Less than half of what we hoped for: A new style of RoT

 

Forth Eorlingas!

So I'm going to start taking a few new lists to tournaments this year and this here is one of them! 
All mounted Rohan, Riders of Theoden (RoT) no less. But now if you will indulge me I will ramble on, about what I'm not taking and why.

            The Standard Riders of Theoden and why I have issues with it

RoT does seem to have a "Standard" way to build a list for a competitive tournament, that is the usual:

Theoden

Gamling with Royal Standard 

Dernhelm 

Deowine 

Captain or two (Elfhelm if feeling saucy) 

Add in a smattering of royal guard for taste and voilà! You have yourself a herohammer RoT list. 


Now this style of building makes sense, pre-errata the Royal standard was very very good (possibly too good) and the hero heavy style of RoT was at its most oppressive. While the banner is not nearly as strong as it once once, it's not bad and the lessons learned from piloting the list must carry over, so I can see why older players who used to play RoT this way would still continue to play this way.

As for the newer players like myself? Well Death!!! 

"Death!" is THE extra rule the legendary legion adds, and it still scales with the more heroes the merrier. It will still break you just as fast as the old RoT ever did, it just has a strict cut off point now that Gamling ain't giving out bumps of might in the bathroom.

So now a few years on is herohammer still the best way to build RoT? 

Death!!!

Looking at the tournament results from the GBHL 2023 league (specifically RoT) I began to think that Théoden's herohammer might not be the best list to bring if I wanted to win podiums. 

With a grand total of one podium at a GBHL 100 (National level) and a big fat zero in podiums for the 90s (Regional level), how was a fairly popular legion* with easy to collect models not getting a single podium at any of the regional 90 point tournaments?!

        One: Low model count 

        Two: It's too dependant on winning key roll offs

Reason one is fairly self explanatory, there is a reason certain very strong lists (think, Black riders, Vanquishers) can seem so strong and yet podiums can elude them, and that's simply that they will loose the scenarios were numbers really matter (Domination, Breakthrough, Capture and Control, Command the Battlefield). Unless you are very gifted at the game, you just can't expect to win these scenarios with such elite armies, and that means your chance of a top three finish is that much harder. 

Reason two is also fairly obvious if you have ever played an army or model that really needs to charge. While RoT will crush on the initial way in, no amount of might will secure the inevitable move off on the following turn, and if the RoT player loses that... it's tough. You will end up surrounded, trapped, and when one of your Heros fluffs you will have to burn copious amount of might just to make sure you stay on the board. And now with no super might banner it can nay afford this, it also can't do the trick of all heros run in and combat out to safety, instead the list crashes in and crosses its fingers, or it runs out of steam and just dies. It can possibly survive one lost move off, but back to back? It's pretty much lights out. 

Now to give the devil its due, in 2024 there has been a little bit of a resurgence of this style of list doing well, as a certain Ed Ball has already got two third place finishes in GBHL100's this year with herohammer RoT and it's only March!

Ed though is a three time GBHL league champion, and three time league runner up, and candidate for one of the best players to have ever touched the game. For over a decade he has focused and specialised on hero heavy armies... so I feel trying to use him as a gauge for what I should do is a fool's errand. An example of this is that at the same tournament Ed got 3rd in, there were five other RoT players, and next highest was 24th**

So what's the alternative? 

Quantity is a quality of its own

Mass regular Riders of Rohan! 

That means we get high numbers (for all mounted that is), but why on earth would you go for regular riders? As a player who only got into MESBG in the last year, and who looked at collecting and playing Rohan I have seen all the articles and podcasts and tier lists and even a Battle Camper video proclaiming the superiority of Royal Guard compared to the regular rider. And to be fair there is some very compelling evidence as to why you would want Royal Guard, namely: 

•     Extra Defence 
•     Extra Fight Value 
•     Bodyguard 

And all it costs is a single point more! 

It's clear they are a bargain in comparison, so if models were not an issue surely we should all be using as many Royal Guards as possible? 

Not so fast, while all of the above is true, the riders have a key piece of wargear that Royal Guard don't have, and that's a bow. A bow in the hands of a Move 10 model no less, we know how strong that is, just look at Riv Knights. Now what I'm not suggesting is that Riders are the new Riv Knights, they actually use their bows in a different way that's hard to wrap your head around if you have not played it. They don't just sit and try to blast holes in the enemy with accurate S3 bows, they instead do something that Riv Knights with their low numbers can only dream of... surround the enemy. 

It was at this point Gothmog realised the age of the orc was shorter lived than first hoped, and the age of the horse had just begun

The way this style of army works is with the old Scoot and Shoot, but with a much higher focus on scooting, you're only hitting on 4's and that's 5's most of the time since you want to be mobile. But if the board allows it you can end up almost in a full surround and often a semi-circle around your opponent, whenever they push forward you pull back with one section and stand and shoot with the others, all while mincing into favourable positions. Some players will just wait for the Rohan to charge in, but you just keep your distance, pick one possibly two off the edges and move around just a little bit more, slowly closing the noose.

Some players will panic under the shooting and just rush forward, this is great, you just slip round the sides with some of your riders, kite back with the others and then get a full 360 degree charge later on.

This rider heavy style also really wants the enemy to have to spread out, it's here that you can threaten multiple locations and then quickly join your riders together and kill the enemy piecemeal. In fact one of the go to moves is to form the semi circle, see where their heros go, and then on a turn you have lost priority, quickly move onto one side of the board and then smash that flank while the opponent is trying to scramble over. 

It's an army were the high numbers of mobile units is the main focus. This makes it more resilient to losing key move offs (though it still really hurts) and has better numbers to compete more in those key scenarios where numbers are key.

An Example list: 

We still need some Royal Guard for Terror and they are really good for when we do charge, also only Royal Guard have Throwing Spears. Riders already have bows to have a ranged threat, and numbers are more important than giving them another ranged option that they will use far less than their bow. Royal Guard need Throwing Spears so that they have an option to skirmish. 

              Wait what about Gamling? 

Why not take one of the best banners in the game?

Gamling is good don't get me wrong, and while the Royal Standard does feel rather small in comparison to the other named banners (Bozza's and Sully's) it's still a great wargear choice post errata, and so if I still want to take a banner, (which you 100% do, makes sure you are not on the back foot in the scenarios that reward vp's for banners, and to give your key heros rerolls during the initial charge, to make a more reliable turn of Death!) then taking Gamling with the Royal Standard seems like an almost no-brainer. Hell you can even use March with him an unlimited number of times, to make your skirmishing that much faster! You can throw him into big scary heros and call Defence turn after turn to hold them up, and of course late game, when might is spent on both sides, still being able to call Moves is game winning! 

But here is the problem, you have to take Gamling.

Gamling is a F4 hero with no strike. In addition he doesn't get the +1F bonus if charging near Théoden, so he is stuck at F4. In a meta filled with either F4 Uruks, Black Nums, spear supporting Rangers or even worse the F5 elves, Easterlings and Fountain court guard. Gamling just bounces too often, how useful is a free combat from death on a F4 hero... it's not great let me say that much. In a list where low fight value can often be its bane! In a list where vs F5 you need your heros striking up and killing two at a time. Gamling can't do that, and it's a major issue. 

The Royal Standard is great, but Gamling isn't. So in the list I have dropped him for Deowine, a hero with F5 base, Strike and still has access to March. He also has a way to generate "free" might points, if in a funky only combat and only in a restricted way.

A new style of RoT?

Alright if you have managed to get this far, cards on the table, this is not my original idea. I know, I know shock and horror but it's kinder this way. And in fact this is not a new style at all and the title of the post was all a lie, it's in fact a very old idea that I first came across by getting smashed by Mik Bakalarz (https://venivididouble1.blogspot.com/) who was using it. The same person who then told me the theory behind the list and proceed to just fall short of a podium going 5-1 only losing a close game to the eventual winner, at what was a very memorable event for me as it was my very first GBHL 100.

I then found myself on a team with Mik for 2024! He shared his thoughts on upgrading the list, told me a lot of what I have explained above and then I played a few practice games against him using his lists to test it out.

Mik might just be the originator of this style of play, as he earned his stripes playing Rohan pre legendary legions for years, so bow focused skirmish Rohan was just the way the list was played. 

This is the face of a stone cold killer

With all that being said, is rider focused Rohan better than herohammer style... possibly. :P

In fact it has been brought to my attention that the recent Warhammer world GT 2024 a GBHL 100 Good vs Evil 700 pts was won by a certain Callum Edens with a Rider focused list! (Though it did have Gamling instead of Deowine)

It still has some gaping weaknesses that you will struggle to overcome, for example you need to make peace that you will lose vs flying monsters who have might. I know you want to say "it's tough, but there is a chance" but no, it's easier to instead just accept the loss, just accept that a big flappy boi is going to heroic combat into your flank and hurl down your heros, and then murder everything. You can't outrun it and it will dismount everything with hurls, just hope the next game goes better. 

Also heavy shooting lists (especially elf shooting) will shred the Riders, now you do have the speed, and unlike the herohammer version, the numbers to absorb some loses, but, that also means its harder to fully hide your army behind cover. 

Moral of the story is whenever your opponent is getting to dictate the pace of the game and forcing you forward instead of scooting and shooting, it's gonna be an uphill game.

I hope I have given enough evidence and theorising to at least make what is the "best" RoT a discussion now. And who knows we might finally see a RoT podium at a GBHL 90 this year, and it might just have mostly Riders! 

(And it might be piloted by me!)

*RoT was 11th in popularity for 2023 in the GBHL 

** 24th after day one, after this it got broken down into pods and as such makes no sense to track