Nemesis: How to Fight Against Elrond

Good morning gamers,

This is our third week in our Last Alliance-focused thread of our Nemesis series (after stepping away from the series for a few weeks) and we're looking at one of the greatest Elven heroes in the game: Elrond. When Centaur and I got started playing MESBG, Centaur jumped feet-first into both Rohan and Isengard . . . and he bought Elrond. Why? Because Centaur LOVES Elrond. I mean, he really, REALLY loves Elrond. I mean, if you asked him who the top three spell casters for the Forces of Good are, Elrond makes the list. He . . . REALLY . . . likes Elrond.

His Elrond has been epic in many a game against me. My Elrond has been hot and cold - and while he's killed many things, he has never gotten me more than two Foresight points in a tournament game before (while Centaur's seems to always roll 5s or 6s . . . not that I'm bitter or anything). Yes, Elrond is good - and if you're not ready for him, he can really make things look unwinnable. So how does one prepare to fight this guy? If you think it's with the same tools you'd use against Gil-Galad, you'd be kind of right . . . let's see where the overlap is by understanding what Elrond is bringing to the table.

What Makes Elrond So Hated?

Like Gil-Galad and Elendil (though certainly not to their extent), Elrond has a really solid combat profile - he's F6 with 3-Might-and-Strike on an Elven-made weapon, he's got 3 Attacks, access to a mount, and Lord of the West for effectively 4-5 attacks when he's dueling and 3-8 wounding dice with an unconditional reroll, depending on whether his cavalry bonuses are all active. His sword, Hadhafang, is also a hand-and-a-half sword, so if you're okay with two-handing (which you generally should be - give it a try sometime), he can also get +1 To Wound, which is a great way to make sure he's not blunted by most units. Furthermore, Hadhafang gives him +1 To Wound against Spirit models, which means he'll wound those pesky Warriors of the Dead on a 5+ WITHOUT two-handing (4+ if he is) and can even get some crazy-low wounding difficulties against the likes of the Balrog.

Photo Credit: Warhammer Community

I actually didn't mention Elrond in my discussion on how to counter the Balrog (though if you go ALL the way to the bottom of the comments, you'll see a discussion of it in brief), so I'll just go over the highlights now: Elrond (base S4) begins by wounding the Balrog on a 6/4+, which is pretty good all things considered (lots of heroes start - and stop - here). This means Elrond is expected to deal maybe one wound/turn if he can manage to trap the Balrog. Thanks to the Balrog being a Spirit model, this gets improved to a 5/3+, which puts him quite close to 1 wound/turn without a trap (and close to 2 wounds/turn with a trap). If he two-hands as well, he can improve his wounding difficulty to a 4/2+, which is going to put him on 2-3 wounds against an untrapped Balrog and 3-5 wounds against a trapped Balrog - which is INSANE. 

If Elrond is also able to reroll all failed To Wound rolls with Enchanted Blades (say, from Cirdan), he's likely to be wounding the Balrog very, very well and actually stands a better chance of killing him than any other Rivendell or Numenor hero. And this assumes that Cirdan used his Might point to channel Blinding Light, instead of channelling his Enchanted Blades to give Elrond yet another +1 To Wound (3/1+ with rerolls on all failed To Wound rolls). I think in most worlds, Cirdan isn't going to be channelling this spell . . . but Celeborn has 3 Might for channelling it and is historical allies with Elrond . . . so that might happen. If you're a D8 or lower Spirit model (as basically every other Spirit in the game is), Elrond is basically wounding with everything without the Enchanted Blades . . . chew on that for a bit . . .

But if Elrond was just a pretty good offensive hitter, he'd be overcosted. Elrond is also a Hero of Legend, which not only allows him to ally with everything (historically or conveniently because he's an Elf) and any Rivendell Knights you include in your Rivendell contingent don't count towards your bow limit. Like Riders of Rohan, this isn't tied to an army bonus, so you can ally in cavalry to ANY Forces of Good army and for the low-low price of whatever army bonus you had, you can have cavalry (and bowmen) in your list. Rivendell Knights aren't cheap, but they're also on anyone's short list of best cavalry models in the game.

Elrond is great on Defense, with Defense 7 if you give him the heavy armor (I always would) and with 3 Wounds/3 Fate that can be rerolled when they fail with Vilya, it takes a concentrated effort to crack through Elrond. Gil-Galad and Elendil might worry about a siege weapon shot, but Elrond is . . . less concerned. His horse is just as vulnerable as the other two's horses, but he himself is less concerned about fireballs from the air or a cheeky wound from the King of the Dead.

Elrond is also a combat mage and has 3 Will points in his store and could potentially get a free Will point each turn if he's within 6" of Lindir (who has a pretty rubbish profile, but some neat auric benefits). Elrond can use these Will points to cast Wrath of Bruinen if he wants to do some area-of-effect damage (3" radius of him, only knocks enemy models Prone, S2 hit on all affected enemy models) or Renew if he or a friend has taken a wound. If you're hard to wound, there's nothing more frustrating than Elrond throwing a free Will point to get the wound back . . . so gauling. The Will points can also be used to keep him from taking magical damage (and he'll pick up Resistant to Magic if he's within 6" of Lindir as well) - not as good as Elendil and only possibly as good as Gil-Galad, but this is far more than most heroes have to work with.

Finally, Elrond has Foresight points that can be used to modify his priority rolls - you determine the number of Foresight points you have at the beginning of the game (D6) and if you tie or just barely lose a priority roll, you can dump a few of these in order to win priority when you  need it. This is particularly good if you've brought some cavalry along with Elrond or just want to force out some Might from our opponent in the form of Heroic Moves. I've seen this employed really well by Red Jacket and Centaur here at TMAT, but as has already been mentioned, my Elrond has never gotten me more than 2 Foresight points . . . it's sad . . .

Usually, you'll see Elrond as a 190-point hero in a Rivendell list, but you might also see him as a 180-point hero in the Vanquishers of the Necromancer Legendary Legion. This Legion doesn't allow Elrond to get a horse, but it also makes him count as a banner for other friendly heroes (so he'll be locked in with 3 Attacks and a reroll from Lord of the West, but his friends might all have 3 Attacks with a reroll near him - which is really good). He also gets a free Heroic Strike each turn in that Legion, so more so than in a normal Rivendell list, Elrond is encouraged to go after big things. While the loss of the horse is certainly felt, Elrond's potency is hardly reduced in that Legion.

So what's the answer? How do we fight back against such a powerful hero? Well, the answers are much easier this time than they were last time when we talked about Elendil - let's re-evaluate Elrond's profile and see what he's weak against . . .

How Do You Fight Back Against Elrond?

Let's start off with Elrond's casting, which can easily be the nastiest part of his profile. Since Elrond is a combat mage, his damage spell is his most threatening, but unless Lindir stays really close to him, he's only got 3 Will. As a result, our primary goal is to make Elrond spend his Will on things OTHER than casting. This is a great strategy for dealing with other heroes too - but particularly ones like Elrond that want to be rolling 2 dice to cast their spells. Whether it's another caster throwing an Immobilize/Transfix spell on him so he has to use his free Will point or one of his normal Will points with his Resistant to Magic die to cast or if you target him with a damage spell that he needs to resist, Elrond's not going to be happy if he's not allowed to do "the Elrond thing."

Second, Resistant to Magic is really good on Elrond - but it's also really good on models that want to beat up on Elrond. If you have Resistant to Magic/Fortify Spirit and/or a high amount of Will, Elrond is going to be unable to knock you prone, deal chip damage with Wrath of Bruinen, and be able to fight you with impunity because you can't hit him back. If you're not knocked over, though . . . suddenly Elrond has to pause and think about the risk of losing the duel . . .

Since most players don't think two-handing is a good idea unless you have a way of mitigating the dueling penalty, being D7+ and NOT being a Spirit model is usually a good way to blunt Elrond. While it's rare, if you can make it to F7+ as well, you're likely to force Elrond to burn a Might point calling a Heroic Strike (unless he's in the Vanquishers Legion, where the Strike is free). Making sure Elrond doesn't kill anything (and might have to spend resources to just have a chance and dealing wounds) is a great way to make sure a 180-190pt hero isn't doing is job.

Finally, Elrond is a really powerful hero who causes Terror - but if you have some Terror bypass options, don't underestimate the power of a one-man-tag operation (we usually refer to those as "suicide bob" maneuvers), where one warrior model charges into Elrond and ties him down unless he burns a Might point calling a Heroic Combat. Elrond doesn't get these for free, like Elendil does, so if you don't want him to have Might points for calling useful heroic actions, tying him down with one warrior and forcing the Might out on a weaker move is always a good shout.

Okay, let's look and see what models or strategies can be employed in order to counter Elrond, should you see him on the other side of the table . . .

Tiberius's Top 5 Models To Counter Elrond

Our honorable and dishonorable mentions should look familiar, as they're particularly useful at dealing with other big heroes, like Gil-Galad and Elendil.

Honorable Mention: Basically any Dwarf hero, but especially Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain and Balin the Dwarf, King of Moria

Anytime you have a S4 hero who can risk two-handing with a penalty on the other side of the table, having a D8-9 hero on your side is a good way to make them cautious. Dwarf heroes generally have access to +1 To Wound and since most of them also have axes, wounding a D7 hero like Elrond isn't that hard (and being wounded in return is unlikely unless Elrond two-hands). Chief among his threats is Thorin Oakenshield, King Under the Mountain, since this version of Thorin has access to a mount (to remove most of Elrond's punch), has an Elven-made weapon if he takes Orcrist (which can be wielded two-handed if Thorin wants to wound on 5s), and if Thorin goes unchecked, he's got free Heroic Combats to make a mess of the enemy lines. 3 Will is pretty good on a hero - and decently likely to stave off Elrond's magic unless Lindir is also in tow. For roughly 50pts less than Elrond, Thorin can be a pain to deal with.

But another great hero you can use is Balin the Dwarf, King of Moria. While Elrond has the ability to modify his priority roll with his Foresight points, Balin has the Longbeard special rule, which allows him to reroll his priority roll. In the Armies of the Hobbit designer commentaries, it's been noted that Elrond needs to modify his priority roll with Foresight points BEFORE Balin rerolls his priority roll, which ultimately means that Elrond might need to commit his Foresight before Balin even spends his Will point. Like boosting the final casting value of a spell you've already cast, modifying your priority roll with Foresight points runs a risk of wasting resources, which makes fighting Balin particularly difficult for Elrond. He also happens to be a D8 Dwarf who gets a reroll to his dueling roll, can be S5 with +1 To Wound and no penalty, and is a blissfully cheap Hero of Legend for only 110 points . . . and since he spends Will to reroll priority, it's possible that he could have an Impossible Ally to get him his Will points back . . .

Okay, time for more another filthy Dwarf!

Dishonorable Mention: Floi Stonehand

I hope you're not tired of seeing this guy - because I love him! Floi has shown up a LOT in this series because, frankly, most nasty models in the game rely on a special rule to make them tick. Elrond has several special rules that are critical to keeping his battery going, not least of which is the Lord of the West rule. Without it, Elrond's killing power goes down - especially against D7+ Dwarves. If you think you can get some damage on him, taking away the special rule for Vilya (which provides the rerolls for his Fate points) can be devastating and can force him to play more defensively for a round if you have leaned hard into bows or ballistas.

But there are some unconventional ways you can deal with Elrond as well - if Elrond brought Lindir with him, you can remove Lindir's Wise Council rule to remove the free Will point that Elrond was counting on. If Elrond has already spent all his Will points, this turns Elrond from being a devastating caster to being a non-entity, even though you can't remove/nullify his magical powers! Floi isn't usually paired with a caster, but you can technically also remove Lindir's Resistant to Magic rule in the same way (which I don't think is as useful as removing the free will point, since that can be used for magic defense as well).

Now all of this has to be done during Floi's move, so you can bet that Elrond is going to try to move first and get off his spell before Floi gets a chance to go - but if you brought Floi with Balin, there's a good chance you can contest even that! So yes, I'm giving Floi the filthy spot again (he's had that a lot recently). Let's kick off the actual list with . . .

Pick #5: Galadriel, Lady of Light

Elrond is a combat mage - and Wrath of Bruinen makes up a HUGE part of his usefulness. Galadriel, Lady of Light is a good counter to both magic and archery, since she has a hit-only-on-a-6 bubble up all the time to counter Elrond's archery helpers and can cast Fortify Spirit on friendly models to give them 2 free Will points to resist magical powers so long as she has at least 1 Will point left. If she casts this on models embedded in your battle line, you can ensure that Elrond won't be able to pop a Wrath of Bruinen without risking a shut-down (and while getting a natural 6 on two dice isn't very likely, you've got a better than even chance of getting a 5-high or 6-high, which sould be enough to stop it at least once each game).

Galadriel is also no slouch in combat, though admittedly the likelihood that she wounds Elrond is low, since she's capped at S4 (and has no Elven-made weapon for winning the duel). Still, if you ally her historically with Rivendell or conveniently with basically everyone else by bringing along a friend (like Saruman or Celeborn), so getting her into a Good list isn't hard. Speaking of easily slotting into a list . . .

Pick #4: Legolas (either version) OR buckets and buckets of archery

Legolas has shown up a LOT in this series (both as an answer to other units AND as a Nemesis in his own right), but against Elrond, he's particularly useful. If Elrond is leading an army of all-mounted Rivendell Knights, he's likely left Blinding Light at home (unless Cirdan/Galadriel is trying to leg it with the cavalry or unless Gandalf has been allied in from the Fellowship). Blinding Light or no, Legolas has the ability to pluck out the horse from right under Elrond (and many another hero), greatly reducing his maneuverability, his damage output, and the effective radius and range of Wrath of Bruinen. 

I know the radius remains 3", but the larger the starting base is, the more total area is covered by the 3" radius. We all know (or can know) that the area of a circle is π*r², but our effective area is actually π(r + <half the base size>)² - π(<half the base size>)², so an infantry base is going to be π(3.5")² , while a cavalry base is going to be closer to pi(4")², which doesn't seem like much of a change, but it's the difference between 37.6" of affected area and 43.4" of affected area (roughly 7 extra square inches). It's a small change, but it's not nothing (and the difference used to be 11 square inches back when Wrath of Bruinen had a 6" radius).

Once Legolas picks off the horse, he can also dismantle whatever else Elrond brought with him - Lindir's horse, Lindir himself, the horses of any Rivendell Knights that Elrond brought along, and if there's no Blinding Light, he can even start chipping away at Elrond's Fate. He's an annoying little bloke, I'll tell you that.

But even if you don't run Legolas, you can still get a similar result by just pumping out archery. Any Knight-heavy Elrond list fears mass archery on the other side of the table (regardless of whether they brought Blinding Light), since a single lost horse (or rider) impacts their effectiveness. We've talked about pumping out archery to dismount the big heroes in this series already - and it certainly remains an option for you. Now if you're willing to be a bit more selective in your options, you should also consider . . .

Pick #3: F7+/D7+ non-Spirit Monsters, especially Shelob in the Cirith Ungol Legedary Legion

A S4 Elrond doesn't really want to fight a D7+ foe - and if that foe is also F7+ (as many monsters are), he's going to need to Strike if he wants the higher Fight Value. While the Vanquisher version of Elrond can Strike for free, any other way you field Elrond is going to have to do it at the cost of his precious Might points. Chopping through a D7 monster (like a Mordor Troll) probably means that a Rend is coming if Elrond loses, unless of course the monster has Monstrous Charge, in which case worse things than Rend could be on the horizon.

Chief among these threats, in my opinion, is Shelob - she's locked in at F7 (many monsters are), but with D7, 6 Wounds, and plenty of Will to resist magical powers and pass courage tests, she's a cheap, fast option for dealing with Elrond. If fielded in her Legion, she's the only real piece you want anywhere NEAR Elrond, and she picks up an extra attack, which makes a charge from her even more deadly. Should she be charged, she has the option to try to Paralyze Elrond on a 4+ (wounding him with a S7 hit) unless he burns through those Fate points (which he may not have anymore if she's already gotten the charge on him and won). She's tanky and particularly dangerous when paired with a Ringwraith (which she can't get in her Legion, but makes her FAR more dangerous outside of her Legion).

There are other monsters who can do this too - Cave Drakes, Dragons, any of the Good monster models, and most Troll models - but Shelob is the fastest of the non-flying options (which are just Eagles and Dragons with Fly) and she's also cheaper/as cheap as the other monsters in consideration. Now if you're okay spending slightly more points than Elrond on something big and gnarly, let me recommend . . .

Pick #2: The Watcher in the Water with a Bat Swarm

As much as I like the Balrog, I have had a recent experience trying to use him to catch pesky mounted Elves (one of which was Elrond) - and I can tell you for a fact that if Elrond wants to avoid the Balrog, he can. He just can. If he ever gets caught by the Balrog, he might go down - but he also might not (and if he ever wins a duel against him, he can certainly hit harder than most Elven heroes can). But the one model in the game that you can't avoid is the Watcher in the Water - and if he has a Bat Swarm friend nearby, his ability to whip Elrond into combat with him with his Tentacles (displacing the Blinding Light friend, ideally), and making sure that the Bat is ALSO in base contact will give the F6 of the Watcher the edge over anyone who isn't a Ringbearer. After that, S6 is the bare minimum required to Rend Elrond on 3s, to say nothing of what will probably happen to Elrond's poor horse, who will be wounded on 5s by the Bat (and 5s by the tentacle strike). 

While I generally wouldn't recommend Dragged to the Depths in-game, if the initial combat with the Watcher results in Elrond taking some damage and burning through all of his Fate, it's certainly possible for the Watcher to risk a one-turn KO of Elrond and being able to reposition later in the game with Dragged to the Depths . . . and if the Elrond ship looks like it's going down, your opponent might punt on his current position, leaving the Watcher painfully far away from any future targets. For 235 points, a Bat Swarm and Watcher combo is one of the nastiest surprises in the game.

Moria is also easily allied into almost every Evil faction in the game (Convenient allies with everyone except Barad-Dur and Sharkey's Rogues - one of which doesn't want this particular ally and the other doesn't usually need allies), so if you're not taking Legolas, you can take this guy really easily - just pay 375pts for Durburz, the Watcher, 14 Goblins, and a Bat Swarm and you're good to go!

But if you REALLY want to ruin Elrond's day, you want to make him spend his Will points on things other than casting, so to be incredibly dull and predictable, the top slot goes to . . .

Pick #1: Unlimited Immobilize/Transfix casters, especially The Dark Lord Sauron and The Necromancer of Dol Guldur

I've been finding that Sauron's creeping in on all of these lists, which I find to be incredibly thematic and appropriate. While you certainly can take cheaper/more accessible pieces, it's undeniable that a Sap Will on a 4+ from 18" away on Elrond is going to force him to spend some resources on resisting the spell (at least a free one from Lindir's Resistant to Magic bubble, probably his other free one for being near Lindir if he's got no casting prospects), but 1-2 dice aren't that reliable at stopping a spell that's cast on a 5-high or a 6-high, so Sauron can begin forcing out the resources early. Once Elrond loses his actual Will store, it's Chill Soul time on a 4+, hopefully pulling out that free Will point on a resist roll instead of a casting roll - though don't sleep on the prospect of a 2+ Transfix or a 3+ Compel as well.

Should you field Sauron in his Necromancer form, you have a few options that his corporeal self doesn't have. Curse is cast on a 4+ and if channelled, it'll blow away all of those lovely rerollable Fate points - you can bet that Elrond is going to do everything he can to resist THAT spell! If fielded in his Legion, the Necromancer can do this while casting another channelled spell on a different target - you know, like a channelled Compel to yank Lindir away from Elrond so he doesn't get free dice! While this only has a 12" range, it's still far enough that you might be able to cast these on those nasty heroes before they get a chance to get any casting in - and that's awesome.

There are, of course, lots of other heroes who can cast Transfix or Immobilize on a 2+ or a 3+ and would be incredibly useful for wearing down Elrond. Most have to be 12" away (Saruman is the only exception), but that's still plenty far enough if you've also got some shooting to slow down the Rivendell advance. There are some scenarios where the Rivendell player can start on the center line, and while that might mitigate your archery threat (at least a little), your casting threat is probably undeterred or at least can get the work in after one successful cast from Elrond. This one's not a creative answer, but it certainly works.

About the Keeper of the Dungeons . . .

There's one guy that I kind of wished I could have slotted into my list today - and that's the Keeper of the Dungeons. The Keeper has two really great special rules that can be useful against Elrond - the first of which is Torturer, which allows him to reroll 1s To Wound after killing 1+ models, gives him Terror once he's killed 3+ models, and then upgrades his rerolling 1s To Wound to rerolling all failed To Wound rolls once he's killed 5 models. If you do two Heroic Combats with this guy, it's not hard against most armies to get 5 kills so long as his combats are managed well, so he can be a F5/S5/2A hero with a Burly two-handed pick and rerolling all failed To Wound rolls. Against a D7 hero like Elrond, this makes his wounding difficulty a disgustingly low 4+.

Except it gets better, because the Keeper also has the You Have Something My Master Wants! special rule, which gives him an ADDITIONAL +1 To Wound against models carrying Elven rings (Elrond, any version of Gandalf, and any version of Galadriel). Wounding Elrond on 3s? That's pretty good . . . so why didn't he make this list?

There were lots of reasons he wasn't going to be a recommended piece - for one thing, he's "only" D6 with 2 Wounds/0 Fate, so one lost fight to Elrond on the charge and this guy is probably toast. Second, with a starting Fight Value of 5 and probably only 1-2 Might points left for Heroic Strike, a F6/3A Striking Lord of the West hero with an Elven-made weapon is going to have the upper-hand - ESPECIALLY if he's also mounted and on the charge. Third, the Keeper has no way to bypass Elrond's rerollable Fate points on his own, so even his his two dice DO manage to wound on 3s-rerolling-faileds, the first round of fighting is probably blunting off the Fate points . . . you ready for round two?

Most of these critiques can be solved if the Keeper is fielded with the Necromancer, since a Transfix by the Necromancer can keep Elrond from calling Heroic Strike/making strikes should he win and a channelled Curse from the Necromancer will threaten Elrond with burning his precious Will on defense or losing all of his rerollable Fate points . . . all of this has been said above, but this is more of an argument in favor of the Necromancer than in the favor of the Keeper. So I talked about this guy . . . but he didn't make my list.

Sample Lists

While we could have done a Last Alliance list with Elrond in it, I've decided to show off the Elrond/Celeborn combo, which allows you to get mega-damage out of Elrond on one turn. This is also a pretty affordable way to get F6 Elves with Elrond and have two durable heroes. The following list gets to 30 models at 700 points and has a very impressive 13 Elf bow shots and TWO combat mages:

• Elrond, Master of Rivendell on horse with heavy armor [ARMY LEADER]
• 3 High Elf Warriors with shields
• 2 High Elf Warriors with shields and spears
• 1 High Elf Warrior with shield, spear, and banner 
• 2 High Elf Warriors with Elf bows
• 2 High Elf Warriors with Elf bows and spears
  
• 3 Rivendell Knights with shields
• HISTORICAL ALLY - Lothlorien: Celeborn with Elven-made hand-and-a-half sword and heavy armor
• 5 Galadhrim Warriors with shields
• 5 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
• 5 Guards of the Galadhrim Court
  

We could have gotten Blinding Light by dropping Celeborn and getting Lindir and Cirdan. Heroic March would have been useful too since we've got a lot of infantry, but with 5 cavalry (including Elrond), I think we can contest an objective if we really need to.

Our first list is a Dwarf list that pairs up our two honorable mention call-outs and our dishonorable mention: King Thorin, King Balin, and Floi Stonehand. Our list has 34 models (no banners, but the effects of our banners were going to be limited anyway with the Impossible Alliance), but this hero-heavy army has some incredibly hard-hitting heroes to crack through the Elves, has Floi for rule-shutting-down shenanigans, potentially two free Heroic Combats each turn, and even has a Will-regen ability from Bombur:

• Balin the Dwarf, King of Moria
• 5 Dwarf Warriors with shields
• 5 Dwarf Warriors with Dwarf bows
• 6 Dwarf Rangers with throwing axes
  
• Floi Stonehand
• 5 Dwarf Warriors with shields
• 5 Dwarf Rangers with bows
  
• Shieldbearer
• 1 Dwarf Warrior
  
• 2 Dwarf Warriors with shields
  
• IMPOSSIBLE ALLY - Erebor Reclaimed: Thorin Oakenshield on war goat with Orcrist [ARMY LEADER]
• Bombur the Dwarf, Champion of Erebor
  

700 points, 34 models, 5 Dwarf bows hitting on a 4+ AND 5 bows hitting on a 3+ AND 6 throwing axes hitting on a 3+, 23 D6+ models, 1 cavalry and 3 Might for Heroic March, 10 Might

As we slide over to Evil, I've got a list that ticks off most of the boxes we covered today - we have a Transfix caster in the Shadow Lord (probably one of the best anti-Elf heroes in the game for Evil), we've got Durburz and the Watcher, and because why not, we added Shelob too. We still managed a very respectable 32 models - and could have made that number larger if I didn't take an elite Mordor infantry shieldwall:

• The Shadow Lord on horse [ARMY LEADER]
• 5 Black Numenoreans
• 5 Morannon Orcs with shields and spears
• 3 Orc Trackers
  
• Shelob
• CONVENIENT ALLY - Moria: Durburz, The Goblin King of Moria
• 7 Moria Goblin Warriors with shields
• 7 Moria Goblin Warriors with spears
• 1 Bat Swarm
  
• CONVENIENT ALLY - The Watcher in the Water
  

700 points, 32 models, 3 Orc bows hitting on a 4+, 14 D6+ models, 1 cavalry and 1 flyer and 1 fast infantry and 1 random arrival, 6 Might

Our final list fears no Elves - it's a Rise of the Necromancer list, complete with the Necromancer, two Abyssal Knights, and 7 Castellans (4 of which have Morgul Blades):

• The Necromancer of Dol Guldur
• 2 Nazgul of Dol Guldur (Abyssal Knights)
• 3 Castellans of Dol Guldur
• 4 Castellans of Dol Guldur with Morgul blades
  

700 points, 10 models, no shooting, 10 D6+ models, no fast models but 2 Nazgul of Dol Guldur with movement shenanigans, 7 Might

This list has a daunting front line of 7 Castellans, who aren't likely to suffer much from Wrath of Bruinen or Elven charges and will shred any Elves that they beat in combat. Supported by the Necromancer to mess with Elrond (and Celeborn in the sample list), this list has what it takes to last, despite its small numbers. With movement shenanigans from the Abyssal Knights, underestimate this list at your peril . . .

Conclusion

Elrond is quite the powerhouse and beating him isn't easy by any means, but it's also very doable and hopefully the units we talked about today will help you in your next encounter with him. If you have any thoughts on toppling Elrond, let us know in the comments - and until next time, happy hobbying!