The White Council: Putting It All Together

So in the last two posts, we've looked at the wizards in my proposed White Council list and the Elven heroes to protect these wizards. In this post, I'd like to show a few army builds for the White Council, which is one of the armies you field to play with instead of to win with (because it's really, REALLY hard to win with these guys).

Army #1: Magic and Melee Emphasis

The Leaders of the Free People: 600 points

Gandalf the Grey - 170 points
Radagast the Brown (or Saruman the White) - 150 points
Glorfindel, Lord of the West with Armor of Gondolin - 140 points
Celeborn with Elven blade and shield - 140 points

4 units, no bows (but plenty of magic), 4 heroes

This is the army I've run recently. It specializes against enemy heroes with its magic and will rely on Glorfindel and Celeborn chomping through warriors (along with a Sorcerous Blast or two if you use Saruman the White). It's a risky list, but holds a lot of potential for damage against your foes. Getting trapped is a real threat to this force and you MUST make sure that you get Terrifying Aura cast on your wizards quickly. Heroic Combats are very useful in the hands of Glorfindel and Celeborn and can help even the odds.

Army #2: Archery and Melee Emphasis

The Elven Alliance: 600 points

Celeborn with Elven blade, heavy armor and shield - 150 points
Glorfindel, Lord of the West with Armor of Gondolin - 140 points
Galadriel, Lady of the Galadhrim - 125 points
Legolas with armor - 95 points
Thranduil - 90 points

5 units, 2 Elf bows, 5 heroes

Archery isn't the strong point of the White Council, but the archers they do have are excellent: Legolas and Thranduil are both keen archers who can whittle down your foe before they engage you in combat. When they do arrive, your three melee heroes will be waiting for them: all three have 3 Attacks and at least Fight 6, which should make it difficult to beat them with warriors. Celeborn is your only real spell-caster (Thranduil's Circlet of Kings is at your disposal), but don't forget that Galadriel can cast Blinding Light, protecting your archers from archery in return. Celeborn is also fully decked and brings a second D7 hero to your army.

Army #3: High-Unit Count Emphasis

The Agents of the Wise: 600 points

Glorfindel, Lord of the West with Armor of Gondolin - 140 points
Galadriel, Lady of the Galadhrim - 125 points
Legolas with armor and Elven cloak - 95 points
Thranduil - 90 points
Erestor - 80 points
Arwen Evenstar - 60 points

6 units, 2 Elf bows + 1 throwing dagger, 6 heroes

I tried to get more units into this list, but even at 600 points, you can't get more than 6 units in your army. Thranduil and Arwen can cast Nature's Wrath, but you won't get too many of these in a game. Erestor and Legolas (along with Thranduil) lend some archery prowess to your army, but aren't exceptional fighters (2 Attacks at Fight 6 is fine, but not reliable). Galadriel and Glorfindel will need to be your go-to people in melee and be very careful about fighting with Arwen, as her 2 Wounds with Defense 3 is a real weakness.

Army #4: Melee and Resilience Emphasis

The Might of the Council: 600 points

Elrond - 170 points
Celeborn with Elven blade, heavy armor, and shield - 150 points
Glorfindel, Lord of the West with Armor of Gondolin - 140 points
Erestor - 80 points
Arwen Evenstar - 60 points

5 units, no bows (but plenty of magic), 5 heroes

With high Defense as the aim, I'm sad that I include Arwen in this list. But, to protect her is four D7 heroes, all with 3 Fate points and most with 3 Wounds (Erestor has 2). Wounding this team (Arwen excepted) is going to be hard, but remember that this is the only list I've provided that doesn't have the Blinding Light spell. As such, you need to get into combat quickly and get out of archery targets as quickly as possible. You will have one hero with Immobilize (Celeborn) and two with Nature's Wrath (Elrond and Arwen), so you could get some serious mileage out of those.

Again, these armies are fun to play with but very hard to win with. I have found in my most recent Fellowship games (and even the White Council game I played recently) that these armies with all-heroes are really cool to play with but are disadvantaged against most armies. Mistakes are not forgiving and you need to utilize terrain, because without tact, you could be overwhelmed quite quickly. In the next post (to close out White Council month), I'm going to talk about the most likely integration of the White Council into your collection: as a small allied contingent to improve the fighting prowess or provide magical dominance to an ordinary army, so watch this space!