All these components of the Thenn Warriors make them a great option to start the bait game. Before their release, Free Folk often had difficulties drawing the enemy into traps and maintaining position control as their units had an unfortunate tendency to fold at a stiff breeze (Giant’s always excepted). Now, however, the Thenns have the stats and abilities to take ant initial charge themselves, or force an inopportune one from opponents; they throw 8 dice at full ranks and can use Order: Taunt to pull the enemy out of position. From your opponent’s standpoint, neither option is great, either they’re receiving a sizable charge, or their battleplan is disrupted by making a less impactful charge. And then getting served up a sizable Free Folk boot to the flank or rear by the Thenns’ reinforcing units.

At the initial glance, players might utilize the Thenns as a commander bunker due to their enhanced durability, but their place should be on the front lines, forcing opponents to make hard decisions. While it might be tempting to slap the Tormund or Harma commander in them, it might not be the best decision, as the Thenns want to get into the grind, and a 4+ defense save only gets you so far.

Tactically speaking, when running Thenn units the first player assignment at the beginning of the match is often advantageous; contrary to the common wisdom that second player is preferable to enable reactive alpha strikes. Instead, the Thenns want to absorb and distract the opponent’s offensive strategy. Use the first player role to monopolize the maneuver zone on the tactics board and then position the Thenns to force your opponent’s hand and take the first charge. Next, take the Combat Zone to deliver a Thenn-sized wallop to the troop who dared charge them, and set yourself up to take it again at the top of Round Three (and we all know NCU Styr loves those Combat Zone plays). There’s also a lot of value in setting up the stake terrain in the center of the table, then arrange the Thenns behind them in hopes of taunting your opponent into an ill-advised charge. Don’t forget to reinforce the Thenn Warriors with aggressive units capable of punishing the tar-pitted unit with the unfortunate luck to succumb to the seductive, guttural siren song of the last of the First Men.