Good morning gamers,
This is the third post where I'm going over what I'd change if I were able to make changes to MESBG. As I've done with profiles and rules, I want these changes to be small and straight-forward but have a valuable impact on the game. Legendary Legions are the topic of today's post and I wanted to pick Legions that really only needed one change made to turn them from an "uncompetitive" or "bad" Legendary Legion (if such a thing exists) and make them at least an option for those who are competitive. One of the Legions I listed here is one that capitalizes on something that is way too cheap right now and needs to be more expensive. Finally, one Legion that I picked to improve is one that has been begging for a change for the sake of theme - so let's get into it with my boys, the Men of the West!
Legion #1: The Men of the West
It's no secret - I love this Legion as-is. Yes, there are some serious problems with it. And yes, people tell me I'm crazy for liking it. And yes, I don't care what anyone says - the Legion is good and has lost me a lot of games . . . but it's also won a lot of games, once I found a points level that worked for it (it's in the 500-625 range - and that's it). The primary problem with the list is that you can't get F4 troops for under 10 points - oh sure, for one turn all of your Warriors of Minas Tirith and Warriors of Rohan within 12" of Aragorn (so . . . all of them) can be F4, but once that turn of glory is over, you'd better have gotten the numbers to a good disparity, or it'll be an uphill battle against any force that's F4.
The sad thing about it is that Minas Tirith AND Rohan have access to F4 infantry innately (something Rythbyrt tried to fix last Christmas with a Legion revamp) - and basically ALL of the Fiefdoms warriors are F4 infantry as well. Thanks to Imrahil and the men of Dol Amroth being present at the Black Gate in the books, the Legion gives us access to Imrahil (who is just SO expensive for what he does without his horse/lance) and Knights of Dol Amroth on foot. These guys are F4 - and can be F5 near Imrahil and F6 when near Imrahil and kind of near Aragorn for one turn - but they're also really expensive. Running these guys "for the F4" is possible, for sure, but it's also an unnecessary expense.
I'd make one very simple change to the Legion: add Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth to the line-up. These models are F4/D5 with pikes - but their D5 isn't going to be felt much if they've got D6-7 Warriors of Minas Tirith in front of them. Currently in the Legion, if you choose to run Imrahil, you're probably getting him and 6 Knights of Dol Amroth to stand at his side and benefit from being F5. This comes in at 206 points. With 7 Warriors of Minas Tirith with spears and shields to back them up, you've got a solid anvil for 269 points, but it still feels really expensive (with Elessar, you're basically at 500 points, but you've only got 15 models).
Consider instead what happens when those front-line models drop down to 8 points/model (saving you 18 points) and those second-rank models stay at the same price - you've still got a D6 front-line (maybe D7 if you can keep shieldwall up), but you've also got a F5 second line - and if you run a loose phalanx formation to avoid being trapped, you only need one of the pikes to be within 3" of Imrahil to trigger the F5 boost. In both formations, you'll benefit from Imrahil's 12" banner rule, but you're far more likely to be able to bring your strength to bear against your enemies if you have Men-at-Arms. So yes, that's the change I'd make.
With my beloved Men of the West out of the way, let's turn to my other pet-project and one of the other Legions that's said to be as bad as the Men of the West . . .
Legion #2: The Riders of Eomer
I'm not the only one who's complained about Eomer only being F5. It's a travesty and this needs to be changed. However, I've also heard from long-time Rohan players (like Lachie from Zorpazorp) that a F6 Eomer would need a price hike to be balanced, given all of the other heroes he can be paired with. The plethora of F6 heroes available to Minas Tirith, the Easterlings, and every Dwarf faction aside, I could see a F6 Eomer causing problems for the game in a normal Rohan list without a price increase (or any number of his Legions).
But I don't see it being a problem in the Riders of Eomer Legion. Eomer has help from exactly three hero profiles: Gandalf the White (who is awesome, but also F5), Erkenbrand (who is also awesome, is also only F5, and doesn't have Heroic Strike, which apparently makes people hate him?), and Captains of Rohan (who are good budget heroes, but are locked in at F4 in this list). Additionally, he has access to exactly one warrior option (Warriors of Rohan), who don't even get their F4 on the charge bonus from Arise, Riders of Theoden . . . these guys might be good skirmish cavalry, but they're also locked in at F3, which isn't great.
As someone who's run the Riders of Eomer a LOT, I will say two things: first and foremost, it wouldn't break the game to have Eomer be F6 in this Legion. It just wouldn't. It needs help and having just one F6 hero would help tremendously. Additionally, those Riders who joined Eomer in exile love him like a king - there is absolutely no reason why they shouldn't get F4 on the charge near him (they certainly love him as much as Theodred's men love him - and Theodred is treated like Theoden for the Arise, Riders of Theoden rule in his Legion). My change, therefore, is simple: give Eomer the Arise, Riders of Theoden rule and have all friendly models treat Eomer as Theoden for the purposes of that rule.
Having F4 on your Riders of Rohan, F5 on your Captains of Rohan, and F6 on Eomer on a turn in which they charge is thematically appropriate for the Legion and gives us the bonus we want while still requiring us to get charges off. If you don't want your opponent's Eomer to be F6, then charge him. If he charges you, he deserves to be F6. This seems like a simple but effective (and thematic!) way to get the Eomer we always wanted in a Legion that really needs his help. For the record, I'd be okay giving him the Arise, Riders of Theoden rule naturally, if it came with a 10-15 point increase. Okay, time to make another simple fix to a Legion I love . . .
Legion #3: Lurtz's Scouts
In the inaugural commissioning of Lurtz's band of Uruk-Hai scouts, Saruman gives that famous line, "You do not know pain, you do not know fear." This line is so famous that it actually IS the Isengard army bonus. The funny thing about it is that the Lurtz's Scouts Legendary Legion only has access to Uruk-Hai Scouts who are Defense 4-5 and Courage 3. As someone who's played a bunch of games with them, I can tell you for a fact that they DO know pain (virtually everyone wounds them on 5s with either melee or ranged weapons - and some get to 4s) and they definitely DO know fear (Courage 3 warriors and mostly Courage 4 heroes before debuffs are not great at passing Courage tests reliably).
The solution, however, is simple: add an Uruk-Hai Shaman to the Legion! Don't allow the armor upgrade if you like, but if you just add Fury to the list, the Uruks can pass all the Courage tests they need to take while within 6" of the shaman (which can actually cover a huge swathe of ground if you move everyone within range of the shaman, then move the shaman somewhere else, then move everyone he's now covering). Furthermore, if you channel Fury (we're divided on the utility of channelling this particular spell here at TMAT), you get a 6+ save against wounds suffered within 6" of the shaman - which is as close as you can reasonably get to "you do not know pain."
From a purchasing stand point, you should also be able to take a shaman because of the four models available in the Uruk-Hai Scout Command blister: as it currently stands, you can take the banner bearer in the Legion, you can take an Uruk-Hai Drummer in the Legion, and you can take an Uruk-Hai Captain in the Legion . . . but you can't take the shaman. Stop leaving him out, guys, he's worth it. Final take: for those purists who are like, "they didn't have a shaman with them, okay?" I have only one thing to say: Decipher feels differently. Okay, with three lesser-loved Legions behind us, let's get to a Legion that's old but still very competitive . . .
Legion #4: The Riders of Theoden
The Riders of Theoden have been a dominant player at competitive events since the release of Gondor at War and the introduction of Legendary Legions. Before the Assault Upon Helm's Deep, the Black Riders, the Vanquishers of the Necromancer, and the Assault on Lothlorien led people to question whether Legions were breaking the game, there was the Riders of Theoden - where six named heroes could call a free Heroic Combat or Strike for one turn of the game and ride all over your beautifully-painted grunts.
But they can't take Grimbold - presumably because he doesn't have a horse. While I originally thought (as Rythbyrt did) that Grimbold should just be added to the list with a 10-point increase and a horse, I actually decided that there might be a better way to add him into the list: add a special rule that the first Captain of Rohan taken in the list that is equipped with an axe may be upgraded to become Grimbold. If the player chooses to pay +15pts, the Captain is upgraded to Fight 5, adds a two-handed axe to his war gear, loses the Arise, Riders of Theoden special rule (because otherwise he could reach F6 - and Eomer isn't F6, so we can't have that), gains the Mighty Blow special rule, and receives +1 Might.
How is this different from actually having Grimbold in the list? For starters, Grimbold wouldn't need to fight two-handed if he doesn't want to - with a one-handed axe or sword, he can choose whether to fight one-handed or two-handed (unlike the normal guy). Speaking of war gear, he'd also have the option to pay for a shield, heavy armor, throwing spears, or a bow - all of which give him options for being harder to kill than normal or more threatening from a distance (or on the charge). Finally, by making him a Captain instead of his normal self, we avoid the uncomfortable question of, "So should Grimbold be able to upgrade Riders of Rohan into Helmingas?" Maybe that is a thing we should consider, but not today . . .
Okay, so far I don't think any of this has been that controversial . . . time to change all that . . .
Legion #5: Assault Upon Helm's Deep
I went back and forth as to whether to include this - I didn't really want to wield a nerf-bat in this post, since I think the game is mostly in a good place. But recent experience fighting this list has led me to one unshakable conclusion: Isengard Assault Ballistas need to go up in price. There will be a more detailed taxonomy in a different post, but suffice it to say that for 65 points, an Isengard Assault Ballista is the cheapest Large Siege Engine in the game, comes with the same or more crew than other large siege engines (the only two that have more cost over 100 points), and the units it has manning it make it ridiculously low in cost.
I don't think they are THAT overpowered though - for 65 points, having a siege engine that hits on a 4+ and rerolls 1s on the To Hit and Scatter rolls in the Legion probably isn't horrible. But an Iron Hills Ballista is almost double the price and gets the anti-archery rule, volley fire, and an extra guy (and no reroll on the scatter roll). At the moment, my thought is that Isengard Assault Ballistas in the Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legendary Legion should cost 80 points each (on-par with the Trebuchets in Minas Tirith, who have the same number of crewmen, no rerolls, a greater scatter radius, and a slightly improve Strength value), but I will say that I could see them going up to 90 points without costing too much as well (three Uruk-Hai Warriors and three points of Might/Will/Fate are close to 45pts in value, so valuing the ballista at 45 points wouldn't be unheard of - at least not to me).
When compared to the other siege engines that can reroll To Hit and Scatter rolls (with the recent errata changing this to rerolling 1s, the only full rerolls are on the Mordor War Catapult and the Catapult Troll - though the Iron Hills Ballista gets rerolling of 1s on the To Hit only), this is still a good 80-100 points cheaper, but the Isengard Assault Ballista doesn't have a F7 Troll larking about, now does it? Still, it's got 4 wounds (like the Mordor War Catapult) and is a siege target (being a large siege engine and all), so being costed more like these other siege engines makes sense to me.
What impact would this have on the game? I don't know - with a 15pt increase on each siege engine, you could still run your usual 800-point list with a loss of 3-5 models (depending on how hard you lean into berserkers). While I don't think this tips the scale enough to make the Legion unplayable or uncompetitive at high points levels, it at least gets a very good siege engine to be more cost-comparable to the other siege engines in its class. Maybe the roll-out should be larger than just the Legion, but I think in the Legion in particular, it needs to cost more.
Conclusion
If any of you were frustrated that I didn't cover the Assault on Lothlorien Legendary Legion, I'm sorry - with the recent erratas, I don't think it's that complicated to counter (for more information on this, check out a post that will be coming out this Fall). If you think there's a Legion that should have made the list, let me know in the comments below. Next week is a formations week, but the following week we'll be wrapping up this mini-series by covering changes to Heroic Actions. Most might points are used for Heroics, so what we get from calling them should be good, right? Some heroics are excellent and others . . . well, we'll be looking at those next time. Until then, happy hobbying!
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