CJ's "More will come" Legions: The Battle of the Five Armies Part 1 The Armed Host

 

After the death of Smaug, three neighbouring races descend upon the Lonely Mountain with individual claims to the treasure found within, unaware that an army of Orcs is also on their way... The Battle of the Five Armies as portrayed in Peter Jackson's film adaptations is more akin to an evolving chain of temporary alliances being made and dissolved as the battle progresses. This suits a short series of Legendary Legion articles looking at some interesting ways you could represent the dynamic combinations of Factions from the film in a themey and challenging playstyle. Part 1 is the alliance between Men and Elves that marches on the mountain.

Feren 50pts

Elf, Mirkwood, Infantry, Hero - Hero of Fortitude

F5/3+ S4 D5 A1 W2 C5 M1 W1 F2

Wargear: Armour, Elven Blade, Signal Horn

Heroic Actions: Heroic Resolve, Heroic Defence

Options:

Heavy Armour 5pts

Horse 10pts

Elf Bow 5pts

Special Rules: Woodland Creature

Signal Horn ACTIVE

If a Mirkwood Hero within 3” of Feren calls a Heroic Move, March, Shoot, Accuracy, or Resolve, you can resolve the Action as though Feren himself called it. The range of Feren’s “with me!”, “at the double!”, “take aim!”, “loose!”, and Heroic Resolve is 12” instead of 6”.

Feren doesn't get an awful lot to do in the Films, but most prominently in a battle context he is the one that Legolas commands to use his Horn to signal to close the river gate, as well as the one Thranduil commands to use his Horn to "call back your company". To have his profile work inkeeping with these moments, he has the option to extend the effects of a Heroic Action from a nearby Hero. This would allow rangers to be more efficient at spreading out and surrounding enemies, as well as using the additional range to move away towards objectives. With Thranduil's key weakness being Magic, Feren has an opportunity to cast a very large Heroic Resolve whilst being an ideal Hero to call it and remain stationary. He also has a brief appearance delivering a message to Legolas at Laketown on a horse so the wargear option is there.

ARMY COMPOSITION

Thranduil with Heavy Armour (Elk, Circlet, Sword)

Feren with Heavy Armour (Horse)

Mirkwood Captain (Swap Elven-made Glaive for Spear and Shield...free)

Mirkwood Elves (Elf Bow, Elven-made glaive, Shield, Spear, Banner)

Bard with Armour (Horse)

Gandalf

Bilbo

Lake-Town Militia (Shield, Spear, Bow)

This is a very restricted selection of the models usually available to these Factions in order to be inkeeping with the protrayal in the film, which just means that the Special Rules will have to make up for it! The Elves as depicted in the film also have spears and shields instead of Glaives so that Wargear Option is available for those who'd like to convert. It does cost the spear having the benefit of an elven blade roll-off but that extra defence could make all the difference to your expensive Elves.

ADDITIONAL RULES

Thranduil and Bard must both be taken, and Thranduil is always the Leader.

Bard gains the Arkenstone from Thror’s profile (pg19 AoTH).

Gandalf and Bilbo gain the Laketown keyword. Bilbo is treated as an Independent Hero, and Gandalf a Minor Hero.

The Arkenstone serves to make Bard extremely tanky if he has a bit of luck on his side! The downgrading of Gandalf and Bilbo represents their lack of standing amongst the Men of Laketown when they march to Erebor, as well as limiting the size of your Laketown component given that they make up a fraction of the Armed Host.

SPECIAL RULES

Form up!

Once per Game, when an enemy model is in charge range of one of your Mirkwood Heroes, they can call a Heroic Move including “with me!” which automatically goes first if contested. Elf models gain +1 to Wound when making Strikes within 3” of Thranduil.

The Elves depicted in the film are a highly skilled military outfit, with perfectly synchronised coordinated maneouvers and pre-planned commands and formations. The one used in the picture above was actually used against Hannibal's elephants! As the goats approach they switch their archers and spears and form the lines ready to receive the impact, which this Special Rule allows you to do if you need to cycle archers behind lines or react to your opponents moves. It'll definitely make Cavalry more cautious about charging in when you can definitely get the jump on them...

“Stand your men down”

The Mirkwood and Laketown models taken as part of this Legion are treated as Red Alliances with the following exceptions to those rules. This Legion only counts as Broken if both the Mirkwood and Laketown contingents are individually Broken. Your opponent will only score VPs for wounding/slaying your Leader if the conditions apply to both Bard and Thranduil. Laketown Warriors can only be lead by Laketown Heroes and Mirkwood Warriors by Mirkwood Heroes.

The Elves issue commands in elvish which the Men won't understand, and the Elves won't respect the military leadership of a citizen's militia. It's also abundantly clear that Thranduil is entirely indifferent to Bard joining him in his march on Erebor. By using the Red Alliance mechanic, the two Factions will behave independently for Heroic Actions and Broken Tests but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you can move half your models, let your opponent react, and then send in your other half you may find a different tactical challenge running this Legion than you're used to! Bard covers the Laketown people for their Banner needs without benefiting from and Elven one. The downsides of a Red Alliance are also softened by forcing an opponent to deal with both Factions rather than focus on killing the softer Men. Bard reinforced with the Arkenstone also provides quite a handy buffer for VPs based on Thranduil being wounded/slain.

Devastating Charge

The Elk gains the Impaler special rule (War Camel, pg203, AoLoTR) at S5 instead of S4. When Charging whilst mounted, instead of making normal Strikes after winning a Combat, Thranduil may make a single strike against all enemies in base contact.

This steroid Bambi absolutely takes names in the film. This ten foot threat to Canadian health insurance is based on a genus with a 4m antler spread and weighing in at 700kg. As the orcs showed us, if Moose-olini here decides you're up next in Eru's waiting room your best survival strategy is to shoot it point blank in the face otherwise your next career move will be as an involuntary tie on his antler rack. At that point Thranduil issues the c-c-c-c-combo breaker! It makes Thranduil without the additional sword on Elk a little more viable, and the Impaler is cos when a furry haulage truck with a cowcatcher that works more like a needle wall is coming at you at 40mph your continued existence is no longer your choice.

Loose!

Once per game, Thranduil can call a Heroic Shoot or Accuracy without spending Might. Elves benefitting from Thranduil calling a Shoot or Accuracy (including those affected by Feren’s Signal Horn), improve their shoot value to 2+ if they have not moved, and of those shots models within 3” of Thranduil will gain +1 to Wound.

Thranduil having a 2+ shoot value was something I loved about his original Fall of the Necromancer profile from way back in the distant past of 2006, so this is a little homage to that. Additionally the 6-10 Elves with bow you manage to bring after also having the Laketown contingent will get a little added punch either when using this rule or Thranduil calls any additional ones afterwards. Combined with Bard's triple shot and some harrassing Men arrows this should have enemies rushing towards you in time for you to make use of "Form up!"

 

Example list 800pts:

Thranduil, Heavy Armour, Elk, Circlet

5xMirkwood Elf (Shield)

6xMirkwood Elf (Bow)

5xMirkwood Elf (Shield and Spear or Glaive)

1xMirkwood Elf (Banner, Spear and Shield or Glaive)

Feren, Heavy Armour

4xMirkwood Elf (Shield)

4xMirkwood Elf (Bow)

3xMirkwood Elf (Shield and Spear or Glaive)

Bard, Armour, Horse

12xLaketown Militia (spear)

3xLaketown Militia (bow)

3xLaketown Militia (bow, spear)

800, 49 models