5/22/2024 - The Army of Dunland

 

Take back the lands they stole! Burn every village!

Hey Everyone!

The time has finally come to cover my favorite Isengard legion, the Army of Dunland!

The Army of Dunland represents the men historically driven out of the lands gifted to the Eotheod in the late third age, warring with Helm Hammerhand, and driven to frenzy by Saruman to be unleashed against the men of Rohan during the War of the Ring.

The Army of Dunland can field the following profiles: Thrydan Wolfsbane, Gorulf Ironskin, Frida Tallspear, The Wild Man Oathmaker, Dunlending Chieftains, Dunlending Warriors, Wild Men of Dunland, Dunlending Horsemen, Dunlending Huscarls and Crebain.

Outside Crebain, this list is entirely men, though men that hit as hard as Uruk-Hai (or harder due to two-handing). The force must be led by Thrydan Wolfsbane, who is upgraded to a Hero of Valour.

Death to the Forgoil!: Gives all friendly Dunlending models the Hatred (Rohan) special rule.

Normally, only the Oathmaker and Wild Men have Hatred for their historical enemies, but driven to fury, all but the Crebain now gain this +1 to wound against Rohan models, hopefully resulting in more kills against their mounted adversaries.

Dunlending Pride: Increases the range of banners in the army to 6".

This is a big one, allowing for the army to swarm more by either committing to one banner and saving 25 points to spend towards models, which can get them 5 Wild Men at most, or going to two and having virtually battlefield wide coverage. 6" banners are very limited for evil factions, but some of the most powerful have them available.

Dunlending War Cry: Once per game, at the start of any Fight phase, Thrydan can use his War Cry to give all Dunlending models within 12" of him +1 to wound when making strikes.

This is a great ability, and with the numbers Dunland typically brings, one of the strongest once per game abilities in the game. As a note, Crebain do not benefit from this, as they are not Dunland models (they also do not get Hatred (Rohan)). Most of the time, Dunlending models are wounding on 5s, as their Strength 4 is most often being hit into Defense 5 or 6. This takes their wounding from a 33% to a 50% once per game, which notably can be combined with two handing, giving a 66% chance to wound anything Defense 5-6, a 83% to wound anything Defense 3-4, and still a massive 50% chance to wound Defense 7-8 Dwarves. This can even be combined with piercing to increase a lot of odds on top of that. This can even lead to auto-wound situations. Unlike other GW games, MESBG does not auto-fail when you need a 1 to wound, as realistically, it is X value with +Y to wound. A Strength 5 model against Defense 3, with +1 from the War Cry and +1 from two-handing auto wounds that target. Against Rohan it can occur far more easily, as you can stack +3 to wound between War Cry, Two Handing and Hatred.

I always like to joke about how Thrydan can, in a perfect scenario, one shot a Balrog being able to wound a Balrog on twos (Two-Hand Pierce, a +3 Heroic Strength and the War Cry results in Strength 9 into Defense 9 (4s) with a +2 to result in a 2+ wound, with mighty blow, which on a charge for +1 attack and trapping the Balrog (not from the Cavalry charge, as Monster models do not go prone) can one shot the Balrog with upwards of 12 wounds off his 3x2 strikes).

Army Composition: Spam it out. Dunland is easily able to generate tons of models to fight, and benefits from doing so, having more models to get into fights, getting more value from 6" banners and War Cry. Your heroes are pretty cheap, allowing for a bunch of Might, and special rules that help tremendously, like Gorulf's free Heroic Defenses to tie up big heroes, or Frida to cancel big hero Cavalry charges from the backline, and Thrydan running in to one shot smaller 2 wound heroes. A big part of Dunland is it's approach to terror and breaking. Dunland has the Oathmaker to generate fearless wildmen, and Huscarls bodyguarding Thrdayn, which in combination makes it very hard to throw terror at them, and hard to get them to run away if/when they break. You most assuredly want 2 Crebain in any list, though the goal tends to be 4. Some like to go up to 6, however I have found that they become redundant at that number, and eat up too many points.

As a general standpoint, Dunland tends to want all the named, prioritizing, after Thrydan who you must take, Gorulf -> Oathmaker ->Chief/Frida -> Frida/Chief. Gorulf is simply a must, as he is the best hero of the list. Oathmaker after, though some consideration towards lists without too many wildmen could shift him down, then either a Chief if you are wanting March, or Frida if you are more focused on keeping Gorulf alive against mounted heroes. That being said, once you hit 800, you can easily take all named and a chief and still hit the 50s.

For standard Dunland, warband composition tends to be predominantly frontline troops, with wildmen sprinkled in for fearless, and a few huscarls in back to support the center. Most of the time you want your crebain spread between warbands, and a couple horsemen with Thrydan help.

I personally play a heavier Huscarl oriented list, almost always going 1:1 frontline warrior/wildman to backline huscarl. Most lists you face will have a battle line, and while you can use troops to surround and pick off supports, often numbers and terrain will cause you issues, leaving models unused around the battlefield, when you could have a few less and have spear supports. Some argue it is hard to get F4 triggers, however I think that is typically a hero position issue. I prefer to keep my heroes a bit reserved until the right time, lending heroic moves and fight value bubbles, while also having them in position to deal with flying models, combating heroes, or safe from being transfixed and killed by average orcs.

Examples Lists:

400: At 400, your numbers arent amazing yet, but you have a big banner, mobility and a solid 6 might with Gorulf's defense and Thrydan's ability to kill smaller heroes.

600: At 600, your numbers start to get up there, with 36 troops and still 3 crebain, some fearless wildmen, a few horsemen and starting to get a really solid line. Probably a few more Huscarls than normal, but you are at a spot where your warband slots start running out, and you do not want to drop numbers to get a fourth hero.

800: At 800, you end up being able to take either 4 heroes, with maxed warbands, or 5, with a few numbers less. I think at 800, you want the might, march and special rules. This definitely relies on being able to get your troops into combat, so terrain can start being a limiting factor, and Fight 4 armies with similar numbers, like Uruk-Hai Isengard can be an issue, as they will be more consistent. You have a lot of tricks, and generally you build towards that one turn where you War Cry to try and snowball into a victory.

800 Alternate: This is my style of Dunland, with a solid Huscarl backline. You'll note compared to above and previous notes, I group my Crebain and Horsemen with Thrydan, this is to focus more on mobility and maelstrom protection, as his Warband can reposition fast, and on Heirlooms, I can grab two objectives turn one with him, and a third with one of the other warbands. Often I do not want to grab more if those three were not it, as it runs the risk of my opponent turtling over one. I still hit 50 models, and have a solid battle line that can reliably get Fight 4 due to 5 heroes. I also almost completely ignore breaking and am even more suited to fight terror, since I have 12 wildmen to be fearless near the oathmaker, and 18 Huscarls that are good as long as Thrydan keeps his head, something that can be reliably kept safe with numbers and might.

I was really not a fan of Dunland early on, as the lack of supports you typically take led me to feel like they were just a diet Khazad-Dum, however once I started experimenting with Huscarls, I definitely felt stronger taking the army. I feel too much analysis on them is based on the theoretical, and not actual experience. I played about 30 games on Tabletop Simulator before I was ready to commit to buying them, and I doubt most others have gone that length to determine how well Huscarls perform in greater numbers. 

The first real test of them was Clash on the Coast in Vancouver in 2022, Where my list had 31 Huscarls, a bit more than what my current version has formed in to. That one had not a single warrior, outside two banners, and did not take the Oathmaker believe it or not, as I was more concerned about March. Ultimately, my choices paid off, as I was able to go 3-2 in both their debut tourney, and my first major tournament for MESBG, and I managed 11th place out of 50, facing off on Table 3 in the final round against Matt Hammond of the Durin Show's Army of Thror, who went on to win the Tourney after beating me in Assassination. 

The shift to the above came in preparation for LVO 2024, as I wanted to take a few Huscarls out in order to gain more Crebain, 4 being what I found to be the optimal number. With 5 heroes, the Huscarls have F4 whenever they want, and 4 Crebain can pull off supports reliably, with the might to support heroic moves to dance back and forth to prevent them getting ganged up on the backline. Unfortunately, I did not do great at LVO, going 2-3, taking a minor loss to Beornings due to some positioning mistakes, and playing myself against Hunter Orcs due to my Crebain losing me Lords of Battle by exactly their wound count. The last match, I had given up on podium, so went for fun, and just ran my entire army to surround and kill a Suladan-Betrayer-Mahud King list, killing all but the few that scored him points in Hold Ground, and losing almost no models in return due to weight of my dice. 

I had also gone 2-3 at LVO 2023, but I don't want to talk about that (I had a really unoptimized 750 version of the 'Carls that I did not practice enough of to make work).

On the subject of bows. I personally despise ranged in general, but even more-so with Dunland. Some may say that having a bow to shoot mounts is nice, and they aren't wrong, but when I can just tie up mounted heroes with fodder Wildmen, who can reliably wound their mount if they whiff with Frida nearby. For me, I find the bows take away from Dunland's overall game plan. 99.9% of the time, the goal is run in hard and fast, and start a brawl that you can take advantage of with big banners and the War Cry turn. There is no scoot shooting, you can use a bodyguard huscarl or wildman to hold a point, or just anything since Thrydan has a 12" standfast, you do not need bows to sit back there. You often can even use a Crebain to pop back on the final turn to grab objectives, keeping more troops up at the line to fight.

Strengths: Dunland hits hard. It is the hardest hitting army in the game with it's combined ability of Strength 4, Piercing, 2 Handing and War Cry. They are the monster killers, the swarm slayers, the terror chargers. There is a lot of might access and mobility, with 6" banners to keep lines rolling more consistently. Melee grind armies are great for Dunland, as you will kill them as fast or faster than they kill you, and typically have greater numbers than those armies. Swarms are fun for Dunland, especially Goblin Town or Moria, as you just rib goblins to shreds with big strength and banner effects.

Weaknesses: It can suffer against magic, as offensive magic taking out your heroes can really slow you down, similar to other Isengard armies. Big heroes can be an issue, but your troops are so cheap and have a good chance of hitting back hard if big heroes whiff. Heavy ranged is an issue, especially S3-4 shooting, as your troops are mostly D5. You can use March to get in faster to fight against this, but mobility based armies like Theodred's guard Throwing Spear spam and Rivendell Knights can just outpace you. 

Dunland is Funland. Being able to throw down a gauntlet and say "kill me or I will kill you" can really throw off opposing tactics, as they often have no choice but to submit to the brawl, where Dunland will typically have the advantage of numbers and wounding capabilities.

I do plan on going deeper into Huscarls as a unit and some more list building theories behind my style of Dunland, but that will be at a later date, as the next few articles will go over open Isengard, both Saruman and non-Saruman, allying, and then some general strategies and tactics.

See you all next time!

-Scott