The Bare Necessities, Part XXXIII: The Rangers

Good morning gamers,

We've already looked at two all-hero armies in this series (the Fellowship and Thorin's Company). Both factions behave similarly, so I reviewed them together. Both lists, no matter how you run them, are going to be constrained on model count - especially if you're going to include any kind of "good" heroes from the list. Today, we're going to look at the Rangers, who are capable (as I've recently come to find out) of having quite large numbers, despite everyone being "heroes". Let's look at what they do and what we need to think about when running them!

The Rangers: Allies, Pure, or Legendary Legion?

There are three ways you can run the Rangers right now: a) you can ally a few Rangers into an army (giving cavalry options and hitting power to a Shire force, for example), b) you can run the Grey Company Legendary Legion (which gives the list some extra army bonuses and trades Arathorn and Dunedain for Legolas, Gimli, and Elladan/Elrohir), or c) you can run "just the Rangers." As discussed in my review of the Grey Company, if you plan on running Aragorn, you should be running the Legendary Legion (just because you'd need to run 7+ Dunedain in order to make up for getting Anduril for free). Sure, you can't get horses in the Legendary Legion, but there are SO many points savings you get (not to mention a better array of power heroes to back Aragorn up). 

Allying with the Shire can give you numbers (we'll look at them at the end of this post), which is the one thing this army really struggles with - though the numbers they give you will be light troops and unless you splurge on Gandalf, you're not going to be protecting them from archery. Generally when you ally with the Shire, you feel like the allied contingent, not the main contingent. Similarly, you CAN ally with the Dead of Dunharrow, but this would require a) running Aragorn, and b) you're not getting troops that are THAT much cheaper (and you'll be investing 100 points on the King of the Dead). You can ally this way, but I'm not sure it's really worth it (unless you want D8 blockers for your archers).

Today, I wanted to look at a pure Rangers army (no allies), but we managed to get almost all of our criteria met at 700 points (despite not having allies):

The List

• Arathorn [ARMY LEADER]
• 10 Dunedain
• 1 Dunedain with spear
• Halbarad on horse with the Banner of Arwen Evenstar
• 3 Rangers of the North on horses
• 5 Dunedain (as independent warbands)

21 models, 21 bows hitting on a 3+, no D6+ models, 4 cavalry, 25 Might points

The purchases required to get these units are as follows:

• You need to get the Arathorn and Halbarad set - the two sculpts for Halbarad means that you can hack one up to put on a horse (which we need for this list);
• You'll need 6 Rangers of the North (two packs) IF you're willing to swap spears that you don't want with sword bits from your bits bin (or give other models spears - like Warriors of Numenor or Rangers of Gondor);
• You'll need 16 Dunedain (six packs, again with the requirement of being willing to swap spears for swords); and
• You'll need 4 cavalry models (Riders of Rohan are good choices - easy to get, easy to convert).

If you're on a budget, you could just use Rangers of Gondor/Arnor in place of the Rangers of the North and Dunedain if you make sure they're painted appropriately to tell them apart. Using the official models will be pretty expensive ($120 for all of the Dunedain/Rangers of the North in this list), but the models look great if you're willing to pay the price. 

It's important to note that for every 5 Dunedain we choose to drop, we could add 4 Rangers of the North, which would lower our numbers a little, and would (theoretically) increase our resilience. D4 isn't great, but increasing Defense doesn't always make things betters. You can run 18 models with 12 Rangers of the North and the Dunedain with spear instead of running 15 Dunedain and the Dunedain with spear - your choice. With only two real warbands, here's what we're looking at:

Warband #1: The Chieftain

Arathorn is not Aragorn - but he's still good. He's cheap for a 3A hero who is "vulnerable" with D5/2 Wounds/1F, but thanks to having a bow, he doesn't have to go forward and draw aggro in order to fight things and "pay for himself". While limited to being on foot, Arathorn can be hidden in terrain pretty easily and get some use out of his bow before having to fight.

Supporting him are 10 Dunedain (F4/S4 2A models with 1M/1W/1F) and 1 Dunedain with a spear to back up Arathorn while he's fighting. 10 multi-attack models with a Might point to boost are crazy good escorts for Arathorn - underestimate them at your peril. All eleven supporting heroes are D4, so make sure you have some cover between you and your opponent (you don't want those heroes risking their lives in the open with only their Fate point to save them).

Warband #2: The Cavalry

Halbarad is a decent hero, but the primary reason you take him is for his 6" banner. That banner, paired with his 3 Ranger of the North on horses, makes this a dangerous proposition for any army to face, since they'll be getting 2-3 chances of getting a 5 with Might to boost up to a 6. That's . . . pretty good for a cavalry model. 

Warbands #3-7: The Loners

We could have placed the 5 extra Dunedain in Halbarad's warband if we wanted to, but by using them as Independent warbands, we can know where our enemy has deployed before we have to deploy our important warbands (which is huge). Sure, there are some factions that will have more than 5 warbands to place, but most armies at 700 points are pressed to get 3-4 warbands on the table - and they'll know where a handful of your troops are when they're placing their most important models.

Even in maelstrom fights, these aren't bad to have, since you're only risking a single model (who has a bow and can stand away from the action and shoot if he needs to). Even if you're swarmed, you're still a 2A model with 1M/1F to help you win the duel OR keep you alive a little longer and tie down valuable enemy models.

One quick note: you COULD drop 1 Dunedain (down to 20 models) in order to upgrade 4 Dunedain to Rangers of the North OR upgrade 3 Dunedain to Rangers of the North and take 6 more spears. Frankly, I wasn't convinced that getting marginally more D5 would be better than the extra guy, so I'm spamming Dunedain.

Scenario Overview

Let’s take a look at each of the available scenarios and see some thoughts/considerations for using this list:

• Domination: Well, you can spread out in small groups across some of the objectives, but most of the time, you'll want your infantry in a ball around Arathorn and Halbarad. Your mounted models should support your main force, clearing out far-flung objectives once the center has been held. Your loner Dunedain can begin near your starting objectives, relying on their bows to clear out models that approach the objectives or try to outflank your main force. Your cavalry can charge objectives that are not well defended if required, dismounting if you want them to stay somewhere (since they'll always have 2 Attacks while on foot, while only getting 2 Attacks when charging while mounted).
• Capture and Control: Similar strategy, except we DON'T want to deploy on the center line. I mean, you CAN deploy on the center line if you intend to do a waterfall of Heroic Combats with everyone (Halbarad supporting during these fights with his banner), but I think that's a bit risky. Instead, better to hold back, shoot for a turn or two, weaken the enemy, and then race to the side/middle objectives from your back objective. Arathorn needs to stay alive, so make sure he has lots of support.
• Hold Ground: Okay, it's maelstrom. Arrive wherever, only perform a half-move if you go first (and aren't facing chariots/war beasts) so you can shoot on the first turn at anyone who arrives near you. Your cavalry can advance towards the center quickly if you aren't worried about being shot to death, but you can instead arrive in support of your main body (who has probably fired a few volleys of arrows into the enemy to soften them up. Like we talked about last time with the Fiefdoms, don't kill your opponent too quickly with your arrows - or you might cause the game to end before you can get into the center!
• Seize the Prize: Need to be quick, but like the Fiefdoms, you probably won't get there before the other guy if he can March his cavalry/fliers, so instead we want our cavalry to go a little wide of the mark and leave a nice, clean firing lane for our archers that looks right at the prize. Want to race there with a handful of cavalry? Be my guest . . .
• To The Death: So you need to break the enemy huh? Will 21 bows (all of which have 1-3 Might behind them) do the trick? And when your opponent finally engages, your guys all have 2 Attacks (and might be in range of a banner)? Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good. If your opponent doesn't want to come to you, you just have to make sure any banners he has die - with your banner intact and no banners on the other side, you'll win a low-scoring but decisive victory. Even if he has a banner (or two), you're sitting on a 1-1 draw if he doesn't want to come to you. That's also not bad.
• Lords of Battle: Lords of Battle is about kill-count. With a low Defense, low model count army (and most of those models coughing up 2 points, thanks to 1 Wound and 1 Fate each), you need to be careful to not get locked into losing fights. I'd hang back and rely on your shooting to get you some early kills (and disrupt enemy formations), but remember that your army has LOTS of Attacks (and a banner with a big radius), so be patient and engage parts of your opponent's lines.
• Contest of Champions: You've got Arathorn as your leader, who isn't BAD at killing things (F5/3A isn't horrible, but nothing to write home about), but what's really working for you in this scenario is that your army is small and everyone's got Fate/Might to make it harder to kill them. Arathorn's warband will need to deploy within 3" of the center, so it's probably for the best if you deploy everyone up close to close quickly and stall out your opponent's army leader while you race in and get some kills with Arathorn. This scenario is a toss-up to me - depends on your match-up.
• Reconnoitre: You've got 4 mounted models (Halbarad and 3 Rangers of the North) who need to get across the board and over your opponent's board edge. The rest of your army should advance up the middle, shooting anyone who tries to get past you. Your army should be broken up into different groups so that you can engage models that threaten to escape your bowfire.
• Storm the Camp: Defending your camp will be easy - you have lots of bows and lots of Might to make things work. Like we talked about last time with the Fiefdoms, you could rely on not breaking and wounding/killing the enemy army leader and just ignore the camps entirely. Shoot anyone who goes for your camp and if you have a chance for getting into your opponent's camp with any of your mounted Rangers of the North (keep Halbarad back with your main contingent), then do it!
• Heirlooms of Ages Past: Appearing everywhere (or potentially everywhere) is good in this scenario, but if a lone Dunedain picks up the Heirloom, he's not likely to keep it unless he has friends nearby - so watch out for those maelstrom deployments. In this scenario, try to get Arathorn and Halbarad on opposite sides of the board so you can get good firing lanes no matter where your opponent deploys. If you pick up the Heirloom, great - hide it away and use your bows to provide cover fire. If your opponent picks up the Heirloom, maneuver your army to provide archery pressure from two directions and kill the model carrying it (you CAN use Heroic Accuracy for this if you're feeling lucky or if you need to be lucky).
• Fog of War: Well, assume your opponent is picking a Dunedain to kill and that you won't know which one it is. You can't keep all of your men from dying (probably), so assume your opponent is getting 3 VPs for that. You can probably break your opponent (between shooting and having lots of 2A models), so do your best to use cover to keep your models from dying. Your terrain feature should be something you can drop a bunch of archers into (probably near the center line) to huddle up and defend with Halbarad and Arathorn. Pick a hero who can be shot to death easily and use your Rangers to skirmish with the enemy for as long as possible to get as many shots on that hero as you can. I think this will be a hard scenario, but hopefully you can pull it off.
• Clash By Moonlight: Um . . . you're a shooting army with 21 bows in it . . . with Might to back it up . . . get within 12" and shoot. Shoot lots. Shoot everything. Oh, and make sure you kill their heroes (all of them). Again, use cover where possible so you don't get shot up in response (because D4 will fall pretty quickly).

Modifications

There are lots of modifications you could make here:

• Run the Legendary Legion - I talked about this when I wrote the post on the Grey Company Legendary Legion, but if you're interested in running Aragorn, you should just run the Legendary Legion. Yes, you don't have access to Dunedain, but you get Anduril for free (so by running the Legion, you can upgrade almost 7 Dunedain into Rangers of the North for free). Rangers of the North are more expensive than Dunedain, but the extra Defense can be really helpful. The list below runs Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Halbarad with a fair number of Rangers of the North - only 11 models, no mounted models, but a boat load of Might, lots of shooting (Gimli is short-range, everyone else is long-range), and a really great banner. Might not be competitive, but would be a fun list to run in a pick-up game.
• Aragorn - Strider with Anduril, bow, and armor
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor and Elven cloak
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Halbarad with Banner of Arwen Evenstar
• 7 Rangers of the North
• Ally with the Shire - If the Rangers want to keep their army bonus and want to get numbers, they need to ally with the Shire (the Dead of Dunharrow won't be giving it to you). As such, you could choose to grab a contingent of Shire models to boost your numbers and take about half as many Rangers. The list below retains Arathorn, Halbarad, and 8 Dunedain (dropping all of the Rangers of the North and about half of the Dunedain) and adds Gandalf the Grey (for archery protection and hero neutralization), Farmer Maggot (for cheap fast troops), and 17 Hobbit warrior models (5 Militia, 7 Archers, and 5 Shirriffs). With 32 models, 5 mounted/fast models, a great banner, and 10 bows backed by 7 shortbows, 12 thrown stones, and a Sorcerous Blast - you've got the power to bring your opponents to you. We've also added spears to all of the Dunedain - yes, they won't be getting 2 Attacks while spear-supporting, the Dunedain will be giving you options for concentrating your attacks in fewer attacks instead of forcing you to spread out and have to wrap around models.
• Arathorn [ARMY LEADER]
• 4 Dunedain with spears
• Halbarad on horse with the Banner of Arwen Evenstar
• 4 Dunedain with spears
• HISTORICAL ALLY: Gandalf the Grey on horse
• 2 Hobbit Militia with axes
• 4 Hobbit Archers
• 2 Hobbit Shirriffs
• HISTORICAL ALLY: Farmer Maggot
• Grip, Fang, and Wolf
• 3 Hobbit Militia with axes
• 3 Hobbit Archers
• 3 Hobbit Shirriffs
• Spam the Shire - In our list today, we checked all the boxes except numbers - if you want to check that box too, Rangers go from being the prominent part of the army to a side-show for the Shire. Halbarad with his banner is a great help to Hobbits (who need banners and killing power), as are the horses they can bring. With 46 models, 15 Might, 19 bows/shortbows, and three banner zones, you've got quite a bit of options for dealing with enemy armies (you've also got 2 Might for March on Merry if you NEED to push your infantry farther up the field):
• Halbarad on horse with the Banner of Arwen Evenstar
• 3 Rangers of the North on horses
• 3 Rangers of the North
• HISTORICAL ALLY: Meriadoc, Captain of the Shire with shield
• 11 Battlin' Brandybucks
• HISTORICAL ALLY: Frodo of the Nine Fingers
• 6 Hobbit Archers
• HISTORICAL ALLY: Will Whitfoot
• 5 Hobbit Archers
• HISTORICAL ALLY: Holfoot Bracegirdle, Shirriff-Leader
• 6 Hobbit Shirriffs
• HISTORICAL ALLY: Lotho Sackville-Baggins
• 5 Hobbit Shirriffs
• Spam Infantry - I theorized this list in the Grey Company LL post, but I didn't think it was that good to highlight in this post because it a) doesn't have a banner, b) doesn't have cavalry (or March), and c) while it gets a lot of models (26 total), I think you get more out of Halbarad and the horses than you do by spamming Dunedain, but you will get to deploy 10 warbands before you need to commit to where Arathorn is - you'll know where everything is before you have to go down. 
• Arathorn
• 4 Rangers of the North
• 10 Dunedain
• 1 Dunedain with spear
• 10 Dunedain as Independent Heroes

Well, that about covers it for the Rangers. If you've enjoyed this, check out our post on the Grey Company for additional thoughts on the Rangers (Centaur also has a lot of posts on the Grey Company from past editions of the game, including tactics that are still valuable today). In our next post, we put the Forces of Good on the side and turn to a Forces of Evil army that I've been looking at a lot recently: the Serpent Horde. With a good many competitive lists for Harad involving mass hordes of infantry supported by Serpent Riders and Haradrim Raiders, you'd be surprised at the kinds of lists I've been looking at - all of which can provide niche ways of playing with the Serpent Horde. When you consider all of their green allies, you really begin to wonder what the "best" approach for the Serpent Horde might be. I won't say that I've found the "best" way to run the Serpent Horde, but I think I've found a few ways you can make a 700-point list be interesting to play with AND give you a good position to win whatever game you may have to face. See you next time - happy hobbying!