In the Mind: The Ultimate META breaker? Is Cavalry the Way to go?

 In the Mind: Introducing a New Way to Win

If you have followed the blog for any amount of time you have probably picked up one major theme. I dont like what is commonly deemed as the lists to take. In fact I like to not only shy away from that but rather take what everyone else deems as garbage. I started out running Iron hills for my first ever event with all of the lower end dwarf heroes from Erebor. Then the next even I went with Azog and a bunch of hunter orcs all with two handed picks and that was awesome. Then I turned around and ran Angmar with the Tainted and buhdur in comparison to most peoples witch king and gulavar. I then proceeded to run Hunter orcs with all the little heroes and a gundabad captain bringing in 4 war bats for the heck of it. I then started a project idea that followed me for half a year. Men of the West. I told my good friend to pick a list for me to run for our grand tournament. He seeing his chance to put me with a list he could easily beat instantly said Men of the West. As the story goes. I didn't have a single model in the army. I ran a proxy list to test what i was thinking. I was simply blown away. It was insanely powerful. (If you want to read about the full journey look at my previous blog on that specific army). I ended up coming in 3rd at our grand event with the list. Simply to say ever since then I have gone out of my way to take odd, weird, seemingly skewed lists. I turned around and started running all cav Gondor with Aragorn instead of Boromir and all normal captains for the rest of the edition. as well as a radagast/gandalf combo with some laketown which was fun. I took what people said was garbage. I then figured out how they work. I firmly believe any list can be competitive. 

Throughout this journey I wasn't running THE lists to take. But I wasn't going the hard opposite side either. I took odd lists that i liked quite simply. With this new edition on the rise and the comfort levels returning to normal the common lists are starting to flow along with the common opinions for what is deemed as good. The year started off with a friend of mine being sad because "Spiders are dead this edition" So what did i do? Decided to take the rise of the necromancer with spam spiders as my list and took down my first event of the year with the monstrosity of a list. I was also told f3 armies aren't worth it unless they have big heroes or ways to shut down big heroes. I also heard Rohan got insanely good and no cav can even compare to their sheer power. They have returned to the "Horse Lords." So me being me... decided we cant have that. So with all of this set up I present. The ultimate META breaker. Those that directly dethroned the Horse Lords in a direct matchup. Yes, you heard that right. That leaves only two options... but only one of those is a cavalry force.

The Wolves. I have been collecting this list for well over a year now and have now attained somewhere around 40 warg riders 18 wild wargs, Sharku, and a bunch of converted captains on wargs. Let me explain just why I think this list is the best dark horse list in the game. I would say the necromancer legion is way more powerful. But... thats at what that legion does. stops and kills heroes. This list does not do that. It has a completely different style of play. And it is LETHAL. Let me break down how to play this list efficiently as I have found. First lets do a quick overview analysis.

Strengths: Mobility, High numbers for cav, Tons of missile weapons, Tons of might, High strength.
Weaknesses: No big beat stick, low defense, lots of big bases.

This is where I would call this list "The Darkhorse" or i guess more of the darkwarg. Sharku flies under everyone's radar. He is f4 2attacks on the surface with d5. Not good at all... But on the charge he is 3 attacks (4 with cav bonus) and gains plus one FV. That is very very good. He can now reliably take out 4 troops a turn with his free heroic combats. 

Why is this list the ultimate meta breaker? Well the style of gameplay it plays is ultimately completely different then every army this edition. It doesn't play the game. Rather, it plays THE game. You see most armies rely on simple factors of big heroes or magic that prevents those big heroes from cutting through swaths of troops and then you secure the objectives at the end. This list plays the opposite. You never give up the objectives that win the game. 

Here is the gameplan. Every army in the game will not want to engage with you. You can wipe out cavalry forces faster then any other list other then eagles. They will even run. Infantry will want shots to deplete numbers so will deploy back. So its just get around the board and pin them in the far backfield and apply pressure. You can cut through troops insanely fast while gaining a better position then any and i mean ANY other list in the game. I have played this list quite a bit now and it is shocking how frightened opponents are of it. You outpace every list in the game with the amount of cheap might for march alongside already 10 inch move. You have more throwing spears then any list and can get to the mid 50s at 800 points. That is a normal horde army level let alone a cavalry horde... its insane. Now i will say 500-650 is the perfect spot for this list and at 500 it is almost unbeatable. It is so powerful and not enough lists have the tools to deal with it properly at that points level. but even at higher points i have been finding some success and I think only time will show that more. But anything with objectives is a piece of cake and maelstrom. INSANE. then the scouts rule is super helpful as everyone knows if they want their bows to be safe they need to be over 20 inches away further giving board control. and if they dont deploy that far back then move a few wargs as scouts and sacrifice them to turn off the enemies shooting. You have tricks, speed, and ultimately something no other list does. It plays the true game rather then focusing on just being able to kill faster or better then the enemy. 

You take everything that provides you advantages for the long term rather then the shorthand experience of getting a few kills easier. You trade a big killy hero that kills other heroes for a small hero that can easily double his points in what he can kill. In just one game against some elves I killed about 5 elves along with Legolas and Tauriel after kiting them and letting them use their might to keep the cavalry charges from going off. He is dangerous to heroes when they lose their might. You have the tools to win any game. You have the tools for all situations. You can dictate the game if you hold the objectives early. It applies pressure which can lead to mistakes. That being said it is still a highly skill based list. But if you want a challenge or you want to become a better player then by all means go get this list. Look out for the next time we delve into the Minds of Moria to find what lurks within. 

In the Mind: Tournemant Recap

 First Tournament in the New Edition

After a month of having this new edition I was finally able to attend a bigger event with the new system. I got in 13 games with practice with the list I took. I will be going over every game in depth with my analysis of what my opponent made mistakes with as well as what I did. 

To start before tournament day lets look at the build up. Originally I was looking at running my Mirkwood ranger force with Fili, Kili, Gloin, and the elves. I was enjoying the list as it deployed semi close took a round of shooting then went in and used its heroes to chop through the opponent. I continued to play this until I faced a Balrog in Fog of War and saw that when i didn't have a enemy hero i could shoot out that was at the balrogs level I would lose almost every time. I tried and tried but the list just couldn't compete versus that style of list in any scenario. I continued through the Hobbit book and read through the LOTR army book as well... throughout it several things caught my eye... but only one sparked an idea... and as we learned form Nolan's Inception... an idea is like a virus... it consumes... and well... the Rise of the Necromancer idea was born. I went into an old box where I had some old minis and found a bunch of Mirkwood Giant Spiders as well as a few Hunting Spiders. When I looked through the list I really dialed into a few things just on sight. I knew i wanted every single mounted hunter orc I owned in the list. I have 4 that I converted from fell wargs and hunter orcs on foot. I threw all of them in the necromancer and soon realized i really needed a core troop choice. last edition easily the gundabad orc but this edition i didn't really have an easy choice. So I made a simple choice. I wouldn't have a core troop. I took an even spread. I took 7 spiders 8 mounted/cav-ish models and 10 infantry hunter orcs. The list is as follows:

(Leader) The Necromancer 200
4 Mirkwood Spiders 80
4 Hunter orc Warg Riders (1 with bow) 61
2 Fell Wargs 16
3 Hunter orcs 24

Some hero worth 80
3 Mirkwood Spiders 60
2 Fell wargs 16
7 Hunter Orcs with Bow 63

600 points 27 models 8 bows 6 might

Practice Games: Initially I had the keeper of the dungeons as my second hero as his buffs seemed nice and I kinda liked him. After playing a Fog of War against a battle of five armies with bofur on the brute Gloin and Hilda with around 35 models a bunch of iron hills and laketown behind I finally saw just how powerful this list was. After that I immediately made the switch to the Witch King and haven't ever regretted it since. The Witch king is better then the Keeper in every situation and I was so so happy about him and he proved his worth in gold in every single game I played. I then went through and played against 12 other lists including, Minas Morgul, Lothlorien, Numenor, Fornost, Depths of Moria, Rangers of Mirkwood, Mirkwood, Battle of Five Armies, the Eagles and a few others. Through this I learned not just how to play this list to its full but also what its few limits were. I kept almost a game journal of every game noting the strengths and weaknesses of every game and by the end of these games it was at over 10 pages of detailed notes. This was to me ultimately the true success of the list as although I had already submitted my list I knew how to use that list even though I would prefer make some changes. I then spent the week before the event finding a beautiful reaper miniature model to proxy as the necromancer since i do not like the GW one and then i based and painted all my spiders and the necromancer then I was done and ready for this 18 player event. 

Round 1: The scenario drawn was Destroy the Supplies. I was drawn against an army consisting of three trolls and a campfire. It had the bonus might he no traps and the extended range on the campfire and one other rule. This game was simple I threw magic out while marching at him then kept hitting him with a bunch of webs until all were out or low on fate then promptly tied them off blocked off the avenues to barge back to their objectives and took all three out in two turns of the lines meeting. I then in the next 3 or 4 turns went one at a time and killed all 3 trolls for a 20-0 board wipe to start the event. A nice scenario and win to start off the event and 2 much harder and more well fought games to finish off the tournament. 

Round 2: Scenario was rolled to be Reconnoitre against a Men of the West with Aragorn on horse Legolas and a bunch of tin cans a Rohan banner and 3 or 4 Rohirrim. Turn 1 saw Legolas deploy off to one side and Aragorn not show up. I then got both warbands one and placed them both one on each board side leaving the entire 3 feet of the middle completely open taking 6 inches on each extreme side. Turn two saw the tin cans start to slowly move up and anchor on a terrain piece and Legolas half move. I then ran all my spiders full speed with the cav toward the board edge opposite me letting Legolas have some in the ways on some spiders which was very intentional as my wargs on the other side of the terrain in the open were safe with only 1 wound to start with. I then moved my hunter orcs up full speed with the Mirkwood spiders and fell wargs in the witch kings warband moving full up into some difficult terrain right in front of Aragorn begging him to come into the terrain to fetch them. That one move bought me 2 turns away from Aragorn as he then started trekking him sideways towards a group of fell wargs who used their speed to launch back into the center where they had a straight shot. In the following turns i was able to sacrifice some wargs to move 6 models off in a total of 4 turns from the beginning turn. With 4 spiders gone from the board and all of my cav except one i had lost most of my hitting power. But my opponent used Legolas to just continue shooting taking out some wargs. I just decided it was time to continue working on breaking myself and him so points would be limited to him while quartering myself. This was a difficult task as my quarter point was 6. meaning only 1 model could be on the board of mine as 5 of the 6 that had run off counted towards quarter (1 was a dismounted warg) I then used the necromancer in combination with an orc to combat and kill 3 warriors of minas Tirith while my remaining spiders held ground and got 1 kill. I then got some magic off and started chill souling some models including a cheeky compel the guy touching the banner away from the banner then with the second spell chill souling the banner removing its effect on the weakside without Aragorn thus making me able to remove EVERY enemy model on that board half. Soon i only had 3 models left and Aragorn was almost off the opposing board edge. I quartered with the "death' of the witch king. With a misunderstanding about dismounted models I allowed my opponent to get an additional turn so he could get a further victory point and remove 4 from mine but it ended up as a 9-2 major win. It was a close game and with an unlucky matchup my opponent fought well.

Round 3: At this point I am in the lead and a draw wins me the tournament. I am invited to do the roll for scenario and roll Fog of War. A perfect scenario for the witch king as my support hero. I then find i am paired with the army of carn dum. This build had a troll Aldrac and 2 captains with 7 cav 2 banners and 38 models total. Quite the list. I decided to take the smallest terrain feature on his side target his carn dum captain and obviously protect the witch king. he decided to attack the WK protect that same carn dum cap and take a tower piece. We re on a very very close quartered and confined osgiliath board which is very difficult for my many large bases to move around on. I like terrain with the list but not this much. I knew it would be difficult facing so many models that can get f4 on the charge with a good hero and a troll. I proceeded to continue chill souling the troll and after 5 turns of attempting it on 4 dice every time i finally was able to get it off the table after it took out 2 cav and wounded the witch king once. I then put some curses on both captains removing their will stores and started transfixing Aldrac once the troll disappeared. My spiders took out combined at least 5 of his warg riders. In return for the first two turns getting the charges with my cav and spiders i only won around 2 combats rolling 2 highs on my 3 attack warg riders. By turn 3 i had only 1 warg rider left and about 6 hunter orcs. I also had about 4 fell wargs and 3 spiders. This is where my dice rolling luck reversed and he got the bad luck failing over 20 courage checks to charge my terror spiders and heroes in the last 3 turns. I rant he witch king to my terrain piece and secured 8 victory points. My necromancer was then challenged by Aldrac. I accepted and after losing the first roll off used my last might points the next two turns to win the fights and after failing on 3s to wound on 3 dice the first combat with might i took Aldrac out the next turn securing another 2 victory points in the bag. At this point i have 1 hunter orc and 2 spiders along with the witch king and necromancer. we still do not roll to end and i secure the models to break my opponent after killing both captains with spiders. I fail to get the wounds to break him by 1 model and the game ends. He has retrieved his terrain, and wounded the witch king and broken without being broken by one model leaving him with 9 victory points. I have secured my terrain killed my opponent in combat, kept mine alive, killed his leader for 15 victory points. Securing myself another major with 15-9. 

Thus the tournament ended and I walked home with my 4rth win in the past 6 events I have played in and keeping my streak of all podiums (except two at GT's) since i started playing the game in 2021. I walked away with a beautiful eye of Sauron trophy and a war of the rohirrim starter pack which i didn't buy and didn't have the rules in hardcopy yet so it all worked out and now I am working on a all infantry Rohan force. 

For now it is all looking forward in preparation for our grand tournament in April which is looking at the numbers of upwards of 60. So if you are in the area or willing to travel we would love to see you out in the DFW in Texas for our Grand Event on April 26th-27th.  Its all on Best Coast Pairings and we are super stoked. I will be running a very similar list to this one. As of now i am realizing with the terrain features and such more hunter orcs on foot are good and i was surprised that with the nerf they still live up to their value quite well and ultimately those troops may be what won me the event. They performed so well and I am adding more. In future that 600 point list will drop 2 spiders and add 5 hunter orcs. It is an 800 event so i am adding a captain for march as i love the way the list can sprint 15 inches then have 8 inch throwing weapons meaning i can have a threat range of half the board. Additionally i have a few more warg riders to add to the list that i am currently converting up as they were one of my favorite sources of hitting power and are well worth the 15 points. With the 200 points i have all of the hitting pieces i need to take out the heroes with the likes of gwaihirs, aragorns, thorins and such with ease while getting the troop hitting power to take out armies. I cant wait to start running this list and see the lists coming to counter it. 

In the Mind: Are the Eagles the new BEST List?

 Is the hype accurate? New META or Meme

A massive tournament recently in England saw the eagles showing something ridiculous like 6 7 of the top 15 spots in a 130 player event. That begs the question is it simply a list the best players in England think is good or is it so widely powerful that it will become a new norm for the people who want to win will run? Well you are reading the excerpts from an old eagle player going back for years when they were thought to be garbage. Here are a few simple facts. The Eagles were never truly bad. The Eagles have gotten better but not world breaking better. There are still many simple ways to take them down. Let us first go through the biggest changes to the eagles and talk of how that has impacted the army.

Great changes: So they all got dominant which is good like very good on hard to kill monster. They got better at killing more models at a time. they got better at barging into heroes. And finally they get an insane legion bonus. 

Not So great changes: Many heroes are now abase of F7 and most previously F5 heroes are now F6. Additionally Gwaihir lost heroic strike. 

This all boils down to they are a very very similar list to last edition. They will scale fine up to about 650 and will hit the top with a SKILLED player. They are still a challenging list to play but a experienced player who knows the ins and outs of when to hurl barge or just kill is what is required to make this list great. I would say the eagle list itself isn't that much of a threat if you prepare at least one trick to face it. anything from fearless to plus 1 to wound on troops to having 1 or 2 casters is PLENTY. I think the eagles look good now but as soon as the more experienced players start pulling out that nasty list called Minas Morgul the eagles meta will die instantly and I doubt it will ever return. The eagles will fluff. Heroic defense heroes are ideal. set them up in the front line and hopefully take the charge. Then just defense. Then the following turn the screech will come. defense once more then use a captain level hero from behind to call moves and just run in and strike or just mob the eagles. numbers will kill them so fast. one bad roll against even just troops especially when buffed an eagle or two can die instantly. 

So when you are writing or taking lists look for either lots of bigger heroes that eagles will struggle against like Boromir's and Aragorn's who have the base f7 lots of might and or free resources. Look for Mordor trolls and chieftains, look for ents, look at magic, celeborns, ugluks, anything that gives fearless or frankly any cheap siege engine. Yes I'm looking at you corsairs and no not you dale why would anyone want to run dale. Elrond may be one of the best eagle counters in the game quite frankly if he can get in a position to wrath two eagles without getting Gwaihir's will to deflect can be an easy way to just TAKE those eagles out. Magic is big because you dont need to move to cast so any caster can transfix an eagle. Shooting is another way to drop these guys if you can get 3-4 heroes with bows to put some might behind some shots along with say 5-6 at least warriors with bows knocking out these big birds should be no issue. Rangers of Mirkwood with the two elven heroes and the two twin dwarves along with maybe an elven captain and the rest rangers can do this exceptionally well and exceptionally fast. Nearly every list has a counter it just needs to be thought of and used to its full capability. Cav are amazing because the piercing cry is just a rule you dont win priority so cav outside 6 inches can just charge in and stop 2 or 3 eagles with ease and thus kind of nullify the whole point of the cry rule. 

So again all lists have counters whether its an Aragorn free defensing or striking or a fearless bubble to wrap up the eagles the one turn they fail to get priority. Anything has the capability to road block this list but it requires skill to play with or against this list. It is no gimme to win with and it is no gimme to win against. 

In the Mind: My new Armies for the New Edition!

 Good and Evil Army Lists:

Throughout the new edition of the Middle Earth Strategy battle game we have seen many new ideas for army lists and new styles of play emerge. Ultimately I personally have some mixed reviews on certain things but ultimately in the long run I think the new edition was a good and needed change. We need the game to evolve and to change and reach more audiences if we want it to flourish and survive. This was almost a revamp and I enjoy it so far. One of my favorite things is that player skill is now something that is much more evident in game play as list writing has much less of an impact to the game itself and rather it is how any given list is used rather then how it is made. So as result of this most lists are now competitive in my opinion at least. But there are lists i will be playing for the most part or at least trying to play for the most of this year. I will have 2 main lists one good one evil with 3 secondary lists which are 2  good army lists and an evil list. My primaries for now at least that i have been messing with, playing with, and painting up more of are The Rise of the Necromancer as my ultimate main list, and the Rangers of Mirkwood as my good main list. My 3 secondary lists are, the Eagles, Erebor Reclaimed, and The shadows of Angmar. We will start by analyzing the playstyle I have been using for my necromancer legion.

The Rise of the Necromancer: No surprise the first place I begin with this list is taking the necromancer himself. He is frankly an auto include as at 200 points base he is in my opinion the best hero in MESBG (top 5 last edition) which yes i am sure many if not all will disagree with. As well as retaining his power as the best spell caster in the game from last edition to this edition he has gotten even better as he now gets the double spell with troops in his list as well. My bread and butter with this list is the necromancer and quite a few Mirkwood spiders. These Mirkwood spiders are so potent and fill in every role I need them for. A shooting threat, a nice body block, shock troop, hero killer, slow dying troop choice, and ultimately the fastest model in the game other then flying models. The next must have in this list is a spattering of fell wargs and fell warg riders. the hunter orc warg riders are the best cavalry in the game at the moment coming in at 15 points for 3 attacks on the charge. I took a handful of these guys every time last edition and they were well worth it and now they only get better. The next must have for this list is the Witch King. I have played some lower point games and he is SO SO valuable and ten times better then the beast found int he keeper of the dungeons. Thus far we have a solid base but with no cheap troops to throw into heroes and the like. Thus we must take some hunter orcs. Take as many of these with bows as you can and the rest just normal. yes they are quite interesting this edition and play like a really weak cavalry list but they still do their job. They got better at shooting and still have access to it while being relatively cheap compared to the rest of this list and many others. 

At 600 points (the base for this article) the list i have chosen to run is as follows:

(Leader) The Necromancer 200
4 Mirkwood Spiders 80
4 Hunter orc Warg Riders (1 with bow) 61
2 Fell Wargs 16
3 Hunter orcs 24

The Witch King 80
3 Mirkwood Spiders 60
2 Fell wargs 16
7 Hunter Orcs with Bow 63

600 points 27 models 8 bows 6 might

I have thus far played 9 games with this list and have so far yet to be broken, yet to have a hero killed in my list, yet to not kill the enemy leader or assassin target, yet to lost more then 4 spiders, yet to not quarter an opponent. This list hits like a freight train and even when i built a Mirkwood list to shoot it off the table it dominated it in fog of war 16-1. The key to the list is the double cast. you can work on two heroes at once and my favorite combo which is the wither curse combo on two heroes is nasty. curse the big bad and the spiders then hit it and he will be knocked out in one turn by the necromancer while the other target is getting hit with withers. So far with Wither i have taken out a Gloin of Erebor, isildur, and kili completely out with wither. Other spells i really enjoy is letting my spiders run off doing their own thing while the necromancer runs in with the spattering of hunter orcs and stars dropping instill fear everywhere. Compelling models in contact with banners away to then drop the banner with a drain soul has also worked in several games. The possibilities are endless and this list loves finding choke points and just slaughtering armies that way. 

Rangers of Mirkwood: This list has changed a but from last edition and i actually like it now. The list to me plays like the old grey company from 2 editions ago. Lots of bows but is ultimately a low model count combat army that can cut through almost anything super fast. My favorite way to run them is with Legolas Tauriel Gloin and the twins and it is super super efficient. you have enough bow fire to knock out or nearly knock out most big threats then your sheer combat power with that many heroes can cut through the troops while your own troops thrive when outnumbered. The list is quite simple.

Legolas 
8 Rangers

Tauriel bow 
7 rangers

Gloin

Kili

Fili

600 points 20 models

This list is pretty simple and follows some basic strategies. it is a challenging list to play with very unique challenges but can beat nearly any army if played right. I love the way it plays and simply it is just different then almost all other lists in the game. 

The secondary lists will just be some basic ideas and principles for how they are run rather then the way i have intricately built each list. 

The eagles, well this is simple I've been an eagles player for a few years and love playing with them pure and now they are much more usable and i think they could do even better then my previous success with them.

Erebor Reclaimed: well as soon as i saw Bofur on brute i instantly went found an old troll and converted Bofur on top of it. Just need to finish painting it but I've gotten 3 games in with it and i love the list. I also played one all hero list and it was a blast. I love the dynamic and cant wait to keep playing the Erebor reclaimed. 

Shadows of Angmar: This list i just have some wicked ideas to play with. All werewolves and gully with stalk unseen is nasty combine that with some shamans running around. I love the idea of gully with some different lists than we have never seen and have enjoyed the one game i played so far and love the concepts you can do as well as the tricks you can use. 

So as you can probably tell from the passion and ideas just oozing from my section on the necromancer that list is the one i am by far the most excited about and i only really played him with gundabads last edition so i am excited for the new way the list plays. Check in for the first big tournament of the year in a few weeks where i will report my results with my necromancer list!

In the Mind: New META for LotR MESBG?

 Is There a New META in the MESBG game

The simple statement is no. But when you look at the extensive answer I would definitely say YES. so there are two sides to this coin. Let us look at this from a few different directions. First let us look at players who have always played casually. To these players their style will not change find what looks cool try to play it well and competitively even if it isn't that good. This is where lists like the Shire, Road to Rivendell, and controversial enough the Last Alliance. Then we have the tiers that want to run the things that have changed. This tier of people is the people that got bored with the old edition of the game and want the biggest changes. these people will be heavily playing monster mash lists since they have big changes. They will also be running lists with massive changes to playstyles or just the entire list in general. Then we have the uber competitive players. these players will instantly be looking at the most solid lists. the Trolls, dale, battle of five armies. Pelennor, return of the king, men of the west, thranduils halls, Numenor, Gundabad, Usurpers of Edoras, Army of Isengard, Depths of Moria, Harad, Laketown, and Survivors. These lists are the lists that will form to become the new meta. My specific guesses to the new meta will be, the Battle of five armies, dale, Usurpers of edoras, Numenor, and the depths of moria. Those are my top five picks for the following reasons: 

1. Battle of Five Armies: Everyone used to love allying gwiahir in. why not still do it. now you can do it with simply heroes of fortitude making this issue even worse then before. Or why not run bofur on the brute with iron hills shieldwall that have fight 5 elven made spears behind them. The previous soup lists will continue with those who liked them. simply this new edition made the soup a bit more normal soup. 

2. Dale: Perhaps the most changed army in the game comes through with girion losing his bow but getting 3 attacks as well as having all windlances giving plus 1 to wound for all models within 6 inches and getting better while getting cheaper. the list buffs are insane and everyone who wants to win will take this list with 1 or 2 windlances and a spam of troops maxing bows meaning extreme shooting advantage with numbers and killing power. what does this list not have? it has the shooting to take out monsters with ease and the numbers with buffs to take out any other troop in the game including dwarves and the dead. 

3. Usurpers of Edoras: Who doesn't like a big troll a nice hard hitting hero, smaller heroes, master of battle, and 45 models at 650 points? well thats what this list does. it is new so already that is going for them. They are good in objectives, killing, and have the tools to take out almost anything. They also get essentially free Victory Points and up to 5 of them. That is disgusting and can make or break a game. They have the tools and the beat sticks to do just about anything and are super solid while they are at it. 

4. Numenor: This list is in my opinion the best in this new edition. While it does not have the soup, the free insane bonuses, or free vps, it has something none of the others has. All models have gained plus 1 fight value. this is the only fight 5 strength 4 base army in the game. yes they have mid tier defense. but Longbows which are deadly, with insane melee power along with a f8 hero with s5 and plus 1 to wound with free combats comes in with a s5 f7 son behind him and the ability to easily gain quite the load of troops this list is designed and built to take out nearly anything. Running it isildur and a bunch of captains with fight 6 and strength 5 is perhaps the most lethal way to run it as he can one on one the likes of balrogs and mathematically win almost every time. I like this list but i think giving the fight 5 is so incredibly powerful that we will see it everywhere as it is shiny and new but also incredibly powerful. 

5. Depths of Moria: This list is hands down the best list in the game currently. free banner for troops, free leader protection points, free break points, insta win almost any objective. The balrog is now nearly untouchable by even aragorns or glorfindels and the like. He got that and got dominant 10 with 8 inch move. almost no hero can escape him meaning getting enemy heroes is almost guaranteed. They are no longer things that can be ignored. The balrog is an insane threat and his entire list got better as well. It is that simply. free no breaking, essentially free wounding and killing enemy leaders with almost no chance of your own to be touched, win most objectives simply because of the balrog. Most people have this army but didn't use it because it was a solid list but not a world breaker as it is now so you will see much more top table players using this in addition to the newer players who want a beatstick to have fun with and will do well with simply because of the list itself. 

Those are my predictions for the current meta of the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game for at least the first half of the year and probably inevitably without nerfs. 

In the Mind: Tournament Recap First tournament in NEW EDITION

 In The Mind: Tournament

There and Back again. This event was 400 points a very small local event that focused a bit more on newer incoming players in our scene. I ended up painting up a new small force for the event in the new rangers of Mirkwood list.

The List: Tauriel with bow 11 Mirkwood rangers, bilbo with sting, and Gloin. This ended up at 394 points 14 models with a handy 8 might points. 

The idea was run it in more of a combat sense with Gloin and Tauriel pulling the weight in combat with the rangers shielding or fighting. Bilbo ws there to call moves as his heroics were the only ones that affect both the elves and Gloin. Additionally i love bilbo and wanted to run him. 

It was a very interesting and fun list as I saw just how powerful it truly is with the new elven cloak changes and well elves are elves and still cant wound anything. I set up so i would have 1 turn of shooting before charging in and making a mess with this more spread out style of play to maximize the knife fighters. It worked well in almost all of the rounds and ended up helping me only drop 1 game. Even that i refused to use the shielding rule as i was in teacher mode in that game and was playing an exceptional new player who had an uncanny grasp for the game and after a first unlucky turn for him he turned it around with his besiegers list and went lights out to nearly kill all of my models in two turns. 

I would say this post is much more of a review for the rangers list as the event itself was much more relaxed and so there isn't a whole lot to go into there. 

The list i felt like performed exactly how i wanted it to. low numbers but still enough to protect my heroes and not engage some of them while still performing quite well even without a banner. I really enjoyed Gloin as he killed a bunch every game but even with 4 dice still flopped quite a few giving me and my opponents some laughs. 

I think the addition of the company really makes the rangers list shine in combat and show what they can truly do so i am super excited to continue to run it with a few more elves and even more Thorin's company members.

Overall i think the list was an absolute blast and would highly recommend playing it in a more fighty kind of style rather then kiting forever and just shooting as much as possible. 

In conclusion i love the way the new edition is playing and i feel like this edition really will rely on skill of players since there is much less writing a list that can face any other list super well. I love the changes and i cant wait to play even more. This has been the minds of moria and I will be back soon with another article!

In the Mind: What Do I think About this New Edition (pros and cons)

 In the Mind: Pros and Cons (new versus old edition)

Ok to start i will lay down a few basic things. first i think this new edition is truly good for the game, its progression and development and mainly its growth. I have personally seen many people completely reinvigorated to play more middle earth with this new edition when they previously were just done with Lord of the Rings. Then i have seen many people online becoming excited to get back into the hobby as well as with the war of the Rohirrim stuff many people never played before are now quite interested. There are definitely cons to this new edition and stuff completely unnecessary but I strongly believe this is what is best for the game. So since we are already on a positive note let us continue with my favorite things about this new edition.

-Priority: I love this change as it felt bad to want to roll badly and it has added another level of tactical decision with many models gaining buffs if they opt to give their opponents priority. 

-Magic completely debuffed: This change doesn't jump out quite as clearly but it is actually crazy. compel is almost useless, sorcerous blast, black dart, aura spells all are completely nerfed if not gone. it makes much less negative gameplay and the only like punishing spell is transfix. I feel like this is personally my favorite change as now it doesn't feel bad to take spellcasters since they aren't as oppressive as they once were. 

-Clear Wording: They have clearly made each sentence and part of the game make so much more sense in a clarifying way. Everything is straightforward and not much to debate. Simply they have really helped themselves and spared themselves of many FAQs. It is also in my opinion better for newer players this way as it is much simply to get a grasp of now. The new book is so well written enough said. 

-Making big heroes the center piece: This is my third favorite change as it makes nearly all of the armies crazy thematic. The big heroes are now essential. the F7 on nearly all of the big bads makes them so good that the likes of smaller F5 heroes cannot really come close to comparing and now you need to take the big boys in order to have a hero that is comfortable with all situations. Huge fan of this and most of the legions give specific heroes more buffs to make them more thematic and more wanted to take. 

Heroic Actions: Now all of the actions are super super solid and i love this. Strike nerfed further makes your big bads super fun and now trolls are a bit safer with that change. small heroes all of a sudden cant get lucky and tie with a balrog with like 8 guys and get lucky and get off like 6 wounds... it just wont happen and that wasn't accurate so i like this. It brings much more tactical achievement if you run all smaller end heroes. 

-Army Lists: This will be the end of the pros list and the start of the cons list. I like this and i have a bone to pick with it at the same time. It is cool as everything is super thematic and follows a sequence of movie footage or whatever. I love the fact that theme is almost required now. 

CONS:

-Army Lists: Like i said this makes both. Previously you could run soup. now... you can run soup. just limited soup. Now you will see Gwaihir with a spam of laketown getting like 40 models with a wizard and an eagle lord... this hasn't changed and nasty mixes and combos will be everywhere with the likes of these lists. So in that regard the people who love tricks and mashups will abuse and make thematic lists unthematical for a tactical advantage that isn't thematic at all. I was looking forward to the battle of five armies and playing it but as soon as i simply got on our local discord group i completely changed my mind as now everyone wants to play it... 

Banners and horses: Horses costing 20 points for heroes i actually really love its the fact that on many captain profiles they are just gone. why? i mean yea they dont sell those models but that little thing just didn't sit right with me at all since now many lists you cant run all cavalry unless its Rohan or a specific cavalry scene from the movie. Banners... they removed them from several lists that previously had the option but no model. then they made banners 4 VPs in a bunch of the scenarios. I hate that. it gives army's taking a object that already provides an advantage and gives them free points. taking no banner is a disadvantage. making that disadvantage even more disadvantageous is ridiculous. Simply saying oh yea Thorin is like a "real" banner for these scenarios and same with Rosie but Aragorn and Thranduil aren't just doesn't make sense and it makes me mad that it is rules for some but not others. honestly a big flop from Games Workshop and the MESBG crew. 

Comment down below if you agree or disagree with anything i have said or anything you think I missed! check in again to the Minds of Moria for more.