List Review: Into the West

This weekend saw the opening event of the Great British Hobbit League: Into the West, a 450 point event held in Cardiff. 60 players attended and could choose to bring a Good, army, Evil army or both! If you chose to bring both you would play with the opposite allegiance than your opponent. There were also Secret Missions that were randomly assigned each game and were worth 1TP if completed. So without further ado:

5th - Arnor Pure List

King Arvedui

x6 Warriors of Arnor

x5 Rangers

Malbeth the seer

x6 Warriors of Arnor

x2 Rangers. spears

Captain of Arnor

x6 Warrios of arnor

x2 Rangers, spears

30 Models, 8 Might

Here we have a pretty decently sized force where the base Warriors are actually really good, being F4, D6 and a built in Spear! The Rangers are only D4 but have a 3+ shoot value which is great. When these masses of troops are combined with the great buffs from the heroes they really do become formidable. Arvedui has a 12" Stand Fast and Malbeth gives everyone within 6" a 5+ Fate roll (which is disgustingly incredible). The list does lack a big combat hero but Arvedui and the Captain are both reasonable, with F5 and S4.

4th - Good and Evil (the only one in the Top 5 surprisingly!)

Evil List - Goblin Town Pure List

Goblin King 

x12 goblins

Gollum

Grinnah

x12 Goblins

Goblin Captain

x12 Goblins

Goblin Scribe

x4 Goblins

45 Models, 9 Might

A good old horde! A huge amount of models for this points value and more will come on every turn with the Scribe's reinforcements rule. Everyone essentially has a spear thanks to Chittering Horde so there will be plenty of dice in each fight. Combine these numbers with the might of the Goblin King and Gollum being a Ringbearer, there is an answer for most things in this list.

Good list - Riders of Theoden Legendary Legion

Theoden, heavy amour + shields + amoured horse

x3 Royal Guard, throwing spears, horses

x2 Riders of Rohan 

Gamling, horse + Royal standard of Rohan 

x2 Royal Guard, throwing spears, horses

x3 Riders of Rohan 

Dernhelm, throwing spear + horse

13 Models, 9 Might (but actually infinity Might)

A small force here, relying on the extra buffs of the LL to mitigate the lack of numbers. It is a very mobile force so able to play objectives really well. Added to that is the fact that you can be super liberal with Might because of Gamling's Banner giving it back each turn. I would imagine the tactic is to kite until the time is right and then use the heroes to punch through the lines and break up forces that way.

3rd - Serpent Horde Pure List

Suladan, armoured horse

x4 Harad warriors, Bows

x4 Harad warriors, Bows + spears

x7 Serpent guard

Betrayer, horse

x5 Harad warriors, bows

x5 Serpent guard

x2 Harad raiders, war spears

29 Models, 5 Might

Well that is a lot of bows with Poison. The Betrayer is going to be buffing these shots too, making the prospect of walking into all that firepower particularly scary. When you finally get to the lines you have a bunch of F4 Serpent Guard and the beast that is Suladan to contend with. There is definitely an issue of low defence in this list, but this isn't an issue if everything has been killed by shooting before it can attack you!

2nd - Kingdom of Moria Pure List 

Balin the dwarf, King of Moria

x4 Vault Warden teams

x3 Dwarf warriors, shields

x1 Dwarf ranger, bow + throwing axe

Gimli, son of Gloin

x3 Vault Warden teams

x2 Dwarf warriors, shields

x1 Dwarf ranger, bow + throwing axe

23 Models, 6 Might

Here we have 2 solid heroes backed up by a bunch of F4 S4 troops. When you add the army bonus to this, the list actually hits really hard! It is a small force but has a large amount of high Defence, as high as D9! This means that things aren't dying very fast at all, so it has the same effect as having a larger force. I really like this list and would love to give it a go but my wallet weeps at the cost of all those Vault Wardens!

1st - Rangers of Ithilien Legendary Legion

Faramir, horse

x7 Rangers

x7 Rangers, spears

Madril

x6 Rangers

x6 Rangers, spears

Damrod 

x3 Rangers

x3 Rangers, spears

35 Models, 7 Might

Well I am not that surprised by this. Before the event even began, I saw the points level and thought to myself "Ranger of Ithilien will win this". The list is just disgusting at low points levels. 35 Bows is just crazy, and reminds me of why it is a good thing that shooting is not overly effective in this game. I don't want to take anything away from this person's win (especially as I believe this is their second tournament win with this list!), as they clearly have skill, but I don't think I am alone in thinking that this list is a problem at low points levels. It certainly isn't an auto-win list, but in the right hands (and at low points) there is very little that can compete.

Have any thoughts on these lists? Let us know in the comments.