In Defense Of: Isildur

Good morning gamers,

Today we cover a model that is quite good - and some competitive players really love: Isildur. Isildur is one of the best slaying heroes in the game, but there are a LOT of people who don't like him. Today, I delve into a hero that I love to use at large points levels - and have been running a bunch recently. Let's dig in right away!

Why NOT To Take Isildur

The first limitation for Isildur is his dad: Elendil was commonly viewed in our evaluation of the Top 50 Slayer Heroes for the Forces of Good to be better than Isildur (I dissented) - F7 instead of F6, S5 with a Master-Forged hand-and-a-half sword that grants free Heroic Combats (vs. S5 with a mundane hand-and-a-half sword that doesn't get free Heroic Combats), 2 free dice to resist magical powers (vs. Resistant to Magic only), and all the same gear options (horse and shield), getting Elendil for the "low-low price" of 200pts seems like a really good deal.

While you can get both Elendil and Isildur in your army, Isildur takes a big hit: he loses the One Ring (since, you know, he didn't have it while his dad was alive). Isildur has a pretty great profile (F6/S5/3A with 3 Might on offense, D7-8 with 3 Wounds/2 Fate on Defense), but Striking from "only F6" isn't as great as "I will always have the higher Fight Value period." Similarly, 6" movement can really restrict your movement, but it's remarkably less restricted when you can walk through enemy ranks and provide traps to your men by attacking the spearmen in the formation from the rear. Yes, Isildur is great with the Ring and losing it is kind of a big deal.

Third, if you do have the Ring with Isildur, you're asking yourself very strongly how long you intend to keep your horse. Mounted heroes are great in this edition of the game (they get lots of great movement, they often get +1 Attack on turns when they charged, they often double their wounding dice, and they get the equivalent of a Fate save from enemy missile attacks - not that you really want your mount being shot out from under you most of the time). Because you get Knocked Flying if you put on the Ring while mounted, Isildur has to choose how long he keeps his horse before turning it in for immunity from Heroic Strikes/F10 monsters. It's a trade to be sure.

Finally, Isildur comes in an army list that's really restrictive on its allies. While most armies can ally Conveniently with the White Council (which meant more back when Galadriel, Lady of Light was a Valor hero - but still matters now that you can bring her and another big-shot hero for ~300pts), Numenor is one of two factions that can't ally her in. Yes, you can ally historically with Rivendell and get access to Cirdan (who gives you some of what she does - though he's better as an augment to her abilities), but you won't have a tool-kit way of dealing with enemy magic and archery as effectively by taking Numenor (especially an Isildur-based Numenor).

This section is shorter than most because there's actually a lot to like about Isildur - so let's look at how to deal with these negatives!

Why TO Take Isildur

When we did our evaluation of our Top 50 Slaying Heroes for the Forces of Good (the Evil one is coming guys, but with a bunch of new models dropping, we're postponing for now), I used some overly-simplistic methods for determining whether models would win a fight against Shagrat and how likely they were to wound him. This assumed that a) the model in question always had the charge, b) always got +4 FV when Striking, and c) could boost their dueling/wounding rolls to help them do better. This led to some odd results (like Gil-Galad calling Heroic Strength instead of Heroic Strike) and one of them was that Elendil and Isildur did exactly the same against Shagrat (both got to F10 over F9, both were S5 with +1 To Wound if Isildur chose to boost, and both were on horses with 3 Attacks base). Isildur ended up doing as well in basically every category as his dad, except he came in at 135pts instead of 200pts - and that's a HUGE difference!

If you view the Unexpected Podcast review of some of the ETC armies, you'll notice that at least in the selection they went through, there were three Last Alliance lists, two with Isildur (both with Gil-Galad, more on that later) and one with Elendil (and Glorfindel) - so even in a highly competitive scene, the argument between which hero is better to take is definitely up for debate. 

On the tabletop, when I use Isildur, I don't run him on a horse - I pick someone else to be that hero and let my opponent underestimate Isildur instead. I often two-hand with him (and Feint if I'm fighting warriors and have the Ring on - wounding on 3s while rerolling 1s is really great) and he does great damage. On a horse, he'd be more like a Boromir of Gondor in hitting power, which isn't bad at all (and was better in my Slayers evaluation on the horse than on foot with the Ring). I could see you going either way, but Isildur for me is a foot model (bring a Marching Captain for him and he'll be fine).

I also only run Isildur at high points levels, allied with Rivendell. If you have his dad in the army, Isildur's probably not as valuable as two Captains mounted with lances - they don't get to F6+, but they do get the +1 To Wound on the charge for free and they take damage pretty well (D6-7 with heavy armor and bow/shield instead of D7-8 depending on whether or not you're two-handing or one-handing). Having this threat in two places (to say nothing of 4 Might for Heroic Marches/Moves) is really great and can be absolutely devastating. For me, Isildur comes into a realm all his own, when there's someone else (like Elrond, Gil-Galad, or Glorfindel) running the show and he's just playing second-hitter.

I've used Isildur at lower points levels many times (where your opponent will struggle to have a good answer for him), but those Ring tests can kill you - if he's the only hitter you have and he's walking off to smell daisies for 1-2 turns, the rest of your army can collapse fast. If he fails a Ring test in a high-points game, you're less worried about the impact (since Gil-Galad, Elrond, or Glorfindel is still running things over). He's probably also not your army leader, so you can risk throwing him into something big and not worry about it.

Finally, while Isildur may have restricted alliance options, he doesn't really need them. Rivendell has one of the most comprehensive hero arrays in the game - and many of them complement what Numenor provides very well. If you want a big hero, you can run Elrond, Gil-Galad, or Glorfindel (all of which are at least in the discussion about who's the best hero with Elendil - I had Gil-Galad at 5th, Elendil at 6th, Glorfindel at 7th, and Elrond at 10th . . . with Isildur at 3rd . . . upstart youngster, I know). If you don't want a Captain of Numenor for March, you can get a High Elf Captain or Gildor Inglorion. If you want protection from archery and/or magic, you have access to Cirdan for Blinding Light and Lindir for Resistant to Magic on your High Elves (if you didn't commit to Gil-Galad, that is), which complements the Resistant to Magic buff from Isildur for your Numenorians. If you don't take Gil-Galad, you also have access to the Twins for budget killing power and to Arwen for budget casting. You may not have access to all the tools you want, but you can get most of them with Rivendell.

Making It Work

I've already alluded to some of this in the section above, but some of it bears repeating here:

• Run Isildur with Rivendell at high points levels: this combines two thoughts - Isildur is great at high points levels when he's "not all you have" and that he's great WITH Rivendell (since you lose a lot of what makes him good if you run him with Elendil). If Isildur chooses to spend a few turns under the control of your opponent while he's got the Ring on, you want someone else (Gil-Galad or Elrond thematically, but you can also use the Twins or Glorfindel) to be running everyone over. Allying at low points levels is really inefficient, so do it at higher points levels instead.
• Always have a March hero around (horse or no horse): Isildur might have a horse or he might not - either way, you want him engaging as quickly as possible. March is the best way to do that for Numenor - and Captains of Numenor are pretty cheap (60pts on foot with heavy armor and shield, +15pts for a horse and lance if you want them). If you're playing with an allied Rivendell, you could get a High Elf Captain with full gear for 100pts (generally speaking I jump for the Numenor Captain instead - you need the points).
• Ally in <someone big> and Cirdan from Rivendell: I've been using Cirdan a lot recently with Isildur - and while you can't cast Enchanted Blades on Isildur while he's wearing the Ring (though if you time it right, you can cast it on him BEFORE he puts the Ring on), Isildur benefits from Enchanted Blades a lot. With S5 and potentially +1 To Wound, rerolling all failed To Wounds will kill a lot of stuff. I will note that the Isildur list

Here's the 800-point, 35-model army list I've been knocking around recently - you can find a 37-model, 750pt army list here that I liked but didn't run at a recent tournament if you want more lists:

• Gil-Galad, High King of the Elves on horse with shield [ARMY LEADER]
• 5 King's Guard with shields
• 4 King's Guard with shields and spears
• 1 King's Guard with shield, spear, and banner
• Cirdan
• 3 High Elf Warriors with Elf bows
• 3 High Elf Warriors with Elf bows and spears
• HISTORICAL ALLY - Numenor: Isildur with shield
• 5 Warriors of Numenor with shields
• 5 Warriors of Numenor with spears and bows
• HISTORICAL ALLY - Numenor: Captain of Numenor with heavy armor and shield
• 4 Warriors of Numenor with shields
• 1 Warrior of Numenor with shield and spear

BONUS LIST (because I can't help myself): I think Gil-Galad is an excellent candidate for working with Isildur, but I recently had a game against Centaur with the above list where Gil-Galad was neutered pretty hard by magic - and if you want to save 25pts from the list above and be better against magic, you can downgrade all those King's Guard to "just High Elves" and run Glorfindel with everything. I've managed to get +3 models into the list by also dropping the heavy armor on the Numenorian Captain and a spear on one of the Warriors of Numenor. For kicks, I've also made Isildur the army leader:

• Isildur with shield [ARMY LEADER]
• 4 Warriors of Numenor with shields
• Captain of Numenor with shield
• 6 Warriors of Numenor with shields
• 6 Warriors of Numenor with spears and bows
• HISTORICAL ALLY - Rivendell: Glorfindel, Lord of the West on Asfaloth with the Armor of Gondolin
• 3 High Elf Warriors with Elf bows
• 3 High Elf Warriors with Elf bows and spears
• HISTORICAL ALLY - Rivendell: Cirdan
• 6 High Elf Warriors with shields
• 5 High Elf Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 High Elf Warrior with shield, spear, and banner

Conclusion

Well, that's it for Isildur - if you liked this article (and if you like running him), let us know your experiences in the comments below. Next, our travels take us to my beloved faction of Lothlorien and one of the models it took me a LONG time to get: Galadhrim Knights. Often viewed as the worst Elven cavalry in the game (and the source of unrivaled consternation that Celeborn can't have a horse but these bozzos can), Galadhrim Knights get a lot of critique from the competitive community. So are they worth it and how do you kit them out? Find out next time - until then, happy hobbying!