Thematic List Challenge: The Deeping Wall of Helm's Deep, Part 1

Good morning gamers,

There are lots of good podcasts and blogs and such out there on the internet with players who have podiumed at the world's most prestigious tournaments - and we aren't one of those blogs. I've been playing the game for a long time, but with young kids at home, going to multi-day events that are hosted by other people (or single-day events that are run on Sundays) are just out of the question for me. Heck, I barely have time to throw/attend 2-3 events run by our local group every year!

But one distinctive that our group does have is that in one way or another, we love themey lists. We do - sometimes it's trying to run lists that play off a particular gimmick or rule in the game, and sometimes it's attempting to portray a battle force from the books or movies. As someone who's played a lot of games and doesn't really care how he does in the end, I'll say that it's the theme of a list that really sells me on using something (maybe that's why I don't win much at our events . . .).

But I had an idea last year: write a few articles about lists that are rich in theme, don't appear to be toppling the meta right now, but have a lot to offer both thematic-minded and competitive players. As such, I've set for myself a "list building challenge" to explore some new ways for players to bring theme to the tabletop (and maybe win some games along the way). Our first stop is a newly-found favorite of mine: running a "Deeping Wall" list based on the Two Towers film!

The Theme

I've said this many times before: I was a bit saddened when War in Rohan came out and you couldn't run a "Deeping Wall only" Legendary Legion (though admittedly, this is pretty much my only critique of that sourcebook - it's really great!). Running Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and a bunch of Lothlorien Elves is really fun - especially if all of the Galadhrim could take bows . . . because THAT wouldn't be broken, right? Well, I happened to pick up a bunch of Galadhrim off eBay one day, and then Centaur and I split a Galadhrim box . . . and then I got MORE Galadhrim for Christmas . . . and suddenly, I had gone from being a Wood-Elves-only Lothlorien player to having a legitimately large number of armored Elves. What was I to do with all these Elves (and basically no shields because that's how the blister works)? Why add them to my three Hunters and play around with a Deeping Wall list, of course!

The battle force is iconic - three grim Hunters standing side by side with their former-captors from Lothlorien defending a completely foreign land (but an ally in the fight against Evil in Middle-Earth). When put this way, why wouldn't any theme-minded player want to play this list? The Defenders of Helm's Deep Legendary Legion is really fun - and gives you a lot of cool benefits - but because you have to include Theoden in your list (and because only one-third of your models can have the Lorien keyword), you're never going to get the "Deeping Wall" experience from that Legion. You'll get the "all of Helm's Deep" experience - and you might even win some games - but you won't get the "Three Hunters and all Elves" feel that you want from the films.

I've toyed around with this list idea for a while, trying it at various points levels for the past year or so, and I've come up with an idea for a list that I think is worth trying out and at least kind of competitive. It finds a nice balance between model count, ranged firepower, and speed - let's look at the restrictions we have to keep to theme!

The Models

The models we're going to limit ourselves to using are as follows:

• The Fellowship:
• Aragorn - Strider with armor
• Legolas Greenleaf with armor and Elven cloak
• NOTE: by a strict reading of his wargear, you COULD run Legolas from the Halls of Thranduil with Elven cloak if you wanted to save 10pts
  
• Gimli, Son of Gloin with Elven cloak
• Lothlorien:
• Haldir with heavy armor and Elf bow
• Galadhrim Captains with Elf bows
• Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows, banners, and/or war horns

It's a pretty lean list - only six profiles! I opted to not include Orophin in the list (since Defence of the North purports that he's guarding Lothlorien instead of sacrificing himself at Helm's Deep), though I think he'd be a brilliant addition. I've also restricted the wargear options on the Elves (something we'll get into in a minute) and made them film-accurate instead of scenario-accurate for the War in Rohan supplement. We know from the films that they have a war horn, they have several banners, and of course, they all have bows (which we will only be limiting to 33% of the warriors . . . and all the heroes). Let's see what the differences are between this list and other ways you can run Lothlorien and the Fellowship!

The Distinctives

You're probably thinking I'm crazy with this kind of list but hear me out. As I noted above, this list can be run in one of two ways. First, it can be run as a Historical Alliance between the Fellowship and Lothlorien, which really only means that Haldir isn't strictly necessary for the alliance (as Fortitude heroes are fine - but why would you leave him at home?) and your Elves will have Resistant to Magic (which is nice to have, but not game-altering in most situations).

You can, however, run this list as a Convenient Alliance between Lothlorien, the Halls of Thranduil (Legolas), and the Fellowship (Aragorn, Gimli). The Fellowship version of Legolas pays +10pts for a synergistic rule with Gimli, so if you're not taking Gimli, it makes more sense to just run Legolas from the Mirkwood list instead. To be strictly accurate to the films, the "armor" that's worn by Legolas in his Fellowship form and the "armor" that's worn by Legolas in his Mirkwood form are different, so you should run Legolas from the Fellowship all the time, but for you min-maxers out there, the Mirkwood one will save you some points . . . so there. Technically speaking, since there is no difference between Galadhrim Warriors with no extra gear or Elf bows and Mirkwood Elves with no extra gear or Elf bows, non-Fellowship Legolas could TECHNICALLY also bring troops with him . . . hmmmm . . .

This list idea is also "just a bunch of Elves" - and specifically, Elves that have opted to not take shields or spears. Both of these equipment choices are often viewed as the best war gear options that Elves (and warriors in general) have - shields make your Defense stat go up (and can allow you to double your dice to stay alive longer if you defend by Shielding), while spears allow you to concentrate more mass in a fight so you win more and kill more. Leaving them both at home can certainly hurt you . . .

. . . but only sometimes. Going from D5 to D6 (or from D6 to D7 if you give your Galadhrim Captains shields) will make a difference if your opponent is S3 (or S4 if you're a Captain), but if your opponent has S4 attacks or S2 attacks - both of which can be common at range and in melee - then going up to D6 doesn't help you. Yes, shielding can help your Elves stay alive longer, but it also doesn't make the situation less dire on future turns - in general, you can't kill models by shielding (and this is certainly true for Elves). I'm not saying shields are garbage, but you'd be surprised to find the number of situations where it doesn't seem to matter - especially since certain Legions with access to Orc bows, greatbows, and crossbows are all-the-rage right now.

Spears are really useful too - especially on high-Fight-Value models like Elves - but there are plenty of factions who get along without spears (like most Kingdom of Khazad-Dum/Moria builds - though admittedly, most of these builds are not D5) and turning those spears and shields into additional guys helps you shoot a little bit more, wrap around the enemy more easily, and get those all-important traps (which are necessary for Elves to kill most high-defense units anyway). Oh, and your heroes can help take the pressure off your troops pretty well too.

The comparisons to the Defenders of Helm's Deep list are important here - while you can add Theoden and a bunch of Rohan guys to buff out your numbers in the Legion, this army has no heroes below F6 and no warriors below F5/C5 - everything's elite, and we're not THAT much more expensive than the Rohan units we could take (Warriors of Rohan with shields are 7pts/model, but tack on throwing spears or upgrade them to Rohan Royal Guards, and suddenly we're paying the same points or less for Galadhrim Elves than the Legion's paying for their less-elite Rohan units).

You can run Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Haldir in the Legion if you want to, but you can't get more than one of these guys with Theoden at 500pts without having a tiny army - and scaling up to 700-800pts will see you add one (maybe two) more of these guys to the list. By not having to take Theoden, we get access to Haldir, a Captain, and at least one of the Fellowship members in your list at around 500pts, with a healthy number of models to boot! As the points level gets higher, you can usually add another Fellowship member (as well as a Captain with a warband of guys).

Example Lists

Our first list is a 500pt list that leans hard into the one mechanic your opponent has no say over: shooting . . .

• The Fellowship: Legolas Greenleaf with armor
  
• HISTORICAL ALLY - Lothlorien: Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor [ARMY LEADER]
  
• 10 Galadhrim Warriors
• 3 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
  
• HISTORICAL ALLY - Lothlorien: Galadhrim Captain with Elf bow
• 6 Galadhrim Warriors
• 5 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows

We could have gotten a banner in this list by swapping Legolas Greenleaf for Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood (saved 10pts) and dropping 2 Galadhrim Warriors (which we can do while still being within bow limit), which would have given us 3pts extra . . . and nothing to use them on. The "optimal" option would be to hand out three spears to people (or heck, three shields), but that's not what we're doing in this challenge. As written, the list is a historical alliance that preserves the Resistance to Magic rule on the Lothlorien contingent and doesn't give anything to Legolas. By swapping in the other Legolas variant, we'd lose the army bonus - but that would also be fine (these heroes aren't great at resisting magic, but I think they're also hoping that they can shoot down whoever is coming at them to make magic a non-entity).

Speaking of shooting, this list has a lot of shooting - 11 shots/turn from the Lorien warbands and 1-3 shots from Legolas (depending on whether you need to snipe at an anti-archery character, a big hero's mount, or a model worth victory points). At 500pts, getting 12-14 shots/turn that hit on 3s or 4s and probably wound on 5s (6s against D6-7) and 4-6 of those shots having Might behind them to boost wounding rolls . . . that's a lot of death. We also hit pretty good numbers at 500 (27 is slightly above the rule of 1 model/20pts that a lot of players have), and even against a spam list, your archery should be more dominant as your opponent invests in cheaper and cheaper troops. Furthermore, because this is a 500pt list, the likelihood that your opponent has an anti-archery component to the list isn't that great. While there are combos that can be fielded at 500pts (Galadriel from Lothlorien backed by Elves, the Shadow Lord backed by Orcs, Gandalf the Grey backed by Lake-town Militia or Hobbits, Cirdan with another Rivendell hero backed by Elves), at 500pts, most lists aren't going to be packing this level of archery - and the more you want to horde out, the less value these heroes have (most of whom are expensive or can't lead that many guys).

As we scale up the list to 700pts, we can make a few adjustments . . . and get up to 30 models:

• Aragorn - Strider with armor [ARMY LEADER]
• Legolas Greenleaf, Prince of Mirkwood
  
• Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor
• 10 Galadhrim Warriors
• 1 Galadhrim Warrior with banner
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bow
  
• Galadhrim Captain with Elf bow
• 6 Galadhrim Warriors
  
• 5 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows

30 models is my magic number for bare-minimum model count at 700pts - and honestly, with a D5 Elf army, it's probably too low. If you want the numbers to go higher, you can run a list that TECHNICALLY has all legitimate models (based on their war gear), but just calls them different things (and if you use the actual models, you'll have slightly different aesthetics):

• Legolas Greenleaf, Prince of Mirkwood with Elven Cloak
• 7 Mirkwood Elves
• 1 Mirkwood Elf with banner
• 5 Mirkwood Elves with Elf bows
  
• CONVENIENT ALLY - Lothlorien: Haldir with Elf bow and heavy armor [ARMY LEADER]
• 10 Galadhrim Warriors
• 1 Galadhrim Warrior with banner
• 4 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows
  
• CONVENIENT ALLY - Lothlorien: Galadhrim Captain with Elf bow
• 7 Galadhrim Warriors
• 5 Galadhrim Warriors with Elf bows

This list comes in at 698pts, so once again, if you wanted to sneak two spears into the list, I wouldn't notice (heck, drop the Elven cloak on Legolas and add seven spears). By taking Elves in Legolas's warband, we reach a grand total of 43 models, with 17-19 Elf bow shots each turn . . . yikes . . . oh, and did you notice that we have TWO banners in the list? I put it to you, we don't need spears in this list to make this work . . .

Neither list has Gimli in it - which makes me sad, but there's a reason for it: our first list with Aragorn has only 1 warrior slot remaining for the Elves, so to add Gimli, we'd have to drop Aragorn and a few Elves to pick up Gimli and a Galadhrim Captain (didn't seem worth it to me) OR we'd need to drop the armor on Aragorn and Legolas, who synergizes really well with the Elven shooting. In the second list, dropping Legolas's warriors would make enough room for Gimli, but we'd still have 52pts left on the table and no warrior slots available to anyone . . . the cut to our numbers is just too great for me to think this is a good idea.

Depending on whether you take Aragorn (who is a nice option for dealing with a host of threats - though without Anduril, his damage level is low), you'll have 13-15 shots/turn or 17-19 shots/turn - that's a TON of archery! With D5 across our list (Haldir/the Captains are D6), any S2 archery will be wounding us back on 6s, while S3-4 (and S2 bows with +1 To Wound) will wound you on 5s - that's not HORRIBLE . . . but it could be better. Since there are very few archers who have D6 (Dwarf Warriors, Iron Hills Dwarves, and Corsair Arbalesters, Rivendell Knights/Galadhrim Knights with shields), every other archer in the game will be wounded in return on 5s (if not 4s) - so you're in good shape if you're caught in a shooting war, so long as you've got something to hide behind (you know, like they had in the film).

These lists are designed to whittle the enemy down with shooting - and while that isn't an option in every scenario, it should be noted that in one of these lists, we have 43 Elves at 700 points. While those Elves are D5 and can't defend by shielding, I think they will spread the enemy pretty thin (and that makes not having spears a lot less of a liability). Where possible, this army wants to shoot (ideally from behind cover), but even if they have to start right up in the enemy's grill, they have plenty of models to wrap-and-trap and if some of the enemy doesn't start near them, they have two excellent shooting heroes (Haldir and Legolas) to rack up a few more kills from afar. I don't know, I think this could be competitive . . .

Conclusion

Hopefully you enjoyed this little thematic excursion - let me know if there are changes that you think should be made in the comments below! Yes, shields are good - and yes, spears are good - but I've gotten this to work and if you give it a whirl, I'd love to hear how it went for you! Next time, we're changing the requirement to focus on the battle of Helm's Deep as portrayed in the Two Towers book. This offers us a BUNCH of different requirements that, frankly, seem subpar - but I welcome the challenge and we'll see what we can cook up. Until then, happy hobbying!