Armies of Middle-Earth SBG: The Survivors of Lake-Town in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game

In stark contrast to the last army list we covered, this one is far more humble in its outlook and bearer. And a humble force deserves a humble intro:

In the lands of Lake-Town, the people of Esgaroth are led by two separate yet equally important groups of heroes: the family of Bard who stick together through thick and thin, and the militia captains of Lake-Town who buff their numbers.

 

These are their stories.

*dun-dun*

I think they're onto us, son...
Photo Credit: denofgeek.com

Army Quick(ish) Hits

• Strength: Bard the Bowman. Yeah, he's a named hero character, too, but he's so central to what makes this list shine that he deserves the first and primary mention. As a Hero of Legend he lets you get out a pretty good spam (Bard with the full kit--sans the Windlance--and 18 dudes with a wargear item will set you back only 269 points, or 14.16 points per model, which is pretty good for the forces of good). Thanks to Savior of Lake-Town, those 18 troops aren't half bad: Fight 3, 4+ shoot, Strength 3, Defense 4-5, and also Fearless if they're within 3" of a Lake-Town Hero who's in combat. Plus there's the whole 12" banner thing, his 3/3/3 heroic stats, and his rapid-fire greatbow, which means he can provide valuable contributions to your force whether or not he's on the front lines. Plus he's far humbler about it than a certain Elvish photo-bombing King.
• Strength: Lots of cheap heroes. Bard isn't cheap, and depending on how you feel about his immediate family, they may not be either (for what they do, both good and ill). But every other Lake-Town hero is very inexpensive. Percy, Hilda, and Militia Captains are all Heroes of Fortitude for 50 points or less, with 1-3 Might and some nice special rules to go along with Heroic Accuracy, Strength, and March, respectively. The Might and special rules are really gravy: the headline is that you can take 13 models with a wargear item for 125 points or less (9.38 points per model, or better). That's 50+ models at 600 points--with Bard, and three other heroes to boot. 
• Weakness: Not much firepower (outside of Bard). The downside is that outside of Bard, none of your Lake-Town heroes are particularly strong (and even Bard, at just Defense 5 tops, is pretty fragile). Only Bard and Bain can Heroic Strike (and Bain, even fully buffed, is not on the level of Faramir, Haldir, or Murin, much less the biggest of big baddies). So if you want the tools to deal with 2-3 big-ish heroes at a time, you'll need to look beyond Lake-Town itself. Fortunately...
• Strength: Great ally choices. Yes, you have dwarves (Iron Hills or Erebor Reclaimed) and elves (Thranduil's Halls), all of whom offer high strength / defense / fight troops and heroes who can help you deal with bigger threats. But don't forget about the "allies" included in the Survivors of Lake-Town list itself. You have Alfrid (from the Army of Lake-Town) who can still super-charge your Lake-Town heroes. You have Bilbo (who can strike with an elven-made weapon, has 3/3/3 heroic stats, and, oh, some magical ring-thing). And you have Gandalf the Grey (which is wizard). Alfrid is an independent hero in this list, but Bilbo and Gandalf can lead Lake-Town militia (12 in Bilbo's case, 15 for Gandalf). So if you want to stick with a Lake-Town spam theme, you can do that while still upgrading your power curve. A lot.
• Strength / Weakness: Troop diversity. Like the Iron Hills, the Survivors of Lake-Town have only one troop option: your run-of-the-mill militia. They're not quite as customizable as Iron Hills Warriors, but you get most of what you'd want--shields, spears, and bows (no banners, so Bard!). They're not particularly good at using any of those weapons, but they're dirt cheap so that's to be expected. They're very good at what they're there for--buying time for Bard and your other heroes to do their thing (or as filler-troops in historic alliances, so your dwarves / elves / wizards have time to do their thing)
• Weakness: Start-up cost. In a news flash that will surprise absolutely no one: Hobbit-era armies aren't cheap. As far as I can tell, Lake-Town militia captains aren't available through GW or Forge-World, so you may have to go to a secondary seller for them (or go the trusty special-conversion-and-paint-job route). Everyone else is available, for dough. There are two Bard packs available (one has him on horse, the other has him with the Windlance), you can pick up all three children from Forge-World (along with Percy and Hilda in a second combo pack), and the Lake-Town militia and guard are available through GW (along with Alfrid), although the troop packs are very expensive for only 12 models. The good news (I guess) is that you can find plenty of Gandalf and Bilbo sculpts on the cheap--and if you picked up Thorin's Company previously, you may already have some! 

Hold still son, I got this...
Photo Credit: youtube.com

Named Hero Profiles

• Bard the Bowman. There are basically three Bard variants: 
• Basic-Bard (on horse, with armour) is pretty good: Fight 5, 3+ shoot with a S4 Greatbow, S4, D5, 3 Attacks / wounds, C6, and 3/3/3 heroic stats with Strike, Strength, Accuracy, and Resolve. Plus a 6-12" Fight Value buff and banner for most of your Lake-Town heroes and militia (depending on if your army bonus is active). Depending on how you feel about the Rapid Fire ability (he can shoot up to 3 times per round, assuming he can keep rolling hits), he may be a tad over-costed in this kit given that he's only Fight 5, with pretty low defense (or Prince Imhrail is under-costed--or both are true). 
• Then there's Uber-Bard, which involves running Bard (on horse, with armour) with some variation of Bain, Sigrid & Tilda (or both), which jumps him to Fight 6 with a free Heroic Combat every turn. This variant is by far the most dangerous... usually to your opponents, unless they harm one of his children (in which case, you may suffer some... ill-effects). He's also over 200 points to field (because you have to buy some additional family members), which again, may be too much (he's definitely no Elendil, and may not even be a King Thorin).
• Then there's Windlance-Bard. Almost nobody talks about Windlance-Bard, mostly because he decapitated his own son (or at least would have, if the Black Arrow sequence in the films obeyed the laws of physics). The Windlance itself is kind of a meh siege weapon on its own: yes, it only scatters 3", but you can't move it at all once it's deployed and it doesn't knock anything over (or backwards, or into other things), which means it only affects a single target per round. Having said that, it will hit on a 3+ (since Bard and Girion have 3+ shoot values), and they can use their 3 Might to alter dice rolls if they wish. You also have The Black Arrow once per game to reroll failed hit/in-the-way rolls, and to get a Dead On! result on the scatter chart. But again... almost nobody talks about Windlance-Bard. I think he likes it that way...

...because this was totally a great idea...
Photo Credit: youtube.com

• Sigrid & Tilda. Given that they are small children, they are (unsurprisingly) not good fighters. Like, really not good fighters. Fight 2 (or 1, in Tilda's case), Strength 2, D2, 1 Attack, and 1 wound are bad enough; unarmed makes them way, way worse. Their gambit is that if they're within 6" of Bard and/or Bain, either or both (of Bard and Bain, not Sigrid and Tilda--thankfully) gets a +1F bonus and can call a free heroic combat each round. So the $64,000 question is how to keep them close enough to Bard and/or Bain to take advantage of the buff... but also far enough away where they won't be charged or shot out. Yes, they have 2 Fate each, but if they are killed, Bard goes all elf-twins and has to charge their killer "as fast as possible." If that model was some low-ranking Uruk-Hai to his immediate left, this is not a problem; if that model was the Dark Lord Sauron with an 18" Chill Soul, or a Dragon with Breathe Fire, or a Gundabad War Bat, or a cheeky Haradrim archer in a mumak howdah... you may be screwed. So keep them safe, please--after all, they're children!
• Bain, Son of Bard. Base Bain is... not good. Not quite as not-good as his sisters, but still: F3, S3, D3, with 1 Attack and 2 Wounds with 1/3/2 heroic stats isn't overly terrible, until you see his points cost combined with the fact he's a minor hero. Lake-Town has so many cheap heroes of fortitude with the same or more Might, that if you're just looking for a hero to bring more dudes along, you can get better value elsewhere. He's more attractive if you're already taking Bard (F4, and benefits from that 6-12" banner effect), and even more so if you're also taking Sigrid & Tilda (F5, plus a free heroic combat each turn). Just make sure you properly support him, though: with just 1 Attack at Strength 3, he may have trouble wounding whatever he's fighting to pull off the heroic combat--and at just Defense 3, he's probably 50% likely or worse to take a wound if he botches the duel.
• Percy. Your typical light-armored archer hero profile (F3, 3+ shoot, S4, D4, 2 Attacks / Wounds, C4, 3/1/1 heroic stats, with Heroic Accuracy). At 50 points he's as expensive as your Lake-Town heroes get outside of Bard, but the 3 Might is nice to have. Archers, This Way! is a nice homage to his fleeting screen time in the film, and also allows your militia archers to reroll 1s to hit when shooting--not a huge bonus since militia archers have a 4+ shoot (your odds to hit jump from 50% to about 55%), but invaluable when you do roll those 1s and wish you'd rolled something else. His F3 is a little weird (especially since he's Strength 4), but he jumps to F4 if Bard is around (again, Bard!).
• Hilda-Bianca. An incredibly cheap Hero of Fortitude, who like Bain is pretty meh in combat (F2, S3, D3, 1 Attack, 2 Wounds, 1/1/1 heroic stats). She has a surprising Courage 5, though, which makes her a good (if risky) candidate for triggering the Lake-Town militia's Onwards, Men of Esgaroth special rule to charge terrifying models. She also makes the jump to Fight 3 if within 6-12" of Bard. Last but not least, Stand by our Men! sneakily makes her--and all Lake-Town militia within 3" of her--effective Strength 5 if she and they charge into combat (or Strength 6 on the militia, if they piercing strike with axes). Even sneakier still, she can call Heroic Strength, which means it's possible for her to hit as hard as Sauron does (S3 + a "5" or "6" on your d3 Heroic Strength check + to-wound bonus = effective Strength 8). Not bad, given her points cost. Unfortunately that's a one-round gag, because she only has 1 Might. Oh wait...
• Alfrid. This is where things start to get wonky. Because Alfrid is in this list, too. He's only an independent hero here (not the absurdly cheap Hero of Fortitude that he is in the Army of Lake-Town list), but he still offers Dubious Counsel to your Lake-Town Hero models, which can be any of the heroes we've already covered. Want a 6 Might Uber-uber-Bard? You can do it (probably... just don't roll 1s). Or Percy, or Hilda, or Bain... or even Tilda, I suppose, if you wanted to troll your opponent. Can this list get any more busted?
• Bilbo Baggins. Why yes. Yes it can. Because you not only get a full-stat hobbit hero (3/3/3) with Defense 6, Courage 6, Heroic Strike, Heroic Defense, and an elven-made weapon, but you also get the One Ring (so long as the opponent isn't running Sauron, or Isildur without Elendil--the odds of seeing either across from you are pretty low). And you get the One Ring that hasn't awoken yet, which means you don't have to test for control of the ringbearer each turn, giving you complete control of your ringbearer at all times. Just be careful about facing Nazgul...he's not immune to those rules.
• Gandalf the Grey. Let's see... what's the only thing better than having a 12" fight-buff/banner, free heroic combats, to-hit rerolls, +1 to-wound on charging troops, a 6 Might super-hero, and a ringbearer in a single list? Adding a wizard. Who can lead cheap troops. Because why not? Gandalf the White gets most of the love (and deservedly so), but his younger, less-grumpy version is no slouch. Blinding Light?Check. Immobilize and Command? You betcha. Protection of the Valar? Yeah, baby. Collapse Rocks? Sure, why not. Plus Glamdring, Narya, 3/6/3 heroic stats, and a fully-functioning staff. What's not to like? You can even mount him on a horse for Pete's sake.

Photo Credit: atolkienistsperspective.blogspot.com

Unnamed Hero Profiles

• Lake-Town Militia Captain. F4 (if Bard is around), Strength 4, Defense 6, 2 Attacks / Wounds, and a shield makes him reasonably stout. Add Heroic March with 2/1/1 heroic stats, and you have a pretty cheap base-line captain (with the shield, he's half as many points as an Iron Hills Captain on war goat... who is undoubtedly better, but probably not twice-better). Throw a couple of these guys in the front rank of your battle line for some added punch. They're also not bad as cheap body-guards for Bard if you don't have someone like Gandalf or Bilbo watching over him. Oh, and they have a pick, too--so Strength 5 if you piercing strike. Because again, why not?

Warrior Profiles

• Lake-Town Militia. You can buff their defense with shields, do a proper shield-wall with a second rank of spears, and arm up to a third of your force with bows. At F2-3 (depending on Bard), Strength 3 (or S4 if you piercing strike with axes), Defense 4-5, and a 4+ shoot value they're not particularly good at any of those things, but they're dirt cheap so that's to be expected. Again, don't sleep on the fact that they become Fearless if they're within 3" of a friendly Lake-Town Hero who is in combat; otherwise, their Courage 3 is fine, not great. They also have no option for banners... but yet again, Bard.

Concluding Thoughts

All in all, this is a great list. The cheap troop- and hero-options are a nice compliment to the more expensive profiles in the Iron Hills, Erebor Reclaimed, and Thranudil's Halls, plus you get some magic support, a ring-bearer, huge banner effects, and some cheeky special rules thrown in.

How could an evil army ever match these powerhouses?

Pffffft. Child, please.
Photo Credit: pinterest.com

Recommended Resources

More from the TMAT Team

• The Armies of the Hobbit, Part IV: Men (March 2019)

Support your Hobby

• Base-Bard, Uber-Bard, and Windlance-Bard (Games Workshop)
• Lake-Town Militia, Guard, and Alfrid (plus more Bard) (Games Workshop)
• Percy, Hilda, & Bard's Family (Forge World)
• Gandalf, Bilbo, and Thorin's Company (Games Workshop)

Recommended Resources

• VIDEO: Review of the Middle-Earth SBG: Armies of the Hobbit, Part 12, Army of Lake-Town (STF Wargaming)
• READ: Fog of War, Part 13: Lake-Town (I came, I saw...)
• READ: Battle-Report: Lake-Town vs. Mordor (Warhammer Community)
• PODCAST: Mustering an Army, Ep. 17: Dale and Lake-Town (The Green Dragon Podcast, *Pre-MESBG)
• VIDEO: There and Back Again Review: Mirkwood/Lake-Town (DC Hobbit League, *Pre-MESBG)
• BATTLE REPORT: Survivors of Lake-Town v. Azog's Hunters (Blackfyre Productions)
• BATTLE REPORT: Lake-Town Militia v. Hunter Orcs (GBHL Podcast, *Pre-MESBG)
• HOBBY: GBHL Steve's Hobby VLOG#3 - Laketown runthrough (GBHL Podcast)