@@intothewestpodcast I just had my first game with Goblin Town, and he's so different! Still good I think, but I absolutely misplayed him by deploying the King too far away for their synergies to kick off.
So I think Specrtres still have quite a useful utility in that if the model fails the test, you move them sure but they may not use "Active Abilities", I have used the spectre simply to shut down active abilities even if targeting them doesn't result in them moving. There are lots of active abilities that its great to just turn off. A lucky fail on Legolas and suddenly hes shooting once and only if unengaged. Also just to add Spectres are not Heroes so don't convey the Terror bubble.
@@intothewestpodcast only off the warg, with warg no difference. No strike, master of battle 2+, 2 attacks. Poor fellow, none the less he will be my go to hero as a sign of solidarity
@@philipdeamer8787 Not only that, but his buddies Goroth and Zagdush got kicked to the curb, so the Army of Gothmog has fewer hitters to make up for Gothmog's reduced combat ability.
I think the Hill Tribesman are good at 5 points in faction with all the buffs they get. I argue 4 points a piece with the 6 up feel no pain costing the extra point. Going to 6 with either a spear, flaming brand, or bow is worth it too. GT goblin warriors should definitely be either 4 points base, or give them a percentage cap on great weapons and make that option free. Militia are pretty much in the bin now, but they do at least get armour 4 against shooting, so there is that. I will be mainly playing my murder hobos this edition, so we will see how that goes. I have beaten Rivendell 2 times and Minas Tirith 1 time out of 5 games, so not to bad so far. Lost to Assault on Helms Deep and Last Alliance. Too much ranged power and defense to Crack effectively in enough time.
I really enjoy your analysis, thank you! I‘m absolutely upset by the points increase of Laketown Guard. Outside the Masters tiny 6“ bubble now Guards aren‘t better in stats than a normal Orc Warrior, for two points more! Last Edition my main armies were Army of Laketown, Army of Thror and Corsairs. I feel mobbed 😂😢. Nerf by nerf for armies that rarely podiumed.
Tbh I think Azog ought to be on the list - even in Pits when he gets the White Warg, he loses free Heroic Combats (unless I'm mistaken!), and as you said...he probably won't be seen much in Gundabad. Finally, Azogs Hunters got nerfed really hard, so I fear Bolg is the new face of Gundabad.
Giant Spider/Mirkwood Hunting Spider? Its fight goes down and everyone else's goes up, so they could ambush and draw against a common soldier. Has the beast debuffs and a new somewhat bizarre special rule still 20 points. I'm really hoping Druzhag or someone can put them in a stronger place.
Goblin town was way too cheap last edition with the ring on gollum and with the ability to get the spiders in. I reckon they're still powerful with the new song rules which is why they are 5 points and the reduction in magic helps the goblin king too.
Hmm I agree they were okay getting a bit of a nerf this edition but personally I think they went a tad far and don't think they'll be relevant in the tourney scene but we'll see!
Gil-Galad might be fine, actually. F9 could be oppressively strong now that previous counters like Heroic Strike and magic have been heavily nerfed. I'm sick of playing Last Alliance though, so I won't be sad to see less of Gil-Galad, Elendil and Cirdan.
You have to keep in mind that there’s a lot more F7 + characters now, most of which have strike, so they can go into GG and match or beat him on a 3+, and if mounted possibly one shot him. Combine this with existing magic weakness and lack of defence, cost, plus other nerfs, and they way over did it with him. It’s one thing to nerf a character but they took it too far with certain profiles. Also makes no sense that elendil or other high fight characters can strike and GG can’t - this guy is supposed to be one of the strongest characters in the lore in Lotr era.
@@jesseg9013 There are not THAT many F7 Strikers Only 10 I could count: Aragorn, Boromir, Mega-las (in Assault on Ravenhill), Thorin (King Under the Mountain), Dain, Thranduil, Helm Hammerhand (Wraith), Azog, Bolg, Burdhur Lots of them don't have elven weapons, they don't have Lord of the West re-rolls. So most of the time they're spending resources to maybe tie Gil-Galad, then losing to because Gil-Galad has 4 chances to roll a six and an Elven weapon to break ties. So yes, a few characters can challenge him, but he is certainly not weak. In the old days, mid-tier heroes like Gorbag and Shagrat had a decent chance of striking up to F10, which would Gil-Galad to spend might defensively in a matchup where the cheaper heroes brought the same amount of Might to the table. That's gone now.
@@dietrichknauth9305 the list of 7+ strikers or innate 9+, is: Smaug, balrog, Sauron, both Aragorns, treebeard, helm, azog, bolg, elendil, elrond, glorfindel, both boromirs, dain, troll chieftains, Bill the troll, Buhrdur, Thorin, Isildur, Thranduil, + (conditionally) - Megolas, Earnur, MoTW legion heros (4, for a turn), and Aldrac. - Total of roughly 29 profiles, not including the unreleased book, which we know will include a few others like the dragon emperor and Imrahil. A chunk of these have elven weapons or more than 3 attacks, or a mount to get more attacks. Many of these heroes also have either higher defence, more wounds, or heroic defence. GG is at much higher risk to die (no strike or defence or shield), and you've suddenly lost 175 pt hero. Of course, he's not completely useless, but my point is that he was way over nerfed and given his cost (very inefficient compared to many heroes), magic weakness and other improvements to hero's, he will be rarely seen in a competitive setting (despite weaker strike and magic). Fight value is great, of course, but it's also useless if you don't roll highly and run out of might. My frustration is with the inconsistency in the profile changes, many of which were changed illogically. GG really didn't need all these changes, he was far from game breaking before.
@@dietrichknauth9305 the list of 7+ strikers or 9+ innate is: Smaug, Balrog, Sauron, both Aragorns, treebeard, helm, azog, bolg, elendil, elrond, glorfindel, both boromirs, dain, troll chieftains, Bill the troll, Buhrdur, Thorin, Isildur, Thranduil, Beorn + (conditionally) - Mega-las, Earnur, MoTW legion heros (4, for a turn), and Aldrac. - Total of roughly 30 profiles, not including the unreleased book, which we know will include a few others like the dragon emperor and Imrahil. Most of these have either elven weapons, more than 3 attacks, or a mount to get bonus attacks. Almost all of them either hit harder or are much more survivable, so unlike GG, will not be as susceptible to a flash kill in a duel (he has no heroic defence, shield or strike to use defensively). Of course, he's not useless (with the nerfs to magic and strike). My point is just that considering his cost, and the improvements to other heroes (many of whom are way more efficient), he's been way over nerfed and won't see much competitive play. My main frustration comes from the inconsistency in profile and army reworks, where many changes were illogical/unnecessary. GG was not breaking the meta before, so it's sad to see him and a few others get this treatment, especially given GW's emphasis on the lore (where he is an absolute beast).
@@dietrichknauth9305 the list of 7+ strikers or 9+ innate is: Smaug, Balrog, Sauron, both Aragorns, treebeard, helm, azog, bolg, elendil, elrond, glorfindel, both boromirs, dain, troll chieftains, Bill the troll, Buhrdur, Thorin, Isildur, Thranduil, Beorn + (conditionally) - Mega-las, Earnur, MoTW legion heros (4, for a turn), and Aldrac. - Total of roughly 30 profiles, not including the unreleased book, which we know will include a few others like the dragon emperor and Imrahil. Most of these have either elven weapons, more than 3 attacks, or a mount to get bonus attacks. Almost all of them either hit harder or are much more survivable, so unlike GG, will not be as susceptible to a flash kill in a duel (he has no heroic defence, shield or strike to use defensively). Of course, he's not useless (with the nerfs to magic and strike). My point is just that considering his cost, and the improvements to other heroes (many of whom are way more efficient), he's been way over nerfed and won't see much competitive play. My main frustration comes from the inconsistency in profile and army reworks, where many changes were illogical/unnecessary. GG was not breaking the meta before, so it's sad to see him and a few others get this treatment, especially given GW's emphasis on the lore (where he is an absolute beast).
Goblin town upsets me. Increase in points yet their stats are shit compared to an orc that has one more point. Also without spawning you have no way if dealing with shooting so good luck when you have to walk into a gunline and break before the game even really starts.
I don't think the watcher nerv is that big. Yes you can't to the batswarm combo but he still pick off spear supports and kill small heros /captain and banners. They change in base size is not that important as he don't move that much anyway , it is more annoing if you already have one on a really good designed base🙈. The funny part about corsairs is that both the Captain and the bonsun got buffed with a 3+ shoot value and light armor for the same points😆
He’s definitely still a good model for sure, just not close to the level of last edition. Bigger base can mean harder to manoeuvre, and also it requires more models bubble wrap him to set up a drag.
Lake town trash going toe to toe with minis tirith was utter bollocks last edition, they shouldn't be matching warriors of minas tirith in a fight like they were.
@metascrub285 yes they did, they were defense 5 and massively outnumbered you or had more hero shenanigans. They easily went toe to toe with MT and they shouldn't have done.
@ric1194 with boromir you should of won all the fights where he was with his +1 fight and banner just from dice probability even with their money bag banner. Boromir is 6 might alone and with other heros should be more might/equal lake town with their might regaining. You also have the avenger bolt thrower to mow them down from range. The lake town heros besides bard are all tiny support heros so you can legit just hunt them down or spam heroic combat to thin numbers of the want to cage their heros. Legit, either skill issue or built your ministrith list wrong. Lake town shouldn't be beating ministrith with boromir. Defence 5 is still a 5-6 to wound on strength 3 while they need 6s on your tin cans and you have higher fight and seige. Lake town hard loses to anything with a better banner.
@@metascrub285 not how dice work at all. That's the equivalent to 'just roll 6s'. Now you factor in that a good survivors list gets in gandalf where magic was still very very good makes it fairly easy to shut boromir down more turns than not. Especially dismounting him taking out his usefulness in combat. As for skill issue 🤣 I took men of the west to an GBHL 90 and came top and everyone knows how bad that list is and I did that just for a challenge. So you wanna come at me with skill issue I'd be happy to put you in your place there chucky egg.
@ric1194 your stupid. There are always odds with dice lol. Lake town needs to 2v1 ministrith models to get a 57.9% chance to win the fight then to only get a 30.6% chance to wound a defence 6 warrior on two dice. Your actual stupid. Also calling out your men of the west top. Show proof/ show other big named player who consistently top at major events that you place over or I consider it a lie or a low skill level event.
There's definitely a few armies that seem pretty weak but that was the same in the last edition (just different armies now), so far I personally don't feel like overall balance has become worse!
Corsairs are the worst profile in the game now to me. Even if they all had throwing weapons still theyd feel playable, but otherwise they are just horrible.
We only looked at LotR/Hobbit profiles. The Carn Dum warrior profile also looks mostly unchanged. In fact, they may be slightly better as Army of Carn Dum was buffed!
Gotta toss out both Gamling and Eowyn (especially the Dernhelm Build) as massive nerfs. Last edition, these were generally two of Rohan’s best heroes. This edition, I can’t find a reason to field them. Last edition’s Dernhelm was 40 points cheaper than this edition’s equivalently kitted out Eowyn. For that, she got +1 defense, +1 strength, +1 fate, and +1 courage. Traditionally, each of these was worth around 5ish points on a hero, and she’s paying double that, putting her at a cost where you have to start to question whether to just take Eomer. Gamling’s banner to me is just dead. The special rule isn’t reliable enough to matter, and why pay 95-115 points for a 6” banner that can’t be passed on to another when you could instead pay 62-78 points for two warriors/riders of Rohan, each with a 3” banner that has the security of being passed on when they die? Especially when there are scenarios where having multiple banners can provide you a scoring advantage.
Eowyn definitely took a hit but I disagree about Gamling's new banner. 6" is technically more surface area than two 3" banners and there's an argument whether the warrior banners are easier to kill or Gamling even with the ability to pass off, as Gamling has heroic defence and can be put in very safe positions given the range of his banner.
Eowyn also has +1 fate on Merry, and the hero mounts cost +10 across the board so you can kind of look at it as costing 5 more points than Dernhelm. Additionally she gets the new "I shall kill you if you touch him" rule and a better version of the "Merry" rule.
I get the dislike, but I'm sorry, definitely the old gil galad was the rop version, and the new one is the movie version. ROP big G rides a horse and is an important player amongst the elves. New Gil-Galad is forced to be on foot and will be maybe seen once for a couple of frames
I think positioning just became that much more important with Specters
100%, you probably still take 1 or 2 but just much worse than before
I think is good that many units of the Hobbit book got nerfed. It is more balanced lore wise with the armies of LoTR.
I would have expected to see the Goblin Scribe at least mentioned. He seems so hard to really use in any effective way now.
Yeah that's a good one for sure!
@@intothewestpodcast I just had my first game with Goblin Town, and he's so different! Still good I think, but I absolutely misplayed him by deploying the King too far away for their synergies to kick off.
So I think Specrtres still have quite a useful utility in that if the model fails the test, you move them sure but they may not use "Active Abilities", I have used the spectre simply to shut down active abilities even if targeting them doesn't result in them moving. There are lots of active abilities that its great to just turn off. A lucky fail on Legolas and suddenly hes shooting once and only if unengaged.
Also just to add Spectres are not Heroes so don't convey the Terror bubble.
You’re right that Spectres don’t provide the Terror bubble in Host of the Witch-King, but they do provide the Terror bonus in Minas Morgul.
I think the hunter orcs list is now a mounted list with lots of heroes for the heroic moves
big base F3 1 attack? sheeeeesh
How is Gothmog not on the list!
He was close! Being 10 points cheaper kept him off our list.
@@intothewestpodcast only off the warg, with warg no difference. No strike, master of battle 2+, 2 attacks. Poor fellow, none the less he will be my go to hero as a sign of solidarity
@@philipdeamer8787 Not only that, but his buddies Goroth and Zagdush got kicked to the curb, so the Army of Gothmog has fewer hitters to make up for Gothmog's reduced combat ability.
i agree with you, gothmog got smacked hard with the nerf bat in this edition.
I think the Hill Tribesman are good at 5 points in faction with all the buffs they get. I argue 4 points a piece with the 6 up feel no pain costing the extra point. Going to 6 with either a spear, flaming brand, or bow is worth it too. GT goblin warriors should definitely be either 4 points base, or give them a percentage cap on great weapons and make that option free. Militia are pretty much in the bin now, but they do at least get armour 4 against shooting, so there is that. I will be mainly playing my murder hobos this edition, so we will see how that goes. I have beaten Rivendell 2 times and Minas Tirith 1 time out of 5 games, so not to bad so far. Lost to Assault on Helms Deep and Last Alliance. Too much ranged power and defense to Crack effectively in enough time.
Haven't seen the video yet but i want say while gorbag got buff shagrat took a hit.
I really enjoy your analysis, thank you! I‘m absolutely upset by the points increase of Laketown Guard. Outside the Masters tiny 6“ bubble now Guards aren‘t better in stats than a normal Orc Warrior, for two points more!
Last Edition my main armies were Army of Laketown, Army of Thror and Corsairs. I feel mobbed 😂😢. Nerf by nerf for armies that rarely podiumed.
Sorry to hear that... Perhaps new army for the new edition? 😅
Tbh I think Azog ought to be on the list - even in Pits when he gets the White Warg, he loses free Heroic Combats (unless I'm mistaken!), and as you said...he probably won't be seen much in Gundabad. Finally, Azogs Hunters got nerfed really hard, so I fear Bolg is the new face of Gundabad.
That's a fair argument, I can get behind that for sure... Which is sad because I personally thought he was fine previously :(
@@intothewestpodcastAzog was far and away my favorite model 😢
Giant Spider/Mirkwood Hunting Spider?
Its fight goes down and everyone else's goes up, so they could ambush and draw against a common soldier. Has the beast debuffs and a new somewhat bizarre special rule still 20 points.
I'm really hoping Druzhag or someone can put them in a stronger place.
Goblin town was way too cheap last edition with the ring on gollum and with the ability to get the spiders in. I reckon they're still powerful with the new song rules which is why they are 5 points and the reduction in magic helps the goblin king too.
Hmm I agree they were okay getting a bit of a nerf this edition but personally I think they went a tad far and don't think they'll be relevant in the tourney scene but we'll see!
Gil-Galad might be fine, actually. F9 could be oppressively strong now that previous counters like Heroic Strike and magic have been heavily nerfed.
I'm sick of playing Last Alliance though, so I won't be sad to see less of Gil-Galad, Elendil and Cirdan.
You have to keep in mind that there’s a lot more F7 + characters now, most of which have strike, so they can go into GG and match or beat him on a 3+, and if mounted possibly one shot him. Combine this with existing magic weakness and lack of defence, cost, plus other nerfs, and they way over did it with him. It’s one thing to nerf a character but they took it too far with certain profiles. Also makes no sense that elendil or other high fight characters can strike and GG can’t - this guy is supposed to be one of the strongest characters in the lore in Lotr era.
@@jesseg9013 There are not THAT many F7 Strikers
Only 10 I could count:
Aragorn, Boromir, Mega-las (in Assault on Ravenhill), Thorin (King Under the Mountain), Dain, Thranduil, Helm Hammerhand (Wraith), Azog, Bolg, Burdhur
Lots of them don't have elven weapons, they don't have Lord of the West re-rolls.
So most of the time they're spending resources to maybe tie Gil-Galad, then losing to because Gil-Galad has 4 chances to roll a six and an Elven weapon to break ties.
So yes, a few characters can challenge him, but he is certainly not weak. In the old days, mid-tier heroes like Gorbag and Shagrat had a decent chance of striking up to F10, which would Gil-Galad to spend might defensively in a matchup where the cheaper heroes brought the same amount of Might to the table. That's gone now.
@@dietrichknauth9305 the list of 7+ strikers or innate 9+, is: Smaug, balrog, Sauron, both Aragorns, treebeard, helm, azog, bolg, elendil, elrond, glorfindel, both boromirs, dain, troll chieftains, Bill the troll, Buhrdur, Thorin, Isildur, Thranduil, + (conditionally) - Megolas, Earnur, MoTW legion heros (4, for a turn), and Aldrac.
- Total of roughly 29 profiles, not including the unreleased book, which we know will include a few others like the dragon emperor and Imrahil.
A chunk of these have elven weapons or more than 3 attacks, or a mount to get more attacks. Many of these heroes also have either higher defence, more wounds, or heroic defence. GG is at much higher risk to die (no strike or defence or shield), and you've suddenly lost 175 pt hero.
Of course, he's not completely useless, but my point is that he was way over nerfed and given his cost (very inefficient compared to many heroes), magic weakness and other improvements to hero's, he will be rarely seen in a competitive setting (despite weaker strike and magic). Fight value is great, of course, but it's also useless if you don't roll highly and run out of might.
My frustration is with the inconsistency in the profile changes, many of which were changed illogically. GG really didn't need all these changes, he was far from game breaking before.
@@dietrichknauth9305 the list of 7+ strikers or 9+ innate is: Smaug, Balrog, Sauron, both Aragorns, treebeard, helm, azog, bolg, elendil, elrond, glorfindel, both boromirs, dain, troll chieftains, Bill the troll, Buhrdur, Thorin, Isildur, Thranduil, Beorn + (conditionally) - Mega-las, Earnur, MoTW legion heros (4, for a turn), and Aldrac.
- Total of roughly 30 profiles, not including the unreleased book, which we know will include a few others like the dragon emperor and Imrahil.
Most of these have either elven weapons, more than 3 attacks, or a mount to get bonus attacks. Almost all of them either hit harder or are much more survivable, so unlike GG, will not be as susceptible to a flash kill in a duel (he has no heroic defence, shield or strike to use defensively).
Of course, he's not useless (with the nerfs to magic and strike). My point is just that considering his cost, and the improvements to other heroes (many of whom are way more efficient), he's been way over nerfed and won't see much competitive play.
My main frustration comes from the inconsistency in profile and army reworks, where many changes were illogical/unnecessary. GG was not breaking the meta before, so it's sad to see him and a few others get this treatment, especially given GW's emphasis on the lore (where he is an absolute beast).
@@dietrichknauth9305 the list of 7+ strikers or 9+ innate is: Smaug, Balrog, Sauron, both Aragorns, treebeard, helm, azog, bolg, elendil, elrond, glorfindel, both boromirs, dain, troll chieftains, Bill the troll, Buhrdur, Thorin, Isildur, Thranduil, Beorn + (conditionally) - Mega-las, Earnur, MoTW legion heros (4, for a turn), and Aldrac.
- Total of roughly 30 profiles, not including the unreleased book, which we know will include a few others like the dragon emperor and Imrahil.
Most of these have either elven weapons, more than 3 attacks, or a mount to get bonus attacks. Almost all of them either hit harder or are much more survivable, so unlike GG, will not be as susceptible to a flash kill in a duel (he has no heroic defence, shield or strike to use defensively).
Of course, he's not useless (with the nerfs to magic and strike). My point is just that considering his cost, and the improvements to other heroes (many of whom are way more efficient), he's been way over nerfed and won't see much competitive play.
My main frustration comes from the inconsistency in profile and army reworks, where many changes were illogical/unnecessary. GG was not breaking the meta before, so it's sad to see him and a few others get this treatment, especially given GW's emphasis on the lore (where he is an absolute beast).
Goblin town upsets me. Increase in points yet their stats are shit compared to an orc that has one more point. Also without spawning you have no way if dealing with shooting so good luck when you have to walk into a gunline and break before the game even really starts.
Yeah I don't think GT are very playable currently.
I don't think the watcher nerv is that big. Yes you can't to the batswarm combo but he still pick off spear supports and kill small heros /captain and banners. They change in base size is not that important as he don't move that much anyway , it is more annoing if you already have one on a really good designed base🙈.
The funny part about corsairs is that both the Captain and the bonsun got buffed with a 3+ shoot value and light armor for the same points😆
He’s definitely still a good model for sure, just not close to the level of last edition. Bigger base can mean harder to manoeuvre, and also it requires more models bubble wrap him to set up a drag.
@intothewestpodcast you acctuly need less models for a good drag now because you can choose were to place them
Sad as a Corsair player to see that points increase. Really should have stayed 7pts but make light shield and throwing daggers 2pt upgrade.
Lake town trash going toe to toe with minis tirith was utter bollocks last edition, they shouldn't be matching warriors of minas tirith in a fight like they were.
They didn't if you played boromir.
@metascrub285 yes they did, they were defense 5 and massively outnumbered you or had more hero shenanigans. They easily went toe to toe with MT and they shouldn't have done.
@ric1194 with boromir you should of won all the fights where he was with his +1 fight and banner just from dice probability even with their money bag banner. Boromir is 6 might alone and with other heros should be more might/equal lake town with their might regaining. You also have the avenger bolt thrower to mow them down from range. The lake town heros besides bard are all tiny support heros so you can legit just hunt them down or spam heroic combat to thin numbers of the want to cage their heros. Legit, either skill issue or built your ministrith list wrong. Lake town shouldn't be beating ministrith with boromir. Defence 5 is still a 5-6 to wound on strength 3 while they need 6s on your tin cans and you have higher fight and seige. Lake town hard loses to anything with a better banner.
@@metascrub285 not how dice work at all. That's the equivalent to 'just roll 6s'. Now you factor in that a good survivors list gets in gandalf where magic was still very very good makes it fairly easy to shut boromir down more turns than not. Especially dismounting him taking out his usefulness in combat. As for skill issue 🤣 I took men of the west to an GBHL 90 and came top and everyone knows how bad that list is and I did that just for a challenge. So you wanna come at me with skill issue I'd be happy to put you in your place there chucky egg.
@ric1194 your stupid. There are always odds with dice lol. Lake town needs to 2v1 ministrith models to get a 57.9% chance to win the fight then to only get a 30.6% chance to wound a defence 6 warrior on two dice. Your actual stupid. Also calling out your men of the west top. Show proof/ show other big named player who consistently top at major events that you place over or I consider it a lie or a low skill level event.
Almost all the generic captains got nerfed. Less rules & wargear options almost across the board.
Also: Gothmog & Celeborn got screwed.
@@dorn0531 Celeborn? Celeborn? He got completly changed but is probably better now
@Into the west Charles! Were on "Don't die" on netflix?? For a split second?
Not that I know of 😂, will have to check it out!
-Charles
Gothmog? No?
Very close, he did go down in points so that helped offset the nerfs a bit.
🎉
Its seems the balance is bad this edition. pretty sad whats happened to the game
There's definitely a few armies that seem pretty weak but that was the same in the last edition (just different armies now), so far I personally don't feel like overall balance has become worse!
Corsairs are the worst profile in the game now to me. Even if they all had throwing weapons still theyd feel playable, but otherwise they are just horrible.
Were warriors of Carn Dum not eligible? Or is there a 3rd video for Angmar supplement?
We only looked at LotR/Hobbit profiles. The Carn Dum warrior profile also looks mostly unchanged. In fact, they may be slightly better as Army of Carn Dum was buffed!
Did they really change in the new edition? Apart from the fight value inflation which I assume they benefitted from
Gotta toss out both Gamling and Eowyn (especially the Dernhelm Build) as massive nerfs.
Last edition, these were generally two of Rohan’s best heroes. This edition, I can’t find a reason to field them. Last edition’s Dernhelm was 40 points cheaper than this edition’s equivalently kitted out Eowyn. For that, she got +1 defense, +1 strength, +1 fate, and +1 courage. Traditionally, each of these was worth around 5ish points on a hero, and she’s paying double that, putting her at a cost where you have to start to question whether to just take Eomer.
Gamling’s banner to me is just dead. The special rule isn’t reliable enough to matter, and why pay 95-115 points for a 6” banner that can’t be passed on to another when you could instead pay 62-78 points for two warriors/riders of Rohan, each with a 3” banner that has the security of being passed on when they die? Especially when there are scenarios where having multiple banners can provide you a scoring advantage.
Eowyn definitely took a hit but I disagree about Gamling's new banner. 6" is technically more surface area than two 3" banners and there's an argument whether the warrior banners are easier to kill or Gamling even with the ability to pass off, as Gamling has heroic defence and can be put in very safe positions given the range of his banner.
Eowyn also has +1 fate on Merry, and the hero mounts cost +10 across the board so you can kind of look at it as costing 5 more points than Dernhelm. Additionally she gets the new "I shall kill you if you touch him" rule and a better version of the "Merry" rule.
I get the dislike, but I'm sorry, definitely the old gil galad was the rop version, and the new one is the movie version. ROP big G rides a horse and is an important player amongst the elves. New Gil-Galad is forced to be on foot and will be maybe seen once for a couple of frames