Haldir’s Patrol
Orophin: 85pts
Mv6” F6/3+ S4 D4 A2 W2 C6 M3 W1 F1
Hero of Fortitude
Elven-made Hand-and-a-half sword, Elven Cloak, Throwing
Daggers.
Elf Bow 5pts
Heroics: March, Resolve
Woodland Creature
Ambush of the reinforcements
If Orophin is included in an Army List, Lorien warbands may
reroll deployment rolls in scenarios that require them. Additionally,
Lothlorien models within 6” of Orophin that have Elven Cloaks can only be seen
within 4” instead of 6”.
Knows little of the Southron tongue
Orophin may be affected by friendly Heroic Actions called by
Elf models. Only Elf models may benefit from Orophin’s Stand Fast! Or Heroic
Actions.
Participants:
Haldir, Elf Bow, Elven Cloak
Rumil, Elven Cloak
Orophin, Elf Bow
Wood Elf Captain, Elf Bow, Throwing Daggers, Wood Elf Spear
Galadrim Stormcaller
Wood Elf Warrior, Elf Bow, Throwing Daggers, Wood Elf Spear
Wood Elf Sentinel
Special Rules:
Galadrim: The Tree people
Before the game begins, after objectives have been placed, you may place up to three 65mm bases anywhere on the board, at least 12” apart. These may not be deployed upon existing terrain, and they count as woodland terrain. Any Lorien model wholly within them counts as being partially obscured by terrain, and count as defending an elevated position against enemy models in Combat. If Orophin is included as part of this Legion, his warband may deploy within 2” of any of these markers at the end of the 2nd Move Phase.
Could have shot him in the dark
Lorien Heroes, and Lorien Warriors within 3” of a friendly
Hero, making shooting attacks with Elf Bows may add +1 to any In The Way tests
for terrain, and ignore the effects of Stalk Unseen, The Dark of the Night, and
Pall of Darkness.
Feigned voices lead them on into the wood
Enemies that are targeted by the Eldamar Madrigal rule
within 6” of terrain must reroll a successful courage test to resist. Haldir,
Rumil, and Orophin gain this rule, cast as a Magic Power on a 5+. Lorien models
gain one free Will point per turn to use for Resisting or Casting Magic Powers.
Sudden Ambush
Lorien models that charge an enemy model which has entered,
or moved into contact with, a terrain piece during that turn, may reroll their
wound rolls this turn. Lorien models, within 3” of a friendly Hero, that are
partially concealed by Woodland Terrain cannot be seen further than their Cloak
specifies by the effect of any Special Rules.
General idea: Pull/push them around to open shooting chances, then manipulate them into terrain and assassinate.
Designer’s commentary:
Wood elves have had a very strange evolution in SBG since
their main introduction in “The Fall of the Necromancer” supplement back in
2006 (profiles and models had existed for the FOTR rulebook but this was the
first time they were given focus and a complete army). At the time, they were representative
of both Lothlorien Wood Elves, and those of Mirkwood under the leadership of the
old Thranduil profile and Legolas. Then under the Five Army Books, these
factions were merged, combining the excellent heroes of Lothlorien and Mirkwood
with a mix of Galadrim and Wood Elves with Sentinels and Galadrim Knights
sprinkled on top. They saw a lot of competitive play in recent years (before
the 2018 edition) as cheap F5 spears behind either the swarm of Hobbits, or the
cheap D6/7 of Minas Tirith. But before the Hobbit or even the five army book
editions, they were one of the most dangerous forces in the meta game.
Originally, Elven Cloaks were 5pts each, so people weren’t
all that keen on having 12pt+ d3 models. An article in WD to hype up the
release said that the aim of wood elves “is to get your opponent asking, “how
the hell did you pull that off?””, so using terrain for literal Cloak and Dagger
tactics was the idea. But at 7pts a model, you could forgo the elven cloaks and
go entirely offensive as the only elves with capacity to “swarm”. Elf shooting
was still about the best in the game, and then on top of that Wood Elves had
Throwing Knives options. Wood Elf Spears allowed Shielding at no extra cost,
and every single model in the list could shoot. Thranduil could make them
terrifying, Legolas and Haldir had extra shots, Galadriel with Blinding Light
and strong spells to dictate the game. For examples of how good this was, how
to use it in the modern game, and a much better history of Wood Elves from an
expert user of them, look at BlackMist’s Veni Vidi Vici blog article on Wood
Elves.
But in the MESBG edition of the game, Mirkwood has its own
profiles and models after the Hobbit films, and so Wood Elves exist only in the
Lothlorien faction, where they’re heavily overshadowed by the Galadrim.
Galadrim are 1pt more expensive to drop the elven cloak, and go +2 Defence, and
then they can take a Shield to go D6. So the capacity to swarm is almost
entirely lost by the addition of a compulsory 1pt Elven Cloak, and the
durability of your elite Elven troops is so much more appealing. Gildor in a
Rivendell list can give you access to mv8 Wood Elves to provide some sneaky
extra movement, Heroic March, and a decent spellcaster with four 3+ Transfixes.
But the main modern appearance of Wood Elves in competitive play is almost
entirely Wood Elf Sentinels (usually dropped into Thranduil’s Halls list, often
as an ally to other lists such as Lake Town or Iron Hills), with their ability
to pull/push enemy models around based on Courage tests which is extremely
handy in Red v Blue for moving banners away, bat swarms away, models off
objectives, or pulling something forward to assassinate it. This idea,
presumably inspired by the line in FOTR book where Haldir and his brothers use
their voices to trick orcs into following them further away into the woods,
seemed like a great premise on which to base a Wood Elf-only Legendary Legion.
Haldir’s Patrol appears in…
Book version:
After escaping Moria, the Fellowship makes for the refuge of
Lothlorien. There they encounter Haldir and his brothers Rumil and Orophin, who
are friendly to Aragorn and Legolas, and offer them refuge high in the trees.
The following morning, a raiding party of orcs passes right beneath where they
sleep. Haldir and his brothers lead them astray using “fell voices” before Haldir
doubles back to the Fellowship to lead them onto the Lady Galadriel, whilst
Orophin hurries ahead to bring reinforcements to finish off the orcs. Even
Boromir knew well that those who trespass in Lothlorien without permission do
not leave it again!
Film version:
Same set-up, but this time the Fellowship is essentially
ambushed by an entire Patrol company and taken prisoner to see Galadriel. In
the Extended, Haldir senses the Ring and denies them passage temporarily. In a
deleted scene from the films (so deleted it’s not even in the Extended!), the
Fellowship are pursued out of Moria by a swarm of Goblins (how? The bridge
broke?), and Haldir’s Patrol rescues them with a deadly volley.
So with that in mind perhaps it’s understandable why this
theme of a Patrol force was passed over for an LL in the Quest book- it’s
either non-existent in the books or completely deleted in the films! But for a
bit of fun to write that would give the neglected Wood Elves a little
limelight, I decided to give it a crack. But 1/3 of our main characters doesn’t
even have a profile to use! So for the first time, here I am writing one from
scratch.
Orophin profile:
Orophin started life with the base profile of a Wood Elf
Captain, with the obligatory named character 3rd Might. As the two
named other Heroes don’t provide the option to March, and Orophin is the one
who hurries back to retrieve troops and rush them out to hunt down the orcs, he
seemed fitting to keep that, as well as Resolve in a nod to the Magical Resistance
Bonus of Lothlorien. Then we needed a special rule or two. The Guritz/Madril reinforcements
route was too easy, and wanting an additional rule without overcosting the
profile I opted to reduce the effectiveness just a bit by having it be a reroll
instead. That way the results you have to spend might on go from 1/3 to 1/9,
and you choose your arrival point without modification 75% up from 50% of the
time. The second written rule concerned Elven Cloaks. Initially, I had in mind
that Haldir would be the Archer Huntsman (he says as much in the book), Rumil
the Knight (in line with his profile), and Orophin could be a ranger who knows
best the fast paths through the forest and how to hide well in trees. I
entertained the idea of them being able to “train” troops in their warbands to
gain Swift Parry, Expert Shot, or whatever gimmick I chose for Orophin for 2pts
a model. Sensing that this would probably spiral hopelessly up in a ridiculous
power creep and not be particularly easy to keep track of on the battlefield, I
gave that up for this LL but may return to the idea in a more balanced form in
the future. But I did hang onto this idea of Ranger Orophin, and he allows Wood
Elves to lean into their mischievous kiting and shooting tactics by reducing
the range at which enemy models can finally see the elves to charge them. This
may buy an extra round of shooting for a skilled player, or allow greater
advantage from throwing daggers (which is the reason his profile comes with
them automatically). The final rule about not speaking the southron tongue is
also lifted from the book for thematic purposes rather than any gameplay
mechanic. In theory Rumil should have this too, but I didn’t write him!
Haldir’s Patrol LL rules discussion:
This image of the brothers using a song like magic to
mislead the orcs into the woods for ambush sounded like an excellent playstyle
to write for. Wood elves already lean into hiding in terrain with their Cloaks.
The issue is, not all boards are created equally and some tournament boards are
rather more Harad wasteland than thriving forest. So, to improve the
consistency of this playstyle, I borrowed a little from the book where Galadriel
gives Sam earth enchanted to be extra fertile, and quite a bit from Battle for
Middle Earth 2 where you have the option to sprout a small patch of woodland
for your own advantage! By allowing the player to place a few bases of woodland
terrain, there would be at least a handful of locations on the board to take
advantage of the rules of the legion, and also offer a little help with board
control to a purely infantry army. To represent the idea that these elves can
scale trees for refuge, they count as defending a raised position against
opponents, which means they have to fight them one at a time, and the branches
provide an in the way test against blows. To remove the ambiguity of how heavy
tree’d and bushed the bases should be for true line of sight, all elves wholly
within the bases count as being in cover- so they either can’t be seen or will
have a 3+ in the way! Finally the deployment with Orophin is a nod to him bringing
the forces that rout the Orcs, and is quite shamelessly nicked from the Goblin
Mercenaries, but it’s an excellent rule and would bring a lot of board control
and threat to an infantry only army.
In both book and film Haldir references the supreme
marksmanship of his elves even in darkness, and in a forest with a thick canopy
they most likely would need to be accurate archers in low light. So best your
opponents make their way to you and quickly, for the tricks of Darkness will
not protect them, and terrain will be less effective than usual! The balance to
this is that it only applies to archers in bunches around Heroes (as though
they are guiding their warriors to the targets), which allows a certain ability
level of ability to block lines of sight, and elves being the pts cost that
they are and the 1/3 bow limit means you won’t have an inordinate number of bows,
but you’ll probably get more consistent use out of the ones you do.
The ability to push and pull the opponent around is a
consistently strong and useful ability, as anyone who has used Dead Marsh
Spectres, Command/Compel Wizards, or indeed these Wood Elf Sentinels can
attest. The book describes the brothers doing this to the orcs, but at present
their profiles don’t allow this. So now they can! Unlike the Sentinels who
presumably specialise in this sort of thing, the Brothers have to cast it on a
5+. They may only have one Will point in their profiles, but they do have lots
of Might to augment it, and an adapted version of the Lothlorien army bonus: instead
of a free RTM rule that is wasted if your opponent has no magic, it is simply
one free Will point per turn that can be used for Resisting OR Casting. This is
not only a deliberate choice to help the brothers out, but you’ll also notice
the inclusion of Galadrim Stormcallers in this Legion. There is not much basis
in lore for them to be here, but then there’s not much basis in lore for their
profile to exist either. It’s more because they play so well into the style of
this Legion, able to push enemy models around the board and with some luck a
few Nature’s Wraths to keep cavalry honest and help with Wood Elf killing
rolls. Meanwhile the brothers can have a free crack at their Madrigal spell
each turn and on average you’ll get one of them off, which also means if you
want consistency you should probably still look at bringing a regular sentinel
or two. Especially when successful resists to this magical power (either by
Will points or by passing the Courage test) must be rerolled when near terrain!
Which leads neatly into…
Ambush…in-bush! Once you have manipulated your opponent into
terrain features, you can jump out and attack! To make good on this playstyle, the
elves can reroll wound rolls for the one turn this happens. If you can trap the
model against the very same terrain, you’ll be rolling a LOT of dice to wound, which
again helps mitigate the low strength of the elves. And finally to help with
the consistency of this playstyle, a rule which gives a bit of kickback to
profiles which can negate the concealment tactics of the elves (basically,
screw you Mablung!).
Conclusion:
This was interesting to write because Elves in the right
hands are consistently strong to begin with, and the Rangers of Ithilien are
enough of a negative play experience that I wouldn’t want to add another Legion
in that style, but even stronger. Particularly when the Wood Elf tactic of
hide, run, shoot, whittle down is already somewhat frustrating to deal with. By
sticking to the 1/3 bow limit, there’s not too many bows, but the ones that are
there are really threatening. You’ll also notice that there are no banners
allowed for a treetop ranger fighting force so they’ll lose combats a little
more often, and when D3 models lose fights they’re probably going down! A
flavourful set of rules to encourage ambushing opponents in bushes, and a high
skill ceiling for manipulating the opponent’s models around would hopefully
mean this would be a tricky to master but whole lot of fun. There are no combat
monsters, but a lot of tricksy spellcasting, everybody can carry a ranged
weapon, and the woodland terrain base placement at the start of the game will
get your opponent thinking hard about where on the battlefield you’ll spring
from or where they’ll want to try and fight you with objectives in mind!
Happy holidays everybody 😊
P.S. When deploying terrain pieces, you are encouraged to announce, "The mallorn tree is ready!"
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