Into the Wild: Beyond the Pelennor

 

A question I see a number of new players ask when starting out is what would be good next purchases for someone looking at expanding from the Pelennor Fields starter set. So I'm have set myself the challenge to create an army list for each of the three factions included in the box set plus a maximum of £50 for each army of additional models from the Games Workshop store (it will probably be possible to do these cheaper using independent retailers, eBay or buy and sell sights, but by sticking to GW it'll provide a level playing field).

Before I get stuck in a quick note on books. All three of the armies within the Pelennor Fields box will require the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book to provide rules profiles. The Gondor at War book would also be a useful addition with all three armies gaining additional profiles and Legendary Legions, so I'd also recommend picking that up too if possible.

Dead of Dunharrow

Suggested purchases:

King of the Dead £25

Three Hunters £25

We'll start with the easiest list to write. The starter set comes with a supply of Warriors of the Dead but no heroes that can lead them. There's only two options for an army list to build from, either the Dead of Dunharrow list from the Armies book or The Return of the King Legendary Legion from Gondor at War. In both of these the King of the Dead is an essential purchase so it was 1st on the shopping list. After that the Three Hunters are an excellent option, unlocking the chance to use the Legion and is probably the better of the two options.

Return of the King

Aragorn

5 Warriors

King of the Dead

5 Warriors

Gimli 

5 Warriors

Legolas

4 Warriors

745 points

Mordor

Suggested purchases:

Morannon Orc Commanders £24

Witch King on Foot (eBay or trade groups)

Again the starter set provides plenty of Warriors in the form of 36 Morannon Orcs and a Mordor Troll. However, the only Hero available is a Nazgul on Fell Beast (who I'd suggest using as the Witchking). So again we have to purchase some heroes. Firstly, you will need a dismounted Ring Wraith, and rather than using most of our £50 budget to get one from GW then they show up on trade groups or eBay fairly frequently. To this I'd suggest adding some Orc Heroes in the form the Morannon Orc Commanders set (providing a Captain, Shaman, Drummer and Banner). These will help to bolster your Orc horde by providing sufficient warband spaces and help support the Fell Beast and Troll in damage dealing. I opted against providing any further suggestions primarily because Mordor has such variety within it's selections and therefore it depends heavily on personal preference but the suggestions above will still allow you to create a solid army.

Mordor

Witch King on Fell Beast with Crown, Morgul Blade, Flail and max stats

Mordor Troll

Morannon Orc with Banner

16 Morannon Orcs (8 with shield, 8 with shield and spear)

Morannon Orc Captain with Shield

Orc Drummer

11 Morannon Orcs (5 with shield, 6 with shield and spear) 

Orc Shaman

6 Morannon Orcs (3 with shield, 3 with shield and spear)

794 points

Rohan

Suggested purchases (if you don't mind waiting until things get restocked):

Eomer £20

Gamling and Hama £25

Suggested purchases (if you want to get stuck in straight away):

???

Rohan has a huge array of options for different armies thanks to a wide selection of Legendary Legions to choose from. For example, you could pick up Helm Hammerhand from Forge World and a Rohan Command set to run Helm's Guard, or Theodred and Grimbold to run Theodred's Guard, both for £50 or below. However, if you are willing to wait for a restock then picking up the gorgeous new Eomer and a Gamling and Hama pack will provide a solid start to the muster of the Rohirrim, with both of them frequently appearing in top lists within IHL events.

Rohan

Theoden with Armoured Horse, Heavy Armour and Shield

4 Riders with throwing spears

Gamling with Royal Standard

4 Riders

Eomer with Armoured Horse, Heavy Armour and Shield

4 Riders

Hama 

10 Warriors (4 with throwing spears and shield, 6 with shield

650 points

Bonus list

Another option with the Rohan models is to opt to go for the Defense of Helm's Deep Legion from the War in Rohan book. For this I'd suggest getting the Three Hunters (getting some extra utility from your purchases as they also work well with the Dead of Dunharrow) and a box of Galadrim Warriors*. This option gives you a start on another army while still allowing you to play with the models you have. 

Defence of Helm's Deep

Theoden with Heavy Armour

18 Warriors of Rohan (8 with shield and spear, 8 with shield, 2 with bow)

Aragorn with Armour

Gimli

Legolas with Armour

9 Galadrim Warriors (7 bows, 2 shield and spear)

700 points

* Ok, they technically come to a total of £51, but who's going to quibble over a pound?

Desolation of the North Podium Review

 

Last week I showed you all the army lists that would be competing at the Desolation of the North event. This was an 850 point Good vs Evil tournament with 14 players entered. So which lists came out on top? Let's take a look at the 3 podium positions.

3rd Place

Ivan Sheehan

Good – The Rangers & the Shire:

Warband One (Leader):

•Aragorn, Strider on horse with armour + Anduril.

•8 Dunedain.

Warband Two: 

•Halbarad on horse with Banner of Arwen Evenstar.

•6 Dunedain.

Warband Three:

•1 Dunedain.

Warband Four:

•1 Dunedain.

Warband Five:

•Farmer Maggot.

Warband Six:

•Lobelia Sackville-Baggins.

Warband Seven:

•Bilbo Baggins with Mithril Shirt.

Evil – Serpent Horde: 

Warband One (Leader):

•Suludan on armoured horse.

•18 Haradrim Warriors with spears.

Warband Two:

•The Betrayer on Fellbeast.

•15 Watchers of Karna with bows with poisoned arrows.

Warband Three:

•Harad Taskmaster.

•3 Haradrim Warriors with spears.

•3 Watchers of Karna with bows with poisoned arrows.

•2 Serpent Riders.

Warband Four:

•Raza.

•3 Haradrim Warriors with spears.

•9 Watchers of Karna with bows with poisoned arrows.

Ivan's Rangers is an army that I have been wanting to wanting to cover here after it helped him to become the 2019 League Champion last year. This army carries lots of might and managing that might is key to it's success. Knowing when to call Heroic Moves or Combats is important in order to avoid getting bogged down and achieving your objectives with this low model count army. Added in to a healthy supply of 2 Attack Rangers are 3 Hobbits from the Shire, all of whom add something special to the list; Bilbo has the One Ring which helps tackle big Heroes, Lobelia prevents standfasts for Warriors (which doesn't affect the Rangers as they are all Heroes) and Farmer Maggot has 3 fast moving dogs who are great for capturing objectives. And on top of all that is Aragorn who makes an excellent leader thanks to his combat prowess and free might points.

The Serpent Horde army that Ivan used on the Evil side makes full use of the shooting potential that this army posseses. 27 Watchers of Karna all with bows and poisoned arrows offers a frightening ranged threat especially when buffed by the Betrayer to allow a re-roll on all failed wound rolls. Anything that survives that hail of poisoned arrows then has Suladan and a Fell Beast to contend with, both powerful Heroes.

2nd Place

Dan Ahern

Good – Return of the King: 

Warband One (Leader): 

•Aragorn, Strider with Anduril and Elven cloak.

•1 Rider of the Dead.

•11 Warriors of the Dead: 3 with shield and 8 with spear + shield.

Warband Two:

•King of the Dead.

•2 Riders of the Dead.

•13 Warriors of the Dead: 1 with banner, shield + spear, 2 with shield and 10 with spear + shield.

Warband Three:

•Legolas with armour and Elven cloak.

Evil – Angmar: 

Warband One (Leader):

•The Witch-King of Angmar on Fellbeast with Morgul Crown, Morgul blade, 3 Might, 3 Fate and 20 Will.

•1 Cave Troll with hand and a half hammer.

•1 Dead Marsh Spectre.

•2 Angmar Warg Riders with shield.

•10 Angmar Orc Warriors: 1 with banner, 4 with shield, 3 with spear and 2 with two-handed weapon.

•1 Wild Warg.

Warband Two:

•The Tainted on horse.

•1 Dead Marsh Spectre.

•1 Wild Warg.

•12 Angmar Orc Warriors: 5 with shield, 5 with spear and 2 with two-handed weapon.

Warband Three:

•Barrow Wight.

•1 Dead Marsh Spectre.

•6 Angmar Orc Warriors: 3 with shield and 3 with spear.

Warband Four:

•Barrow Wight

•5 Angmar Orc Warriors: 3 with shield and 2 with spear.o

The Return of the King legion is a really solid and dependable army. Warriors of the Dead are tough to kill thanks to them being D8 with shields and can hit hard despite only being S3 thanks to Blades of the Dead (especially when the enemy courage is lowered by the King of the Dead's Harbinger of Evil). Talking of the King of the Dead, he poses a threat to enemy heroes who will try to avoid him and not risk being killed by a single blow. Legolas meanwhile offers some ranged capability in an army that is otherwise lacking in this department. And then there's Aragorn again as leader who I've already covered up above.

I said in the Army List blog that Angmar is enjoying a lot of popularity at the moment. The magical potential of this list is immense with 2 Wraiths and 2 Barrow Wights. These work well together with the Wraiths able to Sap Will enemy heroes to set them up for the Barrow Wights to Paralyze them. The Cave Troll and Fell Beast provide hitting power, the Wargs offer mobility and a horde of Orcs form up the main battle lines (helped by the fact that they cause Terror when near the Heroes).

1st Place

Dave Coleman

Good – Rohan & Lothlorien:

Warband One (Leader): 

•Galadriel with the Mirror of Galadriel.

•Mirkwood Sentinel.

Warband Two: 

•Theoden on armoured horse with heavy armour and shield.

•8 Rohan Royal Guards on horse with throwing spears.

•2 Rohan Outriders on horse.

•2 Warriors of Rohan: 1 with bow.

Warband Three:

•Eomer on armoured horse with shield.

Warband Four:

•Gamling on horse with Rohan Royal Standard.

Warband Five:

•Dernhelm.

Warband Six:

•Deorwine on horse.

Evil – Barad-Dur: 

Warband One (Leader):

•Sauron.

•20 Orc Warriors: 10 with shields, 9 with spear and 1 with spear + banner.

•2 Orc Trackers

Warband Two:

•Witch-King of Angmar on Fellbeast with Morgul Crown, 3 Might, 3 Fate & 16 Will.

Warband Three:

•Shelob.auseve has become something of an expert in a Good vs Evil environment within the IHL having won the last two of these style of tournaments with Rohan and Barad Dur.

Rohan is very good against Evil armies because of the hitting power provided by their numerous heroes. The change to the Royal Standard has curtailed this slightly but it still proved successful here. This time Galadriel was added to the list bringing the Mirror which helps to keep those Rohan heroes alive longer by restoring their Fate while also adding some magical support to the Horse Lords.

This Barad Dur army is built around the multiple threats of Sauron, the Witchking and Shelob. Each of these individually is able to inflict significant damage and when combined it creates a very potent force to be reckoned with.

Congratulations to all the winners; Ivan, Dan and Dave as well as to Patrick McCormick for winning Best Painted Army and Model.

And here's a few photos of the action last weekend.