Good morning gamers,
The month of September will tackle the last four army lists with Rohan models. We're kicking things off with a list that harkens back to when I first got started with Rohan: the Fields of Celebrant. Back in the last edition, you could run Eorl the Young with other named heroes if you were okay losing your army bonus . . . and I figured that the Might regen from Gamling's banner (which was far more reliable last edition) and the Arise, Riders of Theoden rule from having Theoden in your list made everything better (Eorl basically became a cheaper version of Eomer, slightly worse in some ways and slightly better in other ways). This edition, you don't need these boosts nearly as much - so let's see if the requirement to work with Minas Tirith (which was an option last edition but wasn't required) changes anything about how the list operates.
The Fields of Celebrant: Changes for 2025
Profile Selection
This list doesn't give us a lot of profiles, but most of our bases are covered. We have to take Eorl the Young and a Gondor King of Men (and we're limited to taking a single King of Men in this list). The list also has Captains of Rohan/Minas Tirith for generic hero support and a basic warrior unit (Riders of Rohan and Warriors of Minas Tirith) and a more specialized warrior unit (Sons of Eorl and Citadel Guard). I think there are models that would be good to add to this list, but I think what we have is perfectly functional.
Army List Bonuses
This list has the two expected rules restrictions for list building: Rohan Warriors can only be taken by Rohan Heroes and Gondor Warriors can only be taken by Gondor Heroes. I gotta say, while I fully accept these list building restrictions, it sure makes me appreciate the more open list building options you have in lists like Men of the West and Defenders of Helm's Deep, where you can mix-and-match your warbands to make each a bit more balanced and self-sufficient. This list, like a lot of other lists, has a clear build: some infantry blocks in certain warbands and a threatening cavalry charge in others.
To assist with these list building restrictions, there are three special rules that affect the models in the list. With the Gondor's Last Defence rule, Gondor models that are within range of an Objective Marker get to reroll 1s when making Strikes, which is . . . not nothing, but certainly not as good as what you see in Atop the Walls where it also affects shooting attacks. The Rohan models bring a once-per-game rule (The Charge of Eorl) that requires friendly Cavalry models (your Rohan models that are still mounted and the King of Men if he took a horse) to Charge if they choose to move and can Charge AND they get to reroll all failed To Wound rolls when making Strikes. This operates just like the Ride Out army list rule and Theodred's rule but NOT like Beorn's Berserk rule: if the unit can Charge and chooses to move, it has to Charge - but it doesn't have to Charge if it chooses not to move.
Finally, any model within 6" of both a friendly Rohan Hero and a friendly Gondor Hero gets +1 to its Courage and Intelligence tests with the Birth of an Alliance. Since these bonuses will stack with a War Horn, there's probably a place for it making big changes, but since most of your guys are Courage 7+ or 6+, the boost is . . . nice, but if you don't have your heroes near each other, that's fine. All in all, the rules in the list are . . . okay, but they're pretty marginally useful (the big charge one is probably very good, but would certainly be better if the Riders of Rohan had Strength +1 on the charge or if you have Knights of Minas Tirith).
The one last thing I'll note here is that this is one of a few Rohan lists where Riders of Rohan do count towards your bow limit, so you will probably need to take a 2:1 ratio of Minas Tirith to Rohan models OR you'll be taking some Sons of Eorl (who, let's face it, is probably one of the big reasons to run this list).
Our list today is a lot shorter than the Defenders of the Pelennor list last time - and a lot of the profiles have been reviewed in recent months:
- Eorl the Young didn't really see a price change - he went up to 120pts, but with the increase cost of mounts this edition, he basically stayed the same (maybe got 5pts cheaper?). He's F6 now (several Rohan heroes got that buff) and he's still 3 Might/2 Will/2 Fate with Legendary Hero helping stretch those Might points a little further. He's also got Spear Mastery now, like all Rohan spearmen. Felarof seems to have missed the boat on "named horses get cool rules", but is still a 12" move mount, which is quite nice (and if forgoing a cool rule keeps his cost down, I think that's fine). For 25pts less than an equally-kitted out Eomer, he remains a cheaper version of Eomer with the potential to have more Might than some versions of Eomer - which is not bad at all.
- Gondor Kings of Men are not allowed to take Guards of the Fountain Court in this list (like they are in the Realms of Men list - more on that later this month), which is a bit of a shame. Still, the King of Men opens up the option to get Citadel Guard with longbows, who are good 9pt bowmen. The King of Men himself has Shieldwall and 3 Might points over the standard very-good profile of Kings of Men (F6/S4/2A, D7/2 Wounds/2 Fate). WIth Heroic March and Strike, a King of Men is able to slot into a few different roles - and with Shieldwall and 9-10pt Warriors of Minas Tirith, you don't necessarily have to mount him if you don't have the points available. Whether he's riding things down with a lance (what I think you want, if you can) or embedded in your anvil battle line, I think Kings of Men are very solid for their cost (but more on that as the month goes on).
- Captains of Minas Tirith can no longer be mounted, but they're generic heroes who are F5/D7 with Shieldwall. For 60pts each, these guys aren't impressive, but they're very survivable, and while they can't take bows (or horses/lances) anymore, they're reliable in a fight and can stall out a lot of big heroes (which this list might need to do). As I've mentioned in several of these articles, I like running these guys as part of a 5x2 Shieldwall block, which costs 146 points without a banner nearby - which is very affordable on any budget.
- Captains of Rohan on horses 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 for 75pts. Without Arise, Riders of Theoden/Rohan, these guys have capped out at F4, which is fine-not-great into warriors or heroes. While I would personally stay away from these guys, there is an argument for taking one so you have a third warband to deploy before your more important warbands so that you deny some knowledge to your opponent (though I would argue that a brick of Minas Tirith guys led by a Captain can deny similar information - though that warband's position is not likely to change rapidly).
- Sons of Eorl are the primary reason to run this list - if you like Eorl, you can get a very similar profile with several Rohan heroes (most notably, Eomer). Sons of Eorl are still 20pts/model like they were last edition and have changed in that they have 2 Attacks base instead of only when they're near Eorl AND they picked up a rule so that they're F5 while they're near Eorl instead! With armored horses (though no Horse Lord), they're pretty likely to stay in the saddle and with F4/S4/2A, they're surprisingly as-punchy as the Captains of Rohan in this list . . . but for 1/3 or 1/4 the price! While I think you definitely want to hit a certain number of models in your army at different price points, I think fitting as many of these guys as possible while still covering your bases is a very good idea.
- 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 (so they're affected by both throwing weapon limits and bow limits in this list). They don't have great courage, but they're very functional skirmish cavalry. 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 (though not having S4 in this list kinda hurts their overall effectiveness). They are also your only means of getting a banner on a mounted model in this list, so taking at least one of these guys would probably be good for the overall effectiveness of your cavalry.
- Warriors of Minas Tirith and went up by 1pt each and are now F4. There is a technical difference from the previous edition in that the wargear configuration for Warriors of Minas Tirith is more restrictive than it used to be, but unless you were taking Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields, spears, and bows so you had D6 archers who could support from the second rank (which I did, but not a lot of other people did) or Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields, spears, and banners (which a lot of people did, including myself), you're probably not feeling the change too much. These guys are incredible value and while they're not "cheap", they feel cheap relative to the cost of Riders of Rohan and Sons of Eorl. Speaking of being cheap-ish . . .
- Citadel Guard are only 9pts with either a spear or a longbow - and while any army with Irolas is probably looking at these guys toting spears, I think in THIS list, their best place is with longbows. Riders of Rohan are good skirmish cavalry - and having a few of those has value in a lot of scenarios - but if you want a dedicated "gunline" of archers, these guys bring very cost-effective S3 bows to the fight (and that can make some enemies come towards you and your impressive cavalry). While you certainly could take a lot of Citadel Guard with longbows, I think at lower points levels it might be better to have a shieldwall of Warriors of Minas Tirith because you may not have the Sons of Eorl to counteract the number of Citadel Guard that you want.
That's our list - I know, it's not a lot of guys, but golly we get basically all of the gear we can want in those profiles. Let's see what this list as a whole gives us (and what kinds of tools it's leaving behind).
Like all of the lists that we'll be looking at this month, this list has two incredibly good heroes for 85-120pts. F6 heroes that can be mounted for 110-120pts are incredibly good value and they have the hitting power to run over warriors very, very easily. If they can keep the charge with 2-3 Attacks base (3-4 Attacks on the charge) and a reroll from a nearby banner, I think they'll be very difficult to topple. If the King of Men is on the ground with heavy armor and shield, he looks a lot more vulnerable, but as someone who recently had to try chopping through one of these guys in a Realms of Men list, I can tell you that having a D8 foe who can defend by shielding or get lots of help with Heroic Strike is harder than it looks. These two heroes are good value, though they really don't want to take on the large targets of the enemy until they're out of resources.
Besides these two heroes, their generic heroes are efficient in some ways, but the generic Captains are generally not adding much to your army beyond what your warriors can provide already. I said above that Captains of Minas Tirith are good in shieldwall bricks - and I stand by that - but the main thing that they provide is a D8 centerpiece for your anvil, the ability to March that block where it needs to go, and sometimes a Might point to boost an important roll or call a Heroic Move. The damage output on these guys is not great (check out a recent scenario where Centaur and I showcased this), but they're reliable at "just staying alive" . . . most of the time. Captains of Rohan already got critiqued a little above as being expensive alternatives to Sons of Eorl - and it's true: if you want a cheaper F4/S4/D6/2A cavalry model, take a Son of Eorl. That second wound, the Might/Will/Fate, and Heroic March are really upping the cost on the Captain - and while that may be worth it, he isn't going to do much more than the Sons of Eorl will be doing.
That said, the Warriors outclassing the generics is also a strength - the warriors in this list are very efficient. Citadel Guard make fine spearmen, but are very solid picks for archers: D5 is good enough to be resilient against enemy archery, having a 4+ shoot value is perfectly functional, and having F4 if you get charged (and Bodyguard to tie something down) is nice to have. They don't pay for a lot of cool rules and when compared to Warriors of Rohan, Haradrim Warriors, or Warriors of Minas Tirith with bows, you can see some good boosts for the points you pay extra (or the same points if you're a Warrior of Minas Tirith with bow - boy does that feel wrong). I could sing about the value of Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields (optionally spears), Riders of Rohan, and Sons of Eorl all day long - I'll just direct you to what's already been written in this article (let alone this blog) for more on that. These guys are efficient and all of them are dangerous or incredibly hard to shift.
That said, as great as the warriors are, there are some glaring holes in this line-up. On the hero side of the house, there are no support heroes (besides the +1 Fight Value that Eorl gives), no magic casters (buffing your guys or hurting your opponent's guys), no monsters, no siege weapons (I wouldn't mind some Gondor siegecraft, personally), no 3 Might (or 3 Attack) heroes besides our required pair of heroes (and the King of Men isn't even 3 Attacks), and no assisting beater heroes like Knights of the White Tower (who would be fabulous in this list). I also lament a bit that there are no Fiefdoms warriors available to us, since the timing of this list is in line with when there would be members of various Gondor clans that could have joined Cirion in his defense of the realm. All of this would give you more options, which might make the list a bit more dynamic once the points level got higher. On the warrior side of the house, we don't have 3+ Shoot Value units (Rohan Outriders? Rangers of Gondor?), but admittedly, we can make the rest of it work. Rohan Royal Guards seem like a bit of a glaring omission, unless the argument is that there wasn't a "kingdom" of Rohan yet, so there wouldn't be "royal guards" yet . . . I can both see that argument and not be convinced at the same time.
The Fields of Celebrant: Strategies for the Tabletop
Let's start with the obvious: this is a "mixed arms" army. No matter how you build this list, it will be composed of some amount of infantry supported by some amount of cavalry. Your emphasis on cavalry vs. infantry is probably in a better place overall than some of the other lists with faction-specific warbands (Erebor & Dale doesn't have a lot of reason to lean into the Dale side of the house - and similarly, the Defenders of Erebor really want to lean into the Dwarves over Dale as well - while lists like Ugluk's Scouts probably have a more balanced number of Orcs to Uruk-Hai). The cavalry in this list are strong, but they're not going to hold ground very well (they want to be charging) and their archery is going to be less reliable than the Citadel Guard shooting (not only because it's easy to blunt the damage of S2 bows, but also because you can get almost 5 Citadel Guard for the cost of 3 Riders of Rohan).
I think the big question is how you want to set up your Gondor contingent - your Rohan contingent is likely to have a mix of Riders of Rohan (at least one with a banner) and Sons of Eorl (as many as points permit), but setting up your Gondor warband(s) will require some thought. Citadel Guard with longbows can be leaned into for good archery damage, but if you start off with 2 Sons of Eorl and 1 Rider of Rohan with banner (so your Rohan contingent is 199pts), you will probably need some mix of Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields (optionally spears) in order to get more than 1 Citadel Guard with longbow. Because the King of Men is a Hero of Valor, I think a very reasonable start to his warband is to take 6 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields (maybe 3 with spears - if you have the points) and 4 Citadel Guard with longbows (for 175pts if the King of Men is on foot with heavy armor and shield). Together, these two warbands only take up 374pts, which means you have a lot of room to work for other things (more Sons of Eorl or up to 5 more Gondor warriors).
Once you have your build, you want to array your army so that your anvil is the "center" of your army and your cavalry are able to wrap around the enemy as it closes on the anvil. Having resilient bowmen (standing behind a Shieldwall) with lethal bows (S3) in the center will force your opponent to do something about it. There are several ways that you can set up your anvil - and most of them are not going to be "a line of bowmen". I talked about this quite a few years ago when talking about the "English formation", which involves making a stair-step pattern for your units so that you can open up their angles of fire and they don't block each other (unless it goes behind your stairs). We'll get to how you keep that from being an issue later, but each "stair" allows you to have some number of melee units ready, then a group of archers ready to shoot. You can also run a loose formation of units in skirmish triangles and 4s formations (it is a little surprising to me - and a testament to the continuity of the game - that these older formations articles are still useful!) if you don't want a long line of men ready to shoot at or receive a charge from the enemy.
When it comes to the "hammer" of the army (Eorl and his sons - and maybe the King of Men), I think you want to keep them working as one coherent unit - not split to protect both sides of your anvil. When we think of traditional "anvil" units (Iron Hills Dwarves, most Elf battle lines, Easterling pike blocks, etc.), we usually see them with flankers on both sides OR a piece of anchoring terrain that will force an opponent to take a long detour to avoid. This kind of army wants to be mobile - so make sure your anvil flexes as your cavalry move. Since the Sons of Eorl get noticeably worse when they're away from Daddy-o, having your entire cavalry contingent working in one operating area is going to be better than if half of them ride in one direction with the King of Men and the other half stick with their dad (especially if you only have one banner - or no banner). Even if not all of the Sons of Eorl can be within 6" of Eorl (let's say you're running 10+ of these guys), they still might end up being within 6" of Eorl if he calls a Heroic Combat and plunges deep into the enemy ranks - or they might be within 6" of him next turn. Either way, they will get more effective if they're within 12" of him than if half the board separates them.
This leads us to an important note about using your Might points: save most of your Might for Heroic Moves. Regardless of whether the King of Men has a horse or not, you probably want 4 of your 6 Might points on your two big heroes to be used for Heroic Moves. The Move Phase is by far and away the most important phase of the game - and calling Heroic Moves gives you the opportunity (if not the guarantee) of getting your units into the fights that you want and to make sure those charge bonuses are triggering. This army has the advantage of being able to take a good bit of cavalry AND get good numbers, which means a single devastating cavalry charge might set you up for a clear domination of the game in the following turn or two. If you use a Might point for a Heroic Move and another Might point for a Heroic Strike/Combat, you might only have 1 Might point left for something else for the rest of the game (see what I did there?). Yes, Eorl might get a Might back (look, I did it again), but he might not pass the required roll and if you bank on him having more Might and then don't get the 4+ to restore one, you might find yourself fizzling out too quickly and then your cavalry can get caught and killed. Heroic Moves are paramount to making a list like this work - Heroic Combats are also good, but be mindful of how much Might you're spending.
This leads me to my biggest advice for the heroes in this list: steer your big pieces clear of enemy beater heroes and threatening monsters. Cave Trolls and to a lesser extent Mordor/Isengard Trolls aren't that threatening to these guys if a) your heroes have the charge, b) they have Might for Heroic Strike, and c) they have help and have a trap on the enemy monster. These kinds of monsters are not a threat - but most Monster Hero models are and you'll waste valuable resources trying to kill these things off and probably waste valuable time in doing so. I recently played with the Ride Out army list in a tournament we ran and I played my nephew Ikaika in the first round with his triple-Troll Black Gate list . . . and boy did it take me a while to kill all three of those Trolls! I lucked out that my heroes all stayed mounted, but this list doesn't have an unending flow of Might coming from Aragorn, so it definitely doesn't want to try to repeat my performance. Stick to running over troops and do your best to avoid enemy heroes (charge them with a Son of Eorl if you have a lot of them).
Finally, you need to time that big charge well. We did a whole series on Cavalry Charge tactics (you can find this in our Tactics Tab) and I recommend brushing up on all of those, but here are some relevant thoughts: first, charge when you don't have priority and can't be charged - this will make sure that you don't get counter-charged by the enemy and you can set up the fights the way you want. Second, using elite cavalry to rough up weaker enemy cavalry is a great way to make sure that you still have cavalry when the cav-on-cav fighting is done and that can give you advantages over infantry-only blocks. Third, use your heroes to clear out room for your warriors to work - not by killing off enemy heroes, but by making the match-ups for the warriors more reliable (one charging Son of Eorl will probably paste a single infantry warrior OR force that warrior to defend by shielding, but might have issues if there are supporting attacks in the fight as well). Finally, always, always, ALWAYS have some cavalry models in reserve for the next charge so that if things go south (or if you don't win priority), your big charge doesn't come to a screeching halt.
Okay, let's look at some lists!
Sample Lists
At 500pts, I think you can only get 1 banner and having a pretty even mix of Gondor and Rohan units is good. This list sports 5 Sons of Eorl and a Riders of Rohan with banner to support Eorl and a line of Warriors of Minas Tirith with the King of Men on foot to shield (literally, I expect) 7 Citadel Guards with longbows. You could drop some models to get a horse and lance for the King of Men, but I don't think he needs to be mounted in this list (I think the extra numbers are better). You can add a spear to one of the Warriors of Minas Tirith if you want to:
Scaling up to 650pts allows us to get the King of Men with all his glorious kit and we can add a Captain of Minas Tirith and more men, reaching my desired minimum of 30 models:
At 750pts, you can run a list that's kind of crazy and just runs as many Sons of Eorl as possible (turning that Captain of Minas Tirith into three Sons of Eorl) - this list hits 33 models (which is a little low) with a fire-support base of Citadel Guard to hold out with the Warriors of Minas Tirith while the King of Men joins the Eorlingas in their glorious charge. This list isn't too different from Ted Cantu's list at the Nation's Cup, which had 10 longbows, a Captain of Rohan on horse, and no banners:
Conclusion
And that's the list - pretty fun times if you ask me. :) If you've used this list at a tournament or just for fun with some friends, let us know if there's anything we missed! Next time, we're headed to the ill-fated Fords of Isen, where we'll look at my favorite Rohan hero, Theodred. This list got a buff recently and provides a different way to play a mixed arms Rohan army. Find out how to run it (and take advantage of all that shooting potential) next time. Until then, happy hobbying!
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