In the Mind: New Edition Reveals

In the Mind: New Edition Arises

As we approach the introduction of the new edition we clearly see many new things such as the intelligence characteristic and the buffing of many heroes. Lets break down several things. First what to look for in heroes in this current edition. Second what armies will be so over the top powerful in this edition. Finally what about the banner dilemma. 

First lets address heroes. The heroes in this edition have been shown to be buffed to all new levels with the likes of Thorin, Aragorn, Elrond, Borimir and the likes all now have a natural of Fight value 7. Many smaller heroes such as Gandalf the white, Farimir, and Eomer have been bumped to f6 and some have stayed where they were. The interesting thing is now 1 point of fight value is an INSANE difference. with the changes to heroic strike f6-f7 is insane. more importantly many characters lost heroic strike such as gwaihir and gil galad. This shows just how they are leaning into new dynamics with heroes. Now many heroes cannot simply rely on walking into others and beating them over the head but rather using tactics with heroes to even have a CHANCE at taking down other heroes. The other big thing is HORSES. So incredibly powerful yes but at a great cost now. This means that while heroes pay a premium for something that bows can easily knock out warrior models still pay the bargain price for them. Horses in this edition are even more of a choice then last. last many chose them some like myself in many cases went without them. Now that choice is more costly. Personally the bigger beatstick heroes seem much less scary now with the price of horses since you can simply shoot out a horse then stall many of the heroes other then aragorns and the like. We also see the spread out availability to reroll wounds on heroes. This to me is the equalizer and still means beatstick heroes are a good option. But to me... not the best option. In this edition the first model that stood out to me was Gandalf the White and Gandalf the Grey... the grey with his cart is nearly unstoppable and the white is so buffed for 25 points less and i already liked him last edition. Magic is now crazy. Why do i say that? well its crazy nerfed so many wont think twice about it... so thats why i love the gandalfs. they will be so good because most people wont be looking for them because they arent as good at spells as they used to and the spells are less potent. Top 3 heroes i have seen so far come out of the edition are in my opinion: #3: Gandalf on Cart #2 Gwaihir #1 Celeborn Now lets break these 3 choices down and see why i have them ranked as so. 

Gandalf: He has the ability to target 3 Different models at ONCE. His magic on one hero, his firework that knocks a non monster (preferably hero) prone every turn on a 2+ automatically, and then his combat with the cart with 3 attacks on the charge hopefully into 2 warriors. All in all he can deal with so many targets at once with a solid range to do so making him absolutely crazy tough and still just as hard as ever to take down.

Moving on to our number 2 pick we have Gwaihir. Gwahir is insane as soon as you look at him but then go and look at the army lists he comes in and your jaw just drops. Surround this guy and 1 great eagle a fledgling eagle and a horde of laketown from the battle of five armies and you can get high 30s at 700 points with 3 eagles. Or you can run him with a horde of minas tirith and aragorn in the men of the west. additionally you could run him with a wizard and a horde of laketown with over 40 models at 700 points. the possibilities are endless and he is a beast regardless of whether he has strike or not. he still has barge and combat which is enough. 

Number 1: Celeborn. He is much more limited then Gwaihir but even more deadly then the previous two. Breaking down the points this is hands down the best bargain hero in this edition. His spell casting is to me the BEST in the game. Why? one reason. Writhing vines. This spell is INSANE. it is so so so good. it is efficient and is so odd and interactive. you can do so many tricks such as negate cav bonuses, make models incapable of having the movement to reach objectives and so on. His final thing he has for him is that one vital thing... +1 to wound for all elves within 3 inches. THIS is total insanity. elven players have long complained about killing power and now at just over a hundred points you get the best spell of the edition with free will a turn and +1 to wound on potentially 8 elves then their spear supports as well... a battle line of plus one to wound pikemen with shields in front and a banner behind is so so disgusting and will be so hard for others to play around. running this and plenty of cav to force them into the block will be so much fun to see and to play. 

Lists: The best lists i have seen so far are hands down the laketown, battle of five armies, minas morgul, and the men of the west. These are the ones that instantly jumped out to me as just insane. Minas morgul in my opinion tops this list and is one i am in some ways keen to play and in many ways have no interest in because of its sheer incredible power. Lets break down the reasons why these lists are where they are for me. Laketown is simple mighty hero and the good old 6 inch banner and plus 1 fight value on bard when he has his children AND Alfred is just CRAZY. in my opinion run him without the children and upgrade a captain to gandalf and drop some troops is the move. at 700 you can take around 38 guys with mighty hero a wizard and Alfred... just what? oh and a starting position of 10-12 might in that list to on top of the free might. Mighty hero was an odd rule to add to this legion and makes it a beast. enough said. battle of five armies is the options i have already mentioned the big eagle himself who will be the center piece of nearly all of these armies. the classic elves with cheap laketown in front will also be prevalent so watch out for that as well. Skipping to men of the west it is the same idea as the battle of five armies tons of options and some big nasties... Minas morgul is disgusting. I myself need to go grab a fell beast so i can have it at its full disgusting power. Running it as a spam with particularly spam of stectres with plenty of orcs as support with two wraiths and a captain or two is the way to go and it is disgusting. free courage around spectres or wraiths free essentially plus 1 to wound with the blades of the dead on many armies is just nasty. the ringbearer rule is cool and niche but nothing more.

Finally the banner dilemma: Games workshop had several scenarios that encouraged banners and we all thought this would change as many lists automatically lost points for it. Rather what we got was those points all doubled AND a BUNCH of lists losing banners. thranduils halls doesn't have a single banner in the list anymore and why? because there was simply no model for them. its that simple and its sad. many lists lost more access to them and they are now even more valuble. I was pretty chill about the previous setup with banners but now they are just so so bad and with almost all of the scenarios having banner points i am legitimately sad for more niche armies such as all hero armies or eagles etc.. 

Thanks for reading and check in soon for more on this new edition! Make sure to comment your thoughts on my opinions i would love to see everyone's differing ideas or opinions!