Seeing Red

"Eärnur brought an army of power, with munition and provision for a war of great kings. Or so it seemed to the people of the North, though this was but a small sending-force of the whole might of Gondor. Most of all, the horses were praised, for many of them came from the Vales of Anduin, and with them were riders tall and fair, and proud princes of Rhovanion.

Then Círdan summoned all who would come to him, from Lindon or Arnor, and when all was ready the host crossed the Lune and marched north to challenge the Witch-king of Angmar."

When the latest edition of SBG was launched many players were happy to see the introduction of the Alliance Matrix, which is intended to give an advantage to players who played thematic armies from the lore of Middle Earth, as opposed to power gaming the most powerful combos regardless of lore. It did this by army bonuses to the historical allies and penalties to the impossible allies. But what about those thematic armies that fell between the cracks and don't fit perfectly within the new alliance rules?

Middle Earth lore is filled with examples of various alliances that would fall foul of the allies matrix. Whether it's the host of Gondor under Eärnur leading a force of Elves, Northmen and Arnorians as quoted above, or the tribes of evil men fighting for Angmar on the other side of the battlefield, or Durin III leading the dwarves of Khazad Dum to support the armies of Gil Glad and Elendil in the Last Alliance. All of these so called impossible alliances are lifted directly from Tolkein's writing yet will suffer penalties for sticking to the letter of the lore.

Although it is still possible to run these type of lists, is it fair that players who are already potentially disadvantaged by choosing to use a themed army to then have additional disadvantages applied on top or even barred from entering an event? And, more importantly, is it possible to overcome these challenges and create a thematic competitive army that uses a red alliance?

Battle of Fornost by Tulikoura on DeviantArt