Armies of the Hobbit, Part V: The "Other" Armies of Good

Good morning gamers,

In our last post, we looked at the armies of the Dwarves from the Hobbit. Today, we turn our attention to the armies of men. While I don't think any of these lists are as impressive (or competitive) as the Dwarf armies we looked at, they do spam more, so if you can advantage of those numbers, you have the opportunity to best lists that are composed of "better" units.

1) The New Lists: Radagast's Alliance, The White Council, and Thranduil's Halls (and a hat-tip To Rivendell and the Misty Mountains)
There are technically five lists in the Armies of the Hobbit dedicated to non-Dwarf/non-Men lists, but two of them are re-prints from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings. This write-up will focus on the three we haven't covered yet - please view our other pages for write-ups on Rivendell and the Misty Mountains. 

I will say this, though, about the Misty Mountains list: if you own the Armies of the Hobbit book, unless you're looking to ally your eagles with Thorin's Company (or the Fellowship if you have the Armies of the Lord of the Rings book), it's better to run Radagast's Alliance - you get the same units (though Gwaihir does drop a heroic tier) with additional hero options and the exact same army bonus. If you're not running allies, there's no real reason to run the Misty Mountains list. As such, we're going to focus on the Radagast's Alliance list (but know that most of what we say about it also applies to the Misty Mountains list).

2) The Army Bonuses: Maximizing Your Strengths

All three of the lists we're going to look at today have army bonuses that make them better at stuff that they're already good at (or at least, what they can be good at). Often times, this leads to auto-includes to maximize the army bonus, but in many ways, you don't often NEED the army bonus (I draw the line at Thranduil's Halls - you want that one kept). By keeping any of the army bonuses provided here, units who are already good will simply get better at what they already do:

• Eagles, already high-strength models, get increased Strength when they charge (with Monstrous Charge, I might add) - and as mentioned previously, this rule is present in both the Misty Mountains list as well as Radagast's Alliance;
• The White Council, who has access to Fortify Spirit and hence two free resist dice via Galadriel, gets +1 to their resist attempts when they're near each other;
• The Elves of Mirkwood can get bonuses to their rolls To Wound, which complement their already high Fight value (and their front lines can Feint to boost this even more, thanks to high Fight value supporting models), as well as include as many Mirkwood Rangers as they want (for oh-so-much-shooting-and-anti-spam-attacks);
• Even Rivendell - who we're not covering today - gets a bonus to its shooting (though they already hit very well).

If getting S7 Eagles isn't THAT important to you (won't help at all if your opponents are all D4), then you don't need to keep the army bonus. Similarly, if your opponent doesn't have access to magical powers that will target your units, you don't need the White Council bonus. I do think you want the Thranduil's Halls bonus - that +1 To Wound solves many of the problems that plague Elven armies (actually wounding when you win the fight), but you COULD do without it (I could imagine...but we just won't visit it today because it's too awesome).

3) The Lists: Radagast's Alliance

Like the Misty Mountain list, this list relies on having large creatures that can do massive impact damage on the charge. Perhaps the most important rule for these guys is the Monstrous Charge rule paired with their army bonus: at S6 base, almost all monsters are ineligible for you to knock down. By upping your Strength to S7 when you charge, many monster models (Cave Trolls, Fell Beasts, my beloved Wild Warg Chieftains) now become eligible targets for you to bowl over and tear to pieces. These models also (conveniently) can't get above D7, so you'll not only knock them over, but you are guaranteed to wound on 4s as well (so you can probably kill them in a single turn). As such, keeping the army bonus can be really, really powerful. Take the following list as an illustration:

List #1: The RAF (Radagast's Air Force)
Radagast
Gwaihir
3 Great Eagles

In a 600-point game, you're going to be limited in what you can take if your cheapest models cost 100 points each. Still, we've got four powerful beasts ready to sail in and tear stuff up, supported by one of the most flexible casters in the game. In my last post on the forces of Men from the Armies of the Hobbit book, I talked about how Radagast can cast Aura of Dismay and make all of your models around him cause Terror. The great thing about Radagast is that this is his only difficult spell and since he can cast Terrifying Aura on himself (and everyone else causes Terror already), he doesn't need to cast his hardest spell in any of your games! Instead, he can focus on casting Renew (to give health back to your Eagles), Immobilize (to root enemy heroes and keep them from calling Heroic Strike against your Eagles), Panic Steed (to un-horse anyone trying to get away from your Eagles), and Nature's Wrath (to un-horse anyone trying to get away from your Eagles OR to keep people from catching him).

The other great thing about this list is that Radagast can cast spells on anyone within range, regardless of whether he can see them or not (thanks to the Master of Birds special rule - fitting that we mention it in a list where everyone else is a bird, don't you think?), meaning that you can be hiding inside a building with your Eagles buzzing around you and you can still heal them, you can still nerf their foes, AND you can knock people to the ground outside from the relative safety of being inside. What's not to to like?

While this is fun, one of the most powerful benefits (I think) of running Radagast's Alliance isn't based on the army bonus - it's about providing monsters to lists that can't take them. Take this list for example:

List #2: Speed Is Armor
Beorn
1 Great Eagle

CONVENIENT ALLY: Rivendell (see? they made the post!)

Elrond, Master of Rivendell with heavy armor and horse
5 Rivendell Knights with shields

It's arguable that Gil-Galad is just as good a hero as Beorn (if not better), and it's also arguable that Glorfindel mounted on Asfaloth (though far more expensive) is a better deal than a Great Eagle. But buying both of these heroes REALLY cuts into your points. Beorn and the Great Eagle take up half of your list and still leave you room to take a power hero and some warriors to accompany. In our case, our list is incredibly mobile (everyone's got at least 8" movement) and they pack a punch - lances on the warriors, Elrond's general awesomeness, a Great Eagle for flying over battle lines and smashing the auric heroes in the rear, and . . .

Beorn. Yes, Beorn. If we're going to give up the army bonus, we don't need Gwaihir and we definitely don't need Radagast. We need Beorn. While he's one of the most expensive heroes available to any forces of Good player (more expensive than Treebeard!), he's incredibly powerful. With a profile like an Ent, above-average speed, and weapons that can't be Shattered, you've got an incredibly good hero to use against your opponents. Against a single powerful foe, his Crushing Strength Brutal Power Attack is ridiculous (S10 hit after S10 hit so long as you don't fail). While perhaps not as powerful as Bill the Troll's Mince 'Em Fine, it's definitely one of the best BPAs you can get with any character. I'll note in passing that we could have dropped the Great Eagle and the shields on the Rivendell Knights and taken 5 more Rivendell Knights if we wanted to, but that would make the Radagast's Alliance portion appear like the allied contingent (and besides, we like shields).

4) The Lists: The White Council

Back when the Warbands books were released, I started investing in a White Council army. At the time, it had twelve members - some made more sense than others, but it was basically Elves who had been around a long time (relatively defined) and wizards. For more info on what the list used to include, view my old post here. The list has since changed, pairing down many of the people in it to a nice compact list:

• The members present in The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies (Gandalf, Saruman, Elrond, Galadriel, Radagast)
• Some old Elves (Celeborn and Glorfindel)

And that's it. Neat and tidy, right? I think so. In many ways, there are lots of things you can do with this list, but we'll look at two builds today - one that focuses on just the White Council proper, and one that allies in an allied contingent to supplement what you're missing.

List #1: Big Dang Heroes
Saruman the White
Galadriel, Lady of Light
Glorfindel, Lord of the West with Asfaloth
Celeborn with heavy armor and Elven-made Hand-and-a-Half Sword

I'm going to say this up-front - I think Galadriel is an auto-include for this list. Apart from being a good melee warrior, she provides static protection from archery for those nearby her (which is good since most of your team has low defense), she reduces enemy Courage near her (which helps those who cause Terror or can cast Terrifying Aura), and she has access to Fortify Spirit, which gives her or a friendly model within range two free dice to resist magical powers (though Glorfindel already has it on himself). Paired with the army bonus (+1 to resist result so long as a friendly model is nearby), this is a KILLER anti-magic pairing (though admittedly, not many people besides myself seem to like magic these days). She also has Banishment (auto-wounding spirits? Yes please) and Instill Fear (which will be taken with a -1 penalty as mentioned earlier). Yes, she's awesome.

She's paired with Saruman (rerollable dice when casting/resisting - killer with Fortify Spirit and the army bonus on defense, not shabby when casting his own spells), Glorfindel who we have taken on Asfaloth for mobility and without the Armor of Gondolin (costs too much, rely on Galadriel for archery protection and your own brawler profile for melee protection), and almost-mega-Celeborn (I don't think you need the shield). These four heroes are all very powerful in their own rights and can deal tons of damage. Unlike most of our other all-hero lists that we've walked through recently, all of these guys have 3 Fate points and 3 Wounds, making them incredibly resilient (though I'd be happier if I'd taken Elrond and gotten some Renew access). 

What this list lacks, however, is numbers and good archery - three of our characters can't deal damage unless they attack (though one is mounted), so fighting all-mounted teams will be difficult (though Saruman's Sorcerous Blast should help) and fighting teams that field lots of archers will be difficult too (because even though you can nerf their archery, they'll still get hits on you eventually). The following list, I think, supplements these weaknesses well.

List #2: The Lords of the Elves
Celeborn with heavy armor, shield, and Elven-made Hand-and-a-Half Sword
Galadriel, Lady of Light

HISTORICAL ALLY: Rivendell (look - there they are again!)
Glorfindel, Lord of the West with the Armor of Gondolin (see, told you we'd include it!)
5 High Elf Warriors with shields
5 High Elf Warriors with spears and shields
5 High Elf Warriors with Elf bows

We've already looked at Glorfindel, Celeborn, and Galadriel - they're great. Instead of running Saruman, we've decided to take some High Elf Warriors, boosting our numbers (providing us the ability to cover more of the board) and giving us reliable troops to screen for our heroes. We've kept two members of the White Council to keep the bonus (and Galadriel is of course one of them), but we've moved Glorfindel out of the list to lead the High Elves (since his two free dice automatically should make him nearly as resilient to magic as if he had been in the White Council part of the list). I don't think this is THAT competitive, but it would be fun to run and easy to purchase.

5) The Lists: Thranduil's Halls

We close with a discussion of one of the most powerful armies in the Armies of the Hobbit book - an army with an army bonus so good and so powerful that I don't think there's a good reason to avoid keeping it. To do that, you need to buy Thranduil - and chances are, if you buy Thranduil, you're going to pile on the add-ons. So, in keeping with this theme, I have done just that (in both lists). :)

List #1: The Halls of the King
Thranduil, King of the Woodland Realm with extra sword, Circlet of Kings, heavy armor, Elk, and Elf bow
Legolas Greenleaf, Prince of Mirkwood
9 Palace Guards with shields
3 Palace Guards with shields and spears
6 Mirkwood Elves with Glaives and Elf bows
6 Mirkwood Rangers

Since your Mirkwood Rangers don't count towards your bow limit, we've decided to take a 2/3/1 pairing of Mirkwood Elves with glaives and bows and Palace Guards with shields and shields+spears, like I do with Numenor - not only do all of these models benefit from the +1 To Wound in melee part of the army bonus, but Mirkwood Elves are the only bow-armed models that do count towards your bow limit (and as an Elf army, you want to run as many bows as possible to lessen the difference in models between you and your opponent - or make that difference more pronounced if you have more models than your opponent). The Palace Guards are great - reliable F6 Bodyguard models who get +1 To Wound? Yes please. The archers have Glaives and can support your troops with an Elven-made weapon, which is cool (though all of our guys have Elven-made weapons, so it doesn't matter as much here).

The army is led by Thranduil (who will probably bring all 18 of the heavily-armored models, since they benefit from being near him) and Legolas (who will lead the Rangers). Thranduil has been given a bow (he has a 2+ Shoot after all), but also has heavy armor (for protection), and Elk (primarily for the larger base size, extending the range of his auric benefits), the Circlet of Kings (because why not make our Elves cause Terror as well, plus Nature's Wrath is a great way for stopping an enemy from charging you for one more turn so you can shoot them OR charge them without risking being wounded), and the extra sword (because...you want those extra attacks). Like I said, once you start looking at the choices, it's hard to not pile on the extras onto Thranduil.

The weakness of this list is, of course, it's low model count - with only 26 models (though you'll be getting 16 bow shots each turn), you're well below what other armies will field (to include many of those Dwarf lists we viewed recently). While your army will be tough as nails and very hard to crack, against overwhelming numbers, you're likely to become trapped and killed. The next list doesn't grow our numbers, but instead features a more fun option of play (and I'm very tempted to build it).

List #2: Let Them Come To Us
Thranduil, King of the Woodland Realm with extra sword, Circlet of Kings, and heavy armor
7 Palace Guards with shields
3 Palace Guards with shields and spears
5 Mirkwood Elves with Elf bows and Glaives

HISTORICAL ALLY: Iron Hills
Dain Ironfoot
6 Iron Hills Warriors with mattocks
3 Iron Hills Warriors with crossbows

Thranduil in this list has changed slightly - no Elk, no Elf bow. Besides that, he's just like he was above - very killy, very dangerous, very auric. We've also paired down his guards slightly. We could have dropped the Circlet of Kings to get another guy and get some more spears, but I think the Terror bonus alone is worth keeping it. The allied contingent features Dain (who is an equally powerful hero as Thranduil in his own right) and nine of his guards (wielding either mattocks or crossbows). I thought about running a shieldwall, but with only 6 guys, I don't think it would be that effective. Instead, we've opted for hand-and-a-half hammer-axes, which gives us incredible killing power. Dain has auric benefits of his own, making these guys Fearless, more reliable when they deploy randomly in Maelstrom fights (thanks to the army bonus), and with all those two-handed hammers (at S4-5), you've got the ability to batter foes to the ground with ease (making them easy prey for the next round).

While we've still got a small number of models (26 again), our lowest defense models are D5 and those guys are hiding behind a very reliable block of warriors. The heroes are incredibly powerful and either of them can be your army leader. If growing this list out to 700 points (as has become our standard), I'd be tempted to grow the Iron Hills block first (probably switching back to a shieldwall), though getting three more Elves would also be useful.

So...that's it for the armies from the two main sourcebooks! I don't own the new Gondor at War supplement, so I don't anticipate building lists for any of those legendary armies. As we prepare for the upcoming Grand Tournament, we'll be focusing on the painting that's been going on at the workbench, showcasing my new Minas Tirith force. Until then, happy hobbying!