The New Age Is Begun: The Road to Helm's Deep Army List

Good morning gamers,

This is the second to last Rohan list we'll be covering (we have a few more to do, but having been in Rohan for most of December and all of January, we need a change of pace, ey?) and this one is an intriguing one. I'll be honest, I think there are some significant drawbacks to taking this list, but it also has some unique abilities built into it and it has plenty of room to scale out to various points levels. Let's see what we get in this list (and what we can do here that we can't do in other lists)!

The Road to Helm's Deep: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list is closest to the generic Rohan list of the last edition, but if you include Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli in this list, you would have had to run a Convenient Alliance with the Fellowship of the Ring in the last edition. Your units are pretty standard - Theoden, Gamling, Hama, and Captains for the Rohan side of the house, along with the Three Hunters - and you can lead Rohan Royal Guards with Theoden/Gamling/Hama and Riders of Rohan (and maybe Rohan Outriders, if you're playing with Legacy profiles) with the others.

Army List Bonuses

Like most Rohan lists, Riders of Rohan don't count towards your bow limit, so if you want to go shooting-heavy (and/or cavalry-heavy), you can. This list also gets the fairly-standard rule of +1 Strength on the Charge for its Cavalry models, but unlike the Ride Out list, this bonus is limited to Rohan Cavalry models (so if you take Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli . . . no dice).

There are two cool things that this list offers. First, if you take both Legolas and Gimli in your list, Gimli may begin as a passenger for Legolas. While mounted on Legolas's horse, Legolas gets rules similar to what Eowyn and Gandalf gain when they have Merry or Pippin mounted with them - Legolas goes up to 3 Attacks and can borrow Gimli's Might/Will/Fate (the Might can't be used to boost shooting rolls). Normally, if a passenger dismounts, they can't do anything - but if Gimli dismounts, he can activate as normal, which is great for making sure that he gets to charge into someone and fight.

Additionally, if one of your heroes dismounts voluntarily or is forcibly dismounted during the game, the hero can end its Move in base contact with a friendly Cavalry Warrior model who is not engaged and "take the horse." The dismounted Warrior model is placed where the Hero was and the mounted Hero model is placed where the Warrior was. This is SUPER good for making sure that your heroes keep up their damage as the game goes on - and also disincentivizes your opponent from attacking your horses if you have warrior support nearby.

Profile Adjustments

These are mostly new profiles, but there are some interesting design choices here:

• Theoden, King of Rohan hasn't changed in price, but he's lost a lot of his previous weight thanks to the Arise, Riders of Rohan rule transferring to any Rohan General (which, I'll go on record to say, was a good change). Herugrim got better (it auto-wins ties when the combat is drawn instead of rerolling 1s even when the Fight Value of Theoden is lower than his foe), he can lead Rohan Royal Guards (which is particularly good in this list), and he still has a 12" Stand Fast. In this list, however, Theoden is capped at D5 and Snowmane is only D4 . . . so he's far more fragile in this list than he is in any other Rohan list!
• Aragorn - Strider saw . . . a lot of changes. First and foremost, I asked TWICE (and many times via email) for Aragorn's sword to become a hand-and-a-half sword and by golly they did it. :) Aragorn also got the boost to F7, has the Ring of Barahir now for some added magical resiliency, added Resistant to Magic for even MORE magical resiliency to his already impressive set of special rules, and (wait for it) didn't increase in price at all . . . take Aragorn, everyone, take Aragorn . . . unless you don't have the points, of course. Also, Heroic Strength is even better now for Aragorn in this list and makes up for not having access to Anduril.
• Legolas Greenleaf got a 2+ shoot value (so he's gonna be hitting a lot - as usual), he ignores the moving-and-shooting penalty while he's got the Infantry keyword (that's . . . really cool), he can shoot while Engaged in Combat (up to three times - including shooting at the guys that he's Engaged with . . . also very cool), and his Final Count rule got changed to boosting his To Wound roll while Gimli is ahead on the kill count, which is WAY better than boosting his To Hit roll in the previous edition. It's arguable that his Pinpoint Shot is less powerful than it used to be, since he doesn't Hit on a 2+ into Blinding Light anymore (but will still pass any in-the-way tests he needs to take if he passes the To Hit roll). This applies to a single-shot only, not to his usual three shots . . . thank goodness. Take Legolas, everyone, take Legolas . . .
• Gimli, Son of Gloin is basically unchanged, but got a third Fate point (which is helpful) and still boasts a very strong profile. Like Legolas, he avoided a price-hike, which is also really good. He's the hard-hitting melee tank that we know and love . . . but at the same time, with all of the improvements to Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas, and Gandalf (to say nothing of Sam), having basically the same Gimli profile does feel a bit like someone got left behind . . . must be his short legs or something. Still, a third Fate point on a high-Defense model in an era where Piercing Strike isn't a thing is most welcome. In this list, Gimli has an interesting place, because he can make Legolas into a more effective cavalry piece AND gives you the option of another hitting hero. Are he and Legolas a better deal than Aragorn (slightly more expensive, but able to lead the same number of troops)? Maybe.
• Captains of Rohan are basically the same as they always were - they can't take bows or throwing spears anymore, but they're still cheap fortitude heroes who can be D7 with heavy armor and shields. Without Arise, Riders of Theoden/Rohan, these guys have capped out at F4, which is fine-not-great into warriors or heroes. Still, they're cheap Heroic March heroes, but I think you have better choices in this list.
• Gamling, Captain of Rohan got the reduction from 3 Might to 2 Might reduction that a lot of heroes experienced this edition, his banner now has a larger radius (6", which is great) but also restores Might on the roll of a 6 when they're used instead of regenerating 1 Might point each turn. This . . . makes the Might restoration a lot less reliable, but potentially can restore Might before a hero is out and can restore more than 1 Might point each turn . . . potentially. He still remains a difficult banner hero to kill (especially in this list) who has access to Heroic March (as does Theoden), so he might still be worth taking in lists. Personally, I think the greatest thing he does is allow players who really like Rohan Royal Guards to run a lot of them - but your ability to spam mounted Rohan Royal Guards is going to be limited by basically any points level.
• Hama, Captain of Rohan is only featured in one other list and despite being mounted in the Two Towers film (and, you know, being a Rohirrim), he's infantry only because that's the only model we've got. His profile is well-priced, he can lead (and if you take him, probably WILL lead) Rohan Royal Guards, and while Theoden is alive and on the battlefield, he will be Fearless thanks to Sworn Protector and he and all Rohan Royal Guards within 6" of him count as having Dominant (2). Frankly, there will be far fewer Rohan Royal Guards in this list than in the Kingdom of Rohan (thanks to them all having to take mounts), but this guy is still a decent pick if you want a cheap Captain.
• Rohan Royal Guards went up by 1pt and didn't get anything from it besides the Spear Mastery special rule. They can be fielded by Helm alone in this list, which means if you want a lot of them, you have to fill his warband with them (Rythbyrt was running Rohan lists with 20 of these guys on foot in the last edition - you can almost do that here). These guys are a little pricey, but they're base F4 with F5 on the charge (while within 12" of your General), they're D6, and in this list (like most of the other ones), they're S4 on the Charge. Take these guys if you want to or leave them at home - I think both are perfectly fine, depending on how much you like . . .
• Riders of Rohan are virtually unchanged from last edition - they still cost 14pts each, but they picked up Spear Mastery (so they can spear support if they get dismounted) and they simultaneously got a nerf in that only 1/3 of them can take throwing spears (since bow limit and throwing weapon limit are two different things). They don't have great courage, but they get F4/S4 on the charge and have built-in skirmish options. All in all, I'm happy that these guys didn't increase in price and I think they're in a pretty good place overall.
• Rohan Outriders are very similar to how they were last edition - they cost 1pt less per model than Riders of Rohan, they do count towards your bow limit (so you'll need to field at least 2 Rohan Royal Guards if you want to field more than one of these guys), and their defense is lower (in general) because they don't have shields. If you like these guys and are allowed to take them, take a few - but you'll be limited by how much you lean into Rohan Royal Guard, so I wouldn't expect you to be able to field very many.

It's a pretty slim list - and while it's got more profiles than the Ride Out list, Theoden, Aragorn, and Legolas are more vulnerable in this list (no additional armor options for any of them). So is this a list worth running? Let's take a look at what its strengths and weaknesses are to find out the answer to that.

The Road to Helm's Deep: Strengths and Weaknesses

I'm going to start off with a weakness (which I usually don't do) that needs to be called out at the start: you will be working with vulnerable heroes in this list. Even if you just take Theoden and Aragorn (as I recommended in the Ride Out list a while ago), you're relying on D5 heroes and probably a mix of D5-6 warriors to carry the day. D5 is fine against S2 bows, but it's not great and it's certainly not going to hold up to anything that's S3 or above - being trapped and whiffing a dueling roll is certain death (or at least VP-coughing) for you, so you'll have to be mindful about where your heroes are placed.

As a strength, however, this list is still a skirmish list that can play keep-away incredibly well. If all of your Rohan Royal Guards have throwing spears, you can have everyone except Theoden shoot if you start off with Aragorn (who has a bow in this list by default) and/or Legolas. These two heroes will provide you with a lot of Might and can make sure that your cavalry are moving as quickly as possible to stay out of reach of the enemy. Even if you opt for Gimli instead of Aragorn, you'll still have a shooting weapon from him if he dismounts - one that can be used on the charge, since it's a throwing weapon. Finally, none of these shooting heroes will be your General, so you have little to worry about over where they go and how they choose to engage.

Another simple vulnerability in this list is that you lack the Kingdom of Rohan's army list bonus that makes the Horse Lord save work on a 5+ - yes, you can dismount warriors in order to remount heroes, but that hero needs to take a turn off of fighting to get back on a horse (because even if they charge an enemy model while ending their move touching a friendly mounted Warrior model, the hero takes the place of the mounted guy, so he'd be out of combat). It's a big trade and while the hero corps in the Kingdom of Rohan lacks some of the hitting power of Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, it also has the option for an infantry shieldwall to support the harder-to-dismount heroes This isn't a dealbreaker, but it is a weakness - it would have been nice to have a boost to Horse Lord and the ability to remount . . . maybe that would have been too much though . . .

Another strength to this list is that . . . well, you can remount your heroes. This isn't necessarily a good thing all the time, but if you happen to lose a horse early in the game, you can take the time to get the hero remounted before they're losing combat opportunities (especially if you're going with a skirmish-oriented build). While taking time out during the scrum is unlikely to pay dividends, it's probably always a good idea to get Theoden on a horse (he becomes a lot more potent if he's mounted than if he's on foot - and he's going to lose more fights if he's not mounted, which exacerbates his lower Defense!) - but if Aragorn or Legolas happens to be dismounted once the fighting is in earnest, you're probably not taking the time to get them back on a horse.

The final strength of this list is that because your heroes don't have as many options they can take (or start with), you're able to buy more Warriors than you'd be able to otherwise in an all-cavalry list. Aragorn will cost you the same as he does in Ride Out (because he needs to take the bow and can't take the armor), Legolas will cost you 5pts less (because he can't take the armor), and Theoden will save you 15pts because he can't take the upgrade to heavy armor, the armor on Snowmane, or the shield - this means you'll save 15-20pts, depending on who you take. This only translates into one more guy, but it's one more guy than you had before OR 4-5 upgrade Riders of Rohan into Rohan Royal Guards than you had before.

The Road to Helm's Deep: Strategies for the Tabletop

More so than any other Rohan list in the game, this list wants to skirmish with the enemy, whittling down the enemy numbers from afar and avoiding combat for as long as possible. Even if you're running the Riders of Eomer list, you're looking for that "big charge" that will pivot your game from skirmishing into chomping in melee - but with this list, even if you have Aragorn or Gimli in your list, you're really focused on skirmishing. Yes, your Rohan Royal Guards are devastating on the charge. Yes, Aragorn and Gimli will kill far more models with their melee weapons than a standard bow and throwing axes will do (which cannot be fired while he's a passenger). Yes, Legolas is no slouch in combat (especially while Gimli is piled in behind him). But the army itself will crumble to pieces if you "just charge" - and Theoden is very likely to go down with the ship (like Bernard Hill did in Titanic, actually). So . . . stay away from the enemy and skirmish for as long as you can.

While skirmishing and shooting is all fine and good, use your speed and skirmishing potential to work towards scenario objectives. The safest way to skirmish with the enemy is to move up to where you can shoot them (24" for basically everyone with a bow/Elf bow), move at half speed backwards so you can still deal damage to the enemy, and then eventually stand and shoot when you have nowhere else to go and your opponent can't get out of your bow range. I've done this many times . . . and lost many scenarios because I wasn't where the objectives were. "Kiting" armies that move around the board and try not to get caught are fun, but you have to be moving towards the objectives - and since bow-armed skirmishers can only move at half-speed, this will sometimes mean foregoing shooting and moving 10" so you get clearance for a few more turns.

Like in most cavalry armies, Heroic Combats are your best heroic action (those and Heroic Moves, of course). While most cavalry lists will rely on Heroic Combats to get extra kills in with their mounted heroes (and you can certainly do that with Aragorn/Legolas in this list if you want to), one other very helpful use of Heroic Combats is to have a hero charge into enemy models that are getting close to your position (when you're moving second, of course), declare a Heroic Combat, kill their foes, and then jump away to join your retreating warriors again. This will often result in more dead units than your archery can do AND will force your opponent to adjust his battle line if he doesn't want to have a thin line of men charging at your cavalry (and now that not all units can take shields on their spearmen, it's possible that these units will be more vulnerable to your shooting attacks).

This army is a bit fragile, so make sure you use cover to shield your army from retaliatory archery. Skirmishing with S2 bows is actually quite hard (check out an old math post on how many bows you should be shooting for - see what I did there? - in list building to have a good chance at killing a single model each turn). You're going to need time to work and you'll probably need to eventually get in a clean-up charge to really get the casualties flowing (that and using Heroic Combats as outlined above). Should you be dismounted by enemy archery, having cover nearby can be very helpful for managing your fights and buying you time for some extra shooting (though with Riders of Rohan, you will have to decide whether keeping the bow or the shield is more valuable once you're dismounted).

I would also encourage you to pick heroes who help you with your shooting - in particular, Aragorn and Legolas (and Gimli if you have Legolas already). The great thing about these three heroes is not only that it's really cool to take them thematically, but they're also ranged threats as well as solid melee threats. They're also price-comparable to characters like Gamling who can't skirmish and are a good cut above heroes like Hama and Captains of Rohan (especially now that those guys don't have F5 on the charge). While the Three Hunters don't benefit from the Strength buff on the Charge (like two of them do in Ride Out), they're still a good alternative to the rather limited Rohan hero selection. Speaking of which . . .

My final - and very regrettable - piece of advice is that you leave Gamling at home - I love the guy, but that's just how it is. He's expensive, he's not really playing the game that your army wants to play, his Might regen is unreliable, and while he's a very resilient banner option, there's a strong case to make that you'd rather have a banner that you can hide out of sight/reach and just head-hunt enemy banners instead. I love the guy - and I think the more you lean into Rohan Heroes, the better he is - but don't run him in this list.

Okay, let's get into some sample lists!

Sample Lists

Our first list is a 500pt list that features Theoden and Legolas - I've left Gimli at home so that I can reach (wait for it) 20 models, though only two of them are Rohan Royal Guards:

The shooting in this list is ridiculous - it's got 16 bows, Legolas's 3 shots with an Elf bow, and two throwing spears at FIVE HUNDRED POINTS! With your model count and your opponent's model count roughly equal (and Legolas being able to reliably snipe enemy banners that remain visible to him), what's a man to do against such reckless hate?!?!?! As we scale up, I've decided to pass on Aragorn and add Gimli, along with three more warriors:

This list is very much playing the same game - we've fleshed out Theoden's warband a little more and Legolas is now more deadly in combat (and if you're doing a cleanup charge, you can even dismount Gimli, which is cool). We have spent 16 points on the Rohan Royal Guards improvement, so if you wanted one extra model (and a throwing spear on one Rider of Rohan), you could downgrade all of them to Riders of Rohan - your choice. On the flip side, if you want to have more Riders of Rohan, you can trade 4 Riders of Rohan for 3 Rohan Royal Guards - but that's the max you can reach because of how the throwing-spear limit works (and you'll actually be down 2pts since you won't be able to add any more throwing spears).

Scaling up to 800pts, I've decided to drop Aragorn into the list (replacing Gimli - sorry, man) and boosting the list up to 29 models - and everyone but Theoden can shoot:

Is this better than the Ride Out list? I don't know - but to be fair, it's playing a very different game. It has plenty of backline holders/rushers with the Riders of Rohan, still has a good selection of grenade heroes, and Theoden doesn't have to engage until the enemy has been softened up - what's not to like? I mean . . . you might not like a lot of things if you don't get to play the keep-away game or if the archery gods hate you, but I can't help that . . .

Conclusion

And that's my attempt at a fair-but-generally-optimistic look at one of the lesser-used Rohan lists in the game. If you've run this list and have thoughts on it, let me know in the comments below! In our next post, we'll be wrapping up Rohan for now with the old-school go-to for Rohan players, the Riders of Theoden. Yes, I've been saving this one because it was super dominant in the last edition, but with the rise of Hatred (Rohan) in competitive lists and a general uptick in the cost of some of their go-to heroes (and an uptick on all of their mounts!), this list has seen a bit of a recession. Find out why this list is definitely still worth playing next time - and until then, happy hobbying!