Case Study: Shire Archery Tactica

Hey Reader!

Tiberius did a tactica series on the Shoot Phase recently, and since he took some time to look at dwarves and Moria as part of that series, I'd like to add a few thoughts on how to run shooting with Shire armies as they are quite unique, and while they look easy to do on paper, they are relatively hard to use in practice.

If you haven't read Tiberius's initial post you should read it here. He presents a number of good points that we will be assuming are true for this post; the only reason why we felt we needed to make a special post for Shire is that the example Tiberius uses in the post for low-Defense ranged units involves elves, and while Shire also has low Defense, we lack a number of the advantages that elves have for shooting (longer range, S3 wounds, and mobility to position for the shot).

This post will detail the ins and outs of managing effective archery with Shire models, as you have several uphill battles to climb including the lowest speed in the game, throwing weapons that only work when standing still, and short-range bows on low-Defense models that have trouble escaping people because of the aforementioned low speed. And this means that an inexperienced Shire player will find themselves overrun without getting much for their archery.

So let's talk about how to do archery right with a Waistcoat Brigade. To help us with this, we will be using elements from my WIP Shire board, modeled after the town of Frogmorton east of Hobbiton.

I.  Shortbows: Winnow, Don't Destroy

So, anyone who has played with orc or goblin archers can tell you that shortbows don't kill very many people. The 18" range means it's not an effective deterrent to cavalry, as you only have 1 guaranteed turn to shoot before they charge, and that assumes no obstructing terrain to further reduce your effectiveness.

Hobbits are a bit more effective than orcs and goblins purely because they have a 3+ Shoot instead of a 5+ Shoot (4+ in the case of Azog's Hunters with their army special rule), but the 18" range still suffers from weakness to cavalry and is compounded by the 4" move of hobbits: you can't escape too many things quickly unless you're running through woodland terrain (as your army special bonus gives you Woodland Creature).

Ingold's men meet Pippin's Tookish Hunters on a hill near woods
where they can slip away through difficult terrain

Shortbows also don't work well against shield infantry as you are wounding on 6s (or worse) so even if you can field 27 Tookish Hunters (with Pippin and Paladin taking full warbands of them - more on Tookish Hunters and whether you should buy the upgrade below), you probably aren't going to do more than a 1, maybe 2 wounds to a solid frontline of infantry each round (as 27 bows will get c. 18 hits, resulting in c. 3 dice getting 6s to wound, minus any in-the-ways you need to take, penalties for moving, additional dice if wounding a D7+ model, etc.).

And what you have to learn about hobbit archery is that's okay. Your archery is designed to winnow down opponents, not slaughter them. So similar to what Tiberius says about archery being used for disruption (albeit you can't do this in the Move Phase like throwing weapons can), you need to see archery as a contributing element to the damage total, not the primary means of killing people.

And like he mentioned, you're going to have some games where your archers are wounding out of the box, because the Law of Probabilities is a thing and some games will be above average. But plan on archery contributing a few kills to the enemy before they invariably close with you, and then be happy if you have a game where you wound a ton of people.

II.  Speed and Terrain

It doesn't take a genius to know that your greatest weakness with Shire is a combination of low speed (only 4"), low Fight Value (3 or less, so not good odds of winning ties in melee), and low Defense (so a good chance you die if you lose combat, get shot at, or are struck by a spell). So even though elves have similar Defense, they have 6" of movement and a high Fight Value if they get caught, making them more likely to not take wounds.

Shire gets around this with terrain. If you think of an In the Way as being a free Fate Point against an attack (as terrain in most cases is as good if not better than a Fate Point), the survivability of your hobbits goes up immensely when hiding in terrain. You even have the ability to completely obscure yourself from view, making it impossible to charge you on a turn, and if they come around the corner you have a chance to shoot them (which you do really well).

And with an army bonus that grants Woodland Creature to your models, not only do you have a good reason to use terrain to obscure you, but you can scoot back 2" and shoot while your opponent drops to c. 3" of movement (instead of the 5-10" of standard movement for models in the game), making it easier to get away.

Another thing to consider is that you're easy to chase down, so use that to your advantage. Hobbits are easy to kill, so people may be willing to underestimate them in close combat (more on that below). So use your archers to bait the enemy into chasing you. I mean, what do 4 Rohan Riders have to lose when chasing down hobbit archers? It's not like the Tookish Hunters tie them on Fight Value if Theoden isn't close by...

And this is one of the reasons why the Tookish Hunter option is good (and you should basically upgrade all of your archers to Tookish Hunters if you can): the bump from F2 to F3 changes a lot against goblin, orc, and human armies (which is most armies), as it means you are now tying Fight Value or winning the fight if you get caught. And that goes a long way in keeping your boys alive when the melee invariably closes.

III.  Throwing Stones: The Deep Breath

Okay - this needs to be said because it throws off the math: massive amounts of throwing stones happen once or twice a game. There's this dream that Shire players have (and I've been one of them) of being able to pelt people with like 80 ranged attacks in a single turn. And you might (maybe) get that in a game or two, and it will do a lot of wounds purely on the math even if you are facing D6+ warriors (because 60ish hits is A LOT OF HITS, and will result in A LOT OF 6s, which is ultimately how you win this game: roll 6s).

Your throwing stones are your "deep breath before the plunge," as Gandalf says: it's a quick thing you do right before the melee engages in earnest. Sometimes you'll have two turns to fire (depending on the terrain your opponent is in, how the Move Phase progresses, etc.), but since you can't move and throw (for reasons I don't know - you can totally stoop, run, and throw a rock in real life), plan on only having one volley.

Two ranks of Shirriffs and Battlin' Brandybucks formed up to shoot
against the Shieldwall of Ingold - one of the hardest shots you'll have

So use these to soften targets. Your ideal targets are D5 warriors, as they are wounded on 6s by both your stones and your S2 bows and melee attacks (which is basically your whole army unless you have Battlin' Brandybucks, Bullroarer, Maggot when two-handing, Maggot's dogs, Holfoot Bracegirdle when two-handing, and Bilbo/Sam with Sting). You should also concentrate your stones as best you can on a single element of the enemy force, making that group of soldiers less effective for your opponent.

With only 8" of range and the inability to move before throwing you will have a limited number of shots you can take, so this is where two ranks will help. If the first rank has the ability to open up softer targets (Uruk-Hai Warriors supported by Uruk-Hai pikemen, for example), then the first rank can make holes for the second rank to fire through.

The other thing to keep in mind is the wrap around. Most armies fight like regular armies: they run spearmen supporting other troops, contributing from behind. Using hobbits to come around the flank (because with warriors costing around 5pts/model, you should outnumber your opponent if you don't overkill on heroes) and then throwing stones after the melee has been engaged can be a great way to remove spear support, one way (wounding them) or another (enticing them to chase you).

Ingold's band won priority and they positioned themselves between two
obstacles to avoid being wrapped. The hobbits still wrapped them

And notice how none of our advice above factors in the traps or other advantages you get from taking the new Legendary Legion from the Scouring of the Shire book: you can run this with any Shire army, though of course you'll have extra chances at free damage and trapping enemies if you run the Legendary Legion.

IV.  Losses: They Happen and It's Fine

The most important thing we need to talk about regarding Shire is that losses happen. What you need to remember is that this is both a healthy thing and a painless thing.

Think about it: if you kill 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors, 10 Iron Hill Warriors, 10 Warriors of Minas Tirith, etc., how much of the enemy army have you just removed? Probably around 25% of their force (more or less). If you remove 10 hobbits, do you know what you've lost? probably around 15% of your force (maybe less depending on army composition). And from a points perspective, all of those armies have lost c. 100 pts worth of models while you've lost about 50 pts (maybe less).

So if you throw stones, shoot bows, use traps, and any number of other terrible things on your opponent, wipe out a ton of their guys, and they get no kills out of it, do you know what's going to happen? You're going to win, and no one will like playing you. If they kill some of your guys in the process you may still win, but people will enjoy playing you. 

So don't sweat it - you're going to do plenty of killing back to them. More on how in a future tactica post on Shire melee tactics. Suffer your losses honorably, and let them get in some kills after you've messed with them earlier in the battle.

Conclusion

Shire is tricky - you have to use the doctrine of firing lanes to insure that your limited damage actually contributes meaningfully against the enemy force. If an enemy loses a cavalry model here and an infantry there they'll still be perfectly comfortable fighting your band of militia. But if those 2-4 kills instead winnow down the defenses around, say, a bannerman, suddenly the opponent starts wondering how to properly protect that model.

So our goal with Shire is to winnow the enemy down, making their elements less operable against our superior numbers (because even at only 4" of movement you'd be surprised how quickly hobbits run around a flank when there are tiny gaps in the line). More on that in a future tactica post and possibly a battle report, :)

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Bane - yes, with humans alongside me if I must." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone