Good morning gamers,
We're on our fourth specialized heroic action today - and it's my personal favorite: Heroic March! I started playing this game with (what is now) the Kingdom of Khazad-Dum, Moria, Isengard, and Lothlorien and ALL of these factions like to use Heroic March (the Dwarves and Goblins in particular). With many, many, MANY factions wanting access to this heroic action (and all but three factions actually having it), it makes you wonder who does it the best for Good and Evil? Before getting into who's "the best," let's get a little reminder of what Heroic March does - ultimately, Heroic March is how . . .
Sorry, I couldn't resist. Back to the action . . .
What Does the Heroic Action Do?
Heroic March gives the hero who calls the heroic action and is unengaged when he begins his move (and models within 6" of him when he begins his move) 3-5" of additional movement, depending on whether they are infantry or cavalry models. In exchange for increasing their max speed, the hero who calls the heroic action (and models that are within 6" of him when he begins his move) cannot charge this turn. Like Heroic Moves, any models that benefit from Heroic March need to end their movement within 6" of the hero who called Heroic March. Models that haven't moved before the Heroic March and choose not to participate in the Heroic March can't move at all during the Move phase.
There are a few nuances in this heroic action that bear mentioning before we go on: first and foremost, this is different from a War Drum. Some models (Uruk-Hai Drummers, Black Guard Drummers, Orc Drummers, Easterling Kataphrakts with the War Drum upgrade, Mordor/Isengard Trolls with the War Drum upgrade) can grant a similar increase in speed to friendly models, but it functions differently in a few respects. Since the extra movement from Heroic March and the War Drum are coming from different sources, they stack with each other (giving you an additional 6-10" of movement to friendly models that are in range of both of them). Speaking of being in range, War Drums cover a 12" radius instead of a 6" radius, granting more of your army access to increased speed. While Heroic March requires you to end within a certain distance of the hero who called Heroic March, the War Drum has no such stipulation, so your army can split up if required. Perhaps the best thing about the Drum is that you don't need Might to activate it (though you usually pay 20-30 points for the benefit of the drum).
So does this make War Drums "just better" than Heroic March? Not necessarily. While War Drums are quite valuable, they come with a major drawback: their restriction on models not being able to charge takes place at the start of the Move phase - not when the hero who declares the Heroic March begins his move. This means that if any friendly model within 12" of the drum (which is a HUGE area) wishes to charge, the drum can't be played at all.
Furthermore, War Drums have keywords for the models that can use them. In the case of Easterling Kataphrakts and Mordor Trolls, the keyword is so general ("Easterling" and "Mordor" respectively) that a pure list will find everyone benefitting. Others (like Orc/Uruk-Hai Drummers) are more restrictive ("Mordor Orc" and "Isengard Uruk-Hai" respectively) and so will only affect part of your army if you have mixed races. Obviously, if you are running an alliance (Easterlings and Mordor, for example), only part of your army will benefit - again, this could be a big problem. Heroic March has the advantage of benefitting all friendly models, regardless of their keywords - and while it comes at the cost of Might, it is quite useful that way.