Good morning gamers,
We're tackling a hidden gem (I feel) in MESBG today: Numenor! Yes, the Last Alliance gets a lot of press. Yes, the Realms of Men SHOULD get a lot of press. Yes, Numenor can't get banners anymore and that might put them behind in VPs. But this is a list that isn't hard to collect because EVERYONE and their brother is selling unused Warriors of Numenor on eBay because they wanted the Rivendell Warriors that came in the box (and with a little kit-bashing, it's not hard to make the three warrior types or generic captains that you need to make the list work). It's also got a lot of strength in the new edition and not a lot of rules if you are new to the game and looking for Elves-light to start off with. So let's see what's in store for one of my favorite factions in the game - specifically, how they've changed and how to run them in the new edition.
Numenor: Changes for 2025
Profile Selection
Like last edition, Numenor has four profiles: Elendil, Isildur, Captains of Numenor, and Warriors of Numenor. As we walked through in our First Impressions article, however, these profiles have all seen some changes (more on those later). While I've extended this section in our previous posts in this series, I'm not going to belabor it here - we have four profiles available to us and if we want more, we need to run the Last Alliance or the Realms of Men instead (both of which are excellent lists and very well might be better than this list on paper, if not in practice).
Okay, let's dig into the army bonuses for this army list and how it changes the units you field.
The most generic bonus from the army list (The Resolve of Men) is the same that the Numenor army list got in the last edition: friendly models get a +1 bonus to their Courage tests. This lessens the disparity between Warriors of Numenor and Rivendell Warriors a little, but it also makes your Captains of Numenor Courage 5+ and Elendil/Isildur Courage 3+ - which is to say that your heroes shouldn't have issues charging Terror walls, even if Harbinger of Evil is active or if someone casts Aura of Dismay. For an army that focuses heavily on its offensive capabilities at the expense of their defense, it's good to be able to charge when you want to.
There is a situational defensive buff from the Blood of Numenor army list bonus, which gives them exactly the same bonus it did in the last edition: friendly Numenor models gain Resistant to Magic when within 6" of a friendly Unique Numenor Hero. Both Elendil and Isildur have Resistant to Magic already and multiple applications don't stack, so this is really for the Captains and the Warriors. The entire army can have at least a chance at resisting magical powers if they create "death balls", but it's important to remember that casting magic got harder in this edition - and since the resist test is tied to the end casting result and not the casting difficulty, resisting magical powers has gotten harder too (especially since Heroic Channelling now gives the cast the result of a 6 for the "low-low" price of 1 Might point).
The last army rule (The Line of Kings) is the most niche of the rules (yes, even more so than Resistant to Magic): if your Army General has the Unique keyword (aka, if you take Elendil or Isildur), your General gains the General Hunter special rule, which is basically the old Blood and Glory special rule (you get a Might point back that you spent earlier in the battle), but only when you kill the enemy General in Combat. Both Elendil and Isildur are the kinds of heroes who can probably topple most enemy generals, but as we'll see shortly, this is most likely to be useful on one of them and not the other.
Okay, let's see how the profiles have changed since the last edition, within the context of this army list.
Profile Adjustments
All four profiles have changed - and as was mentioned in our First Impressions article, some of these changes were good and some were . . . less good. Let's walk through all four profiles, given the army list boosts that were mentioned above:
- Elendil has virtually the same profile he always had - he got a boost to F8 and still has access to Heroic Strike, but as I found in the previous edition, this makes him perfectly suited for running over grunts with the option for challenging something big instead of incentivized to hit something very, very large (though if that very, very large thing is the enemy General, at least you can get a Might point back after you Strike). Without the option to take a horse, however, he's going to have to be embedded in your shieldwall so that he arrives alive - and this will limit his ability to get work out of Heroic Combats like he used to do in the past edition. He's slightly less resilient against magic (he has 1 free Resist die instead of 2 free Resist dice), but with S5 and +1 To Wound on those Heroic Combats, he should be able to carve through most troops with ease (though the loss of Feint against F3 and below troops will be missed here and there - as will the knock down he used to get). As great as F8 with Strike is in the current game, I struggle to find a use for this guy - 175pts isn't bad at all for what you're getting, but 6" movement and 1 Fate point is pretty crippling. Thankfully, we have another named hero option . . .
- Isildur wins the most-improved award for me in the Numenor faction - and that's saying a lot, since everyone in this list saw improvements to Fight Value! Apart from the epithet he finally received, he got upgraded to F7, still has 3 Might-and-Strike (which might hit F10, but you also don't NEED to hit F10 if you left Elendil at home), and has access to the Ring if his dad isn't around (like in the old edition - and with the One Ring only halving Fight Value if you're the only friendly model in a fight, you very well might want to leave Elendil at home so Isildur can automatically have the higher Fight Value). If he's fielded with his dad, Isildur can use the Shards of Narsil rule (which is a hand weapon that gives +1 To Wound if Elendil is killed - a small consolation prize for losing your 175pt Army General, but a useful rule nonetheless). Perhaps most importantly, he retained the option for the horse (but not the shield), so for fewer points than Elendil, you can have a hero with the One Ring who can smash through troops while mounted and can be a thorn in the side of most heroes if he dismounts. I love this guy - 150pt inclusion always.
- Captains of Numenor used to max out at 75pts with a horse, lance, heavy armor, and your choice of a shield or bow. Now, these guys are 70pts on foot and have the shield, but gave up the horse, heavy armor, and lance to become F6/S5. There's a strong argument that this is worse than it was before - but with the proliferation of Fight Values in this edition, having a generic hero for under 100pts that's F6/S5 is unheard of (in the previous edition, only King's Champions fit this bill - and they were only under 100pts if you didn't count the cost of the two banner-bearers that came in the team). Though being infantry has its limitations (as I've felt with Elendil), these guys are cheap and while D6 isn't great on a hero, it's plenty good against your average warrior - and if these guys are embedded in your shieldwall, they should serve you just fine. If kept near Elendil (you definitely want to do this if he's in your list) or Isildur (he might be nearby - but doesn't have to be), these guys also pick up Resistant to Magic, which is useful.
- Warriors of Numenor went up by 1pt and became F5. This results in them costing as much as Rivendell Warriors (9pts/model before wargear) and they fall short in several respects (hand weapons instead of hand-and-a-half weapons will be fine for most people, D4 base instead of D5 base could be very problematic, C7+ instead of C5+ is chalked up to Elf elitism, but being S4 is an advantage). Still if they're given a shield, you get F5/S4 troops for 10pts each - and with 70pt Captains to field them, you can field 13 F5-6 models for just under 200pts. This is basically where pure Numenor was at in the last edition with a maxed-out Captain leading a warband of 12 guys - but now everyone's got +1 Fight Value. What they LOST from the last edition (besides the mobility of their Captains) is the flexibility to put spears on their bowmen (which I did often) and they can't take a banner anymore (which does hurt). In trade, their standard bows (24" S2) became longbows (24" S3) and still cost 1pt/model - this makes them some of the cheapest longbow units in the game (tied with Citadel Guard) and puts them ahead of Warriors of Dale with longbows that are fielded outside the Garrison of Dale army list in my book.
And that's it - four profiles, increased Fight Value on all of them, some additional boosts and all of them had at least one piece of wargear removed from their options. This does shape the strengths and weaknesses of the faction, which we'll look at next.
Numenor: Strengths and Weaknesses
The most common complaint I've heard about the Numenor army list is that it can't get a banner - even before the critique of a slow Elendil and a max of D5 on your warriors/D6 on your Captains, everyone seems to harp on the lack of a banner. This is a true thing - if you want a banner with your Numenoreans, you need to run the Realms of Men with any of the other factions (my pick is Minas Tirith, possibly also Rohan if the points level is high enough - but more on that in a future post) or in a Last Alliance list (with Isildur and Elrond if you want mobility, Gil-Galad and Isildur if you want hitting power - Elendil and either Elf Lord if you want to have fun). There are scenarios that will skew against you if your opponent shows up with a banner and you don't have one - and in all scenarios, not having a banner means that "what you see is what you get" when it comes to rolling your dueling dice.
I have a different perspective though: this army list may not have access to a banner, but it does have access to the tools required to kill a banner - even if it's carried by a big hero. For 10pts each, you can take a Warrior of Numenor with longbow - and if you have Isildur on a horse, 2 Captains of Numenor, 8 Warriors of Numenor with shields, 10 Warriors of Numenor with shields and spears, and 10 Warriors of Numenor with longbows, you can field 31 models/10 longbows for only 580pts. With 11 unused warrior slots, you can fill out the warbands to reach 700pts and have over 40 models and 13 longbows (this sample list has saved 6pts, so spend those on more spears if you want to):
The second tool that these guys have for dealing with banners (and a lot of heroes) is found in Isildur and Elendil. Banners tend to want to be close to the action - and whether it's Isildur racing around a flank or Elendil carving a path up the middle, it's not hard for your big heroes to end up near an enemy banner. If Isildur dismounts and puts on the Ring, he might even be able to wade through an enemy battle line after a successful Heroic Combat to snipe an enemy banner - and once that banner is dead, your opponent isn't getting points from it. If your opponent hides the banner to preserve the VPs, Isildur's mount and a well-timed Heroic Combat may put him in a position to reach the banner and get some VPs (and if Isildur is also your army General, that may keep your General out of reach of the most dangerous pieces your opponent has).
Isildur is also the only hero in the game who can guarantee that he has the higher Fight Value in a duel, so long as Elendil is not in your list and Isildur's got the Ring on. Isildur doesn't get the One Ring in the Last Alliance army list, so if you want a smash-everything Isildur, this is your chance - and boy is he good at head-hunting when he's not flubbing his rolls!
With the exception of the Defense stats of your units, the rest of the army is solid: many armies struggle to get to S4 and as a result, a D6 meta is emerging. The fact that all Numenoreans are at least S4 means that you're not that worried about running into a D6 frontline - and if your opponent paid for S4 himself, capping out at D5 may mean that your opponent overpaid for a stat. Having F5 makes these guys a lot more reliable at winning fights and surviving than they were in the previous edition (where they kinda needed Elf-help to stay alive - that or have a huge numerical advantage). With the ability defend by shielding on anyone who doesn't have a longbow, these guys can hold ground well, have a decent chance of winning fights, and can do the one thing all smashy-hero lists need: buy time for the heroes to do what they do. I really like this list - and I think every profile in it (all four of them) are solid (though I miss Elendil's horse).
There's a lot of raw offensive firepower in this list, but it does fold quickly with D4-5 across the army. Let's look at some strategies for using this list, given the constraints we have to work with now.
Numenor: Strategies for the Tabletop
I ran pure Numenor a good bit over the six years of the previous edition of MESBG - the lists usually allied in Cirdan to keep the average-Defense Numenoreans (and any D5 High Elf Warriors I had larking about) from being shot off the table and now we don't have that. As a result, the most important thing to keep in mind with this army is that you need to focus on getting places quickly. If your opponent has a shooting advantage on you (you should be able to sport lots of bows in any reasonable fight you're in - and if have cover as well, you might be in a pretty good place - but there are plenty of lists that will outshoot you if that's the draw of the army list), you need to focus on using Heroic March to get up the board as quickly as possible and get locked in to make enemy archery impossible or a lot less reliable. Captains of Numenor have good combat stats, but their 2-Might-and-March at a discount price has always been a big draw for me (especially when they were mounted in the previous edition).
Once engaged, you want to get to even dice counts in the duels you set up so your improved stats can really shine. If you're outnumbered, you can rely on shielding to extend the length of your battle line (not all spear-armed models have access to shields now, but Numenoreans still get them and with F5/2 Attacks when they spear-support each other or when they shield, they're going to be tough to crack if your opponent is locked into having 1-2 Attacks of his own). Average Defense isn't great when you lose, so focus on keeping the dice values the same so your likelihood of beating F3-4 troops is higher than your likelihood of losing - and then if you didn't shield, hopefully the S4 really comes through for you.
Third, you want to buy time for your heroes. This was alluded to at the end of the previous section, but your Warriors and Captains have a primary obligation of buying time for Elendil and/or Isildur to carve through the units that are important for winning the scenario. Killing the enemy army General, any banners your opponent brought, or a target hero that's worth VPs are all important things - and your Numenorean shieldwall might be average Defense, but you should be able to win a lot of fights with these guys or force your opponent to bunch up in one place, leaving your heroes free to work. One-on-one, there aren't a lot of heroes who feel good about facing Elendil or Isildur - and that is part of why Elendil isn't as effective as he used to be (there are a lot of heroes and warriors who will try and succeed at staying 6.5" away from him). Still, use your army (including the threat of your heroes) to buy yourself time to win the game and for your heroes to be the scalpels (or hammers) that you need in order to get your VPs.
Okay, it's list time!
Sample Lists
We've already seen a near-700-point list above, so I'm going to skip that points level. Our first stop is actually a 450-point list and can be easily tailored to fill a variety of low points levels.
24 models at 450 with Isildur as one of them is pretty nasty - and with an 8-file shieldwall around the Captain, two skirmish triangles of longbows to guard the flanks, and a random additional longbow to sit on an objective, you've got a nice tidy group of guys to hold out. Can this list beat 4 Eagles? I don't know - but Isildur with the Ring might be able to do some nasty havoc to the birds before all of his guys die (and while seven S3 bows isn't a reliable way to kill off birds, they're at least reliable enough to get a chipped wound in here or there - and if Isildur only needs to deal 2 wounds during a Heroic Combat with the Ring on, you very well may clear one bird and possibly a second on a single turn).
We're going to up the points level to 600 - a points level where I think this list shines more than the Last Alliance list (but maybe not as much as the Realms of Men):
33 models at 600 points with 10 of each Warrior type gives you 2 shield guys to cap off your battle lines, both Captains can embed themselves in the shieldwall, and Isildur's archers can cover the flanks in three skirmish triangles with one floater to hold a back objective/just be pesky. Isildur himself remains the big answer to enemy threats (both heroes and banners), but he's still as powerful as ever and he's got a good backbone of troops to help win the game on all other counts. Once you get too much higher than this points level, however, I think you're looking into swapping the Captains of Numenor out for Elrond or Gil-Galad so you can trade nearly one-for-one the warriors of Numenor for King's Guard with shields/shield-and-spear or Rivendell Warriors with Elf bows (1pt difference over the Numenoreans).
While I the Isildur-Captain archetype works just fine at 450 and 600, it lands the plane perfectly at 500 points - the heroes will have 27 warrior slots (so probably not more than 280pts unless you're spamming spears) and the heroes will max out at 220pts. However, if you're sitting at 550 points . . . things are just awkward (you drop 2 models just so you can fit in a Captain that you don't need other than to have more Might on the board). When you're in this situation - and in this situation only - I think Elendil and a Captain are the right picks (I've opted for 10 spears in Elendil's warband, but you could also rely on shielding if you'd prefer and drop the spears to get an extra guy in Elendil's warband):
550 is a bit awkward - and honestly, I don't know if Elendil is still the better choice of Isildur - but I think the list is still going to be better than a Last Alliance list below 700 points (and possibly better than a Realms of Men list, though the that is probably true when the limit is 600pts).
Conclusion
If you haven't given Numenor a try in the new edition, I highly recommend it - they're a bit squishy, but they're super fun and very elite (on offense). I'm not sure that they're a good "learn the game against this list" army like they used to be (I taught a lot of people how to play by giving myself average Fight, average Defense troops - but now that they're F5, it's a bit of a slog against them sometimes), but they're still good and their rules are simple. If you have thoughts on the list, let us know in the comments below! Until next time, happy hobbying!
No comments:
Post a Comment