List Review: The Beacons of Cheshire

Today we are reviewing lists from this weekend’s Beacons of Chester event. It was a 700 point tournament with a twist: everything counts as a yellow alliance. Whether you brought a pure army or a red alliance it doesn’t matter, everything is yellow. This has a few consequences. No army bonuses for anyone immediately makes some armies much less desirable than before. Rohan, for example, really rely on their +1S on the charge so they are not as good  as usual in this tournament. It also gives an incentive to take red alliances as the usual disincentives to do so are gone. This means that really strange and filthy combos are much more likely to be seen than usual. Obviously with this in mind there is only a limited amount we can learn from this tournament in terms of what is “good” in normal games but it should still be fun to see what filthy lists players care up with. Many thanks to the top 5 players who all generously provided their list. 

5th Mordor (usually a Pure army)

The Witch King of Angmar (3/15/3) with Crown of Morgul and Armoured Horse

5 Morgul Knights
1 Morgul Knight with Banner

Ringwraith with Horse (2/11/1)

6 Morgul Knights

Mouth of Sauron with Armoured Horse

6 Morgul Knights

21 Models

Welp. Despite just saying how we would see all sorts of crazy stuff the first list we see is a pure list. Remember it still doesn’t get its army bonus though as it counts as a yellow alliance. All cavalry is something very rarely seen in a Mordor list, usually because to do so means a small model count and thus your army bonus not having an effect. Since that didn’t matter in this tournament this list can afford to be a fairly small elite force without the usual consequences. This entire list causes terror and has 2 Harbingers of Evil. They don’t stack but it does mean a huge coverage of -1C. Morgul Knights are amongst the best cavalry in the game, being F4 with 2A and a lance. Terror does something to mitigate the problems cavalry have with Initiative as they are less likely to get swamped by the enemy when they can’t charge. They are backed up by no fewer than 3 Magic users! Heroes beware! You may be able to dodge one Transfix, maybe even 2, but 3?! No chance! A Drain Courage or 2 will also mean less chance of your army getting charged. 

4th Thranduil’s Halls, Army of Thror and Army of Lake Town (usually Red Alliance)

Thranduil with Extra Sword and Heavy Armour 

4 Mirkwood Elves with Shield

4 Mirkwood Elves with Glaive

5 Mirkwood Elves with Bow

1 Palace Guard with Shield

1 Palace Guard with Spear

1 Knight with Shield

Thrain 

6 Grimhammers, 

7 Warriors of Erebor with Spears and Shields

1 Warrior of Erebor with Shield and Banner

Alfrid

4 Lake Town Guard

4 Lake Town Guard with Spear

4 Lake Town Guard with Bow

45 models

Aha! A red alliance! I knew I was right! This is taking advantage of the unusual rules to turn the more commonly seen Thranduil’s Halls/Erebor Reclaimed/Survivors of Lake Town green alliance into a similar army but with larger numbers and more specialist troops. The Thranduil’s Halls contingent stars broadly the same, with Glaives and Bows to take advantage of the Elves’ high Fight values. Thranduil himself is no longer giving out the army bonus aura so increasing his footprint by mounting him is less important. This means he can benefit from Bladelord which only applies while he is on foot. The usual Iron Hills shieldwall has been swapped out for Grimhammers backed up by spears. It means that the front line is D7 instead of 8 but if they go 2 handed then they are effectively S6 while still having F4. Throwing axes are also nice to have on a 4+ shoot. Thrain himself is definitely a downgrade from Thorin or Dain but still packs a punch on a budget. Finally the Army of Lake Town get a Fight value improvement over their Survivor counterparts but really it’s Alfrid’s cheapness that is the improvement. He is not an Independent Hero in this list so the whole warband costs 88 points for 13 models. Bargain!

3rd: Iron Hills (usually a Pure Army)

Dain Ironfoot with War Boar

17 Iron Hills Warriors with Spears and Shields

1 Iron Hills Warrior with Spear, Shield and Banner

Iron Hills Captain on Chariot

2 Goat Riders

22 Models

Back to a Pure Army again. I don’t know what to think any more! This is half of a normal Iron Hills list but with a chariot instead of the more usual second half. Not much to say about the first half as it is the usual Iron Hills shieldwall. The chariot is pretty crazy though. I’ve tried to take in its 2 full pages of rules but I have absolutely no idea how it would play on the table. The impact hits are insane (3 S6 hits) and it has a crossbow built into it that fires D6 shots at S4 and doesn’t get the -1 for moving. I simply can’t figure out how it works in combat but it seems like if something survives the impact hits then it has to deal with several angry dwarves including a Captain and a crossbow that can shoot into combat. Basically if it charges something then that something is likely to die, but I imagine it is awkward to move and if it gets bogged down and can’t charge then it might be in trouble (though you can only hit the crew on a 5 or 6, anything else hits the D8 chariot). This is too much for a noob like me to theorycraft but I’d be interested to see it played some time!

2nd Misty Mountains, Minas Tirith, Numenor and The Fellowship (usually Red Alliance)

Gwaihir (leader)

Aragorn, King Ellesar with Armoured Horse

Elendil with Horse and Shield

Boromir, Captain of Gondor with Horse and Shield

4 Models

Ok, this is more like what I was expecting to see. It’s like a fantasy dinner party of the biggest ass-kickers in Middle Earth! Nothing lower than F6 or S4 and a bucket of Might to throw in your opponent’s face. Ellesar, Gwaihir and Elendil are also pretty much always going to be wounding on 4s or better too, thanks to their high Strength, special rules or crazy weapons. When Boromir is the weak link in your army you know it’s scary. That being said, this is an objective based game and this is an obvious weakness for this list. I believe the scenarios played were Fog of War, Domination and Contest of Champions. FoW and CoC are actually pretty good for this list but I imagine Domination was tricky. It certainly could have been worse for this list, if it had been Reconnoiter and Storm the Camp instead of FoW and CoC then I would imagine it would have done a lot worse. Nonetheless to take an army of 4 models to 2nd place is no mean feat!

1st Kingdom of Khazad-Dum (usually a Pure Army)

Balin

8 Iron Guard

8 Dwarf Rangers with two handed axe

Kings Champion

2 Heralds

10 Khazad Guard

Floi Stonehand

8 Dwarf Rangers with Dwarf Longbows

39 Models

Back to a Pure Army again, putting the final nail in the coffin of me having no idea what I’m talking about! The troops in this list are just solid all rounders. Everything is F4, the Khazad and Iron Guards are S4 and there is a model for every situation. Axes, 2 handed axes, throwing axes... whatever your problem there is an axe for it! Dwarf longbows (known to everyone else as ‘bows’) provide the list with some good firepower and means  often the enemy will have to come to them rather than the other way around, making up for the lack of speed. Overall everything is very Dwarf-y: solid and versatile. The heroes in this list are interesting, as Balin and Floi are only allowed with each other. Not even red alliances with anyone else in the Khazad-Dum roster, just straight up not allowed. Balin is not quite as scary as some of the other Dwarf heroes but is a decent hitter and hard to kill for a relatively small amount of points. He’s backed up by a King’s Champion who is an absolute bargain! 140 points for a combat monster and 2 banners is crazy good value! They can also be D9 if all together, and the Champion can spend the Fate of the Heralds so you can really afford to throw him into the scrum without being too worried. We also have some control in this list in the form of Floi who can turn off special rules for three turns (or more if you can kill some enemy heroes). This helps out the 2 combat heroes as it can bring the enemy down a peg or two before they go toe-to-toe. I think once again that the scenarios have favoured this army a little as the movement based ones didn’t show up but nonetheless this is just a super solid force that can hold its own in any situation. 

So 3 out of 5 Pure Armies in a tournament where Red Alliances are encouraged. It’s a crazy world we live in! Like I said at the start, there is a limited amount we can learn here when the ruleset is so different from the regular games. There is also a huge variation in what has shown up; big armies, small armies, control based, combat heavy. It just goes to show how this game is well balanced, you can even throw a twist in and it will still be player skill that is the largest decider in what does well!

Thanks for reading. Let us know what you think about the lists seen here!