, Profiles, and Scenarios

Unless otherwise explicitly noted in this document, the following are the rules for this tournament: The 6th edition (2018), along with all relevant erratas and FAQs will be the rules for this tournament. The individual supplying the terrain for various battlefields determines the kinds of terrain represented, as well as the level of in the way test required for shooting attacks if necessary.

2: Conflicts and Resolutions

All players are expected to play with honesty, sportsmanship, fair play, and generosity. In the event of a question regarding the rules, the game clock will be paused, all games will stop. The rules manual will be consulted. In the event that interpretation is required, all players in the tournament will be able to give a brief argument for the interpretation they believe to be correct. Once all players have had the opportunity to give input, the tournament director will make a determination on how the rule will be interpreted. For the remainder of the tournament, this interpretation will be in effect for all games. The game clock will be started, and play will resume.

In the event of a disagreement regarding a specific model/battlefield situation, the game clock will not be paused, and play will continue except for the games affected by the question (or the game potentially involving the tournament director). The players involved in the disagreement will, if possible, recreate or describe the situation to the tournament director without indicating the players relative correlation to the description. If this is not possible, the tournament director will examine the actual situation on the game board. Both players involved will be allowed to make a brief argument for their position, and the tournament director will make final determination.

Announcing the TMAT THRO Tournament 2024!

Good morning gamers,

It's that time of year - The Hunter's Red October will be hitting the TMAT community again (but in December this time, not in October). The tournament will be held in Berryville, VA on December 14, 2024. We're trying our hand at a doubles tournament this year - bring a buddy for the first round, but then be ready to rotate partners as the tournament progresses! Without further ado, here are (in my typical style) the Ten Commandments of the Tournament (Rules):

1) Thou Shalt Understand The Canon

Regardless of whether we have a new edition by mid-December (it appears likely), the ruleset we will be using is from the updated Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual (the Sauron one). The Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement will govern the rules for armies from the Lord of the Rings, while the Armies of the Hobbit supplement will govern the rules for armies from the Hobbit. Legendary Legions and profiles from any of the GW supplements released between Gondor at War and Rise of Angmar (inclusive) may be used, provided that the army building requirements for the Legendary Legion are followed. Any GW errata for these books will take precedent over the printed text of these documents.

2) Thou Shalt Honor Thy Alliance

This tournament follows the alliance "restrictions" provided in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings and Armies of the Hobbit supplements - players are allowed to have "pure" armies or Legendary Legions (no alliances). Unlike the stated rules for doubles events in the Matched Play Guide, the players who arrive as a team for the first round may not take the same Legendary Legion (as we will be rotating partners).

Tournament Time: Rythbryt's Army Thoughts (Grand Tournament 2024)

Edited May 6, 2024, with tournament results

Bonus post this week. Must be something special going on... ;)

As faithful readers of the blog know, TMAT's annual GT is coming up this weekend. I generally don't post articles on the armies I'm running (I leave that to Tiberius, who's far more practiced--be sure to check out his article from yesterday, if you missed it). Nor do I generally recap how the tournament went (Centaur's your man... er... horse-man... for that). But I'm making an exception this time, for several reasons:

1. I've been light on generating content recently (and feel somewhat guilty about that);
2. I owe Tiberius at least two podcasts on tournaments that have long since wrapped (and, again, feel somewhat guilty about that);
3. I really liked a number of the lists that I batted around (and felt like sharing them); and
4. Perhaps because I really liked these lists, I actually locked into a list earlier than the final day they were due (actually, almost 2 full weeks before they were due), which meant there was actually time to write a prospective post on it. :-P

Along the way, there were twists and turns and trepidations (well, okay, actually less trepidation than usual). So yeah... if you want some musings about heavy/all-cavalry armies (or their equivalent), with a heavy dose of strategy (and maybe some obsession-bordering-on-neurosis), read on. :)

This may be a spoiler...

Photo Credit: cbr.com

Factual Background (because all of life is a story, right?)

First, a digression that's not really a digression.

About two months ago, TMAT hosted a winter "mixer" tournament designed to be a fun, pseudo-competitive way for the people in our gaming group to play some games (always fun), while also introducing new/newer players to MESBG. Because of that, we had a pretty small tournament by most standards: a 350 point cap (4-model minimum), with 5 games in one day (45 minutes per game). The five scenarios were pre-selected (though not their order), and all opponents were randomized. (For about a 72-hour period, we also thought this was going to morph into a funsies doubles-event, but we did end up having enough players for a full singles event--10 players altogether, which is also a weird number for doubles :-P).

For those of you who are familiar with the Matched Play guide, you know that 45 minutes is... kind of tight for a 350 point game (the guide recommends 1 hour 15 minutes for a game of that size, so this was definitely on the "fast" side). The pool of scenarios for the tournament (Hold Ground, Capture and Control, Destroy the Supplies, Lords of Battle, Divide and Conquer) also offered a mix of "capture objectives" and "kill models outright/around objectives," which posed some... interesting choices given the 45-minute time limit. For objective games, you wanted lots of models (and, in general, I think you want more models than less in MESBG). But more models equals longer phases, which means less rounds (which means less moving, less shooting, less fighting, less botching, etc.). And taking an army composed of slower models (goblins? hobbits?), shooting models (a 6-second shoot phase vs. a 10-minute shoot phase makes a huge difference), or models that last a long time but have trouble wounding standard (D6) shieldwalls (S3/D7 dwarves, for instance) could further complicate things.

So with those issues in mind, as I mulled my options for the tournament (and all told, I think I mulled some 200 different list ideas/variations), I kept finding myself drawn to lists that could move fast, kill very quickly, take a beating... and do all the above without relying on a lot of shooting/time-intensive roll-offs. And ultimately, it worked. I won all five of my games at the GT with a list that consisted of the Dark-Marshal on Fell Beast (F6 wraith who casts normally, on a flying monster, who can also be a 6" banner in a pinch), leading eight Morgul Knights (who I've always loved, and never brought to a tournament before), and four Black Numenoreans on foot (which I have brought to tournaments before, and never disappoint me) for a grand total of 13 models at 350. 

A portend of things to come?

The Road to the TMAT GT 2024 - Tiberius's List

Good morning gamers,

There wasn't a lot of time between the Spring Zephyr tournament and the GT this year, so I streamlined my list testing - a lot. I probably came up with over a dozen 750-pt lists that I wanted to try, but with time of the essence and wanting to get more than one game in before the tournament with my list, I basically focused on two archetypes and just played with those lists. As such, this post is going to be . . . pretty boring if you're looking for list variety. But the lists were fun - and I really enjoyed playing with them. Let's see what I almost took!

Honorable Mention: The Men of the West LL

It's no secret, I'm in the camp of the Men of the West heart and soul. With a player in the UK winning a GBHL90 event (not super competitive but not fluffy either), there were two list builds for the Men of the West that I was keen to try. The one that was least like the lists I've run before (and more like the list that won the event) was one I wanted to have a shot at - and it features the Twins, who I'd need to borrow but have also struggled to kill at previous tournaments:

• Aragorn, King Elessar [ARMY LEADER]
• 1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with shield
• 3 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears 
• 10 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows
• Eomer, Marshal of the Riddermark with shield
• 15 Warriors of Rohan with shields and spears
• Elladan and Elrohir with heavy armor

750 points, 33 models, 10 bows hitting on a 4+ AND 15 throwing spears hitting on a 4+, 8 D6+ models, no fast models but Heroic March and Mighty Hero, 12+ Might

This list is not as D6-heavy as the GBHL winning list, but it shoots a lot - 10 standard bows and 15 throwing weapons. It's not as many bows as I could have had if I'd left the twins at home (throw in a Captain of Rohan with shield and throwing spears leading a bunch more guys with throwing spears and shields to allow everyone in Aragorn's warband to have bows and you have a nearly all-shooting list with TONS of models, admittedly at D5 with no supporting attacks), but it's still a lot - and we have four hammer heroes in our list (who are pretty good at killing stuff for being infantry). The heroes would all be more devastating if we had taken horses, but we can't do that in the Legion and we can't ally the twins in without bringing one of those really expensive Heroes of Valour/Legend from Rivendell, so we would be getting sub-par heroes if we did an alliance (probably Hurin and upgrading some Rohan models to cavalry).

Announcing the TMAT GT 2024!

Updated: May 3, 2024 with army lists  

Good morning gamers,

Wait, we just had a tournament - what's all this? Well, we had a short window this year for our Grand Tournament, so here's a three week notice post! The tournament will be held at Patrick Henry College on May 4, 2024. Like the event last year, we're going to do four rounds with the veto system, but the way we do pairings will be a little different. Without further ado, here are (in my typical style) the Ten Commandments of the Tournament (Rules):

1) Thou Shalt Understand The Canon

The ruleset from the updated Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual (the Sauron one) will be our baseline. The Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement will govern the rules for armies from the Lord of the Rings, while the Armies of the Hobbit supplement will govern the rules for armies from the Hobbit. Legendary Legions and profiles from any of the GW supplements may be used, provided that the army building requirements for the Legendary Legion are followed. Any GW errata for these books will take precedent over the printed text of these documents.

2) Thou Shalt Honor Thy Alliance

This tournament follows the alliance "restrictions" provided in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings and Armies of the Hobbit supplements - players are allowed to have "pure" armies or Historical/Convenient/Impossible alliances. Legendary Legions from any of the Games Workshop supplements can be taken as well, but obviously cannot take allies nor be taken as allies.

The Road to the TMAT Spring Zephyr Tournament - Tiberius's List

Good morning gamers,

Well, I've broken my every-other-week Thursday cycle again - hopefully you don't mind. This weekend, we'll be having our Spring Zephyr tournament, where we'll have small armies, short games, and lots of chances for redemption. It'll be grand - but as is always the case, there were a lot of armies clamouring for my attention. Today we'll walk through the various lists I considered running - and what list I finally landed on. Let's start with . . .

Honorable Mention: The Kingdom of Khazad-Dum 

There's nothing in this game I love more than using an army of Dwarves (except maybe one with a Balrog) and Khazad-Dum is a great choice at lower points levels. At 350 points, I was able to get a 19 model army with a Dwarf King, a King's Champion, and a mix of Dwarf Warriors and Rangers to fill out the ranks. Nothing fancy here:

• Dwarf King
• 5 Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows
• 4 Dwarf Rangers with throwing axes
• King's Champion
• INDEPENDENT: 2 Heralds
• 6 Dwarf Warriors with shields 

It's the "nothing fancy" bit that made me not take this list - I'm sure it would have done well, but it's also very boring to play. With this being a teach-new-players-to-play event, I didn't want to show up with a grind list of Dwarves, so these guys get to stay in box. I was surprised that my dishonorable mention even fit in the points level . . .

Dishonorable Mention: The Serpent Horde 

So . . . it's a Mumak with Rappelling Lines and some guys in it . . . which would be very hard at this points level to stop with magic or archery. I have no doubt that winning certain scenarios would be hard - and that winning other scenarios would be easy:

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

But this is not a good gateway army - no new player is going to look at a Mumak and say, "Yeah, let's go fight that." So, he's staying in the box as well. This leads us to our first actual list . .  

Candidate #5: Rohan - Fellowship Convenient Alliance 

Centaur has done book-accurate Helm's Deep lists before, but this is a first for me. Eomer and Gimli retreat to the caves of the Deep in the book, so I made an all-shooting list with 16 models that reflects their stand at the caves (though Eomer was smart and grabbed a horse):

• Eomer on horse with shield and throwing spears
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• 6 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 4 Rohan Royal Guards with throwing spears 
• CONVENIENT ALLY - The Fellowship: Gimli, Son of Gloin 

The list is very skirmishy, but doesn't really have the time to skirmish. The time constraints require an aggressive game play that is just too swingy with this list for my liking. Still, I liked it (and will have more thoughts on this list in a future post).

Candidate #4: Lurtz's Scouts LL 

A better skirmish list is one that can skip shooting and just engage - and a really fun way to do that is with Lurtz's Scouts. Lurtz is a good hero who gets outclassed as the points level increases, but at 350, you can get a big horde of Uruks to help him out:

• Lurtz with shield
• 4 Uruk-Hai Marauders 
• 4 Uruk-Hai Marauders with shields 
• 5 Uruk-Hai Marauders with Uruk-Hai bows 
• Mauhur 
• 3 Uruk-Hai Marauders 
• 4 Uruk-Hai Marauders with shields 
• 3 Uruk-Hai Marauders with Uruk-Hai bows 

This list has an impressive 25 models and was a strong contender for my choice, but then my son expressed an interest in running it, so I backed off. This led me back to Helm's Deep and another Legendary Legion . . .

Candidate #3: The Defenders of Helm's Deep LL

At last year's 300-point Winter Whirlwind tournament, an attendee brought a Theoden/Haldir version of this list - and it did okay. This list has Legolas and has lots of Elf bow shots, 8 supporting models, and some cheap Rohan infantry to form the front-line:

• Theoden, King of Rohan with heavy armor and shield
• 6 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 1 Warrior of Rohan with throwing spears and shield
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows and spears 
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 1 Warrior of Rohan with throwing spears and shield
• 2 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows and spears 

20 models is pretty good - and with a few of those as supporting models, you're in a pretty good place if you have a shieldwall match up! While I could get good shooting in on most of the scenarios, this army depends on the spearmen being with the melee units - and with a lot of objective scenarios and not a lot of time on the clock, I just didn't think I would be able to score VPs and still shoot. Maybe next time guys. To get lots of shooting while still getting to the objectives, the better list turned out to be . . .

Candidate #2: Rohan 

Apparently, I have had Rohan on my mind. :-) This list abandons the numerical focus of the other two lists and instead goes for the mostly all-cavalry focus that makes Rohan great. I could have upgraded the Riders of Rohan to mounted Royal Guards and run the Riders of Theoden Legion, but I wanted the extra body:

• Theoden, King of Rohan on armored horse with heavy armor and shield [ARMY LEADER]
• 5 Riders of Rohan 
• Gamling, Captain of Rohan on horse with the Royal Standard of Rohan
• 4 Riders of Rohan
• 1 Warrior of Rohan with shield and throwing spears

Up until the moment I submitted my list, I kept coming back to this one. I ran Rohan at the last event and frankly, I wasn't sure that the infinite Might in this list was going to be appreciated. The list itself doesn't look scary - but all the warriors shoot, we can move quickly if we want to, and our numbers are good (for being mostly cavalry). I looked into turning the Warrior of Rohan into throwing spears/Royal Guard upgrades, as well as turning Gamling into various heroes (Erkenbrand and Dernhelm, in particular - and running Theoden as the only hero with 15 Riders of Rohan/Rohan Royal Guards), but while this list was fun to play, it was facing off against a very strong contender . . .

Candidate #1 and Tiberius's List: Minas Tirith 

I don't know that there's ever been a points level where I have felt better about bringing Denethor than this one. I have a horde of guys (my maximum of 29 models) and plenty of F4 or D6 and spears everywhere. With objective missions being a thing, I feel pretty good at being able to contest my opponents in most games:

• Denethor, Steward of Gondor [ARMY LEADER]
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 2 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with shield, spear, and banner 
• 1 Knight of Minas Tirith with shield 
• 3 Rangers of Gondor
• 4 Citadel Guard 
• Madril, Captain of Ithilien
• 6 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 6 Rangers of Gondor with spears

This is a proper spam list that has forsaken only one thing: a powerful hero. I have a lot of guys - and not a lot of answers to big heroes - but I can be where I want to be and hopefully that will be enough. In the end, I thought this list was better than the 16-model Men of the West list I briefly looked at, so there's that. :-) I also explored getting an extra Knight or two at Rythbyrt's and Centaur's suggestions, but I couldn't get the points to work out without having to purchase a bunch of models - so I left it with one mounted model. 

I think it'll be fine - the list can have a 13-file F4 shieldwall if it needs it (three F4 Rangers of Gondor will be in the front rank supported by the Warriors of Minas Tirith with spears/banner; ten Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields will be around them supported by F4 Citadel Guard/Rangers of Gondor with spears), so if we face another shieldwall list, I'm feeling confident that the FV we have will be fine - and we can probably wrap-and-trap to make up for being S3 all around.

Conclusion

I'm excited for the event and I hope the players who come have a good time. I'll see if I can get an update out after the event with how things went - until next time, happy hobbying!

Sharkey's Rogues: A "Game Master" Army

Hey Reader!

In preparation for the upcoming TMAT Spring Zephyr Tournament, I've been playing around with Sharkey's Rogues, 1) because I've owned the models for a while, 2) because I painted SO. MANY. of them, so I need to use them at some point, and 3) because a 350pt tournament is about the highest you can go before you're worried that you're being outclassed (450 is probably the highest I'd ever go, maybe 500), so when is this opportunity going to come up again? :P

But as I started practicing with them in earnest (and doing okay, actually), I realized why I enjoy playing them so much: it's a "Game Master" army, and as someone who has been a game master semi-professionally for roleplay games for over 10 years, it means I have the mindset to use them correctly. And that's what I wanted to chat about today.

Announcing the TMAT Spring Zephyr Tournament!

  Good morning gamers,

Spring is coming, and we're welcoming it with the TMAT Spring Zephyr tournament! The tournament will be held at Patrick Henry College on March 23, 2024. Like the Winter Whirlwind tournament from last year, we're going to do another play-a-bunch-of-quick-games event. Without further ado, here are (in my typical style) the Ten Commandments of the Tournament (Rules):

1) Thou Shalt Understand The Canon

The ruleset from the updated Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual (the Sauron one) will be our baseline. The Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement will govern the rules for armies from the Lord of the Rings, while the Armies of the Hobbit supplement will govern the rules for armies from the Hobbit. Legendary Legions and profiles from any of the GW supplements may be used, provided that the army building requirements for the Legendary Legion are followed. Any GW errata for these books will take precedent over the printed text of these documents.

2) Thou Shalt Honor Thy Alliance

This tournament follows the alliance "restrictions" provided in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings and Armies of the Hobbit supplements - players are allowed to have "pure" armies or Historical/Convenient/Impossible alliances. Legendary Legions from any of the Games Workshop supplements can be taken as well, but obviously cannot take allies nor be taken as allies.

The Road to TMAT's THRO 2023 - Tiberius's List

Good morning gamers,

This year's THRO tournament is our first siege tournament - oh sure, we've had maps with walls before (once), but this is the first time we've used the siege scenarios and equipment provided in the War in Rohan supplement. Walls change a lot, though only half the boards will have them - and with this being a team event, it looks like it will be a good opportunity for newer/less competitive players to come out of the woodwork and try out one of our events. 

Because it was a team event, I decided to submit my list last - because I had several lists for Good and Evil that I liked, I wanted to have the ability to choose which side I was on based on how everyone else's preferences were stacking up. In talking with Rythbyrt and Centaur, we were like, "You know, we could stack one team and all play together . . . that would be fun." Well, that didn't pan out . . . but it's probably for the best. :)

But because I had to prepare to play on BOTH sides (and we have the Rule of One in play, so no repeat heroes or Legions), I had - wait for it - TEN lists that I wanted to try out for this tournament. Yes, ten - I know, I'm obsessive. Many of the models I needed for these lists were ones I was in the process of painting, so deciding that I might play with them was very much intended to give myself a kick in the pants to push through my backlog of models and get them done. I ended up playing on the Evil team, so here's the lists I considered for Good:

Candidate #5: The Defenders of Helm's Deep Legendary Legion

It's no secret - if you know you need to defend a wall from attack, this Legion is probably a good first stop. At 1000 points, if you don't take Aragorn (which I was pretty sure my son was going to take, so I built the list without him), you can actually get quite a few guys. Theoden, Haldir, and Legolas are very cheap heroes of Valour/Legend and this allows you to spend points on Galadhrim instead of just buying Rohan guys. I happen to like the Warrior of Rohan profile a lot and having a 1:1 ratio of spears to not-spears (and 33% of the army + 4 heroes having bows makes this list a powerhouse of shooting):

• Theoden, King of Rohan with heavy armor and shield [ARMY LEADER]
• 9 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 9 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows and spears
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• 7 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 1 Warrior of Rohan with shield and throwing spears
• 1 Rohan Royal Guard with throwing spears
• 6 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows and spears
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• 7 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 1 Warrior of Rohan with shield and throwing spears
• 1 Rohan Royal Guard with throwing spears
• 6 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows and spears
• Galadhrim Captain with Elf bow
• 5 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 1 Warrior of Rohan with shield and throwing spears
• 5 Rohan Royal Guards with throwing spears
• King's Huntsman
• 3 Rohan Royal Guards with throwing spears

1000 points, 67 models, 25-27 Elf bow/longbow shots on a 3+ AND 13 throwing spears hitting on a 4+, 13 D6+ models, no fast troops but 5 Might for Heroic March, 13 Might

Not taking this list was an easy decision - my good mate The Black Prince is a die-hard Rohan player and he brought Theoden and Legolas in his list. Thanks to the Rule of One, this list bit the bin even before I got around to playing with it (I was expecting to not be able to use it anyway). Though this list had double the models of the Black Prince's all-mounted Rohan force, it didn't have as much shooting, interestingly enough - so I very heartily wished the Black Prince luck with his list and moved on to . . .

Thoughts on the German Scoring System

Good morning gamers,

As a preliminary note, the blog just passed the 2 million (reported) page views mark - from all of us here at TMAT, thanks for taking the time to read what we're posting! 

This past June, we here at TMAT ran our annual Grand Tournament and we decided to use the "German Scoring System" for awarding tournament points instead of our usual 2-to-10 system for major/minor wins/losses (more on this later). The German Scoring System was different and had some very interesting take-aways from our tournament. While there are certainly other players who could weigh in more on how valuable this system is, I wanted to present my review of the system based on the 16 games we had at our event and provide some observations about it. Let's dig in!

What Are The Distinctives of the German Scoring System?

To be pedantic, in most tournaments (especially those in America), players compare their victory points (VPs) and are awarded a victory or loss based on whether one player has more VPs than the other (a victory) or fewer VPs than the other (a loss). These are either "major wins/losses" if one player has double the number of VPs of the other or "minor wins/losses" if one player has more but not double. In many tournament settings, a major victory is only awarded if the winning player scores more than X number of VPs to encourage them to "actually play the scenario". I have recently been implemeting this in our tournaments, requiring 6 VPs to be scored to get a major victory. Without this limitation, a 2-1 victory is awarded the same number of Tournament Points (TPs) as a 7-2 victory or a 12-0 victory.

Depending on whether you get a major/minor victory/loss, you get a certain number of TPs. How many TPs you get for a major/minor win/loss or a draw depends on your tournament, but we here at TMAT have traditionally done 10 points for a major win, 8 points for a minor win, 6 points for a draw, 4 points for a minor loss, and 2 points for a major loss.

If you compare this to the MESBG Matched Play Guide, you'll find on page 5 that it's recommended that a win (any margin) is awarded 3 points, a draw is awarded 1 point, and a loss gets you no points. VPs are used to break ties (first by VP differential, then by total VPs scored). Further tie breakers are recommended here as well, including most enemy army leaders killed, number of secret objectives completed, or favorite opponent rankings. This is different from what we do, mostly because I feel it has less granularity (and because ending your day with 0 TPs sounds cruel to me).

With the German Scoring System, however, there are 20 points up for grabs and they're allocated between the players based on how many Victory Points they receive in the round. Here's what the grid looks like (and for more information on this grid, check out the Unexpected Podcast episode on this subject - it's excellent):

As you can see, the scoring for this is going to be . . . huge. Very huge - especially if one side dominates and the other gets slammed. But what advantages are there for this kind of system? Well, let's take a look at some of the reasons that we found . . .

Announcing the TMAT Hunter's Red October 2023 Tournament!

 Good morning gamers,

Fall is hastening to us, so it must be time for THRO 2023! The tournament will be held at Patrick Henry College on October 14, 2023. This year, we're going to do another good vs. evil team event while trying out the rules for siege scenarios in War in Rohan. Without further ado, here are (in my typical style) the Ten Commandments of the Tournament (Rules):

1) Thou Shalt Understand The Canon

The ruleset from the updated Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual will be our baseline. The Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement will govern the rules for armies from the Lord of the Rings, while the Armies of the Hobbit supplement will govern the rules for armies from the Hobbit. Legendary Legions and profiles from any of the GW supplements may be used, provided that the army building requirements for the Legendary Legion are followed. Any GW errata for these books will take precedent over the printed text of these documents.

The rules for siege equipment and siege scenarios can be found in the War in Rohan supplement. This supplement will be the definitive authority for how siege gear works, except as amended in this post.

2) Thou Shalt Honor Thy Alliance

This tournament follows the alliance "restrictions" provided in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings and Armies of the Hobbit supplements - players are allowed to have "pure" armies or Historical/Convenient/Impossible alliances. Legendary Legions from any of the Games Workshop supplements can be taken as well, but obviously cannot take allies nor be taken as allies.

Because this is a team event, no Legendary Legion may be taken more than once across the alliance. Additionally, each named hero may only appear once across the alliance (across all the various identities a character may have). If there is a conflict with two players wishing to bring the same character, the Tournament Director will notify the player(s) who submitted their list(s) later that list(s) modifications are required.

The Road To the TMAT GT 2023: Tiberius's List

Good morning gamers,

This weekend is our TMAT Grand Tournament and boy do we have a good batch of guys coming out! As always, I had a FLOOD of lists that I was looking at running, but for the purposes of actually practicing more than once with the list that I'd be running, I decided to rein in my thoughts and narrow it down to a few lists. As is usually the case, I decided on one list at the start that I was like, "Yeah, this is probably my list" and then played with all the OTHER lists to see if I liked how they played better. So let's look at the list I decided to take . . . and the ones that just didn't make it.

Honorable Mention: The Men of the West LL

Yep, these are my boys and I'll be honest, I picked a 600ish points level because I wanted four games in one day, but also so I could bring these guys. This list was my reference list - I compared everything to it because I've played it a ton before and it's reliable. Like, it's really reliable (and while you might say, "Minas Tirith + Rohan/Fiefdoms would be better," I have struggled to find a better list with a historical pairing at 623pts). The list has Aragorn and Eomer with maximum archery, maximum models, and a banner in Eomer's warband. I played with this list a bit before the Winter Whirlwind tournament, but ultimately there was one list (maybe two) that made me feel like it was a bit better for the match-ups I'd be looking at:

• Aragorn, King Elessar [ARMY LEADER]
• 7 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 11 Warriors of Minas Tirith shields and spears 
• Eomer, Marshal of the Riddermark with shield
• 3 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 1 Warrior of Rohan with shield, throwing spears, and banner 
• 11 Warriors of Rohan with bows

623pts, 35 models, 11 bows hitting on a 4+ AND 4 throwing spears  hitting on a 4+, 20 D6+ model, no fast models but Mighty Hero and Heroic March, 6+ Might

Announcing the TMAT Grand Tournament 2023!

Good morning gamers,

It's that time again - Spring is hastening here, holidays have come and gone, and we're gearing up for another GT! The tournament will be held at Patrick Henry College on June 24, 2023. This year, we're going European and trying out two things: the German points system and a wacky (but logical) points level. Without further ado, here are (in my typical style) the Ten Commandments of the Tournament (Rules):

1) Thou Shalt Understand The Canon

The ruleset from the updated Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game Rules Manual will be our baseline. The Armies of the Lord of the Rings supplement will govern the rules for armies from the Lord of the Rings, while the Armies of the Hobbit supplement will govern the rules for armies from the Hobbit. Legendary Legions and profiles from any of the GW supplements may be used, provided that the army building requirements for the Legendary Legion are followed. Any GW errata for these books will take precedent over the printed text of these documents.

2) Thou Shalt Honor Thy Alliance

This tournament follows the alliance "restrictions" provided in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings and Armies of the Hobbit supplements - players are allowed to have "pure" armies or Historical/Convenient/Impossible alliances. Legendary Legions from any of the Games Workshop supplements can be taken as well, but obviously cannot take allies nor be taken as allies.

The Road to the Winter Whirlwind Tournament

Good morning gamers,

Centaur sprung a surprise* tournament on us and the tournament is intended to get some of the players who have drifted from the game over the years to come back and give it a try (and to introduce some new players to the game). As such, the tournament tomorrow will be 300pts (with no single model costing more than 150pts) and we'll be playing 5 games (45min each). Centaur picked one scenario from each pool and each round, he'll draw the pool that we'll be using (so we need to prepare for 6 scenarios but will only be playing 5 of them). 

We haven't had a tournament at/under 300pts in a long time (we had a 150-pt event in 2017 - and that one didn't require heroes), so this was an interesting challenge. While most people might think that a low points limit would mean fewer armies than normal for my consideration, I can assure you that I tested no less than TEN different lists at this points level (and wrote up a TON more that never even made it to the tabletop). Let's take a look at the front-runners!

Honorable Mention: Vanilla Mordor

Which is more scary: a winged monstrosity or a horde of Morannons!

Last September, I got a Fell Beast (you can see him in a few pictures here, close-ups to come in the next Quest of the Ringbearer collection update) - and it is FUN to use! When Centaur mentioned off-handedly that he was going to do this, I immediately looked to see if I could pair my knowledge of spell-casting, my love of Ringwraiths, AND my new Fell Beast model into a list - but the 150pt limit for individual models really limited what I could take:

• The Witch-King of Angmar on Fell Beast with 3M/11W/2F [ARMY LEADER]
• 2 Morannon Orcs
• 6 Morannon Orcs with shields
• 6 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
• 1 Morannon Orc with shield, spear, and banner

Veteran Witch-King players will see the glaring omission from this list: the Crown of Morgul. With it, the Witch-King not only casts more reliably with less Will, but is also always 3 Attacks (4 Attacks on the charge). Still, this list behaves exactly as you think it will: it'll win if the Witch-King lives and it will lose if the Witch-King dies. With the Fell Beast as part of the investment, I need to be at least a little aggressive with him - and I ultimately didn't like how swingy my games could be just based on his fights. I would encourage players to experiment with this kind of list without a 150pt cap (or just swap the Fell Beast for a horse, the Crown, and 2-3 Will depending on whether you take an armored horse or not) - it actually is a good list. Alas, it was far less reliable than the other contenders you'll see below.