Heroic Heroes: Top 10 Heroes for Heroic Challenge

 Good morning gamers,

We're half way through our series on specialized heroic actions and we've only got a few specialized heroic actions left. Today, we address what is probably the least loved heroic action in the game (behind Heroic Shoot and maybe Heroic Accuracy): Heroic Challenge. What is, I think, the coolest idea for a heroic action, is also the largest gamble - and because models are limited to one heroic action each phase, calling a Heroic Challenge comes at a high opportunity cost. The trick, though, is to find a hero that is dangerous enough not to be left running around on his own, but not THAT dangerous that you're worried about him killing whoever he challenges. To understand more about this, let's look at what this heroic action does and how to use it.

What Does the Heroic Action Do?

Heroic Challenge is a mouthful of text, which is probably enough to scare most people away from using it. Let's break down what happens:

• At the start of the Fight phase, a hero who has Heroic Challenge must be in base contact with a hero of the same or higher tier (one exception, which we'll address later);
• The challenge can be accepted or declined:
• If accepted, the challenger and the challengee fight in single-combat against each other, forced to charge each other if they can, until one of them dies;
• If accepted, other models may not support the challenger/challengee, may not charge the challenger/challengee, provide their Fight Value/roll dice/make Strikes in any way;
• If declined, the challengee will not be able to affect other models with their Heroic Actions (such as Heroic Moves or Heroic Marches) and cannot declare a Stand Fast!
• Whichever hero slays the other gains D3 Might points - which can put them above their starting Might level.

Pretty simple, right? Declare a challenge and either get Might back OR deny your opponent the ability to call Stand Fasts or effective Heroic Moves. What's not to like? Well, for most people, there's a lot to not like. Let's get into why . . .

When Do You No-Kidding-Actually-Use-It?

There are a lot of reasons for why one might not want to use a Heroic Challenge - here are a few of the forefront reasons I've seen or heard:

• Heroic Challenge could mean losing a Might point and not getting it back - if the hero with Challenge is really powerful (like Aragorn, Azog, Sauron), your opponent isn't THAT likely to accept the Challenge, which means you've spent 1 Might point to deny them group-wide heroic actions or Stand Fasts. For Aragorn or Lurtz from the Lurtz's Scouts Legendary Legion, that might not be a bad thing (since Aragorn's Might point could be free and Lurtz gets his back);
• Heroic Challenge precludes you from calling another Heroic Action - because you can only call one heroic action each Phase, choosing to call Heroic Challenge with someone like Aragorn means you're locked into your current Fight Value (instead of calling Heroic Strike), your current Strength (instead of calling Heroic Strength), your current resiliency (instead of calling Heroic Defense), and your current fight (instead of calling Heroic Combat). If you're facing a hero who can Strike or is really good at killing things, a Challenge could mean you lose the fight and suffer a lot of wounds (or even die);
• Heroic Challenge also requires you to challenge someone at the same heroic tier as you (or a higher tier), which normally means that you're facing someone at least as good as you are - if not better than you. There are exceptions to this (some heroes with Heroic Challenge are Heroes of Fortitude or can ignore this requirement entirely - and some Heroes of Valor are pretty wimpy), but for the most part, the kinds of models you can challenge are not likely to be models you can beat without calling a Heroic Strike (or Heroic Defense, if you're counting on just-not-dying); and
• Heroic Challenge could give your opponent Might points and leave you with one fewer heroes - in a game of dice, you just might not roll well. Since no other models are able to jump in, if you want the Might points, your challenger needs to be good enough to kill stuff but not TOO powerful that the challenge is rejected.

So when do you call a Heroic Challenge?

• When you have a hero who is massively outnumbered in a fight, but fighting a hero who MIGHT be beatable on his own (aka "the ditch effort");
• When you massively outnumber your opponent and think you can kill him whether he accepts or rejects your challenge (aka "the rock-and-a-hard-place scenario"); or
• When you need to tie a hero up for a LONG time and are pretty confident you won't be dying (aka "the live forever gamble").

Each of these ideas feeds our criteria for finalists, which we'll view in a moment. Let's take a quick side-step and cover how to waste a Heroic Challenge.

How Can You Waste The Heroic Action?

The first and foremost way to waste it is to Challenge someone who doesn't need to call Stand Fasts and can't call Heroic Actions that benefit people. Shades come to mind - if challenged by a Hero of Fortitude with Heroic Challenge (and there are a few), these models don't have Might and are only Courage 1, so their ability to call Stand Fasts is already quite limited.

A second way you can waste a Might point is to call a Challenge against someone who doesn't need to call a Stand Fast! because there are other ways they can help models pass Courage tests and their need to call team-oriented Heroic actions is limited. Models who grant the Bodyguard/Sworn Protector rules come to mind, but so do heroes who provide auric auto-passing Courage rules (such as Fury Shamans or the Balrog).

Both of these scenarios show models who can reject the Challenge with little to no cost to themselves, but there are other ways you can waste a Heroic Challenge if they accept! The most obvious way is to Challenge someone you can't kill - if you aren't Azog or Aragorn, dueling with Thror is just not ending well (F6 on a hero who can shield to get 6 Attacks with 3 Wounds and 1 Fate that saves on a 3+ but is returned to your Fate store on a 4+)! The Balrog is yet another example . . . and so is the Dark Lord Sauron.

And, of course, there's the situation where you feed another hero Might by Challenging someone who can crush you in one turn. Heroes with rules that wound more easily (Master-forged/Burly/Weapon Master, Anduril, Azog's thing) or deal more wounds (Mighty Blow, Rend, Mince 'Em Fine, Drain Soul/Morgul Blades) make for a dangerous proposition - just don't put yourself in that situation.

Criteria for Finalists

So with all these ways a Heroic Challenge can go wrong, here's the criteria we're using for our Top 5:

• The hero should be survivable so that the first round doesn't see them killed or off to a bad start (high Defense, high Fight Value, lots of Attacks augmented by a shield, lots of Wounds/Fate);
• The hero should look beatable if you want your opponent to accept;
• The hero's Might doesn't compete with other uses for Might; and
• The hero can challenge low-tier heroes who are unlikely to be able to call a Strike or wound them easily.

With all that in mind, let's get into the lists!

Top 5 Heroes - Forces of Evil

#5: The Witch-King of Angmar (several lists, but specifically the Black Riders LL)

In most lists, the Witch-King isn't really the kind of hero you want to tango with for several rounds - with the Crown of Morgul and possibly a Morgul Blade and a Fell Beast, he's capable of slaying many a hero. So how do you get a hero to accept a Challenge from him? Well, run him in a list where he can't get the Crown of Morgul or a Fell Beast. What list would that be? The Black Riders Legendary Legion, of course!

The Witch-King - even without these two pieces of gear - is quite good in a duel, but doesn't appear to be that threatening. With a once-per-game channelled Transfix that goes off automatically on a 6 without spending Might or Will, you can ensure your opponent doesn't wound you on the first turn. Pair that with all of the other auto-cast Channelled Transfixes you can get off with your other Ringwraiths, you've got a good chance of stopping your opponent even if he resists the first cast! With a Morgul Blade and the charge (I hope), you can do quite a bit of damage.

While your other Ringwraiths can't join the fight once the Challenge is accepted, they CAN charge in during the Move phase before the Challenge begins (against an opponent who's had a channelled Transfix applied). It might also be difficult to charge the Witch-King (with the -2/-3 Harbinger of Evil penalty and Drain Courages), which can ensure you get the charge more often! Think your opponent is going to risk all of those Ringwraiths making strikes? Or will he settle for "just the Witch-King"? I think he'll settle.

The greatest limitations to this strategy, of course, is that the Witch-King isn't that healthy and he has to Challenge other Heroes of Legend. That's . . . not so good. Hence, slot #5.

#4: Golfimbul (Angmar)

Golfimbul has one of the worst profiles for someone who has Heroic Challenge (down there with Farmer Tolman Cotton and Snaga). On paper, he doesn't look all that threatening - no Fate and 2 Wounds, average Fight value, and a hand-and-a-half mace. So what's so great about this guy? Well, your opponent will probably accept the fight and then they have to actually kill Golfimbul.

While Golfimbul has only 2 Wounds and doesn't have any Fate, he does have a 5+ "fat" save - which is better than nothing. He also is in the Angmar list and has the Angmar keyword, which means he can be supported by a Shade and/or a Barrow-Wight, which could make killing your target hero very, VERY easy. So long as you win the first round, Golfimbul also has Heroic Strike, so he can get a higher Fight Value if he needs it (Striking up from F3 isn't great, though). Mounted on a warg with a hand-and-a-half mace, however, you might not need to Strike if your opponent has been Paralyzed or is being weakened by a Shade.

Perhaps the best thing about Golfimbul is that he's a Hero of Fortitude, which means you can Challenge generic Captains who are roughly as strong as you are. Against these kinds of heroes, you're unlikely to face anyone with a two-handed weapon, which means they'll wound you on 5s - and you can endure that for a bit! With you wounding most of them on 4s or 5s with knock-down, you've got a distinct advantage (though it wouldn't appear that way).

#3: The Keeper of the Dungeons (Dark Powers of Dol Guldur)

Yet another Fortitude hero with Challenge, the Keeper of the Dungeons has a pretty nasty profile compared to Golfimbul. The temptation to accept against him is his defense stats: at Defense 5 and 2 Wounds with no Fate (and no "fat" save), he's more vulnerable on defense than Golfimbul but FAR scarier on offense. At F5/S5 with a burly two-handed pick, you can cleave through basically anyone. The more units you kill, the better you become (getting Terror and rerolling failed To Wounds) - which means you can try to power him up before the Challenge by killing a few warriors!

So why would your opponent accept the Challenge? Well, if you've got lots of units piled in (Hunter Orcs, Mirkwood Spiders, or a Nazgul), your opponent might choose to just shield against the Keeper (or just try to keep him from killing lots of units for a while, tying him up with the hero you chose). But the best thing about the Keeper is that you kind of want your opponent to refuse the challenge so you can fight more guys! If the Challenge is refused, then your opponent is not going to be able to call a Heroic Move to charge you first EXCEPT with the hero (in which case, you get to fight him).

Yep, it's pretty tricky, but it's also a very effective way of denying heroic actions to your opponents. Most of the time, the hero probably won't last until your opponent is broken - but if he does, he'll also not be calling Stand Fasts, so that's good.

#2: Lurtz (Isengard, but really from the Lurtz's Scouts LL)

New to the Quest of the Ringbearer Supplement, Lurtz has the ability in the Lurtz's Scouts Legendary Legion to issue a Challenge to any hero, regardless of Heroic Tier. This means you can challenge any of those measly halflings, any of those pathetic Goblin heroes, or those generic heroes of men-flesh. While both Golfimbul and the Keeper of the Dungeons have poor Defense stats, Lurtz is a cut above them with D6, 3 Wounds, and 1 Fate point. Pairing this with his shield (assuming he hasn't thrown it yet), he can issue a Challenge and if it's accepted, he can shield on the first turn. Alternatively, you can throw your shield at an opposing hero, charge said hero if it knocks him Prone, and issue the Challenge on a turn the hero starts on the ground! Ouch time . . .

Or, the Challenge can be rejected and you get your Might point back, and your opponent is STILL on the ground. Strike him normally without any risk at all, bash his head in, and have a great time. If your opponent beats you in the duel and stands up, you're not locked into fighting him anymore, so have your Uruks shift around the ranks so you can retreat from that hero and Challenge someone else!

While Lurtz is better at Challenging than the other heroes we've talked about, he's not very resilient (even at D6/3 Wounds). Ideally, you'd want the ability to regain Might points regardless of whether your opponent accepts or rejects your Challenge. While Lurtz kind of does that with the restoration of Might when the Challenge is rejected, you get a better overall package from . . .

#1: Shagrat, Warleader (Mordor, but especially in the Cirith Ungol LL)

I'm not sure there was ever a question in my mind of who was the best in this category - even with the new Lurtz's Scouts LL buff. As great as the new Legion makes Lurtz in Challenges, Shagrat's got everything you want: Defense 7 with 3 Wounds/3 Fate on defense, F5/S5 with 3 Attacks on offense, and 3 Might points for calling Challenges. He super-powers his ability to Challenge, however, with Blood and Glory, which gives him a Might point whenever he kills an enemy hero. So long as he kills the target hero (regardless of whether the Challenge was accepted or rejected), Shagrat's getting Might back. Sure, Lurtz gets the Might point back right away, but Shagrat's getting it - especially if he's got other models to help him in the fight (I like Mordor Uruk-Hai with two-handed weapons, though in the new Legendary Legion, you can use basically anyone - see more below).

The icing on the cake is that like Golfimbul and the Keeper of the Dungeons, Shagrat is a Hero of Fortitude, so you can challenge lots of weak heroes to feed your Might obsession. Want to do devastating damage? Pair him with a single Orc in the same fight (especially in the new Legion) and Shagrat's getting +1 to Wound! Add a spear support (or Shelob - the horror) and you're looking at LOADS of damage UNLESS your opponent accepts the Challenge. Which, if we're honest, is what we wanted in the first place . . .

Top 5 Heroes - Forces of Good

#5: Theoden, King of Rohan (Rohan and lots of Legendary Legions)

There are lots of heroes I ruled out for slot #5 - the first was Farmer Tolman Cotton. While the Forces of Evil have quite a few Fortitude heroes who can Challenge, the only Forces of Good Fortitude hero who can Challenge is Tolman Cotton. With F2/S2 and 1 Attack on offense, paired with D3 and 2 Wounds/1 Fate, he's certainly a vulnerable piece (understatement, I know). And that's kind of why you don't want to use Challenge with him EXCEPT as a ditch effort to save him from being overwhelmed. Since he's the only Hobbit model who has a spear-like weapon, I think you want him in the second rank, which means no Challenge for him (he can also use his 2 Might points to call Heroic Moves from the second rank OR boost a dueling roll to get you a win with a two-handing Shirriff).

I also ruled out a lot of the biggest combat heroes - no one is going to accept a Challenge from them. Almost any version of Aragorn, Glorfindel, Gil-Galad, Elendil, Dain, Durin, Thror - these are just heroes that you don't want to be fighting alone! Using Might from these heroes will mean that you can shut down heroic actions/Stand Fasts in most cases, but we don't want to do that here. Instead, I was looking for a hero who, in all honesty, wouldn't appear too scary. So we turn to Theoden, King of Rohan!

With F5/S5 and 3 Attacks on the charge (F5/S4/2A when charged), Theoden is actually quite powerful (for capping out at 100 points). Defensively, he's "good" with D7 and 2 Wounds/1 Fate. Paired with 3 Might and the ability to Feint even when you have the lower Fight Value, you can do plenty of damage and possibly survive the first wave of attacks. This is the key, though: Theoden is a very tempting target, since he's probably your army leader and "only" has 2 Wounds and 1 Fate point. Since he's susceptible to magic (though 3 Will is likely to stop some magic), you need to be careful with him but you can certainly beat him.

#4: The Surviving Twin of Elladan and Elrohir (Rivendell)

Okay, I put these guys higher than Theoden for one key reason: these are the only models who HAVE to call a Heroic Challenge in a game (so long as the other twin dies). Once you're in combat, your ability to survive the first round depends on whether or not you are mounted: if you are mounted and on the charge, you are locked into using your weapons normally (but you get 3 Attacks and Knock Down, unless you're facing a cavalry model). If you aren't mounted, you can get to 3 Attacks by using your twin-blades OR 4 Attacks with the Shielding rule by parrying with your twin-blades. Either way, you can get a lot of attacks in on the first round.

But here comes the bummer: you're reduced to D4 because your brother is dead (though you do increase your Strength to S5). This vulnerability will probably cause any self-respecting hero to accept because . . . well . . . they can kill you. And pretty easily. That's the deceptive trick though: you're a power-house on offense and though you can be wounded easily, you still have to lose! Ideally you're never in a situation where one twin has died (or are able to charge the other twin into combat with the model that killed him), but if you have to, Elladan or Elrohir will be a tough match-up for anyone.

#3: Theodred, Heir of Rohan (Rohan, Theodred's Guard LL)

For the same cost as his dad, Theodred is a much punchier hero than Theoden is. With F5/S4-5 and 4 Attacks on the charge (the LL doesn't get the Strength +1 on the charge bonus), Theodred gets to reroll all failed To Wound rolls AND has a throwing spear for a starting pot-shot before the Challenge begins. What a guy! He's just as vulnerable as his dad with 2 Wounds, 1 Fate, and "only" D7. So why would anyone in their right minds accept a challenge from this guy?

The answer is that it depends on what Theodred's list is. In a "vanilla" Rohan list, I'm not sure you want to accept a Challenge from him, because he might have Gamling behind him (or Eomer and Dernhelm around him to keep people from harassing him). A super-charged Theodred is not fun to fight - don't accept a Challenge from him for any reason whatsoever.

But if he's from the Theodred's Guard Legendary Legion, there's a really good reason to accept his challenge: he's the absolute center of the team. He's the source of auto-passing Courage tests in his team - so if he dies, his army tests for Courage normally. He's also the only dangerous combat piece - so while he's tied up fighting one hero, you can work on crushing the rest of his team. Finally, because he's on a normal horse, it's pretty easy to take his horse out from under him in a fight and remove the majority of his killing rules.

So why is he above the Twins? Because of that D7 attribute and the potential for rerolls AND throwing spear damage when he charges. He's vulnerable to be sure, but he packs a real punch on the charge and can be quite dangerous against many heroes. And if he's mounted and wins the first fight, you'd better pray he rolls horribly . . . twice.

#2: Aragorn - Strider (lots of lists, but specifically the Breaking of the Fellowship LL)

I said earlier that most people are just not going to accept a Challenge from Aragorn. Several Aragorns come with Anduril by default (King Aragorn, Aragorn in the Return of the King LL/Grey Company LL), so if you want your opponent to accept a Challenge, it probably helps if you don't have Anduril. Other versions of Aragorn can take Anduril (the Fellowship and the Rangers), and many players choose to take it just to get more damage out of Aragorn.

But there are two Legendary Legions that can't take Anduril: the Defenders of Helm's Deep LL and the Breaking of the Fellowship LL. While Helm's Deep Aragorn has a higher Defense stat (thanks to the armor), the Breaking of the Fellowship LL version has greater magical protection (a must if you're going to be locked in combat at D5) and an Elven-made dagger (with Uruk-Haibane, if that helps). Given the choice between the two - who are not THAT dangerous at first glance - I think the Breaking of the Fellowship version would be more likely to survive and win a challenge.

Now I'm not sure that anyone in their right mind would accept a challenge from Aragorn in any form, but as the army leader of the Breaking of the Fellowship (a single wound can give victory points) and "only" D5, I think he'd be a tempting target (especially if you're afraid he'll carve through your other units). He can also carve through warriors pretty easily, so if he's willing to slog through one of your Heroes of Valor/Legend, maybe you let him so you can bring down all of his friends?

Alternatively, you can use Aragorn's friends to force your opponent to accept the Challenge: if Sam is in the same fight as Aragorn and Frodo is fighting nearby, you can call a Challenge with Aragorn BEFORE calling a free Heroic Combat with Sam. If your opponent rejects the challenge, then Sam calls a free Heroic Combat to make that fight resolve first. If Aragorn wins/kills the hero, you won't get the Might back, but you will clear out an important hero (and continue charging with your Heroic Combat). Alternatively, you can have Boromir or Gimli in the same fight so your opponent can choose whether or not he thinks he can take two of the "big four" at the same time or would rather grind through Aragorn.

As great as Aragorn is, I didn't give him first today - ultimately, he has a lot of contention for that free Might point (especially in this list). Today's winner needs to combine high resilience in the Defense department AND the Wounds and Fate departments - all while not being THAT dangerous on offense. For that, we turn to . . .

#1: Young Thorin with the Oakenshield (Army of Thror)

This is the only version of Thorin who is a Hero of Valor - but what a Hero of Valor he is! With 3 Wounds and 3 Fate points behind DEFENSE EIGHT, Thorin is hard to wound. He might seem like too much of a quagmire for a hero to accept a challenge from him, but he's not THAT great on offense: "only" F6, "only" S4, and "only" 3 Attacks, he's not going to be as threatening as the other heroes in his army (Thror is all-but-unkillable, Thrain hits like a train, Dwalin can wound really well). Compared to these guys, Thorin seems pretty easy to handle.

The unspoken critical benefit to this guy is that you can take the Oakenshield - which allows you on the first fight to roll 6 dice for the Duel and still deal a single S4 hit if you win the Duel! Once you're on Round 2, you can use Strike and go for the kill (and even increase everyone's Strength around you if you use the To Arms! special rule). Thorin is a powerful hero and very hard to kill, but he won't look too threatening compared to his mates. I think you might be crazy to accept a fight with Thorin, but once again, you can use the other power heroes in your list to force your opponent into accepting the challenge instead of rejecting it.

Heroic Challenge

Heroic Challenge is a tricky heroic action to pull off, but hopefully you've gotten some ideas for how to use it. For my part, I've been looking at the Legendary Legions from the Quest of the Ringbearer book, and I'm seeing three Legendary Legions that should try it (Cirith Ungol, Lurtz's Scouts, Breaking of the Fellowship) . . . and since I'm using this sourcebook to build my collection for the next few years, it'll be interesting to see if I call it more in the future. We'll see.

In our next post, we return to a beloved heroic action: Heroic Defense. If there's a big hero that's coming at you, it's nice to have a hero who can call Heroic Defense and stop them in their tracks for a few turns (unless, of course, they roll lots of natural sixes). But is Heroic Defense all that useful? And who uses it the best given its innate limitations? Find out the answers to these question and more next time - until then, happy hobbying!