The Scouring of the Shire Inspired Lists: The Chief's Ruffians LL Revisited

Good morning gamers,

Last time we saw how you can take your Scouring of the Shire collection and make a Matched Play army for the Shire (and Rangers). Today, we're looking at the other side of the coin and looking at the Ruffians of Sharkey's Rogues. Our list is quite fleshed out - if you bought enough Ruffians to play with the Lockholes campaign rule (see our What Models Do You Need article for what this is):

• Sharkey and Worm
• Sid Briarthorn, Rowan Thistlewood, and Bill Ferny
• Lotho Sackville-Baggins and Ted Sandyman
• 30 Ruffians
• 10 Ruffians with whips
• 20 Ruffians with bows
• 12 Hobbit Militia
  

Photo Credit: The Scouring of the Shire

72 warriors with lots of heroes to lead them actually gives you a lot to work with, but today, we're definitely going with the Legendary Legion and looking at what 600 points of Ruffian spam can do!

The List

If you missed our podcast on Sharkey's Rogues, you should listen to it (with a lot of salt, keeping in mind the publishing date - oh, and listen all the way to the end, no matter how long it takes you). Our list takes a few of the thoughts I had in that podcast and uses them here to deadly effect - to include having Worm as my army leader (since he's a Hero of Legend and we aren't required to have Sharkey as our army leader), lots of shooting, and our obligatory warband of Hobbits:

• Sharkey and Worm [ARMY LEADER]
• 4 Ruffians
• 10 Ruffians with bows
  
• Sid Briarthorn, Ruffian Chief
• 7 Ruffians
• 5 Ruffians with whips
  
• Rowan Thistlewood, Ruffian Enforcer
• 7 Ruffians
• 5 Ruffians with whips
  
• Bill Ferny
• 5 Ruffians
• 5 Ruffians with bows
  
• Lotho Sackville-Baggins
• 5 Ruffians
• 5 Ruffians with bows
  
• Ted Sandyman
• 10 Hobbit Militia
  

600 points, 75 models, 20 bows hitting on a 5+ AND 12 thrown stones hitting on a 3+ AND 10 whips hitting on a 4+, no D6+ models, no fast models or Heroic March, 7 Might points

It should be noted that if you want to take this Legendary Legion and fight the Shire list we talked about last week, you'll need to go out and buy 10 more Hobbit Militia (less than $50, but still money). If you don't plan to have them ram into each other, though, this army has a whopping 75 models (more than double what we had for the Men of the West LL last November and almost double the Shire list we looked at last time). It's a lot of models and it has some sneaky tricks to play against other armies. Let's see what it does!

Army Theory

We have some good tactical heroes in this list that can help us with our low Courage stats: Sharkey provides a battlefield-wide stand fast once the army is broken and before the army is broken, the Legion grants all Ruffian models (heroes and warriors) +1 Courage. We have two additional Courage-related buffs in the form of Lotho Sackville-Baggins (who can spend Will to grant a Fury-like auto-pass Courage test boost to nearby Ruffians) and all Ruffians within 6" of Sharkey can use his Courage Value of 4 instead of their own value of 2-3. This army isn't going anywhere so long as Sharkey (and maybe Lotho) stick around.

We're also encouraged in the Legion to use our whips - and while we only have 10 warriors and 2 heroes with whips, we can use the whips to charge into two models, Whirl if we want to, and allow our other fellows to wrap around the enemy lines to get traps. One friendly model should stand directly behind our whip-carrying model to trap him if the enemy calls a Heroic Combat (he's dying anyway, might as well not give up any ground) or to make way if the enemy has no supporting attacks. Lives are cheap in this army - losing one guy is better than losing two.

Thanks to needing so many vanilla Ruffians for some of the scenarios, we're also packing in a lot of bows - and with 12 thrown stones to supplement our 20 bows, our ranged threat is pretty ridiculous at this points level. Sure, you might be able to get 20 bows in a Haradrim force that's got 50% bows and basically no good models (40 Haradrim Warriors with spears or bows will run you 280pts, but you'd probably be running close to 250pts of heroes to field all those guys, so with Harad being the exception, you're probably out-gunning the enemy).

The last thing we need to talk about strategy is how to use our combat heroes (Rowan and Sid): don't at first. Rowan and Sid have decent combat stats, but they're not good fighters - and since their Might is limited too, you want to be really careful about how they engage. Rowan wants to skulk around the side, looking for some terrain you can catch your opponent in so you can burn them to a crisp, while Sid will be looking for where his banner reroll can do the most damage. Once your opponent is out of stats, 2 Attacks with a Might point can make up for a multitude of sins, but you're still better off using them to deal with stubborn warriors instead of heroes.

Okay, let's talk strategy!

Gameplay Strategy

Maelstrom & Object Missions (Pools 1 & 3)

When it comes to maelstrom missions, we ain't gonna be wasting Might on deployment. Nope, we'll come on wherever, thank you very much. Every warband has 11+ models in it, so no matter where we show up, we'll be in force. In Hold Ground, our goal is to plod to the center as quickly as possible, with our archers (with Bill Ferny, Lotho, and Sharkey) getting as many shots in as we can and with each warband that doesn't have archers in it swarming to stall any nearby enemy warbands. With over 70 models in our army, if we can break and have a fraction of our army in the middle, we still have a good chance of winning the game.

Similarly, in Command the Battlefield, we just need to have Sharkey visible somewhere on the field and our army can scatter to the four winds and win the game. Our enemy will need to come to us, as we can outnumber pretty much anyone just by sitting in each quadrant (with almost 20 guys in each one, we're gonna win a few of them if left to our own devices). As the enemy comes, we shoot as much as we can and then we retreat - no sense in staying and dying if the enemy is in force, right?

Heirlooms of Ages Past is sort of the opposite plan: we spread out as much as we can, looking for the artefact, and then we run and hide with whoever picks up the heirloom. Because all of our models are basically the same, it doesn't matter who picks up the darn thing - just so long as they don't get transfixed by it. We run and we run and we run with that guy, while the rest of the army throws themselves into bad match-ups, trying to die as quickly as possible. Sharkey can keep whoever lasts after we're broken from running away while we have work hard to keep the enemy far from the artefact. If our opponent picks up the artefact first, we will need to form up our horde together, hail arrows on the enemy to soften (but not break) them, and then overwhelm the enemy until we can reach the enemy.

The object scenarios are tricky for us since we're not fast, but we do have numbers - and we'll need to lean hard into that to win. While a lot of armies will try to set up a gunline looking at the Prize in Seize the Prize, it's unlikely that most factions can outgun us (20 bows on the first two turns with 12 thrown stones to help on the third turn is quite a bit of shooting - especially if they stand still). With over 50 models rushing for the center of the board, we should be able to flood the enemy with bodies, keeping them from sneaking around our flanks should they manage to get the prize at the start. Our heroes (not Sharkey or Worm) converge on wherever the prize is, using their Might to call Heroic Moves so we can tag models in place and then gang up on others and redeploy our net to catch the enemy.

Retrieval is similar: we flood the enemy with models, keeping them busy on their side of the board so that they can't get to our side of the board. Our bows can spread out in groups to protect our "flag," with Sharkey and Worm safely held back to keep the archers from fleeing should our army break. Our offensive heroes will be calling Heroic Moves to keep the army moving and draining Might from the enemy.

Finally, Destroy the Supplies is pretty easy: station a warband of archers at each objective (Sharkey/Worm in the middle, Lotho on one side, and Bill Ferny on the other). The other three warbands (Ted Sandyman, Sid Briarthorn, and Rowan Thistlewood) respond to the enemy deployments with the intention of making sure there are models to tie down whatever enemy models they have - and then we sprint forward as fast as possible, using our bows to soften enemy positions if possible (and otherwise protecting our supplies from the enemy). Kill any banners and use your whip models to tie down the enemy so you can swarm. If anyone has a look at getting away from the enemy, take it if you won't get shot.

Control Missions (Pools 2 & 5)

You have 75 models and need to control 4-5 positions in the three Pool 2 scenarios (Domination, Capture and Control, and Breakthrough) . . . so get 15 models on each objective and call it a day. :-) Bill Ferny's team should be assigned to tag/hold any rear objectives in Domination or Capture and Control, but in Breakthrough we want Sharkey and Worm to deploy there. The other warbands should all be on the centerline, threatening the center/side objectives with archers deployed alongside their melee brothers to threaten the rear objectives. Keep your numbers concentrated and focus on getting traps to secure the center and keep your side clear.

The going-places missions are . . . hard - so play fast. With an all-infantry force (including some Hobbits) and no Heroic March, we're walking 4-6" per turn and that means we're going to take a long time to score anything. The good news is that without spears, we can advance very haphazardly at the start of the game. In Reconnoitre, we don't know who will arrive on the first turn - but anyone who does should rush for the board edge. In Storm the Camp, we have more control over who deploys where, but we basically want Sharkey and Ted's warbands to be at the back of our deployment zone with everyone else pushed as far up as possible. We then throw our 6" move melee troops forward, having some of our archers deploy mid-field while Sharkey's archers perform a closer guard of our camp.

When it comes to Divide and Conquer, we don't really care which warbands deploy where - just so long as both sides have an even split of archers (Lotho and Bill on one side, Sharkey on the other). This gives us the ability to threaten the enemy advance from multiple firing lanes, making it harder to avoid our archery. If we want to maximize the Ruffian-only boost of Sid Briarthorn's banner bonus, we'd want Sid, Sharkey, and Rowan to deploy together, while Lotho, Ted, and Bill deploy together. This would make one side much weaker than the other - but that might be okay (tempting our opponent to direct efforts to crush that side while we surge forward with the other).

Killing Missions (Pools 4 & 6)

Well, it would be good if we didn't break - so let's try to sit back and shoot, shall we? With 20 bows and more shooting as the enemy closes, we have no reason to advance at all in To The Death or Lords of Battle - UNLESS our opponent sits in the back with a banner in tow in To The Death. Shoot the banner (taking whatever in-the-ways we need to) and advance only far enough so you can shoot the enemy. With 75 models, even a decent enemy shooting threat will be hard-pressed to kill nearly 40 models before the game ends. By contrast, 20 bows hitting on a 5+ and wounding on a 6 should kill 1 model/turn - and that's enough to make an already one-sided model count disparity worse. Use your whips to tie models down and limit your losses (while you trap and kill the enemy in other places).

Contest of Champions is pretty daunting, but we have two things going for us: first and foremost, we have Sharkey to Immobilize the enemy army leader (or at last burn through his resources). Second, Sharkey isn't our army leader - Worm is. With Worm as our army leader, we just need to make sure the model Worm is fighting can see Worm - and if we have lots of models packed in on the sides, it's unlikely that anyone will be able to see him. With Worm surging up to F4/3A (no banner from Sid unless you can get someone in his fight), he can actually kill troops (though it'd be best if there was another hero with him, since he doesn't have any Might). Get a few kills, let your guys die quickly so the game ends, and hope you get more kills than the enemy leader.

The hero slaying missions are going to be complicated: Clash by Moonlight will want us to get our archers within range quickly so we can pelt the enemy to death, break them, and hopefully take down a few heroes along the way - but our heroes need to stay out of things. We have several really vulnerable heroes (Ted and Lotho are both 1 Wound/1 Fate D3 models, Worm is a 1 Wound/0 Fate D3 model, and our "toughest" models are only 2 Wound/1 Fate D4 models - they'll die horribly and quickly if shot at) who will need to hang back, coming to the front only as the threat of archery disappears.

Fog of War will be an interesting one - we probably want to keep Sharkey alive (since we might need his Stand Fast - and he's survivable and not our army leader), though we could choose to tuck Ted away somewhere if we wanted to (but he could also flee . . . that would be bad). Who knows who our opponent will choose - we basically can't know and we can't keep all of our heroes out of danger, so we might as well just manage their match-ups as well as we can. We want to pick a hero to kill that we can shoot to death - and then we start shooting at every hero on the board to keep them in fear and doubt. Pick a piece of terrain near the center - we're going to flood the board with guys and just sit there for as long as we can. Hopefully we can get enough traps to break whoever we face by just having a press of bodies.

Finally, in Assassination, we probably want to have Rowan Thistlewood as our assassin. It's unclear if him setting a piece of terrain on fire will count as him wounding/killing the target model, but if we can tempt enemy models to enter terrain that helps us kill them faster. We want to pick a model that . . . well, we can shoot/burn easily. So we'll do that. We have to assume that, once again, our opponent will be picking anyone to kill and that we can't stop it - so we want our heroes to hang back, rely on shooting to soften up the enemy, and then engage enemy heroes with our warriors and have our heroes charge enemy warriors (so the most VPs we can cough up will be 5VPs instead of 7VPs). Shoot for as long as you can and do what you can to not break!

Conclusion

This is one of those armies that needs to be played fast - but not having spears (and sitting back and shooting) can help a lot with that. Shoot in volleys of 5-10 dice, not really carrying who you hit - just make sure you're shooting quickly and hopefully dealing some casualties.

In our final post in this series, we look at one other army you can build with your Scouring of the Shire collection. If you thought this sourcebook was just about the Shire and Sharkey's Rogues, think again - there are some other players at work here! Find out more next time - and until then, happy hobbying!