The Stuff of Legends: The Chief's Ruffians

Good morning gamers,

We're continuing our discussion on Legendary Legions today and we follow up Centaur's post last week on the Defenders of the Shire LL with a review of their nemesis, the Chief's Ruffians. Ruffians are . . . well . . . not great soldiers. In fact, they barely count as militia! All they are, in reality, is a horde of disgruntled men willing to get paid a little money to go beat people up: not disciplined fighters, not well equipped, absolutely no armor. In what some players (including Centaur) view as the worst army in the game, is their Legendary Legion a way to get a leg-up on the competition? Well, Centaur takes us through this Legendary Legion today - take it away, buddy!

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community
Legion Tax: NOTHING!

Centaur: Fun story: you are not required to take any models, including Sharkey and Worm, in your army. Now, you are required to take all of the heroes before you can take all-warrior warbands, so you will have to take a few heroes at least. And you get a lot of perks for being near Sharkey, so there's a good reason to take him off the bat, but technically no one is required.

In actuality, you'll take almost everyone: Sharkey and Worm for the Sharkey bonuses, Sid Briarthorn for the banner and decent damage output, Rowan Thistlewood for setting things on fire and lending some muscle, Ted Sandyman for taking dirt cheap hobbits to flesh out your numbers, and Lotho Sackville-Baggins to help your Ruffians and hobbits (though he's the most expendable from this list). You can take Bill Ferny, but you can probably also live without him; while situationally useful, I'm not sure he's worth more than 6-8 Ruffians (if he was less than 40 points, he'd be an auto-include, but at 40 that's a lot of guys you're passing up to take him). So if you need to take him because you have to take all the heroes, great - but in smaller point games, you can pass.

Tiberius: The Quest of the Ringbearer sourcebook also gave the Chief's Ruffians Harry Goatleaf, who is a 40-point Hero of Fortitude (he's a Minor Hero if fielded as a Forces of Good model). While not a great fighter, he provides the ability to pick an enemy non-monster infantry model in the Priority Phase to not be able to move in the Move phase (though they can do other things like call Heroic Actions, call a Stand Fast, or cast magical powers). Sharkey's Rogues has always struggled with ways to deal with big enemy heroes that didn't involve "just feeding them models" - and Harry provides a way to handle most big threats (make sure your bowmen kill any horses carrying Elven lords or powerful men so you can root them in place)!

The Chief's Ruffians Bonuses

If you see Sauron or the Balrog, though, Harry won't be able to stop them (but you can probably find a captain or something for him to hold up). With only 3 Will points, this won't last forever (and hope you don't run into any Sap Will characters), but it is something (and since it's Might-able, you might even get it off three times in a game . . . see what I did there? Never gets old . . .).

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

Centaur: Another fun story: there are only a few differences between the standard Sharkey's Rogues faction and the Legendary Legion, but these differences dramatically change the focus of the army. The differences are that:

• You can't take all-warrior warbands until you've taken all of the heroes in the list;
• Sharkey's Stand Fast still affects the whole battlefield but he also gains Hatred (Shire);
• You get a slight Courage bump while you're not broken or while your Ruffians are near Sharkey; and
• You get a bump up to your Shoot value when using a whip (not a bow).

So you are really weighing two things when you build this list: numbers (as you cannot spam troops as effectively in the legendary legion) vs. Courage (as Courage is a huge issue with the standard faction). If you care more about raw troops and don't fear Terror, break checks, etc., then go with Sharkey's Rogues. If you think you'll run into Terror, magic spells, or need to test for breaking, run the Chief's Ruffians.

Here are some of the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Legion.

Weakness #1: No Big Heroes

As noted earlier, there are a lot of weaknesses in this army. :-P You lack high-end heroes to deal with heavy hitters in the enemy force (which is not a surprise, and is not unique to the Legendary Legion).

Strength #1: Courage Boosts

So, I'll be honest, statistically you're working with the weakest faction in the game, so realize that the "strengths" of this list are more "damage control" than "firepower." However, this Legion doesn't struggle as badly with Courage as other spam factions. First, you have a battlefield-wide Stand Fast (which is nothing to sneeze at), especially for a list as fragile as yours, allowing you to keep Sharkey back after his Will points are spent and still be aiding your men in the struggle. You also get +1 Courage while you are not broken (which makes your Ruffians Courage 3) and Lotho Sackville-Baggins' bribes to make a small hit squad of Ruffians Fearless for a turn.

Weakness #2: Still Pitiful Courage

Adding +1 Courage while you are not broken is a nice boon for an army that will easily have 60+ models in it, but it's less impressive when you realize that the starting Courage for your Ruffians is Courage 2, so low Courage is still going to be an issue for your army. Even if one of your Ruffians is within 6" of Sharkey, they are only borrowing his Courage 4 (5 if you are not broken), so that's better, but it also means Sharkey is near the front, so maybe that's not good?

Strength #2: Lots and lots and LOTS of troops

You will have a good number of troops, as your base unit is 5-6 points (but probably 6, as you are incentivized to take whips). Ted Sandyman also allows you to bring 12 Hobbit Militia - give them all axes.

Weakness #3: Lackluster Troops

You cannot fight in ranks, so taking advantage of your numbers is hard (basically whips become budget spears to take out enemy spear support, and that's not good odds). Your troops also lack staying power as your troops are very susceptible to archery, cavalry charges, infantry charges, flying birds - really almost anything save a Goblin-town rush (but even then they can fight in ranks and you can't). Finally, your army is also a low Strength army, so puncturing heavy Defense troops is going to be a hard slog.

Strength #3: Heroes Lending A Hand

In this list, you get cheap utility heroes, with Sid Briarthorn giving your boys a banner effect, Ted Sandyman allowing you to take axes and/or hammers for dirt cheap, and Lotho Sackville Baggins improving your Hobbit Fight Values (F2 Hobbit Militia or F3 Ted Sandyman).

Weakness #4: Low Mobility

Mobility is an issue - if you need to catch someone or get somewhere quickly, you're going to be hurting for options, as you get no cavalry. The one saving grace you have in this respect is numbers: you can probably catch almost anyone on the battlefield if given enough time purely through sheer spamming of control zones.

Part 3: Legendary Legion Improvements

Tiberius: I'd love to say that the Chief's Ruffians is perfect as it is, but let's be real - it isn't! Here are the changes I'd love to see to the Legion (and would make if I were king for a day). First and foremost, all of the Ruffians would gain Hatred (Shire) - not just Sharkey. Sharkey's supposed to be in the back, not the front (what good is a battlefield-wide Stand Fast if you're not alive to use it?) - so giving him Hatred (Shire) is . . . well . . . never going to be used unless things are REALLY not going to plan. I'd settle for Hatred (Hobbit) as well.

I'd also give the Chief's Ruffians access to Shirriffs led by Bill Ferny. Since the books are the authoritative source for the way the Scouring of the Shire happened (it's not in the movies), it should reflect that the Shirriffs were turned against the Shire by Sharkey's sinister agent, Bill Ferny (who was with the Shirriffs at the Brandywine Bridge, barring the passage of the Four Heroes on their return home). Personally, it would make it possible to include if you take Bill Ferny, since he's easily the least helpful hero of the lot. Many of the weaknesses of the Shire are supplemented by Shirriffs and many of the Ruffian weaknesses are - surprise surprise - solved by the same units. 

Finally, most legions get something for free - +2" of movement for Uruk-Hai Scouts in the Ugluk's Scouts and Lurtz's Scouts LLs, Woodland Creature on all Hobbit models in the Defenders of the Shire LL, +6" of range on your bows/Elf bows in the Defenders of Helm's Deep LL, +6 warrior slots in the Assault Upon Helm's Deep LL, free Heroic Combats/Strikes for one round in the Riders of Theoden, free bow slots in the Rangers of Ithilien LL, and free Andurils in the Return of the King/Grey Company Legions (just to name a few). Make no mistake, a free Courage pip is nice - as is having a decent shoot value with your whips. However, I think the Legion is really down-handed in what it gets - a few ways to marginally increase your Courage and your shooting is . . . nice . . . but not great. 

Other Legions get access to new things (new heroes or warriors that would normally require allying with another faction - often at the cost of their army bonus) - and it's this "new things" approach that I think the Chief's Ruffians could really benefit from. I think it would be good for Ruffians (and possibly Ruffian heroes) to be able to purchase manacles, available to evil models in Battle Companies, for 1-2 pts/model (5-10 pts/hero). Manacles in Battle Companies allow a model that wins a duel to skip Strikes and instead see if they can try to shackle the target (treated as Paralyzed). While having 50+ models who could attempt a Paralyze might seem really broken (and maybe it would be), giving this as an available gear option wouldn't be bad, it would cut into your numbers if you mass-spammed it, but would also give the army a way of dealing with some of its worst problems (warriors and heroes they can't wound). Of course, to use these manacles, you'd have to a) basically make your horrible warriors average cost, and b) you'd still have to win the fight with your crappy Fight value and no spear supports. If you could mob, however, you might be able to bring someone down.

I will note that many of the Ruffian heroes have a similar rule that is specific to chaining up Hobbits - having the ability to shackle other units wouldn't be too unheard of . . .

Centaur: All of this is good; the one other thing I'd add deals with deployment. Part of what makes Sharkey and his men so effective is that they stole into the Shire while its defenders were gone - even the Dunedain were gone when they arrived. In the vein of giving them something for free, I'd allow their hero-led warbands to gain a +/-1 bonus to deployment in scenarios where you roll to see where you appear on the board. This allows them to appear in better locations to ambush a foe, reflecting their ability to sneak into opportune places to enslave the populace.

Part 4: Army Strategies

Tiberius: Centaur and I went over some Ruffian strategies when we reviewed the Sharkey's Rogues/Chief's Ruffians lists in our List Building series. Check that out for more info - here's a short recap:

• Use your whips (throwing weapons on the charge, charge into two models and Whirl) to extend your battleline and deny your opponent the opportunity to kill lots of units at once;
• Use your bows to shoot things you don't want to deal with in melee (cavalry, magic casters, monsters);
• You can also use your bows (and whips) to help mitigate the impact of big enemy heroes by charging a lone warrior into the enemy hero and shooting at the hero, hoping to kill your own guy in the process (pays to be evil, Ruffians and Hobbit Militia are cheap);
• Use your heroes to support your forces, not lead them in combat (e.g. Sid Briarthorn is your only banner - don't let him get killed off); and
• Keep moving - always keep moving - because you're not fast and you NEED speed to have a chance at winning most scenarios! Keep the scenario scoring conditions in mind and play to them as well as you can!

Part 5: Army Showcase

Centaur: In this first list, we're going a little heavy on the whips (we reached around 460 points without adding Lotho Sackville-Baggins or Bill Ferny, and that meant we'd be adding +1 model, which I thought wasn't a good reason to drop dozens of throwing weapons with a 4+ shoot value - and lemme tell you the Strength 1 pummeling this army will give at close range actually impresses me). At 61 models, all but two of which have a throwing weapon (whip or throwing stones) and/or bow, you can do a lot of damage with these blokes at long range. You seriously lack Might, but you do get a lot of lashes in on the charge, which will eventually kill people and open up gaps.

• Sharkey [AL]
• Worm
• 11 Ruffians with bows and whips
• 6 Ruffians with whips
• Sid Briarthorn, Ruffian Chief
• 5 Ruffians with bows and whips
• 10 Ruffians with whips
• Rowan Thistlewood, Ruffian Enforcer
• 2 Ruffians with bows and whips
• 2 Ruffians with bows
• 8 Ruffians with whips
• Ted Sandyman
• 12 Hobbit Militia with axes

Our 700-point list has almost 90 guys, 85 throwing weapons and/or bows, and six warbands (so probably an advantage on deployment) - this army takes advantage of all of the special rules for the list and gives you plenty of meat for the grinder to sacrifice to heavy hitters. I wish I could have gotten in some 60-pt warbands on top of this, but that would have required us to sacrifice the whips which the Legendary Legion doesn't really reward us for doing.

So this list maxes out your bonuses from the Legendary Legion - tons of guys, tons of lashing, tons of shooting (almost 30 archers), and mayhem all over the battlefield. No one is getting to your camp in a Storm the Camp scenario, let alone outnumbering you in it, and heaven help them in holding back this flood from reaching their camp. Good luck outnumbering this army on an objective-based mission. You'll be hurting for Might and you'll be removing models in droves, but hey - we play this army to overrun people with surly menfolk, so that's par for the course.

• Sharkey [AL]
• Worm
• 11 Ruffians with bows
• 6 Ruffians with whips
• Sid Briarthorn, Ruffian Chief
• 2 Ruffians with bows and whips
• 3 Ruffians with bows
• 10 Ruffians with whips
• Rowan Thistlewood, Ruffian Enforcer
• 4 Ruffians with bows
• 8 Ruffians with whips
• Ted Sandyman
• 12 Hobbit Militia with axes
• Lotho Sackville-Baggins
• 4 Ruffians with bows
• 8 Ruffians with whips
• Bill Ferny
• 4 Ruffians with bows
• 8 Ruffians with whips

Tiberius: with the release of Quest of the Ringbearer, the Chief's Ruffians got another Hero of Fortitude for their army in the form of Harry Goatleaf. As Centaur pointed out earlier, if you want to run warbands of "just Ruffians," you need to run all of the heroes from the Chief's Ruffians list. Thankfully, running all eight of the named heroes in this list costs you a "whopping" 280 points - really affordable at any points level at/above 500 points. If you begin by adding 12 Hobbit Militia with axes and 7 Ruffians with bows (+104 points), you can start adding Ruffians three-at-a-time to your force (whip + whip + bow, whip + whip + bow, whip + . . .) until you get to the points limit you've set. 

Our final tally comes in 5 models below Centaur's list (82 models) and each warband is smaller, but we did get an extra warband in and each of the other warbands has 8-12 warriors in it to keep the heroes safe. While I've recommended having all of your Ruffians wielding clubs, having some of your Ruffians carry knives can be a useful strategy if you need to break/quarter yourself (plus, if you DO manage to win in the fight, you'll reroll 1s to wound - which increases your damage output slightly).

• Sharkey [AL]
• Worm
• 4 Ruffians with whips
• 5 Ruffians with bows
• Sid Briarthorn, Ruffian Chief
• 5 Ruffians with whips
• 4 Ruffians with bows
• Rowan Thistlewood, Ruffian Enforcer
• 5 Ruffians with whips
• 4 Ruffians with bows
• Bill Ferny
• 4 Ruffians with whips
• 4 Ruffians with bows
• Harry Goatleaf
• 4 Ruffians with whips
• 4 Ruffians with bows
• Lotho Sackville-Baggins
• 5 Ruffians with whips
• 4 Ruffians with bows
• Ted Sandyman
• 12 Hobbit Militia with axes
• Ruffian with whip
• 9 Ruffians with whips

One last thing: you can run a similar list at 500, but you're going to see a drop in numbers (-34) and have to either do 4 weapon swaps or give 4 Ruffians with bows some whips.

Army Summary

Well, that's a wrap on the Scouring of the Shire Legendary Legions! If you think Ruffians and Hobbits are intriguing armies to play, I highly recommend the sourcebook - most of the scenarios are played on small boards with a handful of models each and getting the required warriors you need won't require painting too many models (though they don't come cheap - you're paying basically $4/model for the warriors and about $10/model for the heroes).

In our next post, we'll be returning to Gondor at War and looking at the Army of Gothmog. If you thought Sharkey's Rogues were bad, wait 'til you see what we dig into next week. :-P I'll be honest, I wasn't a fan of the Legion before I started writing the post for it in the series - and certain parts of the Legion have really left me feeling like there were missed opportunities. Still, we'll dig into this Legion and see what kinds of havoc we can do with the Pale Orc that was before Azog cinematically and after Azog historically. Should be a good time (if you like Orcs, that is) - until then, happy hobbying!