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.