Good and Evil Army Lists:
Throughout the new edition of the Middle Earth Strategy battle game we have seen many new ideas for army lists and new styles of play emerge. Ultimately I personally have some mixed reviews on certain things but ultimately in the long run I think the new edition was a good and needed change. We need the game to evolve and to change and reach more audiences if we want it to flourish and survive. This was almost a revamp and I enjoy it so far. One of my favorite things is that player skill is now something that is much more evident in game play as list writing has much less of an impact to the game itself and rather it is how any given list is used rather then how it is made. So as result of this most lists are now competitive in my opinion at least. But there are lists i will be playing for the most part or at least trying to play for the most of this year. I will have 2 main lists one good one evil with 3 secondary lists which are 2 good army lists and an evil list. My primaries for now at least that i have been messing with, playing with, and painting up more of are The Rise of the Necromancer as my ultimate main list, and the Rangers of Mirkwood as my good main list. My 3 secondary lists are, the Eagles, Erebor Reclaimed, and The shadows of Angmar. We will start by analyzing the playstyle I have been using for my necromancer legion.
The Rise of the Necromancer: No surprise the first place I begin with this list is taking the necromancer himself. He is frankly an auto include as at 200 points base he is in my opinion the best hero in MESBG (top 5 last edition) which yes i am sure many if not all will disagree with. As well as retaining his power as the best spell caster in the game from last edition to this edition he has gotten even better as he now gets the double spell with troops in his list as well. My bread and butter with this list is the necromancer and quite a few Mirkwood spiders. These Mirkwood spiders are so potent and fill in every role I need them for. A shooting threat, a nice body block, shock troop, hero killer, slow dying troop choice, and ultimately the fastest model in the game other then flying models. The next must have in this list is a spattering of fell wargs and fell warg riders. the hunter orc warg riders are the best cavalry in the game at the moment coming in at 15 points for 3 attacks on the charge. I took a handful of these guys every time last edition and they were well worth it and now they only get better. The next must have for this list is the Witch King. I have played some lower point games and he is SO SO valuable and ten times better then the beast found int he keeper of the dungeons. Thus far we have a solid base but with no cheap troops to throw into heroes and the like. Thus we must take some hunter orcs. Take as many of these with bows as you can and the rest just normal. yes they are quite interesting this edition and play like a really weak cavalry list but they still do their job. They got better at shooting and still have access to it while being relatively cheap compared to the rest of this list and many others.
At 600 points (the base for this article) the list i have chosen to run is as follows:
(Leader) The Necromancer 200
4 Mirkwood Spiders 80
4 Hunter orc Warg Riders (1 with bow) 61
2 Fell Wargs 16
3 Hunter orcs 24
The Witch King 80
3 Mirkwood Spiders 60
2 Fell wargs 16
7 Hunter Orcs with Bow 63
600 points 27 models 8 bows 6 might
I have thus far played 9 games with this list and have so far yet to be broken, yet to have a hero killed in my list, yet to not kill the enemy leader or assassin target, yet to lost more then 4 spiders, yet to not quarter an opponent. This list hits like a freight train and even when i built a Mirkwood list to shoot it off the table it dominated it in fog of war 16-1. The key to the list is the double cast. you can work on two heroes at once and my favorite combo which is the wither curse combo on two heroes is nasty. curse the big bad and the spiders then hit it and he will be knocked out in one turn by the necromancer while the other target is getting hit with withers. So far with Wither i have taken out a Gloin of Erebor, isildur, and kili completely out with wither. Other spells i really enjoy is letting my spiders run off doing their own thing while the necromancer runs in with the spattering of hunter orcs and stars dropping instill fear everywhere. Compelling models in contact with banners away to then drop the banner with a drain soul has also worked in several games. The possibilities are endless and this list loves finding choke points and just slaughtering armies that way.
Rangers of Mirkwood: This list has changed a but from last edition and i actually like it now. The list to me plays like the old grey company from 2 editions ago. Lots of bows but is ultimately a low model count combat army that can cut through almost anything super fast. My favorite way to run them is with Legolas Tauriel Gloin and the twins and it is super super efficient. you have enough bow fire to knock out or nearly knock out most big threats then your sheer combat power with that many heroes can cut through the troops while your own troops thrive when outnumbered. The list is quite simple.
Legolas
8 Rangers
Tauriel bow
7 rangers
Gloin
Kili
Fili
600 points 20 models
This list is pretty simple and follows some basic strategies. it is a challenging list to play with very unique challenges but can beat nearly any army if played right. I love the way it plays and simply it is just different then almost all other lists in the game.
The secondary lists will just be some basic ideas and principles for how they are run rather then the way i have intricately built each list.
The eagles, well this is simple I've been an eagles player for a few years and love playing with them pure and now they are much more usable and i think they could do even better then my previous success with them.
Erebor Reclaimed: well as soon as i saw Bofur on brute i instantly went found an old troll and converted Bofur on top of it. Just need to finish painting it but I've gotten 3 games in with it and i love the list. I also played one all hero list and it was a blast. I love the dynamic and cant wait to keep playing the Erebor reclaimed.
Shadows of Angmar: This list i just have some wicked ideas to play with. All werewolves and gully with stalk unseen is nasty combine that with some shamans running around. I love the idea of gully with some different lists than we have ever seen and have enjoyed the one game i played so far and love the concepts you can do as well as the tricks you can use.
So as you can probably tell from the passion and ideas just leaking from my section on the necromancer that list is the one i am by far the most excited about and i only really played him with gundabads last edition so i am excited for the new way the list plays. Check in for the first big tournament of the year in a few weeks where i will report my results with my necromancer list!
No comments:
Post a Comment