Rangers of Shadowdeep - The Warband.

Premise:

For my rangers of shadowdeep warband, I wanted to do something a little different. Everyone seems to choose human or elf warbands but I wanted to create a different narrative for my campaign. I am using my Uruk Hai from the tabletop game 'Middle Earth - Stratergy Battle Game' as stand in for orcs who have come to begin raiding these human lands but the shadowdeep has disrupted thier plans, I will try to slighty adjust each of the scenario set ups. An example is instead of saving a village from the nefarious minions of the shadowdeep its a conquered forward scout base that we have lost contact with and need to reestablish contact and save any captured orcs. Because they will be a swiftly moving scouting force they are loosely based on the idea of Lurtz and his marauding Uruk Hai.

I thought this would be a unique warband to allow me something different to think about and create stories around.

The Ranger:

The protaginist is slightly based on Lurtz but have included some magic to increase his utility.

For my 10 build points I spent 2 on heroic abilities, 2 spells, 2 lots of skill upgrades and then a massive 4 on recruitment points for 142 total. I will try to keep things vague to avoid giving exerts of the rulebook.

Heroic Abilities: 

• Split Cast - Cast a spell on 2 models instead of one.
• Powerful Blow - Extra damage added onto a successful melee hit.

The split cast allows spells to become alot more potent affecting mulitple creatures and powerful blow to reflect the strength of the fighting Uruk Hai.

Spells:

• Heal - Heal a target for 5HP
• Shield of Light - Makes the target harder to shoot 

The heal feels like him bolstering thier resovle with a warcry and the shield of light is like him giving advice to dodge and weave to avoid arrow fire.

Skills:

• Armoury: +2
• Climb: +2
• Leadership: +2
• Navigation: +2
• Perception: +1
• Stealth: +1
• Strength: +2
• Survival: +2
• Track: +2

I gave points to skills that felt appropriate for a scout leader

Equipment:

• Sword
• Shield
• Bow
• Quiver
• Light Armour
• Holy Icon (White Hand Warpaint)

The equipment makes him a bit more defensive in melee but allows him to do ranged aswell as improving my 2 chosen spells to be more potent with the Holy Icon.

The Companions:

Because I have a larger pool to choose from (142) I had a good deal of freedom to choose. I chose; 

• 2x Archers
• 3x Man at Arms
• 1x Swordsman
• 1x Healer

This gives a solid frontline with some ranged support. After seeing a few battle reports, healing seems like a strong thing to have in a warband so I chose a mini with a wardrum to spur on the troops charge to be the healer, it seemed like a great idea thematically and mechanically. I am using Ugluk as the swordsman model because the mini wielding a decapitated head with his sword drawn seems like a perfect imposing figure for a swordsman who is good in melee. The Man at arms are my Uruks with shields and the Archers are self explanatory.

Conclusion:

I am eager to send them into thier first mission. Which I believe will be the single blood moon scenario mainly due to minis already being painted for that. How did you build you ranger? Let me know with a comment!