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Hey guys just a newby question about this warbands thing. So it's one hero and up to 12 troops in a warband. Now, does the warband operate together in anyway? Or is the warbands rule just a force limiter like a FoC. Should I try to get matching leaders with their warbands or doesn't it matter (besides for theme)? This is probably covered in the rules lol but I'm still trying to track down the rulebooks (they're very hard to find surprisingly) which is why I'm asking in the meantime to help plan an army.

Thanks in advance!

You're on the right lines: 1 hero and up to 12 Warriors make up a Warband. You can have as many warband as you like your army.

The only thing Warbands do together is deploy within a set area at the start of the game, or come in from reserves if your mission uses that. Say, for example, I have a Warband of Faramir and 10 Rangers, and choose to deploy them at the start of the game. They must all be within 6" of the Warband leader, but after that can go anywhere. If the Warband was in Reserve, then I would roll on the relevant table and if they arrive, all models in the Warband move on together from the same area.

As to matching Warbandsand leaders, it can be of some benefit to include a Hero that compliments the Warband just so you can concentrate them on their roll from the start. For example, if I were using Boromir, I'd put him with a Warband of Warriors rather than Rangers, as he doesn't really offer anything to the latter, whereas he is a solid core of a battle line of the former.

That said, the exception to this is if the Warband or leader effectively function in their own. For example, if I have the Witch King on Fell Beast, who will be flying off to crack skulls on his own, there is little point in tailoring his Warband to help out, so the best course of action is to take something that doesn't need 'babysitting' by a Hero, like some Archers, War Machines or even Trolls. Similarly, if you've got 'spare' spaces in a Warband that's a good place to put some fairly autonomous units like trolls or cavalry outriders, that can support the Warband but can also function independently.

Hope that helps!

Ah I kinda get it, thanks.

 Paradigm wrote:

That said, the exception to this is if the Warband or leader effectively function in their own. For example, if I have the Witch King on Fell Beast, who will be flying off to crack skulls on his own, there is little point in tailoring his Warband to help out, so the best course of action is to take something that doesn't need 'babysitting' by a Hero, like some Archers, War Machines or even Trolls. Similarly, if you've got 'spare' spaces in a Warband that's a good place to put some fairly autonomous units like trolls or cavalry outriders, that can support the Warband but can also function independently.

Hope that helps!

So in such a case is a better to keep a hero on their own and get another guy to lead the warband?

And say for example, saruman who I'm guessing is a squishy old man (or other such squishy targets like a hobbit or something), would it be better to take a bodyguard with him, or just have him alone and hang back or whatever?

In the case of Saruman, you'll probably want his just behid your battle line of Uruks, so his spells can still be useful. He's not horiffically squishy and should handle himself 1v1 with most basic troops, but you don't want heroes or Monsters getting close to him unless he's cast something like Transfix on them first.

So with all that in mind, I'd take him with some Uruk Beserkers, and endeavour to deploy him behind whatever formation you end up using. This is so he can cast in support, and because Beserkers work well hidden behind your lines, ready to swing around and flank whatever enemy formation hits yours (if they can get round and his spearmen/archers ect they can really wreck). Another option would be to take him with no Warband at all, he can still cast in support of your others.