How to Play Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game - All the Basics in 17 Minutes

my name is jacob lucas and you're watching conquest creations middle earth strategy battle game is my favorite game it's always described as easy to learn but hard to master if you're interested in a game of skill and tactics that's really enjoyable and has cinematic moments as well as an amazing community then this is the game for you to play middle earth you just need a few things you need a handful of six-sided dice a measuring tape in inches some models a pen and paper and a space to play if you're just starting out it's totally fine to play with unpainted minis and with some spare books or boxes as terrain if you're just getting started it can be a bit overwhelming with the number of factions models and rule books to begin just use the main rule book and an army book there are lots of expansions but don't worry about them for now i don't even own most of them in the army's book you will find profiles of all the models in lord of the rings these might look a bit complicated but don't worry it's actually pretty simple and once we get started you'll understand it before we play a game we need to make an army so let's start there to make my army i'm going to start by choosing a hero to be my leader let me go for shaku he's a ruthless wag rider commander i'm going to upgrade him with a wag and a shield so he costs a total of 65 points i also need some troops in my army because shaku is a hero of fortitude he can lead 12 troops if i want to take more troops i'll need to add more heroes most armies have three to five heroes some heroes like aragon are heroes of legend so they can lead up to 18 troops while other heroes are minor heroes like eowin who can only lead six troops in shaku's warband i want to include some urukai warriors notice how the true profile and the hero profile is slightly different we will go more into this later they are nine points based but have a few upgrades i'll take some with shields some with pikes and one with a banner to make my eisenguard army this army is just a small 200 point armulus that is a good size for your first game to get the basics down the enemy army will be this force of elves they have arwin and a group of elf warriors you may notice there are some arches in this army no more than one-third of your troops may have bows with our armies ready let's start to play a game but before we do remember that the most important rule of the game is to enjoy yourself there are 18 unique scenarios in middle earth each of them is totally different and makes the game really interesting you'll never have the same thing happen twice for this game we're just going to be trying to eliminate our enemy each army rolls to see who gets to deploy first because the elves won this rolloff they may pick their table side and place their first warband then eisenguard will place theirs now the game has begun there are three main things that happen each turn moving shooting and fighting at the beginning of every turn each player rolls for priority whoever rolls higher has priority usually this is a good thing but sometimes it can be a bad thing if the role is a draw then the player who had priority last turn loses eisengard won the roll for priority this means that it is now the movement phase each model may move up to its movement characteristic of six inches on shark's profile he also has a six inch movement but because he's been upgraded with a wag he can move up to 10 inches now it's the elves turn to move they have a few arches but some of them are out of line of sight so they're just gonna move three inches and the rest of the army will stay still once every model is done moving it's the shooting phase eisenguard gets the chance to shoot first because they have priority but since they have no bows they will skip the shooting phase and it goes straight to the elves they have four arches on their profile they hit on a three plus they are some of the best archers in middle earth each model may individually pick a target and shoot the elves that didn't move fire at the urukai and both hit the uruguay is defense five but the shield makes him defense six the off bow is strength three if we consult the wound shot the successful hit needs a six to wound this jump might look a bit crazy but i remember it as if the strength and defense are equal then it's a four plus wound if the defense is one or two higher then it's a five plus if it's three higher it's is six remembering this will cover you for almost every strike in the game the elves roll their dice and score a six meaning that one of the uruguay is killed the two elves that moved half distance still have an object in the way obscuring their target so after they've rolled a hit one hits and one misses they must roll to see if they hit the obstacle in front of them or if their arrow is accurate and hits the urukai on a one two three the arrow hits the crates and on a 456 it hits the urukai and if you hit the urukai you can then roll to wound as normal in this case it hits the crate so the urukai is safe there is no models fighting this turn so that means the turn is over at the beginning of the next turn each player rolls for priority this time the elves have won it because they are close to the enemy they've decided to charge into battle each model has something called a control zone this is a one-inch bubble that surrounds them if you enter an enemy's control zone you must charge them however once an enemy has been charged they no longer have a control zone if you move into base contact with model you have charged them and they're unable to move because they're fighting after all the elves have moved it's eisengard's turn shaku charges into a lone elf warrior because he's a cavalry unit he will get a charge bonus in the fight phase all of the fights must be divided by the player who has priority into the smallest groups for example in this situation where two elves charged one auric and then another uruk charged enough it will split off into two one versus one fights this time the elves can't shoot because all of their targets are either fighting in combat or obscured by friendly models so we move into the fight phase the player with priority decides which order the fights will happen the elf player decides that this fight between one urukai and one elf will happen first on their profile both eurokai and elves have just one attack so they each roll one dice whoever rolls higher wins the fight the elf has rolled higher than the urukai so the uric must move back one inch and now the elf may make a strike to see if he kills the uric we look at the wound shot again the elf strength is three and the uruka's defense is six so it's a six to wound and the elf doesn't do it and that is the core basics of the game and a lot of your gameplay will comprise what we've covered up to this point but there's still a bit more to cover this next fight is slightly different this time there is a model with a pike in base contact with the uruguay that's firing the elf this means that both of those models may fight so the alpha rolls one attack and each of the urukai roll one attack the urics have rolled higher but this time the elf is within three inches of a model with a banner so they may re-roll their dice the elf scores the same number as the uric's highest roll this means that we must compare their fight values the elf has a fight of 5 while the uruguay have a fight with 4. this means that the elf wins the fight on draws so the urix must back up and the elf may strike his opponent and he kills the uruguay in this fight we have shaku riding a wag fighting against an elf warrior shaku has two attacks on his profile but because he is mounted on a wag and he charged into combat he receives plus one attack meaning that he may roll three dice to see who wins the fight unfortunately he is rolled equal to the elf and the elf has a higher fight value than him this means that he would lose the fight but hero profiles are slightly different to troop profiles heroes have might will and fate shaku has three points of might might is the most tactical part of the game he may spend a point of mind to increase the value of any of his dice rolls by one whether it's to wound win the fight or anything else in this case using one point of might gets his role higher than the elf so he will win the fight now because he is a cavalry model the elf is not prone when a model is not prone place a counter next to them although a lot of players just lie their models down when you're striking against a pro model they count as being trapped which means that you may double your strikes against them shaku rolls six dice because he has three attacks that's been doubled and that's enough to kill the elf models can is trapped if they lose a fight and cannot back up one inch so if they're surrounded if the elf had won the fight he could have chosen to strike at shaku and try to wound him or strike his wag which would dismount him and i would need to replace him with a version of shaku on foot now you repeat this until all the models are done fighting and once that's done it's the end of the turn again both players roll for priority this time eisenguard won it's really important for the elf player that they move first this turn because they want to use magic with arwin if she gets charged she won't be able to move so she won't be able to cast spells so arwen uses a point of might to declare a heroic what is a heroic well other than using might to alter dice roles points of might may be used to declare heroic actions this happens at the start of each phase every hero in the game may call a heroic movement shoot or combat as well as whatever heroic action they have listed in their profile each heroic does something different and gives you a tactical advantage in different ways one of the biggest difference between an experienced player and a new player is how they use their might points we will get more into heroic actions later on in this video in this case arwen is calling a heroic move this means that she may move first and all of her friendly models within six inches of her may move so long as they also finish within six inches now shaku doesn't want this to happen so he's gonna counter by also calling the heroic move because both of them have called a heroic action it goes to a roll-off on the score of a one two or three it goes to shaku and on a four or five or six it goes to arwen and the roll goes to arwen now arwen must move first she has access to a few spells and at any point during her movement she may cast her magic she's going to be casting the wrath of bruin in spell this will knock over and deal a strength to hit to every model within 3 inches of her she moves so as many enemies are in range as possible the target to successfully cast the spell is a 4 plus to count spells you must use will points she has 4 points of will she's decided that she's going to use 3 of them to try to cast this spell this gives her three dice to roll she rolls and the spell goes off but because shaku is in range of the spell he may try to resist it he has one point of will and if he rolls equal to or higher than ahwan's highest roll he will resist the spell and it will be cancelled he rolls and it isn't enough so all of the urics take a strength to hit and a knocked prone because shaku is on his wag his wag is lost and he must be replaced with another suitable model he takes an additional strength three hit for falling from his wag now this actually manages to wound him he has two wounds on his profile so he isn't dead but he does want to try to resist being wounded so that's where he's gonna use fate on a four plus the wound is stopped and he successfully resists being wounded wrath of bruinin is one of the most aggressive spells in the game mostly spells focus on giving you control over your enemy the most common spell is transfix or immobilize and it prevents your target from moving color heroic actions or striking blows if they win the fight it's a great way to neutralize a big threat with the spell cast arwen charges into shaku and the rest of the elves charge into the urukai theory guy who haven't been charged stand up and move to fight the elves or to spear support their comrades on the ground with no models able to shoot this turn just as we did last turn it goes into the fight phase this time if a model who is prone wins the fight rather than striking their opponent they just stand up so this is a great time to use the shielding special rule anytime a model with a shield is fighting they may double their attacks when rolling to win the fight however if they win the fight they can't strike any blows against their opponent each type of wargear has its own unique special rule like this for example a model with a sword may opt to decrease their fight value by d3 for the fight to be able to reroll ones to wound over the course of the next two turns the urukai and elves are both reduced to below 50 of their starting number of models this means that they have been broken when a model moves after their force has been broken they must take a courage test or they will flee the battlefield on this turn it's the elves priority and shaku is now completely out of might so he cannot call a heroic move arwen is a hero so she has a special ability called stand fast if she passes her courage test for the force being broken then all friendly warriors around her will also pass their courage tests all heroes have this ability to make a courage test roll two dice and add them together then add this to the model's carriage if this exceeds 10 then you've passed the test arwen has a carriage of 6 which is very good and she easily passes then she'll charge shaku and the elves around her will charge the urukai because shaku is in combat he won't be able to do stand fast which means that the unengaged urukai must pass a courage test they have a courage of three which is about average two of the urukai flee and one passes and charges enough the battle continues and the urics are eventually eliminated that's a little demo game of middle earth strategy battle game there are a couple more rules that i want to talk about but before we get into that this video has been brought to you by the conquest creation web store i produce heaps of bases as well as high quality miniatures for your table top ball games if you could check it out that would really mean a lot and it would help support the content being created here on conquest creations other times you're required to pass a courage test is when charging models with a terror special rule like trolls if you fail the test then you may not move that turn in larger games you may see units that have the monster keywords such as trolls or ants these units have access to special brutal power attacks if they win a fight against the enemy they may choose to hurl their model where you draw a straight line away from the monster and move the model d3 inches plus the difference of their strength between the monster and the model throne this will knock over enemy models that it hits and do damage to all of them the barge brutal power attack pushes everyone back and allows the monster to charge again and their random brutal power attack allows you to strike against their strength rather than defense let's talk a bit more about might and heroic actions remember that kong heroic action costs a point of might and if both players call actions then who goes first is down to a 50 50 roll off as said earlier every model has access to heroic move shoot and combat a hoax move must be in the move phase and the hero and all models within 6 inches of them may move first all the models must start and end within 6 inches though a heroic shoot is in the shooting phase and allows your hero and all friendly models within 6 inches of them to fire first in the shooting phase this one doesn't really come up that often a heroic combat is the really exciting one you can do it in the combat phase and your hero fights first if they win the fight and kill their opponent then they may make a full movement and fight a second time this is great for getting the most damage out of your heroes heroic resolves in the move phase and allows each model within six inches of the caster to roll one extra dice to resist if they're targeted by a spell heroic march in the movement phase again adds three inches to the movement of infantry and five inches to the movement of cavalry so long as they do not charge pro channeling is in the move phase and it unlocks a super powered version of the spell that makes it more powerful for example earlier when i went cast wrath of bruinin if she had channeled it it would have been a strength theory hit rather than a strength 2 hit heroic accuracy is in the shoot phase and it allows you to reroll failed in the way rolls heroic strike increases your fight value by d6 for one fight phase this is perfect for taking down big heroes heroic defense is in the fight phase and you may only be wounded on the role of a natural 6 which is great if you want to stay alive heroic strength again in the fight phase adds d3 strength to your attacks and finally heroic challenges in the fight phase and two heroes that are fighting together must stay fighting until one of them dies and the winner gets d three might points although the person who calls a heroic challenge can be rejected if it is rejected the hero that rejects it cannot call heroic actions and cannot take stanfast midland strategy battlegame has some of the best rules for terrain it really makes it feel like the terrain is a part of the game and is very immersive the terrain rules generally revolve around tests for example if i want to jump over this barrel then i need to take a jump test on the roll of a1 i'm gonna fail on the roll of a two through five i'll clear the barrel and just finish on the other side and on the roll of a six i'll clear the barrel and keep going with however much movement i have in the ways work really well in this game for every object that's between you and the person shooting they have to pass a 4 up this means that if i have a hero far behind my lines they can still be shot but it's more likely that the arrow is going to hit one of the urukai in front of them and do damage to them this is really the best way that i've ever seen cover saves work in any game however if the model shooting is in base contact with an obstacle then it won't provide you an in the way role because they're just shooting from behind it having interesting and varied terrain adds so much to this game if you're going to set up a table make sure you have lots of little pieces of scattered terrain and cool things that you might not see all the time because it's going to make the game a lot more fun so those are the basic rules of middle earth spg i can't wait to see you at a tournament and until next time have a good one

Channel: Conquest Creations

Views: 107,573

Keywords: Warhammer, Middle Earth, Middgle earth strategy battle game, how to, begginer, basics, Lord of the rings warhammer, gamesworkshop, sbg, Games workshop, tutorial, Elves, Uruk hai, tabletop gaming, mini painting

Id: X0e-6ygHvQg

Length: 17min 35sec (1055 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 08 2020