I started an arnor BC, overall I am impressed. I've always steered away from arnor duee to their limited troop variety, however, for BC they are great! I admit, I lost one of my sgts again, curse you snake eyes!

Pros: Nice high fight value, when your rank and file troop has a FV 4, you know your in for a treat. Rangers! I love rangers and Arnor has them, in three different varieties: Dunedain, Ranger of the North, and Arnor Ranger. Spears, lots and lots of spears.

Cons: courage. Oh my word, courage 2 means you have to have someone to keep your forces together. Thankfully the rangers have a high courage, ranging from 3-5. During my second match I faced two specters and they mutilated my force by exploiting my low crg. I can see why in a regular point match that halbarad with his banner is a must, or arvedui's 12" stand fast, they are a must bring. Without them you will fold fast and suffer from terror.

I think that Arnor is a great BC in the early games. On the long run (5 games?) most battle companies will have access to cavalry, S4 units, 2 attacks units and so on, and that, on a small scale, will definitely take his toll.

IDK anything about battle companies but theyre Sooooooo weak in SBG.

Low courage, low defense, low strength, weak heroes(or super high costed ones).

Bow limit being upped costs you a lot more. If you think about it you have to use 3 Rangers of North to get 12 archers plus a warband leader.


Meh. Ive tried arnor a couple times. I dont like using them.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

Low defense? The warriors have a def 6. That is pretty standard. The rangers are low def, and they don't have a str 5 unit but I didn't think they were that weak. however in all fairness I've never used them in a standard sbg match

Oh and as already pointed out, no dedicated cavalry.

Arvedui D 6
Malbeth D 5
Arathorn D 5
Captain D 6
Aragorn D 5
Dunedain/Rangers D 5
Twins D 6 upgraded....
Halbarad D 5

Rangers D 4
Warriors D 6

60% of their army list cant get to D 6.

Its more important to keep your heroes alive for their weak courage too, which wont happen with D 5 so much.

The average hero strength is 4. So thats what arnor is...average.
Their troops only maintain strength 3 and strength 2 ranged attacks. Compared with orcs, theyre weaker overall.
Compared with uruks, they are wrecked.
Compred with elves, weaker overall.
etc

They are a force you have to be really good with to win games in a more successful fashion.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

Then there is the grey company. I have a 600 point grey company force I love to field. Admittedly, it has a 1-2 record right now, but that is because I was playing them wrong. 100% bows is way fun to play. Malbeth, Aragorn, Arathorn (could be replaced with Halbarad), a handful of RotN and rangers. Lots and lots of rangers.

Rerolls from gorn are great (Low D doesn't matter when you win your fights), Fury from Malbeth is fantastic, and say what you will about Arathorn, but in my opinion he is easily one of the top 10 budget heroes in LOTR. 3 attacks with 3 might for less than 100 points, yes please! Once I learned how to play a Grey company force they performed a lot better. You can't shield wall with Grey Company, you have to think hit and run. When you do find your self in a skirmish spam Aragorn as hard as you can, his heroic fights will save your bacon, or spam.

I haven't used an arvedui force yet but hopefully soon. I just have to paint him.

Your impressions obviously have fared different than mine and Ill explain how haha.



Grey company I tried....meh. I dont do well. I am basically kinda 3-0 with it, but by the skin of my teeth. All the games needed like 1-2 more rounds and I was toast. Luckily they broke first.


Low D matters if you play fight four troops which I did......those Rangers ate the dirt fast when you fight Uruk Hai. Fight 4 is good but not great. I also fought elves, and though I outshot them, I lost a lot of ties and struggled to wound.


Malbeths fury failed me badly the two times I took him. That was the luck of it all but still. Hate to pay a bunch of points for a model with one use, just to save 4-5 the whole match at 700-800 points. Not even kidding.


Yeah sure...he looks good on paper to me too. But he loses a fight, and hes easy to kill. I heroic struck once, lost a roll so badly I couldnt might it against a raging spider, and he died in one turn. Another time I think a few regular units swarmed him. If you dont get sixes, hes done.



With terrain put properly on a board with warbands rules....Grey company just isnt where its at any more.

Two games where I played points matches I barely got any bow kills with so many. Idk who you played or what terrain/scenario, but my bows didnt do much. I spent twice as many turns in combat as I did shooting.

Warbands destroyed grey company imo.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

Interesting. I am sorry to hear yours did poorly. I am not going to attempt to give you strategy tips. I am no tactician. You are right in that terrain and warbands can alter an armies effectiveness.

In reference to FV. FV 4 has always been helpful for me. Though I don't normally roll well, when it comes to tie breakers I have noticed I do very well. Either I win the tie or even with "low" D I usually fare pretty well.

In regards to Arathorn, I have seen a number of heroes both budget and beat sticks (tough guys like gorn) drop in a single turn. Heck, I once killed Durburz with 2 rangers in a single turn. I rolled my archery really well, and my opponent rolled very poorly for his fate roll. Point being, I never fault a hero for dying instantly in a single game. We all have our bad days. Now, having said this, I must be fair and explain that I primarily use my budget heroes as minion killers. They hunt down my enemies warriors. I almost never send a budget hero against a monster or a hero.

One notable exception being Cirion who *must* be thrust into the most dangerous situation as soon as possible. Why else would you have a special rule called Boldest of the Bold. CIRION! If you haven't figured out, Cirion is my all time favorite budget hero.

I don't know, at the end of the day maybe I am blinded by my love of the concept of a ranger to skillfully weigh the cost vs benefits of an Arnor army. Courage aside, I was impressed by them. Maybe with the release of MESBG we will see an expansion to Arnor, or even Numenor for that matter.

I just bought a lot of the warriors of Arnor.

I already have 3 RotN and 12 rangers of Arnor painted. And Malbeth.

Just thought they'd be a fun army to have on the shelf.

I don't see how they'd be solid except as maybe an ally.

I had used them with Durin's Folk for spears and Malbeth "fury insurance".

But I just bought some for fun.

I would consider throwing in Saruman the Wise with them. His courage is pretty sick. And it covers heroes too.

Ally is a good fail safe.

Ha ha one guy I play with loves Cirion and plays with him often. He is awesome. Boromor and Faramir bit it against a mumak but cirion kept fighting!!

As for arnor.....as a person who thought the idea of rangers ambushing bad guys cloaked in the woods was awesome, but seeing their transition to the game table didnt work...meh. I mean Id try again....I just dont like em as much as others.

To me, they are the type of army that crosses the line of balance between hit or miss where they often miss for me.

I like them as an ally though.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY