New Rules, Part VII: The Kingdoms of Men, Part II

Good morning gamers,

Today we continue our discussion on the armies of the Kingdoms of Men – focusing on the Gondor-based civilizations. Most of the armies in this book have remained true to their Legions of Middle-Earth and Warband versions, with a few slight changes. As mentioned in our previous posts, you should also check out Mik's Veni Vidi Vici blog for thoughts from the “experts” (the only army that has been covered at the time of this writing is “Gondor”, which is predominantly focused on Minas Tirith, but includes a Fiefdoms list).

1) The New Lists: Minas Tirith, The Fiefdoms, The Dead of Dunharrow, The Wildmen of Druadan  

Let’s begin by looking at the lists – most of which stick to the old Legions of Middle-Earth builds. The Wildmen of Druadan (who had their own list in Legions and got lumped with “Wanderers in the Wild” in Warbands) and the Dead of Dunharrow (who also had their own list in Legions and got lumped into “The Fiefdoms” in Warbands) are back to having their own lists. Like Sharkey’s Rogues, they got a special rule that allows them to field warbands without a hero to lead them – which is not only really cool, but encourages us to play a mono-focused list with each of them, instead of having a Captain of Dol Amroth leading the Dead of Dunharrow (or Bilbo Baggins or Bullroarer Took leading Woses). We’ll delve into the fun this provides later.  

For Fiefdoms, they’ve returned to their Legions roots (losing Dunharrow guys) and relying instead on the strength of men. Unlike Dunharrow and Druadan, you need to buy more than one hero for them, but many of their heroes can field more than 12 warriors (Imrahil, Duinhir, Angbor, Forlong). All told, it’s pretty great. 

Back in the Legions days, there were many Minas Tirith lists – a generic “Minas Tirith” list to cover the early Third Age kings/stewards of Gondor, the Rangers of Ithilien with Faramir, Damrod, Madril, and Cirion, and the White Tower of Icthelion with Gandalf the White, Mega-Boromir, Mega-Aragorn, and Denethor. What has basically happened to the lists today is that all of these have been wrapped up in a single list (patterned mostly after the White Tower of Icthelion list from Legions) with all of the other heroes (including the Kings of Men) added to their number. The joining of all these lists gives you flexible choices for expensive and cheap heroes and many, MANY different ways you can play them. All told, Minas Tirith remains a good starter list for the hobby, though its competitiveness I think is greatly determined by your gaming meta. 

2) The Army Bonuses: Who Cares – They’re Spam Lists!

The one thing all of these lists can do is spam – putting out lots and lots and LOTS of guys (though it might be a bit of a stretch for Dunharrow). While Druadan has the easiest time doing this, you can field Angbor-Forlong-and-Duinhir for 205 points (215 if you give Forlong a horse) in a Fiefdoms list and can field 45 warriors to support them (easily within reach for a 600-point game) – and 48 models is nothing to sniff at. Minas Tirith allows you to take Denethor-Faramir-Damrod-and-Beregond for 170 points (180 if you give Beregond a horse and Faramir a bow) and you can field 42 models (again, very easily fielded in a 600-point game). While the Dead of Dunharrow are pretty expensive, the fact that you can just buy warriors after buying the King of the Dead (who is only 100 points) means you can get 30+ elite warriors to aid him – not bad at all. While the army bonuses do different things for each army (and I think you DEFINITELY want to keep Dunharrow’s and Druadan’s, the other two can be passed up on), the general feeling I’ve gotten from these lists is that they’re all spam armies (or at least, they can be). Others will have different thoughts I’m sure, but that’s my take. With that understanding, let’s look at some lists .

 3) The Lists: Minas Tirith

I’ll admit, in my just-over-eight-years of playing this game, there is one thing that helps any beginning player: numbers. Armies that have more men than their opponents are more “forgiving” – especially if the guys that are fielded have good Defense. This army is a great intro army to anyone just getting started: 

List #1: Spam-Gondor 
Denethor, Steward of Gondor – 35 

Faramir, Captain of Gondor with bow – 85 

Damrod, Captain of Ithilien – 25 

Madril, Captain of Ithilien - 55 

16 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields - 128 

16 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears - 144 

16 Rangers of Gondor - 128  

Forge World has a new Denethor and Iorlas blister – while expensive, I think Iorlas could easily replace Madril (though he comes in at 10 points more). Those looking to save some money will note that you could replace all of the Rangers of Gondor with Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows – your call (I like the better Fight value and Shoot value over the increased Defense). All told, this army features 52 models, though expanding it above 600 points does require the addition of a new hero immediately to field additional models. Still, you’ve got a solid Shieldwall, backed by many skirmishing captains (with this build) who can lead your rangers to victory, sniping your enemy and softening up/messing up his lines before everyone engages. Sure, most of your warriors are F3, but you’re counting on fighting in large blocks that can get you wrap-around fights against whoever you face. 

The thing about this list is that none of the heroes (even Faramir) are THAT good – it’s not exciting. Not like this next list… 

List #2: The Lords of Gondor Have Returned! 
Aragorn, King Elessar with armored horse – 240 

Boromir, Captain of the White Tower with Banner of Minas Tirith and shield - 205 

5 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shield – 40 

3 Osgiliath Veterans with shields – 27 

4 Osgiliath Veterans with shields and spears - 40 

6 Rangers of Gondor - 48 

 Thanks to a recent errata, your force becomes Impossible Allies with everyone and loses its army bonus if you have post-death-of-Boromir King Aragorn in your army and height-of-his-power Boromir. To which I reply…still worth it. Like I’ve said with Numenor in a past-post, so I say with Minas Tirith now – the Minas Tirith army bonus, while useful in some cases, is not a must-have bonus. Ergo, we’re looking for two power heroes and going to smash all foes to pieces. While we could have mounted Boromir on a horse, we’ve chosen to keep him on foot.

Scaling out this team is easy – you have 15 warrior spots right now (that’s easily 120+ points), and if you add small, cheap heroes (Denethor is a great choice – Boromir will keep him as a good model forever), you can add even more models. This army will always be small because you’re spending over 400 points on two heroes, but you’ll have a F7 Boromir surrounded by F5 Osgiliath Veterans and F4 Warriors of Minas Tirith (who you could run with Aragorn). Since Aragorn is mounted, he’ll be highly mobile (recommend keeping the Rangers with him, as he can sprint them the first turn with a Heroic March to wherever you want to hold, and then they can cover him as he approaches the enemy lines). This list brings in all of the power that you can muster in Gondor (though at a heavy hit to model count). 

 4) The Lists: The Fiefdoms

Fiefdoms has always seemed to me (and everyone in our gaming group) to be the strongest version of Gondor – plenty of F4 warrior choices, relatively cheap heroes that give good benefits to their team, and solid melee-infantry, melee-cavalry, and range-infantry options. With the new rules, Fiefdoms got even better – with three very cheap Heroes of Valour, it’s very easy to run a high-model count team with good heroes to lead them (and if you keep their army bonus, their unit-specific rules apply to anyone in your Fiefdoms list). Take this for example: 

List #1: Spam-Fiefdoms
Duinhir 

Forlong the Fat 

Angbor the Fearless 

10 Axemen of Lossarnach 

20 Clansmen of Lamedon 

14 Blackroot Vale Archers 

1 Blackroot Vale Archer with Banner 

 While this army list is impressive (48 models, Angbor counting as a banner for clansmen alongside an actual banner, reroll 1s bubble around Forlong, archers doing crazy stuff when Duinhir calls a Heroic Shoot), life is pretty straight forward with this list – send the horde of back-woods Gondorian men into battle at the nearest foe and tear them to pieces. The complication with this army is, of course, the actual cost of fielding it (heroes are about $10/model, Clansmen currently unavailable, Axemen $5/model, archers are reasonably priced). Depending on the group you’re playing with, proxies are excellent for Fiefdoms (you can find great Clansmen/Axemen of Lossarnach proxy models at Warlord Games – though you’ll need to buy the bases). The following army, however, is much easier to field from a $$$ perspective (though not by much): 

List #2: Bright Lances
Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth with lance and armored horse - 160 

6 Knights of Dol Amroth with lances and armored horses - 120  

Ally: Rivendell 

Elrond with heavy armor and horse - 190 

4 Rivendell Knights with shields – 88 

2 Rivendell Knights - 42 

At 14 models, this army is incredibly small (though you can scale out both contingents by 12 models each if you’re playing games larger than 600 points), but highly mobile as a) all models are mounted, and b) all of the Elven Knights have ranged attacks. On the charge, you’ve got lances coming out from all the units in your army except Elrond (who will be throwing everyone to the ground BEFORE your men come into the fight). The trick with this list (as with any lancer list) is finding the right time to attack – you’ll be surrounded and creamed if you’re not careful. Still, all of the Knights of Dol Amroth should be in range of a banner (if they’re within 12” of Imrahil) and can be F5 (if they’re within 3” of Imrahil). This complements quite nicely the Elves who are already F5 and can stand their ground and pound the enemy with arrows for a turn or two with rerollable To Hit rolls (assuming Elrond is your Army Leader). Making Elrond your Army Leader also allows you to be a bit more reckless with Imrahil, since you can cast Renew on him should any damage get past his defenses. This list is probably not competitive, but it would be hard to catch with an infantry army and could be a lot of fun to use. 

 5) The Lists: The Dead of Dunharrow

As we saw with Sharkey’s Rogues, the Dead of Dunharrow have gone back to their roots and you are allowed to field warbands without a hero leading them. While the general expense of a Warrior of the Dead makes it hard to “spam” an army from this list, you do get an inordinately large number of warriors considering the number of heroes that you have. Keeping your army bonus is not only necessary to field more than 16 guys in the army, but you also get Harbinger of Evil on the King of the Dead which can make ALL of your models wound more easily. I’ve decided to focus primarily on an infantry list with this first army (not only because it’s the only way to even try to spam them, but because they’re also really easy to find online thanks to the new core set): 

List #1: Spam-Dunharrow King of the Dead - 100 

12 Warriors of the Dead with shields – 180 

16 Warriors of the Dead with shields and spears – 256 

1 Warrior of the Dead with shield and banner – 40 

1 Rider of the Dead - 24  

I was looking in the rules the other day and noticed one critical change from the previous edition: previously, you couldn’t have more banners than you had heroes. That rule has since been removed. As such, we could run more than one banner in this list (but we chose not to). Instead of adding a second banner, we chose to run a rider instead (for objectives and stuff). With 31 models, this is hardly a “spam” list in the traditional sense, but we’ve got a large number of warriors and we can run them as eight-man blocks (or up to 15 with the King of the Dead). All told, you can have four different warbands (great deployment advantage), giving you small hit squads to attack your enemy from all sides. We could eke out a few more models by leaving the banner at home, but frankly I think we need it to win fights (F3 is not great). The one thing this army REALLY lacks (even more than numbers) is Might points – the King of the Dead has a single Might point and you have no other heroes. If you want proof of the difficulty this provides, look at Centaur's posts for the most recent THRO tournament we had. To compensate for this, there is only one ally you want to bring – The Rangers! 

List #2: The Paths of the Dead
King of the Dead - 100 

8 Warriors of the Dead with shields - 120 

10 Warriors of the Dead with shields and spears - 160  Ally: The Rangers 

Aragorn - Strider with bow and armor - 170 

2 Dunedain with spears - 50 

This list only drops the model count from 31 to 22 (not bad, all told), but adds 5 Might + a free Might point every turn from Aragorn. If you want, you can also split this army up into 6 different warbands if deployment advantage is important to you (each of the Dunedain and Aragorn as their own bands, two eight-man bands, and the King of the Dead with two bodyguards). Personally, I think you should run more than two models alongside the King of the Dead, but the point is THAT YOU CAN. This list is not going to be very competitive, but will definitely be fun to use.

 6) The Lists: Wildmen of Druadan  

In this our last list, we again have an army that has gone back to its Legions of Middle-Earth roots and gotten the I-don’t-need-more-than-one-hero-in-my-army list. The discussion I’ve seen on these guys is that they’re best with allies, but how can I possibly turn away from the chance of running tons of Woses! While there won’t be as many here as there were Ruffians (no one is that cheap), we do get a legitimate spam army: 

List #1: Spam-Woses
Ghan-Buri-Ghan - 65 

55 Warriors of Druadan - 495 

4 Warriors of Druadan with axes - 40 

Unlike Dunharrow, the relative cheapness of Warriors of Druadan allow you to get a LOT of them (60 models in this case). While everyone has spears AND blowpipes AND Stalk Unseen (three killer combos for staying out of trouble early in the game and skirmishing for a while to soften your opponent up before battle is met), the general problem with these guys is that they are a) Fight 3, b) Defense 3, and c) Ghan-Buri-Ghan doesn’t have much recommending him besides his 3 Might points. As such, skirmishing with these guys can be really, REALLY hard (though their Hatred for Orcs/Goblins/Uruks, paired with their poisoned blowpipes can make them do a lot of damage if the dice gods love you). The general agreement from the people I've talked to who have run pure-Druadan before seems to be that they are well supplemented by their only historic ally: Rohan. 

List #2: Ride to Gondor
Ghan-Buri-Ghan - 65 

16 Wose Warriors - 144 

Ally: Rohan 

Theoden with heavy armor, shield, and armored horse – 100 

15 Riders of Rohan with throwing spears – 240 

3 Rohan Royal Guards with throwing spears and horses - 51 

We’ve got 36 models in this list – despite more than half of them being mounted! As we’ve done with Rohan lists in our previous post, almost all of our models (all but Theoden) can shoot, making the list hard to chase down and able to harass nicely (especially since they all have throwing spears and not just bows). Unlike the previous list (which granted, had more models), we’ve retained our ability to skirmish but increased our defense and Fight value (assuming your Riders charge while near Theoden). Speaking of Theoden, he’s a great hero in the new edition, not only allowing you to field an impressive number of cavalry (which we could have necked down to increase the model count), but also allows you to run over light troops and Feint against more powerful foes. All told, you should probably experiment with the ratio of Riders to Woses if you run this kind of list, but you’ll find the support of Woses to be fun and useful (not to mention incredibly thematic). 

And with that, we’ve covered the Kingdoms of Men lists. In our final phase of this series, we turn to the Free Peoples sourcebook and see how the armies have changed. We begin with the more conventional armies of Elves (Rivendell and Lothlorien), Dwarves (Khazad-Dum and Moria), and Hobbits, saving the more unconventional lists for our final post in this series. Not sure if I’ll get done with these before Christmas, so if I don’t see you before then, have a merry Christmas and as we approach the New Year, expect to see more content on the blog in prep for the GT! Until next time, happy hobbying!