The New Age Is Begun: the Men of the West Army List

Good morning gamers,

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Today is a post I've been looking forward to for a LONG time. There was no way I was going to write this article before the Legacies document dropped and boy was I happy when it did! Since about 2020, I've been playing on and off with what is now the Men of the West army list - and much to my disappointment (despite email after email before the errata documents were released semiannually), the list never received any of the love that I thought it deserved. With the release of the new edition, this army list encapsulates so much of my feelings for what the design team did:

They listened to us - and specifically, they listened to me.

Now I'm not vain enough to think that I was the only person asking for updates to this list - there have been others who did quite well with the Men of the West LL in the previous edition and our own competitive player friend-of-the-blog Sharbie has touted the army list's credits in the new edition. But I've been playing the game for a long time and been writing about how that list wasn't a bad Legendary Legion (though it could have used some updates) for a long time too - and they listened. They listened to me. And maybe you don't care and haven't cared about this list at all in your life, but there's probably a corner of the game where they listened to you too. So walk with me as we explore how this list as changed from drool to cool (though it's always been cool to me) as we stand alongside Aragorn and the brave men of Gondor and Rohan at the Black Gate . . .

The Men of the West: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

There have been very few adjustments to the profiles available in this list - though there have been a few notable additions, nothing has been lost. You still have to take Elessar, but now you can (usually) take an armored horse on him as well - which solves one issue that Rythbyrt always had with this list. For big power heroes, you still have Legolas, Gimli, the Twins (now that the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement is here), Prince Imrahil, Eomer, and Gandalf the White - which gives you a stronger all-hero corps than most of the all-hero armies that you find in the sourcebooks (see my thoughts on the Fellowship and anticipate my thoughts on Thorin's Company).

Supporting this cast of named man-sized heroes are the same generic heroes we had before (Captains of Dol Amroth, Captains of Minas Tirith, and Captains of Rohan), the same lesser named heroes of Beregond (some serious updates to this guy were made this edition), Merry, and Pippin, as well as Gwaihir (the new "kid" on the block) if you choose to not take any horses on your heroes (which complicates a list that Rythbyrt liked to take in the last edition). We'll talk about the decision to take Gwaihir or not a little later, but suffice it to say for now that the option to have Gwaihir in the list (and potentially Eagle warriors - though unlikely in my opinion because of the heroes you have access to for about the same number of points) is a welcome change.

On the warrior front, we still have Knights of Dol Amroth (on foot only), Warriors of Minas Tirith (now F4 and slightly more expensive), and Warriors of Rohan (better skirmishers than they were in the last edition now that their throwing spears can be used as standard spears in all lists), but if you include the Legacies document, you also have access to Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth - which I BEGGED for so . . . many . . . times . . . #TheyListened. All in all, there are no cavalry warrior options, but the options you have in this list have always been good/fine and now they're good/better.

Army List Bonuses

The army list special rules have gotten both better and worse in this edition, depending on your perspective. On the one hand, you have mount options for most of your big hitters (not Gimli, Imrahil, or the Twins) but doing so will come at the exclusion of your only monster profile (who happens to also have Fly, Monstrous Charge, and base F8/3A). Heroes like Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli, and the Twins can now lead troops - and your Gondor/Rohan heroes can lead a mix of Gondor/Rohan units - and these were both things that were on my list of desired changes. I think these are universally good changes, but they don't fix the fact that if you ran a Defenders of the Pelennor army list, you'd have many of the same profiles (Strider instead of Elessar, no Gwaihir) PLUS extra heroes (including, but not limited to, the King of the Dead, Irolas, and a HOST of Rohan guys) PLUS an increased selection of warriors (including, but not limited to, two mounted Rohan profiles and). Still a good change, but I think there will still be some sectors of the internet that think this isn't as good as "allying normally" (aka, running one of the big compendium lists).

I was a big fan of throwing Gandalf into my list (after the required Aragorn and the nearly-required Eomer) - and Gandalf can have Shadowfax now (if you pass on Gwaihir) and mount Pippin with him, but he trades his Staff of Power (ouch) for a special rule that gives him a reroll to a casting roll that he makes. How valuable is a single-die-rerollable looking for at least a 3+ compared to having a free die? It's not a close comparison by any means, but it's something I guess. It would have been nice if he had a points reduction to reflect the loss of the staff, but I'm not griping.

The list still has For Frodo, but the range got shorter (6" radius from Aragorn) but also adds rerolling 1s To Wound in addition to +1 Fight Value which . . . is not nothing, but is also not that much when most of the units who are using it will be S3 or S4 without bonuses To Wound. Two-handing with the Twins and Gimli (infantry though they be) is suddenly looking pretty good, though.

Finally, you still get the effects of Bodyguard on everyone while Aragorn is on the board (no requirement to be near him - huzzah!), but all infantry within 3" of a friendly Hero (including the hero themselves) gets Dominant (2) - SUPER GOOD (though it will not help you in Reconnoitre as you won't be near your hero once you're off the board)! On the whole, I think this list has a lot to offer and I think it feels a lot more playable than it did before. 10/10 in my book (maybe 9.5/10 for not giving Gandalf a minor points reduction)!

Profile Adjustments

There have been quite a few changes to the profiles in this list - some of these have already been covered in other articles, but most of them are new:

• Aragorn, King Elessar has always been a beast, but the changes that affected Fellowship Aragorn have also affected Elessar. He's base F7, has Resistant to Magic and the Ring of Barahir for anti-magic resilience, he's retained Horse Lord (which he might be able to use in this list now) and Mighty Hero (SO GOOD), and is still treated as a banner by friendly models within 6" (though unlike the last edition, this banner bonus will disappear if he's knocked Prone because of the difference between "treat X as a banner" vs. "counts as being in range of a banner"). With no points increase (still 225pts base) and a 25pt armored horse option, King Elessar is amazing and very, VERY strong.
• Prince Imrahil saw a pretty significant points hike this edition - he used to be 140pts base and 160pts with his armored horse and lance . . . and now he's 160pts base (and still has no access to horse or lance in this list). His banner radius from the last edition shrunk to 6" instead of 12", his Stand Fast! is now 12", and he got the upgrade to F7 . . . and that's about it. As an infantry hero, being F7 is good - but being S4 with no bonuses To Wound isn't great. Take him if you want him - but since he's not giving you access to specialized troops, I think he's really only good in thematic lists. I will always back the "rule of cool", but I don't think he's good in this list (he really needs his mount and lance to be worth 160pts).
• Gwaihir is the third and final Hero of Legend in this army list - and including him comes with the price of all those beautiful horses (but again, more on this later). Base F8 without Heroic Strike doesn't appear to be all that good, but considering that most heroes (F5-6 still) are going to be struggling to tie your Fight Value, it's a solid place to be for a 150pt hero. Oh, and for comparison, Gwaihir costs 10pts less than Imrahil and has +1 Fight Value, +2 Strength, +1 Courage, Dominant (4), Monstrous Charge, 12" Fly, and Terror in trade for limited warrior options, no Heroic Strike/Resolve, a 12" Stand Fast! and a 6" Dol-Amroth-only banner rule . . . I'm gonna take that trade every day of the week. And if I leave Gwaihir at home, I'm probably STILL gonna trade Imrahil in favor of . . .
• Eomer, Marshal of the Riddermark has always been a favorite of mine in this list - for 105pts with a shield in the last edition, I could have a 6-die shielding hero who could blunt many a big hero/monster while Aragorn and the rest of the gang blew chunks in the enemy warrior corps. Eomer died a lot, but not usually right away. If there were no big heroes to crash through, he'd make a great Heroic Combat hero when I could trap the person I was fighting. He's got an even stronger profile now with F6, +1 Courage, and an opportunity for extra Wounds when he gets a natural 6 on his wounding roll for +10pts, Eomer is still a bargain. He still has the option for a shield in this list but added throwing spears (I SO ASKED FOR THAT) as well as the option for an armored/unarmoed mount (which I didn't dream of asking for - but plenty of other people did). All in all, Eomer is a solid choice IF you're taking the mounts. If you're not and you're taking Gwaihir instead, he's a decent third-hitter behind Gwaihir and Aragorn.
• Gandalf the White feels like a very, VERY different piece in this list than he was in the old edition. The ability to lead troops, the ability to be mounted (with Pippin!), and being F6/3A makes him a really potent combat piece on the board. Previously, however, his job in a list like this was to get Fortify Spirit up on Aragorn and himself, Sorcerous Blast into big heroes to keep them from killing your guys, keep Blinding Light up to protect you from archery, and threaten Spirit models (like Ringwraiths - but also Barrow-Wights, the Balrog, the King of the Dead/all Dunharrow models, and Sauron) who got too close to you or tried to shut Aragorn down. With 6 Will and no free Will to cast spells, Gandalf is likely to cast 4-5 spells during the course of the game - and if he wants to cast any difficult ones, it probably comes with the added tax of a Heroic Channelling. That being said, being able to use Pippin's Might point (as well as his Will/Fate points) is super slick and being mounted gives him an incredibly strong combat profile to augment his limited casting. Yes, he'll be 250pts if you do this, but he'll also be a force to be reckoned with, even without his staff.
• Gimli, Son of Gloin is the least altered of the Fellowship members - something we covered in our post on the Fellowship. While getting +1 Fate for no extra cost isn't glamorous, he's a F6/D8/3 Fate hero who can lead troops . . . that's a nice augment to your battle line starting at 600 points. He may not be better than the next guy, but he's definitely harder to snipe by just about everything!
• Legolas Greenleaf saw some INCREDIBLE buffs (unlike his poor Dwarf friend). With a 2+ shoot value, the ability to shoot three times at enemies engaged in combat with himself OR shoot out of his combat at enemies who are not engaged, and getting +1 To Wound if Gimli is outkilling him (unlikely but could happen) and Sharpshooter to make sure those arrows are hitting the part of the model you most want to hit, there's a lot to like about this guy! I have heard the absolutely fair critique that between Deadly Shot and Pinpoint Shot, you can't thread-the-needle into models that are NOT engaged with a friendly model (so you can't head-hunt Blinding Light characters anymore - not that Blinding Light is a static buff anymore), but on the whole, I think Legolas is very much at a net positive. This is made even more so for this list since he can lead troops now and take a horse (and has always had access to armor) - 125pts well spent if you ask me. He might not be better than Eomer mounted, but he's slightly cheaper and certainly poses a strong threat to your opponent's weaker characters or low-Defense troops.
• Beregond, Guard of the Citadel has seen a HUGE glow-up! He's a big character in the book, so I'm happy he got the Damrod treatment and went up from 30pts to 65pts and has F5, 3+ Shoot, 2 Attacks/Wounds, and 2 Might/Will/Fate now. He still has a longbow (no Sharpshooter), still has Bodyguard (good usually but unnecessary in this list as everyone effectively has Bodyguard), and picked up a special rule that lets him reroll all failed To Wound rolls while within 3" of Pippin (so run him with Elessar and Gandalf, I guess). He's not quite the cheap archery hero he was before, but he's still a cheap archery hero and he's also decent at fighting now!
• Elladan and Elrohir now have the heavy armor factored into their cost but also lost 1 Might each . . . so they cost the same and function more or less like they used to (albeit with only 2 Might each). They can't take horses in this list (sadness), but they're still two beater heroes who can be 3A heroes or 2A two-handing heroes or 4A shielding heroes - all good options (though again, without horses).
• Captains of Dol Amroth always had the claim-to-fame of being higher Fight than Captains of Minas Tirith . . . that is no longer the case. Now, a Captain of Dol Amroth is +5pts over a Captain of Minas Tirith and has +1 Courage, gets +1 Fight Value while within 3" of Imrahil, and that's it. Honestly, I'd just leave these guys at home and take . . .
• Captains of Minas Tirith are some of the big winners of the new edition - and losers, depending on your opinion of lances and horses on F4 heroes. While the horse and lance helped these guys kill things reliably last edition, the F4 was always a bit of a let-down unless they had help from another hero (probably one that couldn't take a horse). Now these guys are on foot, but they're 60pts instead of 55pts, they're F5 instead of F4, and they still have Shieldwall, which makes them reliable tanking heroes at low points levels. This list will always have Aragorn, so you'll always have March - but in maelstrom, your army doesn't have to show up together and everyone can March where they need to if your second hero is a Captain! He is competing with Beregond though for time in the sun, so I don't think he's a shoe-in necessarily for your cheap-hero slot.
• Captains of Rohan used to be the cheapest way to get Rohan troops into your lists . . . but now anyone can bring Rohan troops. Captains of Rohan used to have throwing spear/bow skirmish options . . . but now they don't - just the ability to take heavy armor and shield. With these upgrades, they're 5pts less than Captains of Minas Tirith and they don't have Shieldwall, they can't use their Horse Lord/Expert Rider rules, and they don't have F5 . . . leave these guys at home too, unless you can't find 5-10pts (the heavy armor on these guys is a bit optional to me) or are doing something thematic.
• Meriadoc Brandybuck, Esquire of Rohan was always a big question mark for me - he's F3 with Strike, which meant something in the last edition but is next to useless in this edition. He's only 30pts with the shield (and he can trigger Dominant (2) on your troops), but with only 1 Attack and S2, he's not going to kill anything that he beats. You still can't move-and-shoot with throwing stones (a few models can in different lists, but no one in this list), so he's not a great skirmisher. One could make the argument now that Beregond is expensive that you should take this guy, but I'd rather just take . . .
• Peregrin Took, Guard of the Citadel has exactly one utility in life: sitting on Shadowfax with Gandalf. Gandalf's first Heroic Channel should take advantage of Pippin's Might and Will points, which means the rest of the time he's just another model that can race off the board on Shadowfax or who can be unceremoniously dumped on an objective late in the game (triggering Dominant (2) on himself and any Infantry friends nearby). Giving Gandalf the White Resistant to Magic reduces his need to cast Fortify Spirit on himself (which you might do in a rare heavy-magic match-up, but probably not normally) and allows him to focus on casting Sorcerous Blast and Banishment with his Channels (and maybe trying to get in a Compel or Transfix otherwise). Pippin's great, but not for his profile . . . that fairly well stinks still. :)
• Warriors of Rohan are much better in this list now that they have Spear Mastery and I think they still have a solid place in the list as a means of pumping out archery to thin the herd against you. The addition of Hatred (Man) or Hatred (Rohan) to a surprisingly large number of lists is, admittedly, an argument against these D4-5 troops. That said, if you prefer to skirmish with 9pt spearmen instead of triggering Shieldwall longer with 10pt spearmen, I think there's a very strong argument for taking these guys. Also, their war horn option is better than the Warrior of Minas Tirith one (and by extension, it's better than the war horn option for Knights of Dol Amroth). As second-rank banners, they're also pretty decent - D4 isn't D5, but it's not THAT much worse than being D5.
• Knights of Dol Amroth are in a really bad place in this list - they used to be the only source of F4 and now they're not. They have always been more expensive than Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields, but now they're 2pts more and have +1 Courage and an Imrahil-only rule to balance out the loss of Shieldwall. I love the aesthetic of these guys - and having a few F5 troops in your front line (who might be F6 for one turn) is good if you want to pay for Imrahil - but I'd leave these guys at home every time.
• Warriors of Minas Tirith are also big winners this edition for this list - they're still great front-line troops and are even more reliable in that role now that they're F4. They do cost more than they used to, but at 9pts/model with shield or bow, they're not THAT pricey (though I'd opt for Warriors of Rohan still if you want a bow-armed contingent). If you're paying 18pts/file for a Warrior of Minas Tirith with shield backed by a Warrior of Rohan with shield and throwing spears or 19pts/file for two Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields (one with spear), you're doing pretty well for yourself. Take these guys - take a lot of these guys - and call it a day. I will say that whether it's better to have a mix of Warriors of Rohan and Warriors of Minas Tirith is not as cut and dry for me as whether to take Warriors of Dale or Erebor Dwarf Warriors/Grim Hammers in the Erebor & Dale list - and I feel like that's a good thing.
• Great Eagles should never be taken - if you're already paying nearly 400pts for Elessar and Gwaihir and you have the likes of Legolas, Gimli, and the Twins on foot (and Eomer if you don't mind passing on his horse options), I don't think you need these guys. Great Eagles have mobility and some higher base stats, but I think either pairing of Legolas and Gimli or the Twins will get you more in the long run than two Eagles (and certainly more than one). The mobility on these infantry heroes is less of an issue since Aragorn has March, unless you're playing Maelstrom missions - in which case, Aragorn should come on after any of these guys do so you can put him where you'll need him for Turn 2.
• Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth were an addition I asked for AGES ago and finally got: as was mentioned above, the Knights of Dol Amroth only had a claim to fame in this list because they were F4 - otherwise, everyone agreed they were just too expensive for what they were bringing to the table (especially if Imrahil wasn't in your list - but even then, they seemed a bit expensive). Men-at-Arms have always been cheaper, but with the boost up to 10pts each and being F4/D5, I don't know that the boosts to pikes this edition (+1 To Wound the mounts of charging cavalry is sweet) makes them better second-rank units than Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears (same cost) or Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears (-1pt). Still, being within 3" of Imrahil is a lot easier in an open phalanx formation if the 3" radius just has to be the second pikeman, so I think there might be a case for running these guys . . . but pretty much just with Imrahil. :(

Okay, let's go over the strengths and weaknesses of the list.

The Men of the West: Strengths and Weaknesses

We're going to start off with mobility - no matter how you build the list, having free Heroic Marches from Aragorn is always going to make a good chunk of your army mobile. If you have access to horses, a good number of your heroes can be mobile too, which is always a good thing. Depending on your infantry choices, you might lean harder into the skirmisher side of the list with bows and throwing spears or you might abandon shooting and just take "tin cans". However you choose to do it, you'll have at least one piece that can Heroic March you to where you want to be and you might even split up from there, leaving your bows behind to sit on objectives and harass the enemy while the rest move up to assault (maybe skirmishing with spears).

But a good bit of this mobility equation changes if you add Gwaihir to the mix. If, like me, you got used to the expected damage output and occasional whiffing of your mega heroes, maybe the addition of Gwaihir isn't a hard choice at all - you're already used to the all-infantry build and so having a flying monster looks pretty appealing! If, however, you've played any number of games with mounted heroes, I think the question of whether to include Gwaihir is a real thinker. There are at least a few considerations that you'll want to think through when building a list with or without Gwaihir. First, besides Aragorn (who is definitely better with an armored horse), do any of my other heroes really need horses to be effective? You probably aren't taking Elessar, Gandalf the White, AND Gwaihir in the same army, so we can assume that if you're taking Gandalf the White, you're all in on the horses train. What about Eomer? He doesn't have any bonuses that require him to be mounted - he just hits harder if he's mounted. What about Legolas? Do you need him to be mounted? It would be nice if Imrahil could take a mount, but since he can't, it's really just Aragorn, Legolas, and Eomer that are your considerations - and if you aren't taking Eomer or Legolas, then it's really just Aragorn. Is a horse for him more important than a flying monster?

The second consideration is the opportunity cost of paying for Gwaihir. I threw Gwaihir into several lists (primary or alternate) in our Bare Necessities series for the previous edition - especially in lists where he and a few Eagles could give you the speed element that some armies just lacked outright. I will say that as far as 150pt heroes go, Gwaihir is exceptional value - but as far as heroes-who-can-lead-troops go, Gwaihir is one of the worst value heroes in the game. For many competitive players last edition, that was fine - just include a cheap hero to take a cheap warband and you're golden. The same is true here: if you want to take the Men of the West to a 700pt event, Aragorn and Gwaihir will eat up almost 400pts together - and Aragorn's warband is going to push that close to 600pts (or right about 600pts if you take a real banner). 20 models at 600pts isn't a lot and taking a cheap Captain will only get you to the mid-to-high-20s at 700pts. By contrast, you could bring Eomer for about the same cost as Gwaihir, he and Aragorn could have horses, and together they could bring over 30 troops to support them. This kind of math has always been the highlight of the Men of the West list - but maybe if you can wield Gwaihir well, a sub-30-model list at 700pts could do just fine?

Our first limitation is the general loss of profiles or profile options relative to the Defenders of the Pelennor, which is the closest thing we have to this list (and the closest thing we have to the three-way-alliance that the Men of the West Legendary Legion competed with last edition). The loss is particularly felt on the Fiefdoms side of the house, which not only got limited to the four Dol Amroth profiles, but three of those profiles can't take their mounted variants . . . which is their largest claim to fame. The Rohan side of the house also lost their mounted warrior options, as well as Rohan Royal Guards (who, let's be honest, wouldn't stand up in a points comparison to Warriors of Minas Tirith in this list since everyone has Bodyguard). Warriors of Rohan are still very good, even if Captains of Rohan are kinda bleh when compared to Captains of Minas Tirith, and Eomer is a pretty good take (even if all of the other Rohan hero options have been denied to us). The Gondor side of the house sports a lot less of a selection as well, but having the three Hunters and the Twins is pretty great and Aragorn is a better support piece than he is in the Defenders list.

Speaking of heroes, the hero corps here is one of the best there is - the likes of King Aragorn, Gwaihir, Gandalf the White, and Eomer is quite good and heroes like the Twins and Legolas have remained pretty cheap despite the update to the game. Regardless of the points level you're playing, these guys are fantastic - and each of them (even Merry and Pippin!) can be a source of Dominant (2) to the warriors in this list (and the heroes themselves if they're infantry. With plenty of Strike options (with Fight Values that make the D3 boost of Heroic Strike still valuable) and potentially shooting/magic options, this hero list gives you a lot of options to field - and with the aforementioned choice of to-bring-or-not-to-bring Gwaihir, you're looking at some pretty good options for iterative developments of your list.

While the hero corps is pretty great, you're unlikely to get everyone you want in your list because most of the heroes are expensive. Aragorn probably wants a full warband, so that's gonna set you back 400+ points easily. If you take Eomer and a warband of guys, you're probably knocking on 650pts and you'll be close to that if you field alternative options like Legolas, Gimli, or the Twins. If you're taking Gwaihir, you might save some on Aragorn's warband if he was planning on having a horse, but you'll also need another hero to bring troops (probably a Captain), which puts you around 700pts. All in all, if you plan to have more than 3 heroes in your list, you're looking at dropping your numbers quite dramatically.

While most of the competitive players last edition would tell you that skirmishing with this army is a trap, this list still has a surprising number of skirmishing options. Some of this has been said above in the section on Warriors of Rohan, but to reiterate, you have bows on Warriors of Rohan and Warriors of Minas Tirith (who pay +2pts/model for +1 Fight Value and +1 Defense - I'd forego the tin-cans and go with the Rohan guys, personally), throwing spears on Warriors of Rohan (who are 1pt cheaper than Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears, where you're trading Fight Value/Defense/Shieldwall for skirmishing potential and maybe another model or two), bows on Legolas and Beregond (good and decent shooting options, respectively), and throwing weapons on Eomer and Gimli (both decent shooting options). You also have limited shooting options with Gandalf's magic, but the limit is a soft limit if he's got Shadowfax and Pippin, since you can channel 4 times with 3 of his Will points . . . that's pretty slick. You can technically shoot with Merry and Pippin's throwing stones rules . . . these aren't skirmish options, though, so I won't dwell on them here.

One last thing that you get in this list is reliable objective play thanks to Dominant (2) for anyone that is an infantry hero or is near an infantry hero. Dominant is one of the best keywords added in the new edition - it makes monsters feel more valuable, army leaders feel important for more than just victory point conditions, and occasionally gobs of troops counting as more valuable than others. This is captured really well in the new army list rule that gives infantry models Dominant (2) when near a hero - as mentioned above, this won't help in Reconnoitre, but it will help in a lot of other things (especially if you have Pippin dropped off somewhere valuable and a few archers standing near him). All you need is for a few good men to hold out to the end and if their accompanying hero sticks around, they're good to get you the win. Sometimes this rule won't matter - other times, it will single-handedly win you a game. There is a balance, though, that's needed between the number of heroes you have and the number of warriors you have - this and other things will be addressed next in the strategies section.

The Men of the West: Strategies for the Tabletop

The first thing we have to talk about is infantry formations. Regardless of whether you take Gwaihir in your list or not, you're going to have a lot of infantry in your lists (even with a hero-heavy variant of this list, your only cavalry units are Elessar, Gandalf, Eomer, and Legolas - so you're running infantry and probably a lot of them). You are incentivised to run infantry because of the Dominant (2) buff and to maximize on that ability, we want formations that are going to be tight and defensible. Warriors of Minas Tirith naturally want to be shoulder-to-shoulder to trigger Shieldwall, so making a solid wall with them should be a given. If you have an infantry melee-oriented hero (especially Captains of Minas Tirith, but also Gimli, Elladan, Elrohir, Imrahil, Aragorn/Eomer if you took Gwaihir, and to a lesser degree Beregond - there might be a better place for him), you want them embedded in the formation so that everyone around them can have Dominant (2) if it applies in the scenario while also benefitting from a solid defensive buff from Shieldwall. Your Shieldwall buff will last longer if you also have Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears in the second rank, but as has already been discussed, you could save some points and up your skirmish potential by using Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears (though in any warband with a Captain of Minas Tirith, I'd just go with Warriors of Minas Tirith all the way).

If you've got Warriors of Minas Tirith only, you want this to be as "block-like" as possible - but if you have Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears, you can do an inverted crescent formation to keep the Warriors of Minas Tirith locked tight, but giving a bit more flexibility to your Warriors of Rohan to get around the formation and engage in melee after casting their spears if it helps. There will be some match-ups where you want to have a two-on-two pairing, but in other situations, you might be able to get a stronger advantage with a wrap-and-trap of one-on-one fights (especially if Elessar is in the warband and is Combatting through some warriors or a weak hero and giving everyone a nice banner buff (and maybe a Fight Value buff).

Your archers (if you brought any) want to be in skirmish triangles in order to maximize their shooting angles - and you embed heroes like Beregond and Leoglas into these if you want the archers to benefit from Dominant (2). While archers don't necessarily need the Dominant (2) if they're sitting on back-line objectives, scenarios that have their objectives on the centerline or in the very center of the board might be a strong place for archers to camp once you've cleared the area with your "tin cans" and Aragorn/other power heroes. A late-game contest is a lot less likely to succeed if you a) have a hero in the mix and b) have Dominant (2) on all of your infantry. A hero like Merry or Pippin isn't that likely to dissuade an assault, but having multiple wounds and Fate (even with a bad combat stats) can sometimes be difficult to cut through.

You also need to pay attention to your banner bubbles - Elessar's 6" banner is very nice and if you can afford it, get a real banner as well to make sure you score VPs. These ranges, however, are not that big once you have to fight in two places. As a result, pay attention to who is getting rerolls, prioritizing heroes who can get Heroic Combats off (and factoring in how far they're going to run after the combat succeeds if you can). Aragorn's horse will give him a dominance on the board that rivals most other heroes, but it can also mean that his honor guard gets left behind if he Heroic Combats away . . . and while F4 Warriors of Minas Tirith are great, they're also not going to win a war on their own without help.

Finally, this list gives you a lot of options - so decide what options you want to leave at home. You will never find a points level where you get everything you want and you'll be torn between having high defense instead of skirmishing power, high numbers vs. lots of heroes, mounted options vs. Eagle options, and magic casting vs. multiple heavy-hitters. You can't do all of these things - so experiment with them and figure out which play style appeals the most to you. While the competitive scene might have a clear winner here, I don't know that there is one - and with the new edition being reasonably new still, I don't think a "clear meta pick" has shaken out yet. Aragorn helps all play styles of this list - high model count lists love his banner/Bodyguard/boosted FV near him once per game, hero-hammer lists love the same things (plus his ability to hammer through the enemy alongside them), skirmish lists like the mobility that March can provide them, Gandalf love the distractions/positioning he can provide, high Defense troops love arriving swiftly and winning fights more reliably, and even Gwaihir likes the banner boost and the fact that he isn't the army leader. But you won't have it all - so decide what you aren't taking and live your best life from there.

Sample Lists

At 500pts, I think an Aragorn/tin-can list is a solid start: you can get a 10-file shieldwall (or two 5-file shieldwalls) with Warriors of Minas Tirith and a Captain of Minas Tirith, along with a solitary archer and Aragorn on a horse. If you want an actual banner for VP scoring, you can drop 3 models - you can also swap the archer for a Warrior of Rohan with a shield and throwing spears if you prefer throwing weapons:

At 600pts, you can take Aragorn and the twins (Aragorn on a horse, twins are on foot sadly) and get an all-tin-cans-melee list that can engage swiftly because Aragorn and can hold for a long time because D6-7 tin cans. Something of this variety was very popular last edition - and is very cool in this edition, since the Twins can now lead troops. If you don't like the Twins, you can take Gimli and a Captain of Minas Tirith for the exact same cost (your Might will go up slightly and your Defense will go up a lot):

As we scale up to 700pts, we'll throw Gwaihir into the mix instead of the twins, which forces us into taking a Captain and more warriors - we've got sorta-fine numbers thanks to taking a lot of Rohan back-rank/shooting models and two very hard-hitting heroes with Dominant (and three heroes who can proc Dominant on others):

For those not inclined to run Gwaihir, you can get slightly more bodies (38) by running Beregond and a Captain of Minas Tirith - this list runs more of a tin-can approach than the last one does, so you can squeeze in another Warrior of Rohan with shield if you want throwing spears in the list:

As we make our way up to 800pts, we can get pretty decent numbers with 5 heroes by running Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Merry, and Pippin (I don't think Merry is good and I don't think Pippin is worth taking without Gandalf, but if you're trying to increase your Dominant (2) bubbles, they are clearly valuable additions). This list hits 36 models, which is a bit low for 800pts - consider swapping Legolas and Gimli for the twins if you want to save some cash or swap them for Beregond and a Captain of Minas Tirith (like I did in the last list) if you REALLY want to save some cash and boost your numbers:

There was a list that I was running last edition that I rather enjoyed, though those who were more successful in competitive events would say that Theodred's Guard would have done this a lot better (and they would be right - I did this with Theodred's Guard as well): lean into the shooting. What Theodred's Guard couldn't offer, however, was as close to immunity from shooting as one can get without Stalk Unseen and free Heroic Marches and a 6" banner to get your shooting units into position - and with the removal of the restriction on Gondor-leading-Gondor and Wizards-leading-nothing, you can actually do this shooting-heavy, big-hero smashing list even better than before:

This is an 800-point list, so I don't know that it will hold up to other 800pt lists, but I will say that you're feeling pretty good about being able to neutralize other big heroes - and with both Pippin and Shadowfax as heroes, you can protect a hero in certain scenarios very, VERY easily.

Conclusion

This was a delightful post to write - and I promise, the next post won't be quite so long. :) If you enjoyed this write-up (and especially if you've run this list!), drop us a note in the comments below or on Facebook at facebook.com/tmatsbg! Next time, we're staying in Gondor, but we're digging into a list that has a very, VERY slim number of profiles . . . and one of the best shooting batteries in the game. Check out what one of the most fun armies in the game right now (my take, anyway) next time - and until then, happy hobbying!