Good morning gamers!
In our last post, we looked at how shooting has changed in
the new rules of the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game and what kinds of
considerations you should think about when it comes to including archery in
your army. In general, I think all armies benefit from having some kind of
archery presence, but some definitely benefit more than others. While most
armies have a limit of 33% of their models being able to carry bows, you can
allow more of your army to contribute to shooting damage by including throwing
weapons in your army (especially on your non-bow-armed models). That’s what
we’ll be looking at today. This post revisits a topic we covered back in
July
2015, for those who want to see what was written there . . .
How have throwing weapons changed?
There are three big changes that have come to throwing
weapons since I got started playing the game back in September 2010. The first
and foremost change is that the number of “throwing weapon types” has grown.
While whips existed as a special rule and not a fully-fledged piece of gear,
all other kinds of thrown weapons (be they daggers, axes, or spears) were the
same – 6” range, Strength 3 hit. With the Hobbit Strategy Battle Game, a
distinction between throwing spears (8” range) and all other kinds of throwing
weapons (6” range) was added. This has been retained in the new rules, with
some other throwing weapons (like whips) being canonized as gear items as well.
The second change is that unless you’re shooting your
throwing weapon on the charge, you suffer the “scoot-and-shoot” penalty (see
our last post for what this is). While only a small change to your To Hit roll,
it makes running away from an assaulting force a bit less effective (which, in
a game where 1 pip of difference a die can have huge consequences, is no small
thing). Still, throwing weapons are still quite valuable despite this reduction
– and the fact that you don’t suffer it when you charge means you should be
charging into combat with these guys (because you might just get a lucky wound
in!).
The third change (and perhaps the most nuanced of them) is
the addition of Heroic March. When I did my last post, the Hobbit rules were
introduced and Heroic March became a thing (but we didn’t adopt it in our
gaming group until the new release). Heroic March allows infantry models to
overcome the greatest problem with throwing weapons: getting extra movement to
start the next round as close as possible to the enemy throwing weapon models.
While Heroic March doesn’t allow you to charge anyone, the extra 3-5” of
movement (which stacks with movement gained from a Drum, if your team can get
one) is invaluable. Where Dwarf and Goblin teams were at a distinct
disadvantage with 5” move against 6” throwing weapons, now they can clear 8” of
ground in a single turn (which should be enough to stand just outside someone’s
control zone OR make up ground if your opponent ran like mad away from you to
buy himself more space). While this doesn’t make your soldiers more resilient
against throwing weapons, it might take a turn or two less to close with them
(which can be huge).
With these changes in mind, we’ll dive into what makes
throwing weapons so great (and probably my favorite aspect of the MESBG game).
