Defence of the North: What Models Do You Need?

Good morning gamers,

We're reviewing the most recent MESBG supplement to be released and boy was Centaur (and I more belatedly) excited to get it: Defence of the North. By now, you probably know the drill for these posts: I walk though the models you need for the scenarios, provide a cost at the end of each section to make you cry, and give advice on how to save money where you can along the way. Since this sourcebook has lots of models from the Armies of the Hobbit (and lots of ForgeWorld purchases from both the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings range), I thought it might be good to review the costs of the preceding sourcebooks:

• Gondor At War: $3500
• The Scouring of the Shire: $1100
• War in Rohan: $3700
• Quest of the Ringbearer: $2100-$3200 (depending on whether you want to play just the scenarios from the book, Fantasy Fellowships, or both)
• Fall of the Necromancer: $1100

NOTE: we should expect the prices in this post to be a bit higher than the other books because since writing those what-do-you-need posts, there's been a price hike on some of the models in the range. Still, since many of the models we need are from the Armies of the Hobbit (some of which didn't see a lot of movement), I don't think it'll have moved the needle too far to make the comparison ridiculous.

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

As you can see, there's quite a bit of variation, with the Gondor and Rohan supplements being very pricey, the Shire and Mirkwood supplements being "fairly inexpensive", and Quest of the Ringbearer falling in the middle (or near the top if you invest in everything you need for Fantasy Fellowships . . . which is a good chunk of what you'd need for the Gondor at War/War in Rohan supplements too). Will Defence of the North be the nastiest surprise yet? Let's dig in and find out!

Part 1: The Dale Campaign

The first half of the scenarios follows the saga of the invasion of Dale and Erebor by the Easterlings. While the sourcebooks usually build up to a big fight, the second scenario in this chain actually has all the models you'll need for the rest of this part . . . interesting . . .

Purchase #1: Brand and Bard 

If you're investing in Dale, you want these guys - yes, you could run Girion (who is the OG Dale hero), but these two heroes give you access to 6 Might points, they're both D7, and Brand opens up the Army of Dale Legendary Legion, which supplements the C3-4 that we see across the Dale range. Yes, they're great models (and you can use them in the Defenders of Erebor Legendary Legion, which I love).

Purchase #2: Dale command blister (later another blister)

Dale got a cool new command blister with Defence of the North - and in the scenarios, you need a Captain, a banner-bearer, and a war horn guy. However, we actually need two Captains for a scenario in the appendices, so you might want to consider buying two of these sets now (unless you want to remember your painting scheme later)! Far more war horns than you'll ever need, but I could see Dale running a double-banner list (and the Captains are key).

Purchase #3: 20 Warriors of Dale (later another box)

Warriors of Dale are solid units - they're 1pt cheaper than Warriors of Numenor and are S3 instead of S4. Their archers cost the same because they have stronger bows, but they're otherwise a bit cheaper (and some of the cheapest F4 models you can get in the game). The Appendices will require a second box, so consider getting another box now so you don't have to later (these second purchases will be tallied up in the Appendices section when determining cost).

Purchase #4: Rutabi and Brorgir 

The two new heroes from Defence of the North, Rutabi and Brorgir give the Easterlings a lot of options that they didn't have before. Rutabi's a pretty good fighter and Brorgir can potentially deal mega damage with Tremor . . . but both are going to require some tactical play in order to wound Iron Hills Dwarves in these scenarios.

Purchase #5: Easterling command blister 

This is actually not available in the web store right now, but assuming it costs around $45, you would get an Easterling Captain on foot (though not equipped with what we need for the scenarios), an Easterling War Priest, a Dragon Knight on foot, and a banner-bearer. It's a pretty useful kit, despite the new heroes that have been released (though should often be paired with a mounted command kit).

Purchase #6: 6 Easterling Kataphrakts (but possibly two boxes)

The scenarios require you to field 5 Easterling Kataphrakts with shields and 1 Easterling Captain with sword, shield, and armored horse - which you can easily field with a single blister of Kataphrakts. That is, you can field these units . . . if you don't want a war drum . . . which you'd usually want for Matched Play. As a result, your choices are to a) buy a second box so your scenario participants can be technically correct (and so you can do a head-swap/cape-add for an infantry Captain conversion), or b) just use a drummer as a not-drummer in the scenarios . . . I'd just do that, honestly.

Purchase #7: 20 Easterling Warriors (though actually 60)

So, this requires a little explanation: you don't need more than 12 shields, 12 bows, and 6 pikes and shields, for a total of 30 Easterling Warriors. This would appear to mean you only need two boxes to field these guys (where you'd have 16 shields, 16 bows, and 8 pikes and shields). However, as we just mentioned, we actually need 6 Kataphrakt/Captain dismounts, which means we don't need 12 shield guys - we actually need 18 . . . and that means we need a third box (giving us 24 shields, 24 bows, and 12 pikes and shields).

Good news though: this means you technically have 6 extra shield guys and 6 extra pikes, which means if you're willing to do some painting, you can save yourself from buying two packs of Black Dragons (score!). Those who want to be technically correct are welcome to spend an extra $144 if they wish to . . .

Purchase #8: Dain and Thorin 

I have really loved running these guys - they're really strong, pretty cheap, and they're very, VERY difficult to kill. They're also used in a bunch of scenarios in this section, so you'll get good use out of them. Thorin isn't as good as his namesake and Dain isn't as young as he used to be, but they're still incredibly good units.

Purchase #9: Iron Hills Shield command blister 

This blister isn't available, but I expect it's about the same cost as the three-model blisters (though it only comes with two). Having a Captain is great for Dwarves (your only source of March for Iron Hills/Erebor Reclaimed) and banners are also great (albeit a bit unnecessary if you have the 6" banner radius on Dain or the 3" banner radius on Dain, Thorin, Bard, and Brand in the Legion).

Purchase #10: 12 Knights of Dale 

12 Knights of Dale is a big pile of Dale guys - but it's also a huge pile of cash! Spears that can increase their damage when they get charged are really great (especially in a S3 list), but paying slightly more than $12/model is . . . well, a lot. The models are gorgeous, their rules are awesome, but oh boy . . . this is gonna be an expensive book!

Purchase #11: 12 Iron Hills Dwarves with spears 

There used to be a kit with 12 Iron Hills Dwarves for ~$70, but it isn't being offered anymore. Now, you only have the smaller kit, which gives you 3 Dwarves for $34 . . . yeah, Iron Hills has a reputation for being expensive and this is why. The models are great, but might be worth converting your own from Warriors of Erebor or Grim Hammers (like I am). Speaking of which, we need more than 12 Dwarves, right?

Purchase #12: 6 Iron Hills Dwarves with mattock 

These guys aren't in the store, but can be assumed to be as expensive as any of the other three-man blisters. Most people don't bother with Mattocks on their Dwarves, but they do look cool (and if you can win fights, you can Bash models who are fighting your heroes OR get +1 To Wound at S4).

Purchase #13: 6 Iron Hills Dwarves with crossbows 

This is our last purchase for the good side and you're likely to get good use out of these guys in Matched Play as well as the scenarios - crossbows on high Defense Dwarves, what more can I say? Get them, they're good (or convert them if you have some crossbow bits handy).

Purchase #14: The Host of the Dragon Emperor 

Currently, ForgeWorld has a "Host of the Dragon Emperor" bundle you can buy for $200 that includes both the Dragon Emperor and 6 Black Dragons (that you can use as palanquin bearers if the Emperor dismounts). This saves you ~$10 (thanks, FW), but is a good deal nonetheless - the Emperor is really good and has changed the nature of the game a lot.

Purchase #15: 18 Black Dragons (or 6)

For many years, Easterling players have just painted their Easterlings different colors to differentiate between "Black Dragons" and the "normal guys". Well, now these guys have an official kit . . . and boy are they expensive. Personally, I think I would have just made an upgrade set (with special shields, maybe special heads, and lots and lots and LOTS of pikes), but what do I know? As I mentioned above, you need 18 Black Dragons, but if you bought three boxes of Easterlings (each box of 20 costs just over half the cost of a blister of 6 Black Dragons), you only need one blister of Black Dragons . . . see, I saved you money!

Purchase #16: 12 Dragon Cult Acolytes 

These guys are either loved or hated by Easterling players - on the one side, they're 2A infantry who are F4 (and about as expensive as Black Dragons), they have throwing daggers, and they look awesome. However, they also have low Defense, don't have the Phalanx rule, and don't get free upgrades in the Legion. 12 is probably the upper end that a big-time fan of these would run, but hey, if you need them for scenario play, at least you'll have them if you need them for Matched Play.

"Purchase" #17: 4 Rhunish War Drakes 

Games Workshop hasn't released these models yet - and if the release cycle for War Bats is any indication, it could be a long while before GW gets to them. We have no idea what the actual base size is supposed to be (it'll probably be 40mm) or how expensive they'll be, so use some random horse models in the meantime (or 3D print some alternate sculpts as proxies).

Well, even without one of the purchases, we've still managed to spend a heap of cash - but unlike the other sourcebooks we've looked at so far, by getting these 17 purchases, you can play an entire story arc from the sourcebook - and that's pretty great!

Part 1: $1273

Total: $1273 (or put differently, more than getting everything from the Scouring of the Shire or Fall of the Necromancer supplements)

Part 2: The Mirkwood Campaign

With the battle at the Lonely Mountain behind us, we travel to Mirkwood and cover the fight between the Orcs of Mordor and their creature allies against the hosts of Thranduil and the less-wise, more-dangerous Elves who follow him. Our first scenario feels a lot like some of the early scenarios from Fall of the Necromancer and requires us to get some of Mirkwood's most iconic units: Mirkwood Rangers.

Purchase #18: Mirkwood Elf Captains

Heroic March can be a really useful heroic action (depending on the scenario), but Might in general is really great for Elves (so you can get the match-ups you want). As such, you probably want this set anyway for your Matched Play collection - the Mirkwood Ranger Captain is useful if you plan to use the Rangers of Mirkwood Legendary Legion, the Palace Guard Captain is great embedded in your armored-troop battle line, and the Mirkwood Captain . . . well, he's pretty good in a custom Legion we released last Christmastime.

Purchase #19: 10 Mirkwood Rangers

We need 10 Rangers for the first scenario, but since the box comes with 20 guys, you have a bunch of extras (that you can use in the Rangers of Mirkwood Legion for sure, but also as a don't-count-towards-your-bow-limit warband in a normal Halls of Thranduil list). While more expensive and a lot squishier than their armored cousins, they're pretty good at holding a flank (since you don't want to swarm them with more than one guy) or sitting on an objective that's got some terrain nearby. 

Purchase #20: Gollum (or this one)

The first scenario represents when Gollum escapes the custody of the Elves of Mirkwood, so . . . we need Gollum. There are lots of Gollum sculpts, but the cheapest option right now is either in a blister with Frodo and Sam or in a blister with Bilbo and a boat. Pick the one you like the best.

Purchase #21: Mordor Orc Command blister (maybe two)

Orc Captains are staples for scenarios and we need one - but we'll actually need two Captains for the Attack on the Beornings scenario and the Battle Under the Trees scenario. You have the choice, then, of either using your Taskmaster as a second Captain for these scenarios OR buying a second command blister . . . or use your Razgush model as a Captain, I suppose. 

Purchase #22: Mordor Battle Host

Yes, the battle hosts are some of the best value bundles in the game and while we don't need the Witch-King, we will need more than 24 Mordor Orcs and we'll need 6 Warg Riders . . . so we might as well buy the Battle Host and get the Witch-King sculpt for free.

Purchase #23: 24 Mordor Orcs

We need 12 more Orcs, as well as 6 Warg Rider dismounts, so we might as well buy another box of Orcs. You could also use one of the extra models to convert a shield Captain so you don't need to use the Taskmaster.

Purchase #24: 6 Fell Wargs (but actually 12)

We need 6 Fell Wargs, but we're going to need 12 Fell Wargs later. If you want to use your Warg Riders without the riders on them as Wargs, you can get away with only having 6 Fell Wargs (which is what we'll be doing here to save some cash).

Purchase #25: The Spider Queen

The Spider Queen is a beast (one of the best monsters in the game - and as a Hero of Valour, she's an easy ally into any evil army) and with the ability to spawn her Broodlings whenever she's not in combat, she's incredibly useful in the tactical game as well as on the combat front. If you don't have one yet, you should consider getting one.

Purchase #26: Two Blisters of Spiders

Yikes - we need 8 spiders (4 of each type) and at $15/model, this is an EXPENSIVE piece of kit. 4 of each type is about what you'd want for most Matched Play armies (unless you're spamming Giant Spiders in the Assault on Lothlorien Legion, which Sharbie at least thinks is good). Having a few of these is good . . . but expensive.

Purchase #27: 2 Bat Swarms

While you CAN buy two of these (they cost $16.50/model as of the time of this writing), you are going to need to buy Druzhag for the next set of missions. Since he comes with a column of bats . . . you could just not put them on the Druzhag model and instead make a second Bat Swarm with a spare 40mm base . . . so I'm gonna do that for this post. :-)

Purchase #28: Razgush and Muzgur

These guys are cool-looking models and both are capable of seeing the top tables if fielded in their Legions (Muzgur in the Assault on Lothlorien Legion is pretty good at higher points levels, while Razgush's Fell Beings of Mirkwood seems to do much better when the points level is lower). I like both models and am very happy to have them in my collection.

Purchase #29: 3 Orc Trackers (actually 6)

These guys aren't available in the webstore right now - if you bought some extra Orcs, you might have some extra bowmen to use as stand-ins for the Orc Trackers. These guys normally cost $15/3 models, so it's not very expensive (in the grand scheme of things) to buy 6 of them - they're good Orc archers.

Purchase #30: Grimbeorn

Ah, the bear himself - and boy is this model a beauty! I asked Centaur to 3D print me some proxies to use to test him and Beorn out and boy do they pack a punch! The control you retain with Grimbeorn over Beorn (thanks to not having the Berserk special rule) is really good and in his Legion, he's incredibly tough to deal with. In scenario play, he'll be a bit weaker, but still plenty difficult for a horde of Orcs to take down!

Purchase #31: 12 Beornings

Well . . . 12 models that cost $12/model (before tax) is . . . well, quite a bit of money, no? The models are incredibly customizable (considering they come in a three-pack) and have a mix of both men and women in them. While Centaur is on record for saying that these guys shouldn't be F5 (unless the Dunedain/Rangers of the North get a boost to F5), it's undeniable that these guys are a NASTY set of models to have to fight on a table . . . unless you can shoot them to pieces before they can reach out, of course.

Purchase #32: Legolas and Tauriel

So, you have two options here - the scenario-accurate participants are found in the cheaper, two-model Legolas and Tauriel blister. If you want to spend $15 extra, you can get the more expensive three-model blister that includes a mounted Legolas (which would be better for Matched Play - but Legolas does have Orcrist in that blister, which you may not want to pay for). Both are good, but it depends on what you want.

Purchase #33: 12 Mirkwood Elves (but 36 if you're playing the Appendices scenarios)

Mirkwood Elves are the bread and butter of the Halls of Thranduil list - and they're super expensive. For these scenarios, we just need 12 of them, but if you want to play the Dale scenario in the Appendices, you'll need 24 . . . and you'll need 36 of them for the Battle of Five Armies scenario (but I won't count that against the money cost here - more on that later).

Purchase #34: Thanduil on foot and mounted

Yep, it's the big man himself - though I tell you what, his war gear in the scenarios can be a bit odd. In these scenarios, he's got the heavy armor (awesome) and the extra sword (awesome), but in the Battle of Five Armies scenario he just has the Elk . . . clearly, that's a mistake. It's probably best that he doesn't have the Circlet of Kings in the scenarios, since Aura of Dismay will make charging him/the Elves near him almost impossible for the C2 Orcs/Spiders they're up against.

Purchase #35: 10 Palace Guards

If you're looking to save actual money on armored Elves, these guys are the clear choices for Halls of Thranduil players. For $50, you get 20 models (vs. $80 for 12 models) and they look amazing. They're also more expensive in the points department, so no one flocks to running all Palace Guard in their lists. As such, Thranduil's Halls players need to make a trade between these models and the more expensive ones. In these scenarios, we need a half-box, but since that gives us 4 shields, 4 spears, and 2 shields and spears, you'd be well rewarded for having the other half-box on hand for Matched Play (as 6 spears is probably not enough).

Part 1: $1273

Part 2: $1048.50 

Total: $2321.50 (or put a different way, more than the normal scenarios for Quest of the Ringbearer if you do both parts and on-par with Scouring of the Shire if you just play the Mirkwood missions)

Part 3: The Lothlorien Campaign

We're getting into my favorite of the mini-campaigns - and this is the section I have most of the models of already (mostly because I started playing the game with Moria and Lothlorien). Many of these sculpts (besides Muzgur, who we already have) are old - like, really old - and that means they're also a good bit cheaper than the models we've seen before (which are predominantly from the Hobbit era or metal models). Let's dig in!

Purchase #36: Wood Elf Command blister

These guys picked up the Stormcaller model in addition to the Wood Elf Captain and a banner guy. You'll only need the Captain for the scenarios, which begs the question whether you should just use the Mirkwood Ranger Captain you already have (they're gonna look the same, no?). For the purposes of computing price, I'm not going to charge you the $38 to buy these guys - they're pretty niche models for Lothlorien to have (except the banner guy - he's awesome).

Purchase #37: 12 Wood Elf Warriors

Ah, the first Elves I bought (besides Legolas) - these guys are some of my favorite models in MESBG (and boy can they be finnicky to use). With only D3 and fairly expensive models (kinda like Mirkwood Rangers), these guys can die in droves if you're not careful, but with throwing daggers or Elf bows, they also don't have to commit until they have the numerical advantage - and a good round of shooting with these guys can be absolutely devastating. I love them - get them!

Purchase #38: 1 Wood Elf Sentinel (later 3)

I remember when you could get 3 of these guys for $15 - now they're a whopping 32! These are old metal sculpts and as such, they're pricey. If you wanted to save some money, use some of your Wood Elf Warrior bowmen that you have from the previous purchase and say, "they're Sentinels." Buy the actual models if you want - they're nice.

Purchase #39: Orophin and Rumil

Two great heroes - though in a Lothlorien list you're probably hard-pressed to get them in with Celeborn, Galadriel, Haldir, and Galadhrim Captains in your line-up. Rumil is great for stalling out enemy heroes with his Swift Parry rule and Heroic Defense, while Orophin is a troop killer with 3 Attacks that might deal double-dice damage if he can get some natural 6s on his dueling roll. Great heroes on both counts - you should get them!

Purchase #40: 12 Galadhrim Warriors (later 24)

These guys form the backbone of most Lothlorien armies - and they're the Elves we love watching at Helm's Deep in the films. While there's only 8 shields in the kit, there isn't much else to critique these guys for - they're really good units.

Purchase #41: 4 Guards of the Galadhrim Court

Guards of the Fountain Court are the cheapest of the F6 Elf Warrior units that can be allied Conveniently with any Good faction (technically you can get cheaper F6 Elves if you run Gil-Galad, but your alliance options are shrunk to next to nothing if you do that). While they're only D5, they can reliably add 1-2 extra dice in an important fight (or help you roll over an entire flank. While I've seen these guys spammed, having 4-6 (since they come in packs of 3, you'll have 6) in your army seems like a good start for most players.

Purchase #42: Ashrak and Druzhag

These guys are two of the most valuable heroes for the new Assault on Lothlorien Legendary Legion, in part because you have to take at least one of them. :-) Druzhag is my default choice and I've come around to seeing the value of Ashrak (though I have yet to take him - there are just so many other heroes I like in that list). Druzhag's ability to turn even a lowly 7pt Wild Warg into a Wild Warg Chieftain (and an 80pt Wild Warg Chieftain into a non-flying version of Gulavhar) is absolutely crazy! Yes, they're good - get them!

Purchase #43: 24 Moria Goblin Warriors (actually 48)

The scenarios only require one box of these guys (8 shields, 8 spears, 8 Orc bows), but because we have Warg Marauders in these scenarios (more on that next), we'll actually need a second box to field the dismounts in the scenarios where they're present. 48 Goblins is usually a good starting point for any Moria player anyway, so get two boxes.

Purchase #44: 2 Warg Marauders (later 3)

Yup, you need three of these guys - but they're also some of the best tactical units in the game! Moria doesn't have a lot of fast units (though Bat Swarms and Spiders/Wargs allied in by Druzhag or Ashrak are fast and quite useful), but they don't have any that can rapidly become MORE units as the game goes on. Dismounting the archers off these guys in order to get some late-game bodies on an objective or contesting control of a camp or getting more models off the board than your opponent is next-level crazy - and these guys are some of the few models in the game that can do it!

Purchase #45: Celeborn and Galadriel

Oh look, we need them too! Technically, you only need Galadriel from this set, so if you're not enamored with the "pajama" version of Celeborn, you should look for a one-off of the old Galadriel sculpt off eBay or some other second-hand retail site (like a Facebook group). Galadriel and Celeborn are both excellent heroes - and together they can be incredibly deadly.

"Purchase" #46: Celeborn and Haldir

Celeborn is easily Lothlorien's best melee killing hero (though Orophin isn't bad - and neither is a Galadhrim Captain if he's mounted and on the charge) and Haldir is quite easily Lothlorien's best shooting hero (what with two shots a turn and 3 Might). Chances are good you wanted these guys anyway - so you should get them. TECHNICALLY we already have a Celeborn, though, so the "need" to purchase this is a bit questionable. They're both nice heroes to have - but if you're just playing with friends, having the other Celeborn model is just fine. You can also try your hand at puttying on armor (maybe making a press-mold of Galadhrim Warrior armor?) or trying your hand at a head-swap like I did:

One pajama Celeborn head, one Haldir's Elves body, one dulled utility blade, and two sore thumbs later: I've got a converted Celeborn model!

Purchase #47: Two blisters of the Spiders of Middle-Earth

Ouch - yeah, you could look to 3D printing these guys, but since we haven't done that for anything else in this series, I'm just gonna say it: this one's gonna bite. The spiders are good in the game - and particularly in the Assault on Lothlorien LL - but they are a bit pricey.

Purchase #48: Two blisters of Castellans of Dol Guldur (or . . . six blisters)

So in the last scenario, we need 6 Castellans - and you can get 6 Castellans if you buy two blisters of them. However, we TECHNICALLY need 6 Castellans with Morgul Blades and since only one of those sculpts has a Morgul Blade on it, one could argue that you want six of them . . . I'm gonna compute the cost based on two though - only Rythbyrt would say you need more than 6. ;-)

Purchase #49: 12 Hunter Orcs

We need half a box of Hunter Orcs - 4 Orc bows, 2 two-handed picks, and 6 vanilla guys. If you plan to run Azog's Hunters, the other half of the box can be 8 Orc bows and 4 vanilla guys (maybe have a banner mocked up on someone?), so we're not sacrificing optimization of lists just for scenarios. If you plan to run the Pits of Dol Guldur/the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur, you probably want a few bows on these guys, but you might be drawn to more melee units than bow-armed units. Your choice ultimately.

Well, that wraps up the main scenarios, and the cost was surprisingly not that bad!

Part 1: $1273

Part 2: $1048.50

Part 3: $772

Total: $3093.50 (or put a different way, only $100 less than getting everything you need for Fantasy Fellowships for all three Parts and about the same as playing the non-Appendices missions for Scouring of the Shire if you just play the Lothlorien missions)

But wait - we're not done yet! Unlike Fall of the Necromancer, we have appendices to cover, and while I've given a pass on the Battle of Five Armies for the cost comparison here (in-line with what I did for the big battles of the Pelennor Fields and Helm's Deep), it's still gonna be a lot of money!

Part 4: The Appendices

The appendices cover the history of Dale, which I've already said before seemed like a missed opportunity. 

"Purchase" #50: Girion

At the time of this writing, Girion is . . . remarkably absent from the web store. I could guess at his price, but know that you could use a Bard model (which we'll be picking up later) to stand in for him if you need. If he's available, though, you should get him - he's an interesting alternative to Brand/Bard (though if we've already got them for other scenarios, how often do you plan to use Girion?).

"Purchase" #51: A second Dale command blister

Did you buy that second blister that I recommended earlier? If not, buy it now. Or you could skip on buying either command blister entirely if you buy . . .

"Purchase" #52: 10 more Warriors of Dale

Same song, different orchestra - did you buy that additional box of Dale guys? If not, buy it now. TECHNICALLY, if you buy these guys early enough, you can convert up some captains, maybe a banner, and a Girion from the unused models, so that could save some cash, eh?

Purchase #53: Smaug

Oof - and you thought the Mumak mission from Gondor at War was expensive. :) Yes, it's everyone's favorite dragon, Smaug. I would highly recommend that if you know someone who has Smaug already, you just buy them lunch or something to play the scenario with you.

Purchase #54: Bard on foot and mounted

Bard is pretty expensive if you just buy him - for 155pts with a horse and armor, he's a more expensive, more fragile version of Eomer (though he's got some sweet auric buffs in the Survivors of Lake-town and he's got a great bow - not a good bow, a great bow). For 30pts more, he really needs to have the army bonus to be anywhere near appropriately priced (I mean, Eomer with a banner nearby will cost about the same, but Gwaihir is 5pts cheaper than Bard and Imrahil is only 5pts more than Bard). Thankfully, he's rarely on his own and without his army bonus - you usually see him in a Survivors of Lake-town list with . . .

Purchase #55: Bain, Sigrid, and Tilda

Bain is not that great of a hero, but free Heroic Combats to fuel someone else if he's near his endangered sisters is pretty great (I mean, you can pay more for free Heroic Combats, right?). Sigrid and Tilda are staples in the competitive Lake-town scene, granting daddy that oh-so-great F6 and free Heroic Combats if he's near them. This makes Bard even more expensive than he is normally, which becomes an even bigger price tag (and reward) when you take . . .

Purchase #56: Alfrid and the Master of Lake-town

The Master pretty much wants nothing to do with Bard - he can get more power if allied with Gwaihir or Thranduil. Alfrid, however, is great with Bard - and some players even use his Will to give Might points to Sigrid and Tilda to make sure they can call Heroic Moves near daddy (that, and they can't lose Might if Alfrid rolls a 1). These guys are awesome - though if you can get the Alfrid in dress sculpt for less than the pair, that would work out just as well for the scenario we're playing.

Purchase #57: Gandalf the Grey

Gandalf has more sculpts than most in MESBG and currently in the webstore, there are four ways to get him. The easiest way to get an infantry version of Gandalf is to buy him as part of either the Fellowship of the Ring or Thorin's Company. The Fellowship version is the most wargear appropriate of the two (seeing as how Gandalf would be wielding Radagast's staff of power during the scenarios he's in), but if you wanted to save some cash, you could buy the Thorin's Company box and us the other members of Thorin's Company to stand in for their Champ/Burglar/King versions. Their wargear can change dramatically, however, so this would be purely to save money.

Alternatively, you can get Gandalf either with Thrain the Broken or with his cart and horse options. The Thrain the Broken version has the wrong staff, but is also the easiest to hide behind terrain (since he's bent over), while the foot/mounted/cart version is the only metal variant. For the purposes of computing cost, I probably should go with the Thorin's Company version, but I'm instead going to go with the foot/mounted/cart version, since I think that would give you the most options going forward in Matched Play.

"Purchase" #58: Bilbo, Master Burglar, Thorin, King Under the Mountain, and the Champions of Erebor

As was just mentioned, you could proxy all of these guys with their Thorin's Company versions, but honestly, unless you're going to convert these guys (more on that in a future post), you should probably get the real things - they're really different and gorgeous. It DOES hike up the price cost a lot, so for the purposes of saving money, I'm going to assume you got Gandalf from Thorin's Company and you're going to convert up Champs using a box of Grim Hammers (which you can check out my initial foray into that project here, more to come soon). 

Purchase #59: 36 Lake-town Militia

Ouch - these guys are expensive ($80 per box) and come in a set of 12, so that's almost $250 for the group. YIKES! In Matched Play, 36 of these guys is probably on the low end, unless you intend to ally them with Elves or Dwarves, so to run these guys outside the scenario, you're probably looking at a good 4-5 boxes . . . yeah, that's a lot of money.

Purchase #60: 12 more Mirkwood Elves (actually 24 more)

Do you still have 12 Mirkwood Elves or did you buy up to 36? You only need 12 Mirkwood Elves for the Mirkwood scenarios, but you'll need 24 Mirkwood Elves for the Dale scenario at the beginning of the appendices and 36 Mirkwood Elves for the Battle of Five Armies scenario. I tell you, between Lake-town and Mirkwood, we've got some expensive grunts in this section . . .

Purchase #61: 4 Gundabad Orc Captains (actually 5 - and we'll need 7 Lieutenants)

Gundabad Orc Captains are expensive on their own - at $17/model, getting just 4 of these guys will cost us just a few dollars less than a box of 12 Gundabad Orcs. If you want to save some money AND plan to play the Battle of Five Armies scenario (where you'll need 5 Captains and 7 Azog's Lieutenants), pick up a box of the normal blokes and then pick up the Gundabad Orc Upgrade set from Forge World instead of 4 Captains. Since we need 12 models for the Battle of Five Amies mega-scenario, you can use the upgrades there to spice up your grunts into Captains and Lieutenants!

Purchase #62: 48 Gundabad Orcs (actually 60)

Yeah, we need a lot of Gundabad Orcs - but since these guys are essentially Morannon Orcs with +1 Courage for +1 pt/model, they're pretty good units (especially since they can't get Shamans . . . why?). 48 is a lot of models (I have yet to field that many Morannon Orcs), but at least you know you'll have options for as many shield or spear grunts as you want.

Purchase #63: 4 Ogres

Talk about pricey - $200 on 4 Ogres is a lot of money to be doling out, but alas, Gunabad needs some hitting power in the Dale scenario and these are in fact the movie-accurate models to use. So . . . yeah, there are four of these guys . . .

The Battle of Five Armies

In Gondor at War and War in Rohan, there's a "big scenario" that requires an outrageous amount of guys and so I decided to just list the models you'd need extra for this instead of rolling them into the cost (same as I did for the two of those sourcebooks). As you might expect, it's a lot of guys (and would add greatly to the expense):

• Dain Ironfoot, Lord of the Iron Hills on foot and mounted
• Iron Hills Command blister with mattock
• 6 more Iron Hills Dwarves with mattock
• 6 more Iron Hills Dwarves with crossbows
• Iron Hills Chariot
• Thranduil on Elk
• Another Mirkwood Captain blister (unless you're willing to proxy the Palace Guard Captain as a Mirkwood Captain)
• 12 more Mirkwood Elves
• Beorn
• Radagast on foot, on sleigh, and on Eagle
• Gwaihir (or 2 Great Eagles if you want to do a fancy paint job, since you'll need an Eagle mount)
• 4 Great Eagles
• Azog
• Bolg
• 2 Goblin Mercenary Captains with 24 Goblin Mercenaries
• 2 Gundabad Trolls with Crushing Clubs
• 2 Gundabad Trolls with Scythe Gauntlets
• 24 Gundabad Berserkers
• 6 War Bats
• 1 Catapult Troll (hasn't been made yet - you're on your own)

If buying everything for all the scenarios were to be added to the price . . . this sourcebook would absolutely become the most expensive book of the lot. As it is, let's see how it stacks up without this scenario in the mix (I've opted for 4 Gundabad Captains instead of getting another box of Gundabads and the Upgrade Set:

Part 1: $1273

Part 2: $1048.50

Part 3: $772

Part 4: $1857.50 -- um . . . ouch . . .

Total: $4,951 (or put a different way, over $1000 MORE than War in Rohan - ladies and gentlemen, we have a "winner"! But I tried to save you some money all over the place, so the actual number is much, much, MUCH higher . . .)

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

As always, I'm ending this post by talking about how great Quest of the Ringbearer is (because it's my favorite sourcebook to date). If you already have a developed Quest of the Ringbearer collection, you might think that starting on THIS collection would be a waste of resources - I mean, there's hardly any overlap, right?

Well, sort of - most of the models you'll need from Part 3 (the Lothlorien sequence) will already be in your collection if you intend to play Fantasy Fellowships. You already have 24 Wood Elf Warriors (thanks to the Lothlorien scenario) and Celeborn and Haldir along with 24 Galadhrim Warriors (thanks to the Deeping Wall is Breached scenario from Fantasy Fellowships), which means you'll need the rest of the named heroes (two blisters), one set of Wood Elf Sentinels, and one set of Guards of the Galadhrim Court. All told, not bad. On the Goblin/Orc side of the house, you've got at least half of the Goblin Warriors already and all of the Orcs that we need. This leaves us with Ashrak and Druzhag, some Spiders, some Warg Marauders, some Hunter Orcs, and some Orc Trackers (though you'll have 6 Orc Warriors with Orc bows that could easily proxy as Trackers). Still some purchasing to do (and it's an expensive half), but you've got over half of it.

Most of the models you need from Part 2 (the Mirkwood sequence) are going to be Forces of Good models and spiders - you have wargs that can be used as Fell Wargs (or maybe you bought a blister of Fell Wargs to use as Wild Wargs in the scenario to change up the look of the models), you have the Orc Warriors and Warg Riders already, and frankly, you have tons of Orc heroes that you could use as stand-ins for Razgush and Muzgur until you decide to pay the Forge World prices for them. The Elves will be pricey and the Beornings will be pricey too, but you can also substitute pretty easily for these guys if you use your Wood Elf and Galadhrim Warriors (again, until you're ready to pay the Forge World prices for them).

Part 1 is definitely the most tedious to collect - Dale, Erebor, and surprisingly the Easterlings are just not present in the previous supplements (you might have some Easterlings from Gondor At War). The fact that they got stuff in this supplement is really good, but you're not in a great position to play with all of these models (and it's over $1200 to buy them all new). However, we do have tons of Warriors of Rohan who can stand in as Warriors of Dale (similar war gear types, just remember that they're F4), we have Warriors of Minas Tirith who can stand in as Knights of Dale, and lots of heroes to stand in for Brand/Bard/Captains of Dale - so proxying for Dale is easy. Subbing out for the Dwarf units is harder (since Gimli's the only Dwarf we have) and will probably require dropping some money (either for the actual models or for conversions from the Army of Thror line, which has a shield aesthetic more akin to what you get on Thorin III Stonehelm).

Substituting for Easterlings is both easy and difficult - Easterling Warriors have much the same gear as Morannon Orcs and we have tons of those. With 50 Morannons at our disposal (12 vanilla, 12 shields, 12 spears, and 12 spears and shields, 2 banners), we can actually field proxies for all of the Easterling Warriors we're required to get (12 shields, 12 vanillas as bows, 6 pikes and shields) and can even use some as proxies for the 12 Dragon Cult Acolytes (if we use the spears). Kataphrakts (including the Captain) and War Drakes can be proxied with Warg Riders and Wild Wargs, of which we have a lot if we've done Fantasy Fellowships. Named infantry heroes? Got plenty of those. The real difficult part is going to be the Dragon Emperor - we don't have anything with an 80mm circular base, but good news, you can buy one of those bases for $5 from the GW store and "put something on it" to represent him. If you need to, you could play through the missions and decide if investing $1200 on all these models is worth it to you.

Yes, substitutions aren't as immersive as having the actual things, but this IS the most expensive book so far and before you dive into it whole-hog, it might be really useful to get a feel for it. If you end up liking the look/play-style of a few lists but not all of them, a well-developed Quest of the Ringbearer collection will let you scratch the itch of the scenarios you like without requiring your wallet to keep up.

We hope you liked this deep-dive into the models that are required for the scenarios and for the next few weeks, we'll be looking at how the scenario participants would change (or not change) the way you run lists in Matched Play. Our first stop is my favorite Legion from the book (and what seems to be the least talked-about Legion in the book): the Defenders of Erebor. They're a sleeper list in my opinion with lots of ways you can run the list - and a surprising number of ways you can run it if you just have the scenario participants. Hope to see you next time - and until then, happy hobbying!