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I'm attending my first one day LOTR tournie in about two months to dip my toes in the GBHL. The points limit is 600, and I'm planning on heading in with Mordor.

In line with my previous points analysis, the backbone of my army will be the following:-

Morannon Orc Captain w/Shield
4 Black Numenoreans
5 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield - 131


Morannon Orc Captain w/Shield
4 Black Numenoreans w/ warhorn
5 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield - 151

That's a solid shieldwall with terror caused along the front row, fight value 4, and strength 4 in support.

Now that gives me two solid blocks of troops at a total of 282 points, with a warhorn supplementing their courage. The average elite army will be about 25 models I'd estimate, and the largest horde possible is about 60 models. So the question now, is what to spend the remaining points on. I should probably add about 10 models, and having something to deal with big heroes is a must. So here a few variants for the remaining 318 points. I'd be interested to hear what you prefer and why?

Variant 1:- The Monster distraction

Cave Drake -175

Captain of the Black Guard
4 Black Numenoreans
5 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield - 141

This gives me a nice big monster to hide behind. It's resistant to magic, can one hit ko big heroes if lucky, race forward at a reasonable eight inches, pile into cavalary, and has six wounds to keep people distracted. Bulked out with another ten man shield wall formation, I like to think I'll do reasonably well.


Variant 2 - The Orc Wave

Morannon Orc Captain with Shield
4 Black Numenoreans
5 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield - 131

Witch King w/Horse, +1 Might, +2 Fate
5 Black Numenoreans
5 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield -185

This gives me a reasonably solid spellcaster to transfix and target heroes who can then fall prey to my 40 man strong (reasonably) elite troops formation. It also gives me enough troops that I should match most armies of men as well, I should think. The main flaw is that it's a bit tactically inflexible, if stat-wise and numerically strong.


Variant 3 -Magic Time

Kardush the Firecaller
10 Orc Trackers w/warg -110

The Undying w/ Armoured Horse
5 Morannon Orc w/Shield
5 Mordor Orc w/Spear 205

Here, I diversify a little. I'll do my best to keep Kardush and the Undying reasonably close so they can feed off each other. Kardush can soul grab from random orcs for will, and then every time he pulls off a spell, the Undying will suck a will point off of him. With that sort of barrage, I should be able to dominate the magic phase (metaphorically) to slow down and snipe heroes even with wizards about, I can spam off ten bow shots a turn in support, and have enough bodies with a hardcore centre of elite troops. I could potentially pull the Undying off his horse too, which would give me sufficient points to upgrade the rest of his unit to be 5 Black Numenoreans, and 5 Morannon Orcs (3 with shield/spear, 2 with spear). Or I could just downgrade the horse to being unarmoured and turn the spear orcs into morannon orcs too, etc. Certainly some flexibility there.

Variant 4:- The All Rounder


Mordor Troll Chieftain
10 Orc Trackers - 180 points

AND

Ringwraith w/ +2 might, +1 fate
4 Black Numenoreans
5 Mordor Orcs w/spear -136

OR

Ringwraith w/Horse, +2 might, +2 fate
4 Warg Riders w/shield -137

I get a nice big troll to play around, and a bare bones Ringwraith in on the front line (well, hiding behind an orc/warg rider) lobbing the occasional spell around for good measure. If it's the foot one, I have lots of bodies. If it's the cavalry one, then I really do have a jack of all trades list, with footsloggers, troll, magic, bows & Cavalry!

I think I'd lean towards the last one, adding the Troll and Wargs. Shieldwalls are nice, especially a Terror-fying one, but they're the Anvil, and I think you need something fast and something heavy to act as the Hammer. The Wargs give you a nice flanking force, the Troll can be quite good as disrupting the enemy line between Terror and lobbing models into formations with the Hurl special attack, Add in Transfix from the Nazgul and he should mulch most heroes too. Trackers are probably the most efficient 'in faction' archers, so they're a nice addition.

Only thing I'd say is if you're spending points to buff the Nazgul, I'd add Will before Might to get maximum spell-casting going on. I can see the appeal for Heroic Moves and modifying crucial rolls, but I would rather just have more Will to use for casting.

 Paradigm wrote:
I think I'd lean towards the last one, adding the Troll and Wargs. Shieldwalls are nice, especially a Terror-fying one, but they're the Anvil, and I think you need something fast and something heavy to act as the Hammer. The Wargs give you a nice flanking force, the Troll can be quite good as disrupting the enemy line between Terror and lobbing models into formations with the Hurl special attack, Add in Transfix from the Nazgul and he should mulch most heroes too. Trackers are probably the most efficient 'in faction' archers, so they're a nice addition.

Only thing I'd say is if you're spending points to buff the Nazgul, I'd add Will before Might to get maximum spell-casting going on. I can see the appeal for Heroic Moves and modifying crucial rolls, but I would rather just have more Will to use for casting.

#

Do you think it could be worth stripping the warg riders (and a few trackers), replacing them with a handful of Morgul Knights, and downgrading the chieftain to a regular mordor troll then? If I bump the ringwraith up to witch king as well, it tacks on another 3 points of will and the 'Break Staff' spell.

Something like:-

Mordor troll (under one of the other warbands) 100

Witch King w/ Horse, + 2 Might, +2 Fate
4 Morgul Knights
7 Orc Trackers 215

I've clocked how most setups have you much closer together these days, so a fast heavy wing might be of use (if we're going hammer and anvil style tactics)

Hmm, that's a tough one. I'd definitely say the Troll could be downgraded without losing a lot, the only thing I'd be hesitant to lose would be the shooting potential. However, as you mention, the setups can often be only 1-2 turns from combat, so they may not be as important these days.

I'll be honest, I'm more worried about squashing in a few extra bodies than the shooting potential. There's spellcasting, monsters, archery, and cavalry, and I can really only pick to do two properly. Stretching to four starts placing each category a bit thin on the ground. That's what worried me about the warg rider version, there just seem to be too few of them to do any real damage. Likewise the unbuffed Ringwraith. Perhaps it would be better to switch the troll and trackers in favour of adding more morgul knights, and stick the witch king on a fell beast?

The only problem then is that my body count is under thirty, meaning I'm likely to have equivalent numbers to Elves or Uruks.

So after much thought, my list is lining up as follows:-

Morannon Orc Captain w/Shield
4 Black Numenoreans
5 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield
3 Orc Trackers -146

Morannon Orc Captain w/Shield
4 Black Numenoreans
5 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield
3 Orc Trackers -146

Morannon Orc Captain w/Shield
4 Black Numenoreans
5 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield
3 Orc Trackers -146

Ringwraith w/ 1 Might
Mordor Troll -160

4 heroes, 9 bows, 1 monster, 36 foot troops. Break point is 20 models. Enough hardened troops to outnumber any elite elf/dwarf armies, and overpower any basic troop forces. None of my heroes are particularly amazing, but the Ringwraith's spells combined with the troll/Morannon Captains should be enough to overpower any low-mid tier hero, whilst any army fielding elite heroes at this points level will find themselves heavily outnumbered.

The only question left is whether or not to keep the trackers piecemeal across the warbands, or plonk them in with the Ringwraith/Troll. I'm also debating stripping the shields off 3-9 of the Morannon Orcs to give my Wraith a little more oomph, but I'm inclined to think it would be better to leave them with a high Def in case a numenorean or two in the front rank get shot.

You definitely want a ringwraith to combo with all the terror you've got. I don't know if you can go against other evil armies in the tourney but if you can, consider more might for the ringwraith to drain enemy ringwraith's will fully or at least severely deplete his will pool because he has to try to resist or die.

Also draining an enemy superhero's courage can be very vital if he can't reliably charge your terrifying models and it gets even better if the games continue once a force is broken to deny stand fast. But I guess you know better if people around there like to play expensive heroes. All I know is that you don't

I also like the troll because you can hurl enemy formations into disarray. I saw that one incredible deathstar in a report in this subforum that had galadriel, some other caster and a shieldwall of wood elves. it's crazy tanky and shoots really effectively.

Hrmm. You raise a good point with the Ringwraith. If I take 3 shields off from the spear orcs behind the Captains (the least likely to die before getting close and personal), that'll let me add a +1 fate, and removing a single tracker will let me add +1 will. I'm loathe to remove much more than that though. If I take away many more trackers, there's not much point in having them. Likewise, having a rock hard defensive skill is probably of more general use than the extra will point removing another six shields would confer.

I'm taking this to a 600 point tournie, so god only knows what I might end up facing. Despite my points-wrangling, I'm more out to have a bunch of fun games then win though, so if I come up against an Elladan/Elrohir cheese list or something, I don't mind ceding the top table to them too much.

Ringwraiths are the most painful models in the game.

They only have one wound = you want fate
They lose will in combat = you want will
Channeled spells are amazing = you want might (when wouldn't you)

Then they become very expensive models with a weak statline and that can still die to a single arrow.

They force you to plan ahead so much it can throw you off your game. Just yesterday my opponent had to decide between transfixing elrond or saving the will because he would be in combat for the rest of the game. Even then, spells have a chance of whiffing so it's very risky.

On the other hand, though, used carefully they can take apart the best laid plan with an Transfix or Compel or Sap Will. Yes, it'll hurt like hell the odd time you lose one to a stupidly lucky archer (last time that happened to me, it was the Witch King... With 2 Fate, and he failed both... That Ranger of Gondor deserves promotion!) but the rest of the time, they are rightly feared.

At this points level, the only thing I could replace him with would be another throwaway orc/uruk hero in the 60 point range. I think having a bare-bones Ringwraith adds far more flexibility. He's only a cheap bugger, so if he falls to a lone shot, it's no game-breaker. The courage drain and troll combo makes him dangerous though, so it's worth taking him for the synergy. I'd like to push another two will, and a might/fate point on him (and essentially upgrade him to a Witch King), but I'd need to scrape another twenty points from somewhere for that. And if I take the 4 trackers required to pay for it, I might as well go the whole hog, ditch the remaining 4 and buy a warhorn for one of my Black Numenoreans.

I could ostensibly combine the function of Troll/Ringwraith by upgrading to the Witch King on a FellBeast. I'd be able to add a handful more Trackers too. If the performance isn't so good after a few trials, I may well do that. I'm liking the thought the additional mobility would bring.

For now though, I'll probably trial the above and see how I do next month in Grinstead.

I'm thinking about substituting in some wild wargs & Chieftain/Narzug and Fell wargs as a fast moving aspect instead of one of the Orc/Numenorean groups. A batch of ten with their associated hero would give me a cheap cavalry style flanking force, and the mid-level hero would mean it could deal with most archery style heroes, I should think.

The only question is which of the two would be superior. Narzug can spam out the might, and his fell wargs have a (seemingly relatively useless) rule relating to charging, but the wild warg chieftain whacks in at Fight value 5 and strength 6! Easily enough to rip through most enemies.

I'm aware that neither are not quite as durable as standard Warg Riders (one less defence without the shield), and don't get the extra attack/knock to the ground when charging. But as Warg Riders cost almost twice as much, I'm effectively substituting double the wounds and attacks, or numbers to compensate. They'll get minced by a proper cavalry force, but as flanking, objective seizing, or archer poaching unit, either should do the trick quite nicely.

So the question now is, which one of the two do you prefer and why? Narzug and his fell'as (ba-dum tish), or the Chieftain and his pack?

Personally, I think I'd take actual Warg riders in a Warband with that role... Wargs on their own are cheap, but movement aside they lose everything that makes Cavalry dangerous, and don't get a lot to make up for it other than a points drop.

What about a mixed Warband? Wild Warg Chief because that guy is a beast, then a mix of, say, 5-6 War Riders and fill out the rest of the points with Wild Wargs? That way you get a handful of minis with all the goodness of Cavalry, and some cheap, fast guys to charge first/tie stuff down/take objectives/leap on Knocked Down enemies while the actual Cavalry then move on to another target. No idea how well that'd work in practice, just an idea I had.

Of the ones you propose, though, I definitely prefer the Wild Wargs+Chief one.

 Paradigm wrote:
Personally, I think I'd take actual Warg riders in a Warband with that role... Wargs on their own are cheap, but movement aside they lose everything that makes Cavalry dangerous, and don't get a lot to make up for it other than a points drop.

What about a mixed Warband? Wild Warg Chief because that guy is a beast, then a mix of, say, 5-6 War Riders and fill out the rest of the points with Wild Wargs? That way you get a handful of minis with all the goodness of Cavalry, and some cheap, fast guys to charge first/tie stuff down/take objectives/leap on Knocked Down enemies while the actual Cavalry then move on to another target. No idea how well that'd work in practice, just an idea I had.

Of the ones you propose, though, I definitely prefer the Wild Wargs+Chief one.

I could probably squeeze in five Warg Riders for the same price, but I'm operating in a heavily points restricted environment. I could take say, 9 odd Warg Riders without a Hero I suppose. Squeeze them in alongside the trackers. Alternatively, if I make use of the above Witch King modification, I could have him riding in support.

As a sample list:-

Morannon Orc Captain w/Shield
4 Black Numenoreans
4 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield
1 Morannon orc with Spear -130 points

Morannon Orc Captain w/Shield
4 Black Numenoreans
4 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield
1 Morannon orc with Spear -130 points

Witch King w/Fell Beast, 2 Might, 1 Fate
10 Orc Trackers -185 points

Wild Warg Chieftain
10 Wild Wargs -155 points

Gives me a particularly flexible list. Alternatively,

Morannon Orc Captain w/Shield
4 Black Numenoreans
5 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield -131 points

Morannon Orc Captain w/Shield
4 Black Numenoreans
5 Morannon Orcs with Spear and Shield -131 points

Narzug w/Fell Warg
8 Fell Wargs -132 points

Ringwraith with 1 Might, 1 Will, 1 Fate
Mordor Troll
8 Orc Trackers

Of those, I like the first one, then. As you point out, Witch King+Fell Beast gives you your Monster and Magic user in one pretty deadly package, you've got a solid battle line and support both in shooting and speed. Witch King on Fell Beast also gives you a very fast threat that can fly support for the Wargs if they come up against a tough target, whereas in the second list they'll end up on their own pretty quickly with no backup. Yeah, they're expendable, but I think having the option to send someone over to help them out is useful, especially if you meet a more defensive army like an Elven bowline (against which the wargs on their own are going to be shot to bits).

 Paradigm wrote:
Of those, I like the first one, then. As you point out, Witch King+Fell Beast gives you your Monster and Magic user in one pretty deadly package, you've got a solid battle line and support both in shooting and speed. Witch King on Fell Beast also gives you a very fast threat that can fly support for the Wargs if they come up against a tough target, whereas in the second list they'll end up on their own pretty quickly with no backup. Yeah, they're expendable, but I think having the option to send someone over to help them out is useful, especially if you meet a more defensive army like an Elven bowline (against which the wargs on their own are going to be shot to bits).

The Warg Chieftain should be able to handle most heroes short of a heavy hitter like Gil-Galad or Aragorn. His Defence isn't too high at 5, but the fight value of 5, 3 wounds, and strength 6 should means that he can pounce on Legolas or suchlike with a reasonable chance of success.

With regards to durability, running the figures, I'm extremely unlikely to come up against more than 12 archers in any force at 600 points. Assuming the worst, and that they're elves, that's eight hits on a unit of ten per turn, followed by about 2.5 wounds. As wargs can move at ten inches a turn though, they would only ever have to suffer two rounds of shooting maximum before they'd be in combat. So assuming half the force dies, you'll then have the Chieftain and his remaining five wargs having fun. I'd expect to lose the remaining wargs, but it would be a close run thing with the Chieftain/remaining archers as to who survived. And well...if they all died but neutralised the archers, jobs a good 'un!

That's worst case scenario as well. If they're Haradrim or Rangers or suchlike, the odds are that I'll take one or two less losses and decimate them accordingly. The trick to utilising them best, I suspect, is to keep them out of bow range until they're in a position to belt across the battlefield in a beeline.

My only worry with the Witch King is that with only fight value 5, I don't have anything particularly capable of smashing big name heroes in combat. True, he can immobilise, but if I run into Treebeard or Gil-Galad, I might have trouble. I suppose you can't have everything in one package though.

A substitute for fast moving troops could be a drummer warband but I've no experience with them so I don't know how well they would work. I know they can't charge and move fast. Still, arming some orcs with shields and marching them straight at an archer block sure works, at least psychologically! I'd pick whatever gets you the best melee hero with your fast warband.