Dan Stu:
The sales pitch: It’s a true horde army with access to F4 and plentiful spear supports, which is a huge deal. You’ve also got a really punchy hero-seeking missile in Wulf, who doesn’t even have to be your leader so he can go full assassin mode. And with a large variety of troop wargear options and heroes, Usurpers brings a surprising amount of list building flexibility and a diverse toolkit. It’s a battleline horde army that can also make big plays. This will be a long one – there’s lots to talk about!
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| Credit: Warhammer Community |
What
makes it tick?
The army
consists of the War of the Rohirrim antagonists – Wulf, Targg, Freca and
Thorne, backed up by cheap Tribesmen and Rohirrim Traitors, with Crebain thrown
in to the mix. We’re definitely in the realm of mid- to low-tier heroes and
large numbers of low value troops, and solving your problems by throwing bodies
at them – the very obvious exception being Wulf, who we’ll talk about in a
minute.
In terms of special rules, there are some good ones – all of your Tribesmen (including their Chieftains) gain a 6+ ‘feel no pain’ roll, which might not reliably turn the tide of a battle on its own but can definitely prevent some key heroic combats from happening, and may deter your opponent from calling them in the first place. Almost everything has Hatred (Rohan), and the other is a blanket +1 to wound against enemy Heroes for all your Dunland models (everything except Thorne and co.) This is great news for Wulf, but perhaps even better news for your Wildmen. For a lot of horde armies, your answer to big heroes is to throw bodies at them and incur losses until they run out of might. With a +1 to wound, this will happen much more quickly, as even 2 or 3 Tribesmen pose a large threat to heroes, and can force them to spend might to recover from a fluffed duel roll.
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| Credit: Warhammer Community |
For me, the beating heart of this army is the twin 6” Fight 4 bubbles provided by Freca and Lord Thorne for Dunland and Rohirrim warriors respectively, and while building your army around these two is not the only way to make a Usurpers list, it’s where I’d start most of the time. Smart placement will see these guys cover your entire battle line, and while horde armies are generally expected to be out-fight-valued, F4 will tie with (or even beat) a lot of armies, massively boosting the survivability of your D3 tribesmen. These two bring a combined 27 models’ worth of effectively-fight-4 Hill Tribesmen and the less squishy Rohirrim Traitors, who can get to D5 with wargear - in the land in the land of D3 Tribesmen, the D5 man is king, so these guys can add a solid anchor for your army.
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| Credit: Warhammer Community |
Tribesmen have three great wargear options in spears, bows and brands, or can be kept naked as an efficient 5pt warrior. Light shields are terrible, and 2h weapons are fun but risky - though +2 to wound heroes is hilarious and cannot be ignored, especially in the hands of a good player. The Rohirrim Traitors also bring along some really interesting wargear options – they give your only access to a Banner (a must have), but also a Warhorn, which can bring tons of value for a low-courage horde, pushing your OK-not-great 7+ courage rolls to a very healthy 6+. For a meaty 3pts (almost the cost of a naked Tribesman) they can also bring a shield and spear which can double as a throwing weapon - however, all these wargear options can really eat in to your model count, so it’s up to you how ‘hordey’ you want your army to be, though maxing your throwing weapons as well as your cheap wildman archers can give you a surprisingly shooty army, if that's your thing. Finally you have Crebain, a bit of a wildcard unit – fast and durable, and while they can't carry objectives (which they will be sad about when Heirlooms and Seize the Prize return), they can hold or destroy them. At the cost of 4 naked Tribesmen they’re a tough sell at low points, so I probably start including some in at 500pts or above - their ability to flap over to any objective marker on the last turn can win you a game of Fog of War or Domination, if taken in threes they can put your opponent on the back foor for Reconnoitre, and a well-placed Crebain can win Destroy the Supplies single-taloned. Extra tools in the tool belt is always a good thing.
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| Gosh I love these models. Credit: Games Workshop |
The Hill
Tribes Chieftain gets a special mention for pure value. 40pts is a bargain. For
the cost of a single Freca or Targg you get a full two Chieftains – that’s
double the attacks, double the might, double the wounds. Sure, they’re only F4
and D4, but they’re still prickly with their +1 to wound heroes and feel no
pain. The two handed option is really intriguing for 5pts (the cost of a single
body), with +2 to wounding heroes all but forcing them to spend resources to
win their fights. You’ll be leaning on these guys if you want to maximise your
body count.
In terms of your rank and file, this all adds up to a horde army that should outnumber most enemies, but can fight two-deep at fight 4. And while you will undoubtedly lose D3 models quickly, your aim should be to wrap and trap your opponent. You should avoid engaging until you have a good opportunity to this – your squishy battle line will only have a few turns before they are whittled down and you need to use this time wisely.
Let’s talk about Wulf. In keeping with his character, everything about his profile screams ‘hero seeking missile’, more so if the hero in question is infantry and he is mounted, and even more so if they are F6 or lower. And if they happen to be of the Rohan persuasion, Eru help them when Wulf gets in to charge range. If you manage to get Wulf charging in to a hero and under a banner effect, you’re looking at 4 attacks with 2 rerolls (5A if you Challenge), Heroic Strike, with +1 and rerolling 1s to wound. With knockdown, this should be enough to kill most heroes in the game. Cementing his role as assassin is the General Hunter rule which refunds the might you spend on striking, and the fact that Freca has to be your General, allowing you to be incredibly (and thematically) reckless with Wulf. Unlike Freca, Wulf provides no buffs to your troops, so if you have a shot at trading Wulf for the enemy General, there are few reasons not to have a go. As a cherry on top, if he succeeds in taking out the General, Freca will become a 6” banner if he’s nearby which will help you mop up afterwards.
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| Credit: Warhammer Community |
All that is to say - the first question you should ask yourself when playing this army is, 'can Wulf snipe the enemy general early on', and go from there. Of course, all this paints a massive target on Wulf’s back, meaning that any opponent with the means to de-horse him will do so as a top priority - it's the difference between your their General being dead in one round of combat or not. That said, I’d still give him a mount every time. The equivalent cost of 4 wildmen may occasionally win you a game, but Wulf’s horse will do so regularly in matchups where the opponent does not have a means of unmounting him. Plus it's more fun. Plus the model is cool.
In terms of
the rest of your named heroes, they are all fairly lukewarm in combat, bringing
2 attacks at F5 S4. While Freca and Thorne earn their points for their fight
value buff, Targg is a more dubious value proposition, with a 4+ Master of
Battle and a highly conditional ‘reroll 1s to wound’ buff bubble. This relies
on you giving priority to your opponent, something you don’t often do once in
combat, making this rule both situational and weak – big whiff. I don't want to undersell Master of Battle, it's fantastic, but it's also the only compelling reason to bring him. Free heroics 50% of the time is well and good, but you know what's better? 4 might points instead of 2 for the same cost, in the form of a pair of Chieftains. This makes Targg
probably the last priority for inclusion, as he contributes very little to the ‘horde
plus Wulf’ archetype.
Assembling
your Army
The models in Usurpers are state-of-the-art. Nowhere else
will you find a list made of entirely new plastic troops, with the sole
exception of your Rohan Commander models. Freca, Thorne and the Crebain are in
Forge World resin, and sadly we currently have to proxy or convert our
Tribesman Chieftains (tactical rock and skull helmet?) but this is still a very
easy army to collect.
Without question, the Battle of Edoras box is the only
sensible starting point. It gives possibly the best value of any box set in the
game’s history, owing to the fact that you can use both the good and evil
troops in a single army. While you can collect this army in other ways –
just don’t. Flog the rulebook and Good heroes if you have to, and make use of
everything else. Freca and Thorne have a slightly eye-watering price for two
25mm base heroes, but as I see it, it all averages out to one of the best value
armies around. If you’re buying Thorne, you will definitely also want a Rohan
Commanders box, giving you access to a banner and a horn – you may even
consider a second banner beyond 600pts or so.
When assembling your Tribesmen, you get 8 bows, and then it’s your choice between spears vs 2h weapons, and brands vs hand weapons with optional shields. Spears are incredibly important to how this army plays, so I’d ensure you have plenty of those first before considering a few 2h weapons. You definitely want some brands too, but probably not maxed out – naked Tribesmen for 5pts are a gold standard of efficiency, and at such a low cost, the jump to 6pts is significant. To grow your army past ~500pts, you will need a further box of Tribesmen to increase your options and head count. On a very practical level, assembling Tribesmen is quite fiddly - very doable but a little time consuming, so make sure you put some time aside!
Traitor Rohirrim are straightforward - I would go all
shields, half spears and a banner, making Thorne & Co a nice little self contained
warband. The Rohan troops in the box will give you 8 with shield, 8 with spear
& shield, allowing for some flexibility. I would avoid using the bows,
because the D5 is invaluable in a D3 army, and Tribesmen have the same shooting profile for a
point less while still dying on 5s vs S2 archery. The D3 is weaker against S3 bows,
but you’re probably not trying to win the shooting war against those anyway.
Possible Pivots
The obvious pivot is to Besiegers of the Hornburg.
After painting up this army you’d only need to pick up Shank, Wrot and the Snow
Troll if you wanted to use them (and as we’ll discuss, if you’re running
Besiegers, you probably do).
The next pivot is in to Isengard, and it’s a good one – Army
of the White Hand. Hill Tribesman double up as Wildmen of Dunland, and your
Crebain can come along for the ride too. You’ll need to pick up Saruman and
Grima, and your choice of Uruk Hai Scouts, Mordor Orcs, and their associated
banners. The Wildman Oathmaker is not available at the time of writing, but his
fearless Wildmen bubble makes him a must-take as far as I’m concerned.
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| Credit: Warhammer Community |
Pros:
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Great numbers
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Varied toolkit
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Strong, playmaking hero
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F4 and spears on a horde army
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Almost entirely brand new models
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Great value
Cons:
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Squishy across the board
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Only one playmaker who hates losing his horse
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Restricted banner access
Lists
& Discussion
As with all
of these reviews, we’ll start with an ‘entry level’ list that you might want to
aim for as you start collecting the army, and then move on to something more
fleshed out.
These
aren’t necessarily super-optimised lists, but they will be built in a sensible
way that capitalizes on what think are the strengths of the list – and where
possible, in a way that doesn’t mandate buying a whole box of infantry for a
single model!
List #1:
Normally
we’d start off at 400pts, but given that the starter box gives you all the
troops needed, there’s no reason not to jump in at 500! This army requires just
4 purchases, is made up of all the wargear options provided in the box, has
good numbers and good shooting. If you’re just getting started in the game,
this is a really solid thing to aim for. With 33 models at 500pts I’m not sure
I’d call this a true horde army just yet…
List #2:
Oh yeah, that’s the stuff. With the Chieftain’s warband costing just shy of 100pts, you can more or less copy & paste this to get to 800pts or higher. More seasoned players may wish to go for a full warband of throwing spears with Thorne, but it makes your deployment more awkward if you want to optimise their efficiency as spear supports. I’ve gone for lots of bows here but if you wanted to spam numbers even harder, you could ditch the bows and go for even more Tribesmen with no wargear. And speaking of spamming numbers:
Bonus
List #3:
A
disclaimer – please don’t do this. I’m not saying it’s not fun or not good, but I
really don’t want the thought of anybody painting 66 Hill Tribesman models on
my conscience.
Bonus List #4:
Okay okay, I'll stop now - it's just such a fun army to write lists for! This is a decidedly ranged skew approach to the army, and it really looks pretty devastating. 24 ranged attacks at 600pts is nothing to sniff at - and by the time you've closed ranks, you've still got a very competent fighting force of F4 infantry, great numbers and a couple of objective grabbers - it just goes to show how well equipped this army is to build a variety of list types.
On to the
scores! Each category is scored out of ten, and we’ll explain below each score
what it is we’re looking for.
Theme: 7
How well
does this army encapsulate a moment from the books or films? Are all the right
models present and does it feel like the moment it’s based on?
Power: 7
How well
does it fare against other armies? We’ll be assuming that this is based on the
Army’s ‘preferred’ points range, as it’s not very useful to assess how Lurtz’s
Scouts performs at 1000pts, or Barad Dur at 300pts.
Cost
& Collectability: 9
We’re
looking at entry level cost to the army, how many purchases are needed, and are
the models available off the shelf?
Hobby
factor: 9
How good
are the models? Are we dealing with shiny new plastics or stinky old finecast?
Does the army require any converting, and does it lend itself to cool and
unique paintjobs?
Fun
factor: 8
How fun is
that army to play, and crucially, how fun is it to play against?
Total: 40/50
A mighty 40
for the Usurpers! While their big hero is easily shut down, I believe they have
the tools to deal with most scenarios and matchups. Theme wise, I’d love to see
a reason to include Targg, but at the cost of two Chieftains, I just don’t think he makes it in to most lists. They
only drop a single point on cost & collectability due to the pricey resin
heroes, and their beautiful new model range sees them score high in hobby factor. The
horde & hero play style is a blast, and there’s a ton of granularity in how
you build your troops, giving the army a high skill ceiling.
Our random article generator has blessed us with a glut of War of the Rohirrim armies to cover - so keep an eye out for a Hornburg double-bill in the coming weeks!
