The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game/Tactics/Fangorn
Why Play Fangorn
Two reasons: one, you loved the bit in the movies when Saruman got his comeuppance at the hands of Treebeard and his buddies, and you maybe remember the bit in the fourth Narnia book when the forest comes to life and curbstomps the bad guys; or two, you just want to absolutely wreck shit in close combat with an entire army of monsters, while staying on the side of good (you might also play Sylvaneth and want to pay homage to the OG Treemen). These guys are also Tolkien’s most explicit environmental allegory, so if you’re feeling Eco Warrior-y then you’re in the right place.
Pros
- Your entire army is made of monsters, and turns will go very fast with a maximum of 5 - 7 models.
- Everyone also has a monstrous stat line with at least three strength 8 attacks and three defence 8 wounds. Even top teir heroes are going to struggle to beat your green men in a fight
- The sculpts for the models are honestly not too awful, and since you’ll have an army of very few, quite large miniatures, you can really do a Your Dudes with modelling and greenstuff; give every one a unique bark texture or experiment with themed foliage - go crazy!
- Lorewise, it’s just cool to have an army of the oldest living beings in Middle-Earth. Literally; these guys were around before anything - even the Elves don’t know how old they are.
Cons
- Just Treebeard and Ents, nothing else. Does get a little monotonous, and even besides the boredom factor these guys are troublesome to ally with and have a not-insignificant lack of ranged weapons. Point costing also makes it impossible to reach any round number than 800 (Treebeard +5 ents), so chances are you won't be taken theses guys in matched play. War in Rohan supplement has added two new heroes with Beechbone and Quickbeam giving some flexibility but still not a lot.
- Similarly to Imperial Knights, bringing a pure Fangorn list to a friendly game is skirting dangerously close to being That Guy.
- You will be outnumbered, even by tiny hero-based armies like the Fellowship - against a properly done horde from Goblin Town or Moria, you could easily be looking at a 10 to 1 ratio against your big leafy dudes.
Army Bonus
Unit Analysis
Heroes
- Treebeard:
- Beechbone:
- Quickbeam:
Warriors
- Ent:
Allies
Building your Army
High point cost and lack of choice means Fangorn is pretty straight forward to build. Choose what point limit your armies going to have and pick your models from the lists below. The lists below are the only way you can achieve the given point limits, so get used to them.
400 points: Beechbone + 2 ents
500 points: Quickbeam + 3 ents
600 points: Treebeard( with Merry and Pippin) + Beechbone + 2 ents
700 points: Treebeard( with Merry and Pippin) + Quickbeam + 3 ents
800 points: Treebeard( with Merry and Pippin) + 5 ents
900 points: Beechbone + Quickbeam + 5 ents
1000 points: Beechbone + 7 ents