Alpha Strikes in MESBG

 DISCLAIMER

I don't (do not) actually want alpha strike abilities or army rules in MESBG. It could make a fun tournament or scenario gimmick, but otherwise I don't think it fits well for the game. Even the example ability that does exist isn't explicitly an alpha strike, it's just best used as one, and I think that there needs to be some changes made to it for this reason.

With that out of the way, welcome once again to ManicHobbying where I am once again "what-iffing" rules for our beloved game. This particular posts comes from me fridge-logicing what was initially a response email to Harry (Entmoot Podcast) regarding people's thoughts on Army of the White Hand. One of the standout abilities that makes this army one of the top lists in the game right now (at least according to complaints) is Saruman's ability to call down a 2" radius S6 Lightning Strike anywhere on the table. At the beginning of the edition I believe this caught many people out, especially when deploying in formation. 

I myself fell afoul of it early on. Thanks to Maelstrom deployment and tightly spaced terrain, my Riders of Eomer saw their banner and 3 other riders get blasted away or at least dehorsed, thoroughly neutering the list early on (this was 400 points in a Doubles format). Now, there's more mind for people spacing out deployment to prevent multiple casualties, but the lightning can still pick off a key piece such as a banner or hero's mount, or even just be saved until turn two to hope for the enemy to group up or even keep them spaced out of fear,

To be clear also, I don't necessarily want to see this ability removed. It is somewhat fun to recreate in some fashion Saruman's attack on the Fellowship, and I'm at a loss on how to satisfactorily tweak it. At the same time, it's not outright game-winning and Army of the White Hand has more than a few useful tools. Between one of the best casters in the game, Grima, Crebain, good troop variety and some useful supporting heroes, it really is the combination of all of them that makes it such a successful list. 

Alpha Strikes

Moving on from the White Hand specifically, I got to thinking about bringing other armies up in power via similar abilities. More tools for the toolbox could really level the playing field on other lists and shake up the meta a little. The first one that game to mind was Army of Gothmog:

Release the prisoners

Fires a shot as if there was a catapult firing with the severed heads upgrade. This does not replace the shot of an existing catapult in the army list, and is assumed to come from off of the table. Courage tests can be taken as normal, with all bonuses and abilities applying. 

This one is to simple parallel the opening shot of the Siege of Minas Tirith. Nice and simple, it forces a Courage test in a small area. It is also eminently counterable with various Courage boosting abilities

Give them a Volley

3" Radius, all take a S2 hit. 

Defenders of Helm's Deep. Another simple one to parallel the movie scenes, and even simpler in ruling. Despite the wider radius it's a very toned down variant of Saruman's lightning. An argument could be made for two radii, one at S2 and one at S3.

Birdcalls

3" Radius, all take a S2 hit.

Garrison of Ithilien. Yes it's exactly the same as DoHD, and simply there to represent the Ranger's ambush tactics. The same ability, but for different flavourful reasons.

I won't list more than the above, but this ability could be extended to Rangers of Mirkwood, Lothlorien, and Azog's Hunters. For the Elf lists, you would naturally boost the strength to 3. In a similar vein, should The Grey Company, Return of the King or Road to Helm's Deep lists contain Legolas, he gets a free shot at the start of the game. For the Evil side, another variant is a shot from a Hasharin in the Umbar list.

The horns of the Rohirrim lifted up in music

Intelligence test in nearest enemy models, 3" radius. For each test that is failed, Theoden's player may move the enemy model up to half of its move rate, moving away from Theoden as directly as possible.

This ability is for Riders of Theoden, and perhaps could also be used in Army of Edoras, Fields of Celebrant and Ride Out. The inspiration is from the line in Return of the King, coupled with the Orcs reaction in the movies where they stumbled back at the onset of the Rohirrim's charge. The rule structure is simply Spectre's ability with the direction tweaked.

The Cry of the Nazgul

Choose an area within the opponent's deployment zone with a 3" radius. All models within this zone must take a Courage test or go prone. Cavalry models must test for both mount and rider. Normal bonuses or ability effects apply.

Both Black Riders and Wraiths on Wings. A potentially fun alternative to a normal courage test is to make those that fail simply go prone rather than fully run away, with only mounts then fleeing should the check be failed. This ability would then be about disruption rather than outright removing models.

It was around this point I realised that these abilities essentially boiled down to two effects: do damage, or force courage/intelligence checks. The damage, radius and result could differ, but otherwise it just one or the other. Rather than continue to write out a bunch of rules for every army, I think it's easier to just list a few others. It'd be up to TOs or houserulers to actually work out the details.

I did have one more thought, but I'm unsure on the impact of it; a movement ability. This could take the form of a free move (for a single warband) or a free heroic march. Movement is fairly key to MESBG, so this might be a tough one to balance. Cavalry forces for example would find this extremely powerful for gaining ground. As an example, I have this one for Paths of the Druadan:

One with the forest

Ghan-Buri-Ghan's warband may make a free heroic march in the first turn. This does not affect their ability to shoot that turn.

I have no doubt that in the lists that would make the most sense for a movement ability, it would in turn become perhaps overly powerful. Ugluk's Scouts come to mind. But then neither Uruk Scouting list is consistently in the top tables to my knowledge, and that's rather the point of this.

A small warning, many lists won't have anything unique, and it'd probably be better that several lists just don't have a alpha strike ability at all. Not every list has every tool after all, and some just don't need them. When I list it out, the number of suitable lists is quite small, just 28/95 lists (and good lord there are 95 lists!). Of course, I could be missing a few ideas, let me know!

Good
Arathorn's Stand - See Give them a volley#

Army of Dale - None

Army of Edoras - Horns of the Rohirrim

Army of Erebor - None

Army of Lake-town - None

Army of Thror - None
Arnor - None

Assault on Ravenhill - None

Atop the Wall - Free Trebuchet shot?
Battle of Bywater - None

BotFA - None

Battle of Fornost - None

Battle of Greenfields - None
Beornings - None

Breaking of the Fellowship - S3 version of Give them a volley! if Haldir is present.

Defenders of Erebor - None

Defenders of Helm's Deep - Give them a volley!

Defenders of the Hornburg - None

Defenders of the Pelennor - None

The Eagles - None

Erebor & Dale - None

Erebor Reclaimed - Movement ability (represents Thorin's charge, so specific to his warband)

Expedition to the East - None

Fangorn - None

The Fellowship - None

The Fiefdoms (Nothing to do with this blogpost, just give them back their synergies)

Fields of Celebrant - Horns of the Rohirrim

Fords of Isen - None

Garrison of Dale - None

Garrison of Ithilien - Birdcalls

The Grey Company - Legolas shot

The Grief of Eomer - None

Halls of Thranduil - None

The Iron Hills - None

Kingdom of Khazad-Dum - None

Kingdom of Rohan - None

The Last Alliance - None

Lindon - None

Lothlorien - S3 Give them a volley

Men of the West - None

Minas Tirith - None

Numenor - None

Paths of the Druadan - One with the forest.

Radagast's Alliance - None

Rangers of Mirkwood - Birdcalls

Realms of Men - None

Reclamation of Moria - None

Reclamation of Osgiliath - None

Return of the King - Legolas Shot

Ride Out - Horn

Riders of Eomer - None

Riders of Theoden - Horns of the Rohirrim

Rivendell - Free Bruinen

Road to Helm's Deep - Legolas Shot

Road to Rivendell - None

The Shire - None

Survivors of Lake-town - None

Thorin's Company - None

The White Council - None

Evil

Army of Carn Dum - None

Army of Dunland - None

Army of Gothmog - Release the prisoners!

Army of Gundabad - Free Tremor to represent worms?

Army of the White Hand - Already exists.

Assault Upon Helm's Deep - None

Assault on Lothlorien - None

Azog's Hunters - Birdcalls

Barad-Dur - None

Besiegers of the Hornburg - None

The Black Gate - None

The Black Riders - Cry of the Nazgul

Buhrdur's Horde - None

Cirith Ungol - Perhaps add a single web marker as per Spider Queen list

Corsair Fleets - Ballista shot

Depths of Moria - None

Desolator of the North - None

Dragons of the North - None

The Easterlings - None

Far Harad - None

Fell Beings of Mirkwood - None

Goblin-Town - None

Grand Army of the South - None

Harad - None

Host of the Dragon Emperor - None

Host of the Witch King - None

Legions of Mordor - None

Lurtz's Scouts - Free March for single warband

Minas Morgul - None

Moria - None

Muster of Isengard - Literally give Saruman the same abilities.

Pits of Dol Guldur - None

Ravagers of the Shire - None

Rise of the Necromancer - None

The Serpent Horde - None

Shadows of Angmar - None

Sharkey's Rogues - None

The Spider Queen's Brood - None

The Three Trolls - None

Ugluk's Scouts - Free March for Single Warband.

Umbar - Blowpipe shot per Hasharin

Usurpers of Edoras - None

Variags of Khand - None

Wolf Pack of Angmar - None

Wolves of Isengard - None

Wraiths on Wings - Cry of the Nazgul

Maybe I shouldn't have written absolutely list out...

I'd love to hear your ideas on this, and what you would do to elevate lists and introduce more variety to the top lists. For those armies where "alpha strikes" don't thematically fit, what would you do instead? If inspiration strikes I'll come back to this in another post.

Until next time. 

The Dunedain Part 2, Improvement Boogaloo

Back in June, with the release of Legacies once again shafting our beloved Rangers, the internet erupted in calls for GW to buff the basic Rangers of the North, at the very least to bring them in line with what feels like profile disparity elsewhere across the range. It is not the first time this call has gone out, and it will possibly not be the last as Dunedain enjoyers everywhere want better representation for the shadowy patrollers of northern Eriador.

A lot of the focus has gone into the Ranger's profile itself, and I wrote about it here also, which makes sense, but perhaps there's another way.

Before I move on though, the Tell Me A Tale guys did a wonderful two-parter (Part 1 and Part 2) on a Ranger Revamp back in 2022 that was fantastic. I very much recommend giving it a read, and all the rest of their articles for that matter.

Revamping the Rangers Indirectly

Some of my favourite characters to use in MESBG are those that provide buffs to warriors in their warband. The likes of Grimbold, Frealaf, Erkenbrand (so many Rohan heroes), Durin, Gildor and Mablung all come to mind, each different, but each offering ways to slightly switch up the abilities of basic warriors. It can be as little as a single stat point or new ability, but it really adds some flavour to a list and increases your tactical options without being overpowering.

My thought here then is that this is what could be done to improve the various Ranger lists in some small way, increasing tactical flexibility and survivability at low cost. That last point is key, as the Rangers are already an elite list with low model count, particularly in the War of the Ring lists where Aragorn and the likes of Legolas and the King of the Dead already want to eat up much of your points cost.

The one issue is, outside of Aragorn, Arathorn and Halbarad, the only named Rangers we get from Tolkien are the line of Chieftains starting with Aranarth. You can't really build a list with multiple Chieftains, it wouldn't make sense, so we need another option. We could of course just make up some characters and call it a day, they can join the likes of Brorgir in GW originals. 

The second option is to steal characters from LotRO, which I'll do here, though I'd be shocked if ol' GeeDubs could ever do that. As a note, I've not actually played LotRO, so this is based on a Wiki-dive, but the main purpose is to get inspiration and names and the Wiki is more than enough for that purpose.

For the first character, I'm essentially lifting Mablung wholesale:

Faeron, Ranger of the North (Minor Hero) - 40pts

 

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Wargear - Armour, Hand Weapon and Bow
Heroic Actions - Heroic Accuracy
Special Rules - Woodland Creature, Stalk Unseen, Master of Stealth

Master of Stealth - Any Rangers of the North included within his warband may be upgraded to have the Stalk Unseen ability for +1 point per model.

Army Lists
Faeron can be included as a Minor Hero within the following lists:
 - The Grey Company
 - Defenders of the Pelennor

 - Arathorn's Stand

Faeron is met during a quest named Master of Stealth, and later acts as a class trainer for Burglars. This makes him a great template for imparting Stalk Unseen on Rangers, fantastic for improving their survivability. Unlike Mablung, I've made this a purchasable ability rather than an auric bonus, as this represents training for Rangers under his command, rather than the active use of birdcalls.

 

Orthonn, Ranger of the North (Minor Hero) - 50pts

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Wargear - Armour, Hand Weapon, Bow
Heroic Actions - Heroic Accuracy
Special Rules - Woodland Creature

Cartographer - In Scenarios where you roll for Warbands to arrive, or ones where you roll to see which part of the board you deploy a Warband in (though not when rolling to choose deployment zone), you may modify the roll this model's Warband by +1 or -1, even if he is not on the battlefield. If this model is on the battlefield, you may also modify the roll for other Warbands in your Army by +1 or -1.

Army Lists
Orthonn can be included as a Minor Hero in the following lists:
 - Arathorn's Stand

 - The Grey Company

 - Defenders of the Pelennor

The second ability-lift, and this one from Madril, perhaps one of the most auto-include heroes in Gondor lists. Orthonn is a loremaster and cartographer, so he becomes a great candidate for a Master of Reserves rule. This gives the Rangers an advantage I'm surprised they didn't already have as wanderers of the wilderness. Whilst they do have the ability to spam single-model warbands, having some control over this will mitigate the weakness inherent in having lone warriors spread out all over the board.

I've also given him higher Intelligence, and an extra point of Will to represent his loremaster side.

 

Daervunn, Ranger of the North (Minor Hero) - 45pts

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Wargear - Armour, Hand Weapon, Bow and Warhorn
Heroic Actions - Heroic Accuracy, Heroic Resolve
Special Rules - Woodland Creature

Army Lists
Daervunn can be included as a Minor Hero in the following lists:
 - Arathorn's Stand

 - The Grey Company

 - Defenders of the Pelennor

Daervunn is listed as being Halbarad's right-hand man. Naturally, since Halbarad is our resident banner bearer, Daervunn should carry the other "command" item, the warhorn. The Rangers aren't necessarily in need of extra courage, but it still improves their reliability against Terror and keeps them on the field much easier when their relatively low numbers reach the breaking point. It's also a little moot should Halbarad be wielding his banner, but will help against Blades of the Dead still.

He gets above-average (for Rangers) Courage and Intelligence, plus extra Might and Will and the Heroic Resolve action to represent him being a rallying point, calling attention to Halbarad and the other Ranger Captains.

Halros, Ranger of the North (Minor Hero) - 40pts

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Wargear - Armour, Hand Weapon and Bow
Heroic Actions - Heroic Accuracy
Special Rules - Woodland Creature, Hunter of the Big Folk

Hunter of the Big Folk - Halros may include Hobbit Archer and Hobbit Militia models in his warband.

Army Lists
Halros can be included as a Minor Hero in the following lists:
 - Arathorn's Stand

Halros is noted as being trusted by the hobbits of The Shire, protecting it's borders from threats from the North. This makes him the perfect character to add a bit of variety to the Arathorn's Stand list, and a good way of getting a minor boost to its numbers. Very much like the Hobbit Archer's in the Battle of Fornost list. Halros is an optional member of the Grey Company in LotRO, but there he could not use Hunter of the Big Folk so it's easier to confine him to the single list.

I do believe the Hobbits will be subject to the bow limits, but it works out nicely that 4 Militia and 4 Archers is 26 points, the same as a Ranger with a spear. A decent trade if I do say so myself.

 

Idhrien, Ranger of the North (Minor Hero) - 40pts

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Wargear - Armour, Hand Weapon, Bow and Healing Herbs
Heroic Actions - Heroic Accuracy
Special Rules - Woodland Creature, Herbal Healer

Herbal Healer - Whenever a friendly models within 3" and Line of Sight of Idhrien suffers a Wound, roll a D6. On a 6+, the Wound has been prevented and is ignored. Note that if this roll is failed, a Hero model may still use Fate Points as normal.

Army Lists
Idhrien can be included as an Independant Hero in the following lists:
 - Arathorn's Stand

 - The Grey Company

 - Defenders of the Pelennor 

Idhrien is a healer as a well as a Ranger, and is noted for using her time in the wilds to gather herbs and supplies to aid her craft. This feels like a good way to get an extra save and another minor boost in survivability, albeit one with a limited range. The rule is essentially Malbeth's ability with lower chances and range, nothing crazy, but something that may save one or two wounds per game if you're lucky. When your lists will typically have less that 20 models, that is extremely valuable!

 

Golodir, Ranger Captain (Minor Hero) - 65pts

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Wargear - Armour, Dúnachar - Avenger of the West, Bow
Heroic Actions - Heroic Accuracy, Heroic Resolve
Special Rules - Woodland Creature, Hatred (Angmar)

Dúnachar - Avenger of the West - Dúnachar is a unique Elven-made Hand Weapon. 

Whispers from Angmar - Any Rangers of the North included within his warband may be upgraded to have the Hatred (Angmar) ability for +1 point per model.

Army Lists
Golodir can be included as a Minor Hero in the following lists:
 - Arathorn's Stand

 - The Grey Company

 - Defenders of the Pelennor

Golodir is met when you rescue you him from Carn Dum. He led a company there in defiance of Aragorn's orders, having heard rumours of Angmar being reinhabited. After his rescue, you retrieve his equipment and Elrond's smiths reforge his family sword. Hatred (Angmar) is a situational rule, but a flavourful one, and between that and his sword, there's plenty of character to make Golodir's profile worth making. 

As a Ranger Captain, he deserves a boosted profile, and is just short of Halbarad's level.

So, that's six profiles. Some have better stats, some are just Rangers with an extra special rule, but I hope what I've done here is great a number of small buffs that improve the army's options and survivability without making them overpowered. 1-7 Rangers with Stalk Unseen, a 3" 6+ save, +1 Courage, 1-7 Rangers with Hatred (Angmar), 6 Hobbits and the more control over deployment feels like a lot potentially, but running all them of in the Arathorn's list will set you back between 411pts (Arathorn, plus the six profiles and six Hobbits) and 723pts (max warbands for Faeron and Golodir). That latter option can be 27 models at 750pts, but 6 are Hobbits and most of the characters are in solo warbands. 

750 points | 27 models
Arathorn's Stand
    
Arathorn, Chieftain of the Dunedain:  (80)
    2x Ranger of the North: Spear (52)
    
Faeron:  (40)
    6x Ranger of the North: Stalk Unseen  (156)    

Golodir, Ranger Captain:  (65)
    6x Ranger of the North: Hatred (Angmar)  (156)
    
Halros:  (40)
    4x Hobbit Militia  (16)
2x Hobbit Archers (10)
    
Orthonn, Ranger of the North (50)
    
Idhrien, Ranger of the North (40)
    
Daervunn, Ranger of the North (45)

It feels like more of a solid force, though Arathorn is perhaps a little vulnerable with only two bodyguards should deployment shenanigans happen, but with Orthonn around this shouldn't be too much of a problem.

In other lists like the Grey Company, you have to be much choosier, there is already a nice suite of heroes in that list, and you'll likely seen Aragorn, Legolas and Halbarad with his banner before any of the Ranger characters get a look in. Orthonn and Idhrien seem like the most likely candidates to make it into a Grey Company list however:

700 points | 13 models
The Grey Company
    
Aragorn (Strider): Anduril, Flame of the West (160)
    1x Ranger of the North: Armour (30)
    1x Ranger of the North: Armour (30)
    
Legolas Greenleaf: Elven Cloak, Armour (110)
    
Halbarad: Banner of Arwen Evenstar (110)

Orthonn, Ranger of the North (50)
    
Idhrien, Ranger of the North (40)

Faeron:  (40)
    5x Ranger of the North: Stalk Unseen  (130) 

The model count takes a huge drop but you can deploy as one big warband, and you've got the powerhouse that is Aragorn backed up by one of the strongest profiles in the game that is Legolas. The elf, plus 6 bows hiding with Stalk Unseen/Elven Cloak, and 5 without, is going to be able to do some damage and force the opponent to come in close and engage. Any fight with Aragorn, 12 2-Attack models, a 6" banner and 6+ save will become a slog, even if they heavily outnumber you. Care will be needed to ensure Legolas is targetting those key pieces before the lines clash however.


Theory-crafting about lists aside, this was a fun exercise. Reading through the LotRO wiki pages for the various Ranger characters and thier quest-chains was good fun and I'm sure I could throw together more MESBG profiles using them. Several are found near stables for mounted characters, are focused on specific enemies, or guard key locations that could give them interesting special rules.

Will I ever get chance to play any of them? Perhaps not outside a Battle Companies campaign, or something like Seven Stones that encourages some level of custom profiling. 

What do you think of the profiles I've presented here? Would you use any of them, or do you have ideas for your own Ranger characters. Let me know, until next time!