The Power of the Disengage - Why I'm losing games

It's probably quite obvious on this blog, but I'm quite the fan of Rohan and its cavalry forces. It was likely witnessing the Ride of Rohirrim at Pelennor in my formative years, and it's a very common story for a lot of players. Now, Rohan in the latest edition struggles to properly recreate that moment on the tabletop, but with luck, canny hero usage and good timing for the charge and use of Army Rules, you can get some fantastic results with the Riders of Rohan charging through some Orcs.

In general practice though, Rohan excels much more as a skirmishing force, as many of us know well. Throwing Spears and Bows on cavalry makes for a tough force to pin down without taking casualties, and they are able to kite and still cause damage. When coupled with the likes of Eomer, Theodred or Helm Hammerhand coming crashing through your lines with a few Royal Guard, you have an effective list for frustrating your foe and keeping the initiative, assuming you have the skills.

This is my failing in recent games however. Using Riders of Eomer within a Doubles tournament and a Rohan-cavalry-heavy Realms of Men list in a practice game, I have noticed an unfortunate trend in my piloting of cavalry. I get tunnel-visioned into the charge, quite often re-charging a battleline and leaving myself open to counter-charge. I've gotten better and leaving that relief force behind for a second-turn charge, but there's still issues with how I'm playing. Let's get into it.

The Doubles Tournament

This tournament back in April was my girlfriend's first real look at competitive MESBG. I've corrupted her thoroughly with a love for The Lord of the Rings (that latent nerdiness hit hard), so when she found she enjoyed the game after a few home practice matches, it was great to have her volunteer to accompany me to a Doubles event. If you've read the previous post on building an Ent, I went into this a little there.

Our Alliance in force, ready to take the fight to the White Wizard

So how did the event go?  I was outwardly confident, particularly due to the power of the Ents and free Heroics on Eomer. Three games across a single day with two 400pt lists using the Doubles scenarios from the Matched Play guide, and the final result was 1 Win, 2 Losses. We both had a tonne of fun, and the first two games were thrilling for different reasons, but by the third tiredness was setting in and a difficult game definitely left us disheartened.

The issue I believe was actually how I personally played my cavalry. Let's break it down.

Game 1 was against a Khazad Dum-Riders of Eomer alliance. My intention had been to try and focus down the opposing cavalry and support the Ents against the large group of Hearthguard dwarves. The high defence coupled with F5 and Burly just wasn't a prime target for my Riders. Deployment however put this very group of Dwarves right in front of Eomer, and so I tunnel-visioned right at them. The initial charge went ok, but I was ahead of the Ents and they were at least two turns away from supporting me, though rocks were flying in from the Ash Ent and hobbits. Erkenbrand's warband was also off to the far side offering fire support, which did to a semi-decent job of keeping part of the opposing cavalry back for fear of losing horses.

The smart move would've been to drop back after that first turn, take some pot shots, then charge back in once the Ents were in combat support range. Instead I stayed in close, and got counter-charged by the opposing Eomer. He Heroic Combated through a couple of Riders and my banner, and took part in killing his counter-part alongside Durin. This left the Ents vulnerable to being outnumbered, and whilst they did acquit themselves well particularly with Hurls keeping the enemy heroes on their backs, the Oak Ent eventually fell allowing for our force to count as Broken. Unlucky rolling on the Ent's special Brutal Power also left us one short on a VP goal to get a draw.

It might not sound like it, but the game was actually fairly close and tactically interesting. Our opponents were also both fun players and I believe we gave them our Most Sporting vote. 

Game 2 was against the event's ringer, Dale Groves. Always a good lad to play against, he was incredibly helpful and welcoming, recognising my girlfriend as a newcomer. His Gundabad list looked scary but luck with combats, Gabii's love for Hurl's and some helpful pointers from Dale himself saw us tear through the Berserkers, and even take down Azog and the Troll Brute quite efficiently. 

The difference here is clear in hindsight. Deployment saw the Ents in the centre with my cavalry at the back of the board. This meant the Ents were first into combat and my Cavalry could support them as I'd always intended whilst building the list, guarding the flanks and grabbing objectives whilst being a threat with their bows.

If only I'd remembered that lesson.

Game 3 was against a Reclamation of Osgiliath-Khazad Dum alliance. It promised to be as tough as it sounds, a bucket-load of high Defence models led by Boromir and yet another Durin. A river down the centre and a split deployment could've been a challenge, but we were able to ford the river with the Ents and reunite with our full might to bear on the Dwarves, leaving the Gondorians to run for several turns and get bottlenecked at the river.

It should've been so easy, and my initial charge tore through a good number of dwarves to keep them pinned in. The failure came in the follow-up again of course, not utilising Hit-and-Run tactics against a much slower force and ultimately I even ended up blocking out Treebeard, one of our most powerful combat pieces. He spent far too many turns behind Eomer and the Oak Ent, unable to help except with thrown stones.  Boromir got into play as well, despite us shooting out his horse. In getting overly focused on having Eomer trying to protect the Oak Ent with his Heroic Strikes against Boromir, I ultimately lost my leader again, and Treebeard failed to get into the fight until late in the game. 

We were ground down by the troops and lost simply due to lost initiative. The cavalry wasn't charging, the Ents weren't Hurling and our most mobile troops were little more than roadblocks instead of support. It left a sour taste in the mouth, simply for my choices essentially outplaying our own army.

A lot to learn, and realistically I just need to take a step back once I commit my cavalry. Had I faded back in both Game 1 and Game 3, the story could've been much different.

Easier said then done...

Realms of Men Practice Game

For this game, I was testing out the idea of running Realms of Men at an upcoming Teams event, and essentially built a list that was "Fields of Celebrant at home".

With this list I wanted to match a decent Gondorian battleline with the power of F5 cavalry, needing a Rohan General to give that bonus to the Royal Guard. On paper it's pretty good, with a lot of options for controlling the battlefield. A solid defensive battleline bolstered by two F6 Strike Heroes, a contingent of shock cavalry that can skirmish, scouts, light infantry and decent bow line and in particular a Bolt Thrower constricting enemy movement.

I went up against fellow Brumdabad team member Matt, who had brought along his Host of the Dragon Emperor list, featuring Rutabi. With the scenario being Stake a Claim, my cavalry should allow me to get early fortification points and it does, especially with Matt skirting terrain to avoid being targeted by the Bolt Thrower. 

Where it goes wrong is the right-flank. Rutabi's warband is small, but not enough to ignore. I could either cede the flank to her and risk bow-fire in the back, consolidating my forces against the Emperor, or go for a swift kill. With the combo of a pike-support Knight of the White Tower and my Rohan King, it's certainly doable to take down the Easterling Hero. 

A winnable fight, if managed well.

It doesn't go that way, I missed that the flank had enough space for the War Drakes to get around, meaning the Rohan King would only split the combat, and then he goes and whiffs the Heroic Combat anyway. Worse, the risk goes against me even further, as on the following turn, whilst I am able to win a Heroic Move off, it turns out that I had in fact blocked my King in with the Banner. I am able to charge and bring in Royal Guard reinforcements, but not being able to tactically retreat sees a good portion of my cavalry pinned in unequal fights. 

Rutabi ultimately brings down both the Knight and my King. I do lose the game in the end, though the Fortification points are fairly equal. Notably I also misplayed the Gondorian battleline on this one, again tunnel-visioning on getting into combat. Had I instead moved to the right, it would've forced the Emperors warband to cross open field to engage me, leaving the his flank open to the Bolt Thrower.

I should really get my eyesight checked.

Lessons Learned

So the takeaways from all this, aside from needing to step-back and see the bigger picture.

First: All the timing and positioning in the world won't help a good cavalry charge if you just get bogged down with it in the following turns. I've already learned the relief-force method, and that helps, but I need to recognise when to disengage, especially with Rohan cavalry who struggle with their statline but can still cause damage at range. I've spent too much time cycle-charging cavalry units in Total War not to understand this.

Second: Escape and reinforcement avenues. It's all well and good getting off a good charge if I then block off elite infantry or monsters from getting into help as well. Cavalry is there to make the hole, the infantry (or Ent) is there to plug it! 

Similarly, not blocking in my heroes. MESBG is 100% a game about mobility, and the Heroic Move is one of the core facets of that. Whilst the banners and backup needs to be close, if the the Hero can't move back, he can only go forwards, often into two, three or even four enemy infantry looking to kill him on the opponent's Move Phase.

Third: Perhaps don't fight if I don't have to. Many scenarios have objectives and rushing those, perhaps to take off the token defenders my opponent has left, is often more of use than charging headlong into a fight. Perhaps engaging in a slightly different location gives some penalties to my opponent, like a siege engine shooting into their flank, or bottle-necking Gondorians at a river ford.

What else do you recommend, oh dear armchair generals? 

With the next event coming up, I'll be pivoting back to Defenders of Helm's Deep, so these lessons will be a little less of use for that particular set of games, but not without merit. We'll have to keep them in mind for when I next run cavalry, whenever that may be.

Thank you for your time once again. If you like what I do here, you can also follow my hobby progress via Instagram, where I can be found at @Manic.Hobbying. In any case, just your support being here is greatly appreciated, and I hope to see you again.

Until next time! 

Ghostly Reinforcements - How the spirits of MESBG play

s mentioned in previous posts, my focus this year is to build off of the core of troops I've built for various factions to increase the options available to me in various lists, adding new tricks and strategies. For the first batch, I've gone with some of the spirit models of MESBG, and we'll start with perhaps the simplest...

 

The Army of the Dead 

 

The dead men of Dunharrow got a bit of a glow up in the new edition, namely with that 8" movement rate. With the Spectral Walk ability supporting this, allowing them to never be slowed by Difficult Terrain and auto-pass Climb, Jump, Leap and Swim as if they'd rolled sixes, they are some of the most maneoverable troops in the game. Depending on the terrain, they can arguably out-move cavalry, something you only really otherwise see from Uruk-hai scouts or flying creatures.

Whilst they are only F3 base (boosted to F4 rarely), their speed, Terror and D7 (D8 with Shield) really allow them to pick and choose their fights and survive bad situations much better than anything outside of Dwarves. Where they do win, expect them to do damage as well, with Blades of the Dead allowing them to attack the Courage value rather than the (usually higher) Defence value. Assuming you aren't facing pjama elves (who outfight the Dead and actually have higher Defence against them), you should have a good chance of winning any infantry grind, even with your likely lower numbers.

In any list they are present (Defenders of the Pelennor and Return of the King) they will also always be accompanied by at least one of the Three Hunters and/or the King of the Dead, offering a wonderful boost where they'll often be the anvil to the heroes' hammer. 

In Return of the King, the Dead are your entire force both mounted and on foot. They will support the heroes perhaps more than the other way around though, with movement, high defence and Terror allowing them to be a strong screening force for letting the tag team of Aragorn and the King of the Dead to put pressure where they needs to and avoid being surrounded. At the same time, they can quickly and efficiently get to objectives or board edges without even needing March in a lot of cases.

For supporting the Dead themselves, in Pelennor they can be joined by F4 troops from Gondor, various cavalry options for the knockdown, and ranged firepower with various bows, throwing weapons and even siege weapons. There's also the option of Gandalf the White for magical support. In this list, the Dead will often be either your shock troops or a core part of your battleline, albeit an expensive one that has to compete with Gondor troops for the role.

Pelennor is also the only way to run a pure Dunharrow list, should you want to.

That latter list is where I will be using them. I'm only painting up 7 for now, but at 14pts a pop (15 with the shield) that's at least 100pts already, with the added tax of needed Legolas, Gimli or the King at minimum to field them (all 100pts base) it's a decent investment to field them. They will work well as a strike force for my Pelennor lists, which are currently a mix of Rohan Cavalry, Gondor shieldwalls and a smattering of support pieces such as Lossarnach Axemen and a single Bolt Thrower.

For the painting, I went with a light grey primer, then picked out the metals with Vallejo's Natural Steel. Everything was washed with a Citadel's Biel-Tan Green Shade.

 

Spectres

Spectres are the perhaps the closest match Evil Armies have the the Army of the Dead, but one that trades combat ability for support ability.

They match the Dead with the Spectral Walk, Terror and S3 Blades of the Dead abilities, which is nice, but move slower at 6" and are F2 and D6, one point less in each of these stats and with no option for a shield (or any other wargear for that matter). Costing the same as a Warrior of the Dead with a Shield, that's not exactly something you want to field as your main battleline.

Instead, the Spectres strength is in its A Fell Light is in Them ability. In the move phase each Spectre can force any single model it can see within 12" to pass an Intelligence test or be forced to make its full move towards the Spectre. There are some limitations to this, such as the move cannot be used to directly cause damage by falling or Charge into combat (except against the Spectre, should you wish it), but it remains a powerful ability.

Spectres can pull models out of formation, perhaps ruining a Shieldwall defence bonus, preventing shooting or even simply allowing your own troops to mob up and surround one of the opponent's warriors away from the battleline. You can pull a banner bearer out of position, or an objective holder into a trap.

Of course, it can always fail, especially if the opponent has high Intelligence stats (especially the case with heroes), but 2 or 3 Spectres could all target the same model and through sheer pressure of dice, move them forwards and cause disruption in the opponent's formation that you can capitalise on.

I've just built one for now, the base model being a Wood Elf warrior with an arm from the Mirkwood Rangers sprue, a spare sword and a mix of cuts and greenstuff to ruin the clothing. Painting was done in the same fashion as the Dead above, but I chose to include a Reikland Fleshshade wash on the areas of skin. It's a sublte different but I like it.

I'll be definitely adding more Spectres to my armies, as I feel they are key parts of the Angmar and Minas Morgul lists. I plan to run the former more often, as I already have a decent number of Orcs and Carn Dum warriors that can really benefit from some movement shenanigans.

 

 Shade  

 

The final new addition I have for this batch is the Shade. Unlike the previous profiles, this one is a Hero, but still shares the trifecta of Spectral Walk, Terror and Blades of the Dead. Like it's compatriot the Spectre, it is certainly not a combat piece, F1 and S1 don't go very far even with 2 Attacks. It is at least survivable, sporting D8, a healthy 3 Wounds and even a single Fate point.

Instead, the Shade is firmly a Support Hero, with three abilities for helping your list.

Starting with Conduit of Angmar, the Shade can be used as the casting point and Line-of-Sight for any Ringwraith's magic, similar to Crebain for Saruman. This goes further as well, where if the Wraith happens to be within 6" of the Shade, they can cause a Wound to add a one to their Casting Roll. The first half of this roll is lovely and really helps keep the magical oppression going on your opponent, as it's tough to hide from multiple angles. The second half is likely to be rarely used outside of key moments where a spell could win or lose games, but should be remembered, even if it costs you the Shade itself.

Swirling Mists is a lesser version of Blinding Light (perhaps more akin to Khazad-Dum's mirrors), and inflicts a -1 penalty to shooting attacks on models with 6" of the Shade at the cost of one of its 4 points of Will. Very useful when your lists typically comprise in majority of D4 and D5 Orcs. As an added bonus, if your Shade happens to be within 12" of the shooter it becomes a -2 penalty instead, favouring an up-close playstyle.

Finally, the Shade has Ghostly Resolve, a passive ability that gives all friendly Angmar Orcs within 12" a +1 to Courage Tests. With Orcs being as famously cowardly as they are, this at least brings them up to being on par with most Man warrior profiles and will help in those cases where the opponent also has some Terror.

These three abilities are great of course, but that's not where the fun ends. Being a Spirit Hero, it will usually provide the Terror rule to Angmar Orcs within 3" and it also has Dominant 3. These rules and it's defensive stats all come together to help make the Shade and its warband a decent enough speedbump for holding objectives. It's a solid Hero for just 75pts and I look forward to taking one in a Host of the Witch King list some point soon.

I quite like GW's official model, but ever on a budget I settled instead for building my own using some Age of Sigmar ghosts (nighthaunts?) that I picked a sprue of by random a few years back. I fused two of these together with a bit of greenstuff, removing the scythe-hands and replacing them with simple hand weapons from the Vitrix Vikings sprue. Once again, I used the same painting style.

 

Where are the Barrow Wights?

Whilst there are more Spirit models in the MESBG range, most of the rest of them are Ringwraiths and they are kind of their own beasts. The last proper ghost model is the Barrow Wight, which I've not included here. This is partly because I don't have any of the official models and have had no real ideas on how to properly represent them with the parts I have on hand. They will have to wait for a later date to join my forces. 

They are still a useful part of any Angmar list, and sport the wildly useful Paralyse Magical Power. This is one of those more controversial abilities in MESBG, especially when used en-masse, but not one that cannot be played around or countered, especially with the tiny 6" casting range. Still, that's not for a deep discussion now.

 

Thank you for your time once again. If you like what I do here, you can also follow my hobby progress via Instagram, where I can be found at @Manic.Hobbying, or you can support me via the KoFi link off to the side. In any case, just your support being here is greatly appreciated, and I hope to see you again.

Until next time! 

  

  

A Ranger Caught off his Guard 2026

It's been officially a full year since my first MESBG tournament experience, and I've returned once again to that very event; Board in Brum's A Ranger Caught off his Guard. If you haven't seen last year's post (Read here), or just don't remember, the format is very simple. Five games at 395pts, with a minimum model cap of 3 and a maximum of 40.

The points level was chosen quite simply to reflect the Road to Rivendell list mirroring the scene in which the tournament's title is spoken. Aragorn, Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin, alongside Arwen riding Asfaloth, clocks in at a 395pts.

Last year I took a Riders of Theoden list, headed by Theoden and Eomer. I struggled to get much in the way of success, but learned a lot. This year, after a rather successful 7th place result at A Pull of the Old Toby with the Grey Company, I figured I would take the Rangers again and see if I could not replicate the success. 

The List

The Grey Company is an elite list. At the previous event I'd crammed Aragorn and Legolas and 8 Rangers into 500pts, with a few bits of equipment dotted around. The 105pts difference was going to really hurt my numbers...

Seven models is incredibly low. I expected to be outnumbered in any case, especially packing two named heroes into the list, but with an average model count for the event of 21, I would later end up being outnumbered 3-1 and even 4-1. The Elven cloaks were a must for ensuring Aragorn and Legolas could act without being overly impeded, especially as neither could take armour (as Aragorn can't and I couldn't afford Leggy's). It was also a shame I couldn't spring for Aragorn's bow, but with some consideration and looking at the expected scenarios, I needed him either marching for objectives or otherwise chopping things up with Anduril.

Spears I was happy to do without, especially at these numbers, but I did miss the armour on my Rangers a little bit, as there were a number of occasions the extra Defence would have saved a wound. It can really be a pricey investment in most Ranger lists, and the extra body (and Might) is usually better, but I always slot in a few bits of armour if the points allow, just to avoid that Str 4 where I can.

The Scenarios

Once list submission was complete, the TO's released which scenarios we would be playing. This was nice as I was able to familiarise myself with each one and prep a little game plan for each. It would be match-up dependant of course, but having a couple of ideas of how to deploy and move in the early turns pre-loaded the thinking for the games. It also helped me keep the Scoring Objectives in mind, something I can forget in the thick of things. 

Round 1 - Lead from the Front
Round 2 - Divide and Conquer
Round 3 - Destroy the Supplies
Round 4 - Conquest of Champions
Round 5 - Capture and Control

Four objective based scenarios. Two with random endings on a Break. No Maelstrom. 

It felt like a fairly hero-centric day, which on the surface felt good with a full hero list. But we'd have to see how my planning survived first contact.

 

Round 1 - Edd Quick's The Last Alliance

Edd was a lovely chap and a newcomer to the venue. He'd brought Isildur and Erestor with a mixed Elf-Numenorean battleline and a small cadre of Elven Bowmen. The army looked lovely with a nice lava-riddled basing scheme and display board. (Sorry for no photos on this report, I completely forgot!)

The early game was entirely shaped around us fearing each other's archery. Five Elf Bows vs Legolas and five ranger bows. Using buildings as cover, I advanced a Ranger up each side at half-pace, with Aragorn leading a small group up the left-side centre. Legolas took up a spot on a balcony, but would be unable to get a shot for 3 or 4 turns. Isildur led the majority of the battleline wide to my right, once again skirting a building completely out of shot, though I was able to fire a few arrows his way, the stilts of the Laketown-style building offered too many In-the-Ways to get much bow fire through.

Arrows caused a couple of casualties on either side, with me heavily relying on In-the-Ways to avoid damage. Eventually the battleline came into view and I was able to start working on my plan, focus-fire the banner, taking pot-shots at Isildur where I could as both would give me VPs. 

The banner would ultimately last right up till the final rounds, including surviving two rounds of combat with Aragorn, who seemingly forgot how Anduril worked. Neither King of Gondor would see combat against each other, only expending Fate to avoid wounds, and I think we were both concerned about how that fight could go badly for us.

Eventually, Isildur would put on the Ring on take the right-hand objective, contested by a Ranger. I held the centre, with Erestor and a Ranger contesting the left. A tie for objective points

The final score was 9-6, owing to me quartering his list down to just the two heroes and an archer or two, and killing the banner to grant us both the 2VPs there.

A fun game that I actually wonder how it could've gone had Edd been more aggressive with his battleline, but his concern was valid as I believe I shot out as many of his troops as I slew in combat. An Aragorn-Isildur face of could've been interesting, especially with the Ring, but far too risky for either of us. I do hope we can face each other again in the future.

 

Round 2 - Edward Hodges' Khazad-Dum

The second Ed of the day, Edward is someone I've actually played a number of times at other events and have always lost to his dwarves, including at Old Toby with my Rangers. 

Divide and Conquer was good for me. Ed had a Dwarf King and a Captain, leading some 25 dwarves split between Khazad Guard, Dwarf Warriors and his own, arguably much more deadly Rangers. The deployment would force him to split his force in two, whereas whilst my list was built with four warbands (Aragorn + 2 Rangers, Legolas + 1 Ranger and two solo drops), the army rules gave me the option to deploy as a single warband.

I considered splitting so that the two solo drops were on the far side of the board, but opted instead to consolidate my position. The game had a chance to end on a Break, and the objectives rewarded taking and holding the centre. Being outnumbered 3-1 by dwarves, I kept my plan simple. Aragorn would take some Rangers and rush towards the Captain, whilst Legolas would try to snipe out the King's own Dwarf Rangers, trying to get them before they got into range of the more centrally deployed mirrors. If I got the chance, I would try to shoot his King as well. I'd worked out that if I could wipe the Captain's warband, I'd only need to kill a few of the King's warband to break him, and the smaller warband would be much easier to deal with.

Running up on some terrain, Aragorn's team avoided bowfire whilst also trading the odd arrow. Eventually they got stuck in a slowly ground through dwarves, with the Captain giving Aragorn a wide berth, especially as he'd spent all of his Might on Marches. Legolas succeeded in removing most of the dangerous longbows with a Ranger's support, though had to keep backing up as several dwarves were trying to hunt him down.

Eventually I broke him and started maneouvering to grab objectives whilst Aragorn tried to run at the King. His Captain pounced on a Ranger, almost coming unstuck in one round as I rolled doubled 6's to wound, saved only by Fate, and angrily struck down his opponent the following turn. Legolas had lost his Ranger pal also, but between them had taken out the Khazad's, only for him to lose every fight against the Dwarf Warrior remaining. 

The game ended as expected before I could get to the King. The scores totted up to an extremely close 6-5, and on reflection it was a matter of the Captain being a mere half inch out of range of contesting an objective, and one of my Rangers passing a Fate roll either of which would have called it a draw, and both flipping the score in Ed's favour.

Always a fun person to play against, and I look forwards to hopefully evening up our relative win-loss ratio at future events.

 

Round 3 - Matthew Hare's Halls of Thranduil

Destroy the Supplies was perhaps my least anticipated scenario for the entire day. I lacked the model count to sufficiently defend my objectives as well as target my opponents and realistically had to just try and trade out. Matthew's list had both the Elk and three cavalry though so I would be heavily outmatched in terms of speed. 

Naturally the game started with the elves doing their level-best to avoid being shot at, whilst I tried to manoeuvre to target the horses and Thranduil himself. With a large ruin offering a lot of cover, he was able to push his battleline forwards, though thankfully not without casualty. He flanked me with two cavalry, and although with some luck I was able to dispatch them with the lone guard Ranger, he was still able to destroy my supply on the the right-flank.

When combat was joined, Aragorn yet again got stuck in, with Thranduil skirting the melee and picking off Rangers whilst Legolas tried desperately wound his dad or his mount with PinPoint shots, but failed to make an impact.

Eventually, the superior numbers and mobility of the Elves won out, and he completely destroyed all of my supplies. Aragorn made a break for one of his supplies, with Heroic Combats, but was a full turn away when one of my Rangers decided he'd had enough of the multi-turn melee he was in and took out the two Palace Guard with a double 6 roll, quartering them and ending the game before Aragorn could get where he needed to be.

This was my first loss, 3-11. My only points came from breaking his army and him not having a banner, and with 3 supplies destroyed to zero, a clear loss. I always like to analyse my losses to understand what I could've done better and I do wonder if it was simply more of a deployment issue. Feinting left with a solo Ranger and deploying on the right would have given me much more clear firing lines, and I had the advantage in firepower as his list only had a Sentinel and a single Mirkwood Ranger in it for range. I'd have still needed to give up perhaps two objectives, but may have been able to draw Thranduil and his cavalry out earlier. 

Ifs and buts, and lessons learned. Matthew would later go on take 3rd place in the overall tournament, so I'll take it on the chin losing to a solid player. Well done to him!

 

Game 4 - Jack Buckler's Army of Thror

Hot off of the FAQ presses, Jack had bought the Army of Thror with it's new 50% throwing weapon limit. Contest of Champions is definitely Aragorn's chance to shine, but with the deployment forcing us to be close and the dwarves outnumbering me 2-1, this would be a struggle. Jack is another player I've faced before, where I'd take a close win against his Radagast's Alliance by utterly abusing the terrain, so I knew he was another tough player to face.

The game started with an Heroic Move-off, which I believe he won (my memory is getting foggy the day after). The line clashed quickly, and only Legolas and a couple of Rangers avoided turn 1 combat due to being deployed slightly back. We fought between two terrain pieces, which levelled the numbers initially, but several of his dwarves scaled the cliffs to the right and as the battlelines shifted, he began to start enveloping the Grey Company. 

Legolas spent much of the game once again using Pinpoint shots to attempt to avoid traps, whilst my Rangers slowly dropped one by one. In the centre, Aragorn and Thror clashed for multiple turns, Thror surviving a good few turns thanks to poor Wound rolls on my behalf and some great Arkenstone Fate rolls on Jack's. Eventually however, Aragorn remembered how his sword worked again and got a triple wound through.

With the score 1-0 on kills, Aragorn tried his best to boost the score, but was only able to kill one more Grim Hammer before Legolas was taken down and I was left quartered, ending the game.

Final score was 13-3. I don't have much to say about this game tactically, as it was just pure slog fest. Perhaps give room I could've backed off and gotten in a round or two of shooting, but the lines were so close this was unlikely to have scored more than a single wound and may have meant Thror could've gotten into my Rangers instead of Aragorn. The terrain was also helpful as it was, so all I can do is thank my dice and move on to the last round.

 

Round 5 - Dale Groves' Goblin Town

The final round, and I'm riding high, with three wins to my name, despite my low VPs so far, a 4-1 ratio could see me contesting the podium (post tourney I realise it've been a likely 5th place, but still worth pushing for!) Dale, as the TO of the event had to juggle a little bit of his duties with the game early on, but the event is really run well and he was able to focus on the match. Good stuff that he still gets to play!

If I thought I'd been outnumbered before, Dale was about to reteach me the meaning of the word. With the Goblin King, two Captains and 33 goblin warriors, it was the most outnumbered I'd been all day, and the Goblin Town's propensity for surrounding you with hordes was especially dangerous with my own low model count.

I realised early on I'd have to give up and then fight my way to the objectives, but also would need to try and deal with the Goblin King. To this end, I set up in two rough groups, with a solo ranger skirting Weathertop off to my left flank to try for that side's objectives. I ended up having Legolas across from the King and Aragorn across from one of the Captains.

Early game shooting was poor, and the few shots Legolas put into the King were all saved. Very few goblins fell as they skittered over the objectives, and even as I backed away with Legolas' group they kept coming and I soon found every model I had in combat. 

Unfortunately, things continued to go wrong for me. The goblins fell slowly despite their low defences as the dice just did not want to cooperate and a number of times I roll 5 high against sixes and was forced to spend Might just to not have the Grey Company drown in dice. Pinpoint shots continued to bounce off of the King and he took out the Rangers and then finally Legolas through sheer pressure, the Elf Prince never getting a single wound on him.

On the other side, Aragorn's band lasted longer, and mostly chopped up their own goblin horde, but as I broke, with Aragorn and that single flanking Ranger each in position to reach an objective, the random chance to end roll came and I rolled yet another two.

The final score was 16-1, with my sole point coming from breaking the Goblins. That last point could've really turned the tide had there been a turn or two for Courage tests, but alas. Dale took a well deserved win and got a solid fourth place in the tournament overall. It's funny how my two losses for the day were against top 4 players. 

Looking back, I'm trying to think how I could've fought this different. I probably should've sent Aragorn straight at the King, but it would've been tricky to ensure he didn't get surrounded and I didn't want to get into a situation where a bad roll would see him dead. Perhaps overly cautious however. The other thing is my deployment, splitting the horde into three did work out but I do wonder how running as a solid block my have helped to avoid being surrounded. Using the terrain would've really helped and the Weathertop ruins would've been a prime location to defend and stymie their numbers. 

Regardless, I could not have stayed there the whole game, and would've had to wade out to catch the objectives sooner or later.

 

Round Up

At the day's end I sat in 16th position with 3 wins to my name, and I'm very happy with that. Sure there are things I could improve, and that may have resulted in more decisive victories to give me a higher position. Still, whilst I did have the power of Aragorn and Legolas on my side, I was able to take a mere 7 models in a non-meta list to another damn good showing and I'm proud of that.

Biased as I am as it's my local, I will also always recommend Board In Brum's MESBG events, they're well run and the players that show up are a damn good bunch, so check it out if you have the chance.

Next event is the April Doubles event at BiB, Best Bit of the Book, to which I've already aluded to be attending with my girlfriend. Hobby progress on that one soon.

Once again though, thanks for reading. If you want to follow my hobby progress, Instagram is always the best shout where I can be found at @Manic.Hobbying, but for now, take care and catch you next time.

The 2025 Round Up and steps for 2026

 Without a doubt, 2025 has been the biggest year of MESBG for me. Finally taking the plunge and entering the competitive scene was the main catalyst, attending six events across the year, a number of friendly games, a doubles tournament and a battle companies campaign. This all necessarily led to the painting and assembling of hundreds of miniatures, expanding my collection from a small Rohan force and a smattering of random other models  to me being able to field some 20 lists easily.

It's been a hell of year, so let's get into it.

  

The Tournaments

I joined the GBHL via Board in Brum's A Ranger Caught off his Guard event (see here) with my beloved Riders of Theoden. For my first event it was a hell of an experience, and the locals were so lovely that it became my local club despite being a little out of my way. If you get a chance to attend the club for an event, I'd recommend it heartily.

I attended 3 more events here across the year, and whilst my skills never got me above the lower half of the field, I was not without wins or otherwise close and educational losses. Every event continued to be great fun and taught me a lot. I'll be hoping to focus in on a couple of lists, as I never ran the same list twice over the year, but the point was experience and I certainly gained a bunch of that.

I unfortunately only did one other event roundup post in the year, despite best intentions, but here is what I ran:

 - Nobody Tosses a Dwarf: Defenders of Helm's Deep
 - It Comes in Pints: Army of Carn Dum
 - A Burnt Hand Teaches Best: Army of Edoras
 - Great Deeds of War: Defenders of the Pelennor 
 - Always Follow Your Nose: Army of the Great Eye

With 2026 looming, I've joined one of BiB's Teams, Brumdabad and intend to improve on my 600-ish rank in the league whilst still aiming to have fun. I'm planning to run Grey Company and Army of Carn Dum again and finally a Doubles List pairing Riders of Eomer and Fangorn in a bit of a "What If?" situation. It kinda means that I'm tossing out the list focus rule, but that can come later.

The Models 

One stat I'm quite proud of is painting up some 185 models this year, leagues above what I've ever done before and more than likely literally doubling my entire life's output. With 25 more assembled and in various stages of partially painted, that's 210 total.

The Army of the Great Eye (Bandit not included)

This output has really helped me to hone my painting and sculpting skills as an awful lot of those 200 models have also been converted in one way of another as I refuse to ever field the same sculpt twice.

The majority of this painting has gone into the various lists I've used above, and several more besides that I've yet to bring to the tabletop. It's nice to have a solid core of troops and heroes that I can expand on.

Defenders of the Pelennor - Easily scaled up with many Rohirrim

2026 so far

January has been a slow start, but I think that's more than ok. I kicked off with painting up my Breaking of the Fellowship Legolas so he could join my Grey Company list. I coupled this with a display board I'm incredibly proud of; a rendering of the Stone of Erech and a couple of objective markers. I experimented on this one with some tea-leaf flocking. My girlfriend has built up a fair collection of various teas, which really helped to vary the textures. I think it worked out fairly well.

The Grey Company at the Stone of Erech

Of course, a finished army and a display board means one thing! Tournament time!

A Pull of the Old Toby is a fantastic 500pt tournament at Board in Brum that includes the special flair of giving each list a free Gimli who's smoked too much pipeweed. This is represented by giving him a reduced stat-line and special rules similar to Thrain the Broken. Each scenario also gave adjustments to VPs based around Gimli either surviving or sitting on objectives.

The Grey Company really did amazing work, and considering I'm an advocate for buffing the Rangers (slightly) I was surprised by how well they performed. In some cases they were even carrying Aragorn's dead weight (he had a few fits of triple 1's or 2's). Gimli, possibly predictably, did little of anything and often got killed, whilst Legolas did Legolas things.

I was paired up against, in order; Khazad-Dum (Loss), Defenders of the Pelennor built as Return of the King (Win), Buhrdur's Horde (Win) and Radagast's Alliance (Win). 3-1 for the day is by far my best performance at any event to date and netted me a solid 7th place. A great day for one of my favourite factions.

I'll likely be taking them again to A Ranger caught off of his Guard to see it wasn't just a lightning in a bottle moment.

What's Next

Aside from the above, I've booked in to play at a Doubles event with my girlfriend in April and a teams event in June. For the former we'll be running a Riders of Eomer and Fangorn alliance to represent a kind-of "What if" scenario of the Ents joining the slaughter of Ugluk's scouts. (Possible lists below). It'll be fantastic to have her there with me for that event, as she's been nothing but fully supportive of my hobby, and is involved enough to own her own army of Ents and play games with me at home. She could win a little less though...

On the hobby side of things my plan at the moment is to increase my options for existing lists. With many of them already having a solid core of troops, it will be good to add the more elite or support pieces. I'm starting this off with some Westfold Redshields (not the most competitive option, but a good way to fill in some spare points and re-rolls never hurt) and a Shade and some spectres for my Angmar forces, as at the moment I mostly just have Orcs and a few Carn Dum men to follow the Witch King into battle, and Angmar is a faction that needs it's ghosties.

Halbarad is on the wishlist also, when I can source him. I want the older sculpt though, as I really don't like the newer version from GW.

A Siege Bow for my Mordor forces is on the to-do list. Aside from that I really need to get my Fell Beast and Morannon Drummer painted up. The Spectres will be useful should I want to run Minas Morgul.

The last thing on the list is the WIP custom Ent for my girlfriend, made from 100% real trees!

It's should be a good year for creativity, but that's all for now. Thanks for reading.

If you want to follow my hobby progress, Instagram is always the best shout where I can be found at @Manic.Hobbying, but I'd be remiss not to include some of my favourites here.

 

 

Alpha Strikes in MESBG

 DISCLAIMER

I don't (do not) actually want alpha strike abilities or army rules in MESBG. It could make a fun tournament or scenario gimmick, but otherwise I don't think it fits well for the game. Even the example ability that does exist isn't explicitly an alpha strike, it's just best used as one, and I think that there needs to be some changes made to it for this reason.

With that out of the way, welcome once again to ManicHobbying where I am once again "what-iffing" rules for our beloved game. This particular posts comes from me fridge-logicing what was initially a response email to Harry (Entmoot Podcast) regarding people's thoughts on Army of the White Hand. One of the standout abilities that makes this army one of the top lists in the game right now (at least according to complaints) is Saruman's ability to call down a 2" radius S6 Lightning Strike anywhere on the table. At the beginning of the edition I believe this caught many people out, especially when deploying in formation. 

I myself fell afoul of it early on. Thanks to Maelstrom deployment and tightly spaced terrain, my Riders of Eomer saw their banner and 3 other riders get blasted away or at least dehorsed, thoroughly neutering the list early on (this was 400 points in a Doubles format). Now, there's more mind for people spacing out deployment to prevent multiple casualties, but the lightning can still pick off a key piece such as a banner or hero's mount, or even just be saved until turn two to hope for the enemy to group up or even keep them spaced out of fear,

To be clear also, I don't necessarily want to see this ability removed. It is somewhat fun to recreate in some fashion Saruman's attack on the Fellowship, and I'm at a loss on how to satisfactorily tweak it. At the same time, it's not outright game-winning and Army of the White Hand has more than a few useful tools. Between one of the best casters in the game, Grima, Crebain, good troop variety and some useful supporting heroes, it really is the combination of all of them that makes it such a successful list. 

Alpha Strikes

Moving on from the White Hand specifically, I got to thinking about bringing other armies up in power via similar abilities. More tools for the toolbox could really level the playing field on other lists and shake up the meta a little. The first one that game to mind was Army of Gothmog:

Release the prisoners

Fires a shot as if there was a catapult firing with the severed heads upgrade. This does not replace the shot of an existing catapult in the army list, and is assumed to come from off of the table. Courage tests can be taken as normal, with all bonuses and abilities applying. 

This one is to simple parallel the opening shot of the Siege of Minas Tirith. Nice and simple, it forces a Courage test in a small area. It is also eminently counterable with various Courage boosting abilities

Give them a Volley

3" Radius, all take a S2 hit. 

Defenders of Helm's Deep. Another simple one to parallel the movie scenes, and even simpler in ruling. Despite the wider radius it's a very toned down variant of Saruman's lightning. An argument could be made for two radii, one at S2 and one at S3.

Birdcalls

3" Radius, all take a S2 hit.

Garrison of Ithilien. Yes it's exactly the same as DoHD, and simply there to represent the Ranger's ambush tactics. The same ability, but for different flavourful reasons.

I won't list more than the above, but this ability could be extended to Rangers of Mirkwood, Lothlorien, and Azog's Hunters. For the Elf lists, you would naturally boost the strength to 3. In a similar vein, should The Grey Company, Return of the King or Road to Helm's Deep lists contain Legolas, he gets a free shot at the start of the game. For the Evil side, another variant is a shot from a Hasharin in the Umbar list.

The horns of the Rohirrim lifted up in music

Intelligence test in nearest enemy models, 3" radius. For each test that is failed, Theoden's player may move the enemy model up to half of its move rate, moving away from Theoden as directly as possible.

This ability is for Riders of Theoden, and perhaps could also be used in Army of Edoras, Fields of Celebrant and Ride Out. The inspiration is from the line in Return of the King, coupled with the Orcs reaction in the movies where they stumbled back at the onset of the Rohirrim's charge. The rule structure is simply Spectre's ability with the direction tweaked.

The Cry of the Nazgul

Choose an area within the opponent's deployment zone with a 3" radius. All models within this zone must take a Courage test or go prone. Cavalry models must test for both mount and rider. Normal bonuses or ability effects apply.

Both Black Riders and Wraiths on Wings. A potentially fun alternative to a normal courage test is to make those that fail simply go prone rather than fully run away, with only mounts then fleeing should the check be failed. This ability would then be about disruption rather than outright removing models.

It was around this point I realised that these abilities essentially boiled down to two effects: do damage, or force courage/intelligence checks. The damage, radius and result could differ, but otherwise it just one or the other. Rather than continue to write out a bunch of rules for every army, I think it's easier to just list a few others. It'd be up to TOs or houserulers to actually work out the details.

I did have one more thought, but I'm unsure on the impact of it; a movement ability. This could take the form of a free move (for a single warband) or a free heroic march. Movement is fairly key to MESBG, so this might be a tough one to balance. Cavalry forces for example would find this extremely powerful for gaining ground. As an example, I have this one for Paths of the Druadan:

One with the forest

Ghan-Buri-Ghan's warband may make a free heroic march in the first turn. This does not affect their ability to shoot that turn.

I have no doubt that in the lists that would make the most sense for a movement ability, it would in turn become perhaps overly powerful. Ugluk's Scouts come to mind. But then neither Uruk Scouting list is consistently in the top tables to my knowledge, and that's rather the point of this.

A small warning, many lists won't have anything unique, and it'd probably be better that several lists just don't have a alpha strike ability at all. Not every list has every tool after all, and some just don't need them. When I list it out, the number of suitable lists is quite small, just 28/95 lists (and good lord there are 95 lists!). Of course, I could be missing a few ideas, let me know!

Good
Arathorn's Stand - See Give them a volley#

Army of Dale - None

Army of Edoras - Horns of the Rohirrim

Army of Erebor - None

Army of Lake-town - None

Army of Thror - None
Arnor - None

Assault on Ravenhill - None

Atop the Wall - Free Trebuchet shot?
Battle of Bywater - None

BotFA - None

Battle of Fornost - None

Battle of Greenfields - None
Beornings - None

Breaking of the Fellowship - S3 version of Give them a volley! if Haldir is present.

Defenders of Erebor - None

Defenders of Helm's Deep - Give them a volley!

Defenders of the Hornburg - None

Defenders of the Pelennor - None

The Eagles - None

Erebor & Dale - None

Erebor Reclaimed - Movement ability (represents Thorin's charge, so specific to his warband)

Expedition to the East - None

Fangorn - None

The Fellowship - None

The Fiefdoms (Nothing to do with this blogpost, just give them back their synergies)

Fields of Celebrant - Horns of the Rohirrim

Fords of Isen - None

Garrison of Dale - None

Garrison of Ithilien - Birdcalls

The Grey Company - Legolas shot

The Grief of Eomer - None

Halls of Thranduil - None

The Iron Hills - None

Kingdom of Khazad-Dum - None

Kingdom of Rohan - None

The Last Alliance - None

Lindon - None

Lothlorien - S3 Give them a volley

Men of the West - None

Minas Tirith - None

Numenor - None

Paths of the Druadan - One with the forest.

Radagast's Alliance - None

Rangers of Mirkwood - Birdcalls

Realms of Men - None

Reclamation of Moria - None

Reclamation of Osgiliath - None

Return of the King - Legolas Shot

Ride Out - Horn

Riders of Eomer - None

Riders of Theoden - Horns of the Rohirrim

Rivendell - Free Bruinen

Road to Helm's Deep - Legolas Shot

Road to Rivendell - None

The Shire - None

Survivors of Lake-town - None

Thorin's Company - None

The White Council - None

Evil

Army of Carn Dum - None

Army of Dunland - None

Army of Gothmog - Release the prisoners!

Army of Gundabad - Free Tremor to represent worms?

Army of the White Hand - Already exists.

Assault Upon Helm's Deep - None

Assault on Lothlorien - None

Azog's Hunters - Birdcalls

Barad-Dur - None

Besiegers of the Hornburg - None

The Black Gate - None

The Black Riders - Cry of the Nazgul

Buhrdur's Horde - None

Cirith Ungol - Perhaps add a single web marker as per Spider Queen list

Corsair Fleets - Ballista shot

Depths of Moria - None

Desolator of the North - None

Dragons of the North - None

The Easterlings - None

Far Harad - None

Fell Beings of Mirkwood - None

Goblin-Town - None

Grand Army of the South - None

Harad - None

Host of the Dragon Emperor - None

Host of the Witch King - None

Legions of Mordor - None

Lurtz's Scouts - Free March for single warband

Minas Morgul - None

Moria - None

Muster of Isengard - Literally give Saruman the same abilities.

Pits of Dol Guldur - None

Ravagers of the Shire - None

Rise of the Necromancer - None

The Serpent Horde - None

Shadows of Angmar - None

Sharkey's Rogues - None

The Spider Queen's Brood - None

The Three Trolls - None

Ugluk's Scouts - Free March for Single Warband.

Umbar - Blowpipe shot per Hasharin

Usurpers of Edoras - None

Variags of Khand - None

Wolf Pack of Angmar - None

Wolves of Isengard - None

Wraiths on Wings - Cry of the Nazgul

Maybe I shouldn't have written absolutely list out...

I'd love to hear your ideas on this, and what you would do to elevate lists and introduce more variety to the top lists. For those armies where "alpha strikes" don't thematically fit, what would you do instead? If inspiration strikes I'll come back to this in another post.

Until next time. 

The Dunedain Part 2, Improvement Boogaloo

Back in June, with the release of Legacies once again shafting our beloved Rangers, the internet erupted in calls for GW to buff the basic Rangers of the North, at the very least to bring them in line with what feels like profile disparity elsewhere across the range. It is not the first time this call has gone out, and it will possibly not be the last as Dunedain enjoyers everywhere want better representation for the shadowy patrollers of northern Eriador.

A lot of the focus has gone into the Ranger's profile itself, and I wrote about it here also, which makes sense, but perhaps there's another way.

Before I move on though, the Tell Me A Tale guys did a wonderful two-parter (Part 1 and Part 2) on a Ranger Revamp back in 2022 that was fantastic. I very much recommend giving it a read, and all the rest of their articles for that matter.

Revamping the Rangers Indirectly

Some of my favourite characters to use in MESBG are those that provide buffs to warriors in their warband. The likes of Grimbold, Frealaf, Erkenbrand (so many Rohan heroes), Durin, Gildor and Mablung all come to mind, each different, but each offering ways to slightly switch up the abilities of basic warriors. It can be as little as a single stat point or new ability, but it really adds some flavour to a list and increases your tactical options without being overpowering.

My thought here then is that this is what could be done to improve the various Ranger lists in some small way, increasing tactical flexibility and survivability at low cost. That last point is key, as the Rangers are already an elite list with low model count, particularly in the War of the Ring lists where Aragorn and the likes of Legolas and the King of the Dead already want to eat up much of your points cost.

The one issue is, outside of Aragorn, Arathorn and Halbarad, the only named Rangers we get from Tolkien are the line of Chieftains starting with Aranarth. You can't really build a list with multiple Chieftains, it wouldn't make sense, so we need another option. We could of course just make up some characters and call it a day, they can join the likes of Brorgir in GW originals. 

The second option is to steal characters from LotRO, which I'll do here, though I'd be shocked if ol' GeeDubs could ever do that. As a note, I've not actually played LotRO, so this is based on a Wiki-dive, but the main purpose is to get inspiration and names and the Wiki is more than enough for that purpose.

For the first character, I'm essentially lifting Mablung wholesale:

Faeron, Ranger of the North (Minor Hero) - 40pts

 

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Wargear - Armour, Hand Weapon and Bow
Heroic Actions - Heroic Accuracy
Special Rules - Woodland Creature, Stalk Unseen, Master of Stealth

Master of Stealth - Any Rangers of the North included within his warband may be upgraded to have the Stalk Unseen ability for +1 point per model.

Army Lists
Faeron can be included as a Minor Hero within the following lists:
 - The Grey Company
 - Defenders of the Pelennor

 - Arathorn's Stand

Faeron is met during a quest named Master of Stealth, and later acts as a class trainer for Burglars. This makes him a great template for imparting Stalk Unseen on Rangers, fantastic for improving their survivability. Unlike Mablung, I've made this a purchasable ability rather than an auric bonus, as this represents training for Rangers under his command, rather than the active use of birdcalls.

 

Orthonn, Ranger of the North (Minor Hero) - 50pts

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Wargear - Armour, Hand Weapon, Bow
Heroic Actions - Heroic Accuracy
Special Rules - Woodland Creature

Cartographer - In Scenarios where you roll for Warbands to arrive, or ones where you roll to see which part of the board you deploy a Warband in (though not when rolling to choose deployment zone), you may modify the roll this model's Warband by +1 or -1, even if he is not on the battlefield. If this model is on the battlefield, you may also modify the roll for other Warbands in your Army by +1 or -1.

Army Lists
Orthonn can be included as a Minor Hero in the following lists:
 - Arathorn's Stand

 - The Grey Company

 - Defenders of the Pelennor

The second ability-lift, and this one from Madril, perhaps one of the most auto-include heroes in Gondor lists. Orthonn is a loremaster and cartographer, so he becomes a great candidate for a Master of Reserves rule. This gives the Rangers an advantage I'm surprised they didn't already have as wanderers of the wilderness. Whilst they do have the ability to spam single-model warbands, having some control over this will mitigate the weakness inherent in having lone warriors spread out all over the board.

I've also given him higher Intelligence, and an extra point of Will to represent his loremaster side.

 

Daervunn, Ranger of the North (Minor Hero) - 45pts

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Wargear - Armour, Hand Weapon, Bow and Warhorn
Heroic Actions - Heroic Accuracy, Heroic Resolve
Special Rules - Woodland Creature

Army Lists
Daervunn can be included as a Minor Hero in the following lists:
 - Arathorn's Stand

 - The Grey Company

 - Defenders of the Pelennor

Daervunn is listed as being Halbarad's right-hand man. Naturally, since Halbarad is our resident banner bearer, Daervunn should carry the other "command" item, the warhorn. The Rangers aren't necessarily in need of extra courage, but it still improves their reliability against Terror and keeps them on the field much easier when their relatively low numbers reach the breaking point. It's also a little moot should Halbarad be wielding his banner, but will help against Blades of the Dead still.

He gets above-average (for Rangers) Courage and Intelligence, plus extra Might and Will and the Heroic Resolve action to represent him being a rallying point, calling attention to Halbarad and the other Ranger Captains.

Halros, Ranger of the North (Minor Hero) - 40pts

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Wargear - Armour, Hand Weapon and Bow
Heroic Actions - Heroic Accuracy
Special Rules - Woodland Creature, Hunter of the Big Folk

Hunter of the Big Folk - Halros may include Hobbit Archer and Hobbit Militia models in his warband.

Army Lists
Halros can be included as a Minor Hero in the following lists:
 - Arathorn's Stand

Halros is noted as being trusted by the hobbits of The Shire, protecting it's borders from threats from the North. This makes him the perfect character to add a bit of variety to the Arathorn's Stand list, and a good way of getting a minor boost to its numbers. Very much like the Hobbit Archer's in the Battle of Fornost list. Halros is an optional member of the Grey Company in LotRO, but there he could not use Hunter of the Big Folk so it's easier to confine him to the single list.

I do believe the Hobbits will be subject to the bow limits, but it works out nicely that 4 Militia and 4 Archers is 26 points, the same as a Ranger with a spear. A decent trade if I do say so myself.

 

Idhrien, Ranger of the North (Minor Hero) - 40pts

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Wargear - Armour, Hand Weapon, Bow and Healing Herbs
Heroic Actions - Heroic Accuracy
Special Rules - Woodland Creature, Herbal Healer

Herbal Healer - Whenever a friendly models within 3" and Line of Sight of Idhrien suffers a Wound, roll a D6. On a 6+, the Wound has been prevented and is ignored. Note that if this roll is failed, a Hero model may still use Fate Points as normal.

Army Lists
Idhrien can be included as an Independant Hero in the following lists:
 - Arathorn's Stand

 - The Grey Company

 - Defenders of the Pelennor 

Idhrien is a healer as a well as a Ranger, and is noted for using her time in the wilds to gather herbs and supplies to aid her craft. This feels like a good way to get an extra save and another minor boost in survivability, albeit one with a limited range. The rule is essentially Malbeth's ability with lower chances and range, nothing crazy, but something that may save one or two wounds per game if you're lucky. When your lists will typically have less that 20 models, that is extremely valuable!

 

Golodir, Ranger Captain (Minor Hero) - 65pts

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Wargear - Armour, Dúnachar - Avenger of the West, Bow
Heroic Actions - Heroic Accuracy, Heroic Resolve
Special Rules - Woodland Creature, Hatred (Angmar)

Dúnachar - Avenger of the West - Dúnachar is a unique Elven-made Hand Weapon. 

Whispers from Angmar - Any Rangers of the North included within his warband may be upgraded to have the Hatred (Angmar) ability for +1 point per model.

Army Lists
Golodir can be included as a Minor Hero in the following lists:
 - Arathorn's Stand

 - The Grey Company

 - Defenders of the Pelennor

Golodir is met when you rescue you him from Carn Dum. He led a company there in defiance of Aragorn's orders, having heard rumours of Angmar being reinhabited. After his rescue, you retrieve his equipment and Elrond's smiths reforge his family sword. Hatred (Angmar) is a situational rule, but a flavourful one, and between that and his sword, there's plenty of character to make Golodir's profile worth making. 

As a Ranger Captain, he deserves a boosted profile, and is just short of Halbarad's level.

So, that's six profiles. Some have better stats, some are just Rangers with an extra special rule, but I hope what I've done here is great a number of small buffs that improve the army's options and survivability without making them overpowered. 1-7 Rangers with Stalk Unseen, a 3" 6+ save, +1 Courage, 1-7 Rangers with Hatred (Angmar), 6 Hobbits and the more control over deployment feels like a lot potentially, but running all them of in the Arathorn's list will set you back between 411pts (Arathorn, plus the six profiles and six Hobbits) and 723pts (max warbands for Faeron and Golodir). That latter option can be 27 models at 750pts, but 6 are Hobbits and most of the characters are in solo warbands. 

750 points | 27 models
Arathorn's Stand
    
Arathorn, Chieftain of the Dunedain:  (80)
    2x Ranger of the North: Spear (52)
    
Faeron:  (40)
    6x Ranger of the North: Stalk Unseen  (156)    

Golodir, Ranger Captain:  (65)
    6x Ranger of the North: Hatred (Angmar)  (156)
    
Halros:  (40)
    4x Hobbit Militia  (16)
2x Hobbit Archers (10)
    
Orthonn, Ranger of the North (50)
    
Idhrien, Ranger of the North (40)
    
Daervunn, Ranger of the North (45)

It feels like more of a solid force, though Arathorn is perhaps a little vulnerable with only two bodyguards should deployment shenanigans happen, but with Orthonn around this shouldn't be too much of a problem.

In other lists like the Grey Company, you have to be much choosier, there is already a nice suite of heroes in that list, and you'll likely seen Aragorn, Legolas and Halbarad with his banner before any of the Ranger characters get a look in. Orthonn and Idhrien seem like the most likely candidates to make it into a Grey Company list however:

700 points | 13 models
The Grey Company
    
Aragorn (Strider): Anduril, Flame of the West (160)
    1x Ranger of the North: Armour (30)
    1x Ranger of the North: Armour (30)
    
Legolas Greenleaf: Elven Cloak, Armour (110)
    
Halbarad: Banner of Arwen Evenstar (110)

Orthonn, Ranger of the North (50)
    
Idhrien, Ranger of the North (40)

Faeron:  (40)
    5x Ranger of the North: Stalk Unseen  (130) 

The model count takes a huge drop but you can deploy as one big warband, and you've got the powerhouse that is Aragorn backed up by one of the strongest profiles in the game that is Legolas. The elf, plus 6 bows hiding with Stalk Unseen/Elven Cloak, and 5 without, is going to be able to do some damage and force the opponent to come in close and engage. Any fight with Aragorn, 12 2-Attack models, a 6" banner and 6+ save will become a slog, even if they heavily outnumber you. Care will be needed to ensure Legolas is targetting those key pieces before the lines clash however.


Theory-crafting about lists aside, this was a fun exercise. Reading through the LotRO wiki pages for the various Ranger characters and thier quest-chains was good fun and I'm sure I could throw together more MESBG profiles using them. Several are found near stables for mounted characters, are focused on specific enemies, or guard key locations that could give them interesting special rules.

Will I ever get chance to play any of them? Perhaps not outside a Battle Companies campaign, or something like Seven Stones that encourages some level of custom profiling. 

What do you think of the profiles I've presented here? Would you use any of them, or do you have ideas for your own Ranger characters. Let me know, until next time!