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.