The Bare Necessities, Part XV: Rohan

Good morning gamers,

We’ve come to the fifteenth post in our series on List Building – view our summary of all we’ve covered here. In Volume I, we looked at the five basic elements of list building, and in Volume II, we did walk-throughs of various factions that can easily accommodate these List Building elements. Our most recent posts on Numenor, Moria, and Khazad-Dum/Moria have looked at factions that struggle with at least one of the elements of list building and today’s post takes us to the plains of Rohan. If you haven't read Rythbryt's review of the Rohan faction, please check that out (it'll be very informative)!

Rohan: Vanilla Rohan or One of Those Legendary Legions?

When the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book was released, the all-cavalry Rohan armies came out in force (with a new Theoden model provided in a new core set and TONS of Riders of Rohan and Warriors of Rohan available on the second-hand market). Theoden's profile upgrade (and relatively stable cost) moved from being a never-include-in-competitive-armies to a must-include-in-all-competitive-armies.

Then Gondor at War was released – and the fight at the Pelennor fields got even larger, with new profiles released for Mordor, Minas Tirith, and Rohan (and some amazing heroes were released with this supplement, indeed). In addition to new profiles, Rohan got a new Legendary Legion, which further encouraged an all-mounted crew – but also provided an incentive to running a large number of heroes (instead of trying to get as many warriors as possible while still keeping everyone mounted).

With the Winter 2019 release of War in Rohan, we received five new Legendary Legions to use with Rohan – one that focuses on Theodred at the Fords of Isen, one that includes Galadhrim and the Three Hunters with the Rohan forces at Helm’s Deep, one that includes Gandalf the White and Eomer’s riders, a list that unites the mounted units of Rohan with the Wildmen of Druadan, and a list that takes us back in time to the reign of Helm Hammerhand. That gives us a total of six different ways you can run Rohan (besides the "vanilla" Rohan army, which is the only one that can take allies and is "unrestricted" in the warrior/hero options it has). So the question becomes, which one is the best to run when trying to maximize point potential?

I don’t think there’s one answer, since the "vanilla" Rohan list and each of the Legendary Legions have categories they’re good at and categories they struggle with:

• Vanilla Rohan: 
• Lots of access to fast models - encouraged to bring them when running a pure list because of the army bonus;
• Access to banners - regular banners and Gamling, who has a really good banner;
• Can get 30+ models easily, especially if a mix of infantry and cavalry are used;
• Can neutralize enemy heroes pretty well, but must do so with archery/avoidance tactics; and
• Can augment your army with Gamling/Theoden (to say nothing of the army bonus).
• The Riders of Theoden: 
• Everyone is a fast model;
• Same as vanilla Rohan;
• Very difficult to get to 30+ models - especially if you try to maximize on the Death! special ability and bring a lot of heroes;
• Same as vanilla Rohan; and
• Same as vanilla Rohan.
• The Defenders of Helm's Deep: 
• No mounted models, but required to bring Theoden (3 Heroic Marches), can bring Aragorn (infinite Heroic Marches), Gamling (3+ Heroic Marches), and Galadhrim/Rohan Captains (2 Heroic Marches each);
• Same as vanilla Rohan;
• Can easily get 30+ models, as you're all infantry (despite having heroes that are around 100 points each and some elite infantry options);
• Really good archery (30" range if you don't move), finds avoidance more difficult; and
• Can augment with Gamling/Theoden, archery is heavily augmented by the addition of Haldir and Legolas - oh, and you can spear-support in this list.
• Theodred's Guard: 
• Same as vanilla Rohan;
• Access to banners, but no access to Gamling;
• Same as vanilla Rohan;
• Same as vanilla Rohan - though harder to do avoidance because you have Theodred as your army leader and he may be required to recklessly charge into stuff; and
• Most of your augments are tied to Theodred (Arise, Riders of Theoden transfers to him), though you can upgrade your Warriors of Rohan with Grimbold - oh, and you can spear-support in this list.
• The Riders of Eomer: 
• Everyone is a fast model;
• Access to banners, but no access to Gamling;
• Very difficult to get to 30+ models since all of your models are mounted and you probably want to bring Gandalf the White (and have to bring Eomer);
• All of your warriors have bows (and can have throwing spears), Eomer can have throwing spears, and you have Gandalf the White; and
• Eomer provides good augments, Erkenbrand can augment Courage (and count as a banner for a few guys), but most of your augments are provided by Gandalf the White.
• The Paths of Druadan: 
• All of your Rohan models are fast models;
• Access to banners in the Rohan contingent, including Gamling;
• Required to bring Theoden, Ghan-Buri-Ghan, and 15 Wose Warriors - can easily get 30+ models;
• Same as vanilla Rohan; and
• Same as vanilla Rohan, though the Waypoint Markers that are placed grant some serious boosts as well.
• Helm's Guard: 
• Same as vanilla Rohan;
• Access to banners, but no access to Gamling;
• Same as vanilla Rohan;
• Same as vanilla Rohan;
• Helm Hammerhand can augment the Fight Value of nearby warriors (which is good, because you don't have Theoden), but other than that there aren't really any augments in this list (though you can spear-support in this list).

So which list do we focus on today? While I’ll go over several of these lists at the end of our discussion today, our primary list will be based on what I believe (and others seem to agree) remains the most competitive build for Rohan: the Riders of Theoden Legendary Legion. As noted above, this list will really struggle in the numbers category, but relies on having lots of powerful heroes in order to keep your army moving and killing (which can enable an all-cavalry army to deal LOADS of damage and fight above their weight). I should note, however, that this list is a 700-pt variant of a list that Lachlan from Zorpazorp gaming brought to an escalation tournament, so I think it’s “competitive.” I also asked Lachie's opinions about who to drop from his 800-point list, so I feel like I got some professional advice from one of the best Rohan players in the world. :-)

With that, let’s look at the list.

The List

Photo credit: Zorpazorp Gaming - you can find this army in the weblink above at minute 13:49

• Theoden, King of Rohan with everything [Army Leader]
• 2 Riders of Rohan
• Gamling, Captain of Rohan with everything
• 1 Rohan Royal Guard on horse with throwing spears
• 1 Rohan Royal Guard on horse
• Eomer, Marshal of the Riddermark with everything
• 2 Rohan Royal Guards on horses with throwing spears
• Dernhelm with everything
• 2 Rohan Royal Guards on horses with throwing spears
• Deorwine, Chief of the King’s Knights with everything
• 2 Riders of Rohan
• 1 Rider of Rohan with banner

16 models, 5 bows hitting on a 4+ and 7 throwing spears hitting on a 4+, 10 D6+ models, 16 cavalry, 15 Might points

I mentioned in our post on the numbers game that going below 30 models is okay, but you need to be able to make up for the numbers gap. This list includes no less than six heroes (when you break Dernhelm up into Eowyn and Merry) and includes a whopping 15 Might points (that can be regained with Gamling’s banner). The list includes a cohort of 6 Rohan Royal Guards to provide high-Fight, high-Strength, and high-Defense supporters to your heroes, and lending an additional 5 throwing spears to your army. I came up 5 points short of getting an all-Royal-Guard army, so instead of dropping the throwing spears on Eomer or Dernhelm, I opted to run 5 Riders of Rohan (who provide good long-range shooting for models that would have been throwing-spear-less Royal Guards). 

The hope for this army, of course, is that with all of these heroes at your disposal, you can chew through warriors and grind down enemy heroes with all of the Might you have on your heroes (three of which have Strike – four if you include Merry). With a free round of Heroic Combats/Strikes with the DEATH! special rule, hopefully you can knock out 10+ warriors in one round with just your heroes to close that numbers gap quickly.

One additional note: Lackie's slow-growth army doesn't include any Riders of Rohan in it. I like Riders of Rohan - not only are their bows welcome additions in scenarios where you need to camp out on an objective late in the game and still contribute to your team, but they also start with axes (which means they can be S5 when on the Charge and using Piercing Strike). While the higher base Fight Value and Defesne are great on Royal Guards (to say nothing of Bodyguard), I think having a few Riders of Rohan is very useful. If I had 5 additional points (which I could get by dropping throwing spears on Eomer or Dernhelm - but why lose throwing weapons?), I could have made these guys Royal Guards with horses only (no throwing spears), but I didn't want to do that - having cavalry in this list that can't skirmish will change too much. :) Know that you could drop one of the Riders of Rohan to upgrade all of the other Riders of Rohan to Rohan Royal Guards with throwing spears and have 2 points left over (and be at 15 models instead of 16 models).

While I'm at it, I should note that there was another Riders of Theoden list that was brought to the 2019 Masters Tournament in Australia (view the list here) - this list was built at 800 points, but does see a mix of both Riders of Rohan and Rohan Royal Guard. So, maybe taking the Riders of Rohan is okay.

With that prologue, let’s look at each warband and see what they’re intended to do.

Warband #1: The King of Rohan

As far as army leaders go, Theoden is actually quite fragile: like Balin (covered last time), he’s only got 2 Wounds and 1 Fate point (a Fate point he can spend to protect his mount thanks to Horse Lord), but unlike Balin, he’s only D7. Like Balin, he has 2 base Attacks (though he gets to 3 Attacks on the charge), but he’s only F5 (though he can Strike). Still, Theoden provides a great auric boost to the Rohan Royal Guards in this list (and allows Gamling to auto-pass Courage tests via Sworn Protector). He’s also a bit of a time-bomb in this list, as his death could cause Eowyn to stay in one part of the map (though doing so super-charges Eomer). While he’s alive, Deorwine gets free Heroic Combats and Theoden is one of the cheapest Heroes of Legend in the game (not that we're trying to maximize model count here). Supporting him are two Riders of Rohan, each protecting a flank to make it harder for Theoden to get overwhelmed (with the potential of being F4/S5 with 2 Attacks when on the charge and using Piercing Strike).

Warband #2: The King’s Bannerman

Gamling is the reason this army works: with lots of Might to make sure you get the charge AND call Heroic Strikes each round (one round, those Strikes - or Heroic Combats - will be free), it’s tempting for your heroes to burn through their Might and fizzle out. Gamling’s banner not only gives them much-needed rerolls to make them more likely to win a fight, but also replenishes their Might points to continue calling Heroic Strikes/Combats or boosting fighting rolls. Gamling on paper is the weakest of the heroes in this list (only Defense 6 with 2 Wounds and 1 Fate points), but with the ability to call Heroic Defense every turn (thanks to the banner), he’s deceptively hard to kill in combat. More than the other heroes in this list, Gamling needs escorts, but alas he only gets 2 Rohan Royal Guards. As shown in the movies, I’d have him right behind Theoden, empowering his lord to continue fighting (and providing a nice boost of warriors to keep Theoden from getting swarmed). Note: if you want to skirmish better with this warband, you can swap both of these models for Riders of Rohan with throwing spears - lower Defense, lower Fight Value, but both will be able to skirmish.

Warband #3: The Prince of Rohan

When you consider resiliency, Eomer is as tough as they come for Rohan: as the only Rohan hero with 3 Fate points, Eomer's D7 and 3 Wounds not only makes him difficult to wound, but it also makes his horse harder to wound (since he's got Horselord). I usually prefer to run Eomer on a normal Horse (saves 5 points, the higher Defense only matters against even-Strength range/melee attacks), but since the Riders of Theoden LL requires you to take an armored horse. So, we're barding the horse today! Escorting him are a pair of Royal Guards who also have throwing spears so they can skirmish alongside their leader and cause nasty problems when they charge.

Warband #4: The Shield-Maiden
Dernhelm is one of the hardest hitting Rohan heroes (and for her cost, she's one of the hardest hitting heroes in the game), plus she is the best anti-mage in this list (with 2 Will, Resistant to Magic ala Merry, and the ability to call Heroic Resolve - this will keep her from moving but doesn't keep her from using her throwing spears). While her Defense 5 makes her the most fragile hero in this list, she can do incredible damage if protected properly. To keep her alive are 2 Royal Guard escorts, both of which have throwing spears so all three members of this squad can shoot up to 8" away from them while moving 10" each turn (kinda like her brother).

Warband #5: The Bodyguard

Deorwine is probably one of the best hero profiles to be released with Gondor at War (though he does have to compete with Dernhelm and Elfhelm for that title - to say nothing of the models given to Gondor, Mordor, and Far Harad). Any hero who is basically a Dwarf Shieldbearer with slightly lower Defense but has more Might/Will/Fate and access to a horse is fantastic. His free Heroic Combats (while he’s near Theoden) allows him to use any refreshed Might points he gets from the Royal Standard of Rohan for boosting die rolls – either rolls to win the fight or rolls to Wound. Ideally, he (and his honor guard) will be targeting warriors near Theoden so that you can get free Heroic Combats but can’t actually get into Theoden’s fight. Doing this is harder to do with a mounted model, but can be done (your Heroic Combat isn’t canceled if you can’t get to Theoden, after all).

Deorwine has the largest contingent of warriors: three Riders of Rohan - one of which has a banner. These warriors are intended to be able to make sure Deorwine doesn’t over-commit himself with foes (making it more likely that his Heroic Combat will succeed). This warband should also be near Theoden – Riders of Rohan are more dependent on getting the +1 Fight bonus by being near Theoden, so I put them in a warband that is likely to always be near Theoden (in order to get the most out of Deorwine). Early in the game, your 5 Riders of Rohan near Theoden and Deorwine can race around and skirmish with their bows, hopefully taking out a few models before you finally charge into your foes.

Scenario Overview

Let’s take a look at each of the available scenarios and see some thoughts/considerations for using this list:

• Domination: You’ve got five warbands and there are five objectives: while this means you could charge one warband at each objective, it’s unlikely that your opponent will spread himself that thin. As such, Dernhelm's warband should ride to objectives that have been lightly defended by your opponent so you can deny your opponent points for those objectives (or force him to feed some more models towards those objectives as the game continues). Don’t leave any of your models behind at objectives at the start of the game – remember that winning this scenario is about holding objectives at the end of the game, so race around to wherever your opponent is at the start of the game and have Riders of Rohan race to unclaimed objectives as the game gets close to ending (since their bows can contribute to the game while they stand out of the way). If your opponent bunkers down on one or two objectives, harass him with your throwing spears and bows – don’t charge his lines until the numbers are more balanced (he’s losing the game, after all, if you can get on the other 3 objectives). Do your best to get a wound on the enemy army leader and break the enemy force if you can (piece-meal would be preferred, but a good DEATH! round can help a lot too). 
• Capture and Control: Similar strategy to Domination, except that you can tag objectives instead of sticking around to hold them. Once again, you don’t want to get caught up in a fight where the odds are against you, so stay flexible, skirmish while you can, and harass your opponent until the game nears its end.
• Hold Ground: You shouldn’t have any problems getting to the center first – but don't do that. Instead, use your warbands to surround and destroy 1-2 warbands of your opponent’s force that are isolated from the rest of his force. The goal is to use the maelstrom deployment to pick apart your opponent’s forces piece by piece – if this can’t be done, get a good charge into his forces (ideally before he is fully set-up in the center of the map) and cry DEATH! so you can clear out models quickly. Calling DEATH! early in the game so you can one-turn-kill 1-2 warbands can also be demoralizing and game-altering.
• Seize the Prize: Get there quickly, get the prize (despite having Expert Rider, someone will have to dismount - use a Rider of Rohan), give it to someone with good Defense (ideally Eomer if you can keep Theoden from dying - otherwise, you'll want to use Deorwine), and screen for him to get off the board as quickly as possible.
• To The Death: There isn’t much strategy here that hasn’t been covered in Domination: don’t fight where you’ll be at a disadvantage, wear your opponent down with your throwing spears, break your opponent as quickly as you can, and keep Gamling or the other banner alive (because victory points)!
• Lords of Battle: This game is all about kill-count, which your list does really well. Remember to call DEATH! on the round where it will matter, get as many Heroic Combats as you can off to maximize kills, and don’t forget to kill mounts (as they count as victory points). Using your throwing spears (and bows, where they can help) is an important part of this strategy.
• Contest of Champions: Theoden isn’t a great hero for Contest of Champions, so your goal is to make sure your opponent’s army leader doesn’t get a lot of kills (thankfully, you didn’t give him a lot of models to kill). Keep Gamling near Theoden to ensure Theoden gets lots of Heroic Combats and rerolls and use Eomer and Dernhelm (who both has throwing spears) to wear down your opponent’s army leader.
• Reconnoitre: While an all-mounted force would appear to do really well in Reconnoitre, this force is going to struggle with this scenario: you can get Theoden and 3 warriors off the board for sure, but you need to use DEATH! and the free Might from Gamling’s banner to call enough Heroic Combats to catch enemy models who are racing away from you. Your heroes can charge into the body of your enemy’s troops (ideally not Theoden, who should escape with some of your warriors so you deprive your opponent victory points), which will not only tie them down for a while, but might also get your heroes killed (which will get the game to end quickly). Theoden is also a great choice to get some of your warriors off the board, since his death will give your opponent victory points and he has Heroic March (normally, you want to call March with Gamling).
• Storm the Camp: If Reconnoitre was hard, this scenario is even harder, since the scenario can become almost impossible to win if your opponent gets too many models into your camp. Still, if you can use your heroes to tie down the bulk of your opponent’s army and move Theoden and some warriors towards your opponent’s camp to score you some extra victory points. This scenario more than any other (except Seize the Prize) relies on the speed of your army – but beware the opponent who ties down your models while racing his own towards your camp.
• Heirlooms of Ages Past: Maelstrom will not be too difficult for you, but your objective is to find the heirloom as quickly as possible. Someone will have to dismount to find it, so use a Rohan Royal Guard (since handing it off isn't an option). Once found, you can run the heirloom around the board and try not to get caught (if you don't find it, Expert Rider will allow you to pick it up after you kill the carrier). Use your heroes to tear through as many of your opponent’s troops as possible (once again, destroying 1-2 warbands that are isolated from the rest where possible - and calling DEATH! in order to do this can really change the tempo of the game).
• Fog of War: Pick a piece of terrain that’s far-flung so you can hold it with 1-2 Riders of Rohan. The rest of your units should focus on crashing the side of your opponent’s force that has the hero you’ve chosen to kill (whatever hero will fall to throwing spears and a cavalry charge quickly). The nightmare in this scenario is that you have 6 heroes to protect (including Merry) – and while Theoden is not available to choose, your opponent is likely to choose Merry or Dernhelm (because Merry is Merry or because of Dernhelm’s low Defense). Use the Royal Guards and Riders of Rohan in your army to keep any of your heroes from getting overwhelmed. Unlike most of the other armies I cover in this scenario, don’t be reckless with Theoden (since losing him will lower the Fight Value of your warriors on the charge and will make Gamling and your Royal Guards lose their auto-pass rules for Courage tests – and Eowyn might go crazy).
• Clash By Moonlight: Most of your models have throwing weapons or bows, which is good for this scenario, but you need to get yourself locked into combat as quickly as possible – because your horses won’t last long against enemy archery! Without your horses, this list is crippled.

Modifications

While I’ve already addressed some of this, let’s just recap on the modifications I wouldn’t be surprised to see:

• Take the Defenders of Helm’s Deep Legendary Legion – If you’re concerned about numbers, there’s an easy way to address that with Rohan: take the Helm’s Deep Legendary Legion instead. While most other Rohan forces are/can be cavalry-heavy forces, this force can’t take any cavalry at all. The primary concern, then, is to make sure you include enough heroes with March in it so you can move faster. A sample list would look something like this (39 models, 14 Elf bows + 12 throwing spears) – note that I’ve not included Aragorn or Gimli (decisions I’m not really happy with), but the heroes we’ve chosen maximize the archery bonuses that the LL provides and gives us a banner with infinite Marching, which we need since we don't have cavalry models:
• Theoden, King of Rohan with heavy armor and shield [Army Leader]
• 5 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 6 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• Gamling with the Royal Standard of Rohan
• 6 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 6 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• 6 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• Haldir with heavy armor and Elf bow
• 3 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• 3 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows and spears
• Take the Paths of the Druadan Legendary Legion – When War in Rohan was originally released, I didn't pay much attention to this list - I mean, it's basically the Riders of Eomer except your first 300 points are predetermined (Theoden + Ghan-Buri-Ghan + 15 Woses). While Woses do give you access to spears and boost your numbers dramatically (we have as many Woses here as models in our original list), having lots of D3 models that are all-infantry can be really hard to use (based on my experience as a long-time Wood Elf Warrior player) - and this is even more difficult when you don't have a hero who neutralizes enemy archery. That said, there are three killer boosts that come with this army: first and foremost, you can place Waypoint Markers on the board that help your Rohan models ignore the penalties for nearby difficult terrain (in objective games, this can be huge). Second, you are more likely to win Heroic Move roll-offs, which is GLORIOUS for cavalry armies. Third, if you play Good vs. Evil games, all of the models in this list (Woses innately, Rohan models thanks to the rule) reroll 1s To Wound when making Strikes against Orcs, Goblins, or Uruk-Hai. WOW! Also, at 700 points, you can have a very impressive 36 models with a list like this:
• Theoden, King of Rohan on armored horse with heavy armor and shield [Army Leader]
• 3 Riders of Rohan
• 2 Riders of Rohan with throwing spears
• 6 Rohan Royal Guards on horses with throwing spears
• 1 Rohan Royal Guard on horse with throwing spears and banner
• Dernhelm with throwing spears (consider swapping with Deorwine - I'm sad I left Gamling at home, but I need someone to kill stuff...)
• 6 Rohan Royal Guards on horses with throwing spears
• Ghan-Buri-Ghan
• 15 Warriors of Druadan
• Take the Riders of Eomer Legendary Legion – While we had a few Riders of Rohan in our list today, most of our list has two ways of dealing with big enemy models: use throwing spears, or slam into them and Strike-up. Neither of these are good ways of dealing with enemy mega-heroes asymmetrically (unless you can kill them with throwing spears) - and you really don't want to use feeding against them (you just don’t have enough models to do it – unless you charge in Gamling and call a Heroic Defense each round, which is dangerous). The alternative option is to run the Riders of Eomer Legendary Legion, which admittedly has a far more limited hero choice (to say nothing of its more limited warrior choices) than the Riders of Theoden Legendary Legion. Still, this Legendary Legion has access to one very important hero: Gandalf the White. Gandalf is one of the most flexible heroes in the game and one of the best ways of both protecting your models and neutralizing enemy models. Consider this list (24 models, 22 bows + 4 throwing spears + 1 Sorcerous Blast):
• Eomer, Marshal of the Riddermark with everything [Army Leader]
• 7 Riders of Rohan
• 1 Rider of Rohan with banner
• 3 Riders of Rohan with throwing spears
• Gandalf the White on Shadowfax
• 11 Riders of Rohan
• Take the Vanilla Rohan list – We here at TMAT have discussed whether the “normal” Rohan list will ever be taken again and our opinions differ on this. On the one hand, you can only run Eorl the Young (and Sons of Eorl) if you run vanilla Rohan, but is there another reason to run the normal list instead of a Legendary Legion? I think there is: mixing certain hero profiles. Most of Rohan’s heroes are available in the Riders of Theoden Legendary Legion, but two important third-age, War of the Ring heroes are missing: Theodred and Hama. Theodred on the charge is a proper killing hero – 4 Attacks against infantry models at F5/S5 with knock-down to roll 8 dice to wound (rerolling all failed To Wound rolls) – OUCH! Other Rohan heroes, like Eomer and Dernhelm, are very good at killing things, but they’re not as good as Theodred. You can get Theodred in the Theodred's Guard Legendary Legion, but Theodred has no supporting heroes to help him kill things (and you don’t have Gamling AND you don’t get the +1 Strength on the charge rule). In my mind, while the lore side of me is happy that GW included this Legendary Legion, the lack of good supporting heroes (and being forced to have glass-cannon Theodred as your army leader) makes this LL dead on arrival for me. Hama is a great hero not because he can kill lots of things (he probably won’t), but because he gives you another hero with 3 Might to call Heroic Defense each round. This allows you to use him AND Gamling to tie down 2 heroes OR you can avoid risking Gamling and have Hama do the hard work. Consider the following list that represents the guards of the Golden Hall before Theoden’s mind was corrupted by Saruman – only available in a vanilla Rohan list (22 models, 11 throwing spears - I know, I didn't include enough throwing spears):
• Theoden, King of Rohan with everything [Army Leader]
• 5 Rohan Royal Guards with throwing spears and horses
• Theodred, Heir of Rohan with everything
• 4 Rohan Royal Guards with throwing spears and horses
• 1 Rohan Royal Guard with banner, throwing spears, and horse
• Gamling, Captain of Rohan with everything
• 4 Rohan Royal Guards with horses
• Hama, Captain of Rohan with everything
• 4 Rohan Royal Guards with horses

About Those "Other" Rohan Heroes: Eorl the Young and Helm Hammerhand
We haven't really covered two really good heroes in the Rohan army list: Eorl the Young and Helm Hammerhand. Both of these heroes exist in a world apart from the rest of the heroes in the Rohan list, since Eorl the Young causes you to lose your army bonus if you include any named heroes and Helm Hammerhand specifically prohibits the addition of other named heroes from Rohan. While both have really powerful rules (Helm Hammerhand is particularly great in his Legendary Legion), I think the exclusion of named heroes makes them really hard to run at high point levels.

Helm's Guard is a great Legendary Legion, as you can have F5/D6 spear-supporting Rohan Royal Guards so long as you have Helm Hammerhand nearby (though F4/D6 spear-support is still pretty good). Pairing that with Riders of Rohan or Rohan Royal Guards on horses, and you have the potential to be really good. However, like the Theodred's Guard Legendary Legion, Helm has no supporting heroes to help him chop through stuff. You have Captains of Rohan, but they didn't transfer their Arise, Riders of Theoden rule to Helm Hammerhand, so they're just F4 heroes. Your warriors have the potential to be really good, but the cavarly don't get the Strength +1 when on the charge.

Eorl the Young is less restrictive than Helm Hammerhand, since adding a named hero to a list with Eorl the Young just makes you lose your army bonus. In large games, I'm thinking that you either a) ally with Kings of Men and bringing a heavy infantry anvil from Minas Tirith, or b) you add Theoden and Gamling at the loss of your army bonus in order to get the infinite Might and boosted Fight Value on your troops. This second approach will give your cavalry a cheaper, faster Eomer who can have more Might than Eomer does (but lower Will/Fate and no berserker mode when Theoden dies). I'm inclined to give this a try at some point - not sure how much the loss of the army bonus will be felt.

Those are my thoughts for Rohan – notice that Gamling shows up in almost all of them (the Paths of the Druadan and the Riders of Eomer as the exception). Personally, I don’t think Rohan leaves home without Gamling anymore – which probably influences my opinions on their Legendary Legions (though if you do leave him at home, you should bring Gandalf the White :-) ).

A special thanks to Lachlan from Zorpazorp gaming - please do check out his website, his YouTube channel, and the Zorpazorp Community Group on Facebook. You can also find links to supporting his nearly-full-time work at Zorpazorp Gaming on Patreon and help someone who's spending a good bit of his time generating content for the hobby we all love. Also, his battle reports for Battle Companies are amazing!

Our next post in this series departs from our usual fair of armies and will instead be a discussion on different all-hero armies that I’ve run and how they can compete with more traditional armies in the 12 available scenarios. While most all-hero armies can’t get access to all of the possible Victory Points, they can still put up a good fight. Until next time, happy hobbying!