Five of the Most Buffed Good Hero Profiles in the New Edition

Kia Ora, Shire-Folk,

Welcome back for another titillating instalment of the Middle-Earth in Middle-Earth blog. As a reminder, we talk about various thoughts, topics, games, and many other things related to the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game published by Games Workshop, better known as MESBG. As another reminder, I am no professional, but read on regardless and you might find something that you can take with you into your future hobbying.

I would like to apologise for the delay, I have just started my career as a teacher, and finding myself with very little free time at the moment as term kicks off. I will try to maintain weekly updates, but may shift to fortnightly depending on how crazy things get, so remember to check back occasionally when you can!

In today's post, I wanted to bring up some of the most buffed good hero profiles in the new edition of MESBG - this was intended to be both good and evil profiles, but there were far too many to mention, so we'll do evil profiles next week. Keep in mind, there has been a massive swathe of changes, and not only will you likely disagree with my choices, but I will likely forget to mention some of the ones I should. Please let me know which character you think was buffed the most, or if you think any of the ones I mentioned are actually not that good.

Also, keep in mind that these picks aren't based on whether or not they are now the best profiles, just how much they have been buffed from where they were previously.

Honourable Mentions:

Legolas

Please don't hurt me for saying this, but Legolas wasn't buffed that much.

Don't get me wrong, Legolas has definitely had some great improvements - The fellowship version gaining the +1 to wound from Gimli is awesome, the ability to shoot while in combat, particularly at the enemy you are engaged with, is super cool and means he can pop some wounds without risk of losing a duel roll first, and being able to hit on 2+ all the time now is pretty great. However...

Firstly, his statline received no other changes, so while he can still be a solid fighter, other heroes have increased their fight value to better match him, and will often outfight him with more attacks and wounds. Not a problem though, because he is made for shooting, right? Well he has gotten slightly worse at being a sniper, as he now no longer can choose to ignore in-the-way tests with his single shot, unless the target is in combat. Weird. This means he is now significantly less reliable at pinging a hero off of a mount or a single remaining wound off a distant models holding an objective, unless they are somehow in combat anyway. 

This guy didn't think legolas was all that good of a shot anyway...
Photo from: https://shorturl.at/08uE5

This isn't to say his new profile isn't an improvement, it definitely is. The problem is that he was already very good, and the new version is more of a role change from 'sniping god who is decent in combat' to 'good sniper who is a combat god', rather than a strict buff.

I do miss reliably sniping horses turn one.

Celeborn

Celeborn used to be smart, and never wore his pyjamas to battle. But now Celeborn has chosen comfort over protection, and it turns out it may be better for protecting his lovely forest home after all.

Our armour was forged by the mighty craftsman Peter Alexander.
Photo from: https://shorturl.at/mh54v

Gaining a free will point a turn for casting is pretty awesome for two reasons - he is one of the only characters with the fancy new 'Writhing Vines' spell, which is actually a solid control effect, and it means Lothlórien now has two affordable and solid casters, which gives them a great answer to enemy heroes and monsters with repeated rapid-fire immobilises. Additionally, the +1 to wound bubble makes him a great support character - elves are amazing at winning fights, but typically don't do well at securing kills afterwards, making it difficult to grind through opposing lines of things like Uruk-hai Warriors. The +1 to wound goes a long way towards mitigating this, doubling the chance to wound against D6 or D7.

This is a major departure from what Celeborn did before, which was providing a solid combat foot hero for LLothlórien - so rather than a strict buff, it's more of a role change, similar to Legolas. Like Legolas though, this new role is probably an improvement, as Lothlórien didn't really need another foot hero, they needed something to help them kill and deal with big opposing threats.

Overall, while it doesn't seem a massive boost for Celeborn, he does more for the list than he did before, and is a solid boon in Lothlórien lists now.

Gamling

I know, not having free might on your heroes every turn is sad, and feels like a major downgrade. It does suck, I'll admit that, but it did have the downside of your non-dernhelm heroes having to be flat out of might to benefit, which meant that they would often be in a vulnerable position by the time they were benefitting from the banner. This is not to say it was in any way bad, it was amazing, but not perfect.

The new way the banner generates might is extremely unreliable, but can help before a hero is depleted - unfortunately I still consider it a nice extra, rather than the point of the banner. The real benefit of the banner? The 6" range. Other characters with 6" banners are often used with a line of infantry, which works well and is good, but less necessary when a 3" banner can cover four models in either direction (as the bases are slightly less than an inch, fun fact). With cavalry on 40mm bases, reaching multiple duels can be quite a challenge, but with a 6" banner you can reach a massive number of fights, even as the lines break down. Mathematically, a 6" banner works out to cover four times as much area as a 3", so although the might generation is worse, I think the massive improvement in its function as an actual banner means that it is an overall buff for Gamling.

Also he got Fight 5, not a bad little side buff that means he can actually get stuck in even closer to the lines than he could before.

Number Five - Glorfindel

Fight 8 and +1 to wound against monsters? Finally we can stop mocking this poor elf for his claims of having previously killed a balrog - he might actually be a threat to them now! 

Okay, maybe not the Balrog so much, but I digress.

Maybe now he'll have the testicular fortitude to tag along with the fellowship?
Photo from: https://shorturl.at/xvO6G

Glorfindel is still not the best hero in the world, and may not have seemed to recieve as significant buffs as some of the other heroes in the honourable mentions, but these buffs are quite massive because they actually don't just benefit Glorfindel, but his home list gains a hero to fill a specific role that he couldn't really do well before despite his lore - a monster hunter.

Firstly, Fight 8 is crazy good for letting him beat the majority of monsters without even needing to strike, letting him save his might for more valuable tricks later. Alongside an elven-made weapon, there are few things in the game that can beat him, and even poor Sauron might pause before walking into a situation where he might be trapped by Glorfindel and some elven troops. Also, as I've mentioned a million times, every point of Fight value is more precious in a world where strike only provides D3, as even Fight 6 heroes have only a one in nine chance of tying fight value if they both strike, which brings them to a disadvantage against his elven-made weapon again.

Secondly, the +1 to wound against monsters helps in an army that doesn't typically have the easiest time wounding things, and doesn't always have amazing answer to monsters. This is compounded by monsters getting better in the new edition meaning that they will likely become more common to face, so having a dedicated anti-monster tool with anti-monster armour will be more valuable than ever.

Number Four - Éomer

So I shouldn't have threatened the man, the elf, and the dwarf? He's the son of whom...?
Photo from: https://shorturl.at/YN4bx

Oh how long has the kingdom of Rohan called for Fight 6 on Éomer! This one feels like a long time coming, to be honest. Now this entry may feel like an odd one, because it's not many changes and they seem minor, but they make a huge difference in his playability.

Let's get the obvious one out of the way - Fight 6 is really good for Éomer. One of the things I most dreaded last edition was playing Éomer into my friend's elf lists, as I knew the idea of calling heroic combats against even basic troops was too risky to bother calling most of the time. Tying fight value against a bannered/spear-supported basic troop with an elven-made weapons sucked ass. Now Éomer is one of the two heroes in a LOTR-era Rohan list (besides Theodred who appears in one list) that can feel safe going into F5 troops and cutting down a good number of them. It also makes him a significantly greater threat to Monsters and other lower tier heroes, particularly in the new world of D3 strikes.

Next, a move of 12" on firefoot is great, and he can easily play the role of a flanking cruise missile that can pretty safely run circles around your enemies line before crashing into a vulnerable point and combatting. This is not even to mention obvious uses like reaching a far-flung objective late in a game, or chasing down a distant siege engine. On top of that, he recieved a cute little sword now that runs a chance of hitting two wounds, which is better than it sounds. At first glance it seems like it only goes off one sixth of the time, but because you wound most things on a 5+, in effect it would actually trigger half the time you would normally do a wound, mathematically being similar to a +1 to wound against multi-wound targets with high toughness.

The last thing that helps Éomer though is a change to the Rider and Royal Guard profiles, which no longer require Théoden to work! No longer does your general need to be a geriatric that has to fear real combat (although he is still a good choice a lot of the time). This is particularly noticeable in the Riders of Éomer list, where the riders can stop pretending they forgot how to fight without Théoden there to remind them how.

Éomer has become a very useful hero in his own right, providing the most reliable beatstick in Modern Rohan with an inoffensive pricetag, and is no longer a more expensive Deorwine with barely better combat.

Number Three - Gandalf the White

Finally, one of the only beings in middle earth to have ever slain a Balrog finally has Fight 6 and 3 attacks! Many of you may remember that Gandalf the White last edition was in a sad state, where he was a solid caster (not the best, but solid) and a decent fighter, especially on Shadowfax, which provided reliability in fights and in killing with knockdown and +1 attack, unless he was charged. And that is the kicker, he got charged a lot. But why? couldn't he just stay back and cast spells? Not for over 200 points he couldn't, you would never see enough value. And if he is trying to get into fights to help with that (which wasn't amazing with two attacks at Fight 5) he runs the risk of being ganked or just tagged before he can cast spells. This put him into a position where he could very easily spend half the game not casting, and not killing enough to justify his points.

Fast forward to now, and our boy Gandalf is a Fight 6 three attack beatstick with cavalry bonuses that strikes at strength 5 (those last two aren't new, but are enhanced by the new bits). This puts him on par with other strong combat heroes like Éomer, and with Heroic Strike and Defence he has two of the best combat actions available. The Fight 6 and strike also pair very nicely with the Transfix spell, allowing him to reliably go in and outfight then clobber even heroes like Aragorn if need be.

We don't need to bring this up...
Photo from: https://shorturl.at/lGt0a

On top of this, Gandalf is even cheaper than previously when taking Shadowfax (15 points cheaper, nearly two warriors worth, or 3/5ths of a banner), but if you wanted to up his price further again you can now bring Pippin! Although Pippin was not a good choice in the previous edition, giving Gandalf re-roll 1's to wound in a fight is nice, giving him resistant to magic is incredibly good, helping Gandalf win wizard duels against Witch-kings or Sarumans, and having an extra point of might, will, and fate is a beautiful cherry on top, all for 25 points.

So while magic overall has debatably taken a bit of a hit (I think the new channelling actually almost makes it better sometimes), Gandalf is still a very good caster with good casting values, and is now more than capable of putting in very solid work in combat so your enemies can't rely on just charging him to win the day. He is no longer a jack of all trades, master of none, he is very good in both roles, making his admittedly high points cost much more worth it now.

Number Two - Gwaihir

I'll be honest, if you have seen any of the tournament progress in the new edition, I probably don't need to explain this one. Gwaihir (or more accurately, the eagles, but Gwaihir too) is borderline insanity now. I mean he was great already, but now? Holy Eru.

When you look strictly at the profile changes, Gwaihir hasn't changed a lot. Yes he gained an attack, but lost Heroic Strike, which feels like a wash. The ways in which Gwaihir has changed is actually more to do with what has changed around him, which is pretty big.

Firstly, let's get a massive one out of the way. Piercing Cry (the army rule, which only Gwaihir can use) is unbelievably good. If you're not that familiar with the game, being able to freeze opponent models within 6" in place for a turn sounds good, but not amazing. When you think about it more deeply though, you realise you can choose your engagements all along an enemy line on a turn your opponent moves first, with most of your models killing two of your opponents on that turn. Next turn, call the piercing cry with Gwaihir in the middle of their line, and pick all your fights again, with no risk even if your opponent calls Heroic Moves or auto-wins priority. If you have four eagles and Gwaihir, you could potentially kill 12 models on your first fight (with a heroic combat, and not even accounting for additional strikes against spear supports), followed by another turn of doing the same, and your opponent can do nothing except hope your eagles fluff their rolls. That means their army could be down up to about 24 models in two good turns, and most armies have no way to recover from that kind of loss.

Now yes, that rule does only apply in 'The Eagles' army list, but one of the beautiful things about Gwaihir is even in this new edition with stricter list-building than ever before, Gwaihir is the guy who is willing to work with anyone, appearing in four other lists, providing Good armies with an extremely good monster option - further amplified by the improvements to monsters in the new edition, such as dominant, improved brutal power attacks, extra attacks against spear supports, and the nerfs to Heroic Strike (making Gwaihir's Fight 8 very reliable, even if he himself can no longer strike).

Overall, the game has shifted around Gwaihir to make him better, and still for a solidly low cost of 150 points. I debated putting him this high on the list, but honestly, even just running him in the Eagles is that good.

Number One - Faramir

Look, it doesn't matter how much better Faramir gets, he will never be his brother.

Denethor loves to point out that his brother still has twice as many Might points.
Photo from: https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Faramir

But at least he's not a runner up option to almost every other hero in Minas Tirith now! Again, keep in mind that this list is not about who is now the best hero, it's about who has changed positively the most. Gwaihir is definitely better than pretty much everyone on this list, and Faramir is still probably worse than Legolas, Éomer, Gamling, and possibly even the others. But before this edition, all of these guys were still usable for something, and poor old Faramir tended to just be worse than other options in his list, with few reasons to take him. His only special rule was both a benefit and a hindrance, other heroes brought enough might, he fought no better than other cheaper heroes and not as well as the more expensive ones, Denethor could lead the same number of troops for much cheaper, I could go on. 

Looking at him now, he may have had the single largest number of profile buffs of any model I have seen. His statline gained a point of Fight and an attack, making him a very solid fighter, he is a better archer with Sharpshooter, he gained Resistant to Magic to help with keeping him active, he can provide Dominant (2) to surrounding warriors, making him a better leader, and being a Wizard's Pupil means that if you're down a little and your army is broken, they will hold the line forever and opposing wizards become even more blunted, not to mention him re-rolling wounds (mathematically one of the best wounding improvements you can have). All of this for a measly 20 points? Now Faramir has a chance to show his quality!

This provides him with a role in the army as an extremely solid upper-mid-tier combat hero and leader, that can outfight models more expensive than himself and provide very good buffs at the same time, without breaking the bank. Before, seeing Faramir across the table felt like you started with a leg up, but now, it means knowing that their nigh-impenetrable Minas Tirith shieldwall will also stand 'til the last man.

Concluding Thoughts

The new edition has massively revitalised many of the mediocre profiles from the previous game (and even boosted some that maybe didn't need it). But one thing is for sure - we have a few wonderful new toys that I'm excited to play with.

If you gained anything from this, please let me know in the comments below, and if you would like to hear even more tips sometime, I'd be glad to do another one. Finally, if you have any comments, criticisms, or suggestions for future posts, leave them below or through the contact form as well.

Thank you for wandering in here for a read, remember, not all those who wander are lost!