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

Khazad Dum:

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

Maximum Defense:

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Avoidance"

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

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

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

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

650 Points 33 models 10 bows 7 might

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

The Grind:

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

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

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

 

In the Mind: Courage and Terror, Why are They so Important MESBG

 Courage and Terror:

Welcome back to the Minds of Moria. Today we will be discussing a quite often overlooked element of the game. Courage. As well as all things that interact with the rule. Courage is niche rule or thats what it seems like. As a rule of thumb I would always consider it to always have an use. Which after looking through nearly every army it actually is shown to be will quite prevalent. The things that cause you to use your courage that is. From armies that have heroes with terror to certain models that have terror to spectres or sentinels to instill fear. The effects of courage are everywhere and it is such an essential tool in gameplay. The amount of lists that do not have some form of terror is actually pretty low. And it normally consists of much more restricted lists such as the Rangers, Arnor, Druadan, and the army of Thror and maybe a few more. All other factions have access to it and even if they only have 1 or 2 models with it. it means with higher courage you can set aside less resources for that issue. Additionally break point. The bane of many evil army lists. For example let us look at the percentage chances of different courage values. The main focus for me is the difference from courage 2 to courage 3. The difference is the biggest statistical change in the game. Therefore as a base for my i always like to set my base standard bar for lists at courage 4 (in case of harbinger of evil). This means I have a really solid courage to face about anything. Especially with the new take on Angmar we just saw released, well courage is more even more important. The spectres are in I believe all of the new legions (except the wolf pack) and all of them have mass terror. Another way to counter terror is terror of your own. As an example one of my favorite lists currently is a Gandalf Radagast alliance with a HORDE of laketown warriors. The list basically plays you throw up a channeled aura of dismay with half of Radagast's will (i take him on eagle with Sabastian) to give me a 12 inch terror bubble. I recently played an immaculate game versus a guy who ran the new Witch King LL at 800 points. The counter terror meant i could set up so many tricks to basically make my army more effective at charging then his with the way i boxed him out of the objectives. with that and with Radagast running amuck through the tainted a barrow wight and later the Witch King, The counter terror meant so much in that game as with the harbinger i couldn't charge reliably with only courage 2 BUT his troops couldn't either so i set it up so my wizards kept getting cheeky spells of that would help me just delete chunks of troops at a time. throughout that game I only lost 5 models (plus 2 f Gandalf's fate) to nearly board wiping him before we rolled the 2 to end the game. Terror is a great counter to many opposing terror lists. 

Break point is a main focal point. With the amount of objective scenarios or scenarios that force spreading out, courage again becomes so important. Hunter orcs or Gondorians in these scenarios. well if both forces get broken i would put my money on the Gondor any day simply for base courage 4 on their lowest value troops. You cannot always rely on standfasts or fury. Its a simple fact. 

Warahorns: I would say do not take warhorns unless it is in a army list like hobbits where it doesn't hurt you all that much or in lists at 750points or higher. at that points value generally if you can i would suggest always tasking it if it you are courage 2 or 3. 

Building around courage. Simply if you are running something like hunter orcs take either Bolg or Azog from legion and take like 3-4 berserkers to help this. Use them to charge terror troops or spread out and fly solo on objectives. Shamans also help with this but are super super niche compared to the usefulness of the other techniques. Heroes that provide a fearless bubble. These heroes are EXCELLENT. Halbarad the balrog Dain all amazing examples of this. fearless is so useful and never underestimate it.

Courage is vital and I hope as I found out the hard way that you all will avoid that trap and never underestimate it. Thanks for reading, this has been the Minds of Moria and tune in next time where we will discuss the grounds of Moria itself... but in its former glory. Khazad Dum!!

In the Mind: Why Unnamed Captains are STILL Worth Taking and Here is Why.

 Unnamed Captains:

Captains. The lowly captains... Today in the Minds of Moria we will be discussing the use for Captains and why they are so good while looking quite just meh. Now this is quite open ended and some captains such as Rivendell captains, Arnor captains, Angmar captains, and Moria captains etc. are commonly seen. Something about these captains though is that they are taken because there aren't many other options for either might or simply other heroes. So today rather then focusing on these common captains that we see I want to shift our focus to Captains in lists where the small named heroes seem to always knock the captains out of lists. Specifically I would like to look at the Captain of Gondor as our primary example then work on throwing in some others to build. 

Why Take Them?

Simply put, they are cheap utility pieces. They really can do just about everything. All of these captains we will talk about today have a few things in common. In fact it is what makes them so valuable to me. They are set apart from all models that fit in the same price bracket (with the exception of dwarf kings). For example let us look at the Captain of Gondor (our focus) If you take him on foot he is just like Irolas, Ingold and Madril just with one less might and no special rules. BUT you can mount this guy. Taking a captain of Minas Tirith for 70 points give you a hitter that while not having excellent fight value has all the punch needed to take things down. Pair this with a Cirion or such and you get the combined hitting power of the big bads. more hitting power then a Boromir for half the cost. A bit less then the hitting power behind Aragorn but for almost 3 times less... Best part of all is their combination of heroic march and their cost effectiveness. Captains are IDEAL for taking up space. they can get your models where they need to be efficiently then can easily hold up much bigger heroes for a few turns by first making the enemy realize the horse is a priority (because of the lance) then you can simply shield and you can just stall a hero for easily 3 sometimes 4 turns with this tactic before then mince you. And these are bigger heroes such as bolgs and other strength 5 or modified monstrosities. If you can get these guys into Glorfindel's and such then it will take even more time or resources to take these guys out. And importantly... they are expendable meaning you dont care if they die this way as long as they take the tempo and resources out of your opponents heroes. Yes they may not kill their points worth but that is totally fine if you can just buy time for you own heroes and troops to cut through theirs. Now if you are caught on a flank then you can do the simple tactic of killing 1-2 guys a turn with absolute ease and just apply pressure to weak points in enemy lines. In the case of Gondor no other hero can do anything relatively close to this for the points value. In fact a hybrid of Irolas and Hurin is the only way to get close and thats exactly what this captain is. A hybrid between 2 named heroes and he provides a AMAZING utility to your army. Taking a captain with simply about 3-4 knights works like a charm while letting other heroes lead blocks of troops. I will portray two different types of lists with these thoughts incorporated.

The First List: Farimir's Charge!

Farimir (leader) Heavy Armor Shield Lance Horse 105
4 Knights of Minas Tirith with shields 56
1 Knight with banner and shield 39
1 Citadel Guard Horse Longbow 17

Hurin the Tall Horse 90
4 Knights of Minas Tirith Shield 56
1 Knight of Minas Tirith Banner Shield 39
1 Citadel Guard Horse Longbow 17

Captain of Minas Tirith Horse Shield Lance 70
2 Knights of Minas Tirith Shield 28
1 Cit Guard Horse Longbow 17

Captain of Minas Tirith Shield Lance Horse 70
2 Knights of Minas Tirith Shield 28
1 Cit Guard Horse Longbow 17

649pts 22 models 10 might 4 bows

This list encompasses the charge of Farimir as shown through the films. Since Hurin was already a made up character and he can be mounted it would make sense that he would go to protect Farimir as his rules showcase thus I through him in. This is a classic standard points but is quite a themey and very specific army list build and is already restrictive in cav and while being an EXCELLENT list and has performed very very well for me, the next list will showcase the captains in a much more standard list. 

The Second List: The Good One

Aragorn Elessar Armored Horse 240 

5 WoMT Shield 45

3 WoMT Spear Shield 27
1 WoMT Bow 8

2 WoMT Bow Spear 18

1 Citadel Guard Longbow 10
2 Knights of Minas Tirith Shields 28

Ingold 65
6 WoMT Shield 48
6 WoMT Spear Shield 54

Captain of Minas Tirith Horse, Lance, Shield 70
3 Knights of Minas Tirith 42

650 points 32 models 7 Bows 8 might (plus free)

This list is a beautiful working machine. Having the captain tag team with his knights along with Aragorn's squad of cavalry means you have a decent hammer with cavalry to beat between your unmoving infantry anvil. The captain absolutely shines in this list as he lends much to the success. Aragorn can win games by himself but sometimes he lets down on his own combat and then its up to his banner effect to aid his other hero's and troops so they can pull the weight. The true way these captains shine is through their flexibility. when there are hero killers such as troll chieftains or Buhdurs or Azog's or not so killy heroes as described above in any situation the Captain always makes up his points worth. When there are heroes that can take him out with ease then you throw him onto their flank and just chew a few models a turn and then the opposing heroes have a choice. Stay and kill some troops and eventually face a Aragorn or they can run to the flank to take on your captain which then means you can simply use that captain as bait and keep pulling that hero further and further away until they are well out of position for the future of the game. Then if someone manages to pull the incredible feat of taking out an Aragorn then you have the Ingold strike/captain hitting power tag team to take out enemy heroes when you have taken out a solid number of troops. these two are also excellent and wiping out trolls in one turn with absolute ease. The Captains flexibility is nearly unparalleled. Gondor has everything and the Captain is one of the things that makes the list have everything. I would argue any day that a captain provides more to your list then Irolas who fills a similar role to a captain. 

Other Captains:

Just like the Gondor captain, Mordor orc captains fill a VERY similar role. They do something that nothing else in Mordor has. The flexibility of these units is incredible. While I mentioned the Rivendell Captain as one of the more used i felt people tend to go towards Erestor over him all the time (big mistake). Captains are some of the only models i truly enjoy mounting onto horses because for them the flexibility is endless. As a note. When (if) you face enemy captains remember these things and shoot out their horses first. Big hero's on horses are not to hard to deal with their bases mean a lot of guys can get into them and you always want those heroes doing a lot of work so they wont go and skirmish on flanks unhindered and so you always have ways to deal with them while the captains often times have free range. Galadrihm captains are practically a necessity unless you are running them with Boromir allied in. The Rohan captain is by far the most controversial one as they have many small heroes that already have the exact playstyle that captains tend to use but I do really rate Rohan captains simply because of how useful i have found them in lists with Eorl and helm. They are still useful and while the likes of Elfhelm and Deorwine and Dernhelm do tend to make these captains especially outliers they are still a good solid choice with excellent defense and better then most of the other options. 

Veto System:

With the introduction of the veto system many people have tended to leave the captains behind and veto anything that they would have needed the captain for. I would argue that they are still excellent even in veto. One it again provides more flexibility and can give you advantages in terms of what you want to veto. Additionally the march is almost always a really good utility in almost any scenario. It also can force your opponent into vetoing certain scenarios. All of these combine to mean you gain advantages by taking captains in veto if something more then in non veto events. 

Conclusion:

I love the lowly generic captains and love when others bring them to the table when there are other options that seem more enticing. I find many benefits to bringing the captains and i hope yall have enjoyed the read and now want to take out more generic captains. For now this has been the Minds of Moria, check in soon to read about my thoughts on terror and courage. Thanks Again!

In the Mind: Baiting Tactica MESBG LOTR (How to Bait Effectively)

 A Guide to Bait

Welcome back to the Minds of Moria, today we will be discussing possibly my favorite tactic in the game. Bait. We will discuss how to bait your opponent (several different ways) as well as how to see it in your opponents play and to avoid bad bait. 

Baiting: The simplest form

The simplest form of bait is taking a cluster like 3 warriors that have value and throwing them in charge range of a flank of the enemy. This strategy is to be implemented when you want to drag a big hero off to the side. to do this make sure you are outside of range of their normal troops (maybe in range of one or two. mounted heroes then may be enticed to charge these troops. make sure the rest of your army is outside of that heroes range. 10.5 inches is the perfect distance for this. THE entire sole purpose of bait is a trade. You are trading some models in return for the bad positioning of their hero/heroes. if you can pull them to a flank and stall them for about 2 turns with these models then use the rest of you army to maintain this hero on the flank then you have succeeded. this is why it is important that only a select few models may be charged by the enemy hero so that you know where they are going. the important thing is you HAVE to trade something of value. Throwing a Beregond with 3 warriors of Minas Tirith with shields maybe a few spears is the perfect example. A might point and some troops looks super tasty but sacrificing that for positioning for your force is INVALUBLE. even better bait would be throwing a few citadel guards with Beregond. you always must have the idea of a trade in mind. if its simply 2 hobbits why would they take time to go kill them. Baiting tactics become even easier in scenarios where it is all about objectives as your bait will seem much less intentional as bait and rather looks like u are trying to sprint at objectives. Using bait to make heroes like Gwaihir jump behind your lines is another simple tactic for any flying hero. throw a captain out behind your lines. something without strike or defense that looks easy to take down. The opponent is likely willing to sacrifice their heroes positioning for your hero. Then you can swing in following turns to trap and kill that model behind the safety of your lines. 

Switch Bait:

The Baith and Switch tactic is one of my favorites. My favorite way to do this is to throw Ingold and a block of about 2-4 warriors of minas Tirith with shield out on their own on a flank. A practically free 65pt 3 might hero with some warriors that are separated... who doesn't wanna walk over their with an Azog and wipe it out in a few turns. Well the issue is... They have much higher defense and staying power then it looks like. Having Ingold means your warriors are only trapped by cav and remain in shield wall making wounding really hard. This means that they can survive quite a hit and means your other part of your army (normally your cav contingent) can swing over ASAP to save your bait and let you have the better positioning as you choose where you want that bait to be. Heroic defensing hero's that are not to big in points value and leave without much support are ideal for this as they seem easy to take out but are quite resilient. The whole idea with this is the bait is durable and is easy to save with the rest of your force making it even more worth while as hopefully you dont lose that much value in trade for their positioning. I recently had a small game where i used this versus a hunter orc horde with Fimbul and the other named hunter orcs. I threw Ingold (my leader) and 3 warriors out on a flank where his wargs and some hunter orcs and Fimbul could come nab his little band. The opponent bit and ran right into the area of terrain that was perfect for my knights of Minas Tirith to run in and hit them and for my shield wall to stay intact through the support of the terrain feature we were now fighting at. I then proceeded to blow through his entire force as i had a mini anvil set up with Ingold's contingent and the hammer of my shield wall and knights. Another way to set this up is to throw out some cav barely outside of their charge range so then if they bite and move towards you they cant charge this turn and if you win then edge again barely out of their range and then they have a choice. they have already committed to coming this far towards you so now do they leave and maybe sacrifice objectives in some scenarios or sacrifice the separation of their force by committing to chasing the cavalry down. 

Archery Bait:

This is another quite fun tactic to use and is one of if not the easiest. You simply use your archers as bait. This is extremely useful when you have good firepower behind your bows such as evil shooting (Uruk Hai, Trackers, Harad) or such things as elves dale or anything with good amounts of shooting on the good side as well. This approach is set up by deploying the majority of your archers on a flank and an inch or two further up then the rest of your force. It looks enticing to not only hit some troops that are closer to them but that are also bows nullifying their effect on their spear supports (or heroes in combat if evil shooting). you want to put your archers where you want to either box a hero out of combat from your heroes or in the place you want the fighting to happen. And to be fair the bait is really really enticing. Even i will sometimes go for it if my opponent uses it if i deem the position not to bad for my army in trade for some archers. But even in those cases it gives you as the baiter the advantage of knowing how and where the battle will happen if they are looking at your bait. 

Manipulating Maelstrom:

Maelstrom deployment is one of the most hated scenario sets in the game and quite frankly i LOVE those scenarios. Why because: Bait. Baiting becomes even easier in these scenarios as you can do the bate switch tactic with easy. drop a small high defensive warband unit by itself if you have first priority and try to group the rest of you force together with a march in scenarios like hold ground or heirlooms. then just play the objective and your opponent is likely to try to ambush that one small warband. Its entire goal is to die. But to do that very slowly and give you an advantage on the objectives such as boxing out the middle while they deal with your warband. This is the simple way to win with first priority. set your army up as bait but try to only have one warband be able to be isolated and ambushed. use might to keep the rest of your force together so then you can guarantee where they will try to ambush you thus giving you an advantage over them!

Making Bait Work:

Baiting is a skillset. dont expect it to work every time or instantly. You need to set it up. Talk. Use phycological warfare to set it up. In the case of the archery set up just continue to make the lines of measurement and comment when you get into combat my archers will be able to knock out those spears because they are slightly ahead of the rest of my force and other such comments. Make it seem like your bait is your focus to winning the battlefield. measure to objectives from your bait and dedicate your focus (seemingly to it) when you do that so does your opponent and it gets into their mind that they need to take that portion out as it is your key to victory. All are liable just lean into both sides of what they should and shouldn't do. Advise on all options and provide negatives for all options. and positives for charging your bait and what will happen if you dont. dont seem intentional with this but rather like mutter it under your breath loud enough for them to hear. In the end of setting this up with a warfare from your physic against theirs in more cases then not they will bite. The only way they wont is if they see exactly what you are doing which is what i will provide to you so you do not fall for others bait. 

Recognizing Bait:

Bait is easy to recognize if you are thinking about baiting constantly yourself. Always be looking for where you want to fight the battle and what terrain helps you or your opponent more. This is where shooting is such a valuable tool as whoever has more or can do the most damage with it gets to decide where you fight. Always weigh the odds with cavalry heroes and flying models before committing those models are easy to bait off. Just be aware and again look for the positioning you want and run towards that. If you can secure more objectives then your opponent then simply set up with a few bowshots even if they have more they have to come to you to get to the majority of objectives that you control thus giving you the advantage even with less shooting. Play the objectives and force them to come to you is a great way to avoid bait. Especially at higher tables most "misplays" are intentional. That is the bait. It is a great way of setting up bait by making it look like an accident to leave a model within charge range of the opponents hero so when playing advanced players watch for that. it is likely not an accident. Be mindful and watch all scenarios. 

Summary:

Set up your bait with phycological warfare. Just talk "haphazardly". It works. Set it up with a specific intent and goal and have a backup plan if they see through it and do not bite. like actually committing and moving that little group to grab that objective that you measured to. Recognize the skill of your opponent and note his movement if it is very precise then most times when he "slips up" it is indeed bait. SOMETIMES bait is worth it to go in. For example i recently had a game against a AMAZING player whose movement was profound. he "accidently" left the gap for my Radagast on eagle to get into his tainted behind his lines. His tainted had used 2 will and 1 might so I decided it was worth it and threw Raddy in and one shotted the tainted. It was bait and I bit because I saw the danger of that model later on and it worked out as my army poked a hole right next to where Radagast was trapped and was able to run through and support him and keep him from being trapped. Set it up execute and watch out. Those are the three simple steps to making bait work. Now go enjoy yourselves with the great tactics of baiting your opponents. 

This has been the Minds of Moria thank you for reading tune in next to a post on lowly captains in lists with abundant heroes to choose from instead. Until next time, I will return to the depths.

In the Mind: How to Play The Great Eagles Tactics MESBG

The Misty Mountains

Today we are going to look at one of my favorite armies in the game of Middle Earth. The eagles. Specifically the Misty Mountains and Radagast's Alliance. We will go over allying 1 or 2 eagles into lists in a future episode but today we are going to be looking at the list pure or with minimal allies. First we will focus on the Misty Mountains List. Well on the bright side it is a simple list... you have 2 possible choices. Gwaihir and Great Eagles. Looking at the points values we see it must be an odd points value to run this list pure. Generally as a rule of thumb eagles are better at lower points value when running pure of having small allies added. 650 is about the highest i find it comfortable to run as at that point it turns from enemy heroes having plenty of resources to take out your army to you have the advantage as they will only have 1 big piece at 650 or lower. this means it comes down to dice when they start getting traps. you roll a 6 you are safe. But this isn't the strategy. The best strategy is lining it up so whichever fight u have u can hurl into an adjacent combat making all models in that fight be knocked prone and take strength 3 hits while your eagle takes one s6 hit. If you can set up several of these and execute several in one turn it will drastically lower the opponents numbers and keep your army safe. you need to treat it like a cavalry force kiting around until you lose priority they move then you charge in and wipe out a captain and get some hurls or something similar. 350-550 is the ideal points value for a pure list but the best points value overall has to be 500 points. For this list we take:

Gwaihir 150
3 Great Eagles 300

Alliance: Green/Yellow Thorin's Company
Balin on Pony 45

495pts 5 models 4 might Longbeard 

Now you will notice the alliance seems odd. green/yellow? well here is the thing. depending on the event you may want to run the eagles portion from Radagast's alliance so you can make Balin the leader and go hide him on a board corner and use his longbeard effect to massively help your eagles. This is the way i would always suggest to play this alliance as with the pony Balin can keep away from most things while still effecting the battlefield and protecting easy points. Brutal Power attacks are the jam of this list. You have nearly infinite options for each and every combat and keeping your opponent guessing is so so massive in the game since they need to try to prepare for every option. At higher points I would consider either allying Gwaihir and 1 eagle into a list such as Khazad Dum with plenty of banners OR running Radagast's Alliance. 

Radagast's Alliance

This may be my favorite army list outside of LL's. It has so many options (and by that i mean literally 4) and brings all the fun in the world to the tabletop. Radagast may be my favorite spell caster in the game although his spells are odd since about half work well with eagles and half do not and would prefer to be in an alliance. His spells are mostly defensive but have this offensive edge as well. He has renew which is insanely powerful with you d8 three wound Eagles. Beorn... i wouldn't ever really suggest taking him as his berserk rule is quite limiting. Allying in Gandalf is my favorite way to run the list in its more pure version. at lower points i run the above list and at higher i run this. Gandalf on horse with Radagast on eagle and filling out your remaining points with as many eagles as you can is what works perfectly. The sorcerous blast opens up so many possibilities as Gandalf can sit behind your line and start the chain reaction of blasts into your eagles combats to make sure your eagles cannot be harmed. Another option is Saruman, it all comes down to preference and both work. It it is a 750 point list then taking Gwaihir is definitely a good idea as he is excellent and in this list his might affects all models! This time you have the advantage of nearly every list has to come to you. you have strengthen will with Gandalf (hence why i suggest him over Saruman) and can easily get Radagast to about 8-10 will before combat if kiting goes will. then if you can continue to kite and throw out compels constantly to weaken enemy heroes will and when they finally fail and they have already moved that turn jump on that hero and one shot him. it may be a good idea to throw one normal eagle to a flank that turn and hurl through the army. never split your eagles completely up until late game. having them close means protecting Gandalf and having you hurls is quite easy. The best tip i have for allying is ally into either high defense, horde lists, or into cavalry forces. Those lists are the ones that function the best with Eagles. But that is for another day. For now focusing on the current list of  Radagast's alliance is the focus. I would encourage playing around with the sleigh as it is loads of fun especially at 400 point events with 2 eagles and Sabastian. Remember Radagast always has line of sight which means he can be on foot behind a way and cast at your enemy and importantly can charge from behind a building with his eagle which NO ONE ever sees coming. Other then that get practice always focus on attacking parts of the army (normally one flank where a hero is even if its small) and try to avoid getting your entire force surrounded. Another thing to note is you army ignores control zones so double, even triple, teaming compelled models is quite easy which is why its important that you do this in a turn they had priority and moved first. Movement is you friend. You can access any portions in the battlefield realistically in 3 turns. You should always be able to fight where you want and that means you have an advantage. 

Thanks for reading, thats all I have today for you in todays: In the Mind. Next time we will be discussing the tactics behind different styles and ways to bait your opponent (one of my favorite strategies ever). See you soon, this has been the Minds of Moria and eagles are fun!

In The Mind: How to Play Men of The West Legendary Legion MESBG Tactics Guide

 Men of the West Legendary Legion

Among Legendary Legions in the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, some instantly stand out as excellent. Legions such as Assault on Lothlorien which relies heavily upon the darkness of night to protect from shooting and using buffing spells and numbers to beat your opponent or the Host of the Dragon Emperor that gives you free extra points in match play look extraordinary on the battlefield. While legions such as these do seem incredibly appealing here at the Minds of Moria we enjoy playing lists that are much less seen and look much less competitive. My favorite Legendary Legion in the game may be the Defenders of the Shire, but today we look at the most climactic scene in the Return of the King. The Men of the West.

Army contents:
You are required to take Aragorn king Ellesar as your leader and only Gondor may lead Gondor troops and Rohan may lead Rohan. 

You then have the choice from Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf the White, the Twins, Imrahil, Beregond, Merry, Pippin, Eomer, Dol Amroth caps, Gondor caps, and Rohan caps.

Then you may take Warriors of Minas Tirith, Warriors of Rohan, and Knights of Dol Amroth as your troops.

Your list all gains fearless while Aragorn is alive and additionally once per game all models within 12 inches gain +1 fight value for a turn. 

As a whole, this legion is looked down upon as one of the worst legendary legions in the game. Recently I took this legion to our GT and placed 3rd with a 650 point variation of this stunning list. The list functions with a very very specific build. When we look at it we see no elite troops save the over costed knights of Dol Amroth. well that over costed knights of Dol Amroth is the key to making this army work. Having f4 with shielding means you can take a hero heavy list and have a good chance of shielding with your knights and winning everywhere else. The list i ended up taking is as follows: 

Leader: Aragorn 225
10 Knights of dol Amroth 110
8 WoMT Spear and Shield 72

Beregond 30
2 WoMT Bow 16
3 WoMT spear shield 27

Elladan and Elrohir with heavy Armor 170

650 points 10 might (plus free) 27 models

The list pulled off 4 wins and 1 minor loss at the event. The mobility of free marches meant i could outpace every army i faced and with three f6 hero's i could take on almost any force especially considering they all had elven blades and a one turn f7. Here i would like to take a moment to appreciate courage. It is so heavily underrated but after messing with this legion for the past half year i now take everything i can to up my courage. in standard Gondor armies taking it always pure and normally running Osgiliath vets for the extra courage is my latest example of this. Courage is so important in game play and not having to worry much about it is MASSIVE. Now back to the list. The army's biggest trick is the one turn glory of fight value. BUT it is so so powerful. heroic combats in this army are your best ally. getting in range of enemy heroes and combatting puts so much pressure on them as the rule "For Frodo" is declared after heroic actions. This is shown through all other similar rules specify "before heroic actions" such as Groblog's crown, Eanur, The Knight of Umbar etc.. This is the only rule that distinctly ignores that factor thus meaning it is indeed after heroic actions are declared. This pivotal fact means you can combat and if a hero doesn't strike you may then declare For Frodo and combat into a hero and easily take off 2 wounds with easy from Aragorn and one shot them if you can trap them. Sadly in the tournament i never even used this trick like i had in practice games as in almost all of my games i used it as a defensive maneuver. I declared it to stop a combatting Elendil from taking out a twin used it to cut through f6 elves without worrying about them and then in one match used it for my troops to gain the upper hand when they had a bunch of traps lined up. that is another note. the rule means your standard Knights of Dol Amroth become elves for a turn which is disgusting and pays back the points u paid for them to begin with. 

The best strategies are as follows with this list:
March is your friend it is free might after all.
Play grouped together as a death ball and spread out late. 
heroic combats make the numbers equal very fast. 
Beregond is your rearguard or your protection for objectives.

The list as a whole has many different builds but this is the most consistent one by far and can be adapted for nearly every points value by either dropping Beregond or upgrading him to a captain and filling out the warband and possibly at 750 or up adding a physical banner as well. 

Aragorn does the work even if transfixed. he is a passive banner so dont worry about magic you have 2 other heavy hitters to balance it out and resist in the one turn u can actually use Aragorn to influence the game heavily. 

The fact that you are all infantry helps you have maneuverability through both your own and your enemies lines thus making your combats much more effective and your heroes much harder to pinpoint and take out. 

Take this army out and try it. I have no doubt that if used by competent and skilled players it will work wonders as it has for me ever since I played my second game with the example list shown above. If you like seeing things die on your opponents side much faster then your own then this is the list for you. High defense and incredible damage output combines to make this list beautiful in any scenario. It has just enough models to compete in spreading out objective scenarios but not two much so that scenarios such as lords of battle and contest of champions are always in you favor. it has the mobility to have speed be its ally compared to lists that may have a few cavalry models in it. Then the staggering amounts of might means you get to control the board for the majority of the part combined with the combating shenanigans giving you a massive advantage on positioning and the tempo of the game through you loads of resources. 

Thanks for reading and look out for the next post in which we will delve into Minds of Moria to discover tactics and ways to run eagles competitively without a simple one drop Gwaihir into a list and rather a look at it pure or with one or two hero's from other lists. 

Until next time, TheMindzofMoria checking out.