In Defense Of: Wood Elf Warriors and Noldorin Exiles

Good morning gamers,

In our last article, we talked about Gildor Inglorion and what his value is to a Rivendell list. Part and parcel of his utility is based on Noldorin Exiles - another model (along with their more vanilla Wood Elf Warrior cousins from Lothlorien) that gets heavy critique from the competitive community. I have been using Wood Elf Warriors since I began playing the game in 2010 and today I want to share the reason why I haven't collected Galadhrim Warriors for my Lothlorien army until recently (and mostly for Quest of the Ringbearer/Fantasy Fellowship scenarios, though having the option for armored Elves is an interesting choice). I've also been playing recently with Rivendell and Gildor is one of my first inclusions (along with 5-9 Noldorin Exiles). We'll look at what these guys give you and why you should care to try them out. Let's get right on it!

Why NOT To Take Wood Elf Warriors

Some of my favorite units in the game, warts and all . . .

Wood Elf Warriors are available in the Lothlorien army list for 8pts each and as Noldorin Exiles in the Rivendell army list for 9pts each (they get +2" of movement). When you compare this to the armored Rivendell/Lothlorien counterparts, you can see the cost savings that come from relying on Wood Elves (and the extra speed from Noldorin Exiles), but it comes at a heavy price - 3 Defense points:

Wood Elves vs. Armored Elves . . . no comparison?

To make a fair comparison, what you're seeing above are Galadhrim/High Elf Warriors with shields and spears vs. Wood Elf Warriors/Noldorin Exiles with Wood Elf Spears. Both of these units can spear-support AND defend by shielding - and both are very common occurrences in Lothlorien and Rivendell armies. Their special rules differ slightly (Stalk Unseen for the Wood Elf Warriors thanks to their Elven Cloaks) and their stats are basically the same - except when it comes to their Defense stats.

Revisiting Play Styles Part 7: The Underdog Playstyle

 Hey Reader!

Welcome back to the blog! Tiberius wrote a blog post recently about list building for beginners, based on a 2015 post I made talking about the seven list building play styles I noticed at the time. Last time we talked about the Min/Max Playstyle, and in today's post we are looking at the last playstyle: the underdog army.

I.  The Underdog Playstyle: "The List Only I Understand"

The name for this style owes its existence to one of the greats of Warhammer Fantasy 8th Edition, OnceBitten360, who referred to the underdog playstyle as, "an army that, because of practice, I think I can win with, but I don't think anyone else can." This list tends to be highly unique compared to others from the same faction, often involving a mix of models that the player likes, regardless of whether they are the "most efficient use of points" or "most powerful models in the faction." They tend to have good utility, but they may not be the first models that catch your eye.

I'm pretty renowned for running lists like this in our gaming group, and it's true: I run lists that most people wouldn't run, but I run them for months at a time, so I know how to win with them. So what follows in the next section will be examples of what I have used, but realize that unlike in other posts in this series we won't be "giving recommendations" for how to build an underdog list: a lot of it is going to come down to personal preference combined with a lot of practice.

Underdog lists tend to work best when you have a wide range of options available, but as you will soon see, that's not entirely true; sometimes you can build underdog lists in armies that have virtually no model choices.

In Defense Of: Gildor Inglorion

Good morning gamers,

Today we're viewing a hero who doesn't get a lot of credit in the Rivendell list: Gildor Inglorion. Once one of the hardest models to find in the MESBG range, this hero is one of the cheapest casters in the game (and can cast Immobilize on a 3+ with 4 Will points - pretty reliable at stopping people), but for a number of reasons, lots of players abandon this guy upon viewing him. Well, today we seek to change that and highlight a few things this hero provides to Rivendell that is useful to their team. Let's get stuck in!

Why NOT To Take Gildor Inglorion

So happy I own this guy . . . finally . . .

The root of most of Gildor's critiques is the comparison he has to two other Rivendell profiles: Erestor and High Elf Captains. These three heroes are the mid-tier heroes in Rivendell (worse combatants than Gil-Galad, Elrond, Glorfindel, and the Twins; better combatants than Lindir, Arwen, Cirdan, Bilbo, and Stormcallers) and are roughly cost-equivalent (for being Elves - Gildor is 70pts, Erestor is 85pts, and High Elf Captains are 75-100pts). When you compare their profiles, Gildor just doesn't look as good as the others:

The three "mid-tier combat heroes" for Rivendell

We'll start with Gildor's Defense 4 stat - because he's unarmored, he's vulnerable to taking damage. With 2 Wounds and 1 Fate point, you run the risk of having this hero shot out before he can do anything useful (while the other two are pretty resilient to taking damage).

Revisiting Play Styles Part 6: The Min/Max Playstyle

Courtesy of Bell of Lost Souls - and an army I don't own

Hey Reader!

Welcome back to the blog! Tiberius wrote a blog post recently about list building for beginners, based on a 2015 post I made talking about the seven list building play styles I noticed at the time. Last time we talked about the Toolkit Playstyle, and in today's post we are looking at the sixth playstyle: the Min/Max army.

I.  The Min/Max Playstyle: "Maximum Firepower"

To start off, I think sometimes that "Min/Maxing" gets a bad rap for no good reason. It's kind of like when people say "fan service is bad," when in reality what they actually mean is, "fan service for the sake of fan service without adding anything to the story is bad," and I feel like that applies here too.

The Min/Max Playstyle attempts to get the most power for the most economical cost. It assesses the needs of the list (numbers, mobility, defense, killing power, answers for big heroes, etc.), and then finds the most effective way to meet all of these needs with good, solid math. Min/Max lists are much like a bodybuilder: it's all muscle, no fat. If it can lose weaknesses in the army it will lose them. If it can strengthen or shore up a pitfall it will do that. 

This does not mean, though, that they must use elite/strong individual profiles: you can min/max with some of the weakest profiles in the game. But it uses these weak profiles to great effect: Goblin Town has some of the weakest infantry in the game, but if you have 100 of them and they can all effectively spear support each other, it turns out they can overrun elite troops with bodies to spare (because bodies they will probably lose).

In our gaming group Rythbryt tends to default to this, and rightly so: if you're going to run an army at X points, why not make it as cool and good as it can be? Why not get the cool pairings that are fun to see on the table? And it's a testament to his love for the game and the enjoyment of his opponents that sometimes he will come with a list prepared for testing, runs it, and then say, "I scrapped it because it won't be fun for anyone else, so I've got a new one to try out" next time we meet. Because the Min/Max playstyle can ruin the fun for others at the table, and that's something worth considering before you use this playstyle.

That being said, 1) it's perfectly viable, 2) it's perfectly acceptable as a playstyle, 3) it's a very attractive option, and 4) it might be instinctive for you, and if any or all of these are true of you, keep reading, because as we discuss "maximizing" this playstyle, we'll be talking about how to Min/Max effectively without making your opponent rage quit your local gaming group.

In Defense Of: Easterling Captains

A humble captain on foot, who is amazing when he's not alone

Hey Reader!

Today we're continuing the In Defense Of series, and Tiberius asked me to jump in and chat about the Easterling Captain, a model I've used a good bit. We will start by looking at why people tell you not to take this model (as well as the variant of this which is, "just take one for March," lol), then we'll discuss why you should take it, and then close out by discussing how to make it work effectively in your army list.

(Also, obligatory "Centaur isn't a great painter, and this army was first painted in like 2012, so he's getting back around to touching this one up to make it look better," :P )

Why NOT To Take Easterling Captains

So to start off, yes: many players will tell you, "Oh: just take one of these for Heroic March so that you can get to places faster." Here's the issue: 1) you don't always need to call March in a scenario (Contest of Champions comes to mind), and 2) even then, is that really the only reason to spend 50-65 points on a hero? So I want to start by saying I reject this premise: I don't think that's a good reason to spend this many points (sure: 40 points for a Moria Goblin Captain just to March the balrog is a great reason to spend those points), and I will not be using that line of reasoning in my discussion below.

If you come from this school of thought, great: chalk up one more reason to take these guys. But I'm not going to use that reasoning below, so feel free to lay some gravy on the horribly overbaked entrees you find below. :P