Magic In MESBG, Part IV: Lothlorien

Good morning gamers,

This post wraps up our discussion of magic for a while, as we look at the army I'm bringing to the TMAT GT 2019 - Lothlorien. If you haven't caught up yet, check out our discussions on Gandalf the Grey (in Thorin’s Company) and Gandalf the White (in Minas Tirith - though we did a second post on him going in-depth into some of the things you can do with him here), and Saruman (in Isengard) for some background -  we'll be referring back to these a bit. Lothlorien/Mirkwood was my first army that I "finished" in LOTR SBG, but I've added a few models to it over time and have managed to NEVER take it to a GT. So, here we are. While the list you're about to see is FAR from competitive, it should be fun and emphasizes the one thing Elves do better than anyone else: shoot at stuff.

Two Lists: With and Without Magic

Best I can tell, pure-Lothlorien has only been brought to one GT here at TMAT (and that was back in 2013 - we've seen Lothlorien as an allied contingent brought several times, taking the form of a small band of Elves supplementing Rohan or Rumil being added to an all-Hero army). The army was composed of Celeborn/Haldir/Rumil (all of whom remain highly competitive choices) and led a force predominantly of Galadhrim Warriors (who have only gotten better with the upgrade to heavy armor) with a smattering of Wood Elf Warriors carrying Wood Elf spears (for cheaper spear support). The armies I've seen posted to the American Strategy Battle Game Facebook group also feature Galadhrim Warriors prominently. A sample list, if I had to guess, would look something like this:

• Celeborn with everything
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• Rumil
• 12 Galadhrim Warriors with shields
• 8 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with spears
• 12 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows

Since the difference in cost (now) between Galadhrim Warriors and Wood Elf Warriors is marginal and the difference in Defense is even higher than it used to be (+3 now instead of +2), all the armies I've seen advertised run large numbers of Galadhrim Warriors (and they're right to do so). I, however, will not be doing that at this tournament - I'll be running the following list:

• Galadriel [Army Leader]
• Celeborn with everything
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• Rumil
• Galadhrim Captain with Elf bow
• 13 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers
• 15 Wood Elf Warriors with Wood Elf spears
• 13 Wood Elf Warriors with Elf bows
• 1 Wood Elf Sentinel
• 12 Galadhrim Warriors with shields
• 8 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with spears
• 12 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows

Time will tell if I should have dropped the Sentinel and taken a banner instead (swapping one set of throwing daggers for an Elf bow, of course), but whatever - I like Sentinels. Here’s what we’re looking at:

• Let's get it said up-front: we've lost the Defense 6. While one of my models (the Galadhrim Captain) is Defense 6, all the warriors are Defense 3. With Galadhrim Warriors with shields costing the same as Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers, I could have done a one-to-one swap if I wanted to. In addition, with Galadhrim Warriors with spears and shields costing 2 points more than Wood Elf Warriors with Wood Elf Spears, I could have taken a Wood Elf Warrior with Elf bow instead of a Wood Elf Sentinel and turn 7 of my Wood Elf spearmen into Galadhrim Spearmen. Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows cost 1 point more than the Wood Elf ones, but Elven cloaks are very powerful on bow-armed models (keeps you from being a target of return-fire), so I don't see the point in swapping those for 1 point/model. The incredibly low defense in this army is a glaring weakness, but it also leads to the first rule of Wood Elf combat: if you meet the enemy in melee, you need to make them defend by shielding - otherwise, assume that you're dead.
• While our Defense has suffered, we have gained an advantage - we have gained 6 additional warriors. With +3 to our break point (and +4 to our 25% number), it will take more kills to best us (though one can argue we could take Galadhrim for this reduced cost instead of Wood Elf Warriors and STILL get great Defense and larger numbers). still, by choosing to go with Galadriel, we've upped our armies resiliency by adding numbers.
• The greatest advantage to taking Galadriel is that Galadriel is cheap compared to most casters who get a free Will point each turn. Gandalf and Saruman (whatever list you get them in) cost between 170-240 points to field - that's 40-110 points MORE than Galadriel. With 4-13 more models in your army, Galadriel allows you to have a very healthy model count (highest we've seen so far) while still having two good heroes to lead your other troops. The only caster who gets a free Will point each turn for less cost is Cirdan (also a good hero), who only costs 80 points (but only has 1 Might/1 Fate).
• We opted for a Galadhrim Captain instead of Rumil. I'm working on a Rumil conversion from an old metal Galadhrim Warrior model, but the Captain is 10-points cheaper than Rumil and has access to Heroic March (which we'll need in Clash by Moonlight where our archery can be stopped by staying out of range OR in scenarios that require us to run across the board). Rumil is great, but with only Heroic Defense, he does exactly one thing: not die in melee (either by winning or not being wounded).
• The primary reason we've taken Wood Elf Warriors is to maximize on the Elves' high Shoot value - Wood Elf Warriors are the only models that can carry shooting weapons on their non-bow models (in the form of throwing daggers). If you've never fought an army of Corsairs who have throwing weapons on basically every model, a good charge from them can leave many people dead in the MOVE phase, before you get to the traditional means of killing people (in the Shoot/Fight phases). While we could have taken Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers and spears supplemented by Galadhrim Warriors with shields, we decided not to since the Wood Elf Warriors with Wood Elf spears are a good bit cheaper than their Galadhrim cousins. You also save a point on each bow that you equip on a Wood Elf Warrior vs. a Galadhrim Warrior.
• This army relies heavily on yet another element of the Wood Elf Warrior (and Sentinel) profile: Elven cloaks – now that we get these for free, they're a great way to make sure you can't be charged by cavalry from a distance or shot by archery. While a niche rule, it allows our deadly archers to whittle down our opponents before they themselves are allowed to do anything back to us.
• Since the whole point of this post series is on magic, it would not be fair to avoid highlighting the Sentinel here, since he is a pseudo-caster as well. With 2 Attacks in his profile, he can not only make it harder to be charged by causing Terror (limiting how many people he's fighting), but he can also guarantee that he (or someone else) passes all Courage tests they have to take OR can move low-Courage models away from the fight (like those carrying banners, for example).

Galadriel is the army leader of this force - and she's great at it. Like taking Saruman as your army leader, we do run the risk of being out-killed in certain scenarios, but Galadriel has great ways of mitigating enemy kills/damage, as we'll see in a moment.

How Magic Helps – A Deeper Look

Most of the spells in Galadriel's arsenal are spells we've already looked at - but let's have another go, shall we?

• Blinding Light (Static) – You want to channel this with 1 Will + your free Will point just to make sure it goes off. As we've said in our posts on Gandalf the Grey and Gandalf the White, there is a time to cast it in some scenarios, but using 2 Will points makes sure that you don't have to spend 2 Might points to get it off. Since our army's defense is incredibly low, this makes us all-but-immune to archery, helping us survive a bit longer AND whittle down our opponents quickly. While you can pack everyone in this army list within the radius of the spell, the Elven cloaks you have on all your warrior models allows you a greater level of protection if there are low walls, shrubs, or other terrain objects that provide horizontal cover for your models (since a foot that's covered grants protection for the entire model).
• Immobilize/Command (Control) – We've talked about these two spells a lot (perhaps too much?), but it bears repeating that Galadriel casts these spells reasonably well (on a 3+/4+ respectively). I normally just Immobilize people, but casting Command on a banner or on a mounted hero while he's still far away from the battle lines can be devastating. With Heroic March now boosting the max move of models, your average mounted hero can be moved 7.5" away from the battle lines - most of which he'll be recovering with his move next turn. Once your opponent gets close, a well-timed Immobilize is good enough to keep them from killing your models (or counter-calling Heroic Strike against Haldir).
• Blessing of the Valar (Static) – This spell doesn't need to be channeled - besides what I've said in the past about spells that give you D3 of something when you channel them, the non-Galadriel heroes in your army only have 1 Fate point (and in fact, Celeborn and Galadriel are the only heroes who have more than 1 Fate point in this army), so unless you needed to quickly regain your own Fate points, don't channel it. Even if you take allies, there aren't that many 2-3F characters that will be historic allies with you (Frodo/Aragorn/Legolas/Gandalf with 3F from the Fellowship, Sam/Gimli with 2F from the Fellowship, Elrond/Glorfindel/Bilbo with 3F from Rivendell, Erestor/Elladan/Elrohir with 2F from Rivendell, Eomer with 3F from Rohan, Eowyn/Dernhelm/Merry/Eorl with 2F from Rohan). In order for these characters to get any real benefit from a channelled version of this spell, you need to cast it when they're out of Fate (if they still have 1F left, you might as well just cast it normally).
• Why cast this? Since your army is going to be protected against archery pretty well thanks to Blinding Light, it's unlikely that your heroes take more than 1 Wound while being shot at. Regrowing that Fate point each turn allows you to be at full resiliency on your heroes before engaging in melee (which is good, since your Defense isn't great, so if you lose a fight, assume you get a chunk torn out of you). It's also great because unlike most heroes, Galadriel has a high likelihood of her Fate points actually working - so regaining them is kind of like regaining full Wounds. It's phenomenally good. Unfortuantely, I think the addition of this spell makes taking her mirror almost useless - most heroes in this list only need 1 Fate back each turn and the mirror comes at the loss of a banner or a Sentinel (both of whom would make this list better than allowing heroes to regain Fate from an object).

This has been fun - Galadriel is phenomenally good for her cost and if you play Lothlorien and haven't taken her, you should try her out. With good auric bonuses, she's well worth the investment (and in 800-point games, it's easy to run her AND Celeborn together). In lower point games, having her protect Haldir will often get the job done just as well. Until then, happy hobbying!