The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game/Tactics/Fangorn

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The Last March of the Ents.

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! NAH GW GIVE US THE TWO NEW HEROES AND A NEW TREEBEARD! I asked, I get them THANKS GW
• 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. If you run a pure Fangorn list and play Reconnoitre/Storm the camp/Divide&conquer scenarios at 500 points or below, you lost before the game starts sadly

Army Bonus

• "Don't be Hasty!": Ent models from this army list gain the Fearless special rule. Additionally, Ent models are completely unaffected by any Magical Powers or special rules that would prevent them from moving or move them against their will (the only exception is that they will still take the hit from a Sorcerous Blast, but will suffer no further effects). Additionally, Ent models are completely unaffected by the Nature's Wrath and Wrath of Bruinen Magical Powers.
  • 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 fantastic even if you won't be using it in a lot of games.

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 of 7, and combined with his Strength, Defence, Attacks and Might Treebeard is easily the strongest Good Hero in the game before you factor in special rules. His cost matches however, coming in at 200 points with Merry & Pippin who you should always buy since they give him Resistant to Magic, they provide extra bodies to hold objectives, and they make it harder to hit your Break Point. While this doesn't normally matter during the game, it will matter afterwards as most Scenarios give you Victory Points for breaking the enemy's force. As for his other rules, you'll likely never need to use Heroic Defence since it counters Aragorn (it takes precedent over Andúril, so he'll need 6's To Wound) and both Heroic Strike/Heroic Strength will only be used against other models with Heroic Strike and/or Monsters. Anyone who has Defence anywhere close to Treebeard's Strength can usually be targeted with Rend, and Treebeard has Higher fight than anyone but Gil-Galad, the Balrog, Sauron and Smaug. The last special rule we should mention is Throw Stones, but you shouldn't use this since it not only requires Treebeard to stay still, but he also only hits on a 4+. You can still use this if you've already won and are sitting on objectives while waiting for the enemy to fail some more Courage tests, or you're up against an entire force of skirmish cavalry (such as Rohan), or if you need to kill enemy Artillery. Otherwise it's only really useful in enemy forces without ranged tools that are constantly running away, and if that's the case your opponent might as well concede already.
  • How to play Treebeard effectively is pretty complicated, so we'll go over the basics here. Like most Ents, Treebeard only has 6" Movement with no way to boost it. This means crossing the board can take a while, and it's harder to catch enemies who are running away, especially if a Captain is using Heroic March. Because of this, it's recommended to play Treebeard with allies, or with Ents spread out. This will allow you to corral your opponents eventually, and the sooner that happens, the better. It's not all smooth sailing once the fighting starts however, your opponent will have plenty of spears and banners, so use Barge to push your way through the outer layer of enemies and force your way to the supporting elements. The sooner those are gone the less chance there is that you'll be punished harshly when you inevitably roll poorly on a Duel. For this reason it's recommended to save Treebeard's Might to affect his Duel rolls if you can, since he'll be the first one targeted if you haven't yet eliminated the spears. The more you can keep enemies prone the better, and forcing your way through with Barge will allow you to get more Bludgeons in. On that point, Bludgeon is a good way for Treebeard to rack up more kills, but unless there's more than three models in contact with Treebeard, he's better off using his ordinary attacks or Rend against them. The main thing to remember with Treebeard and the other Ents though, is you should always be moving; stopping for long allows your opponent to try and trap you, so always be charging, always be Barging.
  • If your opponent is fielding Artillery and you're using a mostly (or entirely) Fangorn force, have Merry and Pippin dismount Treebeard immediately. It's far more preferable to have Catapults scatter onto them than any of your Ents while you throw stones at the Artillery to kill them.
  • If for whatever reason your army is broken with Merry and/or Pippin are away from Treebeard and near other Ents, and you don't have your Army Bonus, always move them first. This is because they still have to take Courage tests anyway, and if they pass your Ents around them do not need to take separate tests. Granted your Ents are almost always going to pass their Courage tests anyway, but there's no reason in taking unnecessary Courage tests if you can avoid it.

• Quickbeam: An Ent that likes to go fast. His stat line is almost identical to regular Ents except for Movement 8", as well as 3 Might, and 1 Will/Fate. Quickbeam is one of those new Heroes who almost seems designed to make regular Ents obsolete, since he's one of the few counters you have to throwing spears. Keep him up front so that if throwing spears try to pelt your Ents down from a distance he can charge them in return (since throwing spears only have a range of 8") and otherwise use him similarly to Treebeard. His Might will help ensure you win Duels, and you should save it for modifying those rolls since Quickbeam is likely to take a dozen hits from his opponents otherwise.
  • How to play Quickbeam effectively is pretty complicated, so we'll go over the basics here. As mentioned above Quickbeam has 8" Movement, which can quickly cause him to leave the other Ents behind. This means that it's possible your opponent might jump on him if you accidentally move him too far up, so you'll want to use this in a more defensive manner. Use Quickbeam not only to charge throwing spears, but to also support your other Ents since he can quickly rush over to them if he needs to (especially if you use Barge or Heroic Combat on a model in the way). Quickbeam will also force enemy units to use Heroic March to avoid him (the one time it's smart to move him ahead of the other Ents) and if they're using Heroic March, that means it's less likely you'll lose your Duel rolls once combat is joined. Otherwise you should use Quickbeam like other Ents; Barge your way through the outer layer of enemies to jump on spears and other supporting elements, such as banners. The sooner you get rid of those the sooner you can risk losing Duels when your Might is gone, and remember the golden rule with Fangorn: you should always be moving; stopping for long allows your opponent to try and trap you, so always be charging, always be Barging.
  • Note that while Quickbeam has Heroic March, it does not provide extra Movement to monsters so he will not solve the Ent issue of moving slowly across the board. This does mean he can make a decent Hero Monster ally in other armies however, since he can move up a troop without them needing a Captain to keep up with him.

• Beechbone: The angry Ent that got himself set on fire. Also described as particularly handsome in the books, which is a bit weird given he's a talking tree. He has an extra fight value bringing him to a Treebeard Fight 8, making him all the more lethal plus he gains re-rolls to wound any Orcs, Goblins and Uruk-hai. This makes him an auto-include if you're fighting against the majority of Evil armies, and it also makes him your most effective Ent at using Bludgeon. Like Quickbeam and Treebeard his Might should be saved for influencing his Duel rolls, since if you lose one too early you'll be facing a horde of attacks in response, which is pretty terrible given that if Beechbone can charge Orcs, Goblins and Uruk-hai, he absolutely has to. 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. Just be aware of it in case your opponent is fielding a super-fighter like the Balrog or Sauron.
  • How to play Beechbone effectively is pretty complicated, so we'll go over the basics here. As mentioned above Beechbone must charge if he's able to, and this can royally screw you over if your opponent uses a Warg Rider to run him away from Merry and Pippin, before dropping a rock on him. Catapults are his worst enemy for this reason, so if you're up against them or even worse, Isengard Ballista, consider leaving Beechbone in the woods. Even allied armies can have Beechbone backfire on you so long as the opponent uses a cheap model and Artillery to get rid of him, so always keep models alongside him or blocking him, even if you have to put him beside other Ents. It's better to prevent a bad charge while being unable to take a good one than it is to lose Beechbone. Do remember too that when you get into position to charge with Beechbone it's up to you who you charge, so make sure you commit heavily with him and the models around him when you finally catch your opponent. Otherwise you should use Beechbone like other Ents; Barge your way through the outer layer of enemies to jump on spears and other supporting elements, such as banners. The sooner you get rid of those the sooner you can risk losing Duels when your Might is gone, and remember the golden rule with Fangorn: you should always be moving; stopping for long allows your opponent to try and trap you, so always be charging, always be Barging.
  • Funnily enough Beechbone is literally the only model in the entire game who was never given a model. Given GW's lack of support for characters in their more popular games, it's kind of surprising that Beechbone is the only one unit in the entire range lacking a model, so for the time being his thumbnail will be represented by Sir Not-appearing-in-this-film.

Warriors

If at all possible, get every named Ent before your Warriors. They not only have extra rules and Movement, but they also have Might, which makes it significantly less likely for them to lose the Duel rolls and take hits from spears and other Heroes/Monsters. If you already have Treebeard, Quickbeam and Beechbone, and you're not getting allies, then and only then should you get other Ents.

• Ent: These rooty raiders are your only choice of Warrior, but their profile tries its best to make up for it. Each ent can deal out three strength 8 attacks at Fight value 7, topping most armies' Heroes let alone their base ranks. Basic Ents should always be used to support your Heroes since they have no Might, which means if they roll poorly you'll have no backup plan, since there's no good way to fix this. To best support your Heroes, use your regular Ents to corral your enemies so that your Heroes can go in to smash them, and only send in your regular Ents once your Heroes are in combat. When you've joined them in combat, Barge your way through the outer layer of enemies to jump on spears and other supporting elements, such as banners. The sooner you get rid of those the sooner you can risk losing Duels when you inevitably roll poorly, and remember the golden rule with Fangorn: you should always be moving; stopping for long allows your opponent to try and trap you, so always be charging, always be Barging.
  • If your opponent has Artillery, dismount Merry and Pippin from Treebeard and make killing the Artillery a priority. It's much better for your Hobbits to be squashed by a rock than any of your trees, and it's also the ideal time to hurl rocks back at them.
  • Do note that pure Fangorn lists are generally seen as being weak, and the reason why is because of how low your model count is. If you go with pure Fangorn you won't have the models needed to hold objectives, it becomes easier to break your force (which will award your enemy Victory Points even if you're Fearless) and in some scenarios that end after a force is broken, this can cause you to lose much faster than you would otherwise. It's because of this that getting allies is highly recommended. Just be aware that getting allies relegates your Ents to a support role, since you'll lose your Army Bonus and now your Ents will be vulnerable to Transfix/Compel which makes them a lot less effective.

Allies

Convenient Allies

Everyone

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

Tactics

Throw stonez, charge shizzz. Be a tree