Justice for Rangers of the North

In the lore for Middle Earth, one of the areas that interests me the most outside of Rohan is northern Eriador and the ruins of Arnor. Alongside this goes a love for the Dunedain, a dour and scattered people who nonetheless see to the safety of the Shire, Bree and these scattered ruins against the roving bands of Orcs and goblins, Wargs, wolves and Trolls that threaten it. They are skilled and hardy warriors, within whom the very blood of Numenor still flows, and it should be of no surprise that their leaders are of the line of Isildur, culminating in Aragorn, son of Arathorn near the end of the Third Age.

In MESBG, the Dunedain, or Rangers of the North were introduced with a suitably elite statline. They boasted above-average Fight, Shoot, Strength and Courage value, but the true standout part of their profile was the inclusion of Heroic Stats; a single point each of Might, Will and Fate. It wasn't game-breaking, but it made every model in the list a minor hero and usually meant you would always out-Might your opponent, even if you lacked for numbers. 

They weren't perfect, but they did closely reach the feeling I think the Dunedain should embody on the tabletop: a small, elite force of hardy archers that were clearly Aragorn's kinsmen.

However, there were issues coming down the line that would call into question the efficacy of their profile. The first was the Beornings, with a comparative points-cost but arguably superior profile, and the second was the new edition and it's Fight Value and profile reshuffling. 

Let's start with a closer look at the current Ranger of the North profile:

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Wargear - Sword and Bow
Heroic Actions - Heroic Accuracy
Special Rules - Woodland Creature

It's fine on a surface level look, but let's compare it a little. There are a few profiles I think work as great comparison points, Beregond from the last edition, a Beorning and a Ranger of Gondor:

Beregond's old profile is perhaps the closest match, but he does have some bonuses over the Rangers. Heavy Armour, a Longbow and Bodyguard for just five points more is a steal, especially when you factor in that the Rangers are unarmoured in their base form and will match Beregond's cost of 30pts to still be short of his D6. Now of course, we don't expect the Rangers to be donning Heavy Armour, but it becomes an argument that they should perhaps already have the armour included in that 25 point cost. You can sort of equivocate Bodyguard and Woodland Creature as both being special rules that fit the character of the profile, but even that still leaves the Rangers slightly short with a weaker bow (the S2 vs S3 being niche as it is, D5 doesn't exactly feel uncommon). 

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Wargear - Heavy Armour, Sword and Longbow
Heroic Actions - Heroic Accuracy
Special Rules - Bodyguard

Whilst I think Beregond's profile is fair, his whole point was that he was a minor hero within one of the largest faction rosters of the game. He was a good, cheap way of getting a few extra heroics and warband slots, but the whole point was that he was unique. When the army consists of basically only Beregonds, the math is altered somewhat.

So that's a compartive hero, what about a warrior profile?

The Beornings were the one that really upset the fans of the Rangers within the community however. Relatively new on the block, they swept in with a comparative cost and feel but some clear advantages over the Dunedain despite lacking the heroic stats. F5, 2A and Burly is a much better offensive profile by far, and they have 2W over the Rangers' "1.5" wounds. Oh and they also have Woodland creature... and they get Great Bows, as well as being both smarter and braver. All for 5 points less! 

It's ok though, they can't shoot quite as well, ignoring the fact that Great Bows wound Rangers on a 4+.

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6"

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Wargear - Axe, Half-and-a-half axe
Special Rules - Woodland Creature, Burly, Followers of the Bear

Honestly if it wasn't for needing to take either Beorn or his son, running the Beornings as a "counts-as" force wouldn't be the worst idea. It really highlights the core difference between two otherwise similar stat profiles, and how much weight the three Heroic stats truly have on the points cost of a model. It is nice to see Beornings has a more close-combat oriented variant of a Ranger, but they just overshadow them as it currently stands.

Moving on to another close profile, Rangers of Gondor!

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Wargear - Armour, Bow, Hand weapon
Special Rules - Woodland Creature

Rangers of Gondor are the closest Warrior match up to the Dunedain. If we put aside the Heroic stats for a moment, Rangers of Gondor are only short on their Dunedain counterparts by a point of Strength and a point of Courage (Technically a point of defence as well, but we'll ignore that here for a moment). Normal conventions would put these increases at a point each, so a non-heroic Dunedain would cost 10 points. Extrapolating this out, that means the Dunedain are paying a full 15 points for their three heroic stats. 

Now this isn't exactly unusual, it's been a long held standard that the Heroic stats cost five points a-piece. Look at last edition's Ringwraiths for a clear example, but you can even see it in the Battle Companies books, and I think it holds well for the most part. However it feels less impactful on Minor Heroes, in my humble opinion. Might is good, but Will and Fate could perhaps be a two-for-one deal. Will is situational, dependant on Magic being around for the most part, or failing a Courage test by a single point. Fate then also is a 50% swing, five points that could go to waste on a bad roll would see a 25 point, single-wound model dead. 

Rangers as they stand fit better at 20 points with that mind; 10 points for base warrior profile, 5 for the Might and 5 for Will and Fate combined. Perhaps.

The new edition did wonderful things for many profiles, particularly when it comes to the Fight Value rebalancing. It elevated a whole bunch of profiles, raising basic and elite troops alike to FV 4 and 5 (or even 4.5). All except of course, the Dunedain. It seemed to be on the wishlists of many, with them being the elite of the elite that they would get the bump up to FV5. Perhaps they might will yet, in some unforeseen supplement, but at the moment we're stuck with F4. This just does not feel as good as it used to, with basically all Minas Tirith and Fiefdoms warriors, Easterlings, Uruk-hai, Dwarves, Corsairs and even Morannon Orcs (seeing as Rangers of the North are Men) all able to match that, and some of them even able to exceed it with various special rules in play. F4 has become the upper-end of average in this respect.

It's not all doom and gloom, I think they work wonderfully in the Arathorn's Stand list with the Silent Ambush rule and benefitting from his Stand Fast. It's not the best list in the game, but it feels right for their theme. It's also just one of the two lists in the new edition that affords the Dunedain perhaps their most worthwhile bonus in "They're a dangerous folk, wandering the wild" giving them a juicy second Attack. If you want to run Rangers, I think this is the correct list to run them. The Grey Company is good too, but you're really running that one for the heroes and the Rangers to fill numbers.

How to fix the Rangers of the North?

The easiest fix would be to include the extra attack in the base profile instead of it being limited to an Army Rule. This would affect the Rangers in the Defenders of the Pelennor and Battle of Fornost lists a little, but I don't see many people running them in the former, and the latter they serve more as a hobbit-delivery device, so I would not see it being an overwhelming change. With an extra wound on top it would even be fair to bump them up to 30pts. 

Another option would be bringing them up to F5. It puts them on par with basic elf warriors, but also elites from other factions, such as Khazad Guard or a well-placed Black Dragon. They become elite again here, though still at the whims of the dice gods.

It is incredibly easy to throw stat boosts in willy-nilly, but there are abilities in the game that offer softer boosts that could be better than simply making them outright stronger. Many abilities are aura-based, requiring them to be in range of another model, usually a hero, but there are a few that could form a good basis of an ability that does not pull away from the Ranger's natural fell.

So, if outright boosting either Attacks or Fight Value seems too much, then perhaps a variation of Knife Fighters for Attacks or Boromir's Banner for Fight Value is the key here. They are extremely likely to be outnumbered, so the ability to gain attacks or win ties is incredibly valuable to them.  

Another option comes from Khazad-Dum, with Dwarf Rangers gaining Mountain Fighters, conferring +1 to Wound against foes in rocky or ruined terrain. Dunedain could receive the same for forested and perhaps ruined terrain, showing them to be adept at fighting amongst the overgrown ruins of Arnor. It would be a situational boost, but a thematic one.

Finally, whilst they are solo warriors, it could be a consideration to boost Arathorn's Chieftain of the Dunedain rule to allow him to serve as a banner, much as Aranarth does. It boosts his list a little without making it oppresive. Aragorn doesn't really need this, seeing as it would take away from Halbarad's banner. Speaking of the plucky flag waver, perhaps he gets a bog-standard banner in the Arathorn list instead of changing Arathorn himself? It may be a tad less thematic, however.

A big weakness for the Rangers is their Defence. As the 5pt cost for D5 is a tough one to justify in many cases, D4 means they take most wounds on a 5+. It doesn't seem that bad on paper, but Strength 4 is hardly uncommon, and with so many armies offering +1 to wound these days, this suddenly becomes a 50/50 chance of losing your 25pt soldier, who may be ony one of a dozen you have. Sure, there is Fate, but that's another 50/50 chance, even with a single Might point to adjust it, it's just not reliable.

Olywn from the War of the Rohirrim offers an option here. Her Stalwart Fighter ability force enemies to wound her only on sixes, after adjustments. Whilst this doesn't prevent shooting losses, it's a good option for elite fighters to give them that slight extra chance to stay alive, and also removes the need for purchasing that armour unless you're worried about Strength 2 bows!

If we want to lean into their bows, Sharpshooter is a fantastic rules that would allow them to level the playing field against cavalry, should there be a lack of wooded terrain available for them to hide in.

Finally, I have two more thematic rules that may fit well. Stalk Unseen and Fell Sight. Both lean into the character of the Rangers being stealthy hunters and trackers. Stalk Unseen gives them a bit of protection against shooting and magic, increasing their survivability and allowing their own shooting to shine much as with Lothlorien lists. Fell Sight on the other hand prevents it being done to them in-kind, a small situational bonus against otherwise sneaky enemies. This one displays the tracking skills we see from Aragorn in various scenes, so it stands to reason his kin would be able to do it too.

There are possibly other options that would fit here well, but I think this is a good selection. Perhaps even variation could be included in a fashion similar to the Dragons, where each Ranger has different bonuses. Some are Knife Fighters, some are stalwart and some stalk unseen, but this could lead to note-taking headaches. 

In either case, I know I'm not alone in wanting to see our Ranger friends be better represented on the tabletop. Share with me what you would like to see.

Until next time. ELENDIL!