In the Mind: A Sword Day Prep

 A Sword Day: Preparation

Hello all, things have died down since Nova, I have been able to just sit back and paint a bunch. And that is exactly what I have done. I have knocked out a little project. I started it out by painting my old Bandobras Took model I have had lying around for awhile. I then painted some more hobbit militia and a horn blower for my Battle of the Greenfields army project. The issue was, I didn't have a single ranger model. So after scrounging around I found a few sets of the old grey company miniatures and bought 9 of those old sculpts and to add some variety picked up 12 rangers of middle earth to throw in the mix. After painting a few of those rangers, I pulled out my three hunters Aragorn model from my bits box and painted him up. I was so happy with him and the 2 rangers of the north I had already painted that I immediately decided to run the Grey Company instead of my Battle of the Greenfields at our next event. After having a great showing this year and securing the number one spot in our league, I knew I wanted to bring a list that was just fun. This list fit perfectly into that build. I then got to painting the rest along with my really old Legolas from the original three hunters set. I pulled out my Glorfindel and Erestor pack that I had converted into the elven twins and tidied them up and added some free hand work to them. After painting them up I got a few games in with them before promptly putting them in there case and slowly painting the last few rangers over the last 3 weeks before the event.

 In the games I got in I shocked myself by handedly beating a army of the White Hand in lead from the front through pulling a nasty disengage play to take out all of his Crebain in that one turn. I then just used my fight 4 to slowly walk through all of his wildmen and orcs (I used all of my bow fire to take out his uruks). I decided to test something out and blew all 3 of Legolas's might in a turn to take out an orc and the banner in contact with him to remove it after my rangers had taken out the uruk and other orc in base contact with it. It was risky but ended up paying dividends. I was able to run through the army and secure the win. Game two I got in with the list was against a rangers of Mirkwood in hold ground. I deployed and Aragorn, the twins, and 5 rangers came in on one board half and the rest of my army of my remaining 5 rangers and Legolas came in on the other. The rangers of Mirkwood force all came in on the side with Aragorn and the twins. To put it short through a crazy sequence of events, chained heroics, I managed to board wipe the list with just over half of my army. My rangers really turned on killing both Fili and taking Legolas down to 1 wound no fate. The next game was a super interesting game against wood elf Lothorien. Blinding light and elven cloaks with 10 shots to rival mine did not look fun. I did my classic spread myself across my board half and proceeded to kite. I set it up so i could have shots in weird situations while he couldn't. I set up with terrain everywhere and got target priority and eventually the consistency of Legolas's 1 shot just took out enough archers and later the galadhrim guards that I killed all of the models but Celeborn and 2 elves in breakthrough. I then got a game in versus the Depths of Moria in storm the camp, shot 3 wounds off the balrog, then in combat took him down to one wound before he took out 3 rangers then Legolas finally hit the 3+ to get the wound in with all 3 might to kill the balrog. I then proceeded to walk through his goblin force yet sadly lost my camp as I had come to far out into order to catch the balrog in a position in some terrain and never made it back and was one turn from having a ranger enter his camp. 

To sum it up I have had a blast in every game leading up to this event so let us see how it plays out when we get down there! 

Look for a series on every game and my results this weekend as I travel down to College Station for our final GT of the year!

In the Mind: The Best Model in MESBG!

 What is the Best Model in the Game?

Well the best model in the game... I have another hot take for everyone today. The best model/profile in the game is... The Ranger of the North. mic drop. End the blog here. I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL. Actually, I really wont but I do think they are truly some of the best models ever. I have been playing them in multiple lists from the Greenfields, Grey Company, Fornost, Arnor, to the Pellenor fields and hopefully soon the Arathorn's Stand list as well. 

Why is it the best?
Well lets break it down. For the cost of 25 points they are a really affordable option. I always take them with spears so I take them at 26 points each. 

Let us compare them to the Beorning profile since they are in man ways similar. Altogether the Beornings have a fight value, 2 wounds, some instances an extra attack, access to a burly weapon. The rangers have, the better shot value, and heroic stats. Heroic stats normally in this game follow some major themes. Normally they fall under the idea that each might will fate is worth 5 points. This makes then in essence 10 point models that can have infinite bows, solid fight value and 2 attacks in most scenarios or extra might in the others or other remarkable buffs. In almost every scenario they will be near a banner, they also normally receive movement bonuses. 

Ultimately they function in many faceted areas. In Fornost, Arnor, and Pellenor they fulfill the role of the crucial heroic move, or combat in a specific area. That 1 point of might is so diverse and is quite affordable. In Arnor they get free fate bonuses and will be near a banner effect instead of having 2 attacks, In Fornost they receive the upgrade of being able to take hobbits which in itself is plenty, Then they gain resistant to magic. In Pellenor (my personal favorite) they are those flexible unit having that banner effect with Halbarad and more then that they all receive a free combat. They receive an additional might point for free. Not only that but this rises exponentially when you take 2 of them. You take two they do what a captain does with sure fight 4 but 4 points of might instead of 2 for 50-52 points. They again add a shooting threat which I then combine with Blackroot vale archers and some Rohan riders to make an elite shooting force that can tear through an army in combat. 

Take this list as an example for Pellenor Fields:

Coming in with a whopping 18 bowshots a turn PLUS d6 from the bolt thrower makes it quite the force to be reckoned with in shooting. Additionally it has 15 might to start and 10 free heroic combats. With the 2 knights, and 5 dead, you have quite a bit of speed as well in addition to a nice defensive amount of troops to help play the game when combat is reached. It is a micro managing list but one that is super powerful. 

Then there is the grey company, currently my main bread and butter. This list is weak on paper and weak on the table in the inept hand. But in the hand of a player who knows what they are doing it is quite lethal. In 3 games so far with it on the table versus, White hand (lead from the front), Minas Morgul (Domination), and Rangers of Mirkwood (Hold Ground) I have lost at most in a singular game 4 models. The rangers of Mirkwood game I had half of my force one one side of the board and half on the other. Aragorn, Elladan, Elrohir and about 6 rangers killed his entire army ultimately board wiping him. Legolas spent so much of the game running that he and his 4 rangers got 2 sets of shots off all game but did secure the objective. Against white hand i took out about 4 uruks, a fate on the oathmaker through like 5 in the ways, and a wound one 2 separate birds as well as 1 wildman. We then made combat in this weird area between a fence and a rock formation and Aragorn and the twins held it while a few rangers held the fence line and Legolas and a few held the backside of the choke in an anti fly. It resulted in a massive win through a disengage play I did to take out several birds in one turn. Minas morgul was simple, i sank 3 might took out the fell beast turn one, turn two took out 2 spectres and an orc then made combat in a nice area flanked by a building and some woodland terrain. I just kept bouncing around in that area and just walked through all the orcs and applied so much pressure with my heroes to the witch king that he couldn't ever safely throw the witch king in. I broke him got into the witch king killed him and watched his army flee and took 4 of the 5 objectives losing just 2 models. Here is the list:

It is super fun and hits insanely hard but must always be moving and disengaging in order to survive. Cav are always the priority to shoot out then focus on a hero or some other priority target. Needless to say when you have some big heroes that protect the rangers well they will flourish. It is not easy but they are super powerful and can be very efficient. 

Throw down your comments to try to tell me how stupid I am for thinking these models are amazing. But... maybe one day we will meet on the table and Ill be lucky enough to have some rangers with me to prove myself!! 

In the Mind: Nova Open

 Nova Open:

Hey yall welcome back to the Mind of Moria and today we are discussing what I have been doing in order to prepare for Nova and how the whole trip went. So first off I decided after months of deliberation and thought to bring a semi meta army in the most anti meta way. After looking around I had some thoughts and I eventually decided I was going to theme my army around the Lake town Militia. After looking through my collection I had the models to take up to around 30 laketown but I never owned a bard since last edition it was super super solid and I didn't want to be that guy who ran the meta pick. So i ended up deciding on the battle of five armies focusing around my 2/3rds contingent of Militia. This is the exact list I ended up bringing to the Nova Open:

Gandalf (Leader)
8 Laketown Militia with Bows
6 Laketown Militia with Spears

Hilda Bianca
4 Laketown with Light Shields
8 Laketown with Spears

Tauriel (no bow)
5 Mirkwood Elves with Shield
3 Mirkwood Knights

Gwaihir

700 Points 38 Models 10 Might 8 Bows

The issue was is that all of these models were either unassembled or I didn't have. So I had to go and get the elven side of the force really quickly from some local guys and paint them up as well as assembling and painting a eagle, Hilda, and the 26 or so laketown troops. I had an old Gandalf with a layer of paint on him so I cleaned him up a bit gave Glamdring a glow effect and got to work with the rest of the army. I had a Gwaihir but wanted to paint a new eagle so just decided to paint up a whole new eagle for him and for the event. After 4 weeks of nonstop painting I "finished" the list. And by that it simply means i did all the layers and washes just needed a bit of highlights and the eyes and free hands as well as the finishing highlights to the elves Non Metallic Metal armor. My best friend and I flew out to Nova Open early Friday morning walked around a bit and went to the doubles where we ran a almost entirely cavalry white hand focusing on the 15 or so warg riders which was super fun and we came in like 16th of the 38 or so teams. We dropped the contest of champions game versus 2 dragons so we had fun and played well but more fun than anything which is what i think the doubles is all about. Now by this time I am seeing some of the level of play and internally I was actually freaking out. I was doubting if I could actually compete at this level and eventually calmed my nerves by simply committing to an intense style last doubles game rather then simply having fun. I went into day one of the GT extremely nervous to say the least. 

Day 1:

Game 1: We arrived for day 1, checked in and got ready. I was paired against Dale in pool 6 in which all of them are wide distance to travel scenarios. I quickly vetoed Fog of War and he vetoed clash by moonlight. We rolled and got Convergence. I split my force into the laketown and allied portions and ran Gwaihir with his elves at one force and ran my laketown from the other corner at the same force using a bunch of will to keep up blinding light against the 16 or so bows and the 2 windlances. This was decently effective and i simply lost my 3 elven cav and 2 laketown on the initial run and then wiped out a warband and a siege weapon before switching to his main force. I ran to the middle we each had 2 objectives but I had a kill lead to his positioning in the middle. I was worried i would get blocked off the objective and lose that way. So I pulled perhaps the trick i was most proud of in the event. I weighted one side of my force to this off flank where he had around 5-6 guys and he immediately ran around a bunch of support so i couldn't continue picking on 5-10 guys of his army piecemeal with the entirety of my army. I set it up and when i lost priority he moved up to his choke and instead of engaging I jumped Gwiahir 12 inches to the side right into the middle where his remaining army was and instantly got another one of the heirloom things. at this point he spent a turn transfixed (second turn of that total) and then I go the last objective in the final turn after throwing a couple sorcerous blasts off at Girion forcing out all his will and fate but not getting the leader wounds. It ended up being a massive 15-1 Major win to me after game one. 

Game 2: Army of the Great Eye-Pool 1: This game was so much fun and I had a great opponent. He had the Witch King a Great Beast and Guritz and a horde of 48 models. I won priority and let him move first. He got a compel off on Gwaihir that I didn't even bother resisting and let him run him 6 inches straight backwards. He then moved up and his great beast came in on one side where he could devastate my line. I opened a gap up to send in Tauriel, Hilda, Gandalf, and 7 laketown (4 spear supporting) and they just sat there ready to use their might as much as needed to take it down in one turn. The rest of my line semi engaged only having elves fighting creating this semi circle arch to protect my heroes and the great beast fight. I lost one elf and a laketown in return for 3 orcs and more importantly the great beast. Hilda Bianca with her plus 1 to wound bubble did the trick and I didn't even need to trade any other resources. Sadly a good amount of orcs are a great counter to laketown paying the same points to wound them on 1 better and have higher fight value. I slowly got chopped up on that front while Gwiahir killed through a bunch of his troops and resisted the only spell he needed to block and kept his might to threaten the witch king which kept out of range the whole game. We both broke but I had Gwiahir near all of my troops on the far objectives so I stayed around while he fled giving me a second major win 10-5.

Game 3: The Shire-Pool 4: I saw the Shire pop up and I was like ok no surprise its the best list in the game for sure. I dont care what people say about how well balanced the white hand is it at least has counter play. It would be like if you could take a barrowwight and a shade from last edition in one profile for 30 points. You get some of the craziest value in the tiniest and best packages. From 6 inch banners for 20 points to a cart that can knock down a hero, do damage, make models suffer a -1 in combat for 25 points and is nearly untouchable yea... very hard to play against. And a 20 model that can for free stop any model rom activating and making them 1 attack for 20 points. The value is just insane. That being said I saw the pool. I new veto to the death I was fine in the other 3. Contest or Lords of battle should be an absolute easy win, but I knew nothing was certain. We vetoed and rolled off and got assassination. I new this would be an uphill battle as his heroes revolve around not being in combat while mine require it. I was able to isolate and take out my target super early however as the terrain got wonky and Gwaihir was able to confirm the kill even after fluffing his resist on a 2 with all 3 will the first turn he went into paladin. I got the kill the following turn and proceeded to kite the shire for about an hour and 20 minutes before I had this awkward situation where a combination of archery through like 4 in the ways and Gandalf's magic took out Hilda. I then assumed it was a 9-12 score and decided all i needed was a leader wound and still keep from breaking. So i kept up the heavy skirmish and caught Gandalf with a hurl from Gwaihir taking out the cart and creating a massive hole. I swung Tauriel and a few troops around the other side of a building and started munching hobbits i counted and left exactly 20 models hidden so i could fight him but never be broken. I got him 2 models off, had a fight against his assassin that if i had won with Gwaihir would have given me a vp to win and fought 3 turns against Gandalf in which i had him prone once on the charge and rolled a 2 high on 4 dice then was transfixed once, won once and barged to get my knock down ran into just Gandalf who rolled a 6 and i rolled a 4 on 4 dice. Then he got into maggot and lost a fight by rolling a 4 on 4 dice yet again. If i had won any one of those fights where i could have done damage it would have been a nice big win. But... it was not to be so. 3 hobbit archers had been taking shots. My Gandalf was at 1 wound and 2 rerollable fate. He had 3 shots. Through 3 in the ways. 3 shots hit. 3 shots pass the first in the way, 3 shots pass through the second in the way, 3 shots through the third, 3 shots wound... Gandalf dead 13-13 draw for round 3. Dice could have gone many different ways but I was kinda not happy with Tauriel and Gwaihir's as well as Gandalf's performances thus far. Tauriel in one game had won 1 fight all game, Gwaihir had done well in one game, was a threat in another, and did nothing other then a few hobbit kills then roll horribly the rest of the game in another. Gandalfs spells thus far had done virtually nothing. That being said I was super happy with the combined threat of the tools I had at my disposal and I had been playing defensively enough to where after day one i had broke once and only lost 1 hero in one game. The combined threat was super nice and was well worth it even though I did invest heavily into the points to do it. I was happy with the micro and macro management of my force and it was enough to pull day 1 undefeated which was the goal I had set before the event. 

Evening: We went and ate dinner as a Texas team with a few others at a Thai place then went back and played a hilarious game of 2v1 using my list versus our new found friend and awesome dude Caleb. We had an absolute blast we played retrieval and I was so tired I told Michael he could do what he wanted and we ended up having a funny situation where we let him have Tauriel for free basically and then used Gwaihir to combat and burn all his might to kill Cirdan after losing the fight. We did pull a cool sorcerous blast trick to knock his elves prone that were fighting Gwaihir so the combat would go off. It was fun then we ran Gwaihir out and grabbed his objective while his combo of Eanur and Glorfindel had chopped through some laketown to pick up ours early as well. We played just a fun messing around game and ended up pulling my favorite spell collapse rocks on Eanur and doing a wound then going in and losing the fight to him which was super funny even after Gandalf struck up with the elven blade. We had a Gwaihir-Glorfindel fight that Glorfindel won in a few turns giving him the win. the best moment was when he broke us he left all the laketown unengaged then Michael proceeded to pass all but 2 of the many courage tests we had also reminding me my troops are courage 7+ not 8+ as I had been playing them all event. 

Day 2: After getting back at almost midnight we slept as much as we could and headed back for day 2. 

Round 4: Reclamation of Osgiliath-Pool 5? Whichever set of scenarios the objective ones are it was that. We ended up vetoing into Treasure Hoard. This game may be the one I am most proud of as I pulled out so many tricks and baiting tactics that I was super proud of. Turn one, Tauriel picked an objective up and so did Gwaihir. In return he moved up and picked up one himself. The following turn I had an elf with 2 cav and 2 laketown on a flank pick on up but he had 3 cav and a handful of Gondor troops bearing down on their position. I through a 3 dice sorcerous blast and got the 6 he ended up throwing all of Boromir's will and 2 might to keep his horse but crucially was outside of 3 inches of farimir. The following turn he won priority and set up a defensive position he could easily go offensive from. We were in this Easterling village and all the borders to the buildings were about and inch and a half to 2 inches high so super easily defendable as well as some Easterling pillars. He set up between those pillars with a building on one flank. I got a second objective on Gwaihir which was great and was charged by a single Minas Tirith warriors. Farimir charged Tauriel and struck and then spent some more might to wound her and the following turn we repeated. I struck both times first tied with the elven blade on the strike then rolled a 5 to his 6 spent a might lost the roll off, the following turn we both struck and I got to fight 9 to his fight 8 and he won still and killed Tauriel with more might from Boromir. Thankfully that trade took 5 might from his army after spending 2 to resist Gandalfs spell which had been duplicated the following turn unhorsing Boromir. I simply set up and continued barging and getting into good targets eventually taking out both Boromir and Farimir and broke him. Gwiahir collected yet another objective and ran to my enemies board edge. After 3 turns of losing priority I won once on the far flank and passed the objective off to my horse elf and he was able to escape. One elf survived on that flank and was getting trapped every turn by 3 rangers one of which had the objective. I spent 2 turns using strengthen will and got a will back on Gandalf who ran 6 inches to get in range and cast sorcerous blast through a corridor at the ranger with the objective who dropped it then my elf picked it up moving 6 inches away and watched one ranger flee then the other ran back and tried to kill my elf who shielded and survived giving me a 20-1 Major win. 

Game 5: THE FINALE: Men of the West: Maelstrom: This was a pivotal game. We are on table 3 playing for a potential podium finish. I am drawn against a very skilled player whom we played against in doubles and his Gwaihir-Aragorn-28 model count men of the west army. Turn one he comes on first in Sites of Power and I come on second. He has Aragorn and Gwaihir come on opposite and his captain does not show up. Hilda gets sent right by Aragorn and I then had to spend a whopping 4 or 5 might or something to bring on Tauriel Gandalf and Gwaihir to support Hilda and to turn the ambush on Aragorn. It was slowly spending might on each warband and then it was a awkward position he moved first ran in and moved barely out of Gwaihir's reach. I used a bunch of will to magic on Aragorn which i got off once which did not matter at all and only successfully cast a spell 2 times the entire game so not much for Aragorn to even try to resist. I set up and he had his captain ambush Gandalf and Tauriel So now it is a double stack of Hilda and Gwaihir pinching Aragorn against my Gandalf and Tauriel which are being pinched by Aragorn and the captains warband. I send out laketown to grab the objectives and they slowly get eaten by his Gwaihir. I set up and do about 5 hurls into Aragorn all game since he kept striking and I never wounded him once sadly. I broke him and he eventually broke me by one model at the end of the game. He got one objective fully, one was untouched one I had, and the final one I had a dude in a building and the first combat of the turn his Gwaihir barged on top of the building to get line of sight to charge the next turn not realizing this was the last turn giving my a narrow 7-4 minor win. 

I ended up becoming the youngest ever player to podium at Nova open at 17 years old placing 3rd at not only my first Nova but my first big out of state event. I am super happy with how I played and Texas had a good showing with a few good finishes of the 3 man team we had come up. I really hope to return int he upcoming years and keep up with the competitive edge I bring with weird lists. On that subject I do want to talk a bit about the list I ran. 

I love how it plays first off, a heavy skirmishing force that engages hard and fast and does the job before moving off and doing it again. The 5 elves were just enough to blunt the attacks of most armies and the cav were the perfect peel units for Gwaihir and in most games Tauriel flew right under the radar unnoticed because of the Gwaihir Gandalf combo. Gandalf was a super nice utility piece as he is super hard to get to and still affects the battlefield. While I never particularly rolled well on his spells I came in expecting that. Sometimes it was annoying but even in the moment I instantly was switching to my backup plans and the plans behind those. Gwaihir was awesome. He truly is just so fun this edition and sure he is a meta pick but what i backed him up with is not. The "competitive" pick for five armies is normally Legolas, some sort of dwarf hero and maybe 3-6 laketown spear/bowmen for a high numbers very elite army with the dwarves/elves combo to do work and Gwaihir to just do his thing. This list played more like an Angmar list. Time was something I was always facing as I had to play quickly get in do the damage get out and rehash it over and over again to secure maximum victory points every game. The list from the beginning was not optimized and I knew that from my first game. Adding 3 more elves and dropped 5 Lake town would have kept my quarter the same, my break 1 less and left me with a much stronger list overall but I wanted Lake town not elves to be my backbone in the list and I pulled it out. And I did all of that without a banner...

As always, this is the Minds of Moria and Lake town are the best troops in the game. See you next time!

In The Mind: Summer GT Report

 Home of the Horselord's GT

It has been awhile and I am so sorry for that but life has gotten crazy, This is a report from a little while ago where we had a GT. I decided i wanted to bring spam dwarf rangers. I also saw on some forums people bashing my beloved iron guards so I decided to take 8 of them as well. I ended up with 3 captains, a king, 2 khazad guards, 1 banner, 7ish shield men, 4 rangers with throwing axes, 13 rangers with longbows, and 2 with twohanded weapons. It was a nice 42 models with 14 throwing weapons and 13 bows. 

Game 1: White Council-Lords of Battle

This matchup genuinely scared me. I have no strike against all heroes in the kill points mission. He had Elrond, Gandalf, Sauruman, Radagast on sleigh and Thrain. I set up all spread out and decided to not fight at all. The game ended and their had been 2 combats all game. I just shot early, chipped off a found of the chariot and a fate of Thrain in the first turn. He also had blinding light up every single turn but 2.... his Gandalf rolls were crazy. I ended the game with 23 total "wounds through" 7 of which were on his chariot which he kept renewing. i also took out Gandalf's fate, Saruman's fate and one wound, and 1 fate off Elrond. I lost 9 models and got a major victory round one by just maneuvering my army so they were always just barely to far away to blast. The funniest part was it was so weird... i didn't spend a single might point the entire game. 

Game 2: Reclamation of Osgiliath-Command the battlefield. 

I lost priority and got sent on first. I immediately covered all the quarters but one and had 1 warband off the board. he went on all all came in on one spot. I immediately set up and shot out a couple rangers. somehow his luck went crazy and he started outshooting me when he wounded me on 6s to my 5s on him even when he had 4 less bows to begin with. I ran in and my iron guards and captains literally quartered him in 4 turns of combat. he ended the game with 5 models of his 39 alive and i won by holding 2 completely 1 with more then double and the other keeping square 0. I also broke him without being broken for a massive win. 

Game 3: Fog of War-Ride out

This game was another one that was super interesting as soon as i saw the list and scenario. He had Aragorn and Theoden and 24 models 2 banners and all but 4 royal guard or something ridiculous. In fog of war having to kill Aragorn with no strike against a cavalry army... interesting... in the one turn of shooting i got I chipped off 1 fate and 2 might from Aragorn simply because he didnt want to lose his horse and spending more fate in fog of war to him seemed not worth it compared to 2 might. I set my line up in this pure web formation so his initial cavalry charge didnt get much guys almost at all. Crucially it allowed my king and captains to run in where they wanted. I was able to set it up and run a warband around the back forcing 4 of his riders to charge back across the table 10 inches to charge them then the 12 ran around wrapped and killed them. That captain and 2 guys ran off and grabbed my terrain piece while I simply ran the others back into the backside of the Ride out force. It went interestingly as we chopped each other up both broke but then it got very interesting i finally set it up and used the last might i had on the table on my king to combat and trap Theoden with 2 normal rangers... with the trap they ended up chopping Theoden's head off in one go giving me even more VP's thankfully his target of mine survived and my other captain survived spending no fate giving me a nice win but under a major as he scored his terrain to keep the points from doubling. This was such a cool matchup as my opponant and I have been at the top of the league but somehow had dodged each other in every event previous while we were consistently taking 1s and 2nd in a back and forth fashion. So we got our game in and his ride out eventually did fall. 

Game 4: Dragons of the North-Retrieval

This game... broke me. we traded shots he killed 4 or 5 guys the first turn with fire breathe i chipped off 2 fate... he then ran in and then... every single combat except 2... rolled a 6 and lost one combat all game. that combat was the last fight of the game when it was a captain and 2 dude versus his leader and they did 3 wounds and he had already used 2 fate from shooting so he took courage checks and failed on eof them and fled. The owrst part was i had 5 models in range of his objective and a captain... ALL failed their courage checks and were outside of the harbingers range. If the captain had passed (with his will as well) then they all would have stayed and it would have been 8-8 draw worst case scenario or if i could get it back i could have won... but it was not to be and with all 6 courage checks on that side failing (i also failed 7 dwarves that were protecting mine) i ended up losing the game for a minor loss to the dragons of the north. 

Game 5: Rivendell-Breakthrough

This game was high stakes. There was the potential for first as a combination of draws and other things had left only one player (dragons of the north) undefeated and several on 3 wins 1 loss, So if he took a big hit and me or my opponent got a big win we would be able to overtake him by differential given he took a major loss and one of us a major win. regardless it was for second place. Going into this game I was chill, I thought second was the highest i could do and was like ok lets have fun. I set up a warband to protect mine he started setting up at the middle line scared of all the stories he had hear do of the 13 elven dwarf bows and the 14 throwing axes that had dismantled a blinding light hero list in the kill point mission. I set it up so i could shoot his main block of troops and the only way to shoot my archers was through a lane in the walls from the side objective so he placed Arwen and her 11 archers there so they could threaten my archers. thankfully this plan i made worked perfectly as i had one more captain and his 8 warriors that dropped right in the face of Arwens isolated warband of all archers. yes i was outnumbers yes they were elves... but they were separated by at least 2 turns from the rest of her army and i would have free range to shoot the elves as they ran to support Arwens warband. I ran in first turn all my throwing weapons failed so i new the wrath could mess this up. Thankfully i had 2 might and a will so i knew as long as i rolled a 4 on my resist i would be fine for a turn. She dropped the channeled wrath and somehow i rolled the natural 6. i followed that up with my 2 iron guards each getting kills, losing 1 dwarf and killed 2 other elves. I also beat back Arwen. The following turn i ran in again and this time did even more damage getting 2 throwing weapon kills and pinned the rest up. I ran in another warband to support the following turn as Elrond and his elves were now a turn away from the fight. This allowed my king and his warband to clear out the 4 elves on the other side objective and have a free run at his back objective supported by 6 elves. I pretty much just walked through all of them and shot 4 or 5 of Elronds elves out with my bows and then when combat hit i mitigated damage from Elrond finished off Arwens warband and then munched up a lot of Elrond's troops and killed arwen. With that i had the majority on that side objective, completely had the other side objective, my own and a sneaky elf had survived 3 turns against a king a iron guard and a khazad guard to keep his objective contested I still ended up with a massive win keeping my banner alive. 

Meanwhile on the top table next to me I noticed... the dragons had had it lucky so far with their scenarios being, lords of battle, hold ground, Fog of War, Retrieval and now breakthrough... their luck however had run out with matchups... they were facing the balrog... Who simply went and grabbed all 4 objectives then killed the 3 dragons 1 at a time... leaving that table with a 20-1 major victory to the balrog. At this moment i thought he balrog player had the event... turns out he had 1 minor loss, 3 major wins same as me... but one draw instead of a minor win. This meant I was tied in TP's with the dragons but had a MUCH higher VP differential giving me the chip and another GT win this year. 

I will be attending Nova open in just 2 short weeks and hope to provide just as much fun and wacky games and maybe have a decent showing. Still not quite sure what to expect but we will find out. I am bringing a fun little list showcasing the Lake-Town Militia as my core units... the unit that everyone says is horrible now... which is why i chose them... 

In the Mind: New Book Supplement: What is Good?

 What is Good in this NEW Army Book

We just saw the "release" of this new book. I have looked through it and there are many things that stick out. as an overview i will focus on a few things as well as a general overview. Most armies in the armies of middle earth just got expanded. That is one major thing to note. Army lists that are really good (or at least look really good on paper) consist of, the Grief of Eomer, Khazad Dum, Army of the Great Eye, Umbar, Moria, And the Easterlings. Additionally ones we already have but are in the book such as Fornost, Arnor, and Buhdurs Horde all fall under the good. The grand army of the south is if something even worse then last edition and most lists are better then it. The grey company has remained nearly unchanged while being horrible last edition and still is and took a nerf through the twins being 2 might now instead of 3. One that is/or certainly will bring in much debate is the fiefdoms. Imrahil is still very very good but now you have to pay the points for him with 190 points for him mounted. Many are calling him overcosted but if you did a points to points calculation from last edition with nearly any other hero in the game imrahil was at least 30-40 points undercosted if not more. He was right there with the Dragon Emperors power and only a few points below with the loss of the elven blade, no magical resistance and i guess a big fat hard to move base that does extra attacks instead of his versatile horse with a lance... His banner is reduced his standfast is better and he is now a true beat stick. He is technically 170 to compare with last edition but now the horses cost more as well as heroes in general. He still has a lot of good value and is nothing to sniff at. 

Khazad Dum and its antithesis Moria are the two lists that stood out the most to me. Khazad dum can cover a quarter of the board with mirrors which are actually very very good. They gain dominant 2 on captains and the warriors and rangers (which is utter insanity), as well as whenever you are outnumbered in a duel roll by dice you may reroll a dice for free, so if its an iron guard or a captain they can go up to 4 attacks in the duel roll if there is a banner near... this rule is very very good. They still reroll ones, and now dwarf rangers... my word... this list is to me the best list in the game hands down. Now that being said it still requires a highly skilled player to be that. This list still has no normal spears other then vault wardens. It still is a very different playstyle to every other list in the game but man if someone knows mastery of this list it is basically untouchable. So much to the point that I am only playing Durin, Mardin, the legacy balin, in tournaments and for casual play only using captains and 1 king. It is just so powerful. I played 2 games with spam rangers and it quartered a barad dur in 4 turns of shooting, It killed a legolas through 4 in the ways with shooting in 3 turns and killed about 7 minas tirith warriors in those same turns and followed it up by beating the list. Let me break it down... rangers were what i loved last edition for khazad dum and now they are even better. They were hard to use last edition but this edition they are good... not great but good... insane in the hands of a great player but in a starter or a mediocre player they wont do much and you will very rarely win because this is a skill based troop and army. Simply put place your army in ruins or difficult terrain... force your enemy to you then you gain the same buffs as dale as rangers now have plus 1 to wound in ruins or difficult terrain rerolling 1s and access to two handed weapons. Then they have throwing weapons... their bows this edition are 24 inch s3 bows hitting on 3s. They outshoot everything except tie legolas simply because of the mirrors. They have a ballistae which offsets a windlance, they still have d7 and banners. They have great numbers, great hitting power in i would always take 4-8 iron guards. This list is SO good. It has just taken my spot for Nova and nothing will change that. Even if they get nerfed I kinda hope they do so they are less appealing but even then the armored version is easier to play and more consistent without a lot of skill. 

Moria as i said earlier also stands out. You get numbers, shenanigans, a beastcaller, dragons, drakes, trolls, bats, prowlers, goblins, fell wargs, everything... It is so powerful. It is the AoL of last edition or more accurately the angmar of last edition in the fact that you have a bunch of tricks they just need skill to be pulled off. You need to engage correctly use you monsters well and use your bat swarms in the right times. This has a much lower ceiling then the khazad dum as you have all the basics and numbers to make it forgiving. If you take durburz a captain, druzhag and a drake and then spam goblins with some prowlers 2 bats a few fell wargs you are looking at a VERY good list. Durburz can elect to not move in a turn to let all other Moria goblins move 7 inches instead that turn which can be devastating and so effective for charging things such as cavalry or other such lists. Or in recon it can also help. 

Army of the great eye looks fun for a numenorean line with shelob and the witch king. It is the same list as was Britains meta without suladan and is still brutally effective. 

easterling warriors with 2 pikes behind gain plus 1 to wound which means d6 is easy to crack for the easterlings now making the dragon emporers list very reliable and good now. 

Fornost is still a top 3 list alongside khazad dum and the army of the white hand so not much to say on that or the other arnor/angmar armies as we have had those for a bit. 

Frankly I think this book is very good and I like the anticipation that was given by GW rather then releasing all 3 books at once and now its almost as if we just got the whole game new again and it is so fun. Matched play guide looks excellent and so many different ways to do veto now. Cannot wait to see these armies making the table... and please... dont run khazad dum... let me play my baby which was the first army i ever bought

In the Mind: Nova, What to Run? Some Ideas for the MOST Competitive Event in North America

 In The Mind: What to Take to Nova?

The Nova open is the biggest and most competitive event in North America and I am hoping to attend. I have everything sorted out so unless something comes up then I will be there. I want to take a list that screams me, a playstyle I like using and other such things. I made a list of different armies. Among these were the men of the west (after my success last year with the underwhelming list), I would only take that if they add the elven twins to the list with the next book, The second list was my necromancer legion, as well as the Wolves of Isengard, Garrison of Ithilien, Minas Morgul (with SPAM spectres and a foot witch king), I also had the thought of taking out my Iron Hills with a chariot. Lately I have come up with two additional ideas that I will add later to keep some thrill to the read to the ultimate list I am thinking of taking. 

I wanted to take something that was either a micro-warband esc army or something that is unconventional for kiting. So with those two things as my criteria I wrote different lists for each of my different choices. 

Men of the west had a very interesting micro-warband style but unpredictable with the points since i dont have the twins and would only take it if they arrive in the list. The last edition it was insanely powerful and I love it so much and it really showed off how I can truly play the game with skill rather then using good lists to place well at tournaments. Interesting list, still unknowns, 99% sure it wont be showing up at Nova.

The Necromancer has been a staple list that no one saw coming or thought was that good until i started tearing up the scene with the list this year. The spiders wraith Sauron and a captain combo hits hard with a good amount of cav. It has a very interesting relationship against heavy shooting lists but skydiving the wraith and necro by themselves works very efficiently. It has an unkillable leader and a nearly unkillable support hero for fog of war missions. i like the list and it is still a consideration.

Garrison of Ithilien is a very fun list and at 38 models 13 might with 17 bows it is very good with banner vps, as well as 3 free ones essentially means you can take losses to wins with relative ease as well as taking certain scenarios down with ease. In my opinion a top 3 list for sure this edition.

Minas Morgul may be my favorite list this edition if run a certain way. I love taking 33% spectres, 33% spears, 33% bows with a banner and 1-2 trolls and the witch king on foot. It can out shoot any enemy list with ease. The reason why is with 8-12 spectres pulling archers around the enemy very rarely gets much shots off while i get 10 shots with bows and normally a throwing stone or two. Very fun and unpredictable.

now for my top 3 picks for this event. These will have a lot more depth and the lists i am specifically looking out fully written out. PLEASE comment on which list you would most like to see at Nova, I am taking all of this into a LOT of consideration for this event. 

My number 3 Pick is as follows: 
The Battle of Five Armies: Contrary to the common opinion I do not have Legolas or Nori in the list at all. Instead I went for Fili and Kili. Admittedly it does have the big bird, but with a twist...
The list is:

Gwaihir (Leader)
1 Great Eagle
1 Fledgling Eagle

Kili
1 Banner shield
8 Spear Shield
2 Crossbow

Fili
4 Spear Shield
1 Mattock
1 Goat Rider

700 Pts 22 models 9 might

This is SO much fun. You can run around and choose when to engage and pull some nasty tricks with barges and your dwarves rallying behind as support. Initial turn you can except quite a bit of nasty damage. And from their you have mostly d8 across the board along with shields on nearly everyone meaning shielding can keep you alive, enemy heroes dont have an easy time munching through you and you can inflict quite a bit of damage before the battle really happens along with having 3 good heroes as well as 2 additional eagles. A banner behind a wall of this is insane power. I love dwarves that are able to constantly be moving hence why I only took 2 crossbows to plant on objectives and act as mini turrets shooting anything that comes near them. It has all the tools I need as well as having so much fun variation to the list and looks sick on the table and ahs a lot of nostalgia as my first ever tournament list I ran was very similar at 800 points 3 years ago. 

My second pick is... THE WOLVES OF ISENGARD!
These are SO much fun and I have way enough riders and wargs to make this list work at this points and at 700... its actually pretty scary. 

The list I have right now is as follows:

Sharku (leader)
3 Wargs
4 Warg Riders w/ Throwing spears and Shield
1 Warg Rider w/ Throwing spears
2 Warg Riders w/ Bow

Orc Captain
3 Wargs
4 Warg Riders w/ Throwing spears and Shield
1 Warg Rider w/ Throwing Spear
2 Warg Riders w/ Bow

Orc Captain
3 Wargs
3 Warg Riders w/ Throwing spears and Shield
1 Warg Rider w/ Throwing Spear
3 Warg Riders w/ Bow

Orc Captain
3 Wargs
3 Warg Riders w/ Throwing spears and Shield
1 Warg Rider w/ Throwing Spear
3 Warg Riders w/ Bow

700 Points 44 Models 9 might 10 Bows 18 throwing Spears

This list is quite simply insanity. It will literally cover the entire board and engage everywhere with insane power that cavalry has, Its main advantage is it loves every single scenario in the game and with all gave actual banners are nearly impossible to keep safe as one charge and lost combat and it will die and be gone since it will be prone. It is a list I have written a lot about and I love. It plays the real game rather then the game of simply killing. 


My number 1 pick as of now is: Erebor and Dale. A bit of background for this is this. I was listening to the Unexpected Podcast (second only to the Green Dragon) and they talked about how this is possibly the worst list in the game as of now. That is what I was told about the Men of the West a year ago... although this wasn't a personal telling me how bad it is, I still took it as a challenge. I wont lie, i only thought about this much this morning and wrote up a list and instantly fell in love with the look of it. It is nearly identical to what my Men of the West Army was... but if something it is by far superior. I will share the list then break down just why it is SO oppressive and powerful. 

Thror (Leader) 130
7 Grim Hammers 77
7 Warriors of Erebor w/ Spear and Shield 77
1 Erebor Dwarf w/ Shield 10

Girion 80
1 Dale warrior w/ Banner 32
2 Dale Warriors w/ Esgaroth Bow 18
1 Dale Warrior w/ Spear and Shield 9

Erebor Dwarf Captain 75
1 Erebor Dwarf w/ Shield 10
1 Erebor Dwarf w/ Shield and Spear 11

Erebor Dwarf Captain 75
1 Erebor Dwarf w/ Shield 10
1 Erebor Dwarf w/ Shield and Spear 11

Erebor Dwarf Captain 75

THIS LIST IS INSANE! I mean just look at it. Even then it doesn't look like anything specifically special... To give the Unexpected Podcast some credibility to their claim about Erebor and Dale being bad let us look at the current stats on longshanks for this list out of the 74 lists. 

58th out of 74... 39% Win rate... not good at all... and this is in tournament play. The better players out there agree this list is bad... so is it? Well I intend to prove otherwise. I think this is the list I will most likely take. It has all of the tools I love as well as all the tricks in the world. Let me break it down. The simplest form is to simply say 5 3 Attack Heroes that is really really powerful. Everyone is probably like wait WHAT? yea this edition the humble Erebor captain tagged on another attack. Which makes sense as the Grim hammer in the last edition had the much better captain profile. The other things this has to add threat is throwing weapons and you know those 2 bows. They might not looks like much bet with good defense as a all around force this list is no slouch. It packs a MASSIVE punch and this time instead of 3 3 attack heroes like I had in my Men of the West I have 5 and the same model count but better troops, better fight value, essentially 3 banners oh and on top of that, with 12 might statistically I should get 2 might free with their other legion rule meaning I statistically have 14 might points. This means I essentially have my Men of the West legion but in all category's mostly better other then courage and it has more might (kinda) as well as packing even more heroes and a physical banner in the list AND having a ranged threat even if it is a short range albeit. 

Overall I think the top 3 lists I have look insanely fun, all scream me in some way shape or form. The top 2 are ultimately what I am leaning towards as I love those lists so much. But let me know... WHICH list SHOULD I take to the most competitive event in North America. i read through every comment and will ultimately 99% of the time take what the community around me votes on taking. So let me know and I will respond to all. Thanks for reading this article of the Minds of Moria... Until next time I will return to the depths...

In The Mind: Grand Tournament Review

 In the Mind: Am I Stupid or a Darkhorse of the Meta

Hello all, in this post I will discuss the tournament we had out here in the DFW over the past weekend. I will go in depth into each of my 5 games and discuss how each game went where i made mistakes and where my opponents made theirs (if any). For this event it was an 800 point event and my two best friends were taking very tough lists. I ended up taking a very straight forward and simple list.... Just kidding i went into the lore and found the battle at Pelargir. This battle is when Minardil and Hurin fought and lost to the Umbarian pirates. Ultimately this was because i just put up a poll for either the wolves of Isengard, the necromancer, or the realms of men as my list for the tournament. The realms one barely over the wolves of Isengard and I had quite the eventful event ahead of me. I knew Fornost and Minas Morgul were fore sure coming as those were the lists my two friends were taking and so with my theme I wrote my list. 

My list:

(Leader) King of Gondor (Minardil) Horse Lance Shield Heavy Armor
9 Knights of Gondor
1 Knight Banner
5 Warriors of Minas Tirith Bow
1 Citadel Guard with Longbow

King of Numenor (Hurin, the Numenorean Steward) Kitchen Sink
13 Numenoreans Spear and Shield
5 Numenoreans Longbow

Captain of Minas Tirith (Celdrahil)
10 Warriors of Minas Tirith w/ Shield
1 Warrior of Minas Tirith w/ Banner

48 Models 2 Banners 7 Might 11 Bows

This list is a very much my style of list from a year ago and before. It was a troop does it all list. It is very fun but different then what I have been playing as of late. 

Round 1: Round one I was faced off against a very fun opponent,  I was facing Ents. The scenario was destroy the supplies. I set up took some shots while they ran at me. They eventually made comment unharmed while i had already slid 3 knights and 2 warriors past them with some tricky movement shenanigans. They made combat and i set up so i could dismount half of my cav to trap a handful of ents. I did so and struck up with a charging king and instantly took out one ent. My other king who was in birchseed did the same but lost and took 3 wounds but luckily passed both fate. (he died the next turn though so that didnt do much). I took out 2 ents total kept both banners alive protected all of my objectives while taking out all of his leading to a massive major victory to myself. Ultimately we talked through and we both agreed he shoudl have anchored on two of his objectives using terrain and his bases to block them off and focus on getting the leader kill and break without being broken to barely win. 

Round 2: Wolf Pack of Angmar: To the Death

This game is was faced up against a familiar face to me. My good freind Nick, we had an excellent game in which his howl went off and he combatted through my frontline. Sadly I only won 2 of the tied fight value rolloffs we had of at least 15 throughout the following turns. He chewed through me slowly but not before I took out his lead warg chieftain and 1 other warg chieftain and had 2 others wounded. He killed my captain as i through him out as bait to bring out the howl turn 1. It came down to the fact that i shielded with a warrior and won against a wolf chieftain who was about to take out my last banner and that ultimately gave me the 10-9 minor win. 2-0 1 major 1 minor.

Round 3: Minas Morgul: Reconnoitre

This was against one of my closest friends Michael. This game was IMMACULATE. hands down the best game of the event. I new I would be able to do either two things. Keep his army off from escaping my board side at the sacrifice of the break points and get myself quartered OR rank up and use terrain to munch through him with my banners and higher fight value and let him get about 5-7 guys off. I decided on the first banking on the fact that i would be able to quarter before he got any models off. I quickly ran 3 cavalry off and put him on the back foot. I essentially created the biggest anti fly formation ever created and just spread out on my entire side of the board allowing him to gang up super slowly and munch through my army. This worked well, I sacrificed my leader to kamikaze in and take out the fell beast which worked and saved me so much as the WK then never had a chance to get off the board. He played the game extremely well with his spectres and mainly his drummer. I was in shock at the efficiency he used to get his army around while being engaged. He would engage part of his army and then drum and run the rest of his army forward gaining ground. I eventually pulled a little combat play to sling my captain off the board scoring more points. He eventually broke through and began engaging. Sadly nearly all of the 25 orcs i had killed were the bowmen, twohanded men, and spears... So he had almost entirely shields left and shielded for 2 turns while getting closer to the board edge while I was one model off quarter and didn't have a model leave.. We timed out the turn before he would have marched his drummer and 6 orcs off the table which would have given him a convincing win. Instead I pulled off another major victory giving me 2 majors and one minor and a 3-0 record headed into day 2. 

Round 4: Fog of War: Shadows of Angmar

This round was insane. I was playing a player from Louisiana and his wacky 16 werewolf list that had double banner and 40 models. It also had 2 barrow wights a captain and the shadow of ruhdar to boot. Of course on this insanely weird Lothlorien board with trees with connecting catwalks were all over the board. It was a very very very good game to say the least. With so many terrain pieces there were tons of choices. Neither of us ended up guessing which terrain we were going for. The game started out with a very fun separated deployment for me. I moved into this ring of trees and a staircase to anchor myself off of and let my numenoreans just go to work. He played very avoidance like to stay away from my main line for most of the game yet my cav versus all of his werewolves still chopped through about 10 werewolves and 4 or so wild wargs before he realized skirting the edges letting my kings and cav mop him up was not going to work. I brought my army to his group of about 15 orcs and engaged right before he broke. i killed a barrowwight and kept talking about the other barrowwight seeming to imply he was who i was going after that worked so well as this barrowwight who still had will ran up into a tree and hid the rest of the game. i was actually going after his captain. I tried to keep my captain safe and take a massive staircase. I kept my captain safe and he never even saw combat while being right next to combat the entire game using his might to influence the game. My king of numenor bit some bait to charge a handful of guys next to his captain nearly alone. The Gondor king with 2 might points combatted over to help out that flank. He brought another cav with him and with the kills they all got I had the numbers advantage. each of us still had a might point and after he won priority I called a move to try to get a charge on his mightless captain. He won the roll off after calling a move with his last point of might. He put a few models into my numenorean king including his captain and the shadow and tagged my cav and Gondor king. I then had to roll a 5 to win the roll against them with my numenorean king. I didn't... He then rolled 3 6's to wound on his 4 dice and I failed all of my fate and he died... I then won priority on the last turn and charged his captain with my Gondor king. With a banner in range, on the charge against a captain who wasn't shielding because he needed to do damage... I lost the fight... and nothing happened but still that would have been 5 more VPs in the bag. Thankfully I had psyched him out when it came to terrain and had like 5 guys on one tree and 2 guys on another he thought it was the one with 5 since i had been "focusing" on it all game but it was not. A convincing 13-10 victory even with horrible dice rolls all throughout the game. 4-0 heading into game 5 with Michael right on my tail. If i lost this game he could overtake me for the win. 

Game 5: Hold Ground: Host of the Witch King
Ok... common theme this event.. werewolves... 3rd time facing them in 5 rounds. BUT all 3 with different armies so that was cool. But with my lower end courage numenoreans and Gondorians I did not like these at all the entire event. I lost priority and deployed first. I did not com eon with 2 warbands and the other I chose to place near a small building. i half moved my archers in and that was fun. The witch king then came on right next to me. A barrow wight came on my other side and another barrowwight i through to the exact opposite side of the board. His other Barrowwight came on from the side to play the objective. Aldrac did not show up this turn. I shot with my half moving archers through two in the ways at the King and hit the two orcs and got two kills on 3 hits. The following turn he moved towards the objective and my Gondor king came on in a flank. I turned and shot all of my Gondorian archers and numenorean archers at his orcs and took out the 2 touching the banner AND the banner. The game progressed my captain turned up on turn 3 and started to the objective with his shieldwall. I broke him just when i got a very minimal advantage on the middle then Aldrac the werewolves and his remaining orcs and barrowwights got to work. I slowly chopped through them while being chopped up myself. Thankfully with no banner of him and my own banners both alive I had some threat. I also had the advantage and was slowly getting more of an advantage. Aldrac put in work yet eventually failed to get through my Gondor kings fate after I lost a roll off. The game ended and I had another win with the center being mine, breaking without being broken, and having a banner and killing his. This led to a big win and a 5-0 event. 

I did it! I took first and to boot I took best painted with my non-metallic-metal paint job on my Gondor. Michael and his Minas Morgul took second and my other good friend who I sadly never got to face took 4rth after forgetting several key rules that ended up costing him some games while still playing them so so well. Now it is preparation for Nova Open and our 1000 point event in which my friends wrote my list completely for me and i am takin the 9 with a bunch of cav and no necromancer... it will be an experience for sure. But i am probably only going to paint that list and get my first gameplay experience with it at the event. For Nova I am thinking of running the Wolves of Isengard, Men of the West, or a spectre heavy Minas Morgul... what do yall think I should take to nova? comment below and ill take your opinions into account.