Good morning gamers,
A few weeks ago, I walked through the Numenor army list in the new edition of MESBG. That army list has four profiles in it and poses a significant threat at low points levels (especially if they can kill enemy banners or if the scenario doesn't give you VPs for having a banner). Today, we're looking at the more robust army list of the Last Alliance, a historical alliance I ran a LOT in the last edition, which has both advantages and trades that it needs to make when compared to the Numenor army list. Let's see how things have changed since last year . . .
The Last Alliance: Changes for 2025
Profile Selection
In the previous edition of the game, Numenor had access to all of the same profiles that it has now - Elendil, Isildur, Captains of Numenor, and Warriors of Numenor. The Rivendell contingent has changed significantly, however:
- You still have access to Gil-Galad and Elrond as your "big heroes", but you've lost access to Glorfindel (a crowd-favorite as a second anti-magic hero alongside Elendil) and if you left Gil-Galad at home, you COULD ally Elendil with Elladan and Elrohir and still have a historical alliance (because loopholes in the rules).
- You still have access to Rivendell Captains, but you lost access to the other mid-tier Rivendell heroes - Erestor (cheap combat hero/throwing weapons), Gildor Inglorion (March/caster), Cirdan (auric caster), Lindir (Elrond-augment/anti-magic auric boost), Arwen (caster), Stormcallers (very, VERY situational magic support), and Bilbo Baggins (ringbearer alongside Elendil) - all but Cirdan, Erestor, and the Stormcallers that nobody took would mess with your historical alliance status if you had Gil-Galad in the list (but leave him at home and you're fine - again, loopholes).
- You still have access to Rivendell Warriors (nee High Elf Warriors), but lost access to Rivendell Knights, which means you're legging it this edition - and only if you can afford a third hero with Heroic March.
- If you're playing with the Legacies document, you also add Erestor to the list - which is great, because having a cheap Unique Rivendell hero is NECESSARY to get this list to play at lower points levels. I wrote this article before the Legacies documents dropped, so I'll be adding text in red that clarifies how the list changes if Erestor is allowed in the list.
With an army list rule that requires you to run at least one of the named men (Elendil or Isildur) and at least one of the named Elves (Gil-Galad or Elrond), your "army list tax" is quite high with these guys, hitting at least 300pts but more likely closer to 350pts. Tack on a March hero and you're somewhere in the 375-465pt range - that's a LOT of points for three heroes! With warriors that will cost you 10-12pts without counting more expensive gear like banners, you're looking at a hefty starting price and should probably steer clear of this list until you reach 700pts (but you CAN make something sort of work at 600pts).
With these limitations in mind, let's see what army list bonuses you're gaining (especially vis-a-vis Numenor).
To recap, the Numenor army list gives your models Resistant to Magic when near Elendil/Isidlur, +1 Courage to all of your models, and General Hunter/has-to-accept-heroic-
Your Rivendell Infantry models (including heroes) benefit from the Whirl of Steel special rule that allows them to roll a D6 the first time they're charged each round: on a natural 6, the model that charged them suffers a wound (rolling for mount-or-rider if it's a mounted model). Basically, your front line gets to do this:
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That's cool - F5/D6 Elves should always be your frontline (supported by Numenoreans, of course). Finally, all models benefit from the There Were Some Who Resisted special rule, which allows all friendly models to reroll any 1s they get when making Courage tests. While not a fantastic rule, any die that rolls a 1 probably makes passing the Courage test iffy - so getting to reroll it is good for reliability (especially since we don't have Cirdan casting Aura of Command on our battle lines this edition).
Profile Adjustments
Here's how the profiles have changed since the last edition (the Numenor profiles will seem like a bit of deja vu if you read the previous article on their army list):
- Elendil has virtually the same profile he always had - he got a boost to F8 and still has access to Heroic Strike, but as I found in the previous edition, this makes him perfectly suited for running over grunts with the option for challenging something big instead of incentivized to hit something very, very large (and he can reroll 1s without having to reduce his Fight Value in this list if he's got an Elf supporting him). Without the option to take a horse, however, he's going to have to be embedded in your shieldwall so that he arrives alive - and this will limit his ability to get work out of Heroic Combats like he used to do in the past edition (though it does make boosting his dueling dice count/rerolling 1s To Wound a lot easier). He's slightly less resilient against magic (he has 1 free Resist die instead of 2 free Resist dice), but with S5 and +1 To Wound on those Heroic Combats, he should be able to carve through most troops with ease (though the knock down he used to get will be sorely missed against those stubborn D8+ foes). While I struggled to find a use for this guy in the Numenor list, 175pts isn't bad in this list, where you can rely on Elrond to be your fast-attacker - though 6" movement and 1 Fate point is pretty crippling. If the reduced speed cramps your style, you do have another Numenor option . . .
- Isildur wins the most-improved award for me in the Numenor faction - and that's saying a lot, since everyone in this list saw improvements to Fight Value! Apart from the epithet he finally received, he got upgraded to F7, still has 3 Might-and-Strike (which might hit F10, but you also don't NEED to hit F10 if you left Elendil at home), and has access to the Ring if his dad isn't around (like in the old edition - and with the One Ring only halving Fight Value if you're the only friendly model in a fight, you very well might want to leave Elendil at home so Isildur can automatically have the higher Fight Value). If he's fielded with his dad (unlikely in this list), Isildur can use the Shards of Narsil rule (which is a hand weapon that gives +1 To Wound if Elendil is killed - a small consolation prize for losing your 175pt Heroic Combat hero who might be your Army General, but a useful rule nonetheless). Perhaps most importantly, he retained the option for the horse (but not the shield), so for fewer points than Elendil, you can have a hero with the One Ring who can smash through troops while mounted and can be a thorn in the side of most heroes if he dismounts. I love this guy - 150pt inclusion most of the time.
- Captains of Numenor used to max out at 75pts with a horse, lance, heavy armor, and your choice of a shield or bow. Now, these guys are 70pts on foot and have the shield, but gave up the horse, heavy armor, and lance to become F6/S5. There's a strong argument that this is worse than it was before - but with the proliferation of Fight Values in this edition, having a generic hero for 70pts that's F6/S5 is unheard of (in the previous edition, only King's Champions fit this bill - and they were only under 100pts if you didn't count the cost of the two banner-bearers that came in the team). Though being infantry has its limitations (as I've felt with Elendil in this edition), these guys are cheap and while D6 isn't great on a hero, it's plenty good against your average warrior - and if these guys are embedded in your shieldwall, they should serve you just fine. If kept near Elendil (or Gil-Galad in this list), these guys can call Heroic Moves to get your big heroes in the positioning you want.
- Warriors of Numenor went up by 1pt and became F5. This results in them costing as much as Rivendell Warriors (9pts/model before wargear) and they fall short in several respects (hand weapons instead of hand-and-a-half weapons will be fine for most people, D4 base instead of D5 base could be very problematic, C7+ instead of C5+ is chalked up to Elf elitism, but being S4 is an advantage). Still, if you give these guys spears and shields, you get F5/S4 /D5 troops instead of F5/S3/D6 troops in your back line - and they'll get rerolls of 1s To Wound while supporting your your F5/D6 Elves in the front rank. What they LOST from the last edition (besides the mobility of their Captains) is the flexibility to put spears on their bowmen (which I did often) and they can't take a banner anymore (which hurts a lot more in pure Numenor, it's fine in this list). In trade, their standard bows (24" S2) became longbows (24" S3) and still cost 1pt/model - this makes them some of the cheapest longbow units in the game (tied with Citadel Guard) and makes them 1pt cheaper than Rivendell Warriors with a 4+ Shoot Value instead of a 3+ Shoot Value (among other profile differences).
- On the Rivendell side of the house, we have Gil-Galad, who saw a TON of changes this edition. He lost Heroic Strike, but as Red Jacket noted in his article on the Rivendell faction, he doesn't need it as much now that Heroic Strike adds D3 to a hero's Fight Value and a lot of heroes are Striking from F5-6 - and with F9 intact, his Might points can now be more reliably used for more important heroic actions (like Moves and Combats). He lost his shield and horse (like Elendil) and lost Blood and Glory, but otherwise still has Terror/Woodland Creature, Aiglos for +1 To Wound without penalties, a 12" stand fast that helps Elven heroes, and he gets to reroll a dueling die and a wounding die with Lord of the West. In this list in particular, he can allow you to take F6 King's Guard still (very useful when they've got S4 Numenoreans backing them up) and he might deal a wound to whoever charges him on a 6 - that's pretty neat. His immobility - like Elendil's - does put him in a rough spot, but as the anchor of a F6 battleline, I think if he can get into combat, he's pretty terrifying.
- Elrond is by far and away the more flexible of the two Elven heroes - and on a horse, he's about as expensive as Gil-Galad once you factor in the King's Guard upgrades you're probably taking and he gives you a TON of flexibility. His profile, wargear, and rules hardly changed - his Foresight of the Eldar special rule can't reduce your priority roll, but that's a distinction without a difference now that you get to choose whether you keep priority or lose it. He's also F7 now, which means that if you run him with Elendil, you can have your choice of a F7 hero or a F8 hero trying to beat the Fight Value of your opponent . . . or just ignore whoever they are and knock them prone with Wrath of Bruinen/blunt them off your Elves. While I will showcase a list without Elrond at the end of this post . . . honestly, he's the only auto-include for me in this list and I think he's really, really good.
- Erestor is a good value mid-tier beater hero for 85pts - he's still got his Noldorin Daggers which count as throwing weapons, but now they only reroll 1s To Wound instead of all failures. This is . . . fine. He's still got Terror, still got F6/D7, and with 2M/2W/2F, he's a nice balanced hero - and gets 2 free resources for +10pts over a Rivendell Captain with shield (so the throwing weapons and Terror are countering the ability to defend by shielding . . . seems like a good trade to me). The biggest boon for this guy, however, is that you can use him and Isildur (just over 200pts) to play this list at lower points levels - I don't know that this list will be better than running pure Numenor at 500-600pts, but it's certainly better than having to dump an extra 100pts into either of the other named Elf heroes.
- Rivendell Captains cost 5pts more than Captains of Numenor if they're given shields and 25pts more than Captains of Numenor if they're given horses, lances, and Elf bows (30pts more with the shield as well). While a 75pt Rivendell Captain on foot is not that much different from a Captain of Numenor (same Fight Value, lower Strength, higher Defense, better Courage), the warriors you have access to are often going to be better than what the Captain of Numenor is bringing to the party. You definitely want Rivendell Warriors with shields, Warriors of Numenor with shields and spears, and as long as you have the points for it, you probably want Rivendell Elves with Elf bows instead of Warriors of Numenor with longbows (but if you would be a few points over, swapping out for the Men with longbows instead of the Elves with effectively longbows is fine). As such, take a Rivendell Captain if you need the Elf slots . . . otherwise, settle for Captain of Numenor.
- Finally, we have Rivendell Warriors. Besides Elrond, the auto-include in this list is the Rivendell Warrior with banner. Yes, we'll need Rivendell Warriors with shields and possibly bows as well, but the banner is the big reason to take this list over Numenor - both can have F5 troops, both can have two big heroes supported by elite troops, but this is the only one that can pair good infantry heroes and warriors with dueling rerolls to prevent botches from happening as often. That's not nothing. I will say that in this list, you COULD get away with skipping on the shields if your meta is shaping up to be heavily focused on S4 - if Uruk-Hai (Army of the White Hand or Ugluk's Scouts) or Morannon Orcs (Legions of Mordor or Army of Gothmog) or Gundabad (Army of Gundabad/Rise of the Necromancer) or Iron Hills Dwarves (Erebor Reclaimed or the Battle of Five Armies) are big in your meta, I would HIGHLY recommend trying out the shieldless dudes - you'll probably only net one extra model, but if you're supporting with Numenoreans anyway, you don't NEED to defend by shielding and often times, paying for D6 isn't going to get you anything. So . . . consider taking some guys shieldless.
Okay, that was a lot - let's look at the strengths and weaknesses of this army list.
The Last Alliance: Strengths and Weaknesses
The number one weakness of this list is the hero tax. While the original six scenarios that were released with the main rulebook don't necessarily require you to have Heroic March in your list, three of them (Hold Ground, Reconnoitre, and Destroy the Supplies) HEAVILY penalize slow armies in matchups against fast ones. As a result, I think having some speed in your list for your infantry is a must - and as was mentioned above, that means spending 350+ points on heroes. At lower points levels, that's a tax too high - you're better off playing with Numenor (or possibly Rivendell/Lindon - more on them later in this series). I don't know if there's a world where you'd want to run this list as low as 450pts as you'd have basically no army (even if you just ran the two required named heroes and had ~10 guys), but I think once you're at 700 points (possibly lower than that - more on that in the sample list section below), this list presents an elite warrior front led by some of the finest heroes in the game (missing mounts notwithstanding). We'll see some of the tricks they can do in the strategies section later, but it's a good list . . . when the points levels are high (unless you have Erestor).
While the lack of profiles (especially the missing persons) might seem like a bit of a weakness, it's important to note that even in the old edition of the game, getting the profiles you wanted in a Last Alliance list within the constraint of any reasonable points level (800pts or below) was very difficult if not impossible. I did a whole article about this in the last edition, but suffice it to say that at most points levels, you were already having to make some hard decisions about who to bring (often times, getting a good mix of combat power and tactical power meant taking your choice of Isildur/Elendil, a High Elf Captain, and Cirdan - but even THAT load-out of heroes would run you over 300pts). With the options paired down to 2-4 big heroes, your choice of March Captain (possibly 2 if you opt for more models instead of stronger heroes), and no Cirdan/Gildor to augment your force, you're able to focus on what has always made Last Alliance lists good: elite troops. Getting a good model count is essential to getting the matchups you want with your heroes - and if you have Heroic Combats at the ready to help lower your opponent's numbers even more, you're in a good spot.
As we move to the strengths of the list, the first stop is obviously the elite unit profiles. F5 warriors all-around at 9-12pts each is kind of crazy and if you take Gil-Galad (a hard sell, but still), you might have some F6 warriors running around (which are still a nightmare for a lot of heroes in the game). Your Captains are both F6 and provide speed for your predominantly infantry list (which is good in at least half of the current scenarios and is likely to be useful in half of the total scenarios once the new Matched Play supplement drops). Your big heroes vary from F7 to F9 and all sport 3 Attacks/3 Wounds, which is something most army lists can't say (even the Fellowship can't say that). In the end, we're left with one of the most elite choices of units in the game - and if we're clever with our use of points at high points levels, we can get a reasonable model count and rely on our elite profiles to win the day.
Finally, the army list rules are also a strength - though they're not oppressive. Mostly they give us opportunities - a slight improvement to passing Courage tests, the chance to wound the first person who tries to charge us, and the ability to reroll certainly failed wounding rolls with our Numenoreans are all good things to have. Will they break a game? Probably not - but if you roll a lot of 1s that then become 5s or 6s with your Numenoreans (especially Elendil or Isildur) or if you roll a lot of 6s when your opponent charges your front line, you're gonna be really, really happy - and that can turn a game pretty quickly.
Okay, let's look at some strategies you can use with the list.
The Last Alliance: Strategies for the Tabletop
I've already mentioned this several times, but you want your Elves in the front and your Numenoreans in the back. In the last edition, there were certainly players who preferred to put their D5 Numenoreans in the front and the F5/D6 Elves in the back, mostly so you could preserve your F5 troops from enemy archery. With the Numenorean increase to F5, though, this is really unnecessary - I'd just put the Elves in the front (though if you're concerned about S4 archery, you could march up your battle line with the Numenoreans in the front rank and then do a switcheroo right before you engage - or just use your second-rank Elves to wrap-and trap if you don't have time to switch it up). The Numenoreans are likely to be easier to kill than the Elves are given that most warriors are S3 without the opportunity to get to S4. Since the Numenor-oriented army list bonus isn't tied to being supported but allows them to support Elves as well, these guys want to be in your second rank.
Second, embed your Captains and your non-mounted unique heroes in your battle line. Both Rivendell Captains and Captains of Numenor will be useful in helping your army March towards objectives (we have some thoughts on formations you can use for this here and here) and potentially for calling Heroic Moves at critical times - and as F6/2A heroes, they bolster an already impressive combat line rather nicely. If you're concerned about your heroes being shot at or yanked out of position with magic, you can set them a little bit backwards from the rest of the formation (see this post for how/why to do that), which should still help them get the match-ups they want without exposing them to all of the missile weapons your opponent chose to bring.
Third, you want to have some bowmen - maybe even maximum bowmen - in this list. This is particularly true if you don't have any generic March heroes in your list - you need to be able to exert some control over your opponent's movements before you get into combat. If you fielded either Gil-Galad or Elendil (I wouldn't field both) in your list, you're going to want to prioritize killing enemy mounts under big heroes so that "it's a fair fight" if your big guys get locked in with theirs . . . or more appropriately, to encourage your opponent's big heroes to NOT engage yours. Archery is still very strong in MESBG and leaving it at home without the ability to move your units quickly up the board is a recipe for disaster - I'd encourage you to take at least 6 bows in your list (and if you can't fit that, run either Numenor or Rivendell - possibly Lindon - so you can get a more well-rounded list) so that you have a decent shot at getting 1 wound/round against D4-5 foes (there are a lot of those running around). It doesn't really matter whether you gives Elves the bows or Men the bows - get Elves if you can, get Men if you have to - but what does matter is that you have some.
Finally, don't make Isildur your General. This may be decided for you - either because you took Elendil instead of Isildur or because you took Isildur with Gil-Galad. If you took Isildur and Elrond, however, you have a choice - and the choice should ALWAYS be Elrond as your General. This is not only a good idea because Elrond is more resilient than Isildur (3 rerollable Fate points to back up the same Defense and Wounds), but also because Isildur will likely have the Ring in your list and that means he wants to be able to blunt (if not kill) the biggest, nastiest enemy heroes in your opponent's force. If that's the case . . . you really don't want to risk leader VPs in his fights. Elrond doesn't have a lot of reason to commit to fighting something big, so that makes your leader VPs a lot safer. If Isildur also fails a bunch of ring tests and starts walking off, it would be good if he didn't walk into danger, take the Ring off, and then get gronked - it's far better if he's a "grenade" hero that you can drop into a tough spot and NOT have to worry about VPs (and disincentivize your opponent from actually throwing resources at him, since he's not worth anything). There may be scenarios where he's worth some VPs, but for the most part, he's not going to be worth the effort - and that's exactly what you want.
Okay, enough chat about list theory - let's make some lists!
Sample Lists
If you take Erestor in your list, you can run a decent-but-slow list at 550pts - I've taken Elendil because I literally just finished saying that you shouldn't have Isildur as your general, but you'd be able to get a Captain in there if you took Isildur instead. The list is slow but solid with 27 models in it:
The ABSOLUTE lowest I'd take this list without Erestor at is 600 points - but I honestly think that any Numenor list you build will be better. The list has Elendil with 6 Rivendell Warriors with shields as your front line, 1 Rivendell Warrior with spear/shield and 6 Warriors of Numenor with spears/shields as your second line, a banner for rerolls, and 6 bowmen (4 Elves, 2 Men) to guard your flanks. It also has Elrond for speed/priority manipulation and has a not-very-impressive 22 models at 600pts:
I think the list hits hard - but there are a select number of scenarios it wants to play! You also have to get GOOD use out of those heroic combats from Elendil and ideally good impact from Wraths of Bruinen with Elrond (and quite possibly some heroic combats with him as well to lessen the model count disparity). As we saw last time, the Numenor army list can hit 33 models at 600pts and I think the extra 11 guys would likely outweigh having two power heroes (instead of Isildur and 2 Captains) and a banner - but maybe that's just me.
When we boost up to 700pts, we can save some points by getting Isildur, but I've opted for getting Gil-Galad and 9 King's Guard (8 shields, 1 banner) instead of Elrond - you could run a Captain of Numenor instead of the Rivendell Captain if you want Elrond instead. This gives us a F6 or F9 frontline that's supported by S4 Numenoreans (who reroll 1s To Wound), which is going to be tough to crack. There are only 6 bows in this list, but it comes out with a not-horrible 28 models (lower than a lot of lists we've looked at so far, but expensive heroes will do that to you):
If being below 30 models is an issue, you can drop the Captain from this list and leg-it with everyone normally . . . and hit 34 models, which is actually quite good:
At 800pts, I've opted for a 37-model list with Elrond, Isildur, and a Rivendell Captain on foot (standing in an 11-file battle line). It also has 12 bowmen (10 Elves/2 Numenoreans because I needed to drop 2pts), has a banner, and a lot of speed on the two beater heroes:
Call me crazy, I think this list is pretty good. It only needs two warbands to arrive together in maelstrom (Isildur and the Captain), which is excellent - and Elrond's warband can arrive with some nasty damage potential if they happen to be separated. The 12 bows can also make four skirmish triangles if you need to be able to fire in all directions.
Conclusion
The Last Alliance has always been a favorite of mine and I'm happy with the army list in the game - though I would like it updated with a few more profiles, like combat-Cirdan or Anarion (see a previous Christmas project for my thoughts on that). The list is fun and iconic and while it doesn't have a lot of magic in it and not all of its big heroes can be mounted, the list still has a lot of options and I really enjoy playing with it. If you've run it in the new edition and have thoughts on how it's supposed to work, let us know in the comments below! Next time, we're headed to Moria to see the one hero most of these guys (not Isildur, but everyone else) doesn't want to see on the other side of the table. It'll be dark and awesome next time - hope to see you there! Until then, happy hobbying!
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