Another year, another Nations cup. Despite not having been in the scene for too long I miraculously qualified for the Dutch team again this year. I managed to secure the 5th place in the DMEL (Dutch Middle-Earth League), which proved that last year was not a fluke (I promise). This year our team captain was going to be Kevin, who immediately proceeded to give us homework and write down our worst match-ups for each team. So we made work of our hobby and did our best to do as much as we could before attending the event.

The Dutch team this year consisted of:

Kevin (Team Captain) – Grand Army of the South
Golden King, Amdur, Taskmaster, and a whole bunch of half-trolls supported by pikes.

Alexander (Vice Captain) – Last Alliance
Isildur, Erestor, Rivendell captain, and a grand total of 42 models with 2 banners.

Ronny – Moria
Durburz, Dragon (Fly, Breath fire), Captain, Shaman, some prowlers sprinkled in and a warg marauder.

Ruben – Men of the West
As standard as they come. Aragorn, Gwahir, Legolas and tin can spam.

Sjoerd – Rivendell
Elrond, Arwen, Lindir, and 33 other elves.

Max – Shadows of Angmar
Gully, Captain, 3 Barrow-Wights, 3 spectres, 3 werewolves, and orcs orcs orcs.

For all the lists in greater detail, you can visit the MESBG army tracker. This was the platform being used for Nations cup 2026.

45 models is not ideal for orcs, but there are some big pieces eating up the points. Ultimately, I think it’s necessary bringing some tools, because the basic orcs are mainly there to hold up space. Your army bonus boosting your orcs by giving them terror when within 3″ of a spirit hero model helps a lot with this. This list is all about stalling your opponent until you can create and opening with your tools and then pounce!

Game 1 vs Khazad-Dum – Hold Ground (North-Ireland (Callum))

For my first game I would be up against Callum, who was bringing Khazad-Dum to the table with Durin, a Kings champion, and a captain. KD received some big buffs this edition and once they get on an objective it’s difficult to contest it. Luckily for me, they do only move 5″, so I will just have to get there first and shield them of.

Callum won the roll off and graciously let me go first. I proceeded to roll a 2 on my first Barrow-Wight and the put me in the left most corner of the Southern board edge. The next warbands rolled stellar, with only 4s and 5s. This meant that I deployed my army fully together, stretching from the left most corner of the Southern board edge to the middle of the Western board edge. Pretty damn good as far as mealstrom rolls go. My opponent one-upped me on this as he rolled a 4-4-5 for his warbands. This is exactly how mealstrom should be, a random deployment but of your own choosing.

He deployed his captain and Kings champion together in the middle of the Northern board edge. Durin had rolled the 5 and my opponent opted to not put him safely on the Eastern board edge, with the rest of his army, but right next to my warband with Gulavhar. I think this was a slight error on his part. In Hold Ground all he has to do is march to the middle and stay there. Therefore, it’s better for him to put off the fighting for as long as possible and just rely on his dominant 2 to win him the game.

This error in deployment won me the game, as I could now focus with 50% of my army on 33% of his and keep it from reaching the middle of the board. Shadows of Angmar especially loves gobbling up armies piecemeal and it wasn’t long before Durin was paralyzed on the floor, being chomped on by Gully.

His captain spend all his might marching up to the middle, only to suffer the same fate as Durin. However, there was still a King champion, two banners, and a warband of angry dwarves to deal with. Even though it looked hopeless for Callum, he still outnumbered me in the middle, if he could get all of his warriors on there. There was only 20 minutes left on the clock at this point.

I went aggressive with Gully and gobbled up the two banners to secure those VP’s as well. I had also won the move off and shielded my opponent from the objective almost completely. Callum took the L with grace. He was a joy to play against, serious when it mattered, but could also crack a joke now and then.

My first game of the tourney had gone stellar and I secured a 20-0 victory over the North-Irish. Later I learned that two of my teammates had done the same and that everyone from my team walked away with a victory. We absolutely smashed our first opponent! This did mean that we shot to the top and would only play the best teams. A curse in disguise? It remains to be seen… On to the second game!

Game 2 vs Khazad Dum – Divide & Conquer (Belgium (Yan))

I got matched up against KD again. This time I would be facing, almost the exact same list… Yan brought Durin, a Kings champion, and a captain. Well, I smashed it once, I can smash it again. This time in Divide & Conquer, another objective scenario, where his dominant 2 could be a deciding factor. Luckily for me, again, he did need to move a lot, and as we all know, Dwarves are natural sprinters and are only dangerous over short distances. This, however, was no short distance. I felt confident that I could sandwich one warband between my entire army before the rest of his arrived. It was Yan’s choice which warband this would be.

I did not want to waste time dancing around, so I called a march with my captain. His captain was deployed together with Durin in the top-right, and strangely not called a march. Apparently he was not worried that the lone warband of the Kings champion would be smashed so easily, he was wrong. Having called the march on my captain, Gully could dash acros the board and, together with some werewolves, be in their face on turn 2. I won the prio and gave it to my opponent so I could dash in unopposed. The orcs were not far behind and joined the fray two turns later, but most of the damage had already been done.

The next few turns were spend mopping up the warband while positioning myself on the center and left objective. I had sent a few orcs towards the right, but this was mainly to put pressure and divide the force that was marching with Durin. They were givin strict orders to skirmish, but not engage with the superior Dwarven force. Those order were not followed for long as the main force was freed up shortly and could join the fight agains Durin. The king of the dwarves held on bravely and resisted a barrage of paralyses over the course of two turns. On the third turn he lied down for a nap and decided he really didn’t want to wake up again.

At the end of the game there were a handfull of pesky dwarves left who were just in range of the central and right most objective, not allowing me to score full points. I walked away with a 15-0 victory, which I was quite proud of. Yan was not a bad opponent or player, but he almost didn’t speak any English. This made it particularly difficult to speak intent while playing or to make a joke inbetween. It was also draining for me as I had to explain everything 3-4 times and had to almost scream it at him. My team didn’t perform so great as everyone except me and Alexander had lost their game. At least we would not be facing of against top tier teams in the next round… Or so we thought.

Game 3 vs Men of the West – Treasure Hoard (England 2 (Sam)) PS Gollums gamers

No top-tier teams right? Wrong. England has such a big MESBG community is was not a problem to fill their second team with equally excellent players. I am facing off against Sam who is bringing the famed MotW. A top-tier army in the hands of a top-tier player in a scenario which is known as draw-city, this was going to be a chessgame. Deployment was in the akward 12″ bubble in the middle of your board edge. Turn one, I saw that Aragorn was dashing more to my left flank, so I positioned Gully behind a big boulder to the right to threaten the objective of my opponent. Sam was too canny a player though, as next turn he positioned Aragorn a bit more in the centre, so he could respond easily should I decide to go for it.

It also didn’t help that Sam won the roll for prio next turn and decided to give it to me. I kept Gully behind the big boulder while I moved up with the rest of my army. I measured out that Aragorn was at least more than 16″ away from him. The tin cans were a lot closer however, one of them was barely within 12″ of Gully. My opponent spotted this and made a mad dash forward. In the next turn he did lose prio, but called a move with Gimli in order to tie Gulavhar down. I decided not to spend the might of Gulavhar for a 50/50, as there was no way that Aragorn could heroic combat into him.

Aragorn was being characteristically annoying though, as he kept calling heroic resolves with his free might. I didn’t get a single paralyze off in the entire game, can you imagine? In the ensuing melee I opted to barge with Gully. I considered a hurl, but this would still mean that I would be within charge range of Aragorn next turn. It was extremely tempting though. I barged Gully to safety while pushing two guys behind Aragorn so he could not move much during his heroic combat. If I could not paralyze him, I would find different ways to keeping him in place. This barge also brought me within 6″ of my captain, perfect.

The following turn Sam won prio and kept it. I called a move with my captain, which my opponent did not counter. He was scared enough of eating 3 paralyzes to call a heroic resolve with Aragorn, and Gimli was simply not in range to lock down Gully. I was able to swing Gully to the centre of the melee and lock down Aragorn.

Legolas has picked up the objective on the left flank and was moving closer to the safe embrace of Aragorn. I could not let this bromance happen and threatened a heroic combat with Gulavhar, which you see Sam measuring out in the picture above. He opted for a heroic strike, even more perfect. I was not gonna just YOLO fly into Leggy while Aragorn was fighting a single orc and only one heroic combat away from him. I therefore proceeded to Bolg Legolas and botched the fight against a shielding warrior because rolling a 5 on 5 dices is very difficult. Didn’t matter too much, but it was still annoying to receive the heroic combat special.

The following turn I won the heroic move roll-off and managed to spectre a dude behind Aragorn. The board was set and the pieces were moving. Aragorn had no way of saving his bonnylass and Gulavhar dive bombed himself into the elf. Leggy struck to Fight 7, and with one might left in the bank, needed a 5 high on 2 dices to have a shot at beating The Terror of Arnor. So he promptly rolled a 1 and a 2. After that there was only a puddle of blood and a pile of bones which might have looked like an elf once.

I was quite confident diving into Legolas. Even if he did manage to win the fight, which was about a 30% chance I would say, I was still in a decent position. There was no way that Aragorn could get to Gully in this turn or the next without calling a heroic move. If he decided to call a heroic move instead of resolve with Aragorn, he would have to content with 3 paralyzes, while also running low on might and will. He also couldn’t call with Leggy, as he would be out of might for the strike.

This meant I was holding 4 objectives while my opponent only had 2. I was winning, and now it was up to Sam to make a play. And make a play he did. There was no giving up, there was not moping around. He gave it all to try to get to Gully, swinging around the flank to do one last heroic combat with Aragorn. He won the duel roll, but did not manage to wound all the orcs he was in combat with. Even if he had managed to combat through he would have to win the fight against Gully on equal dice and equal fight and then roll four 4s to kill him. On top of that, I had charged a warg rider into him to deny his charge bonus, so it was unlikely from the start, but it was a valiant effort.

The next turn would be the last. Gulavhar charged within 12″ of his board edge. Sam managed to do the same on my side of the board so we ended it on a 10-5 victory. Barely a Major victory, but a victory nonetheless, and a sweet one too considering how hard I had to fight for it. I felt like Sam and I were on the same skill level and it truly was a chess match playing against him. The dices were pretty even, but I have to be fair, the ones that ultimately decided the game definitely went my way. He was very chill, matter of fact, about it, which is admirable at such a competitive tourney. I would definitely want to rematch against him in the future, as this was the game I enjoyed most this tourney. Later on I learned that Sam was part of the Gollums gamers Youtube channel, so shout out to them.

My team also did quite well. With only one minor loss and a draw we won this round pretty convincingly, but not too hard. This was key, because we discovered that winning too hard is not smart at a 6 day tourney. Hopefully, our next match-up would be more doable. Those are worries for tomorrow however.

That is it for day one, I will publish day two in a later blog post. I am getting jitters at how good it has being going. Though against Belgium we had a little hiccup, but we are still in reach of the podium. Personally ending the day on three Major victories also sparked up some excitement. Maybe I could contest the best player position this year. I came awefully close last year with 3 Major wins, 2 Minor wins and 1 Major loss. You will have to wait for day two… Meanwhile enjoy the gallary: