The New Age Is Begun: the Lurtz's Scouts Army List

Good morning gamers,

A few years ago, we did a draft of the Good and Evil Legendary Legions for the TMAT Talks podcast. One of my mid-round picks was the Lurtz's Scouts Legendary Legion. I always loved playing with that list - it was fast, it got pretty good numbers at most points levels, and it was filled with cool-looking Uruk-Hai (who are themselves very good at chopping through things).

This army couldn't charge a Terror wall or stick around after the fight for anything (despite being told that they do not know pain and they do not know fear, but they were nevertheless very fun to play. Today, we're diving into their current army list in the new edition - and I think they're better in this edition, but there's one change I wish was made that would really help them out. Let's see what these guys have to offer!

Lurtz's Scouts: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

The list of models you have in this army list hasn't changed from the previous edition if you play with the Legacy models. It's still just Lurtz and Ugluk for the named heroes (and Mauhur with Legacies), Scout Captains and Drummers for the unnamed heroes, and Uruk-Hai Scouts for your warriors. Like the Assault Upon Helm's Deep list that we looked at last time, you're trading a greatly reduced profile list for a hero you can't get anywhere else (Lurtz) and a bunch of special rules. Is it enough? Depends on what you like, I guess . . .

The New Age Is Begun: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep Army List

Good morning gamers,

We've already viewed the Muster of Isengard and Army of the White Hand lists for Isengard - or in short, the two lists you can run Saruman in. Today, we're poking at a list that was very strong in the last edition and has fallen from grace a bit (in my opinion, at least) in the current edition: the Assault Upon Helm's Deep. This army list has retained many of the units and rules that it had in the last edition, it's received a few nice buffs, but it's also lost some things, so there's not all good news for Helm's Deep players. There are no Legacy profiles in this list (and only a few things were added with the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement), so let's take a look at what Helm's Deep players have to work with now!

Assault Upon Helm's Deep: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Like in the last edition, your options for units is incredibly limited - you have Uruk-Hai Captains/Shamans as well as Siege Veterans for your Ballistae as your heroes, and the sturdy-and-reliable Uruk-Hai Warrior and power-house Uruk-Hai Berserker for your standard-cost warriors and Isengard Trolls and Uruk-Hai Demolition teams (besides the ballistae) for your warriors. And that's it - no seriously, that's it!

When you compare the line-up to the Muster of Isengard, this comes in about the same - you get a small selection of units, but everything is elite (and as a result, it's all expensive). The upside that this list has over the Muster of Isengard is that you don't have to take Saruman - you can instead take 2 Captains and a Shaman/Ballista/a third Captain for the cost of Saruman and Grima. The downside of this list is that . . . well, you don't have access to Saruman (or cheaper Uruk-Hai Scouts as an alternative to Uruk-Hai Warriors). The profile selection alone isn't enough to scare me off this list, but as we look at the army list bonuses, I'm kind of concerned about how good this list is now . . .

Unexpected Military Formations: Epic Movie Moments, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Back in 2021, I ran a four-part series where I took four classic fighting scenes from the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit films (I added a fifth one in 2022) and looked at how you might bring that scene to life on the tabletop with MESBG. The first of those posts looked at an Uruk-Hai pike block formation (what I've since called a "loose phalanx") and how/why you might best use your pikes in games of MESBG.

The army list (Legendary Legion, really) that was most inclined to use that strategy was the Assault Upon Helm's Deep list - and with the various changes that I think have made that army list worse in this edition, I figured it would be good to review different formations you can run in order to get the most out of the classic Uruk-Hai assault force. For context, we'll be using the following 600-point force:

We'll begin with the most basic of the formation elements: the loose phalanx.

Formation #1: The Loose Phalanx

Like we said in the article back in 2021, the value of this formation is that we're spreading out our formation to provide a larger frontage and we're going to have models in the front-rank this time that either have 2 Attacks base (Berserkers) or can have 2 Attacks if they defend by shielding (Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields). There's a new cause for concern in this set-up, however: Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields can now benefit from Shieldwall. While there was definitely a case before for alternating shield-Berserker-shield-Berseker-etc., you'll now want to have two distinct phalanxes: one with Berserkers and one with Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields:

two six-file phalanxes, banner/3 captains nearby

I have intentionally made three choices with the disposition of these phalanxes: first, as mentioned above, I've created one beater phalanx with six Uruk-Hai Berserkers in it, backed by six pikes. This formation will have no problem charging Terror-causing units but is only D5, so you'll want to be careful with its engagement. Whatever Berserker isn't supported in each file will have 2 Attacks at F5 (pretty good) and the supported Berserker can two-hand with 2 pikes backing him up. This seems like a solid fighting force to me and could certainly benefit from the banner, but I don't think it needs it.

First Impressions: Isengard, Part I

Good morning gamers,

One of the first armies I started collecting back in late 2010 was Isengard - specifically, a bucket of used Uruk-Hai Warriors (Captain, banner, 18 shields, 10 pikes). A few purchases and conversions later, and I had a few Captains, a Saruman, and some Uruk-Hai Scouts/Orc Warriors to go with them. All in all, it was a pretty economical way to get started with an army.

And I hated it. I hated running my Isengard army. I looked for all KINDS of ways to use them well and no matter what I did, the Elves, Dwarves, and sometimes Rohan/Gondor/Moria armies in my meta would just seem to run right over me. And don't get me started on those crazy Angmar Orc/Hunter Orc lists that Centaur used to run during the warband era - I was paying far too much for Uruks and not getting nearly the value I felt I should have for their stats.

And that feeling of frustration and despair set me on one of my most important MESBG journeys: the decision to figure out how to get the most out of expensive spellcasters (Saruman in particular - back BEFORE he was super awesome) and how to get the most out of good-stat, expensive troops(Uruk-Hai of all stripes). Fast forward not one but two editions later, and we're seeing Uruk-Hai profiles that have either changed in very subtle ways or haven't changed at all - and in an edition where lots of characters are seeing a new renaissance, it's very tempting to look at the very familiar profiles in the Isengard section of the book and feel like they've been left behind a bit. 

But it's not true - the Uruks of Isengard are still very strong. Let's take a look today and see what the Isengard garden variety of Uruks look like!

Quest of the Ringbearer Inspired Lists: Ugluk's Scouts Legendary Legion

Good morning gamers,

In our last article, we looked at some Rivendell models you can add to your Quest of the Ringbearer collection to run a fun Rivendell list. Today we're looking at some of my favorite models in the range (aesthetically and thematically): Uruk-Hai Scouts! Yep, we're going to Isengard and seeing what kind of Scout-based lists we can make!

The List

Isengard plays an important part in the Lord of the Rings films, particularly in the Two Towers. In the Fellowship of the Ring, though, there are few forces that are quite as terrifying as seeing the scouts of Isengard racing down the Anduin pursuing the Fellowship (and ultimately engaging them at Amon Hen). Your Isengard collection, though, leaves you with very, VERY few choices:

• Lurtz is the "big hero" during the Amon Hen sequence;
• The Uruk-Hai Scout command pack will be useful too, though you only NEED the Captain with two-handed weapon (the other guys are useful too - just not needed for the campaign);
• You'll need 24 Uruk-Hai Scouts, conveniently provided in a single plastic kit; and
• You have access to 3 Orc Captains and 37 Mordor Orcs from the Osgiliath scenario (which Isengard has access to if you read closely enough).
  

If you're playing Fantasy Fellowships, though, you get a few more models to work with thanks to the Ambush at Night scenario:

• You need Ugluk (who comes in the Lurtz pack);
• You need Mauhur; and
  
• You need Grishnakh and Snaga.
  

If you limit yourself to these models, the clear army to run is the Ugluk's Scouts Legendary Legion, where you can field 5 warbands of Orcs or Uruk-Hai Scouts (for a total of 52 models):

• Ugluk [ARMY LEADER]
• 3 Uruk-Hai Marauders with shields
• 2 Uruk-Hai Marauders
• 1 Uruk-Hai Marauder with banner
  
• 3 Uruk-Hai Marauders with Uruk-Hai bows
• Mauhur
• 3 Uruk-Hai Marauders with shields
• 3 Uruk-Hai Marauders
• 3 Uruk-Hai Marauders with Uruk-Hai bows
  
• Uruk-Hai Scout Captain with two-handed axe
• 2 Uruk-Hai Marauders with shields
• 3 Uruk-Hai Marauders
• 2 Uruk-Hai Marauders with Uruk-Hai bows
  
• Snaga, Orc Captain
• 4 Orc Warriors with shields
• 1 Orc Warrior with spear
  
• 5 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• Grishnakh, Orc Captain with shield
• 5 Orc Warriors with shields
• 6 Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner

700 points, 52 models, 8 Uruk-Hai bows hitting on a 4+, 1 D6+ model, 28 fast infantry, 13 Might

This is a big list - 52 models is nothing to sniff at. In the international community, it would appear that a lot of people think that this list is a great choice. I, however, get frustrated with this list because the 8" move on the Uruk-Hai is wasted a good bit of the time. Since you have access to spears on the Orcs, if you want to run a shield-supported Uruk-Hai line, your Uruks will need to either a) move 6" to let the Orcs keep up, or b) need to move 4" to shoot and move on the same turn (slowing down your Orcs and not allowing the archers to keep up with any melee Uruks that want to move 8"). Sure, you can run an Uruk-Hai Drummer to make those bow-armed Uruks move 5.5" while shooting (which is basically the same movement as you get on your Orcs), but at that rate, you're moving "as fast as normal troops" - which means the 8-11" movement you should get on those Uruks is still wasted (at least to a degree).

Quest of the Ringbearer: Model Collection Update, Part III

Good morning gamers,

We're back for another update on my Quest of the Ringbearer collection and while I don't have the 12 Wargs I need for Part II, we're looking at the Amon Hen sequence for Part III today!

Part III: Lothlorien to Emyn Muil

There are four scenarios covered here - three chain-linked scenarios and one "big scenario" with everyone in it. Depending on whether you're playing Fantasy Fellowships or the normal campaign determines which one you'll be doing, so let's look at the participants.

Purchase #18: Lurtz and Ugluk

Two pretty good mid-tier heroes . . .

These are two great heroes and I have enjoyed using them in the Lurtz's Scouts LL. I got both for cheap off eBay and Ugluk got a skinnier sword than the original metal model has thanks to being damaged before I got him.

Purchase #19: Uruk-Hai Captain with 2h

You can get this guy now in the Scout command pack, but I did a conversion off a Scout - those poses are really dynamic and some of my favorite poses in the game.

Purchase #20: 24 Uruk-Hai Scouts

You need a box of Scouts for the scenarios, but if you plan on running the Lurtz's Scouts LL or the Ugluk's Scouts LL, you probably want more. Here are my 24 favorite ones in all their glory:

You want as many of these guys as you can in two Legendary Legions . . .

Crowd favorites - fast with average Defense and above-average Fight/Strength

Usually not run without shields, but I find you can get a few more numbers out of these guys if you leave some shields at home . . .

Bonus pic - I converted an Uruk-Hai Drummer up as well (and three Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows and banners for the Lurtz's Scouts LL). I've actually shown these guys on the blog before, but I think they deserve some billings here on their own:

Conclusion

Here's how the standings look:

• Current Model count: 
• Part I: 42/42 (100%)
• Part II: 43/55 (~78%)
• Part III: 27/27 (100%)
• TOTAL: 112/124 (~90%)
• Estimated cost remaining: ~$80

TMAT Talks, Episode 13: The Grand Tournament 2021 (Part 2)

A global pandemic may have claimed TMAT's 2020 Grand Tournament, but those dark days are finally past, and a red sun is rising once more. The 2021 Grand Tournament is upon us--so of course, TMAT's resident armchair quarterbacks had to break it down!

In Part II, Tiberius, Centaur, and Rythbryt recap their escalation rounds (which featured a lot of elves, Rohirrim, and monsters). If you need a refresher on the lists, you can find them here: 

https://tellmeatalegreatorsmall.blogspot.com/2021/04/tmat-talks-episode-10-grand-tournament.html

Now available on Spotify, Google Play, Apple Podcasts, and most places you get your podcasts!

Music: Happy Haunts by Aaron Kenny

____________________________________________

Show Notes:

Intro (0:00)

Round 1: Uruks v. Monster Mash, Lothlorien v. Rohan, Mountain Rohan v. Gwaihir & Galad (2:20)

Round 2: Monster Mash v. Mounted Rohan, Uruks v. Rohan, Lothlorien v. Gwaihir & Galad (39:06)

Round 3: Rohan v. Mounted Rohan, Monster Mash v. Gwaihir & Galad, Lothlorien v. Uruks (1:36:07)

Final Placements and Parting Thoughts (2:51:44)

The Stuff of Legends: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep

Good morning gamers,

We've talked about a few Isengard Legions already - we've looked at both Lurtz's Scouts and Ugluk's Scouts, both of which have a smattering of mid-range heroes and a handful of warrior options. To continue the trend, we're looking today at the Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legendary Legion, which has even fewer heroes and roughly the same number of warrior choices. Unlike the other Legions, this Legion is commonly viewed to be one of the best Legendary Legions in the game for competitive play - and that might be due to the nasty siege engines and powerful warrior choices they have. It's certainly not because of their heroes . . . or is it?

Let's dive in and see what we have!

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Legion Tax: probably 65pts, technically 60-75pts

This Legion requires you to take an Uruk-Hai Captain, who must be your army leader and gains +1 Attack and +1 Wound. This Captain (who we'll be calling the "Uber-Captain" from now on) isn't THAT much better than other Uruk-Hai heroes, but with 3A/3W, he's a pretty decent hero. No addition of Heroic Strike means that he's going to be good against warrior models (where being F5 is generally good enough).

You can equip this Captain with a crossbow (don't do it), a shield (pretty good option), or a two-handed weapon (I like the two-handed axe option the most). While you CAN give your hero all three of these things, you should probably just choose one (making your hero 65 points). The shield makes him a pretty good "Rock hero" (able to shield in order to get 6 Attacks), but the "Hatchet build" with the two-handed axe makes him more likely to get a high die roll before you suffer the -1 penalty from the two-handed weapon. If he wins the fight with the two-handed axe, he can do 3 Attacks at S5 (or S6 with Piercing Strike) and +1 To Wound - which will wound most warrior models on 3s. THREES! If you're unfamiliar with my taxonomy of Uruk-Hai heroes, check out my article on them here.

Thanks to the Legion bonuses, this hero can lead 18 models, which means you will probably need 1-2 other heroes to lead troops (depending on how big your points limit is). Personally, I would start off with either an Uruk-Hai Captain with crossbow (an "Arrow build") or an Uruk-Hai Shaman with armor.

Because of the bonuses that are provided to this Legion, you probably want to take an Uruk-Hai Demolition Team (with two extra flaming brands for 82 points) and an Uruk-Hai Assault Ballista led by a Siege Veteran (for 65 points). Unless you feel like these things are disgusting and have no place in matched play scenarios (which we'll discuss later), having your army leader and both of these siege weapons will cost you "only" 212 points and you still have 15 warrior slots in your leader's warband and you have 4 slots for extra siege crew. After picking up another hero for 55-65 points, you can include up to 27-33 models, which means that even at 500 points, you can field one of each of the siege weapons and a LOT of troops (you also need to bring at least one banner with this army - you have the points for it).

The Stuff of Legends: Ugluk's Scouts

Good morning gamers,

Today we'll be continuing our series on Legendary Legions with Centaur's take on Ugluk's Scouts. Now if you dig DEEP into our archives, you'll know that the first tournament we ever ran here at TMAT (Spring 2012) featured Centaur running Vrasku, an Uruk-Hai Captain (proxied by Ugluk - required by how the Legions of Middle-Earth rules worked back then), and a mixture of Uruk-Hai Scouts and Orc Warriors from the two Isengard lists from the Legions of Middle-Earth book. Centaur has been the longest promoter of Ugluk in our community (he was Centaur's first Isengard hero, if I'm not mistaken) (Centaur: he was!) and has been beloved by him ever since (though perhaps not as high on the totem pole now as the Isengard Siege Veteran with BALLIIISSSTTTAAAA!) (Centaur: he probably still wins by a hair, mostly because he doesn't MISS AS OFTEN, :P). Today, Centaur will be sharing his love for this iconic Uruk-Hai hero and his dysfunctional band of followers. 

Quick interjection before we get started: I intentionally placed this review AFTER the Lurtz's Scouts and Cirith Ungol Legendary Legion reviews, because they both stem from this army (one takes the free 8" movement upgrade for Uruk-Hai Scouts and the accompanying Uruk-Hai heroes, while the other takes the race-based warband restrictions and Animosity special rule). Both of these Legions were released AFTER Ugluk's Scouts, but I felt it would be better to cover Ugluk's Scouts third to show how these neat rules can be melded together. Okay, with the housekeeping notes out of the way, take it away, Centaur!

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Legion Tax: 65 points

Centaur: You must take Ugluk, but he's the only required hero for this list. That's a nice bonus, as he's only 65pts, and that means you have hundreds of points left to spend on your army. That being said, you are also effectively required to take Mauhur (to get the standard 8" move bonus to all Uruks), and it's wise to take both Grishnakh and Snaga as they are cheap Might Point caddies for you. I also recommend taking an Uruk Scout Captain with a two-handed weapon if you can, as they make for excellent killers (F5/S5 with a two-handed axe? OH YEAH BABY). But beyond that, you can take whatever you want, though I recommend taking a smattering of both Orcs and Uruks to fill out your ranks so that you can take advantage of your special rule.

The Stuff of Legends: Cirith Ungol

Good morning gamers,

Today we're back in the new Quest of the Ringbearer sourcebook to look at another Legendary Legion: Cirith Ungol. We've already looked at Lurtz's Scouts, which is a fast army that has average Defense. In this list, we'll look at an army that is also average Defense, but not as fast (and you must work at making it fast, while Lurtz's Scouts come by it honestly).

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Legion Tax: 155-175pts

You NEED to include both Shagrat and Gorbag in your army (Shagrat is always your Leader). With Shagrat's max cost being 115 points (with heavy armor and his special shield) and Gorbag's max cost being 60 points (with his not-so-special shield), your maximum Legion tax is only 175 points. That's higher than most Legions we've looked at, but not that high for most point levels.

Before we go into what you ACTUALLY need, let's go over something really quickly: you have two warrior profiles (Orc Warriors and Mordor Uruk-Hai) and they both have specialized jobs, as well as common jobs (where you can use either of them more-or-less equally well). Orc Warriors can take spears, while Mordor Uruk-Hai cannot - this means any second rank you have will be Orc Warriors. Mordor Uruk-Hai, by contrast, are more reliable archers than Orc Warriors (both come with Orc bows, but the Mordor Uruk-Hai have a 4+ shoot value). If you need front-line troops, BOTH Orc Warriors and Mordor Uruk-Hai make good choices, as both types of warriors can take shields (going from D4 to D5) and both types of warriors can take two-handed weapons. Both types of units can also take banners - you can give Orc Warriors spears as well (and shields if you like), while the Mordor Uruk-Hai can pair a banner with an Orc bow and be a shooting bannerman instead of a supporting bannerman.

The Stuff of Legends: Lurtz's Scouts

Good morning gamers,

Today we will be looking at our first Legion from the new Quest of the Ringbearer sourcebook! Of all the Legions that were released in that sourcebook, I was really excited to see what they did with this one. While I can't say I'm very impressed with it (it's kinda meh relative to the other Isengard Legions or the normal Isengard faction itself), the Legion emphasizes one of the things that many players will enjoy: running up the field very quickly with F4/S4 Uruks and hacking stuff up-close-and-personal. Recipe for success? Possibly not. Really fun to play? Absolutely. Great models to use on the tabletop? Undoubtedly. Curious about how we're going to make this Legion work? Read on . . .

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Legion Tax: 90pts

The only model you NEED is Lurtz with the shield, which - let's face it - we were taking the shield anyway whenever we run Lurtz (because it's free and you get a special rule for it in this Legion). Lurtz is a cheap hero, providing "good" combat stats for an Evil hero (F5/S5/3 Attacks on offense, D6/1F/3 Wounds on defense). Lurtz has 3 Might points and a good selection of heroic actions (most notably Challenge in this Legion, but also Strike/Strength/March). Being "only" D6 with "only" 1 Fate/3 Wounds isn't great for your army leader, but any Isengard player who doesn't bring Saruman is probably bringing Lurtz, so maybe you're used to it.

Lurtz also needs supporting heroes - specifically in the form of Mauhur (one of the cheapest 3 Attack heroes in the game, 2 Might for Heroic March, and you get a free upgrade for all of your Uruk-Hai Scouts to Uruk-Hai Marauders by including him) and an Uruk-Hai Drummer (+3" of movement for friendly Uruk-Hai models within 12" of him, but those same models can't charge). These two heroes cost less than 100 points, so for under 200 points, you've got 26 warriors slots (assuming the Uruk-Hai Drummer is in one of those warbands instead of by himself) and LOADS of points to work with (no matter what your point limit is).

Lurtz's Scouts Bonuses

THRO 2020 Army Preview: Raise the White Hand!

Good morning gamers,

With THRO 2020 approaching, I had a tough time settling on the army I was bringing. I had six very strong contestants in the running and almost all of them showed up in my series on List Building that I worked on for more than half the year. In this post, I wanted to go through what we know about the tournament and why I chose the army that I did.

THRO is a "safe" tournament for players in our TMAT community to run - it's not our "grand tournament," and is often used to experiment with new tournament formats, scenarios, and weird faction pairings. We've seen LOTS of custom scenarios, trying out new army building methods, thematic battles (we did a Rohan/Lothlorien vs. Isengard/Dunland tournament one year), all-hero forces (including the Fellowship and all-Ringwraiths) - it's been great. More importantly, it's a great tournament BECAUSE it's so wonky for new Tournament Directors to cut their teeth. This year, Red Jacket wanted a swing at it - so I happily stepped aside to "just go to a tournament" (something I haven't done in a long time).

Here's what we knew about THRO 2020:

• 700 point limit
• 3 rounds, each 2 hours in length
• Scenarios will be Lords of Battle, Storm the Camp, and Breakthrough

With that in mind, here's what I figured:

• Some of my factions fight better at 800 points than they do at 700 - Mordor comes to mind, as does Rohan.
• Some of my factions can play at 700 or 800 just as well - Isengard, Minas Tirith, and the Kingdom of Moria in particular.
• We don't have to worry about Maelstrom or any "race to the center" missions (though there is a race-to-the-other-corner, so speed is an issue).
• Because there's a two hour time limit, we don't want an army that will take forever to move.

With all this in mind, the List Builiding Series came in clutch, since those principles are based on creating armies that have a chance of winning any scenario you draw (ruling some out is just gravy). So, let's look at the five runners up and see why I chose not to use them.

Tiberius's Battle Company Log #3

Good morning reader,

In our last two posts, I've been using a Last Alliance battle company against some of my mates here at TMAT. I recently got together with some of my other TMAT buddies and got 3 games in with a new battle company: Isengard!

Isengard plays differently than the Last Alliance in one key respect: while getting a Rally Horn is really good for the Last Alliance because it gets you Elves on a 4+, you don't have an upgrade tree (so what you see is what you get). For Isengard, while their 3-5 troops are fine (Uruk-Hai Scout with whatever you like, Uruk-Hai Warrior with shield, Uruk-Hai Warrior with whatever you like), their special upgrade tree on a 6 is where the real power in Battle Companies arises: two different warrior choices, both of which have 2 Attacks base (and the ability to shrug off Wounds on the roll of a 6). Getting the Rally Horn is important, but you also want to recruit when you have 6 Influence, so you can boost that roll by 3 if you need to in order to get to the special chart.

Uruks also have access to Uruk-Hai Grog - an expensive but powerful item that costs 4 Influence to acquire, but gives you a battlefield-wide banner bonus for the entire game - which is KILLER if you have 2 Attack Ferals/Berserkers running around, protected by Uruk-Hai bows or crossbows. While difficult to buy in the early part of a campaign, if you can keep your Battle Company rating artificially low, you could buy this after every game and use it in the next game so you always have a banner working for you. Pretty slick...

Initial Battle Company: 7 models, Battle Company Rating of 106.

The Bare Necessities, Part VII: Isengard

Good morning gamers,

In our last post, we looked at how you could build a Minas Tirith army that maximized its victory point potential by including fast units (Knights of Minas Tirith and Gandalf the White), a banner (one on a Warrior of Minas Tirith, though I recommend picking up another if you scale up to 800-points), enough numbers (at least 30 models), ways of neutralizing enemy heroes (predominantly with Gandalf the White), and ways of augmenting/protecting your own heroes (predominantly with Gandalf the White). Today, we turn our attention to Isengard and see a sample list that you can use to maximize your potential for victory points with this army.

Isengard: Seven Versions of the Same Thing?

Like Minas Tirith, Isengard has a lot of hero and warrior choices. Almost all of the named heroes are near-carbon-copies of each other (boasting the same Fight Value, Strength, Defense, Attacks, Wounds, Courage, Might, Will, and Fate) – their only real distinction is in their special rules (where they basically have one each). Beyond these heroes, you have some heroes who are better (Saruman, Lurtz, Thrydan) and some heroes who are worse (Dunlending Chieftains, Orc Captains, Uruk-Hai Shamans, Uruk-Hai Drummers, Snaga, and Grima). As a result, while I’m going to choose certain heroes for this list, I don’t think the heroes you choose (with one exception, maybe two) matter that much – mix and match and see what you like.

For Warriors, you’re in the same quandary: Dunlending Warriors don’t benefit from the Isengard army bonus, but they’re basically the same as Uruk-Hai Scouts (-1FV but a little bit cheaper and with axes in their base profile – see my post on Dunlendings for how they compare), and those same Scouts are basically the same as Uruk-Hai Warriors (-1D but a little bit cheaper). The elite Uruk-Hai troops (Ferals and Berserkers) and Warg Riders aren’t that expensive (12-15 points each) and so you can get a decent horde out of this list if you run a lot of Uruk-Hai Captains (and the named captains are pretty cheap for what they give you – although they only have average Defense/Wounds/Fate). With this in mind, let’s look at the list and see how we can optimize on points.

The Bare Necessities, Part IV: Hero Hunting (or shutting down heroes in general)

Good morning gamers,

In our previous three posts, we’ve gone over three of the five important parts to building a list with an eye towards being able to score maximum victory points in a scenario (fast models, banners, and numbers). As a reminder, the five principles we’ll be covering in this series are:

• Fast troops who can claim objectives or exit the opposing board edge;
• At least one banner;
• Ways of delaying/avoiding being broken (often in the form of large numbers);
• Means of killing/inhibiting enemy heroes; and
• Means of keeping your own heroes alive/augmenting their damage.

Today we begin a two-part discussion on heroes: our focus today will be on hindering enemy heroes, while the next post will tackle making our own heroes better. When I first got started playing LOTR SBG, I found that some heroes were really hard to keep from killing things (most of the members of the Fellowship, Elrond, Cave Trolls), but over the past few years (and as the rules changed), there have been several tactics that I've picked up that can be used to reduce the efficiency of enemy heroes. The most straight-forward (and dangerous) of those is the most direct approach: taking enemy heroes head-on.

{7th Edition} Armies of Middlearth SBG: Isengard in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game

Photo Credit: Artstation.com

Updated May 2026: Isengard is one of the most iconic--and diverse--factions in MESBG, with four fairly developed subsets of troops and heroes: Uruk-Hai scouts (led by Lurtz and Ugluk), their more heavily armored / firepower-boosted siege variants (Shieldwall warriors, berserkers, and siege engines), warg riders and orc warriors (Sharku, Grishnakh, and Snaga), and now the disenfranchised hordes from Dunland (Thrydan, Frida, and Gorulf, plus the not-disenfranchised Wildman Oathmaker). The 7th Edition no longer lets you field everything all at once. But each list offers something slightly different, and plenty of tricks are still available to you if you fancy a turn with evil.

Shooting: Skirmish models, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Today’s post is something special – today I'm joined by Centaur in talking about different skirmish lists in MESBG. The intent of this post is to highlight some of the tactical thoughts that go into using different lists. For our purposes today, skirmish lists will be focusing on dealing damage outside of melee in order to whittle down an opponent's force to a more manageable size. This generally requires movement, as skirmish troops don't want to be engaged right away.

Without further ado, let’s take a look!

Shooting: Getting the Most out of Archery, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

This post begins a new five-part series on shooting in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game. This is a part of the game that, until recently, has received mixed reviews in our gaming group because shooting has been viewed as unreliable by many of the  factions of our players. This post will provide an overview of how shooting works and some of the fundamental considerations you should think about when using it in the game (as well as re-doing a post we did back in February 2016). Our next posts will be an in-depth look at throwing weapons (a very particular kind of shooting attack), going through two case studies on emphasizing shooting in army lists with my beloved bearded folk (Kingdom of Moria) and their arch nemeses the Greenskins of Moria (showing in both of these lists how placing a greater emphasis on archery can make both of these factions more powerful than they would be otherwise), and wrapping up the discussion with some thoughts on how to employ skirmish units in your armies (with special guests!).

So, let’s get started by understanding shooting…

Workbench Update: Isengard

Good morning gamers,

Over the past few months, we’ve been working through our workbench projects on the Forces of Evil I own (since they don’t get their own time in the sun much). With recent journeys to Angmar, Mordor, and Moria, our current travels take us to the tower of Orthanc where Saruman and his minions see some minor repairs and some new arrivals.

Using/Fighting Spellcasters: Unlimited Casters, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

We come to the last post in this series – we’ve revisited a four-part discussion we did years ago on Combat Mages, Auxiliary Mages, Multi-Purpose Will Mages, and now we finally address Unlimited Mages. The original post is here. Of all the mages in the game, these types of casters have the potential for the most Will in the game (in aggregate) and are virtually the only casters who can be active at casting magic each turn for the entirety of the game. For our purposes, we’re following this taxonomy for casters:

• Multi-Purpose Will Mages: Anyone with the Will of Evil rule (or a similar rule) and has spells (who uses Will to cast magic AND stay alive…and possibly other things);
• Unlimited Mages: Anyone who gets “free Will,” has spells that can be cast, and does not fall in the previous category;
• Combat Mages: Anyone with 2+ Attacks, has spells that can be cast, and does not fall in either of the previous two categories;
• Auxiliary Mages: Catch-all for everyone else, usually limited casting with some kind of immediate/lasting benefit to the army.