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Monday, May 6, 2024

Top 5 Predictions (Hopes?) for the Arnor Supplement

Hey Reader!

As you probably know, there's a new supplement coming out for the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, and it's going to center around Arnor (and likely Angmar, considering the history), so of course we have to do a quick talk on what we anticipate will be in the new supplement! So after a few weeks of pulling together thoughts and ideas, here's my predictions (or probably hopes, to be honest) of what we'd love to see in the new book.

It's worth noting before we begin that I'm the resident Arnor player (and one of the resident Angmar players) in our group, and I've always been a bigger fan of the northern kingdom than the southern kingdom. So I'm pumped that we're getting a new supplement, and want it to be the best one they've ever made (though surpassing Scouring of the Shire is going to be hard).

So with no further ado, our top 5 hopes for the new book!


#5: New Scenarios Tied to Arnor's History

In the Ruin of Arnor supplement from back in the day, there were 6 scenarios, spanning the initial invasion of Arnor through to the death of Arathorn and the rise of Aragorn as chief of the Dunedain. And these scenarios were fine - like many of the old scenarios they are pretty sparse, but good on them for integrating more than just the Angmar and the Arnor models into the mix: you get Dunlendings, Dwarves, and Hobbits as well, all of which is great.

I'd love to see this expanded to include a scenario where the Great Plague is spreading to Arnor, the first incursion of Angmar against Arnor which sacks Amon Sul and causes all of Rhudaur to fall into the hands of Angmar, another scenario with the sacking of Fornost and the driving of Arvedui toward Forochel while his son and most of his people flee west of the Lune, and then the arrival of Earnur from Gondor with reinforcements to aid Arnor and Cirdan of the Grey Havens in pushing deep into Angmar to crush the Witch-King and his minions.

I'd also love to see a scenario showing Aragorn (and possibly also Arathorn) holding the thin line against the forces of evil, showing the desperate plight of those that held to the honorable task of protecting the ancient kingdom of evil things. This would make for a very interesting and exciting set of narrative scenarios that would be awesome for a game day and possibly an intro to the game for new players (which we absolutely love).


#4: New Units for Relevant Armies

We already know we're getting new cavalry models for Arnor, and who knows: maybe we'll even get a cavalry option for Arvedui! But even if we don't, there are more things I'm hoping we get in the new supplement.

First, I hope we get new heroes for Arnor, much like we did with Dale back when Defense of the North came out, to flesh out the faction and give more options than what we have right now. Since we're adding some horsemen, it would also be nice if at least one of these new heroes (Aranarth, son of Arvedui?) could be mounted as well.

Second, I hope we get new Angmar options, including some of the hillmen of Rhudaur who broke away from Arnor to join Angmar (maybe giving a decent skirmish option to Angmar?), and maybe a Plagued Warrior (or something like that), with a rule similar to the Tainted where being in base contact with him would cause you to suffer a wound on a roll of a 6, as he spreads the Great Plague to you via close contact with him.

And third, I'm hoping that they continue with using factions that are beyond Arnor and Angmar, including the elves of the Grey Havens under Cirdan, the dwarves of the Blue Mountains (as we had in the old supplement), Dunlendings and other wild men from the southlands near Tharbad, and this could possibly be a place for integrating Hobbit-era armies into Lord of the Rings territory, as Gundabad is active as a stronghold of evil at the time (and wouldn't be cleansed of orcs until after the fall of Angmar).

But perhaps most of all, take this opportunity to actually flesh out the Rangers faction. Not only was this part of the old supplement, but between the rise of the chieftains of the Dunedain, all the way to the life and death of Arathorn and the rise of Aragorn. But currently we don't have a way of doing that leadup history, and I'd love to see them amp this up in the future (possibly using the ideas Rythbryt had for giving more variety and flexibility to the army here and here). But more on that later.


#3: New Arnor Infantry Sprues

Right now you can get Rangers of Middle Earth in plastic sprues, 24 at a time, which is awesome. And these are great back-rank models for any Arnor army. You can also get metal hobbit archers, and if they're in stock, you can get metal Warriors of Arnor...but that's the issue most people think about when it comes to starting an Arnor force: how hard it is to get Arnor models.

I hope that they restock the range, and ideally do so with plastic sculpts which are both more affordable and updated for being an army in 2024, as the old sculpts are very, very old, and in need of an update. So it would be awesome to have a new infantry sprue for Arnor, which in the long run would also likely be cheaper for them to produce.

And of course this could also lead to the creation of an Arnor Battlehost, using warriors, rangers, and the two lead heroes, as they already have an "Angmar Battlehost" in the Mordor Battlehost. So very easy to get people into the game with the new supplement. But new infantry sprues cost about $10,000 USD to make, so I understand if this is a bit of an ask.


#2: New Legendary Legions

I think we need 8 new legendary legions tied to this book (which is a lot, but not the most we've ever seen), spanning the wide range of history tied to Arnor and the nations associated with them.

For the Forces of Good, I'd love to see a legendary legion tied to Arvedui's defense of Arnor, bringing in new special rules and meeting needs, not unlike the Garrison of Dale legendary legion. I think we should also have a Estel's Household legendary legion for the rangers that are defending the north, including Aragorn, Halbarad, Elrohir and Elladan, Dunedain, Grey Company, and possibly new profiles to flesh them out. We should also get a Blue Mountains dwarf legion, with models primarily from Khazad Dum but with additional crossover models like the goat riders from Iron Hills to make them feel unique, while also driving sales from other parts of the range (being led by a Dwarf King, or they could create a new profile if they wanted to). And I think we should have an Earnur's Host legendary legion, combining Gondorian forces under Earnur, Arnor forces under Aranarth, and Rivendell forces under Cirdan - the largest assembly of men and elves since the Last Alliance (and would have similar restrictions for heroes and warriors as we see from the Men of the West legendary legion to encourage taking a wide range of heroes).

Tack onto these new ways to play early Arnor and early Rangers as part of the standard list, and you've got a lot of cool stuff that will be interesting on the table and thematically strong.

And of course we also need four new legendary legions for evil (because I really like it when they're even), so I recommend a Witch-King Invasion legion which focuses on orcs, trolls, wargs, and the three Angmar Nazgul, a Great Plague legion centered around barrow wights, shades, and spectral warriors (not unlike my idea for a legendary legion here), a Border Raiders legendary legion for the Dunlendings, Gundabad orcs, and Rhudaur Hillmen that attacked the edges of the kingdom and took Tharbad following the end of the kingdom of Angmar, and a Wastes of Forochel legendary legion using just cave trolls, wild wargs, Wild Warg Chieftains, and maybe a new Cave Troll Chieftain profile (that just uses the current cave troll model, just with some extra kitbashing) as your entire army. It would be glorious (and let's be honest: this is a Centaur post, so of course monsters were going to make an appearance).

All of this would be a shot in the arm to so much of the community: interesting new options for game play, twists on current armies you'd see at tournaments, reasons to still play the Vanilla versions of each army, and the hobbyists get to knock themselves out with cool kitbashing and painting schemes. It's a win-win-win-win.


#1: Affordable Prices

Probably the biggest thing I'm hoping for is that the prices for everything won't explode. If the book is smaller like Scouring of the Shire and Rise of the Necromancer, make it more like the price of Scouring of the Shire. If it's larger like Quest of the Ringbearer, Gondor at War, or Defense of the North, price it accordingly. But don't inflate the prices: try to keep it about the same.

This may mean slightly less art, slightly less full-color two-page spreads, and other things that could cause the price to increase to produce the book, but I think it can only help sales if the price is affordable to get new people to take a look at new armies. Especially if initial investments are being put in for new sprues and models, as this will help to drive the profit margin for those investments.


Conclusion

The truth is, by this point, the book is probably in editing and post-production, but to be honest, considering how well Defense of the North was made, and how much Scouring of the Shire fleshed out two very, very small factions, it would not surprise me if the team came up with an absolute knockout supplement here. So here's to the team, and best wishes to them: we can't wait to spend our money on it!

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"We watch the skies for the great tides of evil or change that are sometimes marked there." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

11 comments:

  1. No love for the Lossoth? While they didn't actively participate in the conflict against Angmar, they did play a significant part in Arvedui's story, and they'd make for a fantastic 'mini faction' in the same vein as the Beornings. They could be Historical Allies with Arnor.

    I'd imagine them as a faction with low fight value (F2), low defence (D3) but high strength (S4), armed with fishing spears (throwing weapons) and bone daggers. Sort of a glass cannon force that would benefit from having the high fight spear support or Arnorians. Perhaps some sort of sled unit as well.

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    1. Oh, as an old Lord of the Rings Online player, I'd love to see the Lossoth! But I'm also honest about the fact that if we are going to get a new sprue, it's probably not going to be Lossoth, so I'm not holding out too much hope for it.

      Now, if I was GW and I wanted to add a new playable faction without incurring a lot of costs, what I'd do is I'd just make an upgrade kit (hoods, etc.) that you could use to convert Lake-Town Militia to Lossoth, and then I'd base their heroes off of the same gear as the heroes from Survivors of Lake-Town (so two bow-armed heroes for converting Bard and Percy, a spear-armed woman for converting Hilda-Bianca, etc.).

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  2. I am completely with you on points 4 and 5. I am worried, though, about more Legendary Legions. Don't we already have enough? GW seem to add more and more, when in some cases just easing the alliance restrictions would be more straightforward.

    I am still puzzled as to why Arnor and Numenor cannot ally. I understand why a list cannot include Elendil and Malbeth for fluff reasons, but why not allow them to ally with a rule to the effect that they cannot mix named heroes? You would instantly give both (under-developed) factions a fresh dimension. And, you know, Elendil was the High King of Arnor and Gondor after all.

    Is Arnor supposed to represent the small period of time when Arvedui was on the throne? Is it not therefore already a LL then? Is Numenor only supposed to represent the Gondorians at/around the battle of the Last Alliance? Or is broader (as implied by their ability to ally with Fangorn, Halls of Thranduil, etc)?

    Just seems so odd to lock these factions behind a restrictive alliance matrix and then use Legendary Legion spam to solve the problems. Surely the simpler approach would be to liberalise the alliance matrix and give players a bit more incentive/reward to mix up the armies 😅

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    1. I'd say they're going the other direction, seems like they'd prefer to see fewer yellow alliances and such and perhaps eventually remove the alliance matrix entirely in favor of legendary legions. After all, once you've got enough of them then do you need the allies matrix?

      And no, even if that's not the end game, there aren't enough of them!!

      There are some glaring gaps that could help, it is inexcusable that the last book had a bunch of shit legions for good (bears excepted) and a pointless one for Dale but none for the elves allowing Mirkwood/Lothlorien to work together without penalty.

      You complain of spam and yet there are a bunch of obvious ones like that or Glorfindel leading Rivendell folks to aid Arnor that are missing.

      Sure, we don't need another Rohan one probably but seriously? How can you make that case when there are major factions that have nothing?

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    2. why do we need a Legendary Legion for every aspect of the books/films?

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    3. I think the idea of Legendary Legions is solid - when Gondor at War was released, it solved the alliance question that we had with the Fellowship and Dunharrow (why can't Aragorn lead Warriors of the Dead? And why do we have to lose the Harbinger rule from the Dunharrow army bonus?).

      But with the Return of the King Legion (and all the other ones from that book), there was always a trade - yes, you can get Anduril for free and a 6" Spirit banner on Aragorn with the ability for the Hunters to lead troops, but you also lost the ability to include leaderless warbands and you have to invest 260pts in heroes regardless of your points level. When there's a design choice involved (and they are rooted in a thematic moment from the books or movies), I think Legions are good.

      The problem is that not all Legions work that way - the Army of Dale is probably the best example of this. With the inclusion of the Windlance in both lists, there's no reason to run the normal Dale list with Brand or Bard unless you want to ally. There's no downside to taking the Army of Dale and no loss of profiles. That Legion could have been swapped for a Lorien Legion easily - and the trades that could have been made there would have been good. But I am biased on this subject: https://tellmeatalegreatorsmall.blogspot.com/2022/12/a-season-of-giving-light-of-caras.html.

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    4. I suspect that the reason for the restriction is because there is no "King of Men"-style hero for Arnor; when the list was created it was very much a mid-Third Age nation, and that means no Numenor. So if they just included a generic King of Arnor, they could fix all manner of issues with the alliance matrix.

      The primary argument, though, for legendary legions, is to give you a thematic feel and an in-game reason to build a force around a specific part of Middle Earth's history, and Arnor is one of those nations that could really use that treatment (not every nation needs one, but I think Arnor is ripe for it). A soft test of a Last Alliance legendary legion can be easily done with the Host of Earnur, as it's very similar, but people aren't as emotionally invested in it, so you'll get less pushback. Arnor has a host of limitations, and the easiest way to fix those issues is with a legion bonus.

      I also think that legendary legions change the meta for specific armies. Angmar and Arnor tend to be run more or less one way, and new legions for them would give you a reason to run things differently, and I think that's a very good thing.

      So while I don't think we need an endless litany of legendary legions, I do think there are times when they are useful, and I think having some here would be good.

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  3. As a for ever lover the Total War series, I hope they follow suggestions of the Third Age Total War mode for Medieval 2:

    Knights of Anuminas (KoDA equivalent)

    Arnorian pikemen/swordmen(to not be a copypaste of MT warriors)

    Dunedain rangers with option for 2HW

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  4. What I'd like to see out of Arnor is ... anything to give it some character and identity. As is, it's hard to see it as anything other than "lame Minas Tirith".
    Malbeth has a cool rule, but offers literally nothing beyond that 5+ ward save, and Arvedui is painfully boring, ESPECIALLY for your big-name hero. Other factions with limited profiles manage to garner a unique feel, like Numenor's heroes, Khand's chariots, or even the Wildmen of Druadan's plethora of crazy nonsense, but Arnor just ... doesn't.
    The lancers are a positive addition for sure, but what I'd really like to see is a Dunland-style hero pack. Maybe a Good version of a shaman with Fury and Banishment, and a brawler-type hero to help Crack down shieldwalls (maybe he's even the prince, and can help buff Arvedui!) Anything really to help Arnor find a unique identity

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  5. I am thinking the same - there should be some cool stuff to make this more unique army than "F4 gondor infantry with 5+ save from Malbet". I also think that instead of cavalry Arnor could've received something fresh. Anyway my ideas, what we might see:
    - Named hero on horse with warspear (connected with last spoiler of small flag on the spear)
    - Aranarth - son of Arvedui, who became the first Chieftain of Dunedain, so maybe ranger-like hero, giving option to play Dunedain models (and boost them to 2 Attack if taken to his warband). He could also provide Fearless/Courage boostring bubble.
    - Dunedain - either current profiles or brand new models with new rules (Arnorian Dunedain). They could serve as ranger elite in this army different than other human armies (not a copy-paste Guardians of Fountain Court).
    - Hobbit archer hero who could lead hobbit archers in Arnor and giving them more excuse to be played in this army (maybe his warband not counting to bow limit, or boosting them in other manner)
    - Probably won't happen because time of Arvedui's rule is a little later in time, when Cardolan was already destroyed by WK, but I would like to see (insert any name), Last Prince of Cardolan with his troops - looking simillar to Warriors of Arnor but with damaged/removed armour (reducing def to get more movement or woodland creature) and using spears as throwing weapons.

    Really hope they would go in that direction with new supplement 😉

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    1. Love all of these ideas, and honestly they could even get away with making quite a few new profiles without having to make models if they make an "upgrade kit" similar to what they did to convert Uruk-Hai Warriors to Gundabad Orcs for profiles like this - convert Warriors of Rohan or even Lake-Town Militia into other Arnor troops, which would save them a ton of money (and move product that doesn't move as often, as I suspect Warriors of Rohan don't move much on their own beyond the Battlehosts).

      And yeah, giving Arnor more of a unique feel that's not "F4 Minas Tirith" is really necessary if they want to move more product. They have to be careful not to tread to closely on the realm of Dale in the process (as they are "F4 Minas Tirith with weaker armor" already).

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