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

Good morning gamers,

This is the second Rohan list from the War of the Rohirrim film and it feels a lot more constrained than the Army of Edoras list that we looked at last week. The heroes are fewer, the warriors are basically the same, and you have a powerhouse hero who can't lead troops . . . why run this list, you might be asking?

Well, the answer is pretty simple: this list is good at the fundamentals of the game. Let's look at the units we have and the rules they get to see what we can do with them.

The Defenders of the Hornburg: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Our bench is pretty thin, not gonna lie. We have a different version of Hera in this list - she's better into heroes but also less mobile. We have Olwyn and Lief from last time and with fewer F5+ heroes in the list, you might be taking both of them. You have Captains of Rohan (great mounted heroes or on foot in your battle line), but not King's Huntsmen (which is fine).

And you have Santa Helm. This guy only has 6" movement, which makes both Captains (for Heroic March) and Lief (for +2" of movement once per game and a free Heroic Combat on a turn in which he was charged once per game) must-haves for me. He's got great stats, Mighty Blow, and Dominant (4), which makes him a hero/monster hunter, but a vulnerable one with only 3 Wounds/1 Fate and D5 with light armor. He's very expensive but also very fun to use.

On the warrior front, we have Warriors of Rohan and Riders of Rohan - and that's it. F3 everywhere and maybe some F4 on the charge - that's it. Can we make this list work? Well, let's look at our warriors and see what we can do.

Army List Bonuses

The go-to rule for this list is that all of your infantry models gain Dominant (2). There will be times when this doesn't matter - but in a LOT of scenarios, Dominant is useful. when EVERYONE counts as two models AND you can field a lot of them, you're in a really, REALLY solid spot. I like this rule - the others are fine but won't greatly shake your games. Your infantry warrior models must reroll To Wound rolls of a natural 1 when making Strikes . . . which has shifted the result of a duel for me in times past, but it's never carried a game for me. Additionally, if Helm is in your list and kills an enemy hero/monster, then all enemy models within 3" of Helm have to pass a courage tests or make a full move away from Helm . . . which is kind of like a Nazgul shriek and may not do anything. Still, Helm wants to be killing those kinds of things, so it could be fun and you very well might forget to use it. :)

This is it - and I gotta be honest, the Dominant (2) rule is the only attraction here (and other army lists have that). So . . . is this list DOA? I don't think so - there's good stuff here when you look at the profiles . . .

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

Good morning gamers,

We're still in Rohan this January (what can I say - there's a lot of Rohan lists) and we're kicking things off with one of the new Rohan lists from the War of the Rohirrim film: the Army of Edoras. I'm going to preview the rest of the article here and just say that regardless of whether you liked the film or not, this list is SOLID. There are lots of good heroes that you can buy on a budget, very functional warrior options, and good special rules. Let's see what this list has to offer (anything related to the Legacies document will be marked in red)!

The Army of Edoras: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list doesn't have a corollary really from the last edition. The Helm's Guard list is the closest you're going to get - and that list was really starved for hero options. This list doesn't have that problem. Besides the generic Captain and Huntsman profiles, you have access to Helm, his four relatives, and two other members of his court. You also get the expected warrior options of Warriors of Rohan, Riders of Rohan, and Rohan Royal Guards (if you bring Helm).

Army List Bonuses

Like most Rohan lists, Riders of Rohan don't count towards your bow limit, so if you want to go shooting-heavy (and/or cavalry-heavy), you can. While charge bonuses are usually not hard to come by in Rohan lists, this list can get to reroll all failed To Wound rolls on one round for models within 12" of your General if your General charged that turn. This will affect infantry and cavalry models, but only once. Beyond that, you have just the base stats for your units . . . so beware those D6 shieldwalls!

Additionally, if any of your heroes charge, all Warriors within 6" of the Hero auto-pass Courage tests to charge Terror models - this won't matter for any Rohan Royal Guards in Helm's warband, but can be a brilliant way to tie down a monster while your heroes crash into the warriors of the enemy. These aren't glorious rules, but they're perfectly functional.

Back to Basics, Revisited: Army Composition & Unit Profiles

Good morning gamers,

Well, we're in a new world since the last time we did a "how to play" series, so we're kicking off 2026 by revisiting our "Back to Basics" series. To my surprise and delight, some of the articles from this series remain some of the Top 20 articles viewed in any given 30-day period - which could be a Google roaming bot or it could be that both new and returning players are reading our older stuff. Either way, I'll take it. :)

As we did back in 2021, we're going to learn to play the game by looking at the fun aspect of the game that starts before you show up at the table: creating an army and how to understand the profiles you're looking at.

Army Composition Basics: Heroic Tiers

When building an army, you have to start with heroes - and not all heroes are equal. In past editions of the game, there either wasn't a hero-to-warrior ratio you had to follow (during the Legions of Middle-Earth days when I got started) or there was a 1:12 ratio (when the "warband" books came out). Since the last edition, there are five different tiers of heroes, giving you differing levels of command for your heroes. What is interesting in the newest edition of the game is that heroic tiers aren't listed on the hero profiles anymore - this is good, because many army lists and Legendary Legions in the last edition would change the heroic tier of a hero, so there would be conflict between the unit profile and its army lists. Now, the heroic tier is determined by the army list alone - which I think is at it should be.

Like we did last time, we'll look at Minas Tirith unit to illustrate how these heroic tiers work:

Aragorn is the King is a Hero of Legend - many would follow him and listen to his commands . . .

Heroes of Legend can lead 18 warriors in their warbands. They also pass their first "Stand Fast" roll automatically, which we'll cover in a later post (but for now, just know that when your army thinks it's time to flee the field because they've lost a lot of guys, these heroes say, "No, we've got this!" and the warriors stay in the fight). Heroes of Legend are rare - 0-3 choices for most army lists - but they allow you to bring a LOT of guys with them (relative to the "standard hero"), allowing you to bolster your numbers without the "tax" of an extra hero.

The New Age Is Begun: The Kingdom of Rohan Army List

Good morning gamers,

This is the close-out post for 2025 and we're looking at the Rohan list that forms the core of the Rohan faction: the Kingdom of Rohan. Unless you're building a list around Helm Hammerhand or Eorl the Young, chances are good you can find the hero you're looking for in this list. It also gives you special rules that make most of the Rohan heroes better at what they do. Let's see what's great about this list - and what separates it from the other Rohan army lists.

The Kingdom of Rohan: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

We have basically all of the Rohan profiles in the game - there's no Merry in this list (and consequently, you can't take Merry with Eowyn) and you can't take heroes like Eorl the Young or anyone from the War of the Rohirrim film. Aldor and Haleth from the Helm's Deep list and Sons of Eorl are also not available, but you get everything else - which makes this a very good starting point for most Rohan players. Along with a huge selection of heroes (many of which are available in the Riders of Theoden army list - more on that next year), you get as many warriors as possible - which is frankly the same two profiles (warriors and guards) on foot or on horses. In some ways, you have a lot of profiles . . . in other ways, we don't . . . but what we have is good.

Army List Bonuses

The army list bonuses in this list don't appear to be particularly crazy, but they're VERY good for Rohan lists. Most Rohan heroes (and warriors) are going to be mounted, so getting Strength +1 on the Charge will help some of your units get an easier wounding difficulty than before. Similarly, most of your Rohan heroes will want to be mounted and have the Horse Lord special rule - passing the "free save" on a 5+ instead of a 6+ is super good and makes keeping your horses easier while preserving your Fate points.

The New Age Is Begun: The Shire Army List

Hey Reader!

Today we're discussing what was one of my first (and still my favorite) armies when I joined this hobby: hobbits! Naturally the list has changed a bit since last edition (as this was not one of the old legendary legions), and some of the profiles have changed, but on the whole, it still plays similarly (albeit sometimes with different models) from the last edition.

The Shire: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

The list of models you have in this army list hasn't changed from the previous edition, other than the fact that, naturally, you lose the alliance matrix. And this is a big loss: with a good Green Alliance with The Rangers and an army special rule that didn't always come up (thus opening up a lot of options for convenient alliances), not having access to Aragorn (for your everyday beatstick while still having solid numbers), Dunedain (for good fighters interspersed in the lines), Fellowship members (in case you want some good fighters, beefy tanks, etc. for pretty cheap), ents (for big bruisers that also throw stones!), the Dead of Dunharrow (for a durable front line that can slay!), the Eagles (if you're okay with losing some punch on your eagles in exchange for vastly greater numbers), and various elves (for great Courage, great shooting, and good heroes), you lose a lot by not having an alliance matrix.