Theorycrafting - All-Cavalry Army of the White Hand

We all do it, theory-crafting different lists at various points levels just to see what we can do. Often these lists are just for fun or theme and are unlikely to be competitive, but they can sometimes be a hidden gem to keep the game fresh and run something unexpected and different.

All-Cavalry Army of the White Hand

Yeah, I know, Wolves of Isengard is right there, but that list is limited in its profile selection, and Army of the White Hand offers everything WoI does (with the exception of Sharku and mounted Captains) and a few more options besides. Don't get me wrong, I think WoI is great, it can field a fairly high number of cavalry models and Sharku got a rather nice boost in this edition. If he'd been available in other lists as well, I reckon we'd have seen him more, as he'd only lose the free Heroic Combats.

Going to need more than just this handful of Warg Riders to run this list!

Enough about that however, this here is a White Hand list. The first and primary draw for using AotWH is Saruman. He of course can bring a horse to fit the full cavalry theme, and not only gives the list a big magical boost (much above WoI's, even though it did get Shamans), he also brings the incredibly useful list specific spells; Conjure Lightning, Summon Gale and Call Thunder.

All three are incredibly useful for a cavalry list in my opinion. Call Lightning's power is well known, and the chance to take out a few enemy models early on to level the numbers disparity you're likely to have cannot be overlooked. Even if the opponent spreads out to avoid you taking out too many troops, you can still target a banner, wound a hero/general or knock out siege crew, all key targets that can level the playing field or gain you an advantage and key VPs.

Then there's Summon Gale, which quite simply halves the opponents movement for a turn. When you already likely have the speed advantage as all cavalry, this is doubly powerful. You can much more easily set up a key charge, by preventing an opponents own charge or them escaping from your range. In the turn after a charge, or perhaps if you moved first, you may be able to prevent counter charges. As the ability is activated when Saruman himself activates, there is scope for him to call a Heroic Move from a distant spot and fire off the Gale to protect your charging cavalry elsewhere. The opponent is unlikely to counter Move in these cases, as Saruman may be too far away to actually affect the battlelines they would not see it coming.

And of course, in the race to objectives or board edges you vastly outpace your opponent when they have to spend a turn crawling at half speed. 

Finally, Call Thunder does a lot for preventing counter-charges as well, making charging when you win priority much safer to pull off. A one-two punch of Call Thunder and Summon Gale could see your cavalry completely smash through enemy lines without much resistance as the opponent either can't reach your or fails to charge at all.

All this without getting into his normal suite of spells, Palantir, +1 Courage aura or Saruman's Deceit ability. It's crazy how good Saruman is, making it doubly important to keep him protected as he is undoubtedly the core of the list.

My poor 20+ year old Saruman (from the BGiME mags) needs some TLC

Supporting Saruman of course there are Isengard Orc Shamans. Naturally being able to be mounted on Wargs, they're likely to see a place in the list, and they do what Shamans always do; cast Fury so your Orcs are able to charge into Terror or stick around when the army is broken. This is pretty handy in a list where the majority of your troops will be Warg Riders (ie. Isengard Orcs) and they aren't exactly known for being courageous.

Isengard Shamans do also have the standard Transfix as well, a damn good candidate for Channelling when you absolutely have to stop a rampaging enemy hero. It's likely to force out Will points to resist as well when cast at the right time, allowing you to follow up with Saruman's magic to increase the chances of it going off.

Their signature spell is Enrage Beast, which always felt like an interesting choice in Isengard lists, but you do have plentiful access to Wargs and of course Crebain. This latter is likely to be the usual target for raging out, F4, S4 and four attacks is good for dealing a quick bunch of wounds to troops or potentially even a transfixed hero, but in this list outside the fight value, your cavalry is already doing 4 S4 attacks against infantry so it's not really a gain unless you need the Fight Value or are facing something that can't be knocked down. There is also the potential to Enrage Wargs themselves, which is much more interesting. That riderless Warg that stuck around is suddenly F5, with 3 S6 attacks and can do some real damage to whichever unsuspecting warrior or hero that thought it an easy target.

Shame that the Warg then dies at the end of the turn, but it'd be a fun surprise to drop on your opponent.

So that's the magical might of the list clear, how about physical? Without Sharku, the only mounted martial hero in the list is Thrydan Wolfsbane. He's fairly decent mid-tier hero, but won't be hurting your opponent's heroes without support from Saruman or Shamans. F5 is middling, even though he does have access to Strike, and D5 with 2W and 2F means he won't be able to take many hits either. The selling point for him is the 2 S5 attacks with Mighty Blow, which when mounted can jump to 6 strikes and a potential 12 wounds. Coupled with Heroic Strength if you ever feel you need it, if this guy is able to hit he's going to feel very much like Helm Hammerhand has come to town.

Thrydan Wolfsbane, hits like a truck, but not necessarily built like one.

He's got 3 Might for Moves or Combats if you need them, so you'll really want him smashing through enemy troops as he'll quickly decimate enemy battlelines so long as you avoid letting him get overwhelmed.

His 12" Stand Fast is really the cherry on the cake also, supplementing your Fury if you brought it, but best of all doubling up with Saruman's own Stand Fast for some impressive coverage.

So that's the Heroes, how about the troops? Going all cavalry, you've really only got two options; Warg Riders and Dunlending Horsemen (though an argument could be made for including a couple of swarms of Crebain, as they're just too damn good).

On the surface, the two options are functionally the same as both are F3, S4, D5 cavalry, and both cost 12 points, with only Throwing Spear and Shield armed Warg Riders costing more. Warg Riders bring your ranged options if you want them, bows and throwing spears, plus the potential for the mounts to stick around. They also benefit from Fury and Enrage Beast. Dunlending Horsemen have no wargear options, and instead get to re-roll wounds against mounts, which is situationally useful, and boast a slightly higher Intelligence and Courage score.

I don't think there's enough to focus on the Dunlendings over the Warg Riders. The Orcs are just much more tactically flexible, and the potential for the Warg sticking around is just a great boon. I would certainly always try to include a couple of Dunlendings however, there are some mounts that do just need to die and it may be difficult for you to remove the rider. More importantly the higher courage and intelligence stats on them make them the best choices for securing objectives, especially with Saruman in sight providing an extra +1 bonus to Courage tests.

So, are there weakenesses to this list? Well of course. Firstly, being an all-Cav army, it's going to have low numbers even with the relatively cost-efficient Warg Riders making up the bulk of the list. Expect to be outnumbered, but your speed, range and Army Bonuses can mitigate this.

Second, you lack a real power combat hero. The combination of Saruman and Thrydan can emulate this somewhat, but directly opposing Aragorn, Gil-Galad or the Balrog is going to take some finesse. Your magic really needs to be working for you against these threats, and you should be focused on removing their support.

Third, no March. Saruman, Thrydan and Shaman lack Heroic March, which could matter in certain match-ups or situations. That said, we covered the speed advantages this list will have earlier, so it's less of an issue here than in other lists.

Finally, whilst your core troops are fantastic for their points, they are limited to F3 and D4-5 with no way to boost these even temporarily outside of casting Enrage Beast on Wargs. You have no banners either, so you're gonna be heavily reliant on outrolling your opponent to win fights in an awful lot of matchups. As previously mentioned though, you will likely have the mobility advantage that you can use to skirmish with throwing spears and bows before ganging up 2-1 or more to ensure you have the dice advantage. Your Crebain, if you take them, are great for getting extra attacks into a fight and the traps they can facilitate can really ensure those Str 4 hits do what they need to do.

This is how I'd build list at a glance. One each of the three hero options gives me all the tricks, though 7 Might isn't great (give Captains back their Wargs GW!). Add in a smattering of Crebain to act as roadblocks, give even more mobility options and act as Saruman's eyes. Finally, it nicely adds up that you can fit a clean half dozen cavalry into each warband, with just short of the maximum number for bows and throwing spears (though you could swap some wargear around to get them maxed and probably should).

24 models is low, but you've got the range, speed and magic to really hem the opponent in. 12 shots a turn, even at 6s to hit (assuming you're moving) will still average out to a wound most turns. Canny use of cover will allow you to get in close and threaten enemy archers, potentially giving you the ranged advantage early on. Even more so if you targeted them for a Lightning Strike!

I think I could keep going on and on, but let's just leave it here. I would love to get this list onto the table and see how it can perform.

 

Thank you for your time once again. If you like what I do here, you can also follow my hobby progress via Instagram, where I can be found at @Manic.Hobbying. In any case, just your support being here is greatly appreciated, and I hope to see you again.

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!