The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game/Tactics/Army of Laketown

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Why Play Army of Laketown

Ever wondered if greedy guards would make a suitable army? Well time to put it to the test, the Laketown army comes with some of the most basic and cheapest troops you could ever get your hands on. Their heroes are more interested in the size of their purses than anything else but have some tricks to boost the armies effectiveness. Thankfully we have Bard as an option to bring.

Pros

• Very cheap units
• You can still take Bard
• Stephen Fry!

Cons

• Poor fighters if not properly supported with heroes and buffs.
• Half of you heroes are unarmed.
• Everything is in finecast.
• No shields

Army Bonus

"The Master's purse strings"- The master of Laketowns Moneybags special rule is changed from 6 to 12.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Bard:He's the only saving grace of this army List. Still has the options to take armour, a horse or the whindlance. Bard's best used for ranged, after all he has a great bow. and his special rapid fire rule allows him to shoot a maximum of three shots if his first and then second shots hit a target. The Whindlance is for when you really need to take something big down its a strength 10 sniping machine. Just make sure you position wisely because the whindlance cannot move after it has been deployed.

• Bain, Son of Bard: Same stat line as a laketown guard but costs the same in points as a guard captain. He has much better courage and an extra wound than the usual guard, and if you keep near his dad he get +1 courage. Never use him without his sisters.

• Sigrid & Tilda: These two are basically buffers for Bard and Bain. While one of them is within 6 they give +1 to their fight value to their dad and brother, and if both are within 6 Bard and Bain can call Heroic Combat for free. However, if they are slain at any point during the game (which is likely given they have defence 2), then Bard most move to try and kill the unit responsible for killing his daughters. I would leave them to one side unless you were playing a fluff or mission game.

• The Master of Laketown: if you want any of your units to have a chance on their own then you need to bring the Master of Laketown, his stats are nothing to write home about but his special rule Moneybags givens +1 to the fight value and 1 reroll per a duel for any Laketown guards, guard captains and Braga while within 6 of him. His downside (aside from his stats) is that he suffers from another special rule dragon sickness, this lets your opponent pick one of his units to have the ability to remove the master from the game as if he slayed him, he does however have to be in base contact with the master and you do get to try and pass a courage test to see if he stays.

• Alfrid: You're only bringing him so that he can exchange his will points to give a chose hero a point of might. In this army he's also the cheapest hero of fortitude in the game, so he's good for bringing more warriors.

• Braga: Same Stats as the basic guard captain but has one extra Might point. However his special rule The Masters puppet allows him to call a heroic action for free if you roll a 4+ while within 6 of the Master of laketown. He doesn't work well with Bard so try and keep them aparat as much as possible if you do bring them both.

• Lake Town Guard Captain: Basically a Lake-Town Guard with Might, Will and Fate points and +1 to all stats except move. No options or special rules but very cheap for a hero and the Master can bring him up to fight 5, so he probably won't be too bad. However, he's worse than your named heroes, so you will probably only bring him to get more warriors.

Troops

• Lake Town Guard: No shields, poor courage and no special rules. They are worse than lake town militia. Still pretty cheap though so they got that going for them.

Allies

Laketown's only historic allies are Thorin's Company, which is fairly useful as the dwarves are decidedly more killy than Laketown's forces and hold off against enemy heroes a hell of a lot better. Taking Thorin, Gandalf, Balin or Dwalin also means you don't have to have the Master of Laketown as your Leader which is good. But the dwarf that really comes in handy is Bombur who gives allies free will points on a +4, which might not seem useful at first until you realise the Master of Laketown's Moneybags rule costs might points, of which he'd normally only have two. Alfrids the Councillors ability "dubious Counsel" allows him to spend will points to give a friendly lake town hero might, on a 2+. Slam Bombur and Alfrid together and (with reasonable luck) you can have a constant stream of might to the master, giving +1 to fight value and rerolls for all Guardsmen in a 12' radius.