Nemesis: How to Fight Against Elendil

Good morning gamers,

Last time, we looked at Gil-Galad and ways (with specific units/army building emphases) you can counter him with. Today, we're tackling the biggest hitter from Numenor: Elendil. While some of what we're going to talk about is copy-paste from Gil-Galad, there are a few rules that Elendil picks up (and a few that he drops) that makes his use (and his countering) different from Gil-Galad. Let's see what's so great about the greatest hero of men . . .

What Makes Elendil So Hated?

Elendil has a beastly combat profile - with F7, S5, and 3A with the option for a mount (if you're willing to do some conversion work, since Games Workshop never made a model for this guy), Elendil is about as punch as man-sized heroes come. While F7 isn't the F9 that we see on Gil-Galad, it's higher than any man-sized warrior is going to get and it's also higher than most heroes. Additionally, he carries Narsil, which is a Master-forged hand-and-a-half sword (so he can two-hand without suffering the To Wound penalty) that allows him to declare a free Heroic Combat each turn - if F7 wasn't enough to make you want to hit warriors with this guy, Narsil certainly incentivises it!

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

On Defense, Elendil is no slouch, with D8 if you give him a shield (and aren't two-handing - otherwise he's D7) and has 3 Wounds/1 Fate, which is "fine" and expected for someone who died in the story. Elendil is the quintessential "a good offense is a good defense" character (well, him and Gulavhar, I guess), which means that once he gets into combat, it's very hard to pluck a wound off of him - especially if he's backed by a banner (for a reroll on one of those 4 dice he gets on the charge).

If this wasn't enough, he has the Unbending Resolve special rule, which grants him two free dice when resisting magical powers - even if he runs out of Will. This makes targeting him with magic (especially spells that just barely go off on a low difficulty) very difficult to cast on him. With 3 Will in his store (that he can regain on a natural 6) and 3 Might that don't have to be used if he's just declaring Heroic Combats, it's not hard for him to shrug off the worst magic in the game (well, almost - more on this later).

He also is a Hero of Legend and has a 12" Stand Fast range, which means he'll automatically pass his first Stand Fast attempt each game AND have an incredibly large radius on it. Starting with C6 and getting a boost to C7 with the army bonus (and having 3 Will in his store), it's not hard for him to pass any Courage test he wants to pass and to keep friendly units from panicking if he sticks around. Oh, and as a Hero of Legend, you can bring 18 infantry with him (since Numenor has no cavalry warriors), which means you could have a big wall of infantry to keep him safe . . . that sounds tough.

Finally, his warriors gain Resistant to Magic near him (1 free Will point to resist magical powers while within 6" of Elendil), so if your plan is to cast a Sorcerous Blast on the warriors near him, there's a non-zero chance that they'll resist it . . . that bites. If these warriors are distributed across your army, it'll mean that your heroes (if they're spearmen) and the warriors you bring with them (if they're providing the front line) will have some ability to resist magic - and if you don't cast the spell for free, it could drain your resources. Yikes.

So what can men do against such reckless hate (and specifically target Elendil instead of his troops)? Well, the answer is simple - some of the strategies are going to be the same as we saw against Gil-Galad (which is good, since it's not uncommon to see these two together - usually with Gil-Galad as the leader so the controlling player can be a bit reckless with Elendil). Some are going to be perfectly new - let's see what our options are.

How Do You Fight Back Against Elendil?

To start with, Elendil loves killing infantry that are below D8 - mostly because he wounds them on 4s or better and might reroll 1s with Feint (if they're F3 and below). Once the enemy warriors are D8, Elendil slows down in his killing spree, so getting to D8 is a good first-step to beating Elendil. This is hard to do - and it's not a guarantee that you still won't die (especially if he has the charge). Still, wounding on 5s doesn't always work, so push it if you can.

Relying on cavalry that are D6+ is also a good tactic, since the presence of a single cavalry model in his fight will deny him his charging bonuses (+1 Attack and Knock Prone) and will force him to wound the cavalry model on 4s. Getting higher than D6 is basically impossible for any mounted model short of a hero - and even those heroes who qualify rarely get over D7. You can also blunt his attack with Heroic Defense, though this is usually a gamble that he's not going to roll natural 6s.

You can also lean into the shooting game more, but since Elendil is rarely fielded without Cirdan or Galadriel, only certain lists or heroes can threaten him (read: his horse) from a distance. If either of these Blinding Light heroes are present, quantity covers a multitude of sins and having bad archers is often better than having good archers.

Finally, you always have the option of tearing through those D4-5 Warriors of Numenor and trying to ignore Elendil. Sometimes the linch-pin in the enemy's plan has somewhat to do with Elendil and more to do with the 18 warriors he can bring (who are cheaper than all the Elven options available to Numenor - and F4/S4 is generally good enough to break through whatever the enemy has). If these guys have been used as the front-line of a shieldwall (valuing the F5-6 that an Elven alliance is bringing to the table more than the D6 that their warriors can have), you might not even have in-the-way shots. Yes, you might have to deal with Cirdan or Galadriel mitigating your archery, but any shots that do make it through that are S3+ against shield Numenoreans (and S2+ against bow Numenoreans) are going to have a swing on the game. Even if you try to do this in melee instead of shooting (where Cirdan is reduced to providing Terror - maybe - and Galadriel's effectiveness is basically shot), wounding D4-5 models isn't hard. For some factions, this looks a lot more appealing.

Okay, that's the quick primer on how to beat up Elendil - now let's look at models that can actually DO that . . .

Tiberius's Top 5 Models To Counter Elendil

Yep, if you haven't guessed it yet, I'm going to cheat and add two extra units who have quirky ways of reducing Elendil's effectiveness. Before we get to our "top 5," we're going to look at an honorable way (and a dishonorable way) to make Elendil have a worse day. We'll start with something we talked about with Gil-Galad . . .

Honorable Mention: Buckets and buckets of shooting (or Legolas)

Elendil gets worse if his horse is threatened - make note of this: you don't actually have to kill Elendil's horse (or even get shots on him) in order to force Elendil to slow down his engagement. Just by having the capability of taking out his horse is going to force him to advance more slowly. You could have the worst archers in the game (5+ shoot value, S2 bows) and all you'll need is a 5+, followed by a 1-3, followed by a 5+ to kill the horse - that's not unheard of (and certainly possible if you have 18 bows in your army). By making Elendil approach slowly (and staying behind cover, friendly models, or within Blinding Light radius of an infantry model), you can win some tempo against him and cause him to attack 1-2 turns less than he would otherwise. So as is generally good practice, take at least a few bows.

All of this gets leveled up if you happen to have Legolas in your army, who showed up earlier in our series. Legolas "cheats" by being able to hit Elendil's horse on a 2+ even if Legolas has moved, even if Elendil is within Blinding Light radius, and even if Elendil has 10 guys between him and Legolas. A 2+ - that's rerollable if he's taken as part of the Breaking of the Fellowship Legendary Legion. With a S3 bow, it's just a 2+ followed by a 5+ for Legolas to remove Elendil's access to cavalry bonuses, as well as 10" movement - yeah, that's going to undercut him a lot.

While it would seem like everything we've talked about would apply to a Demolition Team or two (especially in the Assault Upon Helm's Deep Legendary Legion), Elendil's free Herioc Combats mess with this quite a bit. While still mounted (which may not be a given against the Helm's Deep legion), he can change where he is quite quickly - and can even outpace the bomb! Yes, you might get lucky and fight Elendil when he's locked into the center of your battle line, but as a strategy for dealing with him . . . this might just fall through. As such, I think you could include this as a definite maybe, but I'm not sure your answer to Elendil should be "I have a bomb" as much as "I have 33% of my army wielding crossbows - and have 2-3 ballistae").

Now time for some absolute Dwarf filth . . .

Dishonorable Mention: Floi Stonehand

Yes, it's Floi again - at some point, he's going to need an article in this series. :) Narsil is most of what makes Elendil expensive - and without it, he may be a beat-stick (even against Dwarves), but without it (which Floi can do if he can just SEE Elendil), he becomes an over-priced, very vulnerable hero. It's true, regaining Will on Floi usually involves killing a hero (something that's generally pretty hard to do in lists that feature Elendil) or running Impossible Alliance (something that's generally not hard to do, if you're okay with a few heroes begin slotted in to make your already solid list a little better), but for at least three turns, Floi can deprive Elendil of what makes him really good - and if he knows he can't spend Might to crush a bunch of Dwarves, what he chooses to do is incredibly hard.

If you have a wizard allied into your force (as an Impossible Ally if Balin is in your list - otherwise you're probably fielding a Dwarf King and they're probably Convenient Allies and the only way that Floi is getting Might back), removing Unbending Resolve is also an interesting choice, since a two-dice Immobilize is likely to keep Elendil from declaring Heroic Combats AND will prevent him from counter-calling Heroic Strikes. Depending on your plan, this could have some nasty repercussions . . .

All told, there are ways to play around Elendil without actually playing AGAINST Elendil's Strengths. If you want to give him a run for his money, you might want to consider some of our "actual list" pairings - we'll start with the pairing that almost made our dishonorable mention . . .

Pick #5: Shades with Barrow-Wights

This has applicability far beyond Elendil, but it works surprisingly well against him (speaking from experience). If you can just get a 6 with your Orcs near a Shade while Chill Aura is up, you can guarantee that Elendil will have to spend valuable Might point winning fights - and while his Heroic Combats are free, his Might store is limited to what a "normal, good" hero has (only 3). Since each combat might eat away at his Might points, an Elendil player has no idea how much Might he's going to have at the end of a round - Heroic Combat or not - and that's assuming he doesn't get a 4-high and LOSE the fight to the Orcs. If he declares a Heroic Combat, he can always move somewhere else - but he'll leave his troops to get pummelled by what they should beat. From experience using Elendil, this one hurts.

All of this requires even more care if a Barrow-Wight or two is around - these guys get the Paralyze spell off on a 4+, which means those two free dice have a pretty good chance of getting the required 4+ (75%), but don't have a good chance of getting a 5+ (56%) or a natural 6 (30%). This means Elendil needs to spend actual Will points to resist Paralyze or end up not being able to punch back in fights (potentially for a while). Oh, and he'll lose his horse, which is bad.

It's possible that the Barrow-Wights whiff each turn - but each time they get a 4+, Elendil is faced with a dilemma of how many Will points to throw - and when near a Shade, Elendil already knows that he's going to be pressed for enough Might to win fights. As such, there's a section of the battlefield he'll have to avoid in order to be effective - and that's where all your important pieces go. Be sure to prevent your Shade from being Commanded/Compelled away from where they're trying to protect and you're golden. If you want to fight him fairly, you could check out . . .

Pick #4: REALLY big, slow monsters (like The Dark Lord Sauron, Beorn in Bear form, or Gundabad Trolls with Crushing Clubs)

Elendil's best day is going to be one where he goes smashing through 1-wound models who are F1-3 (where he can Feint while still having the higher Fight Value) and D2-5 (there aren't many D2 units, but they do exist). Against these models, Elendil will wound on 2s or 3s while rerolling 1s . . . chances are good those Heroic Combats are going off - even against cavalry warriors that he doesn't knock over.

But if there's one thing Elendil doesn't really want to run into, it's a really big monster - I'm not talking about Cave Trolls/Drakes, but those centerpiece models that somebody dumped a bunch of points into. While I could wax on about how dangerous the Balrog can be, I already talked about him in the last post (and most of those critiques still stand when talking about Elendil).

A very thematic foe for Elendil is The Dark Lord Sauron, who will be wounded on a 5+/3+ by Elendil (the only model who will be that hard to wound - unless the target hero is calling Heroic Defense) and is probably walking away from a fight he loses while wounding Elendil on 3s with Rend if he wins (unless Elendil cedes the higher Fight Value by declaring a Heroic Defense). Sauron is unique among monsters in that he can also threaten Elendil's horse with Chill Soul from a distance (using his free Will point only - if he gets a 5+, Elendil's free Will points to resist only have a 56% chance of saving the poor beast) or by Hurling into Elendil's fight as he gets closer. Furthermore, Sauron is very threatening to the kinds of support models that Elendil usually relies on to keep him safe or buffed (Blinding Light from Cirdan or Galadriel with Sap Will? Transfix/Chill Soul on a helper hero? Compel on a banner?).

Beorn in his bear form - particularly in his Legion, when he picks up Monstrous Charge - is a nasty prospect for Elendil to fight too, not only because Beorn on the charge can dismount Elendil with Monstrous Charge (only in his Legion), but also because he's got the Crushing Strength Brutal Power Attack, which will wound Elendil on 3s and can just keep wounding him . . . if you automatically kill him after four successes, I think this might be worth burning some Might if Beorn wins. With a higher Fight Value by default and "only" being wounded on 5s, Beorn had better be trapped when Elendil wins or he's going to burn himself out trying to beat the guy (and woe betides him if he loses).

But the surprise entrant I'd like to present is a model I didn't think was particularly good as a counter to Elendil: Gundabad Trolls with Crushing Clubs. Like Mordor Trolls, I generally find Gundabad Trolls to be quite limited in the impact they can have in a game - and because Mordor Trolls are D7, they run the risk of being one-turn flash-killed by Elendil (who wounds them on 4s and only need to score 3 wounds). Gundabad Trolls have three game-changing advantages of Mordor Trolls, though: first, they're Defense 8, which is the "magic number" you need to be wounded on 6s (5s when he two-hands with Narsil). Since they're also S7, Elendil won't be able to knock them prone with his horse, so unless he can get a trap in on them (don't let him do that), he's unlikely to deal more than one wound a turn. Second, Gundabad Trolls have 4 Wounds instead of three - this means that only INSANELY good luck will cause Elendil to one-turn flash-kill a Gundabad Troll, and a prolonged fight with one of these will mean that he doesn't have Might to challenge anyone else in your list.

But the most surprising thing for me is that he also has the Crushing Club, which I feel is inferior in most cases to the Scythe Gauntlets (which allow a Gundabad Troll to wound almost every model on 2s or 3s). The Crushing Club, however, is particularly good against heroes with only 1 Fate, since each wound is turned into D3 wounds BEFORE Fate is rolled, and as such, going up against one of these guys is . . . hard. You might scoff at this working - but I saw it work at one of our tournaments . . . and in one round Elendil went from hale and happy to a sticky smear on a club.

Alternatively, you could lean into . . .

Pick #3: Flying Monsters (especially Gulavhar)

Flying monsters have an advantage over non-flying ones: they can change where they are faster (in most cases) than Elendil can. Since Hurl can be used against the S4 Warriors of Numenor to get Elendil off his horse, fighting on the flanks becomes dangerous if there's a monster nearby. If that monster has high Strength, the range of their Hurl can become massive . . .

This isn't that big of a deal from Fell Beasts (who only have S6) - or even from Great Eagles - but if the monster has high Strength (Gulavhar is S8 - and a select few monsters are higher than that) a tricky opponent can position their monster to munch on the troopers near Elendil just to make sure he doesn't have a horse. Once he loses this, he loses his ability to knock Infantry over, which is often the bread-and-butter of his strategy.

Heroic Defense is key on Gulavhar here - with F7, Elendil will often have to Strike against him (or keep the Fight Values the same and risk a roll-off without an Elven-made weapon). Guavhar will wound Elendil on 4s (with or without the shield) while Elendil will only wound Gulavhar on natural 6s for 2-3 rounds . . . and Gulavhar can get away from Elendil fairly quickly with Fly if Elendil has been dehorsed.

There's a lot of skill involved in this stategy, but any monster who can Hurl into Elendil technically qualifies here (though flying monsters are going to do it better than non-flying monsters - and high strength flying monsters will be able to do it from farther away than lower-strength flying monsters). If you want to fight a bit more symmetrically, you should check out . . .

Pick #2: Heroes who are D8+ and can reach F7+ OR have Heroic Defense, especially Isildur and Thrain

Well, let's have some father-son rivalry, shall we? As was mentioned above with Gundabad Trolls, any hero who is D8 is going to pose a challenge for Elendil, and if you're playing as Good and have access to Dwarves (via Thorin, Thrain, or a Dwarf King), chances are good that you have access to some D8 heroes. Some of those (including Bifur, Dori, King's Champions, and Dwarf Kings) are incredibly affordable and can even bring 10-15 troops with them (which can vary from 9-12 points, if you bring their "basic" units). If you're trying to create an army that will slow Elendil down, bringing along some super-high Defense heroes (and maybe even some high Defense warriors) is a pretty good way to do that (though don't count on D8 from shieldwall - if Elendil has the charge, you'll be knocked Prone before he gets to the wounding roll, so you'll be D7 again . . .).

Probably the best Dwarf hero to counter Elendil with is Thrain, who is not only a credible threat to Elendil if he manages to win the fight (3 Attacks at S4 with +1 To Wound will wound Elendil on 5s and his horse on 3s), but more importantly, he's got the double-option of Heroic Defense to force Elendil to get natural 6s OR he can call Heroic Strike to force Elendil to not declare a Combat (he'll still be wounded on 5s). Elendil will probably do everything he can to avoid Thrain, but Thrain has a better chance of surviving an encounter with Elendil than any of the mounted Dwarf heroes do (since none of them have Defense - they're all going to rely on being wounded on 5s if they lose and hopefully just-don't-lose with Strike).

A slightly different approach is to have a Numenorean civil war by bringing Isildur to the fight. If fielded without his dad, Isildur picks up the One Ring - and this gives him a distinct Fight Value advantage against Elendil. With Elendil's F7 not mattering anymore, his main focus is going to be avoiding being caught by his son - but if Isildur is lurking (on foot or mounted) behind his lines, Elendil might have to commit to attacking one part of the battle line before Isildur has had a chance to move - and if that happens, Isildur can dismount, put on the Ring, and slide through his ranks to the other side . . . or if his dad is hedged in, he can wait for his Dad to advance and catch him on the next turn. Since only Sauron can make Isildur NOT have the Ring, fighting Isildur is not going to be fun for Elendil. But as fun as not fighting Isildur is, all of this pales in comparison to having to square off against . . .

Pick #1: Smaug (or Dragons with Fly/Breathe Fire if you're on a budget)

This is kind of like siege weapon insta-killing, but without the scattering - any breath of fire from Smaug or a Dragon with Fly and Breath Fire will insta-kill Elendil. Elendil can't attempt to out-fight this guy or hope the "shot" scatters onto a friend - nope, everyone's gonna be spread out because when this winged thing comes rolling through and things start to get hot, that's it. After one shot, Elendil's horse is probably gone - and after two shots, Elendil's toast.

Cirdan and Galadriel can help some with this (these fireballs are shooting attacks, after all - and Galadriel might be able to restore the lost Fate point in time), but if Smaug gets a shot off, you're one Fate point away from death. Even without the fire breath from these guys (I personally think the Breathe Fire upgrade on a Dragon is a trap), Smaug can do a bunch of the other things we've talked about - he's D9 with 20 Wounds and never counts as being trapped, so Elendil can try beating against him for ages and STILL not kill him. He's a Strength 9 flying monster, so if you've brought Blinding Light, he can rely on Hurl to knock Elendil off his horse before he sails in for the kill. It should be obvious that he's a properly-big monster with F8 and 3-Might-and-Strike. The only box he doesn't tick is a Might-draining quagmire on par with Barrow-Wights and Shades . . . but honestly, a 20-wound monster is going to drain SOMEONE's Might, so maybe he does tick off all the boxes . . .

Sample Lists

Like we did last time, I think it would be helpful to consider what an Elendil list might look like. While Evan Iverson has had success with Elendil and Galadriel, I will be focusing on the more magic-resilient option of taking Elendil with Glorfindel (which appears to be a go-to for many players who are seeking to do a "Last Alliance" build). If you want Cirdan in the list, you can swap Glorfindel for Erestor and Cirdan (165pts) OR a High Elf Captain and Cirdan (180pts) with only minor modifications to the rest of the list. This list comes in at 700pts with 32 models - you could probably boost the numbers by a few if you ran Galadriel instead of Glorfindel (you'd lose both army bonuses . . . which I think would be fine):

• Elendil, High King of Gondor and Arnor on horse with shield [ARMY LEADER]
• 8 Warriors of Numenor with shields
• 2 Warriors of Numenor with shields and spears
• 6 Warriors of Numenor with bows and spears
  
• Glorfindel, Lord of the West on Asfaloth with the Armor of Gondolin
• 6 High Elf Warriors with shields
• 2 High Elf Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 High Elf Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• 5 High Elf Warriors with Elf bows and spears
  

This list has no March and no cavalry besides the heroes - and sometimes, that won't matter. It also has no archery protection, so that could be problematic too - both of these can be solved with a High Elf Captain and Cirdan, but whatever. Our first list has only 35 models, but it hits very hard and has a nasty shenanigan for getting lots of models on far-off objectives - yep, it's Azog's Legion, featuring two Gundabad Captains, two Gundabad Trolls, and two warbands of Goblin Mercenaries:

• Gundabad Orc Captain with shield [ARMY LEADER]
• 4 Gundabad Orc Warriors with shields
• 4 Gundabad Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 Gundabad Orc Warrior with shield, spear, and banner
• 1 Gundabad Troll with Crushing Club
  
• Gundabad Orc Captain with shield
• 4 Gundabad Orc Warriors with shields
• 3 Gundabad Orc Warriors with shields and spears
• 2 Gundabad Orc Warriors with spears
• 1 Gundabad Troll with Crushing Club
  
• Goblin Mercenary Captain
• 6 Goblin Mercenaries
  
• Goblin Mercenary Captain
• 5 Goblin Mercenaries
  

700 points, 35 models, no shooting, 22 D6+ models, no fast units but 8 Might for Heroic March, 8 Might

Our second list is a thematic opponent - it's a Dagorlad list, featuring the Dark Lord Sauron, an Orc Captain on Warg, and 34 grunts (12 Orc Trackers, 11 Orcs with spears, and 11 Black Numenoreans). We're not going to win the Fight Value game against the Elves, but we can tie the Numenoreans and we get a pretty good archery volume paired with Chill Soul from Sauron. Can this list beat Elendil and the Last Alliance? It very much depends on how much work Sauron can do . . . and whether you can kill off the Numenoreans quickly:

• The Dark Lord Sauron [ARMY LEADER]
• 6 Black Numenoreans
• 5 Orc Warriors with spears
• 1 Orc Warrior with spear and banner
  
• 12 Orc Trackers
  
• Orc Captain on Warg
• 5 Black Numenoreans
• 5 Orc Warriors with spears
  

700 points, 36 models, 12 Orc bows hitting on a 4+, 12 D6+ models, 2 cavalry and 2 Might for Heroic March, 5 Might

Neither of these armies are going to have an "easy" time of tackling Elendil, but this last one throws a nice curve-ball at him - it features his son and a nice mix of Elves to counter the Rivendell contingent that came along (both with the inclusion of F6 pikemen and Blinding Light):

• Galadriel [ARMY LEADER]
• 6 Galadhrim Warriors with shields
• 6 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• 6 Guards of the Galadhrim Court
  
• Convenient Alliance - Numenor: Isildur on horse with shield and the One Ring
• 4 Warriors of Numenor with shields
• 2 Warriors of Numenor with shields and spears
• 1 Warrior of Numenor with shield, spear, and banner
• Convenient Alliance - Numenor: Captain of Numenor on horse with lance and shield
• 4 Warriors of Numenor with shields
• 4 Warriors of Numenor with spears and bows
  

700 points, 36 models, 6 Elf bows hitting on a 3+ AND 4 bows hitting on a 4+, 8 D6+ models, 2 cavalry and 2 Might for Heroic March, 8 Might

Not only is Isildur a threat to curb Elendil's fighting, but Galadriel has the ability to limit the Elven/Numenorean counter-archery and could mess with the positioning of Elendil's supporting troops with Command (especially his banner). She could also reach out with her free Will point only to test Elendil's rolling skills just to see if she can get an Immobilize off (and whether his dice stop it or not). The third hero in this team (a cheap Numenor captain instead of a more expensive Elven unit) gives this team a little more speed in games where it matters and more punch somewhere on the field . . . if this guy can avoid being gronked by one of the heroes.

Conclusion

Elendil will probably be the hardest nut to crack in this series - which is saying a lot, considering who we've already covered. When it comes down to it, Elendil is well equipped (at least on paper) to deal with magical threats, ranged threats, and melee threats - and he's certainly one of those heroes who will ruin your day if he's allowed to do what he wants to do. While I don't think any of these methods are guaranteed to beat a good Numenor player who's put in "the reps" with Elendil, hopefully this has been informative for how to deal with a big beater hero.

Next time, we're headed back to Eregion to look at one of the most formidable combat mages in the game: Elrond. Whether fielded in an all-mounted Rohan list or a Last Alliance list, Elrond provides all the punch you can reasonably demand from a man-sized hero (and sometimes a little more) while also having a clutch set of magical powers. With the ability to help you strategically win a close priority roll (which includes both "actually winning" it or by "losing" it), fighting Elrond can be an absolute slog. Thankfully, there are a few ways you can deal with him - we'll jump into all the tricks of the trade next time. Until then, happy hobbying!