Sharkey's Rogues: A "Game Master" Army

Hey Reader!

In preparation for the upcoming TMAT Spring Zephyr Tournament, I've been playing around with Sharkey's Rogues, 1) because I've owned the models for a while, 2) because I painted SO. MANY. of them, so I need to use them at some point, and 3) because a 350pt tournament is about the highest you can go before you're worried that you're being outclassed (450 is probably the highest I'd ever go, maybe 500), so when is this opportunity going to come up again? :P

But as I started practicing with them in earnest (and doing okay, actually), I realized why I enjoy playing them so much: it's a "Game Master" army, and as someone who has been a game master semi-professionally for roleplay games for over 10 years, it means I have the mindset to use them correctly. And that's what I wanted to chat about today.

I.  Sharkey's Rogues: The Worst Army in MESBG?

I don't think it's controversial to say that Sharkey's Rogues is considered one of the worst armies in Middle Earth SBG. As a quick rundown of why: 

• It has a complete lack of Heroic Strike and caps out at F4, so even your "best" heroes (which are about 40-60pts are struggling to win fights against 10pt or less elite infantry. 
• It has no cavalry or fast-moving units, so getting to objectives has to be done the old fashion way: footslogging across the field without competent Heroic March captains to get you there faster. 
• You have "numbers," but at F2 with no spear support, you lack the tools that other F2 armies (like spear supporting for Moria and Goblin Town, good Shoot Values for Shire, etc.) have to take full advantage of your numbers.

And of course if this isn't bad enough, you have poor Defense (so you die in droves), mediocre Strength (so you blunt against cheap line infantry), and a 5+ Shoot with S2 bows, so you're not even very good at mitigating melee threats before they arrive, nor are you very good at dealing damage once you're in melee even if you do win a fight.

So in short, in a wargame where Victory Points are often tied to removing models and not being removed from a specific location, Sharkey's Rogues is one of the worst factions there is. And with no swift models, even the scenarios that require you to get somewhere or off the board (instead of killing things) aren't your friend.

So basically whatever you may be good at, another army is better. So why play Sharkey's Rogues? Especially since so many of their models are metal, so you're paying premium prices (I am a 3D printing guy, so I bypassed this issue)? The reason is that it's not a competitive army that shows up and takes your lunch money: it's an army that shows up and surprisingly says, in most scenarios, "If you play this dumb, I have enough tools to challenge you." And if you can't manage all the threats, it will win the match. And it's that mindset that we examine next.

II.  What Is a "Game Master" Army?

From my school of thought, a game master in a roleplay game is not an adversary to the players: he's there to narrate what they see and what others in the world say, but he/she is fundamentally there as a fellow player around the table. We are helping each other have a good time, and that means engaging people for them to meet, interesting places for them to visit, and dangerous foes for them to slay.

And this army does this very well. It's not a super scary army with terrifying profiles: the most "dangerous" model it has is an old man with max 4 uses of Immobilize and the ability to two-hand with a staff. It's not that impressive. It has "a lot of shooting," but the shooting is garbage: it scares you, but it doesn't actually remove a lot of models. It has vast numbers, but they're paper thin, and not in the Goblin Town way (another F2 S3 D3 army) where they can support each other and replenish their numbers with the Scribe.

So it presents a challenge: if you don't play smart, they can wrap your lines, trap your guys, shoot you in the open, outnumber you on objectives - all kinds of things. But countering them is actually quite easy: whether you chew through enemies in melee, lean into shooting, rely on Terror to prevent being overwhelmed, or just run a few power heroes designed to cleave through lines, all of those strategies work against Sharkey's Rogues with minimal complications. The only question is, can you get enough of it done in the time limit?

And that's what makes this such an attractive army for me: my opponent feels challenged, not because they hit a wall they can't break, but because they are plowing through 50 walls of sand. So they get the joy of removing buckets and buckets of models, and watching the clock to see if they can remove just enough to get the job done. It puts the pressure on them, but not in a, "Wow, that profile is broken" or "Wow, I don't have a tool for dealing with these guys" sort of way. And that makes for a better game in my experience.

And that's the experience of the game master: challenge the players, but there's no need to drown them.

III.  Making It Work: Presenting Reasonable Challenges

But of course no one wants to win a game because you threw it: they want to win fair and square. So we need an army that actually presents a challenge to them.

For the Spring Zephyr Tournament we know the scenarios already, so that helps. Below is the list I'm taking, and then we'll take a look at the challenges it presents to my opponents with almost every tool I wanted from the list:

My army, plus 6 objective markers that we plundered!

The Chief's Ruffians: 350pts

Warband 1

-Sharkey (Army Leader) and Worm: 60pts

-8 Ruffians with Whips

-7 Ruffians with Bows

Warband 2

-Sid Briarthorn

-8 Ruffians with Whips

-7 Ruffians with Bows

Warband 3

-Ted Sandyman

-11 Hobbit Militia

TOTAL: 349pts, 45 models, 4 Might, 1 Spellcaster (with 4 Will)

Now sure, I could have included an extra whip on one of the bow guys, but I decided not to because frankly I wanted it to be easy to explain to my opponents. And I would have liked to have Rowan Thistlewood in the army for his extra Might, his F3 with 2 Attacks, and his ability to set buildings and forests on fire (plus Lotho would have been good for dealing with Terror models), but this list will do fine. And with the knowledge that the following five scenarios will be used, here's how we challenge our opponents:

Hold Ground: So this one plays to our advantage to some extent, as we have 45 people who can get to the middle, and since it measures 6" out, it's a pretty good distance of area that counts, so getting lots of ruffians into range is not that hard. It also helps that breaking the army could trigger the end of the match early, so by removing 23+ models (which you would likely need to do to win the match), you might actually end the match with more ruffians in range than your opponent has, so how and when they choose to remove your men is actually really important.

But it's not impossible to win against this army: since it's a maelstrom scenario there's no promise that the army will deploy together, and with limited Might Points I'm not likely to spend any of it on deployment. So a shrewd opponent, assuming they get to deploy second or they have enough movement to intercept, will take out 1-2 warbands before I even reach the center, and possibly end the game with them having three swift riders in the middle while my remaining warband(s) is/are still slogging toward the center. That's the challenge. If we get to the center, it's going to be an uphill fight.

Capture and Control: This one is interesting because it's a "Tag and Forget" scenario: you can tag an objective and leave it, so you don't need to leave men behind the hold the objective. This works both for and against the list: on the one hand it means I can keep most of my 45-man force bearing down against my opponent, but it also means that if you break through the lines I'm unlikely to have many troops holding an objective, so they can flip the ones I've taken.

But of course all of this comes at a cost: assuming most armies at 350pts will have 15-30 models, if they don't leave troops at the ones they tag, I've got plenty of bodies to peel off and exploit that. So it's a resource management game: how many bodies do you need to remove chaff while not losing the work you've already achieved? That's the challenge.

Destroy the Supplies: This one is similar, but also different: there's a good chance at a scrum in the middle as we work our way toward each other's supplies, except that I can leave 4-5 men at each of my objectives while putting 30+ bodies into the center. This means we probably have the advantage numerically on the push, even if they don't leave anyone behind to guard the objectives.

So the challenge is: can you break through the forward advance with enough people to then break the defenders with one of your guys not being tagged for a turn? It will take skill. And that's the challenge.

Lords of Battle: ...Yeah okay, so there's basically no challenge here; outkilling your opponent is basically impossible in this scenario unless you're fighting hobbits or Goblin Town and your opponent does not know what he/she is doing. In any other scenario, you're in deep trouble. But that's fine - we can throw one round. And who knows: maybe someone will run a four-man army and we'll be able to outdice them? But seriously: this one is basically a no-win for us. And that's okay - it's about time there was a challenge for me (beyond the ordinary challenges of running Sharkey's Rogues).

Divide and Conquer: So this one is another three-objective mission, but this time 1) they're in the middle, so I don't have to keep any of my 45-man army back, and 2) deployment is split: half of the opponent's force (unless they're a 1-warband force) will be in one corner, and the other half will be in the far corner opposite. I'll have my hobbits in one corner and the ruffians near their banner (Sid) in the other, but that gives me about 33 models in one sector and 12 in another. So the challenge is how much of the force do they devote to take out a dozen hobbits, and will that leave enough men alive to hold back the swarm of 30+ ruffians with magic support? And if they get pushed off an objective, will they have the numbers to slip someone through to take it back? That's the challenge.

Conclusion

Am I going to take top half at this tournament? Probably not: there's a lot of things that can happen to this army in 45 minutes, and if you don't roll well in melee you're going to lose a looooot of men without evening the odds. But the goal of the army isn't per se to win the tournament: it's to have a different kind of fun - to present a challenge to players without presenting a broken, wildly asymmetric, or even heavy-hitting list. It's to ask the question, "In 45 minutes, can you do everything you need to do to secure victory," and then placing that responsibility in their hands. And I think that will be fun for them to play.

But what do you think? Would that be fun for you? Should I be going or a tough-as-nails list? Let me know what you think below! I do regret not having Rowan in the army; had it been a 400pt tournament I would have taken him, but alas, we don't have him in this crew. Maybe next time. Until then, you know where to find me,

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"Firenze!  What are you doing?  You have a human on your back!  Have you no shame?  Are you a common mule?" ~ Bane, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone