The Hills are Alive with the sound of... Troll beasts?

So as alluded to in my last post, the crafting halls of Karningul have been hard at work with hill trolls. Lots. of hill trolls. First by adding some finishing highlights to Buhrdur - a.k.a. The hill troll.



highlights added to skin and leather, tarnishing on metal
he still looks a bit grey in photos though - skintone is actually on the greener  side



enter the poor man's lightbox: a flashlight from 2' away and a sheet of white paper

just another gratuitous sword shot. I love that thing.

With the troll chieftain completed, the urgency of "chieftain of whom?" began to take its toll. Away went the paints, out came the modeling clay. With the assistance of some pretty nice tutorials for sculpting fur, some plasticard, some old newspaper and a scavenged warg head (sorry Tavros), I set about converting the troll clan.

very small pieces of slightly crumpled newspaper covered in superglue seems to make a decent stab at cloth coverings, with strips of thin plasticard  for the leather strappings to tie it in place  

for a first attempt at sculpting fur in this quantity, I think it turned out decently well.

you know, I think that head looks better there than it did on the warg. apology retracted Tavros. 

some small jewelry chain added. after the clay hardens this will be glued
 in place across the chest to connect with the existing troll chain in his other hand

I have three cave trolls in my collection - about to accidentally be four. Having the trolls w hammer and spear, I attempted to order the really schweet hammer-overhead pose, but somehow G-youknowWho managed to bungle that and send me the old hammer version instead. When I called them on it, they offered a free replacement - with the "mistake" essentially as a gift. I guess customer service isn't dead in this world after all! Only this means I know need to come up with a fourth conversion... I guess there are worse problems to have.

troll with... no spear. still tinkering with the weapon arm. it seemed better to finish that before attaching

Opening the 2013 LOTR Fashion season with the latest accouterments from the slopes
of the Misty Mountains: warg pelt cuffs. Ooo la la!  

all questions of "so how exactly does a troll skin a warg with out destroying the pelt?" aside,
I think these have turned out pretty well. Very promising for the rest of the project.

I think that is a good break point for now. I'm planning to get the first one finished and painted up before I get too far with the others. I want to make sure things actually work before I've committed 4 trolls to this project. Gives me a chance to make tweaks and sculpting adjustments. Any pointers from the peanut gallery are more than welcome...

Hold Ground: Dwarves vs. Uruk-Hai...vs. Elves???

So recently (read, nearly a month ago now), the General Will, Zorro, and I came together to fill an afternoon with war. We discussed playing a one-on-two game, but we decided instead to try out rules for a three-way game. In order to make it fair, we decided to make it a Hold Ground game, which will force all armies to meet in the center and hopefully would wear each other's armies evenly. We're also trying out a slightly new army building rule: each army may build in conjunction with the warband rules OR may build their armies based on the Legions of Middle-Earth rules but most spend at least 33% of their funds on heroes. I brought out my Dwarves (haven't played with them for a while), while the General Will continued to explore the world of Uruk-Hai, and Zorro brought out his tournament-crowned High Elf army. Here are the forces:

The Host of Erebor: 503 points

Gimli, Son of Gloin (army leader) - 90 points
Balin, Son of Fundin with Durin's Axe - 85 points

8 Dwarf Warriors with shields - 72 points

10 Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows - 90 points
6 Khazad Guards (Bodyguard: Gimli) - 66 points

5 Dwarf Rangers with two-handed weapons (including Gloin) - 40 points

4 Dwarf Rangers with throwing axes - 40 points

2 Dwarf Rangers with Dwarf Longbows - 20 points

37 units, 10 Dwarf bows + 2 Dwarf Longbows + 6 thrown weapons, 2 heroes

The Vanguard of Rivendell: 503 points

High Elf Captain with shield - 80 points
Ally: *Legolas (army leader) with armor and Elven cloak - 105 points

12 High Elf Warriors with shields - 120 points

8 High Elf Warriors with shields and spears - 88 points
10 High Elf Warriors with Elf bows - 110 points

32 units, 11* Elf bows, 2 heroes

The Fist of Isengard: 503 points

*Vrasku (army leader) - 60 points
Uruk Captain with shield and heavy armor - 60 points
Uruk Captain with shield and heavy armor - 60 points

4 Uruk Berserkers - 60 points

3 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows - 33 points

17 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields - 170 points
6 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes - 60 points

33 units, 4* crossbows, 3 heroes

The scenario we will be playing is a Hold Ground game on a board that is roughly 36" x 36". We have sparse terrain on the board, with the most important pieces being two towers on opposing sides of the field. Points are going to be scored as follows:

• 1 point per unit within 6" of the objective marker (Mirror of Galadriel);
• 1 point if the enemy army leader is killed;
• 1 point if an enemy army is broken; OR
• 3 points if an enemy army is broken and your own army is not broken.

We're also going to have three priority rolls and the person with priority will determine which of their fights are fought first, then the second highest roll works out the rest of them in the order he chooses. Tying for priority works like it does in the original game, where the higher priority slot goes to the person who didn't have it before.

I'm already thinking that I could be in trouble: no spears against Uruk-Hai and High Elves is not a good set-up. I'm going to need my Khazad Guards and heroes to cut through the D6 foes, while my archers focus on the D5 enemies (which are largely archers). I also know (having grown up playing three-way-RISK) that when you have a three-person game, one person can sit out of the fight at the beginning and preserve his force until the end game after the other two forces have exhausted themselves. I hoped this would be me, but as we deployed (decided to do this before the first round), I started with all of my "warbands" consolidated, while the other armies were mixed up...not a bad start, except that the Elves should be able to concentrate their forces pretty easily.

---

Turn 1: The Race Begins (Priority - Dwarves, Uruks, Elves)

Both armies surge forward. You can see here that my Dwarves more or less lined up together and so did the Elves. The Uruks are in a tight spot and race forward towards the middle, hoping to cut us off I believe.

One of the High Elves with Elf bow could see through my ranks and marked one of my Rangers with throwing axes. Man, I wanted him...

Aaaand if the Elves didn't take the cake, Vrasku killed both a Dwarf Warrior with shield and a Dwarf Ranger with two-handed weapon (2/3M). Ouch...yeah, like I said, may not end well for one person.

Kill count (this time, I'm counting who loses units, not who kills units): Dwarves 3/37, Uruk-Hai 0/33, Elves 0/32.

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Turn 2: The Sound of Steel on Mail (P - Elves, Dwarves, Uruk-Hai)

The armies continue to press on towards the center. I've got a small division deciding whether to hunt Uruk-Hai crossbows or not, but most are just trying to get to the center (or stay alive, as my archers have it).

In the Shoot phase, one of the Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbow wounded Balin, who saved the wound with a Fate point (1/1F).

Legolas is up in the tower that you see at the top left and shot one of the Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes. Ouch...

One of my Dwarf bowmen also killed an Uruk-Hai Beserker...so happy about that, but not happy  that he's the only kill I have as my team gets charged like there's no tomorrow...

The Uruk-Hai dominated the Fight phase: the Beserserker mega-killed the Dwarf archer and the Captain went on to kill the Dwarf Ranger (*Gloin falls, Gimli roars* "FATHER! NOOOO!")

Kill count: Dwarves 5/37, Uruk-Hai 2/33, Elves 0/32.

---

Turn 3: The Din Rises (P - Dwarves, Uruks, Elves)

During the Move phase, Balin killed a Berserker with his throwing axe - YAYE! He went on to charge with a Khazad Guard into a Warrior with shield.

The Elves shot this poor Uruk in the back as he was preparing to resist the oncoming Dwarf advance. Caught in the middle...

Vrasku shot this Dwarf with shield as he charged towards them. His buddy's not too happy...

One of the Elves with Elf bow killed a Dwarf Ranger with a two-handed weapon. "And another one bites the dust..."

Balin kills an Uruk with shield in the Fight phase easily (and of course, I forgot to call a heroic combat).

An Uruk-Hai Warrior with shield with the support of 2 Warriors with pikes killed one of my Dwarf bowman. Yeah, my volley team is kind of in a pickle.

The Uruk Captain (labeled #1) killed one of the other Dwarf archers easily (and he also forgot to call a heroic combat).

With all the dead Dwarves, this Dwarf Warrior with shield killed one of the Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbow, avenging his fallen comrade.

A whole lot of nothing happened here, but a nice picture of Zorro's Uruk-Hai and High Elves, no?

Kill count: Dwarves 9/37, Uruk-Hai 6/33, Elves 0/32.

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Turn 4: Heroism Inspires All (P - Elves, Dwarves, Uruk-Hai)

In the Shoot phase, Legolas killed a Dwarf Ranger with throwing axes before he could throw any (1/3M).

An Elf archer killed an Uruk Warrior with shield, who was in the way of the Dwarf Warrior with shield on the hill.

This Dwarf got lucky with his throwing axe and killed an Elf spearman...this is as close to "having spear support" as this Dwarf army comes...

And Balin kills another Uruk in a heroic combat, allowing me to get some distance and "spread the love" (1/3M).

Uruk Captain #1 calls a heroic combat and kills the Dwarf he's fighting (1/2M).

In the center, Gimli killed an Elf with shield, while Balin killed an Uruk with shield and a Khazad killed another Uruk with shield. Nearby, an Elf Warrior with shield killed a Dwarf Warrior with shield.

The Dwarf Warrior with shield kills another Uruk crossbowman, while Vrasku and his final crossbow compatriot kill a Dwarf ranger with longbow.

On the other side of the field, the Uruk Captain killed another Dwarf archer (his third), but no other Dwarves (or Uruks) were killed on this side.

Finally, in a surprise victory, an Uruk Warrior with shield wounds the Elf captain, who saves the wound with his fate point (1/1F).

Kill count: Dwarves 14/37, Uruk-Hai 11/33, Elves 2/32. Um...so...in this three person game, the Uruks are at 67% strength, the Dwarves are at 62% strength, and the Elves are at 93% strength...not so good...

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Turn 5: The Captains of the Uruk-Hai (P - Dwarves, Elves, Uruk-Hai - who have still to win priority)

So, time for another map picture. Here's where we're at: Uruk Captain #2 (the one near the Elves) called a Heroic Move to get his guys arranged to keep the Elves out of the center (1/2M), while the Dwarves tied down the Uruks and raced for the center, trying to get as many guys as I can on the Elves to reduce their losses (or we're in big trouble). Gimli did succeed in killing an Elf Warrior with shield with his throwing axe, which is an added boon.

In the Shoot phase, the skilled Elf archers killed two more of my Rangers, one with throwing axe and one with two-handed weapon. Ouch...

Legolas auto-hit another Dwarf ranger (one of my last, if not my last) with an arrow and slew him too...not good at all. Nothing else happened in the Shoot phase.

As you can see, Uruk Captain #1 called a Heroic Combat (2/2M) and slew the Dwarf archer he and his comrades trapped. They have since gone on to hurt the rest of my straggling ranged band.

Vrasku got tired of the Dwarf who had nearly slain all his crossbows, so he too called a Heroic Combat and as you can see (much to my sadness), he too slew his man and charged up the field to get in scoring position (3/3M).

In what we resolved as a three-way fight (could have un-epically been broken up), an Uruk Berserk kills Elf Warrior with spear. The Dwarves lost their end,but thanks to the Defense 7 of Khazad Guards, were not wounded.

Gimli kills an Elf archer (3/3M - really?!?) as Balin epicly failed his heroic combat (3/3M), winning the fight, but utterly failing to wound. His Khazad Guard buddies were also absolutely no help. Nearby, two Elves with shields killed a Khazad Guard. The Dwarf with shield on the far left survived an attack by a Berserker with pike supporting (3 attacks), thanks to his D7 stat line, moving closer (but not quite close enough) to the scoring objective).

The Uruk-Hai suceeded in killing a trapped Dwarf with shield on the hill and the Uruk Captain killed another Dwarf archer (his fourth archer and fifth kill of the day).

Above my lines, an Elf with shield killed an Uruk pikeman, while the Elf Captain wounded the Uruk Captain, who failed his Fate save and took a wound (1/1F, 1/2H).

Kill count: Dwarves 22/37, Uruk-Hai 12/33, Elves 5/32. Yeah, I'm broken. Kinda nasty and...as luck would have it, my men happen to be between the Elves and most of the surviving Uruk army...yaye me.

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Turn 6: The Tide Swells and Ebbs (P - Elves, Uruk-Hai, Dwarves)

Another map picture...you can see from here that the pear has been eaten (yeah, hungry) and that most of the warriors now are coming around the objective marker. The Elves still have most of their backs free and I'm just trying to keep my guys on the field. Uruk Captain #2 called another Heroic Move (2/2M) and got his men into the ranks of the archers, keeping a few of them out of range. Two other notes of interest: the Dwarf Ranger who was sitting in the tower (and doing nothing helpful) fled from the field (boo!) and you can see the cape of Legolas in the tower on the right. The only thing that happened in the Shoot phase was that Legolas failed to wound Uruk Captain #2 (the one with a single wound left).

Balin suceeded in killing another Elf and the Elves killed a Khazad Guard in return. Gimli succeeded in defeating the Elves who ganged on him (3-4 if memory serves), but wasn't able to kill any of them.

Uruk Captain #1 kills yet another Dwarf archer (not too much of a surprise) and by now has leveled my volley team from 10 members to 2...ouch. You can see here that the Uruks have made it to the Elves, after cutting through my flank...

The Elves dominated on this side: their archers (trapping the Uruks in most of these fights) suceeded in killing 3 Uruks with shields.

Kill count: Dwarves 24/37, Uruk-Hai 15/33, Elves 6/32. We rolled and the game ended (yeah, can't say I was sad to see it end now). None of the army leaders were killed, so the points scoring thusly:

• The Dwarves scored 0 points for breaking any of the other armies and 9 points for their units in range of the objective.
• The Uruk-Hai scored 3 points for breaking the Dwarves and not being broken and 12 points for their units in range of the objective.
• The High Elves scored 3 points for breaking the Dwarves and not being broken and 25 points for their units in range of the objective.

So, the Elves won a major victory over both the Dwarves and the Uruk-Hai (and the Uruks received a minor victory over the Dwarves).

---

Conclusion:

Assessment by Tiberius:

Hehe, so my poor Dwarves got ganged on (not surprised, happens a lot). Oh well. The General Will seemed to enjoy the Uruks again, and I've offered to sell him some of my Uruk-Hai to get an army started (nearly 350 points). The Elves did well, but seeing as the Uruks avoided hitting them until the end, we can't really be surprised, right? It was interesting playing with three players, but like I thought might happen, it tends to not work well for one person. Oh well, need to try a few more three-way games before I make a judgment on them. One thing that did help, through it all, was that I rolled high enough to have priority either first or second until the final round...small victory.

Assessment by Zorro:

So I lucked out on this one. The Uruks starting mixing it up with the Dwarf archers early, and I deployed in a sufficiently concentrated manner to disincentivize the small Uruk group in my midst from provoking things (for a couple rounds anyway). Although really it was more of a win for them than for me as I would have been required to crush  the tiny warband if they had acted otherwise - thus eliminating most of their final VPs. I was perfectly content to live and let live until I could erect a shield wall near the center - and then mostly just shield my way to the objective with archers behind to garner VPs. All in all a very fun way to mix things up a bit.

Stellar unit for the Dwarves: Dwarf Warrior with Shield

Close call this game between the Warriors with shields and the Khazad Guards. These guys and their D7 makes all the difference in most games. In this particular game, the Warriors with shields won a lot of fight, succeeded in killing 2 Uruks with crossbows and a few Elves, kept the flack off of the Dwarf heroes (most of the time), and I only lost two of them. The Khazad guards did well too, but didn't hold as many people down (though they did absorb a lot of archery early-on). A shout-out goes to my massacred archers, who managed to keep 10 Uruk-Hai out of the center of the fight (which may have been my undoing, but certainly kept them from my battle-line while my Dwarves focused on the Elves).

Stellar unit for the Uruk-Hai: Uruk-Hai Warrior with shield

The Uruk-Hai with shields held a great line against both Elves and Dwarves, carving up some troopers and shielding their way against overwhelming odds from the Elven archers. A crowd favorite and perhaps the best core value unit in the game, the Uruk-Hai Warriors can't go without praise in this game.

Stellar unit for the High Elves: Elf Warrior with shield

I'm sensing a trend here... but there is no question about it, the shields carried the day. I was a bit disappointed in my archery - I'd hoped to thin out the stunted opposition a bit more. Although the archers managed to get a couple key kills, they weren't effective enough to earn this title. Frankly I'm surprised that you don't see more High Elf players who add the shields. As my opponents can attest, there are few things as frustrating as running into a F5 shield wall. When (if?) you ever manage to beat them in a fight, you are then left flailing helplessly against their D6. I can throw out a couple shields to anchor a flank against 2-3x their number while moving the spears to the areas where I actually need the killing power.

Pikes, & Pikes & Elves & Hill Trolls (& Pikes!)

so lest you think the craft halls of Karningul have been idle of late, whilst my compatriots are busy churning out batreps and epic game boards, I have been trying to catch up on the backlog of models that have been languishing on the shelf.

First off, I spent a solid week or so getting my mountain of Uruk pikes all spiffed up - all 20+ of them.

as you can see, I toyed with the idea of painted rims. still undecided so I stopped after 5-6 of them

at least 3 feature films and the extended version of FotR were killed during the making of this project. Not to mention another 10-15 hours of silent painting. Please dear god, no. more. pikes.

I made the mistake of getting a group shot - thus leading to the thought of "hmm... that battle line would look far more epic if I could extend it by about 1.5-2x" I promptly took that thought out back and shot it - with prejudice.

Next I pulled out the sundry elves that did not get addressed during my painting and converting flurry before this past March's TMAT tourney. I still have some greenstuffing to do to finish up the last 4-5 shield elves, but the rest of the archers, converted spears and two-handers got painted up. at the very least, it was nice to get a change from the pikes!

it's official. I no longer have a stock high elf warrior in my force. w00t! 

The other thing that is currently in my backlog is the pile of heroes that need to be properly based. I like to add a little extra something to their bases compared to the rank and file. Visually, it helps them stand out from the masses and tactically, it never hurts to be a head taller than your followers when a standfast is needed - albiet at the risk of a few extra stray arrows or an ill-timed immobilize  Typically, I just grab a small pine bark wood chip, cover with super glue to seal it, and voila! Instant rock of epicness! However with dozens of heroes across 4 different armies, I was starting to feel like it was time to branch out a little. One of the bloggers  I follow recently did a series of posts on making bases from apoxy and sculpy so I figured I'd give that a shot. Some rocks, some larger pieces that can later be broken for slate, mostly just some low rises that can be covered with basing grit and still give that 1/8"-ish boost to the figure. For a first attempt, I was rather pleased with the results.

sundry rock-ish shapes, sculpy & bark combos and a larger piece to break/cut up later

Finally, I managed to squeeze in some fun. For our anniversary a couple months ago, my LOTR-nerd wife gave me the most epicly-cool-gift-ever in the form of Buhrdur, Troll Chieftain (yes, I responded in kind with a Tree-of-Gondor t-shirt).  I don't currently have an army that can actually field him, but I have long wished for an excuse to do so (considering the 2-3 cave-trolls-to-hill-troll conversions that are in the pending backlog, you can bet that an Angmar army is probably not too far down the road). First of all, I just love the model - the massive, wicked-looking sword, the spikes and fur adornment. . . it really is just an awesome sculpt. So now that I had some new basing fodder, I just had to paint him up. Some minor converting on the sword and I filed the spikes a bit to make it look more like they were barbarically hacked into shape rather than perfect casts from the forge. Still pending some final highlights, but here is the 80-90% complete view:

kinda hard to make out with this lighting, but I went with a green/brown "hill troll"
paint scheme rather than the typical grey cave troll look. 

As tempting as it was to slap one of Tavros's warg pelts on his back, I decided to go with grey fur rather than brown. Besides, this will help differentiate him from the 2-3 other hill trolls that Tavros's wargs will not be so lucky to escape ;) 

 pebble and rope added to create a warhammer on the reverse of blade, metal plate "welded"on
with plasticard and a few pieces of plastic tubing

and as a bonus feature: between coats of wash, I managed to get an initial base coat on my elven twins. They proved their worth in a recent game against Centaur, so I figured they should get something for their trouble (okay, "proved their worth" might be a bit much considering how many chances to wound they flubbed. Really guys? how hard is it to roll a 4 on three dice?)

Elladan and Elrohir on the new bases

So all told for 3 weeks of effort? about 30 models removed from the backlog of 90ish. Not too shabby.

oh right... then there is the box of orcs I just bought (what? I couldn't believe my eyes when the store still had some of the old 24-troop boxes for 10% off the oooold GW price. You don't pass that up!) and another 15-20ish models in the mail. So make that 130+. One step forward, two steps back. Such is the plight of the miniatures collector. But at least there are no more pikes!

Uruk pikes that is. I still have a half dozen Easterlings to contend with. le sigh.

A Pocket Full of Power: The White Council as an Ally

EDIT: If you found this page, you should know we've posted an update for the new MESBG rules (2018)! You can find the updated page here.

I recently got a comment on the only White Council battle report on this blog to date that mentioned how the White Council is ill-prepared to play the scenarios in new sourcebooks (not to mention the old scenarios in the Legions of Middle-Earth book). It's true - all hero armies don't do well in the missions that currently exist. If you choose to use an all-hero army, you do so knowing you have an up-hill fight.

However fun it is to use only heroes, there is a value in having a few heroes allied into a larger force (today's armies will be allied with Minas Tirith, as you get high-resilience units for average prices). Under the Legions rules, this was much easier, but it can be done under the warband rules if you're willing to bend a bit. I'm going to suggest that the heroes be taken in pairs, as the White Council units benefit from deflecting magical attacks if they are near each other. Here are a few recommended pairings.

Raw Offensive Power: Glorfindel, Lord of the West with the Armor of Gondolin and Legolas with armor and Elven cloak

Legolas and Glorfindel are two of the most deadly members of the White Council (and certainly in the Elven lists). Legolas is easily the best archer in the game and Glorfindel can win automatically against a Cave Troll. No matter what the modus operandi of your army, these heroes can provide you with the offensive power you need. Keeping these heroes near each other also ensures that when they resist spells (Legolas with his 2 Will points and Glorfindel with his 3 Will points and "resistant to magic"), they will receive the +1 bonus to their resistance roll, making it easier to use a single dice to resist the spell. To demonstrate how they work into another list, I've provided the following sample list below:

Denethor, Steward of Gondor - 30 points
Beregond, Captain of the Guard - 25 points
8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields - 64 points
8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears - 72 points
8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows - 64 points
Ally: Glorfindel, Lord of the West with the Armor of Gondolin - 140 points
*Ally: Legolas with armor and Elven cloak - 105 points

500 points, 28 units, 9 bows + 1* Elf bow, 4 heroes

Twenty-eight units is a small number of units in a 500 point game, but you're counting on the Warriors staying alive while the heroes do their work. Neither Beregond nor Denethor is a particularly strong hero (Denethor would be better with Might points), but they will provide you with tactical heroes and allow you to enhance Legolas and Glorfindel's killing abilities with lots of D5 or D6 warriors. Armies that play with Legions rules instead of the Warband rules can replace Beregond and Denethor with Madril or Cirion, who are marginally better offensive heroes, adding a third point-man to assist the two Elven lords.

Tactical Defensive Power: Radagast the Brown and Erestor

While Legolas and Glorfindel are an offensive duo, Radagast and Erestor are defensive units. Radagast has been the subject of two recent posts, but it goes without saying that his greatest advantage to any force is the ability to make enemy monsters and heroes ineligible to wound (or win fights) for a turn thanks to his free Will point each turn, his Master of Birds special rule, and the Immobilize spell (cast on a 3+). But his assistance to Erestor is seen when considering Erestor's profile and the fact that Radagast also has Renew on a 3+. Erestor is as cheap as any High Elf Captain, but he has an enviable Defense 7 with 2 Wounds and 3 Fate points. Yes, a captain with 3 Fate points. This hero can take a beating and be given back 1 Wound each turn by Radagast when he casts Renew on him. That means that when this Fight 6 hero with 2 Attacks loses a fight and is wounded, you can take one wound and save the rest with Fate points. Once healed, you're in good shape to give it another try, throwing your daggers (and rerolling to wound) before the impact of battle. Here's their army list:


Captain of Minas Tirith - 50 points
Damrod - 20 points
8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields - 64 points
8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears - 72 points
8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows - 64 points
Ally: Radagast the Brown - 150 points
*Ally: Erestor - 80 points

500 points, 28 units, 9 bows + 1 throwing dagger, 4 heroes


Yes, a second list without a volley team, but you can see here that this list is similar to the previous list. Beregond has been downgraded to Damrod, who is just an elevated Ranger (very similar to a Ranger of the North in everything except price). Denethor has become more dependable and is now a Captain of Minas Tirith with no extra equipment. This guy is really there to provide some combat capabilities to assist your team, but if you want to get the most out of him, be sure to make sure you take on enemy heroes/monsters who have been immobilized by Radagast. Erestor can do his own thing, but be careful to not let him get trapped, as he truly is your best offensive hero...which isn't saying much.

A Poor Man's Ally: Thranduil and Arwen Evenstar


The White Council is often expensive, but if you only have a few points to spend, you still have options. Thranduil and Arwen are great heroes because not only are they cheap, but they also both have Nature's Wrath. Nature's Wrath is simple: you knock bad guys over, you charge them, you kill them while they're on the ground. Simple, right? Well, Thranduil can cast it once and Arwen can cast it two times (with some accuracy), so that means for three rounds, you could have the enemy sprawling around. If nothing else, this will weary your opponent psychologically as he goes from struggling to wound you to not being able to wound you at all. Thranduil is a fine hero in combat (nothing outstanding, but not shabby), while Arwen is more vulnerable. To supplement this, I submit the following list:


Cirion, Lieutenant of Amon Barad - 55 points
Beregond - 25 points
Damrod - 20 points
8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields - 64 points
8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears - 72 points
8 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows - 64 points
5 Guards of the Fountain Court - 50 points
Ally: Thranduil - 90 points
*Ally: Arwen Evenstar - 60 points

500 points, 34 units, 10 bows + 1 Elf bow, 5 heroes


The cheaper allies allowed the army to grow by a few units and you have a balanced army at a decent size (and a volley team). To boot, your army stands with many a Defense 6 warrior who is ready to square off against a host of foes who are lying on the ground. You can consider foregoing one of the Guardians of the Fountain Court (or downgrading Cirion to Peregrin Took and buying a few more Guards of the Fountain Court) and give Arwen an Elven cloak: not only does this protect her from archery (as you will have plenty of shields to get in the way), but it can also give you the comfort that you need to cast your spells in peace, free from enemy spell-casters taking your Will away from you. With both of your allied heroes wearing Elven cloaks, it would be hard for your opponent to get to your team - and remember that you can also make everyone cause Terror with Thranduil, which also has its uses.

Rumor has it that in the next TMAT Grand Tournament, we're going to give armies the choice of using the warband rules or a modified Legions rule set to build your army (spending at least 33% of your points on heroes from the main or allied contingent). Under these rules, it would be much easier to have a large army at 500 points with an allied hero or two from the White Council.

Recap on the Month: Grey Company

Reader,

As the first themed month that I've done, I'll say that I really enjoyed testing out my Grey Company army with various heroes, battle scenarios, and opponents.  I ended it off by playing against Zorro last night in a new version of Reconnoiter (check back on this space for updates on the rules we experimented with - I really enjoyed it!) against his High Elves, and though I lost the match, I walked away with an overwhelming feeling of, "Wow, for only being D4 these guys are amazingly resilient," lasting about 8 rounds against a larger, higher fight value, higher defense troop of Elves.  To cap off the month, I want to specifically focus in on one of my new purchases that will hopefully be arriving this week: Malbeth the Seer.

Malbeth the Seer can be bought from Games Workshop (or other vendors) with King Arvedui, the Last King of Arnor.  Arvedui is okay (primarily a minor hero with the standard F5, S4, H2, and C5 of a hero from the Race of Man), and is especially helpful for warriors from the Arnor list (as they can use his courage value of 5 instead of their courage value of 2 when they are near him), and has a 12" Stand Fast! range.  I'll be honest, though: I did not buy this set for Arvedui, :)  But Malbeth, on the other hand...

Malbeth the Seer gives you a very basic statline: only 1M/2W/1F, and unlike most guys in this game that carry a staff, he has no magical attacks or buffs.  What he does offer is the 6" 5+ foresight save (similar to an invulnerability save in Warhammer 40k or a ward save from Fantasy), and gives a light, skirmishing force like the Grey Company a few more chances at survival.  I'm looking forward to adding him to the force, in part because he is a cheap hero, at 80 points (which is helpful in warband-style games), and can also be easily added to an army that sports Aragorn (a brawler-style hero), Halbarad (support), Elrohir and Elladan (scrappers), and the list goes on.  There are very few Good forces that do not benefit from this hero, and I'm really looking forward to adding him to the list.

Malbeth is primarily useful for three purposes in your army:

1.  Muting Archery: Don't you hate it when you face a Harad, Elven, or Dwarf ranger band that puts deep holes in your forces with their archery?  Malbeth provides an opportunity to negate those effects.  It is probably not as strong a defense as Blinding Light (which players like to use), but it gives you options for redemption from a hot volley of archery.

2.  Reduces Heroic Combats: Heroic combats are a good way for heavy-hitting heroes to quickly add up kills, crush flanks, maneuver around the map, or engage weak heroes.  The trick, of course, with a heroic combat, is that you have to kill all of the units that you engage in the fight.  What happens, though, if a foresight save prevents the wounds to a particular unit?  The unit stays, they are not killed, and the Heroic Combat is ended without the hero moving.  Goblin shamans create the same quandary: do you use a Might Point and attempt to make a power play that may not work?  Granted, Aragorn is probably not as worried about this penalty as other heroes are (as he can burn a free Might Point every turn), but the point is still the same: do you take the chance?

3.  Strength 4 attack: Malbeth is not a weak hero in close quarters.  He is not exceptional, sporting D5, 2 wounds, and 1F, but his F4 and S4 make him a capable fighter against enemy infantry.  His 1 attack (like most guys that carry a staff) should be taken into consideration, but when backed up by a spear, he can do very well against enemy infantry.  As I've just noted, I would not recommend using him against a hero, though: while his Foresight Saves apply to him as well, they are not reliable enough for me to count on against enemy might points and high strength values.  Against raw troops, however, he can be a competent close-combat warrior.

Over the next month, I will likely invest a lot of time into him and Arvedui (as they are new), and am still determining what other units to work on.  I badly need to do base work and customization to my Isengard and Angmar forces, and am also in desperate need of finishing touches on a number of my Rohan forces.  I also am now the owner of 24 Warriors of Minas Tirith who I am itching to customize and transform into Osgiliath Veterans, so we'll see where next month takes me.  Any thoughts of where I should go next from our loyal fan base?

Keep watching this space for further updates on new scenarios, new units, and new battles!

Glenstorm