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 ever 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 leaking 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.

In the Mind: New Edition What I Want to Play with It

 In The mind: Exciting lists

There as several lists that I am like IN love with for this new edition. I mean men of the west has to be up there but i am an original old school men of the west so the new beast version of the list is kind of boring to me its five armies but Lotr era so I will definitely play it but it will not be my main list. I will mention several lists and a few reasons why I am super in love with them.

First up perhaps the one i am most excited about is the older days of Gondor with Kings of Gondor and Captains. I love this list. I am so glad my all cav Gondor is still playable even though it will have the citadel guards be converted further into more kings of Gondor on horse. I love what they have done with the generic king profiles and cannot wait to play with this new Gondor force with tons of cavalry troops captains and mounted kings. Especially with the buffs on Aragorn (my old character i used since no one used him as he was deemed to costly) i now expect Aragorn to be everywhere so I will switch to kings until i see Aragorn meta die down. 

Wolves of Isengard: This one has to be at least top 2 but i think will be my MAIN list for the next year or few years. Sharku got a small buff that makes his heroic combats very worth while and with strike now he is a worthwhile fighter rather then using the list as a skirmish force. I love the idea of 50% throwing spears 33% bows then the remaining 17% normal wild wargs for my lists and that is how i am building it up. I recently purchased around 27 warg riders with a dozen wild wargs to run this list in the previous edition which was SO much fun and now it is even better with you still retaining cav attack bonus against other cav... Needless to say i am STOKED about this legion and anyone playing anywhere near Texas... be ready for wolves to show up everywhere! Most people discount the list as a bunch of F3 cav that dies fast and well it is... it is a challenge to get working but it is sooo efficient if you learn it. I started to get to know it after my fourth game with it last edition and i was shocked. if your opponent doesn't know the only way to stop this army from slaughtering them then you should win every time unless its a hero mash list. 

Army of Dale: This list is also so exciting. Losing the knights of dale is in my opinion good as they weren't in the film or directly mentioned in the books so for this movie themed list i like that. I love the usage of the windlance to provide a MASSIVE bubble of +1 to wound. They are now an auto include and I seriously love that. its so thematic. I think it is overly powerful for sure and i think giving it something like a free heroic shoot every turn that has the loose as well would be more thematic and better but nonetheless i really enjoy the list and the plus 1 to wound is insanely powerful. Girion is solid not a total beast but does his job. I rate this list as cool, thematic, and still on the powerful side. 

Assault on Ravenhill: This list just looks like so much fun. free buffs on giving 3 of your heroes an extra attack on of them essentially free combats, another rerolls to wound for free, a free fight value on another, free 6 inch banner that counts for scenario points, and well my favorite rule... bilbos throwing stones are throwing weapons! it is cool I think really powerful yet challenging with the 6 scenarios given so far. It taps out at 650 points which is average so i expect to see this commonly as it just looks cool and has some really powerful rules and models. it is very thematic and cool and i used to run an alliance with the assault on Ravenhill models at 700 points with balin with one crossbowman (to represent him staying behind) then the mounted 4, bilbo, Tauriel and Legolas (mounted with orcrist and the cloak) and it was fun and wasn't that good but it was just a fun mashup list that was efficient at some things so I'm stoked to see that it is now better then it was!

The fellowship: I mean there aren't many words for this one... it looks really cool and honestly i think it will be very very good and will win a bunch and will be much more competitive then it was with its only challenge being many of the scenarios. Its cool, its themey, ill run it.

Rangers of Mirkwood: I do like this as it has the dwarves now. I love the almost red alliance type feel with the heroics. I will definitely run this heavy on the dwarfs with Tauriel and a handful of rangers to provide space stuffing a bit of shooting to draw in opponent with bilbo for moves that affect both sides. the rerolling fate is what made me want to go heavy on the dwarves and take very little elves which also makes it more fun for your opponent. I think this will be very playable but still quite the challenge. Shielding with the rangers means they can just sit and take up space while making the dwarves able to take on a comfortable amount of enemies without being overwhelmed like they used to. Low numbers high heroes makes these rangers very dangerous with their knife fighters to i like this list and definitely am working on my remaining rangers that i bought a while back and never painted. 

Let me know which lists you are most excited about and if any of these make your lists or whether you will simply run the soupy five armies and men of the west to play the most powerful lists out there like i will still do since i have always had a love for eagles with my iron hills or eagles with my Gandalf and Radagast all in the same list... I will be back later with another "In the Mind" on perhaps more thoughts on the new edition? You will have to check in later to find out!

In the Mind: New Edition Reveals

In the Mind: New Edition Arises

As we approach the introduction of the new edition we clearly see many new things such as the intelligence characteristic and the buffing of many heroes. Lets break down several things. First what to look for in heroes in this current edition. Second what armies will be so over the top powerful in this edition. Finally what about the banner dilemma. 

First lets address heroes. The heroes in this edition have been shown to be buffed to all new levels with the likes of Thorin, Aragorn, Elrond, Borimir and the likes all now have a natural of Fight value 7. Many smaller heroes such as Gandalf the white, Farimir, and Eomer have been bumped to f6 and some have stayed where they were. The interesting thing is now 1 point of fight value is an INSANE difference. with the changes to heroic strike f6-f7 is insane. more importantly many characters lost heroic strike such as gwaihir and gil galad. This shows just how they are leaning into new dynamics with heroes. Now many heroes cannot simply rely on walking into others and beating them over the head but rather using tactics with heroes to even have a CHANCE at taking down other heroes. The other big thing is HORSES. So incredibly powerful yes but at a great cost now. This means that while heroes pay a premium for something that bows can easily knock out warrior models still pay the bargain price for them. Horses in this edition are even more of a choice then last. last many chose them some like myself in many cases went without them. Now that choice is more costly. Personally the bigger beatstick heroes seem much less scary now with the price of horses since you can simply shoot out a horse then stall many of the heroes other then aragorns and the like. We also see the spread out availability to reroll wounds on heroes. This to me is the equalizer and still means beatstick heroes are a good option. But to me... not the best option. In this edition the first model that stood out to me was Gandalf the White and Gandalf the Grey... the grey with his cart is nearly unstoppable and the white is so buffed for 25 points less and i already liked him last edition. Magic is now crazy. Why do i say that? well its crazy nerfed so many wont think twice about it... so thats why i love the gandalfs. they will be so good because most people wont be looking for them because they arent as good at spells as they used to and the spells are less potent. Top 3 heroes i have seen so far come out of the edition are in my opinion: #3: Gandalf on Cart #2 Gwaihir #1 Celeborn Now lets break these 3 choices down and see why i have them ranked as so. 

Gandalf: He has the ability to target 3 Different models at ONCE. His magic on one hero, his firework that knocks a non monster (preferably hero) prone every turn on a 2+ automatically, and then his combat with the cart with 3 attacks on the charge hopefully into 2 warriors. All in all he can deal with so many targets at once with a solid range to do so making him absolutely crazy tough and still just as hard as ever to take down.

Moving on to our number 2 pick we have Gwaihir. Gwahir is insane as soon as you look at him but then go and look at the army lists he comes in and your jaw just drops. Surround this guy and 1 great eagle a fledgling eagle and a horde of laketown from the battle of five armies and you can get high 30s at 700 points with 3 eagles. Or you can run him with a horde of minas tirith and aragorn in the men of the west. additionally you could run him with a wizard and a horde of laketown with over 40 models at 700 points. the possibilities are endless and he is a beast regardless of whether he has strike or not. he still has barge and combat which is enough. 

Number 1: Celeborn. He is much more limited then Gwaihir but even more deadly then the previous two. Breaking down the points this is hands down the best bargain hero in this edition. His spell casting is to me the BEST in the game. Why? one reason. Writhing vines. This spell is INSANE. it is so so so good. it is efficient and is so odd and interactive. you can do so many tricks such as negate cav bonuses, make models incapable of having the movement to reach objectives and so on. His final thing he has for him is that one vital thing... +1 to wound for all elves within 3 inches. THIS is total insanity. elven players have long complained about killing power and now at just over a hundred points you get the best spell of the edition with free will a turn and +1 to wound on potentially 8 elves then their spear supports as well... a battle line of plus one to wound pikemen with shields in front and a banner behind is so so disgusting and will be so hard for others to play around. running this and plenty of cav to force them into the block will be so much fun to see and to play. 

Lists: The best lists i have seen so far are hands down the laketown, battle of five armies, minas morgul, and the men of the west. These are the ones that instantly jumped out to me as just insane. Minas morgul in my opinion tops this list and is one i am in some ways keen to play and in many ways have no interest in because of its sheer incredible power. Lets break down the reasons why these lists are where they are for me. Laketown is simple mighty hero and the good old 6 inch banner and plus 1 fight value on bard when he has his children AND Alfred is just CRAZY. in my opinion run him without the children and upgrade a captain to gandalf and drop some troops is the move. at 700 you can take around 38 guys with mighty hero a wizard and Alfred... just what? oh and a starting position of 10-12 might in that list to on top of the free might. Mighty hero was an odd rule to add to this legion and makes it a beast. enough said. battle of five armies is the options i have already mentioned the big eagle himself who will be the center piece of nearly all of these armies. the classic elves with cheap laketown in front will also be prevalent so watch out for that as well. Skipping to men of the west it is the same idea as the battle of five armies tons of options and some big nasties... Minas morgul is disgusting. I myself need to go grab a fell beast so i can have it at its full disgusting power. Running it as a spam with particularly spam of stectres with plenty of orcs as support with two wraiths and a captain or two is the way to go and it is disgusting. free courage around spectres or wraiths free essentially plus 1 to wound with the blades of the dead on many armies is just nasty. the ringbearer rule is cool and niche but nothing more.

Finally the banner dilemma: Games workshop had several scenarios that encouraged banners and we all thought this would change as many lists automatically lost points for it. Rather what we got was those points all doubled AND a BUNCH of lists losing banners. thranduils halls doesn't have a single banner in the list anymore and why? because there was simply no model for them. its that simple and its sad. many lists lost more access to them and they are now even more valuble. I was pretty chill about the previous setup with banners but now they are just so so bad and with almost all of the scenarios having banner points i am legitimately sad for more niche armies such as all hero armies or eagles etc.. 

Thanks for reading and check in soon for more on this new edition! Make sure to comment your thoughts on my opinions i would love to see everyone's differing ideas or opinions!

In the Mind: Khazad Dum: Are Spears Needed for Competitive Play? MESBG

Khazad Dum:

 Welcome back to the Minds of Moria, today we will be discussing the ideas behind 3 different ways to run the Kingdom of Khazad Dum in order to make a list without spears (or at least not many spears) work. The three main ideas we will be discussing today will be: Maximum Defense, "Avoidance," and finally the Grind. These are the three main ways to run this army in a pure build for maximum effectiveness. 

Maximum Defense:

This might be my favorite of the tactics as it revolves around 2 main ideas. 1 you are always moving and 2 it is really hard to beat. On paper it may look just kind of straight up weak but on the battlefield this list becomes a beast that is really hard to counter. A great example of this type of list is shown through this Moria variant at 650 points. 

Balin King of Moria (leader)
9 Dwarf Warriors with shield
6 Dwarf Warriors with Bow
2 Khazad Guards

Dwarf King Throwing Axes
10 Dwarf Warriors with Shield
2 Dwarf Warriors with Bow
2 Khazad Guards
1 Dwarf Warrior with Banner and Shield

Shieldbearer
5 Dwarf Warriors with Shield
1 Dwarf Warrior with Shield and Banner

650 Points 6 Might (+longbeard) 34 models with d7+

This list revolves around you being more likely to kill your opponents as with 42 models of dwarven caliber you can go head to head with nearly any list and seem unkillable with nearly everything int he game wounding you on 6s including most heroes. This means that while your heroes can easily clean up about 3 models a turn total and you have plenty of bodies and 2 banners to throw around to win and kill several other models a turn while taking very little casualties in turn. The sheer amount of high defense is so incredibly hard to get through as a common strategy against dwarves is use your might to kill them and then use the numbers you gain over them through killing to overwhelm them. Against this list no army can do that because of the amount of models. Longbeard in this list is extremely potent as you can spread your army out quite a lot since you do not have spears and the longbeard means you have quite a bit of models moving where you want always. Moving is the key. You have 8 archers with strength 3 bows that in some matchups will be invaluable. These archers are more of a phycological threat more then anything and are also an useful tool to bait heroes that are strength 4 towards since they wound these troops on 5s meaning you can set them up in a way to lure those heroes away from where they should be. 

"Avoidance"

The avoidance type of list is simply take maximum bows and spam out throwing weapons with a few random shield men and then go to town. Again this is a list I like going to Moria for simply for longbeard. Longbeard with throwing weapons is extremely powerful. The list is all about threat range. you can lure them to you with some good shooting and your throwing weapons can harass them then the hitting power from a few decent heroes can do some work alongside the real show horses: The Iron Guards. Then as an added spice you can pull some random and odd shenanigans with one of the most fun heroes in the game. The list is as follows: 

Balin King of Moria (leader)
3 Iron Guards
2 Dwarf Warriors with Shields
1 Dwarf Warrior with Banner
2 Dwarf Rangers with Throwing Axes
4 Dwarf Rangers with Throwing Axes and Longbows

Floi Stonehand
1 Dwarf Warrior with Shield
6 Dwarf Rangers with Longbows and Throwing Axes

Gimli
2 Dwarf Warriors with Shields
1 Dwarf Warrior with Banner and Shield
3 Iron Guards
5 Rangers with Throwing Axes

650 Points 33 models 10 bows 7 might

Keeping you Iron Guards safe from heroes is the KEY to making this list work. Spreading out into this odd almost antifly formation with plenty of 25 mm wide gaps for your iron guards int eh back to run through is the best way to keep them safe while letting them have full effectiveness. You have 2 banners and fight 4 troops. That is REALLY good and is essentially having spears on your troops with that amount of banner coverage. Additionally you have a few random shield men to run into big heroes and just be a road block. Balin should also use the same technique of hiding then popping through a gap into a single troop a turn. He is NOT a combat hero. He is a great support hero that can reliably take on a troop or a captain but not much more. 

The Grind:

This Build takes into account taking several bigger heroes that can cut through troops as well as some hard hitting troops backed up by a horde is shieldmen to simply well shield and let the elites and heroes do the work. This build is one where Durin fits in perfectly. 

Sadly with the new edition many of the things i have written so far are going to be changed but can ultimately be swapped out for either a dwarf king or with Durin for the likes of Balin. A thing worth noting this is the list i am quite comfortable leaving home without heroic strike. Dwarf Kings are AMAZING and I mean AMAZING. Just yesterday me and a few friends played a massive Khazad Dum scenario centered around the invasion of the goblins and orcs of gundabad after the waking of the balrog and it was so much fun and throughout the game with 4 dwarf kings 3 of them had to face a dweller in the dark with no might throughout the game and only 1 ended up being killed and another losing a fate and a wound. they are absolute tanks to even the likes of big heroes and monsters alike. This list i find functions the best with a spam (armored or unarmored) with a hefty number of elites and banners thrown in with max bows that you often do not use.

I hope yall enjoyed the read even with some models that may not be in competitive play for long. the concepts still stand and when playing legacies so do all of these army lists. As you can imagine seeing Balin leave is very saddening to me but I'm just here for here for the ride. Again thank you for reading the Minds of Moria and I will see you next time in my blog regarding cavalry and my tournament and casual play experiences with ALL cavalry versus part cav forces!