Fritskuhntm wrote:
And I will need to pair him with a 28 cm Stand Fast hero (Suladan or Durbitz...any others?)---or glue another hero to him so he doesn't wimp out when the army breaks...which it will quickly with the numbers left over from his 200 pt cost. What else?
Gulavhar is a Hero and Stand Fast doesn't affect other Heroes, pairing up with something won't do anything unless that someone is Saruman the White (good) who is the only character in the game with the rule which says that his Stand Fast affects other heroes... but then again you can't have him with Gulavhar.
About 2 goblins vs 1 bat swarm for protection - Gulavhar's model is positioned on a stone, the size of which is bigger than a goblin as far as I remember. Now according to the rules you have to have the 'body' of the model obscured (and body means body of the creature with the exclusion of its tail. The stone is not part of the body and therefore cannot be taken for in the way - neither can someone's base). Therefore only a Bat Swarm and bigger creatures (and I'm not sure of Warg Riders here, don't remember the exact size of Gulavhar) can provide protection from arrows for Gulli.
Gulavhar has one really stupid thing about him - he's *only* F6. Paying 200 pts for a character that can't beat 130pt Glorfindel and draws with a bunch of other heroes around 100-150 mark (and even Elf captains below 100!) puts you in a seriously difficult spot because it makes Gulavhar unable to move and charge freely in games of the size of 500+. His special rule about A=W=C is also horrendous, but can be taken care of if you're playing well. The downside of the rule is that you can never regain more than 1 Wound per turn, no matter how many enemies you killed or wounds caused.
Then the fact that he's 200, or 2/5 of a 500pt force means that you're not really getting much else useful in there except maxing out on Goblins or Orcs, so you're relying heavily on him, he can easily be taken out and even if he isn't, he will flee soon after your army breaks.
In summary Gulavhar is pretty bad in game terms, even though he might look amazing on paper. Still, try him out, he works if paired up with a Ringwraith immobilising big heroes or with a Spider Queen for additional killing power (you could play Gulavhar, Spider Queen, Orc Drummer, 20 Morannon Orcs and 20 Orc Spearmen and it would be a pretty strong list at 600pts, yet still one that would be having troubles beating Elves). In the end this game is all about heroes anyway because the player who kills enemy heroes sooner than the other and then breaks the army will win majority of the time.