Australian Masters' Round 1 Predictions

Dan Slob: The pairings for the first round of the Australian Masters' has been revealed. Me and Steve couldn't resist giving our inexpert and un-asked for opinions on the match-ups!

Dan Slob: This is a tricky one to call. On the one hand something a cavalry army absolutely hates is a higher Fight value shield wall, especially one with a load of fairly high strength shooting. That being said, the Isengard list is going to rely on its characters (Saruman in particular) for a lot of its utility, and Angmar is a character assassination specialist. That means that Saruman is going to be very constrained in what he can do as he has to remain safe from Gully at all times. The scenario will dictate a lot of this match, if it is one where Isengard can hole-up then I think they’ll take it. If not then Angmar should come out better.

Steve: With Saruman as a spellcaster, I feel he has his work cut out for him in this matchup. Not only is he against a leader with a healthy supply of will, he's also against a heck of a magic resistant beast in Gulavhar. That being said, he could help drain the Witch King's will supply and make him a little more hesitant on combat, and the good amount of range from Isengard could make quick work of the Terror of Arnor. Speed is certainly on Angmar's side here being an almost entirely mounted force - objective grabbing is going to be a key play for this force along with some pretty terrifying charging ability if priority and heroics fall favourably. Angmar gets my vote here.

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Dan Slob: Oh dear, that poor, poor elephant. He is going to get Transfixed so hard he won’t know what day it is. Now, he is Resistant to Magic thanks to Sigils of Defence but there are 9 free Channelled Transfixes pointing his way. Ouch. As with any Cav on Cav match, priority will be big, but considering the Black Riders have 19 Might to spend on Heroic Moves while the GAotS has only 6 it does feel a bit one sided. Even if fully half of those get cancelled by the War Leader the Riders still have the advantage. Not only that but the troops are likely to be only Courage 1 anyway so even if they did win the chances of them getting meaningful charges will be small. Overall I think the Riders are a hard counter to the Elephant which makes me sad :(

Steve: A lot of this matchup for me boils down to whether the Witch King can get in close to the Mumak to whip out the Morgul Blade and take down a very large piece of the Southern army. On the other hand any wraiths that unfortunately get trampled have a good chance of perishing very quickly as well. Whilst the Haradrim bows are unlikely to matter much to the riders, they'll certainly be effective at unhorsing them and swinging this in the South's favour. With a few more tricks up the lists sleeve however the Black Riders may edge out a win. I love a high risk, high reward so I'm going with The Black Riders on this one.

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Dan Slob: The battle of the hordes! Sadly for Goblin Town they are facing a force that they only outnumber by 3 models, and who in general has higher Fight and Strength. Considering the only thing that Goblin Town really has going for it is its numbers I think they could be in a whole bunch of trouble here. 

Steve: A couple of lists here with some of the highest model counts in the tournament. The Uruk's certainly have the Goblins out-fought, but they lack the latter's support with no spears to speak of. Along with the fighting ability, Ugluk's Scouts also have a very high degree of manoeuvrability over the Goblins. With similar numbers I feel it's weighted in their favour, but the beasts are going to be something to look out for and be wary of some flanking shenanigans. Ugluk's Scouts are my pick here.

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Dan Slob: This is another match that is going to depend quite heavily on the scenario (and the board layout). If the Dwarves can wall off part of the board and stay there then the Corsairs are going to be in trouble. However if the Corsairs are allowed to do what they do best (wrap and trap) then the shoe is on the other foot. That being said, I really don’t know how the Corsairs will deal with Dain, who could just smash through rank after rank of pirates. The sheer weight of throwing weapons could also be big as even the armour of the Dwarves will eventually succumb to huge amounts of dice. Overall this is a tough one and I don’t know that I can call it either way.

Steve: A tough matchup to decide from here. Whilst not very numerous, the Dwarves are tough and will stick around. Their numbers and speed will make objective play difficult however. The low defence of the Corsairs is one of their issues however; there may not be many crossbows in the Iron Hills force, but add in the ballista and the Dwarves take the advantage there. The Hasharin has a good chance at taking out some key models, but the Corsairs really need to rely on getting stuck in and overwhelming as soon as they can to tie the enemy up.

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Dan Slob: It’s hard not to just call this one for Moria and carry on. I just don’t know how Mordor will deal with the Balrog. They have a bunch of great heroes but sadly the Balrog is fairly unworried by anything they can bring to the table. Added to this, the LL essentially turns Goblins into Orcs so they don’t even have the Fight advantage. It’s hard to see what Mordor can do here which is a real shame as I love the list.

Steve: Another matchup with fairly large model counts on either side, but interestingly both packing in some heavy hitters. The Balrog will always be a scary presence to go up against and none of the Mordor force can really go up against it to defeat it. They'll have to play around it quite carefully and work on using their numbers (and slightly superior fighting power) to work through the Goblins and add in a bit of hero trickery from the magic users and getting Shelob on a rampage through the ranks.

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Dan Slob: This is an interesting one. The Riders have all the tools to deal with the scariest part of this list (Bolg) but I really don’t know how they deal with the troops. Kiting is not really a great option as there is so much scary shooting in the Legion list. They won’t have to worry about getting charged much as the Orc’s will have terrible courage, but because of that shooting threat I’m not sure it’s that great of an advantage here. Overall I don’t know enough of the nuances of the Riders to call it one way or the other but my gut says the Legion will take this one.

Steve: The sheer amount of magical power in The Black Riders means they're at an advantage when it comes to the enemy heroes. Unless they can scare everything away they're going to have a real problem getting bogged down by the Orcs. Given that the Legion is fielding Wargs as well means that the Riders don't have the advantage when it comes to objective grabbing either - add the bows in as well and some of those riders are definitely being unhorsed throughout the game! I feel the sheer weight of numbers backed up with elite Gundabad Orcs will grab the win in this one.

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Dan Slob: Well this is by far the match I want to watch the most. There will only be 24 models on the table but it will have by far the most going on! At first it was hard to see what the Isengard list can do as all of the Good models are a big threat to its centrepiece (the Dragon), but then my eyes strayed downwards to the bottom of the list. Grima. Oh my God, Grima! He is going to be worth his weight in gold in this match. A single 35 point model that almost single-handedly will close the enormous Might gap between these forces. Added to this, the fact that almost half the Isengard list can Fly means it will run rings around the foot slogging Good side (hilariously Grima will be the fastest model on their side). Though it absolutely breaks my heart I think all the advantages lie with Isengard here and it is theirs to lose.

Steve: Two of the lists I had no idea behind their design but without a doubt am eager to see slog it out. Grima is going to be the stand out here I think, all the might granted by the captains will be drained fairly quickly. I think the Crebain are going to be critical if it comes down to an objective based game as either one of these forces can be reduced to breaking very quickly. In a straight on fight however the Elves are going to take it. This is honestly a toss up in my opinion and is highly dependent on the scenario - my gut is telling me Isengard here though so I'm sticking with it. Also I want to see Mirkwood burn.

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Dan Slob: This could be tricky for the Legion. The Ghosts have high Defence so aren’t worried about their shooting too much, they will be wounding pretty much all the troops on 3s and even Bolg on 5s, and they have Aragorn/the King to deal with the big-bads. They have definitely got a dice disadvantage as they are quite heavily outnumbered but they have all the tools they need to win this one.

Steve: The ghosts are going to be tough nuts to crack here - they always are.  Sometimes Aragorn can be deceitful and the dice don't always go his way, Anduril is a great plus to this and I think his fre might every round is unfortunately going to get pumped in to Striking each round to counter the many heroes he will likely face. I do worry about the Legion's bows picking off Aragorn and Legolas if they get caught in the open but backed up by the King of the Dead I think this is the good side's game to win.

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Australian Master's Lists Review

This weekend sees the Australian Masters tournament take place. It is a 750 point clash of Australia’s best and brightest. Today, some of the UK’s worst and woeful (that’s us) give their thoughts on these lists and how they will do. Enjoy!

50 Models, 6 Might

This is a bit of an odd list. I’m not sure what to make of the hero choices here. The troops choices are great: tonnes of throwing weapons and crossbows and just tonnes of troops in general. I also like the inclusion of the single Numenorian with War Horn. But those hero choices... I’m not sure if I’m just missing something or if they are genuinely weird choices. Either way, Corsairs have enough excellent strategies to do well even with the odd heroes so it could still go far!

51 Models, 15 Might

One of the newer Legendary Legions to hit the tables and boy, are there some big numbers in this list. Firstly I'm a big fan of marauders, given the fact that the upgrade is free in this list is another bonus to it. The one downside to it in this Legion however is that you have a tendency to leave the Orcs behind, which also means you're not getting the most out of the Animosity special rule when it comes down to combat. Granted, Uruks are not prone to losing fights to easily so there's a good chance of them holding the lines until the Orcs can get in for the bonus - given the ratio of Uruks to Orcs, I wouldn't be surprised if there would be less reliance on Animosity. This is also supported by the heavy amount of Uruk bows being fielded. 15 strength 3 shots is a pretty scary sight! Finally, there's an awful lot of might in this list, with four heroes who can call a Heroic March, this is a very quick list who can maneuver their way to objectives and good positions in a rapid way. 

8 Models, 19 Might (!)

Despite there being two Black Riders lists in this tournament, which are hard capped at 9 models, this is still the smallest army here. In some ways it is the opposite of the Black Riders. 8 Elves on foot, with little few shenanigans to help them but their martial skills. Despite their small numbers these guys can take on a horde surprisingly well, with 6 of the 8 models able to get 5 attacks! (or more for Thranduil and Tauriel). It also helps that everyone is a minimum of F6. I'm curious to know whether the Ranger Captain's benefit from the Army Bonus of +1 to Wound when near Thranduil because if so then they are horrifying. Honestly, I think this one might be my pick to win it, though like any glass cannon, if the dice gods decide they are displeased then it could go south quickly.

21 Models, 7 Might

Everyone knows RoTK at this point. Excellent heroes, a super threat in the form of the King's one-hit KO and a bunch of super solid warriors. The problem is that everyone knows RoTK at this point. Players at this level will know what to do against a list like this so it will take some excellent play to confound their expectations. That being said, if no mistakes are made then this kind of solid-ness could do really well. The high-defence Dwarves of the Iron Hills in particular will not want to see these guys, and there are plenty of low courage evil armies in this tournament that this list can easily prey on.

9 Models, 19 Might (!)

May as well talk about both of these lists at the same time as they are identical! At first glance it is hard to see how these guys can do well until you start to read in to their special rules. 9 free Channelled Transfixes on top of 7 Will that is purely for Casting (they don’t spend it for being in combat in this LL) will deal with an awful lot of stuff. Added to the extra penalties to Courage that they give from being spooky boys will mean an awful lot of the armies in this tournament will struggle to get any meaningful charges off. However there is nothing gung-ho about these guys, they are a scalpel not a hammer. Their games are going to be very cagey and will possibly go to time a lot. I’m going to be really interested to see how they do. 

47 model, 6 Might

This is another army that lives by its new special rules. There is nothing insane in the new LL but what is does give is several incremental boosts that stack up to make a crazy good army list. They serve to buff the army’s weaknesses really well. There is obviously a lack of Might here and, even with the +1F near the Balrog, the troops are mostly still bad. However there are a lot of them which is handy! The fact that the Balrog is now hard to hit will be super handy if they have to play the Iron Hills’ horrible Ballista. Really it’ll come down to whether or not an opponent can deal with the Balrog. If they can then this list is screwed, if not then it’ll probably win. 

42 Models, 10 Might

Well this is quite an all star cast for Mordor heroes, and certainly a mixed bag of abilities. You have got Mordor's best caster, their (arguably) best support caster, their best combat heroes, and (arguably) the best support hero. There is far too much to go through for each of these characters but suffice to say there are some brutal combinations to be had. Backing them up is a veritable horde of Orcs. Orcs are some of the best value troops in the game and quantity is a quality of its own. My worry is that there is only 1 banner and it is going to want to be in too many places at once. However this list has the tools to deal with pretty much anything, though it could suffer to a large amount of elite shooting.

11 Might, 37 Models

This force brings together the armies of Azog’s Legion and Azog’s Hunters such that Bolg the leader gets Master of Battle, but the Hunters get their improved shoot value and bow limit. The combination of Bolg’s MoB and F7 makes him a nightmare for any combat hero to tangle with, whilst Fimbul and Narzug are relatively squishy. The army overall feels like it’s quite well balanced with solid troops, a cheap monster, and some maneuverability in the form of the Wargs and Goblin Mercs, but will struggle with strong magic users. The Black Riders will be a tricky challenge as they can immobilise Bolg almost at will and the low courage of the orcs will leave them unable to capitalize on their higher numbers in combat

9 Might, 39 Models

The core of this list is very similar to Josh’s list, but has more of the tanky Gundabad Warriors and no Goblin Mercs. Overall it feels very similar and will struggle against the same things as Josh’s list, but I prefer Josh’s as it has a little bit more variety and a few more tricks

45 Models, 9 Might

Another Isenguard list with a hefty chunk of models to play with. Previously we had Ugluk's Scouts, now we're dealing with more of a traditional army of the White Hand. Saruman is always a good choice with a great range of spells and the free Will to make them stronger as well - he'll be great for locking heroes down but as we've seen with some of the other lists, there's a lot keeping him busy. Ugluk is an interesting choice to back Saruman up however, but he's also pretty cost effective for those 3 points of might. Once again we're seeing a healthy amount of ranged potential as well with the inclusion of Vrasku and a mix of crossbows and bows. Could be some heavy casualties before combat with this firing line. I do worry about the lack of might in this force compared to the others we've seen, there's a big possibility this force could be outmaneuvered easily. The core of Uruk Warriors however may be enough to keep the force from falling too easily.

16 Models, 6 Might

So this force is definitely an oddball and I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. Half of the force is pretty resistant to shooting, and also has the ability to fly so we're looking at some good objective grabbing. Grima is always a fun choice to inconvenience heroes, but we're also looking at a lot of might in these lists where it might not be such an inconvenience. The Dunland warriors are also a nice block of models, but I do fear there's just too few models in this list to deal with some of the other small, but hero-centric lists.

32 Models, 6 Might

Quite a shooting heavy Iron Hills list here, and the sheer lack of Blinding Light in the rest of the lists is nothing but good news. 6 Crossbows and a Ballista is going to ensure that your enemy has to come to you. There are a number of Cavalry heavy and elite armies in this tournament, all of whom are going to be very worried by that Ballista. Backing them up are a shieldwall of 17 Iron Hills Dwarves with a Captain in their midst. They are the anvil to Dain and the 4 Goats' hammer. I really like the look of this list, it has a bit of everything. It could struggle against the Magic heavy lists as Dain is just going to get bullied by all those spells but played well it could do a lot of work! It's a shame there weren't quite enough points to mount the Captain on a goat too but to do so would mean sacrificing some of the shooting.

12 Might, 54 models

This is a very interesting list and several things jump out at me for being good! It has one of the best heroes in the game for taking objectives in the form of The Spider Queen and when combined with the deployment shenanigans of the Goblin Mercs and Scribe and the fast moving spiders and bats this army will be much more mobile and cover more of the board than you might expect where the troops only move 5”. There is a lot of combat capability, not just from monstrous heroes, but from Gollum and the Bat Swarms. These guys will have the fight value of anything they’re engaged with meaning that heroes will be living in fear of getting ganked at any time. Potential downsides are that there are a lot of big bases in this list (Mirkwood Spiders are especially noteworthy for this) combined with lots of troops which could mean a little bit of getting in your own way when attempting to set up the ideal combat. The flying bats and ability of spiders to ignore terrain mitigates this, but it still feels like a challenge. The model count is also relatively low for a Goblin Town army. As a comparison this army has a similar breakpoint to the Ugluk’s Scout force, but the troops are a lot less robust. It’s a force that doubtlessly takes some skill to use well and I can’t wait to see how it gets on (and to have a go at myself).

20 Models, 6 Might

Honestly I love anything that has a Mumak in it. I am not 100% convinced about how well this will do as everything is so fragile but I guess it will all come down to player skill. Serpent Riders are absolutely explosive on the charge and Raiders are incredibly flexible, which, coupled with the might of the Mumak and the excellent Suladan, gives this list plenty of tools to deal with everything. However, as with any glass-cannon list, if it starts to go wrong it could all crumble quickly!

28 Models, 8 Might

I believe this player is something of a cavalry savant and you can hear him talk about this list in much more detail on the excellent Green Dragon podcast's Cavalry episode. I won't bother adding anything to that as I am a novice compared to this player, other than to say that I love Angmar and this list is terrifying. I do wish there were some Barrow Wights in there but that is because I am bad and they are my crutch!

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So there we go, our (admittedly noob-y) take on each of the lists. Any one of these could win it so instead of picking one list between us we are each going to pick one each:

Dan’s pick: Thranduil’s Heroes

Colm’s pick: Angmar Cav

Steve’s pick: Angmar Cav

Adam’s pick: Corsairs 

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!

The Making of: Rohan Valley Diorama

 So it appears after working on the Dwarrowdelf display board, I got bitten pretty hard on the whole diorama/display board hobby. Looking at my current armies, I had a few options to go for. One which particularly leapt at me allowed me to display two different armies depending on what I was running or wanted on display. Those two armies were Rohan and Isenguard. The location I wanted to make? Well this was quite specific in some regards - one of our first introductions to Rohan besides the rolling plains is a much more up close and personal scene including some Uruk-Hai and Orcs in a ravine. 

This offered some nice things to work with hobby-wise and from a compositional stand point - namely the rising rocky faces on either side of the valley (also screaming out to the rock-climber in me). For this I had a few ideas in mind, the first being to build up the sides using foam and then add some character by attaching plaster casts of rock faces. In between these I'd build up the foam and sculpt it to blend in. With that plan in mind, let's see how I go about it!

The foam I decided to go with is just your standard foam used for flower arranging (a full list of tools and materials used will be at the end of the article). The pros to this behind that it's very easy to carve and manipulate along with having a nice gritty texture that lends itself well to rock faces. The cons however are that it is indeed very easy to manipulate, one slightly to forceful grip on it can leave lasting impression upon the material. Given the height of it I also wanted to secure it to the board a bit more, so drilled into the MDF base and inserted some brass rods to add a little more stability during the construction. 

With the main skeleton sorted it was time to move on to the basis of the rock faces - the plaster casts. The ones I picked out were a couple of rock molds made by Woodland Scenics as they had incredibly crisp looking designs which would work great when it came to painting and weathering. Using a bit of their plaster I got to setting...or so I thought. The first batch I made was a bit of a disaster. I thought I'd used the right ratio of water to plaster, but as I found out the slightest drop of water can dramatically alter the consistency. The first batch ended up with too much water, and unfortunately fell apart when removing from the mold. With the ratio tweaked a little bit I managed to get a clean set of casts for the second and then got to applying them to the foam.

Now when I initially bought the moulds, I thought a cast of each (I bought two) would be enough for both sides and it turns out I was wrong! Only one side got covered and I will admit that to start with it looked a bit awkward. With some quick sculpting to the lip of the wall it started to look a lot better. During this time (and waiting for the next casts to dry) I set about making the base of the ravine, and this is where the malleable nature of the foam helped a lot, as I was able to depress certain areas quite easily to give an uneven appearance. Looking at the side I'd already made, it also looked a little flat. So whilst waiting for the casts I got to adding a bit of depth in the form of outcrops and some ground slanting down from the wall into the base. When it came to apply the next casts, it gave a much more interesting appearance and then set to further blend all the components by sculpting the foam with a few models tools to scrape certain areas away.

With all the sculpting work done it was time to get to the colour. Another problem with foam however is that it absorbs moisture incredibly well, so spray base coating it would end up going through quite a few cans! The first step I decided was to go with masonry paint. Given it's thicker than regular paint consistency it also meant I could plug up a few gaps in the base and tone down a few of the harder edges between bits of foam. With this layer then dry, I took a can of Tamiya Wooden Deck Tan (the closest I could get in spray form of Steel Legion Drab which I've coated by model bases in) and gave the whole thing a good coat.

For the next step it was time to add some more texture and colour to the base and top of the ridges. The bases on all my Rohan and Isenguard are identical in how they're achieved so I went for a similar process so that they'd sit well on the terrain - a layer of Gale Force 9 Super Fine Basing Grit, with a layer of Element Games Autumn Grass flock on top in patchier areas. This is quick and easy with small based miniatures; on a larger scale it was going to get very messy. On top of that I also had a lot of painting to do to the actual rock faces.

With the layer of grit down I worked away at the rock faces as I wasn't too fussed if some of the paint got onto the grit and most of this would eventually be covered in flock. The best way I've come to work with weathering (especially to make realistic and interesting looking rock) is to build it up in layers continuously, but more sparingly each layer. For this set I started with a base of Eshin Grey (slightly watered down to provide more coverage), then when dry applied a fairly liberal coat of Dawnstone. Given that I said we'd build this up in layers, I decided to darken the whole thing, especially to seep into the dark nooks and crannies of the sculpt with a 1:1 mix of Nuln Oil and Lahmian Medium - as my Dad always told me "You can always add more, you can't necessarily take away" and that rings true to me with washes. With this dried off, I built up the next layers with more Dawnstone, some Terminatus Stone and finally Longbeard Grey all in smaller and lighter quantities to build up nice gradients. As for the non rocky parts in order to break up the base I added some Stirland Mud to certain areas, namely where water might pool more easily such as the ridges leading into the ravine and around the outcrops. These areas also received a small amount of Agrax Earthshade (along with the top of the ravine) to give a sense of weathering.

The next big messy step came in the form of applying the flock. This also did not go well and I ended up spilling most of a pot outside when adding it to the Static Applicator's hopper! I did however manage to salvage enough get the coverage I needed onto a layer of PVA basing glue. After leaving this to dry there as an awful lot extra to filter off, the worst part being that it snuck into a few of the rock recesses, but nothing a bit of brushing with a stiff paintbrush couldn't deal with. Now it was time for the final touches to be added - the foliage. Most of it shown in the image above is grass mounds from Army Painter (a mix of Highland Tuft and Winter Tufts), I did however drill a few holes in order to insert some shrubs from Green Stuff World. With all the detail added all I needed to so was neaten up the outside with some polyfiller, sanding down and a frame of black paint. It was then off to the studio to bring it fully to life with some miniatures.

And there we have it, the finished product punctuated with a Uruk Scout force, and some sneaky Three Hunters on their trail. I would have loved to completely recreate the encounter between Ugluk and Grishnakh, but I unfortunately lack a few of the miniatures at the moment. Once I get my hands on them however I'll be getting some more photos on this in the future! I hope you've enjoyed reading through the progress of this board, it certainly was a fun one to make, any question just leave us a comment below!

Materials:

MDF

Plant Foam (Hobby Craft)

Masonry Paint - Goodhome Masonry Tester

Wooden Deck Tan Spray - Tamiya

Citadel Paints - Eshin Grey, Nuln Oil, Agrax Earthshade, Dawnstone, Terminatus Stone, Longbeard Grey, Lahmian Medium.

Black - Stuart Semple

Super FineBasing Grit - Gale Force Nine

Autumn Grass Flock - Element Games

Highland Tuft, Winter Tuft - Army Painter

Tall Shrubbery Brown Green - Green Stuff World

Introducing people to Middle Earth : Strategy Battle Game

Over the course of lockdown, I have seen a lot of posts from people who have started up the hobby and used their new-found free time to paint up their first army. We in this community are very fortunate to have such a stable, constructive outlet during what has been, for many, a time filled with uncertainty and frustration. 

Now that measures are tentatively easing in some areas, and gamers are emerging bleary-eyed from their hobby caves, we find ourselves with a fresh audience of eager gamers ready to play their very first games. So at DC, we thought it'd be good to create a resource to help both students and teachers to get in to the game as quickly and painlessly as possible! So without further ado:

How to introduce people to Middle Earth SBG – and board games in general!

Newsflash - teaching is a very difficult skill to learn. It’s something that we often see done very well in gaming circles, but it can also be done quite badly, and lack of effort on the part of the teacher is not to blame. I haven’t had many chances to teach somebody how to play SBG from the ground up, but I have played and taught an enormous amount of board games in my life - and exactly the same rules apply. I’ll go over a few of the things I think it’s crucial to keep in mind in order to get somebody actively engaged in the game, and on track to beating you in future tournaments!

I’ll be assuming that you’re teaching your newbie through a ‘demo game’, and they haven’t yet picked up the rulebook.

1: Their first game is not about you.

The most important rule. For the first game, you are not a competitor – you are their full-time mentor. This is not the time to showcase your tactical skills. Every decision you make should not be a step towards victory, but towards giving them an engaging learning experience. It is important that they understand everything that they are doing, why they are doing it, and what consequences this will have for the outcome of the game. And it is your job to deliver this information in a digestible and fun way.

If you have brought your most competitive yellow alliance list down to the gaming centre, and are looking for some hardcore tournament prep games, it might be best to hand over to your friend with the fluffy Minas Tirith list for some tutorial games. Your newbie will learn nothing from being stomped. Which brings us to…

2: First Impressions Matter!

Perhaps even more important than teaching the mechanics is providing a positive, fun gaming experience for their first outing. Nothing will send a new player running for the iron hills faster than getting mercilessly stomped on game one. Those impressions really stay with people, and if you let it happen, you’ve lost a potential valuable community member, competitor, or future friend! Try to play on the same ‘wavelength’ as your newbie – don’t use rules they haven’t yet learned against them. Use what they have learned to provide an enjoyable game where they can make meaningful decisions. That being said…

3: One step at a time.

We all know the feeling of trying to take in too much information at once- it’s unpleasant, and you don’t want that to be your newbie’s first impression. Take baby steps, and keep everything relevant to what’s going on. Don’t begin by explaining victory points, heroic actions, magic powers, break points and ally matrices. If you do decide to use a matched play scenario, ensure it’s a simple one like ‘To the Death!’ – with points for wounding the leader, breaking and quartering your opponent, and killing banners - which are all things that will be useful to think about in all future games. But for a learning game, I think just forgoing a scenario entirely and just having a skirmish is totally OK.

How quickly you bring in new rules will depend on your newbie’s level of experience – but generally you’ll start by explaining warbands and deployment, and then begin moving your forces across the board. Maybe also go in to a tiny bit of detail on how to successfully engage – but again, don’t get bogged down in the details. If they are putting spears in front of swords or running off the map, by all means correct them, but this isn’t the time to start reciting Sun Tzu.

As the game goes on, you’ll bring in duel and wound rolls, control zones and pairing off, shooting and fight values, making way, traps and courage tests. Keep this snappy, keep the dice rolling, and make sure your newbie is happy with each mechanic before moving forward. If they’re confused, don’t drag them by the hand - hold back on introducing the next new mechanic until they feel comfortable. 

Remember that what is very simple to you might be completely baffling to them, and don't get frustrated if they struggle with certain concepts. Remember, we were all noobs once!

By the end of their first learning game, you want them to feel comfortable with the core combat loop - with maybe a few basic heroic actions and special rules thrown in. It might seem like baby stuff to a seasoned player, but it will be plenty for a demo game. It's important to remember that the area-based combat mechanics hold a lot of hidden complexity, which can melt the brain of even a seasoned player during long sessions, and just taking this in may be plenty for their first game. For a second game, you could try bringing in a matched play scenario and start talking through victory conditions, and if they’re comfortable, get your newbie thinking about overall strategy.  

4: Keep armies simple and balanced.

Odds are, your newbie will want to throw down a Gandalf, Sauron, Balrog or Mumak on game 1. Who can blame them? These are awesome units and will add a lot to any game of SBG. But are they really going to help them learn the game?

Bitter pill though it may be, it’s probably best to leave these units at home until they have a couple of games under their belt. Stomping an entire force with a Mumak feels awesome, but it won’t teach your newbie much about the game other than how to stomp guys with a Mumak.

For game number one, I suggest playing 300-400pts of troops, cavalry, archers (optional) and generic captains. Include a range of fight values. Try to stay away from characters that ‘break’ the core mechanics of the game, E.G. Ingold – you’re teaching the rules, not the exceptions. This will give a solid foundation, and will get your newbie making important decisions using the game's fundamental mechanics – which should be plenty to sink their teeth in to for the first few hours. I would use something like the following:

Minas Tirith (400pts)

Faramir, horse, lance, shield
3 x Knight of Minas Tirith, shield
6 x Ranger of Gondor, spear
5 x Warrior of Minas Tirith, shield

Captain of Minas Tirith
6 x Warrior of Minas Tirith, shield
6 x Guard of the Fountain Court, shield

Mordor (395pts)

Goroth
6 x Morannon Orc, shield
6 x Morannon Orc, shield, spear

Orc Captain, shield, warg
4 x Warg Riders, throwing spear

Orc Captain, shield
5 x Orc Warrior, orc bow, spear
5 x Orc Warrior, shield 

Are they optimised? Not at all! But they’re generic, roughly balanced, and will give your newbie a snippet of all the mechanics they’ll need. It’s also quite a nice thematic matchup between the more elite Minas Tirith guards and the Orc rabble. Faramir is the unit with the most potential here, so I’d give the Gondorians to your newbie so that they can pull off some fun shenanigans.

The ‘learning curve’ is something we actually see done very well in video games – they don’t start you off by fighting the final boss, or using the game’s most powerful and situational toys. They start you on the basics, and bring in complexity at a rate that the player can digest. The trick is to introduce fun new mechanics steadily to keep up engagement, but slowly enough that your newbie can digest everything to build up an understanding of the core gameplay.

On this same point, a lot of people recommend Battle Companies as a way of learning the game, but I personally do not agree – BC is great, but I find that the mass of extra rules can get in the way of the basics. I think the lists above equip your newbie far better for an actual game of SBG.

5: Sell sell sell!

When I said you’re a full-time teacher, I wasn’t actually telling the truth. You are also a salesperson! The second job you need to do in the first game is to demonstrate how great SBG is, and why they need it in their life.

This is done by presenting the game in a way that showcases its strengths. Make sure you hit all the highlights in the first game – not just by explaining them, but by making sure your newbie interacts with them. When this game is played well, it captures the feeling of clashing, grinding battles, where positioning is everything and one crucial breakthrough can win the day. A newbie picking up the game by themselves might not see this right away – they’ll be too busy grappling with rulebooks. But, with your guidance, they can get right in to the ebb and flow of battle. Think of yourself as the ride-along salesperson on their first test drive.

In the first game, I think the key points to hit are:

• Give a really clear example of control zones. It’s one of the cooler but more confusing parts of the game, so make sure to demonstrate it in a really engaging way.  
• Have your newbie set up a daring cavalry charge – Ride of the Rohirrim quotes optional, but encouraged.
• Show your newbie the devastation that happens when a rank of soldiers gets surrounded and trapped (if they’re the sensitive type, maybe have them do this to you, rather than you to them!)
• Showcase the duel mechanic, and if you can, how to leverage higher fight values to your advantage.
• Showcase some heroic actions, and make sure your newbie does some fun stuff with their heroes. Try to engineer situations where their heroics have a high impact. (And speaking of which…)

6: Take a dive if you have to.

If you’re in a position where your newbie friend has made some errors (which is likely) and you could crush them easily – don’t!

This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to lose the game. But it does mean that you should pull enough punches that your tutee still gets to make meaningful decisions and see the consequences of them. For example, if they set up a smart cavalry charge, perhaps don’t counter it with a heroic move (even if you could). Reward them for using the mechanics in a smart way – don’t shut them down immediately. Save that for your later games!

On the flip side, neither should you roll over and let them win with no effort. You should be providing engaging scenarios that they have to overcome by using what they’ve learned about the mechanics so far. It’s really rewarding when a first timer starts to understand how to play and how to win, and it shows you’re doing a good job, too!

Also, I wouldn't recommend pointing out all of their tactical blunders, and how you could exploit them - this will only serve to demoralise. I mean, it should go without saying that you will be better at the game than the person who has literally never played before - there is no need to hammer the point home. 

7: Talk things through.

You shouldn’t just be guiding your newbie through their turn – talk through yours, too. Share your own strategy and talk through your options. This has 2 benefits – they will learn more quickly, and it tells your newbie that you’re there to teach, not to win. I’m sure we can all remember a time as kids when someone ‘teaching’ a game pulled a rule out of nowhere that felt made-up and unfair – this is what we need to avoid.  

Throughout your turn, explain the rules you are using, and how they’re letting you achieve your aims:

“I have left my horses more than 6 inches away from your infantry. This is because they can move further than your infantry can, so next turn I guarantee that I’ll be able to charge and can get my charge bonuses.”

And the other side is – have your newbie talk through their own decisions as they play. Once they have a few mechanics under their belt, encourage them to talk about what they’re trying to achieve each turn, and the options available to make it happen. This leads us on to…

8: Show, don’t tell.

It’s really important that you don’t just play their game for them. In order to digest what’s going on, it has to be your newbie that makes their own decisions. Obviously you’ll have to explain any new mechanics, but try to encourage them to use what they’ve already learned under their own initiative. The sooner they start actively making their own decisions, the sooner they’ll get engaged in the game – teaching becomes easier and both parties have more fun.  

9: Keep it consistent.

This one almost goes without saying… But make sure you’re familiar with the rules before you teach somebody the game. Maybe have a flick through the rulebook the week beforehand – especially the basics! We’ve all sat through a tutorial game where the teacher was referring to the rules every 30 seconds, and contradicting themselves frequently. It really kills any momentum or enjoyment – and it doesn’t exactly build confidence that you’re learning the game the correct way.

10: It’s just a game!

The game can be cruel. Dice will betray you and Heroes will fall flat on their faces at the worst possible times. Seasoned tournament players know to take these setbacks on the chin - but your newbie might find it extremely frustrating when Aragorn dies to a nameless orc after losing the duel 5 turns in a row.

The investment in tabletop gaming is high. We get really attached to our little plastic guys, and if your newbie has spent a couple of weeks assembling and painting their brand new Pelennor army, they are probably hoping to see them dominate on the table. As we know, this won’t always be the case.

Losses in tabletop games can be drawn out and disheartening. If your newbie doesn’t have a history with tabletop games, this can be rough. They may get salty. Compare this to video games, where victories and losses often both happen quickly - if you lose a match in a videogame, you can just pick yourself up and jump in to the next one. It's understandable that a newbie might find take a few games to adjust.

The important thing here is to remind your newbie that both players are participants in a shared, interactive storytelling experience – especially if there’s any salt over some duff dice. Yes, there will be a time for skill, mastery and heroic victories, but that's a long way away. During a tutorial game, neither party has anything to prove - all you need to do is enjoy yourselves. If the battle sways one way or the other, that’s just part of the story you’re both telling.

And for an intro game, more than any other: winning or losing doesn't make a damn bit of difference, as long as both players are having fun (and hopefully learning a thing or two along the way)!

 

And that’s it! If all goes according to plan, you’ll have a new player who has a good grasp of the basics and is eager to get stuck in. Watch in amusement as they proceed directly to the nearest game store and spend their last paycheck on a new army. After a few games, it’s probably a good idea for them to read the rulebook properly and get a fuller understanding of the rules, but until then, just throw some dice and have a good time.