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

 In The Mind: What to Take to Nova?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gwaihir (Leader)
1 Great Eagle
1 Fledgling Eagle

Kili
1 Banner shield
8 Spear Shield
2 Crossbow

Fili
4 Spear Shield
1 Mattock
1 Goat Rider

700 Pts 22 models 9 might

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

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

The list I have right now is as follows:

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

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

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

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

700 Points 44 Models 9 might 10 Bows 18 throwing Spears

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


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

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

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

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

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

Erebor Dwarf Captain 75

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

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

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

In The Mind: Grand Tournament Review

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

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

My list:

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

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

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

48 Models 2 Banners 7 Might 11 Bows

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

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

Round 2: Wolf Pack of Angmar: To the Death

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

Round 3: Minas Morgul: Reconnoitre

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

Round 4: Fog of War: Shadows of Angmar

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

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

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