The Bare Necessities, Part XXXV: Fangorn

Good morning gamers,

As we wrap up other factions in MESBG to review for balanced lists, we come to a faction that . . . honestly . . . you're probably NOT running with a balanced list in mind. Instead, this is a monster-mash army - and the first of three armies that we'll be covering that (when run pure) HAS to focus on low numbers, but strong models. Today we're going to be covering Fangorn - an army that is hard to ally with (even though they're Convenient Allies with all Forces of Good armies) since you have only one Hero of Valor/Legend profile. Once you add Treebeard to an army, each additional Ent makes the remaining points available to you much smaller - so how on Arda can you get a 700-point army with 4+ fast models, a banner, and 30 models when you're running at least one Ent!?!?!?!? The answer might surprise you - read on if you'd like to find out.

Fangorn: So You Like Treebeard, Huh?

There are many armies that have decent Heroes of Legend, but you don't REALLY want them being your army leader. Heroes like Theoden, Girion, Galadriel, or Gandalf the Grey can all be your army leader - and if the scenarios require just keeping someone safe, maybe it's fine to have them as your army leader. However, if you have the faintest chance of getting Contest of Champions and had the choice of a F5/6 1-2A hero or a F8 3A hero (who also is D8 with 3 Wounds and 3 Fate), which would you rather have? Well, you'd probably want the F8 guy - and for that reason, allying in Treebeard is a pretty good option for some armies.

Allying him in DOES come at a cost - not only does the non-Fangorn element lose a good 190-200 points of models, but you also lose the Fangorn army bonus (Fearless is good to have, but not necessary since your Ents have good Courage - it's the immunity to magical powers that would keep you from moving or knock you over that's the real appeal). The question is whether you NEED the model count at the points level you're playing at - if you don't need the model count (Contest of Champions, Lords of Battle, To The Death), maybe you can make due without all that other stuff and instead of rely on having a few models that are hard to kill (and good at killing things).

At the end of the day, I decided that this post was going to feature an army that had a Convenient Alliance between Fangorn and an army that could give it a real banner with pretty cheap troops and some mounted models. I also wanted the Fangorn contingent to be more than just Treebeard - two or more Ents would be good. So, that gave me only a few choices - and here's the list that we ended up with . . .

The List

• Treebeard with Merry and Pippin [ARMY LEADER]
• 1 Ent
• CONVENIENT ALLY: Theoden, King of Rohan on armored horse with shield and heavy armor
• 1 Rohan Royal Guard on horse with throwing spears
• 1 Rider of Rohan
• 8 Warriors of Rohan with shields 
• 2 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• CONVENIENT ALLY: Hama, Captain of Rohan on horse with shield
• 6 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 5 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• 1 Warrior of Rohan with bow and banner

30 models, 9 bows hitting on a 4+ and 1 throwing spear hitting on a 4+ and 2 S1 thrown stones hitting on a 3+ and 2 S10 thrown stones hitting on a 4+, 4 D6+ models, 4 cavalry, 9 Might points

The purchases required to get these units are as follows:

• You'll need Treebeard and an Ent - with a new Treebeard sculpt, the height difference that was seen with the old Treebeard model and other Ent models should be less noticable;
  
• You'll also want the Battle for Pelennor Fields box set to get your Rider of Rohan, a bunch of your Warriors of Rohan, and Theoden;
• Get a blister of mounted and foot Rohan Royal Guards (unless you feel like using some green stuff to convert a Rider of Rohan and a Warrior of Rohan);
• You'll want an extra blister of Warriors of Rohan to fill out your infantry ranks; and
• You'll need to get the Hama and Gamling blister (you can probably use a mounted Rohan Royal Guard for a mounted Hama conversion - or convert another Rider of Rohan if you're not buying the Royal Guard blisters).

Any Fangorn army is going to be expensive, so don't be frightened by the expense here. While this list isn't thematic (Hama was killed before the Ents decided to rouse), you could fix that easily by swapping Hama with a Captain of Rohan on horse with heavy armor, shield, and throwing spears (which would give you a higher Fight Value on the charge and throwing spears at the expense of calling Heroic Defense with +1 Might point).

Warband #1: The Trees

Treebeard is joined by Merry and Pippin (10 point savings over buying them from the Fellowship, gets us +2 models so we can upgrade some grunts into elite troops and take a more expensive hero) and a single Ent. We'll look at lists later in this post where we just add Treebeard (and two lists where we have more than two Ents), but this list provides a single warband that can anchor your Rohan battle line really well. They're slow, but with 18" range and a 4+ shoot value with S10 rocks, I'm not too worried about your opponent coming to you. Once you're fighting, you've got a F7 monster and F8 (with Strike) monster to wreck your opponent's battle lines. They may not have their army bonus, but your opponent will have a hard time dealing with these two models with anything other than magic (or siege weapons). Merry and Pippin are also neat heroes to have in a game like Fog of War, where you can choose one of them as your hero to protect and they can't be targeted by attacks until Treebeard is killed. Good luck with that. They can also dismount from Treebeard in other missions in order to trap enemy models (which is good for Treebeard). 

Warband #2: The King of Rohan

Theoden brings most of the fast models - a Rider of Rohan and a Rohan Royal Guard (both of whom lose the extra Strength on the charge from the Rohan army bonus, but still get the bonus Fight Value when charging near Theoden). These guys are your objective grabbers (and can be used to pull models off of the Ents that you don't want to deal with - or knock models Prone who are fighting the Ents). If Aragorn thinks he's going to chop through your Ent, run one of these guys into him and suddenly he'll lose his cavalry bonuses and won't be able to kill both models. Theoden also has some infantry to hold ground and assist the cavalry in pulling unwanted models off your Ents. He's also not your army leader, so you can be a bit more reckless with him than you would normally be (and he's got 3 Might for March if you need speed).

Warbands #3: The King's Protector

Choosing Hama was an interative choice - at first, I started with Grimbold (who might be the better option, since we're going infantry-heavy) but the +10 points we spend on Hama gets us a mounted model - so most of those points could be spent upgrading a Warrior of Rohan (probably with bow) into a Rider of Rohan or a Rohan Outrider, allowing very few of our models to be upgraded to Helmingas. We could get more Helmingas if we ran three Rohan Outriders as our cavalry models instead of Riders of Rohan or Rohan Royal Guards, but I didn't think it looked as good (Outriders are pretty good cavalry archers, but not great on the charge).

I also looked at taking Elfhelm for +5 points over Hama, but once again, we'd need to focus on Outriders instead of other cavalry options. Finally, I also looked into a Captain of Rohan on horse with heavy armor and shield (optional throwing spear) for 0-5 points less, but it didn't really buy us anything except for maybe another model (or some throwing spears). Captains of Rohan are decent models on the charge near Theoden, but I wanted the extra Might from Hama (and the option for Heroic Defense).

Joining Hama (or your choice of hero) are 12 Warriors of Rohan - half with shields, half with bows (one with banner). These guys are intended to stand between the Ents and pump out archery to get your opponent to come to you. A small shieldwall will keep the archers "safe" from being shot at (though frankly, I don't think most foes will be shooting at you with those Ents chucking rocks at their heroes).

Scenario Overview

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

• Domination: You have two large infantry blocks and two big trees - I think you can hold three objectives pretty easily. Your Ents should advance towards the middle - if they're not engaged, they chuck rocks at objectives being held by 1-2 models. The Rohan blocks need to hold the enemy up on two objectives (using their cavalry to supplement their infantry blocks). Your two Warriors of Rohan with bows in Theoden's warband can sit on a starting objective and just have your mounted models able to support that objective if required.
• Capture and Control: You're starting on the middle, with Treebeard and his Ent buddy hanging out in the center, driving your opponent to the side objectives (where your Rohan blocks are waiting). Your Warriors of Rohan with bows from Theoden's warband will hang out at your back objective, letting everyone else do the fighting for you.
• Hold Ground: All three of your warbands have 3 Might, so you can probably get where you need to be. Theoden is your March factory, so ideally you don't need to spend Might with him (deploy him first). March your infantry towards the center as best you can, showing up with Treebeard and his team as quickly as possible - their big bases will deny space near the objective AND Merry and Pippin will count towards the models you have near the objective (they're passengers, so it's unclear to me if you need to dismount them or not - so dismount them when you think the game will end to be safe). 
• Seize the Prize: Most of the armies we've viewed recently have just relied on shooting at the center in this mission - not so with this army. Instead, you have some shooting, but you REALLY need to get to the center quickly and hedge the Prize. Ideally, you can get the Prize to an Ent (later handing it off to a Rider). If you can't get the Prize right away, pelt the person holding the Prize with your shooting (including your thrown rocks from the Ents), keeping your opponent on his side of the board so you can limit the points received for having the Prize.
• To The Death: Well, the Ents can make armies with little shooting come to you - but your D4-5 troops will probably need to come towards armies with high shooting. Honestly, I'm not sure this is a good mission for you - the lack of high Defense isn't good for your army. Perhaps this mission would be easier if you dropped the Ent in order to get a few more Rohan models and upgrade a chunk of your Warriors of Rohan with shields to Rohan Royal Guards (but that would be boring).
• Lords of Battle: This mission will require you to kill stuff - and you want to start on the middle line as close as you can to get those Ents working quickly. Theoden and Hama can do some damage, but mostly you want to use Hama to stall a big hero out while Theoden runs over troops (it's what he does best). Heroes without Strike (or who are out of Might) are also good targets for him - though having him with your Ent to give the Ent Heroic Combats is also a good strategy.
• Contest of Champions: Let's start with this: you've got Treebeard. With 6 Will to resist magical powers, you're probably not going to get rooted on the spot on the first turn, so get some kills as quickly as you can. If your opponent tries the "Heroic Defense ha ha" strategy, hurl the hero who called Heroic Defense (through other people if you can). Even if you don't wound/kill him, he won't be able to catch you next turn (spending half his movement to stand up and being thrown D3+<S8-S?>" away). Your other models should be trying to not be killed by the enemy army leader - use Hama, Theoden, or the Ent if possible to tie him down, since you can force resources to be spent on getting 1 kill.
• Reconnoitre: Theoden gives you March - and you want that. WHEN you March is important - you probably want to March once early on to get your Ents up the field a little faster (and your archers, as it were). Find good firing lanes for your archers to harass the enemy (and protect your board edge from models racing to escape), while your Ents shepherd enemy models away from places where you don't have good archery coverage. Your four cavalry models should plan on racing up the field in a protected spot (near your Ents perhaps?) and focus on Marching late in the game to get off the enemy board edge - get all four off and you're in good shape.
• Storm the Camp: Um . . . this one will be hard for you to get guys into the enemy camp, so don't try. Use Treebeard and the Ent to kill the enemy army leader and use your Rohan troops to keep the enemy out of your camp. If you can break him and kill his leader, he can only get a draw against you if he takes your camp AND keeps you out of his camp AND breaks you or kills Treebeard. Breaking you might happen, but you can get a win if you keep Treebeard alive and protect your camp.
• Heirlooms of Ages Past: You don't like this mission - unless you get the Heirloom first. You have lots of disposable troops who can run away from the action with the Heirloom, but not a lot of ways to get the Heirloom if you don't start near it. Do your best - this is a hard mission for basically everyone.
• Fog of War: Well, you're protecting either Merry or Pippin. No questions asked. Your opponent will probably try to kill Theoden (maybe Hama - though Heroic Defense makes it unlikely - and MAYBE Merry or Pippin if they even remember that they're valid targets) and so you want to keep both of your Rohan heroes out of danger as much as possible. Pick a piece of terrain near the centerline of the map that your Ents can take for you and use your archers to protect terrain pieces on your side of the board. Pick a hero who can be targeted by your Ents/cavalry to kill (either at a distance or in combat).
• Clash By Moonlight: You've got some shooting - and shooting that will really hurt in the form of the Ent rocks. Keep your D4 troops behind cover (not your battle lines), as the D4 will crumble fast to enemy archery. Focus on targeting heroes with your Ent rocks (and melee attacks if they let you) as getting a few hero kills will force your opponent to make difficult choices about who to charge - and keep Theoden and Hama safe so your opponent can't get quick kills off of them.

Modifications

There aren't a lot of armies that NEED their army bonuses - armies like the Rangers or the Fiefdoms really benefit from having their bonuses, though. Some armies not only really benefit from their army bonuses - but losing them would hurt Fangorn instead of helping them (the Wildmen of Druadan would be capped at +16 models to Fangorn, while the Dead of Dunharrow would give you an Impossible Alliance instead of a Convenient Alliance - though admittedly the Dead of Dunharrow wouldn't be easy to break if allied with the Ents). But there are six factions besides Rohan that, after some fiddling around, would provide most of the bonuses you want with very little lost to the factions that you choose. 

There is one faction that I wanted to include in this list (you can live without their army bonus), but I just couldn't quite make the list work out: Rivendell. While Rivendell usually allies well with other factions, Rivendell is going to struggle here because they have no cheap Valor/Legend heroes, which paired with Treebeard and some pretty expensive core troops was just going to be too expensive. So instead, we'll look at four other factions that can ally well with Fangorn.

• Ally with the Shire - If you want to bring more than two Ents in an army that KIND of plays to the balanced architecture we've set out in this series, you NEED to ally with the Shire (or Rohan). The Shire has no actual banners, but it has several heroes who can count as banners (and frankly, if you just shoot the enemy banners, you don't have to worry about not having one of your own). This list sports not one - not two - but THREE Ent heroes in it, since the Hobbit warriors and heroes are cheap. We have 31 models, 9 shortbows to supplement the three thrown stones from the Ents (and 16 weaker thrown stones from the melee Hobbit guys), and four fast infantry with Quickbeam and Grip, Fang, and Wolf. We don't have any real or pseudo-banners in this list - it would have come at the expense of downgrading Beechbone to a normal Ent (which I didn't want to do):
• Treebeard [ARMY LEADER]
• Quickbeam
• Beechbone
• CONVENIENT ALLY: Meriadoc, Captain of the Shire with shield
• 14 Battlin' Brandybucks with axes
• 1 Hobbit Archer
• CONVENIENT ALLY: Farmer Maggot
• Grip, Fang, and Wolf
• 8 Hobbit Archers
• Ally with Erebor Reclaimed - There aren't a lot of armies from the Armies of the Hobbit that can do without their army bonus, but Erebor Reclaimed is certainly one of them (especially if you're running only a handful of the Champions of Erebor and certainly if you're not running Thorin). Iron Hills Dwarves are pretty expensive, so to save on points, we've chosen the cheapest Hero of Valor we can (Balin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor - who is the WORST version of Balin in the game, if you ask me) and a March hero with a mounted Iron Hills Captain. We manage to get 30 models with a banner and LOTS of spears in the army:
• Treebeard with Merry and Pippin [ARMY LEADER]
• CONVENIENT ALLY: Balin the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
• 6 Iron Hills Warriors with spears
• 1 Iron Hills Warrior with spear and banner
• 7 Iron Hills Warriors with crossbows
• CONVENIENT ALLY: Iron Hills Captain on War Goat
• 3 Iron Hills Goat Riders
• 7 Iron Hills Warriors with spears
• 1 Iron Hills Warrior with crossbow and spear
• Ally with Lothlorien - I wish I could take full credit for this, but there's an 800-point variant of this list that has been talked a lot about by Mitchell Hammond on the Durin Show. His list, of course, has Galadriel with her Mirror to keep Treebeard's Fate level up (and he can carry it by himself wherever he wants to go). We're operating at 100 points less, so we've dumbed down Galadriel for a Galadhrim Captain with all the toys (gives us March as well - important), and we've gone with a heavily-armored Lothlorien army because we don't have Blinding Light (kills me to do it - you know I love the "pajama" Lorien Wood Elves) - though we still have 6 Wood Elf Warriors with Elf bows (because if you can find a perch behind horizontal terrain, you can't be shot at from far away). With 30 models, 4 mounted models, a banner, and LOTS of good Fight Value, we've got a nasty list for any enemy to try to push through:
• Treebeard with Merry and Pippin [ARMY LEADER]
• CONVENIENT ALLY: Haldir with heavy armor and Elf bow
• 5 Guards of the Galadhrim Court
• 1 Galadhrim Warrior with shield and spear
• 1 Galadhrim Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• 7 Galadhrim Warriors with shields
• CONVENIENT ALLY: Galadhrim Captain on armored horse with shield and Elf bow
• 2 Galadhrim Warriors with shields
• 6 Wood Elf Warriors with Elf bows
• 3 Galadhrim Knights with shields and Elf bows
• Ally with the Army of Lake-town - Frankly, I think these guys benefit from having different allies, but they could sure benefit from having a good bruiser like Treebeard. Like the Shire, there's no actual banners in this army, but with a 6" banner/FV +1, you get the benefits of a banner without actually having one. We also managed to get 2 Ent heroes in this list (Treebeard and Beechbone), so you'll get a punch you probably don't have in Lake-town unless you ally with Thorin's Company, Gwaihir, or maybe the Halls of Thranduil. We've taken the Master, Alfrid, and Braga (naturally) and nearly filled their warbands, bringing us to a healthy 44 models and 11 Might points (with potentially more Might from Alfrid, boosting the Master of Lake-town or Braga). With 13 bows and 2 Ents hurling rocks, I think you can drive most enemies to come to you - and if it weren't for not having any actual banners (or CAVALRY), I'd probably have featured this lits today:
• Treebeard [ARMY LEADER]
• Beechbone
• CONVENIENT ALLY: The Master of Lake-town
• 5 Lake-town Guard
• 2 Lake-town Guard with clubs
• 7 Lake-town Guard with spears
• 1 Lake-town Guard with spear and bow
• CONVENIENT ALLY: Alfrid the Councilor
• 6 Lake-town Guard
• 6 Lake-town Guard with bows and spears
• CONVENIENT ALLY: Braga, Captain of the Guard
• 6 Lake-town Guard
• 6 Lake-town Guard with bows and spears
• Ally with Minas Tirith - This is one of those armies that you'd THINK would be okay getting 2+ Ents into the army, but unless you want Denethor as your army leader, you can't get 2+ Ents in your list and still get 30 models in the list. This list is "just Treebeard" augmenting Minas Tirith - which honestly, you might do better just running Minas Tirith. Still, this list has 12 Might in it and March from Madril - if it weren't quite the right theme, I'd probably have featured this list today:
• Treebeard with Merry and Pippin [ARMY LEADER]
• Boromir, Captain of the White Tower on horse with shield and Banner of Minas Tirith
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 4 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears
• 3 Knights of Minas Tirith with shields
• 2 Rangers of Gondor with spears
• Madril, Captain of Ithilien
• 6 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields
• 6 Rangers of Gondor with spears
• Bonus List: Pure Fangorn - There's an appeal to "just running Ents," both aesthetically and because of their army bonus. In this series, a list that runs on a handful of models isn't going to be "recommended," but it's still a neat way to play. At 700 points, the pricing for Ent heroes is pretty hard to work with - we know we're taking Treebeard (probably with Merry and Pippin) and we know that if we run Beechbone, we need to run 2 Ents to make an even 400 points. Paired with Treebeard, that would cause us to waste points, so instead we're going to run Quickbeam and three Ents (for an even 500 points - 700 with Treebeard, Merry, and Pippin). Our list has a surprising 7 models in it and only five of them will be initial targets. To protect your generic Ents from siege engines, make sure you have a hero that you can scatter onto (or just March up close as quick as you can):
• Treebeard with Merry and Pippin [ARMY LEADER]
• 2 Ents
• Quickbeam
• 1 Ent

Well, that's it for Fangorn. If you've got a box of Ents that you're working on, let us know in the comments how you plan to approach the scenarios (or if you're just in it for a good time). In our next post, we turn from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings to give some love to the Armies of the Hobbit. We'll begin by looking at one of the most despised (and competitive) factions from that book: the Iron Hills. Whether it's Dain, Murin and Drar, or that dreaded ballista, the Iron Hills have some great combat potential from warriors and heroes. But how do you plan out an army that reaches 30 models at 700 points? And how important is that ballista to the list? And should you look to allies? All of that and more next time - until then, happy hobbying!