That definately plays a part in their theme yes! However thematically I think they are fight 4 from all the raiding and fighting they do against enemies like Gondor , similar to a professional soldier. While the Black numenoreans themselves being of numenorean heritage gets their fight value from their martial tradition. Always cool to talk lore!

Theres a couple ways to do it while remaining competitive. My preferred way is to go with Eorl the young and bring alot of Sons of Eorl. At 500 bringing about 8-10 of them. Id still suggest bringing a few foot troops. Outriders on foot make great objective holders and then fill out the rest of your points with riders of Rohan and a Captain of Rohan. Alternatively a Riders of Eomer list could work though at 500 points you would have a very low model count and would be very reliant on Gandalf to carry you through games by kiting out the enemy. Still a solid option if you dont want to bring royal guard. ~ Aleksa

Hey mate Chris here, I definitely think a non royal guard list has plenty of legs (6 per model in fact!), you just need to orientate your list around skirmish based play. Without F5 on the charge or bodyguard you just need to pick your battles a tad smarter. That being said, riders of Rohan all have bows and can really easily play the long game on thinning your opponents ranks and forcing bad positioning onto them. Practicing that style takes some time to get used to but can feel quite rewarding when you get it right. My Southern Raiders list in the Serpent Horde list follows this theme and idea really well if you want to check that out. Here is a list I put together quickly to use as a core of what your list could look like. Theoden with shield, horse and armour (100) Gamling with horse (65) 20 riders of Rohan, 5 with throwing spear (80) , 1 with banner (39) and 14 with no additional gear. (196) That's a smooth 500 points right there but by dropping a couple of models you can easily swap to another hero, bring a second banner or do plenty of other adjusting, even just increasing your density of throwing weapons. Its just a simple starting point with two heroes for you!

@@thedicebearers5989 thank you got a new list to paint up