Why List Building For The Last Alliance Is Hard

Good morning gamers,

Here at TMAT, we love list building - I mean, the next best thing to playing the game is planning what army you want to bring to the next game you play, am I right? Well, since the new edition dropped, I've come back time and time again to the Last Alliance (a historical alliance between Rivendell and Numenor) and have enjoyed tinkering with various lists. With this tinkering, I'm often left feeling like I haven't got it quite right - there's always something missing or a glaring vulnerability. So today, I wanted to walk through the things I've discovered with this historical alliance (and while this article wasn't planned to be released right before the Rings of Power series airs, it does seem strangely appropriate to talk about how the allied list functions and what you need to know about it).

Why Writing The List Is Hard

If you've never written a Last Alliance list before, let me walk you through some of the decisions you need to make. First and foremost, since you're choosing to go with a historical alliance between Rivendell and Numenor, you'll need at least one hero from Numenor (Elendil, Isildur, or a Captain of Numenor) and at least one hero from Rivendell (thematically this would be Gil-Galad, Elrond, or a High Elf Captain - though you could argue for Glorfindel, Erestor, or Gildor). Once your Rivendell hero is selected, you also have some Minor Hero options (Cirdan and Stormcallers) and of course, you can TECHNICALLY run the Twins, Lindir, or Arwen with Numenor (though it's not thematically appropriate as it breaks the timeline). 

Depending on the points level, you can run a big hero with a March Captain (Gil-Galad and a Captain of Numenor has been popular in the Contest Creations Champions League, though Elendil and a High Elf Captain would be very strong too) or you can run two big heroes (I ran Elendil with Elrond at Brawler Bash and more recently played around with lists that had Gil-Galad with Isildur in it) - and there's nothing wrong with either approach (though one may be more balanced for playing a randomly selected mission given your points level).

Second, there are some very good tactical heroes who you probably should include, but actually including them can be difficult unless your points level is high. My favorite Last Alliance build runs four heroes: Elrond (for the Foresight points and resilient army leader option), Isildur (for a budget anti-hero option), Cirdan (for augmenting buffs), and a Captain of Numenor (budget March hero). Taking these heroes alone is 450-500pts . . . that's kind of a lot (a fact I've lamented at most of the points levels we play here at TMAT). At 700pts, you can probably get three of these guys, so do you lose your March Captain? Or do you leave your archery-protection, terror-inducing, auto-passing-Courage-tests auric hero at home? Or Isildur (leaving Elrond to do the heavy lifting)?

Third, you need to balance taking high-Defense troops and average-Defense troops. Warriors of Numenor can cost the same or slightly fewer points than High Elf Warriors but come with the natural limitation of being D4-5 instead of D5-6. High Elf Warriors have superior FV and Courage, but inferior Strength - though they can two-hand to wound as well or better than the Numenoreans (and no, that doesn't have to be a problem if you're rolling enough dice - for why this is, read my article on the Elven "windmill" battle line). If you do choose to two-hand, you're going to be D5, which means you're giving up your Defense advantage, so the two infantry choices are quite comparable to each other (no clear winner) - but what kind of mix you get is very much up for debate.

Finally, while you have access to mounted warriors in Rivendell (and Rivendell Knights are incredibly good cavalry models), how many mounted models you can include in your army list is going to be dependent on the heroes you choose to run and your points level. In our Bare Necessities series, I've recommended running at least 4 mounted models and when I did my review of Numenor in that series, I allied in Elrond with some Rivendell Knights because Numenor has limited access to mounted models (heroes only). But even getting the requisite 4 mounted models was HARD at 700pts - and to go even lower in points means there's a trade between quality beat-stick heroes and fast troops (and while you don't have to run Elrond to include Rivendell Knights in our list if you follow the normal bow limit restrictions, even taking someone like Erestor or Gildor is going to run you a fairly high amount of points once you fill out their warband).

So these are what makes list building hard - but let's turn now to principles for the army list that you can keep in mind for your own army list creations.

Principles for List Building with the Last Alliance

First and foremost, consider whether you want your big hero to tackle heroes or warriors. The "big four" (or five, if you include Glorfindel) can be simplistically grouped into two categories: anti-hero heroes (Gil-Galad and Isildur with the One Ring) and anti-warrior heroes (Elrond with Wrath of Bruinen and Elendil with free Heroic Combats and a crazy high Fight Value). If you choose to take two big heroes, any combo that takes one from each faction will be strong:

• Gil-Galad + Elendil: Both heroes are high Fight monstrocities and Heroes of Legend, so either can be your Army Leader. Gil-Galad is F9 with Blood and Glory and +1 To Wound, so he really wants to run over enemy heroes (preferably those who can't get to F9-10 and can be run over in a single round), while Elendil's free Heroic Combats from F7 (that can Feint down to F4-6) makes him incredibly good at smashing through warriors. This combo, if both heroes get all their gear, is a whopping 385pts, which means they probably won't be active at 500pts . . . but they'd also be pretty hard to stop at that points level too . . .
• Gil-Galad + Isildur: Unlike Elendil, Isildur is the most dependable hero at taking down heroes who can get to F10 (either innately for the Balrog or for anyone else who Strikes high enough to get there). Unless Sauron is on the other side of the board and has the One Ring, Isildur is a very reliable hero for blunting if not killing enemy heroes. He's also hard to snipe from afar with archery or magic if he's walking forward with the One Ring on, since most models won't be able to target him. His reliability is dependent on you being able to control him, of course - if he gets a cascade of 1s and 2s, it can REALLY hurt (experience is talking here). Of course, you have Gil-Galad for anti-hero redundancy if that happens, so the story's not all bad. 
• Elrond + Elendil: This is the most expensive pairing, but gives you two heroes who are quite capable of killing enemy warriors in droves - which is good, since they're so expensive. Both CAN fight enemy heroes as well, but they'd both rather be smashing through grunts instead. With almost 400pts invested in these guys fully maxed, they can devastate the enemy with some assisting Rivendell Knights and a solid anvil of infantry (some of whom will hopefully be fighting models that are lying on the ground). Elrond should also help you get Priority when you need it (though my Elrond can't get more than 1-2 Foresight points when I use him).
• Elrond + Isildur: This is my favorite pairing - one hero who is good at controlling a section of the board and killing warriors while the other is curb-stomping enemy heroes with the One Ring on. Thanks to Isildur being a LOT cheaper than Elendil, this is also a pretty inexpensive pairing (up to 325pts) and deals a big punch to your opponent.

It doesn't matter who you use - any of these pairings will be nasty for your opponent. I will note that Elendil with Glorfindel is another popular choice by those who fear enemy magical barrages (and Glorfindel with Isildur is the cheapest dual-beater combo). Since Numenor doesn't have a good alliance option to get Fortify Spirit, having 2 free dice to resist magical attacks on BOTH big heroes is amazing. Glorfindel was certainly present at the battle of Dagorlad, even though he wasn't one of the "big guys" there.

I'd encourage you to take a March hero as well - and as Jacob has done in the Conquest Creations Champions League, if you're playing at a low points level, you should have a March Captain as one of your two heroes (pick your "big man" from the "big four" and then choose the complementary March Captain from the other faction). This army at any points level is going to be heavily infantry and most of those (one way or another) are going to be D4-5 - and THOSE units need to get where they're going quickly because they're going to cost 9-12pts/model and dying on the way to a fight is horrible. Cirdan could be an answer to archery mowing you down as you advance down the field, but if you're playing a get-somewhere scenario (and there are many of them), not having a March hero is a big problem.

You'll also want to consider how many Numenoreans you want. High Elf Warriors are REALLY good for their cost but for 9-12pts each (9pts if you run them "vanilla" which is an uncommon-but-not-crazy idea, 10pts with a shield or spear, 11pts with an Elf bow OR shield with spear OR shield with King's Guard upgrade, 12pts with an Elf bow and spear OR shield, spear, and King's Guard upgrade). Numenoreans will run you 9-10pts each depending on whether they have 1-2 pieces of gear which makes them marginally cheaper than their Elven counterparts, but not nearly as good as them. If you find that you have less than 9pts to spare, convert a few Elves into Numenoreans so you can add an extra model to your list.

There's been some debate as to whether your Numenoreans should be in the front rank or whether they should be in the second rank and for this I have a very simple solution: Warriors of Numenor should be equipped with either a shield or a spear and bow in a Last Alliance list - that's all you need. Warriors of Numenor can be equipped with a spear and bow to support High Elf Warriors with Elf bows (who can reroll failed To Hits if you have your army leader standing next to them), while your Warriors of Numenor with shields can stand in front of their more expensive Elven counterparts. Yes, the D6 might be harder to wound with archery/melee, but any even-Strength archery (bows, Great bows, and crossbows) or melee attacks (S4 in particular) is going to wound a D5 Warrior of Numenor as easily as a D6 King's Guard. Running your Warriors of Numenor in front of the High Elves also makes it so that your front-rank guy doesn't have F5-6, so he might be able to Feint while still getting the higher Fight of the spearman to help win the fight (and if you can reroll 1s on a S3 model or a S4 model, there will be times when it helps more on a S4 model).

The final thought is about the mounted models: with expensive heroes, it'll be hard for you to get more than a handful of mounted models in your list, but I'd encourage you to get a few Rivendell Knights. If Elrond is in your army, these guys won't count towards your bow limit (which is good), but even if you run a High Elf Captain or Gil-Galad, you can still get good damage out of 2-4 of them. Riv-Knights want to hit models on the flank and roll them up quickly (preferably with a big hero near them to draw attention) and can be relied on to get to objectives quickly and skirmish if they are outmatched/outnumbered. For a mostly infantry army, having a fast option is always good - so take a few.

Conclusion

Hopefully you enjoyed these thoughts on a much beloved thematic alliance that is in dire need of new models (especially mounted Elendil and Gil-Galad models - though we just got new Elrond and Glorfindel sculpts, as well as a banner guy?). If you've run the Last Alliance before, let us know how it's gone for you and whether there are any tips you'd recommend to players looking to get into these factions. Until next time, happy hobbying!