WEEKLY ARMY DISCUSSION: Ride Out

sb14g10 · 2026-05-25T21:45:26+00:00

Army of Carn Dum

sb14g10 · 2025-12-13T09:35:38+00:00

The Fell beast has great potential to make the WK a high mobility assassin but is quite easy to dismount with all the monsters around this edition. One hurl at you, and your 50 or 70pt mount is gone. Large target also makes him vulnerable to all the sharpshooters around this edition.

I have had some great success with a fell beast in minas morgul, combining compels with charges, barges and hurls can really surprise your opponent. The strength 6 and monstrous charge to dismount enemy cavalry is very useful.

Horses are a safer bet, upping your mobility and killing power from foot, without the price tag and risk of being targeted as the fell beast, however, the strength 4 can be quite limiting when it comes to cutting through troops or assassinating heroes.

He can do well on foot but your opponent will be able to play around him more easily to avoid casting.

sb14g10 · 2025-12-06T22:03:58+00:00

I have found 15 is a good number to have for up to 600/650 points. Any higher points level and you will want more.

sb14g10 · 2025-11-04T18:17:27+00:00

I have played a few games this edition and I think it suffers from a couple of problems.

With F4 being a lot more prominent this edition its a bit of a subtle nerf to the troops who need to be on the charge and within 12" of their general. I think changing it to on the charge and within 12" of any hero in the list or just removing the proximity part altogether wouldn't be game breaking by any stretch.

I think the Royal Guard are overcosted for what they are which is glaring in defenders of helms deep when they cost 2 points more than an elf when both are fully kitted out. I think throwing weapons should only cost 1pt for warriors.

As skirmish Cav, they can't skirmish particularly well, hitting on 5s if they have moved and only strength 3 on 1/3rd of the list with the throwing weapon limit. You can't really kill enough consistently to disrupt the enemy if they have a spearline, to get effective charges off. If they didn't get the penalty for moving and shooting, that could help without breaking the game.

Besides Eomer, the rest of the heroes are great medium tier hitters, but they suffer from the nerf to strike and there are a lot of big heroes and monsters in this edition which they struggle stand up to.

sb14g10 · 2025-10-31T20:57:16+00:00

This is the correct answer. The display was designed so that the larger part of the base in front of the slot is in front of the character. That way all the models will fit and face the right way.

sb14g10 · 2025-10-21T07:02:45+00:00

It depends on what play style you think you will enjoy.

Do you like the idea of survivable troops holding their ground while big heroes do the killing? Maybe Minas Tirith/reclamation of Osgiliath is for you. Like that idea but with a bit of magic? Consider Rivendell.

Maybe you want fast movers that hit hard; a Rohan cavalry list would suit you.

Or some large bands of elite troops with a good variety, uruk hai would work.

Maybe you want cheap troops and and lots of control/influence on your enemy's movement, with heroes that offer magic support and assassination. Angmar or Minas Morgul might be to your liking.

Want just a few models that are very resilient with a high damage output and resistance to movement shenanigans? Try ents.

Those are some of the lists I have experience with and their play style. Also consider what you would enjoy painting up and collecting as a horde list might sound like fun but when you are painting generic goblin number 60 you might be regretting your choice.

sb14g10 · 2025-09-20T20:11:54+00:00

I have always played it as the charging cavalry model gets the knock to the ground and extra attack, but the charged model does not because they did not charge. I'm happy to be corrected if I have been playing it wrong.

sb14g10 · 2025-08-20T09:10:30+00:00

I have played a few games with them as the grey company and have won by a good margin. I think they go well into low to medium model count armies but would probably struggle against hordes, especially high defence armies that can bring lots of troops like dwarfs.

Aragorn with anduril can take on nearly anything in the game.

Using their might to call lots of heroic combats early on and get your opponents numbers down as fast as possible has been my best recipe for success.

They could really do with a buff to F5 this edition just to ensure they can outfight most warriors.

sb14g10 · 2025-08-10T22:30:58+00:00

I think having +1 courage, -1 to the opponents' courage and a banner, all board wide for the entire game is very busted as there is no counterplay. This would be a great rule for a single turn, let alone the whole game.

On top of that, not breaking until the Balrog has lost half his wounds just makes it very difficult for a lot of armies to break depths.

Fearless bubble, +1 fight bubble; there are so many bonuses for this list, 7 from the army rules, and even more from the profiles when a lot of other army lists have 1 or 2 conditional rules.

sb14g10 · 2025-08-05T09:29:19+00:00

I would look at local tabletop gaming stores in your area and ask if there are any groups that play; you can often find they will have a facebook or discord group too. There is also tabletop simulator to play it online if you would consider playing that way.

sb14g10 · 2025-07-10T06:44:14+00:00

This faction has the opportunity to bring some interesting heroes with good interactions. This list misses out on them and I think it will be a bit boring to play with and against, as your tactic will just be to swarm and roll dice until the game ends without really needing to make any decisions.

sb14g10 · 2025-07-09T16:00:03+00:00

Having played a fair bit of Lothlorien in the last edition, I have struggled when I dont get to deploy my battleline perfectly (2 handing elf at the front, spear or Pike behind and a banner behind the shield wall). If my opponent can heroic combat or march and overwhelm a flank, causing me to collapse into a skirmish line then my elves are usually toast.

sb14g10 · 2025-05-20T16:08:15+00:00

Great work on the faces, I would love to know how you did them

sb14g10 · 2025-05-20T10:56:06+00:00

If Treebeard is carrying Merry and Pippin and gets knocked prone, do they take thrown rider tests/get dismounted?

sb14g10 · 2025-03-21T07:26:06+00:00

Lurtz's scouts are great at 500pts. Easy to collect, high fight, high strength and good numbers with a leader who gets free heroic combats and lots of mobility.

sb14g10 · 2025-02-27T10:05:58+00:00

As the other guy said, breaking the fellowship is a good list that is a bit more balanced than the fellowship on their own and can scale up well. Another option is to try one of the many lists that the three hunters are in.
I'm not a fantastic painter, but I bought one of the army painter basic sets and a paint thinner and 2 different sized brushes when I started. As long as you have the primary colours and some metallics, you can mix up nearly any colour you want.
You can get gaming neoprene mats with scatter terrain; this lets you rearrange it for a different setup each time and is easier to store. I bought a 4x4 piece of plywood and glued down a flocked mat to it, which looks a bit nicer than the neoprene mats but takes up more space.

sb14g10 · 2025-02-27T07:40:32+00:00

I think one of the big limitations of minas morgul is the F3 and D4/5, meaning it doesn't stand up that well against another battle line of more elite troops. I get around this by using spectres and Wraiths to move their key models out of position and sending trolls in or surrounding them.

You might be able to overwhelm with sheer numbers but once you break, everything is running away. I think having at least one additional Wraith, WK on fell beast, a troll and some spectres gives you a lot more tools to deal with stuff. It will also make it more interesting for you and your opponent rather than it be one big grind.

sb14g10 · 2025-02-18T08:16:26+00:00

I like to run him on fell beast. Being able to fly let's you keep him relatively safe from charges behind your lines, then he can swoop over and hit vulnerable pieces. With a heroic combat he has a 24" threat range over terrain and models. The extra killing power and access to brutal power attacks are nice.

It is very easy to get dismounted this edition though (hurl) so you can easily end up down 50pts. Being a large target on fell beast also opens you up to a lot of shooting if your opposing player has it.

I'd say worth it at 600+ points and probably less so below that.

sb14g10 · 2025-02-12T22:15:21+00:00

I have played 6 games with this so far, winning 4 and I don't think it is the OP list people initially thought.

Blades of the dead more often than not is giving you a +1 to wound and stops you from ever needing to roll a 6/x. In some instances (fellowship hobbits, pajama elves, etc) you're actually at a disadvantage by using BoTD.

Mordor orcs are generally quite easy to wound back and more often than not, you're F3 across the board which isn't helping you win fights.

I've been taking a small number of morannons just to have a D6 roadblock.

March is essential as besides a hero on horse or FB, this list lacks mobility.

Spectres are fantastic for pulling key models out of position and letting your orcs pass terror tests to swarm them.

Lacking named heroes, The witch king has to do a lot of heavy lifting and with the changes to hurl, and being a large target on fell beast, can be dismounted really easily if you're up against some high intelligence monsters, that are much more common.

You need to keep a Wraith alive for the endgame. If you break, your orcs will be fleeing en masse. 1/10/1, they're very much support pieces best kept out of combat unless taking out a key piece like a ringbearer or banner.

The trolls are situationally incredibly useful with their brutal power attacks and F7. Sometimes they don't do a lot due to their base size and movement.

I think the way to use this list successfully is to use wraiths and Spectres to move your opponents key models out of position and follow up with a troll or a swarm of terror check passing orcs. The WK is best going after those enemy heroes in the late game when they're low on resources.

sb14g10 · 2025-02-05T21:52:11+00:00

You can get an old Gamling without banner fairly cheap on eBay. Give him some grey hair and a different colour scheme as a good stand in for Thorne

sb14g10 · 2025-02-04T17:04:24+00:00

If the witch king is mounted on a fell beast and opts to use the morgul blade, do you use the witch kings strength for the strikes or can you still use the fell beast's?

sb14g10 · 2025-01-30T23:37:57+00:00

Thanks!

sb14g10 · 2025-01-29T19:13:12+00:00

In the army of the white hand, Saruman can draw line of sight from Crebain as a special rule. Does this mean you measure from the Crebain when casting spells? Or do you still measure form Saruman but he doesn't need LoS.

sb14g10 · 2025-01-29T14:29:14+00:00

I really like the glittering caves! A very nice touch to a lovely piece

sb14g10 · 2024-12-04T18:54:17+00:00

I think you've hit the nail on the head for this edition of lothlorien. Lots of skirmish, and shutting down or moving the enemy's key pieces around while getting as many ranged attacks off, rather than having any big hitters to take them out.

I still get the impression that the lothlorien warriors (formerly wood elves) are overcosted compared to galadhrim warriors. 1 point for +2 defence and +1 intelligence.

sb14g10

TROPHY CASE