A Season of Giving: Revamping the Rangers (Part I)

He sees you when you're sleeping... that's weird!

Photo Credit: reddit.com

Ho, ho, hooooooooold on... this is a day late...

(Oh well. Better late than never, right?)

Another Christmas may have come and gone, but the season of giving here at TMAT continues! (Mostly because I couldn't meet deadlines.) But my procrastination is your gain, because have we got some pre-Epiphany presents for you on this fine Boxing Day!

As many of you know, both Centaur and I are huge fans of the Rangers. So we were somewhat disappointed (or, in Centaur's case, close to affronted) as other factions got buffs, while our beloved Rangers looked on, quietly, from the shadows. 

Of course, the Rangers are a perfectly fine, pseudo-competitive faction as-is. But this is the holidays and we're wish-listing. So we've cooked up something extra special for those oft-underappreciated guardians of the North: an entire faction revamp.

Part I (which we're releasing today) is a modest update that takes a look at the existing profiles and gives them a little... something extra where needed. I'm also not a huge fan of legendary legions--I don't oppose them, I just think that when we have more legions than factions, that may suggest the factions themselves need more attention. But I acknowledge that these Legions exist, and there are two that impact the Rangers (or should), so we've offered some modest improvements for those, too.

I'll have screenshots as we go, but if you want to follow along, you can download the whole thing HERE (and in Greyscale HERE). And if you missed our other Season of Giving ideas, you can check them out using the links below (or at the bottom of the House Rules page):

• The Watchers of the Roads Legendary Legion (December 5, 2022)
• The Light of Caras Galadhon Legendary Legion (December 8, 2022)
• Defense of Mirkwood Legendary Legion (December 12, 2022)
• The Barrows of Cardolan Legendary Legion (December 15, 2022)
• The Last Alliance Legendary Legion (December 19, 2022)
• The Power of the Ring Legendary Legion (December 22, 2022)
• Revamping the Rangers, Part II (December 26, 2022)

Shall we?

Global Changes

We started by reevaluating how the Rangers fit into the global ecosystem of MESBG: how the profiles within the Rangers list relate to each other, and also how they relate to other profiles in other factions. That meant making some changes to the list itself, and also to the alliance matrix. Let's start with the list composition:

Note: Click for full-sized images throughout

The biggest change relates to the three named heroes: you can no longer take Arathorn with Aragorn or Halbarad. In the official version, you can take Arathorn and Aragorn in the same list--albeit, at the cost of your army bonus (which is bad) and a red alliance with everyone (less bad). For lore and competitive reasons, our updated version creates a hard ban on taking Arathorn and Aragorn together. For one thing, Aragorn was just a babe when Arathorn died. For another, who has Andúril (and in what state)? Need I say more?

In a related change, you also can't take Arathorn with Halbarad, which I'm sure will cause all manner of consternation. This was primarily a lore fix also, mostly because no self-respecting Rangers player takes Halbarad without the Banner of Arwen Evenstar (and allowing players to take Halbarad with Arathorn, but then banning those players from taking Halbarad's awesome banner, seemed harsh). 

We'll cover the updates to Arathorn's profile shortly (which addresses the loss of Halbarad's 6" banner and Fearless bubble), but there's no doubt that losing the option for a second 3-Might hero with Heroic Strike (plus a mounted hero with a might-backed bow) is huge. 

To soften the blow, Arathorn-led lists now have the option to include Elrohir & Elladan, giving them the option for not one, but two 3-Might mounted strikers (with improved might-powered bows, to boot). Yes, they're more expensive than Halbarad was (even with banner). But with Arathorn being as cost-efficient as he is, you can probably afford to squeeze them in. Oh, and since they're now native to the list, they can lead Dúnedain and Rangers if you wish.

Not to be outdone, the Aragorn-led version of this list picks up Legolas, Gimli, and the twins. That's the Fellowship versions of Legolas and Gimli (no Prince of Mirkwood version here), who like Elladan & Elrohir are all included in the list itself (meaning they can lead Dúnedain and Rangers of the North, if you wish). You can also include Legolas and Gimli in Arathorn's warband if you like (because flavor is fun).

We've also made some adjustments to the alliance matrix (which, in my opinion at least, are much-needed): 

The Rangers remain historical allies with the Shire (so you can get Gandalf the Grey into the list--or Farmer Maggot--along with some cheap bodies), as are the Dead of Dunharrow (as long as you have Aragorn and the King of the Dead). In addition, the Aragorn-led version of this list is also green allies with the Fiefdoms, Rohan, and Minas Tirith as long as your allied contingent includes certain heroes who fought with Aragorn and the Grey Company on their march across Rohan, through the Paths of the Dead to Pelargir, and ultimately to the Pelennor (Angbor or Prince Imrahil; Theoden or Éomer; and Hurin the Tall, as long as there's no Denethor or Boromir, Captain of the White Tower). Otherwise, the Rangers are convenient allies with Minas Tirith, Rohan, and the Fiefdoms, along with the Garrison of Dale (LOTR-version with Brand or Bard II) and Erebor Reclaimed (LOTR-version with old Dain or Thorin Stonehelm).

The upshot of these changes is that you should now be able to recreate Aragorn as the Chieftain of the Rangers at any point in his journey--from before he met Frodo and company in Bree, through the Battle of Pelennor Fields--with just the basic Ranger list, and maybe some allies.

Finally, we made two profile-based changes across the board, both of which are reflected in the Rangers' updated army bonus: 

First all Rangers (and Ranger heroes) have swapped their "swords" for "hand-and-a-half swords" because let's face it... Aragorn's "ranger sword" is a hand-and-a-half sword and he uses it all the time as a hand-and-a-half sword. Second, because of their heightened combat prowess, Rangers don't suffer any penalties for carrying both a bow and a shield.

Wait, what?

(That's what we call a segue...)

Profile Updates

As mentioned above, the biggest overall change for Arathorn is that there's now a hard-ban on taking him with Aragorn (basically how it was before) and Halbarad (definitely not how it was before). In addition, Arathorn now costs 10 more points base than he did before (85 instead of 75 . . . and yes, I said "base"). So what gives?

Well, it's not a change to his basic stat line (well, mostly). He's still Fight 5/3+, Strength 4, Defense 5, 3 Attacks, and 2 Wounds with 3/2/1 heroic stats (though we did give him a Halbarad-level boost to Courage 6). But we did give him that sword-for-hand-and-a-half-sword swap (like everyone else in the list), and he's also picked up two more heroic actions (Heroic Resolve and Heroic March). These are largely quality-of-life upgrades to give the Rangers more flexibility when using the Arathorn-led variant.

But the real added value comes from the Chieftain of the Dúnedain special rule, which does two things. First, it lets Arathorn include up to six Rangers of Arnor in his warband (who don't count towards your bow limit). These 8-9 point models swap their Arnor keyword for the Dúnedain keyword (less important in this version, more important in the forthcoming Part II), and if you opt for the more expensive Elrohir & Elladan to replace some of Halbarad's production, it will give you a way to keep your model count about the same as it would be with an Arathorn/Halbarad vanilla list. Additionally, all friendly models within 6" of Arathorn count as being in range of a banner and become Fearless, which allows you to replicate the spirit of Halbarad's banner (without needing to take the actual lore-breaking Banner). It also makes Arathorn the end-all, be-all of his Ranger's list (whereas in current lists, he's more of an afterthought behind Halbarad).

Because Arathorn is likely to be public enemy number one with this new set-up, we've also given him expanded wargear options. The horse is a no-brainer: if Halbarad and generic Rangers of the North can take them, Arathorn should (and you can't convince me he's too cheap in a world where Burly Dwalin on goat costs 125 points). In addition, upgrades for heavy armor and shield allow you to get your Arathorn to Defense 7 if you like (if you don't like that, don't take the upgrades). He's still not going to be a top-tier hero (he's still 2 wounds/1 fate, after all), but he can hold his own at lower points levels, and probably at higher points levels, too, with the twins (or even Gandalf) as his glorified bodyguard.

Aragorn-Strider's profile is near-perfect as-is, so the only change we've made (besides the sword-for-hand-and-a-half-sword swap) is to give him the option for an elven-made dagger (5 points). Hey, he gets this for free in the Breaking of the Fellowship legendary legion, so 5 points seems fair. Plus, it's a way to have a lore-accurate, pre-Andúril Aragorn leading your Rangers while still having the option of an elven-made weapon for competitive play. And yes, I know he got an elven-made dagger from Galadriel during LOTR... but do you really think a child who grew up in Rivendell and pals around with the sons of Elrond wasn't gifted an elven-made dagger at some point before he turned 87? I mean, seriously...

Halbarad's profile is also unchanged, with the exception of wargear options for heavy armor and shield (allowing you to boost him to Defense 7). Given that Strider can only reach Defense 6 in a Rangers list (albeit with just standard armor--that dwarf-like Defense 5 whilst nekked is really nice), I wouldn't object to getting rid of the shield option and capping him at Defense 6 (which would be in line with a new Pelennor-based profile we have coming in Part II). But let us know what you think about that.

That leads us, at last, to the core revamps in this update: overhauling Dúnedain and Rangers of the North. 

As others members of the community (like The Green Dragon Podcast) have noted before, the primary "problem" with the Rangers as a list is that there's not really a good reason to take Rangers of the North over Dúnedain. Oh, sure, there are reasons: the Rangers are Defense 5 instead of Defense 4, and have the option to take a horse (for 10 points). But none of those are good reasons. Defense 5 is really situational (it does nothing against Strength 3, which is a common strength for armies and shooting) and 10 points for a horse on a model with 1 wound, 1 fate, and 1 attack is... well, let's just say seasoned Rangers players only buy a handful of these, and they do so begrudgingly. That's a shame, because Rangers of the North are cool--but how do we capture that on the table?

We originally thought about a complete revamp (and we do have an uber-version of the Ranger of the North coming in Part II) or a stat revamp (giving them an extra Fate... Wound... really anything that might be worth 5 points). But in the end, we decided on more modest fixes to both Dúnedain and Rangers that help them fill different roles (and therefore give players a reason to take some of both).

In this revamp, Dúnedain are still deadly in combat, but they are also ranged specialists. Their stat profile and cost remain unchanged, but they've been given a new rule, Expert Marksman: "When benefiting from a Heroic Shoot or Heroic Accuracy, Dúnedain may declare shooting attacks against targets with the Stalk Unseen special rule, and suffer no penalties for shooting in the dark."

This thematic rule captures the danger that Dúnedain pose to enemy archers of all stripes, and provides them with a way to combat certain lists that cause problems for shooting lists (the Rangers of Ithilien Legendary Legion) or all lists (the Assault on Lothlorien legendary legion). To balance this out, the rule only triggers when a Dúnedain benefits from a Heroic Shoot or Accuracy (which generally means someone is spending Might). Now don't get me wrong, Rangers have a ton of might. But unless you're running an Aragorn-led variant, that Might isn't free. And even in an Aragorn-led list, you're paying quite a few points for Aragorn and Halbarad (reducing the amount of Dúnedain you can "spam"), plus spending your "free" might on a Heroic Shoot or Accuracy means no free Heroic Move before, or Heroic Combat after. In other words, there's always a cost.

That left the more complicated question of what to do with the Rangers of the North. Rather than simply making them a facsimile of Dúnedain, we opted to make them into what I think the original designers wanted them to be: hardier Rangers (who can still shoot well) who can hold your front line. The problem is that standard Rangers of the North generally don't fit that role--mostly because their Defense 5 can't stand up to Strength 3 troops or shooting. So we fixed that with a wargear option and special rule:

I'm incredibly partial to this profile, but I'll try to stay objective. Again, we didn't monkey around with any stats on Rangers. Instead, we gave them two ways to get to Defense 6 when it matters. If you like your core "troops" to be Defense 6 all the time, you have the option for a shield (that's where the Army Bonus kicks in, getting rid of the penalty for having both a bow and shield). The shield is also reasonably costed (1 point, just like the spears on vanilla Dúnedain). 

Alternatively, if you don't like the idea of Rangers with shields (or don't want to spend the points), these updated Rangers also come with Impervious to Bow-Fire, which we stole from Uruk-Hai Berserkers. This rule means their defense characteristic counts as "6" against shooting attacks--a perfect solution for giving them some much-needed archery protection without allowing a "stacking" mechanic in combination with the shield option that would allow them to get to Defense 7 against shooting attacks (their defense against shooting attacks always counts as "6," ergo no stacking effect).

In addition, to encourage these Rangers to do what I think they were meant to do (get stuck into combat, instead of shooting all day), we gave them a new special rule, Dark Things Fly From Us. This gives Rangers of the North the Terror (Goblin), Terror (Orc), and Terror (Uruk-Hai) special rules on a turn in which they charge. Tolkien (through Aragorn) describes the Rangers as a fell people who drove the enemies of the North before them in the days after Arnor fell. This rule captures that concept of a terrifying charge, although for game-balance purposes we've limited the Terror effect to their traditional northern enemies (goblins, orcs, and Uruks). Situationally useful, but very thematic.

Finally, we reduced the cost of the horse upgrade for Rangers of the North from 10 points to 5 points. If you need a reason for the change, I'd point you to Beregond, who is also a 1 attack, 1/1/1 hero with a mount option that costs 5 points instead of 10. With these changes, I think the Rangers of the North are at least in the same ballpark as Beregond: 

• Beregond: Defense 6, Bodyguard, option for a Longbow with 4/3+ fight/shoot value, a horse, and the option to lead 6 warriors for 35 points
• Ranger of the North: Defense 6 (with shield), regular bow with 4/3+ fight/shoot value, a horse, and no option to lead warriors for 36 points 

Don't get me wrong: 36 points still isn't cheap for a 1-attack cavalry model with 1 wound, no to-wound bonuses on the charge (although at least they're Strength 4), and no option to lead troops. But I think you're getting much better value that you'd get for Vanilla Rangers of the North on horses (40 points), with the bump to Defense 6 and the option for Terror on the charge, without giving the Rangers a game-breaking Cavalry option.

And that's all I can say without gushing, so I'll stop now.

Legendary Legions

As I alluded to earlier, I'm not the biggest fan of legendary legions, so you won't get any new Ranger-themed ones from me. But there are two Ranger-themed legions that currently exist (or should exist), so it'd be irresponsible not to offer some thoughts on them.

We start with The Grey Company legendary legion, which I've played quite a bit. The legion is okay as-is, but the main reason for playing it in the vanilla version of the game is that it is literally the only way for you to have Aragorn, Halbarad, Legolas, Gimli, and the Twins alongside rangers who don't suck (aka, haven't lost their army bonus). Oh, and you have to take Rangers of the North, too (no Dúnedain). And no one has horses.

With our changes to the Ranger list (where you now can take Legolas, Gimli, and the Twins along Aragorn, Halbarad, and army bonus Dúnedain/Rangers without breaking a sweat), the old reasons for taking this legion (basically, because you had to if you wanted to field this list) went away. So the legion needed some revamps to stay "competitive." Rather than tinkering with the list composition itself (there's still no option for Dúnedain in our revamp), we did a little work around the margins (Aragorn has the option for his 5-point elven-made dagger, and Rangers of the North have the option for a shield in addition to a spear), and with a couple of tweaks to the legion's special rules (plus a new one):

The Andúril rule is a carry-over from the original legion, and is unchanged. The Passing of the Grey Company is also a carry-over (although we updated it to include the "no bow and shield" penalty from our upgraded Rangers army bonus). That leaves The Riders of Rohan look almost as boys beside them, which gives Rangers of the North within 12" of Aragorn a bump to Fight 5. 

With the obvious caveat that the lack of mount options will always cap how competitive this list can be (something we didn't change... in this edition), I think you'll agree the jump to Fight 5 within 12" of Aragorn is massive, and a huge reason to at least think about taking this legion over a generic Rangers list (even with the lack of horses). They may not quite be Beornings yet... but they're at least in the same ballpark.

The second legion we tweaked is the Men of the West Legendary Legion, which Tiberius loves (and has really tried to make work). I really wanted to like this legion, but there were two things that always bugged me: the special rules were... let's say "unimpressive," and there are no Rangers in the list (even though the Rangers of the North accompanied Aragorn on his march to the Black Gate).

To remedy this, we started with the army composition, which we expanded in a few respects:

Apart from the change to Gandalf's profile (the Staff of Power is now a 50-point upgrade, allowing you to field a cheaper, albeit less-powerful Gandalf if you wish), the main updates here are adding Rangers of the North (with spear and shield upgrades), and adding a secondary troop option to the three factions represented here: Rangers of Gondor for Minas Tirith, Rohan Royal Guards for Rohan, and Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth for the Fiefdoms. 

One of the reasons why Men of the West typically doesn't see play (apart from the horses thing) is that it freezes you out of using the better troop options in those three factions. While we didn't go overboard (just imagine the Fountain Court Guard and Citadel Guard are all on garrison duty at Minas Tirith or recapturing Cair Andros in Aragorn's absence), we felt the inclusion of some dedicated bowmen (Rangers of Gondor), Bodyguard troops (Rohan Royal Guard), and pikes (Men-at-Arms) would give you some nice flexibility in list-building to complement your chosen heroes. In terms of who can lead who, we decided to keep things simple, using the "Black Gate: Right Hill" and "Black Gate: Left Hill" scenarios from Gondor at War as our guide. Heroes on the Left Hill (Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf, Beregond, the Twins, and Captains of Minas Tirith) can include Warriors of Minas Tirith, Rangers of Gondor, Rangers of the North, and Merry and Pippin in their warbands. The Right Hill heroes (Imrahil, Eomer, Rohan Captains, and Dol Amroth Captains) get the Rohan and Dol Amroth troops. Simple, right?

As with The Grey Company legion, we really tried to fine-tune the special rules of this legion to make it something that you might consider playing. Here's what we came up with:

For Frodo (a once-per-game +1 Fight buff to all friendly models within 12" of Aragorn) is unchanged. We added a slight boost to This Day We Fight, adding Resistant to Magic to the Fearless buff that Aragorn provides to all friendly models whilst he is alive and on the battlefield. While Resistant to Magic can be annoying (particularly on heroes with heroic stats), we felt the legion needed an added global buff to keep it competitive, and a situational buff to magic resistance (that is far from a guarantee of magic resistance) seemed to fit both thematically and balance-wise.

We also added the updated version of the Rangers Army Bonus (because the list now includes Rangers of the North): +1 Attack on foot, no shield-bow penalties, and the +1 Fight Value buff whilst within 12" of Aragorn that we introduced in the Grey Company legion (They're Dangerous Folk, Wandering the Wilds). If you're keeping score, that means your Rangers of the North can get to Fight 6 for one turn in a game... not too shabby.

There are two additional buffs designed to aid your troops (which, at most points levels, are probably the backbone of this force). Inspiring Heraldry, which we borrowed from the "Black Gate" scenarios in Gondor at War, increases the range of all Good banners by 3" (giving you at least some reason to think about taking this list instead of, say, just a green alliance of Minas Tirith + Fiefdoms). And Stand, Men of the West gives your elite front-line troops (Rohan Royal Guards and Knights of Dol Amroth) the Shieldwall special rule while you have less models than your opponent. This both helps them synergize better with Warriors of Minas Tirith (who are probably your core troops in most set-ups) and gives you a reason to include some of those elite troops in your force (while alleviating the absence of Fountain Court Guard from the roster).

Finally, the most important change: this legion finally gave us a chance to fix one of the great wrongs in MESBG. No, I'm not talking about Grimbold not having a horse. But The King of the Mark finally boosts Éomer’s fight value to 6/4+. A fitting reward for one of Middle-Earth's mightiest heroes.

* * *

So there you go--our Boxing Day gift to you. As with our other Season of Giving ideas, these are still works in progress, so let us know what you think in the comments. And if this left you intrigued but not satisfied, be sure to come back Thursday for Part II of our revamp when everything becomes unhinged...

This is what we call "foreshadowing"...