Hey Reader!
Tiberius did a post a few months back on the best heroes in the game for calling a Heroic Challenge, and a lot of that post came down to, "This is not a great heroic action, but in a few rare circumstances these characters will do better than others in using it well." And I 100% agree with all of this: Heroic Challenge needs an update, and you might see something on that on this space in the coming months, so stay tuned!
In the interim, though, I'm of the mind that there are specific heroes that are worth issuing a Heroic Challenge to, as your chance of losing is pretty low and your chances of winning are pretty high. So what follows here is a list of the best heroes to issue a Heroic Challenge to, combining both the Forces of Good and Evil.
We have two rules for which heroes make this list. First, they must be a Hero of Valour or higher, as the vast majority of heroes with the Heroic Challenge action are Valour or above. The trick, though, about this heroic action is that there has to be a reason for the hero to accept the challenge, and that means that, second, the hero should have a good reason not to refuse the challenge. So with this in mind, let's look at the best heroes to issue a challenge to in the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game.
Honorable Mentions: There are two models we should highlight that didn't make the cut, as they are both strong enough that you'd want to accept, but you stand an okay chance of killing them. Forlong the Fat and Balin the Dwarf (Champion of Erebor) are both good options for challenging. Both have a good chance of accepting (as the former will take more Might every day of the week and the latter is a good caddy for Heroic Moves, so a good reason not to decline). The former has good killing power (so a good reason to believe he will win) and the latter is quite resilient (D8 goes a long way, and 2 wounds with 2 Fate isn't too shabby). But neither has Heroic Strike, Balin has a two-hander he must use (so an automatic -1 to win the fight), and as I noted in our podcast talking about Forlong, if he's not on the charge, his offensive profile goes down immensely. So both are good choices, but not as good as the guys below.
#10: Master of Lake-Town
The Master of Lake-Town is an ideal target for a challenge: he's F4 with 2 Attacks at S4, but he's also unarmed, so he's suffering a -1 to the duel and wounding rolls he makes. And at D4 with 2 wounds and 2 Fate, he's very easy to kill so long as he doesn't call Heroic Defense.
The reason why he's #10, though, is that there's very little reason for him to accept. Unless you are out of Might and close to if not out of Fate, he's not going to accept it. In part this is because he's probably leading his detachment (more so a reason not to accept if he's the army leader), but also because he's also spending Might to trigger his Moneybags ability, so he has good reasons to stick around as his army needs the Fight Value and banner bonus from him.
On the flipside, though, will the Master turn down the chance to get more Might if the target is soft enough? Does he feel like he needs to be able to call a Heroic Move later in the match? Maybe so, but maybe he doesn't care either way, which is why he's #10.
#9: Balin the Dwarf (Thorin's Company)
Balin the Dwarf is one of the weakest of Thorin's Company from a combat perspective, sitting at F4 with 1 Attack at S3, and since he only has 1 Might and Heroic Defense he's not the easiest person to kill, but he's not that hard either. He does not have Heroic Strike, and with only 2 wounds at D5 with 2 Fate, he's pretty easy to kill.
He's not likely to accept the challenge (which is why he's this low on the list), though on the other hand he's one of the few heroes in Thorin's Company who is comfortable calling a Heroic Move, so declining is not without its consequences in an army with low mobility.
#8: Sharkey
This army doesn't want Sharkey fighting, which means his Might is either going to be best used when channeling a spell or calling a Heroic Move. This is a disincentive to accept (hence why he's here on the list), but if he can't move his boys because he's declined a challenge, that's a problem for the army (and an army that is already short on Might as it is: no one in the list has more than 2 Might, and those guys you kinda want fighting people). So there's a disincentive to declining, not to mention the allure of getting more Might for him if you accept and win, that puts him ahead of the Master of Lake-Town and Denethor in my book.
Plus there's a hidden incentive to accepting: Worm can't stab him if he's engaged in a challenge, so even if he suffers a wound in the challenge he's denying that special rule from being used (small consolation prize, but it exists). Should he accept, he's only F4 S4 with 1 Attack and 1 Might, so not only is it hard for him to kill stuff but there's an appeal to getting more Might points. And with D4 2 Wounds and only 1 Fate, he's an easy kill.
So my recommendation: use your last Might to challenge this guy. It gives a good reason for him to try for it (as you're out of Might), it will still take him a while to kill you even if you lose, and then you get some Might back once you (inevitably, I'd argue) kill him.
#7: Denethor, Steward of Gondor
At Fight 5 Denethor is on-par if not below anyone that can challenge him (with a very small number of exceptions), and while he is S4 with 2 Attacks, he presents some danger but not a lot of danger to you. There is a natural pull for him not to accept the challenge as he's probably leading his contingent (if not the army), but on the flipside he has no Might, and this is one of the few ways he can gain Might. So there's a draw toward taking a chance if you don't look that intimidating.
If you can get him to accept and you can get past his F5, he is only D5 with 2 wound and no Fate, so it's a relatively high chance that you kill him if you can get into a challenge with him.
#6: Ghan-Buri-Ghan
Ghan is not a strong fighter to start with: he is F4 with S4 and 2 Attacks, and while he has 3M he has no Strike or Defense, so fighting him in melee is not that difficult. And since he's very squishy at D4 with 2 wounds and 1 Fate, you can remove him in a single turn with relative ease.
He places this low on this list, though, because the only reason for him to accept the challenge is because his army (whether the Wildmen list, the Paths of the Druadan Legendary Legion, or a list with an allied contingent) needs to be able to benefit from his Heroic Moves (or calling a Heroic Combat to catapult allied heroes into things). So there could be an appeal, especially if you challenge with a weaker hero with Challenge (Snaga the orc comes to mind), but on the whole I'd expect him to decline. If he accepts, though, you're golden.
#5: Worm
Okay, so this is up for debate as to whether he meets the parameters, but hear me out: nowhere on the profile does it say that he's an Independent Hero: the profile has "Hero of Legend" applied to both of them, and then in the text for "The Chief" passive ability it says that "Worm will always be the first follower in Sharkey's warband," but it never calls him an Independent Hero. So just like how Murin and Drar are both assumed to be heroes of fortitude, as that is their designation, and Elrohir and Elladan are assumed to both be heroes of fortitude, Worm is technically a hero of legend, and thus may be challenged by anyone with the heroic action.
Now: he has a good reason to decline (which is why he's middle of this list), but consider the reasons for accepting: if he cannot be seen by anyone else he has 3 Attacks at F4, which is not bad. This is the only way he can get Might Points, and having Might that could be used for Heroic Moves on someone as disposable as Worm is not a bad thing to have. And if Worm dies, there's a 33% chance that all the hero does is get back the spent Might for winning the challenge, so a good chance that all he did was speedbump the enemy.
So your opponent (I say as I work on a Sharkey's Rogues army) has a decent reason to accept the challenge so long as Grima has the 3 attacks. So make sure Worm is getting those 3 attacks, and then issue the challenge. If you do, he's a good choice to challenge.
#4: Golden King of Abrakhan
Okay hear me out on this one - 4 Attacks is a lot (which is also a good reason for him to accept, which is half the battle to successfully getting off a Heroic Challenge), but for having 4 Attacks with a burly two-handed S4 sword he's actually not that dangerous. Check it out.
First, he's only F4, so you are probably higher Fight Value than him (unless, I dunno - maybe if you're Snaga? But no one else is coming to mind), and thus will win ties. Second, he has no Heroic Strike or Heroic Defense, so you don't need to worry about him going up to F5+, and you will have an easy chance to wound him. Third, he's pretty easy to trap, as it's relatively hard to maneuver him once he's engaged in combat, and all you need to do is place models near him and suddenly boom: he can't move anywhere following the fight, doubling your wounding dice. And even if you can't set this up, he's also an infantry model, so charging him with a cavalry model can also knock him prone. And finally, he's only D5, so even though you have to do 4-6 wounds to him, it's not that hard to do.
And again, since he's effectively S6 with 4 Attacks, you have a good chance of him accepting because he feels pretty good about his chances of winning. Tack onto that the desire to use his 2 Might to do things to help the army (as I believe only Suladan gets 3 Might for the Serpent Horde - no one else is coming to mind at least), and he's got good reasons to say, "Sure: let's do a Challenge."
#3: The Dwimmerlaik
There are three ways you can run the Dwimmerlaik (on foot, on a horse of some kind, or on a fell beast of some kind), and in all cases this is an excellent choice for calling a Heroic Challenge. First of all, the Dwimmerlaik starts by being in their element: they can potentially make you spend 2 Might to call the Challenge, which is already excellent. Second, the draw for accepting is high since it's one of the few ways he can get Might, and Angmar is always hurting for Might thanks to how many 0 Might heroes they have, and all of their 3 Might heroes don't want to be calling Heroic Moves (or Heroic Combats if they can get someone else in the fight to call it for them). And at D8 past 2 Fate and a +1 to all of his wound rolls, the Dwimmerlaik is pretty survivable and decently good at killing things, especially if he's mounted on a fell beast for more attacks.
But even with the best fighting profile he has access to (fell beast mount), he will only have 2-3 attacks (depending on whether or not he charges on a given turn) at S6, but since the Dwimmerlaik carries a two-handed sword only, he has to use it, so all of his dice are getting -1 to the roll. And at F5 with no Strike (as he has no Might to call Strike), this is a very beatable character.
The other thing to remember is that if you kill him the mount flees, so you don't need to wound the fell beast at all. And if he's not mounted or mounted on a horse, he gets easier and easier to beat. There is a decent chance that an opponent will decline (as he's not calling any heroic actions), but having played Angmar, the allure of getting more Might on a character who has options for dealing good damage is high if the person issuing the challenge is around F5 and around S4. So don't challenge with Elessar, but Lurtz? There's an appeal there.
#2: Nazgul of Dol Guldur
With only 1 wound past D6, this is the easiest person on this list to wound and slay (and even if they return due to their special rule, that doesn't cancel the fact that you slew them, getting the Might points - so this could be an infinite source of Heroic Challenges!). And with F5 with 2 Attacks at S4 with no Heroic Strike, this is an easy profile to defeat in a challenge compared to the others we've looked at, especially if you're mounted.
Of these profiles, the following are the ones you want to challenge: Slayer of Men and the Witch-King of Angmar, as both stand a chance at actually trying to kill you (so a reason to accept), but all of them lack Strike, so you're probably fine (Khamul would be a good choice, but I think he'd refuse the challenge).
They can refuse, though if they do the army has very little Might for heroic actions, so that's a potential red flag for an army that has a lot of infantry that will likely want to move first and/or cast with the Necromancer. So while yes, it's not an ideal situation to be challenged, it's also not ideal to decline. And if you have to lose someone in a challenge, the best person to lose is a person who comes back.
#1: Sid Briarthorn
Sid is a glorified ruffian, so he's not that good in combat: F4 S4 with 2 Attacks, and only 2 wounds with D4 and 1 Fate. And yet he's one of the best slayers that Sharkey's Rogues has, so he's on the front lines doing the dirty work, so your chances of getting into a position to challenge him is high. He has 2 Might, but can only call Heroic Strength and the standard actions.
He could refuse, but Sharkey's Rogues as an army has an issue with not having a lot of Might, so there's an allure there (not to mention the allure of being able to move more than just himself on a Heroic Move to counter, say, a cavalry charge), so refusing is a dangerous proposition for him: you might save him for 1-2 more turns, but you pass up extra Might and could hurt your team by not being able to call useful heroic actions that would help your team.
So Sid's in a difficult spot: there's a lot of reasons to accept purely to keep the army moving the way it has to, and he's your best bet for winning the challenge in that army list, but at the same time he's a good option for slaying. So in my opinion, looking at the heroes available, I think he's the best option for issuing a Heroic Challenge.
Encouraging Acceptance
So how do you incentivize the target to accept the challenge, in the event that they have a good reason to decline? A few notes.
First, charge with multiple models. If you have 3-4 models (which could include spearmen, but even better if you have spearmen in addition to 3-4 models) against the target model and then you offer to Heroic Challenge, your opponent has the option to cut out about half of the dice in the combat by accepting (if not far more than half) or keep the odds as they are and weather it. Some of your opponents will opt to take the challenge, as they stand a better chance of not being killed in a single turn.
Interestingly enough, though: since the others in the combat don't back up a full 1", if the hero would have been trapped before the challenged was called they will still be trapped afterwards, even though you are not. And in future turns you can just move everyone around the enemy model to trap them for future rounds, insuring that anytime you win you are doubling your wounding dice. So pretty reliable means to finish off the hero.
Second, challenge with a weakened hero. No one wants to accept a challenge from a person with lots of Might, Fate, or wounds, so if you find yourself below maximum potential, you are more primed to be acceptable as a challenger. This can then help you regain your Might Points, pulling you back up. And if you happen to have a hero with a restoration spell on them to replenish your stats, still better.
And finally, look for those low Fight Value heroes with a lot of Attacks. There are not very many of them, but they do exist, and if they exist, then you can challenge them and your opponent looks at their number of attacks and thinks, "Hey: I think I can beat this guy. Let's give it a shot."
Conclusion
The Heroic Challenge is not heavily used, and for good reason: its uses are limited, and the incentive to decline is high. While Heroic Resolve and Heroic Accuracy are pretty bad, Heroic Challenge is still one of the worst heroic actions in the game. But since it is not heavily used most people don't plan for it, so if you find yourself in a unique situation where it is deviously excellent to call it, don't be afraid to call it.
Watching the stars,
Centaur
"I watch the stars, for it is mine to watch, as it is yours, Badger, to remember." ~ Glenstorm, Prince Caspian
