The Stuff of Legends: Helm's Guard

Good morning gamers,

You've read our article on Theoden's Riders, you've read our article on Eomer's Riders, and you've read our post on Theodred's Guard (hopefully - if you haven't read any of these, you should). Today we hit the fourth Legion built around a mega hero for Rohan: Helm's Guard. Helm Hammerhand was the highest ranked Rohan hero for Jay Clare, Rythbyrt, and myself when we reviewed the top slayers for the Forces of Good - and specifically Helm in this Legion. So what makes him awesome? And how do you get the most out of this awesome hero with such a light bench of supporting characters? Rythbyrt has the answers to this - have at it buddy!

Legion Tax: 165-175pts

Rythbryt: It's no secret that Rohan's received a lot of love since the game relaunched, and not just in terms of its rule-set and profiles. I'm talking about new model sculpts that are beautiful (in addition to Pelennor box-set Theoden, we've also received Dernhelm, Deorwine, Elfhelm, Aldor and Haleth, and of course the new Eomer plastic kit). 

But my favorite, hands-down, is Helm Hammerhand.

As soon as last Fall's TMAT Tournament wrapped up, I started playing games with Helm's legion (though I won't be fielding it at this Spring's Grand Tournament, it was one of my early candidates). I don't know that this is the most competitive way to play Rohan, but boy will you have a good time while it lasts. 

Part 1: What do you need?

Legion Bonuses

Amazingly enough, you need Helm Hammerhand in this list--and by "need" him, I don't mean that you must take him (even though you must), but you actually need him to make this list function. Apart from generic Captains of Rohan and Kings Huntsmen, he's your only hero option... and while Captains of Rohan and Kings Huntsmen are perfectly fine models, they have some limitations on what they can do, and what kind of threats they can deal with.

Thankfully, Helm's potential is practically limitless, especially in this legion. While Eorl the Young and Eomer are fantastic models, Helm's definitely a tier (or more) up on the power curve: 3 Attacks, Strength 5 base, with a two-handed sword and Burly on a horse make him a killing machine (plus he never counts as unarmed, and can even Bash dudes with his fists... though admittedly you're very unlikely to ever do this, except for grins and giggles). 

In the Legion, he also picks up two major bonuses: Mighty Hero (a free Might per turn) ala Aragorn, plus a free Heroic Combat each Fight Phase, ala Elendil (except it isn't tied to a sword that might be shattered), King Thorin (except he's got +2 to-wound over Thorin against odd-defense models), and the Balrog (he's not quite in the Balrog's tier, but in this legion he at least has an outside chance at slaying him).

Helm has two eyesore stats: he's "only" Fight 5 (continuing the trend for non-elf/dwarf/Beornings/men-of-Numenorean descent being capped at F5), and he's got just one Fate (although D7 with 3 Wounds is pretty sweet). Thankfully, a free point of Might each turn fixes both problems (most of the time), because Helm has both Heroic Strike and Heroic Defense (plus Resolve, Strength, and Challenge). Strike from F5 should be enough to keep most big beaters away (if they're F5, F6, or even F7, engaging in a strike-off against Helm is risky), especially if they don't have free Might points to burn like Helm does. And three wounds/1 Fate go a lot further if the enemy needs natural 6s to wound you (after beating you in combat). With Defense 7, ranged weapons usually aren't a problem (6s from S3 bows or S4 crossbows, and 6/4+ from normal S2 bows), so that just leaves really nasty things (siege weapons, dragon fire, Morgul Blades, etc.) that you really have to worry about, and most of them you can mitigate with proper planning. Plus, you know--you have that whole "limitless Might" thing (which is bonkers-good).

Rohan Captains and Kings Huntsmen aren't in the same tier as Helm, but they do fill some roles that can really help him out. Helm is awesome, but he can only be in one place at a time (maybe two, if you get those free Heroic Combats to fire). But if your opponent has more than one big hero (odds are they do), these heroes can help buy time for Helm to do his thing. At range, Kings Huntsmen are among the better hero-snipers in the game. A S3 longbow means even D7 heroes only require a "6" to wound, and since they only fail in-the-way rolls on the roll of a "1", they have a very good chance (83%) of getting to a hero past one in-the-way (and you need to have four in-the-way rolls before your odds of getting the hero fall below 50%... which is kind of insane). Backing up that bow is a 3+ shoot value (on-par for other elite archer heroes) and 2 Might, which you get back if you slay a Hero or Monster (although they're perfectly capable of slaying other back-line targets, like spectres, pikemen, banners, warhorns, enemy cavalry, etc.). 

If your King's Huntsman (or -men) can't snipe out those dangerous targets before they close, a Rohan Captain with heavy armor and shield can form a nice roadblock. Fight 4 isn't great (and unfortunately Rohan Heroes don't get a buff from this legion's rules), but four attacks at Defense 7 makes for a pretty good tank if you take them on foot, or they can threaten infantry heroes at range if you mount them (three dice to win the fight, 6 dice to wound, and potentially a throwing spear on the way in). On their own, they'll eventually fall to big-tier heroes, but they're pretty good at dying slowly, buying time for Helm to save the day. And if you manage to keep one with/near Helm at all times, as a glorified bodyguard, they can be lethal.

As for the warriors, the great thing is that you get all the troop options available to Rohan: warriors, royal guards, riders, and outriders/walkers. By now, we've talked about them ad-nauseum (I delved into each of them when we took a look at Theodred's Guard, if you're interested), so I won't repeat it again. Here's the big points:

• Royal Guard are awesome. I'd recommend that they form the backbone of your force, for two reasons. First, it's thematic--they guard the King of Rohan, and this is the biggest, baddest King of Rohan. Second, they're D6, and D6 is awesome (especially against S3 shooting, which Rohan infantry otherwise struggle against). Third, if you do run into Terror or break faster than you'd like, Bodyguard is your best friend. Finally (although it probably should have been first), they're +1 Fight when within 6" of Helm (taking them to F5), and unlike that other King (Theoden), Helm actually gives them a +1 Fight bonus at all times, not just if they charge whilst mounted. Your Royal Guard shieldwall? Fight 5. Your stalled Royal Guard cavalry? Also Fight 5. Elves still get a minor advantage against them (if they're using elven-made weapons), but against every other standard infantry type--and a bunch of mid-tier heroes--you're in great shape.
• Having said that, if you prefer more(ish) numbers, Riders and Warriors also benefit from Helm's +1 Fight boost (whether on foot or mounted), so if there's a lot of F4/S4 on your local scene, you can still get a competitive Fight Value with those guys. Helm's War Horn also gives those warriors +1 Courage (in addition to giving Helm Terror when he charges), and while Courage 4 isn't Bodyguard, it's reliable enough if your enemy causes Terror (and "okay" if your enemy also has Harbinger of Evil). I'd still lean towards at least some Royal Guards myself (because they're only +3 points over a generic warrior on foot if you add Shield and/or Throwing Spears, and only +1 point over a Rider if you mount them--well-worth it for +1 Fight, +1 Defense, and Bodyguard), but if you don't have the models, your generic warriors are still pretty good.
• As in Theodred's Guard, Helm's Guard can also use throwing spears as standard spears (to support in combat) if you don't hurl them in the shoot phase. So all the stuff we said earlier about how flexible that makes your infantry blocks applies here, too... only now your infantry blocks can get to Fight 5.

Part 2: Why take this legion over "normal" allied forces "vanilla" Rohan?

Let's get the easy part out of the way first: you can take Helm in vanilla Rohan, too, but because he has a special rule that precludes him from being included in a list that includes other named Rohan models, the profiles you can pair with him are going to be exactly the same in both a vanilla Rohan list and this legion. Additionally, Helm's +1 Fight Value boost to Rohan Warriors is also part of his base profile, so you'll get that bonus in both lists. Finally, Helm's a Hero of Legend, so he's probably going to be your army leader (unless you ally in another Hero of Legend... and if you do, they'll be impossible allies).

Tiberius: Helm from the movies . . . his only scene . . .

That means the only differences come down to the Rohan Army Bonus (+1 Strength on the charge) vs. the Legendary Legion's special rules (throwing spears as spears, plus Mighty Hero and free Heroic Combats for Helm). And while Helm with +1 Strength on the Charge (S6, Burly) is pretty beastly, I think you probably want Mighty Hero with a free heroic combat almost every time. In which case, you want the legion (unless you want to ally in some other troops or a second beater hero from another list).

But that's the easy part. The harder question, I think, is why you'd want to run, say, Helm-Rohan over third-age Rohan (or even early-third-age Eorl Rohan). So here's what Helm offers that those other Rohan variants don't (and what it doesn't).

Let's start with the weaknesses, which include all the ones we talked about with Theodred's Guard:

Weakness #1: Very few hero options. Again, Rohan Captains and Kings Huntsmen are good, but they're not Eomer or Deorwine or Dernhelm. And when it comes to their Might pool (capped at 2), they're not even Elfhelm or Grimbold.

Weakness #1a: No Gamling. Self-explanatory, although the fact that Helm gains Mighty Hero duplicates the Might-regeneration effect (if not the 3" banner reroll).

Weakness #2: Your model count is unlikely to ever be "high," for the same reasons it's unlikely to be "high" in Theodred's Guard (mostly because you want mass throwing spears most of the time), only more so because Helm costs 65-75 points more than Theodred does.

Weakness #3: You lose +1 Strength on the charge (assuming you run this legion). Helm is better for it, but your generic troops are not. Having said that, only mounted Rohan models get the Strength bonus in vanilla Rohan, so if you're running mostly infantry (as you should probably do in this legion, too), you were going to lose a good bit of that bonus anyway.

In addition to those shared weaknesses, here are some others:

Weakness #4: Unlike Theodred's Guard, there's no Sworn Protector in this list. Helm has a War Horn (which helps some), but +1 Courage isn't better than Fearless, and if you like running vanilla Rohan with Erkenbrand, +1 Courage isn't better than +2 Courage. You can mitigate this with Royal Guards (Bodyguard), and Helm of course is basically Fearless (C6 base, plus 1 for having a War Horn, plus he's a Hero of Legend so he'll auto-pass the first Stand Fast! you have to take). But if you run with mostly warriors and riders, and face Terror with Harbinger, you'll stall some, even with the War Horn.

Weakness #5: Might is more of an issue than it usually is for Rohan (yes, even with Mighty Hero). There are four contributors, two of which we've already covered. First, Helm costs more than any other Rohan hero, and not just "a little more"--he's a full Captain's worth of points more than Eomer. Second, you can't take any other 3 Might heroes with Helm unless you dig into an impossible alliance, which means getting to 11 Might requires five heroes (instead of the 4 we could get away with in Theodred's Guard). 

Third, while Kings Huntsmen are awesome, there are three potential issues with their might pool: since they're archers you're highly incentivized to (1) spend their Might to kill things (which is great, but means you're probably not calling Heroic Moves, combats, or boosting dice with them), and (2) as squishy archers, you probably have them somewhere safe where they can snipe stuff (which means they may not be in position to call heroic moves, combats, or boost dice). The third issue is that they're just Minor Heroes, which means that if you do go deep into them (say, 2-3), your warbands are fairly small. That's okay at higher points levels (say, 700 and above), where you can take Helm, a Captain, three Huntsmen, and 25-35 warriors (depending on how many throwing spears and mounts you take), but at lower points levels, it can keep your numbers low.

Fourth, I do think it bears stating that Captains and Kings Huntsmen are more fragile than most other Rohan heroes. 2 Wounds, 1 Fate, and no Strike (plus F4 on captains, and F3 on Huntsmen) means they're susceptible to flash kills if they get in bad spots. And if they do combust, any Might they might have been holding on to combusts with them.

Weakness #6: Finally, no Helmingas. I don't rate this as a huge weakness, but if you like having base-S4 troops (or S5 troops with piercing strike), there's no path to that in this legion. There just isn't.

Having said all that, this legion still has plenty to recommend it:

Strength #1: Throwing spears on infantry are even better than they are in vanilla Rohan/Theodred's Guard. You can still wrap / wrap-and-cast / wrap-and-cast-on-steroids / wrap-and-cast-special, only now your wrapping warriors are F4/F5 when doing it, so long as Helm is within 6".

Strength #2: On the same note, you're still among the best skirmish armies in the game. All-cav armies still don't like fighting you... except even more so now, because you can get to F4/F5 (which most all-cav armies can't do). 

Strength #3: While in the abstract, I'd probably prefer some named hero options (Rohan has so many good ones), Captains and Huntsmen are cheap enough that while you can't get to horde-levels of troops with this legion, you can get to a solid number of models at almost any points level (as we'll see below), while still having 2-3 supporting heroes in addition to Helm. Speaking of which...

Strength #4: Helm is a real problem for opponents (especially at low points levels). He's susceptible to one of the counters that plagues other top-tier combat models: namely, he doesn't have much magic defense except for his 3 Will. Having said that, he's got some additional buffs that help him weather that storm easier than most other combat heroes: a free Might each turn means he can call Heroic Moves (to try to tag spell-casters before they can cast), Heroic Resolves (to get an extra dice to resist, if he's fine with not moving that turn--and since he has that 6" fight value buff, he's not entirely useless if he's not moving, particularly if he's been dismounted), or even boost a resist roll by +1.

Magic aside, however, there's not much he'll struggle with. Terror isn't a problem (because he's basically Fearless, with C6 base plus a War Horn). He doesn't have Reckless Charge (like Theodred) so you maintain control over him at all times, even when he's entered the fray. That free Might point plus his scary combat stats means most mid-tier heroes want nothing to do with him. And a free Heroic Combat (backed by those same bulky stats) means the enemy can't just chuck a single pleb at him to pin him in place (and even mid-tier striking heroes, like Faramir or Haldir, may not be enough to stall him, even if Helm's on foot). 

At larger points levels, the enemy probably has a couple heroes (or a hero and a caster) who can tag-team him, which makes the fight close. But at under 500 points? It's very rare that the enemy will have multiple models who can check him. And if they do, their margin for error (if they botch) is probably pretty slim.

Strength #5: More importantly, Helm is an absolute joy to play. If you're fighting heavy magic... not so much. But otherwise, Helm may be the most enjoyable model to push around the table, because wherever he is, crazy stuff happens. I've been playing with King Aragorn quite a bit lately getting ready for TMAT's Grand Tournament next month, and there's nothing quite like Mighty Hero on a mounted hero with 4s to wound... except Mighty Hero on a mounted hero who wounds up to D7 on 4s, but who also gets free Heroic Combats. Plus he causes Terror on the charge. Plus there's a ton of awesome Royal Guard on foot around him at all times, ready to plug the gaps he carves in the enemy ranks. It's euphoric.

Strength #6: Did I mention you can have Fight 5 skirmish infantry blocks? That are also potentially D6 with Bodyguard? I have? Okay, just making sure...

Strength #7: Lastly, this model is just gorgeous. And huge. When Helm's on the table, you always know it.

Part 3: Legendary Legion Improvements

Let me save you some time. I wouldn't add anything (except maybe an armored horse option for Helm--after all, he's modeled on an armored horse). But here's some things I guess you could add, with my thoughts on them.

• Helm's only 3 Wounds with 1 Fate. Perfectly fine--it's enough, and thematic.
• No +1 Strength on the Charge. Also fine. Mighty Hero more than makes up for it. And if you really want that buff, you can take vanilla Rohan instead and forego Mighty Hero. But I suspect you don't want that buff that badly.
• No named hero options. Again, fine. Themey that way--Helm is your army.
• Give Kings Huntsmen horses. That's all I could think of, but seriously--no one else is clamoring for this.
• Give Helm a banner effect, like Aragorn. Look, a 6" fight value boost plus free heroics plus Mighty Hero is enough. If you don't think it is, play a game with Helm. I'm telling you--he doesn't need anything else.

The only thing I could think of that sounds mildly thematic is that since Helm was slain by Dunlendings, maybe Hatred (Dunland) would be cool in the Legion (on Helm himself, and then on his troops if he dies)? Would F4 Royal Guard with a +1 to-wound be bonkers? Yes. Is it niche enough that it would probably never matter? Absolutely.

Again--I think this legion is great as-is.

Tiberius: I think Hatred (Dunland) would be good - the battles against Dunland were fierce back then and ultimately led to the Dunlendings leaving Rohan. I also think that it would be cool if Helm could upgrade Warriors of Rohan in the army to Helmingas (he did put the "Helm" in Helminga after all). 

Part 4: Army Strategies

Rythbyrt: Given that this legion basically consists of the same troop options and upgrades as Theodred's Guard, it turns out the basic strategies for this legion are basically the same, for exactly the same reasons:

Thought #1: Don't run this legion as all-cav. Helm is great, but he can only be in one place at a time and even he will go down if he's surrounded and trapped. You still want bodies between he and the enemy, to buy him time to do his thing. And while you can do all-cav with Helm (which, powered by Mighty Hero and his 6" Fight buff for Royal Guards, is actually pretty scary), you're not getting +1 Strength or Fight on cavalry models when they charge (and your infantry warriors get the +1 Fight buff, too).

Thought #2: You still really need to protect Helm (even though he's beefier than Theodred). That extra wound makes a difference, but still--don't put Helm in position where a lucky Legolas strike (backed by Might) is going to injure or kill him. Again, having more bodies really helps (as can a Kings Huntsman or three to snipe back at enemy missile fire).

Thought #3: Lean heavily into throwing spears with this army. I was pretty pro on throwing spears with Theodred's Guard, but for this legion in particular, you want to go almost all-in, especially on your elite Royal Guard. Fight 5 on a stick is that good, and it makes your infantry formations really, really flexible.

Thought #4: Lean heavily into Defense 6. Archer fire is bad for Rohan in general, but it can really slow down Helm (taking out his horse, if not Helm himself). Which means you'll want to shield Helm's horse from incoming fire... and unfortunately, the way you do that a lot of the time is by putting guys between Helm and the enemy. Yes, losing a warrior is better than losing Helm. But not losing a warrior at all (because the enemy needs 6s to wound them instead of 5s) is better. 

Thought #5: Lean heavily into Royal guard, period. If you're worried about the expense, that's okay--I think it's perfectly fine to have mostly Riders of Rohan accompany Helm on horse. Where you want the Royal Guards are on foot, anchoring your battle line. There's no Sworn Protector in this legion, and Courage 4 only goes so far. Fight 5, D6, and Bodyguard can grind against most shieldwalls and win. And again--to buy Helm time to do his thing, you have to be able to grind.

Thought #6: Do take some cavalry. In addition to supporting Helm, you'll want to be able to protect your infantry line from taking knock-downs. Fight 5 infantry can stall charges, but if you can counter-charge enemy cavalry they will stall charges, especially if they're D6. Four to eight riders (in addition to Helm) is probably enough at most points levels, but of course you could lean deeper into them if you like.

Thought #7: Take a banner (and possibly two). I didn't mention this explicitly in our Theodred's Guard write-up (although all my lists did include a banner), but if you're running F5 or above troops with mass spears, and a big hero like Helm, you want every advantage you can get to win fights (because amazingly enough, warriors and heroes have a 0% chance of dying when they win their fights most of the time--fights vs. Haldir excepted). I don't think you need a huge cavalry contingent in this list, but if you do decide to run one, consider taking a second banner for your riders--Fight 5 Royal Guard on horses with throwing spears are brutal when backed by a banner, and if you are going to remove Helm's 6" fight bubble from your infantry, you'll probably to leave a banner behind with your infantry to help them hold the line until your grand and glorious return.

Part 5: Army Showcase

Last but not least, here's a few lists I put together to show off what this legion can do:

List 1: Helm Musters to War (500 points)

Helm Hammerhand on Horse (175) {Army Leader}

• x2 Royal Guards on Horses with Throwing Spears (34)
• x7 Royal Guards with Throwing Spears (84)
• x1 Royal Guard with Banner and Throwing Spears (37)

Captain of Rohan with Heavy Armor, Shield, and Throwing Spears (60)

• x2 Riders of Rohan with Throwing Spears (32)
• x4 Warriors of Rohan with Shields (28)
• x4 Warriors of Rohan with Shields and Throwing Spears (36)
• x2 Warriors of Rohan with Bows (14)

500/500 points, 24 models

Apart from being hero-lite (just two), this is a pretty good starting place. We're at 24 models (one of whom is Helm), and half of them are elite warriors (10 royal guard in total--two of them mounted--plus two more riders). The Captain's on foot in this list, but I think you probably need him with the core of the infantry line while Helm's off doing Helm things. Five cavalry models isn't a ton, but at 500 you probably won't be drastically outnumbered, and if you are, you'll just have to stick close to your infantry block (not the worst thing in the world, since Helm buffs their Fight Value).

The obvious issue is the lack of a third hero, which means our Might is capped at just 5. Having played quite a bit of 450 matches with King Aragorn, I think you can get by with this thanks to Mighty Hero on Helm, but it does mean being conservative with your real Might points: use Helm's free one to call Heroic Moves if you need them, but otherwise you want to save them for sure things or to bail you out of trouble. The good news is that even if you burn your free Might from Mighty Hero in the Move Phase, you still have a free Heroic Combat available to you in the Fight Phase, which means as long as you don't hit something too large (where you'll need Heroic Strike) and don't get into too much trouble (where you may need Heroic Defense), you shouldn't need to dig into your Might store except to win fights... and hopefully, you won't even need to do that.

List 2: Helm Marches to War (750 points)

Helm Hammerhand on Horse (175) {Army Leader}

• x5 Royal Guard on Horses with Throwing Spears (85)
• x9 Royal Guard with Throwing Spears (108)
• x1 Royal Guard with Banner and Throwing Spears (37)

Captain of Rohan on Horse with Heavy Armor, Shield, and Throwing Spears (70)

• x2 Riders of Rohan with Throwing Spears (32)
• x2 Rohan Outriders (26)
• x6 Warriors of Rohan with Shields and Throwing Spears (54)

Captain of Rohan with Heavy Armor and Shield (55)

• x12 Warriors of Rohan with Shields and Throwing Spears (108)

750/750, 40 models

As you can probably tell, I'm a huge fan of the Royal Guards, so we've added more of them (up to 15 total, which seems appropriate for a list built around Helm). All of them have throwing spears, and we now have five on horse (plus 10 on foot, counting our banner). We've also added a couple of Rohan Outriders on horses, giving us a total of 9 cavalry warriors, plus two heroes. Again, against most conventional armies, eleven cavalry should be enough to give us superiority (especially when one of them is Helm).

In addition to our ten foot Royal Guards (all armed with throwing spears), we also have another 18 Warriors of Rohan on foot, all armed with Shields and Throwing Spears (plus a Captain with Heavy Armor and a Shield, for good measure). That's nearly thirty infantry in our main battle-line, with a ton of shielding and wrapping potential. They should be very hard to engage and pretty hard to move, especially if Helm is near enough to buff their Fight Value. 

Bonus List: Helm Rides to War (750 points)

Helm Hammerhand on Horse (175) {Army Leader}

• x4 Rohan Royal Guard on Horses with Throwing Spears (68)
• x1 Rohan Royal Guard on Horse with Banner and Throwing Spears (42)

Captain of Rohan on Horse with Heavy Armor, Shield, and Throwing Spears (70)

• x4 Rohan Royal Guard on Horses with Throwing Spears (68)
• x1 Rohan Royal Guard on Horse with Banner and Throwing Spears (42)

Captain of Rohan on Horse with Heavy Armor, Shield, and Throwing Spears (70)

• x5 Riders of Rohan with Throwing Spears (80)

Captain of Rohan on Horse with Heavy Armor, Shield, and Bow (70)

• x5 Rohan Outriders on Horses (65)

750/750, 24 Models.

Last but not least, I've done up an all-mounted legion list for those of you who like that sort of thing. ;-) This one's quite a bit smaller (24 models), and despite having 4 heroes, the Might pool is smaller than we'd want (just 9 total), although Mighty Hero should allow it to keep moving for a while. I've leaned heavily into Royal Guard (8 basic warriors on horse, plus two more with banners), but have also picked up a healthy continent of Outriders (5) for objective captures. There's also a cheeky Rohan Captain with heavy armor, shield, and bow, to snipe out enemy hero mounts (and make use of Expert Rider, since he has it).

I'm not 100% sure about having the second banner here (as it basically costs us two extra models to field), but we'll definitely want one shadowing Helm at all times (and 3" of banner range doesn't go nearly as far when every model's on a 40mm base instead of 25mm one). You can swap it out to taste, if you like.

Tiberius: Helm is a really good hero - so the question is how do you get other heroes to not bully Helm? Well, you pluck off wounds on them early. How do you do that? You use King's Huntsmen (which Rythbryt doesn't seem to favor, ;-)). The following 500-point list runs a solid block of 10 Rohan Royal Guards on foot (with a banner) to protect the 2 King's Huntsmen in this list and a small cadre of Riders of Rohan to escort Helm around the board. Only having 18 models is a bit low for 500pts, but your skirmish potential is really good in this army (everyone can shoot except Helm). You're not that worried about facing more than two big heroes at 500 points, so having two archers who can pluck wounds off before the enemy gets near Helm is great (not to mention the 15 throwing spears at close range and 5 bows at long range). You could drop some throwing spears to upgrade the 5 Riders of Rohan into Rohan Royal Guards if you wanted to. Scaling this list to 700 points would begin by adding a third King's Huntsman to the line-up, filling out the warbands and maybe adding a Captain - they're not THAT great in this Legion (as opposed to the Theodred's Guard or Riders of Eomer LLs):

• Helm Hammerhand on horse [Army Leader]
• 5 Riders of Rohan with throwing spears
• King's Huntsman
• 5 Rohan Royal Guards with throwing spears
• King's Huntsman
• 4 Rohan Royal Guards with throwing spears
• 1 Rohan Royal Guards with throwing spears and banner

Army Summary

Tiberius: In our next post, we'll be delving into the Breaking of the Fellowship Legion, the nemesis of Lurtz's Scouts. If you thought that the normal Fellowship was a good all-hero army, or if you thought Thorin's Company was a good all-hero army, you haven't seen ANYTHING until you've seen the new Fellowship Legion! We've gone back and forth here at TMAT about how dangerous this Legion can be at points levels above 600 points (the point ceiling for the Legion), but I think you'd be surprised with the tricks and powers this Legion has. Curious? Tune in next time for all the ins-and-outs of some of your favorite heroes in the movies and books! Until then, happy hobbying!