The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game/Tactics/Arnor
Why Play Arnor
Because you want to play a army that has above average fight, a metric ton of spears, and its troop choices are cheap and worth the points value. Sadly, Arnors list was split in half with the new Middle Earth rules, with them losing a metric ton of heroes and the ability to ignore the bow limit while also becoming impossible allies with virtually everyone. This doesn't make them useless, just difficult to play with.
Pros
- Above average fight meaning you will be winning most fights
- You average captain has above average fight
- Lots of spears, so you don't have to stress positioning quite as much
- You have a 1/3 chance of keeping your troops alive if you have Malbeth
Cons
- Only 3 troop choices and goblin level courage
- Only 3 heroes to choose from and 2 of them are named heroes.
- Even with a metric ton of bows, they are still only normal bows, so you will be wounding on 5-6 on everything but the softest targest.
- No mounted units
Army Bonus
While within 6 of Arvedui all friendly Arnor models automatically pass courage tests. Very helpfull when your base line troops are courage 2.
Unit Analysis
Heroes
- Arvedui, Last king of Arnor: With bog-standard stats across the board and no Fate, Arvedui seems like a mediocre choice at best, that is until you look closer and see his "the king in the North" rule, which makes your army insanely hard to remove via break check once the time comes. Combine this with his low (compared to other Good armies) price and army bonus and you have a solid support Hero. Just keep him away from combat as 2 wounds and attacks makes him fear every other hero who knows how to swing a sword.
- Malbeth the Seer:Much like Arvedui, malbeth hates the idea of close combat and has middle of the road stats, however this is more than made up for with one of the single best hero rules the kingdom of men have to offer. Malbeth gives every model with the 'Arnor' keyword a 5+ save against wounds! This makes anything stationed near him a massive pain to remove, as these sorts of saves are usually reserved for heros and the like, not your run of the mill soldiers. This is one point better than Fury and it costs nothing for it to be cast, its just automatic!
- Captain of Arnor:Like mentioned above: he's the baseline for Arnor heroes. with a respectable Defense value, cheap point cost, and standard "human hero" stat-line, he's not a bad choice for getting more infantry onto the table.
Troops
- Ranger of Arnor: Rangers of Arnor are the first of the 2 troops that Arnor has access to, and MAN they are a hard act to follow. 8 points for a standard human, but with a 3+ for shooting and access to a spear if need be.
- Warrior of Arnor: Higher fight than Warriors of Minas Tirith, with spear and shields these guys are one point cheaper than a Warrior of Minas Tirith with the same gear and have a higher chance of winning a fight. Oh, and their defence is the same. But this comes at the cost of having courage on par with goblins. They can be a good supporting line if you have Warriors of Minas Tirith in the front rank with shields, but otherwise, these guys will severely struggle against terror causing units or anything that requires a courage test. Still, a good supporting unit who can hold the line right up until they have to face something scary and due to their spears you won't have to rely too much on deployment as you can support like crazy. However, cash wise, their models, though quite beautiful, will cost you a kidney.
- Hobbit Archers: These little halflings may seem useless, until you remember that they can bring a warhorn (giving anyone nearby a courage bonus) and the Resilient to Magic special rule. They're good for annoying your opponent by always giving you a dice to resist magic with while also costing half the price as a Ranger of Arnor. Insert a few of them into your main battleline and you're good to go!
Allies
None. For some reason, Arnor is impossible allies with everyone, even Gondor who fluff wise, they are allied with. Why GW decided to do this, no one knows. So if you take a army as allies, you will loose the army bonus and due to Malbeth you will be wanting to take as many of your own troops as possible.
Building your Army
Unfortunately, like many of the more obscure armies, Arnor is missing many of their heroes, so you'll either have to resort to conversions or scour ebay for the official models. Cirion, Madril, and Damrod from teh Minas Tirith line all make for good conversion bases for Arnor. Beyond that, the best way to get your Arnor army rolling is a box of Rangers of Middle-Earth and a box of either Rangers of the North or Dunedain by your own preference. You end up spending $39 for ~190 points, which is perfect for getting your army rolling. Beyond that, going more rangers in general is always a safe bet, and it's relatively cheap to toss in 6 or so warriors of Arnor for flavour. For getting your Rangers on horse back, it's again a case of scouring Ebay or conversions, with some clipping and greenstuff, some of the Riders of Rohan make for a good starting point.
Tactics
Arnor isn't really the most complex army to get an understanding of. Tactically they rely a lot of using your RotN/dunedain's might to relocate your Rangers of Arnor to better spots to continue pin-cushoning your enemies. Because of this, Arnor tends to clump together moreso than other armies, which is perfectly fine since every infantry model and most heroes you end up using have spears as well. Bringing a small core of Warriors to sit on objectives so your bows can have free range of movement isn't a bad idea either, just don't invest too much into supporting them beyond a hero to stand fast with them if you're worried about them breaking.