Ghostly Reinforcements - How the spirits of MESBG play

s mentioned in previous posts, my focus this year is to build off of the core of troops I've built for various factions to increase the options available to me in various lists, adding new tricks and strategies. For the first batch, I've gone with some of the spirit models of MESBG, and we'll start with perhaps the simplest...

 

The Army of the Dead 

 

The dead men of Dunharrow got a bit of a glow up in the new edition, namely with that 8" movement rate. With the Spectral Walk ability supporting this, allowing them to never be slowed by Difficult Terrain and auto-pass Climb, Jump, Leap and Swim as if they'd rolled sixes, they are some of the most maneoverable troops in the game. Depending on the terrain, they can arguably out-move cavalry, something you only really otherwise see from Uruk-hai scouts or flying creatures.

Whilst they are only F3 base (boosted to F4 rarely), their speed, Terror and D7 (D8 with Shield) really allow them to pick and choose their fights and survive bad situations much better than anything outside of Dwarves. Where they do win, expect them to do damage as well, with Blades of the Dead allowing them to attack the Courage value rather than the (usually higher) Defence value. Assuming you aren't facing pjama elves (who outfight the Dead and actually have higher Defence against them), you should have a good chance of winning any infantry grind, even with your likely lower numbers.

In any list they are present (Defenders of the Pelennor and Return of the King) they will also always be accompanied by at least one of the Three Hunters and/or the King of the Dead, offering a wonderful boost where they'll often be the anvil to the heroes' hammer. 

In Return of the King, the Dead are your entire force both mounted and on foot. They will support the heroes perhaps more than the other way around though, with movement, high defence and Terror allowing them to be a strong screening force for letting the tag team of Aragorn and the King of the Dead to put pressure where they needs to and avoid being surrounded. At the same time, they can quickly and efficiently get to objectives or board edges without even needing March in a lot of cases.

For supporting the Dead themselves, in Pelennor they can be joined by F4 troops from Gondor, various cavalry options for the knockdown, and ranged firepower with various bows, throwing weapons and even siege weapons. There's also the option of Gandalf the White for magical support. In this list, the Dead will often be either your shock troops or a core part of your battleline, albeit an expensive one that has to compete with Gondor troops for the role.

Pelennor is also the only way to run a pure Dunharrow list, should you want to.

That latter list is where I will be using them. I'm only painting up 7 for now, but at 14pts a pop (15 with the shield) that's at least 100pts already, with the added tax of needed Legolas, Gimli or the King at minimum to field them (all 100pts base) it's a decent investment to field them. They will work well as a strike force for my Pelennor lists, which are currently a mix of Rohan Cavalry, Gondor shieldwalls and a smattering of support pieces such as Lossarnach Axemen and a single Bolt Thrower.

For the painting, I went with a light grey primer, then picked out the metals with Vallejo's Natural Steel. Everything was washed with a Citadel's Biel-Tan Green Shade.

 

Spectres

Spectres are the perhaps the closest match Evil Armies have the the Army of the Dead, but one that trades combat ability for support ability.

They match the Dead with the Spectral Walk, Terror and S3 Blades of the Dead abilities, which is nice, but move slower at 6" and are F2 and D6, one point less in each of these stats and with no option for a shield (or any other wargear for that matter). Costing the same as a Warrior of the Dead with a Shield, that's not exactly something you want to field as your main battleline.

Instead, the Spectres strength is in its A Fell Light is in Them ability. In the move phase each Spectre can force any single model it can see within 12" to pass an Intelligence test or be forced to make its full move towards the Spectre. There are some limitations to this, such as the move cannot be used to directly cause damage by falling or Charge into combat (except against the Spectre, should you wish it), but it remains a powerful ability.

Spectres can pull models out of formation, perhaps ruining a Shieldwall defence bonus, preventing shooting or even simply allowing your own troops to mob up and surround one of the opponent's warriors away from the battleline. You can pull a banner bearer out of position, or an objective holder into a trap.

Of course, it can always fail, especially if the opponent has high Intelligence stats (especially the case with heroes), but 2 or 3 Spectres could all target the same model and through sheer pressure of dice, move them forwards and cause disruption in the opponent's formation that you can capitalise on.

I've just built one for now, the base model being a Wood Elf warrior with an arm from the Mirkwood Rangers sprue, a spare sword and a mix of cuts and greenstuff to ruin the clothing. Painting was done in the same fashion as the Dead above, but I chose to include a Reikland Fleshshade wash on the areas of skin. It's a sublte different but I like it.

I'll be definitely adding more Spectres to my armies, as I feel they are key parts of the Angmar and Minas Morgul lists. I plan to run the former more often, as I already have a decent number of Orcs and Carn Dum warriors that can really benefit from some movement shenanigans.

 

 Shade  

 

The final new addition I have for this batch is the Shade. Unlike the previous profiles, this one is a Hero, but still shares the trifecta of Spectral Walk, Terror and Blades of the Dead. Like it's compatriot the Spectre, it is certainly not a combat piece, F1 and S1 don't go very far even with 2 Attacks. It is at least survivable, sporting D8, a healthy 3 Wounds and even a single Fate point.

Instead, the Shade is firmly a Support Hero, with three abilities for helping your list.

Starting with Conduit of Angmar, the Shade can be used as the casting point and Line-of-Sight for any Ringwraith's magic, similar to Crebain for Saruman. This goes further as well, where if the Wraith happens to be within 6" of the Shade, they can cause a Wound to add a one to their Casting Roll. The first half of this roll is lovely and really helps keep the magical oppression going on your opponent, as it's tough to hide from multiple angles. The second half is likely to be rarely used outside of key moments where a spell could win or lose games, but should be remembered, even if it costs you the Shade itself.

Swirling Mists is a lesser version of Blinding Light (perhaps more akin to Khazad-Dum's mirrors), and inflicts a -1 penalty to shooting attacks on models with 6" of the Shade at the cost of one of its 4 points of Will. Very useful when your lists typically comprise in majority of D4 and D5 Orcs. As an added bonus, if your Shade happens to be within 12" of the shooter it becomes a -2 penalty instead, favouring an up-close playstyle.

Finally, the Shade has Ghostly Resolve, a passive ability that gives all friendly Angmar Orcs within 12" a +1 to Courage Tests. With Orcs being as famously cowardly as they are, this at least brings them up to being on par with most Man warrior profiles and will help in those cases where the opponent also has some Terror.

These three abilities are great of course, but that's not where the fun ends. Being a Spirit Hero, it will usually provide the Terror rule to Angmar Orcs within 3" and it also has Dominant 3. These rules and it's defensive stats all come together to help make the Shade and its warband a decent enough speedbump for holding objectives. It's a solid Hero for just 75pts and I look forward to taking one in a Host of the Witch King list some point soon.

I quite like GW's official model, but ever on a budget I settled instead for building my own using some Age of Sigmar ghosts (nighthaunts?) that I picked a sprue of by random a few years back. I fused two of these together with a bit of greenstuff, removing the scythe-hands and replacing them with simple hand weapons from the Vitrix Vikings sprue. Once again, I used the same painting style.

 

Where are the Barrow Wights?

Whilst there are more Spirit models in the MESBG range, most of the rest of them are Ringwraiths and they are kind of their own beasts. The last proper ghost model is the Barrow Wight, which I've not included here. This is partly because I don't have any of the official models and have had no real ideas on how to properly represent them with the parts I have on hand. They will have to wait for a later date to join my forces. 

They are still a useful part of any Angmar list, and sport the wildly useful Paralyse Magical Power. This is one of those more controversial abilities in MESBG, especially when used en-masse, but not one that cannot be played around or countered, especially with the tiny 6" casting range. Still, that's not for a deep discussion now.

 

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, or you can support me via the KoFi link off to the side. In any case, just your support being here is greatly appreciated, and I hope to see you again.

Until next time! 

  

  

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. 

Army of Edoras

Rohan has long been in a position of prominence within MESBG, if not in strength then at least in popularity. This hasn't changed in the new edition either, with eleven Rohan lists available, plus three soupy lists (Realms of Men, Defenders of the Pelennor and Men of the West) that feature them prominently, and even here you could run them as basically all Rohan if you so desired. You can also run them in nearly every flavour; full cav, full infantry, mixed-arms, all heroes, with elven allies, with Gondor allies, with forest-people allies... an exhaustive list, and it can be overwhelming on choosing what to actually run.

I've been slowly making my way through the different lists, but with the starter box being focused on the War of the Rohirrim in the time of Helm Hammerhand, my latest is the Army of the Edoras. (Defender's of the Hornburg is fine, but I like the greater options available). Part of my reason for writing this blog is because I've not really seen this list covered anywhere, and whilst I'm not a strategic genius by any stretch, I think this list as some great options and the legs to do real well competitively.

So without further ado, let's have a look at the list, starting with the Heroes. Grab a cuppa, this might be a long one.

HEROES

Heroes of Legend

Helm Hammerhand, King of Rohan

The big guy himself is the only Hero of Legend in this list, and comes in at a cool 160pts (185 with his horse, which obviously you're taking. For this you're getting an F6, S5 Burly combat hero with 3's in all the right places, plus Strike and Strength where you need it. He can also call Heroic Combats for free, which is very nice for hero that is so clearly designed to splatter things. Strength 5 with a two-handed weapon is going to see him killing most things on 3's which makes him incredibly reliable on the charge. This strength is also fantastic for taking on the tougher high-defence monsters that are running around everywhere where other mere Strength 4 heroes may struggle.

He does have downsides to this combat prowess however. F6 isn't quite what it was, so he may be reliant on Strike against other heroes of his calibre or the monsters you want his Strength to deal with. He likely will lose the odd combat, but thankfully he has D7, 3W and 3F to keep him alive, plus an armoured horse.
His Into The Fray rule also will be forcing him to charge once he's made his first kill of the game, leaving him vulnerable to kiting and getting trapped. He's not quite as bad as Theodred or a grieving Eomer, as you can at least choose when to have him start charging and killing, but you will have to be mindful of when and where to commit him.

Helm comes with some extra more minor rules. Being the King of Rohan he of course has Expert Rider and Horse Lord, always nice for keeping his mount alive and staying mobile. He also has The Hammerhand which means he is never considered unarmed, nice for those rare times an opponent may look to steal or break his weapon.

Finally, for more army-wide benefits, he has Leader (Rohan Royal Guard), being the only hero in the list who can include them in his warband. He is also carrying the Horn of the Hammerhand which is not only nice for it's Courage bonus (much more useful this edition with all the monsters and Blades of the Dead about), it also has a once-per-game 24" -1 Courage bubble. Assuming you can break the opponent that could be very useful for ensuring more of them run away.

All in all Helm is an impressive profile, but not necessarily a top tier hero. He's got a good chance of killing whatever he hits, but it requires careful play and careful support to ensure he gets to actually hit what you want him to. You probably won't take him in every list either, as he'll be much more comfortable at the higher points levels (700+) where you can bring a couple of extra heroes.

Speaking of...

Heroes of Valour

Frealaf, First Marshal of the Riddermark

Frealaf is one of those heroes I expect to be F5 and 2A, so I'm always pleasantly surprised when I remember he's actually F6 and 3A. At just 100 points with the option for a horse, he makes a decent candidate to be your general at lower points levels. Defensively, he's slightly lacking at only D5, but he does have 3W and 3F to keep him going there at least. He's also perhaps best hiding behind his warband and popping around the flanks, which should keep him safe, as the main reason you'll be wanting to bring him along is his Lord of Harrowdale rule.

With Royal Guard limited to Helm's Warband, having a free upgrade for Warriors of Rohan in Frealaf's warband to Warriors of Harrowdale is a nice way to get a D6 frontline, thanks to Shieldwall (assuming he's in Line of Sight). A maxed-out warband can give you a seven-man-wide shieldwall with throwing spears in the back rank and a banner, all for 243pts (unless you want him on a horse, though I don't think that's overly necessary in most lists). Warriors of Harrowdale also get to re-roll failed Intelligence tests, nice for when you're facing Spectres or Sentinels that may want to ruin your Shieldwall.

Whilst Frealaf does only have 2 Might, if Hera is within 6" of him, he does get Master of Battle for countering your opponent's Heroics. On a 4+ you have a 50/50 chance of it working (plus the 50/50 roll off), but it could mean countering a key Heroic Move that allows you to take the initiative on the charge or even back away for another round of thrown spears. 

This rule does kinda make Hera a 70pt upgrade for Frealaf, but more on her later. 

Frealaf doesn't have a model yet, so I had Wulf donate his head for a nice proxy

Haleth, Prince of Rohan

The brother that follows in his father's footsteps, Haleth is ostensibly built to fight. At 125pts on an Armoured Horse with the option of Throwing Spears, he brings F6, S4, 3A and 3M to the table, plus Heroic Strike, which is the standard for a beatstick hero. Haleth is rather simple as it goes, and his job is clearly to be mowing through warriors. With Defender of Edoras, you want him in combat with a minimum of two enemies every turn, as he gets to re-roll any failed To Wound rolls when outnumbered.

Haleth actually works as a nice escort for Helm, the pair's natural killing ability should mean they are not going to end up surrounded, and with Heroic Combats could theoretically kill 16 models in a single turn (not that I expect to see that ever happen). Even without Helm, Haleth is a fantastic fighter for flanking enemy battlelines and levelling the playing field against high-model count lists.

He is a little fragile however, D6 and 3W whilst on an Armoured Horse with Horse Lord is always nice, but he only has a single fate point, so care should be taken to keep him alive.

Hama, Prince of Rohan

Hama is the Legolas to Haleth's Aragorn... sort of. He has a bow, a 3+ Shoot Value, Sharpshooter and Heroic Accuracy. Whilst he's not going to be winning any archery contests (his opponents are Elves, so fair enough), he does have the skills to snipe out the horses of dangerous heroes or potentially important support pieces like banners. At 90pts mounted, he's an excellent candidate for leading a small skirmish detachment of Riders of Rohan, kiting enemies with half moves, or tearing off to grab objectives whilst still contributing.

Combat-wise, he's a more standard Rohan hero; F5, S4, 2A, 2M, enough again for dealing with Warriors and maybe Captains or Minor Heroes. With D6, 2W, 2F and Heroic Defence, he could also make a serviceable roadblock against other more capable fighters. 

Despite the temptation to maybe keep him on the outskirts where he can shoot, he does also bring The Warrior Poet, which for a point of Will gives friendly Rohan models re-rolls on 1's when wounding for that turn. Whilst not groundbreaking, this could really bolster turns where the hammer meets the anvil to ensure an extra kill or two. He can do this three times per game, which coupled with the Army Rule Forth Eorlingas could make the army surprisingly killy for four whole turns of combat, or ensure Helm's Heroic Combats keep rolling.

Heroes of Fortitude

Hera, Daughter of Helm

As star of War of the Rohirrim, Hera doesn't necessarily get a star profile, but she does have some solid stats and some useful special rules. The aforementioned buff to Frealaf from Mutual Respect encourages you to keep her near him so he can counter enemy Heroics, and she is a solid candidate for helping him guard the flanks of that Warrior of Harrowdale shieldwall.

That's not to say she needs to be there, and Hera works well as a hunter, aiming to take out key supporting units in the opponents list (banners, horns, Shamen etc). At F5, S4, 2A and 3M she's yet another standard Rohan named hero, and Heroic Strike and Heroic Defence give her options depending on what she's facing. The key rule for her is Daughter of Rohan however. Assuming you can get her into one-on-one combats (no spear-supports either), she goes up to 3 Attacks and can re-roll natural ones when wounding. A nice healthy boost that can let her do her job, especially when mounted, assuming you can get her there. I struggled in a recent game and she never found herself in any one-on-one combats despite singling out Captains more than once, but there were an awful lot of goblins making that tricky for me.

To help get her where she needs to be, she gets the unique mount Ashere. Ashere gets Swift Gallop, an activatable rule that give a bonus 2" to her move distance and Woodland Creature. Whilst this does mean that Hera can't charge whilst using it, it's very nice for helping to set up unexpected flanks and get into positions to charge what you want to. It also could be the difference in reaching objectives or getting off of the board in several scenarios.

Finally, she does also have Spyglass, allowing her to see through Stalk Unseen which is situationly useful.

Olwyn, Shieldmaiden of Rohan

Olywn is built to be a budget roadblock. Whilst she brings a slight alteration on the standard Rohan statblock (F5, S4, 3A and 2M), she has Heroic Defence and Stalwart Fighter. This latter rule means she can only be wounded in combat on 6's, making up a little for her D5. Whilst this isn't natural 6's (so +1 bonuses and the like take affect), it does give her that extra little bit of survivability to go along with her 2W and 3F.

Light Armour also brings her up to D6 against shooting, and like most Rohan heroes she can take a horse, but at 80pts (100 with said horse) she's a solid edition to any list. 

Finally she has Sworn Protector (Hera), to make up for her average 5+ courage stat.

Captain of Rohan

At anywhere from 45-75pts depending on gear, Rohan Captains are still your bog-standard Captain profile with the standard Rohan special rules, and as with any list they are nice way to get extra warband slots and Might, but mostly importantly Heroic March. This last one is especially important as it is the only way to get March in the Army of Edoras, a useful niche where you may otherwise consider just bring Hera, Olwyn or Hama instead for the points.

With the combined-arms feel of this list, they could be very important for ensuring your infantry gets to where it needs to be in time. Even in a more cavalry-heavy or hero-heavy variant, Captains are still useful sources of Might and March and just simply being another body that's more expendable that the rest.

Minor Heroes

Lief, Page of Helm

Lief is the final hero profile available to the Army of Edoras and takes the role of Support Hero. F3, S3, 1A, plus his shorter stature isn't going to have him beating allegations of being a Hobbit in disguise. He at least has 2W and 1F to go with Heroic Defence in an emergency, despite only being D4, but don't expect him to be winning many fights, even on his horse.

Instead Lief's value comes from Orders from Edoras, and this is where his 50pts cost is being spent. With his 5 Will points, he has 5 once-per-game, single-turn 3" auras he can activate; Heroes getting free Heroic Combats, friendly Rohan models getting Fearless, removal of the -1 to hit for moving and shooting and a re-roll on To Hit, friendly Rohan models gaining Woodland Creature and Mountain Dweller, and last but not least, friendly Rohan models gaining 2" Move. 

This gives you a lot of options, despite it's smaller 3" range (a reason to mount him however for the larger base size). Skill is everything however, you'll need timing and positioning to be immaculate to get the most out of him. One turn he'll be using his Pseudo-March, then he'll have to run over to your riders/archers to give them a boost so they can make a hole in the enemy's formation, then back to the battleline to give them Fearless so they can charge something with Terror, then moving again to group with your Heroes to get off a big Heroic Combat chain. 

Somewhere amongst all that, the terrain aura could be used to ensure you can reach an awkward objective, or make a run for the board edge.

Expect to see Lief running all over the board, but at the same time being the target of heroes (especially in assassination) and bowfire (Light Armour is nice for the S2 and S4 archery at least, bringing him to D5). 

He might be a key piece in Army of Edoras lists and the secret sauce needed to elevate it.

Legacy - The King's Huntsman

With the Legacy document hitting just yesterday, I'd be remiss not to mention how they affect the list. It is a minor one, but the King's Huntsman is back! Whilst not the most popular option, I always quite liked the profile. He has a weird niche as a horseless Rohan hero, but focused instead on archery. Whilst it just made more sense to take Legolas or Haldir in most lists, he did have a place in the Theodred and Helm's legions, as both were limited on hero options.

With Army of Edoras, his niche is somewhat challenged by Hama, as both have Heroic Accuracy and Sharpshooter. However, Hama wants to be skirmishing and buffing the front-line, whilst the Huntsman works better as a backline sniper, preferably guarding an objective. He'll do that job much better than an regular Rohan Warrior or Rider as well thanks to his D5, 2W and 1F. Just don't expect him to fight too much, despite having 2 Might and S4, he's only F3 with 1 attack.

More than that, he also wields a Longbow for that juicy S3 and only fails In-the-Ways on a 1, making him a much more reliable sniper. Whilst it's situational, if he ever manages to land the final shot on a Monster (something that should happen more regularly this edition), he recovers all of his Might. 2 Might doesn't exactly go far, but spending all of it to guarantee the kill is FREE and that's awesome.

Any list where you have a spare 55pts he's worth a consideration, though he does compete there with a Captain on foot, so it depends if you need March or a dedicated Archer/Objective Holder. He's a minor hero also, so he could bring along a half dozen bowmen or a couple extra fighters for the battleline.

So, a fairly solid roster of heroes that includes a couple of synergies as well. With every single one of them able to be mounted this is a rival to the old hero-heavy Riders of Theoden legion (or even Kingdom of Rohan if you want Theodred), though with Eomer's buffs and Gamling's banner, Helm's boys might still be in second place here.

Rather, I think here that Army of Edoras is a prime foot-Rohan list that still allows you to bring a cavalry hammer for hitting power that lists like Defender's of Helm's Deep may lack. Your standard spear-supported battleline is made much better by the inclusion of Throwing Spears that not only forces the opponent to come to you, but also gives flexibility and skirmishing potential. Frealaf's warband with Shieldwall is a lovely defensive boost for D6 saving your from needing to use the more expensive Royal Guard as your frontline, which is great with them being limited to Helm's warband where they are much more useful as F5 charging cavalry. Or bring two shieldwalls, why not?

You may be limited with S3 warriors and S2 bows on the killing front, but there are several re-roll auras from the army bonus, Hama and Lief to subtly boost that killing power. Failing that, cavalry has always been great at stacking dice for more wounds, and Helm, Haleth and Hera are incredibly killy in the right circumstances. 

There's enough Strike to challenge monsters and other F7+ heroes, but you don't always have to fight those. Your heroes are much better geared towards mowing through Warriors or taking down Minor Heroes and Captains. You have roadblock options and can also kite fairly well with cavalry, so playing to objectives is much more in your favour, though if you're feeling lucky, back Helm or Haleth up with a banner and see what they can do.

Warriors

I'm not going to go into depth on the warrior options, as it's your normal Rohan spread of Warriors of Rohan, Riders of Rohan and Rohan Royal Guard. Outriders and Sons of Eorl from Legacy didn't make it into the list unfortunately. In either case, they the Warriors we've known and loved for many years now, so there's not much to cover. The Warriors are fairly cheap with solid profiles, Riders are the flexible skirmish cavalry they've always been and the Royal Guard are solid shock cavalry. You can get solid numbers with just the first two, and I think it's well worth bringing a decent group of them.

My Warriors of Harrowdale, a nice little upgrade to the standard profile. Plus they can double up as Helmingas in other lists!

Pros and Cons

Pros:
 - Solid hero roster.
 - Well-rounded troops.
 - Some synergy and good auric bonuses.
 - The Hammerhand!
 - Flexible Heroes and Warriors.
 - Great cavalry.

Cons:
 - Heroes can be pricey.
 - No F7+
 - Troops limited to S3 (mitigated somewhat with re-rolls).
 - Warrior F4+ limited.
 - No magic or magic resistance.

Finally they are an army of most F3, D5 Men in a world of F4 and Hatred, some of it specifically pointed at Rohan as a faction. These opponents are fairly common these days, so it could be a bit of an uphill battle in any competitive setting, but an canny player may be able to push past this handicap.

Army List

I of course have a few lists that may work to show just what the Army of Edoras can do:

Starting at 350pts:

I've gone here with the Frealaf/Hera combo, as I really do like what Frealaf brings to the table. He's a solid hero for this points level and the near-full warband gives a good number of bodies to avoid being outnumbered. Hera brings the supporting pieces with an archery triangle and a couple of Riders that can flank or run off to grab objectives. Hera herself can also hunt down the usual, such as banners, but also minor heroes that are more common at this points level.

We're relying on the throwing spears and Master of Battle here to help us dictate when the battle starts, with plenty of shooting to (hopefully) get the numbers advantage.

There is the option for swapping Hera out for a mounted Captain, which gives March and another mounted fighter, but this is down to personal taste.

This is the list I've run most recently. Once again I've brought that core of Frealaf/Hera with a full shieldwall and some extra bodies, archers and cavalry to form the core of the list. Accompanying them I've brought Haleth for some combat power with a cavalry entourage and a couple of extra archers. Otherwise, it works much as the previous list did.

It's a bit of an all-rounder, able to skirmish and shoot well, with a solid hammer-and-anvil setup. You want to whittle the enemy down with spears, whilst also plopping yourself down on an objective or blocking routes through terrain with the shieldwalls. Haleth really wants to be getting stuck in as he can very quickly chop through enemy warriors, but you still have to be careful not to let him get overwhelmed.

With more points, getting Hera on Ashere is an option for flexibility and once again consideration can be made for a Captain. You could also downgrade Haleth, perhaps to Olywn or Hama, giving much less combat prowess, but more bodies and either staying power or accurate shooting and combat aura. I may experiment with this later.

For the final "standard list" I want to run one that included Helm himself, but otherwise I've stayed consistent with the feel of the previous lists. Helm is a little less flexible than his son, but is backed up nicely by a pair of Royal Guard, and even Hama could run over to support him and ensure he gets off a big Heroic Combat with Warrior Poet.

For adjustments, you really have the choice between Hama's horse and Ashere. Hama can support Helm well and skirmish better whilst mounted, whilst Hera gets more proficient at her hunting role with Ashere. Once again, personal choice and who your opponent is matters here.

You don't have to run Helm of course, Haleth suits as a good substitute, though you lose the Royal Guard you can just bring more Riders, who are still F4 on the charge if near enough to either Haleth or Frealaf (depending on who is the General). Hama could be substituted for Olwyn if you don't feel you need the archery, but there is consideration for Lief here too. With more bodies on the field, his auras have more chance to have a greater affect, and without a Captain, his March-like ability pays well for getting early positions. I don't personally feel like I have the skill to pull off his abilities yet, but it's worth a try.

For the final list, I figured I'd build something Hero-heavy in the style of Riders of Theoden, and I have two:

This one does feel like an outing of the Royal family of Rohan (Frealaf being a cousin of course). We lack a hero banner, so a Rider has to bring one, then a second Rider and a some Royal Guard bring up the points and act as screening bodies. 

Helm and Haleth here are your focus, both of them are powerful combatants and with Helm's raw strength and free Heroic Combats and Haleth's wound re-rolls, you want them stuck in and mowing through warriors supported by the banner and Lief/Hama's auras.

Frealaf and Hera are there to watch the flanks, and whilst they are both solid fighters they're more fragile and have to picking their combats well. Targetting Minor Heroes is also key, to remove counter Heroics, but you'll be wanting to keep them close to each other to call your own Heroics and counter with Master of Battle. Everybody knows it by now, but this is key with all Cavalry and hero-heavy armies to keep momentum.

Obviously there is a choice here between Hama and Lief, both of which are great supports with slight variations. Hama is focused on his wounding aura and sniping opposing horses that may want to remove your cavalry bonuses, he can also fight decently well. Lief has some movement auras, plus the nice free Heroic Combat turn that pairs well with Forth Eorlingas for a potentially very powerful alpha strike turn. Again, personal choice at play here, and I can see arguments for either.

So that's a look at the Army of Edoras and by no means a fully exhaustive one, as it has plenty of options as you can well see. Potentially a bit of a sleeper pick compared to many of the other lists in the game, it really only lacks a top tier hero on the level or Aragorn or Glorfindel, but Helm by no means is far behind them in the rankings, and he has plenty of support to do the job.

If you enjoyed this, or have any thoughts, feel free to leave a comment. If you want to see what I'm doing hobby-wise, I have an Instagram @Manic.Hobbying.

Until next time, Forth Eorlingas!

Rohan Combined Arms

So I'm a lying liar who lies, but it wasn't 17 months at least, just 8...

I've been looking more recently at Army Lists, and specifically my favourite faction in Rohan (if that wasn't obvious). When people think of Rohan, they think mass cavalry, because of course they do. They're known as the Horse Lords, and some of thier most iconic scenes include riding down the enemy on horseback. King Theoden's men are capable of much more however, and I like the idea of running Rohan as mixed forces to the point I'm building a full contingent of Helmingas and have plenty of Outwalkers on the bench.

Representing this on tabletop is a requires a little thought. There are two options you'd typically see, Allies and Legendary Legions. For the former, Seeing a Rohirrim cavalry detachment supporting a main infantry force from Lothlorien or Minas Tirith would be quite typical. Both factions have thier own cavalry already, but Rohan gives something a little more at a lower cost. The other option, Legendary Legions, is what got me started on this thought track in the first place. Rohan has two options for an infantry force in these, Defenders of Helm's Deep, which is pure infantry with elves, and Theodred's Guard. This second one is a recreation of the force that met Saruman's at that fateful battle at the Fords of Isen where Theodred lost his life. Both Legions come with a special rule allowing Rohan infantry to use thier Throwing Spears as regular spears for supporting thier fellows, something not possible without allies in the native Rohan list.

For the longest time, I was drawn towards using Theodred's Guard. It's a powerful list and fulfills that combined arms option, but is limited in it's hero choices and lacks the Army Bonus. So I looked to other options with the core list. I knew I wanted an traditional infantry block with spear supports, which meant I had to use allies, but I also wanted to retain Rohan's particular flavour. This ruled out the use of Elves and the heavy armour clad Warriors of Minas Tirith. Outside of the two factions I've already mentioned that are Historic Allies (and therefore retain Army Bonuses), the other option available is The Fiefdoms.

In my (admittedly limited) experience, The Fiefdoms don't get much showing. There might be a few reasons for this. That they don't appear in the movies, that they have a relatively small role in the books, and that the models are a little harder to obtain, and at higher prices. The faction has it's strengths, with powerful heroes and some great synergy, but I'm not interested in the whole list right now. Instead, my attention has gone towards Forlong and Axemen of Lossarnarch. 

Zorpazorp used Forlong in his "Riders of Thengel" list, which is what prompted the idea. The other is that the Axemen themselves fit the Rohan aesthetic with thier axe-like polearms (in my opinion anyway), whilst also being able to act as spear-supports for a shieldwall.

Coupling Forlong's men with Grimbold's Helmingas gives and incredibly hard-hitting shieldwall (F4/S4 abound, with axes for Piercing Strike) that can still skirmish pretty well with throwing spears as needed. The two heroes accompanying them are no slouch either.

List-wise at 650pts I'd be running:

Theoden (Horse, Heavy Armour, Shield) - 95pts

- 2x Rohan Royal Guard (Throwing Spears, Horses) - 34pts

- 2x Rider of Rohan - 32pts

- Outrider (Horse) - 13pts

Warband Total: 174pts

Deorwine (Horse) - 85pts

- 2x Rohan Royal Guard (Horses) - 30pts

- 2x Rider of Rohan - 28pts

- Outrider (Horse) - 13pts

Warband Total: 160pts

Grimbold - 60pts

- 3x Helminga (Shields) - 32pts

- 2x Helminga (Throwing Spears, Shields) - 20pts

- Royal Guard (Banner, Throwing Spears) - 37pts

- 2 Outriders - 16pts

- Aldor - 20pts

Warband Total: 185pts

Forlong the Fat (Horse) - 90pts

- 5 Axemen of Lossarnarch - 45pts

Warband Total: 135pts

Army Totals

650pts

10 Might, 28 Models, 5 Throwing Spears, 9 Bows

The army is built around using Grimbold and Forlong's warbands as an anvil, but one with a ton of punch, thanks to F4, S4, two-handed axes, a banner and two throwing spears. It may be small and relatively weak on defence but with a good anchor and the support of the two heroes, it should do a decent job.

Originally the list had the King's Huntsman with a full warband of Outriders, but that felt too fragile for some scenarios. I love a sniper hero, but Aldor felt slightly more cost effective, and having Outriders in multiple warbands should allow for better objective control. A pair with Aldor works as a skirmisher triangle to support the shieldwall and force opponents to engage or get shot.

After that, two solid cavalry warbands that can skirmish or engage with some F5/S4 and a free heroic combat.

The smattering of Bodyguard, Outriders and a warhorn caps off the survivability and anti-terror.

It has been mentioned to me that this might be a touch cavalry heavy for what I'm looking to acheive, and that I could drop several of the Riders, but my counter is that this is still a Rohan force and I like the versatility they give me. That said, I do have an alternative list:

Theoden (Horse, Heavy Armour, Shield) - 95pts

- 2x Rohan Royal Guard (Throwing Spears, Horses) - 34pts

- 2x Rider of Rohan (Throwing Spears) - 36pts

- Outrider (Horse) - 13pts

Warband Total: 174pts

Deorwine (Horse) - 85pts

- 2x Rohan Royal Guard (Throwing Spears, Horses) - 34pts

- Outrider (Horse) - 13pts

Warband Total: 128pts

Grimbold - 60pts

- 3x Helminga (Shields) - 24pts

- 3x Helminga (Throwing Spears, Shields) - 30pts

- Royal Guard (Banner, Throwing Spears) - 37pts

- 2 Outriders - 16pts

- Aldor - 20pts

Warband Total: 187pts

Forlong the Fat (Horse) - 90pts

- 7 Axemen of Lossarnarch - 63pts

Warband Total: 153pts

Army Totals

650pts

10 Might, 29 Models, 10 Throwing Spears, 7 Bows

 

This second list merely drops the two Riders in Deorwine's group for an extra Helminga and two Axemen, extending the battleline, but that small difference could be a big one in certain situations, since I've also been able to add a number of extra throwing spears at the cost of two bows. Only by playing the army would time tell.

The next part is to work out lore-wise how to explain Forlong's men as "Rohirrim".

 

Actual Hobbying

Considering the original point of this blog was to record my hobbying progress, most specifically for Games Workshop's Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, I haven't posted anything of the kind in a year... and five months. January 2021 seems both forever ago and relatively recent. It's not like I haven't done any hobbying, but what I have done and what I could've done in that timeframe are vastly different.

For MESBG itself, the progress is minimal, mostly me purchasing new models. The next planned stage, Deorwine and a quartet of Royal Guardsmen with a banner got undercoated. And that's it. They're next on the paintbench. I promise.

 

After them, the plan was to build a unit of Helmingas. I have Grimbold's command unit, and also picked up a few 3d Printed "Hengstland Warriors" from Etsy. These, with a few converted standard warriors should give me a solid unit of axemen. In game terms, the Helmingas upgrade plus axes gives them an optional Strength 5, making these guys amazing can-openers for tough targets. (For reference, the average soldier is Strength 3, and has a hard time hurting anything in heavy armour, or things like Trolls).

 

This wasn't the only purchase, I also picked up this female archer model to go with my block of Outriders (or Outwalkers I guess). Along with Eowyn, she helps to balance out the sausage-fest that is this army, and I imagine she was someone who lived on the frontier. When Saruman's raiding parties hit the Westfold, her husband stayed behing to give her the chance to escape and bring word to Edoras. In the madness that followed, she kept on wearing his armour and joined the fighting.

In game terms, the model having that horn can be turned into a piece of wargear. The horn gives the army a bonus to courage, useful for fighting enemies that cause terror, or for staying in the fight should the army be broken.

 
Shieldmaidens of Rohan

I do plan on adding some more foot soliders to my Rohirrim. Potentially have Eowyn leading a few spearmen to support Grimbold in some alternate version of Helm's Deep where she fought.

Outside of MESBG, I've been puttering with other things. The first is yet another 3D print, this one from Neckbeardia. The Mandolorian is one of the better parts of Star Wars to come out of Disney, so it's nice to have a model of his original look, and I'm happy with how it turned out.

Aside from that, I also practiced clay modelling, throwing together this Squirtle. I was inspired to do this by the Youtube channel North of the Border. It's been a hot minute since I've done this, but it hasn't turned out too badly, so I'll be doing Charmander next and rounding out the trio with my favourite, Bulbasaur, right after.

I redid his legs after this pic.

That's me for this week. Let's hope it's not another 17 months before the next lot gets done...