Fleshing out the Faction: Fiefdoms Revamp

Good morning gamers,

Back in June 2021, Centaur tried his hand at "revamping" the Fangorn list, providing lots of cool upgrades for Ents, profiles for Huorns, and some neat named heroes who do different things. About a month later, Centaur also tried his hand at revamping Arnor, providing flavors of units based on the major regions of Arnor that would have existed during the apex of that kingdom (the profiles offer more variety than what Rise of Angmar provided, for those interested in seeing what could have been).

In December 2022, Rythbyrt did not one but two posts on how to revamp the Rangers faction (and some Legendary Legions that surround that faction - or should include members of that faction) and like Centaur's post on Fangorn, there were some really great ideas in it.

I'm the last one to join the fray, but I gotta say, the idea for this revamp has been growing in my mind for years. Every year when I begin re-reading The Return of the King, I'm always intrigued by the end of Book V, Chapter 1 where the various fiefdoms of Gondor arrive in their hundreds to assist the garrison of Minas Tirith. While the Fiefdoms has a lot of great units in it - and a really neat theme overall - there's also a LOT of missed opportunities, I feel, for that army list. Today, we're going to walk through the profiles that already exist for the Fiefdoms, and then we'll walk through the passage in chunks and look at profile options for the various fiefs that we're told about. Let's dig in!

NOTE: it's entirely possible - however unlikely - that the Fiefdoms (probably relegated to the Armies of Middle-Earth/book-not-movies sourcebook) could get a revamp in the new edition. We already know that the Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth have been relegated to the Legacies document (and Forlong the Fat is probably losing his horse - and probably getting his war spear downgraded to a standard spear), but so far as we know, the rest of the Fiefdoms is staying as it is. Since we don't have a roadmap for GWs plans, I figured I would throw out these ideas - and who knows, maybe it'll happen!

The Fiefdoms: Existing Profiles

Dol Amroth

This is actually the eighth and final fiefdom to be mentioned in the chapter and Imrahil is described as "kinsman of the Lord, with gilded banners bearing his token of the Ship and the Silver swan" - basically, he's awesome. Imrahil does a lot in the book and leads some of the finest warriors in all of the kingdoms of men - they can trace their lineage back to Numenor and apparently that allows them to have a higher Fight Value than Eomer when they're within 3" of Imrahil and 6" of Boromir's mighty flag. #NotBitter

Imrahil's profile is super solid, with his only limitations being "just 3 Might points" and only getting his wounding bonuses on the charge. Still, with a 12" banner rule for Dol Amroth units (and this rule gets applied to all Fiefdoms units if you keep your army bonus), F6/3A with D7/3 Wounds/3 Fate, there's a lot to like about Imrahil - and many a model that I've fielded have been run over by him.

The supporting cast from Dol Amroth takes three forms: Captains of Dol Amroth, Knights of Dol Amroth (on foot or on horses with lances), and Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth, who are described as "a company of knights in full harness riding grey horses; and behind them seven hundreds of men at arms, tall as lords, grey-eyed, dark-haired, singing as they came."

The Captains of Dol Amroth are your only March heroes in the list and while they're a bit pricey, they're also base F5 and can be F6 if they're within 3" of Imrahil (Boromir's banner won't boost this to F7). With access to armored horses and lances (which they should retain in the new edition), these guys are pretty good generic heroes for running over enemy units. When you look at the warriors, the Knights of Dol Amroth are basically overcosted if Imrahil isn't right next to them - yes, they hit hard as cavalry (and are an example of Principle #4 of using cavalry in a previous tactics post), but they're also 20pts each, so having a few in your army might not be a bad thing, but you can also ally in cheaper horsemen with similar stats from Rohan (no lances but have access to throwing spears/bows) or Minas Tirith without giving up your beloved army bonus.

Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth are my favorite Fiefdoms unit - and at 9pts/model, they're very efficient second-rank units. With F4 base (and potentially F5-6), pikes, and a respectable-but-not-great D5, they can form the backbone of any Fiefdoms army or allied contingent and provide some massive benefits to their friends (for more on this, stay tuned in the coming weeks for thoughts on allying the Fiefdoms with Minas Tirith). Perhaps it's because of their efficiency that they have been relegated to the Legacies document . . . that or the flimsiness of their pikes. It's hard to tell - but either way, they were the best Fiefdoms unit (and still are if your local scene allows you to use the Legacies profiles).

Total help provided to Minas Tirith: 700 men at arms plus the horsemen (probably not more than 400 horsemen given that the total aid from the Fiefdoms was less than 3000 men).

Lossarnach

This is the first fiefdom to be mentioned and their leader, Forlong the Fat, is described as "a man of wide shoulders and huge girth, but old and grey-bearded, yet mail-clad and black-helmed and bearing a long heavy spear." His profile is great, though not having access to Heroic Strike is a bit of a downer (honestly, he's good for Heroic Shoots/Moves or Combatting through grunts). Having 3 Wounds is very nice, as is base S5 with +1 To Wound on the charge from his war spear. For 90pts mounted (he's probably losing his mount option), Hero of Valour status, and a war horn included in that cost, you can use Forlong to ally with a lot of different armies that will welcome what he brings (with or without his army bonus).

Axemen of Lossarnach are described as "a dusty line of men, well-armed and bearing great battle-axes; grim-faced they were, and shorter and somewhat swarthier than any men that Pippin had yet seen in Gondor." These guys have a profile that gives you F4/D5 and their axes can be used as spear-supports or as two-handed axemen (S4 with Piercing Strike), rerolling 1s To Wound when within 6" of Forlong. Their profile isn't high-defense, but is otherwise solid for 9pts/model (and can provide a comparable second rank alternative to Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth).

Total help provided to Minas Tirith: 200 men.

Lamedon

Most of the warriors from Lamedon were fighting along the coastline of Gondor, but Lamedon is mentioned fifth and is described as "a few grim hillmen without a captain". Their captain, Angbor the Fearless, would later meet up with Aragorn and the Dunedain and assist in the liberation of Minas Tirith, his men crewing the ships of the Corsairs.

In-game, these guys are the D4 low-defense frontline option, but they can skip the dueling penalty of their two-handed swords by getting a natural 6 (or having a pike supporter or two get a 6 for them) and with F4 base, they can usually two-hand and Feint to get some very reliable damage (though feinting will be leaving the game in the next edition). Rythbyrt loves these guys - especially when you have, like, 20 of them (more than your opponent can reasonably shoot to death).

Total help provided to Minas Tirith: however many "a few" is.

Morthond/the Blackroot Vale

Our final official units for the fiefdoms are mentioned third and it's Duinhir (who is referred to as "tall") and his two sons, Duilin and Derufin, who are leading bowmen. Duinhir's profile is nothing to write home about, but as a 60-pt Hero of Valour with 2 Might/Heroic Defense and some nice boosts to shooting rolls (he rerolls all failed To Wound rolls and causes D3 wounds to monster models, while Blackroot Vale Archers within 6" of him who don't move can reroll 1s To Hit), he's not a horrible option (though I don't usually find a place for him in lists).

Blackroot Vale Archers have a pretty average profile at F3/D4, but with a 3+ shoot value and rerolling To Wound rolls when Heroic Shoots are called near them (by Duinhir or others - read Forlong if you brought him too), they are often feared shooting models on the table. In practice, to get the volume of damage that's truly scary, you need quite a few of these guys . . . and that can be hard to do. Still, a pocket of them will punch above their weight, so don't sleep on them either.

Total help provided to Minas Tirith: 500 men.

So this is what we have to work with - and to summarize what's missing, we want our new profiles to do the following:

• Give us cheaper, less elite warrior choices that aren't Blackroot Vale Archers;
• Give us named heroes who give us options that our current hero suite does not (Heroic Resolve, possibly Heroic March); and
• Stay true to the THEME!
  

Okay, let's look at the new profiles that can bring some life to this army!

The Fiefdoms: New Profiles

Lossarnach (again!)

When I originally presented my list of new profiles to Centaur and Rythbyrt, Centaur was like, "But what about Lebennin Spearmen!" So I was like, "Okay, what can we do to make sure they don't stomp on any of the other supporting model options available to the list?" And this is what we came up with:

Lebennin Spearman [Man, Gondor, Infantry, Warrior] (8 points)

Profile:                F3/4+   S3   D5   A1   W1   C3

War Gear:            Sword, spear, and heavy armor (optional: banner for 25pts)

Special Rules:    For The Coastlands! (PASSIVE) - Lebennin Spearmen may only be taken in a warband led by Forlong the Fat.

The one thing that the supporting models in the Fiefdoms don't really have is a good melee-oriented banner-carrying model. The profile is a cheaper version of the Man-at-arms of Dol Amroth and Axeman of Lossarnach profiles, but loses 1 FV to each of them (-2FV if the Man-at-arms is within 3" of Imrahil) and doesn't swap the cool weapon that you want them for when you take a banner. For reasons that will be seen with the next set of profiles, I restricted these guys to being fielded by a Lossarnach commander only - the profile here is really efficient and when that's in play, it needs to be restricted or it'll take over the army.

Ringlo Vale

This fiefdom is mentioned second in the list (after Lossarnach and just before the Blackroot Vale) and is located near the Vale of Erech/East of Lamedon. The description is simply that they are "the men of Ringlo Vale behind the son of their lord, Dervorin striding on foot". With such a bland description, I felt like this might be a good place for something that most fleshed out armies have: a "basic unit" that gives you some configuration choices. We'll start with Dervorin and then move into the Ringlo Vale Militia.

Dervorin - HERO OF FORTITUDE [Man, Gondor, Infantry, Hero] (50 points)

Profile:                 F4/4+   S4   D5   A2   W2   C4   2M/1W/1F

War Gear:           Sword and armor (optional: shield for 5pts)

Heroic Actions:   Heroic March

Special Rules:     Mountain Dweller, Resistant to Magic, *Living in the Shadow of the Mountain (PASSIVE) - Ringlo Vale Militia within 6" of Dervorin gain the Resistant to Magic special rule.

We have a named hero with Heroic March - so our first stop is to make it clear how this guy differs from Captains of Dol Amroth. The generic Captain is 65pts base (+10pts over Dervorin if he takes a shield) with F5 (+1FV - and potentially +2FV if you're really close to Imrahil), D7 (+1D if you took the shield on Dervorin), and has the option for having an armored horse and lance for +20pts. If your on a budget, you could take the hit to your FV and Defense (and mobility because this guy is said to be on foot, so no horse option) and choose this guy - or you could just go with the mounted Captain instead (who will hit harder than Dervorin).

I could see lists where you took Dervorin over a generic Captain because you didn't have the points or because you wanted the Resistant to Magic rule for some of your heroes (since the asterisk will apply the rule to all of your models if you keep your army bonus), but keeping up with mounted heroes is going to be a task, so you might choose the mounted Captain instead. See, I didn't invalidate the profile!

Ringlo Vale Militia [Man, Gondor, Infantry, Warrior] (6 points)

Profile:                F3/4+   S3   D3   A1   W1   C3

War Gear:          Sword (optional: shield for 1pt, spear for 1pt)

Special Rules:    Mountain Dweller

This is our second spearman profile and once again, the closest comparison to the original units that we have is the Man-at-Arms of Dol Amroth profile. For 8pts, a Ringlo Vale Militia equipped with a spear and shield will have -1 FV (-2FV if Imrahil is within 3" of a pikeman), -1 Defense, and will have Mountain Dweller and the option to defend by shielding. And that's it. If you like having F4-5, take the Pikemen. If you don't care as much (and are relying on F4 in your front line instead), take these guys. You could also run these guys in your front rank if you want a cheaper D4 model than the Clansmen of Lamedon (with lower FV and Courage, but no two-handing penalty). These guys come in at the same price as Lebennin Spearmen when given both spears and shields and have -1 Defense but the option to defend by shielding. They also don't have any warband restrictions. It's really simple - like all profiles should be.

Total help provided to Minas Tirith: 300 men.

Anfalas

Mentioned fourth, the men of Anfalas are described as "a long line of men of many sorts, hunters and herdsmen and men of little villages, scantily equipped save for the household of Golasgil their lord." This gives us a good selection of units - we have hunters (bowmen), herdsmen (probably with pointy stick-things), a leader (Golasgil), and his "household" (some elite troops). As such, there are four profiles below - two of which will be untrained units (unarmored, low Fight Value) and the other two will do their best not to step on the toes of existing profiles.

Golasgil - MINOR HERO [Man, Gondor, Infantry, Hero] (50 points)

Profile:                 F4/4+   S4   D6   A2   W2   C4   2M/1W/1F

War Gear:           Sword, shield, and armor

Heroic Actions:   Resolve

Special Rules:     Beloved by the Clans (PASSIVE) - Golasgil may only lead Anfalas House Guard in his warband. If Golasgil is in your army, you may include up to one warband of 6-12 Anfalas Herdsmen and up to one warband of 6-12 Anfalas Hunters without the need for a Hero to lead them. In these warbands, nominate a single warrior model within the warband as the captain for the purposes of deployment.

When you look at Golasgil's profile, you should see a pretty "normal" Captain profile - he's very closely aligned to a Captain of Rohan with shield who has to take a sword, has Heroic Resolve (which is only available to you in the Fiefdoms if you want to have Imrahil not able to charge anyone for a round) instead of Heroic March, and trades cavalry special rules for an army creation rule that would allow you to field leaderless warbands of Herdsmen or Hunters (profiles coming below) without having to buy heroes for them.

His goal in the army is simple: provide the opportunity for anti-magic boosts and allow you to spam out some of the WORST units in the game (and certainly in this army list). Still, if you want to field him with a full warband of his guards (the next profile) for ~100pts, then want to spam out 20 cheap grunts for another ~100pts, you'd get something that Fiefdoms players only dream of: pretty good numbers at any points level. Breaking you is also a lot easier, but hey, trade-offs, am I right? Okay, let's look at this guy's guards . . .

Anfalas House Guard [Man, Gondor, Infantry, Warrior] (8 points)

Profile:               F3/4+   S3   D5   A1   W1   C3

War Gear:         Sword, shield, and armor

Special Rules:   Sworn Protector (Golasgil), House Guards (PASSIVE) - Anfalas House Guards may only be taken in a warband led by Golasgil. Additionally, Anfalas House Guards treat Golasgil as a banner.

There's a limit to the number of these guys you can have in your list - six. They're similar to Clansmen of Lamedon - and might be better than the Clansmen - but they can't get +1 To Wound, their Fight Value is slightly lower, their Defense is only slightly higher, and their banner radius is only 3". Still, with the ability to defend by shielding near their lord, they can probably do a better job of holding an objective than Clansmen alone, so I think they'd still be worth taking. Having F3 melee-oriented troops is something the Fiefdoms don't have innately (if you want more than 6, you can also get the Ringlo Vale Militia, listed above), so I thought this would be interesting to include - especially since they're a frontline model that can shield with decent defense.

Anfalas Herdsman [Man, Gondor, Infantry, Warrior] (5 points)

Profile:                F2/5+   S3   D3   A1   W1   C2

War Gear:          Dagger, pitchfork (see The Scouring of the Shire, p. 48 - and the Designer Commentaries on The Scouring of the Shire supplement)

Special Rules:    Herdsmen Clan (PASSIVE) - Anfalas Herdsmen may not be included in a warband led by a hero.

When compared to the official Fiefdoms profiles, Anfalas Herdsmen are basically much cheaper, much worse versions of Axemen of Lossarnach - their pitchforks can be used as spears or as hand-and-a-half Stab-only weapons and they cost 4pts less than an Axeman of Lossarnach and lose 2 Fight Value, 2 Defense, and 1 Courage. They'd be a cheaper second rank option than Axemen (or Men-at-arms, who cost the same number of points), but also a much worse second rank. We wanted a trade - now we've got one (and none of the existing profiles are made worse by having these guys as options). Let's look at their bow-focused kindred now . . .

Anfalas Hunter [Man, Gondor, Infantry, Warrior] (5 points)

Profile:                F2/5+   S3   D3   A1   W1   C2

War Gear:          Dagger, bow

Special Rules:    Hunter Clan (PASSIVE) - Anfalas Hunters may not be included in a warband led by a hero.

Anfalas hunters are 3pts cheaper than Blackroot Vale archers and differ in a few key ways - first and foremost, they don't have Dead-eye Shot, so they can't reroll failed To Wound rolls as part of a Heroic Shoot (though they can benefit from the rerolling 1s To Hit if they're within 6" of Duinhir and haven't moved). They also only have a 5+ shoot value instead of the better 3+ shoot value from Blackroot Vale bowmen.  Finally, being F2/D3 isn't as good as being F3/D4 in some situations (well, many situations), so at least one of the bonuses you're getting from a Blackroot Vale Archer is free . . . but you're also more expensive and still pretty easy to kill. This gives us a trade space, but hasn't nullified the existing profile (I feel).

For both the Herdsmen and Hunter warbands, you can only have 6-12 of each of these guys in your list - and ONLY if you also take Golasgil in your force (and he can only take up to 6 of his House Guards). This places some pretty severe army building limitations (you can't have 70 of these Herdsmen/Hunters running around), but it does mean you can boost your numbers pretty well (31 models for 218 points, anyone?).

Total help provided to Minas Tirith: however many "a long line of men of many sorts" is.

Ethir

This is the sixth group that's mentioned - and to understand where these guys come from, it helps to have read The Fellowship of the Ring. In Fellowship, we're told that the "ethir" is the delta region where the Anduin River empties into the Bay of Belfalas - so it's between Lebennin and Dol Amroth. 

The aid that comes from here are "fisher-folk," which means we can have another unarmored contingent, but unlike the cheap melee and bow-armed models that we got from the Anfalas, we can instead get some unarmored skirmish units in the form of spear-cast fishing models for this group. Their profile is basically a reprint of the Anfalas herdsmen, but they cost 1pt more per model and trade out the pitchfork for a throwing spear (and since no leader is mentioned, they just have a warrior profile):

Ethir Fisher-Folk [Man, Gondor, Infantry, Warrior] (6 points)

Profile:               F2/5+   S3   D3   A1   W1   C2

War Gear:         Dagger, throwing spears

Special Rules:   None

Are these guys worth taking over the Anfalas bowmen? That probably depends on your view of throwing weapons - if you like them, sure. If you don't like them, probably not. Still, having some kind of skirmisher option (even if they can be hard to keep alive) is solid - and like a Corsair list, you could rely on just having a TON of these guys in your ranks (and thanks to be F2, they're cheaper than Corsairs - and have 2" of extra range). The 5+ shoot value isn't great, but these guys are also the cheapest throwing weapon unit in the game, so . . .

Total help provided to Minas Tirith: "some hundreds or more".

Pinnath Gelin

Our final Fiefdom (which was mentioned seventh) is led by "Hirluin the Fair of the Green Hills," which was a region that lay above the Anfalas and to the West of the Blackroot Vale, the Ringlo Vale, and Dol Amroth. Pinnath Gelin just means "Green Hills", which explains Hirluin's epithet. We are told that he leads "three hundreds of gallant green-clad men" so obviously, we're looking for some Merry Men and their faithful leader . . . clearly . . .

Hurluin the Fair - HERO OF FORTITUDE [Man, Gondor, Infantry, Hero] (60 points)

Profile:                 F5/4+   S4   D5   A2   W2   C4   2M/1W/1F

War Gear:           Sword, longbow, and armor

Heroic Actions:   Accuracy

Special Rules:     Stalk Unseen, Gallant Green-Clad Warriors (PASSIVE) - Pinnath Gelin Hillmen within 6" of Hurluin the Fair gain the Stalk Unseen special rule.

I very intentionally didn't give an asterisk to the Gallant Green-Clad Warriors special rule, or else you'd be able to get Stalk Unseen on anyone near Hurluin. If the radius was shrunk to 3" instead of 6", I'd consider putting the asterisk there, but as it stands, I feel like giving an army-wide Stalk Unseen bonus would be a bit much. Hurluin's point of comparison, naturally, is Duinhir - and while Duinhir has a bow instead of a longbow, has C3 instead of C4, and is F4 instead of F5, Hurluin lacks the 3+ Shoot of Duinhir, the offensive rules of Go for the Eyes and Lord of the Blackroot Vale, the option to spear-support instead of being in the front rank, and Heroic Defense. Instead, he picks up Stalk Unseen and a different auric buff that's more defensive in nature - oh, and he's a Hero of Fortitude instead of a Hero of Valour (so allying him in with a Convenient alliance would require another hero to be present).

The question about which of these heroes is better is probably the same question you'd want to ask if you were running a Minas Tirith list and were considering getting Beregond or one of the Minor Ranger heroes (soon to be just Damrod, it would seem, if you don't use the Legacy profiles) - there's a better bow on one guy and a better Shoot value on the others.

Pinnath Gelin Hillmen [Man, Gondor, Infantry, Warrior] (9 points)

Profile:              F4/4+   S3   D4   A1   W1   C3

War Gear:        Sword, longbow, and armor

Special Rules:   Dead-eye Shot (see The Armies of the Lord of the Rings, p. 51)

Pinnath Gelin Hillmen are basically cheaper Citadel Guard with -1 Defense, they have the Blackroot Vale Archer rerolls To Wound when benefitting from a Heroic Shoot, and no Bodyguard rule. When compared to Blackroot Vale Archers (their natural competition in the Fiefdoms), they boast a stronger bow with a worse Shoot value, better Courage, and no Mountain Dweller. 

Your decision about which of these models is better will probably be the same as Minas Tirith players have between Citadel Guard and Rangers of Gondor - or Dwarf players have between Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows and Dwarf Rangers with standard bows. All told, the lack of spears and banners as options means that these guys don't invalidate Blackroot Vale Archers - and can even serve as a good front-line for them if you want all your bows together to benefit from a Heroic Shoot. When compared to the Anfalas Hunters, you still have a better Shoot value, but you're paying 4pts more per model for improvements in basically every other stat (and a reroll To Wound when a Heroic Shoot is active).

Total help provided to Minas Tirith: about 300 men.

What We Didn't Add . . .

I feel like it's important to cover what the Fiefdoms didn't get in this revamp - some of which is quite significant (and is heavily driven by their alliance matrix . . . and, you know, game balance). First, they didn't get any additional cavalry models (not even heroes). There are basically three kinds of cavalry that you can get in MESBG: guys with lances, guys with bows, and guys with neither (these categories aren't distinct, but if one must generalize, I feel like this covers the topic well - a more nuanced taxonomy can be found here). 

The Fiefdoms not only have access to guys with lances already (20pt Knights of Dol Amroth), but they also can historically ally with Minas Tirith, which gives them access to Knights of Minas Tirith at 14pts each, who lose 1 FV (possibly two), have D4 mounts instead of D5 mounts, and won't benefit from Imrahil's banner when compared to Knights of Dol Amroth. The fact that they exist, however, makes it so that a new lancer profile would either a) compete too strongly with Knights of Minas Tirith (either being much better or far worse), or b) would compete too strongly with Knights of Dol Amroth (who are already viewed as being a shade too expensive for what they're bringing to the table).

The Fiefdoms don't have cavalry archers or non-lancer melee cavalry, but if they ally with Minas Tirith or Rohan, they get access to Citadel Guards on horses (cavalry archers if they take longbows, non-lancers if they don't - and are probably losing their mount option in the new edition), Riders of Rohan (cavalry archers who might also have throwing spears), Rohan Royal Guards (non-lancers who might have throwing spears), Rohan Outriders (cavalry archers - and are being moved to the Legacies document), and at least on paper, Sons of Eorl (who, if fielded without Eorl, are not exactly garbage when compared to what you're getting from Knights of Dol Amroth - and are also moving to Legacies). This is an already very competitive field and once again, I didn't think I could make a profile that didn't invalidate one of the existing alliance options.

Second, there are no new D6 infantry models. The only D6 infantry option available to the Fiefdoms prior to the revamp is the Knight of Dol Amroth - and besides being D6, they don't really hold a candle to the existing Fiefdoms frontline infantry (Axemen of Lossarnach and Clansmen of Lamedon are both excellent choices). To provide another D6 option (which I considered with the Anfalas House Guards) would be to basically banish Foot Knights of Dol Amroth to the Men of the West . . . or put another way, into permanent retirement. I didn't want to do that. If you want infantry who are D6, pay the premium for Knights of Dol Amroth . . . or ally in Warriors of Minas Tirith, Guards of the Fountain Court, or Rohan Royal Guards. Simple.

Finally, there are no new Heroic Strike heroes. This was done for a bunch of reasons, not least of which is that the Fiefdoms - Minas Tirith - Rohan alliance isn't lacking for Strike options. The Fiefdoms have Imrahil (who basically everyone wants to take if they can fit him in) and Angbor (who is already in a precarious inclusion slot), while Rohan has 5 Strike profiles (if you count Dernhelm as one profile instead of Eowyn and Merry as separate profiles - and excluding both Helm Hammerhand and Eorl the Young who mess with your army bonus) and Minas Tirith has 7 Strike profiles (if you count either Elessar or mega-Boromir, since there was an errata that you can't have them together), one of which is generic (Knights of the White Tower - also destined for Legacies). Trying to make a profile that didn't invalidate someone was going to be too hard (especially if it invalidated Angbor), so I didn't even try. I put it to anyone that the Fiefdoms list/alliance matrix isn't lacking in Strike options, despite only having two profiles with Strike in their list.

Okay, let's close this out by looking at some sample lists!

Sample Army Lists

Our first stop is to build a benchmark using the traditional Fiefdoms list. In the official Fiefdoms list, you probably want 1/3 of your army to be Blackroot Vale Archers in a pure list, supported by a melee contingent of Men-at-arms backing up either Axemen of Lossarnach or Clansmen of Lamedon (depending on whether you think D4 or D5 is better). A sprinkling of Knights of Dol Amroth would be helpful too for objective play (read, two of them - one to ride on either side of Imrahil). At 700pts, you could run an open phalanx battleline with 14 Blackroot Vale Archers and Duinhir like this:

• Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth on armored horse with lance [ARMY LEADER]
• 2 Knights of Dol Amroth on armored horses with lances
• 8 Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth
• 6 Clansmen of Lamedon
• 2 Axemen of Lossarnach
  
• Forlong the Fat on horse (could be swapped out for a Captain of Dol Amroth if you wanted to get March and pick up some more spears or upgrade some Clansmen to Axemen of Lossarnach)
• 4 Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth
• 4 Axemen of Lossarnach
• 3 Blackroot Vale Archers
• 2 Blackroot Vale Archers with spears
• 1 Blackroot Vale Archer with spear and banner
  
• Duinhir
• 8 Blackroot Vale Archers

700pts, 43 models, 15 bows hitting on a 3+, 4 D6+ models, 4 cavalry, 8 Might

43 models is already a pretty good, but with the addition of the four new fiefdoms, we have a lot more options. Personally, I'd probably go for slightly fewer guys and swap Duinhir for a Captain of Dol Amroth on horse with lance (so I have the option to March - and because I think Duinhir is providing less overall value than a mounted F5-6 Captain does), but this seems like a good "benchmark" list. Our first stop is to not rely on an open phalanx and instead run a traditional shieldwall, running Axemen of Lossarnach in front of Ringlo Vale Militia (and getting an even mix of Pinnath Gelin Hillmen and Blackroot Vale Archers with spears):

• Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth on armored horse with lance [ARMY LEADER]
• 2 Knights of Dol Amroth on armored horses with lances
• 8 Axemen of Lossarnach
• 8 Ringlo Vale Militia with shields and spears
  
• Dervorin with shield
• 4 Axemen of Lossarnach
• 4 Ringlo Vale Militia with shields and spears
  
• Forlong the Fat on horse
• 7 Pinnath Gelin Hillmen
• 6 Blackroot Vale Archers with spears
• 1 Blackroot Vale Archer with spear and banner
  

700pts, 43 models, 7 bows hitting on a 3+ AND 7 longbows hitting on a 4+, 4 D6+ models, 4 cavalry, 8 Might

By the summary stats alone, this list is very close to the previous list - but its play style is very different. In the previous formation, the Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth gave us the option to pike-support in an open phalanx or to single-support each front model, but to have F5 in our battle line, we need Imrahil to be within 3" of our pikemen . . . which means he's either in the middle of their formation OR he's not fighting. In this one, we've leaned away from the F5 to have Imrahil just focused on staying near his Knights and relying on the F4 of the Axemen to carry the day. 

The cheap spears behind them allow us to get more spears on our Blackroot Vale Archers (so they have a full battle line) and upgrade those without spears to Pinnath Gelin Hillmen so we have F4 in the front everywhere. Dervorin gives us Heroic March instead of the shooting boost while standing still from Duinhir, but Forlong can still fuel the Heroic Shoots that we need to reroll failed To Wounds with both the Pinnath Gelin Hillmen and the Blackroot Vale Archers. If you wanted to grow your numbers a bit more (we have 5 open warrior slots), you could downgrade all of the Axemen to Clansmen of Lamedon (saves 12pts) and drop the shields on the Ringlo Vale Militia (saves another 12pts) to have a D4 battle line. This would allow you to get ~3 additional models, which I didn't think was worth doing . . . but you certainly could do that.

But there's another archetype of list that's available with this revamp, and that's spamming a veritable HORDE of F2/D3 warriors. The best way to maximize your numbers with this approach is to lean hard into the Ethir Fisher-Folk when you're taking actual warriors in your warbands and then field the Herdsmen and Hunters as leaderless warbands. By taking Golasgil and Imrahil, we can take a few Dol Amroth troops, 6 House Guard, 13 Fisher-Folk, 12 Herdsmen, and 12 Hunters at just over 500pts . . . so that means we can chuck in a Captain of Dol Amroth on armored horse with lance for speed and a full warband to round out the remaining points, and we're off to the races!

• Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth on armored horse with lance [ARMY LEADER]
• 2 Knights of Dol Amroth on armored horses with lances
• 3 Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth
• 13 Ethir Fisher-Folk
• Captain of Dol Amroth on armored horse with lance
• 4 Ethir Fisher-Folk
• 4 Pinnath Gelin Hillman
• 4 Blackroot Vale Archers
• Golasgil
• 6 Anfalas House Guards
• 12 Anfalas Herdsmen
• 12 Anfalas Hunters

700pts, 63 models, 12 bows hitting on a 5+ AND 4 bows hitting on a 3+ AND 4 longbows hitting on a 4+ AND 17 throwing spears hitting on a 5+, 5 D6+ models, 4 cavalry, 7 Might

This list has some GARBAGE units in it, but I gotta say, the volume of shooting here is pretty impressive. With an expected 6-7 S2 hits, 2 S3 hits, and 5-6 S3 hits at 8" away - that's about 14 hits, which should translate into 2-3 wounds against D6 targets without a Heroic Shoot. With 63 starting models, I think this would be a Fiefdoms force that could rival most others. Golasgil is effectively bringing 31 models to the fight for 218 points (though admittedly, he can't be your army leader and you'd need at least 4 additional melee warrior models in order to meet your bow limit requirements) - let us know in the comments if you think this is oppressive . . .

The final archetype that we need to look at today has to do with the sections I provided after each Fiefdom unit with the info about how many men were sent to Minas Tirith. We know from the book that less than 3000 men arrived at Minas Tirith and (if you were following along in the post) we know some of those numbers clearly - but for the other bits, I've had to guess. My operating numbers will be (guesses in red): 700 Men-at-arms, 300 Knights, 200 Axemen, a few Clansmen, 500 Blackroot Vale Archers, 300 Ringlo Vale men, 300 men from Anfalas, 300 men from the Ethir, and about 300 men from Pinnath Gelin. With these ratios, we can actually make a "book-accurate" force that looks like this (its roughly 1.5 models for every 100 men sent to Minas Tirith):

• Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth on armored horse with lance [ARMY LEADER]
• 4 Knights of Dol Amroth on armored horses with lances
• 10 Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth
• 3 Axemen of Lossarnach
• 1 Clansman of Lamedon
  
• Duinhir
• 7 Blackroot Vale Archers
• 4 Pinnath Gelin Hillmen
• Dervorin with shield
• 4 Ringlo Vale Militia with shields
• 5 Ethir Fisher-Folk
• Golasgil
• 5 Anfalas House Guards
  

700pts, 46 models, 8 bows hitting on a 3+ AND 4 longbows hitting on a 4+ AND 5 throwing spears hitting on a 5+, 7 D6+ models, 5 cavalry, 9 Might

Well look at that - we actually got more models (and more Might) than we started with in our baseline list! True, our archery isn't as good as the baseline list (though we do have some skirmish throwing spears to make up for the loss of a few bows) and we don't have Forlong in the list (my only real regret - plus no leaderless warbands) - but it's a pretty interesting list (even if there are a few too many Knights of Dol Amroth and too few Axemen of Lossarnach for my taste). Still, this is a themed list - and I think it could do pretty well considering that. We don't have any Anfalas herdsmen and hunters in the list, but other than that, we got everyone in there!

Conclusion

Now I will admit that this revamped army list might be a bit broken - and if you want to play-test the models with a friend, let us know how it goes and tell us if anything is really messed up. If you enjoy these, leave a note in the comments about other factions you'd like revamped and if inspiration strikes, we'll take a fair swing at it. Until next time, happy hobbying!