A Season of Giving: The Barrows of Cardolan Fan-Made Legendary Legion!

Pardon the CRAPPY JOB my camera did; I need
to just break down and buy a new phone

Hey Reader!

As a continuation of our Season of Giving series, I'm bringing you a new Angmar legendary legion: The Barrows of Cardolan. Remember how everyone hates Angmar because they do mean stuff? And how they get access to those big flying monsters and fell beasts that make things even worse, so that Angmar is just no fun to play against at all?

Well this one removes the monsters, so that's a big plus! It removes a lot of other things too, so this really does feel like a true legendary legion: giving up a lot of options to gain flavorful benefits, but fair warning: the "unfun" parts of Angmar are still at least partially in play here.

But we're talking about Angmar: this is why we play them! We like dead stuff that does unique stuff you can't find in a Mordor or Barad-Dur list! We love uphill battles against heavy-hitting heroes! And this legion does all of this.

DOWNLOAD THE RULES HERE (in color) OR HERE (in black and white)!!!

Why Make This Legion?

To start off, I believe that legendary legions should fundamentally remove options in favor of what you gain from taking the legion. So without naming any names, there are some legions that I don't like because you basically get the same army with no real losses, all while gaining other benefits (and this fault includes what I believe is the best supplement book that has been released to date, so this is not a bias thing).

So this legion can't include the wide range of threats that Angmar has: flying monsters, ringwraiths with multiple mount options, orcs of various flavors, more monsters, spirits with cool special rules, and an almost useless shaman (don't get me started on how much I hate that shaman). Instead it thematically centers itself on one aspect of the army: the rising of the dead by the might of Sauron, and then it fleshes out the legion with a few new profiles that we will discuss presently.

This comes with a lot of tradeoffs: you don't get the magic options that the ringwraiths offer you, let alone their Harbinger of Evil special rule. You also don't get orcs, so by extension you don't get your standard army special rule. And you lose a resource that, admittedly, Angmar is typically short on, but in this case you lose it almost entirely, and that is Might Points. All of the Might Point heroes that you have access to - orc heroes, most of your ringwraiths, and your monster heroes - are not in the list, as you drop to only having barrow wights and shades.

You also lose access to your ability to horde, replacing your orcs and wargs with undead warriors instead (as the dead are rising). So while still a thematically strong Angmar army, it plays radically differently from a typical Angmar army that sprinkles in spirits alongside waves of orcs. And we love this: theme should change how you play your force.

And if that wasn't enough (because we're not done yet, :P ), Angmar has the advantage of a wide range of styles of attacks: monster brutal power attacks, two-handed weapons (both on orcs and trolls), throwing weapons, shortbows (however horrible they may be), cavalry charges, and Blades of the Dead, this legion drops all of that down to two options: Blades of the Dead and bows. So there's no Piercing Strikes, no +1 to wounds, no monster rules - it's on the one hand far simpler to run and remember, but also because of that it is far more limited.

And all of this comes with the added issue of having no cavalry and limited archery. Admittedly you're only losing one option for archery (trolls throwing stones), and your archery actually gets qualitatively better (4+ Shoot with 24" instead of 5+ Shoot with 12-18"). But the lack of movement beyond 6" move infantry is something to consider.

So why did we build this legion if we stripped away a lot of the useful tools at the disposal of Angmar? Because of fun! We wanted a thematically rich force that really leaned into the spooky, terrifying adventure that the hobbits have on the barrow downs (even though Tom tells them specifically NOT TO STOP THERE - come on, guys!), and having recently played the Fantasy Fellowship scenario with Tiberius involving the barrow wights, this legion was born.

So let's get into discussing what you get.

Legion Design

To start off, you have five profiles at your disposal, three of which you know, and two of which are new: Barrow Wights, Shades, and Dead Marsh Spectres form the core of the army, providing both supporting abilities and leadership. The other two profiles - the Arnor Spectre and the Ranger Spectre flesh out your army to give you both warrior choices (as I think every legion should have that) as well as giving you coverage for clear gaps in your inventory. 

The Arnor Spectre is a reanimated Warrior of Arnor, and sports the spear, shield, and heavy armor that you would expect from that profile. But since it's dead, he only has a Fight Value of 2 instead of 4. He adds +2pts to his cost as well, but in exchange adds +2 Courage, -1 Shoot Value (but can't use it generally, so it's not a huge loss), and gains the Terror and Blades of the Dead special rules. Unlike the Warrior of Arnor, though, he doesn't need to exchange his shield and spear for a banner for 25pts if you choose to take a banner on this guy: he just adds a banner to his existing kit.

Similarly the Ranger Spectre drops from Fight 4 to Fight 2, and for +2pts he also adds +2 Courage, -1 Shoot Value (but a 4+ Shoot is still better than your orc/troll shooting, so there's that), and adds the same special rules. Similar to the profile in the Arnor list, you can also pay +1pt to add a spear.

This allows you to still fight in ranks almost as a "budget Dunharrow," except that you're F2 instead of F3, you're D6 instead of D8, and you don't have boss heroes like Aragorn or the King of the Dead to help you out. But on that topic...

Your two heroes get boosts in this list, which incentivizes you to take them. First, you get a barrow marker for the first three barrow wights you take (so there's diminishing returns for taking more than three in this list). The barrows themselves don't do anything (none of this "spend a Will for free" shenanigans like in the Fantasy Fellowship scenario), but they are hard to destroy, and if your barrow wights ever die anywhere on the map, they have a chance to respawn within 3" of any of the barrows. So you can suddenly pop up spellcasters near an objective, get your support heroes behind enemy lines - all kinds of useful things. Oh: and if they come back, they also regain D3 Will Points, so more casting (admittedly like 1 extra cast of Paralyze, but hey, we'll take it)!

Second, your shades gain a 6" Harbinger of Evil, encouraging you to take them across your army. I think you'll get marginal returns on having more than two in your army because of their cost, but having 1-2 of them will help you maximize your Terror special rule assuming you aren't facing too much Bodyguard/Sworn Protector. We would give more benefits to shades, but let's face it: they're already providing quite a few bonuses to your low Fight Value army as it is, so we didn't feel like boosting them any further.

Third, one of your barrow wights becomes the Barrow Lord. This is a huge bump: he's your army leader, so he needs some level of staying power since he's, you know, F3 with no Strike and only 1 Attack. So he gains +1 Wound (bringing him up to 3, though he still has no Fate Points, so watch out for those auto-kill abilities!), +2 Will (so he should be able to cast more, and won't run from combat as much) with some additional spells (Wither and Drain Courage), and gains 2 Might Points and the Heroic Channelling heroic action. This is the big clincher: you can actually channel Paralyze if you want, though remember: you only have 2 Might, it's only on this guy, and this is the only Might in your army. So...do you save it for a Heroic Move? Do you channel a spell that's only being cast on a 4+, or do you save the Might to make sure it goes off? Lots of good questions to ask.

This bonus should give your army leader some staying power, and it allows you to feel like you have a better hero than a generic hero, much like the "Uber Troll Chieftain" from the Black Gate Opens legendary legion, for example.

In addition, all of our Barrow Wights gain the ability to turn enemy casualties into allies, provided that the Barrow Wight kills the target (which is hard to do with only 1 Attack at S3 against the enemy's Courage Value). We also have some limitations on which warrior we get to choose and the new allied model starts prone (as the enemy warrior just died, so it's on the ground), but hey: you can slowly regain some guys! It's an incentive to take Barrow Wights, though admittedly if you don't have enough infantry to give them room to breathe you won't be getting many kills with them. So there's a natural check against overpowering this aspect of the legion.

And then there's one final bonus that can actually hurt you a bit, and that's the fog: starting on Turn 1 line of sight is reduced to 6", and then there's a 50/50 chance that the fog will lift on future turns (though the fog immediately lifts of Tom Bombadil or Blinding Light appear on the board, so it may not even come up at all). This means that your crappy shooting may be limited in range (there's no +1 to wound like in other legions), but hey, it will also help to keep you safe from both long charges by cavalry and enemy archery. On balance, I think it's a win for this legion, and on average it should disappear by Turn 2, maybe Turn 3. Possibly even by Turn 1. So I don't think it will make the game unfun for your opponent...at least, not more than playing spirit-heavy Angmar already does.

So with these in mind, let's look at a few lists!

Examplar Lists

At 500 points, I think the build-out is pretty simple: 2 Barrow Wights (one of which becomes the Barrow Lord), 1 shade, and footmen to guard them. This gives you some support options, allows you to take advantage of all of your rules, while still giving you a chance to contest objectives with a relatively expensive army. And with 30 models, I'm actually quite impressed with this force:

• The Barrow Lord
• 2 Dead Marsh Spectres
• 4 Arnor Spectres
• 4 Ranger Spectres with Spears
• Barrow Wight
• 2 Dead Marsh Spectres
• 4 Arnor Spectres
• 4 Ranger Spectres with Spears
• Shade
• 2 Dead Marsh Spectres
• 3 Arnor Spectres
• 2 Ranger Spectres with Spears

Now note that this gives us no banner, so that might be an oversight (and it might be worthwhile to drop a Dead Marsh Spectre and an Arnor Spectre to take a banner since we have the lower Fight Value), but I liked the nice round number of 30, so I kept it as-is even though followers of this blog will know that I absolutely don't go anywhere without a banner.

As we scale up to 700pts, we can afford to throw in that third Barrow Wight to give us our third barrow token, and personally I'd stick with just one shade and focus on numbers. Add in a second at 800, but at 700 we need to pump the numbers up and fill the warbands if at all possible because we're still looking at F1-3 heroes and F2 warriors. And at 43 models, this list isn't bad (and it even fits in my banner!):

• The Barrow Lord
• 2 Dead Marsh Spectres
• 3 Arnor Spectres
• 1 Arnor Spectre with Banner
• 4 Ranger Spectres with Spears
• Barrow Wight
• 2 Dead Marsh Spectres
• 4 Arnor Spectres
• 4 Ranger Spectres with Spears
• Barrow Wight
• 2 Dead Marsh Spectres
• 4 Arnor Spectres
• 4 Ranger Spectres with Spears
• Shade
• 2 Dead Marsh Spectres
• 4 Arnor Spectres
• 3 Ranger Spectres with Spears

Conclusion

Now keep in mind what we have here: a Fight 2 warrior core supported by F1-3 heroes that all have 1 Attack. That's...not great: you really don't have a power piece (even with the Barrow Lord getting his buffs), and the "Might Shortage" that Angmar typically has is exacerbated here. So before you freak out about how this list is overpowered, remember how much we're giving up: we're reacting to our opponent's heroic actions, we don't have a lot of margin for error, and if the Shade gets removed we're going to have a low Fight Value army that's not reducing opposing duels rolls by -1, so our chances of winning any fights at that point are very small. So you have to protect all of your heroes to keep this going, and with 2-3 Wounds and no Fate on them, that's actually a tall order, even at D7-8.

But the theme is what I love about this army: it just feels so flavorful, leaning into the spirit side of Angmar that typically just gets splashed in for special rules and bonuses, and instead it goes full tilt into that theme, even though it comes with gaps in their inventory. And that's what I love about it: it feels so fresh and new, even though it's mostly models we already have (and run in small numbers).

Hope you enjoy it! Let us know in the comments what you think! Until next time, you know where to find me,

Watching the stars,

Centaur