A Pocket Full Of Power, Revisited

Good morning gamers,

A long time ago (almost seven years ago now), I put up a post on different allied contingents you could get from the White Council to add to a traditional force in order to compensate for weaknesses or just include some White Council characters into an existing army (in that case, I looked at Minas Tirith, though in the comments I noted that you’d get a more thematic feel from Rivendell or Mirkwood). Today, we’re coming back to this idea of allies from a slightly different tact:

Given the historical/convenient army restrictions of the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game, what are some heroes/warbands you can ally into your army that would compensate for some key weaknesses without being an overly-large burden on points?

We’ll be going beyond the White Council today, but I’d very much like to hear the allies you like to use. The requirements I’m providing for this post are that they can’t be more than half of your army’s point value (we’re playing 700-pts right now on TMAT, so for me that’s 350). I will note that the Forces of Evil will not show up prominently here, since most evil armies are Impossible Allies with each other (and so you suffer a LOT by spending points on models that won’t be able to call heroic actions/Stand Fasts that affect models from another contingent). That said, you will see some evil models here, though they may not trait as high as you want. Without further ado, here we go:

#10: (Durburz and) Druzhag the Beastcaller with 6 Wild Wargs and 6 Giant Spiders (322 pts for 14 models, Moria)

As far as shamans go, you won’t find anyone as expensive as Druzhag (nor will you find warriors that are supported by his fury as expensive as the ones he helps). In past versions of the game, Moria always had access to a variety of beats – Cave Trolls, of course, but also Wild Wargs, Giant Spiders, and Bat Swarms. While Bat Swarms and Cave Trolls have remained in the army list, Druzhag is the only way to get Warg models (cheap, fast infantry with large bases – great for getting trapped fights) and one of two models that allows you to get spiders in your army (Ashrak is a tad cheaper – these guys are also fast infantry with large bases that help you get trapped fights). Druzhag is also gifted with lots of Will, perfect for getting off Enraged Beast, which can either make a Spider extra deadly or turn a Wild Warg into a megaton bomb (he’ll probably die of exhaustion, but he might not…).

Why do I include Druzhag here? Because Moria is one of the few factions that can ally with just about everyone. While the Forces of Good have several armies (Elves, Eagles, and Ents) that can ally with everyone historically or conveniently, Moria is the closest thing to an ally-with-everyone faction. As such, you can add faster infantry (some with multi-attacks) simply by taking him, though he and his warband will eat their fair share of points. Armies like Goblin-town and the Corsairs of Umbar are prime candidates for this addition, as they don’t get models with more than 6” of movement (plus, their warriors will accept the much-needed respite from enemy archery). Other factions could take their own cavalry, but Druzhag’s Enrage Beast power could augment their own models quite nicely (I’m looking at you, Angmar, Mordor, and Azog’s Legions). Since the Forces of Evil tend to have problems with Courage (Wargs in particular), his Fury can also be a nice save in a pinch (though it does come at the cost of NOT casting Enrage Beast two additional times).

EDIT: given the February 2020 alliance restriction changes, I've added Durburz (required Hero of Valor) to the list. You could run a few more Goblins to come up to 350.

Possible allies: no historical allies; all other factions (except Barad-Dur and Sharkey's Rogues) are convenient allies.

#9: 2 Hasharin with 7 Corsair Arbalesters and 7 Corsairs of Umbar with shields and 7 Corsairs of Umbar with shields and spears (349 pts for 23 models, Corsairs of Umbar)

Hasharin are great models: for under 100 points each, they have 3 Attacks with Bane of Kings – perfect for dealing maximum damage and getting the most out of an average Strength value. With Fight 5 (and access to Heroic Strike) and a 3+ shoot value with throwing daggers (for extra offensive damage), they’re good generic heroes that you can ally into any army in order to get greater resiliency and lethality. They do have a single Might point, but with 3 Fate points and the ability to keep their feet when being knocked down, they can stand up to a lot of punishment (just make sure you have someone else around to call heroic moves). Since they appear in two army lists, they can also lead a small band of warriors, providing Haradrim bowmen with spears supporting Abrakhan Guards (unless you’d prefer to go with the Watchers of Karna) or Corsair Arbalesters providing cover fire for Corsairs of Umbar with shields (and some with spears, of course).

What’s really cool about Hasharin as well is that depending on the heroic tiers of your other models, you can choose whether you want one of these 3 Fate point/Stalk Unseen models to be your army leader: while Hasharin from the Serpent Horde are Heroes of Fortitude (12 models/warband), Hasharin from the Corsairs of Umbar list are Heroes of Valor (15 models/warband, could be your army leader if you don’t take any Heroes of Legend). With 3 Fate points/Stalk Unseen and a killer offensive profile, they make great army leaders depending on what you need them to do. Not bad for a generic hero, huh?

Possible allies: historical allies with the Serpent Horde (who can also field Hasharin); convenient allies with Easterlings, Far Harad, Isengard, Mordor, Moria, and Khand.

#8: Tauriel with Elf bow with 6 Mirkwood Rangers and 6 Mirkwood Elves with Elven Glaives (234 pts for 14 models, Halls of Thranduil)

Here at TMAT, we’ve seen Tauriel allied into other lists (Rivendell, mostly) more often than we’ve seen her run with her normal list (Halls of Thranduil). Adding her to your army guarantees that you’ll not only get a great hero with 3 Attacks at Fight 6 and 3 Might (with access to Heroic Strike), but you also get bonus attacks if you charge into (or are charged by) more than one model. With a good spearman at her back, Tauriel can be all but unstoppable on offense. For under 100 points, she’s very good.

As a Hero of Fortitude (despite being used in the main rulebook as an example of a Hero of Valor), she can lead 12 warriors in her allied contingent – if you keep the army bonus, these can all be Mirkwood Rangers like her, but I’d recommend that you include some Mirkwood Elves with Glaives in there – the “anti-spam” rules that these Rangers have (getting bonus dice if they’re outnumbered) only comes into play for models in base contact: against spear-supported models, you’ll just be rolling your sad, sad single Attack die…you want supporting attacks I think.

EDIT: if you wanted a convenient alliance, you'd need to add Legolas (or swap Tauriel for Legolas) and would need to swap 2 Mirkwood Rangers for melee units. Given the way this warband works, just stick with historical alliances.

Possible allies: historical allies with Erebor Reclaimed, the Iron Hills, and the Survivors of Lake-town; all other factions are convenient allies.

#7: Elladan and Elrohir with heavy armor/Elf bows/horses and 11 High Elf Warriors with an assortment of bows, spears, and shields (~315 pts for 13 models, Rivendell)

Though a little more expensive in the new edition than in the old one, the twin sons of Elrond are a bargain, each able to have 2 attacks with a 2h, 3 attacks with hand weapons, or 4 attacks while shielding. When mounted (or backed by spears), you’ll get +1 attack, making them incredibly powerful (and they can have a go at anything thanks to Heroic Strike). We’ve included them with a full warband of High Elves, with a mixed assortment of Elf bows, spears, and shields.

As a High Elf army, you can ally these guys with any Forces of Good and the worst that will happen is that you’ll lose your army bonuses. Since the twins are unlikely (as Heroes of Fortitude) to be your army leader, losing the Rivendell army bonus isn’t a big deal. If you pair them with another army that doesn’t NEED its army bonus (Minas Tirith or Khazad-Dum for example), you can get high Fight models and 6 Might for your army.

EDIT: given the February 2020 alliance restriction changes, you can only run this allied contingent in a historical alliance, due to the Heroes of Valor costing too much for Rivendell. If you want to ally Conveniently, check out the next list . . .

Possible allies: historical allies with the Fellowship, Lothlorien, Numenor, and the White Council; all other factions are convenient allies.

#6: Glorfindel, Lord of the West with Asfaloth/Armor of Gondolin with 15 High Elf Warriors with an assortment of bows, spears, and shields (~330 pts for 16 models, Rivendell)

While this army is ALSO from Rivendell, we’ve traded the twins for a single hero (and a handful more warriors): Glorfindel. Glorfindel has a few advantages over either of the twins: he’s F7 with Lord of the West for rerolls, causes Terror, innately has Fortify Spirit (that’s not tied to his Will store), can have (read SHOULD have) Asfaloth (who not only has +2” of movement, but also treats woodland terrain as open terrain), and he’s got more Will/Fate than the twins do. He’s also a little cheaper than the twins together, so you can get a few models to help him. Glorfindel is fantastic as a hero and as a Hero of Valor, he could be your army leader OR just bring more Elves to support your army (like Minas Tirith or Khazad-Dum).

While the twins can be in two places rather than one, neither are very survivable: with a max of D6 (vs. Glorfindel’s D7) and only 2 Wounds with 2 Fate points, a trapped twin (esp. a transfixed trapped twin) or a twin not protected from archery could be in all kinds of trouble. Once one twin dies, the other must race over to where his brother fell and Challenge the model that killed him – which can lead to all kinds of problems if you were relying on the two brothers to break two flanks of the enemy. Glorfindel, by contrast, is hard to kill no matter how you want to attack him – though he can only be in one place. In my mind, he’s slightly above the twins, but only just barely…

Possible allies: historical allies with the Fellowship, Lothlorien, Numenor, and the White Council; all other factions are convenient allies.

#5: Legolas Greenleaf with armor/Elven cloak and Gimli, Son of Gloin (210 pts for 2 models, The Fellowship)

The original combat companions: Legolas and Gimli. Both have become more expensive in the newest edition (though their cloaks are cheaper), but this reflects some new rules they each got: as members of the Fellowship, they can historically/conveniently ally with almost all the factions from the Armies of the Lord of the Rings, providing F6 heroes to basically any faction that doesn’t start with any (except Arnor – you’ll see them get the short-end of the stick A LOT).

Together these two are incredible: if Legolas gets started early killing with his bow, you’ll see Gimli felling models quickly with either 3 attacks with +1 to Wound OR 2 attacks with +2 to Wound (for those not keeping track at home, that’s wounding D6 on 4s with 3 dice or on 3s with 2 dice). Once Gimli gets going (Heroic Combats are your friend), Legolas will be able to either stand and shoot 3 times hitting on 2s or move and shoot three times hitting on 3s – which is RIDICULOUS! Ideally, the two get close to the same number with Legolas getting ahead of Gimli during the shoot phase and Gimli passing Legolas in the Fight phase. Of course, Legolas isn’t terrible in melee (though not as good as Gimli or Tauriel), so if you do get stuck, he can fend off some damage. Still, if you can provide him some coverage, he’ll be an untouchable menace, plucking horses out from under riders or slaying clumps of warriors here and there (perhaps providing good coverage for Gimli to keep the dour Dwarf from getting in over his head).

Possible allies: historical allies with Lothlorien, the Misty Mountains, and Rivendell; convenient allies with the Dead of Dunharrow, Fangorn, the Fiefdoms, the Halls of Thranduil, Minas Tirith, the Rangers, Rohan, the Shire, the Wanderers in the Wild, the White Council, and the Wildmen of Druadan.

#4: Thorin Oakenshield with the Oakenshield and Orcrist, Dwalin the Dwarf, Gloin the Dwarf, and Nori the Dwarf (350 pts for 4 models, Thorin’s Company)

While Dwalin, Nori, and Gloin certainly get better when fielded in an Erebor Reclaimed list (I argue that Thorin actually gets worse - more on that in a later post), you pay 60 points less for them in this configuration (and recall, we're on a point limit). While I will note that you can get Dwalin and Gloin from Erebor Reclaimed and 11 Iron Hills Warriors for ~350 points, we’ve chosen instead to just highlight these four heroes instead. You could choose any two of these models to come in between 150-200 points, making them very affordable for any army you needed to boost on offense (like the Army of Lake-town, for example). With all four heroes having Heroic Strike (and three of the four being Defense 6+), you've got some good heroes who can supplement your army's weaknesses.

Dwalin is a beast: F6 S5 A3 is above-average for very good heroes and with 2 Might points, he’s dangerous. With axes that allow him to get to S6, Dwalin can cut through anything (though generally, I’d stick with the two-handed hammer with no penalty to win the fight). With D6 and 2 Wounds/2 Fate, Dwalin is reasonably resilient (just don’t go charging a crossbow gunline, yeah?). Nori costs 40 points less than Dwalin and has a drastically reduced stat line (-1FV, -1S, -1D, -1A, -1Will, -1F) but has very similar rules: Nori (like Dwalin) never counts as unarmed, he wields his two-handed mace without a penalty, and he’s got access to Heroic Strike. I will note that we could push the 350-pt limit by adding Thorin and Gloin, but spending half of your points on 4 models is probably not wise unless you’ve got a TON of cheap warriors (like the Army of Lake-town, for example).

Thorin, for his part, is also very dangerous: the most expensive person we've picked up, he can either use an Elven-made hand-and-a-half sword that causes Terror/potentially does multiple wounds against orcs/goblins/uruks OR you can shield with the Oakenshield and still take a swipe at someone you're fighting. With 3 Wounds, Defense 8 (when not two-handing Orcrist), and 3 Fate, he's about as resilient as they come (and potentially more resilient than Durin). Gloin finishes off the team: he's got throwing axes (none of the others can shoot), 3 Attacks, and the ability to reroll 1s (which is great if you lose your army bonus with a convenient alliance). If you're looking for a cheaper version of Gimli, you can get almost the same strength from Gloin.

Possible allies: historical allies with the Army of Lake-town and the Misty Mountains; convenient allies with Fangorn, the Halls of Thranduil, the Iron Hills, Lothlorien, Radagast's Alliance, Rivendell, the Survivors of Lake-town, the Wanderers in the Wild, and the White Council.

#3: Aragorn, King Elessar on Armored Horse with 7 Warriors of Minas Tirith with shields, 1 Warrior of Minas Tirith with shield and spear, and 5 Rangers of Gondor with spears (350 pts for 14 models, Minas Tirith)

There are few heroes more expensive (and more capable of chomping through enemy models) as King Aragorn on his horse. Leading a contingent of 13 Warriors of Minas Tirith or Rangers of Gondor to make a resilient shieldwall (F4 supports to a D6-7 front line), this small group of warriors will do incredible damage to your foes and will augment whatever army they support. With D7 warriors (in shieldwall formation), you can provide a good anvil armies that lack it (like Rohan, for example) and all of this is improved with Aragorn’s 6” banner radius for all friendly models (not just Gondor models, or models from his army list). For armies that already have expensive models (like the Dead of Dunharrow or Rohan), this allows you to spend points on Aragorn and rely on him to provide banner rerolls instead of buying a few banners on other models. Since models are considered friendly to themselves, Aragorn grants himself the banner bonus as well – which gives him 4 dice to win the fight and 3 dice to wound (on 4s at least) when he’s NOT charging. When he is charging, it’s 5 dice to win the fight and 4 sets of 2 dice to wound (on 4s at least).

Aragorn’s free Might point each turn with Mighty Hero is great – giving your team a free Heroic Move on any turn when you need to charge (great if you’re working with Rohan), allows you to call a free Heroic March if you need to get somewhere quickly (like with the Dead of Dunharrow or Rohan), call a free Heroic Combat to smash through chaff models, or call a free Heroic Strike if you’re fighting something bigger than yourself. Aragorn’s awesome and well-worth having in any army (and a good 35-points less expensive than he used to be).

Possible allies: historical allies with the Dead of Dunharrow, the Fiefdoms, and Rohan; convenient allies with Fangorn, the Fellowship, the Halls of Thranduil, the Rangers, Rivendell, Lothlorien, the Shire, the Wanderers in the Wild, the White Council, and the Wildmen of Druadan.

#2: Bill the Troll and Tom the Troll (270 pts for 2 models, The Trolls)

I did a post back in April on The Trolls – I’ve fought them a lot and they’re great. I'll be covering a lot of what was covered in that post again, so feel free to skip to the last paragraph if you want. I will note that while Bert is also very good, I’ve got a 350-point cap, so in my mind, you’re looking at including Bill (or “William,” as my son insists – that’s what he’s called in the book!) and Tom. Tom is by far and away the lesser of the two by statline: with “only” F6 S6 D6 and only 1M/3W/1F, Tom doesn’t look very dangerous (though pretty resilient against magic). If you don’t shoot him before he gets to you, however, you’ll be singing a different tune. With a unique Brutal Power Attack that allows him to deal a Strength 6 hit to everyone in base contact with him, Tom has a very effective “don’t-trap-me-or-I’ll-sit-on-you” rule. Lest you think the answer is on the opposite side of the pendulum (charging one model against him), Tom has another rule that allows him to spend a Will point to sneeze on one model in order to half its Fight value (and since Tom has F6, he’ll be winning ties). This effectively means that you’ll need to bring two models who can get above Fight 6 in order to win ties – which in most cases will mean calling two Heroic Strikes against him. With 3 Will points to sneeze three times during the game (assuming he doesn't need to use them to resist magic/pass Courage tests), cracking through Tom in melee can be a real pain.

William is, both by stats and by special rules, the most dangerous of the three trolls: with F7 S7 D7 and 3 Might points, William is a monster of a monster. With access to Heroic Strike (something Tom doesn’t have) and arguably the most lethal Brutal Power Attack in the game (see my previous post for how Mince 'Em Fine works), William is not someone you want to have to fight in melee.

While all of this is incredibly dangerous, these two guys can also be team players with a Brutal Power Attack that they (and Bert) share: Save ‘Em For Later. This BPA allows them to put models in a sack (which is hilarious to say that you’re going to do, kind to your opponent in that you’re not outright killing them, and allows your warrior models to clean up after the Trolls). Being in a sack is the worst: you suffer the effects of Paralyze, you can’t call heroic actions, and you lose your control zone – which isn’t as good as just being killed, but if the game is really going against your opponent, it does give you a tactical advantage while being a little more gracious to your foe. After all, there’s a (slim) chance that he’ll free himself and stand up, right?

But what’s really great about these guys is that while their allies are limited, basically any faction from the Armies of the Hobbit (and Moria) can field them – allowing you to get some relatively inexpensive monster heroes added into whatever army you have. While I don’t think this is needed if you’re running Azog’s Legion, it’s probably very helpful if you’re running Azog’s Hunters (and don’t care about bows), Goblin-Town (where my experience is), or Moria (where you’re getting better-than-Cave-Troll troll heroes). What’s more, both of these guys are Heroes of Valor, so you could have them as your army leader OR run another Hero of Valor/Legend in order to be more reckless with them. For 270 points (just above 33% of the army cost), I think they’re well worth it.

Possible allies: no historical allies; convenient allies with Azog's Hunters, the Dark Denizens of Mirkwood, the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur, the Desolator of the North, Goblin-town, and Moria.

#1: Galadriel, Lady of Light, historically allied with Cirdan and 11 High Elf Warriors with a banner and an assortment of spears, shields, and Elf bows (~350 pts for 13 models, White Council + Rivendell)

There are several awesome spells that are new to the game: Banishment, Fortify Spirit, and Instill Fear are certainly some of them. And all three appear on Galadriel, Lady of Light. As a member of the White Council, Galadriel can ally with any army historically/conveniently EXCEPT Numenor and Arnor. So, basically any army can benefit from the amazingness that is Galadriel. We've chosen to ally her with some Rivendell guys (who can ally historically/conveniently with any army as well). Let’s take a look at today’s winners…

Galadriel costs 130 points and, unlike her Lothlorien version, is both a strong magic caster and a powerful melee hero. With F6 S4 A3 and 3 Might (and never counting as unarmed), she’s offensively quite strong. Being Defense 3 has its problems, but with 3 rerollable Fate points and 3 Wounds, she’s not bad. In addition, she has a permanent Blinding Light anti-archery ability (NOT the visibility thing that might work against you in Clash by Moonlight) and can cast Fortify Spirit on herself during the first turn of the game to get 2 free dice to resist each magical spell that comes her way. With the archery protection extending 6” around her and the ability to give 2 free resist dice to other heroes too (so long as she retains 1 Will point), Galadriel is easily the most powerful anti-archery, anti-magic piece in the game.

Lest you think that she’ll be more easily challenged in melee, think again: her Terror rule is supplemented by the mini-Harbinger of Evil rule she has (6” radius of -1 Courage), making her more difficult to charge unless you can automatically pass Courage tests. Should your army be low Courage, she can also cast Instill Fear (she casts it as well as the Witch-King and the Dark Marshal and only worse than Sauron) to force models to flee from her and her supporting troops.

Naturally, she works the best with armies that can get Terror on their troops (which is going to most often mean armies with Aura of Dismay, though armies of Great Eagles come to mind as well). To allow this benefit to cover a lot of models, we've chosen to ally her with a Rivendell list that has Cirdan (though you could also do this with a Halls of Thranduil list with Thranduil equipped with the Circlet of Kings, or bringing Radagast the Brown with you from the White Council/Radagast’s Alliance lists).

Cirdan has moved from one of the worst Elven heroes in the game to one of the best: at less than 100 points, he gets a free Will point to cast spells and has four great spells to bring to the game. Three of them (Aura of Command, Blinding Light, and Aura of Dismay) require 1 Will point to maintain, which has long been the bane of Cirdan: if your opponent has Sap Will, Cirdan can become a very expensive unarmed, unarmored hero. This is mitigated nicely with Galadriel's Fortify Spirit spell, allowing you to resist spells more often (especially since you can spend your free Will point each turn to roll 3 dice to block spells). Furthermore, since Cirdan will likely be near Galadriel to get the most out of her mini-Harbinger rule, casting Blinding Light isn't required to be channelled unless you REALLY need a second 6" bubble of protection. Normally, if you're fighting a shooting-heavy army, you'd need to spend Cirdan's only Might point to channel Blinding Light, but in this list, you can save it for making sure that Aura of Dismay gets off (or calling a heroic action). In this way, Galadriel not only augments Cirdan's Aura of Dismay, but also gives him his Might point back.

Finally, Cirdan was gifted with Enchanted Blades in the new edition, allowing him to cast a spell each turn to augment someone's damage. Despite "blades" being in the name, there's no requirement that the recipient wield a weapon, so Cirdan can actually cast it on Galadriel, allowing her to reroll her failed To Wound rolls. This not only ups her damage output, but gives her more rerolls than other heroes get with the Lord of the West special rule.

These two heroes are supported by a block of 11 High Elf Warriors. If Galadriel is your army leader, any archers you brought along (this list has 3 High Elf Warriors with Elf bows and 1 High Elf Warrior with Elf bow and spear) will benefit from the Rivendell army bonus (assuming you keep it and don't bring in a third army list to the fight) and reroll failed To Hit rolls on turns when they stand still. The other 7 models in our list are 3 High Elf Warriors with shields, 3 High Elf Warriors with spears, and 1 High Elf Warrior with spear and banner: not the most defensible shield wall, but perfectly functional and tough to crack (I did this configuration because we hit 350 points - if you're going to run Rivendell for the other 350 points, just take some points from that chunk and beef this up). Thanks to Aura of Command, these already high-Courage models are ready to deal with anything and thanks to their high defense and the Light of Earendil, they're very resilient to archery. If Galadriel has nothing better to do, she can always cast Fortify Spirit on the banner (or anyone else for that matter) to make sure they're not sniped by archery. This allied contingent is surprisingly resilient, no?

EDIT: given the February 2020 alliance restriction changes, we would need a Hero of Valor for both the White Council and Rivendell if we were to bring in a third contingent. I find that to be unlikely. You will need another Hero of Fortitude for Rivendell to make this work (but that's irrelevant for the Pocket Full of Power).

Possible allies: historical allies only if you run Rivendell; all other factions (except Numenor and Arnor) are convenient allies.

So, in our top ten today, we covered three Rivendell lists...perhaps that's indicative of how good their heroes are and how great their alliance choices are? This post leads us nicely into our next Workbench update, where I’ll be visiting Rivendell and giving my High Elves some tender loving care. For more on that project, watch this space! Until next time, happy hobbying!