Good morning gamers,
We come today to the second Elf Legendary Legion that was omitted from Defence of the North as we view the Halls of Thranduil list and what Legion could be made for those that defended the greenwood from the invasion of Orcs and spiders that raged northward during the war. There's a dual-problem we face with making this Legion: first and foremost, we need to make the list look good without Legolas or allies. Second, we need the list to look different from the Lothlorien Legion we presented last time.
Neither of these changes are going to be easy, but the second is really important. There's one other thing I wanted to fix with this Legion (since we're in the neighborhood): I wanted the Mirkwood Captains in this list to have a place. Mirkwood Captains are only marginally less expensive than Palace Guard Captains and don't move faster either. So how do we fix this? Well, let's dig into the Legion rules!
DOWNLOAD THE RULES HERE!!!
Why Make This Legion?
Let's begin with fixing the absent Legolas problem: Legolas is one of the best allies you can bring for the Forces of Good - he's 95-115pts (depending on your interest in Orcrist or his horse), which isn't that much for Heroes of Valor in general and cheaper than most other Elven Valor heroes (except Haldir). He's Historical/Convenient Allies with everyone except Grimbeorn, so dropping him and up to 15 Elves in your army isn't hard. In combat, he's fine with 2 Attacks base at F6/S4 and 3-Might-and-Strike and access to a mount.
The usual appeal of Legolas, though, is his ranged threat - three shots with a 3+ Shoot Value if you need to clear out a spam of warriors OR one shot that hits on a 2+ regardless of modifiers (such as Blinding Light or moving-and-shooting) and additional rolls (like in-the-ways, to include shooting into combat). Sure, he still needs to wound the target, but being able to reach out and hit anyone he needs to tackle makes him one of the best assassin models in the game. Yes, he will be greatly missed.
To make up for this, we want the list to lean harder into melee fighting - though ranged weapons will still have an appeal. Thranduil is at the center of this army and while we can take Tauriel, we want our generic heroes to have a place. Palace Guard Captains have always been good and they remain unchanged. They did pick up a rule that allows a warband entirely composed of Palace Guards led by a Palace Guard Captain to be deployed at the same time as Thranduil's warband (getting a 6 if a roll is required to deploy them). This can guarantee that Thranduil always has a Marching hero with him OR could allow you to guarantee you'll have one warband that deploys where you want it (even if it's not near Thranduil).
Mirkwood Ranger Captains have had a dubious place outside of the Rangers of Mirkwood LL, but I didn't want to just give them the same ambush rule that we gave to the Lorien Legion we looked at last time. Instead, I took the rule they gain from the Rangers of Mirkwood LL that allows Mirkwood Rangers and Mirkwood Ranger Captains to defend by shielding instead of fighting normally (at the cost of their Knife Fighters special rule).
But what to do about Mirkwood Captains? There's one simple change that lent itself to me: since the Mirkwood Captain model is shouting, let friendly models reroll a die when making a dueling roll (which would allow those within range of a banner to reroll two dice). Thranduil can make the models near him get extra damage and Palace Guard Captains are excellent combatants, but only Mirkwood Cavalry treat Thranduil as a banner . . . so let everyone else rely on these Captains for the banner boost (and the cavalry could get two rerolls if within 6" of both Thranduil and a Mirkwood Captain).
Finally, we kept the damage-side of the normal army bonus, allowing you to maximize the damage around Thranduil and create an epic death ball (something the Halls of Thranduil is known for). In addition, to match the Fell Beings of Mirkwood Legendary Legion, all friendly models pick up the Hatred (Orc) keyword - perfect for dealing with those wretched Orc filth invading their land!
Legion Design
This list is designed to give you some options, but it's pretty much about Thranduil. Thranduil can be a punchy infantry hero or a devastating cavalry model depending on how you want to run him. With him, you can bring up to 18 warriors, which is likely to be a mix of Mirkwood Cavalry and heavily armored Elves (Palace Guards with spears backing up Mirkwood Elves with shields).
Your choice of second hero is very much up for grabs though - do you want a punchy hero (like a Palace Guard Captain or Tauriel - who picks up the ability to use her daggers as throwing daggers because . . . you know . . . she does that . . . a lot) or a support hero (like a Mirkwood Captain or a Mirkwood Ranger Captain)? How important is March to you (Palace Guard Captains and Mirkwood Captains only)? Strike (Tauriel only)?
There are two warband construction rules that have been applied: you only get access to Mirkwood Rangers and Wood Elf Sentinels if you take Tauriel and Mirkwood Ranger Captains, so if you like those models, you'll need to bring those heroes to lead them. Similarly, you can only field Palace Guards with Thranduil (since they're his guards) and Palace Guard Captains (an external detachment).
If you choose one of the armored captains, they probably want to hang around Thranduil to maximize his effectiveness and to be better at killing things themselves. While "death-balling-up" will make your army more predictable and difficult to maneuver and manage far-flung objectives, anyone who gets caught fighting that death ball will regret it pretty quickly.
Finally, we need to talk about Thranduil - when I originally made the list, I felt like something was missing. Then it struck me: while Thranduil is the source of extra damage for friendly models, there's nothing that makes HIM better. While I could have given him +1 To Wound as well (and sometimes I think he should have it), I decided to lean hard into the fighting-the-serpents-of-the-north thing and let him auto-pass Terror checks and do Crushing-Club-level damage to monsters (each wound becoming D3 wounds before Fate is rolled). Most monsters don't have more than 1 Fate anyway, but if you're low on Fate or Wounds, Thranduil could definitely one-shot a monster if he's S5 on his Elk (something he'd normally struggle with).
Okay, let's talk about some lists!
Exemplar Lists
Our first list begins at 500pts and we're leaning into the death ball hard with Thranduil and a newly-revamped Mirkwood Captain. With a 6" banner, a pair of cavalry, and some bowmen to hold objectives we leave behind, we're charging forward to decimate whatever shows up on the other side (and with 23 models, our numbers aren't horrible for being Elves with a big hero in tow):
- Thranduil, King of the Woodland Realm on Elk with extra sword and heavy armor
- 6 Mirkwood Elves with shields
- 8 Palace Guards with shields and spears
- Mirkwood Captain
- 3 Mirkwood Elves with Elf bows
- 2 Mirkwood Elves with Elf bows and Elven glaives
- 2 Mirkwood Cavalry
- Thranduil King of the Woodland Realm on Elk with extra sword and heavy armor
- 5 Mirkwood Elves with shields
- 3 Mirkwood Elves with Elf bows
- 4 Palace Guards with shields and spears
- 2 Palace Guards with spears
- Palace Guard Captain with shield
- 2 Mirkwood Elves with shields
- 3 Mirkwood Elves with Elf bows
- 3 Palace Guards with shields and spears
- Thranduil, King of the Woodland Realm on Elk with extra sword, Circlet of Kings, and heavy armor
- 5 Mirkwood Elves with shields
- 4 Palace Guards with shields and spears
- 1 Palace Guard with shield, spear, and banner
- Mirkwood Captain
- 3 Mirkwood Elves with Elf bows
- 6 Mirkwood Elves with Elf bows and Elven Glaives
- Palace Guard Captain
- 4 Mirkwood Elves with shields
- 5 Palace Guards with shields and spears
- Thranduil King of the Woodland Realm on Elk with extra sword, Circlet of Kings, and heavy armor
- 6 Palace Guards with shields
- 5 Palace Guards with shields and spears
- Tauriel with Elf bow
- 8 Mirkwood Rangers
- Mirkwood Captain
- 4 Mirkwood Elves with shields
- 5 Mirkwood Elves with Elven Glaives
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this Legion - and if you have any thoughts on it, drop a note below! We try not to break the game with our custom content, but if you think we missed something, let us know and we can make changes as needed. Next time, Centaur has an interesting Legion that gives a wild alternative take on one of the most competitive factions in the game - you won't want to miss this one! Until then, may the season be merry and bright and happy hobbying!
hm, I have some doubts concerning Tauriel (her fate in the Hobbit trilogy) and the times of the War of the Ring - having in mind that some characters are excluded in MSBG from their armies not only because they are dead. I mean Bombur for example, that potentially could be carried a la Dragon Emperor (or Vitalstatistix - the chief of the Gaulish village from Asterix series ;) As powerful and skilled the Tauriel character is, I do not think the timeline is suitable. But I understand that missing Legolas AND Tauriel at the same time would definitely impact the army/legion
ReplyDeleteI view the lack of a palanquin Bombur as a huge missed opportunity. :)
DeleteWell, Tauriel is in the scenarios for DotN, so clearly according to GW she's there.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was Defence of the North that did it for me - and I also I didn't think I could get away with omitting her. :P She's a great hero and a lot of people don't run her outside the Legion, favoring Legolas and Thranduil instead (or an alliance where she is omitted).
DeleteLooks like a fun Legion, I'm always interested in different ways of running Mirkwood. My one concern is that that buff to the Mirkwood Captain is very, very strong for an army like this that almost always has the Fight value advantage. Comboing with a banner means your core troops would be ridiculously deadly and hard to shift; effectively an Easterling phalanx in three ranks but with F6 and noticeably better damage output. It's an effect that's only present on a handful of models, and never on warriors as far as I know.
ReplyDeleteI think the best option would just be to switch it into being just a 6" banner, or maybe even a 3" one. That's already a huge gain, way better than the buffs the other two Captains get. Obviously the Mirkwood Captain needs a little more than they do, but a free 3" banner would already put it as clearly the best Captain option to my mind.
Otherwise, sounds like a super fun Legion and I'm excited for the next one!
P.S. Tauriel was obligatory, you're right
Yeah, I thought the 6" reroll might be a bit much - but unlike the Easterlings, you have to buy Thranduil and the Mirkwood Captain (and your troops are more expensive). Harder to shift? Yes. More mass (in terms of points sunk) in that one area? Certainly (or the Elves will be outnumbered and find it difficult to get the dice numbers in). This is one of those things we might tone down (these are living documents that should be tested by others and feedback provided, after all). :-)
DeleteThat's absolutely true, although I'd note that the Easterlings are buying the Dragon Emperor, who's not cheap, and probably at least one other combat character as well. I think the big challenge with this rule is it doesn't just make your pushing stronger than any other in the game, but also means the shielding Elves on the flanks get 3-4 dice at F5 to hold for a very long time. I think anything to boost odds of winning the fight is always very scary for Elves, and particularly when those Elves can stack +1 to wound and F6!
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