Continuing our series in weighing up the pluses and
minuses of two heroes will be a comparison between Thranduil and Elrond. I've
dabbled in a few forces in my few months of playing SBG and have wanted to try
out some elves, so have been thinking about which of the many choices to opt
for, narrowing it down to either Rivendell or Thranduil's Halls. Naturally I'd
want to size up the power house heroes of each faction! (Elrond is only one of
many heroes in Rivendell that you could choose, but he’s my personal favourite
so I’ll be focusing on him).
Hero Stuff, Hitting Power, and Survivability
Starting first with Elrond his raw stats are pretty
strong, F6, S4, D5 (D7 with heavy armour which you'll almost certainly buy) and
3s in all the right places puts him the upper tier of heroes in the game. Lord
of the West means he has a fourth pseudo-attack for both duels and strikes
(Thranduil requires a banner nearby to get access to rerolls). He can also buy
a horse to improve his mobility and gain extra attacks/knock down on the charge
rounding him out as a decent combat character. C7 is also very strong as he
can't fail a courage check as long as he has a point of will or might free to
spend, and even that will only be necessary 1 out of 36 tests. I'm not sure how
valuable that really is in a faction with lots of high courage, but as
Harbinger of Evil seems to be so common it can help his force hang on when
things start to go wrong and eliminate the chance of poor dice variance putting
a spanner in the works. He has a good set of 4 heroic actions. Heroic Strike is
a must-have, and the more I play the more it seems that Heroic Defence can also
be invaluable. It’s not something you want to spend your might on necessarily,
but having access to it can absolutely save his skin and save the game as a
result. Heroic Channeling and Resolve are a bit more niche, but both will
certainly be useful.
Thranduil on the other hand starts out a little worse,
but a lot cheaper. The ability to buy an extra sword and bump him to F7 and 3
attacks seems impossible to turn down. F7 is a very strong attribute to have as
it means that there are no basic troops that can match you toe-to-toe and
almost all other heroes will have to heroic strike to stand a chance. Even then
the odds will be Thranduil's favour to come out on top with his elven made
weapons. The blademaster rule is also a benefit he has over Elrond as it means
he can hold his own when surrounded and really your opponent will have to avoid
swamping him as it will just power him up! He seems like a difficult model to
deal with for many forces! He also has the flexibility to buy either a horse or
elk for mobility and extra oomph (getting S5 on the charge when mounted on Elk
is especially nice). He has both expert rider and fleet foot to get the most
out of his mount, and woodland creature. His main downside vs Elrond is his
defense is capped at 6 with heavy armour which means that S4 troops and S2 bows
(two break points in the game which seem very important) will be wounding him a
lot easier than Elrond. He can also be equipped with a bow (something that
Elrond has no access to) adding in a little ranged threat. His heroic actions
are not bad, but probably not as good as Elrond’s if only because one of his
four is taken up by Heroic Accuracy. Strike and Defence are good, and Strength
also has value in specific situations and can let him take out high defence
enemies more easily.
In terms of the basic profiles and options discussed
above I think Thranduil has edged a lead as a combat character, but it's not
fair to compare them on that alone so let's dive in to their special rules.
Buffs, Control, and Magic
Elrond has one of the three elven rings of power so is
able to reroll his fate rolls, giving him a 0.75 chance of passing each roll
rather than 0.5, making each fate more equivalent to an extra wound than for
other heroes. Combine this with D7 and Elrond Is much more resilient than
Thranduil once he starts taking hits, but Thranduil is less likely to have to
take those hits in combat due to F7.
Elrond also has his Foresight ability which is incredibly
powerful as controlling the priority phase at certain points can absolutely
change the momentum of a game. Thranduil has nothing that can really compare,
but then nothing in the game apart from maybe Durin's Ring or Balin really can.
It is quite variable as it depends on the roll of a single D6, but is
unarguably very strong.
Next, let's look at magic. Upon buying the Circlet of
Kings upgrade Thranduil gains access to Aura of Dismay and Nature's Wrath.
Elrond has Renew and Wrath of Bruinen. Access to Aura of Dismay is great for
Thranduil as it grants him Terror as well as the troops around him. Elrond
himself causes terror, but the more terror checks you force your opponent to
make the more likely they are to fail and having it across multiple sources
makes it much harder to set up surrounds and effective flanks. Nature's Wrath
and Bruinen are pretty much directly comparable as the strength 2 hit isn't as
impactful as knocking the enemy prone so I'm going to focus on the method of
casting. Elrond casts his spells in the traditional way by spending his will
points, but Thranduil casts his spells automatically with a value of 6, albeit
once per game. The obvious benefit of Elrond's method is that he can cast
spells multiple times and have their effect at several key points during a
game, although I'm not sure how true this really is in practice. To cast
Bruinen he has to get a 4+ so rolling a single die is very risky meaning he'll
need at least two, probably even three to get off the spell at a key time,
especially if he wants to affect an enemy hero that can try and resist. This
also leaves him with no will for courage tests or resisting spells himself and
there's no sadder hero than one who can be compelled or transfixed without any
trouble. Thranduil can guarantee his spell on a 6, making it difficult to
resist, and maintain his will stores. He seems much more consistent to me,
although won't be able to hit the highest highs Elrond can when fully
optimised.
Interestingly, both heroes have an interaction with both
the army bonus of their faction and a specific troop type. Elrond makes missile
troops much more accurate on a turn in which they didn't move and also allows
Rivendell Knights to not count towards the bow limit making them a fearsome
force to deal with and allows the Knight builds to be as effective at kiting as
they are. Thranduil's bonus grant's plus one to wound to Mirkwood Elves and
Palace Guard. This bonus really helps get around one of the biggest weaknesses
of elves, which is their difficulty killing things at S3. Thranduil also gives
nearby Palace Guard F6. Having troops (admittedly expensive ones) outfighting
most heroes in the game will lead to your enemies having to drain a lot of
might and generally be quite scared of engaging. I feel this is more directly applicable
across more lists, whereas Elrond's bonuses require much more focused list
building for specific strategies.
Major Drawbacks
I don’t think either hero has any major drawbacks, with
the possible exception of price. A beefed up Thranduil or standard Elrond
aren’t going to be able to fit in smaller point games without having to have
low numbers as a result. If they go down quickly it’s a large portion of your
force wiped out in a single blow, but this is something that can be avoided
with careful play.
Conclusion
To my eyes, both heroes seems strong, however Thranduil
pips Elrond to the post for several reasons, mainly coming down to flexibility.
Elrond lends himself to being a key part of very specific types of lists, such
as the Rivendell Knight armies that have been used to great success by people
like Ed Ball, but I think Thranduil has to be considered for pretty much any
Thranduil’s Halls army (the clue is in the name I guess). Elrond is in the same
faction as Gil-Galad and Glorfindel who are super strong combat characters and
allow for buffing troops to F6, but no one character in Rivendell can do as
much as Thranduil. He seems to be a very fun character to use and a solid
foundation for whatever army he goes in.
