CJ's "More will come" Legions: The Throwing Down of Dol Guldur

The Throwing Down of Dol Guldur 

If Easterlings are an indicator of the War in the North being explored, one of the last unprinted snows of potential SBG sourcebook material, then perhaps we'll get to see one of the last battles in the documented history of Middle-Earth: The destruction of Dol Guldur.

During the time of the War of the Ring, Dol Guldur launches several attacks on Lothlorien. Three times the power of the elves and the Ring of Adamant manage to repel the invaders. After the defeat of Sauron, the remnants of his orc forces retreat north to the old stronghold of Dol Guldor. The Mirkwood King Thranduil and the Lothlorien forces lead by Galadriel and Celeborn meet and lay siege to the fortress. Galadriel tears down the walls, laying bare the pits. Celeborn and Thranduil meet, and rename Mirkwood as Eryn Lasgalen. The land south of The Narrows is kept by Celeborn, known as East Lothorien. The lands north of the Mirkwood Mountains is kept by Thranduil, and the middle is given to the Beornings and Woodsmen.

This would be a first Legendary Legion for the Elves, who have three individually powerful Armies to choose from, and due to their longevity and general good terms with the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth, have a very generous array of available Allies in the Alliance Matrix. This Legion focusses on the entirely Wood Elf alliance that participates in this iconic battle, with a spotlight on the Lady herself, Galadriel. In place of a Dark Lord, you shall have a Queen!

Participants

Galadriel Celeborn with Hand-and-a-half Elven Blade, Heavy Armour, and Shield Thranduil, King of the Woodland Realms; All his upgrade options Mirkwood Captain Galadrim Captain; Options Galadrim Stormcaller Galadrim Warriors; Options Galadrim Knights; Options Mirkwood Cavalry; Options Mirkwood Elves; Options 

Additional Rules

Galadriel must be included, and is always the Army Leader. 

Mirkwood Elf Captains, Mirkwood Elves, and Mirkwood Cavalry gain +1 to Wound when making Strikes within 3” of Thranduil. 

Special Rules

“Resolve of the Woodland Realms” Models in this Army may use their Courage value instead of their Fight Value. Additionally, models in this Army may use one free Will point per turn either for Casting or Resisting Magical Powers.

“Wrath of the Noldor”/ “Beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night!” At the start of her movement, Galadriel may opt to be swapped out for the Lady of Light profile. Having given the Light of Earendil to Frodo, the Lady of Light does not benefit from this rule. During each End Phase, Lady of Light uses two Will points to maintain this Form. The first time that this cost cannot be maintained, replace the Lady of Light with the Galadriel model and profile again. Exhaustion Magical Powers cast in either Form remain in effect after one or both transformations so long as Galadriel has Will remaining.

“If you try to stop me...I will destroy you!” Lady of Light may cast Banishment on Troll, Spider, Bat, Orc, Uruk-Hai, and Goblin models as if they were Spirits.

"The time of the Elves is over"

With the destruction of the One Ring, the power of Nenya has ended. But Galadriel will do everything in her power to return to Valinor. Galadriel may not benefit from the re-rolls on her Fate points. However, when casting Blessing of the Valar, this is always treated as a Channeled cast, without needing to declare the Heroic Action, or spend any Might.

Designer's Commentary: 

With a lot of powerful Heroes and rules, restricting profile choices seemed necessary for balancing this Legion. So with the assumption that Guards of the Galadrim Court and Palace Guards were left to Guard their specific locations, the only other decision was whether to include Wood Elves/Rangers/Sentinels. Whilst Sentinels being very meta-strong was certainly a concern, the decision mainly came down to these two factions leading fully armed and armoured forces to win a decisive victory over the armies in Dol Guldur. For a similar reason, Haldir (already dead at Helm’s Deep in movie-land), Rumil and Orophin aren’t included- they’re border guards. So if you want March, Captains are available (one can be mounted, the other gets Thranduil’s wounding bonus). You can also have a small warband with a Stormcaller (boosted by the free Will), Celeborn as a dual caster and chopper, and Thranduil with his full range of customization to enable you to fill any points value.

Using Courage as Fight Value may seem entirely pointless at first, but it accomplishes a few things in a subtle way. First, Galadriel and Celeborn get a boost to F7. Then, any Galadrim Warriors in their Warbands that are given the upgrade to Galadrim Guards not only get the C6, but also F6. Also Galadrim Warriors have the option for a War Horn, which is also very seldom taken again as Elves have a high enough courage, but in this scenario you’re able to effectively boost the entire Army’s Fv with it (including the Thranduil’s Halls models)! The ability to reach a superlative F7 with basic troops (non-monster!) would require a huge points investment (mostly wasted on Good v Evil matchups), but it does allow a player to represent Elves following the example of Galadriel and tapping into a primordial 1st Age wrath as they expend themselves in their final war before diminishing. Finally it’s a middle finger to the Bat Swarms they’re likely to fight in Dol Guldur- you can halve my Fv, but I can use my Courage instead!

Meanwhile Thranduil's forces maintain their Army Bonus of a bubble of improved to Wound rolls. So from one side, killy elves, and the other, up to F7 elves! And when you're that high Fv, it'd be rude to not Feint nearly all the time... which side will win the kill-off? Nothing to stop you mixing them to devastating effect either...  

By keeping the usual Lothlorien Army Bonus of granting Resistant to Magic to all models, not only do your Thranduil’s Halls models have some in-built Magic Resistance, but in conjunction with Lady of Light’s Fortify Spirit Magical Power your models can get up to 3 free dice to resist magic with. Very thematic for the battle this Legion is based on! 

But by also expanding it to include the option to use this free Will in order to cast Magic, it gives the rule some consistency against armies with no Magical Powers. Celeborn and Stormcallers especially become far more useful Casters by having access to the extra Will, whilst Galadriel in her resolution to rout this Evil once and for all will be better able to cast and resist Magic at the same time.

And finally Galadriel herself. The ability to transform mid-game is a frequent fan request, but it would be hard to balance as Galadriel is a powerful Spellcaster and Lady of Light a strong combat fighter. Being able to switch at will to suit what was needed in any given turn would be incredibly strong. So to reflect both “transformations” in the films, Galadriel begins in her base profile, then when the situation demands, she can rouse herself to her War Aspect, wreak a lot of havoc (get the kills for Contest of Champions!), and then return to her usual form when exhausted (hence the “cost” of 2 Will in each End phase, limiting her to 6 turns max in spooky witch Form). The synergy between her War Aspect rule, Instill Fear, and Thranduil’s Crown could be very strong indeed! The absence of her inbuilt Blinding Light owing to not having the Light of Earendil can be offset by casting Channeled Blinding Light before transforming. Strategic players will be able to spend Will carefully to retain 1 Will in her store before transforming back, allowing any Fortify Spirits or Channeled Blinding Lights to linger right until the end of the game.