The New Age Is Begun: the Defenders of the Pelennor Army List

Good morning gamers,

This month is "Pelennor month" and we've covered the Fiefdoms (lots of Gondor units with special take-this-hero-to-get-these-warriors rules), the Grief of Eomer (a mix of Gondor and Rohan units, led by two smashy heroes), and the Return of the King (all of the ghosts with the Three Hunters thrown in). Today, we're taking all of those units - plus a bunch of others who show up in the Atop the Walls list - and putting them into one monster list! In trade for this greatly expanded roster, we're going to have a single special rule . . . but don't let that knowledge cramp your style. The list is very strong and gives veteran players a lot of options for list building. Let's see what we have to work with today!

The Defenders of the Pelennor: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

There are a ton of profiles in this list - the full list is provided in the profile adjustment section below. Suffice it to say that if you're looking for someone from Minas Tirith, the Fiefdoms, Rohan, or the Rangers who was fighting in the War of the Ring, chances are good that you'll find them in this list.

Army List Bonuses

This list has some army building restrictions - none of which are unique to this list. Your Rohan Warriors have to be led by Rohan Heroes, your Gondor Warriors need to be led by Gondor Heroes, and your Dunharrow Warriors have to be led by a Dunharrow Hero or one of the Three Hunters. The omission in this list is that the Rangers don't have the ability to lead anyone - they're included because of their appearance in the Return of the King book, where they led Clansmen of Lamedon (and other Fiefdoms militia from the coast), so it seems to me that they should be able to lead other units (maybe if there are no Dunharrow units in your list to be book-accurate?).

Beyond this, there's only one rule: each Hero in your army gets to declare a free Heroic Combat once per game. This is a really great rule since a) it's free, so Grima can't make it cost extra Might, b) it affects all heroes regardless of their affiliations, and c) it's easy to keep track of for both you and your opponent. On its face, this is weaker than the Riders of Theoden army list (where you get a once-per-game Heroic Combat on a single turn if Theoden is still alive, but also get +1 Strength on the Charge) and probably weaker than the Return of the King (where you get Anduril for free and F4 on some of your Warriors), but overall, it helps this list a lot in that you can take the list in any direction and you won't be fighting against the army list bonus.

So It Begins, Part 3: Plant the Charges

Good morning gamers,

We're back for our third scenario in our custom Helm's Deep campaign. Today, the Uruk-Hai are trying to blow up the culvert with some fancy explosives! Can Aragorn and his friends kill all three torch-bearing Berserkers before the wall is blown?

Plant the Charges (War in Rohan, p. 28)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario:

• Forces of Good: Mostly The Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• Forces of Evil: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 4 Uruk-Hai Captains
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 8 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
• 3 Demolition Teams

This scenario requires Evil to blow up the Deeping Wall via the culvert, while Good needs to kill all three of the torch-carrying Berserkers (hereafter referred to as "torch-boyz"). I will say from the outset that Gorgoroth was watching us set up, and he told Centaur, "You know, you should just keep one of your Berserkers with a torch really far back." Centaur was like, "Yes, I should - but this is scenario play." So . . . for you meta gamers out there, enjoy the resulting fireworks display as both Centaur and I go all-out for not-a-draw!

The New Age Is Begun: the Return of the King Army List

Good morning gamers,

One of the most popular Legendary Legions last edition was one of the first Legendary Legions that was released: the Return of the King. This list is really easy to collect - just get the Three Hunters, the King of the Dead with Heralds, and a box of the Warriors of the Dead and you're pretty much golden (especially if you use one of the Heralds as a banner-carrying Warrior of the Dead). When all is said and done, that's not a lot to spend (by wargaming standards) and you have a perfectly functional, durable army. Today, we're looking to see if that inexpensive army is actually worth taking - and if so, how you do it. Let's dive in and see what's cooking in the Vale of Erech!

The Return of the King: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list requires us to take both Aragorn and the King of the Dead - these are two heroes that we'd probably want to take anyway (and if you don't want to take the King of the Dead, consider the list that we're looking at next week instead). In addition to these two, we have Legolas, Gimli, and Heralds of the Dead as our heroes (Heralds being the only generic hero option) and we have Warriors of the Dead and Riders of the Dead for our warrior choices.

I think this list lost a real opportunity by not including other options - namely Dunedain/Rangers of the North as heroes in any list and Angbor the Fearless as a required choice (instead of the King of the Dead) and Clansmen of Lamedon if you don't take the Dead. The addition of the Lamedon contingent allows you to do the Book-accurate part of Aragorn and his men arriving at the Pelennor (the Dead help them get the black ships from the Corsairs, but don't actually come to the Pelennor). I guess if you want to play with that list . . . come back next week. :)

Army List Bonuses

There are two army list bonuses that center around Aragorn and one for the King of the Dead. Aragorn gets Anduril for free (a 40pt value) and this helps him keep up with the absurdly low wounding difficulties of the Dead. Additionally, friendly Dunharrow Warriors will get +1 Fight Value while within 3" of him, which means some of your warriors (but not many at all) will be F4 . . . that's something that you used to have to get with spearmen before and now you're getting it for free - yaye!

The King of the Dead picks up a niche rule that allows him to spend a Will point when he Charges to force each enemy model within 3" of him to pass a Courage test or move as far as possible directly away from the King of the Dead. This is what Instill Fear used to do last edition - and if you're not keeping the King of the Dead from being shut down by magic, this gives you a good use for his 6 Will points.

The New Age Is Begun: the Grief of Eomer Army List

Good morning gamers,

Last week, we looked at the Fiefdoms army list and today, we're truncating down the Fiefdoms side of the house and adding in some Rohan units as we look at the Grief of Eomer army list. This list finds its origin in a scenario from the Gondor at War supplement from the last edition and it feels like several lists we've looked at over the past few months. Let's see what's in this double-heavy-hitter list, shall we (there's only one legacy profile, we'll highlight the relevant sections in red like we always do)?

The Grief of Eomer: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list is supposed to represent the scene from the books where Eomer rallies his Eored after seeing Theoden and Eowyn on the ground and begins a death-charge into the thick of the enemy. He's rescued by Imrahil and a host of Dol Amroth and Minas Tirith troops. As a result, we have two distinct contingents: a Rohan side and a Gondor side, both of which can only take Warriors in warband led by Heroes of the same faction.

The Rohan side of the house is incredibly light, with just Eomer, Captains of Rohan, Warriors of Rohan, and Riders of Rohan. The Gondor side of the house has Imrahil and Hurin as the named heroes, Captains of Minas Tirith/Dol Amroth for the generic heroes, and Knights/Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth for the Fiefdoms working alongside (maybe) Warriors/Knights of Minas Tirith. You don't have any specialized units for either side (unless you count the Dol Amroth troops as specialists). 

Army List Bonuses

The army list bonuses that this list gets are pretty good - Eomer is always under the effects of the Price of Grief, which isn't a downside if you plan ahead (more on that in the Strategies section below). He also gets +1 Fight Value when he Charges, so if you can keep him going, he'll be a F7 hero (like Imrahil). Eomer also gets Fearless and any Rohan models (Hero and Warrior) who can see him automatically pass any Courage Tests they have to take - so they have Fearless as long as they can see him, which is brilliant.

Finally, the Gondor side of the house gets a bonus of rerolling 1s To Wound when they Charge . . . which is not nothing, but also not very much. This bonus is better as the wounding difficulties drop, so charging into D3 Wild Men is pretty good, charging into D4-5 Orcs will feel good sometimes, charging into D6-7 heavy troops from a whole heap of factions (and in particular into lists that play like this one) will see the rule crop up occasionally but rarely. So . . . whatever.

So It Begins, Part 2: The Walls of Helm's Deep

Good morning gamers,

We're back for another scenario in our custom Helm's Deep campaign. Today, the Uruk-Hai have made it to the walls and they'll be battling through the defenders, trying to get a hold of the walls. Can Aragorn and his friends kill 35 Uruk-Hai in 12 rounds? Can we keep Aragorn alive? We'll see - here are our participants . . .

The Walls of Helm's Deep (War in Rohan, p. 26)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario:

• Forces of Good: Mostly The Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• Aldor
• Haleth, Son of Hama
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• Forces of Evil: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 4 Uruk-Hai Captains
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 12 Uruk-Hai Berserkers

The record keeping for this scenario is tricky - we tried our best to keep a faithful tally. You will see how this went shortly . . .

The New Age Is Begun: the Fiefdoms Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're kicking off Pelennor Fields month with a list that I'm very glad I waited to review until after the FAQ dropped: the Fiefdoms. At the start of the last edition, I was completely blown away by the "overlapping bubble" rules that the army list had (the Fearless and Banner buffs in particular) and the units themselves were pretty average cost for above-average Fight (for the most part) and low-to-average Defense (for the most part). At the end of the last edition, I was building lists around Imrahil and Gandalf the White, using Minas Tirith frontliners supported by Dol Amroth pikemen. This edition, the Fiefdoms plays pretty differently with some very, VERY drastic changes to reign them in (and yet no commensurate price drop appears to be present for their units) - I'm a pretty generous person and I try to write that way on this blog, but I gotta say, this army seems a little over-priced on a few units and so . . . prepare for not a lot of variety in the lists at the end. :) Let's see what lies beyond the realm of Minas Tirith as we travel south and west through Gondor to find the oft-unsung heroes of the Pelennor fields. As we do in this series, anything that's strictly tied to Legacy profiles will be in red.

The Fiefdoms: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

There aren't any new profiles for this Gondorian subfaction - though Imrahil got a fancy new sculpt! We have the OG named heroes of Imrahil, Forlong, Angbor, and Duinhir alongside Captains of Dol Amroth for our generic heroes. We also have Knights of Dol Amroth (foot or mounted), Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth if you're using Legacies, Clansmen of Lamedon, Axemen of Lossarnach, and Blackroot Vale Archers. While we have all of these guys on the roster, your actual roster may vary a little . . .

Army List Bonuses

The army list in this edition is . . . a little weird, but thematically better than last edition. While you used to be able to take all of the warrior types in the list, regardless of which heroes came with them, now you have to have at least one hero of each subfaction (Dol Amroth, Lamedon, Lossarnach, and the Blackroot Vale) in order to bring warriors of the same type. This makes sense to me - though as was noted in our custom list at the end of the last edition, the Clansmen of Lamedon that show up at Minas Tirith are led by an unknown Captain, not Angbor . . . so maybe there should have been an exception for Clansmen of Lamedon?

The profiles are, however, exactly what you expect: Prince Imrahil and Captains of Dol Amroth (who can give you access to Knights/Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth if you want someone cheap), Angbor the Fearless (who gives you access to Clansmen of Lamedon), Forlong the Fat (who gives you access to Axemen of Lossarnach), and Duinhir (who gives you access to Blackroot Vale Archers). This functionally means that you might be forced into two or three of the factions if you want an all-around list (cavalry/expensive front-line infantry - and/or supporting models - from Dol Amroth, bows/supporting models from Blackroot Vale, front-line guys from either Lamedon or Lossarnach).

The New Age Is Begun: The Army of Thror Army List

Good morning gamers,

We occasionally get requests for army lists to review - and at the start of last month, we got a request for the Army of Thror (which was originally slotted for coverage in July, but was pushed to make space for last week's article on Moria). Well, we're answering the mail again and we're tackling the Army of Thror - which is a list that comes under a LOT of scrutiny by the competitive community, but I think this is a very solid list if you run it a particular way.

The Army of Thror: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has the five named Dwarf heroes from last edition (Thror, Thrain, Young Thorin/Balin/Dwalin), as well as three generic heroes (Dwarf Kings - new to the list, Erebor Dwarf Captains, and Grim Hammer Captains), all of whom have Heroic March. The warrior contingent is exactly what they had before: Erebor Dwarf Warriors and Grim Hammer Warriors (with an upgrade for Guardians of the King for any taken in Thror's warband). All in all . . . they gained Dwarf Kings and otherwise, it's the same old profiles we know (and maybe love).

Army List Bonuses

This list started with the least impressive array of special rules in the game: Thror is treated as a 6" banner (which is good - but he doesn't count for VPs and you can't take any normal banners), everyone gets +1 To Wound an enemy model who is carrying an Objective Marker (which aren't always in the game), and everyone gets to reroll 1s To Wound when making Strikes while they're in their own deployment zone.

Now on the whole, these rules - if expanded a bit - would be really good: a 6" banner rule on a hero is always welcome, but it feels a bit bad when compared to the Ravenhill rule for Thorin or the Shire rule for Rosie, both of which give a 6" banner to a list that really needs it AND the target hero counts as a banner for VPs. Additionally, getting +1 To Wound is awesome, but it would be far better if it applied to enemy models who were near or carrying an objective marker (as you'd add a bunch of scenarios where it applies - and it would be more like the Gaffer's Flower Pots, which is a good rule). Finally, rerolling 1s while in your deployment zone is very similar to the Atop the Walls special rule that allows shooting attacks and melee attacks to reroll 1s while the unit is near an objective marker - and while rerolling 1s isn't usually seen as good, the value of rerolling a 1 gets better as your strength value goes up (and Atop the Walls has both kinds of Gondor siege weapons, so they're regularly wounding on 3s or 4s and rerolling 1s).