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.