In Defense Of: Dunlending Chieftains

Good morning gamers,

War in Rohan is one of the best supplements that has been released for the game - it not only provided a host of really great scenarios featuring iconic moments from the Two Towers film and historical battles that weren't really featured in the film (like the two battles for the Fords of Isen and the defense of Edoras), but it also released a TON of models. While Rohan and Fangorn got some neat drops, the biggest winner was Isengard - and most of those models fleshed out the Dunland sub-faction of the larger Isengard army.

With new heroes and warriors to use, Dunland surged in popularity among long-time Dunland players (who played with Dunland for thematic reasons, not for competitive ones) and new players alike - and while heroes like Thrydan kept their stock, there was one hero profile who seemed to get snubbed pretty hard by the arrivals of Frida Tallspear, Gorulf Ironskin and the Wild Man Oathmaker: the generic Dunlending Chieftain.

Theoretically, the Chieftain still has a place (eventually you'll max out the four named heroes' warbands), but time and again the Dunlending Chieftain seems to be passed over for the other named heroes. While Thrydan is a required model in the Army of Dunland Legendary Legion, it seems like everyone wants the named heroes before the unnamed guys. Is that fair? Well, let's look at some of the criticisms of the profile before we make the case for this underrated profile.

Why NOT To Take Dunlending Chieftains

Photo Credit: Games Workshop

The biggest reason to not take the Chieftains is because of the four named Dunland heroes: Thrydan is the most expensive of the bunch (85-95pts), but packs such a punch on offense (as the only mounted Dunland hero and with Mighty Blow with either his one-handed sword or his two-handed axe) that most players view his inclusion as a given regardless of the Dunland force you're trying to marshal. The usual second-place choice is Gorulf Ironskin (and in Isengard "soup" lists, he's usually the first Dunland hero taken), who for 70pts gives you F5/S5/3A with 3-Might-and-Strike (if you don't take the free Heroic Defense against heroes/monsters). Like most Isengard named Uruk heroes, Gorulf isn't that incredible on defense (D5 with 2 Wounds/1 Fate), but with the potential for Heroic Defense blunting your worst opponents, Gorulf is about as tough as they come for Dunland.

Filling in the supporting roles are the Wild Man Oathmaker (55pts, tied in cost with a Chieftain who isn't wielding a bow), who makes your Wild Men Fearless, has 3 Might for Heroic Moves (he's not great at benefitting from Heroic Strength unless you've got another hero in the fight) and is the least defensible of the group (D4 with 2 Wounds/1 Fate), but has absolutely no reason to be anywhere near the action. Frida Tallspear (65pts), similarly, provides F5 and support abilities with her spear that can remove enemy cavalry bonuses (so good). With all of these neat abilities (and 270pts already spent on heroes), is it really prudent to spend 55-60pts on ANOTHER hero?

The second reason that Dunland players might avoid this guy is because they aren't hurting for fast troop options. Unlike the Army of Thror, Arnor, or Dale (which has no cavalry or fliers, despite a revamp) or Numenor (which has no warrior cavalry options and no fliers), Dunland has both warrior cavalry (Dunlending Horsemen) and fliers (Crebain) - BOTH of which are viewed as good fast options for both the Army of Dunland Legendary Legion and the Isengard army generally. While the Fight Value on both is lacking, Crebain are notoriously hard to hit with direct fire from archery and the Dunlending Horsemen are basically Warg Riders with axes that get to reroll 1s against enemy mounts. If you're looking for a pocket of speed to assist Thrydan, you could do a lot worse than these guys . . .

The third reason that the Dunlending Chieftain gets snubbed is his lack of F5 - the Wild Man Oathmaker suffers a similar critique, but he isn't designed to be a fighter and the other three named heroes are all F5 (two of which have Strike to get even higher). While the Dunlending Chieftain shouldn't be asked to take on big heroes (unless he's fulfilling a Rock role), even against warriors he might blunt off because he's only F4. Having S5 (with or without a two-handed weapon) is great and all, but if you can't win fights, what are you doing for me?

Now I don't think these critiques are fair - but they certainly exist. So, with these in mind, let's look at what this guy does bring to the table and how you can use him more effectively than the other hero options (besides Thrdyan - because I love Thrydan).

Why TO Take Dunlending Chieftains

There are plenty of competitive players who have taken the Fiefdoms to big tournaments (including Jay Clare recently) without having March in your army - but this often requires the inclusion of expensive, D6 Knights of Dol Amroth on foot (who are commonly viewed to be overcosted unless Imrahil is right next to them). If you want to bulk out your numbers with the Fiefdoms, you probably need a Captain of Dol Amroth so you can March your D4-5 elite units. The same principles is true for the Army of Dunland: you need access to March.

If you like Wild Men of Dunland in particular, you REALLY need a March hero. Yes, you also need the Wild Man Oathmaker to make these guys work, but having a spam of D3 warriors isn't going to do much if they're slogging around at 6" each turn. Push them hard with a hero who can March them - and that would have to be the Dunland Chieftain.

Now there are some players out there who don't see March as a valuable heroic action - and I get that: spending Might for +3" of movement might not seem valuable (especially since there are scenarios where you can start on the centerline). But after playing this game for years, I've had countless games (in previous editions and the current one) where I've had to slog across the board at 5" or 6" each turn while trying to endure a hailstorm of enemy archery (or Centaur's accursed ballistas). Leave March at home if you want to, but I'd rather have it.

When you compare the combat prowess of the Dunlending Chieftain to the other Dunland heroes, he's not bad - he's more resilient than the Wild Man Oathmaker (who gets +1 Might instead of +1-2 Defense) and if equipped with a shield, he's as resilient as Frida Tallspear (both are able to get to D6 - and the only models in this list who make it to D6 - with 2 Wounds/1 Fate). Frida does have +1 FV and +1 Might, but the Dunlending Chieftain has +1 Strength and an axe by default (to potentially trade the even-Defense for +2 Strength). Frida's Fight Value may help her win in some fights automatically, but the Dunlending Chieftain has the potential to wound +1 pip better than her - so if you pile in the models into this guy's fight, you can probably kill whatever you face.

Gorulf is crazy good on offense, but his advantages over the Dunlending Chieftain is not as great as you'd think. He has +1 Fight, +1 Attack, and +1 Might and access to Strike/Defense (all of which are good), but if you're fighting warriors (especially those that are F3 or below), you might not need these things (the extra Attack is always nice). In the Army of Dunland especially, those 6" banners you have can give you CRAZY good benefits to help you get extra dice to win the fight - and without the distractions of Heroic Strike/Defense, the Dunlending Chieftain can often have Might to boost his dueling rolls (and if you started on the centerline, you won't feel like you're wasting a Might point).

I won't make the case that the Chieftain compares well against Thrydan while he's mounted and on the charge, but if Thrdyan is on foot or has been charged, he's not that much better (+1 FV, -1 Defense, +1 Might). If you need someone to anchor part of your battleline and you don't feel like you need to be able to charge every time to be "good," a Chieftain will stack up pretty well (which will allow Thrydan to insert himself where he's most useful - and never feeling like he "has to be" somewhere).

Now I know what you're thinking: "okay, Tiberius, you can say the stats aren't that much worse on this guy - but being F4 isn't great for a hero!" Well, it would be good if this guy was F5 instead of F4 - but it's okay to be F4 (lots of generic heroes are - and even some named heroes are). The way the dice-rolling in this game works is that if you have a higher Fight Value and the same number of dice as your opponent, you will have an edge at winning the fight. However, if you have 1 dice more than your opponent and the lower Fight Value, you have about even odds at winning the fight. If you have 2+ dice over your opponent, the odds of you winning slants more and more in your favor. The reason armies like Goblin-town can be dominant in different scenarios is because they can probably get 4+ dice against 1-2 enemy dice - and despite being F2, they are more likely to get a higher die roll than their opponent (and thereby win the fight). A Dunlending Chieftain may not look like much, but with 2 Attacks + a 6" banner + 1 support Huscarl or a charging Dunlending Horseman/Crebain/Wild Man of Dunland to assist, your 4 dice (with some that could be boosted by Might) are looking pretty good.

Making It Work

So what do you need to bring along in order to make these guys shine? First and foremost, bring most of the named heroes too. Thrydan on a horse, Gorulf Ironskin, the Wild Man Oathmaker, and a Dunlending Chieftain with a shield can be taken for 275pts. If you're playing at 500pts, it might not seem like a good idea to spend this many points on heroes, but you're getting two beater heroes, one Marching hero who isn't bad in combat, and a Fearless-generating, Heroic-Move-Caddy hero who is fine in combat. You can get a 29-model, 500-point list with the following:

• Thrydan Wolfsbane on horse [ARMY LEADER]
• 2 Dunlending Warriors with bows
• 2 Dunlending Horsemen
  
• Gorulf Ironskin
• 4 Wild Men of Dunland
• 2 Dunlending Warriors with bows
• 1 Dunlending Warrior with bow and banner
• 1 Crebain
  
• The Wild Man Oathmaker
• 2 Wild Men of Dunland
• 4 Wild Men of Dunland with two-handed axes
  
• 2 Dunlending Warriors with bows
  
• Dunlending Chieftain with shield
• 2 Wild Men of Dunland
• 2 Dunlending Warriors with bows
• 1 Crebain
  

Why is it important to surround the Dunlending Chieftain with other heroes? Because he gets better as he makes other units better! Yes, he's fine as a fighter, but you'd rather have Gorulf and Thrydan moving quickly down the field, drawing the attention of the enemy while the lowly Chieftain is ignored. You'll find a similar strategy employed by unnamed Uruk-Hai captains and Hunter Orc Captains - they're not great units on their own, but when ignored, they're plenty dangerous.

Second, we need to make sure there's a banner near this guy. Often times, he'll want to be near Gorulf to make sure Gorulf is Marching where he wants to go - and Gorulf also benefits greatly from having a banner near him. With Gorulf around the corner, an enemy hero will be wary to ram into this guy (especially if there's only one model between them or if they're side-by-side). Banners can make low-Fight models much better at fighting (see my recent article on simple math facts for more info on this), since the more dice you roll, the more likely you are to get a 5 or 6 as your high dice - and if you just beat the other guy's roll, you win.

Finally, this guy works really with with Wild Men of Dunland. Wild Men are blissfully cheap and can be Fearless if the Oathmaker is around. Dunlending Chieftains are good in combat, but get even better if they can trap someone or if they can make sure the enemy isn't piling up in their fights - both of which can be solved by having your own budget horde of 5pt Wild Men of Dunland (optionally 6pts with two-handed axes). You probably want to be Marching these guys anyway, so having a good clip of them near the Dunlending Chieftain is quite valuable. Also, because their Defense is so low, most shooting models are going to wound the Dunlending Chieftain on a higher roll than the Wild Men, so they can easily draw fire away from this hero.

Conclusion

If you're not convinced about the Dunlending Chieftain, that's fine - March is valuable in this army and in scenarios generally, but if you want to run a Dunland army without him, feel free to. Hopefully, though, you might think better of him than you did before - I'll be fine with that.

In our next post, Centaur takes us through one of his favorite Moria pieces: the Dragon. As one of the most expensive monsters available to Moria, the Dragon is often cast in the shadow of the "other big three" (Cave Drakes, the Watcher in the Water, and the Balrog). Is this winged foe worth taking? And what are the best upgrades for him? Find out all this from one of their most devoted fans - until then, happy hobbying!