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My thoughts are unsurprisingly, yes they could do with some changes.
I see them currently as a weak elite or expensive basic-type army. I would like to see them improved to a more elite force, but only slightly, and less so than elves. If possible it would be good to get some better synchronization between them and high elves.
Why? Warbands makes them a bit too restrictive and you can't get many good fill in options which carry on the 2nd age or Last Alliance theme.
What I would like to see:
A profile for Anarion or another 2nd age numenorian to be better than a captain but less than or equal to Isildur.
Cavalry options for troops. They are in the films and heroes and captains have access to them, so why not let the troops. Of course Numenor was mostly a ground fighting force, as they didn't have many horses due to the downfall of Numenor and other factors, so cavalry would need to be a higher cost than Rohan or restricted to an elite bodyguard troop. Citadel guard have a very similar profile and access to a horse, but can't be included without a hero due to warbands. I'd like to see that inadvertant restriction gone for Numenor.
An upgrade option to give units +1 strength, maybe some sort of charge or wargear bonus to reflect their physical strength in lore. These guys single-handedly took Sauron down, then did it again with the elves, then the memory of their strength kept him at bay for much of the 3rd age and all they have to show is an increased fight value. For something so central to lore, I think they could do better.
They fought with a shield wall formation using their superior strength and reach to wear the orcs down. Our game reflects this with spear support which leaves all those men with swords and shields out in the dark. Maybe a +1 Defence, +1 fight value or to win the fight if supported by a swords & shield numenorean. This would reflect the difficulty of getting through a shield wall without giving them +1 D base and taking away from the benefits of a Minas Tirith list. The second rank should be able to give way as normal so this shouldn't be an issue. The only other thing is you don't want to make actual spear warriors useless.
Numenorean bows were almost equivalent to elven bows so this is another option but a bit harder to work around. Maybe they could have the volley fire rule? I don't think they should have elf bows and I don't think that an 18" S3 bow reflects them correctly, so maybe this idea will need to be benched. Maybe they should just have better shoot value and remain S2?
Also, I had been thinking about an increase to strength to bump basic troops up to S4 and increase their base points by 1 - the result is equal to an Uruk scout in all stats and at a top of defence 5, still easy to kill. This would work as an upgrade as I mentioned earlier - I'd call it "pure blood". This would give a last alliance army some S4 options - giving some slightly more hard hitting choices other than heroes and knights of rivendell. The only down side I would think would be that it might seem necessary to increase the heroes/captains to S5 to match the uruks if the base troop has S4. This might then be expected to flow on to Aragorn which I think would be the wrong choice and I'm pretty happy with Elendil/Isildur as they stand, so I think an upgrade choice is the way to go.
Finally, Elendil's special rule for Narsil - I like it as it is but I would consider changing the wording to a free heroic action. If an orc or uruk captain called a heroic strike they could be expected to tie or better his fight value 50% of the time, which is perfectly fine, but why not give him the option to choose? If he was to call a heroic strike also, he cannot benefit from his swords special rule in that turn (only benefit from 1 heroic action per phase). While that might be an acceptable strategy, I'd like to see the choice go to the controlling player. This would enable him to take down trolls etc with less difficulty, making him a bit better at facing more modern forces.
I don't think a 4+ to wound is needed, you can get a similar result by allowing him to choose heroic strike or combat.
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