The Bare Necessities, Part XXVI: The Easterlings

Good morning gamers,

We've recently viewed the factions of Barad-Dur and Arnor and how you can run these lists with a balanced list in mind. Today, we continue observing lists I don't intend to collect by looking at one of the most iconic armies in the game, beloved by one of the largest fan-bases in the game, and often critiqued for "not having enough teeth" by everyone in the game (especially its fan base): the Easterlings.

I don't like Easterlings - I've made that abundantly clear in numerous posts. That being said, my son has taken a fancy to Easterlings, and far be it from me to crush his little dreams and aspirations. So, I reached out to our resident Easterling players to get their feedback on how you'd build an Easterling army with a balanced list in mind. My good mate MinutemanKirk has already shared thoughts on Easterling list builds, so check that out if you haven't already read it. Below are some tailored thoughts from Centaur.

Easterlings List Building Principles with Centaur

• Fast Models: So, the natural option are kataphracts; while they are heavy cavalry they do move at 10", but what makes them unique is that you can take a drum on your cavalry. This, as far as I know, is the only civ that has this option. So you can save Might by not calling Heroic March, or move even faster by calling Heroic March. And since all of your heroes work well mounted (personally I don't like mounting war priests, but you could), this could also be filled by your heroes if you don't want to buy a ton of kataphracts.
• Banners: You can take banners on foot or on horseback, so plenty of options for banners. And at c. 32-34 pts [if you put the banner on an Easterling Warrior], not that expensive either.
• Models: With most of your infantry costing 8-11 pts, and even your cavalry only costing around 14pts, it's not hard to get numbers with an Easterling Force. The fact that your captains only cost around 50-55 pts also helps (assuming you're not mounting everyone).
• Ways to Neutralize Enemy Heroes: You have two really good neutralizing options on its face: Khamul (for Transfix and Compel, not to mention area denial in case you mount him and they don't want to be charged) and Amdur (free Heroic Strike if an opponent calls one, and F6 with an elven-made weapon if they don't call one). In addition, though, with heroes who are hard to knock down and the ability to pike support, they also reduce the kills a hero/monster gets in a match and forcing the spending of more Might, which I would contend is a way to neutralize heroes.
• Ways to Augment Your Models: This is primarily done by heroes: war priests provide both Fury and Bladewrath and Amdur provides a banner rule. Naturally you have drums and banners among the warrior options, but that's about the extent to which they augment their models. So not a lot of options, but the options they have are what the army needs.

Thanks guys - we'll be looking at Centaur's Easterling list (it's a pure list), with other lists following at the end.

The List

• Khamul the Easterling on armored horse [ARMY LEADER]
• 3 Black Dragon Kataphrakts
• 1 Black Dragon Kataphrakt with war drum
• 6 Black Dragon Warriors with shields
• 1 Easterling Warrior with bow
• Amdur, Lord of Blades
• 5 Black Dragon Warriors with shields
• 3 Easterling Warriors with shields and pikes
• 1 Easterling Warrior with shield and banner
• 2 Easterling Warriors with bows
• Easterling War Priest
• 5 Black Dragon Warriors with shields
• 4 Easterling Warriors with shields and pikes
• 2 Easterling Warriors with bows

36 models, 5 bows hitting on a 4+, 30 D6+ models, 5 cavalry, 6 Might points

Tiberius: This is the kind of Easterling list I normally see here at TMAT - 3 warbands, lots of Black Dragon upgrades on the front-line (and sometimes on the Kataphrakts), and a small contingent of bows because every list that can take some shooting should at least bring SOME shooting (otherwise, you're playing the way the shooting army wants to play). Let's look at each one and see what each squad does.

Warband #1: The Fast Squad

If you're running Easterlings, you only have two named hero options - and both are pretty good at killing things. This squad is led by Khamul the Easterling, who could NOT be your Army Leader if you wanted (in favor of Amdur - more on him in a few). Khamul is one of only two Ringwraiths who can Strike, but also has the ability to modify his Fight value (base 5) or Strength (base 4) or Attacks (base 1) by +1 if he spends a Will point at the start of the Fight phase. This means that he can be either F6/S4/A1, F5/S5/A1, or F5/S4/A2 in the Fight phase (with +1 Attack if he charges).

With only 12 Will, Khamul can spend some Will to boost his stats, but this means he'll be limited in the number of spells he can cast (see my post on multi-purpose Will casters for more on why this is the case). Thankfully, Khamul's special rule also allows him to regain Will points for each unsaved Wound he deals to his opponents. Since you're not running a Fell Beast, all wounds dealt by Khamul will regain Will points (wounds dealt by a Fell Beast don't count).

Supporting Khamul are 4 mounted Kataphrakts (upgraded to Black Dragons for increased Fight Value/Courage). One of these Kataphrakts has been given a war drum, which Centaur tells us is an important part to getting this army where it needs to be. On the infantry front, we have 6 Black Dragon Warriors with shields and 1 Easterling Warrior with bow (who can be left at an objective or have the opportunity to do something at a distance).

Warband #2: The Anvil Squad

Amdur is a nasty hero - Fight 6 with an Elven-made weapon (and the potential for a free Heroic Strike) is pretty good for an Evil hero. He counts as a 3" banner innately and if he kills the enemy Army Leader, that banner can increase to 6" range (this encourages head-hunting, which is why I'm choosing Khamul for the army leader). What also holds Amdur back in my book is survivability: at only D6, any models that are S4 or above will find it easy to wound him and if we take 1-2 Wounds, our Army Leader WILL be wounded and we'll cough up VPs. Sure, Khamul only has 1 Wound and 2 Fate, but at D8, it's much harder to wound him.

Surrounding him are 5 Black Dragon Warriors with shields, 3 Easterling Warriors with shields and pikes, 1 Easterling Warrior with banner and shield, and 2 Easterling Warriors with bows. This isn't a pike block, but instead more of a traditional shieldwall - the archers in this warband are able to be left at objectives or "just keep your opponent honest."

Warband #3: The Other Anvil Squad
Our final warband is led by none other than the Easterling War Priest. Not only can he make nearby models auto-pass Courage tests if you cast Fury with him (though Centaur isn't a big fan of this), but he can also make one hero on a turn increase his Strength to S6 (or S10 if you channel). This can help Khamul or Amdur increase their killing power really well (and up to 3 times in a game, assuming you don't cast Fury, you never have to resist magical powers, and you don't spend Will to pass Courage tests). 

The War Priest is in a block of troops that sports 5 Black Dragons with shields, 4 Easterling Warriors with pikes and shields, and 2 Easterling Warriors with bows. This little block should be deployed to extend the battle line created by Amdur (which also ensures that Amdur will be close to the War Priest). These squads have 4 bowmen altogether, who can be kept on the ends of the battle lines to keep models from swarming the shieldwall or abandoned to objective duty.

Scenario Overview

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

• Domination: Your three blocks could move independently to three different objectives, but this is normally how Easterling forces get destroyed - you only have 4-6 wide battle lines, so wrapping around these lines will not be too difficult. As such, I'd recommend having Khamul's infantry joining the other two squads (expanding their lines a bit and preventing wrap-around), while Khamul and the cavalry race to further objectives. Those 5 archers you have should be left at objectives you pass (1-2 should be left at an objective you begin with - ideally an objective that won't be far from where your cavalry will be roaming).
• Capture and Control: As I've said in other posts in this series, knowing where objectives are going to be is really helpful. You can start two of your warbands in the center (I recommend Amdur and the War Priest) and have them work together to hold the center (engaging most of your opponent's models in all likelihood, but also able to threaten all four of the other objectives if your opponent doesn't want to engage you where you are strong). One or two archers from these warbands should deploy as far back as possible to get to the objective that's deep on your side of the board. Khamul's warband should deploy near one of the side objectives (don't deploy right on the center line so your cavalry can't be charged on the first time) - their job will be to harass objectives that your center line can't reach OR come smashing into the flank of your opponent if he chooses to slug it out with you in the center.. 
• Hold Ground: Race to the center without any March in your army? Not a problem so long as Khamul's warband can deploy near at least one of your other blocks (thanks to having that war drum). As such, you want Khamul's warband to deploy last, allowing you to know whether or not modifying an arrival roll is necessary. Your list has plenty of F4/D6, so if you can Drum your way to the center quickly, you should be able to turtle-up and hold the enemy off (or drive off whoever you face). If you can't deploy your warbands together, try to intercept one enemy warband to weaken or completely destroy before they reach the center. Under no circumstance should you assault the center of the board piecemeal if your opponent gets there first. Remember too that if the game should try to randomly end before you're in control of the center, you can force the game to continue a little longer.
• Seize the Prize: Another race to the center? Also not a problem. The advantages of having a war drum instead of Heroic March is that you don't have a proximity requirement (ending within 6" of the hero who calls March) AND the drummer doesn't need to move first (though the disadvantage of using the drum is that no one within range can make a charge on the turn the drum beats). In this scenario, you can beat the drum on the first turn with all of the models deployed within 12" of the war drum and then rush the infantry forward 9" and the cavalry forward 15". If you start as close to the 12" line as possible you should be able to have your cavalry cage the Prize (buying your infantry time to arrive). If one of your infantry can dig up the Prize, you can hand it off to any of your cavalry to race off the board edge (or at least get it deep into your opponent's side of the board).
• To The Death: With most of your models being D6+, breaking this 36-man list will be more difficult than most of the lists we've viewed so far (we can't all be Army of Thror or Dead of Dunharrow, but we don't have to Moria or Angmar, am I right?). Maneuvering with this list is the most important thing, because your killing power isn't great (except on the 3 turns you cast Bladewrath). Where possible, get in a grind situation with your infantry, buying time for your cavalry and Khamul/Amdur to do the real killing. Your bows will hopefully kill something.
• Lords of Battle: Wound/Fate count scenario? Not a problem - you actually don't have that many points to cough up. Deploy on the center and get locked in fast, shielding your cavalry from an initial charge, but leaving them options for charging in on the first turn if you get the first move. Should the game end before you're ready (basically, when you're losing), make sure you remember your special rule to extend the game a little longer!
• Contest of Champions: Your army leader is Khamul, so you want Amdur racing for the enemy army leader (not only because you can increase your banner range, but because you need to stop the enemy leader from killing models). While we could have chosen Amdur to be the army leader, Khamul is great at killing things (better than Amdur because he's mounted) and Amdur is great at killing enemy heroes (better than Khamul because of the potential for a free Heroic Strike, plus F6 with an elven-made weapon). In this scenario, we made the right choice picking Khamul as our army leader. The rest of the army needs to focus on holding up enemy models to make better fights for both Amdur and Khamul. Supporting models is good and all, but tying models down with shielding combats might be more important. Your cavalry should be escorting Khamul to make sure he gets good match-ups (especially pulling cavalry off of him).
• Reconnoitre: You've got 4 Kataphrakts, one of which has a war drum - these are your scoring pieces. As we've discussed for our factions that have Ringwraiths as their army leaders (Mordor and Angmar), it wouldn't be a horrible plan to get Khamul off the board (denies your opponent victory points for killing the enemy army leader). The rest of your army should focus on dying - not too quickly, but after your cavalry get off the board, get locked into bad fights, don't shield anymore, and die, die, die. Ironically, most Easterling players don't seem to have a problem doing this (hey, I don't like Easterlings - you thought I wouldn't get a jab in somewhere in this post?!?!?!). :-)
• Storm the Camp: Getting into your opponent's camp isn't that hard - use your cavalry to harass the main body of troops and then cut towards the enemy camp late in the game. Khamul wants to be wherever the action is, so only pull him towards the camp if there are enough models for him to kill in there to make it worth it.
• Heirlooms of Ages Past: Another maelstrom fight? Better deploy Khamul last. You have speed from that war drum, so it might be tempting to place your objectives as close to the center of the map as possible. I'm inclined to agree this is a good idea, especially since you can't beat the drum on the first turn. Arrive, beat on the second turn, then race to the center and dig stuff up. Your infantry are marching for the center, but your cavalry should race to hedge off any objectives that are on the periphery of the map (once again, a great benefit of using the drum for movement is that you don't have a proximity thing that dictates where your models have to move with their extra movement). If you can dig up the heirloom, race it to somewhere safe and turtle up until the game ends. 
• Fog of War: Well, your opponent can choose to kill Amdur or the War Priest. Let's assume he's killing the War Priest, shall we? So who do we protect? The War Priest of course! If we choose to protect Amdur, we have to be careful how we use him (and with only D6, it might be tempting to keep him out of the action). We don't want to do that! By choosing to protect the War Priest, we can be a bit more reckless with both Amdur and Khamul (which is going to be important for breaking the enemy). So what do we do with the War Priest? He casts 3 Bladewraths early in the game and then runs and hides (escort him with bowmen if he needs it). When picking a hero to kill, we want to look for someone who can easily be cut down by Khamul or Amdur (ideally an infantry model). Terrain object to pick? While you can certainly have a triplet of Gleaming-Horde-D7-Kataphrakts sitting on a terrain piece, I think you want to rely on your turtling approach and pick something near the center where you have lots of models concentrated.
• Clash By Moonlight: You don't shoot, your defense is not THAT great, so get locked in fast! The drum will help, but the key in this scenario is to know when to throw in the cavalry. It's possible for the cavalry to charge in quickly and do some damage, but you don't have enough to avoid being overwhelmed. As such, have the cavalry support the infantry (possibly by running at small squads of archers that operate on the flanks of your opponent, forcing them to move more than half of their movement to avoid getting mauled).

Modifications
There are lots of ways to run Easterlings - here are a few ways you could change up the list in order to adapt to a different playing style.

• MinutemanKirk: Pike Horde - For a pure Easterling list, this is probably what I would take if I wasn't opposed to fell beasts (I'd like Easterlings to stand on their own feet, plus I don't want to have to buy/paint/carry a fell beast). 699 points, 32 models, Ringwraith for magic utility, war drum for mobility, and one of the best evil men heroes in the game (I'd argue the best) who can take on almost any good hero. No archery because I think without a special rule (like poison), uber cheap archers (think Goblins/Hobbits), absurd accuracy (Elves, Outriders, etc.), or crossbows, I think it's pretty pointless.
• Amdur, Lord of Blades with armored horse
• 5 Easterling Warriors with shields
• 5 Easterling Warriors with pikes and shields
• 1 Easterling Warrior with banner and shield
• 4 Black Dragon Warriors with pikes and shields
• Khamul the Easterling with armored fell beast
• 4 Easterling Warriors with pikes and shields
• 5 Black Dragon Warriors with pikes and shields
• 5 Black Dragon Kataphrakts
• 1 Black Dragon Kataphrakt with war drum
• Tiberius: Pure Easterlings, Phalanx Protected by Archers – It appears to me that Easterling players all seem to lament that they have the ability to fight three-deep but don't have the points cap to actually do it and still fight an enemy battle line (9 models with three-file frontage means wrap-around is going to happen against basically anything). The lists in the GDP episode on Easterlings featured a lot of warbands that had 9-man pike blocks, but these are BEGGING for your opponent to wrap-around! While careful positioning might be able to solve for this problem, what else can you do? Well, bring archers of course (whose job is to whittle enemy formations down and then deny the ability to wrap-around their brothers). There are two 3x3 pike blocks with an Easterling Captain in the center of each block in the following list (and a "normal" shieldwall block in the War Priest's warband, since the War Priest doesn't have Phalanx). The 3x3 pike blocks have 4 bowmen to guard their flanks (two on each side if you you don't deploy together, four on the exposed side if you can deploy together). The 40-man list would look like this - you'll notice that Amdur is missing from the list . . . I find that he's really expensive and not as resilient as generic captains and costs the same as two Captains and a banner . . . so I've left him at home:

• Khamul the Easterling on Armored Horse [ARMY LEADER]
• 3 Black Dragon Kataphrakts
• 1 Easterling Kataphrakt
• 1 Easterling Kataphrakt and war drum
• Easterling Captain with shield
• 2 Black Dragon Warriors with shields
• 6 Easterling Warriors with shields and pikes
• 4 Easterling Warriors with bows
• Easterling Captain with shield
• 2 Black Dragon Warriors with shields
• 6 Easterling Warriors with shields and pikes
• 4 Easterling Warriors with bows
• Easterling War Priest
• 4 Black Dragon Warriors with shields
• 2 Easterling Warriors with shields and pikes
• 1 Easterling Warrior with shield, pike, and banner
• Tiberius: Allied Contingent – Easterlings are also critiqued for not being able to kill things. The simplest way to fix this is to ally them with other factions. I don't have much experience with Khand, but I do have experience with Mordor (both of whom are Historical Allies - though you could go with a convenient ally if you don't mind losing the Easterling army bonus). If you ran Khamul (or Amdur) with a Dragon Knight and a small body of Easterlings, you could bring in a Mordor shieldwall to supplement your 3x3 Phalanx to ensure someone can do the killing this faction SORELY needs. In the list below, the 3x3 phalanx lacks the Captain in it that the previous list had, but is otherwise the phalanx-with-archers formation from the previous list. The Easterling Dragon Knight (a mini-version of Amdur) leads 5 mounted Black Dragon Kataphrakts, all of which have swapped their swords for axes. My good mate Zorro likes to turn to Shagrat to ally with his Easterlings, so consider this list to be a shout-out to his beloved bruiser:
• Khamul the Easterling on Armored Horse [ARMY LEADER]
• 3 Black Dragon Warriors with shields
• 5 Easterling Warriors with shields and pikes
• 1 Easterling Warrior with shield, pike, and banner
• 4 Easterling Warriors with bows
• Easterling Dragon Knight on Armored Horse
• 4 Black Dragon Kataphrakts with axes
• 1 Black Dragon Kataphrakt with axe and war drum
• Shagrat, Captain of Cirith Ungol with heavy armor and the Shield of Cirith Ungol
• 5 Mordor Uruk-Hai with two-handed maces
• 1 Orc Warrior with two-handed axe
• 5 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
• 1 Morannon Orc with shield, spear, and banner

Hope you enjoyed our musings - I love talking about Easterlings with people who love Easterlings (the jibes are so much more fun that way). :-) A special thank you to both Centaur and MinutemanKirk, both avid Easterling enthusiasts and long-time veterans of Easterling strategy. In our next post, we turn to the Variags of Khand. I don't play Khand, I have no interest in spending the money to get Khand, and I have never played against Khand. But thankfully, my good mate MinutemanKirk (and an acquaintance from an SBG Facebook Group) both volunteered some information on how to run Khand. So next time, we'll tap into their hive-mind knowledge for how to run Khand. If you haven't read the Green Dragon Podcast on Khand, you should do that too. Until next time, happy hobbying!