The New Age Is Begun: the Realms of Men Army List

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).

The New Age Is Begun: the Paths of the Druadan Army List

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-rules Wose Warriors led by Ghan-buri-Ghan. This list has an interesting play style, an interesting set of rules, and is a whole lot of fun to use. Let's see what we have to work with in this list!

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). 

The New Age Is Begun: the Fords of Isen Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're back for another week in Rohan month (Volume III!) with the Fords of Isen army list. A while back, the TMAT team did a podcast episode where we drafted Legendary Legions and I got the first pick of the first round. My choice was easy: Theodred's Guard. I took them to a low-points event that Centaur threw and came in third with them (tying one of my best performances at an event) and I know I wasn't alone in the international community for thinking they were good. Still, this list may have been a controversial choice for some, but I think most players would agree that it was playable if not very good - and then when the new edition arrived and you couldn't run it anymore, I eagerly awaited the arrival of the Armies of Middle-Earth book and the resurgence of a proper mixed-arms Rohan list (one that didn't require the War of the Rohirrim heroes, most of whom I still have to buy). With the release of both the Armies of Middle-Earth and the Legacies documents, we have a pretty good army list that has only gotten better with a recent errata. Let's see what's cooking for one of Rohan's finest lists!

The Fords of Isen: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has more profiles available to it than the Fields of Celebrant list - but only if you allow Legacy profiles to play, which seems fair considering the Fields of Celebrant is a Legacy list. For named heroes, we have to take Theodred and we can/should take Elfhelm and we can also take Grimbold if Legacies are in play. For generic heroes we have Captains of Rohan and maybe King's Huntsmen. On the warrior front, we have Rohan Royal Guards, Riders of Rohan, Rohan Outriders if Legacies are in play, and Warriors of Rohan (who can technically be taken as one of two forms, Warriors of Rohan or Helmingas, if Grimbold is in your list - though only in his warband).

That's . . . not a lot of profiles, but as is usual for not having a lot of profiles, this list makes up for that with a lot of special rules - some of which are copied over from the Legendary Legion of last edition (which I always thought had an excellent set of special rules).

Army List Bonuses

For army creation rules, we have to take Theodred (I don't know why you wouldn't in any case) and we can take up to 50% throwing spears, thanks to an errata - we are definitely going to take advantage of that! There are two passive rules that are pretty good: when your army breaks, all of your models gain Dominant (2) (Resolute Rohirrim) and everyone (including Theodred) gets Sworn Protector (Theodred), so they'll pass Courage tests if Theodred is alive and on the battlefield (Protect the Prince). The first rule might require some record keeping in Reconnoitre (see a recent discussion on the latest FAQ for more on that), but otherwise we're able to effectively double our army on objectives once we've lost half of our army and we don't have to worry about break tests/Terror walls so long as Theodred is alive - perfect!

Additionally, there's a fail-safe rule for Theodred that's new to the list (The Courage of Elfhelm): if he is fighting within 6" of Elfhelm, enemies cannot target Theodred with Strikes if they can target someone other than him. This means that a) we want Theodred to fight dangerous things with a buddy or three, b) we want to take Elfhelm in every list (already done, but still), and c) we want Elfhelm to stay near-ish to Theodred.

There are two notes I'd like to make about special rules that are not in this list: first, this is another Rohan list where Riders of Rohan do count towards your bow limit. Second, this is also one of a few Rohan lists where you don't get Strength +1 on the Charge. Between these two rules being absent, you're actively being encouraged not to go too hard into cavalry and instead are encouraged to bring a mixed arms force (more on that in the profile discussion below).

The New Age Is Begun: The Fields of Celebrant Army List

Good morning gamers,

The month of September will tackle the last four army lists with Rohan models. We're kicking things off with a list that harkens back to when I first got started with Rohan: the Fields of Celebrant. Back in the last edition, you could run Eorl the Young with other named heroes if you were okay losing your army bonus . . . and I figured that the Might regen from Gamling's banner (which was far more reliable last edition) and the Arise, Riders of Theoden rule from having Theoden in your list made everything better (Eorl basically became a cheaper version of Eomer, slightly worse in some ways and slightly better in other ways). This edition, you don't need these boosts nearly as much - so let's see if the requirement to work with Minas Tirith (which was an option last edition but wasn't required) changes anything about how the list operates.

The Fields of Celebrant: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list doesn't give us a lot of profiles, but most of our bases are covered. We have to take Eorl the Young and a Gondor King of Men (and we're limited to taking a single King of Men in this list). The list also has Captains of Rohan/Minas Tirith for generic hero support and a basic warrior unit (Riders of Rohan and Warriors of Minas Tirith) and a more specialized warrior unit (Sons of Eorl and Citadel Guard). I think there are models that would be good to add to this list, but I think what we have is perfectly functional.

Army List Bonuses

This list has the two expected rules restrictions for list building: Rohan Warriors can only be taken by Rohan Heroes and Gondor Warriors can only be taken by Gondor Heroes. I gotta say, while I fully accept these list building restrictions, it sure makes me appreciate the more open list building options you have in lists like Men of the West and Defenders of Helm's Deep, where you can mix-and-match your warbands to make each a bit more balanced and self-sufficient. This list, like a lot of other lists, has a clear build: some infantry blocks in certain warbands and a threatening cavalry charge in others.

To assist with these list building restrictions, there are three special rules that affect the models in the list. With the Gondor's Last Defence rule, Gondor models that are within range of an Objective Marker get to reroll 1s when making Strikes, which is . . . not nothing, but certainly not as good as what you see in Atop the Walls where it also affects shooting attacks. The Rohan models bring a once-per-game rule (The Charge of Eorl) that requires friendly Cavalry models (your Rohan models that are still mounted and the King of Men if he took a horse) to Charge if they choose to move and can Charge AND they get to reroll all failed To Wound rolls when making Strikes. This operates just like the Ride Out army list rule and Theodred's rule but NOT like Beorn's Berserk rule: if the unit can Charge and chooses to move, it has to Charge - but it doesn't have to Charge if it chooses not to move.

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

Good morning gamers,

This month is "Pelennor month" and we've covered the Fiefdoms (lots of Gondor units with special take-this-hero-to-get-these-warriors rules), the Grief of Eomer (a mix of Gondor and Rohan units, led by two smashy heroes), and the Return of the King (all of the ghosts with the Three Hunters thrown in). Today, we're taking all of those units - plus a bunch of others who show up in the Atop the Walls list - and putting them into one monster list! In trade for this greatly expanded roster, we're going to have a single special rule . . . but don't let that knowledge cramp your style. The list is very strong and gives veteran players a lot of options for list building. Let's see what we have to work with today!

The Defenders of the Pelennor: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

There are a ton of profiles in this list - the full list is provided in the profile adjustment section below. Suffice it to say that if you're looking for someone from Minas Tirith, the Fiefdoms, Rohan, or the Rangers who was fighting in the War of the Ring, chances are good that you'll find them in this list.

Army List Bonuses

This list has some army building restrictions - none of which are unique to this list. Your Rohan Warriors have to be led by Rohan Heroes, your Gondor Warriors need to be led by Gondor Heroes, and your Dunharrow Warriors have to be led by a Dunharrow Hero or one of the Three Hunters. The omission in this list is that the Rangers don't have the ability to lead anyone - they're included because of their appearance in the Return of the King book, where they led Clansmen of Lamedon (and other Fiefdoms militia from the coast), so it seems to me that they should be able to lead other units (maybe if there are no Dunharrow units in your list to be book-accurate?).

Beyond this, there's only one rule: each Hero in your army gets to declare a free Heroic Combat once per game. This is a really great rule since a) it's free, so Grima can't make it cost extra Might, b) it affects all heroes regardless of their affiliations, and c) it's easy to keep track of for both you and your opponent. On its face, this is weaker than the Riders of Theoden army list (where you get a once-per-game Heroic Combat on a single turn if Theoden is still alive, but also get +1 Strength on the Charge) and probably weaker than the Return of the King (where you get Anduril for free and F4 on some of your Warriors), but overall, it helps this list a lot in that you can take the list in any direction and you won't be fighting against the army list bonus.

So It Begins, Part 3: Plant the Charges

Good morning gamers,

We're back for our third scenario in our custom Helm's Deep campaign. Today, the Uruk-Hai are trying to blow up the culvert with some fancy explosives! Can Aragorn and his friends kill all three torch-bearing Berserkers before the wall is blown?

Plant the Charges (War in Rohan, p. 28)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario:

• Forces of Good: Mostly The Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• Forces of Evil: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 4 Uruk-Hai Captains
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 8 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
• 3 Demolition Teams

This scenario requires Evil to blow up the Deeping Wall via the culvert, while Good needs to kill all three of the torch-carrying Berserkers (hereafter referred to as "torch-boyz"). I will say from the outset that Gorgoroth was watching us set up, and he told Centaur, "You know, you should just keep one of your Berserkers with a torch really far back." Centaur was like, "Yes, I should - but this is scenario play." So . . . for you meta gamers out there, enjoy the resulting fireworks display as both Centaur and I go all-out for not-a-draw!

The New Age Is Begun: the Grief of Eomer Army List

Good morning gamers,

Last week, we looked at the Fiefdoms army list and today, we're truncating down the Fiefdoms side of the house and adding in some Rohan units as we look at the Grief of Eomer army list. This list finds its origin in a scenario from the Gondor at War supplement from the last edition and it feels like several lists we've looked at over the past few months. Let's see what's in this double-heavy-hitter list, shall we (there's only one legacy profile, we'll highlight the relevant sections in red like we always do)?

The Grief of Eomer: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list is supposed to represent the scene from the books where Eomer rallies his Eored after seeing Theoden and Eowyn on the ground and begins a death-charge into the thick of the enemy. He's rescued by Imrahil and a host of Dol Amroth and Minas Tirith troops. As a result, we have two distinct contingents: a Rohan side and a Gondor side, both of which can only take Warriors in warband led by Heroes of the same faction.

The Rohan side of the house is incredibly light, with just Eomer, Captains of Rohan, Warriors of Rohan, and Riders of Rohan. The Gondor side of the house has Imrahil and Hurin as the named heroes, Captains of Minas Tirith/Dol Amroth for the generic heroes, and Knights/Men-at-arms of Dol Amroth for the Fiefdoms working alongside (maybe) Warriors/Knights of Minas Tirith. You don't have any specialized units for either side (unless you count the Dol Amroth troops as specialists). 

Army List Bonuses

The army list bonuses that this list gets are pretty good - Eomer is always under the effects of the Price of Grief, which isn't a downside if you plan ahead (more on that in the Strategies section below). He also gets +1 Fight Value when he Charges, so if you can keep him going, he'll be a F7 hero (like Imrahil). Eomer also gets Fearless and any Rohan models (Hero and Warrior) who can see him automatically pass any Courage Tests they have to take - so they have Fearless as long as they can see him, which is brilliant.

Finally, the Gondor side of the house gets a bonus of rerolling 1s To Wound when they Charge . . . which is not nothing, but also not very much. This bonus is better as the wounding difficulties drop, so charging into D3 Wild Men is pretty good, charging into D4-5 Orcs will feel good sometimes, charging into D6-7 heavy troops from a whole heap of factions (and in particular into lists that play like this one) will see the rule crop up occasionally but rarely. So . . . whatever.

So It Begins, Part 2: The Walls of Helm's Deep

Good morning gamers,

We're back for another scenario in our custom Helm's Deep campaign. Today, the Uruk-Hai have made it to the walls and they'll be battling through the defenders, trying to get a hold of the walls. Can Aragorn and his friends kill 35 Uruk-Hai in 12 rounds? Can we keep Aragorn alive? We'll see - here are our participants . . .

The Walls of Helm's Deep (War in Rohan, p. 26)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario:

• Forces of Good: Mostly The Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• Aldor
• Haleth, Son of Hama
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 4 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• Forces of Evil: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 4 Uruk-Hai Captains
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 12 Uruk-Hai Berserkers

The record keeping for this scenario is tricky - we tried our best to keep a faithful tally. You will see how this went shortly . . .

So It Begins, Part 1: Raise the Ladders

Good morning gamers,

Every year, Centaur and I try to do some kind of scenario thing - in recent years, we've played through Fantasy Fellowships, the Scouring of the Shire, and a custom campaign through all the Osgiliath missions. Today, we're starting this year's campaign, which will be playing through the scenarios related to Helm's Deep from the War in Rohan supplement. We'll be using the new profiles, but we won't be altering the scenario participants to make legal Matched Play lists (it just doesn't work for Good this time around). We'll also be showing off the amazing terrain from Conquest Creations' Kingdom of Saxonia, Volume II - Jacob has really outdone himself and boy was making the terrain a ton easier than before!

The Walls of Helm's Deep (War in Rohan, p. 26)

We're using the actual scenario participants in this scenario:

• Forces of Good: Mostly The Defenders of Helm's Deep
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor
• Gimli, Son of Gloin
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• Aldor
• Haleth, Son of Hama
• 8 Warriors of Rohan with shields
• 8 Warriors of Rohan with shields and throwing spears
• 8 Warriors of Rohan with bows
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• Forces of Evil: The Assault Upon Helm's Deep 
• 4 Uruk-Hai Captains
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with shields
• 10 Uruk-Hai Warriors with pikes
• 12 Uruk-Hai Berserkers
• 5 Siege Ladders

We could have made this a Matched Play game by adding Theoden to the good side - the points are one-sided towards the Forces of Good and they have the walls . . . we'll see how this goes. The victory conditions for this scenario are based on how many ladders Evil can keep up - if Good can knock down 4+ of the 5 ladders, they win. If Evil can keep up 4+ of the ladders, they win. If there are 3 ladders left standing, it's a draw. 

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

Good morning gamers,

This July, we'll be digging into the wild men of Dunland - we've already looked at the Army of the White Hand (which is really mercenary Dunland to Isengard), but this month, we'll be pivoting to Dunland as a primary faction and mostly focusing on the armies from the War of the Rohirrim. These guys are really fun to run and the new sculpts that they have are gorgeous! Let's dig in and see the first of these lists (and one that has been very strong in the international meta): the Usurpers of Edoras.

Editor's Note: this article has been updated for the 2026 July FAQ. I have not updated the lists at the bottom, but you could easily move the banner and war horn to other models if you want to.

The Usurpers of Edoras: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Before the July FAQ, this list only had five hero profiles and three warrior profiles. The good news is that these profiles, generally speaking, are just fine for what we need. We have Freca and Thorne who provide tactical bonuses, we have Targg for some tactical and some combat bonuses (more on him throughout), Hill Tribes Chieftains for Marching your army around, and Wulf for hammering through the enemy.

From a warrior profile perspective, we have fast strategic units with Crebain and we have two very flexible unit options for our grunts with Rohirrim Traitors (max of 12) and Hill Tribesmen. With the changes that have been made this edition to the old Wild Man of Dunland profile, these two unit options give us basically everything we'd want except mounted warriors (and heavy infantry - that was never going to be on the table). The bench was light, until the FAQ provided the option for a Mumaks and up to six Haradrim (all of whom can have bows if you take at least ten melee troops) if you don't have Freca. This means there are slightly more profiles than before, but still not many.

Top 10 Hero Choices for the Realms of Men

All photos courtesy of GamesWorkshop

Hey Reader!

I've been playing around with the Realms of Men list recently (and took them to the TMAT GT this past May, where I finished with 2 Wins, 1 Loss, and 1 Draw), and as part of my experimenting with different iterations of the list, I decided to do a Top 10 post looking at the hero choices, because things are INTERESTING in this list.

There are quite a few heroes available to you (5 Kings, 6 Generic Captains, 2 specialists in the Knight of the White Tower and the Rohan King's Huntsman, and several siege captains), so all of them will make the cut! But how useful they are is another question. Before we start the review, let's look at what we'll be ranking in this assessment.

• To start, you need to take a king to field their relevant captains and warriors, but we are not going to therefore say, "Ah yes: the king is automatically higher ranked because you need him to run the captains." We'll evaluate each individually for their usefulness in the list.
• We will consider what kinds of warriors you get access to by taking a given hero, as unit options are part of why you'd consider taking a king/captain, and whether you should branch out into a second, third, or more factions because of what options will be unlocked.
• We will assume that you are playing at a standard points range (600-800pts), so that there is no assumption of only having 1-2 kings: you can run as many as you want, which means that there are reasons to mix and match factions. So just because one faction may be stronger than another in terms of options, that doesn't automatically move them to the top (or bottom), though it may give a reason for pushing deep into one or the other.
• Kings do have access to Heroic Strike; this will naturally lend them to being taken, and does make them inherently valuable. But Heroic Strike on its own does not necessitate "Top 5 Status."

So with no further ado, let's jump into the list!

The New Age Is Begun: The Riders of Theoden Army List

Good morning gamers,

This is it for Rohan (for the now, anyway) and we're wrapping up two months of Rohan lists with the one that started it all, really: the Riders of Theoden. Back when the MESBG revamp happened, Rohan was . . . well, it's always been a popular list, but it was really popular: the new starter set landed a lot of people with new Theoden models and lots of Riders of Rohan and anyone who didn't already have a host of Rohan models got to enjoy painting three models (a rider, a horse, and a dismount) for every 14-17pts they wanted to spend on warriors . . . good times. A few months after the revamp, the Gondor at War supplement dropped and with it came a host of new Legendary Legions - and while the Black Gate Opens and Return of the King Legendary Legions were incredibly popular, neither of these Legions was as popular or as dominant on the top-tables as the Riders of Theoden. It was, quite honestly, one of very few Legions that looked like it was an improvement on a trimmed-down army list - and from a game design perspective, it was basically the poster boy for what any Legendary Legion was supposed to be.

Fast-forward six years and we've got the Riders of Theoden army list, which hasn't seemed to dominate quite as much as it did back in the day (even as new Legions and a host of new models were introduced to the game). Is this list still worth running? And if so, what's making people shy away from it? Well, let's take a look and find out what we have to work with vis-a-vis last edition!

The Riders of Theoden: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

The profile selection is essentially the same as we had before - we have all the named heroes you'd expect with Theoden, Eomer, Eowyn/Merry (formerly Dernhelm), Deorwine, Elfhelm, and Gamling. Joining the fight we have Captains of Rohan (one of whom you can name as Grimbold - give him heavy armor and a shield why don't ya?), Riders of Rohan, and Rohan Royal Guards (who can be led by Theoden, Eomer, Deorwine, and Gamling . . . so you can field a lot of them, if you don't want throwing spears on all of them. This is the same list as in the previous edition and honestly, it doesn't need any changes . . . you know, unless you wanted to make a mounted Grimbold model and a revamped profile to go with it, GW? :)

Army List Bonuses

Two of your army special rules are the same as they were before - your mounted models get Strength +1 on the charge and once per game, Theoden can cry "DEATH!" and your heroes get to declare free Heroic Combats or Strikes. Getting in a good DEATH! turn has always been the way this list has stood above standard Rohan lists and if you really lean into the heroes, you can have an absolutely devastating turn with this rule (much like the once-per-game Look to the Sun ability for the Riders of Eomer).

There is a new rule, however: any friendly Cavalry Warrior models near Theoden and Eomer get Dominant (2), which is a situationally useful (but the situation is present in most of the scenarios) ability that makes your all-cavalry force feel larger than it is. Like some of the Erebor and Dale rules, however, this is a rule that competes with DEATH! a bit in that the harder you lean into your heroes, the less this rule will be useful. Also, staying within 3" of Theoden and Eomer is not that big of a radius - but in a scenario like Hold Ground, Command the Battlefield, or Divide and Conquer where you really want to be in one or two places, it can be super useful.

The New Age Is Begun: The Road to Helm's Deep Army List

Good morning gamers,

This is the second to last Rohan list we'll be covering (we have a few more to do, but having been in Rohan for most of December and all of January, we need a change of pace, ey?) and this one is an intriguing one. I'll be honest, I think there are some significant drawbacks to taking this list, but it also has some unique abilities built into it and it has plenty of room to scale out to various points levels. Let's see what we get in this list (and what we can do here that we can't do in other lists)!

The Road to Helm's Deep: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list is closest to the generic Rohan list of the last edition, but if you include Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli in this list, you would have had to run a Convenient Alliance with the Fellowship of the Ring in the last edition. Your units are pretty standard - Theoden, Gamling, Hama, and Captains for the Rohan side of the house, along with the Three Hunters - and you can lead Rohan Royal Guards with Theoden/Gamling/Hama and Riders of Rohan (and maybe Rohan Outriders, if you're playing with Legacy profiles) with the others.

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. This list also gets the fairly-standard rule of +1 Strength on the Charge for its Cavalry models, but unlike the Ride Out list, this bonus is limited to Rohan Cavalry models (so if you take Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli . . . no dice).

There are two cool things that this list offers. First, if you take both Legolas and Gimli in your list, Gimli may begin as a passenger for Legolas. While mounted on Legolas's horse, Legolas gets rules similar to what Eowyn and Gandalf gain when they have Merry or Pippin mounted with them - Legolas goes up to 3 Attacks and can borrow Gimli's Might/Will/Fate (the Might can't be used to boost shooting rolls). Normally, if a passenger dismounts, they can't do anything - but if Gimli dismounts, he can activate as normal, which is great for making sure that he gets to charge into someone and fight.

Additionally, if one of your heroes dismounts voluntarily or is forcibly dismounted during the game, the hero can end its Move in base contact with a friendly Cavalry Warrior model who is not engaged and "take the horse." The dismounted Warrior model is placed where the Hero was and the mounted Hero model is placed where the Warrior was. This is SUPER good for making sure that your heroes keep up their damage as the game goes on - and also disincentivizes your opponent from attacking your horses if you have warrior support nearby.

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.

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 Ride Out Army List

Good morning gamers,

Editor's Note: well, I wasn't keeping a close look at the numbers, but we just blew past the 4 million views mark - from all of us here at TMAT, thanks for taking the time to read our stuff. :-)

This is it - this is the last list from the battle of Helm's Deep and it's a fun cavalry list! Ride Out is not a list that I thought I'd like when I first read it, but there's a LOT here that I think is good and at a wide variety of points levels. Let's see what Theoden and his final sally from the Hornburg has to offer!

Ride Out: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

This list has everyone that you'd expect to be in the list given the scene of everyone riding out of Helm's Deep (and the Ride Out scenario from War in Rohan) - it's got Theoden, it's got Gamling, it's got generic Captains, it's got Aragorn, it's got Legolas, and it has the non-Legacy mounted Warriors (Rohan Royal Guards and Riders of Rohan). 

What I feel sad about is that the list doesn't include Gimli in it. Yes, I know it kind of does with the horn rules. Yes, I know he doesn't go riding around with Legolas in this one (like he does in the Road to Helm's Deep list). Yes, I know it would be silly to have him running around with the group - but like the Gimli slot in Fantasy Fellowships seems a bit less important than the other two because he's not here in the scene. I don't know that you'd want him in the list even if you could take him, but still, it feels sad to not have Gimli in here. Moving on now . . .

Army List Bonuses

The army list bonuses are interesting. As is usually the case, Riders of Rohan don't count towards your bow limit, which is good because you'd be really capped for options because of the Elite keyword on Rohan Royal Guards (and only two guys who can take them). Thanks to the For Death and Glory special rule, everyone is Fearless, which makes Bodyguard an irrelevant rule, but is also great for making sure you pass any kind of courage test you have to take. Once per game, you can pretend that Gimli is in your list by using The Horn of Helm Hammerhand Shall Sound in the Deep; One Last Time, which gives all of your cavalry models the Terror special rule at the top of any Move Phase (not the start of a friendly activation, so if you'd moving second, you can turn this on to keep your cavalry from being charged before you get to go). Like the Look to the Sun rule we looked at last time, I feel like this should be able to last for more than one turn - it's an okay rule and could be really useful . . . if you remember it on the turn in which it matters most.

The New Age Is Begun: the Riders of Eomer Army List

Good morning gamers,

There were two Legendary Legions during the last edition that I absolutely loved and that almost everyone thought was trash: the Men of the West and the Riders of Eomer. Yes, there were issues with both of these Legions - and I asked in an email before almost every FAQ/Errata release for a few things - and I'm happy to say that just as my beloved Men of the West got a glow-up (and are actually quite good now), so also the Riders of Eomer got a few very, VERY needed changes and they too have had some time in the sun. Once again, this army list doesn't just feel like the development team listened to us - they particularly listened to me. This makes me very happy - so let's dive into Eomer, Gandalf, and all their brave boys!

The Riders of Eomer: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

If you're playing with the Legacy profiles, nothing's different from the Legendary Legion of yester-year - you have Eomer, Gandalf, Erkenbrand (maybe), and Captains as your heroes and Riders of Rohan (maybe Redshields) as your warriors. Pretty straightforward, right?

Well, yes and no - on paper, the profiles are all the same. However, the special rules for both the army list AND the rules of some of the units have changed as well, which means that previous strategies with this list have changed a bit - all for the better, I think.

Army List Bonuses

As was previously the case, Riders of Rohan don't count towards your bow limit - yaye for more than one warrior in each army. :) Eomer is still always your General, which is good because you can then be a bit more reckless with Gandalf (and you can pick him as a hero to keep alive in scenarios like Fog of War). 

The special rules also improved a bit - Gandalf can still use Look to the Sun once per game at the start of any friendly activation phase (so if you're moving second, you don't need to declare you're using it until your opponent has finished moving) to make any enemy models engaged with your Cavalry models get a -1 penalty to their dueling rolls. This rule feels less powerful now that Gandalf's Cart is a thing (and can happen every turn), but it's still very good for getting a big charge off.

The Ride for Ruin and the World's Ending special rule got a nuanced but necessary change: instead of getting Strength +1 on the charge while within 12" of Eomer, the Strength +1 bonus is now global. Since the generic Rohan bonus last edition was global, the 12" limit to Eomer felt . . . bad - and there wasn't even a Fearless-while-charging or other sort of glow-up that you got alongside it. Now, it's global and it's good.

Finally, Eomer got a new special rule in this list (To the King!) that gives him a free Heroic Combat each turn - which is SO GOOD in a cavalry list and super good with Eomer's improved profile!

The New Age Is Begun: the Defenders of Helm's Deep Army List

Good morning gamers,

We're pivoting for the next few weeks to look at some Rohan lists and we're kicking things off with one of the Legendary Legions that I enjoyed playing last edition (though I never took it to an event - I was close, but I didn't): the Defenders of Helm's Deep. This list is one of the few Rohan lists that can't take horses, but golly does it have a lot of options available to it! Let's see how this list has changed, for changes have happened (though things feel pretty much the same as they always were).

The Defenders of Helm's Deep: Changes for 2025

Profile Selection

Compared to the old Legendary Legion, the only change to the profiles available to you is that you have to be playing with Legacies in order to use the King's Huntsmen. Other than that, things haven't changed. I'm going to be honest, though, I had hopes that we'd get a Deeping Wall force and a book-accurate option that gives you Eomer and access to horses and drops the Elves (kind of like how you can build an Eagle/non-Eagle Men of the West list now). Still, not losing profiles is good - happy enough.

Army List Bonuses

The army list bonuses are basically unchanged as well. You still get a boost to your Courage after you break for models near Theoden (Warriors get +1 Courage and reroll failed Courage tests while within 6" of Theoden), you still get +6" to the range of your bows/Elf bows when you stand still and shoot (which is only a 1.5-3" gain over what you'd have by moving and shooting, but also retains your base Shoot Value), and the army is limited to 33% of its force having the Lothlorien keyword (more on this later). In addition to this, a rule that used to be on Haldir's profile got moved to the army list rules: while within 6" of Aragorn and/or Theoden, he treats them as a banner, he passes all of his Courage tests, and also gets to reroll failed To Wound rolls. As I said above, things feel pretty much the same - not a bad thing, just a thing.

Quick Starter Armies for the Battle of Edoras Box Set!

Good morning gamers,

The new edition has been out for just over 6 months, and while we don't have all of the models that are in the Armies of the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit supplements, we do have enough to get started in the game. As I did with the Battle of Osgiliath box set, I'll be looking today at the very practical question of how to turn your collection of models from the Battle of Edoras starter set into an actual army on the tabletop at different price points.

Before we dive in, I'd like to reiterate something that I do from time to time on this blog: 

GW is not sponsoring us here at TMAT. 

I get no kickbacks from the way you spend money, I don't have affiliate links, and I'm not associated with a webstore or physical store of any kind. We here at TMAT are just a bunch of gamers trying to play with toy soldiers on a budget. As a result, the recommendations I provide here are the result of much thinking and planning - mostly for myself and maybe my musings and plannings will help you too! With that, let's start by looking at the Forces of Good from the starter set . . .

400-point Army of Edoras for $200: The Battle of Edoras Box Set

Our first stop is . . . well, just the contents of the box set. This is technically more than $200 USD in the GW store, but it's less than $200 if you buy it from an independent retailer - it also isn't going to be a great army, but it can be yours with just the purchase of the box set (which not only gives you the rulebook and a cheat sheet of the profiles for the units in the box set, but also gives you some terrain, some dice/measurement sticks (get a tape measure, of course), and a paper mat to put on your table . . . all good things).

The list writes itself since we only have two heroes and 24 Warriors of Rohan - all of which we can field at 400pts:

Haleth is a good beater hero, though a bit fragile. Hama is . . . fine as a shooting hero, but probably a bit overpriced. Still, they're yours and they will get you into the game with enough of an experience to help you figure out what you want - exactly what a starter box should do.

Now as we add some money to our price point, we can get an "actual" army . . .