Defenders of Helms Deep; an Impassioned Defence

After some criticism of his favourite army in a previous blog post, Community Stalwart (and Bertacon organiser) Bert Leach has written to defend his beloved army...

In a previous blog post, MESBG visionary, community hero, and the GBHL Finale 2024’s Most Sporting Winner Jakub Krochmal published an article in which he is attempting to storm the league this year without repeating an army list. In true Jakub fashion, this was a wonderful read. From fascinating insights on obscure lists, to a delicate dismantling of some of the new edition’s lesser successes, Jakub’s charming and whimsical nature has shone through once more.

HOWEVER. Something did not sit right with me. Following his exploits at Jake Robson’s “The Great North Rhun” (glorious event, would recommend to anyone in the future!) whilst piloting the Defenders of Helms Deep, I saw that Jakub rated this list 5/10 for competitiveness and 4/10 for fun.

I took this personally.

So here is a defence of this most magnificent of armies!

I originally built the list purely to have the dismounts for Riders of Theoden ready and painted, but following a streamed game on Atomic Cards in 2022 ( I found I quite enjoyed playing it and, on a personal level, had some degree of success pushing around my traffic light coloured pieces). 

Bert's Painted his Defenders in a distinctive Traffic Light scheme - nobody knows why

This new edition brought change. Rather than head to Into the West without playing the new rules, I hung out with my good friend Sam Fitch to play some practice games. Here we discovered that without the elves having bows and spears, the list played very, very differently to before. Whilst it used to be a very shooty army with 1/3 elf bows and 2/3 throwing spears, with the new wargear restrictions and Throwing Weapon limit this was impossible. 

So there are two options: you can still take max elf bows, leaving the rest of your army to be 33% throwing spears (usually on Warriors of Rohan for 9pts rather than 13pts for a Royal Guard) and the other 1/3 on basic F3 D5 Shield lads. Whilst this maintains the shooting advantage, it gives you a D5 army with limited opportunities to rank up AND get the F5 advantage without putting your squishy elves in the front rank.

Eagle eyed readers, and Father Ted fans, will enjoy Bert's banner

Alternatively, you can take advantage of the fact that DoHD may in fact be the best battleline in the game; hear me out! If you give the elves spears and shields, and keep max throwing spears, your list can now be F5 and D6, consistently ranked up, and backed up by the new and improved 6” (Ash Woolger, I know how much this means to you) Gamling banner. The remaining 1/3 of the list are Rohan Warriors with bows, which at 7pts a pop are dirt cheap, and with the buffs to courage post break are surprisingly good objective holders, and in numbers, supported by Haldir and Legolas, present enough of a ranged threat to handle 90% of lists (barring elf bow spam Defenders, Thranduil’s Halls, and Mirkwood Rangers). 

Back to Jakub! This was at a time when we only had the original 6 scenarios, so Jakub steered into the shooting with the adjacent list.

The issue here is that it only has 2 D6 warrior models, and due to the lack of spears there is a problem maximising the F5 and the value of Gamling’s banner. This makes this list static and inflexible, so once combat hits the D5 means most lost combats will likely result in a casualty. Additionally, we all know that combat is a far more fun way to play SBG than doing an infamous shooting war. As a result, I present my 700pt Defenders list!

I sacrificed the warrior elf bows in favour of the additional hero (Haldir), and having 2/3 of the list spear armed. This gives the list FAR more combat flexibility and in conjunction with the Royal Standard a very high chance you’re chucking 3 dice at every single fight with F5. You also have 3 heroes here that can beat an F5 line (Theoden’s new Easterling-bonking sword is GLO-REEE-US), and all 3 have Strike. Haldir has picked up the phenomenal ability to re-roll all failed wounds, so he’s slicing and dicing his way through enemy troops, and via Strike/Strength, he’s an INCREDIBLE finisher through enemy heroes.

One of the biggest buffs to this list has been the change to two-handing. Whilst they lost the ability to piercing strike with the warriors, with the large banner range and high spear numbers, you can afford to 2h with the elves in situations where you need to crack through D6 and your opponent may not have a banner nearby. Alternatively, just spaff half of your 11(!!!) might to kill 6 models in combat, and the inherent FV advantage you almost invariably have will start to show dividends.

What we have here is a wonderfully fun toolbox list. It’s got enough shooting to cause serious threat (5 30” range might powered elf shots, hidden from retaliation, plus the 12 Rohan lads) to most lists, but the ability to tear it up in combat. With Might on 4 different places, you have Strike/Combat opportunities abound, and I even missed a chance to Strike/Combat/Strength to one-shot Eomer that weekend in Newcastle as well. 

With such a huge variety of tactical options, every game is a learning experience, and that’s what has kept me coming back to this list time after time. It’s not perfect, and it’s taken substantial play to get used to, but if anyone is a fan of the greatest battle scene ever put to cinema, and wants to get to grips with some fun, interactive gameplay, I could not recommend a list more than the Defenders of Helms Deep.

Thanks to Bert for taking time out to write his review of the army. If you have an army you'd love to write about please let me know!