Fleshing out the Faction: Fiefdoms Revamp

Good morning gamers,

Back in June 2021, Centaur tried his hand at "revamping" the Fangorn list, providing lots of cool upgrades for Ents, profiles for Huorns, and some neat named heroes who do different things. About a month later, Centaur also tried his hand at revamping Arnor, providing flavors of units based on the major regions of Arnor that would have existed during the apex of that kingdom (the profiles offer more variety than what Rise of Angmar provided, for those interested in seeing what could have been).

In December 2022, Rythbyrt did not one but two posts on how to revamp the Rangers faction (and some Legendary Legions that surround that faction - or should include members of that faction) and like Centaur's post on Fangorn, there were some really great ideas in it.

I'm the last one to join the fray, but I gotta say, the idea for this revamp has been growing in my mind for years. Every year when I begin re-reading The Return of the King, I'm always intrigued by the end of Book V, Chapter 1 where the various fiefdoms of Gondor arrive in their hundreds to assist the garrison of Minas Tirith. While the Fiefdoms has a lot of great units in it - and a really neat theme overall - there's also a LOT of missed opportunities, I feel, for that army list. Today, we're going to walk through the profiles that already exist for the Fiefdoms, and then we'll walk through the passage in chunks and look at profile options for the various fiefs that we're told about. Let's dig in!

NOTE: it's entirely possible - however unlikely - that the Fiefdoms (probably relegated to the Armies of Middle-Earth/book-not-movies sourcebook) could get a revamp in the new edition. We already know that the Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth have been relegated to the Legacies document (and Forlong the Fat is probably losing his horse - and probably getting his war spear downgraded to a standard spear), but so far as we know, the rest of the Fiefdoms is staying as it is. Since we don't have a roadmap for GWs plans, I figured I would throw out these ideas - and who knows, maybe it'll happen!

The Fiefdoms: Existing Profiles

Dol Amroth

This is actually the eighth and final fiefdom to be mentioned in the chapter and Imrahil is described as "kinsman of the Lord, with gilded banners bearing his token of the Ship and the Silver swan" - basically, he's awesome. Imrahil does a lot in the book and leads some of the finest warriors in all of the kingdoms of men - they can trace their lineage back to Numenor and apparently that allows them to have a higher Fight Value than Eomer when they're within 3" of Imrahil and 6" of Boromir's mighty flag. #NotBitter

Imrahil's profile is super solid, with his only limitations being "just 3 Might points" and only getting his wounding bonuses on the charge. Still, with a 12" banner rule for Dol Amroth units (and this rule gets applied to all Fiefdoms units if you keep your army bonus), F6/3A with D7/3 Wounds/3 Fate, there's a lot to like about Imrahil - and many a model that I've fielded have been run over by him.

Fleshing Out the Faction: Sharkey's Rogues (and The Chief's Ruffians)

Hey Reader!

Welcome back to the blog! Having recently run Sharkey's Rogues at our 2024 Spring Zephyr Tournament, I've been thinking a lot about this faction and what it could use to make it...not more competitive, because I don't think there's anything you can add to make you better at the scenarios where you're starting heavily down-handed without going beyond the theme and written source material of the army, but I do think these few new additions would help to fill a few (read: three) of the gaps currently in the force.

We don't do these very often, but let's be real: post The Scouring of the Shire, I don't think Sharkey's Rogues is going to get any more love than they've already gotten (and admittedly that book was just a beautiful labor of love for two factions I love running, so I'm not complaining about that book), but I do think that these few additional profiles will offer quite a bit of versatility that is much needed in this faction.

We'll start by looking at the "why" behind these additions before looking at the "what," and then look at what changes these make to a few typical Sharkey's Rogues / The Chief's Ruffians lists at common points levels.

I.  Why Does Sharkey's Rogues Need Some Love?

This faction is very small in terms of overall profiles (though admittedly up 100% from pre-Scouring, so no complaints here!): Ruffians with access to whips, bows, and knives/clubs (and possibly Hobbit Militia) for your warriors, and then a smattering of F4 and lower heroes, all D3-4, with 1-2 Attacks, and no access to Heroic Strike or Defence, both of which would be very, very helpful.

Fleshing Out the Faction: Arnor

Hey Reader!

As you probably know, not all of the factions in the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game have the variety of choice as the "big factions" like Mordor, Minas Tirith, and Isengard. And while that's not necessarily bad (in truth I'm amazed we have some of the factions we do have in the line, as they get little time in the books and less to no time in the movies), it would be nice if some of those smaller factions got a bit more love to make them more playable on the table.

Today our posts is one of those attempts to correct this, offering homebrew options for new warriors and heroes for the faction of Arnor.

The ideas for these units can also be found in our new adventure module, The Dark Age. It covers the rise of the Witch-King of Angmar to prominence in the north and the fall of Arnor, with the players serving as agents of the Witch-King as he conquers the lands of men. For more on this and to download the free module, visit the downloads page here.

I.  Three Kingdoms: Arthedain, Cardolan, and Rhudaur

By the early Third Age, the Kingdom of Arnor was comprised of three regions: Arthedain to the west, Cardolan to the south, and Rhudaur to the east. The topography varies for each of them, resulting in variance in military development and needs for each portion of the faction. This will serve as the basis for our development of the faction: each of these will provide different units for Arnor.

Currently Arnor gets access to three warrior choices: the Hobbit Archer (which technically comes from west of these regions), the Warrior of Arnor (which will come from Arthedain), and the Ranger of Arnor (which will come from Rhudaur).

For the new models, we make the following assumptions based on the history of the region. First, Arthedain had the largest cities, giving them option to lots of trade, metalworking, and strong leadership (which is why it lasts the longest of the factions). The remnant of Arthedain would become the Dunedain that we know so well from the travels of Aragorn.

Second, Rhudaur is on the frontier against the Ettenmoors, with watchtowers but no major settlements, and their people are primarily guardians along the road leading east to Imladris. With woods and frequent troll incursions, all of their warriors are prepared to meet large, bulky threats in the field. Third, Cardolan is primarily hill country and downs, with few large settlements or industry. This means Cardolan units will be more lightly armed, and will be almost completely devoid of armor.

The captains will be similarly built, following the same guidelines. You'll have a mix of lesser captains and "Kings of Men"-style profiles, but no new named characters.

So with this in mind, here's our crack at fleshing out the Arnor faction.

Fleshing Out the Rangers

Hey Reader!

As we're talking about the Rangers this week, I thought I'd take a moment to do something a bit different: offer some ideas for new profiles for Ranger models to expand the range a bit more.

Not every faction needs to be as fleshed out as, say, Minas Tirith or Mordor, and the Rangers are one such faction: I don't think you need a lot of options to choose from to make this faction feel thematic and unique. The fact that it is an all-hero faction already makes it feel unique, and we don't want to detract from this.

But since this can also lead to a lack of options to deal with different threats and play styles, I present the following as homebrew profiles that might make your Ranger armies more flexible in dealing with threats.

I.  The Rangers of the North

In Tolkien's legendarium we have no indication that the rangers have vast numbers of troops - only a small platoon of men join Aragorn in his quest through the Paths of the Dead, and these are all that could be mustered by Halbarad. So while the obvious gap in the faction's options is troop options, I want you to know that 1) as a former Grey Company player from the old edition that had the option to take Rangers of Arnor, and 2) as someone who really misses having 30 shots in a round, I want to state upfront that we're not resurrecting that option in this update. You will still have an all-hero force, so your numbers will likely always be lower than your opponent.

And that's fine - that's the ranger way.

I will also say, thematically, all of the ranger profiles that currently exist should get hand-and-a-half swords instead of just swords, based off of Aragorn's ranger sword. I also don't think that requires a point increase, as they are not getting Burly or another rule that allows you to two-hand without a penalty, so personally I don't think there's a big deal with just making that change. But eh, we'll see what happens.

What we will provide below are a small number of new options to fill the other needs: slightly cheaper options so you can expand your numbers somewhat (at the expense of veterancy and survivability), as well as some support options to help you cover over some of the common issues the army faces. We will also provide some new named rangers, just to give the list more flavor, much like the new ranger heroes that were added with Quest of the Ringbearer.

Fleshing Out the Faction: Fangorn

 Hey Reader!

Welcome back to the blog! I want to start off by saying that I love the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, and am ever so pleased with the hard work that the team at GamesWorkshop puts into the game to bring us the best play experience possible. I have been overwhelmingly pleased with the supplements and models we have gotten, and am very grateful for the hard work behind the scenes.

But I also think that with the release of War in Rohan there were a few missed opportunities for both Fangorn and Isengard, and I wanted to cover the former of those in this post.

Fangorn is a great faction: it's full of monsters (which are fun to use), very defensible (Defense 8 and 3 Wounds will take you far), and we even got two new ent heroes in the new lineup! But even with the new additions, there really isn't a lot of variety in the faction, and what makes forests so interesting is their variety. It's what makes a forest look wild, and having some variety in the faction would be fantastic.

Naturally there are many ways to add variety, some of which may dramatically change the way the faction plays, so we will start by looking philosophically at what the faction should be, and then from there discuss a new set of upgrades to the basic Ent warrior, and then move on to three new profiles to further flesh out the faction.

I.  Philosophy: Options and Balance

To start with, the ents are the shepherds of the forest: they look after trees and huorns (awakened trees) and protect them from internal and external threats. They are not great in number (so you should be one of the smallest armies in a tournament - we will not be changing that) but make up for that with tremendous size and fortitude.

The ents dig deep, drinking water and eating earth for centuries as they pursue their calling: to guard what Yavanna made from the children of Aule and the peoples of Middle Earth that would threaten the beauty of the forests. But since they lost the entwives, they are running out of shepherds to patrol everything, and thus some question whether ents are even real, as they are so scarce seen.

(This also means don't get your hopes up for an "Entwife" profile later in this post. Yes, I thought of an idea. No, I didn't add it. Yes, if we do a First Age or Second Age supplement I'll note it there, but that would not be a traditional Fangorn army, so I'm not including it here. Suffice it to say, though, yes, the entwives do have a "Farming" and "Nut and Acorn" special rule that I'm very proud of, :P )

So from a lore perspective, we want to incorporate all of this. From a balance perspective, we also need to keep in mind that the current costs for heroes and warriors in this faction is basically perfect for most standard game sizes (as Jay Clare noted recently online), so we will not be adding point costs to any of the ent warriors. Instead, we will be offering a set of free upgrades to your ents that give both bonuses and penalties to keep the balance between styles of ents while also giving you some customization options to make your Fangorn army more unique and serviceable to meet other needs.