The Stuff of Legends: The Riders of Eomer

Good morning gamers,

Last time we looked at the Riders of Theoden Legendary Legion - one of the most prolific and beloved Rohan Legendary Legions. Today we look at one of the LEAST loved Rohan Legendary Legions (and the most profile-restrictive Legendary Legion to date - narrowly edging out the Return of the King and Lurtz's Scouts Legendary Legions). Does limited choices mean a "worse" Legion? Today, Centaur takes us through this remarkable Legion and some of the neat tricks you can pull out of the hat with it - take it away, Centaur!

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Legion Tax: 110-120pts

Centaur: You have to take Eomer, Third Marshal of the Riddermark on horse (and a 110-120pt Eomer at that, so you do save some points), but in truth, if you're giving up the Arise, Riders of Theoden! bonus and the universal charge bonus, you should be taking Gandalf too. This means that the list is far more effective in higher points games, though even at 500pts (as you'll see in a moment), having Gandalf dramatically changes things as he's really hard to beat in lower points games. So the "requirements" for the list, to be fair, are steep, but probably worth it.

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

This Legion is a pretty big departure from the standard Rohan list. You don't get Theoden, you get a modified charge bonus, and your only warrior choice is the Rider of Rohan, so no Royal Guards, Outriders, or infantry choices. In exchange, though, you get Gandalf and a sweet one-time penalty to your opponent's duel rolls, which is nothing to sneeze at. And since every Rohan list should bring Eomer (as we've noted in the past on the blog), the "tax" really isn't that different from what you are used to doing, save that you must take a horse for Eomer, not an armored horse.

Here are some of the strengths and weaknesses of this Legion . . .

The Riders of Eomer Bonuses

Weakness #1: No Bonus Fight Value

The unfortunate thing is that there are a lot of weaknesses to this Legion. First, you lose the Arise, Riders of Theoden rule effectively, as Eomer didn't get it like Theodred does in his Legion, so no +1 Fight on the charge.

Strength #1: Gandalf

Unlike any other Rohan army or Legendary Legion, you get good magic defense and support. Whether it's Blinding Light to protect you from archery and siege weapons, Fortify Spirit on your heroes (or warriors) to mitigate enemy magic, or Your Staff is Broken to really throw a kink in your opponent's casting (not to mention the typical spells that Gandalf is known for, like Immobilize and Sorcerous Blast), you get a lot of benefit from having Gandalf. Him being able to lead Rohan troops as well is just gravy.

Weakness #2: No Universal Strength Boost

Your Universal +1 Strength charge bonus is replaced with +1 Strength when within 12" of Eomer, so you will not get the bonus if you split your force (which, though thematic, can be tricky in objective matches).

Strength #2: Good Offensive Power

Despite not getting the +1 Fight Value or +1 Strength anywhere, you still have good offense from skirmish cavalry, a heavy charge, and one particularly heavy charge each game with the Look to the East rule.

Weakness #3: No Cheap Units (and Not Many Troops)

You are seriously hamstrung for troops, as you lose access to your 3+ shooters, your F4 bodyguards, and your cheap infantry levies.

Strength #3: Good Supporting Captains

You get good supporting heroes with Erkenbrand and the Rohan Captain. They may not be the best supporting heroes Rohan has, but they do good damage and have staying power against normal infantry for little cost. They won't slay monsters for you, but they'll hold the line.

Weakness #4: Weak Special Rules

Your special rules are weak, trading out your universal charge bonus for a situational charge bonus and a one-time ability. Add onto this that Gandalf does not gain the Rohan keyword (so he does not benefit from the +1 Strength on the charge even if he is within 12" of Eomer), and you have special rules that, while cool and thematic, leave something to be desired. So the Legion has its drawbacks.

Tiberius: Since this is my favorite Rohan Legendary Legion, I feel the need to add that while there are clear drawbacks to taking this Legion over vanilla Rohan or other Rohan-based Legendary Legions, the bonuses that this Legion gets are clearly ones that would help an all-cavalry Rohan army do better. Rohan cavalry are some of the best units in the game and protecting their mounts is notoriously difficult. You can ally historically with Minas Tirith to get Gandalf into your list, but that will require you to bring Knights of Minas Tirith/mounted Citadel Guard if you want to keep up with your Rohan contingent (maybe you don't need to - and Knights/Citadel Guard aren't bad units).

You also have the Look to the East special rule as your once-per-game rule - and while free Heroic Combats for your heroes in the Riders of Theoden LL is good for your heroes, your warriors don't benefit. EVERYONE who has played against a Shade knows that you can have utter garbage troops crushing excellent troops JUST because the elite troops you're facing get -1 to their die rolls. We'll talk about this more in the strategy section, but keep in mind that this Legion might suffer some, but what it gets is HUGE.

Part 3: Legendary Legion Improvements

Tiberius: I think there are two easy improvements that are BEGGING to be made in this Legion. First and foremost, Eomer should be Fight 6. I talked about this in the Men of the West LL review and last week in the Riders of Theoden review, but it bears repeating here: Eomer is at the height of his prime, he's the best warrior in all of Rohan, he was one of three people to emerge from the Battle of Pelennor Fields unscathed (alongside Aragorn and Imrahil - both of whom are F6), and he's the ONLY dedicated power hero in this Legion. He should be Fight 6 - if you were going to do it anywhere, it should be in HIS LEGION! I've heard that Rohan would be broken if Eomer was F6, but why not make that improvement when he's the only real hero you've got?!?!?!?!

Second, Riders of Rohan and Captains of Rohan should transfer their Arise, Riders of Theoden rule to treat Eomer as Theoden (just like Riders of Rohan, Captains of Rohan, and Rohan Royal Guards do for Theodred in the Theodred's Guard Legendary Legion - something Centaur mentioned earlier). The guys who follow Eomer agree to be banished from Rohan, leaving their families and homes behind to become outlaws and build a new home for themselves - why wouldn't they respond equally to Eomer like other warriors would to Theoden?

Centaur: These are good - also, outriders should be in this list. Since you don't have either the supporting cast of mid-range Rohan named heroes, Rohan Royal Guards, Sons of Eorl, or masses of peasant infantry, you are clearly a skirmish force that can charge at the last minute when needed. But as a skirmish force this army is horrible, with all of the ranged troops in this list having a 4+ Shoot Value which becomes a 5+ if you move (which is likely). Add onto this that you have only one troop choice, and I don't think it's a bad thing to give you access to a second.

Also, Eomer should gain Heroic Challenge. In the books we know that Eomer gets into a man-on-man challenge with Ugluk and slays him, and as the leader of his riders, showing his prowess to his men, Eomer should gain the Heroic Challenge heroic action. I don't think this would be too broken as a free upgrade (especially considering what other legendary legions give to people for free), and gives this legion a way (not a great way, but a way) to regain Might Points, as it does not have access to Gamling.

Part 4: Army Strategies

Centaur: I have not yet run this force, though I've been working on one and may run one in a tournament soon (because after painting up that many Riders of Rohan, you need to take them to a tournament, :P ). First, remember that this is a skirmish army: your heavy charge cav are not in the list, and you have limited heavy-hitting heroes in melee. Whittle down the enemy with bows before charging home so that you are less likely to get torn apart the turn after you charge.

Second, use your Look to the East ability early. It seems like the kind of thing that you want to "save" for a "good round," but in my experience, if you can get 60% or more of your horsemen into a charge in a single round, that's a good round. Inflicting the -1 to the duel roll is also very important, as you are limited to F3 troops (as you don't get the Arise Riders of Theoden rule and you only get access to Riders of Rohan), so you'll need this to secure the win.

Third, banner support is going to be key. The good news is this is one of those armies where you can probably make due with only buying one banner if you take Erkenbrand, as that effectively gives you another banner if you pay 1pt to make some of the riders in his unit Westfold Redshields. Keep one banner near Eomer and Gandalf, and your Redshields near Erkenbrand to give you two places where your chances of winning are pretty darn good. Even better if the sun is rising.

Fourth, Gandalf is the key. It's not Eomer in this list (though he will kill a lot of stuff for you): how you use Gandalf makes or breaks this list. Are you facing a spellcaster? Then you'll need Fortify Spirit on Gandalf, Eomer, or both of them. Heavy shooting in the enemy army (Isengard ballistas, for example)? Blinding Light needs to cover your troops. Is Eomer preparing to charge a heavy hero or a monster? Move Gandalf first and cast Immobilize, so that you'll know if the target is making strikes or not come the Fight Phase. And with 2 Attacks at F5 S5 with an elven-made weapon (3 Attacks on the charge), don't be afraid to throw him into combat. He'll be fine, :)

Tiberius: One more thing I will add that Centaur might not agree with: throwing spears are really good in this army. With your numbers already crunched as it is, you might be tempted to say, "Well, everyone has bows, so why do I need throwing spears?" While having bows is good for this army so you can whittle down numbers while your opponent is far away, D5 units are not hard to get for most armies. As such, your ability to do damage from afar is quite limited with this force (though your losses to enemy archery can be reduced significantly with Blinding Light). Once your opponent gets close, moving 5" away while shooting your bows will still mean that most armies are closing in on you - it's far better to have an 8" range weapon that allows you to use your full movement. In addition, any extra damage you can get on the charge (especially on a turn when the sun might be rising) will be welcome.

Part 5: Army Showcase

Centaur: In the following 500-point list, I wanted to take throwing spears on Eomer, but the points worked out so that I was effectively choosing between his 4+ Shoot with a throwing spear and three Riders of Rohan with a 4+ Shoot with throwing spears, so I opted to increase the number of people throwing  (as I'm not planning on spending Might to promote a throwing spear hit/damage roll, so it makes no difference if the hero has it). 

What you get here is a very small squad of Riders, but that also means they can all fit within a Blinding Light radius, so that's a plus. You also get Fortify Spirit in case someone decides to run, say, Barrow-Wights, Gildor, or other budget casters that pack a magical punch, and you can definitely fit all of your Riders within 12" of Eomer. This means you are running a "biker gang" army, riding around as a compact unit, tearing apart enemy elements as they come because if you split up, you will be torn to shreds. And that's not bad in a 500-point game: there's a very good chance that within 1-2 turns of fierce melee, you can punch your way through almost anything, as you have two very effective heroes with effective support.

• Eomer, Marshal of the Riddermark on horse with shield [AL]
• 1 Rider of Rohan with throwing spears and banner
• 3 Riders of Rohan with throwing spears
• Gandalf the White on Shadowfax
• 4 Riders of Rohan

As an alternate idea, if you really wanted to mess around with armies at 500 points, you could run a hero-heavy army (and I think you'd actually do pretty well). With this list you drop 6 Riders for Erkenbrand, adding a lot more Might, another F5 hero, and force your opponent to kill at least one of the power characters to break you (and two of them to quarter you). It maximizes Gandalf's casts (as he really only need to cast Fortify Spirit 2-4 times to protect the important characters) and allows you to concentrate your energy on getting those power characters into position for a potent charge. It loses most of its skirmish ability (though with Gandalf casting spells, augmenting the damage from three ranged weapons, you actually do a decent bit of damage each turn), but hey, we're running a 5-man army - what do you expect? Even a 5 Elf army won't do THAT much damage with skirmishers!

• Eomer, Marshal of the Riddermark on horse with shield and throwing spears [AL]
• 1 Rider of Rohan with throwing spears and banner
• Gandalf the White on Shadowfax
• Erkenbrand, Captain of Rohan on horse
• 1 Rider of Rohan

At 700 points, we now have a true skirmishing force: we have 11 throwing spears (augmenting 15 bows) for effective skirmishing, an army of almost 20 guys, and a LOT of striking power. We're getting to the point where some guys are going to be outside of Gandalf's protective radius, but that should be fine. At this point, we can send Erkenbrand and his Redshields off on their own to take objectives, take out siege weapons, etc. while Eomer and Gandalf hold the line and tie up the main body of the enemy. And with effective magic support and good cleaving power, I think this list would do okay (not amazing, but okay).

• Eomer, Marshal of the Riddermark on horse with shield and throwing spears [AL]
• 1 Rider of Rohan with banner
• 5 Riders of Rohan with throwing spears
• Gandalf the White on Shadowfax
• 4 Riders of Rohan
• Erkenbrand, Captain of Rohan on horse
• 5 Westfold Redshields with throwing spears

Tiberius: Of all the Rohan Legendary Legions, I like this one the most - not because it's powerful, but because it runs Rohan the way it used to be played: keep away, harass, charge at the end. When you charge, you want that charge to be spectacular - and if all of your heroes call Heroic Combats on that round, you can get a charge that costs you more Might than the Riders of Theoden use, but you can win your Combats more effectively than they can because of the -1 penalty you apply to all enemy duel rolls! To make the most of this, the following list has FIVE heroes in it at 700 points (supported by only 6 warriors). We're doing this not only because your Riders are all F3, but also because those Captains of Rohan are better for making good use of the Look to the East special rule for this Legion. Scaling this army up would probably involve adding 1 more Captain of Rohan and 2 Riders of Rohan (option for either a throwing spear on one of them OR upgrading both to Westfold Redshields) for every 100 points you add to your force. You'll be WAY down-handed on the model count against traditional armies, but you'll have plenty of Might for Heroic Moves to keep your charges going AND the turn the sun rises will be SPECTACULAR (if you call Heroic Combats)!

• Eomer, Marshal of the Riddermark on horse with shield and throwing spears
• 1 Rider of Rohan with banner
• Gandalf the White on Shadowfax
• 1 Rider of Rohan
• Erkenbrand, Captain of Rohan on horse
• 2 Westfold Redshields with throwing spears
• Captain of Rohan on horse with shield, throwing spears, and heavy armor
• 1 Rider of Rohan
• Captain of Rohan on horse with shield, throwing spears, and heavy armor
• 1 Rider of Rohan

Army Summary

Thanks Centaur for taking us through that Legion! Our next post features an army that Rythbyrt's been thinking about for a while: Theodred's Guard. If you like running a mixture of cavalry and infantry and don't want to worry about passing Courage tests, this might be the Legion for you. Should be fun - until next time, happy hobbying!