A Season Of Giving: The Watchers of the Roads Fan-Made Legendary Legion!

Good morning gamers,

Last week, we mentioned at the end of the formations article that we here at TMAT are giving you a bunch of early Christmas gifts in the form of revamped factions and completely new Legendary Legions! Today we turn to a new custom Legendary Legion that features Rangers, Elves, Dwarves, non-Ranger-men, Hobbits, and some weird spirit people. That's right, we're bringing the Wanderers in the Wild Battle Company to Matched Play with the Watchers of the Roads Legendary Legion!

Why Make This Legion?

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We went through a season here at TMAT where we played a bunch of Battle Companies games - and let me tell you, my favorite battle company was the Wanderers in the Wild list (I also really liked the Moria Expedition, Isengard, and Last Alliance Battle Companies too - some of which have even been documented here on the blog). A collection of misfit models that most players critique, this company has low Defense but can skirmish for days and potentially deal lethal damage to their foes with shooting (with bows, throwing weapons, or thrown stones). Our list today basically keeps the warrior options from that Battle Company (no Sentinels) and gives us heroes to go with them. All of the models in this list could have been the protectors of the major paths in their regions and were always ready to hedge off the peaceful from the vicious.

We have Rangers in the form of Aragorn, Dunedain, and Rangers of Arnor. The Rangers do count towards your bow limit, but with Hobbit Militia, Bree Villagers, Noldorin Exiles, and Dwarf Rangers in the list, it's not hard to find melee units to take to enable you to take rangers. We have other men from Bree in the form of the Bree Villagers (borrowing the profile from the Scouring of the Shire supplement) united behind Barliman Butterbur. 

We also have Elves in the form of Glorfindel, Elladan and Elrohir, Gildor Inglorion, and his loyal band of Noldorin Exiles. The Elves are dwindling from Middle-Earth and so there are few who still live to keep the land safe. Since Glorfindel and the Twins are more loners than captains of soldiers in this role, they can't lead any warriors (though the Twins can take Dunedain). To make up for this limitation, all three have weapon master to up their damage.

The Hobbits were a late addition, but Maggot and his sons and dogs stood up to the Ringwraiths as they entered into the Shire. While not explicitly covered in the books, the "Maggot's Farm" scenario from the Scouring of the Shire supplement certainly indicates that he wouldn't let vagabonds go romping across his land into the Shire either. As such, we can assume that he and his sons would have been willing to challenge anyone else who was out to cause trouble on the East-West road through the Shire.

The Dwarves were an even later decision - Tolkien talks about how Dwarves travelled the roads between Ered Luin (west of the Shire) and the Misty Mountains and so it seemed fitting to have the "traveler" types available in this list (Murin and Drar as heroes, Dwarf Rangers as warriors). Tactically, these give you the "heavy infantry" option that you get in the Wanderers in the Wild Battle Company (D5 warriors, D7-8 heroes) and they're affordably priced skirmish troops (9pts for a Dwarf Ranger with bow or throwing axes, 140pts for both Dwarf heroes).

Legion Design

At its heart, we have an unofficial alliance between the various groups that "guarded" the realm of the Shire and the Lonelands between Buckland and Rivendell. There were a LOT of people trying to mete out justice to the unlawful in the more-or-less ungoverned sections of the north and foremost among those were the Rangers. Our list has Aragorn, who is allowed to lead Rangers of Arnor to represent the lesser Dunedain (or those who wished to support them in their work), but he also has Dunedain that can be brought with him. If you were to run just Aragorn and Dunedain in this Legion (foregoing Halbarad and Rangers of the North), you'd effectively get the normal Rangers army bonus, but you'd get Stalk Unseen instead of the option for mounted mini-heroes and a mega-banner that grants Fearless. I don't believe in invalidating lists, so I've left Halbarad out of this one (mostly because you want him for the Banner of Arwen Evenstar and he doesn't have that until the Grey Company is formed). I could be talked into inserting Halbarad into the list, but the banner will never be in it.

Working closely with the Rangers were the twin sons of Elrond, Elladan and Elrohir, who can't be allied with the Rangers normally (because of the change in how Convenient alliances work) UNLESS you a) run the Grey Company LL, b) ally in Glorfindel too (at which point, the Convenient Alliance will make you lose the +1A and Woodland Creature on the Dunedain . . . so why are you doing it?), or c) . . . well, pay attention to this series and you'll get some other options. :-) Not so here - the Twins can come along, but they don't have access to their heavy armor, since they're "roughing it" instead of charging resplendent into battle. Because they worked so closely with the Rangers, you're allowed to field Dunedain in their warband (but not Rangers of Arnor - they won't be parted from the Dunedan).

Glorfindel was also a watcher in the wilderness, though his role appeared to be more of a "by-assignment-only" one instead of an "I'm-constantly-roughing-it" one like Elladan and Elrohir had. Still, since he got left out of the Vanquishers list, I felt it would be a travesty to keep him out of this one - but like the twins, he's left his armor at home (which is a BIG departure from how most people take him). I could be similarly talked into adding Arwen to the list to have a movie variant instead of a book variant.

To make up for the squishier nature of these three heroes, we've leaned heavier into their offense, giving all of them Weapon Master. While more valuable on Glorfindel than the Twins (since he'll be a 3A hero with a reroll and a free +1 To Wound), the Twins are close behind him since they're allowed to use their Twin Blades while mounted (giving them 3 Attacks on the charge with +1 To Wound or 4 Attacks on the charge with no wounding bonuses. If you run these guys in a Rivendell list, it's rare that they will choose to two-hand - but now, they can legitimately two-hand without feeling like they're giving something up.

Also from Rivendell, we see the appearance of Gildor Inglorion and his Noldorin Exiles. While not fieldable by Glorfindel or the Twins, these guys get their upgrade to 8" movement for free AND pay only 1pt for throwing daggers (as it should have always been - try to change my mind if you dare). Noldorin Exiles are fast infantry and great skirmish troops, probably best used in this list as melee troops (because you have Stalk Unseen on your Rangers of Arnor).

We also have three one-off warbands that you can bring to get non-Ranger Men (Barliman Butterbur and up to 6 Bree Villagers), Hobbits (Maggot, his dogs, and up to 9 Maggot's Sons), and Dwarves (Murin and Drar and up to 14 Dwarf Rangers). Barli's warband and Maggot's warband will be all-melee models, which gives you the ability to field up to 10 Rangers of Arnor with Aragorn if you want to. Murin and Drar (like Gildor) can field models that are either melee or ranged, which gives you incredible flexibility in you warband construction.

And finally, we have Tom Bombadil and Goldberry - everyone's favorite pair of misfit spirits. Tom and Goldberry get no buffs in the Legion, except that Goldberry is free - don't panic, though: she still retains her rule that you need to have Tom in your army to run her, but no one was going to drop 300pts for both of these guys in this list (not when you have so many other heroes in tow). 160pts is still a good chunk and will keep you from hording out as much as you could if they were out of your list, so even with this change, I don't think they're an auto-include.

Exemplar Lists

Our first list is a 500-point list that features a handful of our list building options. Maggot's warband is less than 100pts and so is Barliman's warband, so that means we can add Aragorn, a handful of Dunedain, and some Rangers of Arnor to get a pretty impressive model count (33 models with 14 bows and 10 thrown stones):

• Aragorn - Strider on horse with bow [ARMY LEADER]
• 6 Rangers of Arnor
• 3 Rangers of Arnor with spears
• Farmer Maggot
• Grip, Fang, and Wolf
• 9 Maggot's Sons
• Barliman Butterbur
• 5 Bree Villagers
• Dunedain
• Dunedain
• Dunedain
• Dunedain

If you wanted more power heroes (since Aragorn is pretty much all we have in the previous list - and he has no Anduril!), you could add Murin and Drar (dropping Barliman's warband, the extra Dunedain, and some of Aragorn's Rangers). You'd end up with a smaller list, but more firepower at 500pts than most people are packing (24 models with 8 bows/1 Dwarf bow and 9 thrown stones/2 throwing axes):

• Aragorn - Strider on horse with bow [ARMY LEADER]
• 7 Rangers of Arnor
• Murin and Drar
• 2 Dwarf Rangers with throwing axes
• Farmer Maggot
• Grip, Fang, and Wolf
• 8 Maggot's Sons

As we scale the list up to 700pts, our army can HORDE OUT if we want to, allowing us to add Gildor and some Noldorin Exiles to our first list (51 models with 19 bows, 11 throwing daggers, and 10 thrown stones):

• Aragorn - Strider on horse with bow [ARMY LEADER]
• 15 Rangers of Arnor
• Farmer Maggot
• Grip, Fang, and Wolf
• 9 Maggot's Sons
• Barliman Butterbur
• 6 Bree Villagers
• Gildor Inglorion
• 4 Noldorin Exiles with throwing daggers
• 7 Noldorin Exiles with throwing daggers and Wood Elf spears
• Dunedain
• Dunedain
• Dunedain

Alternatively, we can modify the second list to give us slightly-increased resiliency and slightly fewer warriors over the horde above (43 models with 14 bows + Drar, 13 throwing weapons, and 10 thrown stones):

• Aragorn - Strider on horse with bow [ARMY LEADER]
• 13 Rangers of Arnor
• Farmer Maggot
• Grip, Fang, and Wolf
• 9 Maggot's Sons
• Gildor Inglorion
• 3 Noldorin Exiles with throwing daggers
• 4 Noldorin Exiles with throwing daggers and Wood Elf spears
• Murin and Drar
• 6 Dwarf Rangers with throwing daggers

Our final list showcases the hero-heavy, numbers-lighter approach where you can basically count on having lots of power heroes that keep going despite it all. This list includes Aragorn (because why not), Glorfindel (because why not), and Tom and Goldberry - with Maggot and Barliman to bring along some guys to fill out our numbers (and let us take some Rangers). Not a common play style, but definitely fun to use (28 models, 9 bows and 10 thrown stones, Might/Will/Fate/Wounds for days):

• Aragorn - Strider on horse with bow [ARMY LEADER]
• 8 Rangers of Arnor with spears
• Glorfindel, Lord of the West on Asfaloth
• Farmer Maggot
• Grip, Fang, and Wolf
• 9 Maggot's Sons
• Barliman Butterbur
• 2 Bree Villagers 
• Tom Bombadil
• Goldberry

Conclusion

Hopefully you found this article to be intriguing and we hope you experiment at home with the Legion. If you try it out (or have other list ideas/questions/modifications-to-the-Legion), let us know below! Until then, enjoy this holiday season and happy hobbying!