Just getting into LOTR here and want to check something before I decide on which forces to build. I have the Osgiliath box on order and in Armies of LOTR I notice that Faramir, Madril & Damrod all have the Woodland Creature rule but the Gondor Rangers in that list don't have it, only in the Rangers of Ithilien Legion in Gondor at War do the rangers get the rule. That list is a bit too restrictive for me.

The three heroes in AoLOTR having it is OK but without the Rangers able to move with them does it make those heroes less useful than they might be otherwise, three heroes all having the same rule, none of whom can benefit much from it unless they risk moving alone. Just want to check to that there's nothing I've missed that has actually given rangers that rule? Seemed strange at first but I Uruk-Hai scouts don't get it by default either unless they are actually in the Isengard list and get it via the Army rule, neither do Rangers of the North so I guess it's not a commonly handed out rule, maybe too OP to have too much moving freely through difficult terrain I guess.

You have not missed anything. Those heroes have the rule and the regular rangers do not have it. The lack of the rule isn't really that big of a deal most of the time. It's just an extra option the heroes have. Makes them better for running away into the woods with objectives or slipping around a fight to get in the flanks; that sort of thing.

Only the elves and hobbits get woodland creature on mass by default. It's a specialist rule for everyone else.

_________________
"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"

Thanks, I thought as much, I suppose it's a bit much to deal the rule out to liberally, the Uruk-Hai Scouts get it as part of their army special rule but I suppose they were seen a lot moving at speed in forest.

Ended up ordering quite a few extra hero packs to get some different variety of Heroic Actions. The Faramir / Madril / Damrod trio in Osgiliath is an interesting make up. Most of the heroes are mounted / foot twin packs whereas with these three it's pretty much the same hero but at three different levels, Fortitude, Valour and Minor, balanced I guess for the scenarios in the included book which allow them to lead a more bow heavy force. It would provide enough Heroes to lead a Rangers of Ithilien Legion too.

At first I thought their Heroic Accuracy was limited to only the hero's shooting, I the re-read it along with the Take Aim declaration allowing them and any within 6" to re-roll In The Way. It seems that the Take Aim declaration doesn't actually cost any more by way of Might or whatever. In fact, it's only when I looked at the diagram that I saw Heroic Accuracy actually affects models with 6" too, the rule itself doesn't include that (pretty important) information, unless there's a 'catch all' rule of Heroic Actions always affecting friendly models within 6" that I've missed.

Most of the heroic actions have the ability for the player to do something to make it effect surrounding troops. It's included right under the rule for each heroic action. Declaring the heroic action itself costs the point of might and then the player can elect to use the aura effect if desired. With heroic moves or heroic shoots it isn't always desirable because of how it changes the order of operations for the phase, but for heroic accuracy there is just a flat buff so no reason not to.

_________________
"Draw your sword with a heavy heart, but swing it with a heavy hand"