So It Begins, Part 3: Plant the Charges

Good morning gamers,

We're back for our third scenario in our custom Helm's Deep campaign. Today, the Uruk-Hai are trying to blow up the culvert with some fancy explosives! Can Aragorn and his friends kill all three torch-bearing Berserkers before the wall is blown?

Plant the Charges (War in Rohan, p. 28)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario:

• Forces of Good: Mostly The Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• Forces of Evil: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 4 Uruk-Hai Captains
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 8 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
• 3 Demolition Teams

This scenario requires Evil to blow up the Deeping Wall via the culvert, while Good needs to kill all three of the torch-carrying Berserkers (hereafter referred to as "torch-boyz"). I will say from the outset that Gorgoroth was watching us set up, and he told Centaur, "You know, you should just keep one of your Berserkers with a torch really far back." Centaur was like, "Yes, I should - but this is scenario play." So . . . for you meta gamers out there, enjoy the resulting fireworks display as both Centaur and I go all-out for not-a-draw!

So It Begins, Part 2: The Walls of Helm's Deep

Good morning gamers,

We're back for another scenario in our custom Helm's Deep campaign. Today, the Uruk-Hai have made it to the walls and they'll be battling through the defenders, trying to get a hold of the walls. Can Aragorn and his friends kill 35 Uruk-Hai in 12 rounds? Can we keep Aragorn alive? We'll see - here are our participants . . .

The Walls of Helm's Deep (War in Rohan, p. 26)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario:

• Forces of Good: Mostly The Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• Aldor
• Haleth, Son of Hama
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• Forces of Evil: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 4 Uruk-Hai Captains
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 12 Uruk-Hai Berserkers

The record keeping for this scenario is tricky - we tried our best to keep a faithful tally. You will see how this went shortly . . .

So It Begins, Part 1: Raise the Ladders

Good morning gamers,

Every year, Centaur and I try to do some kind of scenario thing - in recent years, we've played through Fantasy Fellowships, the Scouring of the Shire, and a custom campaign through all the Osgiliath missions. Today, we're starting this year's campaign, which will be playing through the scenarios related to Helm's Deep from the War in Rohan supplement. We'll be using the new profiles, but we won't be altering the scenario participants to make legal Matched Play lists (it just doesn't work for Good this time around). We'll also be showing off the amazing terrain from Conquest Creations' Kingdom of Saxonia, Volume II - Jacob has really outdone himself and boy was making the terrain a ton easier than before!

The Walls of Helm's Deep (War in Rohan, p. 26)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario:

• Forces of Good: Mostly The Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• Aldor
• Haleth, Son of Hama
• 8 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 8 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 8 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• Forces of Evil: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 4 Uruk-Hai Captains
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 12 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
• 5 Siege Ladders

We could have made this a Matched Play game by adding Theoden to the good side - the points are one-sided towards the Forces of Good and they have the walls . . . we'll see how this goes. The victory conditions for this scenario are based on how many ladders Evil can keep up - if Good can knock down 4+ of the 5 ladders, they win. If Evil can keep up 4+ of the ladders, they win. If there are 3 ladders left standing, it's a draw. 

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!

War in Rohan Inspired Lists: The Riders of Eomer LL Revisited

Good morning gamers,

This is our last post in this series on War in Rohan and I've chosen to close it out with a list that I've been running a lot lately: the Riders of Eomer. This Legion is often touted as one of the WORST Legions in the game - right down there with the post-nerf Vanquishers of the Necromancer LL and the ever-avoided Men of the West LL (both of which I happen to really like - what can I say, I love me a good hopeless case). The models we have in War in Rohan to use for this Legion are quite expansive, mostly because there's a whole scenario centered around these guys:

• Eomer, Marshal of the Riddermark on horse with shield (note that none of the War in Rohan scenarios give us access to throwing spears on Eomer)
  
• Gandalf the White on Shadowfax
• Erkenbrand, Captain of Rohan on horse
• Captain of Rohan on horse with shield
• 16 Riders of Rohan
• 8 Riders of Rohan with throwing spears
• 1 Rider of Rohan with banner (because we have the mounted command blister)
  

I'm going to say this right now: for the purposes of this article, I plan to upgrade as many guys as I want to Westfold Redshields even though this upgrade wasn't given to anyone in the scenarios. Why? Because I can - and this list needs a few of those guys, okay? Before we dig into the list, though, let's look at what the critiques of this Legion are - and then look at how I've been running this list at 600 points (and been enjoying my games with them).

Photo Credit: War in Rohan

The first point of contention for most players is that we've lost too many hero and warrior options. Most Legendary Legions pair down the models you have access to - and some of those Legions are incredibly popular and viewed as quite competitive at least at certain points levels (most notably Theodred's Guard, Ugluk's Scouts, Cirith Ungol, and the Assault Upon Helm's Deep). Usually this is because what's left in the Legion gets a big benefit (for example, in Theodred's Guard, you get Sworn Protector/Fearless on everyone, the infantry get Fight in Ranks, and your Riders of Rohan, Rohan Royal Guards, and Captains of Rohan transfer their Arise, Riders of Theoden rule to Theodred). This Legion . . . doesn't really do that. At all. Instead of Strength +1 on the Charge from the normal Rohan army bonus, you get Strength +1 on the Charge when you're within 12" of Eomer (weaker) and a once-per-game ability to have a global -1 penalty to all enemy dueling rolls if Gandalf is in your army (which is pretty good . . . once . . . and if you don't roll poorly on your dueling rolls). These rules just don't seem like enough to justify running the Legion, especially when paired with a second critique: not getting the rules you'd want.

There are two big changes that I'd recommend for this Legion that would take it from obscurity to at least part-way competitive: first, let your Captains/Riders of Rohan transfer their Arise, Riders of the Theoden rule to Eomer. This would give you F4/S4 on the Charge when within 12" of Eomer, which make your cavalry much more of a threat (especially after you've used the Look to the Sun rule). Additionally, Eomer should either be F6 on the charge or have the Arise, Riders of Theoden rule himself (if the Legion transferred this rule to Eomer) so he can be F6. If Eomer hit a little harder (to make up for all the heroes you're missing) and if the cavalry supporting him hit a little harder, this Legion would be much, MUCH better. Alas, we don't have those rules - and of all the Legions we could make Eomer F6 in without breaking the game, THIS is the Legion for it. Oh, and the fact that literally every other list with Riders of Rohan in it can have F4 Riders of Rohan and this one that relies PURELY on them is stuck with F3 Riders of Rohan . . . an utter travesty, I tell you.

But despite all this (and maybe because I like to make things hard for myself and love a good underdog story), I love this Legion - it's fun to run, it's easily underestimated, and it rewards creative play. Oh, and it also plays Rohan the way Rohan used to be played - it's very skirmishy and wants to charge in once and then get out. Oh, and you get Gandalf the White - who I happen to like very much. So how do we take our collection from War in Rohan and turn one of the worst Legions in the game into a game winner? Well, we don't go above 600 points and we do something like this . . .

War in Rohan Inspired Lists: Khand Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Today we're back to studying one of the most expensive factions in the game - and one of the things that pushed War in Rohan over the edge as the most expensive supplement we've looked at so far: Khand. If we look strictly at the one scenario in the appendices that requires Khandish units, we have the following units to work with:

• 1 Khandish King on Chariot
• 1 Khandish Chieftain on Chariot
• 3 Khandish Charioteers
• 12 Khandish Horsemen
• 18 Khandish Warriors (6 with bows)
  

While I could build a 500-point list with just Khandish units, I opted today to showcase how you can get much of the punch from Khand allied into a more reliable anvil from a different faction. Let's dig in!

The List

Photo Credit: War in Rohan

The tricky thing about War in Rohan for evil alliances is that the only ACTUAL heroes we have in the scenarios are Heroes of Fortitude. Thrydan becomes a Hero of Valour in the Army of Dunland Legendary Legion (see our recent article for info on what that might look like - and check out our review of the Legion for additional details on the list), but he's normally a Hero of Fortitude. Thanks to the way the PURCHASES have to be made for the heroes we need, we actually do have a Hero of Valour from Isengard that we can tap into: Lurtz. Here's the list:

War in Rohan Inspired Lists: Fangorn Revisited

Good morning gamers,

We've looked so far at four Legendary Legions in this series on the War in Rohan supplement (Theodred's Guard, Assault Upon Helm's Deep, the Army of Dunland, and the Defenders of Helm's Deep), but today, we're turning away from the Legion section and looking at a list with no Legions for it: Fangorn. These guys are some of the nastiest models you'll ever have to face - hard to beat in a fight, hard to kill, and with their army bonus, they're immune to a good many magical powers (see my article for how this breakdown works). Thanks to a very few scenarios, we have the following models available to us:

• Treebeard with Merry and Pippin
• Quickbeam
• Beechbone
• 3 Ents
  

Photo Credit: War in Rohan

With 860pts of Ents, it would be easy to say "take everything except Beechbone" - but with only Treebeard having access to Heroic Strike/Defense, this 7-model army would find it pretty difficult to deal with a lot of different threats (multiple Strike heroes, control scenarios against Fearless foes, perhaps Maelstrom scenarios). As such, while you could certainly run that list with my blessing (it's a bear to fight), I've opted for a convenient alliance instead, that will not only get our numbers up but ALSO help us deal with multiple hero threats.

War in Rohan Inspired Lists: The Defenders of Helm's Deep Revisited

Good morning gamers,

We talked about Dunland last week, which makes up a large part of the Isengard models from the War in Rohan supplement who aren't Uruk-Hai and today we turn to the faction of Lothlorien, who make up most of the models that Good has access to that aren't from Rohan. While Rohan dominates most of the scenarios, those Elves are going to see a lot of use when you get into the Helm's Deep scenarios and are showcased in one of the most cinematically memorable scenes from the Two Towers film.

Photo Credit: War in Rohan

Lothlorien in Matched Play is one of those factions that can be really good in the hands of a skilled player and provides an affordable point of entry for new players who want to play with Elves since their light infantry, heavy infantry, and cavalry are older plastic sculpts and many of their heroes are readily available for quite affordable prices from both GW and the second -hand market. Guards of the Galadhrim Court got pricier with their migration to ForgeWorld, but they're still available and can be lethal when used well. Our Lothlorien units in War in Rohan, however, are much more restrictive:

• Celeborn and Haldir (for Haldir)
• Galadhrim Command blister:
• 1 Galadhrim Captain
• 1 Galadhrim Captain with Elf bow
• 1 Galadhrim Warrior with banner
• 1 Galadhrim Warrior with Elf bow and war horn
• 24 Galadhrim Warriors:
• 8 vanilla
• 8 with spears and shields
• 8 with Elf bows
  

If you just look at this collection of 30 models, you actually CAN run everything in it for 703 points, which means at 700pts, you could drop all the shields on the spearmen and get a shield on your vanilla Galadhrim Captain. No matter how you swing this, I think the list feels like it's missing something (probably Galadriel and Galadhrim Knights but definitely Guards of the Galadhrim Court).

So instead of trying to shoe-horn in a pure Lothlorien list, I decided to cover a FOURTH Legendary Legion in this series - one that I love and have played with a lot. Here the Elves will be playing a supporting roll, but the list is plenty dangerous and a pain to play against (and since it's me and I love Lothlorien, I naturally couldn't give you just one list) - let's dig in!

War in Rohan Inspired Lists: The Army of Dunland Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Last time we mentioned there are lots of ways you can run your Isengard faction models in Matched Play - and while Uruks do make up the mainstay of most of the missions, the other prominent subfaction of the Isengard models in War in Rohan are the models from Dunland. Dunlendings got new life with War in Rohan and the Army of Dunland Legendary Legion has been a force on the tabletop since its release. In War in Rohan, we get almost all the Dunland models - and in general, we get them in good quantities:

• Gorulf Ironskin
• Frida Tallspear
• The Wild Man Oathmaker
• Thrydan Wolfsbane on foot and mounted
  
• 3 Dunlending Chieftains
• 12 Wild Men of Dunland
• TECHNICALLY, we have 12 vanilla Wild Men of Dunland and 12 Wild Men of Dunland with two-handed axes
  
• 16 Dunlending Warriors (6 shields, 6 bows, 4 two-handed axes)
• TECHNICALLY, we have three boxes of these guys since we have 3 Chieftains, which means we have 12 shields, 12 bows, 12 two-handed axes, and 3 banners
  
• 6 Dunlending Huscarls
• 6 Dunlending Horsemen
  

Photo Credit: War in Rohan

This is a rather large collection of models, but there's a glaringly obvious model missing: Crebain. Despite being released in War in Rohan, Crebain don't show up in any of the scenarios - and the penalty they apply to hitting them with ranged weapons, their Fly special rule, and their multiple Wounds makes them great for holding objectives and sneaking to get artifacts. Yep, they're a really good model - and thanks to us applying these stupid list building constraints, we're going to build a list today without them.

War in Rohan Inspired Lists: Theodred's Guard LL Revisited

Good morning gamers,

As we delve into the War in Rohan supplement, looking at how to take the scenario forces into Matched Play, it makes sense to start with the primary protagonists of the scenarios: Rohan. This means we're starting the series with LOTS of options, as we not only got new profiles in War in Rohan (Helm Hammerhand, Haleth, and Aldor), but we also got a bunch of new Legendary Legions that allow us to run Rohan in different ways. With all the choices ahead of us, let's look at what we have to work with!

We essentially get everything we could want from Rohan if we collect all of the models for the scenarios (like I did for the Scouring of the Shire, I've grouped things a bit because the list is LONG):

• The Royal Family: Theoden, Theodred (no throwing spears), Eomer (no throwing spears), and Eowyn (no throwing spears)
  
• Supporting Named Heroes: Elfhelm, Grimbold, Gamling, Hama (no extra gear), Haleth, Aldor, Erkenbrand, Eorl the Young, Helm Hammerhand
  
• Generic Heroes: 3 Captains of Rohan with shields, 1 Captain of Rohan on horse with shield
  
• Also, we have at least 1 King's Huntsman because we bought at least one command blister
  
• Infantry Warriors: 36 Warriors of Rohan (12 shields, 12 throwing spears and shields, 12 bows), 12 Rohan Royal Guards with throwing spears
  
• +13 Warriors of Rohan if you collect everything you need for the big Battle of Helm's Deep scenario
• You also have 1 war horn (with shield and throwing spear) and 1 banner from the command blister along with 1 banner and 1 war horn from Grimbold's command blister 
  
• Mounted Warriors: 24 Riders of Rohan (8 with throwing spears), 3 Rohan Outriders on horses, 12 Rohan Royal Guards on horses with throwing spears, 6 Sons of Eorl
• You also have 1 Rider of Rohan with banner from the mounted command blister
  

For those keeping track, the only Rohan models we're missing are Dernhelm (though we have Eowyn) and Deorwine, Chief of the King's Knights. We're light on Rohan Outriders and have a small but functional number of Sons of Eorl, but otherwise we have 12+ of every other Rohan Warrior model - and we have THREE banners we could bring in our army. Pretty good, I feel - something we can work with for sure.

War in Rohan: What Models Do You Need?

Good morning gamers,

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

We're preparing for our FOURTH round of the what-do-you-need-for-scenarios series. Because I love Quest of the Ringbearer so much (check out our page for everything we've written about that), we started with what you need for Quest of the Ringbearer (and Fantasy Fellowships) and have since also covered Gondor at War and The Scouring of the Shire. Our travels take us this time to the next chronological sourcebook to be released, War in Rohan.

Commonly held to be one of the best (if not THE best) supplement released by Games Workshop in this newest iteration of MESBG, War in Rohan is a powerhouse supplement for those who like matched play, introducing Legions (such as the Assault Upon Helm's Deep, Theodred's Guard, and the Defenders of Helm's Deep) that have podiumed across the globe and proven their metal at a variety of points levels. It also introduced a bunch of models, to include most of the current Dunland collection (like the infantry heroes and crebain), as well as selected models from Rohan and Isengard. Oh, and some Ents too (though only one has an official sculpt). Yes, if you're a matched play enthusiast (and chances are . . . you are), War in Rohan might be the best (or at least the most competitive) starting point for you.

But what if you don't JUST want to butt heads with whatever weird concoction of troops your regular playing buddy has thrown together - what if you'd like to play through some of the incredible scenarios that were provided in War in Rohan? Well, today we're going to look at the models you need (and as usual, ways to save some cash along the way). Let's dive right in!