500 Under 50 - Corsairs of Umbar

500 (Almost) Under 50 – Corsairs of Umbar

Dan Stu: We’re really getting to the tricky end of our 500 under 50 lists now! Safe to say that any of the remaining armies require a bit of creativity, a bit of hobbying, and perhaps bending the rules slightly in order to meet the criteria.

That being said, we’re still trying to come in as close to budget as possible, and while we’ll need a few conversions, these will be as newcomer-friendly as possible.

This time, it’s the Corsairs of Umbar, which I previously covered in my ‘Noob’s Perspective’ article way back in January of last year. They’re a fantastic army that lend themselves to fast-paced, bloody engagements with tons of casualties on both sides. They also have many tricks up their sleeves, from the ludicrous amounts of throwing weapons to the ‘backstabbers’ special rule which, if used correctly, can be absolutely devastating.

For a cheap entry into this army, there are really two ways you can go, and both have their pros and cons. Let’s dive in!

Option 1: Heroes and Elites

Shopping List:
1 box of ‘Corsairs of Umbar’ (£26)
1 box of ‘the Lords of Umbar’ (£20)
2 boxes of ‘Corsair Arbalesters’ (£16.40)
Total: £62.40

Alright, we’re just over budget, but this isn’t our worst offence to date!

If we want to use everything here (which we do), we have too many bows. 30 warriors gives us a bow limit of 10, and we have 14. We’ll need to convert 4 of the Corsair archers into plain old Corsairs with hand weapons (no shields). Fortunately, there are some archers in the box with outstretched bow arms, and these shouldn’t look too strange with a sword in their hand instead of a bow.

Assuming that you have a few swords lying around in your bits box, it will be straightforward – you can either snip off both parts of the bow and replace it with the blade and pommel of a sword. Or, even easier, if you have a spare hand holding a sword, you can just snip the bow hand off your Corsair and replace it with a sword hand.

To-do list:
Snip the bows or bow hands off 4 Corsairs with Bow. Replace these with swords or sword hands to make 4 Corsairs of Umbar with hand weapons only.

If you have any spare shields or spears in your bits box, you can add shields or spears to 2 of these to fill out the points limit.

Army List:

Dalamyr, Fleetmaster of Umbar
8 x Corsair of Umbar with Shield
8 x Corsair of Umbar with Spear

Hasharin
2x Corsair of Umbar
2 x Corsair of Umbar with Bow
3 x Corsair Arbalester

Hasharin
2x Corsair of Umbar
2 x Corsair of Umbar with Bow
3 x Corsair Arbalester

Totals: 498pts, 33 models, 4 Might, 10 bows

Okay, so this is an unusual Corsairs list. It’s relatively lean and elite by Corsair standards. You’ve got your main body of pirates, but also a high proportion of Arbalesters, as well as three high-impact heroes who will really need to pull their weight to make this list work. This is a bit different to normal Corsair lists, who can solve a lot of their problems by throwing bodies at them!

33 models isn’t very low at 500pts, but it is low by Corsair standards – given how easily they drop, a bad round could see you fighting at a numbers defecit, particularly if they have some nasty shooting. This is not a normal thing for Corsairs! You’ll really have to leverage your Arbalesters to make it work. Remember, while you’re strong at range with your crossbows, your regular line troops will take a lot of casualties in the return fire, so you’ll have to deploy carefully and choose targets well.

Dalamyr and the Hasharins are very good at killing things – they all have 3 attacks with Bane of Kings, so wounding will be no problem. However, their offense is locked behind fight 5, and their defense is woeful. Plus, with 4 might across the whole list, you won’t be Striking much, if at all. These guys can be absolute Hero-seeking missiles, but they can’t take a punch. They’ll have to tread the line between hunting Heroes, and helping out your troops by thinning out the enemy herd.

Certainly not a bad list – but perhaps not a natural fit for the Corsairs’ playstyle. Having said that, if you were looking to expand your Corsairs army to 800pts or higher, you’d absolutely be looking to buy all of these kits (Dalamyr is a must for any large Corsair army) so it’s a fantastic starting point.


Strengths:
* Lethal at range
 *High-offense Heroes
* Sets you up well for expanding your Corsairs
* WYSIWYG-compliant

Weaknesses:
* May struggle with numbers
* Fragile, low-might Heroes
* Requires a little conversion work and some spare bits
* Weak to cavalry and bow fire

Option 2: The Pirate Horde

Shopping list:
2 boxes ‘Corsairs of Umbar’… And that’s it!
Total: £52

The elephant in the room – there are no Heroes on your shopping list. This is because we’re going to convert 2 Bosuns and 2 Captains from the normal Corsair models. Converting troops in to captains is a tried-and-true process, and there are a few ways you could do it - rummaging around in your bits box for a fancy helmet, sword, or some other identifying piece of wargear, or go for the old ‘put him on a big rock’ approach!

However, the tricky part of this is that we need to differentiate the Bosuns from the Captains. Here, I think it’s best to go for colour coding – for example, yellow tunics for Bosuns, and red for Captains. Not very elegant but it will get the job done. And the good thing is that bright colours won’t look out of place on your pirates!

Alternatively, you could always buy the 2 boxes containing and Bosun and Captain each. However, this is an eye-watering £30 on top, and neither model is that spectacular - so I’d say you should only do this if you’re intent on ending up with a large WYSIWYG Corsairs army.

To-do list:

Convert 2 Corsairs of Umbar with bow in to Bosuns. Chop off the bows and replace them with swords as we did in the first list, and paint them a bright colour to distinguish them.
Convert 2 Corsairs of Umbar with shields into Captains. Stick them on a big rock and paint them an easy-to-spot colour. As we have so many Corsair models, you could always use a particular pose for Captains (such as the sumo wrestler pose) to make them easier to spot.

Army list:

Corsair Bosun
4 x Corsair of Umbar with Shield
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Spear
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Bow

Corsair Bosun
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Shield
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Spear
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Bow

Corsair Captain with Shield
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Shield
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Spear
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Bow

Corsair Captain with Shield
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Shield
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Spear
3 x Corsair of Umbar with Bow

Totals: 496pts, 41 models, 6 might, 12 bows

I think as a starting point, this is a far better representation of the Corsair Experience™ - which means a ton of bodies, a ton of fight 4, and a ton of throwing weapons. Quantity has a quality of its own!

With so many bodies, you’ll be outnumbering just about any other army, and while fragile, you’ve got a great fighting line of swords backed up by spears, all at fight 4. Backstabbers will be activating frequently, threatening even high defense targets like trolls. Your throwing weapons will do great work against just about anybody except dwarves and ghosts, and you can even threaten enemy Heroes by shooting into combats. If you kill your own guy, don’t worry – there are 41 more where he came from, and now the rest of your troops have an unobstructed shot.

Your heroes aren’t here to do much more than to provide might and to bring their mates along. The list tops out at Fight 4, so you’ll have an uphill struggle against most heroes. However, you’ve got a decent amount of might to call Heroic Moves, which is important to get your weapons thrown and to tie up Heroes with sacrificial Corsairs.

I’d say this is really one to think about if you’re reasonably confident with conversions, and are fairly sure you will be expanding up to 800pts or beyond. You will absolutely want 2 boxes of Corsairs eventually, so this will give you a great head start on that. Having 2 Bosuns and 2 Captains (even converted ones) will give you a lot of list-building flexibility, too, and the Lords of Umbar box is an obvious expansion point to bring in Dalamyr. Plus, if want to replace your Heroes with WYSIWYG models later on, you can just repaint a few robes and turn them back in to regular Corsairs!

Strengths:
* Loads of troops, good for Backstabbers
* Loads of throwing weapons
* 4 warbands is very solid at 500pts
* Great foundation for large Corsair armies
* Solid line of archers

Weaknesses:
* No big Heroes, no high fight values
* One-dimensional, fragile
* Requires a bit of conversion ability

Not WYSIWYG-compliant – conversions will need to be explained to your opponent (unless you want to drop £30 on 4 models :(

So we didn’t keep it under budget (this may be a running trend from now on...) but I think we did OK on this one! Keep your eyes peeled – we’re coming to the end of our 500 under 50 journey, and it’s only going to get sillier from here…

500 Under 50: Ents! (April Fool's article)

It's been a while since I wrote one of these, and with the fantaSTICK new Treebeard model having just been released I figured why not release a new 500 under 50 dedicated to Fangorn Forest?

Of course, the new Treebeard model will set you back £45 from Games Workshop directly, so as we normally do, we're going to suggest a much cheaper way to start the army.

We're going to tell you how you can get yourself a 500 point Fangorn list, with 3 Ents, Merry and Pippin for under £50! I kid you not.

First off we have the list:

Treebeard with Merry and Pippin
Quickbeam
Beachbone

A pretty simple list for sure, but one that will certainly pack a punch. 3 big trees all with Might points, you'll certainly be no slouch in combat!

Okay, so how are we going to put this list together? How are we going to get all of our three of our Ents for under £50? Normally, we'd tell you to go to your local game store, support your club and buy them from them with the usual 10-15% discount you normally find in those store, but today we're going to suggest you venture somewhere that may be unfamiliar to us gaming folk. The great outdoors!

Simply take a short walk to your local park and look for any twigs and sticks that have fallen from trees, careful not to break any off the trees that are still alive, else feel the wrath of the mighty Ents yourself.

Once you've collected up enough sticks, about 5 per Ent, make sure to grab a handful or two of grass and leaves too, they'll come in very handy later! Make sure you make a small offering to nature too, and simply throw some crisp five pound notes to the wind, letting nature take them as a thank you for providing you with such a bounty of building materials.

When you get back home, make sure not to dry the sticks out in the oven or anything like that, a lot of websites and guides will tell you to do this to avoid letting the sticks get mouldy and rotten over time, but if anything, this will add to the sheer realism of your army and details will effortlessly add themselves to your model over time, at no extra effort to you! 

Of course, you're going to need a few essentials, some glue and some blue tac will go a long way to aide in the construction of these mighty tree herders. You're also going to need a base, Ents come on 60mm round bases, and these aren't to expensive online, but if you really wanted to set these models in stone as being a legal Games Workshop model, you'll need a Games Workshop box, like the afore mentioned Treebeard. Simply cut up the box of the new Treebeard model into 3 bases and throw the weird plastic frames away that come inside it... You wont be needing those anymore!

When you have your bases it's time to start constructing the Ents.

For all of them we're going to stick to of the shorter sticks onto a small ball of blue tack to form their legs. Add a long stick to the top of the blue tac to for the torso, then simply stick the other sticks to either side of their torso to form thearms. Depending on how many sticks you collected, you may want to add joints into some arms to give them more realistic posing. This is entirely optional however.

This is the basic construction of all 3 Ents, there are just some details we need to do to really sell them as being each of the characters.

Treebeard, known for his impressive facial hair is easy. We're going to add a big dollop of PVA to his face, then stick a big handful of the grass to it. This gives Treebeard his mighty beard! Our list included Merry and Pippin to, you'll need to source these models yourself, eBay is full of them. You don't need any special models or anything, just a ball of blue tac under their bases and stick them to his shoulders. Easy!

Quickbeam, the fastest of all Ents will require a bit more modelling prowess. You'll need to make a pair of trainers from blue tac and stick these to the base of his legs... You can't run fast without running shoes! A classic Nike style tick will really sell these as “run faster shoes”, so your opponents will be able to recognise him instantly!

Beachbone needs to live up to his name however so slap on some of that good PVA and give him the trip to the beach that he's always wanted. (Are we sure we've got his name right here? Just want to double check so we're not called out on this - Slob)

Once your models have dried and are all glued together, stick them to their bases, plenty of glue should help here, but if you're having trouble a small ball of blue tac or green stuff will help.

When you have the models stuck to their bases, use the rest of the grass you collected to cover each base for a really natural realistic forest look. Feel free to raid your spice rack too, dried herbs and spices make for excellent basing materials! We've used a little Paprika (smoked, of couse!) to give the impression of flowers on Treebeards base... As well as a delicious smell!

Don't forget to paint the rims of your bases too, we've opted for black for that classy, Golden Demon winners look.

And with that your models are done..... Wait a minute... they look pretty dead and lifeless, not a problem at all! We're going to add some googly eyes! Why spend ages trying to perfect painting eyes? Simply glue two eyes to each model. Perfection!

And with that, your 500 points of Fangorn is complete! Be sure to let them models age to really get that natural look to them before you get them on the table!

500 Under 50: Angmar

Dan Slob: With the return of some key models to GW's stores we can have a good go at putting together a decent Angmar force for not too much money. Now fair warning, this is not going to contain any of the 'big names' in the Angmar list because they are either out of print (Gulavhar) or would eat up way too much of our budget (Witch King). So with that caveat out of the way let's look at what we need to purchase:

Barrow Wights (£8.20 for 2 from GW)
2 Wild Warg Chieftains (£8.70 each from GW)
1 Box of Mordor Orcs (around £20 from discount stores or even less on eBay/Trade Groups)
1 Box of Wild Wargs (£11 from GW)

This comes to a grand total of about £56. Not bad considering how many of these are direct only!

We are going to use every single one of these models in our list as we don't get many points per £ here! So the list is:

Barrow Wight

4 Orcs with Shields
4 Orcs with Spear
1 Orc with Two-Handed Weapon
2 Orcs with Bow
1 Orc with Banner*

Barrow Wight
4 Orcs with Shields
4 Orcs with Spear
1 Orc with Two-Handed Weapon
2 Orcs with Bow
1 Orc with Banner*

Wild Warg Chieftain
3 Wild Wargs

Wild Warg Chieftain
3 Wild Wargs

494 points, 34 Models, 4 Might (room to fit in 1 more Orc if you can find a spare somewhere!)

*These will need a little bit of converting from two of the Two-Handed Weapon Orcs, but a bit of brass rod and Green Stuff will see these done in no time.

The idea behind this list is to try and emulate the brutal Witch King/Gulavhar combo that does so well at higher points. Normally you’d throw an Immobilise with the Witch King at whatever you want to delete and then “Gulavhar” them. The Immobilise stops the enemy hero from Striking up to above Big G’s F7 so then he can knobble them. Here we are trying to do the same thing but sub out the Witch King’s Immobilise for the Barrow Wights’ Paralyses and Gulavhar’s combat power for a couple of Wild Warg Chieftains. 

Now obviously this is absolutely a poor man’s version of the tactic above but it can still be scary.
Paralyse is a better spell than Immobilise (though harder to cast here) and despite not getting to the coveted F7 that Gully has, F5 is still pretty decent from the Chieftains, and S6 is just brutal on such a cheap model. 

Surrounding these combo characters is a solid core of Orcs. You’ll want to keep them clustered around the Wights to benefit from the Army Bonus and this will really help keep the Orcs alive and in control. We’ve also got 2 banners which is a little excessive but we just can’t fill the points without spending more money! Is does mean your Orcs can spread out a bit more if they need to and the warbands are completely self contained so can operate independently. The Wargs can be used as flankers and to pull off traps when the lines clash, as well as grabbing objectives. 

Overall I like this list quite a bit and I’m amazed you can get it for around £50! If money was less of an object I think I’d be adding in Buhrdur instead of a Chieftain and a banner but alas that isn’t the point of this series!

So what do you think of our cheap scary list? Let us know!

500 Under 50: Easterlings

Dan Slob: Since we started this series the Easterlings has probably been our most requested army list. However it is one that has proved uniquely difficult. Three separate members of the DC team have at, one point or another, tried and failed to put one together. However, as I was reading TMAT's excellent review of Cirith Ungol last night, inspiration struck. You see, the Easterlings have several things stacked against them:

1) Lack of available products (only 5 in print at time of writing)
2) Each of those products costs £20+ and you need at least 3 to make 500 points
3) Very low points per £ from the kits
4) The basic troops box contains as utterly bizarre mix of equipment that you would simply never want to use (only 4 pikes and 8 bows?! Come on GW, seriously?)

So how can we possibly remedy this? Well, as Tiberius suggested for Cirith Ungol, we can get around problem (2) and (3) by using Captain Spam! Now, fair warning, I am pretty sure this list is terrible, but as ever that is not the point of this series (to get started with an army cheaply). So this is what you will need:

1 Box of Easterling Warriors (Around £20 from discount stores)

1 Box of Kataphracts (£25 from GW)

And that's it! Total of £45! Very nice. Now to try and address problem (4) I will give two lists, one where you don't need to do much conversion at all (more or less just an arm swap and sticking some pike substitutes to the back of archers) and one where you can go all out on conversions. Let's take a look:

Easterling Captain with Horse and Shield*

4 Black Dragons with Shield

4 Black Dragons with Pike and Shield

3 Easterling Warriors with Bow and Pike**

1 Easterling Warrior with Banner and Pike***

Easterling Captain with Horse and Shield

1 Black Dragon Kataphract with War Drum

Easterling Captain with horse and Shield 

Easterling Captain with horse and Shield 

Easterling Captain with horse and Shield 

18 Models, 10 Might, 3 Bows

*I'd suggest using the one with the cape to signify your leader.

**Literally a toothpick glued to their backs will do, maybe some brass rod if you are feeling fancy.

***Use the banner from the Kataphracts kit and do an arm swap with one of your archers.

(Also before you think I've gone mad, we are keeping 4 Sword and Shield models aside for dismounts)

Ok so lets try to overlook the obvious negatives (low model count, capped at S4, no Strike, etc.) and look at the positives. What we have here is an elite, fast moving force with an abundance of Might (seriously, 10 at 500 points is a lot). You'll have a small Phalanx of foot troops as your core block (4 wide 3 deep) that should be at F4 most of the time as your anvil, and 5 Captains as your hammers. With a Drum and Heroic March you can really get moving with these guys and should be able to run rings around you opponent. I'd recommend trying to anchor you Phalanx between scenery while you Captains run around the flanks to trap models at the rear. You should also have a decent shot in objective based scenarios as you are so mobile. 

So if you want to make the list better and don't mind doing some conversions you could instead try:

Easterling Captain with Horse and Shield 

4 Easterling Warriors with Shield 

7 Easterling Warriors with Pike and Shield 

1 Easterling Warrior with Banner, Pike and Shield 

Dragon Knight with Armoured Horse 

1 Black Dragon Kataphract with War Drum

Easterling Captain with horse and Shield 

Easterling Captain with horse and Shield 

Easterling Captain with horse and Shield 

18 Models, 10 Might

So here we have basically traded in all our Black Dragons for a Dragon Knight upgrade to one of the Captains and more shields for the troops. This gives you a better way to deal with scary characters as you now have access to Strike. However you are going to have to convert one of your mounted models to have a second sword arm instead of a shield and probably press mold more shields and pikes for your foot troops. Definitely all do-able but perhaps not something you would want to do if you are newer to the hobby. Alternatively you could just drop an extra £15 on the actual Dragon Knight model himself.

Featured here is fellow DC writer Dan Stuart's Easterling forces.

So there we go, a task previously thought to be impossible has been accomplished. Never mind that the list is never going to break the meta (we are talking about Easterlings here after all) but it is definitely something you can have a lot of fun with. Let us know what you think! We'll be doing a follow-up article soon looking at how our other Dan at DC went about creating his Easterling force through some very crafty conversions to help bolster your force!

500 Under 50: Fun Edition

 Dan Slob: Christmas is coming and, if your family is anything like mine, so are the inevitable requests for gift ideas ("I don't know what that game you like is, just tell me what to buy"). Well dear Reader, let DC write your Christmas list for you this year with a few cheap ideas for a whole new army that can double up as your painting New Year's resolution! 

The idea behind this article is to get a new force for around £50. In this bumper Christmas edition we have gone for some of the more 'fun' ideas rather than anything particularly competitive (not that they can't STOMP the enemy, one list in particular...). So without further ado:

500u50 Fun list 1: The Fellowship!

Need to buy:
The Fellowship (£30 from GW or around £23 from discounted stores)

Now, if you are reading this blog then chances are you already own The Fellowship. Then again, you probably painted them when you were 14 and they could do with another go. What's more, the recently released Breaking of the Fellowship Legendary Legion has given a new breath of life to them! Now I know that there are specific models for the BotF but they are expensive, hard to get hold of, and I don't want my Boromir hobbling around with a chest full of arrows. A bit of green stuff could easily add some rope to Sam, or a glass vial to Frodo and some cloaks to the other heroes. Here is an example list for you, but there are many ways to build this army!

Aragorn - Strider
Legolas Greenleaf
Gimli Son of Gloin
Boromir of Gondor
Meriadoc Brandybuck
Peregrin Took

6 Models, 15 Might, 1 Bow

I have put these models together to represent the Scene where Boromir is defending the Hobbits and the 3 Hunters are rushing to intervene. Now I know that Boromir is not doing brilliantly by the time Aragorn arrives so for maximum fluff points make sure to deploy them in two groups of 3 at opposite ends of the table!

Steve's lovely Fellowship in Balin's Tomb

500u50 Fun list 2: Mumak!

Need to buy:
War Mumak of Harad (around £50 from discounted stores)
Mumak Mahud (around £7 but optional)

Who doesn't want a Mumak? They are such a great centrepiece model and you get to make Elephant noises and say "stompy stompy!" throughout the entire game. Not only that but the kit comes with 12 Warriors too! With those we can make a list from the Serpent Horde, Far Harad or the Grand Army of the South LL. I have gone with the LL here because the Mumak War Leader is a bit more competitive and gets a bunch of extra rules basically for free. I know that the point of these wasn't to be competitive but losing in 3 turns isn't that much fun so we have to make some concessions!

The Mumak War Leader
6 Haradrim Warriors with Bows and Poisoned Arrows
6 Haradrim Warriors with Spears

13 models, 3 Might, 6 Bows

What is there really to say about this? Load the Warriors onto their mount-of-doom and go stompy-stompy until everyone is dead. In reality it is probably better to use the spear warriors as objective grabbers/screens for the Mumak but it depends how much you actually want to play the game and how much you just want to cause maximum carnage. The rules that the LL give you really help survivability, in that it is harder to charge you (because of how big and scary your trunk is I assume) and you get a free Heroic Combat/Strike every turn too. Also you have a bunch of poisoned shooting so can kite if you really want, and the more I think about it the more I love the idea of a drive-by-Tokyo-Drift-Elephant doing donuts on the board. Or you could, you know, stompy-stompy instead.

500u50 Fun list 3: Eaaaaagles!

Need to buy:
2 Boxes of Eagles (around £24 each from discounted stores)

From stompy-stompy to flappy-flappy. Here we are going all bird-brained with some feathered friends. The Eagles are great models and terrifying on the tabletop. F7 (8 for Gwaihir), S7, D8 and Monstrous Charge. Oh boy. These guys can take down most things in the game without too much trouble, and Gwaihir has 3 Might too! Added to which they can obviously all Fly so can pick their battles better than anything in the game (and frankly, they will need to). You might want to do a bit of modelling to distinguish Gwaihir, but even just a bit of a scenic base would do it!

Gwaihir
Eagle
Eagle
Eagle

4 models, 3 Might

Very annoyingly you can only get to 450 points because of how Gwaihir is costed. Jay Clare, if you are reading, then we defo need an Eagle LL some time in the future! Your major weakness here is getting bogged down and surrounded. Luckily with Fly you can have some agency over that but you definitely are at the mercy of the dice. Isolating and picking off parts of the enemy army has got to be your tactic here and if done well there is really not much your opponent can do. Make sure to shout "Ca-Caw" every time you move them too, otherwise what is even the point?

A scenic base has turned this Eagle into Gwaihir

500u50 Fun list 4: Barad Dur!

Need to buy:
Sauron (around £25)
Mordor Orcs (£20 from discounted stores, or way less from trade groups)

The big man himself, the mighty Sauron! He's 80% of your points but boy is he worth it, since basically nothing at this level will be able to touch him. Your army doesn't break if he is healthy, which is very handy since he is just leading a bunch of Orcs. He is also one of the best offensive casters in the game, as well as an absolute beast in combat: F9, S8 and 4 attacks (or even more if you use his Unstoppable! rule). You won't make too many friends while using him but at least you will have fun!

Sauron
16 Orcs with 1 upgrade each (spear, shield or bow)
1 Orc with no upgrades

18 Models, 3 Might, max 6 bows

You can play this smashy-smashy or sneaky-sneaky. With Sauron being a beast he can just wade in, or with 6 Bows and a Chill Soul every turn you can afford to stand back and snipe. You also have plenty of objective grabbing Orcs to toss around the board. However don’t rely on them too much, this list is all about the big boy.

500u50 Fun list 5: Thorin's Company!

Need to buy:
Thorin's Company (£22 from discounted stores)

Everyone’s favourite moody Dwarf and his bros. Not exactly the speediest army in the world but full of lovely flavour and special rules. We actually did a whole article on the Company before so I’ll just link that and let you have a read. In it you’ll find how me, Dave and Colm decided to put together 500 points of the Company in a variety of different ways. Interestingly, between us we selected every member of the roster and no one member appeared in all 3 lists! Just goes to show that every one of these characters has their place.

https://drawncombat.blogspot.com/2019/11/a-noobs-perspective-thorins-company.html

500u50 Fun list 6: The Trolls!

Need to buy:
The Trolls (£45 from discounted stores)

The Trolls are one of the very few armies in SBG that I have never played with or against so I really don’t know much about them! On paper they look pretty good, F7 S7 3A (except Tom who is F6 S6) monsters with 6 Might between them. They also have a variety of flavourful Brutal Power Attacks which are actually quite terrifying! Either taking a S6 hit and being knocked prone, being set Ablaze, or with a bit of luck taking up to 8 wounds (for a S4 model). They can also paralyse and Tom can halve fight values! Unfortunately they only total 400 points which is an unusual size so could make them a bit tricky to get on the table. The fact that there is only 3 of them also means they are basically guaranteed to lose any objective based scenarios. However if you lean in to their Monster abilities then they look like a barrel of fun, just try to stay at the shady end of the gaming hall!

500u50 Fun list 7: The White Council!

Need to buy:
Saruman the White (£18 from discounted stores)
Galadriel and Celeborn (£12)
Gandalf the Grey (Easily acquired via ebay/trade groups for less than £5)
Elrond and Gil-Galad (£18 though you don't need Gil-Galad so Elrond can be found cheaper on ebay/trade groups)

What better way to see off the forces of evil than with Middle Earth’s mightiest wizards? These models all have buckets of special rules to keep you entertained, as well as some of the best Magic in the game. If you want to play with Magic then these guys are the force for you. 3 of the 4 of them get a free Will per turn so that is at least 3 free casting attempts every single turn. Poor Elrond doesn’t have this but he is the combat muscle option. Sadly at 500 points you can only get 3 of them (and one has to be Galadriel, Lady of Light) but I put in 5 figures so you can pick and choose which you like, and all in all it is still about £50.

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So there we have it, 7 super fun options to choose for you Christmas list! I certainly hope you’ve been nice this year! And since even the biggest list on here only contains 18 models you should have no trouble getting them ready for battle quickly. We’d love to see pictures of any of these models so please do share them with us!

500 Under 50: The Last Alliance

Today's installment of 500 Under 50 will be a thematic one! Who doesn't love the scene in the Fellowship of the Ring where all the Elves are lined up and swing their swords one after the other. I get goosebumps every time!

For this you will need to purchase the following:
Elendil and Isildur £12
Elrond and Gil-Galad £18
Warriors of the Last Alliance £26

Total £56 (though it should be noted that you can get the characters from eBay or the trade groups for cheaper; a very quick look found me all 4 for £22).

Though this only gives you 28 Models you already have 879 points worth of army straight out of the box! This gives us lots of options for our lists, depending on how conversion happy you want to get. There are some super easy conversions you can do for next to nothing. Since there is a distinct lack of Spears in these kits you can easily make some by simply sticking some cut down cocktail sticks to the back of your Elves! I know this might sound a little silly but it is actually really effective, and once you have painted them up you can't tell on the table.

The back rank of Jonny Wright's Elves here simply have cocktail sticks as spears. You wouldn't know on the tabletop!

If you want your Numenorians to have spears then you will likely need to get some brass rods and drill holes through their sword hand. This is obviously a more advanced skill. If you really want to get technical then there are some lovely conversions of Elves who have had their arms repositioned. If you have done this yourself we'd love to see pictures! Finally, you can mount all 4 of your Heroes on Horses but this will require you to get another pack of each and also some horses to put them on (plus a whole bunch of Green Stuff!). Again we would love to see pictures if you have done this!

Jonny Wright's mounted Gil-Galad is on the left.

List 1: The Kings

Elendil
8 Warriors of Numenor

Gil-Galad
3 High Elf Warriors with Spears, Bows and King's Guard Upgrade
2 High Elf Warriors with Spears and King's Guard Upgrade
2 High Elf Warriors with King's Guard Upgrade

17 Models, 6 Might

This list is conversion light (you just need the cocktail sticks!) and contains 2 big heroes that can chop through basically anything! Elendil is such a beat stick at F7, a Master Forged Hand-and-a-Half sword (for effective S7!) and a free Heroic Combat every turn. Gil-Galad is F9 (😱), has a free reroll to hit and to wound and has +1 to wound! Insane. Why even bother bringing the troops? Well I guess because between them they can form a F6, S4 line! They will only be D5 but they have to have some weakness!

List 2: The Understudies

Isildur with The Ring
8 Warriors of Numenor

Elrond with Heavy Armour
5 High Elf Warriors with Bow and Spear
4 High Elf Warriors with Spear
4 High Elf Warriors

23 Models, 6 Might

This list has more shenanigans and a higher model count but less punchy characters and lower Fight in its Warriors. In exchange you get access to Magic from Elrond and The Ring from Isildur. You also get more Bows to take advantage of Rivendell's Army Bonus. Isildur and Elrond are still fearsome fighters in their own right, especially at 500 points! There is scope here to drop a couple of warriors and mount your heroes but that will require some extra conversions.

List 3: Hero Happy

Gil-Galad on Horse
Elrond With Heavy Armour and Horse
Isildur on Horse

3 Models, 9 Might

You've spent a lot of money on big heroes so why not use them? Well, because this list is almost certainly terrible but it could be good fun! Elrond's Renew can keep the other 2 in the fight for longer than you would expect, and the horses keep everyone mobile. Of course this is a heavy conversion list so it might not be beginner friendly but would likely make a fun project!

Follow on 50: Minas Tirith

Will: With this article we explore the next £50 you can spend on your Minas Tirith Army. If you haven't seen our 500 under 50 already then please have a look here.

While writing this article I had a real insight into actually how much I can actually put into this army. They have a huge amount of options and with the price point of a lot of the sets from GW you can take this army in many directions. After the last article it has convinced me to embark on this MT journey with you and the following options are all ones that I will be purchasing and putting on the table myself. Also, just a quick note to say that due to the lack in availability of a lot of these models from GW at the moment, we have not included any bundles from our partner at Rebel Base Gaming. Rest assured that when things become more available we will have some discounted bundles for you! (Though they do have Gandalf in stock at RBG for just £21.25 at the moment!)

 List No.1

Working off my initial article, and keeping to the theme, if you wanted to make this easy you could simply buy Gandalf and Peregrine Took for £25 and a pack of Rangers of Gondor for £26 providing the all important Fight 4. To help in this you could also convert some/all of your ranger swordsmen to spearmen by doing a straight weapon swap with the with the spearmen of MT. This would mean  you have 16 swordsmen with Shield for your front line, backed up with Rangers with Spear and bow for hitting power and better accuracy. This list would be pretty simple and could easily give you a 800 point list looking something like this:

War Band 1

Boromir on horse with Banner of MT and Shield

3 Knights of MT with Shield

6 Rangers with Spear

8 Warriors with Shield

1 Warrior with Shield and Spear

Warband 2

Gandalf

3 Knights of MT

6 Rangers with Spear

8 Warriors with Shield

1 Warrior Shield and Spear

Warband 3

Peregrine Took 

798 points -36 warriors- 12 bow - 10 might

With this list across the two warbands you have a good mix of maneuverability, hitting power, and accurate bow shots, with most of the combat all with the Fight 4 capacity. Gandalf more than makes up for the fact you only have 36 warriors on the table using his magic and spells to combat a lot of threats to this list. Sorcerous Blast, Immobilise and Blinding Light will especially come in handy. If you wanted you could drop a Knight and a Spearman or even Pergrine Took from the list and put him on Shadowfax to give him more range on the battlefield which isn't a bad option. All in all i think this is a pretty good list and not too far from what I have seen doing pretty well at events. You are lacking a banner other than Boromir with this list but again you could always drop PT for a banner in Gandalf's warband.

List No. 2 

This goes in a different direction. Due to having the limit of £50 it is difficult to look past Gandalf! I have written plenty of lists that contain all the other Captains but at the minute I personally feel that the way I play I like to have some sort of spell caster. With this slight variation on the previous list instead of Rangers you are getting an Avenger Bolt Thrower (£18), and a pack of Guard of the Fountain Court (£16) this brings the total up a little higher to £59 but still for what you get it's pretty good. 

Warband 1

Boromir on horse with banner of MT and Shield

3 Knights of MT with Shield

2 Guards of the Fountain Court with Shield

4 Warriors with Shield

3 Warriors with Shield and Spear

Warband 2

Gandalf

2 Knights of MT

2 Guard of Fountain Court with Shield

4 Warriors with Shield

3 Warriors Shield and Spear

1 Warrior with Banner and Shield

4 Warriors with Bows

Warband 3

Avenger Bolt Thrower - Minas Tirith Seige veteran, + 1 Warrior

800pts- 28 warriors - 4 Bows - 9 Might

So with this list you have a lot fewer models, hence the inclusion of a Banner. The ABT provides a large area of denial but does require clever placement in the deployment phase. If you wanted you could add more crew at the detriment to the archers from Gandalf's warband, but with the potential of 6 shots in a round you may find enemies not wanting to come near. This weapon is, however, situational, but it only needs to do 50 points worth of work to make its money back. If you do decide to go down this route be aware of where you place both your troops and the ABT in relation to one another to make it effective. 

Both the melee warbands have Guards of the Fountain court which both have the Bodyguard special rule. This can be used to great effect and keep your heroes around for longer.

List No.3

Finally if you want to throw lots of troops at the enemy and you love Gondor specific characters, this last one is the list for you. So with this you want another box of MT warriors (£26), Faramir foot and mounted (15.50) and Cirion and Beregond (£15) all adding up to £56.

 Warband 1

Boromir with Horse, Shield and Banner of MT

8 Warriors with Shield

8 Warriors with Shield and Spear

Warband 2

Faramir with Horse, Shield, Heavy Armour and Lance

6 MT Knights with Shield

Warband 3

Cirion

6 Warriors with Shield

5 Warriors with Shield and Spear

1 Warrior with Banner

Warband 4

Beregond

6 Warriors with Bow

798 points-40 warriors- 6 bows - 13 Might. 

This list is pretty straight forward and I really like the theme and simplicity. You have plenty of powerful characters and lots of Might on the table to go at your enemy full force.  Boromir and Faramir are big hitters and Beregond thematically is with the archers along with his Heroic Accuracy. Not only that he can be around to keep them in the fight for longer with the Bodyguard rule (pretty good for just 30 points). Cirion (my favorite MT sculpt and massively underrated) is not to be underestimated either, with 3 Might and Heroic Strike he can hold his own in combat. 

So in summary you have 3 very different options to go forward with Minas Tirith army. Which one is your favorite? Do you like having a character to gain the advantage with magic or do you prefer to just meet your enemies head on and fight it out? Let us know!

Follow on 50: Lothlorien

In this new series we are going to take our introductory lists from our 500 Under 50 Series and expand them to 700 points for another £50.

So from our original article we had the following:

Celeborn with Heavy armour, Shield and Elven Made Hand-and-a-Half Sword.
6 Galadhrim Warriors with Swords.
6 Galadhirm Warriors with Spears and Shields.

Haldir with Heavy Armour, Elven Bow and Elven Cloak.
8 Galadhrim Warriors with Elven Bows.
2 Galadhrim Warriors with Swords.
2 Galadhrim Warriors with Spears and Shields.

480 points, 26 Models

To this we are going to add the following:

Galadriel and Celeborn: £12.30

Guards of the Galadhrim Court: £16

Galadhrim Knights: £20

Total from GW: £48.30

This brings your grand total spend up to £89.30! What a bargain! It is even more of a bargain if you buy the bundle from our friends at Rebel Base Gaming who are doing it for £80 with free shipping!

For this bargain price you can field the following 700 point army:

Galadriel

8 Galadhrim Warriors, Elf Bows

Celeborn, Heavy Armour, Elven Made Hand and a half Sword, Shield

4 Guards of the Galadhrim Court

8 Galadhrim Warriors, Spears and Shields

1 Galadhrim Knight, Banner, Shield

Haldir, Elf Bow

3 Galadhrim Warriors, Shields

1 Galadhrim Warrior

2 Galadhrim Knights, Shields

700 Points, 30 Models, 9 Might

(You will need to add the 3 spare shields from the Knights to 3 Warriors with Swords for this, but that is about the smallest conversion possible!)

This list feels pretty good overall. It has a decent model count, a more than decent Might count and has plenty of accurate shooting, high F value troops and some cavalry for objectives. Character-wise, you have an excellent caster in the form of Galadriel, a good combat threat in Celeborn, and a decent sniper in Haldir.

Tactics wise you want Galadriel to cast a Channeled Blinding Light straight away so that you 8 Elves with Bow (and Haldir) can win the shooting war. She can then throw out plenty of Immobilise or Command spells to neuter heroes. Meanwhile, Celeborn is going to be leading your combat troops into battle. It is such a shame that he can't be mounted but with so much F5/6 in your list you should be winning plenty of fights. Maybe combine Celeborn with a Knight charge to get the most out of the Knockdown bonus. Don't forget that Celeborn can also cast some useful spells when he needs to as well! You will want to keep your banner near to Celeborn and as many troops as possible to maximise your high F with rerolls.

It is also worth noting that we haven't fielded all of the models we have here. You have another 4 Warriors, 3 Knights and Galadriel's Mirror, meaning you could easily get up to 800 points if you wanted to!

I honestly can't believe how cheap this army is, and it also seems decent too! Don't tempt me Frodo!

500 under 50: Minas Tirith

Will: In this edition of 500 under 50 we are going to look at Minas Tirith. Shiny shiny armour and helmets which remind me of the 1993 Coneheads film!

For this list I am going to look at Boromir as a leader. He is pretty high in points value but he adds some punching power to the army, especially if you arm him with a Banner. His pack from GW comes with 3 models and a huge amount of options for conversion (if you don't mid chopping up some bits). With his 6 Might and armed with the Horn of Gondor he is a scary prospect to go into combat against.

The buy in for this list is pretty simple:

Boromir, Captain of the White Tower: £20

1 box of Minas Tirith Warriors: £26

1 box of Knights of Minis Tirith: 20

Total: £66

You can get all of this in a bundle from our friends at Rebel Base Gaming for just £55 with free postage!

So with this purchase you have multiple options.

List 1:

Boromir with Banner of Minas Tirith on Horse

8 Warriors with Shield

8 Warriors with Spear and Shield

Captain of Minas Tirith on Horse with Lance (Use one of the spare Knights, be creative but it can be a simple as putting the horse on a rock or a simple head swap)

4 Knights of Minas Tirith with Lance and Shield

4 Warriors with Bows

499 points, 26 Models, 4 Bows

So Boromir armed with the Banner can advance up the field with the bulk of warriors in order to increase the much needed low fight and providing the Warriors with rerolls. With D6 and F4 they will be able to stick around for a fair while in order for the Knights to jockey position on the battlefield.  When possible Boromir on horseback can charge multiple models as he has 4 attacks at F7 meaning he will win most fights. If things are looking dicey then engage the horn of Gondor or break off in order to help the Knights if need be.

The plan with the Knights would be to flank or objective grab using their speed to your advantage. Whilst in combat I realise F3 is not ideal but if you can get the charge and win the fight a lance should be able to take out a lot of warriors. Alternatively, if Boromir and his Banner are around then they become some of the more deadly Cavalry in the game.

The Archers are there just for some ranged attacks or can sit on objectives and attempt to defend them. You have a 50% chance of hitting a target if you haven't moved, with only 4 Archers they aren't going to decide the game but they still help with your break point.

List 2: Conversion Time(Nothing too taxing)

Boromir on Horse with Lance and Shield

5 Knights of Minas Tirith

6 Warriors with Bows

Captain of Minas Tirith (either use a spare MT warrior or convert the spare body of Boromir)

1 Warrior with Banner shield(Spare banner used from Boromir on Horse)

7 Warriors with Shield

7 Warriors with Spear and Shield

500 points, 26 Models, 6 Bows

This is clearly similar to the first list, but it doesn't sink as many points into Boromir. Now with this they lose the +1 fight and range from Boromir's banner but he gains a lance and can still charge in on his horse. By using the spare arm from Boromir's mounted model you have a banner for the future.  The general idea is the same but i think using the cavalry more offensively from the beginning. The bowmen, as well as adding to break point, give more of a presence and can cut off some of the board to would be flankers or objective protection. Losing the higher fight could be kind of a big deal

here but Defensively you are pretty sound at D6 mostly across the board.

All in all this is a good starting base for a MT Army. From here you can add a whole host of things. Rangers, Faramir and his captains or Gandalf? You can go in so many ways either make your Minas Tirith a huge force or ally to others.