Riders of Rohan army , help please ..

[LawnRanger]

Hi Lads
   I have got mee orc army sorted and my mate has a load of Byzantine that I think will be just the job for them Rohan chaps.

could some of you point me in the right direction for the make up of a Rohan army ?
what  Do/ would you put in this army ?

I know very little about LOTR so am in your hands! I do think that a good % of the army should be mounted 40-70% of the pts should be cav / lt horse ?

basic cav unit average quality , Protected armour , armed light spear and sword/man ,    ,lt cav bow swordsman

foot troops: units of spear average quality defence spearmen ? and 1 or 2 units of medium foot bow swordsmen as well

If any of you Have a Rohan army i would like to here from you ,So if any of you could prod me in the right direction  that would be a great help
happy gaming LR .

[von Lucky]

What ruleset are you using? Games Workshop's LotR or WotR?

I think 65-80% should be mounted. Mostly armoured bowmen with about a third being more 'knight'-like. The foot is 50/50 armoured spearmen and bowmen.

[Johnno]

Only 33% of total force can be armed with bows, so you need throwing spears for your riders if using GW rules.

[Abbner Home]

If using GW rules it's also nice to have a few extra foot figures. In the game it's possible for the horse to get shot out from under the rider and if you have the fig the rider can fight on on foot.

[LawnRanger]

Thanks lads for your fast replies

.

What ruleset are you using? Games Workshop's LotR or WotR?

I think 65-80% should be mounted. Mostly armoured bowmen with about a third being more 'knight'-like. The foot is 50/50 armoured spearmen and bowmen.

Will be playing with Fields Of Glory rules , did think about using Fantasy Warlord but its been a long time since we played with them ,and we are more at home with FOG now a good set of rules it has taken over are club from DBX stuff


Happy gaming chap LR

[von Lucky]

I'd use a mix of the Magyar and Norman lists from 'Wolves from the Sea'.

There might already exist a modification of the rules on the Slitherine forums:
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=71

[Luddite]

If you aren't using the...um, 'odd'...GW rules then the Riders of Rohan (according to Tolkien) should all be mounted.  The VAST majority are what we wargamers might classify as 'fierce medium cavalry'.  The riders are well armed with mail hauberks and shields, spears (unclear whether they're used couched) and axes & swords; their horses were vigorous but unarmoured. 
They 'charge fiercely without order, ready to sweep away the enemy' so whatever rules your use they should be classified as 'impetuous medium knights' (or whatever your rules use for that style of fighting).

They used a VERY limited number of lighter horse archers ('some hundreds' out of 7000 in as mentioned in the Unfinished Tales).

The Rohan only fought dismounted when they had lost their horses in previous fighting (although in those situations they preferred to avoid combat) or to man defences (e.g. the battles at Helms Deep, and the Fords of Isen), where foot archers were used.

During the usrupation by the Dunlending King Wulf (3rd Age - mentioned in The Return of the King), the Rohan did probably fight alongside the Dunlending cavalry and infantry (mostly light and medium spearmen) but that's unclear and i'd classify it more as a Dunlending force with unreliable Rohan allies!

[Red Orc]

Aye, 'Rohan' (='Rochand' in Elvish) means 'horse land', the people are the 'Rohirrim', meaning 'horse lords', and they called their own land 'Riddermark' meaning 'border(land) of the riders'.

So yeah, horses. Ostrogothic cavalry are the main inspiration, I think it's reasonable to say.

[Momotaro]

Only 33% of total force can be armed with bows, so you need throwing spears for your riders if using GW rules.

I believe this has changed for Rohan in the Hobbit rulbook - don't quote me, as I don't own the rules, but IIRC, Rohan can take 100% bows (as all the rider models are carrying them).

[Conquistador]

I think it depends on why you are building the army.

An Army that reflects the book (a Quasi-historical/Quasi-Literary force.)

An Army that is defined in a particular set of rules.

The scale - if skirmish I can see you having "Othar the Odd's Scouting Force" with 100% archers quite easily.  A major battle (like before the walls of Gondor) I would want to read the rules to discern if you are "gaming" the rules or playing the game.  I think 100% archers there is a real stretch of any LOTR based type rules.

But it depends in the end what makes you happy and what you opponents are willing to play against.

I think I would, (if I was going to build a Rohan army,) build medium cavalry about 90% or slightly more shock and the rest horse missile men (archers, javelins, and or throwing spears.)  I might possibly find how the rules note elite/fierce/whatever troops to represent household select troops and have then either as part of the unit the leader is associated with or as a small spearhead unit.  Maybe a unit of Light cavalry (untested youth on their first battle.)

Just my dos centavos.

Gracias,

Glenn

[janner]

I have a GW Rohan army set up for their LotR game:



For a simple 500 pt force, I run 12 Riders under Erkenbrand and 12 foot under Grimbold