TMAT Talks, Episode 2: Top-10 (Good) Spell-casters

Photo Credit: Pardon My Elvish

Back and louder than ever! In the second episode of TMAT Talks, Centaur, Tiberius, and Rythbryt give their top-10 spell-casters for the forces of good in Games Workshop's Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game (and had such a good time of it that we ran out of time to discuss evil's spell casters, who will have to settle for their own video later).

This episode also features the debut of a new segment: "A Pocket Full of..." where we offer you mini-lists based around some of our favorite casters that you can incorporate into other armies for some added pop. Plus, it even incorporates the then-most-recent FAQ changes because we care about you (though not the actual-most-recent FAQ changes, not because we don't care but because we're not Time Lords).

Like what you hear? Disagree with our thoughts? Let us know in the comments section!

TMAT Talks, Episode 2: now available on YouTube

Guest Post: Army Tiers in MESBG (with MinutemanKirk!)

Hey Reader!

The following is a guest post from MinutemanKirk, one of the regulars on the blog, who wrote a very interesting post on tiers of armies in the Lord of the Rings side of the MESBG house (so there are no rankings of armies from The Hobbit in this list). We found it very insightful, and wanted to share it with you all here.

If you have questions about it, you can comment below (as I'm sure Minuteman Kirk will be following along), or he mentioned to me that you can reach out to him directly for more thoughts. Feel free to reach out to us on our Facebook page and we'll connect you with him.

And now, with no further ado, a ranking system for the Armies of the Lord of the Rings, courtesy of MinutemanKirk!

Editor's Note: MinutemanKirk wrote this piece prior to the recent FAQ/Errata changes on alliances, and subsequent FAQ/Errata changes-to-the-changes on alliances. If anything, this discussion is more timely given the current community discussion on alliances and the role of players vs. game developers when it comes to setting army lists.

The Bare Necessities, Part VIII: Rivendell

Good morning gamers,

So far, we’ve looked at ways you can build an army for Minas Tirith or Isengard that maximizes on the victory points you can score in a game. Today, we turn our attention to Rivendell and see a particular kind of list that gives you good access to fast units, decent numbers, a banner, ways to protect your heroes, and ways to neutralize enemy heroes. While we'll cover just about everything in Rivendell here, you can get a compact summary in Rythbryt's review of Rivendell.

Rivendell: How Many Heroes (and Which Ones)?

While Minas Tirith and Isengard have a great selection of both heroes and warriors, Rivendell does not. While its hero selection is one of the best selections in the game (only beaten as a group, in my opinion, by Erebor Reclaimed – though there are several Rivendell hero choices that are better than what you’ll find in Erebor Reclaimed), Rivendell only has two warrior choices (three if you take Gildor Inglorion). With no Legendary Legions to use (though I’m hoping for a Last Alliance Legion at some point – I predict it will follow a similar army construction rule as the Ugluk’s Scouts LL), Rivendell is what it is, though it does have a good elite infantry profile and one of the best cavalry profiles in the game.

The main question then becomes which heroes do you include?

• The three Lords of the West (Gil-Galad, Elrond, and Glorfindel) are very tough heroes to take down - I played all three recently against my good mate Red Jacket - only managed to gronk Gil-Galad with the Balrog while Elrond and Glorfindel wrecked havoc on me everywhere else;
• The Twins and Erestor are great combat heroes for their cost and easily afforded in small point games if you need lots of power;
• Arwen, Gildor, Cirdan, and High Elf Stormcallers are good casters for being under 100 points;
• Lindir can provide additional auric buffs and make Elrond more effective as a caster; and
• High Elf Captains are the only heroes who can call Heroic March twice (Gildor can call it once).

So who do you take? Here’s my take (see what I did there?):

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.

Erratas Continue?

Good morning readers,

If you haven't seen it already, there are some new changes that have crept into the errata files - mostly related to Elven heroes (and some of the Designer commentaries are missing). Check them out here: https://www.warhammer-community.com/faqs/#middle-earth-strategy-battle-game. Some of the changes that you'll see:

• Armies of the Lord of the Rings
• Arwen is a Minor Hero (not a Hero of Fortitude)
• Cirdan is a Minor Hero (not a Hero of Fortitude)
• Arwen can be included in a Fellowship army if you also include Aragorn
• Haldir is a Hero of Valor
• If you want the Easterling bonus, you need at least 25% of your army to be Easterlings
• Armies of the Hobbit
• Alfrid requires you to take the Master or Bard in your army
• Arwen is a Minor Hero (not a Hero of Fortitude)
• Cirdan is a Minor Hero (not a Hero of Fortitude)
• Arwen can be included in a Fellowship army if you also include Aragorn

Additionally, the FAQs now clarify that if you have a historic alliance, each allied contingent only needs to have a Hero of Fortitude. Convenient and Impossible alliances still require a Hero of Valour, but given that all generic captains are Heroes of Fortitude, it should be possible to get back 90-95% of the thematic lists that were "lost" with the first round of FAQs as long as you bring along, say, a Rivendell Captain with Cirdan.

My initial take: the primary heroes that were targeted by the "must have a Hero of Valor" hero have been targeted here - maybe we'll see that disappear? Alternatively, making Haldir a Hero of Valor allows him to ally with the Fellowship for more thematic play (though Gildor received no such bonus). We'll see what comes of it...

Tiberius