The Stuff of Legends: the Defenders of the Shire

Good morning gamers,

Today we continue our series on Legendary Legions and we're joined by Centaur to talk about his beloved Halflings. The Scouring of the Shire supplement brought new life to the Shire list and with a host of heroes to choose from, it helps to have someone hash through it all. To that end, here's Centaur!

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community
Legion Tax: 90-120pts

Centaur: You are required to take Meriadoc, Captain of the Shire and Peregrin, Captain of the Shire. And truthfully, this is fine, as you were going to take these guys anyways (because S3 Hobbit Militia with Piercing Strike if you take them with axes - which you should always do - at 5pts are just incredible), so it's not a "chore" to take them. 

The units you are actually required to take includes Frodo of the Nine Fingers (because a 6" banner is necessary), Holfoot Bracegirdle (because you need killers, and that means Shirriffs two-handing all the time), Farmer Cotton (because rerolls and a spear), and Farmer Maggot (because a two-handed weapon with Piercing Strike plus three dogs with high Movement and good Courage is a must). For an additional 175-180pts, you have plenty of room for troops, no matter the points level.

There are of course many other heroes that are excellent and worth taking (Baldo Tulpenny is a double-down on traps and provide reliable ranged damage, Robin Smallburrow if you fear a maelstrom scenario or need an extra March guy, Sam and Rosie, the Gaffer if you want to bump up your Hobbit Militia, and Paladin Took for EVEN MORE TOOKISH HUNTERS), but these at least are the must-haves for a well-rounded, effective Shire force.

Part 2: Why Take This Legion Over "Normal" Allied Forces?

Defenders of the Shire Bonuses

So for starters, there are three ways to run a Shire army:

1. The Four Hobbits version with the named Hobbits and most of the other Hobbit heroes;
2. The Dunedain version that can include Dunedain, Gandalf, and all Hobbits Except the Four Hobbits; and
3. The Bullroarer version which can include Bullroarer, Gandalf, Dunedain, and unnamed Hobbits (so warriors, as we currently don't have a generic "shirriff captain" for the Shire yet).

The Legendary Legion differs from the standard Shire list in that:

1. You cannot take Gandalf, Dunedain, Bilbo, Lotho Sackville-Baggins, and Bullroarer, so scratch variants #2 and #3;
2. You are required to take both Merry and Pippin (which you were already going to do if you were running the Four Hobbits), with heroes benefitting from Merry's Stand Fast if he calls it;
3. You get 8 Traps to place out on the board (or 16 if you also take Baldo Tulpenny); and
4. You get to set aside a unit for a special deployment from a terrain piece, which is HUGE in matches where you need to get to a location.

On the whole, there are reasons to run the "vanilla" Shire list, but if you are planning on running the Four Hobbits, you should probably just run the Legendary Legion. It is also worth noting that, as of the release of Quest of the Ringbearer, since you can ally in Barliman Butterbur with Bill the Pony as convenient allies, you are passing up a chance at another banner for your army (not to mention a healer in Butterbur) by taking the Legendary Legion, but I think you'll enjoy 50pts of warriors more than you'd enjoy Bill and Barliman, so I'd say you're fine.

Let's go into some strengths and weaknesses now . . .

Weakness #1: Limited Mobility

Mobility is an issue. You have a maximum of seven models with an 8" move (and that assumes you mount all of the hobbits, which does increase their cost), and while the Hobbits in this army have Woodland Creature, if you are not in wooded terrain you are moving very slow, and that is an issue.

Strength #1: Good Deployment Options

Deployment is actually really good for you, as you have the special deployment warband (which I recommend be either Paladin Took at the head of a host of Tookish Hunters or Farmer Maggot with a retinue of hobbits to accompany his dogs) that can put you in a good position no matter what the deployment rules are. You also have a lot of warbands (probably), so you don't need to signal where your critical warbands are deploying until after your opponent's army has dropped.

Weakness #2: Low Defense

Defense is an issue - you have three models (Frodo, Merry, and Pippin) that can get armor and/or shields, and the rest of your force is lightly armored (D3), so wounds will flow if your opponent wins a fight or shoots at you.

Strength #2: High Model Count

You have numbers on your side: you can easily front 70+ models and 20+ archers even in a hero-heavy force. That means breaking this army, if you play it correctly, is very hard to do, even though you have low Defense.

Weakness #3: Low Strength

You have a low Strength army that will be looking for 5-6s to wound no matter what you face, which means dealing wounds and breaking enemy armies will be a challenge.

Strength #3: Good Ranged Attacks

Ranged combat is good with this army. Not only do you get a lot of archers (with dirt cheap In the Ways to put in front of them), but you get a 3+ Shoot on every model in the army save the dogs, and every model in the army can shoot save the dogs (albeit not necessarily well). So if you need to whittle down a force, you can do it with decent effectiveness with this force.

Weakness #4: No Power Heroes

You lack a power hero that can go toe-to-toe with high-end heroes from other forces, so if you come across an Elessar, Aragorn, Gothmog, Azog, etc., that is going to be a tough fight. And since you are a Legendary Legion, you cannot ally in a heavy-hitting hero like a standard Shire army can.

Strength #4: Good Magic Defense

You have good magic defense, as virtually everyone in your force (save the dogs) has the Resistant to Magic rule, and your heroes have a decent number of Will points, especially for their cost.

Strength #5: Good Battlefield Control

You have good control, both from your traps and your spread of Might points across the battlefield. If you need to call a Heroic Move, you can do it with a host of characters that are not your "killing machines," allowing you to save the slayer's Might for winning fights and wounding. You have a plethora of control zones between your "banners" and your enemies, making it hard to reach them.

Part 3: Legendary Legion Improvements

Tiberius: Here are some of the improvements I would make to the Legion - none of which I think are THAT necessary, but they are changes that Centaur and I agree would be great to have. First and foremost, I think Frodo and Sam should be required in this list - they did come home with Merry and Pippin after all and were influential in rousing the Shire to action. With 90+ points already required in Merry and Pippin, an additional 105+ points seems a bit high, but honestly most Legendary Legions have a roughly 200 point tax on them, so it's not THAT high.

Second, both Centaur and I think that you should be able to upgrade Hobbit Militia to Hobbit Farmers for +1 point/model. These Militia would carry pitch-forks (provided to us in the Farmer Maggot profile), which are hand-and-a-half weapons that allows you to spear-support (not two-handed) or use the Stab special strike. Personally, I think you could call these guys "Cotton Boys" and allow them to be upgraded in either Sam's warband or Farmer Cotton's warband (since Sam goes to the Cotton house to get Farmer Cotton and his sons to assist in the Battle of Bywater), but even if this was army-wide, I think that would be fine. I don't think you should be able to upgrade Hobbit Militia who are also upgraded to Battlin' Brandybucks (nor would you want to - that S4 with the Piercing Strike is too good to pass up).

Third, I think it would be good to have at least one bonus against Ruffians. The Chief's Ruffians Legendary Legion has TONS of bonuses against Hobbits, but for some reason, the Defenders of the Shire Legendary Legion has nothing against the Ruffians in return. Hatred would be good. A Courage boost would be good. Ancient Enemies would be good (though "ancient" is a bit of a stretch here). SOMETHING would be good - ANYTHING would be good. Missed opportunity if you ask me . . .

Centaur: I would also add that Shirriff Captains and Hobbit Huntsmen generic heroes would be nice, both for the legion and for other Shire armies. We won't get these, I know, but Shire doesn't have any heroes with a bow, and especially in a Bullroarer army there are no other hobbit heroes. This would change that. Plus, it would give you access to more simple heroes with less special rules, allowing them to fill those "captain" style roles in a force.

Part 4: Army Strategies

Tiberius: Centaur has gone into great detail on Shire tactics already - his post on Warriors can be found here, while his posts on heroes can be found here and here. These older, slightly-outdated posts on Shire Warriors and Heroes are still relevant - here's a quick summary:

• Shoot for as long as you can (and use it to think ranks);
• Swarm and wrap-around - don't rank up;
• Make sure your melee troops preserve the firing lanes of your archers;
• March divided, but fight concentrated; and
• Accept that you're taking losses - and that it's going to be okay.

Centaur did a post more recently on Shire archery tactics and Shire melee tactics, which applied these same principles to the current rules set. If you haven't read them yet, give them a read!

Part 5: Army Showcase

Centaur: The first army we're looking at has good ranged support without sacrificing models (as I wanted to hit at least the 60 model mark), and at 500pts, this will overrun pretty much anyone you fight. I'd personally choose to set aside Farmer Maggot as your special deployment warband, and use the sepcial deployment to engage a siege crew, sneak 3 dogs off the board edge in a Reconnoitre match, attack casters, disrupt archers behind protected positions, etc. With a solid anvil of Shirriffs and Battlin' Brandybucks dealing damage while supported by a 6" banner from Frodo, you should be able to keep your Tookish Hunters safe as they whittle down the enemy before you close. So all in all, a very fun army to use, and with 60 models, it's hard to chomp through at only 500 points.

• Meriadoc, Captain of the Shire with shield
• 15 Battlin' Brandybucks with axes
• Peregrin, Captain of the Shire with shield
• 15 Tookish Hunters
• Holfoot Bracegirdle
• 10 Hobbit Shirriffs
• Frodo of the Nine Fingers
• 8 Hobbit Militia
• Farmer Maggot
• Grip, Fang, and Wolf
• 2 Hobbit Archers
• 2 Hobbit Militia

Our second army jumps up to 700 points - and with the added points, we now have all of the Four Hobbits, and ponies for three of them (because we don't need one for Frodo as he can't charge people, and it's actually more dangerous for Frodo as he's easier to hit with archery if he's on a pony). We also added Tolman Cotton and his daughter Rosie as we need a bit more muscle and punch from our heroes, so now we've got a Samwise with 2 Attacks with an Elven-made weapon, S3 to wound (plus a free Heroic Combat if people go after Rosie), plus we get a dirt cheap 2 Might hero with a spear (in Cotton). 

We also added a few more archers, and added a few more Militia and Shirriffs to round out the numbers. At 83 models this army will be hard to break, let alone quarter, before your opponent loses their army, and with a chance at 79 throwing stones/bows in a single round (though not much more than 1 round of that, per our post on Shire archery tactics), you should be able to whittle down the front ranks of the enemy before they close.

The only regret I have about this force is that I couldn't fit in Baldo Tulpenny. If you wanted to drop the ponies, 2 Archers, and 5 Militia, you can add Baldo.

• Meriadoc, Captain of the Shire with shield and pony
• 15 Battlin' Brandybucks with axes
• Peregrin, Captain of the Shire with shield and pony
• 15 Tookish Hunters
• Holfoot Bracegirdle
• 10 Hobbit Shirriffs
• Frodo of the Nine Fingers
• 8 Hobbit Militia
• 4 Hobbit Archers
• Farmer Maggot
• Grip, Fang, and Wolf
• 2 Hobbit Shirriffs
• 2 Hobbit Militia
• 4 Hobbit Archers
• Samwise the Brave on pony
• Rosie Cotton
• 6 Hobbit Militia
• Farmer Tolman Cotton
• 4 Hobbit Militia
• 2 Hobbit Archers

Tiberius: While I greatly prefer the Gandalf Shire build (see the Shire post in the list building series for more information), the Legendary Legion is really great - at low points levels. You need to be careful with how you deal with big heroes, which is why my list includes as many shenanigans as possible at 500pts (310pts are spent on SEVEN heroes) and 47 models. Once you get to higher points levels, your model count sky-rockets, but you're more likely to face 3+ power heroes/monsters that will crush your ranks unless you can shoot them to death. When that happens, you want to abandon the Legendary Legion appraoch and run Gandalf, Lotho, and probably Bilbo/Tom Bombadil to supplement. Bill and Barliman wouldn't be a bad addition as well.

In this 500 point list, Frodo and Holfoot work well together (12-13 Burly Shirriffs - depending on how reckless you are with Holfoot himself - with a banner). Everyone else is buying time for these guys to do their thing - 4 Might points for Strike or March, 13 Archers spread across 4 warbands, a healthy 12 Battlin' Brandybucks with axes, Baldo Tulpenny and his annoying collection of 16 Traps, and a sneaky squad with Farmer Maggot to ambush onto the board:

• Meriadoc, Captain of the Shire with shield
• 12 Battlin' Brandybucks with axes
• Peregrin, Captain of the Shire with shield
• 5 Tookish Hunters
• Farmer Tolman Cotton
• 3 Hobbit Archers
• Holfoot Bracegirdle
• 6 Hobbit Shirriffs
• Frodo of the Nine Fingers
• 6 Hobbit Shirriffs
• Farmer Maggot
• Grip, Fang, and Wolf
• 2 Hobbit Archers
• Baldo Tulpenny
• 3 Hobbit Archers

Army Summary

In our next post, we'll be turning to the other Legendary Legion from the Scouring of the Shire: the Chief's Ruffians. With a new hero provided in the Quest of the Ringbearer supplement, this Legion defines a horde army - but how do you construct your force? And is this Legion actually worth taking over a Sharkey's Rogues army? Find out the answer to these questions and more next time as Centaur takes us through another army review. Until then, happy hobbying!