TOP 10 Most FUN to Play Armies - Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game | MESBG

[Music] welcome everyone to another video of into the West my name is Charles with me today as always is Richard and Ian and today we have an episode titled what is the most fun Army in Middle Earth SBG the top 10 the top 10 most fun armies Undisputed list yes we asked the community to to pick the top 10 we gathered all the votes and we're going to give everyone the rankings in this video so this is a very uh I guess subjective opinion cuz Everyone likes different to play different armies we had close to every Army represented so this really comes down to like your play Style and what you like about a certain Army's um rules or whatever so excited to get into it and then we'll also give some of our favorites we'll talk a little bit about uh what some of our favorite armies are before we get started I just want to give a quick shout out to our patrons over on patreon uh thank you guys for supporting us and if you would like to see videos early or see additional content as well as the rest of our perks head over to our patreon site and take a look link is in the description and on screen I think before we get into the top 10 which are based on uh the number of favorite votes let's do our picks first I mean I can go first so viewers if youve been listening to us in the past you'll know that I love to talk about far herad it's one of my favorites and for a while after I fought the Army I played it for like a year straight and I would say half the reason is due to the impale mechanic I love the idea of being able to deal damage and remove enemy models in the move phas and the majority of profiles in the game that allow you to do that are riskier less I guess reliable so you would you're talking about mumax great beasts troll BRS chariots stuff like that chariots can be reliable but the way they move and is very like terrain dependent sometimes and camels move like normal Cavalry models and I just think that adds um a really fun and also tactical layer and as well as every profile in that Army is just pretty solid so it can win you some games I won't deny that being competitive is also a factor in why it's fun so yeah what do you guys think I think this is a good pick I I also saw a few community members also pick this one I think a big part of why it's Al picked is because of the hitting power I think one of the common themes that we'll see with these uh favorite armies is that you have to be able to kill stuff there's a bit less of the grindy type of list of course there's still players that enjoy that kind of play style which is totally great but I think most people just enjoy you know having your big heroes even your Warrior models being able to smash into the enemy line so you got the impale mechanic you have the half trolls and even the well-priced Mahood King they hit like a truck so you got a lot of hitting power there well yeah the half trolls are just fun like like they're just they're just solid models so you can enjoy using that but I think the big thing is just the impale mechanic it is so annoying to play against and it's hard to plan around but it kind of brings like just like an X Factor into the game as soon as you get like a bunch of camels running around so it can make really interesting games and really annoying uh games if you're playing against them but it is it is a good time Ian loves throwing Spears and these throwing Spears don't need to roll to hit you just charge them into combat and you roll to wound and they strike four and they hit Rider and mount yeah not pick one it's wild and can you wait can you use them in the combat phase no right or can you uh well it's anyone they charge so if they do a hero combat then yeah you still inale it's amazing it's amazing but you can't kite with them it's true that's true you got me there you got me there Richard your pick so one of my picks I was actually surprised didn't end up in the top 10 is the moral list I think everyone at this point has uh heard me talk about my moral lists but the the fact that there's so many different ways to play them you know you got to admit that monsters are one of the most unique and fun ways to play the game so they have you know bad monsters you know uncompetitive monsters like the dragon which can also be quite fun though anything with fly I feel like you know can be can be quite fun and you can add stuff like the Fire Breath You Can Do Magic so it's very flexible so there's some customization there you can run like a more generic list with the bow Rog which is more forgiving it's generic but he's still like this like huge Unstoppable like monster can be very fun to play with and then there's like the cave Drake and then there's my favorite The Watcher in the water the rules are just super unique Hill trolls cave trolls anything that kindia and then there's even people who just go like Mass goblins with with like bats and drums and all that stuff so I think there's just so many ways to play it and I think you can play them quite competitively but at the same time it's not easy to play I know we talked about it in top like hardest Army means to learn and play so I think that's part of the fun as well if if you want a list that has a very high ceiling but you need to get really really good and learn the nuances of the list to do well I think that's the list for you I think I agree for the simple fact that monster is fun having just ran a monster for the first time really for the past couple months at an event yeah just being able to hurl and Barge and do shenanigan re with that is is a lot of fun in general and Moria has an excellent selection of monsters not to mention bat sworns with make which can make them like really really hard to stop can I just add in that they're like one of the best allying evil factions I've said this before they don't really have any green allies but they got the yellow allies I I really had to refrain myself um from yellow alliances which to me are super fun but I'm going to I'm going to just leave it at that that Moria is great as a solo Army and then they can also Ally I'm a little bit surprised that more people didn't vote Moria I I think this is a great pick they have so many fun monsters if you love playing monsters Moria is one of the top armies to do it some other monster armies in the game it's harder to use them cuz like for example like maybe their Warriors are a little more expensive so you can't spam out as much but Moria you just you have the cheap cheapest Warrior possible so you can bring all the big stuff all the fun stuff and still have good numbers you you can build so many lists with this this one Army and they're all different endless combinations and I forgot uh they got spellcasters and I think the variation to add magic in is always nice black shield chaman yeah yeah shatters a very fun fun spell disarming opponent Heroes um Tremor is a lot of fun too so definitely all right Ian am I allowed to do two picks or one or can I shout a couple out fine but make it quick sure I'm torn I'll go quick I'll go quick so my like like personal favorite is is the's guard I think that's just because it really fits into my play style because it's got a lot of shooting it's got the skirmishing with the throwing Spears and the heroes in it are good but they're not amazing but they all kind of fill a role that you need in the list so like learning how to maximize them and use them to their best potential is is fun I enjoy that and it turns out it actually is reasonably competitive I guess in that was proven in the UK last year but you know it is what it is the one that I think is more fun for everybody to play is the fums it has kind of like what you were saying earlier like the hitting power with like imel and like forong and you can build up like a pike block and you can get some pretty good hitting power in there but also everything's D4 and D5 so things just die so your opponent has fun too CU they're killing a bunch of stuff you're killing a bunch of stuff Buffs are everywhere Your Heroes are like good but not great it's I mean besides IM is pretty great but you know it's just it's a lot of fun to play if you've never experienced axeman two-handed piercing striking with some Pikeman behind it you should try it it's great I haven't personally played the redgard but I agree with you on the foms I like how many like different types of Troop it has and also uh mid-tier Heroes you know they all provide different bus different synergies it's a lot of fun you know building like a unique battle line around it if you like shooting their shooting is also pretty good and then of course like big like heavily armored Knights the swan Knights are the ones to go on the good side so yeah good pick okay should we get started on our top 10 voted by the community so these are not our opinions so you know if you're going to get mad mad at these picks get mad at your fellow listeners not us right and they're probably going to try and blame it on us we pulled at least 50 people at least 100 people I think we got over a hundred yeah we pulled at least a 100 people that's a pretty good number maybe maybe not the entire mesbg Community but it's data it's definitely numbers can confirm before we start number 10 though let's uh go into some of the uh stats so first we have um good versus evil so actually significantly more people picked an evil list we have about a 60 to 40 split what do you guys think of that I think this is represented by like a richer pick with Moria evil has more monsters and more like flying beasts and stuff and they're just fun to play with and more like unique like shenanigans whereas good just kind of has like big beefy Heroes I'm generalizing but overall we've talked about the recent year or so there's been more evil armies there been evil armies have been stronger and I think part of it might contribute to that we have a breakdown now of legendary Legions versus actual Army lists so we have a 54.2% armies and 45.8% legendary Legions so we've talked about the rise of legendary Legions in in videos in the past uh more and more people playing them but there are still more people who played uh who picked armies a lot of people still play Pure armies and I think that's good I think I think that legendary Legions while they are cool they shouldn't replace armies so I like this balance do you know now if there's more legendary Legions than regular armies at this point there are still more armies okay so maybe then that then that should be a pretty close split considering more armies should theoretically also have more favorites so I think I think this split makes sense but it also shows you know how viable legendary Legions are and they definitely are up and cominging I just want to add in too I am so glad that we did not see a single vote for the dragon EMP so my faith in the community has been restored the other thing I wanted to mention about legendary Legions is I think that's one of the reasons why they were created right is like to give theme to armies right to so I I feel like they've done their job if people are picking legendary Legions as their favorite okay let's dive into uh number 10 the most voted favor Army to play we have corser of vomar I mean lots of shooting which is fun and like if you're evil with that many throwing daggers like I'm sure you have fun just throwing into like your own combats trying to mess up good Heroes but also like it's D3 D4 everywhere so things just die yeah I could see that being fun okay okay yeah yeah that'd be fun TRS win games right this this Army um might not have as many like of the regular toys as you might see in evil the amount of numbers makes it you know a little bit more forgiving and then you have the shooting even if you don't have like the big smashy heroes or Monsters this this like list hitting power is incredible so I think similar to all the list that we've touched upon like it's got to be able to hit and this this Army definitely does that I mean I I played it quite a bit last year and it there's something fun about having throwing weapons on like three qus of your army the heroes I would say are pretty cool as well you have damir with the smoke bombs and the rrolling to wound you just have a lot of fun with it whatever points level number nine we have the serpent horde so another glass Cannon shooting evil list often times you see serpent horde allied with with corsair's of onar so these are almost the same list I feel like this is like in combination with corsers because that is like a really good alliance that you see a lot and they kind of cover each other's weakness as well pure Herod though I mean I guess if you're running MX that's a pretty good meme it's pretty fun MX are definitely fun Fielding them as like introduction games too for beginners so I I just think they're a really fun profile overall so I don't know if that's the reason why um some of these voters voted for serpent horde but I think it's it's a definite plus in the Army list uh Richard brought up at the beginning that you know hard-hitting armies probably more likely to be considered fun and herad definitely hits hard they have the abant guard they have the betrayer that you can stack poison with definitely lots of hitting power and you can get a lot of numbers too I think there are certain players that lean towards like a horde play style this list can definitely get the numbers up as well and you can get the Fel Beast here you can get some magic with the betrayer yeah I think it's a solid pick and I don't know if this is like adds to the fun Factor but you know you talked about how if it's a competitive list it helps you know people tend to have a bit more fun when they're winning game sometimes and suladan is one of the best evil Heroes so serpent horde is definitely competitive and you know so is number 10 corser of Amar so I think that makes sense okay uh number eight we have another glass Cannon Army it is the dark Dennis of merkwood it's a nice surprise seeing this yeah this isn't quite as competitive as the other two but I can definitely see why it's fun you have a really really fun hero one of my favorite heroes in the game for fun factor and also how good she is with the Spider Queen and yeah all your all your models move like 10 Ines and just flying around crawling everywhere it's yeah it's a crazy list one thing you see whenever you this Army is on the table is it just like dominates the entire table all the time which is kind of like it's a cool look like you really get the feeling of you're like oh my God I'm going to be overwhelmed by all these like spiders and things just because their base size is so huge it just looks this giant like wave that's going to envelop you and then you know when the combat happens it kind of does that it kind of doesn't if they get the WAP you know but it's it is enjoyable right because again the spiders hit hard when they win fights but they also die really easily I feel like there's a common theme going on here I've had more than a few players come up to me and say wow there's a spider Army in this game sign me up just the idea of a beast list is amazing I don't know I've only played against this list one time but um I would say like maybe as part of like a fun rankings for some people too is if your opponent is also having fun it's also easier to have fun and there are some more oppressive armies than others and this is one of the ones that I think even though it's not the most competitive it can still do well but at the same time it's not like um feels bad to play against Army um because it has its weaknesses from what I've seen the players that like main this Army you know have some really fun games at a tournament okay we are at number seven so in seventh place we have kungle our first legendary Legion more spiders well more spider um I I'm just going to throw this out there I think part of this is because of like like all the way the special rules work and interact and fact that you can make shell OB just into like a beast is kind of like it's pretty fun cuz like the way her profiles written and so like froto and Sam can fight her in the scenario but like this version of her she's just kind of in like crazy good so I think I yeah just that fact is a lot of fun and like the way you have to trigger the Buffs is pretty cool too yeah plus you have the killing contest between shagra and goric and you have animosity there's a lot of things going on in this Legion maybe it's not my play style but for people that enjoy like synergies between uh two types of Warriors and getting Buffs that way I think it's pretty cool I think out of the ones that have come up so far this is kind of you can say the most well-rounded this is closest to like a regular Rank and file Army and then you throw like a supercharged Shob in so I think for the people who like playing a bit more well-rounded in normal lists I think this is a really good option because you you have a bit of spice and bring like a a monster and some utility there but you don't have to go full like Allin glass can and like you know some of the evil men armies also shagra and gorbag are just pretty fun Mordor Heroes shagra with it with his uh big Shield gorbag being able to get three attacks think yeah gorbag getting the three attacks but then also with like the kill um competing thing is pretty cool so like he can become like for 60 points he can kind of just go absolute beast mode is fun yeah okay so maybe a little bit of um controversy coming up here and number six we have Angar so these are the people that don't care about your opponent having fun you know do you enjoy watching innocent people suffer these these people are having fun when they're uh you know playing chess you know against someone who is paralyzed on the other side and can't do anything I can see the appeal I personally haven't really played it much in like singles I played it a couple couple games in doubles before but I've definitely played my fair share against Angar and I think if you're a very technical player and you like a little bit of shenanigans like myself I think there's a lot of different tools and and the fun thing about this list is that you bring Orcs so they don't die and they have terror so they do a good job of staying alive but you essentially play this Army for the big heroes for the witch King for golvar even for berder barel whites are the support pieces but yeah it's it's all about heroes in this Army not popular in terms of favorite armies to play against so putting my self in the shoes of the people who voted for this Army it's you're right it's probably just the people who care less about your opponents having fun and just love having fun themselves but yeah all the synergies in this Army like we went over them in a tier list uh recently in an AMR tier list there's there there's a lot going on and a lot of different ways you can build it and to me that's pretty interesting and it's kind of unique to Angar I mean in in other armies there are ways to debuff enemies but I think Angar is the first one that comes to mind because there's so many more options I can see why it's um popular it's it's pretty unique I think it also kind of has a bit of the Moria effect you know where like there's a lot of different ways you can build it and it kind of does different things it works differently depending on like which big hero combinations you take which can be like you know that's a fun like Army list building thing as well and then you know I think on the the thing that the comment Charles made about the or is like they still are just Orcs they are they're they're just Orcs right they they can go down so it's kind of like learning how to maximize them to make sure they don't die super quickly so the rest of your army can do that I can see it like being enjoyable just trying to like work that out and like get maximize everything because it does have a really high skill ceiling overall in our next most fun Army to play we have Mordor so all the things do you want wraith there's nine no there's 10 10 options cuz it's a generic option as well do you want a mini mumac that has a bunch of archers on top that is kind of it's got that too trolls troll Chieftain kajillion types of Orcs it's great catapults catapult oh catapult like the one really really good catapult in the game yes it has that I think it's the largest army list in the game by far like it's got the most profiles um the most just things to choose from so it's not surprising it's on here it's one of the big four factions one of the four that has a battle host so I can see why it's the most popular um it's iconic from the actual movies and books and yeah just overwhelming number of choices that that you you can take in this Army so I got to say it's interesting that how many picks in are we 1 two 3 four five six and it's all been evil you know I I know like if we look at the entire picture it's 60% evil and 40% good but if we're looking at the top 10 so far of the most uh voted for favorite armies this this is this is a landslide so far yeah remember evil will always Triumph because good he's dumb with that said I guess the number four pick we finally have our first good army slash Legion and it's not theod Dre's guard to Ian shagrin it is Helm's guard though the obvious reason I think is for Helm himself pretty Beast of a profile to begin with and then he gets uh amped up even more in the Legion by getting the you know he has the Mighty Hero and the free combat especially in in the episodes that we covered this Legion we've talked about how good it is at low points and so when you're playing at low points you're usually usually facing less threats and so Helm is just um going to be able to dominate more than how he actually appears in his profile uh so having like almost like a superhero in your army what's not fun about that right well Helm gets to go supernova but then like the rest of your list is pretty like it's just chaff pretty much so it's like and he has some like glaring weaknesses too with the fight five so I can see it's like a fun challenge to play and you could just just have a guy who just goes nuts but also like you have to play around the rest of the list because if he goes down you're in a lot of trouble I mean the list isn't bad it's I think it's fairly well-rounded at low points like you you get fight five in the Army for warriors and you get a lot of throwing Spears and I think um this is one of the Rohan Legions that you also get the throwing Spears acting as regular Spears as well so you can have a you can have a front line I don't know maybe it's because it seems like the game right now tournament wise is trending a bit lower in points I know this year 2023 both Nova and articon so us and UK Premier tournaments were at 650 so maybe it's a you know it's a meta thing where the lower Point armies are are starting to show their quality that's a good point I think uh certain Legions do better at low points you're going to see them more on the table and then naturally more people will you know find the ones that they enjoy and vote for them in like in this uh poll so now we are at uh the top three so in in third place the third most voted for the most fun Army in the game is Defenders of Helms Deep we have another Rohan legendary Legion this one makes sense to me because you get to play with all the all the heroes and they all have pretty good special rules you get uh seven Aragorn you know Hoth the kid is a beast you get the old guy um you know spamming Mone and just shooting down things you get 30in elf bows including legless and it doesn't hurt that it's like um it's a strong Army too so it's I think the mix between good rules and yeah solid competitive play I mean it's freaking iconic like there's there's like this and like the ride of the rerum where I think like anybody who's seen the movies is going to be like I know what that is and and it's like you said it's just a lot of fun like you this is one of the armies where you actually get to like use legalist and gimy and have them run around doing their kill contest which is fun like that's just that's just a cool mechanic and then like like Richard said you know Aragorn can go around and do his thing get boosted by halth or you can see you know thein and and gamley can just Spam might with the uh the two little little Rohan dudes Alor he's such a meme so fun I've used him in like three games and every time he's gotten a kill on the first round of shooting and then done nothing afterwards and I was like yes perfect you're doing what I want you to do so yeah just fun fun stuff speaking of iconic when this edition first dropped in 2018 there was such an like uproar when the FAQ dropped adding the hero Valor requirement for allying because this list was illegal due to that FAQ because Hower was a hero of fortitude so he wasn't able to Ally with uh the thre Hunters which I believe was the reason why they upgraded him to Valor shortly after ahead of the FAQ schedule and so that's how important this Alliance this um army this combination is to people is just an army that people have always wanted to play yeah and I just want to add in too having played this Army a couple times as strong as it is maybe because it doesn't have like the ability to mount all these crazy like buffed up Heroes it doesn't feel oppressive it feels like there's a way to win against it it lacks mobility and so certain scenarios that force them to kind of come forward a little bit makes it that the 30in bows usually isn't like too game breaking in second place of the most fun Army we have azog's Legion does it surprise anyone uh kind of I think your silence says yes the thing is that personally um I'm not too surprised because it's an army I've always wanted to build because it's so uh crazy like AOG is just like I don't know Aragorn elisar type of hero it's just he's insane and that's always fun and then throw in all the monsters in this list and all the tools and tricks like the mercenaries they got Flyers too I don't know it's it's a it has all the pieces for a really fun and aggressive Army like you're not going to sit back and shoot you're not going to like have draws playing with or against AOG Legion much games are going to end like really quickly when one of the heroes goes down so I I I do see the appeal but the surprising part is that it's a hobbit Army and also like you see so much of the you know fight seven orc hate on the community Pages even though this is like a thematic Army you could say it's it's probably not most movie lovers like favorite iconic Army yeah it's a little bit controversial that way in the past I've been tempted to start asog Legion I've actually bought some of the models but then when I flip to the rules of the coolest things in the Army the gun to bad Trolls and troll brute and I read the rules I don't end up bringing it to a tournament there is competitive stuff in the Army like mercenaries and you you can definitely build a tournament winning list but I want to use those expensive Forge World trolls that I bought it just never got into the army fully uh because of that it just like there's so many things in the Army that's just memes and yeah essentially it's it's just like the fact that only like half the list is actually really good and then the other half you just never see and the signal Tower if they if they gave us a model for that I would buy the Army instantly it's the ultimate meme spend 400 points for like one hero in a tower at least give us the proper Dimensions or like Tournament level scale of like how tall it is it's been implied in that one scenario that it's what 200 millimet by 200 Mill something like that it's like 20 there's like 10 by 10 I don't know and that's like seem what everybody uses it doesn't have the height and depth though that you can gain that's true so many arguments about the rules in this game are based on implications and based in assumptions so I don't think I don't think that is enough to to be considered actual concrete rules I'm pretty sure MTM Prince has has one that they sell that that's roughly that size you know if people are looking for one not not sponsored we aren't we aren't I mean to be fair they also haven't given us the base size for the the the what do they called the the dragon the mini dragons not dras the war Drakes either so you know thanks GW but yeah I I think it's this is the one way in evil where you get to run two one or two really big heroes like everything else on evil side is like monsters for the most part so if you want to run big heres you got to come to this list and do it and it has a bunch of fun supporting troops and like a huge Army list to to to to back it up so I think that kind of explains like like says enough for itself if you don't care about winning definitely it's a fun fun Army just bring like three four trolls you know just Spam out on monsters and um just rush forward at your enemy and just throw them all into combat and not to mention too like bold with his like kill mechanic thing that's cool it is cool and it can be a lot of fun and then you know when he does if he does get up to those 10 kills you're like you're laughing you're having a great time right with that side Charles it it it still has competitive chops you can play it like a meme but you can also build it very competitively too which which is why I think um it appeals to so many players fair enough drum roll for number one first place of the most fun Mar game we have the army of dunland legendary Legion yeah this this one was really surprising I I don't know where this came from I think it helped that um some of these voters actually wrote in comments of why they picked it and it made sense to me and I can get on that so I I believe some people said that it's a mix of Lord of the Rings and historical because they're basically based off of Vikings so if you like uh Vikings from history you're kind of like playing a Viking Army and then also just the special rules in the actual Legion the war cry plus one to wound is fun I guess the heroes are pretty fun they all have like kind of neat special rules so I kind of get it it is a little bit surprising that it's in first place I mean like if it was in top 10 like lower part of top 10 fair enough I kind of expected to be there but number one yeah can't say for sure but I do agree with you like from what I've seen the hitting power is there for sure there's something crazy like you can do like the war cry the hatred rule against like Rohan and like two-handed striking with some Heroes and you somehow the math works out where you can get some Auto wounds with this Army so you don't even have to roll dice you just get the wound so I can see the appeal of that so I've played against this list twice both times using my theads guard when this Army hits Rohan which is a very common army at events it just goes like right through them like I I think in one of my games my opponent had like Wildman with two-handed axes charging my guys but I was defending a Barry and I was like I'm fine this is great he did the war cry he won the fights he's wounding me on like twos and like all of my guys died and they all hopped over the fence I was like ah well there goes my Left Flank didn't see that one coming like like it just it just goes straight through Rohan stuff which you know that can be a lot of fun like the hitting power is there and then like the heroes are good not tremendous but like you can use them in fun ways and they have fun special rules so yeah it's got a lot of good stuff going for it fair enough that was our top 10 so we definitely would like to hear from the community what did everyone think of uh the top 10 voted uh do you agree with them were there any that were surprises to you and uh thanks all for watching and look forward to the next episode of into the West

Channel: Into the West

Views: 6,226

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Id: QZpPqtWHy7A

Length: 37min 30sec (2250 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 27 2023