Unexpected Military Formations: In-set Heroes

Good morning gamers,

Recently, an article was posted on the Against All Odds blog about auto-winning scenarios with the Black Riders LL and how there's no way to fight the list on them (okay, that's a bit of an over-simplification, but it's clear that the Riders LL can have a tremendous advantage in them). Sharbie makes good points in the article, though I'm not convinced that all of the scenarios listed are necessarily an auto-win for the Legion.

These guys are scary for hero-reliant armies . . .

The Black Riders Legendary Legion is certainly one of the most blatant offenders of the "kill quickly and end the game in a few turns" style of play, but there are other lists that can turn those heroes that you love into do-nothings the entire game (and while the game might go on for a while, you don't get any of the fun you anticipated having - see a recent post from the Drawn Combat team for an expose on how this works). Whether it's the Black Riders Legion or another magic-heavy or shooting-heavy list (like the Vanquishers of the Necromancer and the Rangers of Ithilien), there are times when you might feel like everything is gunning for your heroes - and without those heroes, your chances of having an enjoyable game are basically gone.

This has made me think about whether the reason certain scenarios seem rigged to favor one side are due to problems with the lists themselves or because of the lists they're fighting against - or worse, how the lists they fight deploy their troops. As I got to thinking about this, I started forming ideas about how you can build your army (not tailored to fight one list and nothing else) and how you can deploy your forces to mitigate the effectiveness of these kinds of lists in scenarios that seem to favor them. This is a formations post, not a list building post, so we'll focus on formations that lots of armies can run (though I will recommend a few list building tips, as all formations evolve from their lists). Let's look at your options.

The Scenarios

Sharbie identified six (and maybe two others) of the eighteen scenarios that the Black Riders LL is an "auto-win" at. The scenarios are:

• Contest of Champions
• Reconnoitre
• Clash by Moonlight
• Seize the Prize (maybe)
• Heirlooms of Ages Past
• Fog of War
• Assassination
• Destroy the Supplies (maybe)

This is in part because of the nature of the scenarios and in part because of the nature of the Legion:

• There are few points available in these scenarios for breaking the enemy, so breaking yourself isn't a big deal;
• Black Darts can be used to remove key enemy models from the board on a single turn (whether it's an army leader or a Target model);
• The scenarios end when one side has been quartered (no random game length), so if you quarter yourself, you know the game will end; and
• The list has 10" move mounts on everyone and Heroic March on almost everyone, so if you need to get somewhere in a hurry, you can.

These can be boiled down into a few guidelines for list building to fight the list (some of which were highlighted by Sharbie in the article):

• When facing models that cast magic or shoot, include a chunk of shooting in your army so that you can deny some of the pesky models access to horses;
• Have models that boost your magical resilience or mitigate archery's effectiveness (or models that have Stalk Unseen so they can avoid being a legitimate target if terrain is in the way when the pesky models begin their moves); and
• Have army leaders that are hard to kill with magic and archery (or are nowhere near the front lines).

When put like that, things don't look that hard. :-) List building alone won't save you, but let's look at a few list building principles before we look at how you can form up your army to fight the worst your enemy can throw at you!

Building Your List - Magic/Archery Defense, Shooting, and Hording Out

To illustrate the problems this list causes, let's look at a Rohan list I'm keen to try out at 800pts:

Theoden, Theodred, Eomer, Gamling, and a ton of Riders of Rohan . . .

• Theoden, King of Rohan on armored horse with shield and heavy armor [army leader]
• 6 Riders of Rohan
• 1 Warrior of Rohan with shield
• Theodred, Heir of Rohan on horse with shield and throwing spears
• 3 Riders of Rohan with throwing spears
• 3 Riders of Rohan
• Eomer, Marshal of the Riddermark on horse with throwing spears and shield
• 5 Riders of Rohan
• 1 Rider of Rohan with banner
• Gamling, Captain of Rohan on horse with the Royal Standard of Rohan
• 5 Riders of Rohan
• 1 Warrior of Rohan with bow

800pts, 29 models, 24 bows hitting on a 4+, 4 D6+ models, 27 fast models, 12+ Might

When you have one or two big combat heroes in your list (like this list does), it's pretty common to place them in the front of your lines. Unless you're worried about their horses getting shot out from under them, big heroes need to be killing things or they're kind of a waste of points. These kinds of heroes can either be a Ringwraith's dream-come-true or their worst nightmare.

For example, a hero like Gil-Galad is one of the nastiest killers in the game, but with only 3 Will, 1 Fate, 3 Wounds, and no access to Lindir (who grants Resistant to Magic) or heroes who can cast Fortify Spirit (Galadriel Lady of Light or Gandalf the White), he's never going to be able to fight a wraith (let alone several) unless he gets really lucky with his Resist rolls.

Instead of running Gil-Galad, you could save some cash and run Glorfindel, who has a lower base Fight Value but still a very good combat profile and has Fortify Spirit innately (not even tied to the Armor of Gondolin anymore) for two free dice to resist each magical assault. I talked about Glorfindel with Lindir being one of the best anti-magic combos in the game a while back, but against the Black Riders LL, Lindir is likely to be dead weight (or a meat shield, depending on your point of view). 

Now most armies don't have heroes who get free dice to resist magical powers, but since anyone except Numenor and Arnor can ally with Galadriel Lady of Light, any Forces of Good list can either get the magical protection they need or ally in Glorfindel (who can either be the Army Leader or submit to Elendil - who also has Fortify Spirit innately). Going the Glorfindel route won't help your other heroes, but can deny points in most of these games. Galadriel can help other heroes if she can keep her Will store stocked and if she has the time she needs to get everyone's defenses up.

Evil armies have no equivalent for Lady of Light, but everyone can ally with Moria, which can get you a Watcher in the Water, a Balrog, or a pack of Dwellers (or any combo of these things), which will be very expensive, but depending on how they're used can be very difficult to deal with. Generally speaking, though, there are other ways you can approach fighting this Legion for Evil forces (Good forces can do it too, but often less effectively).

Cavalry armies of all stripes fear a gunline - and the movement-oriented scenarios almost require that you keep your mounts. Whether it's Reconnoitre or Destroy the Supplies, you can be seriously hamstrung if your mounts get clipped by enemy bow fire. Similarly, should any of the Ringwraiths get wounded (more likely with crossbows and siege weapons - Evil has more of those than Good), you need to pass those Fate rolls or it's game over for a pool of Will points.

I'm a big fan of shooting (you know this if you've been following us for any period of time) - mostly because it's the only thing you're opponent has no say in after he's done maneuvering. Most people don't like archery (it is fickle), and so there is a temptation to skip archery with some lists because their archery isn't "good enough." I think Moria Goblins are horrible archers, but by bringing them (lots of them usually), I can force my opponent to either hide or hazard some archery shots (and it only needs to work once to be effective).

The tricky thing about fighting this list is that you may not have very many Shoot Phases to do this - the Legion does have the ability to win a few of these missions in a few turns - so bringing lots of bows and throwing weapons if you can get them is essential. These also make it so you don't need to charge them to be a threat (which is also really good). But there's one other way you can build your list to fight this Legion - and this tends to be the rule of the current meta - the horde!

Getting as many models as possible into your list was a staple back in the Legions of Middle-Earth era of the game and was sort of in play during the Warbands era. When the new edition came out, armies sported a lot of big heroes (Aragorn + Elendil builds, for example), but with Goblin-town and Angmar armies coming out strong, many players have gravitated towards hordes of models to solve their problems.

Armies like the Black Riders LL rely on breaking the enemy and watching them flee from objectives. While this can certainly happen, an army with 50+ models should still have plenty of models on the board when they are quartered - and on the first turn of the game, the horde won't be able to be shot off of their starting objectives. They may not have great Courage, but they also won't be broken by the Black Darts of the enemy. It's not elegant, but most armies can pull off a horde if they want to.

Okay - enough about list building, let's get into the formations!

Rethinking Hero Placement: Hero Insets

Probably one of the most popular moves that Fell Beasts employ is pulling models out of their lines with a Compel and charging them. While you won't see Fell Beasts in the Black Riders LL, Compelling a hero forward and slamming into them with a bunch of Ringwraiths (black darting the mount, of course) is a real threat. Similarly, archery-heavy armies love it when a hero (especially a mounted one) is leading from the front - it allows you to have a clear shot at a piece that is probably needed for crashing through your ranks. So how do you stop your big hero from being drug out into the open and/or shot to death? Well, you set your hero deep into your line with a path to charge through.

Compel allows the Ringwraith player to move a model up to half of its movement and prevents the hero from moving further that turn. If we start our hero on our front lines, we will be drug away from our supporters and will probably die a miserable death.

But what if we deploy our heroes with half of their maximum movement behind our front rank? Not only would the Ringwraith need to come closer to our front ranks to cast at us, but he'd be able to charge us with our full battle line nearby to keep others from joining the fight (and possibly more of our guys piling in). That seems better, no? Just wait - we can do a little better . . .

What if we deploy our heroes with half of their maximum movement + 0.5" behind our front ranks? Now the Ringwraith would have to enter the control zone of one or two friendly models (and may not be able to charge us at all if our hero is infantry), leading to the question of whether casting Compel is even worth it. And maybe it isn't . . . and maybe that's the point in doing this. :-)

Keep in mind that we haven't made it so we can't charge with our hero - a full move will allow the hero to charge in front of the front lines if the opportunity arises (though we'd have to be very close to the enemy for that to happen). This formation also gives us innate reserves because our heroes can react to the maneuvers of the enemy without being charged. All told, this gives us options and keeps our heroes safe from being Compelled.

One last thing: if you've followed these formations posts for a while, in-setting your heroes is very similar to running a Long Fangs formation, which was intended to keep cavalry models from getting charged but allowing them to counter-charge the enemy and take away their bonuses. This formation does something similar, but protecting heroes of any stripe and not just cavalry. Setting your heroes further back in your formation isn't enough though - we need to make our opponent NOT come that close to us. For that, we need the second element of the formation - the supporting fire.

Rethinking Hero Placement: Supporting Fire

So we have a way to deal with Compel, but what about the Black Darts of the enemy - how do we deal with those? Well, if we have our heroes inset in our lines, we know the Ringwraiths will need to drift towards our ranks to cast Black Dart - and if they do, we will have them in range of our archers. So we run our archers in the front rank and have at it!

If we have 2.5-6.5" of inset for our heroes, a Ringwraith who casts a 12" Black Dart spell against our hero will be no farther than 15.5-19.5" away if they drift in, cast, and run away (they could be another 5" away if someone calls a March within range) - which is well within range of most bow-like weapons and can be within range of all bow-like weapons if you get to move second. If you're packing in archery, you can hound those casters as they beat a retreat. The minimum range provided above would assume that the Wraith starts exactly 2.5-6.5" away from the target, so the max distance away should be south of that estimate.

Running your archers in the front can be done in a Millennium Falcon formation, though you do need to keep track of how fast you're going. I wouldn't worry too much about being slow against an army like the Black Riders if you have a good shooting presence - you can dismount them with focused fire and then catch them when convenient. Against shooting armies, you'll need to determine whether you can win a shooting war against them - if you can't, chances are good they don't have magic, so keeping your heroes inset is still useful since it will give your heroes in-the-ways against shooting that isn't aimed directly down the channel.

With these two principles in mind (inset heroes with supporting fire), let's look at a few sample lists that illustrate how this works.

Sample lists

Our first list is a 700-point list for the Assault Upon Helm's Deep LL, a list renowned for it's shooting prowess and it's vulnerable heroes. Our list focuses on getting as much archery as possible into the list to hammer the Ringwraiths wherever they show up (or any list, really) with its heroes safely tucked away to come out and charge when convenient and safe to do so).

• Uruk-Hai Uber-Captain with two-handed axe [ARMY LEADER]
• 4 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
• 2 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 5 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with pike and banner
• Uruk-Hai Captain with crossbow
• 4 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
• 2 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 7 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• Uruk-Hai Shaman with armor
• 4 Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows
• 4 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 1 Demolition team with 2 extra flaming brands
• Uruk-Hai Siege Veteran with Isengard Assault Ballista
• 1 Uruk-Hai Siege troop
• 1 Uruk-Hai Siege troop with pike

With 42 models at 700-points and 13 crossbows backed by an Assault Ballista and a demolition charge, this army has a lot of models that the Wraiths need to deal with. Our heroes don't need to be near the front and two of the four can March us up if we need to. With the 12 crossbow warriors, you should expect to fell two horses each shoot phase or a single wraith every other turn.

Here's another list - it relies on having big heroes able to romp all over the enemy without fear of magic (and most archery, actually).

• Elendil, High King of Gondor and Arnor on horse with shield [ARMY LEADER]
• 8 Warriors of Numenor with shields
• 2 Warriors of Numenor with shield and spear
• 6 Warriors of Numenor with bows and spears
• Glorfindel, Lord of the West on Asfaloth with the Armor of Gondolin
• 5 High Elf Warriors with shields
• 3 High Elf Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 High Elf Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• 1 High Elf Warrior with Elf bow
• 2 High Elf Warriors with Elf bows and spears
• 2 Rivendell Knights with shields

With 32 models, this list checks off all of the boxes for our Bare Necessities series at 700pts, with two heroes who begin with as much resilience to magic out of the box. You can change this list into basically any Forces of Good army if you swap Glorfindel for Galadriel, Lady of Light (saves you 40 points), and you down-grade Elendil (200 points) to some hero at/around 150 points and get another hero (or two) with the points you saved. You can probably get around 30 models again (if not more) and if you can buy 2-3 turns to cast Fortify Spirit on Galadriel and your other heroes, you can keep your heroes from being easy targets.

Okay, one last list - this time focusing on the horde:

• Suladan the Serpent Lord on armored horse with bow
• 2 Haradrim Raiders with bows and war spears
• 2 Serpent Riders
• 5 Haradrim Warriors with bows and spears
• 5 Watchers of Karna with Twin Blades
• Haradrim Chieftain with bow
• 5 Haradrim Warriors with bows and spears
• 6 Watchers of Karna with Twin Blades
• Haradrim Chieftain with bow
• 1 Haradrim Warrior with bow
• 5 Haradrim Warriors with bows and spears
• 5 Watchers of Karna with Twin Blades
• Haradrim Chieftain with bow
• 1 Haradrim Warrior with bow
• 5 Haradrim Warriors with bows and spears
• 5 Watchers of Karna with Twin Blades

Four warbands for a total of 51 models is . . . kind of a lot of guys at 700 points. While you could probably drop the cavalry contingent and two of the Chieftains for the Betrayer, the mass of units that don't have poison (21 Watchers of Karna) and the risk of getting Sap Will'd to death was enough to keep me away from him. Sure, our archery would be more damaging, but I'm counting on having 24 warriors and 4 heroes with bows to make up for the lack of rerolling all failed To Wound rolls with pure volume. If our enemy chooses to come to us, he'll find Watchers of Karna (2 Attack models with bonuses to the Courage to charge Terrifying models and to resist being killed by Blades of the Dead) to meet them - and with spears to back them up and a banner nearby (on Suladan - keep him back so he doesn't get killed), they can do well even against higher Fight value models (though their F4 is pretty good).

You can run a similar strategy with armies like Lake-town (who can take Gandalf or Galadriel for anti-archery and anti-magic), Corsairs of Umbar (who can ally Conveniently with the Shadow Lord), and many other factions that can get core troops for 7 or fewer points and Captains for 60 or fewer points. Some factions (like Isengard) can even do this if they pay for some budget, cheap troops (like Orcs with spears or Wild Men of Dunland) to counter-act the expensiveness of their archers (Uruk-Hai Warriors with crossbows or Uruk-Hai Scouts with Uruk-Hai bows). When viewed this way, almost any army can have a big enough block of units to make charging them (or even getting in range to cast against their heroes) more difficult. Other armies, like the Rangers of Ithilien or the Mirkwood Rangers LLs can get high numbers with high archery (understatement) even though they have more expensive troops.

One last thing I wanted to cover: initial deployment. In most scenarios, it's hard for the Black Rider Legion (probably the only list that can do this) to win the game on the first turn by sniping the enemy army leader/Target hero in Assassination/Fog of War from the get-go (Turn 1 or 2) and throwing all of their Will to cast Black Darts, thereby quartering themselves and forcing the game to end (or start rolling for the game to end, in the case of Fog of War). If you're worried about getting sniped, don't deploy on the center line. Shooting-heavy armies like deploying in the rear of their deployment zone as it forces all armies (but especially the Ringwraiths) to play a different game. If you start on the center line, expect to get pummeled. Holding back and shooting might seem like a cowardly way to play, but let's be honest guys, at least you're playing the game. :)

If you have thoughts on how to fight magic-heavy or shooting-heavy lists, feel free to drop comments below on how you do it. If there are lists that you've been trying to run that have really struggled against these kinds of lists, let us know that too and we'll do our best to provide recommendations. Until next time, be safe and enjoy the holiday season. Happy hobbying!