Overly Pedantic Stats: Best Elven Faction?

 Hey Reader!

We're back with another episode of Overly Pedantic Stats, and this post was prompted by the fact that I'm revisiting Rohan, and as I started thinking through the Helm's Deep legendary legion, it got me to wondering whether it was worth it to purchase Lothlorien models, as I've never run Lorien before.

Now, in the last iteration of the game (and I've mentioned this in the past on this blog), I thought that the Galadhrim were a terrible model, failing to be as cheap as wood elves, as resilient as high elves, or as deadly as mirkwood elves. But with the newest iteration of the game where 1) the Galadhrim now have heavy armor instead of just armor, and 2) you can only get wood elves in a Lorien list or a Gildor Inglorien warband for Rivendell, I was curious to see how good Lorien is now.

And that meant it was time for overly pedantic stats analysis. We'll be looking at five elements of the army: killing power (both in melee and at range), duel winning ability, resilience to damage, mobility, and overall cost. Inasmuch as magic factors into these rankings (Blinding Light helping with resilience, Nature's Wrath helping with killing power as it deals wounds and traps targets that are on the ground, etc.) we have also considered magic, but do not have a dedicated "Magic" category, and that will highly favor the fleshed out army lists over the less fleshed out lists.

We will discuss each of them in order from weakest to strongest, looking at the following factions: Rivendell, Lothlorien, Halls of Thranduil, and the Helm's Deep Legendary Legion contingent of Galadhrim.

#4: Lothlorien

Lothlorien is not a "weak faction" by any metric (except maybe the number of mounted heroes and heroes with Heroic Strike in the list - more on that later), but it is the weakest of the elven factions. With the lowest score in the Killing category due to a general lack of mounted heroes (you can't mount Celeborn because...why?!?!?), and a poor showing in the Dueling category due to only having two heroes with Heroic Strike and no access to F7+ heroes, Lorien started in a bad place.

As it went on, though, they did okay: from a Defense perspective the list is good, with a mix of light and heavy troops and the ability to recover lost Fate Points through Galadriel and the Mirror. They are decently mobile, and they are one of the best elven factions when looking at the cost of your troops, as you have a good selection of cheap wood elves and more expensive Galadhrim and Wood Elf Sentinels to add resiliency and support to your list. 

So not a bad faction, just not as strong as the other elven factions. And this is important to remember as it's not a case of a weak army, it's just being compared to armies that are also F5+ with good shooting and at least decent (if not great) magical support.

#3: Helm's Deep Legendary Legion

This one actually surprised me - I thought they would come in last, but they didn't. And for good reason: what this list offers is some of the best units Lothlorien has and adds to them in ways that are very useful both to themselves and to their Rohan allies. The upgraded 30" elf bows are great killing weapons, making up for their lack of cavalry, and with access to S4 Warriors of Rohan when they Piercing Strike, the elves stand a better chance of killing the enemy in a fight.

Where this list really struggles, though, is in the Dueling and Mobility categories. Having zero access to horses (including your Rohan allies) is a serious limitation on mobility, and with only Haldir, Theoden, and a list of very expensive heroes having access to Heroic Strike, the list just doesn't perform as well as other factions. Even when you factor in the Rohan heroes that you get access to, you don't have the F7+ heroes (sans an Aragorn + Haleth scenario, which is not always guaranteed) that you see from not one but two of the elven factions in this list.

The list does really well, though, in the Defense and Cost categories, which is what pushed it above the Lothlorien list. The whole list is D6+, making it hard to wound. And with the troops and heroes being very reasonably costed, you can field a good contingent of elves for cheap.

#2: Halls of Thranduil

I'll be honest, I thought these guys were going to take it. For starters, when you're looking for killing power, this is how you do it: multi-attack rangers in close combat who deal lethal damage at range, access to cavalry, access to glaives, access to a F7 hero on an elk that can be base S5, and on top of that access to Legolas and Tauriel? How could any elven faction match this for killing power (well actually Rivendell came close on the math, but they fell behind at the last moment)?

And the army did a really good job in the Dueling category: they don't have as many F7+ characters or as much Strike (only Thranduil, Legolas, and Tauriel) as Rivendell, but their access to glaives is huge as it allows them to shield to win fights with an elven-made weapon, which is huge for winning duel rolls when you're down and need to hold the line.

Defense was a close one between Lorien and Halls of Thranduil, with both sides having 5-6 models below D6. The issue with Halls of Thranduil is 1) the lack of Galadriel restoring Fate Points, and 2) Halls of Thranduil tend to rely more on their low Defense heroes (Legolas and Tauriel) and warriors (like Mirkwood Rangers) than Lorien does, so we split the tie in favor of Lorien.

Mobility is great in this force, though: you get a mounted Thranduil and Legolas (not any of the captains, but okay) plus access to cavalry, which was just enough to push them ahead of the two Lorien factions, but in a far second place behind Rivendell. And for cost these guys are okay - not quite as expensive as Rivendell thanks to cheap mid-range heroes, but definitely not as cheap as the Lorien factions.

#1: Rivendell

And at the top, we have Rivendell. Need killy heroes? They've got you covered four different ways (with a F9 beat stick on a horse, a F7 bruiser who shrugs off magic on a horse, a spellcaster who can slaughter up close on a horse, and a pair of hardcore twins on horses. Oh, and there are more, but these are the undisputed killing options). Need killy warriors? Access to lances and two-handed weapons all over the place supported by spears and good elven shooting.

But where the list really shines is in the Dueling category. With access to both a F9 hero and a F7 hero, multiple Lords of the West, and an overwhelming amount of Heroic Strike, this one wasn't even close. Similarly the fact that virtually everyone and their sister (literally) can be mounted means that this force can hit hard in part due to their great mobility.

The fact that some of the models are D3, D4, and D5 in the list, though, did place it below the Helm's Deep Legendary Legion in the Defense category, but even then it was close. But all of these advantages did lead to a solid 4th place finish for Cost, as you're paying for so much killing potential, so many mounts, and so much heavy armor. It's hard to stay competitive on cost when you're pretty much strapped in to 10-25pts per warrior and 100+ pts per hero. 

But at the end of the day, Rivendell still carried it despite the low Cost score. So there's my conclusion: if you're looking for the strongest overall elf faction, it's Rivendell by a hair.

Conclusion

Now, of course, before someone bites my head off (*cough* Tiberius *cough*), there are intangibles that are not calculated here. Playstyle, scenario, army composition, and many other things could change the strength of the faction on the table. But purely from a stats perspective, if you are thinking about starting an elven force, you might find more success out of the box with Rivendell or Halls of Thranduil over Lothlorien. And that's not me talking - that's the stats, :P

Also, I should note that doing this study really affirmed for me the choice to invest in a small contingent of Galadhrim. They really are good units for the cost, and their presence in the legendary legion is really nice as it lends things to Rohan that they didn't have before. So no knock against Lothlorien - they're a fine faction. Just perhaps not as strong on the stats as other factions.

Watching the stars,

Centaur

"We are not all like the traitor Firenze, human girl!  Perhaps you thought us pretty talking horses?  We are an ancient people who will not stand wizard invasions and insults!" ~ Magorian, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix