I often complained about esterling. They are introduced as a warrior race, but the game only gives us an extremely limited selection of units and no real Big fighting Hero. Here's what I tought, let me know what you think about it


Easterling High Priest 100 pts

The High Priest is second only to Emperor and he is the one who receives the DarK Lord's orders through Khamul himself. Wherever he goes, his follower are possessed by a terrible bloodthirsty frenzy that can turn the course of a battle in the Blink of an eye

Zealots are the weapons of the Faith. Those Crazy, white dressed men claim to have survived wounds that would have killed any other living being. Their devotion is absolute.

F3 S3 D5 A1 Wo2 C 5 2M/6W/2F

Equipment:
Heavy armor and Staff (two-handed weapon)

Options:
Zealot... 2 pts
-a Easterling Warrior upgraded to Zealot can re-roll his fury save.

Magic:
Bladewrath 3+
Fury 3+
Anoint 5+
-target any Easterling in 8". That easterling adds +1 to his to wound rolls.

Esterling Emperor 120 pts

The one in power. He endured many years of training and now he is the epitome of a warrior, the only kind of lord an easterling would serve. He made his way to the throne with his skill of body and mind, and will gladly challenge anyone who attempts to question his authority.

F6 S4 D6 A3 Wo 3 C5 3M/3W/1F

Equipment: Heavy Armor and Esterling Falchion

options: Armored Horse...15 pts

Special Rules:
-Weapon Master
-Emperor of the East
His stand fast covers all easterlings on the battlefield

Emperor's Lifeguard 11 pts

the elites, only an handful of soldiers are deemed worthy of this position. Their skill is unmatched and they only live to serve their emperor.

F5 S3 D6 A1 Wo1 C4

Equipment: Heavy Armor and Shield

Special Rule
-Bodyguard

Esterling Dervish 13 pts

A Dervish considers fighting a form of art and thinks of himself as an artist, and of the war as a stage to perform. Their beutiful, hypnotic, dance reaped many lives during the War of the Ring.

F4 S3 D5 A2 Wo1 C3

Equipment: Heavy Armor and two long knives

Special Rule
-Whirling Dance
as long as he's standing, a Dervish never counts as trapped
-Whirling Blade
A Dervish may choose to feint or to Whirl.

Esterling Brute 9 pts

Strong, yet not extremely bright, those warriors are often derided by the Dervishes for their sloppy and unrefined fighting style. However, more than one of them stopped laughting in the very moment the Brute start swinging his axe

F4 S4 D5 A1 Wo1 C3

Equipment: Heavy Armor and two-handed axe

Special rule
Chop

Clever idea. I would disagree with your original premises. The current easterling list is very good. D6 with pikes makes for devastating formations. Amdur lord of blades increases the units fighting power by acting as a banner, the Dragon Warriors function as the elite attack unit sporting 2A (or was it 3A?) and the war priest provides key heroes with a str 6 strike at just the right moment. Additionally, the Easterlings benefit from the Scorpion's sting rule which allows their warbands to be comprised of 50% bows as opposed to the usual 30%, their kataphraks are some of the heaviest, highest D cavalry in the game, and finally, they ally with Khand to get chariots and light infantry (the Khand warrior who sports armor F4 and a two handed axe). This can be combined into your Easterling Phalanx to make a front row of 2-handed axe fighters supported by *TWO* rows of spears, with a banner reroll from Amdur Lord of blades.

Again, I'm not poo poo-ing your idea, just pointing out that Easterlings are a very formidable force and my favorite.

I am referring to esterling, excluding Khand.

The problem I have with Esterling Fighting hero is that they are supposed to kill heroes to replenish their might, but they will find trouble for anything bigger than the unnamed captain. The Dragon Knight is only D6 with no fate points and is very expensive when mounted. Same for Amdur who only has 2 attacks. I always saw Amdur getting in trouble every single time he faced another hero of his point range.
Problems is, their fighting heroes are glass hammers and get wounded easily, expecially when fighting heroes.
That's why I thought of the Emperor, one big tought fighting hero: same low defence, but way more killing power.

as for the units, I'm fine with the cavalry. Too bad they don't have a lance option, otherwise it would have been perfect.
The pike are good. But the Black Dragons? Not so much.
A Black Dragon swordman cames for the same price of a uruk hai (who has better strenght) and for one more point than a Black Numenorean (who has terror).

Scorpion's Sting comes in play mostly with harad army. Most people don't even waste point in esterling archery. Harad has access to cheaper and better archery with poison rule.

That being said, I thought of adding more units also because, as esterling, their options are too limited. You basically have units and cavalry. More units will open to new strategies and, above all, give a new look to the battlefield.

Personally I agree with Jdizzy that Easterlings are pretty good especially when combined with Khand (which is intended) but just to humor this, since I wouldnt mind more Easterling profiles, here is my thoughts on these:

Before I begin, I would like to say that I see the Easterlings as a finesse style army, fighting with skill rather than brute strength. The phalanx, the elven blades amongst leadership, and the ability to get back up after being knocked down represents this well. So I am not in complete agreement with models like the Easterling Brute whom defy this style of fighting. The Dervish however is much more in line with this. (though I would change the name since I dont think Tolkien intended them to be Muslims, though I can see you got the influence from Guild wars). I also like the Lifeguard since this also matches thier style with such a high fight value for a man. I would even say give them Elven Blades for more unique appeal to evil.

With that being said, the Emporer is fine since it appeals to the fanatical devotion of the Easterlings. However, I would make him a Named character. Two or three of them running around would be silly and broken since the Easterlings would never break.

The High priest is interesting, though I think Annoint needs to be playtested before I make an official opinion. That combined with a phalanx seems extreme.

both the Emperor and the High Priest are "named character". There cannot be more than one emperor or one high priest on the field.
You are right on the anoint spell. Perhaps it should be limited to only one target or something else. And/Or maybe the Will should be drop to four. Needs to be playtested.

About the brutes: I took the original description in the Return of the ring book, where esterling are described as armed with big axes and bearded like dwarves.

Theyre interesting but (and Im often guilty of this) you went from a force with limited options to an over abundance of awesome troops. I think maybe if you include one or of the heroes and one or two of the soldiers only.

The Priest is def under costed. Hes easily got to be 105-110 points maybe more. Theres no way Id be comfortable with playing or testing a 4+ fate roll either. I think like Groblogs rule its an auto 5+ fate save as long as The High Priest is alive on the battlefield.

These seem fun but you gave them way too much power. An easterling force like this would decimate many if played right just based off army selection.

Cool ideas though. Just make them more expensive. The Dervish needs more cost for that rule.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

I agree that the priest should cost alot more, but I think the rule is just fine. You still have to pay 2p for every easterling you want to give this save. which means that you get very expensive troops to have that save.

Next to that, the other stats are in line with what is available right now. The dervish should just cost 13 instead of 12 in my opinion. As the rule only stands for standing, I think 13 points is enough.

I really like these ideas to pump up the easterling armylist, as I feel the khandish are kinda lame.

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I cannot jump the distance, you'll have to toss me.
- Gimli, The 2 towers

No no no. With that upgrade youre paying for a model that costs 11 points and is:

F/3 S/3 D/6 A/1 W/1 C/3 0 0 1* with a pike and can shield and can possibly fate himself 3, 4, 5, 6+ times saving like 35-45 points per model a game....

You really think its not OP? You can field an army of Zealots with their warband leaders and spam the hell out of them. Totally broken IMO. Fate saves from channeled fury on 5-6 is tough enough to deal with sometimes. Giving him that rule same points cost and allowing a no need to cast 5/6 fury is more than enough.

Keep in mind youre giving them the best fury save in the game by ridiculous standards for the same amount of points as a black dragon or elf bow upgrade costs. Never...


I agree the Khandish are lame and the Easterlings likely wont function well as a stand alone army but still Id like for them to not have so many amazing options.
They already have:
Pikes/Formations
Shields
Upgraded Fight/Courage
Heavy Cavalry
50% bows I believe?
Cheap Captains
Captains/Warriors with plenty of wargear options and D 7 leader
Combat hero Leader and efficient cost
FURY for men
a Wraith
Leader with many special rules, survivability, and a banner

Thats not even including Khand. What armies have chariots and the decent khand options? I dont like their models, but put their stats on a different awesome looking model, and not bad.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

the easerlings are good enough i have fought them a lot and i find them just a little over being balanced there the only human race that gets fury and that makes them really tough to fight (unless you count melbeth with his passive 5+ wound save) . if you want to see a lacking army its the numenorians they only have 3 heros and 1 troop choice.

I edited it a bit.

I agree with what some of the above have mentioned, the easterlings as of now are a pretty decent army especially when you ally in Khand. Ya they don't have a lot of troops options but they have the basics (infantry and cav) can take some upgrades and can very easily and thematically get light infantry that hit hard (Khand). I think easterlings and Khand were meant to work in tandem with each other, because together as one list they are very strong.

Now to the profiles, my two biggest complaints about them are that the lifeguard should not be fight 5 (it's just a little much for a mannish troop) and the Brutes make Khand redundant as they do the same job but better. I like the idea of dropping the fight to 4 on the guard and giving them an elves blade style weapon though.

The high priest and Emperor are good, but again (at least with the emperor) it kind of makes Amdur redundant as the Emperor is clearly better. So if you were to replace Amdurs profile with the above I think it would work better. Or you could call him the lord of the Dragon Knights, because he really does represent the greatest champion of all the Easterlings. As for the zealots, I like the idea, it's unique and offers a cool upgrade there's not much more to say about them. Just a few thoughts on what you have here, for your consideration.

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Fight! Fight to the last man!

If this was to be our end then I would have them make SUCH AN END as to be worthy of remembrance

Just an if onthis...

The high priest with 6 will its 2 much :P

Why? 6 will are reserved to special kind of heroes, not all of em are thrown this insane amount of stats. If was 5 I would say ok, its 6 its more like a wizard lvl kind of store and hes not even close to a wizard... and much less galadriel.

The rest seems nice.

For the lifeguard you could make a hmm... evil side variation of the caras galadhon guards...

Fight 4.... heavy armour shield,pike and give em an easterling rhun fighting style or something.... like... if they fight supported with others of the same type of models (other life guards) the front guy gain +1A for each model supporting (a 3 rank deep would have, 5A = 2 ranks of pikes + 1A from front + 2 from bonus) or if they use the shielding they can hit back with 1 S3 (much like thorin oakenshield variation)

The emperor prob would get the same similar rule....


But then you would very likely see easterling armies just composed of the emperor and rank upon rank of life guards loool


And btw give em a proper name...


Easterling got upgradable names accordingly.. like

Black dragons...

You could call those golden dragons....

And hmmm...its king not emperor :P why?


Well let me quote this:

"A King of the Easterlings, Khamûl, was given one of the Rings of Power and became a powerful sorcerer, until the power of the Ring corrupted him."

So they do have kings and not emperor´s....



Also another special note:

The Composite Bow of the Easterlings was made of multiple layers of wood and was of a recurve type. They were 4 feet long at the very most, and they were carried in holsters. The arrows had hawk feathers, and the tips were forged out of steel. Easterling cavalry archers were uniquely skilled, and while riding kept their quivers slung at their sides. They learned to stand up in the saddle and release their arrows at the moment the horse's hooves were off the ground, allowing them to shoot more accurately than Rohan's horse archers. They also have three-foot-wide rectangular shields in the movie.

Have you consider easterling katapra with composite bows? 2pts for the bow you dont get the -1 penalty for moving and shooting ;:P

These "bearded axeman" are probably khandish warriors

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AlextheGreat789
Armies:
Durin's Folk
Eastern Kingdoms
Harad & Umbar
Isengard
Fiefdoms
Gondor
Rohan
Rivendell
Moria

I wants it!
But again khand would suffer!

Maybe, but it is noted that many races of Easterlings exist, from stocky Dwarf-like ones to pale and slender ones. I don't know how much of a distinction there is between Khand and Rhun though.

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Forlorn, I remove my Iron Guard from the pile of Goblins; just staring at that 6 with disbelief.

Yeah, I think that from the point of view of the good guys, all the eastern evil dudes looked the same and were often referred to as the same.

I look at it that "Easterlings" might have been used to classify all of the eastern people, like "Asian" or "European". "Rhun" and "Khand" were Easterling nations like "Sweden" or "Mongolia".

I like the idea of the 2-point bow and no -1 shoot penalty (effectively giving them elven-mounted accuracy). It does make the figure a good shock-trooper and a good harass unit, but it does get pretty expensive which may keep it a little more fair. Would shields still be mandatory? Taking a bow would also subtract 1 defense unless they too got "skilled rider", but I think the lack of movement penalty to shooting is more than enough to also allow Rohan that prestige of general riding-skills.

I like the concepts of:
-Composite bow on Kataphrakts
-Blade-Dancers (Dancing Dragon Warriors?)
-*King of the Easterlings

But:
Easterling "Dancing Dragons" should be an upgrade option that is restricted in some way. They feel a little.... Eldar-Howling Banshee and against the grain of Easterling style. So if Amdur, Dragon Knights, or something else were criteria to "unlocking" them, I'd be more comfortable.

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- Wild
Battle Companies Developer

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