Top 5 Predictions (Hopes?) for the Arnor Supplement

Hey Reader!

As you probably know, there's a new supplement coming out for the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, and it's going to center around Arnor (and likely Angmar, considering the history), so of course we have to do a quick talk on what we anticipate will be in the new supplement! So after a few weeks of pulling together thoughts and ideas, here's my predictions (or probably hopes, to be honest) of what we'd love to see in the new book.

It's worth noting before we begin that I'm the resident Arnor player (and one of the resident Angmar players) in our group, and I've always been a bigger fan of the northern kingdom than the southern kingdom. So I'm pumped that we're getting a new supplement, and want it to be the best one they've ever made (though surpassing Scouring of the Shire is going to be hard).

So with no further ado, our top 5 hopes for the new book!

#5: New Scenarios Tied to Arnor's History

In the Ruin of Arnor supplement from back in the day, there were 6 scenarios, spanning the initial invasion of Arnor through to the death of Arathorn and the rise of Aragorn as chief of the Dunedain. And these scenarios were fine - like many of the old scenarios they are pretty sparse, but good on them for integrating more than just the Angmar and the Arnor models into the mix: you get Dunlendings, Dwarves, and Hobbits as well, all of which is great.

I'd love to see this expanded to include a scenario where the Great Plague is spreading to Arnor, the first incursion of Angmar against Arnor which sacks Amon Sul and causes all of Rhudaur to fall into the hands of Angmar, another scenario with the sacking of Fornost and the driving of Arvedui toward Forochel while his son and most of his people flee west of the Lune, and then the arrival of Earnur from Gondor with reinforcements to aid Arnor and Cirdan of the Grey Havens in pushing deep into Angmar to crush the Witch-King and his minions.

I'd also love to see a scenario showing Aragorn (and possibly also Arathorn) holding the thin line against the forces of evil, showing the desperate plight of those that held to the honorable task of protecting the ancient kingdom of evil things. This would make for a very interesting and exciting set of narrative scenarios that would be awesome for a game day and possibly an intro to the game for new players (which we absolutely love).

Tournament Time: Rythbryt's Army Thoughts (Grand Tournament 2024)

Edited May 6, 2024, with tournament results

Bonus post this week. Must be something special going on... ;)

As faithful readers of the blog know, TMAT's annual GT is coming up this weekend. I generally don't post articles on the armies I'm running (I leave that to Tiberius, who's far more practiced--be sure to check out his article from yesterday, if you missed it). Nor do I generally recap how the tournament went (Centaur's your man... er... horse-man... for that). But I'm making an exception this time, for several reasons:

1. I've been light on generating content recently (and feel somewhat guilty about that);
2. I owe Tiberius at least two podcasts on tournaments that have long since wrapped (and, again, feel somewhat guilty about that);
3. I really liked a number of the lists that I batted around (and felt like sharing them); and
4. Perhaps because I really liked these lists, I actually locked into a list earlier than the final day they were due (actually, almost 2 full weeks before they were due), which meant there was actually time to write a prospective post on it. :-P

Along the way, there were twists and turns and trepidations (well, okay, actually less trepidation than usual). So yeah... if you want some musings about heavy/all-cavalry armies (or their equivalent), with a heavy dose of strategy (and maybe some obsession-bordering-on-neurosis), read on. :)

This may be a spoiler...

Photo Credit: cbr.com

Factual Background (because all of life is a story, right?)

First, a digression that's not really a digression.

About two months ago, TMAT hosted a winter "mixer" tournament designed to be a fun, pseudo-competitive way for the people in our gaming group to play some games (always fun), while also introducing new/newer players to MESBG. Because of that, we had a pretty small tournament by most standards: a 350 point cap (4-model minimum), with 5 games in one day (45 minutes per game). The five scenarios were pre-selected (though not their order), and all opponents were randomized. (For about a 72-hour period, we also thought this was going to morph into a funsies doubles-event, but we did end up having enough players for a full singles event--10 players altogether, which is also a weird number for doubles :-P).

For those of you who are familiar with the Matched Play guide, you know that 45 minutes is... kind of tight for a 350 point game (the guide recommends 1 hour 15 minutes for a game of that size, so this was definitely on the "fast" side). The pool of scenarios for the tournament (Hold Ground, Capture and Control, Destroy the Supplies, Lords of Battle, Divide and Conquer) also offered a mix of "capture objectives" and "kill models outright/around objectives," which posed some... interesting choices given the 45-minute time limit. For objective games, you wanted lots of models (and, in general, I think you want more models than less in MESBG). But more models equals longer phases, which means less rounds (which means less moving, less shooting, less fighting, less botching, etc.). And taking an army composed of slower models (goblins? hobbits?), shooting models (a 6-second shoot phase vs. a 10-minute shoot phase makes a huge difference), or models that last a long time but have trouble wounding standard (D6) shieldwalls (S3/D7 dwarves, for instance) could further complicate things.

So with those issues in mind, as I mulled my options for the tournament (and all told, I think I mulled some 200 different list ideas/variations), I kept finding myself drawn to lists that could move fast, kill very quickly, take a beating... and do all the above without relying on a lot of shooting/time-intensive roll-offs. And ultimately, it worked. I won all five of my games at the GT with a list that consisted of the Dark-Marshal on Fell Beast (F6 wraith who casts normally, on a flying monster, who can also be a 6" banner in a pinch), leading eight Morgul Knights (who I've always loved, and never brought to a tournament before), and four Black Numenoreans on foot (which I have brought to tournaments before, and never disappoint me) for a grand total of 13 models at 350. 

A portend of things to come?

The Road to the TMAT GT 2024 - Tiberius's List

Good morning gamers,

There wasn't a lot of time between the Spring Zephyr tournament and the GT this year, so I streamlined my list testing - a lot. I probably came up with over a dozen 750-pt lists that I wanted to try, but with time of the essence and wanting to get more than one game in before the tournament with my list, I basically focused on two archetypes and just played with those lists. As such, this post is going to be . . . pretty boring if you're looking for list variety. But the lists were fun - and I really enjoyed playing with them. Let's see what I almost took!

Honorable Mention: The Men of the West LL

It's no secret, I'm in the camp of the Men of the West heart and soul. With a player in the UK winning a GBHL90 event (not super competitive but not fluffy either), there were two list builds for the Men of the West that I was keen to try. The one that was least like the lists I've run before (and more like the list that won the event) was one I wanted to have a shot at - and it features the Twins, who I'd need to borrow but have also struggled to kill at previous tournaments:

• Aragorn, King Elessar [ARMY LEADER]
• 1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with shield
• 3 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears 
• 10 Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows
• Eomer, Marshal of the Riddermark with shield
• 15 Warriors of Rohan with shields and spears
• Elladan and Elrohir with heavy armor

750 points, 33 models, 10 bows hitting on a 4+ AND 15 throwing spears hitting on a 4+, 8 D6+ models, no fast models but Heroic March and Mighty Hero, 12+ Might

This list is not as D6-heavy as the GBHL winning list, but it shoots a lot - 10 standard bows and 15 throwing weapons. It's not as many bows as I could have had if I'd left the twins at home (throw in a Captain of Rohan with shield and throwing spears leading a bunch more guys with throwing spears and shields to allow everyone in Aragorn's warband to have bows and you have a nearly all-shooting list with TONS of models, admittedly at D5 with no supporting attacks), but it's still a lot - and we have four hammer heroes in our list (who are pretty good at killing stuff for being infantry). The heroes would all be more devastating if we had taken horses, but we can't do that in the Legion and we can't ally the twins in without bringing one of those really expensive Heroes of Valour/Legend from Rivendell, so we would be getting sub-par heroes if we did an alliance (probably Hurin and upgrading some Rohan models to cavalry).

Nemesis: How to Fight Against Castellans of Dol Guldur

Good morning gamers,

This is our last post in this series (for now) and while we've focused on the main players in the Last Alliance over the past six weeks (and the world's scariest Ruffian hero), we're turning our attention to units I have come to HATE fighting: Castellans of Dol Guldur. My use of these units is limited to the Rise of the Necromancer LL, but Rythbyrt really likes to use these guys in Dark Powers of Dol Guldur lists - and my oh my are these guys a pain to deal with! Many people don't like these guys, but they're a hidden gem and if you see them on the other side of the table, you'll want to know how to deal with them. So let's take a look and see what these guys bring to the table and then how we can beat them . . .

What Makes Castellans of Dol Guldur So Hated?

Castellans are one of the most underrated heroes in MESBG (hence why they showed up in our In Defense Of series). To start with, they've got all the stats you want in a generic hero, including F5, S5, and 2 Attacks. This is better than most generic heroes, but certainly LOOKS sub-par when compared to your average beater hero (though S5 is hard to top without a +1 To Wound). As Rythbyrt pointed out in his article defending Castellans, these guys are basically higher-Courage Half-Trolls, who really need to be fielded in large numbers in order to be effective - and they're most effective when they all have Morgul Blades, since any 1 Fate hero is going to be leery of engaging if he's not confident he can win the fight.

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

They're also cheap - at 40-45pts (depending on whether they have the Morgul Blade or not), they're about the same cost as your average unnamed Orc hero but punch a LOT harder than Orc heroes do (very few can get to S5 and none get to F5). They're Minor heroes instead of Fortitude heroes, so they can't lead as many troops as other units can, but they rarely need to lead anyone (and a small hit-squad of guys is perfectly fine escorts for them).

The Scouring of the Shire, Part 2: The Ruffians Arrive

Good morning gamers,

We're back for scenario two of the Scouring of the Shire campaign and today Bill Ferny is back, leading a ragtag band of Ruffians and Lotho Sackville-Baggins against a company of Hobbit Shirriffs and a few Hobbit Militia bounders, led by Holfoot Bracegirdle and Robin Smallburrow. Let's see how this goes!

The Ruffians Arrive

The Ruffians and Hobbits start on opposite sides of the Brandywine Bridge in roughly equal numbers. The game lasts for 12 turns and Evil wins if they can Paralyze Robin and Holfoot and get them off the western board edge. The Hobbits win if they can prevent this from happening and if Holfoot and Robin are still alive. If either Holfoot or Robin should be killed, the game is a draw.