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).
This list has two actual special rules: the army as a whole will automatically pass their first Courage tests for being broken (this is a really strong rule) and if any of your heroes Charge into combat, then friendly Infantry models that share the same Faction keywords will get +1 To Wound when making Strikes while within 6" of that hero (this is also a strong hero). This means that if you have heroes like Duinhir and Angbor near each other, they both Charge, and they're surrounded by Clansmen of Lamedon and Blackroot Vale Archers with spears, you can have a pretty long line of models that get +1 To Wound . . . pretty gnarly rule, if you ask me! This bonus To Wound will stack with two-handed weapon bonuses on Clansmen of Lamedon and Axemen of Lossarnach who two-hand (and potentially Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth who are making Strikes against mounts of charging cavalry models after a Dol Amroth hero nearby makes a charge), but will not benefit Knights of Dol Amroth/Imrahil on the charge. The rule will benefit the infantry hero models who charge, since each hero will match the faction keyword and are always treated as being within range of itself, so that's extra damage on Angbor (solid), Duinhir (good), Forlong (good), and foot Captains of Dol Amroth (I don't think this is better than taking a horse and lance, but would technically benefit).
We have a pretty lean list here, but taken altogether, we have basically everything we'd ever want in a list besides light/skirmish cavalry (albeit for a tad higher price point than most lists are getting these guys at):
- Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth got a much-needed points adjustment last month and now starts at 140pts. Anyone who has played with S4 heroes on foot will know that if you have the option to give them a horse (upping their mobility, number of Attacks, and lethality by knocking things over) and a lance (further upping their lethality), you take those - and that means Imrahil will actually be bought at 170pts. For that cost, you get a very comparable profile to Mega-Boromir - F7, 3s in all the places (less Might than Boromir, but everything else is even), a 12" Stand Fast, and a 6" banner radius (greatly reduced from last edition, but banners that have more than 6" range arenot very common in this edition of the game). Though Boromir's banner gives bonuses that Imrahil doesn't give and Boromir has a War Horn that will help pass courage tests, Imrahil now comes in a good 55pts under Boromir's cost . . . not bad, but you definitely do need to play in a way that will claw Imrahil's points back.
- Angbor the Fearless has always been a favorite of mine - he's 70pts this edition (+5pts) and is slightly more resilient with 2M/2W/2F (instead of 2/3/1 last edition). He's got his two-handed weapon (plus army bonus when charging) with Mighty Blow and has a reduced range on his Fearless-like buff for Lamedon models to 3" instead of 6" (hopefully you're sensing a theme here). He's also a relatively cheap March/Strike hero and can lead 15 guys (and gives you access to hard-hitting light infantry for "cheap") - he's not a bad option for your March Captain, since the Captains of Dol Amroth are going to come in about the same (or more if you mount them).
- Duinhir is pretty much the same archer hero he was last edition - 65pts for a Hero of Valour for a bow-armed model with Sharpshooter and can reroll all failed To Wound rolls/deal D3 wounds to monsters (though with a S2 bow . . . that's actually quite hard to do without spending Might). His benefit to nearby (now 3") Blackroot Vale models is unchanged - don't move and "don't get 2s" is still the name of the game. He's also required to get bowmen who can double as your spearmen, so I think he's required now - which is good because he was my last choice last edition, since the bonuses from Blackroot Vale Archers themselves were far more valuable than rerolling 1s To Hit. With the +1 To Wound when he charges this edition, he's also pretty decent in melee.
- Forlong the Fat lost big time this edition - his base cost went up to the cost of him being mounted last edition, he lost access to his mount, and I assume that his increase in cost is to reflect the war horn that comes standard in his profile. He's got 3 Might, S5, +1 To Wound when he charges, and Heroic Strength (not Strike), which makes him kinda dangerous but not nearly as dangerous as he was on a horse with a war spear last edition. All in all . . . it pains me to say this . . . but you really only want him if you want the war horn (which gives friendly models within 12" of himself Terror for a turn), Axemen of Lossarnach if you like those guys, and 3 Might points for Heroic Moves/Shoots (like he was last edition).
- Captains of Dol Amroth are decent March Captains, though a little expensive relative to other Captains. With F5 (and +1 Fight Value if they're within 3" of Imrahil - that's a REALLY small radius), they're pretty decent heroes . . . for 95pts mounted with lances. For 25pts less, you can get Angbor, so as with Rivendell lists, I think there's a real question about whether you want a mounted hero with March or a foot hero with March to save some cash. They're also cheap ways of getting Dol Amroth troops into your list at low points levels (where Imrahil might be prohibitive).
- Knights of Dol Amroth are still super expensive - they're 11pts/model on foot, which makes them 1pt MORE expensive than Galadhrim Warriors and are sometimes F5 (if they're within 3" of Imrahil) instead of being always F5, are Courage 6+ instead of Courage 5+, don't have any movement-related special rules (like Woodland Creature), and don't have Elven-made weapons . . . I can't be the only one that sees the problem here. These guys have an impressive array of gear, including horse/lance (20pts/model total), a banner (which you probably shouldn't take ever), and a war horn (which you should probably also never take ever). While you can certainly field these guys on foot, I think you have far better options - though they are the only F4/D6 infantry in your list. These guys hit hard as cavalry, and while 20pts/model gives you slightly too expensive cavalry compared to similar heavy lancer cavalry (e.g. Black Numenorean Knights), these guys are still very reliable and hit very hard when they win. I would take a few of these guys in this list - but in any other list with Dol Amroth models in them, I'd definitely find alternative options from the other factions.
- Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth have been added to the Men of the West list this edition (which I asked for A LOT last edition), but also went up 1pt/model and got . . . basically nothing in return. For 10pts each, this is a Legacies model that isn't likely to see a lot of play outside of the Fiefdoms list (and even here, it's a bit iffy). These guys are the same cost as Uruk-Hai Pikemen but are S3 instead of S4 and might be F5 instead of F4 - I will say that if you use the Loose Phalanx formation that I love so much, I think you have a very good chance of having at least one pikeman being within 3" of Imrahil, assuming that Imrahil is operating near your battle line. While you can certainly make this work, I think in general you're overpaying for these guys. If you want good supporting troops, you probably want to look into . . .
- Blackroot Vale Archers have always been a good pick in Fiefdoms lists - they can take a banner, they can take a war horn (which you might not need), and they can take spears (and they can take these without losing their bows). For 8pts each, they're basically Rangers of Gondor with F3/Courage 8+ and access to Mountain Dwellers and a special rule (Dead-eye Shot) which gives them the ability to reroll all failed To Wound rolls when shooting as part of a Heroic Shoot - which you might do a lot of if you took Forlong in your list. I think these guys are really solid and should definitely take up one-third of your units (at least with spears and probably also carrying a banner).
- Axemen of Lossarnach are unchanged from last edition - they're 9pts/model with F4/D5 and weapons that can be used as a spear or two-handed weapon. This makes them decent-but-slightly-squishy front-line troops (with their two-handed weapons and reroll To Wound rolls of 1s while near Forlong) and decent back-line troops (F4/D5 spearmen are pretty decent). I feel like these guys might be a bit of a "jack of all trades, master of none", which might make them fit right into lists where you want some list flexibility (extending your "shieldwall", for example, where the second rank units wrap around the sides instead of just supporting the front models). They also might be skipped because Forlong is so expensive and they themselves aren't saving any points over Blackroot Vale Archers.
- Clansmen of Lamedon are the cheapest melee-only units in the list and I think you might field these guys in droves. Being D4 isn't great, but having two-handed weapons that reroll 1s on their dueling roll while within 3" of Angbor is pretty good (and doubly so if they're backed up by spearmen and have a banner reroll from a Blackroot Vale Archer as well).
That's the list - man, what I wouldn't do for some cheaper peasant levies from the various other fiefdoms (see an article we did late last edition for more on those thoughts). Given what we have (and might not have), let's see where this list shines and where it falls down a bit.
I think the best thing about the Fiefdoms has always been its relatively cheap Heroes of Valour. This edition, you can get Imrahil (with everything) from under 200pts - and if you stick to Clansmen of Lamedon and Blackroot Vale Archers for your warriors, you can fill his warband for under 350pts (with a banner in the mix). To field the aforementioned clansmen and archers, you only need to pay 135pts, so at 500pts, you can have a very healthy model limit with lots of space to grow into the higher points levels. While Forlong's "price hike" is . . . regretable . . . he's still a lot cheaper than Imrahil, so one could conceive of a list where you field Forlong, Duinhir, and Angbor at very low points levels to give you the model count and Might store that you want to have a truly fearsome horde (more on that when we get to the lists below).
The biggest limitation to this army is that while it can certainly horde out, the best Warrior units in this list are D4 - and there's no good archery protection in this list. Yes, Blackroot Vale Archers are fabulous archers - and since they get better when under the effects of a Heroic Shoot, it's unlikely that they'll be firing second. Without enough Might to keep them going, however, you're looking at a very interesting dilemma between calling Heroic Shoots or "just shooting lots of bows". While there's certainly value in shooting with lots of bows normally, S2 bows don't convert hits into kills very well (unless your opponent is also locked into D3-4).
This list does have a very strong hitting piece with Imrahil - and now that his points cost has dropped, he's even a viable choice! When you look at other F7 heroes, most of them either don't have the stats or mount options of Imrahil (I'm looking at you, Ravenhill Legolas, King Thorin, and the foot versions of Aragorn/Boromir) if they come in under 170pts OR they're coming in above Imrahil's cost. I think Young Dain is probably the hero who seems to be the best comparison piece to Imrahil (costs slightly more, has a durable/slower mount, has S5/D8 instead of S4/D7), but for the others, Imrahil's adjusted cost of 170pts fully kitted out is finally in the discussion.
At the same time, the rest of your hitters are a bit limited both by the lack of mounts on the other named heroes and by the points sink that taking the "big ones" entails. I think Angbor is in the sweet spot of 65pts with a two-handed weapon and +1 To Wound, but the others feel like you're overpaying (Forlong) or you're feeling a little nervous about sending them into combat (Duinhir's only F4/2A after all). If you had F5 pikemen backing them up, you might feel a little better, but that 3" radius this edition is really, really punishing - you need to assume that you only have F4 in any given fight.
Besides the Dol Amroth-specific bonuses, however, the bubbles in this list are still pretty great. The fact that any hero can give the infantry from their fiefdom +1 To Wound just by charging is a huge help when trying to crack through enemy shieldwalls - this is something that you had to suffer a penalty to do before (two-handing with Lossarnach axemen) and now you get it for free both on the front-liners (who might be two-handing anyway - more on that in depth next) and the second rank (which is awesome). A 6" bubble is perfectly functional without being oppressive - and we see a similar 6" bubble granting bonuses from Imrahil (6" banner for Fiefdoms - this should be easy to proc with pikemen), and more useful but more limited 3" bubbles from Angbor (Clansmen auto-pass Courage tests instead of testing on a 6+ Courage), Forlong (Axemen rerolling 1s To Wound is great if their wounding difficulty has been lowered by 1-2 pips), and Duinhir (whose bonus may not be usable if you've moved this turn, but hitting on not-2s without having to spend resources is always good).
The warriors/Captains of Dol Amroth bring their own bubbles to the fight - the Dol Amroth one is quite hard to trigger as was mentioned above (only so many people can be within 3" of Imrahil to get +1 Fight Value - assuming he's even near people), but whoever does benefit from it is in a great place (F5 warriors, F6 Captains). Clansmen get to reroll 1s on the duel roll, which means that any probably-lost-the-duel rolls get rerolled (watch out for the Mouth of Sauron though, as this is one of the few rules he can shut off). Axemen get the reroll of 1s To Wound within 3", which is not innately that valuable on a S3 model, but it's pretty good for a two-handing model on the charge near a charging Forlong, as that S3 will be wounding D6-7 models on 4s rerolling 1s. The Blackroot Vale Archers have the largest "bubble" in that they just have to benefit from a Heroic Shoot, which is a 6" radius around whatever hero you want. All in all, even if you have just the Clansman and the Archer bubbles working alongside the Angbor/Duinhir bubbles, you're getting some pretty reliable archery and some pretty reliable melee action - and that's not bad.
The Fiefdoms: Strategies for the Tabletop
I'm going to say this right at the start: the stars of this list are the Lamedon and Blackroot Vale contingents - your lists should be predominantly made up of these guys! At 8-9pts each, they're average cost with above-average Fight on the Clansmen and above-average Shooting on the Archers with a balancing effect of below-average Defense. This can make the list vulnerable to archery, but you should have enough archery to beat most archer corps. If you get just 10 Blackroot Vale Archers at a reasonable points level, you're looking at about 9 hits with Duinhir's reroll and that will translate into 1.5 kills against D5-6 troops without a Heroic Shoot and 2.7 kills with a Heroic Shoot (and of course, that becomes 3-5 kills against D3-4 troops). By contrast, enemy bowmen who stand and shoot with S3 bows and a 3+ Shoot Value will be able to match this, but those with S2 bows and a 4+ Shoot Value need to have ~18 bows in order to match your 10 . . . and that's if they stand-and-shoot against your boys and want to wound your D4 troops.
If you lean into these two troops, you want to get 33% of your warriors as Blackroot Vale Archers with spears (one with banner), one to three of your warriors might be Knights of Dol Amroth for speed, a few of your warriors in some cases might be Axemen of Lossarnach (more on that below), but the rest of your boys should definitely be Clansmen of Lamedon. I would give Angbor and Duinhir warbands of Clansmen and Archers, but one of your warbands (Imrahil at higher points levels, someone else at lower points levels) will probably just be Clansmen - and that's not bad. If you have a few points extra and Forlong is in your list, some of your Clansmen might be upgraded to Axemen (who have slightly better Defense and the ability to spear-support). While for many players, this may make the Axemen superior, the requirement to take a 90pt Forlong instead of a 70pt Angbor is a huge drawback unless the points level is low.
I would also aim to have at least three heroes - you can go higher than that, but this army really wants to spam out the bodies because of their limited Defense and use the heroes to get these troops moving where they're supposed to be instead of hitting things over the head with lots of heroes (most of them aren't good at that). You need three heroes to have the Might point to keep the archers going (Heroic Shoots), get the melee damage you want from charging (Heroic Moves), moving your guys quickly in certain scenarios (Heroic Marches), and maybe get some extra kills once battle is joined (Heroic Combats). If you start with Angbor and Duinhir, you have 4 Might points . . . Imrahil or Forlong brings you to 7 . . . that might be enough, but only if you're judicious (and I really don't think 4-5 is enough).
Situationally, Heroic Strikes might be used on Imrahil (and in some very, VERY limited situations you might call one with Angbor, but Striking from F5 isn't that great anymore), but I think this list is going to count on Heroic Combats and Heroic Moves far more than Heroic Strikes. There may be matchups where you want to go Striking against something big, but I think those will be rare.
Finally, I think in this list, the Dol Amroth guys are a trap. The Dol Amroth bonuses sound like the best bonuses in the list (6" banner, 3" Fight Value boost), but functionally, because that 6" banner doesn't affect everyone in the Fiefdoms anymore, you need to take a lot of Knights/Men-at-Arms of Dol Amroth in order to use the 6" banner. Additionally, getting at least one Dol Amroth pikeman within 3" of Imrahil instead of the previous 6" of Imrahil is quite difficult UNLESS you're running a formation where Imrahil has part of the battle line to his left and another part to his right. This will lock him into a predictable place and will limit his overall effectiveness. I think Imrahil is a great take - he's a good hero at his new price point - but I think his troops are . . . not that useful here. Clansmen don't NEED Fearless in all match-ups and they'll take (but don't strictly need) rerolling 1s on their duel rolls. Similarly, the Archers don't need to reroll 1s To Hit when they stand still and can benefit from anyone's Heroic Shoot . . . much better bonuses overall. All of this ignores the fact that the base cost for Clansmen and Archers is dramatically lower than the cost of the Dol Amroth troops and they can fill the front-line/back-line jobs of these guys pretty well (not in Defense, of course, but they also cut through D6 shieldwalls better and punch at range).
Okay, let's get some lists!
Sample Lists
This is a REALLY hard list to take at 500pts with Imrahil - but you can get a pretty decent 22 model list (a little low) with Imrahil and one Knight for speed, Angbor for March/cheap Clansmen, and Duinhir for 7 bowmen with either spear or banner:
If you want to up your numbers dramatically, you could take a Captain of Dol Amroth instead of Imrahil, but that means you're paying for two cavalry models who have their boosted Fight Value rule factored into their cost and no way to trigger it. So I would submit that an alternative list would include Forlong (lots of Might for boosting your archery) and 33 models:
At 650pts, I think you can easily fit Imrahil into your list and push your model count to 40 models while getting a Knight to escort Imrahil (though both of these guys are still very much supporting your infantry blocks):
Scaling up to 750pts can be done by just adding warriors to the previous list (including a few more Knights of Dol Amroth to form a proper hit-squad for Imrahil) - you could get Forlong by dropping the Knights and four infantry (mostly Blackroots), but this list currently hits 17 bows, 16 of which can reroll all failed To Wound rolls if you're calling a Heroic Shoot (and the other can reroll all failed To Wounds against monsters) and the rest are mostly two-handing melee boyz:
I feel like there is an element of "and we aren't getting much more by adding more" with this list - yes, you could easily scale this list up to 1000pts and beyond, but I think at a point, you're just getting "more guys". So . . . you probably want to look into some of the other lists we'll be viewing this month if you want more variety in your lists.
Conclusion
That's the Fiefdoms proper - next time, we'll see how a specific subset of the Fiefdoms units supplement a very limited subset of the Rohan faction in the Grief of Eomer list. That list has two beater heroes (like many lists do this edition - there might be three in the list, but that depends on your definition of a "beater hero", I think) and a small group of supporting models to help them go. Is it enough? Find out next time - and until then, happy hobbying!
No comments:
Post a Comment