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 3 - 8 models.
- Everyone also has a monstrous stat line as to be expected, 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 make them 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
- Don't be Hasty!: All your ents become entirely immune to any spells or special rules that would prevent them from moving or being moved against their will (you still take damage from sorcerer's blast though) and total immunity to natures wrath and wrath of Bruinen. Fangorn operates on a pretty low model count so you can't afford for any leafy bois to go (or not go) wandering off, so this bonus is a god send even if you won't using it in a lot of games. Oh, your ents also become Fearless, auto passing all courage tests, but with an army wide courage of 6 this wasn't really a problem anyway.
Unit Analysis
Heroes
- Treebeard: Daddy Fangorn himself, coming with all the trappings of a standard ent and then some. He gets a healthy fight value of 8 and courage value of 7 as well as resistance to magic. On top of that Treebeard brings 3 points of might with options of heroic Strikes, Strengths and Defences as well as a whopping 6 will points, (which are actually kinda useless given his resistance to magic and already high courage value but oh well) and three fate points just in case anyone gets through his defence 8. For ten points he can bring Merry and Pippin from the Fellowship army list along for a ride. They can throw stones even if Treebeard's moved his full movement which is neat but in all honesty you'll be taking the hobbits regardless because you don't have anything else to spend those ten spare points on.
- Beechbone: The angry ent that got himself set on fire. Also described as particularly handsome in the books, which is bit weird given he's a talking tree. He has an extra fight value bringing him to a total of 8 making him all the more lethal plus he gains rerolls to wound any Orcs, goblins and Uruk-hai. He also has 3 points of might to spend on heroic strikes or strength, for when you really need that orc dead. Downside is if can charge any goblins, orcs and Uruk-hai then he must do so; with such a low model count positioning is crucial to Fangorn so Beechbone running wild can be detrimental but he's probably going to win the fight anyway so at least he isn't getting himself killed. Unfortunately Beechbone lacks a model so you're going to have to get creative on how to make a tree 'handsome'. Maybe give him a twigy Van Dyke like they did in the films?
- Quickbeam: An ent that likes to go fast. His stat line is almost identical to regular ents except he moves 8' and has 3 might, 1 will and 1 fate. He also knows heroic march which can help move your ents around more. All in all nothing special but for only 20 points more than a regular ent you might as well take him. Like Beechbone, Quickbeam currently has no model, but he's supposed to look like a rowan tree so adding red berries to a vanilla ent model will probably be enough to make him standout.
Warriors
- Ent: These rooty raiders are your only choice of warrior but with their profile you won't need a another one. Each ent can deal out three strength 8 attacks at fight value seven topping most armies' heroes let alone their base ranks; even when they're outnumber their brutal power attack lets them pick up an enemy and use it to club any other opponents to death meaning they can mop up multiple opponents in one combat phase. These trees are durable as well, with three defence 8 wounds and courage 6 most enemies are going to struggle to wound even if they win the fight, plus they all cause terror meaning most evil armies are going to struggle to swarm them. Ranged offensive is also decent with the option of throwing stones with a range of 12' hitting on a +4 with strength 8, although this prevents your ent from moving for a whole turn so in most cases you'd be better off charging the enemy. For 120 point each these guys aren't cheap but used correctly they can be well worth their cost.
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 or Treebeard( with Merry and Pippin) + Beechbone + Quickbeam
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