Revisiting Why You Should Always Take Eomer

 Hey Reader!

Years ago, back before the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game was rebooted, back in the days when we didn't get consistent releases of new models and new supplements and we legitimately wondered if people at GW had given up interest in producing LOTR miniatures, much like a dude looking at a gal in a red dress by the name of "A Completely Unnecessary New Line of Space Marines" (no offense 40k fans - also, Space Wolves rule), I wrote a post entitled "Why You Should Always Take Eomer." With over 5000 views, this post is in our top 10 posts of all time, and I'd like to think it's because a lot of people thought it was true (definitely wasn't for the painting scheme): Eomer was the top dog in the Rohan list.

With the most recent iteration of the game, however, a lot has changed: Eomer can no longer take a bow, Theoden got a much needed boost, Theodred got a Fate Point, Gamling's banner rule has changed, and a new Rohan hero has arrived on the scene: Helm Hammerhand. So in light of a new year and the retrospection that it brings, I thought I'd dive into an old topic: should you always take Eomer as a Rohan player?

And the short answer is yes (assuming you are not running a legendary legion that doesn't allow you to take him, because those were also not a thing back then).

We will start by looking at the three primary ways to play the standard Rohan list, and then we'll talk about why Eomer is still by far the most important choice for Rohan, with everything else you take pivoting around this central character.

Back in the day, Tiberius disagreed with me, favoring Eorl over Eomer. I suspect he still does (possibly bumping Eomer to #3 behind Theodred as well), and I also suspect that Rythbryt favors Helm Hammerhand over Eomer (and possibly also Theodred), so I suspect that Centaur stands alone on this one, yet again, :P But if I'm not alone, lemme know in the comments below (or tell me I'm alone, that's fine too, :P )!

I.  The Three Lists: Old, Older, and New

To start us off, there are three ways to run the standard Rohan list: an Eorl-centric list (the "Older" Rohan from back when Rohan first became a kingdom), a Helm-centric list (the "Old" Rohan back when the Dunlendings still rivaled Rohan for control of the Westfold), and the Theoden-centric list (the "New" Rohan set during the time of the War of the Ring). Alas we still haven't gotten anything centered around Thengel (perhaps with a young Aragorn in the list?), but there's still time for that.

Each of these lists offers a power hero who is venerable and excellent in their own right. 

Eomer v. Eorl: Depth Matters

Eorl not only offers you access to a 12" move horse with throwing spears (so a 20" threat range, which is ridiculous), but he also increases the Attacks of Sons of Eorl near him by 1, so they have 2 Attacks base, 3 Attacks on the charge, all with no additional cost. So for 100 pts, you can get five of these guys who have F4 S5 on the charge to back up 3 Attacks - insane.

But on his own Eorl lacks both the staying power and the raw might of Eomer. He has only 2 Fate instead of 3, though he does cover his bases in this regard with access to Heroic Defense (if you're okay with not calling Heroic Strike, which admittedly I am). He also only has 2 Will, and since he will not be taking Erkenbrand with him, this means that not only does he have weaker magic defense than Eomer has, he also has a potential Courage issue against certain armies that Eomer does not have (Riders in Black list, anyone?).

But perhaps the biggest issue with Eorl (and this will be shared in the comparison with Helm as well) is that he is limited to only Rohan Captains and King's Huntsmen if he wants to keep the Rohan army bonus, which arguably you would want to do, as you will want Eorl and your Sons of Eorl to hit as hard as possible. This means you lack access to a Might-replacing banner (which would be a great way to fuel your Legendary Hero special rule if you had access to it), Courage buffs army-wide, secondary attackers like Theodred and Dernhelm, and of course the +1 Fight Value on the charge for cavalry that you get from Theoden. 

Eomer on the other hand gets the best of both worlds. He's survivable in a fight, hits like a truck, gets the support he needs to crack through enemy lines, and while he doesn't have Legendary Hero, you can take him with Gamling to get Might back, which is arguably better than a 4+ chance for a spent Might Point to be free (as you have to declare you are spending the Might first, then you get to roll to see if it's free or not). Add onto this that Eorl is the only guy in his list that can call Heroic Strike (compared to about half a dozen in Eomer's list), and you have greater versatility for monster hunting and hero hunting in an Eomer-centric army than you do in an Eorl-centric army.

All told, Eomer fills the roll of the Big Dog in the army better than Eorl does, offering a good base for you to build the rest of your army.

Eomer v. Helm: Good Enough

The comparison with Helm Hammerhand is far more interesting, in my opinion. Helm is a good bit more expensive than Eomer: 50+ points more expensive if you take him on a horse, which I recommend, and the man is intimidating: with S5 base, a two-handed sword and the Burly rule, a bonus to the Fight Value of warriors near him, and a bonus to Courage army-wide, he's a dangerous and impressive hero even without the Mighty Hero rule he gets when taken as part of the legendary legion.

Even with these admissions, though, it begs the question whether the added cost is actually worth more than what Eomer brings to the table. For starters, Helm only has 1 Fate Point, so he is far more fragile than Eomer is (with or without calling Heroic Defense), especially against magic and shooting attacks as you cannot call Heroic Defense before those land. This also means that if his horse is struck with a wound, the fact that he has Horse Lord matters little as he will likely not spend his only Fate Point to protect the horse, especially if he is wading into combat. So the special rule is effectively moot, but you still pay points for it.

Add onto this that, like Eorl, he cannot take any named heroes with him, so you lose access to good secondary attackers to accompany Helm. And since Helm is 175 points, he's a pretty major investment and restriction on your army list building options, including the inability to ally in cheap, effective allies (like Kings of Men leading Knights of the White Tower, for example).

Compare this to Eomer. His killing power is close to Helm's, when near Gamling he can get Might back in a manner that is admittedly not as good as Mighty Hero, though you aren't locked into giving the Might to Eomer: you can give it to someone else, whereas a Helm army is locked into the free Might being on Helm. For that extra 50 pts you can field 3 Royal Guards who can tear up the enemy near Eomer, arguably increasing your killing power more than a S5 two-handed weapon. You also get access to better secondary attackers to maximize kills (Theodred, Dernhelm, Deorwine, and Theoden), and while the 6" +1 Fight Value bonus from Helm is good, it comes at the cost of losing depth in the list.

Helm-centric lists also run into the issue of a lack of Heroic Strike, much like the Eorl list does. The difference though is that the Eorl list gets access to Gondor as an ally, and they can take Knights of the White Tower who have access to Heroic Strike if they take a King of Men - a hero that also gets access to Heroic Defense and can be mounted with a lance, so you can cover a lot of bases with allies in an Eorl list that you can't do with a Helm list.

Helm himself is awesome, and (not surprisingly, as he's far more expensive) better than Eomer. But what Eomer offers, and what makes him the auto-include hero, is that he's good enough at what he does without having to pay extra points for things he'll rarely if ever use (Horse Lord with only 1 Fate Point, a fist attack when not many people will break his sword or give him reasons to use the Bash special rule over and against a two-handed weapon attack after knocking down infantry on the charge, etc.).

Eomer's place in the "New Rohan List" gives him access to so many useful combos and abilities, and he's got the base platform to take advantage of this strength far more than these two mighty men of myth can in their respective lists. So with that in mind, let's now look at why you take Eomer over other members of the New Rohan list, as there are many people competing with him for your attention.

II.  Eomer's Perfect Complement of Power

Eomer offers the best combination of offensive and defensive strength among the Rohan heroes at only 125pts at most (and can be competently ran at as low as 115pts depending on whether you care about barding for your horse and a 4+ Shoot to throw your spear). We will spend most of this section comparing him to the best of the Rohan heroes for killing power and resilience, but we will start by discussing why you should take him over one of the 70pt or lower heroes accompanied by 50pts of warriors (as that would be comparable to his cost).

First, he has access to heroic strike, which only 2 heroes at that point level have in the Rohan army (Merry and Eowyn). Since the rest of the Rohan captain-style models at this point level are F4 or lower, their ability to stand against elite heroes - let alone high-end heroes or even elite infantry - is close to nothing, so you need a power hero to deal with them. These guys won't make the cut.

Eowyn and Merry both suffer from the same issue: they lack the resilience that you need to stay in combat for a long while, and definitely the resilience to hold up against a power hero in the enemy force. With low Defense and mediocre Wounds/Fate, these are not the heroes you want holding the line against the foe.

Second, even with the warrior increase, a power hero is going to chew through an extra 5-8 models in a few turns, so the extra models don't make up for the loss of stopping power. Add onto this that Rohan on the whole has staying power issues (as you cap out at D6, often have smaller numbers to start with due to cavalry, and have a relatively low Fight Value), and you really need someone who can slow the enemy advance and do damage back to them. And none of these heroes cut it.

So with this in mind, let's look at Theoden, Theodred, Erkenbrand, Dernhelm, and Deorwine, the other really killy heroes in the list.

Eomer v. Theoden: Last Man Standing

Theoden got a much-needed improvement in this iteration of the game. The old version had no Will Points (so RIP if you were playing against a spellcaster, which Tiberius always runs), didn't have a lot of Might, and Heroic Strike didn't exist, so he had an uphill battle to kill things, all while lacking auric benefits to the rest of the team.

But even in the new meta, Theoden is not the auto-include (yet another hot take from this post, and not the last one either). You can live quite happily without Theoden, as the plethora of legendary legions for Rohan shows, and for good reason: he's a good support hero, but he's only a decent attacker. He won't be your slaying machine, only having 3 Attacks on the charge (2 if he's not), and his special power allows him to slay things more effectively if he drops his Fight Value, which you'd be hard pressed to do against many non-goblin foes.

Theoden is a great second hero: he'll kill warriors pretty well, does great when in a fight with a hero like Eomer who can use his Fight Value to carry the day, allowing Theoden to feint, and he makes your riders better when they are charging near him. But he doesn't fill that many roles in your army, and if he dies (which happens with relative frequency), you lose a lot of bonuses. So you have to use him conservatively, which further reduces his killing power.

If his auric bonus was a static +1 Fight Value (like Helm's) instead of only when cavalry (so infantry are unaffected) are on the charge (so being charged removes the bonus) he'd be higher on my list, though still perhaps not as high as Eomer. But as-is, Theoden offers situational bonuses that can be removed entirely either by seizing priority, winning roll-offs to move first, or killing him outright.

Eomer doesn't suffer from this problem. If anything, you kind of don't want to kill Eomer, as it takes far too much work to do, and you might lose a few power pieces in the process. There's no such deterrent with Theoden: you want to headhunt him as quickly as possible, and it's not that hard to do. So don't make Theoden the backbone of your force: you can do better. Take Eomer.

Eomer v. Theodred: Less Risk

This is where I'm going to get into trouble: Eomer is not only more resilient and less risky of a power hero than Theodred (which I don't think anyone would dispute), but he's also better at killing things that Theodred. There, I said it - second hot take.

It's not as bad as it used to be - in the old edition of the game Theodred had no Fate and only 2 Wounds, so he was very fragile. He's 1 Fate better now, but still very fragile. And without access to Heroic Defense (like a lot of other fragile heroes in the Rohan list), what you see is what you get.

On its own that's a serious concern, and in my book means you should always bring Eomer, because you want your power hero to be on the table as long as possible. But in addition Eomer is a better offensive killer. While Theodred gets to reroll all failed wounding rolls on the charge, that's only on the charge. The result is a character who is far more risky: Eomer gets better when he's charging, but he doesn't have to charge to be a good killer, and if he loses a fight he's feeling fine. So he's far more forgiving than Theodred. Theodred not only has to charge if he can (so you can bait him with a troll hero or other dangerous monster), and when he is not charging, well, let's just say there's a reason why he died in the books.

Eomer also takes advantage of the relative fragility of the other heroes in your list, adding +1 to wound (so effectively making him S6 whether you charge or not, unhorsed or not, and S7 if mounted on the charge) if Eowyn and/or Theoden are slain (more on Eowyn in a bit). So if the opponent tries to knock out your other attack pieces, they actually supercharge your power hero. Theodred lacks that, and is far more of a target than Eowyn due to his lower Fate Points and perceived threat to their army.

Eomer v. Erkenbrand: F6 No Sweat

Erkenbrand is such a good hero: he boosts your Courage (solving a common Rohan issue), counts as a banner for riders near him if you pay to upgrade them (which is good), and he's got that sweet starting F5, so a leg up over standard captains. Where he falters is his lack of access to Heroic Strike. This slots him into a role of captain hunting and warrior hunting, a job he's very good at, but a limited role. Sure, he can win against a ringwraith or an Azog-style model, but that requires your opponent to roll poorly and for you to roll well, which shouldn't be your strategy going into a match. 

He also doesn't treat himself as a banner for the purposes of the Redshield rule, so you'd need a second banner near him if you wanted to take advantage of a banner reroll, which no one ever does. He's a good second or third hero, but I don't see him being a good hero to build the army around. Eomer on the other hand, doesn't sweat that many enemies in the game: he can stand toe to toe with most of them for a good long while, and you aren't worried about how he'll do.

Eomer v. Dernhelm: The Power of S4

I really liked Dernhelm when I first saw the profile, and at first I thought, "Wow, this model is all manner of killy at a discount - this might be my new favorite profile." Then I saw the base S3 (S4 on the charge), and I thought, "Ah: the cost makes a lot more sense now."

You see, Dernhelm checks a lot of boxes that you need in a Rohan army: a hero with Resistant to Magic (which is just generally an issue with Rohan), 3 Attacks base (which is a lot even before factoring in cavalry rules), access to good heroic actions, and of course speedy with a throwing weapon, so it's death on wheels. And, because it's a combined profile, your heroic stats are pretty good all around.

The issue with Dernhelm is that cap on damage. If you are charging (which is the ideal for Dernhelm) you are worse than Eomer when he is charging, especially against D7+ models. If you are not charging, there's a good chance you won't do any wounds at all, if you win the fight in the first place. Tack onto this the fact that if you lose you are only D5, and if you ever get unhorsed you're split into two profiles that drop to S2 and S3, and you have a lot of issues.

Compare this to Eomer: when dismounted he's still an impressive F5 S4 D7 tank that can shield for 6 Attacks if you really need it. He'll hold a line, whether on a horse or not. He's better naturally when on a horse, but he's perfectly serviceable on foot. Dernhelm...not so much.

I think Dernhelm makes an excellent secondary attacker: she's the person you want cleaving through enemy lines while Eomer is tying up the big guys and taking names. But you don't want to put the big guns of the enemy on Dernhelm; she'll crack.

Eomer v. Deorwine: Actual v. Potential

Don't get me wrong, Deorwine is great - I just don't think he's as great as people make him out to be. I saw someone online say that Deorwine is the replacement for Eomer, and I confess I literally laughed out loud when I heard this (no offense, random social media person). With only 2 Wounds and 1 Fate Deorwine is a glorified captain, and thus (not to beat a dead horse) there's a defense/resilience issue here. Second, he's only great in that he can call free Heroic Combats when near Theoden, but that 1) requires Theoden to stay alive, which is an issue for Theoden, and 2) it requires him to call a Heroic Combat, which means he's not calling other heroic actions in the Fight Phase. And that really limits your effectiveness against F6+ heroes - heck even against F5 heroes and standard elf warriors.

I don't need to belabor this point, but Deorwine is just not in the same class as Eomer. And I don't think many people think he is, but I saw the comment online, so I just had to respond to it quickly here. He's a good guy and a decent choice as a fourth hero for your force, but he's no replacement to the heir of Rohan.

The other big thing to realize about Eomer is that you can run him without Gamling. Sure it's nice to get an extra Might Point back when you're out, but if you run Eomer right you don't necessarily need him to spent Might. You can save your Might for when you really need it, relying on your allies to call Heroic Combats to catapult you across the board, running over whatever is in your way. So whereas a lot of the other heroes need that extra Might to defend themselves, win fights because they lack defensive resilience, etc., you have a lot more freedom with Eomer. Which makes him better.

III.  A Quick Talk on Legendary Legions

A quick word (because we don't need to belabor this point much) on legendary legions: the best legendary legions (save maybe Helm's legion) have Eomer in them. These lists hit harder, have access to better heroes, offer reliable defensive and offensive options, and are generally more appealing than the other options with one exception: the Paths of the Druadan legion. That one...yeah, that one is just not that great, especially at less than 1000pts. Me and Tiberius disagree on this, but I hold to this: I don't like this legion basically at all.

But a huge part of why those legions work - even the Eomer's Riders legion - is because Eomer is a good base. If he's dismounted in the Men of the West legion, Imrahil is taking a dip in killing power that Eomer isn't taking, as Imrahil loses the lance. Eomer is supported by magic and a good secondary attacker in the Eomer's Riders legion that Theodred lacks in his legion. The mobility and charge bonuses of the Riders of Theoden helps them kill what the Helm's Deep legion has trouble killing: high Defense warriors.

And while naturally a lot of the legions have more than just Eomer in them (Gandalf, Elessar, etc.), Eomer offers a good, robust hero for you to build from. So if you have to have one Rohan hero that you field, make it Eomer. It's a good call.

Conclusion

Naturally there's a lot to unpack here, and maybe this is worth starting a series to see how specific heroes or legions or army lists stack up, so let us know below what you think! I'm honest: I'm an Eomer fanboy through and through (bought the action figure way back in 2002, collected all of his cards in the Deceipher game back in the day, and he was the first hero model I bought in MESBG back in 2010), so I'm biased, but I'd like to see what you think! Until then, you know where to find me,

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"I watch the stars, for it is mine to watch." ~ Glenstorm, Prince Caspian