Hey Reader!
We're back with another Top 10 post, today looking at the top ten most improved profiles in the Armies of the Hobbit book from the Forces of Good. Now that we know all the armies that someone can be fielded in, potential models that they can pair with, and special rules, we're set to rank the top ten most improved models for the Forces of Good in the Armies of the Hobbit book.
As we did in the top ten most improved profiles for the Forces of Good, a few caveats before we look at the list:
- We're ranking the most improved profiles in The Armies of the Hobbit book, so we won't be looking at profiles beyond that book. Never fear, though, we plan to go through all the books!
- We're ranking the top ten most improved profiles for the Forces of Good in the book, so only good profiles will be considered here.
- We're ranking the most improved profiles, not the strongest profiles: Dain is incredible, always has been, and he remains incredible in this edition. But he stands mostly where he did last edition (near the top of the slayer heroes for the Forces of Good, maybe higher since most axes can't add +1 Strength anymore, and via his Headbutt rule he can still knock people prone, so he hasn't technically lost the benefit of a hammer from last edition), so he doesn't make the list. No shade: some of the greats are still great, but that's a post for another day.
- The "Most Improved" means that the profile had to exist last edition, which is not really an issue with the Hobbit books (there's a comment coming, I'm sure, about how GW doesn't really do much with this part of Tolkien's timeline, and they're not wrong to be disgruntled about that), but it is a disclaimer we're making: you do have to step above where you were last edition.
- There were more profiles than this list can hold, so yes, I couldn't include all of the ones that I thought were interesting/useful. There will be some honorable mentions, but suffice it to say, if you really thought that someone should have made the list and didn't, there's a good chance that they were considered and just didn't break the top ten.
And so with that, let's look at some cool profiles!
Honorable Mention: Mirkwood Elf Knight
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| All images from the new book! |
Not a huge jump, but it does make them more than just "the one swift option you get beyond heroes," which is really nice.
Honorable Mention: Dwalin / Young Dwalin / Champion Dwalin
This means you actually have an interesting choice to make when fighting heroes and monsters: you can go for less Attacks and sport that +1 to wound (making dealing wounds more reliable), or you can go for more Attacks that may not wound as often, but it might end up being the same or more wounds thanks to a single 6 to wound equaling the full damage potential of the two-handed attack. It's not a huge bonus, but it is nice that, if you need the extra Attacks to win a fight against an enemy hero or monster, you might still be able to do solid damage to them if you can roll that 6 to wound.
Young Dwalin is in a similar place, except that his Dwarven Fury rule changed. Last edition you used to be able to choose to use it, and it would allow you to reduce your Fight Value by D3 and in exchange you got to reroll failed wounding rolls (not a major issue if you're spear supported by a F4 dwarf against most armies, and more reliable damage if you're looking for 5s to wound or better). In the new edition you don't get a choice: you always have to use Dwarven Fury, but now you roll a D6, and on a 5+ you get the bonus of rerolling failed to wound rolls with no negatives, but on a 1 you get the D3 penalty to your Fight Value with no bonus. It's not a major issue, but it means there's no choice now: you will always be inviting the chance at a -D3 to Fight Value, though you are twice as likely to get the bonus of rerolling failed wounding rolls. It's fine, but it's also why Dwalin didn't make the top ten for improvement.
Champ Dwalin gains the benefit of Grasper and Keeper still, but he also gains the ability with those axes and his two-handed axe to effectively retain the ability to Piercing Strike from last edition so long as he is within 3" of Thorin (and since he treats Thorin as a banner, that's not a bad place to be): he can become S6 (so effective S8 with the two-handed axe) if he wins the fight, or a Defense of 8-D3 (so on average D6) if he loses the fight (which is not bad, but not great either).
So on the whole, Dwalin is still a solid pick this edition, but I don't think he improved that much over last edition, so he didn't make the list.
Honorable Mention: Saruman the White
But perhaps the biggest change he got is he gained Lord of the Istari, which allows him at the start of the Move Phase, even before Heroic Actions are declared (which means there's no way to stop this from happening), he can choose an enemy model within 6" and line of sight: if they fail an Intelligence Test they cannot activate that turn.
This can be situationally powerful: naturally most power heroes have a pretty good Intelligence score, so they are not likely to be affected by it (especially if they're willing to spend Will Points to pass). But on a caster (who wants you to burn Will Points resisting free tests every turn instead of resisting magic) who doesn't want grunts running away with objectives (and a surprisingly high amount of cavalry are looking at a 7+ or worse for Intelligence scores), and who is in a list with limited numbers, this is useful for keeping banners in a given spot so they can't help the rest of the group, and can speedbump models that are behind a model near a gap or doorway, and then you don't let that front model activate for the turn, so they have to go around (or wait, potentially forever, for him to be able to move again). And a large number of evil monsters have a relatively low Intelligence score, so you might find success there.
There are a good number of armies where this won't work against them, but it is useful, so we highlight it here. But I don't think it's quite as good as some of the changes we've seen from other models.
So with that all squared, let's get to the top ten!
#10: Kili and Fili (and Champion Kili and Fili)
First off, they both added +1 Fate (so 2 Fate total), which means a few things. First, if they're able to swap, not only can you switch out which one of them might be in a tough fight, but also since they're within 3" of each other and they're part of a family group, they can spend each other's Might / Will / Fate, so they each have effectively 4 Fate Points, albeit at the expense of the other brother. But that makes their relatively fragile Thorin's Company profiles a good bit beefier, and their Champion versions far more survivable.
The biggest downside for these guys is the lack of mounts: ponies gave them 8" move in the last edition, which is really nice, and with no goat options for any of the Champions that's just rough. So while they're far more attractive than they used to be, I didn't rate them high on this list.
#9: Thranduil
But he also got some useful boosts: he's now Fight 7, and he gained the ability to reroll 1s to wound when outnumbered all the time (he only gets the extra attacks if he has the infantry keyword, but he also gets the reroll 1s while on the elk or while he's dismounted). In addition, if he killed everyone in his combat the previous turn, he can declare heroic combats for free on the following turn, which is really nice. And since the elk is S5 on the charge and does a S4 impact hit, he can remove several models a turn reliably.
And if that weren't enough, he basically gets Instill Fear as a magical power that is not a magical power (and thus can't be resisted) at the cost of a Will Point, which is really, really nice. And if you take Gandalf with him in the Battle of Five Armies list, you can replenish that Will, so you can keep the fear train going (if that's a priority for you).
So on the whole, great profile from last edition, still great this edition, and in my opinion slightly better (unless you really liked Aura of Dismay).
#8: Master of Lake-Town
In addition, his bonus changed a bit from last edition: he still hands out the 6" banner and +1 Fight Value for his guys (so F4 Lake-Town Guard are still a thing, and F5 Braga is really nice!), but now that it's triggered on Will Points and he starts with 4 Will (plus the ability to regain more over time), he's far more reliable of a support piece than he used to be, and he's not giving up the ability to call heroic actions by spending all of his Might on support abilities.
So on the whole, a good revamp that makes him quite useful without breaking him. Huge fan. And you can't take him with Birdbath Gwaihir and Galadriel, which I didn't mind in the last edition, but I know that some people did, so for those who had issues with that build, there you go: they "fixed" that, :P
#7: Ori the Dwarf / Champion Ori
But the biggest change was made to Chronicler: in the previous edition the hero that slew an enemy hero or monster had to be the one to regain the Might/Will/Fate, which was an issue if you were already topped off (like Thorin often was) and you didn't need to regain anything: you just missed out on the ability. Now it's been reworded: a hero in the fight regains the Might/Will/Fate, or if they're all at maximum, another hero within 6" of Ori can gain it instead.
This is huge: it makes Ori a useful way to refuel other heroes (you can keep Kili/Fili going if they're holding the flank while Thorin/Dwalin are chopping through bad guys, or you can keep Gloin going as he charges two warriors and Heroic Combats into the spear supports - more on him later) while your slayers are doing the dirty work of cleaving through difficult enemies.
But it gets better: Champion Ori actually gets better than this, adding +1 Will and +1 Fate (so still a great source for resisting magic while also being more resilient in his better armor), still gets Chronicler, but also has a special rule that allows all friendly Erebor Heroes within 6" of him (so himself, Mattock Iron Hills Captains, Dori, Bofur, and Bifur) no -1 penalty for two-handing their weapons within 6" of him. Which helps to solve multiple problems for Champion Ori: he was not very good at fighting last edition, so you were paying quite a hefty sum for primarily a support piece that was highly situational. Now, as long as you keep them within 6" of Ori, you're in better shape!
#6: Bombur the Dwarf / Champion Bombur
But the two reasons you take Bombur are 1) he allows you to regenerate Will Points on your heroes, so he can keep Gandalf going without Gandalf having to Strengthen Will on himself, and 2) his Will can be spent to call Heroic March, and since he's up to 3 Will now, you can do that 3 times (assuming Gandalf doesn't keep him going with a Strengthen Will, in which case it could be more than that).
And in his Champion form, he effectively retains the flail ability from last edition without having to drop his Fight Value: when he wins a fight, he can swing 1 Attack at everyone in the fight instead of allocating his (meager) Attack pool normally. Not like the greatest ability, but not bad either. And in an army that lost the ponies, having very easy access to Heroic Marches without depleting Thorin's Might pool (as Thorin picked up March) is really, really nice.
#5: Bard the Bowman
And in the Survivors of Lake-Town list, he also picks up both Fearless (so now he can still pass Courage tests even if the kids are gone) and Mighty Hero, which is crazy good (kind of a weird one when you think about it: I can think of several warriors in Tolkien's writings who are better warriors than Bard, so not sure why he'd get the special rule and not others, but it's fine). You still need to synergize him with the kids in terms of positioning, and admittedly him not being mounted on a horse makes it easier to keep them in range of each other, but on the whole: really good updates to make him an even better sniper and still a serviceable close combat fighter.
#4: Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood
But it gets better: in the Rangers of Mirkwood list he gains the Knife Fighters special rule (not surprising, but still really good), and in the Ravenhill list he gets up to F7 with 3 Attacks (and again, with access to Orcrist, though he can also pass it off to Thorin so that he gets access to an elven-made weapon to boost his chances of winning a fight). So between being still the best archer in the game, better at it than he was before, and getting even more beastly in close combat, Legolas got quite the glow-up.
#3: Gloin the Dwarf / Champion Gloin
And Champion Gloin is even better: jumping up to 3 Fate Points and still retaining that higher Will Store (and the extra attack when outnumbered), Gloin offers you what an all-hero / elite force needs: a way to force multiply a power asset to thin out the herd to keep you from being overwhelmed, and while Gloin was good at this last edition, from experience, it was still doable to overwhelm the dwarves. I think Gloin goes a long way in helping to reliably counter this threat, as you are not only harder to beat in a fight (as you're quite likely to roll a 5-6 on at least one dice for your dueling roll), but you're also requiring the enemy to throw 5 models against you if they want to guarantee that you can't Heroic Combat off of that fight. Which...is a lot of bodies to throw at anyone in the game, and is typically reserved for dragons and monsters that are twice (or more) the cost of Gloin.
He's also highly economical in this Champion form: for only 10pts more than last edition he's added +1 Will, +2 Fate, and the Axe Mastery special rule, which is just bizarre. I've railed against undercosted dwarves in person in the past, and I'll probably at some point put thoughts to pen here on how undercosted some dwarves are, but that's not something we're considering in this series: we're just looking at how improved a profile is, without respect to whether it should be setup the way it is, and I've got to hand it to Gloin: he's incredible value now.
#2: Oin the Dwarf / Champion Oin
Which sounds useful (and it can be), but for a few unfortunate facts that made this very difficult to actually utilize in practice. First and foremost, you have to start your turn in base contact, so if a model is not right next to Oin and gets wounded, either they need to both move toward each other or something to set up for a heal the following turn (more on that later), or you just need to shrug and say, "Combat Medic can't get over there, not my problem." Which...kinda reduces the appeal of paying points for a combat medic.
Second, the overwhelming majority of the members of the Company (which are the people you could use this on) only had 2 Wounds, which means 1) that there's a good chance that if they suffer a wound they might suffer 2 and you're actually going to lose them, 2) rolling the 6 for Healing Herbs doesn't actually restore more than 1 Wound, as losing more than 1 would mean they're dead, and 3) if you have to wait a turn to heal them because you didn't start in base contact, you might lose the last wound on that dwarf to archery, magic, or impact hits (since a lot of the Company dwarves are only D5 as well), let alone combat that turn as you setup for a next turn heal, thus also negating the need for Oin.
Oh and that's not all: the rule also stipulated that you could only use this once per turn, so it's a sad day if, say, Kili and Fili are both hurting and need some help, they're in base contact with each other (so they can switch), and even if you start in base contact with both of them you can't actually heal both, even if you have Will Points to spare. So the opponent can just see which one you heal, remove the other, and then work down the other as needed.
Oh and we're not done: he can perform the Healing Herbs rule instead of moving, so he can't move after that. This means if you want him to heal someone, he can't then also help tie down someone who is making a break for an objective, he can't help to stretch out the battle line, and he can't keep up with the rest of the group if you need to move out, all of which is troublesome.
Oh, and remember: it's not "spend a Will Point to heal someone": it's a roll, with a similar difficulty to the Renew spell, but unlike the Renew spell, you can't spend multiple Will Points to help make sure it goes off: you spend 1 Will Point to roll one D6 and take that result. So suffice it to say (wow, I wrote a lot of text, but glad I got that off my chest, :P ), I had issues with the previous wording of this rule, and if they fixed this rule there was a very high chance the profile was going to make it into my top ten most improved list, :P
He also had another rule, Prognostication, that allowed him to spend a Will Point to let an ally within 3" reroll a single D6 to win the duel roll. So this is not a banner reroll: it's in addition to a banner reroll, which is really nice. It not a wide range, but if you're trying to be close to allies anyway, it's not so bad. What makes this difficult is that the rule also stipulated that you could only do this once per turn, which means if, say, both Thorin and Kili need help...which one do you give a reroll to? The guy more likely to slay things (Thorin) or the guy more likely to die if he loses a fight (Kili)? It's a tough choice.
What we got in the new edition is a fix to all of this, and the fixes are super simple, which is even better. First, he starts with 5 Will instead of 4, which always helps when it's a resource you're spending. Second, he can move now when using Healing Herbs, which solves a lot of the problems on its own!
He also got a fix to Prognostication (and a name change to Reading the Portends): it's now a 6" range instead of a 3" range, and he can use it more than once per turn as long as he has Will Points to spend, which is also really nice.
But wait: there's more (did you walk into this article thinking Oin was going to get the most screen time?)! He also gained a hearing trumpet, and the trumpet gives him a 5+ chance to copy a heroic action within 6" without spending any Might Points. It comes with a tradeoff (if he rolls a 1 on the roll he loses a Will Point, which is rough), but hey: 5+ to copy a Heroic Move, Heroic Combat, Heroic Defence, etc.? Not bad at all.
And we haven't even gotten to the changes to Champion Oin yet: he's 5pts cheaper now (which is crazy), added +1 Attack in addition to his +1 Will Point (so he's an even better bunker now with 2 Attacks + Shielding, instead of 1 Attack + Shielding), and he still carries all of these better rules.
Oin fills the support roles that Thorin's Company and the Champions of Erebor need, and he does them much better than in the previous edition. I think he goes from bottom 5 dwarves to take to top half (maybe even top 5, it really depends; I think it's still Thorin + Dwalin + Gloin as your core, then comes the question whether you value support from people like Balin, Ori, and Oin over Kili, Fili, Dori, and Nori as extra attackers, and how high you rate Bofur's Steadfast rule and Bifur's ability to possibly call Heroic Moves for free, but I think Oin is at least in the mix now more than he was), which is marked improvement.
#1: Gwaihir, Lord of the Eagles
And this is to say nothing of the army rules he gets now: Strength +1 on the charge in a lot of situations, access to the likes of Gandalf and Radagast still to keep him in the fight, access to cheaper Fledgling Great Eagles to boost your numbers (so he's not as outnumbered as he would have been before), and you can include him now in other lists that sport additional attack heroes (like Thorin's Company, where Nori and Dori together are close to the same cost as a single Great Eagle but sporting 5 Attacks between the two of them if you run them correctly), and whole traditional armies (like Battle of Five Armies) where you can just drop him in as an extra attacker to wreck lines before dwarves and elves tear through what remains (and can easily trigger the "you have to be fighting with a friendly model that doesn't share your keywords" part of your army special rule for The Battle of Five Armies because when are you going to have two eagles in the same fight?).
Oh, and then there's the piercing scream that he gets, which unlike things like the Instill Fear magical power, can't be resisted: you just got to go with it. Gwaihir is sporting an attack upgrade, army upgrades, support/disruption upgrades - the guy got a boost in basically every part of the game (only thing he didn't improve on was magic defense, but magic got harder to cast, so that's kind of an upgrade), for zero points cost increase. That's fantastic.
Like this guy is just incredible: I've always loved Gwaihir, but man this is so good. Sure, you can't take him with Galadriel for archery protection, but you know what: the lord of the eagles survived one arrow in the past, he'll survive more. This guy is fantastic this edition, and it's not surprising to me at all that there are whole tables of armies just of eagles, because the profile (and what he can be taken with) has markedly improved this edition, and I'm totally fine with giving him the win here. He went from a single drop that often cost you your army special rules, to a solid choice in multiple lists with good special rules, and gained a lot of useful abilities, all for the same cost as before.
Conclusion
It's been fun looking at the changes: virtually none of the warrior choices had major changes for the Forces of Good (which I think was a missed opportunity, though admittedly the Lake-Town Militia got worse with the changes to their shields - more on that maybe in a future post), but among the heroes a lot of much-needed fixes happened (especially for the dwarves), and some interesting other changes happened that I'm not sure how to handle. And while virtually none of the warrior choices for Good changed, that's not the case for the Forces of Evil - more on that in the next post!
Similar to Celeborn in a previous post, I'm not sure what to make of the change to Alfrid: on the one hand, he provides more utility this edition than he did last edition, being able to hand out quite a few bonuses of varying kinds to supplement your force. On the other hand he's not as good at generating Might as he was before, so is he improved? I'm not sure.
Similarly I'm not sure about Girion: he went from a budget sniper hero for Dale (which synergizes nicely with a good shooting army) to either a relatively cheap melee attacker that can't suffer much in return, or a very expensive siege weapon with Might Points that can't suffer much in return. The loss of the greatbow may not seem big, but it's actually quite big: it makes him far more of an investment, and I'm just not sure how I rate that, since he changed in some ways for the better but in some ways for the worse.
What do you think: did I forget anything? Did I overrate the changes to Oin (or anyone else)? Lemme know down below!
Watching the stars,
Centaur
"Lie back on the floor," said Firenze in a calm voice, "and observe the heavens. Here is written, for those who can see, the fortune of our races." ~ Firenze, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Thranduil also lost his very powerful version of 'extra attacks while outnumbered', lost an attack while on for, and he was already fight 7 with with extra sword, so effectively he has lost fight compared to everyone else. I haven't used him yet, but first impression is that he should be quite a bit worse.
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