Riders would provide great manouverablilty and I do love cavalry but they suffer the same problems as Elves poor defence at D5 so are really flimsy also if they don't there charge of they are a bit of a sitting duck
On the Saruman front he is most destuctive hero on the good side and would be an incredible aid to my elves but I am already planning on allying to Gandalf and either the Dwarves or Rohan on the 1750 point army I have they 25% is streched as it is.
The Dwarf + Gimli idea would work and I do love the theme of the army but again I have the issue of cost both for allies and Heroes.
I want to take Gandalf because his Blinding Light spell is incredible for elves (those 5 to 6 extra dice per fight really shifts the balance back in favour of the elves) but he cost 200 points and is an ally which only leaves 237 or so points for other allies. So continuing along that route if I take Dwarves Gimli cost another 175 points which only leaves me with 62 points to spend on dwarves troops which isn't even 2 companies of normal dwarf warriors let alone Khazad guard.
These problems are compounded by another problem the cost of heroes, I want to take Legolas the few times I've used him Swift Strike has been amazing and Epic Defence is great but he is over priced at 200 points add that to Gandalf who I need for the support role (trust me an elf army falls apart without him or Galadriel in it) and Gimli who is 175 points and I'm spending nearly 600 points on heroes in a 1750 game which seems like a lot.
Any ideas on how I could fix these problems?