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I am looking to put together some Dunlending troops to support Saruman eventually growing it out to a full list for Grand Fantasy Triumph.

What are everyone's thoughts on troop classes? I've seen other lists treat them as mostly Warband troops with a few cavalry & skirmishers. I was thinking of starting with more of a light infantry vibe for them as they were supposed to have little or no armour. So I was thinking of a mix of Light Infantry, Rabble, & javelin armed Skirmishers. Then when I flesh it out into a separate army I might add a couple of warbands & bad horse to represent the chieftains & their personal bands of troops.

AirborneEngineer wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 21, 2021 2:22 pm

I am looking to put together some Dunlending troops to support Saruman eventually growing it out to a full list for Grand Fantasy Triumph.

What are everyone's thoughts on troop classes? I've seen other lists treat them as mostly Warband troops with a few cavalry & skirmishers. I was thinking of starting with more of a light infantry vibe for them as they were supposed to have little or no armour. So I was thinking of a mix of Light Infantry, Rabble, & javelin armed Skirmishers. Then when I flesh it out into a separate army I might add a couple of warbands & bad horse to represent the chieftains & their personal bands of troops.

Those are very close to my own thoughts. Here's the army list I had come up with:

• Dunlendings, Rhudaur, and etc. (0 to 3019 Third Age)
• General: Raider (if present), JavCav otherwise
• 0-1 Raider or JavCav. "Chief's Men"
• 6-16 Light Foot. Hillmen.
• 2-4 JavCav. Dunlending horsemen
• 0-2 Rabble. Youths
• (1350-1975 T.A.) 0-4 Raiders. (Only in Rhudaur) Hillmen with ex-Dunedain or Angmar-supplied armor
• (1350-1975 T.A.) allies: Angmar
• (2758 T.A.) allies: Haradrim

I don't include any skirmishers because specialized skirmishing with long-range weapons (bows and slings and staff slings) doesn't seem to have been part of their military repertoire.

I don't feel they should be Warband because those are shieldwall-breakers in furious frontal charges. I don't buy it -- they are more dangerous and effective as hillmen like the Thracians.

I haven't looked at these lists in a few years -- if I get the chance now that FT is on the front burner, I might reexamine them. For example, maybe 1-3 JavCav would be more reasonable than the current 2-4 listed above.

Thanks for the reply David.

I should have thought about making them Raiders. I guess when I think of shieldwall breakers I think of supported Warriors with Warband as more of a well they can do it if they get lucky.

JavCav is interesting, but might that make them too effective against Knights that would make up Rohan? They would get to shatter them if they beat them on a 2 vs 4 roll.
I thought Bad Horse might represent the former or wannabe Rohirrim within the Dunlendings.

AirborneEngineer wrote: ↑

Thu Mar 04, 2021 3:52 pm

Thanks for the reply David.

I should have thought about making them Raiders. I guess when I think of shieldwall breakers I think of supported Warriors with Warband as more of a well they can do it if they get lucky.

JavCav is interesting, but might that make them too effective against Knights that would make up Rohan? They would get to shatter them if they beat them on a 2 vs 4 roll.
I thought Bad Horse might represent the former or wannabe Rohirrim within the Dunlendings.

Numbers count too -- if you have 2-4 stands of JavCav, and 8-10 stands of Knights, then the JavCav are in desperate trouble if they fight in the open. Which they'd have to do -- because the Dunlendings don't have any troops that can stand against Knights in the open.

My mental model for Dunlendings is the Thracians. Thracian hill tribes had lots of hillmen and a few horse; their horse are fine as JavCav.

With all that said, sure, you can rate the Dunlending cavalry as bad horse if you like. Nothing wrong with it. But when a line of Knights hits a line of JavCav with even numbers, the JavCav will lose 8 times out of 10. And here the JavCav aren't going to get even numbers. If you have a line of Knights hit a line of Bad Horse, the Knights win 20 times out of 10. It isn't even a contest.