***EDIT: The list has now been edited to take into account changes made with the release of the Hobbit edition of the main rules. Mainly, hand weapon types for heroes and warriors have been added to prevent unfluffy shenanigans (e.g. Éomer with an axe, Warriors with staves, etc.), along with minor changes to special rules and point costs.***


Hail, comers from afar!

After a long time of complaining about the inadequate portrayal of Rohan in the SBG ruleset, and especially after the utter disappointment that was the Kingdoms of Men book, I decided to do something about it and come up with house rules that make (or at least attempt to make) Rohan playable as it should be played: as the most powerful cavalry force Middle-earth has ever seen. Also, since (to my mind) Tolkien's writings are paramount, I also attempted to adjust the rules and power of each hero and warrior to better reflect their role in the book(s). I am aware of whafrog's Rohan By the Book thread from a couple of years back, however, the following is simply my take on what I would change in the current state of affairs.

'ere we go... *woosh*

Cavalry in general:
As you well know, cavalry as a whole is rather lackluster, especially if used exclusively, and while others have developed some interesting workarounds (such as Coën over at TLA), I wanted to increase its power without requiring rebasing or the like.
The easiest, and surprisingly effective way I have found is to give mounted models +1A base. This way, they are less likely to be overwhelmed when outnumbered - which being on 40mm bases, they will be most of the time.
Another thing worth playtesting is to increase the number of bonus attacks they get on the charge relative to how many (infantry) enemies they are in contact with - 1 Model -> +1A, 2 Models -> +2A (I think it shouldn't go higher than this if they charge 3+ models). This represents the impetus of the charge equally hitting all enemies in B2B, while supporting spears remain valid.
However, having both +1A base and additional attacks when outnumbered is too powerful (especially for strong heroes like Aragorn or Glorfindel), so for all intents and purposes, my house rules only grant the +1A base.

Furthermore, one of the main problems of cavalry, the horse's survivability, can be alliviated by horses being 2W each - horses are surprisingly tough.
Once they take a wound, they founder, reducing their speed by 1" for the rest of the game - or until they or their rider die... obviously.

TL;DR:
All cavalry is +1A base.
Horses (and wargs, for that matter) are 2W each. Once they take a wound, they reduce their speed by 1" for the rest of the game.

The Horses of Rohan
The Rohirrim value their horses next to their kin, and this love is returned by their animals. If any mounted Hero or Warrior of Rohan is killed or dismounted, their horse doesn't disappear automatically. Instead, it takes a Courage test (if the rider dismounted voluntarily, the test is taken at +3C). If it fails, the horse flees the field. If it passes, the horse remains on the field and can be remounted by its owner (if he was merely thrown off or dismounted voluntarily) or by any Rohan model that has the option for the respective type of horse in their entry* (if the rider has been killed). A model cannot voluntarily dismount to pass his horse to another - it only becomes 'free for all' if the original rider has been killed. A riderless horse cannot be attacked and is ignored for all purposes of movement and LOS. If it is in the way, it will move the shortest possible distance to get out of the way, itself ignoring models that are in its way.

*Exceptions are: Shadowfax, Snowmane, Holdwine's Pony, and Felaróf - these horses will not be handled by anyone but their original rider and can only be remounted by them. If their original rider is killed, they automatically flee the field.

Continued in Part II

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Rohan - as it should have been. A house rule project.

So, after going over changes to cavalry in general, it is time to go into Rohan in particular, starting with...


The Heroes of Rohan:


King Théoden Ednew (The Renewed)


Éomer, Third Marshal of the Riddermark



Éomer, Heir of Théoden



Éowyn, Shield Maiden of Rohan



Holdwine of the Mark (Merry)



Théodred, Prince of Rohan


Erkenbrand, Lord of Westfold



Elfhelm, Marshal of the Second Éored



Grimbold of Grimslade, Marshal of the Third Éored



Gamling the Old



Háma, Doorward of Théoden



Guthláf, Bearer of the Royal Banner



Gandalf the White



Eorl the Young



Captain of Rohan



King's Huntsman

As cool as this concept may be in theory, it just doesn't fit the fluff. At all. Would have fit in better in an Elven army, I think. Rohan? Not so much.

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Rohan - as it should have been. A house rule project.

After the Heroes have been taken care of, lets take a look at the Warrior section... boy, there are some basket cases in there...

Warriors of Rohan:

Rider of Rohan



Rohan Royal Guard



Warrior of Rohan



Rohan Outrider



Sons of Eorl

These, on the other hand, have no basis whatsoever in the fluff, and as such are out. Their role is taken over by RRG mounted on armoured horses and upgraded via the Lord of the Mark special rule.

So, that's it. Any comments, criticisms, and suggestions are most welcome!

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Rohan - as it should have been. A house rule project.

I do like way more this rules.
Finally I see characters of Rohan with unique skills.
So far only I could see is diferent heroes of rohan, all with similar stats, the only diference would be the wargear, and 1 bonus they could give or a minor bonus like erkenbrand horn. Theoden, eomer, theodred...all the same ... except the new eomer.

Even theoden....very slacking as a king, a king of Man model equipped in similar way would be even better cause he would have will.
Congratz on this, I really like it seems that provides the rohan army alot more strategy on combinations

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http://33.media.tumblr.com/c5d31d12524c ... o1_500.gif

I cannot stress enough how overjoyed it makes me to see Rohan finally receive the attention it deserves. It's clear how much work and thought you've put into creating profiles that are balanced, provide justice for the character and have a nice twist or unique trait. I'm sure you'll have felt yourself how depressing it is to be creating a Rohirrim list, flicking through the sourcebook and seeing such little variation or options.

Also, reading all the fluff extracts was simply the cherry on top - masses of bonus points for picking and including them

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Soon the Dark Lord Knighty shall have all he needs to cover the lands in an eevee-related darkness...

Great stuff, I think Rohan is the best looking army but I never started an army due to the limited variety of models. Really cool you did this and so conveniently arranged too!

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Operation future in full swing.

Thanks guys!

Rohan was my first LotR army when I started back in '03, and since then I always felt that they had sooo much potential. Yes, depressing is exactly the right word for how I felt about GW's handling of Rohan. ^^

Yes, model variety could be better, and I'm still waiting for plastic RRG... I haven't given up hope quite yet - silly optimistic me.


EDIT: I cant believe I actually forgot to include the changes to Rohan horses. That got lost somewhere in the deeps of my draft text file... Upgraded the 1st post.

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Rohan - as it should have been. A house rule project.

But the Sons of Eorl have amazing models I think 2W for horses is too much. Maybe just for horses like Shadowfax or Theoden's horse.Besides that, I really like your rules. Did you play-test them? If I were you I'd seriously consider e-mail the list to GW!

Agreed.
The rules look great indeed, much better than anything GW has come up with for Rohan.

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“A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.”

Cheers!

Even with 2W, horses are quite easy to kill - being D4, bows wound them 1/3 of the time. Considering that without his horse, the Rider loses most of his efficiency, the horse has to have some survivability to make the model worth its comparably high points cost. In CC, horse wounds are irrelevant anyway, so the only thing 2W do is make it more likely that the unit gets there at all. Especially against archer-heavy armies (Harad, Moria, Arnor), single-wound horses simply get butchered! I vividly remember playing all-cav against Arnor once... of my ~20 Riders, one (ONE!) made it into CC, the rest was either dead or dismounted by the time I caught up with them. *shivers*

I have playtested both the cavalry part and Shieldwall against Moria Goblins, Orcs, and Uruk-hai, and point-for-point, they now stand a way better chance to pull through than before, but without being overpowered.

I'll think about mailing it in, though I seriously doubt that GW will ever revisit Rohan again after the Sourcebooks...

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Rohan - as it should have been. A house rule project.

These are great new profiles and rules! I like the flavour, and agree that Rohan needs more beef.

That said, I have a few quibbles

1) Rohan now outclasses Gondor...'nuff said. Of course, I think Gondor is a bit feeble under GW rules...what makes them work at all is numerous cheap heroes and fountain guard.
2) I do like the persistent +1A for cavalry, but I'm not sure the benefit is reflected in the cost...though if your playtests against equal points results in equals chances of either side winning, then maybe you're on to something.
3) I agree that horses seem too fragile in SBG, but two wounds for horses is more record-keeping (I'm not a fan of on-the-field tokens, I find it spoils the view). Maybe they should just have higher base D (5 for unarmoured, 6 for armoured). Of course, then wargs will need it too...
4) I'm not sure the upgraded RRG (First Eored) are expensive enough. They're cheaper than a berserker, but more potent. IMHO, the berserker is a well-costed model, whereas the reavers and watchers of karna are too cheap. If you were using the latter as a 2A model profile I don't think they're applicable.

Anyway, quibbles aside, great work! Nice to see somebody tackle this head on.

Agreed, Gondor is too weak as well. But that's another matter altogether... if I were to have a go at Gondor like I did with Rohan, they'd get much stronger across the board (Cavalry aside), too. That's the main issue I have with SBG as a whole: the main theme of LotR (to my mind) is the fight of few but strong (Good) against many but weak (Evil). In the beginning of SBG, it was more or less like that (Uruk-hai being the exception). As time passed, however, Evil got more and more units that closed the quality gap - Morannon Orcs, Black Guard, Easterlings (especially Cataphracts) - while Gondor stayed the same.



For most cavalry, +1A means 3A on the charge, 2A when charged. Considering that most of the time, you'll be outnumbered at least 2:1, this increases your fighting chance, but isn't really "OP" - if you don't get that 6, you still die just as easily. With just 1A base, being charged by your points' worth of infantry is more or less a death sentence. 2A helps a lot in this regard. With the original rules, I had the feeling that cavalry underperformed for their cost, with the change, they feel more balanced.



Granted, records need to be kept. If you don't like markers, here's how I do it: Each of my generic cavalry models has a number in Roman numerals painted on the edge of their base. Pen and paper, tally sheet, done. ^^



I took the difference mounted RRG - Son of Eorl and went from there:
A Son of Eorl is S4, A2(+1 mounted), C4, and has an Armoured Horse with Move 12 - Cost: 22 Points
An upgraded and mounted RRG is S4, A2(+1 mounted), C3 (but has the Bodyguard rule), and has a normal Armoured Horse - Cost: 23 Points

One way to handle this might be to change the upgrade requirement to only work for mounted Royal Guard. What do you think?



Cheers whafrog, that means a lot!

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Rohan - as it should have been. A house rule project.

I'd agree with mounted only for the upgrade, it would be more in keeping with their main skills. But when dismounted maybe they get the Shieldwall rule (which I really like BTW).

Good idea! I've edited the Lord of the Mark rule accordingly. I still think they should be S4, though. They're 14 points each, so that's hardly a cheesy bargain.
EDIT: Ugh. Come to think of it, 14 points is quite a lot for what they can do... that's 3 points more than a Khazad Guard! May think about splitting the upgrades, making mounted +3 and foot +2 or even +1. Or even scratch the entire rule and make First Éored Riders a unit of its own and have Lord of the Mark just make RRG Strength 4 and get Shieldwall for a point. I'll have to think about it...

Any input is still much appreciated! As you can see, this is anything but set in stone!

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Rohan - as it should have been. A house rule project.

Just a thought about the +1A, why not make riders able to use the shielding rule wilst mounted?

Anyway that aside, if these rules are implemented my elf cav will be quite happy:D

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Fight! Fight to the last man!

If this was to be our end then I would have them make SUCH AN END as to be worthy of remembrance

Apart from the fact that shielding from horseback simply wouldn't work IRL, and as such having the rule would seem weird, it also only works if you sacrifice any chance to do damage. Shielding, IMO, should be for those desperate situations where it's life or death. I just don't like the idea that cavalry should more or less always opt for the desperate measure unless they get the charge... Also, I wanted to boost their offensive potential as well - for the same reasons of usually being outnumbered at least 2:1, more likely 3:1 or even 4:1 when factoring in spears.



... Don't get me started on Wood Elf cavalry! They'd get the nerf bat big time if I had any say in the matter! Move 12 horses for warriors is ridiculous - that kind of speed should be reserved for exceptional steeds like Shadowfax (!), Felaróf, Snowmane, and Asfaloth. That they can move the full 12" through forests while even the above have to crawl at 1/4-speed is just plain offensive! Move 10, halved speed in forests (like Outriders) - that I could live with.
That WOOD Elves would use cavalry at all doesn't sit well with me anyway. If there's one type of terrain cavalry should keep out of, it's forests! High Elven cavalry, though, now that would be better!


EDIT:
I've changed some things around now, namely:

- The Lord of the Mark special rule now upgrades RRG to S4 and grants them the Shieldwall rule while on foot for 1 Point each. When mounted on an armoured horse, they are still more or less what Sons of Eorl used to be (minus the Move 12 and the additional attack), while not outclassing Berserkers while on foot, as they used to in the original version.

- Háma, as Captain of the King's Guard, now has the option for an armoured horse like all RRG do.

- Clarified that Éowyn's increased chance to wound Ringwraiths (and also now Fell Beasts) only applies to her melee attacks, not to eventual throwing spear attacks.

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Rohan - as it should have been. A house rule project.

Very good! And I see Eowyn is finally good for something more then dying and getting Eomer angry, too.

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"... Telchar wrought it in the deeps of time."
-On Andùril, The Lord of the Rings

Yeah, they do seem overpowered, I like your mod, assuming you could include they are not trapped in woods if they lose a fight.



Agreed. The whole high elf line is ripe for a redo.

On a different note, I was thinking about Eowyn, and I kind of liked her as she was: one of the few cheap heroes you could take with Rohan. Making her better (and more expensive) than a captain just robs the chance of using her more often.

Also, and this is just MHO, I really dislike rules that derive from actions in the movie because it overlays a scenario rule onto a profile. The Twin's bond I get...it's special to them and unique. But the Eomer thing is more of a scenario special rule, and if it holds for him it should hold for any close couple. What would Aragorn's reaction be if Arwen was slain? A few other profiles have this, like Gil-Galad: guy lives 3000 years through numerous wars and whatnot, and is only finally killed when Sauron comes out to play...the guy has 3 Fate, not 1 just because he died after all that time. Similar argument might be made for Theodred, although it's true he didn't live very long.

So while I like Eowyn's immunities I guess I don't like Eowyn's new wraith-wounding rule. And really, if you read the book, it was Merry's blade that did the trick and make the wraith's flesh mortal, so that Eowyn could deliver the coup-de-grace. Fearlessness and indomitability are their own rewards.

I hear you about the Gil-Galad thing, that always bugged me. But it is kind of countered by the fact that he is the only elf that can hit D8.

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Fight! Fight to the last man!

If this was to be our end then I would have them make SUCH AN END as to be worthy of remembrance

I actually get the feeling that Gil-Galad knew Sauron was going to kill, which would explain why he gave Vilya to Elrond, so him only having 1 fate kinda fits in with LotR. Now, if this was the War of Sauron and the Elves (forget if that's the official name or not), he would HAVE to have 3 fate.

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"Leave Sauron to me."
If you're in the Raleigh, NC area, let me know.