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I play Isengard, Mordor, and Harad, and I've decided I'd really like to play as the Kingdoms of Men. I'll theme my force on the Men of Dale pre-Hobbit movie style (Where they were just Normans in blue. I love the pre-movie artwork an awful lot) but I'm not sure what units to use. I'm used to the martial skill of evil infantry and the lax reliance on heroes but if I've gotten anything from reading the KoM sourcebook is that they seem to stress on their heroes and have meager offerings for their soldiers.

So what should I do? I'm very used to having S4 across the board and crossbows or good archers and I'm having a hard time sifting through what to use. My brother plays Rohan so I'm hesitant to play them as well but honestly using Grimbold to have, essentially, Dunlending warriors and dismounted Rohan Outriders for affordable archers is very attractive. Plus Erkenbrand bolstering my men to Courage 5 and Eowyn's surprisingly affordable point cost for having respectable stats.

On the flip-side, Arnor looks interesting. I mean they get a mage who has a Fate bubble for his men. And despite their low Courage, Arnor soldiers don't seem half-bad for the point-cost. But they seem rather plain which I know is MT's chief weakness is their lack of versatility.

So I guess what I'm really asking for is what sort of combinations have you Men players used to great effect?

With Mt you need to have gondor rangers for archers, fountain guard with shield for the front line and the rest gondor spearmen. If you have faramir and boromir, they you might want to consider getting some osgiliath veterans.

I haven't played Gondor/Rohan with the newer book, but assuming most things are the same:

Minas Tirith Warriors make a nice battle line, throw in a captain (Or Boromir of the White Tower if you have the points) and form a shieldwall. For extra nastiness, use Rangers with spears behind them to both shoot and support.

Rangers should be your go-to archers, shooting as well as elves and fairly handy in a fight with F4 (unless that's changed).

Knights of Dol Amroth, while expensive, make an amazing counter-charge, the hammer to the MT warrior's anvil. Imrahil or a DA captain are both solid choices.

Fountain Guard offer a good source of high Defence, which can be used to bolster a battleline.

Rohan warbands offer cheaper bodies, and also great cavalry, as well as fast archers and mobile throwing weapons.

Overall, you're probably looking at a battleline/shieldwall setup with Gondor, the Fiefdoms or Arnor, or a skirmish/cavalry army with Rohan. You'll also be looking to make use of Gondor's powerful heroes, so don't be afraid to splash out on Boromir or Aragorn, and Faramir, Beregond, Cirion and Madril are all good choices too. Hope that helps give something of an overview.

Hey thanks Paradigm that certainly does give a fantastic overview (And the stats are largely unchanged). I hadn't thought about the Rangers as a secondary line, that's a pretty great idea.

 Desert Fox wrote:
Hey thanks Paradigm that certainly does give a fantastic overview (And the stats are largely unchanged). I hadn't thought about the Rangers as a secondary line, that's a pretty great idea.

I do that with wood elves behind either dwarves or galadhrim shield wall.

 Desert Fox wrote:
Hey thanks Paradigm that certainly does give a fantastic overview (And the stats are largely unchanged). I hadn't thought about the Rangers as a secondary line, that's a pretty great idea.

It's pretty expensive to kit out all your rangers with spears, but it is effective. The WOMT gain the extra attack, and the Rangers gain an in-the-way roll (to counteract squishiness), can still shoot (as they are in base contact with the 'obstacle') and can help in combat without risking their fragile wounds.

I'd suggest making this a two-warband setup.

First Warband:
Captain/hero (depends on points)

1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with Banner
11 Warriors of Minas Tirith with Shields

Second Warband: (this one will be most of your army's bow allowance)
Ranger Captain/hero (Madril/Damrod add cheap might points here)

11 Rangers of Gondor with Spears

Set up in a line/crescent, with the 11 Warriors ad captain up front, Rangers behind, Banner a bit further back to keep it safe. Throw in some Knights of Minas Tirith/Dol Amroth to use as a hammer to counter-charge whatever hits your battleline.

That seems like a pretty solid set up. Are banners really worth it though? As a strictly Evil player so far I usually invest in Heroes that happen to exude that ability to their fellows rather than dish out the 25pts for one (However lovely and thematic they look on the table top)

I'd say banners are worth it, especially in a setup like this where you can get a lot of use from the re-roll bubble (ideally the whole formation should be within range). Good Heroes tend to be more combat-based than buff-based, particularly in KoM lists, so that's another plus. It's your call, but I think they're definitely worth considering, and they do look awesome. Don't go for loads, but one would certainly help out.

For Rohan if you have Grimbold in your army you can upgrade any warrior of Rohan to Helmingas at get S4 on them.

55 points for Grimbold. its 10 more than a run of the mill captain but he has a 2 handed axe that the captain does not have access to and he gives you access to make warriors S4 for 1 more point per.
And you also have a 2 handed axe on a mini that has might to blow to win combats and has the ability to go to S7 with a +1 to wound.