Good morning gamers,
Rohan has a lot of army lists this edition (citation needed) and one of the oddest ducks in the line-up is the Paths of the Druadan. Released in the Armies of Middle-Earth supplement, this list features the heroes from the Riders of Theoden, your typical mounted Rohan warriors, as well as the tad-expensive-but-loaded-with-
The Paths of the Druadan: Changes for 2025
Profile Selection
As was said above, this list includes the six named heroes in the Riders of Theoden list (Theoden, Eomer, Eowyn, Deorwine, Elfhelm, and Gamling), Captains of Rohan (obviously), and then Rohan Royal Guards, Rohan Outriders, and Riders of Rohan. The list adds to this line-up Ghan-buri-Ghan and Wose Warriors, who in the last edition could only be taken in Ghan-buri-Ghan's list (or if you ran Rohan allied with the Druadan, you could have leaderless warbands with 10-12 Wose Warriors inside them). This edition, Ghan-buri-Ghan and the Rohan heroes can mix and match the troops they lead, much like you can do with the Men of the West army list. This is a great change in my opinion and a huge change for list building. In an era where you can't take leaderless Wose warbands, this is the only way you can use more than 15 of them - and for a very, very, VERY small segment of the SBG population, that means their collections are still valid. :) Let's see what bonuses we have to encourage us to run this list . . .
Army List Bonuses
Last edition, the Paths of the Druadan Legendary Legion required you to take Theoden, Ghan-Buri-Ghan, and 15 Wose Warriors. This edition, you only have to take 12 Woses (3 slots left over), so that's nice? Riders of Rohan don't count towards your bow limit in this list, which is novel for the lists we've been looking at this month.
The other rules are the same as they were last edition: there's a special rule (Know All Paths) that allow you to win the roll-off for Heroic Moves on a 3-6 (or 1-4) instead of the usual 4-6 (or 1-3). In a list that wants to skirmish, this is a huge bonus. Similarly, the Waypoints special rule allows you to place three tokens after deployment is over that remove difficult terrain penalties for your Rohan models, which is great for making sure that your horses are moving at full speed (and getting Charge bonuses) through woods, rocky ground, or swamps. Finally, the Kill Orc-folk rule allows all friendly models to reroll TO Wound rolls of 1 on their Strikes against Uruk-Hai, Orcs, and Goblins. Paired with Hatred on your Woses, this makes them very reliable at killing Goblin-town Goblins (wounding on 3s and rerolling 1s), pretty reliable at killing most Orcs, Moria Goblins, and some Uruk-Hai (wounding on 4s and rerolling 1s) and decently good at killing the D6 Uruks, Orcs, and Goblins (wounding on 5s and rerolling 1s).
This list, like the others we've been looking at this month, doesn't give your cavalry Strength +1 on the charge, but getting some rerolls does help them a bit. Still, your cavalry can be a bit stunted in their damage against D6 shieldwalls, so we'll take that into consideration as we plan our lists.
Most of the profiles we have today we've already seen before - and there aren't a lot of changes to what you'll find in other lists:
- 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 and Fight Values are tied instead of rerolling 1s even when the Fight Value of Theoden is lower than his foe), he can lead Rohan Royal Guards (which might be good in this list), and he still has a 12" Stand Fast. All in all, he's not bad as a required take.
- Eomer, Marshal of the Riddermark has seen some pretty great changes this edition - like all heroes, he's more expensive mounted than he was before, but not drastically more expensive. His horse, Firefoot, also got faster and he himself got the promotion to F6. Guthwine now triggers an additional To Wound roll when it gets natural 6s To Wound, which is a poor man's version of Mighty Blow, but hey, it could be good sometimes? His Leader (Rohan Royal Guards) actually applies in this list and the Price of Grief rule might apply (you will at least have Theoden in your list). The hardest thing is finding a points level to fit him in at - with nearly 300pts wrapped up in your required choices and no banner in that set of heroes, it can be a little tricky to get Eomer into your lists.
- Eowyn, Shieldmaiden of Rohan is an Independent Hero in this list and has gained an extra Fate point. She's got very few changes to her profile, but her I Will Kill You if You Touch Him rule has seen a few changes. For starters, while Theoden is alive, Eowyn can reroll 1s on her To Wound rolls when making Strikes (which is redundant against Orcs, Goblins, and Uruk-Hai in this list, but nice to have - though not earth-shattering - against other units). Once Theoden is slain, Eowyn still gets Fearless/rerolls all failed To Wounds against the model that killed him but doesn't have to stay near the point where Theoden died. If equipped with the optional shield and throwing spears, she comes in at 120pts, but with access to Merry's Might/Will/Fate, she's quite tanky and dangerous with 3M/3W/5F with Horse Lord.
- Deorwine, Chief of the King's Knights got the hit that a lot of heroes did this edition and went down to 2M/2W/2F instead of 3M/1W/1F - this works out better for him than most other heroes, but not having 3 Might is still a drawback. You have to take Theoden in your list, so Deorwine might be worth taking - Theoden gives him Sworn Protector and if Theoden is Engaged within 6" of Deorwine, Deorwine can call a free Heroic Combat (just like last edition). Free heroics have always been good - and Deorwine has always been good when tucked in close to Theoden . . . this much has not changed. He's still got Strike and March, which makes him a pretty flexible hero option for 90pts.
- Elfhelm, Captain of Rohan is still a very affordable hero and has 2 Fate to support his Horse Lord ability, doesn't suffer the move-and-shoot penalty with this throwing spears, and still rerolls failed To Hit, In-the-Way, and To Wound rolls when shooting, which is awesome (and why you'd want him in your list). He's also still a tank into enemy heroes with Heroic Defense and 2 Might, but he's also got 3 Attacks base now . . . honestly, I think his F4 is his "only weakness" and it's hard for me to think of any heroes that are better to take than this guy (after Theoden and Ghan-buri-Ghan, obviously). The exception might be . . .
- 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. While the Might restoration is far less reliable than last edition, that 6" banner is fabulous on a cavalry list - or one that has a spam of Woses in it.
- 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. This list has no lack of heroes in it, so if you're running this list . . . I really don't think you need Captains of Rohan.
- Ghan-Buri-Ghan is 65pts and looks very similar to where he was last edition. He picked up a new rule (Forest Stalker), which gives a 6+ save to Druadan models within 6" of him that are within (partially, not wholly) a piece of woodland terrain which is not nothing. This will mostly apply to melee damage, since Stalk Unseen in woodland terrain should keep them from being targets of archery or magic entirely. As a required hero, I don't think he's a "tax" - 65pts for a Valour hero with 3 Might for Heroic Moves/Marches is solid.
- 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 a lot of heroes in this list (Theoden, Eomer, Deorwine, and Gamling) in this list, which means you should be able to take as many as you want. These guys are a little pricey, but they're base F4 with F5 on the charge while mounted (and while within 12" of Theodred) and they're D6. As has already been noted, these guys do not get S4 on the Charge in this list, so their charge will feel a little underwhelming against D6 armies compared to some other Rohan lists.
- 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 again hurts their overall effectiveness).
- Rohan Outriders went up in price by 1pt and haven't changed - in this list, however, you have to take them on horses, which means they're 13pts/model and are interesting alternatives to Riders of Rohan (you can take at least 7 of these because of the 12 Wose Warriors you are required to take). Having F4 on the charge and D5 for +1pt/model are good options for Riders of Rohan, so take these guys or don't - either seems fine to me.
- Wose Warriors are basically unchanged from the last edition - they're still 9pts/model, come with spears and blowpipes, and have Hatred against the three Orc races (Goblin, Orc, Uruk-Hai), paired with poison on their blowpipes, Stalk Unseen for anti-archery protection, and Woodland Creature. The big change this edition for this list is that anyone can bring these guys as Warriors in their warbands (which means you can't do leaderless warbands like you could with pure Druadan lists last edition, but you can basically do that by fielding cheap heroes).
That's a pretty neat suite of models - but is it good enough to run this list instead of the Riders of Theoden or even the Kingdom of Rohan? Let's see as we look at the strengths and weaknesses of the list . . .
Like the Fords of Isen list we looked at last time, this is a mixed arms force, combining cavalry with infantry. Mixed arms forces have the potential to be "jacks of all trades, masters of none" by splitting its focus on both cavalry and infantry, but it also means that you should be able to get good numbers at any points level. Like the Fords of Isen list, this could be because you grab a bunch of cheap infantry (or Rohan Royal Guards on foot, I guess), but in this list, that might be because you spam out Riders of Rohan (who are only 5pts more per model than Woses) and lean less into heroes and more into warriors.
Depending on how much you lean into Woses, though, you might find that a large chunk of your army is incredibly easy to kill. Granted, to kill a Wose you have to catch a Wose, and rules like Stalk Unseen, Woodland Creature, and Ghan's 6+ save might make that hard to do. Still, if you are playing on a board without good horizontal terrain and woods, these guys are D3 and that's painfully easy to kill. Also, not all scenarios will allow you to sit back and shoot, so you can't count on being able to whittle down your opponent in all situations.
That said, thanks to the models you have access to, this army can pick in a LOT of shooting. Since the infantry you have access to have ranged weapons (12" S2 blowpipes) that do not count towards your bow limit - and you have access to 33% throwing weapons with Rohan Royal Guards and Riders of Rohan that don't count towards your bow limit, it's not hard to make sure that every model in your army except Theoden (and if you take them, Deorwine, Gamling, and Captains of Rohan) are the only units that can't perform shooting attacks. This army might have about as much shooting as an Army of Edoras, Fords of Isen, or Kingdom of Rohan list might have, but it's going to be different because you have 12" blowpipes instead of just throwing spears or bows for your infantry.
The unfortunate thing about this list is that because you have to take Ghan, fitting in more than one extra hero alongside your required ones is quite hard to do. Yes, you could sacrifice your numbers and have something akin to what you'd expect from a traditional Rohan cavalry list, but because this list isn't going to be all-cav, there's a very strong draw to make sure that your numbers are good enough to survive a fluke accident (like leaving your Woses out in the open before your opponent takes aim at them). Having numbers in this list - in any mixed arms list - means you're going to have to cut out having extra heroes and while that may not be the end of the world, it does mean you're going to have to make some very difficult choices about which heroes to take and which to leave at home. If you want to lean more into the heroes, you're probably better served by running the Kingdom of Rohan (where they'll all have Strength +1 on the charge and a 5+ save from Horse Lord) or the Riders of Theoden (where they'll all have Strength +1 on the charge and a round of free Heroic Combats/Strikes).
Finally, Woses give you an interesting skirmish "shieldwall" option. Yes, these guys don't actually have shields, so "shieldwall" is a misnomer, but you can double-rank them very easily (maybe beginning as skirmish triangles that converge into a wall of spears) and pile on the attacks on whatever straggles into your lines. Woses don't have to stand and fight - anyone who gets close enough to charge them can be shot - and most units can be shot from a distance beyond their ability to charge, so you should be able to get 1-2 rounds of shooting against fast units and 3+ rounds of shooting against 4-6" move units. If you have 30 blowpipes that are moving and shooting, you're supposed to kill around 2 models each turn with shooting - and if you start with model parity, that means you probably have a fairly big model count superiority when they arrive. And if they arrive with fewer guys . . . well, we're getting ahead of ourselves and talking about tactics. :)
The Paths of the Druadan: Strategies for the Tabletop
Let's talk Woses first. As was preempted above, Woses fight best in packs that begin as shooting clusters (a skirmish triangle of three units touching base-to-base can ignore each other for the purposes of in-the-ways and can shoot with 360-degree vision) that converge into battle lines. Their purpose is not to present an "anvil" to stall the enemy while your cavalry come in as a hammer, but rather to continually move around the battlefield and present small pockets of significant firepower for your opponent to deal with. If 12 Woses (four triangles) are moving together, your opponent should expect 4 of them to hit every turn that they move (6 to hit if they're standing still), which can translate into 0-2 dead models a turn, depending on your defense value. If there are 30 Woses on the board . . . people are going to be dying. This means they have to be dealt with, which means your opponent will be sending his army against you in groups.
If your opponent sends ~12 models to deal with your 12 models, you're actually in a pretty good place - your Woses will probably bring that number down to 8-10 before you finally have to fight and if the whittling down of the enemy isn't working, you can always move at full pace to keep your distance from enemy infantry and draw them towards another skirmish group (or some cavalry support). By playing keep-away, your opponent will have to make decisions about how far to pursue your troops and when to stop (say, as they pass an objective). When you have a solid numerical advantage (4+ models), I'd pivot from running to taking a stand and shooting one last time before diving in and wrapping-and-trapping your opponent.
The Rohan heroes make the Wose strategy work. Theoden brings 3 Might for Heroic Moves/Marches to the table (which is really nice for Woses), but can also pull off a solid Heroic Combat for extra movement/killing power when he's on the charge. Gamling brings a 6" banner, which can cover a lot of cavalry or Woses, and heroes like Elfhelm can gum up the works of a big hero for a few turns or run over some grunts. Eomer, Eowyn, and Deorwine are fabulous for getting extra killing power for 90-145pts, which makes the work of the Woses much easier. No matter who you bring, make sure they're working with whatever cavalry and infantry you bring to do the work you need them to do.
This does beg the question, though: how much should you lean on Woses? The answer is, at least for me, it depends. :) The advantage of leaning hard into Woses is that you'll get incredibly good short-range archery with a lot of forgiveness by having more models than normal. You can get roughly half a Wose for each Rider of Rohan or Rohan Outrider you buy and you can get 2 Woses for every Rohan Royal Guard with throwing spears that you buy, so if you have 5-10 Rohan cavalry, you're netting 3-10 extra models. Losing up to 5 models probably doesn't change much at any points level and you'll get more durable, high Fight Value troops by leaning into the cavalry more. The Woses, on the other hand, give you lots of models that can hide on rear objectives or models that don't need to move first but are happy to screen your movement-dependent cavalry. We'll look at some lists that pile in on the Woses and some that run more of a mix - but I think this is very much a season-to-taste kind of thing.
Finally, be mindful of where you should place your waypoint tokens. It's very easy to think, "Well, there are 5 objective markers on this board and three are in/near terrain, so we'll place our waypoint tokens there." On some level, that may exactly be the right call. In other cases, you might not need to reach one of those, but there's a piece of terrain that serves as a choke point to get to an objective that's in the open. Know where you're going to start, where you need to end, and how you need to get from the start to the end and THEN place your waypoint tokens. These are incredibly useful and are one of the two big draws of taking this list, so think for a few seconds about where the best spot will be.
Sample Lists
At 500pts, I think you can choose to take just Theoden and Ghan-buri-Ghan, focusing on getting a high model count instead of running a "hero hammer" list. This list hits 27 models with 15 Woses (blowpipes), 6 Royal Guards with throwing spears, and 3 Riders of Rohan (bows) - that's 26 shooting weapons on the 17 total models:
At 650pts, you probably want to add another Rohan hero to the mix - and while there is a solid case for Deorwine, Gamling, and Elfhelm (depending on what you think is most important), I've gone with Eowyn and Merry - I think of the set, they have the potential to hit the hardest (Elfhelm can kill quite a bit and is the only other base-3-Attack hero). Eomer would be a solid choice too, but would bring you below 30 models:
At 700pts, we could upgrade Eowyn to Eomer or get a few more guys, but an odd way that you can run the list is to go all-in on the Woses - this list has Theoden, Gamling, and Ghan-buri-Ghan leading 44 Wose Warriors and a Rider of Rohan (I had 5pts left over) for a maximum 48 models (and a list that doesn't worry about fighting most of the horde lists in the game):
Those who aren't convinced about the Woses could do a 2:1 trade for Rohan Royal Guard with throwing spears (which would mean 22 Wose Warriors, 11 Rohan Royal Guards with throwing spears, and 1 Rider of Rohan for 37 models total) OR a roughly 14:9 trade for Riders of Rohan (5:3 with 3pts left over, if you want some throwing weapons - which could get you 16 Woses and 19 Riders of Rohan for 38 models total). Is 48 models better than 37-38 with a stronger emphasis on cavalry? I don't know - I leave that up to you.
Conclusion
I think this list is a bit different and gives you some very interesting options for a Rohan player. Yes, buying 50 Woses is a huge investment - and I don't know that this list is better than running a Kingdom of Rohan list or a Fords of Isen list that's got a similar slant towards infantry - but the special rules that you get to increase the mobility of your cavalry models and help you win those important Heroic-Move-offs are super strong. If you've never played this list before, you definitely should give it a try!
Next time, we're closing out Rohan Month with the last Rohan list that we need to cover in this series: the Realms of Men. Oddly, this is a list that might not feature any Rohan units at all - but it's also my pick for the best "soup" list in the game. Find out what your options are - and what place Rohan plays in it - next time. Until then, happy hobbying!
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