Shire army list

[Texus Maximus]

I have seen army lists for Rohan, Mordor, and Gondor, but what about the Shire folk in Lord of the Rings? I recall some battles mentioned in the books:

1. Sending archers off to aid a king in a battle far away (that never came back)
2. Fighting off goblins in the north part of the Shire in the battle of Greenfields
3, Defeating bandits at the end of the Lord of the Rings in "the scouring of the Shire"

Admittedly, none of these fights are probably large enough to rate as true "battles between armies" in Triumph! terms, but the third fight mentioned involved several hundred combatants so at least it was more than a skirmish.

So, if we concede that Triumph! can be reasonably used to create a Shire army, how about this for an army list:

Invasion: Zero, because the Shirefolk are completely non-aggressive
Manuever: Also zero. They are largely farmers, with no standing military forces, training, or commanders

General: Light Foot

1 Sheriffs, stout farmers, and adventuring hobbits with swords and armor looted from mysterious foreign lands
Light Foot

6-9 Hobbit bounders or hunters with bows
Skirmishers

10- 12 Shire untrained militia with improvised weapons
Rabble

Allied Troops:

0-2 Rangers of the North
Raiders or Bad Horse

[David Kuijt]

Always fun to look at this sort of thing!

With that said, the third battle you mention was a contest of maybe a hundred or so against something like 30 bandits, and the bandits marched into a trap (an ambush) where they were completely surrounded and outmanned. Casualties among the victorious hobbits were a handful; total time of combat was maybe five minutes. That makes an interesting scenario for a skirmish game at a convention -- the hobbit forces wouldn't stand representation as even a single stand of troops in Triumph.

If you wanted to have hobbit forces, though, I'd differ in their maneuver rating etc. The Brandybuck and Took forces (who were still resisting Sharkey's forces at the time of the Greenfields) were clearly adept woodsmen (much better than their human adversaries) and their lack of formal experience wouldn't have been much of a barrier in fighting as irregulars (skirmishers, probably). I might rate them as high as Maneuver 3. Certainly only Invasion 0, though.

[Texus Maximus]

I should host a "Scouring of the Shire" game of Triumph! at the next convention. It will be a stand of hobbits (Skirmishers) in a patch of rough terrain, starting in flank contact with a stand of Ruffians (Rabble) in the open. It would demonstrate the fast play nature of the rules.

[Bill Hupp]

I would suggest the Battle of the Greenfields.

"A battle fought in the Shire's Northfarthing in the year III 2747, the only battle to be fought within the borders of the Shire before the War of the Ring. An invading band of Orcs from Mount Gram were led into the Shire by their chief Golfimbul; they were defeated, and Golfimbul was slain, by Bandobras Took, otherwise known as 'the Bullroarer'."

No real reference to the size of the forces involved, but the Bullroarer was big enough to ride a horse and killed Golfmbul in hand to hand combat taking off his head with his club and inventing golf.

http://www.stephenwigmore.com/2012/08/p ... of_19.html

"All these point to a relatively low figure for the population of the Shire. If 'thousands of willing hands' constituted 10% of the population, as we can perhaps imagine such a popular effort doing, then that would mean a population of 10,000's, perhaps anywhere from 30,000 - 100,000."

So an army of 3,000 to 5,000 hobbits to fight a goblin invasion would seem reasonable.

I couldn't find any other details on the battle, so a standard army list army would make sense.

I might think about adding a couple of archer stands (like the ones sent off to support the king), a raider stand of Rangers/Men-friends, and a couple of bow levy to mix with the rabble (archers in training) to your list.

I understand Hobbits are 'in' right now too, so a good convention game.

Bill