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The Scouring of the Shire, Part 16: The Battle of Bywater

Good morning gamers, This is it - this is for all the bananas! We've reached the end of the Scouring of the Shire campaign and we're...

Monday, October 30, 2023

Nemesis: How to Fight the Assault on Lothlorien Legendary Legion

Good morning gamers,

Last time, we looked at the much-feared Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legendary Legion and some strategies you can employ to fight it. Today, we turn to the other "Assault" legion (the Assault on Lothlorien) to see what the hype is about this list . . . and some things you can employ to fight against it. Yes, it shoots things - and yes, it has crazy shenanigans that the Helm's Deep list doesn't quite have - but it also plays very differently and can be beaten with some other methods of attack. Let's dig in and see what all the fuss is about (especially now that they've changed a bit).

What Makes The Assault on Lothlorien Legion So Hated?

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community 

The first thing that annoys players about fighting this Legion is that it's a horde list - this critique isn't unique to the Legion, but any time you can get a large number of models at basically any points level, someone is going to gripe. Sometimes bringing a horde to the board (I'm a poet, I know) is fine - no one seems to complain that much when there's a Denethor-led Minas Tirith spam list on the board - and there are plenty of lists that run "just a lot of Orcs or Goblins" that no one things is oppressive. It's not like this list is spawning new models from behind your lines like Goblin-town or has +10 or +15 models on you at the start of a game (though it might).

What makes this list annoying is that it's a horde list with other stuff. The list has access to Moria Goblins (5-7 points depending on what gear you give the Moria Goblin Warriors and your opinion of Moria Goblin Prowlers), Orc Warriors and Trackers (5-10 points depending on the gear you give them, potentially more if you invest in a banner), and Wild Wargs (which all heroes can lead and are very cheap fast infantry). If you spend 250-300 points on these things, you can easily field 40 warriors at most points levels, so long as you have the heroes to lead them.

Enter the shamans in this list: on the named front, you've got Druzhag and Ashrak (at least one of them is required), who come in at 50-90 points, but fielding both is certainly possible at 500+ points. You also have Muzgur (who is required along with one of these Goblin guys - and now has to be your army leader), who at 70 points is one of the cheapest Heroes of Valour in the game (normally he's Fortitude, but in this list he's Valour). Pick up all three of these guys (or two of these guys and one other hero) and you can horde out pretty easily.

On the generic hero front, you have both Moria Goblin Shamans and Orc Shamans (45 or 50 points, respectively) who are able to lead 12 warriors in their warbands, thanks to the promotion to Fortitude status in the Legion. Which one you prefer used to depend very much on your view of Orcs - are they just a handful of spearmen behind the Goblins or are they a proper shieldwall (half shield, half spear-and-shield). Now that you have to have fewer Goblins than Orcs, it'll be hard for any player to have exclusively Goblins in their shieldwalls, but I have always liked the picks that can help the Orcs reach S4 (which you can get with Moria Goblin Prowlers who have to fight two-handed, but not Moria Goblin Warriors) and the flexibility of not having to have these guys arrive near the Goblin lines. I used to be in the minority opinion on this - time will tell how the new meta for this list will shake out.

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Fantasy Fellowships: The Erebor Reunion, Part 6b

Good morning gamers,

We're closing in on the end of our Fantasy Fellowship campaign and today we have Bofur's second-to-last mission (the Charge of the Rohirrim). Fell deeds awake - let's get going!

Charge of the Rohirrim

So I'll be honest, this mission felt a lot like deja vu for me after the Eomer's Return scenario - I have a bunch of skirmish cavalry, there's no shooting on the other side, job's done. However, there IS a way that Evil can force a draw if we break them before killing Gothmog (Gothmog can walk off the back edge of the map), so we're going to do some whittling down, but then we're going to charge in and "do what the Riders of Theoden Legion does." Let's see how this all worked out . . .

Centaur deployed just shy of 12" forward and I deployed as far up as I could:


Turn 1: Priority Good


I moved my guys up 5" and prepared to shoot, while Centaur prepared to receive my shooting. In a stunning turn of events, I aimed, I shot, I killed nothing. Turn two . . .

Turn 2: Priority Good


In case you're wondering, the "priority" thing is a bit moot, since there's a scenario rule that Good always counts as winning priority . . . so I stood where I was and fired again, with Centaur standing to receive the shots.


In the Shoot Phase, we actually got some hits this time and killed two Orcs!

Thursday, October 26, 2023

Fantasy Fellowship Deep-Dive: Optimizing Your Characters, Part 2

Good morning gamers,

We're back for another review of which characters are statistically optimized (according to my own analytic model) for certain positions in Fantasy Fellowships. Last time, we looked at the Ringbearer and Companion slots, and this time we're looking at the Friends of the Ringbearer who will be traveling to Rohan and Minas Tirith (aka, the Merry and Pippin slots). The only requirements in Fantasy Fellowships is that the characters cost no more than 50pts, which as of the writing of this article, gives us fifty models to evaluate (most of whom we covered last time in the Companion slot . . . because, you know, Hobbit heroes are generally less than 50pts). We do have some new arrivals, however - and while the two positions we're going to look at today are often in the same scenarios together, there are a few scenarios near the end where they differ (the Ride of the Rohirrim scenario and the Atop the Walls/Denethor's Madness scenarios). Let's dig in and see who's the best!

Scoring Criteria

As I mentioned in a previous article, your Merry and Pippin characters participate in 11-12 of the 23 scenarios in Fantasy Fellowships - or put simply, in half of them. In the early scenarios, they'll be fighting Ringwraiths and Barrow-Wights (Terror-causing units), then they'll be braving the road to and through Moria (with F3 Wild Wargs and F2 Goblins), then pop out the other side to fight F4 Uruk-Hai near and in Rohan (Amon Hen and Ambush at Night) and F3 Mordor and Morannon Orcs (Atop the Walls or Ride of the Rohirrim and the End of All Things). Because most of these are the same scenarios the Ringbearer and Companion are in, a lot of our metrics are going to be the same - but the biggest change from a combat perspective is that you can get away with these guys being F4 instead of pushing them to be F5 (more on this throughout this article).

But there are some key differences for these characters that makes picking the "best" character different from your Companion. First and foremost, the hero you select for your Rohan friend doesn't need to be a particularly good fighter, since he'll be riding safely behind Eowyn (buffing the Dernhelm profile) during the only scenario where Pippin and possibly other Fellowship members are absent. Besides the Boromir character, this is probably your best choice for a "dump" character.

Second, the hero you select for your Gondor friend would benefit greatly from being able to help your wizard character be better. Since the two scenarios where your Gondor Friend will be separated from everyone else involve your wizard character (in one you lose if he dies; in the other the wizard only begins with 1M/1W/1F and no staff of power), it wouldn't hurt to be able to make your wizard character better (or be able to pull models out of his fights). There will even be F4 Citadel Guard who can't be wounded in one of his fights - so a little extra oomph wouldn't hurt.

Third, these guys are often add-ons to your Fellowship (either your Ringbearer and Companion or the full/wizardless Fellowship). As a result, we wanted to reward certain characters for "doing helpful things" with these slots - things like providing shooting, stat regeneration, and banner rerolls. While you CAN get these sorts of things on bigger heroes, getting contributions from smaller heroes is a nice bonus in Fantasy Fellowships. Not all boosts are created equal (some require you to have other Fellowship members with certain keywords or could change the way you/your opponent plays the game), so we're going to have a qualitative measure for how "good" these things are. This is the first time that we'll have a layer of subjectivity in our model, but I thought it was important to let some of the more nuanced benefits of these characters shine.

With this in mind, we have four categories to evaluate again - three will look familiar, but one is unique. Let's take a look . . .

Monday, October 23, 2023

Nemesis: How to Fight the Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legendary Legion

Good morning gamers,

The Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legendary Legion has been rocking the meta (or should I say piercing the meta? Bombing the meta?) since its release in War in Rohan. It's a Legion that isn't constructed around a top-tier hero (it's got no named heroes at all), but instead gives greater reliability to its siege engines and allows you to run more Uruk-Hai than you usually would be able to with Heroes of Fortitude/Minor Heroes.

Many competitive players have identified this as a list that's unfun to play against - stand back and shoot at the horde of Uruk-Hai and you get torn up by crossbows and ballista. Try to close with the ranged units? You get blow up with a bomb team (and have to face a pike block with whatever's left). When you as a player feel caught between a rock and a hard place, it's hard to have fun (unless you like a good challenge and don't mind losing . . . like I do . . . most of the time).

I've fielded this list a few times (though I don't run more than 2 ballistas/1 demo team on principle) and one of our resident Isengard enthusiasts here (Red Jacket) has run it at several of our events with different configurations. Having had to play Red Jacket's Assault Upon Helm's Deep list at 623 points at the TMAT 2023 Grand Tournament earlier this year, I have to say the two ballistas backed by nine crossbows was nasty and awful (and naturally, I had to play against it in Lords of Battle where my Orcs and Barrow-Wights needed to close in fast . . . and he killed more with his ballistae once I got within 12" of him than from farther away).

But there's got to be a way to crack the code - how does one beat up a list like this? I mean, the list has been out for ages - surely, there's a proven method for beating them? Well, there are several strategies you can use - but before we get into them, let's break down what about this Legion makes it feared.

What Makes The Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legion So Hated?

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

The first thing you'll hear people gripe about are the long-range threats in this list. The list begins with Isengard Assault Ballistas, which are probably too cheap for what they do. When compared to other siege engines, you get a comparable crew size, a comparable Strength/Defense, the Large Siege Engine requirement (which makes you a siege target - very handy when fighting other siege engines, but does place a requirement of 2+ unengaged crew to fire it), and good rules (Accurate/Piercing Shot, 6" minimum range) - for a discount bargain price of 65 points. You can see the full comparison below:


If the ballistae weren't enough to make you gag, each ballista comes with 1 siege veteran (Minor Hero) and 2 crew who don't have shooting weapons, so you can take +1 Uruk-Hai Warrior with crossbow for every ballista you take - that's 76 points for a S9 ballista and a S4 crossbow. Sheesh, that's rough. Add into this that you can field 13 Uruk-Hai Warriors - 8 with pikes/shields, 5 with crossbows - for 135 points, and it's not hard to see why the pairing of crossbows with ballistae would drive people nuts. Sure, you have to field 1 Uruk-Hai Captain (who can lead 18 Uruk-Hai) for every ballista you want to take, but that's not a high tax.

Thursday, October 19, 2023

Fantasy Fellowship Deep-Dive: Optimizing Your Characters, Part 1

Good morning gamers,

If you've been following the blog for the past year, you know we've been walking through Fantasy Fellowships (and we're almost done!). Playing through scenarios has been fun - sub-optimal equipment choices, sub-optimal unit choices, and very different victory conditions have led to some very interesting games (you can read about mine on the Quest of the Ringbearer page).

But one of the things that I've been struck with as we've been playing is how much value the stats and rules of your units actually contribute to how well your games go. I mean, do you NEED good units in your Merry/Pippin slots? How good does your wizard need to be? Well, today begins a new five-part series where I take the principles of the Fantasy Fellowship deep-dive posts I've been doing and applying a statistical score to different categories for each unit that can be taken in a particular Fantasy Fellowship slot, and finding out who are "the best" units for each position. 

If the Google Analytics are to be believed, our least popular posts on the blog are generally related to a) Fantasy Fellowships/Quest of the Ringbearer, b) math posts, and c) Shire or Sharkey's Rogues reviews. Naturally, then, we will kick off this new series by doing a post that covers all three topics. :-) We begin our journey with what might be the two most important characters in your Fellowship: your Ringbearer and your Companion. Let's dig in!

Monday, October 16, 2023

Nemesis: How to Fight Beorn and Grimbeorn

Good morning gamers,

This is our fourth article in this series on how to fight "bad" or "mean" models and today we're tackling Beorn and Grimbeorn, two of the toughest monsters in the game right now. With a new Legendary Legion released in the Defence of the North supplement giving new life to Beorn (and a profile to Grimbeorn - at long last), the bears are a real danger you could see on the tabletop. But how bad are these guys - and what can you do to fight against them? Let's dig in and see what all the hullabaloo is about . . . did you catch the "Baloo" reference there?

What Makes "The Bears" So Hated?

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community 

Since the rules update in 2018, Beorn has had one of the strongest profiles for the Forces of Good (and to be honest, he has one of the toughest profiles in the game period). Despite having incredibly good stats while in bear form (F8/S8/D8 with 3 Attacks/Wounds/Might/Will/Fate and C6 with Fearless), Beorn wasn't nearly as prolific on the tabletop as other Good monsters like Gwaihir or Treebeard. Armies of all-Eagles and all-Ents have been seen throughout the world at tournaments (for the Ents, this was particularly true after the release of War in Rohan), but Beorn only made an appearance here or there.

If I had to guess, this is probably due to two reasons: first and foremost, he's a 200-point hero who couldn't lead troops cheaper than 100 points (Great Eagles) - and most players aren't going to dump 200 points into a hero who can't lead troops unless they've already got a heap of models (and why do that when you could run Gwaihir or Treebeard or just more guys?). Second, Beorn isn't as fast as Gwaihir (8" move isn't bad, but it isn't a 12" Fly), doesn't give you three models towards your army size like Treebeard (for the same cost as Beorn), and doesn't have the alliance options you get with either of these other two monsters. Third, there were the occasional games where Beorn would just not want to change from a man into a bear (getting a 4+ can sometimes be elusive). To be fair, Beorn in man form is no slouch - he's really good - but he's not nearly as resilient as he is in bear form - and he doesn't have Brutal Power Attacks (most particularly Crushing Strength). Yep, there are ample reasons to take someone other than Beorn in your army.

Saturday, October 14, 2023

Fantasy Fellowships: The Erebor Reunion, Part 6a

Good morning gamers,

This is a huge milestone for me - I have labored long and hard this year to make some Minas Tirith walls for THIS scenario (and so I can say I have them) and now I finally get to use them! We'll be looking at the two wizard-and-friend scenarios today - let's get into it!

Atop the Walls 

This is a small board and a TON of models - there are actually five siege towers (I have two that Centaur printed for me and templates for where the other three are) and there are a ton of Orcs! The objective for me is simple: kill 30 guys before Gandalf goes down. Let's see how Gandalf and Bifur fair!


Because of how I built the board, there's a 1" gap between our models and then there's a ton of stairs. There are five siege towers (two from Conquest Creations, three from Costco cereal boxes) and the Orcs have 7-9 guys on each one. Let's see if we can keep the Orcs from overwhelming Gandalf!

Thursday, October 12, 2023

The Road to TMAT's THRO 2023 - Tiberius's List

Good morning gamers,

This year's THRO tournament is our first siege tournament - oh sure, we've had maps with walls before (once), but this is the first time we've used the siege scenarios and equipment provided in the War in Rohan supplement. Walls change a lot, though only half the boards will have them - and with this being a team event, it looks like it will be a good opportunity for newer/less competitive players to come out of the woodwork and try out one of our events. 

Because it was a team event, I decided to submit my list last - because I had several lists for Good and Evil that I liked, I wanted to have the ability to choose which side I was on based on how everyone else's preferences were stacking up. In talking with Rythbyrt and Centaur, we were like, "You know, we could stack one team and all play together . . . that would be fun." Well, that didn't pan out . . . but it's probably for the best. :)

But because I had to prepare to play on BOTH sides (and we have the Rule of One in play, so no repeat heroes or Legions), I had - wait for it - TEN lists that I wanted to try out for this tournament. Yes, ten - I know, I'm obsessive. Many of the models I needed for these lists were ones I was in the process of painting, so deciding that I might play with them was very much intended to give myself a kick in the pants to push through my backlog of models and get them done. I ended up playing on the Evil team, so here's the lists I considered for Good:

Candidate #5: The Defenders of Helm's Deep Legendary Legion

It's no secret - if you know you need to defend a wall from attack, this Legion is probably a good first stop. At 1000 points, if you don't take Aragorn (which I was pretty sure my son was going to take, so I built the list without him), you can actually get quite a few guys. Theoden, Haldir, and Legolas are very cheap heroes of Valour/Legend and this allows you to spend points on Galadhrim instead of just buying Rohan guys. I happen to like the Warrior of Rohan profile a lot and having a 1:1 ratio of spears to not-spears (and 33% of the army + 4 heroes having bows makes this list a powerhouse of shooting):
  • Theoden, King of Rohan with heavy armor and shield [ARMY LEADER]
    • 9 Warriors of Rohan with shields
    • 9 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows and spears
  • Legolas Greenleaf with armor
    • 7 Warriors of Rohan with shields
    • 1 Warrior of Rohan with shield and throwing spears
    • 1 Rohan Royal Guard with throwing spears
    • 6 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows and spears
  • Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
    • 7 Warriors of Rohan with shields
    • 1 Warrior of Rohan with shield and throwing spears
    • 1 Rohan Royal Guard with throwing spears
    • 6 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows and spears
  • Galadhrim Captain with Elf bow
    • 5 Warriors of Rohan with shields
    • 1 Warrior of Rohan with shield and throwing spears
    • 5 Rohan Royal Guards with throwing spears
  • King's Huntsman
    • 3 Rohan Royal Guards with throwing spears
1000 points, 67 models, 25-27 Elf bow/longbow shots on a 3+ AND 13 throwing spears hitting on a 4+, 13 D6+ models, no fast troops but 5 Might for Heroic March, 13 Might

Not taking this list was an easy decision - my good mate The Black Prince is a die-hard Rohan player and he brought Theoden and Legolas in his list. Thanks to the Rule of One, this list bit the bin even before I got around to playing with it (I was expecting to not be able to use it anyway). Though this list had double the models of the Black Prince's all-mounted Rohan force, it didn't have as much shooting, interestingly enough - so I very heartily wished the Black Prince luck with his list and moved on to . . .

Monday, October 9, 2023

Nemesis: How To Fight Gwaihir

Good morning gamers,

As we continue our series of examining good models that can really wreck your day, we're turning to one of the most feared Good models in the game right now: Gwaihir. This is a monster that has incredible agility thanks to Fly, a very impressive combat profile (with only one caveat), and is incredibly survivable. But like most models in the game, there are options available to you when you see this guy on the other side of the board - none of them will be easy, but we'll review some of the tools you can use to counter him. Let's dig into why this guy is so good!

What Makes Gwaihir So Hated?

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community 

To understand why Gwaihir is such a threat, we need to begin with his alliance matrix (or two, actually). Gwaihir appears in two lists - he's a Hero of Legend in the Misty Mountains and a Hero of Valour in Radagast's Alliance. When fielded in Radagast's Alliance, he has no historical allies (since their only historical ally is the Misty Mountains - and since Gwaihir is the only hero in that list, you can't run it), but has a few Convenient Allies (all of the armies in the Armies of the Hobbit book, as well as Lothlorien, Fangorn, and the Rangers, oddly enough). If you're running one of these lists and want Gwaihir to be your grenade hero instead of your army leader, you can certainly take him from this list.

Most competitive players will field him from The Misty Mountains, however. In that list, he's a Hero of Legend (almost certainly your army leader) and he's at least Convenient Allies with every faction (and he's Historical Allies with the Fellowship, Thorin's Company, and Radagast's Alliance as was mentioned above). While the Fellowship and Thorin's Company can certainly benefit from adding Gwaihir to their ranks, most of the time you're going to see Gwaihir appear either in a pure Misty Mountain list (where you're counting on lots of flying monsters to trash enemy warriors), a monster-mash army where Gwaihir and some Eagles ally with either Ents or Bears (or both), or as a one-model drop into a more conventional force that wants a hard-hitting slayer for the low-low price of 150 points. This last one is the usual way you see Gwaihir in competitive play.

Since he can ally with everyone, what is it about this guy that makes him an attractive option (especially when compared to Elven heroes who can also ally with everyone)? For starters (as was just mentioned), Gwaihir is "only" 150 points - which is admittedly a lot to pay for a hero who probably isn't bringing any warriors to the table, but relative to the cost of other heroes, it's a steal. As the cheapest of the eight members of the F8+ club (which features Treebeard/Beechbone from the Fangorn list, Gil-Galad from the Rivendell list, Beorn in bear form from Radagast's Alliance/the Beornings LL, Smaug from the Desolator of the North list, The Dark Lord Sauron from the Barad-Dur list, and the Balrog from Moria/The Depths of Moria LL), Gwaihir is likely to have a higher Fight Value than most opposing models once everyone's out of Might. But his offensive firepower isn't just limited to a great Fight Value: with S6 (S7 on the charge if he's got either of his army bonuses - which he usually doesn't) and 2 Attacks + Monstrous Charge, it's quite likely that he's wounding troops on 4s if not 3s - and that's a lot of dead troops if he's charged into them.

Thursday, October 5, 2023

Fyrd Formations: The Gap Tooth Grin

Good morning gamers,

Over the past year, I've been playing with a bunch of different armies, ranging from men from Rohan and Gondor to many, MANY lists featuring huge rabbles of Orcs and Uruk-Hai from Mordor and Angmar (and some Isengard). For many of the lists I've been toying with for the Winter Whirlwind tournament, this year's TMAT Grand Tournament, and the recent TMAT THRO tournament, I've looked at lists that can run (and often do run) your traditional shieldwall formations - a line of guys in the front (usually with shields) backed up by a line of spears/pikes to increase their damage. Most factions in MESBG function this way.

But some don't - in fact, whether it's by choice or necessity, there are several excellent factions that don't end up having spears once you've fleshed everything out. For these factions, you have to get a bit creative when you want to tackle a list that sports a traditional shieldwall formation. For new players, doing this can feel like running at a sliding glass door - hitting the enemy line as hard as you can and hoping it breaks before you do. In general, this isn't a recipe for success - and it can discourage players from using certain factions or Legendary Legions because "it's just better to have a shieldwall."

Well, I disagree - strongly. Very strongly. In today's formation post, we're exploring a simple formation that you can use when you're fielding a list that doesn't have spears - let's dig into it!

The Gap Tooth Grin: Beating Shieldwalls By Not Playing Their Games

Here's the dirty little secret about shieldwall armies: shieldwalls want to fight other shieldwalls. They do - they just do. Any time you rank up your army in a nice two-rank line with spears in the back and shields in the front, you dare your opponent to run on you . . . and ideally, he ranks up in two nice lines as well and you see who has the better wall. Some armies are better at this than others, but lots of armies play this way. Here's an example of a very functional shieldwall:


This shieldwall can be brutal to fight - it's got spearmen with F4 "on a stick" and D7 across both lines of the formation. If you're a S3 army (or even a S4 army), you've got to be wondering how you're going to crack through this - especially without spears. Well, the answer is simple: you don't fight it with a shieldwall - you fight it with archery . . . and by spreading out.

Monday, October 2, 2023

Nemesis: How To Fight Gulavhar

Good morning gamers,

Last time, we looked at the Balrog and various approaches you could use to deal with him. Today, we're looking at another feared Evil monster: Gulavhar, the Terror of Arnor. Gulavhar is like the Balrog in many respects - but he's also unlike anything else in MESBG. As a staple unit in a long of competitive Angmar builds, there's a decent chance that you'll see him at a competitive event - so let's see what's up with this guy and how we can build our lists to be able to counter him.

To help me with this venture, I asked for some input from Angmar aficionado and Gulavhar fan-club-member Evan Iverson from the Unexpected Podcast team to add thoughts on the article and provide emphasis on things that needed more help. He also pointed out what wouldn't scare a Gulavhar player, which was even more useful.

What Makes Gulavhar So Hated?

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community 

Like the Balrog, Gulavhar has good offensive stats - he's F7/S8 on offense and has Attacks equal to his remaining wounds (which starts off at 4 - same as the Balrog then). Unlike the Balrog, however, Gulavhar has Monstrous Charge, so not only can he get to 5 Attacks on the charge (more than the Balrog), but he also knocks down models that are S7 and below . . . which is pretty much anything. I'm not sure that most players would do this, but Gulavhar does have access to Heroic Strength, which would allow him to knock down other things that are on the cusp of not-being-knocked over (Treebeard is S8 and will be knocked over regardless of what Gulavhar gets, the Balrog is S9 and will be knocked over on a 3+), but these models are often at/above F7 innately, so doing so is a risk for sure.

Gulavhar's defensive stats aren't great (more on that later), but with 3 Might and access to Heroic Defense instead of Heroic Strike, it's pretty common to see Gulavhar players ask the question, "Do I feel worried about this fight?" If yes, they call Heroic Defense; if no, they don't. Pair this with the ability to regain wounds by killing enemy models (so a scratch here and there are easily cured if you can pounce on a lone warrior or two) and boy does his defensive profile not look nearly as condemning.

Finally, Gulavhar has Fly (for that oh-so-important-positioning), the Terror-Harbinger of Evil combo (have to test for Courage to charge him and he applies a -1 penalty to enemy Courage values within 12" of him), 3 Will and Resistant to Magic to put up some resistance to enemy spells, and the Spirit keyword to give Terror to nearby friendly Orc models if you kept your army bonus and boy is this guy where it's at. He's a monster among monsters and one of the most feared models in the game. But he's also one of the biggest glass cannons in the game - so let's talk about how to beat him.