Hello and welcome back after a small hiatus!
I’ve been using my hobby time to actually play more than hobby. So that’s a big plus!
Responding to a post on facebook, I made a new friend and a welcomed new member of our small gaming community. In the post he was asking if anybody was interested in learning the Games workshop game set in the Tolkien universe; Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. Or MESBG for short.
I know, the name is a bit much and quite frankly, old school. The game on the other side, just got a brand spanking new edition and boy have we been playing!
Well, on to the hobby side of the post.
I was incredibly lucky to have rescued a few MESBG over the years, and have barely painted them at all. This new opportunity to paint for a game gave me a drive I have rarely seen, as I now have amassed quite a lot of models, and I am still in the process of getting more commander models so I get more points on the table.
Also, I have not been slouching in the painting department.
First up, the man himself. Gandalf the white is a capable spellcaster, and in this edition and he can also dish out the pain with his sword Glamdring.
Sweet baby Frodo, just look at those special rules.
Not quite useless, but barely useful as extra Will, Fate and might points if mounted with Gandalf on Shadowfax. Only useful on foot if you really need to tag an objective as you quite literally, can throw him off the horse , or if you are running a fluffy list.
With that statline, just use him as a battery. Remember, you can throw stones with him as a shooting attack, in case you feel lucky.
Gondor Knight are the cavalry of gondor, fast and gets an additional die when they charge. Unfortunately as all cavalry, if they get charged, no extra dice for you. Also the horse can be shot out from under you, so take care lest your mighty charge suffer the same fate as a certain younger brother…
Lance is always good, as it gives your charge a bit of more oompf in combat. Shieldwall only applies when he has been de-horsed.
The meat and bone of a Gondor list, the humble warrior. Can be kitted with shields and either swords or spears. Forget about the bow, it’s not worth it. Really. There are better ways to spend the points than bow warriors. Has the Shieldwall special rule that makes them Defence 7 if in base-to-base with two other shield wielding units with the keyword, but this is mostly for one round, as the fights scatter you troops about and they lose contact with each-other.
Baseline warrior, don’t let the D 5 fool you. Your pretty much required to take a shield (no bows!) so his D value is 6. Unless you take a banner. You need one of those in this edition as banners can count for points in quite a few of the scenarios.
The sneaky ranger comes with either bow or bow and spear. This unit is the reason you should not take a normal warrior with bow, as his guy has a better SV (shooting) value, for cheaper points. Quite capable in melee with FV (fight) Value of 4, the only lacking aspect is the D (defence) Value of 4.
Best used in the GARRISON OF ITHILIEN list, as the special rule grants a 50% bow limit for the warband, instead of the normal 33%. Also quite capable in a REALMS OF MEN list as a cheap and good archer.
For all the bells and whistles this new edition of MESBG comes with, is does have its downsides. The different warbands that you can build your armies around, most often needs a named hero to lead it as a requirement. This means that to run my rangers as an army, I would need to find and buy a Faramir, Captain of Gondor, model from somewhere.
Currently I can play the list ATOP THE WALL, with Gandalf as the main hero, enabling me to use all the special rules for the ATOP THE WALL armylist. or the REALMS OF MEN army, which only has generic commanders and NO special army rules outside of the normal unit recruitment limitations.
If you are interested in starting to play MESBG, I really recommend picking up a starter box to get all the commanders you need to play one of the armies of your choice.
For example: https://www.warhammer.com/en-GB/shop/minas-tirith-battlehost-2022
This is the Minas Tirith battlehost box. It gives you the basic units to play an ATOP THE WALLS army list, as this contains the special miniatures of Gandalf and pippin on foot, and mounted. But see, there is technically one miniature missing; Gandalf mounted without pippin.
THIS MODEL IS NOT EVEN SOLD CURRENTLY AT GAMES WORKSHOP!
As always, magnets are your friend, so you’d have to magnetize Pippin to be able to play the model.
But this is my main gripe (other one being banners in scenarios!) with this edition. The hero requirement for listbuilding.
Thanks for checking out the ramblings of a serial loser of games (1W, 8L), and I hope to see you again.
Cheers!
-Marc
Good Enough Hobbies 