We're back with another Top 10 post, today looking at the top ten most improved profiles in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book. I waited to post this until after we got the Armies of Middle Earth book and the legacy PDF (as I suspected that some of the models would feature in those supplements, and they do), and now that we have the full line of army lists, potential models that they can pair with, and special rules, I wanted to take a moment to rank what I think are the top ten most improved models for the Forces of Good in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book.
So to clarify, a few caveats before we look at the list:
- We're ranking the most improved profiles in The Armies of the Lord of the Rings book: we will be reviewing profiles for the Armies of the Hobbit, Armies of Middle Earth, and the Legacy PDF in separate posts, so no fear: those are coming! But in the words of Elessar, "it is not this day!"
- We're ranking the top ten most improved profiles for the Forces of Good in the book; there will be a separate article for Forces of Evil, "but it is not this day!" So tune in later for a peak at those!
- We're ranking the most improved profiles, not the strongest profiles: Elendil is fantastic this edition, and he went up to Fight Value 8, which is incredible! But that's literally the only change that happened to him (other than the loss of an alliance matrix, and the shield), so he didn't make the list. What we're trying to rank here are the profiles that have undergone the most changes for the best (changes for the worst will come in a future post, possibly, if you guys want that), not which models are now the best. It also means expect that the top of the list is going to be comprised of models that didn't have a lot of special rules before, but now have special rules that give them useful synergies with others and/or make them a vibrantly new profile in their own right (and often weren't that good/had glaring downsides, but now are auto-include models).
- The "Most Improved" means that the profile had to exist last edition, so the new War of the Rohirrim profiles were not reviewed, as they weren't part of the last edition. Hera is great, Old Helm would not have made the cut any which way you cut it, and the others are all actually quite interesting, but none of them made this list because of a technicality. I've been toying with a Top Ten post ranking the War of the Rohirrim profiles, but since I've yet to play with any of them and have seen very few battle reports from others on their performance on the table, I've been putting it off. If you'd like to see it, let us know!
- There were 38 profiles that made the cut of, "Things changed that make this profile functionally different and/or materially better than it was in the previous edition," so I had to cut that list into almost a quarter. We won't be doing an "honorable mentions" listing for all of them (we will list a few that are noteworthy), but suffice it to say, there's a lot of profiles that were considered! So bear in mind that we can't give time to all of them here.
And so with that, let's look at some cool profiles!
Honorable Mention: Warriors of Minas Tirith / Knights of Minas Tirith
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| Images all from the new book! |
The big thing we want to highlight here is that these profiles both got a bump up to Fight 4, which is huge: still great cost and value, still defensible, but now they have a Fight 4 which, when near Boromir, also automatically wins ties with other F4 models, which is even better than having an elven-made weapon. So this is really good!
Not much else changed for them (situationally you can get F5 troops based on the army list, but that's list-specific and not always the case), so they didn't make the top ten, but it is worth highlighting because it's a very nice change.
Honorable Mention: Boromir of Gondor (and Boromir, Captain of the White Tower)
But this edition we see a lot more innate bonuses: he gets far easier access to rerolling failed wounding rolls for the Fellowship version of him, along with Woodland Creature and Fearless in every list, plus of course his bump to Fight Value 7 (which is huge). The Captain of the White Tower variant also gets a +1 to wound on turns when he charges, which means he effectively starts with the lance that he had access to in the last edition without having to pay for it, which is always nice.
The primary drawback for Boromir is that, functionally, he remains the same: these were great tune-ups to fix some of the most common issues with Boromir (great ability to win fights, limited ability to actually deal wounds to enemy models, especially DV7 models, which is most models he would want to be put up against to protect your army), and that's fantastic, but it's not a dramatic shift from where he was before.
Honorable Mention: Ents
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| Wouldn't mind a new ent warrior sculpt someday |
In this edition, ents got several powerups that were really nice: access to Dominant helps to fix the issue of a low model count, the overall rule change for monsters that allows them to perform a strike against a spear supporting model that was supporting a model they killed in combat allows them to winnow down numbers faster, and their good Intelligence stat means that performing Brutal Power Attacks is less risky than it is for trolls (as I've learned firsthand playing with trolls this edition).
But ents also got three major bumps specific to them: not only was their cost reduced to 100pts (which I think is still reasonable) while still retaining exceptional stats, not only did the list of spells they are immune to expand from last edition (not to mention the fact that Compel is a lot less common now), but they also have the ability to choose a free upgrade to reflect the kind of tree that they steward, and that gives them unique and excellent abilities that make each ent in your collection feel different and act differently from the others.
The fact that some of these ideas came from us years ago has nothing to do with my appreciation for this: this was a fantastic, simple change that added a lot of flavor, though it didn't transform much about the profile.
#10: Warriors of Rohan / Rohan Royal Guard
This is HUGE: it means that 1) the Centaur "Norse Shieldwall" approach of previous editions (which involved thin lines of Rohan infantry using the shielding special rule within banner range to hold the line while a select number of heroes broke through the lines) got way better, thanks to the ability to have a spearman backing you up at specific points along the line, but also 2) Rohan fundamentally plays infantry differently from Dunland, which was not always the case (Dunland had access to spears via the Huscarl, but that unit was in a weird place where they were Bodyguards - which wasn't used if you were in the second rank - who could either spear support or two-hand, so they were the reliable damage guys, but only if they were in the front, so it's kind of a weird unit to run).
Now Rohan can do a F4 D6 Bodyguard frontline with royal guards backed up by Warriors of Rohan providing spear support, which is actually really economical for a 2 Attack frontline at F4 D6. And we might actually see infantry formations appear in tournament play for Rohan beyond Theodred-led and Helm-led armies.
#9: Faramir, Captain of Gondor
In addition, he has new support abilities: when your army breaks, you gain the ability to call a Heroic Resolve for free (which is situationally nice), and if you win priority, Faramir is alive, and you choose to pass it to the opponent, Faramir and friendly warriors within 3" of him gain Dominant (2). This means that, if you're willing to cede initiative to the opponent, you can double your considered control over an objective, which could give you the win. This is situational: it's not "whenever you don't have priority": you have to win the roll, and then opt to give it to your opponent, so it only triggers in 1/4 of the priority results. But hey: when it comes up, it is really nice, and it's nice to see Faramir not just be "the expensive captain-style model without any synergies" like he was last edition.
And in the Minas Tirith list, he has the ability to hand out a +1 Fight Value bump to nearby warriors when he charges while mounted, which is also really nice (F5 Knights of Minas Tirith are really good).
His cost did go up to 100 points base, but at least he's contributing more now, and the increase to his base stats makes him a more attractive hero than he was before (where Madril, Hurin, and even Cirion were more reasonable choices depending on what you wanted for your army).
#8: Arwen Undomiel
But in addition, there's a hidden benefit she got this edition: she's a better caster than she was before, because while other casters got a general mark-up in casting difficulties, hers stayed the same, and none of them are cast on a 5+ (like most casters have). Which is really, really nice when you don't get a free Will Point every turn.
#7: Farmer Maggot with Grip, Fang, and Wolf
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| The best boys ever! |
But Maggot had his downsides: winning fights could be hard if you weren't on the flank, getting into fights was hard with only 4" of movement, and your dogs lacked access to banners in the Shire list (as Frodo and Mayor Will Whitfoot both only affected models with the Hobbit keyword, which the dogs don't have).
So imagine my surprise when, for +5pts to his base cost, he rounds out a number of these issues with two special rules (one adjusted from past editions, one completely new). Now, when Maggot is within range of an objective marker, he can ignore the -1 penalty to duel rolls with his two-handed weapon. Which is incredible, both because most tournaments/casual game days will involve objective markers in some way, shape, or form, but also because in the Battle of Bywater list it's easy to get this special rule to work: you can select him as your warband for ambush deployment, and at the end of the third turn you can deploy them near the objective and boom: you're playing the game with a really good benefit for pretty much the whole game.
But in addition, and perhaps the biggest change that helps with synergies the most, the dogs not only still get to use Maggot's Courage as their own Courage while he's alive, but also they treat him as a banner with a range of 6", and can reroll failed To Wound rolls within that range as well. So now the dogs aren't the odd dogs out: they're the best of boys, able to do the heavy lifting that the Shire needs them to do while maintaining the thematic feel of loyal guard dogs helping the master.
#6: Eomer, Knight of the Riddermark
So Eomer went from being a rules-light good attack profile to being a dominant profile: he is very fast, hits hard (especially since almost every Rohan list now has battlefield-wide Strength +1 on the charge when mounted, which not every list had), and if run correctly can keep the pain coming even against high Defense units.
#5: Aragorn / Strider (and Elessar in Most Respects)
First off, he's Fight 7 base now, which is good considering the change to Heroic Strike (and the fact that he should have a higher Fight Value than the vast majority of people alive during his time). Combined with either Anduril or his elven-made knife, this maintains his edge in combat to win fights, even with a general shift up in Fight Value this edition.
He also gained the Ring of Barahir which allows him, on the roll of a 6, to evade the effects of a magic spell that would affect him (which would include spells that target him or that would affect him and others within an area of the caster) before any resisting roll is made to the spell. He also gained Resistant to Magic (which combines with Fortify Spirit in the Breaking of the Fellowship list), so he always gets a chance to resist spells that target him after rolling for the Ring of Barahir, which is really nice.
Third, his mobility went up in several ways. Not only does he gain Woodland Creature in almost every list he is part of, but also Brego gained the ability to perform a D6 roll whenever Aragorn would be knocked prone, and if he rolls a 6, you don't knock him prone and Aragorn stays in the saddle. Situationally useful, but it's a good thing to have in that situation.
Combine this with his already excellent profile and the fact that there are less gimmicky ways to combine magic + power characters, and you've got a good all-around tool at your disposal in Aragorn, and more well-rounded than he was last edition.
#4: King of Men
So now you can run a King of Men with 3 Might, Shieldwall, and the ability to take elite Gondor troops (Gondor), Fearless with 3 Attacks base (Arnor), 3 Wounds past D7 and 2 Fate along with an extended Stand Fast range (Dale), Strength 5 with a lance and Resistant to Magic (Numenor) or...Expert Rider and Horse Lord with the ability to take Rohan Royal Guards (Rohan), which, like, isn't bad, but it definitely feels weaker than the others, which sucks because Rohan should feel cool (I'd have given both of these plus Strength +1 on the charge, as all of these rules are pretty situational and don't outmatch the others, but eh, it's fine).
But in addition, in an edition where the alliance matrix has been retired, having a "soup list" option, like we've talked about before, where you can mix and match a lot of different kinds of things, is really, really nice. While we'll cover the Hobbit book in a later post, as a passing comment here, arguably Realms of Men led by Kings of Men is actually a better Dale list than any of the Dale lists, because you can take Dale troops (admittedly with only a 4+ Shoot on those longbows) alongside horsemen, Gondorians with Shieldwall, and F5 S4 Numenoreans, which is arguably better than a 3+ Shoot Value.
So for most improved profile, this is one of the best.
#3: Lobelia Sackville-Baggins
First, her Furious Tirade ability now only applies to enemies: enemies only cannot benefit from Stand Fasts within 6" of her, which is nice. Second, she has the Stern Scolding special rule, which allows her during her activation to choose an enemy (that is not a monster, chariot, or war beast) within 6" and line of sight of her and spend one of her 4 Will Points to roll a D6: on a 2+ the model cannot activate (that's right: it's not just "cannot move" like other more powerful characters have, it's "cannot activate" which means they also can't cast magical powers or use special abilities) and if they fight in combat they are reduced to 1 Attack for the turn.
Now this alone is powerful - but what is even more powerful is the fact that you can take her in a list with Gandalf the Grey who can replenish Will Points on characters, so hypothetically you could keep this going all game if that's what you really wanted to do. Suddenly Lobelia is turned from just a fun model to add thematically to a force into an actual support piece that can gimp enemies far more expensive than her measly 20pts. Which is crazy.
Speaking of incredible value at 20 points...
#2: Rosie Cotton
First, while Sam is within 3" of Rosie, he can reroll failed To Wound rolls in close combat (which is really good, considering he's one of your few accesses to S3 in the list). On its own, this is a good reason to take her, as Sam is one of the few Heroic Strike models you get, and he's well worth fielding in this edition.
Second, she is now treated as a 6" banner by hobbits (which is crazy good), and she actually counts as a banner for the purposes of Victory Points! So for less points than Will Whitfoot last edition (who was your other 6" banner last edition alongside Frodo) you get a 6" banner that doesn't require you to spend a Will Point to trigger the ability. That's crazy good!
Phenomenal value, easy to use - what's not to like? But this was not the greatest increase in power level we saw for the Forces of Good in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book...
#1: Legolas Greenleaf (or should we say, "Megalas"?)
So imagine my surprise when he went up from where he was (already one of the most common ally choices in the game): he gains Sharpshooter, so even more accurate now than he was before, he gains the ability to shoot at enemies even while engaged in combat, and he can perform his single shot as he did last edition, or against a model in his own combat, potentially dismounting you even after you've charged him.
Oh: and did I mention that he can shoot without the -1 penalty to hit for moving as long as he's not mounted? So catching him is harder to do now as well
So the ways that you would typically deal with Legolas (charge him, force him to move to make his shooting less effective, make sure there are In the Ways to hit you) all got worse.
And if that weren't enough, did I mention that the Final Count, 42 special rule got better? It used to be that he improved his Shoot Value by 1 when being outkilled by Gimli (which was fine, but didn't solve the fact that he had issues wounding D6+ models, which is a lot of models), but in this edition he gets a +1 to wound with shooting attacks. That's right: it's effectively a S5 bow with no moving and shooting penalty that can even shoot if you engage him, and the only requirement is that you skip the 20pt horse upgrade to accomplish this (and if you do take that upgrade, all you lose is the move and shoot penalty rule: all the others remain).
Oh, and he used to be 105pts base last edition and now he's 100pts (so if you take Armor on him to jump him up to D5 he's the same cost as unarmed Legolas from last edition). Did I mention that, too?
So from a value perspective, it's hard not to put Legolas at the top: he's cheaper than last edition, way more efficient than last edition, and he's available in a lot of lists and offers a lot of appeal. Super hard to shut down, especially when used by a skilled player. So while he did not need improving this edition, I think it's fair to say he's the most improved profile so far, since he went from hard to deal with to nigh impossible to stop (especially since you can't just ally in a Transfix magic caster to shut down the archery).
Conclusion
Don't get me wrong there's a lot of good stuff going on: I love that Rohan has a lot of interesting things now with their heroes, Old Bilbo has a better place now among ringbearers (as he can still halve Fight Value when others are in his fight, which is rare now), Eowyn bumped up to S4 and can't be stuck in the middle of nowhere anymore if Theoden dies, Numenorean Warriors get longbows - lots of great improvements.
I might do a whole post just talking about Celeborn, because in terms of his support/casting abilities he's vastly improved from last edition, but naturally in his fighting profile he's far lower than he was before, so I didn't quite know how to classify him for this series. If you have thoughts on whether he should be included on the "Top Ten Most Downgraded Profiles" post (or whatever we call it), let us know that too!
But suffice it to say, in an edition where most things stayed the same, it's cool to see how many small changes made stale characters and units a bit more competitive/interesting, and I love that. Did we miss one of your favorites? Let us know down below!
Watching the stars,
Centaur
"Trivial hurts, tiny human accidents," said Firenze, as his hooves thudded over the mossy floor. "These are no more significant than the scurrying of ants to the wide universe, and are unaffected by planetary movements." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
