Just a question, how feasible is it to win a game with an army full of 1 company formations? I'm asking this because I don't buy models to build an army for gaming, I buy to collect mostly and I collect abroad not to a specific faction or a good/evil alignment. Doing this leaves me with enough minis of the same unit to make 1 company formations when it comes to the metal blister packs. I usually buy 2-3 blisters of the same sort and I don't want to buy another 3 just to have 2 companies in a formation because I find that very taxing to my wallet.

So I'm thinking of this scenario for a theoretical Wotr battle. If I'm playing a game of equal points value where my army is several 1 company formations and my opponent has 3-4 formations with 3 or so companies each, my best chance at victory would be to flank the enemy if I can. Now because I have 1 company in a formation that means they won't last as long and will die pretty easily once it loses 4 models, but because I have the extra formations I should be able to get into better positions.

My theory is this. I should be outnumbering the enemy 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 in formations, where one of his single formations would outnumber mine 3 to 1 in companies. His advantage is that he only needs four kills to knock out my formation while my advantage is having more chances at flanking with my unengaged formations. So when strategizing this I should either send a formation that is either fodder or high defense ahead to tie up the enemy if I can for 1 turn, or a 2-3 company formation if I have one. All awhile moving my hard hitting extra formation(s) to the flanks to do maximum damage.

Of course a game contains more than simple cavalry and infantry. I'm just wondering if I should bother with fielding formations that only has 1 company in it.

I wouldn't bother with it. The biggest issue you will face is that, perversely, your enemy will likely be more agile, simply through having heroes to double with at key points.

Even when not, you will be horribly vulnerable to shooting armies and most melee armies should be able to throw out a line and and then hang units their to guard their flanks. While they might not have heroes enough to have all the units in the centre double, all the units dedicated to flank duties will certainly have heroes.

The one formation units that work best are all indomitable with R2 and have the ability to hit hard some how.

Unfortunately for you, WOTR is just not a low figure count game.

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http://www.roughwotr.blogspot.com

I suppose you're right. Luckily I do have one dedicated Rohan army, though it's mostly cavalry with 5 heroes, but no 1 company formations. I do have those Castellans of Gul Dusomething that I bought three blisters on special, I'm just on the fence about getting the forth at full price just to complete one company for a Mordor army, yet these are some of the toughest guys in the entire game.

For the Evil armies (or Rohan foot for that matter), there is always the option of just buying up boxes of the plastic historicals they are making these days.

I am extremely happy with the GB Vikings I got to be my Angmar foot (they do a discount for three boxes) and they could be Dunlending or Rohan foot just as happily. Getting Isengard to work that way would be tricky, since they are Rares, but they would work for other armies.

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http://www.roughwotr.blogspot.com

My key thought, is that an army that is completely built around many 1-Company formations will be very hard to play successfully most of the time and a well planned by attack by a rounded force would probably make short work of your army. Causing 4 Wounds on a Company is not that hard. A 3-Company Formation of Elf archers or Uruk XBows can probably take out a single 1-Company Formation per turn for most models. And with some magical options out there (Strength from Corruption or Natures Wrath for example), a single Epic Hero can eliminate another. All before you make contact.

And a large Formation, even if hit by 2-3 smaller Formations in Flank positions, will still probably have the advantage because of supporting Companies and the fact that they have a LOT of buffer for removing models. If three 1-C Formations hit a single 6-C Formation, counting extra dice for the Flank and such you may be able to destroy 18-20 enemy models (rough guessing averages based on experience more than anything else). So your enemy looses 2-3 Companies. They still hit back full, being 3 direct Companies but then 3 others that can support. And they don't need to destroy all of your models either…only 1/2. So you could easily loose all three Formations (and any Heroes present there).

Yes, Indomitable models are a different story (my Castellans have done great for me), but those generally can't have Heroes in them and some don't have Captains available (so no At the Double or such). Epic Heroes in normal Formations can make them very dangerous, but since you only have to destroy 4 models and the Formation and Epic Hero are gone that's a huge risk.

Sadly, WotR is a hard game for casually collectors because of how large they demand Formations to be. I am finding that a mix of one or two large ( 6+ Company) Formations with a few smaller ( 1-3 Company ) Formations to support them is often a good design pattern.

If you're a casual collector that wants to play too, then perhaps bring along some of your elite and Hero models and borrow rank-and-file from a friend. In our game group most of us have 2 viable WotR forces already and often offer to let others play. Alternatively, stick to small games ( < 750 points ) so that you don't need as many models and a couple really tough small Formations can be more viable.

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Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

Well thanks for the input guys. I'll save those fewer models I have for playing SBG.

Yah, 1 company formations you'll end up with 1/2 of your models running away. And on that Castellans note, are they actually worth their points even just a single company?

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"War does not determine who is right, only who is left."
- Bertrand Russel

Not to steal the thread, but yes, Castellans are worth every point I found...with one BIG warning. You can't get them to At the Double. They have decent move, but with the rest of my army either calling At the Double or else using Wings of Terror I found myself leaving my Castellans behind in many games. So it would be several turns before they got into the mix.

Once they were there though, they scared about every player I faced and with good reason. Almost every force in the game has lower Courage than their Defense and in cases like Dwarves it's a big difference. Especially if my Nazgul hit an enemy with a -1 Courage spell (and even better if another Darkness caster did the same right after ). The Castellans have R2 and a high Defense and are hard to take out, and are Indomitable on top of that. But with Spirit Grasp and a decent Strength against a relatively low Courage you can really cut thru the ranks. To top it off, Spirit Walk is amazing for tactical situations. Pass right thru other Formations or obstacles to get to the ones you want to attack and hit them from the rear or flank to lessen their retaliation.

They won't win a game for you, but if you can get them where you need them in time (damn Stand Alone rule!) they are a better force than two Trolls in my opinion (and for half the cost).

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Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

1 company formation armies do not work well. When my friend had just started WOTR he had this problem as he hadn't built up a large collection for a while. It didn't take much for me to beat him.

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Better, though difficult, the right way to go, than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe. John Bunyan - Pilgrim's Progress