A Season of Giving: Revamping the Rangers (Part II)

In case you missed it, Monday featured our measured update to the Rangers faction. But if that didn't scratch your itch, no worries! Our gift to you on the day of the Feast of St. Thomas Beckett (or "5 Golden Rings" day if you prefer... which is probably more appropriate for this game) is an unmeasured, full-blown revamp of the Rangers faction!

As some of you may recall, Centaur did a post last year suggesting various ways to revamp the Rangers. Some of his profiles (and a lot of his suggestions) have made their way into this in the form of new profiles or special rules. But there's also expanded wargear options, changes to the alliance matrix, updates to a couple Legendary Legions, and horses... tons and tons and tons of horses.

As a caveat, this version is primarily designed for TMAT's upcoming Arnor campaign, which we'll probably release some time this decade (deadlines aren't my forte). But of course we've done our best to try balancing these for competitive play (though I guess you can let us know how you think we succeeded).

As with Part I, I'll have screenshots as we go, but if you want to follow along you can download the whole thing HERE (and in Greyscale HERE). Spoiler alert: this is more than I've written in a long while. So if you find yourself only partly through and you're exhausted, I did try to warn you (instead of ambushing you like the poor orc shmucks in this awesome picture are about to be ambushed).

Photo Credit: Quora.com

Here we go!

A Season of Giving: Revamping the Rangers (Part I)

He sees you when you're sleeping... that's weird!

Photo Credit: reddit.com

Ho, ho, hooooooooold on... this is a day late...

(Oh well. Better late than never, right?)

Another Christmas may have come and gone, but the season of giving here at TMAT continues! (Mostly because I couldn't meet deadlines.) But my procrastination is your gain, because have we got some pre-Epiphany presents for you on this fine Boxing Day!

As many of you know, both Centaur and I are huge fans of the Rangers. So we were somewhat disappointed (or, in Centaur's case, close to affronted) as other factions got buffs, while our beloved Rangers looked on, quietly, from the shadows. 

Of course, the Rangers are a perfectly fine, pseudo-competitive faction as-is. But this is the holidays and we're wish-listing. So we've cooked up something extra special for those oft-underappreciated guardians of the North: an entire faction revamp.

Part I (which we're releasing today) is a modest update that takes a look at the existing profiles and gives them a little... something extra where needed. I'm also not a huge fan of legendary legions--I don't oppose them, I just think that when we have more legions than factions, that may suggest the factions themselves need more attention. But I acknowledge that these Legions exist, and there are two that impact the Rangers (or should), so we've offered some modest improvements for those, too.

I'll have screenshots as we go, but if you want to follow along, you can download the whole thing HERE (and in Greyscale HERE). And if you missed our other Season of Giving ideas, you can check them out using the links below (or at the bottom of the House Rules page):

• The Watchers of the Roads Legendary Legion (December 5, 2022)
• The Light of Caras Galadhon Legendary Legion (December 8, 2022)
• Defense of Mirkwood Legendary Legion (December 12, 2022)
• The Barrows of Cardolan Legendary Legion (December 15, 2022)
• The Last Alliance Legendary Legion (December 19, 2022)
• The Power of the Ring Legendary Legion (December 22, 2022)
• Revamping the Rangers, Part II (December 26, 2022)

Shall we?

A Season of Giving: The Power of the Ring Fan-Made Legendary Legion!

Good morning gamers,

This is our last early Christmas gift - and as we prepare to close out 2022 (we'll have some stellar end-of-the-year content after Christmas too - don't worry), we're thankful that you guys have stuck with us, reading our pieces, and interacting with us in the comments here and on Facebook (and BOY did you guys have thoughts on the last one). Last time, we talked about the Last Alliance custom Legion we made and this time, we're looking on the other side of the field to one of the most iconic forces of Evil in the films and books: the coalition of Orcs and Men united under Sauron during the end of the Second Age. Let's see what we can do with these guys!

Why Make This Legion?

Besides having Season 1 of The Rings Of Power in the bucket and riding on the interest of players across the world, the current Barad-Dur list is really cool and has garnered interest among players since the rules revamp - but it has a few critical design flaws. First and foremost, while Sauron is integral to the list, getting him to actually compete with other big heroes is quite difficult since a) he's slow, b) he can only cast one spell each turn, and c) he has no synergies with his army (besides keeping them from counting as being broken - which is better than nothing, but not really a synergy).

DOWNLOAD THE RULES HERE!

The Barad-Dur list also includes a lot of different things in it - all "old world" stuff, but it gives an eclectic mix of models for us to use. Besides "the Orcs", we have evil Men (Black Numenorean Marshals, Black Numenoreans, and Morgul Knights), Trolls (Mordor Troll Chieftains and Mordor Trolls), siege weapons (Siege Bows and Mordor War Catapults), Nazgul (the Witch-King and generic Ringwraiths), and Shelob. To be honest, if we're looking for a prologue-style list, we really want the Orcs and Numenoreans instead of "all the other stuff". So, we're going to want to chop all that out - but because it reduces our options, we want there to be some kind of benefit to taking this reduced set of profiles (something some Legions forget to do - #MenOfTheWest #IBelieveInYou #NoOneElseDoes).

Since our Last Alliance list doesn't have any cavalry, it seems appropriate to keep the evil force in the all-infantry category too - which means we'll have to do without Morgul Knights, Warg Riders, and mounts for our Black Numenorean Marshals and Orc Captains. Yes, this will mean we'll need to be mindful of getting places with an all-infantry force, but it's alright. In trade for not having fast troops, it would be good if we could get some kind of tactical boost for our troops (or make the infantry we have more appealing).

Finally, the scene in the prologue has a TON of Orcs in it - and while Sauron's 24-model warband in the Barad-Dur list helps with this some, it would be good if he wasn't the only one who could truly horde out. This is probably the easiest fix for us to do - and we have some guidance for it elsewhere. Okay, let's talk about the Legion rules!

A Season of Giving: The Last Alliance Fan-Made Legendary Legion!

Good morning gamers,

2022 is almost over and with the first season of The Rings of Power complete, we thought it would be great to have a Last Alliance Legion (and a fitting rival Legion) to lead us into Christmas. With a lot of chatter about a Last Alliance supplement coming out in the coming months (oh please let those new Rivendell sculpts not be a ruse), this is intended to be a stop gap before new content hits the shelves (however long that wait lasts). Let's check out the Legion!

Why Make This Legion?

DOWNLOAD THE RULES HERE!

Since the current rules set dropped, I have loved Last Alliance lists (though I have always loved the prologue scene from the Fellowship of the Ring film and have collected the models for it for a while) - Numenor and Rivendell have some of the punchiest heroes that the Forces of Good have to offer and while their warrior selection is limited, the options the units have are great. So since an alliance between these two factions is already great, how do we make the Legion worth taking while not invalidating an allied list?

I wrote an article earlier in the year about the difficulties with building Last Alliance lists. These issues were:

• Having to choose how many big heroes to include;
• Fitting in tactical heroes is hard when the point levels are low;
• Balancing your mix of D4-5 Men and D5-6 Elves; and 
• Getting mounts in your list is hard.

I wanted to solve all of these without having an oppressive Legion. Fixing some of them would be easy: make both warrior choices good so you don't feel like you're settling, make all of the heroes valuable, and get those tactical benefits available at any points level. How do we do this? Let's find out!

A Season of Giving: The Barrows of Cardolan Fan-Made Legendary Legion!

Pardon the CRAPPY JOB my camera did; I need
to just break down and buy a new phone

Hey Reader!

As a continuation of our Season of Giving series, I'm bringing you a new Angmar legendary legion: The Barrows of Cardolan. Remember how everyone hates Angmar because they do mean stuff? And how they get access to those big flying monsters and fell beasts that make things even worse, so that Angmar is just no fun to play against at all?

Well this one removes the monsters, so that's a big plus! It removes a lot of other things too, so this really does feel like a true legendary legion: giving up a lot of options to gain flavorful benefits, but fair warning: the "unfun" parts of Angmar are still at least partially in play here.

But we're talking about Angmar: this is why we play them! We like dead stuff that does unique stuff you can't find in a Mordor or Barad-Dur list! We love uphill battles against heavy-hitting heroes! And this legion does all of this.

DOWNLOAD THE RULES HERE (in color) OR HERE (in black and white)!!!

Why Make This Legion?

To start off, I believe that legendary legions should fundamentally remove options in favor of what you gain from taking the legion. So without naming any names, there are some legions that I don't like because you basically get the same army with no real losses, all while gaining other benefits (and this fault includes what I believe is the best supplement book that has been released to date, so this is not a bias thing).

So this legion can't include the wide range of threats that Angmar has: flying monsters, ringwraiths with multiple mount options, orcs of various flavors, more monsters, spirits with cool special rules, and an almost useless shaman (don't get me started on how much I hate that shaman). Instead it thematically centers itself on one aspect of the army: the rising of the dead by the might of Sauron, and then it fleshes out the legion with a few new profiles that we will discuss presently.

A Season of Giving: The Defence of Mirkwood Fan-Made Legendary Legion!

Good morning gamers,

We come today to the second Elf Legendary Legion that was omitted from Defence of the North as we view the Halls of Thranduil list and what Legion could be made for those that defended the greenwood from the invasion of Orcs and spiders that raged northward during the war. There's a dual-problem we face with making this Legion: first and foremost, we need to make the list look good without Legolas or allies. Second, we need the list to look different from the Lothlorien Legion we presented last time.

Neither of these changes are going to be easy, but the second is really important. There's one other thing I wanted to fix with this Legion (since we're in the neighborhood): I wanted the Mirkwood Captains in this list to have a place. Mirkwood Captains are only marginally less expensive than Palace Guard Captains and don't move faster either. So how do we fix this? Well, let's dig into the Legion rules!

DOWNLOAD THE RULES HERE!!!

Why Make This Legion?

Let's begin with fixing the absent Legolas problem: Legolas is one of the best allies you can bring for the Forces of Good - he's 95-115pts (depending on your interest in Orcrist or his horse), which isn't that much for Heroes of Valor in general and cheaper than most other Elven Valor heroes (except Haldir). He's Historical/Convenient Allies with everyone except Grimbeorn, so dropping him and up to 15 Elves in your army isn't hard. In combat, he's fine with 2 Attacks base at F6/S4 and 3-Might-and-Strike and access to a mount.

A Season of Giving: The Light of Caras Galadhon Fan-Made Legendary Legion

Good morning gamers,

We're continuing our list of custom Legendary Legions today (for the running list, check out the House Rules page) and we've come to one of the Legions that I thought was sorely lacking from Defence of the North: a defence-of-Lothlorien Legion! There was a lot of chatter on the Facebook pages predicting that we'd get a "shape-shifting" Galadriel that allowed the 1A Hero of Legend to NOT be the Army Leader and when we didn't get that, I decided that this HAD to be one of the Christmas(time) presents we gifted to you all - so let's dig into what the Legion provides!

Why Make This Legion?

DOWNLOAD THE RULES HERE!

Let's face it: we have three mini-campaigns in Defence of the North (Dale/Erebor, Mirkwood, and Lothlorien) and of those three campaigns, we got 2 Legions for the first, one Legion for part of the second (Beornings), and NO Legion for the third - #Travesty! You can't start talking about why this Legion is needed without acknowledging that, if the movie timeline is to be taken as canon, we need a Legendary Legion that keeps us from running Haldir in a Lothlorien list.

There are three common critiques of Lothlorien that you'll find everywhere in the community: first and foremost, we already mentioned that needing to make Galadriel (your only Hero of Legend) your army leader can be a real pain in 1-2 scenarios (Contest of Champions, possibly also Fog of War). While I think she's perfectly fine as an army leader in Contest of Champions, a lot of people struggle to do well with her (so I get it). Many Lothlorien players take this one step farther though: since Galadriel, Lady of Light was downgraded to a Hero of Fortitude in a recent FAQ, and since one of the first FAQs requires that a Hero of Valor/Legend be used to ally between two Convenient factions, and since (for reasons unknown) the White Council is Convenient Allies with Lothlorien (despite having 2/7 members in the White Council list), you can't get Galadriel, Lady of Light into a Lothlorien list without bringing along someone else (like, say, her husband). This is a problem - you should be able to get Galadriel, Lady of  Light into a Lothlorien army and she should not have to be your army leader by default.

A Season Of Giving: The Watchers of the Roads Fan-Made Legendary Legion!

Good morning gamers,

Last week, we mentioned at the end of the formations article that we here at TMAT are giving you a bunch of early Christmas gifts in the form of revamped factions and completely new Legendary Legions! Today we turn to a new custom Legendary Legion that features Rangers, Elves, Dwarves, non-Ranger-men, Hobbits, and some weird spirit people. That's right, we're bringing the Wanderers in the Wild Battle Company to Matched Play with the Watchers of the Roads Legendary Legion!

Why Make This Legion?

DOWNLOAD THE RULES HERE!

We went through a season here at TMAT where we played a bunch of Battle Companies games - and let me tell you, my favorite battle company was the Wanderers in the Wild list (I also really liked the Moria Expedition, Isengard, and Last Alliance Battle Companies too - some of which have even been documented here on the blog). A collection of misfit models that most players critique, this company has low Defense but can skirmish for days and potentially deal lethal damage to their foes with shooting (with bows, throwing weapons, or thrown stones). Our list today basically keeps the warrior options from that Battle Company (no Sentinels) and gives us heroes to go with them. All of the models in this list could have been the protectors of the major paths in their regions and were always ready to hedge off the peaceful from the vicious.

We have Rangers in the form of Aragorn, Dunedain, and Rangers of Arnor. The Rangers do count towards your bow limit, but with Hobbit Militia, Bree Villagers, Noldorin Exiles, and Dwarf Rangers in the list, it's not hard to find melee units to take to enable you to take rangers. We have other men from Bree in the form of the Bree Villagers (borrowing the profile from the Scouring of the Shire supplement) united behind Barliman Butterbur. 

We also have Elves in the form of Glorfindel, Elladan and Elrohir, Gildor Inglorion, and his loyal band of Noldorin Exiles. The Elves are dwindling from Middle-Earth and so there are few who still live to keep the land safe. Since Glorfindel and the Twins are more loners than captains of soldiers in this role, they can't lead any warriors (though the Twins can take Dunedain). To make up for this limitation, all three have weapon master to up their damage.

The Hobbits were a late addition, but Maggot and his sons and dogs stood up to the Ringwraiths as they entered into the Shire. While not explicitly covered in the books, the "Maggot's Farm" scenario from the Scouring of the Shire supplement certainly indicates that he wouldn't let vagabonds go romping across his land into the Shire either. As such, we can assume that he and his sons would have been willing to challenge anyone else who was out to cause trouble on the East-West road through the Shire.

The Dwarves were an even later decision - Tolkien talks about how Dwarves travelled the roads between Ered Luin (west of the Shire) and the Misty Mountains and so it seemed fitting to have the "traveler" types available in this list (Murin and Drar as heroes, Dwarf Rangers as warriors). Tactically, these give you the "heavy infantry" option that you get in the Wanderers in the Wild Battle Company (D5 warriors, D7-8 heroes) and they're affordably priced skirmish troops (9pts for a Dwarf Ranger with bow or throwing axes, 140pts for both Dwarf heroes).

New Faction: The Ettenmoors

 Hey Reader!

So this is something new on this channel, and we'd love your feedback on it to see what you think. As I reread the works of Tolkien, I'm reminded about how many cool Germanic mythological stuff is found in The Lord of the Rings (not surprising, considering that Tolkien was writing a mythos for Britain), and unfortunately not all of these things appear in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in prominent ways, so we are limited in what we have in our miniatures line.

So I took a moment to think about some of these creatures and where they lived, and I realized that they all lived in the Misty Mountains. And that got me thinking about a very loose alliance that would make for a very interesting fighting force on the table, which is where the Ettenmoors faction was born.

We will start by introducing this homebrew faction - what it contains, where they appear in Tolkien's mythology, and what we know about them - and then we will go into presenting the profiles for the various creatures.

The faction is a neutral faction, with some models being taken as part of a Forces of Good army, some models being taken as part of a Forces of Evil army, and some models that can be taken as part of a neutral army. Some are copied from other armies, others are similar to models in existing armies, but most of them are new, giving a unique primarily monster army that we hope you will enjoy.

I.  The Ettenmoors: The Might of the Mountains

The Ettenmoors is a section of the Misty Mountains north of Rivendell. In this region (and across the Misty Mountains) you will find a mixture of stone giants, werewolves, trolls of various kinds, and wild animals, which is the basis for this faction.

Some of these creatures are well documented: stone trolls (like we see in The Hobbit), cave trolls (like we encounter in Moria), and various bears and deer in the Carrock region of the mountain range are pretty well understood from a lore perspective. But there are others that raise questions.

The first is one that we know decently well from The Silmarillion and The Lost Tales, and that is the werewolf. A staple of Germanic/Saxon mythology (and appearing in some Scottish and Irish myths as well), werewolves are most well known for their part in the story of Beren and Luthien, and the saga of the Silmarils. They are fast, ravenous, and ferocious in battle, with greater strength than your average person.

The second is the giant, which is referenced by Gandalf in The Hobbit, and the party gets to see them later as they ascend the mountain, throwing stones to each other in a crude and dangerous game. These guys are big - at least as tall as ents, if not taller - and some can be evil, but some are a good sort, including the one that Gandalf says he will talk to about closing up the entrance to the goblin tunnel.

The third is the two-headed troll, which is a creature hotly debated by the few who really care. Mentioned in a throwaway line in The Hobbit, Gandalf insinuates that there are trolls with two heads, but whether this means they literally have two heads or whether it means that they have a mind of their own plus the will of Sauron ruling over them is a mystery. The critical thing we know about them is that they are evil and they are not the same as the stone trolls that Thorin's Company encounters (as Gandalf speaks of them as if they are different), so for the purposes of more interesting army lists we are treating them as an actual two-headed troll, different from the stone trolls of the Trollshaws.

Fourth we have the snow troll, another creature only referenced in an obscure part of Tolkien's lore, in this case in the tale of Helm Hammerhand, who went about the Dunlending camps with a white pelt on his back killing his enemies with his bare hands. The Dunlendings say that he stalked them "like a snow troll," which presumes the existence of a snow troll.

Of course, it could also just be a Dunlending "bogeyman" sort of thing designed to scare children, so we don't really know that they exist. But it seems far more interesting if they do, so we decided to build a profile for them, because Stalk Unseen on a troll is such a novel concept.

And that gave us a lot of fodder for a monster-heavy army that is admittedly short on numbers, but could be very fun to play.

II.  The Ettenmoors: Units and Stats

The stats of the Ettenmoors units can be found (and easily printed to show your gaming group) here. You'll find a version in full color with a nice background that is cool to look at but more harsh on your printer, so we've also included a black and white version for ease of printing. We will start by looking at the army bonus and army composition, and then move through a quick discussion of the heroes and warriors you can take.

The army is composed of Stone Giant Kings, Stone Giant Craftsmen, Snow Troll Chieftains, Werewolf Chieftains, Two-Headed Troll Brutes, Stone Troll Brutes, Stone Giants, Two-Headed Trolls, Cave Trolls, Snow Trolls, Stone Trolls, Werewolves, Carrock Bears, and Carrock Deer.

The army bonus for the faction is Games with Rocks, giving you the Mountain Dweller special rule, and you add +1 to your Shoot Value when you are throwing stones. This doesn't make your throwing particularly good, but hey, you get to have games with rocks like they do in the books!

Of the heroes, Stone Giant Kings and Stone Giant Craftsmen may be taken in Forces of Good, Forces of Evil, or Neutral armies. All of the other heroes can only be taken in Forces of Evil or Neutral armies. Similarly Stone Giants, Carrock Bears, and Carrock Deer can be taken in any army, while the rest may only be taken in Forces of Evil or Neutral armies. This means that you will likely be playing a Forces of Evil or a Neutral force when using this army, unless you really love giants teamed with, say, Beorn or Radagast.

For the Forces of Evil, you get access to a wide range of monstrous and deadly creatures: tough trolls, sneaky trolls, and unyielding werewolves. They are expensive, to be sure, but if you like the idea of fighting with a relentless army that is mostly monsters, you can do it with this army. And for armies like Angmar, you get access to a wider range of frontline bruisers to accompany your orcs.

It's not an amazing army, but I think it's 1) thematically cool, 2) fun to play, and 3) gives a lot of room for customization depending on what you want to do with it. As someone who enjoys the monster rules, throwing stones, and berserker-style special rules, you have a great option with The Ettenmoors.

Conclusion

We love talking about the game, best tactics, and how to build armies with unique playstyles. The idea of creating our own homebrew content is a new venture for us (and probably won't do this often), so let us know what you think! We have high hopes that as the Amazon Prime series starts we will get new models and units for some factions (and who knows, maybe even a werewolf if we're going to the Second Age!), so who knows: maybe someday this faction will be outdated/antiquated by official lines of miniatures and stat profiles. But in the meantime, if you like giants, trolls, and werewolves, may I recommend The Ettenmoors.

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Bane - yes, with humans alongside me if I must." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone