The Bare Necessities, Part XLV: The Wildmen of Druadan

Good morning gamers,

We're on the second to last army to review in this series and today we're talking about a faction that most players don't even consider playing: the Wildmen of Druadan. This army, (which began as its own faction, then became part of the Wanderers in the Wild during the "Warband era", and are now their own faction again) has seen very little change in the profiles since their original release. Due to having average stats (except for below-average Defense), there doesn't seem to be much reason to try running these guys - and with only one historical ally and a 16-model limit if you ally conveniently, there are limited options for even using the army. But as is often the case, the army everyone thinks is garbage can have surprises for you on the tabletop - let's dig in. :)

If you're not in the movies, you don't get a GIF . . . unsurprisingly . . .

The Wildmen of Druadan: The Art of the Keep-Away Horde

I don't play Druadan - though I do like their Legendary Legion. Because I don't play them (I like my Wood Elves and think they're a better list), I decided I needed to reach out to an expert on how to think about the faction and get some tips on how to run them. I asked veteran player and American legend Tim Hixon to give me some feedback on a host of questions and boy did he pile on the feedback! Here is some of the information he passed on to me:

Tiberius: At first glance, Druadan has warriors that are both expensive (9 points/model), but with spears on every model and Stalk Unseen, it would appear that you'd want to use terrain to your advantage when engaging with the enemy?

Tim: Numbers are also a crucial thing to consider and since you pay for one hero to field this force it is very cheap in comparison to other forces. So despite their higher per model cost you are not paying the hero tax in a Green alliance.

Never take on a numerically larger force. You will need to trap opposing models in order to maximize your damage output. To that end, you want local superiority to overwhelm an opponent. Also remember to use those blowpipes at every opportunity. The entire force is range capable and have poisoned ammunition.

Tiberius: Is it valuable to bring in allies to supplement your weaknesses (provide you with longer-range shooting, higher Defense, or protection from archery)?

Tim: Technically yes, however 1) the Druadan all have blowpipes, so they all have a ranged capability, 2) in a Green alliance they all have the ability to ignore movement penalties for rough/rocky terrain and woodland terrain, 3) they all have Stalk Unseen so they are invisible at range if they have terrain they can use to obscure themselves (just set up ambush points in areas of terrain that offer cover and wait). High Defense isn't a valid argument because of their limited alliance choices (you're only going to have at most 16 Druadan models).

Tiberius: If you run Druadan pure or historically ally with Rohan, is there an advantage to taking warbands of Woses that have no hero to lead them so you can delay deploying important warbands until after your opponent deploys his more powerful pieces?

Tim: If you are allied with a mounted Rohan force, I can agree that this gives you a tactical advantage, but it will also mean that your Wild Men are largely on their own in a fight. Cavalry are not supportable by spears.

Tiberius: How competitive is pure Druadan at 700+ points? Is there a sweet spot for this list to be run pure?

Tim: I run a pure list at all points levels. The sweet spot is actually close to 350 points. This gives you 32 models and a decent hero, while everyone else is a lot smaller (typically by half - more if they use a bigger hero). At 700 points you have 71 models to utilize. That is a huge horde even by Goblin standards. Most forces are going to be about half as big. The big problem of course is monsters and big heroes. The trick here is how to deploy and maneuver them. At 1000 points (yes, I have that many Druadan) you will have 104 models. While this is an impressive number and will make your force incredibly hard to break in a typical tournament game time limit, you will have lots of hard hitting heroes to contend with.

Tiberius: Are there tricks to skirmishing with these guys?

Tim: Many. Use terrain to your advantage. Most armies are slowed down by difficult terrain the Druadan can easily traverse. They are also largely invisible at range when in cover. So use the terrain to slow down your opponent and increase your ability to shoot your blowpipes into their ranks before you have to close.

Use leapfrog tactics to improve your shooting. Move a unit, but keep another one stationary to use their blowpipes. This works best if you are falling back, but it can be used offensively. You can modify it on the attack by moving one unit half and firing with the penalty and moving the other full.

Skirmish on flanks of opposing units, form up in front of them. You will need a solid spear-supported fighting line to engage a frontal assault. You will be able to unleash at least one, maybe two blowpipe barrages as the enemy closes from the front. Use the skirmishers to harass from the flanks and to maneuver around to hit them from the sides and ultimately engulf them from the rear.

If your opponent is smart, they will use refused flanks to prevent you from swarming them. This is good too, as it usually creates corners where models are easily trapped by their comrades. Hit the corners as hard as you can. It also means that your opponent is putting up to half their force on the defensive and if you do not close then they are not fighting. Whereas your skirmishers can continue to barrage them with blowpipes.

Tiberius: Last question - is the Hatred boosts in melee worth rushing into combat (or is it just nice to have if you end up in combat)?

Tim: Never rush into melee. The Druadan have six strengths: numbers, blowpipes, spears, the ability to ignore the most common battlefield terrain, Hatred, and poison. Rushing into melee means you are not using the terrain, your poisoned blowpipes, and potentially your numbers. Take your time and make your opponent come to you. If they balk at your numbers, then you can sweep a portion of their army with the larger portion of yours while using a smaller part to keep reinforcements at bay with blowpipes, terrain, and ultimately melee combats. Break your opponent's army before they break yours.

In my experience the best matchup for a Druadan army is Goblins since you have similar numbers, maybe more. You have the superior movement ability and loads more firepower at 12" or less. If Goblins are forced to charge your lines, you will have up to three turns of shooting at them (typically only two) because of their 5" movement - more if you have terrain to your advantage. Once in combat, you have the higher Fight Value - you also have the +1 To Wound. I don't recall ever losing to a Goblin army. Goblin-town armies are typically chewed up fast since you wound on a 3+ with the Hatred rule.

Against Orcs things are not quite as good, but you do typically have a higher numerical superiority which makes it easier to trap models. You have the same Fight Value so you will lose as many fights as you win on ties (assuming perfectly average dice rolls). You still wound Orcs as easily as you do Moria Goblins on a 4+ thanks to Hatred. I've won more fights versus Orcs than I've lost. The trick is to not lose your nerve.

Uruk-Hai are a problem with their higher FV and typically higher Defense. Higher numbers are definitely to your advantage, so use them. You will lose more fights than you win, but everything is spear-supported and you have superior firepower at close ranges. So use it as much as you can. You will still be wounding even the toughest Uruk on a 5+ thanks to Hatred, plus you get to reroll 1s to wound (poison). It does add up eventually. I've won and lost against these guys in equal measure depending on who was fielding them. Pike blocks are wonderful to destroy. You can trap everything by swarming them. This does mean you need to have cooperative dice rolls. I fyou can't win fights, then you will not be killing models.

One more thing: Woses work best in Evil vs. Good matchups. They struggle against high Defense non-Orcs, like Easterlings and Black Numenoreans. Against most everything else, it depends on the mission.

Tiberius: Thanks Tim for all the insight - based on what I learned from Tim, here's an army list to show a balanced approach to the list - the Paths of the Druadan Legendary Legion!

The List

• Theoden, King of Rohan on armored horse with shield and heavy armor
• 4 Rohan Royal Guards on horses with throwing spears
  
• Eomer, Marshal of the Riddermark on armored horse with shield and throwing spears
• 4 Riders of Rohan with axes
• 1 Rider of Rohan with banner and axe
• Dernhelm with throwing spears
• 2 Riders of Rohan with throwing spears and axes
• Ghan-Buri-Ghan
• 15 Warriors of Druadan

31 models, 7 bows hitting on a 4+ AND 6+2 throwing spears hitting on a 4+ AND 16 poisoned blowpipes hitting on a 3+, 6 D6+ models, 14 cavalry + 1 passenger, 12 Might points

The purchases required to get these units are as follows:

• The Battle for Pelennor Fields box set will get you the Riders of Rohan that you need and Theoden (if you're willing to put a banner flag on one of your Riders of Rohan with throwing spears);
• We need 4 Rohan Royal Guards on horses, which means we need two blisters of both the mounted and infantry - that's kind of expensive, but you could go 1 point under and get only three if you wanted (or convert a Royal Guard out of a Rider of Rohan);
• You need Eomer, who you were probably going for anyway if you were running Eomer;
• You need Dernhelm, who you were probably also going to get if you run Rohan; and
• You need to get two blisters of the Woses, which are no longer available in the web store (but they promised it would be back eventually on made-to-order).

The total is over $300, but chances are good you already have the Pelennor Fields box set and if you're willing to do historical proxies for the Woses, you can save quite a bit of money. Let's see what each warband is doing.

Warband #1: The King

We have to take Theoden and I've given him both the heavy armor and the shield because why not pay 10 points to make him more resilient. Theoden isn't a very powerful hero, but he's not bad - and a little overqualified in this list for your #3 hitter. As your army leader, he needs to do damage, but you need to manage his exposure so that he doesn't get killed.

Supporting him are four mounted Rohan Royal Guards with throwing spears, riding as escorts and dealing extra damage on the charge. With their throwing spears, they don't have to engage until they want to (a must-have, in my opinion, for Royal Guards) and when they do charge, they get to reroll 1s against Orcs/Goblins/Uruks at F5. Unlike most other Rohan builds, these guys will not be S4, so don't forget that if you're thinking about charging into D6 non-Orc-kind (like Easterlings or Black Numenoreans). 

Warband #2: The Slayer

Eomer is a beast in combat, though he's a bit underpowered in this Legion because he doesn't become S5 on the charge (he's not as underpowered as he is in the Men of the West, but certainly not as powerful as he is in the Riders of Theoden where he is not only S5 on the charge but also gets a free Heroic Combat/Strike, or the Riders of Eomer where he's S5 on the charge and can get a -1 penalty applied to his opponent's die rolls). Still, with F5/3A and lots of Might/Will/Fate, he's resilient and powerful. I've opted to give him 10 points worth of gear as well because if you're going to invest in him, you want him to be at his best.

With him are 5 Riders of Rohan, one of which has the all-important-banner - Eomer is a great hero, but he REALLY needs the banner support to make it less likely that he whiffs. While he's probably your best hero at taking on enemy heroes, he really thrives at running over warriors (preferably of the F4 and below variety). With S4 and knock-down, he can ride over 2-3 warriors in each combat pretty easily, making Heroic Combats with him utterly devastating. The Riders with him have no throwing spears, but you could drop a Rider of Rohan to equip the other four with throwing spears and upgrade all of the Riders of Rohan in this list to Royal Guards if you wanted to (I happen to think that a mix of Royal Guards and Riders of Rohan in this list is quite useful). 

Warband #3: The Support

I went back and forth between Dernhelm and Deorwine and opted for Dernhelm because of how the math worked out. We saved 5 points by taking Dernhelm and we got 2 models from it (and you get to that third Attack and Resistant to Magic vs. D7 and free Heroic Combats near Theoden). While I think many Rohan players view Dernhelm as an auto-include because she's a cheap 3A hero, in this Legion the limit to S3 is a HUGE setback (if she's S4 in the Riders of Theoden, she'll run over a lot of things - she's far more likely to stall against D6 troops in this Legion). Still, she's a skirmisher hero thanks to her throwing spears and that gives her the ability to work the enemy down in numbers before trying to run them over.

With her are two Riders of Rohan with throwing spears - who can also race around and harass the enemy while moving full. This warband is small (it has to be, since she's a Minor Hero) but that also makes it very maneuverable and hard to predict where it will be. If you need to spend Might for Heroic Moves, be sure to use Merry's Might point first - he needs it less if the horse gets shot out from beneath him and Eowyn.

Warbands #4: The Infantry

Ghan-Buri-Ghan is not a powerful hero, but he's got 3 Might and access to Heroic March for getting your Woses moving around the board. You also don't have Heroic Strike, which is good because you need your Might for Heroic Moves as well - and having Strike would just be a distraction. With 16 blowpipes and Stalk Unseen in this warband, you can do a lot of skirmishing and you can be pretty hard to deal with. This warband isn't your anvil, but your cavalry will need to orbit around it to make sure they can support them (you will be broken if all of these guys die).

Scenario Overview

Let's see how you'd want to approach each scenario:

• Domination: We begin by placing the objectives and your waypoint markers - you want your two objectives in woodland or rocky terrain if you can and your waypoint markers should be near them (or large pieces of terrain that you may need to use to get from one objective to the other). You then want Ghan and his Woses to be near one objective (not necessarily starting there - you can be in between two if that's possible) and in cover at least 12" from the center of the board so that you're immune to charges, shooting, and archery on the first turn. Your Riders are going to harass the enemy - you don't need to engage right away. Naturally, you want them at least 12" away from the center line as well so they don't get tagged. Race around the objectives, clearing out enemy models with your shooting and only charging when you have a distinct numerical advantage (I'd recommend 2:1). If your opponent comes near an objective, let him have it and back up, but always keep models in sight of the objective so they can shoot whoever gets left behind. You only need to have control of 3 objectives when your opponent is quartered, so bide your time and then sail in.
  
• Capture and Control: Similar strategy - place your waypoints in terrain that will help you get better mobility between the objectives and don't deploy close - let your opponent come to you. Since you know where the objectives will be, Ghan and his boys should find a nice piece of terrain to hide in that is either near a flank (giving them the opportunity to hit a side objective or cover your rear objective) or near your rear objective (giving them shooting options to either side). According to mathematics, the straight-line distance between the objectives (12" away from the center, forming right triangles) is almost 17", which means if you have 12" range on your blowpipes, you can reach models that are protecting one objective while being at least one move away from getting back to another objective - so use that with the Woses. Your cavalry need to harass for a turn or two before slamming into one flank and demolishing it. Once you have one portion of your opponent's force rolled, you can have an exit plan for your Woses (and cavalry). Move around the board to clear the objectives, using the speed of your cavalry and the flexibility of the Woses to maneuver around your opponent's blocks of troops.
  
• Hold Ground: Maelstrom . . . perfect. Ghan goes down first since he has March and has the slowest guys - if you have to deploy first, move half of the Woses onto the board a full 6" and the rest should move onto the board 3" (so you can have 8 blowpipe shots at whoever deploys nearby). If you deploy second and can deploy near an enemy, you want to do a similar tactic, but you'll probably only get 6 shots. Dernhelm can deploy near Ghan, hopefully benefitting from his March - but she and her Riders can move their full movement and still shoot with their throwing spears, so they can support Ghan in his shooting. Eomer and Theoden (who also has March) should stay together if possible, relying on their speed (move full) to give them the advantage in getting to the center. Deploy Eomer first since you don't want him to burn Might to adjust his roll (Theoden's Might is more expendible). Get to the center as quickly as you can with a few of your guys and use your shooting to whittle down your opponent. If your Woses die, you can break while controlling the center and win - if they don't die, chances are good your opponent is held up somewhere or a lot of bodies have hit the floor.
  
• Seize the Prize: Well, it's a race - you have two March heroes and lots of cavalry with throwing spears, so get to the center quickly with your infantry and harass anyone else who gets to the center quickly with your cavalry. Use the threat of your heroes to keep your opponent from making a mad dash with the Prize around your flank, should he get it. If you manage to pick up the Prize, hand it off to a Rider and use your heroes to slingshot the Rider towards the enemy board edge.
  
• To The Death: Well, you shoot things and have no incentive to engage - I'll let you come up with a strategy all your own . . .
  
• Lords of Battle: Same song, different orchestra - only this time, you need to worry about your horses adding to your wound count. Make sure you have LOTS of cover for both your cavalry and your Woses and skirmish away until you can slam in with your cavalry. You want to prioritize Heroic Combats against warriors with your mounted heroes instead of Striking off against big heroes - don't give your opponent points by letting him take shots at your heroes with his bigger ones!
  
• Contest of Champions: Theoden is fine as a killer - especially against warriors (which is good for this scenario). There's nothing you can do about Theoden being near the center, so he should have just the smallest possible part of his base within 3" of the center and have his Royal Guards set up in an arch to screen him from being charged on the first turn. I don't think anyone else should be right on the center line - even if your opponent goes first, you have a nice bubble of Rohan Royal Guards keeping Theoden from being engaged so he can engage only 4-5 models (if he can get to Theoden). If you THEN have a large division of cavalry (sporting both Eomer and Dernhelm) within charge range, they can sail into whoever charged your troops (or is trying to hedge you out) and get the benefits of their charge. The Woses should set up in a place that's defensible but within 12" of the centerline so they can shoot on the first turn (and come in as a second wave if you need it). They can also cover a hasty retreat if that's required. Do your best not to let the enemy army leader get into the Woses - most army leaders would relish the chance.
  
• Reconnoitre: You have lots of Riders - but you don't want to get TOO many off or you won't be able to be quartered. Theoden should be one of them, using a late-game March to slingshot him and a few Riders away from the action towards the enemy board edge. Eomer and Dernhelm need to help Ghan and the Woses to corral the enemy - but be sure that those Woses eventually die! To quarter yourself, you'll need to reach 7 models - hopefully that's four escaped Riders including Theoden, Merry, Eowyn, and Eomer - so if you only have Eomer and Dernhelm on the board with four guys escaped, then the game ends and you probably won if you could keep the enemy models from escaping.
  
• Storm the Camp: You have plenty of speed in this list - the Woses are clearly guarding the camp, but they don't want to stay IN the camp. Instead, they should float outwards and retreat towards it. Your cavalry don't need to be locked down in this scenario - use them to hunt the enemy as they struggle towards your camp, funneling them into a kill zone with the Woses. Run a few Riders (with Theoden if you can) towards the enemy camp when you think you can clear it. If Theoden can go too, then your army leader is unlikely to give up points.
  
• Heirlooms of Ages Past: Well, I have few thoughts about this scenario, except that you're maelstroming on, you probably want Eomer and Theoden together if you can, and you probably want to pick up objectives ONLY with the Woses. As such, your cavalry want to harass any enemy models that are racing for objectives - and if one of them picks it up, they need to sail in and smash the guy. Being Expert Riders, they can pick up the Heirloom once it's dropped, but they can't dig them up - so you can try to use your opponent's discovery powers to your advantage. Keep that banner alive, get the Heirloom if you can, and skirmish for as long as possible.
  
• Fog of War: Well, expect either Merry or Ghan to be the target of your opponent - they're "easy" to kill. I'd expect Ghan to be the choice (since most people forget Merry exists), so do your best to keep him away from harm. You probably want to choose to protect one of these guys too - and while Merry is likely to be near the front lines, you don't need to be rash with Dernhelm engaging, so Merry might be a more solid choice. As for heroes you want to kill, you want to pick someone that can be run over by Eomer/Theoden or shot to pieces by . . . well, everything except Theoden in the list. Your terrain piece will be something woodland in nature if possible, since all of your models can amass there if required without losing anything - be sure to use your waypoint markers to make it unclear which woodland terrain piece you're going after (OR use it to make it LOOK like a particular terrain piece is your objective and go after something else).
  
• Clash By Moonlight: You shoot - like a lot - and much of it is from 12" away anyway, so use your shooting to whittle down your opponent's numbers and work on killing at least one of his heroes while keeping all of yours out of harm's way. Be patient and this scenario is all yours for the taking (+1 To Wound with Wose shooting alongside +1 To Wound potentially in melee).
  

Modifications

Druadan doesn't have a lot of options, but here are a few tweaks you could do if you wanted:

• Swap out Eomer and Dernhelm for Gaming and Deorwine – Like I said in the main article, I thought about swapping Dernhelm for Deorwine - they do two different things and I ultimately went for the 3 Attacks and throwing spears over the S4 and free Heroic Combats. The army we featured today doesn't NEED its riders to stay together, but if you wanted to do that, you could run Gamling and Deorwine instead of Eomer and Dernhelm. Yes, you wouldn't have Eomer's hitting power, but you can upgrade more of your troops to Royal Guards and you'd have Deorwine and Theoden riding near Gamling for more sustained damage over time. Our list today had 9 Might on the mounted heroes - and that's it. This list could keep Theoden and Deorwine chewing through troops with Heroic Combats if played well.
• Theoden, King of Rohan on armored horse with shield and heavy armor
• 4 Rohan Royal Guards on horses with throwing spears
• Gamling, Captain of Rohan on horse with the Royal Standard of Rohan
• 4 Riders of Rohan with throwing spears and axes
• Deorwine, Chief of the King's Knights on horse
• 4 Rohan Royal Guards on horses with throwing spears
• Ghan-Buri-Ghan
• 15 Warriors of Druadan
• Run pure Druadan – Tim mentioned in his interview that he runs Druadan pure at all points levels - and at 700 points, you can have 71 models in your army (with 4 points unspent). While this list isn't balanced, any list that has 70+ models and spears and ranged weapons on every one of them is GOING to be fun to use (and hard to play against), so here's that list. I didn't run this past Tim, but because we had 5 extra points lying around, I decided to include some weapon swaps (I could have done just 5, but I opted to drop one model and 14 instead - that way it's a credible threat). While axes might give you an assist, I actually think more attacks is more useful - and since everyone in the army has spears, you can charge into two models with a flail-armed model, spear-support him, Whirl with the front guy, and if you win, you get 3 strikes (one on each of the engaged models from the Whirl, one extra for the spear) with potentially +1 To Wound. Thanks to the spears, there's no down-side to whirling (and axes would make you likely to be wounded on 3s by whoever you're facing instead of 4s . . . for what it's worth). With two Whirl models that can hold down each flank of the warband and 70 models in total, you've got a whopping large number of guys that will take quite the effort to break (if you can keep cover for a while).
• Ghan-Buri-Ghan
• 7 Warriors of Druadan
• 2 Warriors of Druadan with weapon-swapped flails
• 1 Warrior of Druadan
• 7 Warriors of Druadan
• 2 Warriors of Druadan with weapon-swapped flails
• 1 Warrior of Druadan
• 7 Warriors of Druadan
• 2 Warriors of Druadan with weapon-swapped flails
• 1 Warrior of Druadan
• 7 Warriors of Druadan
• 2 Warriors of Druadan with weapon-swapped flails
• 1 Warrior of Druadan
• 7 Warriors of Druadan
• 2 Warriors of Druadan with weapon-swapped flails
• 1 Warrior of Druadan
• 7 Warriors of Druadan
• 2 Warriors of Druadan with weapon-swapped flails
• 1 Warrior of Druadan
• 7 Warriors of Druadan
• 2 Warriors of Druadan with weapon-swapped flails
• Spam Rohan and Druadan - This final list shows off what you can do with 20 Woses backing up 20 Rohan infantry. I've equipped 33% of my Rohan warriors (not counting the Riders of Rohan in the list) with bows - if you prefer shields, do that. With 8 bows and 20 blowpipes in your "anvil" and 10 cavalry to support them, we have a very high model count (50) and thanks to having Erkenbrand in the list, we also have great Courage on our Rohan units. His banner boost for his two Redshields helps too. I think this is the weakest list presented here (Tim agrees), but it's yet-another-way to run Druadan and so I include it for reference.
• Theoden, King of Rohan on armored horse with shield and heavy armor
• 5 Riders of Rohan with axes
• 1 Rider of Rohan with banner and axe
• 7 Warriors of Rohan with shields and axes
• 3 Warriors of Rohan with bows and axes
• Erkenbrand, Captain of Rohan on horse
• 2 Westfold Redshields with throwing spears and axes
• 6 Warriors of Rohan with shields and axes
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with bows and axes
• Ghan-Buri-Ghan
• 9 Warriors of Druadan
• 1 Warrior of Druadan
• 9 Warriors of Druadan

We have one final faction to review in this series before we've covered them all - and that's the White Council. This all-hero army gets far less love than other all-hero armies (most notably the Fellowship and Thorin's Company, but also the Black Riders/Breaking of the Fellowship Legendary Legions and Thorin's-Company-only Erebor Reclaimed), and that's probably due to the expense of the models. With a new Legion on its way, we'll be looking at the faction itself but also provide some thoughts based on the tidbits we've received on what you might want to run in the new Legion. See you next time - and until then, happy hobbying!