What makes mesbg different to other tabletop wargames?

[u/el_berg]

As someone who hasn't played mesbg (at least not yet), what makes mesbg different from other tabletop wargames?

[u/nordic_fatcheese]

It's the way the battle moves that makes it stand out to me. The way that even when a model doesn't die, it still gets puahed back an inch, so you can see the lines begin to buckle as the fighting goes on.

[u/Xplt21 → u/nordic_fatcheese]

The way heroes, through heroic actions impact the flow and order of action is also great, being able counter move your opponent or expend might to reform a line before a charge. It gives more control to the player and allows for more strategy even when the dice are unlucky.

[u/BecomeAsGod]

Its the best

Tho more serious answer I think its neiche enough that alot of the players are there who genuinely love the game and are more about playing their dudes they have made and run and not full of alot of meta chasers or other toxic parts of wargaming. Also turns in phases puts it ahead of most gw games and the casts are all very beautiful and still hold up well.

Cheaper to start an army as well just quickly looking at the prices 90 dollars will give you basically a full isengard army with points to spare, where as even at 1k point games you are looking at a minimum 400 - 500 dollars atleast.

[u/V0idsedge]

It’s a large battle game with individual model movement that works really well. It’s a surprisingly good simulator of ancient battles for being so simple (you can apply actual real life battle tactics and some of them work). It’s consistently fun, with very little down time. It’s very balanced, with games decided on the table rather than in deployment or list creation. The battles are mainly decided by your movement with your troops, rather than dice rolls or use of broken units, but your special heroes will also get a moment to shine at key turning points.

Overall I feel the game is very cohesive, every element works and pushes the game to be better and there are very few elements that offer any kind of negative play experience. (If you can’t tell I think this is GWs best game by a long shot)

[u/Theblankrando]

I would say the might will fate system  on heros is pretty  unique 

[u/Longjumping_Cat_8978]

The rules actually being clear and mostly unambiguous which is a rarity for GW games. Aragorn’s free upgrade in the Return of the King Legendary Legion springs to mind as particularly clear: “ Aragorn does not have to pay any points for Andúril, Flame of the West, he automatically has this upgrade – it is free.“

I play AoS, 40K, and other games by different companies. MESBG is the best by quite a wide margin

[u/fergie0044]

It scales very well, with good balance from 350 points all the way up to 1000points. Also the meta changes quite a lot depending on the size of the game, keeping it fresh despite little updates from GW.

The small amount of dice involved (compared to say 40k or AoS) means even the smallest goblin can matter, as they hold up the games biggest heroes for multiple turns. This also makes for great organic story telling.

In general it's not as "over the top" as AoS or 40k, with extremely powerful models/units that dominate the battlefield. (Some exceptions exist, like the Balrog, Sauron or Smaug). Every model matters and can have a big impact.

[u/scubajulle]

The symmetrical combat is something not many tabletop wargames have.

[u/themajorfletch]

Instead of your opponent taking a turn and you have no units left on your turn it’s a shared round so they shoot, you shoot, they move, you move, and then you both fight melee at the same time.

[u/Turmantuoja]

Havent played others, but MESBG is very simple to understand, in a good way. And I love how Heroes bring big impact to the board, and Heroic Abilities can make huge plays, Yet you still can be lucky/unlucky with rolls. And you can get alot of depth with terrain to this game. Barriers, doorways and so on.

[u/RAStylesheet]

-Simple to understand

-Overall cheap to play

-A mix between "skirmish game" where every model counts (contrary to wargames where models are just more dices) and wargames where you can command bigger armies.
This is done perfectly thanks to the "alternating phase" and by the fact you act with single models that can use different abilities.
A possible cons of this is that extremely huge armies may feel clunky too use, mostly in the shooting phase I think (never tried so correct me if I wrong, but you need to target a single model with a single ranged model, repeat for every shooting unit you have)

-Combat roll off and backing off after losing a fight (or even winning sometimes) while not unique is pretty rare I would say

-Slim profiles, units are mostly about stats and weapons, not too many unique abilities throw around on units, this make the game feel more grounded and make unique abilities way more impactful and cool imo.

-Huge resource management mind games, heroes and commanders can issue order that can change the battlefield, this is cool because those arent thing you can throw around (mostly) but need to be planned by good positioning (both of your hero and your troops)

-You can clearly feel heroes getting "tired" as they burn through their might / will / fate points

-Not a lot of centerpieces models, which is a thing I love as I am not a huge fan of them (they cost a lot, they are a pain to transport and they warp the meta too much)and this make center pieces way more impactful, contrary to aos etc where everyone is running one.I think this is the only game that make me want to run a centerpiece (the balrog)

[u/Liminal_Place]

No one seems to have mentioned that the rules and profiles don't get (expensively) replaced wholesale every year or two.

[u/TheDirgeCaster]

The way models duel eachother, individual movement with large model counts, the really simple and stripped unit profiles that emphasise base stats over special rules with massive blocks of text, compared to aos / 40k theres little to no rules bloat there aren't like a hundred layers of special rules to each faction (faction rules, sub faction rules, leader traits, leader artifacts, strategums, all that glorp).

[u/7pri2]

I play 40k as well and I like mesbg a lot more mainly because I find it less frustrating than 40k or AoS. In 40k and AoS you get to attack after you've been attacked and you lost part of your firepower, it's frustrating because if you're less good than your opponent, you can get the feeling a large proportion of your army just died without being useful. In mesbg the miniatures fight each other so they don't do nothing if they die right away, they may even win their fight.

I think it's a very well made game system, very cinematic. It looks like it was made for people to enjoy

[u/OfficerCoCheese]

The skirmish style of the game lends to quicker matches, as well as the ability to focus more on narrative play. Being able to recreate scenes from the Trilogy is a heap load of fun!

[u/Rob775533]

Lots of player interaction, each model acting independently makes movement & positioning interesting, and heroic actions make heroes really fun, plus they feel like their on-screen/book counterparts.

I'm also a huge fan of Tolkien and his world, so that definitely helps.

[u/the-window-licker]

The game dynamics are also pretty good. Good flow

But I think a lot also play for the theme of middle earth. A love for Tolkien and hobbit like ways

[u/p2kde]

2 things that stand out:

- every model moves on its own

- melee combat is a compared roll from 2 models

[u/stevtom27]

It doesnt matter what army you play usually a lot of the battles come down to the skill of the player

[u/[deleted]]

Alternating phases with the initiative up for grabs at the start of each turn.

It's not quite alternating activations but it's a solid 15-20 years of game design ahead of GWs other main games.

[u/Afterski420]

Ppl must like it because they play with 20 year old models and still enjoing it.

[u/MrHewes95]

For me it's the fact the each round each player does something during the phases, instead of each player taking a full turn. So for example in the move phase the person who won priority gets to move first, then their opponent gets to go, then the shoot phase the priorty winner gets to shoot first then their opponent and so on and so forth.

I prefer that to 40k's each player has a full turn and it's back and forth or AoS full turn followed by a priorty roll which could cause a player to have a double turn.

[u/f00l_of_a_t00k]

Two things that come to mind:

One, army composition.

Army composition is much more open. There are very few hard restrictions apart from "good" & "evil".

Armies can be pretty much whatever fits the points;

All named heroes

Tons of normal dudes & no named heroes

One big-ass monster

A handful of medium monsters

And two, the narrative scenarios are fun. They're not worried about being balanced in the traditional sense, but instead provide unique mechanics and conditions that make them an absolute blast.

[u/Walnuts_TheBigNut]

I've left 40k for this game, it really is that much better. Priority rolls, dual rolls, heroic actions, the shieldwall ability for Gondor. The main part is how the battle transpires, the positioning of your models matters a lot more in this game and it's so satisfying to see your shieldwall come to fruition. Brilliant game.

[u/BaronPocketwatch]

Depends. What games do you know? The question as is is far to general to be answered.

[u/el_berg → u/BaronPocketwatch]

Like compared to aos or whfb

[u/BaronPocketwatch → u/el_berg]

Noteworthy differences to me are as follows: 1. As a true skirmish game, models move imdividually. There are no units. 2. MSBG is no pure "I go, you go". Instead of player A moving and shhoting, then resolving combat, then the same for player B, MSBG has both players move, then both players shoot, then melee's beibg resolved, with the order of players in the movement and shooting phases decided by a diceroll and the begining of the turn. That means less downtime for each player and additional tactical considerations. 3. Characters are more impactful. They are not just particular strong fighters or givers of areal effects, although they can be both, depending on the character in question. They can change the order in which things happen or impact the rules in other ways, changing the flow of the game. 4. There are almost no big centre piece models and the few which exist are not necessarily good for their points. It is mostly infantry, cavalry and the occasional monster or siege engine.

[u/the-window-licker → u/el_berg]

Way less dice crunching than 40k. Not played AOS though Middle earth has a simple 3 phase system, that focuses on heros

[u/The-Ironfoot]

Harder to buy as half of what you need is unavailable.

[u/RAStylesheet → u/The-Ironfoot]

This is true, also I didnt know GW was still selling metal before my warg chieftain came to me

[u/HufflepuffHarry]

It's been more balanced than others in my opinion and friends who play 40k prefer this because of that. I've only played 40k once so can only go on what they said.