Top 10 Heroes in Middle Earth SBG ~ ft. @Zorpazorp and The Green Dragon Podcast 

There definetly is, I think meeting each other at events motivates us to start making our own content. I would never have started if I hadn't met Lachlan from Zorpazorp at Arda Unleashed

@@ConquestCreations Zorpazorp is so great.

Is it big in NZ. Maybe coz that’s where it was filmed? I don’t know lol

He is definitely a rock solid hero! I haven't gone up against him yet since the edition changed and I am not looking forwards to it hahaha

Elendil is one of my top 5. His master forged 2 handed sword is savage. I run him pretty regularly and he has never died in a match thus far. . His best game I’ve had with him so far, he took down 2 Isengard trolls, Lurtz, and the other Isengard leader rocking two swords, including all the other infantry 😅😅 he is a beast

Not realy, he ist just extremly expensive and only has 3 Will so if you are playing against some magic he is quickly a useless 240p moddel

He was on the first draft but just missed out. I totally agree that he is awesome!

He is awesome!

Thanks for the comment mate!

Interesting to see Amdur. I haven't used him myself but when i have played against him he has seemed to lack hitting power. Have you had a different experience?

Absolutely man! What other lists would you like to see?

Yes. Top ten troops/archers/calvary

Agreed witch king is really good and versatile plus very cost effective

Lady of Light is really really good. She didn't make it on the list because I think people in Australia haven't really used her much. I haven't seen her on the gaming table yet!

I agree with a lot of it! Suludan came up when I was discussing the list. The one that I am surprised to see is the Mouth of Sauron. I have never thought that much of him. Compared to a black Numenorean Marshal he is a lot better but I haven't ever seen him as much of a threat. What made you pick him for the list? I have had the model on my list of models to buy for a long time now so i want an excuse to get him!

@@ConquestCreations Basically because he's the perfect addition to any Mordor army with a named wraith and problay even those without one. He can lead 15 troops which gives you the option to have yellow alliances even at very low points and he can be your leader so you could for example throw Khamul into combat without worrying about him. He's also perfect to bring march into your list. 4 will points are great to have a 2nd caster but unlike a budget wraith you can use him in combat when he's out of will (so a wraith at 70 pts only gets 2 extra will if he should survive but can't fight, be your leader or lead 15 minis). Apart from maybe a 3rd might point there's actually nothing I would wish he had as a supporter.

@@ConquestCreations One thing I've asked myself when I was looking at the top 10 was: How popular is magic in your meta? Heroes like Gil-Galad and Dain aren't that popular in my area because of magic.

It is definitely around, There will generally be a few ringwraiths at every tournament. It might not be as popular as it is for you. I am keen to give the mouth of Sauron a shot on the table

@@ConquestCreations We are playing lots of GvE so I guess we have much more wraiths and therefore more Galadriel LoLs. You should definitely try out mouth of Sauron, I'm sure he won't disappoint you.

As a Laketown player I agree with you

Percy is great for archers too

I see what you are saying. I think the smaller the points become the more powerful Helm is. I can see him doing really well in 500 point tournaments simply because people don't have the points to invest into big magic characters but as the points increase and helm is a smaller portion of the army he is surrounded more F3 S3

I have found Helm to be absolutely savage to play against. Never used him, but played against him a few times. The ‘essentially’ two free might per turn is outrageously good. I think he is the king of the late game for this reason, so you need to deliver him to the late game. I get that he works best at certain points levels, though.

Some form of Aragon definitely should have shown up. He's a key in the fellowship, three hunters, dead of dunharrow, countless legiondary legions and any Mina's tirith lists

Even when you have two banners, each model can only reroll once. I am pretty sure you can use both bonuses. You could in 2017, don't know if there's a new rule now.

@@Michael-jq1hl hmmm so if they stick together I have +2 defence and 1 banner reroll... on the king's champion. Nice

I am surprised to see you say glorfindel. I usually prefer Elrond or Gilgalad over him. What makes you like him more? I had Saruman on the list but decided that other heroes would take his place. I have used Saruman a lot this year his best ability is allowing you to take Grima

@@ConquestCreations F7 is good, move 12" with horse lord is awesome, but the automatic fortify spirit on him just makes him a tank when combined with his maneuverability. Hitting Power is a little lacking but an enchanted blades from Cirdan covers that extremely well

@@ConquestCreations I would say Glorfindel is an excellent choice, combination between Elrond and Gilgalad. He has a sweet fight value (can come very handy against trolls, cave trolls, Ghulavar, ...) which is somehow Elronds weakness, while he has 3 fate points, which is somehow Gilgalads weakness. Furthermore his armor of Gondolin should not be overlooked - a vital thing against monsters - even a cave troll (especially with a hammer - burly) can smash other two in pieces very quickly, if you are unlucky enough. In Glorfindels case he can guard your weaker models/banner-barrers (he cannot be barged), he cannot be hurled, and most importantly he cannot be rended. Not to mention his unbending resolve which makes him almost impossible to pin-down, enchant, to drain his courage, etc., making him even more fearsome. This is another weakness of the other two Rivendel heroes you mentioned - well, mostly of all other heroes. For example, to destroy Gilgalad it is enough to use transfix and then attack him with a troll. Another very huge thing is Glorfindels horse. Asfaloth can move 12'', making Glorfindel faster than other riders, which can come very handy, as you can imagine. Besides that, he gains the fleetfoot special rule and since he also has the expert rider and the horse lord rules, it is very hard to dismount him or slow him down. All-in-all an excelent model. Oh, and of course, he has the Lord of the West and terror special rules, just like the other two. I would dare to say that this is a model with the least weaknesses in the whole game, besides from Sauron of course (and maybe Smaug). Regarding Saruman - I would say that after adding the Lord of the Istari special rule he became the best spell caster in the game. His ability to re-roll one dice when casting is just gold! Not to mention his Palantir rule (can be decisive in certain circumstances; if nothing else, forces the enemy to sacrifice one might for heroic move, with Grima two), his huge courage combined with free will point and the Voice of Curunir (WILL keep the army together in almost all circumstances), as well as his sweet spell-casting values. And yes, Grima. He is a must have for all 750+ points Isengard armies (which is objectively the best well-balanced army in the game - you have everything: riders, monsters, huge variety of models/heroes, pikes, shields, bows, crossbows, siege engines, spears (from orcs), some models can be upgraded to move faster (in the case of Mauhur), drummers, shamans, fighting oriented heroes, etc.). Maybe the most overlooked evil hero there is. And regarding Erestor - one of the best heroes you can hope to buy (price-wise). His Noldoring daggers are just priceless. Combined with terror, high fight/shoot values, 2 might/will/fate, high courage - a superb hero for the price. Isildur is another dirt-cheap hero: Lots of might, will, fate, resistant to magic (in combination with Gilgalad or Elendil), amazing strength (for a good hero) and good all around stats. In combination with a shield, horse and a ring can be a huge pain in the ass! For only 135 points! Otherwise, I would gladly agree with some of the chosen heroes (WK, Ghulavar, Boromir, Cirdan, maybe even Gandalf the White), yet some I would switch (I would also add Durin). Anyway, hopefully I wasn't too long. ;) Best regards and props for your videos!

He is pretty solid. I've been using him quite a bit in my Goblin town and I totally agree with you!

Thanks for the comment. I would love to have a discussion! If it were a list of the most expensive models Smaug would have been on it for sure hahaha That interesting that you find those models easy to counter they do incredibly well at the some of the most competitive tournaments. These models are definitely not straight forwards to use so the list is base on their in game potential. Gulavhar was in the army that won the international master tournament. Gandalf the White I would have said is one of the hardest models in the game to counter. He has an answer for everything, blinding lights, banishment, your staff is broken. How would you counter him easily? I completely agree that legolass, Imrahil, and Shagrat are great models. Imrahil was one that was originally on the list but got cut out but he is defiently one of the best. I don't think they have the same effect on the battle field as the other models in the list. I am interested that you said the Shade is good. I know a shade won ArdaCon but whenever I have played they they seem easy to counter so i must be missing something. If you split your forces the shade can only be in one place at once and if you go after it with magic it either runs out of will or is out of position. What makes it so powerful?

​@@ConquestCreations yeah, smaug is great if anyone can afford him xd From my perspective having expensive models means fewer models on the table. Gandalf the White costs almost 1/3 or even 1/2 of the whole point limit, which means fewer heroes and therefore less might points. Once gandalf is out of them it's easy to spam heroics and just block him with simple infranty units. Another thing with high value models is that they are very tricky to play. Every dice roll counts, every decision, every charge. In good hands sure they are great, but just one bad roll can change entire game. I think that's why in my country I usually see either big armies or annoying monster spam. And as for gulavhar and master tournaments i remember back in the time when my fellow countryman won UK GT with outriders spam under gamling royal banner, 100% army with bows and unlimited might points. It was crazy op and because GTs are full of great players and exploiters it's hard to compare to "casual players". What I usually see at local level is that people get overly excited about charging with gulavhar/great eagle/fell beast etc they roll max 3 or 4, spend all might points to win one combat or perform heroic action and quickly lose momentum after that. I think that shade is the most annoying model to play against. I see many players losing their cool, they focus to much on him, try to kill hilm with bows, magic, they use heroics just to charge him and he is bascially a bullet sponge. Also his chill aura makes him best support model in entire game, making normally useless orcs capable of auto wining against anyone. Sure, army basically needs to be placed in a brick, but thanks to the numbers most of frontline should be covered. Another thing is how angmar is scary good against enemy heroes - dwimmerlaik, shade and buhrdur/gulavhar combo can strip enemy side from might points in seconds. Using shade to cover most important fight, keeping close to main heroes makes the biggest difference for me. Fact that I can auto win on 6 or 5 with higher value is something that I miss after switching to different armies. Yeah, he's pretty addictive xd

I totally agree with you. The models on this list are generally pretty challenging to play. Gulavhar probably most of all. He is very fragile with low defence. This list is about which models have the highest potential. Just because a model is easy for casual players to use doesn't make it the best. Having expensive models does reduce your numbers a lot but it allows you to access so many abilities that easily compensate for that. A lot of the armies that have been doing very well at Australian tournaments have been low to middle model count Its really cool that different courntries have different playing styles! I would love to go to Europe one day and play in some of your tournaments. Some of the winning armies is Australia have been the Riders of Theoden, Rivendell knights, Iron Hills, and fellowship + Lorien alliance. Just like you I have seen heaps of new players throw their big monster in and have it die very quickly with out doing much damage but when it is wielded by a well practiced player it can be almost unstoppable. They are a lot more challenging to use correctly. I think its great that in this game the more you practice the better you become and a new player with a good list will easily loose to a good player with a bad list. With Gandalf you can just never let him be in a position where he can be easily charged. To get his value he needs to cast a spell every turn so he should only hang out behind your army.

This depends a lot from the tournament style. In germany that list would have been totally different . Top 5 seems to be boromir, lady of light, witch king, legolas, suladan. In an mainly evil vs good enviroment, lady of light is huge, and heroes like dain or thranduil do next to nothing vs shadowking and witchking... gulavar on the other side willl struggle vs a not of good army builds. In personal i regard legolas the best hero in game, he is great in good vs good too and scores the leader wound in most of the games.. But nonetheless, great video !!

He recently was adjusted in an errata limiting his might regeneration to 1 might per turn. He is still incredibly good but not quite as potent as he once was

Shades are powerful but but they can be avoided and magic completely shuts them down if they have to burn through there will to resist. Also the courage of 1 means as soon as you break they are either loosing all there will or fleeing. Also if your opponent spreads out the shade can only be in one place at once.

The Balrogs is very powerful but there are some very good ways to counter him. He only has 4 attacks without might so he can bitch fights easily and sometimes enemies just keep running away from him. His strengths are his Goblin mastery which makes all goblins around him fearless and the ability to call heroic combats is awesome

That is definitely a fair call

@@ConquestCreations the downside is he is 400 points however he easily destroys 400 points of enemies and has a 2+ feel no pain which is abs insane in Lord of the Rings, the he is so strong and is easily able to kill basically everyone and I love his passive rule that enables him to strike everyone in base contact and those who are in base contact of them not to mention roasting your enemies alive

“There is only one Lord of the Ring...And he does not share power.”

He is a tricky one to get your hands on. You could always do a cool conversion to create him!

I have used Groblog a lot and I agree I am a big fan of him. At 50 points he is such a bargain and provides so much into an army list

@@ConquestCreations I just picked up Moria as a faction, Groblog is my S tier. Though I don't know how to fully utilise the cave trolls yet so I've been relying on groblog and Durburz to just generally be good heroes. Wish Balrog was stronger he feels like I'm lightly tickling the enemy instead of rampaging

@@totallyoriginal9741 Interesting that you haven't found the Balrog to be absolutely devastating. What are some of the situations that you have gotten that makes him feel ineffective? This is an old video but can show off what he is capable of: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-II99A7lEMvA.html I have played the Balrog a lot now. His weakness is that he can loose the fight but after that he is easily able to clear 4 models per turn. When you use his free heroic combat in conjunction with his brutal power attacks he gives you a lot of control over the fight phase, you don't always need to kill the enemy, sometimes a hurl or a barge are the best option. With 10 wounds and defence 9 he is almost unkillable. Giving the goblins around him fearless makes them some of the most reliable 5 point models that you can find. If you pair his whip with a batswarm you can pull heroes out of the enemy lines and assassinate them.

@@ConquestCreations I love the lash. Once in a game with a friend I managed to drag a model in, heroic combat off of it into more models, then barge allowing me to get into the leader. In a little test run I had the balrog go up against the good side of the osgiliath starter set, he ended up still taking 5 Wounds, though there was some very lucky shooting. Should I always be keeping my balrog on the move as much as possible (he has no might so i can't heroic move to get him out of traps). As a hero assassin he could very well be the best though with the fight 10. Just feel like he could benefit from monstrous charge to round him out for that 350 points (I was really surprised to learn he didn't have fly as well).

You have commented that you are relatively new with the Balrog. I would absolutely keep playing him and learning his finesse. 350 points is a very reasonable point cost for him and he is very very powerful. You absolutely want to avoid him being trapped so I would keep him around his Goblins still. You want to keep him in the thickest point of the fighting. Middle Earth is a game that is easy to learn but hard to master and I think this especially applies to the Balrog

He is a pretty solid hero, I had him on the first draft of the list but Floi took his spot!

I am glad there are so many comments about different heroes! This game is incredibly balanced and some heroes might seem weak at first but in the right hands they can be unstoppable

Hahahaha I am with you here but he has a rule that allows him to use his hammer hands to punch his opponent

@@ConquestCreations yea they came out of it somehow :P but in the movie, there was a statue in helms deep… shown during overwiev of fortress. I’m pretty sure that this statue portrayed Helm, shame they didn’t go this way :(