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, Arnor's 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
- Lacks all...No strong combat heroes, no 311 heroes, no cavalry, no siege weapons, no monsters/hard hitting troops, no s3 ranged weapons, magic? DO NOT PLAY THIS LIST if you want to win a tournament, but use it you like its lore or just to have fun, which I REPEAT, is it is the most important rule in the game: HAVE FUN.
Army Bonus
While within 6 of Arvedui, all friendly Arnor models automatically pass courage tests. Very helpful when your base line troops are courage 2.
Unit Analysis
Heroes
- Arvedui, Last king of Arnor: With bog-standard stats across the board and one Fate (though he does have 3 attacks), 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 beware of combat heroes, as 2 wounds and fight 5 makes him fear every other hero who knows how to swing a sword.
- Malbeth the Seer: 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 in the entire rulebook. 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 heroes 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! Unfortunately doesn't affect Hobbit Archers.
- Captain of Arnor: Like mentioned above: he's the baseline for Arnor heroes. with a respectable Defence value, cheap point cost, and standard "human hero" stat-line, he's not a bad choice for getting more infantry onto the table. One benefit of him is his fight value is slightly higher than your average captain, meaning you can throw him into low level enemy heroes and not worry too much about him.
Troops
- Ranger of Arnor: Rangers of Arnor are the first of the 3 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. The more arrows you fire, the higher chance of you scoring a 6 to wound (sadly, their bows are standard 2)
- 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. They have no historical allies, however, they can be allied by convenience with some of the factions:
Historical Allies
Convenient Allies
Fangorn
Lothlórien
Rivendell
The Kingdom of Khazad-dûm
The Misty Mountains
Thranduil's Hall
Impossible Allies
Minas Tirith
Númenor
Rohan
The Dead of Dunharrow
The Fellowship
The Fiefdoms
The Shire
The Wanderers in the Wild
The Rangers
Thorin's Company
Radagast's Alliance
Army of Thrór
Garrison of Dale
The White Council
Army of Laketown
Survivors of Laketown
Iron Hills Dwarves
Erebor Reclaimed
Building your Army
Arnors heroes and troops are back! After years of not being on the GW online store they have returned so grab them while you can! However, Warriors of Arnor are nearly $25 for three of them, so few people will complain if you grab a box of Warriors of Minas Tirith and convert them. Rangers are available as always. For a 800 point match though, you will be bring to the field nearly 50 troops (2/3 of which will be metal so have a good carry case ready). If you don't want to spend $25 for 4 hobbit archers, go scour eBay or one of the many buy/swap/sell pages on FB. There are plenty of Fellowship hobbits for sale, usually for $3-$5 each and in various states of disrepair. Using the useless bows and quivers chopped off from your Warriors of Minas Tirith who have been converted into Warriors of Arnor, you can quickly convert quite a few hobbit archers who actually look like they have had to march across fields and through inhospitable places, not like they've just popped nextdoor for tea and have suddenly come under attack.
Tactics
Arnor isn't really the most complex army to get an understanding of. You'll be keeping your troops close to Melbeth and the King to ensure you can exploit their special rules. A thing to remember is that there is no order which you have to move models, just once you have finished moving them you can't move them again. So when it comes to charging terror units and your line is long, move the ones closest to the king first, then move the king down the line so everyone else is in range, and move them out. You will want to be careful with Malbeths positioning due to the 5+ save he gives out. Don't be afraid to have him close to a enemy hero in combat with one or two Warriors of Arnor. The 5+ save can end a heroic combat much to the annoyance of your opponent.
One of the best tactics is to literally sit back and shoot as much as you can. That's it. Hide your rangers in the terrain so there are in the way check rolls to hit them with shooting and turn your enemy into a pin cushion. You're greater numbers should allow you to create one or 2 large battlelines supported by a hero or two with a couple of banners between them. Sit back, shoot the enemy's flank to pieces and then flank your enemy with your two battlelines. With some cunning maneuvering and skill you should be able to maximize Malbeths special rule keeping you in the fight while you don't need to stress position of your troops too much due to the number of spears that you will have.
A great army to play if you are a beginner or if you don't want to worry too much about tactics. However the price of models is a major turn-off for playing this army (36 Warriors of Arnor will cost you around $250 depending on where you are)
Example Armies
- 39 models, 500 points
- Arvedui, 80 pts
- Malbeth the Seer, 70 pts
- Captain of Arnor, 55 pts
- Warrior of Arnor with Banner, 33 pts
- 23 Warriors of Arnor, 184 pts
- 6 Rangers of Arnor, 48 pts
- 6 Hobbit Archers, 30 pts