A Noob's Perspective: Survivors of Lake-Town (and Friends!)

Dan Slb: Survivors of Lake Town is a small, flavourful army with just 10 profiles in its roster. Sounds like an ok amount until you learn that 9 of those are heroes! Not only that but 2 of those 9 are independent heroes! Surely then an army with so little choice would be easily boiled down to its best elements and quickly optimised? Well, honestly, that’s probably true. I found this out the hard way when I wrote myself what I thought to be a pretty good pure SoLT list and then it turned out to be pretty much exactly this list that came second at the Scouring of Stirlingshire a few weeks ago. (I am by no means saying that they are an easy army to use by the way, just that they don’t have much in the way of choice). However, one thing that they do have to offset this is the option of 3 green alliances that can bring some much needed variety to your lists. With that in mind, let’s look at the first allied list we have considered in our Noob’s Perspective series. 

Bard the Bowman with Horse and Armour

Sigrid and Tilda

Alfrid

6 Lake Town Militia with Shield

4 Lake Town Militia with Spear

2 Lake Town Militia with Bow

Bilbo Baggins, Master Burglar

10 Lake Town Militia with Bow

Hilda-Bianca

6 Lake Town Militia with Shield

5 Lake Town Militia with Spear

Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain with Orcrist and War Goat

2 Iron Hills Goat Riders 

700 points, 42 Models, 10 (up to 13) Might, 13 Bows, 4 Cavalry

If you are playing SoLT then you take Bard. There is literally no point not doing so except for if you are building some sort of theme list. Bard is a great Hero in combat (F6 S4 4A on the charge), shooting (can shoot up to 3 times a turn at S4) and he buffs the Militia. They are basically Orcs when within 12" of Bard (or Goblins when they aren't) but with better courage.

Alfrid, Sigrid and Tilda are essentially 50 points worth of upgrades for Bard, getting him to F6, giving him a free Heroic Combat every turn, and possibly giving him 3 more Might should he need it. 

Bilbo is a great Ringbearer as he never suffers the possible downsides of having the Ring on but he gets all the benefits (halving Fight value etc). The combo of him and Bard together will win on Fight value against anything in the game (max they can be is F5 while Bard is F6). 

I also put in Hilda-Bianca over a Militia Captain for two reasons. The first is that she is cheaper so I can squeeze in a few more troops. The second is that she gives Militia within 3” +1 to wound if she charges. This is big as the entire army (except Bard) is capped at S3 so we really need the help chopping through high defence stuff. You can really double down on this as the Militia have either a sword or an axe as standard, so if you take a bunch of axes and then Piercing Strike you are functionally S6 when comboed with Hilda’s buff. Man I love me some synergy!

The troops themselves are basically just a big old tarpit. I did include a fair amount of bow fire to take advantage of the surprisingly good shoot value but mostly I’ll use them to pin things in place until Bard can get to them, or if he’s not around....

Thorin! So I’ve chosen to ally in some Erebor Reclaimed in the form of Thorin and 2 Goats. The reason for this is that the list really lacks killing power which Thorin has in droves! With him included we have 2 free Heroic Combats per turn!! That is a crazy amount of killing power considering both heroes are throwing 4 attacks on the charge at F6 S4. Realistically they should be killing around 3-4 infantry per turn EACH! I know it’s not as simple as that and dice are fickle but that is still too much killing power to turn down. The Goats are also pretty amazing, with the opportunity to knock down infantry right when they charge into combat. They can also double as objective grabbers should they need to. 

Overall I think this army is pretty good. It lacks a few things such as Magic, Heroic March and cavalry in numbers, but I think it makes up for it in hordability and the killing power of the heroes. I’d be keen to try it out but with the Militia being £40 a box I don’t think I’ll be getting around to it any time soon...

What do you think of our first allied list? Have we missed anything obvious? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for reading!