Army Concept: Girls Night Out

 

Hey Reader!

As I'm kicking around a few ideas for an army for our next tournament, an idea struck me that led me down a very deep rabbit hole (considering the army build restrictions) one night, and that meant I had to write a blog post for you all to talk about this very strange but very interesting concept. It's not a "meta" way to build an army, but golly is it a fun idea, so I thought I'd share it with you.

The army is a "Girls Night Out" army, and has a simple rule for army building: all of the models must be female. This means we have a very short list in our game, and it's probably only a Forces of Good army (but NOT ALWAYS - MORE ON THAT AT THE END!), but the models you get access to are actually really good, and you can build some pretty competitive lists with them.

So with no further ado, the rules and the profiles we can use.

I.  Defining a "Girls Night Out" Army

As mentioned earlier, our choices of models is very limited: even if you convert up unnamed captain models, you don't have a lot of choices. Assuming that you can turn any captain, King of Men (Queen of Men? Kind of a cool concept, and we know of at least three Numenorean queens who ruled), or warrior choice into a female character, here's the named profiles we can choose from:

Galadriel: Arguably the strongest of the characters we have to work with, we can either take her as a support caster who can regrow our Fate Points (assuming the Mirror is close) or as a decent close combat hero who can give us exceptional magic defense. The former is not as powerful in combat, but does have a stronger ally matrix, so keep that in mind.

Arwen: We get access to another F6 character with magic! This is very useful, as it also gives us a way to knock people down (through Wrath of Bruinen and charging people with Asfaloth) which should increase our killing power. We have the typical low Strength, low Defense issue that this army will generally struggle with, but whatcha gonna do.

Tauriel offers us a reliable infantry hero both at range and up close, which is really nice, and I think challenges Galadriel for the place of "Most Valuable Player" in our list. She still suffers from low Defense, but honestly that's just standard Mirkwood, so we're fine with that. Tack onto this that some of her fellow rangers already have female sculpts, and it's easier to add a Mirkwood contingent than it is for other armies in the line as we don't have to do as many conversions.

Eowyn: So to start off, we cannot take Dernhelm, as Merry is not "Mary," so that's a loss. But on her own Eowyn is a decent captain-level model, sporting F5 and 2 Fate instead of the traditional 1, all while still being around the same cost as a Rohan Captain thanks to that S3 reduction. And since she can take throwing spears and potentially benefit from the Rohan army bonus, she's a decent slayer. Not great, but decent, especially for her points cost. She can also get up to D5, which is more than Galadriel and Arwen can claim, but still not great.

Hilda-Bianca: We can get access to dirt cheap (and decent) spear support, so that's nice, and a useful special rule as well. She's nothing to write home about, but she gives you access to a small retinue of cheap spears. The other thing she does for you: she's a Fortitude hero for 30 points, so allying with historical allies is very, very easy.

You would have access to Sigrid and Tilda if you could take Bard, but alas, it's not possible. So we will not be looking at them today.

No comment on whether Alfrid in the dress should count in this list.

Rosie Cotton and Lobelia Sackville-Baggins offer us two Shire heroes, which means we could take a small contingent of two-handed weapons and/or bows to support the main lines, and for dirt cheap (easily under 50pts for almost 10 models). The trick is that these are Minor and Independent heroes, so getting them in an army is going to be hard. More on them in the next post in our series.

It's also worth noting that we have an option on the Forces of Evil side, as Dunland has one female hero: Frida Tallspear. She's not the most amazing hero ever, but hey - we have a hero! And that may be all we need. More on her later, though it's also worth noting that unnamed heroes for Forces of Evil also include (assuming there are female verions of these) dragons and cave drakes for Moria (and the presence of eggs makes me think the cave drake model is female), wild warg chieftains for Angmar (she-wolf matriarch that leads the pack), unnamed spirit models for Angmar, and (if there are female versions) trolls, though this is a hotly debated topic by the few who really care. 

So...yeah, there are some very interesting options, though not all of them may present many options for warrior choices, thanks to the fact that, as far as we know, all orcs, goblins, and uruk-hai are male.

With this in mind, the rules are simple: all models must 1) be female, and 2) still follow all the normal rules for list building. This means if we want a convenient alliance we need a Valour or Legend hero from all forces involved. If we want a historical alliance we need a Fortitude or higher hero from all forces. That makes things tricky (as we have Galadriel and a Queen of Men for Valour, and Tauriel, Arwen, and captains for Fortitude), but them's the rules.

So with these restrictions, let's look at five army lists: three historical alliances (I thought about doing a pure list, but I wanted to show off more of the models), and two "Kicks and Grins" pure armies for the Forces of Evil (because we don't have nearly enough green alliances/unnamed Valour heroes in Forces of Evil to make alliances work).

II.  Sample Army Lists (550pts)

Since our next tournament is at 550ish points, I opted to build lists at this point level. You can scale it to your needs as desired, but this at least gives you a base for what you can do.

Army #1: The Lorien Ladies

When Galadriel's granddaugther, Arwen Undomniel, spent several years in Lorien, one could imagine her going on a journey with her grandmother and the woodland maidens of Lorien on an adventure, and this is that force. With a captain assigned to her by her father and a small honorguard accompanying her, Arwen joins her grandmother's local guard in driving back those that would threaten the wood.

Warband 1

Galadriel, Lady of Lothlorien (Army Leader): 130pts

1 Wood Elf Warrioress with Elf Bow and Banner: 35pts

5 Wood Elf Warrioresses with Elf Bows: 50pts

7 Galadhrim Warrioresses with Spears and Shields: 66pts

5 Galadhrim Warrioresses with Shields: 50pts

Warband 2

Arwen Undomniel with Asfaloth: 70pts

Warband 3

High Elf Captain with Horse, Lance, and Shield: 95pts

2 Rivendell Knights with Shields: 44pts

TOTAL: 550pts, 23 models, 6 Might, 2 Spellcasters

Now you could give the captain an elf bow, drop 3 Galadhrim Warriors with Shields, and take the Mirror if you wanted to, but since you don't actually have a lot of Fate I didn't see it being a huge requirement to take, especially if it's going to bring your army down to 20 models (more if you have more than 550 points). That seems low for not having a power hero to deal with threats, but as regards warrior slaying, this is actually a pretty good list: you'll knock over a lot of stuff, you'll kill a lot of things at range, and you've got some of the best cav in the game supported by Wrath of Bruinen. 

Army #2: Ride for Ruin

This is the "Biker Gang" build: Eowyn, a captain, and a retinue of royal guards and outriders join forces with a Queen of Men and her retinue of loyal knights to drive off the Dunlendings, or Easterlings, or orcs, or whatever threatens the Eastfold and the norther borders of Gondor. While you're not as good at skirmishing as a pure Rohan force, you get a lot of lances (and access to Heroic Defense, something that the vast majority of Rohan heroes don't get) and a lot of D6 for a heavy hitting charge.

Warband 1

Queen of Men with Heavy Armor, Shield, Armored Horse and Lance: 90pts

1 Knight of Minas Tirith with Shield and Banner: 39pts

7 Knights of Minas Tirith with Shield: 98pts

Warband 2

Captain of Rohan with Horse, Shield, Heavy Armor, and Throwing Spears: 70pts

2 Rohan Royal Guards with Horses and Throwing Spears: 34 pts

4 Rohan Outriders with Horses: 52pts

Warband 3

Eowyn with Armor, Shield, Throwing Spears, and Horse: 65pts

6 Rohan Royal Guards with Horses and Throwing Spears: 102pts

TOTAL: 550pts, 23 models, 6 Might

Amazingly, you have the same number of models as the Lorien Ladies, and admittedly a small list at 550pts, but golly do you get good charges. You have almost 20 charge cav supported by 4 dedicated skirmishers (but over half of your army is capable of skirmishing), and you have almost 10 lances in this list. You have a good mix of F3 and F4 for your warriors and two heroes at F5, and you get 8 bodyguards, so dealing with Terror is relatively reliable.

Army #3: The Lakeside Lasses

We head next to another historical alliance, this time in the northern reaches near Erebor. Tauriel and a troop of woodland warriors join up with Hilda-Bianca and some of the women of the refounded kingdom of Dale. And with multiple warbands, you can likely deploy some of your tiny warbands first, find out where your enemy is deployed, and then position your women accordingly.

Warband 1

Tauriel with Elf Bow (Army Leader): 90pts

5 Mirkwood Rangers: 70pts

2 Mirkwood Elves with Elven Glaives: 22pts

Warband 2

Mirkwood Captain: 75pts

7 Palace Guards with Shields: 91pts

1 Mirkwood Elf with Shield and Banner: 35pts

3 Mirkwood Elves with Elven Glaives: 33pts

Warband 3

Hilda-Bianca: 30pts

12 Lake-town Militia with Shields and Spears: 84pts

Warband 4

Alfrid the Councilor (in a dress): 20pts

TOTAL: 550pts, 34 models, 6-9 Might

If you don't think Alfrid counts, you can drop him, add another ranger, and change up the Mirkwood selections to optimize for points (or just drop some shields on the Lake-town Militia to get a second ranger). Any way you do it, you've got a pretty good-sized army (thanks to cheap heroes), a lot of F5 and F6, a solid frontline of heavy troops, some two-handed options (with elven weapons), and a good bit of cover fire from elf bows. Actually a pretty dangerous force at this points level.

Army #4: Frida's Femme Fatals

Since Frida is our named Isengard female hero, we'll use Frida and another Dunlending Chieftainess (though there's a way to run this with just Frida - more on that below) leading a troop of Dunlendings along with, assuming there are female trolls, three Isengard trolls. That's right: 330pts worth of pain and suffering, all running down your throat to buy time for everyone else (and helping to solve the issue of not having a good power hero).

Warband 1

Frida Tallspear (Army Leader): 65pts

3 Isengard Trolls: 330pts

3 Dunlending Horsemen: 36pts

1 Dunlending Huscarl: 11pts

Warband 2

Dunlending Chieftainess with Shield: 60pts

3 Dunlending Warriors with Shields: 32pts

3 Dunlending Warriors with Bows: 24pts

TOTAL: 550pts, 15 models, 5 Might

Now, if you really like the use of trolls (and are okay with a very small army), you can reduce the army to Frida, 4 Isengard Trolls, 3 Horsemen, and 1 bowman (because we should probably have some shooting in this army); you could trade out the horsemen for a bannerman with a shield if you wanted, but I recommend the horses for mobility. If you don't think trolls can be female, you can switch them out for more chieftainesses, huscarls, infantry, and horsemen, or maybe throw in some crebain for more mobility options.

Army #5: The She-Wolf Pack (Nothing clever here - if you come up with a name, drop it in the comments below, because I've got nothing save a crazy idea)

This is a pretty straightforward army: a Wild Warg Chieftainess leads a few pack animals, some renegade trolls who fear her, and a long-dead woman and her swordmaidens who join the She-Wolf to pillage the villages of the surrounding area. In the process they come across the enemy, and go to town against them. With good mobility, a mix of F5 and F6 to support them, reliable wounding power, the ability to keep the enemy from getting natural 6s on duel rolls, and access to the monster rules, we've got ourselves an army that will rake up points in a Reconnoiter match or a To the Death match (though it will struggle with other scenarios, and may not even win in those scenarios).

Warband 1

Wild Warg Chieftainess (Army Leader): 80pts

12 Wild Wargs: 84pts

Warband 2

Shade: 100pts

2 Cave Trolls with Hand-and-a-Half Hammers: 160pts

7 Spectres: 105pts

3 Wild Wargs: 21pts

TOTAL: 550pts, 26 models (so full warbands for what you can take), 2 Might, 8 "Spellcasters"

Wow, so 16 models that move 10" on a turn (one of which has all of your Might Points), two monsters, plus a bunch of dead guys and a shade to make spear support, banner support, and high-Defense-low-Courage models obsolete. Not the "meta" way to play Angmar by any stretch of the imagination, but golly this would be so much fun to play, :)

You could argue that all trolls are male, in which case you could switch out the trolls for two barrow wights and more wargs, and you'd be just as dangerous. But if you want to put some dreadlocks on a few trolls and add a tank top...I dunno, I feel like that could be a pretty fun conversion.

Conclusion

You know how there's that one guy in the gaming group who gives you that in-depth analysis you never really needed or wanted, but once it's there it sticks in your mind? That's what I suspect I am for our gaming group, :P And I'm sorry for what I've done to your sense of peace in this post, but as someone who has nieces and a wife who ask about playing the game and using girls, I really like the idea of a Girls Night Out army. If you're looking for something different/some interesting restrictions on army building for your next game, consider running a Girls Night Out army.

In my next post, I'll talk about the next iteration of the list - because we clearly aren't done, :P

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"Lie back on the floor," said Firenze in a calm voice, "and observe the heavens.  Here is written, for those who can see, the fortune of our races." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix