Alador strode forward, his mailed boots trampling the green grass ahead of those of his phalanx. Behind him marched an elite host of Easterlings, proud and martial, while to his left he could make out the Khandish and Haradrim mercenaries bought by the gold of his conquests. It was a fearsome host, and Alador had marshalled it for one purpose: to break the line of the Anduin and to fall upon Gondor like an avenging sword.
Already he could see the thin line of Gondorian shields
up ahead. It was a pitiful force, barely enough to slow down Alador’s troops,
and he drew his falchion and shouted with exultation at the victory that beckoned
him. Raising his blade above his head, he was about to sweep it down and signal
the charge when a note cut through his anticipation like water through rock.
High and clear, rising above the clatter of the chariots and the stamp of armoured feet, was a horn call. It was joined by another, and another, until the air was filled with their fierce music. The Northmen had come.
Since I last published a battle report in this format, we've had the new Armies book, the new Matched Play Guide, and even the two
Legacies of Middle Earth PDFs drop. All three have sent shockwaves through the
community, and Legacies in particular has been a source of great turmoil. Should
these new profiles be included in tournaments, or are the potentially-broken
models included too risky for the competitive scene?
Now, I don’t have much of a stance on this personally, other
than that I tend to appreciate variety at tournaments and think that Legacies
being allowed at some events and not others would mix things up in interesting
ways. But I do think it’s important to test the most potentially-broken things
in the document to see whether they’re actually oppressive, given that they presumably
won’t be getting any GW FAQs anytime soon.
To that end, I give you an exciting battle report between Eorl the Young and The Golden King! Will Eorl’s crazily up-gunned Sons ride roughshod over the Easterlings and Haradrim, or will the unkillable new Chariots and Golden King prove too busted? Let’s find out!
Lists
Where things get nutty is with the Sons of Eorl profile. It
turns out that if you give a cavalry model A2/S4/D6 and easy access to F5, it’s
a good profile. Who knew!
As such, this list is basically spamming the Sons to the greatest extent viable, while supporting them with a Gondorian shieldwall and enough Riders of Rohan to provide chip shooting and some support for the banner. It’s a classic hammer and anvil list, but with a hammer so powerful it can probably cop a few swings back at it.
Matched up against it are its ancestral enemies, with the
Grand Army of the South subbing in to represent the fierce Balchoth. This list
also has somewhat of a hammer and anvil approach, with the Easterling phalanx and
Amdur (playing the role of Alador, the Balchoth general I’ve made up for Evil
here) acting as the anvil for a hard-hitting Harad and Khand contingent. On
particular show for the latter are the Charioteers, who are now flat D7/W3,
with immunity to a whole host of rules including being trapped. That’s a very
solid place to be, and means these 40-point warriors will take a whole heap of
killing.
Also surprising for his durability is the Golden King, who’s
retained his old ability to spend Will reducing enemy Courage checks, picked up
F5, and also, uh, become invincible. In short, he can spend a Will point (of
which he has 6!) to prevent enemies from directing strikes at him. It’s like a
broken version of Heroic Defence, except that he can do it reactively after
losing a fight, it only costs a Will and he’s entirely immune to most damage. I
do think that he can probably be Rended or Hurled by monsters, for complicated
reasons that aren’t relevant in this matchup, but in general he is going to be
unkillable for any list that doesn’t have either magic, monsters, or a truly
enormous amount of shooting.
How strong will this be in practice? It’s time to put it to the test.
Scenario and deployment
Random rolling landed on Stake a Claim, one of the new
scenarios and one I was very keen to test. It has a standard Capture and
Control layout of objectives, but instead of claiming them at the end players
are competing to hold them every turn. Doing so will generate Fortification
points, and being ahead in this tally at the end of the game will be worth up
to 12VPs. As such, armies need to be ready to gun it to the middle or they will
swiftly be left behind.
As such, both sides deployed so as to get their fast models onto the objectives in the very first turn. Even a single turn of uncontested scoring could flip the Fortification tally and lead to a win.
Turn 1-2: Race for the middle
Winning Priority on the first turn, Evil promptly handed it
to the Rohirrim and Gondorians. As such, Eorl led most of his Sons straight towards
the central objective, while sending lone riders out to the other two. Everyone
else mostly just went straight forward, and Evil responded by doing much the
same thing. One Chariot went thundering forward onto the centre and right
objectives, claiming the latter thanks to Dominant (3) but being outcompeted on
the former because of Eorl being Dominant (3) himself. This put Good 2 points ahead
on the Fortification tally.
The second turn already brought a significant Move-off with
it, as the Golden King attempted to unleash his Chariots on the horsemen while Eorl
aimed to pin the Evil men away from the objectives. Eorl won the roll-off
(although he didn’t get the Move for free, sadly), and both Charioteers were
pinned by Sons, while the phalanx was also engaged by the Rohirrim.
Both Evil heroes led the fightback, with the Golden King slamming into Eorl to peel him off a Chariot while Amdur called a Combat. It went off easily, and he hacked his way through two Sons and the Rohan bannerman (although the banner was passed off to a warrior behind him).
Eorl, meanwhile,
defeated the King with ease but was unable to make strikes thanks to his Lure
of Wealth special rule. That left the King with… 5 Will remaining. Fair and
balanced.
Otherwise, an Easterling and an Abrakhan Guard were hacked down by charging Sons of Eorl, but they bounced off both Chariots. D7/W3 is very tough! Evil ended the turn a little ahead on the right objective, but pushed entirely off the centre and left, and down 11:6 on Fortification points.
Turns 3-4: Clash of lines
Again the Move-off went Eorl’s way, and again he failed to
get his Might back. Still, he managed to chip a Fate off the Golden King with his
throwing spear as he went back into the fray, while his knights did their best
to tie up both the Easterlings and the Chariots. Eorl also declared his Charge
of Eorl this turn, forcing his cavalry to charge but giving them reroll wounds.
The Warriors of Minas Tirith and Cirion were also able to get into combat this
turn, clashing with the Haradrim and Khandish Chariots in force.
The resulting combat phase was devastating, for all that it started with Eorl beating and being bribed by the Golden King once again. Urgh.
Amdur was surprisingly beaten by the Rider of Rohan who charged him, copping a wound and having his buddy ridden down to boot. The Son of Eorl surrounded by the phalanx managed to get the six and win the rolloff, smashing through three Easterlings in am impressive display.
Two Abrakhan Guard were also hacked down,
while one of the Chariots was reduced to a single wound by Cirion and his
buddies. Good contemplated spending all of his Might to convert the kill,
before deciding it would be more important later.
After that bloody turn, Good had again managed to clear Evil
off the central objective, and had even flipped the right one back in their
favour, while the left was still defended by a lone Son. This put them ahead a
whopping 18:8, putting the ball firmly in Evil’s court to retaliate.
And retaliate they did, winning the next Move-off (Eorl once
again not getting the Might back; apparently rolling a 4+ is hard!) and unleashing
both Chariots. The one in the centre was a bit disappointing, smacking straight
into Eorl but only inflicting a couple wounds on Felarof, who was promptly
saved by a combination of his 6+ Horse Lord save and a Fate from Eorl. The
other did much better, carving through two Sons of Eorl and two Warriors of
Minas Tirith before finally bouncing off a third Son. Ouch!
Things went better for Good elsewhere though, with Cirion
Combatting off the wounded Chariot and taking two wounds off the next one. The
Good warriors also turned it on, carving through a number of Haradrim and
chopping a hole right through the Evil battleline. However, their left flank
was crumbling, with the relentless pressure of Amdur and his phalanx continuing
to whittle down the cavalry.
Eorl again managed to fend off the Golden King, and again
was fobbed off with some loose change. This rule is seriously, seriously
annoying.
At the end of the turn though, Good was still up 24:10 on Fortification points. Even if their lines crumbled now, would Evil have enough time to swing the score back?
Turns 5-6: Blood on the fields
Good won Priority this turn, but a Heroic Move with Amdur’s
last Might let the Easterlings and Golden King move first on that flank at
least. Amdur hacked down a Rider and a Warrior of Minas Tirith, and his phalanx
followed it up by slaying the Rohan banner bearer, who passed it off to a
Warrior of Minas Tirith in base contact. One Son of Eorl did fend off the press
and kill another Black Dragon though.
Moreover, getting to move first on the right flank and
centre had allowed a single Son to slip through and ride onto Evil’s back
objective. The lone Easterling back there contemplated charging into him,
before deciding that discretion was the better part of valour and jumping the
fence instead. It ensured the objective would at least remain contested, which
wasn’t wholly likely if he had charged the F4/A2/S4/D6 cavalryman.
The last Chariot again survived the attentions of Cirion and
his warriors, but the Son of Eorl and Warriors of Minas Tirith on the right absolutely
butchered the Haradrim, killing all but a single Watcher of Karna in a
devastating display that managed to Break the Evil men. And Eorl himself also
managed to narrowly fend off the Golden King in another nerve-wracking (for
Good) fight.
Priority again went to Good on the sixth turn, although
their positioning was awkward. Cirion and several warriors went into the Golden
King, while the only model who could viably pin down Amdur was the Gondorian
bannerman. Eorl and a Son went smashing into the side of the Easterling phalanx,
while the Son in the Evil backfield hurtled into the Easterling back there and
rode him down. Evil had managed to sprint one more model back in time to keep
it contested though.
On the right flank, the last Chariot and Watcher of Karna were dragged down, while Eorl’s charge did just enough damage to quarter the Evil side.
However, Cirion was unable to beat the Golden King, who promptly
stripped all his Fate and hacked down several Good warriors. This not only
Broke them back, it also meant that there was no one to take the Gondorian
banner after Amdur hacked its bearer down once more.
Still, the Evil casualties had ended the game, and Good had a commanding lead in Fortification points of 35:12. This was just less than triple the Evil score, and equated to a total margin of 11VP for Good and 1VP for Evil!
Strategy review
Well, that was a bloodbath! Good’s strategy of ‘pin the
enemy back’ worked really well that game, turning a very close battle in
materiel terms into a substantial win on the scoreboard. It was obviously
facilitated by winning those first two Move-offs, but it definitely speaks to
the value of aggressive play in this scenario. There were positioning errors,
and they probably could have done a better job of getting the Minas Tirith
contingent into the fray, but overall the tight focus on the mission made a big
difference.
For Evil, they probably did need to work harder to get the
phalanx out of their bottleneck between the buildings. One almost wonders
whether it might have been better on the more open flank, where they could have
better absorbed the punishment than the Haradrim. Otherwise, the plan of
smashing the Golden King into Eorl again and again was incredibly frustrating
for Good, and absolutely the play. I’ll come to this more below, but that sort
of no risk/high reward situation was great for them, even if it didn’t quite
pan out.
Army reviews
Starting with Good, this list was honestly pretty crazy.
Sons of Eorl are exactly as good as they look, and honestly maybe better. How
many cavalry are there that can just charge straight into the front of an
Easterling phalanx and give better than they take? And when they were instead
hitting F3/4 Haradrim, they cut through like a knife through butter. Even off
the charge, multiple Attacks at F5 meant that they often won the fight anyway,
while S4 converted those wins into kills more often than not. They are still
quite expensive, and I could see them coming unstuck against lists with heroes
that can chop through them easily (as, indeed, was the case with Amdur here).
But man, there are almost no warriors that I’d want to cop a charge from them.
Eorl himself didn’t really shine this game, for reasons that are hardly his
fault, but the list as a whole felt very strong.
On the other hand, the return of the Easterlings also felt
very powerful. Amdur on foot felt surprisingly strong with the pikes behind
him, and ensure that the phalanx could retain F5 in almost every fight. He
absolutely loved the changes to two-handing, while his warriors also enjoyed
being able to swing their halberds two-handed for a bit of extra killing power
against the D6 Sons. Being F7 also made Amdur scary indeed for Eorl, who could
well have found himself on the wrong end of Durtuz the Silver Falchion if some
key rolls had gone differently in the endgame.
The other half of the Evil army was a very mixed bag. The Abrakhan
Guard backed by Haradrim honestly felt very mediocre, being too fragile to
really go toe-to-toe with the Gondorians in a slugging match, and being absolutely
mulched by the Rohirrim. The Charioteers were much better though: they got to
the middle early, soaked up an enormous amount of hits, and when they finally
got to charge they nearly paid for themselves in a single turn. These are
really, really good – expect to see Khand brutally punishing some of the horde
armies of the metagame soon.
And finally, was the Golden King broken?
Short answer: yes. The Lure of Wealth is truly so
frustrating to play against, and he was incredible value. For a mere 130
points, he kept general VPs entirely safe even as his army was collapsing, and
would have done so for banner VPs as well if they’d been present. He provided
banner rerolls in heaps of fights, tied up another hero only slightly cheaper
than him almost all game, and also carved through a few warriors. Moreover, he
actually had a quite unlucky game. Eorl managed to win 4 consecutive
combats against him, which is really quite unlikely, even with the Fight value
advantage. If Eorl loses even one of those then he’s definitely dismounted and
giving up general VPs, and may well be dead: 4 Attacks with +1 to wound is no
joke!
And here is the thing that’s broken about the King: Eorl had
to win every single one of those combats to maintain the status quo, while the
King could just wait him out until he flubbed his dice. The Evil player faced
no risk in any one of his fights, and could use him as recklessly as desired in
the sure knowledge that he would be fine, and would eventually chew through whatever
he faced. That kind of absolute certainty is not something that has previously
existed in this game, and it’s not something that should.
Oh, and if the game had gone on a single turn longer he could
have given Cirion a -2 to his break check. Ouch!
In short, if I was TO-ing an event next weekend, I would either be banning the Golden King or errata-ing his Lure of Wealth rule to require a failed Courage check (which he could influence with his Riches Beyond Renown rule) rather than working automatically. At that point he’d honestly still be quite good, but he’d be much more in line with the rest of the game.
With one last sweep of his falchion, the Gondorian banner
had fallen and Alador was free of the press. Ahead of him he saw the King of
Abrakhan resplendent on his throne, duelling the lord of the hated Gondorians. For
a moment Alador’s hope rose, feeling himself to be on the edge of a great victory.
But just as quickly, he heard a mighty crash of arms
and saw the northern cavalrymen tear into the flank of his soldiers. Ahead of
them rode the white horse of their leader, and everywhere he rode the
Easterners were forced back. Alador’s Haradrim and Khandish allies were
falling, and even his own phalanx was hard-pressed. The green grass was stained
with the blood of his men, and it was clear that the field belonged to Gondor.
Barking orders to those of his guard that still surrounded him, Alador turned and began the retreat. Behind him he left the Golden King, surrounded by the wreck of his chariots and the blades of his enemies. Let him buy his way out of that, thought Alador grimly.
I hope you enjoyed this spicy battle report trying out some
of the cool ‘new’ models of the Legacy PDFs. I’d definitely be keen to hear
your experiences with the Golden King, or the other Legacy models.
And until next time, may you always manage to get off that glorious cavalry charge of your dreams!
Nice, thanks for featuring most of the standout profiles from legacy. My eyes also popped out when I saw the Son of Eorl profile! I'm also wondering if we'll see 'Khandish models may only be included in the warband of a Khandish Hero' added to the GAOTS list for legacy, but as you say, until then I think including a couple is a very safe bet.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I would have absolutely expected a requirement like that (and for Mahud, if they weren’t all a bit mid anyway). In any case, they’re certainly a very strong add to those lists now!
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