August 2023 FAQ Breakdown - Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game | MESBG 

Haha next release is a batrep!

@@intothewestpodcast excellent

Awesome! You guys make great batreps!

We decided to focus on the biggest and most impactful changes from the FAQ. If you’re interested in the full long-winded version, we have it on Patreon. Thanks for watching!

We do go over it in the full long-winded version on Patreon. These are the highlights of what we thought were the most impactful changes. Thanks for watching!

Seems like they're probably waiting and seeing how it stacks up now with the nerfs in play before doing anything. If Dragon Emperor LL starts winning a lot, they'll probably nerf it in the next one.

@@ryangale3757 it already is. It already was a problem. Now it will be even worse.

@@punchyMiddleEarth Is it that much? I've seen that it's pretty good, but wasn't aware it was THAT good compared to the ones that got nerfed. Heard more about the beornings being a bigger problem in that regard.

@@ryangale3757 yes and everyone else got nerfed including Bears, effectively giving DE LL an overall buff. Really weird decision by GW unless something is happening to the LL real soon.

@@punchyMiddleEarth Well, what I suspect is that their thinking goes as follows: as far as overpowered lists are concerned, AoL, AoHD, Beornings, etc. are A+, top lists in need of nerffing, while Dragon Emperor LL is good but more of an A list, so we can leave that one for now, see how it fairs now that the top ones have been dealt with, then we'll figure out what to do with it next FAQ time. Not saying I agree with that assessment, but just that I don't think GW rates it as highly as the players do, so they're not in as much of a hurry to change it (also not ruling out it being one of Jay's personal favorite LLs as well, so might be a little harder for him to make changes to it). If they don't change it whenever they do another FAQ, THEN that is a serious issue.

I’m not sure if AoL lacked theme previously, it was an army beasts orcs and goblins led by named shamans. The list was restricted access to elites, monsters, and heavier magic. Rather, change was needed due to its power level and lack of counters. But agree with your take on Legendary Legions - we echo your thoughts when discussing the current state of Easterlings. Thanks for sharing. -Charles

@@intothewestpodcast fair points!

No Kataphrakts kills the LL, period. Wanna get rid of it? It would be an efficient way.

The Master being a hero of fortitude means you cannot ally him into yellow/red lists without Bard.

@@intothewestpodcast How does that work? Because Bard is a hero of legend?

Bard is a hero of valour, and is now the only hero above fortitude in the army, You need a hero of valour or legend in order to do a yellow/red alliance. -Charles

@intothewestpodcast Thanks did not know that. My rule book seems to be from before they changed that. I just found the FAQ guess I missed one. Thanks for the update!

Man you make a bunch of missed takes 😅

@@punchyMiddleEarth I am a relatively new player so this is probably true. Which takes are you referring to, so I make sure I’m playing the game correctly?

@@Competentetyler yeah easy to do starting out, and yeah don't be afraid to ask for clarifications 😎😍

@@punchyMiddleEarth Okay thanks. Let’s start with the above. Warg Marauders. Are they “Cave Dwellers?”

The goblins on the WM would keep their respective rules, which would include the bowmen. The Warg itself will susceptible to enemy +1 to wound from shooting. It can be confusing since it's "one" model but the difference parts would still have their different rules and stats, similar to Wraiths on fellbeasts. -Richard

Yeah it definitely still have some tricks up its sleeve, I was just emphasizing that it was no longer in that "Top 5" most competitive lists range. Especially if you've previously already played a non-standard style! Glad to hear it won't impact you much 🙂 -Richard

My guy... 💯 agree!! -Richard

That was the Masters event not the main open event which means the data was a bit skewed since there were quite a few AoLs already in a limited amount of spots (20-40%?). However, I'll admit my prediction was probably off that a great player (such as Kylie) could still pilot it to great results. It's definitely not ridiculously OP anymore. -Richard

@intothewestpodcast Guess not ridiculously OP but still too op. Those prowler are too nasty with the +1 to wound army bonus. +3 to wound and +1 F in a trap is crazy. Combine that with a bat swarm, and even Gil-Galad has a problem. You'll outfight most heroes.

Totally... A bunch of whiners 😂😂 -Richard

If theme was the only way the game was meant to be played, why did the designers create convenient and impossible alliances? The introduction of the alliance matrix encouraged strategic construction of armies, thematic or otherwise. Both can coexist. -Charles

@intothewestpodcast true, but they messed up big time with LT. Aside from the powercreep issues throughout the whole book, when the Hobbit came out the main problem it created is that it didn't care about the pre-existing design core lines, as in: generally, Good has elite armies and strong Heroes while Evil goes horde and has either mid tier heroes or full blown 200+ monsters. There were of course exceptions to that, but limited and peculiar ones. The introduction of Azog and Bolg clashes with that setup, but it's not that relevant given the alliances matrix (red alliance with basically any LotR Faction) and the fact that the army bonus is quite good. Lame Town on the other hand provided a truckload of models to a ton of other factions, with the possibility of allying in basically anything in yellow alliance. The three named heroes with full warbands come for less than 350 points and easily ally with,say, Elves. That means that at 700+ points you can have a freaking horde with F5 across the line, a ton of might, protection from shooting (always Galadriel or Cirdan) and usually a heavy hitter plus an Eagle. We're talking 15 Might lists with a flying monster, elite spellcasting, Fight 5 across the line and 50+ models. They just offered to many Good Factions a way to cover up their only weakness, which was number. When a Faction is used only ever as a filler for that role, utterly ignoring the thematic element of the game and abusing what was clearly a design mistake, it's understandable that it gets hit. Besides, the fact that theme is important had already been stated, long before these FAQs and Erratas. Even without going back to older editions as mentioned, when GW released the LLs their initial statement was very clear: they wanted theme in the competitive scene. Now, if you tell me that they're basically saying they messed up with the alliances system and they're trying to patch it up (with mixed results) I surely agree. But they've been pretty straightforward on the matter, you gotta give it to them. Last but not least: from a lore pov, the Alliances matrix is kinda debatable overall, but straight up bullshit when it comes to some Factions (including Army of LT) so.

I'm in 100% agreement with you that the LOTR armies and alliances are much better designed than the Hobbit ones. Even the historical alliances/themey alliances in the Hobbit are a bit much, both Good and Evil have basically a triple alliance. And yes, lots of crazy stat padded profiles, though overall I don't think Hobbit armies are better than LOTR ones. I see your point on Army of Laketown and I'm personally not too sad about it but I understand the people who are frustrated. I am totally onboard with GW making the game more themey in general but hopefully not at the detriment of list building creativity. Specifically, legendary legions that eclipse their respective armies so no one plays them. That is the one positive of the yellow soup alliances, it adds the creative gaming elements even if I understand there are certain players such as yourself that hates all aspects of these lists. Hopefully, a compromise could be made where you can build themey but also a wide variety of choices. Variety is always good, I enjoy switching it up as I have played LLs, pure, historical, and convenient alliances at different tournaments this year. -Richard

@@intothewestpodcast I agree that variety is good and that's why I found LT so boring and annoying: players claimed they wanted variety, when the first thing they always put in the list was the 350 pts. block of LT, no matter what they wanted to play. I mean, many claim that LT is now unplayable: that's clearly an exaggeration, but it's indicative of how much of just filler material it was used for. I'm not offended (anymore, I used to be more sensitive on the matter as a kid) by yellow alliances per se. Some of them should be green ones, too (e.g. Umbar and Mordor, Rivendell and Arnor, Gondor -witthout named heroes- and Arnor are the first that come to mind). It's just the role that LT evolved into that I found bad for the game's health. As per LLs, I like the idea but the results are kinda swingy. I do agree that LLs that just make the whole Faction superfluous are bad design - but the issue is oftentimes on the faction itself. Say, the hot topic that came out even hotter from these FAQs and Erratas: The Host of the Dragon Emperor. Hot take on the Emperor: it's a broken piece, but actually balanced in the context of the Faction he's in. Easterlings (not in LL) pay as much as an elf for a warrior with 1 less F, 1 less shooting, 1 less Courage and with lame swords instead of the versatile hand-and-a-half (elven) blade. And that's the one infantry troop the Faction has (well, used to. Now it's the cheapest one). Buffing them was much needed. Choosing this way to buff them was clearly bad for the game, ngl: Emperor is auto take from 600ish up, Amdûr has been left in the dust, the Faction tactics now are slight variations of deathball. That said, the LL runs over the pure Faction because what you lose with the LL is something you actually wouldn't use anymore - because they dropped three point-efficient heroes that are included in the list. Someone may prefer, theoretically, Amdûr to Rutabi because of the sheer hitting power, but they can come around that due to the Legion bonuses. What I'm saying is: in order to make the Legion a choice instead of the default they shouldn't take away from the Legion itself but give more to the Faction. Let's be honest, taking Kataphrakts away from Host would make it unplayable. They should, say, have mercy on Khand, kill the faction and fuse it with Easterlings (which, btw, would be also fine lorewise) maybe adding another Hero and troop choice - and leave that out of the LL. I'm just spitballing here, huh, nothing thought through. And also yes, make the BD upgrade cost 1 point, instead of giving it for free.