I'm designing a force around the defense of mirkwood (mainly desolation of smaug profiles)

Warband 1
Thranduil King of Mirkwood
10 Palace Guard

Warband 2
Legolas Greenleaf
5 mirkwood rangers

Warband 3
Tauriel
5 mirkwood rangers

That leaves me with around 200 points left, here's the question: should I ally in beorn or radagast and an eagle? Adding in beorn leaves a few more points for giving armour to thranduil and legolas but radagast offers magic and having an eagle around can be useful......

I'm not too fond of your army, if I have to be honest. You would have 24-25 models at 800 points. Evil armies may field Nazguls and/or monster and still be able to outnumber you 2 to 1, and most good armies would be able to use a wizard to counter your monster and still have at lest one more full warband.
Do not count too much on Rangers when outnumbered, a smart opponent know how to neutralize their special rule and still have more attacks (hunter orcs, berserkers, Iron Guards, Reavers or spear supporting).

True, I'd certainly be outnumbered. It's an elite force for sure.

But, at the same time, it's not an elite to be feared.
All your units will need 6 to wound on anything better than D5 and get wounded at 5 or 4 (you have not writter the palace guard equipment, so I'm assuming they are shieldless. But, even if, there are plenty of S4 models around). If your palace guard are also spearless, then you have even bigger problems.
Even Beorn can be dealt with. Is not that big of a problem in human form, and his berserk mode can force him far away from were you actually need him, expecially when the opponent has plenty of units to spare.

An elite such as this, is to be feared, however, remember, they are Elite, not Imort... well they are elves, but they are not invincible, with this formation, you have one chance, take the objective and hope to hold it until the time runs out, or cut the head of the enemy snake.

This is a good core of an army, but it is the core of bigger army than 1,000 points, and in situations where you need a spear, a tip of a spear such as this, is little use without it's shaft. Drop one of the formations in favor of some rank and file, Lake-town will do you well if you wish to keep it screen accurate, or drop Leggy and Tar and get yourself some cavalry and rank and file.

These are all good points, thank you. I will see about swapping out higher point heroes for more rank and file, that would bolster up the lines more .

I bet either would be good honestly. I am not 100% how killy Radaghast on eagle is, I haven't seen him yet, but you're definitely right a little magic goes along way. I think the only thing I would be worried about is having Radaghast and or the eagle get shot at before you ever get to use him with the rest of your army all being elven cloaked or high defense. Beorn could run into that too but is a lot easier to hide in human form and in bear form has a higher defense at least. I think it could be worth getting a cloak and armor for Legolas and Thranduil too if possible which might lean me towards Beorn to give you a few points to work with.

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Cheers,

P

That's a good point, Beorn frees up the extra points I need to add additional wargear to Legolas and Thranduil. the eagle is separate from radagast but he tends to be vulnerable expecially if he doesn't roll that 6 and is surrounded. I'm going to field beorn and see how that goes, I'll be careful when to change into his bear form so he doesnt get pulled away, thanks!

Even with those heroes you are severely undermanned. You need a lot more guys.

Any player whos talented will find a way to break you and take you to 25% easily.

Most armies I see at 800 have a spellcaster a large hero and like 3 full warbands easily.

If youre playing this at Cold Wars and or Nova, the players there are too good along with the scenarios for you to win a lot of games well(unless you are master of the hobbit world in which case I dont want to play you haha).

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

Yea I'm really outnumbered. I plan on attending NOVA. I know the guys are really good players, every decision with that army would have to work perfectly to win! I don't know what army I'll bring for that event yet. I truly enjoy playing for fun and thematic armies are more appealing to me. I'm not a hobbit world master yet, lol, but I'm working on it ! Happy gaming

Hmmm, well, even if i have to admit that i have never played with the Hobbit rules before, i agree with what has been stated above; with such an elite (and high-fight value orientated) force, you could do well in very few scenarios without continuously risking to get your whole force surrounded. A mage would be a very clever choice, as it could avoid the pesky situation of fighting against a 45-50 orcs army while a nazgul targets your valuable heroes with every sort of spells....

Here's where I'm coming from. I always appreciate when someone makes a thematic army, but its tough to even have fun sometimes when you do.

Thranduil is good. But-There are a lot of ringwraiths that will sap his will and make your spells useless. Than hes an expensive captain.
Legolas is good, but not in combat. You have Tauriel as your one combat model.

Your shooting is decent. 15 shots per round and probably wont get shot back with elven cloaks. But fifteen is not a lot of and if someone has the Shadow Lord or Galadriel or a wizard your shooting is nearly useless. These bubbles of blinding light pop up a lot. So imagine running into one or two.

Basically at 800 points you have 9 might which is good, but only 23 troops. Its not going to be fun when you run into some of the armies I've seen like all monsters/spiders, corsairs with fight 5 and twice as many models, furied uruks and orcs. I dont know what to tell you. You do need more killing power, but adding another model that would cost 175 pts or more and fill out your total is not the right choice.

Any mistakes you make will be exponential. If you face a wraith your wizard will be null and void vs a cheaper caster. If you take beorn they can try to transfix him all game. Its tough dude. I dont believe youre setting yourself up for success. Even the best players will have a really tough time winning games with this force. I wish you luck, and I will see you at Nova.

If I could make one suggestion honestly its probably to take out Tauriel, put in a Captain and fill the rest out with troops. Or just take Beorn and hope they dont have a good spellcaster and strength 4 units(Like many, many armies will).

If I were you Id take this army in a local tournament or event or friendly near you. And take something else to Nova. The money involved and the players involved will rough with this army. For me, it would be to the point I dont have fun watching my Elves die to hordes of troops.



Lets put it this way....some Vps at nova include not breaking more than once, escorting troops off the board, and often being near objectives. These are all extremely difficult with a small army.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

I am not going to disagree with any of whats been said, it is very low number and blinding light will drastically reduce your shooting, which is one or your only big advantages and immobilise will give Beorn a bad time both of which come in a Gandalf package or the Shadow lord buuut that being said if you like Thranduil's halls and these are the models you have I say go for it. I think the high fight, lots of shooting, and a big monster all have the opportunity to win games. I actually think the rangers and the guard can be very good they're just not amazing against everything and they're very fragile so if you lose a round of fights you're whole army might die.

I guess SBG just feels more about playing out the models and characters you like then anything and if you like these practice with them and I think you can have a good weekend.
There are definitely lists that you will struggle against but, and I didn't go last year but I watched a lot of the vlogs and what not, not all of the armies were stereotypically.

Alternatively, you could sprinkle some of Thranduil's hall into a Wood elf army. Same heroes you would just need a some boxes of the old wood elves, which are very good. Or pick up some of the Mirkwood elves blister, which are expensive as hell but are cheaper points wise and you could buff up your numbers some that way.

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Cheers,

P

Problem is at Nova you can only bring models from one army list I believe....

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY

Thank you to everyone who responded to this Army list, there's certainly challenges with every Army but this one especially. I will probably take a more scenario friendly army to tournaments and keep this Thranduil Halls for local games. NoVa allows allies from only a few factions, there's a list on there website, I beleive radagast alliance is excepted just not on the primer yet, so I'll check with T.O. make sure , thanks again guys

Yeah basically this year you can only play from one faction but take independents and things like Beorn, the White Council, Fellowship, etc.

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BLACKHAWK 2010 2013 2015 DYNASTY