I read the Free Peoples' book last night and I can't for the life of me figure out why everyone likes to field a Hobbit army so much. I get the archers, but they have no unnamed heroes and I think their named heroes (except for the Travellers) suck.

The guys on the DCHL podcast also claim to have a Hobbit army. If they're reading, I'd like to see it in action!

Care to do some explaining?

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

why field hobbit armies so much?

numbers, its like rats! but cute ones though

also they can get pretty awesome courage boost
they got very decent shooting value (as good as elves go figure)
heroes are cheap and decent which let you bring MORE hobbits..


Keep in mind this is a dice game, the more dices you roll the more chances to win, so hobbits being so cheap even more than goblins can fight through attricion at even better courage break rate. You will get outnumbered and despite killing 20, 50 others will fill that spot and your overwhelmed forces will die 1 by 1 till its left nothing... and most fun of all you hardly see that coming until its 2 late :)

you can win combats pretty well but bad luck will always come to every 1 and you wont win combats at every turn and those you lose and being heavily outnumbered gonna hurt you..


HObbit rate would be something like this:


2 cave trolls vs 40 hobbits.++ (and im using the expensive ones btw) cheaper ones would like 60 lol
1 troll surrounded and losing a single combat(just a single) hes gonna potentially get 12 hits that need to wound on a 6, thats 2 wounds "average" in a round, and hobbits as you can see got plenty to spare to sacrifice half their numbers to get those trolls....


and the most important... who dont love hobbits?! lol

I'll take a swing at it since I own a maxed hobbit army myself.

Hobbit armies present a few aspects that good rarely to experience ( and even evil armies)

some of those heroes imo are great for their points, Paladin having a 12 inch stand fast, plus the rest for cost, bullroarer, and merry also fit that same bill for me.

Now onto the infantry, the archers really need little explanation, in shooting they are a ranger for half the cost

The milita are very cheap, and very poor at most things, but.. they do come with axes, and the downside is almost unnoticed ( upgrade them to str 3, if you got some spare points at the end)

Sherrifs are quite amazing imo for 1 pts over the milita, they gain a thorough upgrade over them, and bashing models, for your guys to hang up on next turn is never a bad plan

The whole army is equipped with resistant to magic, meaning all those great AOE spells can get stopped by the a mere milita, and throwing rocks which means they are one of the few armies who don't have that stat wasted on any models.

Lastly because of the almost non existent cost of their bands, they can reach those 24 bows for a very low entry cost, which also means they can bring veritably huge army), so they allow good players to bring the cooler big heroes (aragorn, treebeard, etc) and still plop 50 models on the table in 500, or any other fun / crazy options where you want elite models, but not elite Model counts.

its because of the weapon spec rules and that makes the deadly. hobbit with a axe using piercing strike. it doesn't lose any defense since its the lowest any way but it has strength to gain. the clubs knocking down warriors with the piercing strike just destroys everything. you cant out bow them because they will have lots of bow with 3+ shoot. there named hero's are not that g8 but with the ability to have +2 courage they can charge terror army's with fewer problems and can surround terror mobs easier.

the 1 proplem that i see with the hobbits they have to ally to get a monster and they only have either ent's or eagles to choose from and there costly while a normal cave troll is cheaper

hay one game frodo of the nine figures threw a rock at my feramir and killed him i was so annoyed because of that little 1 str rock killing him

don't undersetermate the hobbits

It's not just special strikes - Hobbits won large tournaments before those were invented.
Their bigget problems are speed, lack of might and lack of spear support (which can be improved with variou thematic allies, like Noldorin Exiles, Dúnedain/Rangers of the North/Aragorn and Rangers of Arnor, respectively). The first and last point don't interact well, as it can be tricky to get all troops in the fight if not fighting in two ranks and not being able to outflank and surround the enemy quickly.
What the they do have are incredible numbers. Five full warbands at 400pts numbers. A third of those many Hobbits will have a bow (outshooting most forces, on quality, quantity or both). All of those little Hobbits can throw stones, which likely happens in one big volley each game.. and will on average kill an entire warband of Wood Elves in one round (65 shots, 2/3 hit, 1/3 wound). D4 or 5 will lose 7+ models, which is still a significant chunk in low points matches. They're also all resistant to magic, meaning that spells like Nature's Wrath are significantly harder to get off for your opponent, and the heroes are surprisingly resilient as well. They're also exceptionally brave - if Merry and an archer with Warhorn are included in the force, all warriors are Courage 5 - matching Elves.. and making Lobelia an interesting option. And then there are the special strikes. Axemen (with upgrade) will be S4-6. Free re-rolls for those carrying swords/knives (only Fight 1 anyway). Shirriffs stopping a big monster dead in their tracks on a 4+ (stun). Given their low points cost (and indeed limited number of non-independent heroes available), you can throw in Aragorn or Gandalf at 600pts, giving a solid fighter and source of might, or protection from arrows and offensive magic while still fielding a massive horde.
Just a handful of those little ones saw off the Witch-king and ended Sauron's reign. They're tricksy little critters, and indeed not to be underestimated.

I don't. One should do with hobbits what Sharkey should have done: kill 'em with fire!

a way to counter hobbit army is having a monster throwing them around. A cave troll can throw a hobbit quite far (5 inches to 10), which can deal terrific damage to hobbit formation since, to use their numbers, their player will usually keep them close to each other. Each hobbit in the line of throw will die on a 4+. In a GBHL battle report, an eagle killed something like 7 hobbits with a single throw. A Mordor troll thrown range goes from 6 to 11 and even a piercing striking hobbit will usually require a 6 to score a wound. But, of course, a Mordor troll will have to kill lots of hobbit to compensate his points cost. Bill the troll, who can't be trapped, is very good for this job.

Borg, expensive as he is, may be very good. Between S5, Burly and 2 handed he will kill hobbits on 2+. Give him a fell warg and you can expect to kill at least 3 hobbits each turn, which will give him the Mighty Hero rule very early in the game, allowing your force to have heroic moves when needed and burning your opponent reserve of might. Once you got enough hobbits, you go hunting for merry (on a charge, you can reasonably expect to kill him in 1 turn with 8 strikes wounding at 3+) negating the hobbit courage boost and imposing your own harbinger of evil over them.

A good formation can negate their numbes: they have no spears, so each hobbit needs to be in base contact to fight. A well placed shield line backed by spears and/or pikes with a banner nearby will give them a very hard time.

Still, despite the fact that I don't like them, I recognize hobbits as a force to be reckoned with. The only reason why, as a player, I don't have them is because of their price. Four hobbits go for 12,50 euros, which means in spending 37,50 euro for a single warband. I just don't have enough money to build an hobbit army.

thats the same problem when youre making esgaroth/dale army, those cheap 4/5pts man for a 20€ blister(a full 12 man warband with an heroe its around 90/100€), at 500pts you had something like 50 guys alfrid, mayor, 2 captains and overall spent for that army was around 400€, thats a pretty darn sized 40k big army around 1750/2000pts and on lotr standarts around 2 fully equipped with plenty of choices armies...(around 750/1000pts each that is...)

Dude in a small points game I went 5-0 with then against two Isengards Wood Elves Dwarves and something else.

They're amazing. I don't see what you don't get. Numbers kill. Their archery is as good as any in numbers and skill

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