February 2024 FAQ Reaction

 "The world changes, and all that once was strong now proves unsure." Theoden

There was an FAQ, there were questions, there were answers, there were changes.

So what are my thoughts on this new post-FAQ landscape we find ourselves in?

Meh.

I don't really care. The changes are relatively minor and don't impact any of the armies I use or have planned, so grand. The general lack of requirement to make changes shows that the balance is generally in a reasonably good place at the moment, which is great.

PS. Something about Jamie Wiggans, for some unknown reason. 

New Year, New Me?

"There never was much hope. Just a fool's hope."

New Year's is traditionally a time for new beginnings, new resolutions and new challenges. New Year, New Me and all that malarkey. But I'm sure you're not interested in hearing about me losing weight, giving up booze and going to the gym (none of which I have no intention of attempting).

No. This is a hobby blog and so (I assume) you're here to read about hobbying*. And so what crazy resolution/challenge will I be attempting to kick start 2024? After spending literally moments considering it, I had the perfect challenge to spectacularly fail at.

This year, my ill-thoughtout challenge will be to paint 100 models in 100 days. That means that between January 1st and April 10th I will attempt to complete 100 models. Now, considering that I painted a total of about 88 models in the entirety of 2023 and my current record for a whole calendar year is around 110, this may be impossible, but God loves a tryer.

And to start off, between midnight and 1am on New Year's I painted the first model of this challenge; Oindiana Jones, dwarven treasurer seeker.

Now wish me luck, and you can follow my progress/failure by checking out my Instagram.

*If you're not you're probably in the wrong place.

It's like in the Great Tales

'A story must be told or there'll be no story, yet it is the untold stories that are most moving.' JRR Tolkien

Bilbo Baggins by Raoul Vitale

One of the most common questions that I see asked about MESBG is 'how do you write an army list for [insert faction here]? Obviously, the answer here depends heavily on what faction is being asked about but there's probably as many answers here as there are wargamers. In general though there's a few archetypes for how I see people writing lists; ranging from power gamers and net listers right through the spectrum to the thematic gamers.

Personally, I fit very firmly within the thematic gamer camp and something that I've noticed more and more with how I create army lists is that I'm always trying to make my army lists not just be a believable army within the realms of Middle Earth but I also want it to tell a story. Take for example, the army I took to the Nirnaeth Arnoediad which was telling the story of the Knights of Gondor rescuing the retreat of Faramir across the Pelennor in the buildup to the Siege of Minas Tirith.

I find that this takes thematic list writing to another step up, where every decision I choose to make has to have a justification for it within the story I'm trying to tell and that these decisions then influence the building and painting of my army. This is most evident when it comes to hero choices, MESBG is a game defined by its heroes, although it also filters down through the hero choices Again using my Knights of Gondor as an example, I had a Captain of Minas Tirith leading a small warband and rather than leave him nameless and his story untold I checked through the books and found that Hirluin the Fair of Pinnath Gelin rode alongside Imrahil on the Pelennor, and so my Captain of Minas Tirith became Hirluin and from there the model came to life.

Hirluin the Fair from my Knights of Gondor army 

This story-driven army building approach doesn't have to be wedded to the letter of the books or the images of the film, however. As long as you can justify your choices within the context of the world Tolkien created you can really have some fun probing the edges of the map and exploring the untold tales of Middle Earth, creating your own stories as you go, 'Forging the Narrative' to coin the old Games Workshop term. It's as Tolkien himself said it's the untold tales that are the most moving.

I'm not saying that this is the right or best way to write army lists for this great game, but it is a very fun one and one I'll certainly be continuing to do as I embark on new adventures in the hobby and I encourage others to do so to.

Nírnaeth Arnoediad - Tournament Report

 And then a trumpet rang from the Citadel, and Denethor at last released the sortie. Drawn up within the shadow of the Gate and under the looming walls outside they had waited for his signal: all the mounted men that were left in the City. Now they sprang forward, formed, quickened to a gallop, and charged with a great shout. And from the walls an answering shout went up; for foremost on the field rode the swan-knights of Dol Amroth with their Prince and his blue banner at their head.

'Amroth for Gondor!' they cried. 'Amroth to Faramir!'

Like thunder they broke upon the enemy on either flank of the retreat; but one rider outran them all, swift as the wind in the grass: Shadowfax bore him, shining, unveiled once more, a light starting from his upraised hand.

The Nazgûl screeched and swept away, for their Captain was not yet come to challenge the white fire of his foe. The hosts of Morgul intent on their prey, taken at unawares in wild career, broke, scattering like sparks in a gale. The out-companies with a great cheer turned and smote their pursuers. Hunters became the hunted. The retreat became an onslaught. The field was strewn with stricken orcs and men, and a reek arose of torches cast away, sputtering out in swirling smoke. The cavalry rode on.

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the largest tournament ever held on the island of Ireland, the 56 player Nírnaeth Arnoediad. This was an 800 point event that counted for both the IHL and the GBHL. Early on I decided I wanted to focus heavily on bringing a themed army and settled on an all cavalry Gondor army based upon the rescue of Faramir in the early stages of the Seige of Gondor, as described above. The list I eventually took was:

Warband 1

Prince Imrahil on Armoured Horse with Lance 

6 Knights of Dol Amroth on Armoured Horse with Lance 

Warband 2

Gandalf the White on Shadowfax 

1 Knight of Minas Tirith with Banner and Shield 

7 Knights of Minas Tirith with Shield 

2 Citadel Guard with Horse and Longbow 

Warband 3

Captain of Minas with Horse, Shield and Lance 

3 Knights of Minas Tirith

My army and display board (more photos are available on my Instagram)

Cavalry is not something I'm all that experienced in using (I think I'd painted a grand total of 7 horses in over a decade before starting this project) and knowing how competitive this event was likely to be I wasn't expecting to do that great in the games, I was just hoping to have a laugh, have some good games and enjoy myself with a very thematic army.

For anyone interested, all the lists that were used at this event can be found here.

Game 1

Contest of Champions

Connor Kerr 

Mordor Orc horde

Up 1st I got drawn up against the Scot, Connor Kerr and his Mordor Orc horde, led by Goroth, a very thematic match up. I was pretty happy when the scenario was called as Contest of Champions because I felt that Prince Imrahil, on his horse with a lance should be able to win a killing contest against a lowly Orc. Deploying Imrahil front and centre ready to run down as many Orcs as possible. Meanwhile Connor hid Goroth behind his biggest hero, Shagrat, not wanting his Leader to take a lance to the face immediately. The rest of the forces deployed along either flank of the Leaders in the centre. 

With all my cavalry, it was important for me to get that initial charge in, which fortunately I did with Imrahil and his Swan Knights. Although that initial charge didn't punch as big a hole as I'd have liked (thanks to some very good rolling by Connor's warriors) Imrahil did get off the mark with a couple of kills and Gandalf was able to limit the effectiveness of his heroes with some spells. After a couple of Heroic Combats Imrahil burst through the orc lines and charged into the Trackers lurking behind, killing 4 of them in one turn (despite one passing 3 Fury saves in a row). Meanwhile, Shadowfax was slain, leaving Gandalf to fight it out with Kardush (a fight the White Wizard didn't win, falling to the Shaman's spear) and Warriors were falling on both sides. Eventually, the Orc heroes were able to slow Imrahil's rampage, killing his horse, then surrounding him and scoring a wound just before the game ended. 

The final tally was; 

Imrahil - 9 kills

Goroth - 4 kills

So with both sides broken and Imrahil wounded I took the win on a score of 5-3 under the modified victory conditions that were in place at this event. 

Game 2

Breakthrough 

Connor Whitla 

Thorin's Company 

Game 2 saw me drawn up against another Connor, Connor Whitla and his Thorin's Company in Breakthrough. Knowing that I had the advantage in both numbers and mobility, I lined up my Knights ready for an early charge to pin the Dwarves back as far from my objective as possible. That 1st charge saw a Swan Knight ride down Ori (no messing about with slingshots here), although Imrahil's attempted early hit on Gloin failed. I tried to slow down the 3 most dangerous Dwarves (Thorin, Dwalin and Gloin) with Gandalf's magic but with 3 targets to watch it meant that there was always at least 1 able to deal big damage, even when I managed to knock over Dwalin and Gloin with a well placed Sourcerous Blast. Connor generally played the game fairly well, cutting down most of my Knights and even finding a legitimate reason to use Combat Synergy with Fili and Kili, but eventually my numbers and mobility paid off with me holding one of the centreline objectives and Connor's home objective while he was unable to hold any. So with us both broken it finished a 7-2 victory for the Knights. Its well known in the IHL that I am Thorin's Company's biggest fan and so having to kill them left a tinge of sadness but Connor was a great opponent to play against and gave a really fun game. 

Game 3

Capture and Control 

Christian Lewis 

Host of the Dragon Emperor 

So after 2 games and 2 wins against 2 Connors I was hoping to complete the Connor Trilogy and play Connor Glover in game 3, but the computer calculating the draw had other ideas, putting us a couple of tables apart (see how Connor did on the Wookies of Mirkwood YouTube channel here). Instead, I was drawn against Christian Lewis and his beautiful Host of the Dragon Emperor in Capture and Control. 

I'll be honest, when I read through all the army lists before the event, it was the Host of the Dragon Emperor ones that worried me the most. A F5 pike block seemed like it would be a very good hard counter to my Knights, being able to get more high Fight attacks into my big bases would make it hard for me to win fights and cause damage even when I was able to get off a good charge. And generally that's how the game went. 

The board we were playing on had a couple of choke points along the centreline, which I wanted to avoid as Christian's pikes would be excellent at holding them, so I deployed my line back hoping to draw him forward into more open ground. Fortunately he did move forwards and I charged in, hoping to inflict some damage to his phalanx. That 1st charge saw fairly even casualties on either side. However, on my follow-up charge on the next turn, my cavalry started to make some headway, inflicting about 10 kills for no losses at one point. But, unfortunately that luck didn't hold for long and heavy casualties were suffered by both sides, losses that the Easterlings could afford to sustain. The Dragon Emperor especially proved his worth, killing my Captain and rolling up my left flank before killing Gandalf in the centre. Meanwhile, Imrahil and his Swan Knights put up strong resistance on my right flank before eventually succumbing to weight of numbers and being cut down. The game finally ended with my entire force being wiped out for a 12-0 loss, which maybe doesn't fully reflect how tense the game was. 

Unfortunately, parental responsibilities meant that I couldn't stay around for day 2, but I was very happy with my experience. The Tournament was very well run and Michael Bradford is an absolute legend. The Knights performed admirably, achieving 2 wins from 3, much better than I initially predicted. They were a very fun list to play, hitting very hard and fast but also proving surprisingly fragile due to their low numbers. Its certainly an army I'd want to use again, although I'd definitely consider swapping Gandalf out and replacing him with Boromir with Banner as I found Gandalf was a difficult model to get the most out of, whereas the Fight Value buff offered by Boromir would have proved very useful as well as having another big hitter to complement Imrahil. 

And so it just leaves me to say thank you to the 2 Connor's and Christian for 3 great games and a big thanks to Micheal for organising a great event. 

Nírnaeth Arnoediad - Army Lists

Nirneath Arnoediad - Statistical Analysis

 

The biggest MESBG tournament ever held on the island of Ireland lands this coming weekend at the Nirneath Arnoediad tournament, hosted in Belfast. With 56 players planning on attending there's an awful lot of army lists to study and Tournament Organiser, Michael Bradford has very kindly provided me that big long list to bring to you here on my blog. 

However, we'll get on to that later in the week. Firstly, as a little starter to wet your appetites, he also sent over an array of stats about the multitude of lists, so let's dive in and take a little look at these.

Up 1st is the breakdown of Good vs Evil, which came out very balanced, which Good ever so slightly edging the contest by the slimmest of possible margins.

Looking at the Alliance breakdown next and we can see that Legendary Legions are the most popular, closely followed by Pure single faction armies. With only a small amount of Yellow alliances and no Red ones would suggest that the army bonuses and Legion rules are generally encouraging players towards thematic lists, even in competitive environments. 

Moving on to look more closely at the factions in action we can see that Minas Tirith and Mordor are the most popular factions. Both of these have plenty of options and a good selection of alliances, so it's not surprising to see them being popular. In 3rd place is the Dragon Emperor Legion, with 5 of them here, and this is very much flavour of the month in competitive play. What is very pleasing though is the wide variety of factions on show, 45 separate factions being represented in some form.

There will also be a wide range of army sizes in attendance. These range from as low as 5 to as high as 80 models. Most of the armies, however, fall around the 40 model mark, which tallies well with the general rule of thumb of 1 model per 20 points. 

The typical bow count is also fairly reflective of the overall model count with most lists bringing around 10-15 (around 1/3 of the average model count). There are however, a few lists with some serious shooting potential, up to a maximum of 26 bows. Meanwhile, at the other end of the scale are 11 lists without any bows at all.

Heroes are a key part of the game and here we can see that most people brought around 3 or 4 heroes in their armies. There are a few all hero lists that standout for having much higher hero counts. This is also shown in the amount of Might each army has, with most having between 8 and 12 (typical for 3 or 4 heroes) and with 1 reaching up as high as 24 Might!

Speaking of Heroes, we can also see that the most common Leader is the Dragon Emperor (curtesy of the Legion), followed by the Witch-King, Suladan, Theoden and Imrahil as the 5 most popular. 

And finally the most important statistic.

Only one slingshot.

That's all for today, but join me again later in the week to these glorious lists in full.

IHL Newsletter- April 2023

 "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." Bilbo Baggins

Well, we've just over a quarter of the year behind us, and a busy few months it has been in the IHL. Kicking off the year was the Season Opener at the Battles on the Coast, where reigning champion Ivan Sheehan began the new year as he left off the last with the top prize. The league then swiftly moved on to the single-day Tallaght Skirmish, which saw Alex Neaves claim his 1st solo IHL tournament victory. Continuing with the 1st time tournament winners, Dan Ahern took home the silverware from the Desolation of Dublin in February, before Ivan Sheehan once again returned the top at You Shall Not Fast in April. All of this means that Ivan has taken an early lead in the League standings, closely followed by Michael Bradford, with David Murphy in 3rd place.

But it's not just events on the island of Ireland that have been of interest to the IHL community. In March 3 intrepid teams travelled to Spain to compete in the World Team Championship, finishing 13th, 18th and 28th and Dan Ahern finishing the weekend as the best individual player. Here's Ireland Team 2 Captain, Dave Murphy to say a view words about the experience.

So, yet again (somehow), I find myself writing for this absolutely not top notch blog*. I guess the readers want to read the thoughts of an opinionated fool like myself.
Anyway, lets cut the crap, Rob wants needs me to write some dribble about the Irish teams experience at the WTC 2023, which took place in Granada, Spain from the 17th - 19th March this year.
We had a grand aul time in fairness so we did.
The IHL sent 3 teams to the WTC (formerly the ETC) this year - Ireland One, Ireland Two, and Northern Ireland.
The teams consisted of a mixed bag of stellar, and not so stellar lads. And then me.

Ireland One was captained by good lad (I guess) Ivan Sheehan, who was accompanied by David Coleman (scum), Michael Bunting, and Mike Bradford.

Ireland Two was captained by myself. And with me were my old reliable comrades in arms from 2022, Gary Doyle, and Dan Ahern. Rounding out the team was new recruit, Connor Glover, a top lad, and a terrible player (more on that later).

Finally, we had Northern Ireland led by Dave Wade, and with him was Nicky Forsythe, Glenn Crangle, and Chris Caves Snr.

The players all flew to Malaga on the Friday, before making their way to Granada. We had hoped to have gone over earlier to make a proper holiday out of it, but ultimately we all just settled on a Friday to Monday trip. Hopefully next year we can get over for a longer trip.

In terms of lists, my team had brought Angmar, Assault Upon Helms Deep, Rivendell and Numenor, and Thranduils Halls and Laketown, with our dud list being Barad-Dur.

Going into Saturday, we knew which teams we would be playing in Rounds 1-3, due to the WTC's Pool system. Then it was Swiss ranked for the Sunday.
We ended up playing Scotland 3, Germany 2, Poland 2, England 2, Sweden, and Spain 3.

We had prepared pretty well for the event, although it would become apparent as the games progressed that our armies were generally too low on numbers.
This was particularly tough for Gary and Connor whose lists were small elite forces with big expensive Heroes.
Dan and I make quite a good pair at doing match ups in my view, but it was tough to get the best match ups with so many scenarios favouring numbers. Connor's inexperience also showed. He's a top lad, but by Day Two our strategy with Connor became simply to throw him under the metaphorical bus and hope he didn't get completely crushed 🤣 - in the end, he was dead last (sorry Connor, love ye lad 😆😁 )

We also learned that Assault Upon Helms Deep, Assault on Lothlorien, and Army of Laketown all need I nerf (Jay Clare, sort it out).

The hotel we stayed in was lovely, and we got a good a deal with them for food and rooms included in the ticket price. All in all, it was a great venue and we would absolutely go back there again.
The event itself ran a lot smoother this year, as there was a larger team of experienced refs on hand to deal with questions and issues, and do admin.
In addition, there was a lot of extra time per round, which made getting games finished much easier (this had been a major problem last year).
Hopefully the WTC 2024 will pretty much be a rinse and repeat of 2023. If it is, then the IHL looks forward to sending it's gallant warriors to Granada once again.

Right, I've rambled enough. Good bye viewers (until the next time, maybe).

And this coming weekend our very own Micheal Bradford will travel to Warhammer World for the GBHL Masters event, an invite only event comprising of the top players in last year's GBHL. Let's catch up with Micheal to see what he has to say about competing at this prestigious event.

After making the journey over to England and Scotland a few times towards the tail end of last year (2022), I was really pleased to earn a spot in the 2023 GBHL Masters Invitational Tournament.

The Tournament itself is taking place at Warhammer World, and it'll be my first time going there.

The 16 players in attendance present exceptionally stiff competition in vying for the ultimate Masters title, but at the very least I can say that it's an honour to simply contest the field.

Having seen the draw, I'm in for a Day 1 double dose of the Host of the Dragon Emperor, and an Evil cheesy soup list. Sure, what else could you want!

Nevertheless, it'll be a lovely opportunity to see friends and build relationships within the MESBG community. For me, that is a huge part of the hobby.

Last year saw me starting to travel across the water for events a little more, and this year I've really thrown myself into that. It's great that this hobby transcends international boundaries, and presents opportunities to meet many new people from everywhere and anywhere who share the same passion.

I do my best to be a good ambassador for both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and my goal is to advertise the burgeoning and exciting scene on this island. By increasing my travelling for events, keeping in touch with people, and hosting my own GBHL 100 event (Nírnaeth Arnoediad 2023), I hope to effectively 'renew the ties between the Shire and Bree' (or in this case, this island and the rest of the world). I look forward to seeing an increase in the amount of players travelling in both directions as we expand our horizons.

Iron sharpens iron, and for those competitively-minded Irish Hobbit League participants, most events are pretty much a mini-Masters. We've a great pool of talented players, and some of them have already been making their mark in the GBHL. I expect that number to grow, and I hope that the relationships between our MESBG community here and the MESBG communities in other countries will grow stronger with it.

Ultimately, it's an honour to be bringing some NI/RoI representation to such a prestigious event, and going forward, I'm excitedly anticipating that our representation at this event will increase further.


So that's all the catching up done, now we can look ahead to what's on the horizon of the IHL calendar.



6th-7th May - Breakthrough of Bangor - Exploding Dice Games, Bangor - Paddy McCormick - 600 points - IHL 100 points and GBHL 90 points [Tickets Available]

3rd-4th June - Conquest of Hibernia - Underworld Gaming, Dublin - Dave Murphy - 777 points - IHL 100 points, GBHL 100 points and Ardacon Masters Qualifier [Tickets Available]

25th June - Middle Earth's Greatest Heroes - Underworld Gaming, Dublin - Luke O'Reilly - 1000 points all Heroes - IHL 50 points [Tickets Available]

15th-16th July - Nirneath Arnoediad - Belfast Harlequins Rugby Club, Belfast - Michael Bradford - 800 points - IHL 100 points, GBHL 100 points and Ardacon Masters Qualifier [SOLD OUT - Contact Micheal to be added to the reserve list]


As you can see there's a lot going on within the Irish Hobbit League so head over to the Facebook page to keep up to date with all the goings on.

Until next time.



*I knew I should have asked Dan to write this instead.