IHL Interviews: Micheal Bunting

Rob: The next installment of my series of interviews sees us chatting with IHL regular, Micheal Bunting.

Welcome to the Over the Edge of the Wild blog. Would you like to take this opportunity to introduce yourself to the readers?

Micheal: Of course my name is Michael and I’ve been playing SBG for about 4 years now. I really love the creative side of the hobby, making terrain, alternative paint schemes, and building unique armies. We have a great gaming community in Ireland and I’m proud to be part of it.

Can you give us a little background your history within the ME:SBG hobby? Are there any particular highlights that stand out for you?

So when I started out with the hobby I had no affiliation with any hobby groups or anyone else that played SBG. I started out by purchasing one of the old sourcebooks and I’ve really built my collection around the scenarios and campaigns that I would have played with my close friends. I would say for me the highlights would be meeting the amazing SBG community here in Ireland and overseas. I have been to Ardacon twice now and I always love the friendly atmosphere at SBG tournaments.

You mentioned that you enjoy the creative side of the hobby, so what models are currently working on painting?

Well I have a bit of a random system to work through the backlog of models that I have. I literally roll a dice, pick out that box and that's what I'm working on. For terrain I have recently made the walls of Minas Tirith and some seige towers. For models my next batch involves Thranduils halls and eagles. I'm also waiting on a certain dragon that might skip the queue to the painting table!

Before the suspension of the League in March due to the ongoing pandemic you had been performing well at tournaments. What sort of armies were you using to achieve this success?

Elves. While I prefer playing scenarios and themed games I like to bring competitive armies to competitive events. I personally believe that this edition of the game is all about fight value and when you have fight six infantry with elven blades, they do a lot of the work for you.

You've become known for your displeasure about the restrictions imposed by the Alliance Charts. Could you please explain a bit more about why that is?

Haha, and here I thought I had ranted enough. So for me, the hobby is about creativity and fun. I would love to go to an event and see every army as a unique take on middle earth. Restricting what you can and can’t take reduces creativity as well, in my opinion. The idea of a predetermined list with clearly laid out rules is great for many people, just not my preference. I understand that it’s a hard thing to balance game play and promote creativity at the same time. This edition does it better than the last but we see a lot of very similar lists now.  I guess that’s a good thing to a lot of people.

Do you think we'll be seeing more Impossible Alliances from you as League activities resume post Covid?

It has become something of a running joke now that I will take an impossible alliance just for the sake of it. I’ll continue doing what I’ve always done. I’ll take the models that I want to take in my army and if it’s an impossible alliance then so be it. That is not something that would ever deter me from playing what I wanted to play.

Finally, before you go, what's one piece of advice would you give to someone just starting out with the hobby?

So I could say about collecting the models you like, finding your local gaming community or something like that. However, my personal message to new players (and old for that matter) is to try out scenario play. The game was designed to recreate scenes from middle earth and while it has been adapted wonderfully for competitive play, I would highly recommend scenario play if it is at all possible. Removing the pressure of having to win and recreating the incredible moments we all love in middle earth is my favourite thing about the hobby. I have had some great competitive games and won some events but my favourite memories of the hobby are things like Helm’s Deep, Balin’s Tomb and other iconic moments we can recreate in this game.

 Vast Legions of Uruk Hai prepare to assault the fortress of Helm's Deep

 The men of Rohan ready to defend their Kingdom

The Pale Orc Azog attempts to end the line of Durin at the Battle of Azanulbizar

Thank you Micheal for taking the time to provide this interview. I look forward to seeing your next big narrative scenarios, maybe we'll see those Minas Tirith walls in action.

Faction Focus: Thorin's Company - Part 1

'We are met to discuss our plans, our ways, means, policy and devices. We shall soon before the break of day start on our long journey, a journey from which some of us, or perhaps all of us (except our friend and counsellor, the ingenious wizard Gandalf) may never return....'

Recently I showcased my completed Laketown themed Thorin's Company and following the positive feedback I decided to do a follow-up by taking a deeper look at the Company in game.

Because everyone in this list offers very different things to the army I'll start off by taking a look at each member in turn with a brief overview of what they bring to the table.

Thorin

The leader of the Company and honestly my first pick every time I use the Company. Boasting the best stats of any company member, his F6, 3A, Heroic Strike ability and option to bring Orcrist make him a formidable fighter and the option to get D8 with the Oakenshield combined with 3 wounds and 3 Fate make him the most durable Dwarf available. The bonuses to wound to nearby models granted by the army bonus is also very handy to have to help cut down your enemies.

Fili and Kili

I was planning to cover each Dwarf individually, but these 2 brothers are very much alike, so I felt like I'd just be repeating myself. Two average fighters with possibly the least useful special rule in the army list, their main saving graces are access to Heroic Strike and the ability to provide some ranged fire. Thorin's Company isn't going to win any fire fight, but being able to extend their threat range with Kili's bow or Fili's throwing axes is a useful tool for your armoury.

Balin

I'll be honest, Balin is not among my top picks for the Company. As the elder statesman of the group he is not a particularly powerful warrior with only 1 Attack. His special rule is situational and in my experience is hard to pull off unless both players rolled low. If you need to move first in a turn then in general a Heroic Move will often be as good an option (and potentially costing nothing) and in especially important positions will be required anyway if the enemy can call one himself. The only times I can see this being really useful is if the opponent also rolled low and has no heroes in range to call a Heroic Move or if you want to lose priority to see where the enemies will be moving, both fairly corner case scenarios.

Dwalin

Dwalin is a beast in combat thanks to F6, S5, 3 Attacks, his two handed hammer and burly. This is the guy that you want to be targeting your opponents big tough bulwarks. However, he isn't the most durable so can easily become a target himself because your opponent knows what damage he is capable of and can focus attention on knocking him out before he can start smashing heads with that hammer.

Bifur

The most improved member of the Company in this edition, Bifur has gone from a Dwarf I wouldn't really have considered to being one of the top picks. He has the only spear available in the list, although that's situational at best as he'll probably be getting stuck into the front lines quickly due to being out numbered in most encounters. He can also help with range by throwing stones, but with short range and low strength don't expect much here.

Instead it's his Embedded Axe Blade special rule that makes him one of the best options in the list. The ability to get free Heroic Moves is incredible allowing you to maintain the initiative by moving first and hence avoiding becoming surrounded and overwhelmed while also preserving your Might stores for Heroic Combats or Strikes or for winning key fights is just too good to pass up. Main tactic with Bifur is to get into combat early and headbutt with his embedded axe blade to trigger this rule as early as possible, even spending Might on the wound roll to ensure that it works early.

Bofur

From one of the top choices to one of the bottom ones. Unfortunately (despite him being one of my favourite Dwarves in the films) Bofur just doesn't cut it in the game. His main problem is that his only weapon is a 2-handed mattock. With only 2 Attacks at F4 and no option to avoid the -1 for a 2-handed weapon he just isn't going to win enough fights to be effective. His special rule is decent against magic, but an opponent can easily avoid casting spells that could be impacted by it by not targeting him directly and ensuring that Bofur is outside of any areas of effect, so is unlikely to have any effect.

Bombur

3 wounds and the ability to call Heroic Defense make Bombur one of the more durable members of the Company, although only having 2 Attacks limits his damage output to about average for the list. His ability to restore Will points to friendly models synergizes very well with other Company members like Balin, Oin and Gandalf who want to use Will to activate special rules or cast magical powers, or can be useful for helping others stopping enemy spell casters by providing additional Will for resist rolls.

Ori

Despite having the worst stats of all the Dwarves Ori really is the superstar of the Company. As I said his stats are poor but that's not why you take him. Number 1; the Chronicler special rule allows nearby models to regain Might, which is really useful because Thorin's Company tends to burn through Might quite quickly in my experience. And Number 2; Slingshot. Quite frankly the most powerful weapon in Middle Earth, in my opinion. Ori's slingshot is capable of doing doing untold damage to your enemies (as some of my past opponents will attest to) just don't expect people to be overly happy about it.

Nori

Nori is essentially a mini Dwalin, getting the same bonuses for his 2-handed mace without the draw backs associated with 2-handed weapons. F5 with Heroic Strike can certainly help to ensure that his blows will land, but only having 2 Attacks and S4 make him slightly less reliable than Dwalin. Overall though Nori is the best fighter of all the non-3 Attack Dwarves, so definitely worth including.

Dori

Dori is actually surprisingly a very solid fighter for the Company thanks to his 3 Attacks at F5. Other than that his other stats are average and his special rule allowing Bilbo to use his heroic stats is handicapped by Dori's low amount of these stats. His combat ability merits inclusion, in a small elite army like Thorin's Company the number of dice in a duel roll is key to ensure that you can win combats and hence both kill your enemies and avoid your own models being killed.

Oin

Oin is a tricky one to use, in my experience. His abilities are really useful, being able to heal lost wounds is handy in an all hero force and he is the only source of banner rerolls without resorting to allies. As I said above, getting more dice to win a fight is great for this army. But, Oin is a purely support character, which means that you really don't want him getting into combat or he can be taken out relatively easily (especially when compared to some of the other members of the Company). However, his rules require him to be close to the action to have an effect and in such a low model count army it's difficult to screen him off from harm so he can readily become an easy target for your opponent. Careful positioning is key to getting the most out of Oin without putting him at too much risk.

Gloin

The final Dwarven member of the Company, Gloin is one of the top fighters available. While not quite as dangerous as Dwalin an extra point of Defense makes him slightly more sturdy and a throwing axe extends his threat range above Dwalin's. He is also less dependant on staying close to Thorin as he naturally gets to reroll 1s to wound instead of only getting it when close to Thorin, meaning he can be a little more flexible in his positioning without impacting his output.

Bilbo

The famous Hobbit. In general Bilbo's stats are fairly ordinary, not the best fighter which is what you'd expect from a Hobbit. Bilbo's main benefits come from the option to take the One Ring. Considering this costs zero points there is really no reason not to especially as Bilbo ignores the main negative aspect of wearing the Ring. Wearing the Ring has a couple of benefits; it makes it harder for your enemy to charge you and it halves the Fight Value of anyone in combat with Bilbo. Your aim should be to get Bilbo and one of your damage dealing Dwarves (Dwalin springs to mind) into combat with enemy heroes where Bilbo can really help the Dwarf win the combat without relying on Heroic Strikes and hence knock out the enemy Hero.

Gandalf

I'll admit, I don't often use magic so am probably not the best for advice on Gandalf. He has a mixture of defensive spells (Blinding Light, Protection of the Valor etc), control spells (Immobile, Command) and more aggressive ones (Sorceress Blast, Collapse Rocks etc). This makes him very versatile and able to offer something useful no matter the circumstances and therefore a very useful choice for the Company.

So that's covered my views on all the members of Thorin's Company. I'll be back soon with some thoughts on general tactics, allies and list building.