The Bare Necessities, Part X: Lothlorien

Good morning gamers,

In this series, we’ve looked at some sample lists that are designed to maximize possible victory points (including fast models, at least one banner, 30+ models, ways of neutralizing enemy heroes, and ways of protecting/buffing your own heroes). Our lists so far has looked at Minas Tirith, Isengard, Rivendell, and Mordor. Today, we view my longest-running army in the SBG game: Lothlorien. While their Galadhrim Warriors appear to be a re-skinning of Rivendell High Elf Warriors (or is it the other way around?), the army runs very differently from what I talked about in my Rivendell post. Also, we're hot on the heels of Rythbryt's review of Lothlorien, so check that out if you haven't already.

Lothlorien: When Do You Take Celeborn?

Rivendell has lots of good heroes in it – varying in point cost, dollar cost, and utility from mega-power-heroes like Gil-Galad and Elrond, mid-level heroes like Erestor and the Twins, and auric-not-great-at-fighting-heroes like Cirdan and Bilbo. Choosing which heroes to include is often dependent on point cost and player preference.

Not so with Lothlorien: Lothlorien has only four named heroes (and only three generic heroes), so your hero choices are more-or-less going to be the same. In my previous corpus on Lothlorien, I’ve consistently said that the first and foremost hero you bring (regardless of point size) is Galadriel. While my statement might be biased since I run Wood Elves (who need Blinding Light to keep them alive on terrain-sparse maps from enemy bow-fire), even players who run heavily-armored Galadhrim Warriors/Knights agree that you need Galadriel. While you can read my previous post on Lothlorien armies that run Galadriel for what she does, let’s just say that there are few combat heroes who can withstand the continued battering of the Lady of the Galadhrim – and she’s not THAT expensive among the other unlimited casters in the game.

The big question for me is this: while you should always take Galadriel and it’s easy to fit in generic heroes or two of the named heroes (Haldir/Rumil), when do you fit in the other expensive hero for Lothlorien: the great Elven lord Celeborn? Celeborn (fully-kitted out) comes in at 150 points, which is not only 20-points more expensive than his wife (who is amazing), but roughly the same cost as Rumil and a reasonably-kitted out Haldir (who recently got bumped up to the same heroic tier as Celeborn...for reasons no one can really understand). Shooting-oriented Lorien armies will definitely favor taking Haldir, while Rumil remains one of the most annoying heroes for big-time heroes to have to fight (since he can force the reroll of a single D6 during a Duel – great for when your opponent only gets one result of a 6 on his dice). Since Celeborn is only a Hero of Valor, he won’t be your army leader if Galadriel is present and he’ll only let you bring an additional 3 models over Rumil (and bring the same number of models as Haldir). 

So when do you bring him?

For me, even at 700 points, I don’t see myself taking Celeborn – he just costs too much. If he could be mounted, he’d definitely be worth taking, but I don’t think he’s one of the first three heroes you take for your army. Don’t get me wrong – Celeborn is great (ready my post on combat mages for more info on that), but I think he’s a good fourth options add for me, I’d start including him in games that are over 800 points (maybe I could squeeze him into an 800-point list, but I’d prefer using him in a 1000 point list and probably not anything smaller).

The List

700pts of Lothlorien: The Protectors of Caras Galadhon - don't own any Galadhrim Knights at the moment, but plan on getting some next year.

• Galadriel [Army Leader]
• 9 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers
• 8 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers and Wood Elf Spears
• 1 Wood Elf Warrior with throwing daggers, Wood Elf Spear, and banner
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• 8 Wood Elf Warriors with Elf bows
• 3 Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers and Wood Elf Spears
• Galadhrim Captain with Elf bow, shield, and armored horse
• 3 Galadhrim Knights with shields and Elf bows

35 models, 13 Elf bows (14 shots/turn) hitting on a 3+ and 21 throwing daggers, 5 D6+ models, 4 cavalry, 8 Might points

Unlike Rivendell, we’re in the mid-thirties for model count, which is pretty reasonable at 700 points. I will note right away that this list includes a high number of Wood Elf Warriors. For those who prefer Galadhrim Warriors, the throwing weapon models can be swapped one-for-one for Galadhrim Warriors with shields or shields and spears. I’ve chosen the throwing weapon variants because of all the reasons I provided in my tandem post with Centaur on skirmish armies. For those who think the Galadhrim provide a better advantage over Wood Elves, read all the way to the end of the post. :-)

Warband #1: The Elf-Witch of Lothlorien

Galadriel's Guard: 344pts, quick and lethal if you're patient.

Galadriel is an amazing hero and should be used to protect as much of your army as she can. The units most in need of her protection are your infantry models, so we’ve placed her in the fourth rank of the largest block of models we have: 9 Wood Elves with throwing daggers backed by 9 Wood Elves with throwing daggers and spears. In the past, I’ve actually placed my archers in the front rank backed by spears, since the protection they get from enemy archery makes them reasonably safe from enemy bows even if there’s no terrain nearby.

In this list, I’ve chosen to instead place my infantry archers in one warband so they can be hid as a group with terrain and placed my melee models (normally having to brave enemy bows on their own) under her protection. They can travel as a group at max speed while still being able to threaten with their throwing daggers any units that end too close to them.

There’s a banner embedded in this unit not only because we anticipate getting this unit locked into combat quickly, but also because there are a TON of models who can pick the banner up easily and keep it going. The pairing of Galadriel’s archery protection AND Resistant to Magic on these models (to say nothing of Stalk Unseen from their Elven Cloaks) makes this banner pretty hard to snipe with archery or magic (or cavalry, come to think of it). The best approach most armies will have of taking out this banner is having a horde of models try to trap/overwhelm the Wood Elves (which, if you can whittle down their numbers with your throwing weapons, will be hard to do).

The ability to crack this formation is made even harder by adding Galadriel to it. Not only does she provide a very strong retardant on enemy archery, but she can start singling out enemy heavy-hitting models with Command from 12” away. While some cavalry models might get lucky and only have to deal with her magical assaults for two turns, many heroes and monsters have 0-1 Will points and most lack Resistant to Magic or similar rules that would protect them. As a result, Galadriel can begin depleting an enemy hero or monster of their ability to resist her power from a very far distance and then her warband can escort her as they tactically withdraw, keeping the enemy hero away from the fighting.

If she casts Command successfully, your best bet is to have enemy models about-face and walk away from the fighting. The best targets are cavalry models or infantry who have been affected by Heroic March (or cavalry models that have been affected by Heroic March), since you can move them further than they normally would. For most models, this means their next turn will be spent getting back to where they were and advancing a little further (which can be really frustrating if they’re infantry, since your forward line has to either advance without their mega-hero OR they have to wait and suffer another turn of Elven bow-fire). Speaking of which . . .

Warband #2: The Volley Team

Haldir's Scouts: 198pts, lots of archers that can be impossible to shoot in return 

As mentioned above, we’ve assigned all of the infantry archers to this warband. With the ability to look for only one good piece of terrain for these guys to hide behind, you should be able to quickly identify where your army should start quickly. Haldir is a great hero – very cheap access to Expert Shot for 2 shots/turn with a 3+ Shoot and a S3 bow, but he also has access to Strike and a great Fight Value. While Haldir is a mid-level hero, he’s quite good for his cost and brings a lot of tactical strength to his team – and often more so than similar heroes in other lists (sniping horses, plucking off lone defenders of objectives, that sort of thing). While most of his models are bow-armed, we did put a few non-bow models in there so they can provide some tactical support for the archers (spears are always nice when the fighting goes bad, but they can also be left behind at an objective, freeing up your archers to focus on your opponent’s main force).

Warband #3: The “Fast” Guys

The Vanguard: 158pts of fast, fast cavalry models

This is a really small warband, but they’re REALLY fast: as I noted in our post on fast models, Cavalry with Heroic March move at tremendous speeds – and with these guys having Fleetfoot, you can race to wherever you need to go through wooded terrain as well! The Captain being mounted is huge – not only can he be used to swing from one side of a battle line to another (something Centaur calls “a wag”), but he can also press his fellow riders to race towards an enemy board edge or an objective very quickly. An underrated rule for these models is Expert Rider, which not only allows them to be D6 while mounted (thanks to taking shields), but it also allows them to pick up light objects without dismounting (and you don’t want these guys dismounting).

Scenario Overview

Let’s take a look at each of the available scenarios and see some thoughts/considerations for using this list:

• Domination: Your small mounted squad should harass any objectives your opponent doesn’t have a lot of models defending. Four Elven riders (no matter which list fields them) – including one hero – are a fearsome force to deal with and their bows allow them the opportunity to whittle down the enemy before they arrive (maybe even clearing them entirely). Remember that claiming objectives is something that needs to be done at the end of the game, so don’t worry about leaving a rider behind at an objective early in the game (let Haldir’s melee models do that when they get a chance). The bulk of your force should focus on getting to the middle objective, taking it, and holding it – Haldir’s archers can provide good supporting fire, but those throwing daggers will do murder to whatever your opponent brings against you. Galadriel can be a late-game surprise, as she can pull models off of objectives with Command (save some Will points to throw an extra die at the spell to make it more likely to go off).
• Capture and Control: Similar strategy to that of Domination, except that tagging objectives early is a powerful strategy (since it forces your opponent to send models to tag the objectives you leave behind). Your cavalry can then shoot at whatever models break off to handle the objectives (or charge them if you have numerical superiority). Galadriel is just as useful in this scenario as she is in Domination.
• Hold Ground: While controlling the center of the board is important in both Domination and Capture and Control, you’re only trying to get into the center here – so do that. Galadriel’s warband can move at full speed (they’ll benefit a lot from a March from your Captain) and still shoot with their throwing daggers (giving them 15” potency when Marched). The cavalry can move 7.5” and still shoot while Marching, which is not as fast as the throwing dagger infantry, but with an added 24” of range, they can lay down fire on your opponent quickly. Alternatively, you can just March with them on the first turn that the warbands are near each other to get yourself closer to the center so you can skirmish there at your ease. Galadriel is once again a key player to the team, protecting your approaching models from enemy archery and Commanding important enemy models away from the center of the board. Keep your archers on the periphery (shooting enemy supporting models if you can) until the very end, where they can charge into scoring range as extra attackers/flankers (because, you know, archers are swordsmen after all).
• Seize the Prize: Like Hold Ground, you need to get into the center. Unlike Hold Ground, your first play is ALWAYS to call a March and to move those cavalry as fast as you can towards the center. If you begin the cavalry at the same starting line as the Wood Elves, the 15” move of the cavalry (6” more than the infantry) should allow the two formations to advance full movement and still end within 6” of each other. I highly recommend pre-measuring – if required, have the cavalry start a little bit behind the infantry starting line, since it’s more important that your force arrives as one big group rather than four solo units arriving as advanced scouts. If your opponent is very slow, it may be better to race the cavalry in ahead of the infantry, but I’m not sure this is wise. When you arrive at the center of the map, hedge the objective so one of your spearmen can pick up the Prize. Escort the model as best you can, using your throwing weapons and Elven cloaks with terrain to keep you alive.
• To The Death: You need to kill things – so shoot them. Shoot them all. Shoot them all day long. And Immobilize anyone dangerous who gets close (Command them early in the game as well). Haldir is an important piece, as he and his bowmen will be racking up kills. Unlike the previous two scenarios, March is less necessary in this one, but your Captain is still quite lethal, so use him.
• Lords of Battle: Similar to To The Death, we care about kill count here. Kill what you can and skirmish for as long as you can. Since most armies will start with a nearly-similar army size, any damage you do with archery (be it from Elf bows or throwing daggers) will set you up to outnumber your opponent when the fighting finally closes. As a result, shoot as much as possible, maximize those throwing daggers, and get into combat once you have numerical superiority. Enemy archery will be greatly hindered by your Elven Cloaks and Galadriel’s Light.
• Contest of Champions: Many people critique the use of Galadriel as an army leader with this scenario in mind. Not only is it one of twelve scenarios (and arguably the only one she isn’t great at), but Galadriel is actually quite good in this scenario: the trick is for her to not operate alone (use Haldir and some of her personal guard to help her win fights, then use her Might points to deal Wounds) AND to make sure you cast Immobilize (not Command – don’t want to have to spend Might points to boost a spell) against your opponent’s army leader to keep him from killing things. While Immobilize might not be as strong as it used to be, it does one thing very well: keep an enemy model from being able to make Strikes. So neutralize the enemy hero and beat him to a pulp with your infantry (throwing daggers are great for taking a wound off when you charge).
• Reconnoitre: Your four cavalry are a perfect formation for this scenario: get the three warrior models off the board quickly, holding the captain in reserve by the enemy board edge in case it looks like your opponent is going to get some models off. Your Wood Elves are great in this scenario, since a) there’s a lot of them and you can make a Thin Red Line, b) that Thin Red Line will die really fast (but not as fast as your cavalry can ride), and c) their Stalk Unseen (paired with Blinding Light) will make it easy for you to keep them safe from enemy archery.
• Storm the Camp: Once again, your cavalry come into their own here, able to race to the enemy camp and pluck wounds off models with their bows as they go. Once again, Galadriel is the rock star of this army, as she can make sure enemy heroes don’t chew through your ranks OR she can Command models that are trying to catch your cavalry in an innocuous direction OR she can draw models who are racing for your camp back towards a safe corner. Some of Haldir’s Elves can be stationed near your camp, providing cover fire (and last-minute numbers) to your own camp, whittling down whoever tries to make an advance on your camp so you can have numerical superiority.
• Heirlooms of Ages Past: Like any maelstrom fight, you’ve got a risk inherent in your deployment: obviously, you’d like everyone to be near Galadriel, but her warband is really the only group that needs her protection from archery. Haldir and his Elves can be on a completely different side of the board and due to their archery (and Elven cloaks), you just need to hunker down in a piece of terrain quickly and you should be relatively safe from any enemy warbands that arrive near you (unless they show up RIGHT next to you – but even then, you’re allowed one volley into them before they can do anything). Your Captain and his Knights should be fine – all are capable of shooting their opponents and their incredible speed (even through wooded terrain) – use them to race to objectives (they will need to dismount to pick it up though, per the requirements of the scenario - if they want to pick it up after it's been found and dropped, they won't have to dismount thanks to having Expert Rider).
• Fog of War: Pick any piece of terrain you want, though Galadriel and her guards could defend a piece pretty well if you choose something near the center. Alternatively, because basically every model in your army has shooting weapons, you could choose a piece on the periphery and play the game on the exterior of the board (which should make your opponent’s terrain piece a bit more obvious to you). When choosing what hero to kill, pick someone with average/low Defense hero and use Command (or your opponent’s own positioning to shoot the hero early). Otherwise, you can use Galadriel to immobilize the hero and then use your cavalry (or really anything) to kill the hero. As far as protecting your own heroes is involved, your opponent can choose to try to kill Haldir (which will be difficult to do with archery/magic if he’s near Galadriel) or your captain (who’s on a horse) – if they choose Haldir, keep him in the center of our group and well-protected (don’t let him ever fight alone). If they make any moves at your captain, you might want to just keep him out of reach of any enemy models and rely on his bow to help him contribute without actually being involved.
• Clash By Moonlight: You’re a shooting list and almost everyone gets shooting – so shoot. Really simple. The only caveat is to calculate when you need to pop Blinding Light, as the illumination (which is bigger than the archery protection radius) will remove the 12” limit on shooting attacks for your opponent’s archers without removing the +1 bonus he gets to Wound. When playing against Moria Goblins with Orc bows (who have Cave Dweller), pop it up first turn, since they ignore the 12” range penalty anyway.

Modifications

While I’ve already addressed some of this, let’s just recap on the modifications I wouldn’t be surprised to see:

• Get A Wood Elf Sentinel or some Galadhrim Court Guard – I mentioned in my tandem post on skirmishers that I like Wood Elf Sentinels. I don’t run very many of them, but it’s nice to have an archer with 2 Attacks, some pseudo-magic capabilities, and an Elven Cloak to keep him safe. Because of the cavalry in this list (and I don’t really want a predominantly D3 army in the low 30s for model count), I’ve chosen to leave these models at home, but if I scaled this army up to 800 points, I’d probably include 1-2 so they could make Goblin-Town heroes, Shades, or Trolls walk away from the fighting (augmenting what Galadriel would be doing). Galadhrim Court Guard are also excellent choices to sprinkle into your army – I’m considering getting a few of them for Battle Companies (and because the occasional F6 is really helpful). Wouldn’t take more than one for every enemy hero I expected to fight – you really don’t need it against most foes, but having one in a combat with a hero makes them work harder to beat your team in most cases.
• Get Rumil – Haldir gets some flak for being a softer hero (“only” D6) and Rumil gets a lot of praise here at TMAT for being a good road-block to an opponent’s power hero. I’ve chosen to focus on the shooting options for Lothlorien, but if you were already converting much of your army into Galadhrim Warriors, it makes sense that you’d want a hero who could make an enemy hero spend more resources to win fights (or just not win fights at all). While I don’t think you’ll get as many kills out of Rumil as you would Haldir (plus I like pairing Haldir’s Heroic Strike with Galadriel’s Immobilize on a 3+ over Rumil’s Heroic Defense), Rumil is still a solid choice for those looking for a bit more damage.
• Get Galadhrim Warriors – Most players appear to prefer Galadhrim Warriors to Wood Elf Warriors – and I don’t blame them. Not only do these models look great, but they’ve got the envied Defense 6 that makes most Elven shieldwalls very hard to crack. For the same price as Wood Elf Warriors with throwing daggers, it’s a reasonable desire to have more of these guys. I will say that the play style of this army (and the threat they pose) changes a lot: armies of Orcs don’t want to run head-on into a Galadhrim shieldwall unless they can wrap around them, but they also don’t have to be worried about taking S3 throwing weapon damage (because the Galadhrim don’t skirmish). Second, against armies that sport S4, being a Galadhrim isn’t that much better in the defensive department than being a Wood Elf (a 55% chance of being killed by 2 S4 dice instead of a 75% chance). Third, a Galadhrim Warrior with a shield, spear, and banner will be harder to wound with enemy archery/magic than the Wood Elf Warrior would, but without the Stalk Unseen, it’s possible he’d be a legitimate target (albeit a hard one to hit for most models) when a Wood Elf Warrior wouldn’t. So…there’s that. An army list using these models would look like this (we dropped one model because the archers are more expensive, but it did give us the ability to get Guards of the Galadhrim Court):
• Galadriel [Army Leader]
• 9 Galadhrim Warriors with shields
• 8 Galadhrim Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Galadhrim Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• 7 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• 1 Galadhrim Warrior with Elf bows and spears
• 2 Guards of the Galadhrim Court
• Galadhrim Captain with Elf bow, shield, and armored horse
• 3 Galadhrim Knights with shields and Elf bows

I would expect most Lorien players to go with at least one of these changes – though a Wood Elf list similar to mine was talked about recently in a Green Dragon podcast on underused models. So maybe I’m not crazy for liking the Wood Elves so much . . .

In our next post, we turn our gaze to the north to the ancient kingdom of Angmar. While Angmar might look like it has very few warrior options to choose from, there is a wide variety of ways to build your list (and if you’ve followed this blog for a while, you probably won’t be surprised with a few of the hero/warrior pairings I’ve chosen). While I’m certain my take on Angmar is widely different from most other players, I welcome your thoughts as well on the subject. Until then, happy hobbying!