The Board Is Set: How to Play Heirlooms of Ages Past

Good morning gamers,

We're wrapping up our discussion of the Pool 1 scenarios (the "maelstrom scenarios") from the Matched Play Guide and today, we're digging into a scenario that a lot of players don't like: Heirlooms of Ages Past. While the scoring for Hold Ground and Command the Battlefield (the other maelstrom scenarios) are all about having more models in a particular part of the board than the other player, this scenario is very much an all-or-nothing proposition: dig up a shiny thing and hold onto it by the time the game ends. While you can certainly have a knuckle-biter of a game in Heirlooms, what usually happens is that one person secures the Heirloom, bunkers around it, and keeps it to win the game. There's a lot to unpack about this scenario - but let's review the principles of the maelstrom scenarios before we get into specifics (if you've already read our articles on Hold Ground and/or Command the Battlefield, you can skip this section).

Pool 1: Maelstrom of Battle

In most scenarios, you have some control over where you can deploy your units - you usually have a deployment area that is 24-48" deep and you can set up your warbands to support each other however you want. The scenarios in Pool 1 don't work this way - with the exception of siege weapons, one very big tower, and one Legendary Legion, no one starts on the board when you roll for priority. During each player's Move Phase, the controlling player will roll for each warband that hasn't entered the board and depending on what the roll is determines whether the warband arrives (the warband doesn't arrive on the roll of a 1), where it arrives (2 or 4 is the north/south board edges, while a 3 or 5 is the east/west board edge - a 6 lets you choose which board edge you want), and who gets to pick the starting deployment point (2-3 is the opposing player, while a 4+ is the controlling player). Based on the roll, one of the players will pick a point for the warband to walk onto the board. Might can be used to modify this roll. Models are not allowed to charge on the turn that they arrive, but units that can move into enemy units without charging (chariots and war beasts) can, in fact, try to run over enemy units.

Because the deployment of units happens at the end of each player's Move Phase, it's generally considered better to deploy second instead of first so you can respond to your opponent's deployments. Additionally, it is sometimes recommended that if you don't want your opponent to pick the deployment point for your warband, you'll want to use a Might point on the warband leader to increase a 3 to a 4 or decrease a 2 to a 1. If you're deploying your first warband, it probably doesn't matter who places their arrival point, but if you're deploying first and you need your warband near another warband, you'll want to spend Might to place the arrival point where you want. If your opponent has already deployed, allowing your opponent to place the arrival point probably means you're in for a scrap on Turn 2 . . . which could be fine, but is likely to be bad.

There are a few heroes who can either modify their rolls or those of others (Madril, Guritz, and Robin Longfellow), some army bonuses that provide roll modifiers (the Iron Hills and the Rangers of Mirkwood LL), and one hero who is treated as always rolling a 6 (Lurtz). If any of these options are available to you, you'll want to review the rules to make sure warbands are brought onto the board in the right order.

When it comes to deployment, there is a common strategy where players will attempt to deploy near a corner so that whether they get a north/south or east/west roll doesn't really matter. This is often employed by armies that have heroes who provide a lot of synergies (like Cirdan or Galadriel) or when there is a potentially vulnerable unit (like a siege weapon or Denethor). By allowing your army to deploy together, you're probably committing to spending Might to modify your rolls, but you'll also have your synergistic models where you need them.

If your warbands are pretty self-contained and don't need to be next to each other, you can basically deploy anywhere you want. More than anything else, the scenario rules will probably determine where your warbands go down. This can also be the strategy for armies with lots of warbands - if you know you have 6+ warbands, then someone is probably showing up everywhere, so spending Might to be where someone else is will probably not be necessary.

The main thing most players who lose priority on the first round will try to do is deploy near any enemy warbands that were deployed in an isolated position. This can allow them to bring a greater mass of their army to bear on a small part of the enemy army. The player who goes second needs to be careful about their deployment rolls, as a 2 or 3 might see one of their warbands deployed in an are teaming with enemy models. In general, it's better to lose priority on the first turn, but you might also start with less Might than your opponent.

We've already discussed two of the Maelstrom scenarios (Hold Ground and Command the Battlefield), so let's dig into the last and most controversial one - Heirlooms of Ages Past.

Heirlooms of Ages Past

If you'd like a really great rundown of this scenario (especially if you don't like this scenario), I'd highly recommend you listen to Jeremy Hunthor's Green Dragon Podcast Short on this scenario. Jeremy's thoughts are excellent and will be echoed in this article - give it a listen (and while you're there, check out their other content - it's all very good).

The previous two scenarios load most of the VPs into how well you control one point (Hold Ground, up to 7 VPs) or four quadrants (Command the Battlefield, up to 8 VPs) of the board. Heirlooms has an object that needs to be found (more on that shortly) and then either held (6 VPs) or you need to have more models near it if no model has it when the game ends (3 VPs). With half of the scenario VPs tied to the scenario "gimmick," the other VPs are distributed evenly between wounding or killing the enemy army leader (1-2 VPs), breaking the enemy and doing it without being broken (1-2 VPs), and having a banner and your opponent not (1-2 VPs).

The fact that half of the VPs of the scenario are tied to having the heirloom means that like Hold Ground, it's pretty easy for one side to get a sweeping victory - but since only 6 VPs are tied to holding the Heirloom, you CAN get a draw by a) breaking the army that has the Heirloom and not being broken yourself, b) killing their army leader, and c) killing all of their banners and having one of your own. A draw isn't as good as a win, but if you've broken the enemy, there's often a possibility that holding onto the Heirloom will be difficult for your opponent (more on this later).

Unlike Hold Ground or Seize the Prize (which we'll cover later in this series), there isn't one known location for the Heirloom. During setup, the players assign the locations of six possible spots for the Heirloom. If you play by the strict written rules of the scenario, when an infantry model touches one of these spots, it rolls a D6 and on a 6, the Heirloom has been found. If five spots have been uncovered and none of them are the Heirloom, the Heirloom is automatically in the sixth spot. Once the Heirloom has been found, all undiscovered spots are removed.

To remove the randomness of where the Heirloom is, some players make tokens that are either blank on the bottom side or have an Heirloom icon on it (whatever they want) so that no rolling is required and the Heirloom is guaranteed to be in a particular place from the outset of the game (though neither player will know where it is). As far as I'm concerned, either system is okay.

Once the Heirloom has been discovered, the model that discovered it must carry it and cannot hand it off to another unit (like you can in Seize the Prize - no lateral passes here). Additionally, before that unit moves each turn, it must roll a die and on a 1, the model cannot move and suffers the effects of the Transfix spell. While this is unlikely to happen (and will have no bearing on the game if the person holding the Heirloom is already safely tucked away from danger), if your plan is to snatch and run with the Heirloom, a single die roll could force you to stay where you are . . . which could be good or bad, depending on the disposition of your opponent's troops.

One final note needs to be made: a model must be Infantry in order to dig up the Heirloom, but should the model carrying the Heirloom be removed as a casualty (killed or fled), any Infantry model - or Cavalry model with the Expert Rider keyword - can pick it up again. As has been mentioned already, you can't play hot-potato with it, so whoever picks it up must be assumed to be carrying it for the rest of the game (or die carrying it).

Okay, let's get into strategies for playing this scenario.

Strategy #1: Expand and Contract

I think for most players (especially new players), this is probably the default approach to playing this scenario: since this is a maelstrom mission, we want to arrive in multiple places and be able to contest most if not all of the possible heirloom locations. If we manage to find it first, we use the other models near the guy who picked it up to hedge for him while we have him run away with it and converge on his location with the rest of our scattered forces.

In theory, at least, this is a good approach - I mean, it doesn't matter so much if your army breaks so long as you're holding the Heirloom and either your banner survives or your army leader survives. However, the problem with this approach is that by spreading out your forces, a fast opponent can focus his efforts on pieces of your army and then sweep towards the model carrying the Heirloom, having brought the army very close to breaking (assuming you actually FOUND the Heirloom).

Probably the best way to perform this strategy is with a fast army - particularly one that has fast infantry models. Whether they're flying models (most of which are Infantry) or Faux Cavalry (like Wild Wargs and Fell Wargs), having a fast model that can race to find the Heirloom and can then race away with it to be supported by its friends is great. It also helps to have fast units to support these models so you can converge with the rest of your army.

A fast army that's all-cavalry is going to struggle a little with this approach - even if they have Expert Rider - as they'll need someone to dismount to dig it up and then run with it until they die OR wait for the enemy to pick it up, charge in and kill the model carrying it, and then pick it up and run away with it. 

Exemplar factions: Wild/Fell Warg-heavy lists (Angmar, Azog's Hunters, Dark Powers of Dol Guldur), any list with the Spider Queen, and most lists with flying models so long as the Heirloom tokens aren't in woods. Armies with Heroic March and war drums (sometimes those with one or the other but not both) can do alright with this approach too.

This strategy can be exciting, but also might not work - it all hinges on whether or not you roll the required 6 to find the Heirloom). An alternative approach (especially for a cavalry-heavy list) might be . . .

Strategy #2: Puppy Guarding

There's nothing in the rules that says you have to rush in and tag one of the Heirloom locations - and since the sixth location is by default the location of the Heirloom, if no 6s are rolled on the preceding five attempts, there's actually a strategic advantage to having a few models "puppy guard" one of the Heirloom points, since it will be the Heirloom if all five other points are duds. This strategy is great for slower armies, but also for all-cavalry armies, since they can have a cavalry model or two standing near one or two of the Heirloom spots and wait to see what happens with the other ones. If they are in control of the only Heirloom spots left, the riders can dismount, dig it up, and then be escorted to safety by whatever cavalry models are still left around.

This strategy, however, can backfire - if the Heirloom is discovered on the first or second attempt, any spots that you're puppy guarding are suddenly worthless. However, if you've got a cavalry-heavy list, those models that were guarding the potential Heirloom can quickly move up to surround and kill the model that found the Heirloom. Slow armies . . . might be a bit out of luck. Oh well. Similarly, if your opponent is doing the "puppy guarding" thing too, then neither of you are likely to know if you've got 3-6 VPs in the bag until the game is nearing its conclusion - and then you HAVE to try to break your opponent, deal a wound to his army leader, and keep your banner alive while killing your opponent's banner . . . all while keeping these same things from happening to yourself.

Exemplar factions: all-cavalry lists and very slow lists (like infantry-heavy lists that didn't take Heroic March), especially ones that have good shooting to allow them to skirmish with their opponents. You also have to be a very patient player to make this strategy work . . .

This strategy can look like the previous method, where your army appears in as many places as possible OR if you're a fast army, relying on arriving in force in one place and spreading out from there. This leads us to our third strategy of . . .

Strategy #3: Consolidate and Roll

There are lots of armies that prefer to form up as a concentrated ball (usually because of 6" or 12" radius buffs on some of their units) and advance as a protected block towards the enemy. Like in Hold Ground, this means you might try to arrive near a corner of the board (so that it doesn't matter if you get a north/south board edge or an east/west board edge) and in a game like Heirlooms, you'll arrive in one part of the board and then slowly roll towards the objective points. While this can certainly be done by cavalry-heavy lists, most of the lists that will do this are going to be infantry spam lists (and shieldwalls in particular) that want their mass as concentrated as possible, their flanks protected, and their auric buffs affecting as many models as possible.

The trade for arriving in one spot is that if either of the previous strategies are employed by the enemy, they may be showing up to ALL of the objectives before you do - and that means they will probably have the Heirloom. With this strategy, you don't care about that - your plan is to arrive in a position of strength in force and then move towards the enemy position as quickly as you're able. If they are hedging up the Heirloom, your goal is to kill as many models as possible, to include the enemy army leader and any banners they have, so that you can at least get a draw. Once they break, however, you'll force the model carrying the Heirloom to pass its courage test to stick around each turn, which could mean you win 6-0 or 6-3 if the Heirloom is dropped and no one is nearby to claim it.

Exemplar factions: any shieldwall list that has enough movement-related tools to get across the board quickly to wherever the Heirloom pops up, most specifically Easterling/Mordor lists with war drums (optionally March heroes), any list with Aragorn or Gamling with his banner, and any Iron Hills/Erebor Reclaimed lists that brought an Iron Hills Captain.

While this strategy has the inherent risk of not ever holding the Heirloom, it also has the least risk of breaking (and the hidden rule of this scenario is that if you have the Heirloom and can break the enemy, you'll win) . . . which leads us to our last strategy . . .

Strategy #4: Just Kill Stuff

There's something to be said about not overthinking a scenario - this scenario is really just a killing scenario. Your opponent might rush to find the Heirloom and come up with nothing. If he exposes part of his army to get somewhere first, kill those models as quickly as you can (at range or in melee, doesn't matter). If your opponent leaves his only banner exposed, kill it (and always bring a banner of your own). If your opponent's army leader arrives in a spot where he has no help, arrive there and get at least one wound in on him (and ideally kill him). Just kill things - it's not hard.

Should your opponent grab the Heirloom, keep killing things, but make your way towards where the Heirloom is being held. While your opponent is trying to get the Heirloom to a safe spot, he'll need to test to see if he can move - and if he can't, you've bought yourself some time. If the Heirloom is being held by a warrior who is tucked away and can't see a hero, he'll need to pass his own Courage tests to stick around if you can just break him . . . so do that.

The greatest advantage of this strategy (although it is by far and away the least competitive) is that you're guaranteed to have a good time (because you're just killing things), you can actually have a game if you have a tough match-up, and you can hopefully break the enemy and make the guy holding the prize disappear (shrinking your opponent's max VPs to 3 if he neither breaks you nor kills your army leader nor has a banner remaining). Sometimes you can't win a scenario - so just play the game and kill things - you never know what will happen.

Exemplar factions: everyone can play this strategy - even with the other strategies to a point - but it's probably best used by factions that are very offensive-focused and less mobility-focused, such as shooting-heavy armies and those that rely on impact hits (chariots, camels, and war beasts). Hero-heavy lists that have a huge model count disparity probably want to do this too.

Conclusion

I think Heirlooms is the hardest of the maelstrom scenarios on a number of levels, but I don't think there are as clear auto-win factions for this scenario as there are for Command the Battlefield. If you don't like playing Heirlooms, take a look at the strategy your using and the army that you're playing and see if a different strategy works.

Speaking of which, if you have other strategies for playing this scenario, we'd love to hear about them in the comments! Next week, we've got another thematic list building challenge, but the week following, we'll be jumping into Pool 2 and the multiple-objective scenarios. This might be my favorite pool of scenarios and the games I've played with this have been REALLY fun. Until next time, happy hobbying!