Army of the dead

Grungehog · **Posted:** Tue Aug 13, 2013 10:31 pm

I wanted to add a equipment house rule to the army of the dead
I think they need to have bows, which of course would have the same rule as their hand weapons do
I think 2 points would cover it tbh

Also I suggest the following profile and rules for a generic dead hero
Vassal of the king of the dead: 65points
F/S-S-D-A-W-C M/W/F
3/4-4-7--1-2-7 0/2/2
Wargear, see AotD
Options
-spear 1pt
-shield 5pts
-bow 10pts
-horse 10pts

Special rules:
Blades of the dead, Terror, The Dead and the Living

JamesR · **Posted:** Tue Aug 13, 2013 10:42 pm

Personally I dont like the idea of the AoD having bows. Doesn't fit them to me, but i do like the hero idea. I wouldnt give him a shield thou ive never seen AoD's defense being related to anything physical

imrail · **Joined:** Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:24 pm **Posts:** 666

AotD with bows would be overpowered.
A generic hero would fit.
I can't remember if the normal WotD have shields that count in their defense status.
But in my opinion it shouldn't count.

And it depends if you want to portray your AotD as in the movie or the books.

SouthernDunedain · **Posted:** Wed Aug 14, 2013 8:39 am

Army of the Dead have the wargear options to take spears (1pt) and shields (1pt) in the KoM book. Obviously the shield increases defense from 7 to 8. I personally dont think AotD need bows, the captain is a nice idea though.

Bilbo · **Posted:** Wed Aug 14, 2013 1:18 pm

The Army of the Dead really could do with a couple of heroes to make them a viable stand alone force.

I have thought about the army of the dead having bowmen before. They could be seriously powerful against orcs and goblins, but if they were 18-20 points a pop I would feel that they had been paid for!

JamesR · **Posted:** Wed Aug 14, 2013 1:42 pm

I guess for myself I don't feel like equipment such as shields and bows really fit the AoD as depicted in RotK. They didn't have anything physical, which made them wholly unique. Wights have physical bodies for example

imrail · **Joined:** Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:24 pm **Posts:** 666

Yeah bows should be a lot more points.

And I agree with JamesR, or rather how they are depicted in the book.

Grungehog · **Posted:** Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:35 pm

5 points for a bow does seem a bit much, 3 points makes a lot more sense to me

imrail · **Joined:** Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:24 pm **Posts:** 666

Did you try using a bow on AotD first?
I tried it and it is really overpowered.
I used the shoot stats for humans.

Bilbo · **Posted:** Wed Aug 14, 2013 5:43 pm

I thought that an dead archer of the dead would have the same profile as a warrior of the dead but with a 24 inch range bow with a strength of 3 and the blades of the dead special rule!

Grungehog · **Posted:** Wed Aug 14, 2013 5:47 pm

Isn't that like having an elven bow but more powerful though?

SouthernDunedain · **Posted:** Wed Aug 14, 2013 5:58 pm

Str 3 wounding on courage? That'd have to be at least 5pts possibly even more. Especially as evil courage is so low.

Grungehog · **Posted:** Wed Aug 14, 2013 6:03 pm

personally I would go for a bow 3points I.e range 24"/56cm S2 keeps it in balance

Bilbo · **Posted:** Wed Aug 14, 2013 6:46 pm

I suspect that it would be no more powerful than an uruk crossbow?

JamesR · **Posted:** Thu Aug 15, 2013 9:45 am

Bilbo wrote:

I suspect that it would be no more powerful than an uruk crossbow?

It would be far more powerful. A crossbow typically is going against a defense 4/5+ with a str of 4. The AoD would typically be str 3 vs a defense of 2/3. Suddenly trolls are pincushions and orcs are knocked down like paper cups from range lol

Bilbo · **Posted:** Thu Aug 15, 2013 2:09 pm

I had thought of using strength 2 for the bow which would mean orcs and goblins killed on a 4+ and pretty much any other Mordor and allied troops on a 5+, this would be horribly effective, and yes my comparison based on Uruks killing most enemy troops on a 5+ doe not quite ring true with the 1 in 3 chance of wounding a troll. I have no worries about such troops being fielded as long as the points values are accurate. The Shadow Lord could be a very good foil against them!

Grungehog · **Posted:** Thu Aug 15, 2013 10:57 pm

Something tells me 20 points(5pt bows) would cover the unit, also note, they would be counter effective against dwellers in the dark, rolling against C7 instead of D4

imrail · **Joined:** Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:24 pm **Posts:** 666

Grungehog wrote:

Something tells me 20 points(5pt bows) would cover the unit, also note, they would be counter effective against dwellers in the dark, rolling against C7 instead of D4

It is always a gamble with the courage of the enemy.

Big Dog · **Posted:** Wed Aug 21, 2013 12:26 pm

Not sure on bows, they may be a bit too powerful especially against monsters like Troll Chiefs or the Mumak but at 20 points there probably won't be room for too many. Maybe a 5+ Shooting value would tone that down but then 20 points could be a bit overpriced.

The main problem I could see if a tendency for the army of the dead player to sit back and shoot down anything that can deal with their D8 and then by the time combat comes they'll be able to fairly easily win the grind against an awful lot of evil armies.

A generic captain however would be a fantastic addition. As it is it's a shame that you need to take fairly unthemed Fiefdoms heroes in order to get more than 12 warriors of the dead. A captain would certainly fix that. The other option would have been to allow Aragorn (and perhaps Legolas and Gimli) to lead warriors of the dead as well.

Da Great MC · **Joined:** Wed May 08, 2013 12:49 pm **Posts:** 161

Big Dog wrote:

The other option would have been to allow Aragorn (and perhaps Legolas and Gimli) to lead warriors of the dead as well.

Which is our house rule solution

Army of the dead

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