The North Remembers

"After Arvedui the North-kingdom ended, for the Dúnedain were now few and all the peoples of Eriador diminished."

"The remnants of the Dunedain of the North become rangers and errants, living largely in hiding, but waging ceaseless war on all evil things that still are abroad in the land."

"Yet the line of the kings was continued by the Chieftains of the Dúnedain, of whom Aranarth son of Arvedui was the first."

Last time I mentioned that Arnor was a faction that had caught my eye. Arnor has interested me since I played the To Kill a King scenario last year but model availability and cost limited my aspirations. However, while doing some background reading I rediscovered the quotations above and the seed of an idea emerged.

This idea was to theme an army around Aranarth and the remaining Arnorians after they had gone into exile following the Battle of Fornost, as the King's of the North warned us The North Remembers. My plan was to create more rangery style Warriors of Arnor to represent the soldiers of Arnor adapting from the standing army of King Arvedui into the secretive Rangers of the North. This would be done by converting Rangers and other suitably cloaked models to have spear and shield and additional armour while still maintaining the ranger feel.

With this idea firmly planted I decided that I would start building an Arnor Battle Company to test out the concept before moving forward with a full army. And here's an early work in progress photo.

The plan then is to move onto a 500 point army with:

Aranarth (counts as Arvedui)
Malbeth
2 Captains
20 Warriors
10 Rangers

This army will also hopefully give me an opportunity to do something I've wanted to do for a while and try out some snowy bases, after all Winter is Coming.

Faction Focus: Arnor

"Arvedui you shall call him, for he will be the last in Arthedain. Though a choice will come to the Dúnedain, and if they take the one that seems less hopeful, then your son will change his name and become king of a great realm. If not, then much sorrow and many lives of men shall pass, until the Dúnedain arise and are united again."

So far on this blog I've avoided too much in depth tactical or faction analysis, primarily because I feel that there are far more better qualified people who do this already. Recently however, I  have been doing a lot of contemplation on armies that I would like to use post Covid-19 and the one that has really caught my eye is Arnor.

Please note, these are only my initial thoughts on the faction, I haven't yet played them competitively yet so my opinion may change after some game time.

This is a faction that is rarely seen hitting the table and there are a couple of reasons behind that. Number one is cost and availability of the models due to the basic Warriors of Arnor being metal models and currently unavailable (I have a workaround for that in my plans that I'll reveal later on). And secondly, the list itself is fairly limited in scope, with only 6 profiles (3 Heroes and 3 Warriors) and no cavalry, no magic, no big name Heroes and limited allies.

So what does Arnor have to it's advantage?

1. The Infantry Line

The Warriors of Arnor are among the cheapest available Fight 4, Defence 6 warriors in the game. Plus they all have spears as well. Combined with the lack of expensive Heroes to spend your points on then you can really horde out the infantry to create a force that will outnumber anything that can outfight it and outfight anything that can outnumber it.

2. The Gift of Foresight

Malbeth's special rule is great. Being able to prevent 1/3 of your wounds suffered makes that D6 infantry line even tougher for your opponent to break through. In order to maximize the potential of this ability, Malbeth wants to be positioned close to the thick of the fighting so that his rule affects as many Arnor models as possible. However, he is not a fighter and is bound to be a high priority target for your opponent so careful screening will be essential to keep him out of harm's way.

3. The King in the North

Arnor's biggest weakness is their generally low Courage. Luckily the King in the North Robb Stark Arvedui is able to mitigate this somewhat thanks to a 6" Fearless bubble from the Army Bonus and a 12" Standfast. This alone would make Arvedui a crucial model within the Arnor army list but he is also the only Arnorian Hero with 3 Attacks, 3 Might and Heroic Strike, which makes him easily their best fighter. However, 2 wounds and 1 Fate can leave him vulnerable, so care is required to keep him safe especially since he will be the army leader in a pure Arnor force.

4. Ranged Firepower

Arnor has two good ranged options to choose from. These are the Rangers of Arnor and the Hobbit Archers. Both provide a 3+ Shoot value but the Hobbits sacrifice the additional range, combat potential and mobility of the Rangers in exchange for being significantly lower in points cost, allowing you to really maximize model count. In addition the Hobbits have the option to bring a warhorn, a good option for a low Courage army. Either ranged option would make for a good choice.

Overall I feel that Arnor has potential to do well at lower points levels (600 and below) but that at higher points will start to struggle due to the limited options in the list.