The Stuff of Legends: Lurtz's Scouts

Good morning gamers,

Today we will be looking at our first Legion from the new Quest of the Ringbearer sourcebook! Of all the Legions that were released in that sourcebook, I was really excited to see what they did with this one. While I can't say I'm very impressed with it (it's kinda meh relative to the other Isengard Legions or the normal Isengard faction itself), the Legion emphasizes one of the things that many players will enjoy: running up the field very quickly with F4/S4 Uruks and hacking stuff up-close-and-personal. Recipe for success? Possibly not. Really fun to play? Absolutely. Great models to use on the tabletop? Undoubtedly. Curious about how we're going to make this Legion work? Read on . . .

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Legion Tax: 90pts

The only model you NEED is Lurtz with the shield, which - let's face it - we were taking the shield anyway whenever we run Lurtz (because it's free and you get a special rule for it in this Legion). Lurtz is a cheap hero, providing "good" combat stats for an Evil hero (F5/S5/3 Attacks on offense, D6/1F/3 Wounds on defense). Lurtz has 3 Might points and a good selection of heroic actions (most notably Challenge in this Legion, but also Strike/Strength/March). Being "only" D6 with "only" 1 Fate/3 Wounds isn't great for your army leader, but any Isengard player who doesn't bring Saruman is probably bringing Lurtz, so maybe you're used to it.

Lurtz also needs supporting heroes - specifically in the form of Mauhur (one of the cheapest 3 Attack heroes in the game, 2 Might for Heroic March, and you get a free upgrade for all of your Uruk-Hai Scouts to Uruk-Hai Marauders by including him) and an Uruk-Hai Drummer (+3" of movement for friendly Uruk-Hai models within 12" of him, but those same models can't charge). These two heroes cost less than 100 points, so for under 200 points, you've got 26 warriors slots (assuming the Uruk-Hai Drummer is in one of those warbands instead of by himself) and LOADS of points to work with (no matter what your point limit is).

Lurtz's Scouts Bonuses

Besides flushing warbands out with warriors, your other two hero choices are good options as well: Ugluk is one of the cheapest heroes with Heroic Strike in the game, yet another source of Heroic March, and the ability to remove one of your Uruk-Hai models to get a 12" Stand Fast that benefits both heroes and warriors. Pretty good deal if you ask me. 

You also have access to Uruk-Hai Scout Captains, who (if you've read my article on the taxonomy of Uruk-Hai heroes) can be equipped with shields (if you want a Rock hero), two-handed weapons (if you want a Hatchet hero), or - my favorite - Uruk-Hai bows (if you want an Arrow hero). While playing fifth fiddle to the other four heroes in the list, these guys are bread-and-butter captains, locked in at Fight 5, but capable of dealing loads of damage to enemy models OR holding up a big enemy hero for a while by shielding.

For your warriors, you have . . . Uruk-Hai Scouts. Any surprises there? Yeah, that's all you got - and they've got the usual options for Uruk-Hai bows, shields, and banners. And weapon swaps . . . if you're feeling creative . . . which I don't . . . except sometimes . . .

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

Isengard has several Legendary Legions - and the "vanilla" Isengard list is very, VERY good (my preferred cup of tea and up there as one of my four favorite factions in the game). Let's see how this one compares . . .

Weakness #1: Very Limited Profile List

So, you've got 5 hero profiles and 1 warrior profile - believe it or not, this isn't the lowest profile count of the Legions that have been released (the Riders of Eomer LL only has five profiles and the Black Riders only have two profiles), but it IS down there with the Legions that have the lowest profile count (the Return of the King LL, the Grey Company LL, the Cirith Ungol LL, and of course, the Breaking of the Fellowship LL all have 7-8 profiles). While having a small number of profiles isn't necessarily a bad thing, compared to the normal Isengard list, you've got some big holes to fill.

Strength #1: Good Army Bonuses

The vanilla Isengard army bonus is great: your Uruks don't test for Courage until you reach 67% of your starting force (instead of 50%) and your Scout units get Woodland Creature. This Legion doesn't get the first bonus, but it does get the second one and it gets a free upgrade for all of your Uruk-Hai Scouts to Uruk-Hai Marauders (all the heroes get 8" move too) so long as you include Mauhur in your list (which you should do - always). Watch your army go from middling speed to FAST just by adding a single hero . . .

This Legion adds to this a few other juicy tricks, including two special rules for Lurtz (the ability to throw his shield to do a throwing weapon attack once per game against someone - and knock them Prone if you hit - and the ability to issue Heroic Challenges to anyone and regain the Might point spent if the Challenge is refused - which makes him a pretty good hero at calling Heroic Challenges). Not bad for a Legion (though admittedly fewer tricks than you would have if you brought Saruman).

Weakness #2: No Spears

Do you know why I like Warriors of Numenor so much? They're basically Uruk-Hai Scouts who can get spears. Spears are great - especially for new players: spears allow you to not have to charge people in order to fight, they allow you to move first and still let units contribute to a fight when you don't get to pick how the fights go, and they allow your heroes to get a little extra help when they're fighting. Not having spears isn't a bad thing necessarily (my Kingdom of Moria Dwarves don't need them), but they certainly help and make your list more flexible.

Strength #2: Average Cost Troops with Above Average Combat Stats

I mentioned my Kingdom of Moria Dwarves not needing spears - and the reason is simple: they get good troops for average cost. The same is true for this Legion: Uruk-Hai Scouts cost 8 points/model without any extra gear and they are Fight 4 (above average), Strength 4 (above average), Defense 4 (on the low side of average), 1 Attack/1 Wound (normal for warriors), and Courage 3 (average). If you compare this to infantry choices from other factions, getting F4/S4 for less than 10 points/model is pretty difficult to come by - and these guys get it on everyone!

When you pay 1 point more to give them either a shield or an Uruk-Hai bow, you also give these troops either increased resiliency (average Defense, ability to defend by shielding) or increased potency (18" S3 range attacks at an average Shoot value). The bows are huge here, as you can bring quite a few of them in your army and they're the closest thing you can get to spears (which happens to be how my Kingdom of Moria Dwarves roll - Dwarf bows and throwing axes).

Weakness #3: Average Courage (and No Fury)

I don't understand something (we'll get into this more in a minute): this Legion has access to Uruk-Hai Scout Captains from the Scout Command Blister, it has access to the Uruk-Hai Drummer from the Scout Command Blister, and it has access to Uruk-Hai Scouts with banners from the Scout Command Blister. Weird part: no access to an unarmored Uruk-Hai Shaman - and of all the Isengard armies in the game, this army is the most reliant on getting the charge. Against a Terror army, this force is going to struggle - you won't be able to bring your full force to bear on a charge, your heroes will struggle almost as much as your warriors do, and you're going to be WISHING you had Fury. Even if you didn't channel Fury, you'd still miss Fury.

Oh, and no access to war horns either . . .

Strength #3: Great Maneuverability and Equipment Choices

Despite having limited profiles, no spears, and stock-standard Courage with no gimmicks to make it better (besides not testing for Courage right away after you break), Uruk-Hai Scouts and Uruk-Hai Captains have pretty good gear options and thanks to the movement buffs provided in this Legion (8" move on everyone, access to Heroic March on all the heroes, access to Uruk-Hai Drummers), you have LOTS maneuverability. While spears would be welcome for sure, having banners is great, having good bows with decent shoot values is great, and having shields is great. Can't really complain that much (though we can pine for more, can't we?).

Strength #4: Good Mid-Tier Heroes

We've talked about this recently with the Riders of Theoden and the Army of Gothmog Legendary Legions, but it certainly applies here: this Legion might not have any big power pieces in it (Isengard in general struggles to get that, though Saruman can make them less necessary), but your heroes are better than average (if on the squishy side). Lurtz has a good combat profile (not a great one), and Ugluk and Mauhur have "fine" combat profiles. Underestimate a two-handing Uruk-Hai Captain at your peril - he wounds a lot of things on 3s and some things on 2s! All told, their heroes are good and provide good benefits to their army for being 60-90 points each - and make the whole list much more enjoyable than it could have been!

Part 3: Legendary Legion Improvements

Before we get into the improvements to this Legion, let me remind you that I made some predictions about this Legion before it came out. While there are many things I hoped would be in here that didn't make it, I'll keep the list today short . . .

Okay, gotta get this out of the way first: this list should have a Shaman. We've seen Shamans crop up into the Army of Gothmog Legendary Legion (even though we didn't see any soothsayers or bone-readers in the films) and they also appear in the Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legendary Legion (even though we didn't see any in the films there either) - so don't say "well, they're not in the movie!" I'm sorry - these guys were told by Saruman "You do not know pain, you do not know fear" - and YET we have no one who is Oblivious to Pain or has any save at all (or any way to auto-pass Courage tests). A Shaman solves both of these things AND is available in the Scout Command Blister, where you can get all the other figures besides the Shaman - it should be an option. Besides, there is an argument that there were shamans with Lurtz . . .

Second, if you don't get a Shaman, you should have a 50% bow limit. Like Azog's Hunters, this list is going to live and die based on being able to throw mid-range heroes and lots of Strength 4 warriors at whatever you face. Without a Shaman (and limited profiles in general), you need ways to force your opponent to fight you. Azog's Hunters has several advantages over this Legion, such as top-tier heroes (Azog and Bolg), access to cavalry, multi-Attack S4 infantry (cheap but only F3), and a 50% bow limit. I don't think we can honestly boost Lurtz's combat potential much higher, the speed boosts this army has is as close to cavalry as they're going to get, you could get access to Ferals for multi-Attack S4 infantry (but they were definitely not in the movies), so a 50% bow limit would be the most appropriate way to make this Legion more worth taking. From the books we know that when Aragorn finds Boromir, he's full of arrows (not just the three that we see in the movie), so it would make sense to allow a high bow limit for this army (and would make them far more dangerous than they are now). This is especially necessary since they don't have a Shaman - archery may be their only answer to Terror-heavy armies . . .

Third, I wish there was a reason to take Uruk-Hai Captains as one of your first four heroes. I theorized allowing these heroes to call free Heroic Marches or Moves (or get them on a 4+) in my predictions post, which would make them a useful addition into any army. Alternatively, to reflect the Uruk-Hai Captain with two-handed axe ambushing Merry and Pippin, it would be great if one warband led by an Uruk-Hai Captain could ambush onto the board like a Goblin Mercenary Captain. Something to make them more appealing than they are now - right now, the only reason you might want them is to spam heroes (or because you've filled your three named hero warbands). 

Part 4: Army Strategies

So let's begin with the obvious: this list is about speed. Since you don't have spears (and because you're limited to average Defense), you want to engage with your opponent as quickly as possible. Engaging, however, will require some thought (as you don't have spears), but this list benefits greatly from a) having access to Uruk-Hai Drummers, b) having 8" movement on everyone, c) having Woodland Creature (so you can use wooded terrain as a screen for your movements), and d) having Heroic March on every hero that has Might. Speed will never be your problem in this list.

Each major hero in this Legion (Lurtz, Mauhur, Ugluk) should have a banner - you don't have specialized troops and you don't have spears, so you need banners. With most of your troops costing ~9 points/model (equipped with either a shield or a bow), you can afford to bring 2-3 banners without any risk to your numbers - your army will be plenty big. Since your heroes are mid-tier heroes at best, you want to have as many chances of getting 6s as possible when you're dueling - and that means a banner. It also helps if your warriors around you don't crumble - banners will help with that too. 

When I presented one of the lists with three heroes/three banners to the Unexpected Podcast team, someone in the comments mentioned that the 1:1 ratio of big heroes to banner was excessive. While you could certainly drop a banner for +3 warriors in this list, I'm not sure that what you're getting by the slightly higher model count outweighs the benefits of making your heroes (and existing grunts) more likely to win fights. With mid-tier heroes especially, you need to make top-tier heroes burn Might to boost dueling rolls - and you do that by having your grunts get 6s to win the duel when those Heroic Combatting heroes WANT to smash through them and don't get a 6 to win the fight.

Besides the banners, 33% of your warriors (rounding up) should have Uruk-Hai bows. You want archers all over in your army so you can provide cover fire for your army and deal with enemy threats quickly. Cavalry will be a pain - shoot them. Spear-supported warriors will be a pain - shoot them. Big monsters will do murder to your ranks and turn your heroes into bloody smears - shoot them. Terrifying models will petrify your ranks in place and blunt your charges - shoot them. You get the idea. With Uruk-Hai Scouts carrying S3 bows in the newest edition (instead of S2 Orc bows), I think the gap between Uruk-Hai Scouts as archers and Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows is much closer - and having used these guys a lot, they're pretty underrated archers in the game. They'll do their job well - and they'll move pretty quickly while doing it (5.5" each turn with a Drum beating, 7" each turn with a Drum beating and March).

Lurtz is your scalpel, to be used to deal with heroes that have been softened by your other troops (shooting perhaps, though swarming is a pretty good way to draw Might out of them). As we discussed in our post on Heroic Challenge, Lurtz can charge an enemy hero (DON'T THROW THE SHIELD YET), pile on 1-2 other Uruks into the fight, call a Heroic Challenge, and either shield if the Challenge is accepted (see, you needed the shield!) or get his Might back and rail against the guy with the help of his buddies if the challenge is declined. Should the Challenge be declined, extricate Lurtz out as quickly as possible - you don't want him going down in a fluke fight. If your opponent accepts the challenge, THEN you throw your Shield at him the following round (so you can fight him on the ground AFTER he's accepted the challenge). Watch the Might roll in (and then be more careful about who you challenge after that).

Ugluk is your secondary option for dealing with enemy heroes - including him in the same fight as Lurtz is a) a good way to get your opponent to accept a challenge, and b) an alternate source of Heroic Strike (saving Lurtz's Might for other things). If tied up against a big hero, you can have him Strike as a ditch-effort, forcing your opponent to call a Heroic Strike instead of a Heroic Combat. His late-game benefit (if you don't throw him into a big hero) is his 12" Stand Fast (though it will tank your numbers a little - though it is a neat way of driving yourself down to 25% if you really need it).

Mauhur is not great at taking down heroes by himself (no Strike) - he is best directed against warriors! Joining him should be any Uruk-Hai Scout Captains with two-handed weapons or Uruk-Hai bows, as they can also clear out warriors pretty well (and are less reliable against heroes). Mauhur has been a regular inclusion for many Isengard lists here at TMAT (and I'm at the tip of the spear - I never leave home without him) and as one of the cheapest 3A heroes in the game (paired with F5/S5), he's a pretty reliable warrior crunching machine.

Uruk-hai Scout Captains with shields, however, are great for charging into someone big, shielding-shielding-shielding, and hopefully buying your army 1-3 turns of an enemy hero getting stuck (and draining Might from that hero too). With only Defense 6, they're not great at resisting damage, but they'll make most heroes work for the kill (which is good). If employed against warriors, these Captains are brutal (F5/S5/2A does real work).

Part 5: Army Showcase

Like the other Legions we've viewed so far, I've chosen a 500-point list for this army, which begins with Lurtz, a Drummer, Mauhur, and 2 Uruk-Hai Scouts with banners and Uruk-Hai bows. With 253 points spent, I added 24 more Uruk-Hai Scouts with shields or Uruk-Hai bows to my army (filling out my two warbands) and ended up with 469 points (31 points left). This leads to the first discovery I made with this Legion: you can't just fill warbands because of how the points work out (just because you need to bring 3 heroes besides the drummer). As a result, I dropped the Drummer (which I know I'll regret - but I think I need the second banner more) and I added a Captain with Uruk-Hai bow, which required some points shuffling with gear to get us exactly on 500 points (and we have a not-overly-impressive-but-still-impressive 30 models). You could run Ugluk instead, but you'd probably want another banner at that point and I didn't want to pay for that:

• Lurtz with shield [AL]
• 5 Uruk-Hai Scouts with shields
  
• 3 Uruk-Hai Scouts
• 1 Uruk-Hai Scout with Uruk-Hai bow and banner
• 2 Uruk-hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows
• Mauhur
• 5 Uruk-Hai Scouts with shields
• 1 Uruk-Hai Scout with Uruk-Hai bow and banner
• 2 Uruk-hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows
  
• Uruk-Hai Captain with Uruk-Hai bow
• 5 Uruk-Hai Scouts with shields
• 3 Uruk-hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows
  

I then scaled up this Legion to 700 points (as we've done so far in this series) and started by filling in the 13 warrior slots that we had remaining with a Drummer and Uruk-Hai Scouts (one with banner and bow), keeping maximum bows in my army and I ended up with . . . 676 points (24 points left over). This, once again, means that unless we buy another banner, buying another hero means we're going to have to drop a banner and two shields (or drop the Drummer) and waste a bunch of warrior slots. My Uruk-Hai Scout Captain has a two-handed axe for convenience, though you could take either a shield or (my actual favorite option - see the previous list) an Uruk-Hai bow if that's more up your alley. Ugluk's warband gets the two Uruk-Hai Scouts with no gear (just in case you need to take off someone's head). With 43 models, this army is quite large for a 700-point game, but not THAT large (and not that resilient either, except in their speed):

• Lurtz with shield [AL]
• 6 Uruk-Hai Scouts with shields
  
• 1 Uruk-Hai Scout with Uruk-Hai bow and banner
• 3 Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows
• INDEPENDENT: Uruk-Hai Drummer
  
• Ugluk
• 2 Uruk-Hai Scouts
  
• 5 Uruk-Hai Scouts with shields
• 3 Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows
  
• Mauhur
• 7 Uruk-Hai Scouts with shields
  
• 1 Uruk-Hai Scout with Uruk-Hai bow and banner
  
• 2 Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows
  
• Uruk-Hai Scout Captain with two-handed axe
• 5 Uruk-Hai Scouts with shields
• 3 Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows
  

Both 500 and 700 didn't seem like great points levels to me, so I looked at 600 points (which, conveniently, is the same points level that the Breaking of the Fellowship Legion likes to play at). This list dropped the Uruk-Hai Scout Captain and some guys (and some shields) in order to get the three named heroes and 3 banners. Despite the reduced points level, this army is still a decent horde with 35 models - I think this is the actual sweet spot for this Legion and I'm quite excited to try this list:

• Lurtz with shield [AL]
• 6 Uruk-Hai Scouts with shields
  
• 1 Uruk-Hai Scout with Uruk-Hai bow and banner
• 2 Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows
• INDEPENDENT: Uruk-Hai Drummer
  
• Ugluk
• 2 Uruk-Hai Scouts
• 5 Uruk-Hai Scouts with shields
• 1 Uruk-Hai Scout with Uruk-Hai bow and banner
• 3 Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows
  
• Mauhur
• 2 Uruk-Hai Scouts
• 5 Uruk-Hai Scouts with shields
  
• 1 Uruk-Hai Scout with Uruk-Hai bow and banner
• 3 Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows
  

Army Summary

So, that's it for Lurtz's Scouts. From a thematic point of view, I'm very happy we have this Legion, but honestly, I don't see myself running it except at 600 points (and I'll be missing my pikes and Thrydan). In our next post, we'll be staying in the Quest of the Ringbearer book and viewing the Cirith Ungol Legendary Legion. With a slightly larger profile list, this army provides flexibility in your list building and potential for a money pit to form. While the army has a host of options, what's the best way to approach small points games? And how good are those Mordor Uruks anyway (who are re-skinned Uruk-Hai Scouts from Isengard with worse bows and options for two-handed weapons)? Find out next time - until then, happy hobbying!