The Scouring of the Shire: What Models Do You Need?

Good morning gamers,

Photo Credit: Games Workshop

We're going to do a short series walking through the Scouring of the Shire book, which is not only the cheapest supplement available from Games Workshop, but also happens to be one of the most thematically developed scenario sagas that has been released to date and introduced more new profiles than any other supplement so far - and second place isn't anywhere close to matching what was released there.

You might think, "Oh this will be easy - get a bunch of Hobbits and you're good." In some ways, you'd be right - but the ACTUAL answer of what you'll need is a bit more nuanced. Let's take a look at what you need to play through this amazing sourcebook!

Part 1: Skirmish in Bree to Maggot's Farm (3 scenarios)

The first three scenarios are designed to set up the invasion of the Shire and can all be seen on the Failed Charge Games YouTube channel if you're interested in seeing how the scenarios play. In these first three scenarios, we'll be buying a lot of Ruffians and most of their hero options. Here are the purchases we need to make:

Purchase #1: 24 Ruffians

This requires the purchase of two boxes of Ruffians - for the first three scenarios, we only need 12 Ruffians (technically), but we also need 8 Bree Villagers. While you can certainly look to other miniature lines for generic peasants (or use Survivors of Lake-town - though THAT's not going to save you any money), you're going to need more Ruffians anyway, so the best way to save money is to just get more Ruffians. We need 6 Ruffians with no extra gear, 2 Ruffians with whips, and 4 Ruffians with bows for these early scenarios and each blister comes with exactly this number, so a second blister would require you to use some whip-equipped Ruffians as normal Bree Villagers (but who cares).

Purchase #2: 4 Hobbit Militia

Hobbit Militia are the backbone of most of the Shire forces in this supplement - and in the first scenario, we need 4 Militia. Done - $15 well spent. Do a good job with these guys, as you will be using them frequently in the supplement (along with 4-8 others) - and name them all (it helps them roll better . . . or lets you call them out when they flub).

Purchase #3: Sid Briarthorn, Rowan Thistlewood, and Bill Ferny

The Ruffian "boy band," we get two heroes that we'd want in any Sharkey's Rogues list for Matched Play (Sid and Rowan) and "the other guy" (Bill Ferny). I own these guys and they're cool models - though their profiles aren't much to look at. In this supplement, however, they're about as beastly as they come and pack a punch if they win (and can fall easily if they lose, actually).

Purchase #4: Holfoot Bracegirdle and Robin Smallburrow

These are two great heroes - Holfoot is an auto-include in any Shire list and Robin is a cheap F3/S3 hero who might be able to two-hand without penalties if he's near Holfoot. Both have Heroic March (though you won't be needing that here), so they're great heroes (albeit 1 Attack/1 Might heroes).

Purchase #5: 8 Hobbit Shirriffs

These guys are the backbone of any Shire list in Matched Play (though having a healthy dose of Militia can be really good too - especially if they're Battlin' Brandybucks). In one of the first scenarios, you get 8 of them with the two Shirriff heroes, which can be devastating against the Ruffians (S2 with +1 To Wound will be wounding those blaggards on 4s!).

Purchase #6: Ted Sandyman and Lotho Sackville-Baggins

The "bad Hobbits" and members of the rival boy band ("Money- and Flour-Bags"), Ted and Lotho are cheap heroes who can do a lot for a Ruffian force. Lotho is used by the Good player in this supplement and has some utility in a Shire force if he's near Holfoot and a bunch of Shirriffs (able to make those two-handing-without-penalty Shirriffs into F4 monstrocities).

Purchase #7: Farmer Maggot with Grip, Fang, and Wolf

THIS guy is the other auto-include for any Shire force - Maggot is one of the punchiest Hobbits in the mix, comes with three fierce dogs (who are basically fast Shirriffs who can't two-hand), and they are a NASTY bit of work to deal with. In the one scenario they're in (potentially 1-2 more depending on how you play the linked scenarios), the dogs (and Maggot himself) can be an absolute nightmare for the Ruffians!

And that's it - seven purchases (nine really, since we need two blisters of Ruffians and Shirriffs) and we're ready for the first three scenarios. The cost of this is surprisingly high though:

Part 1 subtotal: $247

Part 2: The Old Mill to The Old Storehouse (7 scenarios)

Purchase #8: 8 more Hobbit Militia

Many of the scenarios in this book require 12 Hobbit Militia - and 12 Hobbit Militia we'll have after we get two more packs of them. If you plan to run the Defenders of the Shire Legendary Legion in Matched Play, you probably want at least 12 Battlin' Brandybucks anyway, so this is a great purchase (and a total of $45 to get all three packs isn't horrible, considering this is Hobbits).

Purchase #9: 12 more Ruffians

We already have 12 vanilla/4 whip/8 bow Ruffians, but in this second set of scenarios, we need 12 vanilla/6 whip/6 bow Ruffians. Those two extra whip-armed Ruffians require us to get a third blister of Ruffians (sheesh). If you feel like 36 Ruffians isn't enough, though, don't worry - we'll be getting even more in Part 3. :-)

Purchase #10: Will Whitfoot and Baldo Tulpenny

Will Whitfoot is a really great hero for a Shire army to run - 6" banners are pretty rare and his "only" costs 1 Will point to trigger. With 4 Will and absolutely no reason to be on the front lines, Will is a great little hero (albeit incredibly squishy). Baldo is more expensive and harder to include in a Shire army (I find), but with 2 Might (rare for Hobbit heroes), the ability to auto-wound if he gets a natural 6 with a reroll To Hit while chucking rocks, and 8 Traps for shenanigans (more with the Shire Legion), this is a really fun character to have in your army!

Purchase #11: The Scouring of the Shire

This is the OG set of heroes for both the Shire and Sharkey's Rogues - and the heroes in it are still very useful. At this point in the campaign, we just need Worm - but as we near the end of the campaign, we'll need everyone else. If you plan to play Sharkey's Rogues or Shire, chances are very good that you'll want these guys - so get them.

Purchase #12: 8 Hobbit Archers

Your Hobbit Archers won't be used in nearly as many missions as your Hobbit Militia, but there are going to be a bunch of missions where these guys are really useful. 8 archers is a good start for a Shire force, but not nearly as many as you'd want if you were running a proper Shire horde (that would probably be at least twice this amount).

Purchase #13: Hamfast "The Gaffer" Gamgee and Rosie Cotton

Rosie is . . . actually absent from the campaign - which matches what happens in the Return of the King pretty well. The Gaffer shows up in two missions - one where he's your only hero and one where he's one of several heroes you have (supporting the likes of Merry, Frodo, and Sam). He's a great model and his flower markers give some very interesting painting projects to work on!

Purchase #14: Folco Boffin and Farmer Cotton

Cotton is great - Centaur's gotten some great use out of him last year (took him to the NOVA tournament and all) and he's the only Hobbit model who has a spear (unless you run a custom Legendary Legion, that is) and as such is a valuable model for your army. Even without his spear-supporting, the ability to reroll 1s for your dueling rolls means you could have two dice rerolled from banner-like rules if you have him where the action is.

Folco is . . . less valuable. In the scenarios, he shows up only once (twice maybe - more on this later) and as an unarmed model with F2/1A and only 1 Wound/1 Fate behind the expected D3, this guy is basically a really bad Hobbit Archer with no bow . . . and the ability for Frodo to call Heroic Moves with his Will. While my opinion of Gothmog's Enforcer and Heralds of the Dead (who have similar mechanics) is mixed, my opinion of Folco is not: he's not a good model. Paint him for scenario use only, you don't need him for Matched Play.

Purchase #15: 4 more Hobbit Shirriffs

These guys are great - and thanks to using your Shirriffs as bad guys, we get 12 of these guys. We'll take that happily.

Purchase #16: The Hobbits of the Shire

The OTHER OG for Shire heroes (well, besides Maggot and old Bilbo), the Hobbits of the Shire set gives you three pretty weak heroes (Paladin Took with his cheap 12" Stand Fast, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins and her no-dealing-wounds-but-cheap-denial-of-enemy-stand-fasts character, and Fatty Bolger who is cheap but just . . . not very good) and a Hobbit Archer with war horn (which is actually quite useful). Get it mostly for scenario play OR if you want some of the benefits you get from the heroes.

With these purchases in hand (roughly the same number of purchases as we did for Part 1 - and also roughly the same cost as Part 1), we have everything we need for this batch of scenarios, though at over $500, this is no small investment:

Part 2 subtotal: $288

Purchase total: $535

Part 3: The Bounders Strike Back to The Battle of Bywater (6 scenarios)

"Purchase" #17: 20 25mm Bases

In the Bounders Strike Back, we need 20 Traps - details for how to use these and work them are on pages 64-65 of the Scouring of the Shire, but it's pretty simple: you can use these things to deal light damage or stall out enemy infantry models that interact with them. Since all of the Evil models in the scenario are infantry, it means that the Ruffians could find themselves standing still/stuck in a hole while your archers pound them into the dust - so much fun for the Shire guy!

Of course, you could magnetize 20 of your Hobbit Militia and Hobbit Shirriffs to their bases and make the traps out of those bases, so do you really NEED to buy these? Maybe not.

Purchase #18: The Fellowship (for Frodo and Sam . . . but also, for Gandalf and Aragorn)

You could get Frodo and Sam (and Gandalf and Aragorn if you want to play the missions from the Appendices) from eBay for cheaper than the full Fellowship - if there are models you like online that are different from the ones in the plastic Fellowship set, get them with my blessing (and if it saves you a few bucks, so much the better). The advantage to buying the full Fellowship is that it gives you alliance options for the Shire that can be really helpful (like Legolas for shooting, Boromir/Aragorn for March, and Gimli for hitting power). Gandalf is in the Shire list normally, so having him is also quite useful (though it does preclude you from using the upgraded versions of Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin).

Purchase #19: Dernhelm

We need a dismounted Merry model in all his glory and the model from the Dernhelm kit is really great. Dernhelm as a model is also really great, so having Eowyn and the mounted duo is good for anyone's collection.

Purchase #20: Gandalf the White and Peregrin, Guard of the Citadel

Similarly, we need a dismounted Pippin model and the one that comes with Gandalf is quite good. If you want, you could go all-out and buy the new Minas Tirith Battle Host that features these guys . . . you know, if you want Warriors of Minas Tirith and Knights of Minas Tirith for fun.

Purchase #21: 24 more Ruffians

So, do you remember how I mentioned that we needed to get more Ruffians? With three blisters of Ruffians, we currently have 18 vanilla/6 whip/12 bows, and on paper, we don't need more than 12 vanilla/4 whip/8 bow Ruffians for the Battle of Bywater scenario (which has the most Ruffian models in the campaign). So why do we need more Ruffians?

Well, the answer is found in how you choose to play the linked scenarios in the campaign: if you play the linked campaign, you can get 3 additional vanilla Ruffians in the Battle of Bywater by winning the Maggot's Farm scenario (15 vanilla total). We have 18 vanilla Ruffians, but on page 40 of the Scouring of the Shire, you see a rule for "The Lockholes":

Photo Credit: The Scouring of the Shire (red line added)

As you can see from the second paragraph, you can get +3 Ruffians for each additional Hobbit Hero you rescue in The Lockholes scenario. By my count, the heroes that you could capture/remove as casualties before The Lockholes scenario and are not IN the Lockholes scenario already include:

• Farmer Maggot (Maggot's Farm - but only if Good doesn't win the scenario);
• Will Whitfoot (The Mayor's Arrest);
• Lotho Sackville-Baggins (The Death of Lotho - though you could also play that Lotho is in fact dead instead of captured);
• Hamfast "The Gaffer" Gamgee (Uprooting of Bagshot Row);
• Folco Boffin (The Arrest of Folco Boffin)
  

Given that you have 4 Hobbit Militia that are in the Lockholes, I assume Lotho isn't a valid option and you could use any of the other four if you wanted to. This means you need an additional 12 vanilla Ruffians (potentially 15 if you allow Lotho as a seventh model to rescue) for a total of 27 vanilla Ruffians. With 18 vanilla Ruffians in hand and 6 vanilla Ruffians in each blister . . . we need two more blisters for a total of 60 Ruffians in all (and yes, we will have three unused vanilla Ruffians, so if you wanted to allow Lotho as a seventh hero, you wouldn't need yet another Ruffian blister). Our Matched Play army is looking pretty good right about now (though our wallet isn't).

Well, despite being a handful of purchases, that wasn't cheap. The Ruffians certainly aren't doing us any favors, but know that you could save $100 by just changing the way you play the scenarios (e.g. foregoing the Lockholes rules). But still . . . there's something pretty cool about playing the Lockholes with all named heroes, so at least consider it. The money is starting to pile up though. I will note that we've basically spent $250 for each part . . . what a nice little scale that is (and if you're trying to play these scenarios while on a budget, you could pace yourself in nice $250 increments):

Part 3 subtotal: $240

Purchase total: $775

Part 4: The Appendices (3 scenarios)

These scenarios are definitely optional, but within them we not only get three excellent scenarios, but also some REALLY great models to add to our collection (especially if we intend to run things other than Shire and Sharkey's Rogues). Some of the purchases (like Gandalf and Aragorn) we may have already (did you buy the Fellowship box like I told you to?), but let's look at the last models we need to play the final scenarios in the book!

Purchase #22: Bullroarer Took

Bullroarer is one of the oldest Shire models in the range - and he's the only one that not only rides a real horse, but has F3-and-Strike, 2 Attacks, AND S3 (unless Sam is near Rosie) - which makes him incredibly powerful for a Hobbit! He is, however, a big tax on your Hobbit hero options, since you can't take any other Hobbit heroes with him . . . which is why you don't see him a lot (unless Gandalf is in tow with some Rangers OR Aragorn is thrown into the mix). Either way, Bullroarer has a fantastic model and can do excellent work as your army leader (especially if Gandalf is there to back him up, keep him from getting shot/Transfixed, and manage his combats so he can get the kills he wants).

Purchase #23: 3 Rangers of the North

Alas, these guys just went out of production, but I'm sure they'll be back. While my cost estimate below factors in a roughly $15 blister (I'm sure if they pop back into the store/made-to-order, they'll be more), you could splurge a little and get a $40+ box of Rangers of Middle-Earth and use three of them as your Rangers of the North. Or you can peruse the second-hand market for whoever is scalping their pro-painted models or selling off their before-they-temporarily-leave-the-range models.

Purchase #24: Golfimbul on foot and mounted

An underrated Angmar hero, Golfimbul showed up on my list of best Evil models with Heroic Challenge - namely because he's a Hero of Fortitude who packs a punch if he's on the charge and rolls well and because he can take a punch with his "fat save." He's also blissfully cheap and a nice foil for Bullroarer. Get the guy - he's great!

Purchase #25: 12 Warg Riders

You probably want these guys anyway - Warg Riders show up in lots of factions and are some of the most cost-efficient light cavalry in the game. If you happen to be playing Fantasy Fellowships from Quest of the Ringbearer, you'll need lots of these guys anyway, so why not have a few to run rampant across the rolling hills of the Shire?

Purchase #26: Wild Warg Chieftain

One of my all-time favorite generic heroes, these are the classic generic monster-like heroes who aren't actually monsters. Without Heroic Strike and with limitations on which models can benefit from their Heroic actions, these guys miss the limelight most of the time - but throw them into scenario play and BAM they are dangerous (well, a Fantasy Fellowship can dispatch them if this guy isn't careful). I happen to like having one in my Angmar forces (and most of my Assault on Lothlorien armies) - they're fast, hit hard, and tend to draw resources out of your opponent while ultimately not giving up VPs (at least in most scenarios).

"Purchase" #27: 12 Wild Wargs

This could be a purchase of two blisters of Wild Wargs or . . . you could just magnetize your Warg Riders onto their Wargs and use the Wargs without their riders. Unlike horses, the saddles for the Warg Riders are actually on the rider, not the mount (clever, GW, clever), so if you already bought 12 Warg Riders, you could be just fine for this scenario.

Purchase #28: Bilbo Baggins

This guy has been out of the webstore for a while, but he has come back on the made-to-order train twice over the last few years, so chances are good he'll be back again. He's a great model that can be added into an army (especially through Rivendell - just bring your favorite big-hero along with him) and you can have a cheap, sneaky Ringbearer to threaten big heroes along with whatever Elf he brings with him or creep to an objective to contest it. Or you can run him in a Shire with Gandalf - that works too.

Purchase #29: 24 Wood Elf Warriors

You don't need 24 of these guys, but you do need roughly half a box, so you might as well buy the whole thing. Wood Elf Warriors are squishy and expensive, but . . . well, I've defended their existence and value in the past, so I won't repeat myself now. Buy them - they're fun.

Purchase #30: 24 Orc Warriors (or the Mordor Battle Host)

Finally, no sourcebook (including Fall of the Necromancer, as we'll see in a few months time) can get away from the age-old, run-of-the-mill, Orc Warriors. Yes, these guys are available in plastic (and their old metal sculpts were available as made-to-order in the recent past) and you can buy them by the BUCKET LOAD on the second-hand market if you don't mind fixing swords, spears, and botched conversion jobs (though sometimes these can work out really well). Like Warg Riders (we need dismounts for the Warg Riders we picked up anyway), these guys show up in tons of lists, so getting yourself at least one box sets you up pretty well for several factions and Legendary Legions.

Of course, what you should ACTUALLY do is is pick up 1 box of Warg Riders and the Mordor Battlehost (which gives you the other box of Warg Riders and the box of Orc Warriors AND a Witch-King on foot and mounted for the same cost as the Warg Riders and Orcs would have cost anyway). So yeah, consider that instead.

And with that, we're finally done - and appropriately have basically kept the scaling the same across the different parts of the book:

Part 4 subtotal: $291 (though you can save roughly $35 by magnetizing your Warg Riders)

Purchase total: $1056

Conclusion: Why Quest of the Ringbearer is Such a Good Supplement

Now if you had told me that to get everything for the Scouring of the Shire scenarios (just the models - we haven't gotten any copies of the ForgeWorld Hobbit Smial set yet!) you'd need to spend around $1000, I don't think I'd believe you (I did the math and I STILL can't believe it). And yet, the models you're getting aren't just limited to a bunch of Hobbit and Ruffian models - you're getting some models that you can use for other factions as well (the full Fellowship, quite a few Angmar models, and the beginnings of Minas Tirith, Rohan, Lothlorien, and Ranger armies) and if you choose to splurge on the Battle Hosts for Mordor and Minas Tirith, you're well on your way to running those armies.

While Shire models are rare in Quest of the Ringbearer (though you do get the Fellowship members and Farmer Maggot) and Ruffian models are missing entirely, most of the Part 4/Appendices models will already be in a box somewhere if you have a developed Quest of the Ringbearer collection. If you have what you need for the Lothlorien scenario (which uses Wild Wargs/Warg Riders, a Wild Warg Chieftain, and Wood Elf Warriors), you're virtually good to go for the appendices scenarios - you might need 3 Rangers of the North, Bullroarer, Golfimbul, and Bilbo, but that's it - you have everything else (and all of these could be proxied pretty easily by other models you have in your collection if you wanted to "just play the scenarios")!

Much of Part 3 (besides the two blisters of Ruffians) is covered if you have prepared for Fantasy Fellowships since both Minas Tirith and Rohan are important players in the last five missions of that campaign. Parts 1 and 2 are mostly new models, but their total cost is just over $500 (which will turn into $600 with the Ruffians from Part 3 - and you can skip THAT if you just don't play with the cool-but-expensive Lockholes campaign rule). If a sourcebook that has NOTHING to do with another sourcebook sets you up to save half the investment of the book (for models, at least), I think that's a good sourcebook . . . and Quest of the Ringbearer can (or almost can if you're using the Lockholes campaign rule) do just that.

If you liked this write-up, let us know in the comments! Perhaps after we're done with Fantasy Fellowships, Centaur and I will crash through this (we've talked about it for ages, but never actually done it). On Monday, we'll be starting a three-week walk-through of taking your collections from Scouring of the Shire and using them in Matched Play - until then, happy hobbying!

Oh, and did I say, "after we're done with Fantasy Fellowships"? Why yes . . . yes, I did. ;-)