Legendary Companies Sticky Candidate

[Sarah S]

There seems to be some confusion about how many points legendary companies cost.

While I don't want to seem arrogantly authoritative, I along with many other posters believe that the proper method of calculating the cost for a legendary company is to pay the both costs listed in the unit entry if you only take a single company.

The reasoning is thus:

The unit entries are all of the same form:

X points + Y points per company

For example, The Grey Company is:

75 points + 40 per company

Under the "Command" heading for legendary companies they state:

The first company purchased is automatically the command company and has Characters included in the base cost.

Taking again The Grey Company as our example:

The first company purchased is the command company and has Halbarad included in the base cost.

Some players have, in my opinion, wrongly taken the first cost listed in the unit entry to be the "base cost," so if they were to take 1 company of Theodred's Knights, they would pay only 135 points.

I believe that is incorrect.

The reason it is incorrect is because they have not purchased any companies. The cost for the formation is 75 points, but paying that amount gets you nothing, because the cost per company is 40 points. You do not actually purchase any companies until you pay the second cost listed. That first company purchased is the command company and comes with the characters.

The cost is expressed as "per company," if the first (or any) company was included in the first cost (the "X") cost then the unit entry would have to say "+Y per additional company."

Another way of looking at it is to simply do the addition that the unit entries tell you to do.

So if you are taking 2 companies of The Grey Company you would pay:
75 points
+
45 points per company

since you have 2 companies that's 2x45 points= 90 points
for a total of 165 points.

By the strict reading of the unit entry, that is the proper method of calculating the cost of the unit. There is no indication that any companies are included in the first cost, and no modification of the term "per company" that would, in any way, restrict the command company.

This alone should be sufficient and convincing evidence. That said, I shall prevent more.

While not strictly relevant from a rules standpoint, GW has opted for the X+Y cost of Legendary Formations in the rulebook as well as online:
3 companies of Sharku's Hunters with bows on p.16 for 165 points.
3 companies of Ugluk's Raiders on p.16 for 205 points.
6 companies of Erkenbrad's Riders on p.17 for 355 points.
4 Companies of Rivendell Guard here for 385 points:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/co...100007&start=5

Although we all know that GW is notorious for simple adding mistakes, I refuse to believe that they consistently made the same mistake in every instance they chose to declare the points values that they were using.

The final (and least conclusive) argument is that it would be stupid from a gameplay point of view to imagine that any companies were included in the points cost of Legendary Formations.

Taking The Grey Company as our example again, let's imagine for a moment that the command company was included in the 75 point cost.
For that 75 points we get:
1 Company of troops equivalent to Rangers of Arnor, but with +1D, +C, the special rules Stalwart and Indomitable, the ability to strike at the same time as cavalry and a hero with 5 courage and 3 might.

A single company of Rangers of Arnor, lacking all of the advantages, equipped with a regular Captain of Rangers, who lacks the advantages provided by Halbarad, would cost 80 points.

That means that for 5 points less, the Grey Company get:
+1D
+1C (+2 relative to the heroes)
Stalwart
Indomitable
Valour of Forgotten Arnor (strike as cavlry)
a hero with 1 more might

Does that seem reasonable?

Of course not. Their cost is when accurately calculated is 115 points, which seems much more in line with their manyfold advantages.

I just wanted to have all my arguments in one place, and hopefully stickied, so we can just link people to this when they start trying to argue that Legendary Companies should be ridiculously inexpensive.