Unexpected Military Formations: The Quagmire and the Battle on the Ice

Good morning gamers,

We're back with another formations post - and this time, it seeks to answer the question: how do I try to handle an elite infantry force with a less elite mixed arms force? Unless you run Elves all the time (some players do), chances are good that you may find yourself with an army that has lower Fight Value and possibly lower Defense than your opponent. So the question is begged: how can you take a lower-quality battle line and beat a higher-quality enemy? To address this, let's look at a battle that was fought in the frozen north of Europe and served as the last battle in the Northern Crusades during the thirteenth century: the Battle on the Ice.

The Historical Record: The Battle on the Ice

You can read an exposition on this battle with old iconographic paintings here (though beware the propaganda in the article, as usual), but the gist of the road to this battle is as follows: the Orthodox Novgorod Republic (modern day northern Russia) had a long-standing feud with the Catholic German Holy Roman Empire during the 1220s - so much so, that Pope Honorius III wrote letters to Catholic lords in northern Europe to place embargoes against Novgorod sea towns. By 1240 (while the Mongols were oppressing the Novgorod Republic from the east, tools of soft power were abandoned by the Teutonic orders and German/Danish kingdoms in modern-day Estonia and they began to attack Novgorod tributary lords. In reply, former Novgorod prince Alexander Nevsky (called "Aleksandr Iaroslavich" in the text listed above) was recalled from his banishment to lead the armies of the Novgorod and drive out the Teutons.

Both armies postured for a while, harassing towns along the way, until they both came to Lake Chudskoe. Though the Teutons were outnumbered 2:1 by conservative estimates (~2600 Teutons vs. ~5000 Novgorodians), their elite training made them a more fearsome force than those of the Novgorod. The battle, however, took place on the icy surface of Lake Chudskoe and when the Teutons advanced against the Novgorod militia (by far and away less skilled than the Teutonic knights), their charge was slowed and their progress halted because they had problems keeping their footing on the ice (and couldn't bring the weight of their charge to bear).

Gondor At War Inspired Lists: Mordor Revisited

Good morning gamers (and happy Halloween),

Last time we talked about Minas Tirith - and Minas Tirith has quite a few options available to it in MESBG. But you can probably double your options with a generic Mordor list - and even with the restricted model selection of Gondor at War, there's still a crushing number of models to choose from (at least for heroes - the warriors are pretty stock-standard). Here are the models we have to work with:

• The Witch-King on Fell Beast with the Crown of Morgul and flail
  
• Gothmog (on foot and mounted)
• Guritz and Gothmog's Enforcer
• Zagdush and Goroth
• The Mouth of Sauron (on foot and mounted)
  
• 2 (technically 3) Ringwraiths on Fell Beasts
  
• 3 Mordor Orc Captains with shields
• 3 Morannon Orc Captains with shields
• 1 Mordor Troll Chieftain
  
• 36 Mordor Orc Warriors (12 shields, 12 spears, 6 two-handed weapons, 6 Orc bows)
• 48 Morannon Orcs (12 vanilla, 12 shields, 12 spears, 12 shields and spears)
• 12 Orc Trackers
  
• 3 Mordor Trolls
  

Photo Credit: Gondor At War

While we could certainly kludge together a 700-point list from this, it would probably reflect a list from our review of the Army of Gothmog or perhaps our list from the Mordor army review in our Bare Necessities series. So today, I've decided to tap into allies again and go for something that gets Orc-level cheapness with a bit more punch - let's look at the list!

Top 5 New Battlehosts for Forces of Evil

Hey Reader!

Just like in our last post, a quick caveat before we start: no, we don't have special knowledge about what is going to come down the line from GW, so don't take any of this as, "these are coming in the future," because we know absolutely nothing, :P

But like we mentioned before, I think these are helping to bring people into the hobby, and I think the more ways we can make joining the hobby and playing the game easier and simpler for people, the better it is for all of us.

And with Mordor and Isengard coming to the line (and excellent choices here: both of these are great), this is a great start as they are both iconic armies from the films and books. But what other factions would be good to add? Let's take a look.

We will consider three factors: ease of packaging (so plastic models will have an advantage over resin and metal models as they are going for all plastic battlehosts), popularity (as creating a battle host for, say, The Wildmen of Druadan, may not be worth the investment), and driving sales (it should help to sell models that aren't selling out on their own).

#5: Barad-Dur

Photo Courtesy of GamesWorkshop

So it's worth noting, as I mentioned in my discussion about the current battlehosts, that you can technically do this faction already with the Mordor one (and that's also why it's so low on this list), but hear me out as to why they should make this one a separate one.

First off, a plastic Sauron would just be great. Full stop. And with the Rings of Power show having wrapped up its first season, I think it's worthwhile for us to get a new Sauron. But that's also a big undertaking and would require some investment, which I'm not sure that the company would do.

Second issue is that, again they've already got one: why not just release a new Sauron model and call it a day? There's little reason to create a battlehost that is exactly like the Mordor one but with the heroes changed out, so I don't see them going this route, awesome as it would be.

So while it's definitely possible to make a Barad-Dur battlehost, and if they want one to stand opposite Rivendell, this is a good option. But unless they release a new plastic Sauron, I don't see this battlehost happening.

Gondor At War Inspired Lists: Minas Tirith Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Today begins a new series that we'll be running through November on how to take your Gondor at War collection (NOTE: I updated the post on what you need to get with the money totals at the end due to the outcry that I didn't do that this time - comes out to about $3500, as I expected) and use it in Matched Play. Gondor at War has several factions that could be run pure (Minas Tirith, Rohan, the Serpent Horde, and of course Mordor) or as any of the Legendary Legions from that book (most notably the Riders of Theoden, the Return of the King, the Army of Gothmog, and the Black Gate Opens), but most of those kinds of builds either a) don't have all the models you'd want in your army/Legendary Legion (no Rohan Royal Guards, up to 6 Warriors of the Dead with spears, etc.) or b) have already been covered in our Bare Necessities series. So instead of re-hashing lists that we've already looked at, for some of these factions, we're going to look at competitive alliances you can make to make your game more interesting!

Photo Credit: Gondor at War

Today we begin with one of the focal-point factions: Minas Tirith. Naturally, this means we're going to have a lot of models to work with - in the scenarios we have:

• Faramir, Madril, and Damrod (but no Anborn or Mablung)
• Mega-Boromir
• Gandalf the White and Peregrin Took (Minas Tirith version)
• Denethor and Irolas
• Beregond
• Hurin and Ingold
• 37 Warriors of Minas Tirith (12 shields, 12 shields and spears, 12 bows, 1 banner)
• 24 Rangers of Gondor (16 bows, 8 bows and spears)
• 12 Knights of Minas Tirith with shields
• 4 Citadel Guard

This is one of the most versatile factions in the game and usually doesn't have a problem getting a horde of F4 infantry (usually with Boromir nearby to make a good chunk of them F5). In Gondor at War, though, we have up to 24 Rangers of Gondor at our disposal (but they'll be eating into our bow limit) and 4 Citadel Guard . . . and that's it. No OsVets (and more importantly no Fountain Court Guard) included, so we're looking at a pretty rough go of it if we wanted to have our usual F4 battle line with just our Minas Tirith troops. So instead, we'll be looking at a list today that allies some cheap F4 models into Minas Tirith - and still sticks to the theme of defending Minas Tirith from invasion. Let's dig into the list!

Gondor At War: What Do You Need To Buy?

Good morning gamers,

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

We did a two-part series a while ago for what models you need to play all of the scenarios from Quest of the Ringbearer (both the models for the scenarios in the supplement as well as for Fantasy Fellowships). Not too long ago, we had a reader ask us in a comment whether we could do something similar for the other sourcebooks and since I've been preparing a Minas Tirith/Osgiliath board and we have a new Osgiliath-based starter box coming out (which Centaur and I plan to go in on together), I figured reviewing what was needed for Gondor at War was a logical next step. So, today we're going to look at the models you'll need in your collection to play everything in Gondor at War (and where you can save some money along the way). Let's get into it!

Part 1: The Defence of Osgiliath to the White Rider (6 scenarios)

Most of these scenarios focus on the city of Osgiliath and as we saw in the old Fellowship of the Ring journeybook, the first two scenarios (the Defence of Osgiliath and the Retaking of Osgiliath - and for the Forces of Good, the fifth scenario) have different scenario objectives (one is objective-based, one is total destruction of the enemy, and one is a get-somewhere mission) but have basically the same map setup and the same participants. We then have three other scenarios with some overlap in models (one with some Mumaks, one with some Fell Beasts, and one with a bunch of Corsairs and Clansmen of Lamedon). Here are the purchases you'll need.

Purchase #1: the Battle of Osgiliath Box Set (or its component parts)

When Gondor at War was originally released, you'd need to pick up the Ranger hero pack (Faramir, Madril, and Damrod), half a box of Warriors of Minas Tirith (more on that later), half a box of Rangers of Gondor (more on that later), and Boromir, Captain of the White Tower to play the first two missions. Now, you can save yourself some time and just pick up the new box set and Boromir. For Evil, you'll have a jump start on a lot of the models you'd need (24 Morannon Orcs, Gothmog, and a Mordor Troll) - and this, added to the cost of the Ranger Heroes, is most of the cost of the new box. Once you factor in the rulebook and terrain, at least the 24 Good warriors you're picking up are free - so it's a pretty good deal if you need these models (though it's not the same value as the Pelennor Fields box set).

Purchase #2: 36 Mordor Orcs (so 2 boxes of Mordor Orcs)

Yep, you need 1.5 boxes of Mordor Orcs - but don't think that the 12 Mordor Orcs you'd be getting from the second box are wasted. Our next purchase requires 3 Orc Captains with shields, which you could easily get from this box (as well as doing a conversion for Zagdush and Orc Trackers). You're probably going to end up with Orcs you don't need for these scenarios, but Orcs are useful for many factions in Matched Play (namely Angmar and Barad-Dur, sometimes for Mordor and Isengard), so just get two boxes (whether you do conversions or not).

Purchase #3: 3 Mordor Orc Captains with shields

As was mentioned previously, you need 3 Mordor Orc Captains - these could be three copies of the "official" Orc Captain sculpt (the one with the pick held in the air), converted Orc Warrior models (which I have done), or purchasing the out-of-production two-pack of Orc Captains paired with one copy of the "official" one if you got that in the last made-to-order round (or whenever it's offered again). Frankly, I think the Mordor Orc blister is one of the most versatile blisters they've come out with and the conversion potential from it is outstanding, so I'd just convert them, honestly.