This week we're back with Part 2 of my Fall of Arnor Legendary Legions. Today we have the Good Legions, ranging from the defence of Fornost to the destruction of Angmar all the way to the closing moments of the Third Age. Starting with...
The Defenders of Arnor
Soldiers of Arnor ready to rally to their King (East Grinstead Wargaming)
Arnor is not the most competitively viable army when run pure (no cavalry, real combat heroes or tricks will do that to a faction), and this Legion even loses out on the Hobbit archers. Instead, it leans into its strengths as a powerful shieldwall build, with substantial bonuses for defending Arvedui.
Participants
Arvedui, Last King of Arnor 80
Malbeth the Seer 70
Captain of Arnor (can exchange shield for bow) 55
Warrior of Arnor (can take banner) 8
Ranger of Arnor (can take spear) 8
Additional Rules
Arvedui, Last King of Arnor must be included and must be the Army Leader.
Special Rules
Hold Fast!
All models in this Legendary Legion gain the Sworn Defender (Arvedui) special rule.
Defend the King!
While Arvedui, Last King of Arnor is in combat, any friendly Arnor models within 3” may declare a Heroic Combat without expending any Might. If this Heroic Combat is successful then they must use the following move to join Arvedui, Last King of Arnor’s combat or act as spear support for a model in that combat. If this is not possible then they must end the move as close as possible to Arvedui, Last King of Arnor.
Designer's Notes
This Legion has some pretty limited model selection, with only a single combat hero and no cavalry options at all. To make up for that it’s got a boosted version of the normal Arnor Army Bonus, plus Sam Gamgee’s rule scaled up for the whole army. Of course, the challenge here is that Arvedui is pretty fragile, and if you lose him then you’re suddenly relying on your C2 across the line. So you have to make the tradeoff of throwing your 2 Wound/1 Fate Army Leader into the fray versus powering up your battleline with free Heroic Combats. When things go right, you get a bit of extra mobility and punch in your centre to try and take advantage of your heavy infantry power. When they go wrong, you get historical accuracy!
The Avengers of Fornost
Elrond may be pictured here, but he wasn't at the battle canonically so he's not in this Legion (TOWtRTA)
This army represents the soldiers from Gondor, Rivendell and the Shire that came together to destroy Angmar in the wake of Arnor’s fall. With such a varied set of models available I didn’t want to make the bonuses too powerful, but still wanted to create an incentive to give up all the usual Rivendell and Gondorian tricks for this weird alliance.
Participants
King of Men on armoured horse with heavy armour (can take lance and shield) 80
Captain of Minas Tirith (all options) 50
Warrior of Minas Tirith (all options) 7
Knight of Minas Tirith (all options) 13
Glorfindel, Lord of the West (can take Asfolath and Armour of Gondolin) 145
High Elf Captain (all options) 75
High Elf Warrior (all options) 9
Rivendell Knight (all options) 21
Hobbit Archers (can take warhorn) 5
Rangers of Arnor (all options) 8
Additional Rules
One King of Men must be included and must be the Army Leader. This King of Men gains 3 Attacks, Courage 5, 3 Might and 2 Fate, and has access to Heroic Strike.
Glorfindel, Lord of the West must also be included.
Gondor models may only be lead by Gondor heroes, and Rivendell warriors may only be lead by Rivendell heroes.
Special Rules
Vengeance for Fornost!
All models in this Legendary Legion gain the Hatred (Angmar) special rule.
Devastating Charge
Friendly Knights of Minas Tirith increase their Fight value to 4 while within 6” of the King of Men on turns they charge.
Outflanking Manoeuvre
Before deployment begins, the controlling player of this Legion may declare that one of their warbands will be outflanking. This warband must consist entirely of models with the Gondor and Cavalry keywords. If they do so, then this warband will not deploy as normal, but will enter the table from a point on the board edge of the controlling player’s choice at the end of their third Movement phase. Models in this warband may charge in the turn they arrive on the battlefield.
Designer's Notes
This Legion is a combination of Rivendell and Gondor, but with none of the more specialised options of either faction. Instead, it gets a bargain-basement combat character in its King of Men (representing Earnur, King of Gondor) to back up Glorfindel, somewhat-improved heavy cavalry (although still not as good as Boromir can bring) and a cute outflanking special rule. Being able to bring in heavy cavalry from any board edge could be pretty scary in some scenarios, but could be easily played around in others. Overall, a lot of this Legion’s strength comes from being able to bring cheap D6 models backed up by Elven spears, so it doesn’t need too much in the way of bonuses.
The Passing of the Grey Company
The fact that I couldn't find any mounted Grey Company on Google Images implies this Legion may have a niche appeal (The Road LoTR)
While not strictly fitting the ‘Fall of Arnor’ time period, I thought it was a waste that there was no Legendary Legion to reflect the Grey Company riding across southern Gondor and defeating the Corsairs. It also allows for a chance to make mounted Grey Company live up to their exorbitant points cost. Finally, as this is a book-themed Legendary Legion, the Army of the Dead are reflected by Terror-based special rules rather than by physical models that directly kill enemies.
Participants
Aragorn with Anduril on horse 170
Legolas and Gimli on horse 210
Elladan and Elrohir on horses 180
Halbarad on horse with Banner of Arwen Evenstar 120
Grey Company on horse (may take spear) 40
Additional Rules
Aragorn must be selected and must be the Army Leader. Additionally, he receives Anduril for free.
All models in this Legion other than Aragorn may treat their Heroic Tier as Independent Hero for the purposes of deployment.
Special Rules
Side by side with a friend
Legolas and Gimli may only be selected together in this Legion. If they are selected together then Gimli will begin the game as a passenger on Legolas’ horse. While Gimli remains a passenger Legolas increases his Attacks value to 3.
Ride of heroes
Friendly Grey Company models in this Legion increase their Attacks value to 2.
The Dead rode behind them
All models in this Legion gain the Terror special rule. Additionally, all enemy models within 6” of Aragorn reduce their Courage value by 1.
Designer's Notes
This Legion is basically ‘Mounted Hero-hammer: The Legion’, for those of you who decided that Riders of Theoden had too much emphasis on the warriors. It’s got access to a number of powerful combat characters, heaps of punch and an absurd amount of Might. Mounted Grey Company are still ludicrously expensive, but at least in this Legion they’ll be up there with Warg Marauders for best cavalry in the game. 3 Attacks on the charge with a Might point is pretty scary stuff, especially once you start declaring Heroic Combats in every fight. This Legion can skirmish decently well, but it’s likely best off just smashing through the enemy with its many mounted heroes. After all, time is of the essence if they're going to break through to Pelargir in time! Any attempt to counterattack will hopefully be seen off by Terror/Harbinger, which gives a unique twist to this all-cav Legion.
That brings us to the end of the Fall of Arnor Legendary Legions I've been tinkering with. Hopefully you enjoyed the mini-series and took away some interesting ideas from it. My last go at designing Legendary Legions produced a Vanquishers Legion almost identical to the finished product, so hopefully this article will manifest a Fall of Arnor supplement for us all to enjoy.
Until then, may your favourite narrative moments always have the Legendary Legions they deserve!
These Legions seem pretty balanced - I think Grey Company (Rangers of the North?) should have their 2A preserved when mounted normally, what with them costing 40pts each when mounted. Not sure anything can be done about it, but I do feel like Legolas's stock in the last Legion has fallen pretty low since paying for both him and Gimli is steep (albeit thematically appropriate). Still, I guess if you liked Legolas better than the melee options you have for the Twins, you'd still shell out the points for him. I'm curious though: if we're fixing the Rangers of the North not getting their extra Attack while mounted, is there a reason the Twins can't fight with their Twin Blades while mounted?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback! I absolutely agree re mounted Grey Company; I can't fix that in the normal list, but I can do it here! I also agree that Legolas/Gimli aren't at their peak here, I basically just couldn't work out a way to resolve that issue without making them into some Azog-esque two-in-one hero. That's maybe the best option, but it just didn't feel great to have Aragorn be second fiddle to his friends (which he would have to be for them to be balanced at 210 points). Really not sure what the solution is here to be honest.
DeleteAs far as the Twins go, I didn't make that change because I think they're balanced as is. The next cheapest F6/A3 model on horseback is Boromir at 15 points more (widely considered a bit underpriced), then from there it goes up to Thandruil at 140. I don't think the Twins should be this price and also hit those crucial breakpoints, so I'm keeping them RAW here. I think they still have a place in the list: with full kit it's them or ~5 Grey Company, so you're trading F6, more Might, Strike, more resilience and Elven blades for extra model count, hitting power against F3/4 models, better shooting and better objective play. That seems like a relatively balanced trade to me, so I'm happy to leave the A3 as a fun surprise for when they get dismounted.