We're back, looking at more legendary legions, and today we're starting our deep dive into the Army of Arnor from the Rise of Angmar supplement. This legion is similar to some of the other legendary legions that have come out where they are "the legendary legion for that small minor army, so that all of them get at least one," and yet it's not for reasons that we'll discuss below. But if you are getting Army of Dale / Chief's Ruffians / Army of Dunland vibes from this legendary legion, I don't blame you!
Part 1: What Do You Need?
Of course, in reality, you need more than that: two of your three legion bonuses are tied to Malbeth the Seer, so effectively you need to take another 70pts to actually use all of your legion bonuses. That being said, a 150pt "True Tax" is not bad at all for a legendary legion.
Beyond this, you need "Arnor" models: Warriors of Arnor, Rangers of Arnor, the new Knights of Arnor (I recommend taking a mix of all three of these), and you can even throw in Dunedain and Rangers of the North if you like.
You can also include Aranarth (the son of Arvedui) and Argadir (the right-hand man of Arvedui, and an auto-include in my book), and Captains of Arnor (which I'd take at least one of these guys if you can) to round out your hero choices.
So unlike in Vanilla Arnor pre-Rise of Angmar, your 3 choices of heroes is 7 choices here, with 4 of them being excellent choices (Arvedui, Malbeth, Argadir, and the lowly captains) and 3 of them being good choices (but playstyle dependent: Aranarth, Rangers of the North, and Dunedain - the fact that these are all similar models should portend potential changes I'd recommend for the legion below).
Part 2: What Do You Get?
Legion Bonuses
The Army of Arnor officially has three special rules, but there's a hidden fourth special rule if you look closely, and this is part of the playstyle dependent note I made above. First, you get the standard Arnor army bonus: when an Arnor model (hero or warrior) within 6" of Arvedui has to perform a Courage test (testing to charge Terror models, trying to pass the Dead Marsh Spectre's Fell Light special rule, working around the Golden King of Abrakhan's bribery, staying on the board following your army breaking, etc.), they automatically pass. This is fantastic, as Courage is an issue for Arnor. While most of the Forces of Good have average or above-average Courage, Arnor sits solidly in the C2-3 camp for most of their models, so you're looking at orc and goblin levels of Courage, in an army with no access to Fury. So having this bonus - admittedly only as long as Arvedui is alive, so more on that later - is very useful in filling a gap in Arnor's inventory.
The next two special rules double down on things that Arnor already has, and they both center around Malbeth the Seer. The first is Power of the Seer, which grants Arnor Hero models a +1 to their Foresight rolls from Malbeth. This is excellent, as it turns a 5+ Foresight Save into a 4+ Foresight Save - effectively a free Fate Point. And in an army list that is woefully short on Fate Points (Aranarth has 2, and everyone else has 1), this is really, really useful. And considering that Arvedui is the only hero with 3 Wounds, and everyone else has 1-2, there's not a lot of grace for wounds sliding past Fate Points, so all the better that those Foresight Saves work for you. It does mean you need to keep those heroes near Malbeth, but to protect the sage of the northern kingdom, perhaps that's worthwhile.
The next special rule is Foresight of the Eldar, and this is similar to Elrond's Foresight special rule: you get to roll a D6 before the game begins, and you get that many Foresight Points for the game. You can spend them to alter your Priority roll so long as Malbeth is alive and on the battlefield (aka, has not been slain or run away due to failing a Courage test after break), but you cannot take your Priority Roll above 6. As an army that has a lot of Might Points thanks to cheap infantry and cheap heroes, this just doubles down on your battlefield initiative: you can save yourself a lot of Might by not needing to call a Heroic Move, thanks to just going first.
Now in reality it's not so simple: if you had priority on the prior turn and your opponent rolls a 6, there's no way to gain priority. In addition, my experience with Elrond is that this D6 Foresight roll is very, very fickle, and in a lot of circumstances the critical turn where you needed to get priority could be 1-2 Foresight Points beyond your grasp. So it is a useful ability, and it could singlehandedly give you the game on missions where you need to, say, run away with an objective, but it can swing and miss. So just be aware of that, as a lot of commentators don't talk about the fickleness of this roll. If it was a D3+3 roll it would be incredibly good, and possibly just straight bonkers. But since it's a D6 roll, sometimes you have 5 to use, and sometimes you have 1.
It's also worth noting that, come the new edition, should this Foresight bonus still be in the game (which, per the spoiled Elrond profile, it looks like it will be), having the higher Priority Roll just became even more important, as you get to choose whether you go first or second, so if Malbeth still gets this special rule, his stock just went up even more.
Hidden Legion Bonuses
And finally there's another special rule, which you already have if you take Aranarth, but this legion allows you to get without having to take Aranarth, and that is that Rangers of the North and Dunedain gain the Arnor keyword. This means that the auto-passing Courage near Arvedui and the +1 to their Foresight Save within 6" of Malbeth both apply to them. Normally you'd need to have an extra 80pt "Hidden Tax" to give them that special rule (and would effectively mean not taking them, probably), but now you don't have to! This is a hidden rule, but a very useful one, to make it so that we actually have the specified options in our list while looking at a competitive build.
Part 3: Why Take This Legion Over "Normal" Allied Forces?
To our newer viewers on the channel, this is where we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the legion against "Vanilla Arnor," noting what you gain and lose by taking the legion. This one is going to be a bit interesting, though, because of the restrictive alliance matrix that Vanilla Arnor has: it simultaneously loses critical abilities when you ally with another army (as they have no historical allies), but also gains access to useful units to round out other issues in the list. But all you need to know right now is that the Arnor special rule is both a blessing and a curse, and from the curse comes opportunities for weaknesses in the legion, thanks to what those few convenient alliances offer.
Weakness #1: No Hobbits!
The loss of hobbit archers stings for several reasons. First, hobbit archers are 5pt shortbow archers with a 3+ Shoot Value: that's the same hit chance and weapon damage as their 8-9pt Ranger of Arnor counterparts, and all you're losing is -2 Fight Value, -1 Defense, access to spears, 2" of movement, and an extra 6" of range for the bow. So reasonable that Rangers of Arnor would cost more, but if a hobbit archer is shielded from attacks, they are functionally the same as Rangers of Arnor, but cheaper (almost half the cost).
But hobbits perform a secondary role that is highly useful to an Arnor army: they have the Resistant to Magic special rule, which you can easily scatter amongst your force. If you place a hobbit archer every 5-6" of your battle line, an enemy's Nature's Wrath or Wrath of Bruinen can be resisted without spending a finite resource. Furthermore, they add some useful Courage 3 to your army, making them better than your average Warrior of Arnor at holding their ground, charging Terror models, not running away in terror from Instill Fear, and can't be as easily moved by Dead Marsh Spectres.
So while the loss of one profile seems small, you are losing several useful benefits that hobbits give you, not to mention it's easier to make the point values work at various points levels due to the fact that your base cost to add another model to the army is 5pts instead of 8pts.
Strength #1: Doubling Down on Mitigation Utility
On its own, Arnor has issues with utility: sure, they have one of the best support characters in the game in Malbeth the Seer, but if you fight armies that have heavy magic, for example, Arnor is woefully short on options (a one-turn Heroic Resolve is not my idea of a good answer to magic, even with hobbit archers).
And while their magic defense goes down in the legion (as we saw above), they gain a number of useful support abilities in exchange. You retain your auto-passing Courage tests near Arvedui, but you also gain more effective Foresight saves for your heroes (who are doing a lot of the legwork of whittling down the enemy), and you gain the Foresight Points to help you gain priority (or lose it, as the case may be), which helps you conserve your much-needed Might Points.
And with access to Aranarth as a 6" Banner for ranger heroes, if you find the space for Aranarth in your army, you're cooking with grease with a potential second banner that is hard baked into his cost. So as a whole package, you're in great shape from a support perspective: Might conservation, priority management, Wound conservation, and an answer to Courage issues.
Weakness #2: Dramatically Less Versatile Utility
The alliance matrix gives Arnor access to far better damage, resilience, and support capabilities. We'll talk about the damage and resilience aspects in future points, but for now let's take a closer look at what support abilities you're leaving on the table by taking the legion.
The fact that you can't ally with Tom Bombadil as a convenient ally aside for a moment (as that can fix some of your Courage issues, can Banish spirit models which is a lot of the ways to add Terror to an army, and can regrow heroic stats and wounds on your characters which is CRAZY good for Arnor when you're relying on a lot of Might and mitigating wounds), from a support perspective a lot of your convenient allies offer very useful benefits for your force. Yes, you'll lose auto-passing Courage tests near Arvedui, but you can get effectively the same thing but tied to a more easily defended hero with Cirdan in the Rivendell list, and by adding, say, Elrond and Cirdan along with a durable frontline of elves, you can get not only the benefits of Aura of Command, but also Terror on your front line, access to Blinding Light, Enchanted Blades on Argadir, the same Foresight Points you'd get from the legion, a far more resilient army leader than Arvedui (thanks Elrond!), and the ability to restore wounds on your heroes (not to mention knock down enemies to keep your front line in the fight longer).
And that's not the end of it: with access to Galadriel (and her mirror) and Celeborn from Lothlorien (another convenient alliance), you have other solid support caster options from there as well (more on them later). So from a utility standpoint, sure: a 4+ Save for heroes near Malbeth is nice, Foresight Points are nice, and retaining the army special rule is nice, but being honest, it comes with a huge tradeoff, and that tradeoff is allies and the unique abilities those bring.
And as mentioned above, you lose some magic resistance in the legion due to the loss of hobbit archers, so even without allying in another army you're already losing some utility in exchange for those added buffs.
Strength #2: Increased Might...ish
In Vanilla Arnor, you're only allowed to take Dunedain and Rangers of the North if you take Aranarth. But in the legion, you can take them normally, and they always gain the Arnor keyword (which is important for both Arvedui's auto-pass Courage test rule and Malbeth's Foresight Save).
Being able to take a 25pt independent hero with 1 Might is excellent. It would be more excellent if the Dunedain and Rangers of the North came with 2 Attacks on foot instead of 1 (more on that in a bit), but if you want to stack the deck with Might, you can do it for relatively cheap.
Of course, Vanilla Arnor can just take 55pt Captains of Arnor to keep pace with that Might Pool, but 1) that means their numbers are smaller, and 2) they're paying 5pts more than two Dunedain, so it's not that much of a savings. But technically: a savings! And boosting the numbers while you're at it.
Weakness #3: Reduced Damage and Resilience
It's weird saying that a F4 D6 legendary legion is actually less survivable than their Vanilla version, and also weird saying that the damage output of a F4 S3 mounted knight with a lance is lower than the Vanilla version, but once again, the alliance matrix has you covered. Just looking at convenient allies (forget about impossible alliance shenanigans for a moment), access to ents, elven cavalry, and S3 archery from a wide range of convenient allies is a great addition to Arnor, meeting needs and fixing issues all over the place.
Earlier we talked about Lothlorien, which is great at fixing many of Arnor's issues: you can get a F5 D6 C5 front line (with elven-made weapons, in case you hit another F5 army) for your Warriors of Arnor to spear support, you get access to F6 warriors, you get access to Blinding Light and the ability to regrow your Fate Points from Galadriel (making you really effective against archery, as you're reducing the chance to hit and then reducing the impact to heroes you might have thanks to regrowing Fate and possibly preventing wounds with a Malbeth Foresight Save), and if all of that is not attractive enough, you can take a Hero of Legend, which means Arvedui isn't your army leader anymore and your resilience for your army leader can go up SUBSTANTIALLY, denying your opponent Victory Points. And if you know that Lords of Battle is going to be a scenario, you can pass on Galadriel and take Celeborn instead, making him your army leader (which is still more resilient and more powerful than Arvedui, all while retaining a small cadre of useful spells).
Personally I'm a big fan of allying with Khazad-Dum, though: you get access to F4 D7 dwarves with axes as your front line for your spears to back up, easy access to Shieldbearers for rerollable Courage 4, and yet more cheap heroes, only these are F5-6 instead of F3-5. And while Malbeth can't save wounds against them, at D7 they aren't nearly as likely to suffer wounds as a D4-6 model. And with Dwarf Kings and Dwarf Shieldbearers being on-par for cost with your Arnor forces, and dwarves costing around the same range as a Warrior of Arnor, you're actually not hurting much for numbers with this alliance. Sure, you might need to drop a few bodies to take a King's Champion to accompany your Dwarf King, but honestly the banners alone are probably worth the trade: getting 2 banners into your force alongside a F6 hero with 2-Might-and-Strike and a base of 3 Attacks is not bad at all.
And this is to say nothing about "Ents with Numbers," "Eagles with Numbers," "Durable Shire" (with hobbit archers in both contingents), or any number of other convenient ally shenanigans you can do with Vanilla Arnor so that you're not worried about breaking separately. The legion gets none of this.
Part 4: Legendary Legion Improvements
Is this legion bad? No: I think it's strong on numbers for its Fight Value range, and the heroes are trimmed down to do one thing: crush through enemy lines while keeping enemies from crushing through yours (when your average opponent needs a 6 to wound you, and you can prevent that on a 4-5, that's crazy good). But I do think there are some issues with the legion as presented, which you can probably see through the lines in our analysis so far.
The reason why is because for 80pts you don't get a lot of value. Sure, he's another hero with 3 Might, and that's very good, but his 6" banner effect only applies to Dunedain and Rangers of the North (so your Rangers of Arnor don't benefit from this, locking you into spending 25-41pts to take a model that can benefit from the banner effect).
Furthermore, while Expert Shot (shooting 2 arrows each turn instead of 1) is great, on a S2 bow you're still hunting a 6 most of the time (even in thematic fights against Angmar, which is not known for its high Defense stats). And that's not very good, :P Add onto this his suboptimal resilience, and he can't bring ranged damage for you, deal much damage in close combat, "bunker" against enemy power heroes, or provide useful supporting abilities for you.
So I'd make a small change to make him more worthwhile, by adding a fourth army special rule to the force:
Coordinated Barrage: Aranarth and all Dunedain, Rangers of the North, and Rangers of Arnor within 6" of Aranarth add +1 to hit with ranged attacks.
This is short (as we don't have a lot of space on the page - yes, I'm a layout person, and I understand the need to fit everything on one page), but useful: your archers near him are very good, and/or they can move and still shoot on a 3+, making them good skirmishers. This allows you to more reliably winnow away enemies (as it applies to all of your bows), and on S2 bows it's not vastly overpowered, as the increase of +16% in hits is not likely to translate into more than an extra wound or two each turn.
The second change I'd make is one to the second army requirement: not only do Dunedain and Rangers of the North gain the Arnor keyword, they also add +1 Attack while they have the Infantry keyword. If you're paying triple the cost of a Ranger of Arnor to take a Dunedain, and thus losing two shots to take this guy, you should get more than just 1 Might Point out of the deal. Give them a 2-attack model option that can hold objectives decently, and a reason to take Dunedain and Rangers of the North.
Making these changes would add some strategic depth to an otherwise pretty simple (almost boring) army, and I think that's useful and worthwhile. Plus I want every model in the force to have a role: if it's going to be in a legendary legion, it should have a purpose.
Part 5: Army Strategies and Tactics
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Second, you'll want some archery to deal with tactical threats before they arrive (shooting out banners, putting wounds on Gulhavar, taking out Bat Swarms, removing F4 frontline models to reveal F3 spear models, removing D6 models to reveal D5 supporting models, etc.). I recommend using your archery in large numbers (so don't spread your archery out: with S2 bows you want as many shots going into the same places as possible), and I recommend shooting for about 25-30% of your force having bows. This is due to a few considerations: if there is a lot of terrain on the board, increased archery may not be that effective, as In the Ways will cancel out a lot of your shots. If your opponent is running a D7+ army more shots is not particularly useful for the points you're paying. So do you need exactly 33% with Arnor? I'd say no. Tiberius may disagree (as our resident, "I love shooting, even when it lets me down" player), but I stand by only needing 25-30% of your force armed with bows. You'll still want a few models that can hold objectives, but at the same time you don't need to pay extra points for bows (and less armor) that you won't really use.
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| Courtesy GamesWorkshop |
And finally from a list perspective, retain the hero priority line: Arvedui (required), Malbeth (semi-required: why are you running Arnor if you don't run this guy?), Argadir (we have to remove models each turn), Captain, and then whatever else you want (Aranarth, Dunedain, Rangers of the North, and/or more Captains of Arnor).
Moving on from strategy, from a tactical perspective (so how you maneuver and use the models on the table to accopmlish the scenario objectives), you will want a rank-and-file formation with Warriors of Arnor in the front (unfortunate that the spear isn't optional, so you can't save points on this front rank) backed up by archers (probably Rangers of Arnor with spears, but you could do hobbit archers as well), your banner, and more Warriors of Arnor (nothing wrong with having a few extra D6 guys in the second rank to fill gaps as they come and help stunt potential Heroic Combats).
You can place archers on the flanks to support if you'd like, as this gives you the ability to shoot out things like banners and spear supports, all of which is useful for your main battle line. Just keep in mind that most battles aren't fought on the plains of Gorgoroth, and moving to the flanks could keep you from effectively supporting your main body, and splitting up is not advised. As much as possible, keep your troops where they can support each other.
Use terrain to your advantage, both becasue 1) you should always do this, but also 2) because it can remove potential hits before they get a chance to wound your troops. Breaking with Arnor is bad, and while Malbeth is great, his 6" bubble will not likely cover your whole army, and a 5+ Save on your warriors is not great odds. It's better than a 6+ Fury save, but you roll below a 5 quite often. And even a 4+ Save on heroes, while good, is less useful when you run an army that is mostly 2 Wounds and 1 Fate, as a simple slip up on one turn could cost you a critical piece.
But perhaps most importantly, focus down one part of your enemy's force. Don't split your cavalry: keep them together to crush things, because the rest of your force can be expected to do about 2-3 wounds a turn (which is not much). If you have troops that can wrap around and trap enemies, do it: focus down that part of the enemy's force. Arnor has spears everywhere, which means you can get easy spear support in fights you need by bringing up troops from further down the line, so wrap and trap as often as you can.
Part 6: Army Showcase
As is tradition, we'll give you a sample 500pt list and a sample 700pt list of what you can get wiht this force. Now admittedly, we said above that 500pts is not a great points level for this legion, but here's my best take on it, as I think it has options for almost every scenario (still don't feel good about Lords of Battle or Heirlooms, but it's fine).
Warband 1
Arvedui, Last King of Arnor (Army Leader): 80pts
6 Warriors of Arnor: 48pts
1 Warrior of Arnor with Banner: 33pts
4 Rangers of Arnor with spears: 36pts
Warband 2
Malbeth the Seer: 70pts
6 Warriors of Arnor: 48pts
4 Rangers of Arnor with spears: 36pts
Warband 3
Argadir, Captain of Arnor: 85pts
4 Knights of Arnor: 64pts
TOTAL: 500pts, 28 models, 7 Might
At 700pts, I'd run something closer to this, adding in a Captain of Arnor for extra March, and doubling down on speed and punching power:
Warband 1
Arvedui, Last King of Arnor (Army Leader): 80pts
6 Warriors of Arnor: 48pts
1 Warrior of Arnor with Banner: 33pts
5 Rangers of Arnor with spears: 45pts
Warband 2
Malbeth the Seer: 70pts
6 Warriors of Arnor: 48pts
4 Rangers of Arnor with spears: 36pts
Warband 3
Argadir, Captain of Arnor: 85pts
6 Knights of Arnor: 84pts
4 Warriors of Arnor: 32pts
Warband 4
Captain of Arnor: 55pts
6 Warriors of Arnor: 48pts
4 Rangers of Arnor with spears: 36pts
TOTAL: 700pts, 46 models, 9 Might
The warbands are pretty similar: we just added another one, bulked that one out, and then tacked on some extra knights and a ranger. And the points worked out: good numbers (mid-40s with F4 D6 all over the place is competitive at 700pts), good punch, and 9 Might Points with the Foresight Points to save us some for later. Plus we can use the Captain to call a Heroic March or two to get the team up, instead of having to rely on Argadir to do that (which frees his Might up for Heroic Combats and the off-handed Heroic Defense when the going gets tough).
I'd probably hold off on adding Aranarth until 800pts or higher: his added 3 Might is very useful, and with the extra 100+ points you can add him and a few more bodies, so you'd still only be looking at around 50 models, but you can do that. But I think there's more to gain from taking the other heroes first, so I'd leave him out until you're playing at high points levels.
Now compare this 700pt list to a 700pt Vanilla Arnor list combined with Khazad Dum (since we discussed them earlier) and see how it compares, for good and ill:
Warband 1
Arvedui, Last King of Arnor: 80pts
6 Warriors of Arnor: 48pts
3 Rangers of Arnor: 27pts
Warband 2
Malbeth the Seer: 70pts
6 Warriors of Arnor: 48pts
3 Rangers of Arnor: 27pts
Warband 3
Argadir, Captain of Arnor: 85pts
2 Knights of Arnor: 28pts
Warband 4
Dwarf King (Army Leader): 75pts
4 Dwarf Warriors with Shields: 36pts
Warband 5
The King's Champion: 140pts
4 Dwarf Warriors with Shields: 36pts
TOTAL: 700pts, 35 models, 11 Might
Now it's smaller than the legion (which checks out, as the legion isn't buying 215pts worth of dwarf heroes), and the Arnorians don't get auto-pass Courage tests near Arvedui, but now we have C4 dwarves to charge things instead of C2 Warriors of Arnor. The Warriors of Arnor give Khazad Dum spears (which they otherwise basically don't have, as Vault Warden spearmen aren't likely to leave their shield warriors to support another unit in most cases), and we still have some cavalry alongside Argadir (which is good, as the dwarves aren't bringing anything fast to the table). Sure, the Malbeth Save is only for the Arnor models, but a D7 dwarf is less likely to suffer a wound than a D4-6 Arnor warrior. And since we can throw a D8 Dwarf King against a powerful enemy, the survivability of Arvedui goes up a bit as well. Plus our army leader is F6 D8, instead of being F5 D6.
So I think there are good reasons for both armies: this shows that the legion is worth trying. But I also think (and by the way, this is healthy for any army that has legendary legions) playing Vanilla Arnor is also a very reasonable way to play: you don't have to play the legion to make it competitive (which is not what we've seen from some other legendary legions in the past).
Army Summary
On the whole, I think this is a very forgiving army on the whole: against most armies you'll fight (Isengard, Rohan, Minas Tirith, etc.) you will have a fighting chance with your F4 D6 front line supported by decent archery, your heroes have enough Might and stats between them to keep up with your average enemy hero, and what you lack in power heroes you'll make up with overwhelming numbers. So it gets a green light from me: this legion is worth running.
I've always loved Arnor: it was one of the armies I collected when my income finally increased enough to go beyond the bare minimum of what I had to play, and I've loved doing conversions on models to make more of them over time. If you're on the fence about trying Arnor out (whether with the legion or the standard army), you should give it a try! These guys are tough and durable, and while they have their weaknesses, they've been rounded out a good bit with the new supplement. So give them a try!
Watching the stars,
Centaur
"Remember, Firenze, we are sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets?" ~ Bane, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
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