Good morning gamers,
This is the last Rohan list we need to cover - and honestly, it's a list that I'm keen to take to a tournament (though it won't be a hipster pick - Centaur took it to our GT earlier this year). The Realms of Men isn't your traditional Rohan list, but like the Defenders of the Pelennor, the Men of the West, or the Paths of the Druadan, you have the option to take Rohan models, so it counts. :) Unlike a lot of Rohan lists, this is the kind of "Rohan list" that doesn't mind seeing Wild Men of Dunland on the other side of the board, since it can take a few Rohan guys to supplement a host of not-Rohan guys. I've delayed talking about this list until now because there are SO many things to consider when fielding it and I think we've finally covered enough of the profiles to have a good discussion about what this list is bringing to the table and what it isn't.
The Realms of Men: Changes for 2025
Profile Selection
This list is weird in that it doesn't really have a bounded list of profiles. The only profile that's showcased in the list is the "King of Men" profile, which we've seen earlier in the month in the Fields of Celebrant list. Beyond that, you're allowed to bring any non-unique heroes (Captains of <wherever>, King's Huntsmen, Knights of the White Tower, siege veterans) and basically any warrior so long as you meet the requirements for that hero (e.g. you need the "Leader (X)" keyword to bring "Elite" units) with the exception that a Rohan King of Men cannot lead Rohirrim Traitors from the Usurpers list (check an early FAQ for that one).
The rules are pretty straightforward: 1) you have to take a King of <wherever> to take any other heroes of <wherever>, 2) each hero can only lead warriors from the same faction (Gondor leading Gondor, Arnor leading Arnor, etc.), and 3) whichever realm has the most models - not the most points invested in it - has its King become the General. Pretty simple, right?
With five factions of men to choose from (Gondor, Rohan, Arnor, Numenor, and Dale), we have quite the list of options, though functionally, I think your actual hero options are smaller than the list would imply - more on that later in the Strategies section. There are not that many warrior options that appear to be redundant and overall, you can cover most of your bases really well with 1-2 factions (though mixing in more than that is certainly possible too).
This army list is unique in that it doesn't really have army list bonuses - it has army creation bonuses and the wide range of profiles that it gives you is basically your "army list bonus". While some lists (like the Defenders of the Pelennor or the Legions of Mordor) might give you one rule and a host of profiles, this list gives you a very large host of profiles and no rules. In some ways, this is a good thing - you have lots of scope for imagination and the profiles are what-you-see-is-what-you-get. In other ways, this does mean that if the base profile doesn't give you an edge over other options, you just shouldn't take it - and that can mean that there's a competitive edge for some realms of men over others in this list.
What all of the list building constraints and the lack of special rules means is that the following rules are not present in this list (but are present in a lot of other lists for these models):
- Riders of Rohan do count towards your bow limit and will not have Strength +1 on the Charge;
- Warriors of Dale have a 4+ Shoot Value, not a 3+ Shoot Value, and will not reroll failed To Hit rolls when shooting at monsters;
- Blackroot Vale Archers can't reroll 1s To Hit, but will be able to reroll all failed To Wound rolls if they benefit from a Heroic Shoot;
- Warriors of Numenor do not have Resistant to Magic; and
- Warriors of Arnor cannot shrug off hard-earned damage on a 5+ (did my absolutely-not-bitterness come through on that one?).
We won't be going profile-by-profile here, mostly because we've seen most of these units before. Instead, I want to showcase by realm what each kingdom of men is giving you:
- Gondor has the lion share of the profiles and honestly should make the backbone of any list you make. All Kings of Men can take a horse, heavy armor (instead of normal armor), lance, and shield for 110pts on a Hero of Legend - which is INSANE value! The King of Gondor is probably the only one that you might consider taking on foot, since he has Shieldwall and can lead Citadel Guards and Guards of the Fountain Court (only one of two heroes who can do that). On foot, this guy is 85pts with D7-8, but I don't think he'd be opposed to running things over with a lance either. These Kings of Men also have Heroic March and Heroic Strike (and Heroic Resolve if you really need it), so you get both a beater hero and a March Captain all in one - and he's got +1 Might (3 Might), so he probably will be your March Captain. If you take him, you can also take Knights of the White Tower (good killer units, but I don't know how necessary they are in this list), Captains of Minas Tirith (good value March Captains, but again, I don't know that you need them in this list), and Siege Veterans with Trebuchets or Bolt Throwers (you might take a Bolt Thrower Veteran). With the release of the Armies of Middle-Earth, you get access to a TON of Warrior options from Minas Tirith (Warriors/Knights of Minas Tirith, Rangers of Gondor, Osgiliath Veterans, Guards of the Fountain Court, Citadel Guard) and the Fiefdoms (Clansmen, Axemen, Blackroot Vale Archers, Knights/Men-at-arms of Dol Armoth). This realm alone gives you basically everything that you could ever want - light infantry, heavy infantry, light archers, heavy archers, and heavy cavalry. We'll be talking about each other realm mostly in what they provide that Gondor doesn't.
- Rohan has a far more limited bench and the King of Rohan himself gets fewer bonuses than the other guys (he can lead Rohan Royal Guards and picks up Expert Rider and Horse Lord . . . but he doesn't get the horse for free, so you're committing to paying at least 95pts for the guy - and likely just going all the way to 110pts because why not). You can get better value from the Gondor units than you can from Rohan Royal Guards since the King of Rohan probably isn't your General (unless you happen to take more Rohan guys than any other faction - unlikely if you want their cavalry) and on foot they're patently worse than most of the options available in Gondor. Warriors of Rohan are the cheapest infantry you can get (and the cheapest banner you can get - though is this better than taking a banner on a Blackroot Vale Archer?), though whether they're better than Clansmen of Lamedon in Gondor (or alternative options in the next faction) is up for debate. Riders of Rohan and Rohan Outriders are the only skirmish cavalry in the list and might be worth taking for that. The biggest reason to take Rohan units is their access to throwing spears - something unique to their faction and something that can make them interesting front-rank units with proper spearmen working behind them. It's a bit expensive, but not more expensive than running 9pt Warriors of Minas Tirith. Don't bother with Captains of Rohan or King's Huntsmen - they're not worth it in this list.
- Arnor got a real glow-up at the end of the last edition and they provide a few very niche bonuses over Minas Tirith options. The King of Arnor gets +1 Attack (3 Attacks) and Fearless, which means he probably also wants to be taken at 110pts with the full kit so he can ride over things with 4 Attacks and no need to worry about Terror. You can take Captains of Arnor, but I don't think there's a world where you'd pay 55pts for him when you could take another King of Men (or a Bolt Thrower). You get access to Rangers of Arnor (who are Rangers of Gondor with Hatred (Angmar) for free), Warriors of Arnor (who are 8pts/model STILL and are the cheapest D6 spearmen in the list, but are also Courage 8+), and Knights of Arnor (who cost the same as Knights of Minas Tirith, but have Courage 8+, a war spear that can be used as a standard spear if you get dismounted, and Hatred (Angmar) - unlike Rangers of Arnor, I don't think this is a clear-cut swap-in). If you want a beater hero, this is definitely a contingent you want to bring - and you should probably fill it with Rangers and optionally Warriors of Arnor.
- Numenor got some very interesting changes this edition - the King of Numenor gets +1 Strength and Resistant to Magic, which also makes him an interesting beater hero for 110pts. He can lead (unsurprisingly) just Warriors of Numenor, but as the only F5/S4 infantry in the list, this guy is always my second pick (not thematic, I know, but I don't care). A 10pt Warrior of Numenor with shield and spear can replace a 10pt Warrior of Minas Tirith with shield and spear one-for-one and you'll have lower Defense (and it's harder to keep Shieldwall going), but you get F5 across your battle line and that's not bad at all. I would never take Warriors of Numenor with longbows for 10pts/model in this list - Citadel Guard are better value at 9pts/model with D5/Bodyguard instead of F5/S4 and Blackroot Vale Archers/Rangers of Gondor/Rangers of Arnor/Rohan Outriders are arguably better at 8pts/model with weaker bows (though do you take Rohan Outriders if you can take any of the others?). You might take Warriors of Numenor with just shields, but I think their D5 nature and high price point makes them far better in your second rank. This leads us, unfortunately, to . . .
- Dale, oh Dale, has basically nothing to offer. The King of Dale has +1 Wound (3 Wounds) and a Stand Fast that affects friendly Dale heroes . . . but not all heroes . . . and that means to get good value out of him, you have to take OTHER Dale heroes . . . and that's just Captains of Dale and Siege Veterans. For 5pts more than a Captain of Dale, you can get a Captain of Minas Tirith - and for 10pts LESS than a Windlance, you can get a Bolt Thrower . . . I think Minas Tirith comes up ahead on those two fronts (and probably with the King bonuses as well). It gets worse, though: the King of Dale gives you access to Knights of Dale and Warriors of Dale, but the Knight of Dale is basically a more expensive version of Warriors of Minas Tirith (with the niche bonus that if he's charged, he can get +1 To Wound), a melee version of a Warrior of Dale is either 1pt cheaper than a Warrior of Minas Tirith (who gets +1 Defense and Shieldwall instead of Hatred (Dragon)) OR is 2pts cheaper than a Warrior of Numenor (who gets +1 Fight/+1 Strength) OR (if carrying a spear) is 1pt more expensive than a Warrior of Arnor (who has +1 Defense, -1 Courage, and Hatred (Angmar) instead of Hatred (Dragon)), and a bow-armed Warrior of Dale is on-cost with the 8-9pt bowmen we looked at above who are either sporting the exact same longbow with the exact same shoot value (but higher Defense/Bodyguard) OR are 1pt cheaper with a better shoot value and a lower bow strength. I'm sorry, I don't think you should take Dale in this list - I really don't. To be viable, their bowmen really needed to have the 3+ Shoot Value that they have in some other lists and they just don't here.
So yeah, that's what we've got for profiles - let's see what those profiles give us as strengths for the list and where the holes are in our prodigious roster . . .
The first thing I thought when I saw the cost of the Kings of Men was "that's a very cheap Hero of Legend - even with all his stuff!" Kings of Men have always been cheap, but as Heroes of Legend, a 110pt hero who can lead 18 models (with affordable infantry in any faction you choose) means you can get a high model count at any points level. Even if you only have 300pts to work with, you can still get a full complement of 19 models, most of them elite, and probably a banner (not available in Numenor, but available in all the others)! At 500pts, it's not hard to hit 30 models, which means you should be a little ahead of opponents who are fielding elite units like your own. Why? Because you can field two heroes who can pack in a LOT of bodies and they're not paying for fancy rules or specialized war gear to jack up their prices.
But with the streamlined hero profiles (and warrior profiles), this is not going to be a list that brings tricks to the table. Yes, this list will have efficient Kings of Men to lead efficient infantry and cavalry, but you won't have access to magical powers (for magic resilience, for archery resilience, for Transfix/Compel limits on threatening units, or for magical damage), to monster Brutal Power Attacks, for Terror walls, or for more nuanced tools that do useful things (like you see with Wood Elf Sentinels, Dead Marsh Spectres, or Shades). This list will line up and punch the lights out of the enemy or die trying.
That said, this list has some VERY good profiles. Kings of Men are at least F6/S4/2A on offense and D7/2 Wounds/2 Fate with shield/heavy armor on defense for 85pts, and their offense can be augmented by a lance and horse for no more than 110pts. With 2-Might-and-Strike (and March), these guys are good combat Heroes of Legend for just over 100pts - comparable mounted Heroes of Legend in the 100-150pt range include Theoden (110pts), Eorl the Young (120pts), Wulf in the Besiegers of the Hornburg list (130pts), Earnur (140pts), Eomer in the Grief of Eomer/Riders of Eomer lists (145pts), Gothmog in the Army of Gothmog (145pts), and Suladan in the Grand Army of the South/Serpent Horde lists (145pts) - and while almost all of these are excellent combat commanders (Gothmog should be legging it on foot), Kings of Men have at least an argument for why they're better (better wounding roll over most of them, cheaper than the only two that can rival them: Earnur and Eomer). Their Warrior Cavalry are some of the most efficient cavalry in the game (specifically Knights of Minas Tirith for lancers and Riders of Rohan as skirmishers) and their Infantry Warriors cover a wide variety of bases and stand as some of the best in class (among a host of options, Warriors of Minas Tirith, Warriors of Arnor, Warriors of Numenor, Citadel Guard, Blackroot Vale Archers, and Rangers of Arnor). There are some bad apples in the mix, but almost anything is a solid pick.
No matter how you build the list, however, you're going to be limited on Might. At basically any points level, you can probably get 5 Might from 2 Kings of Men (one from Gondor). Scaling up to basically any points level might see you add a third King of Men, if for no other reason than to get access to other unit types, but even if you skip the third King and go with two Fortitude heroes (which could be about the same price, depending on what you buy, but you'll likely be dropping a model or two), you're only going up to 9 Might instead of 7 Might. 9 Might might be fine for your points level, but that third King would bring a lot to the table and I don't know that any Captains (or Knights of the White Tower) can really replace what they're doing. Having a low Might count isn't necessarily bad, it just limits your options (especially late in the game).
Finally, this list is a fabulous way to build lists that are incredibly thematic and cannot be built in other ways. At the time of me writing this article, we had a reader comment on the Grief of Eomer list review that lamented the inability this edition to run Faramir and Eowyn together. It's true that you can't run the actual Faramir profile and the actual Eowyn profile together - but the profile for the King of Gondor isn't far off from the Faramir profile in the Minas Tirith list (-1A, -1 Will, Heroic March instead of Heroic Defense, Shieldwall and +3 warrior slots instead of Resistant to Magic/Wizard's Pupil for -15pts) and the King (or Princess/Shieldmaiden) of Rohan profile is an improvement over the Eowyn profile if Merry isn't mounted with her (+1 Fight Value, +1 Defense, -1 Fate, Heroic March instead of Heroic Defense, +12 warrior slots instead of I Shall Kill You... for +20pts if Eowyn doesn't buy her throwing spears). It's a pretty fair swap, in my humble opinion, and I think any reasonable opponent wouldn't mind accepting those two mounted models in place of converted models for mounted Kings of Men. Whether it's thematic lists like this or lists that never could have existed (see the lists coming up for more on those - but you could also do "history past and history present" with a Dale/Rohan list if you really want to play on hard-mode), this list has what you want - and I don't think it's bad in that respect.
The Realms of Men: Strategies for the Tabletop
We need to start off with some list building notes. As I've already highlighted, all Realms of Men lists should start with a King of Gondor (who will probably be the General). The Gondor contingent is by far and away the most complete and sports many of the strongest choices - Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields with F4/D6 for 9pts each, Guards of the Fountain Court as front-line or second-line troops for 10pts each, Blackroot Vale Archers or Rangers of Gondor with or without spears for 8-9pts (optional banner for the Blackroot Vale Archers), Citadel Guards with longbows for 9pts each, Clansmen of Lamedon as light, courageous, hard-hitting front-liners for 8pts each, and Knights of Minas Tirith as heavy lancer cavalry for 15pts each, the biggest constraint on this list is that you can only take 18 of them without taking a Captain or a Knight of the White Tower. You definitely want to start with this realm and I think you want to max them out if you're only taking one realm. The King of Gondor can be fielded on foot or mounted, as I've already mentioned - you'll see lists with just a foot King below, but know that you could cough up 25pts to get him mounted if you want to. You can also field Bolt Throwers, though I won't be showcasing any of them today - taking one is whatever, but you probably want two (and I think that means that you need to take a second Gondor hero).
At some point, you're going to want to look into a second realm and for me, the go-to is Numenor. The King of Numenor is S5, which is fabulous with a lance and taking spearmen to bring F5/S4 has HUGE advantages over most shieldwalls in the game (especially those that are F4/D6, which Numenoreans will push over the top in FV and will wound on 5s if they win). For 11pts each, they're only a little more expensive than taking Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields and spears (or most other spearmen in the list). If you find you need to save some points (or spend a few more points), Numenoreans with longbows are fine - but I'd only do that if you've run out of slots in your Gondor contingent (Citadel Guard are better archers).
After this, I think there's a real debate about taking an Arnor or Rohan contingent (as has already been beaten into the ground, I think Dale is DOA in this list). Arnor brings a free rule on its Rangers of Arnor over Rangers of Gondor (at cost the same as Blackroot Vale Archers) and Warriors of Arnor with shields and spears are 1pt cheaper than Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields (spear and Hatred are gained at the price of Courage and Shieldwall), which could result in saving 2pts/file if you put your Numenoreans in the front line with just shields - I think this is a bit of a risk, but if you need the points, you can certainly leave the spears on your Numenoreans at home. Taking Warriors of Arnor means you can take more bowmen in the Gondor contingent, but you could just as easily take those archers in the Arnor contingent as well. The argument for taking Rohan has far less to do with what the King of Rohan gets you (he's worse than the Arnor one, by far I think) and far more to do with the flexibility of Riders of Rohan (and possibly Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears). Since Warriors of Minas Tirith are solid troops, you can use a Rohan contingent to get some interesting archers in your list (or skirmish infantry with throwing spears).
No matter how you build your list, any mounted heroes that you run should run together. You definitely want to have one King near your big infantry blocks to March them up the field, but when the cavalry start fighting, you want their Might working together. You're Might-constrained in this list, so if you want to call a Heroic Move, you want to make sure you only need to call one. Having a S5 King of Numenor working with a 3-4 Attack King of Arnor makes a HUGE difference in how well you crunch stuff and you want these guys running over things quickly and efficiently - so keep them together!
Because your only solution to dealing with whatever your opponent chooses to bring are the traditional methods of killing (via bows and swords), you want to bulk out your numbers at any points level and maximize on your bows. Your infantry bowmen run between 7-10pts with the good ones being 8-9pts, so fielding 10 of them is easy at basically any points level. With each shieldwall file costing 18-21pts, it's not hard to get 30 infantry for 300pts - and if you throw in a few cavalry and a banner, you're talking more like 350pts, which can fit into a 650pt list with 3 Kings. You'll go a little lower than this at 500pts (dropping one King and a few guys) and you can scale this up to nearly 60 models if you have to reach up to a higher points level, but your aim should be simple: make sure you have at least model parity with other forces - and if you have more elite troops, that's going to lend you some huge advantages.
Sample Lists
At 500pts, we can get a 30-model list with a fully-maxed out Gondor contingent (sporting 8 Blackroot Vale Archers, 7 Warriors of Minas Tirith, and 3 Knights of Minas Tirith with a foot-King) and a Numenor contingent with a mounted King, 8 spearmen, and 2 bowmen (because we ran out of slots in our Minas Tirith contingent). If you don't like the Numenor bowmen, you can swap the longbows for shields, but I think mixing a few F5/S4 bowmen into the sea of Blackroot Vale Archers might make harassers think twice about charging your bowmen. If you don't plan to call a lot of Heroic Shoots, I think you could swap out the Blackroot Vale Archers for Rangers of Gondor as well (but you might consider swapping out the banner bearer in that case):
At 650pts, you need to add another realm (or get a Bolt Thrower, get a second banner, and upgrade all of the Minas Tirith guys to Guards of the Fountain Court), so I've opted for Arnor, which not only gives us cheaper front-line guys in Warriors of Arnor, but also gives us another beater hero and opens up space in the Minas Tirith section to fill out the archers. We got up to 37 models, we still have 10 bows, and we have 4 cavalry for playing objectives:
At 750pts, I think there's definitely value in just pumping out more guys (or adding a Bolt Thrower), but I think it would be pretty boring if I didn't give Rohan a little time in the sun. We certainly could take throwing spears in the front-rank or second-rank, but taking an entire mounted contingent from Rohan to really get some charging strength out of our mounted heroes sounds like an interesting way to run the list - I also threw some Clansmen into the front rank for more reliable Courage values and extra punching power. This list also picks up a second banner, one to actually run with our cavalry models and still hits 40 models:
Conclusion
This list is probably the best "soup list" we have in the game right now, and yes, it doesn't have access to tricks like magical powers, monsters, or flyers, but there are a LOT of builds you can run for this list that are very, very strong. If you've run this list or have thoughts about things that I've missed, let me know in the comments below! Next month, we'll be building up to Halloween by looking at "spooky lists" and we're starting off with the Host of the Witch-King. This list has the most flexible build option for the Witch-King and sports a variety of units that you can field around him (many of which tick the Halloween box very, very well). Find out what kinds of fun you can have (and dread you can instill into your opponent) next time. Until then, happy hobbying!
No comments:
Post a Comment