We delve deep into our favourite game and share our insights from decades of combined gaming experience in the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. This channel has podcast episodes, battle reports, ranking lists and all things MESBG!
i dont agree. if you are playing with a non hero monster you should be also adding another hero or unit that would be able to support it. barrow whites, ringwraiths ect to prevent it from just simply bieng killed by a hero with strike something you would be doing regardless if you had a monster or not when playing armies that have those options. and how are you getting your monster killed turn 2? iv never had a monster die that fast.
as an isengard player, the poland dummy list is fun, but lacking in Xbows to be taken seriously🤣particularly in good Vs evil. between gandalf,galadriel and cirdan about 2 thirds of good armies are gonna have blinding light, so ballista lose a lot of effectiveness. they are too 'all or nothing' into ranged. and without the full rerolls, not worth losing th named heroes for in the legion (imo) but Xbows, apart from shooting, are also F4 S4 D5 C3 warriors that you can slap infront of pikes. so you shoot at what's outside the bubble, and/or march at it with a horde. your actual investment into ranged is about 2-4% of your points limit. at 800 you can run 4-5 heroes and 45-60 troops, (so 15-20 xbows+hero bows) mostly all uruks. at least double if not triple or quadruple march, could grab a drum, 11-15 might points, grab some cheap fearless with the oathmaker, just a big fast grindy, fightly, shooty mess🤣
Agreed. The takeaway with seeing that dummy list is that there is an option to build a better shooty list in the normal pure list now. It’s hard to justify small ballista buffs in the legion for what you have to give up.
@@intothewestpodcast legion is strictly for bomb aficionados now i reckon. on the plus side i now have a 5 hero 60 model 18 Xbow shot list to test. built one just to make sure my numbers were right, and now i really want to throw it into some games🤣
It’s an interesting idea, but for MESBG it wouldn’t really work. With the priority system, the time required every turn varies, for example the player who moves first usually needs more time to make decisions. Turns can also take longer due to scenario or match up. It would also give huge advantage to shooty armies who can just skip move phase. Fight phase on a chess clock would also be very complicated as the whole phase involves both players.
Well, this is proof that host of the drag emp is OP. I always thought Gandalf was kind of bad, is it a new thing to use him? Also, I just want your opinion on this as some extremely strong players, is triple transfix any good (WK + mouth + wraith) in not just good vs evil, or is it just not competative?
Gandalf the Grey is totally playable, a bit niche but he's not bad (like Gandalf the White). Triple caster is a strong build, I've done it before with a good amount of success! Mainly because it's not easy to get fortify spirit.
22:55 This list seems bred for some purpose… death to the Dragon Emperor. Pike block isn’t great when the middle Pike is moved out of base contact, but still within 1” of the original (imagine slightly to the side). This cuts the dice way down, potentially out of banner too, and can trap the model. All while worrying about Gwahir hurling the weak Easterlings through tons of Pike supports.
I was team Captain for Canada! I’m one of the founder of the Québec league. I tried really hard to get guys from all over Canada but no one from the west answered! We tried to get some of the Ontario players but none were available unfortunately. We still had a lot of fun but didn’t manage to win a round. We are currently working on a team for next year already! Has we enjoyed pur experience
@marcpage6514 Very cool, yeah it was a bit abrupt. I personally didn't hear about the event until a month or two in advance and something like that would need more planning for me. Glad to hear it was a great event, I'm definitely considering next year!
@@intothewestpodcast if you could add me to the proper page I would be more than happy to make announcements and even make the trip out in the west sometime
I was part of team Canada! It was my first Tournament and I had only been playing for a few months (I am a very quick learner). I got away with 2 wins, one was a major victory so I came out of the Tournament feeling quiet good even though we were dead last I still enjoyed myself and learned a lot for the next time. Hopefully team Canada pulls together a good team for next year and maybe ill get to join in one way or another haha. Also the list I brought was not as competitive as it could have been (pretty much low might Angmar with WK, Tainted, 2 Wights and a Shade) so I knew I wouldn't be winning all my games.
That's a great accomplishment in such a competitive tournament, well done! I hope no offence was taken given our comments, we aren't totally in tune with the east coast players, we only know a couple from several international events and we didn't see them attend this event. Absolutely, it would be awesome to field a strong team in the future and show the word Canada's potential!
@intothewestpodcast No offense taken at all haha. I'm a nobody from New Brunswick! I think everyone was planning to go the year after, so there was more planning and such (there may even be a sign up for it haha).
I think the AoL player ignored the Orc Trackers and Prowlers 4+ to hit because in a Team event he is much more likely to run into Blinding Light (Poland had 2 out of 3 lists with it as an example and probably expected the same from many others) compared to normal events so everything will hit on 6s anyway. Poland probably wants to use this list to counter the other team's shooting list too so then having the extra range is more important than normal since when the orc trackers and prowlers get in range they risk a lot of good shooting coming back to them. Then having 18" range is way more important and they can then play the list more defensively to avoid giving up points. Something that is almost as important as getting wins in team formats. In single events you need to be able to win each game with good margins/tie breakers to have a shot for the first place and thus need to be able to be more aggressive (like prowlers) to score all those points. That is not as needed here.
Moria's army list is super cool with the big monsters. The Cave drake positioning was risky, maybe you should have waited one extra turn to have the goblins surround the cave drake to prevent trapping :o
Not sure about Amdur over Rutabi like. Even if it's just marginally. She's got more tools for less. Also. The captain. The march can stack with the drum. That's insane if you pull it off.
If anyone else was unsure if the Huntsman can specifically target a horse, here's the relevant FAQ: Q: As a King’s Huntsman always passes an In The Way roll on a 2+ when they target a Cavalry model, does the 2+ mean they will hit the rider, or their choice of rider or mount? (p.66) A: When a King’s Huntsman shoots at a Cavalry model they must declare whether they are targeting the horse or the rider. If they hit the Cavalry model, they will hit the targeted part of that model on a 2+.
Would love to have some pics and some of the dimensions (how high are the walls for example) on the helms deep build. I am planning my own helms deep and am looking for inspiration.
Siege weapons should definitely be in the game, its not a competitive game and should be based around whats competitive. Sieges are an actual thing in this game and there they are fun. Defence and offensively. They are also fun to play with, not against yeah, but you cant say they arent fun to use when they are for the person using them.
Do you think Grima is tooo powerful for 25 points? I’ve had some complaints in my games when I use him since a lot of people just don’t seem to know how to counter him
Maybe, but Grima has enough weaknesses that if he were to cost more, he may be a more conditional pick competitively. You need to take Saruman first, which you can consider as somewhat of a tax to take Grima. There’s a decent amount of magic at the higher points where you see Grima, and Grima is very succeptible to magic. If Grima could be taken without Saruman, then he probably should cost more.
I get that you lose the army bonus if you take Eorl and other named Rohan heroes, but you can run him with Gamling and Theoden to get the FV buff and a chance for 2 Might every turn on Eorl . . . no Str +1 on the charge, but that's the only downside . . .
That is true, if you went for that build you’d have to decide whether the extra Might from Eorl + access to Sons of Eorl is better, or running Riders of Theoden for the +1 Strength and one turn of Death.
All the other heroes with banner have 6" aura (Boromir, Halabarad, Suladan) I find sad that the big nerf on the Gamling banner did not compensate the rule loss by giving it the same range as all the other "royal banners"
Hot take: aragorn should drop to 190 points but go down to D4 base. And Aragorn strider should go down to 120 points but lose his might store Give him some usage!
Lothlorien is probably the easiest to collect and the most well balanced, though you will need to ally them if you want to get very competitive! Halls for Thranduil are probably the strongest by themselves, but very centred around Thranduil. Rivendell is also very solid! Go with the one you like the most :)
I think mosters should have a minimum roll in battle like 2+ or for the biggest monsters 3+, meaning if you roll lower it's that number or you opt to re-roll one or all such dice (banner-like)?
Ive been playing a bit with defenders of helms deep, i actually really rate Aldor in that list. If youre already taking gamling with royal standard having a 1 might hero to start getting "free might" is great, at 10 points cheaper than Haleth. The rerolling bow is pretty nice too with the ability to might as needed. I wouldnt put him above fortitude but i would easily drop 2 warriors to slot him in, only with gamlings banner though.
There are a few things that would help. Less restrictions for heroes, like Helm, to be run outside his legion. Or if there were a couple effective heroes that are not in any legion would also give some incentive to run pure.
Rohan is so cool, but so meh. I think that the riders need to drop to 13 points and some heros need to get good, like give hama some sort of courage buffing ability or something!
Agreed, riders used to be 13 last edition. GW should have left them the way they were. 13 points would make the Royal Guard less of an auto include as well.
I always thougth they should make Two Handed Axes in this game playable. especially in other lists compared to shield it is not worth to spend the 1 point for troops or 5 points for heroes (it is never worth for heroes, because they can loose a fight with a single 6 of a warrior. Has always been my problem with Grimbold with addition to his def 5) Easy way to fix it in my opinion. Make Natural 6 Stay 6s in duel rolls. Would still not make it better as a shield and now i have reason to decide if I need shield or two handed. especially with heroes i would also consider o take two handed and it still wouldnt be too strong. (for Gondor make the units who have this special rule already a natural 5 and 6)
Agreed, the penalty of using a two-handed weapon is pretty steep and probably isn’t worth a full point for warriors and 5 points for heroes. An easy fix if mechanics were to stay the same would be to make them free across the board.
@@intothewestpodcast would be one way to handle the situation and i agree it would still be balanced, because two handed axes advantages and disadvantages cancel each other perfectly. They were free in an earlier Version of the Game. I would prefer them to be free instead of the way they are now (Because now they are almost not taken at all) But in general i don't like something to be free, hence i would rather have the Two handed axe be buffed a little. Never-the-less also valid option
When I use Eomer he always puts in so much work, and is never your opponents main target because they're distracted by Theoden or Gamling. Legend for me (with Theoden)
A good star would be the Rohan Battle Host! Great value and gives you Eomer and a solid bunch of troop, and the expand with a couple packs of Rohan Royal Guard, and any heroes you like. War in Rohan book is a must if you want to play some of the popular foot Rohan legendary legions, or pick up Gondor at War if you want to play the Riders of Theoden legion.
