The Stuff of Legends: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep

Good morning gamers,

We've talked about a few Isengard Legions already - we've looked at both Lurtz's Scouts and Ugluk's Scouts, both of which have a smattering of mid-range heroes and a handful of warrior options. To continue the trend, we're looking today at the Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legendary Legion, which has even fewer heroes and roughly the same number of warrior choices. Unlike the other Legions, this Legion is commonly viewed to be one of the best Legendary Legions in the game for competitive play - and that might be due to the nasty siege engines and powerful warrior choices they have. It's certainly not because of their heroes . . . or is it?

Let's dive in and see what we have!

Part 1: What Do You Need?

Legion Tax: probably 65pts, technically 60-75pts

This Legion requires you to take an Uruk-Hai Captain, who must be your army leader and gains +1 Attack and +1 Wound. This Captain (who we'll be calling the "Uber-Captain" from now on) isn't THAT much better than other Uruk-Hai heroes, but with 3A/3W, he's a pretty decent hero. No addition of Heroic Strike means that he's going to be good against warrior models (where being F5 is generally good enough).

You can equip this Captain with a crossbow (don't do it), a shield (pretty good option), or a two-handed weapon (I like the two-handed axe option the most). While you CAN give your hero all three of these things, you should probably just choose one (making your hero 65 points). The shield makes him a pretty good "Rock hero" (able to shield in order to get 6 Attacks), but the "Hatchet build" with the two-handed axe makes him more likely to get a high die roll before you suffer the -1 penalty from the two-handed weapon. If he wins the fight with the two-handed axe, he can do 3 Attacks at S5 (or S6 with Piercing Strike) and +1 To Wound - which will wound most warrior models on 3s. THREES! If you're unfamiliar with my taxonomy of Uruk-Hai heroes, check out my article on them here.

Thanks to the Legion bonuses, this hero can lead 18 models, which means you will probably need 1-2 other heroes to lead troops (depending on how big your points limit is). Personally, I would start off with either an Uruk-Hai Captain with crossbow (an "Arrow build") or an Uruk-Hai Shaman with armor.

Because of the bonuses that are provided to this Legion, you probably want to take an Uruk-Hai Demolition Team (with two extra flaming brands for 82 points) and an Uruk-Hai Assault Ballista led by a Siege Veteran (for 65 points). Unless you feel like these things are disgusting and have no place in matched play scenarios (which we'll discuss later), having your army leader and both of these siege weapons will cost you "only" 212 points and you still have 15 warrior slots in your leader's warband and you have 4 slots for extra siege crew. After picking up another hero for 55-65 points, you can include up to 27-33 models, which means that even at 500 points, you can field one of each of the siege weapons and a LOT of troops (you also need to bring at least one banner with this army - you have the points for it).

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

The normal Isengard faction has a lot more unit choices - not only in terms of heroes, but also in terms of warriors. You keep most of your army bonuses from the normal Isengard faction, but you also gain some neat rules. Let's delve into the strengths and weaknesses of this Legion.

Weakness #1: No Mounts

Assault Upon Helm's Deep Bonuses

This army, like the Defenders of Helm's Deep Legion, has no cavalry models. Cavalry are not rare in Isengard (Saruman, Grima, Thrydan, Sharku, Warg Riders, and Dunlending Cavalry - ignoring Crebain and Uruk-Hai Marauders who are fast but not cavalry), but none of them were at Helm's Deep, so this list is limited to all infantry. 

Strength #1: Lots of March

You have exactly two specialized heroic actions in this Legion: Heroic March and Heroic Channelling. Unless you take Shamans, all you'll have is March - and truthfully, this is all you need. March is great - you can move those Uruk-Hai 9" if they don't charge, which is a great way to cross a field quickly or catch up to cavalry that are trying to evade you. You don't have access to Uruk-Hai Drummers in this list, but you can get a War Drum on an Isengard Troll (which would give you 12" movement in a turn - which would be pretty good albeit very expensive).

Weakness #2: VERY Limited Hero Options

As we already mentioned, you have access to two kinds of heroes: Uruk-Hai Shamans (who are good at helping you pass Courage tests and potentially saving wounds, but not fighting) and Uruk-Hai Captains (who are okay at fighting, but not great). Unlike most armies, your heroes exist to kill off warriors, not take down enemy heroes (your siege engines will have to do that). You CAN equip an Uruk-Hai Captain with a shield to tie down an enemy hero (being a Rock) for a few turns (D7 could be wounded on 6s, shielding will give you 4-6 dice, which might mean you are rolling more dice than they are).

Strength #2: Good Core Warriors

You know my favorite way of taking down hero-heavy armies? Throw Uruk-Hai Warriors at them! Thanks to their pikes, Uruks can pile in a lot of attacks into a fight - and this often means that you can get a 6. Sure, any hero with F5+ can win the fight if they also roll a 6, but anytime they don't roll a 6, they'll be forced to burn through their Might in order to not die. After they're out of Might, any roll that doesn't show a 6 could mean their death - especially if they're trapped. Sail in a hero with Might (and maybe a two-handed weapon) and you're in for a good time!

But even if you don't like throwing your Uruk-Hai Warriors into combat, you have two other options: Uruk-Hai Berserkers (who have more attacks AND two-handed weapons at a marginally higher price) or Isengard Trolls (who I don't really like in this list - they're really expensive and have a high Fight value that can't be increased with Strike). You can also just rely on your crossbow-armed Uruk-Hai Warriors to kill enemy heroes - though ranking up your warriors seems to be the better approach to me.

Strength #3: Those Dang Siege Engines

The two siege weapons available to Isengard are both present in this Legion: Isengard Assault Ballistas are really powerful, long-range siege engines that can throw a model through ranks behind it if you can get a direct hit (which, with rerolls on your To Hit and Scatter rolls thanks to the Legion bonuses, isn't as hard to get as it normally is). With an auto-kill on basically any model in the game that can't save the wound, it's a great way to get Fate points off heroes early (making them vulnerable to two-handed weapons, crossbow bolts, or lots of attacks from pike-supported warriors). 

The Demolition Team is a different kind of beast: it's a siege engine that can be Marched towards the enemy and (unless used very well) is likely to kill some of your own units as well as some of your opponent's units. If you can get a 6 on your Detonation roll, you can quite easily one-turn-kill most heroes in the game - that's pretty cool! Keeping models with Flaming Brands alive is usually the problem with this model - if the 1-3 models with Flaming Brands die in a freak accident (aka, they weren't screened from enemy archery), then detonating the charge becomes a chance event, meaning that placing the charge in a good spot might not result in it being detonated and the charge could be lost in the scuffle.

While both of these units can be a great strength for the Legion, they can also be a huge disadvantage: both of these weapons encourage your opponent to not want to play the game. The risk of being auto-killed by an Isengard Assault Ballista from far away for by a Demolition Team up close is a HUGE disincentive to do anything except hide behind cover. If they never come out, there's not much reason for you to go to them (since your ballista don't have volley fire and so will take in-the-way rolls for each friendly model between the target and the ballista itself). As a result, the battle could be a stand-off and no one plays the game. Blame could be placed on either side, but the point is this: these are good units that can make the game unfun for your opponent. So be mindful of that.

Part 3: Legendary Legion Improvements

There are only a few improvements I would make to this Legion. First and foremost, I would have given this Legion a bonus for having pikemen in the front ranks. In the movies, we see the ranks of pikes (not shield-carrying guys in front of pikes) meeting the charge of both Elves and Riders of Rohan, and there just isn't a reason to do that in MESBG. There are several ideas I have that could replicate this:

First, if a pike-armed model is charged by at least one enemy model, did not move this round, and is supported by two pike-armed models, all three pike-armed models gain +1 To Wound if they win the duel roll. This would encourage you to double-support, but would trade your model being trapped for getting +1 to Wound on all three models. Maybe that's worth it?

Alternatively, you could make the bonus more passive: after a fight is resolved that had a pike-armed model engaged in the fight, one enemy model engaged in the fight suffers 1 S4 hit for each pike-carrying model that was engaged in the fight. This would be more like "hey, I'm holding my hedge of pikes out to you - you can run on it if you want to, but you might die."

A third option (which would really be only against cavalry instead of against Elves) would be this: if a cavalry model charges a pike-armed model that did not move this round, it loses its cavalry charge bonuses. This rule could be ignored by the Riders of Eomer LL on the turn they use the Sun is Rising rule, but you get the idea: lay down a hedge of pikes, charge them if you dare.

Honestly, the rest of the Legion is fine by me - no objections to it at all.

Part 4: Army Strategies

Your strategy begins with your siege engines. Even in small games, you can get a Ballista and a Demo Team - and honestly, I'd stop at one of each. Getting one of each will make the game hard enough for your opponent and each additional siege engine you take will just make it less fun for your opponent and encourage him to avoid playing the game directly. As has already been mentioned, you should pay +2 points for two extra Flaming Brands so that if the Berserker dies early, you can still detonate the charge reliably (more on that in a second).

Assuming you have a Demolition team (3 melee warriors) and a Ballista (2 melee warriors), you'll want to add 3 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows and 1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with pike (or shield) and banner. This will give you 9 warriors, two heroes (a Captain and a Siege Veteran), and 280 points spent. With 11 more warrior slots, you can just fill out the warband with Uruk-Hai Warriors or Uruk-Hai Berserkers if you are playing at/below 400 points, but otherwise you'll want to look into your second hero.

If you're running a Demolition Team, you want an Uruk-Hai Shaman next. Not only can Channelled Fury mean that some of your warriors shrug off wounds, but it will also mean that your Flaming-brand-carrying-Warriors can auto-pass their Courage test to light the charge - which is awesome (saves your Berserker from having to do it). A Shaman will run you an additional 55 points (with armor), bringing your army up to 335 points (and you have 23 warrior slots left in your army).

An important note on positioning your Captains: if you intend to March, you can run a Captain in the front rank of your formation, or in a "Falcon" formation. This embeds the Captain in the center of a ball (no more than 6" in radius) and leave a section of the ball open so the Captain has some maneuverability. Then move everyone else in as straight a path as possible to reform the ball (starting with the wings and moving to the rear). If you leave more than a straight path for the Captain, you can even shift the formation a bit if you need to change its heading.

Your warrior make-up should be as close to 33% crossbows to melee troops as you can (though random points will make a difference for you). If you find that you're 1-2 points over with 33% bows and have taken at least one Assault Ballista, consider taking 1-2 extra crew (9 pts/model) so that you can get a few more crossbows - siege troops aren't bad (they're Uruk-Hai Warriors without extra gear) and can give you a few spotters that you can use to find targets for your Ballista (though in-the-ways are still measured from the Ballista itself).

I generally recommend favoring pikes over shields for your melee troops. While Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields are really good troops, you can use your crossbow troops as front-line troops when your opponent gets close (racing your pikes behind your crossbowmen as they prepare one last volley), which means you want a 3:1:2 ratio of pikes:shields:crossbows. This will give you 1 pike to support each member of your army, which you can change up to be a two-deep formation if you really want to.  I don't like giving crossbows pikes (you don't want -1 penalties to your dueling rolls). If you like Berserkers (they can be really useful), use them to sub out for shield guys - not pikes. You need your troops to do the killing, so the crossbows are the most important troops, then the pikes, then the shields.

Your crossbows and your Ballista are key to your army's strategy (and the crossbows are even more key if you're not running a ballista). Because your troops will be doing most of the killing in this army, you need them throwing their S4 damage out as far as possible (and as quickly as possible). March them into a good position (look for firing lanes) and harass your opponent's troops. While you might be tempted to shoot with everyone, keep an eye out for where your opponent can go next, moving some crossbows to cut off their escape (a few less shots won't be a problem if it keeps you from being denied shots on the following round).

As has already been mentioned, there is some utility in equipping an Isengard Troll with a war drum, but I'm not sure he's worth the points you pay for him (you can buy two Captains OR a Captain and a Ballista for the same price). F7 is great, except when you run into someone who can Strike from F5+ - then you're hoping that your D8 keeps you alive.

Finally, let's talk about placing that Demo charge. The charge should be in the back of your army - behind 3-4 ranks of guys to ensure you have good in-the-ways for your brand-bearers against enemy archery. Keep the Demolition Team and a Shaman within 6" of one or more Captains who can call March so that you can declare a March when you get close to the enemy. This will allow you to get 9" threat with a model that is unlikely to be charged, regardless of whether you're moving first or second. When you figure out where you want the charge to go, make sure the Shaman (with Fury up - channelled if you like) is within 6" of the final destination of both Uruk-Hai Warriors with flaming brands (so either can auto-pass their Courage test). The Berserker should be beyond 2" of the bomb - you want the Berserker to stick around for the fight. At the start of the following Fight phase (before Heroic Combats), you should blow up the bomb, auto-passing the required Courage test with one of the Uruk-Hai with brands and see what carnage erupts!

Part 5: Army Showcase

In our first list, we're getting the "triple threat" into a 500-pt game: an Uber-Captain, a Demolition Team, and an Assault Ballista. This list includes all three of these elements, pairing the Demolition Team with a Shaman and giving both Uruk-Hai Warriors in the Demo Team Flaming Brands so that the Berserker doesn't have to light to charge. The list also includes a heap of crossbows and the Ballista to pummel the enemy ranks and force them to come to us. Once they reach you, they'll have to deal with the Demo Charge, the two-handed weapon captain, and your Berserkers/Uruk-Hai horde - that's a pretty nasty proposition.

• Uruk-Hai "Uber Captain" with two-handed axe [AL]
• 6 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
• 4 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with pike and banner
• Uruk-Hai Shaman with armor
• 1 Uruk-Hai Demolition Team
• 2 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
• 2 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
• 4 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• Uruk-Hai Siege Veteran with Assault Ballista
• 1 Siege Crew
• 1 Siege Crew with pike

As we bump this list up to 700 points, we're showcasing the "playing nice" army - one that limits your use of Ballista and Demo Teams to one of each (instead of getting two of each). While both of these units are really good in this Legion, I feel like both are ways to make your opponent hate the game he's playing. If you play someone for two hours, they should enjoy it, right? So if you want to lessen the competitive atmosphere, only include one of each - they're in your Legion rules, so you should have them. But don't overload them - it'll be unfun fast. This list relies on another key aspect of the list: spamming Uruk-Hai with another Captain (18 warrior slots each, baby!). With 41 models, you've got a nice, tidy horde (though admittedly only 11 models above our 500-pt list, which was already hording out). But you have 6 extra crossbows - one of which is on a hero - so that's pretty sweet.

• Uruk-Hai Uber-Captain with two-handed axe [AL]
• 6 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
• 6 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with pike and banner
• Uruk-Hai Captain with crossbow
• 5 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
• 6 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• Uruk-Hai Shaman with armor
• 1 Uruk-Hai Demolition Team
• 2 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
• 2 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
• 4 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• Uruk-Hai Siege Veteran with Assault Ballista
• 1 Siege Crew
• 1 Siege Crew with pike

Okay, our third list is the not-nice list. Why not run two ballista and two demo teams, right? This list sports 37 models, which is only four models fewer than the previous list, which is mostly because we're buying a ballista (which comes with 3 models) and another demo team (which has 3 models). The extra Ballista does require us to have two Heroes of Fortitude, so this list sees our Shaman disappear from the list - this makes the army worse at charging Terror armies (and not as reliable at getting the charges to blow up without the help of your Berserkers - you'll notice that we didn't get the extra flaming brands on the demo teams).

• Uruk-Hai Uber-Captain with two-handed axe [AL]
• 1 Uruk-Hai Demolition Team
• 8 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
• 6 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with pike and banner
• Uruk-Hai Captain with crossbow
• 1 Uruk-Hai Demolition Team
• 2 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
• 3 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
• 3 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• Uruk-Hai Siege Veteran with Assault Ballista
• 1 Siege Crew
• 1 Siege Crew with pike
• Uruk-Hai Siege Veteran with Assault Ballista
• 1 Siege Crew
• 1 Siege Crew with pike

One last list: if you despise Demo Teams and Ballista and think they're unfair and game-breaking, here's the list for you: just take the +6 warrior slots from the Legion and run an Uruk-Hai spam team. This list takes three Uruk-Hai Captain (Uber-Captain has a two-handed axe, one has a crossbow, other has a shield) and a Shaman, along with FORTY-ONE Uruk-Hai Warriors (half of which are pikemen, one third are crossbowmen, and a handful have shields). 45 models with 15 crossbows at 700 points (that are predominantly F4/S4/D5)? That's not bad at all (though only slightly larger than the "playing nice" list) . . .

• Uruk-Hai Uber-Captain with two-handed axe
• 5 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
• 6 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with pike and banner
• Uruk-Hai Captain with crossbow
• 5 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
• 6 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• Uruk-Hai Captain with shield
• 4 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with shield and weapon-swapped hammer (or axe) - because we had a point left over
• 6 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• Uruk-Hai Shaman with armor
• 4 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
• 3 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes

Army Summary

Well, that's another Legion for the books. if you have any thoughts on the Legion, leave them in the comments below! Next time, Centaur takes us through a very different Isengard Legion: the Wolves of Isengard. With only three hero options and two warrior profiles, you don't have a lot of options in your list, but you're probably more excited about maelstrom missions than anyone else. This Legion relies on dealing with your opponent's big pieces asymmetrically, which rewards players for their skill (but has a steep learning curve). Join us next time - until then, happy hobbying!