The Bare Necessities, Part II: Banners (and pseudo-banners and anti-banners)

Good morning gamers,

Today we continue our discussion of the Bare Necessities of an army in MESBG that wants to be able to score maximum victory points in a game. As a refresher, here are the things you’ll need to consider:

• Fast troops who can claim objectives or exit the opposing board edge;
• At least one banner;
• Ways of delaying/avoiding being broken (often in the form of large numbers);
• Means of killing enemy heroes; and
• Means of keeping your own heroes alive.

In our last post, we talked about cavalry/fast models and today we turn our attention to banners. As I mentioned in our last post, I took a long time to come around to using banners. I did this for several reasons: first and foremost, when I got started playing the LOTR SBG in September 2010, banners cost different amounts of money based on what unit was holding it (Orcs/most Men could take a banner for 25 points, Dwarves/Uruk-Hai could take a banner for 30 points, Elves could take a banner for 35 points). Back then you couldn't take extra gear with a banner, so the innate Defense of these units didn’t go up and the person carrying the banner became a very expensive target (an Uruk-Hai Warrior carrying a banner costed 39 points – if you ignore the cost of the Uruk-Hai Warrior carrying it, that’s the equivalent cost of 3-4 models right there).

Second, while a banner could be handed off to a friendly model if the banner-bearer was killed, you couldn’t take any additional equipment if you carried a banner (no adding a shield, pike, spear, bow, or anything to the banner-carrying model). This meant that banners usually stood around doing nothing while everyone else fought off the enemy. If you had an Uruk-Hai Warrior with shield (D6) near an Uruk-Hai Warrior with a banner (D5), if the banner-bearer was killed by an Elf bowmen (S3 bow wounds D5 on 5s), the shield-toting Uruk could drop his shield to pick up the banner (which would reduce his Defense from D6 to D5, reducing the difficulty to kill him from 6s to 5s). It wasn’t a cool thing.

Third, banners have very limited range (in general), so taking one banner was unlikely to do much for your army as a whole – you might be able to make a single hero or a squad of troops fight better, but you couldn’t make your whole army better without bringing several of them (and did I mention that taking a banner would undercut your army by 3-4 warriors)?

Let’s just say when we first got started, almost nobody took banners.

Except Centaur.

For a while, he was the only hold-out in defense of banners. And without fail, we’d face off against his army and he’d roll lower than us and say, “But I have a banner…” and then he’d roll a 5 or a 6 and beat us. And we’d all be scratching our heads, asking ourselves, “Why aren’t we winning?” Turns out, it may have been because of banners.

Banners: Why Buy Them?

Banners are very useful tools in the game – while banners have now been standardized in cost (25 points each), and while you can now take extra equipment alongside the banner (a common build is to equip a banner-bearer with a spear and shield if you have access to them), banners have retained a very tight radius of influence. But despite having a short range, the warriors who fight within range of the banner have a huge advantage over those who don’t have a banner with them. For more info on the mathematical details of this, I encourage you to read Rythbryt’s post on banners (and horses and Heroic Strike and shielding). While Rythbryt goes into great detail on banners, let’s take a look at some of the highlights:

• Banners give you an extra die to win the fight. This is particularly good if your model has a higher Fight Value than the opposing model, since every die you roll increases your likelihood of rolling a 6. For models with a lower Fight Value, every die you roll still increases your likelihood of rolling a 6 (or at least, a number higher than your opponent’s highest die roll). While you can’t do anything against an opponent who rolls too many 6s, you can give their luck a press by taking a banner.
• Banners make your heroes more effective. Often times, your heroes have important things they want to do with their Might points. One of the worst things heroes can spend Might on is improving a Duel roll – while this didn’t make our Top 5 ways to waste Might points, winning a Duel roll just means you didn’t die this turn (unlike boosting a To Wound roll, which guarantees that someone is wounded/dead). Banners make it less likely that a hero needs to boost their Dueling roll by giving them (or a friendly model in the same fight) another chance to roll a 6.
• Banners might not have great range, but they can cover a good bit of your battle line if placed in the second rank. With a 3” radius emanating from the banner-bearer, the three fights on the right and left of the banner-bearer should benefit from his banner (possibly more if the battle lines are staggered). While it’s certainly possible to have to defend an area of ground that’s more than 7” in diameter, a well-placed banner in a formation that has impassible terrain on each side can be hard to shift by an opponent who left their banner at home for more numbers.
• Speaking of more numbers, banners might reduce your break-point by 1-2 models, but they’ll make up for that with the models they save by helping friendly models win fights. I learned this when I converted up a King’s Champion model (who is absurdly cheap when you factor in the cost of the two Heralds he brings along) – having two banners inserted into my Dwarf battle lines really made my heroes shine, but it also allowed my warriors to risk striking at opponents instead of shielding (since they knew they got effectively the same number of dice striking while within range of the banner as they would shielding outside of the banner’s range). A few won combats and you’ll be thankful you brought it.
• Finally, banners occasionally give you points. In a tournament I played ages ago, I was playing a specialized To The Death scenario against a Rohan player. Victory Points were scored by breaking the enemy (I had basically the same number of models as my opponent), wounding/killing the enemy army leader (I had Balin, he had Eomer), and having a banner (I had one, my opponent did not). On the periphery of the map were two packs of Wild Wargs that were controlled by the player without priority and who attacked the nearest model. In the center of the map was a Cave Troll who followed the same rules. I had a lots of bows and was sitting on 2 VPs to 0 VPs, so I sat back and shot at wild animals (and Rohan guys who ran past the Cave Troll towards my ranks). The Cave Troll raked through Rohan guys but was finally brought down, but not before the game was overwhelmingly favoring my Dwarves. While my bow superiority made it so I didn’t need to risk getting near the Troll to begin with, the fact that I had a banner made it an up-hill fight for the Rohan army I faced. Needless to say, I won.

So, banners can be useful – and we all love them now. But utilizing banners well is something that takes practice and time, so here are some tips that I’ve learned over the past few years.

Banners: How To Use Them

First and foremost, deploy banners near units that can pick them up. In the image above, there are two formations that could benefit from a banner: a group of Osgiliath Veterans and Rangers (neither unit has a banner as an available wargear option) and a group of Warriors of Minas Tirith (who do have the option for a banner). While the OsVets would definitely benefit from getting a reroll (as would the Rangers), if the bannerman is sniped by archery, the banner can’t be picked up by anyone in the group, so it will be lost (EDIT: as pointed out in the comments, this is in fact not true - any warrior can pick up a banner, but you need to have a suitable substitute model, so plan ahead if you're going to have mixed troop choices). The actual unit you’d want carrying a banner in this case would be a Guard of the Fountain Court, who not only cost the same as Osgiliath Veterans with shields and spears (1pt more than a Ranger with spear), but can pass banners amongst themselves should one of them die.

Second, deploy banners where they’ll augment the right troops. In the image above, the Wood Elf Warrior with the banner can benefit one of two formations: a loose formation of Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers, and a two-rank formation of bowmen backed by spearmen (who I’d recommend giving throwing daggers to as well, by the way). While the throwing dagger warriors would love to get some rerolls as they brashly charge into the enemy, hoping to disrupt their formation and progress, you’re more likely to keep your battle line together if you place it in the center of a cohesive body. While many cavalry models can take banners, I generally recommend not putting banners on cavalry, as making sure you keep cohesion is harder to do with them (though, like all units, they do receive a good benefit from being mounted).

Third, deploy banners where they’ll make a difference in the long-run. While this could mean backing up your biggest and baddest hero, it could also mean hiding your banner behind the biggest and fattest rock you can find. While most scenarios don’t give you victory points for having a banner alive at the end of the game, there are scenarios that reward you for having a banner (hence, why this post shows up at all in this series). Sometimes, as great as the in-combat bonuses for having a banner are, your best formations are going to run too close to a nasty hero/monster who could spell trouble for your banners. As a result, it might be good just to keep one of your banners tucked away.

Banners: How To Fight Them

Bannermen are not difficult to beat in combat: with a -1 penalty (usually) to their Dueling rolls, they aren’t that reliable at winning a fight on their own. Most of the time, you’ll see bannermen carrying spears and supporting from the second rank (at least, you’ll see that now – as noted before, bannermen couldn’t take extra equipment before). From the safety of the second rank, not only are they more likely to be in base contact with a friendly model (or at least near one) so that if one were to be shot, the banner could be picked up.

While bannermen aren’t “easy” to wound, many of them are not particularly difficult to wound (especially by S4 models). If you only look at banners that can be equipped on warriors (which is where most banners are taken), there are some armies that languish away with only Defense 4 bannermen (Serpent Horde and Azog’s Hunters) and others only get to a “fine” Defense 5 (Numenor, Garrison of Dale, Angmar, Far Harad). Most armies, however, can get to the desired Defense 6 (decently resilient against enemy magic, archery, and most melee) include the Fiefdoms, Arnor, Rohan, Rivendell, Lothlorien, Halls of Thranduil, Barad-Dur/Mordor, Isengard, the Easterlings, the Corsairs, and Azog’s Legion/Dark Powers of Dol Guldur. A select few can get above Defense 6 (Minas Tirith, Khazad-Dum, Army of Thror can get D7; the Dead of Dunharrow, Iron Hills/Erebor Reclaimed can get D8). On the whole, however, you’ll likely face a banner that’s Defense 6, so most things will require a high roll on their dice in order to kill it. That said, anything that’s Strength 4 or higher will have an easier time, so if you’re trying to clear a banner out, it’s probably not a bad idea to bring some muscle so when you do get into combat with a banner, it dies faster.

The greatest problem with trying to kill banners is one we’ve already touched on: banners can be picked up if friendly models are nearby. In some ways, this can be an advantage: a bannerman that has been engaged will suffer a -1 penalty to his Duel roll, so if you begin with this fight and another model picks up the banner, his fight now has a -1 penalty to his Duel roll. This penalty can get passed along through the ranks of nearby warriors until the banner finally dies (or finally wins a fight).

Alternatively, if you want to kill off a banner without having to kill 3-4 guys, you might want to consider killing the banner while its bearer is on the ground: banners grant no bonuses if they’re knocked Prone, so you can kill the warriors around it with no banner bonus being applied to them before taking out the banner. Of course, if you knock the banner Prone with something like Sorcerous Blast or Call Winds, the bannerman might be out of range of friendly models anyway…

Types of Banners: A Brief Taxonomy

While we’ve talked during most of this post on what you can do with “banners,” banner rules come in various forms – and there are MANY different kinds of banners. Let’s look at the general categories of banners you’re likely to find:

• Traditional banner: a 25pt-piece of wargear that can be equipped on many warrior models and is often available to an army on one of its core warriors.
• Traditional Banner+: a banner that costs more than 25pts that is available to certain heroes that not only confers a banner bonus to friendly models within range, but also provides some kind of other boost to nearby friendly models. The three primary examples of this are Halbarad’s Banner of the Evenstar (6” banner radius + 6” Fearless radius), Mega-Boromir’s Banner of Minas Tirith (6” banner radius + 6” FV+1 for friendly Gondor models), and Gamling’s Royal Standard of Rohan (3” banner radius + 3” back-to-1-Might restoral for friendly Rohan heroes). All of the banners listed do not apply penalties to carrying these banners (which is good, since they are on heroes).
• A Hero who is “Treated As A Banner”: a special rule that appears on certain heroes that grants a hero the ability to act like a banner for certain friendly models (or occasionally all friendly models) within a specified distance of himself. The radius of coverage can vary from 3” to 12” depending on the hero involved.
• Temporary “Treated As A Banner”: some heroes are able to spend Might (the Master of Lake-town) or Will (Will Whitfoot) in order to count as a banner for a single game round. While this is more temporal than the previous category, the heroes with this kind of rule tend to be much cheaper.

Banners: How Many Is Too Many?

Perhaps I’ve convinced you that taking a banner isn’t a bad idea, but how many are too many? Is it a horrible idea to take two banners? How about three? While your point level is certainly a consideration, I think the answer to “how many banners you need” greatly depends on your force:

•  An all-mounted Rohan army is likely to have Gamling in it (because who doesn’t want more Might), but not all of the Rohan forces are likely to be able to remain within 3” of Gamling. In my mind, your cavalry need every advantage they can get, so taking one additional Rohan Royal Guard (or Rider of Rohan) with a banner to support whoever isn’t near Gamling isn’t a big deal. Each banner you take, however, is nearly two mounted warriors you’re not taking, so it’s probably a good idea to not take more than one additional.
• Azog’s Hunters has some pretty cheap named (mounted) heroes and some pretty cheap warriors, so you can easily take three banners and not have any problems. While one banner can run behind each of the major heroes you bring (Azog, Bolg, Fimbul, for example), the Hunter Orcs themselves can benefit greatly from having a banner nearby because of their low Fight Value (they need to get the 6 in most cases so they can win some fights).
• Armies like the Dead of Dunharrow pay such a steep cost for their warriors and heroes that taking more than one banner (especially if you’re running the Legendary Legion and need to take Aragorn and the King of the Dead) is unthinkable.

All units can benefit from a banner, but if you’re just trying to get victory points in a handful of scenarios, you probably don’t need more than one.

Banners: What If I Can’t Get Any?

While I don’t think point limit is a reason to avoid taking a banner (perhaps really small games that are below 200 points qualify), there are some factions that just can’t get a banner when you play them pure. Most of these armies can avoid this problem by allying with other factions:

• The Fellowship has Bill the Pony, who acts like a banner for Hobbits, but doesn’t give you VPs for having a banner. Thankfully, the Fellowship is allies with both Rivendell and Lothlorien, both of whom have several banner options, depending on whether you’re planning on moving on foot or riding on horses.
• The Shire has banner-like rules from Frodo of the Nine Fingers and Will Whitfoot, but needs an allied banner to get VPs for having a banner (Halbarad is a great option).
• The Wildmen of Druadan can’t take banners, but are historical allies with Rohan, who not only can take normal banners on most of their warrior models, but most Rohan armies are built around Gamling (who has a great banner – though admittedly it will likely be nowhere near the Wose contingent of this army).
• The Misty Mountains can’t take banners, but like most all-monster armies, they’ve got plenty of convenient allies. While you can get a banner rule for one model by allying in Oin (who can also heal your Eagles, which is nice), all factions that aren’t historical allies are convenient allies with the Misty Mountains, so bring any allied contingent with you and can get bonuses from banners by bringing one.
• Fangorn, similar to the Misty Mountains, can conveniently ally with any Army of Good, so you can bring an allied contingent if you want points for banners.
• Thorin’s Company gets a pseudo-banner from Oin the Dwarf, but no actual banners. Their historical allies lack banners as well, but they’re convenient allies with the Elven factions and the Iron Hills, so depending on how much you think the Dwarves should trust the Elves, you have a few options there.
• The Army of Lake-town also has heroes who count as banners (Bard naturally, the Master of Lake-town when he uses his Moneybags rule), but once again, doesn’t have any actual banners available to them. Their only historical ally (Thorin’s Company) lacks them too, so you’d need to be willing to lose your army bonus (reducing the effectiveness of the Master’s moneybags) in order to get VPs for banners (available through Erebor Reclaimed/Iron Hills and the three Elven factions).
• The Survivors of Lake-town have only Bard as a banner, but they’re historical allies with Erebor Reclaimed, the Halls of Thranduil, and the Iron Hills – all of which can bring banners. Since these factions are all historical allies, you don’t need to worry about what losing any of their army bonuses (which is good, because the army bonuses for these three factions are amazing).
• Radagast’s Alliance, like the previous two lists, has no banner options in it, but unlike the other two, its available convenient allies are far more limited. Pair Beorn and some eagles with Lothlorien or Rivendell to get mounted bannermen (so they can keep up with your eagles – and because of the armies you can choose from, the army bonuses associated with these two factions aren’t list-shattering – unlike Halls of Thanduil, Erebor Reclaimed, Iron Hills, or the Rangers). By the way, I recommended allying with Rivendell in a March 2019 post on Radagast’s Alliance, so…
• The White Council can’t get banners either, but they’re historical allies with Rivendell and you should ally them with Rivendell whenever you can (as I’ve highlighted in my post on powerful allied contingents and on a first-impressions post on the White Council).
• Moria can get banner-like rules, but can’t get banners proper for the VPs they provide. While their banner-like-drums have incredible range (12” or 18” depending on whether they’re the mobile variant or the immobile variant), Moria can ally conveniently with basically anyone to provide a banner bonus (except Barad-Dur and Sharkey’s Rogues), though it’ll cost both them and their ally their army bonuses. As a result, my personal favorite (though you’d be hard-pressed to get a proper theme out of it) is Easterlings – their army bonus is cool but not necessary for the list, you can get good cavalry and heavy infantry (which you don’t really get in Moria), and you have some cheap 3A heroes, allowing your Easterling contingent to be small or large depending on how much you want to run Moria. Other good options include Angmar and Azog's Hunters.
• Khand has no banners, though their Kings count as banners (and you should get them – lots of them). If you really need a banner for VPs, ally in Easterlings as historical allies (because you want your army bonus).
• Sharkey’s Rogues can’t get banners without risking an impossible alliance – you’re just out of luck.
• The Dark Denizens of Mirkwood, like other monster-oriented lists, has no banners, but you have Azog’s Hunters/Legion as convenient allies, as well as Mordor – any of which could provide you with some good bannermen. All three have great army bonuses, with Azog’s Legion having (perhaps) the most expendable of the three).
• Goblin-town loses a lot by giving up its army bonus, but you can deal with it. Azog’s Hunters/Azog’s Legion/the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur all provide banners and depending on what kind of contingent you want from them, they could all make do without their army bonuses as well.

Conclusion

If you found this discussion on banners helpful or interesting, be sure to check out Rythbyrt’s discussion on banners as well (it’s got more of a tactical comparison of what banners give you, vs. the high-level of what banners provide). I myself am relying on banners more these days, not just because they give victory points, but because of their in-game tactical benefits.

In our next post, we identify the third way to help your team maximize on points: avoiding being broken. In that post, we’ll not only address getting the best model count, but also factors you should consider for mitigating damage or expanding your tactical options (which may come at the expense of models). Hope to see you there – until next time, happy hobbying!