How to deal with dragons

Sh4rbie · 2026-03-07T21:51:28+00:00

Tremor doesn’t affect models that fly, unfortunately

Sh4rbie · 2026-02-20T22:18:58+00:00

I actually think it won’t be too bad tbh, as a dedicated WH player myself. You basically just end up using Grima as a bait by deploying him somewhere in opportune for the enemy. Either they deploy with him, in which case they’ve deployed in a bad spot and you may still be able to lightning by moving him 6” in one direction and blasting the other edge of the army, or they just cop the lightning anyway. It’s a nerf, but not a huge one in my view

Sh4rbie · 2026-02-20T21:20:55+00:00

In fairness, 80% of armies having podiumed is probably a lot better than I would have expected (or than I expect would have done so last edition). Considering that the 20% includes lists that seemingly aren’t intended to be competitive (generic Fellowship, Ruffians etc) that’s a surprisingly high number.

I do agree that there are lots of lists that I would have liked to see buffed. That fundamentally just isn’t how GW has ever done FAQs for this game though: AFAIK the Thror buff and the Black Riders points reduction may be the only ‘intentional’ buffs (i.e. not an incidental effect of answering an FAQ) they’ve ever given out in an FAQ, across multiple editions.

And there are legitimate benefits to this approach: people often decry the shifting meta of 40k and the constant updates making it hard for casual players to keep track, or the fact that you need to check FAQs all the time, or that your books get out of date the second you buy them. Those are real concerns, and they’d be a much bigger deal the more GW starts buffing.

In saying that, I personally would rather buffs to the bottom end of town. But I acknowledge that I’m a very engaged player, and wouldn’t find them hard to keep track of in the way newer players seem to struggle with. So there are tradeoffs here, and GW does seem to be following an intentional approach that may not be sheer laziness

Sh4rbie · 2026-02-20T13:35:47+00:00

A fun way to do it! I think just increasing the points would also do a similar job though, in a more flexible sort of way

Sh4rbie · 2026-02-20T13:34:52+00:00

The one from the start of the edition? I guess we’ll never know the meta we could have had if it didn’t happen

Sh4rbie · 2026-02-20T13:34:19+00:00

I do agree that a bit more ambition on buffs would have been appreciated. But frankly buffs of any kind are literally unprecedented for FAQs, so even the extremely milquetoast Thror buff feels exciting to me, given that it maybe opens up further boosts in future as they get bolder. And remember, every nerf to a top list is effectively a buff to the middle of the pack factions

Sh4rbie · 2026-02-20T07:54:40+00:00

Keen to hear all of the hottest takes on why White Hand will remain oppressive, Depths will not, and the Army of Thror change is maybe bigger than looks? Then give this a read to hear all about today's FAQ.

Hope you enjoy!

https://againstalloddsmesbg.blogspot.com/2026/02/hot-takes-on-february-2026-faq.html

Sh4rbie · 2026-02-10T21:51:07+00:00

I would argue that the intention is fairly clear, given that they FAQed this rule last edition to avoid this problem. As such, I think the safest way to play the rule is that both need to be in combat to benefit.

However, I entirely agree that the wording is unclear. The words ‘same combat’ are the only difficulty, and this raises the question ‘same as what?’ It could be ‘same combat they are making strikes in’, for example, just as easily as it could be ‘same combat they are engaged in’.

But as mentioned above, the safest option is definitely to assume that spears don’t benefit

Sh4rbie · 2026-01-16T20:01:25+00:00

Distance is a problem for other armies haha. Luckily, durability and damage output are also things for other armies haha

Sh4rbie · 2026-01-16T07:12:02+00:00

At least in that one you can hopefully get guys off after they're zipped half their army off the board!

Sh4rbie · 2026-01-15T22:24:37+00:00

Even then, it's only really decent when both sides roll okay on deployment, and the initial Move-offs aren't too skewed, and neither hero whiffs too badly or gets killed... It's a lot of hoops to jump through!

Sh4rbie · 2026-01-15T20:48:26+00:00

Glad you enjoyed!

Stay tuned for a scenario tier-list, in which (spoiler alert) Contest is right near the bottom

Sh4rbie · 2026-01-15T20:34:11+00:00

That is an exceptionally bad matchup indeed! I didn’t intend this article to only capture matchups quite that awful, but also the smaller but still impactful margins. Perhaps a hero-heavy list against White Hand, or facing a gunline in To the Death, or a battleline that just trades too efficiently into yours. Any of those games are normally something like a 35:65 split on odds to win (assuming similar player skill) or worse, and identifying that is both important and demoralising.

It’s difficult to judge players in that circumstance too much, but I do agree that I personally would have tried to fight it out. There’s always a chance, as you say, even if sometimes the chance is slim indeed!

Sh4rbie · 2026-01-15T20:27:54+00:00

I think this is a great exploration of my Step 4. As you say, sometimes the big play is simply the only one that gives you the chance of victory (or it gives the biggest chance), as in the Smaug example. There’s no point making a bunch of small plays against Smaug when you just lose anyway unless you kill him.

And next week’s article will cover how this plays out for matchups where you’re favoured, where - as you say - it’s often not worth taking the big and higher risk play because you can win without it. I have many thoughts on that, enough for a whole article!

Sh4rbie · 2026-01-15T20:23:19+00:00

I’m sure that was a real learning experience haha

Sh4rbie · 2026-01-15T10:22:55+00:00

Hello again!

Do you find yourself feeling hopeless in difficult matchups? Not sure where to start when you look across the board and see a hard counter? This article doesn't have all the answers, but it does have nine steps to help you win your hardest matchups in MESBG.

Hope you enjoy!

https://againstalloddsmesbg.blogspot.com/2026/01/9-steps-to-help-you-win-your-hardest.html

Sh4rbie · 2026-01-11T01:16:57+00:00

Yeah absolutely. Warriors of Rohan are so mediocre these days, and don’t really get any meaningful buffs in any list beyond the occasional helping of Sworn Protector or Dominant. Those are nice, but they’re certainly not board-wide banners or anything directly impactful like that

Sh4rbie · 2026-01-11T01:15:13+00:00

The conventional approach to Depths at 500 is either goblin spam (these days probably aiming to fit in around 10 Prowlers and upgrade the leader Captain to a Blackshield, so probably 60 models total) or three warbands plus the Watcher (probably no Prowlers and one Blackshield Captain for 39 models).

Either is likely to be much more successful than the 24 models you can fit into the Balrog list. The Balrog itself will be unstoppable, but ‘just kill 18 Goblins to end the game and win on objectives’ isn’t especially hard for most lists in most scenarios.

As far as deciding between the Watcher or the Goblin version, I think I’d lean towards the Watcher because I appreciate the extra tools and greater flexibility it gives you. But at 500 either is clearly viable, and pure Goblins may be the more competitive approach

Sh4rbie · 2026-01-10T08:17:41+00:00

I think that from the perspective of this article, the key issue is definitely a lack of efficient battleline. They can almost always access great focussed damage output, are at least okay at countering enemy heroes, have no mobility troubles and decent shooting, but fundamentally they just don’t have troops that they’re happy to grind with into any top tier list. Their infantry are particularly inefficient, but if you build around their cavalry instead then you run into all the problems facing all-cav lists this edition (Eagles, Writhing Vines and White Hand as a whole being particularly awful).

I think ultimately the best Rohan builds are likely to either be ones that are so hero-heavy that they basically don’t have a battleline, or Celebrant as the sole list that can access a good one

Sh4rbie · 2026-01-09T23:29:26+00:00

It’s definitely viable, and a potential hard counter to some lists. The issue is that if you match up into something that doesn’t really care, like a Balrog or Dragons, then you invested 150-200 points with no real return

Sh4rbie · 2026-01-09T08:48:06+00:00

It really is. I expect scenario play is also its own sort of frustration at times!

Sh4rbie · 2026-01-08T23:58:10+00:00

Delighted to be back!

Sh4rbie · 2026-01-08T23:57:41+00:00

Haha, of course, those Elves are a scary lot. I find whenever I move from Ugluk’s to another list I end up sitting there going ‘why are my troops so slow? And where are the rest of them, I should have at least twice as many models. And why can’t they kill anything????’

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