Is the hype accurate? New META or Meme
A massive tournament recently in England saw the eagles showing something ridiculous like 6 7 of the top 15 spots in a 130 player event. That begs the question is it simply a list the best players in England think is good or is it so widely powerful that it will become a new norm for the people who want to win will run? Well you are reading the excerpts from an old eagle player going back for years when they were thought to be garbage. Here are a few simple facts. The Eagles were never truly bad. The Eagles have gotten better but not world breaking better. There are still many simple ways to take them down. Let us first go through the biggest changes to the eagles and talk of how that has impacted the army.
Great changes: So they all got dominant which is good like very good on hard to kill monster. They got better at killing more models at a time. they got better at barging into heroes. And finally they get an insane legion bonus.
Not So great changes: Many heroes are now abase of F7 and most previously F5 heroes are now F6. Additionally Gwaihir lost heroic strike.
This all boils down to they are a very very similar list to last edition. They will scale fine up to about 650 and will hit the top with a SKILLED player. They are still a challenging list to play but a experienced player who knows the ins and outs of when to hurl barge or just kill is what is required to make this list great. I would say the eagle list itself isn't that much of a threat if you prepare at least one trick to face it. anything from fearless to plus 1 to wound on troops to having 1 or 2 casters is PLENTY. I think the eagles look good now but as soon as the more experienced players start pulling out that nasty list called Minas Morgul the eagles meta will die instantly and I doubt it will ever return. The eagles will fluff. Heroic defense heroes are ideal. set them up in the front line and hopefully take the charge. Then just defense. Then the following turn the screech will come. defense once more then use a captain level hero from behind to call moves and just run in and strike or just mob the eagles. numbers will kill them so fast. one bad roll against even just troops especially when buffed an eagle or two can die instantly.
So when you are writing or taking lists look for either lots of bigger heroes that eagles will struggle against like Boromir's and Aragorn's who have the base f7 lots of might and or free resources. Look for Mordor trolls and chieftains, look for ents, look at magic, celeborns, ugluks, anything that gives fearless or frankly any cheap siege engine. Yes I'm looking at you corsairs and no not you dale why would anyone want to run dale. Elrond may be one of the best eagle counters in the game quite frankly if he can get in a position to wrath two eagles without getting Gwaihir's will to deflect can be an easy way to just TAKE those eagles out. Magic is big because you dont need to move to cast so any caster can transfix an eagle. Shooting is another way to drop these guys if you can get 3-4 heroes with bows to put some might behind some shots along with say 5-6 at least warriors with bows knocking out these big birds should be no issue. Rangers of Mirkwood with the two elven heroes and the two twin dwarves along with maybe an elven captain and the rest rangers can do this exceptionally well and exceptionally fast. Nearly every list has a counter it just needs to be thought of and used to its full capability. Cav are amazing because the piercing cry is just a rule you dont win priority so cav outside 6 inches can just charge in and stop 2 or 3 eagles with ease and thus kind of nullify the whole point of the cry rule.
So again all lists have counters whether its an Aragorn free defensing or striking or a fearless bubble to wrap up the eagles the one turn they fail to get priority. Anything has the capability to road block this list but it requires skill to play with or against this list. It is no gimme to win with and it is no gimme to win against.
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