Top 10 Hero Choices for the Realms of Men

All photos courtesy of GamesWorkshop

Hey Reader!

I've been playing around with the Realms of Men list recently (and took them to the TMAT GT this past May, where I finished with 2 Wins, 1 Loss, and 1 Draw), and as part of my experimenting with different iterations of the list, I decided to do a Top 10 post looking at the hero choices, because things are INTERESTING in this list.

There are quite a few heroes available to you (5 Kings, 6 Generic Captains, 2 specialists in the Knight of the White Tower and the Rohan King's Huntsman, and several siege captains), so all of them will make the cut! But how useful they are is another question. Before we start the review, let's look at what we'll be ranking in this assessment.

• To start, you need to take a king to field their relevant captains and warriors, but we are not going to therefore say, "Ah yes: the king is automatically higher ranked because you need him to run the captains." We'll evaluate each individually for their usefulness in the list.
• We will consider what kinds of warriors you get access to by taking a given hero, as unit options are part of why you'd consider taking a king/captain, and whether you should branch out into a second, third, or more factions because of what options will be unlocked.
• We will assume that you are playing at a standard points range (600-800pts), so that there is no assumption of only having 1-2 kings: you can run as many as you want, which means that there are reasons to mix and match factions. So just because one faction may be stronger than another in terms of options, that doesn't automatically move them to the top (or bottom), though it may give a reason for pushing deep into one or the other.
• Kings do have access to Heroic Strike; this will naturally lend them to being taken, and does make them inherently valuable. But Heroic Strike on its own does not necessitate "Top 5 Status."

So with no further ado, let's jump into the list!

#10: Captain of Rohan

I love Rohan, and Rohan offers a lot of useful things to the Realms of Men (charge cavalry with Bodyguard, cheap infantry to pad numbers, throwing weapon access, and skirmish cavalry), and he's by far the cheapest hero in the lineup at 45pts base (though realistically you're at least taking him with a Shield, possibly also Heavy Armor, so he can anchor the line for you, plus he's already got Expert Rider and Horse Lord baked into his cost, so you're leaving 10pts on the table with no usefulness if you don't eat the cost of a 20pt horse, so suddenly he's on-par in cost with the others).

He also has the ability to take Rohan Outriders, which are 8pts just like the rangers in other lists, but they get the Vanguard rule, which allows them to benefit from Stand Fasts regardless of range, which is really nice for staking objectives and keeping in LOS of a hero. So if you want a cheap objective holding model, and you're less worried about them getting attacked in melee (as they are only F3 instead of F4, but otherwise very similar to the rangers in other lists), then this is a solid option.

What drags him down is a few issues that are unique to the list. First off, since almost every hero has Heroic March, being a "March Hero" doesn't mean that much. Add onto this that he's only Fight 4 (surrounded by captains at F5), and brings F3 troops to bear (instead of F4-5), and there's a lot of reasons to dip into Rohan for high-end cavalry, but not for large amounts of men, so a King of Rohan may be sufficient for your needs.

Furthermore, the Captain of Rohan does not have the Leader special rule to lead Rohan Royal Guards, which are one of the best options Rohan offers this list. He's a better choice (probably) than the King's Huntsman (unless you're really itching for a sniper and you think you can get him into position easily) and several other captains, but he's not a strong choice on a budget.

#9: Captain of Minas Tirith

A captain who is 5pts cheaper than a Captain of Dol Amroth, with the same stats other than a -1 Courage reduction, but gains Shieldwall instead of a special rule that's tied to Imrahil (who is not in this list), and it's easy to see why you'd consider running this hero (and why the Captain of Dol Amroth didn't make the Top 10). He still gives you March, he gives you access to Gondor infantry/cavalry choices (which are some of the best in your list), and he does it on a solid 60pt budget.

What holds him back are small things; he can't take warriors like Citadel Guard or Guard of the Fountain Court, as he is not a Leader, but perhaps more importantly is that he's in a list with better Gondor heroes. He stands above several of the other captains because he can be a solid "bunker hero" for only 60pts, sporting F5 with 2 Attacks past D8 when in Shieldwall, which means if you need to throw someone at a big hero and can afford to have him in base contact with 2 other Shieldwall models (which is likely), you can fight it out (if you have spear support and a banner reroll) or shield against the hero (giving you 4 dice to win the fight, plus any other warrior models that may be in the fight), which can hold down far more expensive heroes/monsters for a while.

#8: Captain of Numenor

The Captain of Numenor starts with a leg up over most of the captains on this list in that he is Fight 6, which is on-par with all of the Kings of Men on this list (which is impressive). He can only lead Warriors of Numenor, but considering that Warriors of Numenor are F5 and S4, that's actually a really good thing to have in your list, so taking a 70pt captain that gives you yet another option for March/Move, but has a strong Fight Value to wade through warriors and tie down lesser heroes, is really good to have.

And while the warriors in his warband suffer from the general issue of only being D4-5, the Defense 6 on this captain (which is lower than most of the others, to be fair) is perfectly serviceable against most archery, and with a good chance of winning fights thanks to his F6, he's not likely to take too many wounds in close combat either as long as you spear support him and keep a banner nearby (and thanks to Rohan and Minas Tirith you get cheap access to banners as well).

And being Strength 5, his ability to chew through any warrior under D8 on 5s or better is excellent. So while he comes in at #8, he's not a bad choice by any means. None of the options on this list are.

#7: King of Dale

I feel so bad saying this, but there's a king in the bottom half. I hate doing this, because I love Dale, and the models look really good, but the Dale side of the list got ripped off in a lot of ways that make them, frankly, unappealing by comparison to the other options.

The King of Dale does get access to 3 Wounds, which is better than every other hero on this list (who cap out at 2 Wounds, and of course siege veterans are stuck at 1). But that's a small bonus to have when you're also stuck at 2 Might and 2 Attacks, and F6 + Heroic Strike isn't what it used to be against big threats. So it's a marginal bonus for someone who is basically just like the other kings, except that they have more options for offensive power, which is arguably better in this game.

And while his 12" Stand Fast affects Dale heroes in addition to friendly warriors, 1) the Dale side of the house is actually one of the better sides for Courage on average, so I'm not sure that it means that much to have it here, and 2) in an ideal world you're not using that ability very often. So...like it's nice, and better than the captains we've seen so far (and he is good at killing things if you mount him and give him the lance), but I don't think he offers more offensively than the other kings, and for his cost I'm not sure he's even as good an attacker as some of the captain options.

And what's worse, is that the warrior choices for Dale don't encourage you to take a King of Dale. If you really love Knights of Dale for bodyguard heavy infantry, you can get all of that and more for around the same price point with Minas Tirith thanks to Fiefdom troops, Minas Tirith options, and elite Minas Tirith infantry. If you love archers you can get archers that are just as good (4+ Shoot and S3 longbows) in Minas Tirith with Citadel Guard that have even better armor (and Bodyguard, so they'll hold objectives better), or Numenor (who have the same Defence, but sport F5 and S4 to keep them safer in close combat). And if you love the windlance, you get access to better siege weapons with the same Shoot Value in Minas Tirith as well.

Honestly, a tiny change would have made Dale appealing: 3+ Shoot on their warriors and windlances. But as it stands, I'd lean more into rangers/Numenoreans/outriders and Gondorian siege weapons if you want to play the shooting game, as it tends to be better, and the fact that no infantry are appealing to you really puts a damper on running this king. Speaking of which... 

#6: Gondor Battlecry Trebuchet

I know, I know, I probably love these things too much, but hear me out: 1) doing wounds to big targets is dangerous for this list if you're using just the kings (you really don't want any of them fighting the Dragon Emperor, a Balrog, an ent, a dragon, an eagle, etc.), 2) splash damage knocking people prone is a great way to get your S3 infantry more reliable wounding potential, and 3) the battlefield control and area denial that it does is very useful for splitting up the enemy, which is what this army wants: if it can take small portions of your army at a time, it will chew through you quickly.

And at 100pts, it's actually not that bad in terms of cost: you can field this with relative ease in your list, and it helps to cover a lot of potential issues for you. So I'm not going to place it in the top half, but auto-killing heroes, auto-killing their mounts (including palanquins, chariots, fell beasts, blind trolls, etc.) with a single wound, probably on 3s thanks to being S10? In a list like this, that's excellent to have in your back pocket should the worst show up across from you.

So while not as great as most of the kings, I think it's appealing in ways that a lot of the captains (and even the King of Dale) are not.

#5: Knight of the White Tower

To start off, a 75pt hero who is F6, 2 Attacks at effective S6 thanks to his two-handed weapon, deals 2 wounds with each successful wound, and has access to Heroic Strike, is phenomenal value. Add onto this a duel reroll (which can stack with a banner) when fighting a hero, and this guy is not only hard to beat in close combat, but he's almost certainly making back points when he starts working on heroes.

Even if you just use him as a "bunker captain" to tie down a hero, most heroes in the game will need to burn a Might Point to counter his Heroic Strike, because if he has the higher Fight Value and gets a 6 (which is very possible to do), he could easily blow through all the Fate on a hero, if not all of their Wounds, too. It only takes 1 turn, and he's got 2 Might to help make that turn happen.

But it gets better: with the ability to lead good Fiefdom/Gondor troops, he's an appealing second Gondor hero (even ahead of the standard captain, who is really good), less so because of Shieldwall, and more so because he offers something that Gondor generally struggles with: the ability to wound reliably. And if you run him in the mix with your infantry, you'll find that the enemy's lines tend to get muddy really quick, and that can only help a mix of the strongest men in the Second and Third Ages.

He lacks the killing potential of the mounted F6 heroes that come next, but he is a powerful force to reckon with on the field, especially at his point cost. If you were thinking of throwing 100+ points on another king, you might actually be better served with a Knight of the White Tower.

#4: King of Rohan

This is an interesting profile, because he is worse than other Rohan heroes in some respects, while also being uniquely powerful in others. For starters, he is a Fight 6 Rohan Hero, which is extremely rare. And while he doesn't get Strength +1 on the charge, he does have the option (which I would take every time) for a lance, giving him +1 to wound, making him effectively S6. So only some versions of Helm Hammerhand and Eomer in some lists can match him for firepower (and kind of Theodred - it depends on how you define it).

As a minor thing, he stands above most Rohan heroes in that he has 2 Fate Points, making him more survivable than your average captain, but also able to better take advantage of Horse Lord, since he can afford to spend 1 Fate should the 6+ Save fail without leaving himself completely undefended.

But within the list there's something that he offers (beyond Expert Rider and Horse Lord) that the other kings do not, and that is access to Rohan Royal Guards alongside the suite of cheap, affordable Rohan units. If you want cheap infantry, skirmish cavalry, but most importantly charge cavalry that can reach 1) Fight 5 (which none of the other cavalry can reach), and 2) Bodyguard for charging Terror models reliably, Rohan is the only way to do that.

He does also get access to the Rohan Outriders that we discussed previously, so that's also cool.

And so while he may not have the stats of the other kings, he's offering something useful to the group that they do not provide: access to answers for semi-common problems that you can't really get elsewhere, and that is awesome. I'm not sure that you need to go too deep into Rohan (unless you really love throwing weapons, as they're the only access you get to those), but with space for 18 warriors, you can fit plenty of models in his warband to meet unique needs.

#3: King of Gondor

The King of Gondor ranks this high for three reasons. First, he has Shieldwall, so if you don't want to mount him and just keep him in the line he's far less expensive than the other kings, which is really nice for saving critical points for other elements of the army. And at D8 in Shieldwall with F6 and 2 Attacks, he's a great option for a general, as he's quite durable against both ranged and melee threats.

Second, he is the only character in the list with 3 Might Points, making his Heroic Strike, Heroic March, and Heroic Resolve easier to maintain for longer. And in a list full of 2 Might heroes, it's nice that you can keep pace with enemies a bit longer when it comes to Might.

Third, he gives you access to Gondor models, including having the Leader special rule for fielding Citadel Guards and Guards of the Fountain Court. So not only can you bring knights (which are great for damage output), Warriors of Minas Tirith (for a D6-7 frontline), relatively cheap banners (34pts for a D5 banner isn't bad this edition), but you can also field S3 longbows with a 4+ Shoot and Bodyguard for objective holding, rangers with a 3+ Shoot, two-handed weapons from Lamedon and Lossarnach, and even pikes (if you're using legacies).

So he's really good all-around: you can run him mounted with a lance for killing power, dismounted in the shieldwall for cheaper - lots of different options. And if you are running only kings (as I did at 650pts), he's not a bad way to get Heroic Moves off, either, so you can save your Might on your mounted heroes for combat.

#2: King of Numenor

This guy offers three things that the others don't offer, all of which make him appealing. First, he is Strength 5, so if you mount him and give him a lance, he's wounding D7 on 4s, which is phenomenally good. Suddenly, even though he only has 2 Attacks, even taking on mounted troops is reliable with him as long as he charges (and against D5 mounted troops like warg riders and Riders of Rohan, even then he's still wounding on 4s if he is charged). 

Second, he gives you access to Numenoreans warriors, which are a bit limited, but still very good. Whether you want S3 archery on a 4+ Shoot for +1pt more than a Citadel Guard (but picking up F5 and S4 in close combat, even if they're missing the heavy armor and Bodyguard) or F5 S4 spearmen to back up your D6-7 frontline warriors (be those Arnorians, Gondorians, or Rohan Royal Guards on foot, depending on what's important to you), there's always something useful coming from Numenorean troops. 

And third, he has Resistant to Magic, so while the other heroes in this list are limited to 1-2 Will Points to resist magic spells, this king is harder to keep tied down with a tricky Transfix. And when you're a S5-7 hero on a horse (that is twice as expensive as it used to be), not being tied down so easily is a really good thing.

But from my playing with this list, there's one hero at the top, and it's not close in my mind.

#1: King of Arnor

Quite simply, 3 Attacks base (4 on the charge) is really, really good. When accompanied by Fearless (so you can charge anything you want) on a mounted hero with a lance sporting F6, this is by far the best combat hero you have, and the fact that he doesn't have to be the general means that you can make him a disposable bomb to blow through enemy heroes or warriors alike. He works against anything D7 or lower, has access to Heroic Strike if big enemies are present, and won't ever flee the battlefield, which is really nice considering my luck at rolling after breaking, :P

But more than that, his warrior suite, while limited, is really, really good. Paying 8pts for a F4 D6 warrior with a spear is really good: if you want a cheap front line that can mess up horses, a cheap back line for backing up a Shieldwall, or a small hit squad that can travel on its own in a 4-man square, the humble Warrior of Arnor is a great choice.

You also get access to Knights of Arnor, which are just Knights of Minas Tirith for -1pt, as they have -1 Courage. This makes them pretty bad at charging Terror models (8+ is not my idea of reliable odds, especially if Harbinger is bringing you to a 9+ difficulty), but if you don't fight Terror, they're a slight budget savings, and their war spears mean that they become spearmen when dismounted, which is nice.

You also get access to rangers with a 3+ Shoot Value, so if you don't mind having S2 archery, if you want relatively cheap archers that are still F4 (and thus capable of defending an objective), you've got good options here.

So between being a powerful attacker and fielding useful troops at all points, Arnor is, in my (possibly biased) opinion, always a good take. I recommend always fielding him, as he'll always be useful to you, no matter what your strategy is with the army.

Conclusion

I feel bad for some of the entries; it's really hard to justify Captains of Dale and Captains of Arnor when they're basically the same as Captains of Minas Tirith but with Hatred against niche enemies (how often will you fight Angmar or Dragons...and how often do you want to send an infantry hero against a dragon, anyhow?). I love the Windlance, but on a 4+ Shoot that's not great odds, especially on a single-target hit (when you have access to a 4+ Shoot on a splash damage hit with the trebuchet, and 4+ Shoot on many shots with the bolt thrower).

But that's also part of what makes this list so interesting: even if you're taking suboptimal choices, there are so. Many. Choices. In this list. So you could play this army for years, probably, and never run out of options to try, which keeps it fresh (and that's encouraging and difficult to do in the post-Alliance Matrix world). 

I have really enjoyed this list - it's a fun army to play, with a lot of interesting list choices and tactical decisions inherent in the list. And in an edition where there is no Alliance Matrix, having effectively an alliance matrix with a good range of troop options (if you can field enough kings to run the units you like) is pretty cool. Keep watching this space for more on the Realms of Men, because there's a lot to dig into here!

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"Lie back on the floor," said Firenze in a calm voice, "and observe the heavens.  Here is written, for those who can see, the fortune of our races." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

The New Age Is Begun: The Buhrdur's Horde Army List

Hey Reader!

Today we're discussing a list that I got excited about when I heard Rise of Angmar was going to include it, and that I really, really want to love because it has one of my favorite heroes in the game in it, and he's the centerpiece of what they do. So before we start the semi-hate-fest that this post is going to be (because man this list is really constrained, and hard to make work, and I say this as someone who has put in the reps with it all edition so far and boy has this been hard), I just want to say upfront:

I like Buhrdur, and I want him to succeed.

So everything I say next should be taken in the spirit of constructive criticism and finding ways to make tasty lemonade, because I really do want to see this army list work! But as it is, it has a lot of limitations, few answers to common problems, and relies on a whole lot of luck to bring in the wins.

Buhrdur's Horde: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

The list of models in this army list hasn't changed from the previous edition: it's representative of the orcs and terrifying creatures common in the Third Age in the forests of Rhudaur and the mountains near Imladris, and is an Angmar army that has no undead in it (which is pretty unique, but also pretty cool). With a mix of orcs, wargs, and trolls, at the very least, you do have access to fast models, which not every army does.

The New Age Is Begun: The Battle of Fornost Army List

Good morning gamers,

Editor's Note: Before we begin the formal post, I just wanted to say that we just passed the 5 million view mark - we're so happy that you guys read our stuff and we'll keep doing what we can to provide accurate information and thoughtful articles about the game we all love!

One of the last games I played in the old edition (not including the practice leading up to our throw-back tournament we did last year) was with the Battle of Fornost. I had to proxy Earnur with Elessar, but golly was the list fun to use. In this edition of the game, the Battle of Fornost remains a powerhouse list, with a very unique flavoring of different factions that is probably only rivaled by the Battle of Five Armies, the Legions of Mordor, or the Defenders of the Pelennor. Of all the Rivendell-style armies, this one has the most warrior diversity by far and also has a really interesting array of heroes. Let's see what this list brings and why it seems to be a good list in the competitive scene.

The Battle of Fornost: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list is composed of three elements: Gondor, Arnor, and Rivendell. The "Arnor" section is incredibly fragmented, but this also makes for some very interesting options for your list building. The Arnor heroes include Aranarth (Valor) and Rangers of the North (Minor or Independent) and all of these guys can lead Hobbit Archers (more on this later in the post).

The Gondor contingent is Earnur (required, Legend) and Captains of Minas Tirith and they can lead Knights of Minas Tirith and Warriors of Minas Tirith (pretty restrictive, but really all you need). The Rivendell contingent includes Glorfindel (required, Legend), Cirdan (Fortitude), and Rivendell Captains (Fortitude) and they can lead Rivendell Warriors. Thirteen total profiles doesn't seem huge (and is less than the total number of heroes available to any of those omnibus lists I mentioned earlier!), but it has an incredible array of models to choose from - heavily-armored men (foot and mounted), heavily-armored Elves (mostly on foot), unarmored Hobbits (on foot, obviously), and hero-warrior Rangers (all on foot).

The Road to the TMAT GT 2026: Tiberius's List

Good morning gamers,

I love the week leading up to an event - lists are in (usually), spreadsheets are being made, rules are being reviewed, and final practice games are being run. It's always a good time - and I love it all. As is usually the case, there's never one list that has taken my attention during the lead up to an event, so I culled the many thoughts to five lists . . . and those are the ones I will be sharing with you today.

Pick #5: The Garrison of Ithilien 

I had a blast with this list - it gets slightly more than 50% shooting thanks to the heroes in it and it has a very healthy model count of 32. I tested several variants of this list, including one that pushed 40 models but didn't have Smeagol and Sam in it. At the end of the day, the biggest limitation on this list is that its only answers to big heroes is its volume of S2 archery and Frodo with the Ring - and I wanted more options:

I still think this list has potential and I really liked the shooting. That did become a bit of the theme of these lists and as a long-time proponent of shooting-heavy lists, perhaps it's not a surprise that I also looked at . . .

The New Age Is Begun: The Rivendell Army List

Good morning gamers,

I got started with Rivendell by accident - I got a bunch of Rivendell heroes for my White Council list . . . and then I was like, "You know, I can ally the White Council into a Rivendell list" . . . and then I was like, "You know, I could use some more Elves to support my Numenoreans", and then I finally said, "What the heck, let's flesh this thing out." Rivendell has always been a solid and popular choice - perhaps because of that awesome sequence at the start of the Fellowship of the Ring where the Rivendell Elves are fighting alongside the Numenoreans in a cool battle sequence. I knew I always wanted this army in my collection and they're in a really interesting place this edition. Let's see both what's cool about these guys, what's competitive about these guys, and how they've changed in this new version of the game!

Rivendell: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has most of the Rivendell models available in the last edition - you have Elrond and Glorfindel as your beater heroes (no Gil-Galad though), you have Rivendell Captains for Heroic March, you have Elladan, Elrohir, and Erestor as your cheaper beaters, and Arwen, Lindir, and Bilbo for support work (no Cirdan). Losing Gil-Galad and Cirdan (and Gildor for a very select few of us) does change the list a lot from the last edition, but these two heroes don't function the way they used to, so that change is to be expected. You still have Rivendell Warriors and Rivendell Knights, but with the loss of Gil-Galad, you also lose access to King's Guard, so you're "stuck" at F5 on the warriors. This is a minor change, but having F6 Elves to support your lines isn't a bad thing.

Army List Bonuses

Last edition, Rivendell had a rule that helped them with their archery if their bowmen were near their Army Leader (now General) and didn't move . . . while the Lindon army list kept that rule, this list traded it for three other rules - all three of which are situationally good. The simplest is the Protection of Imladris rule, which gives all of your models +1 to their Courage Tests. Elves already have good Courage, but no matter how good your Courage is, there's usually a chance that you'll mess things up. Having Courage 4+ across the warriors in this list is great and your top-tier heroes might have a 2+ Courage stat, which is fabulous. Sometimes this rule will matter and sometimes it won't - but it's good to have. 

Similarly situational is the Defensive Stance rule, which is the design team's attempt to represent the "windmill" thing we see at the start of the Fellowship of the Ring - friendly Elf Warrior models get to reroll 1s To Wound if they didn't move in the Move Phase. This is great for players like me who used Feint a lot in the last edition and probably doesn't look like much to others - whatever. When two-handing with your frontline Elves and you're responding to enemy charges, this is a really strong rule and can turn definitely failed rolls to potential successes. Since Might might be limited in your list (see what I did there?), this does "reward" you for stemming an assault, but only if you intend to not defend by shielding. So . . . is this a good rule? It can be, but it isn't always going to be invoked - and I think it's markedly worse than the Last Alliance "wound enemies that charge you on a 6" rule.