The Bare Necessities, Part XX: The Shire

Good morning gamers,

As we continue our look at armies I'm planning on developing, we've viewed the Halls of Thranduil and the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur. Today, we turn our attention to an army that I've wanted to collect since I started the hobby back in 2010 (but alas, the start-up cost for this army is more expensive than pretty much any other army in the game): The Shire!

The Shire: Legendary Legion or Gandalf the Grey?

There are LOADS of new heroes for the Shire in the Scouring of the Shire book, and it's easy to get blown away with all of the people to choose from. In my mind, there are a few Hobbit heroes that do particularly important things:

• Farmer Maggot: not only does he include 3 Faux cavalry in his warband, but he can go 2H with Piercing Strike at base S3 and 2 Attacks - that's as killy as Hobbits come;
• Holfoot Bracegirdle: anyone who makes 2H weapons not lend penalties is really good - especially if your army is predominantly S2 (he also gives you access to Heroic March, which is big if your army is predominantly 4" move);
• Merry and Pippin: these are the two heroes that have decent resilience and augment your troops really well (most of your army as F3 with Tookish Hunters, your axe-carrying militia able to Pierce up to S4);
• Frodo of the Nine Fingers: if you don't have spears, you need banners - and Frodo is a 6" banner that can be put on a pony for slightly more area coverage and more mobility to support the part of your line that needs help;
• Folco Boffin: A cheap hero who allows Frodo to call 3 Heroic Moves/Resolves with his Will points - for an army that sports heroes that predominantly have 1 Might point each, that's good;
• Farmer Tolman Cotton: most Hobbit heroes only have 1 Might point - and that's good if you want to do something once, but it helps if you have 2 Might. Cotton has 2 Might points AND has a pseudo-banner rule (reroll 1s on Duel rolls) AND has a weapon that can be used as a spear (you should always do this, since you only have 1 Attack anyway), so he can augment one fight each round with his Might (and possibly Fight Value if supporting a Hobbit Militia).
• Baldo Tulpenny: not only is it awesome to automatically wound with those rocks if you get a natural 6 to hit, but bringing lots of traps is good too!

While there are MANY great heroes in the Scouring book, these ones jump to the top for me. My collection includes the following models:

• Gandalf the Grey
• Old Bilbo Baggins
• Spare Fellowship Frodo that will be converted into Lotho Sackville-Baggins
• Farmer Maggot & Dogs
• 4 Hobbit Shirriffs
• 4 Hobbit Militia
• 4 Hobbit Archers

In general, I think bringing Gandalf makes for a more balanced Shire list. While the Defenders of the Shire LL is amazing, I turn to Gandalf for my list today (because we need options for neutralizing enemy heroes)!



The List

• Gandalf the Grey with cart [ARMY LEADER]
• 8 Hobbit Archers
• Bilbo Baggins with Sting and Mithril Coat
• 4 Hobbit Militia with axes
• 4 Hobbit Archers
• Farmer Tolman Cotton
• 5 Hobbit Shirriffs
• 3 Hobbit Militia with axes
• Holfoot Bracegirdle
• 8 Hobbit Shirriffs
• Farmer Maggot
• Grip, Fang, and Wolf
• 3 Hobbit Militia with axes
• 2 Hobbit Archers
• CONVENIENT ALLY: Tom Bombadil

46 models, 14 shortbows hitting on a 3+ and 29 thrown stones hitting on a 3+ and 2 casters, 0 D6+ models, 1 cavalry + 3 Faux-cavalry, 8+ Might points

So why did we choose this list? Most Hobbit heroes have a single Might point. Even if you run Dunedain with Gandalf, you're still looking at single-Might models (while Gandalf has 3 Might, he's very likely against certain armies to channel Blinding Light and/or Terrifying Aura, so he's limited on Might too). So how do you get more utility out of Shire heroes? You bring Tom Bombadil of course (who lives on their borders - not a horrible break in thematics). 

We've included Gandalf in this list as well, as getting more Might on Gandalf is really good too (to say nothing of restoring Will to cast spells and restoring those rerollable Fate points). Gandalf can not only cast Strengthen Will on two heroes who are great at resisting spells (Bilbo and Maggot), but can also refresh his own Will OR just focus on Sorcerous Blast (thanks to having Tom Bombadil in the list). 

Tom and Gandalf also address a big problem most Defenders-Of-The-Shire lists have: you can deal with big enemy heroes (besides relying on shooting them or feeding them). You can also use Bilbo with Gandalf to crush big heroes and avoid having to call Strikes with Gandalf. On the warrior front, I recommend keeping Tolman Cotton and Holfoot together so that you can get epic Shirriffs (reroll 1s to your Dueling roll with no-penalty-2H-club). You can get both heroes for 65 points, which is a great bargain. 

Note that I could have run Will Whitfoot for 30 more points to get a temporary banner boost, but with D3 and only 1 Wound and 1 Fate, he's not a very survivable banner unless Gandalf is nearby. If you run the LL, Frodo of the Nine Fingers is a much better banner (D6 with 2 Wounds and 1 Fate - plus a pony who might be in-the-way). We're omitting having a banner in this list - but remember that the banner boost from either Will Whitfoot or Frodo of the Nine Fingers will give you the rules for a banner without the potential victory points for having a banner alive at the end of the game (so a small loss).

This list sits at 46 models (which is 10-15 models higher than most of the armies in this series, but not too many models that the list becomes unwieldy) and is "more affordable" to collect than other Shire lists - especially if you convert two of your extra warrior models into the named ForgeWorld heroes. The purchases required to get these units are as follows:

• The Gandalf set - the cart is awesome, you want it.
• I already have Farmer Maggot and his dogs - great for Battle Companies, even if you never play Shire in a points match game.
• I already have old Bilbo Baggins - he's not that expensive - and you could swap him for Lotho Sackville-Baggins and some additional warriors if you wanted.
• While I could get the ForgeWorld Holftoot/Robin set, I'm probably just going to convert up a Shirriff model - the ForgeWorld models are, as always, really, REALLY good models.
• Farmer Cotton is available from ForgeWorld - plan on converting up a Hobbit Militia for him.
• I have 4 Hobbit Shirriffs and need 9 more (which, if I get 3 more blisters, leaves me with three Shirriffs extra...what to do with them...).
• I have 4 Hobbit Militia and need 6 more - after getting two more blisters, the extra 2 models can be used for hero conversions (like Farmer Cotton or Will Whitfoot).
• I have 4 Hobbit Archers and need 10 more (three more blisters it is).

Buying this list from scratch would cost (brace yourself) ~$245 (roughly $290 if you buy the Holfoot and Lotho ForgeWorld kits). That's . . . kind of a lot of money. Thankfully, my good mate Centaur is a long-time Shire player, so I'll probably borrow his models if I want to run this until I get the models I want. I also have a more economical plan provided at the end that (might) be better than this one.

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

Warband #1: The Wizard's Squad

Gandalf is a decision point in this list: you need to choose whether you want Merry, Pippin, and Frodo (and possibly Sam) or Gandalf. While Merry, Pippin, and Frodo can be in multiple places AND can boost your Courage (Merry), Strength of your Militia (Merry), Fight Value of your Archers (Pippin), and can count as a banner (Frodo). I've written at length about the benefits Gandalf the Grey provides to the teams he's in - and we as a group covered him extensively in one of our TMAT Talks.

Gandalf in this list is on his cart, which is great for a) granting a VERY large area of protection for Blinding Light, b) increasing his movement/damage on the charge, and c) dealing a cheeky shooting attack at the start of the Shoot phase. We also needed 4+ fast models, so getting the mount here was important. :-)

Supporting Gandalf is a healthy squad of Hobbit Archers, though this warband has 7 more slots in it (so if you raise the points level up and have ~$30 lying around, you can up your army without adding any new heroes). These shooters, paired with Sorcerous Blast and the Firework from the cart, can deal some nasty damage from afar as your opponent approaches you (with protection from retaliatory archery thanks to Blinding Light).

Warband #2: The Ringbearer's Squad

Bilbo isn't available in the list with Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin. While he's no fighter innately (1 Attack at F3/S2), giving him both Sting and the One Ring (assuming no other ring-bearers are around) makes him a lot better (Elven-made weapon at F3 and making strikes at S3 while halving your opponent's Fight value). While 1 Attack is still not good, getting someone else with Bilbo in a fight will help you win more fights than you'd think. Charging Bilbo will be difficult while he's wearing the Ring, which should give Bilbo a greater chance of getting where he wants to go. For more info on the Ring, read our article on the Ring (and listen to our discussion on the Ring in our TMAT Talk on Support heroes).

Supporting Bilbo are 4 Hobbit Militia (with axes - Bashing at S2 isn't good and Stabbing is downright dangerous) and 4 Hobbit Archers. Bilbo doesn't need to stay with this warband, so you can have it join another warband if you want (like Gandalf's) OR send them to an objective (or leave them at an objective that you start near). 8 Hobbits might not seem like a lot, but when you have 6 warbands with 8+ warriors in them, your opponent will find it hard to tie them all down.

Warband #3: The Pseudo-Banner Squad

Tolman Cotton isn't a great fighter - 1 Attack at F2/S2 isn't very good at all. Still, with 2 Might and a hand-and-a-half weapon that can be used as a spear, he's a good addition to any Shire team. With Courage 5, he's also great should your army be broken (or he CAN be in the front-rank if you need to charge Terror models - Dead Marsh Spectres beware!).

Supporting Tolman are 5 Hobbit Shirriffs (who have better FV than he does) and 3 Hobbit Militia with axes (who have a lower FV but potentially higher Strength than he does). If a Shirriff is in a fight and needs some extra help, Tolman can jump in (freeing the Shirriff up to fight two-handed), but if a Hobbit Militia is fighting in a tough battle, Tolman can join in to raise the Fight Value just a little higher (which probably won't move the fight from a losing-FV to a tied-FV, but will probably make your opponent think twice before Feinting).

Warband #4: The Shirriff Squad

Using Holfoot Bracegirdle is simple: surround him with Shirriffs (having him optionally in the second rank to preserve his auric buff, instead of risking him on the front-ranks) and get locked into combat quickly. With "average warrior stats" of 1 Attack at F3/S3, he's nothing much to write home about EXCEPT that he can two-hand without penalty, which means he's effectively F3/S5. That's pretty good! Supporting him are 8 Hobbit Shirriffs, who can all benefit from his 2H-boost if you position them right, who are going to be the back-bone of your offensive hammer. While they certainly benefit from being in combat, the lack of spears in the army makes these guys fragile when taking an enemy formation head-on. As such, you want these Shirriffs to wrap around the enemy battle-line, not taking it on directly.

This warband is most effective when paired with Cotton's warband, as the reroll of 1s from Cotton will make your Shirriffs slightly more likely to get a good roll (and much more likely to not get a dueling roll of 1). Tolman's warband also has some Shirriffs, so you can keep the line of two-handing models strong! Hobbit Militia are great for charging into two models in the front rank of a formation, as they're probably losing their fights and dying anyway, but you can then shift your battle-line down and either double-up on certain models OR you can wrap around and tie up spearmen.

Warband #5: The Dog Squad

No Shire army should leave home without Maggot - his dogs are fast and you need their speed in most scenarios. Maggot himself is the only Hobbit Hero in this list with 2 Attacks (in fact, he's the only model in the Shire list at all that has 2 Attacks if you can't take Merry/Pippin/Sam with Rosie), and he's got a two-handed weapon (effective S5) and can Piercing Strike up to S4 with it (effective S6). With only 1 Might point (and no access to Strike), I wouldn't have him tackling the biggest of your opponent's heroes, but he can race into anyone who's been knocked over by Sorcerous Blast (or been immobilized) and really cause havoc. He's also not bad in the same fight as Bilbo (where they'll have an advantage against anyone at/below F6).

Warband #6: The Wanderer's Squad

Tom Bombadil is a nasty piece of work for most armies. With Shire, I think he's actually fine. Hobbit models (heroes and warriors) are below-average in Fight Value, Strength, and Defense and are often hamstrung in the Might/Fate department as well. Having Tom around doesn't really solve any of these weaknesses, but he will solve a few other things:

• As already mentioned, he allows your Hobbit heroes to regain 1 Might, 1 Will, 1 Fate, AND 1 Wound whenever he casts Refreshing Song on them (and recover from a negative status effect - like Transfix or Drain Courage). The regrowth of Might is huge for this list, and since most of the heroes have 2-3 Wounds and 1-3 Fate points (Holfoot only has 1 Wound and 1 Fate point), if you can manage how damage is dealt to your team, Tom can keep your heroes alive longer.
• Tom also has Banishment, which is a great way to make Spirit models play differently against your army (and can get cheeky wounds on Sauron or the Balrog to gain victory points in most scenarios).
• Tom can also auto-win a fight against someone (at the cost of 1 Will), though this doesn't allow friendly models in the same fight to deal Wounds to the losing model. Still, when fighting models like the Balrog or Sauron who NEED to get kills in, it's very useful to "just win every time".
• Tom allows friendly models within 3" of him to automatically pass any Courage test they have to make, which is great if you need to charge Terror-causing enemies (especially if there's a Harbinger of Evil/Ancient Evil model around).
• Tom can prevent enemy models from entering his Control Zone, which can be used in niche ways to deny access to certain choke-points on the board.

Scenario Overview

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

• Domination: Well, you've got 46 models - let's start there. With lots of squads of Hobbits, make sure that Holfoot and Cotton move together to take on the center objective (with Tom to escort them). Gandalf, Bilbo, and Maggot can work together to provide cover fire for Holfoot and Cotton, while having their archers later break off to hold objectives that they pass. Don't rush to engage the enemy - engage only when you have numerical advantages (otherwise, you'll see lots of models dying needlessly and your advantage in numbers eliminated).
• Capture and Control: Maggot's Dogs are the heroes in this mission - you can use them to race from objective to objective, tagging them and running. If your opponent has camped on an objective or two, wait to race the dogs in until after some supporting troops have arrived. Gandalf can be very useful in this scenario, as a well-timed compel can drag someone off of an objective so a Dog can tag it and run.
• Hold Ground: So you need to get to the center of the map and you've got 4" move on almost everyone. Let's be realistic on another level too: most of your heroes have 1 Might point, so you won't have a lot of control over where you arrive. I'd recommend that you get the Dogs to the center as fast as you can and use 1 Might on Holfoot Bracegirdle to March his warband towards the center. I'd also recommend that when you get to pick your deployment zone, pick a point as close to the corner of the board edge that you can (6" away) - this will give you more map to cover, but will require your opponent to start further from the center if he wants to hunt you down. With 6 warbands, there ought to be a warband or two that don't have an enemy warband near them - these warbands can focus on getting to the center as quickly as possible. If you manage to get a few warbands to deploy together, you might be able to make your opponent not charge your models in that clump until he's amassed his own forces.
• Seize the Prize: Getting into the center will be hard, but with Maggot's Dogs, a March on Turn 1 from Holfoot Bracegirdle (and on later turns too if you use Refreshing Song), you should be able to get a few models into the center in a reasonable amount of time.
• To The Death: This is a so-so scenario - you need to focus on killing your opponent's models (breaking him and killing any banners he has), so make sure you get the most out of Gandalf's Cart/Blinding Light and skirmish for as long as you can. If you can keep numerical superiority, you have a decent chance of managing your damage suffered to be about the same as your opponent suffers.
• Lords of Battle: Not your best scenario, since your army takes wounds quite easily. Gandalf the Grey can help a little with damage management, but you will need to rely on him neutralizing whoever is fighting Maggot with Immobilize and Tom Bombadil shutting down any enemy combat heroes.
• Contest of Champions: Well, Gandalf can kill things - especially if he charges on the Cart. Your trick will be to have Tom Bombadil seek out the enemy army leader and keep them from killing things while you run over stuff with Gandalf's Cart. Another great way of neutralizing your opponent's army leader is by using Bilbo Baggins with the Ring on - D5 with 2 Wounds/3 Fate is pretty tough to crack (especially if Tom is around). Your other Hobbits should throw themselves against enemy warriors, since losses suffered by not-the-enemy-leader don't count towards his victory total (except minorly, when you count whether you've been broken or not).
• Reconnoitre: You've got a Cart and 3 dogs, so March early in the game (refreshing with Tom) to help your army get an early edge. Once you get models to the center, make a thin red line with your troops and throw yourself into bad fights once your dogs get to the edge of the board so you break quickly.
• Storm the Camp: Not sure you'll be able to get everyone on the board at the beginning of the game, but you want to make sure Holfoot's warband, Maggot's warband, Gandalf's warband, and Tom Bombadil get on the board first (as you'll want to March your faster troops on the first turn and regrow that Might point). Use your Hobbit Archers to not only provide a screen for your models, but also guard your camp from being invaded by any other models. 
• Heirlooms of Ages Past: Another maelstrom fight - not a great mission for you. The advantage you have is that you have 6 warbands and there will be 6 objectives, so as much as you can, place your objectives as close to the table edges as you can and get your warbands to arrive near each one. If you manage to dig up the heirloom (scout with the Dogs), get it to one of the dogs and hide that dog in a dark corner of the map. If you can't get your warbands to join up, don't worry about it too much - you aren't rank-and-file infantry after all.
• Fog of War: You have tons of heroes - your opponent isn't likely to choose Tom Bombadil and probably won't choose Bilbo, but it'll be hard to predict who he'll choose. Therefore, just keep your heroes "safe" and out of danger. The hero you choose to protect is easy: Tom Bombadil. When he gets down to 1 Will, don't charge him and don't cast any additional spells. When it comes to looking for an enemy hero to kill, pick a Spirit hero that doesn't have a lot of Wounds/Fate and hit them hard with Tom's Banishment. If there are no vulnerable Spirit heroes, then pick someone that Maggot/Bilbo can tackle. For terrain, pick something on the periphery of the map where the dogs can race to and hold (or dance around as bluffers if required).
• Clash By Moonlight: You have a ton of archery - everyone except the dogs can attack from a distance (and only the dogs and Tom can't shoot), so do your best to capitalize on the improved shooting ability. Recall, however, what I mentioned in a previous post on Gandalf for when to pop Blinding Light in this scenario.

Modifications

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

• Drop Tom (and add the Fellowship) – Tom Bombadil is not always allowed at tournaments. When you run into this problem, you can choose to focus on a different method of running Shire: bring the Fellowship instead! Why the Fellowship? Because Bill the Pony counts as a banner for all Hobbit models - which includes nearly everyone in this list! Unless we take Aragorn in the list (who is going to be more expensive than Tom), we need to take Gandalf from the Fellowship list in order to bring Bill the Pony, Sam (a pre-requisite for Bill), and Frodo (because we have Sam, so why not). I looked into bringing Merry and Pippin too, but I need a Hero of Valor from the Shire list. Without Gandalf to choose, I've opted for both Merry AND Pippin, Captains of the Shire - which allows us to upgrade a BUNCH of our warriors to Battlin' Brandybucks (with axes) and Tookish Hunters. As always, we bring Holfoot and Maggot because you want them (I am saddened that I didn't get Lotho into this list to get F4 Shirriffs, but they will benefit greatly from Bill's banner). The list comes out to 46 models (same model count) and 13 Might points (which is less than we'd have with Tom, but not bad overall AND with the ability for our Fellowship heroes to regain Might through Bill OR spend free Might points with the Sam-Frodo combo):
• Gandalf the Grey on cart [ARMY LEADER]
• Frodo Baggins with Sting and Mithril Coat
• Samwise Gamgee
• Bill the Pony
• Holfoot Bracegirdle, Shirriff-Leader
• 9 Hobbit Shirriffs
• Farmer Maggot
• Grip, Fang, and Wolf
• 3 Hobbit Shirriffs
• 3 Hobbit Archers
• Meriadoc, Captain of the Shire with shield
• 10 Battlin' Brandybucks
• Peregrin, Captain of the Shire with shield
• 10 Tookish Hunters
• Take the Defenders of the Shire Legendary Legion – with the Scouring of the Shire sourcebook release, we saw a new Legendary Legion that can have SO MANY TRAPS in it, as well as lots of little heroes who can do neat things and bring lots of dirt-cheap models (while being only marginally more expensive than a banner or war horn in a conventional army). With a staggering 76 models (and costing ~$350), this list has neat ways of dealing with most scenarios, but is not well adapted to killing enemy macho heroes (besides shooting - which may not work too well against the likes of Sauron, the Balrog, or Smaug). The six heroes I've included I consider to be essential - Merry and Pippin because the Legendary Legion requires them, Frodo because banners, Holfoot because Shirriffs, Tulpenny because more traps than usual, and Farmer Maggot because fast troops and multi-attack heroes:
• Meriadoc, Captain of the Shire on pony with shield [ARMY LEADER]
• 15 Battlin' Brandybucks
• Peregrin, Captain of the Shire on pony with shield
• 14 Tookish Hunters
• 1 Tookish Hunter with war horn
• Frodo of the Nine Fingers on pony
• 6 Hobbit Shirriffs
• 3 Hobbit Archers
• Holfoot Bracegirdle, Shirriff-Leader
• 12 Hobbit Shirriffs
• Baldo Tulpenny
• 6 Hobbit Shirriffs
• 3 Hobbit Archers
• Farmer Maggot (NOTE: this is the warband you ambush with on Turn 3 - best I can tell, they can ambush from terrain in Reconnoitre-like scenarios, so do that).
• Grip, Fang, and Wolf
• 6 Hobbit Shirriffs
• 3 Hobbit Archers
• Max Might – Most of the Hobbit heroes (especially the new ones) only have 1 Might point. While having Might is good, only having 1 Might point is really tough (as you need to identify when you "really need it"). That said, the Defenders of the Shire Legendary Legion has four heroes who have 2 Might each: Merry, Pippin, Sam, and Farmer Cotton. If you pair these with the three auto-includes (Frodo, Maggot, and Holfoot) and Rosie (because Sam), you can have 11 Might points with a still-impressive 70 models (Tolman gives you a pseudo banner, which is really good also):
• Meriadoc, Captain of the Shire on pony with shield [ARMY LEADER]
• 15 Battlin' Brandybucks
• Peregrin, Captain of the Shire on pony with shield
• 9 Tookish Hunters
• 1 Tookish Hunter with war horn
• Frodo of the Nine Fingers on pony
• 4 Hobbit Shirriffs
• 3 Hobbit Archers
• Samwise the Brave
• INDEPENDENT: Rosie Cotton
• 4 Hobbit Shirriffs
• 3 Hobbit Archers
• Holfoot Bracegirdle, Shirriff-Leader
• 9 Hobbit Shirriffs
• Farmer Tolman Cotton
• 4 Hobbit Shirriffs
• 3 Hobbit Archers
• Farmer Maggot
• Grip, Fang, and Wolf
• 4 Hobbit Shirriff
• 3 Hobbit Archers
• Ally with the Rangers - The Rangers as a Historical Ally for the Shire is great: Rangers can't get enough models on their own to deal with most horde armies, while the Shire doesn't have great ways of dealing with enemy heroes. Together, they are really good (and Halbarad not only gives you the ability to have a banner in your list, but also can make your Hobbits near him Fearless!). Since you'll be taking Halbarad . . . and Aragorn . . . and probably some mounted Rangers of the North, I'm only relying on Holfoot, Maggot, and Baldo to carry the Shire load (this list has 43 models and MIGHT be the best army to run).
• Holfoot Bracegirdle, Shirriff-Leader
• 12 Hobbit Shirriffs
• Farmer Maggot
• Grip, Fang, and Wolf
• 9 Hobbit Shirriffs
• Baldo Tulpenny
• 12 Hobbit Archers
• HISTORICAL ALLY: Aragorn - Strider on horse with armor, bow, and Anduril
• 1 Ranger of the North on horse
• HISTORICAL ALLY: Halbarad on horse with the Banner of the Evenstar
• 1 Ranger of the North on horse

In our next post, we return to evil armies from the Armies of the Hobbit book and look at Azog's Legion. When I first read the army rules (and the second time, and the third time . . .), I felt very strongly that Azog's Legion might make for a good allied contingent, but they're too limited to be a "good" pure force (no archery besides the catapult troll, very few hero choices). While the list hasn't changed, I've been finding myself mulling over lists for it - and they are actually more flexible than they appear. For my musings on Azog's Legion, tune in next week. Happy hobbying!