Best Armies in Middle Earth SBG!? ~ What is going to win tournaments?

[@TimmyT9204]

I definitely think Battle of Fornost has some potential to be a strong list this edition. Its biggest weakness is a leader with a reckless charge rule and only 1 Fate, but in exchange you get a F7 hero with lance, who can copy Fight value if he encounters someone F8+, a F8 12" moving hero with Lord of the West and +1 To Wound against Monsters, who also turns off Brutal Power Attacks, F5 warriors and elf bows, and KoMT boosted to F5, who under such circumstances I believe are the most points-efficient cavalry in the game.

[@mrvinc908]

Thanks a lot for the video, it was very interesting and it's always a pleasure to watch your content ! I I agree with you for all list but i think eagle and smaug are especially good in middle format point like 600 and 700 for smaug. In 800 will be a little more difficult for them. Dominant rule is great rule in this V7. In Belgium we think top 10 strong lists : Minas Morgul, Witch king host,, Battle of 5 armies, Denethor Army, Arnor with Malbeth, Army of the White Hand, Last alliance list with the d6 chance to wound against charges, Edoras Army and Erebor Reclaimed (The new charge rule is very strong for dwarfs). -from 4 big players in Belgium I would participe soon at 2 tournaments in Belgium and France, I'll tell you in next months what i have seen in EU win list. Ps : Gwahir get the most insane buff on the game. One trick we discover is that Gwahir, who get 3 Attacks and +1 attack with charge = 4 Attack with the fight Value of 8 But with the new Heroic Strengh, you get a Gwahir S6 x2 = Strengh 10 so the maximum possible ! In conclusion : he can absolutely thrown everything on the ground with his Monstrous Charge Special Rule even Monsters (except war beasts). Then you get 8 Attacks with Strengh 10 to Hit people

[@mrb19f6]

Something of note here for army of the white hand: you aren’t actually forced to take Saruman, you always want to for sure but its possible to run them withough him, muster of Isengard is the one you need Saruman for

[@TomArmour-k2e]

Was checking the comments to see if someone else had mentioned it

[@davidefurlan877]

I Always loved the Minas morgul vybes and basic orcs models, so when I First sow the Minas morgul list I fell in love with It. Dale and army of White hand are my future options as an army for sure, so besides Eagle and smaug I love to see that they are all on this list. I'd add three lists to the honorable mentions instead of yours: Ugluk scouts, black gate and host of the Witch king look funny and competitive too

[@Coyote1911]

Bro, your videos have really improved over time. Keep up the good work.

[@NoahTucker-kv5nq]

I think that battle of five armies will be a really good army because you can take lots of mixtures of guys

[@bouncingbeebles]

Hey. Thanks for the great content, and great scenery. Kind of a random question, but can you share the painting recipe for the roofs in your Kingdom of Noldareth. I really love that blue..

[@kingbonezai4925]

I do feel BotFA is one of the strongest, it is kinda the opposite of the super restricted armies a lot of factions have, where all green and some yellow allies now can all work together! Dwarves now have 2 wizard options in the list!

[@faolini]

It's eaqually scary and fun to see Smaug at tournments! How about Return of the King? I think it's a very strong army too!

[@alexandersmith1264]

Not fun at all, played him twice at a tournament (previous edition), bother were in kill pool missions

[@ZergSmasher]

I kind of want to run Usurpers of Edoras; Wulf seems like he'd be good at taking down enemy heroes, and the troops are cheap enough that you can bring a lot of them in higher points games, making that 6+ "Feel No Pain" rule extra tasty. Plus if you need some sturdier guys, you can bring Lord Thorne and some Rohirrim Traitors along. I'm not sure if the army is actually good or not though; I don't have enough experience actually playing to know one way or the other.

[@EntmootVideos]

Interesting - but personally I think the Eagles won’t scale well into higher points levels. The tournament you hinted at was only 450pts but once you get higher the Eagles will struggle to deal with multiple high fight heroes and magic. Still, that screech is horrendous! Nice vid. I agree that Isengard are still very strong, the hatred one is insane when combined with the changes to two-handing!

[@leonk.3739]

I am really not sure if the coins might not make it that much easier for Smaug to stay on objectives. I totally agree with your other choices though. I already had some success at a 650 pts with Minas Morgul and was actually quite happy to not take any mounts for the WK. At this event I talked to a player who took army of the white hand and he said that it's awful because the troops are bad and you can't benefit from the transfixes on a hero. I also think that you missed the 3 trolls because they can do things Smaug can do but at more point levels. I'm not sure if Eagles scale well. Yes, at the mentioned 450 pts event they were awesome. However, I am not sure if they can win some scenarios at higher points. At said 650 pts event I even tabled them with Minas Morgul

[@asmallchicken5836]

Earnur charging into Samug: "And I took that personally" i think Battle of Fornost is uniquely suited for the meta. Glorfindel absolutely bodies monsters and tag teaming him with Earnur means there's no threat that can't be taken head on.

[@grimgrauman7650]

I don't think Smaug is up there. He has 3 Big problems: 1. You can now always shoot at smaug, even if he is in Combat and don't have to roll who you hit. So shooting Armys can keep shooting at hin all game. 2. The 3 enemy models that have the gold markers. Hit will be really dificult to get all 3 Gold Markers so it is 2 Vicory points for the enemy. Also the enemy can use these models to Move Smaug away from objectives, if they do it at the end of the game you can even loose hold ground. 3. You don't have a banner, a problem that smaug is not alone with😅

[@leonk.3739]

I agree with your conclusion but 1. is wrong (see last sentence of "large target" on page 127 of the rule book:"If the target model is Engaged in Combat, then the In The Way Test for Shooting into Combat is still applied regardless of the model the target model is Engaged in Combat with.")

[@grimgrauman7650]

@leonk.3739 colossal Frame is the special ruel that is important here.

[@foxplot7287]

Has anyone ever seen a Smaug vs Smaug matchup? It must've happened right?

[@maxtracker2904]

1:01 When you said Smaug’s “just a beast!” I immediately thought “No, he’s not, he’s a dragon! 😡”. Too much D&D for me… 🤦🏻

[@ZedLeppelin1989]

....hilarious

[@kelbaaasaa]

Any hope for a Legion of Mordor list comprised entirely of Easterling Captains and Warriors? This edition has been super thematic and fun for me as an Easterling player.

[@ZergSmasher]

I expect Easterlings will get some love in the much awaited third army book.

[@ajtame]

Interesting how people were moaning that evil was bad this edition :D

[@ric1194]

He's missed the mark on half of these pal.

[@greenstreet_gaming5409]

What happens with terrain with smaug? Does he get super hampered. Or do you remove it when he lands on it?

[@justinfanter3620]

Trying BOTFA tomorrow in a tourney, Thrandaddy Dain and Gwahir 🦅

[@markhanson9508]

I'd swap out smaug for the trolls. There are just so many points levels that smaug can't play at. And at higher points it's not like you can ally with some help. But the trolls scale.

[@MagicMaciek89]

Can you try do def yourself with Will when Saruman use his auto spells ?

[@dimitrismoutzouris7369]

I always liked Lothlorien. What do you guys think of the new Lothlorien?!

[@GlennJackson-d8e]

I recently noticed that several profiles for units state that options "must" be taken instead of "may" be taken. Is there a reason for this? It is easy to miss. By the way, your terrain makes me want to buy a printer. Rats.

[@Anton-ik1ph]

What about Ugluk scouts? Or even Lurtz, for the game with small pts 🤷‍♂️

[@duncanpeacock2177]

ill be banning smaug at all my events, for the same reasons as last edition, from a to point of view setting up terrain with him in mind is awful and really limits set ups. Plus (imo) hes very NPE. The fact that hes more competitive is secondary to these concerns.

[@leonk.3739]

Wouldn't ignoring him when setting up the terrain be a good middle ground? There are lots of other npe things you'd also have to ban if you want to ban him (for example Sauron or the Balrog).

[@irishtom30]

Most powerful army in the game: Painted Army

[@grimgrauman7650]

You acctuly don't need to take Saruman in Amry of the white hand (even if it is recomended) That said you can still take Grima even is Saruman is not in the list, so the might be a reason on low points

[@Anton-ik1ph]

With all special rules about Saruman avoid him is dully

[@finnbruton7274]

Yes pretty good top5 but last alliance should have been on there. Though, maybe it’s too obvious a choice and has been talked about a lot. Additionally I think it really works specifically with Elrond and Isildur

[@adamn8156]

It would be hilarious to bring the White Council to a tournament. Just put down five models lol.

[@Schneider177]

Love the content

[@Napominis]

Is Smaug incredibly weak against siege weapons now tho?

[@grimgrauman7650]

Not really as he is a battlefield target -> a normal hit only does 1 wound

[@maxblade1155]

@@grimgrauman7650no he is not

[@maxblade1155]

@@grimgrauman7650he still lose 10 wounds from 1 siege weapon

[@GollumGamers]

Appreciate the mention 🥰

[@ianshannon5789]

I have long been a fan of Dale.

[@Bocco83]

Sad me who wanted to start an ent army

[@ConquestCreations]

Ents are great as well! The new monster rules make them a lot scarier and they got a point decrease as well

[@Bocco83]

@ConquestCreations yeah, but what it sold it for me was the fact that there are 4 types of ents. So cool

[@leonk.3739]

I think Ents can do very well at events especially because they don't care about some of the typical monster counters like trapping them (due to bludgeon you can't do this multiple times without losing tons of minis) or casting transfix on them.

[@siebura]

Do it! I started an Ent army for this edition and it HITS HARD. Treebeard especially is S Tier. They're very hard to counter with how good monsters are now.

[@Bocco83]

@siebura working on it :) already ordered an ent, then I found a treebeard and quick bean proxy that are awesome. Tomorrow I'll fire the 3dprinter

[@lordravenblade]

The list better change soon when the third army book comes out

[@DionPhilbey]

Don't really agree with eagles being the best. I'm building some and don't want that cloud over me.

[@tomtruyens7998]

All these special rules and modifiers are giving me 40k bloat flashbacks 😬

[@szilarderki5449]

I have already hated the eagles, now its worse...eagle spam on a tournament like that is boring and annoying as hell...

[@denisgizmo1441]

Finalyyyyyyyyy

[@ric1194]

How have you missed off men of the west, it stomps army of the White hand, intact aotwh is extremely bad because its a one trick pony on saruman