Defence of the North Inspired Lists: Azog's Legion Revisited

Good morning gamers,

We're almost done looking at different armies you can make with the scenario participants from Defence of the North. Today we turn to a faction entirely represented by models required for scenarios from the Appendices: Azog's Legion. While not a "Legion" in the "Legendary Legion" sense, this faction has an incredible array of models from the scenarios, mostly because they are the only evil faction in the Battle of Five Armies scenario. Regardless of what kind of models you like to run in Azog's Legion, chances are good you'll have the models you want if you collect what's in this book (unless you're like me and you're intrigued by a double-Catapult-Troll list):

• Azog with everything (including the Signal Tower)
• Bolg (on foot)
• 5 Gundabad Orc Captains
• 2 Goblin Mercenary Captains
• 30 Gundabad Orc Warriors with shields
• 30 Gundabad Orc Warriors with spears
• 24 Gundabad Berserkers
• 24 Goblin Mercenaries
  
• 4 Ogres
• 6 War Bats
• 2 Gundabad Trolls with Crushing Clubs
• 2 Gundabad Trolls with Scythe Gauntlets
• 1 Catapult Troll

Photo Credit: the Armies of the Hobbit 

You can actually run an Azog's Hunters allied contingent led by Bolg and featuring a mix of 12 Hunter Orcs (but you probably have a box of 24) and 12 Fell Wargs, which is pretty cool. Since you have no other heroes, though, you'll have a max of 16 models from that allied contingent (Bolg and 15 followers). You could also use all those Gundabad Orc Captains to ally in the Hunter Orcs, the Fell Wargs, and up to 8 Mirkwood Spiders from the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur (your choice of Azog or Bolg to lead the Azog's Legion force - either will pick up Master of Battle). This would, admittedly, be quite good too.

However, our list today is going to be pure Azog's Legion because there's one really neat piece I want to use . . . and it won't help the Azog's Hunters units and most of the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur units at all . . .

REPLY to Tiberius: 5 Things I Love about MESBG (from Star Wars Legion)

Hey Reader!

Tiberius made a post recently talking about things that bother him in Star Wars Legion that underline things he loves about MESBG, and not to be someone who bad-mouths a game I've invested in and do enjoy playing, I do think that Legion illustrates a new game to the scene that is fun to play, but does have some aspects of it that need a rework in the next edition (whenever that comes). 

As someone who plays Middle Earth, Bolt Action, Imperial Assault, and Legion (and have played Warhammer Fantasy 8th Edition, Warhammer 40k, Infinity, and Blood Bowl in the past), this post is mostly just praising 5 things I love about MESBG that are thrown into stark relief by Legion. If you read my post talking about Bolt Action, this will feel very similar.

(Also I've done a prime on my models and a few other colors, but none of them are done yet; probably won't finish my Legion army until after I finish repainting a bunch of my models for the upcoming TMAT tournament this June, so don't crucify me below for having poorly painted models! I agree with you! :P )

I.  Might Points Are AWESOME!

Turrets, like siege weapons, are awesome. It
would be even more awesome with Might...

In fact, extend that: heroic stats in general (not to mention heroic actions) are awesome! If units in Legion had access to heroic stats that allowed them to better fend off attacks, heroes would feel more heroic (because as it stands, rolling more dice is always a good answer in this game, and some units can do it and some cannot), and you feel like you have more control over your force, and by extension the game.

The biggest issue from this perspective in Legion is that it's actually too easy: activate a unit (which I'm not a big fan of how they do unit activations, but more on that a bit later), take its turn, switch to the other player. This means, though, that there's no force concentration where you can move a large number of guys (Heroic Move), or push more quickly to an objective (Heroic March), or slice through a bad guy droid and move on to another target (Heroic Combat) because...I guess that would be too much for people to handle? Even though the Command Cards determining priority is totally easy to understand? Eh, I'll move on.

And it creates a second issue: since both sides "see-saw" in activations until one side runs out (in which case, by the way, they do have a Pass mechanic, but a lot of the time one side will just run out of activations and then the other side gets to finish out with all of their remaining activations), it means that not only can you not get force concentration through strategic planning, thanks to the suppression mechanic (which we will talk about later), there's a heavy incentive to put out a lot of activations just designed to suppress the enemy, which simplifies tactics dramatically. And if you do this with the Confederacy (who can't be suppressed, because they're droids), it's even easier because the opponent can't do it back to you in return.

So if you've ever hated playing against "Gun Line" factions in a game, Legion actively rewards this way of playing due to their activation mechanic: there's no reason not to go for high activation count and then focusing fire on specific units just to panic them off the table.

Defence of the North Inspired Lists: The Halls of Thranduil Revisited

Good morning gamers,

We've come to one of the most involved factions in the Defence of the North book scenarios: the Halls of Thranduil. While there is an entire section of the scenarios dedicated to the defense of Mirkwood in Defence of the North, the Halls of Thranduil appear in the final scenario of the Lothlorien campaign (the assault on Dol Guldur) as well as two of the scenarios in the Appendices (the Defense of Dale and the Battle of Five Armies). This faction is important - and thanks to Legolas being a Hero of Valor, it's pretty common to see at least some Halls of Thranduil models in a Matched Play Game.

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

For most of the posts in this series (and specifically for this sourcebook), we've seen important models for Matched Play being left on the side lines for scenarios - not so with this faction. In fact, with one exception, you not only get all of the models you'd hope to have for Matched Play, but you also get a LOT of those models for Matched Play. Here are the models we have:

• Thranduil, King of the Woodland Realm with Elk, heavy armor, and extra sword (based on two scenarios)
• Legolas (possibly mounted with Orcrist) and Tauriel
• 1-2 Mirkwood Captains (depending on whether you want to proxy the second Captain)
• 1-2 Palace Guard Captains (based on whether you chose to proxy)
• 1-2 Mirkwood Ranger Captains (based on whether you chose to proxy)
  
• 36 Mirkwood Elves (12 shields, 12 Elven Glaives, 12 Elf bows)
• 10 Mirkwood Rangers (though actually 20)
• 10 Palace Guard Captains (though actually 20 - at least 4 shields, 2 shields and spears, and 4 spears)
• 3 Wood Elf Sentinels
  

This is quite the list of models - and with the exception of Mirkwood Cavalry, this is pretty much all you really need for a solid Mirkwood collection. Expensive though it be, good job scenario writers!

Being Elves, however, there's always going to be the question of whether your list would be better with allies - and as it happens, there are FOUR historical allies we can choose from: the Survivors of Lake-town, the Iron Hills, Erebor Reclaimed, and the Beornings. Let's see what they have to offer us:

• The Survivors of Lake-town:
  
• Bard (on foot and mounted)
• Bard's kids
• Alfrid
• Gandalf the Grey (to be scenario-specific, he should be on foot, but we probably have the option for a horse)
• Bilbo Baggins, Master Burglar
• 36 Lake-town Militia (12 shields, 12 spears, 12 bows)
• The Iron Hills:
• Dain Ironfoot on war boar
• 2 Iron Hills Captains (1 shield/spear, 1 mattock)
• 38 Iron Hills Dwarves (12 spears, 12 mattocks, 12 crossbows, 1 banner, 1 banner and mattock)
• Iron Hills Chariot
• Erebor Reclaimed
• Everything in the Iron Hills list above (the Chariot would need to be upgraded to the Champ-chariot)
• Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain (technically without Orcrist, definitely without goat)
  
• All 12 Champions of Erebor (no goats either)
• The Beornings
• Grimbeorn
• 12 Beornings (8 two-handed axes, 4 great bows)
  

Well, this is quite the list! It only seems fitting that, instead of just saying, "well, I chose to use this one," we'll walk through some of the decision trades that are in play here, because like the Isengard post we did for War in Rohan, I don't think the "best list" is a given - let's dig right in!

Fantasy Fellowships: The Erebor Reunion, Part 3c

Good morning gamers,

Today we're continuing the journey of my Fantasy Fellowship with the Warg Attack scenario. This scenario plays a lot like the Wargs in the Night scenario, in that the heroes have to slog through a bunch of grunts and need to not die (I lose if 3/6 heroes die). The game lasts for 12 rounds, but it was unclear to us if models could roll to come onto the board once or if dead Warg Riders could continually come onto the board. Since we'd played Wargs in the Night already (and the wording of the scenario rule was ambiguous - I mean, named heroes can't come back, right?), we decided to not allow "previously slain models" (the terminology used in scenarios like Ambush at Amon Hen, Wargs in the Night, and Escape from Dwarrowdelf) to come back. As you will see, while we probably could have allowed it, I doubt it would have changed much. Let's get into it!

The board was set up as you see below - Hama (represented by my converted Erkenbrand model) begins the game prone and in the center of the board. Gamling (no banner in this scenario) starts on my side of the board within 3" of him, while an Orc Captain on Warg (no shield) and two Warg Riders (Centaur elected to use two throwing spear and shield guys - represented by Wild Wargs) are within 3" on the opposite side of the board. Unlike other narrative scenarios, Evil is ambushing here and gets to start with priority. More than that, my heroes aren't allowed to call Heroic Actions on the first turn (we're surprised and all).

Turn 1: Priority Evil

Well, most of the Evil models, including Sharku (who is represented by my new Gothmog model - the Hunter Orcs on Fell Wargs are Warg Riders with shields, any Warg Riders with shields actually have throwing spears, and I'm using a bunch of Wild Wargs to represent throwing spear models and bow-armed models) got onto the board on the first turn and Evil slammed into my heroes (unsurprisingly). The Captain decided to go after Gamling, leaving Hama to be run over by a Warg Rider with throwing spear. Since the Warg Riders get +1 FV on the charge, this actually isn't looking good for me . . . in response, Theoden and a few Riders didn't make it onto the board, but my other heroes did!

In the Fight phase, Hama lost his fight and was wounded only once (1/2H), while Gamling lost his fight on a roll-off (1/3M), his horse was killed, and then he took a wound (1/2H). With only 1 Fate/1 Wound left on each of these guys, I could be down two heroes by the end of next round . . .

Five Things I Love About MESBG - Because of Star Wars Legion

Good morning gamers,

My son Gorgoroth has thrown himself heart-and-soul into Star Wars Legion (though his soft spot for Azog is undying). After nearly gluing my fingers together assembling Battle Droids and Droid Commandos (and the likelihood of specialty droids and tanks in our future), I decided to invest lightly in Legion myself (picking up Clones, of course) and give the game a try. I've seen the models for a while, but had never actually played the game (check out the playlist on Zorpazorp if you haven't already - his batreps are excellent and there's a free downloadable campaign in his store). Having played a few games, I've determined one big thing:

Legion is a great game, but it's not as good as MESBG.

Why? Well, five reasons . . .

Reason #1: Dice Quality - When Your Dice (not Your Fight Value) Is the Problem

In MESBG, everyone uses six-sided dice (D6s) - and assuming your dice are fair dice, each model has an equally-likely chance of rolling a 6-high, 5-high, etc. If you want a model to be "better" in combat, you want to roll more dice and ideally have a higher "Fight Value" than your opponent (though this is not a given - see a recent math post I wrote as well as Rythbyrt's older analysis of the relative impact of Fight Value and dice being rolled). Any unit can "beat" another unit if it can just "roll well," though your ability to wound well is tied to how "strong" you are (your Strength stat), how "tough" your opponent is (his Defense stat), and once again, how well you can roll.

Not so in Legion: Legion uses the more traditional tabletop wargaming system of "wounds and saves", ignoring a "To Hit" or "Dueling" roll and instead giving players eight-sided dice (D8s) that have different ratios of blank faces to non-blank faces (which take the form of "hits," "surges," and "critical hits" - hereafter "crits"). Here's the skinny in case you've never played Legion before:

• White dice (BAD): 1 hit, 1 crit, 1 surge, 5 blanks;
• Black dice (FINE): 3 hits, 1 crit, 1 surge, 3 blanks;
• Red dice (GOOD): 5 hits, 1 crit, 1 surge, 1 blank;
  

A few things can be noted here: first and foremost, unlike other games made by Fantasy Flight Games (which has been bought in the past few years by Atomic Mass Games), the different color dice don't specialize/prioritize different things - their either "good" or "bad." Legion isn't the first Star Wars game from Fantasy Flight Games I've played - Rythbyrt introduced Centaur and me to Star Wars Imperial Assault (which I've invested in heavily since being introduced to it) and Centaur introduced Rythbyrt and me to Star Wars Armada (which I haven't invested in at all). Both games feature different colors of attack dice (D6s and D8s for Imperial Assault and Armada respectively), but each color of dice specializes in something - in Imperial Assault, your dice color either focuses more heavily on damage (Red), surge to trigger special abilities (Yellow), accuracy to hit things from farther away (Blue), or provide a balance of all three (Green). Similarly, the dice in Armada focus on hits/crits at close range (Black), hits at long range (Red), and a very moderated mix of damage and accuracy at medium range (Blue). In these two games, if a unit has a mix of dice in their attack pool(s), you know what the unit is designed to do just by looking at the dice.