If Tiberius Were King For A Day: Top 5 Legion Changes I'd Make

Good morning gamers,

This is the third post where I'm going over what I'd change if I were able to make changes to MESBG. As I've done with profiles and rules, I want these changes to be small and straight-forward but have a valuable impact on the game. Legendary Legions are the topic of today's post and I wanted to pick Legions that really only needed one change made to turn them from an "uncompetitive" or "bad" Legendary Legion (if such a thing exists) and make them at least an option for those who are competitive. One of the Legions I listed here is one that capitalizes on something that is way too cheap right now and needs to be more expensive. Finally, one Legion that I picked to improve is one that has been begging for a change for the sake of theme - so let's get into it with my boys, the Men of the West!

Legion #1: The Men of the West

It's no secret - I love this Legion as-is. Yes, there are some serious problems with it. And yes, people tell me I'm crazy for liking it. And yes, I don't care what anyone says - the Legion is good and has lost me a lot of games . . . but it's also won a lot of games, once I found a points level that worked for it (it's in the 500-625 range - and that's it). The primary problem with the list is that you can't get F4 troops for under 10 points - oh sure, for one turn all of your Warriors of Minas Tirith and Warriors of Rohan within 12" of Aragorn (so . . . all of them) can be F4, but once that turn of glory is over, you'd better have gotten the numbers to a good disparity, or it'll be an uphill battle against any force that's F4. 

The sad thing about it is that Minas Tirith AND Rohan have access to F4 infantry innately (something Rythbyrt tried to fix last Christmas with a Legion revamp) - and basically ALL of the Fiefdoms warriors are F4 infantry as well. Thanks to Imrahil and the men of Dol Amroth being present at the Black Gate in the books, the Legion gives us access to Imrahil (who is just SO expensive for what he does without his horse/lance) and Knights of Dol Amroth on foot. These guys are F4 - and can be F5 near Imrahil and F6 when near Imrahil and kind of near Aragorn for one turn - but they're also really expensive. Running these guys "for the F4" is possible, for sure, but it's also an unnecessary expense.

Back to Basics: War Beasts in MESBG

Good morning gamers,

Last time, we delved deep into the rules for Monsters in MESBG - and what an iconic part of the books and films they are! Today, we look at yet another well-known facet of the Middle-Earth world - and one that has TONS of rules that can scare off new players (and confuse veterans - like me): war beasts.

In theory, these things should be easy to understand - I mean, they affect two different models (War Mumaks of Harad/Far Harad and Great Beasts of Gorgoroth), but with pages of rules for war beasts in general and several-page spreads for the specific profiles (to say nothing of the price of buying them), most players (new and old alike) are happy to wave a hand at these models and move on to other armies. Well, in this article, my goal is to break down the rules for war beasts into a few simple principles so you can not only feel more confident in bringing these models to the tabletop, but also be more confident about their rules should you see one on the other side of the board. Let's get into it!

War Beasts: Monsters that Aren't Monsters

What dominated most of the last post was an in-depth view of the different Brutal Power Attacks (BPAs) that monsters can use if they win a combat (and what helps them dominate the board as tactical pieces instead of just "big, stupid, high-stat models"). War beasts can't perform brutal power attacks. They can't. I'm sorry.

While monsters are usually a single model (or a single model with both a mount and rider profile), war beasts count as two models: the driver and the war beast aren't treated as a single model like cavalry models are. This is important as a spell cast against the war beast (or shooting attacks against the war beast) won't be testing for mount-or-rider like they would against cavalry models. We'll get into a few more of the interactions between drivers and beasts later in the Move Phase discussion.

The war beast also comes with a howdah - which doesn't count as a third model, but does allow the war beast to carry its driver and some passengers. Each war beast has a list of the number of models that can fit in the howdah (however they're stationed) and the kinds of models that can be in it. This will never include enemy models, despite what they may or may not do in the films. Unless a rule says otherwise, models may not exit the howdah and all models included in the driver's warband must be placed in the howdah.

Finally, there are limitations on the heroic actions declared by the driver of a war beast. The most common heroic actions that will affect a war beast are Heroic Moves (so it moves before your opponent) and Heroic Marches (so it goes farther when it moves). In both of these cases, only Heroic Moves and Marches declared by the driver will affect the Mumak - you can't have someone on the ground shouting, "Go!" for it to do anything. Similarly, a Heroic Combat called by the driver of the Mumak will have no impact on the Mumak since the driver is not engaged in the same fight (what with him being a separate model and all), nor will a Heroic Combat called by another hero in the same fight as the Mumak be able to get the Mumak to perform a move after the Combat resolves. The Grand Army of the South has an exception for this, but in general, war beasts can't utilize heroics besides Move/March.

There are other things that make war beasts weird though - let's look at what they do in the Move phase.

Fantasy Fellowships: The Erebor Reunion, Part 5b

Good morning gamers,

Last time, I skated around the Ringwraith in the Dead Marshes, but this time, the same Ringwraith decided to take 2 Might/2 Fate in addition to his 10 Will and Fell Beast and join a band of Orcs to sack Osgiliath! Yep, I've been looking forward to this scenario for a long time and we're finally here! Let's get into it!

Osgiliath

The board is a 24"x48" setup, with 40 Orc models and a Fell Beast on one side, and my Fellowship of six models and 36 Gondorian models on the other. There are three buildings that will be used as objectives that the Orcs are going to try to wrestle away from the Gondorians:

With the units deployed, we started Turn 1!

Turn 1: Priority Good

Centaur called a Heroic March with the Western Orc Captain (1/2M) and I responded by calling a Heroic March with Madril (1/3M) - I brought most of my troops towards the eastern board edge, while the Orcs rushed to hedge out the western objective.

In the Shoot Phase, Faramir killed an Orc with his bow (1/3M) - otherwise, two Orc bowmen, two Orc two-handers, one Orc shield, and a Ranger were killed:

In the Fight Phase, I lost an OsVet in combat in the northern objective, as was one Orc:

If Tiberius Were King For A Day: Top 5 Rules Changes I'd Make

Good morning gamers,

In our last post in this mini-series, I looked at five profiles (well, four profiles and a unit upgrade) that I would "fix" in order to make thematic profiles/upgrades more competitive. All of these involved a minor tweak that would give the unit/upgrade a place among its current competitors - and I don't think any of them were THAT earth-shattering or meta-breaking. Today, we turn our attention to five rules changes that I would make that fix known problems in the game or make things viable that should be (but aren't right now). Like the last post, I wanted my changes to be minor in nature (no big overhauls) but have actual consequences - and I think only one of these is an actual overhaul of a major system (maybe two of them), but I think all of them make the game just a bit better. Let's take a look!

Rule #1: Barriers 

If you talk to competitive players, this is the thing that gets people - picture a board with a barrier between two armies as shown below:

If the Orcs get to move first, they can move into base contact with the barrier and gain an in-the-way bonus from shooting attacks AND an in-the-way bonus from strikes in melee. All you have to do is touch it, like this: 

This is really good and this is how people are "supposed" to play with barriers. However, what you can ACTUALLY do in the game is move near the barrier without touching it - and this will not only still give you the in-the-way from the barrier (probably), but it will also prevent your opponent from charging you (since he can't fit his bases on your side of the barrier) AND it will prevent him from reaching the barrier because your control zones extend beyond the barrier:

The Orcs are all showing off different ways of not touching the barrier - and only the second guy from the top is chargeable . . . if the charging model gets a 6 . . .

The Dwarves, in this situation, can only rely on shooting to clear out the Orcs - and with the barrier in the way, that's really hard. Dwarf Rangers have a better chance than most of actually getting the 6 to Jump, but it's still going to be hard. Most competitive players will tell you, "Yeah, we all know it's a thing, but we don't do it because we want to be good sports and have a good game." This has been a known glitch in the game and I propose a really simple fix to the problem: a model may not come within 2" of an obstacle without coming into base contact with it. Theoretically, you can do something similar with a wall, keeping a model next to a wall to prevent an opponent from getting too close to an objective marker or something - but the principle is the same: force players to either defend the barrier or not go near it. I chose a 2" restriction so that the new rules change that requires you to get a 6 to charge after a Jump/Leap wouldn't continue to preclude models from jumping barriers. This seems like a simple and easy change to me, but drop me a note in the comments if you think this is too simple or misses something.

Back to Basics: Monsters in MESBG

Good morning gamers,

Last time, we talked about how cavalry work in MESBG and today, we're turning to an element of MESBG that can absolutely alter the way a game can go: how monsters work. When I first got started in the game, things like "Brutal Power Attacks" weren't a thing - and neither was Heroic Strike (every hero had Move, Shoot, and Combat - and that was it). This meant two things with regard to monsters: first, a Monster was quite likely to have a higher Fight Value than anything he was fighting (or at least a tied Fight Value). Second, the go-to tactic for dealing with them was hoping one poor, unfortunate soul would be brave enough to tie them down for a turn - and if the dice were kind, he'd get a 6 while the monster wouldn't and he'd live to do it all over again on another turn. Or . . . you'd just shoot the guy/tie him down with an Immobilize to make him F1 with 1 Attack. My, those were odd times . . .

When the Hobbit rules were released everything changed, since monsters could now do horrible things with the "suicide Bob" who tied them down and heroes could combat warrior Monsters better with the addition of Heroic Strike (which was on EVERYONE back then). When the rules revamp arrived in late 2017, the rules for monsters changed yet again (and what counted as a "monster" became clearer), bringing in a nice balance between the really powerful Brutal Power Attacks that were introduced in the Hobbit rules and the counters you can employ with heroes.

But with no less than FOUR things you can do when you win a fight (and for many Hero monsters you can pick from a few more options), a lot of new players (to say nothing of us old vets who have old rules sets in our heads) might forget some of the nuances of how these rules work. If any of this describes you, strap in as we delve deep into what monsters can do - and can't do - in MESBG (and at the end, we'll talk about how to use them well and fight them well).

What Kinds of Monsters are in MESBG?

Middle-Earth is full of monsters and in MESBG we get lots of different kinds of monsters. As a very general taxonomy, here are the kinds of monsters you can expect to see on the tabletop:

• Faux Monsters: these are models that have stats very similar to monsters but lack the "Monster" keyword. Examples of this include Wild Warg Chieftains, Giant/Mirkwood Spiders, the Necromancer of Dol Guldur, and Half-Trolls - they may look like monster models, and they may turn your models into goo, but they aren't technically monsters.
• War Beasts: these are models that have the "Monster" keyword but can't use Brutal Power Attacks. They trade these rules for a host of other rules which are beyond the purviews of this article (you'll have to come back next week to learn about how these things work). There are currently two examples of this kind of "monster": anyone riding a Mumakil and Great Beasts of Gorgoroth.
  
• Lumbering Monsters: these are models with the "Monster" keyword and 6" movement. While these models can be either warriors or heroes, they tend to be slow, sit on big bases (usually circular, occasionally an oval), and have MASSIVE investments in stats (most have at least F6, S6, D6, and 3 Attacks/Wounds). Examples of these kinds of models include any kind of Troll, most Ents, the Dark Lord Sauron, and the Balrog.
• Fast Monsters: these models are slightly faster than the "Lumbering" monsters listed above - they have the "Monster" keyword and have more than 6" of movement, but don't have the Fly special rule. The increased speed on these models usually means their Defense is lower than the Lumbering variety, but that's not always the case. In trade, these models might have some kind of special rule that helps them ignore difficult terrain penalties (some or all types of difficult terrain) or otherwise use their increased speed to get to the targets they want). Some (but not all) of these monsters also have Monsterous Charge - something you don't see on the Lumbering models. Examples of these monsters include Shelob/the Spider Queen, Beorn/Grimbeorn, Ogres, and Cave Drakes.
  
• Flying Monsters: perhaps the most potent monster class in the game, these models have the "Monster" keyword as well as the Fly special rule, which gives these models an incredible 12" of movement (so long as they don't end their movement in a piece of woodland terrain or in a building). This increased movement - and the ability to ignore control zones when they move - allows the placement of these models to be far easier than other monsters. Examples of these models include Ringwraiths mounted on Fell Beasts, Great Eagles, Gulavhar, and Dragons (because you should always take the Wings upgrade).
  

These five kinds of units can have massively different play styles - some boast big, beefy profiles with high points costs, others boast good-not-great profiles at a much reduced cost, and still others can pair their nasty melee profile with ranged attacks or magical powers. With this brief understanding in mind, let's look into three distinctives that make monster models different from other models in the range!