Revisiting Play Styles Part 4: The Reactionary Playstyle

Hey Reader!

Welcome back to the blog! Tiberius wrote a blog post recently about list building for beginners, based on a 2015 post I made talking about the seven list building play styles I noticed at the time. Last time we talked about the Linchpin Playstyle, and in today's post we are looking at the fourth playstyle: the reactionary army.

Since the Linchpin playstyle often becomes the meta (shooting-heavy armies like Rangers of Ithilien and Assault on Helms Deep, magic-heavy armies like Vanquishers of the Necromancer and Riders in Black, etc.), the natural playstyle to discuss next is the Reactionary list, as it draws its existence from the presence of meta army lists. We'll look at this mindset, and then discuss how to do it effectively.

Also, fair warning: I don't tend to play these armies all that often, so not a lot of pictures this time around as I don't own the kinds of models that you'd typically use for these kinds of armies. I'll include a few of the new Fangorn army I'm working on, though, because I'm enjoying making my own ent army from scratch (as I'm not a huge fan of the standard ent model from GW).

I.  The Reactionary Playstyle: "You Shall Not Pass"

Gandalf in any form - an excellent reactionary model

The Reactionary playstyle looks at armies that end to show up - heavy shooting armies, heavy magic armies, heavy monster armies, etc. - and says, "So how do we END THIS MAN'S WHOLE CAREER?!?!?!" And I'll say this: I don't tend to make lists this way (as I'm typically the first person to decide on the army I'm going to run at a tournament, and I don't tend to encounter the heavy meta armies all that often), but boy oh boy does this style of list building look fun! Cracking the meta and changing the game appeals to me, so if this is you, good on you! Keep it up! It's what keeps our game from going the way of Warhammer 8th Edition where everyone was running Demon Princes with a 3+ ward save on every wound coupled with casters spawning zombies as free chaff every turn to keep powerful units from doing anything useful for the whole game.

Unlike some of the other playstyles, this one pretty much has to be built well, because if it's not, it doesn't do its job and the list gets left on the cutting room floor. Since it's built to counter the meta, if it doesn't do it, it doesn't see the light of day. So toward that end these lists tend to be pretty competitive, but they go through a lot of iterations to get there.

Some aspects of the list are pretty obvious: you need an answer to shooting, as the heavy shooting armies aren't going anywhere anytime soon. It needs answers for magic, as magic is only going to get more powerful as the game progresses (such is the way of things, and I'm cool with that). It needs an answer to people with high Fight Value, needs a plan in case someone is bringing tons of Might for making clutch moves, chewing through speedbump mobs, and the list goes on. But once it finds a solution to these things, it's good. And in fact, it's very good.

So that's where we're going today.

In Defense Of: Denethor

Good morning gamers,

Today we're continuing our examination of models that get slighted in the MESBG community for one reason or another. Last time, we looked at Galadriel (the Lothlorien one, not the White Council one), who is often critiqued as a bad candidate for pure Lothlorien armies because she has to be your army leader. Today we look at a model that receives similar censure: Denethor.

Why NOT To Take Denethor

Unlike Galadriel, Denethor gets critiques on a number of levels: first and foremost, he doesn't have any Might or Fate points. Not having Might is not usually a good thing, but some heroes without Might can make it work (the Balrog gets free Heroic Combats and is F10, Shelob is F7 with Monstrous Charge, Barrow-Wights have Paralyze, and Castellans of Dol Guldur have 12 Will points that can be used as Fate Points). There are other heroes who don't have Might (and some of them don't have Fate either), but most of these guys are not going to be your army leader (maybe the Dwimmerlaik, but certainly not Orc/Uruk-Hai Drummers, a Goblin Scribe, or Grima).

Denethor is different: thanks to his hubris, Denethor has to be your army leader - even if a Hero of Legend is present in your list (overriding the rule that Heroes of Legend become your army leader over Heroes of Valor). Denethor is only Defense 5 (average Defense, but not great for someone who has to be your army leader and often gives up victory points if he takes damage) and has 2 Wounds and (as we've already said) 0 Fate points. Two wounds and he's gone - pretty easy proposition for almost any model in the game.

Unexpected Military Formations: Fighting On The Ground?

Good morning gamers,

In the past year, we've published articles that took real-world formations that were used in antiquity or the middle ages and applied their principles to MESBG. These formations have included things like Tercio Squares and the Svinfylking. Today, we're looking at a formation that I've heard rumor of but can't find any documentation that it actually existed. It involves . . . fighting while lying on the ground.

I've heard that during the raids of the Vikings in northern Europe, there was a tactic that could have been employed by having some warriors lie on their backs on the ground with swords in hand over their heads while other warriors stood over them with spears held high. Why this odd formation? Because Norse shields were rounded and were not long enough to guard both a warrior's head and legs at the same time. If a Norse warrior held his shield high to guard his head from being skewered by a spear, the warrior lying on the ground would swing his sword and hack the warrior's feet off. Should the shield be dropped to guard his legs, the Viking would find a spear impaling him in the face. I can't find it documented anywhere, but it kind of makes sense (at least, if the Vikings didn't have a multi-layered shieldwall active).

But the idea of having some of your troops on the ground while others are standing over them with spears intrigued me - and it got me wondering if fighting on the ground is ACTUALLY valuable in MESBG. And the surprising answer is . . . yes.

Fighting On The Ground: Rules for Backing Away, Making Way, and Spear Supporting

The rules for Prone models can be found on pages 32-33 of the main rulebook, though there are sections on pages 45 and 84 that apply as well. Here are the highlights:

• A model that is Prone has no control zone;
• A model that is Prone is considered to be half of its normal height for the purpose of working out Line of Sight;
• A model that is Prone may move up to 1" on the ground (crawling) but may not Charge this way;
• A model that is Prone may spend half of its movement to stand up or to lie down (you can't stand up and lie down in the same turn);
• A model that is Prone may be jumped over like an obstacle on a 2+ (a friendly model who gets a 1 on the Jump test just stops moving, while an enemy model who gets a 1 on the Jump test must charge the model instead);
• A model that is Prone does not make Strikes if he wins - instead he stands up;
• A model that is Prone and loses a fight counts as being Trapped and must back away the required 1" if possible; and
• A model that is Prone may be supported by a friendly model with a spear or pike but cannot support a friendly model with a spear or pike while Prone (you need to dig in the Designer Commentaries of the Main Rulebook for this one).
  

In Defense Of: Galadriel

Good morning gamers,

Today we're beginning a new series, where we look at models who have been critiqued in the community in one way or another, examine what it is about these models that generates the critique, and then walk through ways you can build a list or think about using the models to mitigate these concerns. It's important to note that most of the models we're going to view in this series aren't "bad" - in fact, some players really like them (as I or my colleagues here do). However, the critiques come up frequently and so we're going to address them here.

"The quest stands on the edge of a knife . . ."

Our first hero is one of my oldest and dearest models: Galadriel from Lothlorien. Galadriel has been an auto-include for me in almost every Lothlorien list I've ever built - and once you're at 500+ points, I can't imagine running Lothlorien without her. However, there are critiques that are commonly made against Galadriel from Lothlorien - let's see what they are.

Revisiting Play Styles Part 3: The Linchpin Playstyle

Hey Reader!

Welcome back to the blog! Tiberius wrote a blog post recently about list building for beginners, based on a 2015 post I made talking about the seven list building play styles I noticed at the time. Last time we talked about the Theme Playstyle, and in today's post we are looking at the third playstyle: the linchpin list.

As before, we will look at what this playstyle looks like in concept, and then work to maximize its potential on the table to bring you victory, coupled with thoughts on which armies do this best.

I.  The Linchpin Playstyle: "Focus and Overwhelm"

Also referred to as the "Focus and Overwhelm" strategy, this playstyle looks at one aspect of the game - magic, monsters, mobility, melee prowess, mob tactics, might points, archery (sorry - I couldn't come up with an "M" word for the last one! I feel ashamed), etc. - and turns that up to 11 in the army. If that part of the game works for the controlling player, they are probably going to win because they dominate that aspect of the game.

Shire: an army that focuses on Shooting and Numbers to win

I will go on record (and Tiberius will probably write a reply post on this, which is fine) saying that I think there is a hierarchy in regards to which of these you should overpower to be most effective (more on that below), but before I do, I want to say that you can do any of these quite effectively, and by focusing on any given aspect you may find it easier to beat some of the more powerful armies in the current meta.

And that's one of the nice things about playing a Linchpin army: you can take one aspect of the game that you really like, that your army does really well, etc. and lean heavily into it to attain victory. You tend to see this a lot from Tiberius in our gaming group (most of the time it's magic or archery, as he really loves magic and throwing weapons), but I think we've all dabbled with it at some point.

You'll also find a lot of crossover between the theme playstyle and this one, which is why we're doing these two back-to-back, as some themes focus around a specific aspect of the game (monsters, poison arrows, etc.). But I think they are different because the focus on, "I want as many archers as possible" is very different from a thematic army, and that's why it gets it own list.

Put another way, Linchpin strategies are often incidental Thematic armies: the theme of, "as many ranger as we can fit in" or "as many artillery pieces as I can fit in" is incidental to the actual aim which is, "a butt-ton of dangerous stuff clouding out the sun will hit some people even on a bad day."

So toward that end, let's look at how we can make the most of the Linchpin style.