Good morning gamers,
We've looked at lots of armies in this series - armies that can have balanced lists and ones that cannot. I think any list can be made to be a balanced list, but as we've seen in some of our lists (Rohan, Moria, Kingdom of Moria), not all have to check all five boxes. In today's post, we're going to look at a list that checks off . . . almost no boxes! Centaur has been a huge fan of Hobbits for a long time, so I figured (what with him having the Scouring of the Shire book and all) he wouldn't mind helping me think through how to run Sharkey's Rogues as a "balanced" list. As we've done in the more recent posts of this series, we begin with some interviews.
Interview Questions with Centaur (edited by Tiberius for clarity)
T: Sharkey's Rogues doesn't have any fast models and does not have access to Heroic March - how do you think about missions that require you to get places?
C: So, this is one of the weaknesses of Sharkey's Rogues: you just have to admit that your opponent will reach your board edge or objectives before you do on the whole. There is one exception to this, though, and it's how I'd deal with the problem and that is heavy amounts of archers. If you are running 10-man warbands, you can put a lot of points into warriors without having to buy heroes. Assuming you only buy Sharkey, Worm, Sid, and Ted, for 598 pts you can take 30 archers along with 49 ruffians and 12 hobbit militia if you don't take whips on anyone, which is a LOT of shooting. You can use that to drive people off an objective, keep them from getting across the board (even if you move, you're doing an average of 5 hits per turn, which assuming 6s to wound is 1 wound on average each turn), or keep solo riders or even small bands of riders from getting to an heirloom or other objective quickly. So while you can't move quickly yourself, you can at least neutralize the effectiveness of your opponent moving quickly, which is basically just as good (except in some ways better, as you then have the numerical advantage when fighting closes).
T: Sharkey's Rogues is Impossible Allies with everyone - is there a faction that you would risk an Impossible Alliance with?
C: Probably not, though there is one exception to this rule in my mind, and that is Angmar, ironically. [Sharkey's Rogues] are Impossible with everyone, but truthfully you don't give much up by losing either of their army special rules, and you gain a lot as Sharkey's Rogues if you ally them in. You get access to cheap cav with warg riders, cheap casters with barrow wights, and you can ally them in by taking a dirt cheap Valor hero with Buhrdur. But the biggest reason why you ally them in is to add shades to the army (which won't help your Ruffians, but will make your Orcs harder to deal with): being able to knock a -1 (or -2 if fighting a two-hander or a banner) off their roll makes up for the fact that you have a sub-par Fight Value, and if you can't take 10-man warbands, you might as well take dirt cheap orcs to aid you. Plus you get access to cave trolls if you need guys who can smash through enemy lines.
T: How important is it to include the new Ruffian heroes (Sid Briarthorn, Rowan Thistlewood, and Bill Ferny)?
C: Sid is an auto-include: he's strong, he's a banner for everyone who is not him, and he's the closest thing you have to a fighting hero. Rowan is good on terrain-heavy maps; you probably don't get to use his free Heroic Combats very often (as how often will you fight against armies with hobbit heroes, and how often will Rowan be near enough or capable of calling a Heroic Combat to get to that fight? There's a lot of variables working against you). Bill Ferny is good (and cheap), but I don't think he's an auto-include per se. Great for random deployment matches as he can keep a power hero's warband off the table a bit longer, but I don't like how it's fully out of your control. If the opponent really wants Boromir, Aragorn, etc. to come onto the table and your -1 is making it so that there's a 33% chance they don't come on, and another 33% chance you get to control where they come on, all they have to do is spend 1 Might and the bonus is gone. And it's not like Ferny is a great fighter once that model comes onto the table. Plus if they have someone like Madril or anyone who makes it easier to get onto the table, you're really not doing anything useful (definitely nothing as useful as adding 7-8 ruffians to your army). So I'm not personally sold on Bill; you can include him, but I definitely think he's the weak link.
T: How important is it to include the new Hobbit heroes (Lotho Sackville-Baggins and Ted Sandyman)?
C: Both are really good, but the real winner here is Ted Sandyman: being able to add, for 48 pts, 12 models with axes (S3 when they Piercing Strike)? This is great (more info on this in the next question). Lotho is good (as bribing is awesome), but I don't think he's this good. Ted is the other auto-include for this army, and for good reason.
T: What is the point of taking Hobbit Militia with Ted Sandyman (over more Ruffians)?
C: Hobbit militia give you cheap access to axes, allowing you to Piercing Strike to get S3 attacks for 4pts/model. This means you can put them in a fight with another Ruffian (not hard, as you have so many), use numbers (and possibly a banner on the Ruffian from Sid) to win the fight, ignoring the penalty from Piercing Strike. And even if you do miss, there's not a much higher chance that your opponent wounds you than you had walking into it, so it's fine. Besides, it keeps your F3 S3 model, who is also D3, from being killed by the guy who strikes at the less than D3 hobbit that used Piercing Strike. So that's actually a plus. Hobbit Militia also have a 8" 3+ shooting attack when the enemy starts getting close.
T: Is there a reason to run the normal Sharkey's Rogues over the Chief's Ruffians Legendary Legion?
C: Again, it would really only be if you wanted to ally in another faction. Otherwise the LL is great, and allows you to overrun the enemy, but not with a F2 or lower army like other spam armies. Sure, you're low defense, but most models have a 50% chance of failing to wound anyway; I'd rather take the higher FV than higher Defense, and with 30 archers you can pound away at smaller forces very effectively (not to mention extra throwing stones as they close). But truthfully, the LL is pretty much all you need if you're running these guys: use a ton of guys on the table, and swarm the enemy to death.
Thanks Centaur - we'll view some alternate lists based on Centaur's recommendations at the end of the post. The list we'll be looking at today is based on the info provided here and features the critically-acclaimed Chief's Ruffians Legendary Legion.
