The New Age Is Begun: The Battle of Bywater List

Image Courtesy of GamesWorkshop

Hey Reader!

Welcome back to the blog! Today we're looking at the Battle of Bywater list from the Armies of Middle Earth book, aka "The Defenders of the Shire legendary legion" but with a few new twists.

In my last article we talked about The Shire army list, and while some of the models here are the same, you'd be surprised how differently this one plays from both that list and the old Defenders of the Shire legendary legion.

The Battle of Bywater: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

The list of models you have in this army list hasn't changed much from the previous edition: you still get access to the Four Travelers (Merry, Pippin, Frodo, and Sam), all of the old hobbit sculpts (with Maggot and Lobelia, ironically, being the big two here), and the new hobbit sculpts we got from Scouring of the Shire (except Lotho Sackville-Baggins, so no F5 shenanigans with Shirriffs in this list). And of course, a horde of peasants ready to do their best to defend their cabbages (or whatever it is you put on your table).

Yet while the army list looks similar, behind the veil the list is different from last edition - radically different from last edition - in almost every respect, as you'll soon see.

Army List Bonuses

There are three army bonuses tied to this list, all of which add something useful to the list. The first is the most powerful: Ambush, where you can start a warband (that doesn't have one of the Four Travelers in it) off the table, and at the end of your third Move Phase you can have it move onto the board from any point along any board edge (really useful for missions like Destroy the Supplies, Storm the Camp, etc.), or you can have them deploy fully within or touching a suitable terrain piece (ditto, but also useful for other scenarios like Domination, To the Death, etc.).

This helps to cover the biggest weakness with this army: the overwhelming amount of 4" Movement in this list. Being able to start Farmer Maggot, his dogs, and up to 9 more hobbits right next to the enemy is really nice, and can give you a shot at breaking through tough lines to get to critical objectives.

Second, hobbits gain the Woodland Creature and Mountain Dweller special rules, so while the dogs may not benefit from this, it further doubles down on helping you maneuver across the board, which you desperately need. It also makes fighting enemies near walls more reliable, as you get those benefits to Jump Tests to make sure you make it across the wall to flank enemy units, thereby also removing their bonus for defending a wall. Pretty slick.

And third, friendly Hobbit heroes benefit from Stand Fasts called by Merry and Pippin. This is nice, since some of the Courage values on your heroes are pretty bad, and Merry and Pippin have really come into their own by this time in the story, so it makes for pretty reliable Stand Fasts. They don't have the 12" Range Stand Fast (that belongs to Paladin Took still), but if you keep him within 6" of one of them it's a great "Daisy Chain" for passing Courage Tests to stay on the field.

But you might have noticed what's missing: no bonus traps this edition. So if you were one of those people (like me) who took time to make so many traps in case you were running Baldo with this list, you have my sympathy: you won't be using them. 

It also means that one of your most potent forms of board control from last edition is now gaited behind a 40pt hero, on top of the fact that you're now required to take all four of the hobbits instead of just Merry and Pippin. Now you were likely taking Frodo at least last edition, so it's not a major tax to add Sam, but it is an extra tax: Baldo is now, at best, Hero #5 for you, not Hero #3-4, and that does add up.

Profile Adjustments

There have been a lot of changes since the last edition, most of them small, but some of them very big (to the point of taking models we used to pass over to making them models you never leave home without, and in some cases possible antiquating some of them just due to how many points we already have allocated with the initial tax for the list):

• Samwise Gamgee is now up to 60pts, but he comes with the pony standard now, which is why he costs more. And having an 8" move on an attacking character is really nice in theory. And he's one of your best attackers: starting at F3 with an elven-made weapon and Heroic Strike doesn't sound great, because it's not, but it's among the best you have, and with 2 Attacks, rerolling failed to-wounds near Rosie, and the chance at a free Heroic Combat to save Frodo and/or Rosie (and Sworn Protector to both of them, so effectively Fearless as long as you keep one of them around), it's not bad. Just keep in mind that with that 8" move it's easy to get out of position of your bonuses from them, so keep an eye on that.
• Merry and Pippin are now 65pts and 60pts respectively (as you should always take the shield on Merry; whether you take the elven cloaks is a matter of taste), and they're required to upgrade the militia and archers in their warbands to Battlin' Brandybucks and Tookish Hunters respectively (lots of respectives going on here), but those are good upgrades, so no problems there. What you get in return is 1) ponies, so there's that, 2) +1 Might on them (so they're 2/2/2, which is respectable), and they're now F4 base, which, considering the drop in Heroic Strike, is nice but still a poor place to start against a true power hero. But good news: you have an angry lady to take care of that for you (more on that shortly).
• Frodo is now 70pts (so cost increases across all members of the party), but he gets the pony, which basically makes up the cost. He's still a 6" banner (which does benefit in its overall footprint from him being on the pony), and he's still got Heroic Defence, though he's also still only got the 1 Might, so make it count.
• Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, as we noted last time, is still mostly the same, but she added A Stern Scolding to her list of abilities, which allows her, once per turn, to spend a Will Point and target an enemy model (that is not a Monster, Chariot, or War Beast) within 6" and LOS: on a 2+ roll the target cannot activate this turn, and its Attack characteristic is reduced to 1 if it fights in a combat. This is huge: it means you can turn Boromir, Azog, Thorin Oakenshield, Thranduil, Aragorn, Elendil, etc., into a pillar for up to 4 turns (as she's up to 4 Will now!), buying much-needed time for your fragile army to do their job. The meme character has now become a solid contender for a place in your army, which is great game design.
• Farmer Maggot gained the ability (for +5pts, bringing him to 50pts) to ignore the -1 penalty for fighting with a two-handed weapon while within range of an objective (very useful), and also picked up a rule for his dogs: while within 6" of Maggot, his dogs treat him as a banner (which is nice, because they used to be excluded from hobbit banners before since they didn't have the hobbit keyword), and they can reroll failed To Wound rolls (which is also nice, since they are also some of the few models above S2 in your army). So for 5pts, this is a small but very wonderful change, and he's a lead contender for your ambush unit, since he's one of the best attackers you have.
• Hamfast Gaffer Gamgee is still sitting at 35pts, but he got a reworking of his flowers, which is for the best both from an ease of mechanics perspective and a power curve perspective. First, the flowers benefit every friendly model within 3" of the flowers (and isn't gaited by profile), and more than that, it affects shooting attacks and combat wounding rolls, which is awesome. But in addition, the flowers can't be destroyed anymore! So you get to use them all game! This makes them far more useful in objective play, and you can setup attacks far better because you have three invincible 25mm tokens that grant you a reroll on failed wounding rolls for your shooting as you approach, and then added damage potential once your close.
• Rosie Cotton is one of the most improved characters of this edition in my mind, going from "include her and keep her near Samwise if you plan to use Samwise" to, "If you're playing a 300pt game, consider spending 20pts on her even with all the other heroes you've already purchased," which is a huge step-up. First off, she's still great to have with Sam: while Samwise is within 3" of her, he can reroll failed to wound rolls in combat, which makes his combo with Frodo a good bit more reliable (as you can get a free Heroic Combat, ideally win the duel, reroll failed wounds to slay the person(s) in his fight, and then rush toward Frodo). Second, and the big reason she's on the short list of auto-includes, friendly hobbits treat her as a banner, and she counts as a banner for victory conditions. So this doesn't help the dogs, but it helps everyone else.
• Fredegar Bolger is still 10pts, which is not bad for effectively being a hobbit militia (4pts) with +1 Fight Value, +1 Wound, +1 Will, +1 Fate, Dominant 2, and the ability to move on a turn where he fails a Terror test, though he still can't charge anyone. All of that is great, and most of that is a bump up from what he had last edition.
• Paladin Took got two major changes from last edition: first, Tookish Hunters add +1 to wound in close combat within 6" of him (which is nice), and second Tookish Hunters no longer add +1 Fight Value, but instead can reroll 1s to wound with shooting attacks (which is arguably better, as F3 is not that useful this edition considering how many models bumped up to F4-5).
• Will Whitfoot has changed, and definitely for the better in this list (even if it's up in the air for The Shire list): last edition he was a 6" banner when he spent a Will Point, offering you a banner option that was not Frodo (so you could have two in your list). This edition, he can spend a Will Point to add +1 to the Fight Value of your warriors within 3". It's a useful thing (and with Frodo being required and Rosie being a very good take, it's a good thing he's not a Banner-at-the-Expense-of-Will-Points, because you'd never take him), and you can get F4 Shirriffs (hopefully in range of Holfoot, who we'll discuss shortly), but with only 3 Will, it's not something you can do forever, so make those turns count. The big thing he has going in his favor is that he's a Leader (Shirriffs), which means you can actually take Hobbit Shirriffs in his warband, which are some of your best troops.
• Folco Boffin went up by +5pts (to 25pts), but he picked up a new rule that is probably worth it (especially in this army): when a hobbit hero (which is everyone) within 6" spends a Might Point, they can roll a D6 and on a 6 the Might Point is free and is not reduced from their store. For an army that needs to be moving first, this is a really good bonus. It means that, since Frodo spends Folco's Will Points to call Heroic Moves with Folco's other ability you can't trigger this new rule with that rule, but that's fine: it means that Folco is your Might Preserver, and that's good.
• Holfoot Bracegirdle is still your Shirriff captain, removing the -1 penalty to win the duel when your shirriffs two-hand (which is nice), and he's still a good attacker: still F3, dropped to S2 instead of S3, but he's up to 2 Attacks, which is arguably better.
• Robin Smallburrow became better than he was before: it used to be that his warband could put a +/-1 on its roll to arrive onto the table; now he gives you the ability to choose the board edge/deployment area as long as his warband only has shirriffs (even if he's not on the table, which is nice), which is always better than a random roll (and he can lead shirriffs, which is always nice).

There are models that got no changes: Farmer Tolman Cotton (your only access to a spear, and a 2 Might hero for 35pts, and a reroll of 1s to dueling rolls, all of which is great), Baldo Tulpenny (still great at adding traps, which this list cannot get otherwise, and throwing stones with excellent accuracy), Hobbit Militia (a super cheap 4pt warrior with a good ranged attack and magic defense), Hobbit Archers (cheap archers with a good Shoot Value, but only an 18" range and S2), and Hobbit Shirriffs (cheap F3 infantry with hand-and-a-half weapons). And with that, you have your options: a wide range of hearty fellows and lasses ready to do their best.

The Battle of Bywater: Strengths and Weaknesses

This list does numbers - with heroes that overwhelmingly cost 50pts or less, and warriors that cost only 4-6pts per man, you can easily hit 30-40 models even at low points levels. Sure, they die in droves, but you can run lists that are easily +20 models over your opponent without even trying.

The primary weakness of this list is, of course, resilience. With the overwhelming majority of the force being D3, even Fate Points dotting the battlefield, you're going to burn through wounds very quickly with this list. So just be aware: models are going to be lost, heavy shooting armies can really hurt your model count, and there's no Gandalf to help you out here.

On the positive side, you have a lot of tricks and tools: between being able to deny power pieces the ability to activate (with Lobelia), Stand Fast denial to your enemy (also Lobelia), improved deployment (with Robin), the ability to boost Fight Value (with Will, giving you 5pt F4 S2 with +1 to wound models with no penalty to win the duel!), three 6" banners (from Rosie, Frodo, and Maggot for his dogs), access to free Heroic Combats (with Sam), resource regeneration (with Folco), and rerolls for dueling and wounding rolls in various ways and phases (with Farmer Cotton, Gaffer Gamgee, Baldo, Maggot for his dogs, and Tookish Hunters), not to mention Stand Fasts all over the place, all within the context of a Fearless Merry who can keep other heroes and their Stand Fasts on the board.

This list has good shooting, mostly because, while other armies have restrictions on the number of throwing weapons they can combine with ranged weapons, hobbit throwing stones are not counted as throwing weapons. So beyond Maggot's dogs, everyone else has a ranged attack. It's not great (8" range, S1, no moving and shooting to use it), but hey: it's an attack, and for the round before the lines clash, you have a high ceiling for danger.

Finally, there's a lot of flavor in this army. You've got your "Waistcoat Brigade" full of fun and interesting characters, all helping out to make for a wildly unique army list. Sure, it's a lot of keep straight (so you'll need mental fortitude for multiple games in one event day), but if you take the time to learn it, it's a thing of beauty.

The Battle of Bywater: Strategies for the Tabletop

First things first, let's talk about army composition: in general, I'd recommend c. 25-33% bows: a lot of commentators will probably tell you to max out at 33%, but my experience is that the average board's terrain density has increased, so archers are useful, don't get me wrong (and the bump to Tookish Hunters under Pippin and Paladin is really good this edition), but their effectiveness is going to be heavily tied to the severity of terrain density on the board. So you can totally take a lot of these guys, but your ROI on them will vary.

I do recommend substantial numbers of Hobbit Shirriffs if you can; you can take them with Holfoot (who is a shoe in for damage capability), Will (useful for making people F4 on a few turns of the game), and Robin (could be nice if you plan to do the deployment game).

With these in mind, your top choices for heroes are going to be The Four Travelers (because you have to take them), Rosie Cotton, Farmer Maggot, Lobelia Sackville-Baggins (I still can't believe I'm saying that, even over a year into this edition), and Holfoot Bracegirdle in that order. And good news: that's only (oof, "only") 385pts. But even if you're only playing at 500pts (as you'll see with our lists below) your model count isn't bad, and with 8 heroes sporting over 10 Might, it's not a bad start if you're thinking you'll need to control the board.

Beyond this, Folco Boffin is a strong choice for cheap Heroic Moves, Farmer Cotton is a good choice for backing up the line and adding more Might, Will Whitfoot offers you a limited time Fight Value bump, and Gaffer Gamgee offers some good damage output. Paladin Took could also be nice if you fancy having some more Tookish Hunters, and keeping your Tookish Hunters slaying even when engaged in close combat.

Next, let's discuss battle line, because this is hard to do. To start, you can put archers on the wings, and it's not a bad idea in a vacuum, but in practice you may not get a lot of shots that way. I recommend interspersing them into your ranks, so that they can take useful positions to cover approaches toward your force.

Related to that, your shirriffs must be near the front, kept near Holfoot and Will (if you took him for that Fight Value bump). So plan on only having decent Fight Value for a few turns near a specific part of the battlefield, and timing that as your time to break through.

In general, since you don't have any spears (beyond Farmer Cotton), try not to let the enemy charge 5-6 of your men at a time: you want the enemy fully committed along your line (so you have higher chances of winning fights), or only a small number of your men of your choosing engaged in close combat. You're likely to lose a lot of duels, and a lot of your men will fall if you lose a duel, so try not to get whittled down by the enemy as best you can.

On throwing stones: you're likely to get 1-3 wounds per game with these, so don't plan on them doing much, but hey: quantity has a quality all its own, and it's basically free on your men, so yay!

For speed and mobility let's note first that you have access to Four Heroic March heroes, and they have 7 Might between them. There's a clear hierarchy in which you should use them in my opinion: Robin Smallburrow (because his 1 Might isn't great for much else), Holfoot Bracegirdle (he's a good fighter, but can get bottlenecked against good enemies), Merry Brandybuck (because you'd probably prefer to use his Might for Heroic Strikes), and Pippin Took (because he can reroll his wounds against monsters and heroes, so he's the best shot you have at removing big enemies, and you'll probably need Might for that). But hey: at least you have access to Heroic March, which is better than some!

And on that point, plan your movement a few turns in advance. Since you only have a 4" move, breakthroughs aren't really possible (except inasmuch as a tide of troops can push through, or the ponies/dogs can break through), so if you know you need to get to a place, be planning several turns in advance how far you need to move, because your margin for error is very low.

Furthermore, remember not to go too deep into heroes: you will need bodies to hold the ground. So yes, while it might be cool to go for that 3-turn Fight 4, passing up on Will might means 8-10 more men, which could be more important than a temporary +1 Fight Value. Don't get distracted: cover the bases that have to be covered, but don't skimp on numbers.

Sample Lists

To start off, we'll take a look at a 500pt "Budget" list for The Battle of Bywater, focusing on numbers with enough tools to carry the day:

The list begins with The Four Travelers, giving us a banner (Frodo), an infantry mauler (Sam), a bunker hero (Merry), and a hero fighter (Pippin). It then adds Rosie (to pump up Sam, add a second banner, and count for VPs), Holfoot Bracegirdle with some shirriffs for a bit of a soft anvil that you can use for damage, and Farmer Maggot for a bit of extra speed, and a good choice for the ambush unit.

Not a lot of shooting, but with 36 models and a lot of Might, it's not bad.

At 650pts we can afford to bulk out some of the utility and focus on improving our ability to win fights and reliably wound models:

We've added Lobelia to cover us against the big heroes that will certainly be present here, and Folco for Heroic Moves and the chance to regenerate Might (which we'll need). But we've also really bulked out our numbers: we've added +24 models for only +150pts, giving every warband at least 4 warriors, and we've gone up to 9 Shirriffs alongside Holfoot, so we've got a decent group of fighters who can dish out the damage. And with 12 Tookish Hunters helping us out, we should be able to reliably winnow down enemy warbands before they close.

And as we look at 800pts, we culminate by adding Will Whitfoot for bumping up the Fight Value on some of our Shirriffs to F4. Add in a few more bodies, and you've got an 84-man-strong army:

This list presents a lot of challenges to an opponent: a very high body count, a lot of dice at range, a lot of support abilities, and the ability to shut down big heroes on top of that. And with Maggot leading 6 militia and his dogs, he's got a strong contingent for dropping in behind the enemy, all of which is good.

Conclusion

Is this as powerful as the previous edition? Possibly - we're down the traps (which were a great way to slow down people's forces, bringing them closer to your speed), Heroic Strike is worse, and while we have some useful tools, the overall jump to F4 is going to punish you in close combat more than before.

But you know what, running around 60-80 models does come with its own benefits, and it could be worth running. I tend to prefer The Shire over The Battle of Bywater, purely because Gandalf more than makes up for the heroes you lose, but this one still has a lot of tricks, and a lot more models. So if you fancy running a Waistcoat Brigade, give these guys a try!

Watching the stars,

Centaur 

"We watch the skies for the great tides of evil or change that are sometimes marked there." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix