First Impressions: The Free Peoples, Part II

Hey Reader!

Tiberius kicked us off at the end of the year with a great start to our review of the members of the Fellowship in the new edition, so today I'm picking up the baton and looking at the next group of Free Peoples profiles: the 5 hobbit profiles tied to The Shire, and the 4 Ent profiles. Longtime viewers will not be surprised about this, as I've been our longstanding Shire player and recently ran a list at a tournament that was centered around throwing stones, so it combined hobbits with ents for great shenanigans (not necessarily a lot of wins, but it was fun). 

So let's take a look at what changes we have to the profiles that are present in the main Armies of the Lord of the Rings book (with the knowledge that there are likely to be more profiles coming in the Armies of Middle-Earth book).

The Hobbits: How Have They Changed?

Tiberius talked in the previous post about how the Four Hobbits have changed as members of the Fellowship; all you need to know about their use outside of that list for Shire purposes is that 1) Frodo can't take the Ring or any of the cool toys, as Bilbo has them at this point in the story, 2) Sam has access to Rosie Cotton, which is incredible, and 3) all of the members of a Shire list pass Fate rolls on a 3+ and can reroll Failed Fate rolls, so they are far more durable (as are the other profiles we're going to look at), even if a lot of the hobbits are D3. So let's look at the other 5 hobbit profiles in the book.

Bilbo is mostly as he was in the previous edition (cheap Ringbearer with F3 and 1 Attack), but he also picked up a special rule (Slip Away): he still halves people's Fight Values even if there's a friendly model in the fight, which is useful (though how many 2:1 or better fights you'll have with a list like The Shire list in the book, unless we get some warrior profiles in the Armies of Middle-Earth book, is a legitimate question). Having access to a Ringbearer is very useful, and when you start at Fight 3 with an elven-made weapon (despite being an "Ageing Hobbit") that's nothing to sniff at. 

Next we have Farmer Maggot, the Giga-Chad that has been present since long before the previous edition, and a personal favorite of mine for many reasons. He is now 50pts (so +5pts, which seems low considering the changes here), his stats are unchanged (and with an Intelligence 5+ he's solid all-around as regards the 2-die rolls), he still has Grip, Fang, and Wolf (more on them next) but gained a useful special rule (Get Out of My Fields): when he is in range of an Objective Marker, he does not suffer the -1 to dueling rolls for using a two-handed weapon. Which is incredible - super useful, easy to remember, and touches on a difficulty he had before. So A+ game design going on here: seamless fix orchestrated perfectly.

And if this wasn't enough, the rules team clearly believe that Grip, Fang, and Wolf are REALLY GOOD BOYS (which they are - the best of boys in my humble and very biased opinion) because they got a special rule bump as well: not only did they gain Woodland Creature (which is already super useful), but when they are within 6" of Maggot they treat him as a banner and can reroll failed wounding rolls. So your S3 fast attack boys are now far more reliable at actually winning fights and dealing wounds, especially since traditionally they have not benefitted from the Shire banner rules in the past for Will Whitfoot or Frodo of the Nine Fingers. So good boys - good boys!

Hamfast "Gaffer" Gamgee is basically as he was in the old edition: up to 35pts (+5pts, which seems generous considering the changes), his stats stayed the same (Intelligence 7+ is not great, but it's fine), but the big change is his special rule (Leave My Flowers Alone): this has gone from a reroll failed to-wound rolls for hobbit militia + himself within 3" of a flower marker (and the ability of flower markers to be removed) to being a reroll of all failed to-wound rolls for both melee and shooting attacks for any hobbit model (so not Gandalf and not the dogs, but everyone else) within 3" of a flower marker. Oh, and the commentary on how you remove a flower marker is gone, so these are now INDESTRUCTIBLE FLOWERS!!! Boom!

But that's not all: Rosie Cotton got...basically a full revamp to her profile, even if it doesn't look like it on the surface. Her stats remained basically the same, though her cost went up by 5pts...which seems ridiculously low (but for good reason which we'll discuss in the conclusion below) considering the changes. Unlike in the previous edition, Sam doesn't get +1 Attack when near her (as he's already up to 2 Attack base): instead he gets to reroll all failed to-wound rolls when within 3" of her. 

This is great: it means you can send them off to places that are not near the flower markers (as those rerolls don't stack, as far as I know), but more importantly, Rosie also added a new special rule (Sweet Maiden of the Golden Ale): all hobbits treat her as a 6" banner (so again, not Gandalf and not the dogs), and what is more, she counts as a banner for the purposes of VPs in scenarios that score banners surviving to the end so long as she survives. Which is incredible, as Shire has never had innate access to a real banner, and this allows them to stay (ish) competitive on VPs with this rule.

And then we come to Lobelia Sackville-Baggins: one of the first sculpts we ever got for Shire, and one that has undergone to date probably the most changes: she's been updated in basically every edition, and each time it gets better and better, easing her into the niche of fearless-throw-away-attacker (which is very useful and very funny at the table). Her cost went up to 20pts (so +5 over last edition), which is fair considering that she does basically everything she did before but better. She's still a reliable choice for charging Terror models, her umbrella still doesn't do damage to people, and enemies still can't benefit from Stand Fasts within 6" of her, but in addition she can spend a Will Point once per turn during her activation to choose a model within 6" of her that she can see: she rolls a D6 and on a 2+ the model doesn't get to Activate this turn (monsters, chariots, and war beasts aren't affected by this), and if the model does fight this turn, their Attacks are reduced to 1. Which is incredible for two reasons: this is a great way to shut down a Boromir- or Azog-style hero, but also because you have Gandalf in the list, so you can replenish Will Points on her throughout the game. So if this is the most important thing for Gandalf to maintain, you could potentially keep Lobelia going all game long if you roll well enough for Gandalf. It's also a shame you can't ally Bombur into this list - I could have seen Bombur and Lobelia having some chemistry, but alas, here we are.

So if I was running Shire, this would be my ranking for how I'd take them from most useful to least useful:

• Gandalf the Grey (because speed, Fight Value, Attacks, special rules, supporting magic - literally every reason)
• Rosie Cotton (because banners - I love banners, and hobbits do too)
• Farmer Maggot (because fast attack slayers accompanying the Giga-Chad is too good to pass up)
• Bilbo (because Ring shenanigans)
• Sam (because 2 Attacks is rare)
• Frodo (because free Heroic for Sam)
• Lobelia Sackville-Baggins (because tying down enemies saves lives)
• Hamfast "Gaffer" Gamgee (because flowers help S2 dudes/dudettes do a better job, but headhunting 6s to wound or worse on a reroll isn't that great)
• Merry*
• Pippin*

Now I've asterisked Merry and Pippin because, since they only cost 10pts (and the next cheapest people are Lobelia and Rosie at 20pts), there's a good chance you'd take them to fill in missing points to reach a point limit, and/or you might consider taking them to pad your numbers of total bodies, but considering that the entire list, cart for Gandalf and specialty items for Bilbo included, comes out to 500pts, I don't foresee you'll be at too many events where you won't have everyone. So the ranking is helpful for figuring out importance, but probably not that important for actual choices on who to field unless you're going to a very small event (in which case you'd probably see Bilbo fall far down the list, and you'll see the cheaper hobbits rise).

The Ents: How Have They Changed?

Switching gears entirely, we have 4 profiles for Fangorn: Treebeard, Beechbone, Birchseed, and the standard Ent (which is not so standard anymore!). We'll walk through each in turn, but it's worth noting that our man Quickbeam (who hangs out with Merry and Pippin during the entmoot in the books) isn't present yet, so we anticipate seeing him (and maybe more) in the upcoming Armies of Middle-Earth book.

EDITED: Treebeard is basically what we saw in the previous edition: 200pts if you include Merry and Pippin (probably a good idea, if for no other reason than to boost your numbers), he's now better on offense (4 Attacks base! So while you don't get things like Monstrous Charge, you get 4 Attacks all the time, which is arguably better) and defense (4 Wounds instead of 3, so even harder to remove!), with his one flaw being that 6" move. He did drop from 6 Will to 4, so he does have less magic resistance technically speaking, but in all other respects this is basically the Treebeard that we have known and loved for years (and they still get the immunities against specific kinds of spells, which are frankly the kinds of spells that he needs protection from anyway.

Next, Beechbone is similar to what we saw in the previous edition, except that he can't call Heroic Strike (he is F8, though, and it means more in this edition thanks to Strike now being a D3 instead of a D6 roll), but he's still got his ability to reroll failed wounds against orcs, goblins, and uruk-hai (while now also adding all Isengard models, so the boy can crush Saruman more effectively! And destroy siege equipment!). So he's very much a bruiser that you want to throw against lesser monsters and warriors, but probably not power heroes.

Birchseed is new, and he offers a weaker attacker in exchange for added support (much like Quickbeam in the last edition). Unlike how Quickbeam came with Heroic March (which currently only Treebeard has), Birchseed can call Heroic Moves for free on turns where your opponent chose to have priority. Now important note: the wording of his special rule specifies that your opponent has to win the Priority Roll and choose to have it: so if you win the Priority Roll and choose to pass priority to your opponent you're out of luck: the Naturally Unhasty special rule will not kick in. So be aware!

And finally the ent warrior is a fantastic adjustment from the previous edition. I'll take a moment to take a bow on behalf of our team, if that's not too forward, because several years ago we made a recommended change to ents, allowing you to customize the tree that they were like, and by that choice you gained benefits. And would you believe it SOME OF THOSE MADE IT IN!!! Some of our ideas were deemed cool enough to make CANON! So if Jay, Rob, or any of the other members of the team are reading this, I just want to say thank you - we saw it, we noticed it, and we are very grateful, :)

Basically how this works is that when you take an ent, you choose a type of tree (and can't choose that version again until you take the others), and each type gives you a different bonus. Ash ents have a Shoot Value of 3+ (instead of 4+) and can throw stones after having moved 3" or less (though they suffer the -1 to hit, so back to a 4+ if you move and shoot), so they are better at throwing stones, which is quite nice. Oak ents have 4 Wounds instead of 3 (probably my go-to option for my first ent). Chestnut ents gain Mighty Blow (so they deal 2 wounds instead of 1 when they wound - great for taking out high-Wound heroes and monsters, especially if they're D8 or lower as you're pretty likely to deal 1-2 wounds on the dice, which means it could be 2-4 wounds to the target assuming no Fate saves). And Beech ents get reroll 1s to wound, which is not horrible as you're S8 (so D6 or lower is wound on 3s, reroll 1s), and makes you a pretty reliable dealer of at least 1 wound to anything that is D8 or lower (which is most things).

Conclusion

Now in before someone says, "Ugh, the GW team really made mistakes by giving out huge bonuses for like +5pt cost increases to hobbits," keep in mind that almost the entire Shire list is D3. So yes: Rosie is probably the most points efficient 6" banner in the game, but she's also D3 with 1 Wound and 2 Fate, which, by Law of Averages (when working with rerollable 3+ Fate Saves in The Shire list), is basically a 3ish-wound hero that is wounded by everyone in the game on 4s or better. And she's not (as of yet) in an army that can protect her with sheer numbers of bodies around her to keep her safe. So on the whole I really like this: the army has a lot of cool tricks, feels very thematic, and it's the combination of these tools that will bring you to victory. I'm looking forward to trying them out!

Similarly, I love how they made the ents a bit more interesting than they were before, and give us a LOT more room for kitbashing/customization to display the different kinds of trees. I personally wish they included yew trees (as they are prominent in British mythology, and Tolkien makes a point to mention yew trees for that very reason both in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit), but hey: we got customized ents! So I'm not going to complain. Looking forward to trying these guys out as well.

Let us know what you think! We're wrapping up the Free Peoples soon, and then it will be on the next batch of profiles. Until then, you know where to find me,

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Bane - yes, with humans alongside me if I must." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone