First Impressions: The Kingdoms of Men, Part II

Good morning gamers,

NOTE: there has been an update based on a comment made below - the change is in red.

I have not yet seen the War of the Rohirrim film, but I plan to get it on Amazon Video and I am excited to watch it (though I am one of those filthy people who was like, "I'm not enough into Anime that I'm going to go to the theatre and see it by myself, so I'll wait for it to come out on video" . . . sorry, film production team). Anyway, we have a bunch of cool new profiles for Rohan from the film and today, we'll be reviewing them, along with the profiles that they "replaced" in the Rohan list (that got legacy'd or just removed from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book).

War of the Rohirrim-Rohan Profiles: How Have They "Changed?"

On October 29th, there was an announcement on Warhammer Community of what was going to move from the Rohan army range into the Legacies document - these profiles included:

• Grimbold and his Helminga command options;
• Eorl the Young
• Erkenbrand
• Rohan Outriders (and their unofficial infantry version, "Rohan Outwalkers")
• Sons of Eorl
• King's Huntsmen

These profiles filled some very niche roles in their lists:

• Grimbold provided a high-Strength, low-wounding-difficulty hero with Mighty Blow who could upgrade your warriors to S4 (something they'll miss in the current edition, I'm sure);
• Eorl the Young gave you a slightly-cheaper, slightly-softer version of Eomer who could skip spending a Might point each turn;
• Erkenbrand had a super war horn built into his profile and could upgrade Riders of Rohan to treat him as a banner;
• Rohan Outriders/Outwalkers were slightly cheaper than Warriors/Riders of Rohan and had a better shoot value with no axe/shield option;
• Sons of Eorl were decent cavalry options that got much better when near Eorl; and
• King's Huntsmen were theoretically snipers who had stronger-than-normal bows and a greater likelihood of hitting their intended target (and a gimmick that allowed them to get all of their previously-spent Might points if they killed a Hero or Monster).

It is into this space that the new Rohan profiles from the War of the Rohirrim emerge - and today, we'll go through each of the new profiles and see what niche roles have been filled and what's left behind by legacy'd profiles (and one updated profile).

Our first stop is the first of two profiles for Helm Hammerhand. Helm Hammerhand, King of Rohan is an updated profile for the Forgeworld sculpt that used to lead the Helm's Guard army list - and he's not that different than how he used to be, but the changes he got were good. Helm got upgraded to F6 in this edition (YES!), got 3 Fate instead of 1 (YES!), his Horn of the Hammerhand is not only still a war horn (which gives him Dominant (2) - an irrelevant bonus, since he'll always be the General in the Army of Edoras army list), but also can be used once per game to give all enemy models a -1 penalty to Courage Tests if they're within 24" of him - that's a CRAZY big range!

He still never counts as being unarmed (though he can't Bash anymore) and once he kills a model, he has to charge if able. He doesn't give +1 Fight Value to the warriors near him anymore, but the army lists that can take Helm give other boosts to warriors, so that's something. All in all, for 10pts more (which is really just the increase in the cost of horses in this new edition), not a bad boost to the big man!

Wraith Helm, on the other hand, is pretty different from the "old Helm" profile (and is fielded in the Defenders of the Hornburg list instead of the Army of Edoras list). For starters, he's more expensive and can't lead troops - which fits his "I'm a human-sized monster-style model." He's F7 instead of F6, has S6 instead of S5 with a Burly/two-handed weapon, has D5 with light armor instead of D7, and has 1 Fate instead of 3 Fate. He picks up Dominant (4) (which isn't that much of an improvement over the Dominant (3) he would have as the army General in the Army of Edoras army list), Fearless (which he probably didn't really need before, but it's always good to be Fearless), Mighty Blow paired with Hatred (Dunland) to make sure he smashes through those Dunlendings that are sure to be popular in this new edition, and loses his free Heroic Combat but gains Terror when he charges (not as good, but also quite useful). He still gets free Heroic Combats (always nice on a F7/S6 model), but only if he gets to Charge (which is not as good as being able to do it all the time, like the other version does).

All in all . . . I'm honestly more impressed with the mounted Helm profile than this one, but this guy is certain to draw aggro away from Hera and the other heroes in the Defenders of the Hornburg list, though he might feel a bit like a small-base Beorn when trying to win control-based missions. All in all, I'll need to get him on the tabletop before I make a final ruling on whether he's "good", but he's clearly got enough stats to make himself dangerous (especially against troops).

Haleth, Prince of Edoras, has a comparison point in this post to the old Grimbold profile. I'm not making this comparison because they both have axes (though what your weapon type is doesn't matter in this edition) - and I'm not making the comparison because I don't like Grimbold (I've actually always liked the idea of his profile). No, I'm making the comparison because this is what Grimbold's profile probably always should have been - a solid riding hero who has good rules and is designed to kill things.

Haleth is a F6 hero (Grimbold capped out at a very respectable for being Rohan F5 in the previous edition) who has the expected S4 of a hero, D6 of a hero with heavy armor, 3 Attacks/Wounds (very good), and functionally Courage 6 with 3 Might/2 Will/1 Fate. He's got the Rohan standard rules of Expert Rider/Horse Lord, but also picks up the Defender of Edoras rule that allows him to re-roll all failed To Wound rolls if he's outnumbered. If he charges on his armored horse into two models, this gives him the same expected damage output as Theodred on a slightly more resilient chassis for a slightly higher cost. To be honest . . . this is a really good profile.

Grimbold in the previous edition had Mighty Blow, which theoretically made him good at fighting multi-wound models, but F5 and no access to Heroic Strike meant he had to tag-team to beat up heroes. Haleth, on the other hand, can be a one-man show for 130 points, carving through warriors or heroes without that much difficulty. Grimbold was also able to upgrade Warriors of Rohan to Helmingas which Haleth cannot do, but that's probably the only place that Grimbold had over Haleth (that, and costing about 60pts less). If GW thought that revisiting the Grimbold profile in the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement was a good idea (or in the Legacies document if we're only getting the old Grimbold profile), patterning changes after this guy would be a very, very strong play.

The Battle of Edoras box set also gives us Hama, whose archery prowess means our point of comparison has to be the King's Huntsman profile (which was the only "shooting" hero profile that Rohan actually had). On a horse (something the Huntsmen never had, oddly enough), Hama is 90pts and has a much better melee profile than the Huntsmen (F5/2 Attacks) is basically as resilient as they were (D6/2 Fate instead of D5/1 Fate). He has the new Sharpshooter keyword (which makes him a little better than a King's Huntsman at hitting what he wants). 

Instead of getting all of his Might points back if he kills an enemy hero/monster (which usually required a bunch of other models softening up a hero/monster), Hama can spend his Will points to allow nearby friendly models to re-roll 1s when making Strikes . . . which is a combat ability and not a shooting ability. Hama probably comes in at about the same lethality at a distance, but he's also going to be a much better melee threat than a Huntsman ever was. If leading a set of Riders of Rohan (who can scoot-and-shoot with him, then charge in with rerolling 1s To Wound), I think this guy could be pretty decent - and fills a much better role than the Huntsman did.

Hama and Haleth's sister, Hera, Daughter of Helm, comes in at 90pts max and I've chosen to compare her to Erkenbrand. Erkenbrand previously held the position of "good 3 Might Captain of Rohan who boosted Courage and was pretty cheap . . . oh, and can count as a banner to certain nearby models." Hera similarly provides some boosts to select models (Frealaf and Olwyn, more on them later), but mostly she specializes in being fast and beating enemy models one at a time. She can charge models with Stalk Unseen from a far distance, can give up Charging for a turn to increase the movement of her steed to 12" with Woodland Creature (great for bolting to objectives or to race off a board), and if she's in solo-combat with an enemy, she can boost herself from 2 Attacks to 3 Attacks (4 if on the charge against infantry) and can reroll 1s when making Strikes. All in all, a decent set of combat and maneuverability rules.

Compared to Erkenbrand (whose slightly lower cost is made up for by the increased cost of mounts in the current edition), Hera has lower Defense (D5), potentially more Attacks (3 Attacks instead of 2 if she's fighting a single model), and 2 Will/3 Fate (instead of 1 Will/1 Fate). She also has Heroic Strike, which Erkenbrand never had, but will also not provide any boost to your army's Courage. Of course, if she's fielded alongside Helm, you probably don't have a problem with Courage.

Bride Hera is a pretty different beast - for 130 points and no mount option, Hera gets F6, a maximum of Defense 6 with the shield, 3 Attacks/Wounds (and 3 Might/Will/Fate), Fearless, resilience to enemy cavalry with Unyielding Combat Stance, and two special rules that prevent enemy models that are Engaged with Hera from declaring a Heroic Strike (which makes her F6 with access to Strike pretty good) and the ability to reroll any failed To Wound rolls on a turn in which she charges. 

That's a lot of stuff her previous version didn't have, but at the same time, it's also not nearly the amount of boosts/stats that you'd expect from someone that costs more than Boromir/Legolas and almost as much as Aragorn . . . and most of the time THOSE guys are going to be on foot and (I can't help but think) will do more overall damage than she will. Is this version of Hera worth taking in the Hornburg list? I'm not sure - probably. In that army list (more on that in the future), Bride Hera will have Dominant (2) (though really Dominant (3) for being the General) and will re-roll 1s To Wound when making Strikes (which only matters on a turn in which she didn't charge), so she's basically got her combat rule from her previous version on all the time, regardless of how many people she's fighting.

Our next stop is one of several models that don't have an official sculpt yet (and that I'm planning on doing some conversions of Riders of Rohan to field  - all three look pretty good as far as profiles go). Frealaf, Helm's nephew/sister-son, is best compared to Eorl the Young, who used to show up in scummy lists like mine alongside Theoden and Gamling (no army bonus, but Might for days on that guy with boosted Fight Value on the mounted not-Sons-of-Eorl that you took with him) and on his own/allied with Kings of Men from Minas Tirith. Frealaf has a very impressive F6, a much less impressive D5 (no shield and just basic armor), 3 Attacks/Wounds, 2 Might/3 Will/3 Fate, the stock-standard rules of Expert Rider/Horse Lord, and two special rules - Mutual Respect, which gives him Master of Battle (4+) when within 6" of Hera and the Lord of Harrowdale, which gives the warriors in his warband the Shieldwall rule (and the ability to reroll failed Intelligence Tests . . . which has very situational uses).

His offensive hitting power is probably about the same as Eorl's, with the Master of Battle (4+) requiring him to be run with and near Hera, but otherwise having the same potential for getting free Heroic Actions, but those heroics being conditional on your opponent calling stuff near you and with the added benefit of not needing Might to make it work. He's pretty comparable to what Eorl had and at 120pts max, he's about 5pts cheaper than what I expect Eorl to clock in at (with basically just a slower mount and lower Defense). Not a bad choice - and a pretty good option for making sure Hera has a chance of getting a Heroic Move on a critical turn.

Olwyn is also model-less and of all the models we're talking about today, she really lacks a good corollary legacy profile for comparison. She's 100pts mounted and she's got a very respectable F5, D5 (plus Light Armor), 3 Attacks (really?) with effectively Courage 5 (with Sworn Protector (Hera)), and 2 Might/2 Will/3 Fate, she has a very impressive array of heroic resources and solid rules to support a "fine" statline. She has Heroic Defense along with a special rule that makes her wounded on 6s (not natural) when outnumbered - so she can charge into two models and feel pretty good about walking away from the fight if they don't have bonuses To Wound. She can also call Heroic Defense if they do - potentially twice - which paired with the 2 Wounds/3 Fate makes her a pretty good roadblock hero. Theoretically, this could have been done for cheaper with a mounted Hama model in the previous edition or for slightly more points with a mounted Gamling model in either edition - though neither Hama nor Gamling would be doing that from F5 in the previous edition. Olwyn is probably the least necessary of the three model-less profiles, but I think she's still pretty interesting as a character (and it's always nice for Rohan to have a roadblock option so their heroes can do what they want to do instead of risking themselves against something big and scary).

Finally, we have Lief, who is 70pts on a mount and gives us an INCREDIBLE amount of utility options. His profile is little better than Merry's profile (F3, S3, 1 Attack on offense; D4, 2 Wounds, 1 Fate on defense), but he's a kid, so cut him some slack. He also has 5 Will Points and a special rule that allows him to spend those Will Points to give boosts to friendly models within 3" of him. These boosts include a free Heroic Combat (SO GOOD), the Fearless special rule (situationally very good), no scoot-and-shoot penalty when shooting with the ability to reroll failed To Wound rolls with shooting attacks (SO GOOD), the Woodland Creature/Mountain Dweller special rules (situationally quite good, but more situationally than Fearless), and increasing their Move Value by 2" (SO GOOD). 

His chassis is expensive for what it does, but golly on a 40mm base, a 3" radius is going to cover 9-10 files of troops and if those guys are getting +2" of movement (potentially more if they're also affected by a Heroic March), ignoring move-and-shoot penalties (bows or throwing spears) with rerolling To Wound rolls on those shots on a different turn, and then gives a slew of heroes free Heroic Combats on the turn they charge . . . I mean, golly, that's pretty good. And if up to 15 of the 9-10 files of troops he's buffing were brought by Frealaf and have the Shieldwall rule . . . I mean, that's pretty solid, right? I know that Sons of Eorl were good near Eorl and Rohan Outwalkers/Outriders were good at shooting, but the guys near Lief for at least one turn are going to be pretty good. Lief can be fielded with either of the new Rohan lists, so there's a lot to play with here (and has a horse in both).

Conclusion

All in all, I think the new characters provide some interesting reprieve for the Rohan players who are missing their legacy'd models (until the legacy document is dropped - hopefully in a few months - and only in two army lists, but most of the legacy'd profiles were only run in 1-2 lists anyway). I'm cautiously optimistic about the profiles and the lists that they're in, but let us know what you think about them (and if you've tried them out yet). Until next time, happy hobbying!