In the Mind: The Minds of Moria Podcast, Tactica and More!

 The Minds of Moria Podcast:

Well the time has come, officially we have a podcast. While I have been spearheading the written works through the blog Michael has been working on everything to get the podcast up with his great editing skills and public speaking skills. Now the Minds of Moria has branched to more then a blog and more then just me. We have our 3 hosts (myself included) and we will discuss things in a style that has started to dissipate. We talk a bit about meta but even more so about counter meta, how to defeat it and what makes the meta actually a "meta". In coming months we will revive an old style in which we will pick factions of troops and go through the troops themselves, the armies they are in and tactics to use them efficiently and effectively. Since we have a bunch of experience with tons of armies (myself only having to play Muhad and Sharkey's Rogues to fulfil every army list) and the playing level of top table competitors we have tips and tricks. Along with my wacky style and I will explain how and why it works especially at these larger events where my style as far as I know has not been seen. 

Our first episode just dropped and we will be releasing episodes by weekly! Some highlights for upcoming episodes will be highlighting the Warrior of Minas Tirith and all of the lists that the generic troops of Gondor fit into and playstyles and tactica for those lists from Fornost to Ithilien. We have played with all of these lists and have experience with them which is why we have waited to launch the podcast until now as we wanted this style.

Here are the links!
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MoriaMindz
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4k1R56MbofUsixVrnqHJKe

It is the perfect thing to sit down and get an hour or so of painting done while getting imparted with knowledge of how to play with wacky lists and how to make them succeed. 

2025, 2026 and the Future of MESBG: In the Mind

 What is in the Future for MESBG and what will I be Playing

2025 was a crazy year, A new edition came in, the rules became much more clear and yet there is much debate over the state and future of the game. Many areas have seen a resurgence in players with renewed interest while other areas have seen a loss of players. Regardless of these factors, frankly I dont really care. I'm here to play the game and for now it looks as if it is doing well as a whole and will continue in that direction at least for the time being. 

Going into last year with the new edition on the rise as well as myself finally hitting a level of play where I considered myself a competitor, I wanted to win the Texas league. That I did. I came and throughout the entire year through a mirage of events including the prestigious Nova Open I ended the year with only one tournament game loss. One thing that became a baffle to me about the mid part of the year and specifically after Nova was just how that had occurred throughout the years. Looking back I had been a decent or solid player for the first few events I went to racking a 5th at my first ever event which was a 34 player event. My second event which was smaller I placed 2nd, then my third event I placed 3rd. Through those events I thought of myself as a good player but looking back I see that it was pretty silly and I took solid armies that I had experience with even with my little amount of skill. For example, I didn't use a single brutal power attack with Gwaihir in that first event I played. I didn't mount my Dwalin in the same event which later led to a standfast opinion of mine in regards to infantry heroes. In my second event I ran a bold choice of entirely two handed weapons on my Hunter Orcs with the Pits of Dol Guldur and got handedly beat in round one when a super solid player came up against me then was able to use my knowledge of the army and the power of the list to take down the next 4 opponents. Over all I wasn't bad, but I most certainly wasn't "good". Then 2024 happened. I showed up and took a Men of the West int he last edition and played it for 6 straight months. Through that time it was the longest I had ever played a single list and by the end I felt I had unlocked something in myself. I went to our GT and placed 3rd after a sad loss in round 4 because Legolas apparently just cannot lose fights to f6 3 attack heroes that also have an elven blade. After this ordeal I decided to start running all Cav. This was the moment when my game play went from a good player to a top table contender and led into my 2025 year. I ended the year playing all cav Gondor with Aragorn and knights with captains. I learned how to balance the list and play it as well as playing the Wolves of Isengard and some basic Rohan lists. By the time 2025 had come the combination of a hero heavy Men of the West all infantry and the movement based playstyle of the all cav specifically Gondor and Wolves where you are fight 3 taught me how to master the elements of the game that are essential. Movement, engagement, disengagement, resource management, kiting, the element of baiting and more then anything else how to take a minor advantage or minor dice roll and turn it into an unstoppable momentum in my favor regardless of the odds or situation. 

After this into 2025 I ran all sorts of lists, never doubling up at events and lost one game when I only took captains and faced dragons of the north and won 2 fights the entire game because I had no strike. 

Overall I ran all sorts of playstyles from heavy engage, mega skirmish, hit and run, troop eccentric, hero only, magic and shenanigans. All sorts of tricks. My favorite styles definitely were the skirmish style heavy kiting lists. With this in mind it may come to no surprise the current lists I am working on for 2026. 

I am undecided for my list for the 2026 Adepticon GT as well as the the North American Masters. Currently, several ideas are floating around in my head. I am looking at a all cav Khand, a Umbar with spam Hasharins, Wolves of Isengard, or a funky Army of the Great Eye with a ton of mini casters and Shelob. In terms of the most powerful the Umbar is most certainly the most powerful list and I would rank it as the best army in the game with no really close seconds. The hatred Gondor I have never used once, the stalk unseen is niche and I really only use it on the Hasharins that naturally have it. And thus far I have never needed to use the command changing rule. So what makes it so potent? Well it is simply Corsairs and their mix with the Hashari. Throwing weapons are so nasty, they just are. When you combine a good number of them with a cheap backline, cheap archers that are pretty solid and pair those tricks with 3-4 f5/6 heroes with 3 attacks that reroll on their own throwing weapons and strikes to wound and that cannot be trapped? Well the result is kinda nasty having 4 of these on the battle field is just so nasty while still getting into the 40s when it comes to numbers. I will make this case and many will argue for other lists. However I would say this is the best list to nullify any hero, take down any horde, outshoot just most other lists, and decimate any battleline with 5 3 attack heroes at 700. 

That being said, if I wanted to pick one army that would be able to beat Umbar, It would be my lovely Khand. Khand got so much better this addition with the ability to reach fight 5, have a physical banner and over all retain their 100% shooting. Chariots got a massive buff and these things just walk through armies. At 750 (North America Masters point value) you get 31 units with 4 chariots, and entirely cav. You get 31... bows. 30 cav units and one infantry unit who has a bow. I recently played this list at 600 versus a 50 model Shire army with the 2 fight value buff heroes, the Gaffer, Maggot, Gandalf on cart, lobelia, paladin and a horde. The first turn they traded bow fire and i lost two chieftains horses as well as 3 khandish horsemen in return for 3 hobbits. The next turn I marched made combat and ran over as well as killed in the ensuing fight phase 20 hobbits in a single turn. The following turn I lost the move offs and got countercharged losing 3 riders to killing another 8 hobbits. The next turn I won the roll off on one flank and decimated another 12 hobbits with the 3 chariots on that side and ran over several hobbit heroes in combat as well as wounding the cart. I then board wiped the army in the next 4 turns while securing my relic and running to my board half. This list walks through all of the popular low defense hordes from the shire, to AoL to even to a lesser extent the wildmen minus the nasty crebain. And I didnt even get a chance to heavily kite in that game. I cant wait to play this list more then in just my head. 

Wolves of Isengard I have talked about in depth and the nastiness you can bring to the table is hard to be reckoned with. Especially with fearless, and the ability to hit fight 5 with enraged wargs. 

The Great Eye army functions just like an evil version of my Nova list with way more consistency on shutdown and a bit less on hero killing. You upgrade from Gandalf to the Dark Marshal as well as Muzgur and Kardush. You then downgrade from Gwaihir to Shelob and Tauriel down to Gorbag. Mirror the elves into mounted Black Numenoreans and foot numenoreans. They transfer so equally it is so powerful. Then as a nice bonus you get to buff those laketown into a massive horde of Orcs and take some warg riders to give you a lot of cav heavy numbers as well as 5 hard hitting morgul stalkers to buff from 700-750 for this event. It functions super powerfully having 2 transfixes as well as having depth with kardush able to revive the Dark marshal and more importantly being able to fireball open lanes or heroes who will not resist it because they need to focus on the transfixes that Shelob will capitalize on. Then in addition to this as a major buff from my Nova List you get a massive range of banner effects through the small eye banner effect and the dark marshal as well as tons of courage buffs for yourself and debuffs for your enemy giving this list even more depth. In this build it is most certainly the most balanced and depth filled list other then possibly the Umbar on this list and can take hits and give them and be super competitive in all matchups. 

Regardless of what I end up taking I hope it will be something that will surprise my opponents and be tons of fun to play. 2026 goals, win a major event and keep playing at a solid level and place top 3 in likely the last year I will play in the Texas league. 

Let me know your thoughts regarding what lists I should bring to top events this year as well as fun ideas or takes on how dumb I am for thinking Umbar is top tier. And just wait until i combine Umbar with khand and run grand army of the south with hasharin corsairs and through in some chariots and khandish horsemen as backup. 

In the Mind: A Grand Slam?!

 A Sword Day Grand Tournament

As I mentioned in my preparation blog a week ago, I was going down to College Station for the final grand tournament of the year. I decided after Nova I wanted to settle back into some super fun wacky style lists (not like I hadn't all year or anything like that). So I ran the Grey Company. 

Game 1: Alex in Divide and Conquer: Shadows of Angmar

This was the one matchup I was loathing to see across the table. To match up against a good friend and excellent player round one in the maneuvering scenario when he has a big bat, 3 shamans, and 2 barrow wights with 42 models. Nevertheless we vetoed into Divide and Conquer and set up. I ran Aragorns force at the side without Gulavhar and used Legolas's half of the force to make Gully take the long way around staying outside of range because of the shooting lanes I had set up. My shooting started off solid spending a might and a bunch of shots to take out 1 shaman and over the next few turns just took out some orcs and chipped a wound off a wight. This was important as when i finally made combat with the one small portion with my half army with the twins and Aragorn a random shot with a might killed his barrowwight on that side. Sadly by then one twin was at strength 1... so he died from a wither the next turn and gully killed the other twin. He accomplished that by baiting me forwards by letting me charge the bat. But it meant that I would give up my kiting and shooting. I took it because when you get to engage gully especially in a choke I feel confident. So I ran in with the twins one to combat and kill a shaman that had been exposed. The other ran into the bat and struck. The first twin rolled a 2 high lost his combat and backed away. The next rolled a 3 high and gully's 5 won. He barged killed the healthy twin before the wither took out the other one. Then Aragorn got into the bat and i used my rangers of the north to act as a shield. They minced the orcs around while Aragorn took turns whittling Gully down. Once gully was at one wound leggy shot him out with his one-shot and I cleared the center. I then just mopped up for a board wipe and a nice 20-0 to start off the event. 

Game 2: Barad Dur: Destroy the Supplies

This game was a super quick one. He had Sauron and two chieftains. Turn one i chipped off some wounds off the trolls. Then I marched into his face and met in combat and chopped through the 2 trolls in 3 turns. I then just put everything into Sauron and expecting to quarter myself and win that way I just kept at it. But.... Aragorn did Aragorn things and after 11 ring saves and 3 might later Sauron fell. At this point I had reached and destroyed all of his supplies which left me with yet another successful board wipe and another massive win. 

Game 3: Ride Out: Lords of Battle

We were in pool 4. I was facing another player that is very talented and another good friend. After a year with this list he had racked quite the record and ended 3rd in the event and the league. There were some really fun big ruined buildings with 3 levels... I decided that since they were in the middle of the table I was going to deploy right up in them. I thought about being on the ground for this and just setting up so that my big heroes would be the only ones able to be charged... But then i remembered how poorly my twins and Aragorn had been rolling to win combats. So I decided to let my 14 bowshots with 20 (plus free) might do the talking for me. And since he had 6 or so bows and 8 throwing spears I felt this wasn't a total just non play way as he had ways to fight me just not get mass cavalry charges off. We started off and both called shoots with our Aragorn's he went first and chipped some fate... I went next and with might tallied a nice 8 wounds on horses and 5 riders (3 of which were royal guards). The next turn his throwing spears had 3 hit... 3 pass the in the way to hit Aragorn... and 3 wounded so I used all 3 fate and the free might to block some wounds affecting my leader. I returned fire and took our some more horses and riders getting up to 12 tallies. This continued and he engaged eventually I beat off his Aragorn but never got to kill him. His Théoden was behind terrain the entire game sadly enough, but it worked out well enough for a 3rd massive major victory. 

Game 4: Army of Erebor: Lead from the Front

I was playing against an army that I simply do not fancy my chances in simply a straight fight. Thankfully the Grey Company is so flexible it allows me to engage when, where, and how I want. I used a might turn one to chip off a wound off of Gloin. The rest of the game I got one shooting kill (not even a single kill with Legolas) I then set up to get the right sequence of priorities to get shooting lanes where I marched right into his face when he finally stepped into a little choke. Normally dwarves love this... but not against 4 fight 6 heroes and an all hero list. Throughout the next 3 turns I lost one fight (with Aragorn). I used might on my rangers to keep winning and had to use 3 of the 4 might on the twins to win combats as well. Through this I brought his numbers down to a much closer about 25 of his to my 13 at this point. He started with 38 so I felt great about this. Because I had threatened his heroes early he put them behind 2 ranks to keep them safe which is why the choke was so important as Gimli fought 1 fight all game (Which he lost and took 2 wounds) and gloin fought 2 (where he was killed). His king on the other flank sat nicely practically by himself where i late game sent 3 rangers running at him got a trap after tagging his other friends and had 8 dice with 2 might to win... and promptly rolled 4 high on 8 dice... so that was fun and I didn't get his leader. I ended up just mincing all of his dwarves taking 2 casualties and held 3 objectives 2 entirely and one with the highest tier. This ended up giving me yet another massive win heading into the final round. 

Game 5: Eomer's Grief: Breakthrough

Other then game one I think this is the game that really showed you dont need the Grey Company to shoot and more then that that they are way more lethal in combat. He set up and charged into my face after deploying back. He didnt send in his heroes and kept the two big beat sticks safe to keep vps and protect his objective. It was an interesting choice but it forced my hand. Sadly enough for him... I know this list super well and rushed a twin with 4 rangers up the one far flank taking out all of his cav and securing the objective before running to his back objective. On the other flank I sprinted Aragorn the other twin and my other rangers right into his cav and chopped them down in a few turns. He held the side objective for a few turns but in ultimately even after Imrahil engaged I had to many numbers and won out. Legolas was sniping will protecting my own objective. He took out 3 wounds off of Eomer with a stellar roll and all 3 might. Eomer promptly rolled a 1 on his first fate and decided to use all 3 might t save the fate and trust. He then classically rolled and passed the other 2 fate not giving me the leader wound. Ended up another decent sized major victory as I secured my own objective, the two side objectives, break without being broken and he failed to do any damage to either twin while barely keeping the majority on his own objective giving him another vp. End score 7-3 major win.

The end result was great. I ended up beating the 2nd, 3rd, and 4rth, place finishers who all only lost to me. I placed first with a 5-0 entirely major wins event. It ended up that even if I lost my last game I would have won simply because of how many victory points I had achieved through my differential. So thus concludes the journey the Texas Fellowship this year. A grand slam of the 100 point events. I did that with the Realms of Men at 800, Khazad dum all captains with a king at 700, and with the Grey Company also at 700. As a recap of the year in general I ended up having five 1st place finishes, one 2nd place finish and a 3rd. That third being my worst finish of the year at the Nova Open. Through that time I went 28-1 at events playing lists that all were considered decent, bad, or not very good. (Other then some people consider the Khazad Dum a good list even though I took only 2 khazad guards and the rest rangers and iron guards) 

This year I took

Rise of the Necromancer
Wolves of Isengard
Rangers of Mirkwood
Realms of Men
Khazad Dum
Laketown Heavy Five Armies
Grey Company

Next year I am looking at taking some of these lists...

First to major events I will be taking Umbar or the Grand Army of the south focusing the lowly Corsair as I think that the Hasharin and Corsairs combination lists are the best in the game. 

Umbar
Grand army of the South
Host of the Witch King (All cav)
Battle of Greenfields
Fell Beings of Mirkwood (without the spider queen)
Arathorn's Stand
Pellenor (with Halbarad and spam Rangers)
Army of Edoras
Hunter Orcs
Expedition to the East
Khand
and finally The Survivors of Lake town... perhaps the greatest Darkhorse no one has seen coming. 



Thank you for reading and I look forwards to seeing more play at events and hopefully if I am able to make it show some competitive spirit at Adepticon's newly minted North American Masters with my Umbar. 

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 Fog of War. 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...