The Stuff of Legends: The Rangers of Mirkwood

Good morning gamers,

Tiberius: Today's article is the long-anticipated review of the Rangers of Mirkwood Legendary Legion from the Fall of the Necromancer sourcebook (previous edition stuff). While I could have taken a swing at this a while back, I thought our resident Mirkwood Ranger expert Red Jacket should have a chance at it - and with life events finally giving him some breathing space, here it is!

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Red Jacket: As someone who essentially started playing this army before Fall of the Necromancer ever canonized it as a specific legendary legion, I immediately became a big fan. Seriously… 100% Elf bow army?  What’s not to love? (Quite a bit actually… but I am obsessed with Elves and archery, so my love overcomes. Kind of like Tauriel… the made up character… loving a dwarf…) Fair warning, this list may end up hurting you (But at least what you had was real).

Legion Tax: 90pts
Photo Credit: Giphy

In all seriousness, however, this list is in many ways one-dimensional, but comes with some special rules that really help it be much more than a one trick pony. So let's dive in and take a look. 

Part 1: What Do You Need? 

To start, this legion requires you to bring either Legolas Greenleaf, Prince of Mirkwood starting at 95 points, or Tauriel with Elf bow for 90. It also lifts the bow limit restriction, allowing for 100% bows. 

There are only three possible heroes in this legion: 

1. Legolas, whom you should never take in this legion without the elven cloak: 100 pts

2. Tauriel with Elf bow: 90 pts

3. Mirkwood Ranger captain: 75 pts

Then there are only two unit options: 

1. Mirkwood Rangers (obviously) for 14 pts, and the option to add a war horn (Don’t).

2. Wood Elf Sentinels for 25 pts, which are really fun units.

The first special rule is “Knife mastery.” This is really the make or brake rule for this legion and will feature heavily my “Part 2” analysis. It allows re-rolls of 1 to wound when making strikes, and allows models “shield” with their knives as long as they are not also using their “knife fighter” or “blade mistress” special rules. More about those special rules below. 

One of the legion's special rules is directed exclusively at Legolas. It is the "Prince of Mirkwood" special rule and it simply adds the Knife Fighter special rule to his profile. Knife Fighter is a special rule that both Mirkwood Rangers and Mirkwood Ranger Captains have normally. This rule states that models with the rule gain an additional Attack for each model above 1 that they are in combat with up to 3 bonus Attacks (i.e. if a Mirkwood Ranger is in base contact with 3 Orcs, it would have 3 Attacks - 1 from its base profile, 2 for the two Orcs after the first Orc). The vast majority of the army will have this special rule or the upgraded version, "Blade Mistress", in the case of Tauriel - so it really helps Legolas keep going.

The third rule, "Clear the Nests", is a niche rule that gives armies in the list Hatred (Spiders). Next we have "Masters of the Forest" which states that if a friendly model is within 1" of a tree or in a piece of woodland terrain and suffers a wound, they save it on a 6 (mechanically, a very difficult to obtain Fury save).

The final rule, “Silent ambush”, allows the player to modify their deployment roll up or down 1 in scenarios when reinforcements would be rolled for. As you can see, the rules are fairly niche with the exception of the first, and the unit selection is quite limited. 

So, of the options, what is a must? First, Tauriel is your auto-include here. I feel very strongly about this one. While thematically (and Tolkienly) speaking Legolas should be who you take, from a game perspective Tauriel is a much more efficient and useful hero.  She has the same Might, Will, Fate profile, starts with 3 Attacks, and has the “blade Mistress” special rule (“Knife Fighters” without the cap of 3 additional Attacks). What Legolas has to offer is only 2 Attacks, a less potent (while still phenomenal) melee special ability with Knife Fighters added, and then shooting ability.  Shooting is not something this army really struggles with, and while situationally his shooting special rules are very useful, they do not outweigh the up close combat power Tauriel provides.

Should it be this way? No. Legolas has been screwed this entire edition quite frankly. His profile is not as powerful as it should be, and for what it is, it costs way too much. A non-Tolkien character created for the soul purpose of adding romance to a story that doesn’t need it shouldn’t outclass one of the major characters in the world. But if P.J. and GW are going to make travesties like Azog and Bolg, then you are darn right the Elves better get to have cool, OP profiles too (Yes, I know they were in the appendices - you’re making my point).

This is all moot for the most part, though, because in many situations, you should take both. My personal recommendation is leave him out until you hit 450 pts - anything larger than 450, you should bring him. Otherwise, you should just fit as many rangers in there as possible while still scattering in a handful of sentinels.  One or two a lower points levels, but at 800 points, I have run 5 before.

Now that we have this out of the way, let’s look at differences and comparative advantageous of taking this list over the Halls of Thranduil.

Part 2: Why take this over normal “allied” forces?

As with many legions, this force has an extremely limited selection of profiles to choose from. Three heroes and two warriors. While the Halls of Thranduil list is not that extensive either, taking the legion does eliminate several fairly key options. 

Weakness 1: Mobility

This list has no ability to move faster than 6”. Because the Ranger captain doesn’t have Heroic March, and this list can’t take Mirkwood Cavalry, it has to rely on its ranged attacks to keep opponents off of objectives that it can’t reach fast enough. As a Defense 3, all-shooting army, you are unlikely to be dashing into the thick of it either, so while there are circumstances where the lack of mobility will present problems, this is a weakness, but obviously not a fatal flaw.

Weakness 2: Low Defense, and no banner, no spear support

Your heroes are Defense 4-5.  Your warriors are Defense 3. Your warriors are also expensive. The cheapest model in the army is 14 points. When you close in combat, you don’t have a defensible frontline, and when you lose a fight, you have a very high likelihood of losing a model. This is where not having a banner really becomes a problem. Without spear support or a banner, your units are particularly vulnerable to high Defense, shield wall style armies. 

Weakness 3: No Power Heroes, or particularly good response to them

Pound for pound, Tauriel is pretty awesome, but she is the most combat-oriented hero in the list, and simply cannot go toe-to-toe with any true beat stick heroes in the game. While you have lots of bows to try to pluck wounds off, targets will almost always be well shielded by other troops. And trying to shoot out a power hero may not be the best strategic option for your to focus your bows on, so this can be a bit of an issue. 

It's not all bad news though. Lets look at some of the strengths now. 

Strength 1: 100% bows

While this might not be a strength in terms of helping your opponent have fun, it is a powerful tool in terms of winning games.  The ability to do damage, at range, while not having your troops be vulnerable is massive. This is especially true given that all units in this army should have Elven cloaks and therefore be able to significantly mitigate the risk of return fire. Obviously, with units this expensive, you are almost certain to have a lower model count. But with the relatively large number of bows you will be able to field, you will have significant control over the battlefield, and can also even the odds before you close to combat.

Strength 2: Likes being outnumbered

In general, being outnumbered is tough. And it’s never the best position to find yourself in.  But if you are, this legion tends to handle it fairly well given the addition of the “Knife Mastery” legion special rule. Every model can now roll 2 or more dice at will in every fight now that the shielding rule is available. 2 dice with Fight 5 is not guaranteed to win. But it’s nothing to sneeze at - and with the knife fighter, etc. special rules, even horde armies are disincentivized to mob your troops, because if they do, they are only increasing your chance of winning the fight. As previously mentioned, the Knife Mastery legion special rule is THE critical upgrade. Not only does it allow you to re-roll 1s to wound, making Strength 3 Elves a tiny bit more punchy, but by far most importantly, it helps mitigate this legion's greatest weakness: getting into fights with opponents supported by spears.

Strength 3: Allows you to bring sentinels without adding non-archer units

Because of the Halls of Thranduil army bonus, you can run a 100% ranger list without using the legion, but you can’t add in Sentinels meaningfully without adding non-archer units. Not having a bow limit allows you to run as many of Sentinels as you want.

Part 3: Legion improvements.

This legion is fine as is.  If I were to criticize, it would be that “Clear the Nests”, “Masters of the Forest”, and “Silent Ambush” are so niche and not particularly potent. Thematic, yes, but they are rarely useful (especially the first two).  It feels odd to bring a legendary legion and have more than half of the special rules not be relevant to almost any game I play.

Having said that, those rules are for color, and Knife Mastery and Prince of Mirkwood really are the missing pieces that help move running an all-Ranger list from fun and kinda dumb, to a reasonable idea in a competitive sense.  So this legion works.

Tiberius: I'm gonna cut in and just highlight that the lack of a banner rule is the clear way to "improve" this Legion, given all that has been said - this could be tied to being near Legolas and Tauriel OR tied to Legolas or Tauriel charging into combat. Either one would be great - back to you, Red Jacket!

Part 4: Army Strategies. Do’s and Don’ts. 

This army is not complicated. There are just a few tactical things you want to be aware of.
Do’s

1. Use terrain. With your elven cloaks, and your low defense, you have to make sure you that you aren’t getting your numbers whittled down in an archery duel. Your archery needs to be evening the odds, and with your units being so expensive, you would need to shoot out 2 for every one loss you take just to keep parity (On average.) mitigating losses early in the game is huge. 
2. Make sure you use the Wood Elf Sentinels.  They are the one slightly tricky part of this list. They have some great control magic/buff options, and they can really help make sure that your units are able to do what they need to, or even get your enemy out of position throwing off their plans. 
3. Maximize your dice. While it feels strange to throw expensive, low defense ranger models out on their own, this is a high risk, high reward list. The more likely you are to lose fights, the more likely you are to die. (Obviously). Typically, the fewer opponents you are fighting, the more likely you are to win.  Not so with this list.  You want to have your models in base contact with as many models as possible, because that equals more dice to try to win the fight. And with high fight value, the more dice you role, the less likely you are to lose. Of course, if you lose, you are in serious trouble. But that’s just the way this army works. You are better off with individual warriors 
4. Prioritize shooting enemy cavalry and spear support. As mentioned previously, you want to try to limit your opponents ability to add dice to fights without adding models in base contact. 

Don’ts

1. Be careful not to end up out of position.  With an all shooting army, it’s very easy to hang back too long so you can take what feels like full advantage of your shooting.
2. On a related note, be careful not to break low defense armies too soon. Clever opponents on objective based scenarios will get in position, and then invite you to shoot them to death hoping the game ends before you are in scoring range. 
3. Don’t let your heroes get bogged down against other heroes. With your grunts being F5 with the ability to shield, you are better off letter your heroes get into the thick of your opponents front line and trying to speed bump enemy heroes.

Part 5: Army Showcase

I genuinely think this army is competitive at most points levels.  I think it starts to struggle at lower points levels, with archery being such a numbers game. My favorite points level is actually 800 points. Here is the breakdown I have found to be fun and effective:

Warband 1

• Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood with Elven cloak

• 13 Mirkwood Rangers

• 2 Wood Elf Sentinels

Warband 2

• Tauriel

• 10 Mirkwood Rangers

• 1 Wood Elf Sentinel

Warband 3

• Mirkwood Ranger Captain

• 8 Mirkwood Rangers

• 1 Wood Elf Sentinel

38 models, 38 Elf bows, 799 points. 

I have also run this list by dropping a Ranger and Legolas’s Elven cloak and adding a fifth sentinel. Ultimately, I don’t think this is worth it - it makes your army leader the main target of your enemy's archery and magic, which I generally think is a bad plan, and the benefit you gain from a fifth sentinel vs. another ranger is not significant enough. 

Army summary  (Conclusion) 

This is my most run legendary legion. It’s fun, and adds a lot of viability to running rangers en masse by allowing them to not be down in dice count in 1v1 fights with spear support. While it seems somewhat one-dimensional, I have found the addition of the sentinels to add some very interesting options from a tactical perspective and help add to the things your opponent has to consider. 

I really do enjoy large archery lists, but try not to run it too often because it can definitely be frustrating for opponents. There is just something about starting down 40 Strength 3, 3+ bow shots makes even the most tenured player take a deep breath prepare for a long game.